Atlas / Comparisons / Maoism vs Putinism
Maoism and Putinism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on AU, SC. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Mao Zedong Thought | United Russia, sovereign democracy | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −10 | +03 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −02 | +09 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +10 | +10 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | +09 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +04 | +08 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | −03 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
Mao Zedong Thought · EC −10
Total state and collective ownership including the abolition of household farming.
- Documented act or statuteCommunes established from 1958 abolished private plots and household cooking.
- ScholarshipThe Great Leap Forward famine of 1959–61 is estimated at between fifteen and forty-five million deaths.
United Russia, sovereign democracy · EC +03
Coded right of centre: flat taxation and private ownership, contingent on political loyalty.
- Documented act or statuteA thirteen percent flat personal income tax was introduced in 2001.
- Documented act or statuteThe Yukos case in 2003–04 established that private ownership is revocable for political reasons.
Mao Zedong Thought · CU −02
Coded near neutral: radical on the family and on women's labour, and violently hostile to inherited culture.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1950 Marriage Law abolished arranged marriage and concubinage and permitted divorce.
- Documented act or statuteThe Four Olds campaign of 1966 destroyed temples, texts and artefacts systematically.
United Russia, sovereign democracy · CU +09
Coded +9: traditional values written into the constitution and enforced by criminal law.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2020 amendments defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman and invoked faith in God and historical truth.
- Documented act or statuteThe 'international LGBT movement' was designated extremist by the supreme court in 2023.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Maoism
1949–1976 · China
Peasant-based revolution, continuous class struggle after the seizure of power, permanent mobilisation against the party's own institutions.
Putinism
2000– · Russia
A strong personalised state restoring great-power status, with traditional values against a decadent West.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
Open in the atlas