History of Russia-China relations

Russia and China have been connected to each other for a thousand years of history, and today I would like to immerse you, dear listeners, in the history of our friendship and cooperation. So, let's begin.
In the 13th-14th centuries, the Russians and Chinese became subjects of the first ever "Eurasian confederation" - a state called the Mongol Empire. The Mongol Yuan Dynasty ruled China for 89 years (1279–1368) and the Mongols  ruled Russia for 237 years (1243–1480). Even after the empire integrated into separate uluses-kingdoms, Russian envoys reached the Bogdykhan’s residence in the city of Khanbalik, today’s Beijing, without any particular difficulty. The political matrix of our two civilizations has since retained the common features of a strong centralized power over vast and multinational spaces. This community predetermined the ease of political understanding and interaction in subsequent centuries, right up to the present day. Periods of rapid territorial expansion began simultaneously in Russia and China. During the reigns of Emperor Peter the Great (1682–1721) and Emperor Kangxi (1661–1722), in the 1670s–1690s, there were clashes between Russian Cossacks who were heading through the Urals to Siberia and the shores of Lake Baikal and Manchu troops who were marking the boundaries of their new possessions after the conquest of China. Several skirmishes between our pioneers and the servicemen of the young Qing Empire did not result in a full-fledged war, but ended with the signing of the first Russian-Chinese interstate document - the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689.

One cannot help but recall the 20th century, a century full of difficulties, trials, and also the broadening of horizons not only in the literal sense, but also in the diplomatic sense, especially if we talk about our Russian-Chinese, and then Soviet-Chinese relations. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Russia and China experienced many tragic events, including the Opium Wars in China, which greatly weakened the country, and the continuous hostility with Japan, starting in the 1900s and ending in the middle of the 20th century, in the period after World War II. The weakness of the Russian Empire and the Qing state soon manifested itself again, this time in wars against Japan. Humiliating defeats in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) hastened their collapse. The path to the victories of the great revolutions of the 20th century was opened to humanity by the Xinhai Revolution, which destroyed the Manchu Qing Dynasty in 1911. The Russian February and October Revolutions of 1917 almost coincided with it. It is no coincidence that the leaders of both revolutions, Sun Yat Sen and Vladimir Lenin, were interested in each other's experiences and even corresponded. The similarity of revolutionary ideals led to the involvement of Soviet Russia in Chinese affairs. The rapid spread of Bolshevism led to the creation of the Communist Party of China in 1921. Since then, our countries have cooperated more closely in all areas, including education, economics, politics and culture. The Soviet Union also constantly provided assistance to the Chinese comrades in the fight against the Japanese imperialists, China's number one enemy at that time. The assistance was provided in various aspects, starting from the 1920s and ending in the 1950s. Now I would like to tell in more detail about the period of the 30s and 50s of the last century.

China as part of the USSR: myth or reality?

The Bolsheviks had long viewed China as a potential hotbed of world revolution. The “younger brothers” of the Russian proletariat played an important role in pre-war Soviet propaganda. One might recall, for example, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s “Best Verse,” written in 1927, in which the poet solemnly proclaimed to the audience: “Comrades! The workers and troops of Canton have captured Shanghai!” The Chinese communists were indeed oriented towards the Soviet Union. In 1931-1934, the Chinese Soviet Republic existed in the south of the Celestial Empire. And in 1937-1947, the center of influence of the Communist Party was the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Soviet Region in Yan'an Province. Therefore, there were no ideological differences between the USSR and communist China in 1950. Stalin already had experience in incorporating new republics into the Soviet Union: in 1940, he annexed three Baltic states at once, holding elections in them. In the case of China, there was no need to even deploy Soviet troops. In economic terms, little would have changed either. In fact, Soviet practices were already being imposed on China in the first years of its existence, and Russian specialists provided enormous free assistance to their Asian comrades. Nevertheless, the “merger of giants” would certainly have had negative consequences. The appearance of a single communist state with a population of over a billion on the world map would have forced Western countries to talk about “Soviet aggression.” In the late Stalin era, the Cold War was already threatening to turn “hot.” A major territorial gain by the USSR, if it did not become a signal for immediate nuclear bombing, would have significantly brought the beginning of World War III closer. Since I.V. Stalin took all these points into account, he delicately refused Mao's request to merge the two states into one. But China still remained our younger brother and partner in all matters. Since the mid-50s, relations between the USSR and China have cooled, this crisis will continue until about the 1980s, 90s. Complete stabilization will happen in our days. Since modern times, as we can see, relations between our countries are at the highest level in all spheres . I  hope that the connection between the Russian Federation and the Republic of China will grow stronger and stronger , for our common benefit.