Characteristics of the Public Cultural Activities Organized by the Central Soviet Area

The Central Soviet Area refers to the central revolutionary base area founded by Zhu De and Mao Zedong on the basis of the two base areas in southern Jiangxi and western Fujian during the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War from 1929 to 1934. Because it adopted the organizational form of “Soviet power,” it is also called the Central Soviet Area. In November 1927, Mao Zedong had already proposed that the revolutionary ranks could not merely fight battles but must also do a good job of mobilizing the masses through propaganda. In order to effectively advance revolutionary propaganda work, the Communist Party of China organized public cultural activities in the Central Soviet Area, such as literary and artistic propaganda activities, literacy and character-recognition campaigns, and mass sports activities. These greatly enriched the spiritual life of the masses, raised their revolutionary enthusiasm, and made an indelible contribution to the growth of the revolutionary ranks.

中央苏区是指1929年至1934年土地革命战争时期朱德和毛泽东以赣南、闽西两块根据地为基础创建的中央革命根据地，因其采用“苏维埃政权”的组织形式，亦称为中央苏区。1927年11月，毛泽东就提出革命队伍不能光打仗，一定要做好宣传群众的工作。为了有效推进革命宣传工作，中国共产党在中央苏区组织开展了文艺宣传活动、扫盲识字运动、群众体育活动等公共文化活动，极大丰富了群众的精神生活，提高了群众的革命热情，为革命队伍的壮大作出了不可磨灭的贡献。

First, adhering to the guiding principle of serving revolution and construction. During the Central Soviet Area period, Mao Zedong realized that culture was an important tool for educating and transforming the masses so that they could throw themselves into the revolutionary struggle. In January 1934, in his speech “The Guidelines and Tasks of Soviet Cultural Education” delivered at the Second National Congress of Soviets, Mao Zedong pointed out: “Where does the general guideline of Soviet cultural education lie? It lies in educating the broad masses of the laboring people in the spirit of communism, in making cultural education serve the revolutionary war and class struggle, and in linking education with labor.” (Selected Works of Mao Zedong on Journalism, Xinhua Publishing House, 1983 edition, p. 35) The public cultural activities organized by the Central Soviet Area had three fundamental purposes: First, to mobilize the masses to join the Red Army. On March 28, 1933, Deng Yingchao, then Secretary of the Party General Branch of the Central Committee of the CPC, issued the call to “struggle to create a million iron Red Army soldiers.” She pointed out that “through theatrical performances, costumed speeches, living newspapers, and songs, we explain that joining the Red Army is the duty of every worker and peasant… so that in the lively and exciting mobilization, they can forget their families and everything else, concentrate their class hatred and enthusiasm for sacrificing everything for the revolution, and surge forward like a tide, actively and courageously, continuously joining the Red Army and going to the front lines!” (Deng Yingchao, “Struggle to Create a Million Iron Red Army Soldiers,” Struggle, Issue No. 7) Second, to raise the cultural level of the masses. There was a large number of illiterate people in the Central Soviet Area, which was detrimental to the proletarian revolution and the construction of the base area. Through literacy campaigns, the Soviet government reduced the number of illiterate people in the countryside, while also combining them with methods such as theatrical performances and cultural exhibitions to enable peasants to understand scientific knowledge in various fields such as production, daily life, and military affairs. Finally, to enhance the physical fitness of the masses. In old China, the physical fitness of the masses was generally poor. In order to improve the physical fitness of the masses and enable the people of the base area to be physically suited to the needs of the revolutionary struggle, the Central Soviet Area guided the military and civilians in carrying out sports activities around the policy of “sports militarization.”

