Fifty years ago, Mao Zedong unleashed the Cultural Revolution, a decade-long upheaval that had dramatic, often violent effects across China. Here is an overview of those tumultuous years:
What was the Cultural Revolution?
The movement was fundamentally about elite politics, as Mao tried to reassert control by setting radical youths against the Communist Party hierarchy. But it had widespread consequences at all levels of society. Young people battled Mao's perceived enemies, and one another, as Red Guards, before being sent to the countryside in the later stages of the Cultural Revolution. Intellectuals, people deemed “class enemies” and those with ties to the West or the former Nationalist government were persecuted. Many officials were purged. Some, like the future leader Deng Xiaoping, were eventually rehabilitated.
