Campaign To Eliminate Counterrevolutionaries,1951-1960

This dissertation is a monographic study on the "eliminating counterrevolutionary movement" between 1951 and 1960.Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries started in Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries. In March 1950, the CPC Central Committee launched the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries. In mid May 1951, the movement to suppress counterrevolutionaries entered in the contraction phase. The movement to suppress counterrevolutionaries evolved from massive purge of society to the purge inside the military and the government. On May 21, the CPC Central Committee formally issued the Directive of Purging the "middle lamella" and "inner cone". In fact, Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries began.In order to deal with Party members who were found to have political and historical problems during purging the " middle lamella "and" inner cone ", in August 1951, the CPC Central Committee issued Treating Method of Communist Party members all hiding political and historical problems in purging the "middle lamella" and "inner cone" ( Draft). This work of inner-party purge has been extended to December 1953.The movement to suppress counterrevolutionaries and the movement to purge the "middle lamella" and "inner cone" led the CPC Central Committee to decide to investigate the cadres. In November 1953, the CPC Central Committee issued the Decision on investigating the cadres. This work lasted until October 1955. During the investigation, the Pan Yang, Hu Feng incidents occurred, which shocked the nation. The CPC Central Committee took advantage of these two incidents, and carried out the Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries on a grand scale.On July 1, 1955, the Central Committee issued the Directive on fighting and eliminating the hidden counterrevolutionaries. After the Directive was issued, all levels of the Party, government,army,civil organizations and companies plunged into the struggle for eliminating all hidden counterrevolutionaries.On December 1956, the first batch of Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries ended across the country. After that, the CPC Central Committee started the second, third and fourth waves of the Campaign. On December 1958, the Campaign entered the final stage. In the eighth plenary session of the eighth of Hardy, the Campaign policy gradually tightened. In September 1960, the Central Committee found out the mistake of the Ministry of Public Security in estimation of the situation, and stopped the Campaign.During the Campaign, the CPC Central Committee issued six policies successively: the methods of telling apart and dealing with the counterrevolutionaries and other bad elements; the investigation rules which should include the provisions of the scope of the investigation and procedures and policy of mail inspection; policy of arrestment, censorship and approval; policy of screening the verdict; the economic treatment policy of the different people; the treatment policy of people’s escape and self-suicide.With the Campaign progressing at the national level, Shanxi province also launched the Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries at the same time. The Campaign in Shanxi province,with seven waves in turn, ended in April 1962. During this period, Shanxi provincial committee of the group of ten promoted the progress of the movement by four methods including: holding meetings to plan for the movement in the province; sending inspection groups to investigate the movement across the province; starting bulletins to exchange information; popularizing local movement experience.At the same time, the Shanxi provincial Party committee group of ten also enacted local policies according the the local condition, such as the policies for screening the verdict, arresting the guilty, working regulations of inspection stations and identifying the core members of the Comrade.On July 1956, Xingxian launched the Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries. The Campaign in Xingxian with seven batches successively, ended in March 1962. During the Campaign in Xingxian, the movement principles adopted by the Five People Group in the county committee included: great attention from the party committee, investigating and collecting evidence, promoting Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries, and screening the verdict.The campaign involved a wide range and lasted a long duration, and during which, many persons were purged. It had a profound impact on the contemporary political, economic, cultural and social life of China. But in the study of Chinese contemporary history, the field is not carefully cultivated. Many works are still limited in drawing simple conceptual conclusions.Therefore, it is necessary to restore the historical truth and reflect on history.As for the contribution, this paper had: (1) clarified the chronology and cause of the Campaign to eliminate counterrevolutionaries; (2) reviewed the process of the Campaign and discussed the six policies; (3) discussed the process of the Campaign in Shanxi province and described the Xingxian Campaign; (4) proposed a personal evaluation which considered the Campaign as a negative event.The deficiency of this paper lies in the inability to collect more archives. Although the existing material is rather abundant, a detailed study on general conditions of all the provinces is still impossible.