Abstract: After the end of land reform in the early 1950s, China’s rural economy ushered in socialist reform through mutual assistance and cooperation movement. As a complex and systematic project, socialist reform involves not only fundamental change of the forms of ownership, but also ideological adjustment of peasants to socialism. The premise of achieving this goal is that, first of all, the ideological reform aimed at the key groups in the countryside — CPC admission activists and rural cadres. After the land reform, Party building in rural areas was carried out. By means of Party building training courses, absorbing Party members and establishing and giving full play to Party branches in the mutual assistance and cooperation movement, socialist ideological reforms of the activists and rural cadres were conducted. The quick ideological change of this group laid an important foundation for the smooth completion of the socialist agricultural reform later on. 

Key words: the early 1950s, rural cadres, ideological reform, Party building