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, a turmoil that brought serious disasters to the party, the state and the entire multinational people. " ...

From the decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. China on certain issues in the history of the party, since the founding of the People's Republic of China (1981)

Disagreements in the CPC leadership on the problems of determining the domestic policy and foreign policy orientation of the country reached great acuteness by the end of 1965. Mao Zedong and his supporters advocated a return to the "Yan'an" norms of the political and socio-economic organization of society. Mao Zedong put forward the idea of ​​a class struggle in a socialist society back in 1957, and after the X Plenum of the Central Committee of the CEC of the 8th convocation (1962), he began to propagandize and impose on the country the idea of ​​"sharpening the class struggle", put forward a provision "on the continuation revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. " In this connection, the thesis appeared that some of the CPC members embarked on the path of "revisionism." Moreover, from the very beginning, the struggle against "revisionism" within the country began to be inextricably linked with the struggle against "international revisionism", this concept included the CPSU and. a number of other communist and workers' parties.

Mao Zedong began to emphasize the idea of ​​"the emergence of revisionism in China" from the second half of 1965. He believed that a large number of representatives of the bourgeoisie and "counterrevolutionary revisionists" the proletarian cultural revolution ", it is possible to win back the power usurped" by persons who have power in the party and are following the capitalist path. " Thus, the "cultural revolution" conceived and unleashed by Mao Zedong in 1966 was aimed at eliminating from the governing organon of the party all those who disagree with his policy, primarily supporters of the VIII Congress of the CPC, to impose on the party and people its own scheme of China's development. in the spirit of the leftist concepts of "barracks communism", accelerated construction of socialism, rejection of methods of economic incentives.

These ideas were clearly reflected in the appeals: "In industry, learn from the Daqing oil workers, in agriculture, from the Dazhai production brigade," "The whole country should learn from the army," "Strengthen training in the event of war and natural disasters." At the same time, the inflation of the personality cult of Mao Zedong continued. Constantly violating the principles of collective leadership in the party, Mao Zedong put himself by this time above the Central Committee of the CPC, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the party, often did not discuss with the latter the decisions he made on behalf of the party. It was he who, bypassing the country's party leadership, launched the "cultural revolution" and led it.

Most Chinese scholars divide the history of the Cultural Revolution into three stages.

First step lasted from May 1966 to April 1969 - this was the most active and destructive phase of the "cultural revolution", which ended with the convocation of the IX Congress of the CPC. The reason for the start of the movement was the publication in November 1965 in the Shanghai Wenhui Bao newspaper of Yao Wenyuan's article "On the new edition of the historical drama The Demotion of Hai Rui." The play was written in 1960 by a prominent Chinese historian, Deputy Mayor of Beijing Wu Han. He was accused of telling in his drama about an episode from the history of medieval China, allegedly hinting at the injustice of the persecution and demotion of the Marshal, the former Minister of Defense of the People's Republic of China Peng Dehuai, who in 1959 gave a negative assessment of the Great Leap Forward and the people's communes in PRC. The play was called "anti-socialist poisonous grass" in the article. This was followed by accusations against the leaders of the Beijing City Committee of the CPC and the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the CPC. At the end of 1965, Deputy Minister of Defense of the PRC, Chief of the General Staff of the PLA, Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Luo Ruiqing, accused of "opposing the party" and "usurping power in the army", was removed from his posts.

In May 1966, at an enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, the "Communication of the CPC Central Committee of May 16" was adopted, which outlined the main ideas of Mao Zedong on the "cultural revolution." At the meeting, a number of senior leaders of the party, government and army were sharply criticized and later removed from their posts, including Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, First Secretary of the Beijing City Party Committee Peng Zhen, Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Head of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee Lu Dingyi, candidate for members of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee Yang Shangkun. Then the Group for Cultural Revolution Affairs of the Central Committee of the CPC (hereinafter referred to as the CCP) was created, headed by the former secretary of Mao Zedong, Chen Bo da. Mao's wife Jiang Qing and secretary of the Shanghai City Party Committee Zhang Chunqiao became his deputies, and Kang Sheng, secretary of the CPC Central Committee, who oversaw the state security organs, became an advisor to the Group. The GKR gradually replaced the Politburo and Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and, not without Mao's help, turned into a "headquarters for the cultural revolution."

To suppress the opposition forces in the party, Mao Zedong and his supporters used politically immature youth, from which the assault detachments of the Red Guards were formed (the first Red Guards appeared at the end of May 1966 in a secondary school at Beijing Tsinghua University). In the first "Manifesto" of the hungweipings it was said: “We are the guards protecting the red power, the Central Committee of the party. Chairman Mao is our mainstay. The liberation of all humanity is our responsibility. Mao Zedong's ideas are the highest guidelines in all our actions. We swear that for the sake of protecting the Central Committee, protecting the great leader Chairman Mao, without hesitation, we will give the last drop of blood, we will decisively bring the cultural revolution to the end. "

Classes in schools and universities on the initiative of Mao Zedong were stopped, so that the students would not be prevented from carrying out the "cultural revolution", the persecution of the intelligentsia, party members, and the Komsomol began. Professors, school teachers, literary and art workers, and then prominent party and state workers were taken to the "court of the masses" in clownish caps, beaten, mocked at them, allegedly for their "revisionist actions", but in reality - for independent judgments about the situation in the country, for critical statements about the domestic and foreign policy of the PRC. According to the far from complete data provided by the Beijing branch of the Ministry of State Security, from 23 August to the end of September 1966, the hungweipings in Beijing alone killed 1,722 people, confiscated property from 33,695 families, searched and expelled more than 85,000 people from Beijing. ... By October 3, 1966, 397,400 people, who fell into the category of "evil spirits", had already been expelled from cities throughout the country.

In August 1966, the XI Plenum of the 8th CPC Central Committee was convened, in which many Central Committee members who were victims of persecution did not participate. On August 5, Mao Zedong personally wrote and posted his dazibao in the conference room "Fire on the headquarters!" bourgeoisie ", and called for" fire on staffs ", suggesting to completely crush or paralyze the leading party bodies in the center and in the field, people's committees, mass organizations of working people, and then create new" revolutionary "authorities.

After the "reorganization" of the party leadership, at the plenum of the five deputy chairmen of the party's Central Committee, only one defense minister, Lin Biao, remained, who was referred to as the "successor" of Mao Zedong. As a result of Mao Zedong's flirtations with the hungweipings before and during the plenum (meaning his correspondence with the hungweipings, meetings with them), calls to open "fire on headquarters," the atrocities of the hungweipings after the plenum took on even greater proportions. The defeat of the authorities, public organizations, and party committees began. The hungweipings were essentially placed above the party and state bodies.

Life in the country was disorganized, the economy suffered severe damage, hundreds of thousands of CCP members were repressed, and the persecution of the intelligentsia intensified. Out of 97 members and 73 candidates for members of the CPC Central Committee of the 8th convocation, respectively 60 and 37 were declared "special agents and traitors", "counter-revolutionary revisionist elements", 60 out of 115 members of the Standing Committee of the NPC of the 3rd convocation were slandered as "traitors", " revisionists "," persons maintaining secret ties with abroad. " More than 30 secretaries of city committees of the RShK, mayors and their deputies were repressed, many of them died. More than 2,600 literary and art workers have been victims of repression. Such famous writers as Lao She, Zhao Shuli and dozens of others were killed. In 17 provinces and cities alone, more than 142,000 educational cadres and teachers were defamed. More than 53 thousand people working in the field of science and technology were repressed.

During the years of the "Cultural Revolution," the indictment in the "Quartet" case (1981) said, "a large number of senior officials of the CPC Central Committee's organizational work department, public security bodies at various levels, the prosecutor's office, the court, were persecuted, harassed and destroyed. army, propaganda organs ". According to the document, the victims of the Quartet and Lin Biao were a total of more than 727 thousand people, of which over 34 thousand were “brought to death”. According to official Chinese data, the number of victims of the "cultural revolution" was about 100 million people.

In December 1966, along with the detachments of the hungweipings, detachments of zaofan (rebels) appeared, in which young, usually unskilled workers, students, and employees were involved. They had to transfer the "cultural revolution" to enterprises and institutions, to overcome the resistance of the workers to the hungweipings. But the workers, at the call of the CPC committees, and sometimes even spontaneously rebuffed the outrageous hungweipings and zaofangs, sought to improve their financial situation, went to the capital to present their claims, stopped work, declared strikes, and fought against the pogromists. Such prominent party, state and military leaders as Zhu Te, He Long, Chen Yi and others spoke out against the destruction of the party organs.

