Enacting the Maoist Vision

Maoist Concerns 100 Flowers Campaign (1956-7) 百花運動 Hungarian Uprising (1956), Khrushchev denounces Stalin Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957) 反右派運動

100 Flowers Campaign (1956-7) 百花運動 Encourage Criticism from Non-party Intellectuals Purpose to gather support for modernization Intellectuals call “government workers”

Khrushchev Denounces Stalin “Cult of Personality” February 1956 Mao see personal threat Disputes over aid, economic and nuclear Disagree over peaceful co- existence Later border clashes

Hungarian Uprising October 23-November 4, 1956 Popular uprising Molotov Cocktail Crushed by Soviet Army

Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957) 反右派運動 Reaction to 100 Flowers Ten Percent Rightists Reform through labor

Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957) 反右派運動

Maoist Alternative and Failure Great Leap Forward (1957-1959) Theory: Permanent Revolution Communal dining Backyard Furnaces Result: Starvation and chaos Lushan Conference 1959 Mao steps down from government Peng Dehuai criticized

Communes: Like a Gigantic Dragon, Awe-inspiring

Path to People’s Communes Mao speech in July 1955 Peasants, “tornado” like revolutionary force Countryside repository of revolutionary energy Mao critical of Party leadership, dependent on Soviet Model Agricultural Cooperatives, Summer 1956 90% of Rural Households Mao emboldened to innovate

Mass Mobilization

Communal Dining Remake Family, Liberate Women

People’s Communes Are Good (人民公社好)

Great Leap Forward Political Rationale Permanent Revolution Rapid social and ideological transformation Prevent backsliding into capitalism Build communist social organization Progress results from struggle Begin transition from socialism to communism

Great Leap Forward Economic Rationale Economic problems Unemployment in cities, underemployment in countryside Control rural-urban migration, labor intensive industry in rural areas Lack of foreign investment, most rely on agriculture Avoid exploitation of countryside for cities Need technological revolution without technological elite (red vs. expert dilemma) Break dependency of Soviet technician, unleash Chinese creativity

“Backyard Furnaces” Technological Solution?

Mass Campaigns to Eradicate Four Pests

Great Leap Forward 1957-58 Increase industrial and agricultural productivity “More, faster, better, and cheaper” Ideological exhortations replace material incentives Three years of suffering, 1000 years of communist happiness Mass mobilization Longer hours Larger and larger communes April 1958 “Walking on two legs” Modern industry and indigenous technology

The Future

Great Leap Disasters Food shortages and starvation, Autumn 1958 Administrative Chaos 90% of peasantry “formally” in communes Average 5000 families Physical exhaustion Agricultural and industry Backyard furnaces Inferior output, consumed useful resources Food shortages and starvation, Autumn 1958 30-40 million deaths?

Aftermath of Great Leap Forward Causes of Starvations Inflated statistics Poor storage of grain Government control of supply Grain shipments needed for export

Lushan Conference, August 1959 Peng Dehuai sent personal letter to Mao Points out problems of Great Leap Mao steps down from government Acknowledge Problems of Great Leap Blame local party, bad weather, Soviet pull out Peng Dehuai Removed as Defense Minister Criticized for closeness to Soviet Unions Lin Biao, Replaces Peng as Defense Minister

Economic Recovery Liu Shaoqi, Head of State Deng Xiaoping Secretary-General Drastically Downsize communes Allow private plots Free markets in cities Attack corruption

Socialist Education Campaign 1963 (社会主义教育运动) Mao Proposed Yan’an-style rectification Serious threat of “revisionism,” return of capitalism Last effort to use the Party to implement radical vision Mao wanted mass mobilization to clean up: Politics, economy, organization, and ideology Party leadership oppose grass roots movement but endorse goals Use Mao’s rhetoric but blunt radical program Party work teams, not mass movement