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China's Soviet Watchers in the 1980s: A New Era in Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Gilbert Rozman
Gilbert Rozman
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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What are Chinese scholars writing about internal developments in the Soviet Union? Are they positive or negative in their assessments of each stage of Soviet history, from the early leadership of Lenin to the recent accession of Gorbachev? What are the consequences that changing Chinese attitudes are likely to have for Sino-Soviet relations? After a quarter-century of the Sino-Soviet split, foreign observers no longer need to grasp at tiny straws of information, or to rely solely on a small number of official documents and authoritative articles. The study of new, published sources can add substantially to our understanding of international perceptions in the socialist world, and can bring us nearer to the elusive goal of learning about debates on foreign policy in communist-led countries. Academic journals and books from the late 1960s in the Soviet Union, and from 1979 in China, present an impressively detailed and intriguingly lively literature on the problems of socialism in the other country. Having previously examined Soviet writings on China, I will introduce Chinese publications on the Soviet Union in this article.

Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 37 , Issue 4 , July 1985 , pp. 435 - 474
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1985

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References

1 Rozman, Gilbert, “Moscow's China-Watchers in the Post-Mao Era: The Response to a Changing China,” The China Quarterly, No. 94 (June 1983), 215–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rozman, , A Mirror for Socialism: Soviet Criticisms of China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 People's Daily, December 23–58, 1984; Pravda, December 24, 25, and 28, 1984; Minzhi, Zhu, “Aerxipofu de Zhongguo zhi xing” [Arkhipov's China trip], Liaowang (No. 2, January 7, 1985), 7–8.Google Scholar

3 Burns, John F., “Peking Hails Chernenko as an ‘Outstanding Leader,’ ” New York Times, March 12, 1985, p. A17Google Scholar; Mydans, Seth, “Gorbachev Hints Opening to China,” New York Times, March 16, 1985, p. 5Google Scholar; Gwertzman, Bernard, “U.S. Fears Shift by China on Soviet,” New York Times, March 17, 1985, p. 3.Google Scholar

4 Fusheng, Wu, “FangSu jianwen” [Report of visit to Soviet Union], Liaowang (No. 14, April 8, 1985), 35–36.Google Scholar

5 People's Daily, January 3, 1985, p. 6, proudly reported that a Yugoslavian newspaper had selected China's economic reforms and related changes as the world's most important event of 1984. China's new interpretations of Marxist theory appeared in People's Daily, December 7 and 21, 1984, p. 1, and were first reported in the New York Times, December 9, 1984, p. 21.

6 Because of incomplete access to neibu materials and the reluctance of some specialists to discuss them, the present paper is based on less information than is desirable. The Chinese are aware of foreigners' resentments about the lack of access to their publications. They even translated, in early 1985, in their popular, internally circulated neibu newspaper, Cankao xiaoxi (Reference News), an article from the Japanese journal Kokusai boeki under the title, “China's ‘neibu materials’ are too numerous.” The article noted that the problem is most evident in research on the Soviet Union.

7 In card catalogues I found five titles of neibu journals on the United States as well as a few titles of journals on Japan, one of which had began publication as early as 1973. Most neibu journals deal with internal Chinese matters: local financial journals are numerous, as are provincial journals on public security. There are also neibu journals on communist party history and others on such disparate topics as movies, foreign literature, and foreign music.

