In September 1956, the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was officially held in Beijing. An amazing decision made at this meeting was to delete all the content about "Mao Zedong Thought" in the new "Party Constitution".
Mao Zedong Thought represents the spiritual power of an era, and it is also the most significant symbol of spiritual life in that era. However, it has only been 7 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Why should Mao Zedong Thought that people are familiar with be deleted from the "Party Constitution"? Is it possible that our love for a leader cannot escape the "seven-year itch"?
Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi
Liu Shaoqi first proposed "Mao Zedong Thought"
Mao Zedong Thought was written into the "Party Constitution" when the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in 1946.
For this great initiative, Liu Shaoqi is one of the most important initiators. Like Wang Jiaxiang at the Zunyi Conference, he supported Mao Zedong and seriously summarized the political, economic, and cultural achievements of Mao Zedong and his comrades. , Deep thinking and historical experience in various fields such as military, diplomacy, and party building.
As early as 1940, Liu Shaoqi, as a staunch supporter of Mao Zedong, said very predictably: " Only Mao Zedong Thought can inspire us from victory to victory... Mao Zedong is the great revolution of the Chinese people. Leader, we should learn from him ", and this is the first time that the party put forward the concept of "Mao Zedong Thought" .
At the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China on April 23, 1945, Liu Shaoqi gave a report on the new "Party Constitution". "Mao Zedong Thought" was written into the "Party Constitution". Moreover, in this report, Liu Shaoqi mentioned Mao Zedong or Mao Zedong Thought 105 times. It is also this report by Liu Shaoqi that further confirms Mao Zedong's leadership position in the party.
At the same time, Liu Shaoqi vigorously promoted Mao Zedong Thought in the city and the grassroots organizations of the Trade Union Party, which he had worked so hard for for many years, and merged them into the forces of Mao Zedong's peasant army (During that period,Leaders work separately, so each has a group of independent advocates and supporters).
Since then, Liu Shaoqi has been on the stage of history as one of the "Five Secretary". As secretary of the Central Secretariat, he became Mao Zedong's first deputy.
Mao Zedong and Peng Dehuai
Peng Dehuai opposed the "cult of personality"
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the country was faced with the problems of economic construction and social recovery.
Liu Shaoqi advocated cautious economic development, but Mao Zedong was a little eager to achieve success. On the one hand, he demanded the "Great Leap Forward" and on the other hand he led the rural "cooperative system", which is also known as the "contract responsibility system with joint production."
However, these practices later proved to be a failure. After that, Mao Zedong went on to raise the general economic development problem to a class problem, thinking that the reason for the failure was "we now have two alliances, one is an alliance with the peasants, and the other is an alliance with the national bourgeoisie", so he decided to start from the roots. Solve the problem.
However, when a person has too much power, too high prestige, and deviations in direction, it will cause greater problems. Perhaps it is with this consideration that the central government decides to "worship" in the party. . And at this time, the party's enthusiasm for Mao Zedong had begun to gradually become rational.
First, Peng Dehuai, a leader who has almost the same qualifications as Mao Zedong in the history of the Communist Party of China and the military, proposed that in the new "Party Constitution", the content of "Mao Zedong Thought" should be deleted, and he said bluntly: "I oppose individuals worship". At that time, Liu Shaoqi, who presided over the work of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, also echoed Peng Dehuai’s suggestion, saying: “It is probably better to delete these clauses.” After
, Liu Shaoqi explained in his political report: “Our party’s leader, Comrade Mao Zedong, Therefore, he played a great helmsman role in our revolutionary cause and enjoyed high prestige among the whole party and the people of the whole country, not only because he was good at combining the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution, but also because He resolutely trusts the strength and wisdom of the masses, advocates the mass line in the party’s work, and adheres to the party’s democratic principles and collective leadership principles.”
When many people read this passage,They all thought that this was an evaluation and affirmation of Mao Zedong’s historical achievements, but in fact it was a declaration of "going to the cult of the individual", because in this passage it was almost the first time that Mao Zedong’s name was associated with collective leadership. .
In other words, Mao Zedong can make independent decisions in his past work, but since then, he needs to make collective decisions. To put it more bluntly, this method weakens Mao Zedong's previous power to make decisions.
Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhu De greeted Zhou Enlai at the airport
Liu Shaoqi advocated the deletion of "Mao Zedong Thought"
Liu Shaoqi was originally the author of "Mao Zedong Thought" and was also the actual impetus for writing this thought into the "Party Constitution" However, why should it be deleted firmly at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China after only 7 years?
No one knows this historical reason, but one thing is certain, that is, the enthusiasm for Mao Zedong Thought in the party began to cool down at that time.
Another important content is that Mao Zedong decided to retreat from the leadership at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China in order to allow young comrades to get more training. At the same time, he also imitated the changes in the leadership team after Stalin's death, because of the revised new " There is one article in the "Party Constitution": Establish an honorary chairman on the Party Central Committee.
