Cable, Mao Zedong to Filippov [Stalin]

Com[rade] Filippov [trans. note--‘Comrade Filippov' was Stalin's nom de guerre],

1. I have received the letter of 20 April. Completely agree with it.

2. Our CC [Central Committee] has already moved to an area near Shijiazhuang in Hebei province. It has merged and united with the working committee of the CC which used to consist of Liu Shaoqi, Zhu De, [and] Dong Biwu.

3. We passed through the northern part of Shanxi province and the northwestern part of Hebei province, where we met and had conversations with the comrades from the Jinsui Sub-Bureau of the CCP CC and the comrades from the Jinchaji Bureau of the CCP CC as well as with the masses. On our way we saw that the work with rectifying party ranks, carrying out land reform, reconstruction, and development of agriculture and industry, work on supplying the fronts, on helping victims of various disasters, work with non-party progressive gentry, and so on had moved in the right direction.

Leftist tendencies, which came into being in the provinces during the two years following the Japanese capitulation, have already been thoroughly corrected. A new work spirit can be felt everywhere.

4. I decided to move forward my visit [to] the USSR. I am planning to leave the Fobin district (100 km to the north of Shijiazhuang) in Hebei province in the beginning of the month and under cover of troops to cross the railway Beiping-Kalgan [Beijing-Zhangjiakou] (the Guomindang has concentrated around 100,000 troops on this railway). Possibly I will be able to arrive in Harbin in the beginning or in the middle of July. Then, from Harbin — to you.

I will be accompanied by Comrade Ren Bishi, member of the CCP CC Politburo. He has been to the USSR more than once, [and he] knows Russian. On my arrival at Harbin I am planning to invite to go with me another member of the Politburo, Comrade Chen Yun. He is now in charge of the industry and labor movement in Manchuria; he was in the USSR in 1936.

Besides them, I'll have with me two secretaries and several cipher officers and radio operators. I have organized such a big group for my trip to the USSR because I will ask for advice and guidance from the comrades in the VKP(b) CC on political, military, economic, and other important questions; besides, if you agree, we are planning to conduct studies in the USSR on military, economic, governmental, and party questions.

Besides, if possible, I would like to travel to the countries of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in order to study the work of the people' s front and other kinds of work.

We are planning to travel for one to three months. If you agree with this plan, we will act according to it. If not, then, of course, there is only one way out — to come by myself.

5. My health is not good. I hope that the two Russian doctors who live here (one of them can speak Chinese) will accompany me to the USSR and then return here with me. Terebin's radio station will go with us (“to be in touch on the way” [he] said but did not write. Terebin). On arrival in Harbin, we will leave the radio station there. Please indicate to me whether we can do this.

Mao Zedong
26 April 1948