Chapter 16 From criticism of the cult of the individual to the “8th Congress” 1956

The Journalist: “Are you happy that Khrushchev is anti-Stalin?”

Mao: “I was both happy and unhappy when Khrushchev criticized Stalin at the Soviet Communist Party Congress in February 1956, causing a world-wide sensation. I was also surprised, because I had not been informed in advance. I was both happy and sad to be against Stalin. I was happy that Stalin had fallen and it was my turn to be the international communist leader. I was worried because I had committed the same kind of crime as Stalin, but had covered it up for a long time. I am afraid that anti-Stalinism will be extended to me, which will put me under great pressure.”

At February 1956, Khrushchev Secret report criticizing Stalin’s cult of the individual. In fact, before Stalin’s death in 1953, all major events were decided at the Stalin dacha dinner, attended by only a few people, including Beria, Malinkov, and Khrushchev. The first action against Stalin was taken by Beria, who was responsible for reopening the ‘doctor’s case,’ which was rehabilitated within a month of Stalin’s death. 1953.5. (Two months after Stalin’s death) the Presidium, on Beria’s initiative, banned the carrying of the leader’s portrait in holiday parades. He talked about the danger of cult of the individual. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union arranged three meetings to brief the Communist Party of China, Eastern and Western European parties, and Stalin was criticized by name. Molotov attended the briefings and cited a series of mistakes such as Stalin’s brutality, paranoia, and lust for power. He suggested that the ‘cult of the individual’ should be avoided and the collective leadership should be upheld. However, the press continued to praise Stalin in 1953-1955 because the information was not disseminated to the public.

This is the background of Khrushchev’s ‘secret report’ on Stalin’s mistakes in February 1956. A politician said that the Stalin era was a time of terror, a time of deception of the people, a Politburo member said that ‘people turned him into a god, but they got a devil,’ that Stalin was not a flawed mistake, but a crime. Khrushchev received confirmation of the commission from the Presidium before the report, and it was not his personal act, but a collective decision of the Central Committee, and Khrushchev did not completely deny Stalin, but despite this, Khrushchev’s amazing act shock the world.

The shockwave of the secret report hit me very hard. The virus of the cult of the individual had penetrated to the marrow of my bones. There was chaos in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and I knew the exact contents of the secret report by the beginning of March, but I did not express my reservations. But I was not opposed to leaks either. I watched the reactions of all parties, and I thought, ‘If you blow the lid off, you stir up trouble.’ I want to take the Stalin affair in my hands and use it for me. I said, ‘30:70’ to keep Stalin, that is, to keep my roots, to kill Stalin with a stick, in the end, even I will be killed. On March 31, I had a three-hour talk with Eugene about the mistakes Stalin had made against me, and I was angry at Stalin for calling me a Chinese Tito and for suspecting and suppressing me.

Now that the ‘tight band’ was removed from my head, I was no longer subservient to Moscow, creating the conditions for me to play a greater role in the International Communist Party. I also accused Khrushchev of causing confusion by ‘denying Stalin in its entirety,’ so that I would be the only one who was right, creating the preconditions for my ascension to the International Communist throne. I added that the communist revolution needed to worship the leader and to create public opinion for worshiping me. I criticized ‘the Soviet Union, which in the past had held Stalin 33,300 meters height to the sky, and now at once reduced him to 30,000 meters underground. ‘This makes me the only one who is right. I also secretly criticized and insinuated that Khrushchev lacked revolutionary morality, as if he had never supported Stalin, but in fact he did, and that I had put Khrushchev down, lowering the prestige and leadership of the Soviet Communist Party, and that I had come out on top of the international Communist Party. Stalin fell, standing up should be me old Mao, the time has come for me to rise.”

‘To tell the truth, I do not believe that Stalin is the truth, but the Soviet Communist Party, he is the only model for my masses to worship so that I can master it.’

If I want to deny Stalin, there are two hurdles to cross: the market hurdle, the democratic hurdle, my authoritarian system is finished, I can only ‘stop walking.’ I have two fears: one fears the real people and the other fears the democrats. I think the Stalinist model is right in principle, but wrong in method.”

Journalist: “You expressed support for Khrushchev in the hope of getting aid?”

Mao: “Yes. I was not good at taking a stand against Stalin and never spoke publicly. Khrushchev needed international support, and he instructed Soviet Ambassador Eugene to ask for an audience. I delayed until March 31, when I summoned Eugene, talked for three hours, and expressed support. Khrushchev was pleased and sent Mikoyan to China in April to meet me and ask me to make public statements of support, which I agreed to do. Khrushchev was very generous in pleasing me and asked Mikoyan to sign a new agreement with China to aid 55 new military-industrial projects, including atomic engineering, which I needed most.”

Journalist: “Why do you say that Stalin deserves 70% credit and 30% blame?”?”

