(January 24-25, 1934)

Two whole years have passed since the convening of the First National Soviet
Congress. Developments in the situation over the past two years have thoroughly
demonstrated the further wavering and collapse of the rule of the imperialist
Guomindang and the vigorous development and victory of the soviet movement.
The period we are in today is actually the period of the further intensification
of the Chinese revolutionary situation as well as the transitional period for the
whole world to enter into a new, second era of war and revolution.
The confrontation between the socialist world and the capitalist world has
now become extremely acute. On the one hand, the socialist economy of the
Soviet Union has achieved final consolidation. Its first five-year plan was completed within only four years, and last year the second five-year plan made great
achievements in its first year. The phenomenon of unemployment has long since
been eliminated in the Soviet Union, and the standard of living and cultural level
of all the toiling masses have been dramatically raised. The Soviet Union's national defense has been greatly consolidated. With the support of the revolutionary masses of the whole world, the Soviet Union's policy of peace has met
with success everywhere, and even the most obstinate American imperialists had
no choice but to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
The capitalist world, on the other hand, is something else entirely, where the
imperialist economic panic and war. Fierce class struggle and national revolutions are under way in all capitalist countries, colonies, and semicolonies. The
flames of war and revolution in the whole world are pressing toward us.
Under the direction of the imperialists, they are organizing all reactionary forces
in launching desperate attacks on the soviet areas and the Red Army. All of this
has a single objective: to fuse the interests of the Chinese landlords and bourgeoisie
with those of the imperialists and to lead China onto the road of total colonization.
On the other hand, the soviet régime calls together, organizes, and leads the
revolutionary masses of the entire country in waging a resolute national-revolutionary war. It organizes and leads the Red Army and the masses in the struggle
for the defense and expansion of the soviet areas. Resolute offensives are
launched to destroy the imperialist Guomindang's repeated "Encirclement and
Suppression." The counterrevolutionary attempts of all exploiters within the
soviet areas are severely suppressed. All land is given to peasants and Red
Army soldiers. The workers work an eight-hour day and earn higher wages.
There is relief for unemployment and a social security system is in effect.
Complete freedom of assembly, association, speech, publication, and strike are
granted to all the revolutionary masses. The broad worker and peasant masses
are drawn into the administration of their own state organs; only exploiters are
excluded from participation. The economic life of the popular masses is organized to enable the masses to move from a position of suffering their fill of
hunger and cold under the rule of the landlords and bourgeoisie in the past to a
position that is not only completely free from hunger and cold, but improves
day by day. With regard to organizing the cultural life of the masses, the
broad masses that did not have any educational opportunities under the rule
of the landlords and bourgeoisie in the past are advancing to a position of
being able to raise their cultural standards day by day. All of this also has a
single objective: to overthrow the rule of the landlords and bourgeoisie in the
whole country, expel the imperialists from China, liberate hundreds of millions of popular masses from the oppression and exploitation of the rule of
the imperialists and the Guomindang, block the road to colonialism that
would be the destruction of China, and establish a free and independent Soviet
China with territorial integrity.
The increasingly sharp polarization between the two régimes cannot but
intensify the increasingly fierce life-and-death struggle between them. The
present time is actually the historical period in which victory and defeat are
about to be determined by the struggle between the two sides. The counterrevolutionary Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression" is advancing against us on a
large scale, following on after the defeat of the Fourth "Encirclement and Sup-pression." The historical task of the soviet régime is to call together, organize, and
lead all the revolutionary popular masses of all soviet areas and the whole of
China to participate in this great final struggle, to mobilize the broad masses of workers and peasants to join the Red Army, to strengthen the political education
and military skills of the Red Army, to expand local armed forces and guerrilla
troops, to promote guerrilla warfare widely, to enhance the soviet régime's concentrated and unified leadership of the Red Army in various soviet areas, to
improve the speed and quality of the work of the soviet régimes in all fields, to
strengthen the work of the financial and economic organs of the soviet régime so
as to ensure that the material needs of the revolutionary war are met, to unfold
the class struggle of the workers by channeling the revolutionary enthusiasm of
the masses of workers to the struggle of defeating the enemy, to promote the
agrarian struggle of the peasants by mobilizing the broad masses of peasants in
fighting for the seizure and defense of the land, and to call upon all the toiling
masses of workers and peasants in all soviet areas and throughout China to make
all sacrifices and efforts for the war. This is the way to smash thoroughly the
Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression" of the imperialists and the Guomindang,
II. The Imperialist Offensives and the Soviet Government's
Leadership of the Anti-Imperialist Movement

Over the past two years, since the founding of the Provisional Central Government, the biggest developments inside the country have been the imperialist
offensives and the counterrevolutionaries' Fourth and Fifth "Encirclement and
Suppression" [campaigns] against the revolution.
The Japanese imperialist bandit war that began on September 18, 1931, resulted in the occupation of the Three Northeastern Provinces and Rehe and the
control of Beiping and Tianjin through barbarous massacres with planes and
cannons. Preparations are further being made to launch murderous warfare on an
even larger scale toward Inner Mongolia and all of North China. The British
imperialists are attacking Sichuan from Tibet, and the French imperialists are
preparing to invade Yunnan and Guizhou. Meanwhile, the American imperialists
are attempting to put the Yangzi River basin and Fujian under their direct rule.
All these imperialists are spreading their pernicious grasp and conspiracies over
the vast territory of China for the purposes of enslaving the Chinese people,
destroying the Chinese soviet régime, preparing to attack the Soviet Union, and
at the same time preparing for a second world war among the imperialist gang- sters themselves. But the Chinese landlord and bourgeois Guomindang, abiding
by the principle of surrendering everything to the imperialists, has handed over
several million square li of land, practiced shameful nonresistance against Japan-ese and all other imperialist attacks, and traded all the interests of the toiling
and the surrender and betrayal of the Guomindang. On April 14, 1932, the
Provisional Central Government officially declared war against Japan and simultaneously issued an order of mobilization for war against Japan, calling upon the
popular masses of the whole country to wage a national-revolutionary war
against the imperialists who enslave China and the Guomindang that betrays
China. The Provisional Central Government and the Revolutionary Military
Commission have already issued a declaration calling upon all Guomindang
troops attacking the soviet régime and the Red Army to (1) immediately cease
attacking the soviet areas, (2) guarantee democratic rights for the popular masses
(freedom of speech, publication, assembly, association, strike, and so on), and
(3) arm the popular masses and establish an anti-Japanese volunteer army. Under
these three conditions, the Soviet Government is willing to conclude an agreement regarding military operations with any armed force to fight against the
Japanese and all other imperialists. When the Guomindang signed the Tanggu
Agreement with Japan and recently made direct representations to Japan, the
Provisional Central Government repeatedly declared to the whole country and
the whole world that it represented the people of the whole country in the
sternest condemnation of such policies and actions, which sell out the national
interests. The Soviet Government aids the anti-Japanese struggle of the masses everywhere and contributed 16,000 yuan in support of the anti-Japanese strike
movement by the workers of Huxi Textile Mill in Shanghai alone. In addition,
the masses of the soviet areas have given donations and assistance to the Anti-
Japanese Volunteer Army of Northeast China and provided much moral and
material support to other struggles against the imperialists.
Within soviet territory, imperialist privileges have long since been eliminated
and imperialist influences eradicated. Pastors and priests have been driven out by
the masses, the people's property seized by the churches has been taken back,
and missionary schools have been abolished. Within China's borders, the only
places free of imperialist rule are the soviet areas.
All these facts clearly show: the Soviet Government is the sole government
opposing imperialism. The Soviet Government should point out to the masses of
the whole country: it is the greatest responsibility of the soviets and of the whole
people to defeat imperialism through direct wars of national defense. The fulfillment of this responsibility, moreover, depends entirely on the broad masses of
people developing the anti-imperialist struggle. The first priority is to unite all
forces in defeating the Guomindang, running dogs of the imperialists, for they
are the largest obstacles to the struggle of the soviets and the masses against
imperialism. The masses should be made to understand: it is only because of
obstruction by the Guomindang-they lie across the area between the regions of
imperialist offensives and the soviet territories and concentrate all their forces to
attack the soviet territories, so that the Red Army has no way to engage in battle
directly with the imperialists and the soviets and the Red Army are forced to
clear the road with resolute attacks that smashing the Guomindang "Encircle-ment and Suppression" is the first step.
But a direct and large-scale clash between the soviets and the imperialists
grows closer every day. This demands that the soviets energetically strengthen
their leadership of all anti-imperialist struggles the soviets should become the
organizer and leader of the anti-imperialist struggle of the popular masses of the
whole country. Only by using all its might to make the masses understand the
current crisis and the crimes of the Guomindang, and relying on the strengthened
anti-imperialist and anti-Guomindang awareness and organizational power of the
broad masses can the Soviet Government smoothly carry out its own sacred
task-overthrowing the rule of the imperialist Guomindang in China through a
national-revolutionary war and a revolutionary civil war.

III. The "Encirclement and Suppression" of the
Imperialist Guomindang and the Soviet Government's
Struggle Against "Encirclement and Suppression"

Because the Chinese soviet areas are revolutionary bases of opposition to imperialism in the whole country and the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red
Army is the main force opposing imperialism in all of China, and because of the vigorous forward development of the soviet movement and the revolutionary
war, the Guomindang, with direct assistance from the imperialists, has gathered
all its forces and launched one, two, three, four, and even five desperate attacks
against the soviets and the Red Army in an effort to destroy the Chinese revolutionary forces and carry out the task of clearing the way for the imperialists to
carve up China.
Each attack by the imperialist Guomindang has, however, met with severe
defeat. The Chinese soviets and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, with the
support of the people of the whole country and thanks to the correct leadership of
the Chinese Communist Party, have become an invincible force. At the same
time, the victories of the soviets and the Red Army have further inspired the
toiling masses of the whole country and made them realize that only the soviets
and the Red Army are truly fighting for the nation's independence and freedom,
and that only the soviets and the Red Army can save China.
The enemy began the Fourth "Encirclement and Suppression" right after the
Guomindang had sold out the Three Northeastern Provinces and signed the
Shanghai ceasefire agreement. Not only does the traitorous Guomindang fail to
resist the Japanese imperialist invasion with a single soldier, and not only do
they ignore the repeated declarations by the Soviet Central Government and the
Red Army regarding their willingness to reach an agreement on military operations against the Japanese with any armed force genuinely resisting Japan, but on
the contrary, the arch-traitor Chiang Kaishek of the Guomindang concentrated
hundreds of thousands of troops to attack the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area,
as well as that of West Hunan-Hubei, and to force the Red Army to leave the
area surrounding Wuhan. For our part, although because of having to avoid
doing battle with an overwhelmingly strong enemy force and because of certain
of our own subjective tactical errors, the Red Fourth Front Army was forced to
withdraw from the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area, and embark on a famous
expedition, the Red Fourth Army has created broad new soviet bases around
Nanjiang, Xuanhan, and Suiding in Sichuan. The Red Fourth Front Army's
expedition has led to the development of broad revolutionary mass struggle in
the vast remote areas of northwest China, spreading the seeds of the soviets to
places where the revolutionary situation is relatively backward. Within less than
a year, the Red Fourth Front Army, through valiant and skillful fighting, has
already established soviet régimes in more than ten xian. 10 All this has made
Chiang Kaishek and the warlords of Sichuan begin to tremble before the great triumphs of the Red Fourth Front Army. At the same time, not only has the
Second Army Group of the Red Army that retreated from the Honghu base" not
suffered heavy losses, but it has been taking vigorous action in coordination with
the Red Fourth Front Army through the areas of Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan, and
has won new victories. Even in the area around Honghu, there are still guerrilla
forces. In the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet Area, not only have our bases not
suffered very great losses, but they have rather achieved a stable position and
spread guerrilla warfare toward the surrounding areas. 12
The Central Soviet Area is the site of the Central Soviet Government, the
headquarters of the soviet movement in the whole country, and also the main
target of enemy attack. 13 The enemy has gathered most of his military forces and
waged a tenacious battle against us, dispatching the so-called "Central Army,"
the warlord armies of Jiang [Guangnai] and Cai [Tingkai), the warlord armies of
Guangdong and Guangxi, and the warlord armies of Hunan to encircle the Central Soviet Area and its various neighboring soviet areas from all four sides.
After a year of arduous struggle, however, we have won unprecedented victories.
The biggest victory was achieved in the first half of 1933. Within that half year
alone, the Red Army of the Central Soviet Area destroyed twenty-four divisions,
six battalions, and two companies of the White army; routed three divisions,
twelve regiments, five battalions, and two companies of the White army; and
captured approximately twenty thousand rifles and around a thousand machine
guns and handguns. Especially in the battles of Dongpi and Huangpi, the
enemy's toughest basic column was destroyed, thus bringing about the final
defeat of the enemy's Fourth "Encirclement and Suppression."14
In the midst of the great victory of smashing the Fourth "Encirclement and
Suppression," the Red Army not only expanded in numbers, but its quality was
also strengthened. The combat skills and political resolve of the Red Army
commanders and soldiers have improved greatly as compared with the case
before the Fourth Campaign. The territory of the soviets has expanded. Apart
from the large soviet area in Sichuan, large soviet areas have been expanded in
bridge for the development of the soviet revolution between the northern and southern
banks of the Yangzi River and the northern and southern parts of China. The Sichuan-
Shaanxi Soviet Area has a tremendous role and significance in the great battle to win a
new soviet China."

northwestern Fujian and eastern Jiangxi, increasing the population by close to a
million, and a new Fujian-Jiangxi Province has been set up. The old soviet areas
have been further consolidated; this is manifested in improved work by the
soviets. The revolutionary enthusiasm of the masses of workers and peasants has
been heightened, the class struggle has developed in rural and urban areas, and
the remnant reactionary forces in the soviet areas have been strictly suppressed.
At the same time, this victory has had a tremendous impact on the Guomindang
regions. Under the influence of this victory, the masses of workers and peasants
in the broad White regions have heightened their determination to struggle.
Among all the Guomindang forces taking part in "Encirclement and Suppres-sion," not only is vacillation prevalent among the soldiers, but feelings of panic
have even arisen within the ranks of the leadership. Things have reached the
point where Chiang Kaishek was forced to make public the desperate order that
"All those without exception who refuse to suppress the bandits and ask to fight
the Japanese shall be summarily executed."
The achievement of these victories is, however, certainly no accident. It depended on the correctness of the political line of the Chinese Communist Party,
the consolidation of the Soviet Government's leadership, and the proper carrying
out of its policies. It also depended on the valiant and skillful fighting of the Red
Army, the enthusiastic support of the broad masses of workers and peasants in
the soviet areas, and the growing daily struggle and unfolding of the anti-imperialist and anti-Guomindang movement of the masses of workers and peasants
in the White areas. It further depended on the sympathy and aid of the proletariat
and oppressed masses in colonies all over the world. All these are fundamental
conditions for defeating the enemy, and victory could certainly not have been
won without these conditions.
After their thorough defeat in the Fourth "Encirclement and Suppression," the
Guomindang warlords' only way out is to surrender even more shamelessly to
the imperialists, obtain quantities of loans and military equipment from the imperialists, hire large numbers of foreign advisors, gather together all old forces in
existence, and organize new forces (train new soldiers, new pilots, Blue Shirts,
officer corps, and so on). In sum, by concentrating all counterrevolutionary
forces to carry out, under the command of the imperialists, a Fifth "Encirclement
and Suppression" against the soviets and the Red Army.
The struggle of the soviets against the Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression"
is, exactly as pointed out by the Party Central Committee, "at once a struggle to
block the way out for crisis-ridden imperialism and a struggle to win a free and
independent Soviet China." The process of smashing the Fifth "Encirclement
and Suppression" will determine whether China is "carved up and jointly ruled
by the imperialists and becomes completely a colony, or is a free and independent Soviet China possessing territorial integrity."
The soviets should call upon all the masses participating in the struggle in the
soviet areas and the White areas to understand clearly the importance of this struggle. Complete victory in this struggle can be won only by uniting all revolutionary forces under the direction of the soviets with a spirit that is a hundred
times more active and a hundred times more resolute.
The soviets should instruct all the masses participating in the struggle as
follows: especially after smashing the Fourth "Encirclement and Suppression,"
we possess all the basic conditions for defeating the current "Encirclement and
Suppression." The correct leadership of the Party and the soviets, the strength
and expansion of the Red Army, and the enthusiasm for struggle of the broad
masses of workers and peasants in the soviet areas and White areas all constitute
the basis for us to defeat the enemy.
Because of our efforts and the increasing internal contradictions within the
ruling classes, the new, massive attacks of the imperialists and the Guomindang
have met with severe blows from us. The enemy's original plan has failed,
forcing him to launch desperate attacks against us from new positions and with
new plans. We are faced with the final and decisive battle of the Fifth "Encircle-ment and Suppression." Although the blockhouse policy and the economic
blockade policy of the Guomindang warlords are extremely brutal, they are not,
after all, insurmountable obstacles to our victory. Quite the contrary, these policies of the enemy indicate their own weakness. 15 Let us raise our military skills,
strengthen our work among the masses and the soldiers, improve our military
tactics, concentrate all our forces to overcome these difficulties, and victory will
be ours.
We must point out: the enemy's difficulties are far greater than ours. Vacilla-tion among the White soldiers; hatred and resentment on the part of the workers,
peasants, and the broad masses of the petty bourgeoisie under enemy rule; infighting and disintegration among the various factions of warlords in the ruling
class; contradictions and conflicts among the various imperialists assisting the
Guomindang; and the financial and economic bankruptcy of the Guomindang-all of these constitute the objective conditions for the revolution to triumph.
It should be pointed out here: at a time when the imperialist Guomindang is
carrying out the Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression," a People's Revolutionary
Government16 has appeared in Fujian. The appearance of this People's Revolutionary Government manifests further splits in the Guomindang system. The
great victory of the soviet movement and the bankruptcy of the Guomindang
before the people of the whole country have forced a part of the Chinese reactionary ruling classes to adopt new methods in their attempt to find a third road
other than the Guomindang road and the soviet road, in order to preserve the
reactionary ruling classes from their doom. This attempt, however, is in vain.
Because if such organizations as the People's Revolutionary Government do not proceed from the genuine interests of the toiling masses of workers and peasants,
do not carry out many basic policies such as those that have already been carried
out by the soviets, 17 do not firmly recognize the Soviet Government's three
conditions that were announced as early as April of last year, and sign and carry
out anti-imperialist and anti-Guomindang agreements with the Soviet Government, but rather confine themselves to deception and empty talk, then the broad
revolutionary masses will not take a different attitude toward the People's Revolutionary Government from the one they hold toward the Guomindang government, and the inevitable tragic defeat of the People's Revolutionary Government
is altogether predictable. The soviets, on the other hand, amidst the daily increasing faith in them among the nation's popular masses and the daily increasing
bankruptcy of the deceptions perpetrated by the Guomindang and all other reactionary factions, will resolutely crush the Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression,"
thereby blocking the road to the colonization of China by the imperialists and,
from an initial victory in one or several provinces, attain victory in the whole
country, thus verifying the saying: "Only the soviets can save China!"

