On September 9th 1976, Chinese revolutionary and statesman Mao Zedong, who had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and other health problems, died in Beijing at the age of 82.

The Communist leader and founder of the People’s Republic of China is considered one of the most influential figures of the 20th century.

Mao was born into a peasant family in the village of Shaoshan in China’s Hunan province on December 26, 1893. During the 1911 Revolution, he was a soldier in the revolutionary army, which eventually defeated the Qing Dynasty.

After serving in the army, he resumed his education and eventually moved to Beijing, where he studied Marxist social and political thought. In 1921, he attended the first session of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which was held in Shanghai.

He went on to found the Hunan branch of the CCP and organise workers’ strikes. Marxism held that cultural…