8 The geographical distribution of journals is consistent with the distribution of the leading research centers on the Soviet Union. Approximately one-half of the journals (including those identified in Table 1 by organization but not by city) are published in Beijing. The others are from Manchuria (Heilongjiang and Jilin), the northwest and far west (Shenxi, Lanzhou, and Xinjiang) and the lower Yangtze (Shanghai and Anhui). There is clearly a division of labor. In Heilongjiang, a main interest is nearby Siberia and the Far East, while in Xinjiang special attention is given to neighboring Soviet Central Asia. Very little research on the Soviet Union is conducted south of the Yangtze River. Apart from the anomalous case of the regional journal Siberia and the Far East (which first appeared in 1974 after border clashes had drawn China's attention to this region and a brief political relaxation made some academic research possible), the earliest journals were in the fields of literature and the arts. Most journals in the social sciences, including many devoted to translations and compilations of foreign writings, first appeared in 1980 and 1981. After this remarkable spurt, the launching of journals appears to have almost come to a stop in 1982 and 1983. In 1984, new magazines on philosophy and psychology reflected the growing specialization of Soviet studies in China. Although a few of these journals may be small pamphlets with irregular schedules, many are substantial publications. Several are quarterlies; others appear up to eight times a year. Three of the most prominent journals—Problems of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe today, and Soviet literature—are issued six times a year; they range in size from 70 to 100 pages, or ten to fifteen articles. (Because of the greater density of words per page in a nonalphabetic language and the practice of using space on the last page of one article to complete another article, Chinese journals are more compact than Western ones.) Two journals—Materials on Soviet literature, which is reported to have had at least fifteen issues in 1979, and Digest of Soviet problems—seem to have ceased publication, although a plan exists for the latter to be issued again.

9 The hundreds of university and institute bulletins (xuebao) are the most visible of the Chinese publications reaching the outside world. Their generally low quality and esoteric topics contrast with the direct and often keen grasp of controversial issues evident in many neibu journals, including some other restricted xuebao.

10 National periodical index (January to June 1979, and January 1983 to August 1984).

11 Excluding literature, I have been able to identify about fifty books on the Soviet Union published from 1980 to 1984. The average has been about ten a year. Books on literature are also numerous. Prior to the Cultural Revolution some of the literature of the Soviet “thaw” was translated into Chinese and made available to small numbers through the neibu system. Beginning in the late seventies, translations of recent Soviet literature were issued on a larger scale.

12 Yueran, Li, “Guanyu woguo eyujiaoxue gongzuo de jidian yijian” [Some opinions concerning our country's Russian language teaching work], Zhongguo Eyu jiaoxue (No. 3, 1984), 1–2.Google Scholar

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16 Jiefangjun bao, December 21, 1979.

17 Schram, , “‘Economics in Command?’ Ideology and Policy Since the Third Plenum, 1978–84,” The China Quarterly, No. 99 (September 1984), 417–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 426–27.

18 Early in 1980, the National periodical index was split into two volumes: one volume on the social sciences and humanities (zhe-she—literally, philosophy and the social sciences), and another on the natural and physical sciences. Articles on foreign countries were now classified by subject area rather than grouped together under one national listing (or two, in the case of the Soviet Union).

19 A similar conclusion that a turning point occurred in late 1980 in Chinese writings about East European economies can be found in Halpern (fn. 14), 101–2.

20 Schram (fn. 17), 435 and 441–48; and Schram, , Ideology and Policy in China Since the Third Plenum 1978–84 (London: Contemporary China Institute, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Research Notes and Studies No. 6, 1984), 21–29Google Scholar, 39–69. For Deng Xiaoping's reported statements on Stalin, see Tang, Tsou, “The Historic Change in Direction and Continuity with the Past,” The China Quarterly, No. 98 (June 1984), 321.Google Scholar

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22 The National periodical index (February 1981) lists these articles from Shijieshi yanjiu dongtai (No. 1, 1981), 9Google Scholar and 36 (only the first pages of articles are given).

23 Jinri Sulian dongou, No. 6, 1982Google Scholar, lists the following number of articles on the Soviet Union by field: economics, 82; politics and law, 57; society, 17; education, 11; foreign relations, 9; military affairs, 7; arts, 7; history, 7; philosophy, 6; science and technology, 3. In addition, there were 19 articles on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, 26 on Yugoslavia, 18 on Poland (more than usual because of coverage of Solidarity), 14 on Hungary, 12 on Romania, 6 on East Germany, 4 on Czechoslovakia, and 3 on Bulgaria. In recent years, the National periodical index has listed about seven articles on the Soviet Union for every three on Eastern Europe.

24 “Shehuizhuyi jingshen wenming he MakesiLieningzhuyi yishi xingtai” [Socialist spiritual civilization and Marxist-Leninist ideology], Guotvai shehuikexue (No. 6, 1982).Google Scholar

25 Occasionally, listings in Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi neican are devoted to bibliographies on special subjects over a period of a year or longer; as a result, the regular bibliography in the following issue covers two months of articles rather than one.

26 Of the 138 articles on the Soviet Union listed in Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi neican between January and November 1984, about one-quarter appeared in specialized journals on the Soviet Union. Sulian dongou wenti was represented by 21 articles, and Jinri Sulian dongou by 7. Among journals that do not specialize in the U.S.S.R., those cited most often are Cankao ziliao zhuanji (21 articles) and Jingji yanjiu cankao ziliao (12). Reference materials (cankao ziliao) including translations, compilations, and summary statements, comprise a large proportion of total publications.

27 Articles on the Soviet economy appear in such specialized journals as Jihua jingji yanjiu (Research on planned economies), Jingji tizhi gaige cankao ziliao (Reference materials for reforms of the economic system), Nongye jingji yicong (Digest of agricultural economies), and Caizheng yanjiu ziliao (Financial research materials).

28 Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping (1975–1982) (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984), 151–65, 172, 356–59.Google Scholar

29 Schram (fn. 17).

30 Guangqing, Liao and others, “Sulian jiaqiang yishi zhuangtai gongzuo, fanji xifang sixiang cantou” [The Soviet Union intensifies work to shape consciousness, to counteract the penetration of Western thought], Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi neican (No. 4, 1984), 28.Google Scholar

31 Li, Lin, “Sulian zhexuejie guanyu rendaozhuyi lilun de yanjiu” [Research of Soviet philosophical circles concerning humanistic theory], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 1, 1983), 46.Google Scholar

32 “Lishixuejia tan rendaozhuyi” [Historians discuss humanism], Shijie lishi (No. 2, 1984), 1–17.Google Scholar

33 Dewen, Shang, “Lun Liening xinjingji zhengce zhong guanyu shangpin jiaohuan he ziyou maoyi de lilun” [On Lenin's theory of commercial exchange and free trade in the NEP], Jingji kexue (No. 5, 1984), 68–72, 78.Google Scholar

34 Shaozhi, Su, “Xiang Liening nayang chuangzaoxing de yunyong Makesizhuyi: huanying ‘Liening quanji’ zhongwen dierban de chuban” [To apply Lenin's kind of creativity to Marxism: welcome the second Chinese edition of “Lenin's complete works”], People's Daily, October 12, 1984, p. 5.Google Scholar

35 Huizhen, Zhou, “Lun Suweiai Eguo xiang shehuizhuyi guodu de lishi jingyan: jinian Liening danchen yibaiyishi zhounian” [On the historical experience of Soviet Russia leading into the socialist transition: in commemoration of the 110th anniversary of Lenin's birth], Zhengzhou daxue xuebao (No. 2, 1980), 1–10.Google Scholar

36 References to Mao's 1956 evaluation of Stalin frequently surfaced in my interviews. Most specialists contend that the ratio of 3:7 is still accepted, but a few reform figures preferred a ratio of roughly 5:5.

37 Huiyun, Chen, “Sulian guojia zibenzhuyi wenti chutan” [Preliminary inquiry into problems of Soviet state capitalism], Shijieshi yanjiu dongtai (No. 8, 1984), 24–28Google Scholar; “Shilun xin jingji zhengce yu ershiniandai Sulian dangnei douzheng” [Discussion of the NEP and the Soviet internal party struggle of the 1920s], Sulian lishi (No. 1, 1984), 47–59Google Scholar; Shaobo, Wei, “Sulian xiandaishi dierci taolunhui zungshu” [Overview of the second conference on Soviet contemporary history], Shanghai shifanxueyuan xuebao shehuikexue ban (No. 2, 1984), 118–22Google Scholar; Renfeng, Li, “Sulian nongye jitihua de jingyan jiaoxun” [Lessons from the experience of Soviet agricultural collectivization], Jingji yanjiu cankao ziliao 435 (March 9, 1981), 32–49Google Scholar; Yuanshu, Li, “Sidalin shiqi Sulian zhengzhi zhidu jianshe de jingyan yu jiaoxun” [Experiences and lessons from the establishment of the Soviet political system in Stalin's time], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 4, 1984), 40–47.Google Scholar