Mao: “This is from the benefit to me, in April 1956, I instructed the publication of an article on the experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the criticism of the cult of the individual pressure field, I proposed that Stalin merit and demerit is thirty-seven, merit seven demerit three, merit far more than demerit, the Soviet Communist Party also accepted, to help everyone stabilize the chaotic situation caused by the criticism of Stalin. I am sure that Stalin’s line, I want to succeed him, can not agree with Khrushchev. If Stalin all down, I can not stand, so I must hold on to Stalin, and can only criticize him three mistakes.”

Journalist: “Did nationwide strikes, school boycotts, and worker protests also occur in 1956?”

Mao: “Yes, under the influence of Khrushchev’s condemnation of Stalin, in June 1956 in Poland and in October 1956 in Hungary, there was a liberalization situation against the Communist tyranny, and in many places in China there were also workers’ strikes and students’ protests.

In the autumn of 1956, more than 3,000 students of Nanjing Aviation College declared a one-month strike. 500 students from Nanjing Normal University gathered in front of the Nanjing Municipal Government, chanting slogans demanding democracy and human rights. Forty worker and student petition demonstrations took place in Xi’an, and by early 1957, tens of thousands of students participated in demonstrations throughout the country.

There were 220 strikes nationwide in 1956, with thousands striking in Shanghai, even led by Party cadres, as workers protested against reduced income, poor housing conditions, and shrinking benefits, and worker discontent accumulated over years exploded. In the northeast, 2,000 transportation workers went on strike, demanding wage increases. Fuzhou workers kept petitioning the city government, 60 before and after.

Peasants in rural areas demanded to quit cooperatives. In Xianju County, Zhejiang Province, peasants made anti-Party statements and beat up cadres, and more than 100 cooperatives collapsed. Thousands of peasants in Tai County, Jiangsu Province, petitioned at the county party committee compound, demanding to withdraw from the society, some privately taking back their cattle and tools. In Guangdong, tens of thousands of peasants withdrew from the society at the end of 1956-1957. In Shunde County, 1/3 of the peasants resumed working alone. In several counties under Zhanjiang, 6% of the peasants demanded to withdraw from the society, and they took away their own cattle. Angry peasants in Xinyi County destroyed collective property, and some brought knives to the meeting to force the cadres to withdraw from the society. Some cadres also admitted: ‘Life is worse than that of a reformed laborer.’ Sixty percent of the cadres in Baoan County opposed the unified purchase and sale of grain, and a deputy secretary in Luoding County said: collectivization could not even get enough porridge and was so hungry that he became dizzy. At the party meeting in Yingde County, several cadres openly said that the economy was better before 1949 than now, and more than 40 cadres in Sanya County, Hainan refused to join the society together with peasants. Yangjiang County, a co-op president said: the food unified purchase unified food for 3 years, eat thin rice. In the 11 counties of Huaiyang region, out of 14,000 cadres, more than 10,000 people have such ‘Playing dumb thinking.’

Some peasants went to Beijing to petition, and there were dozens of petitioners in front of the State Council every day. A woman with four children was wearing a sign saying ‘starving to death.’ A man carrying a lighted lantern outside Zhongnanhai asked to ‘see Chairman Mao,’ signifying the darkness of the Party’s society.

The 5.7 million soldiers discharged from the army in the 1950s returned to the countryside and, like the villagers, lived a miserable life. In the winter of 1956-1957, a large number of demobilized soldiers gathered in the cities to exert pressure on the government, and some organized revolutionary committees, claiming to start guerrilla warfare. In front of the State Council in Beijing, there were five demonstrations of demobilized soldiers.

I was worried in the face of the people’s outbreak of workers’ strikes, students’ strikes, and peasants’ withdrawal from the society, which they had held back for years.

On May 4, 1957, more than 8,000 students in Beijing gathered to commemorate the May Fourth Movement and opened a ‘Democracy Wall’ filled with slogans and large-character posters criticizing the Communist Party for suppressing freedom and democracy. They also liaised with protesters in other cities in an attempt to organize national protests. Violent clashes broke out in Chengdu and Qingdao, where demonstrators stormed the city’s Party Committee building and beat officials. Unrest also broke out in Wuhan, where students from a high school, unhappy with the enrollment policy, stormed the municipal party committee building in anger, smashing doors and windows, throwing documents to the ground, and tying up several cadres and parading them through the streets.

The workers’ strike lasted for nearly a year and paralyzed the economies of Northeast China, Tianjin, Wuhan, and Shanghai. 30,000 workers in 580 enterprises in Shanghai went on strike in 1957, which was more serious than the strikes in the 1930s during the Kuomintang era. There were small-scale protests in more than 700 factories across the country, where workers went on strike or slackened their work. Some workers tore down slogans and large-character posters on the walls demanding higher production, openly criticized the Communist Party, poured out their grievances at length, and harshly questioned Party cadres.”

