Long live Soviet New China! (Overwhelming applause)
January 22, 1934

### I. The Present Situation and the Victory of the Soviet Movement

It is now exactly two years since the First National Soviet Congress. The development of events over these two years has fully demonstrated the further wavering and collapse of the imperialist and Kuomintang rule, and the fierce expansion and victory of the Soviet movement!

The period we are in today is one in which the revolutionary situation in China has become further sharpened, and it is also a transitional period in which the whole world is entering a new era of war and revolution. The antagonism between the socialist world and the capitalist world is now extremely acute. On the one hand, the socialist economy of the Soviet Union has achieved final consolidation. Its First Five-Year Plan was completed in just four years, and the Second Five-Year Plan already achieved great successes in its first year last year. The Soviet Union long ago eliminated unemployment among workers, and the living standards and cultural levels of all working people have been greatly raised. The national defense of the Soviet Union has been immensely strengthened. The peace policy of the Soviet Union, supported by the revolutionary masses throughout the world, has achieved success everywhere; even the most stubborn U.S. imperialism could not but establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.

The capitalist world presents a different picture. The economic panic has reached its extreme. Production in the entire capitalist world has fallen to an unprecedented low, with unemployed workers numbering in the tens of millions. The temporary stabilization of capitalism has ended, and the general crisis of capitalism has entered a new stage. The various imperialist countries are frantically preparing for war. As a result of Japanese imperialism’s occupation of Manchuria, the contradictions among the various imperialists, especially the contradictions between Japan and the United States, are unfolding on a new basis. The imperialist bandit war to redivide the world is posing an extreme threat to the masses of the whole world. Yet the imperialists are at the same time attempting to temporarily ease their internal contradictions and seek a way out by sacrificing the Soviet Union and China. Preparations for an anti-Soviet war have not ceased for a single moment, while the war to partition China and attack the Chinese revolution is already being carried out brazenly.

However, the revolutionary movements of the world proletariat and the oppressed nations are also growing and expanding under the influence of the successes of socialist construction in the Soviet Union and under the threat of imperialist panic and war. Fierce class struggles and national revolutions are unfolding in all capitalist countries and colonial and semi-colonial countries. The flames of world war and revolution are pressing close upon us.

The Chinese revolution is a part of the world revolution. Due to the deepening national crisis, the total collapse of the national economy, and the victory of the Soviet movement, the revolutionary situation in China has developed further, pushing the Chinese revolution into a particularly prominent position in the world revolution.

At present, the center of gravity of the situation in China is the vast civil war, the life-and-death struggle between revolution and counter-revolution, and the sharp antagonism between the worker-peasant Soviet regime and the Kuomintang landlord-bourgeois regime.

On the one hand, the Kuomintang landlord-bourgeoisie has completely surrendered to imperialism, guiding the imperialists to occupy vast Chinese territory, monopolize all major political and economic rights in China, lead the national economy toward total collapse, and subject the worker and peasant toiling masses to unprecedented suffering. They deprive all revolutionary people of their freedoms, suppress all revolutionary activities, and carry out frenzied fascist terror. Under the direction of imperialism, they organize all counter-revolutionary forces to launch desperate attacks on the Soviet areas and the Red Army. All this is for one purpose: to merge the interests of the Chinese landlord-bourgeoisie with the interests of imperialism, and to lead China onto the path of complete colonization.

