Is it really necessary for educated youths to go to the countryside? Some people think that it is youth without regrets, but some people think that it is a waste of time. In 1968, Chairman Mao called on the country's intellectual youth to go to the countryside to receive re-education for the poor and middle peasants, and under the guidance of the instructions, a large number of intellectual young people came to the fields and went deep into the mountains, and in just a few years, 10% of the population in the cities, close to two million young intellectuals, went from the cities to the countryside and the mountains. Such large-scale migrations, which are very rare in history, especially from urban to rural areas, clearly run counter to the goals of modernization. Why did Chairman Mao still insist on doing this? Is it a waste of talent for these young intellectuals to go to the countryside to receive re-education? Perhaps only by understanding the causes and consequences of knowing the heart and going to the countryside can we understand Chairman Mao's foresight. Pay attention, let's reveal the story of going to the mountains and going to the countryside together.
As early as 1955, Chairman Mao said: "The countryside needs young people with knowledge, and you will make great achievements here." According to Chairman Mao's call, many young intellectuals have gone to the countryside and used their knowledge to help backward rural areas, for example, the barefoot doctor is a very successful example. Nowadays, people think that barefoot doctors are a profession born of rural people who had some skills in those days, but this was not the case in the earliest days.
It is easy to understand that most barefoot doctors are original intellectuals, after all, how can rural people have access to more medical skills without having learned knowledge? Moreover, these barefoot doctors are not just doctors, they also shoulder the heavy responsibility of teaching farmers to increase food production, so they can be said to be half-farming and half-medicine. With the help of these people, farmers have gained more knowledge about the scientific conservation of farmland and livestock, more knowledge of herbal medicine, and at the same time, they have also helped to eradicate illiteracy in rural areas. This example is a good proof of Chairman Mao's original intention of calling for going to the mountains and going to the countryside.
Chairman Mao's real determination to make this call also stemmed from an incident he heard. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the illiteracy rate was very high, and many villages could not find a single literate person. After each harvest, they have to count the grain and report it, how can they figure it out when they don't know the words? There is a village like this, after the harvest is completely unsure of how to calculate, how much to transport and how much is left, such a simple thing as stumped them. Fortunately, there is a child who has gone to school and happened to return home to help the village solve this difficulty.
Many nearby villages have followed suit, and whenever they need to calculate statistics, they will communicate with nearby schools and arrange for a few students to help, which has greatly improved efficiency. Chairman Mao knew about this incident, and he thought that the illiteracy rate in the village was too high, and the development was too slow without the help of intellectual youth, so Chairman Mao decided to issue a call to let aspiring intellectual young people go to the mountains and go to the countryside, which was the first upsurge of educated youth leaving the city in the 50s.
According to statistics, nearly 12 million urban people in the country do not have suitable jobs, and going to the mountains and going to the countryside can just alleviate the problem of employment, so that the labor force will not be in vain, and they can also make full use of their knowledge to help the country develop, which is really beneficial and harmful. This was the cause of going to the mountains and going to the countryside in the 50s, so why did the craze for going to the mountains and the countryside in 1968 start?
In the 50s, educated youths went to the countryside with enthusiasm and pride, and according to Chairman Mao's call, they hoped to use their knowledge to change the backward rural environment. On the other hand, in 1968, going to the mountains and going to the countryside was compulsory, why did this happen?
Many people recall going to the countryside in 1968 with a hint of reluctance, whether you have the enthusiasm to go to the countryside to help with construction, you must go, even if it is an only child or the child of a leader, all of them go to the countryside to receive re-education from poor and middle peasants. In addition to the practical reasons for the shortage of industrial jobs in the cities mentioned above, there is also an important reason for the compulsion this time.
Chairman Mao believed that many young people at that time accepted too much information from abroad, and capitalism had a tendency to rise again. In particular, the intellectuals in the literary and artistic circles and the academic circles, after the young people grew up, did not experience the difficulties and struggles of the past, lacked a deep understanding of uniting the poor and middle peasants, discriminated very seriously, and were biased towards petty bourgeoisie, detaching themselves from Chairman Mao's insistence on serving the people. Facts have also proved that young people are the group that is most susceptible to brainwashing by the United States and Western countries, and after they come into contact with foreign ideas, they are easily corrupted by capitalism, which Chairman Mao absolutely does not want to see.
If China's economy can rise rapidly and its soft power rises sharply, it will naturally not be afraid of the ideological penetration of Western countries, but at this time China does not have such an economic foundation, so going to the countryside to have more contact with working people is the best way to correct thinking. In order for the intellectual youth not to be separated from the masses and not to discriminate against the peasants, Chairman Mao decided to carry out compulsory going to the mountains and going to the countryside, and only by having in-depth contact with the lives of the poor and middle peasants can we understand what the ancestors were fighting for.
This is not a hot decision of Chairman Mao, in Yan'an in the 40s, Chairman Mao used his eldest son Mao Anying to do experiments. At that time, Mao Anying came back from the Soviet Union and had not seen Chairman Mao for 20 years. But when he saw Mao Anying for the first time, he felt that it was very inappropriate, at this time Mao Anying was wearing a Soviet military uniform, stepping on shiny leather shoes, and speaking in a completely foreigner way, Chairman Mao looked very uncomfortable.
