The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a social experiment begun in 1966 by the CPC under the chairmanship of Mao Zedong, aimed at re-igniting the revolutionary spirit and clearing the party of "bourgeois elements."
The origin of the Cultural Revolution can be traced back to the mid-1950s, when Mao was seriously concerned about the problem that the country was moving away from socialism and was on the path of "restoration of capitalism." According to his ideas, the struggle between proletarian and bourgeois ideologies took on new, insidious forms, after the capitalist classes were outlived.
Mao concluded that the source of China’s political regression lies in the false and selfish view of many of his political colleagues that the class struggle had ceased under socialism. From his point of view, government officials became the “new class”, distant from the masses of the people, and intellectuals were the “receptacle” of bourgeois, even feudal values.
However, the Cultural Revolution in China was also a power struggle in which the future Great Pilot, getting rid of political rivals, tried to regain his authority, which he lost as a result of failures in the politics of the Great Leap Forward.
It was seen by Mao as an instrument for creating a new "generation of revolutionary successors" - those who led to the victory of the Communist Party.
As soon as those who were believed to lead China back to capitalism were removed from power at all levels of society, the process of establishing socialist institutions, the “sprouts of communism,” began. Elitism in education was replaced by updated, politicized curricula based on ideological correctness and political activity.
China has a long tradition of “inshe” (shadow destruction), through which writers use allegories to criticize dignitaries. In fact, the cultural revolution in China began with suspicions of “inshe” in relation to the historical drama “Demolition of Hai Zhuyi”, written by historian Wu Han, which saw a hint at the fate of Marshal Peng Dehuai, who was dismissed after criticizing the policy of the Great Leap Forward.
In fact, this was absurd, but Mao reacted to the work with suspicious seriousness, especially since by that time factions dissatisfied with Mao Zedong’s policies had begun to form in the party. It was ordered that the name of the author be blackened in every possible way in the newspapers, which he would then be taken into custody, where he died after constant beatings. Wu Han was one of the first victims of the Cultural Revolution. In 1979, after the death of Mao, he was posthumously rehabilitated.
After Wu Han, radical Maoists quickly purged other cultural institutions from the “right”, and the theater became the main venue for Gang of Four, a faction of Jiang Qing (Minister of Culture and wife of Mao), to attack their political opponents.
The "Gang of Four" (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, Wang Hongwen with groups of close "intellectuals" controlled everything: film studios, operas, theater troupes, radio stations. All old films were rented. Only the revolution in China and related eight themes were to be portrayed in films, theater plays, even children's puppet theaters were closed under the pretext of their counter-revolutionary nature. Artists, writers, artists were imprisoned or exiled. Peking Opera companies were disbanded, t how it fell under the category of “four remnants.” The Hongweibins burned old books, destroyed architectural monuments, torn ancient scrolls, smashed art ceramics. The mass of cultural property was irretrievably lost.
The cultural revolution in China, having a complex and intricate history, can be divided into three main phases: mass, military, and succession.
The mass phase (1966-1969) was the most devastating when China was dominated by the "red guards" (hunweibins), detachments created from more than 20 million high school students and students. They answered Mao’s call to “make a revolution”, displaying incredible zeal in seeking “class enemies” wherever they hid. At this stage, most of Mao’s political rivals in the highest echelons of power were overthrown, including Chinese President Liu Shaoqi.
The military phase (1969-1971) began after the People’s Liberation Army achieved dominant position in Chinese politics, suppressing, with Mao’s approval, the annexation of the Hungweibans. It ended with the alleged attempted coup in September 1971 by Mao's disgruntled heir, Minister of Defense Lin Biao.
The succession phase (1972-1976) is an intense political and ideological “tug of war” between radical ideologists and old cadres who decided to end or continue the policy of the Cultural Revolution. The conflict was a difficult struggle, during which the country was successively ruled by two main leaders of the CCP - Chairman Mao and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. The decisive draw was cast when members of the Gang of Four (a month after the death of Chairman Mao) were arrested by a coalition of moderate leaders in October 1976. The cultural revolution in China is believed to have ended with the arrest of the “Gang of Four”.