Telegram from the Central Committee Replying to Two Reports from the Gansu Provincial Party Committee on the Issue of Agricultural Collectivization (November 30, 1955) To the Gansu Provincial Party Committee; also to the Party Committees of Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan, Fujian, and Rehe Provinces, as well as to all other provincial, municipal, and autonomous regional party committees:

Having reviewed the Gansu Provincial Party Committee’s report of November 10, 1955, concerning the criticism of rightist opportunist ideas such as the “Gansu backwardness theory,” and its report of November 23 on the progress of collectivization, we find your line to be correct. However, your plan for the development of collectivization is somewhat too modest. You state that “at present, farmers actively seeking to join cooperatives account for about forty percent of all farming households, and when combined with those already in cooperatives, this figure reaches around fifty percent.” Yet at the Fifth Enlarged Meeting of your Provincial Party Committee, you set a target of only “having cooperative members comprise thirty percent of all farming households” by 1956. This falls short of the peasants’ aspirations.

You should revise this plan to admit, in two phases this winter and spring, the forty percent of households already eager to join, bringing the total proportion of cooperative members—along with those already enrolled—to approximately fifty percent. In doing so, you will take the initiative. A further surge in the autumn and winter of next year would then essentially complete the process of agricultural collectivization. Such an approach would be highly conducive to developing production and promoting culture and education through comprehensive planning.

Based on data from the provinces of Central South, East China, North China, and Northeast China, with the exception of Fujian and Rehe, where figures remain unconfirmed, and Hunan—which is reported to be able to achieve only about thirty percent cooperative membership this winter and spring—the vast majority of the remaining sixteen provinces have already reached a level of over fifty percent cooperative membership, while a few others can attain more than forty percent by the end of this winter and spring. All of these provinces believe they will be able to bring basic collectivization to completion—i.e., reach seventy-five percent or higher—during the second half of 1956. According to the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee’s report of November 23, the proportion of households either already in cooperatives or in the process of joining has already reached fifty percent, with the potential to rise even further, possibly exceeding sixty percent. It appears that the enthusiasm among the masses across the country remains very high. If, this winter and spring, the lowest percentage of cooperative members in any province nationwide can reach at least forty percent, it can be confidently asserted that by the second half of 1956 all provinces except the Xinjiang Autonomous Region will have essentially completed primary-stage collectivization. This would be extremely advantageous for our future work. What are your views? Please consult with the various prefectural and county party committees to examine this matter and telegraph us your response without delay.

Issued by the Central Committee on November 30, 1955, printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.