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Among the book's many themes, two appear particularly distressing: the degree of Mao's disregard for human life and suffering and the extent to which he was a product of the Soviet Russia.
Marxism was perfectly suited for Mao: it justified constant war based on the theory of inevitable class struggle. As did the rulers in the Soviet Russia, Mao just labeled many of his adversaries members of a group that was declared an enemy of the people, and killed them. Early on, he showed a penchant for violence: in 1920s he personally approved various forms of torture. In 1930, in one Mao-occupied county alone there were 120 kinds of torture. The hysterical rallies and "thought examination" were a personal touch that Mao introduced in the 1940s into the practice of dictatorship. Just as in the Soviet Russia, in China oftentimes people were killed according to a quota imposed by the Communist Party. For example, in 1948, the CCP declared that 10% of the population were evil landlords, or kulaks. During the Great Leap Forward, torture and violent murder was widespread as a punishment reserved for the starved people "stealing" food. To the tens of millions who died from famine and overwork during the Great Leap Forward, Mao added over 3 million who died violent deaths in the wake of the Cultural Revolution.
From Mao's early military campaigns, Moscow supported him in a variety of ways. It repeatedly protected Mao from his fellow Chinese Communist Party members who wanted to get rid of him. Moscow supplied him with money, industrial aid and, increasingly, arms (which under Stalin led to the Korean War and under Khruschev resulted in China getting nuclear weapons). Stalin personally assured Mao's safety from Chiang Kai-Shek by keeping Chiang's son as a hostage in Moscow (tellingly, Stalin did the same with Mao's two sons, but Mao did not appear vulnerable through his children). Moscow needed a strong leader who would promote the communist cause. In addition, Stalin, a former outlaw, may have felt affinity with Mao the bandit. Without Moscow's support Mao would have found it extraordinarily difficult to survive the conflicts with vastly superior forces of Chiang Kai-Shek or red military commanders, let alone rise to the top of the Party leadership.
Of course, Moscow was not the only reason for Mao's ascension to power. Just as German aggression against Russia ultimately resulted in the formation of the Eastern Bloc, Japan's aggression against China diverted Chiang Kai-Shek's army from fighting Mao and resulted in Mao's survival. And the aggression of Germany, Italy and Japan in the 1930s was condoned by the western powers: Britain, France and the USA, who have to bear part of the responsibility if one is willing to go that far.
The monstrous Mao was the same Mao who was well read, a connoisseur of opera, a writer of poetry and an occasional admirer of flowers and snow. The book would have benefited by shedding some light on the reasons for which a person, not devoid of sensitivity, would become so insensitive to human deprivation. An expanded account of his childhood and adolescence, beyond a few pages devoted to the first 17 years of his life, would have been welcome. In addition, I would have liked to see more of an analysis of how the political, economic and cultural environment in China encouraged Mao to become what he became.
The book is one of the best biographies I have read. Even though some of its statements are debatable and the prose style is a bit awkward, the book makes clear and well-documented stand on its positions and provides an exhaustive reference for further research.
As for the statements of some critics of the book that Mao did greatly advance Chinese industry, and that therefore his vilification in the book is very much one-sided, I believe that any achievement at the expense of people's lives, especially on the massive scale, was not worth it. Paying for the industrialization in Russia with grain in the early 1930s was not worth the millions of lives of those at whose expense it was carried out. Similarly, exporting millions of tons of grain to purchase modern industrial plants and using millions of kilograms of grain as a raw material to produce fuel for missile tests, was not worth the millions of Chinese who starved to death and exposed utter disregard for human life - the most horrible claim that a political system can ever make.
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No dull parts....
Even though this book is long and full of names, locations, battles, and little details, it was never tedious to read. It’s clear that the biographer found her subject distasteful, which didn’t bother me because I knew it going in. The book was meticulously researched with a lot of footnotes and resources. I only wish it included pictures. I learned so many things in this book about Chiang Kai-Shek, Stalin, Kruschev, Nixon... I’ll have to read biographies about all those people now.Of particular interest to me was how Mao implemented his version of communism. As usual, communism included forced labor, death, totalitarianism, confiscation of wealth, the denial of personhood, all under the pretense of equality or as it’s called today “equity”. And at the end, the people who suffered the most were the proletariat, who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the revolution. I’ve included 2 photos so you could see examples of this, and also to check out the author’s writing style, which was very engaging.
Top reviews from other countries
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- martiniReviewed in Italy on April 3, 2023
Very detailed account of the life of Mao