IV. Methods for Carrying Out the Various Basic Soviet
Policies During the Past Two Years

When it comes to talking about the various basic policies of the soviets, we must
first ask what are the points of departure of these policies. To answer this question, we must understand the environment in which the soviets found themselves
in the past and find themselves at present, and the tasks produced by such
environments.

In the past, the soviets were born and developed amidst guerrilla warfare.
They sprang up in many very small places. These places were each independent
and not allied with one another. Surrounding each soviet area was the enemy's
world, and the enemy at every moment wreaked destruction and oppression on
the soviet areas. Yet they were able to triumph over these enemies, and it was
through defeating the enemy's countless oppressions that they grew and developed. This was the environment of the soviets.

The present environment of the soviets is different from that of the past in
many respects. They have vast territories, broad masses, and a strong Red Army.
They have brought together many scattered forces (although they have not yet
been completely consolidated). They have already become organized as a state,
which is our Chinese, Soviet Republic. This state has already formed its local and
central organs and set up a Provisional Central Government. This government is
a centralized organ of power that relies upon the broad masses and upon the armed forces of the masses—the Red Army. This government is a government of
the workers and peasants, which exercises the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants. It offers broad democracy to the workers and
peasants, and permits absolutely no participation by elements of the landlord and
capitalist classes. It is a dictatorship, a dictatorship that already wields tremendous power.18 This dictatorship has expanded its influence throughout the whole
country and enjoys great prestige among the broad popular masses. Its situation
is very different from that during the previous era of guerrilla warfare. Warfare,
however, is still a fact of daily life and has become more widespread and violent.
This is because the confrontation between this dictatorship and the dictatorship
of the Guomindang landlord and bourgeois classes sharpens day by day. Now is
the time when victory hangs in the balance between the two sides, and we are
faced by a large-scale "Encirclement and Suppression" on the part of the imperialist Guomindang. Such is the present environment of the soviets.
This environment has determined their tasks, which is to say that they must
use all their might to mobilize the masses, organize the masses, and arm the
masses, and must incessantly attack their enemies so as to smash the enemy's
"Encirclement and Suppression" directed against them. Their task is to wage a
revolutionary war, bringing together all forces in carrying out the revolutionary
war and using the revolutionary war to defeat the enemy. They must also defeat
the powerful imperialist rule, because the imperialists are the supporters and
commanders of the enemy's dictatorship. Their purpose in overthrowing the
imperialists and the Guomindang is19 to unify China, carry out a bourgeois-democratic revolution, and make it possible for this revolution to be transformed into
a socialist revolution in the future. This is the basic task of the soviets.
From this we can understand why, given this kind of environment and these
tasks, the soviets are carrying out the various basic policies. The soviets must
carry out these policies to consolidate the already triumphant democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants; to expand this dictatorship throughout the
whole country; and to mobilize, organize, and arm the workers, peasants, and
toiling masses in all the soviet areas and throughout all of China, in order to
overthrow the rule of the imperialists and the Guomindang by means of a resolute revolutionary war, consolidate and develop this dictatorship, and make prep- arations for the transformation of the current bourgeois-democratic dictatorship
of workers and peasants into a future socialist dictatorship of the proletariat. This
is the point of departure for all soviet policies.
Acting on the instructions of the First National Soviet Congress, the Central
Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars have, over the
past two years, adhered to the general orientation of these policies and achieved
extremely great results. Experience has already proved to the whole of China's
revolutionary popular masses: only the policies of the Soviet Government are
policies that serve the political power and interests of the popular masses, that
resolutely oppose the counterrevolutionary policies of the imperialist
Guomindang, and that [can] overthrow the rule of the imperialist Guomindang in
the whole country, save the whole nation from destruction, and liberate the
whole of the toiling popular masses from untold misery.
Needless to say, in a China where there is a sharp confrontation between two
régimes, every concrete administrative action of the soviets must immediately
gain the support of the broad popular masses. The popular masses who have
suffered their fill of oppression and exploitation under the reactionary policies of
the imperialist Guomindang are attracted to each concrete administrative action
of the soviets like metal filings to a magnet. This situation has caused extreme
panic among the reactionary ruling classes, who have therefore not hesitated to
fabricate all sorts of shameless rumors to slander the soviet administration. Iron-clad facts have, however, provided a forceful reply to such shameless rumormongering. Every Chinese who has eyes in his head, except for the mad,
unscrupulous Guomindang landlords and capitalists, cannot but recognize the
immeasurably wide gap between the Soviet Government's policies and those of
the Guomindang government!

A. Let Us First Discuss the Arming of the Masses and the
Building Up of the Red Army by the Soviets.

In order to oppose the enemy's "Encirclement and Suppression" and to wage
revolutionary war, 20 the first tasks of the soviets are to arm the masses, organize
a strong and solid iron Red Army, organize local armed forces and guerrilla
troops, and organize supplies and transportation for conducting the war. Over the
past two years, in the firm struggle against the enemy's Fourth and Fifth21
"Encirclement and Suppression" [campaigns], the soviets have achieved great
success through efforts on these fronts.
First of all, the establishment of the Central Revolutionary Military Commis-sion unified the leadership of the Red Army throughout the country, enabling
Red Army units of the various soviet areas and various fronts to begin to coordi- nate their actions and cooperate with each other under the guidance of unified
strategic thinking. This is an important turning point from scattered guerrilla
action to regular, large-scale movements of Red Army forces. Over the last two
years the Revolutionary Military Commission has led the Red Army throughout
the country, and mainly in the Central Soviet Area, in carrying out a glorious,
victorious war, having smashed the enemy's four22 "Encirclement and Suppres-sion" [campaigns] and won a first-stage victory in the struggle against the Fifth
"Encirclement and Suppression."23
The Red Army has expanded rapidly over the last two years. It is several
times larger than it was two years ago. Success in this regard is due to the
enthusiastic participation by the broad masses of workers and peasants in the
revolutionary war, improvement in the methods of mobilization, and the application of the laws and orders of the soviets granting preferential treatment to Red
Army soldiers. During the Red May of 1933 alone, nearly twenty thousand new
soldiers were added in a few xian of the Central Soviet Area. In many places the
masses of workers and peasants poured into the Red Army like tidewater. Facts
have proven erroneous all the opportunist statements, such as the notion that the
masses are not willing to join the Red Army or the idea that it is impossible to
expand the Red Army in new soviet areas or remote areas. The correctness of the
mobilization methods and the thorough implementation of soviet laws and orders
giving preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers have, however, been crucial
to the speedy completion of the mobilization plans. Important components of the
mobilization methods are dispensing with all coercive orders, carrying out thoroughgoing propaganda and persuasion, and punishing class-alien elements who
undermine the expansion of the Red Army and lead desertions. Necessary and
important steps in guaranteeing that Red Army soldiers will enthusiastically rush
to the front lines and in consolidating their determination for battle at the front
are to raise the social position of Red Army soldiers to the most prestigious
status, to provide for all possible and necessary psychological and material needs
of Red Army soldiers, to distribute land to Red Army soldiers from other regions
and mobilize the masses to cultivate the land on their behalf, to tend the land
well for the dependents of every Red Army soldier, to give Red Army soldiers'
dependents a 5 percent discount in the consumers' cooperatives, to operate special shops with daily necessities for dependents of Red Army soldiers, to offer 10
percent of the profits of state-run enterprises and cooperatives to dependents of
Red Army soldiers, to call upon the masses to make donations for relief of
dependents of Red Army soldiers who are sick and have difficulties, to call upon
the masses to provide psychological and material comfort to Red Army soldiers and their dependents, and to carry out actually and thoroughly all laws, decrees,
and methods for granting preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers and their
dependents. There are many models for these tasks all over the soviet areas. The
broad masses of workers and peasants in these places regard as their own sacred
duty taking up arms to defend the soviet areas and developing the soviet areas,
and large numbers of them constantly rush to the front. For example, in
Changgang Township in Jiangxi, among the total of 407 young and adult males
between the ages of 16 and 45, 320 left to join the Red Army and to work, and
87 stayed in the township. The ratio of those leaving to those remaining behind is
thus 80 to 20. In Fujian's Upper Caixi Township, among the total of 554 young
and adult males, 485 left to join the Red Army or to work, and only 67 stayed in
the township, making the ratio of those leaving to those staying 88 to 12.24 With
such large numbers of able-bodied males in these townships having heroically
gone to the front, what about village production and family life? Not only have
they not been adversely affected, but they have instead undergone expansion and
improvement. What is the reason for this? It is because labor mutual aid teams,
field cultivation teams, and various other measures have regulated labor power in
the countryside in an organized and planned way, thereby solving all difficulties
and problems of Red Army dependents. I think such glorious lessons are worth
learning throughout the soviet areas.
The iron-hard consolidation of the Red Army should be closely linked to the
expansion of the Red Army, and during the last two years considerable success
has likewise been achieved in this aspect of our work. The present Red Army has
already embarked on the road to becoming an iron regular revolutionary armed
force. This is manifested in the following ways: (1) The composition has been
improved, ensuring that only the workers, peasants, and toiling masses have the
glorious right to bear arms and that class-alien elements who have wormed their
way into the Red Army are resolutely expelled. (2) Worker cadres have increased in number and the political commissar system has been universally
instituted, so that control of the Red Army is in the hands of reliable commanders. (3) Political education has made progress, thus strengthening the determination of Red soldiers to fight to the end for the soviets, raising discipline as related
to class consciousness, and furthering close ties between the Red Army and the
broad popular masses. (4) Military skills have been raised. Even though at present the Red Army still lacks the use of the latest-model weapons and practice in
handling them, general military skills have made great strides in comparison
with the past. (5) The authorized strength of the units has been changed, thereby
enhancing the organizational strength of the Red Army. All this has very greatly
increased the fighting power of the Red Army, making it an invincible soviet
armed force.

Extensive expansion of the Red Guards, Young Pioneers, and guerrilla forces
is an extremely important task in the soviets' arming of the masses to carry out
the revolutionary war. The Red Guards and Young Pioneers are ready-made
reserve armies for the Red Army at the front lines, and are local armed forces for
the defense of the soviet areas. They also constitute a bridge in the process of
transforming the present voluntary recruitment system to a future compulsory
conscription system. The guerrilla troops, for their part, are the creators of the new
soviet areas and constitute an indispensable detachment of the Red Army's main
forces. Over the last two years, such forces have been developed in all soviet areas.
Their military and political training have also been considerably strengthened. Their
joining the Red Army, defense of the local areas, attacks on and harassment of the
enemy, and the great achievements they have demonstrated in the successive battles
to smash "Encirclement and Suppression" have all caused a tremendous shock to the
enemy and become huge obstacles to the enemy's invasion of the soviet areas. Their
effect has been particularly manifest in the Central Soviet Area and the Fujian-
Zhejiang-Jiangxi Soviet Area. An important task of the soviets is to spread this
system to all newly opened soviet areas, to expand their organizations in a big way,
and to strengthen their training, so as to turn these troops into the Red Army's most
reliable brothers in the revolutionary war.

Replenishing provisions and supplies for the Red Army, organizing military
transportation linking the front lines with the rear, and organizing a military medical
system are, likewise, tasks of decisive significance for the revolutionary war. Given
a situation in which we still have not taken several central cities, and the enemy
maintains his economic blockade, carrying out this task is extremely difficult. Over
the past two years, however, by relying on the enthusiasm of the broad masses of
workers and peasants in the soviet areas and White regions, we have laid a considerable foundation for these tasks as well. In this regard we have already secured
supplies and provisions and their transportation to the Red Army over a long period
of time in the past, and this must be considered a tremendous achievement. But the
present decisive battle to smash the enemy's Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression"
and the even wider war in the future demand that we make greater efforts to increase
our strength in this respect and guarantee more ample provisions.

Revolutionary war on an even larger scale lies ahead of us. The soviet policy
of arming the masses has further demonstrated its paramount importance. The
basic fighting task of the soviets is to arm the masses without a moment's
slackening and to realize as quickly as possible through effective work the creation of a million-man-strong iron Red Army.

The basic task of the soviets is to wage revolutionary war and to mobilize all
forces of the popular masses to carry out the war. Around this basic task, the soviets
have numerous urgent tasks. They should pursue a policy of extensive democracy
for the broad popular masses. They should resolutely suppress counterrevolutionaries within the ranks. They should arouse class struggle among the workers, develop
the agrarian revolution of the peasants, and heighten the activism of the worker and peasant masses under the principle of a workers' and peasants' alliance led by
the working class. They should pursue correct financial and economic policies to
ensure that the material needs of the revolutionary war are met. They should
carry out a cultural revolution to arm the minds of the masses of workers and
peasants. These and many other basic policies are all aimed at one goal: overthrowing the rule of the imperialist Guomindang by means of revolutionary war,
consolidating and developing the democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants, and preparing for the transition to the stage of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

B. Let Us Now Discuss the Soviet Democratic System.

The soviet, a democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants, is the political
power of the popular masses themselves and relies directly on the popular
masses. It can play its role only when it maintains the highest degree of closeness
in its ties with the masses. The soviet is endowed with tremendous power. It has
already become the organizer and leader of the revolutionary war, and it is also
the organizer and leader of the lives of the masses. The greatness of its power
cannot be matched by any form of state²⁵ in history. Its power, however, rests
entirely on the popular masses, and it cannot be separated from the popular
masses even for a moment. The soviet political power must use force to deal
with all class enemies, but toward its own class—the workers, peasants, and
toiling masses²⁶—it may not use any force whatsoever. What it manifests is
nothing but the broadest democratic ideology.

