Chapter 39 Mao Zedong shouted down subjectivism

Mao Zedong always hated dogmatism.As early as May 1930, he wrote the book "Against Bookishness" with deep emotion, clearly affirming: "The victory of the Chinese revolution depends on the Chinese comrades' understanding of China's situation" and cannot rely solely on "books." He said: "The 'books' of Marxism must be learned, but the bookism that is divorced from the actual situation must be corrected." Mao Zedong opposed "only the top" and "only books", and called for "must wash away" these ideas. However, as a branch of the Communist International, the young Communist Party of China was unable to make decisions freely, and had to obey the orders of the generals.The Comintern also did not believe that "mountain Marxism" could take on the heavy responsibility of leading the Chinese revolution. They could only trust the "true Bolsheviks" who had graduated from Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow through their own selection and cultivation.

Unfortunately, after those "100% Bolsheviks" came to power, they ousted Mao Zedong, who had a set of correct ideas, and made him the nominal chairman of the People's Committee of the Soviet Area, that is, "Kalinin of the Soviet Area." Ning couldn't do it, so he could only go to the grassroots to conduct investigations, but let those "young men" who could only recite the original works of Marxism-Leninism take power for four years. As a result, the Chinese revolution was almost ruined. The Zunyi Conference, held at the critical moment of the revolution, criticized the military command errors of the "Left" leaders, accepted Mao Zedong's military thinking, and solved life-and-death military and organizational issues, but did not affirm the correct political line represented by Mao Zedong .Because Mao Zedong's political line was implemented in the Central Soviet Area and had a great influence, but as far as the whole party is concerned, people don't know enough about Mao Zedong's thoughts. Belittling and criticizing make people's thoughts on Mao Zedong more blurred.At the Zunyi meeting, most people had not realized that the political line was wrong, and Mao Zedong did not mention it.On the contrary, in order to avoid excessive shocks and cause big debates, which would be detrimental to the war, the meeting affirmed that the political line of the Provisional Central Committee was correct, and that Zhang Wentian, not Mao Zedong, "takes overall responsibility."

After the Red Army landed in northern Shaanxi, the Wayaobao Conference put forward a correct political line, but still did not criticize the previous political line. From May 17 to June 10, 1937, the Central Committee held the Party's White Area Work Conference, and the Central Committee decided that Liu Shaoqi would submit a report.Liu Shaoqi pointed out for the first time that after the Fourth Plenary Session of the Party "partially preserved the Lisan line in actual work" based on his own understanding and practice of working in the white areas. This move aroused strong dissatisfaction among most of the participants, who sharply criticized the "report", believing that after the Fourth Plenary Session, only (some) mistakes were made, and that the general line was correct, not a continuation of the Lisan line.

Under such circumstances, while Mao Zedong supported Liu Shaoqi in principle, out of strategic considerations, he said that Wang Ming's period was not a mistake in the general line, but a mistake in principle on several issues. At the December Politburo meeting and March Politburo meeting held after Wang Ming returned to China, Wang Ming jumped from "left" leaning to right leaning. After Mao Zedong was shocked, he realized that the root cause of Wang Ming's shift from the "left" to the right was dogmatism; the root cause of people's acceptance of Wang Ming's dogmatism was that there were not many people in the party who really understood Marxism-Leninism. level of Marxism.Therefore, while studying Marxism-Leninism hard, using Marxism-Leninism to analyze and study Chinese issues, and to guide China's practice, he also initiated the New Philosophy Society and other academic groups, organized cadres to study and study, and hoped that they would use Marxism-Leninism to transform the world and transform their own subjective thinking. world.

After criticizing Wang Ming at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, Mao Zedong blew the horn of learning.He pointed out: "Our party's cultivation of Marxism-Leninism has made some progress compared with the past, but it is still not widespread and not deep. Our task is to lead a large nation with a population of tens of millions in an unprecedented great struggle. Therefore, the task of extensively and deeply studying Marxist-Leninist theory is a big problem for us that needs to be solved urgently and can only be solved by focusing on it. I hope that after our Central Plenary Session, there will be a study competition for the whole party. See who I really learned a little bit, let's see who can learn more and be better."

group photo.The third from the left in the front row is Wang Jiaxiang, and the second from the left is Mao Zedong. From then on, preparations for the rectification movement actually began. In February 1939, the Party Central Committee established the Cadre Study Department, organized the cadres in Yan'an into teams, and stipulated that they should study for two hours a day. In 1939, Mao Zedong wrote a large number of works featuring the combination of Marxist theory and Chinese revolutionary reality, systematically summarizing the Chinese revolutionary experience, and made theoretical preparations for the rectification movement.

In 1940, Mao Zedong spent about half a year presiding over the compilation of the party's historical document "Since the Sixth National Congress" for the study of cadres. Just as Mao Zedong was devoting himself to brewing and launching the rectification movement, the Southern Anhui Incident happened.Mao Zedong was heartbroken and pointed out that the root cause of the incident was that "some comrades did not connect the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution", they "did not understand the reality of the Chinese revolution, and did not understand Chiang Kai-shek who had been anti-communist for ten years." .

This shows that the dogmatism of theory divorced from reality not only affected the unity of the party and the combat effectiveness of the party, but also brought serious losses to the Chinese revolution.In order for the party to shoulder the important task of leading the Chinese revolution to victory and to make the Chinese revolution develop smoothly, it is necessary to fundamentally change this bad style of work. In May 1941, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened more than 120 senior cadres to hold a rectification meeting in Yan'an. On May 19, Mao Zedong made a report on "Reforming Our Learning" at the meeting of senior cadres, criticizing subjectivism within the party from the perspective of ideological methods, emphatically clarifying the basic principle of Marxism-Leninism about linking theory with practice, advocating Reform the study methods and study system of the whole party.

Mao Zedong used a couplet to portray the subjectivists, ruthlessly exposing them: The upper line is: reeds on the wall, top-heavy and shallow-rooted; the second line is: bamboo shoots in the mountains, with a sharp mouth, thick skin, and a hollow belly. On the podium, Mao Zedong looked down at the meeting place and asked everyone in his Mandarin with a strong Hunan accent: "For those who have no scientific attitude, for those who can only recite some words and sentences from the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin, they have a false name." Do you look like a person without practical knowledge?"

Immediately, roars of laughter erupted in the venue. After the meeting place calmed down, Mao Zedong pointed out solemnly: "If this style of self-discipline is used, it will harm oneself; if it is used to teach others, it will harm others; if it is used to guide the revolution, it will harm the revolution. In short, this anti-scientific style The anti-Marxist-Leninist subjectivist method is the great enemy of the Communist Party, of the working class, of the people, of the nation, and is a manifestation of impure party spirit." Speaking of this, Mao Zedong shouted loudly: "The enemy is now, and we have to overthrow it. Only when subjectivism is overthrown will the truth of Marxism-Leninism rise, the party spirit will be strengthened, and the revolution will be victorious!"

This report aroused great repercussions within the party. In fact, it was the ideological mobilization of the rectification movement.From then on, the rectification education for the senior cadres of the whole party began. In order to cooperate with the rectification movement, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China introduced a series of measures: In June, the editorial committee for the book "Marx Eng-Less Thought Methodology" was established, and the book was compiled in less than a year. On July 1, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the "Decision on Strengthening Party Spirit", requiring all party members to strengthen party spirit, obey the interests of the party, overcome wrong tendencies, and strengthen party unity.Engraved with Mao Zedong's inscription "Seek truth from facts" On August 1, Mao Zedong personally presided over the "Decision on Investigation and Research", calling on the whole party to overcome the habit of subjectivism, go deep into reality, go deep into the masses, and conduct investigation and research.For this reason, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established the Central Investigation and Research Bureau, and Mao Zedong himself served as the director.At the same time, the Institute of Marxism-Leninism was changed to the Academia Sinica, focusing on the study of the current situation, the study of modern Chinese history, and the study of the actual problems of the Chinese revolution. In view of the important position of the Central Party School in cultivating talents and training cadres, the Central Party School began to be reorganized at the end of 1941.Mao Zedong was in charge of political guidance, established a current affairs policy research office, strengthened the research on the actual struggle situation, and corrected the tendency that theories in teaching were divorced from reality.Mao Zedong personally inscribed the school motto of "seek truth from facts" for the party school, with great expectations. After a period of rectification, study and education, the ideological understanding of senior party cadres has been greatly improved.At the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held from September to October 1941, the party's leading cadres finally reached a consensus on many key issues of the Chinese revolution.