The Beatles' song "Revolution" refers to Mao in the verse "but if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao you ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow";[361] John Lennon expressed regret over including these lines in the song in 1972. [18]:58. New Evidence Suggest Far Higher Numbers for the Victims of Mao Zedong's Era", "The Cultural Revolution and the History of Totalitarianism", "Maoism marches on: the revolutionary idea that still shapes the world", "China 'fires' editors over criticism of Mao, detains leftist activist", "Everyone is a victim of Mao, but no one dares to say it, says TV host in China, draws ire", "Chinese TV Anchor To Be Punished For Mao Jibe", "Why Maoism still resonates in China today", "Chairman Mao square opened on his 115th birth anniversary", "Mao Zedong still draws crowds on 113th birth anniversary", "Speeches At The Second Session Of The Eighth Party Congress", "China must confront dark past, says Mao confidant", Granddaughter Keeps Mao's Memory Alive in Bookshop, "China and the US Trade Embargo, 19501972", "Mao Zedong in Contemporary Chinese Official Discourse and History", "Mao Tse-tung: His Military Writings and Philosophy", "Zhang, Mao's Military Romanticism: China and the Korean War, 1950-1953, 1995 | US-China Institute", Mao Tse-Tung: Father of Chinese Revolution, "obm jizh ynshu yn mozdng shc", "Portraits of Sun Yat-sen, Deng Xiaoping proposed adding to RMB notes", "Stefan Landsberger, Paint it Red. [349] The main repository of his pre-1949 writings is the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, published in four volumes by the People's Publishing House since 1951. He was concerned that those in power were becoming estranged from the people they were to serve. [228]:3 It invested more on in China's coastal regions and focused on the production of consumer goods. [47] Yang thought Mao exceptionally "intelligent and handsome",[48] securing him a job as assistant to the university librarian Li Dazhao, who would become an early Chinese Communist. A fifth volume, which brought the timeline up to 1957, was briefly issued during the leadership of Hua Guofeng, but subsequently withdrawn from circulation for its perceived ideological errors. [313][e], Mao's poems and writings are frequently cited by both Chinese and non-Chinese. The Cultural Revolution: A People's History, What We Talk About When We Talk About Tunguska. [189], Following the consolidation of power, Mao launched the first five-year plan (19531958), which emphasised rapid industrial development. Two of the sons and both daughters died young, leaving the three brothers Mao Zedong, Mao Zemin, and Mao Zetan. [229]:100, The secretive Third Front construction involved massive projects including extensive railroad infrastructure like the ChengduKunming line,[228]:153164 aerospace industry including satellite launch facilities,[228]:218-219 and steel production industry including Panzhihua Iron and Steel. [201] Furthermore, many children who became malnourished during years of hardship died after the Great Leap Forward came to an end in 1962. [46], Mao moved to Beijing, where his mentor Yang Changji had taken a job at Peking University. On the last day of the month Mao was elected Chairman of the Central People's Government and on the following day, October 1st, he formally proclaimed the People's Republic of China from the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Tiananmen Square. Brooding over this immensity, [337] Some scholars and others who knew Mao personally have disputed the accuracy of these characterisations. Until the mid-1980s, when official census figures were finally published by the Chinese Government, little was known about the scale of the disaster in the Chinese countryside, as the handful of Western observers allowed access during this time had been restricted to model villages where they were deceived into believing that the Great Leap Forward had been a great success. [233], The Cultural Revolution led to the destruction of much of China's traditional cultural heritage and the imprisonment of a huge number of Chinese citizens, as well as the creation of general economic and social chaos in the country. According to Zhang Rongmei, a geometry teacher in rural Shanghai during the Great Leap Forward: "We took all the furniture, pots, and pans we had in our house, and all our neighbours did likewise. It give a look at what he accomplished in the years he was in rule. [219] Various other sources have put the figure at between 20 and 46 million. What is Maoism? [19] His political views were shaped by Gelaohui-led protests which erupted following a famine in Changsha, the capital of Hunan; Mao supported the protesters' demands, but the armed forces suppressed the dissenters and executed their leaders. [56], On 4 May 1919, students in Beijing gathered at Tiananmen to protest the Chinese government's weak resistance to Japanese expansion in China. "[300] Diktter argues that CCP leaders "glorified violence and were inured to massive loss of life. [319] At the 1958 party congress in Chengdu, Mao expressed support for the personality cults of people whom he labelled as genuinely worthy figures, not those that expressed "blind worship". In June 1920, Tan led his troops into Changsha, and Zhang fled. Trapped inside, morale among the Red Army dropped as food and medicine became scarce. [110], In 1928, Mao met and married He Zizhen, an 18-year-old revolutionary who would bear him six children. Stuart R. Schram, The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung (1989)[267], Mao remains a controversial figure and there is little agreement over his legacy both in China and abroad. [216], The number of deaths by starvation during the Great Leap Forward is deeply controversial. Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward? [143] Western reporters also arrived in the "Border Region" (as the Soviet had been renamed); most notable were Edgar Snow, who used his experiences as a basis for Red Star Over China, and Agnes Smedley, whose accounts brought international attention to Mao's cause. The republicans' figurehead was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led the Tongmenghui society. [74] Yet labour issues remained central. I once debated with the democratic people: You accuse us of acting like Ch'in-shih-huang, but you are wrong; we surpass him 100 times. [324], A 2016 survey by YouGov survey found that 42% of American millennials have never heard of Mao. [254] There are unconfirmed reports that he possibly had Parkinson's disease[255][256] in addition to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. "[341], Sinologist Stuart R. Schram emphasised Mao's ruthlessness but also noted that he showed no sign of taking pleasure in torture or killing in the revolutionary cause. Bernstein concludes that the Chairman "wilfully ignored the lessons of the first radical phase for the sake of achieving extreme ideological and developmental goals". [149] Although despising Chiang Kai-shek as a "traitor to the nation",[150] on 5 May, he telegrammed the Military Council of the Nanking National Government proposing a military alliance, a course of action advocated by Stalin. In 1962, having lost millions of people in his province, Li Jingquan compared the Great Leap Forward to the Long March in which only one in ten had made it to the end: 'We are not weak, we are stronger, we have kept the backbone. Hiroshima took nine seconds; Changchun took five months. [338], Having grown up in Hunan, Mao spoke Mandarin with a marked Hunanese accent. [82] Mao and many of his colleagues also proposed the end of cooperation with the KMT, which was rejected by the Comintern representative Mikhail Borodin. close to his mother, argued with his father. In order to make the escape, many of the wounded and the ill, as well as women and children, were left behind, defended by a group of guerrilla fighters whom the KMT massacred. Li Rui, Mao's personal secretary and Communist Party comrade[299], Mao's English interpreter Sidney Rittenberg wrote in his memoir The Man Who Stayed Behind that whilst Mao "was a great leader in history", he was also "a great criminal because, not that he wanted to, not that he intended to, but in fact, his wild fantasies led to the deaths of tens of millions of people. [citation needed] The worst of the famine was steered towards enemies of the state. [259], On 18 September, guns, sirens, whistles and horns across China were simultaneously blown and a mandatory three-minute silence was observed. Senior officials who reported the truth of the famine to Mao were branded as "right opportunists. Years later the CCP would conclude that as many as six million people were wrongly punished in the campaign. [213] The overwhelming majority of delegates expressed agreement, but Defense Minister Lin Biao staunchly defended Mao. He also acknowledged that anti-rightist campaigns were a major cause of "production at the expense of livelihood." [200] The famine was a direct cause of the death of some 30 million Chinese peasants between 1959 and 1962. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people, perhaps millions, perished in the violence of the Cultural Revolution. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. Such uprisings angered senior KMT figures, who were themselves landowners, emphasising the growing class and ideological divide within the revolutionary movement. Ultimately, his suggestions were only partially implemented. In 1959, Mao gave up the . [18]:55, His policies resulted in the deaths of tens of millions of people in China during his 27-year reign, more than any other 20th-century leader; estimates of the number of people who died under his regime range from 40 million to as many as 80 million,[273][274] done through starvation, persecution, prison labour in laogai, and mass executions. [154][155] In August 1938, the Red Army formed the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army, which were nominally under the command of Chiang's National Revolutionary Army. "[291] In a similar vein, journalist Liu Binyan has described Mao as "both monster and a genius. [27] As a symbol of rebellion against the Manchu monarch, Mao and a friend cut off their queue pigtails, a sign of subservience to the emperor. This was initially tolerated and encouraged. The Chinese system he overthrew was backward and corrupt; few would argue the fact that he dragged China into the 20th century. [94], Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition against the warlords, Chiang turned on the Communists, who by now numbered in the tens of thousands across China. They were initially successful, but the KMT counter-attacked, and pushed the CCP back; over the next few weeks, they fought an entrenched guerrilla war in the mountains. Maurice Meisner, Mao's China and After: A History of the People's Republic (3rd ed., 1999), Mao also has Chinese critics. [36], Mao desired to become a teacher and enrolled at the Fourth Normal School of Changsha, which soon merged with the First Normal School of Hunan, widely seen as the best in Hunan. [159] In the end of the mission, the contacts which the U.S. developed with the Chinese Communist Party led to very little. [45] Mao graduated in June 1919, ranked third in the year. [259] On 17 September the body was taken in a minibus to the 305 Hospital, where his internal organs were preserved in formaldehyde. [15], While working on his father's farm, Mao read voraciously[16] and developed a "political consciousness" from Zheng Guanying's booklet which lamented the deterioration of Chinese power and argued for the adoption of representative democracy. [230]:177182, During the early 1960s, Mao became concerned with the nature of post-1959 China. Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history, an expert who had unprecedented access to official Communist Party archives said . [259] One million Chinese filed past to pay their final respects, many crying openly or displaying sadness, while foreigners watched on television. We have stood up.'. ", "All reactionaries are paper tigers. pearl harbor. The split concerned the leadership of world communism. [138], Mao's troops arrived at the Yan'an Soviet during October 1935 and settled in Pao An, until spring 1936. From 1958 to 1962, his Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of up to 45 million people - easily making it the biggest episode of . China is such a populous nation, it is not as if we cannot do without a few people. The first session of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was attended by 13 delegates, Mao included. Revised question: How long did Mao Zedong rule in China? [34] He was inspired by Friedrich Paulsen, a neo-Kantian philosopher and educator whose emphasis on the achievement of a carefully defined goal as the highest value led Mao to believe that strong individuals were not bound by moral codes but should strive for a great goal. [90], In March 1927, Mao appeared at the Third Plenum of the KMT Central Executive Committee in Wuhan, which sought to strip General Chiang of his power by appointing Wang Jingwei leader. After a few months, Mao's government reversed its policy and persecuted those who had criticised the party, totalling perhaps 500,000,[194] as well as those who were merely alleged to have been critical, in what is called the Anti-Rightist Movement. [69] He was involved in the movement for Hunan autonomy, in the hope that a Hunanese constitution would increase civil liberties and make his revolutionary activity easier. However, it was unclear if Mao's stance played a crucial role, if any role, in Khrushchev's decision to invade Hungary. When Mao stepped down as head of state on 27 April 1959, further diplomatic state visits and travels abroad to the Soviet Union and other countries were undertaken by either President Liu Shaoqi, Premier Zhou Enlai or Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping rather than Mao personally. When the movement was successful in establishing provincial autonomy under a new warlord, Mao forgot his involvement. In doing so, he moulded his men into a disciplined, efficient fighting force.[104]. [80] At the First KMT Congress, held in Guangzhou in early 1924, Mao was elected an alternate member of the KMT Central Executive Committee, and put forward four resolutions to decentralise power to urban and rural bureaus. "[237] The authorities allowed the Red Guards to abuse and kill opponents of the regime. Under this economic program, the relatively small agricultural collectives that had been formed to date were rapidly merged into far larger people's communes, and many of the peasants were ordered to work on massive infrastructure projects and on the production of iron and steel. He accepted that there was great variation in revolutionary enthusiasm across the country, and that a flexible policy of land redistribution was necessary. The Communist Party delayed the announcement of his death until 16:00, when a national radio broadcast announced the news and appealed for party unity. [54] Mao's time in Beijing ended in the spring of 1919, when he travelled to Shanghai with friends who were preparing to leave for France. [262] Tiananmen Square was packed with millions of people and a military band played "The Internationale". The CCP Central Committee, hiding in Shanghai, expelled Mao from their ranks and from the Hunan Provincial Committee, as punishment for his "military opportunism", for his focus on rural activity, and for being too lenient with "bad gentry". She travelled to Moscow for medical treatment; Mao proceeded to divorce her and marry an actress, Jiang Qing. They reached Hunan, where they were attacked by the KMT and fled after heavy losses. [14] At age 13, Mao finished primary education, and his father united him in an arranged marriage to the 17-year-old Luo Yixiu, thereby uniting their land-owning families. [137] The Long March cemented Mao's status as the dominant figure in the party. The combined effect of the diversion of labour to steel production and infrastructure projects, and cyclical natural disasters led to an approximately 15% drop in grain production in 1959 followed by a further 10% decline in 1960 and no recovery in 1961. Communist Party members joined the KMT, hoping to push its politics leftward. [174] In 1976, the U.S. State department estimated as many as a million were killed in the land reform, and 800,000 killed in the counter-revolutionary campaign. However, Mao's government was responsible for vast numbers of deaths, with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims due to starvation, persecution, prison labour, and mass executions, which drew criticism for being considered totalitarian rule. Mao was skeptical, but complied. The death count in rural parts of China surpassed the deaths in the urban centers. Human Rights in China (HRIC). ", See also: Nine Schools of Thought and Hundred Schools of Thought. The result, compounded in some areas by drought and in others by floods, was that farmers were left with little food for themselves and many millions starved to death in the Great Chinese Famine. Mao Zedong[a] (26 December 1893 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese politician, political theorist, military strategist, poet, and communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which he led as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from the establishment of the PRC in 1949 until his death in 1976. Although Soviet and Comintern delegates attended, the first congress ignored Lenin's advice to accept a temporary alliance between the Communists and the "bourgeois democrats" who also advocated national revolution; instead they stuck to the orthodox Marxist belief that only the urban proletariat could lead a socialist revolution. Mao had four wives who gave birth to a total of 10 children, among them: Mao's parents altogether had five sons and two daughters. China itself has moved sharply away from Maoism since Mao's death, and most people outside of China who describe themselves as Maoist regard the Deng Xiaoping reforms to be a betrayal of Maoism, in line with Mao's view of "Capitalist roaders" within the Communist Party. [65], Mao visited Tianjin, Jinan, and Qufu,[66] before moving to Shanghai, where he worked as a laundryman and met Chen Duxiu, noting that Chen's adoption of Marxism "deeply impressed me at what was probably a critical period in my life". He is regarded as one of the most important and influential individuals in the twentieth century. [191] This period marked the beginning of China's rapid industrialisation and it resulted in an enormous success. [141] In January 1937, they began the "anti-Japanese expedition", that sent groups of guerrilla fighters into Japanese-controlled territory to undertake sporadic attacks. The scale of his life was too grand to be reduced to a single meaning. He also orchestrated education programs and implemented measures to increase female political participation. As the Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), he was also the Supreme Commander in Chief of the PLA and the People's Republic and Chairman of the Party. it involved fire bombs, fierce street by street battles and a fight to the death in the bitter cold winter. [clarification needed] His ideas were not Marxist, but heavily influenced by Kropotkin's concept of mutual aid. Mao Zedong declares the founding of the modern People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. [67][68], The Chinese Communist Party was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in the Shanghai French Concession in 1921 as a study society and informal network. [102] In addition to land redistribution, Mao promoted literacy and non-hierarchical organizational relationships in Jinggangshan, transforming the area's social and economic life and attracted many local supporters. The first attempt to analyse this data to estimate the number of famine deaths was carried out by American demographer Dr. Judith Banister and published in 1984. Luo was locally disgraced and died in 1910 at 21 years old. [317] In the mid-1990s, Mao's picture began to appear on all new renminbi currency from the People's Republic of China. [125] Mao proceeded with his land reform program. The old imperial capital of Peking surrendered to the Communists at the end of January after a month's siege. [352] His work gave rise to a new form of Chinese calligraphy called "Mao-style" or Maoti, which has gained increasing popularity since his death.
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how long did mao zedong rule
