Maoism and Swedish Academy: Difference between pages

Content deleted Content added

Inline

Revision as of 22:34, 18 February 2004

The Swedish Academy or Svenska Akademien, founded in 1786 by King Gustav III, is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. It was modeled after the Académie française and has 18 members. The motto of the academy is "Talent and Taste", or "Snille och Smak" in Swedish. The primary purpose of the academy is to further the "purity, vigour and majesty" of the Swedish language. To that end the academy publishes dictionaries.

The academy publishes a one-volume dictionary called Svenska Akademiens Ordlista (SAOL) and a multi-volume dictionary (similar to the Oxford English Dictionary) called Svenska Akademiens Ordbok (SAOB). The SAOL has reached its 12th edition while the first volume of the SAOB was published in 1898 and today (2003) work has progressed to words beginning with the letter "T".

Its current permanent secretary of the academy is Horace Engdahl, who was preceded by Sture Allén. Since 1901 the academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, given in memory of the great donor Alfred Nobel.

The building now known as the Stockholm Stock Exchange Building was built for and is owned by the Academy. It is where its meetings are held and among other things Nobel Prize laureates announced.

External links

Swedish Academy - Official site

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+The '''Swedish Academy''' or ''Svenska Akademien'', founded in [[1786]] by King [[Gustav III of Sweden|Gustav III]], is one of the [[Swedish Royal Academies|Royal Academies]] in [[Sweden]]. It was modeled after the [[Académie française]] and has 18 members. The motto of the academy is "Talent and Taste", or ''"Snille och Smak"'' in Swedish. The primary purpose of the academy is to further the "purity, vigour and majesty" of the [[Swedish (language)|Swedish language]]. To that end the academy publishes [[dictionary|dictionaries]].
-<div style="float:right; width:401px; margin-left: 1em; text-align:center"> [[Image:ac.maoistposter.jpg|Maoist poster]]<br><small>''French Maoist poster is support of Maoist groups in Peru and Nepal''</small></div>
+The academy publishes a one-volume dictionary called ''[[Svenska Akademiens Ordlista]]'' (''SAOL'') and a multi-volume dictionary (similar to the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'') called ''[[Svenska Akademiens Ordbok]]'' (''SAOB''). The ''SAOL'' has reached its 12th edition while the first volume of the ''SAOB'' was published in [[1898]] and today (2003) work has progressed to words beginning with the letter "T".
-'''Maoism''' or '''Mao Zedong Thought''' ([[Chinese language|Chinese]]: &#27611;&#28580;&#26481;&#24605;&#24819;, [[pinyin]]: Máo Zéd&#333;ng S&#299;x&#301;ang), also called Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM), is an ideology derived from the teachings of [[Mao Zedong]] ([[1893]]-[[1976]]). In the [[People's Republic of China]] (PRC) it has been the official doctrine of the [[Communist Party of China]] since its founding in [[1921]]. Since the reforms of [[Deng Xiaoping]] started in [[1978]], however, the definition and role of Mao Zedong's ideology in the PRC has radically changed.
+Its current permanent secretary of the academy is [[Horace Engdahl]], who was preceded by [[Sture Allén]]. Since [[1901]] the academy has annually decided who will be the laureate for the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]], given in memory of the great donor [[Alfred Nobel]].
-It should be noted that the word "Maoism" has never been used by the PRC in its English-language publications: "Mao Zedong Thought" has always been the preferred term. Likewise, Maoist groups outside China have usually called themselves "Marxist-Leninist" rather than Maoist. The word "Maoist" has been used either as a pejorative term by other communists, or as a descriptive term by non-communist writers.
+The building now known as the [[Stockholm Stock Exchange Building]] was built for and is owned by the Academy. It is where its meetings are held and among other things [[Nobel Prize]] laureates announced.
-Outside the PRC, the term Maoism was used from the 1960s onwards, usually in a hostile sense, to describe parties or individuals who supported Mao Zedong and his form of [[Communism]], as opposed to the form practised in the [[Soviet Union]], which these groups denounced as "[[revisionism|revisionist]]." These groups usually rejected the term Maoism, preferring to call themselves [[Leninism|Marxist-Leninists]]. Since the death of Mao and the reforms of Deng, most of these parties have disappeared, but various small Communist groups in a number of countries continue to advance Maoist ideas.
+''See also: [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]], [[Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities]]''
-==Political background==
+== External links ==
