Gao gang and the Moscow connection: Some evidence from Russian sources

Abstract

It has occasionally been suggested that Gao Gang, a leading Chinese Communist Party figure with a political base in north‐east China, had close ties to the USSR which may have led to his political demise in 1954. The evidence for such ties was vague, and their contribution to Gao's downfall debatable. New evidence suggests that Gao may have been closer to the USSR than was thought. Soviet officials who knew Gao personally perceived him as friendly to Moscow, and saw his downfall as possibly an act of revenge by Mao, carried out deliberately after Stalin's death. Further, archival evidence suggests that Mao may have been irritated by Gao's conversations with Soviet figures in 1953, in which he revealed details of internal CCP politics. Mao forcefully expressed his irritation with Gao's behaviour in conversations with the Soviet ambassador, P.F. Yudin. Thus, although there were other factors involved in Gao's demise, the Moscow connection may be more important than was thought. Mao's motivation is not clear, but he evidently tried to avoid any appearance of revenge against Stalin's ‘client’ by comparing the purge of Beria in the USSR and of Gao in the PRC: both parties have a right, perhaps a duty, to purge unreliable elements. His conversations with the Soviet ambassador suggest a more independent Mao, emerging from the shadow cast by Stalin, behaving on the assumption of equal partnership between Moscow and Beijing in the communist camp.