1 00:00:01,040 --> 00:00:03,840 Speaker 1: Welcome to you stuff you missed in History class from 2 00:00:04,320 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast on Tracy. 3 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:19,760 Speaker 1: Today we are starting on a little mini series about 4 00:00:19,840 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: the People's Republic of China under the leadership of Chairman 5 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: Mao Zogong, and over the next few weeks, we're going 6 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:30,320 Speaker 1: to talk about three different but kind of interconnected events 7 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:33,400 Speaker 1: from this period. One is the Great Leap Forward, and 8 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: that's what we're talking about today. The next one is 9 00:00:35,960 --> 00:00:39,120 Speaker 1: the Great Famine, and we will end with a discussion 10 00:00:39,159 --> 00:00:42,479 Speaker 1: of the Cultural Revolution. So to be clear, this is 11 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:47,040 Speaker 1: a just enormous junk of Chinese history. It spans decades, 12 00:00:47,320 --> 00:00:49,640 Speaker 1: and on top of that, China is an enormous country 13 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,839 Speaker 1: that is not remotely monolithic. There are very major cultural 14 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:56,160 Speaker 1: distinctions among its provinces and the people who lived there. 15 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,240 Speaker 1: There are a lot of people who were involved in 16 00:00:59,280 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 1: some way who we won't specifically mentioned, and there are 17 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: lots of other events that are kind of connected in 18 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:08,320 Speaker 1: some way but not as closely. Uh, none of these 19 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:11,600 Speaker 1: episodes are meant to be an exhaustive accounting of every 20 00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,479 Speaker 1: single person and action and consequence involved in this whole story. 21 00:01:16,160 --> 00:01:18,760 Speaker 1: That's really true of I guess every episode that we do, 22 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:23,039 Speaker 1: but given the scope of these um it seemed particularly 23 00:01:23,080 --> 00:01:26,520 Speaker 1: worth mentioning. Even though we are having basically a multi 24 00:01:26,640 --> 00:01:29,760 Speaker 1: part series on this, it is still not going to 25 00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:35,000 Speaker 1: be an exhaustive recitation of every single fact. We will, however, 26 00:01:35,480 --> 00:01:37,319 Speaker 1: list all the sources that were used in the show 27 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: notes if you want more detail later on. So, the 28 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,600 Speaker 1: first of these three installments is The Greatly Forward, which 29 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,480 Speaker 1: was Mao's plan to revolutionize the Chinese economy and turn 30 00:01:48,520 --> 00:01:53,880 Speaker 1: it into a communist utopia. So for background, Mao Zedong 31 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:58,600 Speaker 1: was born in Hunan Province on December when China was 32 00:01:58,640 --> 00:02:02,800 Speaker 1: still under imperial rule home The emperor abdicated in nineteen 33 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:05,840 Speaker 1: twelve following a revolution, and at that point ma was 34 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:09,440 Speaker 1: eighteen years old. He trained as a teacher before working 35 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: in a University of Library in Beijing, and while there 36 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:16,959 Speaker 1: he became interested in Marxist philosophy. In nineteen twenty one, 37 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:20,040 Speaker 1: he became a founder member of the Chinese Communist Party, 38 00:02:20,120 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: also known as the CCP. Between nineteen twenty three and 39 00:02:24,320 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: nineteen forty nine, the CCP was sometimes allied with and 40 00:02:28,600 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: sometimes at war with, the Kumintang National Party or the KMT. 41 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 1: The two parties united to drive warlords out of northern China, 42 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: and they also united to fight Japan during the Second 43 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:44,200 Speaker 1: Sign of Japanese War, which ran from nineteen thirty seven 44 00:02:44,200 --> 00:02:46,600 Speaker 1: to nineteen forty five, so it ended right after World 45 00:02:46,639 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: War Two did. But between these two events and afterward 46 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:55,000 Speaker 1: they were adversaries. After the Sign of Japanese War ended, 47 00:02:55,040 --> 00:02:58,239 Speaker 1: the CCP and KMT went to war against each other. 