A Brief History of the Cultural Revolution

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Chapter 1: The Historical Background and Causes of the "Cultural Revolution"¶

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the development of the "Left" trend of thought in the Chinese Communist Party after 1957 did indeed start from an improper assessment of the domestic class situation and a misjudgment of the main domestic contradiction.

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The "Eighth National Congress" of the Communist Party of China held in 1956 pointed out in the resolution on the political report: "The main contradiction in our country is already the contradiction between the people's demand for the establishment of an advanced industrial country and the reality of a backward agricultural country, and it is already the people's desire to build an advanced industrial country. The contradiction between the need for rapid economic and cultural development and the current situation that the economy and culture cannot meet the needs of the people.

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The essence of this contradiction is the relationship between the advanced socialist system and the backward productive forces when the socialist system has been established in our country. Contradictions among them."

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one of the most basic lessons that Mao Zedong concluded from the Hungarian incident is: "The basic problem in some Eastern European countries is that class struggle has not been done well." This will inevitably affect his analysis and decision on domestic conflicts and events in the future.

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In March 1957, he said at the Tianjin Party cadre meeting: Now the work of class struggle is basically over. The so-called "basically ended" means not completely ended. It means that the large-scale, mass class struggle is basically ended, as mentioned in our "Eighth National Congress".

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The changes in the middle can be seen from the party directive "Organize Forces to Counter the Rampant Attacks of Rightists" drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on June 8, 1957. The document believes that in China, "there is a certain danger of a 'Hungarian incident'.

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the impact of the Hungarian incident on Mao Zedong's judgment of China's situation, and it can also be used as a footnote for the anti-rightist struggle to adopt "fishing" and "leading snakes out of their holes".

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This passage is a fundamental change from the judgment on the main domestic contradictions at the “Eighth National Congress” held a year ago. Mao Zedong's erroneous conclusions about the main domestic contradictions were endorsed by the Central Plenary Session, which will inevitably lead to corresponding changes in the main tasks of the entire party and the entire policy. This is a major theoretical error and decision error.

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According to statistics, since the first Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union has assisted China with a total of 304 projects. By the first half of 1960, 103 projects had been completed, and 201 projects were still under construction. When the Soviet experts withdrew, they took away all the drawings, plans and materials, and stopped the supply of important equipment urgently needed for construction, so that some major construction projects and scientific research projects were forced to stop or interrupt,

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After more than 20 years of practice, looking back, both sides have talked a lot of empty words.”

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The real real problem was inequality, and the Chinese felt humiliated. Even so, we never forgot that the Soviet Union helped us build an industrial base during China’s first five-year plan.”

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this great controversy convinced Mao Zedong that revisionism had come to power in the Soviet Union, and that the world's first socialist country created by Lenin had changed its color.

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people like Khrushchev may come out. This has increased the sense of urgency to carry out the anti-revisionist and anti-revisionist struggle in China. Neither of these two aspects could not fail to have a profound impact on the subsequent historical process.

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before the formal talks between the two parties of China and the Soviet Union started, they were sabotaged by the seriously absurd actions of a senior Soviet general.

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Zhou Enlai lodged a serious protest to the Soviet side, and Brezhnev had to apologize. This incident was linked to other circumstances, leading the Party Central Committee to conclude that what Brezhnev practiced was "Khrushchevism without Khrushchev".

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it is not difficult to understand why he paid more and more attention to the issue of "Khrushchev sleeping beside him".

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historical materialism teaches us to respect historical inevitability, but at the same time never ignore various contingencies.

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international anti-revisionism and domestic anti-revisionism are directly linked.

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until this time, Mao Zedong proposed the task of "anti-revision and prevention of revision" in the country, and the focus was still on "prevention of revision".

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When Mao Zedong made a completely unrealistic estimate of the political situation of the party and the country and the relationship between social classes, did not give an accurate explanation of what revisionism is, and adopted a wrong method, the original intention and serious consequences were inevitably formed. Deviation, this is where Mao Zedong's tragedy lies.

