The Seventh National Congress of the Party was held in the Yangjialing Central Auditorium
After the closing of the Sixth National Congress of the Party in July 1928, it was 17 years apart, and the Seventh National Congress of the Party was held in April 1945. During this period, it spanned about the entire Agrarian Revolution and the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which was also the longest time apart in the history of the Party. This conference has been recorded in history as a "conference of unity and victory".
(I)
In fact, it was a very early time to convene the seven major s of . In January 1931, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China raised the issue of preparing to convene the Seventh National Congress. Since then, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has repeatedly proposed to prepare for the convening of the Seventh National Congress, but for various reasons, the Seventh National Congress was never held until the outbreak of the National Anti-Japanese War in 1937.
After the outbreak of the national war of resistance, facing new situations and tasks, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China repeatedly proposed to convene the Seventh National Congress. In December 1937, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee passed a resolution on convening the Seventh National Congress, requiring the convening of the Seventh National Congress "in the recent period", and preliminarily determined the main agenda of the Seventh National Congress, and decided to establish a preparatory committee for the General Assembly with Mao Zedong as the chairman. The meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in March of the following year once again proposed that the Seventh National Congress should be held "produced immediately". However, because the national war of resistance had just begun, the Party Central Committee had to concentrate on guiding the guerrilla war behind enemy lines, establish and expand the anti-Japanese base, and a large number of cadres were sent to the front line; in addition, after Wang Ming returned from Moscow, he proposed the proposition of "everything goes through the anti-Japanese national united front ", and there were differences within the party on issues such as the united front and how to resist the war, and the conditions for convening the seventh National Congress were actually not ripe.
From September 29 to November 6, 1938, the expanded Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Yan'an . Mao Zedong delivered a political report on " on the New Stage " at the plenary session, analyzing the situation after the War of Resistance Against Japan is about to enter a new stage of strategic stalemate, clearly put forward the historical task of sinicizing Marxism, criticizing Wang Ming's proposition of "everything through the anti-Japanese national united front", and emphasizing that the united front must adhere to the principle of independence and autonomy. This meeting further established Mao Zedong's leadership position in the whole party, resolved the intra-party disputes over the anti-Japanese national united front after Wang Ming returned to China, especially the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, unified the thoughts of the whole party, and created conditions for the convening of the Seventh National Congress.
Because of this, the convening of the Seventh National Congress once again mentioned the agenda of the CPC Central Committee. The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the "Resolution on Convening the Seventh National Congress", proposing to convene the Seventh National Congress "in the near future". The central task is to discuss issues such as persisting in the War of Resistance Against Japan, striving for and ensuring the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan. The meeting also made several specific provisions on the allocation of representatives and the method of electing representatives. On June 14 and July 21, 1939, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued two notices to local party organizations on how to elect representatives of the Seventh National Congress, and asked representatives to be elected before September 1 to be on standby.
However, at this moment, the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was reversed. Wuhan and Guangzhou were lost. After the War of Resistance entered a stalemate stage, Chiang Kai-shek passively resisted Japan and actively opposed the Communist Party, proposing to "dissolve the Communist Party", "prevent the Communist Party" and "limit the Communist Party" to actually fight against the Communist Party. In the winter solstice of 1939, the first anti-communist climax was launched in the spring of 1940, and in the spring of 1941, the second anti-communist climax was launched, marked by the Southern Anhui Incident. At the same time, Japan adopted the policy of political inducing surrender to Chiang Kai-shek's group and military strikes as the supplement, and pushed more than half of the Japanese invaders and almost all the puppet troops to the liberated areas led by the Communist Party of China. In this way, the party had to repel the anti-communist climax launched by the Kuomintang diehard , and on the other hand, it wanted to smash the "sweeping" and blockade of the Japanese invaders, so it had to temporarily put the matter of convening the seven major issues.
After repelling the second anti-communist climax of the Kuomintang, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held a meeting on March 12, 1941, and once again decided to hold the Seventh National Congress as soon as possible, requiring the preparations for the meeting to be completed before the May Day Labor Day. The preliminary agreement was made to hold a meeting on May 1.At that time, the anti-Japanese base areas behind each enemy were all under the division of Japanese troops. It was not easy for representatives from all over the country to arrive in Yan'an, so the seventh National Congress was still not held on time.
Then, in order to fundamentally solve the bad styles such as subjectivism in academic style, sectarianism in party style, and party eight-legged essays in writing style, the Party Central Committee with Mao Zedong as the core organized a famous rectification movement. By the summer of 1943, the rectification movement had developed from a senior cadre of to the whole party, forming a climax of serious study of Marxist theory, summarizing historical experience, and carrying out criticism and self-criticism.
