The Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
The Sixth Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee in 1938 was very important in the history of the Party. At this meeting, a consensus was formed that Marxism must be sinicized, emphasizing the need to uphold the principle of independence and self-determination in the united front, and further consolidating Mao Zedong's leadership position in the party. Wang Ming said at the meeting: "The whole party must be united and united, and our party will certainly be able to unite around the Central Committee and Comrade Mao (the role of leadership, such as the North Star and the stars arching). In the spring of 1939, when Wang Ming returned to Yan'an from Chongqing to give a report at the Kang Da General School after attending the National Suffrage Conference, someone handed a note asking: "Why is it that only Comrade Mao Zedong, the seven members of the Suffrage Committee, did not attend?" Wang Ming replied, "Have you ever played chess?" The generals on both sides cannot meet, and when they meet, they will not be able to raise an army. This metaphor is not necessarily appropriate, but it shows that Wang Ming did recognize Mao's leadership. Zhang Wentian also said at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee: "The extremely high prestige of the Central Committee and the extremely high prestige of Comrade Mao Zedong, the main leader of the Central Committee. Zhang even offered to cede the post of general secretary (or general responsibility) to Mao Zedong, but Mao Zedong did not agree at the time. Nevertheless, since then, Zhang "has moved the venue of the Politburo meeting to the residence of Comrade Mao Zedong in Yangjialing." I am only formally chairman, and all major issues are decided by Chairman Mao." Since then, Zhang Wentian "is actually only responsible for the work of the Propaganda Department and the Cadre Education Department."
Although Wang Ming, who returned from Moscow after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, temporarily intimidated many people at the meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in December 1937 under the banner of conveying the instructions of the Communist International, after a period of practice proved that his advocacy of "everything through the united front" and "everything obeying the united front" did not work at all. This is because China's united front is a relatively loose, consultative and negotiated united front, and there is no organizational form of the united front. Moreover, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army are nominally part of the National Revolutionary Army; in theory, the National Revolutionary Army is headed by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is also a special zone under the National Government. If "everything passes through the united front" and "everything obeys the united front," it is equivalent to passing through and obeying Chiang Kai-shek, and this can only tie the hands and feet of the Communist Party itself. Therefore, Wang Ming's set of propositions did not have much of a market and did not have much impact in practical work, not to mention that in the conclusions of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee, Mao Zedong had clearly criticized "everything through the united front" and "everything obeyed the united front." In addition, Wang Jiaxiang conveyed the instructions of the Communist International at the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee that the leading organs of the Communist Party of China should be "headed by Mao Zedong", and Wang Ming's influence in the party naturally could not be compared with that of Mao Zedong, and although he was still the secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, he was mainly responsible for united front work and women's work. Therefore, when Mao Zedong launched the Yan'an rectification, his position as the leader of the party had been completely consolidated, and naturally there was no question of the so-called power struggle between the two sides.
Zhang Wentian (left) and Mao Zedong
However, after the Sixth Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, although Wang Ming was no longer in the scenery, in the eyes of many people at that time, he was still a well-known theoretician in the party. Wang Ming had systematically studied Marxist theory in Moscow, could speak and write, and published some articles that were quite theoretical; in the eyes of many cadres in Yan'an, it was Wang Ming who had the theoretical level of Marxism-Leninism in the party. At the end of 1938, after Wang Ming returned to Yan'an from Chongqing, he "frequently attended various meetings, made many reports and speeches, published many articles, and appeared to be very active." Wang Ming was not only able to recite many words and phrases from Marxist-Leninist writings, but also had considerable eloquence; "at that time, some of his views were not completely without a market, and after listening to his mouthy speeches, some people were confused and thought that he was great and had a set of theories." In March 1940, Wang Ming printed the third edition of his 1930 book "The Struggle for the Greater Bolshevikization of the Communist Party", which concentrated on reflecting his views, in Yan'an, and wrote in the "Preface" of the third edition: "Our Party has developed greatly in recent years, and thousands of new cadres and new Party members are not very clear about many facts in the historical development of our Party. The facts recorded in this book are a very important stage in the history of the development of the Communist Party of China, so many people demand to understand these historical facts, especially when studying party building and the history of the Ccp in schools in Yan'an. With the publication of Wang Ming's pamphlet, "the question of how the party's historical line should be viewed is more urgently placed before the CPC Central Committee." Later in the same month, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a meeting to listen to reports from Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi, who had returned from Moscow. When Zhou Enlai conveyed to Manuelsky, secretary of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, that Zhang Wentian was a theoretician of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong immediately retorted: What theoretician, who had returned from carrying a few sacks of dogma. It also prompted Mao to think about what a real theory is and what a true theoretician is.
