Notes on the Study of People’s Communes (July 29 and August 1, 1959)  I. These three items [1] are to be circulated to all comrades. When printing, please ensure that Khrushchev’s article (together with a New York news item from the Central News Agency [2]) is placed first. The three articles should be printed together. Comrades are requested to study them carefully: Are the communes that once collapsed in the Soviet Union the same as our people’s communes? Will our people’s communes ultimately collapse? If so, what factors might lead to their downfall? And if not, what reasons account for their resilience? Anything that does not meet the demands of history is bound to fail; it cannot be kept alive artificially. Conversely, anything that conforms to historical requirements will inevitably endure; it cannot be dissolved by human decree. This is a fundamental principle of historical materialism. I urge comrades to read the Preface to Marx’s Critique of Political Economy. Recently, those attacking the people’s communes have been invoking this very scientific principle of Marx as a magic weapon to strike at us. Are you not afraid of this weapon? Mao Zedong July 29

 II. Comrade Jiaxiang [3]: Please take a look at this document [4]; it contains some interesting points. I have written a few sentences in response to Khrushchev. In the future, I intend to write an article expounding the superiority of the people’s communes. The “let a hundred flowers bloom,” the people’s communes, and the Great Leap Forward—these three initiatives are opposed or met with skepticism by Khrushchev and his followers. It seems to me that they have been put on the defensive, while we remain firmly in the offensive. What do you think? We must carry on this struggle on a global scale, addressing not only external adversaries but also the large contingent within our own Party who oppose or doubt these policies. Mao Zedong August 1 Printed from the manuscript. Notes [1] Refers to three articles published in Issue No. 2830 of Xinhua News Agency’s Internal Reference on July 28, 1959, submitted for review by Hu Qiaomu, Alternate Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat and Mao Zedong’s secretary: “Observations from Severely Affected Communes in Zengcheng County”; and in Issue No. 2831, “Khrushchev on Past Soviet Communes” and “Some Farmers in Panyu County Have Organized Small Self-Managed Canteens.” The article “Observations from Severely Affected Communes in Zengcheng County” reports that a recent reporter’s visit to the severely damaged Shitan and Zengjiang communes in Zengcheng County, Guangdong Province, following heavy rains, revealed an overall impression of good conditions—better than expected. Despite the disaster, not everything had been “completely wiped out.” Life was well organized for the affected population, production was thriving, and relations between the Party and the masses had reached a level of closeness unseen in the past two to three years. The article “Khrushchev on Past Soviet Communes” states that Pravda published on July 21 a speech delivered by First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev on July 18 at a mass meeting of the Polaczew Production Cooperative in Poznan County, Poland. Regarding communes, Khrushchev said: “It is understandable that transforming individual farms into collective ones is a complex process. We encountered many difficulties along this path. Immediately after the end of the Civil War, what we began to establish were not agricultural labor unions, but communes.” He continued: “Apparently, at that time many people still did not fully grasp what communism was or how to build it.” “Communes were set up even though neither the material nor the political conditions were yet in place—that is, the peasants’ level of consciousness was insufficient.” “Many of these communes achieved little. Consequently, the Party followed the path indicated by Lenin, organizing farmers into cooperatives and agricultural labor unions where they worked collectively but were paid according to their output.” “Now we have embarked on a broad and promising road. Collective farms have become a familiar home to the peasantry.” The article “Some Farmers in Panyu County Have Organized Small Self-Managed Canteens” notes that after certain public canteens in Panyu County, Guangdong Province, suspended operations, some farmers spontaneously joined forces to establish small “new-style communal canteens.” These canteens are characterized by a smaller number of participating households, complete self-management by the members, independent profit-and-loss accounting, and adherence to the “three voluntary principles”: voluntary participation, voluntary portion sizes, and voluntary selection of dishes—reflecting such virtues as reasonable burden-sharing, thrift, and mutual benefit. Currently, many commune members in Panyu County are considering organizing similar “new-style canteens.” [2] Issue No. 2831 of the Internal Reference, submitted for review by Hu Qiaomu, also carried a report titled “Foreign Newspapers Use Khrushchev’s Remarks on Communes to Sow Discord Between China and the Soviet Union,” based on a Central News Agency dispatch dated July 22. The report stated: “The New York Times today featured on its front page a Warsaw cable reporting Khrushchev’s criticism of the entire commune system, which is regarded as the most forthright public critique of communes ever made by a Soviet leader. According to the Times’ Warsaw correspondent, Khrushchev’s remarks ‘can be seen as an indirect reference to certain statements made by Chinese Communist leaders last autumn. Those leaders had asserted that establishing communes was the true path to communism. Such views appear to have irritated the Soviets, as Soviet newspapers had remained virtually silent on the subject of communes for about three months.’” [3] Jiaxiang refers to Wang Jiaxiang, then Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat and Minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee. [4] Refers to this document (I) and its attachments.