The Cultural Revolution Flashcards

1
Q

Who is Lin Biao?

A

Head of army

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2
Q

Who is Chen boda?

A

Head of propaganda

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3
Q

Who are the Gang of Four?

A

Cultural revolution group

Wang Hongwen
Zhang Chunquiao
Yao Wenguen
Jiang Qing

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4
Q

When was the cultural revolution ?

A

1966-1976

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5
Q

Who were the 3 main pragmatists in the cultural revolution ?

A

Liu Shaoqui
Deng Xiaoping
Zhou Enlai

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6
Q

Who are the group of five?

A
Peng Zhen 
Wu Lengxi 
Zhou Yang
Lu Dingyi 
Lang Sheng
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7
Q

Who is the head of the secret police ?

A

Kang Sheng

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8
Q

Deng Xiaoping’s famous pragmatic phrase

A

“Doesn’t matter if the car was white or black as long as it catches the rat”

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9
Q

Where and how did Mao get sideline?

A

1962
Conference of the 7000 cadres

Mao said that the Great Leap Forward was 90% success and 10% failures

Liu Shaoqui said he spoke to a peasant in his village who said it was 70% man made famine and a 30% natural disasters

Mao had to admit his faults

Zhou Enlai was critical of Mao’s over ambitious targets in the GLF

Mao then resigned from day to day politics

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10
Q

How did the cultural revolution start?

A

July 1966

Mao swam in the Yangtze River

Propaganda declared he swam 9 miles in 65 minutes which was a new world record.

This was done to show Mao to be fit as ever and a strong leader. He would then return to politics

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11
Q

What were the four main motives of Mao launching the cultural revolution ?

A

Genuine attempt to destroy China’s heritage and replace it with a new one glorifying the proletariat

Party infiltrated by capitalist roaders

Petty jealously in response to Liu and Deng’s success. Mao wanted to protect his legacy

He wanted the young and the cadres to experience revolution

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12
Q

Why did Mao want permanent revolution?

A

To get rid of “revisionists” Mao demanded constant class struggle

He fears the party were becoming bureaucratic and a ‘new elite’ we’re developing

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13
Q

What were the early ten points ?

A

Early ten points drafters by Mao in 1963
He believed the masses should be mobilised to critique corrupt party cadres

The four clean ups -economy, organisation, politics and ideology were aims to cleans non communist ideas
Peasants were told to subject corrupt officials to struggle meetings

However they were still recovering from the famine so the response was lukewarm

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14
Q

What were the later ten points?

A

Later in 1963, Deng Xiaoping revised the ten points

He wanted the campaign to be organised by work teams of party cadres rather than directly mobilising the masses

They re-wrote Mao’s directives to de-emphasise class struggle

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15
Q

What was Mao’s reaction to the later ten points?

A

Mao blamed Liu and Deng for unenthusiastic commitment to the plan which caused it to not be a success.

It convinced him that they were against him which prompted the tide of hate that Mao directed against them in the cultural revolution

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16
Q

What 2 things did Mao call opponents?

A

“Revisionists”

“Capitalist roaders”

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17
Q

Who and how was the first person eliminated in the cultural revolution ?

Why is the way he did it significant ?

A

A play called “Hai Rui dismissed from office” written by Wu Han (deputy mayor of Beijjng) had comparisons to Mao dismissing Peng Duhai

Mao arranged Yao Wenyuan (member of gang of 4) to write a negative review

The mayor (PENG Zhan) tried to defend Wu Zhan.

He was a close ally of Liu and Deng

The deputy mayor and the mayor (PENG Zhan) were then forced to resign and damned as revisionists

This indirectly eliminated 2 allies of enemies. This shows Mao to be sneaky and indirect with his methods.
This is repeated during the cultural revolution

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18
Q

Who were the cultural revolution group and when did Mao form it ?

A

March 1966

17 member sub committee

Including Chen boda and gang of 4

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19
Q

What was the little red book ?

A

Created by Chen boda and Lin Biao

Compiled of Mao’s sayings.

750 million copies were distributed

It became a social necessity to carry by 1966

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20
Q

What was the experience of Song Binbin?

A

She led red guards to kill her headteacher.

This was the first one killed in the cultural revolution

She was rewarded with the honour of putting an armband round chairman Mao in the first rally in Tiananmen Square

He name meant “gentle” and Mao said she should change it to “be violent”

21
Q

What was Mao’s call to the students ?

A

“Bombard the headquarters!”

22
Q

Why did young people join the red guards ? (4)

A

Indoctrinated by Mao’s cult of personality

Young were excited by the idea of rebellion in a strongly hierarchical society

1966- children of “black elements” were allowed to join so they did to prove their loyalty to Mao

Pragmatic careerism - unemployment was high and students were given free transport, accommodation and food in order to go to Beijing!

23
Q

What were the five black elements that the red guards attacked?

A
Landlords 
Rich peasants 
Bad elements
Counter revolutionaries 
Rightists 

-basically could be anyone!

24
Q

What happened with the red guards in Shanghai ?

A

Nov 1966
Radical red guards set up workers revolutionary general headquarters

Rival group “Scarlett guards” are formed by communist party
100,000 red guards defeated 20,000 Scarlett guards

January storm
1967
Red guards took over the city to set up their own Shanghai commune

February crackdown
Scarlett guards tried to crackdown on radical red guards.
Mao called this an “adverse current• and told the CCP to stop attack red guards

September
Mao got worried and had the Shanghai commune replaced by the revolutionary committee where the party was mainly in charge

25
Q

What was the Wuhan incident ?

A

1967

PLA kill 1000 red guards

They also kidnap officials sent from Mao who were there to stop the mass killings of red guards

Mao then gets suspicious of Lin Biao

26
Q

What were the four olds that the red guards attacked?

A

Old ideas
Old culture
Old customs
Old habits

27
Q

Examples of what red guards destroyed ?

A

Confucius temple in Shandong
2700 books, 6618 artefacts , 2000 graves destroyed

Qing era archway

Hai Rui’s burial site

Tibet
- long hair was cut

28
Q

When did the PLA restore order

A

1968

29
Q

What orders did Mao give to the PLA in 1968 and why?

A

Ordered PLA to systematically crush the red guards

Because
He was worried foreign nations would take advantage of the chaos and he wanted to get the economy going again

30
Q

How many people did the PLA accuse of being spies bad elements or counter revolutionaries ?

A

1.84 million

31
Q

What happened in Yunan and Guangxi?

A

Guangxi
Villagers were shot and their flesh and livers were eaten

Yunan
Brains and testicles were eaten
6979 people did by what was described on official reports as “death by enforced suicide”

32
Q

What were the tactics of the PLA when restoring order ?

A

Surveillance
Mass rallies
Struggle meetings

33
Q

What did the red guards thing was going on when the PLA were “restoring order” and what was actually going on?

A

Red guards thought a “black hand” was against them

Mao admitted to being the “black hand”

34
Q

How did the red guards stray from Mao’s intentions?

A

They wanted to overthrow the party rather than just Mao’s enemies

35
Q

How was Jiang Qing responsible for the red terror?

A

Jiang Qing targeted anyone who could reveal her past as a Shanghai actress with a dubious repute

She also launched the “cleansing the class ranks” campaign to remove any remaining shreds of capitalism

36
Q

What happened to Liu Shaoqui ?

A

Initially allowed to be kept as a “living target” -Jiang Qing in a house being subjected to constant struggle meetings
He was then exiled to an unheard building where his hair grew to over a foot. He developed pneumonia and Mao denied him aid

Jiang+Kang interrogated and tortured 28,000 people and collected confessions that he gave information to the CIA 1968
He
Died 1969

37
Q

What happened to Liu Shaoqui’s wife?

A

Forced to wear a fashionable dress in front of 300,000 red guards. She was humiliated.
Sentenced to years of solitary confinement in prison

38
Q

What happened to Zhou Enlai?

And his funeral?

A

Got cancer
Denied vital treatment
Died 1976

Funeral turned into a protest of the Gang of Four
1 million people

39
Q

What was Lin Biao afraid of?

A

Water

40
Q

What happened to Lin Biao ?

A

1969 named mao’s successor at 9th party congress

1971 worried he might be purged so got on a plane to escape which ended up crashing because of lack of fuel

41
Q

What was the reaction of the death of Lin Biao ?

A

People began to question the regime. They lost faith in it

Lin was portrayed as Mao’s closest ally then we was denounced after his attempt to flee as working for the Soviet Union

“Let the people learn from the PLA”>
“Let the PLA learn from the people”

42
Q

What happened to Deng Xiaoping? (The many many times sent away then came back)

A

Damned as “number 2 person taking the capitalist road”

Sent to a tractor farm in rural Jiangxi
-son tried to escape torture and died

DENG COMES BACK 1975- appointed PLA chief of staff
DENG SENT AWAY 1976 - blamed by the Gang of Four for the protest at Zhou’s funeral
Sent to a pig farm

DENG COMES BACK AGAIN. 1978 (in charge)
“To be rich is to be glorious”

43
Q

When did Mao die?

A

1976

September

44
Q

Who was mao’s successor and what did they do?

A

Hua Guofeng

“Two whatevers policy”

  • uphold whatever decisions Mao made
  • follow instructions map gave

Had Mao embalmed in tianamen square

Put Gang of Four on trial ! October 1976

45
Q

What happened to the Gang of Four?

A

Put on trial
October 1976

Jiang Qing “I was his dog, i bit when he asked me to bite” - life in prison then killed herself
Yao Wengyuan - 20 years
Wang Hongwen and Zhang Chunquio - life in prison

46
Q

What Happened to the red guards ?

A

18 million red guards exiled to the countryside

“Up the mountains down to the villages”

Sent to learn from the peasants

The previously loyal guards turned against Mao

Evidence of Mao having lots of power

47
Q

What pragmatic polices did Deng implement after Mao’s death ?

A

The four modernisations

1978 implemented

Industry, defence, science, tech

Opened up trade. Transform china to a free market economy

48
Q

What happened in 1972 with foreign relations?

A

Nixon visited

Mao starts to favour pragmatists

However anti American propaganda continues

Shanghai Communqué set up - official government message showing new relationship with USSR