In 1978, 18 brave villagers in Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province, pressed their fingerprints on the land contract responsibility book, opening a precedent for China's household contract responsibility system.
Although private contracting was not allowed at that time, these brave villagers still chose to take the risk and subcontracted the land in the village in the form of "orphans".
In the year when Xiaogang Village implemented the practice of guaranteeing production to households, there was a bumper harvest of grain in the village, and this system of allowing peasants to produce on their own was warmly welcomed by the vast number of peasants. The person we are going to talk about today is one of the vigorous promoters of this system, and he is Yuan Zhen.
So, what is the story of Yuan Zhen? What happened to him? Yuan Zhen was born in 1917 in Laizhou, Shandong. In his early years, he studied in his hometown and was later admitted to Shandong Provincial Second Normal School.
During his time at school, he was exposed to progressive ideas and met many like-minded classmates. Under their guidance, in 1936, 19-year-old Yuan Zhen joined our party and became a full party member.
Yuan Zhen, who graduated from the Normal School, came to the Luxi area and began his career as a teacher. His real identity is to secretly carry out the development of party members while teaching.
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out, and the Japanese invaders launched a fierce attack on Shandong. On this land, the people spontaneously organized anti-Japanese guerrillas, and under the leadership of the party, they created anti-Japanese base areas.
Yuan Zhen participated in the establishment of anti-Japanese base areas such as Taixi, Luxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan border areas, laying a solid foundation for the development of anti-Japanese forces. He witnessed the leadership of our party and witnessed the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression with his own eyes.
After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Yuan Zhen was active in the Hebei, Shandong, and Henan regions, and in 1947, when the Kuomintang focused on attacking Shandong, he participated in the formulation of the troop transfer strategy, which contributed to the preservation of the strength of our army.
At the same time, he also actively participated in the military operation of the main force of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Field Army to advance southward into the Dabie Mountains, contributing his own strength to the birth of New China. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Yuan Zhen worked in Hubei Province and served as the head of the Propaganda Department of Hubei Province, making hard efforts to stabilize the social situation in Hubei in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China and contributing to the consolidation of the new regime.
In 1954, Yuan Zhen was transferred to Anshan Iron and Steel Company and served as the first president of Anshan Iron and Steel College. He created many useful management systems for large state-owned enterprises, which promoted the development of Anshan Iron and Steel.
In 1964, Yuan Zhen was transferred to Shanxi and served as the secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee. Then, the time quickly passed to the special period of ten years, in January 1967, Liu Geping, vice governor of Shanxi Province, founded the Shanxi Provincial Core Group, and served as the team leader, Yuan Zhen and others as members of the core group.
Soon after, the core group led by Liu Geping succeeded in "seizing power", and then established the Shanxi Provincial Revolutionary Committee in March of the same year. However, the Revolutionary Committee soon became divided into two factions, one faction supported Liu Geping and the other faction supported Zhang Riqing, and many armed battles broke out between the two factions, which had a bad impact on Shanxi.
In July 1967, three members of the Shanxi Provincial Caucus were criticized by name: Liu Geping, Zhang Riqing, and Yuan Zhen. After that, Liu Geping, Zhang Riqing, and Yuan Zhen were left in Beijing to attend the ideological study class, which was soon transferred to Shijiazhuang, and Yuan Zhen continued to participate in the study class.
At that time, Yuan Zhen was subjected to the ** of the "Gang of Four", and the situation did not improve until the end of the special period.
In 1978, Yuan Zhen was transferred to Anhui to hold important positions, and successively served as deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Revolutionary Committee and deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee. It is worth mentioning that in this year, Xiaogang Village began to implement the package production to households, and the grain output has increased significantly, and the people's living standards have also been significantly improved.
As a member of Anhui's local government, Yuan Zhen actively promoted the policy of contracting production to households, advocated the implementation of the household contract responsibility system, and made outstanding contributions to Anhui's economic development during the reform and opening up period.
After that, Yuan Zhen worked in Anhui for many years until his retirement in 1987. After his retirement, Yuan Zhen moved to Beijing, where he died of illness in 2003 at the age of 86.