Group photo of the three Mao brothers and their mother
In 1923, Mao Zedong was elected as one of the five members of the Central Bureau at the Three Congresses of the Communist Party of China, responsible for organizational work, and also served as the secretary of the Central Bureau, assisting Chen Duxiu, chairman of the Central Bureau, in handling the daily affairs of the Central Committee. At that time, the documents of the Central Committee needed to be signed jointly by the chairman and the secretary before they could be issued; it can be seen that Mao Zedong became the de facto "second in command" of the party at the age of 30. But a year later, he left the post, and since then he has been up and down in the political life of the party, repeatedly ostracized and beaten. It was not until the Zunyi Conference in 1935 that it entered the core decision-making level.
Mao's situation within the party before the Zunyi conference to some extent reflected the unstable changes in the early leadership of the CCP. In the early leadership, except for Chen Duxiu, who had a special position as the main founder, other leadership personnel involved in decision-making changed greatly and were very unstable. This situation inevitably caused the early leadership of the CCP to discount its leadership ability. In this regard, Deng Xiaoping said in his later years: "Before the Zunyi Conference, our party did not form a mature party central committee. From Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai, Xiang Zhongfa, Li Lisan to Wang Ming, none of them had formed a capable center. ”
How to understand Deng Xiaoping's remarks about not being "mature" and not having "ability"? The first thing that comes to mind is the system, that is, a group of young people leading a young political party at that time, and there is still a lack of mature mechanisms for the choice of their own leaders.
From the perspective of age structure, after Chen Duxiu, the central government's decision-making is basically led by young people under 30 years old. When Qu Qiubai and Li Lisan successively presided over the work of the central authorities, they were 28 and 29 years old, respectively. Ren Bishi became a member of the Politburo at the age of 23 and a member of the Politburo Standing Committee at the age of 24. Wang Ming and Bogu, who led the central decision-making, were also roughly at this age, and Bogu was elected as the general leader of the party at the age of 24. As a revolutionary, this age, inspired by faith, dares to think and dare to do, with the advantage of full of vitality and passion. As a politician, it is precisely when he has undergone experience that he is naturally immature. Bogu later recalled his mentality as head of the Central Committee, saying, "When I was appointed to do this work, I did not feel unable to lead the whole party," but on the contrary, "I looked down on everything, looked down on anyone, did not consult anyone, and felt that I was smarter than anyone." Mao Zedong was a little older than these people, but his personality at that time was also a pinpoint to Mai Mang. In 1929, at the Seventh National Congress of the Fourth Red Army, he was elected as the former secretary of the party committee, one of the reasons why everyone felt that he had a paternalistic style and a big temper. Mao Zedong later summed up some of his shortcomings at that time, for example, he once said that during the Central Soviet Period, he and Mao Zeqin had an argument over work, and they were in a hurry to raise their hands and fight, and Mao Zeqin said that "the Communist Party is not the Ancestral Hall of the Mao Family", which touched him greatly. Many witnesses have recalled that Mao Zedong's personality began to change after the Zunyi Conference.
——Excerpted from The Third Issue of Chinese and Foreign Book Digest, 2010