Maoism

Core Ideas

• Peasant Revolution: In agricultural societies, the peasantry — not the urban working class — is the primary revolutionary force. The party must base itself in the countryside.
• Protracted People's War: Revolution in colonial and semi-colonial countries proceeds through armed struggle: guerrilla warfare in rural areas encircles the cities before capturing them. "Political power grows from the barrel of a gun."
• Mass Line: "From the masses, to the masses." The party gathers the scattered ideas of the masses, synthesises them into correct policy, and returns them to the masses as a guide to action. Prevents party from losing touch with the people.
• Anti-Imperialism: The primary contradiction in colonial and semi-colonial societies is between imperialism and the oppressed nation — this supersedes class conflict as the immediate task.
• Continuous Revolution: Even after seizing power, revolution must continue against bourgeois tendencies within the party itself. This justified the Cultural Revolution.
• Self-Reliance: China must not become dependent on the USSR or any external power (a critique of Soviet revisionism after Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation).

Historical Phases

Revolutionary Period (1921–1949)

The Chinese Communist Party survived the Long March (1934–35), built a peasant base in Yan'an, fought Japanese occupation, and defeated Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists. The People's Republic was founded on 1 October 1949.

Socialist Construction (1949–1966)

Land reform, nationalisation, industrialisation. The Great Leap Forward (1958–62) — an attempt to rapidly industrialise through rural communes and backyard steel furnaces — caused the largest famine in human history: 15–55 million deaths (estimates vary widely).

Cultural Revolution (1966–1976)

Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to purge "capitalist roaders" from the party. Red Guards attacked intellectuals, teachers, and traditional culture. An estimated 1–2 million died; tens of millions were persecuted. China's education system and cultural life were devastated for a decade.

Post-Mao

After Mao's death (1976), Deng Xiaoping's reforms abandoned Maoist economics while retaining Leninist political structures. China's subsequent growth under market socialism makes it difficult to classify ideologically.

Global Influence

Maoism inspired revolutionary movements worldwide: the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (whose radical agrarianism produced the Killing Fields — 1.5–2 million deaths), the Naxalite movement in India, Sendero Luminoso in Peru, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) which briefly governed Nepal. It remains influential in parts of South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Assessments