China and Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord

by Philip Snow

A compelling, expansive history of the relationship between China and Russia, from the seventeenth century to the present
 
Russia and China, the largest and most populous countries in the world, respectively, have maintained a delicate relationship for four centuries. In addition to a four-thousand-kilometer border, they have periodically shared a common outlook on political and economic affairs. But they are, in essence, profoundly different polities and cultures, and their intermittent alliances have proven difficult and at times even volatile.
 
Philip Snow provides a full account of the relationship between these two global giants. Looking at politics, religion, economics, and culture, Snow uncovers the deep roots of the two nations’ alignment. We see the shifts in the balance of power, from the wealth and strength of early Qing China to the Tsarist and Soviet ascendancies, and episodes of intense conflict followed by harmony. He looks too at the experiences and opinions of ordinary people, which often vastly differed from those of their governments, and considers how long the countries’ current amicable relationship might endure.

Genres: History, China, Russia, Politics, Nonfiction, Asia, Audiobook

624 pages, Hardcover

Published April 25, 2023

Reviews

[Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

-1 for the behemoth that this book (necessarily) is

[Aislinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always found the relationship between China and Russia fascinating. Sadly, it seems to me that few Western sources are willing to look at them from any other angle than as a fused, to-be-neutralized "axis of Communism autocracy"; or as a fused, glued-together Lego piece that should be studied insofar as to break them apart. The only noteworthy change from 1949 to this day seems to be who's fusing with whom.

This book tries another approach.

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In Snow's own words, this is a book that seeks to "take a panoramic view of the entire four centuries of Sino-Russian contact and to tease out any patterns which might emerge from that vista." It isn't easy to find a scholar who commands both languages and has travelled extensively in both countries to brave the task. It would be a task that Snow firmly delivered.

First, he does take a panoramic view - starting from the very start, when the Muscovy was just emerging from under the yoke of the Golden Horde and the Ming was entering its twilight years, to the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War still raging at the time of publication. Each period gets its fair share of attention, with the Soviet Union and the Republic of China only arriving on the scene when we're about a third of the way through. Beyond the temporal scale, he hasn't neglected the spatial aspect: the book pays close attention to both the leaders and the people, pointing out the discrepancies and convergences where necessary. Nevertheless, the leaders do take up much more space, perhaps inevitably in a book about state-to-state relations.

Then, Snow does try to tease out some form of pattern in this not-so-smooth journey, frequently - and appreciably - reminding us of strikingly similar episodes that have occurred before, and what this might inform us about the relationship in general. The overall trajectory of these "four centuries of conflict and concord" is pointed out:

"[Starting from the 18th century Russia and China] moved towards each other until they divided all the territory between them ..."

And yet:

"... Several times in [the centuries that followed] ... the two powers have peered over the brink, as it were, only to draw back as if daunted by the latent potential of the other side. One former Soviet China Hand has observed that during the entire four centuries of their interaction China and Russia have never fought a major war" (p. 511).

Snow's interpretation - one that I would agree with - is that the Sino-Russian conflicts are chiefly about dominance, not ideology; and they pull back because they realize that mutual destruction does nothing to help them achieve that goal. Central Asia is the unfortunate plain on which their "inter-imperialist squabble" has most often played out, from four centuries ago when the two empires first bordered, to the 90s when "... a prime minister of Kazakhstan was lamenting that his country was ‘bottled up in a semi-stable space between Russia and China’" (p. 500). It is both ironic and perhaps tragic how, after so many years of blood and sincere struggles for change, China and Russia - and all the hapless people stuck between them - have come full circle back to that age-old equilibrium.

And to think that, not so long ago, the Qings were clamoring for war because the Russians were starting to establish their dominance. Not so long ago, Chiang Kai-Shek, Stalin's first choice from the 1920s until at least about 1947, rebelled again and again because Russian dominance had taken shape and was about to root. Not so long ago Mao Zedong, a madman who happened to be a genius or a genius who happened to be a madman, was dragging the Chinese people through one suicidal quest after another, just to overthrow Russian dominance now so entrenched it'd be insulting to ignore.

