What Was the Impact of the People’s Communes After 1958? Flashcards
Reasons for launching the communes
- Enable pooling of larger resources of equipment/labour
- Higher food yields
- More peasants being freed up to work on construction schemes (release more manpower to water control projects)
- Prevent rev losing impetus
When/where was the great leap forward announced
1958
Eighth CCP Congress
What does ‘walking on two legs’ mean?
Developing agriculture and industry at the same time
How much time did Mao claim it would take for China to overtake Britain as an economic power?
7 1/2 years
Production of steel and grain
- Given equal priority
- Farmers produce grain to feed workers who made the steel
- ‘General Grain’ produced food, ‘General Steel’ would turn China into modern economy
- Determined to achieve this by decentralising economic planning
What was the first people’s commune?
- Sputnik
- Henan Province
- 1958
- Merging of 27 collectives
- 9000 families
- On Mao’s provincial tour he used Henan as example to inspire local cadres
How many collectives were merged into communes?
750,000 collectives merged into 26,000 communes
How many households did the 26,000 communes include?
120 million
What was communal living like?
- Stayed in same houses
- Continued to work alongside same people as before
- Ate together in communal canteens
- Slept together in communal dorms
- Couples could only sleep together on arranged conjugal visits
What was working life like?
- Directed by new management teams who divided them up into production brigades (comprising of one village)
- Tractor station, flour mills, brick works, tool repair shops, backyard furnaces
- Allocated labourers to work on new construction projects
What else did communes provide?
- Childcare and canteen facilities (to free up women)
- ‘Happiness Homes’ for elderly
- Unit of local government: education, public health, policing, milita
What were the 10 guarantees?
- Meals
- Clothing
- Housing
- Schooling
- Medical attention
- Burial
- Haircuts
- Theatrical entertainment
- Money for heating in winter
- Money for weddings
What is utopian socialism?
Socialism reached by persuading capitalists to voluntarily share wealth for communal good
Reduced motivation
The rewards would be the same regardless as now there was no need for work points as everyone’s needs would be provided for by the state
Who was Trofim Lysenko?
Ukrainian agricultural scientist
Stalin relied on his theories in aftermath of the Russian famine
