The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward was a plan implemented by the China to achieve rapid social and economic reform. The plan was the brainchild of communist leader Mao Zedong, and sought to utilize China's vast amounts of cheap labor to increase grain and steel production. Peasants were ordered to make steel, by smelting scrap metal in backyard furnaces, and diverting all resources to do so. The massive effort resulted in decreased crop production, famine, and effectively no usable steel. In retrospect, the movement is known as a disaster for the Chinese people and economy.

1. Date: 1958-1960
2. 20-40 million estimated deaths as a direct result of economic reform
3. 27 million peasants relocated in collectivization efforts
4. Estimated 3 million executions as a result of political purges
5. 200,000-300,000 suicides estimated as a result of the Anti-Rightest Movement
6. Contributed directly to the Great Chinese Famine and the Cultural Revolution

• 1949-1958: Collectivization begins with a series of reforms known as the "The Little Leap Forward"

• 1956: February 25, Nikita Khrushchev gives his Secret Speech criticizing, Soviet collectivization

• 1957: Mao Zedong attempts to ease party tensions with the Hundred Flowers Campaign

• 1957: Opposition to Mao's policy is purged during the Anti-Rightist Movement

• 1958: January, Mao Zedong unveils his agenda for the "Second Five-Year Plan" in Nanning

• 1958: April, People's Communes modeled after the USSR's "Third Period", are formed in Henan

• 1958: August, A Politburo meeting decides to double steel production in the next year

• 1958: September, The backyard furnace is introduced and recommended by Mao Zedong

• 1959: Steel production in large Manchurian factories is found to be more efficient

• 1959: At the Lushan Conference, Peng Dehuai voices the concern of many about Mao's policies

• 1958-1961: The Great Chinese Famine, a direct result of the Great Leap Forward, plagues the country

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