Beijing is in the midst of the Cultural Revolution (15 photos)

Since 1964, China was engulfed nearly a decade of great turmoil, called "Cultural Revolution". To fully understand the social essence and logic of madness completely is hardly possible, but the main manifestations try to describe in a few words. First of all, it is provoked by the top party cadres troops massacre of young stormtroopers (Red Guards and Rebels). Passing this as endless rallies, raids, physical attacks during the lynching. In some cities (eg Shanghai) party committees rebuffed and then begin prolonged street battles. Army largely remained neutral, but at some moments she had to intervene in the events, sometimes with tanks and artillery. Chairman Mao formally remained above the "fray", watching the fighting between different factions. Interestingly, defame and overthrown senior party leaders were executed (as in the USSR in the 30s), and sent to selhozkommuny engaged in heavy physical labor. After Mao's death, they returned and again took the top positions (such as Deng Xiaoping), which was absolutely impossible in the USSR.
It is also striking that, amid the general chaos, the Chinese have managed to build a nuclear weapon (1964) and Beijing to build the subway (!).
One of the few Western correspondents who managed to capture the events of the Cultural Revolution from the inside, was Solange Brand. That's her full report on the Beijing 1966

Military truck driven by a soldier at a demonstration:


Demonstrators in Beijing:


Mass festive demonstration in the center of Beijing:


Revolutionary songs and dances of May 1, 1966:


May Day Workers representation in the Park:


Northeast Beijing:


Street scene in northern Beijing:


Tiananmen Square on the eve of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1966:


Celebrating October 1st, 1966:


On the same day:


It is already February 1967, the siege of the French Embassy:


Most of the days has got probably the Embassy of the USSR.

However, the most horrible scene of the Cultural Revolution was able to capture the Western correspondents, and the Chinese themselves.
That's what took, for example, Li Zhensheng.
On these posters usually we wrote something like "I am a revisionist».
The poster of this man says, "Gangster geek Van Itsan»:


The fate of people who have fallen into the hands of the Red Guards, depends on their discretion:


Often, for the humiliation "of the revisionists' shameful used caps as in medieval Spain:


This scene was filmed in August 1966 in Harbin: