The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was grandly opened in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing a few days ago, attracting national attention and world attention.
Looking back on the past, the history of the Communist Party of China, from its establishment to its development and growth, to establishing and consolidating the state power of the people as masters of the country, is evident from the historical details of the party congress held before the founding of New China.
How was the representative of the First Congress elected?
In August 1920, the early organization of the Communist Party of Shanghai in Shanghai was officially established, and Chen Duxiu served as secretary. In October, the early Communist Party organization in Beijing was established, with Li Dazhao as secretary. From the autumn of 1920 to the spring of 1921, early Communist organizations were established in Wuhan, Changsha, Jinan, Guangzhou and other places. In Europe and Japan, advanced elements among Chinese students and diaspora also established early Communist organizations.
According to the suggestions of Malin and others, Li Da and Li Hanjun, who were organized in the early stage of the Communist Party of Shanghai, together with Chen Duxiu, who was in Guangzhou at the time and Li Dazhao, who was in Beijing at the time, decided to convene the first National Congress of the Party in Shanghai through letter discussions. Immediately, they wrote to early Communist organizations among the Chinese in Beijing, Wuhan, Changsha, Jinan, Guangzhou, as well as the early Communist Party organizations of the Chinese in France and Japan, informing them that they each sent two representatives to Shanghai to attend the conference.
After receiving the notice of the meeting, except for the early Communist Party organizations in France who were in France who were not able to send representatives back to China to participate because of the long journey, the early Communist organizations in other places responded positively and sent representatives. Since the Party was under construction at that time, there were no unified rules and regulations and strict organizational procedures, the characteristics of the early activities of the Communist Party organizations in various places were different, and the activities of the Party were in a secret state, so the ways of representatives from various places were different, and the time for arriving in Shanghai was different.
After receiving the notice, the early Communist Party organizations in Beijing immediately held a meeting to discuss the candidate issue. Liu Renjing later recalled: "At the meeting, it was decided that Zhang Guotao and I would attend the 'No. 1 National Congress'." Zhang Guotao, as a representative of the Beijing Party organization, needed to participate in the preparations for the 1 National Congress. Therefore, after the representative was appointed, he immediately set off for Shanghai. Liu Renjing didn't leave at the end of June 1921, and it was around July 7 when he arrived in Shanghai.
The early Communist Party organizations in Changsha were Mao Zedong and He Shuheng. According to Xie Juezai's diary on June 29, 1921, "Shuheng went to Shanghai at 6 pm, and those who walked with him were moist." Xie Juezai recalled this incident in 1952, "One night, the dark clouds covered the sky and seemed to rain. Suddenly, he heard that Comrade Mao Zedong and Comrade He Shuheng were about to set off for Shanghai. I felt that their actions were "sudden", and they refused to send us to the ship. Later, they learned that this was the two of them going to attend The First National Congress of the Communist Party of China - the conference where the great Communist Party of China was born."
The early organization representatives of the Communist Party of Wuhan were Dong Biwu and Chen Tanqiu. Chen Tanqiu later recalled: "In the summer of 1921, on Pope Road, the French Concession in Shanghai, upstairs of the private Bowen Girls' School, in the second half of July, nine temporary guests suddenly came... These people were originally representatives of communist groups in various places. In order to formally organize the Communist Party, they agreed to come to Shanghai for a meeting."
The early organizations of the Communist Party in Jinan were Wang Jinmei and Deng Enming , and arrived in Shanghai around late June.
After receiving the notice, the early Communist Party of Guangzhou elected Chen Gongbo as the representative. Bao Huiseng was sent by Chen Duxiu in Guangzhou and also went to Shanghai to attend the meeting.
The early Communist Party organization in Shanghai also sent a letter to , an early member of the Communist Party organization among the Japanese Chinese. weekFohai Later recalled: "Then the letter from the Shanghai comrades, I knew that the congress was going to be held in July. It happened that during the summer vacation, I returned to Shanghai." "I am considered a representative of Japanese students."
At this point, 13 people gathered in Shanghai, the most prosperous city in China. An earth-shaking "big event" is about to happen.
