Mao Zedong years. Mao Zedong - Great Pilot of China
The great statesman, founder of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong is considered one of the theorists of communism of the 20th century, in particular, its offshoot of Maoism.
The future politician was born at the end of 1893 in the southern province of China, Hunan, in the town of Shaoshan. The boy's parents were illiterate peasants. Mao Shunsheng's father was a small trader who resold the rice that was harvested in the countryside in the city. Wen Qimei's mother was a Buddhist believer. From her, the boy took a craving for Buddhism, but soon after becoming acquainted with the works of leading political figures of the past, he became an atheist. As a child, he attended school, where he studied the basics of the Chinese language, as well as Confucianism.
At the age of 13, the boy dropped out of school and returned to his father's house. But his stay with his parents did not last long. Three years later, due to a disagreement with his father about an unwanted marriage, the young man leaves the house. The revolutionary movement of 1911, during which the Qing dynasty was overthrown, made its own adjustments to the life of a young man. He spent six months in the army serving as a signalman.
After the establishment of peace, Mao Zedong continued his studies, first at a private school, and then at a teacher training college. During these years, he studied the works of European philosophers and great politicians. New knowledge greatly influenced the change in the outlook of the young man. He creates a society to renew the life of the people, based on the ideology of Confucianism and Kantianism.
In 1918, at the invitation of his teacher, a talented young man moved to Beijing to work in the capital's library and continue his education. There he met the founder of the Communist Party of China, Li Dazhao, and became a follower of the ideas of communism and Marxism. In addition to classical works on the ideology of the masses, the young man also gets acquainted with the radical works of P. A. Kropotkin, in which the essence of anarchism is revealed.
There are also changes in his personal life: young Mao meets a girl named Yang Kaihui, who later becomes his first wife.
revolutionary struggle
The next few years, Mao travels around the country. Everywhere he encounters class injustice, but he finally establishes himself in communist ideas only towards the end of 1920. Mao comes to the conclusion that to change the situation in the country, a revolution like the Russian October coup will be required.
After the victory of the Bolsheviks in Russia, Mao becomes a follower of the ideas of Leninism. He creates resistance cells in many cities in China and becomes the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. At this time, the Communists are actively moving closer to the Kuomintang Party, which is engaged in the propaganda of nationalism. But after a few years, the CCP and the Kuomintang became irreconcilable enemies.
In 1927, in the Changsha area, Mao organized the first coup and created the Communist Republic. The leader of the first free territory relies primarily on the peasantry. He reforms property, destroying private property, and gives women the right to vote and work. Mao Zedong becomes a great authority among the communists and, taking advantage of his position, arranges the first purge three years later.
His associates who criticize the activities of the party, as well as the rule of the Soviet leader, are subjected to repression. The case of an underground spy organization was fabricated and many of its imaginary members were shot. After that, Mao Zedong becomes the head of the first Chinese Soviet Republic. The goal of the dictator is now to establish Soviet order throughout China.
Great transition
A real civil war unfolded throughout the entire state and lasted more than 10 years until the complete victory of the communists. The opponents in it were supporters of nationalism, which was promoted by the Kuomintang party headed by Chiang Kai-shek, and adherents of communism, relying on large ranks of the peasantry.
Several skirmishes took place between military detachments of ideological opponents in Jingang. But in 1934, after the defeat of Mao Zedong, he had to leave this area along with a hundred thousandth detachment of communists.
They made an unprecedented journey in its length, which amounted to more than 10 thousand kilometers. During the journey through the mountains, more than 90% of the entire detachment died. Stopping in Shanxi Province, Mao and his surviving comrades-in-arms created a new department of the CPC.
Formation of the PRC
Having survived the military campaign of Japan against China, in the fight against which the armies of the CPC and the Kuomintang had to unite their efforts, they again continued the war between themselves. Over time, having gained strength, the communist army defeated the party of Chiang Kai-shek and pushed them back to Taiwan.
Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong This happened in the late forties, and already in 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed throughout China, headed by Mao Zedong. At this time, there is a rapprochement between two communist leaders: Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin. The leader of the USSR gives all kinds of support to his Chinese comrades, sending the best engineers, builders, and military equipment to the PRC.
Mao's reforms
Mao Zedong began the era of his reign with the theoretical substantiation of the ideology of Maoism, of which he was the founder. In his writings, the leader of the state describes the Chinese model of communism as a system that relies primarily on the peasants and on the ideology of great Chinese nationalism.
In the early years of the PRC, the most popular slogans were "Three years of labor and ten thousand years of prosperity", "In fifteen years to catch up and overtake England." This era was called "Hundred Flowers".
In his policy, Mao adhered to the total nationalization of all private property. He called for organizing communes in which everything was common, from clothing to food. Promoting the rapid industrialization of the country, China is creating home-made blast furnaces for metal smelting. But such activity turned out to be a failure: the agricultural economy began to suffer losses, which led to total famine in the country. And low-quality metal, which was made in home blast furnaces, often caused major breakdowns. This resulted in the death of a large number of people.
But the real state of affairs in the country was carefully concealed from the Chinese leader.
cold war
A split in the highest echelons of power begins, which is aggravated by the death of Joseph Stalin and a chill in China's relations with the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong sharply criticizes the activities of the government, accusing the latter of manifestations of chauvinism and retreat from the course of the communist movement. And the Soviet leader, in turn, withdraws all scientific personnel from China and ceases financial support for the CCP.
Nikita Khrushchev and Mao Zedong In the same years, the PRC got involved in the Korean conflict in order to support the leader of the Communist Party of North Korea, Kim Il Sung, thereby provoking US aggression against itself.
"Big Leap"
After the completion of the Hundred Flowers program, which led to the collapse of agriculture and the death of more than 20 million people from starvation, Mao Zedong begins a large purge in the ranks of disaffected political and cultural figures. In the 1950s, another wave of terror swept across China. The second stage of the reorganization of the state began, which was called the "Great Leap Forward". It consisted in increasing yields by all possible means.
The people were urged to destroy rodents, insects and small birds, which had a negative impact on the safety of crops. But the mass destruction of sparrows led to the opposite effect: the next crop was completely eaten away by caterpillars, which led to even greater food losses.
nuclear superpower
In 1959, under the influence of the disaffected masses, Mao Zedong gave way to Liu Shaoqi as leader of the country, while remaining the head of the CPC. The country began a rollback to private property, to the destruction of the developments of the former leader. Mao endured all this without interfering in the process. He was still popular among the common people of the country.
During the Cold War, tension between China and the USSR intensifies, despite the presence of a common enemy - the United States. In 1964, the People's Republic of China announces to the whole world that it has created an atomic bomb. And the numerous Chinese units that are being formed on the borders with the USSR are causing great concern to the Soviet Union.
Even after the USSR gave the Republic of China Port Arthur and a number of other territories, at the end of the 60s Mao started a military campaign against Damansky Island. Tension on the border increased on both sides, which led to battles not only in the Far East, but also on the border with the Semipalatinsk region.
The conflict was soon settled, limiting itself to a few hundred casualties on both sides. But this state of affairs was the reason for the creation in the USSR of fortified military units along the entire border with China. In addition, the USSR provided all kinds of support to Vietnam, which, with the help of the Soviet Union, won the war with the United States and now opposed China from the south.
cultural revolution
Gradually, liberal reforms lead to the stabilization of the economic situation in the country, but Mao does not share the aspirations of his opponents. His authority is still high among the population, and at the end of the 60s he carried out a new round of communist propaganda, called the "Cultural Revolution".
The combat effectiveness of his units is still at a high level, Mao returns to Beijing. The leader of the Communist Party stakes on familiarizing the youth with the theses of the new movement. His third wife, Jiang Qing, is also on the side of Mao in the fight against the bourgeois moods of a part of society. She takes over the organization of the activities of the Red Guard detachments.
During the years of the "cultural revolution" several million people were killed, ranging from ordinary workers and peasants to the party and cultural elite of the country. Detachments of young rebels smashed everything, life in the cities froze. Paintings, books, works of art, furniture were burned.
Mao soon realized the consequences of his activities, but hastened to place all responsibility for what had happened on his wife, thereby preventing the debunking of his personality cult. Mao Zedong, in particular, rehabilitates his former party comrade Deng Xiaoping and makes him his right hand. In the future, after the death of the dictator, this politician will play a big role in the development of the state.
In the early 1970s, Mao Zedong, being in a confrontation with the USSR, moved closer to the United States, and already in 1972 held his first meeting with American President R. Nixon.
Personal life
The biography of the Chinese leader is replete with an abundance of love affairs and official marriages. Mao Zedong promoted free love and abandoned the ideals of the traditional family. But this did not prevent him from marrying four times and having a large number of children, many of whom died in childhood.
Mao Zedong with his first wife Luo Yigu The first wife of young Mao was his second cousin Lo Yigu, who at 18 was 4 years older than the young man. He opposed the choice of his parents and ran away from home on their wedding night, thereby disgracing his bride.
Mao Zedong with his second wife Yang Kaihui Mao met his second wife 10 years later while studying in Beijing. The beloved of the young man was the daughter of his teacher Yang Changji Yang Kaihui. She reciprocated his feelings, and soon after she joined the CCP, they got married. Mao's party comrades considered this marriage an ideal revolutionary union, since young people went against the wishes of their parents, which at that time was still considered unacceptable.
Yang Kaihui not only bore the communist three sons Anying, Anqing and Anlong. She was his assistant in party affairs, and during the military conflicts between the CCP and the Kuomintang in 1930, she showed great courage and loyalty to her husband. She, along with her children, was captured by a detachment of opponents and, after torture, without abandoning her husband, was executed in front of her sons.
Mao Zedong with his third wife He Zizhen Perhaps the suffering and death of this woman were in vain, since for more than a year her faithful had been living in a free marriage with a new passion, He Zizhen, who was 17 years younger than him and served in the communist army as the head of a small intelligence unit. The brave woman won the heart of the windy Zedong, and soon after the death of his wife, he announced her as his new wife.
During several years of living together, which took place in difficult conditions, He gave birth to Mao five children. The couple were forced to give two babies to strangers during fierce battles for power. The difficult life and betrayal of her husband undermined the woman's health, and in 1937 the Chinese leader of the CCP sent her to the USSR for treatment. There she was kept in a psychiatric clinic for several years. After that, the woman remained in the Soviet Union and even made a good career, and then moved to Shanghai.
Mao Zedong with his last wife Jiang Qing The last of Mao's wives was Lang Ping, a Shanghai artist with a dubious reputation. In addition to several marriages, by the age of 24 she had countless lovers among directors and actors. The young beauty conquered Mao by performing in Chinese opera, where she played one of the leading roles. In turn, the leader of the Communist Party called her to his speeches, where she showed herself to be a diligent student of the great leader. Soon they began to live together and the actress had to change not only the name of Lan Ping to Jiang Qing, but also her role as a fatal beauty to the image of a diligent quiet housewife.
In 1940, the young wife gave birth to a daughter of the CCP leader. Jiang Qing sincerely loved her husband, she accepted his two children from a previous marriage into her family and never complained about the difficult living conditions.
Death
The 70s were overshadowed by the illness of the "great helmsman". His heart began to falter. Ultimately, the cause of Zedong's death was two heart attacks, which significantly undermined his health.
The weakness of the leader of the Communist Party no longer gave him the opportunity to control the events taking place in power. Two factions of Chinese politicians launched a struggle for the right to stand at the helm. The radicals were controlled by the so-called "Gang of Four", which included Mao's wife. The leader of the opposite camp was Deng Xiaoping.
After the death of Mao Zedong, which occurred in early autumn 1976, a political movement unfolded in China against Mao's wife and her accomplices. They were sentenced to death, but Jiang Qing was given an indulgence by placing her in a hospital. There she committed suicide a few years later.
Despite the fact that the image of Mao's wife was tarnished by terror, the name of Mao Zedong remained bright in the memory of the people. More than a million Chinese citizens attended his funeral, and the body of the "pilot" was subject to embalming. A year after his death, the mausoleum was opened, which became the last refuge for Mao Zedong. For more than 20 years of the existence of the tomb of Mao Zedong, about 200 million Chinese citizens and tourists have visited it.
Of the surviving descendants of the CCP leader, one child remained from each of his spouses: Mao Anqing, Li Ming and Li Na. Zedong kept his children strict and did not allow the use of a famous surname. His grandchildren do not occupy high government positions, but one of them, Mao Xinyu, became the youngest general in the Chinese army.
Kong Dongmei's granddaughter was included in the list of the richest women in China, but this was partly due to her wealthy husband, whom Kong Dongmei married in 2011.
The name Tse-tung, consisting of two hieroglyphs, was translated as "Grace to the East." Naming such a name for their son, the parents wished him the best fate. They hoped that their offspring would become a necessary person for the country. This eventually came true.
The assessment of Mao Zedong's activities for the Chinese people is ambiguous. On the one hand, the percentage of literate Chinese has become more than at the beginning of the century. This number increased from 20% to 93%. But mass repressions, the destruction of cultural and material values, as well as the ill-conceived policy of the agrarian revolution of the 50s cast doubt on Mao's merits.
Thanks to the Cultural Revolution, the cult of Mao Zedong's personality grew to its maximum. Each citizen of the People's Republic of China had a small red book of sayings and quotes of the leader of the people. In each room, a portrait of Mao Zedong was to hang on the wall. Historians often link the cult of the Chinese dictator to the personality cult of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
The fight against sparrows, launched in the late 50s, left in history the sad experience of the imaginary victory of man over nature. Small birds were prevented from landing on the ground with the help of special devices, forcing them to fly for more than 20 minutes. After which they fell exhausted. A year after the destruction of all sparrows, a large number of people died of starvation. The entire crop was now destroyed by insects that birds had dealt with before. I had to urgently import them from abroad in order to restore the balance in nature.
Mao Zedong never brushed his teeth. His method of maintaining oral hygiene was to rinse his mouth with green tea and then eat all the tea leaves. This folk method led to the fact that all the teeth of the dictator were covered with a green coating, but this did not stop him from smiling in all the photos with his mouth closed.
Mao Zedong (December 26, 1893 - September 9, 1976) - the first chairman of the Communist Party of China, politician, dictator, creator and ideologist of Maoism. Chairman Mao is a controversial figure. The Cultural Revolution, which took place in the country during his reign, destroyed many cultural heritage sites and claimed the lives of millions of people. However, on the other hand, Zedong carried out a series of reforms that favorably affected the development of the country's economy.
Childhood and early years
Mao Zedong's family came from the middle class. Little Mao was strongly attached to his mother, and his relationship with his father was not so perfect - they clashed a lot. One of the biggest quarrels occurred when the future chairman flatly refused to accept the wife chosen for him. He also resisted hard physical labor and did little to help his family. In 1910, Mao went to study in Dunshan, where he formed his main views as a politician. After the Xinghai Revolution in 1911 and the fall of the monarchy, Zedong continued to study. In 1917 he organized a revolutionary circle.
Start of political activity
From 1919 to 1925, Mao studied the works of foreign reformers and followed political events in Russia with interest. He travels a lot in China: he is trying to achieve the removal of the governor in Hunan province, he participates in the first congress of the Communist Party of China. He soon becomes disillusioned with the viability of the Chinese revolution and retires for a short while. In 1927, he raises a peasant uprising, which ends in failure. For some time, Mao and his supporters were forced to hide from the authorities. Then they settled in the province of Jiangxi and established Soviet power there, based on the peasantry. Soon the Communist Party discredited itself, and Mao's position, on the contrary, strengthened. In the early 1930s, he got rid of most of his opponents through repression, and in the fall of 1931 he became the head of the newly formed Soviet Republic of China. Then, during the long years of the civil war, Mao fought with the current leadership for power in the country, as a result of which in 1949 he won and was proclaimed chairman of the government of the People's Democratic Republic of China.
Years of government (1949 - 1976)
1)Baihua Yundong - "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom"
In connection with the large-scale redistribution of property and the seizure of property that unfolded during the first five-year plan, the country's leadership launched a campaign under the motto "Let a hundred flowers bloom." The Communist Party proclaimed glasnost and called on the people to actively express their opinion on the reforms being carried out in the country. As a result, in July 1957, more than half a million discontented people appeared, publishing wall newspapers and organizing protest rallies. The campaign was hastily curtailed and the first repressions in the country followed.
2)1958 - 1960 - "The Great Leap"
After many years of wars, the country was in economic decline. In accelerating the pace of collectivization, the formation of communes, the introduction of workdays and other measures, the leadership of the Communist Party saw a way out of the current situation. However, the results of the policy pursued had the opposite effect. Experiments in agriculture and rapid industrialization led to mass starvation.
3)1959-1965 - aggravation of relations with the USSR and the establishment of a personality cult.
Stalin's personality cult was debunked at the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Chairman Mao did not agree with N.S. Khrushchev's policy, as a result of which diplomatic relations were severed between the two countries. Soviet specialists who collaborated with China and helped in the reconstruction of the country were recalled to their homeland. At the same time, the cult of Mao was established in the Celestial Empire, all reactionary writers were sharply criticized, dissent was condemned.
4)1965 - 1976 - Cultural Revolution
During the years of the Cultural Revolution, the authorities organized detachments of the Red Guards, who killed and tortured and humiliated hundreds of thousands of people. Traditional Chinese culture was consigned to oblivion: books and paintings were burned, ancient architecture was destroyed. The power of the chairman has reached the absolute.
5) The final stage
At the end of his reign, the seriously ill Mao actually retired. Various groups were in power, one of which was headed by his last wife. The chairman died in September 1976, after his death his body was placed in the mausoleum.
Board results
Among the biggest failures and achievements of Mao Zedong are:
The establishment of a communist regime that exists in the country to this day;
Carrying out reforms in agriculture and industry;
Development of atomic weapons;
Mass repressions;
The stagnation of the economy and the establishment of the cult of the leader;
Creation of the ideology of Maoism.
In a family of small landowners in 1893, on December 26, the Maoist theorist and future leader of China, Mao Zedong, was born. The father, according to Mao, saved up money during his military service and became a merchant. He bought rice from the peasants and sold it to the city. According to religious beliefs, my father was a Confucian, he knew several hieroglyphs for keeping records. Mother was an illiterate Buddhist.
Mao received his primary education at a local school, but at the age of thirteen he left it because of a teacher who beat students for disobedience. In his father's house, he helped in the field, kept accounting books. But Mao's main hobby was reading books about great people: Peter the Great, Napoleon and Emperor Qin Shi Huang. The father, in order to somehow settle down his son, insisted on his marriage with a relative of the family. Zedong did not recognize this marriage and fled from home. Some bibliographers claim that Mao's father was intimate with the girl.
In China, according to custom, an agreement was reached between parents about the marriage of children even in childhood, so Mao was forced to marry so that his father would not lose respect. At times, in order to honor the marriage contract, the participants had to marry dead people, if someone did not live to see the marriage.
Mao lived with an unemployed student for about six months and then returned home. In vain did my father hope that Mao would take up his mind. After another conflict, Mao demanded money for further education, and his father promised to pay for his studies at the Dunshan School.
