China's Cultural Revolution in Photos

May 16th, 2016

Chinese youth with Red Guards study copies of Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" in a picture released in 1971 by the official Chinese Xinhua News Agency. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Employees of the Government Printing House in Beijing pack copies of Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" in 1971. The book teaches the philosophy of Mao based on Marxism-Leninism adapted to Chinese conditions. Maoism shifted the focus of revolutionary struggle from the urban workers, or proletariat, to the countryside and the peasantry. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of Chinese Red Guards shout slogans while parading with portraits of Mao Zedong on January 21, 1967 in downtown Beijing. Their aim was to arouse townspeople and villagers to recapture the victorious 1949 revolutionary zeal, and ferret out those who have departed from Mao's ideals. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

A propaganda squad of Red Guards holds copies of Chairman Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" as they parade in Beijing's streets in late 1966 to spread Mao's thought. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

A poster is displayed in late 1966 in Beijing features how to deal with a so-called "enemy of the people." (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinese peasants study copies of Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" in 1971. (AFP/Getty Images)

In June, 1966, Chinese Red Guards — high school and university students — wave copies of Chairman Mao Zedong's "Little Red Book" as they parade in Beijing's streets. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

A group of Chinese youth walk past several "dazibaos" (revolutionary placards) in February 1967 in downtown Beijing. (Jean Vincent/AFP/Getty Images)

Some 5,000 Chinese follow Chairman Mao Zedong's example and swim in the Yangtze River near Wuhan in September 1967. They displayed floating portraits of Mao and slogans calling for him to "live 10,000 years." (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

(L to R) Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, Chairman Mao Zedong, and Minister of Defense Lin Biao wave at Tiananmen Square in Beijing on October 3, 1967 as they review troops celebrating the 18th anniversary of the Republic. (AFP/Getty Images)

In May 1974, Beijing residents pass by a poster saying "Peasants and soldiers are the principal force in the fight against Lin Biao and Confucius." Once Mao's designated successor, Lin was purged in 1971 and killed in a plane crash, apparently while attempting to flee to the Soviet Union after an attempted coup against Mao. (AFP/Getty Images)

On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died at age 82 after ruling China for 27 years. His death effectively ended the Cultural Revolution. In this photo from September 13, 1976, party and state leaders pay their respects to Mao's remains. (Xinhua/AFP/Getty Images)

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In May of 1966, amid waning power and influence, Chairman Mao Zedong warned that "counter-revolutionary revisionists" were infiltrating China's Communist Party in a bid to "turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie." In response, he launched the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" to weed out and purge purveyors of capitalism and traditional thinking.

It was during this period that Mao's cult of personality reached its zenith, with the entire country reading and reciting his Little Red Book of quotations and prominently displaying his portrait in all arenas of public and private life. Mao inspired squadrons of youth to form "Red Guard" units to smash down anything representing old customs, culture, habits, or ideas, and terrorize those perceived to be capitalist elements. The Cultural Revolution unleashed a decade of political witch-hunts, social upheaval, and violence that pit neighbors — and even family members — against one another.

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, which lasted until Mao's death in 1976. The above photos depict scenes from the period.