After a civil war between the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong and the nationalist Kuomintang led by Jiang Jieshi, China established a communist government under Mao Zedong. Mao sought to transform China into a communist state through policies like collectivizing agriculture into communes during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution which aimed to remove traditional culture, though these policies led to economic and social disruption and millions of deaths. Mao's communist revolution dramatically changed China's political and economic system and aligned it with the Soviet sphere of influence.