Stalin and Mao

Every country has experienced and needed one or two remarkable leaders at one point or another. Some countries are very lucky to have a great leader at an important time and make full use of the leaders; however, other countries are unfortunate to have the good leader become weak and powerless. Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin are two of the greatest leader of China and Soviet Union all over the world. A great leader can influence a country for a long period of time and the impact can ever last for generations, for instance Mao’s impact on China which lasts for years until now. As the leader of the World Communist Party and the leader of Communist Party in China, Stalin and Mao share very similar thought and concept about the path of developing and Communist revolution, however, there is more divergence between them. Some scholars believe that they are both partners and competitors and this can be proved through many evidences. Although Mao and Stalin were two legend leaders of the Communist Party, it could not be denied that there are merits and demerits through their entire life. In the beginning, Mao was not as infusive as Stalin in the world in many aspects and he made important and strategic decisions with listening to the Stalin’s advices. There are few records or letters recording the communications between Mao and Stalin, however the left ones show that they once had very close and frequent communication with each other. Some scholars also believe that Stalin and Mao were not so satisfied with each other and Mao sometimes disagreed with Stalin’s decisions very much but forced to accept because of some certain realistic factors for example the Anti-Japanese War and the War of Liberation after that. Evidences show that this argument might be reasonable. This essay will use some examples to show the relationship between Stalin and Mao referring to partners and competitors during their career life.

Mao and Stalin have many things in common as good partners. They both make every effort to develop the Communism in their countries, because they both believed that Communism was the best system for their countries. For example, Mao once said "If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. . . . If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience." Mao thinks that the system which works very successfully in one country does not necessarily work well in another country. As he said to bite the pear oneself, one country should try the idea and system itself to make sure if the method does fit in the situation. Mao had planned several of projects to help China’s reconstruction. The ‘Great Leap Forward’ was one of the most famous projects for China. People were encouraged to work harder and for longer hours and do farm work at home. This new plan encouraged people to forget about individuals or sacrifice one’s personal interests and along with the forming group was supposed to be self-sufficient. Stalin also made a lot of plans and projects to achieve the development of the Communist Party. He once argued that people should abolish the cult of the individual decisively. Stalin also believed that people should abolish their individual interests, which is very similar to the way Mao encouraged people to unite and be average in the group.

Joseph Stalin has played a very important role at the time when China has experienced several big and significant revolutions. He also built the Soviet Union’s Pattern which was the first socialist pattern in the world and it had significantly affected Chinese socialist building career. One of the arguments proposed by Stalin was that the best way for the Chinese Communist Party to repress the armed counterrevolution is to use armed revolution. This argument later became the basis of the armed uprising leaded by Mao and the Chinese Communist Party over and over again. At the time of Anti-Japanese War, Stalin fully supported China to be a member of the Anti-Fascist Camp. This could be the first time that Stalin and Mao corporate, which refers to Stalin using all his effort on countering the German invaders and Mao pinning down the Japanese army at the same time to relieve the pressure of the Soviet Union. When it came to the Xi’an Incident, Stalin again took a clear stand on not executing Jiang and resisting against Japan combining with the Kuo Min Tang. This suggestion is well respected by Chinese Communist Party and actually Mao’s idea is very similar to Stalin’s idea on the Xi’an Incident. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in China, Stalin encouraged Chiang Kai-shek to put Kuo Min Tang’s army to the front battlefield and sent the Soviet Red Army to cooperate with the engagement, which made Chinese army to have the ability to pin down the Japanese army. In this way, Stalin could transfer a large number of troops against the German Fascists. When Stalin's Soviet red army defeated the German intruders and eventually won the victory of the Anti-Fascist War, he then turned back to support the Chinese army and Chinese army finally defeated the Japanese army. This was a great collaboration between Stalin and Mao and this showed that they could be good partner. A piece of telegram after the war showed that Mao was pleasure to accept the advices about the domestic problems after the Anti-Japanese War. The telegram said that the Soviet Union called of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party as well as Mao and told them that the Soviet Union would be declare war against Japan in the near future and hoped the Chinese Communist Party to have the Chinese army recovered. Then for the response Mao said that Chinese Communist Party was willing to hear the advice on the domestic problem after war by Soviet Communist and Stalin and support their point of view on the status of Outer Mongolia issue after the war. After the establishment of New China in 1949, Stalin quickly sent a telegram to admit that government lead by the Communist Party is the only legal government of China. Mao then paid his first visit to the Soviet Union and made conversation with Stalin about post-war reconstruction referring to military situation, economic construction, land reform and the attitude towards people. Mao and Stalin signed ‘the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance’ to deal with those problems. It cannot be denied that Stalin helped a lot on the post-war recovering and building the industrial basement and stabling the national defense.

