Mao Zedong was the leader of the Communist Party of China who showed it the way to victory against the 'Kuomintang' in the Civil war of China.

Born in the village of Shaoshan in Hunan province, Mao Zedong was the son of affluent farmer and grain dealer. After graduating from the First provincial Normal School of Hunan in 1918 he traveled to Beijing during May Fourth Movement in 1919 with his professor Yang Changji. He registered as a part time student at Beijing University and engaged himself as much as possible in reading. During his stay in Beijing, his idea of communism evolved and matured. He married Yang kaihui, professor Changji’s daughter and a fellow student.

On July 1921, Mao attended the first session of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, in Shanghai. Two years later, he was elected as one of the five commissars of the Central committee of the Party during the third Congress session. In 1924, he was elected an Alternate Executive of the central Committee and in the same year he became an Executive of the Shanghai branch of the Kuomintang and Secretary of the Organization Department. In October 1925, Mao became acting propaganda Director of the Kuomintang.

Mao Zedong was from a peasant family, and he believed that problems of China could be studied and resolved only within China. Mao was first introduced to communism while working at Peking University and in 1921; he co-founded the Communist Party of China (CPC). He sought to sabotage the alliance of imperialism and feudalism in China. Throughout the 1920’s he led several laborer struggles with limited success.

From 1931 to 1934, Mao helped establish the Soviet Republic of China and was elected Chairman of the republic in Jiangxi. Here he married to He Zizhen, after his previous wife was arrested and executed by KMT in 1930. Mao faced opposition for his land policies and army leadership from the founder of the CPC’s and Red Army branch in Jiangxi that led to a violent series of systematic suppression of them. On 21 January 1949, The KMT suffered massive losses against Mao’s Red Army and Red Army took over the power in Chengdu, the last city occupied by KMT. While in Yan’an, Mao divorced He Zizhen and married an actress Lang Ping.

The People’s Republic of China was established on 1 October 1949 ending the almost two decade’s long civil and International war. Mao became chairman of the PRC in 1954 remained till 1959. During this period The Communist Party took over the control of all media to promote the image of Mao and the party. The communist party aimed at the total involvement of the Chinese people in building and strengthening their nation.

Mao launched the first Five-Years Plan in 1953 that aimed to end the Chinese dependence on agriculture to become a world power. New industrial plants were built and agricultural industries began to produce enough capital that China no longer needed any outside support. The success of first Five-Year Plan encouraged Mao to initiate the Second Five-year Plan, ‘The Great Leap Forward’ in 1958. During the Second Five-Year plan, efforts were made to increase the rate of literacy and to control price.

In 1969, Mao declared the Cultural Revolution to be over. In his last days Mao was faced with declining health and lung ailment due to smoking and heart trouble. In the afternoon of 2 September 1976, he suffered a serious heart attack and took his last breath on 9 September 1976 in his sleep. He had been in a poor health for many years prior to his death. His body lay in the state at the Great hall of the People. A memorial service was held in Tiananmen Square on 18 September 1976. His body was later placed into Mausoleum of Mao Zedong.