Chairman Mao Zedong ("Mao") was the leader of China's Communist party from 1949 until his death in 1976. Communist China originally followed the ways of the U.S.S.R. until the two countries disagreed and Mao began taking China in a new direction. In 1948 Mao started the first collective in Henan, China and soon there were collectives all over the country.

This period is known as The Great Leap forward, but actually millions of people died from the period of 1949-1951. During this period more people died in terms of mass numbers than during Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia