Talk when Receiving Members of the Second Committee of the National Student Federation

Date: 1957-03
Source: Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao: From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward
        (Harvard University Press, 1989), ed. Roderick MacFarquhar, Timothy Cheek, Eugene Wu

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Talk when Receiving Members of the Second
Committee of the National Student Federation
(MARCH 1957)
[233] After Lin Zexu burned opium in 1840, China had 110 years of
revolution; and during those 110 years [we] did no more than make
revolution, overthrow the Qing dynasty, the northern warlords,
[and] Chiang Kai-shek’s government. But the relations of production
Source: 1:233. A national propaganda conference was held 6-13 March 1957, in the aftermath of the Supreme State Conference to convey Mao's “Contradictions” speech and its policy implications to key officials. Texts 4-7 are various remarks by Mao and conversations he
had during this time. A related text is Mao's main speech to the propaganda conference on
12 March (9:90-112); it is not translated here, as it appears in SW5, pp. 422-35. Also relevant
is the “Concluding speech at the Supreme State Conference” of 2 March 1957, known as
the contradictions summing-up speech (New Mao Texts 10:64-74); it is not translated here,
as it appears in Wansui (1969), pp. 90-9 and is translated in Issues and Studies 10.12:110-5
(Sept. 1974).
had still not changed. The transformation of the relations of production came later. Only after 1949 did [we] undertake land reform in
the whole nation; socialist transformation came even later. Considering that [we've had] such a long [history] of revolution [but] only a
few years of construction, how can we not have difficulties [i.e., in
economic development]? We have a population of over 600 million
people; it’s impossible not to encounter difficulties if one wants to
construct socialism in so densely populated a country. Construction
is even more difficult than revolution.
The difficulties are [what you] young people [will have to deal
with]. The young people must succeed the older generation. Therefore, you should be well prepared. It’s you who will manage the country in the future.