The Cultural Revolution - Winding Down Flashcards
Up to the mountains and down to the villages
• 18 million Red guards sent to ‘cool off’
• gave red guards to learn from peasants by ‘serving the people’ through manual labour
• schools and universities remained closed as part of Russification campaigns
• Red guards with party connections able to return to cities, those without feared permanent exile
The rise and fall of Lin Bao
• official successor to Mao
• Lin attempted to reinstate the Head of State position that was previously held by Liu Shaoqi
• Mao saw this as an attempt to take the job for himself
• Mao feared the power of the PLA and a potential military coup
Lin’s death
• Lin feared he was to be purged himself
• his escape plane was not fully fuelled and he was killed when it crashed alongside his family
• Lin’s death caused problems - he was previously described as Mao’s closest comrade, now he had been denounced as a traitor
Deng Xiaoping’s return to power
• by the early 1970s Mao’s health was deteriorating
• Mao decided to call Deng Xiaoping back from the tractor factory
• Deng picked to join the politburo’s standing committee and appointed PLA chief of staff
The four modernisations
• ‘four modernisations’ : advancement in agriculture, industry, defence and science and technology
• focused on technical expertise the opposite of Mao’s trust in mass mobilisation
• Deng understood people wanted a return to normality and pragmatism
The Gang of Four
• the Gang of Four attempted to gain control through the ‘criticise Lin criticise Confucius campaign’
• subtly targeted Deng and Zhou - Jiang Qing’s 2 main rivals
• the campaign aimed to mobilise revolutionary forces against them
• campaign failed as people saw through personal motives
Zhou Enlai’s death
• 8 January 1976 Zhou Enlai died in Beijing
• Treated with genuine affection by the public, 1 million payed their respects
• Deng delivered the eulogy, and was attacked by Jiang Qing
• Gang of Four had misread the feeling
of the public
• Some laid wreaths which the government attempted to remove
• Met with public backlash
Deng’s removal from power
• Gang of Four blamed Deng for ‘counter revolutionary move’
• Deng was banished to a pig farm in the south
• People weren’t interested in another political campaign by the Gang of Four
Mao’s Death
• Jiang Qing knew that when Mao died Deng would be a rival for power
• Mao picked a bureaucrat called Hua Guofeng who was relatively unknown
• Mao hoped he would comprise between the pragmatists and ideologues
• Mao died on 9 September 1976
• Earthquake before in July killed a 1/4 million, and was interpreted as a bad omen, showing traditional superstitions remained
Post-Mao
• Hua Guofeng called for loyalty to Maoism
• Mao’s bodied was put on display in Tiananmen Square with 300,000 passing by, but few showed genuine grief
• Jiang Wing was now ignored, criticised Hua in July 1976
• 6 October 1976 Hua ordered the arrest of the Gang of Four
Return of Deng
• Hua Guofeng was no match for the popularity of Deng Xiaoping
• He returned to Beijing and clearly had the support of the party
• Deng became China’s paramount leader
• Deng introduced economic reforms which were embraced in China
• ‘ To be rich and glorious ‘ was announced by Deng
