How to Enhance the Party Spirit of Young Cadres -- Revisiting Chen Yun's "Enhancing the Party Spirit of New Party Members and New Cadres"

General Secretary Xi Jinping profoundly pointed out: "Young cadres should adhere to the party spirit to do things." Adhering to the principle of party spirit is the fundamental political character of a communist, and enhancing the cultivation of party spirit is a lifelong task for every communist. Chen Yun attaches great importance to the party spirit cultivation of young cadres. The "personal fame and fortune are as light as water, and the party's cause is as heavy as a mountain" he advocated and put into practice is not only a vivid portrayal of his lofty party spirit cultivation in his life, but also his earnest entrustment to all Party comrades, especially young Party members and cadres.

In September 1942, at the increasingly difficult time of the War of Resistance against Japan, in view of the serious problem of weak party spirit of young cadres, which was exposed in practical work, universal and urgent to be solved, Chen Yun, then head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, wrote an article entitled "strengthening the party spirit of new party members and new cadres" (originally entitled "the phenomenon of weak party spirit of new cadres in Yan'an and how to enhance their party spirit"). The article runs through a strong sense of problem, deeply analyzes the phenomenon and reasons of the weak party spirit concept of young cadres at that time, and points out the ways and means to enhance their party spirit concept, which has important enlightenment and reference significance for us to do a good job in strengthening the party spirit of young cadres today.

1. directly hit the problem: "It is a very serious phenomenon that so many new party members and new cadres have such a weak concept of party spirit"
During the Yan'an period, in order to adapt to the new development situation brought about by the all-round Anti-Japanese War, the Central Committee made the "Resolution on the Development of a Large Number of Party Members." After the "Resolution" was issued, party organizations and party members in various regions developed rapidly. A large number of educated young people came to Yan'an with the passion of resisting Japan and saving the nation. Some of them entered schools and some entered institutions, bringing fresh blood to Yan'an and strengthening the revolution. The power. At the same time, with the rapid increase in the number of Party members, the composition and ideological situation of Party members are naturally more complicated than in the past. In this regard, Chen Yun keenly pointed out that "most of these new party members are loose petty bourgeois elements" and "many of them still carry strong non-proletarian ideas and habits".
In 1942, in order to strengthen the party's work force in enemy-occupied areas, the Organization Department of the Central Committee planned to mobilize a group of young cadres to work in enemy-occupied areas, provided that these cadres have available social relations behind enemy lines or can find a relationship based on transition. Undoubtedly, to take part in this work is to leave Yan'an, and there is a certain danger. During the selection process, through searching for and talking with relevant comrades in various agencies and schools, Chen Yun found that among the 117 educated youths who joined the party during the Anti-Japanese War with more suitable conditions, except for a few who expressed their obedience to the party's distribution and acceptance of work, most of the rest Everyone puts personal interests first, or conceals prevarication, or refuses face to face. At the time of the national disaster and the Yan'an rectification movement, there were so many young party members and cadres with such a weak sense of party spirit, greedy for ease, afraid of difficulties, putting personal interests above the interests of the party, and disobeying organizational arrangements. It was completely beyond Chen Yun's expectation. He deeply felt the seriousness of the problem and the urgency of solving it.

2. Reveals Lesions: Personal Interests Can't be Sacrificed to Obey Party Interests
What is the reason why so many young Party members and cadres do not accept the jobs assigned by the organization? In order to find out this issue, Chen Yun conducted an in-depth investigation and study, and made a detailed mapping and in-depth analysis of the origins, experiences, and thoughts of all 117 people.
Chen Yun found that there are four types of people who do not obey the party's work distribution: one is "people who claim to be cultural people". On the surface, these people use no secret work experience or social relations and poor health as reasons, but in fact they are pretentious. They regard themselves as writers, dramatists and singers, afraid of danger or inseparable from their lovers; the other is that they have "mixed up in society and have some worldly experience, people who joined the party with the wind during the Anti-Japanese War", these people try to reduce the availability of their own social relations when talking with the organization, in fact, because their family is in Yan'an, their work is quite stable now, and they are unwilling to do dangerous things. One category is "young and naive, living in peace and fear of secret work, or when participating in the revolution, that is, how many people with brilliant ideas", this kind of people, in addition to their inability to leave their loved ones, their fear of secret work and their fear of danger, many of them are because they are now back and do not have a part-time job, and they feel that they are not good-looking for the face of their families and villages. One category is "smooth sailing college students". They were originally young masters and were busy when they took part in the revolution. They described their social relations as unusable. In fact, they could not do without their lovers and fear of danger. According to Chen Yun's analysis, a common basic reason why these people do not accept jobs is that "there is no clear idea that they are ready to sacrifice their lives for the revolution." therefore, "when they encounter jobs that are life-threatening assigned by the party, they always try their best to shirk the buck, and in order to shirk the buck beautifully and make the party not easy to detect, they always have a lot of reasons to defend themselves".
Not only that, Chen Yun also found that even those who expressed their willingness to accept the job, "there is no such thing as a lot of concern in Yan'an, weak health, and poor relations behind enemy lines, but after consideration, determined to sacrifice everything for the benefit of the party." Therefore, "it has not yet reached the level of party spirit that a party member should have". However, their willingness to risk it also "shows how much their personal interests have been overcome". Why were they able to overcome their personal interests and obey the interests of the Party to a certain extent? Chen Yun found through comparison that "this has a lot to do with the considerable training they had received from the lower classes in the past or the stricter education in some schools in Yan'an".
So, what is "the level of party spirit that a party member should have"? In Chen Yun's view, the core criterion for measuring the level of party spirit of a party member is that he should be able to correctly handle the relationship between personal interests and the interests of the party. In this regard, he pointed out many times: "every member of the Communist Party should put the interests of the revolution and the party first, and deal with all personal problems on the principle that the interests of the revolution and the party are above all else." So what happens when, in the work of the revolution, in the work of the Party, there is a situation where the personal interests of a Party member are inconsistent with the interests of the Party? Chen Yun made it clear that "at such times, every Party member must rely on his infinite loyalty to the Party in the revolution, resolutely sacrifice his personal interests and submit to the interests of the revolution and the Party as a whole."

3. analysis of the reasons: "The reasons for the weak party spirit of new party members and new cadres in Yan'an are both internal and external"
Why do young party members and cadres in Yan'an have such a serious phenomenon of weak party spirit? Chen Yun gave an analysis from both internal and external causes on the basis of in-depth investigation and comparative analysis.
The internal reason is that they are all "intellectual youth of petty bourgeois origin". The petty bourgeois consciousness is strong, while the proletarian consciousness is relatively weak.
Chen Yun made a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the external reasons, which can be summarized into two points. One is that these young party members and cadres "have not been properly trained after joining the party". The vast majority of these new cadres and new party members are young students. They grew up in an anti-Japanese environment and are in a peaceful border area. They have not encountered any major difficulties and have not experienced the test and training of a complex environment. As a result, their shortcomings rarely have the opportunity to be exposed and corrected, and even grow invisibly. The new party members and new cadres of the same party age who have been trained in the front or at the grass-roots level for several years are obviously different from those who have been in Yan'an for a long time, which shows that "only by training in a long-term difficult environment can we gradually eliminate their petty bourgeoisie consciousness and enhance their proletarian consciousness".
The second is that "some of our shortcomings in education have more or less contributed to their bad thinking". This is mainly manifested in three aspects: (1) The dogmatic tendency in school education makes them talk about the provisions in the books, which invisibly encourages their arrogant attitude and unrealistic style. Certain inappropriate practices in the education of (II) organizations have contributed to their speculative and hypocritical psychology, free and loose habits and a bias towards personal interests. For example, organizational life is mostly formalistic, ignoring real discipline education; for example, when assigning work or studying, there is much accommodation; for example, party building education fails to emphasize the issue of individual obedience to the party, and so on. (III) the influence of departmentalism. For example, some organs and schools secretly pull people, and even when the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee transfers cadres of a certain system, a cadre could have accepted the transfer, but the original organs and schools intentionally or unintentionally indicated that they would not accept the transfer. In addition, some organs adopt irresponsible measures. When they find that a party member and cadre is not very ideological, they do not patiently educate them, but use the methods of transferring work and sending them to schools. All these have directly or indirectly contributed to the individualism and unhealthy tendencies of the new party members and cadres.
When the reason is found, the direction to solve the problem is clear. As Chen Yun pointed out: "Because of its internal reasons, the phenomenon of weak party spirit is inevitable. Because of its external reasons, the phenomenon of weak party spirit can be completely prevented or overcome in a short time. The way is to change the external bad factors and make it a good factor."

