The township Soviet (along with the city [1] Soviet) is the basic organization of the Soviet, the level closest to the masses, and the organ that directly leads the masses in carrying out the various revolutionary tasks of the Soviet.

In the environment of civil war, with war mobilization efforts extremely intense and the need to further improve the people's livelihood, it is of the utmost importance to vigorously improve the work of the township Soviet (and city Soviet), strengthen its organization and leadership, and make it fully capable of meeting the demands of developing the revolutionary war and improving the people's livelihood.

The direction for improving the work of the township Soviet should be toward the greatest accessibility to the broad masses, the fullest elicitation of the masses' initiative and creativity, the most effective mobilization of the masses to carry out Soviet tasks, and the swiftest attainment of task completion, so that Soviet work is fully aligned with the needs of the revolutionary war and the people's livelihood—this is the principle of Soviet work.

In our Soviet areas today, many township Soviets have already aligned their work with this principle and have created many excellent organizational forms and working methods.

Yet many township Soviets still contravene this principle or fail to fully align with it.

Therefore, it is extremely necessary, based on this principle, to clearly and concretely stipulate how the township Soviet should work, so that every township Soviet worker has a general standard to guide their work.

How exactly should the township Soviet carry out its work?

It should follow the regulations below.

(1) Work of the Township Soviet Presidium
(1) The number of presidium members shall be seven for large townships and five for small ones. They shall be elected by the congress of representatives, and the most active and capable members should be chosen.
(2) The presidium is the highest governing body of the entire township when the congress of representatives is not in session. It must resolutely implement the resolutions and instructions of the congress of representatives and the higher-level Soviets, and it must actively lead the work of the entire township.
(3) The presidium must understand how to focus on the central tasks of each period and bring these tasks to the congress of representatives for discussion, rather than merely busying itself with trivial affairs and neglecting the central tasks.
(4) Presidium meetings should be conducted well; the work of the permanent staff must be carried out with intensity and practicality. Slackness and laziness are impermissible, and the practice of coercion and commandism must be completely abolished.
(5) The presidium must clearly understand the situation in each village, grasp the characteristics of each village, and pay attention to the difficulties faced by the masses in each village. It should advance the work in each village and resolve the difficulties of the masses based on the actual conditions and characteristics of each village.
(6) To ensure rapid progress in the work of each village, attention must be paid to urging the chief and deputy chiefs of each village to see that the village congresses of representatives, mass meetings, and small group mass meetings led by individual representatives are all held on time and conducted well.
(7) The presidium must focus on uniting all representatives, various committees, and mass organizations around itself, and encourage the representatives, committees, and mass organizations to mobilize the masses of the entire township to carry out all tasks.
It should not operate in isolation from the representatives, committees, and mass organizations, with only a few people busily doing the work.
(8) The presidium must pay great attention to leadership during the congress of representatives, ensuring that each session is well prepared in advance.
(9) Presidium meetings should be held every five days, meaning that between two successive congresses of representatives, the presidium should meet twice.
The village chief may be asked to attend these meetings.
Issues discussed at the meetings:
The first meeting primarily focuses on urging the village chiefs, deputy chiefs, and representatives on how to implement the decisions of the previous and earlier congresses of representatives. It is best held within two or three days after the previous congress of representatives.
The second meeting focuses mainly on collecting the work experience from various villages in recent days and preparing the agenda for the next congress of representatives. It is best held two or three days before the next congress.
Presidium meetings should also resolve relatively minor issues, which do not all need to be brought before the congress of representatives.
They should also address urgent, time-sensitive problems without postponing them to the next congress for discussion.
Presidium meetings are best held after dinner, and the meeting should not last more than two hours.
(10) The presidium should divide its work, assigning some tasks to those presidium members who are not permanent staff, such as urging certain tasks in specific villages.
