Chaos of the Cultural Revolution

What led to Mao's launching of a 'cultural revolution' in the People's Republic?

What were the aims of this movement?

Why did perhaps a million people die at the hands of their countrymen in less than four years?

Time Period Covered 1964 - 1969

In what could be considered a belated "Part Two" to the episode introducing Maoism and the Great Leap Forward, Lachlan revisits China and attempts to explain the "Cultural Revolution". Officially launched in 1966, this period of chaos, an example of a cult of personality being used to destroy a system and replace it with a kind of perpetual revolution, would lead China into a near state of anarchy.

Radical young Maoists, organised into groups of "Red Guards" terrorised those that they considered to be sufficiently counter to the ideological mandate set by Mao.

Philip Short Mao
Frank Dikotter The Cultural Revolution: A People's History
Andrew Walder China Under Mao
Richard Baum Lecture Series