On October 1, 1949, New China was founded in Chairman Mao’s solemn declaration. However, after the founding of New China, what faced Chairman Mao and other founding fathers was not peace of mind, but more difficult construction. It is no exaggeration to describe China at that time as being poor and poor.
Founding Ceremony of the People's Republic of China
In Chairman Mao's words: What can we create now? You can make tables and chairs, tea bowls and teapots, you can grow grain, you can grind flour, and you can make paper, but you can't make a car, an airplane, a tank , or a tractor.
It can be said that China's industrial strength in 1949 did not have the slightest advantage over the colonies of Western countries such as Africa. Even because Western countries could easily plunder the investments made, the industrial strength of many places in Africa even exceeded China's.
For example, the industrial strength of independent India in 1947 far exceeded that of China. India's railway kilometers were six times that of China, and its steel output was nine times that of China.
It is such an unprecedented and severe situation that it took New China only 10 years to initially establish a set of industrial systems that are not advanced but relatively complete. This industrial system will also become the basis for China's future industrial construction. and the key foundation for economic take-off.
New China was able to complete such an industrial miracle in such a short period of time, and to complete the path that Western developed countries took in 300 years to complete in 10 years. In addition to the concerted efforts of all members of New China, it was also closely related to the assistance of the Soviet Union. relationship.
Soviet Union
At that time, during the first five-year plan of New China, the Soviet Union carried out 156 assistance projects in the industrial field of New China. This was the famous 156 Project.
With the help of the Soviet Union, China built nearly a thousand industrial projects with the 156 Project as the core, which made China's modernization in multiple heavy industry fields such as machinery, energy, raw materials, and military industry a critical step. Since then, China has unprecedentedly formed the prototype of an independent industrial system from scratch.
It is with Project 156 as the core that China has built a preliminary and complete modern industrial system from a backward agricultural country, and based on this, it has laid the foundation of China's industry.
Therefore, although the Soviet Union's aid to China was conditional and paid, and there were problems such as substituting inferior goods for good, inferior goods for superior ones, etc., overall, the 156 Plan aided by the Soviet Union was very helpful to China. They are all extremely critical and irreplaceable.
It can be said that without the assistance of the Soviet Union, China's industrialization would have been delayed for many years, and China's international situation and international status would have undergone tremendous changes. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to attach great importance to the Soviet Union's assistance in the early days of the founding of New China.
Soviet-aided factories
Of course, the Soviet Union’s foreign aid was not limited to China. In fact, China was never the most important in the Soviet Union’s aid list. While China accepted Project 156 assistance from the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union spared no effort to assist socialist countries such as Eastern European countries, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, and Cuba.
Moreover, for these small countries whose area and population are only a few tenths of China's, the Soviet Union's assistance far exceeds that of China. For example, the amount of aid provided by the Soviet Union to Mongolia and North Korea at that time was similar to that of China, while the total amount of aid provided to Eastern European countries exceeded that of China.
Not only that, in order to expand its influence in regions around the world and win the Cold War with the United States, the Soviet Union also provided substantial assistance to other non-socialist countries in the world. Among them, India is included.
is located in India, the South Asian subcontinent and , and has always had unique advantages. After the founding of New China, why did it choose a "one-sided" foreign policy? One of the most critical factors was that China at that time had no middle path to choose from.
India
How bad was China’s diplomatic environment at that time?
The United States first rearmed Japan, which had brought huge disasters to Asia. Not only did Japan make a fortune from the war and its economy took off, it also allowed Japan to establish a reserve guard force and regain its armed forces.
After the founding of New China, the United States openly included Japan in the Far East defense system to contain communism, and formed a military strategic alliance with Japan.
At the same time, countries in Southeast Asia Philippines south of China have also become targets of the United States to support and contain China. As for the economic blockade and embargo imposed by Western countries, led by the United States, on China, it is even more stringent.
Therefore, under the background of the Cold War, as a large Eastern country with an area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a population of 500 million, China at that time had no middle road to choose.
However, due to its colonial history, unique independence process, unique geographical conditions, superior diplomatic environment, including neighboring countries, India, located in the South Asian subcontinent, has the conditions to play both sides and take the middle road.
Indian Army
And to be fair, India has also been very successful in jumping left and right on the middle path. This not only did not plunge India into the whirlpool of the Cold War, but instead allowed India to greatly expand its international influence, play both sides of the two camps, and make a lot of money.
Moreover, India not only received a large amount of aid from the United States and Western countries, but also the Soviet Union, the leader of the socialist camp , also gave India massive support.
How much assistance did the Soviet Union provide to India?
