In 1941, after taking control of Western Europe , the German head of state Hitler suddenly tore up the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" signed with the Soviet Union, intending to attack front and back with Japan, which occupied East Asia, to jointly deal with the Soviet government.
This military plan obviously exceeded the Soviet Union's expectations. Seeing the German army approaching step by step, Soviet leader Stalin thought of his Chinese friend Chairman Mao Zedong. Therefore, between 1941 and 1943, he sent six telegrams requesting the Chinese Communist Party to send troops for support.
However, what Stalin never expected was that Chairman Mao actually politely rejected his request. You must know that at that time, the Soviet Union and China already had a bitter relationship. Once the Soviet Union was eliminated, I am afraid that China would not be able to escape the clutches of fascism.
So, why did Chairman Mao reject the Soviet Union? What kind of stakes are involved in this?
World War II
The calm before the outbreak of World War II
After the end of World War I, Germany's military and economy were severely damaged, and the entire society fell into a state of collapse. But in this desolation, Hitler found an opportunity to show off his ambitions.
He established the German Nazi Party under the slogan of making Germany strong again, and was elected as the president of Germany with this party. After successfully coming to power, he promoted fascism and began to vigorously develop the military industry and wildly expand the number of troops.
The meaning behind this policy is obvious, using the development of the military to drive economic recovery. When the army reaches saturation, Germany must expand externally and use war to feed its citizens.
Nazi Party
Therefore, from this we can see that Hitler may have been preparing for World War II. But he didn't want to reveal his true intentions early. In order to cover up these behind-the-scenes conspiracies, he has been talking about peaceful development in public.
Hitler's wonderful acting skills really deceived British Prime Minister Chamberlain. Looking at the calm situation in Europe, Chamberlain pushed appeasement policy , and together with French leader Le Brun, turned a blind eye to Germany's military threat.
However, all this played into Hitler's hands. He was trying to cover up his ambitions by pretending to be a grandson. Seeing that Britain and France already regarded themselves as teammates, Hitler shifted the target of fraud to the Soviet Union.
Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact
In 1939, Germany secretly proposed a diplomatic plan for peaceful coexistence to the Soviet Union. The Soviet government did not think much about it at all, so the famous "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" was created.
In September of this year, Germany, which was fully prepared, attacked Poland , and the Second World War began. Because of its thorough preparation in advance, Germany's aggression against other European countries went extremely smoothly.
Repeated victories further expanded Hitler's ambitions. He set his sights on the Soviet Union, which had just signed a treaty with him, in an attempt to incorporate the largest country in the world into his own territory.
Plan Barbarossa
The first telegram and Plan Barbarossa
Hitler himself attached great importance to the invasion of the Soviet Union. He personally participated in the formulation of Plan Barbarossa and planned to send a huge army of 5 million people to quickly occupy the entire Soviet territory.
In June 1941, Germany unilaterally tore up the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact" and launched a blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union in accordance with the Barbarossa Plan. Germany's sudden invasion caught Soviet Chairman Stalin off guard.
At this time, Germany's ally Japan also sent more troops to the Far East, attempting to join the German army in attacking the Soviet government. At this critical moment, Stalin sent a telegram to Chairman Mao, the leader of the Communist Party of China.
Stalin
In this telegram, Stalin directly explained to Chairman Mao the crisis the Soviet government was suffering, and asked Chairman Mao to send troops to contain the Japanese troops gathering in Northeast China, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and other places, and to destroy the Japanese troops in these places. Transport traffic lines.
Chairman Mao was silent for a long time after receiving the telegram.It stands to reason that the Soviet Union, as the "big brother" of the Chinese Communist Party, is now in danger, and Chairman Mao should help the Soviet Union, but why did he hesitate?
This is actually related to the Anti-Japanese War at that time. At that time, the domestic Anti-Japanese War was in a critical period, and guerrilla warfare was in full swing on the battlefield behind enemy lines led by the Communist Party of China. At this time, if we send troops to confront the well-equipped Japanese army head-on, it will undoubtedly be like hitting a stone with an egg.
Chairman Mao
And even if Chairman Mao wanted to compete head-on with the Japanese army, the army controlled by our party at that time was not that large in scale. After the National Government 's adaptation, the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army became the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army. In the Wannan Incident planned by the Kuomintang reactionaries, almost the entire New Fourth Army was wiped out, and the strength of our army was further weakened.
