Ideological Relations between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev - Essay Example

Ideological Relations between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev 1. History: The worsening of political and ideological relationship between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev led to the Sino-Soviet Split. In 1960, China and Soviet Union were believed to be the two largest states with the communist approach internationally (Ross 3). The origin of Sino- Soviet split can be found from the era of 1940’s, when China fought the Sino-Japanese war (1937-45) against Japan (Kuo 64). At that time the Communist Party of China (CCP) was led by Mao Zedong. During the same time, the Communist Party of China (CCP) was also fighting the Chinese Civil War (Lynch 7). The second fight was against the nationalist Kuomintang (Marks 10). The Nationalist Kuomintang was led by Chiang kai Shek. The overlapping wars persuaded Mao to ignore the advices and directions by Stalin. During the Second World War (1939-1945) Mao followed the lead of Stalin and agreed on the Joint Anti-Japanese Coalition with leader of Nationalist Kuomintang, Chiang Kai Shek (Hershberg 149). The treaty of friendship was signed with Nationalist Kuomintang in 1945. After 3 months of Japan’s surrender Stalin broke the treaty (Li 4). In 1950, Mao Signed Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship & Alliance (Li 409). The alliance resulted in $300Mio loan at a very minimal interest rate along with the military alliance for the period of 30 years. In 1954, after the death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev met Mao and formally handed over Port Arther base to China (Khoo 4). The Post Stalin policies by Khrushchev were in conflict with the mind set of Mao. The reason was that Khrushchev denounced Stalin through his speeches. In 1956, Khrushchev developed relationship with Yugoslavia. The leader of Yugoslavia Joseph Broz Tito was denounced by Stalin. Mao was the supporter of Stalin’s ideology. Khrushchev tried to dismantle Mao’s support of USSR. Khrushchev met with the US president on 1959 to improve the Soviet-America relationships. Khrushchev also tried to decrease the tensions with the Western World in the Cold war. Ultimately, the ideological debate between the two parties i.e. Russia & China were majorly concerned with the peaceful co-existence with the capitalist world. The major reason of the Sino-Soviet split was the national difference. The political line of Mao was totally opposed to that of Khrushchev. Therefore, the conflict in political perspectives between the two parties leads to the creation of two rival formations internationally. The issue was not explicitly considered as the national difference. The issue was believed to be the different historical developments between Russia & China. Different level of productive forces was considered as the major difference between two rivals. In addition to this, the Russian revolution began from the cities and moved towards the country side, whereas the Chinese revolutions began from countryside and moved towards the cities (Westad 9). Moreover, the relations to imperialism between the countries were also having different perspective. The Sini Soviet split was basically the ideological conflicts. Therefore, in 1960, the worsening of ideological relationships between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev lead to the Sini Soviet Split. 2. Critical Evaluation of the Sources Most of the data regarding the Sino Soviet Split was retrieved from number of different sources. A brief critical evaluation of two of the sources is as follows Source 1: Sino Soviet Conflict: Cold War In the Communist World 1921-1959 The Sino Soviet Conflict was the book written by Lorenz Luthi, which was published in 2010. The book elaborated the Sino-Soviet Conflict with great details. Therefore, the book describes in detail history of Cold war and the reasons of Sino Soviet Conflict. Usefulness of the Source The Usefulness of the source can be explained in terms of the following points a) Origin: The origin of the source is that the book was written by McGill graduate professor Lorenz Luthi because he wanted to find out the true historical background of the reasons behind Sino Soviet Conflict b) Purpose: The Purpose was to elaborate the reasons behind the ideological conflicts between Mao and Khrushchev c) Value: The source can help to answer research question of how did the worsening of ideological relations between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev le to the sini-soviet split in the 1960s. Limitations: The major limitation of the source was that the source is limited to the historical background up to 1959. The study of the period after 1959, we need further sources. Biasedness: The details and history of Sino-Soviet conflict was rational and the ideological difference was presented very rationally. Source 2:  Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967 The Second source selected to further answer the research question was the book by Surgery Radchenko. Usefulness of the Source: The Usefulness of the source can be explained in terms of the following points a) Origin: the book was written by, Professor Sergey Radchenko a graduate from London School of Economics b) Purpose: The Purpose was to elaborate the Ideological conflicts and activities after 1960 till 1967 c) Value: The source can help to answer research question of the research area under study by further understanding the post split activities. Limitations: The major limitation of the source was that the source is limited to the historical background from 1962-1967. It can be studied with another other sources that elaborates the previous history Bias: The details are titled more towards favoring Chinese ideologies against the USSR ideologies. 