Yu. V. CHUDODEEV

Candidate of Historical Sciences

October 1, 2009 marked three round dates in the history of Russian-Chinese relations: the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the PRC and the USSR, and the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Russia Friendship Society (ROC).

In this regard, in late September - early October 2009, at the invitation of the Chinese People's Society for Friendship with Foreign Countries (KNODZ) and the ROC, a delegation of the Russian-Chinese Friendship Society (ORCD) visited China.

The delegation of the Russian public was headed by the chairman of the ORKD, Academician M. L. Titarenko, Honorary chairman of the society, Academician S. L. Tikhvinsky, member of the Federation Council, former Ambassador of the Russian Federation to China I. A. Rogachev, Deputy Chairman of the ORKD, G. V. Kulikova, Moscow activists of the society, representatives of its regional organizations from St. Petersburg, Vladivostok and Yakutia.

Our delegation visited Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Suzhou, Shenzhen, Changsha, Shaoshan and several other regions in two groups.

TIANANMEN SQUARE CELEBRATIONS

Beijing welcomed us with grand decorations, an abundance of national flags adorning almost every house, banners and slogans celebrating China's 60-year socialist progress and the leadership of the CCP.

Striking cleanliness and order also caught the eye. A large number of cleaners both on the streets and in the premises literally "hunt" for every speck. For spitting on the street or throwing out a cigarette butt, a fairly significant fine is imposed. However, the Chinese smoke less-it's expensive!

People on the street became more relaxed than before, more diverse clothes. It is felt that the culture of behavior and everyday life is changing. Not a single beggar can be seen, who often met a couple of years ago.

Exceptional security measures were taken in connection with the upcoming celebrations. Everywhere you can see armed law enforcement officers, including machine gunners. Construction sites on the eve of the holiday froze - either in connection with the crisis, or in connection with the eviction of seasonal workers from the city on the eve of the holiday.

On Tiananmen Square, which was decorated with grand decorations and framed on both sides, as before, with huge portraits of Mao Zedong, two rows of majestic columns appeared along the edges, according to the number of provinces and administrative regions of China. And across the square - a huge TV monitor, continuously transmitting holiday information and video footage of Chinese natural beauty and attractions.

Information preparation for the festive events was marked, in particular, by the screening on television of a number of pompous documentary series that demonstrate the development of China by year over the past 60 years.

Separate shots in them also show the help of the USSR in the formation of a new China. The press emphasized that the USSR was the first to recognize the PRC. But no mention was made of the 1950 Treaty of Friendship between the USSR and the People's Republic of China, nor of Mao Zedong's visit to Moscow and his talks with J. V. Stalin, nor was the "cultural revolution" completely ignored, during which up to 100 million people suffered and 5 out of 6 thousand cultural monuments were destroyed.religious sanctuaries. The Sino-Russian border conflict of 1969 on the island of Damansky (Zhenbao) is still presented as a "defense of the motherland". TV documentaries also keep a complete silence about the events of 1989 in Tiananmen Square, when force was used to disperse participants in mass protests.

But the main thing that showed up in the pre-holiday

propaganda and during the holiday - an active, I would say, apotheosis presentation of the figure of Mao Zedong as the founder of the CCP and the PRC. Mao Zedong became the main character of the national holiday of the Chinese, a symbol of their national revival. On the eve of the holiday, his sculptural images, including multi-meter ones, were urgently restored throughout the country. In all the bookstores, one could see an abundance of literature about Mao Zedong. But you could also see the biographies of his political opponents - the Presidents of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek and Jiang Jingo. Today's China is far from ambiguous...

The celebrations in China culminated in a grand parade and a grand demonstration of workers in Tiananmen Square on October 1.

The entire leadership of the People's Republic of China, from the highest to the provincial level, is represented on the government podium: General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee, President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao, all members of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee and ministers, leaders of all provinces and autonomous regions, representatives of all national minorities and Chinese emigration (Huaqiao), rescue heroes who took part in in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake. Deng Xiaoping's son, who was injured during the Cultural Revolution, was also in a wheelchair at the podium. The leaders of our delegation were also in the stands at Tiananmen Square.

The celebration began with the raising of the national flag in the square - a ritual that is performed on Tiananmen every day. Then Chinese President Hu Jintao, wearing a Mao Zedong tunic typical of the Chinese bureaucracy of the Mao era, drove a Chinese-made car around the troops lined up on the square and the main highway of Beijing - Changanj. In his speech, he paid tribute to the memory of the heroes of the revolution, the memory of Mao Zedong as the founder of the CPC and the PRC, and expressed gratitude to the workers of socialist China. According to the head of the PRC, China got back on its feet and achieved great success thanks to the leaders of three generations-Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin. His speech included welcoming addresses to compatriots, in particular, to compatriots in Taiwan, and calls for peaceful unification. Hu Jintao reaffirmed China's commitment to the development of socialism and openness to the world.

