In 1965, the military rank system was abolished, and who initiated it?
In September 1955, the Chinese People's Liberation Army introduced a military rank system, but this system was abolished after only a decade of implementation.
So, what exactly led to the abolition of the rank system?And who made this suggestion first?Next, we will go into detail** and analysis.
At a meeting in August 1964, the chairman discussed the issue of salary cuts for senior military cadres. It was proposed to abolish the rank system, which was endorsed by the President, who considered that the abolition of the rank system was necessary.
**Subsequently, ** asked for instructions and obtained consent, and began the process of abolishing the rank system throughout the army. At a meeting on 3 September 1964,** the issue of the abolition of the rank system was again raised, stating that the army's salary system was not rational and that everyone was in favour of a salary reduction.
** Reported to the Chairman, Chairman Liu and several marshals, all of whom were in favor of abolishing the rank system. The chairman also instructed that the issue of rank plates should be considered, believing that in the past there were no rank plates to win battles, but now with rank plates, it is possible to lose battles.
In fact, since the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the military rank system has never been positively affirmed. As early as 1958, there was an intention to abolish the military rank system, and after the study of the General Headquarters of the Central Military Commission at that time, on October 4, 1959, the General Political Department made a "Report to the Military Commission on the Adjustment of Cadres' Ranks and Ranks in 1959", which mentioned in the "Report": "The military ranks and ranks of cadres still need to be retained."
If it was just an idea to abolish the rank system many times before, then this time, the chairman made a clear decision to abolish the rank system.
Why abolish the military rank system?There are many reasons for this. First of all, theoretical inadequacy is one of the main reasons. In 1955, when the military rank system was officially implemented, the Military Commission instructed that military personnel were awarded military ranks to determine their status and honor in the army.
However, in fact, people pay more attention to the superficial role of military ranks, such as the function of classification and identification, and hierarchical distinction, while ignoring other substantive roles, such as establishing a fair and orderly competition system and guiding the development path of military personnel.
This has led to an inadequate understanding and study of the theory of the rank system, which has hindered the implementation of the "Regulations on the Service of Officers" and the implementation of the rank system throughout the army. An expert who has conducted in-depth research on the military rank system once wrote that only by truly understanding the intrinsic function of military rank and its importance in army building can we correctly use the military rank mechanism to adjust military relations and play its due role.
Past discussions have pointed out that there are many shortcomings in the military rank system, such as the general low military rank, the abnormal promotion, the little role of military rank in treatment, the simplification of military rank markings leading to the weakening of the identification function, the strict regulations on the awarding of female cadres, the excessive emphasis on the chief officer in the establishment of military ranks, the neglect of deputy posts and cadres of government agencies, the establishment of technical officers and military ranks are set too low, the types and titles of military ranks are complicated, the classification machinery is mechanical, and the regulations are cumbersome.
** It is also emphasized that the military rank system must not undermine the close relations between superiors and subordinates, officers and soldiers, military and civilian, and military and localities. The implementation of the military rank system requires supporting systems and measures, such as the system of appointing officers, the need for military academies and training institutions to be connected with the needs of the troops, the need to solve the problem that soldiers cannot be directly promoted, and the need to improve the quality of soldiers.
However, the situation of military academies and universities is difficult to meet these requirements.
When the military rank system was implemented, there was a lack of overall management of all types of military academies and universities, and the lack of comprehensive planning and inspection of the construction of academies and academies led to a very uneven development of various types of academies and universities.
Many schools are not well equipped, some are not formal, and "the necessary colleges and schools have not yet been fully established". At that time, the academies and schools were unable to meet the urgent needs of army building, both in terms of the quantity and quality of cadre training.
As far as the troops are concerned, the selection and admission of outstanding soldiers to school will affect the work of the company, and the units are not active in sending soldiers to school, so that the phenomenon of not being able to fill the number of cadets according to the number of cadets in various academies and universities has generally appeared.
According to the work of the inspection of schools by the inspection team of the Ministry of National Defense in 1955, there was a general gap between the number of students admitted and the quota of the establishment, ranging from 7 per cent to 38 per cent.
