Our Study and the Current Situation

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Our Study and the Current Situation has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following edition: Our Study and the Current Situation, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 3, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at a meeting of high-ranking cadres in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 12th of April, 1944. It was first published in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 3, in 1952.

From 1942 to '44, the central body and senior cadres of the Communist Party of China held discussions on the history of the Party, especially of the period from the beginning of 1931 to the end of 1934. These discussions greatly helped in bringing about ideological unity in the Party on the basis of Marxism-Leninism. The Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at Zunyi, Guizhou, in January 1935, had corrected the erroneous Third «Left»-Opportunist Line, headed by Wang Ming, which had been pursued from early 1931 to late 1934, changed the composition of the central leading body, established the leadership headed by Comrade Mao Zedong, and set the Party line on the correct Marxist-Leninist track; nevertheless, many Party cadres had not yet reached a thorough understanding of the character of the erroneous lines of the past. In order to raise the Marxist-Leninist ideological level of Party cadres still higher, in 1942-43, the Political Bureau held several discussions on the history of the Party, and then led the high-ranking cadres of the whole Party in holding similar discussions during 1943-44. These discussions were an important preparation for the Party's Seventh National Congress in 1945, enabling it to attain an ideological and political unity without precedent in the history of the Communist Party of China.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#OUR STUDY AND THE CURRENT SITUATION

#SPEECH DELIVERED AT A MEETING OF HIGH-RANKING CADRES IN YAN'AN

#Mao Zedong

#12th of April, 1944

#★

#1. OUR STUDY

Since last winter, the high-ranking cadres of our Party have been studying the question of the two lines that existed in the history of the Party. This has very greatly raised the political level of these numerous high-ranking cadres. In the course of the study, comrades have brought up many questions, and the Political Bureau of the Central Committee has reached conclusions on some of the important ones. They are as follows:

#1.1. ON THE QUESTION OF WHAT ATTITUDE TO ADOPT IN STUDYING OUR HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE

On the question of what attitude to adopt in studying our historical experience, the Central Committee holds that we should enable the cadres to become perfectly clear ideologically on the questions which arose in the history of the Party, and that, at the same time, we should adopt a lenient policy in arriving at decisions about comrades who formerly committed errors, so that, on the one hand, the cadres should thoroughly understand the historical experience of our Party and avoid repeating past errors, and on the other hand, all comrades can be united for our common endeavour. In the history of our Party, there were great struggles against the erroneous lines of Chen Duxiu¹ and of Li Lisan, and they were absolutely necessary. But there were defects in the methods employed. For one thing, the cadres were not brought to a full ideological understanding of the causes of these errors, the circumstances in which they were committed, and the detailed ways and means of correcting them, so that errors of a similar nature came to be repeated; and for another, too much stress was placed on the responsibility of individuals, so that we failed to unite as many people as we could have done for our common endeavour. We should take warning from these two defects. This time, in dealing with questions of Party history we should lay the stress, not on the responsibility of certain individual comrades, but on the analysis of the circumstances in which the errors were committed, on the content of the errors, and on their social, historical, and ideological roots, and this should be done in the spirit of «learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones» and «curing the sickness to save the patient», in order to achieve the two-fold objective of clarity in ideology and unity among comrades. The adoption of a careful attitude in handling cases of individual comrades, neither glossing things over nor doing harm to comrades, is a sign that our Party is vigorous and flourishing.

#1.2. TREAT ALL QUESTIONS ANALYTICALLY, AND DO NOT NEGATE EVERYTHING

Treat all questions analytically; do not negate everything. The question concerning the line of the Central Leadership during the period from the Fourth Plenary Session² to the Zunyi Meeting,³ for example, should be analysed from two aspects. It should be pointed out, on the one hand, that the political tactics, the military tactics, and the cadre policy which the central leading body adopted during that period were wrong in their main aspects, but, on the other hand, that, on such fundamental issues as opposing Jiang Jieshi and carrying on the agrarian revolution and the struggle of the Red Army, there was no dispute between ourselves and the comrades who committed errors. And even the tactical side needs to be analysed. On the land question, for instance, their error consisted in the «Far Left» policy of allotting no land to the landlords and poor land to the rich peasants, but these comrades were at one with us on confiscating the land of the landlords for distribution among peasants who had little or no land. Concrete analysis of concrete conditions, Lenin said, is «the very gist, the living soul of Marxism».⁴ Lacking an analytical approach, many of our comrades do not want to go deeply into complex matters, to analyse and study them over and over again, but like to draw simple conclusions which are either absolutely affirmative or absolutely negative. The fact that our newspapers are lacking in analytical articles and that the habit of analysis is not yet fully cultivated in the Party shows that there are such shortcomings. From now on, we should remedy this state of affairs.

#1.3. ON THE QUESTION OF THE LINE OF THE PARTY'S SIXTH NATIONAL CONGRESS

On the discussion of the documents of the Sixth National Congress of the Party, it should be stated that the line of the Sixth National Congress was fundamentally correct, since that Congress defined the character of the present revolution as bourgeois-democratic, defined the situation at that time as an interval between two revolutionary high tides, repudiated opportunism and adventurism, and promulgated the Ten-Point Programme.⁵ All this was correct. The Congress also had its defects. For instance, among its other shortcomings or mistakes, it failed to point out the very protracted nature of the Chinese revolution and the very great importance of rural base areas in the revolution. Nonetheless, the Sixth National Congress played a progressive role in the history of our Party.

#1.4. ON THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THE PROVISIONAL CENTRAL LEADERSHIP AND THE FIFTH PLENARY SESSION WERE LEGAL OR NOT

On the question of whether the Provisional Central Leadership that was formed in Shanghai in 1931 and the Fifth Plenary Session,⁶ which it subsequently convened, were legal or not, the Central Committee holds that both were legal, but it should be stated that the procedures for the election were inadequate and that this case should be taken as a historical lesson.

#1.5. ON THE QUESTION OF FACTIONS IN THE PARTY'S HISTORY

On the question of factions in the history of the Party, it should be stated that, as a result of the series of changes since the Zunyi Meeting, the factions which formerly existed and played an unwholesome role in the history of our Party no longer exist. In our present study of the two lines within the Party, it is absolutely necessary to point out that these factions did exist and did play an unwholesome role. But it would be wrong to think that factions with the same erroneous political programmes and organizational forms still exist in the Party, after all the changes brought about by so many inner-Party struggles — the Zunyi Meeting of January 1935, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee in October 1938, the Enlarged Meeting of the Political Bureau in September 1941,⁷ the Party-wide Rectification Movement in 1942, and the movement begun in the winter of 1943 for the study of the past struggles between the two lines within the Party. The old factions are gone. What is left is only the remnants of dogmatist and empiricist ideology, which can be overcome by continuing and intensifying our Rectification Movement. But what still exists in our Party to a serious extent, and almost everywhere, is a more or less blind «mountain-stronghold» mentality.⁸ For instance, there is a lack of mutual understanding, mutual respect, and unity among comrades of different units, which arises from differences in their background of struggle, differences in the areas in which they work (as between one base area and another and as between the Japanese-occupied areas, the Nationalist areas, and the revolutionary base areas), and differences in their departments of work (as between one army unit and another and as between one kind of work and another); this phenomenon seems quite commonplace, but in fact, it seriously obstructs the unity of the Party and the growth of its fighting capacity. The social and historical roots of the mountain-stronghold mentality lie in the fact that the Chinese small bourgeoisie is particularly large and that, for a long period, our rural base areas have been cut off from one another by the enemy, while the subjective cause is the insufficiency of inner-Party education. The important task now confronting us is to point out these causes, to persuade our comrades to get rid of their blindness and raise the level of their political awareness, to break down the ideological barriers that separate comrades, and to promote mutual understanding and respect, so as to bring about unity throughout the Party.

A clear understanding of these questions by the whole Party will not only assure the success of our present course of study within the Party, but will also assure the victory of the Chinese revolution.