The Second Congress first mentioned the "democratic joint front"
Under the guidance and help of Lenin and Comintern , when the Second Congress of the Party was held, the party had basically reached an agreement on whether to establish connections with other political parties, and there was no big debate at the meeting.
When discussing the Party’s policies and policies for revolution at this stage, some representatives proposed that bourgeoisie is the object of the proletarian revolution, but now we need to help the bourgeoisie implement democratic revolution , so that its enemy bourgeoisie can control the regime, and in turn oppress proletariat , which is a big contradiction. But most representatives disagree with this view, believing that implementing the democratic revolution and the future socialist revolution are not only not contradictory, but also have its consistency. Because carrying out a democratic revolution is not to give up socialism, nor to unite the bourgeoisie in surrender to the bourgeoisie. Although the victory of the democratic revolution allowed the bourgeoisie to gain benefits, workers and peasants could also gain some rights and freedoms to further strengthen the strength of their own class. From the perspective of the real comparison of class power, it is impossible for the working class to complete the task of democratic revolution alone. It must unite the bourgeoisie and the vast petty bourgeoisie . Therefore, the current democratic revolution that aids the bourgeoisie is necessary for the long-term interests of the proletariat.
In order to implement the party’s democratic revolution program, the Second National Congress of the Party passed nine resolutions. passed the conference " Resolution on the "Democratic Joint Front" " called on workers and peasants across the country to unite and fight under the banner of the Communist Party; at the same time, it proposed to unite all revolutionary parties in the country, unite bourgeois democratic factions, organize democratic joint fronts, and decided to invite the Kuomintang and other revolutionary groups to hold a joint meeting to discuss specific measures. In this way, the provisions of the First National Party Document on establishing any relationship between different other parties was changed. This is the first party to put forward ideas and propositions on the united front, which is of great significance to promoting the development of the Chinese revolution.
The four representatives of interesting stories
There are not many memories about the four majors. Four Representatives Zheng ChaolinIn a memory in 1980, he told some interesting stories about the four conferences:
"The meeting address is a newly rented three-story Shikumen house . It is next to the railway from Shanghai to Wusong . It was the 'China boundary' at that time, but it is not far from North Sichuan Road where the road is built across the border. You can reach North Sichuan Road through the highway."
"... The venue is located on the second floor and is arranged in the form of a school classroom. It has a blackboard, a podium, a desk and a chair, and everyone has an English textbook. When someone is about to break in and ask, he says it is an English cram school classroom."
" Zhang Songnian and Liu Qingyang attended that time. Zhang Songnian stood up and spoke, opposing the Communist Party of China's joining the Kuomintang. Everyone was surprised that this was a problem that had been solved at the Third Congress in 1923, and there was no such agenda at this conference. As a result, Qu Qiubai Standing up and answering Zhang Songnian in his seat, Qu Qiubai's answer was very strange. He said, for example, if we want to carve a stamp of the "Central Committee of the Communist Party of China" in Guangzhou, we can take it to the streets of Guangzhou; in Shanghai, we can't carve it on the streets of Shanghai."
" Chen Duxiu talked about Li Hanjun in his speech, but he was wrong and actually said Li Qihan , so 'Li Qihan' stood up from his seat and said: You have called Li Hanjun Li Qihan. Chen Duxiu immediately admitted his mistake. "
" When discussing the issue, Li Weihan's speech was very heavy and often played a decisive role. Zhang Tailei gave Li Weihan a nickname called 'Strength'. "
" Vladivostok (now Vladivostok City, Russia) representative He Jinliang was not good-looking, and Zhang Tailei often teased him, embarrassing him. After the conference, He Jinliang went back to Vladivostok and wrote to the central government in the name of the entire branch, accusing Zhang Tailei of Zhang Tailei."
