Chapter 46 "People's Daily" questioned: Why is this?

For contemporary Chinese history, June 8, 1957 is a historic day: the "Anti-Rightist Movement" started from this day. This is because on this day, "People's Daily" published a ground-breaking and important editorial on the headline of the front page, with a questioning tone as the title: "Why is this?" "! At the beginning of the editorial, Lu Yuwen's "anonymous letter incident" was mentioned as the breakthrough point of the "anti-rightist movement".The editorial reads: Because Lu Yuwen, member of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang and assistant to the Secretary-General of the State Council, expressed some opinions different from others when discussing how to help the Communist Party rectify at the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the "Minist Revolution" on May 25, someone wrote An anonymous letter was issued to threaten him. The letter said: "We are very angry when we read your speech at the enlarged meeting of the Central Committee of the KMT in the newspaper. We oppose your opinion, and we fully agree with Mr. Tan Tiwu's opinion. We feel: you are the The "typical" of those shameless people that Mr. Tan refers to. You have now climbed to the throne of the Secretary-General of the State Council. In the past, you have made a lot of strength in creating walls and ditches between the Communist Party and people outside the Party. Now It is really shameless to dare to be a minion for a tiger. We warn you, turn back as soon as possible! Otherwise, the people will not forgive you!"

During the Communist Party's rectification movement, such an event happened, and its significance is very serious.Everyone should think: why on earth is this? After the editorial put forward the "why", it dissected Lu Yuwen's "anonymous letter incident".The editorial first refuted the so-called "shameless": What did Lu Yuwen talk about in his speech on May 25?To sum up, one is to tell people not to confuse bourgeois democracy with socialist democracy, and not to weaken and cancel the leadership of the Communist Party; Quarreling every day.It cannot be said that it is formalism, that is, it does not allow everyone to discuss; the third is that he himself gets along very well with the Communist Party members, and there are no walls and ditches in between; if there are walls and ditches between some people and party members, they should "Demolition and filling from both sides", both sides must take the initiative; the fourth is to say that Communists can refute certain criticisms, and this kind of refutation cannot be regarded as retaliation; Some specific comments.Like many readers, we have to ask: why express such a down-to-earth and approachable opinion as "a minion of a tiger" and "a shameless one"?Why "turn back sooner" or "you will not be forgiven"?

The editorial went on to refute the so-called "serving the tiger": If Lu Yuwen's speech is described as "serving the tiger", the Communist Party is of course the "tiger" in the minds of the letter writers.When the Communist Party led the Chinese people to fight against imperialism and feudal forces, the mortal enemy of the Chinese people, it was indeed as brave as a tiger, and no force could make it fearful or succumb.But for the Chinese people, the Communist Party is the best friend: it helped the people to overthrow the counter-revolutionary forces oppressing the people, helped the people to take back the means of production such as land and factories, and freed the people from the cruel oppression of the exploiting classes. His own historical destiny is in his own hands, and he is now moving towards the lofty goal of socialism and communism that will make the people rich and happy. pleasure.The Communist Party has also made mistakes and has shortcomings, and the Communist Party's rectification movement is precisely to get rid of these mistakes and shortcomings.All people who have good intentions for the party and the cause of socialism are actively offering their opinions to help the Communist Party rectify the movement, so as to strengthen the cause of socialism and consolidate the party's leadership over the people.At such a time, some people call the speeches of safeguarding socialist democracy and the leadership of the Communist Party "shameless" and "working for the tiger", and compare the Communists to the terrible "tiger" that eats people. Can the political face not arouse people's vigilance?These people warned Lu Yuwen to "turn back as soon as possible", please think about what they said, where exactly are they "turning back"?Of course, in other places, these people will also verbally say how they truly support socialism and the Communist Party, but can it be believed that people who are so hostile to the vanguard of the working people are there to help the Communist Party rectify the movement? , is there to support the cause of socialism?

