You’ll see the face of Mao Tse-Tung on many stamps while collecting. Especially, of course, those of China. They appear on many other countries stamps including Liberia, Gambia and Sierra Leone for some reason.

This one is of Zhu De, Mao Tse-tung and Troops issued for the 22nd Anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army. You know, those guys who like to send balloons over U.S. Airspace.

And you may be wondering, at this point, who Zhu De. Well, he’s the Commander in Chief of the PLA and was instrumental in the Great Leap Forward.

The Great Leap forward was an initiative in China around 1956 by the Chinese Communist Party to force an industrial revolution in China. It was decreed that farmers put down their plows and build factories and blast furnaces in their town. Then they were instructed to melt down their plows along with any other metal objects they could get their hands on to build infrastructure to ‘make China great again’. More than 23,000 steel plants were created churning out poorly made steel.

Only problem was, with a population of 680,000 million and no food production, the economy collapsed as people found themselves starving. It is estimated that between 20 to 25 million people died.

Seeing his mistake, Mao ends his “Great Leap Forward” initiative and allows people to go back to their life of agriculture. Only people are pissed off. So Mao, in his infinite wisdom, initiates another plan…. the “Cultural Revolution” which brutally made anyone who disagreed with Mao disappear forever.