#2. THE CURRENT SITUATION

The present situation has two characteristics: one is that the Anti-Fascist front is growing stronger and the Fascist front is declining, and the second is that, within the Anti-Fascist front, the people's forces are growing stronger and the anti-popular forces are declining. The first characteristic is quite obvious and can readily be seen. Hitler will be defeated before long, and the Japanese aggressors, too, are heading for defeat. The second characteristic is not so obvious and cannot readily be seen, but it is daily becoming more manifest in Europe, in Britain and the United States, and in China.

The growth of the people's forces in China has to be explained with our Party as the centre of the picture.

The growth of our Party during the War of Resistance Against Japan can be divided into three stages. The first stage was from 1937 to '40. In 1937 and '38, the first two years of this stage, the Japanese militarists took the Nationalist Party seriously and the Communist Party lightly; therefore, they threw their main forces against the Nationalist front, and, in their policy toward the Nationalist Party, military attack was primary and political blandishments to bring about capitulation were supplementary; they did not take the Communist-led anti-Japanese base areas seriously, believing that these amounted to only a handful of Communists engaged in guerrilla actions. But after occupying Wuhan in October 1938, the Japanese imperialists began to change their policy and to take the Communist Party seriously and the Nationalist Party lightly. In their policy toward the Nationalist Party, political blandishments to bring about capitulation became primary and military attack supplementary, while at the same time, they gradually shifted their main forces to deal with the Communists. For the Japanese imperialists now felt it was no longer the Nationalist Party, but the Communist Party, that was to be feared. In 1937 and '38, the Nationalist Party put rather more effort into the War of Resistance, its relations with our Party were comparatively good, and it permitted rather more freedom, although imposing many restrictions on the people's anti-Japanese movement. After the fall of Wuhan, however, because of its defeats in the war and its increasing hostility toward the Communist Party, the Nationalist Party gradually became more reactionary, more active against the Communists, and more passive in the war against Japan. In 1937, as a result of the setbacks in the civil war period, the Communist Party had only about 40'000 organized members and an army of 30'000 soldiers; hence it was taken lightly by the Japanese militarists. But by 1940, the Party's membership had risen to 800'000, our army had grown to nearly 500'000, and the population of the base areas, including those paying grain tax only to us and those paying it both to us and to the Japanese and puppets,⁹ totaled about 100'000'000. In the course of several years, our Party had opened up such an extensive theatre of war, namely, the Liberated Areas, that for no less than five and a half years, we were able to prevent any strategic offensive by the main forces of the Japanese invaders against the Nationalist front, draw these forces around ourselves, extricate the Nationalist Party from the crisis in its theatre of war, and maintain the protracted War of Resistance. But during that stage, some comrades in our Party committed an error; they underestimated Japanese imperialism (and so did not see the protracted and ruthless nature of the war, maintained that mobile warfare with large formations should be primary, and belittled guerrilla warfare), placed reliance on the Nationalist Party, and failed to pursue an independent policy soberly (hence their capitulationism toward the Nationalist Party and their vacillation in applying the policy of boldly and freely mobilizing the masses to establish anti-Japanese democratic base areas behind the enemy lines and greatly expanding the armed forces led by our Party). Meanwhile, our Party had recruited large numbers of new members who were still inexperienced, and all the base areas in the enemy's rear were newly established and not yet consolidated. During this stage, a kind of conceit appeared within the Party, because of the favourable development of the general situation and the growth of our Party and armed forces, and many members became swelled-headed. During this stage, however, we overcame the Right-wing deviation in the Party and carried out an independent policy; we not only hit Japanese imperialism hard, created base areas, and expanded the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, but also repulsed the first large-scale anti-Communist onslaught by the Nationalist Party.

