From the marshal of the republic to the director of the national sports commission, what kind of misunderstanding does He Long face? Why did he invite Hu Yaobang to eat cantaloupe?

He Long kicked off for the first sports conference football tournament in the Southwest Region

There are several misconceptions about He Long's appointment as the director of the Sports Committee

Some old comrades, especially He Long's old subordinates, do not understand He Long as the director of the Sports Committee: Why should a founding hero with outstanding military achievements be allowed to engage in sports? Others say that Chairman Mao made He Long the director of the Sports Committee because he was not allowed to take charge of the army, and so on.

In fact, this is a complete misunderstanding.

First of all, it was the All-China Sports Federation, not Mao Zedong, who proposed He Long to be the director of the Central Sports Commission. Moreover, He Long was a part-time director of the Sports Committee, and the Central Committee did not dismiss him from the post of commander of the Southwest Military Region; while he was in charge of the Central Sports Commission, he was also in charge of the work of the Southwest Military and Political Committee and the Southwest Military Region. Moreover, soon after Deng Xiaoping transferred to Beijing, He Long served as the secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the Communist Party of China.

Previously, some articles and media said that "He Long came to Beijing from Chongqing and became the director of the Central Sports Commission." This is subjective assumption.

He Long did come to Beijing many times from Chongqing, the capital of the southwest region, to meet with the central authorities or to report to the central authorities. In April 1953, He Long returned to Chongqing after presiding over the first national sports work conference from Chongqing to Beijing.

Moreover, Mao Zedong always attached great importance to the cause of sports. In early 1950, he signed the title of the magazine New Sports; On June 10, 1952, 12 big characters were inscribed with the words "Develop Sports and Enhance the People's Physique", which pointed out the direction for the sports cause of New China. On April 1, 1954, Mao Zedong presided over a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and one of the agenda items was to deliberate the "Report of the Party Group of the Sports Committee of the Central People's Government on Strengthening the Work of People's Sports and Sports". As soon as Rong Gaotang entered the venue, Mao Zedong said: "It is time to discuss sports, sports is a major event related to 600 million people!" Therefore, he agreed to let He Long concurrently serve as the director of the Sports Committee, also out of the importance he attached to sports work, because in order to develop the sports cause of New China as soon as possible, he Long was the only one.

And He Long himself is happy to take on this heavy responsibility. When selecting and transferring talents for the Sports Committee, he often said to cadres who were unwilling to engage in sports work: "I am voluntary to do sports work." I was the director of the Sports Committee, I was a general of Premier Zhou and Comrade Xiaoping, and I was ordered by Chairman Mao. ”

At the end of 1954, after the abolition of the major administrative regions of the country, He Long was ordered to transfer to Beijing and was appointed vice premier of the State Council, vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, and director of the State Sports Commission. In addition to being in charge of the Sports Committee, it is also responsible for assisting Premier Zhou Enlai in handling relevant affairs of the State Council, diplomacy, and the work of finalizing the central organs.

In 1956, He Long was elected a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, and in 1959, he became a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military Commission and vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. In 1960, He Long concurrently served as the director of the newly established National Defense Industry Commission.

All this fully shows that Mao Zedong had great trust in He Long.

In order to dispatch troops, He Long invited Hu Yaobang to eat cantaloupe

After He Long took office, he began to select and transfer talents.

On February 27, 1953, the Ministry of Personnel of the Central People's Government issued a document ("Official Document of the Ministry of Personnel of the Central People's Government (53) Zhongren Er Zi No. 83"), informing the Central Sports Commission:

In 1953, the establishment of your committee was approved by the Committee of 1953, and after review, a total of 239 personnel were approved, 212 cadres were counted, and 27 were miscellaneous personnel.

At that time, the whole class of the Central Sports Committee was more than a dozen cadres transferred from the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and Rong Gaotang and Huang Zhong served as the deputy secretaries-general of the Sports Committee.

The nearly 200 cadres who are still lacking are difficult to match for a while in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Coupled with the influence of traditional ideas at that time, many people did not regard sports as a formal profession. Therefore, it is even more difficult for the Sports Committee to transfer cadres.