In fact, when India first gained independence from Britain in 1947, the Soviet Union was very indifferent to India, an emerging power. Maybe it's because Stalin felt that India's independence did not involve armed struggle and violent revolution, which did not meet the revolutionary standards in his mind. Maybe it was because Stalin believed that the partition of India and Pakistan was itself a conflict between the Indian bourgeoisie and the British colonists. political transactions, perhaps deep down they despise Gandhi and Nehru.
Therefore, in the six years after India's independence, Stalin had always been very cold towards India and never even received the Indian ambassador to the Soviet Union.
However, all this became completely different with the death of Stalin and the coming to power of Khrushchev . After Khrushchev came to power, he changed Stalin's practice of only aiding socialist countries and communist organizations in other countries, and began to provide vigorous assistance to emerging third world countries such as Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The first large-scale aid provided by the Soviet Union to India was the Bhilai loan for the construction of the Bhilai Steel Plant. The total amount of this loan is as high as 1.0196 billion rupees, which is equivalent to 122.36 million rubles in the Soviet Union. Mainly used for the first phase investment and construction of Bhilai Steel Plant.
The Soviet Union's first aid to India was a steel plant that was extremely critical in the industrial system. This also shows the Soviet Union's determination and intensity in aiding India.
While the Bhilai Steel Plant was under construction, in November 1957, the Soviet Union once again provided India with the second loan "Industrial Project Loan". This time the amount was not much different from the first loan, with an amount of 10 100 million rupees, approximately 112.5 million rubles, mainly used for the construction of 6 industrial projects aided by the Soviet Union in India.
Of course, it can also be seen from the number of Soviet aids to India. During the Sino-Soviet honeymoon, India received aid from the Soviet Union, and the intensity of these aids was not small, but the times were not very frequent. Compared with the Soviet Union's aid to other socialist countries, the proportion is not large.
However, as Sino-Soviet and Sino-Indian relations deteriorated, everything became completely different. In 1959, Sino-Indian relations began to deteriorate due to India's frequent provocations and mysterious self-confidence on the border.
At this time, because there were already signs of hostility between China and the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union at that time not only did not slow down its aid to India, but began to speed up its pace. In February 1959, the Soviet Union once again provided India with a loan, the Burauni Loan, mainly to help India build the Burauni Petroleum Refinery.
India
The total amount of the loan was 22.5 million rubles, about 200 million rupees. In the same year, India once again formally provided the Soviet Union with its fourth pharmaceutical industry loan to India. This time the amount was 18 million rubles, still close to 200 million rupees. , mainly used in the construction of medical equipment.
With the disputes and conflicts between China and the Soviet Union, under the Soviet Union's purpose of "joining India to control China", the Soviet Union's assistance to India became increasingly large. At that time, the amount of loans provided by the Soviet Union to India's Third Five-Year Plan alone was as high as 2.8125 billion rupees, which was equivalent to 340 million rubles.
At the same time that the Soviet Union began to provide massive aid to India, in 1959, the Soviet Union canceled the 5 billion rubles project loan provided to China in the Sino-Soviet Agreement and began to withdraw Soviet experts from China in large numbers.
In 1960, the relationship between China and the Soviet Union became even worse. Correspondingly, the Soviet Union's assistance to India became more enthusiastic. In this year, the Soviet Union first assisted in the expansion of the Bhilai Steel Plant, India's first aided steel plant, expanding its output to 2.5 million tons.
then helped India establish an oil smelting plant with an annual output of 2.6 million tons of gallons, factories capable of manufacturing heavy electronic equipment and precision instruments, as well as other heavy industry and infrastructure construction such as power plants, hydropower stations, tar plants, and machinery plants.
Throughout the Khrushchev period, the total amount of Soviet aid to India was as high as 6 billion rupees, accounting for a huge 44% of the total Soviet economic aid to underdeveloped countries at that time.
Khrushchev
When Khrushchev stepped down and Brezhnev became the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Brezhnev, the Soviet Union, whose economy and national power reached its peak, began to further strengthen its external relations. Aid plan, India has also benefited again from this new wave of aid plan.
At that time, Brezhnev regarded India as the "show window" for the Soviet Union's foreign economic assistance. Therefore, Brezhnev not only did not reduce the assistance to India during the Khrushchev period, but instead increased its intensity.
Moreover, this kind of assistance is not only the Soviet Union's large-scale heavy industry and infrastructure assistance to India. The Soviet Union even does not hesitate to purchase large quantities of India's unsalable machinery and equipment from India to achieve the purpose of helping and India.
For example, in the four years from 1976 to 1980, due to the insufficient operation of the heavy machinery factories assisted by the Soviet Union in India and many years of losses, the Soviet Union began to make targeted purchases from India. In just four years, it ordered 23,000 from Indian companies. tons of metallurgical lifting equipment .
As the Soviet Union, which ranks among the top in heavy industry in the world, it actually purchased heavy industrial machinery and equipment from India, which did not even have a basic industrial system. One can imagine the strength of the Soviet Union's assistance to India and its firm confidence.
Soviet Union
Moreover, starting from Khrushchev, the Soviet Union’s aid to India almost never stopped. Even until the Gorbachev period, the Soviet Union still provided continuous aid to India.
Gorbachev visited India soon after he came to power, and signed a large number of economic and technical cooperation agreements with India despite the very difficult economic situation of the Soviet Union.
For example, according to the agreement signed during Gorbachev's visit to India, the Soviet Union will help India build a 2,400-megawatt hydropower complex, help India's Bokaro Steel Plant modernize and expand, and help India build four annual production plants. 8 million ton coke plant and so on.
The Soviet Union's assistance to India was not only industrial and infrastructure assistance. The Soviet Union's powerful weapons and equipment that were not weaker than the US military were also assisting India.
According to official Soviet statistics, in the 15 years from 1965 to 1980, India received a total of US$1.8 billion in military assistance from the Soviet Union.
The weapons and equipment India obtained from the Soviet Union include nearly a thousand aircraft of various types, three MiG aircraft maintenance and manufacturing plants, dozens of ships of various types, more than 1,100 tanks, more than 500 artillery pieces and corresponding supporting equipment. of various arsenals.
Soviet Union
It can be said that India, which has never established a complete industrial system and even has difficulties in manufacturing bullets, has become an invincible military power in South Asia. The Soviet Union's spared no effort in weapons and equipment assistance has played an extremely critical role.
How big was the role of the Soviet Union in aiding India? From 1953 to January 1, 1979, during this period, according to official Soviet statistics, the Soviet Union provided assistance to India for a total of 74 projects.
Since most of the Soviet aid was concentrated in heavy industry, these Soviet aid projects also played an extremely critical role in India's heavy industry construction.
At that time, Soviet-aided projects provided 1/3 of India's steel production, 1/5 of electricity, 60% of crude oil, 30% of petroleum products, 80% of metallurgical equipment, and 60% of hydropower equipment.
So, how much aid did the Soviet Union give to India in total? From 1955 to 1978, Soviet aid loans to India amounted to 14.31 billion rupees, plus a grant of 120 million rupees, for a total of 14.43 billion rupees.
India
As of 1985, the Soviet Union's aid to India had reached a total of 5.4 billion US dollars. The total value of the 156 projects that laid China's industrial foundation is less than 10 billion rubles.
Therefore, although the Soviet Union’s aid to China laid a very critical foundation for China to establish an industrial system, the total amount is not only not as large as the Soviet Union’s aid to North Korea, Mongolia, and Eastern European countries, it is even less than the Soviet Union’s aid to non-socialist countries. There are many in India.
It is also worth mentioning that although the Soviet Union's assistance to India was quite large, it was still far behind the wealthy United States.
For example, the Soviet Union’s aid to India only accounted for 5.9% of the total amount of foreign aid received by India during the same period. During the same period, the total amount of US aid to India was converted into rupees, up to 64.26 billion, accounting for 1% of the total amount of foreign aid received by India. /5.
Moreover, due to the relationship between India's former suzerainty, the United Kingdom, India's diplomatic environment around the world is far better than that of China. India can purchase advanced weapons and equipment and science and technology without any restrictions with almost no effort. .
India
India has rich products and a population that is not inferior to that of China. At the same time, it has received strong assistance from the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. Why did India have a better industrial base than China when it was founded, and the assistance it received was far more than that of China. It is a populous country with many countries and a diplomatic environment that is far superior to China. It does not have a complete industrial system like China. Even now, its economy is far behind China.
In common people's terms, it probably means: I'll give you a chance, but you'll be useless. Obviously, establishing a complete industrial system cannot only be done by teachers, but also by learning with technology. It is an extremely demanding and complex process.
It not only involves resources, funds, talents, technology, diplomatic environment and many other factors, but also has a great relationship with the ambition of a country and nation, the ability and determination of its leaders, including history.
Therefore, although there are many countries in the world and the population is large, there are actually very few countries like China that still insist on clinging to the green hills and not relaxing after hundreds of years of decline, and have established their own industrial systems under extremely difficult conditions. On the contrary, countries and nations like India that waste opportunities again and again are the norm.
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