Poster of Mao Zedong declaring the formation of the People's Republic of China 1949. Mao Tse-tung

Mao Zedong is the creator of the Cultural Revolution, one of the bloodiest tyrants of the twentieth century.

The creator of the Cultural Revolution, one of the bloodiest tyrants of the twentieth century, Mao Zedong, along with the classical trinity: Marx, Engels, Lenin, was considered one of the pillars of Marxist political thought. Ruthlessness, determination and perseverance distinguished one of the founders of the Communist Party of China and the creator of the People's Republic of China (1949).

Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 in the family of a wealthy peasant Mao Zhensheng in Hunan Province. At a local elementary school, he received a classical Chinese education, including exposure to the philosophy of Confucius and traditional literature.

The studies were interrupted by the revolution of 1911. Troops led by Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Manchu Qing dynasty. Mao served in the army for six months, serving as a liaison officer in a detachment.

In 1912-1913 At the insistence of his relatives, he had to study at a commercial school. From 1913 to 1918 Mao lived in the administrative center of Changsha, where he studied at a teacher training school. Having left for a year (1918-1919) to Beijing, he worked in the library of Peking University.

In April 1918, together with like-minded people, Mao created the “New People” society in Changsha with the goal of “searching for new ways and methods of transforming China.” By 1919 he had gained a reputation as an influential political figure. In the same year, he first became acquainted with Marxism and became an ardent supporter of this teaching. The year 1920 was eventful. Mao organized the “Cultural Reading Society for the Spread of Revolutionary Ideas,” created communist groups in Changsha, and married Yang Kaihai, the daughter of one of his teachers. The following year, he became the chief delegate from Hunan Province to the founding congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), held in Shanghai in July 1921. Along with other members of the CCP, Mao joined the nationalist Kuomintang Party in 1923 and was even elected as a reserve member of the Executive Kuomintang Committee in 1924

Due to illness, Mao had to return to Hunan at the end of that year, but he did not sit idle there. He moved steadily to the left, creating unions of workers and peasants, which was the reason for his arrest. In the fall of 1925, Mao returned to Canton, where he contributed to a radical weekly.

A little later, he attracted the attention of Chiang Kai-shek and became the head of the Kuomintang propaganda department. Political differences with Chiang emerged almost immediately, and Mao was removed from office in May 1925.

He became an employee of training courses for leaders of the peasant movement, representing the extreme left wing of the CCP. However, in April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek broke his alliance with the CPC and launched an offensive against CPC members during his Northern Expedition. Mao went underground and, even independently of members of the CCP, organized a revolutionary army in August, which he led during the “Autumn Harvest” uprising on September 8-19. The uprising was unsuccessful, and Mao was expelled from the leadership of the CCP. In response, he gathered the remnants of the forces loyal to him and, teaming up with another CCP outcast, Zhu De, retreated to the mountains, where in 1928 he created an army called the “Line to the Masses.”

Mao and Zhu together established their own Soviet republic in the Jinggan Mountains on the border of Hunan and Jiangxi, which by 1934 had a population of fifteen million. By this they expressed open disobedience not only to the Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek, but also to the Comintern, which was influenced by the Soviet leaders, which ordered all future revolutionaries and communists to concentrate on capturing cities. Acting contrary to orthodox Marxist doctrine, Mao and Zhu relied not on the urban proletariat, but on the peasantry.

From 1924 to 1934, using guerrilla tactics, they successfully repelled four Kuomintang attempts to destroy the Soviets. In 1930, the Kuomintang executed Mao's wife, Yang Kaihai. After the fifth attack on the Soviets in Jingang in 1934, Mao had to leave the area with 86,000 men and women.

This mass exodus of Mao's troops from Jingang resulted in the famous "Long March" of approximately 12,000 km, ending in Shanxi Province. In October 1935, Mao and his supporters, numbering only 4,000 people, created a new party headquarters.

At this point, the Japanese invasion of China forced the CPC and the Kuomintang to unite, and in December 1936, Mao made peace with Chiang Kai-shek. Mao launched an operation known as the Hundred Regiment Offensive against the Japanese between August 20 and November 30, 1940, but was otherwise less active in operations against the Japanese, focusing his attention on strengthening the CCP's position in northern China and his leadership position in the party. In March 1940, he was elected Chairman of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee.

During the war, Mao not only organized the peasants, but also oversaw a program of purges that secured his election as permanent Chairman of the Party's Central Committee in April 1945. At the same time, Mao wrote and published a series of essays in which he formulated and developed the foundations of the Chinese version of communism. He identified three essential components of the party's working style: the combination of theory and practice, close connection with the masses and self-criticism. The CPC, which had 40,000 members at the start of hostilities, had 1,200,000 people in its ranks in 1945 when it emerged from the war.

With the end of the war, the fragile truce between the CCP and the Kuomintang also ended. Despite attempts to create a coalition government, a bitter civil war broke out. Between 1946 and 1949, Mao's troops inflicted one defeat after another on Chiang Kai-shek's armies, eventually forcing them to flee to Taiwan. At the end of 1949 Mao and his communist supporters proclaimed the People's Republic of China on the mainland.

The United States, which supported Chiang Kai-shek and Nationalist China, rejected Mao's attempts to establish diplomatic relations with them, thereby pushing him toward closer cooperation with Stalin's Soviet Union. In December 1949, Mao visited the USSR. Together with Premier Zhou-En-lai, he negotiated with Stalin and signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance before returning to China in February 1950.

From 1949 to 1954, Mao mercilessly cleared the party of its opponents. He opposed the landowners, proclaiming a program of forced collectivization in the countryside, similar to Stalin's five-year plans of the 30s. From November 1950 to July 1953, the PRC intervened on Mao's orders in the war between North and South Korea, which meant Communist China and the United States faced each other on the battlefield.

During this period, Mao became more and more important in the communist world. After Stalin's death in 1953, he emerged as the most prominent of Marxist figures. Mao openly expressed dissatisfaction with the slowing pace of revolutionary change in the Chinese countryside, pointing out that leading party officials often behaved like representatives of the former ruling classes.

In 1957, Mao initiated the “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom” movement, whose slogan was: “Let hundreds of flowers bloom, let thousands of schools of different worldviews compete.” He encouraged artists to boldly criticize the Party and its methods of political leadership and governance. Whether this was planned in advance, or simply frightened by the hostile tone of criticism, Mao soon turned the rapidly growing Hundred Flowers movement against dissidents and began to create his own cult of personality, as Stalin did in his time. At the same time, Mao renewed pressure on the peasants, calling for the complete destruction of private property, the elimination of commodity production and the creation of people's communes. He published the Great Leap Forward program, the goal of which was to accelerate industrialization throughout the country. At party congresses, slogans like: “Three years of hard work and ten thousand years of prosperity” or “In fifteen years to catch up and overtake England in the volume of the most important industrial products” were put forward, which did not correspond to the real state of affairs in China and were not based on objective economic laws.

Simultaneously with the movement to make a “great leap” in industrial production, a campaign was launched in the countryside for the widespread creation of people’s communes, where the personal property of their members was socialized, equalization and the use of unpaid labor were spread.

Already by the end of 1958, signs began to appear that the policy of the “Great Leap Forward” and “communization of the countryside” was reaching a dead end. Mao, however, stubbornly continued his planned course. Miscalculations and mistakes of the “Great Leap Forward” were the reason for the difficult state of the PRC national economy. Serious imbalances in industry arose, inflation increased, and the standard of living of the population fell sharply. The volume of agricultural and industrial production began to decline sharply. There was a shortage of grain in the country. All this, combined with administrative chaos and poor natural conditions, caused widespread famine.

The “Great Leap Forward” policy encountered not only popular resistance, but also sharp criticism from prominent CPC figures Peng Dehuai, Zhang Wentan and others. Mao resigned as head of state and was replaced by Liu Shaoqi; late 1950s - early 1960s Mao allowed himself to live in solitude and peace, but by no means in inactivity; in the mid-1960s he returned to public activity and led a carefully orchestrated attack on Liu Shaoqi. The basis of the struggle was the “great proletarian cultural revolution” proposed by Mao.

Between approximately 1966 and 1969. Mao and his third wife, Jian Qing, engaged the entire country in a heated debate over its political future and, after Mao resumed his position as party chairman and head of state, plunged China into permanent revolution. It was aimed primarily at eliminating from the leading bodies of the party all those who disagreed with his policies, imposing on the party and the people his scheme for the development of China in the spirit of the leftist concepts of “barracks communism”, the accelerated construction of socialism, and the rejection of methods of economic stimulation. These ideas were clearly reflected in the calls: “In industry, learn from the Daqing oil workers, in agriculture, from the Udzhai production team,” “The whole country should learn from the army,” “Strengthen preparations in case of war and natural disasters.” At the same time, the development of the personality cult of Mao Zedong continued. Constantly violating the principles of collective leadership of the party, Mao had by this time placed himself above the CPC Central Committee, the Politburo of the Central Committee, and the party, often without discussing with the latter the decisions he made on behalf of the party.

The first stage of the “cultural revolution” lasted from 1966 to 1969. This was the most active and destructive phase of the revolution. The reason for the start of the movement was the publication in November 1965 of Yao Wenyun’s article “On the new edition of the historical drama “The Demotion of Hai Rui.” The play was written in 1960 by a prominent Chinese historian, Deputy Mayor of Beijing Wu Han. He was accused of , telling in his drama about an episode from the life of medieval China, allegedly hinted at the injustice of the persecution and demotion of Marshal, former Minister of Defense of the People's Republic of China Peng Dehuai, who gave a negative assessment of the "Great Leap Forward" and people's communes in the People's Republic of China in 1959. The play was named in the article “anti-socialist poisonous grass.” This was followed by accusations against the leaders of the Beijing City Committee of the CPC and the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

In May 1966, at an extended meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, a message was heard outlining the main ideas of Mao Zedong about the “cultural revolution”, after which a number of senior leaders of the party, government and army were sharply criticized and then removed from their posts . A Cultural Revolution Group (CRG) was also created, headed by Mao's former secretary Chen Boda. Mao's wife Jiang Qin and the secretary of the Shanghai City Party Committee Zhang Chunqiao became his deputies, and the secretary of the CPC Central Committee Kang Sheng, who oversaw the state security agencies, became an adviser to the group. The GKR gradually replaced the Politburo and the Party Secretariat and, through the efforts of Mao, turned into the “headquarters of the cultural revolution.”

To suppress the opposition forces in the party, Mao Zedong and his supporters used politically immature youth, from whom they formed assault troops of the Red Guards (the first Red Guards appeared at the end of May 1966 at the high school at Beijing Tsinghua University). The first manifesto of the Red Guards said: "We are the guardians protecting the red power, the Party Central Committee. Chairman Mao is our support. The liberation of all mankind is our responsibility. Mao Zedong Thought is the highest guidance in all our actions. We vow that for the sake of protecting the Central Committee “To protect the great leader Chairman Mao, we will not hesitate to give our last drop of blood and will decisively complete the cultural revolution.”

Classes in schools and universities were stopped on Mao’s initiative so that nothing would prevent students from carrying out the “cultural revolution.” Persecution of the intelligentsia, party members and Komsomol began. Professors, school teachers, scientists and artists, and then prominent party and government workers were taken to the “court of the masses” in jester’s caps, beaten, and mocked at him allegedly for their “revisionist actions,” but in reality for their independent judgments about the situation in the country, for critical statements about the domestic and foreign policies of the PRC.

According to far from complete data provided by the Beijing branch of the Ministry of State Security, in August-September 1956, the Red Guards in Beijing alone killed 1,722 people, confiscated property from 33,695 families, and searched the homes of more than 85 thousand people, who were then expelled from the capital. By October 3, 1966, 397,400 “evil spirits” had already been expelled from cities throughout the country.

Terror within the country was complemented by an aggressive foreign policy. Mao resolutely opposed the exposure of Stalin’s personality cult and the entire policy of Khrushchev’s Thaw. Since the late 50s. Chinese propaganda began to accuse the leaders of the CPSU of great-power chauvinism, of attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of China and control its actions. Mao emphasized that in the international arena China must fight against any manifestations of great-power chauvinism and hegemonism.

Mao began to curtail all cooperation with the USSR, provided for by the 1950 friendship treaty. A campaign was launched against Soviet specialists in order to make their further stay in China impossible. The PRC authorities began to artificially aggravate the situation on the Soviet-Chinese border and openly put forward territorial claims against the USSR. In 1969, things escalated into open armed clashes in the area of Damansky Island and in the Semipalatinsk region.

In August 1966, a plenum of the CPC Central Committee was convened, in which many members of the Central Committee who fell victims of repression did not participate. On August 5, Mao personally wrote and hung in the meeting room his dazibao “Fire at the headquarters!” He announced to the participants of the plenum the existence of a “bourgeois headquarters*, accused many party leaders in the center and locally of carrying out the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie,” and called for “opening fire on the headquarters,” intending to completely destroy or paralyze the leading party bodies in the center and locally, people’s committees, mass organizations of workers, and then create new “revolutionary” authorities.

After the “reorganization” of the party leadership at the plenum, of the five deputy chairmen of the party Central Committee, only one remained - Minister of Defense Lin Biao, who was spoken of as Mao Zedong’s “successor”. As a result of Mao's flirtations with the Red Guards during the plenum (meaning his correspondence with the Red Guards, meetings with them), calls to open fire on the headquarters, the outrages of the Red Guards after the plenum acquired even greater proportions. The destruction of government bodies, public organizations, and party committees began. The Red Guards were essentially placed above the party and government agencies.

Life in the country was disorganized, the economy suffered severe damage, hundreds of thousands of CCP members were subjected to repression, and persecution of the intelligentsia intensified. During the years of the “cultural revolution,” as stated in the indictment in the case of the “four” (1981), “a large number of leading officials of the CPC Central Committee, public security bodies at various levels, the prosecutor’s office, the court, the army, and propaganda agencies were subjected to persecution, persecution and extermination. According to the document, the victims of the “four” and Lin Biao were a total of more than 727 thousand people, of whom over 34 thousand were “brought to death.” According to official Chinese data, the number of victims during the “cultural revolution” was about 100 million people..

In December 1966, along with Red Guard detachments, zaofan (rebel) detachments appeared, which involved young, usually unskilled workers, employees, and students. They had to transfer the “cultural revolution” to enterprises and institutions, to overcome the workers’ resistance to the Red Guards. But the workers, at the call of the CPC committees, and often spontaneously fought back against the rampaging Red Guards and Zaofans, sought to improve their financial situation, went to the capital to present their claims, stopped work, declared strikes, and entered into battles with the pogromists. Many of the country's top leaders spoke out against the destruction of party organs. To break the resistance of opponents of the “cultural revolution”, a campaign to “seize power” was launched. In January 1967, the zaofani of Shanghai seized party and administrative power in the city. Following this, a wave of “seizure of power” from “those in power and following the capitalist path” swept throughout China. In Beijing in mid-January 1967, power was seized in 300 departments and institutions. Party committees and authorities were accused of having sought to “restorate capitalism” for 17 years since the founding of the PRC. The “seizure of power” was carried out with the help of the army, which suppressed resistance and exercised control over communications, prisons, warehouses, storage and distribution of secret documents, banks, and central archives. Special units were allocated to support the “rebels,” since there was dissatisfaction in the army with the atrocities of the Red Guards and Zaofan. It was not possible to quickly implement the “seizure of power” plan. Workers' strikes spread, bloody clashes with the Zaofans occurred everywhere, as well as fights between various organizations of the Red Guards and the Zaofans. As Chinese historians write: “China turned into a state where chaos reigned and terror reigned. Party and government bodies at all levels were paralyzed. Leadership cadres and intellectuals with knowledge and experience were persecuted.” Since January 1967, the creation of new anti-constitutional local government bodies - "revolutionary committees" - began. At first, the leaders of the Red Guards and Zaofan gained dominance in them, which caused discontent among party workers and the military. Political struggle intensified in the center and locally, and in a number of areas there were clashes between military units and organizations of the Red Guards and Zaofan. At the end of the summer of 1971, the country was effectively taken under military control. The plenum of the CPC Central Committee held in October 1968, which was attended by about a third of the Central Committee, since the rest had been repressed by that time, sanctioned all actions of the “cultural revolution”, “forever” expelled Liu Shaoqi from the party, removed him from all posts, approved the draft new charter of the CPC. Intensified preparations began for the convening of the IX Congress of the CPC.

The IX Congress of the CPC (April 1969), to which delegates were not elected but appointed, approved and legitimized all the actions taken in the country in 1965-1999. The main report delivered by Lin Biao at the congress put forward a plan to continue the purge of party organizations and government institutions that began in the spring of 1968. The entire history of the party was presented as a struggle of the “Mao Zedong line” against various “deviators.” The IX Congress approved the course of “continuous revolution” and preparation for war.

The new Party Charter adopted by the congress, unlike the Charter adopted in 1956, did not define the party’s tasks in the field of economic and cultural construction, improving the lives of the people, and developing democracy. The theoretical basis for the activities of the CCP was proclaimed to be the “ideas of Mao Zedong.” The program part of the Charter contained a provision for the appointment of Lin Biao as the “successor” of Mao Zedong. The provision for a successor, characteristic of monarchical absolutism, included in the CPC Charter, was considered an “innovative phenomenon” in the field of the international communist movement. It was indeed an innovation in the sense that since the emergence of the world communist movement such a strange phenomenon has never happened. It is difficult to say how great a significance it had for the world, but it brought China to the brink of disaster.

