Deborah Kaple

“Deborah Kaple provides a fascinating first glimpse into the Soviet Advisor’s Program in China, the largest foreign aid effort in Soviet history. Given the importance to which Western observers attached to the program, it is surprising what little real attention Moscow devoted to it. Within the CPSU Central
Committee apparatus, responsibility for Chinese policy was divided among a number of departments and sub-departments. Only in 1957, as the Sino-Soviet relationship showed signs of deterioration, did China receive its own department alongside other people’s democracies.

Frustrated with the dearth of information in Russian archives, Kaple turned to interviews with a number of Soviet participants, including the former director of the advisory mission, who questioned whether the program should even be considered an aspect of Sino-Soviet relations. This glaring doubt underscores the overall futility of an effort burdened by heavily centralized bureaucracy, an obsession with secrecy and security, and an inability to overcome cultural obstacles. In choosing its advisors, Moscow privileged political background over actual expertise; in the words of one participant, “it wasn’t important whether or not a person had a head on his shoulders, the important thing was, do you have a Party card?”
(p. 125). Advisors found themselves in China ill-prepared and without clear direction. Chinese hosts felt that their Soviet colleagues looked down on them. Although many advisors felt their quality of life in China was a vast improvement over conditions at home, Kaple suggests that the atmosphere of mistrust that characterized the Sino-Soviet relationship apparently filtered down to the person to person level.”

Reviewed by Matthew Young (Department of History, Bowling Green State University)
Published on H-Russia (February, 2001)