Comrade Wu Lengxi [1]: This document [2] is very good. Please publish it in Xinhua News Agency's "Internal Reference."
It seems that the pig-raising industry must undergo a great development.
With the exception of a few nationalities that forbid pigs, the entire country should follow the method of the Wangqiansi People's Commune in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province.
In Wuqiao County, raising capital is easy, the policy is correct, the drive is very high, and development is very fast.
The key lies in a very great drive.
To drag one's feet, to be beset with difficulties, to say this is impossible and that cannot be done—all these are the worldviews of cowards and lazybones, without a shred of the lofty ambition of Marxism-Leninism. These people are probably still one hundred and eight thousand li away from the style of a true communist.
I advise these comrades to think it over carefully and change their incorrect worldview.
I suggest that the Communist Party's provincial committees (municipal committees, autonomous region committees), prefectural committees, county committees, commune committees, as well as the Party organizations of management districts, production teams, and production sub-teams, should seriously consider, study, plan, and take concrete measures for the enterprises of raising pigs, raising cattle, sheep, donkeys, mules, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, and so on, and organize a committee or group for animal husbandry and poultry, composed of three, five, to nine people, with a comrade who has drive, brains, and is good at handling matters for this cause to assume the leadership responsibility of the committee or group.
That is to say, send a strong and capable person to lead.
Go in for feed production in a big way.
There are various kinds of concentrated and coarse feeds.
It seems that corn is the king of feeds.
The United States does it this way.
The Soviet Union has now also begun to do it in a big way.
Wuqiao County in China's Hebei Province has also begun to do it, which is extremely gratifying to see.
There must be many other communes across the country whose pig-raising is no less than Wuqiao's.
The whole country should go in for it in a big way, and in a special way.
This matter must be regarded as equally important as grain, as equally important as the staple grains that people eat, such as rice, wheat, and millet, and corn must be elevated to the status of a staple grain.
Someone has suggested that the pig be elevated to the head of the six domestic animals, not "horse, ox, sheep, chicken, dog, swine (swine is pig)," but "pig, ox, sheep, horse, chicken, dog."
I raise both hands in approval. It is perfectly just and reasonable for the pig to occupy the primary position.
The great Soviet soil scientist and agronomist Williams [3] emphatically stated that agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry are interdependent, none can be dispensed with, and the three must be placed on an equal footing.
This is completely correct.
I believe that agriculture and forestry are the ancestors of the development of animal husbandry, and animal husbandry is the son of agriculture and forestry.
Then, animal husbandry becomes the ancestor of agriculture and forestry (mainly agriculture), and agriculture and forestry become the son again.
This is the principle of the three being in balanced interdependence.
The United States places equal emphasis on crop cultivation and animal husbandry.
Our country must also follow this line, because this is a scientific experience that has been proven to be truly effective.
The primary source of fertilizer in our country is raising pigs and large livestock.
One person, one pig; one mu, one pig. If this can be achieved, the main source of fertilizer will be solved.
This is organic chemical fertilizer, which is ten times superior to inorganic chemical fertilizer.
One pig is a small-scale organic fertilizer factory.
Moreover, a pig has meat, bristles, hide, bones, and internal organs (which can be used as raw materials for pharmaceuticals). Why should we not be happy to do it?
Fertilizer is the food of plants, plants are the food of animals, and animals are the food of human beings.
Viewed from this, it is certainly reasonable to raise pigs, and other livestock, in a big way and in a special way.
It seems possible to complete this glorious and great task in one to two five-year plans.
Equipping agriculture with machinery is the decisive condition for the great development of the three-in-one combination of agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry.
The Ministry of Agricultural Machinery has already been established this year. The realization of agricultural mechanization seems not far off.
Mao Zedong
October 31, 1959
Printed according to the manuscript.
Notes
[1] Wu Lengxi was then Director of the Xinhua News Agency and Editor-in-Chief of the People's Daily.
[2] Refers to the article "Turned Things Around After a Year of Great Effort, Kuixingzhuang Production Team Raises Pigs and Accumulates Manure to Change Its Face of Poverty" by the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Animal Husbandry in September 1959. This article said that the Kuixingzhuang Production Team of Wangqiansi Commune in Wuqiao County, Hebei Province, had historically low grain yields and the masses lived in poverty due to the highly sandy soil and lack of fertilizer. Since 1958, unwilling to remain poor, they were determined to raise more pigs in order to increase grain production. They overcame various difficulties, with cadres taking the lead, pooling funds to buy pigs, and building simple pens and sheds. They also exercised unified leadership and comprehensive planning for public and private raising, fattening, and collecting greens, and adopted methods such as "men and women, old and young, everyone gets to work; whoever collects it, keeps it; the surplus is sold; if the team is short, it buys with cash" to solve the feed problem, and turned things around after a year of great effort. Not only was the problem of eating meat solved, but the problem of fertilizer was also solved. With pigs as the key link, the "six domestic animals" thrived, grain output also more than doubled in one year, the poor team became a rich team, and the grain-deficient team became a grain-surplus team.
[3] Williams, i.e., V. R. Williams (1863-1939), was a Soviet soil scientist, an academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and author of "Soil Science—Principles of Agronomy and Soil Science," etc.


Talks on Reading the Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy" (Excerpts)


See "Resolution on the China Question of the Eighth Plenary Session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International" (May 1927)
(May 1927). The original text is: "The crisis of the Chinese revolution and the present combination of social class forces explain and confirm that the bourgeois-democratic revolution against the feudal system (to which the peasant revolution belongs, and only in this way can one speak of the anti-imperialist struggle) can only be completed in the struggle against the already counter-revolutionary bourgeoisie. The thorough struggle for national liberation not only does not conflict in the least with the development of the mass movement of workers and peasants or the demands of the land revolution, but directly presupposes the expansion of the revolutionary movement of the broad masses of the lower strata rising up to overthrow imperialism."
[17] The Li Lisan line refers to the "Left" adventurist error represented by Li Lisan during the Second Revolutionary Civil War period. On June 11, 1930, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, presided over by Li Lisan, passed the resolution "The New Revolutionary High Tide and the Initial Victory in One or Several Provinces," forming the "Left" adventurist error represented by him. Soon after, Li Lisan formulated an adventurist plan to organize armed uprisings in key cities nationwide centered on Wuhan and to concentrate the entire Red Army to attack key cities. Subsequently, he merged the leading bodies at all levels of the Party, the Youth League, and the trade unions into action committees at all levels to prepare for armed uprisings, bringing all regular work to a standstill. In September of the same year, the Communist Party of China convened the Third Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, which corrected Li Lisan's "Left" adventurist error.
[18] The passage in the "Textbook" containing this quotation is: "Under modern conditions, when a powerful socialist camp has been formed, the general crisis of capitalism has further deepened, the colonial system is further disintegrating, and the ideas of socialism, democracy, and peace have a great attraction for all laboring humanity, in certain capitalist countries and former colonial countries, there is a real possibility for the working class to peacefully acquire political power through parliament. In these countries, if the working class unites the overwhelming majority of the people—the laboring peasants, the petty bourgeoisie, the broad strata of the intelligentsia, and all patriotic forces in the country—under its own leadership and gives a firm rebuff to the opportunists, it may be able to defeat the reactionary, anti-people forces, win a stable majority in parliament, and transform parliament from an organ of bourgeois state power into an organ of the people's, the workers' state power, into a democratic tool of the laborers. Such a truly people's parliament, relying on the revolutionary movement of the proletariat and the laboring masses, will be able to successfully solve the fundamental tasks of the socialist revolution, including the task of turning the basic means of production into the property of the people." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 330)
[19] After the February Revolution in Russia in 1917, a situation of dual power emerged, with the bourgeois Provisional Government and the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies coexisting. The Provisional Government pursued a counter-revolutionary and anti-people policy. On July 16, the revolutionary masses held a demonstration, demanding that the Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies formally seize power. The Bolshevik Party believed that the time was not yet ripe for an armed seizure of power, and after trying its best to dissuade them to no avail, decided to participate in the demonstration. On July 17, five hundred thousand workers, soldiers, and sailors in Petrograd held a demonstration, demanding that all power go to the Soviets. The Provisional Government dispatched troops, massacred the demonstrating masses, killing and wounding about four hundred people, and at the same time arrested and killed Bolsheviks, shut down "Pravda," and disarmed the Red Guards. This incident is called the July Events. After this, the situation of dual power came to an end.
[20] The "Three Antis" refers to the struggle against corruption, waste, and bureaucracy carried out in state organs, army units, and state-owned enterprises from December 1951 to October 1952. The "Five Antis" refers to the struggle against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts, and stealing economic information carried out in capitalist industry and commerce nationwide in 1952.
[21] See Lenin, "The Third International and Its Place in History" ("Selected Works of Lenin," Vol. 3, People's Publishing House, 1995 edition, pp. 789-797).
[22] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "In some countries, with the overthrow of the political rule of the exploiting classes, the revolution immediately assumes a socialist character. This was the case in Russia in October 1917, when the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution were also thoroughly solved in the course of the proletarian revolution. In other countries that have broken away from the capitalist system, the main tasks solved at first are generally democratic ones, and at the same time, in many cases, the revolution in its initial stage is mainly of a bourgeois-democratic character, only later gradually developing into a socialist revolution. This is determined by the level of capitalist development in each country, the existence of pre-capitalist forms, the balance of class forces, and the political situation, etc." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, pp. 330-331)
[23] The "Common Program" refers to the "Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference," adopted by the First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on September 29, 1949. It served as a provisional constitution before the promulgation of the "Constitution of the People's Republic of China" in 1954.
[24] Fixed interest, see note [5] on page 46 of this volume.
[25] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "For the socialist revolution to be victorious in Russia, at least a medium level of capitalist development was required, because Russia was the only country with a dictatorship of the proletariat. Now, when socialism has already triumphed in the Soviet Union and the world socialist economic system has been formed, in countries with underdeveloped capitalism and a predominance of pre-capitalist economic forms, the tasks of the socialist revolution can also be successfully solved with the help of the advanced socialist countries." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 331)
[26] See Lenin, "On the Tax in Kind" ("Selected Works of Lenin," Vol. 4, People's Publishing House, 1995 edition, pp. 488-525).
[27] The passage in the "Textbook" containing this quotation is: "At the same time, it must be noted that although the socialist revolutions in various countries are consistent in their main and basic aspects, they will inevitably have their own special and concrete forms and methods of socialist construction in every country that has broken away from the imperialist system. These forms and methods arise from the historical, national, economic, political, and cultural conditions of each country's development, the traditions of the people, and the international environment of a particular period." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 329)
[28] Moscow Declaration, see note [5] on page 98 of this volume.
[29] The general line for the transition period was proposed by the CPC Central Committee in 1952 at the suggestion of Mao Zedong. The "Outline for the Study and Propaganda of the Party's General Line for the Transition Period," approved by the CPC Central Committee in December 1953, expressed the general line as follows: "From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the basic completion of socialist transformation is a transition period. The Party's general line and general task in this transition period is, over a fairly long period of time, to gradually realize the country's socialist industrialization and to gradually realize the state's socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce. This general line is the beacon that illuminates all our work; any work that deviates from it will commit either Right or 'Left' errors."
[30] The First Five-Year Plan is the short name for the First Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the People's Republic of China from 1953 to 1957. The drafting of this plan began in 1951, took four years, and went through five drafts. It was formally adopted by the Second Session of the First National People's Congress in July 1955. The result of its implementation was that by 1956, the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce was basically completed, and the basic socialist economic system was established; by 1957, the various construction tasks stipulated in the plan were also victoriously realized, with many targets being overfulfilled. This laid a preliminary foundation for the country's industrialization, and at the same time, the people's livelihood was also greatly improved.
