Leader of the Communists and of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong ruled Northern China in a corrupt and idealistic style. During Mao’s twenty-seven years of ruling, perhaps what people remember most, are the two events he led – the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.

Due to the success of an earlier plan launched in industry, Mao and other Chinese leaders got together and planned another program to expand this success. This program, launched in January 1958 became known as the “Great Leap Forward”. It called for the establishment of large collective farms on which great numbers of people were to live and work, called communes.

Life in the communes was strict and the peasants were controlled in many aspects. Under leadership of individual squad leaders, they worked together, ate together, slept together, and raised their children together; there was a communal room for everything. Since they were governed so strictly and owned nothing, no one was driven to work hard.

In the end, this plan for a great leap forward only counteracted in a great leap backward. Poor planning, inefficient “backyard” industries, and crop failures were the cause of this. Even before the program was carried out, Mao and the Chinese leaders bragged about how it would all work out only because they were well equipped. Not only that, but Mao had ignored the usual way of manufacture and followed his own just to save time which led him to the production of bad quality materials. Also, the crop failures in Siberia which lasted three years led to a deadly famine. Roughly 20 million people’s lives were taken and by 1961, the “Great Leap Forward” was officially terminated.