On February 1, 1942, Mao Zedong gave a report entitled "Rectifying the Study Style, Party Style, and Literary Style" at the opening ceremony of the Central Party School, focusing on the question of what is the theory and theoretician. He said: "We have read a lot of Marxist-Leninist books, can we even think of ourselves as theoreticians?" Nor can it. For Marxism-Leninism is the theory created by the Maenleas on the basis of reality, the summative theory drawn from historical reality and revolutionary reality. If we merely read it, but do not study China's historical and revolutionary reality on the basis of it, and do not create our own special theories that meet China's actual needs, we cannot be called Marxist theoreticians. "If we only know how to recite Marxist economics or philosophy, and we memorize it from chapters one to the tenth, but we can't apply it at all, is that not a Marxist theoretician?" Probably not, such 'theoreticians' are really a little less good. He added: "Empty theories are useless, incorrect, and should be discarded." People who are good at talking about this empty theory should stretch out a finger and shave their faces at him. Marxism-Leninism is the most correct, scientific, and revolutionary truth that has been proved in objective reality, but those who read Marxism-Leninism regard it as a dead dogma, thus hindering the development of theory, harming themselves and comrades. ”
In 1942, Yan'an rectified the wind
In Mao Zedong's view, although Wang Ming, who had made dogmatic mistakes, must call Marxism-Leninism in his words and often quote scriptures in his articles, he lacked an understanding of China's reality, and as a result, the theory could not be linked to reality. Therefore, what they grasp is not real Marxist theory, let alone real Marxist theoreticians, but quite a few people in the Party do not realize its harmfulness and still regard them as theoretical authorities. To solve the problem of separating theory from practice and to establish a study style in which theory is integrated with practice, we must realize the true face of dogmatists.
In May 1941, Mao Zedong delivered a report entitled "Transforming Our Study" at the meeting of senior cadres in Yan'an, calling on the whole party to establish a style of integrating Marxism with China's reality. In July of the same year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Decision on Strengthening Party Spirit", calling on the whole Party to adhere to the principle of seeking truth from facts, strengthen the unity of the Party, and overcome all kinds of undesirable work styles ideologically, politically, and in terms of work style. From September 10 to October 22 of the same year, the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee held an enlarged meeting to focus on the question of the right and wrong of the party line during the agrarian revolution period, and decided to carry out rectification studies within the party and oppose subjectivism and sectarianism. Subsequently, the study of Marxist theory and the history of the party was carried out among senior cadres in Yan'an, and the rectification movement was carried out first among senior cadres.
The rectification of the whole party began with Mao Zedong's lectures in February 1942 on "Rectifying the Party's Work Style" and "The Eight Units of the Opposition Party." Its main contents were to oppose subjectivism to straighten out the style of study, oppose sectarianism to straighten out the party style, and oppose the eight strands of the Party to straighten out the style of writing. Subsequently, the rectification movement was widely carried out in various base areas. The rectification movement was a marxist ideological education campaign of the whole party, which enabled the whole party to truly understand the importance of integrating Marxism with China's specific reality, and also completely established the Marxist ideological line of seeking truth from facts in the whole party. The rectification movement has created an effective way to carry out inner-party education through rectification study, criticism and self-criticism, and to realize the party's self-revolution.
——Excerpted from "Questions and Answers on the Knowledge of the History of the Communist Party of China", published by the People's Publishing House
Author: Luo Pinghan
Editor: Zhou Yiqian