1) Why was Stalin reluctant to support Mao and the CCP?
a) According to Chang and Halliday in Source A, how did Mao view Khrushchev?
b) What does Gaddis mean in Source B when he says that ‘Khrushchev and Mao had all the prejudices of nationalists’?
3) Discuss what reasons Chang and Halliday give for Mao’s initiation of the second Taiwan crisis
-Jung Chang and Jon Halliday believed that the reason for Mao’s initiation of the second Taiwan crisis to force the USA to threaten nuclear war in order to scare his own ally – a ruse unique in the annals of statecraft
4)
a) What key points are made in Source B about Sino-Soviet Relations?
b) Compare and Contrast the views in Sources A and C on what caused the Sino-Soviet Split
John Lewis Gaddis explains that according to Mao, the Sino-Soviet alliance had outlived its usefulness, and Khrushchev, fearing the outcomes of this tried desperately to reconstitute it right up to the moment he was deposed in 1964, despite repeated insults, rebuffs and even instances of deliberate sabotage from Mao. However Mike Sewell believed the breakdown in relations was due to the perceived arrogance from the Russians, as well as the Soviets insistence on payment for material supplied during the Korean War. Other reasons included a growing friction in ideology due to the de-Stalinization and attacks on the cult of personality as well as the great leap forward. He also believed that a breakdown was also caused by the poor personal relations between the leaders and that Mao resented criticism of Molotov and the ‘anti-party group’ for views that resembled his own.
5)
The Chinese Civil War:
Stalin’s attitude to Mao
The Korean War
Stalin’s Death
Khrushchev’s new Policies
Mao’s response to Khrushchev
The Great Leap Forward
Events in order of Importance
1. Taiwan
2. Khrushchev’s new policies
3. The great leap forward
4. Albania
5. Korean War
6. Chinese Civil War
7. Mao’s response to Khrushchev
8. Stalin’s death
9. Stalin’s attitude to Mao
6)
a) Explain the propaganda message in Source A -To be passive and to live in peace and harmony with imperialists of the world
-Mao is trying to spread the idea that the people are the power and they have the power to stand up and change their situation. He is also trying to spread the message that victory is first priority and peace is second.
b) What is the message of Source C?
c) What are the key points being made by the Soviets in Source D?
Purpose: To provoke Mao
Content: Lack of fear towards a nuclear war
8)
a) What is the message of the cartoonist in Source A?
9)
a)What criticisms of the USSR’s action in Czechoslovakia are made in Sources A and B?
Criticisms of the USSR’s actions in Czechoslovakia are:
b)Why might other Communist states agree with the opinions given in these speeches by Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao?
10) This photograph is one of the most iconic images from the pro-democracy demonstrations in China. Why do you think this image is so powerful?
- Major ideological differences
- Stalin felt that Mao interpreted Marxism in the wrong way. Mao used peasants as the basis for revolution however Stalin believed that Marxism should feature workers leading an urban-based war instead.
- Stalin also feared that Mao would become the leader of the Communist World
- Stalin feared the Cold War spreading to Asia, he did not want this
- Knew that Jiang’s GMD would recognise Soviet claims to the disputed border territory along frontiers in Manchuria and Xinjiang
- Underestimated the CCP and believed the GMD to be the stronger party
- He urged the CCP to unite with the GMD, even in the late 1940s, when CCP victory was looking inevitable
- Though Stalin knew that the Guomindang would recognise USSR’s claims to the border and frontiers of Manchuria/Xinjiang, and believed that the Guomindang was fundamentally stronger than the CCP, he still preferred to try and get the GMD and CCP to unite for a civil war to not happen
a) According to Chang and Halliday in Source A, how did Mao view Khrushchev?
- Mao saw Khrushchev as a ‘blunder’ and was very ‘disaster prone’, and saw him as someone that would do anything to become the ultimate Communist power.
- Mao was confident that he could use Khrushchev’s vulnerability to his advantage
- One of Mao’s ultimate goals was to take Khrushchev down as the leader of the Communist bloc
- Mao believed it was his, and China’s time to become leader of the Communist bloc, ever since Stalin’s death
b) What does Gaddis mean in Source B when he says that ‘Khrushchev and Mao had all the prejudices of nationalists’?
- Despite being Communist leaders, Khrushchev and Mao had Nationalist opinions
- Neither side fully entrusted/believed in the other nor did they understand each other
- they both thought their own country was superior to any other, believing that everyone else was inferior
3) Discuss what reasons Chang and Halliday give for Mao’s initiation of the second Taiwan crisis
-Jung Chang and Jon Halliday believed that the reason for Mao’s initiation of the second Taiwan crisis to force the USA to threaten nuclear war in order to scare his own ally – a ruse unique in the annals of statecraft
4)
a) What key points are made in Source B about Sino-Soviet Relations?
- China and USSR had a bad relationship
- Strong sense of racism between the two countries
- USSR blamed the Chinese for being selfish on the failure of their relationship
b) Compare and Contrast the views in Sources A and C on what caused the Sino-Soviet Split
John Lewis Gaddis explains that according to Mao, the Sino-Soviet alliance had outlived its usefulness, and Khrushchev, fearing the outcomes of this tried desperately to reconstitute it right up to the moment he was deposed in 1964, despite repeated insults, rebuffs and even instances of deliberate sabotage from Mao. However Mike Sewell believed the breakdown in relations was due to the perceived arrogance from the Russians, as well as the Soviets insistence on payment for material supplied during the Korean War. Other reasons included a growing friction in ideology due to the de-Stalinization and attacks on the cult of personality as well as the great leap forward. He also believed that a breakdown was also caused by the poor personal relations between the leaders and that Mao resented criticism of Molotov and the ‘anti-party group’ for views that resembled his own.
5)
The Chinese Civil War:
- Stalin failed to give support to the CCP in the Chinese Civil War
- This led Mao to believe that Stalin wanted a divided and weak China to leave the USSR dominant in Asia
- Stalin’s policies rooted in self-interest rather than true revolutionary doctrine
Stalin’s attitude to Mao
- Stalin did not believe that Mao’s ideology was correct
- Mao believed Stalin saw him as another Tito rather than a true revolutionary
- Believed that Stalin was ‘making puppets out o the Chinese’
- Mao thought the accommodation given to the Chinese was poor when they went to visit Moscow to sign the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance
The Korean War
- Soviets demanded that China pay for all the weapons and materials the USSR supplied
Stalin’s Death
- Mao had respect for Stalin however he would have very bad relations with the next leader, Khrushchev.
Khrushchev’s new Policies
- ‘Secret Speech’ by Khrushchev in Moscow on 24th Feb 1956 attacking Stalin’s crimes against the party, including comments about the ‘cult of personality’
- Mao saw this as an attack on his own style of leadership
- Crushing of the Hungarian Uprising in Oct/Nov 1956
- Mao saw this, and Soviet problems in East Germany and Poland, as failures by the USSR to contain reactionary forces
- Khrushchev’s doctrine of ‘peaceful co-existence’ with the West
- Mao saw this as ideological heresy
- Mao saw all of this as evidence that the Soviet Union was now dominated by ‘revisionists’
Mao’s response to Khrushchev
- When Khrushchev attempted to ease the growing tension between the USSR and China by visiting Mao in Beijing, Mao went out of his way to make Khrushchev feel uncomfortable
- Khrushchev’s hotel had no air conditioning and was plagued by mosquitos during Beijing’s summer heat
- Mao arranged a round of talks in his swimming pool even though Khrushchev hated swimming
- Khrushchev had to wear a pair of shorts that were too tight
- Had to be helped to float by a rubber ring
- PRC was preparing for a full-scale attack on Taiwan
- However Mao did not launch an attack since he did not have the support of the Soviet Union and was unprepared to take on the full might of the US war machine
- Khrushchev said he was not prepared to go to war with the US to ‘test the stability’ of the Capitalist system
- Accused Mao’s regime of being ‘Trotskyist’ in pursuing international revolution at any cost
- Soviets also saw this action as evidence of Mao’s lack of understanding of political reality and his tendency towards fanaticism
- Khrushchev said he was not prepared to go to war with the US to ‘test the stability’ of the Capitalist system
- The effect of the Taiwan crisis were negative for Sino-Soviet relations
- Soviets withdrew their economic advisers and cancelled commercial contracts with the PRC
The Great Leap Forward
- The great leap forward was a total economic disaster for China
- Soviets called the rapid industrial change aspect of the GLF ‘faulty in design and erroneous in practice’
- Mao was personally furious at this criticism
- It was rumoured that the PRC Chief of Staff, Marshal Peng, had given information to the Soviets about the widespread starvation caused by the agriculture methods of the GLF leading to further humiliation
- Soviet government declared that the concepts and applications used were ‘unorthodox’ and the Soviet official press reveled in the failure, denouncing Mao
- Mao was infuriated and determined to strike back at the USSR for undermining the position of the PRC in the eyes of the international Communist community
- The PRC would now back any Communist country that dissented from Moscow’s lead
- Mao was infuriated and determined to strike back at the USSR for undermining the position of the PRC in the eyes of the international Communist community
- In 1961, USSR withdrew aid to Albania
- Khrushchev made a speech that year, attacking the Albanian regime for its ‘Stalinist’ doctrines and backward ways
- The PRC observer at the Congress walked out in protest since China interpreted this speech as an attack o their system as well
- PRC offered to replace Soviet money and technical assistance given to Albania
- Led to the final severance of diplomatic relations between the Soviets and the Chinese Communists
Events in order of Importance
1. Taiwan
2. Khrushchev’s new policies
3. The great leap forward
4. Albania
5. Korean War
6. Chinese Civil War
7. Mao’s response to Khrushchev
8. Stalin’s death
9. Stalin’s attitude to Mao
6)
a) Explain the propaganda message in Source A -To be passive and to live in peace and harmony with imperialists of the world
-Mao is trying to spread the idea that the people are the power and they have the power to stand up and change their situation. He is also trying to spread the message that victory is first priority and peace is second.
b) What is the message of Source C?
c) What are the key points being made by the Soviets in Source D?
- The Soviets wanted Communism not by unleashing nuclear wars on other countries, but through class struggle.
- · There will not be a world/future if we use nuclear weapons
- · That socialism should be won by class struggle
- · If it’s the people’s duty to rise up against imperialism, why has he done nothing with the working class of imperialistic countries
- With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the values and limitations of Source D for historians studying Sino-soviet relations
Purpose: To provoke Mao
Content: Lack of fear towards a nuclear war
8)
a) What is the message of the cartoonist in Source A?
- Mao was seen as China’s atomic bomb as he was mad for power and was going to destroy his own country
- China wasn't a major player however Mao was dangerous because he had no limitations and was unpredictable, making nuclear war possible.
- According to John Lewis Gaddis Mao wanted to encourage international hostility towards China in order to create a equilibrium, a world filled to danger which could minimize the risk that rivals within China might challenge his rule.
9)
a)What criticisms of the USSR’s action in Czechoslovakia are made in Sources A and B?
Criticisms of the USSR’s actions in Czechoslovakia are:
- Example of fascist power politics played by Soviet Union
- Marks the total bankruptcy of Soviet revisionism
- Chinese Government and people strongly condemn the Soviet revisionist leading clique and its followers for their crime of aggression
- Your own sovereignty is ‘limited’ while Soviets is unlimited
- Soviet Union is trying to create a dictatorship over the people of other country
- Leaders of the Soviet Union are acting like new Tsars
b)Why might other Communist states agree with the opinions given in these speeches by Zhou Enlai and Lin Biao?
10) This photograph is one of the most iconic images from the pro-democracy demonstrations in China. Why do you think this image is so powerful?
- It is so powerful because it demonstrates how China feels towards democracy. China will use everything within their power to prevent the rise of democracy within their own country because they believe in Communism, the belief that the people should bow down to the leader of their beloved country and that the Chinese government officials are the ones with the power to control the people. It also shows how violent and ruthless Chinese leaders can be, and how corrupt their governmental system is. To think that the leaders of China can bare to have their own people, as well as foreigners, killed by armed tanks; it is as if an indirect form of murder. Does that not show their tyrannical nature?