VCE History Revolutions 2025 Unit 4 AOS 2: Consequences of the Chinese Revolution: The Great Leap Forward

When was the Great Leap Forward launched?

At the 8th Party Congress in May 1958. Collectivisation, Backyard Furnaces, the Four Pests Campaign and Manipulation of Numbers. The CCP was forced to request 200,000 sparrows to be imported from the Soviet Union. The goal was to produce more steel than Britain by 1973.

When was the Wuhan Plenum?

December 1958, and it was held to discuss ‘Some Questions Concerning People’s Communes.’ Harvest quotas were reduced from 450 million tonnes to 370 million tonnes. Some communist policies were rolled back, but it had little effect.

When did Liu Shaoqi assume presidency?

April 1959. He undertook ‘judicious trimming’ of policies.

When did Krushchev discontinue financial support to China?

July 1959.

When did the Three Bad Years Famine begin?

July 1959.

When was the Lushan Plenum?

July 1959. Peng Dehuai brought up his concerns with the Great Leap Forward. He is condemned as an ‘anti-Party element’, purged from the CCP in Dec 1966, and beaten over 130 times by the Red Guard. Mao purged 350,000 anti-GLF ‘Rightists’ from the CCP. ‘After Lushan the whole Party shut up. We were afraid to speak up. It stifled democracy. People didn’t tell Mao their honest opinions. They were afraid.’- CCP Official. Mao ‘could not tolerate anyone who dared to tell the truth.’- Mao’s bodyguard. Mao offered self-criticism, saying ‘It is I who am to blame.’

When are Soviet workers removed from China?

July 1960. ‘The Russians have landed us in the shit.’- Mao. ‘We we will continue to support (Stalin).’- Mao. ‘The loss of 1,400 Soviet scientists and engineers was a shock to the Chinese and greatly compounded the economic difficulties of a Great Leap Forward.’- Maurice Meisner.

When does the Three Bad Years Famine End?

In 1961. There were 30 million casualties. China’s grain production dropped 30% from 1958 to 1959, and then another 15% by 1960. ‘We ate the bark off trees.’- Famine Victim. Food production decreased by 25% from 1958 to 1961.

What were the reported harvest during the 3 Bad Years?

The ‘Going Up to Heaven’ Campaign meant that the harvest was reported as 500 million tonnes, but was really only 170 million. Collected harvest rose from 30% to 90%.

What was the effects of the use of Backyard Furnaces?

‘The country looked as though it had been picked clean by iron-eating ants.’- Harrison Salisbury. 750,000 backyard furnaces worked by 100 million people led to a 9% decrease in the amount of farmland sown by crops in 1958.

What are some evaluations of the Great Leap Forward?

‘It was a failure on a grand scale, dominating and distorting the social and political life of the People’s Republic.’- Maurice Meisner. ‘Arguably the worst aspect of the Great Leap Forward was the failure to tell the truth.’- Trevor Snowdon. It was ‘not an economic plan.’ It ‘relied ultimately on… the 'revolutionary enthusiasm’ of the masses.’- Maurice Meisner.

What as the CCP response to the Famine?

‘It is not that there is no food. There is plenty of grain, but 90% of the people have ideological problems.’- CCP Official. ‘Mao only heard and saw what he wanted to- that the Great Leap Forward was a tremendous success.’- Jasper Becker. It was a ‘Mao-made catastrophe.’- John King Fairbank. ‘The achievements are tremendous.’- Mao at the Lushan Plenum.

How did Collectivisation work during the Great Leap Forward?

740,000 Cooperatives were organised into 26,000 communes were established by the end of 1958, some including up to 5,000 families.