Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Start of the Cultural Revolution (Four Olds (Old customs, Old habits, Old…
Start of the Cultural Revolution
Mao's view
Mao was disillusioned with the revisionist (pragmatist) direction that the Communist Party was taking in the Soviet Union and saw China probably heading in the same direction.
Mao deliberately set out to create a cult for himself and to purge the Chinese Communist Party of anyone who did not fully support Mao.
The enthusiasm of the Red Guards nearly pushed China into social turmoil. Schools and colleges were closed and the economy started to suffer.
They turned their anger on foreigners and foreign embassies got attacked.
The British Embassy was burned down completely.
In October 1968, Liu Shaoqi was expelled from the party and this is generally seen by historians as the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Key details
At the August 18th, 1966 rally Mao and Lin Biao urged the students to “Destroy the Four Olds”: old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits.
By late August, they were rampaging through Beijing and other cities, lining the streets with wall posters, distributing pamphlets, staging rallies and delivering impromptu political speeches.
Mao created the Cultural Revolution Group in March 1966. They ran the PRC's cultural policies.
The Little Red Book was created to promote Mao's thought.
Four Olds
Old customs
Old habits
Old culture
They rooted out and destroyed anything associated with China’s imperial history.
Old ideas
Purging
In Yunnan 14,000 Party cadres were executed as ‘traitors’.
14 out of 23 Politburo members were purged
70-80% of all Party cadres were purged
Two thirds of the Central Committee were removed
Red Guards attacked the Indian, Burmese and Indonesian Embassies in Beijing
January Storm 1967
Purge of Shanghai officials by Jiang Qing and Lin Biao
Red Guards (students not workers) fought the other Red Guards and set up a Paris Commune-like model.
100,000 attacked around 20,000 other Red Guards, named the Scarlet Guards.