How did Mao become

leader of the CCP?

L/O – To identify how Mao took control of the CCP
• 1893 - Born in Hunan province, rich peasant family
• 1901-6 – Attended primary school
• 1912 – Joined anti-Qing army in Hunan
• 1912-8 – Trained as a teacher
• 1918 – Joined the Hunan independence movement
• 1919 – Worked as librarian at Beijing Uni. Organised strikes in Hunan.
• 1921 – Became a founding member of CCP.
• 1923 – Joined the KMT.
• 1924-7 – Involved in planning CCP/KMT alliance against Warlords.
• 1927-34 – Created the Jiangxi Soviet.
• 1930 – Suppressed a mutiny in Red Army at Futian 10,000+ killed
• 1934-5 – Led the Long March to Yanan
• 1935-45 – Created the Yanan Soviet
• 1942 – Crushed opposition within the CCP using torture.
• 1945-49 – Led the CCP to victory over KMT
• 1949 – Declaration of the creation of the People’s Republic of China
Mao’s Early Years
• Born into rich peasant family. Father
worked hard, mother was religious
Buddhist.

• Often fell out with father, refused to

show him respect. He didn’t like
working, always wanted to read.

• Volunteered in anti-Qing army during

1911.

• Introduced to Marxism at Beijing

University, where he worked as a
librarian in 1919.
Mao as a Chinese Revolutionary 1911-1927
• Mao came to believe in the dialectic
as the explanation of life. i.e. the ‘All power grows
Marxist notion that historical
out of the barrel of
development occurs through a
progressive series of conflicts a gun’.
between social classes.
‘A revolution is not
• He held the belief that all change, all a tea party; it is an
progress, resulted from suppression act of violence, by
of the weaker by the stronger. which one class
overthrows
• During the Warlord Period, he saw another’.
first hand how force could be used:
Mao as a Chinese Revolutionary 1911-1927
‘During my student days in Hunan, the city was overrun by
the forces of rival war lords – not once but half a dozen
times. Twice the school was occupied by troops and all the
school funds confiscated. The brutal punishments inflicted
on the peasants included such things as gouging out eyes,
ripping out tongues, disembowelling and decapitation,
slashing with knives and grinding with sand, burning with
kerosene and branding with red-hot irons.’
• Mao realised that it was the strongest and most ruthless who
always won. The only way to gain power was through
violence.
• The rise to power of the Bolsheviks in the 1917 Russian
Revolution seemed to confirm his beliefs.
Mao at Jiangxi 1927-34
• After the 1927 Shanghai Massacre,
Mao led his CCP forces to the
mountains of Jiangxi province and
organised guerrilla resistance.

• He spent 7 years developing the

Jiangxi Soviet, dedicated to peasant
revolution. He clashed with the
COMINTERN who wanted him to
focus on urban workers.

• It was at Jiangxi where Mao

developed his taste for using torture
and purges to gain control.
Mao at Jiangxi 1927-34
• In 1930, he had no qualms in
torturing & executing some 4000
Red Army troops, accused of being
KMT spies. Some estimate over
10,000!
• This incident became known as the
‘Futian incident’. It strengthened
Mao’s control until the CCP
leadership arrived in 1932.
• Zhou Enlai and Bo Gu ousted Mao
from his military positions.
‘They were brought out
to be tortured, women as
well as men… they were
tortured to make them
speak and they were
tortured on Mao’s
orders. These is a
document in the party
archives which Mao
approved which says, ‘do
not kill the important
leaders too quickly, but
squeeze out of them the
maximum information;
then from the clues they
give you can go on to
unearth others.’
The Long March 1934-35
• The Jiangxi Soviet was crushed in
1934. The KMT between 1930- Mao on the tactics of
1934 launched 5 massive the Red Army, 1930
extermination campaigns.
When the enemy
advances, we retreat.
• The first 4 were failures due to the When the enemy halts,
guerrilla tactics used by Mao’s we harass.
forces.
When the army retires,
we attack.
• However the KMT encircled the
When the enemy
base area entirely in 1934 and retreats, we pursue.
Mao led the communists to
escape north to Yanan in Shaanxi
province.
The Fifth Extermination Campaign
• In Summer 1933, Chiang used new
tactics suggested by General Hans
von Seeckt, a German military advisor.

• Seeckt used ‘blockhouse’ tactics. The

KMT surrounded the Kiangsi Soviet
with ½ m troops and advanced slowly
building blockhouses, digging
trenches & putting up barbed wire
fences.

• This prevented food getting in or out.

The Fifth Extermination Campaign
• The Communists abandoned
Guerrilla Warfare and under the
influence of Otto Braun, launched
a series of disastrous pitched
battles.

• By summer the communists were

surrounded by four lines of
blockhouses & close to starvation.
Otto Braun – German
Communist and Comintern
• By Oct 1934, they had lost ½ of agent who was sent to China
by Soviet Russia to give
their territory as well as 60,000
military advice to the CCP
troops.
The Break Out – October 1934
• On the suggestion of Otto Braun, on
16th Oct 1934, 87,000 soldiers
began a retreat.

• They took as much equipment &

guns as they could carry and took
them 6 weeks to break out of the
ring of blockhouses.

• At the end of Nov 1934, the Red

Army reached the Xiang River and
lost over half their number fighting
the KMT.
Mao Takes Over – January 1935
• In Jan 1935 they reached Zunyi,
Mao had outmanoeuvred his
where a meeting was held. Braun
wasopponents
blamed forinthe
the CCP and
defeat at the
imposed
Xiang River: his idea that to be
successful the revolution in
–China must be based on the
He had allowed them to carry to much
peasants in the
equipment countryside,
which slowed them down.not
on the
– The workers
retreat was inin the towns.
a straight line
which helped the KMT predict where
Thethey were
Zunyi headed.
Conference was thus a
major milestone in Mao’s
• Leadership of the march
eventual control of thewas
Party.
handed to Mao and Zhu De.
Progress in 1935 – January-October
• Under their new
leadership, the march
took off in a new
direction, often changing
routes & splitting forces.

