CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Failure of Cultural Revolution during Mao Tse- Tung



Table of Contents

Introduction3

The Cultural Revolution4

The Reasons and Examples of the Failure of Cultural Revolution5

The great leap forward6

Shift of Struggle against Imperialism to Struggle against Soviet Union7

Lack of Leadership8

Economic Dishevel Arising from Lack of Objectivity8

The Long March Myth9

Unrealistic Perceptions of the Time9

References14

Failure of Cultural Revolution during Mao Tse- Tung

Introduction

Mao Tse Tung presents an intellectual puzzle of such ideologies that he is yet a subject of interpretation for the scholars. The overall judgment of him will remain as one sided negative at present, but hi thoughts, ideas and personality are still embedded in the political policies of China. A disparity of judgment about his revolution is found between the east and west. The long- term view declares Mao as a historical actor, but the prevailing opinions find him as a contemporary politician who adopted the leftist political thoughts which were reversed during the post Mao era. The modern direction in Chinese politics rejects Mao's politics of 1957, but his revolutionary ideas earned him a long term praise and short term criticism. For many scholars, the revolutionary movement raises the serious problems of discussion. The question is to what extent Mao's ideas changed the politics of 1950's (Creel, 1971).

Many people praise Mao's role as leader of the revolution. However, in more practical terms, he was the man of his own ideologies. Mao failed to understand the need of peaceful political practices, which were the need of that time. His careless leadership, mismanagement and the lust for power created trouble even across the red army. His policies led to the hostility of China with the Soviet Union. However, at that time, China desperately needed soviet's support in joining the united nation. The Red -Guard, on the other hand, did not have any clear objectives o that revolution, which made them do whatever they find right, irrespective of the philosophy of the revolution. They were at large just to suppress the imperialistic. The educated and uneducated, both classes suffered the economic dishevel. All of this turned this campaign into a disaster for the Chinese economy (Rue, 1966).

This paper briefly discusses the Cultural Revolution initiated by Mao. The movement became famous around China, but it did bring damage to the economy and society. The paper discusses these failures and adverse effects of the movement (Creel, 1971).

About Mao Tse Tung

Mao was born into a wealthy Buddhist family. He acquired luxury schooling education at the capital of Hunan province. Mao was the first person to introduce the concept of communism while working at Peking University. He went across Marxism while during his job as a library assistant at the university. His political and economic ideas had a significant impact of Russian revolution. Mao rejected the alliance of imperialistic and feudal powers in China. He considers the imperialistic as politically and economically vulnerable. Mao believed that these people commanding China cannot bring revolution (Chang, 2006).

In 1920s, he participated in several labor struggles. However, the struggles were subdued by the government of ...