Great Leap Forward

The Bulgarian Communist Party introduced its third 5-year plan in 1958. For its slogan the party borrowed the phrase 'Great Leap Forward' from Mao. By 1961 the plan was supposed to lead to a tripling of the 1957 agricultural production. The agricultural sector had already been completely collectivized in the preceding years, but now the many small collective farms were merged into a few large ones.

In 1961 it became clear that there was no growth at all. On 13 November 1962, at the Eighth Congress of the Bulgarian Communist Party, a new effort was made. This time it included guidelines for developing the Bulgarian economy in the next twenty years, with the goal of 'completing the construction of socialism'.