The editorial used Lu Yuwen's "anonymous letter incident" to develop it, quoted He Xiangning's words, and pointed out the theme, that is, to launch an anti-rightist movement-although this was proposed by Mao Zedong in "Things Are Changing", He Xiangning only borrowed Mao Zedong's point of view, but it is obviously more convenient to say such meanings in He Xiangning's capacity. In fact, this is not surprising.Mao Zedong always paid great attention to the strategy of struggle: After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, those telegrams criticizing Chiang Kai-shek sent in the name of "Commander-in-Chief Zhu De of the Eighteenth Group Army" are now included in "Selected Works of Mao Zedong";

When bombarding Jinmen, the proclamations signed by "Minister of National Defense Peng Dehuai" were actually written by Mao Zedong... Editorial "Why? " was written according to Mao Zedong's instructions, but there is no mention of Mao Zedong in the whole article!Mao Zedong deliberately used He Xiangning's lofty reputation outside the party to propose a counterattack against the rightists. This is a very clever struggle strategy. The editorial sternly pointed out in the words of He Xiangning: We think this threatening letter is a major event in current political life, because this letter is indeed a warning to the broad masses of the people, and it is a signal that some people use the party's rectification movement to carry out sharp class struggle.This letter tells us that although the large-scale domestic class struggle has passed, class struggle has not extinguished, especially on the ideological front.Mr. He Xiangning, a veteran of the revolution, said it well: "Today is a new era. Under the leadership of the Communist Party and Chairman Mao, we have embarked on socialism. Could it be that in this era, everything is uniform, and there will be no more leftists? No, right? No.” She pointed out that there are a very small number of people who have duplicity about socialism, what they yearn for in their hearts is capitalism, and what they dream of is European-style politics in their minds. These people are today’s rightists.Under the name of "helping the Communist Party to rectify the movement," a small number of rightists are challenging the leadership of the Communist Party and the working class, and even openly clamoring for the Communist Party to "step down."They attempted to seize this opportunity to overthrow the Communist Party and the working class, overthrow the great cause of socialism, drag history backwards, retreat to the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, actually retreat to the semi-colonial status before the victory of the revolution, and turn the Chinese people Put it back under the reactionary rule of imperialism and its lackeys.But they have forgotten that today's China is no longer what it used to be, and the vast majority of the people will never allow history to go backwards.In all parts of the country where the rectification movement is being carried out, these rightists want to use the rectification movement to isolate the Communist Party and those who support socialism, but in the end it is themselves who are really isolated.Among the various democratic parties and high-level intellectuals, there are a few rightists, as Lu Yuwen said, who still want to use insults, threats, and "pretend to be 'fair' to suppress people's speeches", and even write threatening letters. to achieve their own goals.But isn't all this going too far?Extremes lead to opposites, don't they understand this truth?

The editorial concluded by emphasizing the class struggle: It is very obvious that although some people call the Communist Party to "step down" and some people write threatening letters to those who support the Communist Party, these will never shake the Communist Party and the masses of the people in any way.The Communist Party still needs to rectify the style of work, and still listen to all well-intentioned criticisms from people outside the Party, and the masses of the people still need to adhere to the socialist road under the leadership of the Communist Party.Those threats and insults just remind us that class struggle is still going on in our country, and we must use the perspective of class struggle to observe current phenomena and draw correct conclusions.

In addition, "People's Daily" published an editorial "Why is this?" "At the same time, it also reprinted the article "On "Made of Special Materials"—Discussion with Mr. Zhang Naiqi" ​​signed by "Xiaoya", closely cooperated with the editorial, and began to fight back against the rightists. In fact, this was also arranged according to Mao Zedong's opinion. The article by "Xiaoya" was originally published in the "News Daily" on May 29, 1957. The idea that communists are "made of special materials" was first made by Stalin in his oath of mourning for Lenin.Zhang Naiqi expressed his dissent in the article "From the Ideological Basis of "Wall" and "Ditch"" published in the "People's Daily" on May 14, 1957.

Zhang Naiqi said: "Because of the influence of this sentence, many non-Party people may view party members with special eyes, and some party members who are not well-educated can't help calling themselves special. In this way, this sentence has become a "wall" and A kind of ideological foundation of 'ditch'." The "Xiaoya" article refuted Zhang Naiqi's point of view. Mao Zedong, who read newspapers carefully and diligently, noticed this article the next day.Mao Zedong immediately wrote a short letter to his political secretary Hu Qiaomu: Hu Qiaomu did not arrange for the People's Daily to reprint it immediately, obviously it is not the right time to reprint it too early.It is most appropriate to arrange for publication on June 8th.