-From the advent of the PRC in [[1949]] until the late 1950s, the Chinese Communist regime practised the orthodox or Soviet model of Communist development. Mao first broke with Soviet practice during the [[Great Leap Forward]] of [[1959]]. When this proved an economic disaster and led to attempts to remove Mao from power, a formal [[Sino-Soviet split|split with the Soviet Union]] developed, partly over issues of Communist practice but mainly over issues of international relations and power politics. Mao used this split as a means of reinforcing his own power within China, then elaborated a theoretical justification for the split, alleging that [[capitalism]] had been restored in the Soviet Union by [[Nikita Khrushchev]]'s regime.
+*[http://www.svenskaakademien.se/ Swedish Academy] - Official site
+[[eo:Svenska Akademien]]
-This split then spread to the international Communist movement, leading to a formal rupture in [[1961]]-[[1963|63]]. Only three Communist parties completely supported Mao's position: those in [[Albania]], [[Indonesia]] and [[New Zealand]]. In most other Communist parties, groups of Mao supporters either resigned or were expelled, and were soon dubbed "Maoists." They formed small "Marxist-Leninist" parties, supported and often funded by China. The Indonesian party was destroyed in the [[1965]] military coup in [[Indonesia]], and the Albanian party broke off relations with China after Mao's death. None of the other Maoist parties were ever of any political consequence.
+[[sv:Svenska Akademien]]
-In the anti-[[Vietnam War]] protest movement of the [[The Sixties|1960s]], Maoist student groups played a prominent role in several countries, mainly because of their willingness to resort to violence. These groups, despite their overwhelmingly middle-class student composition, were marked by strident rhetoric about the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], extreme sectarianism towards "revisionist" and [[Trotskyism|Trotskyist]] Communists, and a cult of [[Stalin]] and of Stalin-era slogans (such as "[[social fascist]]" and "[[kulak]]") and figures such as [[Lavrenty Beria]].
-In the developing world (then usually called the [[Third World]]), the term Maoist was applied to the [[Khmer Rouge]] regime of [[Pol Pot]] in [[Cambodia]], the [[New People's Army]] in the [[Philippines]], the [[Shining Path]] guerilla organisation in [[Peru]], the Indian [[Naxalites]] and various other revolutionary groups and movements. The [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]] described itself as Maoist for many years but is today an orthodox [[democratic socialist]] party despite its title. The only substantial organisation currently identifying itself as Maoist is the [[Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)]], which is conducting a rural insurgency against the government.
-==Maoist theory==
-Unlike earlier forms of [[Marxism-Leninism]] in which the urban proletariat was seen as the only source of revolution, and the countryside was largely ignored, Maoism focused on the peasantry as a revolutionary force which, he said, could be mobilised by a Communist Party with "correct" ideas and leadership. The model for this was of course the Chinese Communist rural insurgency of the 1920s and 1930s, which eventually brought Mao to power. Furthermore, unlike other forms of Marxism-Leninism in which large scale industrial development was seen as a positive force, Maoism tended to distrust urban industrialisation and mobilization in favor of distributed rural industrialisation (in the case of China) or active deindustrialisation, in the case of the [[Khmer Rouge]] regime. This proved impractical and disastrous in the case of the [[Great Leap Forward]] and the [[Khmer Rouge]]. On the other hand the emphasis on rural development rather than urban development may have positively influenced the early phases of [[Chinese economic reform]] under [[Deng Xiaoping]].
-Unlike most other political ideologies, including other socialist and Marxist ones, Maoism contains an integral military doctrine and explicitly connects its political ideology with military strategy. In Maoist thought, power comes from the barrel of the gun, and the peasantry can be mobilized to undertake a "people's war." This involves [[guerilla warfare]] using three stages. The first stage involves mobilizing the peasantry and setting up organization. The second stage involves setting up base areas and increasing co-ordination between the guerilla organizations. The third stage involves a transition to conventional warfare. Maoist military doctrine likens guerilla fighters to fish swimming in a sea of peasants, who provide logistical support.
-==Maoism after Mao==
-Since the death of Mao Zedong in [[1976]], and the reforms of [[Deng Xiaoping]] starting in 1978, the role of Mao's ideology within the PRC has radically changed. Although Mao Zedong Thought remains the state ideology, Deng's admonition to [[seek truth from facts]] means that state policies are judged on their practical consequences and the role of ideology in determining policy has been considerably reduced. Deng also separated Mao from Maoism, making it clear that Mao was fallible and hence that the truth of Maoism comes from observing social consequences rather than by using Mao's quotations as holy writ, as was done in Mao's lifetime.