After the IX Congress, some of those leaders who managed to maintain their positions demanded that Mao adjust extremist attitudes in the field of economics, taking into account the urgent needs of the country's development. On their initiative, since the early 70s. elements of planning, distribution by labor, and material incentives began to be carefully introduced. Measures were also taken to improve the management of the national economy and the organization of production. There were also some changes in cultural policy, although strict control over cultural life was still maintained.

In 1970-1971 events occurred that reflected a new crisis within the Chinese leadership. In March 1970, Mao decided to revise the Constitution of the PRC, making a proposal to abolish the post of Chairman of the PRC. Defense Minister Lin Biao and Cultural Revolution Affairs Group leader Chen Boda disagreed with him.

As a result of the ensuing power struggle, Chen Boda disappeared from the political scene, and in September 1971 it was the turn of Lin Biao and a group of military leaders. According to the Chinese side, Lin Biao died in a plane crash on the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic, trying to escape abroad after a failed "coup". Following this, a new purge took place in the army, during which tens of thousands of officers were subjected to repression.

However, the country could not live only by violence. Since 1972, the regime has softened somewhat. The process of restoring the activities of the Komsomol, trade unions, and women's federations is intensifying. The Tenth Congress of the CPC, held in August 1973, authorized all these measures, and also approved the rehabilitation of some party and administrative personnel, including Deng Xiaoping.

In 1972, Mao surprised the world by establishing diplomatic and economic relations with the United States, receiving President Nixon in Beijing in 1972.

Despite the compromise reached at the Tenth Congress between various forces in the CPC, the situation in the country continued to remain unstable. At the beginning of 1974, Mao approved the plan for a new nationwide political and ideological campaign to “criticize Lin Biao and Confucius.” It began with speeches in the press aimed at debunking Confucianism and praising Legalism, an ancient Chinese ideological movement that dominated under Emperor Qin Shihuang, the head of the first all-Chinese despotism (3rd century BC). A specific feature of the campaign, like some previous ones, was the appeal to historical analogies and arguments from the history of Chinese political thought in order to solve current ideological and political problems.

In January 1975, after a 10-year break, Mao allowed parliament to convene. A new constitution of the People's Republic of China was adopted. The Constitution was the result of a compromise: on the one hand, it included the provisions of 1966-1969. (including calls to prepare for war), on the other hand, it secured the right of commune members to personal plots, recognized the production team (and not the commune) as the main self-supporting unit, and provided for the need to gradually increase the material and cultural standard of living of the people and pay for work.

Soon after the adoption of the new constitution, the proponents of the “cultural revolution” made a new attempt to strengthen their positions. To this end, on the initiative of Mao at the turn of 1974-1975. A campaign was launched under the slogan of the struggle “for the study of the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat.” An important task of this campaign was the fight against those representatives of the CPC leadership who defended the need for increased attention to economic development and the use of more rational methods of managing the national economy.

During the new political campaign, distribution according to labor, the right to personal plots, and commodity-money relations were declared “bourgeois rights” that must be “limited,” i.e. introduce equalization. Under the guise of the new campaign, the economic interests of workers were infringed upon in many industrial enterprises and communes. In a number of cases, measures of material incentives were abolished, overtime work was practiced, and personal plots were liquidated. All this caused mass discontent of the people, strikes and unrest.

After a serious illness, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai died in January 1976. In April of the same year, during a ceremony dedicated to his memory, mass demonstrations took place in Beijing's main square, Tiananmen. This was a strong blow to Mao Zedong's prestige. Participants in the demonstrations condemned the activities of his wife Jiang Qin and other members of the Cultural Revolution Group and demanded their removal.

These events caused a new wave of repression. Deng Xiaoping was removed from all posts, and Minister of Public Security Hua Kuo-feng became Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. A new political campaign was launched in China to “fight the right-wing trend of revising the correct conclusions of the Cultural Revolution,” the spearhead of which was directed against Deng Xiaoping and his supporters. A new round of struggle has begun against “persons in power who are following the capitalist path.”

The wave of terror ended on September 9, 1976. Mao Zedong died. His presumed heirs were immediately subjected to repression. Jian Qing and her closest associates, nicknamed the "Gang of Four", were arrested. Mao's hand-picked successor to the chairmanship, Zhao Guofeng, was driven out of the early party circle once the government was under control of the moderates.

The Cultural Revolution was a remarkable mixture of contradictions. Like the Hundred Flowers movement, its main principles were criticism, doubt about the honesty of people in power, and the doctrine of the “right to protest.” And yet, undoubtedly, its goal was to create and consolidate a mass “cult of personality” - loyalty to the ideas and personally to Mao Zedong, whose omnipresent image was displayed in all public places and private homes. The "Little Red Book" - a collection of sayings by Chairman Mao ("Quotation Book") - could be seen in the hands of literally every man, every woman and every child in China. Meanwhile, less than a few years after Mao’s death, the Chinese Communist Party, while paying tribute to Mao as the founder of the revolution, condemned the “cultural revolution” for its excesses, including the worship of Mao’s personality.

Keywords: Whose citizenship is Mao Zedong?

The political leader and figure of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, was born in Hunan province in Shaoshan on December 26, 1893 into a peasant family. His parents were poor and illiterate, but they were able to give their son a primary education. The father was a simple rice merchant, and the mother worked in the fields and did household chores. Mao's mother was a Buddhist, so the boy was initially completely imbued with this teaching, but after meeting representatives of other movements he decided to become an atheist. At school, the young man studied classical ancient Chinese literature and Confucianism.

In 1911, a revolution occurred in China, during which the Qing dynasty fell. Mao had to quit his studies and join the army. Upon the young man’s return home, his father wanted to see him as his assistant. However, Mao avoided hard physical labor, preferring books to him. He decided to continue his studies and demanded money from his father. He could not refuse his son. Mao Zedong comes to Changsha and receives a pedagogical education.

At the suggestion of his teacher, after receiving his education, Mao Zedong comes to Beijing and gets a job in the capital's library. The greatest interest for the young man was in books from which he learned about the teachings of Marxism, communism and anarchism. Of the doctrines presented and studied, communism attracted the most attention. Acquaintance with a prominent representative of this trend, Li Dazhao, influenced the development of Mao Zedong as a communist.

Participation in the revolutionary struggle

Until 1920, Mao traveled around the country and became increasingly convinced of the need for the teachings of communism. He encounters class inequality and struggle and decides to create underground revolutionary cells in Changsha. Mao assumed that it was possible to change the current situation in China on the principle of the October coup in Russia. Mao Zedong became the founder of the Socialist Youth League cell in Changsha, and then formed a small communist circle.

The victory of the Bolshevik Party in Russia convinced Mao of the correctness of the spread and development of the ideas of Leninism. In 1921, the young man became a participant in the founding congress of the Communist Party of China, and then secretary of the Hunan branch of the CPC. To rid the people of class inequality, Mao became one of the organizers of the peasant uprising of 1927. However, government troops suppressed the rebels, and Mao himself was forced to flee persecution.

In 1928, settling in Jiangxi province, Mao Zedong created a strong Soviet republic. The growth of Mao's influence was influenced by the support of his policies from the Soviet Union.

Political career of Mao Zedong

After becoming the leader of the first free Soviet republic, Mao Zedong carried out many reforms. He confiscates and redistributes land, introduces social reforms, and gives women the right to vote and work. All his reforms were based on the peasantry. He becomes a major leader of the Communist Party and, following the example of J.V. Stalin, carries out the first purge in the CCP.

Mao Zedong tried to quickly get rid of those who criticized the political regime established in China and the work of Stalin. At this time, a case was fabricated about an underground spy organization and many of its supporters were shot. Mao Zedong becomes dictator of the People's Republic of China.

From 1930 to 1949 there was a struggle between the Kuomintang and the CCP, as a result of which Mao won. The Kuomintang party goes aside, and a communist regime is established in the country.

Personal life of Mao Zedong

The birth of the future leader of the PRC in a simple peasant family could predetermine his fate. His father married him to his second cousin. However, Mao did not take this marriage for granted. After the wedding, he ran away from home and lived with his friend for a whole year. The father was forced to come to terms with his son's decision.

Mao Zedong's first official wife was the daughter of his beloved teacher Yang Kaihui. The woman bore him three children. The marriage ended tragically. Yang Kaihui was executed by Kuomintang agents. After Mao married again. His choice fell on the girl who led the self-defense unit. But a few years later, Mao Zedong had a new hobby in the person of actress Lang Pin. She committed suicide in 1991.

The Great Helmsman of China believed that any person should live to be 50 years old and open the way for a new younger generation. However, over time, his views changed. Mao Zedong lived to be 83 years old. To maintain his health, the Chinese leader constantly chewed hot pepper, which helps to dilate the blood vessels of the heart and gives a charge of vigor and strength.

Mao Zedong never brushed his teeth. Instead, he chewed tea leaves. His title "Great Helmsman" is now a commercial brand. In China, souvenirs with the image of the CCP leader can be seen everywhere.

