The+Great+Leap+Forward,+1958


 * The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961 **


 * Key Terms **
 * < Commune || groups of villages of different sizes, from a few squared kilometers to more. The average commune had around 5000 families. and their goals were to combine industry agriculture commerce, education and military affairs. To work towards the Great Leap, the combination of industry and agriculture. They were set up in 1958. ||
 * Mao Zedong || Mao Zedong lived from 1893 to 1976, he was a Chinese revolutionary and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1949 until his death in 1976. He supported the theories of Marxism and Lennism. He started the Great Leap and his communist theories are now called Maoism. ||
 * Great Leap Forward || A plan establish by the Party, and their leader Mao Zedong, to develop industry as well as agriculture. This plan started in 1958 and ended in 1961 ||
 * Propaganda || the organized dissemination of information, allegations, etc, to-assist or damage the cause of a government, movement.Advertisiments such as posters and slogans, anything that covers the issue. ||
 * Communism || A system of social organazations that all social and econonomic activity is all controlled by the government. ||

In the summer of 1958, Mao Zedong made a tour of the Chinese countryside, when he returned he said he witnessed energy of the masses, and that it is possible any task whatsoever. The task he was planning to accomplish was to develop China into one of the wolrd's leading industrial nations, and also improving the agriculture. The Great Leap forward was a second Five-Year Plan, running from 1958 to 1961. Mao thought the economy could overtake Britain within 15 years, and America's in twenty to thirty years.

The Great Leap Forward differed from the first Five-Year Plan, as it was aimed to develop industry as well as agriculture, both at the same time. The way to do this was to re-organize Chinese people into communes. The communes were groups of villages of different sizes, the average commune had about 5000 families who had given up their land, their animals and their equipment to common ownership by all members of the commune. Mao said the purpose of communes was to release the tremendous energy by having no time and effort wasted. The members of the communes could work together to combine industry, agriculture, commerce, education and military affairs.At first, everything was set up perfectly, so that people would not be distracted from their work. Around 4 million communal eating halls were set up, so the number of people who cooked the meals were reduced. Children were enrolled into nurseries and schools, so their families could have full-time work. The old were moved into 'houses of happiness' that way their families did not have to take care of them, and be more focused at work.The communes were controlling almost every activity in a person's life because they combined different functions.
 * The Communes **

The communes were: "1. A unit of local government, with a committee made up peasants, Party members and soldier running schools, clinics, nurseries, eating halls, entertainments and other public services. 2. A unit of work organization, with the work of the commune divided among work teams of a dozen families, and grouped into work brigades of a dozen work teams. 3. A unit of the Communist Party, with a Party committee making sure that the commune always followed Party decisions." Communes were created with great speed, by the end of 1958 700 million people, almost 90 percent of the population had been put into 26,578 communes all over China.





The government and the Party, made a great effort convince people into being enthusiastic about their work. Posters, slogans and newspapers articles were posted, urging the Chinese to work long hours, whatever conditions they were under (bad weather, sick).As a result of this project, many great buildings and projects were completed in China, especially the gigantic dam that was being built near Beijing. The dam was completed and was 2088 feet high and 38.2 feet wide at its base, even though encouraged by the party and Mao Zedong himself, the people worked under very bad conditions, without enough machinery and the necessary tools they were being left to build the dam with their own hands.
 * Propaganda, Enthusiasm and the Backyard Steel Campaign **



The communes were set up to contribute in the Great Leap Forward in small and big projects. Small factories were set up in the communes to make industrial goods, but one was more emphasized on than the rest. Steel production began and around 600,000 "backyard steel factories' were set up in town and villages in China. At first, these small furnaces were only able to produce a few tonnes of steel, until later they began makin 11 million tonnes of steel, This was 65 percent more production of steel than in 1957. Throughout the year the production of coal, timber, cement, fertilizer and other industrial products continued to rise. In agriculture, harvests of cotton and grain rose too. People had begun to believe that it was "possible to accomplish any task whatsoever" as Mao Zedong had said.



There weren't many things that the Great Leap Forward accomplished but to show its failure. The 3 years between 1959 and 1962 were called the Three Bitter Years, due to the sufferings that China went through after a year of the Great Leap forward being started. There were any casualties, people died from starvation as there wasnt enough food for everyone and very little amounts were distributed within China, and many of the foods were exported. This was mainly because Mao started focusing more on industrialization, so there weren't enough people to work on the fields. Not only from starvation, there were also deaths from violence. It was said that communist officials beat, tortured and killed many workers who would not met ends with their grain quota, and had not done the job completely, or as had been instructed. Especially after starvation set in it was harder to have the malnourished workers working on the field, they would be tortured and humiliated, until they got the job done. Many beatings were such as with sticks, however more were set in later as the year proceeded. At first it was a good impact on the economy, it started to grow, then things started not to work out, because of the farming and the starvation. The government also lost, two of the closes officials to Mao Zedong were then put into task to recover China's economy. Mao was then attacked a lot by other people in high ranks about the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward.
 * Consequences **


 * Key Terms of Russia and China **
 * Russia**


 * Vladimir Lenin || Leader of the Bolsheviks, strategist, in 1917.Lived from 1870 to 1924. Ruled Russia until his death. His actual name is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, his brother was hanged from plotting agaisnt the Tsar. ||
 * Leon Trotsky || Public voice of the Bolsheviks, chairman of Petrograd in 1917, killed by Stalin in 1940. ||
 * Bolsheviks || They are a party against the Tsar with basic communists beliefs such as: every one is equal, and there are no owners of land.Their leader was Lenin and they took over in November 1917. Their leader was Lenin. ||
 * Bolshevik Revolution || The Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government on November 7th of 1917 along with the Petrograd Soviet of Workers and Soldiers Deputies.They took over the Winter palace and arrested the officials. There wasn't much opposition since the provisional government was disliked by most of the population of Russia. ||
 * Joseph Stalin || Soviet politician. The successor of Lenin, he was general secretary of the Communist Party (1922-1953) and premier (1941-1953) of the USSR. His rule was marked by the exile of Trotsky (1929), a purge of the government and military, the forced collectivization of agriculture, a policy of industrialization, and a victorious but devastating role for the Soviets in World War II. HE KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE. ||
 * Tsar Nicholas II || The last monarch of Russia (1894-1917), whose reign was marked by defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the 1905 Revolution, the court influence of the unpopular Rasputin, involvement in World War I, and governmental incompetence, all of which helped precipitate the Revolution of 1917. Forced to abdicate, he and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks. Who later took over the Provisional Government. ||


 * China**


 * Qing dynasty || The last dynasty of China that ruled between 1644-1912 B.C. The dynasty was followed by Republic of China. Sometimes the dynasty was called "Manchu dynasty" or Manchurian dynasty because the rulers were Manchus. ||
 * Sun Yatsen || The Leader of the enemies of the Qing Dynasty during the 1900's ||
 * Wuchang Rebellion || A rebellion which triggered the end of the Qing dynasty and established the Republic of China ||
 * Yuan Shikai || A Chinese general and politician who later became the first president of China. ||
 * < Commune || groups of villages of different sizes, from a few squared kilometers to more. The average commune had around 5000 families. and their goals were to combine industry agriculture commerce, education and military affairs. To work towards the Great Leap, the combination of industry and agriculture. They were set up in 1958. ||
 * Mao Zedong || Mao Zedong lived from 1893 to 1976, he was a Chinese revolutionary and Communist leader. He led the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 1949 until his death in 1976. He supported the theories of Marxism and Lennism. He started the Great Leap and his communist theories are now called Maoism. ||
 * Great Leap Forward || A plan establish by the Party, and their leader Mao Zedong, to develop industry as well as agriculture. This plan started in 1958 and ended in 1961 ||
 * Communism || A system of social organazations that all social and econonomic activity is all controlled by the government. ||

- Compare and contrast Russia's First and Second Five Year Plan to China''s Great Leap Foward. Both the First and Second Five Year plan and the Great Leap Forward had the goals of industrial and economic, both however did suffer consequences after the plans. . The leaders were Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin. After the Five Year Plan in China, China announced a new plan. In China, people were re-arranged into communes, to work on many different tasks, all to achieve development of the industry and agriculture. In Russia, collectivization was imposed to achieve industrialization and the rise of economy.However,both countries suffered great consequences, Mao was being criticized because of the plans, and the losses the country was going through Stalin was also being criticized, any criticism would them mean you would be replaced, as if Stalin was loosing grip. Many punishments were imposed on workers who did not meet the ends, and many of them began to lie, so there wouldn't be punishment. In Russia as well as in China many people began to die by starvation, due to food shortages. Other, than these deaths, the economies at first began to rise impressively, in China however it wasn't as effective as in Russia. Russia survived the Great Depression while other countries were suffering. China suffered a lot from the Great Leap forward, the economy later went down. Russia gained, however lost many of its people, and China suffered a lot, the period of the Three Bitter Years. Both plans have similarities and differences.
 * Two Essay Questions **

Both countries worker towards the same goal, industrializing and developing the economies and they were aware that their countries were still behind the rest of the world., with these plans they hope to eventually catch in in 20-30 years time to America's economy. These plans worked toward the development of production of steel, iron as well as other industrial products as well as in the farms. Russia introduced collective farms, were people would sell food to the government and then the government would use it to feed the people. However, the population was very upset, this meant loosing the very last bit of land that they owned. In China, people were re-arranged into communes, the average contained about 5,000 families. These families were moved and had to ggive up their houses, and farms taking very little with them. They were to work together to accomplish tasks and productions which would increase. Everybody was to be doing work, no matter the conditions. These plans have similar objectives however, the economy started growing and soon people were living low, but stable lives. Both plans managed to achieve economical growth, however people were becoming mad at their leaders who were very ambitious. This however caused many people to die by starvation, or execution by not full filling or giving into the policies.

In Five year plan, Stalin abolished Kulaks, and he began to have opposition. Mao too was now being criticized. Since the officers encouraged people to work more, the machines were over heated, people from exhaustion were causing accidents, and from the backyard steel campaign and the industry, there weren't enough people to work in the farms. This caused food shortages and many deaths of the people. Mao then later came with apologies, but China faced a quite bitter period after the Great Leap Forward. Stalin began to kill anybody who opposed him, they were either tortured, exiled or executed. It was the Great Purge. Not only peasants but many able men who were officials of the army and many who were also in the Communist Party.Russia was also facing starvation as the peasants destroyed their grain and killed their animals, so the government could not take over their farm. This caused food shortages and less grain production. Even though food was being distributed, it did not mean that it was enough many people were starving. In Russia, the plan was more successful than in China, in Russia they economy boomed it was industrialized however, China had an Industrial, farming and Leadership crisis after the Great Leap Forward. - To what extent did Mao come to achieving his goals with the Great Leap Forward?

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