The Cultural Revolution: Mao's Deadly Civil War

Mao's Cultural Revolution leads to widespread public humiliation, torture, and killings, with victims suffering in struggle sessions and communities torn apart by accusatory campaigns. Cultural artifacts tied to pre-Communist China — books, art, monuments — are destroyed as part of erasing old ideas.

On Mao’s call for “all-round civil war,” party officials are targeted, replaced by revolutionary committees loyal to Mao. The purge extends into the military, which is ordered to support the campaign, intensifying a brutal phase of social upheaval.

The human cost is staggering: in 1967 alone, an estimated quarter of a million people are killed and three-quarters of a million are left permanently disabled. We examine how Mao transformed a nation’s social fabric, often through violence and coercion.