To What Extent Was the Chinese Revolution, 1927-1949, a Socialist Revolution as Defined by Marx?

1. Introduction To what extent was the Chinese revolution, 1927-1949, a socialist revolution as defined by Marx? This investigation will be comparing classical Marxist doctrine with Mao Zedong thought and the Chinese revolution, to see the extent that the revolution adhered to Marxist doctrine. Classical Marxism will be defined by the works of Karl Marx and Fedrich Engels and Mao Zedong thought will be defined by the works of Mao Zedong. The primary sources used for this essay are Selected Work of Mao Zedong and Marx and Engels: Selected Works. To investigate the Marxist nature of the Chinese revolution, I break down the revolution into three parts: cause, process and effect. To analyse these three parts, three consequential questions are asked. Firstly, what is a Socialist revolution? From here I will investigate the cause of socialist revolution from Marx’s and Mao’s point of view. Secondly, how did Mao adapt Marxism to China? From this question I will investigate the process of socialist revolution from Marx’s and Mao’s point of view. Thirdly, to what extent was China after the Chinese revolution a socialist state? From here I will investigate the effect of Chinese revolution to what Marx viewed as a socialist state. From this analysis, I will prove that the Chinese revolution was not a socialist revolution as defined by Marx, but simply a movement to overthrow a corrupt government dressed up in Marxist jargon.

2. “What is a Socialist Revolution?”: Cause First we shall look at social revolution from the Classical Marx point of view. The historical context in which Marx and Engels established their social theory was the post-industrial revolution and European capitalist society. Classical Marxism is a doctrine based upon “economic relations” . The value of using Marx-Engels Selected Works is that it originated from Marx himself. Therefore it gives us access to Marxism in its purest form; Marx’s own academic thoughts, which would be valuable when doing a

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