A Single Spark Can Start a Prairie Fire

On January 5, 1930, Mao Zedong wrote a reply letter to Lin Biao, then commander of the First Column of the Fourth Red Army, in order to overcome certain pessimistic views then existing in the Party. This letter was a response to a letter sent by Lin Biao asking for opinions on how to estimate the future prospects of the Red Army. When the letter was included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 1 in 1951, the title of the letter was changed to "A single spark can start a prairie fire", and the parts where Lin Biao’s name was mentioned and the parts where Lin Biao was criticized by Mao Zedong was deleted.

At that time in 1930, Lin Biao and some comrades in the Party had pessimistic thoughts on the assessment of the situation. They argued that it was futile to do such hard work to establish revolutionary base areas at a time far from the climax of the revolution and they advocated to extend our political influence through the easier method of roving guerrilla actions, and, they said: “once the masses throughout the country have been won over, or more or less won over, we can launch a nation-wide armed insurrection which, with the participation of the Red Army, will become a great nationwide revolution." In his letter, Mao Zedong first criticized their theory that “We must first win over the masses on a country-wide scale and in all regions and then establish political power does not accord with the actual state of the Chinese revolution.” He pointed out that China was a semi-colonial country for which many imperialist powers are contending. As a result, there was prolonged and tangled warfare within the ruling classes. It is possible for the existence and development of the Red Army and guerrillas, and for the existence and development of small Red areas surrounded by White political power.

Mao Zedong pointed out that in China, at that time, merely calls for roving guerrilla actions cannot accomplish the task of accelerating this nation-wide revolutionary high tide. Only the establishment and expansion of the Red Army, the guerrilla forces (the Red Political Power in some areas) is the highest form of peasant struggle under the leadership of the proletariat, the inevitable outcome of the growth of the semi-colonial peasant struggle, and undoubtedly the most important factor in accelerating the revolutionary high tide throughout the country. In his letter, Mao Zedong summed up the experience of the construction of the Red Army, guerrilla units and base areas in various regions. Mao Zedong emphasized that the kind of policy adopted by Zhu De and Mao Zedong and also by Fang Zhimin is undoubtedly correct—that is, the policy of establishing independent base areas; of systematically setting up political power of workers and peasants; of deepening the agrarian revolution; of expanding the people's armed forces by a comprehensive process of building up first the township Red Guards, then the district level Red Guards, then the county level Red Guards, then the local Red Army troops, all the way up to the regular Red Army troops; of spreading political power by advancing in a series of wave.

Mao Zedong argued that “Only thus is it possible to build the confidence of the revolutionary masses throughout the country, as the Soviet Union has built it throughout the world. Only thus is it possible to create tremendous difficulties for the reactionary ruling classes, shake their foundations and hasten their internal disintegration. Only thus is it really possible to create a Red Army which will become the chief weapon for the great revolution of the future. In short, only thus is it possible to hasten the revolutionary high tide.”

In view of the subjectivist assessment of the current situation by some members of the Party and the pessimism and blindness existing in the Party, Mao Zedong put forward a scientific analysis method on how to judge the situation in China: " When we look at a thing, we must examine its essence and treat its appearance merely as an usher at the threshold, and once we cross the threshold, we must grasp the essence of the thing; this is the only reliable and scientific method of analysis."

In a word, Mao Zedong objectively analyzed the basic international and domestic contradictions in his letter, and described the development trend of Chinese revolution, and demonstrated the revolutionary approach that "a single spark can start a prairie fire". This letter further answered the question of why China's Red Political Power could exist and develop. In fact, in this letter Mao Zedong put forward the idea of shifting the focus of the Party's work from the cities to the countryside, he advocated launching guerrilla warfare in rural areas, deepening the agrarian revolution, establishing and developing the Red areas and Red political regimes, and seizing the nation-wide political power when conditions are ripe, as the new development path of Chinese revolution.The ideas put forward in this letter, constitute an important development of Marxism-Leninism on the theory of seizing power by arms.