Cultural Revolution (China)

The term Cultural Revolution was first used in the Soviet Union to describe a revolution in knowledge, culture, the arts, and education during the First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932) launched by Joseph Stalin. In the context of Stalin's new state command economy, forced collectivization of agriculture, and rapid industrialization, calls for youths and new workers to challenge established knowledge, control thought and the arts, and attack the old intellectual elites all found a conducive environment in the equation of education with technical skills training. The Cultural Revolution saw the expansion of the mass volunteer organization, the League of the Militant Godless (1925–1947), whose mission was to promote atheism and to educate the people on the harms of religion and benefits of modern science, through the media, ...