At this meeting, the Party’s Secretariat was also reorganized and strengthened. Deng Xiaoping was appointed as the Party’s general secretary so that it could still work effectively when Mao Zedong retreated to the second line.
These changes left an impression on the delegates attending the Eighth National Congress: Mao Zedong seemed to really take a back seat, and he was no longer as supreme as before. At that time, everyone’s general perception may be that since people are going to retreat to the second line, their guiding ideology should also be relegated to the second line. For this epistemology, perhaps the past and the present are very different.
Liu Shaoqi explained why Mao Zedong Thought should be deleted in the new "Party Constitution", said: In 1945, Mao Zedong's leadership has been established, "Even if we don't talk about it, everyone knows it. Besides, one person If you always repeat something and want people to hear it often, it won’t actually have any effect.”
For Mao Zedong,He really can't say anything about it, but when no one repeats his name stylistically in public as before, the feeling of loss in his heart is still inevitable, I believe everyone can understand this. Are they just going to carry out a "non-Stalinization" movement? Or do they really hate themselves? In this regard, according to British writer Wilson, Mao Zedong had been thinking hard for many years and was puzzled.
However, eight years later, in the newly revised "Party Constitution" of the "Ninth National Congress", "Mao Zedong Thought" was once again placed in it. This was a re-selection of history. Until now, Mao Zedong Thought has been increasingly recognized as the guiding ideology of the whole party.
Also at this meeting, Comrade Liu Shaoqi was removed from all positions in the party, and Lin Biao was included in the "Party Constitution" as Mao Zedong's successor.
Liu Shaoqi
"If you don't study for three days, you can't keep up with Liu Shaoqi"
In the 1950s, there was such a story.
Mao Zedong said: will not be able to keep up with Liu Shaoqi without studying for three days. Liu Shaoqi said: can't keep up with Mao Zedong's if he doesn't work in a day. The statement of the two great men is by no means a mutual flattery between individuals, but embodies the spirit of mutual respect and love of the two great men, and the learning spirit of chasing after me with you.
Like Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi has always loved learning since he was a child, holding books all day. Since he is the ninth in the big family, his neighbors call him "Liu Jiu Bookcase" vividly.
As an adult, Liu Shaoqi not only paid more attention to theoretical study, but also paid more attention to learning from practice, emphasizing the combination and unification of the two. He believed that "the Chinese party's repeated failures in the past are all theoretical failures", and the first great revolution and the first The root cause of the five fiascos against "encirclement and suppression" was that the party ignored theoretical studies, blindly copied the Soviet model, ignored the characteristics of the Chinese revolution, turned right and left "left", and acted blindly and brutally in practice.
can be seen from this,Liu Shaoqi is very similar to Mao Zedong in epistemology. This may be the reason why Liu Shaoqi suddenly became the party's number two figure after the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Therefore, since then, between Liu Shaoqi and Mao Zedong, both in terms of study and prestige, they have begun to show a trend of chasing after me.
In January 1962, Mao Zedong made a deep self-criticism at the "7 Thousand People Conference" because of the "Great Leap Forward" issue. At the same time, he was severely criticized by Liu Shaoqi, the host of the meeting.
Liu Shaoqi pointed out that only 30% of the economic difficulties after the "Great Leap Forward" were natural disasters, while 70% were caused by man-made disasters. He also said bluntly: "Many shortcomings and mistakes that have occurred in our work in the past few years have made our entire party The cadres, all party members, and even the vast majority of the people have had personal experience and pains on their skin. I was hungry for two years."
At this time, Mao Zedong seemed to be too enthusiastic and made mistakes. Stupid people were pushed aside, and at exactly this time, "If you don't study for three days, you can't keep up with Liu Shaoqi" became a joke and began to circulate among the cadres.
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong took the initiative and set an example for the whole party
Actually, the comrades of the Politburo had raised their hands on the issue of the "Great Leap Forward", whether they were active or passive. The hand should be responsible, and the responsibility should not be placed on Mao Zedong alone. However, Mao Zedong said that he is the chairman of the party and should bear the main responsibility. That's why he made a deep self-examination at the 7,000-member meeting.
So, for a group of leaders who have just emerged from the class struggle in a newly liberated New China, the development of social economy is indeed a brand new topic for them. They don't have any ready-made experience, so they can only rely on their past experience in carrying out class struggles, crossing the river by feeling the stones, and constantly summing up experience amidst their mistakes.
At the "Congress of Seven Thousand People", Mao Zedong took the initiative to take the responsibility for this historical error, especially when his prestige was supreme, he was able to actively bow his head to admit his mistakes and accept severe criticism from his own subordinates. It is very commendable, and it is worthy of our current leading cadres to study hard.
What do you think about this? Welcome to leave your insights in the comment area!
There have been more than 100 articles on party history and military history before this account, and they are continuously updated. If you like my articles, please follow and read them or review them.
.
