Wartime ideological and political education at Huazhong Construction University

During the War of Liberation, Huazhong Jianshe University (hereinafter referred to as Jianda) was a banner of new democratic education in East China, and together with North China University in Zhangjiakou, North University in Xingtai and Shandong University in Linyi, it was called the "flower of new democratic education".

Situation education is the main subject

In May 1947, shortly after the establishment of the university was moved from northern Jiangsu to the Jiaodong area of the liberated area of Shandong, the East China Bureau, in accordance with the development of the situation of the Liberation War and the need to enrich a large number of cadres in the army, instructed it to continue to run the fourth phase, recruit 2,000 young intellectuals as preparatory students on the spot, and strive for 70%-80% of the students to consciously and voluntarily transfer to military schools after three months of education, so as to train them to become military cadres. The University decided on the educational policy of giving priority to ideological and political education, summed up and deepened the experience of the past, paid close attention to ideological and political education, and made every effort to open up the idea of young students serving the people and the Liberation War, and successfully completed the scheduled tasks.

The average age of this group of preparatory students is about 20 years old, and the vast majority of them are young intellectuals in the old liberated areas; they have been influenced and educated by our party and our army for a long time, and they are pure, enthusiastic, and enthusiastic about learning, but the main ideological problem is that they have a heavy sense of hometown, and they are worried that they will be assigned to work in other places after graduation, and they are afraid of joining the army and fighting wars. The root cause of the ideological problem is a lack of clear understanding of the situation in the War of Liberation. Therefore, the University decided that education on the situation should be regarded as the main subject of ideological and political education, and demanded that the situation of the Liberation War should be thoroughly explained and thoroughly and lively.

One is who is the initiator of the civil war? By clearly understanding Chiang Kai-shek's consistent anti-democratic and anti-people stance, in order to shatter any illusions about Chiang Kai-shek, the students will clearly understand that this civil war is by no means a struggle between two parties, but a struggle for the survival of the people of the whole country. All Chinese people who do not want to be slaves will inevitably support the Communist Party, actively participate in the war, and support the war. The other is why our army must win, and Chiang's army must be defeated? By explaining the nature of the war and the strategy and tactics of our army, and using the actual situation of the development of the war for more than a year as proof, it is clear to the students that the strategy and tactics of our army are to concentrate superior forces to completely annihilate the enemy in the course of movement, and to abandon many cities on its own initiative.

In line with the education on the situation, each class held a complaint party, and selected some students to use their own experiences to accuse the Kuomintang reactionaries of the atrocious crimes committed against the people. Some of them were ruined, and some were directly brutally abducted by the so-called "Central Army", and so on. These facts were more powerful than any explanation, and aroused great anger and hatred among all the students, who spoke one after another, and even swore an oath on the spot, resolutely demanding that they join the army and kill the enemy to take revenge.

Organize democratic discussions

Since the first phase of the university, the university has implemented the requirement of free thinking in all aspects of the whole process of ideological and political education, prompting students to think about and study, distinguish between right and wrong, instead of blindly following them, and consciously transform incorrect thinking with correct thinking. The practice of ideological and political education has proved that the best way to give play to free thought is to organize democratic discussions.

There are two modes of democratic discussion, one is "mutual aid rambling and group discussion" plus "deciding whether to organize a large group or whole class discussion according to the situation of the group discussion", and the other is "group rambling and group discussion". Talk is about enlightenment, and discussion is about argumentation. Each group has about 10 people, 3 or 4 groups are a large group, and the support group is a free group of 3 or 4 people. Compared with the two models, the second democratic discussion model is more efficient and effective, and has been actively advocated by the university.

The university summarized the good practices of democratic discussion created by the preparatory class in a timely manner, and publicized and promoted them through the school magazine "Konkuk University Life". In the initial stage of the "open up the study of ideology" education unit, many students believed that the primary condition for being able to serve the people was the level of cultural knowledge, not the quality of ideology and politics, so the main purpose of entering the school was to learn cultural knowledge, not to study ideology and politics. In response to this realization, the first class of the preparatory department inspires students to recall what they have seen in practice to determine what is right and wrong. As soon as they were inspired, they gave many vivid examples, and as a result, they quickly overturned their original arguments. For example, when Laiyang mobilized the masses to join the army, a student of the Higher Normal School and a peasant cadre challenged him, but as a result, many peasant cadres promised to mobilize, and half of the students were not mobilized. This approach is summed up as "rich in research examples and open up ideas from objective facts". Patient individual education

Agrarian reform education is an important part of the education of the University. At that time, there were some students from landlords and rich peasants in the liberated areas of Shandong who were unable to understand their thinking because the land reform had affected their vital interests, and collective study and education could not completely solve their ideological problems, but they were also very bitter in their hearts. At this time, it is necessary to patiently carry out individual education to thoroughly open up the mind, and this is also clearly the responsibility of the class cadres and the backbone of the study: take the initiative to talk to them, appropriately criticize and point out the direction, give them sincere help, encourage them to make progress, promote the development of ideological struggle, and consciously solve ideological problems.

Here's a prime example. A female student was born into a landlord family, and after the land reform in the village, she took leave and went home to take out the things she wanted to use. But as soon as she entered the village, she was noticed by the peasants, and at this time the village was holding a criticism meeting. She panicked and hurriedly explained to the village cadres that she had decided to separate from her family and reform herself in the course of study, and asked the village cadres to let her go back to school. As a result, the village cadres and all the peasants agreed. When she returned to school, she was so depressed that she didn't talk or eat all day. As soon as the squad cadres learned about the situation, they immediately came to her to talk to her and encouraged her to serve the revolution. As a result, after 3 days of ideological struggle, she figured it out and devoted herself to studying.

Meritorious service in learning

The university resolutely implemented the spirit of the instructions of the East China Bureau on extensively launching the meritorious service campaign, creatively launched the study and meritorious service campaign, and put forward such loud slogans as "meritorious service in study means direct support to the frontline" and "the highest purpose of study is to make meritorious service to the people and the war." This created a blazing revolutionary atmosphere throughout the school, enabled the preparatory students to consciously link the value of life with the war of liberation, and effectively enhanced the effect of ideological and political education. The school stipulates that the standard of third-class merit is to have achieved remarkable results in both study and work. According to the actual performance of study and work, students are regularly organized to report merit, record merit, and evaluate merit, and finally hold a celebration and award meeting.

In late August 1947, the school department held a grand celebration and award meeting, and the school leaders personally awarded medals and certificates to the scholars, and each class beat gongs and drums, and wore saffron and sent congratulatory letters to the recipients. The revolutionary enthusiasm of the preparatory students to join the army and make new contributions was unprecedentedly high, and after the meeting, they went to the class department, the preparatory department, and the school department to ask for an early end of their studies and to join the army immediately. After several days of registration and review work, at the end of August and early September, more than 90 percent of the male students in the preparatory department consciously and voluntarily joined the army and transferred to military schools to study, and the target tasks assigned by the East China Bureau were successfully completed. Since there was no need for female soldiers at the front, the girls could not realize their desire to join the army, so they continued to stay in school and actively participated in the donation and meritorious service movement carried out in the whole school, and enthusiastically donated money and materials to support the front line.