page_title: Mao Zedong's cult of personality
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Mao Zedong's cult of personality / After his death / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: 中文（简体）‎: 1966年10月1日，毛泽东在天安门城楼上给美国黑人领袖罗伯特·威廉签名。
context_page_description: Mao Zedong's cult of personality was a prominent part of Chairman Mao's rule over the People's Republic of China from his rise in 1949 until his death in 1976. Mass media, propaganda and a series of other techniques were used by the state to elevate Mao Zedong's status to that of an infallible heroic leader, who could stand up against The West, and guide China to become a beacon of Communism.
  During the period of Cultural Revolution, Mao's personality cult soared to an unprecedented height. Mao's face was firmly established on the front page of People's Daily, where a column of his quotes was also printed every day. Mao's Selected Works were later printed in even greater circulation; the number of his portraits was more than the inhabitants in China. And soon Chairman Mao badges began to appear; in total, about 4.8 billion were manufactured. Every Chinese citizen was presented with the Little Red Book - a selection of quotes from Mao. It was prescribed to be carried everywhere and displayed at all public events, and citizens were expected to quote the contents of the book daily.
context_section_description: Elements of his cult of personality continue to exist. He is still the “galleon figure” of Chinese communism, he is still honored, Mao's monuments are still standing in the cities, his image adorns Chinese banknotes, badges and stickers. Moreover - some of Mao's monuments were erected after his death. However, the current cult of Mao among ordinary citizens, especially young people, should rather be attributed to the manifestations of modern pop culture, and not to a conscious worship of this person's thinking and deeds. In fact, Mao Zedong has become a commercial brand in modern China. The chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ye Jianying, in 1979 described Mao Zedong's reign as a “feudal-fascist dictatorship”. Later another assessment was given.
  Comrade Mao Zedong is a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist and theorist. If we consider his life and work as a whole, his merits before the Chinese revolution to a large extent prevail over misses, despite the serious mistakes made by him in the "cultural revolution". His merits occupy the main, and mistakes - a secondary place.
  - CCP Leaders, 1981
  Mao left his successors a country in a deep, comprehensive crisis. After the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, China's economy stagnated, intellectual and cultural life was crushed by left-wing radicals, political culture was completely absent due to excessive public politicization and ideological chaos. The crippled fate of tens of millions of people throughout China who have suffered from senseless and brutal campaigns should be considered a particularly serious legacy of the Mao regime. Estimates of the number of victims of the Maoist regime vary greatly. According to various sources, only half a million died during the cultural revolution up to 20 million people. Another 100 million were affected one way or another in its course. The number of victims of the "Great Leap Forward" was even greater, but since the majority of them were in the rural population, even the approximate number characterizing the scale of the disaster is unknown.
  On the other hand, one cannot fail to admit that Mao, having received an underdeveloped agricultural country, mired in corruption, anarchy and general devastation, in a short time made it a fairly powerful, independent state with atomic weapons. During his reign, the percentage of illiteracy decreased from 80% to 7%, life expectancy increased by 2 times, population has more than doubled, industrial production - more than 10 times. He managed to unite China, and also included Inner Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan. The ideology of Maoism has also had a great influence on the development of leftists, including terrorist movements in many countries of the world — the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the Shining Path in Peru, the revolutionary movement in Nepal, and the communist movements in the US and Europe. Meanwhile, China itself, after the death of Mao, in its economy has moved far from the ideas of Mao Zedong, preserving the communist ideology. The reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping in 1979 and continued by his followers de facto made the Chinese economy capitalistic, with corresponding consequences for domestic and foreign policy.
  In China itself, the persona of Mao is evaluated extremely ambiguously. On the one hand, part of the population sees him as a hero of the Civil War, a strong ruler, a charismatic personality. Some older Chinese people are nostalgic for their confidence in the future, equality and the absence of corruption, which, in their opinion, existed in the era of Mao. On the other hand, many people cannot forgive Mao for the cruelty and mistakes of his massive campaigns, especially the cultural revolution. Today in China, it is allowed to speak openly about the role of Mao in the modern history of the country, discussions about the negative aspects of his rule are allowed, however, too harsh criticism is not welcomed and suppressed. In the PRC, the official formula for evaluating his activity remains the opinion g
caption: Mao and Robert F.Williams
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