Opening Speech at the Conference of
Responsible Officials from Eight Xian
Regarding the Land Investigation Movement
(June 17, 1933)
It has been more than a month since the Council of People's Commissars decided
to convene the meeting on the Land Investigation Movement among the leaders at
and above the level of district in eight xian. Since then, abundant preparations have
taken place, and the meeting formally started on the seventeenth of this month.
At 9:00 in the morning, more than four hundred soviet cadres squeezed into
the meeting hall (the big auditorium of the Central Government) after a burst
of clear and melodious bell ringing. Ah, what a magnificent hall! Embroidered
silk banners and flags were hanging all around the meeting hall, and the walls
were almost covered by the bright red posters. Long benches were arranged in
well laid out rows. In front of the benches, there was the magnificent rostrum.
After the meeting was declared open, the vigorous sound of the "Internationale" began to resound in the hall. Then, everyone rose and stood in silence for
three minutes, paying their sorrowful but solemn tribute to those heroic Red
soldiers who have already left us. At the same time, the election of the presidium took place. The result was the unanimous election of eleven people-Mao
Zedong, Liang Botai, Deng Fa, Hu Hai, Gao Zili, A Jin, Liu Jusheng, Hu
Jiajun, Qiu Shigui, Yang Shizhu, and Guan Jiming to the presidium.¹
Our source for this document is the report published in Hongse Zhonghua, no. 87, June 20,
1933. As usual, the newspaper's introduction and conclusion to Mao's remarks are set in
smaller type.
1. Liang Botai (1899-1935), a native of Xinchang in Zhejiang, joined the Party in late
1922 while in the Soviet Union, where he remained until 1931. In 1932 he was acting
editor-in-chief of Red China; in 1933 he was acting Commissar for Justice.
Hu Hai (1901-1935), a native of Ji'an in Jiangxi, joined the Party in 1927; thereafter he
served as a local cadre in the Donggu base, as a cadre on the Jiangxi Provincial Soviet,
member of the Central Executive Committee and, by early 1933, acting Land Commissar.
Gao Zili (1900-1950), a native of Pingxiang in Jiangxi, joined the Party in 1926. In
the late 1920s and early 1930s he served as political commissar in several Red armies; in
1933 he was head of the Rear Office of the Revolutionary Military Affairs Commission.
A Jin probably refers to Chen Ajin (1898-1934), a native of Jiangsu, who joined the
Party in 1926. After three years in the Soviet Union, he returned to China in 1930 and
engaged in political work in the Red Army. At this time, he was political commissar of the
Sixth Division of the Third Army Group. He was killed in combat in August 1934.
Biographical information about Liu Jusheng and Hu Jiajun has not been located.
Qiu Shigui (1902-1987), a native of Ruijin in Jiangxi, joined the Party in 1930; in 1933
he was chairman of the Wuyang District Soviet in Ruijin.
Yang Shizhu (1905-1982), a native of Ruijin in Jiangxi, joined the Party in 1931; in
1933 he was chairman of the Ruijin xian soviet government.
Biographical information about Guan Jiming has not been located.


As the thunderous noise that had greeted the election of the presidium
began to die out, everyone listened attentively to the speeches from the rostrum which had just begun. Comrade Kai Feng, the delegate from the Central
Bureau of the Chinese Communist Youth League,² took the floor first. In his
speech, he started by recounting the victory of land reform. Then he pointed
out that the landlords and rich peasants were striving by every means to steal
the fruits of the land reform. Finally, he pointed out the tasks of the Land
Investigation Movement: (1) Confiscate completely the land of the landlords
and rich peasants, and distribute only poor land to the rich peasants. (2) Develop production in the Soviet Region during the Land Investigation Movement. His speech ended amid a round of loud applause.

After that, Chairman Mao, the representative of the Central Government, rose
to speak. The major idea of his address was to the effect that although, within a
broad area, land distribution had already shown considerable achievements, there
were still many places where the issue was far from thoroughly resolved. As
regards the Central Soviet Area, the issue had still not been thoroughly resolved
in four-fifths of its total area. For example, in No. 4 Township of Yunji District,
since the beginning of the Land Investigation Movement this February, another
twenty-seven landlords and rich peasants, along with more than 1,000 *Dan* of
grain, had been found. Out of the fifteen districts in Ruijin *xian*, the chairmen of
the soviets in eleven districts did not have good class status. Among them, seven
or eight were either landlords or rich peasants. Last year, more than 10,000 *Dan*
of grain were found in Changting *xian*, while more than fifty guns were found in
Luokou District, Huichang *xian*. All this proved that the class struggle in the
countryside has not gone deep enough. Naturally, therefore, it was almost impossible for us to achieve very good success in our various kinds of work.
The primary significance of this meeting lay in the fact that the Central
Government expected the responsible leaders of the soviets at all levels to
pay special attention to this problem in the days to come, mobilizing the
broad masses of farm laborers, poor peasants, and middle peasants to enter
deeply into the Land Investigation Movement and to overthrow the landlords
and rich peasants once and for all.

When Chairman Mao's speech was over, delegates from the Executive
Bureau of the National Labor Union, the People's Commissariat for the Land,
the State Political Security Bureau, the People's Commissariat of the Worker-
Peasant Procuratorate, the Military Committee, and Wuyang District Soviet
spoke, one after the other, on the Land Investigation Movement from the
different perspectives of their own units. What was particularly important is
that the delegate from the State Political Security Bureau emphasized the
following four points, which deserve our special attention during the move-

2. The Chinese reads *Zhong shao gong*, which is a shortened version of "Chinese
Young Communist Party." This term was commonly used at the time to designate the
Communist Youth League.

ment: (1) Get rid of bureaucratism and commandism in the Land Investigation
Movement. (2) Class investigation is inseparable from land investigation in
this movement. (3) Oppose all compromise with the landlords and rich peasants. (4) Pay attention to searching for counterrevolutionaries during the movement. It was already noon when the delegates from all the departments
finished their speeches. Once the agenda and the regulations for the meeting
had been adopted, the opening ceremony of the meeting came to an end.
As there were too many people present at the meeting, it was often very
difficult to discuss questions during the meeting. Consequently, the meeting
did not continue in plenary session in the afternoon. Instead, all the soviet
leaders at and above the district level present at the meeting in the morning
were divided into two groups, conducting their discussions separately. As for
the division into small groups, it took place according to the division of responsibility of each department within a xian; for instance, all the directors of
the departments of the worker-peasant procuratorate in Shicheng xian belonged to the same group, while all the chairmen, all the directors of the land
departments, and all the special agents of the security bureaus formed groups
in a similar way. Thus, there were four groups per xian, making a total of
thirty-two groups for eight xian. Each group discussion was led by someone
from the steering committee. There were four steering committees in all,
namely, the Steering Committee for Chairmen, the Steering Committee for the
Worker-Peasant Procuratorate, the Steering Committee for the Land, and the
Steering Committee for Political Security. All these committees are under the
leadership of the presidium. Every morning and evening, members of these
committees meet together, reporting the details of the group discussions they
have attended and discussing ways of providing guidance. This is what happened on the first day of the meeting.