Mao Zedong

Military Commander

1893 – 1976

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Who was Mao Zedong?

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung, and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, politician and socio-political theorist. The founding father of the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949, he governed the country as Chairman of the Communist Party of China until his death. In this position he converted China into a single-party socialist state, with industry and business being nationalized under state ownership and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, his theoretical contribution to the ideology along with his military strategies and brand of policies are collectively known as Maoism.

Born the son of a wealthy farmer in Shaoshan, Hunan, Mao adopted a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist outlook in early life, particularly influenced by the events of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911 and May Fourth Movement of 1919. Coming to adopt Marxism-Leninism while working at Peking University, he became an early member of the Communist Party of China, soon rising to a senior position. In 1922, the Communists agreed to an alliance with the larger Kuomintang, a nationalist revolutionary party, whom Mao aided in creating a revolutionary peasant army and organizing rural land reform. In 1927 the KMT's military leader Chiang Kai-shek broke the alliance and set about on an anti-communist purge; in turn, the CPC formed an army of peasant militia, and the two sides clashed in the Chinese Civil War. Mao was responsible for commanding a part of the CPC's Red Army, and after several setbacks, rose to power in the party by leading the Long March. When the Empire of Japan invaded China in 1937, sparking the Second Sino-Japanese War, Mao agreed to a united front with the KMT, resulting in a CPC–KMT victory in 1945. The civil war then resumed, in which Mao led the Red Army to victory as Chiang and his supporters fled to Taiwan.

Famous Quotes:

  • Power grows from the barrel of a gun.
  • Classes struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years.
  • War can only be abolished through war, and in order to get rid of the gun it is necessary to take up the gun.
  • Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
  • Our attitude towards ourselves should be to be satiable in learning and towards others to be tireless in teaching.
  • An army without culture is a dull-witted army, and a dull-witted army cannot defeat the enemy.
  • There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause.
  • If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.
  • A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
  • Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.

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Born
Dec 26, 1893
Shaoshan
Also known as
  • Mao Runzhi
  • Zedong Mao
  • Mao Tse-Tung
  • Chairman Mao
  • The Great Helmsman
Parents
Siblings
Spouses
Children
Religion
  • Atheism
Ethnicity
  • Han Chinese
Nationality
  • China
Profession
Education
  • First High School of Changsha
    (1913 - 1918)
Lived in
  • Hunan
Died
Sep 9, 1976
Beijing
Resting place
Mausoleum of Mao Zedong

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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"Mao Zedong." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/mao_zedong>.

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