To break the resistance of the opponents of the "cultural revolution", a campaign was launched to "seize power." In January 1967, the zaofani of Shanghai, instigated and led by the SCR, in particular by its members Zhang Chunqiao and Yao Wenyuan, seized the party and administrative power in the city. Following this, a wave of "seizure of power" from "those in power and following the capitalist path" swept across China. In Beijing in mid-January, power was "seized" in 300 departments and institutions. Party committees and authorities were charged with the fact that for 17 years since the founding of the PRC, they sought to "restore capitalism", "instilled revisionism."

The “seizure of power” was carried out with the help of the army, which suppressed resistance and exercised control over communications, prisons, warehouses, storage and distribution of secret documents, banks, and central archives. To support the "rebels", special units were allocated, as there was dissatisfaction in the army with the atrocities of the hungweipings and zaofangs. This was confirmed by the Wuhan events of the summer of 1967.

But the plan to "seize power" was not quickly implemented. Workers' strikes widened, and there were widespread clashes with the Zaofangs, as well as clashes between the various organizations of the Hungweipings and the Zaofangs. As Chinese historians write, “China has become a state where chaos and terror reigned. Party and government bodies at all levels were paralyzed. Leading cadres and intellectuals with knowledge and experience were persecuted. "

In January 1967, the creation of new anti-constitutional bodies of local government - "revolutionary committees" began. At first, the leaders of the hungweipings and the zaofang gained predominance in them, which aroused the discontent of the party workers and the military. In the center and in the localities, the political struggle intensified, in a number of areas clashes took place between military units and organizations of the hungweipings and zaofan. At the end of the summer of 1967, military control was actually established in the country.

The XII Plenum of the CPC Central Committee held in October 1968, which was attended by about a third of the Central Committee, since the rest were repressed by that time, sanctioned all actions of the "cultural revolution", "forever" expelled from the party on the basis of fabricated accusations of the President of the PRC Liu Shaoqi and dismissed him from all posts, approved the draft of the new Constitution of the CPC. Intensive preparations began for the convocation of the Ninth Congress of the CPC.

The IX Congress of the CPC (April 1969), to which delegates were not elected, but appointed, approved and legalized all the actions taken in the country in 1966-1969. In the main report presented at the congress by Lin Biao, an orientation was put forward for the continuation of the purge of party organizations and state institutions, which began in the spring of 1968. The entire history of the party was presented as the struggle of the "Mao Zedong line" against various "deviators", including Wang Ming, Gao Gang, Peng Dehuai, and especially Liu Shaoqi. The Ninth Congress approved a course towards "continuous revolution", towards preparations for war.

The new Party Regulations adopted by the congress, in contrast to the Regulations adopted by the VIII Congress of the CPC in 1956, did not define the party's tasks in the field of economic and cultural development, improving the life of the people, and developing democracy. The "ideas of Mao Zedong" were proclaimed as the theoretical basis of the CPC's activities. The programmatic part of the Charter contained a provision on the appointment of Lin Biao as the "successor" of Mao Zedong. As the Chinese historian Li Honglin emphasized, the "successor" clause characteristic of monarchist absolutism was introduced into the CPC charter by Kang Sheng, who considered it an "innovative phenomenon" in the history of the international communist movement. “It really was 'innovation' in the sense that there hasn't been such a strange phenomenon since the inception of the international communist movement,” wrote Li Honglin. "It is difficult to say how" great significance "it had for the whole world, but it had a truly great influence on the fate of China, bringing the country to the brink of disaster."

The Decision on Certain Issues in the History of the CPC, adopted by the VI Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee (June 1981), states: , Kang Sheng and others in the Central Committee of the party. "

Second phase"Cultural Revolution" - from IX to X Congress of the CPC - began in May 1969 and ended in August 1973.

Some leaders who managed to maintain their positions demanded adjustments to extremist attitudes in the field of economics, taking into account the urgent needs of the country's development. On their initiative, from the beginning of the 70s. elements of planning, distribution according to work, material incentives began to be carefully introduced. Measures were also taken to improve the management of the national economy and the organization of production. There have been some changes in cultural policy, although tight control over cultural life remains.

1970-1971 events took place that reflected a new crisis within the Chinese leadership. In March 1970, Mao Zedong decided to revise the Constitution of the PRC, proposing the abolition of the post of Chairman of the PRC. However, Lin Biao and Chen Boda spoke in favor of retaining the post of President of the PRC. In August 1970, the Second Plenum of the 9th CPC Central Committee was held in Lushan. Lin Biao and Chen Boda reiterated the need to retain the presidency of the PRC in the new version of the PRC Constitution. A struggle flared up at the plenum. Mao Zedong wrote the document "My Opinion" on August 31, 1970, in which he sharply criticized Chen Boda's views, stating that the latter "carried out a surprise attack, engaged in provocative activities." After that, Chen Boda was criticized and an investigation was announced against him. Immediately after the Second Plenum of the Party Central Committee, it decided to start a campaign of "criticizing Chen Boda and streamlining the style." On November 16, 1970, the Central Committee issued "Instructions on the question of Cheng Boda's anti-party activities," which stated that he was a "false Marxist", "intriguer", "careerist" and "anti-party element."

The Second Plenum of the 9th CPC Central Committee was a manifestation of serious political clashes in the leadership of the PRC, which led to the "September crisis" of 1971. "Lin Biao and his supporters tried to create public opinion at the Second Plenum of the Central Committee that would facilitate their seizure of power," write Chinese historians ... “Having failed, they devised a plan for a coup d'état. However, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai defeated this conspiracy. "

Following the disappearance of Chen Boda from the political arena in September 1971, Defense Minister Lin Biao and a group of military leaders (six of them were members of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee) disappeared. According to the Chinese side, Lin Biao died on September 13, 1971 in a plane crash near Underkhan on the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic, trying to escape abroad after a failed coup. This was followed by a new purge in the army, during which tens of thousands of officers were repressed. From October 1971, Marshal Ye Jianying became responsible for the day-to-day work of the Military Council of the CPC Central Committee. A campaign of "criticizing Lin Biao and streamlining the style" was launched in the country.

In March 1973, the CPC Central Committee decided to rehabilitate the former General Secretary of the Central Committee Deng Xiaoping and reinstate him as Deputy Premier of the State Council. The process of restoring the activities of the Komsomol, trade unions, and the women's federation, which began in 1972, was intensified. Provincial congresses of the KSMK were held.

Domestic political problems were in the center of attention of the Tenth Congress of the CPC (August 1973). The congress unanimously condemned Lin Biao and Chen Boda, called on “to continue to conduct the movement for criticizing Lin Biao and streamlining his style,” in fact, substantiated the inevitability of an internal struggle in the CCP. The congress recognized the line of the "cultural revolution" as correct, guided the party and the people to continue the previous political course, the theoretical basis of which was Mao Zedong's instructions on "continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat", on "sharpening the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie." “The 10th Congress continued the leftist mistakes of the 9th Congress and nominated Wang Hongwen to the post of deputy chairman of the Party Central Committee,” reads the “Decision” of the 6th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee. , which strengthened the forces of Jiang Ching's counter-revolutionary group. "

At the same time, the congress authorized measures aimed at resuming the activities of the NPC, trade union and youth organizations, in fact approved the rehabilitation of part of the party and administrative cadres, including Deng Xiaoping, who was elected a member of the Central Committee, and in January 1975 became one of the deputies. Chairman of the CPC Central Committee. In the communiqué of the congress, some leftist attitudes of 1966-1969 were omitted, the implementation of which caused heavy damage to the country's economy.

Third stage The "cultural revolution" lasted from September 1973 to October 1976, that is, from the X Congress of the CPC to the defeat of the "counter-revolutionary" "gang of four" led by Jiang Qing, which marked the end of the "cultural revolution."

Despite the compromise reached at the 10th Congress between the various forces in the CPC, the situation in the country remained unstable. At the beginning of 1974, at the suggestion of Jiang Qing, Wang Hongwen and their supporters and approved by Mao Zedong, a new nationwide political and ideological campaign "criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius" was launched. It began with appearances in the press aimed at debunking Confucianism and praising Legism, an ancient Chinese ideological trend that reigned under Emperor Qin Shihuang, the head of the first common Chinese despotism (3rd century BC). A specific feature of the campaign, like some of the previous ones, was the appeal to historical analogies, to arguments from the field of Chinese political thought in order to solve urgent ideological and political problems.