The chairperson naturally presides over the work of the entire township, chairs presidium meetings, attends meetings convened by higher authorities, and handles daily affairs.
They should grasp the several central tasks directed by higher authorities in each period (such as expanding the Red Army, land inspection campaigns, elections, building roads, collecting land taxes, promoting public bonds, developing cooperatives, spring plowing campaigns, etc.), pay attention to routine tasks (such as training the Red Guards and Youth Vanguards, red vigilance, food supply, education, hygiene, preferential treatment for Red Army families, etc.), and also address special issues arising in the township (such as famine, plague, floods, counterrevolutionary activities, etc.).
They should frequently reflect on these tasks or issues, considering how they are being carried out in each village, which villages are lagging behind and thus require intensified efforts and assistance.
They should divide duties with the vice-chairperson and secretary, attend meetings in various villages, gather experiences of good practices and instances of poor performance in every task from each village, and report them at presidium or congress meetings as material for discussion (when that issue is under discussion).
The chairperson should also divide duties with others, attending meetings of several committees and mass organizations, as well as mass meetings in various villages.
The vice-chairperson should divide duties with the chairperson and secretary in attending meetings in various villages, earnestly supervise and collect materials for the one or two villages they are assigned to, and report back.
They should also strive to understand the work of the entire township so that they can act as chairperson and manage the work when the chairperson is absent.
The permanent vice-chairperson should assist the chairperson in handling daily affairs and regularly attend meetings of several committees and mass organizations.
The secretary’s tasks include managing population registers, land registers, marriage and birth-death registrations, and various survey forms; writing reports to the district Soviet; dispatching messengers; issuing notices to villages; handling pass permits; helping Red Army families write letters; reading higher-level documents aloud to the chairperson and vice-chairperson if they are illiterate and highlighting important passages during presidium and congress meetings; taking minutes during meetings; and informing the chairperson and vice-chairperson of matters they may have overlooked.
The secretary should also attend meetings of several committees and mass organizations.
If the secretary is a representative, they should serve on the presidium.
(11) The presidium must pay attention to evaluating and educating representatives.
If some representatives are active in their work while others are idle and negligent, the exemplary work of the active ones should be publicly commended to set an example for the passive ones.
The passive ones should be criticized, and in some cases their names should be raised at congress meetings to mobilize everyone to struggle against them, thereby educating all representatives and encouraging the passive ones to become active.
For those newly elected representatives who do not know how to perform their work, they should be earnestly instructed in how to do it.
For those who, after repeated criticism, struggle, and education, still do not change or improve—for instance, those who fail to complete assigned tasks for one or two months, or who simply fail to attend meetings, deliberately missing five or six consecutive congress meetings—they should be proposed for expulsion at the congress, with alternate representatives brought in to fill the vacancies.
It would be wrong not to expel and replace such extremely poor representatives.
Representatives who have been reassigned to other positions must also be replaced immediately.
It must also be examined whether any landlords, rich peasants, or counterrevolutionary elements have infiltrated the ranks of representatives to sabotage our Soviet; if so, they should be immediately expelled.
If they are counterrevolutionaries, they must be arrested at once and punished.
(12) For the township Soviet’s messengers and sentry inspectors, one of the following three methods may be chosen: either find people to serve regularly, providing their own meals but exempting them from various duties and assigning someone to help cultivate their land;
or assign them on a rotating basis from the Youth Vanguard, notifying them the previous afternoon and letting them come to work the next day, with meals eaten at home and no one assigned to help cultivate their land;
or have residents provide funds and grain for their meals, with them residing permanently at the township Soviet.
These three methods may be decided locally, though the first is the best.
Messengers and sentry inspectors must both be young comrades; sentry inspectors should be especially capable and must be literate.
Their work must be subject to training.

