The Cultural Revolution

Mao Ze Dong started the Great Cultural Revolution in 1966, in what appeared to be a massive cleansing policy to ensure the final victory of Mao and his supporters over the rest of the Chinese Communist party. Mao Zedong officially launched the Cultural Revolution at Eleventh Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee. Over the next decade, literally millions of people were destroyed, imprisoned and blamed for previously hidden 'bourgeois tendencies' while tens of thousands were executed. Mao Zedong also attempted to change the beliefs and old ways of the Chinese people by changing the education in schools. Mao Zedong made the amount of time a child needed to spend at each level or grade shorter so that the youth would explore more of their own beliefs instead of the older ones. Mao Zedong also fired all elderly teachers because he believed that they would continue to teach the Chinese children the "old way". He also changed the curriculum of the schools to fit his beliefs and to encourage more pride amount the Chinese youths for their country.
Mao adopted four goals for the Cultural Revolution: to replace his designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking; to rectify the Chinese Communist Party; to provide China's youths with a revolutionary experience; and to achieve some specific policy changes so as to make the educational, health care, and cultural systems less elitist. He initially pursued these goals through a massive mobilization of the country's urban youths. Mao encouraged students to rebel against authority, inform on their politically incorrect seniors, and join the Red Guard, the ideological militia that pushed the Cultural Revolution forward. Using Maoist thought as their guide and free from Party interference, the Red Guard numbering in the millions sought to do away with the "four olds" and bourgeoisie elements. China collapsed into a state of near chaos. Schools shut down, offices closed, and transportation was