"Today we commemorate the twenty-second anniversary of the Party and the sixth anniversary of the War of Resistance.
Now, all anti-fascist forces in the whole world and in all of China, all the Communist Parties of the world and our Chinese Communist Party, have only one task, and that is to defeat the common enemy of mankind, the fascist aggressors Germany, Italy, and Japan."
China's War of Resistance has already lasted six years; in terms of time, it is longer than that of any other country.
In the past year, the situation of the world war has undergone a fundamental change.
In the past, all the countries of the world were being attacked by the fascists, while the fascists were on the offensive, attacking all the countries of the world, and in their attacks they won battles and oppressed the anti-fascist countries.
This was the situation in the past, that is to say, an unfavorable, difficult, and arduous situation.
The situation now is fundamentally different; a fundamental change has occurred.
This change has taken place in the past year.
The victory of the Soviet winter offensive, the Anglo-American victory in North Africa, the Anglo-American victory in the Pacific, and China's persistence in the War of Resistance for six years are the reasons for this fundamental change.
Among them, the great victory at Stalingrad in particular played the main and decisive role in turning the situation around.
In the past, the fascist aggressors were extremely rampant, and the initiative was still in their hands.
Now, the fascist aggressors have lost the initiative, and the initiative has passed into the hands of the Allied nations.
The problem from now on is to resolve the fascists.
This resolution will be divided into two steps: first, to resolve Germany, and then to resolve Japan.
The coming year will be the year of the decisive battle in Europe.
Last year we said that the decisive battle in Europe could take place in 1942, but because the second front on the European continent was not opened, this did not materialize.
The key this year is still this second front on the European continent; the sooner it is established, the sooner victory will come.
In the past, we pointed out the trend, pointed out the possibility.
We Communists always point this out, so that everyone can see a bright future in the midst of difficulties.
Now the passive situation of the Allied nations has ended, and they have turned to the offensive, so what was merely a possibility in the past is now about to become a reality.
Today there is still no second front in Europe, but it will not be long before this becomes a reality; this is the goal of all mankind's efforts today.
Once the big boss Hitler is defeated, the little boss, Japanese fascism, will certainly be defeated as well.
There is a part of the people in the great rear area who do not understand and do not approve of defeating Hitler first; this is wrong.
Now the whole world has formed a united anti-fascist front, and no country is fighting in isolation.
Therefore, in deciding on strategy, one should not look at the immediate interests of a single country, but at what is most beneficial to the entire anti-fascist front.
Looking at it this way, one can see that after Hitler is defeated, resolving Japan will be very smooth.
It can be asserted that the bright future we pointed out in the past is now approaching realization.
The conclusion drawn from this comparison strengthens our confidence in a bright new world and a bright new China.
We know in which direction the world will go, in which direction China will go, whether the world will soon become a bright world, and whether China will soon become a bright China.
The two wars of unprecedented scale that have broken out in the world in the last thirty years are the inevitable result of the world's economic development.
The First World War was correctly foreseen by Lenin, and the Second World War was foreseen by Stalin.
Their correct foresight proves that Marxism-Leninism is a true scientific truth.
The First World War was an unjust war, an imperialist war.
At that time, there was only the Bolshevik Party of Russia and a very small number of people in other countries who were true communists, while the leaders of the social democratic parties in various countries all supported the imperialist war, and the vast majority of their members were not yet awakened.
This was the situation thirty years ago.
In the Second World War, the face of the world has completely changed.
Among the Allied nations, there are socialist countries, capitalist countries, and colonies and semi-colonies.
The Communist Parties of all the Allied nations have participated in this war; this is a just war.
It was only in the third year of the First World War that the Bolshevik Party of Russia established a socialist country—the Soviet Union.
After only a little more than twenty years, it has now become the protagonist in the world's anti-fascist war.
Without the Soviet Red Army, the Soviet people, and the Soviet leader Stalin, without the battle of Stalingrad, the fate of mankind would still be uncertain.
With a Bolshevik Party led by Lenin and Stalin, the old Russia became the socialist Soviet Union.
The existence of this piece of socialist territory in the world has influenced the entire world, to the extent that it has now become the protagonist in the world's anti-fascist cause.
As for the worldwide communist movement, after the victory of the October Revolution in 1917, the Communist International was founded in 1919.
Then, in the East, the Communist Party of China was founded in 1921, the Communist Party of Japan in 1922, and the Communist Party of India in 1933.
Our Communist Party of China held its First National Congress twenty-two years ago, with only twelve delegates attending, but now it has become such a large political party.
In its own twenty-two years of experience, the Communist Party of China has already carried out three great revolutionary movements, and now it is cooperating with the people of the whole country to organize a united front and concentrate its forces to deal with the Japanese invaders.
We are now by no means an isolated party; we have the people of the whole country, the people of the whole world with us against fascism, and the Communist Party of Japan and the Communist Party of India with us against Japanese imperialism.
But these one billion people are all against Japanese fascism.
The 450 million people of China, the 400 million people of India, the 100 million people of Southeast Asia, and the 100 million people of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are in fact all against Japanese fascism.
We have been in the mountains for a long time and hope that Comrade Okano Susumu, who has come to Yan'an, will give us much guidance, now for the need to unite to defeat Japanese fascism, and in the future for the need to build a new China and Japan.
At that time, China had no Communist Party, and the people were not awakened to such an extent that they could not even distinguish between good and bad foreigners, and did not know to distinguish foreigners into imperialists and good workers and peasants.
At that time, Marxism had already existed for seventy years, but our country did not know about it.
When teachers in schools taught philosophy, economics, and sociology, they did not even know the name of Marx.
At that time, China already had the culture of old democracy, but the culture of new democracy, the literature and art of new democracy, did not yet exist.
At that time, even vernacular Chinese was not recognized.
In the First World War, China was also one of the belligerent countries, but it only helped the imperialists, and its own semi-colonial status not only did not change, but was deepened.
The China of today, however, is a China of resistance, where the people are awakened to participate in the international anti-fascist front to fight against fascism, have a Communist Party, and have also made progress in culture.
We often take the many progressive things before our eyes as a matter of course, but in fact, compared with the past, it is a great change of dynasties.
From this, it can be seen that not only has there been a fundamental change in the question of the War of Resistance over the past six years, but also in terms of the world and China thirty years ago and now, there are two fundamentally different situations, which is a world-shaking great progress.
This progress was created by the hands of mankind.
This anti-fascist war will inevitably create a more progressive world and a more progressive China.
The fascists want to pull the world backward, but that is not possible.
To advance forward, this is our general direction.
Policies can be divided into two parts: national and those of the border regions and the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines.
Regarding national policies, the Party Central Committee's declaration on the sixth anniversary of the War of Resistance put forward four suggestions to the government, which are "strengthen the war effort," "strengthen unity," "improve politics," and "develop production."
As for what to do after the victory of the War of Resistance, our Party's July 7th declaration last year already made it very clear: we hope to continue to cooperate with all parties and factions to jointly build the country.
Our country's War of Resistance now has two battlefields, the front and the rear of the enemy.
The struggle on the battlefield behind enemy lines is very cruel.
We Communists have done work there.
For several years, we have created many new things, such as anti-"mopping-up," anti-"nibbling," better troops and simpler administration, support the government and cherish the people, support the army, the production movement, and the rectification of the three styles, and so on.
For other places, when we see shortcomings, we can only make suggestions, but in the border regions and behind enemy lines, it is different; we can do it ourselves, so we should do the work even better.
The first period was the four and a half years after the start of the War of Resistance (until the end of 1941), and the second period was the recent one and a half years.
In the first period, the Party's attention was focused on the following issues: how to form the anti-Japanese national united front, how to mobilize the masses, how to resist the strategic offensive of the Japanese army with friendly forces, how to create anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines, and the formulation of various policies, such as land policy, labor policy, the "three-thirds system" policy, etc. These were all pressing issues that needed to be resolved at that time.
In the last year and a half of these four and a half years, we were also forced to deal with two major frictions launched by anti-communist elements.
In the second period, that is, the recent one and a half years, in addition to continuing to carry out the above-mentioned tasks, we also carried out the rectification of the three styles, better troops and simpler administration, and the movement to support the government and cherish the people and to support the army.
This ensured the ideological and political unity of the Party and the purity of the Party's organizational composition.
These tasks must continue to be carried out unremittingly in order to ensure the victory of the War of Resistance, all for the sake of defeating the enemy, for overcoming the current difficulties, and for welcoming the bright future.
He concluded his report amidst thunderous applause from the entire audience.
Jiefang Ribao, July 1943, Selected Materials, Vol. 3, p. 167