On the Problem of Continuing the Reform of
Local Soviet Governments
Directive No. 15 of the Central Executive Committee
(September 20, 1932)
During the present rapid development of the revolutionary war, the central task
of the soviets is to lead and advance the revolutionary war. All our tasks should
be centered on the war. A fundamental condition for winning complete victory in
the war is to sacrifice everything for the sake of complete victory and of perfect·
ing and consolidating the leadership of the soviets. Although local soviets have
already undergone thorough reform and have gained partial progress in their
work, the weakness and numerous mistakes of local soviets have been discovered in the fulfillment of their central task of leading and developing the revolutionary war, the leadership of local soviets. First, they fail to regard the war as
the central task. As a result, many local soviets do not actively pursue the
expansion of the Red Army and do not actively mobilize the masses to go to the
front to participate in the war. Some local soviets fail to lead local armed forces
in launching determined attacks against the enemy. For example, the revolutionary committee of Longyan and the xian soviet of Changting not only failed to
lead the masses to wage a resolute struggle against the enemy, but retreated in
cowardly fashion and ran away, causing the soviet areas considerable losses.
They failed to pay attention to the political leadership of guerrilla forces and
created serious problems of conflicts between the Red and White areas. They
even failed to make a determined effort to expand the soviet areas and consolidate new soviet areas. These facts fully demonstrate that some local soviets are
flawed and fail to carry out their tasks resolutely. This is of enormous danger to
the development and victory of the revolutionary war!
From the perspective of our soviet governments themselves, some of them
still have class-alien elements hidden within and, in some of their work, have
fully demonstrated a non-class line. This non-class line often reveals itself on the
land issue and the question of labor protection. The phenomenon of official
corruption is growing within some local soviet governments. The problem of
Text first published in Hongse zhonghua, no. 35, September 27, 1932. We
have translated it from Mao Zedongji, Vol. 3, pp. 131-33, where it is reproduced from
that source.

embezzlement is still very serious. The work style of the government is often
isolated from the masses. The command style is widely used to force the masses
to do things. The rules on favorable treatment for the Red Army have not been
fully applied, and this obstructs the work of expanding the Red Army. Women's
rights have been neglected; the marriage laws have not been concretely enforced,
thereby hindering women from taking part in the work of the revolution. Local
governments treat the orders of superior governments with neglect and a perfunctory attitude. The regular meetings of city and township soviets have yet to
be institutionalized. Some township soviets even shut their doors and remain
completely idle. Most of the work has only empty titles but no substance. Such
serious problems and mistakes indicate that local soviets are flawed and cannot
effectively fulfill the task of leading the revolutionary war.
In order to strengthen the Soviet Government's leadership of the revolutionary war and eliminate all the mistakes and flaws in the work of the soviets, it is
therefore decided that local soviet governments should continue to undergo reelection and reform. All elements that do not belong to our class and all elements
who are negligent about the work of the revolutionary war are to be purged
through reelections. Corrupt officials and bureaucrats are to be purged as well.
New activist cadres are to be recruited to form strong and effective soviet governments, which will genuinely perform the task of leading the revolutionary
war.
In terms of the procedure for this election, governments at all levels in the
soviet areas in Fujian and Jiangxi provinces will not conduct reelections at the
same time. Instead, reelections will be held individually at the xian level. This is
because the present period is one of rapid development of the revolution. If
reelections were to be held at the same time in all areas, the governments in these
areas would have devoted all their energies to the work of reelection, which
would halt the work of leading and developing the revolutionary war, to the
detriment of the revolutionary war. But the main criterion of reelection should be
performance of the government at a given level in leading the revolutionary war;
this criterion decides whether the reelection is to be partial or complete. Here are
the names of the xian that are to hold partial or complete reelections:
I. Xian to hold complete reelections: in Jiangxi Province, Nanguang,
Shicheng, Huichang. Xunwu, Anyuan, Yudu, and Yongfeng xian; in Fujian
Province, Changting, Ninghua, Xinquan, and Wuping xian. In Longyan, the xian
soviet government is to be formally established.
2. Xian to hold partial reelections: in Jiangxi Province, Xingguo, Shengli,
Ningdu, Gonglue, Ganxian, Le'an, and Wantai xian; in Fujian, Yongding and
Shanghang xian, and Ruijin xian, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the
Central Government.
In this reelection, the development of the revolutionary war should be used to
mobilize the masses to participate in the reelection campaign and review and
criticize the work of the soviets. This reelection campaign should be used as a

real campaign to mobilize the masses to expand the Red Army and join the work
at the front. Corrections should be made to the previous election campaigns that
were peaceful reelections and irrelevant to the war.
In this reelection, governments at all levels should pay special attention to
recruiting activists among workers to participate in the xian congress of deputies
and executive committees of districts and xian, in order to enhance the presence
of workers in the soviets at all levels.
Soviet governments at all levels, after receiving these instructions, should
immediately make preparations for reelection. The deadline for reelections is to
be set by the provincial soviets of Jiangxi and Fujian, and by the xian soviet of
Ruijin. The procedures for reelection remain the same as specified in the election
laws. It is so ordered.
To soviet governments at all levels.
Chairman
Mao Zedong
Vice-Chairmen
Xiang Ying
Zhang Guotao