Mao saw this as a step of compromise and another step toward the capitalist road. Khrushchev felt that Communism and Capitalism should avoid armed conflict due to the presence of nuclear weapons. Mao, however, felt that Khrushchev was withdrawing from an active, violent struggle to achieve communism. By 1959, the stage was set for the split between the two communist powers, and the Great Leap Forward made the last blow to the Sino-Soviet war. Mao showed increasingly clear disagreements with Khrushchev’s policy and the Great Leap Forward was both an example of the disagreement and also a factor that aggravated the Sino-Soviet …show more content…
The Soviet Union, however, still took the lead in one aspect, in promoting the policy of peaceful competition with capitalist countries. Khrushchev put forward the slogan of surpassing the United States in 15 years, in his case by a combination of Stalinist central planning and buildup of heavy industry with remunerative incentives. Mao certainly did not want to fall behind and immediately claimed a similar goal for China to catch up or surpass Britain in 15 years, but in his case by using a model that would supposedly not lead to urban-rural inequality. Thereafter, the idea of surpassing Britain and catching up with the United States became an important motivation for the Great Leap Forward. He not only thought that China could surpass Britain and the U.S. in industrial development, but also surpassing the Soviet Union by getting to the full stage of Communism first, that is full equality. While the Soviet Union put off the stage of full communism into the indefinite future, Mao emphasized achieving full equality almost around the corner.
The Great Leap Forward served as one of the main causes of the ideological and political split of the two communist superpowers. The Great Leap Forward was both a cause and result. Mao showed increasingly clear disagreements with Khrushchev’s policy and the Great Leap Forward were both an example of the disagreement and also a factor that aggravated the Sino-Soviet