To Comrades Wu Lengxi, Chen Boda, and Hu Qiao[1]

(August 19, 1959)

Comrades Wu Lengxi, Chen Boda, and Hu Qiaomu:

In order to refute the attacks, slanders, and doubts directed at the people's communes by enemies at home and abroad, right opportunists within the Party, or those who, not knowing the true facts, harbor a skeptical attitude, we must wage a struggle against all such people, boost our own morale, and deflate their arrogance. For this purpose, a large amount of material is needed. Please ask Comrade Lengxi to have the New China News Agency and the *People's Daily* discuss this letter once, and immediately issue a notice to all their branch offices, instructing them to conduct Marxist investigations and studies of the people's communes. Each province (municipality, autonomous region) should select five typical examples, especially communes that are particularly well-run, such as the Shitan Commune in Zengcheng, Guangdong Province, and the Pohu Commune in Changge County, Henan Province (for both, see the *People's Daily* of August 18)[2], and the Wang Guofan Co-operative in Zunhua County, Hebei Province[3]. Do not exaggerate, nor understate; in short, seek truth from facts, verify repeatedly, conduct serious research together with the county Party committee and the commune Party committee, revise and revise again whatever is inappropriate, and ensure the writing is both solid and vivid, captivating to the reader. Moreover, this work must be carried out together with the capable work teams sent down by the prefectural and county levels. For the five communes in each province, five comrades who possess political and economic acumen, are highly skilled in writing, and are very clear in their thinking must be dispatched. Do you think this can be accomplished? Upon receiving this letter, I request you mobilize on the same day. The assignment is to be completed in one month, two months, or at the latest, three months. I hope the first batch can be submitted within thirty or forty days, with each province first sending in one or two typical communes, and the rest to be submitted successively thereafter. Do you think this can be done? If it cannot be done, then delay it; the general principle is to ensure both the circumstances (situation) and the writing are excellent. The pieces can be short or long—short ones of three to four thousand characters, long ones over ten thousand characters, with an average of seven to eight thousand characters being suitable. Once written, they are all to be submitted to me, and I will compile a book, like the book *The Socialist Upsurge in China's Countryside*[4] of that year. I plan to write a long preface of ten thousand words, fiercely refuting the opposition factions of the whole world. Please ask Comrade Chen Boda to immediately organize several comrades familiar with the materials on the communes established in the early period of the Russian Revolution, their specific circumstances (detailed materials are required), and the reasons for their collapse; analysis must be made and conclusions put forward. This too is extremely important. The aim is to break down the many oppositionists and skeptics among the Soviet comrades. The publication of this book and my article cannot be accomplished by National Day; at the earliest it will be autumn or winter, and at the latest we must wait until next spring, because the preparatory work cannot be done in time. After you have read this letter, if you deem it feasible, hand it to Comrade Shangkun[5] to immediately telegraph it to the provincial, prefectural, and county levels, and to the reporters of the New China News Agency and the *People's Daily* designated to undertake this work, so that they know my intention, which is to declare war on the world over this issue. Also distribute it to the comrades of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat.

Mao Zedong
August 19, 1959, at Lushan.
Based on the manuscript.

**Notes**
[1] Wu Lengxi was then Director of the New China News Agency and Editor-in-Chief of the *People's Daily*. Chen Boda was then an Alternate Member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Director of the Central Political Research Office, and Mao Zedong's secretary. Hu Qiaomu was then an Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong's secretary.
[2] The *People's Daily* of August 18, 1959, published the article "Relying on the Strength of the Large Collective, Promoting the Spirit of Great Co-operation," which introduced the deeds of the Shitan Commune in Zengcheng County, Guangdong Province, which, through unified leadership and unified action, rapidly repaired water conservancy projects damaged by floods, and the deeds of the Pohu Commune in Changge County, Henan Province, which, through coordinated operations of industry, agriculture, and commerce, skillfully overcame severe drought and strove to turn a disaster year into a bumper year.
[3] Refers to the Jianming People's Commune in Zunhua County, Hebei Province, whose director at the time was Wang Guofan.
[4] Refers to the book *The Socialist Upsurge in China's Countryside*, published by the People's Publishing House in January 1956.
[5] Shangkun, i.e., Yang Shangkun, was then an Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the Central Committee.