The broadest democracy of the soviets is manifested first and foremost in its
own election. The soviets grant to all the exploited and oppressed masses full
rights to vote and to be elected; moreover, women's rights are exactly the same
as those of men. This is the first time in history²⁷ that the workers, peasants, and
toiling masses have attained such rights. To summarize the experience of soviet
elections in various places over the past two years, generally speaking the
achievements have been great. First, concerning voter registration: A strict distinction was made between residents with the right to vote and those without the
right to vote by use of the red and white wall poster method. The policy of
carrying out the elections at meetings of the electorate, which all exploiting
elements are forbidden to attend, replaced the previous method of holding the
elections at mass meetings. Second, concerning the balance of class composition:
To guarantee that the proletariat will be the mainstay of leadership²⁸ within the soviet régime, we applied the method under which thirteen workers and their
dependents elected one representative, and fifty peasants or poor people elected
one representative, and the same composition is used to organize conferences of
deputies at the city and township level. At all levels of deputies' congresses and
executive committees from the district to the central level, an appropriate ratio of
workers' and peasants' deputies was established. This has guaranteed the alliance between workers and peasants in the organization of the soviet régime, and
ensured that the workers occupy the leading position. Third, concerning electoral
units: To ensure that the majority of voters participate in the elections, and to
enable workers to elect the appropriate deputies to the soviets, the new election
law proclaimed by the Central Executive Committee in September 1933 stipulates that each township soviet or city soviet be divided into several electoral
units for the purpose of carrying out elections. That is, elections are held with the
village as a unit among the peasantry, and workers carry out elections as a
separate unit. This makes it very convenient for the masses to participate in
elections. Fourth, concerning the number of people participating in elections:
The development of the soviet election movement has to a great extent made
clear to the masses of voters the relevance of elections to their own lives. Many
of the masses who did not actively participate in elections in the past have now
become active. In the two elections held in 1932 and the election held in the
latter half of 1933, many places had over 80 percent voter participation, and in
some places the only people who did not participate in election meetings were
the sick, those in labor, and those on guard duty. Fifth, concerning name-lists of
candidates: In the elections held in the latter half of 1933, a system of
candidates' name-lists was adopted, which allowed voters to be prepared prior to
the elections as to whether or not to vote for certain candidates. Sixth, concerning the election of women: In most of the city and township soviets at present,
over 25 percent of the representatives elected are women. In some places, such
as Upper Caixi Township in Shanghang, forty-three of the seventy-five representatives are women, which makes 60 percent. Among the ninety-one representatives in Lower Caixi Township, fifty-nine are women, making up 66 percent.
The broad masses of working women are taking part in managing the nation.
Seventh, concerning work reports, that is, township and city soviets convening
voters' meetings prior to elections to report on the work of the soviets and guide
the voters in criticizing such reports: This method was more widely applied in
the elections held in the latter half of 1933 than in the previous year. All of these
constitute basic steps enabling the masses to exercise their right to manage the
state organs. Thus there are satisfactory methods for soviet elections, which
guarantee a foundation for consolidating soviet political power.
Next, soviet democracy manifests itself in city and township conferences of
deputies. The system of city and township deputies' conferences constitutes the
organizational basis of the soviets and the organ through which the soviets
maintain close relations with the broad masses. Progress over the past two years has further perfected this system of ours. Its most outstanding characteristics are
the following: (1) For the purposes of forging close relations between township
and city soviet deputies and local residents, facilitating the solicitation of
residents' opinions, and facilitating leadership work, all residents are to be appropriately assigned to be under the leadership of the various deputies, according
to the proximity of living quarters between deputies and residents (generally,
thirty to seventy residents are placed under the leadership of one deputy), thereby
causing the various deputies to develop permanent relationships with the residents under their leadership. In this way, the popular masses and the soviets are
organizationally joined together. (2) Among township and city soviet deputies, a
deputy in charge is to be elected out of every three to seven deputies, based on
the proximity of their living quarters. This person's tasks are, under the guidance
of the township or city soviet presidium, to assign and direct the work of the
various deputies under his leadership, to transmit notices from the presidium to
each deputy, to hold meetings of residents under his leadership, and to resolve
minor problems among the residents under his leadership. In each village, there
must also be a deputy in overall charge to take responsibility for leading the
work of the whole village. This fosters close links between the city and township
presidiums and the deputies, and provides strong leadership for the work in
villages. (3) Under the township soviets and city soviets, various sorts of standing committees and provisional committees are to be organized for example,
committees on preferential treatment for the Red Army, water conservancy committees, education committees, grain and food committees, public health committees, and so on. There may be as many as dozens of them, and large numbers
of activists among the masses may be drawn in to participate in the work of these
committees. Not only do townships have committees, but there should also be
certain necessary committees in the villages. In this way, the work of the soviets
forms a network and the broad masses become directly involved in the work of
the soviets. (4) It is now stipulated that township soviet and city soviet elections
be held once every six months (district soviets also have one every six months,
but xian and provincial soviets have one every year). In this way, the fresh
opinions of the popular masses easily emerge and are transmitted to the soviets.
(5) Representatives who have committed serious errors in the interim between
two elections may be removed by a proposal from ten or more voters and the
approval of more than half the total number of voters, or expelled by the resolution of a deputies' conference. This makes it impossible for bad elements to
linger for long periods in soviet organs. All of these things are characteristics of
the current practice of city and township soviets in many places throughout the
soviet areas. Everyone can see that the democracy of the soviet régime has
developed to a level that is truly unprecedented in any political system in history.
And the soviet relies upon this system to unite with the broad popular masses,
thereby becoming the organ most able to develop the creativity of the masses
and the organ most able to mobilize the popular masses to cope with civil war and revolutionary construction. This is also something that no government
throughout history has been able to accomplish.²⁹ All organs of soviet political
power above the district level are constructed entirely upon the foundation of
city and township soviets, and are formed by assemblies and executive committees of workers', peasants', and soldiers' deputies at all levels. Government
personnel are elected to their positions and those who prove unqualified are
dismissed in accordance with the public will. Discussion and resolution of all
problems are based on the people's will, and therefore the soviet régime is a
genuine régime of the broad popular masses.

Next, soviet democracy is also manifested in the granting to all the revolutionary popular masses of full freedoms of assembly, association, speech, publication, and going on strike. At a time when in the areas under Guomindang rule
the revolutionary popular masses are being stripped of all freedoms and rights
and a mad fascist reign of terror is under way, every revolutionary person under
the Soviet Government has the right to express his own opinions; moreover, the
soviets provide all possible material facilities (meeting places, paper, printing
houses, and so on). The soviets unfailingly make every effort to lead all assemblies, associations, and publications of opinion that are undertaken to oppose the
imperialist Guomindang. The only thing the soviets prohibit is the freedom of all
those exploiting elements to oppose the revolution.

In addition, to consolidate the democratic dictatorship of the workers and
peasants, the soviets must encourage the broad popular masses to supervise and
criticize their own work. Every revolutionary member of the popular masses has
the right to expose the mistakes and shortcomings of soviet staff members. At a
time when corrupt Guomindang officials are spread out over the whole country
and the people are angry but dare not speak out, such phenomena are absolutely
forbidden under the soviet system. If elements among soviet staff workers are
discovered who practice corruption and embezzlement, are passive and go slow
in their work, or who act in a bureaucratic manner, the popular masses may at
once expose such people's mistakes, and the soviets will immediately punish
them and certainly not show any indulgence. This kind of full democratic spirit
is also possible only under the soviet system.

Finally, the soviet democratic spirit can also be observed in the demarcation
of administrative districts. The soviets have abolished the old bureaucratic administrative districts, which were large and inappropriate, and have made the
soviet areas of jurisdiction smaller at all levels, from the province down to the
township. What is the significance of this? It is to keep the soviets in close
contact with the popular masses, to enable the soviets to be fully informed of the
demands of the popular masses because the areas of jurisdiction are not too
large, to allow the opinions of the popular masses to be reflected rapidly to the

676 MΛO'S ROAD TO POWER
soviets and quickly discussed and resolved, and to make extremely convenient
the mobilization of the popular masses for war and for soviet construction. The
Guomindang warlords use the system of large provinces, large xian, and large
districts and townships from the feudal era. This only serves to cut oneself off
from the popular masses, and the Soviet Government has no use for it. It should
be pointed out here that the demarcation of villages is an important matter
because the most convenient method of carrying out the work of the soviets
below the township soviet level is to mobilize the masses using the village as a
unit. Only by relying upon appropriate demarcation of villages, the establishment
in the villages of organizations of the popular masses, and strong leadership of
the whole village by village deputies and deputies in charge will the work of
township soviets be able to attain the best results.

C. Next, Let Us Discuss the Attitude of the Soviets Toward
the Landlords and the Bourgeoisie.

The soviets have realized the world's most successful democratic system, which
enables the broad popular masses to participate directly, grants the broad popular
masses all democratic rights, and absolutely does not use or need to use any kind
of force against the popular masses.
Toward the landlords and the bourgeoisie, that is to say toward all those
exploiting elements who have been overthrown by the revolutionary popular
masses, the soviets have, on the other hand, a different kind of attitude.
Because they are exploiters and because they were the rulers in the past, the
landlords and the bourgeoisie harbor extremely deep hatred toward the soviets.
Because, although they have been overthrown, they have not yet been eliminated, and they still have solid and deep-rooted social foundations and superior
knowledge and skills. Thus, even though they have been overthrown, they constantly attempt to stage a comeback, and to overthrow the soviet régime and
restore the former system of exploitation. Especially during a period of civil war,
when the enemy repeatedly launches military offensives against the soviet areas,
these overthrown exploiters constantly strive to carry out counterrevolutionary
actions in concert with the attacking enemy. For this reason, the soviet régime
cannot refrain from carrying out harsh punishment and repression against these
elements in every possible respect.
The first item in the soviet policy of punishing exploiting elements is to
exclude them from political power. Landlords, the bourgeoisie, and all other
enemies of the revolution are completely stripped of the right to vote and of the
right to serve in the Red Army and local armed forces. 30 But these elements always try by hook and by crook to sneak into the soviet organs, into the Red
Army, and into local armed forces. Especially in newly established soviet areas,
where mass struggle has not developed fully, it has been easier for these elements to seize opportunities to worm their way in. Past experience has fully
demonstrated that to wage a brutal and merciless struggle against the activities of
these class-alien elements to worm their way into the revolutionary régime is a
very important task of the soviets.
The second item is to strip away freedom of speech, publication, assembly,
and association from all landlords and members of the bourgeoisie. The soviets
grant such freedoms only to the revolutionary popular masses and not to any
elements of the landlords and the bourgeoisie. Because landlord and bourgeois
elements will inevitably use such freedoms as their counterrevolutionary instruments, it is absolutely necessary to deprive these elements of such freedoms. One
of the important reasons that the soviets have been moving toward consolidation
day after day also lies in having deprived these class enemies of their freedoms
and reduced their opportunities for action.
The third item is to use revolutionary force and revolutionary courts to suppress all counterrevolutionary activities. Based on the task of arming the masses,
the soviets have established a mighty Red Army and widespread local armed
forces. These constitute iron strength upon which the soviets directly depend.
Only by relying upon them can the soviets defeat the military power of the
imperialist Guomindang and suppress counterrevolutionary activities within the
soviet areas. The soviets have, however, another important weapon for suppressing counterrevolutionaries in conjunction with this one, which is the soviet
courts. Relying directly upon armed force and relying upon the activities of the
State Political Security Bureau and the class struggles of the broad popular
masses, the soviet courts see to it that all counterrevolutionary attempts within
the soviet areas are firmly suppressed. Over the past several years, serious counterrevolutionary activities have occurred in all the various soviet areas. For example, the AB Corps in the Central Soviet Area, the Hunan-Jiangxi Soviet Area,
and elsewhere; the Social Democratic Party in Fujian; the Reorganizationists in
places such as West Hunan-Hubei, Henan-Hubei-Anhui, Fujian-Zhejiang-
Jiangxi, and Fujian-Jiangxi; the Liquidationists of Trotsky and Chen Duxiu in
Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi; and others have all attempted to carry out, or even succeeded in carrying out, their counterrevolutionary uprisings. In the end, however,
they all met with stern repression by the soviet courts, their rebellious plots were
overcome, and the soviet régime was consolidated. In this respect, the Political
Security Bureau and the soviet courts have already accumulated rich experience
and corrected the mistake of failure to carry out a clear-cut class line, which
occurred in the past in many places. There has also been progress lately in the
massification [qunzhonghua] of the soviet courts, which means that their suppression of counterrevolutionaries should be linked with the struggles of the broad masses to eliminate counterrevolution. The widespread use of the circuit
courts³¹ is proof of this.

In sum, the soviets exercise an extremely extensive revolutionary democracy
toward the broad popular masses. At the same time, however, it is in the midst of
such democracy that their tremendous power is constituted—power built upon
the firm faith and conscious needs of the hundreds of millions of worker and
peasant masses. Putting such power to use, the soviets have formed their own
dictatorship, organized the revolutionary war, organized the soviet courts, and
carried out fierce attacks against class enemies on all fronts. The soviet courts,
for their part, have played a great role in suppressing counterrevolutionary activities within the soviet territories.

If one compares the soviet courts under the workers' and peasants' dictatorship with the Guomindang courts under the dictatorship of the landlords and the
bourgeoisie, on the other hand, an extraordinary picture emerges.

The purpose of the soviet courts is to suppress the landlords and the bourgeoisie, and so they generally go lightly in dealing with crimes of worker and peasant
elements. The purpose of the Guomindang courts is to suppress the worker and
peasant classes, and so they generally go lightly in dealing with crimes of the
landlords and the bourgeoisie. The role of the courts is entirely determined by
the class nature of the political régime.

On the one hand, the soviet courts sternly suppress the activities of counterrevolutionary elements, and the soviets should certainly not show any leniency whatsoever toward such elements. But on the other hand, all
inhumane treatment of criminals already under arrest is forbidden. The Central Soviet Government has already issued a clear order to abolish corporal
punishment. This, too, represents a tremendous, historic reform. The
Guomindang courts, on the other hand, remain to this day permeated by cruel
and inhumane medieval tortures.

Toward criminals other than those given the death penalty, soviet prisons
practice persuasionism,³² which means using the communist spirit and labor
discipline to educate criminals and transform their intrinsic criminal nature.
Guomindang prisons, on the other hand, go in for out-and-out barbarous feudal
killing by maltreatment and cruel fascist punishment, and constitute a hell on
earth for the toiling masses and revolutionaries.

Destroying counterrevolutionary conspiracies of hostile classes, establishing
revolutionary order within the soviet territories, and eliminating all remnants of
barbarity and feudalism in the administration of justice are the goals of the

JANUAR 1934 679
soviet courts. Each of the reforms of the soviets in this arena similarly has its
own historical significance.

D. Next, Let Us Discuss Soviet Labor Policies.

On the basis of the class nature of their régime, and the great task of arming the
toiling masses to overthrow the imperialist Guomindang by means of revolutionary warfare, the soviets must resolutely arouse the workers' class struggle, guarantee the workers' daily interests, develop the workers' revolutionary activism,
organize such activism on the part of the workers for use in the great revolutionary war, and turn the workers into active leaders of the revolutionary war and
cornerstones of the consolidation and development of the soviet régime. This is
the point of departure of soviet labor policies.
Under the soviet labor policies, the interests of workers are thoroughly protected. Comparing this with the Guomindang's rule in the past and with the
Guomindang areas at the present, there is truly a difference like that between
heaven and hell.
In the period when the soviet areas were still under Guomindang rule, workers functioned as slaves of their employers. No worker could ever forget the long
hours, the low pay, the brutal treatment, and the fact that there was no legal
protection whatsoever for the worker's position. All of this not only continues to
exist in the Guomindang areas at present, but has been exacerbated many times
over. Lately the situation in the White areas is that the workers' actual wages
have gone down by more than 50 percent, and cutting back work hours, reducing
the workforce, and closing plants have become the capitalists' commonplace
methods for attacking the workers. As a consequence, unemployment has become widespread. Among industrial workers alone the number of unemployed
has reached over 60 percent. In all areas under Guomindang rule, to go on strike
is a criminal act. In March 1933, the Guomindang made a public declaration in
Hankou that strikers would be punished by death. In all disputes between workers and capitalists, the Guomindang invariably stands by the capitalists to oppress the workers. 33
Under the soviet régime, workers are the masters. Leading the broad masses
of peasants, the workers have shouldered the great responsibility of consolidating
and developing the soviet régime. Therefore, the principle of the soviet labor
policies is to protect the interests of the working class and to consolidate and
develop the soviet régime. In line with this principle, a Labor Law was promulgated in December of 1931. In 1933, it was revised and promulgated once again.
The Labor Law as revised on this occasion is applicable to both the cities and the
countryside and both large and small enterprises.

In the soviet areas at present the eight-hour workday has been generally
instituted, and labor contracts and collective contracts have been concluded.
Labor inspection units and inspectors have been introduced widely in cities and
in many villages, with the aim of checking whether or not employers have taken
any actions that violate the soviet Labor Law. Punishment of employers who
violate the law is the province of the specially established labor court. To prevent
the capitalists from controlling labor and to protect unemployed workers, 34 the
soviets have monopolized the right to job referral and all capitalists wishing to
hire workers must go to employment agencies set up by the soviets. The establishment of relief agencies for the unemployed is also becoming daily more
widespread, and concrete relief is generally available to unemployed workers.
Workers in rural areas have also been given redistributed land. A social insurance system has been set up and a social insurance bureau has been established
in each city in the soviet areas. None of this is available in any way to workers
under the Guomindang régime. On the other hand, the soviet régime considers
the application of these policies to be its own greatest responsibility.
Because the soviets have firmly carried out their own policies, the lives of
workers in the soviet areas have seen tremendous improvement.
This is true, first of all, with regard to wages. Actual wages in various places in
the soviet areas have generally risen in comparison with the period before the
revolution. The example of Tingzhou is shown below [on page 681].
According to this table, compared to the period before the revolution, 35 the
wages of workers in the city of Tingzhou went up by a minimum of 32 percent
(carpenters) and a maximum of what amounts to 1,450 percent, or an increase of
14.5 times (textile workers). This sort of startling increase fully reflects how
startlingly low wages were in the Guomindang era. Of course, the wages of
workers in Tingzhou in particular are somewhat higher than wages in other cities
in the soviet areas (and the workers' meals are included), but wages in other
cities have also risen. For example, in the most recent period, the pay for construction workers in the city of Ruijin has risen from 25 fen per day before the
revolution to 45 fen per day, an 80 percent increase.
Not only in the cities, but in rural areas, wages have risen as well. A comparison, for various periods, of pay for odd-job work in Tiancun District, Ganxian is
given below [on page 682].
This table contains data for a single rural area, but in other rural areas as well,
wages have generally risen. As for wages in state-run enterprises, over the past
two years in various enterprises under the direct jurisdiction of the center wages
have generally risen by 20 percent, the highest increase being 40 percent.
Generally speaking, wages have been paid on time. Because of supervision by

[PAGE 785 POSSIBLE HALLUCINATION - REVIEW NEEDED]
Highest Wages"
Lowest Wages
Median Wages
before
before
before
Trade
Period
revolution present comparison revolution
present comparison revolution
after
revolution
Confectionery monthly
+22
+20
No data
Paper-making monthly
+25
+28
Oil
monthly
+12
+9
Pharmaceutical monthly
+24
+24
Tobacco
monthly
+29
3.5
+26.5
Printing
monthly
+21
+23
Metal
monthly
+12
Carpenters
daily
.60
.80
+ .20
Boatmen
from Ting-zhou to
Shanghang
+32
Dyers
monthly
5.5
+14.5
+16
Oil-paper
monthly
+16
+15
Liquor
monthly
+14
+15
Textile
monthly
+25
+29
*All values are in yuan.

Highest Daily Wages*
Median Daily Wages
Lowest Daily Wages
Increase
Increase
Increase
from
from
from
before before
before before before
before before before
before
revolu- May 1,
revolu- revolu- May 1,
revolu- revolu- May 1,
revolution 1931
present tion
tion 1931
present tion tion 1931
present tion
Handicrafts 30 30 35 + 5 22 25 30 + 8 10 15 20 +10
Paper-making 40 40 45 + 5 22 24 30 + 8 14 11 25 +11
Agriculture 28 30 32 + 4 10 15 20 +10 3 6 10 + 7
Coolies 45 67.5 96 +51 26 39 50 +24 10 20 +10

*All figures are in fen (cents).

the soviets, cases of employers delaying the payment of wages are rare. Even the
small number of obstinate capitalists, having been sanctioned by the labor courts,
no longer dare to make trouble for the workers.

As for the legally stipulated working period, over the last two years the eight-hour
day has been widely instituted in all cities in the soviet areas. Working hours for
farm laborers in the countryside are generally shorter than for adults. 36

Protective measures for women and minors such as equal pay for equal work,
maternity leave before and after childbirth, and prohibition against the use of
child labor under the age of fourteen have also been generally applied.

As for protection of apprentices, generally the number of years for apprenticeship
has been reduced, treatment of apprentices has been improved, and feudal oppression of apprentices has been eliminated. The lives of apprentices have been considerably improved and their pay has risen. (For example, in Jiangxi apprentices get an
allowance of at least 15 yuan a year and some get as much as 3 yuan a month.)

As for general conditions, in cities and in state-run enterprises in particular,
workers' health and hygiene and their meals have been greatly improved. Gener-ally speaking, workers' meals in various cities cost over 6 yuan a month. Meals
for workers in the countryside are at least on a par with those of the employers.

Workers in the soviet areas have organized strong class labor unions. Such
unions are pillars of the soviet régime and strongholds for the defense of the
workers' interests. At the same time, they become schools in which the broad
masses of workers may study communism. The soviets have provided legal
guarantees for the rights of the unions, and as a result union membership has
greatly developed. According to statistics of the All-China Federation of Trade
Unions, the number of trade union members currently in the soviet areas, calculated on the basis of those in the Central Soviet Area and its several neighboring
soviet areas alone, is 229,000 persons, whose distribution is as follows: 110,000
in the Central Soviet Area, 23,000 in the Hunan-Jiangxi area, 40,000 in Hunan-
Hubei-Jiangxi, 25,000 in Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi, 6,000 in Fujian-Jiangxi, and
5,000 in Northern Fujian. 37 According to materials of the Central Soviet Area,
there are only 3,676 workers who have not joined labor unions, which is less
than 5 percent of the total of all workers. In other words, 95 percent of all
workers have joined labor unions. In some places, such as Xingguo, as many as
98 percent have joined unions. One might ask whether such a thing can be
dreamed of in the Guomindang areas. Not only in China, but throughout the
world, except for the Soviet Union, where is there such a situation in any imperialist country?

In sum, for the last two years the soviet Labor Law has already been in effect
in all cities of the soviet areas, and its main provisions have also been carried out
in the countryside. During these two years, although many capitalists and rich
peasants have resisted the Labor Law, active struggle by the masses of workers
and strict supervision by the soviets have rendered such resistance ineffectual. At the
same time, those independent producers, middle peasants, poor peasants, and farm
laborers who occasionally violate the Labor Law should be sincerely warned and
advised so that they may understand and of their own accord support the Labor Law.
Because of all this, the workers' lives have greatly improved, the revolutionary
activism of the workers has been greatly encouraged, and the workers have played
their tremendous role in the revolutionary war and in soviet construction.
According to statistics from the twelve xian in the Central Soviet Area of
Gonglue, Wantai, Longgang, Xingguo, Shengli, Xijiang, Yudu, Xunwu,
Shanghang, Ninghua, Changting, and Xinquan, among the 70,580 labor union
members, 19,960 persons now serve in the Red Army and the guerrilla forces, a
figure equivalent to 28 percent of the total membership. Those who work in the
soviets and other revolutionary organizations number 6,752, or 10 percent of the
total membership. Most of them hold responsible positions in the soviet organs.
These two groups make a total of 26,712 people, which amounts to 38 percent of
the total membership. There are at present 43,868 labor union members who still
live at home. The labor union members living at home from these twelve xian
have been paid back the second batch of public bonds worth 43,855 yuan, and
they have recently purchased economic construction bonds worth 197,803 yuan,
with each member living at home having purchased on average 4.5 yuan [worth].
Among members living at home there are currently 12,435 Party or League
members, making up 28 percent of the total number of union members living at
home. These statistics prove the enthusiasm of the masses of workers in joining
the Red Army, in participating in and supporting the revolutionary war, and in
cherishing the Chinese Communist Party. All of this, on the other hand, stems
from the fact that the soviets have protected the interests of the workers and
developed their enthusiasm. Those who say that the workers have gained nothing
since the revolution and that the activism of the workers has not been aroused
can only be said to be talking nonsense.

E. Now, Let Us Discuss the Agrarian Revolution
in the Soviet Areas.

The soviets and the Red Army of China were born and developed out of the
agrarian revolution. The broad masses of peasants under brutal oppression and
exploitation by the landlord class and the Guomindang warlords can be liberated
only through the agrarian revolution. The principle of the soviet land policies is
to overthrow completely all feudal and semifeudal exploitation and oppression
by the landlord class and the Guomindang warlords.

In all Guomindang areas, past and present, the land rents are frightful (60 to
80 percent), interest rates are frightful (30 to 100 percent), and taxes and levies
are frightful (as many as over 1,700 kinds in the whole country). As a result, the
land is concentrated in the hands of the landlord class and the rich peasants, and
the vast majority of peasants have lost their land and been thrown into the tragic
state of being hard-pressed either to live or die. Because of the ruthless plunder
of the land, peasants have lost their ability to fend off disasters. Consequently,
the calamities of flood and drought occur throughout the country. In 1931, as
many as 809 xian and 44 million people were hit by natural disasters. Because of
layer upon layer of plunder, the peasants lack the ability to produce more, and
much arable land has gone barren, a lot of it becoming virtually wasteland. At
the same time, what little the peasants do manage to produce is overwhelmed by
the imperialists' dumping of agricultural products. Because of this, the Chinese
rural economy has fallen into a state of total bankruptcy. It is on such a basis that
the flames of the agrarian revolution have exploded with force in the countryside.

The power of the agrarian revolution in the soviet areas has made a clean
sweep of all feudal remnants. Hundreds of millions of peasant masses have
suddenly awakened from a prolonged period of darkness, seized all the land and
property of the landlord class, confiscated the good land of the rich peasants,
abolished usurious interest rates, done away with exorbitant taxes and levies,
defeated all enemies of the revolution, and set up their own political power. The
peasant masses have for the first time come out of hell and attained the status of
masters. This is the fundamental difference between the situation in the countryside under the soviet régime and the Guomindang régime.

The First All-Soviet Congress promulgated a Land Law, which provided a
correct basis for the solution of the land problem throughout the country. Be-
cause class struggle in the countryside has become ever sharper, many disputes
have arisen over the question of class analysis. Based on past experience in the
land struggle, the Council of People's Commissars issued a "Decision Regarding
Certain Questions in the Agrarian Struggle," which provided correct solutions to
many problems, such as those of the landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants,
poor peasants, and vagrants, so the struggle in the countryside will develop more
effectively. 38 Many issues concerning land distribution methods, such as distances, poor and rich land, green crops, mountains and forests, ponds, and so on,
urgently await the gathering of experiences from various places so as to make the
necessary decisions. This is crucial to the leadership of land redistribution in new
areas.

To destroy thoroughly the remnant feudal forces and to see to it that the fruits
of the agrarian revolution fall entirely into the hands of farm laborers, poor
peasants, and middle peasants, the Central Government initiated a broad and thoroughgoing Land Investigation Movement. On the basis of statistics for the
three months of July, August, and September 1933, in the three Central Soviet
Area provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, and Guangdong, a total of 6,988 landlord
families and 6,638 rich peasant families were discovered. From the landlords and
rich peasants thus discovered, 307,539³⁹ Dan of land was taken, and cash confiscated from landlords and donations from rich peasants amounted to a total of
606,916 yuan. The revolutionary activism of the peasant masses has been heightened, and farm laborers' unions and poor peasant leagues have become pillars of
the soviets in the countryside. The fact that such great results were achieved in
the space of three months proves that rural class struggle still requires full attention from the soviets and also demonstrates completely that the Land Investigation Movement is a powerful method of continuing to develop the rural struggle
and completely eliminating feudal remnants.
The class line in the agrarian struggle is to rely on farm laborers and poor
peasants, unite with middle peasants, exploit⁴⁰ rich peasants, and eliminate landlords. Correct application of this line is the key to securing the victorious development of the land struggle and the basis for every one of the concrete policies
of the soviets toward the countryside. Therefore, the Soviet Government should
severely punish the erroneous tendencies of encroaching on the interests of middle peasants (mainly those of the prosperous middle peasants) and eliminating
rich peasants. At the same time, the attitude toward the mistakes of attempting to
compromise with landlords and rich peasants should not be relaxed, for only by
opposing all of these mistakes can the land struggle get onto the correct path.
Mass work in the agrarian struggle has gained a great deal of experience over
the last two years. Its main points may be summarized as follows: (1) In both the
movement for land redistribution and the Land Investigation Movement, all efforts must be made to mobilize the broad masses of poor peasants, middle
peasants, and the masses of rural workers to struggle on their own initiative
against the landlords and rich peasants. Both land redistribution and land investigation work must have the consent of the masses. All decisions on how to handle
a certain class must be made through a mass meeting. Where a few soviet staff
members on their own carry out land redistribution and investigation of class
status, there is the danger of lowering the enthusiasm for struggle on the part of
the masses. (2) Aside from land, most of the property confiscated from the
landlord class and the surplus draft animals, farm implements, and houses of the
rich peasants must be distributed to the poor masses. If this is not done and they
are assigned instead for use by a few individuals, it will likewise lower the
morale of the masses and facilitate resistance on the part of exploiting elements.
(3) It is not good to let the matter of land redistribution remain unsettled for a
long period of time; it should be properly redistributed within a rather short space of time and remain firmly in the hands of the peasants. In the future, unless
by request of the majority of the local masses, the land should not be redistributed again rashly. Not doing things in this manner goes against the views of the
peasants and will not only have an effect on the peasants' enthusiasm for the
land and production, but will also be used by exploiting elements to obstruct the
development of the agrarian struggle. (4) The objective of the Land Investigation
Movement is to clarify and determine exploiting-class status, not to clarify and
determine exploited-class status. Therefore, investigation should not be done
household-by-household and mu-by-mu. Rather, the broadest masses should be
mobilized to ferret out hidden landlords and rich peasants. (5) Strong measures
should be taken against counterrevolutionary elements who disrupt land redistribution and land investigation. With the consent of the masses, they are to be
treated by the harshest measures such as arrest, imprisonment, trial by the
masses, and even execution. This is entirely necessary. If this is not done, the
land struggle will be greatly hindered. (6) Great efforts should be made to develop class struggle but to avoid conflicts among localities and clans. The landlord class and rich peasants, for their part, make fervent attempts to substitute
struggle between localities and clans for class struggle so as to obstruct the
advance of the agrarian revolution. Soviet staff members should not be duped by
the landlords and rich peasants. (7) The development of the land revolution
depends upon raising the class consciousness and the degree of the organization
of the basic masses in the countryside. For this reason, soviet staff workers must
carry out extensive propaganda in depth in the countryside and must perfect the
organization of the Poor Peasant League and unions of farm laborers.
The agrarian revolution has not only given land to the peasants, but should
also enable them to develop the productive capacity of the land. Because of
soviet leadership and the heightened enthusiasm for labor on the part of the
peasants, agricultural production has recovered in vast portions of the soviet
areas and in some places has been even further developed.
On this basis, the peasants' lives have greatly improved. Because the peasants
have done away with exploitation by the landlords and the Guomindang, the
fruits of their production remain in their own hands. For this reason the peasants'
lives are at least twice as good as during the Guomindang period. In the past, the
vast majority of peasants did not have enough to eat during much of a given
year, and in hard times some even had to eat tree bark and grain bran. Now, on
the other hand, not only is starvation generally nonexistent, but there is greater
abundance each year. In the past, the vast majority of peasants could eat meat
only a few times each year, but now there are more chances to eat meat. In the
past, the vast majority of peasants were clothed in rags, but now there has been
general improvement, in some cases by 100 percent, in other cases even 200
percent.
What kind of life and what kind of régime do the peasant masses desire? Let
the peasant masses of all Guomindang areas answer this question for themselves.

F. Let Us Now Discuss the Financial Policies of the Soviets.
The financial objectives of the soviets are to guarantee supplies and provisions
for the revolutionary war and to ensure payment of all revolutionary expenses for
the soviets. Given, however, that the Soviet Republic must meet enormous expenses for the revolutionary war and for revolutionary work, while it still occupies a relatively small area within the whole country, consisting moreover of
economically rather backward places, and considering also the fact that it applies
taxation policies beneficial to the broad masses, many outsiders cannot understand how the soviets get by financially. The Guomindang, on the other hand,
occupies vast regions and voraciously feeds on the flesh and blood of the people,
so why should it have fallen into bankruptcy?
There is nothing strange in this. Soviet financial policies and use of financial
resources are fundamentally different from those of the Guomindang.
The soviets' financial policies are built upon the principle of the interests of
the class and the revolution. Therefore, the financial resources of the soviets
come from: (1) carrying out confiscation or imposing levies on all feudal exploiters, (2) taxation, and (3) developing the enterprises of the national economy.
What is meant by confiscation and levies from feudal exploiters is raising
money from landlords and rich peasants in the soviet areas and the White areas.
According to past experience, this source of income often occupies a prominent
position. This is the opposite of the Guomindang's financial policies: the soviets
impose the main financial burden on the exploiters, whereas the Guomindang
places the main financial burden on the workers, peasants, and toiling masses.
Soviet taxation is unified and progressive. At present it is carried out through
two simple components, a commercial tax and an agricultural tax. The basic
principle of taxation is likewise to place the heavy burden on exploiters.
Commercial tax levies are divided into tariffs and business taxes. Tariffs are
aimed at uniformly regulating the import and export of goods in light of the
needs of the soviet areas. Therefore, the tariff rate runs from total exemption to
as high as 100 percent. Within the borders of China, only the soviets have carried
out an entirely independent tariff system without interference from any foreign
government. All goods go throughout the entire Soviet Area after paying the
tariff at border customs points, and there is no second levy of tariffs, thus doing
away at one stroke with the Guomindang's abusive policy of lijin, 41 which
involves layer upon layer of extortion.
The business tax is a commercial income tax (no industrial tax is levied at
present). A unified progressive tax is levied according to the size of a merchant's
capital and the amount of his profit. A small amount of capital and less profit is
lightly taxed, and larger amounts of capital with more profit are heavily taxed.

Capital of under 100 yuan, cooperatives of the masses, and surplus goods sold
directly by peasants themselves are all exempt from taxation.
Agricultural taxation relies upon the revolutionary enthusiasm of the peasants,
which causes them to pay their taxes voluntarily, and it is likewise in principle a
progressive method of taxation. Families with fewer members and less land are
taxed lightly, and families with more members and more land are more heavily
taxed. Poor and middle peasants are lightly taxed and rich peasants are taxed
more heavily. Farm laborers and families of Red Army soldiers are exempt from
paying taxes. Areas struck by natural disasters pay reduced taxes or are exempt
from taxation, depending on the extent of damage suffered.
The unified, progressive taxation system adopted by the soviets is the most
excellent tax system in the world, one that all capitalist countries dare not use or
dare not use to its full extent. As for taxation under the Guomindang, it is one
huge, muddled account. Its principle of taxation is to take it mainly from peasants and other members of the petty bourgeoisie. In addition to regular taxes,
there are countless supplemental taxes. According to figures in the Tianjin
Dagong bao of March 22, 1933, there is a total of as many as 1,756 categories
of taxes in the Guomindang areas, land taxes in Sichuan have been collected in
advance all the way up to 1987, and land tax in Shaanxi is twenty-five times
more than it was before the Guomindang arrived. This is the Guomindang's
"benevolence" toward the toiling masses!
To increase the revenue of the soviets by developing the national economy
is an important part of soviet financial policies. Tangible results are already
manifest in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Soviet Area and are starting to appear in the Central Soviet Area as well. It is the responsibility of soviet
financial and economic organs to stress the pursuit of this aspect. It should be
pointed out here that the principle of the state bank in issuing paper money
should be to do so in accordance with the needs of economic development;
purely fiscal needs must take second place. It is absolutely necessary to take
full account of this aspect.
Thrift should be the guiding principle in government expenditures. All soviet
personnel should be made to understand that corruption and waste are very great
crimes. In the resolute struggle against corruption and waste, although there have
been some achievements in the past, greater efforts should be made in the future.
Saving every copper for the war and the revolutionary cause is the principle of
the soviet accounting system. The soviets' use of financial resources must be
strictly different from that of the Guomindang.
It is not that soviet finances are free of hardships. Expansion of the Red Army
and development of the war have given rise to financial difficulties for the
soviets. But solutions to these difficulties are contained within the difficulties
themselves. The unfolding of our revolutionary war, improvement in our soviet
work, expansion of our source of revenue into all Guomindang areas, placing the
soviets' financial burdens on the shoulders of all exploiting elements, and in- creasing the soviets' income through developing the national economy-all
these are solutions to the difficulties.

G. Next, Let Us Discuss Soviet Economic Policies42

Only the Guomindang warlords who have already brought the areas under their
own rule to the point of complete bankruptcy43 have the utter shamelessness to
spread the rumor, day in and day out, that the soviet areas44 are in a state of total
collapse. It is true enough that the imperialist Guomindang is45 utterly bent on
wrecking the soviet areas,46 the soviet construction47 now in progress there, and
the welfare of the millions of workers and peasants who have achieved liberation. For this purpose the counterrevolutionaries48 have pursued a ruthless policy
of economic blockade in addition to organizing all sorts of armed forces for their
military campaigns of "Encirclement and Suppression." But, leading the broad
masses and the Red Army, the Soviet Government has49 not only smashed one
enemy "Encirclement and Suppression" after another, but has also been doing all
the essential work of economic construction within its power in order to defeat
the enemy's vicious economic blockade. In this respect, too, the soviets50 have
scored one success after another.

Because the soviets' central task is to win victory in the war against the
imperialist Guomindang, and because the soviet areas are at present economically rather backward areas that are, on top of that, under the enemy's economic
blockade, the principle governing the soviets'51 economic policy is to proceed
with all the essential work of economic construction within our power and concentrate economic resources on the war effort, and at the same time to improve
the life of the people as much as possible, consolidate the worker-peasant alliance in the economic field, and ensure proletarian leadership of the peasantry,52
thus creating the prerequisites and a favorable climate for the future advance to
socialist construction.

The focus of soviet53 economic construction is to increase agricultural and industrial production, expand trade with the outside, and develop the cooperative
movement.

Agriculture in the soviet areas54 is clearly making progress. As compared with
1932, the 1933 agricultural output was 15 percent higher in the Central Soviet
Area55 and 20 percent higher in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Soviet Area.57 For
the first year or two after the uprising in a soviet area, agricultural production
often shows signs of decline.58 But it tends to pick up again as land redistribution
is settled and with encouragement by the soviets and the greater enthusiasm for
work on the part of the peasant masses.59 Now in some places production has
reached and even exceeded the pre-uprising60 level. In other places, not only has
land that lay waste during the course of the uprisings been eliminated,61 but new
land has been brought under cultivation. In many places mutual-aid groups and
plowing teams have been organized to adjust the use of labor power in the
countryside, and cooperatives have been organized to overcome the shortage of
draught oxen. In addition, the broad masses of women are taking part in crash
work on the production front.62 None of this could have happened in the days of
the Guomindang. With the land as the private property of the landlords in the
Guomindang period, the peasants were neither willing to improve it nor did they
possess the means to do so. Only since the soviets63 have distributed the land to
the peasants and encouraged and rewarded production has their labor enthusiasm
blossomed forth and great success in production been achieved. It should be
pointed out here that under the present conditions agricultural production occupies first place in soviet64 economic construction; it is needed to solve both the
most important problem of food, and the problem of providing raw materials
(such as cotton, hemp, sugar cane, bamboo, and so on) to make clothes, sugar,
paper, and other necessities. The care of forests and the increase of livestock are
also an important part of agriculture. Within the framework of a small-scale
peasant economy, it is permissible and indeed necessary to draw up suitable plans for the output of certain important products and to mobilize the peasants to
strive for their fulfillment (for example, the quantity of cotton production for
each province). The soviets65 should pay closer attention and devote greater
efforts to this. The soviets must actively lead the peasants in solving such basic66
problems in production as labor power, draft oxen, raw materials,67 seed, irrigation, and so on. In this connection the fundamental problem68 of agricultural
production in the soviet areas is adjusting the use of labor power in an organized
way and encouraging women to participate in production. Effective measures69
to solve this problem70 are organizing mutual-aid groups and plowing teams and
the soviets mobilizing and encouraging the whole rural population during the
important spring and summer plowing seasons. Another big problem is that quite
a large proportion (about 25 percent) of the peasants are short of draft oxen. The
soviets should attend to organizing draft oxen cooperatives, encouraging all
households without draft oxen to buy them for their common use through voluntary subscription to shares. Irrigation is the lifeblood of agriculture, and it too
merits close attention from the soviets. The question of soviet71 or collective
agriculture, of course, cannot as yet be raised, but with the objective of promoting progress in agriculture,72 it is urgently necessary to set up small experimental
farms, agricultural research schools, and exhibitions of farm produce in every
township and district.73
The enemy blockade has made it difficult for us to market goods outside our
area. There has been a decline in production in many handicraft industries in the
soviet areas,74 notably tobacco-curing and paper-making. But the difficulties of
sending goods out are not completely insurmountable. We have an extensive
market of our own because of the mass demand in the soviet areas. For the
purpose of trade with the outside, but mainly to supply our own needs, industry
should be systematically developed.75 In the past two years, and especially since
the first half of 1933, many industries76 have begun to recover because of the
attention the soviets have started to pay them and the gradual development of producers' cooperatives by the masses. Here the important fields are tobacco,
paper, tungsten ore, camphor, farm implements, and fertilizers (such as lime).
Moreover, in our present circumstances, we should not neglect the manufacture
of our own cotton cloth, medicines, and sugar. In the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi
area, some industries have been set up that were previously nonexistent, such as
paper-making, cloth-making, and sugar-refining, and they are doing well. To
relieve the shortage of table salt, people are extracting it from nitre. It takes
proper planning to keep industry going. On the basis of a scattered handicraft
industry, of course, comprehensive and detailed planning is impossible. But
fairly detailed production plans are absolutely essential for certain important
industries," first and foremost for state and cooperative enterprises. Each and
every soviet78 and cooperative industrial enterprise must pay attention from the
very beginning to making accurate estimates of raw material output and marketing prospects in both the White areas and the soviet areas.

At present it is particularly necessary for the soviets to organize external
trading? according to plan and to handle certain essential commodities directly,
for example, the import of table salt and cotton cloth, the export of grain and
tungsten ore, and the adjustment of grain supply within the soviet areas. Such
work was first undertaken in the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi area and was started in
the Central Area in the spring of 1933. With the establishment of the Bureau of
External Trade and other agencies, initial successes have been achieved in this
connection.

The development of the economy in the soviet areas is simultaneously being
carried out in the three sectors of state enterprise, cooperative enterprise, and
private enterprise. At present, state-run economic enterprise is limited to what is
possible and what is essential. This aspect has now begun to develop in both
industry and commerce, and they naturally have boundless prospects.

As regards the private sector of the economy, the soviets shall not hamper it
but rather shall promote and encourage it, as long as it does not transgress the
limits set by soviet law. 80 For the development of private enterprise is essential
to the interests of the soviets at the present stage. Needless to say, private
enterprise is now preponderant and will inevitably continue to occupy a dominant position for a considerable time. At present, development of the private
economy in the soviet areas generally takes the form of small capital. 82

Cooperative enterprise is growing very rapidly. According to the September
1933 figures for 17 xian in the 2 provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian, there are
altogether 1,423 cooperatives of various kinds, with a total capital of 305,551 yuan. 83 Because of promotion at rallies for economic construction, in xian such
as Ruijin and Xingguo, for example, within a month or more after the rallies the
development figures caught up with those of the entire period before the rallies.
Large-scale development of cooperatives is now mainly in consumers' cooperatives and grain cooperatives, with producers' cooperatives coming next. Credit
cooperatives are still just at the beginning stage. The development of the cooperative movement will doubtless become pivotal in the economic development of
the soviet areas. When the cooperative and the state economies become coordinated84 they will become a tremendous force in the economy, and through a long
process of struggle with the private economy gradually attain a leading and
superior position, thereby creating the conditions for the economy in the soviet
areas to evolve into a socialist economy. Therefore, the greatest possible development of state enterprises and the extensive development of cooperative enterprise must go hand in hand with encouraging the development of private
enterprise.
With the support of the masses, the Council of People's Commissars has 85
issued construction bonds to the value of 3,000,000 yuan in order to develop
state enterprise and assist the cooperative movement. Such reliance on the
strength of the masses is the only possible way to solve the problems of funds for
economic construction at this time. 86
At a time when the whole country is plunged in economic disaster, when
hundreds of millions of people are suffering the terrible hardships of hunger and
cold, the Soviet Government is staunchly pressing ahead with economic construction for the sake of the revolutionary war and in the interests of the popular
masses, 87 regardless of all the difficulties. The situation is very clear: only by
defeating the imperialist Guomindang88 and by undertaking planned, organized
economic construction can the soviets deliver the popular masses in their hundreds of millions throughout the country from unprecedented economic disaster.

H. Now Let Us Turn to Soviet Culture and Education.

With a view to victory in the revolutionary war, consolidation and development
of soviet political power, mobilizing all the forces of the popular masses to
participate in the great revolutionary struggle, and creating a new revolutionary generation, 89 the soviets must carry out cultural and educational reform to remove the spiritual shackles imposed on the masses of workers and peasants by
the reactionary ruling class and create a new soviet culture of the workers and
peasants.

Everyone knows that under Guomindang rule all cultural and educational
organs are in the hands of the landlords and the bourgeoisie. Their educational
policy is on the one hand to engage in reactionary militaristic propaganda, so as
to wipe out all revolutionary thinking by the oppressed classes, and on the other
hand to carry out a policy of keeping the people in ignorance, excluding the
masses of workers and peasants from education. The reactionary Guomindang
uses financial resources intended for education to finance military action against
the revolution. Most schools have been closed and most students are out of
school. Under Guomindang rule, as a consequence, the people have become
benighted and ignorant. Over 80 percent of the total population of the country as
a whole is illiterate. An extremely brutal White terror has been launched against
revolutionary culture and thought. All left-wing writers and social scientists
and any revolutionary elements within the cultural and educational organs are
subject to persecution by the Guomindang fascists. Turning all educational organs into dark hells is actually the educational policy of the Guomindang.

Anyone who comes to visit our soviet areas will immediately find this to be a
brand new world of freedom and light.

Here all cultural and educational organs are in the hands of the workers,
peasants, and toiling masses. The workers, peasants, and their children have
priority in obtaining an education. The Soviet Government uses every means to
raise the cultural level of the workers and peasants. For this purpose, it has
provided all possible political and material assistance to the masses. For this
reason, even though at present the soviet areas face extremely brutal civil war
conditions and are mostly in places that used to be culturally very backward,
they are already carrying out revolutionary cultural construction at a rapid pace.

According to figures for the three provinces of Jiangxi, Fujian, and
Guangdong-Jiangxi, in 2,932 townships there are 3,052 Lenin primary schools
with 89,710 pupils; 6,462 evening schools for continuing education with 94,517
students; 32,388 literacy groups (these figures were gathered only for the two
provinces of Jiangxi and Guangdong-Jiangxi, leaving out Fujian) with 155,371
members; 1,656 clubs; and 49,668 staff members. These are partial figures for
the Central Soviet Area.

The majority of school-age children in many parts of the soviet areas have
entered Lenin primary schools. For example, out of a total of 20,969 school-age
children in Xingguo (12,076 boys and 8,893 girls), 12,806 are in Lenin primary
schools (8,825 boys and 3,981 girls) and 8,163 are not in school (3,251 boys and

4,912 girls), making a ratio of 60 to 40 between those attending school and those
not attending school.⁹¹ In many places in the soviet areas, the children spend
most of their time receiving education and playing, and only a small amount of
time doing jobs in the family. This is exactly the opposite of what happened
during the Guomindang period. At the same time, children are organized into
Red Children's Leagues, which also serve as schools where children can learn
communism.
The demand of the masses of women for education has never been so intense.
Of the 15,740 students at the evening school in Xingguo, 4,988, or 31 percent,
are male, and 10,752, or 69 percent, are female. Of the 22,519 members of the
literacy groups in Xingguo, 9,000, or 40 percent, are male, and 13,519, or 60
percent, are female. In places such as Xingguo, women have attained initial
liberation from illiteracy, and as a result women's activities have become very
vigorous. Not only are women receiving education themselves, they are also
taking charge of education. Many women serve as heads of primary schools and
night schools and have become members of education and literacy committees.
Conferences of women worker and peasant representatives are common organizations in the soviet areas. They pay attention to the overall interests of the
masses of working women, so that women's education is naturally part of their
concern.
The number of literates among the masses is rapidly increasing. Ways to
acquire literacy are through evening schools, the literacy movement, and literacy
billboards. Evening schools have fixed locations, literacy groups meet in
people's homes, and literacy billboards are along the sides of the roads. The
leading organs of the literacy movement are the village literacy movement committees. In Xingguo, for example, the whole xian has general literacy movement
committees in 130 townships, branches of literacy movement committees in 561
villages, and 3,387 literacy groups under these branches with 12,529⁹² members
having joined these small groups. This is an enormous mass movement for
wiping out illiteracy. Such a movement should be extended to all cities and rural
areas throughout the soviet areas.
The rapid development of the cultural movement among the masses in the
soviet areas can be noted as well by observing the circulation of newspapers. The
Central Soviet Area currently has thirty-four different newspapers, large and
small. Among them, for example, the circulation of Hongse zhonghua (Red
China) has increased from 3,000 to 40,000; that of Qingnian shihua (Truth for
Young People) is 28,000; that of Douzheng (Struggle) is 27,100; and that of
Hongxing (Red Star) is 17,300. All of this shows that the cultural level of the
masses is being rapidly raised.

In the soviet areas, revolutionary arts of the masses are also beginning to be
created. The movements of worker and peasant performing companies and of blue-clad troupes, 93 and the club movement in the countryside, are all developing widely.
The Red physical education movement of the masses is also developing
quickly. Even remote villages now have track and field races, and sports grounds
have been built in many places.
The soviet areas still lack adequate establishments for specialized education.
But in order to train leading cadres for the revolutionary struggle, we have
already set up the Red Army University, the Soviet University, the [Karl] Marx
Communist University, and various cadre education schools under the leadership
of the Commissariat for Education. A component of the plans for education
should doubtless be that intermediate and specialized education develop in conjunction with basic education so as to foster its development.
In order to train worker and peasant intellectuals 94 and develop culture and
education, another point that soviet cultural policies cannot neglect is the use of
intellectuals of landlord and bourgeois class origins to serve the soviets.
Wherein lie the general guidelines of soviet culture and education? They are
in using the communist spirit to educate the broad masses of toiling people, in
making culture and education serve the revolutionary war and the class struggle,
and in linking education with physical labor. 95
What are the central tasks of soviet cultural construction? They are the institution of universal and compulsory education, the development of broad social
education, striving to eliminate illiteracy, and the creation of large numbers of
high-level cadres to lead the struggle.
Everyone understands that all of these guidelines and tasks can be realized
only under the leadership of the soviet régime, for they are manifestations of the
extreme sharpness of the class struggle and represent the greatest victory in
liberating the human spirit.

I. Let Us Now Discuss the Soviet Marriage System

To liberate the masses of women from the barbaric feudal marriage system and
to put into effect a marriage system of genuine equality between men and
women, the Central Executive Committee promulgated the soviet regulations on
marriage as early as November 1931.96 Therein complete freedom of marriage
and divorce is established; the system of arranged, forced, and mercenary mar- riages is abolished; and the practice of raising child brides is prohibited. This
decree has been generally applied over the past two years in all areas under
soviet jurisdiction. All those who are not related by blood within five generations, are not mentally ill, and do not have dangerous contagious diseases, males
at least twenty years of age and females at least eighteen years of age, are
permitted to marry by mutual consent and through registration at the township or
city soviet. Divorce is effective if requested by either party, man or woman, and
upon registration at the township or city soviet.
This democratic marriage system has burst the feudal shackles that have
bound human beings, especially women, for thousands of years and established a
new pattern consistent with human nature. This, too, is one of the great victories
in the history of humanity.
This victory came, however, as a consequence of the victory of the democratic dictatorship of workers and peasants, for in order to achieve the liberation
of the marriage system for the toiling masses of workers and peasants, it is first
necessary to overthrow the dictatorship of the landlords and the bourgeoisie and
to carry out the land revolution. Only when the laboring masses of men and
women, and the women in particular, have political freedom in the first place
and considerable economic freedom in the second place can freedom of marriage be finally guaranteed. Working women in the soviet areas have the right
to vote just as men do, and they have been assigned land and work, so the new
system can now be fully carried out.
Because for thousands of years marriage relations have been barbaric to an
inhuman degree, women have suffered more oppression than have men. Therefore
the current soviet marriage laws and regulations stress the protection of women and
place more of the responsibilities arising from divorce on the shoulders of men.
Because children are the new revolutionary generation, and social custom in the
past paid little attention to the protection of children, the marriage regulations have
separate stipulations on the protection of children. In this regard special attention is
given to recognition of the status of illegitimate children and to their protection.
The application of this marriage system has won support for the soviets from
the broad masses of people, who have gained not only political and economic
liberation, but also liberation with regard to relations between men and women.
With respect to the marriage system itself, the soviet areas and the
Guomindang areas are also two completely opposite worlds.

J. Finally, On the Policy Toward Nationalities

Winning over all oppressed national minorities in the areas around the soviets
and augmenting the anti-imperialist and anti-Guomindang revolutionary forces"
are the starting points of the soviet policy on nationalities.

Many national minorities within the country, such as the Mongolian, Tibetan,
Korean, Vietnamese, Miao, Li, and other peoples have throughout history been
exploited and ruled by Chinese feudal emperors and feudal warlords. The
Guomindang has inherited this form of rule without any changes whatsoever. Its
so-called "republic of five nationalities" is nothing but a sinister lie designed to
deceive people, and Feng Yuxiang's massacre of the Gansu Muslims and Bai
Chongxi's massacre of the Guangxi Miao people are indeed the most recent
"rewards" granted by the Guomindang. In addition, the ruling class within the
national minorities themselves, consisting of those such as princes, living buddhas,
lamas, and headmen, have colluded with Chinese Guomindang warlords and
brought to the broad toiling masses of these nationalities even more severe oppression and exploitation. Or else they (in Tibet, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, for
example) have directly surrendered to the imperialists, leading the imperialists to
colonize these areas rapidly and further to plunder the working masses. Such is
the reality of the lives of the national minorities in the past and at present.

The Soviet Government firmly opposes all domination and plunder of national minorities by imperialists and Guomindang warlords. Article 14 of the
"Outline of the Constitution," promulgated by the First National Soviet Congress
in November 1931, states:

The Soviet Government of China recognizes the right to self-determination
of the national minorities within China's borders, to the point of each nationality seceding from China and establishing its own independent, free state. All
peoples such as the Mongols, Muslims, Tibetans, Miao, Li, and Koreans who
live within China's borders may, according to a decision based on each
nationality's own will, join the Chinese Soviet Federation, secede from the
Soviet Federation, or establish their own autonomous regions. At present, the
Chinese soviet régime must do its utmost to assist these small and weak
nationalities in freeing themselves from the oppressive rule of the imperialists,
Guomindang warlords, princes, lamas, local headmen, and others, and enable
them to achieve complete liberation. The soviet régime should develop among
these nationalities their own national cultures and languages.

This is a resounding reply to the barbarous colonial policies toward the nationalities carried out by the imperialists of the whole world (including the

Chinese Guomindang). The broad masses of China's workers and peasants and
their Soviet Government are not only themselves waging a resolute war of national revolution to throw off the imperialist yoke, but are also calling upon all
small and weak nationalities in the country to free themselves at the same time
from the yoke of the Chinese ruling class and imperialists, until these nationalities have attained complete separation and independence. Article 15 of the Out-line of the Soviet Constitution states, once again:

The Chinese soviet régime offers the right of asylum within the soviet areas
to all revolutionary fighters of the various Chinese nationalities, and of all the
countries in the world, who suffer persecution by reactionary rulers because of
revolutionary activity; it will, moreover, assist them in recovering their fighting strength all the way until total victory of the revolutionary movements of
these nationalities and countries is achieved.

The truth of this soviet declaration has been proven by the residence in the
soviet areas of many revolutionary Korean, Taiwanese, and Vietnamese comrades; the attendance of Korean delegates at the First National Soviet Congress;
and the participation in this congress of several delegates from Korea, Taiwan,
and Vietnam. 102
Common revolutionary interests have wholeheartedly united the Chinese
working masses and the working masses of all national minorities.
National oppression is based on national exploitation. Overthrowing this system of national exploitation will replace national oppression with a free alliance
among nationalities.
This is possible, however, only with total victory of the Chinese soviet
régime. Helping the Chinese soviet régime to win victory throughout the country
is likewise the responsibility of all national minorities.

V. The Concrete Fighting Tasks of the Soviets in Thoroughly
Smashing the Fifth 103 "Encirclement and Suppression" and
Striving for the Victory of the Revolution Throughout the Country

Having addressed the current situation, the soviet régime's struggles against
imperialism and "Encirclement and Suppression" over the past two years, and
the basic policies carried out by the soviets, it is time we drew a definite conclusion, which is that the soviet movement has taken great strides forward. The
victories of the soviet movement over the past two years have clearly changed
the balance of power between the enemy and ourselves. The enemy's vacillation
and collapse have accelerated, whereas the soviet movement is developing vigor- ously. The revolutionary forces have grown in strength and the revolutionary
positions have been further consolidated. The national war and the revolutionary
civil war are going on in the vast areas of China, and the Red Army has become
an invincible force. The foundation of the democratic dictatorship of workers
and peasants has been established. Soviet construction work has achieved great
results in all fields. The unified leadership of the Soviet Central Government has
not only built a solid foundation in the soviet areas, but has also become the
revolutionary banner of the broad masses in the areas under Guomindang rule.
All these things have become the facts of life today and the undeniable, objective
reality.

The advance of the revolution, however, demands that we take into account
other circumstances, and that we examine with a thoroughgoing spirit of selfcriticism the weaknesses on the revolutionary front. This is our unshirkable duty.
In taking into account our weaknesses, it must first of all be clearly understood that although the areas in which the soviets have achieved victory are vast,
in relation to the country as a whole they are still quite small and are located in
economically rather backward places. The counterrevolutionaries still retain their
huge areas and still occupy all the important cities. As a consequence, the task of
winning victory for the soviets throughout the country by striving for victory
first in one or several provinces falls most seriously upon our shoulders. 104 The
increasingly intensified life-and-death struggle between the two political régimes
requires that we exert all our efforts to solve this problem and permits not even a
trace of complacency to remain in our revolutionary ranks, nor even the slightest
feeling of fatigue to manifest itself.

Second, although the anti-imperialist movement of the people of the whole
country has been unfolding widely over the past two years and the Soviet Central
Government has also achieved considerable success in leading the anti-imperialist movement, in view of the gravity of the current national crisis and the serious
task of halting imperialist invasion and Guomindang surrender and betrayal, it is
clear that the presently developing anti-imperialist fighting forces remain extremely inadequate. The soviets have not yet made use of very many methods to
inspire the nationalist awareness and class consciousness of the broad masses, or
to organize a people's anti-imperialist struggle. And even in the anti-imperialist
struggles arising spontaneously among the masses, the direct assistance and leadership of the Soviet Government is still extremely inadequate. In the vast White
areas, the soviets have not yet fully assumed their responsibility for organizing
and leading the struggle of the workers against the bourgeoisie and the struggle
of the peasants against the landlords. Even in the Guomindang areas surrounding
the soviet areas, the greatest possible efforts have not been made to organize
mass struggle so that conditions are created for transforming these areas swiftly
into soviet areas, so that the Red Army fighting in these areas gets the benefit of more concerted actions on the part of the local masses, and especially to create a
situation in which White army soldiers stage uprisings in resonance with the
actions of the Red Army.
Third, although the Red Army is rapidly growing in numbers and improving
in quality, it has nonetheless fallen far short of fulfilling the great tasks of
defeating the entire military power of the imperialist Guomindang and winning
national victory for the revolution. The work of expanding the Red Army in the
rear is still unable to meet the demands of the front. The organization and
training of the Red Guards and Young Pioneers are still very poor in many
places. The organization and actions of guerrilla troops are generally inadequate.
Many places have done a very poor job of giving preferential treatment to the
families of Red Army soldiers. All this has limited the development of the
revolutionary war to its past achievements and prevented us from making direct
advances upon the heels of victory in breaking through each of the enemy's
"Encirclement and Suppression" campaigns and achieving even greater victory.
Fourth, faced with the task of giving all for the war, we have still been unable
to adjust all soviet work completely to the demands of the revolutionary war.
Weaknesses exist whether we are talking about the land struggle, the workers'
struggle, 105 economic construction, finance, the campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries, or culture and education. To point out these general
weaknesses is to say that the revolutionary war demands that such work should
achieve great successes with the greatest possible rapidity, yet the actual accomplishments are quite uneven in different places. Many localities have actually
attained the standard of what is called the highest speed and the greatest possible
achievements, and the work in these places has provided tremendous assistance
to the revolutionary war. In other places, however, not only has the work been
carried out very slowly, but even after a very long time, they have not been able
to achieve the results that should have been attained. In some new areas and
border areas in particular, the work is even worse. The main reason for this sort
of situation is the existence within the soviet organs in these areas of some
elements who fail to understand or even refuse to carry out soviet laws, orders,
and policies. Some among these elements are serious opportunists and bureaucrats, and some are simply spies sent by the landlords and bourgeoisie. They do
not advance the work of the soviets, but rather obstruct it. Instead of making the
work of the soviets serve the war, they divorce it from the war. They refuse to
promote mass struggle and instead have called a halt to it. In carrying out the
work of the soviets, they have never mobilized the broad masses nor engaged in
persuasion or education of the masses, but have made use of empty talk and
empty shouting or even the bureaucratism of coercive orders. Instead of going to
find out the situation at the grassroots level or going to educate new cadres or going to solicit opinions from the masses, all they do is opportunistically slander
lower-level cadres as unfit and condemn the masses down there as lacking in
revolutionary zeal. In these places, soviet democracy has not been fully developed, the broadest masses have not been drawn in to participate in soviet elections, and large numbers of activists from among the masses have not been
drawn in to take part in soviet work. The system of city and township deputies'
congresses has not yet been properly established in these places, and the soviets
have yet to become the true political organs of the broad masses themselves. For
these reasons, much of the work of the soviets in these places has failed to
achieve the results it should have and cannot meet the urgent demands of the
revolutionary war. It should be clearly pointed out that this is a most serious
weakness in the work of the soviets.
The existence of all these weaknesses provides us with a profound warning:
only by overcoming these weaknesses can the soviet movement adjust to all
favorable objective conditions and develop on a larger scale and with a broader
scope.
We already have great strength, which has become the foundation of our
development. But the needs of the revolutionary situation go beyond our powers,
which are inadequate and which must be augmented.
In order to smash thoroughly the "Encirclement and Suppression" of the
imperialist Guomindang and win victory for the revolution throughout the country, the Second National Soviet Congress must call upon all revolutionary
masses of the soviet areas and the whole of China to carry out resolutely the
following concrete fighting tasks:

A. With Regard to Building Up the Red Army

Further strengthen the leadership of the Central Revolutionary Military Commis-sion over the Red Army throughout the nation so that the actions of the Red
Army all over the country may be better coordinated and synchronized with each
other under unified strategic thinking, and so that military organs in various
places may be more able to carry out their own tasks fully under central leadership.
Spread widely and deeply among the broad toiling masses of workers and
peasants in all soviet areas and all over China the slogan of expanding to create a
million-man iron Red Army. Call upon the masses to struggle for realization of
this minimal slogan within the shortest period of time. The masses should be
made to realize that the decisive struggle for victory or defeat between the soviet
régime and the Guomindang régime, and the direct and extensive confrontations
between the soviet régime and imperialism that are before us depend upon our
creation of a great Red Army millions of men strong. Therefore, the initial
creation of a million-man Red Army is the sacred duty of the soviets and of
every worker and peasant member of the masses. The Central Revolutionary

Military Commission and local soviets at all levels should be responsible for
gathering the rich experiences of expanding the Red Army in various areas over
the past two years, and especially since the Red May of last year. It should be
emphatically pointed out that having thoroughgoing political agitation replace
coercive methods; having ruthless class struggle and soviet laws and orders in
this respect used to deal with class-alien elements and bad elements who undermine the expansion of the Red Army and take the lead in desertion; and having
all soviet laws, orders, and measures for granting Red Army soldiers and their
families preferential treatment fully implemented so as to raise the social status
of Red Army soldiers, to provide more psychological comfort for Red Army
soldiers and their families, and to resolve all material difficulties in the lives of
Red Army soldiers and their families, are all important methods of expanding the
Red Army. It should be pointed out as well that cultivating the land for Red Army
families and supplying them with daily necessities are important parts of the work of
preferential treatment. All elements with a passive attitude toward the work of giving
preferential treatment to Red Army soldiers and their families and who feign compliance should be punished under soviet law.
Consolidation of the Red Army should be given priority in building up the
Red Army, so that the Red Army may not only expand rapidly but grow stronger
very fast as well. Political education of Red Army soldiers should be stepped up
further so that every Red Army soldier will conscientiously fight to the end for a
soviet new China, so that the Red Army becomes the propagator and organizer
for the soviets and carries out the creation of new soviet areas, and so that there
may develop closer ties between Red Army soldiers and the toiling masses of
workers and peasants in the broad soviet areas and White areas. The conscientious discipline of the Red Army should be enhanced through political education,
so they understand that this is an important weapon with which to ensure victory
in the war. The political commissar system should be set up in all Red Army
units, local units, and guerrilla detachments. More people with worker backgrounds should be promoted to positions as military and political commanders at
all levels. Red Army schools should be made more capable of training large
numbers of high-level and lower-level military and political cadres than they
were in the past. Attention should be paid to checking family backgrounds in the
Red Army, and heavy blows should be dealt to attempts by landlord and bourgeois elements to sneak into the Red Army and undermine it from within. The
work of consolidating the Red Army and making it an iron army is equally as
important as political work, and what the Red Army urgently needs at present is
the raising of military skills. Faced with daily expansion of the scale of the war
and the imperialist Guomindang army's constantly increasing use of new military techniques, the accomplishment of this task becomes of the utmost importance for us. The slogan of "learn and improve new military skills" should be
deeply ingrained in every Red Army soldier, and Red Army schools should
make their greatest efforts toward this goal.

