Chapter 140 Hu Yaobang Appointed Minister of the Organization Department to Provoke the Heavy Burden of Rehabilitation

On October 6, 1976, Chinese history finally turned a new page. At 8 a.m. on December 15, 1977, in the north of Xidan shopping mall in Beijing, crackling firecrackers suddenly sounded.It was not children who set off firecrackers, but a large group of middle-aged and elderly people.Inside, Zhang Ruihua, wife of Nie Rongzhen, bought more than ten yuan of firecrackers to set off. Why are they so happy? It turned out that there was the compound of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.They congratulated the new head of the Organization Department - Hu Yaobang! The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee has always been a deserted place.However, after smashing the "Gang of Four", it became a very conspicuous department. Because a large number of unjust, false, and wrong cases urgently needed to be rehabilitated, the compound of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China came and went, and it suddenly became very lively.Here, from "sit on the bench", it has become a "hot department".

The shock wave of rehabilitating unjust, false and wrongly decided cases began with the smashing of the "Gang of Four".The first thing to come up on the agenda is the rehabilitation of unjust, false and wrongly decided cases during the "Cultural Revolution". However, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee stood still. On September 5, 1977, "People's Daily" published an article "Restoring and Carrying forward the Party's Fine Traditions" by veteran Nie Rongzhen.Immediately afterwards, on the 28th, "People's Daily" published Chen Yun's article "Persisting in the Revolutionary Style of Seeking Truth from Facts."These two articles both emphasized that historical issues should be treated in a realistic manner.

On October 7 of that year, the "People's Daily" published "Correcting the Right and Wrong of the Cadres' Lines Distorted by the "Gang of Four"" written by Yang Fengchun and others from the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.This is an article published with the support of Hu Yaobang, which clearly puts forward the redress of false and wrong cases. The article caused a sensation.In just one month, more than 10,000 letters flew to the "People's Daily" from all over the world. The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee remained on hold.Minister Guo Yufeng called Yang Fengchun's article a "big poisonous weed"!

Guo Yufeng also said that this is not just his personal opinion, but "the opinion of the leading comrades in the central government." It goes without saying that the "leading comrades of the Central Committee" refer to those "leading comrades of the Central Committee" who adhere to the "two whatevers".Because they believe that the "Anti-Rightist Movement" was personally led by Mao Zedong, and "everything" led by Mao Zedong must be continued. The cadres of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China put up big-character posters to debate with Guo Yufeng.Several veteran cadres were so angry that they even sent the big-character poster to the People's Daily, asking the newspaper to forward it to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

On November 27, 1977, "People's Daily" published a commentator's article "Chairman Mao's Cadre Policies Must Be Seriously Implemented", which once again emphasized the importance of rehabilitating unjust, false and wrongly decided cases. On December 10, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to remove Guo Yufeng from the position of Minister of Organization of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and appointed Hu Yaobang to take up this important task. On the 15th, when Hu Yaobang took office, he was warmly welcomed by the cadres of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, and the sound of firecrackers crackled.

All of a sudden, many unjust, false and wrongly decided cases flocked to the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, demanding redress. Hu Yaobang first grasped the work of rehabilitating unjust, false and wrongly convicted cases during the "Cultural Revolution" and liberated a large number of cadres. On August 10, 1978, the 10th issue of "Zugong Newsletter" published the article "Seriously Clearing Up the Cases Accused of "Vicious Attacks"", which touched on the difficulties in the unjust cases of the "Cultural Revolution".The so-called "vicious attack" refers to "vicious attacks on Mao Zedong, vicious attacks on Mao Zedong Thought, vicious attacks on the Chinese Communist Party, and vicious attacks on the dictatorship of the proletariat."During the "Cultural Revolution", many people were unreasonably accused of "violent attacks" and "never recovered".Hu Yaobang set out to solve these difficult unjust cases.

On the 17th of that month, "Zuigong Newsletter" published "Wrong Cases in the "Four Cleanups" Should Be Corrected."As a result, the rehabilitation work began to be pushed from the "Cultural Revolution" to the "Siqing". While resolving the "Cultural Revolution" and "Four Cleanups" unjust, false and wrong cases, Hu Yaobang also started to solve the "rightist" problem.