Skip to content
Photograph of children in China, 1959.

China's Great Leap Forward, 1958-1961

In an effort to transform China's agrarian economy into an industrialized communist society, the Chinese Communist Party passed the "General Line of the Great Leap Forward" on May 1958 and began the people’s commune movement and the drive to increase steel production. Ultimately a failed political campaign, the Great Leap Forward led to the deaths of millions of people across China.For other collections on China’s modern political history, see: Chinese Civil War, 1945-1950; Purges in 1950s China; China’s Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976; Reform and Opening in China, 1978-; and China, 1989.

 

Photograph of children in China, 1959.

Connected Conn.

Popular Documents

October 2, 1958

Memorandum of Conversation of Mao Zedong with Six Delegates of the Socialist Countries, China, 2 October 1958

To the other delegates, Mao discusses their shared goal of defeating imperialism, primarily through peaceful methods. He stresses widespread Marxist reeducation of the Chinese people and increased Chinese industrial and agricultural production as means for improvement. Mao also reminds them that socialist nations must be firmly united under the leadership of the Soviet Union to fight colonialism and imperialism, and while the communes are necessary to organize locally, the party remains the core administrative unite of communized peoples.

November 18, 1957

Excerpt from the Unedited Translation of Mao Zedong’s Speech at the Moscow Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties

March 26, 1959

Mao Zedong's Interjections at the March 26, 1959, Meeting in Shanghai

A key document in scholarly debates about the Great Leap Forward, this file summarizes Mao Zedong’s comments on agriculture and industry at a Communist Party meeting held in Shanghai.

March 25, 1959

Mao Zedong's Remarks at the March 25, 1959, Meeting in Shanghai

Mao Zedong’s comments on agriculture and industry at a Communist Party meeting held in Shanghai.

January 27, 1962

Liu Shaoqi, 'Report at the Expanded Central Work Meeting'

Liu Shaoqi's address at the 7,000 Cadres Conference.
View All Documents View Visualization