Some people say that half of a modern Chinese history was written by Hunan people. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and at this moment when we revisit the history of the party, as Hunan people who have inherited the red genes of their revolutionary ancestors, pioneers, and martyrs, they will not only see countless stars shining in the glorious course of the party over the past hundred years, but also say that it was Hunan "Mao Cai Jilu" who put forward the idea of party building, established the Xinmin Society, was the first to issue the "first voice of party building," and erected the "banner" of "isms," and Hunan played a basic and irreplaceable important role in the founding of the party.
Hunan people are the first to open their eyes to the world
Hunan is a magical land, Hunan people are bloody and resolute, steadfast and selfless, worried about the world, dare to be the first. As early as 1840, when the Opium War broke out, when imperialism bombarded the gates of China with cannons and the Qing government was still ignorant of foreign affairs, Wei Yuan, who had returned from the qing dynasty, was the first to "open his eyes to the world", put forward the idea of "mastering the art of mastering the art to control the yi", and compiled the "Chart of the Sea Country", which was the first to open up a generation of customs. By 1898, Tan Sitong and Tang Cai, the people of Liuyang, Hunan, often actively participated in the Penghu Restoration, and their blood stained the capital. In particular, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, "China produced a Mao Zedong", "Lianxi a pulse" stirred up "the great river to the east" and "the aftermath of the Xiangshui River", suddenly made "the floodgates of Dongting Lake move, and opened, and the mighty new ideas have surged on both sides of the Xiang River..." The introduction of advanced ideas from the West has made the Hunan people, who have a "basin consciousness" and appear to be "conservative", open their eyes and change their thinking greatly, and write one epic and majestic chapter after another in China's modern history.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Chinese bourgeois democrats became the leading force of the Chinese revolution and began the awakening of the Chinese nation in the modern sense. At this time, some bourgeois revolutionaries in Hunan, such as Chen Tianhua, Huang Xing, and Song Jiaoren, followed suit. In 1903, Chen Tianhua, a xinhuan who studied in Japan, wrote two popular books, "The Return of the Head" and "The Alarm Clock", pointing out that the Qing government was the "court of foreigners", so if you want to resist imperialist aggression, you must oppose the rule of the Qing government. In 1902, Zhao Bizhen, a Native of Changde, translated and published Japan's "Monsters of the Twentieth Century - Imperialism" in Shanghai, and in 1903, he translated and published Japan's "Modern Socialism" by Junzo Fukui, and introduced Marxist works in a more systematic manner. As a result, Zhao Bizhen was called "the first person to translate Marx in China" by posterity. In August 1903, Zhang Shizhao, a native of Changsha, clearly wrote in a statement published in Shanghai's "National Daily" that "the state and the people are also collectives", and from this purpose, he violently attacked the feudal monarchy and asserted that "this monarchy system is not in line with the development trend of the times and must be replaced by the republican system."
The introduction of advanced Western ideas had a great influence on a large number of advanced intellectuals in the future, especially the victory of the October Revolution and the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, which effectively promoted the spread of Marxism in China, promoted the integration of Marxism with the Chinese workers' movement, and also prompted many advanced elements with different experiences to gradually change from radical democrats to early Marxists with rudimentary communist ideas through different channels after careful consideration and repeated thinking. During his work-study period in France, Cai Hesen, a man of the Twin Peaks, "fiercely translated" Marxist works, translated the Communist Manifesto, and "The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science", and in July 1920, he advocated "transforming China and the world with Marxist theories on the proletariat and the dictatorship of the proletariat" and became a staunch Marxist. Among the early Marxists in Hunan, Mao Zedong should be the first to be promoted. Mao Zedong went to Beijing several times, and under the direct influence of Li Dazhao, he issued a notice to recruit friends, searched for "true comrades", established the "Xinmin Society", edited the "Xiangjiang Review", organized work-study trips to France, especially during the period in Beijing and Shanghai, his thinking underwent tremendous changes, and by the summer of 1920, he considered himself "a Marxist" not only ideologically but also in practical revolutionary action.
The ideological ideas and practical activities of these early Marxists in Hunan are enough to show that the introduction and influence of advanced Western ideas laid the ideological foundation for the founding of the Communist Party of China and prepared the contingent of cadres.
