Zedong And Castro Comparison

Zedong and Castro had very similar beginnings and ideology on what a just nation working to help its people should look like. They both started their revolutions for the same reasons as well, both of their countries were suffering underneath a cruel dictator who put their ideals and themselves above the well being of their people. Communism appeared differently for each leader, Communism was already an ideal blooming in China due to their proximity to Russia, while Castro more or less brought Communism gradually to Cuba through his policy changes. Castro aimed to free Cuba from capitalist control, helping the economy, and create an honest administration. Zedong aimed to increase China’s standing in the world through the use of rapid industrialization, removing all traditions
They both grew a rebel army composed of their oppressed country men, starting a civil war against their enemy and crowned as leader by their people after the war was won. They both also went on to hunt down officials from the previous government and kill them. The ideologies they established after the war to control and guide the people down the path they wanted both valued Communism, Socialism, elimination of the bourgeois, emphasis on the peasants and average joes. Yet they differed in the emphasis that Cuba put on Nationalism and the focus China put on industry and working hard. Mao treated opposition more harshly in contrast to Castro who just flat out killed or imprisoned them, while Mao would send them to labor camps or ruin their image and status to the point they killed themselves in their despair. While they both established their regimes and ideologies similarly, Mao could be considered a crueler leader because of his treatment of his own people to the point he tore down even their culture. While Castro despite ultimately damaging his country in the long run, always made his people his first