THEME 3 - Reasons for the cultural Revolution Flashcards
What is an ideologue?
Somebody who prioritises ideology rather than results. Emphasises the means rather than the ends.
Why did Mao object to the economic policies of Liu and Deng?
Mao thought that there was too much revisionism in Liu and Deng’s policies for the 3rd 5YP. The restoration of private trade and dismantling of communes that ended the famine was seen as un-communist.
. What were ‘capitalist roaders’?
A title for veteran communists who still had capitalist mindsets. Mao saw them as taking the “wrong ideological choice”.
Why was Mao still concerned about the ex-‘ruling class’?
Many who had political power in 1949-50 still lived on the assumptions and behaviour of the people. Mao believed these people were holding back China’s progression. Mao believed that they were “capitalist roaders”
When did the divide between ideologues and pragmatists become apparent?
At the 7,000 cadre conference, summoned by Mao in 1962 to further rally support for the party.
Key events:
- Mao withdrew from public life
- Liu, Deng and Zhou left in Charge.
What was the view of Deng and the pragmatists
Deng’s view “ it did not
matter if a cat was black or white; as long as it caught the mouse, it was a good cat”
Took priority to the fact that they could take any course of action necessary to produce the required results.
What was the view of Mao?
Mao believed that China was recovering economically.
Believed the colour of cat did matter.
Believed change should come from below, and it should be halted once gone to far.
What was the Socialist Education Movement and why was it significant?
Continued to back the pragmatists by launching Socialist Education Movement in 1963.
Preached virtues of collective economic approach (mass mobilisation) and aimed to root out corruption in rural cadres.
Its failure led to the campaign against the “four olds”
What was Mao’s intention of creating a new mass mobilisation campaign?
To renew a sense of class struggle among the peasants as it would allow them to identify and attack corrupt Party officials in struggle sessions.
What did Liu’s direction do to the mass mobilisation campaign?
Under Liu Shaoqi, campaign was centrally controlled and discipline was restored by Party work teams. Thousands were executed for economic crimes.
Mao was unhappy with methods used to hack the ideological element of class struggle. This furthered the divide between idealogues and pragmatists.
Why did Mao believe that permanent revolution was necessary in China?
Mao was worried that the gains he made in 1949 would slip away if the revolution was not preserved and old attitudes would return.
This is why he wanted to use mass mobilisation to directly involve the people in campaign to defend the changes they had helped bring about.
He believed this is what had gone wrong in Soviet Russia.
Why might the arrival of a new generation have led Mao to push for a new revolution?
Younger members of the party had yet shown loyalty to Mao. They were too young to have take part in the Long March or the civil war. Mao believed they had to experience the revolutionary struggle to prepare them for any future conflict with the west (that Mao saw as inevitable).
Cultural revolution was the mass mobilisation of young people with the aim to defend the revolution.
Why was the 1963 Socialist Education Movement important in getting this started?
The SEM had been an early attempt to regenerate revolutionary drive. It had failed due to Liu had prevented it becoming a mass mobilisation effort due to central control. The stronger tensions from this event between Mao and Liu had sparked the Wu Han affair which almost directly caused the cultural revolution.
Who were the bureaucracy in China by 1965?
The bureaucracy had been removed in 1949 but the new bureaucracy created to run China had become
a self-satisfied elite, motivated by priveledges of power.
Mao needed to remove these people to avoid making the mistakes that Russia made where the bureaucracy lost touch with the masses.
What did Mao conclude about the ‘capitalist roaders’?
Mao believed they were hijacking the party and had been intensified during the Socialist Education Movement, and when Liu and Zhou had tried to calm student unrest in 1966.
Mao decided it was time to wage a new rectification campaign to root out corruption from the party. Those with Bourgeois attitudes would be cleansed.
