GREAT LEAP FORWARD. CREATE A SOCIALIST UTOPIA: DAZHAI COMMUNE.

GREAT LEAP FORWARD

CREATE A SOCIALIST UTOPIA: DAZHAI COMMUNE

When?

1958-1962

Why?

To bring another success to the PRC

  success in carrying out land reforms

success in other campaigns to attack the reactionaries

Great Leap Forward:2nd Five Year Plan

MAO BELIEVED THE COUNTRY SHOULD FOCUS ON INDUSTRY AND FOOD. MAO MADE A FIVE YEAR PLAN AND CALLED IT THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

GREAT LEAP FORWARD

The Commune is Like a Mighty Dragon, Production is awe-inspiring

To achieve self-sufficient economy

disliked Soviet way of industrialization (putting heavy industry first)

China would not do with high-tech factories which depended on foreign capital and assistance

to show that the Chinese way of industrialization was better than the Soviet way or the capitalist way

To end diplomatic isolation

China was being isolated from other countries (capitalism) due to its practice of communism

Desire to catch up to Britain and US and to break off diplomatic isolation

To raise international status of China

To increase productivity

First Five Year plan completed earlier than expected

But... serious economic problems remained unchanged

unemployment (most peasants had little to do between harvesting and sowing)

Propaganda was everywhere – including the fields workers could listen to political speeches as they worked

Propaganda posters often use symbolism

The dragon in this picture symbolizes steel production

The bird symbolizes grain production

How does this poster make you feel?

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD - PROPAGANDA & ENTHUSIASM

•Propaganda a Key Element

•Goal to Inspire Workers to Overachieve Goals

•Impressive Construction Projects Completed

Look for positive images and symbols in this picture. List several and explain to the person next to you why you think they are in this picture.

EFFECTS OF THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF MAOIST ERA

Technology and Technical expertise transferred to Countryside

Infrastructure: education, electrification, roads, rural industry, health care

Gap between urban-rural narrowed

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD FAILURE

Coal and iron cannot walk by themselves. They need vehicles to transport them. This I did not foresee. I and the Premier did not concern ourselves with this point. You could say we were ignorant of it…I am a complete outsider when it comes to economic construction. I understand nothing about industrial planning. Comrades, in 1958 and 1959, the main responsibility was mine, and you should take me to task…The chaos caused was on a grand scale, and I take responsibility.

- Mao, 1959

RESULTS OF THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

38 million died of:

• Being worked to death• Others were killed, tortured, or imprisoned• Famine (the average daily calorie intake was 1,500 for men and 1,200 for

women – Auschwitz got between 1,300-1,700 calories per day)Heavy industry developed (although it was still behind most large industrial countries)

Agriculture lagged behind

RESULTS OF THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

Agriculture failed because:•Unscientific agricultural methods were used•There was a shortage of agricultural labor because of peasants working on industrial projects

•The peasants disliked losing their private lots•Natural disasters – droughts and floods•Peasants didn’t work hard because grain was taken from them

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

•The Great Leap was made worse by ecological problems, and in 1959 and 1960, drought ravaged China.

–Those that had embraced Mao’s reforms the most suffered worse than others, and in some areas, cannibalism arose.

–OFFICIAL CHINESE REPORTS STATE THAT 14 MILLION PEOPLE STARVED.

• Actual figures may be much higher, in the 20-43 million range. All the while, officials hid the starvation and failures of steel production from Mao, but even when he found out, nothing was done because he could not admit that even nature had proven him wrong.

RUSSIAN RESPONSE TO GREAT LEAP FORWARD

The Russians were insulted that the Chinese were no longer following their advice and pulled out their engineers.

Many factories that were being built could not be finished because the Russians had the only plans and because the Russians were to provide the machinery.

RESULTS OF THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD

As a result of the failure on the Great Leap Forward, Mao retired from the post of chairman of the People's Republic of China

His place as head of state was taken by Liu Shaoqi, but Mao remained important in determining overall policy

THE RISE OF THE MODERATES•“The 3 Bitter Years” Caused by Mao

•Party Leaders Blame Mao for the Damage

The disaster was 70% manmade and 30% due to natural causes.

- Liu Shaoqi

•More Moderate Leaders Assume Power…Mao Loses Power. Enter Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, & Deng Xiaoping

Great Leap Forward was a failure because it could not bring

increase in agricultural and industrial production

The Great Failure

Paved the way for the Cultural Revolution

Aroused conflicting opinions among the Party leaders

Mao Zedong wanted to gain back his power and to remove the opposition within the Party

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THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

As the late 1950s moved on, China and the USSR competed to be the dominant Communist country in the world. Combined with the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao took a lesser role in China’s politics.

• Some policies were relaxed, and Chinese farmers could finally move back into their homes and work their own small farm plots.

• As his brand of Communism weakened, Mao felt that China had lost its revolutionary spark, and used the young adults of China to start his “Cultural Revolution.”

REASONS MAO WANTED CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Mao felt that he could no longer depend on the formal party organization, convinced that it had been permeated with the "capitalist" and bourgeoise.

He turned to Lin Biao and the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) to counteract the influence of those who were allegedly "`left' in form but `right' in essence."

The PLA was widely extolled as a "great school" for the training of a new generation of revolutionary fighters and leaders.

TOWARD A CULTURAL REVOLUTION

Lin Biao Minister of Defense

• "Chairman Mao is a genius, everything the Chairman says is truly great; one of the Chairman's words will override the meaning of ten thousand of ours.”

“Little Red Book”

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THE PLA READING MAO’S LITTLE RED BOOK

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

CULTURAL REVOLUTION(1966-68)

The purpose of this movement was to:

•Restore Mao’s power and control

•Get rid of Soviet style communism

•Renew the spirit of revolution in China

•Destroy the rise of differentiation between the proletariat and bourgeois (he believed a hierarchy was increasing in development)

New Movement• Mid-1960s, Mao tried to regain power, prestige lost after Great Leap Forward• Initiated new movement called Cultural Revolution, sought to ride China of old

ways, create society where peasants, physical labor were the ideal

Destruction of Society• Mao lost control; Red guards murdered hundreds of thousands of people; by late

1960s, China on verge of civil war before Mao regained control• Cultural Revolution reestablished Mao’s dominance, caused terrible destruction;

civil authority collapsed, economic activity fell off sharply

Red Guards• Campaign meant eliminating intellectuals who Mao feared wanted to end

communism, bring back China’s old ways• Mao shut down schools, encouraged militant students, Red Guards, to carry out

work of Cultural Revolution by criticizing intellectuals, values

The Cultural Revolution

MAO’S PLANS FOR CHINA AND NEED FOR CULTURAL REVOLUTION

The revolution was to destroy the four olds: old ideology, old thoughts, old habits and old customs

= = = = =

Eroded family structure

Families divided to work in countryside

Attempted to wipe out Confucian thought

Silenced intellectuals

THE “FOUR OLDS”

One of the ways to approach this is to rid every one of their valuable possessions.

Mao’s red guards would raid houses looking for “four olds”.

*A four old is an item or behavior that shows old custom, old culture, old habit, or old ideas.

*Remember that while Mao was draining the people in China of their wealth and power, Mao was a very wealthy man himself.

DESTROY THE FOUR OLDS

RED GUARDS

RED GUARDS

Much respect and many rewards were given to the Red Guards; therefore Mao was able to gather many student volunteers.

The Cultural Revolution was based on the belief that school should be simpler, and the more books a person read, the more unintelligent they become.

Mao wanted to mold Chinese society - especially young people - and create Chinese citizens who would grow up to become uneducated and followers.

Purge of intellectuals

THE RED GUARDSRed Guards became the primary instruments of the Cultural Revolution

“We have to depend on them to start a rebellion, a revolution, otherwise we may not be able to overthrow the demons and monsters. We must liberate the little devils. We need more monkeys to disrupt the palace” (Mao, 1965-interesting!)

A Young group of Red Guards Mao gathered to fight against democratic society.

The Red Guard• They had the workers

arrange meetings so frequent that production came to a standstill

• This meant that national output fell dramatically during the course of the Cultural Revolution

• This caused the Chinese economy to be crippled through the three-year duration of the Cultural Revolution

RED GUARDS: STRUGGLE SESSIONS (PURGES)

Red Guard denounce teachers, parents, school leaders in public facing hundreds of people for crimes against Mao and the Revolution.

This was a unique method used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao era to shape public opinion and to humiliate, persecute, and/or execute political rivals, so-called class enemies .

SENT-DOWN YOUTH

Elena Songster & Jessica Stowell, OU

EDUCATION

Not with Mao around!

Mao told the people of China that teachers were against the revolution and that children shouldn’t continue their classes.

This left the children with free time since they didn’t go to classes. Mao encouraged them to become red guards.

If you were chosen at a red guard audition it was considered a great honor and was many children’s dream.

THE YOUTH MOVEMENTInstead of killing

the intellectuals in China, who amounted to less than 10% of the population, Mao decided to re-educate intellectuals in the ways of the proletariat. To do so, he made many books and learning sources illegal, and relocated members of the bourgeoisie class to farming communities where they were forced to do manual labor.

THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

All children taught to aspire to party membership

Enrollment as a young pioneer was a major event for a student and family

All students were encouraged to admit their failings in public in an attempt to become better socialists

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THE EDUCATION SYSTEM

Indoctrination in the classroom began with primary education

History taught to highlight the wrongs of the feudal past and western imperialism

Students taught to have unbounded love for comrades and hatred for class enemies

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Why did Chinese youth get swept up in the Cultural Revolution?