Comrades: This letter is addressed to the members of the Party committees at the four levels—central, provincial/municipal/autonomous region, prefectural, and county.
It is not for any other purpose than one single matter: to suggest that you read two books.
One is Stalin’s Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR; the other is Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin on Communist Society [1].
Each person should read each book carefully three times, reflecting and analyzing as they go: identifying what is correct (which I consider to be the most important), and what is incorrect, or only partly correct, or vague and ambiguous—points where the authors themselves seem unclear about the issues they are addressing.
While reading, form groups of three to five people to discuss the text chapter by chapter and section by section. With two or three months devoted to this, it should be possible to gain a thorough understanding.
These two books should be studied in close connection with China’s socialist economic revolution and economic construction, so as to sharpen our thinking and equip us with a clear-headed approach to guiding our great economic work.
At present, many people are beset by a host of confused ideas; reading these two books may help to clarify them.
Some comrades who style themselves Marxist economists have recently found themselves in just such a situation. When they study Marxist political economy, they are indeed Marxists; but as soon as they turn to specific problems in current economic practice, their Marxism tends to lose its edge.
What is needed now is both reading and debate, for the benefit of all comrades. To this end, I recommend that you read these two books.
In due course, you may wish to read another volume—the Textbook of Political Economy compiled by our Soviet comrades.
Comrades at the township level who are interested may also take it up.
During the Great Leap Forward and the People’s Commune period, studying works of this kind would have been particularly enlightening. What do you think, comrades?  Mao Zedong, Zhengzhou, November 9, 1958  Printed from Selected Letters of Mao Zedong, published by the People’s Publishing House in 1983.  Note [1]: “Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin on Communist Society” refers to Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin on Communist Society, published by the People’s Publishing House in August 1958.