Gg. also the position of Chairman of the People's Republic of China. He carried out several high-profile campaigns, the most famous of which were the “Great Leap Forward” and the “Cultural Revolution” (-1976), which claimed the lives of many millions of people.

The reign of Mao Zedong was controversial. On the one hand, under his leadership the industrialization of the country was carried out, with an increase in the material level of the poorest segments of the population. On the other hand, repressions were carried out in the country, which were criticized not only in capitalist, but even in socialist countries. Also during that period there was a cult of personality of Mao.

Mao Zedong's name consisted of two parts - Tse-tung. Tse had a double meaning: the first - “damp and wet”, the second - “mercy, goodness, beneficence.” The second hieroglyph is “dun” - “east”. The entire name meant “Blessing East.” At the same time, according to tradition, the child was given an unofficial name. It was to be used on special occasions as a dignified, respectful "Yongzhi". "Yong" means to chant, and "zhi" - or more precisely, "zhilan" - "orchid". Thus the second name meant “Glorified Orchid.” Soon the second name had to be changed: from the point of view of geomancy, it lacked the sign “water”. As a result, the second name turned out to be similar in meaning to the first: Zhunzhi - “Orchid sprinkled with water.” With a slightly different spelling of the hieroglyph “zhi,” the name Zhunzhi acquired another symbolic meaning: “Blesser of all living.” But the great name, although it reflected the parents’ aspirations for a brilliant future for their son, was also a “potential challenge to fate,” so in childhood Mao was called by a modest diminutive name - Shi San Ya-Tzu (“Third Child Named Stone”).

Biography

early years

House of Mao Zedong. Now a museum

Young Mao received a classical primary Chinese education at a local school, which included familiarity with the teachings of Confucius and the study of ancient Chinese literature. “I knew the classics, but I didn’t like them,” Mao Zedong later admitted in an interview with Edgar Snow. The young man retained his passion for reading and dislike for classical philosophical treatises even after he left school at the age of 13 (the reason for this was the strict disposition of the teacher, who used harsh methods of education and often beat students) and returned to his father’s house. Mao Yichang enthusiastically greeted the return of his son, hoping that he would become his support in household chores and housekeeping. However, his expectations were not met: young Mao resisted any physical labor and spent all his free time reading books.

At the end of 1907 - beginning of 1908, another conflict occurred in the Mao family between father and son. This time his reason was the marriage that Mao Yijing arranged for his eldest son. Mao's second cousin, Luo Yigu, was chosen as the bride for the future Chairman. According to Mao Zedong, he did not accept his wife and refused to live with her. “I never lived with her - neither then nor after. I didn’t consider her my wife,” the Chairman admitted years later to Edgar Snow. Soon after the wedding, Mao ran away from home and spent about six months visiting an unemployed student he knew, also in Shaoshan. He continued to read enthusiastically: at this time he became acquainted with classical Chinese historiography - “Historical Notes” by Sima Qian and “History of the Han Dynasty” by Ban Gu.

Despite all the tension in his relationship with his father, when in the fall of 1910 young Zedong demanded money from his parent to continue his education, Mao Yichang could not refuse and provided his son with education at the Dunshan Higher Primary School. At school, Mao was met with hostility: the other students were irritated by his appearance (he had an atypical height of 177 cm for a southerner), origin (most of the students were the sons of large landowners) and speech (Mao spoke the local Xiangtan dialect until the end of his life). However, this did not negate the perseverance and diligence with which the new student approached his studies. Mao could write good essays in the classical style, was diligent and, as usual, read a lot. Here he first became acquainted with geography and began reading works on foreign history. He first learned about such famous historical figures as Napoleon, Catherine II, Peter I, Wellington, Gladstone, Rousseau, Montesquieu and Lincoln. The main books for him at that time were publications telling about the Chinese reformers Liang Qichao and Kang Youwei. Their ideas of constitutional monarchism had a huge influence on the schoolboy Mao, who fully accepted the views of the leaders of the reform movement.

In Beijing, the formation of young Mao's political views was greatly influenced by his acquaintance with Li Dazhao (a supporter of Marxism) and Chen Duxiu, as well as acquaintance with the ideas of anarchism, in particular the works of P. A. Kropotkin. After completing preparatory courses in France, Mao finally came to the conclusion that he would remain in China and establish his career here.

Beginning of political activity

In July 1921, Mao took part in the founding congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Two months later, upon returning to Changsha, he became secretary of the Hunan branch of the CCP. At the same time, Mao marries Yang Kaihui, the daughter of Yang Changji. Over the next five years, three sons are born to them - Anying, Anqing and Anlong.

Due to the extreme ineffectiveness of organizing workers and recruiting new party members, in July 1922, Mao was removed from participation in the Second Congress of the CPC.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party was experiencing a severe crisis. The number of its members was reduced to 10,000, of which only 3% were workers. The new party leader Li Lisan, due to several serious defeats on the military and ideological front, as well as disagreements with Stalin, was expelled from the Central Committee. Against this background, the position of Mao, who emphasized the peasantry and acted in this direction relatively successfully, is strengthening in the party, despite frequent conflicts with the party leadership. Mao dealt with his opponents at the local level in Jiangxi in - gg. through a crackdown in which many local leaders were killed or imprisoned as agents of the fictitious AB-tuan society. The AB-tuan case was, in fact, the first “purge” in the history of the CCP.

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 from Kaihui, Mao Anying, died during the Korean War.

In the fall of 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic was created 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).

Long March

In the midst of the anti-Japanese struggle, Mao Zedong initiates a movement called “correction of morals” ( "zhengfeng"; 1942-43). The reason for this is the sharp growth of the party, which is replenished with defectors from Chiang Kai-shek’s army and peasants unfamiliar with the party ideology. The movement included communist indoctrination of new party members, active study of Mao's writings, and "self-criticism" campaigns, especially affecting Mao's archrival Wang Ming, with the result that free thought was effectively suppressed among the communist intelligentsia. The result of zhengfeng is the complete concentration of internal party power in the hands of Mao Zedong. In 1943, he was elected chairman of the Politburo and Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, and in 1945 - chairman of the CPC Central Committee. This period becomes the first stage in the formation of Mao's personality cult.

Mao studies the classics of Western philosophy and, in particular, Marxism. Based on Marxism-Leninism, some aspects of traditional Chinese philosophy and, not least, his own experience and ideas, Mao manages, with the help of his personal secretary Chen Boda, to create and “theoretically substantiate” a new direction of Marxism - Maoism. Maoism was intended as a more pragmatic form of Marxism, which would be more adapted to the Chinese realities of the time. Its main features can be identified as an unambiguous focus on the peasantry (and not on the proletariat), as well as Great Khan nationalism. The influence of traditional Chinese philosophy on Marxism in the Maoist version manifested itself in the vulgarization of dialectics.

Victory of the CCP in the Civil War

"Great Leap Forward"

Despite all efforts, the growth rate of the Chinese economy in the late 1950s left much to be desired. Agricultural productivity has regressed. In addition, Mao was concerned about the lack of “revolutionary spirit” among the masses. He decided to approach the solution of these problems within the framework of the “Three Red Banners” policy, designed to ensure the “Great Leap Forward” in all areas of the national economy and launched in 1958. In order to reach the production volumes of Great Britain within 15 years, it was planned to organize almost the entire rural (and also, partially, urban) population of the country into autonomous “comunes”. Life in the communes was collectivized to the extreme - with the introduction of collective canteens, private life and, especially, property were practically eradicated. Each commune had to not only provide itself and the surrounding towns with food, but also produce industrial products, mainly steel, which was smelted in small furnaces in the backyards of the commune members: thus, mass enthusiasm was expected to make up for the lack of professionalism.

The Great Leap Forward ended in spectacular failure. Quality of locally produced products

was extremely low; the cultivation of collective fields went very poorly: 1) the peasants lost economic motivation in their work, 2) many workers were involved in “metallurgy” and 3) the fields remained uncultivated, since optimistic “statistics” predicted unprecedented harvests. Within two years, food production fell to catastrophically low levels. At this time, provincial leaders reported to Mao about the unprecedented successes of the new policy, provoking a raising of the bar for the sale of grain and the production of “domestic” steel. Critics of the Great Leap Forward, such as Defense Minister Peng Dehuai, lost their posts. In 1959-1961 The country was gripped by a great famine, the victims of which, according to various estimates, were from 10 to 30 million people.

On the eve of the "Cultural Revolution"

The domestic political situation in China is also changing significantly. After the catastrophic failure of the Great Leap Forward, many leaders, both top and local, began to refuse to support Mao. Inspection trips around the country by Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi (who replaced Mao Zedong as head of state in 1959) reveal the monstrous consequences of the policies being pursued, as a result of which most of the members of the Central Committee more or less openly go over to the side of the “liberals.” There are veiled demands for the resignation of the CPC chairman. As a result, Mao Zedong partially admits the failure of the Great Leap Forward and even hints at his guilt in this. While maintaining authority, he temporarily ceases to actively interfere in the affairs of the country's leadership, observing from the side how Deng and Liu pursue realistic policies that are fundamentally at odds with his own views - they dissolve communes, allow private land ownership and elements of free trade in the countryside, and significantly loosen their grip on censorship.

