Resolution On Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China

It was considered and adopted of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC on June 27, 1981

The full text consists of eight parts, more than 28,000 characters.

Included in Selected Important Documents since the Third Plenary Session published by People's Publishing House in 1982. Applying the Marxist theory of dialectical materialism and historical materialism The “Resolution” summarizes the historical experience of the socialist revolution and construction since the founding of New China and makes a factual evaluation of the successes and failures of some major historical events.

The “Resolution” states that the history of the Party after the founding of New China is guided by Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, has very successfully led the whole people in carrying out socialist revolution and socialist construction. The establishment of the socialist system represents the greatest and most profound social change in Chinese history and is the foundation for the country’s future progress and development.

Our Party has made mistakes owing to its meagre experience in leading the cause of socialism and subjective errors in the Party leadership’s analysis of the situation and its understanding of Chinese conditions. Before the “Cultural Revolution” there were mistakes of enlarging the scope of class struggle and of impetuosity and rashness in economic construction. Later, there was the comprehensive, long-drawn-out and grave blunder of the “Cultural Revolution”. All these errors prevented us from scoring the greater achievements of which we should have been capable.

The “Resolution” fundamentally negated the wrong theories of the “Cultural Revolution” and “continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat”, pointing out that practice has shown that the “Cultural Revolution” did not in fact constitute a revolution or social progress in any sense, nor could it possibly have done so. However, it was a mistake initiated by leaders, exploited by counter-revolutionary groups, and given to the Party, the state, and all ethnic groups. Civil strife with serious disasters

The “Resolution” stresses that it is impermissible to overlook or whitewash mistakes, which in itself would be a mistake and would give rise to more and worse mistakes but after all, our achievements in the past thirty-two years are the main thing. It would be a no less serious error to overlook or deny our achievements or our successful experiences in scoring these achievements.

The “Resolution” has scientifically analyzed the subjective and social causes of the mistakes.

(1) The history of the socialist movement is not long and that of the socialist countries even shorter. Some of the laws governing the development of socialist society are relatively clear, but many more remain to be explored.

The “Resolution” pointed out that our Party had long existed in circumstances of war and fierce class struggle. It was not fully prepared, either ideologically or in terms of scientific study, for the swift advent of the newborn socialist society and for socialist construction on a national scale.

The scientific works of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are our guide to action, but can in no way provide ready-made answers to the problems we may encounter in our socialist cause.

“Even after the basic completion of socialist transformation, given the guiding ideology, we were liable, owing to the historical circumstances in which our Party grew, to continue to regard issues unrelated to class struggle as its manifestations when observing and handling new contradictions and problems which cropped up in the political, economic, cultural and other spheres in the course of the development of socialist society. And when confronted with actual class struggle under the new conditions, we habitually fell back on the familiar methods and experiences of the large-scale, turbulent mass struggle of the past, which should no longer have been mechanically followed. As a result, we substantially broadened the scope of class struggle.”

Moreover, this subjective thinking and practice divorced from reality seemed to have a “theoretical basis” in the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin because certain ideas and arguments set forth in them were misunderstood or dogmatically interpreted. All this led us to regard the error in broadening the scope of class struggle as an act in defense of the purity of Marxism.

Furthermore, Soviet leaders started a polemic between China and the Soviet Union, and turned the arguments between the two Parties on matters of principle into a conflict between the two nations, bringing enormous pressure to bear upon China politically, economically and militarily. So we were forced to wage a just struggle against the big-nation chauvinism of the Soviet Union.

In these circumstances, a campaign to prevent and combat revisionism inside the country was launched, which spread the error of broadening the scope of class struggle in the Party, so that normal differences among comrades inside the Party came to be regarded as manifestations of the revisionist line or of the struggle between the two lines. This resulted in growing tension in inner-Party relations.

Thus, it became difficult for the Party to resist certain “Left” views put forward by Comrade Mao Zedong and others, and the development of these views led to the outbreak of the protracted “Cultural Revolution”.

(2)  Comrade Mao Zedong’s prestige reached a peak and he began to get arrogant at the very time when the Party was confronted with the new task of shifting the focus of its work to socialist construction, a task for which the utmost caution was required. He gradually divorced himself from practice and from the masses, acted more and more arbitrarily and subjectively, and increasingly put himself above the Central Committee of the Party. The result was a steady weakening and even undermining of the principle of collective leadership and democratic centralism in the political life of the Party and the country. His state of affairs took shape only gradually and the Central Committee of the Party should be held partly responsible.

