Comments on the Draft Resolution of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee Concerning Agricultural Collectivization (September 12, 1955)

Liu, Chen, Deng, and Boda [1] — please read this and finish by today. Shangkun [2] is to have several copies printed immediately (to be distributed in Beijing to all members of the Central Committee, as well as to Qiaomu, Luyan [3], and a number of comrades in the Rural Work Department), then dispatched by air to the party committees of all provinces and municipalities directly under the central government, and to the party committees of autonomous regions, for the purpose of soliciting suggestions for revision. These should be brought back to Beijing by the end of the month when you attend the Central Committee plenary session. I believe this document is acceptable; I have made only a few stylistic revisions [ ]. If Boda has any differing views, he may discuss them with me this afternoon.

Mao Zedong, 4:00 a.m., September 12, printed from the manuscript.

Notes [ ] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Chen refers to Chen Yun, who at that time served as Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time was Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Boda is Chen Boda, who at that time held the post of Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work.

[2] Shangkun is Yang Shangkun, who at that time was Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Central Office.

[3] Qiaomu is Hu Qiaomu, who at that time was Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong’s secretary. Luyan is Liao Luyan, who at that time was Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work and Minister of Agriculture.

[4] This refers to the “Resolution of the Sixth Enlarged Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Question of Agricultural Collectivization (First Revised Draft),” issued by the CPC Central Office on September 12, 1955. The resolution was adopted at the Sixth Enlarged Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee on October 11, 1955.

[ ] Mao Zedong’s revisions to the draft resolution on agricultural collectivization consisted primarily of adding thirteen characters—“accounting for approximately five percent of all villages”—after the phrase “There still exist in various provinces some backward rural areas where land reform has not been thoroughly completed, and where feudal landlords and local tyrants continue, overtly or covertly, to exploit and oppress the peasant masses” in Article 9 of the draft resolution.