Some Points for Attention in Commemorating
the Paris Commune
(March 18, 1926)

Today, for the first time, the Chinese popular masses are commemorating the
Paris Commune.1 It is now already fifty-five years since the event known as the
Paris Commune took place, so why is it only now that we know we should
commemorate it and are carrying out this commemoration? Because previously
the Chinese revolution was the undertaking of a minority, and only now that the
tide of revolution is rising ever higher has the revolutionary movement been
broadened from a minority of people to the majority of the people. Now a
majority of the popular masses of peasants and workers are already participating in
it, and it is moreover led by Guomindang members of the left. There is the state of
the workers' dictatorship, Soviet Russia, to serve as a model. For all of these reasons,
the Chinese popular masses have only now become aware of today's date for commemoration and are only now able to carry out today's commemoration.

As regards the unfolding of the Paris Commune, the newspapers have all
carried reports during the last few days, and the book called *New Perspectives on
Society*2 contains a brief account. I think all the comrades have read this, so there
is no need for me to speak about it at length. Now I will limit myself to a few
remarks on the deep significance of commemorating the Paris Commune.

The Paris Commune was the first revolutionary movement in which, on
March 18, 1871, the working class of Paris rose up. That was during the Tenth Year
of the Tongzhi reign of the former Qing dynasty, exactly fifty-five years ago today.
We must ask ourselves why such a movement did not break out a hundred years ago,
but did occur fifty-five years ago. We know that, whenever any kind of movement
breaks out, it does not occur without reason or cause; the objective conditions must
exist. We note that the Paris Commune was thirty years after the Opium War in
China, and during these thirty years the "Treaty of Nanjing," the "Treaty of Tianjin,"

This speech by Mao was published in the organ of the Guomindang Political Training
Group, *Zhongguo Guomindang zhengzhi jiangxiban xunkan,* No. 2, March 31, 1926. We
have translated it from this text as reproduced in *Mao Zedong wenji,* Vol. I, pp. 33-36.

the "Treaty of Beijing," and so on were concluded.3 This suffices to demonstrate
that the European countries already had the capacity to progress forcefully toward
the East, that from capitalism they had already progressed to imperialism, that
within those countries a mighty working class had already been formed. Only thus
could such a powerful working-class revolutionary movement appear. This is the
first point to which we should pay attention.

Marx says that international wars, in which the capitalists strive with one
another for their own interests, are meaningless. Only class wars within a country can liberate humanity. The Great War in Europe, which broke out in the third
year of the Chinese Republic, brought about the loss of many lives and the
wasteful expenditure of incalculable sums, but what was the result? The revolution of the Russian workers, who rose up in the sixth year of the Chinese
Republic, overthrew the state of the capitalists, successfully established the dictatorship of the toilers, and opened a new, bright road in the world. Is its value
not inestimable? The Russian October Revolution and the Paris Commune are
acts in which the working class, by its own strength, has pursued the true equality and liberty of humanity. Their significance is similar; they differ only as
regards victory and defeat. We can say, therefore, that the Paris Commune saw
the opening of a bright flower, while the Russian Revolution represents the
happy fruit—the Russian Revolution is the continuation of the Paris Commune.
At present, all the propaganda of the capitalists says: "Foreign wars are advantageous, civil wars are not." We must go further and say: "The international wars
in which the capitalists contend for their own interests are meaningless; only
international wars in which capitalism is overthrown are significant. Internal
wars in which the warlords contend for power and advantage are valueless; only
civil wars in which the oppressed classes rise up and overthrow the classes of the
oppressors are of value." All the Etatistes keep preaching their slogan "sacrifice
for the fatherland is most glorious." These are the words by which the capitalists
trick people, and we must on no account allow them to make fools of us! This is
the second point to which we must pay attention.

At present, there are a considerable number of people within the country who
doubt or oppose class struggle. This is because they do not understand the
history of human development. Marx says: "The history of humanity is a history
of class struggle." This is a fact, and cannot be denied. The progress of the
human race from primitive society to patriarchal society, feudal society, and
finally to the present-day state has in all cases taken place through an evolution
marked by class struggle between the ruling class and the class of those who are
ruled. The Paris Commune was the first political and economic revolution in which the working class arose to overthrow the ruling class. In the past, in
reading Chinese history, we did not pay attention to the reality of class struggle.
In fact, how can we say that the four thousand years of Chinese history are not a
history of class struggle? For example, in the time of the second Qin emperor,
those who arose and made revolution, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, were peasants. Han Gaozu⁴ was a vagabond [liumang]; that was also a revolution in which
the proletariat overthrew the aristocracy. In a peasant society, however, after the
success of the revolution, they in turn acted as emperors, and themselves became
aristocrats. The Taiping King, Hong Xiuquan, called on a broad group of unemployed peasants to rise up and make revolution, and this had great significance as
a social revolution. Director General Sun also had great admiration for him.
Everyone knows that the Qing dynasty overthrew him, but they don't know that
the main military force which really overthrew him represented the landlord
class. The one who contributed the greatest effort toward the overthrow of the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was Zeng Guofan. At that time, he was the leader of
the landlord class. Zeng Guofan originally rose by training the tuanlian.5 The
tuanlian were the military force of the landlords for oppressing the peasants.
When they saw Hong Xiuquan leading a peasant revolution that was not in their
interests, they put forth the greatest efforts to overthrow him. Thus, the affair of
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was not a war between the Manchus and the
Hans, but was actually a class war between the peasants and the landlords.6 This
is the third point to which we should pay attention.

The Paris Commune existed for only seventy-two days. How did it come to
fail in such a short time? There are two main causes: (1) There was no united,
centralized, and disciplined party to lead it—if we want the revolution to succeed, we must concentrate our forces and unify our actions, so we must rely on a
unified and disciplined party to give the orders. At the time of the Paris Commune, because there was no unified political party, opinions within [the Commune] were divided, and forces were scattered. This gave an opportunity to the
enemy and was the primary cause of defeat. (2) The attitude toward the enemy
was too conciliatory and too merciful—to be merciful toward the enemy is to be
cruel to our comrades. The success of the Russian October Revolution of 1917,
the overthrow of Yang and Liu,7 and the liquidation of the counterrevolutionary

---

Notes

1. This is the text of a lecture in commemoration of the 55th anniversary of the Paris
Commune given by Mao to the Guomindang Political Training Group. (This unit had been
established on February 28, 1926; Mao had delivered the address at the opening ceremony.)
2. *Xin shehui guan,* a translation of a work by one Guofanlunke (as yet unidentified),
had been published in Chinese in June 1925.
3. The Treaty of Nanking of 1842, following the Opium Wars, opened the first five
"treaty ports" to the Europeans. The Treaty of Tianjin of 1858, confirmed and extended by
the Convention of Beijing of 1860, laid the foundations for the system of extraterritoriality
and foreign concessions which lasted until 1949.
4. The founding emperor of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang.
5. The tuanlian (literally "grouping and drilling") were the officially sanctioned local
militia in the mid-nineteenth century.
6. A decade earlier, Mao's attitude toward both Zeng Guofan and the Taipings had
been very different. See Volume I of this edition, passim, and especially p. 131, the letter
of August 1917 in which Mao stated that Zeng's handling of the campaign in which he
disposed of Hong Xiuquan was "perfectly flawless."
7. On the action against Yang Ximin and Liu Zhenhuan in June 1925, see above, the
relevant note to the "Announcement to All [Guomindang] Party Members" of December
4, 1925.