Sino - Soviet Relations

Question 1

What signified the beginning of Sino - Soviet relations?

Answer 1

Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance (14 Feb 1950)

Question 2

When was Krushchev’s secret speech and how did this worsen relations?

Answer 2

Feb 1956
- China were critical as they believed Khrushchev’s attacks on Stalin were indirectly aimed at Mao

Question 3

What/When was the Great Leap Forward?

Answer 3

1958 - 1963
- Mao’s attempt to modernise China’s economy
- Develop agriculture and industry

Question 4

Stats regarding Great Leap Forward

Answer 4

• By the end of 1958, 700 million people had been placed into 26,578 communes
• 9 million people are thought to have starved to death in 1960 alone

Question 5

How did Great Leap Forward contribute to split?

Answer 5

• The Great Leap Forward was a communist policy closer to Stalin than to Khrushchev, including forming a personality cult around Mao
• Mao also angered the USSR by criticising Khrushchev’s economic policies through the plan while also calling for more Soviet aid
• Overall Soviets opposed to the policy

Question 6

What did Mao and Zhou Enlai deliver in 1960?

Answer 6

Delivered a speech accusing the USSR
of working against China since the very beginning

Question 7

What was the impact of Mao and Zhou’s speech on split?
(1960)

Answer 7

USSR withdrew economic advisers

Question 8

What was the impact of the removal of economic advisers?

Answer 8

• Mao could pin his domestic failings due to many of the advisers helping with Great Leap Forward
• Trade between the two shrank by 20%

Question 9

When did China explode first atomic bomb?

Answer 9

October 1964

Question 10

When was China’s first hydrogen bomb?

Answer 10

June 1967

Question 11

Impact of Chinese nuclear ability on Soviets

Answer 11

Soviets now faced with a socialist nuclear rival and the Chinese were able to be ideologically independent and show military and strategic independence

Question 12

Why were China hostile towards USSR?

Answer 12

• Felt not respected by Khrushchev (Secret Speech)
• Khrushchev supported India in its border dispute with China (1959)
• Withdrawal of aid
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• USSR placed military forces in Mongolia in Feb 1967

Question 13

When was the Sino-Indian War?

Answer 13

1962

Question 14

Why was Sino - Indian War significant for the split?

Answer 14

• Chinese build up during CMC
• Following crisis USSR offered support and aid to India

Question 15

When was the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 15

1966 - 76

Question 16

When was the Ussuri River Dispute?

Answer 16

1969

Question 17

How did tension build in the late 1960’s regarding the Ussuri River?

Answer 17

658,000 Soviet troops faced 814,000 Chinese troops along the border

Question 18

What happened March 2 1969 regarding Ussuri River?
(Soviet death toll?

Answer 18

Soviet patrol and Chinese forces came into conflict. Both sides claimed that the other side attacked first
- Soviets had 31 deaths and 14 wounded

Question 19

How did Soviets retaliate to the attack on March 2 1969?

Answer 19

Bombed Chinese troop concentrations in Manchuria
- Claim Chinese suffered 800 casualties
- Soviets had 60 killed/wounded
- The Chinese claim to have suffered only a few casualties, far less than Soviet losses.

Question 20

What did the Ussuri River Dispute build up to?

Answer 20

Each side were prepared for nuclear confrontation

Question 21

What was the aim of the Cultural Revolution

Answer 21

• Strengthen and reassert control over the CCP
• ‘Crush those who are taking the capitalist route’
• Recover from the Great Leap Forward

Question 22

How did Mao mobilise the youth?

Answer 22

• Set them up as Red Guards to attack perceived enemies of the revolution
• Set these in schools and colleges and mayhem occurred
• Party officials, teachers and intellectuals also found themselves targets - they were publicly humiliated, beaten and in some cases murdered or driven to suicide after vicious “struggle sessions

Question 23

How many lost their lives August-September 1966 due to Cultural Revolution?

Answer 23

1800

Question 24

What did Mao do in 1968 regarding Cultural Revolution?

Answer 24

Realised revolution spiralled out of control
- Sent youth for ‘re-education’
- Ordered army to restore order lasting until 1971

Question 25

Emphaisis of cultural revolution on sino-soviet split

Answer 25

• China had accused USSR of revisionism and as he was trying to remove revisionists from his party it was an attack on the USSR
• Deepened ideological divisions
• Red guards attacked Soviet embassy on February 28, 1967

Question 26

What was the Sino-Soviet border conflict of 1969?

Answer 26

Series of armed clashes between the Soviet Union and PRC