In February 1935, in order to unify the leadership of the Party and the Red Army in the two revolutionary base areas of Shaanxi and Gansu and northern Shaanxi, the Northwest Working Committee of the COMMUNIST Party of China and the Northwest Revolutionary Military Committee were established, and Gao Gang served as vice chairman and general political commissar of the Northwest Revolutionary Military Committee. In September, after the Red Twenty-fifth Army, the Red Twenty-sixth Army and the Red Twenty-seventh Army joined forces to form the Red Fifteenth Army, Gao Gang served as the deputy political commissar of the corps. In May 1938, Gao Gang was appointed Secretary of the Party Committee of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
Later, Gao Gang served as the chairman of the Senate of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the secretary of the Central Bureau of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the secretary of the Northwest Central Bureau of the CPC, and was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee at the Seventh CPC National Congress.
Why can gao gang be promoted to such a high position?
Gao Gang (center left 2) poses with Chairman Mao and others
The main founders of the Northwest Red Army and base areas were Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang, followed by Gao Gang, Yan Hongyan, Wang Taiji, Yang Sen and others. In terms of seniority, Liu Zhidan and Xie Zichang, who were deeper than Gaogang, died successively, and Yan Hongyan, Wang Taiji, and Yang Sen, who were also deeper than Gaogang, also died or left.
Wang Taiji, who served as the commander of the Forty-second Division of the Red 26th Army, graduated from the Whampoa Military Academy and was one of the leaders of the Weihua Uprising. In early January 1934, Wang Taiji asked to go to The Border of Henan and Shaanxi to do military transportation work. With the consent of the party organization, he secretly set out from the division headquarters on the second day of the first lunar month, but when he reached Tongrun Town in Chunhua County, he was betrayed by his old friend Ma Yuncong, the leader of the local militia regiment, and heroically rebelled in Xi'an on March 3, 1934.
In January 1934, Yang Sen, who had succeeded Gao Gang as the political commissar of the 42nd Division of the 26th Red Army, and both Gao Gang attended the Zhongshan Military School. After the start of the Eastern Crusade campaign in 1936, Yang Sen served as the chief of staff of the Red 30th Army, but unfortunately died heroically in the battle of being ordered to cover the return of the main Red Army of the Eastern Crusade to northern Shaanxi, becoming the third senior general of the Red Army after Liu Zhidan and Yang Qi during the Crusade.
Yan Hongyan was forced to leave the Shaanxi-Gansu guerrillas in early 1933 for "training" at the Shanghai Central Bureau due to the erroneous exclusion of the "Left" leaning, and was sent to Hebei to work, and then to the Soviet Union in October 1934, until the Central Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi.
As a result, Gaogang was pushed to the front of the stage by history and became a representative figure of the northwest base area.
After the founding of New China, Gao Gang served as vice chairman of the Central People's Government.
In November 1952, Gao Gang was appointed Chairman of the Planning Commission of the Central People's Government and Chairman of the Northeast Administrative Committee.
Gao Gang (center) poses with Luo Ronghuan (left), Lin Biao (right) and others
In 1954, an anti-party alliance of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi appeared.
Chairman Mao's criticism of Gao Gang was very severe. He believes that such a problem has arisen, which shows that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the thinking of some cadres of our party, especially some high-ranking cadres, has changed, and they have developed feelings of pride and complacency, and they have begun to compete for power and status.
Gao Gang had distinguished himself in the war years and had a high prestige. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was proud of his own merits and gradually lost himself, such as paying attention to the enjoyment of life and being criticized for his life style. At a meeting, Gao Gang threw a few sips of his cigarette on the ground, and Chairman Mao reached out and picked it up, put it in his mouth and smoked it slowly. Gao Gang's face was red and he was ashamed.
Unlike Gao Gang, Chairman Mao's true color of hard work has not changed throughout his life, and often the cigarette butts he smokes and smokes cannot be held, and he has to insert them into the mouth of the cigarette and then smoke them, until the remaining small and small cigarettes are extinguished.
Although Chairman Mao was very angry at Gao Gang's participation in the anti-party alliance, he also wanted to do his best to save Gao Gang. Who knows, Gao Gang expressed his confrontational feelings on February 17, 1954, with suicide (attempt).
