How did Mao become leader
of the CCP?
L/O – To identify how Mao took control of the CCP
Tasks
1. Make a timeline of Mao’s rise to power from 1919-1937. Include a
brief description of each event (50 words max).
2. What were the most important events in Mao’s rise to power? Why?
(try to identify at least 3 events)
3. Why was China such an unstable nation in the early 20th century?
4. Why do you think that the Long March was later afforded such an
important place in Maoist propaganda?
5. Why had Mao Zedong emerged as the unchallenged leader of the
CCP by 1945?
6. Watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfJy_wduFy4
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1893 - Born in Hunan province, rich peasant family
1901-6 – Attended primary school
1912 – Joined anti-Qing army in Hunan
1912-8 – Trained as a teacher
1918 – Joined the Hunan independence movement
1919 – Worked as librarian at Beijing Uni. Organised strikes in Hunan.
1921 – Became a founding member of CCP.
1923 – Joined the KMT.
1924-7 – Involved in planning CCP/KMT alliance against Warlords.
1927-34 – Created the Jiangxi Soviet.
1930 – Suppressed a mutiny in Red Army at Futian 10,000+ killed
1934-5 – Led the Long March to Yanan
1935-45 – Created the Yanan Soviet
1942 – Crushed opposition within the CCP using torture.
1945-49 – Led the CCP to victory over KMT
1949 – Declaration of the creation of the People’s Republic of China
Mao’s Early Years
• Born into rich peasant family.
Father worked hard, mother was
religious Buddhist.
• Often fell out with father, refused
to show him respect. He didn’t like
working, always wanted to read.
• Volunteered in anti-Qing army
during 1911.
• Introduced to Marxism at Beijing
University, where he worked as a
librarian in 1919.
Mao as a Chinese Revolutionary 1911-1927
• Mao came to believe in the dialectic
as the explanation of life. i.e. the
Marxist notion that historical
development occurs through a
progressive series of conflicts
between social classes.
• He held the belief that all change, all
progress, resulted from suppression
of the weaker by the stronger.
• During the Warlord Period, he saw
first hand how force could be used:
‘All power grows
out of the barrel of
a gun’.
‘A revolution is not
a tea party; it is an
act of violence, by
which one class
overthrows
another’.
Mao as a Chinese Revolutionary 1911-1927
‘During my student days in Hunan, the city was overrun by
the forces of rival war lords – not once but half a dozen
times. Twice the school was occupied by troops and all the
school funds confiscated. The brutal punishments inflicted
on the peasants included such things as gouging out eyes,
ripping out tongues, disembowelling and decapitation,
slashing with knives and grinding with sand, burning with
kerosene and branding with red-hot irons.’
• Mao realised that it was the strongest and most ruthless
who always won. The only way to gain power was through
violence.
• The rise to power of the Bolsheviks in the 1917 Russian
Revolution seemed to confirm his beliefs.
Mao at Jiangxi 1927-34
• After the 1927 Shanghai Massacre,
Mao led his CCP forces to the
mountains of Jiangxi province and
organised guerrilla resistance.
• He spent 7 years developing the
Jiangxi Soviet, dedicated to peasant
revolution. He clashed with the
COMINTERN who wanted him to
focus on urban workers.
• It was at Jiangxi where Mao
developed his taste for using torture
and purges to gain control.
Mao at Jiangxi 1927-34
• In 1930, he had no qualms in
torturing & executing some 4000
Red Army troops, accused of being
KMT spies. Some estimate over
10,000!
• This incident became known as the
‘Futian incident’. It strengthened
Mao’s control until the CCP
leadership arrived in 1932.
• Zhou Enlai and Bo Gu ousted Mao
from his military positions.
‘They were brought out
to be tortured, women as
well as men… they were
tortured to make them
speak and they were
tortured on Mao’s
orders. These is a
document in the party
archives which Mao
approved which says, ‘do
not kill the important
leaders too quickly, but
squeeze out of them the
maximum information;
then from the clues they
give you can go on to
unearth others.’
The Long March 1934-35
• The Jiangxi Soviet was crushed in
1934. The KMT between 19301934 launched 5 massive
extermination campaigns.
• The first 4 were failures due to
the guerrilla tactics used by Mao’s
forces.
• However the KMT encircled the
base area entirely in 1934 and
Mao led the communists to
escape north to Yanan in Shaanxi
province.
Mao on the tactics of
the Red Army, 1930
When the enemy
advances, we retreat.
When the enemy halts,
we harass.
When the army retires,
we attack.
When the enemy
retreats, we pursue.
The Fifth Extermination Campaign
• In Summer 1933, Chiang used
new tactics suggested by General
Hans von Seeckt, a German
military advisor.
• Seeckt used ‘blockhouse’ tactics.
The KMT surrounded the Kiangsi
Soviet with ½ m troops and
advanced slowly building
blockhouses, digging trenches &
putting up barbed wire fences.
• This prevented food getting in or
out.
The Fifth Extermination Campaign
• The Communists abandoned
Guerrilla Warfare and under
the influence of Otto Braun,
launched a series of
disastrous pitched battles.
• By summer the communists
were surrounded by four lines
of blockhouses & close to
starvation.
• By Oct 1934, they had lost ½
of their territory as well as
60,000 troops.
Otto Braun – German
Communist and Comintern
agent who was sent to China
by Soviet Russia to give
military advice to the CCP
The Break Out – October 1934
• On the suggestion of Otto
Braun, on 16th Oct 1934,
87,000 soldiers began a
retreat.
• They took as much equipment
& guns as they could carry and
took them 6 weeks to break
out of the ring of blockhouses.
• At the end of Nov 1934, the
Red Army reached the Xiang
River and lost over half their
number fighting the KMT.
Mao Takes Over – January 1935
• In Jan 1935 they reached
Mao had
outmanoeuvred
his
Zunyi,
where
a meeting was
opponents
in the
CCP and
held.
Braun was
blamed
for
imposed
that toRiver:
be
the
defeathis
at idea
the Xiang
successful the revolution in
China
must
be based
the to
–
He had
allowed
themon
to carry
much in
equipment
which slowed
peasants
the countryside,
not
them down.
on the workers in the towns.
– The retreat was in a straight line
which helped the KMT predict
where Conference
they were headed.
The Zunyi
was thus a
major milestone in Mao’s
• Leadership
of theofmarch
was
eventual control
the Party.
handed to Mao and Zhu De.
Progress in 1935 – January-October
• Under their new
leadership, the march
took off in a new
direction, often
changing routes &
splitting forces.
• One of the most
famous events was the
crossing of the Dadu
River. 22 soldiers
swung across the river
gorge on chains whilst
under fire.
Arrival – October 1935
• In October 1935 they had
reached their destination of
the poor communist base at
Yanan in Shaanxi province.
They had:
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Fought dozens of battles
Crossed 24 rivers
Crossed 18 mountain ranges
Covered 24 miles a day
6000 miles in total
30,000 reached destination out
of 100,000
Importance of the March
1. The CCP had survived and found a new
base which was remote and safe from
attack from the KMT & Japanese
2. Mao was hailed as a great hero and
was re-established as the unchallenged
leader of the CCP
3. Many Chinese saw the CCP as heroes &
Long March became part of CCP
mythology
4. The good behaviour of the Red Army
impressed peasants
1.) Which is the
most important
consequence of
the march?
Why?
2.) How did the
success of the
march help
boost CCP
support across
China?
The Yanan Years 1935-1945
• During this time Mao succeeded in
imposing his personal authority on
the CCP.
• He also fought off attempts by the
Stalin and the COMINTERN to
dominate the party.
• During the 1940s, he launched a
series of ‘rectification campaigns’
to consolidate his hold. He also
wrote his major political works
setting out his revolutionary ideas.
Rectification of
Conduct
Campaigns – A
serious of
ferocious purges
by which Mao
removed any
member of the
CCP he suspected
of opposing him.
Victory of the KMT 1945-1949
• With the surrender of Japan at the end
of WW2, Mao turned on the KMT again.
• A fierce 4-year struggle for supremacy of
China ended with complete victory for
the Communists.
• Chiang and the KMT were driven to
Taiwan.
• In October 1949, Mao triumphantly
declared that a new Communist society
had come into being – the People’s
Republic of China (PRC).
Review – How did Mao become leader
of the CCP?
• Early Years – Mao became politically aware during his time
at Middle School in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province. In
1911 He joined an anti-Qing rebel army in support of the
nationalists but saw no action.
• He later dropped out of school and spent time in Changsha
library studying political philosophers of Western liberalism
like Adam Smith, Montesquieu, Darwin and Rousseau.
• In 1912-18 he trained to be a teacher in Changsha, where he
read New Youth magazine by Chen Duxiu. In April 1917 he
had an article published, instructing readers to increase
their physical strength to serve the revolution!
Review – How did Mao become leader
of the CCP?
• Time in Beijing – In 1919, he worked as assistant librarian at
Beijing University. It is here that he began to read Marxism,
attending lectures by Chen Duxiu.
• Student Organiser – In 1919-1920, Mao moved back to
Changsha to work as a history teacher. There he co-founded the
Hunanese Student Association and began production of a radical
magazine – Xiang River Review. His articles became famous
throughout China and in 1920, Mao organised students protests
in support of the KMT.
• CCP Founded – In 1921, Mao attended the first meeting of the
CCP, where he was made Party Secretary for Hunan. He spent
most of his time in Changsha, distributing revolutionary
literature and recruiting people to communism.
Review – How did Mao become leader
of the CCP?
• Collaboration with KMT – In 1923, Mao was elected to the
Party Committee of the CCP and also to KMT Central
Committee, working to implement the United Front. He was
appointed to run the KMT’s Peasant Movement Training
Institute, organising Hunanese peasants and preparing them
for military activity in the Northern March.
• Commander in Chief – In 1927-28, Mao is appointed
commander-in-chief of the Red Army. He led the failed
Autumn Harvest Uprising on Changsha and escaped with his
army group to Jiangxi.
Review – How did Mao become leader
of the CCP?
• Jiangxi Soviet – In 1929-34, Mao established the Jiangxi
Soviet. Here he faced criticism for being anti-revolutionary
and in the ‘Futian Incident’, Mao put down the rebels, with
his loyalists executing and torturing many. In Nov, the CCP
Central Committee moved to Jiangxi and Mao lost control of
the army to Zhou Enlai.
• Long March – In Jan 1935, the Red Army captured the city
of Zunyi. It was here that Mao outmanoeuvred his rivals and
was elected Chairman of the Politburo – de facto leader of
both Party and Red Army. In Nov 1935, Mao was declared
Chairman of the Military Commission as well.
Review – How did Mao become leader
of the CCP?
• Yanan Years – In 1935-45, Mao consolidated his hold on the
Party further, using ‘Rectification Campaigns’ in 1942 to
purge and torture opponents and ‘Thought Reform
Campaigns’ to indoctrinate new recruits. Membership had
grown to 800,000 by 1940 and Mao was holding down
Japanese troops with his Guerrilla Tactics. With the defeat
of the Japanese in 1945, Mao was elected Party Chairman.
What was the key turning
point in Mao’s rise to power?