Chapter 44 "Cleaning the Party" - the earliest party consolidation movement in the history of the CCP

In August 1928, the Jinggangshan struggle suffered a major setback.Under the order of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Fourth Red Army attacked southern Hunan, which led to the "August failure" of the Red Army in southern Hunan. After succeeding, the county towns and plain areas of the border counties fell into the hands of the enemy. The security forces and door-to-door regiments who worked as tigers ran rampant, and white terror spread all over the urban and rural areas. It was the most difficult period for the Jinggangshan revolutionary base. Real gold is seen in the fire, and under difficult circumstances, the party organizations and revolutionary regimes on the border are undergoing severe tests.However, within a very short period of time, in the border counties "most of the party organization and political organization collapsed. Rich peasants and opportunists in the party turned back one after another."

This really shocked Mao Zedong and the comrades of the Special Committee! What's the problem? The "Resolutions of the Second Party Congress of the Counties on the Border of Hunan and Jiangxi" once summarized the mistakes made by the border party. There is one article in it: "In the past, when the party organization expanded, it only paid attention to the development of quantity and did not pay attention to quality. The party and the class have not been clarified, but only a Lafian absorption method. This will destroy the party organization, and the result will definitely become a party that cannot fight.”

This can be described as hitting the nail on the head! After the "big one" of the border party in May 1928, the agrarian revolution in the border flourished, military struggles were victorious, the red areas continued to expand, and the party organization also entered a "period of great development."At this time, the party organization was made public on the border, and even started open party building activities.In some places, a mass meeting is held, and a sign is put up to publicly recruit party and league members, and the masses sign up to participate; in some places, the "serial development method" or the "Raff method" is used to recruit party members.For a time, the number of party members in the border area increased sharply. There were more than 4,000 party members in Yongxin County, nearly 3,000 party members in Ninggang County, and 800 party members in Lianhua County.

It was during this "big development" of party members that many opportunists mixed into the party, making the border party organizations seriously impure and causing adverse consequences.Mao Zedong later wrote in his report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: "When the revolution was at its height (in June), many opportunists took advantage of the opportunity of public recruitment of party members to sneak into the party, and the number of party members at the border increased to more than 10,000 at one time. Most of the people in charge are new party members, so they cannot have a good inner-party education. When the white terror arrives, the opportunists will turn their backs and lead the reactionaries to arrest comrades, and most of the party organizations in the white areas will collapse.”

In response to this situation, Mao Zedong and the Border Special Committee decided: "After September, we will strictly clean the party." "Cleaning the party", as the name suggests, is to cleanse the party organization.This is actually the earliest party consolidation of the Communist Party of China.It's just that the party was not yet mature enough to have a theoretical understanding of the party's organizational rectification. The idea of ​​"cleaning the party" was probably like cleaning a room, cleaning out those speculators from the organization. "Washing the Party" is harsh and unambiguous.In Ninggang and Yongxin, two counties in the central area of ​​the base area, even "all party organizations were disbanded and re-registered."

In order to help the local "cleansing the party", the Military Commission of the Fourth Red Army dispatched some cadres from the army to various places to assist in the work. Zhu Kaijuan of Dalong, Ninggang recalled the situation of the "party cleansing" of the Dalong District Committee in this way: "At that time, Chen Dongri was the main person in charge of the party cleansing work in our district. In June 1928, more than 1,000 party members in the county, There are more than 400 in Dalong District. The cleaning of the party begins with the branch. Chen Dongri went to the branch of each township to study with the secretary of the branch and two reliable party members, and studied which party members did not meet the conditions and should be cleaned up, and which party members should not be washed. We In this district, more than 200 party members were washed away, and more than 100 remained. The remaining party members made a list again, and each branch made a roster and sent it to the district government. The district government made a general roster and sent a copy to the county party committee. There are 60 party members in the branch, and after the party cleansing, there are only more than 20 left. Anyone who has relatives working in the Kuomintang reactionaries, who is a soldier, who does not obey the command, who is unwilling to make revolution, and who has bad social relations, should be cleaned up as much as possible. The purged party members are neither announced nor notified, they are not invited to attend meetings, and the roster of party members is re-established."

From this point of view, the "cleansing of the party" generally adopted the method of re-registration.For those who do not meet the conditions of party members and should be purged, they will be expelled without a meeting to announce or notify; for those who meet the conditions of party members and should not be purged, they will re-fill in the registration form and report to each level. The speculators who need to be cleaned up are those who do not serve the role of party members, do not obey orders, and are unwilling to make revolution;And those traitors who defected to the enemy are the focus of cleansing.

The Party branch of Qiaolin Township in Ninggang County was established with the help of Comrade Mao Zetan. There was a member of this branch named Chen Pengshou. After the situation, he was resolutely cleaned out of the party and executed. Wang Yurui and Wang Mande, small landlords in Yangxi Township, Yongxin County, opportunistically joined the Communist Party, sheltered the big local tyrant Wang Huisheng and delayed the division of land. The incident was revealed, Wang Yurui was executed, and Wang Mande was purged from the party. In this way, about 4,000 party members were purged across the border at that time.

After the purging of unqualified party members, the party organization returned to a state of secrecy.After re-registration, the number of party members "decreased greatly, but their combat effectiveness increased"; the more purely organized grassroots party branches, their role as fighting fortresses gradually emerged in the subsequent border struggles. Of course, there have also been some problems in the "cleansing of the party" at the border: some places simply re-copied newspapers, but did not clean them seriously; molecular phenomenon.It is not surprising that these problems arise, because it is the first time in the history of the Chinese Communist Party to rectify the party organization, and there is no experience to learn from.

The "party cleansing" at the border in September did not take long and the effect was good.Through the organization and rectification in the form of "cleaning the party", the party organization was purified and the party's combat effectiveness was improved. It was an effective party rectification movement in the history of our party.At the same time, it also provides useful enlightenment and valuable experience for our party's future party consolidation movement.