(2) Work of the Congress of Representatives
(1) The township congress of representatives is the highest governing body of the entire township. Through its deliberations, all Soviet laws, decrees, and policies are implemented, and all Soviet tasks are carried out. Therefore, leadership of the congress is extremely critical.
(2) The congress of representatives should normally be held once every ten days.
During busy farming seasons, it should be held in the evening.
Meetings should generally last two hours, and at most no more than three.
Each meeting should consist of only two parts: reports and discussions. The chairperson and the participant from the district Soviet should each report for ten minutes; additional remarks can be made during the discussion period.
When discussing a work issue that has previously been carried out in the township, the village chiefs may each report for a few minutes, with further comments reserved for the discussion period.
The remaining time is for discussion.
However, at meetings dedicated to reviewing work, the village chiefs’ reports may take more time.
Reports must contain substantive materials and opinions; reports that consist only of empty talk should be discontinued.
(3) Each congress meeting should address only one main issue, with possibly one or two secondary issues.
More time should be devoted to discussing the main issue, and less to the secondary ones.
If several major issues are raised for discussion at each meeting, the meeting will fail to reach any conclusions.
(4) The issues discussed must be practical.
For example, when discussing spring plowing, it should be broken down into items such as “developing labor mutual-aid societies,” “developing ox-plowing cooperatives,” “how plowing teams give preferential treatment to Red Army families,” “increasing fertilizer use,” “more plowing and harrowing,” “reclaiming wasteland and barren hills,” “repairing dykes, ditches, ponds, and waterwheels,” “planting cotton,” “more glutinous grains and fewer non-glutinous varieties,” and “more miscellaneous grains and vegetables.”
Discussions should be tailored to the actual conditions of each village.
For each item, practical measures must be formulated. For instance, regarding “developing labor mutual-aid societies,” an estimate should be made of how many additional people can be recruited in the entire township, a total target set, and then, based on the actual conditions of each village, a target for each village should be determined. These targets should then be handed over to the village chiefs and deputy chiefs to make further practical allocations according to the circumstances of the residents under each representative’s jurisdiction, with a completion deadline also specified.
During discussion, each item should be addressed one by one; only after the first item has yielded a result should the second be taken up.
The results of the discussions shall form resolutions, which must be recorded in a minute book for future review and for the presidium to supervise.
Any items not fully discussed should be carried over to the next meeting.
When spring plowing is discussed for the second time, each item from the previous resolution must be reviewed.
During the review of a particular item, the village chiefs should report on the implementation situation, the reasons for completion or non-completion, and most importantly, identify lessons learned to serve as learning material for representatives and the masses.
After the review, any new problems arising in the spring plowing should be discussed.
During the review, representatives and village chiefs who have not fulfilled their tasks should be given appropriate criticism according to the circumstances, to draw their attention.
The above provides an example; when discussing other issues, the same method should be followed.
In many township congress meetings, discussions of issues are not practical: they fail to break major issues down into smaller items;
or they lump many items together in a hasty discussion without completing one item before moving on to the next, leaving people without a clear conclusion to take back;
they do not adhere to the actual conditions and characteristics of each village, nor do they specify the numbers each village should achieve (for issues where targets are appropriate), nor do they set deadlines for completion, nor do they charge the village chiefs with reallocating and supervising the representatives to fulfill their specific tasks.
Or, for tasks set according to a particular village’s characteristics (such as requiring a certain village to dig several ponds while other villages do not), they do not specifically ask the representatives of that village, “What do you think of this stipulation—is it good or not?” thereby making them genuinely responsible, but instead merely pass it generally.
In some township Soviets, there is only discussion and decision, without subsequent review at meetings held not long afterward. Even when reviews are conducted, they fail to point out the characteristics of each village or household, the reasons for success or failure, nor do they criticize the idle representatives and village chiefs.

**What Use Are Such Discussions and Inspections?**

Such discussions and inspections are hollow, bureaucratic, a waste of time, and cannot fulfill the tasks of the Soviet.

To adopt pacifism toward those who slack off at work leaves the representative conference lifeless, unable to rouse the representatives from backward villages and hamlets (small villages) to lead the masses in diligent work and catch up with the advanced villages and hamlets.

All these approaches are incorrect.

(5) For a representative conference to be held well, the presidium must certainly prepare well. Hence, as mentioned earlier, it is essential that the presidium hold a meeting before the representative conference to properly prepare the reports and agenda for the next conference.

For such preparatory work, the chairman in particular must bear responsibility, while the vice-chairman and secretary should assist the chairman.

(6) The chairman presiding over the session when the representative conference is in progress is temporarily elected in many places, and in some places, there is even a rule against electing someone from within the presidium. This is not good.

