Research Task: The Cultural

Revolution
Part A
1. What were the main beliefs of communism in general? What beliefs were specific to Mao’s version of
communism?
Communism in general is focused around the idea that everyone has equal wealth. Nowadays when we refer to communism we
typically usually use a Marxist interpretation of it. The beliefs of communism extend on the perceived notion that inequality and
suffering result from capitalism, and that sharing property and markets is the beneficial way to go. A new society with no private
property, castes and profits formed the basis of communist ideology. On the other hand, Mao Zedong’s version of communism
(commonly referred to as Maoism) had an unprecedentedly intense focus on agricultural collectivism with the peasantry
(proletariats) being the instigator for the revolution rather than the urban working class due to the high percentage of the Chinese
population being agricultural workers. Marxism states that the economy dictates what happens within a society, while Maoism
believes that everything that happens in a society results from human will. Furthermore, Maoism does not value neither
industrialisation nor technology.
2. What was the Great Leap Forward? Why was it so disastrous for China?
The Great Leap Forward was a movement that began in 1958 which was intended to serve as a catalyst modernise China’s
economy so as to rival America by 1988. The attempt to propel the economy saw the entirety of China experience economic
regression. Fundamentally, the Great Leap Forward sought to change China from a mainly agricultural economy to a socialist
society through industrialisation and collectivisation, which involved the prohibition of private agriculture and enforcement of
socialist values through brute force. The Great Leap Forward saw the division of the agricultural population into communes, which
the people’s lives would be based around. The people in these communes received all necessary provisions, and were subject to
extensive propaganda pushing them to their limits within the workforce. Mao had supported the GLF with the phrase “it is possible
to accomplish any task”, which seemed quite reasonable and credible by the end of 1958.
In the coming years, almost radical political beliefs and decisions overwrote common sense, forcing workers, commune leaders,
and other members of the rural working class to achieve the infeasible, with unjustly cruel punishments in place for those who
doubted the communes’ abilities to achieve the impossible tasks. People became sick from work, products were made to the lowest
quality, and food was seldom harvested, leading to mass starvation and material shortages.
3. What were Mao’s reasons for starting the Cultural Revolution?
The Cultural Revolution, which began in 1966, was Mao Zedong’s attempt to regain his authority over the Chinese government
and turn the country’s propulsion into a new direction, purging the “impure” elements of Chinese society and encouraging a
revolutionary spirit. Mao believed that the current leadership was driving the country in an overly revisionist direction, valuing
intellectual ability and expertise over the traditional fundamental socialist values. He would announce in periodicals that the
communist party had been infiltrated with “revisionists” and “counterrevolutionaries” who supposedly threatened the stability of
China, and so was compelled to do all he could to restore what he thought were the correct values, even if that meant exiling party
leaders or killing large portions of the population which he thought were detrimental to the country’s wellbeing.
4. Who were the Red Guards? How did they operate?
After launching the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong shut down almost all major educational institutions calling for a massive-
scale youth mobilisation to coerce current party leaders to admit to their supposed lack of revolutionary spirit. In the following
months this movement started gain momentum at an unnecessarily rapid pace, with large groups of students forming military-like
groups known as the Red Guards, harassing and tormenting China’s intellectual and elderly population, the most probable of the
population to reject Mao’s viewpoints. These Red Guards consisted mainly of high school and university students, who wore
jackets similar to the uniforms of the Chinese army at the time. To combat revisionist authorities that Mao considered as being
insufficiently revolutionary, the Red Guards took it into their own hands to eliminate old culture and capitalist elements in a
personality cult. They persecuted millions of schoolteachers, party leaders and other intellectuals who they thought were of a
traditional mindset.
5. Who were the main targets of the Cultural Revolution? Using your knowledge of communism, why do you think these
people would have been targeted?
As stated previously with the Red Guards, the Cultural Revolution was a movement with the intention of eliminating all remnants
of traditional Chinese society, and replacing it with a more communist system. In Mao’s eyes, the Cultural Revolution was
intended to target high-rank officials who he thought were pushing the country into more revisionist and capitalist direction, and he
wanted to unlock the country’s communist potential. Once the Red Guards were let loose, they persecuted all varieties of
individuals that even remotely seemed to embrace a bourgeois/capitalist mindset, including the elderly, schoolteachers, “class
enemies” and those with ties with the West were all persecuted with little mercy. With the fundamental beliefs of communism
stating that all property is to be owned by the state, this was obviously a clash with the traditional capitalist viewpoints so many
people in China had already adopted.
6. What happened in the immediate aftermath of Mao’s death?
Despite the sheer pandemonium Mao caused during the latter part of his life, Mao’s decease still shocked the entire nation, due to
his figure having been seen as semi-divine throughout the country. Mao’s death brought along the arrests of the Gang of Four, no
longer able to rely on Mao for support and protection, and Deng Xiaoping, the to-be chairman, took over with a more moderate
albeit still absolute control. A mausoleum was built in Mao’s remembrance.
7. How is Mao and the Cultural Revolution remembered in China today?
Mao as a leader still holds a significant place in the hearts of many Chinese nowadays, with many Chinese treating him with the
same semi-divine reverence despite his costly mistakes. They will admit that what he did during his later years were erroneous but
that the earlier contributions outweigh his later mistakes. The Chinese government rarely mention the events. The Cultural
Revolution, contrastingly, is almost always looked to through a negative standpoint, is almost unanimously remembered as a
chaotic catastrophe, due to the sheer amount of deaths and regression the Revolution ultimately caused.

Part B – Key Events of the Cultural Revolution

1958: The commencement of the Great Leap Forward. Mao intends to accelerate China’s morphing into a modern industrialised
nation, which led to mass shortages and starvation resulting in deaths in the tens of millions.

1962: Mao had by this time essentially withdrawn from primary decision-making, leaving Zhou, Liu and Deng to operate the
country and economy, while Mao pondered on how to restore his authority and his contributions to the continuous revolution
theory.

1966: The mobilisation of the Red Guards, a paramilitary social movement by Mao which utilised school students to coerce “class
enemies” to admit to their mistakes and shame them.

1968: The Red Guards’ power is removed and factions were subsequently dismantled.

1971: The Chinese Communist military leader Lin Biao is involved in a plane crash in Mongolia resulting in death after attempts
to oust Mao out of the government.

February 1972: President Nixon took a week-long trip to PRC, exposing China to all of America, including all of the aftermath of
Mao’s work. Nixon also engaged in discussions with leadership, including Mao, seeking to establish warmer relations with China.
The trip marked the beginning of China’s gradual opening to the outside world.
1976: The year Mao Zedong died. Grief and mourning was present all over the country, with all public institutions undergoing
week-long closures to mourn his passing away.

Personality Profile: Chairman Mao

Early Life:
Born in 1893, Mao Zedong was the son of one of the wealthiest famers in the region, who also happened to be a stern
disciplinarian, only ever becoming more lenient with interference from Mao’s Buddhist mother. Experiencing a typical rural
childhood, Mao would be united with Luo Yigu in an arranged marriage at the age of 13, however Mao balked at the idea of
arranged marriage. Mao would eventually become interested and inspired by the militaristic and nationalistic attitudes of
Washington and Bonaparte. He would enrol in many schools, only to be bullied for his peasant background.
Rise to Power:
In September 1920 Mao became principal at a local primary school, organising a branch of the Socialist Youth League there. He
would begin to attend various meetings within the Chinese Communist Party. He would go back to rest at his home village, but
after witnessing peasant protests, he realised the potential of revolution in the peasantry. Altering his learnt Marxist views, he
would turn to the rural population search of China’s regeneration. His bent for communism was appreciated among the peasantry,
who disliked the oppression landowners would place on them. Support within the peasant class was paramount for Mao, as they
represented a significant part of the population. The country was in chaos and Mao was one of China’s only hopes to regain
independence and stability. Mao eventually gained increasing popularity among the country population, winning over the majority
of the nation.
Involvement in the Cultural Revolution and Impact on China:
In the 1950s, Mao had great visions for how China could further develop its industries and technologies, in a bid to advance
economically so as to be comparable to the United States. These visions evolved into two Five Year Plans, the latter and more
known of which became known as the Great Leap Forward, a name which unfortunately failed to reach its purpose, but instead
propelling the country into a period of turmoil. By the 1960s, Mao had grown tired of his loosening authority on China, but overall
on the population’s outlook on history and their attitude towards revolution. Hence, Mao started the Cultural Revolutions,
intending to change people’s mindsets in a rather forceful way to a more revolutionary outlook. The Red Guards, which were
effectively a product of his, were the main driving force of the revolution, enforcing Mao’s views on everyday people and
intellectual, and inflicting merciless harm and grief to those unwilling to succumb. Overall, the Cultural Revolution as a whole
would end up causing the deaths of an estimated 45 million people. He would later admit to his mistakes, something many leaders
would seldom do. Despite his actions, Mao is still revered throughout China and in Chinese diaspora communities worldwide.