Paper 1 - Five Year Plans

5.

(a) According to Source A the first Five Year Plan was a success. The first success was the change of the economic basis from private property to socialist property. Capitalist businesses were taken over to have the communist state get the final word. Heavy industry (steel, machines, etc) and Light Industry, as well as agriculture, were all increased. Annual targets were reached at "respectable rates of growth."

(b) In Stalin's pattern, Heavy Industry took a precedent over Light Industry and agriculture. His plan was to first increase the production of steel and machinery, then focus on on agricultural productions. Mao's five year plan did this as well, making heavy industry the first priority. Howver, unlike Stalin's result, Mao's five year plan did not end up neglecting the production of light industry nor agriculture.

6.

Sources B and C express very contrasting views towards people's communes. The Chinese Newspaper (Source B) expresses a view that supports them. The article suggests that the people's communes are making "bigger strides forward" to meet and do what they're meant to be doing. They have the support of the CCCP and of Mao. The article brings up the positive effects the communes are having in the country, with it's primary one being that "the last remains of individual ownership are being eliminated." This was a major ideological aim of the communist party and the article expresses it. However, Source C does not express the same views, nor does the author support the effects the communes are having. As opposed to the newspaper which had reported good things resulting from the communes, the survivor's account reports on the famine and deaths that occured because of them. She does however agree with the Newspaper's view, but only in the beginning year of the communes. More grain was produced in the first year, but by the second year there was nothing left. The author of Source C describes how village cadres took all the food the communes had, leaving them to starve and eventually die of hunger. Communal Canteens, according to source C, were not serving proper or enough food. Source B expresses that many were set up, but provides no indication of how effectively they were. Source B provides no indication or reports on deaths in the communes, where as source C states that more than half of the villagers died in 1960.

7.

Source D in an extract from a book titled "Mao: the Unknown Story," written by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday. It was published in London in the year 2005. This secondary source in a historical book reporting on the rise and rule of Mao; this excerpt specifically is describing Mao's first Five Year Plan. The purpose of this source appears to be to report on the negative effects of the first five year plans, such as the death count and the bad leadership Mao provided for his people. The value for studying this source is that it provides contrasting views towards Mao and the five year plans that are not often seen. The Unknown Story of Mao provides a unique look into Mao's leadership. It is clear that this source sheds light on to how Mao cared not for his people as he said he did. The source also is valuable because there are significant facts that show the effects of the first five year plan; these facts include the death count of 38,000,000 people dying between the years 1958 and 1961. A limitation of this source is that it provides no personal recollection or knowledge of the events taht took place during the first five year plans. Mao: the Unknown Story is a historical book that chronilogically describes Mao rise and rule. It was written after Mao's rule ended, and while this means that the author's had more time to gather facts and resources, they still lacked the personal primary source knowledge and benefits. There is also a bias against Mao in this source. It is a book published in the Western World (London) which had publicly known negative feelings about Communism.

Source E is a table that has the figures of China's Agricultural record between the years 1954  to 1962. The table was published in a source by Michael Lynch called "The People's Republic of China Since 1949" in 1998. It was published in London by Hodder Murray. This source was produced to provide a table that contains the specific figures for the Grain Production, Meat Production, and the Gross Agricultural Output Value in the years 1954-1962. This source is valuable for studying the first five year plans because it shows the increase of production prior to the plans, and then the decrease when the plans were introduced and set forth. There is no indication in this table of where the figues came from. The table does, however, provide numerical evidence supporting the fact that five year plans were unsuccessful.

8.

TBC.