The session chairman must be a permanently stationed staff member, ideally the township Soviet chairman, because only they are familiar with the situation of the entire township and understand the whole course of events, past and present.

(7) At each representative conference session, roll call must be taken, and a mark should be placed beside the name of anyone who is absent.

The presidium should keep a list of representatives, written by village and by hamlet, showing each representative’s name, gender, age, and class background.

**(III) Village Organization and Work**
(1) The focus of township work is in the villages; therefore, the township Soviet presidium must pay the utmost attention to village organization and leadership.

(2) All townships not yet divided into villages must proceed with the division. Some townships may be divided into only two villages, some into three, and some large townships into four or five, designated according to actual circumstances. But generally, smaller divisions are better; overly large villages are inconvenient for directing work.

(3) Each village shall have one director and one deputy director, elected by the township representative conference from among the representatives. The most active and capable individuals among the representatives of each village should be nominated. In villages with several hamlets, the director and deputy director should not be chosen from the same hamlet.

The village director bears the responsibility of supervising all work in the village, and the deputy director assists the director in supervising the work of the entire village.

(Note) If the village director or deputy director lacks labor power at home, during busy farming seasons the township Soviet may arrange for the masses to voluntarily help them with some labor, to compensate for the working time they expend (which is more than that of other representatives) in diligently fulfilling Soviet work. If the masses agree, a village director may be given full support so that he can devote all his time to Soviet work and seek benefits for the masses of the entire village.

(4) The village director shall usually call a meeting of all village representatives once every ten days (for example, if a certain village has fifteen representatives, then call these fifteen people to meet). When work is busy, a meeting may be held every five days. At these meetings, examine the work of each representative, discuss, in light of the characteristics of each hamlet and household, how to accomplish the tasks assigned by the township representative conference to the village, resolve issues of mutual aid and minor disputes among the village residents, prepare reports for the village mass assembly, and promote the work of the village committees.

(5) The dates for such village representative meetings shall be arranged by the township Soviet presidium. It is best to schedule them between two successive township representative conferences, and closer to the date of the latter conference. For instance, say a township has three villages, and the township representative conference meets on days ending with five. The presidium could then schedule the first village to meet on a day ending with one, the second on a day ending with two, and the third on a day ending with three, thus allowing permanently stationed township personnel, especially the chairman, to attend the village meetings. If the village meetings are held every five days, then one can be scheduled a few days after the previous township conference, and another a few days before the next township conference. The main purpose of these meetings is to inspect and supervise work, and to have the village director report the results of the inspection at the next township representative conference.

(6) Implement a system whereby each representative shares the responsibility of leading a specific group of resident masses. For example, if a certain village has fifteen representatives and five hundred residents, these five hundred people are divided into fifteen units based on the proximity of their houses, and each representative is assigned to lead the masses in one unit. However, the distribution should not be equal. Instead, the number of people should be appropriately allocated according to the position of the houses and the capability of the representative. Those assigned more may lead up to fifty or sixty people, while those assigned fewer may lead only thirty or forty. This method of dividing leadership responsibility among representatives ensures that all representatives bear responsibility. Each representative, within a defined scope, goes among the resident masses to lead them in carrying out Soviet work (for example, urging the several dozen people under his charge to strive in spring plowing, propagandizing to recruit activists among the several dozen people to join the Red Army, persuading people to join cooperatives, urging children to attend day school, urging adults to attend night school, urging every household to sweep their houses and clear ditches to maintain hygiene, leading several dozen people to attend mass assemblies, monitoring the activities of landlords and rich peasants, etc.). This system quickly gathers the opinions of the masses to raise them at village and township representative conferences, and swiftly resolves difficult problems among the masses. It is indeed of immense benefit. Yet, in many places now, this system of division of leadership responsibility among representatives has not yet been implemented and must be put into practice immediately.

(Note) The village director should keep a notebook recording the village’s population, acreage of land, numbers in the Red Guard and Young Pioneers, food supply (how much in total, how many families have a surplus, how many are short), and other necessary items. Each representative must also have a list of the several dozen people under his charge.

