Mao: The Unknown Story полностью

^†A Soviet diplomat who served ten years in both Nationalist and Red China, and witnessed Mao’s campaigns close up, later observed in a classified source that however cruel the Nationalists could be, it was never anything like as bad as under the Communists. He estimated that Mao killed more Chinese in these early campaigns alone than died in the civil war.

EVEN BEFORE he conquered China, Mao had set his sights on the wider world. He started to get active as soon as victory hove in sight in the civil war.

Mao hoped to repeat the huge PR success he had had with Edgar Snow and Red Star Over China, a success which was unique for the Communist world. But Snow had meanwhile been banned by Moscow, and so Mao had to fall back on a second-rate American journalist called Anna Louise Strong, who had nothing like Snow’s influence globally, and was generally perceived as a lackey.

In 1947, Mao sent Strong on a world tour to promote him. She was given documents that Mao told her to pass “to the world Communist parties.” He particularly wanted her to “show them to Party leaders in the United States and Eastern Europe,” adding pointedly that he “did not think it was necessary for her to take them to Moscow.”

Strong duly churned out an article called “The Thought of Mao Tse-tung,” and a book called Dawn Out of China. They contained encomia like the claim that Mao’s “great work has been to change Marxism from a European to an Asiatic form … On every kind of problem … in ways of which neither Marx nor Lenin could dream”; that “all Asia will learn from [China] more than they will learn from the USSR”; and that Mao’s works “highly likely influenced the later forms of government in parts of postwar Europe.” These claims trod hard on Stalin’s toes. Not surprisingly, publication of her book was stonewalled in Russia, and the US CP demanded that half the book be deleted. The full version came out in India and, more significantly, in several countries in Eastern Europe, including Yugoslavia.

To promote Mao internationally without Stalin’s endorsement, to suggest that Mao had improved on Stalin, and could offer more than Stalin, were red rags to the Kremlin. But Mao clearly understood that acquiring a sphere of influence needed elbow. And he now had real clout.

There were also signs that Stalin was prepared to cede some turf. In September 1947 he set up a new organization called the Communist Information Bureau (Cominform), which included only European parties. This left open the possibility of a separate Asian grouping. In November, within weeks of the Cominform being established, and while he was still wandering near Yenan, Mao had the name of his entourage changed to “Unit Asia.”

STALIN REMAINED totally committed to backing Mao, but he now took steps to contain him, and to remind him who was master.

On 30 November 1947, when Mao became confident that he would win the civil war soon, he proposed to Stalin that he should visit Russia. Stalin decided that the visit was the ideal vehicle to make Mao sweat. Stalin’s office cabled back a welcome on 16 December. Dr. Orlov, the recipient of the cable, was clearly under orders from Stalin to report in detail on Mao’s reactions. Next day he informed Stalin that Mao was “extremely pleased,” “rather animated” in fact, and “said immediately: ‘Very good, I can go there [in] 3 months …’ ”

Three months passed, with no sign of an invitation from Stalin. Mao brought it up again on 22 April 1948, the day after the CCP retook Yenan; he told Orlov he planned to depart on 4–5 May. This time Stalin said “Yes.” Mao asked to take both Russian doctors with him, on health grounds — but really to prevent any of his colleagues communicating with the Russians during his absence. Stalin agreed. Mao also wanted to visit Eastern Europe, a proposal Stalin pointedly did not endorse.