Comments and Revisions on the Article “A Basic Summary of the Experiences of the Victory of the Chinese People’s Revolution”
(October 28–29, 1960)
Comrade Tian Jiaying121:
This is very well written; I have made a few minor revisions. Please review them together with Comrade Chen Boda14). If you think it is acceptable, it may be sent to press.
Mao Zedong
Morning of October 28
Chuan
This article was prepared by the editorial department of the magazine Red Flag for the publication of Volume IV of Selected Works of Mao Zedong, and was published in the combined twentieth and twenty-first issues of Red Flag, released on November 1, 1960.
[2]
Tian Jiaying, at that time served as Deputy Director of the Central Political Research Office of the CPC, Executive Editor of Red Flag magazine, and Mao Zedong’s secretary.
[3]
In sections three, four, and five of this text, the typeface in Song style indicates words added or revised by Mao Zedong.
[4]
Chen Boda, then Director of the Central Political Research Office of the CPC, Editor-in-Chief of Red Flag magazine, and also Mao Zedong’s secretary.

Comments and Revisions on the Article “A Basic Summary of the Experiences of the Victory of the Chinese People’s Revolution”
Return to Comrade Tian Jiaying for implementation.
Mao Zedong
Morning of October 29
On the other hand, within our revolutionary ranks there existed, at that time, a group of petty-bourgeois “Left”-opportunistic adventurers who, for several years, had seized control of the Party’s leading organs, suppressing the large number of correct leaders headed by Comrade Mao Zedong so that these comrades could not raise their heads. These “Left”-opportunists denied the long-term and tortuous nature of the Chinese revolutionary struggle; they failed to recognize the necessary process of China’s revolution—growing from small beginnings to greater strength and advancing from the countryside to the cities—and were impatient to seize the major cities.
Four
Comrade Mao Zedong’s victory over “Left”-opportunism in 1935 came at a time when revolutionary forces had been reduced to only one-tenth of their former size. Despite this, he quickly rallied the ranks, ensuring that the Chinese revolution was placed on a sound course of development.
Five
The Kuomintang reactionaries did everything in their power to sabotage and destroy the revolutionary people’s state apparatus. It is, therefore, the sacred duty of the revolutionary people to defend, develop, and strengthen this revolutionary state apparatus, so as to achieve the revolutionary goal of overthrowing Japanese imperialism and, subsequently, defeating the Kuomintang reactionaries who dared to attack the revolutionary forces.