In the spring of 1944, the rectification movement entered the summary stage. On May 10 of the same year, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee decided to immediately prepare for the seventh National Congress. To this end, the Central Secretariat made specific arrangements for the preparatory meeting, requiring a preparatory meeting to be held within seven months and a general meeting within eight months; the various public resolutions and speech contents should be fully informed for Party members and Chinese and foreign people. The general meeting report and the outline of the designated speech shall be written within five months. The meeting also decided to hold the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China before the Seventh National Congress. In this way, the seven major issues that have been talked about for more than ten years have finally been put on the agenda.
On April 20, 1945, the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussed and passed the "Resolution on Several Historical Issues" (hereinafter referred to as the "Resolution"). This "Resolution" was originally intended to be submitted to the Seventh National Congress for discussion and approval, but later it was approved at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, mainly to enable the Seventh National Congress to concentrate on discussing the policy of the founding of the War of Resistance Against Japan. The Resolution made detailed conclusions on several issues in the Party in history, especially the "left" dogmatic error represented by Wang Ming, highly praised Mao Zedong's outstanding contribution to using Marxist theoretical methods to solve the problems of the Chinese revolution, and pointed out the great significance of the whole Party in establishing the guiding role of Mao Zedong Thought. The adoption of the "Resolution" promoted the ideological and political unity of the whole party, consolidated the party's unity, and laid the foundation for the successful convening of the Seventh National Congress.
(II)
On April 21, 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China held a preparatory meeting. There were 755 representatives attending the conference (including 547 formal representatives and 208 alternate representatives), representing 1.21 million party members. This is the most representative party congress of the new democratic revolution during the new democratic revolution , which shows that the Communist Party of China has grown and grown stronger after the training of arduous revolutionary struggles. The representatives attending the Seventh National Congress formed a total of 8 delegations, namely: Central Direct (including Military Direct) organs, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, Shanxi, Chaji, Hebei, , Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Central China and Dakou. The delegation from the rear has the widest region, including the Jiangxi-managed district and the occupied districts, Guangdong-Guangdong-, the two lakes (in the clouds and Guizhou), Fujian-Guangdong border, Jiangxi, Sichuan and other places.
On April 23, Central Auditorium of Yangjialing seemed particularly solemn and dignified. On the rostrum, huge portraits of Mao Zedong and Zhu De were hung. Next to it is the bright flag of the Communist Party of China. On the wall behind, four big words "One heart and one virtue" are hung. On both sides of the walls, slogans such as "Adhere to the truth" and "correct errors" were posted. There are 24 red flags on the side of the wall, symbolizing that the Communist Party of China has gone through an extraordinary journey for 24 years.
Directly above the rostrum, a huge slogan "Preach Victoriously under Mao Zedong's Banner" was hung. The decorations on the rostrum are very simple, with only a few long tables with white tablecloths and a dozen wooden chairs. In the venue below, rows of simple long wooden backrest chairs were placed.
At 5 pm, members of the presidium such as Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi appeared on the rostrum. The representatives in the venue immediately stood up and gave him a long period of warm applause. After the solemn music of " Internationale ", the Secretary-General of the Congress Ren Bishi announced that the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China opened. Amid the stormy applause, Mao Zedong delivered the opening speech of the conference.After Mao Zedong delivered his speech, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Lin Boqu and the Japanese Communist Party representative in Yan'an, Okano Shin-kun also made speeches at the opening ceremony, fully affirming the great achievements made by the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong's correct leadership, and wishing the conference a success.
On April 24, Mao Zedong delivered a political report to the Congress on behalf of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Before the meeting, he wrote a written report, namely " on the United Government ", and sent a copy to each representative at the meeting. The written report analyzed the international and domestic situation at that time, summarized the struggles on the two lines during the War of Resistance, clarified the general program and specific program of the Communist Party of China, and pointed out that the Chinese people should strive to defeat the Japanese invaders and build a new China. On the same day, Mao Zedong also explained the content of the written report, focusing on line issues, policy issues and party issues.
On April 25, Zhu De gave a military report to the conference on " on the battlefield of the Liberated Areas ". From May 14 to 15, Liu Shaoqi wrote a report on the amendment of the Party Constitution. The original schedule of the Seven National Congress was short. After the conference began, deputies asked for the conference to be extended. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China accepted the request of the representatives. As a result, the number of speakers at the conference also increased greatly. From April 30 to May 23, except for Liu Shaoqi's two-day "Report on Amending the Party Constitution", the rest of the time was mainly for the speeches and discussions of the conference.
