Transcript Great Leap Forward

GREAT
LEAP
FORWARD
CREATE A SOCIALIST UTOPIA:
DAZHAI COMMUNE
Great Leap Forward:
2nd Five Year Plan
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
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 aweinspiring
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
The Great Failure
Great Leap Forward was a failure
because it could not bring increase in
agricultural and industrial production
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
25
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
28
• "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”
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)
The Cultural Revolution
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
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
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
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 GUARDS
Red 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, socalled 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 MOVEMENT
Instead 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
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
Why did Chinese youth get swept up in the Cultural
Revolution?