" After the meeting, while chatting in the dormitory on the third floor, I heard Li Weihan say: 'We call for proletarianization every day. How can people like Qu Qiubai be proletarian? ’Qu Qiubai’s suit is indeed very straight. "
Tianjin representative Li Yi also recalled some of his memories in the article "Tripples of Memories of the "Four Congresses" of the Communist Party of China":
" Among the representatives from all over the country, there were only 4 people living in the club, namely Li Weihan, Yin Kuan, Ruan Ji and the author. There was no bed, everyone slept on the ground. Li and Yin were long men, and their quilts were not long enough. They slept with their clothes and tied up the bottom of the quilt with a fur scarf. In this way, you can keep your feet warm during cold nights. "
" conference is not like the launch of the presidium in the future of the 'Five Majors'. I only remember that the opening and closing meetings were chaired by Chen Zhongfu (Duxiu) himself and once put forward a political report. In addition, Zhou Enlai was chaired at previous meetings, and several times it was Li Weihan. Zhou Enlai presided over the meeting in an orderly manner, convenient and easy-to-mouth manner, fully demonstrated that he was an outstanding administrative talent. After the conference reported in various regions, it discussed the bill and passed a declaration. The resolution included political issues, organizational issues, propaganda issues, national revolutionary movements, staff issues, peasant issues, women's movements, youth movements and other resolutions, mostly successfully passed after brief discussions. Only the draft of the Employees' Movement was originally drafted by Xiang Ying, which caused many criticisms at the conference; in the end, Xiang Ying admitted that he was a worker and had a low level of education, so the drafting had many flaws. The original case was taken back on the spot and drafted separately. It was approved in another meeting. "
site map of the 1927 Five CPC venues newly discovered in the Russian Archives (Huangpi Association).
Five major
Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Ren Bishi were all elected as members of the Central Committee at the Five CPC National Congresses. In addition, there are a large number of familiar names among the central leadership bodies of the five CPC elections: Qu Qiubai, Cai Hesen, Li Lisan. Zhang Tailei, Wang Hebo, Xiang Ying, Chen Tanqiu, Lin Yunan, Guo Liang , Yun Daiying, Peng Pai, Yang Zhihua...
Why can the five majors be held a group of heroes that centrally selects the elites of the whole party? Chen Duxiu said in the report of the five majors:
"...Our work is still underway, and nine Central Committee members is not enough. What makes the central work even more difficult is that even the nine central committee members cannot work together frequently. There are only two or three members working together in the Central Committee, and sometimes only one member. In this way, the central government naturally developed a dictatorship. "
"... In short, the Party Central Committee is not very sound. Our party is not a party with a well-organized organization, but a group of various communists. Local organizations are better than those in the central government. If this situation does not change, we will only have the parties from each province. At this congress, we must assign more comrades to work in the central government, otherwise we will be in danger. In terms of organizational work, the most important thing is to make the central government a strong central government. If the situation is still like this, that is, the party’s leading organs cannot become stronger organs, then the situation of the lower-level organizations will be very bad. "
Chen Duxiu's statement is not an alarmist statement, but a hit to the current situation. It is based on this understanding that the Five National Congress of the Party of China has made outstanding contributions to party building, especially organizational construction, and has created many "firsts" in the history of the Party:
For the first time, the principles of "collective leadership" and "democratic centralism" were officially written into the Party Constitution ; the first decision was made to organize the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China; the first division of the Party organization system was divided into the four levels of the Central Committee, the provincial party committee, the municipal (county) committee, the district party committee, etc. More importantly, from the First Congress of the Party to the Fourth Congress, the central leadership bodies elected were called the Central Bureau or the Central Executive Committee, and the number of people has always been very small.At the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the number of elected central leadership bodies increased significantly. For the first time, the names of "Central Committee", "Central Political Bureau" and "Standal Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee" were adopted, and the daily work institutions of the central government were separated from the decision-making institutions for the first time, thus establishing the leadership system of the Communist Party of China. This organizational system and leadership system have been used to this day for more than 80 years, except for some adjustments in the middle. It plays a significant role in ensuring the leadership of the Party and implementing democratic centralism.