The Hunan people have played a great role in the Xinhai Revolution and have been greatly awakened
It should be said that the founding of the Communist Party of China was closely related to the Xinhai Revolution that broke out in the early stage. In 1903, initiated by Hunan students studying in Japan, such as Huang Xing, Chen Tianhua, and Liu Yi, the Huaxing Association, the first anti-Qing revolutionary group in the Two Lakes region, was established in Changsha, with more than 500 members. After the establishment of the Huaxing Association, it immediately began to plan an uprising in Changsha in August 1904. Although the uprising failed due to the planned leak, it was the first attempt to practice the revolutionary strategy and was hailed as "the precursor of the Chinese mainland revolution". On August 20, 1905, the Xingzhong Association and the Huaxing Association and other revolutionary groups formally merged to form the Chinese League Association, and put forward the revolutionary program of "expelling the Tartars, restoring China, establishing the Republic of China, and equalizing land rights". A total of 79 people participated in the preparations for the League, including 20 in Hunan; 8 in Hunan who drafted the charter and 3 in Hunan, and these 3 people, namely Huang Xing, Chen Tianhua, and Song Jiaoren, played a leading role in it. At the beginning of the establishment of the League, 863 people from 17 provinces joined the league in Tokyo, Japan, including 157 in Hunan, ranking first among all provinces. From 1907 to 1911, under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen, Huang Xing and others, the League launched a series of armed uprisings. On April 27, 1911, Huang Xing personally led the "Battle of Huanghuagang" that shocked China and foreign countries. On October 10, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising organized and commanded by Jiang Yiwu, a native of Lixian County, Hunan Province, broke out, and Huang Xing was regarded as "the heavens will descend to the mortals" after arriving in Hankou, and was elected as the commander-in-chief of the revolution that night, personally commanding the defense of Wuhan. The Wuchang Uprising was a success, and the provinces responded one after another, declaring their independence from the Qing Dynasty, and Hunan became the first province in the country to respond to the Wuchang Uprising. On October 22, 1911, Jiao Dafeng and Chen Zuoxin, liuyang people from Hunan, launched a new army uprising in Changsha, established the Hunan Military Government of the Republic of China, and immediately organized four groups of 8,000 people to support the Hubei army and assist the new regime in Wuchang, which was in danger. On December 29, 1911, the provincial representatives gathered in Nanjing elected Sun Yat-sen as the provisional president of the Republic of China. On February 12, 1912, the Qing Emperor announced his abdication, ending 268 years of feudal rule in the Qing Dynasty. On February 14, 1912, in order to achieve "peace between the North and the South", Sun Yat-sen resigned from the Senate as interim president, and the Senate elected Yuan Shikai as the second provisional president, and took office on March 10. However, in December 1915, Yuan Shikai brazenly declared that the emperor staged an ugly drama of restoring the imperial system, and the Xinhai Revolution was defeated.
The bitter lesson of the failure of the Xinhai Revolution has aroused people's reflection: After modern times, why did the Chinese nation's repeated struggles always fail? Everyone realizes that in order to transform China, it is also necessary to carry out ideological enlightenment, and only in this way can the Chinese people awaken and then rise up to renovate society and transform China. Chen Duxiu, the first to advocate ideological enlightenment, launched an unprecedented movement of ideological enlightenment and ideological emancipation under the banner of "democracy" and "science." Since 1915, Yi Baisha, a Changsha native known as the "anti-feudal warrior of Hunan", has continuously written articles in "New Youth", advocating democratic science, loudly calling out cultural ideas against feudalism, proposing that "the truth is clearly based on debate, and scholarship arises from competition", and waving the flag for the newly emerging new cultural movement. Li Jinxi, Yang Changji, Xu Teli, Fang Weixia and others founded the Hongwen Book Club in Changsha, "selecting books from The East and West Newspapers and Magazines", including "the most correct ideological trends in Europe, the United States and Japan", to serve the people in order to "refresh society". In the Hunan Ta Kung Pao, which was published in the same month of the same year as the New Youth, a large number of progressive people wrote articles strongly opposing Yuan Shikai's restoration of the feudal monarchy and actively advocating democracy and republicanism. Yang Changji, who advocated the "second to none" new cultural movement in Hunan, believed that there was an era of ideas and advocated the use of bourgeois freedom, equality, and fraternity to "arouse the consciousness of the people."
The Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty, ended China's two-thousand-year-old absolute monarchy, and declared that "the sovereignty of the Republic of China belongs to the whole people", which gradually made the concept of democracy and republicanism gradually enter the hearts of the people and greatly promoted the Chinese people's admiration for new ideas. Especially under the propaganda and encouragement of the bourgeois democrats, the students in Hunan were very active in their thinking, and the people of Hunan were constantly awakened under the influence of the Xinhai Revolution.
However, the Xinhai Revolution did not fundamentally smash the state apparatus of feudal warlords and bureaucrats, nor did it shake the economic foundation of modern China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Therefore, the Xinhai Revolution did not and could not change the social nature of China, and China's anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolutionary tasks were not completed, as Dr. Sun Yat-sen said: "The revolution has not yet succeeded, and comrades still have to work hard." After the failure of Yuan Shikai's restoration of the imperial system, Chinese society fell into a situation of warlord chaos. It is also under such circumstances that Hunan's modern industry is constantly developing in twists and turns, the ranks of the working class in Hunan are also growing in the struggle, the spontaneous struggle of workers is also constantly climaxing, and various strike struggles occur from time to time in various parts of the province. With the wide spread of Marxism in Hunan, a group of advanced intellectuals had to wonder why the workers' struggle always failed at this time. For although the working class at this time felt that it was the representative of the advanced productive forces, it did not put forward the class interests and goals of struggle of the workers as a whole, and it was not yet a class of its own. The broad masses of workers yearn for and call for the leadership of an advanced political party armed with advanced theories by the working class itself, and this provides an extremely favorable precondition for the further integration of Marxism with the workers' movement and for the emergence of the Party organizations in Hunan.
"Mao Cai Jilu" issued a "pioneering voice for the founding of the party"
When people talk about the founding of the Communist Party of China and the spread of Marxism, they mention Chen Wangdao's translation of the Communist Manifesto, which is also "the first to brew the establishment of the Communist Party in China" and "Southern Chen Bei li". But the preparations for the founding of the Party are multifaceted, and we must not forget the introduction and spread of advanced Western ideas and Marxism, the influence of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia and the May Fourth Movement that shocked China and foreign countries, and the help of the Communist International under the leadership of Lenin, because the October Revolution "brought Marxism-Leninism to China" and the May Fourth Movement "is part of the proletarian world revolution." Therefore, in addition to the "Southern Chen and Northern Li," it is also necessary to bear in mind Mao Zedong and Cai Hesen of Hunan, who put forward the idea of party building and organized the Xinmin Society to issue a "pioneering voice for party building," which provided basic ideological and theoretical support and a solid organizational foundation for the founding of the Communist Party of China.
