Comments on the Report by Chen Boda [1] et al. Concerning the Preparation for Establishing a School for Marxist Teachers, etc. (December 10, 1952)

Comrade Qiaomu [2]: Please forward a copy of this document [3] to the heads of the propaganda departments of all Central Bureaus for their information, so that they may gain a preliminary understanding of the Central Committee’s intention to establish a Red Professors’ School and of its great significance. Mao Zedong December 10

Based on the manuscript print. Notes [1] Chen Boda was at the time Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Propaganda Department and Vice President of the Marx–Lenin Institute.

[2] Qiaomu refers to Hu Qiaomu, who at the time served as Mao Zedong’s secretary and Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Propaganda Department.

[3] This refers to the report dated December 5, 1952, submitted by Chen Boda, Yang Xianzhen, and Chen Changhao to the Central Committee, outlining the main points of their conversation on December 4 with Professor Shevchov of the Soviet section of the Marx–Lenin Institute and other Soviet professors. The principal topics of the discussion were the teaching situation at the Soviet section of the Marx–Lenin Institute, the training of instructors there, and the preparations for establishing a school for Marxist teachers. On December 11 of the same year, the CPC Central Committee’s Propaganda Department transmitted the aforementioned report by Chen Boda et al. to various central comrades and to the heads of the propaganda and organization departments of all Central Bureaus, accompanying it with the following note: “The Central Committee has recently decided to set up a School for Marxist Teachers to train teaching staff in Marxist–Leninist subjects and theoretical personnel for universities, party schools, and party committees at all levels. Its nature and tasks will be roughly similar to those of the Soviet Red Professors’ Institute from 1921 to 1938, but it will be distinct from the Marx–Lenin Institute, which is of a different character from the Central Party School.” In the end, however, this separate school was not established. On February 10, 1953, the Central Committee decided to split the Marx–Lenin Institute into two divisions, assigning the First Division the specific responsibility of training Marxist–Leninist teaching staff, primarily for institutions of higher learning and party schools. The original Marx–Lenin Institute became the Second Division.