In the course of the Chinese leader's speech, parade, and demonstration, a huge mass of extras used a constantly changing color scheme of hieroglyphs to depict the calls :" The leadership of the CCP is our strength, we must follow the CCP!", "Long live the ideas of Mao Zedong!", " Defend the theory of Deng Xiaoping!", " Develop education and culture!" There were also flower - painted portraits of Chinese leaders - Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao-as a kind of demonstration of the continuity of four generations. The parade impressed with the exceptional bearing of the soldiers, their drill and a variety of military equipment. The most modern types of weapons were shown, in particular, various missiles, missile defense systems, several types of military aircraft, including unmanned ones, etc. China has never demonstrated anything like this on such a scale before. The 2009 parade was probably intended as an affirmation of China's increased weight in global politics.

The demonstration that followed the parade, in turn, was striking in its colorfulness and scale (about 200 thousand people took part in it). Among the demonstrators are representatives of all provinces and major cities, including 56 nationalities of the country, including Taiwanese compatriots. Demonstrators carried mock-ups of high-speed express trains, modern aircraft, model spaceships and other symbols demonstrating the achievements of the Chinese economy.

Both the parade and demonstration of October 1, 2009 in Beijing, from our point of view, were supposed to embody in vivid and colorful form the main idea voiced in Hu Jintao's report to the XVII CPC Congress - the revival of the great Chinese nation within the framework of socialism and under the leadership of the Communist Party.

A TRIBUTE TO FRIENDSHIP IN THE PAST...

In the days leading up to the national holiday, our delegation participated in a number of official receptions organized by the Chinese People's Friendship Society in Beijing and Shanghai.

abroad, the China-Russia Friendship Society, and a number of government organizations.

On the first day of our arrival - September 23 - the chairman of the KNODZ and ROC, Chen Haosu, hosted an official dinner in honor of our delegation. Chen Haosu is the son of a prominent military and statesman of the People's Republic of China - Marshal Chen Yi, whose monument is erected in Shanghai. The next day, the People's Daily published a short article to Chen Haosu, " A brilliant story. 60 years of friendly cooperation between China and Russia". The article emphasized the role of the first-generation Chinese revolutionaries-Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Zhou Enlai - in shaping the friendship of the two peoples and in the creation of the State Duma on October 5, 1949. Chinese-Soviet Friendship Society (its first chairman was Liu Shaoqi). The author quoted Mao Zedong, who at that time stressed the importance of friendly relations between the two countries for international peace and socialist construction in China.

We were also invited to participate in the opening ceremony of the exhibition "Sun Yat-sen, Song Qingling and the Soviet Union". Song Qingling (1890-1983) was the widow of Sun Yat-sen, a prominent Chinese statesman. From 1959 to 1975, she served as Vice-President of the People's Republic of China, then as Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC). Since 1954, she headed the Sino-Soviet Friendship Society.

In honor of the arrival of the Russian delegation, a special reception was held at the Song Qingling House Museum. The house Museum is located in one of the central districts of Beijing. This is a beautiful garden and park ensemble with a large number of traditional rooms. In the past, it was the residence of Grand Duke Chun (Zaifeng), the father of Pu Yi , the last minor emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. We are told that the decision to grant this residence to Sun Yat-sen's widow in the early 50s after her return to China was specifically made by Zhou Enlai.

At the reception, a Chinese choir consisting of men and women of retirement age performed for us in Russian several songs that are still beloved and popular in China among the older generation ("Moscow Evenings", "Katyusha", "Oh, the Viburnum blooms", "Ural Mountain Ash"," Kalinka " and others). etc.).

Our stay in Beijing ended with a reception on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Russian-Chinese diplomatic relations and the establishment of the China-Russia Friendship Society in the huge reception hall of the National People's Congress House in Tiananmen Square. The reception was attended by ROC activists, representatives of party, military and state circles, and CCP veterans.

MY DAUGHTER, IN PARTICULAR, SAT AT THE SAME TABLE WITH US

Mao Zedong's name is Li Ming (as a child, she was brought up in the Ivanovo children's home for the children of prominent foreign revolutionaries). Russian Ambassador to the People's Republic of China Sergey Razov, academicians Mikhail Titarenko and Sergey Tikhvinsky responded to the welcoming speeches of the Chinese representatives.

Sergey Leonidovich Tikhvinsky, who, despite his very advanced age (91 years old) and state of health, agreed to come to China as part of a delegation of the Russian public and take part in solemn events, is a significant figure in the history of Russian - Chinese relations. October 1, 1949 as Consul General of the USSR in Beijing (the Soviet embassy at that time was moving south with the government of Chiang Kai-shek, retreating under the onslaught of the People's Liberation Army of China) He was at the Tiananmen government podium when Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. And in the evening of the same day, Zhou Enlai sent him a note with a proposal to establish diplomatic relations between the PRC and the USSR. The Soviet Union became the first state to recognize the PRC. Academician Tikhvinsky spoke about all this in detail at the reception.