Another example was the cooperation of Stalin and Mao in the Korean War. Some scholars argue that this time Stalin collaborated with Mao to get rid of the ‘invasion’ of the U.S.A., which is very likely to happen, while Mao allied with Stalin in order to maintain the security of China. Another important reason that made Stalin necessarily to alliance with Mao is to avoid Mao turn to the U.S.A’s camp. Then there is a question that is how the Korean War influences China and the Soviet Union or satisfies the interest of both of them. It is very obvious that North Korea is on the side of the Soviet Union and to prevent versus between the Soviet and the U.S.A. happening in Korea is very necessary and unavoidable. With the awareness of the fact that North Korea has prepared fully with enough troops and tanks, Stalin finally permitted the North Korea to declare war on the South Korea. In the meantime, he asked Mao to help him with the backup which kind of interrupt Mao’s plan to invade Taiwan.
There were also many differences between the ideas of Stalin and Mao. This has been one of the reasons why Mao and Stalin were also competitors, which refers to the competition between two different thoughts under communism. When Mao first came into power in the Chinese Communist Party, his influence in the Communist World was much weaker than Stalin. As a result of that, he had to consult Stalin about a large number of domestic issues and had little space to play. For instance, the point which is mentioned previously about Mao’s plan on reconstructing the New China indicates his attempt. It could be seen that he has been trying to negotiate with Stalin about his own idea for a long time and making his every effort on governing China to show the validity of his decisions. For example, Stalin and Mao had very different opinions about the civil issues after the Anti-Japanese war. Many evidence showed that Mao was very unpleasant with Stalin’s advice on the civil issues. Chinese Communist had two choice one of which is to collaborate with Kuo Min Tang and the other one is to declare the civil war. However, evidences showed that Chiang Kai-shek was unwilling to negotiate and intended to eliminate the Communist Party in China. At this time, Stalin still insisted to sign a treatment with Chiang Kai-shek and required Mao to meet Chiang Kai-shek in Chong Qing. He also sent Mao telegrams which said that China would be in danger if Mao started the civil war and if Mao still refused to visit Chong Qing, he would not be supported by either domestic or global aspects. Mao finally compromised and visited Chong Qing to have peace talk with Chiang Kai-shek. However Mao was extremely disagreed with Stalin in his heart. He said that Stalin was misunderstanding with the Chinese domestic political environment and he misestimated possibility of the revolution in China. And after the victory of the’ three big battle’ of the Liberation War in China, Stalin even proposed that the Chinese Communist Party should govern half of China divided by the Yellow River while Kuo Min Tang governed the other half. Mao Zedong was totally disagreed with Stalin this time and refused this advice firmly. Mao and the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party resist on the way to defeat Kuo Min Tang and win the civil war in the end. Mao used his own method to maintain the significant status in China and proved that Stalin’s idea on improving China’s situation was not that efficient.

