Comrade Ma Wenrui was born on November 4, 1912 in a peasant family in Zizhou County, Shaanxi Province. He accepted progressive ideas in his early years and participated in the progressive student movement. He joined the Chinese Communist Youth League in 1926. During school at Sanmin No. 2 Middle School in Mizhi County, he was suppressed by the Kuomintang military and police for organizing students to carry out anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles and was forced to leave school. Since then, he devoted himself to secret revolutionary work. He successively served as secretary of the Suide West District Committee of the Communist Youth League and secretary of the Suide County Committee of the Communist Youth League. In the increasingly severe situation of white terror, he persisted in the struggle against the enemy. In 1928, he became a member of the Communist Party of China. In the same year, he served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Suide County Committee of the Communist Party of China. In 1929, he took part in leading the struggle against famine in Suide and had a significant political influence in northern Shaanxi. From the beginning in August 1930, he served successively as Secretary of the Northern District Committee of Anding County (now Zichang County), Secretary of the Propaganda Department, Secretary of the County Party Committee, and Secretary of the Special Committee of the Communist Youth League in Northern Shaanxi. He consciously resisted the serious interference of the "li li-san line" and preserved the revolutionary power of Anding County under the situation that the party organization in northern Shaanxi was severely damaged. In September 1931, Wu Daifeng and Yan Hongyan led the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army's West Shanxi Guerrilla Brigade to break through the natural dangers of the Yellow River and enter Shaanxi and Gansu. Ma Wenrui and people in northern Shaanxi tried to support soldiers, making Guerrilla Brigade quickly expanded from less than 100 to more than 500 people. In February 1932, he was appointed as the special commissioner of the South Road of the North Shaanxi Special Committee of the Communist Party of China, responsible for restoring the Party organizations in Qingjian, Yanchuan, Anding, Yanchang, Yan'an and other counties. He was not afraid of hardships and dangers, insisted on mobilizing the masses to carry out underground struggles, and had done a lot of hard work for the recovery and development of local grassroots party organizations. In the meantime, he also went to Hengshan, Yulin and other areas where the white terror was more serious. In July of the same year, he served as a member of the Special Committee of the Northern Shaanxi Communist Party and Secretary of the Special Committee of the Youth League, and participated in leading the preparation for the fourth important enlarged meeting of the special committee in the history of the Northern Shaanxi Revolution. Faced with the crazy suppression of the enemy, he did not fear, insisted on the struggle, formed more than a dozen guerrillas including the Shenmu-fugu guerrilla , and established immortal feats for the establishment of the Northern Shaanxi Revolutionary Base and the Northern Shaanxi Red Army. He is one of the main founders and leaders of the Northern Shaanxi Revolutionary Base.
—— Carrying out troop movement
In 1934, in order to develop and strengthen the revolutionary armed forces, Comrade Ma Wenrui was ordered to carry out troop movement among the Kuomintang troops in the "trilateral" area alone. After half a year of hard work, he successfully brought a platoon of enemy cavalry into the Nanliang base. In March 1935, he was dispatched by the Special Commission of the Shaanxi-Gansu Border of the Communist Party of China, led an armed work team into the Nanniwan and Linzhen areas of Yan'an to open up the eastern area of the Shaanxi-Gansu border base area, and established the regimes of Chichuan and Hongquan counties, successively serving as party representatives and Soviet Chairman. The establishment of the eastern area of the Shaanxi-Gansu border base area helped the Northwest Red Army led by Comrade Liu Zhidan to complete the anti-encirclement and suppression struggle, connecting the two base areas of Shaanxi-Gansu border and northern Shaanxi into one base area, making it the foothold for the Party Central Committee and the Central Red Army to reach northern Shaanxi and the starting point of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, which made a major contribution. Soon after the wrongful suppression of counter-revolutionaries in northern Shaanxi began, he and a large number of leading cadres of the party, government, and army, including Liu Zhidan and Xi Zhongxun, were detained until the Party Central Committee and Comrade Mao Zedong arrived in northern Shaanxi. In 1936, he served as the Secretary-General of the Northern Shaanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and Minister of the Work Department of the White Army, and Secretary of the Communist Party Working Committee of the Northeast Army in Ansai County. Under the leadership of Zhou Enlai and Ye Jianying, he carried out the work of fighting for the Kuomintang Northeast Army and Northwest Army. He had done a lot of basic work for the formation of the national united front for the anti-Japanese war and had been praised by the leading comrades of the central government. In the spring of 1937, he studied in Yan'an Anti-Japanese Military and Political University and served as the party branch secretary of the nine teams of the Fourth Brigade. In June of the same year, he served as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Northern Shaanxi Western Region of the Communist Party of China.
——Character position experience
From March 1938, Comrade Ma Wenrui had served successively as Secretary of the Party Committee of the Qinghuan District of the Communist Party of China and political commissar of the District Security Command, Secretary of the Longdong Prefectural Committee of the Communist Party of China and political commissar of the Military District, and political commissar of the 385 Brigade of the Eighth Route Army and stationed at the southwest gate of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee and Comrade Mao Zedong, he resolutely resisted the interference of Wang Ming's wrong line, led the army and civilians in Longdong to launch a rectification movement and a mass production movement, and defeated the economic blockade and military offensive of the Kuomintang diehards. He took the lead in implementing the "three-three system" at all levels of government in eastern Gansu and made outstanding contributions to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War and the economic, cultural and democratic construction of the Shaan-Gan-Ning border area. Comrade Mao Zedong personally wrote a certificate of "Close Contact with the Masses" for him. In October 1942, he participated in a senior cadre meeting of the Northwest Bureau in Yan'an, where he made a long speech on the historical issues of the Northwest, which was affirmed by the Central Committee and supported by most comrades. He insisted on the style of seeking truth from facts, boldly corrected the "Left" mistakes in the border area's trial and anti-rape, and successively rehabilitated a large number of comrades who had been wronged. As a member of the CCP’s “Seventh National Congress” representative qualification review committee, he assisted Comrade Peng Zhen in the preparations for the conference. From April to June 1945, he attended the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China as a representative. During this period, he led the Organization Department of the Northwest Bureau and trained a large number of leading cadres for the Northeast, Shandong and other new areas. At the same time, he was committed to strengthening the construction of the cadre team in the border areas. He did a lot of exploratory work in ideological and theoretical education, organizational structure improvement and cadre style construction. In the spring of 1947, the southern part of the Kuomintang Hu Zong aggressively attacked the Shaan-Gan-Ning border area. Comrade Ma Wenrui moved with the army to northern Shaanxi, was responsible for supporting the frontline combat service, and made important contributions to the victory of the Northwest Field Army to wipe out the enemy. In the winter of the same year, according to Comrade Mao Zedong's instructions, he went to the "trilateral", Longdong and other places to inspect and guide the land reform work, corrected the extreme leftist tendency in some places, and ensured the smooth progress of the land reform work in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. In April 1948, after the Northwest Field Army regained Yan'an, most of the northwest was liberated one after another and the new area needed a large number of cadres. He led the Northwest Bureau Organization Department and the Northwest Bureau Party School to step up work day and night. Within a few months, they were transferred in phases and batches. More than 20,000 cadres were trained and sent to the new district.
In May 1949, Comrade Ma Wenrui moved to Xi'an with the Northwest Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and began to take over the city. He conducted deeply practical investigations and studies. Aiming at the common disadvantages of "many organizations, many officials, many meetings, many documents, and many reports" at the grassroots level, he wrote an investigation report and submitted it to the central government, which was paid attention to by Comrade Mao Zedong and quickly forwarded it to various places. The campaign against the "five-plus" campaign was launched within the scope to curb the formalism and bureaucracy that had just emerged soon after entering the city. It also accumulated valuable experience for our party to further strengthen the party's organizational ideological work style construction at all levels after the party seized power. He maintained national unity, paid attention to training and employing ethnic cadres, and actively recommended a group of ethnic cadres to take up important leadership positions. After the end of 1949, he served as Secretary of the Disciplinary Inspection Committee of the Northwest Bureau and Director of the Supervisory Committee of the Northwest Military and Political Committee. He did a lot of painstaking and meticulous work on the construction of the party style and cadre style and the healthy development of the movement against "three evils" and "five evils" in the northwest region. From January to June 1950, he participated in a study visit to the Soviet Union by a delegation of workers organized by the Communist Party of China. After returning to China, he put forward many suggestions and opinions on improving the organization work, which was recognized and valued by the Party Central Committee.
In the winter of 1952, Comrade Ma Wenrui served as deputy secretary and head of the Organization Department of the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He also supervised the work of the Northwest Bureau’s Propaganda Department, Rural Work Department, United Front Work Department, and industrial, youth and women’s work. He had done a lot of work for the economic development, political stability, and people’s well-being of the Northwestern Region in the early days of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In 1954, he attended the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as a non-voting delegate, and then participated in a symposium on high-level posts. He firmly supported the decision of the Party Central Committee and safeguarded the unity and unity of the Party. In September of the same year, he served as Minister of Labor and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group, and made groundbreaking historical contributions to the establishment of the New China’s labor employment and deployment system, wage and welfare system, labor protection system, vocational technical training system and labor science research system. In response to the disasters caused by the "Great Leap Forward" to labor employment and labor protection, he proposed and implemented a set of effective rectification measures. Especially during the three-year difficult period, he resolutely implemented the central government's policy of "overall planning and proper arrangements", worked day and night, and made important contributions to the country's tide of difficulties and the improvement of the national economic situation.
——During the "Cultural Revolution"
During the "Cultural Revolution", Comrade Ma Wenrui was severely impacted. In the days of cruel persecution, he was ill and insisted on reading and thinking. He resolutely resisted the perverse practices of Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" counter-revolutionary group, and his communist faith was unshakable.
