The Central Committee’s Comment and Reply Telegram on the Report of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee Concerning the Question of Agricultural Cooperation (September 8, 1955)

1
To the Shanghai Bureau, all provincial and municipal Party committees, and the Party committees of all autonomous regions:
The report of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee dated August 15, 1955, concerning the question of agricultural cooperation [1] is hereby forwarded to you for reference. The Central Committee holds that the orientation of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee is correct. The criticism made by the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the erroneous orientation of “resolute contraction” adopted this spring is also correct. Because this erroneous orientation was proposed to the Zhejiang Provincial Committee by the Central Committee’s Rural Work Department, the Central Committee’s Rural Work Department should bear the primary [2] responsibility. The comrades of the Central Committee’s Rural Work Department have now also recognized this error of theirs and have already conducted self-criticism.

The Central Committee
September 8, 1955

2
To the Zhejiang Provincial Committee:
Your report of August 15 concerning the question of agricultural cooperation has been received. The Central Committee deems it correct and is forwarding it to all provincial, municipal, and autonomous region Party committees for reference. Two additional points are made here:
(1) On page six, line one of the report, “idealism” should be changed to “subjectivism”; on page nine, line eleven of the report, the sentence “deeply criticize and overcome the thinking that represents the rich peasants” should be changed to “deeply criticize and overcome the thinking that represents the bourgeoisie as well as the thinking that represents the spontaneous capitalist tendencies of the rich middle peasants.”
(2) We agree that you may distribute this report down to the Party branches.

The Central Committee
September 8, 1955

Published based on Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

Notes

--- Notes

[1] The main content of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China’s report is: 1. An examination of the agricultural cooperation work in Zhejiang Province. The development of the agricultural cooperation movement in Zhejiang Province over the past four years has been basically sound, but the adoption of the “resolute contraction” orientation in April 1955 was erroneous. The erroneous thinking at the time was: (a) Believing that “the development of cooperation has been too rapid,” and that “such rapid development has surpassed the level of the masses’ consciousness and is the root cause of creating a tense situation in the countryside; if we do not dismount quickly, there is the danger of undermining the worker-peasant alliance.” Under the sway of this thinking, the problems existing within the cooperatives at the time were exaggerated. (b) Believing that “such rapid development has surpassed the level of the cadres’ experience and cannot be consolidated. Forcing it to continue will lead to a reduction in agricultural output,” thereby neglecting the experience already gained by Party committees at all levels during the trial establishment. (c) Confusing the various strata of new and old middle peasants without distinction, and broadly emphasizing the vacillating nature of the middle peasants (including the new middle peasants). This erroneous...