mao zedong

English - English

Definition of mao zedong in English English dictionary

A revolutionary leader, particularly a communist, socialist, or major reformist. Sometimes used figuratively in non-political contexts

Thirty years ago with his little Green Book and his Third Universal Theory, he proposed himself as the Mao Zedong of the Middle East, fashioning what he claimed to be a new ideology from the patriarchal customs of his clan.

a Chinese politician who helped to start the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 and became its leader in 1935, during the Long March. In 1949 he gained control of the government and established the People's Republic of China. He started the Cultural Revolution in 1966. He was one of the most powerful and successful leaders of China, and most Chinese people greatly respected him, had pictures of him in their homes, and had copies of the Little Red Book called The Thoughts of Chairman Mao (1893-1976). or Mao Tse-tung born Dec. 26, 1893, Shaoshan, Hunan province, China died Sept. 9, 1976, Beijing Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, and statesman who led China's communist revolution and served as chairman of the People's Republic of China (1949-59) and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP; 1931-76). The son of a peasant, Mao joined the revolutionary army that overthrew the Qing dynasty but, after six months as a soldier, left to acquire more education. At Beijing University he met Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, founders of the CCP, and in 1921 he committed himself to Marxism. At that time, Marxist thought held that revolution lay in the hands of urban workers, but in 1925 Mao concluded that in China it was the peasantry, not the urban proletariat, that had to be mobilized. He became chairman of a Chinese Soviet Republic formed in rural Jiangxi province; its Red Army withstood repeated attacks from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist army but at last undertook the Long March to a more secure position in northwestern China. There Mao became the undisputed head of the CCP. Guerrilla warfare tactics, appeals to the local population's nationalist sentiments, and Mao's agrarian policies gained the party military advantages against their Nationalist and Japanese enemies and broad support among the peasantry. Mao's agrarian Marxism differed from the Soviet model, but, when the communists succeeded in taking power in China in 1949, the Soviet Union agreed to provide the new state with technical assistance. However, Mao's Great Leap Forward and his criticism of "new bourgeois elements" in the Soviet Union and China alienated the Soviet Union irrevocably; Soviet aid was withdrawn in 1960. Mao followed the failed Great Leap Forward with the Cultural Revolution, also considered to have been a disastrous mistake. After Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping introduced social and economic reforms that began reversing the policies put in place by Mao. See also Jiang Qing; Liu Shaoqi; Maoism

Zedong

Mao Tse-tung

English - Spanish

Definition of mao zedong in English Spanish dictionary

Zedong

Etymology

() * From the historical figure Mao Zedong (毛泽东 - Máo Zédōng), the Chinese communist revolutionary leader.