The portrait of Chairman Mao, our great leader, is printed on the RMB. Everyone is familiar with this matter. However, he refused to have his portrait printed on the RMB four times in his life. However, there is still a portrait of Chairman Mao on the RMB. Why is this?
Since the founding of New China, our country has issued several sets of RMB. The fourth set and the fifth set of RMB all have Chairman Mao's avatar. Our country still uses RMB versions with face values of one yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, Chairman Mao's portrait is on the renminbi of 20 yuan, 50 yuan and 100 yuan.
Many people don’t know that when Chairman Mao was still alive, he resolutely refused to have himself printed on the RMB. Around the world, many countries print portraits of great figures on their banknotes. When our country was preparing to issue its first set of RMB, it printed Mao Zedong's portrait on the design, but Chairman Mao sternly rejected it.
He believed that the RMB should reflect that the people are the masters of the country and refused to print the heads of national leaders. Therefore, the first RMB in our country all had the heads of workers and farmers, and the banknotes called Great Unity all featured workers, peasants and soldiers. design.
In fact, long before the birth of the RMB, Chairman Mao had refused to print his own face on the currency of the Soviet area. At that time, the State Bank of the Soviet Republic applied to our country and planned to print Chairman Mao's face on the currency, but Chairman Mao severely criticized Rejected?
He believed that he did not have the qualifications. Mao Zedong, then chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Union, believed that the people of China had not yet been liberated and that practical work was not enough, so he rejected the proposal. However, his work style had always been this way, and he was unwilling to engage in Cadres are specialized and always do their best to do practical things for the sake of the people.
At that time, he also set an example. For example, he ate the same meals as the masses, never made special cooking, lived a simple life, wiped his face and bathed with a towel, and wore patches on his clothes. The purpose is to share the joys and sorrows with the people during times of scarcity.
Therefore, he refused to print his face on the Soviet area currency. He believed that it would be far away from the performance of the masses, so he firmly opposed it. Seeing that everyone was in trouble, Chairman Mao proposed to print Lenin's face on the Soviet area currency.
When the People's Republic of China was about to be founded, the various old currency types in the liberated areas were a bit mixed, which was not conducive to unified use in people's lives, so the Party Central Committee established the People's Bank of China and planned to issue a unified currency.
This was the prototype of 's first set of RMB . Dong Biwu, who was in charge of this work at the time, proposed to follow the practice of other countries and print the portraits of the founding leaders on the currency. Many countries did this, and there was nothing wrong with it.
But after Chairman Mao saw the RMB sample with his own face printed on it, he thought it was very inappropriate. His reason was that the RMB belonged to our government and was not issued by the party. Although I was the chairman of the party, I was not the chairman of the government, so he did not allow it. The design was rebutted, so the first set of RMB had to be redesigned with images of grasslands, horses and camels.
Since then, the People's Bank of China has issued as many as 62 versions of the first set of RMB, all of which are related to the production and life of the people.
When the first set of RMB was initially prepared for issuance, Chairman Mao was actually asked for his opinion for the second time, but he still refused. This was the third time that Chairman Mao refused to have his portrait printed on the currency.
staff were very puzzled. Chairman Mao said that at the plenary session of the Party Central Committee, a decision had been made to prohibit the use of leaders’ names as the names of any places or units. This was done to prevent comrades from being complacent and inactive. Before that, we must keep in mind the style of working hard and serving the people wholeheartedly.
When the second set of RMB was issued in 1950, the relevant staff felt that the people had deep feelings for Chairman Mao, so they brought up the old matter again, hoping that Chairman Mao would agree to print his portrait on the RMB, and many people I also have this intention.
Considering that the Chairman had firmly opposed it, the staff thought of a way this time to make Chairman Mao’s portrait smaller and design it together with the ethnic minority people’s pattern to make Chairman Mao’s portrait less conspicuous. People felt that this Chairman Mao would probably not object.
However, to everyone's surprise, Chairman Mao was still firmly opposed this time because he believed that he was a people's soldier and serving the people was his job. There was no need to print his portrait on the RMB. At the same time, he also proposed He expressed his own opinion that the RMB issued by China should reflect the sense of design that the people are the masters and reflect the form of the people of all ethnic groups.
So when the People's Bank of China issued the third set of RMB and , the staff already understood that there was no need to ask the chairman. Even if they were asked, he would still not agree.
It was not until after Chairman Mao's death, when my country began to issue the fourth set of RMB in 1984, that the portraits of the four leaders were printed on the RMB for the first time. Later, Chairman Mao's portrait was also used separately on the fifth set of RMB. , this is also a way for the people to commemorate a great man and express their admiration, so we only see the image of Chairman Mao on the RMB that we are familiar with now.
Therefore, while Chairman Mao was still alive, he personally refused four times to have his portrait printed on currency, which reflected his noble character as a great leader and revolutionary, a national leader who devoted himself to the people, and his proletarian spirit. Revolutionary spirit.
