The broad scope of "educated youth" should also include the educated youth who were decentralized before the Cultural Revolution, and they went to the agricultural reclamation. In the past, some people called these people "old educated youth". In addition, a few people vaguely refer to graduates who have returned to their hometowns to participate in agricultural labor. A more accurate understanding should be "social youth" or "returning to youth".
Because as we all know, the phenomenon of educated youth in the Republic going to the countryside, leaving towns and going to the countryside existed before the Cultural Revolution.
So, when did the educated youth start to go to the countryside? And what are the reasons that lead to the problem of educated youth going to the countryside?
I found some answers from an article published by Comrade Feng Du in Life for the Aged. The title of Feng's article is: Young Intellectuals Going to the Countryside from the Soviet Union (by China).
Comrade Feng Du wrote in the article:
"Due to the long-term backwardness of the vast rural areas, economic depression and weak foundation to resist various natural disasters, there was a serious food shortage in China in the 1950s. In this regard, Mao Zedong deeply felt that "the food problem is a very important issue in China at present".
1in April, 1955, when the delegation of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League visited the Soviet Union, it was learned that in the large-scale reclamation movement of 1954, the Soviet Union changed the previous way of land reclamation by immigrants and took urban youth as the main body of land reclamation. In the past two years, 270,000 young urban immigrants have been mobilized to reclaim land. This not only solved the food shortage, but also solved the employment problem of urban youth. After returning to China, the delegation reported the Soviet Union's practice to the CPC Central Committee, arguing that "it is conducive to mobilizing young and educated young people in cities to participate in reclamation work, and it is also a way to solve the problems of being unable to enter higher education and finding jobs for unemployed young people in cities in the future." In the difficult situation, in the era of "learning from the big brother of the Soviet Union", this opinion was endorsed by Mao Zedong.
1In August, 955, 60 young people in Beijing took the lead in organizing a voluntary reclamation team, held a reclamation ceremony in the wilderness of Luobei County, Heilongjiang Province, and set up tents in the birch forest. After half a month, they reclaimed 1.200 mu of wasteland. The following year, they produced 1.35 million kilograms of grain and 300,000 kilograms of vegetables, and built dormitories and canteens. Subsequently, the second and third batch of young volunteer reclamation teams in Beijing, and more than 2,000 young people from Hebei and Shandong also came to Luobei County to become volunteer reclamation team members.
Young people in Shanghai are not afraid of weakness, and they all ask to go to Huaibei to open up wasteland to grow grain. After Mao Zedong knew about it, he thought twice and wrote to Chen Pixian, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee, saying,' The conditions in Huaibei are too bad. It is better to go to Jiangxi, where the climate is close to Shanghai and food is also eaten.' So Shanghai elected 96 Communist Youth League members and youths, and a deputy mayor personally sent them to Brewmaster Ridge, Dean County, Jiangxi Province.
Under the influence of Beijing and Shanghai, 1955 and 1956, Zhejiang youth went to develop youth in Xinjiang, Guangzhou, Hainan, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Qinghai, thus playing a prelude to urban youth going to the countryside. "
What can be proved for Wen Feng is that in April, 1955, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China approved the report of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League on organizing junior high school graduates in Gaoxie River to engage in agricultural labor and conduct self-study (note: see Chronicles of the Communist Youth League 1955).
The following is an excerpt from the relevant content of this batch:
After returning to the countryside, this large number of people have played an important role in rural cultural work, propaganda work and youth work. In the development of mutual cooperation and agricultural production, people find that they are an important force and reserve force. Public opinion began to welcome them to engage in agricultural labor, saying that "Chairman Mao's approach is right".
Organizing high school and primary school graduates to engage in certain social work is not only the need to carry out various activities in rural areas, but also can give play to their political enthusiasm, which is helpful for them to settle down in rural life and love agricultural labor. In fact, the current high school graduates are the most active in rural mass cultural work and propaganda. Among teachers in winter schools and perennial private schools, high school graduates generally account for more than two-thirds. Many graduates have played an important role in rural libraries, clubs, amateur theatrical troupes and other organizations. Some places that haven't heard songs for several years are booming now. The old man said,' It's like running socialism!' In the central work of the party, such as centralized purchase and marketing and conscription, many high and primary school graduates actively study propaganda. They run radio stations, blackboard newspapers and newspaper reading groups in many places. They are indeed a cultural army in the countryside. We have studied with comrades all over the country that the number of high school and primary school graduates staying in rural areas during the First Five-Year Plan period should reach 10 million. If we can organize each of them to eliminate 10 illiteracy on average in three years, we can eliminate more than 100 million illiterates in a few years. At present, it is mainly necessary to further organize a large number of these tasks in a planned way and actively give leadership and support. Another example is the joint clinic in a district of Yancheng County, Henan Province, which trained a health worker for each cooperative in the district and played a great role in public health work. Organizations at all levels can do a lot in this regard as long as they pay more attention.
According to the above materials and the data that can be verified at present, it can be confirmed that the earliest educated youth in the Republic went to the countryside in August 1955.
In those days, the first batch of educated youth were 60 youths in Beijing. They took the lead in organizing a volunteer reclamation team and went straight to Luobei County in the Great Northern Wilderness, where they established the "Beijing Village". The promoters are Huayang, Li Bingheng and others.
They also held a solemn reclamation ceremony in the wilderness of Luobei County, Heilongjiang Province. In addition, on August 30th before departure, Comrade Hu Yaobang awarded this volunteer reclamation team a banner of "Beijing Volunteer Reclamation Team". (Note: See historical memorabilia of the Communist Youth League 1955)
In the same year, a group of junior and senior high school graduates returned to their hometowns to participate in the agricultural cooperative movement in Dalizhuang Township, Jiaxian City, Henan Province. In September, 1955, People's Daily reported on this township with the title "Experience of Cooperative Planning in a Village". Chairman Mao Zedong was very excited and wrote a note in his own hand: "All intellectuals who can work in the countryside should be happy to go. The countryside is a vast world with great potential. "
Note: A number of junior and senior high school graduates have returned to their hometowns to participate in the agricultural cooperative movement in Dalizhuang Township, Jiaxian County, Henan Province. They are not what we usually call "educated youth" in the true sense today. They were originally rural hukou, and instead of working in cities, they returned to their hometown to participate in the agricultural cooperative movement, just like people often say "social youth."
This is Mao Zedong's first "highest instruction" on the issue of educated youth. In this supreme instruction, there is no strict distinction between educated youth and social youth, at least it is different from the meaning of the supreme instruction issued in the late Cultural Revolution. Although this supreme instruction was put forward in the process of mobilizing educated youth to go to the countryside in 1968, it was widely publicized and encouraged, and became one of the power sources for educated youth to go to the countryside.
Later, the second and third batch of young volunteer reclamation teams in Beijing and more than 2,000 young people from Hebei and Shandong came to Luobei County to become volunteer reclamation team members. Young people in Shanghai are not afraid of weakness, and they all ask to go to Huaibei to open up wasteland to grow grain.
Under the influence of Beijing and Shanghai, 1955 and 1956, Zhejiang youth went to develop youth in Xinjiang, Guangzhou, Hainan, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Qinghai, thus playing a prelude to urban youth going to the countryside. "
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Analyzing these materials, we can preliminarily explain the following points:
1), after the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), facing the political, diplomatic and economic blockade of New China by western imperialist countries headed by the United States; And the lack of ruling experience in governing a country with a population of nearly 600 million, and "one-sided" to the Soviet Union, all learning from the Soviet Union was the only feasible choice at that time. Therefore, it is quite normal to organize young intellectuals from China to go to the countryside to learn from the Soviet Union or be inspired by the Soviet Union.
2) The Communist Youth League of China has played a considerable role in organizing, promoting, implementing and promoting young intellectuals to go to the countryside. Wei Ming once wrote in the article Memorabilia of Educated Youth Going to the Countryside: "Since then, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League has organized expeditions and reclamation teams in more than 0 provinces and cities across the country to mobilize urban youth to go to the countryside. Model of educated youth: Dong Jiageng, Xing Yanzi, Hou Jun, etc. It is well known by the propaganda media of the Communist Youth League, China Youth and China Youth Daily. "
3) At that time, the Republic had just emerged from years of war, and its industry, handicrafts and commerce were riddled with holes. The employment level in cities can only be maintained at a low level. Faced with a large number of high school students and junior high school students who graduate every year, it is really reluctant to solve their employment. It is a helpless way to mobilize young urban students who can't find jobs for the time being to go to the countryside.
4), the purpose of the educated youth in the early days of going to the countryside. Mobilizing educated youth to go to the countryside in the mid-1950s certainly solved the problem of urban employment, or the problem of "rice shortage" at that time. Another important reason was that the decision-makers at that time were eager to change the backward appearance of rural areas at that time, solve the realistic problem of rural cultural shortage, and strive to "eliminate more than 100 million illiterates within a few years". (See historical memorabilia of the Communist Youth League. 1955) is also one of the more important reasons.
5) At that time, the number of young intellectuals who went to the countryside remained at a small order of magnitude. More young students who graduated from primary and secondary schools joined the army, or went to higher schools, or found jobs in various channels such as mining, handicrafts and commerce.
Therefore, the educated youth who went to the countryside in those days, even if they had difficulties or problems in life, could only be a minor problem. In any case, it is impossible to completely decentralize the students in the third grade of the Cultural Revolution, and then decentralize young students on a large scale for several years, reaching tens of millions. The energy and coverage of social problems that can be generated are far beyond comparison.
6) Young intellectuals who went to the countryside in the mid-1950s did not have a long time. With the rise of "Three Red Flags", "Great Leap Forward" and "People's Commune", especially the development of the big steelmaking movement, it stopped temporarily. At that time, there was even a phenomenon that rural hukou personnel re-entered the city.
It was not until three years of natural disasters that the central government made decisive and drastic adjustments to its economic policies that another climax of factory workers and urban residents "going to the countryside" appeared.
With regard to the movement of educated youth going to the countryside in the 1950s and after the Cultural Revolution, how many years later, 198 1 year later, the State Council Youth Office had a basic view on the history of educated youth going to the countryside, the main contents are as follows:
"10, the office of the leading group for educated youth in the State Council drafted a review and summary of the work of educated youth in the past 25 years, and put forward some basic views on the cause, development, mistakes and lessons of this movement:
First, in the 1950s, educated youth went to the countryside, which was based on the national conditions of China with a large population, weak foundation and difficult employment. This is a major attempt by our party to solve the employment problem. It is not a product of the Cultural Revolution.
Second, it was originally an employment problem for educated youth to go to the countryside, but in the 10 year of the Cultural Revolution, it was carried out as a political movement with biased guiding ideology and serious work mistakes, which caused a waste of money and people's dissatisfaction and damaged the reputation of going to the countryside. (Note: Excerpted from Unnamed Memorabilia of Young Intellectuals Going to the Countryside)
This summary is basically in line with objective facts and is fair. Please pay attention to the statement in the article that "educated youth going to the countryside is originally an employment problem", not "need to be re-educated by poor middle peasants." At that time, the educated youth also complained that the working class was the leading class, so wouldn't it be better to be re-educated by the working class?
"Deviation of guiding ideology", can it bring the correctness of the follow-up work? The educated youth who began to go to the countryside on a large scale after the Cultural Revolution were simply wrong! Regrettably, this experience and lesson cost the country a huge price, and the educated youth also paid a precious price for it.