July 1 is the anniversary of the birth of the Communist Party of China. When it comes to July 1st, all China will probably be familiar with it. People all know that it is the birthday of the Communist Party of China. In fact, anyone familiar with party history knows that the founding date of the Communist Party of China should be the date of the Party's first National Congress, which is July 23, 1921, not July 1, 1921 as most people think. So, why does the founding day of the Communist Party of China not coincide with the actual date of its founding? When talking about this matter, we cannot help but mention a good story about verifying the party's birthday date.

As we all know, July 1 is the anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China every year. However, the anniversary is not equal to the birth day. It marks the founding of the Communist Party of China. This congress was held in 1921. In the past, people used July 1 in 1921 as the convening day of the congress. However, the real time was not clear for a long time. In fact, there was no consensus on the founding of the Communist Party of China before 1938. This is because the party building itself requires a long process, and it does not have an accurate day when it is born from the mother's womb like a human baby.

After the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it was kept secret for a long time. Most of the early party members died or left the party. Most of the early documents were not preserved in China. After the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China entered Yan 'an in mid-1937, the environment changed and it was necessary to expand its influence across the country and unite the whole party. In the spring of 1938, Mao Zedong decided to hold a founding anniversary and regarded the National Congress of the Party as the official birth day of the Party. At that time, only Mao Zedong had participated in the National Congress of Yan' an. Dong Biwu and Dong Biwu, neither of them had written materials from that year, only remembered that they went to Shanghai for a meeting in July. After research, Mao Zedong and Dong Biwu decided to take the first day of July, which is July 1, as the anniversary of the founding of the Party.

In his speech in Yan 'an in May 1938, Mao Zedong officially proposed that July 1 was the 17th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The language that should be used to say this sentence was still very cautious, and only believed that this day was a memorial day. However, later, some writers of propaganda materials understood Mao Zedong's words for granted and wrote the memorial day as his birth day. Therefore, until 1980, domestic historical books wrote that the National Congress was held on July 1, 1921. In fact, some leaders in the early days of liberation did a textual research work. Li Da and his wife, who attended the First National Congress in the 1950s, and Bao Huisheng, Liu Renjing and others who had left the party, all said in their memoirs that the First National Congress was held during the summer vacation, because at that time, most representatives, including Mao Zedong, were studying or teaching in schools and could only escape through holidays. At that time, the domestic summer vacation was after mid-July. In 1957, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union transferred the archives of the Communist International to Beijing. There was an important clue among them. Unfortunately, since the Central Committee had determined that 7.1 was the founding day, no one seriously researched the materials brought by the Soviet Union to study the accurate date.

At the end of 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China began to set things right and conducted comprehensive scientific research on party history issues. In 1979, the Central Party School gathered a group of historians. A team headed by Shao Weizheng, a faculty member of a junior college of the People's Liberation Army, was responsible for verifying the specific situation of the First National Congress. They first found from the archives transferred by the Soviet Union in 1957 that the date of the First National Congress was July 23, because the Soviet Union had representatives to attend at that time, but it required domestic material to confirm it. According to the memories of many parties and reports from international representatives, the meeting lasted for eight days in Shanghai. Researchers began to search the newspapers of that year. Sure enough, in the declaration in early August 1921, they found that the murder case in the Dadong Hotel was in the early morning of July 31. July 31 was pushed back eight days, which happened to be July 23. The research results on the date of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China were reported to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in 1980. At that time, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also discussed whether to revise the founding anniversary of the founding of the Party, but considering the habits of decades, In addition, Mao Zedong only determined that July 1st was the anniversary day at that time, so the central government finally decided not to change it, but wrote the party's birth date as July 23 in the chronology of the history of the Communist Party of China and in subsequent history books.

When we talk about history, we have always been a mirror of today. Only by treating past events with a pragmatic attitude can we cultivate a scientific attitude in practical work. Through verifying the date of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China, people can see that China has used the spirit of seeking truth from facts to guide historical research. After the reform and opening up of the Third Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee, there have been significant progress. Of course, today's Chinese Communists continue to commemorate July 1st, the founding anniversary of the founding of the Party, and they should also know that this is a symbolic day. The real big day is July 23.

Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China