These three items[1] are to be distributed to all comrades. When printing, note that Khrushchev's piece (together with a New York dispatch from the Central News Agency[2]) should be placed at the front. The three pieces are to be printed together. Comrades are asked to study them and see whether the communes that once collapsed in the Soviet Union and our people's communes are the same thing; to see whether our people's communes will ultimately collapse or not; if they are to collapse, what factors are sufficient to cause their collapse; if they are not to collapse, then why not. Things that do not conform to historical requirements will inevitably collapse; it is impossible to artificially maintain them without collapse. Things that conform to historical requirements will certainly not collapse; artificially dissolving them is also impossible. This is a major principle of historical materialism. Comrades are asked to read Marx's preface to *A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy*. Recently, those who attack the people's communes have brandished this very scientific principle of Marx as a magic weapon, holding it aloft to strike us. Are you not afraid of this magic weapon?

Mao Zedong
July 29

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Directive on Studying the Question of People's Communes