A Study On Ideological And Political Education Of CPC Cadres In 1949-1956

Cadres are the determinant once a political guideline is decided upon.Cadres have traditionally played a decisive role in the operation of political forces.It is particularly true when it comes to the Communist Party of China(CPC),a party that puts emphasis on the communication within the organization and goes after efficient and flexible operation.CPC cadres are leaders and organizers of the revolution,construction and reform programs in China and,in achieving all these,they take on essential roles of leadership,organization,promotion,demonstration and education.The ideological and political status of the cadre group has direct impact on the style of the Party,the government and the people and on the success of the Party's cause.Therefore,the issue of the cadres' ideological and political education(CIPE)is not only an educating problem about individual morals and personalities,but a major political issue concerning whether the Party is able to shoulder the mission of governing and rejuvenating the country.The 1949-1956 period is a major transforming phase for the CPC to consolidate its political power,establish new systems,rebuild the nation and restore social order.It is also a turning point where the CIPE evolved from the education of a revolutionary party to that of a governing party.Upon fully inheriting the fundamental experience formed in the period of democratic revolution,the Party started to practice CIPE in the governing condition back then.Given the seriousness and complexity of both the domestic and foreign situation and the laborious and tough historic tasks in this period,the problems and challenges in CIPE in the early days of our founding were in full swing in terms of their number,scale and strength,but in the meanwhile,the experience thus accumulated,which served as a link in the whole history of the Party's CIPE,was richer than that in other periods.Thus,the author combed through and explored the CIPE between 1949 and 1956,hoping to offer guidance and reference for CIPE in the transformation of the contemporary Chinese society.Upon absorbing and referring to previous related research,the author took Marxist theories on ideological and political education as the guidance and set his eyes on the disciplinary research of the science of ideological and political education.By reference to a large number of historical documents,the author started the study from analyzing the principal motives of the Party's CIPE in the years of 1949-1956 by means of combining history and theory,unifying logic and history as well as systematic analysis.Then,the author,by following the inner logic along which things developed,studied the objectives,content,approaches and methods of CIPE.Upon such basis,the author summarized the historical contribution,successful experience and limits of CIPEin this period and obtained enlightenment about how to promote the innovative development of CIPE program in the new era.The dissertation consists of five parts.In the first part,the author analyzed the major motives of CIPE in the years of1949-1956 and identified its logical origin.Firstly,the growing deterioration of cadres' work style is the major inner motive of CIPE in the early days of our founding.Due to a number of subjective and objective reasons,unhealthy working styles,such as bureaucracy,authoritarianism,decentralism,corruption and degeneration,and arrogance,has begun to grow and spread among the group of cadres since the establishment of China,which posed new challenges to CIPE.Secondly,another motive lies in the new problems arising within the group of cadres.Upon the initial period of the establishment of China,a huge number of cadres were badly needed in the newly-born government and the number of cadres underwent a ferocious increase in a short time.The rapid growth of cadre population was accompanied with remarkable changes in the structure of the cadre group.There emerged new problems and situations in the cadre group,like defects in the Party's ideology and organization and the absence of unity in the Party,which severely impacted the improvement of the Party's governing ability and impaired the giant steps of the cause of the Party and people.Considering all these factors,it was imperative to strengthen CIPE.Finally,negative effects the change of international environment brought upon cadres' ideology are the external motive of CIPE in the initial years of China.The international environment has undergone fundamental changes since the end of WWII and the cold war between the U.S.and the Soviet Union began to emerge,where two camps as well as two social systems confronted and intertwined with each other.After China was established,the western hostile forces led by the U.S.,in the meanwhile of blocking and threatening China,made great efforts to conduct propaganda campaign and resorted to various means to reinforce cultural infiltration against China.In such a context,the ideological values and political stance of CPC cadres were inevitably impacted by the corrupt ideology from the imperialistic nations,a fact that posed new challenges to the Party's CIPE.In the second part,the author discussed the specific objectives and main