Flipping through the old issues of the Soviet periodicals one can find the phrase “the great helmsman”. Find out what it means, this article will help.
Background
For the first time such an expression is found in Christian literature. In particular, John Chrysostom, who lived at the turn of the 4th-5th centuries, in his treatise "Conversations on the Book of Genesis" calls the Great Helmsman the Most High, and the Church is his ship.
As for the word “helmsman”, in Russian it is an archaic marine term that corresponds to the modern concept of “helmsman”.
Joseph Stalin
In September 1934, the expression “great helmsman” was used in one of the editorials of the newspaper Pravda. The article was devoted to the passage along the Northern Sea Route of the Fedor Litke icebreaker from Vladivostok to Murmansk. The note cited the text of the telegram of the crew, which said: "The victory was won ... thanks to ... the team that carried out the work ... on the basis of ... the instructions of the great helmsman ... Comrade Stalin." The use of such a title in relation to Joseph Vissarionovich among sailors is quite justified, since their profession was consonant.
At the same time, the sailors hardly knew about the treatise of John Chrysostom and quite by accident called Stalin the epithet that the famous Byzantine theologian used in relation to God.
Be that as it may, the phrase “The Great Helmsman” was firmly rooted in Soviet journalism and began to constantly appear on the pages of newspapers and magazines. From there, it migrated to the vocabulary of party functionaries, who began to actively use it, speaking in the stands of congresses and meetings.
Chinese helmsman Mao Zedong
In the late 40s of the last century, a personality cult of the leader of the Chinese Communist Party began to take shape in the PRC. Then, local propagandists took over the title of "The Great Helmsman" from their Soviet brothers and began to use it in relation to Mao Zedong.
Youth
The great helmsman of China - Mao Zedong - was born in 1893. He received a fairly decent education for those times, and during his student years in Beijing he met with local Marxists. In 1920, he finally determined his political views, choosing communism. A year later, Mao became one of the participants in the founding congress of the Communist Party of China.
Way to the top
In 1928, Mao Zedong creates a strong Soviet republic in the west of Jiangxi province. Later, in the autumn of 1931, thanks to the vigorous actions of the Communists, 10 regions in the central part of the country were controlled by the Chinese Red Army and partisans. This allowed the creation of a new state there. It became known as the Chinese Soviet Republic, and Mao Zedong himself headed the Council of People's Commissars . He took an active part in the anti-Japanese struggle, and he managed to expel the conservative Kuomintang government, which marked the end of the Civil War.
October 1, 1949 Tiananmen Mao Zedong proclaims the formation of the PRC with its capital in Beijing. He himself holds the post of chairman of the government of the new state.
China under Mao
In the first years of the PRC's existence, the great helmsman laid great hopes on the economic and technical assistance of the Soviet Union and in many ways imitated the leader of the peoples Joseph Stalin.
In the period from 1950 to 1956, Mao gradually carried out agrarian reforms, with the help of which he hoped to solve the problem of the country's food supply. Nevertheless, in 1957-1958, an economic crisis erupted in China. Then Zedong put forward a program known as the "big leap." He sent huge labor resources to the construction of artificial reservoirs, as well as the creation of agricultural communes and industrial enterprises in a Chinese village.
The Great Helmsman: The Holodomor
In 1958, Mao Zedong issued an order to mercilessly destroy all sparrows, as he believed that they pecked grain in the fields and "stood in the way of China's economic development."
To fulfill the task set by the great helmsman, thousands of people were mobilized. They waved flags and beat drums, scaring away birds from landing. The poor birds flew for so long that they were exhausted until they died of exhaustion. As a result, their numbers plummeted in China, and in some regions sparrows have completely disappeared.
In the first few months after the start of the campaign against sparrows and other pests, a slight increase in the yield of grain crops was recorded, but after the locust invasion began , which, having lost its main enemy, bred incredibly. As a result, a terrible famine began, thousands of cases of cannibalism were recorded.
To remedy the situation, China was forced to urgently buy grain abroad, and sparrows were "pardoned" and even forced to import these birds from abroad.
Cultural revolution
As expected, Mao's “Great Leap Forward” partially failed, and the “Yan'an model” had to be changed to an individual incentive system. Such a deviation from their principles was not to the liking of the leader of the Chinese Communists. At the same time, in the early 1960s, the great helmsman was seriously concerned about economic and political trends in China itself. In addition, he believed that the CCP itself was becoming more and more conservative, and revisionism penetrated her heart.
Yangtze River Swim
Mao Zedong was an extraordinary person in every way. For example, he was very fond of swimming in Chinese rivers. At the same time, since many representatives of the ruling elite could not boast of the same excellent athletic form as their leader, could not do without tragedies. In particular, when the Great Helmsman crossed the Yangtze in 1966, at the age of 73, almost setting a world record, the commander of the Guangzhou Military District drowned, and one of the party leaders on the shore was bitten by a snake. The purpose of this widely publicized event was to show that Chairman Mao is still full of strength and able to deal with all opponents of the Cultural Revolution.
Last years
To "improve" the Communist Party, he took a number of steps. In particular, detachments of "hunweibins" were organized - youth from the workers and peasants, who were supposed to fight with those who retreated from the communist path. Mao also initiated large-scale repressions, the victims of which were millions of people.
The Cultural Revolution ended in 1968. One of the reasons was Mao’s fears about the possible entry of Soviet troops into the PRC, supported by events in Czechoslovakia.
The great helmsman Mao ordered the detachment of the Hungweibin detachments and ordered the army to take control of the situation in the country.
Between 1969 and 1970, Zedong tried to restore the defeated Communist Party. By that time, his health was already severely undermined. Despite this, he tried with all his might to maintain a balance between the party factions, trying to prevent a split.
Mao died on September 9, 1976 after 2 severe heart attacks, in the 83rd year of his life. Over a million people attended his funeral.
Now you know who at different stages of history was called such an original epithet - the great helmsman. Mao Zedong and Stalin were so named for many years and led the ships of the states at the head of which they stood towards their great goal - communism. Although the basis of this ideology was the concept of equality and fraternity, close to Christianity, the leaders of the USSR and China, according to the majority in our country, were deprived of mercy and brought a lot of suffering to their peoples.