Mao

Mao Tsé Toung, de Philip Short

Une des nombreuses biographies de Mao, par le correspondant de la BBC pendant les années 70 et 80. Mao, qui vécut près de 80 ans, dont plus de 40 ans passées au pouvoir, a eu une influence indéniable sur l'histoire de ce pays. L'ouvrage retrace ses années de jeunesse, et son apprentissage politique progressif. Ses doutes, ses revirements, puis ses certitudes, qui deviendront vite des dogmatismes. La plus grande partie de l'ouvrage se passe donc durant les années de lutte avec le parti communiste, et l'influence croissante de Mao dans la hiérarchie du parti. On y découvre son sens de l'organisation, sa capacité à mener les hommes, ses compétences de chef de guerre, et son irrésistible montée au pouvoir. Les relations tumultueuses avec le régime stalinien, qui marqueront fortement les relations sino-russes de l'après guerre. L'auteur s'attarde relativement peu sur les années au pouvoir de Mao et on peut certainement regretter que les événements qui vont si profondément marquer la Chine et les chinois soient traité de cette manière. Si l'auteur est rapide pour déclamer le génie militaire de Mao, il se fait plus discret sur les choix catastrophiques au niveau économique (le Grand Bond en Avant) ainsi que la folie meurtrière de la Révolution Culturelle. Cela reste cependant une biographie intéressante, principalement sur la vie de Mao pré-1949.

Mao, A life, by Philip Short

Of the three great tyrants of the 20th century - Hitler, Stalin, and Mao - the West generally knows the least about the latter. What we do know is that he was every bit as genocidal in his policies as either of the other two great villains of the age. In fact, in purely statistical terms, Mao might have been responsible for the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin combined.

In this biography, Short draws on a wealth of hitherto untapped sources to fashion an uncanny portrait of Mao Zedong. His Mao is a warrior-poet who gradually lost vital components of his humanity in his exclusive devotion to a cause. By Short's reckoning, Mao's megalomaniacal ambition led to such disasters as the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960), the collectivization and production drive that ended in apocalyptic failure as 20 million Chinese starved to death, and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1969), during which hundreds of thousands were tortured, arrested or executed.

The real strength of this book is the great use of primary sources and the great job the author did on Mao's early life and the history of China from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. The main fault I have with the book is that the author just did not do as good a job of the post-1949 Mao and China. However the pre-1949 stuff was great.

Where Short does error occasionally is in his emphasis. Sometimes he designates paragraphs to minor squabbling, then reveals a major change in only one short sentence, which will cause confusion to those who like to skim read. He also donates hundreds of pages to the communist army build up, then only ten or so to the actual post WWII battle for supreme victory over Chiang Kai-Shek.

However don't let these quibbles put you off- for those that want a greater understanding of Maoism and the amazing Red Army victory encapsulating the legendary and heroic 'Long March', you will find this book very enlightening.

Where the book loses its balance is that not enough is made of Mao's real failures, both as a leader and as a human being. Short faces these failures square on, but late and he does not give them nearly enough emphasis. Short's evaluation of Mao as being not as bad as Hitler or Stalin fails to convince us, perhaps because the effect Mao had on China was as bad as Stalin's on Russia: millions of dead and a crippled economy that could not sustain the population.

That is, it is sympathetic to the point of touting an official line at the expense of giving us the full story. Still, it is useful to know what the official line is and this is a good life of Mao from his youth through his entire career.

Comments

[mark]

very nice site :)