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Mao: The Real Story
This major new biography of Mao uses extensive Russian documents previously unavailable to biographers to reveal surprising details about Mao’s rise to power and leadership in China.
This major new biography of Mao uses extensive Russian documents previously unavailable to biographers to reveal surprising details about Mao’s rise to power and his leadership in China.
Mao Zedong was one of the most important figures of the twentieth century, the most important in the history of modern China. A complex figure, he was champion of the poor and brutal tyrant, poet and despot.
Pantsov and Levine show Mao’s relentless drive to succeed, vividly describing his growing role in the nascent Communist Party of China. They disclose startling facts about his personal life, particularly regarding his health and his lifelong serial affairs with young women. They portray him as the loyal Stalinist that he was, who never broke with the Soviet Union until after Stalin’s death.
Mao brought his country from poverty and economic backwardness into the modern age and onto the world stage. But he was also responsible for an unprecedented loss of life. The disastrous Great Leap Forward with its accompanying famine and the bloody Cultural Revolution were Mao’s creations. Internationally Mao began to distance China from the USSR under Khrushchev and shrewdly renewed relations with the U.S. as a counter to the Soviets. He lived and behaved as China’s last emperor.
This major new biography of Mao uses extensive Russian documents previously unavailable to biographers to reveal surprising details about Mao’s rise to power and his leadership in China.
Mao Zedong was one of the most important figures of the twentieth century, the most important in the history of modern China. A complex figure, he was champion of the poor and brutal tyrant, poet and despot.
Pantsov and Levine show Mao’s relentless drive to succeed, vividly describing his growing role in the nascent Communist Party of China. They disclose startling facts about his personal life, particularly regarding his health and his lifelong serial affairs with young women. They portray him as the loyal Stalinist that he was, who never broke with the Soviet Union until after Stalin’s death.
Mao brought his country from poverty and economic backwardness into the modern age and onto the world stage. But he was also responsible for an unprecedented loss of life. The disastrous Great Leap Forward with its accompanying famine and the bloody Cultural Revolution were Mao’s creations. Internationally Mao began to distance China from the USSR under Khrushchev and shrewdly renewed relations with the U.S. as a counter to the Soviets. He lived and behaved as China’s last emperor.
784 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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1472 people want to read
About the author
Alexander V. Pantsov
6 books21 followersAlexander V. Pantsov is Professor of History and holds the Edward and Mary Catherine Gerhold Chair in the Humanities at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. Born in Moscow, Pantsov graduated from Moscow State University Institute of Asian and African Studies in 1978. He has published more than ten books, among them The Bolsheviks and the Chinese Revolution, 1919-1927 (2000), Mao: The Real Story (2007), Deng Xiaoping: A Revolutionary Life (2015), and Victorious in Defeat: The Life and Times of Chiang Kai-shek, China, 1887-1975 (2023).
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April 9, 2013
I was wondering whether to read one more book on Chairman Mao and his legacy and life. I had read Stuart Schram's book as well the more recent one by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday titled 'Mao:The Unknown Story'. However, the introduction to this book suggested that this one is written after new material has come to light once the Soviet and Chinese archives were opened for research by scholars. Also, the title 'Mao:the Real Story' seemed to suggest as if the ones before were somewhat 'less authentic'. This book covers the entire life of Mao and so there is a lot of material on his childhood, family and early years as a communist. Since I was interested mainly in Mao, the supreme communist leader of China, I had to wade through half the book without being all that absorbed in it. As I finished reading the book, I felt that the new material from the Soviet and Chinese archives did not contribute much to a changed view of Mao.
Primarily, I felt that the book did not say anything significantly new as far as the major events during the Maoist times between 1957 and 1972 are concerned. The other point about the book is that the authors say that they avoided the 'unreliability and distorted judgements' of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (in their book 'Mao: the Unknown story') by making careful and discriminating use of a wide array of sources. But the picture of Mao that emerges from this book is one of him as an ideological, deluded and megalomaniacal leader with a prodigious capacity for inflicting death on the Chinese people. This is not too different from what Jung Chang had portrayed in her book. Even the accounts of the Great Leap Forward and the cruelties of the Cultural Revolution do not disprove things that Jung Chang had written. On the other hand, I feel that Jung Chang has one thing going for her which eludes the authors of this book. One must give greater credence to Jung Chang because her experience of Mao was not purely academic. She grew up in Maoist China and her parents had lived through the turmoil of the Great Leap Forward and the violent cultural revolution. Jung Chang herself was in her mid-teens when the Cultural Revolution started and so she had experienced it in its full venom. Surely, this should count for more than pure academic research.
The coverage of the years from the end of the Second World War to the end of the Korean war show that Mao was a faithful follower of Stalin and toed the line set by the Kremlin so long as Stalin was alive. It emerges that Stalin plotted diabolically to force the Chinese to enter the Korean war and forced Mao to commit a million men of his ill-equipped army in the war against the US, much against the better judgement of Mao and his party colleagues. Mao simply could not say 'No' to the Boss, according to the authors. The authors always refer to Stalin as the 'Boss' whenever they talk about Mao's relationship to Stalin and the USSR, implying the subservient role that Mao played. But even this is not something entirely new. Die-hard communists in Asian countries have always insisted and believed that Mao was always loyal to Stalin and that he believed in solidarity with the USSR as part of the vision to advance socialism across the world. It was always said that he deviated from the line set by the Kremlin only after Khrushchev's historic de-Stalinization speech in 1956.
Much has been written about the number of people who died as a result of the famine during the Great Leap years of 1957-62. Jung Chang specifies a figure of 38 million dead, based on Chinese records of annual death rates. This book says that Chinese local archives arrive at a figure of 45 million while the authors themselves speculate it to be between 30 and 40 million. Even an apparatchik like Hu Yaobang, the general secy of the Central committee of the CCP, accepted a figure of 20 million, while Chinese dissidents say it was some 35 million. So, the criticism against Jung Chang in the past about inflating the numbers does not seem valid anymore.
Another point of contention has always been about Liu Shaoqi's role as a reformer. During Deng's reign in the 1980s, Liu Shaoqi's legacy and image was sought to be rehabilitated. He was projected as a reformer even during the Great Leap years by Dengists. This book, however, says that Liu Shaoqi was fanatically supportive of Mao till as late as even 1961 while it was actually the Defense Minister, Peng Dehuai, who openly criticized Mao as early as 1959 but ended up paying the price for it by being denounced and punished.
The book brings out the enormity of the Korean war tragedy in depth. The authors show that Stalin desperately wanted to draw the US into that war in order to show the limits of US power in a conventional war without atomic weapons. Towards this end, he skillfully manipulated Kim-il-Sung and Mao to commit millions of ground troops and escalate the conflict by invading the South. The official data records that the Chinese lost 148000 soldiers and 300000 wounded. The North Koreans 520000 dead, South Koreans 415000 and the US 36500 killed in action. However, the greatest number of victims is the often unmentioned innocent and peaceful Korean citizens - a whopping three to four million dead! Mao, as always, saw the losses only as another step towards advancing communism.
