Soviet policy in the developing world and the Chinese challenge in the 1960s

Jeremy Friedman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1982. He completed his BA in history and philosophy at Stanford in 2004 and his MA in history at Princeton in 2006. He is currently working on a dissertation project entitled ‘Reviving Revolution: the Sino-Soviet Split, the ‘Third World’, and the Fate of the Left’ .

Abstract

The Editors of the journal Cold War History have the pleasure to present this paper as the winner of the Best Paper Award at the last Graduate Conference on the Cold War, jointly organised every year by the University of California, Santa Barbara, the George Washington University, Washington DC, and the London School of Economics and Political Science, London. It is not often that a paper, as was the case with this one, won unanimous endorsement from prominent Cold War scholars from all three institutions, present at the Conference. The last Conference was organised in April 2009, at LSE, in London and the host of the next one to be held on 22–24 April 2010 will be the George Washington University. By continuing with the practice we inaugurated last year, we wish to underline our commitment to promoting and encouraging new and substantive research of the Cold War by young scholars.

As the colonial system collapsed quicker than anticipated in the post-Second World War period, the Soviet Union found itself unprepared, and it hurriedly tried to build the institutions necessary to conduct an active foreign, economic and military policy in the newly emerging states. The development of the Sino–Soviet split triggered a Chinese challenge to this Soviet push for influence, with Beijing portraying the USSR as another white, imperialist power that valued relations with the West over the cause of national liberation. Moscow was consequently forced to adapt its policy, particularly by taking a more militant approach, in order to neutralise the Chinese threat.

Notes

Jeremy Friedman was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1982. He completed his BA in history and philosophy at Stanford in 2004 and his MA in history at Princeton in 2006. He is currently working on a dissertation project entitled ‘Reviving Revolution: the Sino-Soviet Split, the ‘Third World’, and the Fate of the Left’ .

 [1] Quoted in S. Ogurtsov, ‘Razvivaiushchiesia Strany I Sotsial'nyi Progress’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia no. 7 (July 1963), 2.

 [2] See, for example, Bradley Simpson, Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.–Indonesia Relations, 1960–1968 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008), 62–73.

 [3] See, for example Jerry F. Hough, The Struggle for the Third World: Soviet Debates and American Options (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1986), Mark N. Katz, The Third World in Soviet Military Thought (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982) and The USSR and Marxist Revolutions in the Third World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), Margot Light, ed., Troubled Friendships: Moscow's Third World Ventures (London: British Academic Press, 1993), Neil S. MacFarlane, Superpower Rivalry and Third World Radicalism (Baltimore: JHU Press, 1985), Arthur Rubinstein. Moscow's Third World Strategy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), Carol R. Saivetz and Sylvia Woodby, Soviet–Third World Relations (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1985), Joseph G. Wheelan and Michael J. Dixon, The Soviet Union in the Third World: Threat to World Peace? (New York: Pergamen-Brassey's, 1986).

 [4] Galia Golan, The Soviet Union and National Liberation Movements in the Third World (Boston, MA: Allen & Unwin, 1988).

 [5] Piero Gleijeses, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa 1959–1976 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).

 [6] Donald W. Treadgold, ‘Alternative Western Views of the Sino–Soviet Conflict’, in The Sino–Soviet Conflict: A Global Perspective, ed. Herbert J. Ellison (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982), 325–55.

 [7] Lorenz Luthi, The Sino–Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), 2.

 [8] RGANI F.5 O.14 d.19, 12–4.

 [9] RGANI F.5 O.14 d.19, 14.

[10] Karen Brutents, Tridtsat' let na Staroi Ploshchadi (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniia, 1998), 197–8.

[11] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.272, 43–5.

[12] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.272, 176.

[13] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.272, 220.

[14] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.371, 40–139.

[15] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.371, 147–50.

[16] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.371, 227–36.

[17] Brutents, 170.

[18] For discussion on the relationship between SCSCAA and Aziia i Afrika Segodnia see for example GARF F.9540 O.1 d.80, 49.

[19] RGANI F.5 O.33 d.171, 25–92.

[20] RGANI F.5 O.33 d.175, 82–7.

[21] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.62, 16.

[22] RGANI F.2 O.1 d.510, 19.

[23] RGANI F.2 O.1 d.510, 20.

[24] See V. Pavlov, ‘Soiuz Rabochego Klassa i Krest'ianstva i Sotsial'nye Preobrazovaniia na Vostoke’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia no. 10 (October 1961), 10; G. Kotovskii, ‘Sel'skokhoziastvennyi Proletariat v Stranakh Azii i Afriki’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia no. 5 (May 1962), 16–8; G. Kim, ‘O Gosudarstve Natsional'noi Demokratii’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia No. 10 (October 1962), 2–5.

[25] See I. Potekhin, ‘Afrika: Itgoi i Perspektivy Antiimperialisticheskoi Revoliutsii’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia no. 10 (October 1962), 14–5; and G. Kim, ‘O Gosudarstve Natsional'noi Demokratii’.