On April 27, 1953, when presiding over the National Sports Work Conference in Beijing, He Long proposed: "In order to establish the institutions of the Central Sports Commission and gradually establish and improve the sports committees at all levels, we must first solve the problem of cadres. At present, we must ask the central authorities for some 'hens' and transfer them from the central authorities, the regions, and the troops as our backbone. ”

Since then, with his extraordinary boldness and unique way, He Long has mobilized, persuaded and attracted a group of cadres who had been engaged in sports work in the army and the southwest region to work in the organs of the State Sports Commission. The first generals he ordered were Zhang Zhihuai, director of the cadre department of the Headquarters of the Southwest Military Region and captain of the "combat" sports brigade of the Southwest Military Region, as well as Zhang Lianhua, 35, and Zhu Debao, 39. Zhang Lianhua was a veteran member of the "combat" basketball team of the 120th Division, and at this time had already served as the political commissar of an artillery regiment of the Chinese Volunteer Army; Zhu Debao was a veteran member of the "Donggan Brigade" and was now the director of the Ordnance Department of a certain air force department of the Northeast Military Region.

On August 3, 1953, the Central Sports Commission formally submitted a report to Xi Zhongxun, director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, proposing to appoint Zhang Zhihuai as deputy director of the Department of Cadre Training; Zhang Lianhua as deputy director of the Department of International Liaison; and Zhu Debao as deputy director of the Department of Sports Competitions.

After the abolition of the Southwest Administrative Region, in late October 1954, He Long bid farewell to the Southwest and took the people's ferry from Chongqing to chongqing along the Yangtze River with Song Renqian, Cai Shufan, Liu Binglin, Wang Ling, Wu Yuesong and other family members. At that time, these cadres who were in the same boat as He Long were all preparing to report to various departments in Beijing, but none of them went to the Sports Committee. As soon as Kehe Long got on the boat, he hit their "idea". He first "launched an offensive" against Cai Shufan, who was preparing to take up his post at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it had a miraculous effect. Cai Shufan, a veteran hubei soldier who joined the workers' movement in 1922 and had no record of sports work on his resume, was not so much attracted by the sports prospects depicted by He Long as by He Long's unique charm. His 5 years of working with He Long in the southwest made him more willing to cooperate with He Long. Therefore, as soon as he arrived in Beijing, He Long negotiated with Deng Xiaoping, Cai Shufan's old superior, and asked him to change from vice minister of internal affairs to deputy director of the State Sports Commission.

The female general Wang Lingyuan went to the Ministry of Geology, but was also persuaded by He Long to serve as the deputy director of the General Office of the Sports Committee. Wu Yuesong was once a cadre of the Security Section of the Southwest Military Region, and he long did security work around He Long, and He Long naturally did not let him go, and as soon as he got off the ship, he pulled him to the sports committee, and soon he served as the deputy director of the newly built Beijing Gymnasium, and later as the deputy director of the Cadre Department.

Zhang Feiji, deputy director of the Propaganda Department of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC, was originally going to serve as president of the Foreign Language Publishing House. He Long admired his talent and felt that the sports committee must have several talents, so he mobilized him to come to the sports committee. Zhang Feishi was embarrassed, not only agreed to it himself, but also mobilized Zhang Caizhen, a female general who also went to the foreign language publishing house, and said: "Go to the sports committee, this is the order of President He." I am also a literati entering the Wu Temple. ”

He Long also invited Mr. Lu Han, an old friend, an uprising general and vice chairman of the Southwest Administrative Committee, to work with the Sports Committee. Luján readily agreed. After that, He Long lobbied in many ways, transferring Li Menghua from the southwest, Chen Xian from the south-central region, Cao Jianchun from North China (as deputy director of the Department of Sports Guidance for The Masses), and Dong Nianli from the northwest (who was deputy director of the Department of Guidance for Mass Sports and deputy director of the Department of Education) ...

On November 1, 1954, the State Council officially appointed Cai Tingkai, Cai Shufan, Lu Han, Huang Qixiang and Rong Gaotang as deputy directors of the State Sports Commission. Subsequently, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee approved the appointment of Zhang Feiji as secretary general of the State Sports Commission and Huang Zhong as deputy secretary general. In 1956, Zhang Feishi and Huang Zhong were promoted to deputy directors of the National Sports Commission. At that time, Zhang Feiji was only 33 years old, the youngest among the vice-ministerial-level cadres in the State Council system. Zhang Caizhen later also served as deputy director of the State Sports Commission.

Later, He Long successively transferred his secretaries Ren Sizhi, Han Fudong, Li Da, Zhao Zhenghong, and a number of other cadres to work in the Sports Committee.

