At the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in February 1956, Khrushchev made a secret report at the meeting that completely negated Stalin, causing great shock and ideological confusion in the socialist camp. The international communist movement has undergone major twists and turns. This warns people that if they fail to correctly understand and handle the contradictions in socialist society, especially the contradictions among the people, it will be difficult to consolidate the socialist system and it will be difficult to carry out socialist construction. In China, due to the rapid completion of socialist transformation and the fact that the impact of adventurous advances in economic construction has not been completely eliminated, there are still problems such as bureaucracy in the leadership work, and instability such as a small number of people making trouble has emerged in some localities. In the face of these complicated new situations, the Cpc Central Committee and Mao Zedong thought deeply about the contradictions in socialist society and put forward the theory on correctly handling contradictions among the people.
On February 27, 1957, Mao Zedong delivered an important speech entitled "On the Question of Correctly Handling Contradictions Among the People" at the Eleventh Enlarged Session of the Supreme Council of State. Xinhua News Agency photo
In February 1957, Mao Zedong delivered a speech at the Supreme State Council entitled "How to Deal with Contradictions Among the People" (later changed to "On the Question of Correctly Handling Contradictions Among the People"). He pointed out: Contradictions are universal, and socialist society is also full of contradictions, and it is these contradictions that promote the continuous development of socialist society. The basic contradictions of socialist society are still the contradictions between the productive forces and the relations of production, the economic base and the superstructure, which can be constantly resolved through the self-adjustment and perfection of the socialist system itself. This thesis for the first time scientifically revealed the driving force of socialist social development and laid the theoretical foundation for subsequent socialist reforms.
Mao Zedong also pointed out: In socialist society, there are contradictions of fundamentally different natures: contradictions between the enemy and ourselves and contradictions among the people. The former needs to be solved by coercive, dictatorial methods, while the latter can only be solved by democratic, persuasive and educational methods of "unity-criticism-unity". He elevated the correct handling of contradictions among the people to the height of the main theme of the country's political life, stressing that the large-scale stormy class struggle of the masses in the revolutionary period was basically over, and that "our fundamental task has changed from emancipating the productive forces to protecting and developing the productive forces under the new relations of production."
On June 19, 1957, Mao Zedong's article "On the Question of Correctly Handling Contradictions Among the People" was published in a newspaper. This is the People's Daily on the day of sale at the Wangfujing Post Office Service Station in Beijing. Xinhua News Agency photo
"On the Question of Correctly Handling Contradictions Among the People" is of pioneering significance in the history of the development of Marxism. Mao Zedong thoroughly studied the contradictions in socialist society, formed a systematic set of theories on contradictions in socialist society, enriched and developed scientific socialist theory, and had long-term guiding significance for the party and the cause of socialist construction.
On June 19, 1957, peking university students bought a people's daily on campus with Mao Zedong's article "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People." Xinhua News Agency photo
In accordance with the spirit of the Eighth National Congress of the Party and the new situations and new problems that have emerged inside and outside the Party, the Central Committee has decided to start with rectifying the Party's work style, overcome bureaucracy, sectarianism, and subjectivism, and correctly handle contradictions among the people. On April 27, 1957, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the Directive on the Rectification Movement. Mao Zedong later pointed out that the party hoped to achieve such a goal through rectification: to create a political situation in which there was centralization and democracy, discipline and freedom, unity of will, and personal happiness and liveliness. The broad masses of cadres and masses, including many influential non-party personages, have actively responded to the call and put forward a great deal of criticism and suggestions on the work of the party and the government and the ideological style of party and government cadres. The overwhelming majority of opinions are relatively pertinent and constructive, and are of great benefit to our party's rectification of work style and correction of shortcomings and mistakes.
However, with the development of the rectification movement, many complications have emerged. A very small number of people took the opportunity to launch an offensive against the Party and the nascent socialist system. They attack the leading position of the Communist Party in the political life of the country as "the party's world," demand "taking turns to sit on the throne," and describe the system of the people's democratic dictatorship as the root cause of bureaucracy, sectarianism, and subjectivism. This anomaly aroused the vigilance of the Party. In June, the Central Committee demanded that the forces be organized to counter the attack of the rightists.
It is absolutely necessary and correct to counter the offensive of a very small number of Rightists and to criticize the ideological trends of the opposition Party and the socialist road. However, as a result of the overly serious estimation of the situation in the class struggle, the large number of contradictions among the people as contradictions between the enemy and ourselves, and the large number of ideological and cognitive problems as political problems, the struggle against the Rightists has been seriously expanded. This is a major lesson in the history of the Party, and it has caused setbacks to the Party's good beginning in exploring the road of socialist construction in China.
Source: Xinhua Net
Editor: Huang Yixin
Editor-in-charge: Wang Hui
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