Great Leap Forward

1958–1962 Chinese socioeconomic campaign

The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, initiated by the Mao Zedong, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, whose goal was to transform the country from an agrarian society to an industrialized society through the formation of people's communes. The Great Leap Forward led to between 15 and 55 million deaths in mainland China during the 1959–1961 Great Chinese Famine it caused, making it the largest or second-largest famine in human history. The Great Leap Forward grew out of Mao's push for rapid development through mass mobilization and a reaction against the Soviet development strategy.

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