Editor's note: The National Congress of the Party is a landmark event in the development process of the Party. Every Party Congress has profoundly influenced the direction of China. The upcoming 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is a very important congress held by our party to enter the important moment of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way and marching towards the second centenary goal. It is a major event in the political life of the Party and the country. It concerns the carrying forward the past and the future of the cause of the Party and the country, the future and destiny of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China embodies the will of the whole Party and carries the expectations of the people. As the whole party and people of all ethnic groups in the country welcome the 20th National Congress of the Party, the magazine " Rural Youth " opened a column "Party Congresses of the Party" to review the previous National Congress of the Communist Party of China . Let us look back on history through details and look forward to the future.
The Eighth National Congress of the Party is the first National Congress of the Party held after the founding of New China . From the Seventh National Congress to the Eighth National Congress, after more than ten years, the international and domestic situation has undergone fundamental changes. The Party has transformed from a party leading the revolution to a party in power and rule across the country. Eight major should correctly summarize the experience of China's revolution and construction based on the new situation and tasks, formulate the correct line, and make the Party a strong core for leading the socialist cause. This is related to the future and destiny of the Party and the country.
On March 31, 1955, Mao Zedong announced at the closing meeting of the Party’s National Congress that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to convene the Eighth National Congress of the Party in the second half of 1956. He also proposed that before July 1956, "the election of representatives and preparations for documents must be completed." Deng Xiaoping was the Secretary-General of the Party Central Committee at the time and also served as the Minister of the Organization Department of Central Committee. He was responsible for the preparations for the Eighth National Congress together with Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yun and others.
In October 1955, at the expanded Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping, on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, explained the main agenda arrangements, representative election requirements and specific convening time of the Eighth National Congress, and explained the reasons why the Eighth National Congress postponed the convening for many years. Deng Xiaoping knew very well that there were many things to prepare for such an important meeting and a heavy responsibility. In the following year, he continued to preside over the meeting of the Central Secretary-General, assisted Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi and others in handling a large number of daily work of the Central Committee, and also undertaken very heavy preparations for the conference.
Drafting of conference documents
At that time, based on changes in the international and domestic situation, and through the summary of the experiences and lessons of the long-term revolutionary struggle, Mao Zedong formed a series of new important ideas, which were concentrated in Mao Zedong's speech at the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on April 25, 1956 "On the Ten Major Relationships". This speech put forward the task of learning from the Soviet Union's experience and lessons, summarizing China's own experience, and exploring the path of socialist construction in China; establishing the basic policy of mobilizing all positive factors at home and abroad to serve socialism; drawing on the experience and lessons of the Soviet Union, it concentrates on clarifying the ten major relationships that need to be handled in China's economic construction and political, ideological and cultural construction. This became the guiding ideology for the preparations for the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and laid a solid foundation for the successful convening of the Eighth National Congress. In the preparations for
, the first thing to do is to write out a few good files. The revision of the Party Constitution presided over by Deng Xiaoping was the first to be launched. The Party Constitution , which was passed by the Seventh National Congress, has been in full 11 years. The situation of the Party has changed tremendously, and the workload of revising the Party Constitution is particularly difficult and work.
A few days after the end of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Party Constitution Amendment Group took out the first draft of the revision of the Party Constitution, and Deng Xiaoping instructed it to distribute it to the members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee for comments. At the same time, he thought and revised the first draft from the content framework to the textual expression, and added the article "People's Liberation Army Party Organization". After that, under his presidency, he repeatedly solicited opinions from all parties and organized discussions, and revised the draft several times. By May 1956, the fourth draft was formed, and he personally revised it. In mid-to-late May, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held consecutive meetings to carefully discuss the revisions to the Party Constitution. According to the opinions of the meeting, Deng Xiaoping drafted the "Notice on Issuing and Issuing the Revised Draft of the Party Constitution for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the 28th to submit it to all localities and units for discussion."In mid-July, the discussion opinions were reported to the Central Committee one after another. Deng Xiaoping presided over the meeting of the drafting committee and the drafting group meeting, absorbed opinions from all parties, and made further revisions to the manuscript.
According to Li Xuefeng, who was a member of the drafting committee for the revision of the Party Constitution and the amendment of the Party Constitution at that time, recalled: "The nine people who revised the Party Constitution and the amendment of the Party Constitution report were actually the secretary-general of the Party Central Committee. Therefore, in some archives, this committee is also called the Secretary-General Meeting or the amendment of the Party Constitution Group Meeting. The work of this committee was chaired by Comrade Xiaoping. Comrade Xiaoping has always been very strict about the revision of the Party Constitution." "Although the revision of the Party Constitution is very laborious, we have no ideological concerns, speak freely, and the atmosphere is very lively. In general, under the auspices of Comrade Xiaoping, it was relatively smooth." On August 15, 1956, the revision of the Party Constitution was basically finalized. On August 27, after the last collective discussion and revision, Deng Xiaoping submitted the draft report on the amendment of the Party Constitution to Mao Zedong for review. Mao Zedong made some revisions to the report overnight and instructed Deng Xiaoping: "I read this document and think it is generally available. I have made some minor revisions, please make your decision." At this point, the report on the amendment of the Party Constitution was basically finalized.
Deng Xiaoping also participated in the discussion and revision of the eight political reports and the draft of the "Proposal on the Second Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy" and the draft of the "Report on the Recommendation on the Second Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy". During the discussion, Deng Xiaoping proposed: "First mention the general trend and first propose policy opinions. However, some documents, such as the Party Constitution, are difficult to mention the general trend. They must change the word if they want to change it." When the Eighth National Congress was officially held, Mao Zedong delivered an opening speech, Liu Shaoqi delivered a political report on behalf of the Central Committee, Zhou Enlai delivered a "Report on the Second Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy", and Deng Xiaoping made a "Report on the Amendment of the Party Constitution". Deng Xiaoping's report elaborates on the conditions for revising the Party Constitution, including profound changes in the Party's historical tasks and status, the new situations and problems facing the Party, and the ideological style of the Party members and cadres. It is a summary of the historical experience of the Communist Party of China's own construction and a summary of the experience and lessons learned from the International Communist Movement. The series of important thoughts and views he put forward not only had important practical guiding significance at that time, but also had long-term guiding significance for the Party to strengthen its own construction under the conditions of long-term rule.
The organization of the election of the conference and representatives
Deng Xiaoping was responsible for the organization of the election of representatives of the Eighth National Congress, and together with Chen Yun, organized the deliberation and pre-election of candidates for the Eighth Central Committee.
From March to May 1956, Deng Xiaoping presided over a meeting of the Central Secretary-General on many occasions to discuss the election of representatives of the Eighth National Congress. In early May, we received a list of candidates for representatives from the Eight Major General Assembly from all over the country. On May 12, Deng Xiaoping presided over a meeting of the Central Secretary-General to discuss the list reported by various places, and presided over the drafting of the Central Committee's telegrams to the provincial (municipal) committees, the autonomous region party committees and the Tibet Working Committee. After the list of representative candidates from various places was fully prepared and submitted to the plenary meeting of the provincial (municipal) committees and the autonomous region party committees for discussion, together with the list recommended by the central government, the provincial (municipal) and autonomous region party congresses were mentioned to the provincial (municipal) and autonomous region party congresses for approval. It also requires the Party congresses in each region to solemnly review all candidates, and changes should be made to inappropriate candidates. On the 26th, Deng Xiaoping issued 28 urgent telegrams from the Central Committee to the provincial (municipal) committees, the autonomous region party committees, the central government party committees, and the central state organs party committees, put forward specific requirements one by one and made arrangements.
The Eighth National Congress wants to elect a new Central Committee. How to conduct the election needs to be studied and determined before the conference is held. Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun have done a lot of in-depth and meticulous work together to do this.
Li Xuefeng recalled: "The preparations for the entire eight major are both busy and busy, and they pay great attention to promoting democracy, adhering to collective leadership, and taking the mass line. For example, the earliest work in the preparations was to propose the list of candidates for Central Committee members, , which was responsible for Comrade Xiaoping and some old comrades. They first selected the leaders of six major regions and the army. Everyone can mention them casually, and about 400 people were raised, which was relatively comprehensive."Later, after several deliberations and consultations, the list of 170 candidates from the Central Committee was pre-elected within the range of these 400 people.
Deng Xiaoping also undertakes the work of inviting and receiving foreign brotherly party delegations participating in the Eighth National Congress. By mid-August 1956, it was confirmed that more than 300 people from more than 50 countries' brotherly party would be invited to China. Considering that there were Some delegations may visit various places. On August 22, Deng Xiaoping approved the "Instructions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Reception of Brotherly Party Delegations of various countries participating in the Eighth National Congress", requiring: "For all fraternal delegations, whether they are in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, in power, We must oppose the pride, complacency, formalism, and especially the thoughts and expressions of great power . "
The Eighth Congress has had a good influence in the Communist Party and the Workers' Party in various countries around the world. In addition to the correct lines, principles and policies on the construction of socialism in China , and some correct ideological and propositions on international communism recognized by them, the modesty, prudence and equal attitude of treating each party delegation at the meeting was also an important reason.
(Author Zhou Kun, Unit: Third Research Department of the Central Academy of Party History and Literature)
Source: WeChat public account "Secretary Work"
Final review: Lu Tongyi
Review: Yang Ming Liu Zhuying
Editor: Zhang Xiao
