Agriculture & Industry, 1949-65 (Edexcel A Level History: Route E: Communist states in the twentieth century): Flashcards

Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives (APCs) organised peasants into groups of 30 to 50 households and took a share of the harvest in return for money or grain.

Some historians argue collectivisation merely replaced private landlords with one huge landlord, the CCP, described as the 'ultimate landlord'.

The first People's Commune was created in 1958 and named after the Soviet satellite Sputnik.

People's Communes were large agricultural units of at least 5,000 households each, in which all private ownership was banned.

False.

In the communes, all individual rewards were scrapped, and militias monitored the community to ensure no food or goods were sold for personal benefit.

Trofim Lysenko was a Soviet agricultural scientist whose scientifically flawed ideas were made official Chinese policy in 1958.

Lysenkoism was a set of scientifically flawed farming methods, made official policy in 1958, which required farmers to plant seeds deep in the soil and closely together.

It is generally accepted that between 30 and 50 million people died in the Great Chinese Famine.

Under Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, the reversal of the commune reforms saw agricultural production return to pre-commune levels by 1965.

'Happiness homes' were commune facilities where the elderly were placed so their children and grandchildren did not have to care for them.

Party cadres reported inflated production figures, so the CCP believed there was excess food and gifted it to other Communist countries.

True.

Tibet suffered terribly, with an estimated one in four of its population dying, made worse by a forced switch from barley to crops unsuited to Tibetan conditions.

The 'four pests' were rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows, which Mao blamed as the destroyers or consumers of grain.

Exterminating the sparrows caused insect populations such as locusts to increase rapidly, and plagues of locusts then destroyed entire harvests.

The Plan was closely modelled on the Soviet Union's experience of industrialisation in the 1930s.

The First Five-Year Plan was Mao's programme to industrialise China as quickly as possible, focused on developing heavy industry.

The Soviet Union loaned China $300 million over the five years of the Plan.

True.

China lacked managerial and organisational experience, so many factories were Soviet designed and the technology used was Soviet.

Around 11,000 Soviet experts were sent to China to provide expertise and technical help.

Heavy industry covered iron, steel, energy supply, industrial machinery and chemicals, the focus of the First Five-Year Plan.

The population of China's cities increased from 57 million in 1949 to 100 million by 1957.

According to official figures, the Chinese economy grew by 9 per cent annually during the five years.

False.

Low levels of literacy in China actually restricted economic growth during the Plan.

The enormous double-decker road and rail bridge at Wuhan across the Yangtze River was a stunning propaganda success.

The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, signed in February 1950, secured essential Soviet support of loans and experts for the Plan.

Some historians argue the economy developed in an unbalanced way, with an over-reliance on heavy industry.

Mao was convinced that China's vast manpower of 600 million people, combined with revolutionary spirit, could overcome any obstacle.

The Great Leap Forward was Mao's Second Five-Year Plan, a mass production drive intended to turn China into a great economic power.

False.

Workers received a home, health care and guaranteed wages regardless of output, so there was no incentive or reward for being productive.

As furnaces outstripped the supply of raw materials, peasants fed in tools, cooking implements and even the roofs of their homes.

'Backyard furnaces' were small, home-made steel furnaces built during the Great Leap Forward that produced very poor-quality steel.

Most of the steel was of such low quality that factories could not use it, while crop yields fell as peasants left the fields.

Between 1958 and 1962, industrial production fell by 40 per cent.

State enterprises were industrial businesses taken over by the State, with production targets and prices set by the Party rather than by market demand.

Peng Dehuai was denounced as a traitor and replaced by Mao's close ally Lin Biao.

True.

Historians point to the worst weather in Chinese recorded history in 1959 and 1960 and the withdrawal of Soviet advisers in 1960.

The Lushan Conference was a CCP meeting in July 1959 at which Peng Dehuai questioned the reported record grain harvest.

Some Western historians argue the disaster was entirely due to Mao and his political decisions, such as removing all opposition.

The reforms were led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

Pragmatism was the practical, non-ideological approach Liu and Deng took to growing the economy and ending food shortages.

In 1962, Mao withdrew somewhat from day-to-day economic management and permitted reforms to his policies.

True.

By 1965, light industry was growing at around 27 per cent a year, compared with 17 per cent for heavy industry.

Deng said it does not matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

The retreat from collectivism was the 1962–65 reversal of commune policies, restoring private farming and material incentives.

By 1965, private production on strips of land accounted for a third of agricultural workers' incomes.

Industrial production in 1965 was roughly double what it had been in 1958.

False.

Mao did not admit, publicly or privately, that China's circumstances were due to the failings of the Great Leap Forward.

By 1965, heavy industry was growing at an estimated annual rate of 17 per cent.

Private plots were strips of previously unfarmed land that ambitious workers could farm to improve their own lives.

Some historians argue they were only a short-term measure, destined to be abandoned once the economy had recovered.