Of course, these men and other Chinese leaders had done their fair share to help the Russians spread their dominance - mostly hoping to gain Russian blessing in one-upping their enemies - but the point stands. The power struggle (mostly unilaterally initiated by the Chinese) was the focus, and their relationship has now returned to relative "concord" only because the Chinese finally got what they wanted. Could the Russians someday launch a power struggle of their own? That would be a story that Snow candidly (and wisely) refuses to predict.

Today's China and Russia, as Snow would argue, are closer to their square-one imperialist selves than to the supposed Marxist-Leninist ones. This irony is not lost on me, nor on him, with the razor-sharp observation made in this passage:

Superficially reminiscent of the Sino-Soviet tandem of the 1950s, the new partnership differed from it in fundamental ways. It was not a revolutionary combination but a deeply traditional and conservative one. The two partners took their stand in effect on the principles of the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, of unfettered national sovereignty and the right of national governments to do as they pleased in their own backyards without interference from outside, in defiance of the growing opinion in the United States and the West that governments were answerable to a global tribunal for the treatment of their populations. And this simple creed of Leave Us Alone bound them together with a more potent glue than Marxism-Leninism had ever been (p. 498).

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I mentioned Mao in the above section. For me, it is mind-boggling to learn just how deep the Chairman's Russophobia ran. Having read Garver's book, as well as a few other scattered sources, I'm aware of the extent of Mao's ... disagreements with Stalin, and the many outright humiliations he had suffered at Stalin's hands. But I did not expect how open his confrontation was - from Mao's flat refusal to provide any aid when the Soviet Union was at its lowest in its struggle against Germany, to the 1942-45 Rectification Campaign which all but explicitly attacked the Soviet Union (and the three Soviet citizens living at his rural base at the time). How many knew that throughout the Campaign - and perhaps during the Chinese Civil War - Mao asked his people to hang portraits of Stalin and Roosevelt side by side?

What is even more astonishing is how well-informed the Soviets were about this, from the top with Stalin, to the relative bottom with Vladimirov - your resident Soviet journalist who was doubling as an information gatherer at Mao's base. I find it much more understandable why Stalin was so reluctant to aid the CCP. He might have even sincerely preferred the KMT to the CCP, or at least sincerely seen the CCP as so similar to the KMT that he couldn't be bothered to have a preference, in which case it made more sense to stand behind the currently more powerful party (i.e. the KMT) from his ultra-cautious, Russia-forever-first perspective.

Now that we're on the subject of Stalin, I appreciate Snow's articulating my nagging suspicion:

It can be argued that no foreigner ever made a more masterful impact upon Chinese history than Joseph Stalin. He never set foot in China, and some of the Chinese who met him found his knowledge of their country at best superficial. Yet from his rise to dominance in Moscow in 1922–4 the Soviet strongman exerted a decisive influence over Chinese affairs, shaping the outcome of a series of civil and external conflicts, coaxing or threatening some of the most prominent local leaders and tugging the country’s political forces this way and that in pursuit of his crude but consistent goals ... (p. 249)

It is surprising - but in my view justified - that Stalin is the second-most prominent figure in the book, just barely behind the Chairman. His impact on the development of modern China cannot be understated. I would even argue that he was the only foreigner who had more or less a handle on the snake pit that was the political landscape of 20th-century China. At the very least, he was one of the few, among both foreigners and Chinese, past and present alike, who held absolutely no illusions about any of the Chinese political leaders.

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Snow's writing - including the way he portrays these figures- may be one of the book's biggest controversies, or at least one of the biggest potential sources of discomfort. His got to be one of the goofiest voices I've ever encountered in historical nonfiction; a trait that especially stood out in a work that is otherwise ambitious, well-researched, and generally high-quality.