38 Youshi, Xie, “Sidalin shiqi Sulian jiti nongzhuang fenpei zhidu zhong cunzai de jige wenti” [Some problems in the distribution system in Soviet collective farms in Stalin's time], Sulian lishi (No. 2, 1984), 63–69.Google Scholar

39 Zhi, Liu, “‘Yiguo shehuizhuyi’ yu Sidalin moshi: Sulian shehuizhuyi daolu yanjiu zhier” [“Socialism in one country” and the Stalin model: a second study on the Soviet socialist path], Sulian lishi wenti (No. 1, 1984), 1–19.Google Scholar

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41 Critical views on Khrushchev were expressed in many of my interviews, but I understand that in the field of literature and in some university courses Khrushchev's reforms are treated more favorably.

42 Mingbin, Li, “Sulian 50–60 niandai zhongqi de wenyi zhengce ji qi dui wenxue chuangzuo de yingxiang” [Soviet policies toward the arts in the 50s and 60s and their influence on literary creativity], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 2, 1984), 57–58.Google Scholar

43 Kangqin, Zhang, “Lueping Bolieriniefu shiqi de Sulian jingji” [Summary evaluation of the Soviet economy in Brezhnev's time], in Sulian jingji yanjiuhui, Zhongguo, ed., Sulian jingji (1982) [The Soviet economy 1982] (Beijing, Renminchubanshe, 1984), 39–53.Google Scholar

44 “Zuotanhui: Andeluopofu shiqi de Sulian jingji wenti” [Colloquium: Soviet economic problems in Andropov's time], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 4, 1984), 24Google Scholar and 29–30; Kerning, Liu, “Sulian nongye luohou de yuanyin ji qi fazhan qianjing” [Reasons for Soviet agricultural backwardness and prospects for its development], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 6, 1983), 31Google Scholar; Zhaohong, Luo“Cong Sulian jingji lilun kan gaige de kenengxing” [From Soviet economic theory, see reform possibilities], Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi neican (No. 8, 1984), 1Google Scholar; and Zhuchang, Tang, “Andeluopofu shiqi de Sulian jingji tizhi gaige” [Reform of the Soviet economic system in Andropov's time], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 4, 1984), 19.Google Scholar

45 Xincheng, Zhou and Jun, Li, “Shiying woguo jiakuai chengshi tizhi gaige de xuyao, jinyibu kaizhan Sulian dongou guojia jingji tizhi gaige de yanjiu gongzuo” [In order to meet the need of our country's accelerating reform of the urban system, we should take further steps to extend research work on reform of the economic system in the Soviet Union and East European countries], Shijieshi yanjiu dongtai (No. II, 1984), 15–17.Google Scholar

46 Li Yuanshu (fn. 37), 40–47.

47 Shuzhong, Wang, “Dui benshijimo yiqian MeiSu jingji shili duibi ji qi yingxiang de guji” [Estimates of the ratio of U.S.-Soviet economic strengths by the end of this century and their influence], Shijie jingji (November 1984), 27–33.Google Scholar

48 Houyan, Sui, “SuMei nongye bijiao fenxi” [Comparative analysis of Soviet and American agriculture], Shijie jingji (November 1984), 34–33.Google Scholar

49 Chongjie, Wang, “Sulian jingji de fazhan qushi” [Development trends in the Soviet economy], Liaowang (No. 52, December 24, 1984), 33–34.Google Scholar

50 Sultan he bufen dongou guojia jingji gaige [Economic reforms in the Soviet Union and a group of East European countries] (Beijing: Zhongguo shehuikexueyuan, 1981), preface, p. 2Google Scholar; Zhou Shincheng and Li Jun (fn. 45).