第一，坚持服务革命和建设的指导原则。中央苏区时期，毛泽东就意识到文化是用来教育改造群众使其投入革命斗争的重要工具。1934年1月，毛泽东在第二次全国苏维埃代表大会所作的《苏维埃文化教育的方针和任务》讲话中指出：“苏维埃文化教育的总方针在什么地方呢？在于以共产主义的精神来教育广大的劳苦民众，在于使文化教育为革命战争与阶级斗争服务，在于使教育与劳动联系起来。”（《毛泽东新闻工作文选》，新华出版社1983年版，第35页）中央苏区组织开展公共文化活动有三个根本目的：首先，动员群众参加红军。1933年3月28日，时任中共中央机关党总支书记的邓颖超发出“为创造一百万铁的红军而斗争”号召，她指出“经过戏剧表演、化装演讲、活报唱歌来解释当红军是每个工农群众的任务……使他们在活泼兴奋的动员中，能够忘记他的家庭和一切，集中到阶级仇恨与为革命而牺牲一切的热情上，能如潮水般活跃勇敢继续不断的投身当红军，出发上前线去！”（邓颖超：《为创造一百万铁的红军而斗争》，《斗争》第7期）其次，提高群众文化水平。中央苏区存在大量文盲，不利于无产阶级革命和根据地建设。苏区政府通过扫盲运动，减少农村文盲数量，同时结合文艺演出、文化展览等方式，让农民了解生产、生活、军事等多方面的科学知识。最后，增强群众身体素质。在旧中国，人民群众身体素质普遍较差。为了提高群众的身体素质，使根据地人民能在体格上适合革命斗争的需要，中央苏区围绕“体育军事化”这一方针，指导军民进行体育活动。

Second, establishing a top-down vertical organizational structure. The in-depth development of public cultural activities in the Central Soviet Area benefited from a top-down, interlocking organizational structure. From the central level down to the village level, specialized management agencies were established to guide public cultural activities in the base area. In terms of literary and artistic propaganda, on November 2, 1929, the Fujian-Guangxi Special Committee of the CPC stipulated that the cultural departments of Soviet governments at all levels should organize new drama troupes. On December 13 of the same year, the Fujian-Guangxi Special Committee of the Communist Youth League required that each township should establish a club and each district should organize a new drama troupe. In addition, after 1930, Soviet governments at all levels and units at the regimental level and above in the Red Army all established regular propaganda teams, and grassroots literary and artistic groups were also set up in the countryside. In terms of the literacy campaign, in November 1933, the “Resolution on Eliminating Illiteracy” adopted by the Central Cultural Construction Conference proposed that literacy work should take the township as the basic organizational unit, and associations for eliminating illiteracy should be organized from the township level up to the central level. In March 1934, the “New Regulations of the Association for Eliminating Illiteracy” formulated by the Central Soviet Area stipulated that the association for eliminating illiteracy should take the village association as the basic organizational unit, and associations for eliminating illiteracy should be established from the village, township, district, county, and provincial levels up to the central level, serving as the leading bodies for carrying out the work of eliminating illiteracy. In terms of sports, in December 1929, the Fourth Red Army established clubs at the battalion level to carry out sports activities such as football and martial arts. In March 1930, the Fujian-Guangxi Soviet Government required that districts and townships should establish clubs as far as possible, and clubs should set up sports committees under them to guide the masses in carrying out various sports activities. To further promote the development of sports, on June 3, 1933, at the First Sports Meet of the Central Soviet Area, the Red Sports Association of the Chinese Soviet Republic was formally established. Thereafter, branches were successively registered and established in various localities.

第二，建立自上而下的垂直型组织机构。中央苏区公共文化活动的深入开展得益于自上而下、环环相扣的组织结构。上到中央，下到村落，都设立有专门的管理机构负责指导根据地的公共文化活动。在文艺宣传方面，1929年11月2日，中共闽西特委规定，各级苏维埃政府文化部应组织新剧团。同年12月13日，共青团闽西特委要求，每乡要设一俱乐部，每区要组织一新剧团。除此之外，1930年以后，各级苏维埃政府和红军中团以上单位均组建起经常性宣传队，农村也成立有基层文艺小组。在扫盲运动方面，1933年11月，中央文化建设大会通过的《消灭文盲决议案》提出，扫盲以乡为基本组织，从乡到中央，均组织消灭文盲协会。1934年3月，中央苏区制定的《消灭文盲协会新章程》规定，消灭文盲协会以村协会为基本组织，从村、乡、区、县、省直至中央均成立消灭文盲协会，作为领导开展扫除文盲工作的机构。在体育运动方面，1929年12月，红四军以大队为单位建立俱乐部，开展踢足球、武术等体育活动。1930年3月，闽西苏维埃政府要求各区乡应当尽可能地组建俱乐部，俱乐部下设体育委员会，指导群众开展各类体育活动。为了进一步推动体育运动发展，1933年6月3日，在中央苏区第一次运动会上，中华苏维埃共和国赤色体育会正式成立。此后，各地陆续报名成立分会。