In January 1975, after a 10-year hiatus, the 1st session of the 4th NPC was convened, which adopted the new Constitution of the PRC. The constitution was the result of a compromise:
on the one hand, it included installations from 1966-1969. (including appeals to "prepare in case of war"), on the other hand, it secured the right of the members of the "communes" to household plots, did not recognize the production team (and not the "commune") as the main self-supporting unit, provided for the need for a gradual increase in material and cultural standard of living of the people, wages.

The NPC session formed the highest state authorities of the PRC. The NPC Standing Committee includes the chairman - Zhu De and 22 of his deputies, most of them the oldest cadres (Dong Biu, Liu Bocheng, Nie Rongzhen, Xu Xiangqian, Song Qingling, Chen Yun, Tan Zhenlin). At the same time, supporters of Jiang Qing (Kai Sheng, Wu Te) also joined the government. The highest posts in the army were also distributed among representatives of rival factions in the Chinese leadership.

Soon after the conclusion of the NPC session, the nominees of the "Cultural Revolution" made another attempt to consolidate their positions. To this end, on the initiative of Mao Zedong at the turn of 1974-1975. a campaign was launched under the slogan of the struggle "for the study of the theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat." An important task of this campaign was the struggle against those representatives of the CPC leadership (Zhou Enlai, Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping) who advocated the need to increase attention to economic development and the use of more rational methods of managing the national economy.
In the course of the new political campaign, distribution according to work, the right to personal plots, commodity-money relations were declared "bourgeois law", which must be "limited", that is, to introduce equalization. Under the guise of a new campaign, the economic interests of the working people were infringed upon in many industrial enterprises and "communes". In a number of cases, material incentives were abolished, overtime work was practiced, and household plots were liquidated. All this aroused massive discontent among the working people, workers' strikes, and peasant unrest.

After a serious illness in January 1976, the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai died. In April of the same year, during a ceremony dedicated to his memory, there were mass demonstrations in the main square of Beijing - Tiananmen. Participants in the speeches condemned the activities of Jiang Qing and other members of the Cultural Revolution Group and demanded their removal. Later, assessing these events, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the mass demonstrations in Tiananmen Square, although spontaneous in nature, were still a movement that firmly supported the party leadership and opposed the Quartet.

After these events, a new wave of repression swept through. ”Deng Xiaoping was removed from all posts, and Minister of Public Security Hua Guofeng became the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. In China, a new political campaign was launched "to combat the right-wing fad of revising the correct conclusions of the Cultural Revolution," the spearhead of which was directed against Deng Xiaoping and his supporters. A new round of struggle began against "persons in power and following the capitalist path." After the speeches in Tiananmen Square, the People's Daily wrote: “The incident has even more convincingly proved that the bourgeoisie is just inside the Communist Party itself. If earlier some people did not understand that those following the capitalist path are precisely the inner-party bourgeoisie, which is the main object of the continuation of the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, then the counter-revolutionary political incident on Tiananmen Square made them realize this. "

On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died at the age of 83 in Beijing. The death of Mao Zedong and the subsequent events associated with the arrest and removal at the initiative of Marshal Ye Jianying from the power of the Quartet - Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen, were an important milestone in Chinese history. They put an end to the largest political campaign in the PRC, which lasted 10 years and brought so much grief and sacrifice to the Chinese people - the "cultural revolution." A new stage in the country's development began.

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ABOUT THE ANTI-CONFUCIAN CHARACTER OF THE "CULTURAL REVOLUTION" IN CHINA (1966-1976)

Gutsulyak Oleg Borisovich
Vasil Stefanyk Precarpathian National University (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)

ON ANTI-CONFUCIAN CHARACTER OF THE "CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION" (1966-1976)

Gutsulyak Oleg Borisovich
PreCarpathian National University named Vasyl Stefanyk (Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine)

Earlier, in the article [Gutsulyak, 2013], the author examined the philosophical and worldview foundations of the formation of the national version of the Chinese communist ideology, where the conclusion is made about the significant influence of the Taoist tradition on it, the use of Taoist principles in the ideological practice of the CCP in the 1920s and 1970s is analyzed. XX century in order to legitimize its position of power, as well as the phenomenon of the ruling regime's competition with the neo-Daoist sects for influence in the ideological sphere. If we consider the history of modern China in the historical aspect traditional for China itself, it turns out that the 20th century, like the previous ones, was also filled with religious wars. But if earlier religion was a cover for social confrontation, now the actual ideology of social confrontation (antagonistic classes, Periphery - Center, etc.) is a cover for religious-metaphysical confrontation. In particular, it proposes a view according to which, at the beginning of its spread in China, the communist idea appeared in the form of a kind of “new neo-Daoism doctrine”, as if developing the line of “neo-Daoism” (“xuan xue”), which recognized the participation of everyone in social and state life.

This text continues the analysis of the relationships, influences and confrontations of ideologemes and principles used by different factions of Chinese communists from traditional culture - Taoism, Neo-Daoism, Confucianism and Neo-Confucianism.

During a search of the apartment of the escaped "traitor" Marshal Lin Biao (1907-1971), who was the Minister of Defense of the PRC, the only Deputy Chairman of the CPC Central Committee and was officially called the "Successor of Chairman Mao", numerous clippings and extracts from classical Confucian texts were found. Lin Biao allegedly exchanged with his associates. Mao Zedong's supporters could not help but use such "weighty evidence" to "incriminate" not only Lin Biao as reactionary, but also Master Kung himself. Moreover, there was a weighty reason for the struggle against the cultural heritage of the latter. Mao Zedong had long needed to eradicate from the minds of the people those Confucian ideas that were incompatible with his ideal of a ruler and a cadre communist worker. He has long been worried about the traditional strength of family ties, which determines the role of the family and the older generation in many issues. Respect for parents, respect for elders has always been one of the distinguishing features of the Chinese nation, in which Confucius played a significant role, one of the main tenets of whose teachings was the idea of ​​xiao - "filial piety." Under the conditions of the Maoist regime, which sought to subjugate the individual and break traditional family ties, national stereotypes began to interfere with the upbringing of a new generation. And if earlier denunciation of parents was declared a meritorious act, now all the "extra" moral foundations of Chinese society were subject to complete transformation.

From the very beginning of the campaign, the new magazine Xuexi Yu Pipan (Study and Criticism), which reflected the views of the promoters of the Cultural Revolution, took an active part in criticizing Confucius and praising the legists, which began to appear in October 1973 in Shanghai. In addition, the Peking University Bulletin and the pseudonymous authors of Peking University, Tsinghua University and other educational institutions played an active role in fueling the campaign. A little later, at the beginning of 1974, the "Journal of Literature, Philosophy and History" was also involved in active "polemical" work, the authors of which attacked with fierce criticism the "bourgeois careerist, conspirator, double-dealer, traitor and traitor Lin Biao" and his spiritual the teacher of Confucius, who at one time "showed indicative reactionaryism, advocating the preservation of the decaying slave system." In late 1973 - early 1974, the second stage of the campaign began, when the broad masses of the people acted as the main critics of Confucius. In higher educational institutions, special courses were organized that prepared programs of criticism of certain provisions of Confucius used by Lin Biao. Tens of thousands of workers and peasants attended these courses, adding to the ranks of the "Marxist theoreticians". The involvement of the lower strata was stimulated by outright flirtation with the broad masses: in the Chinese press, more and more often they began to quote Mao's dictum that “the lowest and the smallest are the smartest. The highest and honored are the stupidest. " Dozens of pamphlets have been issued criticizing the sayings of Confucius used by Lin Biao. In millions of copies with a price of one fen, popular prints were distributed, which were a simplified critical commentary on the sayings of Confucius. During the campaign of "criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius", the educational process in schools and universities of the country, which began in 1970-1971, was interrupted. Curricula were again condemned for the lack of implementation of the "right ideas". Confucius was reprimanded for forcing Chinese schoolchildren to read books instead of working in the fields, that he promoted the idea of ​​"growing talent" instead of teaching how to grow vegetables. From this it followed that the ideas of Confucius, which Lin Biao shared, prevented the fusion of schoolchildren with the masses of workers and peasants. Confucius was condemned for allegedly trying to instill in students a spirit of respect for the past, trying to educate a spiritual aristocracy. The Teacher's reputation as an "eternal enlightener", as an "eternal model for all teachers" was declared artificial [Criticism of Lin Biao and Confucius].

Allegedly, the praise of the pedagogical ideas of Confucius was done with the aim of pursuing a revisionist line in order to "emasculate the class nature of proletarian enlightenment." Liu Shaoqi, Lin Biao and others like them allegedly "wanted to turn our educational institutions into places of preparation for the bourgeois change." This threat has not disappeared, because despite the fact that "the old bourgeois, revisionist system of transformation is bursting at all seams, however, in the process of its development, the new will certainly encounter stubborn resistance from the old ideology, old traditions and old habits." (Quoted from: [Delyusin, 2004, 165]).