So, in this case, Chairman Mao could explain the situation to Stalin and refuse his request to send troops. But why didn't Chairman Mao refuse it directly?
Regarding this issue, there are two reasons: first, direct refusal seems unjust, after all, the Soviet Union has helped the cause of the Communist Party of China many times; second, Chairman Mao also understands the urgency of the European war situation. Once Japan and Germany join forces, The Soviet Union will quickly fall into Germany's clutches, and Germany's next target is likely to be China.
Destroying transportation lines
After weighing the pros and cons, Chairman Mao agreed to the idea of destroying transportation lines, but declined Stalin's request to send troops. He instructed Peng Dehuai: "Our army's cooperation with the Soviet Union is long-term, strategic cooperation, not temporary, operational cooperation."
From Chairman Mao's instructions to Peng Dehuai, we can clearly see his The idea is to help the Soviet Union tide over the difficulties as much as possible without affecting the overall policy.
Facts have proved that although the Chinese Communist Party did not send a single soldier, the destruction of the railway line greatly slowed down the Japanese army's ability to gather troops, and even strangled the plan of Japan and Germany to attack the Soviet Union in the cradle.
The Battle of Moscow
The second and third telegrams and the Battle of Moscow
When the Chinese Communist Party was holding back the Japanese army, the Soviet Red Army led by Stalin blocked the German onslaught and dragged the war into the cold winter.
As we all know, the winter in the Soviet Union is very cold and is not suitable for large-scale military operations at all. However, Hitler disagreed. When the troops did not put on winter clothes, he asked the German army to concentrate firepower to launch a surprise attack on Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, in an attempt to use this method The Soviet army was caught off guard again.
Faced with this crazy move by the German army, Stalin urgently ordered General Zhukov to take command and organize the defensive front outside Moscow. At this moment, the Soviet intelligence agency accidentally intercepted a confidential Japanese document, which made Stalin panic again.
Stalin
The document was a military report sent by Kwantung Army to Japanese Cabinet. One suggestion in the report read: "The Imperial Army should take the initiative to attack Mongolia and control the Far East to form a more favorable position for the Soviet Union. Strategy."
This sentence made Stalin take a breath, because he had transferred all the elite troops stationed in the Far East back to Moscow to participate in the defense. Once the Japanese army attacks the Far East, it will be able to easily break through the Soviet defense line and then encroach on the Soviet Union's large area of territory in the Far East.
As a result, Stalin sent a second telegram to Chairman Mao. He asked Chairman Mao to develop the army in the Northeast and send troops to cooperate with the Soviet army's actions to launch an attack on the Japanese Kwantung Army to distract Japan's attention from the mainland.
Chairman Mao
Faced with Stalin’s second request, Chairman Mao simply refused. There is no other reason. At that time, in our country's Anti-Japanese War, the situation between the enemy and ourselves finally changed. Our army changed from being passively beaten to a stalemate. The Chinese and Japanese armies were concentrated on the battlefield in Changsha.
Let alone the Japanese army, even our army does not have excess troops to break through the ice and snow in the Far East, so Stalin's worries are completely unnecessary.
At that time, in the battle to defend Moscow, the Soviet Red Army withstood rounds of German artillery fire, and finally began to shift into a full-scale counterattack in the spring of the following year. At this time, the Soviet Union once again intercepted Japanese intelligence.
The Japanese army
It turned out that due to the influence of the weather, the Far East once again entered the Japanese army's sight. They massed troops in the Northeast region and were ready to march to the Soviet Union at any time.
Stalin did not want his plan to counterattack Germany to be destroyed by the Japanese army in the Far East, so he sent a third telegram to Chairman Mao, asking Chairman Mao to send troops to contain the Japanese army.
Just like last time, Chairman Mao politely rejected Stalin's request. This rejection of the Soviet Union was not because of the Anti-Japanese War, but more because of the Kuomintang's petty actions. Our army was unable to spare manpower to support the Soviet Union.
Chiang Kai-shek
At that time, Chiang Kai-shek, who had finally freed up some troops from the War of Resistance Against Japan, completely ignored the Kuomintang and the Communist Party's intention to cooperate to establish a united front for the War of Resistance Against Japan, and turned the gun to point at our party again.
Chairman Mao knew very well that the current focus of our party should be on the War of Resistance Against Japan and the opposition to the rule of the Kuomintang. As for sending troops to assist the Soviet Union, it was completely an act of seeking the far away at the expense of the near and was not conducive to the development of the Chinese Communist Party.