The book is rather dry for one who is not interested in the various persona of the CCP and the other Soviet players in the Cold War. However, for those interested in Chinese communism and Chairman Mao-Ze-Dong in particular, this is still an important book to read.
Primarily, I felt that the book did not say anything significantly new as far as the major events during the Maoist times between 1957 and 1972 are concerned. The other point about the book is that the authors say that they avoided the 'unreliability and distorted judgements' of Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (in their book 'Mao: the Unknown story') by making careful and discriminating use of a wide array of sources. But the picture of Mao that emerges from this book is one of him as an ideological, deluded and megalomaniacal leader with a prodigious capacity for inflicting death on the Chinese people. This is not too different from what Jung Chang had portrayed in her book. Even the accounts of the Great Leap Forward and the cruelties of the Cultural Revolution do not disprove things that Jung Chang had written. On the other hand, I feel that Jung Chang has one thing going for her which eludes the authors of this book. One must give greater credence to Jung Chang because her experience of Mao was not purely academic. She grew up in Maoist China and her parents had lived through the turmoil of the Great Leap Forward and the violent cultural revolution. Jung Chang herself was in her mid-teens when the Cultural Revolution started and so she had experienced it in its full venom. Surely, this should count for more than pure academic research.
The coverage of the years from the end of the Second World War to the end of the Korean war show that Mao was a faithful follower of Stalin and toed the line set by the Kremlin so long as Stalin was alive. It emerges that Stalin plotted diabolically to force the Chinese to enter the Korean war and forced Mao to commit a million men of his ill-equipped army in the war against the US, much against the better judgement of Mao and his party colleagues. Mao simply could not say 'No' to the Boss, according to the authors. The authors always refer to Stalin as the 'Boss' whenever they talk about Mao's relationship to Stalin and the USSR, implying the subservient role that Mao played. But even this is not something entirely new. Die-hard communists in Asian countries have always insisted and believed that Mao was always loyal to Stalin and that he believed in solidarity with the USSR as part of the vision to advance socialism across the world. It was always said that he deviated from the line set by the Kremlin only after Khrushchev's historic de-Stalinization speech in 1956.
Much has been written about the number of people who died as a result of the famine during the Great Leap years of 1957-62. Jung Chang specifies a figure of 38 million dead, based on Chinese records of annual death rates. This book says that Chinese local archives arrive at a figure of 45 million while the authors themselves speculate it to be between 30 and 40 million. Even an apparatchik like Hu Yaobang, the general secy of the Central committee of the CCP, accepted a figure of 20 million, while Chinese dissidents say it was some 35 million. So, the criticism against Jung Chang in the past about inflating the numbers does not seem valid anymore.
Another point of contention has always been about Liu Shaoqi's role as a reformer. During Deng's reign in the 1980s, Liu Shaoqi's legacy and image was sought to be rehabilitated. He was projected as a reformer even during the Great Leap years by Dengists. This book, however, says that Liu Shaoqi was fanatically supportive of Mao till as late as even 1961 while it was actually the Defense Minister, Peng Dehuai, who openly criticized Mao as early as 1959 but ended up paying the price for it by being denounced and punished.
The book brings out the enormity of the Korean war tragedy in depth. The authors show that Stalin desperately wanted to draw the US into that war in order to show the limits of US power in a conventional war without atomic weapons. Towards this end, he skillfully manipulated Kim-il-Sung and Mao to commit millions of ground troops and escalate the conflict by invading the South. The official data records that the Chinese lost 148000 soldiers and 300000 wounded. The North Koreans 520000 dead, South Koreans 415000 and the US 36500 killed in action. However, the greatest number of victims is the often unmentioned innocent and peaceful Korean citizens - a whopping three to four million dead! Mao, as always, saw the losses only as another step towards advancing communism.
The book is rather dry for one who is not interested in the various persona of the CCP and the other Soviet players in the Cold War. However, for those interested in Chinese communism and Chairman Mao-Ze-Dong in particular, this is still an important book to read.
January 5, 2013
This biography was first published in Russia in 2007 without benefit of subtitle hype. But no American publisher would settle for the sober announcement that Alexander V. Pantsov's access to the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History has resulted in a nuanced study of Mao Zedong (1893-1976) that supersedes previous biographies.
The evidence of Mao's faithfulness to Stalin right up to the Soviet dictator's death in 1953 is especially striking. Of course, there were tensions between the two leaders, and even distrust, but in the main Pantsov and Levine provide a detailed exposé of Communist solidarity that strikes yet another blow at certain American Cold War historians, who have generally wanted to present Mao as his own man. In other words, there was considerable truth to the idea that communism was monolithic -- no matter how much it may have seemed to vary from one country to another.
Perhaps because Pantsov and Levine are so focused on getting their man right, they do not step away from their narrative enough to appreciate that in certain respects Mao is now an irrelevance. Without saying so, China's subsequent leaders have repudiated Mao's ideas of radical reform, which led to the disastrous, famine-producing Great Leap Forward (1958-61) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) that caused a political chaos that China has yet to fully overcome. Still, their biography of Mao goes a long way toward elucidating contemporary China and Chinese leaders' insistence on one-party rule as the only way to perpetuate long-lasting political, economic and cultural change.
For better or worse, China seemed to have not had a good alternative. The portrait of Chiang Kai-shek in this biography is devastating: Although he inflicted severe losses on the Communists in 1936, ultimately his rule succumbed to them in 1948, when they triumphed using guerrilla war tactics and a call -- not for socialism, or communism, or Stalinism, but for a "New Democracy" that would destroy the power of corrupt generals and government officials. Communists claimed they would elevate the fighting spirit of the country's soldiers and build a prosperous economy that the nationalist Chinese government could not deliver. In the end, Mao's promises were unfulfilled -- or rather their fulfillment was much delayed, until his death and the country's turn toward a market economy.
The evidence of Mao's faithfulness to Stalin right up to the Soviet dictator's death in 1953 is especially striking. Of course, there were tensions between the two leaders, and even distrust, but in the main Pantsov and Levine provide a detailed exposé of Communist solidarity that strikes yet another blow at certain American Cold War historians, who have generally wanted to present Mao as his own man. In other words, there was considerable truth to the idea that communism was monolithic -- no matter how much it may have seemed to vary from one country to another.
Perhaps because Pantsov and Levine are so focused on getting their man right, they do not step away from their narrative enough to appreciate that in certain respects Mao is now an irrelevance. Without saying so, China's subsequent leaders have repudiated Mao's ideas of radical reform, which led to the disastrous, famine-producing Great Leap Forward (1958-61) and the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) that caused a political chaos that China has yet to fully overcome. Still, their biography of Mao goes a long way toward elucidating contemporary China and Chinese leaders' insistence on one-party rule as the only way to perpetuate long-lasting political, economic and cultural change.
For better or worse, China seemed to have not had a good alternative. The portrait of Chiang Kai-shek in this biography is devastating: Although he inflicted severe losses on the Communists in 1936, ultimately his rule succumbed to them in 1948, when they triumphed using guerrilla war tactics and a call -- not for socialism, or communism, or Stalinism, but for a "New Democracy" that would destroy the power of corrupt generals and government officials. Communists claimed they would elevate the fighting spirit of the country's soldiers and build a prosperous economy that the nationalist Chinese government could not deliver. In the end, Mao's promises were unfulfilled -- or rather their fulfillment was much delayed, until his death and the country's turn toward a market economy.
November 11, 2025
This is my first Mao Zedong biography so I am unbiased towards other authors. From the get-go the authors explain "A recent biography of Mao by Jung Chang and Jon Holliday, Mao: The Unknown Story, was criticized in the academic community on grounds of reliability and distorted judgments. We tried to avoid these shortcomings by making careful and discriminating use of a wider array of sources than any other biographer, weighing evidence carefully, and presenting sound and forceful judgments unmarred by political considerations." pg. 5
I found this account very heavy and detailed with a lot of people & places throughout the entire book. It's not bad but for me it felt bogged down. Some parts covered lengthy parts of China's history and how they tie into modern China's story.
The last third of the book titled "The Dictator" is where things really take off. It covers the Korean conflict, socialist industrialization, the Great Leap Forward, the famine, other tragic events. The great fall-out between the USSR and Peoples' Republic of China is discussed and foreshadowed with "Stalin also said that there was a danger that a 'Chinese Tito' might emerge." pg. 372
Overall this was very informative and explained a lot. I would recommend it to someone new to Chinese history and politics. Thanks!
I found this account very heavy and detailed with a lot of people & places throughout the entire book. It's not bad but for me it felt bogged down. Some parts covered lengthy parts of China's history and how they tie into modern China's story.
The last third of the book titled "The Dictator" is where things really take off. It covers the Korean conflict, socialist industrialization, the Great Leap Forward, the famine, other tragic events. The great fall-out between the USSR and Peoples' Republic of China is discussed and foreshadowed with "Stalin also said that there was a danger that a 'Chinese Tito' might emerge." pg. 372
Overall this was very informative and explained a lot. I would recommend it to someone new to Chinese history and politics. Thanks!
January 7, 2020
This is a hugely enjoyable and fascinating read. Pantsov weaves together a very coherent and convincing narrative, and he has trawled the Soviet archives and unearthed some amazing material. The archival evidence alone makes this book worth the read. What lets the book down is that: 1) the author is an unabashed anticommunist, and that basic ideological framework undoubtedly shapes the book's overall narrative; and 2) the reader has to be really vigilant about checking references - for every impeccable source from the archives, there's a highly questionable quotation cited from some or other western fantasist with a McCarthyite axe to grind.
Overall, a long but useful read, as long as you engage with it critically.
Overall, a long but useful read, as long as you engage with it critically.
September 19, 2015
This is a well done biography of Mao Zedong. Just a few weeks earlier, I had completed reading the Chang and Halliday biography. The latter has great detail and chronicles Mao's negative side well. But it is a pretty one-sided view of "the Great Helmsman." This volume, although more "neutral" with its subject, also is clear eyed in its take on Mao. As such, I find it a preferable work to Chang and Halliday, even as I recognize the value of that work.
The book has much detail and provides a fine chronological perspective on its subject. One of the first (and more useful) features is a listing of the characters. There are a lot of important people to consider in Mao's career--and it sometimes gets difficult keeping the characters straight. This feature also highlights how many of the main characters rose and fell; Mao was hard on his subordinates--and individuals who were at one time major players could easily be reduced to minor figures or be hectored to their death (e.g., Liu Shaoqi or Lin Biao). Even Zhou Enlai was punished often by Mao--including not allowing him to have surgery fir cancer for a couple years after diagnosis. At the same time, there was a certain pragmatism to Mao with his subordinates--such as Deng Xiaoping. Deng was purged a couple times, but never targeted for death. Mao felt him, potentially, to be too valuable.
The book traces Mao's life from his youth to his political awakening to his rising role among Chinese Communists. His rise was often contested, and his path was not easy. There were times that other leaders shunted him to the side, but he persevered. During the Civil War with the "Nationalists," there were challenges facing the Communists. But the Long March was a prelude to an increasingly powerful Communist military force (the authors' view of the Long March is so different from Chang and Halliday's that is hard to reconcile the two). Soviet leader Stalin at some point came to recognize Mao as the person whom he would support as leader. This was a key element in Mao's rise to power.
The book also describes well the horrors of two of Mao's greatest efforts--the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. He set in motion actions that had devastating effects on China. His own view is that ideology should trump pragmatism and "what works." The aftermath was brutal.
Finally, the volume tracks his later efforts to retain power, to balance off the Soviet Union with overtures to the United States.
The volume is a very fine resource to get a realistic sense of Mao Zedong--what he contributed and, as important, what damage he did to his country. A must read on Mao.
The book has much detail and provides a fine chronological perspective on its subject. One of the first (and more useful) features is a listing of the characters. There are a lot of important people to consider in Mao's career--and it sometimes gets difficult keeping the characters straight. This feature also highlights how many of the main characters rose and fell; Mao was hard on his subordinates--and individuals who were at one time major players could easily be reduced to minor figures or be hectored to their death (e.g., Liu Shaoqi or Lin Biao). Even Zhou Enlai was punished often by Mao--including not allowing him to have surgery fir cancer for a couple years after diagnosis. At the same time, there was a certain pragmatism to Mao with his subordinates--such as Deng Xiaoping. Deng was purged a couple times, but never targeted for death. Mao felt him, potentially, to be too valuable.
The book traces Mao's life from his youth to his political awakening to his rising role among Chinese Communists. His rise was often contested, and his path was not easy. There were times that other leaders shunted him to the side, but he persevered. During the Civil War with the "Nationalists," there were challenges facing the Communists. But the Long March was a prelude to an increasingly powerful Communist military force (the authors' view of the Long March is so different from Chang and Halliday's that is hard to reconcile the two). Soviet leader Stalin at some point came to recognize Mao as the person whom he would support as leader. This was a key element in Mao's rise to power.
The book also describes well the horrors of two of Mao's greatest efforts--the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. He set in motion actions that had devastating effects on China. His own view is that ideology should trump pragmatism and "what works." The aftermath was brutal.
Finally, the volume tracks his later efforts to retain power, to balance off the Soviet Union with overtures to the United States.
The volume is a very fine resource to get a realistic sense of Mao Zedong--what he contributed and, as important, what damage he did to his country. A must read on Mao.