However, it seemed to the organizers of the campaign that for greater effect, a specialist in the study of Confucianism, a supporter of Confucius' ideas, who is recognized on a global scale, should act with criticism of Confucius. The choice fell on Professor Feng Yulan, the Kuomintang ideologist and creator of the "new neo-Confucianism" who remained on the mainland. To persuade the old professor to abandon his usual assessments was only within the power of an opponent who possessed not only supreme power, but also the same authority. After several nocturnal conversations with Mao Zedong, Feng Yulan publicly revised his views in the People's Daily. The scientist's repentance had a stunning resonance: in Japan, Feng's speech was compared to the explosion of an atomic bomb [Perelomov, 1976, 71]. Feng Yulan became an advisor to the most radical group (the Group / Proletarian Headquarters for the Cultural Revolution under the CPC Central Committee, 1966-1976), which included Jiang Qing (Mao Zedong's wife), which launched a well-known campaign to “cover up Confucius’s shop”, “critics Confucius and Lin Biao ”and“ for streamlining the style ”, referring to the legist (“ fajia ”) tradition. The campaign was accompanied by a direct appeal to the authority of Qin Shi Huangdi, who in China since the time of the "Cultural Revolution" has become one of the main national heroes [Wang Ming, 1979, 241-258], and the legal doctrine of Shang Yang (390-338 BC) was extolled due to the fact that the laws adopted on its basis by the Taoist Emperor Qin Shihuang-di provided the people with a happy life for ten years: no one appropriated the lost on the road things, there were no bandits or thieves, every family, every person enjoyed wealth [Krymov. 1972, 192-193].

The traitor Lin Biao, for example, was accused of "compromising" with the position of Confucius, who preached morality, humanity, honesty, loyalty and concern for others, while "revolutionary violence" and "dictatorship of the proletariat" were needed, and accusations of adherence to Lin Biao and his supporters of the tactics of subsequent Confucians (Chen Hao, Chen Yi, Zhu Xi) "zhongyong" - "to keep the golden mean" in the face of the struggle between the "red banner of Mao's ideas" and the revisionism of the Soviet social-imperialists [Wang Ming, 1979, 289], or even generally accused of a capitulating position before the USSR, by analogy with the Confucians of the Western Han dynasty in their relationship with the northern tribes (Renmin Ribao, 1974, May 18): “... it is the abandonment of the principles of virtue and the solution of problems by military means. They said that there were no root reasons for the clash and blamed several influential courtiers for everything, who set up the emperor for war, arguing that it was inevitable. They yelled that the war of resistance was disastrous for the state, that the lands on the border were useless for us, that a large army would be an irreplaceable burden on the people. They offered to withdraw the troops and end the clash at the border. The Confucians argued that there should be agreement between the two great states and offered to destroy the fortifications on the border and start negotiations with the Huns on the basis of mutually beneficial terms. In addition, they wanted to conclude a reactionary political alliance with the Sünnu aggressors "(Quoted for: [Tikhvinsky, 1976, 317-318]), while the Legists were resolutely in favor of intensifying the preparations for war, advocated that "the war should be destroyed by war."

Taking into account that in July 1973, Mao Zedong criticized the work of the Foreign Ministry, which was subordinate to Zhou Enlai, and in December criticized the activities of the Military Council of the CPC Central Committee under the leadership of Ye Jianying, Jiang Qing decided to take advantage of this and direct the spearhead of her attacks on Zhou. Enlai and other veterans of the revolution. In one of her speeches, she openly stated that "at present there is one solid follower of Confucius" and this "modern Confucian must be criticized." (Quoted for: [Usov, 2005, vol. 2, 214]). In early 1974, Jiang Qing stated, “And now there is a great Confucian. This is not Liu Shaoqi or Lin Biao. " In the article "What kind of man is Confucius", published in the seventh issue of 1974 of the magazine "Hongqi", such a portrait of an ancient sage was drawn, which reminded the reader of the portrait of Zhou Enlai. The historical facts in it have been perverted to give the portrait of Confucius more resemblance to Zhou Enlai. So, in this article, Confucius appeared at the age of 71 (that is how many years he was the Prime Minister of the State Council of the People's Republic of China). He was seriously ill, which also made me remember Zhou Enlai, and if the reader was well acquainted with ancient history, then he knew that Confucius at this age was not sick. To make the portrait of Confucius even more similar to Zhou Enlai, the "unbending hand" was mentioned, which everyone who saw the Chinese prime minister knew about [Delyusin, 2004, 158].

Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai was accused of belonging to the bureaucratic stratum ("shenshi") of the feudal class in the hungweiping publications (dazibao), and it was also indicated that the family name of the prime minister was identical (identical hieroglyphs) with the name of the reactionary Zhou dynasty (XI-VIII centuries. BC), whose restoration was supported by Confucius. For several days and nights, Zhou Enlai was besieged by the hungweipings at his residence and it took a lot of work to convince the thugs who rushed in to him that he was pursuing precisely the "line of Chairman Mao." The walls of Beijing were inscribed with calls to "burn Zhou Enlai alive", "smash the black bandit Zhou's dog's head," etc., by order of Jiang Qing, Zhou Enlai's adopted daughter, actress and director Sun Weishi, was arrested and subsequently tortured in prison [China, 1991, 56-57].

Such covert and at the same time purposeful persecution of Zhou Enlai was not accidental. After Lin Biao's death, the Prime Minister of the State Council of the People's Republic of China took the initiative into his own hands and initiated a program of "criticizing revisionism and correcting work style", during which it was again supposed to blame Lin Biao (who was portrayed as " leftist ") and return the political and economic development of the PRC at least to the level of 1966. However, criticism of the" leftism ", the desire to return to the leading positions of the" old guard ", in particular Deng Xiaoping, could not but alert the nominees of the" cultural revolution ", the legitimacy of stay whose power was henceforth questioned. It was these political realities that forced them to group around Jiang Qing, who did not intend to surrender her positions without a fight. [ Forster, 1986].

Russian researcher Lev Delyusin believed that on the ground they were passive, formally referring to the campaign of "critics of Lin Biao and Confucius," and sabotaged it. Did the researcher make such a conclusion based on the fact that articles periodically appeared in the People's Daily and Hongqi? from which it was clear that in Beijing they were not satisfied with the course of the campaign of "criticism of Lin Biao and Confucius" on the ground. “Therefore, it is no coincidence that from time to time from Beijing there were complaints and reproaches against those who tried to change the direction of the campaign and give it different forms and goals. The distortion of the meaning of the campaign against Lin Biao and Confucius was combined with attempts to disrupt it through formal open statements about the importance of this campaign, and in practice - to curtail it and deal with specific cases. Finally, there were also quite a few workers who were simply tired of the endless shouting of meaningless slogans. " [Delyusin, 2004, 179]. A similar point of view is shared by the prominent Russian sinologist V.N.Usov, according to whom the initiative to convene mass rallies was met with a cool reception on the ground. It was ignored by 11 provincial party committees, party committees of 7 large and 16 provincial military districts, 14 provincial committees of the KSMK, the federation of unions and the women's federation of 13 provinces [Usov, 2005, vol. 2, 214]. However, when considering Western historiography, it becomes obvious that the relationship between the central and local authorities looked far from so unambiguous. American researcher Keith Forster, examining in detail the company "Critics of Lin Biao and Kofnutsiya" on the specific example of Zhejiang province, using the regional periodicals of the company's times as sources, came to the conclusion that there was a balance between the two levels of government, central and local, during this period, and cases of disobedience of local governments to the central government were the exception rather than the rule [ Forster, 1986].

Even earlier, a Chinese Marxist and the leader of the CPC in the early 1920s came out with sharp criticism of Confucianism, against its concepts of honesty and chastity, and against the moral principles of politics. XX century Chen Duxiu: "... While defending democracy, one cannot but wage a struggle against Confucianism" (Quoted for: [Krymov, 1972, 306]). And further: “... If we build a state and society on the basis of Confucian principles ... this means that neither a republican constitution, nor reform, nor a new policy, nor a new formation is needed, then blood was shed in vain for the revolution, for parliament and laws ... This means a return to the old regime "(Quoted for: [Krymov, 1972, 317]). Another Chinese Marxist, Li Dazhao, also in articles opposed the attempt to include the following article in the text of the Chinese constitution: "Moral improvement in accordance with the teachings of Confucius is the basis of national enlightenment." [Krymov, 1972, 313]... The Marxist writer Lu Xin also criticized the “cannibalistic morality” of Confucius: “... If we want to achieve progress and prosperity,” he wrote, “it is necessary to finally eradicate the“ dual ideology ”. No matter how great the earth is, there should be no place on it for the wandering ”(Quoted for: [Krymov, 1972, 315]).

