Part 4 of reuploading classic history episodes in the run up to our book club review of Serve the People! by Yan Lianke.

In episode 4 of the Cultural Revolution series, we look at how the party began to rebuild itself in the period 1968-1972 through a series of internal meetings, some last-minute purges, and a few devastating mass campaigns that would end up having a much higher impact than anything the Red Guards had carried out in previous years.

Though much had happened in China during the last few years, to many people it seemed like nothing had fundamentally changed. Though the people running the government were different, the structure of the party-state itself had remained the same. If anything, the only real difference was the preeminence that Mao Zedong Thought gained during this period, largely thanks to the support of the PLA.

Songs: Long Live Chairman Mao and March of the Revolutionary Youth

0:00 Introduction ("Long live Chairman Mao")
3:18 Rebuilding the system
14:45 "March of the revolutionay youth"
15:05 The dismissal of Liu Shaoqi
25:40 The 9th plenum
28:20 The final campaigns
43:00 Lessons learned
50:22 Outro

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