The Cultural Revolution

Soviet Union after the death of Stalin

The Soviet Union was the first socialist nation in the world, and its rating among the CCP and the people were extremely high. In those days as the Republic was established, a slogan such as "Today of the Soviet Union is the tomorrow of China" was often displayed. The Soviet Union was certainly longing to deal with the Chinese people. But after Stalin died, the situation began to change. Khrushchov, the first Secretary--General exposed Stalin's evil deeds, and revealed his acts of terrorism. Basically he started to openly criticize Stalin. That had a great impact on the Communist Party of each country, consequently political upheavals occurred.

Revisionism

The external policy of the Soviet Union, which kept the status quo of Socialism, was "Revisionism" for China, which needed to preceed the radical construction of socialism in the country. Since his term in power, Mao had warned his government against the Soviet Union. Mao did not believe in the Revisionist plan, and this caused for bitter blood between China and the Soviets. Their relations deteriorated even more however, after Khrushchev ridiculed the "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune. After these comments, Mao no longer was no longer an ally of Khruchev.

In autumn 1960, while China was struggling with the confusion of "Great Leap Forward" and other disasters, the Soviet Union notified China to withdraw technicians sent from the Soviet Union, and to cancel  economic and techniqal treaties arbitrarily. With that, Mao's realization that the Soviet Union plans about Revisionism were escalating. In 1962, Mao said, "Revisionism has a share in capitalism and anti-revolution," and pointed out that "if we didn't carry out our class struggle, we would become revisionists like the Soviets."

From 1963 to 1964, China and the Soviet developed political fray over the "line of international communism campaign", which had a great impact on the world. The disputed point was over the theory of "Marxism"; the core among these points was "how to construct a socialist country". This problem was somewhat metaphysical and concerned various factors. What can be said of Mao was that he understood the Soviet intentions on "Revisionism and that he preached that this could happen in China if they let it.

When Mao went forward with the Cultural Revolution, he criticized uncertain people, using terms such as "revisionism" and "capitalism" actively to describe their actions. To Mao, you were either a Socialist, or Capitalist Roader. However, Mao never defined the meaning of "revisionism" clearly. This of course only added to the confusion of the time, since it wasn't clear who the enemy was, or where it was.