Pieces of old paper with a sense of age and seemingly ordinary one after another carry the dream of a group of people - to join the Chinese Communist Party. "The Initial Heart Is Like a Rock - Han Zhenming's 100Th-Pieces of Volunteer Books for Joining the Party" is being exhibited in the first hall of Baoguo Temple in Beijing, and these precious historical materials record the stories of the original intentions of communists in different periods.
Veterans have searched for nearly a thousand volunteer letters for joining the party for thirty years
The volunteer books were obtained by Han Zhenming, a 69-year-old retired military cadre, who spent two or three decades searching across the country. Before retiring, Han Zhenming was a party worker in the military. By chance, he found a volunteer book for joining the party during the revolutionary war years, and since then he has been out of control, and he has been tirelessly looking for the party volunteer book from all kinds of old paper piles. These volunteer books were not taken seriously at first, and were often piled up by sellers as waste paper and other materials, and Han Zhenming bought them in piles and searched for needles from the old paper piles.
Over the years, he has spent a lot of energy and effort on collecting volunteer books for joining the party, and his footprints have traveled all over the country, the northernmost to Xinjiang, and the southernmost to Guangxi.
Now, Mr. Han Zhenming has collected nearly a thousand volunteer books for joining the party and organized this exhibition with the assistance of the China Collection Magazine And the Beijing Lotus Pond Military Rest House. In the context of time, they selected a hundred of the most representative volunteer letters for joining the party. Many of the volunteer books are old and have long been written in vague handwriting, and Elder Han and the staff carefully identified them word by word, and consulted a large number of historical materials to form a clear text description.
Read the party volunteer book and the protagonist's "air dialogue"
Guo Ruihai's volunteer letter for joining the party written in 1947 was the first volunteer book for joining the party in Han Zhenming's collection. The protagonist, Guo Ruihai, is a 39-year-old veteran who joined the People's Liberation Army in August 1945. Between the lines, Guo Ruihai is full of confidence in the future and the future, and resolutely expresses his determination to "strive for the realization of China's independence, freedom, and equality, and for the liberation of the toiling masses!" ”
In 1949, Zhang Tianliang wrote in the column "Motives for Joining the Party": In order to turn around, not to be oppressed, to overthrow all reactionary rule, to serve the people, it is to join the Communist Party by making everyone have clothes, clothing, food and food, and to achieve a communist (socialist) society. In the same year, Liu Zhanqing wrote in his volunteer book for joining the party: Because he had no food at home, he was deceived by the landlords and bullies and fought to the end for the Chinese revolution.
In the exhibition, the earliest copy of the volunteer to join the party was written in 1938. That year, a 21-year-old Shanxi female student named Cao Songlin joined the Communist Party in Yan'an. Coming from a petty-bourgeois family, she joined the Eighth Route Army in 1937 after graduating from Taiyuan Girls' High School in Shanxi. Along the way, Cao Songlin came to Yan'an, the holy land of revolution, and studied at the Yan'an Public School founded by the Party Central Committee. In the column on motives for joining the party, she wrote: "I think the Communist Party is the best political party in the world, can seek the interests of the proletariat and survive for the toiling masses, so I am going to join the party." ”
"'Go to Yan'an!' It was once a slogan that resounded through the clouds. Han Zhenming said emotionally: "In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in an all-round way, and the Chinese nation reached the most critical moment. With strong patriotic feelings, a generation of enthusiastic young people rushed from the occupied areas and the kuomintang areas to Yan'an. This 1938 volunteer letter for joining the party profoundly records that period of history. ”
Han Zhenming felt that this volunteer book for joining the party was too precious, and he did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to buy it from a collector.
Among the exhibits is a volunteer letter for joining the party filled in on May 23, 1949, which is also a rare unapproved copy of Han Zhenming's collection of volunteer books. According to the contents, on July 9, 1949, the higher-level party committee issued an instruction that the applicant "has a complicated history, has always speculated, and has participated in the puppet party and the puppet army for many years, killed revolutionary comrades, and although the current performance is not bad, it has not been seriously tested, and the time is not long, so it is not approved to join the party." ”
In the eyes of many visitors, the handwriting on these exhibits is not all neat and clear, and there are even many typos or inventive characters, but they give people today an opportunity to touch the living history and "dialogue in the air". The tortuous experiences, ideological changes and even rebirths in the protagonist's self-description not only present all kinds of life with mixed feelings in front of the audience, but also make people deeply feel that actively asking to join the party is not a slogan, and shouldering the mission must withstand strict tests.
I hope that more people will feel the lofty ideals
"At that time, the volunteer letter for joining the party was really sincere, without any flowery words or empty slogans, it was all from the heart." "Even the words of criticism are written so bluntly, truthfully and boldly." The exhibition resonated with the audience, who recounted their feelings to each other.
"The 'protagonists' behind this batch of exhibits, some people died on the battlefield, some people are unknown, and some people have passed away... In any case, it is precisely because of such a precious remnant that their lofty ideals are forever frozen and become the most dazzling light. The thin volunteer book for joining the party records the choice of communists without regrets. That is the height of the spirit, but also the thickness of faith. I hope that through this exhibition, more people can feel that lofty ideal and inspire those who come after us to forge ahead. Han Zhenming said.