On the other hand, the Soviet regime calls upon, organizes, and leads the revolutionary masses throughout the country to wage a resolute national revolutionary war. It organizes and leads the Red Army and the masses to fight to defend and expand Soviet territory, smashing the repeated "encirclement and suppression" campaigns of imperialism and the Kuomintang through resolute offensives. It severely suppresses all counter-revolutionary attempts by exploiting elements within Soviet territory. All land is given to the peasants and Red Army soldiers. Workers implement the eight-hour workday, receive increased wages, unemployment relief, and social insurance. All revolutionary masses are granted complete freedom of assembly and association. The broad worker and peasant masses are brought in to manage their own state organs, with no exploiting elements permitted to participate. The economic life of the masses is organized, enabling them to advance from a position of enduring hunger and cold under the past rule of the landlord-bourgeoisie to a position where they are not only completely free from hunger and cold but also enjoy daily improvements. The cultural life of the masses is organized, enabling the broad masses who had no opportunity to enjoy education under the past rule of the landlord-bourgeoisie to advance to a position of ever-increasing cultural levels. All this is also for one purpose: to overthrow the rule of the landlord-bourgeoisie throughout the country, drive imperialism out of China, liberate hundreds of millions of people from the oppression and exploitation of imperialist and Kuomintang rule, block the colonial path that would destroy China, and establish a free, independent, and territorially integrated Soviet China.

The daily sharpening antagonism between the two regimes cannot but promote an increasingly fierce life-and-death struggle between them. We are now in a historical period in which the struggle between the two sides will decide victory or defeat. The counter-revolutionary fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign is continuing to advance against us on a large scale following the smashing of the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign.

The historical task of the Soviet regime is to call upon, organize, and lead all revolutionary masses in the entire Soviet area and throughout China to enter this great decisive battle, to mobilize the broad worker and peasant masses to join the Red Army, to enhance the political education and military skills of the Red Army, to expand local armed forces and guerrilla units, to develop extensive guerrilla warfare, to strengthen the centralized and unified leadership of the Soviets over the Red Armies in all Soviet areas, to strengthen the speed and quality of work in all aspects of the Soviets, to strengthen the work of Soviet financial and economic organs in order to guarantee the material needs of the revolutionary war, to launch the class struggle of the workers, to organize the revolutionary activism of the worker masses into the struggle to smash the enemy, to launch the peasants’ land struggle, to mobilize the broad peasant masses to fight for seizing and defending the land, and to call upon all worker and peasant toiling masses in the entire Soviet area and throughout China to devote all sacrifices and all efforts to the war. In this way, we will thoroughly smash the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign of imperialism and the Kuomintang, block the path of colonizing China, and strive for the first victory of the Soviets in one or several provinces, and ultimately victory throughout the whole of China.

### II. The Imperialist Offensive and the Soviet Government’s Leadership of the Anti-Imperialist Movement

In the two years since the establishment of the Provisional Central Government, the greatest events in the country have been the imperialist offensive and the counter-revolutionary fourth and fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaigns against the revolution.

The bandit war launched by Japanese imperialism on September 18, 1931, through brutal slaughter by aircraft and artillery, occupied the three northeastern provinces and Rehe, gained control of Beiping and Tianjin, and is still preparing an even larger-scale war of slaughter directed at Inner Mongolia and the whole of North China. British imperialism is attacking Sichuan from Tibet. French imperialism is preparing to invade Yunnan and Guizhou. U.S. imperialism desires to place the Yangtze River valley and Fujian under its direct rule. All these imperialists, with the aims of enslaving the Chinese nation, destroying the Chinese Soviet regime, preparing to attack the Soviet Union, and also preparing for a second world war among the imperialist bandits, are stretching out their venomous hands and schemes over vast Chinese territory.

Yet the Chinese landlord-bourgeois Kuomintang, under the policy of fawning upon and offering gifts to imperialism, has surrendered millions of square *li* of territory. It has adopted a shameful policy of non-resistance to the aggression of Japan and all imperialists, trading the interests of all Chinese toiling masses for imperialist political, economic, and military assistance, in order to facilitate its concentration of forces for attacks on the Soviets and the Red Army.

Under this unprecedentedly severe national crisis, the anti-imperialist movement of the revolutionary masses throughout the country has developed with extreme ferocity. The struggles of hundreds of thousands of volunteer troops in the three northeastern provinces, the bloody battles of the soldiers of the 19th Route Army in Shanghai, and the anti-imperialist movement that spread across the whole country once reached an unprecedented high tide.

At this time, the revolutionary masses throughout the country were confronted with the opposite actions of two regimes: the Kuomintang completely surrendered to imperialism and did its utmost to suppress the anti-imperialist masses; the Soviets resolutely opposed imperialism and did their utmost to assist and lead the anti-imperialist movement.

Over the past two years, the Soviet Provisional Central Government has repeatedly issued circular telegrams opposing the bandit war of Japanese imperialism and the capitulation and treason of the Kuomintang. On April 14, 1932, the Provisional Central Government formally proclaimed a declaration of war against Japan and simultaneously issued a mobilization order for the war against Japan, calling upon the masses throughout the country to wage a national revolutionary war and oppose the imperialism that enslaves China and the treasonous Kuomintang. The Provisional Central Government and the Revolutionary Military Council issued a declaration calling upon all Kuomintang troops attacking the Soviets and the Red Army, under the three conditions of (1) immediately ceasing attacks on the Soviet areas, (2) guaranteeing the democratic rights of the masses (freedom of speech, publication, assembly, association, strike, etc.), and (3) arming the masses and establishing anti-Japanese volunteer forces, that the Soviet government was willing to conclude combat agreements with any armed forces to oppose Japan and all imperialists.

When the Kuomintang concluded the Tanggu Agreement with Japan and recently engaged in direct Sino-Japanese negotiations, the Provisional Central Government repeatedly declared to the whole country and the whole world that it represented the masses of the whole country in sternly opposing such policies and actions that betray the interests of the nation.

The Soviets have provided practical assistance to the anti-Japanese struggles of the masses in various places. For the anti-Japanese strike movement of the workers in the Huxi cotton mills in Shanghai alone, the Soviets provided assistance of 16,000 yuan. In addition, the masses in the Soviet areas have made donations to aid the anti-Japanese volunteer forces in the Northeast, and have provided much spiritual and material assistance to other anti-imperialist struggles.

As for within Soviet territory, the special privileges of imperialism have long been completely abolished, and the influence of imperialism has been purged. Pastors and priests have been expelled by the masses, property seized by churches from the people has been recovered, and church schools have been abolished. Within China’s borders, only the Soviet areas are places that have escaped imperialist rule.

All these facts point out: only the Soviet government is the sole government that opposes imperialism. The Soviet government should point out to the masses throughout the country that defeating imperialism through direct war is the greatest responsibility of the Soviets and all the masses. And to carry out this responsibility, we can only rely on the development of the broad masses’ anti-imperialist struggle, first of all by uniting all forces to defeat the running dog of imperialism, the Kuomintang, because it is the greatest obstacle to the Soviets and the masses in opposing imperialism. The masses must be made to understand: it is precisely because the Kuomintang obstructs the way—lying across the path between the imperialist offensive zones and Soviet territory, and concentrating all its forces to attack Soviet territory—that the Red Army cannot directly engage the imperialists in combat, and that the Soviets and the Red Army must take as their first step the clearing of the path through resolute offensives—smashing the Kuomintang’s "encirclement and suppression" campaigns.

But the direct and broad conflict between the Soviets and imperialism is drawing closer day by day. This requires the Soviets to greatly strengthen their leadership over all anti-imperialist struggles. The Soviets should become the organizer and leader of the anti-imperialist struggle of the masses throughout the country. Only by using all its strength to make the masses understand the current crisis and the crimes of the Kuomintang, and by relying on the enhancement of the broad masses’ consciousness and organizational strength in opposing imperialism and the Kuomintang, can the Soviet government smoothly carry out its sacred task—to overthrow the rule of imperialism and the Kuomintang in China through the national revolutionary war and the revolutionary civil war.

### III. The Imperialist and Kuomintang "Encirclement and Suppression" Campaigns and the Soviet Government’s Struggle Against "Encirclement and Suppression"

Because the Chinese Soviet areas are the revolutionary base areas of the whole country in opposing imperialism, and the Chinese Worker-Peasant Red Army is the main force of the whole country in opposing imperialism, and because the Soviet movement and the revolutionary war are developing fiercely forward, the Kuomintang, once, twice, three times, four times, and now five times, with the direct assistance of imperialism, has concentrated all its forces to launch desperate attacks on the Soviets and the Red Army, attempting to destroy the Chinese revolutionary forces and shoulder the responsibility of clearing the path for imperialism to partition China.

