On The Soviet Aid To Anhui Province In 1950s

In the second half of the 20th century, the Sino-Soviet relations remain one of the most important bilateral relations in the world diplomatic relations. After the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, the breadth, depth and complexity of the Sino-Soviet relations in the 1950s exceeded that of many other contemporaneous power relationships. The Sino-Soviet relations concentrated the country and part y relations, the relationship between the leaders, and people-to-people relationship between the two countries. Besides its basic properties of socialist relations between big powers, it combined different civilizations and utterly different backgrounds between new nation-state and traditional European powers. Dominated by national interest and other factors, the Sino-Soviet relations in the 1950s were extremely complicated. It experienced from the honeymoon time to the ice period, changed from alliance to opponent, turned from brotherhood to antagonist. Its ups and downs were astonishing; meanwhile it attracted more and more researchers.This dissertation roughly divides the Sino-Soviet relations around 1950s into three stages, namely "the primary stage", "the climax stage" and "the rapid subsiding stage". The first stage began in March,1949 with the "One-side" policy towards the Soviet Union made on the Second Plenary Session of the 7th Central Committee of the CPC and ended with the signing of the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance by China and the Soviet Union when the Korean War broke out. The second stage began on June 25,1950 when the Korean War broke out and ended with the 20th National Congress of CPSU. After forming an alliance, China and the Soviet Union stepped into the "honeymoon period" in which China learned from U.S.S.R. and chose the soviet development model, forging a highly centralized planned economy system and political system. By the formulation and implementation of the first Five-year Plan, the industrialization strategy that gave priority to develop heavy industry was established. And by large-scale industrial development, China cut short its new democratic society period and started transiting to socialism. And the comprehensive movement to study the Soviet Union in politics, economy, education, culture and military was initiated. The third stage began with the 20th National Congress of CPSU in February,1956 as well as the appearance of Khrushchev’s Secret Report, and ended with the Sino-Soviet public argument on the Bucharest Meeting in June,1960. In this period, after going through a series of upheavals such as divergence, reparation, conflicts and public argument, the two countries’ relationship was gradually aggravated on-and-off the screen by the "Middle East Crisis" and "Jinmen Crisis" in 1958 and the Sino-Indian border conflict and the Soviet-American Camp David Conference in 1959. When arguing publicly on the Bucharest Meeting in 1960, both Chinese and Soviet communist comrades didn’t believe each other anymore, thus the alliance was only an empty title. Thereafter, the new China and the Communist Party of China tried a more independent socialist path that was the "second combination" of the general principle of the Marxism with Chinese realities.After the people’s commune and the "Great Leap Forward" movement, "Left-leaning errors" resulted from the "General Line" was dominant, leading to national economic ailments. Thereafter Chinese independent probe into socialistic road with Chinese characteristics sank into the devastating "Kafdin Valley" period which lasted for more than 10 years. China didn’t take the Reform and Opening-up policy until the end of 1978 which changed the destiny of modern China as a new road to develop socialism and to build a powerful nation.In retrospect of the evolution of Sino-Soviet relationship and its refection and influences on Anhui, the CCP and new China made sightless "One-side" policy which copied Soviet experiences in the process of learning from U.S.S.R. However from the macro perspective, in the 1950s, especially in the early days of 1958, China’s benefits from studying U.S.S.R were the mainstream. As we realize some faults and failures, we can’t deny the results in the movement of learning from U.S.S.R in the 1950s, the improvement got from the learning-U.S.S.R movement and especially the Sino-Chinese people’s friendship.In politics:through the Sino-Soviet friendship and learning from U.S.S.R, the new China consolidated its independent state in rough period of the Cold War. In a short time China completed socialist transformation, formed the ideology instructed by Marxism and realized the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the CCP. Based on the Soviet 1982 constitution, China’s first socialist "1954 constitution" was issued which established the basic system of socialism and thus completed an important transformation of China.In economics:in the 1950s, based on the Sino-Soviet friendship in general, through learning U.S.S.R, the new China established a highly centralized economy system and laid a good foundation for socialist industrialization by virtue of the Soviet road giving priority to heavy industries. During the 10 years, especially the 8 years of learning from U.S.S.R before the "Great Leap Forward" movement, the economy took a quick recovery and experienced a truly "leapfrog development". When the first "Five-year Plan" was completed in advance, the basic construction investment amounted to 55 billion Yuan, The total production growth of industry averaged 19.2 percent a year and that of agriculture averaged 4.5 percent, initially realizing the transformation of China from a backward agricultural country into an advanced industrial country. Chinese agriculture and industry experienced the fastest growth in that period, which was not only an economic great leap forward period after the establishment of new China, but also a golden time for China’s science, education and health development, a glorious time that changed the domination of Chinese small-scale peasant economy. Through the implementation of the "156 Aid Projects", a fairly complete basic industrial system that a big country should had was built in the aspects of war industry, coal, electricity generating, steel, metallurgy, shipbuilding, machinery, electronics, communication, building materials, spinning, aviation, transportation chemical industry, oil and light industry. All the aspects reached great improvement. Mao Zedong spoke when referring to the period: "China’s achievement of the last 8 years (1949-1957) was impossible in the last century". And Deng Xiaoping also thought the achievement in the period was great as he said "The socialist transformation was successful and that was great". Except the economic development in high speed, there were also social changes and transitions which covered all aspects and benefited all the people.In the 1950s, under the background of the Sino-Soviet Alliance, by implementing key projects, expert guidance, personnel training, technical assistance, bilateral trade and other ways of cooperation which was built in the days of Sino-Soviet friendship, the industry, agriculture, science-education-culture-health and other social causes of Anhui obtained the unprecedented development. In 1957, the first five-year plan of Anhui was completed successfully. During the process, Anhui suffered two major natural disasters in 1954 and in 1956, respectively. But with various forms of help of the Soviet Union, Huainan Xiejiaji central coal washery, Wuhu shipyard, Ma’anshan steel mill, Tongguanshan copper mine, Bengbu meat plant and a large number of industrial enterprises were built or resumed production. (See the first section of Chapter Two) As for the agricultural development, they drew lessons from the Soviet agricultural collectivization and mechanization. With the help of the Soviet Union, Foziling power station and a series of water conservancy projects were in progress. Hefei, Wuhu, Bengbu, Huainan, Ma’anshan and Tongling completed the expansion. (See the third section of Chapter Two) By 1957 when the main tasks of the first five-year plan were substantially finished, the total industrial and agricultural production of Anhui province was up 72.42% from 1952. Among the total agricultural output value increased 49.3%, growing at 8.33% per year; the total industrial output value increased 127%, growing at 17.8% per year, and over fulfilled the plan by 134.1%. Through the priority to the development of heavy industry, in addition light industry extended from coast to Anhui province, "in 1957 the total industrial output value reached 15 billion, and heavy industry rose to 26.87% in the whole industrial proportion". During the execution period of the first five-year plan from 1953 to 1957, "the capital construction investment of whole province reached 13.1 billion". During this time coal, electricity, metallurgy, machinery and other heavy industries got fast development.Science and education:The new China’s education had also developed at an unprecedented rate in the 1950s. By learning from Soviet Union’s education experiences, the new China not only reformed the education system and schools of the old China, but also established the education system of the new China. In terms of the educated population, from 1949 to 1957 when the first first-year plan was achieved, the average annual growth rate was 13.66%, with the share in the total population increasing from less than 5% to 11.1%. In the meantime, the number of college students also increased at an average annual rate of 8.04%, providing the economic construction and the social development with talented personnel and intellectual support. In the 1950s, about 18,000 Soviet Union experts came to China to work, while more than 38,000 scientists, technicians, skilled workers and peasants were sent from China to Soviet Union for further study. During this period, the Soviet Union experts also helped to train scores of teachers, instructors and professionals from various trades and industries. In the first five years of the new China, nearly 19,000 instructors were cultivated or trained by the Soviet Union in various ways, almost one quarter of the total amount of college instructors in China. At this time, China learned from the Soviet Union, established the medical health system and the agricultural extension system in the countryside for the first in the history. Thanks to these systems, China’s life expectancy rose from 35 prior to 1945 to 57 by the end of the 1950s. Regarding literature and art, according to the researchers of the Soviet Union, from 1949 to 1958, altogether 134 Chinese art troupes went to Soviet Union and 102 Chinese movies were shown in Soviet Union. However, at the same time,112 Soviet Union troupes came to China, and 747 Soviet Union movies were shown in front of about 2 billion Chinese watchers. Talents, science, technology and culture had played a vitally important role in the construction and development of the new China. The most notable part is that the higher education of the new China was overall Sovietized. Given the international and domestic situation at that time, the phenomenon of "learning from the Soviet Union" and "taking Soviet as the teacher" was actually the only option.(quoted from the subject founder of higher education—Pan Maoyuan of Xiamen University) It was the inevitable road for China’s higher education which was co-determined by various factors from home and abroad in the special period. In a specified period, this did have a positive effect. The practice of learning from Soviet Union in aspects like school-running pattern, education and teaching enabled the new China to centralize and allocate resources effectively, trained numerous talents who were badly needed by the new China’s industrialized construction, and thus supported the nation’s economic recovery and the social development.In the 1950s, the science and education cause of Anhui also obtained fast development. By copying Soviet Unions’education model, Anhui also set up its own new Socialist education and teaching system. People’s cultural needs were also met by means of both introducing classic works and learning from Soviet Union in aspects such as literature, art, movies. With the help of Soviet Union, Anhui people carried on patriotic public health campaigns, sent away the evils, established the grassroots medical system, promoting the development of health service. In terms of higher education, marked by the movements into Hefei of Southeast Medical College(former Anhui Medical University), Hefei Institute of Mining(former Hefei University of Technology) and Anhui University, the higher education cause of Anhui developed quickly and met the needs of the social development at that time. At this time, Hefei gradually became the cultural center and the city of science and education of Anhui province and even the East China.Taking history as a guide, after evaluating the Sino-Soviet relationship in the 1950s and the historical events in Anhui critically, we can conclude that the drawbacks and mistakes are also inevitable. Under the Sovietized highly centralized political system, the situation of the non-division of the Party and the government and replacing the government with the party in exercising power has given rise to totalitarianism and personal cult. And class struggle was misused inside the party and in the inner conflict of common people. The Soviet Union’s economic pattern of developing the heavy industries first has broken the appropriate proportion and scientific structure of light industries and agriculture. It also affected the improvement of people’s material and culture levels in the 1950s and the later years. The centralized and single development system of science and education violated the law of development of science and education, hampered the healthy and comprehensive development of these causes, among which one example was the adjustment of disciplines which has had a negative impact even today."Reflect the rise and fall of past lives and evaluate the gains and losses of today." "The most significant part of historical study is to know today by reflecting the past." Knowing and studying the history of the Sino-Soviet relationship in the 1950s, and further investigating the historical events during this time and everything related to them, not only has historical significance but also can provide certain reference significance for the development of the present Sino-Russia all-round strategic partnership."See what is to come from small clues. A glance at the beginning can foresee the end." Knowing and researching the Sino-Soviet relationship and the historical events in Anhui in the new bilateral relationship background. Exploring Anhui’s modernization construction centering on the new industrialization under the Sino-Russia River Cooperation Mechanism and the Sino-Russia all-round strategic partnership is also quite significant and enlightening.