-In addition, the party constitution has been rewritten to give the pragamatic ideas of Deng Xiaoping as much prominence as those of Mao. One consequence of this is that groups outside China which describe themselves as Maoist generally regard China has having repudiated Maoism, and there is a wide perception both in and out of China that Maoism is now irrelevant to China. However, while it is now permissible to question particular actions of Mao and to talk about excesses taken in the name of Maoism, there is a prohibition in China on either publicly questioning the validity of Maoism or questioning whether the current actions of the [[Communist Party of China]] are "Maoist."
-Although Mao Zedong Thought is still listed as one of the [[four cardinal principles]] of the People's Republic of China, its historical role has been re-assessed. The Communist Party now says that Maoism was necessary to break China free from its feudal past, but that the actions of Mao are seen to have lead to excesses during the Cultural Revolution. The official view is that China has now reached an economic and political stage, known as the [[primary stage of socialism]], in which China faces new and different problems completely unforeseen by Mao, and as such the solutions that Mao advocated are no longer relevant to China's current conditions.
-Both Maoist critics outside China and most western commentators see this re-working of the definition of Maoism as providing an ideological justification for what they see as the restoration of the essentials of capitalism in China by Deng and his successors.
-Mao himself is officially regarded as a great revolutionary leader for his role in fighting the Japanese and creating the People's Republic of China, but Maoism as implemented between [[1959]] and [[1976]] is recognised to have been an economic and political disaster. In Deng's day, supporters of radical Maoism was regarded as a form of "left deviationism" and being based on a [[cult of personality]], although these errors were officially attributed to the [[Gang of Four (China)|Gang of Four]] rather than to Mao himself.
-Although these ideological categories and disputes are less relevant at the start of the 21st century, these distinctions were very important in the early 1980s, when the Chinese government was faced with the dilemma of how to allow economic reform to proceed without destroying its own legitimacy, and many argue that Deng's success in starting [[Chinese economic reform]] was in large part due to his being able to justify those reforms within a Maoist framework.
-Some historians today regard Maoism as an ideology devised by Mao as a pretext for his own quest for power. The official view of the Chinese government was that Mao did not create Maoism to gain power, but that in his later years, Mao and those around him were able to use Maoism to create a [[cult of personality]].
-Both the official view of the [[Communist Party of China]] and the vast majority of public opinion within China regards the latter period of Mao's rule as having been a disaster for their country, and estimates of the number of deaths attributable to Mao's policies range into the tens of millions.
-At the same time, even this disastrous period is largely seen both in official circles and among the general public as preferable to the chaos and turmoil that existed in China in the first half of the twentieth century, and among some people there is nostalgia for the idealism of revolutionary Maoism in contrast to the corruption and money-centeredness some see in current Chinese society.
-In the west, Maoism is remembered as one of the more violent manifestations of the 1960s wave of student-led radicalism, and lingers on in the rhetoric of groups such as the [[Revolutionary Communist Party (USA)]]. In some developing countries Maoist ideas still have some attraction to the more authoritarian wing of the radical movements.  In general, Maoist movements outside of China are strongly opposed to the current Chinese government, who they see as having hopelessly strayed from the principles of Maoism.
-Mao's military strategy has been extremely influential among groups that are attempting to fight as guerillas. Within the [[People's Liberation Army]] there has been extensive debate over whether and how to relate Mao's military doctrines to 21st century military ideas, especially the idea of a [[revolution in military affairs]].
-==Violence in 2004==
-* On [[April 3]], Maoists exploded a powerful bomb at the house of the home minister of [[Nepal]] damaging the house and injuring security guards.
-* On [[April 4]], Maoists reportedly set ablaze nine [[India]]n vehicles and opened fire on three Indians a few hours after the rebels bombed the house of home minister of Nepal, Mr. Kamal Thapa.
-See also: [[Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong]]
-==External links==
-* [http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=+site:news.bbc.co.uk+Maoists Search] [[BBC]] for news about Maoists (using [[Google]])
-* [http://www.saag.org/papers3/paper277.html A paper on "Maoists of Nepal" from website of "South Asia Analysis Group" www.saag.org]
-* [http://news.google.com/news?q=Maoists&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&sa=N&tab=wn Search for Maoists] on [[Google News]]
-[[fr:maoisme]] [[zh:&#27611;&#27901;&#19996;&#24605;&#24819;]]