Ss 201 - the Influence of Russian Communism on Mao Zedong Ideology

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Yet Maoism’s greatest departure from the Leninist- Marxist philosophy was Mao’s thought reform otherwise known as Zhengfeng. To Marx, the economy was the substructure in the revolution. Thus he believed that intellectual and cultural change would inevitably result from a change in the economy. Mao however believed that thought, rather than the economy was the substructure in a revolution. To Mao, revolutionary consciousness, irrespective of economic reform, could achieve a socialist revolution. Mao’s “Mind over matter” would directly oppose the Marxist view that the economy was the springboard for revolution.

Nothing serves testament to Mao’s extreme application of Marxism more than the Proletariat Cultural Revolution (PCR). Marxist philosophy held that a states cultural consciousness “reflected the values of the prevailing class”. To Marx a society only reaches a truly socialist state when its culture is identified with the values of the masses. Mao felt that although substantial progress had been made towards socialism, capitalist culture still lingered. Although capitalist means of production seized to exist, many traditional forms of ideology remained and continued to have tremendous influence. If China were to become a truly communist state in Marxist terms, then a drastic cultural transformation would be imperative. All facets of traditional culture had to be altered so that a culture of the masses could supersede traditional bourgeois customs. “We should trust the masses and become students of the masses, then we become teachers of the masses” he said to Central Committee leaders. For Mao destruction of traditional Chinese culture would serve as a means to an end in transforming China into a socialist state and purifying Communist ideology. It aimed to destroy anything pertaining to the four olds: old customs, old culture, old habits, and finally old ideals. Anything regarded as traditionally were seen as piousness to society. The slogan became “smash the old; build the new”. Ancient texts and artwork were destroyed and temples were burns and intellectuals were beat to death. Any evidence of capitalism or traditional Confucianism had to be demolished. Mao’s little red book, a book of selected quotes from his writing and speeches[3] was used to propagate Mao’s ideology and speed the revolution. It is

Mao’s extreme application and ruthless determination to mimic Marxist- Leninism and then fix it into nationalist terms would have drastic consequences. The utopian socialist state that Mao had promised seized to exist, but the Chinese people still paid the price. What resulted from the Great Leap Forward was a devastated economy and a famine killing nearly 45 million Chinese people. Then in the Proletariat Cultural Revolution over 1.5 million were killed.

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