Sino-Soviet Relations, 1949–1991

Less than three months after the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in October 1949, Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), arrived in Moscow for a historic meeting with the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. After many rounds of difficult negotiations, Stalin submitted to Mao’s wish to sign an alliance treaty with the PRC. In February 1950, China and the Soviet Union signed a thirty-year Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance. The forty-two-year history of Sino-Soviet relations could be divided into four periods. The first period, the Sino-Soviet political and military alliance, was short and only lasted about ten years (1949–1959). The second period, from 1960 to 1973, featured the gradual disintegration of Sino-Soviet party-to-party relations and subsequent conflicts and confrontations in state-to-state relations. In the third period, from 1974 to 1981, the Sino-Soviet alliance, although not formally abolished, existed in name only. In the fourth period, from 1982 to 1991, Beijing and Moscow gradually broke the political deadlock and achieved “normalization” of relations in 1989. During the Cold War, the study of the history and development of Sino-Soviet relations was among the most popular yet under-researched topics in international academic circles. Many articles and books were published on this topic, mainly in the English-language-speaking world. However, due to the lack of original documents, the conclusions of these publications were primarily based on educated guesses and inferences and shaped by the ideological notions of the Cold War era. Publications by the Chinese and the Soviets were little more than political propaganda because of the sensitive nature of the Sino-Soviet confrontation. These publications have very little academic value. The academic study of the history of Sino-Soviet relations started in the early 1990s, following the publication of large quantities of Chinese historical documents and access to then newly declassified Russian historical archives. Scholars have published widely on such topics as the formation of the Sino-Soviet alliance, Sino-Soviet relations during the Korean War, Sino-Soviet cooperation in the 1950s, the Sino-Soviet split, Sino-Soviet border clashes and changes in China’s security and diplomatic policies, and the Sino-Soviet normalization in the 1980s.