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The Great Leap Forward (1958-1961), New Economic Policy, IMPLEMENTATION,…
The Great Leap Forward (1958-1961)
AIMS
3 years of struggle 1000 years of Communist happiness
Mao slogans: “Faster, better, cheaper” & “if you have a strong desire to develop heavy industry, then you will pay attention to the development of agriculture”
continue heavy capital investments to develop industrial sector and increase in light industry agriculture by using the labour of the masses => simultaneous economic development
Iron and Steel campaign was a policy that made peasants make steel in there back yard to increase production. It ended up failing as it turns out people who don't know how to make steel make bad steel.
Mao's economic plan resulted in a ‘lopsided development’
Ex: Peasantry had no expertise of making raw materials so they weren't vial for manufacturing
Conditions
avoid the risk of privilege economic inteligencia
Unemployment and underdeveloplment
lack of foreign investment
Economically backward
TRANSITION TO SOCIALISM/RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH
Increase of radical, social and ideological to prevent the “danger” of slipping into capitalism
In the Moasit point of view the process of modern economic development; AIMS
1st : seizure of state power
2nd : transformation of social relationships
3rd : development of productive forces
"In making revolution, one must strike while the iron is hot, one revolution following another; the revolution must advance without interruption. " - Mao (page 195)
The transition to socialism was according to Mao “basically completed” in 1956
The "poor and blank" thesis: April 1958
People are not educates so they are not technically educated in the wrong way
"Special revolutionary virtues" that Mao attributed to the Chinese people in April of 1958
"In history it is always people with a low level of culture who triumph over people with a high level of culture." (207 on pdf - pg 199)
"[It] because of China's backwardness that its people possessed
special revolutionary capacities and were uniquely amenable to the appropriate spiritual transformation" (page 207 on pdf - pg 199)
You can teach people how to make iron,... Because they do not know anything -> they start from scratch
He took the same steps as Marxism but went quicker and missed some. He was accused of going to quickly and judged by Marxists
Comunes
Why was the comune system implemented
It gave greater autonomy to the local provinces and allowed them to work independently to greater there own production
What where the Comunes composed of
2000 pesant households
24,000 peoples comunes
750,000 collective farms
Ranged from less than 5,00 people to 100,000 people in one commune
What where comunes
Comunes were places that organised the peasants as well as set goals for them to reach and give a sense of community
Mao’s program: science and technology advances were to be made without professionals or technocrats to not expand the intelligentsia --> teaching the peasants to master technology (‘socialist-conscious, cultured laborers’)
resulted in peasants not knowing how to adequately use technology since no professionals are helping them => inefficient and unsuccessful
China was heavily dependant on the USSR economically since they would copy their development models => an extent of political dependence on the Soviet Union
National pride and new economic goals led to the biggest principle of the Great Leap: ‘self-reliance’
Mao 1958: ‘to import Soviet codes and conventions inflexibly is to lack the creative spirit’
Lushan Plenum (1959)
Main issues that confronted the Plenum:
Future of communes and the Great Leap / Mao's political future / control of People's Liberation Army
Resulted in a confrontation between Mao and Peng Dehuai (Peng Dehuai was a veteran revolutionary playing a major role in the Red Army since joining Mao in 1928, who also commanded Chinese forces in the Korean war)
foreign policy :
in Peng Dehuai's view (a common one amongst military leaders) China's domestic policies were intimately related to its military policies and USSR relations
China's military security depended on economic development for the weapons provided by the USSR
the GLF threatened development and the Sino Soviet alliance
the more threatening aspect was also Maoist plans to revive popular militia
Peng returned to China that June and launched an attack on the GLF making a Letter of Opinion (key event) addressed to Mao condemning communisation, collapse of national planning, party alienation, etc
all of which he attributed to the "petty bourgeois fanaticism" of Maoists
Peng was unlikely to be involved in a Soviet scheme in anti-Mao efforts, but it was promoted that he was
Mao's view
in 1959 he claimed "bourgeois elements infiltrated [the] communist party”
in 1960 Mao no longer commanded fully the party or their policies
the remainder of his Lushan victory was control of his armies through Lin Biao
Mao forced the party to choose between him and Peng Dehuai => he tied party leadership to his identity (cult of the individual parallel?)
since party leaders did not want the drama of trying to remove Mao, they went along with his policies
the 8th CC Plenum also convened where Peng was isolated and his criticisms were discredited as well
Mao insisted Peng should be politically disgraced and was obliged
most communists were just as committed to national independence as Mao himself
Peng was dismissed as minister of defence and his supporters were removed from key army positions
he was succeeded by Lin Biao
Economic Commentary
the GLF revival of 1959-1960 proved that Mao's victory at Lushan was 'hollow'
facing worse conditions in the revival, people were starting to lose faith in rural communities
the difficulties associated with the communes were now attributed to 'right opportunists' who underestimated achievements and overestimated defects
communal mess halls and private peasant plots were to be restored and destroyed respectively
the Plenum was used to propagandised The Great Leap & reaffirmed benefits for people's communes
“The Great Leap Forward campaign, which began with such great expectations in 1958, thus ended in 1960 with an economic and human disaster for China and a political debacle for Mao Zedong. It created a legacy of bitterness and distrust between the peasantry and the Communist Party. The Great Leap further contributed to the collapse of the Sino-Soviet alliance, an increasingly precarious external situation to a grave internal economic crisis.”
New Economic Policy
IMPLEMENTATION
OUTCOMES
Transition from socialism to communism
Technological Revolution
AIMS
OUTCOMES
POLITICAL MOTIVES & RESULTS
Foreign policy
General consequences of the GLF