COMRADE MAO TSE-TUNG DELIVERS DETAILED REPORT ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THE
COMINTERN

26 May 1943

[Text] Comrade Mao Tse-tung was greeted with thunderous applause as he
stepped to the rostrum at a cadres meeting in Yenan on the evening of
26 May. The meeting was called by the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee to transmit two historical documents concerning the dissolution of
the Comintern--one from the presidium of the Executive Committee of the
Comintern and the other from the CCP Central Committee. After Comrade
Jen Pi-shih [0117 1732 2514] had explained the purpose of the meeting and
Comrade Li Fu-ch'un [2621 8111 2504] had read these two documents,
Comrade Mao Tse-tung made a report to the meeting in his capacity as chairman of the Political Bureau of the CCP Central Committee.

Comrade Mao Tse-tung first pointed out:

"The dissolution of the Comintern, as reported by American news agencies,
is a great 'epoch-making event.' That in the last 4 days all countries
in the world, no matter whether they belong to the antifascist camp or
the fascist aggressors' camp, and all political parties in the world have
been paying extreme attention to this problem is sufficient to prove
this point."

Comrade Mao Tse-tung asked:

"Why should the Comintern be dissolved? Did it not work for the liberation
of the working class all over the world, and did it not exert itself for
the antifascist war effort?"

Comrade Mao said:

"Yes, the Comintern was formed by Lenin. During the entire history of its
existence it rendered extremely meritorious services in helping various
countries to organize genuinely revolutionary workers parties and in the
great task of organizing the antifascist war."


Comrade Mao Tse-tung particularly pointed out the meritorious services
rendered by the Comintern in helping the revolution in China. He said:

"The influence of the Comintern among the Chinese people is profound. The
reason is that although China is an economically backward country, it went
through three great revolutionary movements in the last 22 years. And the
Comintern gave great help in these three revolutionary movements: namely,
the Northern Expedition, the land revolution and the war of resistance
against Japan."

Comrade Mao recalled how on the eve of the Northern Expedition the Comintern
helped Dr Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang under Dr Sun's leadership to
reorganize the party in 1924 and subsequently concluded an agreement on
CCP-Kuomintang cooperation. Recalling the historical fact that Mr Chiang
Kai-shek had gone to Moscow at that time on Dr Sun Yat-sen's orders and that
Kuomintang representatives had attended Comintern meetings, he said:

"This suffices to prove how great is the Comintern's help to the Chinese
revolution and the Comintern's influence among the Chinese people, not to
mention the subsequent land revolution and the war of resistance in recent
years."

Comrade Mao Tse-tung also pointed out:

"Revolutionary movements can be neither exported nor imported. Although
the Comintern provided help, the birth and development of the Chinese
Communist Party can be attributed to the existence of an awakened workers
class in China. The Chinese workers class created their own party--the
Chinese Communist Party. Although the Chinese Communist Party has a short
history of 22 years, it has embarked on three great revolutionary movements."

"Since the Comintern has rendered such great services to various countries
and China, why should it be declared dissolved?"

Comrade Mao Tse-tung answered the question:

"According to Marxist-Leninist principles, the organizational form of
revolution should be dictated by the need of the revolutionary struggle.
If the form of organization is no longer suitable to the need of revolutionary struggle, then that form of organization should be abolished."

Comrade Mao pointed out:

"At present the Comintern, as a form of organization of revolution, is no
longer suitable for the needs of struggle. If we continue to keep this
form of organization, it will hamper the development of revolutionary
struggle in various countries. What is needed now is to strengthen the
national communist parties in various countries. This international
leadership center is no longer necessary. The reasons are threefold:
First, the situations within each nation and among nations are more
complicated than before, and these situations change more rapidly than

before. A unified international organization is not suitable to cope with
the complicated and rapidly changing situations. Correct leadership must
be based on careful study of these situations. This makes it all the more
necessary for the communist party of each country to study its own situation.
The Comintern, remote from the scene of actual struggle in each country,
was adequate when the situation was relatively simple and changes were not
so rapid. It is inadequate now. Second, the fascist bandits have created
a deep chasm among the nations in the fascist camp as well as among nations
in the antifascist camp. Among the antifascist countries there are
socialist, capitalist, colonial and semicolonial countries. Among the
fascist countries and their vassal states there are also great differences
in the type of countries. In addition, there are different kinds of neutral
countries. To quickly and effectively organize all countries to wage an
antifascist war, a central international organization has long been felt
inadequate. This has become particularly obvious recently. Third, a
leadership cadre has grown up in the communist party of each country.
These cadres are politically mature."

Comrade Mao Tse-tung used the Chinese Communist Party as an example to
explain this point.

"The Chinese Communist Party went through three revolutionary movements,
and these revolutionary movements are continuous and very complicated,
even more complicated than the Russian Revolution. In these revolutionary
movements the Chinese Communist Party had a superb cadre of its own which
had gone through numerous crucial tests. Since the seventh world meeting
of the Comintern in 1935, it has not interfered in the internal affairs
of the Chinese Communist Party, and the Chinese Communist Party, during
the entire anti-Japanese war for national liberation [deletion]."

Comrade Mao Tse-tung summed up the comments emanating from various
countries in the last few days regarding the dissolution of the Comintern.
He said:

"All upright people in the allied antifascist countries applaud this action,
but the reaction from the fascist countries is different. All the bloody
aggressors, who had concluded an 'anti-Comintern' pact, seem to be unwilling
to see the Comintern dissolved. Isn't it strange? They desperately
denounce the dissolution of the Comintern. In the allied countries the
stubborn elements of the social democratic party in Stockholm and London,
who at one time refused to allow the communist parties in their respective
countries to join their party on the ground that the communist parties
acted 'on the instructions of the Comintern,' do not welcome the dissolution
of the Comintern. This is a rather strange thing."

"Now the task of all antifascist countries in the world is to unify all
workers movements so that the fascists will be forcefully and quickly
defeated. The stubborn elements in the workers movement are unhappy
because the dissolution of the Comintern deprives them of an alibi. They
even say that all communist parties in various countries should also be
dissolved."

Comrade Mao continued:

"This kind of opinion, which lacks all commonsense, probably has also
appeared in China. Let us take a look. But I believe that the majority
of [deletion] this opinion, because this kind of opinion lacks the minimum
amount of commonsense."

Comrade Mao Tse-tung said:

"The dissolution of the Comintern is not intended to weaken the communist
parties in various countries but to strengthen them and to make them more
national in character and more suitable to the needs of the antifascist
war. The rectification movement in our party in recent years to correct
such undesirable things as subjectivism, sectarianism and a stereotyped
party writing style is precisely for the purpose of making the Chinese
Communist Party more national in character and more suitable to the needs
of the war of resistance and national reconstruction."

Here, Comrade Mao Tse-tung pointed out in a very serious tone:

"Now that the Comintern has disappeared, our sense of responsibility is increased. Each comrade should understand that he is shouldering an extremely
great responsibility. Starting from this sense of responsibility, he should
manifest the creativity of a Communist Party member. We are in a difficult
national liberation war. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army are
fighting an extremely strong foe behind enemy lines. We are in a very
difficult situation, and the war will last a long time. But this long-term
hard struggle is a good opportunity to train ourselves. Let us think
carefully and not say that we are always right after only a casual reflection. Let us earnestly rid ourselves of subjectivism, sectarianism and the
old stereotyped party writing style, and let us assume a completely
responsible attitude and show a high degree of creative ability."

Comrade Mao emphatically pointed out the absolute necessity of the following
two types of unity:

"One is unity within the party, and the other is our unity with the people.
These are invaluable in overcoming difficult situations, and all comrades
of the party must cherish these two treasures. First, all comrades of the
party must rally around the Central Committee. Any conduct that destroys
unity is a crime. As long as all Communist Party members are united with
one heart and one purpose, any strong enemy and any difficult situation
will surrender to us. Second, all comrades of the party should be skillful
enough to unite with the people. Here I wish our comrades to emulate
Comrades Ch'en Tsung-yao [7115 1350 1031] and Tso Chi [1563 7874], as
recently reported by CHIEH-FANG JIH-PAO. Comrade Ch'en Tsung-yao is a
regimental commander of the Eighth Route Army. He walked several hundred
li with his whole regiment to carry rice. Instead of riding on horseback,
he carried rice on his back as the horses did. Touched by his spirit, all

commanders and fighters of his regiment were high in morale and none of them
deserted. Comrade Tso Chi is a member of the political committee of this
regiment. He lost a hand in the war. He was unable to lift a hoe in land
reclamation work. He stayed behind in the barracks and worked as a cook.
At lunchtime he carried food to the field for the fighters, who were deeply
touched."

Comrade Mao Tse-tung made this appeal:

"All cadres of the party should learn from the spirit of these two comrades,
mix with the broad masses, and conquer all bureaucratism divorced from the
masses."

Comrade Mao said:

"We Communists do not want to be officials. We want to be revolutionaries.
Every one of us should have a thorough revolutionary spirit. We should
never be isolated from the masses even for a minute. As long as we are
not isolated from the masses, we will certainly win the war."

• CHIEH-FANG JIH-PAO, 28 May 1943