Mao was born on 26 December 1893 into a peasant family in Shaoshan, in Hunan province, central China. After training as a teacher, he travelled to Beijing where he worked in the University Library. It was during this time that he began to read Marxist literature. In 1921, he became a founder member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and set up a branch in Hunan. In 1923, the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party had allied with the CCP to defeat the warlords who controlled much of northern China. Then in 1927, the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek launched an anti-communist purge.
Although many horrors were caused by Mao and his sporadic tendencies of making the entirety of China do something (eg. burn all iron and steel), he did enable China to become a great power by, despite there being great ups and downs in his reign, increased education (at some parts of his reign), encouraged industrialisation and lifted many peasants out of poverty.
For his biography and an interesting video see:
http://www.biography.com/people/mao-tse-tung-9398142
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