51 Shengbao, Feng, “Lun Sulian zuigao suweiai zhidu de jige wenti” [On some questions about the Supreme Soviet system in the Soviet Union], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 2, 1984), 38–43.Google Scholar

52 Li Mingbin (fn. 42), 52–58.

53 Yuanmai, Wu, “Liening wenyi sixiang yanjiu zai Sulian” [Research in the Soviet Union on Lenin's artistic thought], Sulian wenxue (No. 5, 1984), 23–30.Google Scholar

54 Tianen, Zhang and Shibo, Jin, “Dui Sulian jiaoyu zhidu de jige kanfa: luelun zuijin ershinianlai de gaige dongxiang” [Some views concerning the Soviet educational system: an overview of the direction of reforms in the most recent two decades], Waiguo jiaoyu (No. 4, 1981), 7–10.Google Scholar

55 “Shijieshi suo zhaokai Sulian zaoqi duiwai zhengce wenti xiaoxing zuotanhui” [The Institute of World History organized a colloquium on early Soviet foreign policy problems], Shijieshi yanjiu dongtai (No. 11, 1984), 45–46.Google Scholar

56 See, among other sources that provide evidence for this conclusion, Yiying, Wang, “Zhanhou chuqi SuMei zai dongou de duikang he Sudong guanxi” [Early postwar SovietAmerican opposition in Eastern Europe and Soviet relations with the East], Sulian dongou wenti (No. I, 1984), 26–32.Google Scholar

57 Zhifeng, Hu, “Duiyu zhanhou Sulian dui dongya zhanlueh de lishi fenxi” [Historical analysis concerning postwar Soviet strategy toward East Asia], Zhengzhi yanjiu (No. 1, 1984), 1–11.Google Scholar

58 These views are expressed in the journal Sulian wenxue; see, for instance, an article by Yu, Zhang, “Fang Su jianwen diandi” [Miscellany on a visit to the Soviet Union] (No. 3, 1984). 79–84.Google Scholar

59 Yifan, Zheng, “Lun Buhelin shehuizhuyi jingji jianshe sixiang” [On Bukharin's thought about socialist economic construction], Shijie lishi (No. 4, 1984), 11–24Google Scholar; Renzhang, Wu and Lianyi, Jia, “Jinnianlai Sulian fada shehuizhuyi lilun de xin bianhua” [New changes in recent years in the Soviet theory of developed socialism], Sulian dongou wenti (No. 3, 1984), 23.Google Scholar

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63 The consequences of the Stalinist legacy in economic theory are discussed in Lin Shuiyuan (fn. 60), 14–18.

64 I have discussed the Soviet view in Rozman (fn. 1). The Chinese view of the persistence of the Soviet model in China until at least 1979 was mentioned in many of my interviews—for instance, in my meeting with the foreign relations section of CASS's Institute of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, headed by Xing Shugang, on December 20, 1984. Cf. Sultan he bufen dongou guojia jingji gaige (fn. 50), introduction.

65 Shaozhi, Su, “Xueshu ziyou yu xueshu fanrong” [Freedom of scholarship and the flourishing of scholarship], Wenhuibao, February 4, 1985, p. 4.Google Scholar

66 Yan, Shu, “Ba dui Sulian dongou wenti de yanjiu xiangqian tuijinyibu: zaijing bufen Sulian dongou wenti zhuanjia, xuezhe zuotanhui zongshu” [To take a step forward in research on problems of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: summary of a conference of a group of specialists and scholars in Beijing on problems of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe], Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi neican (November 1984), 3Google Scholar; Zhou Xincheng and Li Jun (fn. 45), 19.

67 Xichun, Fu, “Jiaoxue mudi ji ‘suo shang qingxu’ ” [The goals of teaching and “what appeals to the emotions”], Sulian wenxue (No. 1, 1984), 93.Google Scholar

68 Xiang, Huan, “Ouxing guangan” [Impressions of European travel], Shijie jingji yu zhengzhi neican (January 1984), 1–2; translation by the author.Google Scholar

69 Shu Yan (fn. 66), 1–2; translation by the author.

70 Ibid., 3–4.