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the danger of a revisionist restoration among all party members and cadres is not only real, but imminent, thus creating a general sense of urgent and strong political crisis. At the same time, a sense of historical mission to uphold Marxism-Leninism, oppose revisionism, and promote world revolution emerged spontaneously. This blind and fanatical belief was once an ideological motivation for many people to participate in the "Cultural Revolution".

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it promotes and develops a metaphysical way of thinking that is characterized by "opposing Soviet revisionism," and stifles any creative critical thinking that dares to raise doubts and negative opinions.

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this so-called struggle against modern revisionism, which focused on the great debate between the two parties in China and the Soviet Union, was indeed a strong catalyst and an important factor that effectively promoted the rapid expansion of the "Left" trend of thought in the Chinese Communist Party. And made direct ideological and theoretical preparations for the launch of the "Cultural Revolution".

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Mao Zedong believed that Stalin's failure to choose his successor was an important reason for Khrushchev's emergence from the Soviet Union.

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the urgent consideration of changing the successor was indeed one of the reasons why Mao Zedong was determined to launch the "Cultural Revolution".

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Mao Zedong's philosophical thinking, that is, without distinguishing between different historical conditions, he consistently overemphasizes the relationship of production, the reaction of the superstructure, emphasizes the role of ideology, and advocates the use of revolution to promote production.

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he regarded the differences within the party as more and more serious, regarded the differences in different methods of building socialism as the struggle between two classes and two roads, and regarded the "dark side" within the party and society more and more.

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as Mao Zedong was concerned, if what he wanted to achieve was to exclude certain comrades from the central leadership, according to his status and authority in the party at that time, he did not need to mobilize troops and launch the "Cultural Revolution".

Chapter 2: The Full Launch of the "Cultural Revolution"¶

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order to achieve ulterior political goals, Jiang Qing and others even ignored the most basic facts!

Chapter 4: Efforts to Stabilize the Pattern of the "Cultural Revolution" and the Lin Biao Incident¶

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It is a pity that this historical turning point was lost because Mao Zedong failed to fully understand the lessons of the Lin Biao incident and continued to misunderstand and insist on the "Left" line.

Chapter 5: "Criticizing Lin and Rectifying the Movement" and "Criticizing Lin and Confucianism"¶

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The usual trick used by Jiang Qing and his gang during the "Cultural Revolution" was to use the banner of Mao Zedong to push Mao Zedong's mistakes to extremes in order to achieve their criminal goals.

Chapter 6: The Contest between Rectification and Anti-rectification The End of the "Cultural Revolution"¶

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Mao Zedong did not intend to defeat Deng Xiaoping at first, and he also said several times to protect Deng Xiaoping on different occasions.

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The fact that the "Gang of Four" is an enemy of the people has been deeply hated by the majority of cadres and the masses. Criticism of the so-called "three big poisonous weeds" has been widely resisted by cadres and the masses. Some masses openly said that our country will be fine if we follow these three documents.

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Mao Zedong never handed over the supreme leadership of the party and the country to the "Gang of Four", and criticized and exposed them, alleviating the party's difficulties in this sharp struggle.

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"Although he made serious mistakes in the 'Cultural Revolution', as far as his life is concerned, his contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweigh his faults. His achievements are First, mistakes are second."

Chapter 7: Thoughts After Ten Years of Catastrophe¶

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the lack of correct understanding and accurate definition of revisionism, the number one enemy of the "Cultural Revolution".

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for more than 20 years, no one, including the party leader Mao Zedong, has made it clear what revisionism (including modern revisionism) is.

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revisionism is mainly used not as an ideological and theoretical concept, but as a political concept. Revisionism has become the number one enemy of the revolutionaries, and the definition of this enemy is highly subjective.

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"Cultural Revolution" in which even the main goal of the struggle is ambiguous will inevitably lead to chaos and chaos, which will lead to a catastrophe.

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revisionism has a specific meaning. It specifically refers to those systematic wrong theoretical viewpoints that some people in the communist movement distort and falsify the basic principles of Marxism from the right or "left".

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the whole set of so-called "theories of continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" propagated during the "Cultural Revolution" can be regarded as genuine revisionism.

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It seems that all the unique and barbaric practices that were popular at that time were all "revolutionary actions", all were correct, and all were necessary for "anti-revisionism and prevention of revisionism". . This will inevitably cause great confusion

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The "Cultural Revolution" was carried out in the name and call of purifying the party's organization and consolidating and strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat. The practical effect is exactly the opposite of the advertised goal.

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One of the crux of the "Cultural Revolution" that led

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to ten years of turmoil lies in the fact that Effectively abolished the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

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As a result of the "Cultural Revolution" against and against revisionism, China almost returned to the extreme autocratic rule of the feudal dynasty. This is a great historical irony.

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These bloody and tragic facts all happened in the name of "consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat"

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Marxism holds that the dictatorship of the proletariat is the most thorough and extensive democracy in history for the broad masses of the people. However, during the "Cultural Revolution", Lin Biao created the "aphorism" that "political power is the power of suppression"

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The loss of national income during the 10 years of the "Cultural Revolution" is equivalent to the loss of the same wealth accumulated by hundreds of millions of people across the country after 30 years of hard work.

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They talk nonsense that "when the revolution is done well, production will naturally go up", and openly encourage workers to "not be afraid of stopping production, not afraid of stopping work."

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The rectification changed the phenomenon of traffic jams, but they clamored that "it is better to be delayed by socialism than to be on time by revisionism."

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the socialist principle of distribution according

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to work as "the economic basis for the production of bourgeois elements", caring about the lives of the masses is "material stimulation", exporting oil is "traitorism", introducing technology and equipment is "worship of foreign countries" and strengthening enterprise management. It is to engage in "management, blocking, and pressure", and to engage in economic accounting is "profit in command". In short, they viciously slandered and destroyed all kinds of policies and measures that were beneficial to strengthening my country's socialist economic construction and developing productive forces.

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During the 10 years of the "Cultural Revolution", people's living standards not only did not improve, but declined. In terms of food, the per capita consumption of grain was 381 jin in 1966 and 383 jin in 1976, 28 jin and 26 jin lower than the peak of 409 jin in 1956;

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the population increased a lot, but the investment in housing construction dropped sharply, resulting in a serious situation of overcrowded housing for urban residents.

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Heavy industry rose from 32.7% in 1966 to 38.9% in 1976; while agriculture dropped from 35.9% to 30.4% in the same period; light industry dropped from 31.4% to 30.7% in the same period

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The long-term interruption of teaching in institutions of higher learning and secondary professional schools has caused my country to miss the training of more than 1 million college graduates, 2 million technical secondary school graduates, and several million young talents.

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The "Cultural Revolution" originated from the so-called "Literary and Art Revolution", and the literary and artistic circles were regarded by Jiang Qing as his own taboo. Therefore, the literary and art circles naturally became the "hardest hit area".

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cultural nihilism was greatly encouraged and developed, leading to an unprecedented dissatisfaction with national traditional culture, historical places of interest and various cultural heritages. destroy.

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the name "Cultural Revolution" seems to promote the development of Chinese culture, education, science and technology. But what this "revolution" brought about was great cultural damage, causing serious internal injuries to our country and people, and the negative impact of this internal injury is extremely far-reaching.

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History has proven that the "Cultural Revolution" popularized, on the one hand, "Left" ideology, and on the other hand, formalism.

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Young people are active in thinking, but lack knowledge, practice, and theory, so they are most likely to be indoctrinated by "Left" ideology. They cannot tell what is socialism and what is capitalism;

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what is the dictatorship of the proletariat and what is the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie; what is Marxism-Leninism and what is revisionism. However, they ask themselves to be the most revolutionary.

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many stupid and bad things were done. Driven by "standing at the forefront of class struggle", many young people believe that "violent actions" and fighting "all monsters and monsters" are the most steadfast revolutionary spirit.

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Under the agitation of the "Left" trend of thought, all kinds of unhealthy tendencies such as anarchism, liberalism,

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extreme individualism, playing tricks, and forming cliques are rampant.

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the party's prestige and credibility among the masses has been greatly reduced.

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The "Cultural Revolution" also seriously damaged the prestige of the Communist Party of China and socialist China among the people of the world, and discredited the international communist movement, which is also recognized by all.

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Formalism manifested in various aspects is that people's thinking is rigid, their thinking is empty, they dare not face up to it, or they cannot calmly understand reality.

