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Great Leap Forward and it led to the Cultural Revolution

The Great Leap Forward campaign was to increase agriculture, industrial productions, social change, and ideological change. The Great Leap was a goal of developing China’s material productive forces was inextricably intertwined with pursuit of communist social goals and the development of a popular communist consciousness. This was a complete failure and to many could have been the end of Mao Zedong. Instead of moving forward into a more modern country, Mao and the CCP took a step back to the past. Harsh weather played a big role in the failure. Food was short to come by and 40 million people lost their lives. Mao accepted responsibility and left power. While he was not in power he was working on a plan that would be his defining moment and what would give the Chinese a national identity. From here, he plotted his return to the pinnacle of power, which resulted in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

After the failure of Mao’s Great Leap Forward, Mao was searching for a revolution, and that would be his Cultural Revolutions. The Cultural Revolution did bring important changes in the social character and political climate of life in China, even if not so much in it formal institutions. One thing that was important was the power belonged to Mao. The reason for the revolution was to bring new social change in the 1960s and early years of the decade. The changes were important, nevertheless, vitally affecting the lives of the vast majority of the Chinese people. The revolution was an urban movement. It fought urban workers, students, and intellectuals.

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