China's Great Leap

Paper Summary:

The paper questions whether the retreat from radicalism undermines the thesis that the Great Leap Forward represents a turning point in the development of Chinese Communist ideology. It looks at the social and economic conditions of China before the event and examines whether the Great Leap forward was as beneficial to the country as previously thought.

From the Paper:

"Certainly the countryside was in a mess in the winter of 1958/1959 and reeling from the head-long rush towards communization the preceding summer. In most cases, the chaos grew out of the lack of both tools or proper resources as well as experience and skill. Communal canteens, nurseries and old people's homes had inadequate accommodation. Responsibility for planning in the whole of agricultural production was vested in the commune leadership quite inept at such levels of management. Although intended as the basic unit of ownership, the communes as a purely economic unit were far too large.
Accountancy was deficient and made worse by what Peng Teh-huai was soon to refer to as "the habit of exaggeration" (2), in their claims about increases in production targets. "Production battles' inevitably created considerable disequilibrium in the national economy. This affected many areas of production; from the failure to provide the means of transporting the harvested grain, to the failure to produce sufficient winter clothing, thus curtailing work in the fields during frosty weather. Disorder and misallocation of materials gave many peasants, who had little enthusiasm for the militarization of their working and social life, a concrete opportunity to give vent to their discontent. Peasants began refusing to go to work in military formation and secretly cooked their food at home. They took their children out of the nurseries and creches. Old people left the old people's homes and returned to their families. Instead of sending the harvested grain to the granaries of the commune, many production brigades distributed it amongst themselves. There were also cases of well-poisoning, and the slaughtering of animals on the pastures at night. Communal stores were ransacked and cadres physically attacked. As such acts of resistance intensified throughout the winter a situation amounting to general, albeit uncoordinated, insurrection developed."

More papers on China's Great Leap:

• Article Review # 101211 : "China During the "Great Leap Forward"
• Term Paper # 132125 : "Famine and China's "Great Leap Forward"
• Essay # 25463 : "China's Great Leap Forward of 1958"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: