Mao Zedong was born to a peasant farmer in China and studied Marxism before becoming a member of the Chinese Communist Party. As the leader of the CCP, he established collective farms and the Red Army, but his Great Leap Forward policy resulted in a famine that caused millions of deaths. Mao led the Long March to establish communist rule and encourage communism in China, though his Cultural Revolution caused negative consequences by punishing opposition to his rule.