The distinctive Chinese approach to socialism emerged in the period following Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin at the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU. The reforms which followed tiffs speech, in China were to lead to the Great Leap Forward and ultimately to play a not inconsiderable role in the Sino-Soviet split. Despite its importance to Chinese development, the Great Leap Forward has not been fully understood in the scholarly literature, and it remains the subject of controversy. It is also the subject of continuing controversy within the People's Republic of China, having been a central issue in the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution and once again coming under scrutiny since the death of Mao Zedong and the downfall of the" Gang of Four'. The post-Mao leadership shows signs of wishing to repudiate many of the policies of the Great Leap Forward and many of Mao's theoretical contributions to Marxism Leninism which have their origin in this period. Hence, despite the passage of over twenty years an understanding of the Great Leap Forward period remains a key task, not only to illuminate con. temporary Chinese issues, but also to throw light on China's post-liberation development. ha this study 1 shall concentrate on China in the period immediately following the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU and leading to the launching of the Great Leap Forward. As the implementation of the Leap strategy was exceedingly complex, it deserves to be the subject of a separate study. I have, therefore, stopped short of describing the Great Leap Forward as it developed after 1958. My argument is that the mid-nineteen fifties was a period of crisis for the model of administration and development laid down by Stalin. This crisis was not confined to China but was experienced in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Economically this crisis took the form of industrial stagnation and a continuing rural decline, which had led to a paralysis in development. In the social and political spheres it was characterised by a generalized problem of bureaucratization, a loss of revolutionary momentum and an increasingly pronounced divorce of the respective parties from the masses. The reforms which followed Khrushchev's not so" secret" speech show a substantial degree of conformity in what they were attempting to achieve. The theoretical justification for those" reforms" in all of the countries concerned was