The Cultural Revolution (1966-69)

Red Guards
1. Began among schoolchildren+students in Beijing
  1. School closed for 6 months so new communist curriculum could be written
2. May 1966: first Red Guard unit formed
3. 1966: 'Four Olds Campaign'
  1. against: old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits
4. Marched through cities, attacking 'bourgeois' or 'capitalist' things
5. Violence used
  1. Smashed western shops, burnt down libraries, bookshops, churches, stopped coupled holding hands in public
  2. August 1967: British embassy in BJ stormed
6. 1967: law+order broke down in many parts of China as red guards fought 'reactionaries'
  1. In Shanghai, Red Guards had full control
Attacks on the party
1. Red Guards attacked party officials too, urged by Mao's wife
2. Main target: Lin Shao-chi, new Head of State
  1. attacked, assaulted + forced to write down own confession vs. communism
    1. 1969: expelled from party
3. Red Guards attacked hundreds of party officials, teachers, doctors+factory managers
Cult of Mao
1. Worshipped as the new Emperor
2. Peasants+workers read 'Little Red Book' passages before work
3. LRB: 740 million copies sold 1966-69
4. Mao propaganda everywhere
End of the Red Guards
1. September 1967: Mao attempted to restore order to China
  1. Schools re-opened
  2. PLA used to restore order
  3. Red Guards sent to countryside
2. 1969: law+order restored to most areas --> Cultural Revolution was over

Resource summary

	Created by g-jacqmin almost 9 years ago