On May 24, the conference heard a report on election work on behalf of the Presidium. In the report, Mao Zedong put forward three principles of the Seventh National Congress elections: First, those who have made mistakes in the line, have admitted their mistakes and are determined to correct their mistakes, can be selected; second, the "mountain" formed by the Chinese revolution in the long-term scattered rural environment must be recognized and taken care of, and narrowed and eliminated. Advanced representatives of the Party in various places and aspects must be organized into the Central Committee; third, everyone does not necessarily require that they be knowledgeable in all aspects, and just know one aspect or a little more knowledge. If these people are concentrated, they will become the Central Committee that is knowledgeable in all aspects. From this day on, the General Assembly entered the second phase of the agenda. On the one hand, it summarized the discussions of the three reports, and on the other hand, it was also the main one, and turned to the Central Committee elections.
On May 27, the presidium of the Congress and the directors of various delegations held a joint meeting to discuss the election issues of the Central Committee. On June 9, the Congress officially held the election of the Central Committee, and Mao Zedong and 44 others were elected as members of the Central Committee. On June 10, an election of alternate Central Committee members was held, and 33 people were elected.
On June 11, the Seventh National Congress held a grand closing ceremony, with Mao Zedong delivering the closing speech. Mao Zedong highly evaluated the Seventh Congress, believing that this was a "united conference and a victorious conference". He called on the whole party and the people of the whole country to dig out imperialism and feudalism, two mountains that were pressing on the Chinese people, to build a new democratic China, and to lead China to a bright future.
On June 19, the First Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee elected 13 other members of the Central Political Bureau, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi as secretary of the Central Secretariat, and Mao Zedong as chairman of the Central Committee, the Central Political Bureau, and the Central Secretariat.
(III)
The Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was an extremely important convened by the Communist Party of China during the democratic revolution and the last National Congress. The Seventh National Congress believes that China faces two futures, namely a bright future and a dark future. The basic task of the Communist Party of China is to do its best to strive for a bright future and oppose a dark future. The Congress was convinced: "If we can unite the people of the whole country, work hard and give appropriate guidance, we will be able to win." This is also the central task of the seven majors.
The Seventh National Congress proposed the Party’s political line, which is to let go and mobilize the masses, strengthen the people’s strength, and under the leadership of the Party, defeat the Japanese invaders, liberate the people of the whole country, and establish a new democratic China. This was also the task of the whole party and the people of the whole country at that time.
Congress clearly stated that in order to establish a new China, the most important and urgent task at present is to abolish the one-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang and establish a democratic coalition government. The one-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang is the dictatorship of the anti-people group within the Kuomintang. It is a destroyer of China's national unity, the responsible person for the failure of the Kuomintang's anti-Japanese war, the fundamental obstacle to mobilizing and unifying the Chinese people's anti-Japanese forces, and the disaster of the civil war . Only by abolishing the one-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang can a democratic coalition government be established to achieve the goal of defeating the invaders and establishing a new China. The Seventh National Congress formulated two steps to establish a coalition government before and after the complete defeat of the Japanese invaders, namely the first step, the current period, through agreements between various parties and factions and representatives of non-party and non-party, and the second step, in the future, through free and unrestrained elections, a national conference will be held to establish a formal coalition government.
Seventh National Congress discussed the minimum program of the Communist Party of China at this stage. Mao Zedong pointed out in his political report: Under the premise of completely eliminating the Japanese invaders and building a new China, at this stage of China, we advocate that after completely defeating the Japanese invaders, a democratic alliance with a united front led by the working class under the leadership of the working class. We call such a state system the new democratic state system. He further explained that the politics of new democratic is to overthrow foreign national oppression, abolish domestic feudal and fascist oppression, and advocate that after overturning and abolishing these, it is not an old democratic political system, but a political system that unites the united front that unites all democratic classes. New democratic regime organizations should adopt democratic centralism, and the people's congresses at all levels decide major policies and elect the government. The new democratic economy is to implement the "whoever farms has his own land" in terms of land issues; on industrial and commercial issues, it is also based on Sun Yat-sen's proposal, "Any enterprises of the natives and foreigners may have a monopoly nature or are too large to be run by private power, such as banks, railways, and shipping routes, which are managed by the state, so that the private capital system cannot manipulate the livelihood of the people. This is the key to controlling capital."
There is no doubt that the Party’s highest program is to advance China to socialism and communism. To this end, Mao Zedong deeply discussed the dialectical relationship between the Party’s minimum program and the highest program in "On the United Government", believing that all Communists must first strive to achieve the current goal. Without this point, "what talks about socialism and communism is to intentionally or unintentionally, more or less betray socialism and communism, and he is not a conscious and loyal communist. Only through democracy can socialism be reached, which is the natural meaning of Marxism." In addition to the above general program discussion, the Communist Party of China proposed 40 specific programs, the main contents are: completely eliminate the Japanese invaders and not compromise in the middle; abolish the one-party dictatorship of the Kuomintang and establish a democratic coalition government; strive for the freedom of the people; implement the unity of the people; establish the people's army; implement rural reform (under the rent and interest reduction during the Anti-Japanese War); develop national industries; develop cultural education and unite intellectuals; strive for the liberation and development of ethnic minorities in politics, economy and culture; establish a peaceful, independent and democratic diplomacy. Among these specific programs, the most important thing is to establish a coalition government.
The Seventh National Congress clearly proposed in the Party’s documents that the standards of productivity should be used to judge the historical role of a political party. Mao Zedong pointed out in his report: "The good and bad role of the policies and practices of all Chinese political parties in the Chinese people, in the final analysis, depends on whether it is helpful to the development of the Chinese people's productivity and how much it helps, whether it is bound by productivity or liberating productivity."
The Seventh National Congress summarizes the fine traditions and styles formed by the Party's long-term struggle into three styles, namely the style of combining theory and practice, and the style of self-criticism that is closely linked to the people. This is a significant sign that distinguishes the Communists from any other political party. It requires that all speeches and actions of the Communists must be in line with the greatest interests of the broadest masses of the people and be supported by the broadest masses of the people as the highest standard. This is a high summary of the basic experience of the 24 years since the founding of the Communist Party of China and is the core content of the theory of party building.
The Seventh National Congress emphasized the importance of the peasant issue in the Chinese revolution and clearly pointed out that the so-called people's masses, the most important part is the peasants. The so-called people's war, basically or the main thing is the farmers. The people's war. If the peasants forget that there will be no Chinese democratic revolution, and there will be no revolution. It emphasizes that we must be prepared for a transformation, that is, to change from guerrilla warfare to regular warfare, from rural to cities, to work in cities, and to seize big cities. We must have this preparation and have a clear mind in advance to reduce the differences of opinions in the transformation. It emphasizes that we must attach great importance to the issue of cadre unity, and proposes to eliminate mountain ideology and achieve "recognition and care for mountain territories, so that we can narrow the mountain and eliminate mountain territories." This is how to unite well and move towards victory.
(IV)
The Seventh National Congress of the Party highly praised Mao Zedong's historical status and pointed out: "Our party is already a party with its own great leader. This leader is the organizer and leader of our party and modern Chinese revolution - Comrade Mao Zedong. Our Comrade Mao Zedong is an outstanding representative of our heroic proletariat and an outstanding representative of the excellent traditions of our great nation. He was a genius creation Marxist. He combined the highest idea of mankind, the universal truth of Marxism, with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution, and raised the ideological level of our nation to a reasonable level that had never been seen, and pointed out the only correct path to the Chinese nation and the Chinese people who were suffering from disasters - Mao Zedong's path. ”
The Seventh National Congress clearly established Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the whole party. Liu Shaoqi pointed out in the "Report on Amending the Party Constitution": "Mao Zedong Thought is the idea of unifying the theory of Marxism-Leninism and the practice of the Chinese revolution, it is Chinese communism and Chinese Marxism. "The report made a high evaluation of Mao Zedong Thought, believing that it was "repeatedly tested in countless fierce struggles between millions of people, proving that it is an objective truth and the only correct theory and policy to save China." Therefore, the Congress called on the whole party to study Mao Zedong Thought, use Mao Zedong Thought to arm the party members and the revolutionary people, and turn Mao Zedong Thought into a practical and irresistible force. The Party Constitution passed by the Seventh Congress fully reflects Mao Zedong's thought on building the party, as well as the fine style and revolutionary style formed by the party in long-term revolutionary practice, stipulates that Mao Zedong Thought is used as the guide for all the party's work, and opposes any dogmatism and empiricism bias. The Party Constitution also stipulates that it is the obligation of every Communist Party member to strive to understand the foundation of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. . The Party must adhere to the mass line in its work, which is the Party’s fundamental political line and organizational line. In the Party’s life, we must adhere to democratic centralism and implement centralization based on democracy and democracy under centralized guidance. This enables the whole Party to obtain timely and correct leadership in ideological theory, political line and organizational system at a critical moment when the revolution is facing a new major transformation, and has a strong guarantee for unity and victory.
Seventh National Congress comprehensively summarized the historical experience of the tortuous development of the new democratic revolution for more than 20 years, formulated correct lines, programs, principles, and policies, so that the whole Party, especially senior cadres, have a relatively clear understanding of the laws of China’s democratic revolution, thus enabling the whole Party to achieve unprecedented unity and unity on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.It laid a political, ideological and organizational foundation for the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the victory of the New Democratic Revolution across the country.
[Author’s unit: Central Party School (National School of Administration) Communist Party History Teaching and Research Department]
Source: Learning Times
