Alexander V. Pantsov

Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life by Alexander V. Pantsov, Steven I Levine is the biography of arguably the second most important person in modern China. Paston is a professor of history and holds the Edward and Mary Catherine Gerhold Chair in the Humanities at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. He has published numerous scholarly works including fifteen books, among them The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution 1919-1927 and Mao: The Real Story. Levine is research faculty associate, Department of History, University of Montana. He is the author, co-author, and editor of numerous works, including Mao: The Real Story and Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia from the Philippines to Vietnam, co-authored with Michael H. Hunt.

Without a doubt, Mao played the key role in creating twentieth century China. He molded the country to his ideals and kept China on the path he saw fit. From a budding relationship with Stalin to breaking with Khrushchev over reforms, violently interfering in other socialist countries, and his general boorish public behavior, Mao lead China on the "true socialist" path. Behind Mao were trusted colleagues, one would rise to set China up a world power in the twenty-first century. Xiaoping for the most part was behind the scenes shaping what would become modern China and its mix of socialism and capitalism.

Xiaoping was a long time follower and supporter of Mao from his earliest days fighting the Japanese and Chiang Kai-shek. He became a loyal follower of Mao and rose through the ranks. From his early days studying in France as part of "Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement," Xiaoping became disenchanted with the capitalist world. He joined the Communist Youth League and then the Chinese Communist Party. He also studied in Moscow before returning to China. He recalled his Moscow days were much more comfortable than his time in France.

In the West, Xiaoping is probably best known for his quote: "It doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice." Although devoted to Mao, Xiaoping like others who turned to communism were probably more interested in ending colonial rule or bringing their nation to their rightful place in the world. In the bipolar post-World War II world nations and leaders wanting independence often turned to the communists because it was the capitalist countries that were doing the colonizing. Xiaoping wanted to see China occupy a place of prominence on the world stage. His work as a "capitalist roader" inside China's elite shaped China into the powerhouse it is today. However, it was the same ideas that caused him to get purged in the Cultural Revolution. Unlike many victims of purges, Xiaoping came back and returned to the party elite.

A Revolutionary Life covers not only Xiaoping's life but also gives a history of China in the twentieth century. Xiaoping's life is presented as part of the timeline of China as much as it is about the individual. The writing is very detailed as well as very well documented. This book is a little examined but important part of history as well as the basis for the current growing Chinese hegemony. An outstanding history and biography.… (plus d'informations)

New biography of Mao - reliant upon opened Soviet archives. The title seems to be a direct refutation of the 'cartoonishly evil' portrayal of Jung Chang's [b:Mao: The Unknown Story|9746|Mao The Unknown Story|Jung Chang|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320566075s/9746.jpg|1879340], and instead they're aiming for a 'complex multifaceted titanic evil'.

Mao's early life is already covered in great detail by other biographies, and the book does a fair treatment of the whole process. Stern father, love of reading, education in the cities. The young Mao was well aware of the corruption and instability of China in his era, and was a ravenous reader of history. He likely imagined himself to be one of the Great Men of History.



He was not committed to Marxism until the early 1920s, when news of the Soviet Union became more widespread, and he became one of the first delegates of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1921. From then on, his life became a tremendous political juggling act. The fledgling CCP was dependent upon funds from the Comintern, and there was a tremendous degree of political infighting among various factions, who had to try to toe the Bolshevik line as well as guarantee survival against the corrupt military government.

After the Chiang Kai-Shek took over the country, the CCP was surprised to learn that the Soviets were more interested in supporting his party, the Guomindang, (GMD) against the Japanese. After Chiang launched a purge against labor unions and communist-sympathizers in the cities, Mao was the only one to realize than an independent army was necessary. He worked vigorously in this manner, forming a Soviet in the Jiangxi provinces, and writing fiery screeds for the revolution:

"A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. A rural revolution is a revolution by which the peasantry overthrows the power of the feudal landlord class. Without using the greatest force, the peasants cannot possibly overthrow the deep-rooted authority of the landlords which has lasted for thousands of years. The rural areas need a mighty revolutionary upsurge, for it alone can rouse the people in their millions to become a powerful force!"



His early Red Armies were something out of [b:Outlaws of the Marsh, Vol. 1-4|158778|Outlaws of the Marsh, Vol. 1-4|Shi Nai'an|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172274466s/158778.jpg|540222] - bandits, prostitutes, secret societies, the lowest-classes of people, ethnic minorities. They were among those who had the most to gain from Mao's forceful land distribution schemes.

In 1934, the Guomindang decided enough was enough, and launched a final assault of the Chinese Communists. Thus the mythical Long March began. Out of 80,000 which began the march, some 8,000 had survived to rest and recover in the northern hamlet of Yan'an. By some miracle, Mao had managed to win a strategic retreat. He gathered the remnants of the party around himself, and those within the party who had opposed him were either submissive to him or utterly beaten (one such opponent managed to lose 20,000 men in Sichuan province, then tried to expel Mao after his catastrophe).

The next few years were a place to rest and rebuild. Tell Western journalists sympathetic stories and finagle aid from the Soviets. Flirt with women, write poetry, and coordinate guerrilla warfare against the Japanese.

The CCP was particularly successful in the anti-Japanese war. The Guomindang had began a full retreat to a few key cities (Chengdu and Chongqing) in the interior, and had all but given up the possibility of a counterattack. By contrasts, the CCP was able to infiltrate the countryside near Japanese-held cities and hold large swathes of territory.

The narrative of the Chinese Civil War is often said solely to be the result of superior Communist guerrilla training and demoralized and incompetent GMD leadership. They place a curious and interesting emphasis on Soviet support - on how much support he would indeed give to Mao, for fear that he would suddenly become independent of Soviet demands, like another Tito. The Soviets began their work on building up spies and informers. Liu Shaoqi, one of Mao's closest men, was a Soviet informer.



Mao was a subservient and loyal follower to Stalin, even sending troops in the Korean War against the demands of his populace. His first economic plans were centralization and mass industrialization on the Stalinist line. Using the faithful and disciplined cadres built up over the past twenty years, he began a purge of warlord and feudal influence from the countryside, an built something like the first effective unified governance over China in centuries.

Chen Yun, one of Mao's successors, and a key man in the Deng government, summarizes the next years thus: "If Mao had died in 1956, he would have been immortal. If he had died in 1966, he would have been a great man. But he has died in 1976."

After Stalin died, Mao was less enthused about closer ties with the Soviet Union. He believed that Khrushchev was a 'weak' leader and snubbed him on numerous occasions, and was horrified at his denunciation of Stalin in 1956. After seeing the backlash and Hungarian Uprising in Eastern Europe, he began the Hundred Flowers campaign in earnest, hoping for modest criticism about development. When it backfired, he imprisoned anyone who dared speak out.

In response to Khrushchev's boast to surpass the US, Mao began his Great Leap Forward, to surpass the Soviet Union. He began with a manic energy, convinced that he would bring about a new society. We all know how that went. Then in 1966, when the country had recovered and could feed itself again, he began the Cultural Revolution, a 'permanent revolution'. Cheering crowds, Little Red Books, mass purges. Again this story is familiar.



He passes on in 1976, a drooling husk, almost completely alone. Factions squabble over his empire. The Gang of Four, leaders of the Cultural Revolution, eventually lose out to Deng the reformer, and we see China now.

How could he do all this, without any major strikes against him? How else all totalitarian systems work - fear. Even when he was bedridden, he still crushed coups and opposition movements with a few angry words. 8,000 were left at the end of the Long March, and these were hacked away into a few dozen by 1976. The years of revolution instilled in him paranoia and bloodlust - then not unjustified, but once he was safely in power, revolution becomes tyranny. "China has stood up!" cheered Mao, and then it staggered down again, and then Deng brought it up again - a China so different, so prosperous, and raw capitalist that Mao would not recognize it.… (plus d'informations)