An Exploration Into The Disaster-relief Work In Henan Province In The Early 1960s

In the period from the late 1950s to the early 1960s of the "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune Movement, due to the mistakes of "Great Leap Forward" and anti-right deviation, together with the natural disaster at that time and the faithlessness of the Soviet Union's government, which tore up the contract with China, China's rural areas were caught in severe famine at large, especially that in Henan Province. From the winter of 1959 to the spring of 1960, a large number of wrongful deaths happened in Henan. "Xinyang Incident" which startled the CPC Central Committee happened in that period. In the early period of the famine, influenced by the erroneous mentality of "left" deviation, many grass-roots cadres disguised the actual situation of the disaster. The CPC Henan Provincial Committee and the Provincial Government failed to estimate the situation of the disaster, thus in this period, no large-scale and effective rescue activities were organized and carried out. Disaster relief was only done to a small number of disaster areas whose situations were reported to the facts. In general, the rescue missions in that period was a failure, which resulted in a heavy loss. The causes for the disaster and the famine and the reasons for the failure of rescue, to a great extent, should attribute to the lapses of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee and the Provincial Government in their work.After September 1960, under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the Central-south Bureau, the CPC Henan Provincial Committee began to correct their mistakes in the rescue work, and carried out a large-scale emergent disasterrelief for Xinyang, the disaster-stricken area and knew more about the situations of disaster in most areas in the whole province and further strengthened the disaster-relief work. After October 1960, due to the especially severe natural disaster in that year, together with the gaps of disaster-relief work in the previous time, the famine was widely spread. Under the support and aids of the whole nation, the CPC Henan Committee organized large-scale and effective rescue activities, and relieved the serious situations in the disaster areas. After that, general rescue work continued till 1962. In accordance with disaster-relief activities, in comply with the measures of the CPC Central Committee to adjust the rural People's Commune, and taking into consideration the actual conditions in Henan Province, the CPC Henan Committee adjusted the policies of the rural People's Commune, promoted the mass's enthusiasm of production, resumed the development of the rural production and finally conquered the disaster and famine. It will be of some help for the further spread of the Party's excellent working style of seeking truth from facts, for a better rule for the people in our future work through retrospection of the failure and success of the disaster rescue and relief activities and careful generalization of the experience and lessons from them.