After Stalin’s death, the Soviet Community Party and Gorbachev noticed the limitation of Stalin’s model and found it was quite wrong, because Stalin severely prevented agriculture from rapid development and decreased people’s material and cultural needs. Therefore his model was firmly criticized by the Soviet Community Party and Gorbachev and by many other Communist countries. This, to some extent, demonstrated that Mao won in the competition with Stalin. Mao then showed his respect to Stalin and told Chinese Communists to dialectically evaluate Stalin. He argued that Stalin has his achievements and faults and people should not criticize him in only one fault. On one hand, Mao prevented the Chinese Communists from being extreme and manipulated through this, and on the other hand, Mao show his magnanimous and far-sighted and rational to people. These all showed that Mao actually sometimes competed with Stalin secretly.

Along with the increasingly close relations with the Soviet Union, as well as the rapid achievement of the Soviet Union’s construction of socialism, some of the Chinese Communists started to rash and they thought China could copy the ‘Stalin mode’ completely. After all the Soviet Union indeed developed in Stalin period after the October Revolution and turned from a backward capitalist country into a powerful state in the world, which let people think that the mode make sense. However Mao refused to copy the Stalin Mode completely or adjust it to China rigidly. When focusing on these examples, it is not hard to realize that Mao is not simply a partner with Stalin but a competitor with Stalin as well.

Actually, it is very hard to evaluate the relationship between two late leaders who were especially leaders of the Communist Party; because there are few records or materials remained. However, their hidden attitude could be found out when focusing on certain events and the conversations. Stalin and Mao are partners. They cooperated with each other in many cases, or in other words, they took advantage of each other. Stalin and Mao are also competitors. It can also be said that Mao unilaterally competed with Stalin in order to gain reputation or to prove himself and to control more power. Although they have very different reputation from people afterwards, they are both very great leader.

--------------------------------------------
[ 1 ]. Wilson, D., (2013) Mao Zedong zhuan = A biography of Mao Tse-tung. Beijing: Guo ji wen hua chu ban gong si. p89
[ 2 ]. Wilson, D., (2013) Mao Zedong zhuan = A biography of Mao Tse-tung. Beijing: Guo ji wen hua chu ban gong si. p203
[ 3 ]. Wilson, D., (2013) Mao Zedong zhuan = A biography of Mao Tse-tung. Beijing: Guo ji wen hua chu ban gong si. p204
[ 4 ]. Evans, D., (2012) Understand Stalin's Russia. London: Hodder Education. p95.
[ 5 ]. Yuan, N.S., (2003) Mao Zedong yu Sidalin, Jiang Jieshi. Changsha Shi: Hunan ren min chu ban she : Hunan Sheng xin hua shu dian jing xiao. p69
[ 6 ]. Yuan, N.S., (2003) Mao Zedong yu Sidalin, Jiang Jieshi. Changsha Shi: Hunan ren min chu ban she : Hunan Sheng xin hua shu dian jing xiao. p187.
[ 7 ]. Goncharov, S. N., Lewis, J. W., Xue L., (1993) Uncertain partner: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press. p108
[ 8 ]. Sheng, M.M., (1997) Battling Western imperialism: Mao, Stalin, and the United States. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p48
[ 9 ]. Thornton, R.C., (2001) Odd man out: Truman, Stalin, Mao, and the origins of the Korean War. Washington, D.C. Brassey's. p193.
[ 10 ]. Wilson, D., (2013) Mao Zedong zhuan = A biography of Mao Tse-tung. Beijing: Guo ji wen hua chu ban gong si. p200.
[ 11 ]. Yuan, N.S., (2003) Mao Zedong yu Sidalin, Jiang Jieshi. Changsha Shi: Hunan ren min chu ban she : Hunan Sheng xin hua shu dian jing xiao. p107.
[ 12 ]. Evans, D., (2012) Understand Stalin's Russia. London: Hodder Education. p203.
[ 13 ]. Yuan, N.S., (2003) Mao Zedong yu Sidalin, Jiang Jieshi. Changsha Shi: Hunan ren min chu ban she : Hunan Sheng xin hua shu dian jing xiao. p34.