- born December 26, 1893 in Shaoshan village, Hunan province
- dropped out of school in 1906
- in the fall of 1910, young Mao Zedong demanded money from his parent to continue his education and went to study at the Dunshan Primary School of the highest level
- in 1911, the young Mao was caught by the Xinhai Revolution, where he joined the provincial governor's army
- six months later he left the army to continue his studies
- in the spring of 1913, he was forced to enroll as a student of the Fourth Provincial Normal School of Changsha
- in 1917 his first article appeared in the magazine "New Youth"
- in 1918 he moved to Beijing and worked as an assistant to Li Dazhao
- in March 1919 leaves Beijing and travels around the country
- in the winter of 1920 visits Beijing with a delegation to liberate Hunan province, and left without result
Mao left Beijing on April 11, 1920 and arrived in Shanghai on May 5 of the same year, intending to continue the struggle for the liberation of Hunan.
In mid-November 1920, he set about building underground cells in Changsha: first, he created a cell of the Socialist Youth Union, and a little later, on the advice of Chen Duxiu, a communist circle similar to that already existing in Shanghai
In July 1921, Mao attended the founding congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Two months later, upon returning to Changsha, he becomes secretary of the Hunan branch of the CCP and marries Yang Kaihui.
Over the next five years, they have three sons - Anying, Anqing and Anlong.
in July 1922, due to the extreme inefficiency of organizing workers and recruiting new party members, Mao was suspended from participation in the II Congress of the CPC
in 1923, returning to Hunan, Mao actively set about creating a local branch of the Kuomintang
at the end of 1924, Mao left the bustling political life of Shanghai and returned to his native village
in 1925, Mao resigned from the post of secretary of the organizational section and asked for leave due to illness
Mao really left his post a few weeks before the 4th Congress of the CPC and arrived in Shaoshan on February 6, 1925.
In April 1927, Mao Zedong organized the "Autumn Harvest" peasant uprising in the vicinity of Changsha.
In 1928, after long migrations, the Communists firmly established themselves in the west of Jiangxi Province. There Mao creates a fairly strong Soviet republic
Mao dealt with his opponents at the local level in Jiangxi in 1930-31. through repression
At the same time, Mao suffered a personal loss: Kuomintang agents managed to capture his wife, Yang Kaihui. She was executed in 1930, and a little later Mao's youngest son Anlong died of dysentery. His second son by Kaihui, Mao Anying, died during the Korean War.
In the autumn of 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic was established on the territory of 10 Soviet regions of Central China, controlled by the Chinese Red Army and partisans close to it. Mao Zedong became the head of the Provisional Central Soviet Government (Council of People's Commissars).
By 1934, Chiang Kai-shek's forces surround the communist areas in Jiangxi and begin to prepare for a massive attack. CCP leadership decides to withdraw from the area
A year after the start of the Long March, in October 1935, the Red Army reaches the communist region of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia (or, according to the name of the largest city, Yan'an), which it was decided to make a new outpost of the Communist Party
In 1943 he was elected Chairman of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.
in 1945 he became chairman of the CPC Central Committee. This period becomes the first stage in the formation of Mao's personality cult.
The Politics of Mao Zedong - The Path to Communists
At school, he was immediately treated with hostility, because Mao's height was 1 meter 77 centimeters , and this is unusual for southerners, and spoke the local Xiangtan dialect. But Mao was a diligent student, read a lot, wrote good essays and discovered a new subject - geography. At this school, he got acquainted with the history of the great people of Catherine the Great, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Lincoln.
The father was tired of spending such time with his son, and he stopped paying for tuition, which forced Mao to enroll in a teacher training college. In 1917, Mao publishes an article in the New Youth magazine. After moving to Beijing, he works at the university library under Li Dazhao, the founder of the Communist Party. From 1918 to 1920, Mao could not decide on political views. The final formation of the communist worldview took place in the autumn of the twentieth year.
In 1921, he participated in the Shanghai Congress, where the Communist Party of China was formed. Mao did not support the idea of the Comintern to merge the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Constant disagreements between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to a loss of interest, communist ideals. Mao is morally tired, leaves Beijing and leaves for the countryside.
Creation of the People's Republic
Mao Zedong could not stand aside during the war and upheavals in China. In 1927, he organized a peasant rebellion surrounded by Changsha, which was crushed by troops. Mao hides in the mountains with the rest of his comrades-in-arms. The constant attacks of the Kuomintang troops force the territory of Jiangxi province to move to the west. After carrying out reforms in the agrarian and social fields, Mao creates a republic. He managed to unite ten regions in the southern part of China.
It is the thirty-first year, the Communist Party is in a deep crisis. By 1934, the military units of Chiang Kai-shek surrounded the regions of the People's Republic of China and subjected them to attacks. The Communists with a breakthrough go to the mountains of Guizhou. In the mid-thirties, the communists suffer heavy losses due to illness, struggle and desertion. But by this time, the main task was already the war with imperialist Japan, which occupied Manchuria and the province of Shandong.
By 1937, on the recommendation of Moscow, the Communists entered into an alliance with the Kuomintang Party. The Red Army in the war against Japan acts better, during the struggle the leaders learned guerrilla tactics, moreover, the main blows were dealt to the armies of Chiang Kai-shek. By the mid-1940s, the form of government of the Kuomintang party was in the process of decay, including the army.
In 1947, the last attempt of Chiang Kai-shek's army was made, the capital of the communist republic was captured, but they failed in the final liquidation of the communist stronghold and the capture of the main base. With the help of the USSR, Mao's army occupied the entire territory of China in two years. Mao Zedong announced the establishment of a republic in October 1949. After the overthrow of the leader Chai Kaishi, Mao Zedong became the head of the PRC and remained the head of the Central Committee of the Communist Party.
Politics of the Great Leap Forward and the Hundred Flowers
Mao Zedong focuses on industry and agriculture. The Soviet Union has a great influence on the development of China's domestic and foreign policy. The main model of construction was the Soviet government with signs of Chinese culture. The first five-year plan was called, "Let a hundred flowers bloom."
The Maonists expropriate the land from the owners, and with the help of Soviet specialists implement several plans for the industrialization of the country. In foreign policy, China participates in military operations against Korea. Mao's call for freedom of speech and opinion caused a lot of condemnation of his work and the dictatorship of the party for not respecting rights and freedoms. The 100 Flowers project is terminated and repressions and arrests begin.
