Socialist Revolution on Political Line and Ideological Line

Mao Zedong's view in his speech at the National Publicity Conference of the CPC in 1957.

When the socialist transformation was basically completed in 1956, Mao Zedong proposed: "The new social system has just been established and needs a period of consolidation.” It is impossible to think that once the new system is established, it will be completely consolidated. So, the gradual consolidation is inevitable. For its final consolidation, it is necessary to achieve socialist industrialization of the country, to insist on socialist revolution on the economic front, and to carry out regular and painstaking socialist revolutionary struggle and socialist education on the political and ideological fronts.

In addition to these, there must be various international conditions. In our country, the struggle for the consolidation of the socialist system, the struggle between socialism and capitalism, and the struggle for the victory of socialism over capitalism will take a long period of history. However, we should all see that the new socialist system will be consolidated. We will definitely build a socialist state with modern industry, modern agriculture, modern science and culture.

Mao Zedong demanded that the Party committees of all provinces, cities and autonomous regions should take up the ideological question. He stressed that the large-scale stormy mass class struggle of our domestic revolutionary period had basically ended, but there was still class struggle, mainly on the political front and on the ideological front, and it was still very acute. The ideological problem has now become a very important issue. The first secretaries of each local party committee should personally take charge of the ideological problem, and only if this problem is taken seriously and studied can it be solved correctly.

From July 17 to 21, 1957, the CPC Central Committee held a conference of provincial and municipal party secretaries in Qingdao. During the conference, Mao Zedong wrote an article entitled "The Situation in the Summer of 1957", in which he further discussed "a thorough socialist revolution on the political front and on the ideological front", pointing out that a socialist revolution on the economic front (in terms of ownership of the means of production) alone was not enough and would not be consolidated. The Hungarian affair is proof of this. There must also be a complete socialist revolution on the political front and on the ideological front.