Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution ({{zh-stpl|s=无产阶级文化大革命|t=無產階級文化大革命|p=wú chǎn jiē jí wén huà dà gé mìng|l=Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution}}; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wén huà dà gé mìng, literally "Great Cultural Revolution", or simply 文革 wén gé, literally "Cultural Revolution") in the People's Republic of China was a revolutionary upsurge by Chinese students and workers against the bureaucrats of the Chinese Communist Party. It was launched by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 to secure Maoism (known domestically as Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought) in China as the state's dominant ideology and eliminate political opposition. Though Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, the term is today widely used to also include the period between

Background

Great Leap Forward

Main Article: Great Leap Forward

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In 1957, after China's first Five-Year Plan, Mao Zedong called for an increase in the speed of growth of "actual socialism" in China (as opposed to "dictatorial socialism"). To accomplish this goal, Mao began the Great Leap Forward, establishing special communes in the countryside through the usage of collective labor and mass mobilization. The Great Leap Forward was intended to increase the production of steel and to raise agricultural production to twice 1957 levels.

Related Topics:
1957 - Five-Year Plan - Socialism - Commune - Labor - Mass mobilization - Steel - Agricultural

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However, the Great Leap turned into an utter disaster. 1958 had excellent weather, and should have been a good year for agricultural production, but as the peasants were working in urban centers on steel production, much of the crop was left unharvested. Industries went into turmoil, because peasants were producing nothing but steel. Furthermore, the peasants, as farmers, were ill-equipped and ill-trained to produce steel, partially relying on such mechanisms as backyard furnaces to achieve production goals, which had been mandated by the threatening local cadres. Meanwhile, farming implements like rakes were melted down for steel, making agricultural production impossible. This led to declines in production of everything but steel. To make matters worse, in order to avoid punishment, local authorities continually reported grossly-unrealistic production numbers, which hid the problem for years, intensifying it. Having barely recovered from decades of war, the Chinese economy was headed into disaster. Steel production did show significant growth, to over 14 million tons of steel a year, from the previous 5.2 million. The original goal was to produce a completely unrealistic 30 million tons of steel, though that was later revised down to 20 million. However, much of the steel produced was impure and useless.

Related Topics:
Backyard furnace - Economy

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In the 1959 Lushan meeting of the Central Committee, Peng Dehuai criticized Mao's policies in the Great Leap with a private letter. Peng wrote that the Great Leap was plagued by mismanagement, and "petty-bourgeois fanaticism". Although Mao made repeated self-criticisms in speeches for the Great Leap and called for dismantling the communes in 1959, he did not want to surrender the overall evaluation that the Great Leap was 70% correct. Politically, Mao formed an alliance with Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, in which he granted them day-to-day control over the country, in return for framing Peng and accusing him of being a "right opportunist". The attack on Peng was also combined with an attack on the Soviet Union and the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. This change was also a part of the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations begun by the Korean War (see Sino-Soviet split).

Related Topics:
Peng Dehuai - Liu Shaoqi - Deng Xiaoping - Nikita Khrushchev - Korean War - Sino-Soviet split

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Among Liu's and Deng's reforms were a partial retreat from collectivism, which had miserably failed.

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Increasing conflict between Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi

In China, the three years beginning with 1960 were known as the Three Years of Natural Disasters. Food was in desperate shortage, and production fell dramatically. By the end of the Three Years of Natural Disasters, which was the direct result of the failed Great Leap Forward campaign, an estimated 20 million people had died from widespread famine.

Related Topics:
1960 - Three Years of Natural Disasters - Great Leap Forward - Famine

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Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping decided to end many Leap policies, such as rural communes, and to restore the economic policies used before the Great Leap Forward.

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Because of the "success" of their economic reforms, Liu and Deng had won prestige in the eyes of many party members both in the central government and among the masses. Together, Liu and Deng began planning to gradually retire Mao from any real power, and to turn him into a figure-head. To restore his political base, and to eliminate his opposition, Mao initiated the Social Education Movement, in 1963.

Related Topics:
Social Education Movement - 1963

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Mao later admitted to some general mistakes, while strongly defending the Great Leap Forward, in concept. One great irony of the Social Education Movement is that it called for grassroots action, yet was directed by Mao himself. This movement, aimed primarily at school-children, did not have any immediate effect on Chinese politics, but it did influence a generation of youths, upon whom Mao could draw for later support in the future.

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In 1963, Mao began attacking Liu Shaoqi openly, stating that the idealism of "the struggle of the classes" must always be fully understood and applied; yearly, monthly, and daily. By 1964, the Social Education Movement had become the new "Four Cleanups Movement", with the stated goal of the cleansing of politics, economics, ideas, and organization. The Movement was directed politically against Liu and Deng.

Related Topics:
1963 - Liu Shaoqi - 1964 - Four Cleanups Movement

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Influences elsewhere

In early 1960, historian and Beijing Deputy Mayor Wu Han published the first version of a historical drama entitled "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" (pinyin: Hai Rui Ba Guan). In the play, a virtuous official was dismissed by a corrupt emperor.

Related Topics:
1960 - Historian - Beijing - Deputy Mayor - Wu Han - Hai Rui Dismissed from Office

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The story initially received praise from Mao. In 1965 Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing and her protégé Yao Wenyuan—who at the time was a little-known editor of a prominent newspaper in Shanghai—published an article criticising "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office". Jiang and Yao saw the play, which they labeled as "poisonous weeds", as an attack on Mao, using the allegory of Mao Zedong as the corrupt emperor and Peng Dehuai as the virtuous official.

Related Topics:
1965 - Jiang Qing - Yao Wenyuan - Shanghai - Peng Dehuai

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The publication of the Shanghai newspaper article received much publicity nationwide, with many other prominent newspapers asking for publication rights to the same article. Beijing Mayor Peng Zhen, a supporter of Wu Han, established a committee studying the recent publication and emphasizing that the criticism had gone too far, but denunciations, whether public or under the table, came from Jiang Qing and Lin Biao. This committee, called "Group of Five in Charge of the Cultural Revolution", on February 12, 1966 issued "Theses on the ongoing scientific discussion".

Related Topics:
Peng Zhen - Lin Biao - February 12 - 1966

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In May, 1966, Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan once again published various articles with content denouncing both Wu Han and Peng Zhen. On May 16, 1966, under Jiang Qing's influence, a formal notice was issued, representing figuratively the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. In this document, titled "Message from the Central Committee of CCP", Peng Zhen and his theses were deeply criticized, and the "Group of Five" was disbanded. "Completely penetrated with double-dealing, the theses furiously attacked the Great cultural revolution, personally developed and managed by comrade Mao Zedong, the instructions of comrade Mao Zedong concerning criticism of Wu Han", stated the "Message". One year later, on May 18, 1967 this "Message" was called "a great historical document developed under direct management of our great leader comrade Mao Zedong" in the editorial of People's Daily.

Related Topics:
May - 1966 - May 16 - May 18 - 1967 - People's Daily

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In a later meeting of the CCP Politburo in 1966, the new Group in Charge of the Cultural Revolution (GCCR) was formed. On May 18, Lin Biao said in a speech that "Chairman Mao is a genius, everything the Chairman says is greatly true; one of the Chairman's words will override the meaning of ten thousands of ours." Thus started the first phase of Mao's cult of personality led by Jiang Qing, Lin Biao, and others. At this time, Jiang and Lin had already seized some actual power. On May 25, a young teacher of philosophy at Beijing University, Nie Yuanzi, wrote a dazibao (poster) where the rector of the university and other professors were labeled as "the black anti-Party gangsters". Some days later, Mao Zedong ordered to broadcast the text of this dazibao nationwide and called it "the first Marxist dazibao in China". On May 29, 1966, in the Middle School of Tsinghua University, the first organization of Red Guards was formed. It was aimed at eliminating intellectuals, and Mao's political enemies.

Related Topics:
CCP Politburo - 1966 - Group in Charge of the Cultural Revolution - May 18 - Cult of personality - May 25 - Dazibao - May 29 - Tsinghua University - Red Guards

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On June 1, 1966, the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the CCP, stated that all "imperialists", "people with affiliations with imperialists", "imperialistic intellectuals", et al., must be purged. Soon a movement began, that was aimed at purging university presidents and other prominent intellectuals. On July 28, 1966, representatives of the Red Guards wrote a formal letter to Mao, stating that mass purges, and all such-related social and political phenomena were justified, and right. Thus began the Cultural Revolution.

Related Topics:
June 1 - 1966 - People's Daily - Purge - July 28

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