Economic development has marked itself with the name "Great Leap Forward". The goal is to reach the level of economic development of Britain in fifteen years by organizing the entire population in rural communes, up to the creation of common canteens.
Private property was abolished. The communes were given the goal of providing their families and nearby cities with food, as well as smelting steel in the yards of the participants. The calculation was made on enthusiasm, and not on the growth of a professional level. The Great Leap Forward Program failed and ended in failure.
Changes in political power in the early 1950s in the USSR led to a rupture of diplomatic ties. Mao openly expresses a negative attitude towards Khrushchev's policies. The Soviet Union recalls its specialists who worked in the industrial sector. Open conflicts arise on the borders of China and the Soviet Union
cultural revolution
The Chinese economy was in decline. Association in rural communes relied on quantity. This is the provision of food, clothing and weapons to the population. Rural communes did not materialize, and famine began in the country. The discontent of the masses and the opposition grew. Mao decided to liquidate the oppositionists with the help of young people, uniting them in the armed detachments of the Red Guards. The terror was called the "Cultural Revolution".
The Great Revolution lasted 10 years. From 1966 to 1976, it claimed the lives of 100 million people, destroyed the leading figures of culture, science and the party. The country stopped at the threshold of civil war, and the leader decided to stop the unsuccessful revolution. A completely contradictory policy consisted of allowing criticism of authority and the right to protest, while at the same time strengthening Mao's personality cult. Every adult had a book with quotes from Zedong, and a portrait of the leader hung in the houses.
Leader's personal life
First wife friend and comrade-in-arms
Once Mao said these words: "Our life is ruled either by hunger or by love."
According to historical data, Mao Zedong had four marriages. Mao did not consider his first wife, the first marriage was with Yang Kaihui, the daughter of a teacher. She gave birth to three sons and helped her husband in his activities, kept the cash desk of the party. Yang was captured by Chai Kaishi's soldiers.
She was forced to give up her communist husband, and was executed for refusing. Mao was very upset by the death of his wife. The youngest son from his first marriage died, and Mao sent two sons to Moscow. One of the sons graduated from college and fought during the Second World War. After the victory, he returned to China, where he participated in military operations in Korea and died.
The tragic fate of the second wife
He met He Zizhen in 1927. He was a member of the Komsomol and had a strong authority. He was the first to decide to get closer to Mao, sent geese and vodka. Mao thanked for the gift and invited him to visit. The night spent together turned out to last ten years. She bore him six children, but because of the field conditions of life, the children were left in rural families. She was a friend, colleague and wife in the struggle for the formation of the republic.
Despite his wife's devotion, Mao was greedy for women. This caused scenes of jealousy of his wife. She became jealous of Mao for an American journalist and student to the point of threatening to kill her. Mao knew that it would be easy for his wife to shoot two women, and possibly even him, so he sent his pregnant wife to Moscow, where she gave birth to a son. The boy fell ill after birth and died.
Suffering away from her homeland, He Zizhen asked Mao for permission to return, but Mao remained adamant. He found Qiao Qiao's daughter in one of the rural families and sent him to his wife. One day, the girl fell ill and was mistakenly sent to the morgue. The mother made a scandal to the doctor when she found a living girl there. After that, she is sent to a psychiatric clinic, where she spent a long six years. So the wife of the leader He Zizhen, who supported Mao in difficult years, was consigned to oblivion. And the daughter of the Chinese leader was warmed by the new empress of the Chinese leader Jiang Qing.
Only in 1947, the official Wang Jiaxiang, who arrived in Moscow, inquired about the fate of Zedong's wife. After receiving Mao's permission to enter China, he accompanied He to Beijing, but his residence and movement within the country was restricted. Mao did not need a sick woman, withered from wars and upheavals, by her side. Lonely and forgotten, He hanged herself in one of the residences of the Chinese leader.
Empress of the Red Palace
Mao's new passion was an artist with the pseudonym Lan Ping, real name Jiang Qing. Mao met her at a concert where Lan sang an aria. Skin color, graceful flexible figure, plump lips and regular features struck Mao's heart. He made a decision to marry an artist.
Party comrades were against an alliance with a girl of a dubious past. This issue was even brought to the discussion of the party cell, where Mao received the consent. The years of family marriage lasted ten years. She bore him a daughter.
But Lan Ping, accustomed to all the attention, suffered as a housewife. She received complete freedom of action during the cultural revolution, for which she was subsequently held accountable. In 1980, a trial was initiated against the gang of four Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen and Yao Wenyuan and Lan Ping. However, the decision of the death penalty was replaced by detention in prison.
The last years of the leader's life, the love of Zhang Yufeng, the conductor of the special train team. She personally dealt with the supply of live goods, girls and boys, to the harem of Mao Zedong.
Death of Mao Zedong - Chinese leader
Since 1971, Mao began to get sick often and, after experiencing two heart attacks, died on the night of September 8-9, 1976. Mao Zedong, during his lifetime, signed an order for the burial of the remains of the leading leaders of the party, but this was forgotten and the body was embalmed.
In a mausoleum built in Beijing's main Tiananmen Square, his body was placed in a crystal coffin for all to see. It is said that many Chinese were in a state of shock after Mao's death and even cried.
Despite the negative aspects in the activities of the leader of China, there were positive trends. Having received an economically weak country, Mao managed to create a powerful and independent state with atomic weapons. The illiteracy rate was reduced to 7%, life expectancy doubled, and the country's industrialization tenfold.
Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 (on the 19th day of the 11th moon of the 19th year of the imperial reign under the motto Guangxu) in southern China in the village of Shaoshan, Xiangtan County, Hunan Province. According to Mao, his father, Mao Rensheng, saved up some money over the years of military service, returned to his native village, and became a small merchant. He bought rice from the peasants, and then resold it to merchants in the city at a higher price.
Mao's father had only attended school for two years and knew only enough hieroglyphs to be able to keep a book of income and expenses. Mao's mother was an illiterate woman. She had a great influence on her son, instilling Buddhist beliefs in him.
When the boy was five years old, he was given a middle name - Zedong, which meant that childhood was over and he had to do what he could. Three years later, Mao began attending regular school. Education was based on memorization of the canonical Confucian books.
At the age of 13, Mao left school to work in the fields and help his father keep the money accounts. A year later, Mao's father married a girl six years older than him (nothing is known about her fate).
The father hoped to eventually transfer his trading business into the hands of his son. But the son showed character. He ran away from home and began taking lessons from an unemployed legal scholar. This went on for six months. Then, under the guidance of the old scholar, he continued to study the Chinese classics, as well as to read modern literature.
In 1910, Mao entered a school in Dongshan, Xiangxiang County, Shunan Province. Teachers noted his abilities, knowledge of Chinese classics, canonical Confucian books. Mao recalls two books sent to him by his cousin, which told about the reform activities of Kang Youwei (a supporter of liberal reforms). He even learned one of them by heart. His favorite characters were the founder of the first unified Chinese empire, Qin Shi-Huangdi, robbers from the novel "River Backwaters", military and political figures of the Han era, bred in the novel "Three Kingdoms", then Napoleon, whom he learned about from the brochure "Great Heroes of World History ".
At 18, Mao joined the army. Here, reading the Xiangjiang Ribao and other newspapers, he first became acquainted with the ideas of socialism. Six months later, Mao left the army, lived for some time in his native village and helped his father.
In 1913, Mao arrived in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province, determined to continue his education. He entered the Pedagogical School, graduating in 1918. Mao Zedong reads Chinese philosophers and writers here too, outlining their thoughts in his diaries. His student essays were hung on the walls of the school as exemplary ones.
Mao at that time was strongly influenced by the ideas of the new culture movement, which was preached by his beloved professor Yang Changji. This trend was looking for a way to combine the advanced ideas of the West with the great spiritual heritage of China itself.
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The October Revolution in Russia and the victory of Soviet power gave a powerful impetus not only to the liberation and democratic, but also to the socialist movement in China. The first revolutionary-democratic associations of students are being created in the country, from which many leaders of the Communist Party of China subsequently left.
Arriving in Peking in 1918, on the recommendation of Professor Yang Changji, who was then lecturing at Peking University, Mao got a job as an assistant to Li Dach-zhao, head of the Peking University library. He was an educated Marxist and an outstanding figure, who in 1919 created a circle for the study of Marxism in Beijing. Mao participated in its work.
Mao Zedong was 27 years old when he joined the communist circle, and a year later became one of the founders of the CPC. He began to strengthen his position by discrediting the recognized leaders of the CCP, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, and at the same time organized the persecution of everyone who opposed his own nomination.
In July 1921, after several preliminary meetings, the Congress of the Communist Party of China met in Shanghai. The convention was attended by two delegates from each of the six groups. Mao represented the Hunan organization.
At the Third Congress of the CCP, the focus was on the tactics of the Party, that is, on the attitude towards the Kuomintang. In June 1923, it was decided that the Kuomintang should act as the main organizing force in the national revolution.
Mao turned out to be among the most active conductors of this line. Speaking at the congress, he abandoned his previous position when he spoke in favor of the independence of trade unions. Mao advocated the transfer of trade unions under the leadership of the Kuomintang. His active and rapid transition to new positions ensured him a new position in both the CPC and the Kuomintang. At the III Congress, he was elected to the Central Committee, and soon after that (in January 1924) he was appointed head of the organizational department. At the First Congress of the Kuomintang, Mao was elected as a candidate member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.
In 1924, the Kuomintang was reorganized on a more centralized basis into a political party. Mao took an active part in the forum of Kuomintang leaders who had come from all over China. And when in 1924 the Kuomintang created courses for the training of leaders of the peasant movement, no one was surprised that it was Mao, at the suggestion of the CPC, who became one of the leading leaders of these courses, although before that he had not been interested in the peasant movement.
In April 1927, Mao was appointed to the Standing Committee of the Provisional Executive Committee of the All China Peasant Association, which was under the influence of the Kuomintang. Even the pro-Maoist Shram notes that Mao at that time continued to insist on cooperation not only with the Kuomintang, but also with Chiang Kai-shek.
Meanwhile, on April 12, 1927, Chiang Kai-shek carried out a counter-revolutionary coup in Shanghai. A few months later, representatives of the Communist Party were expelled from the Kuomintang. A wave of mass arrests of revolutionary workers and peasants swept across the country. The stage of the existence of a united national front was left behind. A civil war broke out.
At an emergency meeting of the CPC Central Committee on August 7, 1927, the leadership of the CPC set out to organize armed uprisings. The August meeting worked out a program for organizing a series of uprisings in the countryside.
At this meeting, Mao was elected a member of the Central Committee and a candidate member of the Provisional Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPC. sent representatives of the CPC Central Committee. Mao went to his native province of Hunan.
The "autumn harvest" uprisings ended tragically everywhere. The November Plenum of the CPC Central Committee in 1927 excluded Mao Zedong from the list of candidates for the Provisional Politburo of the CPC Central Committee for the mistakes made by the Hunan Provincial Committee. The main thing is the installation only on military force. This plenum is also famous for the fact that a new concept of "Mao Zedongism" was used at it. This new trend was characterized as "military adventurism".
The leftist approach was most clearly expressed in 1930-1931, when Mao sided with Li Lisan, who hoped to involve the USSR in a world war in order to accelerate the Chinese revolution. For leftist adventurism, Mao Zedong was repeatedly subjected to party penalties.
In January 1935, at a meeting in Zongyi, Mao Zedong, having played on the vanity of the military, who constituted the majority there, and criticized the chairman of the Military Council of the CPC Central Committee and political commissar Zhou Enlai, as well as the acting General Secretary of the CPC, Qin Bangxiang (Bo Gu), achieved the election of himself to the secretariat of the Central Committee.
After leading the CPC in 1935, Mao Zedong continued to use leftist tactics that could undermine the Chinese national united front. This was clearly shown during the so-called Xi'an incident in December 1936, when Mao advocated the liquidation of Chiang Kai-shek, who was taken prisoner by patriotic military men. But in 1937-1938, Mao Zedong turned sharply to the right, and in those areas controlled by the Chinese Red Army, the October (1937) directive of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, prepared on his instructions, prohibited the preaching of any class struggle, democracy and internationalism. And when in the late 1930s and early 1940s Mao and his supporters succeeded in pushing the internationalist communists out of the leadership of the CPC, nationalist propaganda was intensified in a number of documents intended for the party and the army.
To keep the power seized in the CCP, Mao Zedong began to instill a cult of his own personality. The main means to achieve this goal are mass political campaigns. In 1941-1945, when the attention and forces of the CPSU(b) were focused on the fight against German fascism, Mao conducted zhengfeng in Yan'an - a "campaign to streamline the style", during which he falsified the history of the CCP, presenting his own figure as its main character , seeking absolute authority and complete power in the party and in the areas controlled by the Red Army. This campaign was characterized by the presence of a well-thought-out plan with a diverse arsenal of means of implementation.