The Marxist criticism of Confucianism was also inspired by the fact of the existence of similar harsh criticism from the outside. Mo-tzu (468-376 BC) - the founder of his own teaching (Moism) [ see: Titarenko, 1985].

And the so-called. the subsequent “great proletarian cultural revolution” was also considered an important stage in this anti-Confucian movement. Mao Zedong motivated this with the following considerations.

“... In China, factory industry arose under the influence of foreign capital and the imperialist policy of the colonial powers, when the lower forms of entrepreneurship and capitalism had far from exhausted their historical role. It took shape in the conditions of a slow decomposition of the subsistence economy, with the preservation of precapitalist and, in part, early capitalist relations, when the impoverishment of the countryside significantly outstripped the formation of the working class, and the absence of a single national market predetermined the underdevelopment of the labor market. In the 1920s and 1940s, capitalism began to determine the life of Chinese cities, especially on the coast (Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, Hebei and Liaoning, - O. G.) ... Features of the development of capitalism in China defined the originality of the process of the formation of the industrial proletariat. The first and most important specific feature of this process was the simultaneous existence of historically different categories of workers while preserving their predominant mass in the simplest forms of capitalist production. Among the working class of China, one can distinguish handicraftsmen ..., factory workers and, finally, factory workers, or the industrial proletariat itself ... The labor movement not only did not go beyond the framework of the national liberation struggle of the entire Chinese people, but also did not acquire independent national significance ... work among the working class was carried out mainly by the Kuomintang and "yellow" trade unions, but not by the CCP ... It is significant that by the time of the victory of the revolution, only 4% of party members considered themselves to be workers. The CPC's weak ties with the labor movement did not contribute to a clearer awareness of the workers of their special class interests and the historical tasks of the labor movement ... " [ Worker, 1978, pp. 6, 8, 9, 13, 14].

After the formation of the PRC in the official doctrine of the CPC, it was believed that in China, unlike Russia, the bourgeoisie, keeping the ideals of Confucianism, like the rest of the Chinese people, was oppressed by foreign imperialism and local feudal lords, and therefore it should be considered as an ally of the CPC. and not as an enemy and, accordingly, do not push her away [China, 1991, 145-146]. The national flag of the PRC - four stars located in a semicircle around a large star, symbolizing the CPC, personified the working class, peasantry, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie.

Mao Zedong called this form of cooperation between the classes "new democracy" ("xinminzhuzhui"), indicating that in this way the free development of private capital will be ensured, and the volume of foreign investment in all sectors of the economy "will be unusually large." This doctrine of "new democracy" was officially proclaimed at the 7th Congress of the CPC in 1945. True, the consolation was offered that "new democracy" is only a transitional stage to socialism. "... Under the leadership of the state economy, which has a socialist character, through cooperation, to rebuild the individual economy and through state capitalism to rebuild the private capitalist economy - this is the main way of transforming a new democratic society into a socialist" (Resolution of the II Plenum of the CPC Central Committee in March 1949, Sibaipo village , Hebei province), then confirmed in the resolution of the Central Committee of the CPC "Theses on the propaganda of the general line of the party in the transition period" (December, 1953) [ Worker, 1978, 29].

Accordingly, Mao Tsedong on May 5, 1966, at the XI Plenum of the 8th CPC Central Committee, personally wrote and posted his dazibao in the conference room "Fire at the headquarters!" In September 1966, Mao's closest associate, Defense Minister Lin Biao, said: “... The main goal of the current movement is to get to those party members who, while in power, follow the capitalist path. To subject the headquarters to artillery fire means to expose a handful of people following the capitalist path to artillery fire ”(Quoted for: [Burlatsky, 1967, 13]). In November 1967, in the newspaper People's Daily, the specific head of the "headquarters of the counter-revolution" was indicated: the proletarian headquarters headed by Chairman Mao began a fierce battle with the bourgeois headquarters ... A close ally of Chairman Mao, Comrade Lin Biao, holding high the red banner of Mao Tse-tung's ideas, at this meeting confirmed the absolute authority of Chairman Mao and the ideas of Mao Zedong, and the Chinese chief revisionist ( Liu Shaoqi - O.G.) launched a fierce attack on Chairman Mao and the ideas of Mao Tse-tung at the meeting. He exclaimed, beside himself with anger: “To oppose Chairman Mao is to oppose an individual ... After the conference, the Chinese chief revisionist gathered his anti-party scholars and, with tenfold fury, intensified his conspiratorial activities of counter-revolutionary restoration, secretly preparing public opinion for the usurpation of power in the party and state "(Quoted for: [Burlatsky, 1968, 5]). The object of criticism at the end of 1966 was Liu Shaoqi's book, “On the Work of Communists on Oneself,” published back in 1939, where it was allegedly stated that the main questions of principle were resolved by Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, and therefore no special “Sinification of Marxism” necessary. On May 8, 1966, Jiefangjun Bao published Gao Ju's article "Let's Open Fire on Anti-Party and Anti-Socialist Bandits." The latter included Deng To, secretary of the Beijing CPC City Committee, editor-in-chief of Qianxian magazine (formerly editor-in-chief of People's Daily), and Liao Mosha, philosopher and literary critic, head of the United Front Department of the Beijing CPC City Committee. On May 10, 1966, Yao Wenyuan published a long article "on the reactionary nature" of the collections of feuilletons and parables by Deng To "Evening Talks at the Foot of Yanshan" in Shanghai publications and "Notes from the Village of Three" written by Deng To in collaboration with Wu Han and Liao Mosha. A year earlier, Wu Han, a writer and vice-mayor of Beijing, was ostracized for his play "Demoralizing Hai Rui," which allegedly justified the "right-wing opportunists" led by Peng Dehuai, convicted at the 8th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee (Lushan. July-August 1959 G.). For example, Deng To was accused of the fact that he “... cynically called the Marxist-Leninist scientific thesis“ wind from the East overcomes the wind from the West ”as“ verbiage ”, thus he“ ... scolds not a children's poem, but the ideological weapon of our party ”( Quote for: [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 18-19]). The poet Yang Shu, who worked in the propaganda department of the same Beijing City Communist Party Committee, for the lines "People are waiting for spring, and soon they will be warmed by the rays of the spring sun" and "Plum blossom is the herald of the coming Spring. Gardens are full of spring flowers. Her arrival is near! " was accused of "betraying his hopes for the restoration of capitalism this spring" (Quoted for: [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 20-21]). The deputy head of the department of agitation and propaganda, Zhou Yang, was accused of "... in the field of literature and art he imposed the ideas of the Russian bourgeois literary critics Belinsky, Dobrolyubov and Chernyshevsky, and in the field of theater - the Stanislavsky system" (Quoted for: [Burlatsky, 1968, 8]). Rector of Peking University and Party Secretary Lu Ping was similarly ostracized as the leader of the "monarchist group." [Burlatsky. 1968, 7]... One of the students of the chemistry department wrote: "I came to the university to master the ideas of the reddest of all red suns - Chairman Mao, and Lu Ping demanded that we study formulas that no one needed" (Quote for: [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 26]). Law students accused the teachers of the lack of a course that would systematically and comprehensively introduce the works of Mao Zedong. "... The course of Peking University in the field of education," the People's Daily declared on June 4, 1966, "as the broad masses of university students discovered, was aimed not at preparing the successors of the revolution, but at preparing a change of the bourgeoisie" (Quote for: [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 30]). Groups of articles followed, hinting that Deng To, Wu Han, Liao Mosh, Yang Shu, Lu Ping, and others had high patrons. Soon they were "found" in the person of a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, first secretary of the Beijing City Committee of the CPC, Ping Zhen, who was relieved of his posts by the decision of the CPC Central Committee on May 25, 1966 (Li Xuefeng, who replaced him, was also soon accused and removed from office) ... He was accused of disseminating, in February 1966, within the party within the party prepared in the department of agitation and propaganda of the Central Committee of the CPC "Theses of the report of the group of five on the affairs of the cultural revolution on the current scientific discussion", where he called for a discussion on scientific problems in the spirit of the course "let all compete scientists "so that the disputing parties do not stick labels to each other, do not resort to administration, but strive to learn the truth, because" before the truth, everyone is equal ", the enemy must be suppressed not only politically, but also in scientific and professional terms. Although the document was guided by similar words of Mao Zedong himself, spoken by him in 1957, now the Communication of the Central Committee of the CPC of May 16, 1966 disavowed the "February theses" and the words previously spoken on behalf of the Central Committee of the CPC by the candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPC Lu Dini, that "... the people have not only freedom to propagate materialism, but also freedom to propagate idealism," which were described as preparing public opinion for the restoration of capitalism [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 22-24, 37]... Since September 1967, Tao Zhu, a member of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and head of all ideological work in the Central Committee, has been the object of "great criticism" with the stigma of "counter-revolutionary double-dealing". Yao Wenyuan, in the fourteenth issue of the Hongqi Party magazine, published a devastating article "On the Two Books of Tao Zhu" (Ideal, 1962; Teaching, 1964).

