Everything interesting in art and more. The fight against sparrows in China is a failed idea of ​​Mao Zedong

On February 12, 1958, Chinese leader Mao Zedong signed a historic decree to exterminate all rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows in the country.

The idea of ​​launching a large-scale campaign that became part of political program“Big Leap Forward”, born on February 18, 1957 at the next congress Communist Party China. It was initiated, oddly enough, by biologist Zhou Jian, who was at that time the country’s Deputy Minister of Education.

He was convinced that the mass destruction of sparrows and rats would lead to unprecedented prosperity agriculture. They say that the Chinese cannot overcome hunger because “they are being eaten right in the fields by voracious sparrows.” Zhou Jian convinced party members that Frederick the Great had allegedly carried out a similar campaign at one time and its results were very inspiring.

Mao Zedong did not need much convincing. He spent his childhood in the village and knew firsthand about the eternal confrontation between peasants and pests.

The decree was joyfully signed by him, and soon all over the country the Chinese, with the slogans “Long live the great Mao,” rushed to destroy the small representatives of the fauna designated in the decree of their leader.

Things didn't work out right away with flies, mosquitoes and rats. Rats, adapted to survive in any conditions up to nuclear winter, did not want to be completely exterminated. The flies and mosquitoes did not seem to notice the war he had declared at all. Sparrows became the scapegoats.

At first they tried to poison the birds and catch them with snares. But such methods turned out to be ineffective. Then they decided to “starve out” the sparrows. Seeing birds, any Chinese tried to scare them, forcing them to stay in the air as long as possible.

Old people, schoolchildren, children, men, women waved rags from morning to night, knocked on pots, shouted, whistled, forcing maddened birds to flutter from one Chinese to another. The method turned out to be effective. The sparrows simply could not stay in the air for more than 15 minutes. Exhausted, they fell to the ground, after which they were finished off and stored in huge heaps.

It is clear that not only sparrows, but all small birds in principle came under attack. To inspire the already enthusiastic Chinese, photographs of multi-meter mountains made from bird corpses were regularly published in the press. The usual practice was to remove schoolchildren from lessons, give them slingshots and send them to shoot any small birds and destroy their nests. Particularly distinguished students were given certificates.

In the first three days of the campaign alone, almost a million birds were killed in Beijing and Shanghai. And in almost a year, two billion sparrows and other small birds have lost such active actions. The Chinese rejoiced and celebrated their victory. By that time, no one remembered about rats, flies and mosquitoes. They gave up on them because it is extremely difficult to fight them.

Destroying the sparrows turned out to be much more fun. There were no particular opponents of this campaign either among scientists or environmentalists. This is understandable: protest and objections, even the most timid, would be perceived as anti-Party.

By the end of 1958, there were practically no birds left in China. TV announcers talked about this as an incredible achievement for the country. The Chinese were choking with pride. No one even doubted the correctness of the party’s actions and their own.

In 1959, in “wingless” China, he was born bumper harvest. Even skeptics, if there were any, were forced to admit that anti-sparrow measures brought positive results. Of course, everyone noticed that there was a noticeable increase in all kinds of caterpillars, locusts, aphids and other pests, but considering the volume of the harvest, all this seemed to be an insignificant cost.

The Chinese were able to fully assess these costs a year later. In 1960, agricultural pests multiplied in such numbers that it was difficult to see behind them and understand what kind of crop they were devouring. at the moment. The Chinese were confused. Now entire schools and industries were again removed from work and study - this time in order to collect caterpillars. But all these measures were absolutely useless. In no way numerically regulated by natural means (which is what small birds used to do), insects multiplied at a terrifying rate. They quickly devoured the entire harvest and began to destroy the forests. Locusts and caterpillars feasted, and famine began in the country.

They tried to feed the Chinese people on their TV screens with stories that these were all temporary difficulties and that everything would get better soon. But you won’t be satisfied with promises. The famine was serious - people died en masse. They ate leather things, the same locusts, and some even ate their fellow citizens. The country began to panic.

Party members also panicked. According to the most conservative estimates, about 30 million people died from the famine that hit the country in China. Then the management finally remembered that all the troubles began with the extermination of sparrows.

China asked for help Soviet Union and Canada - they asked to urgently send them the birds. The Soviet and Canadian leaders, of course, were surprised, but they responded to the call. Sparrows were delivered to China in whole wagons. Now the birds have already begun to feast - nowhere else in the world was there such a food supply as the incredible populations of insects that literally covered China. Since then, China has had a particularly reverent attitude towards sparrows.

In 1958, Chinese leader Mao Zedong ordered the destruction of all sparrows because they ate too much grain. Then no one could have imagined that a confrontation at the state level with a tiny bird would cause one of the most terrible disasters.

There have been many tragedies in human history, but few can compare to the one that began in 1958 in China. Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese People's Republic, decreed that all sparrows in the country should be killed. He decided that the Chinese could do without pests such as rats, mosquitoes, flies and sparrows. Mao believed that the birds ate too much grain in the fields, and this turned out to be a sufficient reason.

According to the Great Helmsman, sparrows stood in the way economic development People's Republic of China.

In an attempt to modernize and improve life in China, Mao undertook several mass campaigns. "Four Pests" was one of these projects, part of a larger plan to modernize the country between 1958 and 1962. And destroying all the sparrows was part of this campaign.

People were mobilized to exterminate the birds. They beat drums and waved flags to scare the birds from landing, causing them to fly until they died of exhaustion. The Chinese destroyed sparrow nests and shot sparrows in flight. As a result, these birds are on the verge of extinction in China. In some regions they disappeared completely, and with them other species.

In total, hundreds of millions of birds were destroyed, and a year later an unexpected problem arose. Indeed, there was a slight increase in grain yields, but at the same time an invasion of field insect pests began. The locusts, which were previously eaten by sparrows, have multiplied, having lost their main predator. As it turns out, killing sparrows was counterproductive. They not only ate grain seeds, but also insects.

Hordes of locusts swooped into the fields and ate everything in their path. The grain harvest in most rural areas was eaten and mass famine began. Millions of Chinese began to starve and die. It is estimated that between 20 and 45 million people died as a result of famine caused by economic mismanagement, environmental disaster and state terror.

The Holodomor remains a taboo subject in China even more than 50 years later. People ate other people, parents ate their children. The children ate their own own parents. Thousands of people were killed for food.

Mao ordered the end of the anti-sparrow campaign by replacing the birds with bedbugs in the ongoing "Four Pests" campaign. Maybe Mao Zedong wanted to conquer nature. However, his policies led to a famine in which millions of lives were lost. To remedy the situation, the Chinese urgently purchased grain abroad, and even ordered sparrows from the USSR and Canada. The sparrows were pardoned and officially called “useful.”

In communist China, in the pursuit of a better future, methods were used that seem obviously wrong and often stupid to today's people. However, there has always been a place for culture in the life of the Chinese. And now visitors are impressed by the epic stories of the 1950s-1960s.

"Cursed Creature. Criminals for thousands of years. Today is the day of reckoning" - a Chinese anti-sparrow poem.

In 1958, China wanted to kill the entire population of sparrows. As part of improving public health, dear leader Mao Zedong ordered the destruction of all mosquitoes, flies, rats and chirping sparrows - birds, so beloved by us.

Mao made his choice. Pandas, worms and even Scary Moths will be allowed to live. But the murderous hatred of sparrows became a program.

The problem with birds is that sparrows are avid seed eaters - each bird consumes an average of 4.5kg of grain every year (source: Chinese scientists). The problem with the authorities is their blatant illiteracy. Chinese scientists were probably afraid to object to the Dear and Beloved, and presented only part of the information - the one he wanted to hear.
Their math was simple: kill 1m sparrows and save enough food to feed 60,000 people.

"Destroy four pests!" 1958 Poster by Ding Hao. Image: International Institute of Social History

China has experienced terrible food supply shortages.

