Collectivisation

Mutual Aid Teams - 1951

• 10 families

• Shared labour & resources

• Voluntary

  • Outsides may risk persecution & limited resources

• Privately owned

Agricultural Producers Cooperatives - 1952

• 40-50 families

• Land organised into one unit

• Managed centrally by local Party

• Privately owned

• Voluntary

Problems with APCs

• Mao became fustrated at slow pace

  • 1955 - only 14% of peasants involved

• Grain production +2% (not enough)

• Private ownership = capitalist values

• Resisted by rich peasants

• Gradualists

  • Zhou Enlai & Lui Shaoqi

  • Not ready for large-scale farming

  • Lacked mechanised equipment (ex. tractors) & chemical fertilisers

• Mao saw Collectivisation as a political & ideological victory

Higher Producer’s Cooperatives - 1955

• 200-300 families

• State owned - 90%

• Disappointing economically

  • only + 3.8% p.a - not enough

• 1956 - only 3% of peasantry left farming individually

• Problems

  • Grain yield couldn’t sustain industrial workforce

  • low productivity

  • Lack of cultivated land

Communes 1957

• Av = 5,500 families

• Obligatory - loss of personal freedom

  • Internal passports needed to move

• 1st Commune = Sputnik

• 1958 Politburo resolution

  • “basic social units of society”

• 99% of peasantry in communes

Life in Communes

• Women “freed” from domestic duties

  • Reality = double burden

  • Propaganda = “IRON WOMEN"

  • 90% of women in fields w/ men

• Pooling resources would be more efficient → higher yields → free labour for construction projects

• Ideologically = continuous mass revolution

• Peasants aged 15-50 yrs had to serve in militia

• Dormitories, canteens, creches, boarding schools & happiness homes for elderly

  • Breaking down of family unit

  • Loyalty to Party & Mao first

Lysenkoism - 1958

• Trusted by Stalin… BUT

  • Purged opposing scientists

  • Manipulated research & evidence

• As Mao endorsed it, he was discredited

  • Mao wanted to speed up progress

• Close cropping

• 4 Pests Campaign - 1958

  • Massive ecological damage

  • Rewards & competitions for sparrows’ bodies

• 1958 - Agricultural production hailed as success

  • 375 million tons

  • False reports due to climate of fear

  • Mao increased exports

The Great Famine - 1958-62

• 30m → 50m died

• Tibet most impacted

  • ¼ of population died

  • Gov forced switch from barley to unsuitable crops

  • Dalai Lama’s deputy complained & jailed

• Desperation

  • Selling children/wives or divorce

  • Cannibalism

  • Prostitution

• Mao continued to export grain

• Impact of Furnace Campaign & Conservancy Projects

Great Famine (non-human)

• Weather conditions

• Droughts → Yellow River dried up

• Flooding & Typhoons

• 60% of all land was affected