The Soviet Specialists’ Food Supply Problem in Shaanxi during the “Great Leap” years

Abstract

Following the “decade of friendship”, when the disputes between the PRC and the USSR came to a head, the question of working and living conditions of Soviet specialists in China was one of the most frequent problems raised by the Soviets. Proving the withdrawal of all its specialists from China in July 1960, the Soviet side, among other things, pointed out that the intentional creation by the Chinese side of unbearable working and living conditions for the specialists compelled the Soviet government to recall them all back home. Reference to Chinese government and industry reports of 1958–1960 makes it possible to analyze the issue of food supply for Soviet specialists in Shaanxi Province during the years of the “Great Leap”. A review of these documents enables us to state the extent to which the problem of the supply of personnel resulted from the national food crisis during the “Great Leap” years, and at the same time, how much of it resulted from the inefficient organization of the food supply process by the Chinese authorities. As we can see from the documents, Chinese officials explained the food problem as a result of a change in the administrative structure of the food supply, since the provision of Soviet specialists with food was the responsibility of the Shaanxi People's Commune, which was unable to cope with this responsibility due to poor organizational procedures of alimentary supply. But in fact, this commune, due to the obvious reason of the severe deterioration of the national economy throughout China during the “Great Leap” years, had no means of ensuring an uninterrupted supply of basic foodstuffs to the specialists, which was the main reason for the deterioration of the food supply. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the increased attention that the official Chinese side gave to the issue of organizing a high-quality food supply for Soviet specialists, which indicates that the problems encountered were not a deliberate policy of the Chinese authorities to create unbearable working and living conditions for Soviet specialists in China, but were the result of the nationwide food problem in China.