1958-1962 Great Leap Forward
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• Collectivisation
• Complement to industrialisation. Peasants had been encouraged to collectivise in 1949.
• Causes
• Lack of labour
• Increase in production
• Nature
• Division of China
• China's land divided into 70,000 commmunes.
• Each commune divided into 750,000 brigades
• Each brigade made up of 200 households.
• Centralisation
• Methods, Sales and Prices dictated by CCP.
• Presentation
• Presented as response to the peasant's wishes
• Had the state become the ultimate landlord?
• Effects
• Famine
• Greatest Ever
• No incentives
• Use of Lysenkoism
• Made official policy in 1958
• Universally enforced, even where unsuitable
• All Chinese made to kill sparrows
• Make noise
• Sparrows die
• Pests population grows exponentially
• Eats crops
• Rats Multiply
• 20% Population of Tibet Wiped out
• Exports Increased
• Party officials reported that in fact production had increased, so exports followed suit.
• Motivation
• Crassness?
• Enforce Control?
• Industry
• Backyard furnaces
• Idea that mass labour could result in mass production
• Primitive inefficient, poor quality furnaces and inputs used.
• Good will did not produce steel.

Other Notes in this Category

1. 1949 Immediate Actions
2. 1949-1952 Consolidation
3. 1953-7 First Five Year Plan
4. 1957 Hundred Flower's Campaign
5. 1958-1962 Great Leap Forward
6. 1962-1966 Power Struggle
7. 1966-70 Cultural Revolution

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