Statutes of the
Red Army Soldiers' Association
(September 25, 1930)
Chapter 1: Purposes

Article 1. Raising the political standards of soldiers, strengthening class consciousness, establishing revolutionary ideas, and increasing capacity for struggle.
Article 2. Uniting the revolutionary spirit of soldiers, uniting the revolutionary forces of workers and peasants, and fulfilling the political tasks of the revolution (overthrowing imperialism, the landlord class and the National Government,
and setting up a government of workers and peasants).
Article 3. Representing the interests of soldiers, improving their livelihood
(such as provisions, hygiene, treatment, and entertainment), and heightening the
revolutionary sentiments of soldiers..
Article 4. Assisting the military and political organs, maintaining revolutionary discipline, expanding the political influence of the Red Army, and winning
over the broad masses.

Chapter 2: Functions and Rights

Article 5. The soldiers' association conducts its work under the guidance of
the political departments and political committees.
Article 6. Regarding all military and political questions, the soldiers' association may put forward its opinions to military and political organs.
Article 7. When the management of the troops is considered inappropriate,
the soldiers' association has the right to put forward protests or complaints to
superior organs.
Article 8. The soldiers' association has the right to inspect the economy of
the army and supervise the provisioning of the army (i.e., examining expenditures and revenues and catering accounts).
Article 9. As regards punishment of its members, the soldiers' association has
the right only to give warnings and to expel them from the association directly.

Chapter 3: Organization

Article 11. The soldiers' association is a mass organization of soldiers, so its
organization should be based on the criterion of the conditions of the masses.
The political department of the Red Army is the organ of political power in the
army. All the units above the division or column level have political departments. Therefore, the committee of the soldiers' association should not be set up
in the units above divisions and columns. Organizations of the soldier masses
should be established in all units below the level of regiment. Various levels of
directly attached army units may also organize soldiers' associations. The
soldiers' associations of regiments are subordinate to the political departments of
their respective armies and divisions. The soldiers' associations of the directly
attached army units at all levels should be under the direct guidance of the
respective political departments.
Article 12. All Red Army officers, noncommissioned officers, soldiers, and
laborers may become members of the soldiers' committee.
Article 13. All Red Army officers, noncommissioned officers, soldiers, and
laborers have the right to elect and to be elected, but the number of officers
elected should not exceed one-third of the committee members.
Article 14. The methods of forming the executive committee of the soldiers'
committee at all levels:
1) The executive committees at the company level should be composed of seven to nine persons elected by the general meetings of all the
soldiers of the respective companies. The executive committee should
elect three persons to form a standing committee and recommend one
person among them to be the chairman. All military and political administrations have the discretion to increase or decrease the number of those
elected.
2) The executive committees of the soldiers' associations at the regiment and battalion level should be composed of nine to eleven persons
elected by the representative conferences of the entire regiments or battalions. The executive committee should elect three to five persons to
form a standing committee and recommend one person among them to be
the chairman. (The same applies to the attached units.) The number of
representatives is determined by the number of people in each company,
with one representative being elected from among every five or ten persons.

--- Notes

Our source for this document is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 3, pp. 145-51, where the text
is reproduced from a documentary collection published in China in 1979.
When it comes to imprisonment, [X] punishment,¹ execution by firing squad, and
so on, it may only make proposals to the responsible officers for them to handle.
Article 10. The soldiers' association has the right to select and send representatives to participate in the soviet organization.


1. The missing word is presumably "corporal."