In 1966, there was a major social-political movement
set into motion by Mao Zedong. A movement that paralyzed China politically and
greatly affected the country socially and economically. This movement took
place in the People’s Republic of china. This movement was called the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution,
also known as the Cultural Revolution.
Mao Zedong, back then was Chairman of the Communist Party of China. The goal of
the revolution was to enforce communism within the country
by removing capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society. The
goal was also to enforce Maoist orthodoxy
within the Party. This Revolution allowed for the return of Mao Zedong into a position of power after the failed Great Leap Forward.
Mao felt as if the middle-class
elements of society were penetrating the government and the rest
of society at large, and trying to restore capitalism. He insisted that these "revisionists" be wiped out through violent class
struggle. Mao made of example of the Cultural Revolution by
"cleansing" powerful officials of questionable loyalty. This method
was less than transparent, accomplishing this purge through newspaper articles,
internal meetings, and skillfully employing his network of political allies. Mao knew
that other party leaders were planning to get rid of him, so he turned directly
to his supporters with in the community to join him in a Cultural Revolution.
Mao also believed that communist revolution had to be a continuous process, in
order to stave off capitalist-roader ideas.
The young people of China
rose up in an effort to purge the nation of the "Four Olds": old
customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas. China's
youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red
Guard groups around the country these people helped enforce Mao’s
movement. The military, urban workers, and the
Communist Party leadership itself later joined the youth and became apart of
the Red Guard. The Red Guard was created to punish party
officials and any other persons who showed bourgeois tendencies. The first
targets of the Red Guards included Buddhist temples, churches and mosques,
which were destroyed or transformed for other uses. Sacred texts, as well as Confucian writings,
were burned, along with religious statues and other artwork. Any object
associated with China's pre-revolutionary past was likely to be destroyed.
The Guards conducted
so-called "struggle sessions," in which they heaped exploitation and
public humiliation upon people accused of capitalist thoughts these people were
usually teachers, monks and other educated persons. Millions
of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across
the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation,
arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property.
These
sessions often included physical violence, and many of the accused died or
ended up being held in reeducation camps for years.
During the ten years of the
Cultural Revolution, schools in China did not operate; this left an entire
generation with no formal education. All of the educated and professional
people had been targets for reeducation, and those that had not been killed has
been dispersed across the countryside, toiling on farms or working in labor
camps.
By December of 1968, Mao
realized that the Cultural Revolution was spinning out of control. China's
economy, which was already weakened by the Great Leap Forward, was stumbling
quickly. In reaction, Mao issued a call for the "Down to the Countryside
Movement," in which young cadres from the city were sent to live on farms
and learn from the peasants.
Mao officially declared the
Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969; however, the active phase continued
until the death of the military leader Lin
Biao in 1971. Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976. His hand-picked
successor, Hua Guofeng, had the Gang of Four arrested including Mao’s wife,
which signaled the end of the Cultural Revolution.
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