3. Analysis: This section of the report evaluates the sources used to answer the research question of how did the worsening of ideological relations between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev lead to the sini-soviet split in the 1960s? Ideological Difference Existed Between Mao & Khrushchev The major difference between Mao and Khrushchev ideologies were based on the Geo-political and historical difference between the Chinese and Russian revolutions, which are as follows. 1. The different level of productive forces development: China was backward in this regard and USSR reached the stage of development of productive forces. The national resources were no longer able to utilize the resources separately from the world. The capacity of bureaucratic command to boost the economic structure was becoming exhaustive during 1956-60.On the other hand, China was at the earlier stage of the economic development. 2. The Russian Revolution began from cities and moved to countryside; where as Chinese revolution began from countryside and moved to cities. 3. The Chinese were threatened by imperialism whereas USSR felt less threatened. After developing the cognizant regarding the geo political and historical difference between China and USSR. The Ideological differences between the Mao and Khrushchev can be analyzed easily Khrushchev Ideology “The Khrushchev ideology was that the formation of De-Stalinization and implementation of Peaceful Co-existence” The de-Stalinization refers to the process of political reforms that began after the death of Stalin. The major purpose of the reform to remove and change the process that gave power to Stalin’s. In addition to this, the Peaceful Co-existence was a theory developed by the Soviet Union that co-existence peacefully cans occur within the capitalist bloc, which may also refer the non-social state. Mao Zedong Ideology: Mao’s ideology was that to Support the idea of Anti-revisionist form of Marxism-Leninism and support Community Party of China. The Maoism was the concept to support agrarian peasantry instead of working class. Mao Zedong was the supporter of communism and strongly against the Marxism-Leninism. How Did the Ideological conflicts lead to Sino-Soviet Conflicts The details and history of Sino-Soviet conflict, which have already been discussed in the introduction section of the report is elaborated further here. The Stalin’s ideology was clearly presented along with the way how Khrushchev denounced the Stalin thorough his activities and speeches. According to Khrushchev, when he visited Beijing in 1954, the Soviet Leaders realized that their predecessors had fallen tried to exploit their allies economically but they found the Chinese culture unfathomable, which was the major reason of conflict (Luthi 39). The ideological difference was also because of the geo-political and historical difference between China and Russia. Both the parties found each other beliefs and ideas unmatchable. The USSR preference of non social state and the Chinese preference of communism were the most important concerns. . In 1956, Khrushchev developed relationship with Yugoslavia. The leader of Yugoslavia Joseph Broz Tito was denounced by Stalin. Mao was the supporter of Stalin’s ideology. Khrushchev tried to dismantle Mao’s support of USSR. Khrushchev met with the US president on 1959 to improve the Soviet-America relationships. The result of such conflict was threat in 1962, the PRC and USSR broke relations because of their international actions. 4. Conclusion The thorough analysis of the sources for the research area under study the research question How did the worsening of ideological relations between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev lead to the sini-soviet split in the 1960s? Can be answered clearly as follows; The preference of Mao Zedong towards the communist rights and ideas as opposed to that of Marxism-Leninism developed a conflicting view with the Khrushchev ideology, which wanted to develop the non-social state and was against the Stalin ideas. Therefore, such conflicts led to the Sini-Soviet split in 1960. The books used as the source to answer the research question proved to be very helpful. In the book Sino Soviet Conflict: Cold War in the Communist World 1921-1959 the details and history of Sino-Soviet conflict was rational and the ideological difference was presented very rationally. In addition to this, the book presented the historical background from 1921-1959. The book Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967 elaborated the post-split struggle for supremacy. After the conflict in 1962, the PRC and USSR broke relations because of their international actions. The historical background mentioned in the book was explained in great details to help the researchers to evaluate the difference between the ideologies. Reference List Luthi, Lorenz. Sino Soviet Conflict: Cold War in the Communist World. 2008. Princeton University Press Radchenko, Sergey. Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967 (Cold War International History Project). 2009. Edition. Stanford University Press. Khoo, Nicholas. Collateral Damage: Sino-Soviet Rivalry & The Termination of Vietnamese Alliance. 2011. Columbia University Press Li, Mingjiang. Mao's China and the Sino-Soviet Split: Ideological Dilemma (Routledge Contemporary China Series). 2012. Edition. Routledge. Ross, Robert. China, the United States, and the Soviet Union: Tripolarity and Policy Making in the Cold War (Studies on Contemporary China). 1993. Edition. M E Sharpe Inc. Kuo, A.M. Contending with Contradictions. 2001. Edition. Lexington Books. Lynch, Michael. The Chinese Civil War 1945-49 (Essential Histories). 2010. Edition. Osprey Publishing. Marks, A. T. Counterrevolution in China: Wang Sheng and the Kuomintang. 1998. Edition. Routledge Hershberg, J.G. The Cold War in Asia. 1996. Edition. Diane Pub Co. Li , Xiaobing. China at War: An Encyclopedia. 2012. Edition. ABC-CLIO. Westad, O.A.. Brothers in Arms. 2000. Edition. Stanford University Press. Read More