Ideology And Ambition

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 4

Ideology And Ambition

Tsars, Mandarins and Com-

missars. By

Schwartz.

Harry

Gollancz.

London. 248 pp. Index.

“You do not understand the real nature of the conflict between Russia and China." General de Gaulle once told President Kennedy. “In that dispute the banner of ideology in reality covers only ambition.” Since the Sino-Soviet conflict was first made public, at the Twenty-second Congress of the Soviet Communist (Party in October. 1961. both East and West have watched i in bewilderment as the two Communist giants have indulged in an increasingly acrimonous war of words. Many observers have tried to account for the split in Communist unity, but the United States in particular has been slow to realise that much more is at stake than a mere family quarrel over the best way to “bury the capitalists.” One of the best contributions to the growing literature on the subject is “Tsars. Mandarins and Commissars.” Harry Schwartz, for some time the Moscow correspondent of the “New York Times.” already has several valuable works on the Russian economy to his credit Now he sets out to show the SinoSoviet conflict has its heritage in a long history of hate and bloodshed between the two peoples. He argues convincingly that its primary components are nationalism and racial distrust: that China has not forgotten two centuries of Russian encroachment on her north-west; that her leaders continue to regard the Russians as whites, Europeans and anti-Chinese. even if they are Communists. In an historical survey which begins in the sixteenth century, Mr Schwartz considers the first Russian advances into Siberia and Peter the Great’s dreams of empire, the continuing friction over Mongolia and the Amur river, and the wellknown disputes over the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria. Less well-known to the outside world have been Russian adventures in the Chinese far west—the giant Sinkiang province even now tied only loosely to the central Chinese Government. There Russian support for Moslem rebels has been a continuing source of friction, not least because of Russia’s efforts to gain control of the rich, untapped mineral resources the province is known to contain. Mr Schwartz’s work has been overtaken by two major developments—Mr Khrushchev has been replaced and the Chinese have exploded aj nuclear device. But far from rendering it obsolete, these j events and the uncertainties they bring only serve to heighten the importance of a<

better understanding of relations between Russia and China, both past and present. The author is at his best when threading his way carefully through the tortuous maze of ideological name-call-ing in the last three years. He has documented the decline in relations between the two Powers as well as quoting extensively from the polemics on both sides to show that much more than ideology is involved. To begin with the split was hidden behind the convention !of the Chinese attacking the ■ “Jugoslavs” when they meant the Russians, and the Russians replying by attacking the “Albanians.” Thus Mr Khrushchev could complain: “Someone has taught the Albanians to pronounce foul words, and they walk under the windows and shout hooligan curses at the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . . . For their swearing they get the promised three kopeks and are praised.” He appealed to fraternal parties not to be misled, in reply the Chinese made it plain they would not bow to any majority vote of the world Communist movement. They said: “Anyone knows that at a given moment who is right and who is wrong, and who has truth on his side, cannot be determined by who is in the majority . . . History abounds with instances when truth was on the side of the minority.” Mr Schwartz’s contention that racial conflict is a strong factor is perhaps the most disturbing of all. At the third Afro-Asian Solidarity Confer-

ence in Tanganyika the Chinese objected to Russian participation and told them “there is nothing here for whites to do.” More recently, at an Asian Journalists’ Conference in Djakarta, the Chinese opposed Russian participation because “Russia is not an Asian country.” Russia in reply has attacked the racist implications of the favourite Chinese slogan—“ The wind from the East will prevail over the wind from the West." This, .the Russians have complained, is a slogan "lacking all class content." "At the heart of the struggle,” Mr Schwartz writes, “is Lenin's old but fundamental question ’Who shall rule whom?’ Shall Russia dictate to China or China to Russia? Shall communism be, as in Stalin's time, an instrument of Russian imperial policy or of Chinese imperial policy? The rest is propaganda to deceive the innocent and credulous " “Tsars, Mandarins and Commissars” is an appeal for a re-thinking of Western, and particularly American policies towards Russia and China. The author is cautious of what the future may hold but he suggests the United States would be negligent of its interests if it did not take advantage of the dispute to improve its own position relative to both Powers, and particularly China. He would like to see the United Stales abandon its attitude of frozen hostility and, by improving relations with both Russia and China, help each to sustain its independence of the other.