(7) Each representative shall convene meetings of the several dozen people under his charge to inspect how each household is carrying out Soviet work, discuss current tasks, report on terms of the emulation drives, report resolutions of the township Soviet, and collect the opinions of the masses to report at the village and township representative conferences. Such meetings should be conducted in a conversational manner, with the representative acting as the session chairman. One hour is sufficient. They should be held when people are at leisure. Such meetings should be scheduled every ten days, and the unit meetings led by all representatives in the village may be held on the same day. If a representative fails to hold a meeting for some reason, he should be instructed to hold it on another day to make up for it. The township Soviet chairman should convene the village directors to set the dates so they do not conflict with other meetings in the township or villages. At these meetings, guide the masses in developing mutual criticism—for instance, point out that a certain household is harboring a deserter who does not return to the army, that a certain household is not diligent in spring plowing, that a certain household is not timely in helping the families of Red Army soldiers farm their land, that a certain lonely elderly person who should receive help has been neglected by everyone, that a certain household is not urging its children to study, that a certain household does not pay attention to hygiene, etc. Such meetings can rapidly disseminate Soviet decisions to the masses, accelerate the pace of Soviet work, quickly improve the lives of the masses, and swiftly heighten the masses’ fighting spirit. In addition to these meetings, each representative should spend some time visiting the homes of the people under his charge, to see if they have any problems that need solving, and to see whether they have implemented the decisions of the Soviet. He should first visit the families of Red Army soldiers and the poorest people. He should also visit the homes of landlords and rich peasants, to see if they are engaging in any improper behavior. The village director bears the responsibility of supervising these small-unit meetings and these household visits by the representatives. The quality of each representative’s work can be assessed through these activities.

(8) The village mass assembly is extremely effective in educating the masses, mobilizing them to carry out Soviet tasks, and raising their fighting spirit. It should be regarded as an important method of mobilization and education. It is wrong that many places neglect to hold such mass assemblies. At these village mass assemblies, report the resolutions of the township Soviet, report on the revolutionary emulation items between this village and other villages and between this hamlet and other hamlets, and explain the revolutionary tasks put forward by the higher-level Soviets. Then, after the masses fully understand, they will strive to carry them out quickly. Such mass assemblies should be held once every half month. The township Soviet presidium should arrange the meeting dates for each village, notify the village directors, and avoid conflicting with other meetings. The dates of the mass assemblies for different villages should not fall on the same day, so that the township Soviet can send personnel to attend. In a village where the population is concentrated in a single hamlet, the whole village naturally holds the meeting as one unit, with the village director serving as the session chairman. However, in the majority of villages in the Soviet areas at present, which consist of two or more hamlets, these villages should hold meetings as two separate units, so that most people—men and women, old and young—can attend. The village director and deputy director each chair one of the sessions. Good preparations should be made beforehand for such mass assemblies. How to urge all representatives to invite most of the masses to attend, what to report at the meeting, and how to guide the masses to voice their opinions—all these must be discussed and settled in advance at the village representative meeting. The meeting should not exceed two hours. It should be held when most of the masses are at leisure. As for township-wide mass assemblies, they should not be casually convened unless there are important issues to address or it is a commemorative festival day. The primary reliance should be on the village mass assemblies and the small-unit mass meetings led by each representative to carry out mobilization and education work.

**(IV) Township and Village Committees**
(1) Under the township Soviet, various committees should be organized to assist the township Soviet in managing specialized work. Absorb activists from the masses as committee members. Each township representative must join one or two committees and play a leading role in them. The committee system must be regarded as an important method for connecting with the broad masses and advancing Soviet work. Where such committees have not been organized, they must be organized quickly.

(2) Some committees are permanently organized, such as those for Red Army Expansion, Preferential Treatment for Red Army Soldiers, Comforting the Red Army, Red Alert, Air and Gas Defense, Agricultural Production (spring plowing, summer plowing, autumn harvest and autumn plowing, winter plowing), Production Education, Mountain Forests, Water Conservancy, Investigation and Registration, Education, Hygiene, Bridges and Roads, Grain, State-owned Property (in townships with state-owned property), and Worker-Peasant Inspection. These committees all have ongoing work. Some committees are temporary, such as those for Land Investigation, Confiscation and Requisition, Land Tax, Public Bonds, Land Reclamation, and Elections. These committees are of a temporary nature; once their work is completed, the committee is disbanded, and next time such work is undertaken, it will be organized again temporarily. The Land Investigation Committee and the Confiscation and Requisition Committee will also become unnecessary after the land issue is fundamentally resolved.