But every offensive by imperialism and the Kuomintang has met with severe defeat. The Chinese Soviets and the Worker-Peasant Red Army, supported by the masses throughout China and under 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 excited the toiling masses throughout China, making them recognize that only the Soviets and the Red Army truly fight for the independence and freedom of the nation, and that only the Soviets and the Red Army can save China.

When the enemy’s fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign began, it was just after the Kuomintang had sold out the three northeastern provinces and signed the Shanghai Armistice Agreement. The treasonous Kuomintang not only did not send a single soldier to resist the aggression of Japanese imperialism, but also, despite the repeated declarations of the Soviet Central Government and the Red Army and the proposal to conclude anti-Japanese combat agreements with genuinely anti-Japanese troops, on the contrary, the arch-criminal of Kuomintang treason, Chiang Kai-shek, concentrated hundreds of thousands of troops to attack the Hubei-Henan-Anhui and Hunan-Hubei-West Soviet areas, forcing the Red Army to leave the area surrounding Wuhan.

On our side, although because we had to avoid engaging an excessively powerful enemy force, and because of certain subjective errors in our tactics, the Fourth Front Red Army could not but withdraw from the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet area and undertake its famous long march, creating a new vast Soviet base area in the Nanjiang, Xuanhan, and Suiding areas of Sichuan. Through the long march of the Fourth Front Red Army, extensive mass revolutionary struggles were launched in the remote northwestern part of China, broadcasting the seeds of the Soviets into regions where the revolutionary situation was relatively backward. The heroic fighting skill of the Fourth Front Red Army, in less than a year, has already sovietized over ten counties and called upon the worker and peasant toiling masses and White Army soldiers throughout Sichuan to incline toward the Soviet revolution. This has caused Chiang Kai-shek and the Sichuan warlords to tremble before the great victories of the Fourth Front Red Army.

At the same time, the Third Red Army Corps, which withdrew from the Honghu base area, not only did not suffer major losses, but also actively operated in coordination with the Fourth Front Red Army on the borders of Sichuan, Hubei, and Hunan, achieving new victories. Even in the Honghu area, guerrilla units still exist.

In the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Soviet area, our base area not only did not suffer great losses, but also secured a consolidated position and developed guerrilla warfare in all directions.

As for the Central Soviet Area, this is the seat of the Soviet Central Government, the base camp of the national Soviet movement, and thus the main target of the enemy’s attacks. The enemy concentrated the greater part of its forces and fought tenaciously against us, mobilizing the so-called "Central Army," the warlord troops of Chiang Kai-shek and Cai Tingkai, the Guangdong and Guangxi warlords, and the Hunan warlords, to surround the Central Soviet Area and its neighboring Soviet areas from all sides. After a year of arduous struggle, we achieved unprecedented victories. The greatest victory was in the first half of 1933. In that half year alone, the Red Army of the Central Soviet Area wiped out 14 regiments, 6 battalions, and 1 company of the White Army, routed 3 divisions, 11 regiments, 5 battalions, and 1 company of the White Army, and captured about 10,000 rifles and about 1,000 machine guns and short guns. Especially in the battle of Donghuangpi, the enemy’s most tenacious basic column was destroyed, and the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign suffered a final crushing defeat.

In the great victory of smashing the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Army not only expanded in quantity but also strengthened in quality. The political steadfastness of the Red Army commanders and fighters and the improvement in their military skills have made considerable progress compared to before the fourth campaign. Soviet territory has expanded. Apart from the Sichuan Soviet area, vast Soviet areas have been expanded in northwestern Fujian and eastern Jiangxi, increasing the population by nearly one million and establishing the new Fujian-Jiangxi Province. The old Soviet areas have become more consolidated, as manifested in the improvement of Soviet work, the enhancement of the revolutionary activism of the worker and peasant masses, the development of class struggle in the villages and cities, and the severe suppression of remnant counter-revolutionary forces in the Soviet areas.

At the same time, this victory has had a tremendous impact on the Kuomintang areas. Under the influence of this victory, the broad worker and peasant masses in the White areas have further enhanced their courage in struggle. Among all the Kuomintang troops participating in the "encirclement and suppression" campaign, not only has widespread wavering occurred among the soldiers, but even great terror has arisen among the officers, to the extent that Chiang Kai-shek had to publicly issue the desperate order: "Those who do not suppress the bandits but request to resist Japan shall be killed without mercy."

However, the achievement of these victories was by no means accidental. It relied on the correctness of the political line of the Chinese Communist Party, on the centralized leadership of the Soviet government and the appropriateness of its policies and measures, on the heroic fighting skill of the Red Army, on the warm support of the broad worker and peasant masses in the Soviet areas, and also on the daily struggles of the worker and peasant masses in the White areas and the development of the anti-imperialist and anti-Kuomintang movement. These are the basic conditions for defeating the enemy; without these conditions, victory could never have been achieved.

After the crushing defeat of the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, the only way out for the Kuomintang warlords was to surrender even more shamelessly to imperialism, to obtain large loans and armaments from the imperialists, to hire large numbers of foreign advisors, to gather all old forces, and to organize new forces (training new recruits, training new air squadrons, training Blue Shirt officer corps, etc.). In short, they concentrated all counter-revolutionary forces, under the direction of imperialism, to carry out the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign against the Soviets and the Red Army.

The Soviets’ struggle against the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign is exactly as the Party Central Committee has pointed out: "It is the struggle to block the imperialists’ way out of the crisis, and it is the struggle to win an independent and free Soviet China." In smashing the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, it will be decided whether China "will be partitioned and jointly administered by the imperialists and become a complete colony, or will become an independent, free, and territorially integrated Soviet New China."

The Soviets should call upon all the masses participating in the struggle in the Soviet areas and White areas to clearly recognize the seriousness of this struggle. Only by uniting all revolutionary forces, increasing our strength, and with a hundredfold activism and a hundredfold perseverance, unified under the command of the Soviets, can we strive for the complete victory of this struggle.

The Soviets should point out to all the masses participating in the struggle: after smashing this "encirclement and suppression" campaign, and especially after smashing the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, we possess all the basic conditions for defeating the enemy. The correct leadership of the Party and the Soviets, the strength and expansion of the Red Army, and the activism in struggle of the broad worker and peasant masses in the Soviet areas and White areas—all these are the foundation for our victory over the enemy.

Due to our efforts and the development of contradictions within the ruling class, the new large-scale offensive of imperialism and the Kuomintang has already been dealt a severe blow by us. The enemy’s original plan has already failed, and they are forced to make their final offensive against us under new positions and new plans. We are now facing the final decisive battle of the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign.

Although the Kuomintang warlords’ blockhouse policy and economic blockade policy are extremely cruel, they are not insurmountable iron walls. These policies of the enemy precisely indicate their own weakening. By improving our military skills and concentrating all our forces to overcome these difficulties, victory will be ours.

We should point out: the enemy’s difficulties are far greater than ours. The wavering of the White Army soldiers, the resentment and dissatisfaction of the workers, peasants, and broad petty-bourgeois masses under enemy rule, the struggles and splits among the various warlord factions of the ruling class, the contradictions and conflicts among the various imperialists aiding the Kuomintang, and the bankruptcy of the Kuomintang’s finances and economy—all these are objective conditions for the victory of the revolution.

Here it should be pointed out: at the time when imperialism and the Kuomintang were carrying out the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, a People’s Revolutionary Government appeared in Fujian. The appearance of this People’s Revolutionary Government manifests a further rupture within the Kuomintang system. Due to the great victories of the Soviet movement and the bankruptcy of the Kuomintang before the masses throughout the country, a part of China’s reactionary ruling class was compelled to adopt a new form, attempting to find a third path outside the Kuomintang path and the Soviet path, in order to preserve the dying fate of the reactionary ruling class.

