Moves Towards Agricultural Co-operation / The Communes

Question 1

How did the communist party regard land distribution?

Answer 1

Only the first step towards the creation of a communist society

No intention of replacing one landlord class with another

Land reform was the first stage of a comprehensive package of agricultural reforms

Question 2

What did the Party introduce in 1951?

Answer 2

MUTUAL AID TEAMS

Organised peasants into teams of 10 or fewer households

Shared resources: tools, fertilisers, animals
Pooled labour for the benefit of the whole community

Helped POORER PEASANTS

Effective, popular. Buying and selling of land/ hiring of labourers still allowed.

Question 3

What was the next stage of agricultural co-operation, after the MATs?

Answer 3

Creation of Agricultural Producers’ Co-operatives

30-50 households

Land remained in private ownership BUT local parties reorganised landholdings into larger units: farmed more efficiently, profitably

State took share of harvest, peasants received money/grain back in payment

Question 4

How did richer peasants respond to the APCs?

Answer 4

Didn’t want to join

Slaughtered their animals rather than give them to APC

Question 5

What were the results of the APCs?

Answer 5

Disappointing.

1953 and 1954: grain production rose by less than 2%

Mao also knew there would be resistance: “The peasants want freedom, but we want socialism”

Question 6

What did the failure of the APCs give rise to?

Answer 6

Disagreements within the party over the pace of agricultural change.

CONSERVATIVES: opposed rapid change: Lui Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai: • China not yet ready for large-scale farming: lack of mechanised equipment (tractors, combine harvesters)
• they knew what happened in the USSR: slow, stepped approach instead

YET MAO: disagreed

Question 7

What did Mao demand in July 1955?

And what did this lead to?

Answer 7

An increase in the pace of reform towards full collectivisation, and an end to all private property.

Dec 1955: 63.3% of peasant households part of APC, 4% being Higher-Lever APCs (200-300 households, sometimes whole villages)

January 1956: 80.3% of p.h in APC., 30.7% Higher-Level

Pragmatism completely abandoned
Private ownership abolished

Question 8

What was entailed in the move to Higher-Level APCs?

Answer 8

Pragmatism abandoned.
Private ownership abolished.

Members soul only be compensated for their labour: land and equipment simply taken over by the state.
Tools, all equipment and land = shared.

Membership compulsory

Except for some very small private plots, privately owned land ceased to exist. No compensation provided.

End of 1956– almost 88% of peasants in HLAPCs

Question 9

By the end of 1956, what % of peasants were in higher level APCs?

Answer 9

Almost 88

Question 10

By 1956, what was Mao’s attitude to the co-operatives?

Answer 10

He was pleased
He believed the party should introduce the next stage of collectivisation: the movement into massive communes

He believed that the process made with MATs and ACTs
Was a signal that HIS desire to increase the pace of collectivisation was correct.

Question 11

“Walking on Two Legs”?

Answer 11

Mao organised the peasants into communes.

They would increase BOTH agricultural and industrial production

Question 12

How big were the agricultural communes?

Answer 12

Vast.

Average size of approximately 5,500 households

Question 13

Where was the first commune organised?

Answer 13

Henan province
July 1958

Named: Sputnik Commune— first ever satellite

Question 14

What did Mao think would happen to the peasant’s standard of living in the communes?

Answer 14

Improve as they would be self-sufficient.

Items that were in constant short supply (toothbrushes, rope) would be produced.

Mess halls would provide food
Crèches and schools would help with childcare and education:
women freed from burden of childcare (along with grandparents— they could enjoy their old age in “happiness homes”

Question 15

Why was communal living a disaster?

Answer 15

Abandoned children to poorly organised crèches with under qualified staff: parents forced to work long hours

Eating in vast food halls: destroyed the tradition of families eating together, food poor, diets worsened

Women undertook harsh, physical labour

Question 16

After the establishment of the communes, production wasn’t increasing as much as Mao wanted. What did he do?

Answer 16

Blamed it on vermin eating all the grain:

“Four Pests” campaign: compelled peasants to exterminate
1) sparrows
2) rats
3) flies
4) mosquitoes
Bang pots, pans, drums: scare sparrows and stop them from landing till they fell from the sky
YET sparrows ate insects— a plague of locust ate harvest

Question 17

What was the abolition of private farming?

Answer 17

End of 1958: party claimed 99% of peasant population in communes (almost half a billion people)

Private ownership of land outlawed.
Livestock couldn’t be owned: animals shared.
Selling of private produce denounced by the party (“rural capitalism”): all produce markets banned

Every commune had militia: controlled the people and prevented them from selling food or goods

Private farming system that had dominated Chinese rural life = DESTROYED

Question 18

Lysenkoism— what was it and how was it applied in China?

Answer 18

Trofim Lysenko— Soviet agrobiologist— ideas supported by stalin in the 1930s

Mao adopted many of his ideas as official government policy in the mid-1950s

Question 19

What methods advocated by Lysenkoism were disastrous for agriculture?

Answer 19

Some

• crop yields would be increased if seeds were exposed to moisture and low temperatures before they were planted deep in the ground & close together

Question 20

What was Lysenko proved to be?

Answer 20

Utterly fraudulent.

Caused crop yields to fall dramatically
Helped unleash 1950-62 famine.