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Collectivisation in China
Collectivisation in China
During the later 1920s, collectivisation was introduced in the Soviet Union. This
was introduced very rapidly, within the course of a year. It led to a rapid fall in
agricultural production, and to famine in which somewhere between six and ten
million peasants died. One key reason for this was that there was significant
peasant resistance, especially from the richer peasants known as kulaks. Richer
peasants destroyed crops, tools and animals rather than share them in a
collective farm. Stalin rounded up opponents and, although numbers are hard to
determine, as many as 10 million kulaks may have been deported to camps.
By the early 1950s, inequality was growing in the Chinese countryside. Although
land had been redistributed, poorer peasants were being forced to sell their land
in order to survive. Mao felt that the creation of collective farms was the solution.
How can you avoid a similar experience in China?
Will you allow peasants to retain any land which is theirs alone, or must
all land be shared?
How will you persuade peasants that collectivisation is a valuable
policy?
Are there ways in which the policy can be introduced gradually?
Should collectivisation even be a priority?
This last question divided the Communist party
Although land reform has given the poor peasants more land, and so made
the countryside more equal, inequality is creeping back. Some of the
poorest peasants are being forced to sell their land in order to survive, and
this is allowing richer peasants to strengthen their positions. Only by
introducing collective farms, in which all private property is abolished, can
the return of inequality be prevented.
Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yun and Li Fuchun collectivisation is not the priority:
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Steps to collectivisation