Figure 1.--This press photo shows children at a commune primary school practice throwing grenadesv in 1965, just before Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. The caption read, "Life in a Chinese Commune: Young pupils learn to handle dummy hand grenades at the elementary school of the October People's Commune of Nanking. Life for children in a commmune is to complement school education boh pysically and morally."

We are not entirely sure what happened in Chinese communes after the disaster of the Great Leap Forward. Mao lost absolute control and reformers began to undo the damage done in the GLF. Mao bided his time, but noted who was criticizing him. While China backed away from the Maoist GLF policies, there was no slackening of hostility to the West. We are less aware at the ground level what was going on in the communes which were a vital component of the Chinese economy. China was still a very agricultural country. And commune production was the major component of output. We think that the commune members began to get back their family plots, but we do not yet have much information. What ever the peasantry's feelings about Communism, the peasants that starved, but survived the GLF had one very widespread belief--they did not want to starve again. And possession of a family plot, even if small as the besr insurance against starvation. Communist authority was not weakened by the GLF. No one lost his job because of the GLF disaster, of course it was because Mao himself was personally resoonsible. So beyond reclaiming their family plots there was not much else they could do. Communist authorities still prohibited peasant sales in local markets because it looked like capitalism which it was..

Created: 11:45 PM 3/20/2023
Last updated: 11:45 PM 3/20/2023