People's commune
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The people's commune was the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas of the People's Republic of China during the period from 1958 to 1983, until they were replaced by townships. Commune
A collective meal as pictured in The 10th Anniversary Photo Collection of the PRC 1949–1959
United States First Lady Pat Nixon at a people's commune in Beijing during Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China
A kitchen in a people's commune from 1958 during the food's preparation
Children eating at a nursery school in a people's commune
Great Leap Forward
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The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from
People's commune
…people who had to make steel could not spend as much time working in the fields. When, for a variety of structural and environmental factors (see also: Great Leap Forward), a larger famine set in, this shift from agricultural work to unproductive industrial labor only worsened conditions in the communes. Some communes…
Government officials being sent to work in the countryside, 1957
1958 poster promoting the Great Leap Forward. The text reads: "Brave the wind and the waves, everything has remarkable abilities!"
A canteen in a people's commune, 1958
A minecart leading to the steel base, October 1957