Sino- Soviet Relations
How it went down…
Background
 Treaty of Versailles, Shandong, given to Japan. Student
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protest against “spineless” Chinese government.
U.S weak on self-determination and anti-imperialism –
Chinese intellectuals start considering M/L to solve issues.
Post Qing dynasty warlords ruled – KMT leader Sun Yat-sen
ignored by west, turned to soviets.
1922 – CPC – 200 members, KMT 50,000
Soviet policy of duel support
1927 Shanghai Massacre – CPC-KMT split.
Civil War 1927-1949
 1929 Manchurian Chinese Eastern railway – armed conflict
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with S.U
CPC growing popularity – Mao collabs with peasant rebels
Long March – Zhang Guotao’s failure – Mao undisputed
leader
Second Sino-Japanese war – KMT more concerned with
CPC – CPC guerrilla tactics against Japs wins more support
Soviets give CPC Japanese weapons – U.S keeps Manchuria
from communists, helps KMT
Outbreak – Chiang and KMT retreat to Taiwan. PRC
established
Early relationships
 1937 non aggression pact – help against Japanese, enabled Stalin to
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focus on west
Manchuria
Treaty of friendship and alliance (1950) – 300 million low-interest
loan. Stress on relationship
Korean War – Stalin, Mao debate – Mao takes ground, Stalin air –
changed relationship from titular to virtual
After Civil War, Soviets become PRC closest ally – design,
equipment and skilled labour to help industrialize and modernize.
1960’s Sino-soviet border conflict – increasingly PRC began to
consider S.U as social imperialist and its greatest threat.
Stalin
 As you have read in your text book Stalin and
Mao did not see eye to eye on a lot of things.
Ideological differences were not the only reasons what were
they?
 Peasants as a basis for revolution
 Feared Mao as com leader
 Did not want CW to spread to Asia
 Preferred KMT
Seeds
 In fighting civil war and Japanese – Mao ignored a lot of
Stalin’s military advice and direction
 Because of it’s position there was no urban working class.
Why is this a problem?
 Dawn out of China - “to change Marxism from a European to
an Asiatic form... in ways of which neither Marx nor Lenin
could dream”. – Due to struggle in Korea alliance continued
despite.
 Mao’s insistence of mobilization through peasant workers –
lead to Great Leap Forward
Honeymoon period and Khrushchev
 After Stalin’s death there was a period
of reconciliation.
 Khrushchev put an end to that by criticising Stalin and therefore Mao.
 Soviet failure to ‘contain reactionary forces’ ?
 Restoration of relationship with Josip Broz Tito (Stalin had
denounced in 48)
 De-emphasising of the core M/L idea of inevitable war
between capitalism and socialism
 Peaceful co-existence – ideological heresy
 Soviet succession by ‘revisionists’
Activity time
 Split into pairs and answer the review exercise on page 120
of your text books.
And then it got Humpty Dumpty…
 Sino – Indian war, Khrushchev too appeasing to the west.
 Soviets engaged in superpower confrontations (Berlin)
 Mao critical of Khrushchev in Cuba – detectable weapons ,
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backing down. “Khrushchev has moved from adventurism to
capitulation”
Mao’s approach would provoke nuclear war
1964 –Mao claims counter-revolution activity in USSR has
re-established capitalism. Split final.
Warsaw countries follow Soviet suit.
After Khrushchev’s death, relations initially same.
Cold War context
 Early Cold-War interpretation had a two way ideological
competition exclusively between the U.S and USSR. Chinese
competition with the USSR and subsequent communistrivalry transformed the Cold-War into a “tripolar
geopolitical contest”.
Goodwill
Commy bastards