How far was the Sino-Soviet split of the late 1960s the result of ideological differences between the two Communist powers?
by
ivandb_95hotmailcom (student)
How far was the Sino-Soviet split of the late 1960’s the result of ideological differences between the two Communist powers?
Throughout the 1960’s the fracture between the Soviets and Chinese was evident. The newly founded alignment between the two powers was deteriorating so drastically that disputes were resulting in armed conflicts. Their differing viewpoints on what communism should be may have been an important factor on the split occurring. Nonetheless, there were many other factors such as the personalities of the leaders, the national interests that tied in to the geopolitics between the two superpowers.
Ideological difference were key to the Sino-Soviet split. Mao was heavily critical of the Khrushchev’s plan of peaceful-coexistence with the USA and saw it as turning it’s back on communist ideals. America was their “natural enemy” due to its capitalistic ideology. This would have caused conflict between the two as they were going against what they sought out to believe in. Mao at this point in time did not see himself working with the "oppressors”. This was the basis of the split and later on Khrushchev criticised Mao’s policy of the Great Leap Forward as breaking from traditional communism. He viewed the policy as Stalinist, he had denounced Stalin in 1956, and criticised them heavily. This didn’t improve the fact that Mao had been told by the USSR that they would receive limited military and economic aid, thus proving that the Soviets wanted to remain in control and limit their ability to prosper. The ideological differences between the two would cause many problems in which they were all influenced by other factors, however, their differing views were key to the split as without their differing views of communism there would be no dispute on how either of them ran their communist states. A split was inevitable.