There are jokes. Many of them. There are snort-inducing metaphors. Just as many. (I'll forever remember the mental image of Stalin as Zeus and Khrushchev as Father Christmas.) Even when it comes to the most unsavory figures, Snow describes them in a gently teasing tone - almost in the way you'd fondly reminisce about that one weirdo from your grade school playground - and certainly without any moral outrage, or even traces of moral judgment.

One facet of this trait is Snow's keen ability to pick out the most delicious gossips interesting anecdotes to sketch out his characters, be they leaders or laymen. Sometimes, this approach can make historical figures seem more like character archetypes, painted with colorful brushstrokes - memorable, but broad. Adding to this is my existing wariness of anecdotes. Simply put, I'm skeptical of detailed, narration-heavy memoirs, especially those about controversial political figures. I just can't bring myself to trust them too much. (Really? You remember he said this and that, all of which placed in direct quotation marks, 20 years after the guy died?)

But in this case, I would say that the anecdotes have certainly helped bring these figures on pages to bustling life. I can almost picture the way they used to talk and gesture, and feel the emotions and calculations they used to have; and when it comes to men like Stalin and Mao, isn't this almost-understanding one of the most terrifying feelings you can have?

Of course, Snow does not shy away from the atrocities committed by some of these men, but they are not the focus; Snow does not dwell on them, and in fact sweeps them aside as quickly as he does any other event in this chronicle. However, I wouldn't say that Snow downplays the debt these figures owe to their people (and to all the other unfortunate smaller nations that suffered under their rule). The way I perceive it, Snow is a writer who sticks religiously to his goal - that is, to lay before us the history between "China" and "Russia" as the two countries experience it, hopefully without the all-too-familiar presence of Western moral high ground clouding the picture.

That said, I'm fully aware that what I accept (and, indeed, appreciate) may not be so acceptable to others. This is a book that, goofy jokes aside, is surgical and catalogic at its core. There is no glorification of any kind, but neither is there any criticism. The closest we come to hearing Snow's own verdict on the events he's written so much about is perhaps this section on Deng Xiaoping and Gorbachev:

... Deng [always] fumed privately at the ‘stupidity’, the ‘idiocy’ of Gorbachev in embarking on a programme of economic reform without taking care to maintain his Party’s political grip. Some might argue that the CCP’s approach to reform was proved right by events, that it was a case, in the immortal formulation of 1066 and All That, of Gorbachev, ‘Wrong but Wromantic’ versus Deng Xiaoping, ‘Right but Repulsive’. But Gorbachev always claimed that in Soviet circumstances economic reform could never have been attempted while leaving the political lid on ... (p. 485)

Even so, no glorification; no criticism; and no dwelling.

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The "no dwelling" part can probably bring me to my next point about another potential "shortcoming" of this book. The fast pace of the book may be due, at least in part, to the fact that it assumes that the reader has at least some knowledge of general world history and of important domestic events in the two countries during the period.

Do I think this is a good introduction to Sino-Russian relations? Yes and no. It is certainly comprehensive, but it is also very specific, narrowing in on China and Russia and only them. The existence of Western countries is mentioned for a grand total of no more than ten times in the 600+ pages - that's probably an exaggeration, but it certainly feels that way. Snow has a clear idea of what his book is about, which is China and Russia, and that I appreciate; however, at times it feels as if the two countries exist in a vacuum, with the United States as the lonesome boogeyman hovering somewhere in the outer darkness that engulfs them.

In plain English, it's best if you know at least a little bit about what's going on in the same period, especially events that greatly affect the two countries, in order to fully appreciate (and frankly, understand) the events unfolding under the magnifying glass of this book.

But then on a side note ... isn't this the paradox inherent in writing a book about the relationship between any two countries who are heavily influenced by their individual relations with the West (i.e. almost the whole world)? Yes, the West often plays far too large a role in books that are supposed to be about their relationship, but it is also impossible to write a truly "introductory" book while excluding the West from the stage - for the West is at the center of the stage, for better or for worse, as it has been for four centuries; as such, by its very existence, it has the power to alter the course of interrelations between other countries, sometimes to a greater extent than any of the parties involved.

Finally, one last brief point: Although this book is about China and Russia, I feel that it focuses more on the Chinese side of events than the Russian - but then it arguably balances that out by quoting far more Russian sources than Chinese ones. Just a comment.

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At last, I can perhaps move away from the book and elaborate on why I personally enjoyed it so much.

As I've said at the beginning: I find the relationship between China and Russia fascinating, but to me, Western sources often seem inadequate, because they often choose to focus more on their own (real or imagined) security concerns than the relationship itself.

But on top of this, my pickiness also stems partly from myself. I have a very particular taste in history books - especially those about the history of another country; especially those about the history of a country often at odds with the author's own.

I want a writer who is hypervigilant about his inevitable biases, but not to the point of self-sanitising his own work, discarding any letter that is not an unquestionable, dry fact. I want a writer who's curious about the people of this country - hell, who's simply aware that these are real people he's writing about - but who doesn't sympathize with every bit of the country's own rhetoric and version of history, especially when it comes to perceived injustice at the hands of "others" and self-victimization. I want a writer who is indefatigable in his quest to plow and sort through the ocean of primary sources, but who is mindful enough of his reader's presence to weave vivid anecdotes and evocative descriptions into the dry facts.

Yep, I sound like Marie Antoinette, wondering aloud why people eat bread when they should be able to magick cake out of thin air.

This book came very, very close to magicking cake out of air. There are facts; curiosity; research; humor; empathy; all of which are in relative balance to me. The goofy Sino-Russophile in Snow undoubtedly warmed to the goofy Sino-Russophile in me. I got everything I was looking, and many things that I did not expect to find. When I closed it, I felt as satisfied as a polar bear returning from a bountiful hunt, full of all the new knowledge I had gained.

It's been such a long time since I've met a history book that hit all the right personal buttons.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audiobook) This work offers insight into Sino-Russian relations since the 1500s. Yet, most of the work tends to focus on the 20th century, especially the relationship between the Communist-inspired totalitarian states of the USSR and PRC. Likely that is the case as that relationship, that swayed wildly between close allies and shooting rivals, usually within the span of a decade either way, was a key part of the 20th century's geo-political situation and that this was where Snow could get the bulk of his research material. The older accounts about relations between the two countries do set the stage for their future dynamics, where there is rivalry, but also a significant lack of communication and understanding at times. At present, the two countries are back in the close allies range, although this might be a situation where Russia is more the junior/weaker partner than they've ever been in their past history.

There is good history and Snow does offer a relatively dispassionate assessment of the relationship between the two powers. However, it is hard for one volume to capture the joint history between the two nations. There are times when Snow seemingly skips over key points that would have had impacts in the relationships between the two nations (a lot of detail on the relationships between Mao and Khrushchev, but no mention of Mao's reaction and any immediate change between the two nations when Brezhnev took power. Given that the USSR and PRC engaged in military conflict in the late 1960s, perhaps not that much, but some statements to that fact would have been helpful.

Overall, worth the listen to get a sense of the relationship between these two nations. Especially as it can appear to Westerners that these nations are always long-time allies, but that is far, far from the case.