The years 1941 and '42 formed the second stage. In order to prepare and prosecute the war against Britain and the United States, the Japanese imperialists more actively pursued the policy to which they had switched after the fall of Wuhan, the policy of concentrating on the Communist Party and not on the Nationalist Party. They massed a still larger part of their main forces around all the Communist-led base areas, conducted one «mopping-up» operation after another, and executed the ruthless policy of «burn all, kill all, loot all», concentrating their attacks on our Party. As a result, in the two years 1941-42, our Party was placed in an extremely difficult position. During this stage, its base areas shrank in size, the population fell to under 50'000'000, the Eighth Route Army was reduced to 300'000, the loss of cadres was very great, and our finances and economy were very heavily strained. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Party, finding its hands free, moved against our Party in a thousand and one ways, unleashed its second large-scale anti-Communist onslaught, and attacked us in coordination with the Japanese imperialists. But this difficult position served to educate us Communists and we learned many things. We learned how to combat the enemy's «mopping-up» operations, their policy of «nibbling» our territory, their «tighten public security» campaign,¹⁰ their policy of «burn all, kill all, loot all», and their policy of extorting political recantations. We learned or began to learn how to carry out the «three-in-one» combination in the State bodies of the united front, how to carry out the land policy, the Rectification Movement to correct our style of study, style in Party relations, and style of writing, the policy of better troops and simpler administration, the policy of unified leadership, the movement for supporting the government and cherishing the people, and the development of production. And we overcame many shortcomings, including the conceit of many people that had arisen during the first stage. Although our losses in the second stage were very heavy, we held our ground; we repulsed the offensives of the Japanese invaders, on the one hand, and the second large-scale anti-Communist onslaught of the Nationalist Party, on the other. The Nationalist Party's attacks on the Communist Party and the struggles we had to wage in self-defence gave rise to a kind of «Far Left» deviation in the Party, one example being the belief that Nationalist-Communist cooperation would soon break down, with the result that excessive attacks were made on the landlords and unity with public figures outside the Party was neglected. But we overcame this deviation also. In the struggle to counter the friction created by the Nationalist Party, we affirmed the principle of waging struggles «on just grounds, to our advantage, and with restraint», and in united-front work, we pointed out the necessity of «unity, struggle, unity through struggle». Thus, we maintained the Anti-Japanese National United Front throughout the country as well as in the base areas.

The third stage extends from 1943 to the present. Our various policies have become more effective and, in particular, the Rectification Movement and the development of production have yielded results of a fundamental nature, thereby making our Party invincible both ideologically and materially. Moreover, last year we learned, or began to learn, how to carry out our policy on the examination of the histories of cadres and our policy on combating secret agents. It is in these circumstances that our base areas have again expanded, that the population has risen to over 80'000'000, including those paying the grain tax only to us and those paying it both to us and to the Japanese and puppets, that our army has grown to 470'000 and our people's militia to 2'270'000, and that our Party membership has reached 900'000 and more.

In 1943, the Japanese militarists made no appreciable change in their policy toward China and continued to direct their main attacks at the Communist Party. For more than three years, from 1941 to the present, over 60% of the Japanese troops in China have been pressing hard on the anti-Japanese base areas led by our Party. During these years, the several hundred thousand Nationalist troops who were left behind the enemy lines have been unable to withstand the blows of Japanese imperialism; about half surrendered, about half were wiped out, and only a small number survived and withdrew. Those Nationalist troops who surrendered have turned and attacked our Party, which has consequently had to resist over 90% of the puppet troops. The Nationalist Party has only had to resist less than 40% of the Japanese forces and less than 10% of the puppet troops. For fully five and a half years, since the fall of Wuhan in October 1938, the Japanese militarists have not launched a single strategic offensive on the Nationalist front; there have been only a few relatively big operations (in Zhejiang-Jiangxi, Changsha, western Hubei, southern Henan, and Changde), and even these were mere raids, while they concentrated their main attention on the anti-Japanese base areas led by our Party. In this situation, the Nationalist Party has pursued the policy of «retreating into the mountains» and «watching others fight», simply staving off blows when the enemy advanced and looking on with folded arms when they withdrew. In 1943, the Nationalist Party became even more reactionary in its domestic policy and made its third large-scale anti-Communist onslaught, which we again repulsed.

From 1943 to the spring of this year, the Japanese aggressors have been steadily losing ground in the Pacific theatre, the United States has been intensifying its counter-offensive, and now, in the West, Hitler is tottering under the heavy blows of the Soviet Red Army. In an effort to avert their doom, the Japanese imperialists have conceived the idea of forcing the Beijing-Hankou and Hankou-Guangzhou Railways open for through traffic and, since they have not yet succeeded in their policy of inducing the Nationalist Party in Chongqing to capitulate, they have found it necessary to deal it another blow; hence their plan for a large-scale offensive on the Nationalist front this year. The Henan Campaign¹¹ has been going on for over a month. The enemy forces there amount to only a few divisions, yet several hundred thousand Nationalist troops have collapsed without a battle, and only the troops of miscellaneous brands have been able to put up some sort of fight. In Tang Enbo's command, utter disorder prevails, with the officers estranged from their soldiers and the troops from the people, and more than 2/3 of his total forces have been lost. Likewise, the divisions which Hu Zongnan dispatched to Henan collapsed at their first encounter with the enemy. This is wholly the result of the reactionary policies which the Nationalist Party has rigorously enforced for the past few years. During the five and a half years since the fall of Wuhan, the theatre of war of the Liberated Areas led by the Communist Party has borne the brunt of resisting the main forces of the Japanese and puppets; and although there may be some change in the future, it can only be temporary, because the Nationalist Party, rendered utterly debased by its reactionary policy of passive resistance to Japan and active opposition to the Communists, is bound to suffer serious reverses. When that happens, our Party's task in fighting the enemy and the puppets will become heavier still. What the Nationalist Party has gained from looking on with folded arms for five and a half years is the loss of its fighting capacity. What the Communist Party has gained from fighting and struggling hard for five and a half years is the strengthening of its fighting capacity. This is what will decide China's destiny.

Comrades can see for themselves that, in the seven years since July 1937, the people's democratic forces under the leadership of our Party have gone through three phases — a rise, a decline, and a new rise. We have beaten back the ferocious attacks of the Japanese invaders, established extensive revolutionary base areas, greatly expanded the Party and the army, repulsed three large-scale anti-Communist onslaughts by the Nationalist Party, and overcome the erroneous Right-wing and «Left-wing» ideologies in the Party; and the whole Party has gained much valuable experience. This sums up our work over the past seven years.

Our present task is to prepare ourselves for a still greater responsibility. We must prepare to drive the Japanese invaders out of China, whatever the circumstances. To enable our Party to shoulder this responsibility, we must further expand and consolidate our Party, our army, and our base areas, pay attention to work in the big cities and along the main lines of communication, and raise the work in the cities to a position of equal importance with that in the base areas.

As for our work in the base areas, during the first stage these areas were greatly expanded, but not consolidated, and so, in the second stage, they contracted as soon as they came under the heavy blows of the enemy. In the second stage, all the anti-Japanese base areas led by our Party went through a hard tempering process and improved greatly as compared with the first stage; the Party cadres and militants considerably advanced their ideological and political level, and learned many things they did not know before. But it takes time to clarify thinking and to study policy, and we have still much to learn. Our Party is not yet sufficiently strong, not yet sufficiently united or consolidated, and so cannot yet take on greater responsibility than we now carry. From now on, the problem is further to expand and consolidate our Party, our army, and our base areas in the continued prosecution of the War of Resistance; this is the first indispensable item in our ideological and material preparation for the gigantic work of the future. Without this preparation, we shall not be able to drive out the Japanese invaders and liberate the whole of China.

Our work in the big cities and along the main lines of communication has always been very inadequate. If now we do not strive to rally around our Party the tens of millions of the working masses and other people oppressed by the Japanese imperialists in the big cities and along the main lines of communication, and do not prepare armed mass uprisings, our army and rural base areas will face all sorts of difficulties for lack of coordination with the cities. For more than ten years, we have been in the countryside and have had to encourage people to know the countryside well and to build the rural base areas. During these ten years and more, the task of preparing uprisings in the cities, as decided by the Party's Sixth National Congress, was not and could not have been carried out. But now it is different, and the resolution of the Sixth National Congress will be carried out after the Seventh National Congress. This Congress will probably be held soon and will discuss the problems of strengthening our work in the cities and winning nationwide victory.