-Changes in experience after the "Cultural Revolution"
In June 1977, Comrade Ma Wenrui served as deputy director of the State Planning Commission and member of the Party Leadership Group. In December of the same year, he served as the vice president of the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and presided over daily work. He resolutely implemented the spirit of the Central Committee, restored the purpose of running the party school, used Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought to train middle and high-level cadres and party theoretical workers, and implemented comprehensive adjustments to the work of the party school and its courses. He worked hard to set things right, vindicated unjust, false and wrong cases, implemented cadre policies, actively carried out short-term training for veteran comrades who were persecuted during the "Cultural Revolution" to party schools, and strongly supported the work of liberating a large number of veteran cadres across the country. While he was presiding over the work of the Party School, the Central Party School Journal Theoretical Trends took the lead in publishing the article Practice is the Only Standard for Testing Truth, and firmly supported the discussion on "the issue of the standard of truth".
In December 1978, Comrade Ma Wenrui served as the first secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China and the first political commissar of the Provincial Military Region and director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress. He went deeply into reality, united and relied on the broad masses of cadres and the masses, in all aspects of the work including correcting chaos, redressing unjust, false and wrong cases, training and selecting young and middle-aged cadres with both integrity and ability, implementing rural reforms, paying close attention to economic construction and social security rectification and central city construction. He achieved remarkable results, which made Shaanxi flourish with all the wastes, the politics and the people harmonious, and the economy greatly developed. He implemented the protection and renovation of the ancient city wall of Xi'an, the rebuilding of the new Xianyang Airport, and the launch of the Heihe Water Diversion Project, Provincial Gymnasium, Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an Railway Station and other key projects, laying an important foundation for the future development of Shaanxi's tourism industry. He paid great attention to the construction of spiritual civilization and the construction of party style and clean government, and clearly proposed to revitalize Shaanxi with the Yan'an spirit.
In May 1984, Comrade Ma Wenrui was by-elected as the vice chairman of the Sixth National Committee of the CPPCC. In 1988, he was elected as the vice chairman of the Seventh National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, concurrently chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, and member of the Party Group of the Seventh National Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Regardless of his advanced age, he actively assisted Deng Yingchao and Li Xiannian to preside over the work of the Standing Committee, persisted in investigation and research, made suggestions and suggestions, and successively contributed to economic construction, spiritual civilization construction, democracy and legal system construction, party style and clean government construction, motherland reunification, state-owned assets protection, etc. He had written a large number of investigation reports and signed articles on major topics, which have been affirmed and valued by the leaders of the Party Central Committee, the State Council and relevant parties. In May 1990, in order to inherit the fine traditions and style of the party and carry forward the Yan'an spirit, , under the active advocacy of him, Peng Zhen and other comrades, the China Yan'an Spirit Research Association was established. He was elected as the chairman for research, publicity and promotion and the Yan'an spirit played a positive role. In May 2000, the book named Ma Wenrui on Yan'an Spirit was published and distributed by the Central Literature Publishing House, which made important contributions to the party's ideological and theoretical construction.
Comrade Ma Wenrui retired from his leadership position in March 1993. After that,he still cared about the country’s reform and opening up and socialist modernization, and firmly supported the third-generation central leadership group with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core and the important thinking of the "Three Represents" as well as the new central leadership group with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary. He is very concerned about the economic construction and social development of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Revolutionary Old Area. He had returned to the old area for inspections many times. He had successively made suggestions to the relevant leaders and departments of the central government in terms of resources, tax system adjustments, environmental protection in the western region, construction of energy and heavy chemical bases in northern Shaanxi, education development, flood control and disaster relief in the Weihe River Basin. During his severe illness, he still missed the work of the Yan'an Spiritual Research Society of China, and did not forget the major events of the party and the country, which embodied the spirit of an old Communist Party member who never ceased to live and struggle.
——Social Position
Comrade Ma Wenrui is an alternate member of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, a member of the 11th and 12th Central Committees, a representative of the 4th, 5th and 6th National People's Congress, and a member of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
--Character evaluation
During his 78-year revolutionary career, Comrade Ma Wenrui had always maintained a firm belief in communism, was boundlessly loyal to the party and the people, and the cause of the proletarian revolution, consciously maintained political consistency with the Party Central Committee, adhered to the party’s basic line, and had the strong party spirit of the members of the Communist Party. He studied diligently throughout his life, insisted on integrating theory with practice, and used Marxist positions, viewpoints, and methods to solve practical problems. At critical moments and major issues related to the future and destiny of the party and the country, he had a firm stand and a clear-cut stand, always putting the interests of the party and the people first. He was open-minded, upright, straight, fair and plainspoken. He was modest and prudent, indifferent to fame and fortune, and took care of the overall situation. He treated people generously, loved cadres, respected talents and science. He attached great importance to letters and visits from the people, cared about the people's suffering, and integrated with the people. He had a rigorous style, a frugal life, a clean government, and strict requirements on his children and staff around him, who enjoyed lofty prestige within the party and among the people.
Comrade Ma Wenrui's life is a life of revolution, a life of glorious battle, and a life of serving the people wholeheartedly. For the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people, for the socialist revolution, construction, reform and opening up, and for the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, he worked stubbornly, worked hard and dedicated himself，establishing indelible historical merits. His death was a great loss to the party and the country. We must turn grief into strength, unite more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Hu Jintao as the general secretary, and work hard for the cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
Comrade Ma Wenrui will be immortal!
