The Great Leap Forward started in 1958. The Great Leap Forward (the second of China’s Five Year Plans), was Mao’s attempt to modernize China’s economy in both industry and agriculture. The story of the Great Leap Forward is an excellent illustration of how the lack of political freedom in communism, and the economic control exercised by the government, feed off each other to cause much suffering.
Chinese farmland was “collectivized” (that’s such a nice way to say “confiscated by the government”) and reformed into a series of communes. The average commune consisted of 5000 families. People in a commune gave up their ownership of tools, animals, etc., so that everything was owned by the commune. People now worked for the commune and not for themselves. The life of an individual was controlled by the commune. Schools and nurseries were provided by the communes so that all adults could work.
By the end of 1958, tens of millions of people had been placed into over 26,000 communes. The speed with which this was achieved was astounding. The government did all that it could to whip up enthusiasm for the communes. Propaganda was everywhere – including in the fields where the workers could listen to political speeches as they worked as the communes provided public address systems. If the communes lacked machinery, the workers used their bare hands. Major construction projects were done in record time – though the quality of some was dubious.