From humble origins in the provinces, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, colonialism, and war. Both a canny tactician and a hardworking organizer, Mao parlayed the privations of the famous Long March and the success of his guerrilla army into a powerful cult of personality and a dominant position in the burgeoning Chinese Communist Party. The Communist victory in 1949 not only elevated him to supreme leader but made his eccentric version of Marxism official dogma; his regime was a volatile mixture of power and mystique that exploded in the havoc of the Cultural Revolution.