[Deirdre E Siegel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable… with gaps.
Sadly in the west we have been bullied in believing these guys are bad for we all, when in actuality they have enough of their own people to worry about
to really be concerned about what the rest of the world is doing.
They have abundant natural resources, a permanent work force that will work for the greater good, an unattractively wealthy 1% - who are used effectively to enable the greater good process, are you going to jail for… or donating a new sports stadium to greater small hamlet in wherever,
unlike other countries with that equally grotesquely 1% that enjoys using it’s Administration.
This is a great listen for anyone seeking to gain erudition of the specific relationship between China and Russia, where history is important, where their land is
in their blood from a very long line of generations, where the greater good means - it is this or nothing, just like momma use to say.
Phillip Snow very obviously knows his subject and is sharing for the greater good that knowledge, by choosing Michael Page to exercise his eloquence on this rather large collection of words Snow has impressed again, much appreciated Gentlemen :-)

[Nabilah M-Y · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very well-researched and the author is clearly very knowledgeable on the topic, however this was a brutal slog to get through. It was sometimes hard to follow the points that he was making. There was an assumption that the reader was already deeply familiar with the histories of both of these countries, so he would brush past events that occurred without going into detail (for example the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was mentioned in passing), while he would spend paragraphs talking about random anecdotes without a clear connection to whatever point it was that was being made. He also was fond of using unnecessarily big words (e.g., vituperation, garrulous, duumvirate) that, personally, I felt could have been replaced by simpler words that would have served the same purpose. This is a nitpick, but there was a lack of commas that sometimes made it hard to parse the clauses of sentences. Overall, the subject matter was very interesting, but this was not a particularly enjoyable vehicle through which to learn about this topic.

[Pep Bonet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well documented and full of facts. While the first part is a bit cumbersome, due most surely to the reader in me not knowing anything about the topic, as time goes by and we enter the 20th Century, we find ourselves in a territory much better charted, where we find our way.
This is an important book to understand both Russia and China, not as individual opponents of the western World, but rather as two huge countries interacting with a back to the rest of the World. It helps understand the mechanics of their relationship and the love-hate elements in such relationship. Highly informational.

[Gabriel Stein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

An excellent history of four or five centuries of Russian-Chinese relations.

Interestingly enough, despite many ups and downs, some of them substantially deed, the two have never fought a major war.

Like them or not, the relationship between these two countries will remain of crucial importance for the next few decades.

[Bill Kerrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the focus on the international relations between Russia and China, but would have read this book after reading more about the internal history of each country as the author assumes prior knowledge (eg, Boxer Rebellion. China’s Civil War leading to Mao). I’m not faulting the author as the book is clearly focused on the relationship and otherwise would have been 2000 pages.

[Gage Dabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt this was a good breakdown of the complicated relationship between the two states. It was difficult to get through and I learned a lot. Biggest gripe is the fact that the author used words that I feel like didn’t need to be used and could be more accessible to normal readers. I’ve recommended this book to friends who have an interest in the region.

[Patrick O-S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book that covers a pretty large period of time without reneging on detail (or going overboard)

Pretty well written too (not the most flowing narrative but easy to read and never plodding), and I think the author strikes a good balance in terms of inserting opinion without letting it dominate

[Harry Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good general history of the situation, though I would've wished for a little more insight from the author's personal experience given that he is said to have extensively studied and travelled in both countries over decades.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly interesting book on the long relationships between Russia and China with its ups and downs. Well-written, it doesn't get 5 because the addition of anecdotes is sometimes so heavy that it becomes super easy to lose the track of the book, especially in the first half of the book.

[Charlie Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

why did my book club subject me to this 520 page monstrosity?

[dasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

good and interesting but i found the 20th century chapters very dry and boring but that’s probably just down to me

[Enzo Miguel De Borja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snow makes clear that, whether as amicable siblings, outright enemies, or pragmatic friends, the relationship between China and Russia will continue to have a significant impact on world affairs. In the centuries of conflict and concord between these two mammoth states, it is often the peoples straddled between their borders and the ethnic minorities within their jurisdictions that experience the most negative consequences of the two states' actions.

However, in an age where mutual incomprehension between enemy states and the whims of desperate autocrats threaten to push the world into a nuclear war and environmental catastrophe, the repercussions of any misunderstanding or conflict involving China and Russia would certainly have a marked global dimension.