In 1966, Mao Zedong launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, a decade-long campaign to purify the Communist Party that plunged China into total anarchy. This episode traces the descent into chaos, from the mobilization of the Red Guards and the violent destruction of the "Four Olds" to the factional street battles that brought the nation to the brink of civil war.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

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In 1958, the People's Republic of China embarked on one of the most radical social experiments in human history: the Great Leap Forward. Aiming to surpass the industrial output of the West in just fifteen years, Mao Zedong mobilized the nation to replace capital with sheer willpower.

This episode details the unprecedented restructuring of Chinese society, from the collective life of the People's Communes and the mania of the backyard steel furnaces to the ecological disaster of the campaign to exterminate the sparrow.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

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In the finale of the series, we enter the "House of Special Purpose" - the ominous code name for the villa where the Romanov dynasty met its end. As the White Army closed in on Ekaterinburg in the summer of 1918, the Bolsheviks made a cold calculation: the Tsar could not be allowed to live as a banner for the counter-revolution.

We follow the family’s descent from imperial boredom behind painted-over windows to the terror of the night of July 16th.

Contact: whatcamebeforepodcast@gmail.com

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@WhatCameBeforePodcast

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-came-before/id1839699689

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/3eRPO23EzaKSZYL7rJ0XPt

Amazon Podcasts:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/7b3c1fc1-8bed-4d81-9989-5d49853557bd/what-came-before

RSS Feed:

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