Mao Zedong,also known as Chairman Mao,was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC),which he led as the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from the establishment of the PRC in 1949 until his death in 1976. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist,his theories,military strategies,and political policies are collectively known as Maoism.
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruct the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through the formation of people's communes. Mao decreed that efforts to multiply grain yields and bring industry to the countryside should be increased. Local officials were fearful of Anti-Rightist Campaigns and they competed to fulfill or over-fulfill quotas which were based on Mao's exaggerated claims,collecting non-existent "surpluses" and leaving farmers to starve to death. Higher officials did not dare to report the economic disaster which was being caused by these policies,and national officials,blaming bad weather for the decline in food output,took little or no action. Millions of people died in China during the Great Leap,with estimates ranging from 15 to 55 million,making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest famine in human history.
The time period in China from the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 until Mao's death in 1976 is commonly known as Maoist China and Red China. The history of the People's Republic of China is often divided distinctly by historians into the Mao era and the post-Mao era. The country's Mao era lasted from the founding of the People's Republic on 1 October 1949 to Deng Xiaoping's consolidation of power and policy reversal at the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress on 22 December 1978. The Mao era focuses on Mao Zedong's social movements from the early 1950s on,including land reform,the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
The State Flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,commonly known as the Soviet flag,was the official state flag of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) from 1922 to 1991. The flag's design and symbolism are derived from several sources,but emerged during the Russian Revolution. The flag is also an international symbol of the communist movement as a whole.
The Great Chinese Famine was a period between 1959 and 1961 in the history of the People's Republic of China (PRC) characterized by widespread famine. Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. It is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history,with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions. The most stricken provinces were Anhui,Chongqing (15%),Sichuan (13%),Guizhou (11%) and Hunan (8%).
The national flag of Russia,also known as the State Flag of the Russian Federation,is a tricolour flag consisting of three equal horizontal fields:white on the top,blue in the middle,and red on the bottom. The flag was first used as an ensign for Russian merchant ships in 1696.
In politics,a red flag is predominantly a symbol of socialism,communism,Marxism,trade unions,left-wing politics,and historically of anarchism. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution (1789–1799).
The people's commune was the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas of the People's Republic of China during the period from 1958 to 1983,until they were replaced by townships. Communes,the largest collective units,were divided in turn into production brigades and production teams. The communes had governmental,political,and economic functions during the Cultural Revolution. The people's commune was commonly known for collectivizing living and working practices,especially during the Great Leap Forward. The scale of the commune and its ability to extract income from the rural population enabled commune administrations to invest in large-scale mechanization,infrastructure,and industrial projects. The communes did not,however,meet many of their long-term goals,such as facilitating the construction of socialism in the rural areas,liberating women from housework,and creating sustainable agriculture practices in the countryside. They ranged in number from 50,000 to 90,000.
Rural society in the People's Republic of China encompasses less than half of China's population and has a varied range of standard of living and means of living. Life in rural China differs from that of urban China. In southern and coastal China,rural areas are developing and,in some cases,statistically approaching urban economies. In northwest and western regions,rural society is still perceived as lowly and primitive. Basic needs such as running water and accessible transportation are a problem in these areas.
The economic history of China describes the changes and developments in China's economy from the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 to the present day.
The Lushan Conference was a meeting of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held between July and August 1959. The CCP Politburo met in an "expanded session" between July 2 and August 1,followed by the 8th Plenum of the CCP Eighth Central Committee from August 2 –16. The major topic of discussion was the Great Leap Forward.
The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement,often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement,was a policy instituted in the People's Republic of China in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result of what he perceived to be pro-bourgeois thinking prevalent during the Cultural Revolution,Chairman Mao Zedong declared certain privileged urban youth would be sent to mountainous areas or farming villages to learn from the workers and farmers there. In total,approximately 17 million youth were sent to rural areas as a result of the movement. Usually only the oldest child had to go,but younger siblings could volunteer to go instead.
Mao's Great Famine:The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe,1958–62,is a 2010 book by professor and historian Frank Dikötter about the Great Chinese Famine of 1958–1962 in the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong (1893–1976). Based on four years of research in recently opened Chinese provincial,county,and city archives,Dikötter supports an estimate of at least 45 million premature deaths in China during the famine years. Dikötter characterised the Great Famine thus:"The worst catastrophe in China's history,and one of the worst anywhere."
Crimes against humanity under communist regimes occurred throughout the 20th century,including forced deportations,massacres,torture,forced disappearances,extrajudicial killings,terror,ethnic cleansing,enslavement and the deliberate starvation of people i.e. during the Holodomor and the Great Leap Forward. Additional events included the use of genocide,conspiracy to commit genocide,and complicity in genocide. Such events have been described as crimes against humanity.
Chinese property law has existed in various forms for centuries. After the Chinese Communist Revolution in 1949,most land is owned by collectivities or by the state;the Property Law of the People's Republic of China passed in 2007 codified property rights.
Collective farming and communal farming are various types of,"agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise". There are two broad types of communal farms:agricultural cooperatives,in which member-owners jointly engage in farming activities as a collective,and state farms,which are owned and directly run by a centralized government. The process by which farmland is aggregated is called collectivization. In some countries,there have been both state-run and cooperative-run variants. For example,the Soviet Union had both kolkhozy and sovkhozy.
Li Jingquan was a Chinese politician and the first Party Committee Secretary (governor) of Sichuan following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. He supported many of Mao Zedong's policies including the Great Leap Forward.
The Beidaihe Conference of 1958 was an enlarged meeting held by the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee from August 17 to 30 1958. It also involved a conference of provincial industrial secretaries and other relevant local leaders from the 25th to the 31st.
"On the Great Road",commonly known as We Walk on the Great Road,is a Chinese patriotic song written and composed by Li Jiefeng in 1962 and published the following year. The song alludes to the metaphorical road to development for the Chinese people and state after the Great Leap Forward,as well as to the Long March undertaken by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party in 1934. We Walk on the Great Road was a popular patriotic songs during the Cultural Revolution,and its optimistic tone and simple lyrics cemented it as one of the most popular and enduring patriotic songs of the era,being ranked by the Chinese National Culture Promotion Association as one of the 124 greatest Chinese musical works. Notably,the song was sung extensively during the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong,and featured prominently in the 50th Anniversary of the People's Republic Parade in 1999.
The Seven Thousand Cadres Conference,or 7000 Cadres Conference,was one of the largest work conferences ever of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which took place in Beijing,China from January 11 through February 7,1962. The conference was attended by over 7,000 party officials nationwide,focusing on the issues of the Great Leap Forward which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions in the Great Chinese Famine. CCP chairman Mao Zedong made self-criticism during the conference,after which he took a semi-retired role,leaving future responsibilities to Chinese President Liu Shaoqi and Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping.
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