The development of things is not subject to human will. Marx and Engels did not foresee
that the Social Democratic Party they founded would be usurped by their successors after
their deaths and transformed into a bourgeois party. This was not subject to their will. Their
party started out as revolutionary, but after their deaths it became counter-revolutionary.
The Soviet Union was not subject to Lenin's will; he did not foresee the emergence of
Khrushchev's revisionism [1].
Things are constantly moving in the opposite direction. It's not just quantitative change, it's
qualitative change; if there's only quantitative change, without qualitative change, that's
metaphysics. We're also prepared. Do you know when revisionism will take over Beijing?
Those who support us now could easily become revisionists. This is the first possibility. The
second possibility is partial division.
Given these circumstances, revisionism is likely to rise once we die.
It's already dusk for us, so we should take advantage of the last breath now to put an end to
these bourgeois restorations.
In short, we must keep two possibilities in mind: the first possibility is a counterrevolutionary dictatorship, a counter-revolutionary restoration. If we prioritize this as the
first possibility, we'll become somewhat anxious. Otherwise, we won't be anxious, and
everything will be peaceful. If you're not anxious, and everything is peaceful, then that's all
good? That's not the case. The bright side is now visible, but there's also a more important
side, a dark side. They are working underground. Lenin said that the defeated exploiting
classes will long remain stronger than the victorious proletariat. Lenin also said that the
peasantry and the petty bourgeoisie are growing capitalism every day and every hour. Who
are the defeated classes? Imperialism, feudalism, and capitalism. The masses are the
workers, peasants, and the urban petty bourgeoisie. And then there's China's national
bourgeoisie and their intellectuals—we include them all. Then there were the children of the
landlord class. In the past, the majority of our university students were children of the
bourgeoisie and landlord class. Workers, poor peasants, and lower-middle peasants couldn't
afford to go to school, not even elementary school. Even if they did, they couldn't get into
middle school, let alone university. There were at least several million old intellectuals. The
cultural education of the masses was in their hands, not ours. With so many elementary
schools, we had no teachers, so we had to use those left behind by the Kuomintang. We also



had no middle school teachers, university professors, engineers, actors, or painters of our
own, nor did we have anyone to run a publishing house or bookstore. Some of those old
guard members had infiltrated the Party, lying dormant for a while, waiting for their chance
to rise. Just like Khrushchev, who lay dormant, waiting for his chance to rise.
The second possibility is a peeling policy, removing layer by layer, leaving only the good and
removing the bad. From 1921 to 1966, a period of forty-five years, we undertook a
preliminary peeling, removing quite a few reactionaries: Chen Duxiu, Wu Qiubai, Li Lisan,
Wang Ming, Zhang Guotao, Zhang Wentian, Gao Gang, Rao Shushi, Peng Dehuai, Luo
Ruiqing, Peng Zhen, and dozens of other Central Committee members, including those who
slept next to us and went unnoticed.
Don't be afraid of counter-revolutionaries. Sometimes I'm worried, too. To say I don't worry
or have no concerns would be a lie. But after waking up, I'd gather a few comrades for a
meeting, discuss things, and come up with a solution.

[1] Khrushchev (1894-1971), a former Soviet leader, praised Stalin as his "biological father"
during his lifetime. After Stalin's death, he released a secret report that denounced Stalin as
a "murderer," a "criminal," a "robber," a "gambler," an "Ivan the Terrible-style tyrant," the
"greatest dictator in Russian history," a "bastard," and an "idiot." He completely disavowed
Stalin and even had Stalin's remains removed from Lenin's palace.