"Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." From a speech given November 6, 1938. Revolutionary, statesman, and founder of the People's Republic of China In 1920 Mao returned to Changsha, where his attempt to organize a democratic government for Hunan province failed. He traveled to Shanghai in 1921 and was present at the founding meeting of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was also attended by Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu. Mao then founded a CCP branch in Hunan and organized workers’ strikes throughout the province. At this time warlords controlled much of northern China. To defeat the warlords, the Kuomintang (KMT) party of Sun Yat-sen allied with the CCP in 1923. Mao joined the KMT and served on its Central Committee, although he maintained his CCP membership.In 1925 Mao organized peasant unions in his hometown of Shaoshan. Because of his peasant background, he was named director of both the CCP and KMT Peasant Commissions in 1926. In 1927 Mao wrote a paper titled “Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan,” in which he declared that peasants would be the main force in the revolution. Because this viewpoint was contrary to orthodox Marxism, which held that workers were the basis for revolution, and because peasant revolt would alienate the KMT, the CCP rejected Mao’s ideas.The KMT broke with the CCP in 1927 and KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek, who had taken control of the KMT after Sun Yat-sen’s death in 1925, launched a violent purge against the Communists. In battles that became known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, Mao led a small peasant army in Hunan against local landlords and the KMT. His forces were defeated and Mao retreated south to mountainous Jiangxi province where he established a base area in 1929 known as the Jiangxi Soviet. There Mao experimented with rural land reform and recruited troops for the Communist military, known as the Red Army. Working with Red Army...
