Chapter 127 The "Cultural Revolution" became the second "Anti-Rightist Movement"

It has almost become a universal law: "Rightists" all suffered from "two times of suffering" during the "Cultural Revolution", which made things worse! This "two times of suffering" is even more bitter than in 1957: criticizing, ransacking the house, squatting in the "cowshed", entering the labor reform team, "sweeping out" and returning to the place of origin... During the "Cultural Revolution", "rightists" had a new title: Those who have already taken off their hats are called "rightists who have taken off their hats";

Those who are not marked as "rightists" (that is, "center-right" in those days) are called "rightists who slipped through the net"; Those who have not taken off their hats are called "Old Rightists". These "rightists who have taken off their hats" and "rightists who slipped through the net" are all counted as "rightists" and class enemies-"five types of elements" just like the "old rightists"! After careful research, the term "five types of molecules" originally began with the term "four types of molecules".

After careful research, the term "four types of elements" first appeared in the "Regulations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning Some Specific Policies in the Rural Socialist Education Movement (Draft)" in September 1963: "Educate the masses on class struggle and draw a clear line between the enemy and ourselves. Mobilize the masses to carry out a reasoning struggle against the enemy. Correctly deal with the four types of elements with sabotage activities, opportunists, and corrupt and thieves." These "four types of elements" refer to landlord elements, rich peasant elements, counter-revolutionary elements, and bad elements, referred to as "land, rich, counter-revolutionaries, and bad elements."

The reference to the "five types of elements" can be found in the "Notice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Concerning the Issue of Printing, Distributing and Publicizing Two Documents on the Rural Socialist Education Movement" issued on November 14, 1963: "These two documents should also be read and explained to the landlords, rich, counter-revolutionaries, bad, and rightists in both rural and urban areas." "Land, rich, anti, bad, and right", that is, "five types of elements". The increase from "four types of elements" to "five types of elements" is because the socialist education movement (that is, "four cleanups") was initially carried out in rural areas.In the countryside in 1957, "rightists" were not mentioned, so only "land, rich, counter-revolutionaries, and bad" were mentioned.Later, socialist education campaigns were also carried out in cities, so "right" was added to become "land, rich, counter-revolutionary, bad, and right", that is, "five types of elements".

Originally, Mao Zedong did not put "rightists" side by side with "land, rich, counter-revolutionaries, and bad", but still differentiated them. Mao Zedong said on October 13, 1957: "The rightists are a hostile force because they are anti-Communist, anti-people, and anti-socialist. But now we don't treat them as landlords and counter-revolutionaries. The basic sign is not to revoke their right to vote..." ① Mao Zedong also said: "The rightists used to be the people, but now these people, I think, are one-third the people and two-thirds the counter-revolutionaries."②

However, in the "Four Cleanups", Mao Zedong listed "rightists" at the end of the "five types of elements", that is, he equated "rightists" with "land, rich, counter-revolutionaries, and bad". During the "Cultural Revolution", "rightists" were criticized more violently than "land, rich, counter-revolutionary, and bad" because the "Cultural Revolution" was actually a continuation of the "anti-rightist movement", or it was the second "anti-rightist movement". Anti-Rightist Movement"!

On August 8, 1966, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Decision on the Cultural Revolution" (also known as the "Sixteen Points"), which repeatedly emphasized that "concentrate forces to attack a small group of ultra-reactionary bourgeois rightists. .” The "bourgeois rightists" mentioned here are not those "dead tigers" - the "rightists" in 1957, but a new group of "bourgeois rightists".Because of this, the "Cultural Revolution" became the second "Anti-Rightist Movement". In the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Cultural Revolution", there are many references to cracking down on "bourgeois rightists".For example, Article 5 states:

Who is our enemy?Who are our friends?This question is the first question of the revolution, and it is also the first question of the Cultural Revolution. The leadership of the party must be good at discovering the leftists, develop and strengthen the ranks of the leftists, and firmly rely on the revolutionary leftists.Only in this way can we completely isolate the most reactionary rightists during the movement, win over the middle ones, and unite the majority. After the movement, we can finally unite more than 95 percent of the masses. Concentrate on attacking a handful of extremely reactionary bourgeois rightists and counter-revolutionary revisionists, fully expose and criticize their anti-Party, anti-socialist and anti-Mao Zedong Thought crimes, and isolate them as much as possible.

The focus of this campaign is to rectify those in power within the party who are taking the capitalist road. Be careful to strictly distinguish rightists who are anti-Party and anti-socialist from those who support the Party and socialism, but have also said some wrong things, done some wrong things, or written some bad articles and works. Article 7 states: Some people with seriously erroneous ideas, and even some anti-Party and anti-socialist rightists, took advantage of certain shortcomings and mistakes in the mass movement to spread gossip and incitement, deliberately labeling some masses as "counter-revolutionaries."Beware of pickpockets and expose their tricks in time.

Obviously, the "anti-party and anti-socialist rightists" mentioned here are a group of new "rightists".Because the "Old Rightists" in 1957 were already too busy to take care of themselves, how could they "label the masses as 'counter-revolutionaries'"? ! In Article 8, "Cadre Issues", it is written more clearly: Cadres can be roughly divided into the following four types: (a) ok. (2) Relatively good. (3) There are serious mistakes, but they are not rightists who are anti-Party and anti-socialist. (4) A small number of anti-Party and anti-socialist rightists.

