Chapter 15 Mao Zedong made a different voice

For the socialist countries, 1956 was indeed an eventful year: Khrushchev's secret report caused great turmoil in Poland, and the great turmoil in Poland triggered events in Hungary. One storm after another, these three storms shook every socialist country violently. China was shaken.Mao Zedong was shocked. China is a big country.The Chinese Communist Party is a big party.Every word and deed in China is very important in the socialist lineup. At this time, Mao Zedong's reputation in the international communist movement was rising day by day.When Stalin was alive, the supreme leader of the international communist movement was indisputably Stalin.When Khrushchev became the general secretary of the CPSU, he was, after all, the second-generation leader of the Soviet Union, not to mention that he had just come to power and his qualifications were still young.Although Khrushchev's favorite role was that of the "Lao Zi Dang", it was already difficult for him to assume the posture of the "Lao Zi Dang" in front of Mao Zedong—even if it was Stalin at the time, Mao Zedong might not have completely obeyed his orders.

In his memoirs, Khrushchev said that he only knew Zhu De, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Red Army, in his early years.It was not until December 21, 1949, when Mao Zedong went to Moscow to participate in the celebration of Stalin's 70th birthday, that he saw the tall and tall CCP leader for the first time, and pronounced Mao's name as "Ma Chadong". ". After getting acquainted with "Machadong", Khrushchev quickly got the impression that "he will never listen to any other Communist Party within the International Communist Movement that is higher than his own party, and he will never tolerate such matter." ①

What Khrushchev said is correct. Shortly after Stalin's death, the relationship between the two parties in China and the Soviet Union was generally harmonious, as Khrushchev said: "In the first few years after Stalin's death, Mao Zedong treated us with friendship and respect. When I say 'we', I mean the leading group formed after Stalin."① In those days, Mao Zedong's main energy was spent on dealing with domestic issues: formulating the Constitution of the People's Republic of China; exposing the anti-party alliance between Gao Gang and Rao Shushi; Cooperative, wrote the preface and epilogue for "The Socialist Upsurge in Rural China"...

Knowing that the CPSU's "Twentieth Congress" was about to be held, Mao Zedong thought it was a routine national congress of the CPSU, and sent a delegation headed by Zhu De, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, to Moscow.Zhu De is a highly respected veteran of the CCP. As Khrushchev said, the first CCP leader he knew was Zhu De, but Zhu De is not an expert on CCP ideology. Khrushchev's secret report came from Moscow, stirring up a storm in Mao Zedong's mind.Mao Zedong was very displeased that Khrushchev "did not consult with the fraternal party" in advance.

Khrushchev had this to say about Mao's initial reaction: "At the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, we exposed Stalin's atrocities, his arbitrary punishment of millions of honest people, and his dictatorship that violated the principle of collective leadership. At first, Mao Zedong thought that we The accusation of Stalin's abuse of power is correct. He said that the decisions made by the 20th National Congress showed great 'wiseness'... "Mao also began to express his own dissatisfaction with Stalin. For example, he accused Stalin of supporting Chiang Kai-shek. He also cited specific examples to prove that Stalin had harmed the interests of the Chinese Communist Party...Mao also accused Stalin of mistaking the nature of the Chinese revolution. Mao Specifically speaking of Stalin underestimating—and thus hampering—the revolutionary potential of the Chinese working class. Mao specifically criticized the Comintern's attitude towards China. Of course, Stalin was fully responsible for the Comintern..." ①

Although Mao Zedong also criticized Stalin, his sense of proportion was different from Khrushchev's.He soon realized that he couldn't continue to sing along to Khrushchev's tune, and he couldn't follow the line of the "Twentieth Congress" of the CPSU. Mao Zedong published his famous opinion on Stalin: "Three to seven points", also "Three points of faults, seven points of merit."This view of Mao Zedong was clearly reflected in his speech at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on April 25, 1956:

"The Soviet Union used to exalt Stalin ten thousand feet high, but now he is suddenly demoted to ninety thousand feet underground. Some people in our country have followed suit. The central government believes that Stalin was three points wrong and seven points. Overall, he is still a great man. The Marxists of the . . . " Three days later, that is, on April 28, Mao Zedong once again reminded people not to follow blindly at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China—follow the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. "We should not follow blindly. We should analyze it. Farts are smelly and smelly. We cannot say that all Soviet farts are smelly. Now people say it smells, so why should we say it smells too?"

He urged: "Stalin, the bad things done by the Third International (quote's note: the Communist International) can be conveyed to the secretary of the prefectural party committee, or the secretary of the county party committee. Don't write it in the article to take care of the overall situation, and don't plan to talk about it in newspapers and among the masses. " The only article that publicly stated the CCP's attitude was "Historical Experience on the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" published in the "People's Daily" on April 5, 1956.The article was markedly annotated: "This article was written by the editorial department of People's Daily in accordance with the resolution of the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee." This passage tactfully demonstrates the authority of the article.

For the first time, this article made public the CCP’s views different from those of the Soviet Communist Party—although it was written very tactfully.The article first affirmed the views of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union—although it was written very tactfully.The article first affirms the achievements of the "Twentieth Congress" of the CPSU: "The issue of opposing the cult of personality occupied an important position in the 20th Congress of the CPSU. The 20th Congress very sharply exposed the prevalence of the cult of personality, which had existed in Soviet life for a long time, It caused many mistakes and bad consequences at work. This courageous self-criticism of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union for its own mistakes shows the high principle of party life and the great vitality of Marxism-Leninism."

However, when the article involves Stalin's evaluation, it is obviously different from the Soviet Communist Party's point of view.The article praised Stalin's "seven points of merit": "After Lenin's death, Stalin, as the main leader of the party and the country, creatively applied and developed Marxism-Leninism; in defending the heritage of Leninism and opposing the enemies of Leninism-Trotskyites, Zinovich also He expressed the will of the people in the struggle against the widows and other agents of the bourgeoisie, and he deserves to be called an outstanding fighter of Marxism."

On the premise of affirming Stalin's "seven points of merit", the article then criticized his "three points of fault". The publication of this article has attracted the attention of the world.Newspapers from all over the world reproduced it one after another.