1968 youth revolts also shook communist-ruled countries, not just the capitalist West.

Evidence

Many of the French students praised Mao’s Cultural Revolution, which was ongoing, whether they really understood the faraway events or not. Closer to home in Czechoslovakia, the “Prague Spring” also erupted in 1968. In both socialist countries, the dominant Marxist-Leninist parties were rocked by youth uprisings that challenged their bureaucratic structures. Even in the communist world, 1968 was a year of revolt against administered life and the conservatism of the Old Left. … Mao Zedong had instigated the chaos on purpose to destabilize the Party he had helped build. The leader of the People’s Republic of China sought to ride the upsurge of energy with charismatic leadership and the elevation of a little red book of powerful but indeterminate aphorisms (without complete success). When things got too hot, Mao was able to rely on the military and reestablish control while maintaining his position as éminence grise in the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the rest of his life. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 95

Categorization

• XREF: The theme of unrest against administered bureaucratized life under communism resonates with earlier chapters and with Djilas and Zamyatin’s We in the reader’s library.