Editing Sino-Soviet split (section)

=== Cultural Revolution ===
[[File:1966-11 1966年毛泽东林彪与红卫兵.jpg|thumb|250px|right|A public appearance of Chairman Mao and Vice Chairman [[Lin Biao]] among Red Guards, in Beijing, during the Cultural Revolution (November 1966)]]

To regain political supremacy in the PRC, Mao launched the [[Cultural Revolution]] in 1966 to counter the Soviet-style bureaucracies (personal-power-centres) that had become established in education, agriculture, and industrial management. Abiding Mao's proclamations for universal ideological orthodoxy, schools and universities closed throughout China when students organized themselves into politically radical [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guards]]. Lacking a leader, a political purpose, and a social function, the ideologically discrete units of Red Guards soon degenerated into political factions, each of whom claimed to be more Maoist than the other factions.<ref>''Dictionary of Wars'', Third Edition (2007), George Childs Kohn, Ed., pp.&nbsp;122–223.</ref> 

In establishing the ideological orthodoxy presented in the [[Little Red Book]] (''Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung''), the political violence of the Red Guards provoked civil war in parts of China, known as the [[Violent Struggle|violent struggle]], which Mao suppressed with the [[People's Liberation Army]] (PLA), who imprisoned the fractious Red Guards. Moreover, when Red Guard factionalism occurred within the PLA – Mao's base of political power – he dissolved the Red Guards, and then reconstituted the CCP with the new generation of Maoists who had endured and survived the Cultural Revolution that [[purge]]d the "anti-communist" old generation from the party and from China.<ref name="The Columbia Encyclopedia 1993. p.&nbsp;696">''The Columbia Encyclopedia'', Fifth Edition. Columbia University Press:1993. p.&nbsp;696.</ref>

As social engineering, the Cultural Revolution reasserted the political primacy of [[Maoism]], but also stressed, strained, and broke the PRC's relations with the USSR and the West.<ref>''Dictionary of Historical Terms'', Second Edition, Chris Cook, Ed. Peter Bedrick Books: New York:1999, p.&nbsp;89.</ref> The Soviet Union ridiculed and criticized Mao's Cultural Revolution fiercely,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pravda, The Anti-Soviet Policy of Communist China, Feb. 16, 1967 |url=https://china.usc.edu/pravda-anti-soviet-policy-communist-china-feb-16-1967 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240714074826/https://china.usc.edu/pravda-anti-soviet-policy-communist-china-feb-16-1967 |archive-date=2024-07-14 |access-date=2024-12-29 |website=University of Southern California |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=McGuire |first=Elizabeth |date=2001-05-01 |title=China, the Fun House Mirror: Soviet Reactions to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966-1969 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0fs1526m |journal=Berkeley Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies |language=en}}</ref> and some publications in USSR and Eastern Bloc also compared Mao meeting Red Guards on [[Tiananmen]] to [[Adolf Hitler]] giving speeches to his supporters.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Bai |first=Hua |date=2016-05-18 |title=文革与苏联 红卫兵成贬义 毛形象恶劣 |trans-title=Cultural Revolution and the Soviet Union: Red Guards' negative meaning and Mao's poor image |url=https://www.voachinese.com/a/3334409.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241130110228/https://www.voachinese.com/a/3334409.html |archive-date=2024-11-30 |access-date=2024-12-29 |website=[[Voice of America]] |language=zh}}</ref> Geopolitically, despite their querulous "Maoism vs. Marxism–Leninism" disputes about interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Leninism, the USSR and the PRC advised, aided, and supplied [[North Vietnam]] during the [[Vietnam War]],<ref>''The Red Flag: A History of Communism'' (2009) p.&nbsp;461.</ref> which Mao had defined as a peasant revolution against foreign imperialism. In socialist solidarity, the PRC allowed safe passage for the Soviet Union's ''matériel'' to North Vietnam to prosecute the war against the US-sponsored [[South Vietnam|Republic of Vietnam]], until 1968, after the Chinese withdrawal.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://alphahistory.com/vietnamwar/chinese-and-soviet-involvement/|title=CHINESE AND SOVIET INVOLVEMENT IN VIETNAM|date=20 June 2019}}</ref><ref>''Dictionary of Historical Terms'', Second Edition, Chris Cook, Ed. Peter Bedrick Books: New York:1999, p.&nbsp;218.</ref>