The legacy of Mao Zedong

Despite accusations that the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) and other horrendous policies of Mao Zedong led to the deaths of some 40 million Chinese, the image of the charismatic Great Helmsman looms large not only in the country's history but also its future. This chapter looks at Mao's successful adaptation of Marxism and Leninism to Chinese soil. Marx's historical materialism asserts that one stage of social development will inevitably be replaced by a more advanced stage. The notion that socialism and communism constituted successive phases of social development began to play a larger role in Lenin's writings after the Bolshevik Revolution. Mao's notion of socialism and socialist rule came mainly via Lenin and Stalin rather than Marx or Engels. Mao was criticized for misjudging the political situation by insisting that workers, farmers and students must still be mobilized to overthrow capitalist roaders inside the party.