Had Mao not observed the shortcomings of the command economy the USSR was pioneering? If so, why didn’t he reform and adapt to the realistic needs of the Chinese people? Even if Mao didn’t live to see his country adapt to a more modern time, his successors did. Was Mao’s “cult of personality”- something he assured Stalin would never develop in China- too large for his own good, causing delusions in his governing? Perhaps so, since he often blamed “deliberate sabotage” by “class enemies” and incorrect “distortion of class policies.” One could argue that, while Mao was a megalomaniac whose main concern was the security of his own dictatorial status, his passion for the survival of the PRC was justification for his shortcomings and that those who surrounded him should have checked and corrected those…show more content… Was one man’s pride worth the countless deaths that marked the Cultural Revolution? Similarly, Stalin’s choke on the Soviet Union was irreversibly tied to the several purges that occurred during his rule. However, while the Great Terror could be over-simplified into purism that far exceeded passion, there is an aspect to the Cultural Revolution that feels personal. The author argues the Revolution must have been in response, and an attempt to restore Mao’s ego after the “loss” felt by him through the failure of his political peers to act on his behalf vand attack the “traitor.” The many parallels between these nations can lead one to believe that the relations between the two were always pristine. However, this is far from the case, as often, the two leaders were at odds with the theory of governing; their ideas and policies were not closely tied, only connected, through the realm of socialism, making the arbitrary philosophy easy to constantly