‘How Far Was the Sino-Soviet Split of the Late 1960s the Result of Ideological Differences Between the Two Communists’ Powers?’

787 Words4 Pages
Tensions between China and Russia had long existed. In fact, the period of close relations between 1949 and 1956 are better seen as an exceptional interlude in a much longer historical pattern if mutual hostility. However tensions arose between the two communists’ powers in the late 1960s not due to just ideological differences, but also to national interest and the role of personality, as all three played an important role to the deterrence of the Sino-soviet relations. The Sino-soviet split in the late 1960s was the result of ideological differences between the two communists’ powers due to the fact that both superpowers had different opinions on the best way to peruse communist revolution. Khrushchev’s post Stalin policies began to irritate Mao; disagreeing when Khrushchev denounced Stalin in his speech to the twentieth congress 1956 and when he restored relations with Tito the Yugoslavia leader who also denounced Stalin. These occurrences shocked Mao, who had supported Stalin ideologically and politically, because Khrushchev was dismantling Mao's support of the USSR with public rejections of most of Stalin's leadership and actions, such as announcing the end of the Cominform, and, de-emphasising the core Marxist–Leninist thesis of inevitable war between capitalism and socialism. Resultantly, contradicting Stalin, Khrushchev was advocating the idea of "Peaceful Coexistence", between communist and capitalist nations—which directly challenged Mao's "lean-to-one-side" foreign policy, adopted after the Chinese Civil War. Therefore Mao accused Khrushchev of pursing a more revisionist approach and turning away from the traditional communism in order to maintain unity at home and leading Mao to focus more on national interest as he would increase independent actions of China from Moscow due to the ideological split with the USSR. Mao attempted to challenge
Open Document