The Battle of Stalingrad
The fourth, fifth and sixth telegrams and the Battle of Stalingrad
After the Soviet Union won the battle to defend Moscow, Hitler was so angry that he decided to fight to the end with the Soviet Union. This time, he targeted Stalingrad, the city named after Stalin himself.
Stalingrad is no less important than Moscow. Once Stalingrad is occupied by Germany, all defenses in the south of Moscow will be ineffective, and Stalin's own reputation will also suffer a devastating blow.
How could Stalin not guess Hitler's thoughts? He mobilized nearly half of the Soviet Union's troops here. The most tragic battle in World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad, began.
Stalin
Hitler not only used military offensives such as aircraft and artillery, but also waged psychological warfare. He spread rumors that Japan would cooperate with Germany in attacking the Soviet Union, which made Stalin very nervous.
With no choice but to do so, Stalin could only send another telegram to Chairman Mao. This time, he learned from the experience of not receiving support before, changed his previous request attitude, and instead forced Chairman Mao to send two divisions to Mongolia.
At the same time, he promised Chairman Mao some benefits, claiming that as long as Chairman Mao sent troops to Mongolia, he would prepare some advanced weapons there.
Weapons and Equipment
At that time, our army was in a serious shortage of weapons. Stalin was willing to provide our army with advanced military weapons, which could just meet our equipment requirements. Stalin thought that Mao Zedong should agree to send troops even out of consideration for weapons.
However, Chairman Mao still politely rejected him. Because although our army is in urgent need of weapons and equipment, it is really unrealistic to take great risks and travel long distances to the Mongolian prairie to get weapons.
What's more, if Stalin breaks his promise and fails to provide weapons to our army, and our army is exposed on the grassland without cover, the consequences will be completely disastrous.
Chairman Mao
After receiving Chairman Mao's telegram of rejection, Stalin immediately sent a replacement request telegram. This time, he did not mention the weapons and equipment mentioned in the previous telegram at all. He only asked Chairman Mao to send some troops to Mongolia to observe the movements of the Japanese army.
When Chairman Mao saw this telegram, he realized that although Stalin did not mention it, I The specific movements of our army after arriving in Mongolia, but once a war breaks out, our soldiers will still become a shield for the Soviet Union. Chairman Mao was unwilling to gamble with the lives of our soldiers, so he once again rejected Stalin's request.
At the same time, the Battle of Stalingrad lasted from 1942 to 1943.The Soviet Union gained victory in this battle at an extremely heavy price, wiping out half a million German troops who invaded Stalingrad.
Stalin
At this point, the Soviet Union completely gained the upper hand in the battle with the German army. The Soviet Red Army also fully recovered the lost territory and moved towards Germany. In order to ensure that the Japanese army would not take the opportunity to attack the Soviet Union, Stalin sent the sixth telegram to Chairman Mao.
This time, Stalin's request was finally no longer excessive. He hoped that Chairman Mao could set up some teams inside and outside the Great Wall to act as scouts to observe and contain the Japanese forces.
After Chairman Mao read this telegram, he agreed to Stalin's request to deploy troops. He deployed some troops near the Great Wall and prepared to infiltrate into the northeastern region at any time.
Chairman Mao
Chairman Mao had rejected Stalin's request to deploy troops five times before, so why did he choose to agree to it only this time?
This is because Chairman Mao knew very well that there are geographical advantages near the Great Wall, and it is a convenient place for garrisoning troops. In addition, the Anti-Japanese War has come to an end. The closer we get to the Northeast, the easier it is to reap the fruits of victory in the Anti-Japanese War.
Just as Chairman Mao expected, this arrangement gave our army many advantages in the three years of civil war after the Anti-Japanese War. The Northeast Field Army was developed on this basis.
Chairman Mao
Conclusion
It can be seen from Stalin's six telegrams that the reason why Chairman Mao did not help the Soviet Union was not that Chairman Mao was unwilling, but that Stalin's request was completely beyond the tolerance of the Chinese Communist Party.
Chairman Mao’s diplomatic attitude towards the Soviet Union also showed that we will never provide help at all costs just because the other party is an ally. Instead, we should give the best possible help based on the actual situation.
At that time, our party was in the midst of internal and external troubles. Any decision-making mistake could ruin decades of efforts by the Communists. Chairman Mao’s wise decision not only allowed our party to continue to grow from the predicament, but also showed the Chinese people A polite manner that is neither humble nor arrogant.