December 26, 2014
While the book is fascinating in the amount of detail that it recovered from the Soviet archives, I can't but help thinking that it was weighed too heavily on the Soviet influence in Mao's life and subsequently the development of modern communist China. Although Mao's youth was described in as much detail as I could have expected to have been recorded for someone with a modest family background, I felt that the book raced through the cultural revolution, the opening of China to the West, and Mao's process in choosing a successor. Perhaps this is because the book is so focused on Mao (and Stalin and Khrushchev), that the Chinese political characters do not fully developed so that they can become plausible characters that affect these key historical events. Ideally, the author's should have focused on Sino-Soviet relations instead of giving the pretense that this was a balanced story of Mao's life. All this being said, the tangled historical web that was woven between Russia and China is compelling enough that I would recommend this book to anyone who might interested in this part of history.
November 2, 2012
Fascinating biography with a lot of new information gathered from KGB and other Russian files that have previously not been available, as well as some significant new research from China. It gave me a very good sense of how he managed to become the ruler of China and stay in that position against tremendous opposition for a long time. It also was fascinating in the portrayal of the development of his ideas - he seemed like a typical, wild-eyed college kid who never grew out of a lot of the wacky ideaa that so many of us flirt with in school and learn to get over after a few years. The evil that he was responsible for - both deliberate and inadvertent - was very well illuminated and explained. The main flaw of the book that there was awful lot of plenum this and politburo that dry recitations of the workings of the politics. But, in the end, they seemed necessary to make a lot of things clear in the book.
July 8, 2024
Nice read. I would say its highlight is the extensive use of Russian archives which really enlightens the early history of the CCP and the PRC.
As a consequence, after the Sino-Soviet split I think the biography is much weaker. There were some use of the sources that surprised me, for example:
- it relies heavily, without comments, on "The Private Life of Chairman Mao", which as far as I know has been criticized;
- it was surprising that it does not uses as a source "Riding the Tiger" which to the best of my knowledge is the go-to source in English for the Lin Biao affair;
- although it heavily relies on "Mao's Last Revolution" for the Cultural Revolution, when describing the Zhenbao incident it says that it is not known how (or who, I do not remember exactly) started, while in "Mao's Last Revolution" it states that the consensus is that the Chinese side started it. This was weird to me.
As a consequence, after the Sino-Soviet split I think the biography is much weaker. There were some use of the sources that surprised me, for example:
- it relies heavily, without comments, on "The Private Life of Chairman Mao", which as far as I know has been criticized;
- it was surprising that it does not uses as a source "Riding the Tiger" which to the best of my knowledge is the go-to source in English for the Lin Biao affair;
- although it heavily relies on "Mao's Last Revolution" for the Cultural Revolution, when describing the Zhenbao incident it says that it is not known how (or who, I do not remember exactly) started, while in "Mao's Last Revolution" it states that the consensus is that the Chinese side started it. This was weird to me.
February 26, 2025
My new number 1 Communist.
December 29, 2022
本書分為三部分，只看了49年後的最後一部分，基本上來說中規中矩，可惜沒有太多的細節與對歷史脈絡的整理，想更進一步了解49年後的歷史也許可以直接找別的書籍來看…
July 4, 2017
Russian born and educated Alexander V. Pantsov joined with American born and Harvard educated Stevin I. Levine and together produced the well documented, academic biography, Mao; The Real Story. I cannot say that I believe this is all there is to the Great Helmsman. Gaps are huge and while it is clear that the authors have little sympathy for The Chairman, too much is unanswered. If you are used to the typically Communistic method of reading papers to signal the waxing or waning of various politicians, and the subtle symbolism of who gets to speak in which meeting, this is a relatively easy read. For the rest of us several explanations would help. The authors will leap from finely detailed narrations about these papers and the ever so many committees and titles then leap over small things like World War II. I can barely recommend Mao for the trained student of communist history and cannot enthuse about it for the more general reader.
This is too well documented to challenge the claim that it is a Real Story. I do not accept that it is a complete story. The minutia of the maneuvering by, for and against Mao as he plays his role in the organization of, some of the military actions by and the ultimate foundation of the Communist Party in China can be tedious. That they frequent lack the information necessary to understand the significance of these minutia is an obvious shortcoming.
Too many things are left without context, contrast or full analysis. It is not clear to me that Mao was that necessary or important to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party. The authors have virtually nothing to say about the potential, functional politics or the rational expectations of the Guomindang. Absent Mao, or with a weaker communist party, could China have been unified under General Chiang Kai-shek?
How exactly did the Communist military suddenly jump from a few thousand, rarely paid, and rarely effective force to suddenly number in the millions and defy a better armed non-communist nationalist military. This should be a critical center of The Real Story and it is missing.
Mao becomes the ascendant “Cult of Personality “, Stalinist style leader of China, via a process again poorly documented. That he used Stalinist tactics to hold power is again, not clearly laid-out. Much is made of a Chinese cultural preference for forcing a confession rather than simply executing opposition (real or imagined) but the authors seem reluctant to say that Mao directed or countenanced the death of any of the people suppressed. The lack of detail about Mao’s “butcher’s bill” is a major failure. We are frequently told that he could be indifferent to the human costs of policy, or war so long as his will was maintained. What was the human cost of this indifference?
The authors of Mao, The Real Story are not fans of their subject. A reasonable attitude. This is a biography that emphasizes the political techniques and details of a person. Whatever the intended audience, we need more info about this time and better information about the conditions that helped to create the communist movement. The Real Story fails to explain why and how it became preferable to other alternatives. Stalin’s early dominance of the Chinese Communist Party is clearly shown to have been a fiscal and practical necessity, but it should also have been a drag and an embarrassment.
Given when and who wrote this history; given the availability of previously secret sources, at least previously secret Soviet sources, this could have been a better and more complete story.
This is too well documented to challenge the claim that it is a Real Story. I do not accept that it is a complete story. The minutia of the maneuvering by, for and against Mao as he plays his role in the organization of, some of the military actions by and the ultimate foundation of the Communist Party in China can be tedious. That they frequent lack the information necessary to understand the significance of these minutia is an obvious shortcoming.
Too many things are left without context, contrast or full analysis. It is not clear to me that Mao was that necessary or important to the formation of the Chinese Communist Party. The authors have virtually nothing to say about the potential, functional politics or the rational expectations of the Guomindang. Absent Mao, or with a weaker communist party, could China have been unified under General Chiang Kai-shek?
How exactly did the Communist military suddenly jump from a few thousand, rarely paid, and rarely effective force to suddenly number in the millions and defy a better armed non-communist nationalist military. This should be a critical center of The Real Story and it is missing.
Mao becomes the ascendant “Cult of Personality “, Stalinist style leader of China, via a process again poorly documented. That he used Stalinist tactics to hold power is again, not clearly laid-out. Much is made of a Chinese cultural preference for forcing a confession rather than simply executing opposition (real or imagined) but the authors seem reluctant to say that Mao directed or countenanced the death of any of the people suppressed. The lack of detail about Mao’s “butcher’s bill” is a major failure. We are frequently told that he could be indifferent to the human costs of policy, or war so long as his will was maintained. What was the human cost of this indifference?
