Chapter 60 The "Subjective Arbitrariness" of Mao Zedong's "Anti-Rightist"

The "Anti-Rightist Movement" has been in full swing in China. However, what kind of person is considered a "Rightist"?What are the criteria for dividing "rightists"?How many "rightists" are there in the country? The method Mao Zedong adopted was to "reverse" it first.According to the "anti" situation, he constantly issued instructions and constantly revised instructions. From June 26th to 29th, Mao Zedong wholesaled three documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, respectively stipulating policies for dealing with "rightists", leftists, and centrists.

On June 26, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued "Instructions on Cracking Down and Isolating Bourgeois Rightists". The "Instructions" require that the bourgeois rightists should be attacked internally and externally, and ruthlessly deal them an annihilating blow.It is difficult for them to organize a large-scale anti-communist movement like the present one under the stable situation of the country.Remember not to appease the traitor and nourish the legacy at the critical juncture of class struggle. The "Instructions" pointed out that the division of rightists must be based on facts, and that the number of rightists should not be underestimated or underestimated.Of course, do not expand.

According to the "Instructions", there are already thousands of rightists exposed throughout the country who are trying to restore.Some of the contradictions between rightists and the people have actually gone beyond the scope of contradictions among the people.However, it needs to be analyzed according to the changes of the situation before they can be determined separately. The "ruthless" and "annihilating blow" to the "right" stipulated in this instruction planted the root of the "left". This instruction estimated that there were "thousands" of "rightists" across the country.Is it one thousand or nine thousand?unknown.

On June 28, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Notice on Absorbing a Group of Senior Intellectuals into the Party in One or Two Months."This is a document for cultivating leftists, that is, to absorb a group of non-CCP "anti-rightist" activists into the party. On the 29th of that month, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued "Instructions on Winning and Uniting the Middle Elements", pointing out that winning and uniting the middle elements is a key to the complete victory of the current political and ideological struggle against the bourgeois rightists.

Mao Zedong carefully revised a passage in this instruction.The following ones with "■" were added by Mao Zedong: For those who only have right-wing speech but no right-wing action, they should be distinguished from those extreme rightists who have both speech and action (many of them have historical misdeeds). When criticizing the former , we must fully adopt an attitude of reasoning and being kind to others, and do not rashly label them as rightists.Doing so is very necessary for stabilizing and winning over and uniting the middle elements, as well as for combating, isolating and dividing the extreme right.

It should be said that under the historical conditions at that time, Mao Zedong carefully revised the instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and still paid attention not to expand the scope of attack—even though history has proved that even the so-called "ultra-right" in 1957 may not It belongs to the scope of attack. In this document of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong himself wrote a paragraph about the estimation of the number of rightists: The number of rightists and extreme rightists is about 400 among the 34 colleges and universities in Beijing and dozens of institutions that need to be named and criticized in various fields. There are about 4,000 people in the whole country. You should rank them Team, make yourself know what to do.

This is Mao Zedong's extremely important assessment of the "anti-rightist movement". Although Mao Zedong’s estimate greatly exceeded the number carefully “re-examined and verified” by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1980: there were only five at the central level, plus more than 90 at the local level, for a total of 100 (although Today, these hundred names may not be recognized). However, Mao Zedong's estimate on June 29, 1957 was still small compared with the "rightist" figure that was greatly "exceeded" later. Only ten days later, Mao Zedong overturned this estimate and "doubled the size"!

It was on July 9th that Mao Zedong personally drafted the "Notice of the Central Committee on Increasing the Number of Rightist Key Elements to Name and Criticize", the full text of which is as follows: After writing this "Notice", Mao Zedong also wrote a short message: The circular drafted by Mao Zedong was issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on July 9th. On August 17, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China forwarded the "Report on the Anti-Rightist Struggle" of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China.

This "Report" reflected that as of August 7, 7,511 rightists had been discovered in Beijing, and 3,529 people had been criticized in different categories, accounting for 3,529 of the total number of rightists. Forty-seven percent.There are 1,257 extreme rightists in the city, accounting for 16.7% of the total number of rightists.There are 135 extreme rightists in the city's newspapers, and recently it has been decided to add 55 more. The "Report" also stated that a total of 4,230 rightists were found in colleges and universities in Beijing, including 1,125 extreme rightists.

The "Report" stated that among the professors there were 192 rightists, accounting for 13.8 percent of the total number of professors.Eighty-five of them are extreme rightists. What this "Report" reports is only the number of rightists in Beijing, and it does not include the rightists in the organs directly under the central government in Beijing. This "Report" only reflects the statistics as of August 7th. The statistics in Beijing alone are equivalent to twice the total number of "rightists" in the country estimated by Mao Zedong on June 29! Bo Yibo once talked about the "anti-rightist movement" in this way:

As far as I know, the results of smashing the "Gang of Four", especially since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, and correcting the wrongly designated "rightists" show that among the 550,000 people designated in the anti-rightist struggle, except for a very small number Except for the true rightists, the vast majority or ninety-nine percent are wrongly marked.Among these misclassified people are many party cadres who have participated in the revolution for many years, many patriots and friends who have cooperated and worked with the party for a long time, many intellectuals with professional knowledge and rich experience in business management, and many political leaders. Enthusiastic but immature young students. ① The "550,000 people" of "rightists" mentioned by Bo Yibo is actually a greatly reduced number. Even this number is 137 times larger than the "4,000 people" estimated by Mao Zedong on June 29, 1957! Looking back on the past, Bo Yibo criticized Mao Zedong's "subjective arbitrariness" for "anti-rightists": Estimates of the number of rightists are largely arbitrary and not based on serious facts.On June 29, Chairman Mao estimated that there were about 400 rightists who needed to be named and criticized in various fields in Beijing and about 4,000 in the whole country.Just ten days later, the new estimate has doubled again.By the time of the Third Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee in September, there were more than 62,000 rightists in the country. According to a thorough estimate at the meeting, there were about 150,000 rightists in the country.By the end of the entire movement, there were a total of 550,000 rightists across the country, 400,000 more than the "bottom" estimate of the Third Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee.This shows that we do not have a reliable estimate of the situation of the rightists, but basically follow the mass movement and count as much as we can.In terms of guiding ideology, although it has also said "not to go too far" and "never expand", it is more for fear of missing out, so in the process of anti-rightism, it has repeatedly opposed "warmth" and emphasized "deep digging". .The percentage is specified mechanically, and if the percentage is not enough, it will be made up hard.This kind of obvious subjective arbitrary phenomenon occurs widely, which seriously confuses the two types of contradictions of different natures, leading to the mistake of expanding the anti-rightist struggle. ① This "subjective arbitrariness" of Mao Zedong expanded greatly later, and reached its peak during the "Cultural Revolution". The catastrophe... Because of this, various "shadows" of the "Cultural Revolution" can be seen in the "Anti-Rightist Movement", and the "Cultural Revolution" is the continuation and development of the "Left" of the "Anti-Rightist Movement".