4. suit the remedy to the case: "in order to make a person with a weak sense of party spirit reach a strong state quickly, we can use the method of strengthening his education and training"
After revealing the focus and finding the cause, Chen Yun prescribes the right remedy to the case, and very clearly pointed out that the way to solve the problem of weak party spirit of young party members and cadres is to strengthen their education and exercise. He emphasized three aspects in this regard.
First, to strengthen the party spirit education for young party members and cadres, the purpose is to correct understanding and transfer the atmosphere through strict education, so that they fully realize that "every party member must have the determination to be ready to sacrifice for the party at any time. This is the standard of whether a party member is qualified". In this article, combined with the harshness of the Anti-Japanese War struggle, Chen Yun also specially explained how Communist Party members are loyal to the party and sacrifice for the party, and revealed the essence and requirements of the spirit of sacrifice of party members. He pointed out that every new party member and new cadre "must make it clear that he is a victim of the revolution, not a person who enjoys the victory of the revolution. You know, the occasion of sacrifice is not only in the cruel execution ground and the battlefield, but also in the very ordinary technical work and business work. It is also a sacrifice to work hard, work hard and become ill in these positions. The value of the sacrifice depends not on the apparent cost, but on the need of the party for it".
Second, let young party members and cadres go deep into the grass-roots level to strengthen practical training, and "send a large number of new party members and cadres in Yan'an to local areas, technical departments, and affairs work". In this article, Chen Yun specifically emphasized the basic principle of using young cadres, which is to strengthen the tempering of their will, "to make them go more against the wind and less downwind". He also pointed out in particular: "When necessary, certain new party members and new cadres should be assigned tasks that they do not want to do in order to temper their will. However, in assigning work, the organization department must act prudently and not be hasty in order to prevent worse results."
Third, strengthen disciplinary education for young party members and cadres, "emphasizing unconditional obedience to the party and emphasizing that the party's interests are above all else". To distinguish between different situations, Chen Yun stressed: when assigning work, the organization department should strictly correct the style of accommodation, and must give more consideration in advance. Once a decision is made, it is never allowed to bargain. When arranging the work and study of new party members and cadres, it is necessary to reject any suggestions of non-organizational lines from anyone and strictly correct all direct or indirect styles of departmentalism that are not in line with organizational discipline. In cadre inspection, administrative and party leaders at all levels should review and summarize the past disciplinary education in detail, and regard disciplinary education as a part of daily inspection; those who violate discipline should be given appropriate disciplinary education and disciplinary sanctions in a timely manner.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "Party spirit is the cornerstone for Party members and cadres to establish themselves, their career, their words and their morality. What determines how a person is is his conduct, and what determines how a Party member is his Party spirit." How to make the "cornerstone" of party spirit solid and stable is not only a lifelong topic that every party member must answer, but also a major issue that needs to be solved urgently in front of every young party member and cadre. Revisiting Chen Yun's classic document "Enhancing the Party Spirit of New Party Members and New Cadres" and learning from it the methods and ways to enhance the party spirit of young comrades has important enlightenment significance for us to continue to answer the topic of enhancing party spirit under the new situation.

Source: Central Party History and Literature Research Institute