Mao Zedong went from Chinese Marxist guerrilla to leader of the world's most populous country in 1949, and adopted a series of so called reforms to get China in line with his communist ideals. Unfortunately, they only caused mass starvation, a culture of fear, and extremely harsh political repression in which it was a common procedure to drive those who oppose to suicide. In all, it is believed Mao Zedong was the only responsible for tens of millions of deaths.
The genocide that took place during his reign in China is by far one of the worst genocides in history; worst being in terms of death toll. It is estimated that Mao
Zedong more than quadrupled the number of lives lost of that during Hitler's rule in Germany. From 1958_1961, which was known as the Great Leap Forward, the most lives were lost. Most of the people were tortured, and many others went missing.
Mao's background
For years, he formed a group of anarchist, known as the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants" in a bookstore located in Chang-sha. Then, after the Chinese Communist Party was formed, Mao Zedong began fighting for power as the Chairman. In 1945, he achieved his goal and began using it to further his pursuits. As Chairman he led a Chinese Civil War and with the help of the rest of the communists, forged the People's Republic of China. For more than ten years (between 1949-1960) he was the leader of this new "popular government" (and the genocide), and in the year of 1979, he was confirmed to be dead due to heart failure.
The size of the genocide
The entire time period of this genocide was from 1958 to 1969. There were different segments during this time in which greater losses occurred. The worst being the three years of the Great Leap Forward, in which anywhere from 16 to 40 million lives were lost. The total amount - making this one of the worst genocides - is at minimum 45 million. This amount varies up to 72 million since new death records reveal more details. With the evidence being carefully hidden, it's been difficult for researchers to search China's documents.
Mao's Motivations
One motivation behind this mass murder, is that Mao Zedong dreamed China to catch up economically with the western world; setting a goal of little over a decade to equal production output of competitors such as United States. Land was confiscated from peasants due to the growth of communism, and steel grew as the main import; over 50 percents. With steel being purchased, there was no resources left for food production. This naturally led to starvation. Population opposed this unfair change, but that only led to more deaths and persecutions. Only during the first year, over half a milion had been sentenced to death.
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