Conception of the People's Commune [I]
(1958)

Our direction should be to gradually and systematically combine "industry (industry), agriculture (agriculture), commerce (exchange), education (culture and education), and military (militia, i.e., universal armament)" into a large commune, thereby constituting the basic unit of our society.

[I]
In the first half of August 1958, Mao Zedong inspected Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Tianjin, and other places, and expressed his opinions on the people's commune and other issues, which were reported by Xinhua News Agency. The main points are:

(1) According to a Xinhua News Agency dispatch on August 10, Mao Zedong inspected Xushui County, Hebei Province, in early August. When Zhang Guozhong, First Secretary of the Xushui County Party Committee, reported that Xushui County would harvest 1.1 billion jin of grain in the autumn, Mao Zedong asked: "How can your county of more than 310,000 people eat so much grain? What will you do with so much grain?" Zhang Guozhong said that he had not considered this issue. Mao Zedong said: We should also consider what to do with so much grain produced. Mao Zedong asked the Xushui County Party Committee to start planning for next year's grain production early, to plant more wheat, more oil crops, and more varieties of vegetables, so as to meet the needs of the people. (2) According to a Xinhua News Agency dispatch on August 11, Mao Zedong inspected the Qiliying People's Commune in Xinxiang County, Henan Province, on August 6. While visiting the commune's cotton fields, Mao Zedong asked the commune cadres: "How much cotton like this do you have?" Wang Wensheng, the commune director, said: "The Qiliying production team has 15,000 mu, and more than 5,000 mu are like this. We guarantee 1,000 jin of ginned cotton per mu, and strive for 2,000 jin." Mao Zedong smiled and said to Wu Zhipu (First Secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee): "Secretary Wu, there is hope! It would be great if all of Henan were like this." Wu Zhipu said: "If we have one such commune, we won't have to worry about having more such communes." Mao Zedong said: "Right! With one such commune, there will be many communes." (3) According to a Xinhua News Agency dispatch on August 12, Mao Zedong inspected Shandong on August 9. Tan Qilong and Pei Mengfei, Secretaries of the Secretariat of the Shandong Provincial Party Committee, reported on the situation of various tasks in Shandong Province. Mao Zedong emphasized that the deployment of various tasks must be carried out through mass airing of views and debates. He said that if plans and targets are not debated by the masses, the ideas are yours. After the debate, the masses themselves are the masters, and their enthusiasm will naturally be greater. Mao Zedong also asked leading cadres to go down to the grassroots more often to help grassroots cadres summarize experience and provide on-the-spot guidance. When Tan Qilong reported that Beiyuan Township in Licheng County was preparing to establish a large farm, Mao Zedong said that it is better to establish a people's commune. Its advantage is that it can combine industry, agriculture, commerce, education, and military, which is convenient for leadership. (4) According to a Xinhua News Agency dispatch on August 15, Mao Zedong inspected Tianjin. When Li Gengtao, the Mayor of Tianjin, reported on the current main situation of Tianjin's industry, Mao Zedong instructed: Localities should find ways to establish independent industrial systems. First, it is the cooperation zone, and then many provinces. As long as there are conditions, they should all establish relatively independent but different industrial systems. Zhao Ke, First Secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Party Committee, who accompanied Mao Zedong on the inspection, reported on the situation of organizing the masses in non-mountainous areas to go to mountainous areas to mine and vigorously develop iron and steel. Mao Zedong praised this very much. He said: With grain and steel, with these two things, everything will be easy to handle.


--- Notes

This is Mao Zedong's statement quoted by Chen Boda, editor-in-chief of the journal *Hongqi* (Red Flag), in his article "Under the Banner of Comrade Mao Zedong" published in the fourth issue of *Hongqi* in 1958. The statement is followed by an explanation: "In such a commune, industry, agriculture, and exchange are people's material life; culture and education are the spiritual life of people reflecting this material life; universal armament is for defending this material and spiritual life. Before the system of man exploiting man is completely eliminated in the world, this universal armament is absolutely necessary. Comrade Mao Zedong's thought on this kind of commune is a conclusion drawn from the experience of real life."