[31] Refers to the general line of "going all out, aiming high, and achieving greater, faster, better, and more economical results in building socialism," adopted by the Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Beijing from May 5 to 23, 1958.
[32] "On the Ten Major Relationships," see Volume VII of this book, pp. 23-44.
[33] Refers to Stalin's "Speech at a Meeting of Voters of the Stalin Electoral District, Moscow" ("Selected Works of Stalin," Vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1979 edition, p. 488).
[34] Refers to the "National Program for Agricultural Development, 1956-1967 (Draft)." This draft was proposed by the CPC Central Committee and published in January 1956. A revised draft was published in October 1957. After further revisions, it was adopted by the Second Session of the Second National People's Congress in April 1960 and issued as an official document. The full text of the program consists of forty articles, putting forward development plans for our country's agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, fishery, sideline occupations, as well as rural commerce, credit, transportation, post and telecommunications, broadcasting, science, culture, education, and health.
[35] See Engels, "Socialism: Utopian and Scientific." The original text is: "The proletarian revolution, the solution of the contradictions: the proletariat seizes the public power, and by means of this transforms the socialized means of production, slipping from the hands of the bourgeoisie, into public property. By this act, the proletariat frees the means of production from the character of capital they have thus far borne, and gives their socialized character complete freedom to work itself out. Socialized production upon a predetermined plan becomes henceforth possible." ("Selected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol. 3, People's Publishing House, 1995 edition, p. 759)
[36] The passage in the "Textbook" containing this quotation is: "Due to the public ownership of the means of production, the necessary proportions in the distribution of the means of production and labor power among the various branches of the socialist national economy are realized in a planned way. Spontaneity and anarchy are incompatible with the existence of public ownership of the means of production." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 465)
[37] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "Socialist planning is based on a strict scientific foundation. It requires constant summarization of the practice of communist construction and the utilization of all the achievements of science and technology. To guide the national economy by means of a plan is to foresee. Scientific foresight is based on the knowledge of objective economic laws and is based on the already mature needs of the development of the material life of society." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 472)
[38] See "Mencius, Teng Wen Gong I." The original text is: "That things are unequal is the nature of things."
[39] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "Under capitalism, the development of technology is extremely uneven and inevitably deepens the disproportions in production. In contrast, the socialist planned economy ensures the planned development of science and technology in accordance with the needs of the national economy." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 482)
[40] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "The priority growth of the production of the means of production means that industry develops faster than agriculture. Under the socialist system, the proportion between industry and agriculture, on the basis of a more rapid development of industry, ensures the continuous growth of agricultural production." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 623)
[41] The passage in the "Textbook" containing this quotation is: "Lenin's plan for socialist construction presupposed the utmost development of the economic ties between state industry and the peasant economy. From the nature of the small-peasant economy, the form of economic ties with the city that the peasants urgently need is exchange through purchase and sale. During the transition period, the commercial link between state industry and the small-peasant economy is an economic necessity." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 346)
[42] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "The industrialization of the country is realized on the basis of the law of the priority growth of the production of the means of production over the production of consumer goods. The development of the production of the means of production creates the prerequisites for the development of the departments producing consumer goods and for raising the welfare of the people." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 365)
[43] "On the Question of Agricultural Co-operation," see Volume VI of this book, pp. 418-442.
[44] Refers to the following sentence in the "Textbook": "In order to prevent and eliminate individual disproportions in the national economy, the socialist state creates the necessary reserves." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 627)
[45] The passage in the "Textbook" containing this quotation is: "At the same time, the socialist division of labor enables the various countries, as equal members of the world socialist system, to complement each other's strengths and weaknesses, thus making it possible to save financial and human resources, eliminate unnecessary parallel development of individual branches of the national economy, and accelerate the speed of economic development in all countries. Each country can concentrate its human and financial resources on developing those branches for which it has the most favorable natural and economic conditions, production experience, and cadres. Moreover, individual countries do not have to produce products whose needs can be met by supplies from other countries. In this way, a rational specialization and co-operation in production can be achieved in industry, and the most appropriate division of labor in the production of food and raw materials." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 659)
[46] See Lenin's "Reply to an Enquiry from the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries" in "Documents of the All-Russia Central Executive Committee." The new translation is: "Living, creative socialism is the creation of the popular masses themselves." ("Collected Works of Lenin," Vol. 33, People's Publishing House, 1985 edition, p. 53)
[47] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "As a result of the elimination of exploitation, the relationship between mental and manual workers has fundamentally changed. The antagonism of interests between workers and enterprise managers, which is characteristic of capitalism, has disappeared. Under the socialist system, manual workers and enterprise managers are members of a unified production collective, and they are all extremely concerned with the development and improvement of production. From this arises the creative co-operation between manual and mental workers aimed at the constant improvement of production." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 500)
[48] The bourgeois industrial revolution, i.e., the Industrial Revolution. Refers to the process in 17th-18th century Britain where capitalism transitioned from handicraft workshops based on manual techniques to the factory system using machinery.
[49] See Marx, "Capital." The original text is: "Not only have we here an increase in the productive power of the individual, by means of co-operation, but the creation of a new power, namely, the collective power of masses." ("Collected Works of Marx and Engels," Vol. 23, People's Publishing House, 1972 edition, p. 362)
[50] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "Criticism and self-criticism are one of the basic forms of the struggle between the new and the old under the socialist system and a powerful motive force for the development of socialist society. Criticism and self-criticism can, on the basis of developing the initiative of the masses of the people, expose and eliminate shortcomings and difficulties in work, eradicate all bureaucratic phenomena, discover new potential for accelerating economic development, and thus overcome the contradictions of socialist society." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 453)
[51] Refers to the following passage in the "Textbook": "With the victory of socialism and the elimination of the phenomenon of man exploiting man, there are no antagonistic classes in the Soviet Union, no irreconcilable class contradictions. The class relations of socialist society are characterized by the unbreakable friendship and comradely co-operation of the working class, the peasantry, and the intelligentsia. The class difference between the working class and the peasantry, like the difference between these two classes and the intelligentsia, is gradually disappearing. But capitalist society is torn apart and unstable due to class and national antagonisms; whereas socialist society has no class and national antagonisms at all, and its characteristics are unity and great stability. The dominant position of public ownership and the socialist economic system in the Soviet Union is the economic basis on which the powerful motive forces of social development—the spiritual and political unity of socialist society, the friendship of the peoples, and Soviet patriotism—are brought into play. And these motive forces in turn have a great influence on the economy and accelerate its development." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 413)
[52] The passage in the "Textbook" containing this quotation is: "At the socialist stage, making the worker concerned about the results of his labor from the point of view of his personal material interest is one of the decisive factors in stimulating the development of production. Ensuring this concern is the remuneration of the worker according to the quantity and quality of his labor. The utilization of the material interest of every worker in the results of his labor is one of the fundamental methods of socialist management." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 487)
[53] Economism was an opportunist trend within the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Its main representatives were Prokopovich and Kuskova. Economism opposed the working class putting forward its own political demands, believing that the working class should only use strikes as a means to fight for the improvement of its economic conditions and immediate interests, and denied the proletarian political party and its leading role. Syndicalism was a petty-bourgeois opportunist trend in the international workers' movement. It was widespread in France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and other places at the beginning of the 20th century. Its main representatives were Sorel and Lagardelle in France. Syndicalism opposed political struggle, denied the leading role of the proletarian political party, denied the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and propagated that trade unions are above all and manage everything, fantasizing that trade unions could replace the state apparatus.
[54] The original text of this sentence in the "Textbook" is: "The social relations between the producers in a socialist enterprise are relations of comradely co-operation and socialist mutual aid." (Soviet "Textbook on Political Economy," revised third edition, vol. 2, People's Publishing House, 1959 edition, p. 442)