After the baptism of the revolutionary war between blood and fire and the test of white terror of life and death, 26 people elected by the Fifth National Congress of the Party to 55 Central Committee members, alternate Central Committee members, Central Supervisory Committee and alternate Supervisory Committee elected by the Fifth National Congress of the Party, 26 of them have given their precious lives for the revolution.
pictures of the three major groups of the Communist Party of China
" Cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party " only passed by 5 votes
in June 1923. Before the meeting, the representative of the Communist International, Malin, spoke to representatives from various places in advance, especially workers' representatives. "The content is mainly to explain and explain the necessity of cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party." In addition, "Malin also talked to the representatives about the organizational arrangements of the next central government, the preparations for the Party Constitution and resolutions, and did not hesitate to explain in detail the reasons for why we should do this."
Although Marin did a lot of work before the meeting, there was still fierce debate on the three major issues. Ma Lin, Chen Duxiu and others proposed that since the Communist International has given instructions, "we should join the Kuomintang." Regarding the question of whether industrial workers join the Kuomintang, Chen Duxiu and others advocate not retaining industrial workers, because retaining means reducing the power of the National Revolution, and the Chinese proletariat is very naive in terms of quantity and quality, and the party cannot be made public at present. Therefore, "If we want to do the workers' movement, we must join the Kuomintang and concentrate our forces on the Kuomintang."
Qu Qiubai, Zhang Tailei and others expressed their support for the proposals of Ma Lin and Chen Duxiu. Qu Qiubai's speech is representative. His main point is:
"Although the petty bourgeoisie and the big bourgeoisie are not revolutionary now, they will revolutionize for their own interests."
"If we wait for the Kuomintang to develop before participating, it is unreasonable. If we hope to strengthen our strength, if we have a clear goal, we will have sufficient opportunities to strengthen ourselves in the national movement and follow the path of the October Revolution in Russia in October. . "
"If we, as the only revolutionary proletariat, do not join the Kuomintang, the latter will seek help from warlords, bourgeoisie and imperialism."
Zhang Guotao, Cai Hesen, Lin Yunan and others opposed the opinions of Ma Lin and Chen Duxiu. Later, although Zhang Guotao and others agreed to join the Kuomintang, they opposed the joining of industrial workers, believing that industrial workers are the foundation of the Communist Party, and joining the Kuomintang will weaken the Communist Party.
Deng Zhongxia clearly showed distrust of the Kuomintang. He said: "The Kuomintang is a party with very different internal interests and it is difficult to transform."
Cai Hesen criticized Chen Duxiu and others for "placing workers under the banner of the Kuomintang" as a violation of the decision of the Communist International. He said: "If China's national movement is very high at present, then workers do not need an independent party."
In response, Chen Duxiu retorted: "When the national movement is very high, we can join the Kuomintang. This is an opportunistic idea. Our responsibility is to work for the development of the national movement." "Only the Kuomintang can accommodate those semi-revolutionary bourgeoisie, petty bourgeoisie, peasants and proletariat, and there is no other way."
In fact, in addition to the above-mentioned high-level leaders of the party, many general party members do not understand, especially workers and comrades engaged in the work movement. As Luo Zhanglong said: In their opinion, "The Kuomintang does not pay attention to the workers' movement and has little influence among the workers. The Kuomintang is separated from the masses, with many bureaucrats and politicians in its components, and is mixed with fish and dragons, but it is well-known.Many comrades were unwilling to join it and opposed joining the Kuomintang, forming a resistance.
After fierce debate, all representatives had a unified understanding of the significance of Communist Party members joining the Kuomintang: 1. Reorganize the Kuomintang into a left-wing party; 2. Expand the Kuomintang in places where the Communist Party cannot openly operate; 3. Absorb outstanding Kuomintang members into our party...
Li Dazhao raised the issue of leadership on the united front in a rare way.
He said:
"The leadership factors of the national movement in the past and future are the proletariat, not other classes. "For this reason, we should not be afraid to participate in the national movement, we should stand at the forefront of the movement. "
Mao Zedong also spoke:
" In China, the bourgeois revolution does not work. All anti-imperialist movements were initiated by hunger and cold, not by the bourgeoisie. "We should not be afraid to join the Kuomintang. "
"Resolution on the National Movement and the Kuomintang Issue" was passed by only 5 votes at the meeting (21 votes in favor and 16 votes against), reflecting the party's true attitude towards this resolution.
