The Cultural Revolution, known as the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution”, was a civil strife initiated by Mao Zedong and exploited by counter-revolutionary groups, which brought serious disasters to the Party, the State and the people of all ethnic groups.
Comrade Mao Zedong bears the main responsibility for the overall leftist errors of the Cultural Revolution. However, these mistakes were ultimately made in the course of exploring the path of socialism in China. The “Cultural Revolution” was such a serious mistake that the cause of socialism in China took a major detour. During the period of the Cultural Revolution, the Party and the people's struggle against the “leftist” errors and the counter-revolutionary clique of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, though difficult and tortuous, never ceased. Because of this, the damage of the Cultural Revolution was limited to a certain extent. During this decade, China's national economy still made progress. Food production maintained a relatively stable growth, a number of important achievements were made in industry and transportation, capital construction and science and technology, and new horizons were opened up in external work. Of course, all this is by no means the result of the Cultural Revolution, without which China's socialist endeavours would have achieved much more. |