At the same time, the left wing of the party is intensively strengthening its positions, operating mainly from Shanghai. Thus, the new Minister of Defense Lin Biao is actively promoting the cult of Mao’s personality, especially in the “People’s Liberation Army” subordinate to him (see below). For the first time, Jiang Qing, Mao's last wife, began to interfere in politics - initially the politics of culture. She sharply attacks democratically minded writers and poets in China, as well as authors of “bourgeois” literature who write without the overtones of class struggle. In Shanghai, on behalf of the left-wing radical journalist Yao Wenyuan, an article is published in which the drama of the famous historian and writer, Deputy Mayor of Beijing Wu Han, “The Demotion of Hai Rui” (海瑞罢官), is subjected to destructive criticism, which is in an allegorical form, using an example from ancient times , illustrated the corruption, tyranny, bigotry and lack of freedom reigning in China. Despite the efforts of the liberal bloc, the discussion around this drama becomes a precedent for the start of major changes in the sphere of culture, and soon the Cultural Revolution. It is assumed that the image of Hai Rui allegorically expresses nothing more than the defense of Peng Dehuai, who was demoted for his sincere criticism of the Chairman's policies.

Cultural Revolution

Despite the high rates of development of the Chinese economy after the abandonment of the “Three Red Banners” policy, Mao is not going to put up with the liberal trend in the development of the national economy. He is also not ready to consign the ideals of permanent revolution to oblivion and allow “bourgeois values” (the predominance of economics over ideology) into the life of the Chinese. Nevertheless, he is forced to admit that the bulk of the leadership does not share his worldview. Even the established “Committee for the Cultural Revolution” prefers not to take harsh measures against critics of the regime at first. In this situation, Mao decides to carry out a new global upheaval, which was supposed to return society to the fold of revolution and “true socialism.” In addition to the left radicals - Chen Boda, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao, Mao Zedong's ally in this enterprise was primarily to be the Chinese youth.

Having swum the Yangtze River in July 1966 and thereby proving his “combat capability,” Mao returns to leadership, arrives in Beijing and launches a powerful attack on the liberal wing of the party, mainly on Liu Shaoqi. A little later, the Central Committee, on the orders of Mao, approved the document “Sixteen Points”, which practically became the program of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”. It began with attacks on the leadership of Peking University by lecturer Nie Yuanzi. Following this, students and students of secondary schools, in an effort to resist conservative and often corrupt teachers and professors, inspired by revolutionary sentiments and the cult of the “Great Helmsman - Chairman Mao”, which was skillfully incited by the “leftists”, begin to organize into detachments of the “Red Guards” - “Reds”. guards" (can also be translated as "Red Guards"). A campaign against the liberal intelligentsia is launched in the press controlled by the left. Unable to withstand the persecution, some of its representatives, as well as party leaders, commit suicide.

On August 5, Mao Zedong published his dazibao entitled “Fire at Headquarters,” in which he accused “some leading comrades in the center and locally” of “implementing the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and trying to suppress the violent movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution.” This dazibao, in fact, called for the destruction of central and local party bodies, declared bourgeois headquarters.

With the logistical support of the People's Army (Lin Biao), the Red Guard movement became global. Mass trials of senior officials and professors are held throughout the country, during which they are subjected to all sorts of humiliation and are often beaten. At a rally of millions in August, Mao expressed full support and approval for the actions of the Red Guards, from whom the army of revolutionary leftist terror was being consistently created. Along with official repressions of party leaders, brutal reprisals by the Red Guards are increasingly occurring. Among other representatives of the intelligentsia, the famous Chinese writer Lao She was brutally tortured and committed suicide.

Terror is gripping all areas of life, classes and regions of the country. Not only famous personalities, but also ordinary citizens are subjected to robberies, beatings, torture and even physical destruction, often under the most insignificant pretext. The Red Guards destroyed countless works of art, burned millions of books, thousands of monasteries, temples, and libraries. Soon, in addition to the Red Guards, detachments of revolutionary working youth were organized - “zaofan” (“rebels”), and both movements were fragmented into warring groups, sometimes waging a bloody struggle among themselves. When terror reaches its peak and life in many cities comes to a standstill, regional leaders and the NLA decide to speak out against the unrest. Clashes between the military and the Red Guards, as well as internal clashes between revolutionary youth, put China at risk of civil war. Realizing the extent of the chaos that had reigned, Mao decided to stop the revolutionary terror. Millions of Red Guards and Zaofans, along with party workers, are simply sent to the villages. The main action of the Cultural Revolution is over, China figuratively (and, in part, literally) lies in ruins.

The 9th Congress of the CPC, which was held in Beijing from April 1 to April 24, 1969, approved the first results of the “cultural revolution.” In the report of one of Mao Zedong’s closest associates, Marshal Lin Biao, the main place was occupied by praises of the “great helmsman,” whose ideas were called “the highest stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism”... The main thing in the new charter of the CPC was the official consolidation of “Mao Zedong Thoughts” as an ideological basics of the PDA. The program part of the charter included an unprecedented provision that Lin Biao is “the continuator of the work of Comrade Mao Zedong.” The entire leadership of the party, government and army was concentrated in the hands of the Chairman of the CPC, his deputy and the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee.

The final stage of the cultural revolution

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, China's foreign policy took an unexpected turn. Against the backdrop of extremely tense relations with the Soviet Union (especially after the armed conflict on Damansky Island), Mao suddenly decided to rapprochement with the United States of America, which was sharply opposed by Lin Biao, who was considered Mao’s official successor. After the Cultural Revolution, his power increased sharply, which worries Mao Zedong. Lin Biao's attempts to pursue an independent policy cause the chairman to become completely disillusioned with him, and they begin to fabricate a case against Lin. Having learned about this, Lin Biao fled the country on September 13, but his plane crashed under unclear circumstances over the Khentii aimag in the Mongolian People's Republic. President Nixon is already visiting China.

Mao's last years

Since 1971, Mao was very ill and did not often go out in public. After the death of Lin Biao, behind the back of the aging Chairman, an intra-factional struggle takes place in the CCP. Opposing each other is a group of “left radicals” (led by the leaders of the Cultural Revolution, the so-called “Gang of Four” - Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chongqiao and Yao Wenyuan) and a group of “pragmatists” (led by the moderate Zhou Enlai and the rehabilitated Deng Xiaoping). Mao Zedong tries to maintain a balance of power between the two factions, allowing, on the one hand, some relaxations in the field of economics, but also supporting, on the other hand, mass campaigns of leftists, for example, “Criticism of Confucius and Lin Biao.” Hua Guofeng, a devoted Maoist belonging to the moderate left, was considered Mao's new successor.

The struggle between the two factions escalates in 1976 after the death of Zhou Enlai. His commemoration resulted in massive public demonstrations, where people pay respects to the deceased and protest against the policies of the radical left. The unrest is brutally suppressed, Zhou Enlai is posthumously branded a "Kapputist" (that is, a supporter of the capitalist path, a label used during the Cultural Revolution), and Deng Xiaoping is sent into exile. By that time, Mao was already seriously ill with Parkinson's disease and was unable to actively intervene in politics.

After two severe heart attacks, on September 9, 1976, at 0:10 am Beijing time, at the age of 83, Mao Zedong died. More than a million people came to the funeral of the “Great Helmsman”. The body of the deceased was embalmed using a technique developed by Chinese scientists and put on display a year after death in a mausoleum built in Tiananmen Square by order of Hua Guofeng. By the beginning of the year, about 158 million people visited Mao’s tomb.

Cult of personality

The cult of Mao Zedong's personality dates back to the Yan'an period in the early forties. Even then, in classes on the theory of communism, the works of Mao were mainly used. In 1943, newspapers began publishing with Mao's portrait on the front page, and soon “Mao Zedong Thought” became the official program of the CCP. After the Communist victory in the civil war, posters, portraits, and later statues of Mao appeared in city squares, in offices and even in citizens' apartments. However, the cult of Mao was brought to grotesque proportions by Lin Biao in the mid-1960s. It was then that Mao’s quotation book, “The Little Red Book,” was published for the first time, which later became the Bible of the Cultural Revolution. In propaganda works, such as in the Diary of Lei Feng, loud slogans and fiery speeches, the cult of the “leader” was boosted to the point of absurdity. Crowds of young people work themselves into hysteria, shouting greetings to the “red sun of our hearts” - “the wisest Chairman Mao.” Mao Zedong becomes the figure on whom almost everything in China focuses.

