Mao finished school in 1918, and in 1917, when Lenin and his gang were identifying themselves with Russia, Mao was 24 years old. After Lenin's death in 1924, Stalin transformed himself into Lenin, only with a different exterior.
In 1927, Kuomintang was still Mao's "ally," but in 1931 Mao proclaimed China to be a "soviet republic," and in 1949 he routed Kuomintang (in a "civil war") and became the Lenin and then the Stalin of China.
How did Mao perceive all this? After he had become China, his first trip abroad was to Russia (that is, to Stalin) to negotiate a "friendship treaty" with Stalin — Russia. This shows how well Mao was disposed to Stalin — Russia, who did not criticize Mao for his orgy of mass murder.
Well, what's the fuss about? When Mao proclaimed a "Soviet republic" in China, he did not know, nor did many Chinese, that the Russian word "soviet" means "advice." Nor did or do many Chinese know that in Latin the word "republic" means the "thing" of "public." The word "public" was known outside Rome and other countries speaking Latin, but this was not its meaning in Mao's "Soviet republic" — or in the "People's Republic of China" Mao proclaimed in 1949.
Even at school and thereafter, Mao was an avid reader of "serious books," and in November 1949, following his "proclamation" of the "People's Republic of China" in October, Mao announced that "China founds the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)." Marx's Das Kapital consists of several volumes, but the key discovery of Marx could be reduced to one sentence: those who hire their workers pocket some of the workers' money (and call it their profit), as a result of which the capitalists live in mansions, while their workers starve. Fortunately for Marx, he was receiving a stipend, for his ineffably profound revelations, from his friend Friedrich Engels (or rather from Friedrich's father, a capitalist). "Arise ye prisoners of starvation" — this is how began The Internationale, in the creation of which Marx cooperated.
Mao's readings of Marx possibly explain the word "liberation" in "The People's Liberation Army." In his teachings, Marx proclaimed that the future of mankind is "Communism" all over the world. Hence the noncommunist countries should be "liberated", and "Communism" should be installed in all of them. That is, the business of the "people's army" is liberation — this army is out to liberate the world in order to create "Communism" all over.
The word "Communism" originated in 1840, when Marx was 22 years old. Today, the realization of the word is still relegated to the future even in China.
But what about those government officials who would be in charge of work instead of the eliminated capitalists? Of course, it would be possible to pay each of them a tiny fraction of what a capitalist would have made. But what if more of them were needed and the value for which such a manager were responsible would be worth even less than his modest upkeep? The result? China reintroduced capitalism and invited foreign capitalists, while avoiding the use of this wicked word in public. Indeed, Lenin reintroduced capitalism in Russia very promptly and called it the "New [!] Economic Policy."
The question to be asked is, Why then did Mao sacrifice most of his 82 years of life to China? We are used to people's sacrifices for the sake of themselves. But to sacrifice most of his life for the sake of China? The answer is that China was not just Mao's property — it was Mao himself.
All that Mao did for China he did for his own sake — for his own glory as the leader of China, along the only possible way to infinite happiness as he perceived it. Under his leadership, China would fulfill the prophecy of Marx and would establish (by way of "liberation"!) yes, Communism all over the world. He used to be a Chinese boy who just finished an ordinary secondary school owing to his father's money. Look at him now! He speaks, and the world listens. He is silent, and the world is worried. Keep in mind that the population of China as of 2010 is 1,335 billion people. It is from these people that the developers and users of latest weapons come — to liberate the world for Communism!
But, of course, if the power over the entire world, with Mao as its global "leader," is called "Communism," Mao will be as universal as God. Stalin's statue of himself as God will be a toy: Mao would be the universal God, the culmination and conclusion of world history.
Instead, it was concealed that Mao was ill for many years, and so God's part of his life — "world Communism" — never took place, and it is to be played by a different owner of China, which is to become "world Communism" or whatever.
So Mao was not entirely happy. His life was too short for its final global part of universal glory. But there is no address to write to him to express one's grief concerning the interruption of his existence at such a crucial point, depriving him of universal glory.
Mao's only consolation could have been that Stalin had a similar disappointment. Stalin's statue as of God was to be installed in the major Russian Orthodox Church. But he had died (in 1953) before the statue was installed.
To an average educated person of today, what Stalin and Mao said is nonsense. But once upon a time their words came from paradise and hell.