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The learning effect depends on how many "quotations" you have memorized, how many "experiences" you have written, and how many times you have said "explanations".

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Ironic - resembles the aspects of historical exams that were so criticized

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The actual effect of these formalistic practices is that they greatly undermine the ideological line of seeking truth from facts and leave deep wounds in people's hearts.

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In short, the "Cultural Revolution" was not a political revolution, nor a cultural revolution, nor an ideological revolution. In a word, it is not a revolution in any sense. It did not and never will bring any social progress, only chaos, destruction and disaster.

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During the 10 years from 1966 to 1976, the total output value of industry and agriculture increased by an average of 7.1% per year based on comparable prices. Although it was much lower than the average annual growth rate of 10% from 1952 to 1966, and there was a hidden crisis, there was at last grows.

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The above-mentioned achievements in construction are the result of the hard work of the broad masses of workers, farmers and intellectuals in our country. It is by no means the result of the "Cultural Revolution".

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Since the "Cultural Revolution" was wrong from theory to practice, and it was a catastrophe for the Chinese people, it should be completely negated as a matter of course, so as to ensure that this man-made, long-term, and huge disaster will never happen again in China,

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During those 10 years, the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government and people have done many other things besides the "Cultural Revolution", including production activities and other activities that must be carried out in order to survive and develop in any period.

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a distinction must be made between the "Cultural Revolution" itself and the history of these ten years.

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get rid of the "Left" thinking that is not suitable for socialist society, such as "taking class struggle as the key link" and "observing everything, analyzing everything, and judging everything from a class point of view"

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it is undoubtedly necessary to prevent and oppose all kinds of right thoughts arising from the wavering of faith caused by the "Cultural Revolution". However, this should never shake the determination and attention to eliminate the legacy and influence of the "left".

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The "Cultural Revolution" had no positive significance in opposing bureaucracy

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Although at the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution", Liu Shaoqi envisioned a movement to solve the problem of bureaucracy that was divorced from the masses, but this was neither the guiding ideology of the "Cultural Revolution",

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Liu Shaoqi, who imagined to fight against bureaucracy, became the primary target of the "Cultural Revolution" to overthrow.

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if viewed from the perspective of anti-bureaucratism, the launch of the "Cultural Revolution" itself showed the greatest bureaucracy of arrogance, abuse of power, divorce from reality, divorce from the wishes of the masses, and indifference to the suffering of the masses.

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Lenin spoke very profoundly. He said: "The fight against bureaucracy will take decades. It is the hardest fight. Whoever tells you that we can get rid of bureaucracy in no time at all, is a A liar who likes to talk beautifully.”

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the "Cultural Revolution" was exactly the opposite of anti-bureaucratism, and it did not and will not produce positive effects of anti-bureaucracy.

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"Capitalist roaders" is a non-scientific concept that confuses the enemy and ourselves

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no matter during or before the "Cultural Revolution", Mao Zedong did not give a clear explanation of the concept of "capitalist roaders", and the documents of the party and the government did not propose specific criteria for judging what a "capitalist roader" is.

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the "capitalist-roader" is a subjective and fictional revolutionary target, but in terms of its connotation, it is a very arbitrary and non-scientific concept,

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Because the leading cadres of the party, government and enterprises in our country manage public-owned industries on behalf of the people's country, if they are bourgeois (or the "bureaucrat class" as Mao Zedong once proposed but no longer used), then It will also completely negate the socialist nature of our country.

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logical inferences were unacceptable to Mao Zedong. This is

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probably the fundamental reason why a scientific definition of "capitalist-roaders" cannot be given.

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"bonuses in command", are actually to protect the material interests of laborers, and to pay bonuses according to the results of labor. This is the embodiment of the socialist principle of distribution according to work. It has nothing to do with taking the capitalist road.

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The "Cultural Revolution" was not a real revolutionary mass movement

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the "Cultural Revolution" was not a real revolutionary mass movement at all.

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By 1966, after several years of adjustments, the serious difficulties of the national economy had been basically overcome, industrial and agricultural production had seen an all-round increase, and people's lives had also been improved to a certain extent.