1927: Hunger. Leaflets were distributed among the Chinese by the communists during a period of mass famine. The leaflets claim that the British are responsible for the famine. (Photo: Keystone/Getty Images)

Chairman of the Communist Party of China Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976, second from left) visited agricultural workers to congratulate them on their high productivity. February 9, 1958 (Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Drawn happy future rural areas in China (1958) Utopia.

People read "dazebao" news, the banner at the top reads: "Long live Chairman Mao." (Photo by Richard Harrington/Getty Images)

With the war on the little birds... It spread by word of mouth, in all the newspapers...

Destroy pests. Poster for children, 1961. Courtesy National Library medicine.

There was a game for the whole family.

Four Wreckers - a game, ca. 1960

Almost three quarters of the population could not read or write, to ensure critical important information it was provided in an easily understandable format.

So how did they destroy the sparrows?

The Chinese made a lot of noise. They stood in the streets, in the fields, and banged on pots, screaming and shouting, keeping the sparrows in fear in the air. Fearing to land, the birds did not eat and died from exhaustion and stress. The Chinese also hunted them, smashed nests, trampled chicks and shot them with slingshots and pistols.

It was a massacre.

Hundreds of millions of sparrows died. According to DM Lampton in Health Serv Rep. (1972) "1 billion sparrows, 1.5 billion rats, were destroyed.

The Shanghai newspaper reported:

The whole city is attacked by sparrows

With the death of the sparrows, the insects rose up. The locusts have never had it so good as they did that year. Expanse has come for her. As a result, yields fell, and much less grain was harvested than when sparrows lived in China.

Then Mao issued a new decree. The sparrows, he wrote, were fine. It was the bedbugs you had to kill.

But you cannot destroy locusts by decree. In order to rectify the situation, Mao turned to the Soviet Union, yup - begging his comrades to catch and sell him 200,000 birds.

It was a disaster. Voracious insect pests, widespread deforestation, and the overuse of poisons and pesticides all contributed to the Great Chinese Famine (1958-1961), in which an estimated 30 million people died of starvation.

Sparrows on electrical wires on September 15, 2005 in Lantian, Shaanxi Province, China. The plantations have attracted many sparrows during the current harvest season, according to local media.

And the birds waited. They were waiting for an opportunity to feed themselves and help people.))

I hope that no more birds will be killed.

Sparrows are one of the most numerous birds on our planet. They once lived in abundance in China. But cute birds often pecked grain in the fields and during the harvest, for which the peasants disliked them. This circumstance was the reason for the tragic and at the same time instructive story that occurred in China.

At the end of the 50s of the last century, about 600 million people lived in China. Growing grain was the most important branch of agriculture, which provided food for a multi-million population. At the same time, the country's leadership, and society as a whole, understood that it was necessary to fight harmful animals that make life difficult for the Chinese people. Add to list worst enemies rats, mosquitoes, flies and... sparrows entered. The thing is that peasants have always considered these birds dangerous pests: they ate up grain in the fields and also stole it from barns. They have a firmly established reputation as food competitors who are preventing Chinese peasants from overcoming hunger.

Amid the battle to increase yields and improve people's lives, a large-scale pest control campaign was launched in China in the spring of 1958. But, as historians note, flies, mosquitoes and rats were not so easy to deal with, and the fight against them quickly came to naught.

The sparrows were less fortunate: millions of Chinese, including children, took part in the extermination of the birds. It turned out that sparrows cannot long time be in the air, and as soon as they were prevented from landing on the ground or a tree for 15 minutes, they fell dead. People made noise, waved sticks and flags and did not allow the birds to rest.

By the winter of 1958, according to experts, about 1.96 billion sparrows were destroyed throughout the country. Other small birds often suffered along with them and were also exterminated. The people rejoiced, radio and television joyfully reported that the main enemies of the country's agriculture had been dealt with.