Chairman Mao naturally loved Mao Anying, but he hoped that Mao Anying could become the son of the people, so he decided to send Mao Anying to study. After Mao Anying returned to Chairman Mao, Chairman Mao only took him to eat a small stove for a few days, and then asked him to eat with the soldiers in the canteen, and a month later sent him to study at a rural university. Just as Gorky and Lenin believed that society is a university, Chairman Mao believed that the countryside is also a university.
Prior to this, Mao Anying's performance had always been like a son's brother, wearing a uniform and leather shoes at the ball, which was out of place with the crowd around her. Once I rode Mr. Zhu's horse to hang out, which was very beautiful. Chairman Mao found Mao Anying and joked: "Comrade Seryosha, you have been in the limelight recently!" also rode Mr. Zhu's horse to show off his might. Mao Anying was a little embarrassed and said that Mr. Zhu asked him to ride. Chairman Mao said solemnly: "Does Mr. Zhu let you ride it?" That's Mr. Zhu's war horse! Seeing Mao Anying's reflection, Chairman Mao took the opportunity to say: "Go to the countryside to learn again, learn more about China, know more about the peasants, this is different from the Soviet Union, you have to start from the hardest things." ”
In this way, Mao Anying, who was accustomed to eating milk and bread in the Soviet Union, went to a rural university and started to study again by eating coarse grains. Why does even Premier Zhou feel distressed?
In the 40s, Chairman Mao conducted an experiment on Mao Anying, what was the result?
Mao Anying took off the Soviet Army uniform and leather boots, put on Chairman Mao's old clothes and old cloth shoes, and went into the countryside without bringing almost anything, eating and living with the peasants, and learning from the peasants. Chairman Mao said: "Only when your skin is as dark as that of a peasant and there are as many calluses on your hands as that of a peasant can you graduate from a rural university." Many farmers thought that Mao Anying was actually here to gild, and he went back after a passing scene, so he didn't dare to arrange too heavy work for him. Unexpectedly, Mao Anying was not perfunctory at all, and asked all the work to be the same as the farmers, and even took the initiative to do more.
When she had free time, Mao Anying would teach the villagers to read and write, sit under the big trees with the farmers and chat about family life, and soon became one with the people. It didn't take long for Mao Anying's skin to be almost dark, and his body was stronger. Premier Zhou visited Mao Anying once, and was very distressed to see his changes, and after he went back, he told Chairman Mao that he was too harsh on Mao Anying. He used to go to prison with his mother, and later wandered in Shanghai with his younger brother, and he endured too much hardship. But Chairman Mao just sighed and said, "Who made him Mao Zedong's son?" ”
After studying at a rural university for more than a year, Mao Anying finally graduated, stroking his calloused hands, Chairman Mao was very emotional: "This is my son, who got the graduation certificate of Labor University." At this time, Mao Anying also understood his father's intentions, so that he would not detach himself from the masses and use his knowledge to serve the people. Through Mao Anying's efforts, many people in the village can understand simple Chinese characters, and the children's enthusiasm for learning is high, and Chairman Mao's experiment has achieved satisfactory results. More than 20 years later, Chairman Mao decided to expand this experiment and called on a large number of young intellectuals to help the countryside.
It's just that in 1968, the number of young intellectuals going to the countryside was too large, and how to arrange their food, clothing, housing and transportation was a huge problem. There are some people who go to the countryside with enthusiasm, but the blood cannot be eaten as food, and only by filling their stomachs can they work better. At that time, many rural people could not have enough to eat, how could they squeeze out so much food to feed the educated youth? Therefore, at the beginning, the life of most educated youths was hard, and when they recalled the years of the year, the tone was "remembering bitterness".
Young intellectuals already do less farm work, and when they go to the rural areas, they still can't get enough to eat, and they have to do the same work as the peasants, and they can't get used to living without enough food, and this is a great test for them. However, this is exactly what Chairman Mao wanted them to experience, this is re-education, knowing the hardships and difficulties of the peasants, so that they will not enjoy the fruits of the peasants' labor while looking down on the simple peasants. When they really adapt to life here, the fun will naturally be reflected, so the relatives also have a theme in their recollections, that is, "Si Tian".
The help brought by the educated youth to the countryside is obvious, especially in terms of cognition, which has greatly broadened the horizons of rural people, and many children have studied with the educated youth and planted the seeds of hard study in their hearts. It is a pity that soon the country's industry developed rapidly, and there were many workers in need, and there were also a large number of vacancies in other industries.
Recalling going to the mountains and going to the countryside, everyone's evaluation was mixed, but it must be affirmed that Chairman Mao's approach was the best way to solve the overpopulation in the cities in that era, and it also brought new blood and ideas to the countryside. Nowadays, it is no longer possible to go to the mountains and countryside on a large scale, but we still need to learn from the experience of the past and not let young people and intellectuals separate themselves from the masses, so that the country can firmly and quickly advance on the road of rejuvenation.