毛泽东(1893～1976年)
Mao Zedong，亦作Mao Tse-tung。
中国马克思主义理论家、军人和政治家，领导中国共产主义革命，後来担任中华人民共和国主席（1949～1959）和中国共产党主席（1931～1976）。为农夫之子，曾参加推翻清朝的革命军，但当兵六个月之後，为了接受更多教育而离去。他在北京大学结识了中国共产党的创立者李大钊和陈独秀，1921年起献身於马克思主义。当时的马克思主义者认为革命操之於城市工人之手，但1925年毛泽东下的结论是，在中国必须动员农民，而非城市的无产阶级。他成为江西省乡下地方的中华苏维埃共和国（Chinese Soviet Republic）的主席；其红军抵挡了蒋介石的国民党军队连番攻击，但最後进行长征，来到中国西北部较安全的地方。在此，毛泽东成为共产党无庸置疑的领袖。他采取游击战术、激发当地人民的民族情感，以及实施土地均分政策等，使该党在军事上对付国民党和日本敌人占了上风，也获得广大农民的支持。毛泽东的农地改革马克思主义并不适合苏联，但是当1949年共产党成功取得权力时，苏联即同意提供技术援助给这个新的共产国家。毛泽东的「大跃进」运动和他对「新的中产阶级元素」的批评使苏联与中国的疏离关系变得无法挽回。1960年苏联撤销对中国的援助。毛泽东仍坚持己见，在「大跃进」失败後，紧接着进行同样灾难性的「文化大革命」运动，但较温和的势力有助於舒缓其影响效果。毛泽东死後，邓小平引进社会及经济改革，人们对毛泽东的崇拜大为减少。亦请参阅Jiang Qing、Liu Shaoqi、Maoism。
English version：
1893～1976年
Mao Zedong
Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, and statesman who led China's communist revolution and served as chairman of the People's Republic of China (1949-59) and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (1931-76). The son of a peasant, Mao joined the revolutionary army that overthrew the Qing dynasty but after six months as a soldier left to acquire more education. At Beijing University he met Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu, founders of the Chinese Communist Party, and in 1921 he committed himself to Marxism. At that time, Marxist thought held that revolution lay in the hands of urban workers, but in 1925 Mao concluded that in China it was the peasantry, not the urban proletariat, that had to be mobilized. He became chairman of a Chinese Soviet Republic formed in rural Jiangxi; its Red Army withstood repeated attacks from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist army but at last undertook the Long March to a more secure position in northwestern China. Here Mao became the undisputed head of the Communist Party. Guerrilla-warfare tactics, appeals to the local population's nationalist sentiments, and Mao's agrarian policies gained the party military advantages against their Nationalist and Japanese enemies and broad support among the peasantry. Mao's agrarian Marxism did not sit well with the Soviet Union, but when the Communists succeeded in taking power in 1949, the Soviet Union agreed to provide the new communist state with technical assistance. It took Mao's Great Leap Forward and his criticism of “new bourgeois elements” in the Soviet Union and China to alienate the Soviet Union irrevocably. Soviet aid was withdrawn in 1960. Mao clung to his vision, following the failed Great Leap Forward with the equally disastrous Cultural Revolution, but more moderate forces helped mitigate their effects. After Mao's death, Deng Xiaoping introduced social and economic reforms and the cult of Mao was greatly diminished. See also Jiang Qing, Liu Shaoqi, Maoism.