HK

Legacy of 1949 Revolution and GLF/Sino Soviet Relationship

  • Social

    • 30% of land redistributed more fairly
    • Primary school and university attendance grew by 100% and 200% respectively
    • Mao introduces reforms against buying wives and betrothal
    • Strict agricultural conditions met with bad weather resulted in Famine of 1958

  • Political

    • 2-3% of the population made members of the party
    • Hundred Flowers Campaign encouraged public opinion on the party and allowed Mao to coax out enemies whom he then repressed and following the policy public opinion was heavily repressed
    • 500-800k of the former ruling party, Kuomintang nationalists, killed
    • Workers given power to challenge their bosses
    • Finance and economics sectors purged on suspicion of corruption

  • Great Leap Forward

    • Mao aimed to become a major industrial power and so peasants were pushed into agricultural communes and workers pushed into factories to up the production
    • Poor weather led to bad harvests which brought a famine that killed around 20 million people
    • Black market and theft was commonplace

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