Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893, into a prosperous family of landowners in Hunan province. Mao was fascinated by the socialist revolution in Russia and became imbued with the ideas of Bolshevism. He loved reading, wrote poetry, and was well-versed in Chinese historical texts. He received a pedagogical education. In 1921, Mao Zedong became a founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1923, the CCP formed an alliance with the Kuomintang; Mao even joined the Kuomintang, where he served as head of the propaganda department of the party's Central Executive Committee. Such an alliance was necessary for the centralization of the country and the struggle against military rulers who controlled different regions of the country. After the right wing of the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, broke the alliance with the communists, a civil war began in the country. Mao Zedong actively participated in the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army of China (renamed the Red Army of China in 1928). In September 1927, he led an armed uprising against the Kuomintang forces in Hunan and Jiangxi provinces (also known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising), which ended in defeat. Mao Zedong was arrested but managed to escape and lead the remnants of the army into the mountainous Jinggang region. Mao Zedong's first wife, who bore him three sons, was arrested by the Kuomintang in 1930 and killed. In 1934, to avoid the encirclement of the Chinese Red Army by Chiang Kai-shek's forces, Mao Zedong organized a march from Jiangxi through the western territories of the country northward — the "Long March." During this march, at an expanded session of the CCP Central Committee, he was elected to the Standing Committee of the Politburo. It was effectively at this point that he was recognized as the leader of the CCP Central Committee and the Chinese Red Army.

Mao's eldest son, Anying, was sent to the USSR in 1936. There he studied for a long time, and after the start of the Great Patriotic War, he sent a letter to Stalin requesting to be sent to the front. In 1943, Sergei Mao (the name given to him in the USSR) enrolled in a sergeant training course and in 1944 went to the front. There, as a deputy political officer of a tank company, he participated in the battles for Poland and met the end of the war in Berlin.

Returning to his homeland to his father in 1946, already an experienced officer, Anying took part in the Korean War. During one of the American air raids in 1950, he was killed.

From 1943, Mao Zedong held the post of chairman of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee, and from 1945, chairman of the Central Committee. As head of the Military Council, he made a great contribution to the victory of China's armed forces in the anti-Japanese war of liberation (1937-1945), as well as to the defeat of Kuomintang forces in the civil war. After Chiang Kai-shek's flight to Taiwan, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China. Until 1954, he headed the Central People's Government Council (the supreme organ of power); from 1954 to 1959, he held the post of Chairman of the PRC (head of state); and he remained Chairman of the CCP Central Committee until his death in 1976.

Starting from the 1950s, he was the initiator of controversial political and economic campaigns in China, including a campaign for the ideological re-education of the intelligentsia and the eradication of abuses in the administrative apparatus, the Great Leap Forward policy, the Cultural Revolution, the accusation of the USSR of departing from communist ideology and the escalation of anti-Soviet sentiments, and the promotion of Mao's personality cult in China. Ultimately, after Mao's death, at the 1978 plenum of the CCP Central Committee, the personality cult of the former PRC leader was subjected to criticism; however, as early as 1981, it was noted that Mao's merits "before the Chinese revolution far exceeded his mistakes," which established the principle of evaluating his role in the history of China.

An important role in the political and military leadership of the Chinese Soviet Republic was played by such members of the Politburo of the CCP Central Committee as Xiang Ying, Zhou Enlai, and Zhang Guotao.

In 1931, Japan began an open intervention with the aim of seizing Manchuria. In 1936, despite their disagreements, the Kuomintang and the CCP created a united front to fight against the Japanese invaders and waged the Sino-Japanese War of 1937-1945. Chiang Kai-shek was appointed Generalissimo of the Republic of China.

After the surrender of Japan in September 1945 and the unsuccessful negotiations with the CCP on the creation of a coalition government, the struggle between the CCP and the Kuomintang flared up with renewed vigor. After the defeat of the Kuomintang in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters fled from mainland China to Taiwan. In October 1949, in Beijing, Mao Zedong announced the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

In 1950, a Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance was signed between the PRC and the USSR. Soviet support became the most important factor in the socio-economic development of the PRC. With the help of the USSR, more than 500 large industrial facilities were built. Two campaigns in China's development in the 1950s-1970s were the Great Leap Forward policy in 1956-1960 and the Cultural Revolution policy, which were of a contradictory nature, led to deprivations, casualties, and the strengthening of Mao Zedong's personal power.