content of the Party's CIPE from 1949 to 1956.The Party set up the specific objectives in CIPE,i.e.to improve cadres' theoretical attainment,keep the good work style of “two musts”,strengthen unity within the Party and follow closely the demands of the situation tasks,on the basis of exact grasp over both the internal and external motives of CIPE upon the establishment of China.Considering that the objectives of education constrained its content,the above education objectives dictated that the content of CIPEin this period was to take theoretical education as its soul,the education of work style and discipline as its core and the policy education as its focus and thus to build up a clear and well-organized system of education system.Among which,the main content of cadres' theoretical education included learning and disseminating Marxist philosophy,learning Mao Zedong thought and the economic and building theories of the Soviet Union.The education on cadre's work style mainly included carrying out rectification campaign,conducting anti-bureaucracy education,promoting anti-corruption and advocacy of clean government through the movement against three evils,namely corruption,waste and bureaucracy,improving the Party's work style and building an honest government through the new “Against Three Evils” campaign.The disciplinary education on cadres mainly included conducting the standard education of Party members by integrating the party-rectifying campaign,strengthening the education of political discipline through the Gao-Rao incident.Cadres' policy education mainly included conducting the united-front education centering on restoring the national economy,practicing rectification education in the suppression of the counter-revolutionaries,propagandizing current affairs during the Korean War,learning and propagandizing land reform policies and the general route in the transition period.In the third part,the author discussed the major methods and means of CIPE in1949-1956.The richness of CIPE content in the initial years of the establishment resulted in flexible and various education methods and means.However,from the national situation and the CIPE practice in this period,the most popular methods included theoretical education,practice education,typical education and criticism and self-criticism.The means to promote theoretical education mainly included building up the network of party schools nationwide to carry out theoretical training,setting up after-work theory schools for cadres to learn,creating Marxist night schools and universities to perform full-time theoretical training and strengthening cadres' on-work self-study.The means of practice education mainly included engaging in production labor,taking part in political campaigns and conducting surveys and researches.The means to promote typical education mainly included setting up exemplary figures to bring positive guidance for cadres and making use of typical cases to warn cadres of wrong practices.The means of criticism and self-criticism mainly included accepting the criticism from the masses by means of newspapers and other publications and conducting inner-Party criticism and self-criticism in the rectification campaign.In the fourth part,the author summarized the historical contributions of CIPE in1949-1956.In these years,the Party correctly grasped the major motives of CIPE,effectively took various education methods and means and greatly strengthened the effectiveness and timeliness of CIPE.CIPE made remarkable historical contributionsfor the consolidation of the newly born government,the smooth accomplishment of socialist transformation as well as the start of building up the socialist cause in an all-round way and served as a key link in the history of the Party's CIPE.In the fifth part,the author summarized the successful experience and historic limits of CIPE in 1949-1956 and revealed the practical enlightenment of CIPE in this period.In the CIPE practice in these years,the Party strengthened system building and fully played the leaders' exemplary role,stuck to being subordinate to and serving the Party's central task,tried every means to satisfy cadres' legal interests,set up educating content scientifically and took effective methods.By doing so,CIPE was strengthened in terms of its support ability,emotional appeal,practical impact,persuasiveness and attractiveness.However,given the historical conditions and environment as well as the cognitive capability of the average people,there were limits in CIPE in this period.They were rather conspicuous in the following aspects: negative effects of“campaign-style” education,dogmatic tendency existing to some degree in theoretical learning and the “left” deviation in educating and transforming the intellectuals.These successful experience and historical limits are important enlightenment for CIPE in the new era.As for CIPE in the new era,we should strengthen system guarantee and achieve the effective linkage of regular education and intensive education.We should keep CIPE fitting into the social development and hold onto the organic unity of sticking to the central task of service and being human-oriented.We should also keep moving forward with the time and innovating the content and methods of CIPE.