The Three Socialist Transformations

These refer to the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry, and capitalist industry and commerce in the 1950s. In June 1953, the CPC Central Committee defined the Party's general line for the transition period as accomplishing basic socialist industrialization and socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry, and capitalist industry and commerce.

The socialist transformation of agriculture was widely known as the agricultural cooperative movement. Starting from December 1951, the Central Committee had issued documents on the guidelines, principles and policies regarding this movement. By the end of 1956, the movement concluded, after passing through three stages – mutual-aid teams, elementary producers' cooperatives, and advanced producers' cooperatives. By this point, 96.3 percent of peasant households had joined agricultural cooperatives.

The socialist transformation of handicraft industry continued from November 1953 to the end of 1956, resulting in more than 90 percent of the handicraftsmen joining the cooperatives.

The socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce was conducted from 1954 to the end of 1956. The CPC adopted a policy of peaceful redemption toward the capitalist class, through the form of state capitalism, to transform their enterprises into publicly-owned socialist businesses. The industrial transformation ran in parallel with a program to convert former exploiters into self-supporting workers.

China had largely completed the three transformations by the end of 1956, although in the late stage of the process errors were made such as over-ambitious goals and crude, rash or simplistic methods. Given China's economic and social conditions and the international situation in the 1950s, socialism was an essential and correct choice for the country.

These transformations enriched and developed Marxist-Leninist theory on scientific socialism and promoted enormous changes in industry, agriculture and commerce, and the development of the entire national economy. Completing the transformations signified that socialism was established as the fundamental system in China and that China had transformed from a new-democratic to a socialist society.

三大改造

三大改造是指中華人民共和國成立后，由中國共產黨領導的對個體農業、手工業和資本主義工商業進行的社會主義改造。1953年6月，中共中央正式提出以“一化三改”（“一化”即社會主義工業化。“三改”即對農業、手工業、資本主義工商業的社會主義改造）為主要內容的過渡時期總路線，拉開三大改造的序幕。

農業的社會主義改造又稱農業合作化運動。從1951年12月開始，中共中央頒發了一系列的決議，規定了中國農業社會主義改造的路線、方針和政策。到1956年年底，農業社會主義改造在經歷了互助組、初級社、高級社三階段后基本完成，全國加入合作社的農戶達96.3%。手工業的社會主義改造從1953年11月開始至1956年年底結束，全國90%以上的手工業者加入了合作社。1954年至1956年年底，全面進行資本主義工商業的社會主義改造。中國共產黨對之采取了“和平贖買”的政策，通過國家資本主義形式，逐步將其改造成社會主義公有制企業，而且將所有制改造與人的改造相結合，努力使剝削者成為自食其力的勞動者。

1956年年底，中國基本上完成了三大改造。雖然三大改造在后期出現了要求過急、工作過粗、改變過快、形式簡單劃一等缺點，遺留了一些問題，但就20世紀50年代中國經濟社會發展的全局以及中國所面臨的國際局勢而論，當時對社會主義的選擇是不可避免的，也是完全正確的。

對個體農業、手工業和資本主義工商業生產資料私有制的社會主義改造，在理論上和實踐上豐富和發展了馬克思列寧主義的科學社會主義理論，極大地促進了工業、農業、商業的社會變革和整個國民經濟的發展。隨著三大改造的完成，中國建立了社會主義的基本制度，從而使中國從新民主主義社會跨入了社會主義社會。