After Chairman Mao learned of Gao Gang's suicide attempt, he quickly instructed the relevant departments of the central authorities to give special protection to Gao Gang and also agreed with Zhou Enlai's opinion that Gao Gang should be isolated and examined.
During the period of isolation, the treatment of Gao Gang was very good, and he not only maintained the level of a vice president of the state in his life, but also read central documents and various books and newspapers as well.
Chairman Mao also decided to suspend the forum for criticizing and helping Gao Gang for one day. At the subsequent symposium, everyone's tone of criticism of Gao Gang was also relaxed. Everyone focused on analysis and help, and there were far fewer things to say about the program. After the forum, the central authorities decided to suspend Gao Gang from his post for reflection and write a written inspection at home. At that time, the Central Committee did not convey the issue of high posts to the whole party, and within the Central Committee, the tone of criticism of high posts was gradually reduced.
When the high post has a preliminary inspection, it is also necessary to arrange the post of the high post. He should also be made a member of the Central Committee and assigned to an appropriate position within the Party.
What positions are assigned? Chairman Mao considered that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Gao Gang was proud of his meritorious service, proud and complacent, corrupt in his life, vying for power and profit, had already broken away from the masses of the people, and had failed to live up to the great trust and expectations placed on him by the people, especially the people of northern Shaanxi, so he decided to arrange for Gao Gang to go to Shaanxi Province to become deputy secretary of the provincial party committee and secretary of the Yan'an prefectural party committee, and let him go to the localities to contact the people, especially the people of northern Shaanxi, and give him the opportunity to reform himself.
Chairman Mao cherished cadres very much, and the same was true for Gao Gang.
Because the atmosphere of the central authorities' criticism of Gao Gang has eased, Gao Gang's mood has also calmed down for a while, and he has paid great attention to reading newspapers; he mainly looks at whether there is his own name in the list of deputies to the first NPC elected by local elections published in the newspapers one after another, and if he has his own name, he has the hope of becoming a high-ranking official.
When the newspaper published the list of the first npc deputies elected from all over the country in mid-August 1954, Gao Gang still did not see his name, so he despaired. He decided he could no longer be a high-ranking official. He decided to look for short-sightedness again.
On August 17, 1954, Gao Gang committed suicide by swallowing a large amount of sleeping pills.
When Chairman Mao learned the news of Gao Gang's suicide, he was very shocked and said sadly: "Unfortunately, I finally can't keep him." He is a man who is too aggressive and too strong in character. ”
Ye Zilong, who worked at Chairman Mao's side, said that Gao Gang was cut off from the party. Chairman Mao said: "That's what it says, but it is always bad for people to die in the struggle within the Party." Chairman Mao also told Ye Zilong that he wanted him (referring to Gao Gang) to be deputy secretary of the provincial party committee, go to northern Shaanxi, retain his party membership and members of the Central Committee, and let him return to Yan'an to work, and he would also be willing, but he was one step late and did not have time to speak. I feel sorry for such an ending. I'm to blame for that!" (For historical materials, see Yang Shangkun: "Recalling the Gao Rao Incident", in The Party's Literature, No. 1 and No. 2, 2001, and Zhang Yuwen: The Alliance of The Fallen: The Beginning and End of the Gao Rao Incident, p. 465.)
High post
Chairman Mao instructed the Central Organization Department that Gao Gang's children should be raised by the organization.
After Gao Gang's accident, his wife Li Liqun and her children were taken to Beijing, and Premier Zhou personally selected a quiet courtyard in Wangfujing for their family to live in.
Li Liqun hoped to work in the library and study while reading books, and Premier Zhou agreed. Unexpectedly, after only ten days of classes, Chairman Mao knew the situation and said no, he said that Li Liqun was an influential person in the northeast (in 1948, she assisted Zhang Wentian and Xu Teli to found the First Yucai School in northeast China and served as the first principal), and must let her return to the Ministry of Education. He also instructed the Central Organization Department that Li Liqun's children, no matter which university they were admitted to, could not affect their enrollment because of their status.
Li Liqun said that without the chairman and the premier, she really did not know what kind of situation their family would be, and she has always been grateful to Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou.
Li Liqun was successively appointed as a deputy to the Fourth National People's Congress and a member of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Since then, on every major festival, Li Liqun has been invited to attend a state banquet and enjoy the high-standard treatment of the Tiananmen Square viewing ceremony. (Liu Jixing)