The authors of Mao, The Real Story are not fans of their subject. A reasonable attitude. This is a biography that emphasizes the political techniques and details of a person. Whatever the intended audience, we need more info about this time and better information about the conditions that helped to create the communist movement. The Real Story fails to explain why and how it became preferable to other alternatives. Stalin’s early dominance of the Chinese Communist Party is clearly shown to have been a fiscal and practical necessity, but it should also have been a drag and an embarrassment.
Given when and who wrote this history; given the availability of previously secret sources, at least previously secret Soviet sources, this could have been a better and more complete story.
December 30, 2019
Having never read much on the Communist revolution in China, I was really interested in learning about Mao's mindset throughout the Revolution and on through the founding of the PRC. In particular, recognizing that all history books are, to some extent, propaganda machines, I wanted to know if Mao was as cruel as legend supposes him to be, to understand why so many people died in the senseless application of terrible economic policy. The answer to the first question is, of course, yes, Mao was notoriously cruel. Estimates vary widely based on ideological commitments, but scholars agree that Mao was responsible for somewhere between 35 and 50 million Chinese deaths during his lifetime. More than just the deaths of the masses was the way he treated his own family. His four wives were essentially considered disposable, despite the fact that they each remained loyal to him through to their own sometimes violent deaths. As for the terrible economic policy, Mao famously bragged about being uneducated in economic matters. "The majority of Politburo members are 'red' but 'unqualified'... I am the most uneducated, I am unsuited to be a member of any committee." (pp. 449). Whether it was The Long March (Oct 1934- Oct 1935), The Great Leap Forward (1958-1963) or the Cultural Revolution (1966-Mao's death in 1976), Mao acted impetuously and without care for the facts on the ground. He was concerned with one thing, and one thing only - bringing his version of Marxist revolution to China - and considered himself infallible, despite his admitted lack of education.
The book does a great job of getting these points across. though I occasionally felt like I was reading a list of names and facts. Many of the more interesting elements of the Chinese Revolution were brushed over with a sentence or two, though the book already clocks in at 576 pages, so it's hard to see how adding more detail would be a good thing for the reader. The book is unlike other biographies of Mao in that it contains a lot of information from Soviet files. Mao's relationship with the Soviet Union was complicated at best - he loved Stalin and hated Kruschev - since the Communists relied almost exclusively on Soviet money to fund the Revolution and early years of Mao's dictatorship. In any case, it added a nice angle to the book that gave it a bit of a jump on just any old biography.
I'd recommend the book for anyone interested in learning the broad strokes of Mao's life, his disastrous policies, and his iron fist. I'm looking forward to jumping into further reading, to fill in some of the gaps left by an otherwise great book that provides a great overview of the Chinese Communist Revolution.
The book does a great job of getting these points across. though I occasionally felt like I was reading a list of names and facts. Many of the more interesting elements of the Chinese Revolution were brushed over with a sentence or two, though the book already clocks in at 576 pages, so it's hard to see how adding more detail would be a good thing for the reader. The book is unlike other biographies of Mao in that it contains a lot of information from Soviet files. Mao's relationship with the Soviet Union was complicated at best - he loved Stalin and hated Kruschev - since the Communists relied almost exclusively on Soviet money to fund the Revolution and early years of Mao's dictatorship. In any case, it added a nice angle to the book that gave it a bit of a jump on just any old biography.
I'd recommend the book for anyone interested in learning the broad strokes of Mao's life, his disastrous policies, and his iron fist. I'm looking forward to jumping into further reading, to fill in some of the gaps left by an otherwise great book that provides a great overview of the Chinese Communist Revolution.
May 1, 2014
I knew very little about this period in history when I picked up this (very long) book, which is why I was interested in reading it. In writing the book, the authors had access to documents and information previously unavailable to any Mao biographers before them. Because of this they must have felt required to include ALL the details and ALL the names/aliases they had. As a result, they spent forever on Mao's early years and ever. so. slow. rise to power within the CCP. The pace of the book picked up when Mao started gettin' really wacky (understandably).
The authors also came across as very objective. Not sympathetic or apologist, more a "just the facts" approach, which, not having any previous knowledge of my own, made it difficult to grasp the gravity or impact of some of Mao's actions and policies, which was an interesting experience.
Even though it took forever, I'm glad I read this book.
The authors also came across as very objective. Not sympathetic or apologist, more a "just the facts" approach, which, not having any previous knowledge of my own, made it difficult to grasp the gravity or impact of some of Mao's actions and policies, which was an interesting experience.
Even though it took forever, I'm glad I read this book.
September 1, 2016
I received an Advanced Reader Copy of this book through Goodreads.
I was very impressed by the amount of detailed research in this biography of Mao. Using the archives of the Soviet Communist party, Pantsov provides an amazing look into the life of Mao, the inner workings and creation of the Communist party in China, and an intimate look at Mao's beginnings and his methodical and sometimes terrifying rise to power.
Prior to this reading, I had only a vague idea of Mao's China, filtered through the lens of American media, but now I feel much better informed and will consider further reading about the man and the country he so irreversibly transformed.
A good read and recommended to historians and lay readers alike.
I was very impressed by the amount of detailed research in this biography of Mao. Using the archives of the Soviet Communist party, Pantsov provides an amazing look into the life of Mao, the inner workings and creation of the Communist party in China, and an intimate look at Mao's beginnings and his methodical and sometimes terrifying rise to power.
Prior to this reading, I had only a vague idea of Mao's China, filtered through the lens of American media, but now I feel much better informed and will consider further reading about the man and the country he so irreversibly transformed.
A good read and recommended to historians and lay readers alike.
August 7, 2013
784 page biography drawing heavily off newly released Russian sources, contains blow-by-blow accounts of the party's early years. Focus is on minute changes of political climate and intra-party politics rather than the famous Mao's physician's accounts of underage girls or whatnot (this book limited to noting that for years at a time, Mao spent most of his time with 17 and 18 year old girls, which isn't really 'underage').
Book is not an absolute must read but it does flow competently, and the story and academic distance is superior to Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China and other single person, ax-to-grind works
Book is not an absolute must read but it does flow competently, and the story and academic distance is superior to Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China and other single person, ax-to-grind works
August 18, 2013
A better title would have been. " Mao: Real Boring." Well documented, yes....but it was like reading one big footnote. I was hoping for something more readable.
January 15, 2020
This book is a good example of thorough and meticulous academic research. Although I’ve studied Chinese politics and history for years, there were plenty of events that I was not entirely familiar with. In particular, I feel like the access the writers had to a new trove of classified Soviet documents was especially useful in telling Mao’s early story and in detailing the struggles between the CCP and KMT in the lead up to the war against the Japanese. At times I do feel like there was too much emphasis on the machinations in Moscow, but after finishing the book I was left convinced that Stalin’s and the Soviet Union’s influence on the early CCP and Mao in particular is far greater than I realized. The latter half of the book examining Mao’s influence whilst in power feels less novel – the analysis of the Great Leap fiasco, the chaos unleashed by the Cultural Revolution, etc doesn’t seem to offer too much in the way of original interpretation or new evidence.
