A Misguided Modernization Plan That Killed Tens of Millions
The idea behind collectivization of agriculture revolved around economies of scale. In theory, big collectivized fields would prove more efficient and productive than the small plots. In practice, however, poor planning wrecked the project, and the big fields produced less than the small private plots that had been combined into collective farms. Things were made worse because the Great Leap Forward emphasized ideological purity and fervor, rather than competence. Collectivization was led by enthusiastic and zealous overseers, instead of capable and competent managers. The result was mismanagement, as actions were taken based on wishful thinking rather than reality.
Things were not helped by a series of natural disasters from 1959 to 1961, that exacerbated matters even more. The result was history’s greatest manmade disaster. By 1960, it was obvious that the Great Leap Forward had been a massively misguided idea, but by then it was too late. The diversion of labor from farms to ill-advised industries such as backyard furnaces, plus the disruptions of collectivization, combined to produce a catastrophe. Between 1959 to 1962, about twenty million Chinese starved to death, and some estimate that the casualties might have been as high as fifty million.
