Gutian Conference

In January 1929 Mao Zedong and Zhu De led the main force of the Fourth Red Army out of Jinggangshan toward southern Jiangxi and western Fujian, opening a new base. Because the Red Army consisted mainly of peasants and soldiers from old armies, mistaken ideas existed in the Party and army: a purely military viewpoint, ultra-democracy, disregard of organization, absolute egalitarianism, roving-rebel thinking and remnants of warlordism. In September 1929 the Central Committee sent the Fourth Army's Front Committee a letter of instruction (the “September Letter”). On 28–29 December 1929 the Ninth Party Congress of the Fourth Red Army met at Gutian Village, Shanghang County, Fujian, known as the “Gutian Conference”. Chen Yi presided and Mao Zedong gave the political report; the congress adopted the Gutian Conference Resolution drafted by Mao, whose first part is the famous “On Correcting Mistaken Ideas in the Party”. The resolution analyzed the manifestations, sources and remedies of non-proletarian ideas in the Party and army, stressed building the Party with proletarian ideology, and established the principles of building the Party ideologically and the army politically. It set out the nature, purpose and tasks of the Red Army, stating that it was an armed body carrying out the political tasks of the revolution and must obey the Communist Party absolutely, and made clear the principle of the Party's absolute leadership over the army. The congress elected a new Front Committee, with Mao Zedong as secretary. The Gutian Conference was an important milestone in the history of Party and Red Army building, and its resolution became a programmatic document for both. The meeting site at Gutian, Shanghang, Fujian, is a nationally protected historic site.