![]() ![]() The Great Leap Forward exemplified Mao’s discontent with what he believed was Khrushchev’s bourgeois back-sliding thathad led the USSR to become complacent. Mao’s unforgiving Stalinist posture was growingly irreconcilable with Khrushchev’s policy agenda of de-Stalinisation and peaceful co-existence. They saw the act as an abominable and unnecessary repeat of the mistakes of Stalin’s commune experiment. The collectivisation of domestic items and consumption was received negatively by the Soviets. The Great Leap Forward’s resurgence of a Stalinist model of economic development also unsettled the Soviet Union. Thus, the Soviet Union categorically rejected the Great Leap Forward as being unfounded in the pure Marxist tradition. These immutable laws were reiterated in Khrushchev’s 1957 Moscow Declaration which pronounced socialist construction must be ‘gradual’ and that ‘national development should be planned.’ The rash advancement of surpassing the greatest economic powers Mao sought to achieve through the Great Leap was diametrically opposed to Khrushchev’s ‘basic laws.’ Khrushchev despised Mao’s belief that historical materialism was negotiable and should be ‘rewritten,’ noting that under Mao ‘the Chinese interpret Marxism-Leninism any way they please.’ The ambitions of the Great Leap sought to reconstitute Marxist theory on socialist construction, much to the dismay of the Soviet Union. Mao’s goal of bypassing socialism to enter communism through a concentrated period of accelerated production violated what the Soviets considered the immutable laws of Marxism. The Soviet Union, under Khrushchev, was disgruntled by the Great Leap Forward’s rejection of orthodox Marxism. The USSR only then publicly and explicitly voiced its disapproval of the Great Leap Forward after the PRC began to acknowledge problems itself in the last few months of 1958. Therefore, even as doubts grew among the Soviet Union’s leadership about the feasibility of the Great Leap Forward, these remained private. A politburo study group attests to this, outlining that the USSR’s publication of its concerns regarding the leftism of the communes would ‘widen the divergence between the two parties.’ A disunified socialist camp would be vulnerable to the polemics of Western powers. In late 1958 the Soviet Union recognised the need to maintain the socialist bloc’s image of unity, leading to the decision to conceal its concerns regarding the Great Leap. However, the end of Soviet public praise did not necessarily result in the outright criticism that would later transpire. It was only until late 1958, when concerns regarding the people’s communes grew, that the Soviet Union’s accolades dissipated. Whilst the sincerity of Khrushchev’s remarks has been questioned, with some claiming his compliments were given blindly, it remains that the Soviets did not publicly disapprove of the Great Leap immediately. Such approval was maintained by the Soviets until as late as June 1958. During a visit to China in the Summer of 1958, Khrushchev commented that the Soviet Union had ‘no doubts’ about China’s ‘ability to fulfil these plans.’ Thus, at the outset, the Soviets eagerly validated the Great Leap Forward and the ‘enthusiasm and vigour’ of the Chinese people in pursuing the advancement of socialism. The Soviets expressed praise for the contributions the Great Leap made to socialist theory and practice. It must first be acknowledged that the Soviet Union’s disapproval of the Great Leap Forward was not immediate. The Great Leap Forward thrust the Sino-Soviet relationship into an antagonistic standstill where jabs were delivered by both leaders in a bid to undermine the other. This article will examine the reasons which underpinned the Soviet Union’s dismissal of the Great Leap Forward. The Soviets’ disapproval of the Great Leap Forward initiated discontent with the Chinese Communist Party which precipitated the Sino-Soviet split. One of the most contentious periods of Sino-Soviet relations began at the introduction of the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Great Leap Forward in 1958. ![]() Russia-China relations have undergone many ebbs and flows. ![]()
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