| Mao Zedong led the Chinese Communist movement in the 1930s and 1940s, and became ruler of China in 1949. Mao strayed from the Soviet Marxist model, attempting to build a socialist society based on peasant farming rather than a centralized, bureaucratic, industrialized economy. In Mao’s speech to the 1956 party congress, he spoke of the need to constantly strive for progress: “Even though we have attained extraordinarily great achievements, there is no reason to be arrogant. Modesty makes you move forward, arrogance makes you go backwards. I should always remember this truth.” |