Mao Zedong put the media under control and created a strong base in the security agencies. The secret services (which were led by his confidant - Kang Sheng, a man with a suspicious past) launched arrests of persons "suspected" of having links with the Kuomintang and the Japanese. Honest communists were forced to repent of all sorts of anti-Party misdeeds, to praise Mao, almost all of his opponents in the CPC leadership were forced to publicly admit their views were "harmful" or simply to obey the decision of the CPC Central Committee that condemned them.
Numerous ups and downs taught Mao Zedong to distrust.
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Mao learned to use the entire arsenal of means known to him, covering the desire for personal power with calls to fight for the lofty ideals of the revolution. A distinctive feature of his character was the ability to attract some to his side, forcing others to serve him. He made extensive use of traditional promotion techniques, when someone was first punished and then unexpectedly promoted. Thus, personal devotion to the leader was brought up. Having won in the intra-party struggle against Li Lisan and Zhang Guotao, against Wo Gu and Wang Ming, Mao Zedong then concentrated his forces against the main opponent, Chiang Kai-shek. With this enemy (later - with his shadow in Taiwan), Mao had a chance to fight for the rest of his life, even after winning the 1949 revolution.
This is how the new regime was planted in the CCP. Its result was the complete submission of all leaders to the will of Mao Zedong. It was clearly revealed at the 7th Congress of the CPC in 1945. Mao's speech at the congress was typical. The congress as a whole passed under the sign of the triumph of the ideology and policy of Mao Zedong and his group.
At the congress, a new charter of the CPC was adopted, which stated: "The Communist Party of China is guided in all its work by the ideas of Mao Zedong." Thus, the previous formulation of Marxism-Leninism as the basis of the ideology of the Communist Party was replaced.
Mao Zedong was elected to the post of Chairman of the CPC Central Committee specially established for him. This post was invented by Mao himself, who was now rising above the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party. And since Chiang Kai-shek was also the chairman of the weiyuanzhang (in the supreme state body) and the people called him “co-chairman”, then Mao, becoming the “chairman”, created his own image of the head of the nation.
The slogan "antiquity at the service of modernity" as an ideological attitude did not arise in Mao by chance. The ideas of the superiority of Chinese culture over others, which formed the basis of education in old China, formed the dogma of its Sino-centric foreign policy.
One of Mao Zedong's favorite works was The Book of the Governor of the Han Province. The ancient legalist Shang Yang argued that “a state can achieve tranquility through agriculture and war. A state that loves strength is difficult to attack, and a state that is difficult to attack will certainly achieve prosperity ... enemy, it means that (the country) is strong ... If (during the war) the country performs actions that the enemy would be ashamed of, then it will win.
From his first steps in the journalistic field in April 1917, Mao Zedong spoke almost exclusively about the revival of the former greatness of the Chinese Empire. The path to this lay through "the revival of the spirit of military prowess." The creed of power struggle remained the main thing for him forever.
In October 1938, at the VI Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPC of the 6th convocation, Mao Zedong delivered a report "The Place of the Communist Party of China in the National War" and formulated the theory of the application of Marxism in Chinese conditions: "The Communists are supporters of the international doctrine - Marxism, but we will be able to implement Marxism only taking into account the specific characteristics of our country and through a certain national form.The great strength of Marxism-Leninism lies precisely in the fact that it is inextricably linked with the specific revolutionary practice of each given country.For the Communist Party of China, this means that one must learn to apply the Marxist-Leninist Leninist theory to the concrete conditions of China..."
In 1946-1949, the People's Revolution in China ended in a civil war. On September 21, 1949, the first session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was convened in Beiping. It fixed the organization of the new state and elected the composition of its leaders. The new coalition government included representatives of eight parties and groups, as well as "independent individuals with democratic convictions." Mao, as chairman of the Central People's Government, had several deputies. In those years, he paid great attention to foreign policy activities.
A major wave of repression began in 1951, when, at the suggestion of Mao, the "Regulation on Punishment for Counter-Revolutionary Activities" (May 20, 1951) was adopted.
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In 1951, open show trials were held in the big cities of China, at which, after the public announcement of crimes, "dangerous counter-revolutionaries" were sentenced to death. In Beijing alone, some 30,000 rallies took place within a few months; they were attended by more than three million people in total. Long lists of executed "counter-revolutionaries" constantly appeared in the newspapers.
As for the number of victims, in October 1951 it was officially stated that 800,000 cases of "counter-revolutionaries" had been examined in 6 months of that year.
Zhou Enlai later reported that 16.8 percent of the "counter-revolutionaries" on trial were sentenced to death.
After the victory of the people's revolution, Mao Zedong constantly tried, stepping over objective factors, to speed up the development of China. The thirst for greatness and national superiority led him to a naive dream: in a short time to surpass the USSR and the USA economically and militarily, and therefore all countries of the world. The country has turned into a grandiose testing ground for experiment, testing his ideas in practice. In December 1953, the CPC Central Committee set the task of creating by 1957 agricultural production cooperatives of the semi-socialist type, which would unite 20 percent of the peasants. This was taken, of course, as an indication, and co-operation went into full swing. If in July 1955 there were 16.9 million peasant families (14%) in cooperatives, then by June 1956 there were already more than 108 million families (90.4%). The planned gradual development of forms of cooperation was abandoned.
In 1958, another nationwide campaign began in China. This time it was flies, mosquitoes, sparrows and rats. Each Chinese family had to demonstrate their participation in the campaign and collect a large bag filled to the brim with these pests. The attack on sparrows was especially intense. The strategy was to keep the sparrows from landing, to keep them in the air all the time, in flight, until they collapsed in exhaustion. Then they were killed.
Mao Zedong (1883 - 1976)
Biography of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong (1883 - 1976) founded the People's Republic of China in 1949. He was also one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 and is regarded, along with Karl Marx and V. I. Lenin, as one of the three great theorists of Marxist communism. Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 into a wealthy peasant family in Shao-shan, Hunan province. As a child, he worked in the fields and attended the local elementary school, where he studied traditional Confucian classics. He often clashed with his strict father, whom Mao learned well to confront him with the support of his gentle and loving mother, who was a true Buddhist.
Since 1911, when the Republican forces of Sun Yat-Sen began the overthrow of the Ch "ing (or Manchu) dynasty, Mao spent more than 10 years in Chang-sha (Chang-sha) - a provincial capital. He was influenced by the rapid political and cultural changes that were sweeping the country at the time. He briefly served in the Republican Army and then spent half a year self-taught at the provincial library. This helped him get into the habit of self-education.
By 1918, Mao graduated from the Hunan First Normal School and moved to Beijing, the national capital, where he briefly worked as an assistant librarian at Peking University. Mao did not have enough money for his studies and, unlike many of his classmates, he did not study any foreign language or travel abroad to study. Due to his relative poverty during his university years, he was never fully identified with the cosmopolitan bourgeois intellectuals who dominated Chinese student life. At university, he made friends with radical intellectuals who later joined the Chinese Communist Party. In 1919, Mao returned to Hunan, where he became involved in radical political activities, organizing groups and publishing political reviews with the direct support of the head of an elementary school. In 1920, Mao married Yang Kyai-hui (Yang K "ai-hui), the daughter of one of his teachers. Yang Kyai-hui was executed by the Chinese nationalists in 1930. In the same year, Mao married Ho Tsu-chen (Ho Tzu -chen), who accompanied him during the Long March. In 1937, Mao divorced her and in 1939 married Chiang Ch'ing.
When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was organized in Shanghai in 1921, Mao became one of the founders and leaders of its Hunan branch. At this stage, the new party formed a united front with the Koumintang Party of Republican followers of Sun Yat-sen. Mao worked within the united front in Shanghai, Hunan, and Canton, focusing on labor organization, party organization, propaganda, and the Peasant Movement Training Institute. His "Report on the Movement of the Peasantry in Hunan" (1927) expressed his view of the revolutionary potential of the peasantry, but this view was not yet formulated in the proper Marxist form.
In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek gained control of the Koumingtang Party after the death of San Yat-sen and reversed the policy of cooperation with the Communists. A year later, after gaining control of the Nationalist army as well as the Nationalist government, Chiang purges the movement of communists. As a result, Mao was forced to hide in the countryside. In the mountains of southern China, he settled with Chu Teh under the protection of a guerrilla army. It was almost an accidental innovation - the fusion of the Communist leadership with a guerrilla force operating in rural areas with the support of the peasants, which was to make Mao the leader of the CCP. Their ever-increasing military power was soon enough for Mao and Chu to be able, by 1930, to defy the order set by the Soviet CCP leadership, which ordered them to try to capture the cities. Later, despite the fact that his position in the party was weak and his policies were criticized, Chinese councils were established in Juichin, Kiangsi Province, with Mao as chairman. A series of extermination campaigns led by the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek forced the CCCP to leave Yuichin in October 1934 and begin the "Long March". At Tsun-i in Kweichow, Mao first gained effective control of the CCP. This ended the era of Soviet control over the leadership of the CCP.
The remnants of the Communist forces reached Shensi in October 1935, after a 10,000 km (6,000 mi) march. They then set up a new party headquarters in Yen-an. When the Japanese invasion of 1937 forced the CCP and Kuomintang to once again form a united front, the Communists were given legal status and Mao became the national leader. During this period he established himself as a military theorist, and the essays "On Contradiction" and "On Practice" published in 1937 allowed him to be ranked among the most important Marxist thinkers. Mao's essay "On New Democracy" (1940) highlighted a unique national form of Marxism suited to China; his "Talks at the Yen-an Forum on Literature and Art" (1942) provided a basis for the party to control cultural affairs.
The validity of Mao's self-confidence and rural guerrilla strategies was proven by the rapid growth of the CCP during the Yong-an period, from 40,000 members in 1937 to 1,200,000 members in 1945. The shaky truce between the Communists and the Nationalists was broken at the end of the war. The US took steps to lead a coalition government. The civil war broke out, however, in the next 3 years (1946-49) the rapid defeat of Kuomintang was noticeable. Chiang's government was forced to flee to Taiwan, leaving the People's Republic of China, formed by the Communists in late 1949, to control most of mainland China.
When Mao's efforts to improve relations with the United States failed in the late 1940s, he decided that China would have to "lean to one side" and a period of closed cooperation with the USSR ensued. Hostility towards the United States was exacerbated by the Korean War. In the early 1950s, Mao was chairman of the Communist Party, head of state, and chairman of the military commission. His international status as a Marxist leader rose after the death of Soviet leader Stalin in 1953.
Mao's uniqueness as a leader is evident from his commitment to continue the class struggle in the name of socialism, which is confirmed in his theoretical treatise On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People (1957). Dissatisfaction with the slowness of development, the loss of revolutionary momentum in the countryside, and the CCP members' tendency to behave like a privileged class led Mao to take unusual initiatives in the late 1950s. He encouraged constructive criticism of party management from the 1956-57 Hundred Flowers movement. This criticism showed a deep hostility towards the leadership of the KCP. Around the same time, Mao began to accelerate rural property reforms, calling for the removal of the last remnants of rural private property and the formation of people's communes to initiate rapid industrial growth in a program known as the Great Leap Forward. The haste of these steps led to administrative unrest and popular resistance. In addition, adverse weather conditions led to poor harvests and severe food shortages. As a result of all these changes, Mao lost his position as head of state, his influence in the party was greatly undermined. This led to the fact that by the end of the 50s there were strong differences between the Mao government and the USSR.
During the 1960s, Mao counterattacked against party leaders and the new head of state, Liu Shao-Chi (Liu Shao-Ch "i), through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, which reached its climax between 1966 and 1969 The Cultural Revolution was largely orchestrated by Mao's wife, Chiang Ch'ing. It was arguably Mao's biggest innovation, and became essentially an ideological struggle for public opinion in the form of fierce national disputes. Mao turned out to be a good tactician "When he lost the opportunity to publish his ideas in Beijing, he used the Shanghai press to attack the Beijing leaders. The student militia, known as the Red Guards, became his mainstay. As the situation escalated and the situation threatened to break out out of control, Mao was required to rely on the military under Lin Piao.In return for this military support, Ling's party was recognized as Mao's successor in the 1969 constitution. By 1971, however, Lin was reported to have died in a plane crash after attempting to plot the assassination of Mao, who was back in firm control of power. The impulse of the Cultural Revolution was transferred to the Chinese masses, and the people realized that they had the "right to rebel", that it was their privilege to criticize the authorities and take an active part in the development of decisions. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao's sayings were printed in a small red book that was distributed to the people; his words were regarded as the final guide, and his person as the object of enthusiastic flattery. Despite how Mao might appear to have had more power than the CCP, he showed a true conviction in Leninist ideas about the collective leadership of the party. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the "cult of personality", apparently asking to reduce the number of his monuments.