However, this attempt is merely futile, because if organizations like the People’s Revolutionary Government do not proceed from the interests of the genuine worker and peasant toiling masses, do not implement the many basic policies that the Soviets have already implemented, do not resolutely recognize the three conditions already proclaimed by the Soviet government as early as April last year, and conclude and carry out agreements with the Soviet government to oppose imperialism and the Kuomintang, but instead stop at deception and empty talk, then the broad revolutionary masses will certainly not adopt any different attitude between the People’s Revolutionary Government and the Kuomintang government. It can also be predicted that they will inevitably suffer a miserable defeat.

And the Soviets, amidst the daily increase of the masses’ faith in them throughout the country, and amidst the daily bankruptcy of the deceptions of the Kuomintang and all counter-revolutionary factions, will resolutely smash the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, block the imperialists’ path of colonizing China, and, from the first victory of the revolution in one or several provinces to victory throughout the whole country, confirm the famous saying: "Only the Soviets can save China!"

### IV. The Implementation of Various Basic Soviet Policies Over the Past Two Years

When we speak of the various basic policies of the Soviets, we must first ask: what is the starting point of these policies? To answer this question, we must understand the environment in which the Soviets have existed in the past and exist at present, and the tasks arising from this environment.

In the past period, the Soviets grew up amidst guerrilla warfare. They grew up from many extremely small localities, which were independent and not linked together. Surrounding each Soviet area on all sides was the enemy’s world, and the enemy was constantly destroying and oppressing the Soviet areas. Yet they were able to defeat these enemies; they grew and developed amidst defeating the enemy’s countless acts of oppression. This was the environment of the Soviets.

The environment in which the Soviets now exist is in many respects different from the past. They now have vast territory, broad masses, and a strong Red Army. They have already concentrated many scattered forces (though not yet completely concentrated), and have organized themselves into a state—this is our Chinese Soviet Republic. This state already has its local and central organizations, and has established a Provisional Central Government. This government is a centralized organ of power. It relies on the broad masses and on the armed force of the masses—the Red Army. This government is a government of the workers and peasants. It has implemented the revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasants. It provides broad democracy for the workers and peasants, but absolutely does not permit any landlord or bourgeois elements to participate. It is a dictatorship, a dictatorship that already possesses great power. This dictatorship is already expanding its influence toward the whole country, and it enjoys great faith among the broad masses. It is greatly different from the situation in the past era of guerrilla warfare.

Yet war remains the constant life, and it is even broader and more intense. The reason is that the antagonism between this dictatorship and the Kuomintang landlord-bourgeois dictatorship is sharpening day by day, and has now entered a period in which the two sides are about to decide victory or defeat. The extremely large-scale "encirclement and suppression" campaign of imperialism and the Kuomintang is arrayed before it. This is the present environment of the Soviets.

This environment determines its tasks: it must use all its strength to mobilize the masses, organize the masses, and arm the masses; it must, without stopping for a single evening, attack its enemies and smash the enemy’s "encirclement and suppression" campaigns against it. Its task is revolutionary war, to concentrate all forces to wage revolutionary war, to use revolutionary war to overthrow the enemy’s dictatorship, and also to overthrow the powerful imperialist rule, because imperialism is the supporter and director of the enemy’s dictatorship. Its purpose in overthrowing imperialism and the Kuomintang is to unify China, to realize the bourgeois-democratic revolution, and to enable this revolution to transform into a socialist revolution in the future. These are the tasks of the Soviets.

From this we can understand: under this environment and these tasks, for what purpose do the Soviets implement various basic policies? It is to consolidate the already victorious worker-peasant democratic dictatorship, to develop this dictatorship to the whole country, to mobilize, organize, and arm the worker and peasant toiling masses in the entire Soviet area and throughout China, to use resolute revolutionary war to overthrow the rule of imperialism and the Kuomintang, to consolidate and develop this dictatorship, and to prepare for the transformation from the present bourgeois-democratic worker-peasant democratic dictatorship to the future socialist proletarian dictatorship. The Soviets must implement various necessary basic policies. This is the starting point of all Soviet policies.

