Cultural Revolution
Also called: Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution · Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Paths to Modernisation"
Meaning
The Cultural Revolution was a campaign that Mao Zedong started in 1965; many timelines date it from 1966. Some leaders said China needed experts to fix the economy after the Great Leap Forward. Mao attacked them and said loyal belief in communist ideas mattered more than skill. Red Guards, made up of students and soldiers, attacked "old culture, old customs and old habits". The turmoil weakened the party and badly hurt the economy and the education system.
Example
Red Guards across China attacked teachers, officials and experts, and many educated people were sent to work in the countryside. Leaders such as Deng Xiaoping, who had tried to fix the problems of the Great Leap Forward, were pushed out of power.
Don't confuse with
- Great Leap Forward (1958): a push for fast growth through communes and backyard steel furnaces. The Red Guards belong to the Cultural Revolution.
Related concepts
- Communist Party of China
- Comintern
- Mao Zedong
- Long March
- People's Republic of China
- Great Leap Forward
- People's communes
- Deng Xiaoping
- Four Modernisations
- Socialist market economy