Speech at the First Meeting of the Soviet Central Executive Committee
(November 27, 1931)

Comrades! Today, the Central Executive Committee has appointed the members of the Central People’s Commissariats, that is, the heads of each department. After the meeting, everyone will proceed to take up their posts and exercise their rights on behalf of the people. With the gun barrel we have fought out a Soviet Republic. Although this newborn state of ours is still very immature, like a little bird whose feathers are not yet fully grown, a sparrow, though small, has all its vital organs, and every commissariat and ministry that should be there is there. Comrades, in the past we grasped the hoe handle and shouldered the gun barrel; today we are to grasp the seal of office. In the past we only knew how to till the fields and do manual work, and later we learned how to fight battles. Now a new task is laid out before us: we must also learn the art of governing the country and bringing peace to the people, and we must learn the skills of building up the nation. Our current central government is still provisional; we have not even had time to formulate a national anthem, a national flag, or a national emblem. This does not matter. The child has already been born—why fear that we cannot come up with a name? If we have no national anthem, we shall sing *The Internationale*; if we have no national flag, we shall temporarily fly the military flag of the Red Army.

Comrades, nothing has ever been able to baffle the Communists. The Kuomintang now daily clamors for “encirclement and suppression” and wants to wipe us out. When we grow strong in the future, we shall set out from our rural base areas to encircle the cities, to overthrow the Kuomintang’s rule across the whole country, and to drive the imperialists out of China. By then, our central government will have become a formal government, and our country will be a completely unified country—no longer a little bird, but a great roc, spreading its wings and soaring high, with a bright future stretching thousands of miles, a mighty nation standing tall and proud among the peoples of the world!

Speech at the First Meeting of the Soviet Central Executive Committee

Comrades, the congress has elected me Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and Chairman of the Central People’s Committee. I have no other special abilities, but I have one thing: I guarantee that I will work earnestly and conscientiously together with you, comrades, and wholeheartedly seek benefits for the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers. I also hope that all comrades will unite as one and work diligently to push forward the cause of our Soviet!

On November 27, 1931, the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic held its first meeting. The person standing in the picture is Mao Zedong. At this meeting, Mao Zedong was elected Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chairman of the People’s Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic.