Comment on the Report on the Question of Agricultural Cooperation [1]
(August 27, 1955)

To the Shanghai Bureau, provincial and municipal Party committees, and Party committees of autonomous regions:

The reports of the Rehe and Qinghai provincial Party committees on the question of agricultural cooperation are hereby forwarded to you for reference. The Central Committee deems both reports to be correct. Both reports put forward comprehensive plans for the basic completion of cooperation in their respective provinces, and the Rehe Provincial Party Committee has also made arrangements for all rural work. These are all good.

The Central Committee
August 27, 1955

To be read by Liu, Zhu, Chen, and Deng [2]; to be dispatched by Shangkun [3] via telegram, with copies separately sent to the Rural Work Department and the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Agriculture.

--- Notes

[1] Refers to the report of the CPC Rehe Provincial Committee dated August 20, 1955, on the plan for agricultural cooperation and the arrangements for rural work in the second half of the year, submitted to the Central Committee and Mao Zedong, and the report of the CPC Qinghai Provincial Committee dated August 15, 1955, on the development plan for agricultural producers' cooperatives from 1956 to 1960, submitted to the Central Committee. The main contents of the Rehe Provincial Committee's report are: (1) Regarding the development plan for the cooperative movement. This year, the province's agricultural producers' cooperatives have reached 13,085, with 279,475 peasant households joining the cooperatives, accounting for 28.22% of the total peasant households. On this basis, this winter and next spring, it is planned to further expand old cooperatives and establish 4,100 new ones, increasing the number of peasant households in cooperatives by 160,000. Adding the existing member households, this could reach over 45% of the total peasant households. By 1957, it will reach over 70%, and by 1958, over 80%, basically fulfilling the task of cooperation. (2) Arrangements for rural work in the second half of the year. Before mid-October, the main focus will be on increasing grain output, autumn harvesting, and preparations for autumn plowing. From late October to the end of November, carry out the "three fixings" of grain to the household level, and firmly grasp requisition, purchase, and storage, combining this with autumn plowing and the training of core personnel for cooperative establishment, and complete the second batch of plans for arresting counter-revolutionaries. From December to the end of February next year, concentrate efforts on establishing cooperatives as the central task, combined with the consolidation of old cooperatives and the work of Party consolidation and Party building. The Qinghai Provincial Committee stated in its report: There are currently 876 agricultural producers' cooperatives in the province's agricultural areas, with 24,944 peasant households joining the cooperatives, accounting for 13% of the total peasant households in the agricultural areas. On this basis, the plan is to develop to 1,928 cooperatives by 1956, accounting for 28% of the total peasant households; to 3,214 cooperatives by 1957, accounting for 50% of the total peasant households; to 3,796 cooperatives by 1958, accounting for 63% of the total peasant households; to 4,132 cooperatives by 1959, accounting for 75% of the total peasant households; and to 4,313 cooperatives by 1960, accounting for 85% of the total peasant households, basically completing the semi-socialist transformation of agriculture.


[2] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhu refers to Zhu De. Chen refers to Chen Yun, then Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, then Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.


[3] Shangkun, namely Yang Shangkun, then Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the Central Committee.