What Was the Impact of the People’s Communes After 1958? (2a.2) 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
What were Lysenko’s ‘common sense’ ideas?
- Development of new farm tools
- Use of new breeds and seeds
- Improved field management
- Increased irrigation
What were Lysenko’s dangerous ideas?
- Close planting
- Deep ploughing
- Increased fertilisation
- Pest control
Why was pest control so catastrophic?
- Peasants wasted hours banging pots/pans to prevent birds landing till they fell from the air
- Result upset ecological balance
- Insects multiplied uncontrollably and destroyed plants
- Rats and vermin destroyed grain stocks
Why was the focus on increased fertilisation also catastrophic?
- Led to destruction of thousands of peasants homes which were ploughed into the ground as animal dung used to make houses was thought to be useful
- Communes were supposed to supply accommodation, many left homeless
Emergency directive 1960
- Allowed villagers to keep private plots of lands
- Engage in side occupations as well as farming
- Restored local markets
How was pressure on urban food supplies reduced?
- 25 mil city dwellers moved to countryside
- 1961 massive grain imports arranged from Canada, Australia and USA
- By 1965 yield was back to level of 1957
Who took responsibility for restoring food production levels?
Liu Shaoqi and Den Xiaoping