Third, forming a personnel team combining professionals and amateurs. The personnel responsible for public cultural activities in the Central Soviet Area were roughly divided into two types: one type was personnel assigned uniformly by the government, who had undergone systematic training and possessed professional knowledge and literacy; the other type was personnel recruited spontaneously by grassroots organizations. Taking literary and artistic propaganda as an example, the personnel professionally engaged in theatrical performances in the Central Soviet Area mostly came from drama schools and new drama troupes at the county level and above. On August 1, 1930, the first Red Army drama troupe in the Central Soviet Area—the New Drama Troupe of the Red Army School—was formally established in Longyan. On September 28 of the same year, the first county-level drama organization—the Longyan County Revolutionary Drama Society—was established. In April 1933, the Blue Shirt Drama Troupe School opened, and in January of the following year it was renamed the Gorky Drama School. It trained more than 1,000 students for the Central Soviet Area, who became the backbone of the worker-peasant drama societies and Soviet drama troupes at all levels. The amateur propaganda teams in the Central Soviet Area were formed by grassroots units selecting personnel with specific skills. For example, the new drama troupes at the district and town levels were composed of worker and peasant masses who loved literature and art; within the troops, there were speech teams and written propaganda teams formed by propaganda soldiers selected from ordinary soldiers; in various villages, there were performance troupes and various types of performance teams composed of folk artists; and in schools, there were drama performance teams composed of students. Turning to the literacy campaign, some professional literacy instructors were trained uniformly by the government. In September 1931, Xu Teli founded a literacy cadre training class in Xingguo, training 90 literacy backbone personnel for the Central Soviet Area. Another part was served by teachers of Lenin Primary Schools and Lenin Normal Schools and the students they trained. There were not many requirements for the selection of amateur literacy instructors; those who were knowledgeable could teach, and the people taught the people. Staff taught staff, fighters taught fighters, the masses taught the masses, and husbands taught wives. As long as one was literate, one could serve as an instructor regardless of status.

第三，组成专业与业余相结合的人员队伍。负责中央苏区公共文化活动的人员大体分为两种：一种是由政府统一指派，经过系统的训练，具备专业知识素养的人员；另一种是由基层组织自行招募的人员。以文艺宣传为例，中央苏区专业从事文艺演出的人员大多来自戏剧学校及县以上的新剧团。1930年8月1日，中央苏区第一个红军剧团——红军学校新剧团在龙岩宣布成立。同年9月28日，第一个县级戏剧组织——龙岩县革命剧社成立。1933年4月，蓝衫剧团学校开学，次年1月改名为高尔基戏剧学校，先后为中央苏区培养了1000多名学生，是各级工农剧社和苏维埃剧团的骨干。中央苏区的业余宣传队伍由基层自己选拔有一技之长的人员组建而成。比如区、镇的新剧团由爱好文艺的工农群众组成，部队里有从普通士兵中选拔出的宣传兵组成的演讲队以及文字宣传队，各乡村有民间艺人组成的演奏队和各类演出队，学校有学生组成的戏剧演出队。再看扫盲运动，一部分专业的扫盲教员由政府统一培训而成。1931年9月，徐特立在兴国创办扫盲干部训练班，为中央苏区培养出90名扫盲骨干，还有一部分由列宁小学和列宁师范学校的教师及其培养的学生担任。对于业余扫盲教员的选拔则没有太多要求，达者为师，以民教民。工作人员教工作人员，战斗员教战斗员，群众教群众，老公教老婆。只要识字，无论什么身份都可以担任教员。

