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NSWModern HistoryQuick questions
Section III (Personalities): Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China
Quick questions on Mao's Great Leap Forward 1958 to 1962: HSC Modern History Personality
7short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the People's Communes, August to September 1958?Show answer
The Beidaihe Conference of August 1958 endorsed the People's Commune (renmin gongshe) as "the bridge to communism". By the end of 1958 the existing 740,000 agricultural cooperatives had been merged into about 26,000 communes, averaging 5,000 households (with some up to 20,000). The communes:
What is the Lushan Conference, 2 July to 16 August 1959?Show answer
Politburo and Central Committee members met at Lushan to review the GLF. Reports of famine were already arriving. Defence Minister Peng Dehuai, after a tour of his Hunan home county, handed Mao a private letter on 14 July 1959. Peng's letter criticised the "petit bourgeois fanaticism" of the Communes and the Backyard Furnaces and noted the famine.
What is the famine, 1959 to 1962?Show answer
The Great Famine (sannian da jihuang, the "three years of great hunger", officially the "three years of natural disasters") killed millions. Death-toll estimates:
What is sino-Soviet split, July 1960?Show answer
Khrushchev withdrew approximately 1,400 Soviet technical advisers from China in July 1960, tearing up around 343 contracts. The withdrawal compounded the Great Leap collapse. The dispute had ideological dimensions (peaceful coexistence; the "transition to communism"; the cult of Stalin) and personal ones (Khrushchev's and Mao's mutual contempt). The break was open by 1963.
What is q1?Show answer
Source A is an extract from Peng Dehuai's letter at Lushan (14 July 1959). Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain the failure of the Great Leap Forward. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Evaluate the extent to which the Great Leap famine was the result of Mao's personal authority rather than systemic failures. [25 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare the views of Frank Dikoetter and Yang Jisheng on the Great Famine. [10 marks]
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