(3) For some committees, establishment at the township level alone is sufficient, but for others, village-level organizations should also exist. For committees such as those for Red Army Expansion, Preferential Treatment for Red Army Soldiers, Production Education, Spring Plowing, Mountain Forests, Water Conservancy, Education, and Hygiene, having village-level organization makes the work easier to carry out widely and deeply.

(4) The number of members on a committee, depending on its nature, should range from a minimum of five to seven or nine, but not more. For committees that exist at both the township and village levels (such as the Spring Plowing Committee), five members each at the township and village levels is enough. The village committee director may serve as a member of the township committee.

(5) At the township level, the presidium prepares a list of nominees for committee directors and members and submits it to the township representative conference for approval. At the village level, the village director prepares a list of nominees and submits it to the village representative conference for approval.

(6) Each committee must find a most active comrade to serve as its director. The presidium must educate each director on how to carry out the work, urge them to convene their own committee meetings on time, and inspect the work of each director. Directors who slack off must be removed and replaced with new ones.

(7) The director, before convening his committee meeting, must make preparations in advance so that each meeting achieves results. After the meeting, he must assign a specific task to each committee member, tell them how to carry it out, and require them to submit work reports at the next meeting. Committee members who slack off must be removed and replaced with new ones.

(8) Committees are usually reelected every six months. At re-election, retain the activists and dismiss those who are passive and slack off.

(9) The township Soviet presidium should divide the work among its members for attending the meetings of each township-level committee. It is best to make this division of work fixed for a period, with each presidium member responsible for several committees. For example, the chairman could oversee military and financial affairs (Red Army Expansion, Comforting the Red Army, Red Alert, Air and Gas Defense, Land Tax, Public Bonds, Confiscation and Requisition, State-owned Property, etc.), the vice-chairman could oversee production and economic affairs (Preferential Treatment for Red Army Soldiers, Spring Plowing, Mountain Forests, Water Conservancy, Grain, Bridges and Roads, Production Education, etc.), and the secretary could oversee other areas (Education, Hygiene, Worker-Peasant Inspection, Investigation and Registration, etc.). These specific responsibilities should be discussed and assigned at presidium meetings, so each person has specific duties and collects materials to facilitate reporting at presidium and representative conferences.

When a village committee holds a meeting, the respective director from the township committee must attend the meeting of their subordinate committee (for example, the director of the township education committee attends the meeting of the village education committee). The village’s representative director and deputy director must also divide responsibilities and participate.

(10) The meeting dates for each committee of the township and village are determined by the township soviet presidium based on the urgency of various tasks in different periods. For instance, in spring, the spring plowing committee may meet more frequently, but in winter, the winter plowing committee may meet less often.

Each meeting should not exceed two and a half hours.

(5) Relations between the township soviet and mass organizations: (1) Various mass organizations in the township (trade unions, poor peasant leagues, women workers’ and peasant women’s representative congresses, anti-imperialist and pro-Soviet alliances, mutual aid societies, children’s groups, labor mutual aid cooperatives, plow ox cooperatives, consumer, production, grain, and credit cooperatives, nurseries, illiteracy elimination associations, literacy movement committees, clubs, etc.) must receive greater attention and assistance. Their efforts must be relied upon to mobilize the broad masses to accomplish various revolutionary tasks.

For organizations without higher-level bodies, such as poor peasant leagues, women workers’ and peasant women’s representative congresses, labor mutual aid cooperatives, plow ox cooperatives, and nurseries, the township soviet bears full leadership responsibility.

Regularly inspect their work. If any negative situations arise, promptly discuss and correct them. No matter what mass organization it is, if they encounter difficulties, the township soviet must help them resolve these issues.

