Resolution on certain questions in the history of our party since the founding of

the People’s Republic of China was an important document which firstly adopted in

the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party

of China on June 27, 1981. This document made a summary to the important events

of the Communist Party of China in the past sixty years, and also determined the

official evaluation to some activities, figures and thoughts in the course of history,

especially the status of Chairman Mao. At the same time, it gave series of crucial

instructions to the future development and construction, pointed out that the Party

should follow the correct way established at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh

Central Committee and learn from the construction process that the CCP had already

gone through.

This document consisted of eight components, and these components could be

roughly divided into three parts. The first component to the sixth component belonged

to part one, it was a review to the course of history which the CCP passed from 1921

to 1981. The part two was the seventh component, it appraised the historical status of

Chairman Mao and his thoughts. The eighth component, which was named as “Unite

and Strive to Build a Powerful, Modern Socialist China”, could be considered as the

last part where the drafters made the critical instructions to the following socialism

constructions.

In the first part, this document divided the development process of the

Communist Party of China into six different stages, the first two components are the

overall summaries and reviews of the totally sixty-year history of CCP, and the other

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four components are the evaluation and analysis to the construction process of CCP

after the establishment of the people’s Republic of China. This document made a

review of the events of CCP in the first two components, and analyzed the reasons for

the victory of CCP. It was defined as the conclusion that the victory of CCP was the

choice by Chinese people, and this victory had already finished the enslavement of

imperialists and colonialists in the mainland China while the CCP liberated people

from the rule of exploiters. This part was mainly focus on the activities of CCP after

the establishment of New China, so it only described the events which took place

before 1949 with a short length. It was worthy to note that by the end of part one, the

document indicated the important role played by the great leaders’ leadership during

the process to the victory new-democratic revolution, particularly emphasized the

construction of Chairman Mao. The following four components analyzed the

achievement gained by CCP during the twenty-two years of socialism construction

process, evaluate the properties of several events such as the Giant Leap and the

Cultural Revolution as well. This document pointed out that CCP had already gained

great achievement in the Socialist Modernization Drive, especially in the construction

of heavy industry and military manufacturing. On the other hand, it admitted that the

“left errors” existed throughout the way of Socialist Modernization Drive, which

caused irreversible damage to the social development. The Giant Leap and the

Cultural Revolution were the representatively radical activities caused by the “left

errors”, and the personal cult of Chairman Mao was also one important reason for the

initiation of these campaigns. But this document clarified that Chairman Mao was

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used by the counterrevolutionary group “the Gang of Four” in this process, it was not

his intention to initiate the Cultural Revolution by mistake. This document also

evaluated other crucial leaders of CCP, some leaders who were persecuted in the

Cultural Revolution such as Liu Shaoqi and Peng Dehuai, were now rehabilitated.

Hua Guofeng was criticized because of supporting Chairman Mao, while Deng

Xiaoping was defined as the core figure of the second generation of leader group.

Part two explored the thought and achievement of Chairman Mao, refine the

historical status of him. It was claimed that although Chairman had some mistakes

during the process of Socialist Modernization Drive, he was still the Great Leader of

CCP and Chinese people and his achievement should not be negated. At the same

time, Mao Zedong Thought was certified as the guiding ideology of CCP, and would

be used as the guideline in the following socialist practice.

The drafters put forward series of instructions to the Socialist Modernization

Drive in the last part of this document. They emphasized that the present target of

CCP was the economic construction and the economic construction should fit the

objective law and the reality condition of the society. In this part the main principal

contradiction was reiterated, it was stated as “the contradiction between the growing

material and cultural needs of the people and the backwardness of social production”.

The second generational leader group believed that they had discovered the correct

way to build socialism in the transitional history period, and they had the confidence

to avoid the mistakes that the CCP made at past.

As it was summarized at the former paragraphs, the main significance of

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Resolution on certain questions in the history of our party since the founding of the

People’s Republic of China was evaluation and review, making policy or solving

reality problems were not the purpose of this document. This document displayed its

principal influence in the ideology field at first. The Giant Leap and Cultural

Revolution were admitted as the mistakes in the way of socialist construction, it was a

no small breakthrough of this document. However, although the image of Chairman

Mao was no longer as the “almighty” in the Cultural Revolution, the special authority

of him was remained. In the statement of this document, Chairman Mao was

described as a great leader who was used by the devilish organizations, the all

mistakes he made were actually out of his will. In fact, the authoritative status of Mao

did not hurt at all, so that his influence would continue to exist in the process of

Socialist Modernization Drive. The Communist Party of China cannot get rid of the

giant influence of this Great Leader as long as it exist as a ruling party.