Follow a Socialist Construction Path Suitable for the Situation of China Drawing Lessons from the Mistakes of the CPSU

On April 25, 1956, Mao Zedong put forward the important thought in his report "On the Ten Major Relationships" made at an enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on April 25, 1956.

"On the Ten Major Relationships", on the basis of a comprehensive and systematic investigation and study, summed up the experience of China's socialist construction, and put forward the task of exploring the socialist construction road suitable for China's national conditions, taking the Soviet Union as a reference. Mao Zedong clearly pointed out in his report: "Particularly worthy of attention is the fact that in the Soviet Union certain defects and errors that occurred in the course of their building socialism have lately come to light. Do you want to follow the detours they have made? It was by drawing lessons from their experience that we were able to avoid certain detours in the past, and there is all the more reason for us to do so now.”

The basic meaning of "drawing lessons from the Soviet Union” meant to explore the path of socialist construction in line with China's national conditions by learning the experience of the Soviet Union in socialist construction. On November 15, 1956, Mao Zedong pointed out in his speech at the Second Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC: "Some comrades simply don't pay attention to dialectics and they are not analytical. They say all things of the Soviet Union are good and they transplant them mechanically.” “In fact, all things, whether Chinese or foreign, admit of analysis, some being good and some bad. They take a one-sided view of things and think everything Soviet is good and transplant it indiscriminately, bringing in quite a few things which should not have been transplanted.” “Where things are wrongly transplanted and unsuited to this land of ours, must be changed.”

On February 27, 1957, Mao Zedong delivered a speech entitled "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People" at the Eleventh Enlarged Session of the Supreme State Conference, in which he pointed out: “In order to turn China into an industrial country, we must learn conscientiously from the advanced experience of the Soviet Union.” “There are two different attitudes towards learning from others: One is the dogmatic attitude of transplanting everything, whether or not it is suited to our conditions, which is not good.” “The other attitude is to learn those things which suit our conditions, that is, to absorb whatever experience is useful to us.”

In his speech at the Chengdu Conference in March 1958, Mao Zedong pointed out: "In the early days, we had no choice but to imitate the Soviet Union. Some of our practices were based on truth and some were not. The experience of the Soviet Union is one side and the practice of China is the other side, this is the unity of opposites. We should accept everything good in Soviet experience and reject what is bad.”

From June 8 to 18, 1960, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee held an enlarged meeting in Shanghai. On the last day of the meeting, Mao Zedong wrote the article "Summing Up the Experience of the Ten Years", which clearly pointed out: "In the first eight years, we copied foreign experience, but since 1956, we began to find our own route suitable for China.” Drawing lessons from the Soviet Union and taking the path of socialist construction which suited to China's situation was one of Mao Zedong's important guiding ideology to explore the path of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics.