The Great Leap Forward and the People's Commune Movement
The completion of the First Five-year Plan and of the three socialist transformations greatly boosted public confidence in socialist development. They believed that a strong and prosperous China could become a reality within a fairly short period of time. The CPC Central Committee also thought that given the economic and ideological success of socialist revolution and public enthusiasm, the pace of economic development could be accelerated.
In the winter of 1957, water conservancy projects gave a huge boost to agricultural production, setting the stage for a movement known as the Great Leap Forward.
In May 1958, the Second Session of the Party's Eighth National Congress was held, which adopted the general line of "going all out, aiming high and achieving greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism." After the meeting, the Great Leap Forward quickly spread to all parts of the country.
Driven by a blind pursuit of quick results, the movement was marked by a single-minded drive to accelerate industrial and agricultural production. The targets for steel output were set higher and higher, resulting in steel production expanding even into rural communes. In agriculture, there was a serious tendency to exaggerate grain output. During the 1958 summer harvest, a wave of "Sputnik Launch" claims (claims of new record highs in output) swept the country.
Over-ambitious targets and the tendency to boast and exaggerate output made the whole society overly eager for a transition to a "higher form" of relations of production. It was even believed that the larger the scale of agricultural cooperatives and the higher the degree of public ownership, the greater the possibility to expand production.
In July and August of 1958, rural people's communes began to spread in some regions. By the end of the year, such organizations were being established across the whole country. A total of 740,000 agricultural cooperatives were merged into 26,000 people's communes, involving over 99 percent of all peasant households.
The Great Leap Forward and the movement to establish people's communes were serious errors resulting from the Party's unrealistic expectations of how quickly China could implement socialism. Objectively, the CPC underestimated the complexities of this task, and the whole Party did not have nearly enough experience in leading large-scale economic development. Subjectively, the Chinese people also were only too eager to escape backwardness and poverty and enter a good society at one stroke.
“大跃进”和人民公社化运动
“一五”计划的顺利实施和三大改造的完成，使人们对社会主义建设信心倍增，相信中国富强的目标可能在一个较短时间内实现。中共中央认为，经济战线和思想战线上的社会主义革命已经取得伟大胜利，人民群众建设社会主义热情高涨，经济建设可以搞得更快一些。1957年冬，全国范围掀起以兴修水利为中心的冬季生产高潮，揭开了“大跃进”运动序幕。
1958年5月中共八大二次会议召开，通过了“鼓足干劲，力争上游，多快好省地建设社会主义”的总路线，力图在探索中国建设社会主义的道路上打开一个新局面。会后，“大跃进”运动迅速在全国范围内发动起来。
“大跃进”运动在盲目求快、急于求成的思想影响下，片面追求工农业生产和建设的高速度。“大跃进”表现在工业上，首先是钢产量指标的不断提高，由此掀起大炼钢运动。表现在农业上，主要是对农作物产量的估计严重浮夸。1958年夏收期间，各地兴起放农作物高产“卫星”的高潮。生产发展上的高指标和浮夸风，推动着生产关系向所谓更高级的形式过渡。人们主观地认为农业合作社规模越大，公有化程度越高，就越能促进生产。1958年7、8月间，人民公社开始在个别地区建立。到年底，全国基本实现人民公社化，74万个农业社合并为2.6万个人民公社，涵盖了全国农户的99%以上。
“大跃进”和人民公社化运动，是中国共产党在探索中国自己的建设社会主义道路过程中的一次严重失误。究其原因，客观上是中国共产党对建设社会主义的艰巨性和复杂性认识不足，全党普遍缺乏领导大规模经济建设的经验；主观上是中国人民急切盼望甩掉贫穷落后的帽子，一步跨入美好社会。
