Research Guides: HIST 296 Research Guide: Sino-Soviet Relations: Academic Writings

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Books

China Learns from the Soviet Union, 1949-Present by Thomas P. Bernstein and Hua-Yu Li (eds.) In this book an international group of scholars examines China's acceptance and ultimate rejection of Soviet models and practices in economic, cultural, social, and other realms.
Call Number: Main DS740.5.S65 C456 2011
ISBN: 9780739142233
Publication Date: 2011
The Soviet Union and Communist China 1945-1950: the Arduous Road to the Alliance by Dieter Heinzig Drawing on a wealth of new sources, this work documents the evolving relationship between Moscow and Peking in the twentieth century. Using newly available Russian and Chinese archival documents, memoirs written in the 1980s and 1990s, and interviews with high-ranking Soviet and Chinese eyewitnesses, the book provides the basis for a new interpretation of this relationship and a glimpse of previously unknown events that shaped the Sino-Soviet alliance. An appendix contains translated Chinese and Soviet documents - many of which are being published for the first time. The book focuses mainly on Communist China's relationship with Moscow after the conclusion of the treaty between the Soviet Union and Kuomingtang China in 1945, up until the signing of the treaty between Moscow and the Chinese Communist Party in 1950. It also looks at China's relationship with Moscow from 1920 to 1945, as well as developments from 1950 to the present. The author reevaluates existing sources and literature on the topic, and demonstrates that the alliance was reached despite disagreements and distrust on both sides and was not an inevitable conclusion. He also shows that the relationship between the two Communist parties was based on national interest politics, and not on similar ideological convictions.
Call Number: Asia DK68.7.C5 H4513 2004
ISBN: 9780765607850
Publication Date: 2003
The Sino-Soviet Alliance by Austin Jersild In 1950 the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and Mutual Assistance to foster cultural and technological cooperation between the Soviet bloc and the PRC. While this treaty was intended as a break with the colonial past, Austin Jersild argues that the alliance ultimately failed because the enduring problem of Russian imperialism led to Chinese frustration with the Soviets. Jersild zeros in on the ground-level experiences of the socialist bloc advisers in China, who were involved in everything from the development of university curricula, the exploration for oil, and railway construction to piano lessons. Their goal was to reproduce a Chinese administrative elite in their own image that could serve as a valuable ally in the Soviet bloc's struggle against the United States. Interestingly, the USSR's allies in Central Europe were as frustrated by the "great power chauvinism" of the Soviet Union as was China. By exposing this aspect of the story, Jersild shows how the alliance, and finally the split, had a true international dimension.
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9781469611594
Publication Date: 2014
The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World by Lorenz M. Luthi A decade after the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China established their formidable alliance in 1950, escalating public disagreements between them broke the international communist movement apart. In The Sino-Soviet Split, Lorenz Lüthi tells the story of this rupture, which became one of the defining events of the Cold War. Identifying the primary role of disputes over Marxist-Leninist ideology, Lüthi traces their devastating impact in sowing conflict between the two nations in the areas of economic development, party relations, and foreign policy. The source of this estrangement was Mao Zedong's ideological radicalization at a time when Soviet leaders, mainly Nikita Khrushchev, became committed to more pragmatic domestic and foreign policies. Using a wide array of archival and documentary sources from three continents, Lüthi presents a richly detailed account of Sino-Soviet political relations in the 1950's and 1960's. He explores how Sino-Soviet relations were linked to Chinese domestic politics and to Mao's struggles with internal political rivals. Furthermore, Lüthi argues, the Sino-Soviet split had far-reaching consequences for the socialist camp and its connections to the nonaligned movement, the global Cold War, and the Vietnam War. The Sino-Soviet Split provides a meticulous and cogent analysis of a major political fallout between two global powers, opening new areas of research for anyone interested in the history of international relations in the socialist world.
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 9786612964756
Publication Date: 2008
Sino-Russian Relations: A Short History by R. K. I. Quested This book provides a systematic history of Sino-Russian relations, a history which is invaluable in forming an understanding of relations between the two nations today. Becoming neighbours in the seventeenth century, their changing relations in peace and war, in isolation, cooperation and confrontation have steadily assumed a greater importance in world politics and become increasingly important to the stability of international relations.
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 0415361680
Publication Date: 2005
Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-1967 by Sergey Radchenko Using newly available archival sources, Two Suns in the Heavens examines the dramatic deterioration of relations between the USSR and China in the 1960s, whereby once powerful allies became estranged, competitive, and increasingly hostile neighbors. Sergey Radchenko's authoritative account of these years shows how the intrinsic inequality of the Sino-Soviet alliance--seen as entirely natural by the Russians but bitterly resented by the Chinese--resulted in its ultimate collapse. Through a careful and comprehensive investigation of policymaking in both Moscow and Beijing, Radchenko creates a new framework for understanding the role of power struggle, ideology, personalities, and culture in Sino-Soviet relations.
Call Number: Main DK68.7.C5 R23 2009
ISBN: 9780804758796
Publication Date: 2009
Mao and the Sino-Soviet Partnership, 1945-1959 by Zhihua Shen; Yafeng Xia Based on Chinese archival documents, interviews, and more than twenty years of research on the subject, Zhihua Shen and Yafeng Xia offer a comprehensive look at the Sino-Soviet alliance between the end of the World War II and 1959, when the alliance was left in disarray as a result of foreign and domestic policies. This book is a reevaluation of the history of this alliance and is the first book published in English to examine it from a Chinese perspective.
Call Number: Ebook
ISBN: 1498511694
Publication Date: 2015
Brothers in Arms: The Rise and Fall of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1945-1963 by Odd Arne Westad This volume brings together young scholars from China, Russia, the United States, and Europe who, drawing on much newly available documentation, analyze the complicated and often stormy history of the Sino-Soviet relationship from World War II to the 1960s. This volume should be considered a first assessment of massive amounts of new information, providing new insights and many reevaluations of the various aspects of the alliance between China and the Soviet Union - its creation, aims and instruments, its strains and conflicts, and its final collapse.
Call Number: Asia DK68.7.C5 B75 1998
ISBN: 9780804734844
Publication Date: 1998

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles and Working Papers

Hershberg, James, Sergey Radchenko, Péter Vámos, and David Wolff. 2011. "The Interkit Story: A Window into the Final Decades of the Sino-Soviet Relationship." Working Paper #63. Cold War International History Project (CWIHP), Woodrow Wilson Center Press, February 2011. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-interkit-story-window-the-final-decades-the-sino-soviet-relationship.

Pollack, Jonathan D. 1978. “Sino-Soviet Relations.” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science 33 (1): 30–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/1173970.

Scalice, Joseph. 2021. “The Geopolitical Alignments of Diverging Social Interests: The Sino-Soviet Split and the Partido Komunista Ng Pilipinas, 1966–1967.” Critical Asian Studies 53 (1): 45–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2020.1870867.

Tang, Peter S. H. 1954. “Stalin’s Role in the Communist Victory in China.” The American Slavic and East European Review 13 (3): 375–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/2491819.

Zagoria, Donald S. 1974. “Mao’s Role in the Sino-Soviet Conflict.” Pacific Affairs 47 (2): 139–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/2755604.

Zhihua, Shen. 2000. “Sino-Soviet Relations and the Origins of the Korean War: Stalin’s Strategic Goals in the Far East.” Journal of Cold War Studies 2 (2): 44–68. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/9152.

HIST 296 Research Guide: Sino-Soviet Relations

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Peer-reviewed Journal Articles and Working Papers