The Great Leap Forward

What is it? Radical program instituted by Mao in 1958 – Targets: Industry Agriculture 700,000 collective farms became 26,000 communes – 30,000+ people lived and worked together

What is it? Backyard furnaces created homemade steel – Too weak to be used for quality construction – Took people away from farms—not enough food!

Goals Reach the final stage of communism: classless society “Hard work for a few years, happiness for a thousand”

Results Droughts and floods limited productivity Peasants hated the new system 15 million died of starvation 1960s: communes broken up and collective farms restored

The Cultural Revolution

Goals Create a great proletarian class

Features of Cultural Revolution Little Red Book – Most important source of knowledge – Permeated society (schools, homes, workplaces, etc.) – Conversation piece

Red Guard Militant, revolutionary group Goal: to eliminate the ‘Four Olds’ – Old Ideas – Old Customs – Old Culture – Old Habits

Red Guard Anti-foreigner – Music – Art – Architecture Attacked those who “went against Mao’s plan” – Intellectuals and artists Became too intense for many