In general, the first two types of people (okay, the better ones) are the majority. Anti-Party and anti-socialist rightists must be fully exposed, and their influence must be eliminated. In this way, the "Cultural Revolution" became a "revolution" to expose the "anti-Party and anti-socialist rightists" among the cadres. The so-called "people in power who take the capitalist road" are also the "leaders of the rightists" in the party. Therefore, in this sense, the "Cultural Revolution" has indeed become the second "anti-rightist movement".The difference from the "Anti-Rightist Movement" in 1957 was that in 1957 it was mainly the "Rightists" among the democrats (although it also involved the "Rightists" in the party), while this time the The focus is on rectifying the "rightists" within the party, especially the "rightists" in power within the party. The "Anti-Rightist Movement" eliminated the "rightists" among the democrats, and the "Cultural Revolution" focused on eliminating the "rightists" in the party. If the "Anti-Rightist Movement" in 1957 was the turning point of China's "Left" turn, then the "Cultural Revolution" was China's "Great Leap Forward" to the "Left". The "Anti-Rightist Movement" in 1957 was a preview of the "Cultural Revolution".Without the "Anti-Rightist Movement" in 1957, there would have been no "Cultural Revolution" that began in 1966.In Mao Zedong's own words, this is once every seven or eight years! Please read the following passage from Mao Zedong's letter to Jiang Qing written in "a cave in the west" on July 8, 1966 at the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution": This matter cannot be made public now. The entire leftists and the general public are saying that. Publicity pours cold water on them and helps the rightists. Now the task is to basically (impossibly) defeat the rightists in the whole party and the country, and In seven or eight years, there will be another campaign to sweep away ghosts and ghosts, and there will be many more sweeps after that. Therefore, these almost black words of mine cannot be made public now, and it may not be made public at any time, because the leftists and the general public do not welcome me. Said so. ① Here, Mao Zedong made the mission of the "Cultural Revolution" very clear, that is to "basically overthrow the rightists in the whole party and the country." On June 1, 1966, the People's Daily published an editorial titled "Sweeping All Ghosts and Snakes." A line from Mao Zedong's letter was used as the title. In this letter to Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong also discussed in detail the situation once the "rightists came to power": Maybe at some point after my death, when the rightists are in power, let them make it public!They'll take advantage of this statement of mine to try to keep the black flag high forever, but if they do, they're out of luck.Since the emperor was overthrown in China in 1911, the reactionaries have never been in power for long.The longest period was no more than twenty years (Chiang Kai-shek). When the people rebelled, he also fell.Chiang Kai-shek took advantage of Sun Yat-sen's trust in him, and opened another Whampoa School, which recruited a large number of reactionaries, and started from this.As soon as he rebelled against the Communist Party, almost the entire landlord and bourgeoisie supported him. At that time, the Communist Party had no experience, so he happily gained power temporarily.But in the past twenty years, he has never unified.The war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the war between the Kuomintang and the warlords of various factions, the Sino-Japanese War, and finally the four-year civil war, he rolled to a group of islands.If there is an anti-communist rightist coup in China, I conclude that they will have no peace and may be short-lived, because all revolutionaries who represent the interests of more than 90% of the people will not tolerate it.At that time, the rightists may use my words to gain power for a while, and the leftists will definitely use my other words to organize and overthrow the rightists.This Cultural Revolution was a serious exercise.In some areas (such as Beijing), the roots are deeply entrenched and collapsed overnight.Some institutions (such as Peking University and Tsinghua University) were deeply intertwined and collapsed in an instant.Wherever the rightists are more arrogant, their failures will be more miserable, and the leftists will work harder.This is a national exercise in which the Left, the Right, and the vacillating center will all learn their own lessons.Conclusion: The future is bright, but the road is tortuous, or these two old sayings. ① The task of the "Cultural Revolution" stated in the "Sixteen Points" is to "fully expose, fight against, fight against, and fight against stink" among the cadres "anti-Party and anti-socialist rightists", in fact, according to Mao Zedong Written in the spirit of this letter to Jiang Qing.Later, Mao Zedong considered that the term "rightist" would be confused with the original "rightist" in 1957, so he changed to the term "counter-revolutionary revisionist", although the meaning of the two is the same. During the "Cultural Revolution", the "counter-revolutionary revisionists" exposed far exceeded the "rightists" in 1957, both in number and rank.Not only did Wu Han and Lao She, who had actively participated in the "anti-rightist movement" in 1957, become targets of criticism, but even Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping became the largest "counter-revolutionary revisionists" in China, that is, the largest "Rightist". Mao Zedong once said that he implemented a "policy of stripping bamboo shoots."In 1957, he stripped away the "right wing" among democrats, and during the "Cultural Revolution", he stripped away the "right wing" in the CCP.He is still not satisfied, and he will strip it once every seven or eight years.He finally passed away in 1976, and he couldn't "sweep" again in 1978...