Cai Hesen's founding ideas were epitomized in letters to Mao Zedong from August to September 16, 1920. Mao Zedong's early founding ideas were also epitomized in letters to Cai and Sen from December 1, 1920 to January 21, 1921. During his work-study in France, Cai and Sen wrote 11 letters to Mao Zedong in Succession. Among them, a letter to Mao Zedong on August 13, 1920, said: "In carrying out social transformation, I thought that the Communist Party must first be organized, he is the initiator, propagandist, vanguard, and war department of the revolutionary movement, and in the current situation in China, it is necessary to organize him first, then the trade unions and cooperatives, and only then can a powerful organization take place, and the revolutionary movement and the labor movement can have a nerve center." In the letter, Cai and Sen believed that "we must prepare now" and proposed sending people to Soviet Russia to learn the experience of the October Revolution. He also told Mao Zedong, He Shuheng, Peng Huang, and others that "I have already brewed an organization here" and that he was ready to contact the members of the Xinmin Society, the Young China Society, the Engineering Research Association (i.e., the Engineering World Society), the Labor Society, and the Work-study Society in France to discuss this issue, and to pay attention to "the dictatorship of the proletariat and the international color." He hoped that Mao Zedong would "prepare for the October Revolution in Russia" and that "you must be prepared early in your country" and "potentially carry it forward", suggesting that "within two years China must establish a party with clear doctrines, methods, and consistency with Russia."
On September 16, 1920, Cai hesen again wrote to Mao Zedong, He Shuheng and others, supplementing his suggestions. In his letter, he not only systematically introduced the distinction between the Third International led by Lenin and the Second International after the usurpation of power by Kautsky and Bernstein, but also focused on Lenin's program for the founding of the Party, namely "class struggle + dictatorship of the proletariat = Soviets (Bolsheviks)", and at the same time introduced the "extremely strict" conditions for joining the Party of the Bolsheviks, concluding that since the success of the Russian Revolution, the direction of the world revolutionary movement has been to use "the proletariat to gain power to transform society" and "the social revolution in China must be inevitable". In the letter, Tsai and Sen reiterated: "I think the party organization is very important." In short, in these letters, Cai Hesen not only comprehensively and systematically expounded a series of brilliant ideas and specific requirements for party building, such as his party-building ideology, party-building program, party-member conditions, and party-building steps, but also put forward for the first time in its entirety "blatant formal establishment of a Communist Party of China"!
In correspondence with Cai Hesen, Mao Zedong summed up the launching of the Hunan Autonomy Movement, the reason why the October Revolution in Russia was successful, and the reason why the May Fourth Movement shocked China and foreign countries, he believed that it was "doctrine (Bolshevism), opportunity (Russia's defeat in World War I), preparation, and a truly reliable party." Mao Zedong said, "I see the Russian-style revolution as a change in which there is no way to go any way. It is not that there is a better way to abandon it and not to adopt it, but only to adopt this terrible method" "It has become a fact that the demand for communism has taken place because of the uneasiness of the proletariat. The fact is present, it cannot be destroyed, it is something that will be done when it is known" "Therefore, I think that the Russian revolution and the number of radical Communists in various countries are increasing day by day, and the organization is becoming stronger and stronger, but it is only a natural result" "It will surely spread throughout the world." On August 13, 1920, Cai hesen wrote to Mao Zedong that "the starting point of the Russian social revolution is the materialist view of history", "the necessary method of socialism: class struggle - the dictatorship of the proletariat", "I am extremely advocating the dictatorship of the proletariat". In this regard, Mao Zedong clearly stated in his reply letter to Cai Hesen on January 21, 1921: "Your letter is extremely insightful, and I have not approved a single word of disapproval. He also pointed out that "the materialist view of history is the basis of our party's philosophy, which is a fact, unlike the rational view that cannot be confirmed and is easily shaken by people", and said that "unless the regime is obtained, it cannot launch a revolution, it cannot protect the revolution, and it cannot complete the revolution." From the above point of view, under the influence of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the two "Mao Cai" in Hunan had a common idea of party building long before the founding of the party, and it was precisely the idea of party building and the new people's society organized by "Mao Cai" who was born during the period of renting a "crazy and obsessive place" under the Yuelu Mountains and later expounded in his letters, which played a powerful guiding and promoting role in the founding of the Communist Party of China, provided rich and solid political background conditions or became the "pioneer of party building." Of course, it is not enough to have ideological and theoretical propositions and "precursors", but it must be "what is known is done".
Cai Hesen and Mao Zedong were not only like-minded friends who met and intersected at the Hunan Provincial First Normal School in 1913, but also the initiators of the Xinmin Society. The first activity after the establishment of the Xinmin Society was to initiate the Hunan Work-study in France, and Cai Hesen was the main advocate of the implementation of the Xinmin Society's "outward development" and the organization of work-study in France, believing that "the work-study movement in France should be carried out as much as possible". In June 1918, Cai Hesen personally went to Beijing to mobilize aspiring young people to enter the preparatory class for studying in France for study and training, and wrote a letter to Mao Zedong, suggesting that "all the youth circles should be instigated to empty the province of students from Beijing." At the same time, Cai he and Sen also discussed with relevant personnel through various relationships on the matter of studying in France, and also actively participated in the May Fourth Patriotic Movement, doing everything possible to raise funds and materials for work-study in France, and as a result, they received "loans," "loans," and "public funds" from many organizations, and at the same time "many private recipients."
