Peasant Revolution?: An Exhausted Mao Rediscovers His Roots

Mao gets sick of all the BS in Shanghai and returns to his hometown of Shaoshan, where he discovers a militant peasantry.

Further Reading:
Stuart Schram, ed., Mao’s Road to Power, vol. 2: National Revolution and Social Revolution, December 1920-June 1927
Yokoyama Suguru, “The Peasant Movement in Hunan”

Some names from this episode:
Li Lisan, Communist leader of the Shanghai General Labor Union
Liu Shaoqi, Communist leader just below Li Lisan in the Shanghai General Labor Union
Liu Hua, Union activist executed for leading role in May 30 Movement
Liu Bolun, Stood in for Mao at a meeting of the Committee for Common People’s Education
Wang Xianzong, Hunanese Communist murdered by a local warlord for organizing peasants
Wang Jingwei, Head of Guomindang government in Guangzhou in late 1925 when Mao arrived from Hunan
Han Suyin, early biographer of Mao for a western audience
Liu Shaoqi, Leading Communist labor organizer in the 1920s, later targeted as a capitalist roader in the Cultural Revolution
Deng Xiaoping, Chinese leader targeted as a capitalist roader in the Cultural Revolution

Support the show