Peoples communes

Source 9
'By the end of 1958, 700 million people had been placed into 26,578 communes. The speed with which this was achieved was astounding. However, the government did all that it could to whip up enthusiasm for the communes. Propaganda was everywhere – including in the fields where the workers could listen to political speeches as they worked as the communes provided public address systems. Everybody involved in communes was urged not only to meet set targets but to beat them. If the communes lacked machinery, the workers used their bare hands. Major constructions were built in record time – though the quality of some was dubious.

The Great Leap Forward also encouraged communes to set up "back-yard" production plants. The most famous were 600,000 backyard furnaces which produced steel for the communes. When all of these furnaces were working, they added a considerable amount of steel to China’s annual total – 11 million tonnes.' 

Published from the website http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/great_leap_forward.htm

Ideological and International Motives...

Source 8

http://www.jstor.org/pss/2642397

An extract in understanding the ideological underpinnings of the great leap forward and the tensions between China and Soviet union, who were in turn meant to be perfect ideological states yet completely differed on ideological differences and how China felt the need to depart from Russia in order to gain independence
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'During the second half of the 1950s, strains in the Sino-Soviet alliance gradually began to emerge over questions of ideology, security, and economic development. Chinese leaders were disturbed by the Soviet Union's moves under Nikita Khrushchev toward deStalinization and peaceful coexistence with the West. Moscow's successful earth satellite launch in 1957 strengthened Mao's belief that the world balance was in the communists' favor--or, in his words, "the east wind prevails over the west wind"--leading him to call for a more militant policy toward the noncommunist world in contrast to the more conciliatory policy of the Soviet Union.
In retrospect, the major ideological, military, and economic reasons behind the Sino-Soviet split were essentially the same: for the Chinese leadership, the strong desire to achieve self-reliance and independence of action outweighed the benefits Beijing received as Moscow's junior partner.'

http://countrystudies.us/china/128.htm
This source demonstrates the tension between the two communist state, and how China began to feel to dependent on the Russians

On the other hand not an entire Failure!

Source 7

We can see here that during the years of the Great Leap Forward there is an increase in China's GDP, sky rocketing from what it used to be, and hihger than many other countries however decreases back down after the years of the GLF. Suggesting that the GLF did achieve its economy aims and increase Steel production.

What were people's attitudes to the Great Leap Forward?

Source 6
An extract from Anhua Gao from the book To The Edge Of The Sky (2000)

'Mao called on the nation to increase production of steel to an extraordinarily high level. He raised the slogan 'Catch up with Britain within fifteen years!' All over the city we saw the slogan. The radio relayed the same message. At school, the teachers wrote the slogan on the blackboards. The roads had huge billboards that shouted 'Catch up with Britain within fifteen years!' All public buildings and vehicles displayed it. Shops had it chalked on boards slung from the ceiling. Huge portraits of Chairman Mao looked down on us, with the slogan written underneath. It was everywhere. 
I was curious. We Chinese had to catch with Britain within fifteen years. Britain was the reason I couldn't enjoy my grandmother's wonderful cooking and had to eat the no-so-good food from the canteen. Where, I wondered, was Britain.'


Just a small extract in seeing how the population felt with Mao's new found idea's, and how enforced was the idea of Great Leap Forward, being shoved and pushed in extreme cases in order to gain the peoples support and indoctrinate people into believing that through Mao's idea of the GLF China can be transformed into a new world leading Power.