Study On The Urban Population Downsizing Of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region In The Early 1960s

The policy of downsizing urban population in the 1960 s is an important measure in the adjustment period of national economy,and it has the significance meaning to the recovery of national economy.This paper takes the urban population downsizing of inner Mongolia autonomous region in the beginning of 1960 s as an example,and based on the archival data,it analyzes and discusses aspects in the urban population downsizing progress of this region,the downsizing objects,as well as in the accommodation problems after the downsizing.Between 1958 and 1960,the government encouraged industrial development that caused massive recruitment nationwide.A great quantity of employees and their families swarmed into the cities and towns,which led to a rapid expansion of urban population.The huge increase of urban population indeed raised the demands of urban society,but it reduced the labor engaged in the agricultural production and therefore it worsened the condition of decreased agricultural production during the “Great Leap Forward”.And the supply crisis of grains and its by-products became even more severe.In order to alleviate the supply crisis and resume production,the CCCPC began to downsize the urban population on a national scale.The inner Mongolia autonomous region(later called the region),at that moment,was also faced with the same dilemma as the whole country.Severe food crisis and tense market supply required the region to adopt immediate action to get the people out of the troubles.In this background,the region,based on the national policy and combined with the reality,started the urban population downsizing job in the second half of 1960.To secure a smooth work of downsizing,the region implemented a wide range of mobilization activities.It adopted the mobilization order of “within the party” before “outside the party”.The CCCPC's downsizing spirit was spread by the party members and cadres to the masses of the people.Made elaborate explanations of the necessity to downsize the urban population,which consequently obtained wide understanding and support among thepeople,and thus accelerated the downsizing progress of the region.At the end of 1962,the region's downsizing work had experienced three stages:initial launch,comprehensive promotion,and close-out.The region basically completed the downsizing mission and the focus was changed from downsizing to accommodation.Accommodation was one important link of the downsizing work.In order to put the accommodation into effect,the region,complying with the CCCPC's policy spirit,working out a series of concrete measures,regulating aspects from where to accommodate the downsized personnel to the treatment of them.Most of them were accommodated to the farming and stock breeding areas for crop and pasture production,and only small part of the downsized people were sent to the state-owned farms and ranches.In order to secure the life during the accommodation,the region also gave out production subsidies,dismissal wages,and food allowance to the downsized people to help them weather the bad times.In general,the region's accommodation measures were well-thought-out.But because they were constantly improved during the downsizing progress,thus the subsidy standard was inconsistent that had resulted in some unsolvable disputes.From the later half of 1960 to the end of the 1962,the region,with less than three years time,downsized employees of 560,000,and urban population(exclude the employees)of more than 800,000,and reduced in total the commodity grain-eating population of 1.484 million people.This relieved the stress of urban supply.The agricultural production gradually stored and the national economy began to walk out of the plight.However,the downsizing had also some negative impacts on the region at certain periods,for example,it caused the loss of intellectual and technological personnel,it postponed the progress of entrepreneurial development,it influenced the innovation in the scientific technology,and also,the subsidy for the downsized employees had become a social problem for a long time.