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{{Infobox politician|name=Mao Zedong|native_name=毛泽东|birth_date=December 26th, 1893|birth_place=Shaoshan, Hunan, [[Great Qing|Imperial China]]|death_date=September 9th, 1976|death_place=Beijing, [[People's Republic of China]]|death_cause=Heart attack|nationality=Chinese|political_orientation=[[Mao Zedong Thought]]<br>[[Nationalism|Chinese nationalism]]<br>[[Revisionism]]|political_party=[[Communist Party of China|CPC]]|image=Mao Zedong sitting.jpg}}'''Mao Zedong''' (Chinese: 毛泽东, 26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976){{Efn|Alternatively romanized '''Mao Tse-Tung'''.}} was a [[Nationalism|Chinese nationalist]], [[Chinese revisionism|revisionist]], and [[Bourgeois revolution|bourgeois revolutionary]] who founded and ruled the [[People's Republic of China]] until his death.

Although his initial leadership over the Chinese revolutionary movement was progressive as he opposed [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] [[imperialism]] and the [[reactionary]] [[Guomindang]], he soon adopted [[Opportunism|opportunist]] positions after the [[Death of Stalin|death]] of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] in 1953. After the rise of revisionism in the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|Soviet Union]] and other countries in the succeeding years, Mao Zedong did not [[Anti-revisionism|oppose]] revisionism but instead introduced his own competing variety of it — [[Mao Zedong Thought]], which would later develop into [[Maoism]].

After introducing the [[Class collaboration|class collaborationist]] policy of [[New Democracy]] during the 1950s and omitting the leading rule of the [[proletariat]] in the [[Communist Party of China|party]],<ref>Jim Washington (1979). ''[https://november8ph.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/all_w_bour.pdf Socialism Cannot be Built in Alliance with the Bourgeoisie]''. ''November 8th Publishing House''.</ref> Mao would begin to enact many failed policies which reflected his anti-[[Marxism|Marxist]] and [[Petite-bourgeoisie|petite-bourgeois]] stances, namely the [[Great Leap Forward]].<ref>Mao Zedong (1959). ''[https://alphahistory.com/chineserevolution/mao-responsibility-great-leap-forward-1959/ Responsibility for the Great Leap Forward]''.</ref> In the 1960s, another revisionist faction began to gain influence in the communist party, leading to Mao initiating and heading a vast political purge known erroneously in his propaganda as the "[[Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution]]" in 1966. 

After liquidating the party and government by the end of the 1960s, Mao would soon adopt even more opportunistic stances, particularly with regard to the "[[Three Worlds Theory]]," which provided the ideological justification to openly ally with imperialist powers such as the [[United States of America|United States]] against the social-imperialist Soviet Union. Mao died in 1976 after his heath had been increasingly moribund during the proceeding months. His demise resulted in a power struggle between the "Gang of Four" and explicitly [[Capitalism|capitalist]] faction under [[Deng Xiaoping]]. 

Mao Zedong is remembered by the [[Marxism–Leninism|revolutionary communist]] movement as being one of the leading figures of modern revisionism who prevented China from attaining [[socialism]]. His [[Eclecticism|eclectic]] views and policies directly resulted in the rise of Deng and the eventual transformation of China into the social-imperialist power it is in the present.

== See also ==

* [[Deng Xiaoping]]
* [[Chinese revisionism]] 
* [[Mao Zedong Thought]]

== Further reading ==

* ''[https://theredspectre.com/against-maoism-part-one-the-progenitor-of-maoism-mdash-mao-zedong-thought.html Against Maoism, Part One: The progenitor of Maoism — Mao Zedong Thought]''

== References ==
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=== Notes ===
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[[Category:Chinese politicians]]
[[Category:Bourgeois revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Chinese nationalists]] 
[[Category:Revisionists]]
[[Category:Communist Party of China politicians]]
[[Category:Maoism]]
[[Category:Anti-Stalinists]]