Journalist: “Oh, so you consider that you and Stalin are the same type of people, criticizing Stalin is the same as criticizing you?”

Mao: “Yes, the criticism of Stalin affects the Communist Party, at this time we are preparing to convene the ‘8th Congress’ to discuss the formulation of documents, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, most of them agree with Khrushchev’s policy, do not agree with my adventurous, they want to develop a pragmatic economic development plan, I was not satisfied, but had to temporarily tolerate, let them go. I was not satisfied, but I had to put up with it for the time being and let them get on with it. I dropped my hand and left Beijing for the South.

On May 3, 1956, I took a plane to Wuhan first. Wang Renzhong erected a statue of me in the terminal building, the first one in China. I asked Wang Renzhong to remove it. Later he did not move it. The second stop was Guangzhou, where Tao Zhu let me live on a small island, and Jiang Qing was also there, so we were very free. At my insistence, swimming the Pearl River, I was happy, mainly to show my temperament. The third stop to Changsha, and swam the Xiangjiang River. And then back to Wuhan, I swam on the Yangtze River, and swam for three days, swimming to the joy, but also wrote a poem, tens of thousands of people on both sides of the organization to watch, chanting ‘Long live Chairman Mao,’ the national publicity, showing that I am not afraid of the struggle of stubborn ambition, ready to do great things in the future.”

Journalist: “Preparations for the 8th Congress, you passive resistance, out of the capital to go to the South to get away, but also swim to express ambition?”

Mao: “Yes. In June 1956, I returned to Beijing, Liu Shaoqi put an article against impetuous and adventurous, and asked me to read it. I approved 3 words: ‘I won’t read.’ Why would I read something that scolds me? Preparing for the “8th Congress”, let them engage in it, I went to Beidaihe again to get away.”

Journalist: “Oh, the 8th Congress documents you are not happy to see, and go to the Beidaihe to get away?”

Mao: “Yes, in September 1956, the 8th Congress adopted a pragmatic and prudent development line in opposition to impetuous and adventurous, and I endured it. I am not interested in a large number of production figures, the power is still in my hands, I seize the ‘class struggle as the platform, everything else is the goal,’ I have my own plans for the future. In order to cope with the opposition to the cult of the individual, I proposed to ban birthday celebrations for leaders, to ban the use of their names as place names, street names and enterprise names, and to cremate all of them after death, and everyone signed.”

Journalist: “You take those formal things to cope with the anti-individual cult?”

Mao: “Yes, I was heartbroken by the deletion of ‘Mao Zedong Thought,’ intended to oppose the cult of the individual, the world is unified to say ‘Marxism-Leninism,’ the Soviet Union does not mention ‘Stalinism,’ China also does not mention ‘Mao Zedong Thought,’ I also expressed acceptance. Anyway, the power in my hands, people still listen to me, I have to temporarily tolerate.”

Journalist: “Oh, delete Mao Zedong Thought, you also temporarily put up with it?”

Mao: “Yes, but in my heart I am thinking of a comeback.”

In 1956, the party constitution no longer mentions ‘Mao Zedong Thought,’ some people say that initially from Peng Dehuai, but in reality, according to my proposal, I did not do so out of my own free will, but also by the Soviet pressure, the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union believes that Stalin criticized the fall, you Mao Zedong eight maintained, is not above the Soviet Communist Party, the Soviet Union is refusing to recognize ‘Mao Zedong Thought’ is a no-go area, I do not want to offend the Soviet Union (I have asked the Soviet Union for assistance). The Soviet Communist Party could not tolerate the rise of Tito in the East, and took matters into its own hands. The Soviet Communist Party wanted to encircle the ‘narrow nationalism,’ how can I wind up on it? I wanted Soviet economic, scientific and technological assistance, as well as arms.

When the General Administration Song and Dance Troupe visited Moscow in the summer of 1954, they planned to play ‘Ode to Stalin’ and ‘The East is Red’ as the opening song, but the Soviets did not agree to play ‘Ode to Stalin.’

In fact, after the Yan’an rectification, the slogan ‘Long live Chairman Mao’ spread all over Yan’an, and ‘The East is Red’ also spread, so why would I be willing to criticize the cult of the individual? I don’t want the Chinese people to oppose the cult of the individual, the cult of the individual is a problem of the system, there is a communist system, there will be a cult of the individual. What a hundred flowers bloom and supervise each other, I’m just saying it to sound good. How could I let the democratic parties supervise me? I want to be lawless.

In 1956, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in February and the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of China, in August both parties were at the crossroads. It actually raised my status to be on an equal footing with the Soviet Union. From then on, China and the Soviet Union moved from alliance to confrontation, and (secretly) I fought for power to override the Soviet Communist Party.