The Central Executive Committee and the People’s Committee, acting on the instructions of the First All-China Soviet Congress, have adhered to this general direction of policy over the past two years and have achieved very great successes. Experience has already proven to all the revolutionary masses in China: only the policies of the Soviet government are policies for the sake of the masses’ regime and the masses’ interests; they are the only policies that resolutely confront the counter-revolutionary policies of imperialism and the Kuomintang, overthrow the rule of imperialism and the Kuomintang throughout the country, save the entire nation from peril, and liberate all toiling masses from dire suffering.

It goes without saying that in China, where the two regimes are sharply antagonistic, every concrete administrative measure of the Soviets immediately wins the support of the broad masses. The masses who have suffered oppression and exploitation under the counter-revolutionary policies of imperialism and the Kuomintang are drawn to every concrete administrative measure of the Soviets just as iron filings follow a magnet. This situation has caused great terror in the reactionary ruling class, which therefore does not hesitate to use all the most shameless rumors to slander the Soviet administration. However, iron facts are a powerful answer to shameless rumors. Every Chinese with eyes, as long as he is not a frenzied Kuomintang landlord or capitalist, cannot but admit the heaven-and-earth difference between the policies of the Soviet government and the policies of the Kuomintang government!

Let us first speak of the Soviets’ arming of the masses and building of the Red Army.

In order to oppose the enemy’s "encirclement and suppression" campaigns and to wage revolutionary war, the first task of the Soviets is to arm the masses, organize a strong iron Red Army, organize local troops and guerrilla units, and organize the supply and transport for waging war.

Over the past two years, in the resolute struggle against the enemy’s fourth and fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaigns, the Soviets’ efforts in this regard have achieved great success.

First of all, the establishment of the Central Revolutionary Military Council unified the leadership of the national Red Army, enabling the Red Army units on various Soviet areas and various fronts to begin to act in mutual coordination and mutual support under a unified strategic will. This was an important key in moving from the actions of scattered guerrilla units to the actions of regular and large-scale Red Army units.

Over the past two years, the Revolutionary Military Council has led the national Red Army, primarily the Red Army of the Central Soviet Area, in glorious and victorious wars, smashing the enemy’s fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign and achieving the first step of victory in opposing the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign.

The Red Army has expanded rapidly over the past two years, increasing several-fold compared to two years ago. The success achieved in this regard has relied on the activism of the broad worker and peasant masses in participating in the revolutionary war, and on the improvement of mobilization methods and the implementation of the Soviet decrees on preferential treatment for the Red Army. In the single month of May 1933, the Red May, several counties in the Central Soviet Area expanded by nearly 20,000 new fighters. In many places, the worker and peasant masses surged into the Red Army like a tide. All opportunistic claims that the masses are unwilling to join the Red Army, or that the Red Army cannot be expanded in new areas or border areas, have been proven wrong by facts.

However, correct mobilization methods and the thorough implementation of the Soviet decrees on preferential treatment for the Red Army are the keys to rapidly fulfilling mobilization plans. Abolishing all coercion and commands, implementing full propaganda and persuasion, and punishing class-alien elements who sabotage the expansion of the Red Army and lead desertions are important items in mobilization methods.

Raising the social status of Red Army fighters to the highest standard of honor, granting Red Army fighters all possible and necessary spiritual and material treatment, distributing land to Red Army soldiers from other areas and mobilizing the masses to cultivate it on their behalf, properly cultivating the land for the families of every Red Army fighter, implementing a 5% discount at consumer cooperatives for Red Army dependents, setting up special stores to supply daily necessities for Red Army dependents, allocating 10% of the profits from state enterprises and cooperatives to support Red Army dependents, calling on the masses to donate and provide relief for the illnesses and difficulties of Red Army dependents, and calling on the masses to provide spiritual and material comfort to Red Army fighters and their dependents—the practical and thorough implementation of all decrees and measures concerning preferential treatment for Red Army fighters and their dependents is a necessary and important step to ensure that Red Army soldiers eagerly go to the front and to consolidate their determination to fight on the front.

In these tasks, there are many models in various places in the Soviet areas. In these places, the broad worker and peasant masses regard it as their sacred duty to take up arms to defend and develop the Soviet areas, and they surge continuously to the front in large numbers.

For example, in Changgang Township in Jiangxi, out of 407 young and adult males aged 16 to 45, 320 went out to serve as Red Army soldiers or to do other work, while 87 remained in the township. The ratio of those who went to those who stayed was 80% to 20%. In Shangcaixi Township in Fujian, out of 554 young and adult males, 485 went out to serve as Red Army soldiers or to do other work, while only 67 remained in the township. The ratio of those who went to those who stayed was 88% to 12%.

With such a large number of able-bodied men from these townships heroically going to the front, what about the production in the villages and the livelihood of the families? Not only did no adverse effects occur, but they were further expanded and improved. What was the reason? Because labor mutual-aid societies, plowing teams, and all other measures organized and planned the allocation of village labor power and solved every difficulty faced by Red Army dependents. I think this glorious lesson is worthy of study by the entire Soviet area.

The iron-like consolidation of the Red Army should be closely linked with the expansion of the Red Army. Over the past two years, work in this regard has likewise achieved good results. The present Red Army has already embarked on the path of an iron, regular revolutionary armed force. This is manifested in: (1) The class composition has been improved, realizing the glorious right of only the worker and peasant toiling masses to bear arms, and resolutely expelling those class-alien elements who have sneaked in. (2) The number of worker cadres has increased, the political commissar system has been universally established, and the Red Army is held in the hands of reliable commanders. (3) Political education has advanced, steeling the determination of the Red fighters to struggle for the Soviets to the end, enhancing class-conscious discipline, and strengthening the close ties between the Red Army and the broad masses. (4) Military skills have improved. Although the present Red Army still lacks the adoption of the latest weapons and practice in their use, general military skills have greatly advanced compared to the past period. (5) The organization has been changed, increasing the strength of the Red Army organizationally. All these have greatly enhanced the combat effectiveness of the Red Army, making it an invincible Soviet armed force.

Extensively expanding the Red Guards and Young Pioneers and the guerrilla units is an extremely important undertaking for the Soviets in arming the masses and waging revolutionary war. The Red Guards and Young Pioneers are the ready reserve forces for the Red Army at the front, the local troops for defending the Soviet areas, and the bridge for transitioning from the present voluntary military service system to the future implementation of a compulsory military service system. The guerrilla units are the creators of new areas and indispensable detachments of the main Red Army forces.

Over the past two years, these units have been developed in the various Soviet areas, and their military and political training has been correspondingly strengthened. Their joining the Red Army, their defense of localities, and their harassment and attacks on the enemy have demonstrated their extremely great achievements in the repeated battles to smash the "encirclement and suppression" campaigns, causing the enemy to marvel at them as miraculous and making them a tremendous difficulty for the enemy in invading the Soviet areas. This has particularly manifested its role in the Central Soviet Area and the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Soviet Area.

Extending this system to all newly opened Soviet areas, greatly expanding their organization, and strengthening their training, so that these units become the most reliable brothers of the Red Army in the revolutionary war—this is an important responsibility of the Soviets.

Ensuring the provisions and supplies of the Red Army, organizing military transport linking the front and the rear, and organizing military medical treatment are likewise undertakings of decisive significance for the revolutionary war. Under the circumstances where we have not yet captured a number of central cities and where the enemy has imposed an economic blockade, carrying out these tasks is extremely difficult. However, over the past two years, relying on the activism of the broad worker and peasant masses in the Soviet areas and White areas, we have already established a considerable foundation for these undertakings. We have already guaranteed the provisions, supplies, and transport for the Red Army over a long period in the past. This cannot but be called a tremendous achievement.

But the current decisive battle to smash the enemy’s fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, and the even larger-scale wars in the future, require us to make greater efforts to increase our strength in this regard and ensure even more adequate supplies in this area.

An even larger-scale revolutionary war is before us. The Soviet