The industrial conference of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, now in session, is of great significance. In 1937, the number of factory workers in the Border Region was only 700, it increased to 7'000 by 1942, and is now 12'000. These figures are not to be treated lightly. While we are in the base areas, we must learn how to administer the industry, commerce, and communications of big cities, or otherwise, we shall not know what to do when the time comes. Thus, the second indispensable item in our ideological and material preparation for the future is to organize for armed uprisings in the big cities and along the main lines of communication and to learn how to administer industry and commerce. Without this preparation, too, we shall not be able to drive out the Japanese invaders and liberate the whole of China.

#3. GET RID OF THE BAGGAGE AND START UP THE MACHINERY

In order to win new victories, we must call on our Party cadres to get rid of the baggage and start up the machinery. «To get rid of the baggage» means to free our minds of many encumbrances. Many things may become baggage, may become encumbrances, if we cling to them blindly and uncritically. Let us take some illustrations. Having made mistakes, you may feel that, come what may, you are saddled with them and so become dispirited; if you have not made mistakes, you may feel that you are free from error and so become conceited. Lack of achievement in work may breed pessimism and depression, while achievement may breed pride and arrogance. A comrade with a short record of struggle may shirk responsibility on this account, while a veteran may become opinionated because of their long record of struggle. Worker and peasant comrades, because of pride in their class origin, may look down upon intellectuals, while intellectuals, because they have a certain amount of knowledge, may look down upon workers and peasants. Any specialized skill may be capitalized on and so may lead to arrogance and contempt of others. Even one's age may become ground for conceit. The young, because they are bright and capable, may look down upon the old; and the old, because they are rich in experience, may look down upon the young. All such things become encumbrances or baggage if there is no critical awareness. An important reason why some comrades are very lofty, isolating themselves from the masses and making repeated mistakes, is that they carry such baggage. Thus, a prerequisite for maintaining close links with the masses and making fewer mistakes is to examine one's baggage, to get rid of it, and so to emancipate the mind. There have been several occasions in the history of our Party when great conceit manifested itself and we suffered in consequence. The first was in the early half of 1927. The Northern Expeditionary Army had reached Wuhan, and some comrades became so proud and overweening as to forget that the Nationalist Party was about to assault us. The result was the error of the Chen Duxiu line, which brought defeat to the revolution. The second occasion was in 1930. Taking advantage of Jiang Jieshi's large-scale war against Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan,¹² the Red Army won a number of battles, and again some comrades became proud and overweening. The result was the error of the Li Lisan line, again causing some losses to the revolutionary forces. The third occasion was in 1931. The Red Army had smashed the Nationalist Party's third «encirclement and suppression» campaign and, immediately afterward, faced with the Japanese invasion, the people throughout the country started the stormy and heroic anti-Japanese movement, and again, some comrades became proud and overweening. The result was an even more serious error in the political line, which cost us about 90% of the revolutionary forces that we had built up with so much toil. The fourth occasion was in 1938. The War of Resistance had begun and the united front had been established; and once again, some comrades became proud and overweening. As a result, they committed an error somewhat similar to the Chen Duxiu line. This time, the revolutionary work suffered serious damage in those places where the effects of these comrades' erroneous ideas were more especially pronounced. Comrades throughout the Party should take warning from these instances of pride and error. Recently, we have reprinted Guo Moruo's essay on Li Zicheng,¹³ so that comrades may also take warning from this story and not repeat the error of becoming conceited at the moment of success.

«To start up the machinery» means to make good use of the organ of thought. Although some people carry no baggage and have the virtue of close contact with the masses, they fail to accomplish anything, because they do not know how to think searchingly or are unwilling to use their brains to think much and think hard. Others refuse to use their brains, because they are carrying baggage which cramps their intellect. Lenin and Stalin often advised people to use their brains, and we should give the same advice. This mechanism, the brain, has the special function of thinking. Mencius said: «The office of the mind is to think.»¹⁴ He defined the function of the brain correctly. We should always use our brains and think everything over carefully. A common saying goes: «Knit the brows and you will hit upon a stratagem.» In other words, much thinking yields wisdom. In order to get rid of the practice of acting blindly, which is so common in our Party, we must encourage our comrades to think, to learn the method of analysis, and to cultivate the habit of analysis. There is all too little of this habit in our Party. If we get rid of our baggage and start up the machinery, if we march with light packs and know how to think hard, then we are sure to triumph.