The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward

of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1961 which ostensibly aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform China from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of agriculturalization, industrialization, and collectivization. Mao Zedong lead the campaign based on the Theory of Productive Forces, and intensified it after being informed of the impending disaster from grain shortages. Chief changes in the lives of rural Chinese included the introduction of a mandatory process of agricultural collectivisation, which was introduced incrementally. Private farming was prohibited, and those engaged in it were labelled and struggled against. Restrictions on rural people were enforced through public struggle sessions, social pressure, and violence. Food rationing was introduced, in some cases leaving rural Chinese with less than 250g (half a jin) of grain per day. The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, triggering a widespread famine that resulted in up to thirty million deaths.[1]