Communist+World+Splits+USSR+vs.+China

**Sino-Soviet Split By Hugo Dobson,** and Roozbear ** (Ahsquin!) **
In October 1949 the People's Republic of China was proclaimed by Mao Zedong and by May 1950 the Civil War in China was brought to an end. As a result China was now ruled by a communist government that wholeheartedly believed in Marxist-Leninist ideology, in much the same way as the Communist Party of the USSR. In February 1950 the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship was signed. This signalled a relatively brief period of great harmony between the two nations. Soviet design, equipment and skilled labour was gifted to the PRC to help with industrialisation and modernisation. However this assistance did not match up to the help that China had hoped for. The two countries continued to cooperate, with the Korean War and 1954 Geneva Conference being two notable examples. Stalin's death in 1953 and Khrushchev's rise to power marked the start of a new era in Sino-Soviet relations.

Mao Zedong became increasingly irritated by Khrushchev's policies. He felt threatened when Khrushchev began to undermine Stalin, who Mao had worked closely with and openly supported. Even more worryingly for Mao, Khrushchev had begun to promote "peaceful coexistence" between the East and the West, and between communist and capitalist countries, something Mao saw as naive and impossible. He felt that he could no longer rely on the USSR for military assistance if China came into conflict with the USA or the West.

In the early 1960s the USSR began to renege on its commitments to the PRC, refusing to support Mao in the Sino-Indian War in 1963, and also withholding the information necessary to develop nuclear weapons, something they had promised China. Mao was also very worried about the USSR's warmer relationship with the USA.

Later in the 1960s the USSR drastically increased troop deployments along the Sino-Soviet border, and in 1969 Russian and Chinese troops clashed along the Ussuri River, on Damansky Island. Many observers predicted war at this stage, but it wasn't to be. In 1970 Mao seemed to realise that he would not be able to sustain a war against both the USA and the USSR, and, seeing the USA as the "lesser of two evils", sought an accommodation with the USA against the USSR. The USSR was furious, but soon had their own agreement with Washington, creating an interesting triangular relationship between the three countries. This signalled the end of the worst period of the Sino-Soviet split.

This seemingly tame period of relations has run-on effects today. For instance there are two communist parties in India: Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist), the former aligned with Russia and the latter aligned with China.