May 2016 marks 50 years since the start of China’s Cultural Revolution.
The decade long shift resulted in an estimated one-and-a-half million deaths, alongside widespread
abuse, displacement, public humiliation and torture.
At the time, little was understood about the causes and devastating outcomes of the revolution,
however newly released archives have shed light on this dark period of China’s modern
history.
So, now half a century later, what do we know about China’s Cultural Revolution?
Well, the movement was predominantly Chairman Mao Zedong’s attempt to establish himself
as the leader of the Communist world by ridding the country of capitalism and its long standing
traditions.
After Mao’s Communist Party took power in 1949, the Soviet Union’s new leader, Nikita
Khrushchev, denounced his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, and began to “de-Stalinize” the
USSR.
Seeing similarities between himself and Stalin, Mao began to fear a similar fate for himself.
So, in 1958, Mao launched a national campaign to boost China’s economy, called The Great
Leap Forward, which radically redistributed land among China’s rural population and
organized workers into communes.
The Great Leap failed miserably, decimating the economy and diminishing Mao’s role within
the ruling party.
To regain control, Mao united with like-minded radicals, including his wife and Defense Minister
Lin Biao, to launch the Cultural Revolution.
At a conference in May of 1966, Mao claimed that bourgeois ideas had crept into society
and the government, and that these elements could only be removed through violent class
struggle.
In the months that followed, Mao shut down China’s schools and mobilized students into
paramilitary units, called Red Guards.
The groups attacked and killed teachers, intellectuals, and eventually ordinary people they suspected
of undermining the communist system.
The movement infiltrated the military, workers and even the ruling party itself.
By the late 1960’s, tens of thousands had been forced out of cities in an effort to
purify urban areas, and millions had suffered rape, abuse, arbitrary imprisonment or torture.
Some of most horrific violence occurred in rural villages in Southern China, where revolutionaries
were known to practice ritualistic cannibalism in the name of the revolution.
By the the early 1970’s, the revolution began to dissolve.
Mao’s chosen successor, Lin Biao, had recently taken power, and was dealing with widespread
opposition over his decision to put China under martial law.
Mao launched a campaign to reduce Lin’s power, effectively dividing the ruling party.
After Lin died in a plane crash in 1971, members of his military command were purged, and a
new leader took power.
Lin’s death, alongside chaos and division within China’s ruling party, left revolutionaries
feeling slighted and disillusioned.
The movement officially ended in 1976, when Mao died and his allies were purged from the
ruling party.
The Cultural Revolution was arguably the most horrific and violent period in the history
of modern China.
Today, the movement is often characterized by widespread devastation and death, but experts
say its legacy is the uncertainty, fear, and lost sense of humanity it imposed on those
who lived through it.
And, although China is still plagued with power struggles and human rights abuses, the
scale and severity of these issues cannot be compared to those of the Cultural Revolution.
Another watershed event in China’s history was the conflict at Tiananmen Square.
Find out what happened and how it changed world history by watching this video up top.
Although, if you’re in China, you might not be able to.
Learn more about how China uses censorship to control the media by watching the video
below.
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