Mr. Dong Shouyi, a sportsman who served as the director general of the All-China Sports Association before liberation, was elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1947. He Long nominated him as a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a professor at the Central Institute of Physical Education, with a monthly salary of more than 1.8 million yuan (old currency). After that, He Long appointed him as vice chairman of the All-China Sports Federation and director of the Sports Technical Committee of the National Sports Commission. Mr. Dong Shouyi, who loves the socialist motherland, made the greatest efforts at the International Olympic Committee meeting to win the legitimate seat of the People's Republic of China in international sports organizations.

At that time, He Long also invited Hu Yaobang, then secretary of the Central Committee of the Youth League, and Lu Jindong, director of the Organization Department of the Youth League Central Committee, to his home, saying to them: "The Sports Committee has just been established and needs to be strengthened. We are also doing the work of young people here, and the task is very heavy, and it depends on the support of all sides. Yaobang, this is also your business! Tune in some people from you, and you give some?"

Hu Yaobang had previously served as director of the SichuanBei Branch Bureau of the Southwest Region and political commissar of the Northern Sichuan Military Region, and was an old subordinate of He Long, who had already selected a number of cadres for the Sports Committee. He Said to He Long, "General Manager He, before we came to you, we had already selected some archives, so please choose them yourself."

Immediately, Lu Jindong put a handful of files in front of He Long...

He Long said humorously: "In order to thank you for your support, I have a treat today, which is the best cantaloupe that has just been shipped from Xinjiang."

For the site selection of the sports committee organs, presided over the construction of the Beijing Sports Institute

Before He Long moved to Beijing to work, he went to Beijing to discuss with Rong Gaotang and Huang Zhong the issue of forming a sports committee, and suggested to Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping in this regard:

Based on the establishment of the former Sports Federation, there are 48 people, and 62 people need to be supplemented. Among them, a number of backbone cadres need to be put forward, and a list has been sent to Comrade An Ziwen, and then added when the situation is necessary. (Deng Xiaoping here advises: Agree.) )

Need to buy a house to live, has been contacted by the Beijing Municipal Government, need to build the site, intend to ask for approval of the Youth Service Department stadium address (opposite the Beijing Hotel). (Zhou Enlai instructed here: This matter must be handled by the municipal government.) )

Peng Zhen, then mayor of Beijing, readily agreed and allocated 17 East Chang'an Avenue to the Sports Committee. Soon, No. 33 Weiying Hutong, located on the east side of Xuanwu Gate, was allocated to the Sports Committee. It was a courtyard hidden deep in an alley, with only a dozen simple bungalows, which could not accommodate the various people and horses newly transferred by He Long. Therefore, He Long came to visit Peng Zhen and asked him to try to solve the problem of the meeting site.

Peng Zhen helped each other and allocated 135 houses at No. 9, Eight-Sided Trough, Wangfujing, which several units were vying for, to the Sports Committee; Organ dormitories, arranged in Grass Factory Alley. He wrote to He Long in a letter of approval:

Mr. He: The house is solved, and it is reported that it is OK.

The Sports Committee of the Central People's Government was thus established. Its institutions include the General Office, the Department of Mass Sports Guidance, the Department of Cadre Training, the Department of Sports Competitions, the Department of International Liaison, the Department of School Sports, the Department of Editing and Review, the Department of Planning and Finance, and the National Form of Sports Research Association.

At the end of 1954, the organs of the Sports Committee were moved to the Sun Palace in Chongwen District, and two office buildings were built in the east and west.

Since then, He Long has also founded the Beijing Institute of Physical Education, Sports Daily, Sports Research Institute, etc., and also presided over the construction of sports facilities such as the Beijing Gymnasium, the Workers' Stadium and the Workers' Sports Institute.

From 1952, when He Long became the director of the Central Sports Commission, to 1966, with the strong support of the CPC Central Committee, the athletes across the country worked hard and bravely, breaking the world record 145 times, winning 13 world championships (including 12 table tennis), and 210 people won sports medals. At the same time, the average height of Chinese teenagers is generally about 3 centimeters higher than that of their parents' generation; The average life expectancy of Chinese has also increased from 35 years before liberation to more than 60 years.

These fruitful results indisputably prove that the Chinese sports circles have elected He Long as the director of the National Sports Commission, which is the most correct choice. The marshal led the sports industry and left a good story for the world sports world. Since then, Marshal He Long has been honored as the founding father of the Republic of Sports. At a time when China has become a universally recognized sports power, people will not forget the historical merits of Marshal He Long.

——Excerpted from the 11th issue of "Party History", No. 11, 2013

Author: Xie Wushen

Editor: Jiang Chuting