Mao Zedong was a leader in politics.
Cultural Revolution . Set into motion by Mao Zedong , then Chairman of the Communist Party of China , its stated goal was to preserve ` true ' Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist and traditional elements from Chinese society , and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party . Mao Zedong . Mao adopted Marxism -- Leninism while working at Peking University and became a founding member of the Communist Party of China ( CPC ) , leading the Autumn Harvest Uprising in 1927 . In 1966 , he initiated the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution , a program to remove `` counter-revolutionary '' elements of Chinese society that lasted 10 years and which was marked by violent class struggle that killed 400,000 to 10,000,000 people , widespread destruction of cultural artifacts and unprecedented elevation of Mao 's personality cult .