If you aren’t a Sinophile or you’ve never read a book about Mao Zedong, I can’t say this is the first place you should start. Unlike a biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin, this book is more a research accomplishment than it is a feat of literature. In opting to try to look at the life of Mao and his actions dispassionately, what’s missing is a broader, more overarching narrative, that paints the man in a more clear and vivid light. The chapters don’t always seamlessly flow into one another, as Mao seems to engage in self-contradictory actions and behavior. But I think refraining from a grand narrative was a conscious choice. Rather than oversimplify such a complicated man, they have done their best to provide the facts and leave the final judgment to the reader. Was he a genius or a maniac? Was he a poet or a monster? Was he a brilliant strategist or an endless equivocator? It seems none of these questions have tidy answers. Mao appears to have been all of these things, and more.
If you aren’t a Sinophile or you’ve never read a book about Mao Zedong, I can’t say this is the first place you should start. Unlike a biography by Doris Kearns Goodwin, this book is more a research accomplishment than it is a feat of literature. In opting to try to look at the life of Mao and his actions dispassionately, what’s missing is a broader, more overarching narrative, that paints the man in a more clear and vivid light. The chapters don’t always seamlessly flow into one another, as Mao seems to engage in self-contradictory actions and behavior. But I think refraining from a grand narrative was a conscious choice. Rather than oversimplify such a complicated man, they have done their best to provide the facts and leave the final judgment to the reader. Was he a genius or a maniac? Was he a poet or a monster? Was he a brilliant strategist or an endless equivocator? It seems none of these questions have tidy answers. Mao appears to have been all of these things, and more.
February 19, 2018
This book is a balanced account of Mao's life that is very dense and thorough, with all the good and bad that entails.
Mao's upbringing and the origins of the CCP are covered in great detail. The absolute bombardment of names, dates and facts probably won't stick with you, but it does a respectable job of explaining the dizzying changes in Chinese society during the interwar period. The author really strikes at the root of young Mao's character, showing us Mao at his best (courageous and fiercely intelligent) and his worst (petty, prideful and cruel).
The reader is also treated to a blow by blow account the CCP's development amid war with the Nationalists and fierce sectarian bickering over the "correct Marxist line". The complex relationship between the Soviets and CCP is also covered at length.
I had two major complaints about this book.
First, it starts to taper off after the truce between the CCP and KMT. Perhaps this is where the well of declassified Soviet information begins to dry up. The book becomes more episodic after this; jumping from Sino-Soviet relations to the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, etc. The glimpses into Mao's personal life become rarer and less detailed, which is a bit disappointing.
Second, the academic language of this book was a roadblock that obscured, rather than clarified what the author was saying. I was sent scrambling to the dictionary many times only to find that the words being used were archaic and largely pointless. Jargon for the sake of jargon. More rigorous editing would've helped.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are researching Mao on an academic level.
Mao's upbringing and the origins of the CCP are covered in great detail. The absolute bombardment of names, dates and facts probably won't stick with you, but it does a respectable job of explaining the dizzying changes in Chinese society during the interwar period. The author really strikes at the root of young Mao's character, showing us Mao at his best (courageous and fiercely intelligent) and his worst (petty, prideful and cruel).
The reader is also treated to a blow by blow account the CCP's development amid war with the Nationalists and fierce sectarian bickering over the "correct Marxist line". The complex relationship between the Soviets and CCP is also covered at length.
I had two major complaints about this book.
First, it starts to taper off after the truce between the CCP and KMT. Perhaps this is where the well of declassified Soviet information begins to dry up. The book becomes more episodic after this; jumping from Sino-Soviet relations to the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, etc. The glimpses into Mao's personal life become rarer and less detailed, which is a bit disappointing.
Second, the academic language of this book was a roadblock that obscured, rather than clarified what the author was saying. I was sent scrambling to the dictionary many times only to find that the words being used were archaic and largely pointless. Jargon for the sake of jargon. More rigorous editing would've helped.
Overall, I highly recommend this book, especially to those who are researching Mao on an academic level.
June 26, 2021
I did a lot of research before buying this book about Mao, as I wanted to read something about him as objectively as possible without a biased view from anticommunists or Chinese censorship. So after reading some reviews I decided on this book.
As it was my first book about him or any part of Chinese history I learned many things about the turbulent life of chairman Mao and Chinese society in the 20th century. Especially the years before the communist party was ruling the country the book presented in an interesting and entertaining way. The start of the communist party and the dependence on the soviet union were super exciting. But after the first half of the book, which I thought to be the more interesting time, the book weakens. Probably this period could be illustrated in a much more interesting way. In my opinion, the chapter about the cultural revolution isn't really informative and I would need to read some other book to understand more what really happened during this time. Also in some parts, it would be of more interest to give a deeper insight into the state of Chinese society at a specific time rather than describing every inner conflict in the communist party which gets exhaustive during reading.
In the beginning, I said that I searched for an objective view on the topic but during reading, I was annoyed at some points that the objectivity was missing (in the period before the communist party was in charge) where without any reason the authors added their personal displeasure of the communist idea.
So in the end I wouldn't really recommend as there are hopefully better books out there
As it was my first book about him or any part of Chinese history I learned many things about the turbulent life of chairman Mao and Chinese society in the 20th century. Especially the years before the communist party was ruling the country the book presented in an interesting and entertaining way. The start of the communist party and the dependence on the soviet union were super exciting. But after the first half of the book, which I thought to be the more interesting time, the book weakens. Probably this period could be illustrated in a much more interesting way. In my opinion, the chapter about the cultural revolution isn't really informative and I would need to read some other book to understand more what really happened during this time. Also in some parts, it would be of more interest to give a deeper insight into the state of Chinese society at a specific time rather than describing every inner conflict in the communist party which gets exhaustive during reading.
In the beginning, I said that I searched for an objective view on the topic but during reading, I was annoyed at some points that the objectivity was missing (in the period before the communist party was in charge) where without any reason the authors added their personal displeasure of the communist idea.
