Mao
May 10, 2023•831 words
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Life
Context
- China in the 19th century
- 80% agricultural population
- Did not industrialize
- Imperialism from the Japanese and British
- Suffered during the opium wars
- Xinhai Revolution of 1911
- replaced the 2132 year old dynasty for a republic
- Caused political division
- Communist revolution six years later
Mao
- life
- Born to prosperous peasants in 1893
- Studies to become a teacher
- Engaged in the army during the revolution but did not see combat
- 1921: Founding the Chinese Communist Party
- 1917 CCP and Nationalist civil war begins
- Civil War lasts for 22 years, guerilla war
- 1949: CCP prevails and Mao becomes the head of state
- 1958: Great leap forward
- 1976: Death
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Philosophy
Dialectics
- Contradictions
- Unity of the opposites (from Marx)
- Contradiction makes the world evolve (from Hegel) even in a socialist society
- Contradictions against the enemy, is antagonistic
- For Mao, the enemy was something that could unite the people
- Anyone opposed the socialist revolution was the enemy
- Only through dictatorship can it be handled, transforms the people
- Contradictions among the people it is non-antagonistic
- Handled in a democratic matter of persuasion and (indoctrination) education
- Called the regime the People’s democratic dictatorship
- Classifies how to deal with these contradictions
Maoism
- Phases
- China also in the feudal stage, hardly a proletariat or industrialization
- Mao develops four elements that form foundation of Maoism
- Marx believed in revolution; Mao used an evolution to take power between 1927 to 1949 by a drawn out conflict war of attrition
- Marx believed socialism would take place in the cities among the proletariat; Moa began his revolution in the countryside, he surrounded the cities
- Proletariat not the communist backbone like in Marxism, for Mao it was the peasants
- After founding the PCR, develops the idea of the permanent revolution of transformation from the socialist phase to the communist phase
- The great leap forward: economic revolution
The great leap forward: economic revolution
- Abolition of private property
- Collectivized farming, millions of deaths
- Farmers expected to produce enough to sponsor industrialization
Cultural revolution
- Need to fight off the bourgeoise
- Destroy old culture, habits, customs and ideas
- Main soldiers were the students, they were easily indoctrinated, all had the Red Book
- Came after the professors
- Students accused their parents of anti-communist sentiments or being influenced by bourgeoise
- Moa had this cult of personality, students had more loyalty to him
Rivalry
- Contention between China and Russia, Leninism and Moaism
- There was also political tension due to issues like the Korean War
- Castro was a Leninist, he had a vanguard of revolutionaries and was trained in Russia
- Cambodia was an agrarian extremist reform > everyone goes to the countryside
- Cold War leads to a split between China and Russia
USSR change
- 1989: Lack of competitiveness, issues in ideology since the state did not wither away
- Vanguard had created a new elite, a new bourgeoise
- Gorbachev tries to modernize communism
- Perestroika: Restructuring of the economy
- Glasnost: transparency, openness, political change
- His modernization plans opens pandora’s box of nationalism among its satellite states
China
- Change of economy but no political freedom or transparency
- Opposite from the USSR: success in adapting economy but did not want to change politics
- People will submit to the one party as long as living standards are not terrible
- Rise of middle class typically leads to social revolution
Socialism
- Anti-capitalist and also saw its connection to imperialism
- China had no proletariat, therefore was an agrarian population
- Feudalism created class struggle
- Capitalist countries could not become socialist outright, but the oppressed colonialized and exploited nations could
Government
- Centralized government
- Control of agriculture
- Should reflect views of the masses, with an exchange of ideas in a transitive way
- State should decide the best action for the sake of the people in the long term
- Great Leap Forward: Abolition of private ownership, with a five year plan of farming cooperatives
- Leads to the starvation of between 20-40 million people in a span of four years
- Lead to opposition
Cultural revolution
- Marxist’s permanent revolution
- Mao saw a need to get rid of the former culture: the old customs, cultures, habits, and ideas
- Intellectuals, teachers, parents, targeted by young people
Impact
Death and aftermath
- Reforms
- Saw that communism was not practical and the regime would not last
- Lead to a freer market, private ownership, but still controlled economy
- Considered the founder of modern China
- Communism
- Leads to a brand of agrarian communism like Lenin, popular in Cambodia and Cuba
- Several revolutions in third world countries