Actually the great leap forward is typically considered not only an atrocity but a massive failure. The economy shrank. Only very modest progress was made in terms of industrializing compared to the massive hit it caused on agriculture which obviously brought the famines.
Marx's communist Utopia was always supposed to take place in an industrialized society. In fact, it was supposed to come about as the result of industrialization. So I think there was certainly an idealogical component at play.
In the case of the Soviets I know for a fact Russian Marxists had long since tried and failed to radicalize the rural peasants, and saw an industrial society with a strong proletariat class as essential to carrying out their vision of creating a successful communist society.
|