Cultural Revolution - Facts & Summary - HISTORY PDF

11/27/2014
CulturalRevolutionFacts&SummaryHISTORY.com
CULTURAL
REVOLUTION
In 1966, Chinas Communist leader Mao Zedong launched what
became known as the Cultural Revolution in order to reassert his
authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current
Communist leaders were taking the party, and China itself, in the
wrong direction, Mao called on the nations youth to purge the
impure elements of Chinese society and revive the
revolutionary spirit that had led to victory in the civil war 20
decades earlier and the formation of the Peoples Republic of
China. The Cultural Revolution continued in various phases until
Maos death in 1976, and its tormented and violent legacy would
resonate in Chinese politics and society for decades to come.
CONTENTS
The Cultural Revolution Begins
Lin Biaos Role in the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution Comes to an End
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION BEGINS
In the 1960s, Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong
came to feel that the current party leadership in China, as in the
Soviet Union, was moving too far in a revisionist direction, with
an emphasis on expertise rather than on ideological purity.
http://www.history.com/topics/culturalrevolution/print
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Maos own position in government had weakened after the

failure of his Great Leap Forward (1958-60) and the economic
crisis that followed. Mao gathered a group of radicals, including
his wife Jiang Qing and defense minister Lin Biao, to help him
attack current party leadership and reassert his authority.
DID YOU KNOW?
To encourage the personality cult that sprang up around Mao
Zedong during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, Defense
Minister Lin Biao saw that the now-famous "Little Red Book" of
Mao's quotations was printed and distributed by the millions
throughout China.
Mao launched the so-called Cultural Revolution (known in full as
the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution) in August 1966, at a
meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee. He shut down
the nations schools, calling for a massive youth mobilization to
take current party leaders to task for their embrace of bourgeois
values and lack of revolutionary spirit. In the months that
followed, the movement escalated quickly as the students
formed paramilitary groups called the Red Guards and attacked
and harassed members of Chinas elderly and intellectual
population. A personality cult quickly sprang up around Mao,
similar to that which existed for Josef Stalin, with different
factions of the movement claiming the true interpretation of
Maoist thought.
LIN BIAOS ROLE IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
During this early phase of the Cultural Revolution (1966-68),
President Liu Shaoqi and other Communist leaders were
removed from power. (Beaten and imprisoned, Liu died in prison
in 1969.) With different factions of the Red Guard movement
battling for dominance, many Chinese cities reached the brink of
anarchy by September 1967, when Mao had Lin send army
troops in to restore order. The army soon forced many urban
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members of the Red Guards into rural areas, where the

movement declined. Amid the chaos, the Chinese economy
plummeted, with industrial production for 1968 dropping 12
percent below that of 1966.
In 1969, Lin was officially designated Maos successor. He soon
used the excuse of border clashes with Soviet troops to institute
martial law. Disturbed by Lins premature power grab, Mao
began to maneuver against him with the help of Zhou Enlai,
Chinas premier, splitting the ranks of power atop the Chinese
government. In September 1971, Lin died in an airplane crash in
Mongolia, apparently while attempting to escape to the Soviet
Union. Members of his high military command were
subsequently purged, and Zhou took over greater control of the
government. Lins brutal end led many Chinese citizens to feel
disillusioned over the course of Maos high-minded revolution,
which seemed to have dissolved in favor of ordinary power
struggles.
CULTURAL REVOLUTION COMES TO AN END
Zhou acted to stabilize China by reviving educational system and
restoring numerous former officials to power. In 1972, however,
Mao suffered a stroke; in the same year, Zhou learned he had
cancer. The two leaders threw their support to Deng Xiaoping
(who had been purged during the first phase of the Cultural
Revolution), a development opposed by the more radical Jiang
and her allies, who became known as the Gang of Four. In the
next several years, Chinese politics teetered between the two
sides. The radicals finally convinced Mao to purge Deng in April
1976, a few months after Zhous death, but after Mao died that
September, a civil, police and military coalition pushed the Gang
of Four out. Deng regained power in 1977, and would maintain
control over Chinese government for the next 20 years.
Some 1.5 million people were killed during the Cultural
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Revolution, and millions of others suffered imprisonment,

seizure of property, torture or general humiliation. The Cultural
Revolutions short-term effects may have been felt mainly in
Chinas cities, but its long-term effects would impact the entire
country for decades to come. Maos large-scale attack on the
party and system he had created would eventually produce a
result opposite to what he intended, leading many Chinese to
lose faith in their government altogether.
Article Details:
Cultural Revolution
Author
History.com Staff
Website Name
History.com
Year Published
2009
Title
Cultural Revolution
URL
http://www.history.com/topics/cultural-revolution
Access Date
November 26, 2014
Publisher
A+E Networks
This copy is for you personal, non-commercial use only.

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11/27/2014

Maos own position in government had weakened after the

members of the Red Guards into rural areas, where the

Revolution, and millions of others suffered imprisonment,

This copy is for you personal, non-commercial use only.

1996-2013, A&E Television Networks, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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