In Memory of Norman Bethune

Comrade Bethune〔1〕 was a member of the Communist Party of Canada, over fifty years of age. Sent by the Communist Party of Canada and the Communist Party of the United States to help in China's war of resistance, he crossed thousands of miles to come to China. He reached Yan'an last spring, went on to work in the Wutai Mountains, and unhappily gave his life at his post. A foreigner, with no selfish motive of his own, who took the cause of the Chinese people's liberation as his own cause — what spirit is this? It is the spirit of internationalism, the spirit of communism, and every Chinese Communist must learn this spirit. Leninism holds that the proletariat of the capitalist countries must support the liberation struggles of the peoples of the colonies and semi-colonies, and that the proletariat of the colonies and semi-colonies must support the liberation struggles of the proletariat of the capitalist countries, and only so can the world revolution win victory〔2〕. Comrade Bethune put this Leninist line into practice; we Chinese Communists must practise this line too. Only by uniting with the proletariat of every capitalist country — of Japan, of Britain, of the United States, of Germany, of Italy, of all the capitalist countries — can we strike down imperialism, liberate our nation and our people, and liberate the nations and peoples of the world. This is our internationalism, the internationalism with which we oppose narrow nationalism and narrow patriotism.

Comrade Bethune's spirit of utter selflessness — others always before himself — showed itself in his extreme sense of responsibility for his work and his extreme warmth toward his comrades and the people. Every Communist must learn from him. Many are irresponsible in their work, picking the light and fearing the heavy, pushing the heavy load onto others and keeping the light one for themselves. When any matter arises, they reckon for themselves first and for others afterwards. Having exerted a little effort they feel they have done something great, love to blow their own trumpet, and dread only that others may not know of it. Toward comrades and the people they show not warm-heartedness but coldness, indifference, callousness. Such people are in truth not Communists — at the very least they cannot be counted pure Communists. Those who come back from the front, everyone of them, speak of Bethune with admiration; not one but is moved by his spirit. Of the army and people of the Jin-Cha-Ji border region, all who were treated by Dr. Bethune with their own bodies, or watched his work with their own eyes, were moved by it without exception. Every Communist must learn from Comrade Bethune this spirit of a true communist.

Comrade Bethune was a doctor; he made medical work his profession and ever strove for finer technique; in the whole medical service of the Eighth Route Army his skill stood very high. For the restless sort who are forever changing their pursuits, and for those who scorn technical work as beneath notice and as a road to nowhere, this too is an excellent lesson.

I met Comrade Bethune only once. Afterwards he sent me many letters, but because I was busy I answered only one, and do not know whether it reached him. His death grieves me deeply. That everyone now honours his memory shows how deeply his spirit moved people. We must all learn from his spirit, which holds not a trace of selfishness. Starting from this point one can become a person of great benefit to the people. A person's abilities may be great or small, but with this spirit one is a person of noble character, a pure person, a person of moral worth, a person freed from vulgar tastes, a person of benefit to the people.

〔1〕 Bethune is Norman Bethune (1890–1939), member of the Communist Party of Canada and a famous physician. When the German and Italian fascists invaded Spain in 1936 he went personally to the front to serve the anti-fascist Spanish people. When China's war of resistance broke out in 1937 he led the Canada–America medical team to China in early 1938, reached Yan'an at the end of March, and soon went on to the Jin-Cha-Ji border region, where he worked for over a year. His spirit of sacrifice, his zeal for work and his sense of responsibility were all exemplary. Infected while performing an emergency operation on a wounded soldier, he died on 12 November 1939 in Tang county, Hebei province.

〔2〕 See Lenin, “Preliminary Draft Theses on the National and the Colonial Questions” and “Report of the Commission on the National and the Colonial Questions” (Collected Works of Lenin, vol. 39, People's Publishing House, 1986 edition, pp. 159–166 and 229–234).

The base text is the Wikisource version, with two editor's notes: one on Bethune's death from infection during an operation, the other citing Lenin's writings on the national and colonial question. Both notes are preserved with the original and not deleted.

The itinerary described — arriving in Yan'an at the end of March this year, then working in the Jin-Cha-Ji border region for over a year — and the earlier service in Spain against fascism, all match the notes.

The whole piece has four strands of meaning: remembering the man, 'benefit others at no benefit to self', 'constant improvement of technical skill', and the standard of conduct thereby derived. It is short and among the most widely circulated of the pieces in this collection; the date 21 December 1939 is taken from the base text.