the cultural revolution

when was the cultural revolution?

1966-9

How did the moderates want to develop China?

• they wanted to introduce more incentives to get the peasants in the communes working hard

• they wanted to let the peasants have larger private plots and pay them wages according to how much work they did

• they believed in going back to the ideas of the first Five-Year Plan too build up industry on Russian lines

• to manage industry more efficiently, they wanted to create a new class of skilled managers

what did mao zedong think of the policies of the moderates?

• he strongly opposed them

• he said that they were taking the ‘capitalist road’ and they were allowing people to forget the original aims of the communist party.

what did mao then launch? and when?

• a Socialist Education Movement in 1962 to get people back on the right road to Communism

what did Mao also launch?

a ‘four clean-ups campaign’ to get rid of corruption and bad management in the Party and to discourage people who shows signs of capitalist behaviour - for example, peasants who spent more time on their private plots than on the communal land.

what did Mao continually urge the party to do? and when was he doing this?

keep in touch with the ordinary people of China and to avoid the ‘capitalist road’.

from 1962 to 1966

who gave Mao support and what did they do in that year?

• Lin Biao, the Minister of Defence

• He abolished all ranks in the People’s Liberation Army, thus making all soldiers equal

what was every soldier given? and what did this mean for Mao?

a copy of the ‘Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong’ known as ‘The Little Red Book’ and were ordered to study it.

although nobody in the government supported his ideas, Mao now had the support of the four million strong People’s Liberation Army.

what was Mao now strong enough to launch due to his backing from Lin Biao and the PLA?

a new super-campaign against ‘capitalists’ and any other ‘reactionaries’ who stood in the way of true Communism. The campaign began in 1966 and was known as ‘The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’.

Who did the Cultural Revolution begin with? and when?

students in Beijing who formed into military groups which they called Red Guards.

in the summer of 1966

what was shut down in the summer of 1966?

schools and colleges were shut down for six months so that the curriculum could be rewritten to make young people more aware of Communist ideas

Four Olds Campaign

the Red Guards began with a ‘Four Olds’ campaign against old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits. They marched through Beijing in monster parades numbering over a million at a time. They attacked anything which seemed to them ‘capitalist’ or ‘bourgeois’.

Red Guard’s use of violence to achieve their aims

• They shaved off the hair of girls with Western hairstyles and ripped off Western-style clothes.

• They smashed the windows of shops selling cosmetics, jazz records, fur coats and a thousand other ‘bourgeois’ luxuries.

• they burnt down bookshops and libraries, and closed museums, art galleries, churches and theatres.

• they forbade couples to hold hands in public.

• they renamed places which had ‘reactionary’ names, so that the Square of Heavenly Peace where they held their parades became ‘East Wind Square’ and Beijing itself became ‘The East is Red’.

Did Mao Zedong encourage these activities?

Yes, saying that ‘To rebel is justified.’

How were the red guards given help with their campaign?

• they were given the right to travel free on the Chinese railways so that they could visit places connected with the Long March or take part in monster rallies in Beijing.

• the police were given orders not to oppose them

How many people are the Red Guards thought to have killed?

400,000

How did the Red Guards follow Mao’s word?

they spent much of their time reading and memorising the Little Red Book

How many copies of the Little Red Book were printed between 1966-1969?

740 million

what were put up in every street and workplace for mao?

pictures, busts and statues of mao

what did many people do before mao’s picture?

bowed before his picture after getting up in the morning and before getting into bed at night.

who did mao’s worshippers despise?

Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, the leading moderates in the government?

what happened to the leading moderates in the government?

they were both expelled from the Party and Liu was imprisoned, dying in captivity in 1969

how and when did mao attempt to restore order to China?

• schools and colleges were reopened and he called on young people to return to their studies in september 1967

what did mao do to get rid of the millions of Red Guards who now occupied the cities?

encouraged them to ‘go down to the country’ to re-educate themselves by learning from the peasants

how many young people went down to the country?

18 million

what did the PLA set up?

Revolutionary Committees consisting of peasants, soldiers and Red Guards

what were the long term impacts of the cultural revolution?

• by 1981, the government estimated that around 120 million people under the age of 45 could not read or write

• industrial output fell drastically

• farming was severely disrupted