During the years of the Cultural Revolution, real psychosis reigned in the country: the Red Guards beat cyclists who dared to appear without the image of Mao Zedong; passengers on buses and trains were required to chant excerpts from Mao's collection of sayings; classical and modern works were destroyed; books were burned so that the Chinese could read only one author - the “great helmsman” Mao Zedong, who was published in tens of millions of copies. The following fact testifies to the implantation of a personality cult. The Red Guards wrote in their manifesto:

We are Chairman Mao's red guards, we make the country writhe in convulsions. We tear up and destroy calendars, precious vases, records from the USA and England, amulets, ancient drawings and raise the portrait of Chairman Mao above all this.

After the defeat of the Gang of Four, the excitement around Mao subsides significantly. He is still the “galleon figure” of Chinese communism, he is still celebrated, Mao monuments still stand in cities, his image adorns Chinese banknotes, badges and stickers. However, the current cult of Mao among ordinary citizens, especially young people, should rather be attributed to manifestations of modern pop culture, rather than a conscious admiration for the thinking and actions of this man.

Mao's meaning and legacy

Portrait of Mao at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing

Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Ye Jianying in 1979 described the reign of Mao Zedong as a “feudal-fascist dictatorship.” Later a different assessment was given.

“Comrade Mao Zedong is a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist. If we consider his life and work as a whole, his services to the Chinese revolution largely outweigh his mistakes, despite the serious mistakes he made in the Cultural Revolution. His merits take the main place, and his mistakes take a secondary place” (Leaders of the CPC, 1981).

Mao left his successors a country in deep, all-encompassing crisis. After the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, China's economy stagnated, intellectual and cultural life were destroyed by leftist radicals, and political culture was completely absent due to excessive public politicization and ideological chaos. A particularly grave legacy of the Mao regime should be considered the crippled fate of tens of millions of people throughout China who suffered from senseless and cruel campaigns. During the Cultural Revolution alone, according to some estimates, up to 20 million people died, and another 100 million suffered in one way or another during its course. The number of victims of the Great Leap Forward was even greater, but due to the fact that most of them were among the rural population, even approximate figures characterizing the scale of the disaster are unknown.

On the other hand, it is impossible not to admit that Mao, having received an underdeveloped agricultural country mired in corruption and general devastation in 1949, in a short time made it a fairly powerful, independent power possessing atomic weapons. During his reign, the percentage of illiteracy decreased from 80% to 7%, life expectancy doubled, the population grew by more than 2 times, and industrial output by more than 10 times. He managed to unify China and also include Inner Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan, violating the right of these peoples to self-determination after the collapse of the Qing Empire. The ideology of Maoism also had a great influence on the development of the left, including terrorist movements in many countries of the world - the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Shining Path in Peru, the revolutionary movement in Nepal, communist movements in the United States and Europe. Meanwhile, China itself, after the death of Mao, in its economy moved far away from the ideas of Mao Zedong, preserving the communist ideology. The reforms started by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and continued by his followers made China's economy de facto capitalist, with corresponding consequences for domestic and foreign policy. In China itself, Mao's personality is assessed extremely ambiguously. On the one hand, part of the population sees in him a hero of the Civil War, a strong ruler, and a charismatic personality. Some older Chinese are nostalgic for the confidence, equality and lack of corruption they believe existed during the Mao era. On the other hand, many people cannot forgive Mao for the cruelty and mistakes of his mass campaigns, especially the Cultural Revolution. Today in China there is a fairly free discussion about the role of Mao in the modern history of the country, and works are published in which the policies of the “Great Helmsman” are sharply criticized. In the PRC, the official formula for assessing his activities remains the figure given by Mao himself as a characteristic of Stalin’s activities (as a response to the revelations in Khrushchev’s secret report): 70 percent victories and 30 percent mistakes. Thus, the CPC legitimizes its power in conditions where the bourgeois economy in the PRC is combined with communist ideology.

Family ties

Parents:

Wen Qimei(文七妹, 1867-1919), mother.
Mao Shunsheng(毛顺生, 1870-1920), father.

Brothers and sisters

Mao Zemin(毛泽民, 1895-1943), younger brother.
Mao Zetan(毛泽覃, 1905-1935), younger brother.
Mao Zehong, (毛泽红, 1905-1929)) younger sister.

Mao Zedong's three other brothers and one sister died at an early age. Mao Zemin and Zetan died fighting on the side of the communists, Mao Zehong was killed by the Kuomintang.

Wives

Luo Yixiu(罗一秀, 1889-1910), formally wife since 1907, forced marriage, unrecognized by Mao.
Yang Kaihui(杨开慧, 1901-1930), wife from 1921 to 1927.
He Zizhen(贺子珍, 1910-1984), wife from 1928 to 1939
Jiang Qing(江青, 1914-1991), wife from 1938 to 1976.

Children

by Yang Kaihui

Anyin(毛岸英, 1922-1950)
Anqing(毛岸青, born 1923)
Anlong(毛岸龙, 1927-1931)

by He Zizhen

Xiao Mao(born 1932, lost 1934)
Li Min(李敏, born 1936)
son (1939-1940)

Two other children were left with other families during the Civil War in 1929 and 1935. Repeated search attempts later came to nothing.

from Jiang Qing

Li Na(李讷, born 1940),

also presumably several illegitimate children.

Selected works

« About practice"(实践论), 1937
« Regarding the controversy"(矛盾论), 1937
« Against liberalism"(反对自由主义), 1937
« About a protracted war"(论持久战), 1938
"ABOUT new democracy"(新民主主义论), 1940
« About literature and art", 1942
« Serve the people"(为人民服务), 1944
« Working methods of party committees", 1949
« On the correct resolution of contradictions within the people» ( 正确处理人民内部矛盾问题 ), 1957
« Bring the revolution to completion", 1960

In addition to political prose, Mao Zedong's literary heritage includes a number of poems (about 20) written in classical form from the Tang Dynasty. Mao's poems are still popular in China and abroad. The most famous of them include: Changsha(长沙, 1925), Long March(长征, 1935), Snow (雪, 1936), Li Shu-yi's answer(答李淑一, 1957) and Ode to Plum Blossoms(咏梅, 1961).

Notes

, With. 13
, With. 19
, With. 24
, With. 25
, With. 33
, With. 36
, With. 37-38
, With. 47
, With. thirty
, With. 94
, With. 92
, With. 114
, With. 119
, With. 140
, With. 45
, With. 197-198
, With. 49
ibid., pp. 451-58
Short, Philip. Mao Zedong. AST, Moscow, 2001, P.229-32
Meliksetov, A.V., Pisarev, A.A., ..., History of China. Moscow University Publishing House, Moscow, 2004, P.519
Selden, Marc. Yanan Legacy: The Mass Line, in: "Chinese Communist Politics in Action", Seattle, London 1970, pp. 101-109
Holm, David. Art and Ideology in Revolutionary China. Oxford 1991, pp.53.88; Mao, Zedong. Die Gesammelten Werke. Volume II, Beijing 1969; P.246
World history of wars. - Minsk: Harverst, 2004. - 558 p.
Gray, Jack. Rebellions and Revolutions. China from the 1800s to the 1980s. (The Short Oxford History of the Modern World). Oxford, 1990, pp.285-8; Spence, Jonathan. Chinas Weg in die Moderne. DTV, Munich, 2001, pp. 590-600
Ledovsky A. M. USSR, USA and the Chinese revolution through the eyes of an eyewitness 1946-1949. M.: Institute of Far East RAS, 2005, P. 67
Meliksetov, A.V., Pisarev, A.A., ..., History of China. Moscow University Publishing House, Moscow, 2004, P.634
Spence, Jonathan. Chinas Weg in die Moderne. DTV, Munich, 2001, P.674
Short, Philip. Mao Zedong. AST, Moscow, 2001, P.467; Spence, Jonathan. Chinas Weg in die Moderne. DTV, Munich, 2001, P.688; Meliksetov, A.V., Pisarev, A.A., ..., History of China. Moscow University Publishing House, Moscow, 2004, P.667
Galenovich Yu.M. Russia in the "Chinese mirror". Interpretation in the PRC at the beginning of the 21st century of the history of Russia and Russian-Chinese relations. Moscow: Eastern Book, 2011, p. p.29-30
Short, Philip. Mao Zedong. AST, Moscow, 2001, P.470-73
Mao, Tse-Tung. Excerpts from works. Publishing House of Literature in Foreign Languages, Beijing, 1966, pp. 302-303
Recent history. Details. - M.: Astrel, Olimp, AST, 2000. - 310 p.
Malyavin, Vladimir. Chinese civilization. FST, Moscow, 2003, pp. 100-101; Meliksetov, A.V., Pisarev, A.A., ..., History of China. Moscow University Publishing House, Moscow, 2004, pp. 678-81; Short, Philip. Mao Zedong. AST, Moscow, 2001, P.505-511
see above; and also: Meliksetov, A.V., Pisarev, A.A., ..., History of China. Moscow University Publishing House, Moscow, 2004, pp. 679-86
History of China from ancient times to the present day. M., 1974. - p.504-514.
Spence, Jonathan. Chinas Weg in die Moderne. DTV, Munich, 2001, P.728
When Richard Nixon met with Mao in 1972, he told him that his teachings had changed the culture and civilization of China. Mao replied: “All I have changed is Beijing and a few suburbs.” It was a nightmare for him that, after 20 years of struggle and after so many efforts aimed at creating a communist society, he had achieved so little that could last for a long time. This led to the fact that he began to sacrifice more and more people in order to achieve his goal during his lifetime. Otherwise, he believed, the historical process would destroy his life’s work. (Henry Kissinger)
Business weekly "Competitor" - Newspaper
100 great dictators. - M.: Veche, 2002. - 491 p.
Galenovich Yu. M. Russia in the “Chinese mirror”. Interpretation in the PRC at the beginning of the 21st century of the history of Russia and Russian-Chinese relations. Moscow: Eastern Book, 2011, p. 265
http://www.russianews.ru/archive/pdfs/2007/43/8-43-2007.pdf

Literature

Galenovich Yu. M. Mao Zedong close up. - M.: “Russian Panorama”, 2006. - 325 p. - (Leaders of China). - 1000 copies. - ISBN 5-93165-158-6
Pantsov A.V. Mao Zedong / Alexander Pantsov. - M.: Young Guard, 2007. - 867 p. - (Life of wonderful people). - 5000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-235-02983-5
Yun Zhang, Holliday J. Unknown Mao = Mao: The Unknown Story / Transl. from English I.A. Igorevsky. - M.: ZAO Tsentrpoligraf, 2007. - 845 p. - 20,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-9524-2896-6
Short F. Mao Zedong = Mao. A Life / Philip Short, trans. from English Yu. G. Kiryaka. - M.: AST, 2005. - 606 p. - (Person in history). - 4000 copies. - ISBN 5-17-028288-5

Name

Names
	Name	Second name
Trad.	毛澤東	潤芝
Simplify	毛泽东	润芝
Pinyin	Mao Zedōng	Rùnzhī
Wade-Giles	Mao Tse-tung	Jun-chih
Pall.	Mao Zedong	Zhunzhi

Mao Zedong's name consisted of two parts - Tse-tung. Tse had a double meaning: the first - “moisture and moisturize”, the second - “mercy, goodness, beneficence”. The second hieroglyph is “dun” - “east”. The entire name meant “Blessing East.” At the same time, according to tradition, the child was given an unofficial name. It was to be used on special occasions as a dignified, respectful "Yongzhi". "Yong" means to chant, and "zhi" - or more precisely, "zhilan" - "orchid". Thus the second name meant “Glorified Orchid.” Soon the second name had to be changed: from the point of view of geomancy, it lacked the sign “water”. As a result, the second name turned out to be similar in meaning to the first: Zhunzhi - “Orchid sprinkled with water.” With a slightly different spelling of the hieroglyph “zhi,” the name Zhunzhi acquired another symbolic meaning: “Blesser of all living.” Mao’s mother gave the newborn another name, which was supposed to protect him from all misfortunes: “Shi” - “Stone”, and since Mao was the third child in the family, the mother began to call him Shisanyazi (literally - “Third child named Stone” ) .

Childhood and youth

early years

Beginning of political activity

Young Mao as a student in Chengdu

After leaving Beijing, young Mao travels around the country, engages in in-depth study of the works of Western philosophers and revolutionaries, and takes a keen interest in events in Russia. In the winter of 1920, he visited Beijing as part of a delegation from the National Assembly of Hunan Province, demanding the removal of the corrupt and cruel governor of the province. A year later, Mao, following his friend Tsai Hesen, decides to adopt communist ideology. In July 1921, Mao took part in the Shanghai Congress at which the Chinese Communist Party was founded. Two months later, upon returning to Changsha, he became secretary of the Hunan branch of the CCP. At the same time, Mao marries Yang Kaihui, the daughter of Yang Changji. Over the next five years, three sons are born to them - Anying, Anqing and Anlong.

During the Civil War

Long March

By 1934, Chiang Kai-shek's forces surround the communist areas in Jiangxi and begin preparing for a massive attack. The leadership of the CPC decides to leave the area. The operation to break through the four rows of Kuomintang fortifications is being prepared and carried out by Zhou Enlai - Mao is currently again in disgrace. The leading positions after the removal of Li Lisan are occupied by the “28 Bolsheviks” - a group of young functionaries close to the Comintern and Stalin, led by Wang Ming, who were trained in Moscow. With heavy losses, the Communists manage to break through the nationalist barriers and escape to the mountainous regions of Guizhou. During a short respite, the legendary party conference takes place in the town of Zunyi, at which some of the theses presented by Mao were officially adopted by the party; he himself becomes a permanent member of the Politburo, and the group of “28 Bolsheviks” is subjected to significant criticism. The party decides to avoid an open clash with Chiang Kai-shek by rushing north, through difficult mountainous regions.

Yan'an period

Mao's receipt for 300,000 US dollars from Comrade Mikhailov, dated April 28, 1938.

Mao studies the classics of Western philosophy and, in particular, Marxism. Based on Marxism-Leninism, some aspects of traditional Chinese philosophy and, not least, his own experience and ideas, Mao manages, with the help of his personal secretary Chen Boda, to create and theoretically substantiate a new direction of Marxism - “Maoism”. Maoism was conceived as a more flexible, more pragmatic form of Marxism, which would be more adapted to the Chinese realities of the time. Its main features can be identified as an unambiguous focus on the peasantry (and not on the proletariat) as well as a certain amount of nationalism. The influence of traditional Chinese philosophy on Marxism is manifested in the development of the ideas of dialectical materialism.

Victory of the CCP in the Civil War

"Great Leap Forward"

The Great Leap Forward ended in spectacular failure. The quality of steel produced in the communes was extremely low; the cultivation of collective fields went very poorly: 1) the peasants lost economic motivation in their work, 2) many workers were involved in “metallurgy” and 3) the fields remained uncultivated, since optimistic “statistics” predicted unprecedented harvests. Within 2 years, food production fell to a catastrophically low level. At this time, provincial leaders reported to Mao about the unprecedented successes of the new policy, provoking a raising of the bar for the sale of grain and the production of “domestic” steel. Critics of the Great Leap Forward, such as Defense Minister Peng Dehuai, lost their posts. In 1959-61. The country was gripped by a great famine, the victims of which, according to various estimates, were from 10-20 to 30 million people.

On the eve of the "Cultural Revolution"

Having swum the Yangtze River in July 1966 and thereby proving his “combat capability,” Mao returns to leadership, arrives in Beijing and launches a powerful attack on the liberal wing of the party, mainly Liu Shaoqi. A little later, the Central Committee, on the orders of Mao, approved the document “Sixteen Points”, which practically became the program of the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”. It began with attacks on the leadership of Peking University by lecturer Nie Yuanzi. Following this, students and students of secondary schools, in an effort to resist conservative and often corrupt teachers and professors, inspired by revolutionary sentiments and the cult of the “Great Helmsman - Chairman Mao”, which was skillfully incited by the “leftists”, begin to organize into detachments of the “Red Guards” - “Reds”. guards" (can also be translated as "Red Guards"). A campaign against the liberal intelligentsia is launched in the press controlled by the left. Unable to withstand the persecution, some of its representatives, as well as party leaders, commit suicide.

On August 5, Mao Zedong published his dazibao entitled “Fire at Headquarters,” in which he accused “some leading comrades in the center and locally” of “implementing the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and trying to suppress the violent movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution.” This dyzibao, in fact, called for the destruction of central and local party bodies, declared bourgeois headquarters.

Terror is gripping all areas of life, classes and regions of the country. Not only famous personalities, but also ordinary citizens are subjected to robberies, beatings, torture and even physical destruction, often under the most insignificant pretext. The Red Guards destroyed countless works of art, burned millions of books, thousands of monasteries, temples, and libraries. Soon, in addition to the Red Guards, detachments of revolutionary working youth were organized - “zaofan” (“rebels”), and both movements were fragmented into warring groups, sometimes waging a bloody struggle among themselves. When terror reaches its peak and life in many cities comes to a standstill, regional leaders and the NLA decide to speak out against anarchy. Clashes between the military and the Red Guards, as well as internal clashes between revolutionary youth, put China at risk of civil war. Realizing the extent of the chaos that had reigned, Mao decided to stop the revolutionary terror. Millions of Red Guards and Zaofans, along with party workers, are simply sent to the villages. The main action of the Cultural Revolution is over, China figuratively (and, in part, literally) lies in ruins.

The 9th Congress of the CPC, which was held in Beijing from April 1 to April 24, 1969, approved the first results of the “cultural revolution.” In the report of one of Mao Zedong’s closest associates, Marshal Lin Bao, the main place was occupied by praises of the “great helmsman,” whose ideas were called “the highest stage in the development of Marxism-Leninism”... The main thing in the new charter of the CPC was the official consolidation of “Mao Zedong Thoughts” as an ideological basics of the PDA. The program part of the charter included an unprecedented provision that Lin Biao is “the continuator of the work of Comrade Mao Zedong.” The entire leadership of the party, government and army was concentrated in the hands of the Chairman of the CPC, his deputy and the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Central Committee.

The final stage of the cultural revolution

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, China's foreign policy took an unexpected turn. Against the backdrop of extremely tense relations with the Soviet Union (especially after the armed conflict on Damansky Island), Mao suddenly decided to rapprochement with the United States of America, which was sharply opposed by Lin Biao, who was considered Mao’s official successor. After the Cultural Revolution, his power increased sharply, which worries Mao Zedong. Lin Biao's attempts to pursue an independent policy cause the chairman to become completely disillusioned with him, and they begin to fabricate a case against Lin. Having learned about this, Lin Biao attempted to escape from the country on September 13, but his plane crashed under unclear circumstances. President Nixon was already visiting China.

Mao's last years

After the death of Lin Biao, behind the back of the aging Chairman, an intra-factional struggle takes place in the CCP. Opposing each other is a group of “left radicals” (led by the leaders of the Cultural Revolution, the so-called “gang of four” - Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen, Zhang Chongqiao and Yao Wenyuan) and a group of “pragmatists” (led by the moderate Zhou Enlai and rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping). Mao Zedong tries to maintain a balance of power between the two factions, allowing, on the one hand, some relaxations in the field of economics, but also supporting, on the other hand, mass campaigns of leftists, for example, “Criticism of Confucius and Lin Biao.” Hua Guofeng, a devoted Maoist belonging to the moderate left, was considered Mao's new successor.

Cult of personality

Cultural Revolution badge depicting Mao Zedong

The cult of Mao Zedong's personality dates back to the Yan'an period in the early forties. Even then, in classes on the theory of communism, the works of Mao were mainly used. In 1943, newspapers began publishing with Mao's portrait on the front page, and soon “Mao Zedong Thought” became the official program of the CCP. After the Communist victory in the civil war, posters, portraits, and later statues of Mao appeared in city squares, in offices and even in citizens' apartments. However, the cult of Mao was brought to grotesque proportions by Lin Biao in the mid-1960s. It was then that Mao’s quotation book, “The Little Red Book,” was published for the first time, which later became the Bible of the Cultural Revolution. In propaganda works, such as in the fake “Diary of Lei Feng,” loud slogans and fiery speeches, the cult of the “leader” was boosted to the point of absurdity. Crowds of young people work themselves into hysteria, shouting greetings to the “red sun of our hearts” - “the wisest Chairman Mao.” Mao Zedong becomes the figure on whom almost everything in China focuses.

During the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards beat cyclists who dared to appear without an image of Mao Zedong; passengers on buses and trains were required to chant excerpts from Mao's collection of sayings; classical and modern works were destroyed; books were burned so that the Chinese could read only one author - the “great helmsman” Mao Zedong, who was published in tens of millions of copies. The following fact testifies to the implantation of a personality cult. The Khuweibins wrote in their manifesto:

We are Chairman Mao's red guards, we make the country writhe in convulsions. We tear up and destroy calendars, precious vases, records from the USA and England, amulets, ancient drawings and raise the portrait of Chairman Mao above all this.

Mao's meaning and legacy

Portrait of Mao at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing

“Comrade Mao Zedong is a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist. If we consider his life and work as a whole, his services to the Chinese revolution largely outweigh his mistakes, despite the serious mistakes he made in the Cultural Revolution. His merits take the main place, and his mistakes take a secondary place” (Leaders of the CPC, 1981).

On the other hand, it is impossible not to admit that Mao, having received in 1949 an underdeveloped agricultural country mired in anarchy, corruption and general devastation, in a short time made it a fairly powerful, independent power possessing atomic weapons. During his reign, the percentage of illiteracy decreased from 80% to 7%, life expectancy doubled, the population grew by more than 2 times, and industrial output more than 10 times. He also managed to unify China for the first time in several decades, restoring it to almost the same borders that it had during the Empire; to rid it of the humiliating dictates of foreign states from which China has suffered since the period of the Opium Wars. In addition, even Mao's critics recognize him as a brilliant strategist and tactician, which he proved to be capable of during the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War.

The ideology of Maoism also had a great influence on the development of communist movements in many countries of the world - the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Shining Path in Peru, the revolutionary movement in Nepal, communist movements in the USA and Europe. Meanwhile, China itself, after the death of Mao, in its policies moved very far away from the ideas of Mao Zedong and communist ideology in general. The reforms started by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and continued by his followers made China's economy de facto capitalist, with corresponding consequences for domestic and foreign policy. In China itself, Mao's personality is assessed extremely ambiguously. On the one hand, the majority of the population sees him as a hero of the Civil War, a strong ruler, and a charismatic personality. Some older Chinese are nostalgic for the confidence, equality and lack of corruption they believe existed during the Mao era. On the other hand, many people cannot forgive Mao for the cruelty and mistakes of his mass campaigns, especially the Cultural Revolution. Today in China there is a fairly free discussion about the role of Mao in the modern history of the country, and works are published in which the policies of the “Great Helmsman” are sharply criticized. The official formula for assessing his activities remains the figure given by Mao himself as a characteristic of Stalin’s activities (as a response to the revelations in Khrushchev’s secret report): 70 percent victories and 30 percent mistakes.

What remains beyond doubt, however, is the enormous significance that the figure of Mao Zedong has not only for Chinese, but also for world history.

Family ties

Parents:

Wen Qimei(文七妹, 1867-1919), mother.
Mao Shunsheng(毛顺生, 1870-1920), father.

Brothers and sisters

Mao Zemin(毛泽民, 1895-1943), younger brother.
Mao Zetan(毛泽覃, 1905-1935), younger brother.
Mao Zehong, (毛泽红, 1905-1929)) younger sister.

Mao Zedong's three other brothers and one sister died at an early age. Mao Zemin and Zetan died fighting on the side of the communists, Mao Zehong was killed by the Kuomintang.

Wives

Luo Yixiu(罗一秀, 1889-1910), formally wife since 1907, forced marriage, unrecognized by Mao.
Yang Kaihui(杨开慧, 1901-1930), wife from 1921 to 1927.
He Zizhen(贺子珍, 1910-1984), wife from 1928 to 1939

Mao Zedong, the biography and activities of the great Chinese statesman and political figure of the 20th century, the main theoretician of Maoism, are presented in this article.

Mao Zedong short biography

Mao was born on December 26, 1893 in the village of Shaoshan, Hunan Province, the son of a small landowner. Following the example of his mother, he practiced Buddhism until adolescence, after which he abandoned it. His parents did not know how to read and write. Zedong's father studied at school for only 2 years, and his mother did not study at all.

In 1919 he joined a Marxist circle. And already in 1921, Zedong became one of the founders of the Communist Party of China. In subsequent years, Mao carried out organizational tasks for the leadership of the CPC and was active in creating peasant unions.

Thanks to his successful activities, the future Leader already in 1928-1934 organized the Chinese Soviet Republic, located in the rural areas of south Central China. After its defeat, he led great communist troops on the famous Long March to northern China.

In 1957-1958, Zedong put forward the famous program for socio-economic development. Today it is known as the "Great Leap Forward" and meant:

Creation of agricultural communes
Creation of small industrial enterprises in villages
The principle of equal distribution of income was introduced
The remains of private enterprises were liquidated
The system of material incentives was eliminated

This program led China to deep depression. And in 1959 he leaves the post of head of state.

In the early 60s, Mao took up some political and economic issues: he considered that the retreat from the ideas of the “Great Leap Forward” had gone far and some individuals in the leadership of the Communist Party did not want to build real socialism. Therefore, in 1966, the world learned about Zedong’s new project - the “cultural revolution”. But it also did not bring the desired result.

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Poster of Mao Zedong declaring the formation of the People's Republic of China 1949. Mao Tse-tung

Participation in the revolutionary struggle

Political career of Mao Zedong

Personal life of Mao Zedong

Biography

early years

Beginning of political activity

Long March

Victory of the CCP in the Civil War

"Great Leap Forward"

On the eve of the "Cultural Revolution"

Cultural Revolution

The final stage of the cultural revolution

Mao's last years

Cult of personality

Mao's meaning and legacy

Family ties

see also

Selected works

Notes

Literature

Links

Name

Childhood and youth

early years

Beginning of political activity

During the Civil War

Long March

Yan'an period

Victory of the CCP in the Civil War

"Great Leap Forward"

On the eve of the "Cultural Revolution"

The final stage of the cultural revolution

Mao's last years

Cult of personality

Mao's meaning and legacy

Family ties

Mao Zedong short biography