The Great Leap Forward

1. The Great Leap Forward
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate how the Great Leap Forward was a result of the 1st 5 year plan.
Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap
Forward
Key Terms, Events, Names:
Second Five Year Plan
Mass mobilisation
The Three Banners
General Line
Commune
Brigades
Cadres
Peng Dehaui
Liu Shaoqi
Deng Xiaoping
Lushan Conference
Three Bitter Years

2. Starter: The Great Leap Forward
• How accurate of a
picture of the
Great Leap
Forward does this
poster portray?
• Why did Mao
instigate the Great
Leap Forward?

3. What was the The Great
Leap Forward?
LO: Demonstrate
how the Great
Leap Forward was
a result of the 1st 5
year plan.
• In 1958 Mao introduced a
second five year plan which
became known as the ‘Great
Leap Forward’ (GLF).
• It was to be achieved
through mass mobilisation,
but it was really a gigantic
experiment that ended with
the death of over 20 million
Chinese.

4. The Three Banners
LO: Demonstrate
how the Great
Leap Forward was
a result of the 1st 5
year plan.
• The General Line - to “go all out,
aim high and achieve greater,
faster, better and more
economical results in building
socialism”.
• The Great Leap Forward - to surpass
Britain and catch up with the United
States in industrial production within
15 years.
• Peoples Commune – mass
mobilisation would be achieved by
joining the agricultural production
cooperatives together.

5. Why was a new plan
needed?
LO: Demonstrate
how the Great
Leap Forward was
a result of the 1st 5
year plan.
• Mao believed the first Five Year
Plan was too slow and resulted in
too much bureaucracy.
• Mao envisaged a decentralisation
of control to local Party cadres
(leaders) who would mobilise the
masses across China.
• China could then achieve rapid
and sustained economic growth
that would take China from the
stage of Socialism to the stage of
Communism.

6. LO: Demonstrate
how the Great
Leap Forward was
a result of the 1st 5
year plan.
1. Political - Mao wanted another
revolution to take control of industry &
agricultural away from middle class
‘experts’.
2. Social - Still a lot of unemployment and
Mao believed he could mobilise the
masses in a continuing revolution to
boost growth. Private family life would
prevent this so had to abolished.
3. Economic - Was determined to turn
China into a powerful industrial nation as
quickly as possible. Greater factory and
agricultural production was needed.
Reasons for the Great
Leap Forward

7. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• Mass mobilisation was achieved by a
new method of organising peasant life
– the commune. He wanted to abolish
the private, family sphere of peasant
life.
• Aug 1958 - Collective and Co-
operative farms were joined into
24,000 communes with a population of
30,000 people each.
• People in communes were organised
into brigades of workers between
1000-2000 and then teams of workers
of 50-200.
Key Features:
Communes

8. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• The government tried to persuade people to
join communes by using propaganda. By
October 1958, about 99.1 % of the rural
population had joined the communes.
• They seemed the ideal way to organise
China’s peasant labour force:
– They were large enough to tackle large projects
like irrigation and could run their own local
schools and clinics.
– They also set up their own local industries to
mine coal and iron and make steel in blast
furnaces
• Life in the commune was lived communally.
Peasants ate in mess halls and nurseries looked
after children.
Key Features:
Communes

9. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• Communes assumed the administrative functions of
the villages.
• They managed public kitchens, nurseries and homes
for the elderly.
• Private properties such as land, houses, animals and
plants were shared out among all members, and
rationing was practiced.
• There were communal eating halls where peasants
could enjoy free meals. The communes also covered
the cost of clothing, houses, health care and funeral
services for the peasants.
Key Features:
Communes

10. Large-scale
farming district
Large-scale industrial
and manufacturing
unit
Unit of local
government
Local
Defence
Different Roles of The Commune

11. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• Cadres ignorant of rudimentary
agriculture advised on planting
techniques - all foolish ideas e.g.
deep ploughing.
• Imposed impossible quotas and
targets in order to please superiors
and demonstrate enthusiasm for
the new commune system.
Reported exaggerated harvests to
central governments.
• Peasants were reluctant to criticize
and challenge authority lead to
disasters in agriculture production.
The General Line
The dragon boats represent
different communes set up at
that time. Each commune
reports good news of good
harvest. The commune
brought a good wheat
harvest to peasants.

12. Exaggeration and over-reporting of agricultural production
during the Great Leap Forward in the national media
LO: Explain the Causes,
Key Features and
Consequences of the
Great Leap Forward
The General Line

13. • This cartoon depicts
the exaggerated
results of the
agricultural reform.
There were false
reports everywhere in
China.
• The State therefore
took a greater
mandated
percentage of food
than was available to
pay off debts and
loans.
LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
The General Line

14. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• A key element in the GLF was
Party propaganda. Posters,
slogans and newspaper articles
were all used to encourage mass
enthusiasm and long hours of
work.
• Loudspeakers played
revolutionary music and stirring
speeches encouraging workers to
go beyond targets.
• As a result of Party propaganda,
many projects were finished on
time.
Key Features: Party
Propaganda

15. The commune is like a
gigantic dragon, production is
visibly awe-inspiring, 1959

16. Go all out and aim high. The
East leaps forward, the West is
worried, 1958

17. Put organizations on a military
footing, put actions on a war
footing, put life on a collective
footing, 1958

18. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• New industries were set-up in cities to
solve unemployment. Increasingly
Higher targets for production were
set.
• Central, rational planning was
abandoned in favour of local
organisation. Small commune
factories were set up to make all
kinds of products like cement, ball-
bearing and fertiliser.
• Great emphasis was placed on the
production of steel and the
establishment of 600,000 ‘backyard’
steel furnaces in towns and villages.
Key Features: Industry

19. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• The Party had announced that the
steel output of 1958 was expected
to double that of the previous year,
with a total of 10.7 million tons.
• By the end of August 1958,
however, only half of this amount
had been produced. The
backyard steel campaign thus
began.
• Even steel products, such as old
nails, farming tools and cooking
pans were collected to melt down
for the production of steel.
Key Features: Industry

20. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• The CPC also called for more leaps in
other fields, such as in literature and
in hygiene, and high productivity
was expected in each of these fields.
• In literature, many propaganda
slogans were made up, such as
“Overtake Lu Xun (a famous Chinese
writer) within two years” and “Writing
60 scripts in one night”
• The Party also called for the
eradication of “four pests”, namely
flies, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows
(later changed to bugs) in a few
months.
Key Features: Others

21. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
1. Thousands of small factories were just wasteful and
inefficient. Most of the steel produced in ‘backyard’
furnaces was rubbish.
2. Furnaces took too much of the countries coal supply
and trains could not operate!
3. Party workers urged people to work faster and produce
more steel to make themselves look good – this meant
machines broke down and workers fell asleep at
machines (The General Line)
Results of the GLF:
Industry
As Mao’s confidence grew, his expectations were raised
even higher. Mao just kept setting even higher targets.
Critics didn’t want to labelled as ‘rightists’ so no one
questioned Mao.

22. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
1. Food production slumped
because too many peasants had
moved into industry.
2. By 1961, China was having to
import grain and impose
rationing. Bad farming methods,
floods and droughts caused bad
harvests for three years.
3. The harvest of 1960 was reduced
by 144 million tonnes due to the
GLF. Between 1959-1962, over 20
million Chinese starved to death.
Results of the GLF:
Agriculture

23. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
1. Most proved too large to be run
efficiently as they were hurriedly
constructed by Party cadres
keen to impress.
2. Peasants resented the loss of
private plots and the attack on
family life.
3. Members could not own private
property, all received the same
wages and families were broken
up. This meant that members had
no incentive to work hard and
production actually fell!
Results of the GLF:
Commune

24. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
1. Natural disasters affected the harvests. In 1960
northern China had a drought whilst there was serious
flooding the south of the country. China entered the
“Three Bitter Years” (1959-61).
2. Mao fell out with Khrushchev and in 1960 ordered all
Soviet economic and scientific advisors back to the
USSR. China was short of educated technicians.
3. Mainly Mao’s fault - He was in too much of a hurry
and did not think about practical problems.
4. It was nonsensical! Mao rejected capital investment,
technology and planning as revisionist and wrong! He
was afraid of losing control of the revolution to
experts.
Why did it Fail?

25. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• In 1958 China produced 200 million
tons of grain – by 1960 down to 143
million tons. Meat production fell
also from 4.3 million tons to 1.3
million tons.
• Famine caused by the bad
planning of the GLF and bad
harvests resulted in over 20 million
deaths and widespread
Cannibalism!
• China had to import food which
undermined Mao’s aim of ‘self-
reliance’ that the GLF was
supposed to achieve.
Consequences of the
GLF

26. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• National income fell and inflation
rose from 0.2% to 16.2%
• Peng Dehuai, the defence
minister attempted to reveal the
truth, but was condemned and
dismissed.
• However, Mao in late 1959
resigned at the Lushan
Conference as head of state,
although this had always been
planned before the full failures of
the GLF were known.
Consequences of the
GLF

27. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
• China was now controlled by three
leading communists:
– President, Liu Shaoqi
– Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai
– The CCP General Secretary, Deng
Xiaoping
• They all tried to abandon the GLF by
closing down ‘backyard’ factories,
returning workers to farming, giving
private land back to farmers and
reducing communes to one-third of
original size.
Consequences
of the GLF

28. LO: Explain the
Causes, Key Features
and Consequences
of the Great Leap
Forward
“Describe the key features of the Great Leap Forward or
the Hundred Flowers Campaign.” (7 marks)
• Question (b) will always give you a choice of two
factors. You have to choose one of these and describe
its key features. Spend 10 minutes.
• You need to describe at least two key features. Try to
write a paragraph on each.
• A key feature can be a cause, event or result.
Exam Question

29. Level Mark Scheme Marks
1 Simple explanation of key features
The student gives an explanation which lacks detailed
contextual knowledge or makes unsupported generalisations
1 mark for one simple explanation
2 marks for two or more
1-2
2 Supported explanation of key features
The student supports the explanation, selecting relevant
contextual knowledge.
3-4 marks for one or more supported explanation. Marks are
awards based on range and depth of support.
3-4
3 Developed explanation and analysis of causation
An explanation analyzing feature(s) supported by selected
knowledge. One explained feature will reach top of level 2.
5-6 marks for one or more features – marks will be awards
based on range and depth of support.
7 marks for answers which shows links between features.
5-7