Mao: The Unknown Story

On 10 May, days after Mao’s self-appointed departure date, Stalin suddenly postponed the visit. And as spring slid into summer, there was no sign of him reviving his invitation. Mao was anxious to get going. He was with his colleagues at Party HQ at Xibaipo at the time, and they all knew he was going to Moscow to see Stalin. The impression was that he was leaving any minute. One sign was that nothing was done to the frogs that were disturbing Mao’s sleep. Ordinarily, any noisy animals like chickens and dogs were brought “under control” wherever Mao stayed. His bodyguards proposed using dynamite to silence the frogs, which were croaking away happily in a reedy pond. The plan was not carried out, because it was assumed that Mao’s stay at Xibaipo was going to be short. Mao felt the need to head off any negative impact of the delay, and arranged for his bête noire, Wang Ming, to suffer another medical “accident.” On 25 June Wang Ming was given the urinal cleaner Lysol as an enema, which wrecked his intestines.

On 4 July, Mao cabled Stalin: “I have decided to visit you in the near future.” He set his departure date for ten days ahead: “we shall leave anyway about the 15th of this month,” and told Stalin “it is necessary to send two transport (passenger) airplanes.”

On the 14th, the eve of the date he had told Stalin he would be leaving, instead of a plane, what came from Stalin was a cable to Dr. Orlov, putting off the visit until the winter:

Tell Mao Tse-tung the following: In view of the start of the grain harvest, top Party officials are leaving for the provinces in August, and will remain there until November. Therefore, the Central Committee requests Comrade Mao Tse-tung to delay his visit to Moscow until the end of November in order to have the opportunity to meet with all the top Party comrades.

This pretext was openly derisive. Orlov reported back that Mao “listened with a slight smile,” saying “fine, fine.” But he asked Orlov: “ ‘Can it be … that in the USSR they attach such great importance to the grain harvest that leading members of the Party … go off for it?’ ” “I have known Mao Tse-tung for more than six years,” Orlov reported, “and if I understand him right, his smile and the words hao, hao (fine, fine) … in no way indicate he was pleased …” “Melnikov [the other Russian doctor] told me that on July 15 Mao Tse-tung asked him a similar question about the harvest.” “He [Mao] was confident he would be leaving just now.” “Evidently, the visit has become necessary to him …” “[His] suitcases had already been packed, plus leather shoes had been bought … and a woolen coat made …”

It was clear to Mao that Stalin was annoyed with him, and was yo-yoing him over his trip. He scrambled to make amends, starting with his own personality cult. On 15 August, Mao vetoed the new North China University’s program “mainly to study Mao Tse-tung-ism,” saying: “There is no benefit, only harm.” He also changed the term “Mao Tse-tung Thought” to “Marxism-Leninism” in documents. Promoting his own formulations to a “Thought” had not gone down well with Stalin: Soviet media never mentioned Mao’s “Thought,” and red-penciled the expression when they published CCP documents containing it.

Finally, with autumn setting in, Mao sent an unusually ingratiating telegram on 28 September, in which he addressed Stalin by the sobriquet “the Master,” and begged: “it is essential to report personally to … the Master … I hope sincerely that they [the Soviet Party and Stalin] would give instructions to us.”

Stalin had shown who was boss. Mao had groveled. Having made his point, Stalin replied on 17 October, aloof yet reassuring, confirming Mao’s trip for “the end of November.” Mao was now confident enough to respond by requesting a brief postponement. The first round of Stalin’s punishment of Mao for harboring ambitions beyond China was over.

MAO HAD BLINKED first. But he also stood firm vis-à-vis Stalin when his fundamental interests were involved. In the last stage of the civil war, before Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan, Nanjing sued for a ceasefire and peace on 9 January 1949. Stalin told Mao to respond and say the CCP “supports negotiations.” Mao was furious (“spoke more sharply,” Orlov reported to Stalin). Stalin most uncharacteristically sent another telegram the next day, attempting to reposition himself, and claiming that his proposal had been purely tactical, to make it seem that it was the Nationalists who were responsible for continuing the war: “our draft of your response … is designed to undermine the peace negotiations.”