Revolutions in the Name of the People WHAP/Napp

“China also liberated itself. While it had never lost its independence completely, it had been too weak, during the last 100 years, to fend off the Russians, British, French, Germans and especially the Japanese, to each of whom it made concessions or surrendered territory. It was also weakened by its own civil war. Mao Zedong, who brilliantly led the communists during a long guerrilla war, was finally victorious in 1949, leaving his opponents only the island of Taiwan.

The new People’s Republic of China, as the world’s most populous nation, was expected slowly to regain the authority it had held some five centuries ago. But the relationship between population and power has often been precarious and complicated. Instead of becoming a major power, communist China for a time was an economic dunce. The countryside was in poverty, and economic progress was more a chanted slogan than a fact.

China’s liberating leader, known now as ‘Our Great Helmsman,’ believed that the minds of his people were fortunately ‘blank’ and that he could inscribe on them an indelible message. In 1966 his nation was the vast setting of a cultural revolution or morality play staged on a huge scale, with death, imprisonment or rural exile imposed on those opinion leaders who were judged to be politically immoral and incorrect. The nation which, five centuries before, probably led the world in utilizing its people’s talents, now deliberately consigned hundreds of thousands of its teachers, artists and intellectuals to the humdrum tasks of minding pigs, reaping crops by hand and lifting irrigation water on the treadmill. Not until the 1980s did China begin, with a new sense of purpose, to make that great leap forward whichhad been the boast of its party propaganda three decades earlier.” ~ A Short History of the World

1-What does the author mean when he states, “While [China] had never lost is independence, it had been too weak…”?

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2-What happened in 1949? ______

3-What does the author mean when he states, “communist China for a time was an economic dunce…”? ______

4-What did Chairman Mao believe about his people? ______

5-What happened during the Cultural Revolution? ______

6-How did the Cultural Revolution harm China? ______

7-When did China begin to economically recover? ______

8-State two facts about a command economy [Previous Knowledge]. ______

9-State two facts about communism in the Soviet Union [Previous Knowledge]. ______

10-What are the failures of a communist system? ______

Notes:
  1. International Communism
  1. 1970salmost one-third of world’s population governed by communists
  2. Most significantU.S.S.R., largest in size, and China, largest in population
  3. Also communism came to Eastern Europe after World War II
  4. Korea was partitionedcommunist North and non-Communist South
  5. Vietnam, under Ho Chi Minh, battled Japanese, French, and later Americansestablished communist control first in north and all after 1975
  6. In Latin America, Fidel Castro led a revolutionary movement in Cuba
  7. And even a shaky communist regime took power in Afghanistan in 1979
  8. Strange twists revolutions of 20th century took place in agrarian societies
  1. Communism of 20th Century
  1. Soviets provided aid/advice, also tried to control communist actions through an organization called Comintern (Communist International)
  2. During Cold War, Warsaw Pact brought Soviet Union and Eastern European communist states together in a military alliance to counter NATO
  3. But Marxist ideologysought abolition of private property
  1. Russia
  1. Immense pressures of World War I represented catalyst for that revolution
  2. By February 1917, Tsar Nicholas II forced to abdicate, thus ending Romanov dynasty, which had ruled for more than three centuries
  3. Grassroots organizations of workers and soldiers known as “soviets”
  4. Most effective of radical groups opposing Provisional Government Bolsheviks, led by charismatic Vladimir Ulyanov, known as Lenin
  5. Despite industrial backwardness, believed Russia ready for Marxist revolutiona revision of Marxist thinking to accommodate conditions
  6. Bolshevik’s messageend to war, land for peasants, workers’ control of factories, self-determination for non-Russian nationalities, resonated
  7. Bolsheviks seized power in late October during an overnight coup
  8. Taking power was one thing but holding on to it involved three-year civil war (1918-1921)separate peace treaty with Germany helped Bolsheviks
  9. Renamed country Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
  1. Expansion of Communism
  1. Next extension of communism occurred in Eastern Europe after WWII
  2. Stalin determined that Soviet security required “friendly governments” in region so as to permanently end threat of invasion from West
  3. Marshall Plansuggested American plans to incorporate Eastern Europe into a Western economic network, Stalin installed communist governments
  4. Communism was largely imposed on Eastern Europe from outside
  5. But in Yugoslavia, popular communist movement played leading role in struggle against Nazi occupation and came to power on its own
  6. Its leader, Josef Broz, known as Tito, openly defied Soviet efforts for control
  7. Communism triumphed in China in 1949 but a struggle of decades
  8. Led by charismatic Mao Zedong, CCP engaged in epic struggle for control
I.CCP fought Guomindang, or Nationalist Party, which governed China after 1928led by Chiang Kai-shek
J. Chinese communists looked to the country’s peasants for support
K. CCP frontally addressed China’s major problems – foreign imperialismand peasant exploitation (land redistribution)
L. In 1949, Communist victoryMany Guomindang followers fled to Taiwan
V. Establishing Communist Regimes
A. To communist regimes, building socialism meant industrialization
B. “Totalitarian” other parties forbidden, state controlled almost entire economy, ensured that arts, education, media conformed to approved ways
C. Communist feminismstate-directed
D. In 1919, Soviet Communists created Zhenotdel (Women’s Department)
E. Stalin abolished Zhenotdel in 1930
F. ChinaThe Marriage Law of 1950 was a direct attack on patriarchal and Confucian traditionsfree choice in marriageequal property rights for women
G. But in neither nation did Communists attack male domination within family
H. Both Soviets and Chinese first expropriated landlords’ estates
I. Then a more socialist stage of rural reform sought to end private property in land by collectivizing agriculture
J. But in U.S.S.R. from 1928 to 1933, peasants were forced into collective farms and violence was extensivekulaks punishedfamine ensued
K. ChinaGreat Leap Forward in late 1950scollectivizationfamine
L. Though Mao followed Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, convinced that Soviet model of industrialization was leading China toward new forms of inequalities
M. Mid-1960s, Mao launched Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution to combat capitalist tendencies1966 – 1969 Red Guards punished counterrevolutionaries
N. U.S.S.R. Terror, or Great Purges of late 1930s eliminated Stalin’s enemies
O. Soviet Terror and Cultural Revolution badly discredited socialism

Complete the Review Quilt Below (Place Key Points in Each Box):

Communism and Korea: / Communism and Vietnam: / Communism and Eastern Europe: / Communism and Cuba:
Communism and Russia: / Communism and China: / Lenin: / Stalin:
Mao Zedong: / Zhenotdel: / Marriage Law: / Communism and Patriarchy:
Warsaw Pact: / Kulaks: / Collectivization: / Cultural Revolution:

Questions:

  • When and where did communism exercise influence during the twentieth century?
  • Identify the major differences between the Russian and Chinese revolutions.
  • Why were the Bolsheviks able to ride the Russian Revolution to power?
  • What was the appeal of communism in China before 1949?
  • What changes did communist regimes bring to the lives of women?
  • How did the collectivization of agriculture differ between the USSR and China?
  • What were the achievements of communist efforts at industrialization? What problems did these achievements generate?
  • Why did communist regimes generate terror and violence on such a massive scale?

  1. Which development prompted Chinese nationalists and communists to suspend civil war and form a shaky common cause?
(A)Death of Sun Yat-sen
(B)Japanese invasion of China
(C)Massive American investment to build up industrial sectors in Chinese urban centers
(D)Communist long march to sanctuary in nationalist base areas in northwest China
(E)Historic summit meeting between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong
  1. Which factor in the Russian and Chinese revolutions was not present in the French Revolution?
(A)Rural unrest
(B)Urban discontent
(C)Military intervention by neighboring or outside powers
(D)The ideas of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
(E)Armed struggle
  1. Where in the world did the Japanese most vigorously seek to achieve territorial expansion in the years following 1914?
(A)Korea
(B)Mongolia
(C)Indonesia
(D)Pacific Islands
(E)China /
  1. In which of the following cases did the United State provide aid to break a Soviet blockade?
(A)U-2 incident
(B)Bay of Pigs invasion
(C)Berlin airlift
(D)Marshall Plan
(E)Crimean War
  1. Which of the following were offered by the Stalin regime as reasons to pursue collectivization of agriculture and Five-Year Plans in industry after 1928?
  1. Reversal of the NEP and inculcation of socialist habits among the Soviet masses
II.Reduction of the Soviet population to environmentally sustainable levels
III.Rapid industrialization to prepare for a second imperialist invasion of the USSR
(A)I only
(B)I and II
(C)II and III
(D)III only
(E)I and III
  1. Which socialist Eastern European nation was not a Soviet satellite state?
(A)Romania
(B)Hungary
(C)East Germany
(D)Yugoslavia
(E)Bulgaria

Thesis Statement: Comparative: Soviet and Chinese Communism

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