A Note on the Question of Whether Urban People’s Communes Should Be Widely Popularized

(December 1959)

To be read by Chen, Hu, Deng, Tian, and Lin,[2] and then returned to Mao.

The question of whether urban people’s communes should be widely popularized.

Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

**Notes**

[1] This note was written on issue No. 223 of *Situation Reports*, compiled and printed by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on December 10, 1959. The material published in this issue, titled “The Basic Realization of Communization in the Cities of Heilongjiang Province,” stated that people’s communes were widely established in the large, medium, and small cities and towns of Heilongjiang Province between September and November of the previous year. After a year of continuous consolidation and strengthening, the proportion of the population that had joined the communes in the province’s eight large and medium-sized cities had reached 69.2 percent. The urban districts and neighborhoods had, in practice, already begun moving toward the integration of government administration and commune management. The superiority of urban people’s communes was mainly manifested in the following aspects: (1) They greatly promoted the development of industrial production. (2) They significantly boosted agricultural production in the suburbs and developed diversified operations such as animal husbandry and vegetable cultivation. (3) Workers’ family members and neighborhood residents were widely organized and directly participated in various production and service undertakings, with many cities essentially eliminating unemployment. (4) They gave an unprecedented impetus to the development of large-scale communist cooperation. (5) The people’s standard of living was improved. (6) The people’s level of political consciousness was raised, and their mental outlook was transformed. (7) They created favorable conditions for the transition from collective ownership to ownership by the whole people and accelerated the timetable for this transition.

[2] Chen refers to Chen Boda, 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 refers to Hu Qiaomu, then an alternate secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong’s secretary. Deng refers to Deng Liqun, then deputy editor-in-chief of the journal *Hongqi*. Tian refers to Tian Jiaying, then deputy director of the Central Political Research Office and Mao Zedong’s secretary. Lin refers to Lin Ke, then a secretary in Mao Zedong’s office.