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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Critically evaluate: “All long marches begin with small steps.”

  • UPSC 2010
  • Revolution and Counter-Revolution

The aphorism, applied to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Long March of 1934–35, asks whether a single desperate act of survival can meaningfully be read as the deliberate "small step" that set in motion a two-decade transformation ending in the 1949 revolution.

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What the full answer covers

  • The Literal "Step": Retreat, Not Design
  • The Strategic Reading: A Deliberate Foundation
  • The Case Against Over-Reading the Metaphor

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