Selected Documents of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (1949. 10—1966. 5)

A large collection of archives approved by the CPC Central Committee, jointly edited by the Central Archives and the Party Documentary Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, and published by the People's Publishing House.

The book was ordered according to the formation time of the documents, and 4,569 important documents issued in the name of the CPC Central Committee between October 1949 and May 1966 were selected. It is divided into 50 volumes with about 16 million words. They include resolutions, decisions, instructions, circulars and telegrams issued by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, many important meetings of the CPC Central Committee, etc., as well as some documents issued jointly by the CPC Central Committee and other institutions, and some documents and telegrams directly related to the main documents are included together as annexes. Most of these archival documents were published publicly for the first time.

Most of the documents included in the Selected Documents of the Communist Party of China Central Committee (1949. 10 – 1966. 5) were published on the basis of the archives kept by the CPC’s Central Archives, while some were published on the basis of the newspapers at that time or the anthologies, collections or compilations of Party documents of the Party and state leaders edited and published later. In the spirit of truth-seeking and truth-keeping, the original appearance of the editions on which they were based was strictly maintained, and only necessary revisions and corrections were made for obvious errors and omissions or inappropriate points.

The period from the founding of the PRC to the eve of the “Cultural Revolution” was an important period when China basically completed its socialist transformation and began to build socialism in a comprehensive manner. The publication of an authoritative selection of archival documents of this period publicly would promote the ideological and theoretical construction of the Party, enable the Party members and the masses to understand the history of the Party's leadership of the people of all nationalities in socialist revolution and construction, learn from the experience and lessons, and strengthen socialist beliefs. This important documentary editing project is of great significance to summarize the historical experience of the Party, to give full play to the role of Party history to learn from history and to educate people, to strengthen the ideological and theoretical construction of the Party, and to advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.