| There was no idea about "Kulak" before it came into China from Soviet Union. After it was introduced to China, the Communist Party of China (abbreviated to be " CPC") came up with the new concepts of Kulak, after taking the national conditions into consideration, the rural conditions at that time in particular. Those concepts, in the next decades, served as guidance for agrarian revolution in rural ares, and played a vital role in the revolutionary victory in China. At that time, the CPC was very young and was eager to absorb new ideas about Marxism and the national conditions in China, combining theories with practice. As a result, the CPC developed different viewpoints about Kulak, which did not originate from Chinese culture, when connecting with the Chinese realities at different stages. Those views were growing to be mature, regardless of some misunderstandings or setbacks. The process for the CPC to learn about Kulak and make proper and relevant policies was one of the good examples for Sinicized Marxism.The "Kulak" theory derived from Marx and Engels’s theories like Oriental society and the peasant class division. After learning from those theories, the early Marxists in Russia based on the rural conditions at that time developed and localized the theories, and applied them to the October Revolution. Therefore, the concepts and problems of Kulak came into being. The word " Kulak" was brought out by Kautsky, and was put into practice by Lenin the first time. In the period of war communism and new economic policy, the idea of "Kulak" was put into practice by Lenin to stimulate the rural economy in Russia. On the basis of Lenin’ s viewpoints, Bukharin and Stalin developed the concepts of "Kulak", which were accepted by the Comintern and the Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks) when Stalin took the power of the Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks). Those concepts had influence on Comintern members and provided suggestions for the CPC as far as Kulak policies were concerned.During the Great Revolution, the CPC began to attach much importance to the issues of peasants and rural areas. With more understandings about the national conditions and the help of Comintern, the CPC put the issues of peasants and land revolution at the top of agenda. In the time of the Great Revolution, the labor movement was frustrated, while peasant movement was on the rise. Since peasants played important role in the Northern Expedition as well as in revolution, the CPC had to reconsider the issues about peasants, land and the rural areas. How to encourage the majority of peasants to join the revolution? It was the major concern for the CPC and its early leadership, which was followed by the combination of Marx doctrine of class theory and the Chinese conditions. Then the standards, for class division with Chinese characteristics, came into being. For this reason, the CPC brought out the concept of " Kulak" (wealthy peasant), and tried to give a definition and draft the standards, which laid foundations for the concepts of "Kulak"Despite several failures in city revolutions in China from 1927 to 1933, because of the insistence of the revolutionary model in Russia by Comintern and the Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks), the revolutions in rural areas initiated by the CPC made great success. Eventually, the Comintern and the Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks) had to make compromise and accepted proposals from the CPC, which was shifting the revolutionary focus from cities to rural areas. Consequently, the leadership authority of the CPC (represented by Mao Zedong) was promoted, while that of the Comintern and the Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was weakened. The CPC had to fight her own way in revolution independently, with less influence from the Comintern and the Soviet Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The policies about " Kulak" had to be worked out by the CPC on her own gradually, instead of blind following the Comintern.In 1931, the September 18 Incident, or the Mukden Incident, broke out, and the second Sino-Japanese war lasted for fourteen years, during which the national contradiction between China and Japan was the major contradiction in the society. The central Red Army, in 1934, had to make strategic shift with Long March as a result of the failure in the Fifth Encirclement Campaign. The CPC disconnected with the Comintern temporarily, and had to feel her ways in policy making and implementation. Therefore, the CPC adjusted the united front to the reality, and worked out new policies for "Kulak", such as abolishing feudal model and protecting the capitalist production for " Kulak ", promoting rent and interest rates reduction. In general, the policies at that time appeared to be practical, in accord with the revolutionary situation and national conditions in China, which indicated that the CPC held a clear, innovative and pragmatic attitude toward "Kulak"In May 1941, the CPC made it quite clear to the members that, by rectification movement, the success of revolution in China completely depended on the Sinicized Marxism, which enhanced the theories for putting forward the revolution in China. On May 15,1943, the Comintern (the Third International) was dismissed, which offered a good chance for the CPC to seek new approaches to handle the Kulak issues independently. On August 15,1943, when Japanese surrendered, the CPC had grown up and took it as a good chance to conquer all of China. Consequently, the CPC made changes to the Kulak policies, based on the national situation, and proposed new policies one after another like " not expropriating Kulak’s land", "expropriating some part of land from Kulak", " expropriating the redundant land from Kulak for equality" and "protecting the interest of Kulak"In April 1948, the CPC, before the complete success of the Liberation War, proposed the general policies for the phase of the New Democratic Revolution and land reform. With the implementation of those new policies, the concepts of "Kulak" related to the feudal system were abolished completely and eventually. With the founding of New China in 1949 and the economic recovery in the next 2-3 years, complete with the external condition of the Korean War, the CPC adopted new policies again. In the second half of 1953, the CPC took various measures to restrict the development of Kulak economy, and eliminated it thoroughly before the booming of co-operatives in 1955. During that time, the CPC developed new understandings about "Kulak", which suggested the whole process of sinicized Marxism.The sinicized Marxism concerning " Kulak" revealed another great achievement in China, which set a good example for other Marxist theories to be sinicized from the perspective of theories, approaches and practice. Of course, the misunderstandings and frustrations in the process of sinicizing are good lessons to learn. |
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