Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist Party to victory in 1949 and ruled the People's Republic until his death in 1976, making him one of the most consequential and destructive leaders of the twentieth century. His Sino-Soviet alliance with Stalin initially made the communist bloc seem monolithic, but his ideological disputes with Khrushchev produced the dramatic Sino-Soviet split of the early 1960s that fundamentally altered Cold War geopolitics. The Great Leap Forward (1958-62) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) resulted in tens of millions of deaths from famine and political violence, while his opening to Nixon in 1972 represented a pragmatic realignment that reshaped the global balance of power.
- Lived: 1893 CE – 1976 CE
- Nationality: Chinese
- Roles: head_of_state, party_leader, military_leader