So in the end I wouldn't really recommend as there are hopefully better books out there
December 26, 2023
pantsov is really one of the most innovative and interesting sinologists in the field today & this book defines that reputation. the first biography of mao to fully utilize the mountain of soviet archives released in the nation’s implosion. (combined w what access the chinese will give to their state archives) nothing proves more; that you cannot understand the chinese w/o an understanding of the russians. pantsov is able to make quite a few innovations on the scholarship of mao’s early ideological development & the beginning of the party. (while research on mao’s ideological innovations have kinda exploded in recent years; pantsovs work is kinda a big fucking deal in our understanding of the history of contemporary socialism) where the book truly breaks ground is in how it is able to clear the air on several misconceptions. there is no one massive discoveries, but a million smaller ones. mao’s early life is much better documented than Deng’s yet both are plagued w the same levels of partisan squabbling && again pantsov’s books prove a decent starting point for anyone interested in ideological history.
also every mao biography loves to leave the topic of the man and talk about modern china and made liberal slop feed talking points. pantsov is no applebaum
any mao biographer comes across the same problem FDR biographers do; that they cannot focus enough on ww2 while paying domestic reforms attention. and just like every fdr book pantsov really glosses over the imperial japanese invasion. however i found his analysis for why cpc won against kmt in the civil war & why china won against japan to be accurate and not loaded. here is the point: obviously only a russian could do a mao biography justice & obviously that man was alexander pantsov.
also every mao biography loves to leave the topic of the man and talk about modern china and made liberal slop feed talking points. pantsov is no applebaum
any mao biographer comes across the same problem FDR biographers do; that they cannot focus enough on ww2 while paying domestic reforms attention. and just like every fdr book pantsov really glosses over the imperial japanese invasion. however i found his analysis for why cpc won against kmt in the civil war & why china won against japan to be accurate and not loaded. here is the point: obviously only a russian could do a mao biography justice & obviously that man was alexander pantsov.
February 26, 2025
"But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"
If you're of a certain age, this lyric has some meaning. However, if there are younger fans listening to the Beatles, this reference is largely lost on them. This is unfortunate, as many young people are fascinated by the tenants of communism and who would revere Chairman Mao. The man is worthy only of condemnation, guilty of the deaths of millions of his own people while celebrating his ignorance of subjects like economics.
The danger when chronicling infamous people from history is that you run the risk of accidentally portraying the subject positively. On the other end, an author must make sure that the atrocities committed get the proper coverage and are placed in the context of the person's thoughts and actions. Pantsov does this job well.
The author tells Mao's story as a small boy growing up in rural China and how those early days led to his becoming attracted to the Bolshevik cause. Pantsov spares no detail; one thing communists love to do is have multi-day meetings and produce propaganda. The struggles and the power plays involved in getting to the top of the heap - and in Chairman Mao's case - with the blessing of their Russian benefactors, makes for quite the story.
In the end, we are dealing with someone who did not contribute much positively to society and did much to harm mankind. Yet, Pantsov struck the appropriate chord in telling the world about the evils of communism and the cult of personality.
BOTTOM LINE: Chairman Mao in word and deed in less than 1000 pages.
You ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow"
If you're of a certain age, this lyric has some meaning. However, if there are younger fans listening to the Beatles, this reference is largely lost on them. This is unfortunate, as many young people are fascinated by the tenants of communism and who would revere Chairman Mao. The man is worthy only of condemnation, guilty of the deaths of millions of his own people while celebrating his ignorance of subjects like economics.
The danger when chronicling infamous people from history is that you run the risk of accidentally portraying the subject positively. On the other end, an author must make sure that the atrocities committed get the proper coverage and are placed in the context of the person's thoughts and actions. Pantsov does this job well.
The author tells Mao's story as a small boy growing up in rural China and how those early days led to his becoming attracted to the Bolshevik cause. Pantsov spares no detail; one thing communists love to do is have multi-day meetings and produce propaganda. The struggles and the power plays involved in getting to the top of the heap - and in Chairman Mao's case - with the blessing of their Russian benefactors, makes for quite the story.
In the end, we are dealing with someone who did not contribute much positively to society and did much to harm mankind. Yet, Pantsov struck the appropriate chord in telling the world about the evils of communism and the cult of personality.
BOTTOM LINE: Chairman Mao in word and deed in less than 1000 pages.
October 15, 2022
I'm pretty weak when it comes to Asian history, and I accept that reading biography perhaps isn't the best way to learn history. Nonetheless, here I am, attempting to learn a bit of history by reading a biography.
Before reading this book, I had heard of the Long March, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Gang of Four. I had no real understanding of any of them. Now, having read the story of Mao's life, I know a little bit of each of those but still lack a true understanding. Of course, if I'm genuinely interested in any of these, I should seek out books about each of those subjects.
I have studied quite a bit about the Cold War, Soviet history, and the Korean War. I found that this book fills in many of the gaps in my understanding. I found it particularly interesting to compare and contrast Mao with Stalin.
In addition to the (I feel) required index, notes, and bibliography, this book includes a "dramatis personae", if you will: a nine-page list of individuals who appear in the narrative. Personally, I struggle with Chinese names more than I do with Russian, so I found this quite helpful.
Before reading this book, I had heard of the Long March, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the Gang of Four. I had no real understanding of any of them. Now, having read the story of Mao's life, I know a little bit of each of those but still lack a true understanding. Of course, if I'm genuinely interested in any of these, I should seek out books about each of those subjects.
I have studied quite a bit about the Cold War, Soviet history, and the Korean War. I found that this book fills in many of the gaps in my understanding. I found it particularly interesting to compare and contrast Mao with Stalin.
In addition to the (I feel) required index, notes, and bibliography, this book includes a "dramatis personae", if you will: a nine-page list of individuals who appear in the narrative. Personally, I struggle with Chinese names more than I do with Russian, so I found this quite helpful.
August 9, 2018
I forced myself through to the end of this dense work of scholarship. It contains a massive amount of information, and yet...there's a distinct lack of context provided. One would think the events of the Japanese occupation, Vietnam & the birth of relations with the USA in 1972 would engender some contemplation as to their effect on Mao...and yet it's strangely anemic, as if these events were less important than the endless (and I mean ENDLESS) bureaucratic meetings, committees, plenums, and self-criticism sessions that seemed the basis of everything to do with Mao and the creation of Communist China. Even the Cuban Missile Crisis passes without comment! Reading this book, one might believe that nothing else but bureaucratic ideology is at the heart of Mao and China...and that's simply...not something I can believe in. In the end, this is one of the strangest, most frustrating biographies I have ever read.
February 14, 2017
I don't know much about China's history so I figured this might be a good start. Mao's live story is interesting, although the man seemed to be all about no bullshit. His fondness of young girls, dancing and smoking, this book describes Chairman Mao as a robot, determined to have as much power as possible. Sometimes they overdo it, when giving about 20 different names of people who were present at such and such event, with footnotes about as to whom they married and when their children were born. All in all, a little more focus would have been nice. The name-dropping might be correct in terms of giving the full picture, but I could have done with less.
April 19, 2021
I wish there was a way to indicate books started, but never to be finished. Or to give multiple star ratings.
As a scholarly work, this is a 5-star book. But as a book for someone with an interest in Mao, his life and actions, and impact on the 20th century, it fails from the level of detail. For me, knowing the movement of members of the Guomingang is too detailed and there wasn't enough of the political theory (or at least not to the level of an amateur).
In short, incredible book but not for the faint of heart or the new to the subject.
