Decline in Influence and The Rise of Maoism
Once the Bolsheviks in Russia had consolidated their power, they immediately sought to expand their sphere of influence. Their interpretation of Karl Marx’s prediction that the revolution would be global was that – as the vanguard – it was their role to use the resources at their disposal to instigate and support Bolshevik-style revolutions all over the world. In keeping with Vladimir Lenin’s doctrine on imperialism, their focus was on the undeveloped nations, because they believed that once those nations had thrown off imperialism, Western capitalism – deprived of the material support and raw materials it required – would collapse. They also specifically targeted countries with already established revolutionary movements, and China clearly qualified.
In 1919 the anarchists played a significant role in the May 4th Movement which swept the country. It was at this time that the first Bolsheviks started organising in China and began contacting anarchist groups for aid and support. The anarchists, mistaking the Bolshevicks for allies & unaware of how the Bolsheviks had subordinated the soviets to their party apparatus, helped them set up communist study groups – many of which were originally majority anarchist – and introduced the Bolsheviks into the Chinese labor and student movements.
Read more about this topic: Anarchism In China
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“Families suffered badly under industrialization, but they survived, and the lives of men, women, and children improved. Children, once marginal and exploited figures, have moved to a position of greater protection and respect,... The historic decline in the overall death rates for children is an astonishing social fact, notwithstanding the disgraceful infant mortality figures for the poor and minorities. Like the decline in death from childbirth for women, this is a stunning achievement.”
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