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A Level History > MAO Agriculture > Flashcards

MAO Agriculture Flashcards

1
Q

Why was it decided that agriculture had to be collectivised?

A

To feed industrial workers; release peasants from land to work in industry

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2
Q

Why had arguments broken out within the Party about the Jiangxi Base Area and Yanan?

A

Landlords had been driven out and their land redistributed, but richer peasants weren’t targeted because they were the most productive

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3
Q

When was the Agrarian Reform Law?

A

1950

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4
Q

What did the Agrarian Reform Law make clear?

A

Land reform meant redistribution, not lower rents/low interest loans

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5
Q

Who played a crucial role in the land reform process?

A

Army

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6
Q

How many landlords had lost their land by the end of 1951?

A

10 million

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7
Q

What did official figures put the number of deaths at by the end of 1951?

A

700,000

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8
Q

What were the Mutual Aid Teams (MATs)?

A

Groups of 10 or so families were encouraged to unite; to pool labour, animals and equipment; while retaining rights of private ownership

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9
Q

Who were the MATs managed by?

A

Peasant associations

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10
Q

Were the MATs compulsory?

A

Membership was ‘voluntary’

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11
Q

What were the Agricultural Producers’ Co-operatives (APCs)?

A

Successful MATs were encouraged to combine and form APCs of 40-50 families

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12
Q

How many rural households were in APCs by March 1955?

A

14%

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13
Q

When was the great famine?

A

1958-62

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14
Q

Who was private farming restored by?

A

Liu Shaoqi; Deng Xiaoping

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15
Q

When did Mao call for an initial slowdown of collectivisation?

A

Spring 1953

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16
Q

When did things stabilise enough again to resume collectivisation?

A

1954- peasants started buying and selling their food and land, just as they would under capitalism

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17
Q

What prompted the government to begin requisitioning grain?

A

Poor harvest of 1954

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18
Q

What happened as a result of the grain requisitioning of 1954?

A

Caused so much rural protest that Mao announced a policy of ‘Stop, Contract and Develop’

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19
Q

When did Mao decide to go for all-out collectivisation?

A

July 1955

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20
Q

Who did Mao announce his plans for all-out collectivisation to?

A

Conference of Local Party Secretaries

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21
Q

How many households were in APCs in July 1955?

A

17 million

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22
Q

How many households were in APCs in January 1956?

A

75 million

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23
Q

How many peasants were still farming as individuals by the end of 1956?

A

Only 3%

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24
Q

What was the official reason given for the drive to collectivisation?

A

Response to demands of peasantry

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25
Q

What was most likely the real reason for the drive to collectivisation?

A

Mao’s fear that supplies to the cities would continue to be unreliable as long as peasants owned the land

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26
Q

What were the new APCs created after July 1955 classed as?

A

‘Higher’ (HPCs)

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27
Q

What were the HPCs?

A

Consisted of 200-300 households; peasants no longer owned land/equipment

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28
Q

When did Mao return from his second visit to Moscow?

A

November 1957

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29
Q

How long did Mao plan for it take for China to overtake Britain as an industrial power and complete collectivisation?

A

15 years

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30
Q

How did Mao plan to overtake Britain as an industrial power?

A

By merging the collectives into larger units and making them responsible for range of activities as well as farming- industrial production; education; welfare provision; local defence

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31
Q

Who did Mao get to put their support behind the idea of the People’s Communes?

A

Liu Shaoqi (Vice chairman of the CCP); Deng Xiaoping (CCP secretary general)

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32
Q

What was a further, ideological reason for wanting to press ahead with the communes?

A

Mao’s determination to prevent the revolution from losing impetus

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33
Q

What was the Great Leap Forward officially known as at the time?

A

Three Red Banners

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34
Q

What would the GLP involve?

A

Developing industry and agriculture at the same time

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35
Q

Why was it a surprise that Mao managed to get the GLP endorsed by the Congress?