At the same time, the various military units did not select and send cadets according to the prescribed time and conditions, resulting in too long a delay in the opening of the schools and academies, and some schools even delayed the opening of the school for as long as two to three months, and the elimination rate of cadets was also very high, some reaching 40 percent.
In addition, the general level of national education is low, and physical training is not popular, resulting in very few recruited soldiers who meet the requirements of Chinese proficiency and physical fitness; moreover, there is still a sentiment of discrimination and exclusion of intellectuals in the troops; many intellectual cadres are not awarded titles, or their ranks are too low, which also affects the enthusiasm of intellectuals to join the army.
For example, the promotion and deployment of cadres has not been comprehensively calculated with the time and number of students admitted and graduated from various academies and universities, the time for the newly organized units and the number of cadres at all levels to be transferred, and the processing time and control number of demobilized and demobilized personnel.
There is a lack of common arrangements with the departments concerned for the training of cadres in order to achieve mutual cooperation." After several years of practice, the contradiction between the training of academies and the needs of the troops has never been resolved.
Beginning in 1959, the unit was reverted to selecting grassroots cadres from among the soldiers. Due to the existence of these problems, the military rank system has not produced the expected good effect, but has brought about many troubles and problems, resulting in general disappointment with the military rank system inside and outside the military, and causing it to be criticized more and more.
3. Combination of internal and external factors1Internal factorsIn 1955, the military rank system was introduced, and the following year, the state announced the completion of the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production.
After this, ** began to consider further reforming the social relations of production to adapt to the development of the productive forces. He believes that in the real society, there are still remnants left over from capitalist society in terms of social distribution and in the mutual relations between people, which are concretely manifested in the differences between workers and peasants, between urban and rural areas, and between mental and physical labor.
He believed that these were bourgeois legal powers that needed to be broken in a socialist society. During the Beidaihe Conference in 1958, he made several speeches talking about the abolition of bourgeois legal power, and included the salary system and the rank system that had been implemented in the army for a short time into the category of bourgeois legal power.
He held that in the past war years, there was no salary or rank, and the officers and men were unanimous, supported the government and loved the people, and won the victory of the revolution. Now salaries are paid, and if they have military ranks, they must be graded, and they will be divided into generals, colonels, and lieutenants, but they have not yet fought a war and have not been tested.
The result is detachment from the masses, the soldiers do not love the officials, and the people do not love the cadres (cadres). * It is proposed to restore the revolutionary tradition of unity between officers and soldiers and between the army and the people, and "get rid of the bourgeois ideology and style."
He pointed out that the bourgeois legal power that exists in the mutual relations between people must be abolished, for example, strict hierarchies, condescending, detached from the masses, not close to the masses, not relying on work ability to eat, but relying on qualifications, relying on power ......These aspects must be addressed.
In the early 60s of the 20th century, ** began to pay attention to the issue of opposing revisionism and preventing the restoration of capitalism, and paid great attention to the issue of anti-repair and defensive repair in the army.
He held that the military rank system is not conducive to the revolutionization of our army, and that the superficial hierarchy has encouraged the idea of personal fame and fortune and the concept of hierarchy, and has increased the cumbersome affairs of party committees and political organs at all levels.
Therefore, the abolition of the military rank system was proposed, and the whole army unanimously agreed. In May 1965, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed a resolution abolishing the military rank system.
To sum up, the abolition of the military rank system in 1965 was determined by a combination of factors. It is mainly reflected in two aspects:1The problems and defects existing in the military rank system itself provide a reason for the outside world to deny the military rank system, making it easy for the military and outside the military to reach a consensus on the issue of abolishing the military rank system2.External factors such as the political concept and social environment of the socialist revolution have adversely affected the implementation of the rank system, hindered the gradual improvement and strengthening of the rank system, and gradually eroded the expectations and enthusiasm of the whole army for the rank system.
In general, due to the imperfection of the rank system, there were many problems in its implementation, which did not show an indispensable role for the construction of the army, and in the end, under the combined effect of internal and external factors, the military rank system was abolished.