Within the Party there was division as some saw the lack of equipment left China unprepared

Concequences

By end of 1956 3% of peasants were farming as individuals

Mao published “Socialist Upsurge in the countryside” idea that he was responding to the peasants

Most APCs were converted to HPCs (Higher Agricultural Producers) 200-300 households. Families no longer owned the land - KEY CHANGE

The state owned 90% of land - Chinese Marxism in action

Mao had outmaneuvered the gradualists within the Party- historians refer to the “New Mao” emerging allowing him to override the concern of more moderate members of te Central Committee. The support of the cadres made a difference

However, in economic terms the results were disappointing

• Food production increased 3.8% p.a which wasn’t sufficient to sustain the growing industrial workforce

• Wasn’t enough for the Great Leap Forward

• Lack of cultivated land

• Low worker productivity

Mao’s response in 1957 was to launch the communes

The Great Leap Forward aimed to overtake Britain in 15 years and double steel production - industrialization of modern China

Communes had 5,000 households

Motivation

• Cost efficiency

• Economic advantage - land efficiency

• Walking on 2 legs, it was all together

• Ideological advantages - fitted with Communism

  • First Commune named Sputnik - equivalent to great adventure and success

• Cultural control enabled doctrination and control of old practices

Implementation

Abolition of Private Farming

August 1958 Politburo resolution declared people’s comumnes to be the “basic social units of communist society”

By end of year 740,000 co-operatives had been reorganised into 26,000 communes

99& of peasants lived in communes - almost half a billion people

Once in a commune, it wasn’t possible to move away without an internal passport

Life in a Commune

Children raised in kindergartens, and urged to pledge loyalty to Party rather than parents. Mao was their great parent

WOmen were known as Iron Women who were freed from domestic labour to work for Communism - “liberalisation from labour” 90% of women laboured in the fields alongside men

Collective canteen, clothing, dormitories couples could only arrange to sleep together on arranged conjugal visits. Happiness homes for the elderly - society was segregated and broke down family loyalty

Divided into Production Brigades and people’s working lives were directed by new mangagment teams

Unit of local government would provide services such as health, education and peasants aged 15-50 years had to join the militia. They would be trained with weapons and marched together for work. They would organise industrial enterprises like flour mills and backyard furnaces

Mao is moving closer to his vision of a perfect communist society - working for the common good However villages had no choice about being absorbed into communes - loss of individuality and personal freedom

Lysenkoism

Soviet scientist who claimed new techniques would increase agricultural yeilds who Stalin had relied on during the 1930s

Lysenko had manipulated his research and encouraged the purges of other scientists

• Close-cropping

  • Seeds enjoyed the comradery

• 4 Pests Campaign 1958

  • Sparrowcide as they ate the seeds. Rewards were paid for dead bodies and they competed

  • Massive damage on the ecosystem and food chain - increase in pests which ate crops

• Over use of fertilisers

Grain and meat production 1958+ fell

Great Famine

1958 Agricultural production was announced as 375 million tonnes - hailed as a success

Officials falsely assumed that there was a huge surplus as cadres lied and inflated production figures, who feared they would be labeled as a rightist

Demains for grain to be exported to pay for heavy industry were increased

Widely agknowledged as the worst famine of the 20th century 30-50 million deaths

Revision

Motivation - political - economical - ideological

Life in the Famines

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