(2) When the presidium and representative meetings discuss work related to a certain mass organization, the responsible person of that organization should be invited to attend.

When each organization holds meetings, the township soviet should also send representatives to participate.

The relationship between the village representative meeting and village mass organizations follows the same principle.

The township soviet presidium should consult with the responsible persons of various mass organizations to schedule their meeting dates, ensuring they do not conflict with other village meetings in different townships.

(3) The township soviet should pay attention to leading the Red Guard and Youth Vanguard, ensuring that all young and adult men and women join the Red Guard and Youth Vanguard. It must ensure that most attend their village and township drills, and that their training improves daily.

Their cadre meetings should be attended by designated representatives.

(6) Revolutionary emulation and shock brigades: (1) To achieve quality and speed in soviet work, to do work well and quickly, the method of revolutionary emulation and the organization of shock brigades should be implemented in every township and village.

(2) Every revolutionary work emulation, whether instructed by higher authorities or initiated by the township, must go through discussion at the township representative meeting and be reported at village mass meetings and small-unit mass meetings of representatives.

If it involves a certain mass organization, it must also be reported at that organization’s meeting, ensuring every representative and every citizen understands and endorses it. Only when everyone fully understands and endorses it can everyone take responsibility, can their revolutionary enthusiasm be aroused to strive diligently, and can the work be done well and quickly, meeting or even advancing the requirements of the emulation on schedule.

In this process, all methods of coercion and command must be abolished.

(3) The emulation for each task does not end with just discussion and reporting; it must be followed up with inspections.

Each representative inspects individual households, the village director and deputy director inspect the representatives, and the township soviet presidium and representative meetings inspect each village director and deputy director.

Without such inspections, some households, some representatives, some villages, and some hamlets may become negligent, failing to meet requirements by the deadline, or meeting them numerically while the work quality remains poor.

The inspection system is a crucial method for ensuring the quality and speed of soviet work. Having only decisions without inspections is a bureaucratic leadership style, as harmful as the coercion-and-command approach.

(4) At the conclusion of each work emulation, conclusions must be drawn at the village and township representative meetings, distinguishing between the outstanding and the underperforming. The winners should be rewarded, and the losers criticized.

(5) To achieve quality and speed in soviet work, each village can organize a shock brigade of five to seven people, selected from the representatives and the masses on a voluntary basis, comprising the most active and capable comrades. Each village should have a brigade leader, and brigade members should not be chosen from the same household cluster.

Shock brigade work methods are of two types: one is within the village, where members from different household clusters take turns going to each other’s clusters (e.g., members from cluster A go to cluster B, and vice versa), with a primary focus on sending members from advanced clusters to backward clusters.

The other is within the township, where shock brigades from different villages take turns going to other villages (e.g., brigade from village A goes to village B, and vice versa), with the main focus on sending shock brigades from advanced villages to backward villages.

The purpose of these visits is not to scold people but to assist with the work there, sharing good methods with the comrades in those places, so that the work there can progress rapidly, and they can learn the work methods of advanced villages and household clusters.

A captain managing the township-wide shock brigade should be established under the township soviet presidium, with the authority to deploy the shock brigades of various villages.

The presidium should convene regular meetings of township and village brigade leaders to inspect their work and instruct them on methods. The leaders, in turn, should convene meetings of brigade members to train them.

The presidium should also convene a general meeting of all shock brigade members every half month or every month to train them.

(7) Leadership of the district soviet over the township: The district soviet must earnestly guide the township soviets according to the various points mentioned above, ensuring their thorough implementation. It must clearly explain these points to the township soviet comrades, ensuring they fully understand. It must regularly inspect whether each township soviet is implementing them as described, with particular attention to providing repeated explanations and assistance to township soviets lagging in their work.

When higher-level governments inspect the work of the district soviet, they should assess whether the district soviet has earnestly guided all subordinate townships to implement the aforementioned measures and achieved the fastest speed and best results in all soviet work.

(Note) This document generally applies to city and district soviets.

Printed based on the pamphlet "How Township and District Soviets Should Work" published by the People’s Commissariat of the Chinese Soviet Republic.

Note [1]: "City" in this text refers to towns.