The cultural revolution and its aftermath Flashcards
What was the Cultural Revolution
The Revolution happened in May 1966, having begun as an internal Party purge by Mao against his opponents, it broadened into a national mass campaign in which Mao used young people, especially students, to anyone or anything opposing him.
What happened in the first two years of the Cultural Revolution?
Two years of mayhem followed, in which thousands of people were beaten to death by which order was restored by the PLA. The young Red guards were dispatched to the countryside to learn what it was like to live as a peasants. The cultural revolution carried on in a less intensive scale until Mao’s death in 1976.
Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution?
In a sense, the Cultural Revolution was the climax of the power struggle that had begun when Mao stepped back from politics in 1962, after the failings of the Great Leap Forward became more obvious.
How else was the Cultural Revolution much more than a mere political struggle?
It involved an ideological battle over the amount of pragmatism that was appropriate, and it reflected Mao’s determination constantly to renew the revolution by involving each new generation in defending and extending it. It can also been seen as a rectification campaign, to weed out party officials who had lost their revolutionary edge and were therefore allowing capitalist attitudes to creep back in.
Divisions within the party between ideologues and pragmatists
Mao was without doubt an ideologue. Following the restoration of private trade and removal of famine following the communes by Liu and Deng, Mao was vexed at them. From this he began to see the advocates of the pragmatist approach as ‘capitalist roaders’. These were veteran Communists, who despite everything, still harboured capitalist mindsets and would make the wrong decision in terms of policy.
What did the Pragmatists argue?
That ideological compromises were essential to get China back on its feet. They were also critical of mass mobilisation as a means of advancing the economy, arguing that recovery would only be possible if technical experts were in charge. They also argued that the Communists should take a more Conciliatory approach to foreign policy, as they could not afford confrontation on its borders due to its economy.
Why was mass mobilisation important to the communists?
It was essential because it kept people actively involved in protecting the gains of the revolution. This would prevent bourgeoise attitudes creeping back in which was danger as the planners and experts were allowed to control things from above.
How else did Mao try and hit back against the pragmatists?
Mao had continued his efforts to hit back at the pragmatists by launching the Socialist Education Movement in 1963. This preached the virtues of a collective economic approach and aimed to root out corruption among the rural cadres.
What did Mao intend from the Socialist Education Movement?
Mao wanted this to be another mass mobilisation campaign, which would renew a sense of class struggle among the peasants, by allowing them to identify and attack corrupt party officials (capitalist roaders) in struggle sessions.
How did the Socialist Education Movement differ from Mao’s intentions?
It differed from Mao’s intentions as under Liu’s direction, the campaign was centrally controlled and discipline was restored by Party work teams who identified and dealt with corrupt elements themselves.
What were the results of the Socialist Education Movement?
Thousands were executed from economic crimes, but Mao was unhappy that the methods used lacked the ideological element of class struggle through peasant participation that he desired, so the divisions between the two approached remained as wide as before.
The quest for permanent revolution
Mao was always worried that people would fall back into old attitudes. This is why mass mobilisation was so important and that everyone went through some sort of struggle so that they would defend the revolution in the future. While this does not mean the turnout for the revolution was inevitable, Mao would likely of soon initiating some new mass drive to change society in order to forestall any drift into revisionism.
How did Mao intend to target Liu?
He started a campaign against Wu Han, which sparked the start of the Cultural Revolution, was initiated in 1965, with the aim of destabilising Liu.
Attacks on bureaucracy
Mao feared that the new bureaucracy that had been created to run communist China was becoming a self-satisfied elite, motivated only by the privileges of power. If the revolution was going to keep moving forward and not like the mistakes of Russia, the new bureaucrats would need to be purged so they did not go back to Mandarin and slip back into old ideals, losing touch with the masses.
The intensifying of the Socialist Education Movement
Mao’s conviction that Capitalist Roaders were hijacking the party intensified during the movement and increased further when moderates like Liu and Zhou tried to calm down the student unrest in 1966. It was therefore time to wage a new rectification campaign, in order to root out complacency and corruption from the ranks of the party. The party would need to be cleansed from bourgeois attitudes.
