Cultural Revolution Worksheets
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Fact File
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Table of Contents
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Summary
- Historical Background
- Cultural Revolution
- Political Repercussions
- China after the Cultural Revolution
Key Facts And Information
Let’s find out more about the Cultural Revolution!
Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, called for a Cultural Revolution in August 1966 at the Plenum of the Communist Central Committee. He urged the creation of Red Guards, a mass, student-led, paramilitary social movement to punish party officials and any other persons who showed bourgeois tendencies. Mao was likely inspired to initiate the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to eliminate his adversaries inside the Chinese Communist Party following the disastrous outcome of his Great Leap Forward policies, which aimed at transforming China from a primarily agrarian society into a modern industrial one within five years.
Propaganda poster depicting Mao Zedong, above a group of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
- The Great Leap Forward, a policy initiated by Mao Zedong and similar to the Five-Year Plans of the Soviet Union, was an initiative to transform the People’s Republic of China into an industrial power. Undoubtedly, it was an unattainable objective; however, Mao possessed the authority to compel the world’s largest country to endeavour. The effects, regrettably, were terrible.
- From 1958 to 1960, millions of Chinese citizens were relocated to communes. Some were sent to farming cooperatives, while others worked in small manufacturing. All labour was distributed among the communes; daily responsibilities were collectivised, from childcare to culinary duties. Mao aimed to enhance China’s agricultural productivity while simultaneously transitioning labourers from agriculture to manufacturing.
- Mao depended, however, on irrational Soviet agricultural concepts, such as densely planting crops to enable mutual stem support and ploughing up to six feet deep to promote root development.
- Mao aimed to liberate China from reliance on imported steel and machinery. He urged individuals to establish backyard steel furnaces to convert scrap metal into helpful steel.
- Over just a few years, China’s Great Leap Forward also caused tremendous environmental harm.
- Ultimately, due to a confluence of disastrous economic policies and unfavourable climatic conditions, an estimated 20 to 48 million individuals died in China. The majority of the fatalities died from starvation in rural areas. The estimated death toll during the Great Leap Forward is 14 million; nevertheless, most academics concur that this figure is significantly understated.
- The Great Leap Forward was intended as a five-year initiative but was terminated after three disastrous years. As the instigator of the catastrophe, Mao was ultimately marginalised from authority until 1967, when he initiated the Cultural Revolution.
- Mao’s perspective on class struggle emphasised two separate elements. One aspect was class struggle within society to prevent revisionism, a process necessitating socialist education. The second element involved an internal struggle within the government to combat bureaucratism and the apprehension that bureaucrats could evolve into a new bourgeoisie.
- Given these elements, Mao established the Socialist Education movement in 1963. This movement served as the precursor of the Cultural Revolution.
- Mao was dissatisfied with resistance to the Socialist Education Movement, and the experience further cemented his conviction that the relationship between cadres and the people needed to be addressed.
- At the onset of the Cultural Revolution, rural areas had not finalised the Socialist Education Movement, and the overseeing committees transformed into leading groups for the Cultural Revolution.
CULTURAL REVOLUTION
- The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly referred to as the Cultural Revolution, was a multifaceted social upheaval that originated as a conflict between Mao Zedong and other senior party officials for supremacy within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), ultimately impacting all of China through its advocacy for ongoing revolution. Mao increasingly feared that the CCP was becoming excessively bureaucratic and that Party leaders and planners were forsaking their dedication to the principles of communism and revolution.
- The 16 May Notification, also known as the Circular of 16 May, was the inaugural political proclamation of the Cultural Revolution. Initially a secret inner-party document, it was issued at a May 1966 extended session of the Politburo of the CCP.
- It set the agenda for the Cultural Revolution and named the movement’s critical targets as those “representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army, and all spheres of culture.”
- The notification formalised the judgements made in late April. This inaugural significant political proclamation of the Cultural Revolution encapsulated Mao’s rationales for the movement. The 16 May Notification nullified the February Outline and disbanded the Group of Five, so dismantling the leadership of the party’s cultural apparatus and overturning its most recent political manoeuvre.
- It analysed Peng Zhen, the main member of the CCP political faults in depth, noting that he had backed Wu Han, blocked political criticism of Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, and disguised the class struggle.
- While the party leadership was mostly unanimous in accepting Mao’s plan, many Politburo members were not puzzled about the path. The allegations against party leaders like Peng unsettled China’s intellectual elite and the eight non-Communist parties.
- Mao understood that other party leaders intended to marginalise him, prompting him to solicit support from the populace for a Cultural Revolution actively. He also contended that the communist revolution must be an ongoing activity to counteract capitalist ideologies.
- The youths responded to Mao’s appeal by forming the initial organisation of Red Guards. Subsequently, they were accompanied by labourers and military personnel.
- The earliest targets of the Red Guards included Buddhist temples, churches, and mosques, which were burned to the ground or repurposed for other uses. Sacred scriptures, Confucian writings, religious sculptures, and various artworks were incinerated.
- Any object associated with China’s pre-revolutionary past was vulnerable to be destroyed. The Red Guards, in their zeal, commenced the persecution of those classified as counter-revolutionary.
- The Guards executed struggle sessions, during which they subjected individuals accused of harbouring capitalist ideologies—typically educators, monks, and other intellectuals—to severe assault and public humiliation.
- These sessions frequently involved physical brutality, resulting in numerous accused individuals either perishing or being confined in re-education centres for extended periods.
Poster depicting the Red Guards
- On 18 August 1966, Mao Zedong convened with Song Binbin, a prominent leader of the Red Guards, in Tiananmen in Beijing. The meeting substantially elevated the spirit of the Red Guards, inciting their extensive massacre in Beijing. On 25 August 1966, thousands of Red Guards initiated a week-long massacre at Langan Market in the Chongwen District. Simultaneously, Red Guards initiated a statewide effort to eradicate the “Four Olds” (Old ideas, Old culture, Old customs, and Old habits).
- In Beijing, 4,922 historic sites were destroyed, and the Red Guards incinerated 2.3 million books along with 3.3 million paintings, art artefacts, and furniture items. On 26 August, Xie Fuzhi, the Minister of Public Security, instructed the protection of the Red Guards and refrained from their arrest, asserting that it was permissible for the Red Guards to assault people they considered enemies and that the killing of such individuals was acceptable. The following day, the Daxing Massacre occurred in the Daxing District of Beijing.
- In his subsequent discussions with senior public security officials from several provinces, Xie emphasised his perspective that the murders committed by Red Guards were not matters of public security and that it would be erroneous for public security to apprehend the Red Guards.
- The Red Guards employed means of execution such as beating, torture, lashing, strangling, trampling, boiling, and beheading for the whole month of August, which was famously known as Red August.
- Roderick MacFarquhar mentioned in his book Mao’s Last Revolution, report that almost 1,800 individuals were killed in Beijing during August and September of 1966. By February 1967, China had plunged into turmoil. The purges had reached the level of army generals who dared to speak out against the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, and Red Guards were turning against one another and fighting in the streets. Jiang Qing, Mao’s spouse, incited the Red Guards to seize weapons from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and, if deemed necessary, to supplant the military.
- By December 1968, Mao acknowledged that the Cultural Revolution was becoming unmanageable. China’s economy, already impaired by the Great Leap Forward, was deteriorating significantly. Industrial production declined by 12% over two years.
- In reaction, Mao launched a call for the Down to the Countryside Movement, where young cadres from the city were dispatched to live on farms and learn from the peasants.
- Although Mao portrayed this idea as a weapon for levelling society, in actuality, Mao aimed to scatter the Red Guards across the country so that they could not create so many problems anymore.
- Many students who formerly identified as Red Guards endorsed the movement and Mao’s ideology. This initiative was partially a strategy to relocate Red Guards from urban areas to rural regions, minimising social upheaval. It additionally facilitated the geographical dissemination of revolutionary thought.
POLITICAL REPERCUSSIONS
- Following the peak of street violence, the Cultural Revolution in the subsequent six or seven years centred predominantly on power battles inside the highest ranks of the Chinese Communist Party. By 1971, Mao and his deputy, Lin Biao, were engaged in mutual assassination attempts. On 13 September 1971, Lin and his family attempted to fly to the Soviet Union; however, their aircraft crashed. Officially, it experienced fuel depletion or engine failure; nonetheless, there is conjecture that Chinese or Soviet authorities downed the aircraft.
- Mao was rapidly ageing, and his health was deteriorating. His wife, Jiang Qing, participated in the succession struggle. She and three associates, known as the Gang of Four, dominated most of China’s media and vehemently opposed moderates like Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai. Despite the officials’ continued fervour for eliminating their adversaries, the Chinese populace had grown disenchanted with the cause.
- Zhou Enlai passed away in January 1976, and the widespread mourning following his death escalated into protests against the Gang of Four and Mao himself. In April, around 2 million individuals congregated in Tiananmen Square for Zhou Enlai’s mourning service, where the mourners openly criticised Mao and Jiang Qing.
- The Great Tangshan Earthquake accentuated the Communist Party’s lack of leadership in the face of disaster, further eroding public support.
- Mao Zedong passed away on 9 September 1976. His chosen successor, Hua Guofeng, apprehended the Gang of Four. This indicated the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution.
CHINA AFTER THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
- Throughout the Cultural Revolution, educational institutions in China ceased operations, resulting in a complete generation lacking official education. All educated and professional individuals had been designated as targets for re-education. Those who survived were scattered throughout the countryside, labouring on farms or in labour camps. Various artworks and artefacts were confiscated from museums and private residences and then destroyed as representations of old practices.
- Valuable historical and religious manuscripts were incinerated to ashes. Significant errors and severe brutality tarnish the history of Communist China. The Cultural Revolution is among the worst of these tragedies, not just because of the awful human misery inflicted but also because so many relics of that country’s magnificent and old culture were purposefully obliterated.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Cultural Revolution
- What was the Cultural Revolution?
The Cultural Revolution, officially known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a socio-political movement in China from 1966 to 1976, led by Chairman Mao Zedong. Its primary goal was to preserve Chinese communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from society and reinforcing Maoist ideology.
- Why did Mao Zedong launch the Cultural Revolution?
Mao aimed to reassert his control over the Communist Party and society, combat what he perceived as the growing influence of capitalist and revisionist tendencies, maintain ideological purity, and eliminate his political rivals.
- What were the "Four Olds"?
The "Four Olds" referred to old ideas, culture, customs, and habits. The campaign against them destroyed cultural relics, historical artefacts, religious symbols, and traditional practices.