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The Great Leap Forward

Were the famine deaths from the Great Leap Forward intentional?


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DifferentDrummr

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Did Mao expect so many famine deaths as a result of the GLF, or were those deaths simply the result of a multilayered screw-up?
 
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
-- William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, Act III, Scene 1


Mao was the premier/chairman of a centrally controlled government; therefore the deaths were his fault, at the very least.
  • Banal? Yes, but that's the best I can offer on this one and at this time.

Did he expect the deaths (realized death rate)? I don't know. (Maybe if I ask a psychic, I can found out?)
 
It's hard to say what these people knew or cared about, by that point it was very clear depending on what they knew, that Stalins collectivization and rapid industrialization had failed to meet their targets in the latter, and caused massive famine in the former killing millions.

But it did at the end of the day propel the Soviet Union into an economic power, whereas before it was still badly lagging behind the rest of Europe.

So, either censorship in Russia extended to Maos knowledge and he didn't fully realize what his policies would do, or, he did know but thought the deaths were a necessary thing in pursuit of rapidly industrializing China.

These people were probably all sociopaths and while Mao boned his many mistresses and ate to his hearts content while his people starved, its hard not to come to that conclusion.
 
Did Mao expect so many famine deaths as a result of the GLF, or were those deaths simply the result of a multilayered screw-up?

The question 'Did he expect' does not go with the poll options, 'intend'. It best fits under other. No Mao probably didn't intend or expect things to be so bad, but he probably thought it was worth it. Dictators tend not to factor in the little guy.
 
To my knowledge of Chinese history, as in other similar circumstances, collectivizing agriculture comes with massive displacement and major distribution challenges.

There was also a lot of pseudoscientific methods used, such as deep plowing which could go as much as 10 feet deep, or mass extermination of birds who would eat the insects that in their absence devasted crops. These to me seem not like intentional actions to harm, whether it be the act of collectivization or other attempts to use Marxist science to improve crop yield.

I will note for the Marxists out there that this ideology was not intended to be employed until a society reached a more mature stage of Capitalism, and these societies were largely pre-industrial, which meant they had to increase agricultural production in order to industrialize. This was a longer and more organic process in the western Capitalist countries and relied heavily at first on slavery, so I would say that both approaches to agricultural changes were accompanied by signficant human suffering. Though it would be hard to argue that the Capitalist system produced more death and suffering in its initial phases than did Revolutionary Marxism.
 
Did Mao expect so many famine deaths as a result of the GLF, or were those deaths simply the result of a multilayered screw-up?

Red:
My very brief and cursory inquiry suggests the answer strictly is "no, Mao didn't expect so many deaths;" however, it appears too that the reason he didn't was intransigence and ill-fated mistrust, hubris of a sort, of the sort we observe in the US' current head of state.

Political tension during the GLF era led to an environment of suspicion, thus [reducing] communication within the government. Mao and his followers [rejected] reports of low production from local leaders. This reduced the effectiveness of government, and was further exacerbated by Mao’s attempts to solidify his power by reducing the frequency of Standing Committee meetings from twice a week to six times a year and by removing decision-making power from local governments.
-- The Institutional Causes of China’s Great Famine, 1959–1961
 
These people deliberately use brutality and indifference to instill fear. And even if he was innocent in intent in the very beginning, why would he keep going down the same road?

If someone is bad enough a specimen of humanity to think "I knew a bunch of people would die, but holy **** is this a lot", I'm not going to distinguish between that and wanting those people to die. And if like Mao they continue on in the totalitarian agenda, I don't see why anyone would bother drawing a distinction in terms of culpability. Extreme sociopathy or evil, take your pick....
 
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
-- William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II, Act III, Scene 1


Mao was the premier/chairman of a centrally controlled government; therefore the deaths were his fault, at the very least.
  • Banal? Yes, but that's the best I can offer on this one and at this time.

Did he expect the deaths (realized death rate)? I don't know. (Maybe if I ask a psychic, I can found out?)

To some extent, Occam's razor applies to this question: poor planning is certainly a simpler explanation than purposefully culling your own population. Especially when you try to cover up how badly things are going.
 
The reaction of the PRC's government to the effects of the Great Leap Forward, and later reactions to the Cultural Revolution, imply that while they were prepared and willing to accept many deaths, the scale was beyond what they were prepared for.
 
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