WORK REPORT OF THE PROVISIONAL CENTRAL GOVERNMENT OF THE CHINESE SOVIET
REPUBLIC TO THE ELECTORATE ON THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT

24 October 1933

[Text]  Comrades of the Electorate!

Today is the second anniversary of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic since its establishment.  Last year this day we delivered a simple work report to you comrades.  On this second anniversary we ought to report briefly to you on the process of work in the past year.  We hope to receive your views about our work in the past and your suggestions regarding administrative guidelines for the future.

Comrades, under the correct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and with the initiative of the broad masses of workers, peasants and toiling people as well as the courageous struggle of the worker-peasant Red Army, the Provisional Central Government is moving forward victorious on all fronts.  The situation today is vastly different from that of a year ago.  Below we discuss these developments separately:

I.  Victory in the Revolutionary War and Expansion and Strengthening of the Red Army

In the past year the central task in the revolutionary war was the smashing of the four "encirclements and suppression" of the enemy.  This war resulted in our complete victory in the various soviet areas throughout the country.  According to incomplete statistics, during the past year upward of 100,000 troops of the White army were liquidated and an equal number of rifles were seized.  Statistics for the period from January to June show that altogether 41 regiments, 4 battalions and 10 companies of the White army were wiped out; 8 divisions, 33 regiments, 19 battalions and 9 companies were routed; over 30,000 rifles and 1,000 machine guns and automatic rifles were captured; 20 divisional, brigade and regimental commanders were taken prisoner; 2 divisional commanders were killed, and innumerable commanders from brigade commanders down were either killed or wounded.

Because of our magnificent victories, the rule of the imperialist Kuomintang began wavering to a considerable degree.  They had to organize five "encirclement and suppression" campaigns to make desperate attacks against us.  We, relying on the Party's line on attack and on the bravery of the Red Army and constant support of the worker-peasant masses in both soviet and White areas, dealt a telling blow to the enemy right from the beginning in all five of their "encirclement and suppression" campaigns.  In the battles of Lien-ch'ang, Tung-k'ou, Lo-chiang and more recently Li-ch'uan we won a victory and seized over 4,000 rifles.  In the past year, due to the fact that the worker-peasant masses courageously came forward to join the Red Army, the Red Army has grown to twice its size of last year, and fighting heroically in many a bloody battle it has forged itself into a strong and invincible revolutionary army of iron.  The Red Guards, Young Pioneers and guerrilla units in various places have also been strengthened.  Under the leadership of the Soviet government, the worker-peasant masses and the Red Army have smashed the enemy's "encirclement and suppression" campaigns with revolutionary war.  This is the core of our revolutionary tasks.  Therefore, all our work and our livelihood are, therefore, subordinate to the revolutionary war.  To strive for victory in the war is the primary duty of every worker or peasant comrade in the soviet areas.

II.  Sharp Expansion and Further Consolidation of the Soviet Areas

Since last year the Northeast Region of the Central Soviet Area has sovietized the six counties of Chien-ning, T'ai-ning, Li-ch'uan, Kuang-tse, Tsu-ch'i and Ch'ung-an to form an area contiguous to the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi Soviet Area and there the new Fukien-Kiangsi Province has been established.  The recent victory scored by the East Region Army has placed a large area from the border between Lung-yen and Hsin-ch'uan in Fukien Province through Lien-ch'eng, Ch'ing-liu and Ning-hua to the vicinity of Yen-p'ing in northern Fukien within the territorial limits of the Soviet.  In the course of smashing the enemy's fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, Kiangsi Province added portions of territory, totaling several hundred square li in area, to each of the six counties of Nan-feng, Yuan-shan, Ch'ung-jen, Lo-an, Yang-feng and Hsin-kan.  As to soviet territory beyond the Central Soviet Area, such as the Fukien-Chekiang-Kiangsi, Hunan-Kiangsi, Hunan-Hupeh-Kiangsi, Hunan-Western Hupeh and Hupeh-Honan-Anhwei soviet areas, although there were small portions of territory which were temporarily occupied by the enemy, some were recovered shortly after, and some even made new progress.  Making especially rapid progress on a broad front was the newly created soviet area in the northern part of Szechwan Province.  Owing to the heroic struggles of the Red Fourth Front Army there, in less than a year they have sovietized more than 10 counties and called on the worker-peasant toiling masses and soldiers of the White army in the entire province of Szechwan to lean toward soviet revolution.  Elsewhere, in the provinces of Shensi, Honan, Hopeh, Kiangsu, Kwantung and Kwangsi, there are in existence either a soviet area or a guerrilla area of ours.  In the Northeast Provinces, the broad masses of anti-Japanese volunteer army forces are continuing to fight stubbornly against Japanese imperialism.

The soviet areas have not only grown, but also have been more consolidated.  For example, previous manifestations of shoddy implementation of the class line have, by and large, been rectified.  As a result of the realistic implementation of the Labor Law and promulgation of a new Labor Law, the economic life of the worker masses has been improved still more, the enthusiasm of the workers in participating in the revolutionary war and soviet construction has been raised further and the class unions of the workers have been organized widely and have grown and progressed.  The extensive unfolding of the inspection of fields campaign has dealt the greatest blow to remnant feudalist influences in the soviet areas, heightened to an enormous degree the revolutionary potentialities of the toiling masses in rural areas and promoted poor peasants' groups far and wide.  By relying on the development of the initiation of the worker-peasant masses, we have attracted a great number of new worker-peasant cadres to participating in soviet work and got rid of many of the bad elements hidden in the soviets.  The leadership style and working style in the soviets have been improved further and the soviets are now linked even more closely with the masses.  This year the administrative areas of a soviet has been reduced in size.  This move enables the soviet to come even closer in the system to the masses.  In the light of experience gained in past soviet election campaigns and soviet work, the Central Government promulgated a new Election Law and Organic Law of Local Soviets, making it possible for this year's election campaign to be unfolded even more correctly and for local soviets to be organized even better.  All this has made the soviet a government in which the masses truly manage their own affairs.  It has made this government meet the needs of the revolutionary war to become an organizer as well as a leader of the revolutionary war.

Because of splendid victories of the Red Army and the development and consolidation of the soviet areas, on the one hand, and, on the other, the total capitulation of the Kuomintang government to imperialism as a result of the occupation of the Northeast Provinces, Jehol Province and North China by Japanese imperialism and the economic catastrophe in the Kuomintang areas, the broad masses of workers, peasants and toiling people, revolutionary soldiers and revolutionary students in the Kuomintang areas have been aroused and oppose as one Japanese imperialism and the imperialists, the Kuomintang government and landlordism and capitalism.  Revolutionary struggles are unfolding in vast areas throughout the country.  The exploited and oppressed masses in the whole of China enthusiastically support the Soviet and the Red Army because the Soviet and the Red Army are the only government and military forces fighting for national freedom and independence and only the Soviet and the Red Army can save China.

III.  Soviet Economic Construction and Cultural Construction

The bitter and protracted civil war demands that the Soviet pay maximum attention to undertakings for the development of the economy.  Concerning work in this respect, the Soviet is making great efforts to carry it out.  Here the primary task is to develop agricultural production.  Thanks to the correct leadership of the Soviet and the heightening of the enthusiasm of

the broad masses of toiling people during spring cultivation and summer cultivation, the autumn harvest this year on the average increased one and a half times over last year.  The yield of miscellaneous grain crops registered an even bigger increase.  Cattle for plowing cooperatives and labor mutual aid societies have been established in a number of places.

There is only one kind of development which can insure the supplies of the Red Army and the masses and guarantee the exchange with the outside for industrial products, and that is a development that depends on agricultural production.  The development of industrial production is our second task in economic construction.  The production of farm implements and lime there is closely linked with the development of agricultural production.  The supply of a number of handicraft products for daily use depends upon our own production in the soviet areas.  In the past, cigarettes, paper, lumber, grass cloth, wolfram and camphor were produced and exported in large quantities, but later they went into a decline.  Since the beginning of the year, the Soviet has been planning to restore these industries and in some of them we have achieved initial success.  To develop an export and import trade is our third task in economic construction.  This year the government established the Bureau of Foreign Trade which has begun to work along this line.  For the purpose of carrying out the above-mentioned tasks, we must develop cooperatives.  Since the Central Government got down to promoting the cooperative movement, consumers' cooperatives and foodstuffs cooperatives have been spreading like a storm in various places.  The development of all kinds of producers' cooperatives is also being planned, while the planning of credit cooperatives has just begun.  Economic construction bonds floated by the Central Government in order to launch economic construction are winning the support of the masses.  Bonds issued so far have exceeded 3 million yuan.  In all likelihood, the sum of 5 million yuan can be realized.  The development of economic construction will certainly provide the revolutionary war with a solid material basis and bring about further improvement in the livelihood of the broad masses of workers and peasants.  Comrades, let us work hard together!

The revolutionary war and soviet construction demand that we generally raise the cultural level of the worker-peasant masses in the soviet areas.  Only under the Soviet regime are the worker-peasant masses able to enjoy the right to get an education.  In the past year, the Soviet has begun to get cultural and educational enterprises under way.  Primary schools, night schools, literacy movements and club campaigns have begun in various places.  The establishment of Marxism-Communism University, Soviet University and Red Army University and the development of the worker-peasant theatrical group and blue-gown group movements, all show that the Soviet cultural construction undertakings have entered the stage of expansion.  Recently, the Central Government has proclaimed Marxism-Communism to be the fundamental guideline of Soviet culture and education.  The Central Government is formulating a system of primary education and promulgating concrete measures to carry out social education.  To enable the laboring people in the soviet areas to acquire an education and to unfold a struggle on the cultural front have become an important portion of our task in soviet construction.

