On August 5, 1966, exactly fifty years ago, Mao Zedong put forward his famous slogan "Fire at the headquarters" (Chinese paoda sylinbu), which actually marked the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China. Dazibao, written personally by Chairman Mao, was announced during the 11th Plenum of the 9th Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. It included criticism of the CCP party apparatus, which was accused of revisionism and bureaucracy.
Putting forward the slogan "Fire at headquarters", Mao proclaimed a struggle against the "supporters of the capitalist path" in the party leadership, and in fact, thereby, sought to strengthen his power and control over the party. This slogan was to be put into practice by the youth assault detachments - the hungweipings (“Red Guards”), recruited from students, and the zaofangs (“rebels”), recruited from the workers. They also became the main driving force of the Cultural Revolution, which was turned against the "old" generation of the Chinese intelligentsia, party leadership, and administrative workers. Of course, in fact, it was caused by a banal power struggle in the Chinese leadership, which was given an ideological shape. Mao Zedong, seeking to defeat his opponents in the leadership of the Communist Party of China, relied on the support of youth formations, as well as the state and public security organs loyal to him, the People's Liberation Army of China. The victims of the "Cultural Revolution" initially were party apparatchiks who were dissatisfied with the course of Mao Zedong, but very quickly the number of victims expanded to any managers, intellectuals, and then to ordinary Chinese, who, for some reason, did not suit the young stormtroopers.
During the Cultural Revolution, the principle of fighting the "Four Remnants" was implemented. It was not completely clear what these "four remnants" were, since different leaders of the Cultural Revolution understood different phenomena by them. At the same time, the general meaning of the struggle against the "Four Remnants" was the general destruction of the Chinese culture that existed until 1949, when the power of the Communist Party was established in China. Therefore, almost all the cultural values of the unique Chinese civilization - architectural monuments, literary works, the national theater, ancestral books kept in the houses of ordinary Chinese, art objects - fell under the "fire on the headquarters". Many of the cultural values were irretrievably destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Almost everything connected with foreign culture was subject to destruction - works of foreign writers and poets, records with music by foreign composers, including classics, clothes of foreign cut. Of course, shops where all these items were sold, libraries, museums, private apartments, where young fighters of the Cultural Revolution who burst in there found objects that contradicted the revolutionary spirit were also subjected to complete destruction.
The most famous participants in the Cultural Revolution were undoubtedly the Red Guards. In Russian, this word has become a common noun, they are called maximalists - overthrowers of "everything and everyone", sometimes just hooligans. In fact, the Red Guards, which in translation means "Red Guards", were detachments of mobilized student youth, primarily students. Formally, the Red Guards were completely autonomous youth detachments, guided in their practical actions by their own understanding of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. In fact, they were personally directed by Mao Zedong and his wife Jiang Ching. This explains the almost complete impunity for their actions against the Chinese intelligentsia, party and administrative workers. Proclaiming themselves the creators of the Cultural Revolution and fighters against revisionists and bureaucrats, the Red Guards engaged in the expulsion of "apologists of the old order", which included almost all teachers, representatives of the creative intelligentsia. Often the actions of the young stormtroopers took the character of bullying and beating the teachers. Many party workers and teachers were killed as a result of beatings by the Red Guards, some committed suicide, ashamed of the bullying they had made. At the same time, the Red Guards themselves did not regret their actions at all, since they were completely sure that they were dealing with the enemies of the Chinese revolution. The youth leaders, who made fiery statements about the need for a tougher struggle, also encouraged them to do this.
All religious sites - Buddhist and Taoist temples and monasteries, the Great Wall of China, part of which the stormtroopers managed to demolish - became targets for the Red Guards. Having attacked the Beijing Opera, the Red Guards destroyed all theatrical props. On the streets, the militants attacked passers-by who were not modestly dressed or who, in the opinion of the "Red Guards", had hairstyles that were provocative. They broke the heels of their shoes and cut off their braids, men broke sharp-toed shoes. Some detachments of the Red Guards actually turned into groups of criminals who broke into houses and, under the pretext of checking the owners for revolutionary reliability, plundered them.
Strikingly, the actions of the Red Guards, even those that had an openly criminal connotation, did not meet with opposition from the Chinese law enforcement agencies. Although the police of the Ministry of Public Security of China continued to exist and were fully able to stop the ongoing lawlessness, they chose not to interfere with what was happening. This was due to the fact that Colonel General Xie Fuezhi (1909-1972), the Minister of Public Security of the PRC, who was also appointed Mayor of Beijing in 1967, provided direct support to the Red Guards. Xie Fuezhi personally appealed to the police officers with an appeal not to pay attention to the killings and violence perpetrated by the Red Guards, as this is a manifestation of the revolutionary energy of the masses.
The Zaofan detachments were mainly staffed with young unskilled workers. Their leaders were no more than thirty years old, and the bulk of the Zaofan were much younger. Like many young people, the Zaofangs were characterized by excessive aggressiveness, rejection of the older generations, including skilled workers or party workers, who, in material terms, lived much better than the Zaofangs themselves. Zaofan organizations were based in many cities in China, but the main centers of the movement were Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Guangzhou. The zaofani considered their main task to be the implementation of the Cultural Revolution in factories, factories, as well as in various offices, among the junior staff of which were also members of the detachments of "rebels".
With the help of the Zaofan, Mao Zedong wanted to create structures of workers' self-government, so he initially welcomed their initiative. In particular, in Shanghai, Zaofan groups seized the city committee of the Chinese Communist Party and formed the Shanghai Commune. Mao Zedong supported this action, but the seizures of enterprises and party structures throughout China did not lead to the desired result. The Zaofangs lacked neither education, nor managerial and even everyday experience to fully manage party structures or enterprises. Therefore, in the end, there were two options for completing their actions - either they called in "old cadres" from among the party workers, or a real chaos began.
As a result of the Cultural Revolution in China, clashes began between the Red Guards themselves and the Zaofangs. The Red Guards were divided into "red" - children of wealthy parents and officials, and "black" - workers 'and peasants' children. There was unconditional enmity between the two groups. Of course, the Zaofang and the Red Guards also had numerous contradictions. In some cities, city party committees tried to take advantage of the protection of the Red Guards against the Zaofangs, in other cities - the opposite.
Widely known, including outside of China, received the so-called. The Wuhan Incident. Units of the People's Liberation Army of China under the command of General Chen Zaidao, who at that time held the post of commander of the Wuhan Military District, were sent to Wuhan to pacify the "counter-revolutionary groups". However, the general defeated not only the party activists who tried to defend the city committee of the party, but also the detachments of the Red Guards. At the same time, he arrested Colonel General Xie Fuzhi, the very minister of public security of China. Soldiers loyal to Chen Zaidao prevented the plane carrying Zhou Enlai from landing in Wuhan. This was a blatant fact of disobedience to Mao Zedong himself. Three infantry divisions of the People's Liberation Army of China were sent to Wuhan to pacify General Chen Zaidao. Not wanting to clash with army units, Chen Zaidao surrendered to the authorities, after which he was dismissed from his post. Nevertheless, the actions of General Chen Zaidao became the first example of the army's involvement in suppressing the illegal actions of the raging Red Guards and Zaofangs.
The Cultural Revolution brought many problems to China, which Chairman Mao himself soon realized. He realized that he had "let the genie out of the bottle" and the detachments of the Red Guards and Zaofangs now not only deal with his opponents, but also threaten his own power. After all, it is possible that in the end they could turn against the very leadership of the CPC Central Committee, headed by Mao Zedong, declaring the latter an "old reactionary." In addition, the country was in real chaos. The enterprises stopped working because the Zaofani who had captured them could not organize the production process. In fact, cultural life ceased, educational institutions seized by the Red Guards did not work.
Almost as quickly as the go-ahead was given to the Red Guards and Zaofangs for complete freedom of action, a decision was made to suppress their activities. This happened exactly one year after the famous address "Fire at headquarters." Mao Zedong called the Red Guards politically immature youth, counter-revolutionaries, and sent units of the People's Liberation Army of China and the Ministry of Public Security against them. On August 19, 1967, more than 30 thousand PLA soldiers entered Guilin, where a real "purge" of the city from the Red Guilin lasted for six days. All members of the "Red Guards" detachments were destroyed. In September 1967, the leadership of the Red Guards decided to disband all units and organizations of the "Red Guards". On April 27, 1968, several leaders of the Zaofan troops were sentenced to death and publicly executed in Shanghai. Five Red Guards leaders were sent to work on a pig farm. In total, in the autumn of 1967 alone, more than a million young people were exiled to remote areas of China - yesterday's Red Guards and Zaofangs. Now, in the position of exiles, they had to raise the economy of the Chinese province. The "purges" of Chinese youth from the Red Guards and Zaofangs continued until the early 1970s. By this time, the number of young people exiled to the provinces for correctional labor exceeded 5.4 million.
In 1971, the defeat of the group from among the military leaders closest to Mao Zedong followed. At the head of this group was Marshal Lin Biao (nafoto), the Minister of Defense of China, who by that time was actually considered the official successor of Chairman Mao. According to the official version, Marshal Lin Biao was preparing a conspiracy to overthrow Mao Zedong, whom he accused of perverting Marxism, Trotskyism and social fascism. But the plans of the conspirators became known. On September 13, 1971, Lin Biao and several associates tried to fly to the northeast, but due to lack of fuel, the plane crashed. A number of high-ranking generals and senior PLA officers were arrested, about a thousand soldiers were removed from their posts.
In 1972, Colonel-General Xie Fuzhi, who was called one of the main patrons of the Red Guards in the Chinese security forces, died suddenly. In the same year, General Chen Zaidao, who was the first to turn the army against the raging youth, was rehabilitated. However, the turn against the Red Guards did not mean the end of the Cultural Revolution. It just took on a more organized and pragmatic form. Now the victims of the Cultural Revolution were, for example, representatives of the national minorities of China, especially the Mongols from Inner Mongolia, who were accused of working for hostile states (Mongolia, as you know, was the closest ally and supporter of the USSR in Central Asia, and the Chinese Mongols were obviously considered a potential fifth column of the Mongolian People's Republic in China).
The Cultural Revolution caused great damage to the development of China and is negatively assessed by the modern leadership of this country. Back in 1981, the CCP adopted a resolution stating: “The Cultural Revolution was not and cannot be a revolution or social progress in any sense … it was a turmoil caused from above through the fault of the leader and used by counter-revolutionary groups, the turmoil, which brought serious disasters to the party, the state and the entire multinational people."
