The Communist Party: "Special Party Newspaper"

On October 20, 1939, the Communist was founded in Yan'an. It was published at the end of each month and stopped in August 1941. After one year and ten months, it published 19 issues and 196 articles. It was an authoritative inner-party theoretical publication founded by the CPC Central Committee during the Anti Japanese War.

　　"It is necessary to publish such a publication"

On the occasion of the founding of the Communist, Mao Zedong wrote the famous "Communist publication" for the first issue, and gladly inscribed the title "Communist". Mao Zedong pointed out: "The Central Committee had long planned to publish an inner-party publication, and now it has finally come true. This publication is named" The Communist ". At the current time, it is necessary to publish such a publication."

After the Anti-Japanese War entered the stalemate stage, in order to enable the party's organizational capabilities to adapt to the changes in the situation of the Anti-Japanese War, on March 15, 1938, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Decision on the Development of a Large number of Party Members." After more than a year, the number of members of the Communist Party of China has increased rapidly, and the party organization has continued to expand, but many spies and speculators have also mixed into the party. The party's thinking has been eroded by some non-proletarian ideas, which has affected the consolidation of the party organization.

At the same time, the focus of the Kuomintang's policy shifted from anti-Japanese to anti-communist under the political inducement of the Japanese invaders. In January 1939, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Fifth Central Committee of the Kuomintang established the reactionary policy of "dissolving the Communist Party, preventing the Communist Party, restricting the Communist Party, and anti-Communist". It not only "restricted the Communist Party" and "anti-Communist" in the political and military aspects, but also promoted anti-Communist concepts ideologically., Create anti-communist public opinion, and strictly monitor and obstruct the publication of CCP newspapers and periodicals.

On August 25, 1939, the "Decision on Consolidating the Party" passed by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee pointed out: "Consolidating the Party ideologically, politically and organizationally has become an extremely serious task for us today." To build a "national model", "broad mass", "fully consolidated" and "Bolsevik" Communist Party of China, and to complete this "great project", "it is not the general party newspaper that can be competent, and there must be special Party newspaper". It is in this context, "the Communist" came into being.

　Distinctive features of the journal
The layout of "The Communists" is serious and simple. The front page catalogue of each issue neatly lists the titles of the articles published. In addition to the 16th and 17th issues, each issue catalogue also has one or two additional columns, mainly including special articles, reprints, communications, communications surveys, branch work communications, cadre education communications, border rural work communications, learning communications, etc. The text of the publication adopts a vertical, right-to-left reading format. At the end of some articles, if there is more than 1/3 of the page left, it will quote the relevant expositions of classic writers or some of the relevant documents of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. The integrity and enrichment of the layout is also the propaganda of Marxism-Leninism and the Party Central Committee's line, guidelines, and policies.

The Communist Party has a flexible but rigorous attitude. At the beginning of the publication, the editorial board planned to publish one issue at the end of each month. After December 1939, under the limitations of objective conditions such as the situation of the Anti-Japanese War, lack of paper and ink, and printing difficulties, its editorial board adhered to the attitude of preferring to lack of abuse and flexibility. The distribution cycle is no longer fixed, and the volume of each issue is not fixed, and the content of each issue is more than 80000 words, it accounts for more than 80 pages, but only 50 pages.

After the content of each issue is screened and reviewed by the editorial board, about 10 articles are determined and published in a unified arrangement. If the content of the article is wrong, the follow-up publication will issue a correction statement, reflecting the rigorous and realistic guidelines for running the journal.

The Communist Party is rich in content. The articles published in the journal are mainly divided into two categories. One is the inner-party documents issued by the CPC Central Committee, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, and the Central Youth Commission, it involves a series of important instructions and decisions on the party's organizational structure, discipline building, branch work, mass work, youth work, intellectuals, the United front, rectification review, cadre education, national education, ethnic issues, financial issues, propaganda and agitation, and many other aspects. The second is the articles on party building and various specific tasks written by comrades in the party, including articles with theoretical guidance value by the leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; it also includes the introduction of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia, Hubei-Henan border, Shanxi-Cr-Hebei, Shanxi-Hebei, etc. Articles on advanced experience in the construction of grassroots party organizations in the anti-Japanese base areas and setting up models; and work reports by grassroots staff describing the actual development of the base areas, and after a lot of investigation and research, the communication report on rural economy, class relations, branch education, ethnic status, cadre-group relations and so on.

The Communist Party reader group is clear. In its inaugural issue, the editorial board made it clear that "The Communist is an internal Party publication and is limited to reading by Party comrades. The Communist is not for sale and may not be sold outside the Party, and every comrade who reads the Communist should protect it well and not lose it." It highlights the particularity of "The Communist" different from other publicly published publications. As an inner-party publication, "The Communist" publishes a large number of secrets and important political documents about the party, which is limited to reading and studying by comrades in the party. Therefore, the publication of strict confidentiality requirements.

The article "How to Keep the Secrets of the Communists-A Letter from Readers" in the 15th issue pointed out: "It is currently the only important secret document of the nature of work guidance in the party." It further emphasizes the confidential nature of the "Communists", and requires all party members to assume the obligation to keep the "Communists" confidential, strictly follow the procedures of sending, receiving and circulating, and prohibiting "like reading the party's public publication" Liberation "" in front of the masses. It is not allowed to borrow or copy from non-party personnel, and clearly pointed out: "Pay attention to its safety, that is, pay attention to the safety of the party." The protection of the safety of publications and the preservation of the secrets of publications have been raised to the level of the safety of the party and even the success or failure of the revolution, and the importance of keeping the secrets of the "Communists" has been extremely emphasized.

"Special Party Newspaper"
As an authoritative inner-party theoretical publication founded by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the primary task of "Communists" is to help the Communist Party of China and guide the members of the Communist Party to carry out party building. For the first time in the history of the party, "The Communist" clearly defined "party building" as a "great project", and answered a series of questions about what kind of party to build, why to build the party, and how to build the party in the process of publication and distribution; for the first time Combine the party's ideological construction, political construction, and organizational construction, comprehensively, systematically and authoritatively put forward the party building program of "completely consolidated ideologically, politically and organizationally"; for the first time put forward the thesis of "three magic weapons", summed up the experience of the new democratic revolution, and explained in detail the party's line, principles and policies during the Anti-Japanese War; for the first time, "according to the unified understanding of Marxist-Leninist theory and the practice of the Chinese revolution", creatively explains how to treat Marxism scientifically in the construction of the Communist Party of China. In August 1941, the Communist Party was published until the 19th issue.

In less than two years of release, "The Communist", with its unique positioning, distinctive features, and clear theme, uses a serious and simple layout, substantial and extensive content, and simple and solemn language to unify the thinking of the whole party and clarify It has played an important role in political direction, consolidating the party's organization, and guiding the work of party members, and has important historical value, theoretical value, practical value and research value.

　Source: People's Political Consultative Conference