As proof of this, the following year China harvested a record grain harvest for that time. No one doubted the correctness of the measures taken to exterminate the sparrows. True, people began to notice that the fields had become more caterpillars, locusts and other insects that ate the crop, but this did not alert anyone.

What happened next shows better than any other example how dangerous thoughtless interference with nature is. Numerous insect pests, which in turn left offspring, laid the foundation for future prosperity in the absence of predators. Small birds (primarily sparrows) were an important part of China's ecosystem and the only deterrent for millions of insects. Of course, they ate the grain in the fields and did some damage, but no one took into account the fact that before the crops ripen, sparrows feed on caterpillars and locusts.

The following summer, all those who were usually exterminated by sparrows reigned in the fields of China. People were removed from production and schoolchildren from classes to fight insects. But no one knew how to do this better than sparrows and small birds. Already in the fall it became clear that the country was facing famine, so great were the losses in the fields. As a result of food shortages in China, according to various estimates, from 10 to 30 million people died, and some researchers cite even more terrifying figures.

The leaders of the state, realizing the horror of what had happened, turned to the USSR and Canada with a request to send sparrows to China, which was done. From that moment on, careful restoration of the sparrow population began in China, and the birds were declared best friends people.

Was in power for almost nine years. The nationalists under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek were defeated and fled abroad, internal enemies were suppressed, communist China finally gained its first government. Chairman Mao Zedong decided that the time had come for a "Great Leap Forward" in pursuit of economic growth. developed countries West and launched a campaign to modernize industry and agriculture.

Not content with controlling people, the Chinese communists decided to launch an attack on Mother Nature. One of the first and most ambitious projects was the “War against the Four Pests”: rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows.

Why sparrows? You can understand why you need to get rid of blood-sucking mosquitoes; flies are also quite disgusting, and rats are generally disgusting. But why destroy the birds? What is so wrong with them that Chairman Mao and the communists decided to eliminate them?

Well, you see, sparrows eat grain. And if a sparrow sees the seeds that you just planted in the ground, he will gobble them up even before you have time to say: “Long live the great Mao! Down with American imperialism!” This state of affairs especially outraged the Chinese peasants, who sowed wheat only to stand by and helplessly watch as huge flocks of sparrows ate everything clean.

Now, I think, it is absolutely clear why the leader of all Chinese decided to eliminate the flying grain fighters - with the disappearance of these creatures, a golden age will begin for the Chinese peasantry. According to Mao.

The next problem is how to destroy them. It will not be possible to shoot - millions of ammunition will be spent, which can be used against counter-revolutionaries and world imperialism. Poison is also not good - you can poison people that way. Traps... are good, but setting up millions of traps is too much trouble even for Communist China. The government has found a wise solution - why don’t the peasants themselves take up the noble task of ridding villages of sparrows?

The extermination process looked like this. It is known that sparrows can fly for no more than 15 minutes, after which they need a break. All the villagers went out into the field and rattled various objects, shouted, waved their arms until the poor sparrows fell dead. The same thing happened in cities - residents made noise with all their might, driving the sparrows to death. Things went well, the commissars bravely reported on grandiose achievements in the field of killing sparrows. Hooray! Long live the wise government led by Mao!

In six months, about 2 billion sparrows were exterminated, and in Beijing and the Primorye region, all small birds were destroyed. There was something to rejoice at - the peasantry breathed more freely, no one was pecking the grains in the furrows anymore, one could hope for a generous harvest. And so it happened - in 1959, much more was collected in the bins of the motherland than in previous periods. True, along with the grain, locusts and caterpillars successfully bred, which were previously eaten by small birds - the enemies of communism. The following year, a food disaster occurred - locusts destroyed crops, and famine ensued, from which 10 to 30 million Chinese died.

In 1959, the Chinese Academy of Sciences looked at the problem from a new angle and admitted that the war was somewhat misguided. Next year the great Mao by volitional decision stopped fighting sparrows, switching to a new enemy - bed bugs. And the passerine population had to be restored, they were even imported from the USSR and Canada, and at the beginning of the 21st century a campaign began to protect sparrows.