Comrades of the electorate, in the foregoing paragraphs we have briefly reported on the situation of the development of the revolution and on our progress and achievements in Soviet work.  Now we want to point out to you comrades our deficiencies in Soviet work in the past and our tasks in the work from now on.  You comrades of the electorate must, under the correct leadership of the Soviet, make every effort to substantiate these deficiencies and realize these tasks before we can fight for the complete smashing of the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign and the victory of the Soviet throughout the country.  What are our tasks?  Where do our deficiencies lie?

First, expansion of the Red Army.  Comrades, although the Red Army has been enlarged, it is still not large enough.  To defeat the vast forces of the White army in the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, it is still necessary to expand the Red Army.  Every brave worker and every brave peasant ought to go to the front on their own initiative.  For the sake of coordinating with the Red Army in fighting the enemy and defending their own localities at the same time, it is imperative that the Red Guards and Young Pioneers be expanded considerably and model Red Guard battalions and model Young Pioneers be increased in number.  The work of putting out sentries to check safe-conducts must be tightened so as not to allow even one enemy scout to sneak into a soviet area under cover.  Transport teams must stand ready from time to time to go to the front to carry the wounded or move the spoils of war.

Second, work in new soviet areas should be unfolded even more rapidly.  Although in the past year we developed many new soviet areas, we still feel it is a little bit slow.  One reason for this is that we in the central area have not sent enough worker-peasant activist comrades to work in the new soviet areas.  In order to expand the new soviet areas even more drastically in the fighting to smash the "encirclement and suppression" campaign, comrades in the central area should be delighted to go to work in the new soviet areas and comrades in the new soviet areas should redouble their efforts in performing their work.

Third, although we made great achievements in Soviet construction in the past year, there is still much work that remains to be done.  First of all, to protect the mutual interests of the worker, we must enforce the Labor Law even more generally and correctly.  Next, the land investigation movement.  We must make all possible efforts to launch movement and check up on classes in places where remnants of feudal influence have not yet been wiped out.  But we must not start a quarrel with middle peasants and treat rich peasants the same as landlords.  Then, economic construction.  We must strive for winter cultivation this year and prepare for spring cultivation next year.  We must develop the cooperatives so that they will have a membership of 1 million and set up central organizations of various consumers' cooperatives at different levels to carry out the plan to engage in trade.  We must carry out the development of export and import trade to break the enemy's blockade and ease our own difficulties.  We must repair ridges and roads so as to facilitate economic development.  We must sell effectively 3 to 4

million yuan worth of economic construction bonds to raise the capital for all kinds of economic construction undertakings.  Next is cultural construction.  We must establish a complete primary education system and unfold a campaign to eliminate illiteracy.  Then we must intensify the suppression of counterrevolutionaries so that not a single counterrevolutionary will remain in our interior to take advantage of an enemy attack to create trouble in our interior.  Moreover, we must step up fund raising so as to secure insurance for our war chest.

In order to realize rapidly the above tasks, it is necessary to eliminate thoroughly bureaucratism from among the working personnel of the soviet.  Comrades of the electorate should heed supervising the soviet personnel so that bureaucratism cannot exist.  It is necessary to see to it that this year's election campaign will culminate in success so that a great many worker-peasant activists will through their winning in the elections come to work in the soviet and clear our bureaucratic elements among members of the old administrations.  In this way, the realization of the different combat tasks of the soviet will be assured.

Comrades of the electorate, every item of work mentioned above is a combat duty of ours and an indispensable prerequisite to smashing the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign of the enemy.  And as we make this report to you today, the enemy is attacking us in force and we are concentrating our forces for a decisive battle against this enemy.  The fighting is getting to be extremely intense.  Our work, therefore, must be tightened up to the highest degree.  The Central Government has promulgated an emergency war mobilization order to call upon the entire working personnel in the soviet to employ the spirit of shock troops to unfold their own work so as to make soviet work in its entirety mesh with the demands of the frontline.  All members of the electorate must rally forthwith under this call of the Central Government.  Comrades, let us make use of this kind of work to exchange for final victory!  First of all, we would like to exchange for a great victory that will come before the opening of the Second National Congress of Soviets.  Comrades, let us dedicate such a victory to the Second National Congress of Soviets!

Expand the Red Army drastically!

Enlarge the soviet areas drastically!

Unfold soviet construction work in combat fashion!

Smash the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign of the imperialist Kuomintang!

Long live the Second National Congress of Soviets!

Long live Soviet China!

Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Central
Executive Committee of the Soviet Republic
of China

Hsiang Ying, Vice Chairman

Chang Kuo-t'ao, Vice Chairman

24 October

° "Red China," No 122, 27 October 1933

* "Struggle," (Shanghai), No 59, 9 December 1933