Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) (1893-1976) was a principal Chinese Marxist theorist and the statesman who led the Chinese communist revolution. Since 1935 and until his death, he was the leader of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). From 1949 to 1959 Mao was the chairman of the People’s Republic of China (Stuart Reynolds Schram).
His way to the highest social position in the country was long, complicated and dangerous. Mao Zedong was born in the village of Shaoshan. His father was a former peasant who earned on living with farming and grain dealing. The origin of one of the most outstanding communist leaders in the world influenced on him greatly. Mao knew the peasants well, he knew the needs of farmers and was supported by them during the revolution that lasted nearly half a century.
Mao Zedong was a politician for a long time. His opinion on the way the country should be ruled changed as time changed and he changed himself. Mao Zedong’s 22 years in opposition (1917 - 1935) showed him a great politician. Mao successfully created the tactics of guerrilla warfare in the countryside base areas. When he was ordered to occupy several major cities, he disobeyed and abandoned the battle as he saw that these attempts were useless and could only lead to costly losses. During the Ziangxi period, Mao was a chairperson in the Jiangxi province. It is considered that that time Mao had little control over military matters. But still he became the leader of the party at the time of Long March, though not officially yet.
One of the brightest decisions of Mao was uniting with the Nationalists against the Japanese invaders. During this period, that is also called the Yan’an period, Mao rose to the unchallenged supremacy in the Communist party. The nationalists, who were political rivals of communists, agreed that it was better to fight Japan together and recover their land instead of participating in a civil war.
During the anti-Japanese war, Mao and other communist leaders decided to break up their army in small units and sent them to help the guerrilla forces. That was a smart decision. The communists not just expanded military forces but also established political control over the population. So, after the war, the communists got a broad support of the peasants.
Mao was accused of slavishness to the Nationalists. In October 1938, he expressed his support to the so-called “Sinification” of Marxism, or adaptation of Communism to Chinese conditions and cultural and mentality traditions of the Chinese people. During the Rectification Campaign (1942-1943) he wanted to give a basic grounding in Leninist principles and Marxist theory of party organization to new members. He eliminated the “foreign dogmatism” – the obedience to Soviet directives and blind imitation of the Soviet experience.
In 1949, Mao said that initially the Chinese revolution followed an unorthodox way of “encircling the cities from the countryside,” and since 1949, the way should have been changed and the country should have taken the orthodox way (Stuart Reynolds Schram). He decided that the collectivization was possible only in case the Chinese heavy industry could provide all equipment for mechanization. But in 5 years, he changed his mind and decided that the social transformation should run ahead of the technical transformation. In 1957–1958 Mao worked out the Great Leap Forward policies. As there were no households that could operate new social units, the consequences of the changes were an economic disaster and total chaos.
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was Mao’s attempt to create a more radical method for fighting with the bureaucratic degeneration of the communist party. With the help of this program, Mao wiped out those who did not agree with him or who crossed him. A lot of people were driven to suicide, tortured and killed.
Before 1949, Mao did a lot for the peasants who got enough land and for restoring the China’s sovereignty. But after 1949, Mao’s record became more ambiguous. Both Mao’s major innovations, the Great Leap and the Cultural Revolution, resulted in disaster. But his aims of encouraging popular participation, combating bureaucracy, stressing China’s self-reliance and the industrialization became the foundation for China’s stunning economic development.
Works cited
Schram, S.R. “Mao Zedong”. britannica.com. 2015. Web. Accessed 20 April 2016 at http://www.britannica.com/biography/Mao-Zedong