During the 11th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee on August 5, 1966, Mao Zedong wrote a new dazibao: “… for more than 50 days, some of the leading comrades in the center and in the field went in a completely opposite direction. Taking a reactionary bourgeois position, they exercised the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and tried to suppress the turbulent movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution. Distorting the true state of affairs and presenting black as white, they organized punitive campaigns against the revolutionaries, clamped down on dissidents, established white terror, rejoiced at their imaginary successes and, as a result, fanned the arrogance of the bourgeoisie and reduced the morale of the proletariat. How despicable! " (Quoted for: [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 29]). The CPC Central Committee's decision to reorganize the Beijing City Party Committee was touted as "a new victory for Mao Zedong's ideas" and was presented as the result of the will of the people, the initiative of the broad masses.

The events in Beijing and Lin Biao's speeches served as a signal for the start of mass exposures and the campaign of "four purges" (political, ideological, organizational and economic) throughout the country, collectively called the "movement for socialist education." July 17, 1967 People's Daily reprints Lu Xin's article "The time has not yet come for the noble game," written back in 1925 and directed against the counter-revolutionaries ("Beat the dog that has fallen into the water!"). “We, the proletarian revolutionaries,” the editorial commentary states, “must keep in our memory the words of Lu Xin and, just as mercilessly as those who“ beat a dog that fell into the water, ”launch mass criticism and struggle against a handful of the most prominent figures in the party. in power and walking the capitalist path ... They are paper tigers, but not dead. They will remain living tigers until our criticism finally overturns and discredits them ... If we lose our vigilance and do not launch mass criticism, they may carry out restoration, unite counter-revolutionary forces and drown the working people in blood "( Quote for: [Bovin, Delusine, 1968, 123]). At the same time, it was called upon to learn from the People's Liberation Army, to take up "military affairs", to carry out general arming of the people and to strengthen preparations in case of war ("Trust the Liberation Army, rely on the Liberation Army, learn from the Liberation Army!", "Introduce the spirit of the Army!" ). In essence, this was a repetition of the slogans of the August (1958) enlarged meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee ("The situation in which the whole people are soldiers inspires and gives more courage") and the famous statement of the Great Helmsman "The rifle gives rise to power!" In May 1965, the so-called. The "revolutionization" of the armed forces, which meant the abolition of military ranks and insignia under the pretext of further "strengthening the ties of commanders with the masses." At enterprises and institutions, "political departments" began to be created, which were formed from army personnel. At the beginning of 1967, the establishment of "direct military / army control" over party and state bodies was officially announced. [Burlatsky, 1968, 17-18], up to county offices, and rural communes and below were placed under the control of the militia. The slogan "Arming the organization, revolutionizing the worldview, increasing the political activity of rural brigades" was thrown in the village. The report "Implementation of the military system at a factory is the way of managing socialist enterprises" described the situation at a tractor factory in Jiangxi province, and the establishment of a military production management system in the fourth workshop of the factory. 380 shop workers were brought together in three companies. The company is headed by the company commander, his deputy, political instructor and his deputy. Grassroots subdivision - a branch, which has 10-12 people. "... Implementation of the military control system," wrote the Jiangxi Ribao of September 18, 1968, "fully meets the conditions of an industrial enterprise," "the military system in the workshop is a great victory for Chairman Mao's ideas regarding the construction of a proletarian army at industrial enterprises." In addition, as the People's Daily wrote on March 19, 1969, a system of "red patrols" ("hongshaobins") is being introduced from among the faithful Maoists at the factories. Who are given the right to control the workers, after the change, "certify comrades", "suppress all erroneous ideas, statements and actions that do not correspond to Mao's ideas", and even "control the work of shift supervisors and cadres" [Vyatsky, Demin. 1970, 127-128]. A similar "army system" was introduced in educational institutions and universities. Companies were introduced instead of classes and courses. Platoons and squads, the system of occupations was transformed according to the model of military-political training in the army [Vyatsky, Demin. 1970, 130]. Medical and trade workers are transferred to provide rural brigades and deprivation of wages, and the free labor force and youth in cities are “mobilized” to send them to remote areas and villages. During this campaign, about 20 million people were “mobilized” and evicted from cities.

The shock force of the "cultural revolution" was the youth detachments of "red guards" (hungweipings) and "revolutionary rebels" (zaofani), singing the anthem "On the high seas, you can't do without a helmsman."

In the course of the "cultural revolution," the allegedly bureaucratic constitutional system of state bodies and the statutory organs of the CPC was destroyed, the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPC was dispersed, all six territorial bureaus of the Central Committee, county and provincial committees, and primary party organizations are inactive. In 1968 alone, out of 172 members and candidates for membership of the CPC Central Committee, more than 130 people were repressed or defamed, 12 out of 17 members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, 4 out of 6 candidates for members of the Politburo, 4 out of 7 members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo, 7 out of 10 secretaries The CPC Central Committee has been called "time bombs hidden next to Chairman Mao." Eight of the nine former Chinese marshals were in disgrace. In December 1966, the governing bodies of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and its branches were dispersed, the Komsomol fell into oblivion. General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Deng Xiaping and his family become targets of the Red Guards. The Red Guards grabbed his son, whom they first tortured and then threw from the 4th floor window, as a result of which he becomes disabled. Deng himself was removed from all posts in 1966, and sent as a simple worker to a tractor factory in Jiangxi province. Chinese President Liu Shaoqi is brought to trial and then dies in prison. In 1974, Mao Zedong returned Deng to politics, and he became Deputy Prime Minister. But already in 1976, after the incident in Tiananmen Square, he was removed from all posts, accused of the riots organized there and placed under house arrest. Sun Yefang, director of the Institute of Economics at the Academy of Sciences and deputy director of the State Statistical Office, was declared one of the main enemies and the "high priest of economism", who argued that the economy should be guided by the law of value and profitability, and not by teams of politicians, whose views he called "economics lazy people. " He proposed to consider the principle of economic work as the "red line": "With the least expenditure of social labor, in a planned manner, produce the largest amount of products to meet social needs." [Vyatsky, Dimin, 1970, 118]. His main patron was called Liu Shaoqi, who, according to the People's Daily in an article dated September 5, 1967, saw "... the goal of the economy is to expand production, and the goal of production is to increase individual income and improve living conditions," defended the slogan "Engage living conditions and stimulate production " [Burlatsky, 1968, 20, 114-115]... Along with Sun Yefang, famous scientists and practitioners were attacked as "representatives of the black line in the economy": Head of the Central Administrative Industrial and Trade Department Xu Dixin, Deputy Chairman of the State Planning Committee of the People's Republic of China Luo Gengmo, Chairman of the Committee on Prices Xue Muqiao. Editor of the journal "Economic Research" Qin Lufang, director of the Institute of World Economy of the Academy of Sciences of the People's Republic of China Jiang Junchen and many others.

Relying on the army, new authorities were formed - revolutionary committees (revolutionary committees), combining military, party and administrative power, then legitimized in the 1975 Constitution. They began to organize public trials of "counter-revolutionaries", passed death sentences and immediately carried them out ... It also hit the most active "proletarian rebels" who began to be accused of anarchism, bourgeois and petty bourgeois groupism and sectarianism, substitution of "struggle for words" with "struggle by force", subversive activities (for example, former members of the Cultural Revolution Group Wang Li, Guan Feng and Qi Benyu). In the third issue of 1967 in the magazine "Khuntsy" an editorial was published "It is necessary to approach the personnel correctly": the impression that all the workers in power are bad and cannot be trusted and all of them must be overthrown. Such a view is completely erroneous ”(Quoted for: [Burlatsky, 1967, 16])

On March 5, 1967, the People's Daily published an Emergency Announcement about helping communes with spring plowing. The appeal noted that along with the fight against counter-revolution and anti-party elements, it is necessary to "complete the field work on time", guided by the instruction of Mao Zedong "Let's prepare for war, let's prepare for natural disasters!" [Burlatsky, 1967, 15]."... One can foresee, - wrote the magazine" Hongqi "(December, 1966) during the mobilization campaigns, - that revolutionary enthusiasm ... will inevitably manifest itself in the struggle for the development of industrial and agricultural production and in scientific experiments, will cause a great leap in the national economy in China" ( Quoted for: [Vyatsky, Dimin, 1970, 133]).

Also, in the course of the campaign of struggle "For the Study of the Theory of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" launched in 1974, distribution according to work, the right to household plots, commodity-money relations were declared "bourgeois law", which must be "limited", i.e. to introduce equalization, measures of material incentives were canceled, overtime work was practiced, and household plots were liquidated. A joint editorial in People's Daily and Hongqi states: “... Economism is a form of bribery that undermines the revolutionary will of the broad masses ... by encouraging them to ignore long-term national interests and only care about immediate interests. Its goal is to stifle the great proletarian cultural revolution ... to undermine social production, the national economy and socialist property "(Quoted for: [Burlatsky, 1967, 72]). Among the "counter-revolutionary methods" "People's Daily" attributed the use of profit as a stimulating and complex indicator of the enterprise, material incentives for workers, as well as the system of one-man management in the management of enterprises by specialists, engineers and technicians. The Dongfanghong edition of January 16, 1967 stipulated the specific demands of workers to improve living conditions, restore the level of wages, resume the previously existing payment of bonuses, benefits, etc., as well as demands from peasants to raise grain norms for food. [Vyatsky, Dimin, 1970, 120]. In May 1967, a campaign was launched to propagate Mao's claims that "The slogan" to each according to his work "is bourgeois" and that "the system of rationed free supplies is a Marxist style, it is a condition for the transition to a communist way of life." [Vyatsky, Dimin, 1970, 128]. Especially zealous revolutionaries from among the Red Guards provoked the refusal of material incentives (bonuses and salary increases). It was assumed that following the transport workers in Nanjing and the machine builders in Beijing, all the working people of the country would take the path of voluntary self-restraint. In one of the “revolutionary plays” it was declared: “... You walked barefoot, then in linen slippers, then in rubber shoes, then, what good, you wish to flaunt in leather boots or even boots. Where will you eventually reach in bourgeois degeneration? " (Quoted for: [Vidal, 1967, 125]). Or, for example, in his report to the IX Congress of the Chinese Komsomol (June, 1964), the first secretary of the Communist Youth Union Hu Yaobang named "the desire for leisure" among the "ideological influences exerted by the exploiting classes" (Quoted for: [Vidal, 1967, 266]).

Proceeding from the wrong premise that Mao Zedong was infatuated with anarchism in his youth and an exclusive orientation towards the peasantry, A. Tarasov, however, correctly defined the philosophical component of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: “... Mao introduced the theory of“ balance and imbalance ”. He believed that the events of social history develop as follows: first, there is equilibrium, then due to the accumulation of internal contradictions, a crisis occurs - an imbalance, as a result of which the “top” and “bottom” of the social system change places, then a new equilibrium occurs, within which they ripen new contradictions that will cause new crises and social upheavals. And so on endlessly. It is clearly seen that such a concept is much closer to classical Chinese philosophy, to the concept of the eternal struggle between the two principles "yin" and "yang", the change of two elements in a closed cycle, than to the Hegelian-Marxist spiral of social development ... The number of crises does not affect the integrity of the system , sooner or later it will still reach a state of equilibrium, but the longer the period of equilibrium drags on, the stronger the impending crisis will be. And in order not to be thrown to the bottom of the social system as a result of the crisis, it is advisable to provoke an impending crisis yourself in order to be able to manipulate its course in the direction you need ... Then, of course, new opponents will appear, Mao believed, because contradictions still remain - but in the process of the next crisis, if it is properly organized and provoked in time, they will emerge again and will be destroyed " [Tarasov, 1996-1997]. In the end, as the faithful Maoist, head of the agitation and propaganda department of the CPC Central Committee Lu Ding-yi, summed up, revolutions will remain the locomotives of history not only in class society, but also in the future communist [Burlatsky, 1968, 50]. This, by the way, was proclaimed a century earlier by the Russian revolutionary democrat A.I. Herzen: “... Socialism will develop in all phases to extreme consequences, to absurdities. Then again a cry of denial will erupt from the titanic bosom of the revolutionary minority, and the mortal struggle will begin again, in which socialism will take the place of the current conservatism and will be defeated by the coming revolution unknown to us ” (Quoted for: [Korolkova, 2005, 95]).

Those. From the above, we can come to the conclusion that Maoist Marxism in its mental and ideological basis is a neo-Daoist anti-Confucian revolution, analogous to the Taoist anti-Confucian "revolution" of the Qin dynasty.

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The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is a social experiment launched in 1966 by the CCP under the chairmanship of Mao Zedong to reignite revolutionary sentiment and purge the party of "bourgeois elements."

The origins of the Cultural Revolution can be traced back to the mid-1950s, when Mao became seriously concerned with the problem that the country was moving away from socialism and was on the path of "restoring capitalism." In his view, the struggle between proletarian and bourgeois ideologies took on new, insidious forms after the capitalist classes were outlived.

Mao concluded that the source of China's political regression lay in the false and self-serving perception of many of his political colleagues that the class struggle had ended under socialism. From his point of view, government officials became a "new class" distant from the masses, and intellectuals were a "repository" of bourgeois, even feudal values.

However, the Cultural Revolution in China was also a power struggle in which the future, getting rid of political competitors, tried to regain the authority that he had lost as a result of failures in the Great Leap Forward policy.

She was seen by Mao as a tool for creating a new "generation of revolutionary successors" - those who led to the victory of the Communist Party.

As soon as those who were believed to have led China back to capitalism were removed from power at all levels of society, the process of establishing socialist institutions, the "germs of communism", began. Elitism in education was being replaced by updated, politicized curricula based on ideological correctness and political activism.

China has a long tradition of inshe (shadow annihilation), through which writers use allegories to criticize dignitaries. In fact, the Cultural Revolution in China began with suspicions of inshe regarding the historical drama The Demotion of Hai Rui, written by historian Wu Han, which was seen as an allusion to the fate of Marshal Peng Dehuai, who was dismissed after criticizing the Great Leap Forward.

In fact, it was absurd, but Mao treated the work with suspicious seriousness, especially since by this time factions were beginning to form in the party, dissatisfied with the policies of Mao Zedong. It was ordered that the newspapers in every way vilify the name of the author, who was then taken into custody, where he died after being beaten repeatedly. Wu Han was one of the first victims of the Cultural Revolution. In 1979, after the death of Mao, he was posthumously rehabilitated.

After Wu Han, radical Maoists quickly purged other "right-wing" cultural institutions, and the theater became the main platform for the Gang of Four, the Jiang Qing faction (Minister of Culture and Mao's wife), to attack their political opponents.

The Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, Wang Hongwen with groups of close "intellectuals" ran everything: film studios, operas, theater companies, radio stations. All old films were removed from the box office. Only the revolution in China and related to it eight themes were to be portrayed in films, theatrical plays. Even children's puppet theaters were closed under the pretext of their counter-revolutionary nature. Artists, writers, performers were imprisoned or exiled. The Peking Opera troupes were disbanded as it fell under the category of "four remnants" The Hongweipings burned old books, destroyed architectural monuments, tore up ancient scrolls, smashed artistic ceramics, and the mass was irrevocably lost.

The cultural revolution in China, which has a complex and intricate history, can be divided into three main phases: mass, military and succession.

The mass phase (1966-1969) - the most destructive, when China was at the mercy of the "red guards" (hungweipings), detachments formed from more than 20 million high school students and students. They responded to Mao's call to "make a revolution" with incredible zeal in finding "class enemies" wherever they were hiding. At this stage, most of Mao's political rivals in the highest echelons of power were overthrown, including Chinese President Liu Shaoqi.

The military phase (1969-1971) began after the People's Liberation Army achieved a dominant position in Chinese politics, suppressing, with the approval of Mao, the anarchy of the hungweipings. It ended in an alleged coup attempt in September 1971 by a disgruntled heir to Mao, the Secretary of Defense.

The succession phase (1972-1976) is an intense political and ideological tug-of-war between radical ideologues and old cadres who decided to end or continue the policy of the Cultural Revolution. The conflict was a complex struggle, during which the country was successively ruled by the two main leaders of the CCP - Chairman Mao and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai. The die was cast when members of the Gang of Four were arrested in October 1976 (one month after Chairman Mao's death) by a coalition of moderate leaders. The Cultural Revolution in China is believed to have ended with the arrest of the Gang of Four.