48 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:03,040 Speaker 1: The CCP was actorious and on October one of ninety nine, 49 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 1: Mao founded the People's Republic of China. At this point, 50 00:03:07,919 --> 00:03:11,639 Speaker 1: China was really a very poor and mostly a grarian nation, 51 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:14,680 Speaker 1: and it was recovering from years and years of war 52 00:03:14,880 --> 00:03:18,639 Speaker 1: fought on its own soil. It's per capita gross domestic 53 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 1: product was only a quarter of the United Kingdoms. The 54 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:26,079 Speaker 1: newly founded Nations government wanted to end poverty and famine 55 00:03:26,120 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: and then put the Chinese economy on par with the UK, 56 00:03:30,600 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: and at first the government's primary goal was simply to 57 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:37,200 Speaker 1: recover from the war. There was widespread damage to both 58 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:41,480 Speaker 1: the nation's agricultural and industrial systems, and so the government 59 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:45,320 Speaker 1: set to work nationalizing the financial sector and other industries, 60 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:47,800 Speaker 1: and it also got help from the Soviet Union, which 61 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,320 Speaker 1: sent financial support and about ten thousand engineers to help 62 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:56,000 Speaker 1: bolster Chinese industry. In the process, China's economy moved from 63 00:03:56,040 --> 00:03:59,600 Speaker 1: a capitalists supply and demand model to a socialist model. 64 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: The Soviet Union also provided the basic blueprint for China's 65 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: first phase of economical and industrial growth. Following the example 66 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:11,760 Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union's economy and focused on increasing its 67 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:15,560 Speaker 1: heavy industry, the People's Republic of China started its first 68 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: five year Plan in nineteen fifty three. This plan was 69 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,200 Speaker 1: meant to increase the nation's production of steel, coal, and iron, 70 00:04:22,279 --> 00:04:25,240 Speaker 1: and to do this, China took control of various industries 71 00:04:25,279 --> 00:04:29,279 Speaker 1: and just set really ambitious targets for growth. By nineteen 72 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:32,600 Speaker 1: fifty six, virtually all the major industries in China were 73 00:04:32,640 --> 00:04:37,440 Speaker 1: either state owned or joint public private enterprises. China also 74 00:04:37,520 --> 00:04:40,400 Speaker 1: more than doubled and in some cases more than tripled 75 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:44,720 Speaker 1: its output of coal, pig iron, steel, and oil. At 76 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:49,160 Speaker 1: the same time, China turned its small family farms into collectives, 77 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:52,960 Speaker 1: so land and farm animals and equipment were all gathered 78 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,960 Speaker 1: up and redistributed and shared among all the agricultural workers. 79 00:04:57,600 --> 00:05:00,120 Speaker 1: Families were allowed to keep a small farm plot for 80 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: their own use so they could keep growing their own food, 81 00:05:03,120 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: and by ninety seven almost all of China's farms were 82 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:11,239 Speaker 1: part of a collective. Overall, these efforts in the first 83 00:05:11,279 --> 00:05:15,680 Speaker 1: five year plan were successful. Production was up, harvests were bountiful, 84 00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:18,719 Speaker 1: and farmers who had been struggling with tiny plots of 85 00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: land and insufficient equipment now for the most part had 86 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,599 Speaker 1: the things they needed thanks to the redistribution efforts. But 87 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:29,760 Speaker 1: at the same time, this industrial expansion had really strained 88 00:05:29,839 --> 00:05:33,760 Speaker 1: the overall Chinese economy, and on the agricultural front, the 89 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: harvests were bigger, but the population got bigger too, and 90 00:05:37,839 --> 00:05:40,839 Speaker 1: pretty much across the board, people were working harder than before, 91 00:05:40,960 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: so they needed to eat more food than before. So 92 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:47,159 Speaker 1: while the harvests were bigger, this didn't actually lead to 93 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:52,440 Speaker 1: a surplus the way had it had been originally planned. Basically, 94 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,840 Speaker 1: industrial growth had outpaced what the agricultural growth could support, 95 00:05:57,400 --> 00:05:59,640 Speaker 1: which is the problem that China was faced with trying 96 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:02,599 Speaker 1: to solve next. And before we get to that, so 97 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: to get to what China tried to do to match 98 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,440 Speaker 1: its cultural or it's agricultural and its industrial growth. In 99 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:15,480 Speaker 1: ninety six, Mao invited Chinese intellectuals to criticize the government 100 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:18,840 Speaker 1: and its policies. So the whole idea was that new 101 00:06:18,880 --> 00:06:21,799 Speaker 1: ideas from the intellectual community, we're going to put China 102 00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: on the right path to modernization. And this campaign was 103 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:29,599 Speaker 1: known as the hundred Flowers Campaign. Its slogan was, let 104 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:33,839 Speaker 1: a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend. 105 00:06:34,640 --> 00:06:38,320 Speaker 1: So poetic, it sounds sort of pretty does sound like 106 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:40,960 Speaker 1: a really good idea when you put it that way, Yeah, 107 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:43,719 Speaker 1: I could see where people would get behind it. However, 108 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,280 Speaker 1: that did not play out as planned. Uh. It took 109 00:06:48,320 --> 00:06:50,600 Speaker 1: a while for people to speak up initially, but then 110 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:55,400 Speaker 1: when they did, they vocally and pretty pointedly criticized just 111 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:59,599 Speaker 1: about every single aspect of China's government and policy. A 112 00:06:59,680 --> 00:07:02,760 Speaker 1: big undertone was that the government might be achieving its goals, 113 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: but that the people were really suffering for it. In 114 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:09,559 Speaker 1: July of nineteen fifty seven, the government started cracking down 115 00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:13,320 Speaker 1: on dissenters. People who had spoken against the government lost 116 00:07:13,320 --> 00:07:15,600 Speaker 1: their jobs and went to prison or were sent to 117 00:07:15,640 --> 00:07:19,600 Speaker 1: forced labor camps. So, instead of making the government more 118 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: open and encouraging dialogue, the hundred Flowers Campaign actually had 119 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:29,960 Speaker 1: the exact opposite effect, and this had two major consequences. One, 120 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:32,920 Speaker 1: a lot of great thinkers who were supposed to influence 121 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,920 Speaker 1: China's future direction were completely silenced, and to whatever the 122 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,000 Speaker 1: government did next, people were probably not going to speak 123 00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:45,320 Speaker 1: up about it or protest it in any overt way. Consequently, 124 00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:49,440 Speaker 1: in ninety eight, nine years after coming to power, when 125 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:52,280 Speaker 1: Mao sat down a new plan called the Great Leap Forward. 126 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: Nobody really objected to it, and there weren't really vocal 127 00:07:55,640 --> 00:07:58,520 Speaker 1: protests even as things started to go wrong with it. 128 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: The Great Leap for word, was intended to move away 129 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 1: from a Soviet inspired model and into a truly Chinese 130 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: system of communism. Rather than mostly focusing on heavy industry 131 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:13,440 Speaker 1: as the Soviet Union did, it was going to revolutionize 132 00:08:13,440 --> 00:08:17,720 Speaker 1: both industry and agriculture at the same time. The Great 133 00:08:17,760 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 1: Leap Forward was partly a plan for progress and partly 134 00:08:20,760 --> 00:08:25,320 Speaker 1: a propaganda campaign. The former was just a really incredibly 135 00:08:25,360 --> 00:08:29,080 Speaker 1: ambitious five year plan to fix the imbalance between industrial 136 00:08:29,160 --> 00:08:34,479 Speaker 1: growth and agricultural growth, and the propaganda part included everything 137 00:08:34,600 --> 00:08:37,839 Speaker 1: from an anti rightist campaign that was meant to discredit 138 00:08:37,880 --> 00:08:40,240 Speaker 1: all the people who had spoken out during the hundred 139 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:44,320 Speaker 1: flowers to a campaign for people to write new folk 140 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:48,600 Speaker 1: songs about China. So the goal was to surpass England 141 00:08:48,679 --> 00:08:52,040 Speaker 1: in fifteen years and to be economically on par with 142 00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:56,080 Speaker 1: the United States in thirty years. A big part of 143 00:08:56,080 --> 00:08:59,840 Speaker 1: this plan was fundamentally once again changing how the farms worked, 144 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:03,719 Speaker 1: and as we mentioned uh, China's farms had already been 145 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:07,680 Speaker 1: consolidated into collectives during the first five year plan. The 146 00:09:07,720 --> 00:09:12,080 Speaker 1: Great Leap Forward planned to further consolidate these collectives into communes. 