What does it mean to "break" a people?

The Chinese people were certainly already "broken" in 1949. They had undergone a century of collapse, most were illiterate, women were essentially chattel, and every single grain of wheat or rice more than what was required to keep them alive was stolen by unelected landlords.

The communists took power and every single one of them was taught to read, women were enfranchised, no-fault divorce and abortion were legalized, political rights were expanded, opium and gangs were chased out of the mainland and the feudal lords were held to account.

30 years after the revolution they had turned a society of feudal peasants into a nuclear power, 30 years after that and it's the world's largest economy by PPP.

The same things can be said about the Bolsheviks, who defeated a nazi army which sought to annihilate them.