In 1958, my country began a mass movement with the main goal of achieving high industrial and agricultural output. This movement destroyed the seriously fragile economic structure at that time and was a serious setback that our party encountered in exploring the path of socialism. This movement is the Great Leap Forward movement that has taught us profound lessons.
Of course, in the Great Leap Forward movement, some cadres clearly opposed it, such as Wang Yanchun we are going to talk about today. Wang Yanchun once served as secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee . He has made great achievements in agriculture and is also called an "agricultural expert" by Chairman Mao. So, what is the story about Wang Yanchun?
Wang Yanchun was born in 1910 in Zhicao Village, Quyang County, Hebei Province. He was born in an ordinary peasant family. In his early years, Wang Yanchun mainly studied in his hometown. Because his family was not well off, he entered a normal school that did not charge tuition fees at the time. After graduation, he returned to his hometown and became an elementary school teacher.
While serving as a primary school teacher, Wang Yanchun came into contact with Marxism-Leninism . In 1932, 22-year-old Wang Yanchun joined the Communist Youth League and began to participate in revolutionary activities under the guidance of our party. Unfortunately, in 1934, Wang Yanchun was arrested by the Kuomintang reactionaries and was detained. It was not until the two parties cooperated for the second time after the Xi'an Incident in , and Wang Yanchun regained freedom under the organization's rescue. After the restoration of freedom, Wang Yanchun officially joined our party. During the subsequent period of the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation, Wang Yanchun mainly engaged in propaganda and organization. In 1948, Wang Yanchun was ordered to go south and arrived in Hubei. After the founding of New China, he was appointed as the secretary of the Yichang Prefectural Committee of Hubei, and also served as the political commissar of the Military Sub-district. It is worth mentioning that when New China was just established, the bandits in Western Hubei were still very serious. In order to give the people a stable living environment, Wang Yanchun personally directed the suppression of bandits in western Hubei. In just three months, it calmed down the century-old bandits in western Hubei and consolidated the new regime.
1955, Wang Yanchun was reused and promoted to Hong Kong Provincial Party Committee 4th Deputy Secretary, in charge of agricultural issues in Hubei Province. It was also during this period that Wang Yanchun experienced the Great Leap Forward Movement and the subsequent three-year natural disaster period. Faced with the Great Leap Forward, Wang Yanchun was very sad. He kept criticizing the exaggerated style and resisted it within his ability. In order to curb the exaggeration, Wang Yanchun even went to Macheng to squat, mastered valuable first-hand information, and made great contributions to the subsequent correction of the mistakes of the Great Leap Forward.
1960, during the "three-year natural disaster" period, Wang Yanchun also presided over the drafting of the "Ten Measures of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee on Mobilizing the Motivation of the People". In this document, Wang Yanchun proposed the idea of implementing the family contract responsibility system for agricultural production, and clearly supported the contracting of production to households. This document played a great role in mobilizing the enthusiasm of farmers at that time and was also approved by the central government to forward it nationwide.
In 1961, Wang Yanchun was transferred to Hunan and served as the executive secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, continuing to be in charge of Hunan's agriculture. In June 1966, Wang Yanchun was appointed as the first secretary (agent) of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, in charge of the overall work of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and was the "top leader" of Hunan. During that period, Wang Yanchun continued to use his accumulated experience in agriculture and made great contributions to the agricultural development of Hunan. He was praised by Chairman Mao and was called an "agricultural expert" by Chairman Mao.
During his time in Hunan, Wang Yanchun actively implemented the agricultural production responsibility system . He encouraged farmers to get rich and put forward the slogan of "dare to work hard and get rich, dare to make socialist red wealth", which greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of farmers. Under the leadership of Wang Yanchun, Hunan began to farm scientifically, and the types of crops have changed greatly compared to before. For example, during that period, the cotton planting area of Hunan increased by 8 times, and the flue-cured tobacco planting area increased by more than 3 times, and the people received real benefits.
After this, Wang Yanchun also served as vice chairman of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and other positions. In his later years, he mainly lived in Changsha. He died of illness in 1984 at the age of 74.
