Xu Yichen
A brief reading of the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Porscheviks), published in 1939
In October last year, the bookseller Da Fei Hui gave me a copy of the "Brief Reading of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)", which was a famous book of the year, and the rare thing is that it was a collection during the War of Resistance.
In October 1938, the Soviet Union published the "Brief Reading of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Poland)" (also known as the "Concise Course on the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Brazzaville)" compiled by the Ad Hoc Committee of the Central Committee of the CPSU and approved by the CPSU Central Committee, which was divided into 12 chapters and concluding remarks, summarizing the basic experience of the CPC (Brazzaville) in party building, seizing revolutionary power and building socialism, and was considered to be a "great historical document of world significance", and the Russian version sold 12 million copies half a year after its release. For a long time it was the most authoritative party history textbook in the Soviet Union.
The Chinese edition of the book was translated and edited by Xie Weizhen, Zhang Xizuo, and other Chinese comrades of the Chinese Department of the Foreign Languages Publishing Bureau of the USSR, and Ren Bishi, who had rich experience in the Chinese revolution, and comrades of the CPC delegation to the Communist International also participated in this work to ensure that "the translation is the most accurate in meaning." In early 1939 Chinese edition was published by the Moscow Foreign Languages and Books Publishing Bureau, which was well-made, hardcovered in leather and gilded, and printed on Dowling paper. The book came out at the right time, in September 1938 the Communist Party of China proposed the "sinicization of Marxism" at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, after which Mao Zedong pointed out in his report "Transforming Our Study": "The "Brief Reading of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Brazzaville)" is the highest synthesis and summary of the communist movement in the world in the past hundred years, a typical example of the combination of theory and practice, and there is only one complete typical in the world. If we look at how Lenin and Stalin combined the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete practice of the Soviet revolution and thus developed Marxism, we can see how we should work in China. In order to strengthen the study of party members, Yan'an also set up a special cadre education department, with Zhang Wentian and Li Weihan as the main and vice ministers.
On the book's title page, four people's handwriting and five names are left, allowing them to understand the process of their circulation. In chronological order, the inscriptions are: "Min 2009 Trip to Yan'an on September 1, 1939 To Buy Chen Shuzhi" (September 1, 1939), "Comrade Ying Jia Save Shu Jin Gift Thirty-Four June 10" (June 10, 1945), "Comrade Jiada Family Gift July 1" (July 1, 1945), "Gift to Comrade Zihua Jiada on the Eve of His Departure to Northeast China 1945. Eight, Twenty-eighth Day" (August 28, 1945), "Presented to Comrade Peng Zhihai as a Study Souvenir Liu Zihua 9/30". These names seem ordinary, but in fact, there are some stories behind them.
In 1939, Chen Shu bought books, and in 1945, Jiada gave them to Liu Zihua
The first owner of the book was Chen Shu, an overseas Chinese from Hong Kong, who graduated from the Department of Social And Economic Affairs of the University of Hong Kong. In 1938, he came to Yan'an and served as an English teacher at the Eighth Route Army Military Medical School and the secretary of the General Health Department of the Eighth Route Army. Judging from his reminiscences in the 1980s, in April 1941, he participated in the work of Yan'an's first foreign-language propaganda publication, Report from China, a trilingual mimeograph publication founded by the Central Propaganda Department and later run by Xinhua News Agency, with Wu Wentao in charge of specific work aimed at publicizing the situation of the Eighth Route Army's New Fourth Army and the Yan'an base area overseas. Chen Shu's work was mainly to compile in English communication reports on the bases in Yan'an and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. In the period of "lean troops and simplified administration, production and self-help", because Yan'an did not have power generation equipment, in order to copy news from all over the world, it was only possible to generate electricity with a hand-cranked motor. After shaking the motor for six hours a night, Chen Shu began his own work, under the dim oil lamp, concentrating on reading the handwritten telegram written in pencil and the translation of the external telegram. According to colleague Xiao Ximing, Chen Shu "has helped everyone a lot" and "enthusiastically tried his best to answer difficult questions in the translation of comrades."
Chen Shu purchased the book on September 1, 1939. This day is the first day that Xinhua Bookstore, which has the mission of propagating Marxism-Leninism and propagating the policies of the Communist Party of China, has moved to a new site outside the north gate of Yan'an. With the formation of the anti-Japanese united front, a large number of patriotic young people, in order to pursue the revolutionary truth and respond to the party's call, have continuously "gone to Yan'an.", and the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University, The Northern Shaanxi Public School, the Lu Xun Art Institute, the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, and other academies and universities have been expanding day by day. In order to better meet the intellectual needs of progressive youth, Xinhua Bookstore moved to the former site of Luyi outside the North Gate. Mao Zedong specially inscribed the four characters of "Xinhua Bookstore" to congratulate Zhizhi, and Zhu De and Zhang Wentian personally inspected the store department. The housewarming of the bookstore was a cultural event in Yan'an at that time, and it is speculated that Chen Shu also took the occasion of the grand event to acquire books as a souvenir. In the three years since May 1937, Xinhua Bookstore has distributed more than 160,000 kinds of publications and millions of newspapers and magazines.
Six years later, Chen Shu gave the Ying family the book that he had read many times and left a lot of English notes, and then on July 1, the Ying family sent it to Jiada. Limited to the materials, it is not possible to verify the identity of the Ying family. On the eve of his trip to The Northeast on August 28, 1945, Jiada gave the book to Liu Zihua. From this, it may be inferred that Jiada should be a student of Yan'an Kang University, led by Zhang Xiushan and Lin Feng into the northeast. The recipient, Liu Zihua, was an old Red Army soldier from Yichun, Jiangxi, who in 1935 was a platoon commander in the Huang Kaixiang and Yang Chengwu departments of the Second Division of the Red First Army, one of the 22 warriors who flew to capture Luding Bridge, and also participated in the Battle of Pingxingguan. In 1942, Liu Zihua entered the Central Party School to study, and then served as the chief of education of the Seventh Branch of the Kang University and the chief of staff of the First Brigade and the Second Regiment. He was awarded five meritorious service and was seriously injured nine times. He died of illness in 1951 at the age of 39.
In 1945, Chen Shu gave it to the Ying family and the Ying family to Jiada again
Liu Zihua presented Peng Zhihai
The last recipient of the book, Peng Zhihai, is also an old Red Army and a witness to the defense of Huangya Cave. Huangya Cave is located in the middle of the Taihang Mountains, with dangerous mountains and hidden terrain. In April 1941, the Central Military Commission, in the "Instructions on the Construction of The Ordnance Industry," "demanded that all anti-Japanese base areas pay attention to the construction of the ordnance industry." The headquarters was determined to build the Huangyadong Arsenal into an "iron wall and copper wall that cannot be attacked and destroyed," and Zuo Quan personally selected a point to be responsible for the specific implementation. The Huangyadong Arsenal is the largest arsenal of the Eighth Route Army and is praised by Zhu De as the "pearl in the palm of the hand" of the Eighth Route Army. Before May 1941, it was a rifle manufacturing plant of our army, and after the Hundred Regiments War, it was gradually converted to the production of grenadiers and shells. (Peng Zhihai's related materials originated from "Yellow Cliff Wind and Cloud", People's Liberation Army Publishing House, 1991.) ）
The conditions in the Huangyadong area are difficult, and the Basic Living Security of the Eighth Route Army is very difficult. After years of severe drought, the "Three Lights Policy" of the Japanese Kou made the local people use bran as food for several years. The troops went out to collect food and often returned empty-handed; the local ventilation and light conditions were extremely poor, the humidity in the caves was very high, and the water would seep out of the stone crevices after a little rain; the soldiers' clothes were also in tatters, and it was impossible to maintain a set of clothes a year. In order to solve these problems, Zuo Quan once instructed: "When summer grain comes down, the grain and vegetables planted on more than 100 acres of land should be given to the construction troops a little more; the conditions for the soldiers' living quarters should be improved, and the method is to burn a pot of charcoal in each hole and each hole, put a few picks of lime on it, and drive away the moisture." Contact the logistics, allocate a little more old clothes, and each person will be given an extra pair of shoes and a towel to the construction company soldiers. In addition, the field fortification materials in the mountains mainly rely on local quarrying, burning their own lime, focusing on cement for bunkers, purchased from enemy-occupied areas by enemy workers, steel bars are steel tracks from broken railways, and yellow sand is dug up and transported by migrant workers from the Muddy Zhanghe River.
In 1941, the Japanese Kou launched a large-scale "sweep" of more than a thousand people on the base area in southeastern Jin, frantically carrying out "encroachment" and "cage policy", and vigorously engaging in "iron wall encirclement". The eight-day battle for the defense of Huangya Cave took place in November of that year. At that time, Peng Zhihai was serving as deputy company commander in the Eighth Company of the Eighth Route Army Headquarters Special Service Regiment (Zhu De Guard Regiment), and this newly established company consisted of more than 100 people, all of whom were communists. Among the company cadres, Peng Zhihai was the only Red Army cadre with rich combat experience. Therefore, his superiors assigned him to be responsible for the command and operation of the broken bridge and ditch of the forward position of the Eighth Company, to hold the position of the broken bridge at the south mouth, and to block the enemy from entering the Huangyadong Arsenal through the broken bridge. The broken bridge is located in the southeast of Huangya Cave, which is the only entrance and exit on the south side, and it is also one of the two places where the defense war is the most intense (the other is Huangya Cave).
Peng Zhihai led eleven Communists to form three firepower points and defended the fortifications on the top of the cliff and the bridgehead. Since the thirteenth day, it has persisted in the ice and snow for three full days and nights, withstood the test of the Japanese Kou's repeated poison gases, and stubbornly repelled the enemy's twelve charges, without losing any land. In the fierce battle, Peng Zhihai was seriously wounded by a bullet in the left side of his face, but he still could not hold the line of fire and continued to command the battle. After the war, Peng Zhihai's combat group was awarded the title of "Yellow Cliff Cave Broken Bridge Warrior" by the headquarters, and the whole regiment was awarded the title of "Yellow Cliff Cave Defense Hero Regiment". Zuo Quan spoke highly of it at the summing-up meeting: "This is the first time that the enemy has fought such a long-term trench battle with the red army from the Red Army to the Eighth Route Army, which is a remarkable thing and a model combat example. ”
"Liberation Daily" then published an article entitled "Fierce Battle against the Enemy in the Ice and Snow": "In the battle to defend Huangya Cave, the enemy and ourselves suffered six to one casualties, which is due to the high degree of heroic and tenacious fighting spirit exerted by the athletes of our regiments, and the exemplary role of all the communists of the regiment in resolutely obeying the order to die and coexist with the position is also one of the main factors that contributed to the results of this victory." According to statistics, the regiment suffered casualties of 166 people, of which 99 were communists. ”
The book was originally bought by Chen Shu during his "trip to Yan'an" in 1939, and his "travels" in the Liberated Areas continued his life, and he devoted his life to foreign propaganda work. The book was later transferred to Ying Jia, Jiada, Liu Zihua and Peng Zhihai. The names left on the title page are not necessarily well-known figures, but they are all participants and witnesses of major historical events, and they are also the creators of history, which may be the meaning of collecting this book.
Editor-in-Charge: Yu Shujuan
Proofreader: Shi Gong