Marxist ideology is widely advertised as the root cause of the current struggle between Russia and Red China. But beneath all the high-flown jargon lies a more concrete basis for conflict. It is the 4,000-mile border the two nations share.
To Moscow, Communist China's Mao Tse-tung is nothing more than a Red Hitler in search of Lebensraum. In a blistering editorial, Pravda pointed out that Peking had published a history textbook containing a map that showed China's frontiers as including parts of the Soviet far east—the Maritime Krai, Vladivostok and Sakhalin; a large part of Khabarovsk Krai and Amur Oblast; parts of Kirgizia, Tadzhikistan and Kazakhstan as far west as Lake Balk hash. This reinterpretation of geography would in effect push the Chinese border as much as 300 miles into the Soviet Union (see map). In a fit of Asian self-righteousness, Peking also demanded that Russia return to Japan the Kuril Islands. "To those who question the ownership of more than 1,500,000 square kilometers of Soviet territory," Pravda roared, "we say that the present borders have historical origins and are fixed through life itself."
Braving the Forests. Peking, invoking the historical saying, "Hsien ju wei chu [Whoever enters first is master]," makes much the same point as Moscow —but comes up with a different answer. For the Russian territory Peking covets is largely territory that was wrested from the Chinese empire by czarist forces in the 19th century. Land far to the east of Mongolia was settled by such Russians as Explorer Erofei Pavlovich Khabarov, whose band of Cossacks braved wolf-infested forests and Chinese warriors in their conquest 300 years ago. With the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, Russia's position east of Lake Baikal was established, and by 1860, it had won rights to the Amur Valley and Vladivostok.
In Mongolia, the Russians were granted trading privileges that gave them such a secure grip on the nation's economy that by 1921 a Communist People's Republic of Mongolia could be safely proclaimed under China's nose. The vast, empty region (total population just over 1,000,000 in an area the size of Germany, France, Italy, Denmark and The Netherlands combined) has been a loyal satellite ever since. Little wonder, for Russia has given $670 million worth of aid to Mongolia since 1945, accepts fully 95% of its trade.