[26] V. Li, ‘Dva Litsa Odnogo Klassa’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia no. 3 (March 1962), 6–9.

[27] G. Kim, ‘O Gosudarstve Natsional'noi Demokratii’, 5.

[28] V. Li, ‘O Nekapitalisticheskom Puti Razvitiia’, Aziia i Afrika Segodnia, no. 11, November, 1961, 13.

[29] V. Pavlov, ‘Soiuz Rabochego Klassa i Krest'ianstvo i Sotsial'nye Preobrazovaniia na Vostoke’, 10.

[30] V. Pavlov, ‘Soiuz Rabochego Klassa i Krest'ianstvo i Sotsial'nye Preobrazovaniia na Vostoke’, 12.

[31] V. Li, ‘O Nekapitalisticheskom Puti Razvitiia’, 10; G. Kim, ‘O Gosudarstve Natsional'noi Demokratii’, 2.

[32] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.371, 162.

[33] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.371, 228.

[34] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.371, 165.

[35] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.60, 39.

[36] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.62, 3.

[37] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.60, 35.

[38] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.60, 117.

[39] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.369, 105.

[40] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.109, 97–8.

[41] AVPRF F.0100 O.48 Papka 203 Por. 37 d.KI-722, 201.

[42] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.81, 12.

[43] RGANI F.5 O.33 d.177, 64.

[44] AVPRF F.0100 O.48 Papka 203 Por. 37 d.KI-722, 201.

[45] See AVPRF F.100 O.48 Papka 203 d.KI-722, 201 and AVPRF F.0100 O.47 Papka 197 Por. 45 d.KI-722, 21–2, quoting the Nepalese, paper Svatantra Samachar, March 27, 1960.

[46] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.81, 17.

[47] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.109, 54.

[48] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.109

[49] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.109, 52.

[50] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.109, 103.

[51] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.110, 4.

[52] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.129, 28.

[53] RGANI F.5 O.33 d.208, 20.

[54] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.54, 39.

[55] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.54, 61–2.

[56] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.116, 26–7.

[57] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.116, 7.

[58] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.116, 6–25.

[59] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.116, 92–104.

[60] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.116, 25.

[61] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.400, 23.

[62] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.400, 38.

[63] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.116, 453.

[64] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.56, 149.

[65] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.1, 135.

[66] See, for example, a Xinua delegation's report on its visit to Latin America in Waijiaobu Dang'anguan (PRC Foreign Ministry archive) Doc.111-00274-01, 13.

[67] Waijiaobu Dang'anguan Doc.111-00163-01, 18–21 on Che Guevara's visit to China 11/8–12/1/1960.

[68] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.58, 73.

[69] Stenogram of Presidium session June 7, 1963 in Arkhivy Kremlia: Prezidium TsK KPSS 1954–1964, ed. A.A. Fursenko (Moscow: ROSSPEN, 2004), 722.

[70] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.28 Papka 44, 8–28.

[71] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.30 Papka 44, 60.

[72] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.28 Papka 44, 237.

[73] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.28 Papka 44, 171.

[74] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.26 Papka 43, 37.

[75] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.30 Papka 44, 83.

[76] Stenogram of Presidium session September 10, 1963 in Arkhivy Kremlia: Prezidium TsK KPSS 1954–1964, 759.

[77] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.58, 118.

[78] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.58, 124.

[79] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.58, 155.

[80] RGANI F.5 O.55 d.54, 346–53.

[81] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.435, 47.

[82] ‘Vazhneishaia Zadacha’, Aziia I Afrika Segodnia, September 1963, 3.

[83] G. Kim, ‘Natsional'naia Nezavisimost’ I Sotsial'nyi Progress', Aziia I Afrika Segodnia (October 1964), 4–7.

[84] G. Kim, ‘Natsional'naia Nezavisimost’ I Sotsial'nyi Progress', Aziia I Afrika Segodnia (October 1964), 6.

[85] E. Alekseev, ‘Natsional'no-Osvoboditel'noe Dvizhenie – Sostavnaia Chast’ Mirovogo Revoliutsionnogo Protsessa', Aziia I Afrika Segodnia (December 1963), 3.

[86] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.456, 51.

[87] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.456, 58.

[88] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.188, 12.

[89] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.188, 11.

[90] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.188, 16 and 35.

[91] AVPRF F.079 O.19 Por.28 Papka 44, 106.

[92] RGANI F.5 O.30 d.307, 85.

[93] RGANI F.5 O.33 d.177, 2–12.

[94] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.109, 85.

[95] See GARF F.9540 O.1 d.154, 13 and 55.

[96] E. Alekseev, 4.

[97] RGANI F.2 O.1 d.820, 12.

[98] GARF F.9540 O.1 d.208, 5–8.

[99] AVPRF F.100 O.56 Por.36 Papka 240 delo KI-716/3, 42–4.