Disillusioned with the pace of communist reform in China, Mao Zedong called for a purge of the country's intellectuals, whom he felt were destroying the worker ethic.
Millions signed into the Red Guard, who then beat thousands of artists, writers and scientists to their deaths.
Religious men were also put to death, women raped and people forced to engage in cannibalism. All in all, the cultural revolution in China claimed 10 million lives.