"The Advancing Party Must Hold the Advancing Science" -- How to Develop Science and Technology in Yan'an Period

The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is located in the northwest border, sparsely populated, traffic blocked, and culturally backward. The natural material foundation and human resources of the Anti-Japanese War are very weak. The Party Central Committee and Chairman Mao are far-sighted, and strategically and tactically attach importance to promoting the development of productive forces through the development of science and technology, improving people's livelihood, and planting the material foundation for a protracted war of resistance.
attach great importance to and have broad consensus on science and technology
In February 1940, Mao Zedong pointed out Secondary specialized school the door of his speech at the Natural Science Research Association of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region: "Natural science is a very good thing. It can solve life problems such as clothing, food, housing, and transportation, so everyone must agree with it. Everyone must study natural science." He stressed that cadres in government organs should study natural science knowledge and personally popularize natural science knowledge among cadres and troops. Liu Shaoqi stressed in his speech at the Workers' Congress of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border region on May 20, 1944: "if China is to become strong and prosperous, it is also necessary to turn China into an industrial country, and their responsibility in the future is to turn China from an agricultural country into an industrial country." During the Anti-Japanese War, Zhou Enlai wrote a special article "How to Fight a Protracted War of Resistance". He pointed out from the perspective of the importance of national defense science and technology forces against the war: "To defeat Japanese imperialism, there must be a strong national defense industry in order to produce modern military equipment." And take advantage of the convenience of work, for the border area to recruit a large number of scientific and technological personnel. Zhu De warmly praised: "natural science, this is a great power." In his speech at the Seventh National Congress, Ren Bishi pointed out: "Construction requires experience and scientific knowledge. We should be good at winning over and using old technical cadres, such as engineers, technicians, teachers, etc., and give them preferential treatment and transformation. At the same time, we should also train reliable technical cadres from young workers and farmers to be the backbone." Chen Yun even put forward the slogan of "robbing intellectuals. The central leadership group attaches great importance to science and technology and broad consensus, which has laid a solid political foundation for the development of science and technology in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
Reward free research and give preferential treatment to intellectuals
The "May 1st Program" with a quasi-constitutional nature clearly stipulates: "Reward free research, respect intellectuals, promote scientific knowledge and literary and artistic movements, and welcome scientific and artistic talents." The "Central Military Commission's Policy Directive on the Absorption and Treatment of Specialists in the Army" emphasizes: "All talents shall be given special preferential treatment in material in accordance with the instructions of the Central Committee. The standard of material preferential treatment shall be stipulated in accordance with the degree of their ability and knowledge, so that they and their families can concentrate on their work without worrying about life, and for special talents, they will not hesitate to pay a lot of money to hire. We should try our best to purchase the scientific equipment they need and try our best to ensure their safety in wartime." "Specialized talents who are not party members should be willing to admit them into the party when they request to join the party, and do not impose harsh restrictions." In order to solve the worries of intellectuals, the "Regulations on the Treatment of Cultural and Technical Cadres" in the Border Region stipulates that cultural and technical cadres are divided into three categories according to their working ability, current position, and length of service. Among them, Class A talents are given a monthly allowance of 15-30 yuan. The food standard is supplied according to a small kitchen. Accommodation is provided in a dormitory. Each year, one set of special cotton-padded clothes and one set of single clothes are given. Attendants and horses are given the principle of facilitating their work as much as possible and are given the opportunity to listen to the report as much as possible. The liberal, generous and courteous intellectual policy has attracted talents from all walks of life to Yan'an. As of 1940, famous scientists who came to Yan 'an successively include Shen Hong, Qian Zhidao, Zhao Yifeng, Chen Kangbai, Qu Bochuan, Xu Chi, Nie Chunrong, Wu Heng, Wu Kejiu, Li Qiang, Yun Ziqiang, Le Tianyu, Chen Lingfeng, Tang Chuan and hundreds of others.
To set up scientific research institutions and attach importance to the development of natural sciences
In August 1940, Yan 'an Academy of Natural Sciences was formally established. The address was selected on the hillside of Du Fuchuan in the south of Yan 'an City. This is the first science and engineering university founded by our party to train scientific and technological talents. Xu Teri, then president of the Yan'an Academy of Natural Sciences, pointed out with enthusiasm: "The advancing party must grasp the advancing science. The advancing country and the advancing party should not only grasp the political policy of the whole country, but also the policy of scientific and technological development of the whole country." The educational policy of the Academy of Natural Sciences is "to train technical cadres and specialized technical personnel for the purpose of the Anti-Japanese War and the founding of the country." In terms of curriculum setting and teaching, the first is to focus on professional basic courses, and learn general physics, general chemistry, advanced mathematics, engineering drawing and foreign languages well. The proportion of various courses is: professional courses account for 50%, cultural courses account for 30%, and political courses account for 20%; the second is to continuously improve teaching methods and adopt inspiring, research, and experimental methods. With this encouragement, China Medical University, Border Agricultural School, Industrial School, Vocational School, Bethune Nurse School and other scientific and technological schools have been established one after another, all of which have achieved gratifying results.
On February 5, 1940, initiated and funded by Mao Zedong and other leading comrades, the Natural Science Research Association of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region held an inaugural meeting in the Yan'an Auditorium. More than a thousand scientific and technological representatives gathered together. Chairman Mao attended the meeting and delivered an important speech. He said: "Natural science is a weapon for people to fight for freedom. In order to get freedom in nature, people need to use natural science to understand and transform nature. Although the border area is economically backward, as long as you work hard, you will be able to transform it well." Since then, the Border Region has successively established civil engineering, agriculture, biology, medicine, geology, mining and metallurgy, electromechanical, chemistry, mathematics, aviation and other societies. By the end of 1941, the total number of people in the Natural Science Research Society reached more than 300. Various scientific research activities are carried out in a step-by-step and orderly manner under the promotion of the society.
Coordinate the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War and support the improvement of people's livelihood
During the Anti-Japanese War, the conditions for the development of science and technology in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region were greatly restricted, which meant that the development of science and technology could not be attacked in all directions, let alone blindly. Coordinating the overall situation of the Anti-Japanese War and supporting the improvement of people's livelihood are two important directions of its development. Zhu De emphasized in the report "Combining Science with the War of Resistance": "Now the Chinese nation is in the process of the great war of resistance and the founding of the country. Whether it is to win the war of resistance or the success of the founding of the country, it depends on science and society. Science also depends on natural science. All science and all scientists must serve the war of resistance and the founding of the country, and work hard to help defeat the Japanese fascist bandits and establish a democratic republic of the Three People's Principles."
In order to smash the Kuomintang's stubborn technical blockade of the Border Region, in May 1944, the Central Northwest Bureau promulgated the "Decision on Striving for Complete Self-sufficiency in Industrial Products." The decision pointed out that in order to complete the task of self-sufficiency of industrial products within two or three years, it is required that:(1) all industrial management departments should strive to develop industrial production and encourage the masses to use industrial products in the border areas;(2) develop cooperatives and private textiles in a planned way, papermaking, coal mines, porcelain and other industries;(3) improve the quality of industrial products;(4) attach importance to technology and respect technicians. In order to achieve this goal, in actual scientific research activities, the Border region has actually formed a trinity scientific research organization system of "revolution-production-science and technology", that is, the revolution (including war and construction) puts forward requirements to the production department, and the production department seeks scientific and technological support from the scientific research department to realize the combination of science and technology and production practice, and jointly serve the anti-Japanese war and the founding of the country. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and through the unremitting efforts of scientific and technological workers, by the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance against Japan, "the border areas, which used to have almost no industrial foundation, have now established more than 80 large and small public factories, such as textiles, paper, ordnance, machine manufacturing, ironmaking, tanning, bedding and clothing, matches, soap, glass, shoemaking and basic chemical industries". By 1944, most of the industrial products had achieved self-sufficiency, which strongly supported the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and broke through the technical blockade of the Kuomintang die-hards. At the same time, agriculture, animal husbandry, paper industry, textile industry, medical and health undertakings and other livelihood industries closely related to the lives of the people in the border areas have been greatly developed, and the quality of life of the people has been improved.

Source: Beijing Daily