A

Faced bitter opposition from conservatives within CCP leadership during previous months

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36
Q

How long did Mao say it would take for China to overtake Britain as an industrial power after the announcement of the GLP?

A

7 1/2 years

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37
Q

Why was Mao eager to decentralise economic planning during the GLP?

A

Enthusiastic local officials could push changes forward without being restrained by government technical experts

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38
Q

What was the first People’s Commune called and where and when was it established?

A

The Sputnik- established in the Henan province in April 1958; involved the merging of 27 collectives and brought over 9,000 households under its control

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39
Q

How many collectives were merged into communes between 1958-60?

A

750,000 collectives were merged into 26,000 communes, which in total contained about 120 million households

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40
Q

What else were the communes supposed to be other than huge collective farms?

A

Unit of local government- took over responsibility for providing local services

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41
Q

How did the communes free up women for work?

A

By providing childcare and canteen facilities

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42
Q

What did the communes provide for the elderly?

A

‘Happiness homes’

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43
Q

What did the most advanced communes claim to offer people?

A

10 guarantees

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44
Q

What were the ten guarantees?

A

Meals, clothes, housing, schooling, medical attention, burial, haircuts, theatrical entertainment, money for heating in winter, money for weddings

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45
Q

Did villagers have a choice about being absorbed into the commune?

A

No

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46
Q

What happened when villagers were absorbed into the communes?

A

Had to surrender all private property without any form of compensation

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47
Q

How was a military dimension added to the communes?

A

Everyone between 15-50 had to be militia members and periodically train with weapons

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48
Q

When had Stalin relied on Trofim Lysenko’s theories?

A

In the aftermath of the Russian famine of the early 1930s

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49
Q

When was Lysenkoism made an official policy?

A

1958

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50
Q

Which points of Lysenkoism were common sense?

A

Development of new farm tools; use of new breeds and seeds; improved field management; increased irrigation

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51
Q

Which points of Lysenkoism were potentially dangerous?

A

Close planting; deep ploughing; increased fertilisation; pest control

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52
Q

What were the four pests targeted in the Four Pests Campaign?

A

Sparrows; rats; flies; mosquitoes

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53
Q

When did Mao announce that the commune system was now successfully in place and the whole of the countryside had been collectivised into some 26,000 communes?

A

CCP Central Committee meeting in December 1958 at Wuhan

54
Q

How much grain did Mao declare was the harvest figure for that year at the CCP CC meeting in Dec 1958?

A

A record 430 million tonnes

55
Q

What was the figure that the Party revised the grain production to after Mao’s bold claims in 1958?

A

375 million tonnes

56
Q

What was the real grain production figure closer to in 1958?

A

200 million tonnes

57
Q

What did Mao also announce at the Central Committee meeting in December 1958?

A

He was stepping down as Chairman of the PRC, while remaining chairman of the Party

58
Q

Why did Mao claim he was stepping down as Chairman of the PRC?

A

Claimed to dislike the formal duties that came with being head of state

59
Q

What was a clear sign that Mao knew the GLP was running into difficulties?

A

Decision to call special Party conference at Lushan July 1959

60
Q

Who was the only person willing to challenge Mao openly at the Lushan conference?

A

Peng Dehuai- wrote a letter to Mao outlining his concerns

61
Q

Peng Dehuai

A

Straight talking Long March veteran, with a history of falling out with Mao; led PLA in Korean War and became defence minister in 1954

62
Q

When was Peng actually arrested?

A

During the Cultural Revolution

63
Q

Who was the only person who spoke for Peng?

A

Aged Marshal Zhu De

64
Q

Who conveniently developed illnesses which stopped them from attending the Politburo meeting about Peng’s fate?

A

Liu Shaoqi; Deng Xiaoping

65
Q

When did the Chinese government officially acknowledge that there had been a famine at all?

A

1980

66
Q

What is the generally accepted figure of deaths for the great famine?

A

30 million

67
Q

Where was the famine worst?

A

Rural areas

68
Q

Which Chinese region was by far the worst hit by the famine in terms of the proportion of people killed?

A

Tibet- 25% of its population of 4 million was wiped out

69
Q

How did the government deliberately make the famine worse for Tibet?

A

Forced Tibetans to switch from growing barley to other crops not suited for local conditions; made nomadic yak herdsmen stay in villages

70
Q

Why did the government deliberately make the famine worse for Tibet?

A

To destroy Tibet’s cultural identity

71
Q

Where were the provinces worst hit by the famine in China?

A

Formed an arc across central China

72
Q

How many people were killed in the famine in Shadong?

A

7.5 million

73
Q

How many people were killed in the famine in Anhui?

A

8 million

74
Q

How many people were killed in the famine in Sichuan?

A

9 million

75
Q

Which provinces formed this damaged arc through central China?

A

Shadong in the east, Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Gansu and Sichuan

76
Q

How much grain did the government continue to requisition during the great famine?

A

17% of crop in 1957; 21% in 1958; 28% in 1959; 21% in 1960

77
Q

What happened even if communes did manage to produce surplus?

A

Transport and communication systems were too poorly developed to move food where it was needed

78
Q

How many more crops did Mao believe that Lysenkoism was capable of producing?

A

16 times more

79
Q

When did the number of inmates in the laogai swell again?

A

After 1958

80
Q

What were the main causes of China’s great famine?

A

GLP was overly ambitious; Lysenkoism; lack of experts; climate of fear; lack of motivation; Mao’s own perspective of China’s priorities

81
Q

How could the damage of the great famine have been avoided?

A

If Party leadership had responded positively to Peng’s comments

82
Q

What played a part in the great famine, along with the political factors?

A

Adverse weather- 1960, worst drought in more than a century was followed by severe flooding across central China

83
Q

When did an emergency directive allow villagers to keep their private plots of land and restored local markets?

A

November 1960

84
Q

Who was the initial architect of the strategic retreat from collectivisation?

A

Li Fuchun

85
Q

When did Mao call on Liu and Deng to take reponsibility for restoring food production levels and ending the chaos in the countryside?

A

1962

86
Q

How was pressure reduced on urban food supplies in the restoration of private farming?

A

25 million city-dwellers forced to move to countryside

87
Q

What happened as a result of Liu and Deng encourgaing local officials to make full use of the 1960 directive?

A

Many communes broke into smaller collectives of about 30 households, where villagers were rewarded for their individual input; some reverted entirely to private farming

88
Q

How else did the government return the yield of the grain harvest in 1965 to what it had been in 1957?

A

Massive grain imports were arranged from Canada, Australia and even the USA in 1961

89
Q

What was ideological fanaticism replaced with to help China recover from the great famine?

A

Economic realism

90
Q

What was the Agrarian Reform Law?

A

Legal framework under which land reform took place, claiming that it would eradicate exploitation of peasants by ‘the landlord class’ as a first step towards industrialisation

91
Q

How did the army play a crucial role in the land reform process?

A

Silenced those who might have been hostile to the new government; helped local Party officials organise work teams

92
Q

How much of the Chinese land had changed hands by the end of 1951?

A

About 40%

93
Q

How many people do historians estimate had been killed by the end of 1951 in the land reform process?

A

3 million

94
Q

How did the government ensure that the peasants were at the centre of the land reform process?

A

Peasants conducted ‘speak bitterness’ meetings and passed sentences against landlords

95
Q

Why did Mao push for collectivisation so quickly?

A

To avoid a repeat of the disastrous situation experienced by Stalin

96
Q

When were the MATs formed?

A

1951

97
Q

When were the APCs formed?

A

1952

98
Q

Why did APCs theoretically lead to more effective farming?

A

Pooled land could be consolidated into larger units and cultivated more efficiently than traditional strips

99
Q

What was a strong incentive for richer families to join the APCs?

A

Families with larger holdings were allowed to keep back some land for personal use, while renting the rest to the APC

100
Q

How were profits shared out in the APCs?

A

According to resources contributed and food produced

101
Q

How did Mao strengthen the illusion that increased collectivisation was in response to the peasants’ wishes?

A

‘Socialist Upsurge in the Countryside’- selectively edited compilation of favourable reports on collectives written by local activists

102
Q

Why did Mao call for an initial slowdown of collectivisation?

A

Some APCs had been rushed and poorly planned and had gone into debt

103
Q

What was ‘Stop, Contract and Develop’?

A

Called for a halt to APC development for next 18 months

104
Q

When did Mao announce ‘Stop, Contract and Develop’?

A

January 1955

105
Q

How were profits shared out in the HPCs?

A

According to work points earned by labour contributed

106
Q

Why was collectivisation a tremendous success for Mao ideologically?

A

Chinese Marxism in action

107
Q

Why was collectivisation Chinese Marxism in action?

A

State owned the means of production of food, the land, on which 90% of the population worked

108
Q

What did collectivisation mark a distinct change in?

A

Relationship between CCP and peasantry

109
Q

Why was collectivisation a political success for Mao?

A

Tribute to his authority within Party; greatly increased control Party exerted over local people at grass-roots level

110
Q

How did food production increase over the 1FYP?

A

3.8% per annum

111
Q

Why would it have been hard for the peasants to produce a surplus?

A

Yields per hectare were quite high, but productivity was low

112
Q

Where did the initial encouragement for the creation of the communes come from?

A

Enthusiastic cadres in Henan- claimed local APCs were asking to merge to release more manpower for water control projects of winter 1957-58

113
Q

How were industry and agriculture to be developed at the same time during the GLP?

A

People’s Communes that had already been created were to be expanded; labour force was to be mobilised on water conservancy and other civil engineering schemes

114
Q

Why did Mao choose the term ‘People’s Communes’?

A

Wanted to recreate spirit of Paris commune of 1871

115
Q

How much sleep were the Chinese people supposed to get in the communes?

A

6 hours every 2 days

116
Q

Why did team leaders in the communes push their members to work so hard?

A

Competed to out-produce neighbouring communes

117
Q

How did Mao himself push Lysenkosim?

A

Drafted an 8-point programme based on Lysenko’s ideas, which farmers had to follow

118
Q

What was the most catastrophic aspect of Lysenkosim?

A

Sparrowcide

119
Q

Which organisms multiplied uncontrollably and caused damage to plants and grain stocks due to sparrowcide?

A

Insects; rats and vermin

120
Q

Other than upsetting the ecological balance, what was the other negative impact of sparrowcide?

A

Increased fertilisation of soil led to destruction of 1000s of peasants’ homes

121
Q

Why did Peng Dehuai speak up at the Lushan conference?

A

When he returned to his native province of Anhui, he saw the suffering caused by the GLP

122
Q

Who was so ashamed of failing to support Peng Dehuai that he drunk himself into a stupor in his room?

A

Zhou Enlai

123
Q

What did the Lushan conference mark?

A

‘Second leap’

124
Q

Who was jailed after sending Mao a long report accusing him of attempted genocide in Tibet?

A

Panchen Lama

125
Q

What were peasants reduced to eating during the great famine to stay alive?

A

Tree bark; plants

126
Q

When did Mao shockingly declare that the death of half of the Chinese population in nuclear war would be a sacrifice worth paying for victory?

A

During his 1957 visit to Moscow

127
Q

Where did rice become a staple item?

A

Communist East Germany

128
Q

When did the grain imports after the great famine remain at a high level until?

A

1970s

129
Q

When did Deng Xiaoping make his comment about cats?

A

To Communist Youth League in July 1962

130
Q

How did Mao initially attempt to retreat from the failure of collectivisation?

A

Launched campaign to overthrow management of communes and root out corrupt elements to shift blame onto subversive local officials

A Level History (34 decks)

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