Mao Zedong Guerilla Leader

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As a guerilla leader. Mao Zedong was more of a figurehead than a leader with true power. Before he began his Marxist-Leninist experiment in China, Mao was a spectator of the self-strengthening movement in the 1910s. Mao described the Chinese people as dependent and interconnected, traits which Mao thought were ignorant and did little to further the progress of Chinese society. Mao was caught between the traditional Chinese political views of isolationism/nationalism and the western criticisms that the east must modernize and open itself to outside influences. Mao Zedong’s rural background gave him a special interest in the lower classes, and he was often at odds with his more urban-oriented counterparts. Mao was elected chairman of the new …show more content…
Mao’s Jiangxi Soviet Party soon lost power to the Returned Student group, which took over party leadership and pushed him aside. experience with forming peasant uprisings and political grassroots campaigns. It is found that while Mao was a great guerilla leader with the capability to persuade and move masses in the rural Chinese regions he had difficulty translating this leadership to becoming chairman given the differences in the roles.
During the Long March of 1934 to 1936, Mao Zedong began achieving popularity among the Communist ranks. The Long March was when the Chinese Communists had to retreat from the Nationalist leader, General Chiang Kai-shek, and his infamous encirclement campaign in order to surround and destroy the Communists. At the Zunyi conference in January 1935, following the Long March, Mao was recognized as a formidable
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Mao Zedong had ascended from a student activist in the wilderness to the highest position of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman. At first, Chairman Mao had no firsthand knowledge of running a state or any number of large-scale economic systems. Chairman Mao formally learned the teachings of Marx and Lenin so as to apply soviet principles to China. Mao’s Communist Party had to look to the Soviet Union since they provided the only available model. When at first it was the Russians who wanted Chiang Kai-shek to dismantle the Chinese communists. When Mao came to power, Russia had little choice but to accept China as an ally due to its economy modernizing in size and strength. Mao was used to working with the lower classes but soon came to include the Proletariat and Bourgeoisie classes in his Chinese grand