After extensive propaganda and hard work by Mao Zedong and Cai Hesen and others, in February 1920, Cai Hesen led his mother Ge Jianhao, who was 54 years old at the time, his sister Cai Chang, and his girlfriend Xiang Jingyu to Montalni, France, and wrote a letter to his home on March 8, hoping that Sister A and Sister Liang would also come to France for work-study, and asked his sister to ask He Shuheng if he could come to France together. In short, Cai and Sen are eager for aspiring young people and even the elderly to go to France for work-study. From May 1915 to December 1920, Hunan youth went to France in 13 batches, a total of 360, accounting for about a quarter of the 1,600 work-study students in France. There are 60 girls studying in France in the country, and Hunan accounts for 40. Among the more than 70 members of the Xinmin Society, 18 went to France for work-study. These students were all young elites who "sincerely studied and did things with sincerity" and "had a lot of lofty interests, and acted without regard to danger when they knew it", and most of them later became important disseminators and practitioners of Marxism in Hunan. During his stay in France, Cai Hesen eagerly read hundreds of books on Marxism and the Russian Revolution, forgot to eat and sleep, "read and translated fiercely," enthusiastically propagated Marxism among the students studying in France, and led a number of advanced elements in the direction of advocating Marxism; he led the revolutionary struggle of the students studying in France three times and became outstanding leaders of the student movement; he also organized the European branch of the Chinese Communist Youth League together with Comrades Zhou Enlai, Zhao Shiyan, and other comrades, and organized the early organization of the Communist Party of China in Europe. One of the founders of the French branch". Although Cai Hesen did not join the Communist Party at that time, nor did he participate in the Party Congress, and did not formally join the Communist Party of China until shortly after returning to China in December 1921, his founding ideas and ideas and party organization activities were enough to make him one of the well-deserved founders of the Communist Party of China. As for Xiang Jingyu, who was like-minded with Cai and Sen and officially married in Montarney, France in May 1920, Mao Zedong said: "She is the only female founder of our party. ”
It was also during the early period of the founding of the party that Mao Zedong, with his unique genius-like vision, wisdom, passion, and boldness, not only contributed valuable ideological and theoretical guidance to the founding of the party, but also initiated the organization and establishment of the Xinmin Society on April 14, 1918, in line with the principle of "knowing what is done," and in August, in order to organize the Hunan work-study movement to France, he went to Beijing to work as a librarian in the library of Peking University, and was influenced and helped by Li Dazhao and others to accept the ideas of the October Revolution in Russia. In April 1919, he returned to Changsha after traveling to Shanghai, and in May, he supported the May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth Movement was not only an unprecedented anti-imperialist patriotic movement, but also a new cultural movement that thoroughly opposed feudal culture, marking the great beginning of new democracy. In May and June 1920, he met with Chen Duxiu in Shanghai to discuss the issue of Marxist works he had read; in early August, he and Yi Lirong and others established a cultural book club in Changsha to spread Marxism and new culture; in November, he organized the Changsha Communist Group with He Shuheng and others; and on December 1, he prepared to build a socialist youth league in Changsha. In January 1921, the Xinmin Society's membership congress was held at the Chaozong Street Cultural And Book Society in Changsha, at which Mao Zedong clearly proposed that the Xinmin Society should take "transforming China and the world" as the common purpose, and favored the use of "Russian-style" methods to transform China. As a result of a series of revolutionary activities by Mao Zedong and others, a group of Talented People of Hunan Nationality Marxists who "attached importance to meritorious deeds" and "had the ambition to 'develop outwards' were basically formed in Hunan Province, laying a solid and reliable ideological and organizational foundation for the founding of the party and making important contributions to the achievement of "major events that broke new ground in the world"!
Hunan is in the forefront in the preliminary work of party building
In 1926, Cai Hesen devoted a large space to the "background of the emergence of the Communist Party of China" in his report "The Development of the History of the Communist Party of China (Theses)." "We are all Marxists," he said, "so we would never think of the emergence of a political party as a fantasy in our heads or by a few scholars." The emergence of a political party must have its class, political, and economic background" "Every comrade and every party member of our party should have a correct concept and a profound understanding of the background of the emergence of the party." In this regard, Cai Hesen in the report "hereby briefly explains it in five points." The "five items" are: "the development of China's industry," "the natural strike movement," "the May Fourth movement and the strike in Shanghai," "the influence of the October Revolution and the formation of advanced elements," and "the formation of the party and its preliminary work."
In the background of the "five items" explained by Cai Hesen, Hunan is in the forefront. For the "industrial development" of Hunan, from 1895 to 1904, there were about 6,000 industrial workers in Hunan; from 1905 to 1913, the number of industrial workers in Hunan reached 99,789; from 1914 to 1918, the great development of hunan industry and mining, the ranks of industrial workers were further expanded, including 156,500 in mining, 6,500 in industry, and 9,100 in transportation. By 1921 the number of industrial workers had increased to 174273. It can be seen that before the founding of the party, Hunan industry has developed greatly, and a relatively powerful contingent of industrial workers has been formed.
For the "natural strike movement", in the spring of 1910, hunan workers were in the midst of famine, Changsha workers fought with patrol police for their livelihood, and on April 14, they burned the patrol gate and the American, British, and Japanese consulates in Changchang. After the Xinhai Revolution, some returned overseas Chinese workers, technicians, and engineering school students began to organize workers' groups. In May 1911, more than 10,000 Guangdong-Han railway road construction workers in Changsha and Zhuzhou participated in the "Patriotic Road Protection" movement; in January 1913, more than 700 dye workers in Changsha collectively held an alliance strike. From 1912 to the May Fourth Movement in 1919, the spontaneous struggle of Hunan workers entered a climax, and there were about 20 large-scale strikes, of which the more famous ones were: in May 1913, more than 700 people of Changsha hefeng Match Company went on strike to increase wages; from 1913 to 1919, Anyuan coal miners went on strike four times; in May 1915, more than 800 workers in 11 wharves in Changsha held strikes; in April 1917, More than 5,000 workers at the Changning Shuikoushan Lead and Zinc Mine went on strike; in June 1918, nearly 3,000 rickshaw pullers in Changsha went on strike; on November 21, 1920, more than 8,000 people from Changsha gathered at the Changsha Education Guild to celebrate the birth of Hunan's first real labor organization, the Hunan Labor Union.
For the "May Fourth Movement", Kuang Husheng, founder of Hunan Baoqing Cultural Book Club, "burned the Zhao Family Building", which was indispensable. In April 1919, Mao Zedong returned to Changsha from Shanghai and led the Xinmin Society to carry out activities, calling on the members of the Xinmin Society to study the experience of the October Revolution in Russia and pay attention to the movements of students in Beijing and Shanghai. After the outbreak of the May Fourth Movement, Mao Zedong had close contacts with members of the Xinmin Society, educators, and the press who remained in the province to exchange views and mobilize all walks of life to support the Beijing student patriotic movement. Changsha students distributed a large number of enthusiastic leaflets drafted by Mao Zedong himself, and held a demonstration holding high the banner of "swearing to die and fight to return to Qingdao." On May 9, Hunan's "Ta Kung Pao" disclosed the details of the May Fourth Movement in Beijing, arousing the patriotic enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people; on May 14, Mao Zedong held a joint meeting with the officials of the Provincial Education Association and the principals of various schools to discuss the "issue of cooperating with Qingdao", solemnly declaring that "if my representatives sign without authorization, the people will not admit it when they die"; at the same time, they called the warlord government in Beijing to demand the removal of Cao Rulin, Zhang Zongxiang, Lu Zongyu, and other traitors from their posts; after that, Hengyang, Chenzhou, Yongzhou, Changde, and other places also issued a "foreign dispute for sovereignty, and internal punishment for national thieves." Power-on. In late May, Deng Zhongxia, a student from Beijing yizhang in Hunan, returned to Changsha to hold a meeting with Mao Zedong at Chuyi Primary School and decided to establish the Hunan Students' Federation as soon as possible. On May 28, the Hunan Federation of Students was officially established with the purpose of "loving the country, serving the society, studying scholarship, and promoting civilization", and the inaugural meeting decided to hold a student strike in the province on June 3. On June 3, more than 20 schools in Changsha, including the First Normal School, Xiangya, Changjun, Mingde, Chuyi, Zhounan Girls' School, Provincial No. 1 Middle School, Xiangxiang and Ningxiang Provincial Middle School, participated in the parade. After Liu Shaoqi participated in the demonstration, he rushed to Beijing to participate in the student movement in Beijing. Ren Bishi returned to his hometown with Xiangyin's classmates and carried out propaganda in Jutang Township and other places to promote domestic products and boycott Japanese goods. Since then, students in various schools in Hunan have taken to the streets to confiscate Japanese goods and advocate the formation of a climax of domestic goods.
In 1917, the October Revolution in Russia brought Marxism-Leninism to China with the sound of a cannon. Under the influence of the October Revolution, a group of advanced elements in Hunan who had long awakened deeply felt that in order to transform society, it was necessary to organize the masses and plunge themselves into practical struggles. Therefore, in the May Fourth Movement, the Hunan Federation of Students initiated the establishment of the Hunan Federation of All Walks of Life on July 9, which is the fifth mass organization with the nature of anti-imperialist and anti-feudal unity after the establishment of the Federation of All Walks of Life in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Nanjing. Since then, the Hunan Federation of Students and the Federation of All Walks of Life in Hunan have actively participated in the "expulsion" campaign against the feudal warlords and the expulsion of the warlord Zhang Jingyao.
As for the "formation of the party and its preliminary work", at the beginning of the establishment of the Xinmin Society, although the basic members were only 13, with the expansion of influence, the number of members later grew to 78, of which 41 joined the Communist Party of China. After its establishment, the organization became the "pioneer" and "core organization" of Hunan in the May Fourth Movement, and organized 360 students from Hunan to go to France for work-study, so that it developed into "a well-organized revolutionary group with political ambitions" and was praised as "the embryo of Chinese communism". On July 14, 1919, Mao Zedong edited the Xiangjiang Review, founded the Cultural Book Society, called for breaking all nets, emancipating the mind, studying various new ideological trends, and seeking the truth; advocating the "great unity of the people" and believing that "the strength of the people's unity is the strongest"; holding high the banner of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism, breaking with the Zunkong retro faction; and praising the October socialist revolution, firmly believing that "it will be popularized throughout the world." After the Xiangjiang Review was shut down, Mao Zedong also ran the "New Hunan", "Ta Kung Pao", "Women's Circle Bell" and so on. In June 1919, Mao Zedong had close contacts with the educational circles and the press circles in Hunan, and organized progressive principals, well-known teachers, and journalists to establish the Jian Society, "with the purpose of importing new ideas into the world, joint research, and abstract dissemination." At this time, Zhang Jingyao, a warlord of the Anhui clan and the overseer of Hunan, forcibly dissolved the Hunan Student Federation while sealing the Xiangjiang Review. Zhang Jingyao has four brothers: Zhang Jingyao, Zhang Jingshun, Zhang Jingyu and Zhang Jingtang. On the afternoon of December 3, 1919, Mao Zedong convened a general meeting of the Xinmin Society at the Zhounan Girls' School, and pointed out: "Yao Shun Yu Tang, Tiger, Leopard, Jackal, and Wolf" and "If the poison is not removed, Hunan has no hope", and decided to launch a "driving out" campaign with the Xinmin Society as the core. According to statistics, there were 58 members of the Xinmin Society who participated in the Exorcism Movement, and a total of 46 members later joined the Communist Party and the Socialist Youth League, of which 21 were Communists. The "Exorcism" movement in Hunan and the "Hunan Autonomy Movement" launched later should be the in-depth development of the May Fourth Movement in Hunan, the great practice of the idea of "great unity of the people," the extensive spread of Marxism in Hunan, the creation of the party's early organizations in Hunan, and the establishment of the Socialist Youth League in Changsha, the training of a large number of advanced revolutionaries and the preparation of a large number of leading backbones; they have done a lot of fruitful work in the preliminary work of party building, and created extremely outstanding background conditions for the establishment of the party.