At this point, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China finally agreed to achieve cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party by the way that members of the Communist Party members joined the Kuomintang, which was also possible for Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang at that time. The only way of cooperation accepted.
945 scene map of the seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
The seventh National Congress held 17 years apart
From April 23 to June 11, 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was grandly held in Yan'an. At this time, the Sixth National Congress held in 1928 was 17 years apart, which was a success The longest interval between the Party Congress. Why hasn't the Party Congress been held for so long?
In fact, as early as January 1931, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Party will convene the Seventh National Congress as one of the "most undelayable tasks" of the whole party. Later, due to various reasons such as the continuous civil war and , the seventh National Congress of 4 matters were not included in the central agenda. It was not until December 13, 1937, after the outbreak of the National Anti-Japanese War, that the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee officially passed the resolution on preparing to convene the Seventh National Congress.
In March 1938, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee requested to "make specific preparations immediately" for convening the Seventh National Congress. The "Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which was adopted on November 6 of the same year, on the convening of the Seventh National Congress The resolution of the General Assembly formally approved the resolution of the meeting in December 1937 on convening the Seventh Congress, and agreed to the Preparation Committee’s report to the plenary session, and decided to speed up the preparation work and convene the Seventh Congress in a short period of time. Since then, the Seventh Congress has entered the actual preparation stage.
1939, the Secretariat of the Central Committee issued the "Notice on the Seventh Congress" twice to the party organizations of various places, requiring all localities to do so in September of that year The representative election was completed on the 1st. According to the spirit of the notice, all localities elected representatives to attend the Seventh National Congress. In 1940, some representatives arrived in Yan'an one after another.
Due to the deterioration of the war environment, the representatives could not be all present. The specific date of the meeting was not decided. Some of the representatives who arrived in Yan'an in advance went to the Party School to study, and some were temporarily assigned to work.
December 29, 1939 Zhou Enlai, who was cured in the Soviet Union, wrote a 55,000-word "Memorandum of China" for the Communist International, again introducing that the Seventh National Congress of the Party may be held in March and April 1940. However, in order to achieve the party's ideological and political unity and action unity, overcome difficulties with one heart and one mind, and win the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan, around 1941, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China believed that it was necessary to carry out the rectification movement in the whole party. Under such circumstances , there is no need to convene the Seventh National Congress of the Party in hastily.
During the rectification process, the central government discussed the convening of seven major issues many times. In March 1941, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee initially agreed to be held on May 1st; in September, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee planned to be held in the first half of 1942; in August 1943, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee decided that the Seventh National Congress would be held at the end of the year and issued the "Instructions on the Seventh National Congress representatives to attend the conference in Yan'an."As Japanese invaders "sweeping" the liberated areas more frequently, and due to the deployment and rectification work, the meeting period of the Seventh National Congress was repeatedly postponed.
In May 1944, the Central Secretariat decided to immediately start the preparations for the convening of the seventh National Congress. On May 21, the first plenary meeting of the expanded Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held its first plenary meeting. Mao Zedong proposed at the meeting that the Seventh Plenary Session will have two tasks, namely, preparing for the Seventh National Congress and handling the daily work of the central government during the plenary session.
On April 20, 1945, the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee held its last meeting, discussed and passed the "Resolution on Several Historical Issues", and concluded several major historical issues within the Party. At the same time, the most important political and ideological preparations required to convene the seven major issues were also completed. On April 23, 1945, the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China finally opened.
The seventh National Congress will be held for 50 days, becoming the longest meeting time of the Party’s congress. In fact, the original meeting period of the Seventh National Congress was short, so there were not so many meetings, nor so many speeches were prepared. After the conference began, the delegates requested an extension. The presidium of the conference made a special discussion and decided to extend the meeting period, and the meeting agenda continued to change.
(selected from "Historical Details of the Party Congress: From the First Congress to the 18th National Congress", the author is the director and researcher of the Second Research Department of the Central Academy of Party History and Literature)
The original text was published on October 20, 2022 " People's Political Consultative Conference Newspaper " 11th edition
Author: Li Ying