147 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:16,080 Speaker 1: MAW believed that bigger communes would be better economically and 148 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:20,800 Speaker 1: would encourage social equality. Every group in a commune had 149 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,240 Speaker 1: thirty or so families in it, and combined the communes 150 00:09:24,360 --> 00:09:28,400 Speaker 1: each had as many as five thousand families. Each commune 151 00:09:28,480 --> 00:09:31,680 Speaker 1: also had its own administration team at the top, a 152 00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:34,839 Speaker 1: production brigade which was kind of like the middle management layer, 153 00:09:35,240 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: and the workers. These communes were for the most part 154 00:09:38,840 --> 00:09:42,360 Speaker 1: governed at the provincial level. They actually tried various different 155 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:45,560 Speaker 1: strategies for governing and that's where it eventually netted out. 156 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:49,560 Speaker 1: All in all, there were about twenty six thousand of 157 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:53,240 Speaker 1: these communes, and in the spring and summer of ninety 158 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:57,320 Speaker 1: eight percent of China's farms became part of a commune, 159 00:09:58,160 --> 00:10:02,280 Speaker 1: and a few provinces, most notably Hanan and Habei, the 160 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:06,400 Speaker 1: commune model was taken to an extreme. People relinquished all 161 00:10:06,480 --> 00:10:10,120 Speaker 1: of their personal property. Villages were split up, and residents 162 00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:14,240 Speaker 1: lived in dormitories instead of their homes. Living conditions in 163 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:18,000 Speaker 1: these dormitories was often very poor and very overcrowded. In 164 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,679 Speaker 1: the model provinces, families were broken up too, and spouses 165 00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:25,960 Speaker 1: and siblings were sent to different working assignments. UH. In 166 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 1: most places, people were fed in collective canteens, and in 167 00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:35,720 Speaker 1: some of these provinces UH everyone's personal kitchen stuff was 168 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: confiscated and either destroyed or used at the canteen to 169 00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: basically make people eat in the communal canteen. Not every 170 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: commune got to this level with the dormitories and the 171 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:52,600 Speaker 1: confiscated utensils, but that was really the ideal communicate. Communal daycares, 172 00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:55,760 Speaker 1: kindergartens and nursing homes are also established to care for 173 00:10:55,760 --> 00:10:58,440 Speaker 1: the very young and the very old, and this meant 174 00:10:58,440 --> 00:11:01,520 Speaker 1: that domestic work, so feeding people, cleaning up with the 175 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:05,760 Speaker 1: living spaces, caring for children and elders, had been collectivized, 176 00:11:06,000 --> 00:11:09,480 Speaker 1: so women who had typically done this work in family 177 00:11:09,520 --> 00:11:13,320 Speaker 1: situations became part of the labor force in fields and 178 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:16,840 Speaker 1: factories Instead, those who still had children to look after 179 00:11:16,960 --> 00:11:20,760 Speaker 1: were often given agricultural assignments closer to home, while women 180 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:23,319 Speaker 1: who had no children would be sent to factories to work. 181 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:28,559 Speaker 1: In addition, pretty much everywhere, farmers were no longer allowed 182 00:11:28,600 --> 00:11:31,320 Speaker 1: to keep personal farm plots to grow their own food. 183 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: Mao made a tour of China in early nine in 184 00:11:35,320 --> 00:11:37,800 Speaker 1: support of the Great Leap Forward, and he met with 185 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:40,360 Speaker 1: provincial leaders to convince them that it was really the 186 00:11:40,400 --> 00:11:44,480 Speaker 1: way to go together with you. Chao Chi, the party's 187 00:11:44,520 --> 00:11:47,960 Speaker 1: second highest leader, Mao put together goals for production that 188 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,640 Speaker 1: were then broken down by province, and each of these 189 00:11:50,679 --> 00:11:54,760 Speaker 1: goals had a maximum plan and a minimum plan. But 190 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:58,079 Speaker 1: when they told people what these goals were, they said 191 00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:02,439 Speaker 1: that the maximum was actually the minimum. And then when 192 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:05,880 Speaker 1: administrators told the working brigades what the goals were, they 193 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:08,959 Speaker 1: did the same thing, And then the production brigades did 194 00:12:08,960 --> 00:12:11,000 Speaker 1: the same thing when they told the workers what their 195 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:14,040 Speaker 1: goals were. So essentially, because everybody was telling the people 196 00:12:14,040 --> 00:12:18,560 Speaker 1: below them that their maximum target was really the minimum target, 197 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:25,600 Speaker 1: production goals quickly became astronomical, and that August Chinese leadership 198 00:12:25,640 --> 00:12:29,120 Speaker 1: added another element to the mix. In a utopian spirit, 199 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:33,040 Speaker 1: they encouraged the creation of so called backyard steel furnaces 200 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:36,480 Speaker 1: in the communes, so in addition to agricultural work, the 201 00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:40,120 Speaker 1: communes would be home to smaller scale industrial efforts. So 202 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:42,679 Speaker 1: when farm workers had downtime, like when they were not 203 00:12:42,720 --> 00:12:45,720 Speaker 1: producing as much in the agriculture side of things, they 204 00:12:45,720 --> 00:12:50,199 Speaker 1: would then be working in these backyard operations. Plus, there 205 00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,560 Speaker 1: were massive infrastructure projects in the works. New roads and 206 00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:58,280 Speaker 1: railroads were built to move all of this additional food 207 00:12:58,360 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 1: and products from place to play. This huge network of dams, reservoirs, 208 00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:05,920 Speaker 1: and irrigation systems was built to try to manage the 209 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:09,960 Speaker 1: nation water the nations waterways, and provide irrigation to all 210 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:15,080 Speaker 1: these new farms. In some places it was almost like terraforming. 211 00:13:15,559 --> 00:13:19,080 Speaker 1: There were attempts to fill entire lakes in, to dry 212 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:22,520 Speaker 1: out wetlands and to quote tame the rivers, to turn 213 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:27,200 Speaker 1: every possible square inch of land into farmland and running 214 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:31,800 Speaker 1: concurrently with this agricultural overhaul was a focus on continuing 215 00:13:31,840 --> 00:13:36,560 Speaker 1: to expand China's existing industries and all of this had 216 00:13:36,640 --> 00:13:40,280 Speaker 1: kind of had a whiff of feudalism about it. The 217 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:44,800 Speaker 1: workers were passing up their harvest to the commune administrators, 218 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:48,439 Speaker 1: they were passing things up to the greater government. Um 219 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:50,920 Speaker 1: so it sort of reminds you of of a medieval 220 00:13:51,040 --> 00:13:54,240 Speaker 1: situation where people are passing up their work to the 221 00:13:54,320 --> 00:14:00,160 Speaker 1: next layer. Uh in ninety eight reported agricultural production and 222 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:04,120 Speaker 1: was tremendous, and output in the industrial sector jumped by 223 00:14:05,280 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 1: and in ninety nine it all started to fall apart. 224 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:13,840 Speaker 1: As you can imagine, thanks to these rapidly escalating production targets. 225 00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:16,360 Speaker 1: The laborers who were doing all the work had to 226 00:14:16,440 --> 00:14:20,760 Speaker 1: just work frantically, literally to the point of dropping from 227 00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:26,120 Speaker 1: exhaustion at their posts. The administrators vastly overreported how big 228 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,560 Speaker 1: their harvests had been so it would look like they 229 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:33,680 Speaker 1: had met their completely unreachable goals. The government, believing that 230 00:14:33,760 --> 00:14:36,880 Speaker 1: they had a surplus based on these reports, gave the 231 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:40,960 Speaker 1: order for the communal canteens to basically serve a constant feast, 232 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: and they kept selling grain to pay off war debts 233 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 1: and pay for all this farm equipment that had been purchased, 234 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,200 Speaker 1: and continued to provide food and monetary aid to other 235 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: nations as part of their foreign aid program, and because 236 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 1: farmers were now working hard all year long rather than 237 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:00,320 Speaker 1: offsetting the planting and harvesting seasons with months of sure 238 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: people needed more food to eat than they had before. Consequently, 239 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:10,120 Speaker 1: China ran out of food, and the resulting famine was 240 00:15:10,200 --> 00:15:12,880 Speaker 1: one of the negative consequences of the Great Leap Forward, 241 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: and we're going to have a whole episode on that 242 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:19,200 Speaker 1: later on. And while it did definitely meaningfully add to 243 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,440 Speaker 1: China's infrastructure and at least at first increase its agricultural 244 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:27,200 Speaker 1: and industrial output, the Great Leap Forward had several negative 245 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:32,560 Speaker 1: consequences beyond just the famine issue. Disease rates really soared. 246 00:15:33,040 --> 00:15:37,120 Speaker 1: Typhus outbreaks were frequent, but fortunately they were isolated really 247 00:15:37,200 --> 00:15:41,680 Speaker 1: quickly so they didn't turn into epidemics. Hepatitis and malaria 248 00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:46,280 Speaker 1: became really widespread. Hygiene was a huge problem, especially among 249 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:50,760 Speaker 1: workers who were living in collective living living situations. The 250 00:15:50,800 --> 00:15:53,920 Speaker 1: Great Leap Forward years also saw a huge spike in 251 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 1: both suicides and violent deaths as the situation became more 252 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:01,040 Speaker 1: desperate when people didn't have food to eating anymore, and 253 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 1: a lot of the industrial work proved to be of 254 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: inferior quality. The railroads that were being built were plagued 255 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,880 Speaker 1: with problems. The metals that were being smelted didn't hold up. 256 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 1: Dams that had been built to tame the rivers collapsed. 257 00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:17,960 Speaker 1: One damn broke in nineteen seventy five and drowned about 258 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:22,720 Speaker 1: two hundred and thirty thousand people. There were also problems 259 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,480 Speaker 1: with China's factory goods. The cost of all the materials 260 00:16:26,520 --> 00:16:29,360 Speaker 1: that would be needed to scale up the factory's output 261 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: had not really been factored into the plan very well, 262 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:34,920 Speaker 1: so a lot of these new goods were being made 263 00:16:35,040 --> 00:16:38,640 Speaker 1: very poorly, with also very shoddy materials that have been 264 00:16:38,640 --> 00:16:42,560 Speaker 1: gotten for a low cost. Since China was exporting most 265 00:16:42,600 --> 00:16:45,240 Speaker 1: of these new factory goods, the government wound up having 266 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,320 Speaker 1: to repay other nations when they complained that what they 267 00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:53,480 Speaker 1: got was defective, mislabeled, or damaged. The cost was really enormous, 268 00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,880 Speaker 1: somewhere between two hundred and three hundred million Union in 269 00:16:58,200 --> 00:17:03,400 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine alone. The continual escalation of production targets 270 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,080 Speaker 1: and the obvious crackdown on descent combined to inspire an 271 00:17:07,200 --> 00:17:10,560 Speaker 1: enormous amount of corruption and fraud at basically every layer 272 00:17:10,600 --> 00:17:13,720 Speaker 1: of government as people tried to conceal what was going 273 00:17:13,760 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 1: wrong and just how badly the situation had derailed. The 274 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:22,600 Speaker 1: Great Leap Forward also contributed to a split in Sino 275 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:27,640 Speaker 1: Soviet relations. Although the Soviet Union had initially supported China's 276 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: effort to collectivize the farms and transform itself into a 277 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:36,439 Speaker 1: leading communist nation, Nikita Krushchev eventually became openly critical of 278 00:17:36,480 --> 00:17:40,520 Speaker 1: the Great Leap Forward, particularly the People's Communes, and Mao 279 00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:44,760 Speaker 1: did not like this criticism. Also, Mao was motivated by 280 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:49,000 Speaker 1: an unstated desire for China to surpass the Soviet Union 281 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:52,240 Speaker 1: and surpass it by a pretty hefty margin as a 282 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,040 Speaker 1: socialist nation. While he didn't say this out loud, this 283 00:17:56,119 --> 00:17:59,720 Speaker 1: is pretty obvious to people. Khrushchev wrote in his own 284 00:17:59,760 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 1: memo Wires that he saw that China was headed for 285 00:18:02,359 --> 00:18:05,680 Speaker 1: disaster and did everything that he could to dissuade mouth 286 00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,480 Speaker 1: from the path