The '''Great Leap Forward''' (1958-1961) was a campaign to nationalize industry and agriculture in [[China]], instituted by Chinese dictator [[Mao Zedong]], which included collectivizing farmland. Peasants were forced to produce steel in backyard furnaces to raise China's steel output. The whole ill-conceived venture resulted in widespread famine, economic disaster and what modern Chinese history now refers to as '''Three Years of Disasters'''. The [[Communist]] inspired [[democide]] resulted in the deaths of at least 45 million people.<ref>Frank Dikötter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=5NsMWCHDStQC Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962]'' (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2010), ISBN 0802777686, p. 325</ref> | The '''Great Leap Forward''' (1958-1961) was a campaign to nationalize industry and agriculture in [[China]], instituted by Chinese dictator [[Mao Zedong]], which included collectivizing farmland. Peasants were forced to produce steel in backyard furnaces to raise China's steel output. The whole ill-conceived venture resulted in widespread famine, economic disaster and what modern Chinese history now refers to as '''Three Years of Disasters'''. The [[Communist]] inspired [[democide]] resulted in the deaths of at least 45 million people.<ref>Frank Dikötter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=5NsMWCHDStQC Mao's Great Famine: The History of China's Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962]'' (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2010), ISBN 0802777686, p. 325</ref> |