The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

Cold War Conflicts HIST 1301 | History The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution Mao Zedong wished for China to lead communism in Asia in the same way that the Soviet Union led it in Europe. But in order to do this, China had to be far stronger than it was in 1949, the year the Nationalists were forced to flee after the CCP proclaimed the People's Republic to be established. Following the Soviet example, Mao launched China's Five-Year Plan in 1953 and initiated about seven hundred industrial projects, of which over one hundred were supported by the Soviet Union. Additionally, he started the process of collectivising agriculture by making peasants work collectively on state-owned farms rather of caring for farms run by individual families. In terms of industrial growth, the plan was mainly effective, and China's ability to produce machines, cement, and steel as well as to mine coal rose. The second Five-Year Plan turned out to be a complete failure, notwithstanding the success of the previous one. The Great Leap Forward, as this initiative is commonly called, got underway in 1958. China would surpass the UK, according to Mao, who was motivated by the Soviet Union's ambitions to exceed the US in industrial capability. Therefore, agricultural output was expected to rise in tandem with industrial production, with the latter being financed by agricultural earnings. With increased attempts at collective bargaining, over twenty-five thousand communes—averagely made up of several thousand families—had been established by the end of 1958. Communes were huge manufacturing units. Collaboratively, they planted crops during the summer months and built winter building projects. Everyone ate together in community dining rooms and in communal kitchens that produced the food. For the benefit of its citizens, communes also ran hospitals and schools. The leaders of the commune decided what tasks each member would do, and all valuables like as food, animals, tools, and other objects belonged to the commune as a whole rather than to specific people or families. Cities and industrial workers were nourished by grain grown by rural communes. Encouraged to expand further, communes started inflating their grain output in an attempt to gain government favour. In addition to their efforts to increase food production, labourers were also required to work on supplementary projects like building dams. Additionally, farm labourers were instructed to make steel in hurriedly constructed private furnaces throughout the countryside. While some were tasked with producing only steel, others were required to work in the fields during the day and care to the furnaces at night. They burnt their own furniture to fuel the furnaces and cleared the countryside of wood in order to satisfy requirements. Ultimately, there was no value to the steel produced since it was of such poor quality. Disaster struck rural China as a result of the seizure of grain to feed the city, unfavourable weather patterns, and the utilisation of agricultural labour for industrial enterprises. Crops were devastated in some areas by locust swarms and floods. In other cases, the metropolis received an excessive amount of the produce, leaving the peasants with insufficient food. People began to eat bark, leaves, and clay when famine struck. While Western historians estimate between thirty and fifty million people perished between 1959 and 1961, other Chinese historians put the death toll at five million. Mao was taken aback by the Great Leap Forward's astounding failure. In order to make things right, he turned to Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, and Liu Shaoqi, other CCP members, and let them take over much of the day-to-day leadership of China. In particular, Deng started to undo some of Mao's most harmful initiatives, such letting peasants sell their excess grain. Food shortages were reduced because the peasants were given positive incentives to increase food production. However, Mao was averse to defeat and took offence at Zhou, Deng, and Liu's achievements. Mao fired Marshall Peng Dehuai, his longtime friend and minister of defence, for criticising his management of the Great Leap Forward, and Lin Biao took his place. Mao unexpectedly warned in 1966 that "revisionists" were trying to change the CCP's course. He urged the younger Chinese population, comprising of young industrial workers and students in high school and universities, to participate in the "class struggle" in order to preserve the revolution. He started what became known as the Chinese Cultural Revolution in July 1966. With the help of quotes from Mao that Lin Biao had collected and published in a "Little Red Book," students formed clubs of "Red Guards." Millions of Red Guards gathered in Beijing in August 1966, inspired by Mao and Lin Biao to destroy the "Four Olds"—old ideas, old traditions, old culture, and old habits—in order to rid the nation of "bourgeois" components. Subsequently, Red Guards ambushed and murdered the educators and school officials. Because the gardener at one school took care of the grass, a bourgeois issue, the students beat him to death. Red Guards, who were given food and housing at the cost of the government, went on a rampage across the nation, demolishing historical landmarks, libraries, artwork, graves, and monasteries. They battered individuals and made them admit to thinking like bourgeoisie. The number of people that died during the Cultural Revolution is unknown, although it might have been as high as two million. Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi were dismissed from positions of authority for lacking enough revolutionary fervour. Mao attempted to reduce the strength of the Red Guards in 1968 by dismissing them personally. Along with other young people from metropolitan areas, they were sent to the countryside to learn from the peasants. Mao's successor was designated Lin Biao in 1969. Lin lost his life in an aircraft crash two years later while trying to escape to the Soviet Union. It's possible that he was afraid Mao would punish him if he thought he was scheming against him.