Flipping through the old issues of Soviet periodicals, you can come across the phrase "great helmsman". This article will help you find out what it means.
Backstory
For the first time such an expression occurs in Christian literature. In particular, John Chrysostom, who lived at the turn of the 4th-5th centuries, in his treatise "Conversations on the Book of Genesis" calls the Great Pilot the Most High himself, and his ship is the Church.
As for the word "helmsman", in Russian it is an archaic marine term corresponding to the modern concept of "helmsman".
Joseph Stalin
In September 1934, the expression "great helmsman" was used in one of the editorials of the Pravda newspaper. The article was devoted to the transition along the Northern Sea Route of the icebreaker "Fedor Litke" from Vladivostok to Murmansk. The note included the text of a telegram from the ship's crew, which said: "The victory was won … thanks to … the team that carried out the work … on the basis … of the instructions of the great helmsman … Comrade Stalin." The use of such a title in relation to Joseph Vissarionovich among sailors is quite justified, since it was in tune with their profession.
At the same time, the sailors hardly knew about the treatise of John Chrysostom and accidentally named Stalinthe epithet that the famous Byzantine theologian used for God.
Be that as it may, the phrase "Great Pilot" was firmly rooted in Soviet journalism and began to be constantly found on the pages of newspapers and magazines. From there, it migrated to the lexicon of party functionaries, who began to actively use it, speaking at the stands of congresses and meetings.
Chinese helmsman Mao Zedong
In the late 40s of the last century, a cult of personality of the leader of the Chinese Communist Party began to form in China. At the same time, local propagandists adopted the title of "Great Pilot" from their Soviet counterparts and began to use it in relation to Mao Zedong.
Young years
The Great Pilot of China - Mao Zedong - was born in 1893. He received a fairly decent education for those times, and during his student years in Beijing he met local Marxists. In 1920, he finally decided on his political views, choosing communism. A year later, Mao became one of the participants in the founding congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
The way to the top
In 1928, Mao Zedong creates a strong Soviet republic in the west of Jiangxi Province. Later, in the fall of 1931, thanks to the active actions of the communists, 10 districts in the central part of the country were under the control of the Chinese Red Army and partisans. This allowed the creation of a new state there. It became known as the Chinese Soviet Republic, with Mao Zedong himself at the head of the Council of People's Commissars. He took activeparticipation in the anti-Japanese struggle, and he managed to expel the conservative Kuomintang government, which marked the end of the Civil War.
October 1, 1949 Tiananmen Mao Zedong proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China with Beijing as its capital. He himself holds the post of chairman of the government of the new state.
China under Mao
In the early years of the PRC, the great helmsman had high hopes for the economic and technical assistance of the Soviet Union and in many ways imitated the leader of the peoples, Joseph Stalin.
In the period from 1950 to 1956, Mao gradually carried out agrarian reforms, with the help of which he hoped to solve the problem of the country's food supply. Nevertheless, in 1957-1958, an economic crisis broke out in the PRC. Then Zedong put forward a program known as the "Great Leap Forward." He directed huge labor resources to the construction of artificial reservoirs, as well as to the creation of agricultural communes and industrial enterprises in the Chinese countryside.
The Great Helmsman: Holodomor
In 1958, Mao Zedong issued an order to mercilessly destroy all sparrows, as he believed that they pecked grain in the fields and “stand in the way of the economic development of the PRC.”
Thousands of people were mobilized to fulfill the task set by the great helmsman. They waved flags and beat drums to scare the birds away from landing. The poor birds flew for so long that they were exhausted until they died of exhaustion. As a result, their numbers have fallen sharply in China, and in some regionssparrows have disappeared completely.
In the first few months after the start of the campaign against sparrows and other pests, a slight increase in crop yields was recorded, but then an invasion of locusts began, which, having lost their main enemy, bred incredibly. As a result, a terrible famine began, thousands of cases of cannibalism were recorded.
To remedy the situation, China was forced to urgently buy grain abroad, and the sparrows were "pardoned" and even had to import these birds from abroad.
Cultural Revolution
As expected, Mao's "Great Leap Forward" partly failed, and the "Yan'an model" had to be changed to a system of individual incentives. Such a deviation from his principles was not to the liking of the leader of the Chinese Communists. At the same time, in the early 1960s, the great helmsman was seriously concerned about economic and political trends in China itself. In addition, he believed that the CCP itself was becoming more and more conservative, and revisionism had entered its heart.
Swimming the Yangtze River
Mao Zedong was an extraordinary person in every respect. For example, he was very fond of swimming in Chinese rivers. At the same time, since many representatives of the ruling elite could not boast of the same excellent sports form as their leader, it was not without tragedies. In particular, when the Great Pilot swam across the Yangtze in 1966, at the age of 73, almost setting a world record, the commander of the Guangzhou military drowned.district, and one of the party leaders on the shore was bitten by a snake. The purpose of this highly publicized event was to show that Chairman Mao is still full of strength and capable of cracking down on all opponents of the Cultural Revolution.
Recent years
To "heal" the Communist Party, he took a number of steps. In particular, detachments of "Hungweibins" were organized - young people from the worker-peasant environment, who were supposed to fight those who retreated from the communist path. Mao also initiated large-scale repression, which killed millions of people.
The "Cultural Revolution" ended in 1968. One of the reasons was Mao's fears about the possible entry of Soviet troops into the PRC, reinforced by the events in Czechoslovakia.
Great helmsman Mao ordered the disbandment of the Red Guards and instructed the army to take control of the situation in the country.
During the period from 1969 to 1970, Zedong tried to restore the defeated Communist Party. By that time, his he alth was already badly undermined. Despite this, he tried his best to maintain a balance between the party factions, trying to prevent a split.
Mao died on September 9, 1976 after 2 severe heart attacks, at the age of 83. More than a million people attended his funeral.
Now you know who at different stages of history was called such an original epithet - the great helmsman. Mao Zedong and Stalin were called that for many years and led the shipsstates, at the head of which they stood, towards their great goal - communism. Although this ideology was based on the concepts of equality and brotherhood close to Christianity, the leaders of the USSR and China, according to the majority in our country, were deprived of mercy and brought a lot of suffering to their peoples.
