A ballet scene at the Great Hall of the People that was attended by US President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat Nixon in February 1972.

Photograph by Byron E. Schumaker, February 22, 1972, National Archives Identifier: 194416, Nixon White House Photographs, White House Photo Office Collection (Nixon Administration), Richard Nixon Library, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/194416

China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976

A social experiment aimed at suppressing counterrevolutionaries and purifying the Chinese Communist Party launched in 1966, the Cultural Revolution was a disaster for China and created chaos across the country. For other collections on China’s modern political history, see: Chinese Civil War, 1945-1950; Purges in 1950s China; China’s Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961; Reform and Opening in China, 1978-; and China, 1989.

A ballet scene at the Great Hall of the People that was attended by US President Richard Nixon and his wife Pat Nixon in February 1972.

Connected Conn.

People

Zhou, Enlai

1898- 1976

Mao, Zedong

1893- 1976

Shehu, Mehmet

1913- 1981

Hoxha, Enver

1908- 1985

Kang, Sheng

1898- 1975

Kim, Il Sung

1912- 1994

East Asia

China

Eastern Europe

Albania

Soviet soldier taking a photograph of another soldier in Red Square, Moscow, 1959

Eastern Europe

Soviet Union

Eastern Europe

Czechoslovakia

Southeast Asia

Vietnam

East Asia

North Korea

Trade agreement between European Economic Community and China

China-Europe Relations

Zhao Ziyang on a tour of East Germany in June 1987.

China-Eastern Europe Relations

Sino-Soviet Relations

Sino-Soviet Split, 1960-1984

Conversations with Mao Zedong

Handshake between Zhao Ziyang, on the right, and Etienne Davignon

China-Western Europe Relations

Popular Documents

March 7, 1967	The DPRK Attitude Toward the So-called 'Cultural Revolution' in China The Soviet Embassy reports on the deterioration of Chinese-North Korean relations as a result of the Cultural Revolution in China.
March 6, 1975	Speech by Comrade Geng Biao of the CCP CC International Liaison Department at the Symposium on National Tourism Work Geng Biao, one of China's leading foreign policy officials in the mid-1970s, discusses the international situation and the international communist movement.
May 5, 1966	Meeting with Comrade Mao Zedong on 5 May 1966 Mao Zedong, Mehmet Shehu, Hysni Kapo, and others have a conversation, coincidentally, on Marx’s birthday. They discuss Khrushchev’s legacy, the history of the Chinese Communist Party, and the story of Liri Belishova.
June 27, 1966	Excerpt from a Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Albanian Party Leaders, 27 June 1966 Zhou Enlai, Enver Hoxha, and Mehmet Shehu have a detailed conversation about high-level purges in the Chinese Communist Party. Zhou also discusses China's difficult relations with North Korea and the Vietnam War.
February 3, 1967	Memorandum of Conversation between Chairman Mao Zedong and Comrades Hysni Kapo and Beqir Balluku Mao Zedong and Beqir Balluku discuss China's Cultural Revolution.

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Mao, Zedong

Soviet Union

Korean War, 1950-1953

China's Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976