All past experience proves that only by correctly resolving the land question and only by raising the flames of rural class struggle to their highest intensity under resolute class slogans can the broad peasant masses be mobilized to rise up, under the leadership of the proletariat, to participate in all aspects of Soviet construction, establish consolidated revolutionary base areas, and enable the Soviet movement to gain greater strength and strive for greater development and victory.

Based on the experience of the development of the agrarian revolution, the development of class struggle in the countryside proceeds through roughly defined stages, namely: (1) the stage of confiscating and distributing land, (2) the stage of inspecting land, and (3) the stage of land construction. In accordance with these three developmental stages of the land struggle, within any Soviet area there generally exist three types of regions: (1) newly developed regions, (2) regions where the struggle is relatively backward, and (3) regions where the struggle has deepened.

In newly developed regions, the development of the land struggle is still at the stage of confiscating and distributing land. The central issue here is to overthrow the political power of the landlord class by armed force, establish revolutionary mass organizations, confiscate the land and property of the landlord class and the land of the rich peasants, distribute land to hired peasants, poor peasants, middle peasants, and others, abolish debts, and burn title deeds and loan contracts. The struggle in this stage encompasses the entire period from the initial engagement between revolution and counterrevolution in these regions to the point where the revolution defeats the counterrevolution and proceeds to dispose of their land and property.

In regions where the struggle has deepened, consolidated Soviet political power has already been established, local armed forces and revolutionary mass organizations have developed extensively, the feudal and semi-feudal forces of the landlords and rich peasants have been completely overcome, land has been thoroughly distributed, and the struggle of the peasant masses on the land question has advanced to the stage of improving the land and developing land production. Therefore, the central issue here is the question of land construction.

In regions where the struggle is relatively backward, the stage of development lies between the two stages mentioned above, that is, the period of transition from a provisional government to a formal political power, but not yet to the period of complete consolidation of political power. Here, the open counterrevolutionary struggle of the landlords and rich peasants has already been defeated by the revolutionary masses in the first period. Many elements among them, from that time onward, have changed their appearance, removed their counterrevolutionary masks, put on revolutionary masks, and also approved of land distribution, claiming to be impoverished peasants entitled to land according to the rules. They actively maneuver, relying on their historical advantages—"they are good at talking, and they are good at writing"—and thus, in the first period, they seize the opportunity to steal the fruits of the agrarian revolution. Countless local facts prove that they manipulate provisional political power, infiltrate local armed forces, and control revolutionary organizations, sometimes obtaining more and better land than the poor peasants. When the second period arrives, due to the supervision of higher-level governments and the development of mass struggle, the revolutionary committees are transformed into Soviets, and the mass organizations and local armed forces undergo an initial round of reform and development. Some of those elements pretending to be revolutionary are partially purged. In many places, land undergoes a second distribution, even a third or fourth distribution, and part of the land stolen by landlords and rich peasants is cleared away. However, within the Soviets, mass organizations, and local armed forces, many class-alien elements still hide, there "wearing red ribbons and calling themselves comrades," spreading rumors, holding secret meetings, denouncing the masses as "left opportunists," "indiscriminately attacking local tyrants," or "using public means to settle private grudges." Or they "speak with vigor at meetings but do nothing after the meetings adjourn." When the struggle intensifies, they organize counterrevolutionary secret societies, such as the Kuomintang, the Social Democratic Party, the AB Corps, the new "Communist Party," and various other groups, to sabotage the revolution and harm revolutionary activists. In short, the landlord and rich peasant classes use every method to suppress the mass struggle, attempting to preserve their power in political authority and their rights over land and property, and to maintain their residual feudal forces. In these regions, a serious struggle is underway between the revolutionary masses and the landlords and rich peasants, but the struggle here is not like the open struggle between the red flag and the white flag in the first period; rather, it is a struggle between the revolutionary peasant masses and the disguised elements of the landlord and rich peasant classes. This struggle has a particular difficulty, namely that hidden counterrevolutionaries are not like open counterrevolutionaries, whom the peasant masses can see clearly at a glance. Added to this are various deep-rooted feudal relationships in the countryside, such as clan relations. It is no easy matter to raise the class consciousness of the peasant masses to the point where they generally recognize the need to finally eliminate feudal remnants. This requires the Communist Party and the Soviet government to patiently explain to the peasants, to undertake much arduous work, and to have a correct class line and methods of mass work. The central issue here is the question of investigating land and investigating class status. If this question is not resolved, the revolutionary spirit of the peasant masses cannot be developed to the maximum extent, the residual feudal forces cannot be completely overthrown, the Soviets cannot achieve maximum consolidation, and major tasks such as expanding the Red Army, raising funds to supply the Red Army, expanding local armed forces, carrying out land construction and economic construction, and developing culture and education cannot achieve the greatest success. Therefore, the land investigation movement is the most central and most critical task in these regions.

Taking the Central Soviet Area as an example, these regions where the struggle is relatively backward constitute the greater part of the entire Soviet area: the thirteen counties of Huichang, Xunwu, Anyuan, Xinfeng, Le’an, Yihuang, Guangchang, Shicheng, Jianning, Lichuan, Ninghua, Changting, and Wuping; the greater parts of Ruijin, Yudu, Bosheng, Shengli, and Yongfeng; parts of Gonglüe, Wantai, Ganxian, Shanghang, Yongding, and Xinquan; and even in Xingguo there are still the two districts of Juncun and Huangtang. All these are places where the land question has not been thoroughly resolved.

In these places, the peasant masses have not yet been mobilized on the broadest scale, the feudal forces have not yet been finally overcome, and within the Soviet political power, mass organizations, and local armed forces, there are still not a few class-alien elements hiding and operating in secret, and there are still many counterrevolutionary secret organizations carrying out covert activities everywhere to sabotage the revolution. For these reasons, war mobilization and economic construction in these places lag far behind the advanced regions (nearly the entire county of Xingguo; parts of Shengli, Ganxian, Wantai, Gonglüe, Yongfeng, and Shanghang; the Huangpi District of Bosheng; the Wuyang District of Ruijin; the Xinpi District of Yudu; the Xinan District of Yongding; and others). Such places actually cover nearly eighty percent of the area of the Central Soviet Area, with a population of over two million. To carry out a widespread and thorough land investigation movement in this vast region, to ignite the highest flames of class struggle among the masses of over two million, to wage a final war against the feudal forces and completely overthrow them—this is a task that the Communist Party and the Soviet government cannot afford to delay for a single moment.