What was the meaning of Chinese" cultural revolution"?

The "Cultural Revolution" in China is a political campaign launched by Communist Party leader Mao Zedong in 1966 to create a "new man." This "new man" was to become "an unselfish social creature in a society free from domination, which now and then occurs in various utopias," notes the sinologist Oskar Weggel. To achieve this goal, Mao called for the destruction of the "four remnants": old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits. Their place was to be taken by the ideas of Mao Zedong.

In addition, Mao advocated the neutralization of the so-called counter-revolutionary and revisionist elements within the party, embodied by his political opponent Liu Shaoqi, who replaced Mao as chairman of the PRC several years earlier. Thus, the "Cultural Revolution" was also a kind of power struggle in the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.

In the field of economics, Liu relied on market relations (like Deng Xiaoping later), and in politics - on party discipline. For Mao, any incentive to get rich was hateful. He classified even party functionaries as a "new class of exploiters." Accordingly, he saw the engine of social progress only in the permanent class struggle.

How did the "cultural revolution" go?

This campaign lasted from 1966 to 1976. It all began with the devastating activity of schoolchildren and students - the Red Guards (Red Guards): the youth formed into the detachments started an aggressive struggle against the "four remnants." Specifically, this affected primarily teachers and professors, who were forced to "confess." The teachers' apartments were destroyed, temples, pagodas and libraries were destroyed. Soon the workers, as well as a significant part of the urban population, joined the "revolution". Increasingly, local party officials became victims.

The country plunged into chaos. More than half of all members of the Politburo, as well as the Central Committee and secretaries of local party organizations, lost their posts in the very first months of the Cultural Revolution. The state system collapsed.

When the situation was completely out of control, Mao launched the People's Liberation Army of China under the leadership of his associate, Defense Minister Lin Biao. Since the army was a kind of state within a state, it was little affected by the reigning chaos. By 1968, the military had almost completely taken control of the country. The Red Guards, who continued to resist, were sent "for re-education" to rural areas or were quickly executed.

In 1969, the restoration of the party apparatus began. However, the military under the command of Lin Biao were not eager to voluntarily surrender their positions. Lin Biao himself was involved in a notorious conspiracy called Project 571, which also aimed to assassinate Mao. But the conspiracy was revealed, and the plane on which Lin Biao fled from China towards the USSR crashed under hitherto unclear circumstances on the territory of Mongolia.

Despite the re-establishment of the party, it was not until 1976 that calm returned to China. The so-called "gang of four", which included Mao Zedong's wife, tried to oppose the new party stars - Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. They suffered their final defeat at the time of Mao's death on September 9, 1976. The chaos of the "cultural revolution" ended with the death of its initiator.

What role did the "little red book play""?

Mao Zedong's Quotation Book, also known as the Little Red Book, is a collection of texts, speeches and slogans that Lin Biao put together in the mid-1960s. During the Cultural Revolution, every true revolutionary was required to have a copy of this book with him. Often the Red Guards even greeted each other with quotes from there. To date, at least a billion copies of Mao's Quotation Book have been printed around the world.

Why did the "cultural revolution" fail?

From the very beginning, the "cultural revolution" contained contradictions that could not be resolved. Mao wanted to simultaneously be a revolutionary, crushing old hierarchies, but at the same time to maintain complete control. When this controversy erupted into fierce fighting between factions, Mao brought in the military to restore order.

Context

The dream of a "new man" was buried. In its place came "the power emanating from the barrel of the rifle." As a result, a party re-emerged, built on the Leninist model - with hierarchy and bureaucracy. After Mao's death, many of his rivals regained power. Including Deng Xiaoping, thanks to whose economic reforms the country has stepped into a new era.

What were the consequences of the "cultural revolution"?

It is estimated today that between 1.4 and 1.6 million Chinese were killed in the Cultural Revolution. Probably most of them died as a result of the "cleansing" operations of the People's Liberation Army, which by any means fought to restore order in the country. The few positive effects of the "cultural revolution" include the introduction of a health care system (albeit underdeveloped) and the reform of school education for workers and peasants.

How is the "cultural revolution" assessed today in China itself?

In 1981, Deng Xiaoping allowed a show trial against the Gang of Four and called the Cultural Revolution "a great disaster for the party and the people." The official party line today is of the opinion that Mao was 30 percent wrong, but quite right 70 percent. China has long abandoned Mao's ideas of permanent revolution. Today the party is a strict hierarchy, has a monopoly on power in the country and gives particular value to social stability.

• Kitsch "Cultural Revolution"

  Posters everywhere

  During the "Cultural Revolution" all of China was covered with posters and wall newspapers promoting a new era and a "new man." Many of them have survived to this day.



Kitsch "Cultural Revolution"

Badges and flyers

Anyone who wanted to look like a real revolutionary, be sure to wear a suit in the style of Mao Zedong and a badge with his image. During the "Cultural Revolution" it was even called "the reddest of the reddest suns."

It was directed against the bureaucracy and the intelligentsia and was accompanied by mass demonstrations of young people.

Official name and date: Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 1966-1976 The official task of carrying out the Cultural Revolution was woven from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) following the Marxist-Leninist strategy of building socialism. However, Mao Zedong, fearing the growing dissatisfaction with his policies on the part of the bureaucracy and the intelligentsia, gave the concept of "cultural revolution" a completely different meaning, deciding, under the pretext of fighting the old culture, to strike a blow at the remnants of dissent and "degenerated" bureaucracy, including the leaders of the CPC. The signal to prepare a new campaign against dissent was given on November 30, 1965, when the CPC People's Daily reprinted Yao Wenyuan's article "Criticizing the New Edition of the Historical Drama" Demote Hai Rui ", in which the historian and deputy head of the Beijing administration, Wu Han, hinted on the circumstances of Peng Dehuai's resignation. Wu Han's exposure led to a series of resignations and allowed Mao Zedong's supporters to raise the issue of cultural problems, to sharply criticize the head of the Cultural Revolution Group and the first secretary of the Beijing CPC city committee Pen Zhen and other moderate party leaders who on May 23, 1966. were removed from their posts.

On May 16, a new Cultural Revolution Group was created, which included close associates of Mao Chen Boda, Jiang Qing and others. It has become a headquarters for the struggle against moderate CCP leaders, intellectuals and traditional culture throughout the country. From May 25, at the initiative of the group, leaflets ("dazibao") began to appear, calling on young people to support Mao in the implementation of the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" and to destroy "bourgeois culture." It meant everything that somehow did not correspond to communist principles. Detachments of “red guards” (“hungweipings”) from students and “young rebels” (“zaofanes”) from the working youth began to be created. On August 5, 1966, the dazibao “Fire at Headquarters!” Written by Mao himself was circulated. He demanded to smash the party and state bodies in which "people invested with power and following the capitalist path were settled." In response to this appeal, crowds of hungweipings defeated the party and state institutions. A wave of violence swept across the country. Officials and intellectuals were beaten, humiliated, taken through the streets of cities with insulting posters, and then often killed or sent to the countryside for further labor education. The Hungweipings were assisted by the state security organs, which were led by an associate of Mao Zedong, Kang Sheng. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were among the persecuted. The Hongweipings smashed ancient temples and museums - everything connected with the "non-proletarian culture" was considered useless or harmful. In January 1967, the Hongwei and Zaofani, led by Zhang Chunqiao, stormed the CPC Shanghai City Committee. In August, they laid siege to diplomatic offices. The Soviet-Chinese conflict also escalated. Some party leaders (the "February counter-current" of 1967) and part of the military came out against the hungweipings, but they were repressed. Defense Minister Lin Biao supported Mao. New government bodies were created - revolutionary committees, which included representatives of the hungweipings, military men and officials, who proved their loyalty to Mao Zedong.

But the young hooligans began to spiral out of control. The Red Guards began to clash with each other. Then Mao brought in the army. Power passed into the hands of generals and officers, and the hungweipings were sent to rural communes "for re-education." “The rifle gives rise to power,” Mao said. The most loyal to the “leader”, “promoted to the Cultural Revolution,” the military, and some of the officials needed to rule, headed by Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, remained in power. The IX Congress of the CPC in 1969 approved the results of the "cultural revolution", which laid the foundations of "communism." In fact, a military-bureaucratic dictatorship was established in the country, headed by Mao and his "heir" Lin Biao. But in 1971, Mao decided to crack down on Lin Biao as well. The Marshal tried to escape, but his plane was destroyed. Mao remained the sole master of the devastated country. Although the main tasks of the "cultural revolution" were achieved already in 1969, formally it continued until the death of Mao Zedong. As a result of the "cultural revolution", up to a million people died, tens of millions suffered.