Every time a country tries to modernise, it usually takes decades, but Mao Zedong wanted to transform China into an industrial superpower in just 15 years. Launched in May 1958 as the Second Five-Year Plan, the shifted away from the Soviet model of expert-led heavy industry. Instead, Mao believed that the sheer willpower of China's massive population could drive rapid economic growth.
Mao introduced the policy of , which meant developing both agriculture and industry simultaneously through mass mobilisation. To achieve this, unrealistic production quotas were set across the country.
What was the industrial target for steel production in 1958, and how did it demonstrate Mao's unrealistic goal-setting?
Step 1: Identify the starting output.
Step 2: Apply Mao's target multiplier.
Step 3: State the final target.
To hit these impossible targets, the state ordered the construction of roughly 600,000 in schools and villages. Because peasants lacked iron ore, they melted down vital agricultural equipment, cooking pots, and door handles. The result was an economic disaster; while the quantity of steel seemed high, roughly half of it ( million tons) was brittle "pig iron" that was completely useless for industrial construction.
Imagine your entire village eating in one giant canteen, with your private home and property suddenly belonging to the state. This became reality in 1958 when 99% of the peasant population (around 120 million households) were organised into roughly 26,000 .
The communes were designed to completely replace the traditional family unit with state control, destroying the historic Chinese concept of filial piety. Private farming plots were abolished, and wages were replaced by , which determined a peasant's share of the collective harvest. Daily life was entirely regimented:
The administrative structure of rural China was divided into three distinct layers. At the top was the Commune, which oversaw politics and large-scale administration. Below this was the , which usually encompassed a whole village and managed the allocation of labour. The smallest unit was the Production Team, a group of households assigned to carry out specific daily tasks.
When ideology replaces scientific fact, the results can be catastrophic for the environment and the population. Mao's agricultural policies during the relied heavily on , a set of pseudo-scientific ideas borrowed from the Soviet Union. Peasants were forced to practice "close cropping" and "deep ploughing", which simply exhausted the soil and caused seeds to rot.
This was worsened by the campaign, which ordered citizens to eradicate sparrows, rats, flies, and mosquitoes. By wiping out the sparrow population, China accidentally removed the natural predators of crop-eating insects, leading to devastating locust plagues.
The combination of these policies, bad weather, and the diversion of labour to caused agricultural output to plummet. However, terrified local knew that failing to meet targets would result in harsh punishment. They falsely reported record-breaking harvests to their superiors, sometimes claiming yields of 400 million tons when the reality was closer to 200 million tons.
Believing these inflated statistics, the government forcibly requisitioned grain to feed the cities and pay for Soviet machinery exports, leaving the countryside with nothing. This triggered the Great Famine (1959–1961), known in China as the "Three Bitter Years". Between 20 to 50 million people starved to death, with severe regional impacts, including one million deaths in Tibet alone.
How does a government convince millions of starving people that their agricultural system is actually a massive success? In 1964, Mao launched the "In agriculture, learn from Dazhai" campaign to present a perfect Maoist success story.
Dazhai was a small village located in the harsh, mountainous region of Shanxi Province. Following a devastating flood in 1963, the local leader, Chen Yonggui, famously refused any state assistance. He claimed the village would recover through pure (Zili Gengsheng) and hard physical labour.
According to state propaganda, Dazhai functioned as the ultimate . Young women, celebrated as the "Iron Maiden" brigade, manually carved stone terraces into the mountainside to retain water and soil. The state claimed that grain yields skyrocketed from kg per mu to kg per mu, proving that ideological willpower was superior to modern farming technology.
The official narrative, however, was a complete hoax. After 1978, it was revealed that Dazhai had secretly received massive amounts of government funding, heavy machinery, and physical labour from the People's Liberation Army. Despite this reality, Mao successfully used the Dazhai myth as a political weapon. He used it to shame pragmatist rivals like Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, who wanted to abandon communes and return to expert-led farming with private plots.
Students often state that the Great Famine was caused purely by bad weather. You must explain that political fear (cadres inflating statistics) and flawed science (Lysenkoism) were the primary drivers.
For OCR questions asking you to 'Analyse' the effects of communes on society, make sure to explicitly mention how the state took total control of daily life, which destroyed traditional family units and the concept of filial piety.
When evaluating the economic impact of the Great Leap Forward, mark schemes reward candidates who clearly distinguish between 'reported success' (hitting the 10.7m ton steel target) and 'actual waste' (half of it being useless pig iron).
In case study questions, explain that Dazhai was a 'political football' used by Mao to prove his ideological methods were superior to the moderate, expert-led policies of pragmatists like Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.
Great Leap Forward
Mao Zedong's radical 1958–1962 economic campaign aimed at rapidly industrialising China and fully collectivising agriculture.
Walking on two legs
The Maoist economic policy of developing both heavy industry and agricultural production simultaneously through mass human labour.
Backyard furnaces
Small, crude blast furnaces built by peasants in rural areas to produce steel, symbolising the failed attempt to industrialise without modern technology.
People's Communes
Massive rural administrative units that combined agricultural, industrial, and local government functions while abolishing private property.
Work points
A credit system used in communes instead of wages to determine a worker's share of the collective food and income.
Iron Girls
A propaganda term used to describe women who performed heavy manual labour, symbolising revolutionary zeal and gender equality.
Production Brigade
The middle tier of the commune system, usually the size of a traditional village, responsible for managing labour allocation.
Lysenkoism
Flawed agricultural theories adopted from the Soviet Union that prioritised ideological belief over biological reality, leading to crop failures.
Four Noes
A destructive hygiene and agricultural campaign that targeted sparrows, rats, flies, and mosquitoes, causing severe ecological imbalance.
Cadres
Communist Party officials responsible for implementing state policy and enforcing ideological discipline at the local level.
Self-reliance
The Maoist principle (Zili Gengsheng) of transforming the environment and economy through sheer hard work and ideology rather than external aid.
Model Brigade
A propaganda term for a production brigade, such as Dazhai, that was held up as a perfect example of Maoist agricultural success.
Put your knowledge into practice — try past paper questions for History A
Great Leap Forward
Mao Zedong's radical 1958–1962 economic campaign aimed at rapidly industrialising China and fully collectivising agriculture.
Walking on two legs
The Maoist economic policy of developing both heavy industry and agricultural production simultaneously through mass human labour.
Backyard furnaces
Small, crude blast furnaces built by peasants in rural areas to produce steel, symbolising the failed attempt to industrialise without modern technology.
People's Communes
Massive rural administrative units that combined agricultural, industrial, and local government functions while abolishing private property.
Work points
A credit system used in communes instead of wages to determine a worker's share of the collective food and income.
Iron Girls
A propaganda term used to describe women who performed heavy manual labour, symbolising revolutionary zeal and gender equality.
Production Brigade
The middle tier of the commune system, usually the size of a traditional village, responsible for managing labour allocation.
Lysenkoism
Flawed agricultural theories adopted from the Soviet Union that prioritised ideological belief over biological reality, leading to crop failures.
Four Noes
A destructive hygiene and agricultural campaign that targeted sparrows, rats, flies, and mosquitoes, causing severe ecological imbalance.
Cadres
Communist Party officials responsible for implementing state policy and enforcing ideological discipline at the local level.
Self-reliance
The Maoist principle (Zili Gengsheng) of transforming the environment and economy through sheer hard work and ideology rather than external aid.
Model Brigade
A propaganda term for a production brigade, such as Dazhai, that was held up as a perfect example of Maoist agricultural success.