Social+policies+Mao+and+Stalin

Nuala McSweeney Single Party State Rulers: Stalin v. Mao Social Policies

People’s Republic of China: Formed 1949 Mao and the 1950s Social Revolution · After many civil wars ravaging China, Mao was ready to instill new social policies, and China was willing to accept new social policy to undergo stabilization. · Where he first modeled his social policy after Soviet socialism, he decided to break off and start new reform, called the Great Leap Forward, in an effort to raise agricultural and industrial production. · Great Leap Forward: o Changed from farm collectivization to the use of communes, to up both agricultural and industrial growth. o He wanted to surpass Britain’s steel output by 1968. o The government distributed food, so the people couldn’t rely on their own crop yield. o Small rural villages were transformed into communes, where thousands of people would work in an “ideal” Marxist society. o Naturally, this proved to be disastrous. People starved due to their reliance on governmental rationing. The goods produced were low quality and not sellable. · Cultural Revolution: o Cult of personality: The “destruction of the Four Olds” put an emphasis on abandoning the old policies o Elimination of anything not revolutionary: § Religion § Confucianism § Religious teachers were persecuted: arrested or forced to kill themselves. § Young urban Chinese were sent down to the countryside to learn the ways of peasants. · With Mao, despite the thousands of deaths, the literacy rate went up, the famine was overcome, and the life expectancy rose.

Stalin: also sought social revolution · Used secret police to instill his policies · Also used a cult of personality: o Towns, villages, and cities were named after him and Lenin. · Great Purge: killed conservatives, Moscow trials, etc. Military leaders convicted of treason o 3.3 million exiled to Siberia · Collectivization: Increasing agricultural output of farms. Kulaks (rich peasants) resisted, and Stalin killed them or sent them to gulags. · Collectivization failed, leading to famine that killed 5-10 million. · The economy improved, and the Soviets became a world superpower.

Comparison: · Both Mao and Stalin were socialist, so they created policies to create their Communist regime, and eliminate the aristocracy. · They both used executions and deportations as a mean to “purge” the unclean out of their ideal Marxist societies. · They both took away liberties. · They both brought positive changes to their country despite the unethical treatment of people they practiced.