Mao Zedong

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Mao Zedong was born in was born in the village of Shaoshan on the 26th of December, 1893. He was the eldest child born to a prosperous peasant family. His family's wealth enabled him to attend school, and later he left for Changsha for more advanced schooling. Mao graduated from the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan in 1918. After graduation, Mao registered himself as a part-time student at Beijing University. While at the University, Mao attended many lectures and read numerous books that helped introduce him to Communist theories. Unlike many before him, Mao started to focus on studying the Peasant majority of China's population.

In 1923, Mao was elected as one of the five commissars of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. Mao spent his days as a commissar in Shanghia, which is an important city that the CRC used for revolution. Mao became a proponent of violent revolution, and relied on Chinese peasants who later became staunch supporters of his political theories.

Since Mao was born a peasant, he used them as his primary base to promote his Marxist ideas. Unlike early Marxists, Mao had no intentions of spreading Communism all over the world.

In 1927, Mao conducted the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Hunan as the commander-in-chief of the "Revolutionary Army of Workers and Peasants". However, he was defeated harshly after a series of fierce battles. Tensions began to grow between the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party (KMT). Chiang Kai-Shek who had control over the majority of China was determined to eradicate the Communists. In October of 1934, he had the entire Red Army surrounded, and forced them to embark on the "Long March". During the Long March the Communists traveled from the southeast part of China to the northwest. During this 6,000 mile...