Speech at the Memorial Assembly for
Chinese Revolutionary Martyrs
(June 17, 1945)
Comrades:
Today the representatives to the Seventh Congress of the Chinese Communist
Party and the representatives of the people of Yan’an jointly gather for a
memorial assembly to mourn those in the Chinese revolutionary forces who
sacrificed themselves on every front during the past few decades. Among these
martyrs are several hundred thousand Chinese Communist Party members and
millions of revolutionary democrats. Among them are comrades in military work,
comrades engaged in all kinds of mass movements, comrades engaged in
administrative work, comrades engaged in Party affairs, and comrades engaged
in technical work. They range from the very high ranking to cooks, grooms,
fighters, workers, and peasants. It is these two groups of people, Communists and
revolutionary democrats, who united to fight our enemy. In the beginning, such
an army made up of these two groups of people was not big at all. Later, it
gradually grew, and now it is quite large. At the beginning, its lines, principles,
policies, and methods only had a direction. As for how it could become better and
more correct, this was achieved through protracted struggle and through the
blood and sacrifice of several hundred thousand Communist Party members and
millions of revolutionary people. We have had our Seventh Party Congress, and
the Chinese Communist Party has made a set of lines, programs, and policies for
building a new China that is independent, free, democratic, unified, and rich and
strong. Where did these things come from? They did not come from the brains of
a few individuals, and they were not invented by a few individuals. Instead, they

are the results of several decades of struggle by millions of Chinese people led by
their vanguard—the Chinese Communist Party. It is only through this experience
that we have the resolutions and documents of the Seventh Party Congress.
China has two big enemies, two big mountains that are oppressing our 450
million people. One mountain is imperialism, whereas the other is feudalism.
Domestic and foreign oppression are pressing on the heads of 450 million people
to prevent them from rising up and are destroying our productivity. The
productivity of the Chinese people should be developed. China should develop
and become a modern country, a country with ample clothing and enough food
as well as wealth and strength. To achieve this, we must liberate productivity and
destroy imperialism and feudalism. It is imperialism and feudalism that impede
the productivity of the Chinese people. Without destroying them, China will be
unable to develop and make progress and will be in danger of being eliminated.
Imperialism began to encroach upon China as early as more than one hundred
years ago. Now we have been fighting against Japanese imperialism for eight
years. It has been over ten years if we count from the Mukden Incident. Japanese
imperialism is our number-one enemy. In reality, the domestic reactionaries in
China are oppressing the Chinese people hand in glove with the Japanese
invaders. These reactionary forces are still very strong. They oppress all Chinese
people and constrain their productivity so that they cannot grow. What does the
revolution do? It breaks this oppression, liberates the productivity of the Chinese
people, and liberates the Chinese people so that they will have freedom.
Therefore, we should first obtain national independence and then democracy.
Without these two things, China will not be unified or rich and strong. Without
independence, China will continue to suffer from imperialist oppression. Without
democracy, China will continue to suffer from feudal oppression. Would we then
still have unity? There are democrats and reactionaries in the Guomindang. Now
the reactionaries are in power. Their so-called unification of China wants China
to remain a colony or semicolony of imperialism and to remain a country ruled
by a feudal system. China would be without independence and without
democracy, which means that the productivity of the Chinese people would not
be liberated. Our War of Resistance is not yet over, and we should continue to
work hard and unite the people in the entire country to make great efforts before
we can defeat our enemy. Nonetheless, the first obstacle that prevents us from

uniting is the Guomindang reactionaries.
The anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist struggle of the Chinese people has
undergone several stages. There was the Guangdong Anti-British Corps to resist
the British invasion before the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Then there was the
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolution, the Boxer [rebellion], the Xinhai
Revolution [of 1911], and the May Fourth movement, all of which had the
character of mass nationalism and democracy. In terms of the goals of these
movements, their demands for independence and democracy were the same as
ours. There was no Chinese Communist Party during several decades of struggle.
These movements were led by other groups and political parties. Because there
was no Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese people did not have a thorough
revolutionary program which could represent their interests and did not have a
correct leader who could steadfastly and consistently lead them to carry on the
struggle. Changes took place in the Guomindang. The Guomindang during the
Sun Yatsen period was different from the Guomindang in the Chiang Kaishek
period. While the former was the Guomindang that pursued the revolutionary
Three People’s Principles, the latter is the Guomindang that regresses toward
reaction. The Chinese Communist Party has never wavered about the revolution,
and only the Communist Party can never waver. Only the Chinese Communist
Party can carry the revolution through to the very end, regardless of the number
of deaths and regardless of all the sacrifices. It is already 104 years since the
uprising in Guangdong of the Anti-British Corps to resist British imperialism in
1841. In these 104 years, the number of Chinese who have been killed or
imprisoned is incalculable. Ever since the founding of the Chinese Communist
Party in China, the past twenty-four years saw the deaths of several hundred
thousand people among the Communists alone. The revolutionary democrats,
who fought against foreign as well as Chinese anti-revolutionary forces along
with us, have also lost lives in the millions. In order to eliminate revolutionary
forces, the reactionaries adopted the method of killing, thinking that killing
would make the revolutionaries retreat and would stop or diminish the Chinese
revolutionary movement. Because this is what they thought, they acted
accordingly. Nonetheless, everything turned out to be just the opposite of their
subjective wishes. The fact is that the more people they killed, the more the
revolutionary contingent developed. I say that this is in proportion; it is a rule, an

irresistible rule. The hope and the intent of the reactionaries are that the more
people they kill, the smaller the revolutionary army will be, but the hope and the
result are two different things.
The aforementioned law can also be proven by the history of the Guomindang.
The Qing dynasty and foreign imperialism once oppressed the Guomindang. Did
the oppression make the Guomindang smaller or bigger? In the end, the Xinhai
Revolution broke out and overthrew the Qing dynasty. The Guomindang uses the
methods that the imperialist and the feudal forces once used on them to deal with
the Chinese people and to oppress the Communist Party, workers, peasants, and
revolutionary intellectuals. I say that they are wrong! The more troops they
march over here, the smaller they will become. Our army, however, will become
larger. This is a conclusion we draw from the history of the past few decades.
Japanese imperialism killed many people, so is it really true that the more it killed
the bigger it became? Hitler also killed many, and is it really true that the more
he killed the bigger he became? Whether they are from China or from abroad, the
more people that the reactionaries kill, the smaller their own forces will become,
but the revolutionary forces will become bigger.
The Party that we are building is an eastern Communist Party. The army that
we are building is an eastern revolutionary army of the people. We are struggling
bravely. It is impossible to diminish or eliminate us by means of killings and
oppression. Several hundred thousand Communists and revolutionary democrats
in the millions have been butchered, but our contingent still has hundreds of
thousands and millions standing up to continue the fight. Take the three periods
of the Chinese Communist Party, for example. It recruited fifty thousand Party
members in the first period, and they were scattered by one blow. Very few
remained. In the second period, we recruited three hundred thousand Party
members, and again many were scattered. Again, only a few remained. In the
War of Resistance Against Japan we recruited more than 1.2 million Party
members. In terms of the army, every comrade knows that there has never been a
Red Army in Chinese history. If there really had been one, it would have been
Zhu Hongwu1 in the Ming dynasty who once named his army the “Red Army.”
Their flag was red. Some people think that the name Red Army must have been
imported from foreign countries. I would say that it is not necessarily the case
because you only know about what goes on abroad and do not know the deeds of

our Chinese ancestors. After the oppression and butchery of the people by the
Guomindang reactionary clique in 1927, a Red Army was founded in China
again. This Red Army is under the leadership of a progressive political party. At
the beginning, its numbers were very small. I often tell some of our comrades: “Its
beginning is humble, but it must be great toward the end.” This is what it says in
the classic Zhuangzi. “Beginning” means at the very beginning; “small” means a
small number; “toward the end” means right before the end; “gigantic” means
huge and great. This can be used to refer to things that have vitality, countries
that have vitality, people and masses that have vitality, and political parties that
have vitality. Is the Chinese revolutionary force “gigantic” now? In 1841, the
Anti-British Corps in Guangdong had several ten thousands of troops, and their
slogan was to oppose the British invasion. Nonetheless, people back then did not
know what would later happen to their children, grandchildren, and descendants.
Sun Yatsen led the Xinhai Revolution, but he did not anticipate the May Fourth
movement or the creation of the Communist Party. Our ancestors did not predict
such an important historical incident as the October Socialist Revolution. Much
less did they predict that China would progress to the point of having ranks
which carry out the new democratic revolution under the leadership of the
Communist Party. They also did not predict that the Chinese Revolution would
take such a long time to succeed. At that time, they had only just begun to resist
the oppression of the enemy. As far as what the next episode would be, in my
opinion they did not give it mature consideration. It was unlike the Seventh Party
Congress, where we summarized historical experience, gained a clear
understanding of the current situation and the future, and thus firmed up our
confidence. Our ancestors failed to predict these, but they are not to blame. They
did not have revolutionary social science back then, and they did not have
Marxism to arm their brains. We are people whose brains are armed with
scientific socialism and who can foresee the future of society. We are more
progressive than they were, and we must fulfill what they did not finish. Our
public memorial service today can be traced back to the heroes of the Anti-British
Corps in 1841. We also mourn and pay our respect to them. The anti-British
struggle of the Anti-British Corps and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement
were both brave struggles. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had a few hundred
thousand troops and millions of peasants. It fought for thirteen years. In the end,

when Nanjing was overwhelmed by Qing troops, none of the troops surrendered,
and they were all burned alive. That was the end of the Taiping Heavenly
Kingdom. Although they failed, their failure was an unyielding failure. Nobody
could make them surrender. There is no Anti-British Corps today, nor is there a
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or a Boxer movement. Nonetheless, there was a
Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after the Anti-British Corps, a Boxer movement after
the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a Xinhai Revolution after the Boxer movement,
and a Communist Party after the Xinhai Revolution. Because of this, there was
the Northern Expedition, the land reform, and the War of Resistance Against
Japan. One part or the other part of the revolutionary forces may be eliminated.
They will be eliminated and killed by the enemy if they are not handled well.
Even hundreds of thousands can be killed by the enemy, but following that more
and more people will join our ranks. I have seen such families. You comrades
must have seen many such families as well. The reactionary clique killed the
father, so three or four of his sons, or even seven or eight plus his daughters, all
joined the Communist Party, all came to Yan’an. Therefore, the more the
reactionaries kill, the larger the revolutionary army will be.
We are having a big meeting today, and we are confident. The martyrs have
left us, and they have passed their responsibilities on to us. We must fulfill this
responsibility. Comrades, today is different from the time when these martyrs
carried out their struggles. Changes will take place in China in two to three years.
Perhaps things will change for the worse, or things will change for the better. In
sum, changes will take place. Japanese imperialism will be defeated. After the
defeat of Japanese imperialism, Chinese as well as foreign reactionaries will again
want to defeat us and the Chinese people. They are determined to wipe out all
the people’s democratic forces and revolutionary forces in China. By then, there
may be such a situation. The whole country would then be in darkness. Yan’an
would also be in darkness. It will be as if China is sinking in the ocean. Every day
will be night, without the sun and with a great darkness, and we will have to live
in terror for another few decades. This is one possibility. There is another
possibility, another picture, which is the suppression of the dark forces and those
who kill people with daggers. Chinese and foreign reporters asked me some
questions when they visited Yan’an last year, including questions in this regard.
We are gentlemen who use only our mouths instead of our hands. But if someone

holds a knife and wants to kill us, we will respond accordingly. I once told the
communication staff of the Guomindang: we have one hundred rifles. If you have
the ability to capture ninety-nine of them, I admire you because you are good at
fighting while we are not. If you capture ninety-nine out of one hundred rifles,
we still have one left, and we will continue to fight with this last rifle. With the
last rifle, you tell us to surrender, but we say we will not. The word “surrender”
does not exist in our dictionary, but it may exist in your dictionary.
Comrades, the present international and domestic situations are very good.
Our people and our friends, true democrats and we Communists, need to
understand more about unity and understand more about the line, principle, and
policy of the Communist Party. Understanding the line, principle, and policy of
the Party, we will become more united, and others will not be able to scatter us.
Comrades, you should be careful because fighting is inevitable in the future since
they are already prepared. Now, in reality, they are working hand in glove with
our national enemy, Japanese imperialism, intending to wipe out the
revolutionary forces of the Chinese people. They would like to wipe out all
revolutionary forces. Nevertheless, the result will be just like what I said in the
closing speech at the Seventh Party Congress. The revolution is sure to succeed.
China belongs to the Chinese people rather than to the reactionary clique. The
Americans who visited Yan’an asked me this question, and I told them that I
would write you a check. After you return to the United States, it will still be the
same group of people when we meet in the future, because China belongs to the
people. This is one future. China belonging to the reactionaries is another future.
Now the policy of [U.S. ambassador Patrick] Hurley of the U.S. government is
reactionary. It supports the Chinese reactionary clique. Our Party now has a clear
and sober mind, and a correct line, principle, and policy. We are sure to succeed.
We have such confidence. We are determined to erase the dark China from the
Earth and to build a bright China. This bright China is the goal toward which the
martyrs struggled for a long time. Although they died before succeeding, they left
us with experiences and lessons. The revolution has not succeeded today as we
hold our memorial ceremony, but we will succeed tomorrow. We have made up
our minds to turn China into a China for the people. We must defeat all foreign
and Chinese reactionaries, as well as all foreign and Chinese oppressors. We are
never going to give up before we defeat them. This objective will be achieved if

our entire Party unites, if the 100 million people in the liberated areas unite, and
if the revolutionary democrats in the enemy-controlled areas as well as those in
the other areas unite. We will never stop until we have achieved our goal.
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 431–38, where it is reproduced from a
transcript of Mao’s speech preserved in the Central Archives.
1. Zhu Hongwu refers to Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–1398), founder of the Ming dynasty. Hongwu is his reign
title.