that he was on. By October of 287 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:11,920 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty nine, the relationship between the two nations had 288 00:18:11,960 --> 00:18:16,960 Speaker 1: really cooled, although it was not declared officially over the 289 00:18:17,119 --> 00:18:20,920 Speaker 1: policies and practices of the Great Leap Forward mostly stopped 290 00:18:20,920 --> 00:18:24,120 Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty one, a new set of rules, which 291 00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:28,199 Speaker 1: is called Work Regulations on Rural Communes also called the 292 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:31,920 Speaker 1: sixty Articles, came out to govern how the communes were run. 293 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 1: This put an end to the dining halls in the 294 00:18:34,760 --> 00:18:38,480 Speaker 1: backyard steel operations. It also allowed people to have personal 295 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:40,640 Speaker 1: plots of land again so they could grow their own 296 00:18:40,680 --> 00:18:43,960 Speaker 1: personal food rather than relying on the government to provide 297 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:48,000 Speaker 1: for them. The People's Communes, which had been created for 298 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:52,080 Speaker 1: the Great Leap Forward, were eventually abolished in nineteen two, 299 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,960 Speaker 1: and as we said earlier, this also had the consequence 300 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:58,080 Speaker 1: of a really major famine, which is going to be 301 00:18:58,080 --> 00:19:02,400 Speaker 1: the next installment in this mini series. Do you have 302 00:19:02,520 --> 00:19:04,920 Speaker 1: a bit of listener mail for us? Yes, I knew. 303 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:08,440 Speaker 1: This is actually two different posts from our Facebook wall, 304 00:19:08,480 --> 00:19:10,600 Speaker 1: and I had a conversation with each of these two 305 00:19:10,640 --> 00:19:13,200 Speaker 1: people to kind of clarify what I was trying to say, 306 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,320 Speaker 1: so I thought probably I should clarify it for other people. Also, 307 00:19:17,160 --> 00:19:20,240 Speaker 1: one is from David who said, I heard your podcast 308 00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:23,040 Speaker 1: about the coal miners. Great episode, but we have to 309 00:19:23,080 --> 00:19:25,720 Speaker 1: lay off word sensitivity. In my opinion, the only people 310 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,600 Speaker 1: who should determine whether a word or label is offensive 311 00:19:28,680 --> 00:19:31,439 Speaker 1: or derogatory or those the term is directly applied to 312 00:19:31,920 --> 00:19:35,680 Speaker 1: I'm talking about the term redneck specifically and anything else generally. 313 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:39,080 Speaker 1: We're given a constitutional right freedom of speech, but no 314 00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:42,280 Speaker 1: amendment protects us from being offended. Keep up the great work. 315 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:45,040 Speaker 1: I've been listening constantly for several years now, and I 316 00:19:45,080 --> 00:19:47,760 Speaker 1: don't plan to stop. And the other note was from 317 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:51,200 Speaker 1: John who said, I strongly strongly object to your mistreatment 318 00:19:51,240 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: of the label redneck, acting like it is some horrible slur. 319 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:56,480 Speaker 1: Maybe things are different in Georgia than they are in 320 00:19:56,600 --> 00:20:01,320 Speaker 1: Kent County, Maryland. So as I'm engined, I had like 321 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:06,400 Speaker 1: conversations with both of them kind of clarify what I meant. Uh. 322 00:20:06,440 --> 00:20:10,280 Speaker 1: We alluded in the previous episode on the Battle of 323 00:20:10,280 --> 00:20:13,080 Speaker 1: Blair Mountain um which Holly read part of the outline, 324 00:20:13,119 --> 00:20:18,400 Speaker 1: but I wrote it, so those were my words. Um, 325 00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,640 Speaker 1: that a lot of people use the word redneck as 326 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:24,840 Speaker 1: really an epithet, Like when I hear people who would 327 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:29,159 Speaker 1: not call themselves redneck call other people that word, it 328 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:33,720 Speaker 1: is often with a whole lot of venom. Holly. Yeah. 329 00:20:33,760 --> 00:20:36,680 Speaker 1: Holly has pointed out that it is often preceded by 330 00:20:36,680 --> 00:20:41,280 Speaker 1: the words stupid. Um. It is often also in my 331 00:20:41,400 --> 00:20:46,840 Speaker 1: experience preceded by some profanity. Um, So I'm not at 332 00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:49,119 Speaker 1: all saying that people should not use the word to 333 00:20:49,160 --> 00:20:53,480 Speaker 1: describe themselves if they would like to. Like both both 334 00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:56,920 Speaker 1: John and David kind of pointed me to communities who 335 00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:59,920 Speaker 1: used the word and it's not meant as a judge 336 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:03,480 