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it clearly stated that in a not too long historical period in the future, my country should be built into a socialist powerhouse with modern agriculture, modern industry, modern national defense and modern science and technology. This was a concentrated expression of the wishes of the people of all ethnic groups in the country at that time.

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Instead of leading the masses to go all out to carry out socialist modernization, mobilizing the masses to seize power from the so-called "capitalist roaders" and carry out the "Great Political Revolution" in which "one class overthrows one class" is obviously incompatible with China's objective historical process and The demands and needs of the general public run counter to each other.

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A movement that goes against the demands and needs of the masses cannot be called a revolutionary mass movement at all.

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They participated in the "Cultural Revolution" not out of their own personal feelings and judgments, but in response to the leadership's call.

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especially young people, under the ambiguous call to "anti-revision and prevent revision", blindly believed in the wrong judgment that "revisionism leads to imminent restoration of capitalism" Inspired by a strong sense of responsibility, he participated in the "Cultural Revolution".

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viewed from another perspective, the chaos caused by the "Cultural Revolution" fully exposed the weaknesses and flaws in our country's politics, economy, ideology, and culture, as well as the mistakes and drawbacks in our social life.

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treat Marxism with a correct attitude, neither deviate from the fundamental principles of Marxism, nor treat certain principles as dogmas, because Marxism is constantly enriched and developed in practice.

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"Cultural Revolution" not only misunderstood and dogmatized Marxism, deviated from the spiritual essence of Marxism, but also divorced from China's reality, leading to a wrong judgment on China's political situation and development requirements, thus causing a catastrophe .

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In October 1957, Mao Zedong made the contradiction between "two classes" and "two roads", which was still a misjudgment of the main domestic contradiction and was accepted by the whole party.

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The mistake in judging the principal contradiction reflects a major mistake in understanding China's national conditions.

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In disregard of such national conditions, attempts are made to rely on class struggle as the driving force to change production relations out of thin air without the objective economic basis of production levels, eager to increase the degree of public ownership, and artificially narrow the differences between workers and peasants, urban and rural areas, physical labor and mental labor, in an attempt to With this method, we can accelerate the development of the socialist cause,

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Recognizing

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the backwardness of economy and culture is only a low-level understanding of national conditions. The key lies in whether to develop productivity in a down-to-earth and correct way that conforms to objective laws. And more importantly, how to scientifically and accurately grasp the objective development law of building socialism in such an economically and culturally backward country, and formulate correct lines, guidelines and policies on this basis.

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Utopianism on the issue of revolutionary development is the belief that it is possible to surpass the primary stage of socialism, and to be able to develop on the basis of an economy with low levels of development of productive forces, socialization, and commercialization, or even basically remain on the basis of a natural economy.

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The "Left" trend of thought that led to the "Cultural Revolution" also wanted to develop Marxism subjectively, but it not only departed from China's national conditions, but also violated the basic principles of Marxism.

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the central task of the primary stage of socialism is the development of productive

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such a reform is the self-improvement and development of the socialist system, and it is by no means a "political revolution in which one class overthrows another class."

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as "On the Ten Major Relationships" and "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People", which contain important and distinctive reform content. However, due to the impact of some domestic and international events, it deviated from the correct direction that had already had a good start.

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The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, which has been basically resolved, is emphasized as the main contradiction of society, and exaggerated and absolutized as the main contradiction throughout the entire historical stage of socialism.

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The construction of the socialist economy, which should have been the main task and central work of the party, was instead placed in a secondary and subordinate position.

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his lack of realistic understanding of socialized mass production and experience in leading economic construction. The "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune Movement, in a certain sense or Mao Zedong's subjective aspect, are all major experiments in an attempt to open up a new way to build socialism and transition to communism.

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Whether it is conducive to the development of productive forces is the fundamental criterion for testing guidelines, policies, and methods in socialist construction; if you leave this criterion to seek other criteria, you will fall into utopianism.

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Since class struggle only exists within a certain range, it is impossible to put class struggle in a position that is "higher than everything, greater than everything, prior to everything, and more important than everything"

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Personality cult is the product of underdeveloped economy and culture. Therefore, eradicating the breeding soil of personality cult depends fundamentally on the development of economy and culture.

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Democracy is rule by the will of the majority expressed through legal procedures.

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Socialist democracy is the premise and foundation of the socialist legal system, and the socialist legal system is the embodiment and guarantee of socialist democracy. Without the socialist legal system, there will be no socialist democracy.

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The catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution" did not prove that Marxist theory was "obsolete" or "bankrupt" as some people asserted. On the contrary, it teaches us negatively that the basic principles of Marxism cannot be violated.

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the whole party at that time generally accepted Mao Zedong's set of erroneous theories of "taking class struggle as the key link" that led to the "Cultural Revolution".

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It should be said that Mao Zedong's mistakes were firstly caused by mistakes in theory and understanding, which in turn led to mistakes in practice.

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"Once the theory has mastered the masses, it will also become a material force"

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The "Cultural Revolution" proved from the negative side that wrong theories can become a force that can cause huge damage to the entire social life if they control the masses.

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Under the condition that the wrong theory has mastered the masses, even if a few people see the mistakes in the theoretical guidance, they will be powerless to turn the tide. This proves from another perspective the extreme importance of raising the level of Marxist theory among party members, cadres and the masses.

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Marxism is a constantly developing science in practice. The theory of scientific socialism must also be combined with the practice of various countries and the development of the times in order to be perfected day by day.

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it is necessary to abandon the individual theories of the predecessors who are limited by historical conditions and still have utopian elements, and it is inevitable to get rid of the dogmatic understanding of Marxism and the erroneous views attached to the name of Marxism. Practice has brought new development to the theory of scientific socialism."

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The premise of developing Marxism is to uphold Marxism. If the basic principles of Marxism are not adhered to, developing Marxism will become empty talk!

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from the perspective of the objective law of the development of human society, it is not necessary for any country to have a "cultural revolution" like China after the establishment of a socialist system, and it does not have historical inevitability.

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Lenin said it well: "It is only through these mistakes that workers and peasants can learn to build a new life, can learn not to manage independently of capitalists, and can open a way for themselves to pass through thousands of obstacles to invincible socialism.

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"There is no great historical disaster that was not compensated by historical progress." This is a general law of the development of world history,

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December 1978 is that through this plenary session, it fundamentally broke through the serious fetters of long-term "Left" errors, corrected the guiding ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, and re-established Marxist ideological line, political line and organizational line.

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if a party, a country, or a nation proceeds from the book and its thinking is rigid, then it will not be able to move forward, its vitality will stop, and the party and the country will perish. Such understandings show that the ideological line has been corrected, which has had a profound and long-term impact on the development of all aspects of work.

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"We are reforming. Why is the content of our reform so extensive and profound? Because we have the lessons of the 'Cultural Revolution'."

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However, the issue of how to build socialism after seizing power has not been fundamentally resolved for a long time, although great achievements and valuable experience have been obtained.

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The theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics is the product of the combination of the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism and the reality of contemporary China and the characteristics of the times.

Appendix Chronicle of Events in the "Cultural Revolution"¶

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Mao Zedong criticized Jiang Qing at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee,

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together!" He also said: "Jiang Qing has ambitions." "Talents are rare."

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Mao Zedong convened a talk with members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing, repeatedly emphasizing the need for stability and unity, the need to practice Marxism, and the need to be aboveboard; he criticized Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen, and told them "don't engage in the Gang of Four."

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She also gave a long speech on commenting on "Water Margin", and asked the meeting to print and distribute it. After Mao Zedong learned about it, he clearly instructed: "Fart, the text is not on the topic." "Don't publish the manuscript, don't play the recording, and don't print the speech."

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Jiang Qing arbitrarily called a meeting of the heads of 12 provinces and autonomous regions, scolded Deng Xiaoping, and called the sale of crude oil, coal, cotton cloth, etc. to capitalist countries a "traitor's act" and "represented the interests of the comprador bourgeoisie." After Mao Zedong found out, he

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commented: "Jiang Qing interfered too much."

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The attempt of the "Gang of Four" to control Mao Zedong's manuscript failed.

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Hua Guofeng pointed out that the so-called "Chairman Mao's deathbed instructions" were different from Mao's own handwriting