Hunan has made special contributions to the party's congress
Because Hunan has a large group of Marxist talents. After the establishment of party organizations in Beijing, Shanghai, and other places, Chen Duxiu and Li Da contacted Mao Zedong directly and asked him to be responsible for establishing the Communist Party organization in Changsha.
One day in October 1920, with no slogans, no oaths, and only faith, entrusted by Chen Duxiu, Mao Zedong was responsible for gathering Six people, including He Shuheng, He Minfan, Yi Lirong, Peng Huang, and Chen Zibo, to form the early organization of the Communist Party of Changsha. It is said that the establishment of the early Communist Party organizations in Changsha was "extremely hidden", and the specific time, place, name, composition and office space of its establishment have not been seen to this day, and all the activities carried out at that time were not led or participated in in the name of the early communist organizations, but in the name of mass organizations, open and legal institutions, and individuals.
Before the founding of the party, in August 1920, Chen Duxiu, Li Hanjun, Li Da and other 8 people initiated the establishment of China's first Communist Party organization at No. 2 Yuyangli in the French Concession of Shanghai, and elected Chen Duxiu as secretary. In October 1920, under the direct guidance of Li Dazhao, the early organization of the Communist Party in Beijing was established on the basis of the Marxist Academic Research Association, and at the end of 1920, it was officially renamed the Beijing Branch of the Communist Party. From the autumn of 1920 to the spring of 1921, Dong Biwu, Chen Tanqiu, Bao Huisheng, etc. were in Wuhan, Wang Gemei, Deng Enming, and others were in Jinan, and Tan Pingshan and Tan Zhitang were in Guangzhou, and the early organizations of the Communist Party were established. In the autumn of 1920, Zhou Fohai and Shi Cuntong in Japan established the early organization of the Communist Party. In the spring of 1921, Zhou Enlai, Zhao Shiyan, Zhang Shenfu and others initiated the establishment of the early organization of the Communist Party in Paris, France. The names of all these early communist organizations that were founded were not uniform at that time, some were called "Communist Party", some were called "Communist Party branches", some were called "Communist Groups", and later collectively called "Communist Groups".
In June 1921, Ma Lin, a representative of the Comintern, and Nikolsky, a representative of the Far East Secretariat of the Comintern, arrived in Shanghai one after another, and consulted with Li Da and Li Hanjun, members of the early organization of the Shanghai Communist Party, believing that a national congress should be convened as soon as possible to formally establish the Communist Party of China. According to the requirements of the "letter," the communist groups in various localities elected a total of 12 deputies, namely: Li Da and Li Hanjun in Shanghai, Dong Biwu and Chen Tanqiu in Wuhan, Mao Zedong and He Shuheng in Changsha, Wang Gemei and Deng Enming in Jinan, Zhang Guotao and Liu Renjing in Beijing, Chen Gongbo in Guangzhou, and Zhou Fohai, an international student in Japan. In addition, Bao Huisheng was dispatched by Chen Duxiu to attend the meeting. Representatives of the Comintern, Marin and Nikolsky, also attended the meeting.
The conference was originally scheduled to take place at the end of June 1921, but due to the different times when delegates arrived in Shanghai, it did not open until the evening of July 23, 1921. The General Assembly was adjourned for two days, during which time special personnel were organized to draft relevant documents. By the evening of July 30, the general assembly was holding its sixth meeting, and just as the meeting was about to be announced at about 8 p.m., a man in a gray cloth robe suddenly burst into the room. When Li Hanjun found out, he asked who to find? The man replied: Looking for Chairman Wang of the Federation of Social Associations, I went wrong. No one cared about that. Li Hanjun translated the situation to MaLin, and Ma Lin immediately said: Exposed, quickly transfer! According to Li Hanjun's recollection, only ten minutes after that, the French patrol rushed in and searched. Li Hanjun told them that the professor of Peking University was here to discuss the issue of compiling a modern series of books. Fortunately, the party program in the desk drawer was not discovered.
