Chairman Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution

Chairman Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution

Reading through the chapters of world history, one could considerably imagine plethora of revolutions that took place in various parts of the world for centuries, especially in Europe and few Asian countries. Politics in many countries are the result of prolonged revolutions, and so was it in china. Womack and Townsend (1986) states that in China, the period between 1911 and 1949 saw an affluent numbers of revolution, even overthrowing the political system three times. The present communist system was the result of the third revolution of 1949.

However the above mentioned period of revolution is not absolute and contested. Some historians argue that the rebellions started from Confucian era itself and lasted until the death of Mao Zedong (1893-1976). Should the latter statement be true, it is worth surmising that Mao was one of the invincible drivers of revolution. Baradat (2012) mentions that the Communist Party of China was founded with the help of Soveit in 1921 and, according to G, Russell, & Karre, Mao Zedong also known as Mao Tse-Tung, a radical young school teacher who was one amongst attending the first party congress then. Later, by mid-1930s, he emerged as the leader of communist party consolidating his leadership in the early 1940s (2015). By then, he had led a few revolutions which continued until his death. Of many, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was Chairman Mao’s greatest revolution. In  the following consecutive paragraphs, a gist about the causes, processes and results of  his Cultural Revolution would be found explained.

Firstly, there are a few factors, which led to the Cultural Revolution. According to Womack and Townsend, “ the cultural revolution often refers to a national political movement organized and directed by a group of political elites under the leadership of Mao to rectify the CPC (Communism Party of China ), by Maoist policies (1986). The rectification in the sense, he wanted to change or radicalize the existantial way of thinking and behavours (culture) of the chinese. Schram cited Mao’s comments of 1960 on the Soveit Textbook, “no matter what, we cannot regard history as the creation of the planners, it is the creation of the masses” (1989). Therefore, one could deduce that in China’s political setting, the higher elites were ignorant of the rural masses. He saw that land lordism asisted by a few foreign people were exploiting the rural peasants but hardly people think that they are suppressed and exploited. Hence, Mao deliberately wanted to focus on it.

Baradat (2012) mentions that unlike Lenin-Marxism, the four classes according to Mao were the proletariat, peasantry, petty bourgeois, and national bourgeois that existed harmoniously because of respective and inancroached interests. However, “he saw a new class of economic managers and political officials, previleged by elitist policies that increased social antagonisms” . So he believed that those were the evil elements in the society because the harmonistic nature among the classes are disturbed and wanted them to disappear from the chinese society.

The other cause was his previous revolution of ‘Great Leap Forward’ initially aimed at economic reforms which failed miserably. Baradat mentions that his attempted program vastly tried to increase agriculture production through industrial output and, in doing so, he wanted to convert farms to agrarian industries. However, productions had fallen drastically, famine threatened the stability of the regime (2012). Unwilling to surrender the revolution, he ramped up another radical reform, the cultural Revolution in 1966.

Secondly, Chinese modern history considers that the revolution took approximately a decade to precipitate and within this span of time, China saw lots of plots and events. Womack and Townsend (1986) mentions that the campaign took place in four stages namely mobilization, Red Guards, Power seizures, and Consolidation. Similar to the dou, Schram also states that while the revolution became official only in 1969, actually Mao called for mobilization a year ealier (1989). In the phase of mobilization (1965-1966), “open criticism was directed to number of intellectuals and party propagandist who had published anti-Maost pieces in 1961-62 but the top antagonist was unidentified”. In this stage, one could conclude that the events were a closed, hidden struggle and importantly a planning period among the elites of the Central Committee, Cultural Revolution Group and Schram (1989) states that by May 1966, formation of Red Guard was directed.

Hence, following mobilization, formation of Red Guard happened. Mao instructed secondary school and university students to form it and overturn bourgeosi culture and bombard the headquarters. Consequently, Red Guard mushroomed and brought millions of young people into the streets to demonstrate support for Chairman Mao. The radical Red Group denounced, criticised and persecuted those said to be Mao’s opponents. . Moreover, according to Womack and Townsand (1986), the movement went further into the rural and countryside, economic enterprises, government and party offices. In addition to Red Group the new revolutionary group consituted the working class. So, the new phase of Power seizure came into effect. The local rebels competed with the local power authority and organisations over the control of offices and communications. This stage of power seizures continued for roughly two years occasionally leading to armed conflict and mass chaos. In general, “ the revolution brought violent public struggle, frequently physical riots, harsh labor, prisons and many commited suicide” . Hence, the last phase of consolidation emerged.

At the end, by the midst of all those conflicts and confrontations, according to Russell and Karre, the years of upheaval brought massive bloodsheds and chaos. The interesting part was the different factions of Red Guard had begun to fight among themselves claiming the real representations of Chairman Mao’s thought (2015). Moreover, It is mentioned that by the fall of 1960s, the country was nearly anarchial in nature. Hence, Mao called on the army (PLA) to restore order but the order was not fully recovered. It was just the intensity of movement that reduced. As a result, Womack and Townsend, state that, for a while, China came under a kind of martial law in which the PLA became the de facto administrative authority and arbiter of the local disputes because local CCP ceased to function and even central committee went into partial slumber. However, “the mass power seizure was modified by the endorsement of revolutionary committee and this permitted the former cadre to remain in office.”

The most important result was according to Schram (1989) that the ninth Party Congress formerly committed to reform the chinese societal system in accordance to Mao’s prescription. The measures were designed to foster,  more of egalitarian society by shifting resources and status to less privileged sectors of chinese society from elites to masses and from city to countryside. The beuracratic organisation were simplified and personnel reduced. The idea of bourgeosi was renounced. There happened salary reductions and higher officails began to integrate with the masses. The schools were reopened and health facilities were prioritized. People gained various rights to take part in country’s politics and reformations. All in all, Baradat (2012) mentions that communism and even socialism and liberalism began to overtake the previous capitalist and conservatism ideology. By the dawn of 1976, the revolution has almost completely cooled down. According to Williams (n.d) by then, the health of Mao began to deteriote as most probably he had been diagnosed with a cancer. Unfortunately, he died in 1976 and Lin Biao (then foreign minister during Mao) chaired his seat. However, after few years, china saw another new course of reformations.

In conclusion, among numbers of revolution in China and among Mao’s own led reformation movements, Cultural Revolution had been significantly important in making of politics in China. Chairman Mao zedong himself saw numbers of in-need reformations in the political setting. The need of rectification about the conservative and antique ways of peoples’ thinking about the bourgeosi culture, exploitaion of peasants by the landlordism and unparrellel working system of chinese Government with his principles led Mao to launch revolution in 1966. Moreover, the miserable failure of the Great Leap Forward campaign was another factor. In doing so, mobilization, the formation of Red Guard, the seizures of power and consolidation were the proccesses of the revolution. In the midst of the revolution, China was in complete chaos and it was nearly in anarchy. However, by the end of 1960s, the campaign began to cool down. Atlast, massive positive reformations such as in politics, social settings, educatonal institutions, healthcare facilities and human right were the end result of the Great Proletarian Cultural revolution. The chapter of revolution ended with the demise of Chairman Mao Zedong in 1976.

This article is written as a module assignment. It is based on only few sources i reffered. Thus, it may not be exhaustive and absolute.

Thank you!


References
Baradat, L. P. (2012). Political ideologies. New Delhi: PHI learning Private Limited.

Bingham,G.P., Russell, J. D., & Karre, W. S. (2015). Compartive Politics Today. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Schram, S. (1989). The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Williams, Y. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.history.com/topics/cultural-revolution-in-china

Womack, J. R. (1986). Politics in China. Canada: Little, Brown & Commpany Limited.