Issue background with mountains and rivers all over the country turning red

The background of "A Piece of Red"

On January 31, 1967, the "Red Rebel Revolutionary Committee" of Heilongjiang Province was established. This was the first "Revolutionary Committee" established at that time "After that, various places followed suit. On August 31, 1967, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications implemented military control, and the Military Control Commission was responsible for issuing stamps. The director is Chen Banglan, deputy director Mark Shao, Jiang Weiwen, head of the production team of the Military Control Commission, and Gao Jie, head of the political work team.

On September 5, 1968, Xinjiang and Tibet established "revolutionary committees" respectively. "Two newspapers and one magazine" published an editorial "Long live the overall victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution - Warmly celebrating the establishment of revolutionary committees in Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions." The editorial called this phenomenon "the whole country is in red."

On September 5, 1968, the Revolutionary Committee of the Stamp Issuing Bureau decided to issue the stamp "Long Live the Overall Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution", numbered "Wen 14".

From the evening of September 6 to 14, 1968, stamp designer Wan Weisheng and stamp factory workers jointly designed the first artwork "Long Live the Total Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (commonly known as "Total Victory") ") and made proofs for review. The main picture shows Mao and Lin standing on the Tiananmen Gate Tower to receive the cheering revolutionary masses. This set of stamps was originally designed with a face value of 8 cents. Later, the Revolutionary Committee of the Stamp Issuing Bureau requested instructions from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to add a stamp with a face value of 22 cents. The only difference between the two face value stamps was the color of "China People's Post". . On September 13, the Communications Group of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications responded by phone: Agree.

On September 14, 1968, the Revolutionary Committee of the Stamp Issuing Bureau sent a letter to the Revolutionary Committee of the Beijing Stamp Factory: ordering a set of two commemorative stamps "Long Live the Total Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" (Article 14) The stamp area is 60×40 mm, 100 million pieces are printed at 8 points, and 2 million pieces are printed at 22 points.

On September 14, 1968, the "Total Victory" sample ballot was returned without approval, requiring redesign, and proposed that it should "closely adhere to the red" and "reflect the revolutionary masses."

On September 18, 1968, the second draft of the "Total Victory" sample was revised and completed. This picture is based on the "total victory" in the first picture, replacing the portraits of Mao and Lin with a national topographic map, with the words "The mountains and rivers all over the country are red", and changing the distant view in the map of workers, peasants and soldiers into a close-up view. Make a sample and submit it for review again. At the same time, they organized production according to the order letter and worked all night to complete the task.

On September 18, 1968, Xinhua News Agency broadcast a press release: "Workers and stamp designers at the Beijing Stamp Factory worked hard all night to design a large-scale color commemorative stamp "Long Live the Comprehensive Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution". The stamp The picture shows a festive scene of hundreds of millions of revolutionary masses across the country cheering..." At this time, the Beijing Stamp Factory had produced and handed over to the Stamp Issuing Bureau a stock of more than 34 million 8-cent stamps and more than 1.8 million 22-cent stamps.

On September 24, 1968, the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications issued (68) Geshengzi Document No. 6 to the Revolutionary Committees of the Postal and Telecommunications Administrations of all provinces and municipalities "About the Issuance of lt; the overall victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" Long Live", "Chairman Mao's Important Inscription to Japanese Workers and Friends> Stamp Notice". The "Notice" pointed out: "On October 1, 1968, a set of commemorative stamps titled "Long Live the Total Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" was issued on National Day, and the whole country was red." In fact, it was the "big red" that people are familiar with now.

September 27, 1968. The Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has decided not to print Chairman Mao's portrait, quotations, poems, etc. on stamps in the future. Those that have been printed and not yet issued will be discontinued, while those that have been issued can continue to be used. So we decided to stop issuing the two sets of stamps, "The whole country is in red" and "The whole country is in red" and "Black Inscription", and telegraphed the revolutionary committees of the postal administration bureaus of all provinces and municipalities: "Your bureau has received or is about to receive the "Long Live the Total Victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" and "Chairman Mao's Important Inscription to Japanese Workers and Friends" stamps, please stop issuing them immediately..."

On October 8, 1968, the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications revised the "Total Victory" artwork to "Big Red" and directly submitted it to Li Fuchun, the Vice Premier in charge of postal and telecommunications work under the State Council, for approval. Li instructed: " Please ask the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications to send it to the Central Cultural Revolution Committee for review.

Later, the report and sample votes were sent to Premier Zhou. After reviewing them, Premier Zhou believed that the vote size was too large and did not conform to the spirit of the Central Propaganda Work Conference, and gave instructions for further modifications.

On October 26, 1968, according to Zhou In response to the Prime Minister's instructions and the opinions of the Military Control Commission, the designer made some modifications to "Big Red", that is, from the original large banner of 60×40 mm to a small vertical banner of 30×40 mm, and removed some slogans, etc. It also highlighted the image of workers, peasants and soldiers, commonly known as "Little Piece of Red". Due to the suspension of issuance of stamps with a face value of 8 cents, stamps with a face value of 22 cents were not printed and issued.

On October 30, 1968, the stamp factory. The "small piece of red" stamp was printed directly by the stamp factory workers after further modification and adjustment according to the printing effect. On November 5, 1968, the Post and Telecommunications Bureau of Baoding City, Hebei Province issued 40,000 8-cent notes. There are 20,000 stamps for "The Mountains and Rivers Are Red". The Funing County Bureau received this batch of stamps on November 7. On November 6, 1968, a second stamp was printed and sent to the post office. The Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications approved it, and the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications "agreed to officially open the printing press." ”

On November 22, 1968, the production team of the Revolutionary Committee of the Stamp Issuance Bureau requested instructions from the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications: “The stamps “All Mountains and Rivers Are Red” have been distributed to all provinces and municipalities on November 16. , scheduled to be released on November 25th. ”

On November 23, 1968, after Chen Chao of Beijing Map Publishing House purchased the “A Piece of Red” stamp at the Baizhifang Post and Telecommunications Station, he discovered that the map of China on the stamp was inaccurate, and subsequently reported it to the relevant authorities. Department report.

On November 24, 1968, the Military Control Commission of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications ordered the revolutionary committees of all provincial and municipal postal administration bureaus to immediately stop issuing the "One Piece of Red" stamps, seal them in place, and take them back for destruction.

On November 24, 1968, a soldier bought a "red" stamp at the small post and telecommunications office in Luoyang, and immediately posted a letter from the office to his wife who was about to give birth, thus leaving a legacy that remains to this day. The earliest "a few days ago" actual envelope so far

On December 21, 1968, the stamp issuing bureau sent a letter to the postal administration offices of all provinces and municipalities: "Return the red stamps across the country. Return the stamps to the stamp printing factory for destruction. "

On December 25, 1968, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly wrote a "Report on the Possible Consequences of the Nationwide Red Stamp Issuance" to Premier Zhou. The report specifically mentioned that Beijing The Municipal Post and Telecommunications Bureau issued this set of stamps in advance on its own and sold more than 500 of them; the error in the red stamp map is that based on the map drawn before 1960, the borders between China and Myanmar, China and Mongolia, and China and Bhutan were inaccurately drawn and belong to our territory. The South China Sea Islands have not yet expressed their concern; a total of 9.7 million stamps have been issued nationwide, and 300,000 stamps have been issued to stamp companies.