As a scholarly work, this is a 5-star book. But as a book for someone with an interest in Mao, his life and actions, and impact on the 20th century, it fails from the level of detail. For me, knowing the movement of members of the Guomingang is too detailed and there wasn't enough of the political theory (or at least not to the level of an amateur).
In short, incredible book but not for the faint of heart or the new to the subject.
October 28, 2023
The must-read for Mao's person.
No myths or ideological mist, Pantsov shows what Mao was really like as a person.
From his not even attending his loving father's funeral to his purge of his comrades he captures it all.
The most memorable scene was a friend telling him he shouldn't admire the founder of the Han so much, considering he murdered all his friends who helped him to power.
Mao simply responded: he did what had to be done, or the dynasty would never have been secure.
No myths or ideological mist, Pantsov shows what Mao was really like as a person.
From his not even attending his loving father's funeral to his purge of his comrades he captures it all.
The most memorable scene was a friend telling him he shouldn't admire the founder of the Han so much, considering he murdered all his friends who helped him to power.
Mao simply responded: he did what had to be done, or the dynasty would never have been secure.
March 10, 2023
Very interesting look at the totality of Mao’s life, and the creation of modern (at least to the 70s) China.
Still unbelievable how in the course of barely 80 years the country was completely transformed from a state ravaged by colonialism, internal conflict, and exploitative leadership to an unquestionable global superpower.
Still unbelievable how in the course of barely 80 years the country was completely transformed from a state ravaged by colonialism, internal conflict, and exploitative leadership to an unquestionable global superpower.
December 3, 2024
Comprehensive Bio of Mao
Detailed and documented presentation of Mao Ze Dong' s life story, as well as the birth of the Chinese Communist Party. Occasionally, motivations are necessarily based on speculation, but even these are mostly grounded in related facts. Author's style is compelling and easily understood.
Detailed and documented presentation of Mao Ze Dong' s life story, as well as the birth of the Chinese Communist Party. Occasionally, motivations are necessarily based on speculation, but even these are mostly grounded in related facts. Author's style is compelling and easily understood.
January 24, 2025
This was was so dense I think we could use it as an alternative fuel source. But I am excusing that, because this treatise on Mao is much more scholarly than a run of mill the biography, this is at the razors edge of historical scholarship. Pantsov was granted access to long censured records of the ECCI and Commintern, these are primary sources, confidential soviet intelligence and diplomatic comminques direct from Stalin and unsealed archives of the CCP. Using this material Pantsov strives to paint the clearest image yet of the political life of Mao Zedong. While this is a biography in a strict sense of the word, this material endeavours to contextualize and explain Mao's decision making.
I do not recommend this to the casual reader, it took a tremendous amout of patience and focus to work through the opening of this book. Instead of crafting a narrative of the subject's life like a typical Bio, this book spends its entire first quarter framing the political landscape of 1910's China. Just when you start getting bored, it jumps into the internal politcs of the Chinese Communist party. Riveting. While the book briefly covers the events of Mao's childhood and adolesence, the first third has very little to do with Mao himself, despite being one of the founders of the early Communist party his ascendance came later in the party's development.
I managed to finish only because once Mao takes over the party completely (thankfully he achieved this fairly young), Mao truly becomes the focus of the book and that was the part of the book I was most interested in engaging with. The second half of this book is an incredibly well sourced treatment of the first Five Year Plan, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution from the perpective of Mao. The presentation of the facts is astoundingly clear, when Mao "speaks" it is coming directly from the source, and the author takes care to minimize their commentary on the subject. You get it all from a political standpoint, the jockeying within party leadership and Mao's exploitation of factionalism is front and center.
I wouldn't take this book as the definitive source on Mao. This book occupies a weird middleground between scholarly article and mainstream biography, a compromise to be sure. This is definately the most complete record of what happened behind the closed doors of the Central Comittee, capturing the essense of the political atmosphere. Where this fails is in presenting a complete impression of Mao the person. The undeniable scholarship of this piece means that the writting adopts the detached perspective of the scholar, framing most of Mao's decision making within the arbitrary and predatory world of early communist politics. It paints him in an inhuman and opportunist light, qualities that he undoubtedly possessed, while remaining mostly silent (excepting what was recorded in primary sources) on the more personal motivations and dimmensions of the man.
The picture the facts paint here is not a flattering one. As a product of the crumbling American school system most of my knowledge of Mao comes from reading textbook distilations of dubious, party approved sources, and what I've learned casually since. What I read here dropped my jaw, and the casual frequency with which Pantsov drops these nuggets is astounding, Mao truly reigned with impunity. I feel like what I got out of this justified the effort, taking away so much of the conjecture surrounding this period of Chinese history.
I do not recommend this to the casual reader, it took a tremendous amout of patience and focus to work through the opening of this book. Instead of crafting a narrative of the subject's life like a typical Bio, this book spends its entire first quarter framing the political landscape of 1910's China. Just when you start getting bored, it jumps into the internal politcs of the Chinese Communist party. Riveting. While the book briefly covers the events of Mao's childhood and adolesence, the first third has very little to do with Mao himself, despite being one of the founders of the early Communist party his ascendance came later in the party's development.
I managed to finish only because once Mao takes over the party completely (thankfully he achieved this fairly young), Mao truly becomes the focus of the book and that was the part of the book I was most interested in engaging with. The second half of this book is an incredibly well sourced treatment of the first Five Year Plan, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution from the perpective of Mao. The presentation of the facts is astoundingly clear, when Mao "speaks" it is coming directly from the source, and the author takes care to minimize their commentary on the subject. You get it all from a political standpoint, the jockeying within party leadership and Mao's exploitation of factionalism is front and center.
I wouldn't take this book as the definitive source on Mao. This book occupies a weird middleground between scholarly article and mainstream biography, a compromise to be sure. This is definately the most complete record of what happened behind the closed doors of the Central Comittee, capturing the essense of the political atmosphere. Where this fails is in presenting a complete impression of Mao the person. The undeniable scholarship of this piece means that the writting adopts the detached perspective of the scholar, framing most of Mao's decision making within the arbitrary and predatory world of early communist politics. It paints him in an inhuman and opportunist light, qualities that he undoubtedly possessed, while remaining mostly silent (excepting what was recorded in primary sources) on the more personal motivations and dimmensions of the man.
The picture the facts paint here is not a flattering one. As a product of the crumbling American school system most of my knowledge of Mao comes from reading textbook distilations of dubious, party approved sources, and what I've learned casually since. What I read here dropped my jaw, and the casual frequency with which Pantsov drops these nuggets is astounding, Mao truly reigned with impunity. I feel like what I got out of this justified the effort, taking away so much of the conjecture surrounding this period of Chinese history.
September 16, 2025
My first real introduction - and intense case study - of Mao, thanks to Pantsov. The notes I've taken while reading (which was, lemme check ... 120 pages long!) would be the foundation of my knowledge regarding Mao, and subjected to further revisions upon future readings.
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