The “Resolution” points out that from the Marxist viewpoint, this complex phenomenon was the product of given historical conditions. Blaming this on only one person or on only a handful of people will not provide a deep lesson for the whole Party or enable it to find practical ways to change the situation. In the communist movement, leaders play quite an important role. This has been borne out by history time and again and leaves no room for doubt. However, certain grievous deviations, which occurred in the history of the international communist movement owing to the failure to handle the relationship between the Party and its leader correctly, had an adverse effect on our Party, too.

Feudalism in China has had a very long history. Our Party fought in the firmest and most thoroughgoing way against it, and particularly against the feudal system of land ownership and the landlords and local tyrants, and fostered a fine tradition of democracy in the anti-feudal struggle. But it remains difficult to eliminate the evil ideological and political influence of centuries of feudal autocracy. And for various historical reasons, we failed to institutionalize and legalize inner-Party democracy and democracy in the political and social life of the country, or we drew up the relevant laws but they lacked due authority.

This meant that conditions were present for the over-concentration of Party power in individuals and for the development of arbitrary individual rule and the personality cult in the Party. Thus, it was hard for the Party and state to prevent the initiation of the “Cultural Revolution” or check its development.

The “Resolution” evaluated the merits and errors of Mao Zedong and his historical status in a factual manner and discussed the basic contents of Mao Zedong Thought and its great significance as the guiding ideology of the Party.

The “Resolution” pointed out that Mao Zedong was a great Marxist and a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist, and theorist. Although he was mainly responsible for launching the “Cultural Revolution” and made serious mistakes, Mao Zedong's mistakes were ultimately the mistakes of a great proletarian revolutionist. In his whole life, his contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweigh his mistakes. His merits are primary and his errors secondary. He rendered indelible meritorious service in founding and building up our Party and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, in winning victory for the cause of liberation of the Chinese people, in founding the People’s Republic of China and in advancing our socialist cause. He made major contributions to the liberation of the oppressed nations of the world and to the progress of mankind.

The “Resolution” made the scientific assertion that Mao Zedong Thought, which had been developed into a scientific theory after a long historical test, must be distinguished from the mistakes made by Mao Zedong in his later years, scientifically evaluating the historical status of Mao Zedong and safeguarding the guiding role of Mao Zedong Thought.

The “Resolution” points out that Mao Zedong Thought is Marxism-Leninism applied and developed in China; it constitutes a correct theory, a body of correct principles and a summary of the experiences that have been confirmed in the practice of the Chinese revolution, a crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Communist Party of China.

The “Resolution” scientifically summarizes the various contents of Mao Zedong Thought, especially the theory of originality. It emphasizes the positions, viewpoints, and methods that run through the various components of Mao Zedong Thought, namely, seeking truth from facts, the mass line, independence, and restores the true face of Mao Zedong Thought.

The “Resolution” emphasizes that Mao Zedong Thought is the valuable spiritual asset of our Party. It will be our guide to action for a long time to come.  “The Resolution” affirms the path of socialist modernization that has been gradually determined since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee and is suitable for our country's reality, and further points out the direction for our socialist cause and the Party's work to continue to move forward.

In the final part of the “Resolution”, it is pointed out that "Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, our Party has gradually mapped out the correct path for socialist modernization suited to China’s conditions.” And its main points are summarized into ten articles, including the principal contradiction our country has had to resolve is that between the growing material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness of social production; in our socialist economic construction, we must strive to reach the goal of modernization systematically and in stages, according to the conditions and resources of our country; The reform and improvement of the socialist relations of production must be in conformity with the level of the productive forces and conducive to the expansion of production;  gradually to establish a highly democratic socialist political system; life under socialism must attain a high ethical and cultural level, and it is imperative to build up a sound system of democratic centralism inside the Party; etc.

This is the first time that the Party Central Committee has made a preliminary overview of the line, guidelines, and policies since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee.

In the final part of the “Resolution”, “‘The Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party’ unanimously adopted in 1945 by the Enlarged Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Party unified the thinking of the whole Party, consolidated its unity, promoted the rapid advance of the people’s revolutionary cause and accelerated its eventual triumph. The Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party believes that the present resolution it has unanimously adopted will play a similar historical role.”

The adoption of the “Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” marked the triumphant completion of the CPC's rectification of its guiding ideology, laying a solid foundation for the convening of the 12th Party Congress and the creation of a new situation in socialist modernization.

The fact that the CPC Central Committee was able to make this historically tested resolution within a short period of time after the end of the “Cultural Revolution” and to reach a correct conclusion on an extremely important and complex historical issue fully demonstrates the foresight and political maturity of the second generation of the CPC Central Leadership with Deng Xiaoping as its core.