now when he goes to moscow in 1957 and liu shaoqi openly proclaims that the soviet union has -- is going overtake the united united states in the production of butter, milk and other dairy products, mao jumps in and says we will overtake england. you may overtake the united states but we will overtake england, still seen as a major power within 50 years. he states his own prestige on the great leap forward from socialism into communism. but most of all of course, what mao really wishes to demonstrate is not the ability of the country to overtake england but to actually outdo the soviets to show that mao or stalin in the past have discovered that bridge to communism. what is that bridge? the people's communes. mao sees the real wealth of the country in hundreds of millions of farmers in the countryside. if only they could be harnessed. everything could be collectivized. if every man could work like a soldier in a continuous revolution tackling one after the other, surely the country could be catapulted past the soviet union and all the others. it is mao's great famine because he is the on