Fourth, adopting flexible and diverse forms of activity. The forms of public cultural activities organized by the Central Soviet Area were flexible and diverse, and their content was closely related to the specific revolutionary struggle and the construction tasks of the base area. Literary and artistic propaganda activities included two forms: song and dance propaganda and drama propaganda, with performance programs mostly drawn from real people and real events. In August 1928, after the Red Army won the victory in the Battle of Huangyangjie, the masses created the folk song “Huangyangjie” to sing of the victory, and also composed and performed the play “Mao Zedong’s Empty City Strategy” at the victory celebration meeting. The literacy campaign adopted various forms such as night schools, half-day schools, spare-time remedial classes, literacy classes, and literacy groups. When conditions permitted, literacy boards were used for learning, combining characters and pictures to teach the masses through the method of looking at pictures and recognizing characters; when conditions did not permit, the ground was used as paper and tree branches as pens for literacy instruction. The forms of sports activities were also very rich. Various Red Army units and local armed forces carried out training activities such as pole climbing, ball games, and vaulting horses; the Young Pioneers and the Red Guards also took time each week to engage in sports activities such as high jump, obstacle crossing, and grenade throwing. The Central Soviet Area also frequently organized sports competitions. From its establishment in March 1932 to the eve of the Red Army’s Long March in 1934, the Fujian Provincial Soviet Government held approximately more than 20 sports competitions.

第四，采取灵活多样的活动形式。中央苏区组织开展公共文化活动的形式是灵活多样的，内容与具体的革命斗争以及根据地的建设任务息息相关。文艺宣传活动包括歌舞宣传与戏剧宣传两种形式，表演节目多取材于真人真事。1928年8月，红军取得黄洋界保卫战胜利之后，群众创作歌谣《黄洋界》歌唱胜利，还编演了剧目《毛泽东空城计》在祝捷大会上演出。扫盲运动采取夜校、半日学校、业余补习班、识字班、识字组等多种形式，有条件时用识字牌进行学习，字画结合，以看图识字的方法教导群众；没条件时就以地面为纸、树枝为笔，进行识字教导。体育运动形式也十分丰富，各红军部队与地方武装开展翻杆子、打球、跳木马等训练活动；少先队、赤卫军每周也会抽时间进行跳高、越障碍、投弹等体育活动。中央苏区还时常组织体育竞赛，福建省苏维埃政府从1932年3月成立到1934年红军长征前夕，大约举办过20多次体育竞赛活动。

In summary, the guiding principles, organizational structure, personnel composition, and activity forms of public cultural activities in the Central Soviet Area all reflected the colors of the era and possessed extremely important historical significance. The public cultural activities of the Central Soviet Area brought a rich and colorful spiritual feast to the masses of the Soviet Area and were widely welcomed by the people. They greatly enriched the spiritual life of the Soviet Area people, raised their cultural literacy, and enhanced their physical fitness. On this basis, the public cultural activities of the Central Soviet Area also completed the work of political mobilization, strengthened the flesh-and-blood ties between the Party and the masses, and consolidated the mass base of the Central Soviet Area. At the same time, the practical explorations of the Communist Party of China during this period provided experiential guidance for organizing and carrying out public cultural activities after the founding of New China.

综上，中央苏区公共文化活动的指导原则、组织机构、人员组成、活动形式无不体现着时代色彩，具有极其重要的历史意义。中央苏区公共文化活动给苏区群众带来了丰富多彩的精神盛宴，受到人民群众的广泛欢迎。它极大地丰富了苏区人民的精神生活，提高了苏区人民的文化素养，增强了苏区人民的身体素质。在此基础上，中央苏区公共文化活动还完成了政治动员工作，加强了党与群众的血肉联系，巩固了中央苏区的群众基础。同时，中国共产党这一时期的实践探索，为新中国成立之后组织开展公共文化活动提供了经验指导。

(The authors are, respectively, a doctoral student at the School of Marxism, Yangzhou University, and a professor at the School of Business, Yangzhou University.)

（作者系扬州大学马克思主义学院博士研究生；扬州大学商学院教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