Speaker 1: it at all. Um, But I hear so many people 337 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:07,520 Speaker 1: who would not identify themselves that way use it about 338 00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:10,440 Speaker 1: other people in a really disparaging word. And a lot 339 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:14,119 Speaker 1: of these are folks who would really consider themselves otherwise 340 00:21:14,800 --> 00:21:20,160 Speaker 1: to be socially conscious and progressive people, and they don't 341 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:23,320 Speaker 1: seem to quite register that what they are doing is 342 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,160 Speaker 1: judging someone else's worth as a human being, a lot 343 00:21:26,200 --> 00:21:29,399 Speaker 1: of times based on nothing other than their accent and 344 00:21:29,440 --> 00:21:33,679 Speaker 1: the clothes they have on. So that's where I was 345 00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:36,439 Speaker 1: coming from with that, Like, yeah, I mean you and 346 00:21:36,480 --> 00:21:39,080 Speaker 1: I have talked about this before, that like uh, in 347 00:21:39,200 --> 00:21:41,719 Speaker 1: relation to other words that are sometimes considered slurged by 348 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:44,680 Speaker 1: some people and not by others. That like, I'm very uh, 349 00:21:45,160 --> 00:21:47,600 Speaker 1: you know, reluctant. I don't want to trim the linguistic 350 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 1: tree every time a jerk uses a word in a 351 00:21:50,520 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: way that it was not necessarily intended, But at the 352 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:55,560 Speaker 1: same time, I think everybody does have to be a 353 00:21:55,640 --> 00:22:00,280 Speaker 1: little bit mindful and just not be a jerk, right 354 00:22:00,400 --> 00:22:04,240 Speaker 1: I was. I was definitely not advocating for banning words 355 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,399 Speaker 1: from the English language, and I think, usually speaking for 356 00:22:07,440 --> 00:22:11,600 Speaker 1: myself personally, if if I say you shouldn't use that word, 357 00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,760 Speaker 1: there's sort of an undertone of like, if you are 358 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:22,920 Speaker 1: mindful about what you're saying, really, um where Like where 359 00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:25,639 Speaker 1: it gets into some frustration territory for me is that 360 00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:29,959 Speaker 1: having lived in the South for almost forty years and 361 00:22:30,040 --> 00:22:33,800 Speaker 1: in the Deep South for more than a decade, it's 362 00:22:34,359 --> 00:22:38,720 Speaker 1: pretty evident that Southern people are one of the very 363 00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,440 Speaker 1: very few groups in the United States who it's still 364 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:45,760 Speaker 1: okay to make just disparaging, horrible comments about from a 365 00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:49,439 Speaker 1: social context, Like if someone were to make a racist comment, 366 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,000 Speaker 1: a lot of times the people around them would call 367 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:54,320 Speaker 1: them on it and say, hey, that's not cool. But 368 00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:57,720 Speaker 1: if somebody makes a joke about Southerners being ignorant, a 369 00:22:57,720 --> 00:22:59,960 Speaker 1: lot of times there is not that kind of Hey, 370 00:23:00,240 --> 00:23:04,800 Speaker 1: that's a stereotype and it's not cool. Um. So to 371 00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:10,680 Speaker 1: clarify all that, use words mindfully examine in yourself what 372 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,240 Speaker 1: you're saying about someone before you use epithets about them 373 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,760 Speaker 1: is all I'm saying about that. Yeah, and if you're 374 00:23:17,760 --> 00:23:19,920 Speaker 1: going to use them, at least understand what you're doing. 375 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:22,440 Speaker 1: You might be a jerk, but your a jerk and 376 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:27,840 Speaker 1: understands what you're doing. Yes, if you can. If you're 377 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:32,040 Speaker 1: intending to be a jerk, using epithets and slurs against 378 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:35,680 Speaker 1: other people is a pretty easy way to do that. Uh. 379 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:37,880 Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us, you can. 380 00:23:37,880 --> 00:23:40,520 Speaker 1: We're at history podcast that how Stuffworks dot com. We're 381 00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,199 Speaker 1: also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash mist in 382 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:46,360 Speaker 1: history and on Twitter at miss in History. Our tumbler 383 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,399 Speaker 1: is missed in History at tumbler dot com, and our 384 00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,879 Speaker 1: pinterest is pinterest dot com slash missed in History. 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