Cultural Revolution | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Cultural Revolution
00:02:37 1 Background
00:02:46 1.1 Great Leap Forward
00:06:03 1.2 Sino-Soviet split and anti-revisionism
00:08:05 1.3 Precursor
00:10:40 1.3.1 February Outline
00:12:06 2 Early stage: mass movement
00:12:16 2.1 May 16 notification
00:14:20 2.2 Early mass rallies
00:17:01 2.3 Bombard the headquarters
00:20:17 2.4 Red Guards and the destruction of the Four Olds
00:26:46 2.5 Radicals expand power (1967)
00:30:17 2.6 1968
00:32:05 3 Lin Biao phase
00:32:14 3.1 Transition of power
00:34:29 3.2 PLA gains pre-eminent role
00:37:56 3.3 Flight of Lin Biao
00:41:24 4 Gang of Four and their downfall
00:41:35 4.1 Antagonism towards Zhou and Deng
00:46:08 4.2 Death of Zhou Enlai
00:47:39 4.3 Tiananmen Incident
00:49:34 4.4 Death of Mao and Arrest of the Gang of Four
00:50:58 5 Aftermath
00:54:08 6 Policy and effect
00:58:29 6.1 Education
01:01:43 6.2 Slogans and rhetoric
01:04:29 6.3 Arts and literature
01:09:25 6.3.1 Propaganda art
01:11:54 6.4 Historical relics
01:14:10 6.5 Struggle sessions and purges
01:16:44 6.5.1 Death toll
01:17:53 6.6 Ethnic minorities
01:21:09 7 Legacy
01:21:18 7.1 China
01:21:26 7.1.1 Communist Party opinions
01:24:52 7.1.2 Alternative opinions
01:27:37 7.1.3 Contemporary China
01:29:18 7.2 Outside mainland China
01:30:50 7.3 Academic debate
01:34:41 8 See also
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- Socrates
SUMMARY
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The Cultural Revolution, formally the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in China from 1966 until 1976. Launched by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China (CPC), its stated goal was to preserve CPC-style Communism by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Mao Zedong Thought (known outside China simply as Maoism) as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked Mao's return to a position of power after the failures of his Great Leap Forward. The movement paralyzed China politically and negatively affected both the economy and society of the country to a significant degree.
The movement was launched in May 1966, after Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. To eliminate his rivals within the Communist Party of China, Mao insisted that revisionists be removed through violent class struggle. China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials, most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions.
In the violent struggles that ensued across the country, millions of people were persecuted and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, hard labor, sustained harassment, seizure of property and sometimes execution. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed and cultural and religious sites were ransacked.
Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, but its active phase lasted until the death of military leader and proposed Mao successor Lin Biao in 1971. After Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976, reformers led by Deng Xiaoping gradually began to dismantle the Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution. In 1981, the Party declared that the Cultural Revolution was responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic.