![]() Cover art of the 1963 English edition. | |
Author | Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) |
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Original title | 湖南农民运动考察报告 Húnán Nóngmín Yùndòng Kǎochá Bàogào |
Translator | Central Compilation and Translation Bureau |
Language | Chinese |
Published | 1927 |
Publication place | China |
Part of a series on |
Maoism |
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Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan or Inquiry into the Peasant Movement of Hunan of March 1927, often called the Hunan Report, is one of Mao Zedong's most famous and influential essays. The Report is based on a several month visit to his home countryside around Changsha, capital of Hunan in early 1927. The Report endorses the violence that had broken out spontaneously in the wake of the Northern Expedition, makes a class analysis of the struggle, and enthusiastically reports the "Fourteen Great Achievements" of the peasant associations (农民协会).[1][2][3]
At a time when the strategy of the Chinese Communist Party was based on urban workers, Mao advocated a revolution based on the peasantry, especially poor peasants. He emphasized that violent and ritualistic struggle was the most effective method of striking against class enemies. The Hunan Report's emphasis on the peasantry, including their violent struggle against the landlord class, gradually become the dominant strategy in the Communist Party's land reform on its road to victory in 1949.
The rhetoric of the Hunan Report was taken up by radicals in the Chinese Cultural Revolution and by radical groups around the world, such as the Naxalites in India and the Shining Path in Peru, to follow Mao's example to "surround the cities from the countryside" by building power in the villages with violence.