• One of the most famous

events was the crossing
of the Dadu River. 22
soldiers swung across the
river gorge on chains
whilst under fire.
Arrival – October 1935
• In October 1935 they had
reached their destination of the
poor communist base at Yanan
in Shaanxi province. They had:

– Fought dozens of battles

– Crossed 24 rivers
– Crossed 18 mountain ranges
– Covered 24 miles a day
– 6000 miles in total
– 30,000 reached destination out of
100,000
Importance of the March
1. The CCP had survived and found a new
base which was remote and safe from 1.) Which is the
attack from the KMT & Japanese
most important
consequence of
2. Mao was hailed as a great hero and was re-
the march?
established as the unchallenged leader of
the CCP Why?

3. Many Chinese saw the CCP as heroes &

2.) How did the
Long March became part of CCP mythology success of the
march help boost
4. The good behaviour of the Red Army CCP support
impressed peasants across China?
The Yanan Years 1935-1945
• During this time Mao succeeded in
imposing his personal authority on Rectification of
the CCP. Conduct
Campaigns – A
• He also fought off attempts by the serious of
Stalin and the COMINTERN to ferocious purges
dominate the party. by which Mao
removed any
• During the 1940s, he launched a member of the
series of ‘rectification campaigns’ CCP he suspected
to consolidate his hold. He also of opposing him.
wrote his major political works
setting out his revolutionary ideas.
Victory of the KMT 1945-1949
• With the surrender of Japan at the end
of WW2, Mao turned on the KMT again.

• A fierce 4-year struggle for supremacy of

China ended with complete victory for
the Communists.

• Chiang and the KMT were driven to

Taiwan.

• In October 1949, Mao triumphantly

declared that a new Communist society
had come into being – the People’s
Republic of China (PRC).
 Review – How did Mao become
leader of the CCP?
• Early Years – Mao became politically aware during his time at
Middle School in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. In 1911 He
joined an anti-Qing rebel army in support of the nationalists but
saw no action.

• He later dropped out of school and spent time in Changsha library

studying political philosophers of Western liberalism like Adam
Smith, Montesquieu, Darwin and Rousseau.

• In 1912-18 he trained to be a teacher in Changsha, where he read

New Youth magazine by Chen Duxiu. In April 1917 he had an
article published, instructing readers to increase their physical
strength to serve the revolution!
 Review – How did Mao become
leader of the CCP?
• Time in Beijing – In 1919, he worked as assistant librarian at Beijing
University. It is here that he began to read Marxism, attending lectures
by Chen Duxiu.

• Student Organiser – In 1919-1920, Mao moved back to Changsha to

work as a history teacher. There he co-founded the Hunanese Student
Association and began production of a radical magazine – Xiang River
Review. His articles became famous throughout China and in 1920,
Mao organised students protests in support of the KMT.

• CCP Founded – In 1921, Mao attended the first meeting of the CCP,
where he was made Party Secretary for Hunan. He spent most of his
time in Changsha, distributing revolutionary literature and recruiting
people to communism.
 Review – How did Mao become
leader of the CCP?
• Collaboration with KMT – In 1923, Mao was elected to the
Party Committee of the CCP and also to KMT Central
Committee, working to implement the United Front. He was
appointed to run the KMT’s Peasant Movement Training
Institute, organising Hunanese peasants and preparing them
for military activity in the Northern March.

• Commander in Chief – In 1927-28, Mao is appointed

commander-in-chief of the Red Army. He led the failed
Autumn Harvest Uprising on Changsha and escaped with his
army group to Jiangxi.
 Review – How did Mao become
leader of the CCP?
• Jiangxi Soviet – In 1929-34, Mao established the Jiangxi
Soviet. Here he faced criticism for being anti-revolutionary
and in the ‘Futian Incident’, Mao put down the rebels, with
his loyalists executing and torturing many. In Nov, the CCP
Central Committee moved to Jiangxi and Mao lost control of
the army to Zhou Enlai.

• Long March – In Jan 1935, the Red Army captured the city of
Zunyi. It was here that Mao outmanoeuvred his rivals and
was elected Chairman of the Politburo – de facto leader of
both Party and Red Army. In Nov 1935, Mao was declared
Chairman of the Military Commission as well.
 Review – How did Mao become
leader of the CCP?
• Yanan Years – In 1935-45, Mao consolidated his hold on the
Party further, using ‘Rectification Campaigns’ in 1942 to
purge and torture opponents and ‘Thought Reform
Campaigns’ to indoctrinate new recruits. Membership had
grown to 800,000 by 1940 and Mao was holding down
Japanese troops with his Guerrilla Tactics. With the defeat of
the Japanese in 1945, Mao was elected Party Chairman.

What was the key turning

point in Mao’s rise to power?
Tasks
1. Make a timeline of Mao’s rise to power from 1919-1937. Include a
brief description of each event (50 words max).

2. What were the most important events in Mao’s rise to power? Why?
(try to identify at least 3 events)

3. Why was China such an unstable nation in the early 20th century?

4. Why do you think that the Long March was later afforded such an
important place in Maoist propaganda?

5. Why had Mao Zedong emerged as the unchallenged leader of the

CCP by 1945?

6. Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJy_wduFy4