The new organizational methods used for Red Guards and Young Pioneers
should be introduced in all parts of the soviet areas, and all laboring youth and
adult men and women should be armed. Every member of the Red Guards and
Young Pioneers should be made to understand clearly the role and responsibilities of the Red Army reserve forces and local defense troops. Propaganda on the
need for and role of conscription in the even larger-scale civil war in the future
should be appropriately disseminated, starting now, among all toiling masses and
members of the Red Guards and Young Pioneers. Great efforts should be made
in carrying out all possible and necessary military and political training. Camp-ing and exercise techniques should be introduced as much as possible within the
Red Guards and Young Pioneers in all localities. With enemy attacks and attempts to stir up trouble by exploiting elements in the soviet areas, the Red
Guards and Young Pioneers should be given extra responsibility for defending
the local areas, and the occurrence in many places of relaxing the Red martial
law should be quickly redressed. One of the best ways to expand the Red Army
is to get whole companies and teams of model Red Guards and Young Pioneers
to join the Red Army, and to reorganize these contingents as soon as they have
been so mobilized. Red guerrilla forces in the new areas, border areas, and White
areas are indispensable to Red Army fighting and play the role of one of its great
detachments. Strengthening and expanding the existing guerrilla forces; multiplying new guerrilla forces as widely as possible; gathering the rich experience
of past guerrilla warfare; greatly strengthening education and guidance as regards
guerrilla tactics; moving hundreds and thousands of guerrilla detachments into
White areas and into the enemy's sides and rear; attacking the enemy and developing mass struggle in those places; creating guerrilla areas and even new soviet
areas, especially doing this work in all the soviet areas that are not yet connected
with each other; and coordinating actions with those of the Red Army's main
force are all the very urgent tasks of the soviets.

All measures should be used to safeguard the supply and transport of Red
Army provisions. Soviet financial and economic organs and supply, transportation, and medical units in the military system should make efforts toward this
common objective. Past shortcomings in the mobilization of transportation teams
should be overcome so that the Red Army's movements and combat are not
hampered by a shortage of transport personnel. All sacrifices and all efforts
devoted to the war are the duty of every soviet staff worker and every revolutionary element.

B. With Regard to Economic Construction

In order to break down the enemy's blockade, resist the manipulation of unscrupulous merchants, secure the needs of the revolutionary war, and improve the
lives of the masses of workers and peasants, the soviets must carry out in a
planned way all sorts of necessary and possible economic construction.

First and foremost is the development of massive agricultural production in
the soviet areas. The soviets should use all measures to raise enthusiasm for
production on the part of the peasant masses. During various important phases of
the farming season such as spring plowing, summer plowing, and the autumn
harvest, every opportunity should be used to carry out a widespread universal
movement to raise production and to mobilize all the rural masses to enter the
production front together. To organize labor mutual aid associations and cultivation teams on a wide scale, regulate the rural labor force in a planned way, and
mobilize the broad masses of women to take part in production are all important
ways to expand production. The peasants should be guided and helped in solving
specific and significant problems in agriculture such as farm cattle, farm tools,
fertilizer, seeds, water conservancy, and pest control. Farm cattle cooperatives
should be formed everywhere. In view of the experiences of last year's movement for spring and summer plowing, "completely eliminating wasteland" and
"increasing this year's harvest by 20 percent" should become the battle slogans.
Cotton-growing experience should be gathered, and cotton production developed
in the soviet areas. A movement to plant trees should be launched, calling upon
each person in the countryside to plant ten trees. The soviets should pay attention
to the growth of animal husbandry. Regarding certain important agricultural
sectors such as grain, cotton, and so on, the Central People's Commissariat for
the National Economy and the various provincial departments of the national
economy should draw up specific implementation plans. The Soviet Food and
Grain Commissariat, Food and Grain Adjustment Bureau, and mass food and
grain cooperatives should establish close working relations and strive toward
totally guaranteeing food and grain supplies for the Red Army and the masses.
The recovery of the broad handicraft industry in the soviet areas and the establishment of a military essentials industry are important tasks of soviet economic
construction. Soviet plans for the recovery and development of industry should be
based on the needs of the war, the needs of the masses in the soviet areas, and the
possibility of export to White areas. Tungsten ore, coal, iron, lime, farm tools,
tobacco, paper, cloth, sugar, medicine, salt, camphor, timber, and so on should be the
main sectors. Great efforts should be made to develop production cooperatives of
the masses in these industries, and as much as possible, unemployed workers,
independent laborers, and peasants should be organized into the production cooperatives. At the same time, investment by private capitalists should be allowed
and encouraged, to expand production of these things in the soviet areas. The
soviets should not attempt to monopolize all production enterprises at present,
but to set up and develop some specially needed and specially beneficial state-owned enterprises is something that might be done and, indeed, should be done.
Raising enthusiasm for work, promoting production competitions, and rewarding
those who have made remarkable achievements on the production front are all
important methods of increasing production.

Breaking down the enemy's economic blockade, developing the soviet areas'
trade with the outside, and exchanging surplus goods produced in the soviet
areas (rice, tungsten ore, timber, tobacco, paper, etc.) for industrial goods from
the White areas (table salt, cloth, kerosene, etc.) are pivotal to developing the
national economy. The Soviet Bureau of External Trade and the various commercial organs must be further strengthened. At the same time, rewarding private
commerce allows them to make efforts for the import and export of various
necessary commodities. The extensive development of consumer cooperatives
and organization of the broad masses of workers and peasants into these cooperatives make it possible for the masses to purchase necessities from the White
areas at reasonable prices and sell goods produced in the soviet areas at high
prices. Thus they occupy an especially important position in soviet trade and
economic construction as a whole. Soviet leadership of the Central General
Association and the various provincial and xian 106 general associations of consumer cooperatives should be greatly strengthened. In places where provincial
and xian general associations have not yet been established, they should be set
up quickly.
The solution to the problem of capital in economic construction lies primarily
in absorbing capital from the masses and organizing the masses into production,
consumer, and credit cooperatives. Attention should be paid to the development
of credit cooperatives, so that after usurious capital is overthrown they may take
its place. Absorbing the capital of the masses into the building of state enterprises; developing external trade; aiding cooperative enterprises and other projects by means of public economic construction bonds, bank shares and deposits,
and so on, are also important measures. Within the scope of soviet laws, private
capitalists should be encouraged as much as possible to make investments so that
capital in the soviet areas may be more flexible. Soviet banks should be given
the fullest play possible. Based on the principle of the needs of the market,
issuing appropriate amounts of paper currency, gathering savings deposits
from the masses, making loans to profitable production enterprises, readjusting in a planned manner the entire finances of the soviet areas, and leading
the mass cooperatives in struggle against speculative merchants are all tasks
of the banks.

C. With Regard to Construction of the Soviets

The establishment of the Soviet Central Government provided the nationwide
soviet movement with an overall leading organization, which is of tremendous
significance to the Chinese revolution. Over the past two years it has won great
and glorious victories in leading the struggle against imperialism and the

Guomindang. We must point out that the Central Government still has many
imperfections and deficiencies in its own organization and work. In order to
strengthen the Central Government's overall leadership of the soviet areas and
the nationwide revolution, the work of the Central Executive Committee must
be separated from that of the Council of People's Commissars, the organization and work of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee must be
improved, and the staffs of the various people's commissariats must be further strengthened and their methods of work reformed. Additional people's
commissariats must be established as necessary, such as the Commissariat for
Food and Grain, and so on, so that in the face of further development of the
revolutionary situation, the Central Government can fully play its role as
overall driving force.
Provincial soviets are the highest leading organs of local political power and
are the connecting links between the Central Government on the one hand and
the various xian and district soviets on the other. The Central Government's
leadership over the provincial soviets must be greatly strengthened, communication made closer between the Central Government and the provincial soviets
(various provinces within the Central Area and various provinces outside the
Central Area), and inspection of the work of the provincial soviets done strictly.
Great efforts must be made to improve the working methods of the provincial
soviets and to institute a system of collective discussion, precise division of
labor, and individual responsibility. Inspection of the work of xian soviet areas
must be intensified, and great efforts made to correct past manifestations of
laxity and lack of focus in the work of some soviets.
Township and city soviets are the basic soviet organizations, and therefore
the greatest efforts must be made to improve the work of township and city
soviets. In all places where the system of deputies' congresses has not yet
been set up, this system should be instituted. The work of deputies' conferences in the various localities must be further strengthened and their presidiums
should be established, as well as many committees under them. In fact, the
committee system should be introduced in the villages, and large numbers of
worker and peasant activists drawn in to participate in the work of the committees. A system should be established whereby each deputy has a relationship with a certain number of residents. A system of responsibility should be
set up in which each village has a deputy responsible for the work of the
whole village, and he should be allowed to call meetings of the villages's
deputies and residents to discuss the work of the village. Township and city
soviets are the organs directly responsible for mobilizing the masses to carry
out the work of the soviets. The heart of their work is how to mobilize the
masses of the whole city and whole township most effectively and fully to
struggle for the successful realization of every task and all work of the soviets. Township, city, and district soviets must pay the greatest attention to the actual work in the villages and neighborhoods. They must carry out a system of
periodic inspection of village and neighborhood work. Competitions in revolutionary work between various villages and neighborhoods are effective methods
of achieving greater speed in the work. Practical and rapid improvements in
township, city, and district soviets depend upon correct and concrete leadership
by district and city soviets. District and city soviets should focus all their attention on improvements in the work of the various township, city, and district
soviets. Ample explanation, frequent tours and check-ups, effective inspection,
and tests among the masses are key leadership methods for district and city
soviets. These same standards should be used in the xian soviets' inspection of
the work of district soviets as well.
The provincial soviets must devote a great part of their attention to the
newly developed soviet areas, and regard as their own important duty the
work of establishing and strengthening revolutionary committees in the new
areas. The organizational form and the content of the work of these revolutionary committees are different in many aspects from those of city and
township soviets. All White areas that are transformed into soviet areas
should go through the process of establishing revolutionary committees.
Therefore, all provincial soviets and xian soviets in the new areas and border
areas should pay a great deal of attention to perfecting the organization and
work of the revolutionary committees and enabling them to shoulder the tasks
of arming the masses, launching a mass struggle, and eliminating reactionary
forces, and to proceed rapidly to the establishment of soviet political power.
Although soviet democracy has been developing, it should be pointed out that
it is still extremely inadequate in many respects. A harsh struggle against
bureaucratism must be waged so as to get rid of all the trash that stands
between the soviets and the masses. This trash is bureaucratism and commandism. Soviet staff members should carry out the work of the soviets
through mobilizing and persuading the masses, not by means of coercion and
orders. Soviet staff workers should pay attention to every request and suggestion
of the masses, and should not take lightly such requests and suggestions.
Soviet staff workers, and worker-peasant inspection committees in particular,
should involve the broad masses in carrying out extensive criticism and struggle against bad elements within soviet organizations, to the point of harshly
punishing them according to soviet laws so as to ensure good relations between the soviets and the masses. For the purpose of improving the composition of the soviets, it is necessary to carry out massification of soviet
elections. The significance of elections must be explained to the masses, and
the greatest possible number of voters drawn in to participate in the elections.
All class-alien elements and all corrupt, wasteful, and bureaucratic elements
must absolutely be barred from elections. Large numbers of worker and peasant activists should be elected to manage the affairs of state. Here, according to the stipulations of the Election Law, an important link in improving the
work of the soviets is to involve large numbers of worker cadres and
strengthen the leading position of workers in soviet political power. For the
purpose of massification of soviet work, the soviets must establish close ties
with trade unions, poor peasant associations, representative conferences of
women workers and peasants, cooperatives, and all other sorts of mass organizations, and carry out the work of the soviets by mobilizing the broad
masses through these organizations.
With a view to striving for speed and quality in soviet work and making
all soviet work serve the demands of the revolutionary war, it is necessary to
make great efforts to eliminate laxity and a lackadaisical attitude on the part
of soviet staff members, to enhance greatly the work enthusiasm of soviet
staff workers, and to make each staff member conscientiously exert himself
in working for the state, the democratic dictatorship of workers and peasants.
At the same time, work discipline must be tightened. Harsh struggle should
be waged against all elements such as those who are unenthusiastic about
work and those who take lightly, neglect, or shirk their duties and treat soviet
work as unimportant, to the point of firing them from their jobs. Corruption
and waste must be opposed, for these phenomena are not only financially and
economically harmful to the soviets, but also constitute factors that are liable
to corrupt soviet staff workers and undermine their enthusiasm for work and
high morale. It is necessary to put forward to every soviet staff worker the
slogans "All work must serve the war" and "Strive for speed and quality in
work." In this regard, the main people in charge in the soviets at all levels,
and the worker-peasant inspection committees in particular, should conduct
thoroughgoing persuasion and education work among soviet personnel.
Responsibility for thoroughly and faithfully carrying out soviet laws, orders,
and policies should be shifted onto the shoulders of the entire soviet staff. Viola-tions of soviet laws, orders, and policies, first and foremost violations by soviet
personnel themselves, should be subject to severe penalties.
The Labor Law must be fully applied, and each article of the Labor Law
explained to the broad masses of workers. The institution of the eight-hour day
and the stipulation of a minimum wage are its central and minimal provisions to
safeguard the workers' interests. Labor inspection units and labor courts must be
made to play their full roles. Firm struggle must be waged against staff members
who neglect the interests of workers and attempt to compromise with capitalists.
Concrete and timely relief must be provided to unemployed workers, and unemployment relief committees must be organized wherever there are unemployed.
A system of social security must be adopted and effectively administered wherever it is possible to do so. Due attention must be paid to the work of the Social
Security Bureau, and past mistakes in some places with regard to the disbursement of insurance money must be avoided. To carry out these tasks fully, the

Soviet Commissariat for Labor should be strengthened and it should develop
close relations with trade unions.
One of the central tasks of the soviets is to carry out fully the Land Law and
all regulations and orders concerning the land struggle, and to unfold the broad
agrarian revolution on a nationwide scale. The struggle to confiscate the land of
the landlord class and big private owners should be initiated emphatically and
forcefully in all areas that are newly incorporated into the soviet domain. Much
past experience in methods of land redistribution should be gathered and generally applied in all new areas. The Land Investigation Movement should be unfolded wherever the issue of land has yet to be completely settled so as to
eliminate rapidly the remnants of feudal forces in those places. A correct class
line and adequate mass work are prerequisites for ensuring thorough victory of
the land revolution.
To carry out soviet cultural and educational policies, unfold a cultural revolution on soviet territories, arm with communism the minds of the masses of
workers and peasants, raise the cultural level of the masses, institute a system of
compulsory education, and further mobilize the forces of the masses in the
revolutionary war are, likewise, important tasks for the soviets.
The soviet policy of punishing exploiters and suppressing counterrevolutionaries must be resolutely carried out. The State Political Security
Bureau and the soviet courts must heighten their vigilance and impose harsh
punishment and suppression on exploiting class elements who violate soviet laws
and all elements who engage in counterrevolutionary activities. In this regard,
massification of the work of the Political Security Bureau and the soviet courts
and mobilization of the broad masses to engage in the struggle to eliminate
counterrevolutionaries are crucial.
The general direction of soviet work is to strive for speed and quality and to
have all soviet work completely conform to the demands of the revolutionary
war.

D. With Regard to Leading the Struggle Against Imperialism
and Work in the White Areas

In order to oppose resolutely imperialist aggression, promote vigorously the
struggle of workers and peasants nationwide, and enlarge the soviet areas
throughout the country, the Soviet Government must strengthen its leadership of
the anti-imperialist struggle all over the country and the revolutionary struggle of
workers and peasants in the Guomindang areas. Passivity in this regard amounts
to indulging imperialism's gangster aggression, prolonging the life of
Guomindang reactionary rule, and restricting the speed and scope of development of the soviet areas. The Soviet Central Government and the various provincial soviets must project their vision into the vast Guomindang areas. Not only should they lead every spontaneous anti-imperialist movement of the masses,
they should also make use of every concrete incidence of imperialist aggression
and Guomindang surrender and betrayal of China to inspire the people's national
awareness and class awareness among the broad masses of workers and peasants
and the petty bourgeoisie, and call upon them to become organized and armed so
as to fight for the expulsion of imperialism and the defense of China's territory.
Particularly in areas under attack by the Japanese imperialists such as the Three
Northeastern Provinces, Rehe, Chahar, North China, and so on, people's armies
and volunteer armies should be organized and the old volunteer armies should be
guided to shake off the reactionary influence of the Guomindang and resolutely
fight against Japanese imperialism. The Soviet Government must provide all
possible moral and material support to every anti-imperialist strike of the workers and every anti-imperialist struggle of the peasants and petty bourgeoisie.
The soviets must use all possible means to organize, aid, and lead the
workers' struggle against the bourgeoisie and the peasants' struggle against landlords 107 in the Guomindang areas. All soviet staff workers should understand that
it is necessary to pay tremendous attention to the White areas if we are to extend
the soviet movement throughout the country; to create the conditions for transforming into soviet areas the Guomindang areas, which are several times larger
than the soviet areas; to create new soviet areas; and to be able to gain the
support of the masses in the White areas during the struggle against the massive
"Encirclement and Suppression" of the imperialist Guomindang. People must be
sent out from the soviet areas to prepare all necessary material support and to
organize and lead the mass struggle in the White areas. Passivity in this respect
amounts to passivity toward expansion of the soviet areas and development of
the revolutionary war. Particularly in Guomindang areas near soviet areas, the
masses are under the greatest influence of the soviets and suffer the greatest
oppression of Guomindang military slavery, state monopoly on table salt, and so
on. The soviets, especially the various governments in provinces, border xian,
and border areas, must make use of every sort of opportunity to establish links
with these masses, organize their daily struggles, and develop them into guerrilla
warfare and mass uprisings until the newly established soviet areas are joined
together with the old soviet areas. Here the work on the borders between the
soviet areas and the White areas should be viewed as extremely important. In
these areas, the soviets (or revolutionary committees) and guerrilla forces must
strictly adhere to basic soviet policies, and all arbitrary beating of local despots
without distinguishing between classes is forbidden. Property confiscated from
the landlord class and reactionaries must be distributed to the local masses in
large quantities. Furthermore, excellent solutions must be applied, according to the class line and the mass line, to the problem of the opposition between Red
and White, the problem of flight by the masses, the problem of the blockade on
table salt, the problem of masses struck by disaster, and so on. The causes of the
opposition between Red and White and flight by the masses must be eliminated.
Improvement of the work in border areas is an important link in turning White
areas into soviet areas. (End of speech, followed by thunderous applause.) 108

---

Notes

Our source for this report is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 4, pp. 219-82, where it is reproduced
from the official record of the Congress put out in March 1934 by the Council of People's
Commissar's of the Chinese Soviet Republic in Ruijin, Jiangxi. This version includes a
prefatory summary of the report, which we have omitted as it adds nothing to our understanding of the document. The report also appears in a volume entitled Zhiyou suweiai
nenggou jiu Zhongguo (Only the Soviets Can Save China), published in Moscow in 1934
by the Publishing House for Foreign Workers in the Soviet Union, which contains a
preface by Kang Sheng, this report, and Mao's "Conclusions" on this report (sce following text). The Moscow version appears to have been more carefully edited, but it also
contains some changes and additions reflecting the point of view of the International. For
this reason, we have taken the Jiangxi version, which is probably closer to Mao's own
text, as the basis for our translation, but significant differences between the two versions
are pointed out in the notes.

1. The Moscow version of the report begins with the salutation, "Comrades!" after this
heading.
2. The Moscow version of the report omits the passage here that begins "where the
economic panic..." and ends with "... number in the tens of millions."
3. Here the Moscow text has "Guomindang economy" instead of "national economy."
4. The Moscow version has here "sixth" in place of "fifth" and "fifth" in place of
"fourth."
5. The Moscow version reads "sixth" here.
6. In the Moscow version, this last part reads, simply, "to achieve victory of the soviet
revolution throughout the whole of China."
7. The text in the Moscow version refers here to "the fourth, fifth, and sixth" campaigns.
8. The Moscow version of this text adds here a characterization of the soviets and the
Red Army as "the only reliable force for the survival of the Chinese nation."
9. The Moscow text adds "and the masses of workers" here after "Nineteenth Army."
10. Here the Moscow version continues as follows: ".. increased more than tenfold
the ranks of the Red Army, called upon the laboring masses of workers and peasants as
well as the White army soldiers of the whole of Sichuan Province to lean toward the soviet
revolution, and established new, powerful bases of soviet revolution in China's northeastern region. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area is the second largest soviet area in the
Chinese Soviet Republic, and has many advantages with regard to geography, natural
resources, strategy, and social conditions. The Sichuan-Shaanxi Soviet Area forms a

11. Honghu is a lake on the extreme southern edge of Hubei, on the border with
Hunan. The reference is to a base area which spanned the two provinces at the time of the
Second "Encirclement and Suppression."
12. The Moscow version has this last sentence as follows: "In the Hubei-Henan-Anhui
Soviet Area, although our bases have suffered partial losses, the Red Army troops and
guerrilla forces remaining have valiantly spread guerrilla warfare toward the surrounding
areas."
13. Here the Moscow version has "... and consequently, it is the main target of attack
by imperialism and Chiang Kaishek."
14. Fifth in the Moscow version.
15. In the Moscow text, this sentence is omitted.
16. Quotation marks appear around the term "People's Revolutionary Government" in
the Moscow edition.
17. In the Moscow version, "Chinese people" is substituted for "toiling masses of
workers and peasants," and the words from "do not carry out" to "carried out by the
soviets" are omitted.
18. Here the Moscow version adds after "tremendous power," "over the warlords,
bureaucrats, landlords, despotic gentry, and bourgeoisie, who constitute an extremely
small proportion of the people."
19. From this point to the end of the paragraph, the Moscow version reads as follows:
"... to liberate the Chinese people; to liberate China's four hundred million people from
enslavement and trampling by the Japanese and other imperialists; to enable hundreds of
millions of toiling Chinese to escape the oppression of the warlords, bureaucrats, evil
gentry, landlords, and bourgeoisie; and to make it possible in the future for the Chinese
masses to emulate the Soviet Union's workers and peasants in successfully establishing,
under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, a bright, happy new way of life for
humanity in a socialist society. This is the basic task of the soviets."
20. The Moscow version adds here "and to safeguard the Chinese people and state..."
21. As usual, the Moscow version adds "Sixth" here.
22. The Moscow version has "five" here.
23. The following sentence, referring to the victory of the Sichuan forces (under
Zhang Guotao), appears at the end of this paragraph in the Moscow edition: "Moreover,
under the leadership of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, the Sichuan Red
Army has already achieved a great and glorious new victory."
24. See above, the translations of Mao's investigations of these two townships, dated
November 18 and November 26, 1933, respectively.
25. In the Moscow text, the word "capitalist" appears before the word "state."
26. Here the Moscow edition refers not simply to "workers, peasants, and toiling
masses," but to "the majority of the popular masses, made up of the workers, the peasants,
the poor, office workers and staff members, and revolutionary intellectuals."
27. The Moscow text reads "Chinese history" here in place of "history."
28. For "mainstay of leadership" (lingdao gugan), the Moscow text has "leading
cadres" (lingdao ganbu).
29. In the version published in Moscow, the words "except for the Soviet Union"
appear between "no government throughout history" and "has been able to accomplish."
30. In the Moscow version, this sentence begins: "It is stipulated in the Soviet Constitution that..." The balance is as in this version.
31. The xunhui fating, here translated "circuit courts," were presumably the equivalent
of the institution of the same name which existed in the Chinese People's Republic from
1949 to 1954. These courts, which were placed under the authority of the local xian
government, visited the various towns and townships in the xian to try cases.

32. Ganhuazhuyi, literally "transform-the-feelings-ism," means to help a misguided or
erring person to change by persuasion or example.
33. Here the Moscow version adds a one-line paragraph reading as follows: "These
crimes, however, have been completely eliminated in the soviet areas."
34. Here the Moscow version reads "a sector of unemployed workers produced by
protracted 'Encirclement and Suppression' on the part of the imperialist Guomindang."
35. The Moscow version says "before the war."
36. As it stands in the Ruijin edition, this sentence makes little sense. The Moscow
version reads here instead: "In the countryside, too, the time actually worked by hired
laborers rarely exceeds eight hours a day, and working hours for hired laborers between
sixteen and eighteen years of age are generally shorter than for adults."

37. These figures, which are the same in both versions of the Chinese text, add up to
209,000 rather than 229,000. We have no basis for explaining this discrepancy.
38. See above, the document of October 10, 1933, bearing this title.
39. The Moscow version has the figure 317,539 here.
40. Here the Moscow version has "restrict" instead of "exploit."
41. The transportation tax on goods moved within the country, commonly transcribed
likin in English-language sources of the period.
42. This section is included in the Selected Works, where it is titled "Our Economic
Policy," and dated January 23, 1934. Variants between the original text and the version
approved by Mao in 1951 are indicated below in the usual way.
43. To the point of complete bankruptcy → To the brink of bankruptcy
44. Soviet areas → Red areas
45. Imperialist Guomindang is → Imperialists and the Guomindang are
46. Soviet areas → Red areas
47. Soviet construction → Work of economic construction
48. The counterrevolutionaries → They
49. The Soviet Government has→ We have
50. The soviets → We
51. The soviets' → Our
52. Here the revised text inserts: "and strive to secure leadership by the state sector of
the economy over the private sector,..."
53. Soviet→ Our
54. Soviet areas → Red areas
55. The Central Soviet Area → Southern Jiangxi and western Fujian
56. Soviet → Border
57. Here the revised version inserts: "The Sichuan-Shaanxi Border Area has had a
good harvest." (The Moscow edition, by the way, reads, "The Sichuan Soviet Area has had
an excellent harvest.")
58. The uprising in a soviet area... → A Red area is established, agricultural production often declines.
59. But it tends to pick up... → But it picks up again as the land is redistributed and
ownership is settled and with our encouragement to production and the greater enthusiasm
for work on the part of the peasant masses.
60. Pre-uprising → Prerevolutionary
61. Eliminated → Reclaimed
62. Crash work on the production front. → Production.
63. The soviets → We
64. Soviet → Our
65. Here and in subsequent occurrences "the soviets" becomes "we" in the revised
edition.
66. Basic → Difficult and essential
67. Raw materials → Fertilizer
68. Problem → Task
69. Effective measures → The necessary measures
70. This problem → The problem of labor power
71. Soviet → State
72. With the objective of promoting progress in agriculture → to stimulate the development of agriculture
73. In every township and district. → In various places.
74. Here and in all subsequent occurrences, Soviet areas → Red areas
75. Industry should be systematically developed. → Handicrafts and also certain
industries should be systematically restored and developed.
76. Many industries → Many handicrafts and a few industries
77. Industries → Enterprises
78. Soviet → State
79. External trading → Private external trading
80. Soviet law. → The law of the government.
81. Of the soviets → Of the state and the people
82. Takes the form of small capital.→ Is small in scale.
83. Of 305,551 yuan. → Of over 300,000 yuan.
84. The revised version inserts here: "and grow over a long period of time"
85. Council of People's Commissars has→ We have
86. The Selected Works inserts two short paragraphs here, taken from the section on
financial problems. Apart from the replacement of "soviet" by "our" or "the border region," the text is largely identical with that of the third from last and next to last paragraphs of section F as translated above. It is therefore not repeated here.
87. Popular masses → Nation
88. The imperialist Guomindang → Imperialism and the Guomindang
89. Here instead of "generation" the Moscow text has "era."
90. Here the Moscow text has "progressive" instead of "left-wing."

91. Here the Moscow version inserts: "Whereas in the Guomindang period, less than
10 percent of the children attended school."
92. The Moscow text gives this figure as 22,529.
93. Instead of "blue-clad troupes," the Moscow version has "worker and peasant song
and dance troupes." Regarding these troupes, see above, the note to the text of September
15, 1933, "On Educational Work."
94. The Moscow edition has "revolutionary intellectuals" instead of "worker and peasant intellectuals."
95. The Moscow edition inserts here: "and in enabling the entire Chinese people to
enjoy the blessings of civilization."
96. The text of these regulations is translated below in the Appendix to this volume.
97. The Moscow edition inserts here: "and gaining freedom and liberation for all
oppressed nationalities."
98. The Moscow edition lists in addition here "turbaned Muslims of Xinjiang and
Muslims of Gansu."

99. The Moscow text has here "... colluded with British and Japanese imperialism
and Guomindang warlords."

100. In the Moscow edition, this sentence reads as follows: "Or else they (princes,
living buddhas, lamas, and headmen) have directly surrendered to the imperialists, leading
the imperialists to colonize these areas (such as Tibet and Inner Mongolia) rapidly and
further plunder the masses."

101. For the full text of the "Outline of the Constitution of the Chinese Soviet Repub-lic," adopted on November 7, 1931, including a slightly different translation of Article 14,
see Saich, Rise to Power, pp. 552-56.
102. The Moscow edition adds "Java" here.
103. The Moscow edition has "Sixth."
104. The Moscow edition omits here "by striving... several provinces."
105. This item is omitted from the list in the Moscow edition. Perhaps it was thought
that there were no workers in the soviet areas.
106. In the Moscow edition, xian is omitted here.
107. The Moscow edition inserts here: "and all mass revolutionary people's struggles
against imperialism and the Guomindang."
108. The Moscow edition inserts two final paragraphs here, as follows:

Comrades! We of the soviets and the Red Army are shouldering the heavy responsibility of saving the Chinese nation from doom. If we are to fulfill this responsibility, we
must accomplish the tasks raised and stipulated by the Second National Soviet Congress.
At the same time, as the comrades all know, the victory of the Chinese soviet revolution
represents not only the liberation of China's 400 million people, but also the precursor to
all the oppressed nations of the East throwing off the shackles of imperialism, a fatal
blow to the plan by Japanese imperialism and other imperialisms to wage an imperialist
world war in the Pacific, destruction of the plan by Japanese imperialism and other
imperialisms to attack the Soviet Union from the eastern front. It will bring the moment
of victory for the world proletarian revolution very much closer. How great and glorious
is our task!

Comrades! Forge ahead! Final victory belongs to us! (End of speech, followed by
thunderous applause. All representatives rise to welcome Comrade Mao Zedong and for
the joyful singing of the Internationale.)

--- Notes

I. The Current Situation and the Victory of the Soviet Movement¹


economic panic has reached an extreme. Throughout the capitalist world production is at an unprecedented low and unemployed workers number in the tens of
millions.² Capitalism's temporary stability has come to an end and its overall
crisis has entered a new phase. The various imperialist countries are in a mad
frenzy preparing for war. As a result of the occupation of Manchuria by the
Japanese imperialists, the contradictions among various imperialists and between
the Japanese and U.S. imperialists in particular have developed further on a new
basis. The imperialist bandit wars for redividing the world are an extremely
grave menace to the people of the world. The imperialists, however, are trying to
alleviate their internal contradictions for the time being and to find a way out by
sacrificing the Soviet Union and China. Preparations for war against the Soviet
Union have not stopped for a moment, and the war to carve up China and attack
the Chinese revolution is already clearly and flagrantly under way.
Nevertheless, the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the oppressed
nations of the world is also growing and expanding under the impact of the
successes of the socialist construction of the Soviet Union and the threat of

The Chinese revolution is part of the world revolution. The deepening of the
national crisis, the overall collapse of the national economy,³ and the victory of
the soviet movement have further promoted the development of the Chinese
revolutionary situation, pushing it to an especially prominent position in the
world revolution.
The focus of the current political situation in China is the widespread civil
war, the life-and-death struggle between revolution and counterrevolution, and
the sharp confrontation between the soviet régime of the workers and peasants
and the Guomindang régime of the landlords and bourgeoisie.
On the one hand, the Guomindang landlords and bourgeoisie have completely surrendered to the imperialists, guiding the imperialists in their occupation of China's vast territory, monopolizing all significant political and
economic rights in China, leading the national economy to a complete collapse,
and bringing unprecedented misery to the lives of the laboring masses of workers
and peasants. They are taking away all freedoms from the revolutionary masses, suppressing all revolutionary activities, and carrying out a mad fascist terror.

to block the road toward the colonization of China, and to win initial soviet
victories in one or several provinces, leading toward victory throughout the
whole of China.6


popular masses for the political, economic, and military assistance of the imperialists in order to facilitate the concentration of their forces for attacks against
the soviets and the Red Army.8
In this national crisis of unprecedented gravity, the anti-imperialist movement
of the revolutionary masses of the whole country is developing most vigorously.
The heroic fighting of hundreds of thousands of volunteer army soldiers in the
Three Northeastern Provinces, the bloody battles of the soldiers of the Nine-teenth Army in Shanghai,9 and the anti-imperialist movement that has spread
throughout the country have reached a high tide never seen before.
At present, before the revolutionary masses of all of China stand opposing
actions of the two political régimes: the Guomindang has totally surrendered to
the imperialists and makes every effort to oppress the anti-imperialist masses,
whereas the soviets resolutely oppose the imperialists and make every effort to
aid and lead the anti-imperialist movement.
Over the past two years the Soviet Provisional Central Government has repeatedly issued telegrams opposing the gangster war of the Japanese imperialists