I recently finished Wild Swans, which amoung other things contains a history of modern China. It puts the blame for the worst parts of Communist rule pretty much at Mao and his wife's feet. In particular, he essentially gets the blame for:
-the great leap forward, -cultural revoluion -a general culture of ignorance -a fear of speaking one's mind
Is it fair to lay all these problems at Mao's feet, or were at least some of these products of the nature of the revolution in the first place?
While Mao had plenty of cronies that did his bidding for him, he was in fact largely responsible for the ideology of the cultural revolution and Great Leap Forward. His purges were a tactic he learned from his mentor Stalin, and a hallmark of most leaders of his type.
Much of the blame can be placed on him, while people like Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping helped to alleviate some of the downsides (sending troops to guard the ancient forbidden city against the red guards, for example).