...AND THE PRESENT

We were also very impressed by the reception at the Shanghai Association of Science and Technology, organized on the occasion of the presentation of Academician V. I. Zhukov's book "Russia and Globalization", translated into Chinese and published in China (I do not exclude that this publication was specially timed to coincide with the arrival of a delegation of the Russian public).

We were all moved by the speeches of representatives of the old Chinese technical intelligentsia, in particular, specialists in the field of designing Chinese rocket technology. Many of them are in the 50s

They studied in the USSR for many years and still remember the Russian language. I was touched by their touching performance of Russian folk songs (I admit that hearing "Hey, let's go!" for a long time did not cause me so much emotion as this time in Shanghai), reading poems by A. S. Pushkin in Russian, and finally, the performance of Chinese traditional dances by a female ensemble. Communication with veterans of the Chinese technical intelligentsia has once again convinced us that the traditions of friendship between our peoples, which go back to the 50s, are still alive in China. True, their carriers are already many years old...

I do not rule out that many of us came to China this time with somewhat inflated ideas about the feelings of the Chinese towards our country.

People of the older generation, both in Russia and in China, really still have a sense of friendship in the 50s. But then this friendship was filled with an ideological component, but now the pragmatic principle prevails. The current mood of the Chinese people to a certain extent surprised us, when they found out what country we were from, they ironically commented with laughter:" Ah, Lao dage! " ("Ah, big brother!..."). Unfortunately, currently there are no ROC branches in the Chinese provinces.

But the decision of the Chinese leadership on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China to combine three significant dates in Russian-Chinese relations still shows to some extent how much importance is attached in China today to the development of relations between the two countries. By the way, at the celebrations in Beijing, according to tradition, foreign countries were represented only by diplomats, no government delegations (including from the Russian Federation) were invited. So the invitation of a delegation of the Russian public to Beijing these days was very significant.

It was also significant that in 2009, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-Russian diplomatic relations in China, a decree was adopted on the official holding of the Year of the Russian Language in China. In 2010 The Year of the Chinese Language will be announced in Russia.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary, a photo album illustrating the stages of Soviet/Russian-Chinese friendly relations with a circulation of 1 thousand copies was beautifully published in Beijing.

We were also extremely pleased to pick up the anniversary collection "From Russian Lyric Poetry" presented by our Chinese friends. It contains translations into Chinese of poems by 23 Russian poets, ranging from Pushkin, Tyutchev, Lermontov, and works by B. Okudzhava, R. Rozhdestvensky, and E. Yevtushenko. The collection was compiled by the greatest specialist in foreign literature, the famous Chinese poet and artist Gao Man, who from his youth linked his fate with Russian literature. In the preface to the collection, Chen Haosu wrote that "this book is intended for mass readership, in order to help bring human souls closer together at festive celebrations, as well as to spread the Russian language and literature among the Chinese public."

In connection with the Year of the Russian Language in China, a collection of works by A. S. Pushkin was published, dedicated to the 210th anniversary of his birth, with parallel reproduction of the poet's texts in Russian and Chinese.

Shanghai is associated with Pushkin, where the only monument to the great Russian poet in China has been preserved, which was built with the money of Russian emigrants in the 30s of the XX century and survived during the turbulent years of the"cultural revolution". A large group of Russian ORKD activists was invited to a reception on the occasion of the National holiday of the People's Republic of China on behalf of the leaders of the Shanghai Government and its head, Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng.

We were greatly impressed by the collection of memoirs "We were brought up on Pushkin", published for the holiday in Xi'an, a city famous all over the world for the army of terracotta warriors guarding the tomb of the first Chinese emperor Qin Shi-Huang-di (III century BC). In this collection in Russian and Chinese languages were placed 44 articles, memoirs, and notes by representatives of the Chinese intelligentsia about their perception of Russian culture and mutual understanding between the two cultures. According to the compilers of the collection, "the Sinicized great Russian culture has already become an integral part of the spiritual home of the Chinese nation."

Today, there is a growing interest in Russia in China. Academic circles cite the firm position of the Russian leadership towards the West in defending Russia's national interests as a positive example. In the bookstores of Beijing, we saw the collected works of Vladimir Putin, counted more than 10 books about him, and drew attention to two biographical sketches about Dmitry Medvedev written by Chinese authors. And next to it is the complete works of J. V. Stalin in 16 volumes in Chinese.

The trip to China allowed us to once again see its achievements over the past 30 years, the dynamism and scale of the country's development, which is at the stage of rapid complex recovery. China has made a huge leap into modern society, and its image is changing dramatically, not only in such giant cities as Beijing or Shanghai, but also in other major provincial centers and districts.

It was also possible to see once again that China, which is rapidly increasing its weight in the global economy and politics, is a complex strategic partner, in relations with which difficulties naturally arise and will continue to arise, because each of the parties seeks to protect, first of all, its national interests based on its own ideas about them. But many things unite us, especially in foreign policy. We could not fail to appreciate the desire of the Chinese leadership and ordinary citizens, especially the older generation, to preserve and develop the best traditions of Soviet-Chinese friendship on a new pragmatic basis.

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