Because the whereabouts of the delegates were being monitored, the meeting could not continue in Shanghai. At this time, Wang Huiwu, the wife of Li Da, who had been participating in the logistical support of the congress and was in charge of the work of the first congress of the CPC, suggested to Li Da, Zhang Guotao, and others who were discussing finding another venue: If they could not find a suitable place in Shanghai, they could go to Jiaxing South Lake, which is not far from her hometown of Wuzhen, Zhejiang Province, to continue the meeting in the form of swimming in the form of a lake. Jiaxing is not far from Shanghai, there is a direct train, it only takes more than an hour to drive. The delegates all agreed, and then agreed to continue the meeting in Jiaxing. Wang Huiwu immediately contacted the people in his hometown and rushed to Jiaxing to make preparations, first booked two houses at the Mandarin Lake Hostel in the city as a place to stop, rented a lake painting boat in the hostel to be used as a venue, and also prepared a table of meals. The delegates attending the last day of the meeting arrived in Jiaxing by train in two groups, and Wang Huiwu personally picked them up and led them from the Shizihui ferry port to Huxin Island, and finally transferred to the red boat booked by Wang Huiwu. Wang Huiwu later recalled that during the meeting, "I sat in the front cabin and sentry." The meeting on the red boat announced the formal establishment of the Communist Party of China, adopted the "First Program of the Communist Party of China" and the "First Resolution of the Communist Party of China," and decided to establish the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China as the provisional leading organ of the Central Committee, elect Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao, and Li Da as members of the Central Committee, Li Dazhao and Zhou Fohai as alternate members of the Central Committee, Chen Duxiu as secretary, Zhang Guotao as the organizer, and Li Da as the propaganda. It was this meeting on the red boat on the South Lake in Jiaxing that finally achieved the "earth-breaking events" in China's history, leaving behind the eternal "original heart" and sacred mission of the Communist Party of China.
Although Wang Huiwu was not a Hunan national or deputy, she did a lot of extremely important work to cooperate with her husband Li Da in the convening of the meeting from the beginning of the preparations for the party congress, especially during the party congress, when the whereabouts of the deputies were monitored and the meeting was stopped in the middle of the meeting, she actively suggested, worked hard, and became a "specific arranger" for the big meeting, and the special contribution made by Wang Huiwu, a female elite, to the party's big meeting should be fully affirmed.
In summary, the birth of the Communist Party of China, Hunan people have made important contributions.
Established the earliest provincial-level local party organization in the country
After the end of the party congress, in September 1921, Chen Duxiu resigned from his position in the Kuomintang Guangdong government and returned to Shanghai from Guangzhou. In November, Chen Duxiu, in the name of the secretary of the Central Bureau, issued the Circular of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China, which put forward specific plans and requirements for the development of party and league organizations, the workers' movement, and propaganda and publication work at that time.
After Mao Zedong returned to Hunan after the first congress, in accordance with the requirements of the circular of the Central Bureau, he actively developed party organizations in Hunan and went all out to organize the Changsha Railway Trade Union. During this period, according to the First Program of the Communist Party of China: "Local organizations may be established where there are 5 Party members; ... If there are more than 10 people, there should be a branch committee, with one secretary, one for organization, and one for propaganda..." By October 1921, the early members of the Changsha Party had reached more than 10 members, and Mao Zedong believed that the conditions for establishing the Hunan branch of the CPC were ripe.
In October 1921, in the public cemetery next to Xiecaoping outside Changsha, Mao Zedong, He Shuheng, Chen Zibo, Yi Lirong, Peng Pingzhi and others discussed the formation of the Hunan Communist Party branch. Everyone held that the situation of the Party organization in Hunan fully conformed to the requirements of the Central Bureau and the stipulations of the Party Program, and in this way, "the Communist Party organization in Hunan was formally established", and unanimously agreed to name it "Hunan Branch of the CPC", elect Mao Zedong as secretary, and He Shuheng and Yi Lirong as members. This Hunan branch of the CPC is the earliest provincial-level local party organization established in the country and the first provincial-level branch of the CPC. Since the day of the establishment of the Hunan branch of the COMMUNIST Party of China coincided with the tenth day of October of the Tenth Year of the Republic of China, Mao Zedong and others often called this day the "Thirty Festivals" and used it as the anniversary of the establishment of the Hunan Branch of the Communist Party of China.
After the establishment of the Hunan branch of the CPC, the members of the branch with Mao Zedong as secretary and the members of the early party organizations went deep into various schools, factories, newspapers, and other units to make friends with some advanced elements and do their ideological work. From the early days of the party's organization, they have taken a three-step approach to actively recruiting new party members, that is, the first step is to organize progressive groups; the second step is to develop the advanced elements in progressive groups into members of the socialist youth league; and the third step is to absorb some mature comrades from among the outstanding league members to join the Communist Party. In terms of propaganda work, the Hunan Branch of the CPC, in accordance with the requirements of the CPC Central Bureau, mobilized the masses and held demonstrations to oppose the meetings held by the imperialists of the United States, Britain, and Japan to divide the spoils; held commemorative meetings, sent commemorative albums to commemorate Marx, Liebknecht, and others, and published articles such as "Communism and China" and "Communism and Russia" to propagate Marxism; at the same time, it actively tried to find ways to set up weaving factories to solve the problem of insufficient funds for activities.
When the Hunan branch of the Communist Party of China was founded, Mao Zedong lived in the Chuanshan Society. It is a place of public activity that is not convenient for the party's clandestine work. At this time, Mao Zedong and Yang Kaihui, Yi Lirong and Xu Wenxuan were all married and married, and they also needed a place to live. Therefore, through the introduction of Yi Lirong's father-in-law, Mao Zedong, as a small teacher attached to the Hunan First Normal School, rented a small bungalow with a green brick and black tile partition wall at No. 22 Qingshuitang, Xiaowumenwai, Changsha, which was quiet and safe, and was a good place to engage in secret work. After the establishment of the Hunan branch of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong and Yi Lirong both moved here. Mao Zedong wrote articles, thought about work, met with comrades, and presided over the overall work of the Hunan branch of the CPC. The small bungalow at No. 22 Qingshuitang became the first office of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
In November 1921, after Attending the Enlarged Meeting of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong returned to Hunan and, at the request of the Central Bureau, established the Hunan Branch of the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Union, served as the director of the branch, and organized trade unions and vigorously carried out the workers' movement in accordance with the work plan of the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Union. It is worth pointing out in particular that Mao Zedong not only paid attention to the labor movement in Changsha and Hunan, but also personally went to Anyuan to investigate and study, understand the situation of workers, help set up workers' cram schools and workers' night schools, develop party members, set up the Anyuan branch of the CPC, and organize the Anyuan Road Miners' Club. Xia Xi, Guo Liang, Chen Chang, Xia Minghan, Jiang Xianyun, Mao Zemin, Huang Jingyuan, and Yang Kaihui all joined the party during this period. The Anyuan Coal Mine and Zhuping Railway, the largest road mine south of the Yangtze River with more than 13,000 industrial workers and more than 4,000 unemployed workers, were mobilized by Mao Zedong, Li Lisan and other Communist Party members, who set up organizations to defend the interests of the workers themselves. The anyuan coal mine's move has set an example for the establishment of trade union organizations in various places, and workers in enterprises and industries in Hunan's Xiangtan manganese mine, Changning Shuikoushan lead and zinc mine, and Changsha have followed suit, actively organizing trade unions and carrying out activities.
At the same time, Mao Zedong also decided to establish Hunan Self-Study University, he personally drafted the "Declaration on the Establishment of Hunan Self-Study University" and the "Organizational Outline of Hunan Self-Study University", wrote the name of "Hunan Self-Study University", and hung it at the gate of the Chuanshan Society on August 16, 1921, announcing the establishment of Hunan Self-Study University. In September 1922, Hunan Self-Study University was attached to a cram school. Most of the alumni of the self-study university were members of the Communist Party and the Socialist Youth League, and by March 1923, there were about 30 of them. There were 114 people, including Chen Geng, He Erkang, Mao Zeqin, Gao Wenhua, Zhang Qiong, and others, and at the end of the school, there were 3 cram classes and 1 junior high school class, totaling more than 200 people, and a large number of backbone party talents were trained. On November 10, 1923, the military government of Zhao Hengti forcibly closed the Hunan Self-Study University and the attached cram school on the grounds that "the doctrine advocated by the school is not correct and hinders public order." However, on November 20, 1923, Mao Zedong, He Shuheng and others founded the Xiangjiang School, which inherited the revolutionary spirit of Hunan Zixiu University, and the teachers and students of the former Self-Study University Attached Tonic School, except for some transferred to the Xiejun Middle School sponsored by Liu Zhixun, most of the rest entered the Xiangjiang School.
At the same time, the work of the Labor Movement of the Hunan Branch of the CPC also began with the transformation of the Hunan Labor Union. The Hunan Labor Union was established on November 21, 1920, and the leaders of the trade union, Huang Ai and Pang Renquan, were revolutionary young people who were determined to dedicate themselves to the cause of labor. On December 15, 1921, entrusted by the Hunan Branch of the Communist Party of China, Huang Ai and Pang Renquan organized more than 9,000 workers in Changsha to hold rallies and demonstrations at the provincial education meeting to protest the Pacific Conference held by the United States and Japan and other imperialists in Washington to divide China. This demonstration against the Pacific Conference was the most glorious page written by the Hunan Labor Union. According to Peng Pufu, a member of the Communist Party and a reporter for the Minzhi Bao, the workers shouted slogans such as overthrowing imperialism, our friends in Russia, and the world is a working class, "Their shouts that shock the earth and shake the mountains are really able to express the resolute and great spirit of the People of Hunan!" Chen Duxiu later summed up the demonstrations of the National Anti-Pacific Conference and said: In addition to Shanghai, Changsha workers are the strongest!
In May 1922, the party organization in Hunan "had 3 branches, 2 groups, more than 30 party members, 5 regimental local executive committees, leading 2 industrial trade unions, several handicraft guilds, and the unique Hunan Self-study University and the attached cram school." In this way, the conditions set out by the Central Bureau for the establishment of "district executive committees" have been fully met. With the approval of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China, before the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Hunan established the Xiang District Executive Committee of the Communist Party of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Xiang District Committee"), with Mao Zedong as chairman (after the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, renamed as the secretary), members He Shuheng, Yi Lirong, Li Lisan, Guo Liang, and Liu Shaoqi served as a member from April 1923 to March 1925. The Xiang District Party Committee is still located at No. 22 Qingshuitang outside XiaowuMen. At this time, Yang Kaihui and his mother also came from their hometown Bancang to assist Mao Zedong in the workers' movement, peasant movement and student movement carried out by the Xiang District Committee of the Communist Party of China, such as the famous Anyuan coal miners' strike and the Shuikoushan workers' strike, which made the Xiang District Committee one of the most active areas in the Chinese revolutionary movement at that time. The party's three major work reports once pointed out: "Only comrades in Hunan can be said to have done a good job. ”
Today, our party has gone through a glorious course of one hundred years from weak and small to brilliant and powerful. A hundred years of birthday, a hundred years of struggle, a hundred years of glory, a hundred years of youth. As Hunan people, we are extremely proud and glorious. General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that it is necessary to "not forget yesterday's suffering and glory, be worthy of today's mission, and live up to tomorrow's great dreams." "We firmly believe that in the great practice of sinicization of Marxism, holding high the great banner of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will certainly be able to achieve the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation!"
(From Xinxiang Review, No. 13, 2021)