A Research On The Sino-Soviet Friendship Association Of Jiangsu Province In The Early Period Of The PRC(1949-1956)

With series changes of surrounding environment in1949, the Chinese Communist Party adopted the foreign policy of closely following the Soviet Union. Internally, the People’s Republic of China was established in Beijing, October1,1949. In order to implement national foreign policy, it was necessary to carry out large-scale Sino-Soviet friendship propaganda. In this complex political context, the Sino-Soviet friendship association was established in the afternoon of October5th. At the same time. Liu Shaoqi was elected as the president. The election of Liu Shaoqi showed the importance of the association to the government.After the establishment of the association, branches were quickly established throughout the country. In the association large-scale expansion, the Sino-Soviet friendship association introduced Sino-Soviet friendship relations, the Soviet experience in construction, combined with the current central tasks, such as the movement of supporting the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, peace signature campaign. On the one hand, the promotion of Sino-Soviet friendship could serve the foreign policy and the Sino-Soviet alliance; On the other hand, the Sino-Soviet friendship association could unite democratic parties and personages without party affiliation together. In late1949, the number of branches reached more than150,and the members were more than180million. By the end of1950, Sino-Soviet friendship association branches spread all over the country.From1949to1952, the Sino-Soviet friendship association first entered a period of large-scale development of members. The main work of this stage is developing membership, personal membership-based. The PL A joined the association as group membership. From1953to1956, the association entered a period of propaganda. After the release of two governmental documents in1953, the Sino-Soviet friendship association stepped into another period. The Sino-Soviet friendship association began to develop group members instead of recruiting individual members. The association was led by the Publicity Department. Sino-Soviet friendship association changed from a People’s organization into the propaganda organization. After1957, the disagreements between China and the Soviet Union gradually grew wider. In1960, the differences were exposed to the public. Soviet engineers began returning to the Soviet Union, and the Sino-Soviet friendship association propaganda work screeched to a halt. Soon,the Sino-Soviet friendship association was placed under the charge of Foreign Culture Committee, thus becoming a cultural exchange organization. The propaganda function declined when the cultural exchange function expanded. The Sino-Soviet friendship association was becoming less and less important.In Jiangsu province, for historical reasons, the Sino-Soviet friendship association was divided into three parts, northern Jiangsu Association, southern Jiangsu Association and Nanjing Association. By1953, the three associations merged into Sino-Soviet friendship association of Jiangsu Province on the basis of the "Sino-Soviet Friendship Month". After the structural adjustment, the association continued to carry out the propaganda and education activities, in combination with current events and important festivals.As for the organization work, the Sino-Soviet friendship association of Jiangsu province achieved great results in1949-1952, the stage of development of the organization. However, also exposed the problem on membership system, the cadre system, contribution system and so on. In the member system, there were only dues, issuing membership cards, without regular activities that members would attend. So it was easy to develop the membership, but hard to remain it. As for cadre system, it was the lack of core cadres. Full-time cadres did not attach importance to the work. The association continued to explore methods to improve the cadre system. It tried to focus on the development of the activists, training of amateur cadres. As for the dues, there was the phenomenon of wasting or overstock contributions. Collection of contributions was neither unified nor strict. Using the contributions was not planned properly. The movement against "three evils" exposed the corruption and waste problem. In1953, the Sino-Soviet friendship association started a great reorganization, the main task changed from organization work to propaganda work. The three branches merged into Jiangsu branch and changed the affiliation at all levels over the Sino-Soviet friendship association. The power was taken over by the local Party Committee Publicity Department. Following the merging of the association at all levels, the supply system cadres, individual membership and the dues were canceled. The Soviet friendship association of Jiangsu province, under the leadership of the party committee publicity department, began to carry out propaganda work.In propaganda work, the Sino-Soviet friendship association carried out mainly through text publicity, photo exhibition, film screenings,complemented by a forum at the same time, so that the people could accept a full range of Sino-Soviet friendship education. Early on, the purpose of the Sino-Soviet friendship association was to promote the Sino-Soviet friendship, internationalism, combined with various central tasks to implement. By the domestic large-scale economic construction period, after the start of the first five-year plan, the Sino-Soviet friendship association began to focus on promoting Soviet Union’s experience, art,science, technology and the noble communist quality, emphasizing Soviet Union’s assistance in China’s industrial development and world peace in the Far East. When the Sino-Soviet differences emerged with the divergence of the two routes of communism, the Sino-Soviet friendship association,working under the national publicity policy, did not publicly accuse the Soviet Union, but rather implicitly expressed China’s point by celebrating the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, the Day of October Revolution, and Lenin’s birthday festival. As for propaganda ways, the Sino-Soviet friendship association mainly resorted to visual and auditory ways to affect the general public. The movements of supporting the war to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, peace signature campaign were the main displays of their advocacy work. Especially, the "Sino-Soviet Friendship Month" campaign, from November7,1952to December6,1952, set off a nationwide Sino-Soviet friendship propaganda climax. In the "Sino-Soviet Friendship Month" campaign, Jiangsu Branch established the South North&Nanjing Friendship Association Office, under the leadership of party committees, promoting the Sino-Soviet friendship education into cities and villages. The social atmosphere changed rapidly. Under the influence of Sino-Soviet friendship association, significant changes were introduced to the general public.