The Sino-Soviet Split, 1958-1964

The Sino-Soviet Split of the late 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s was a multidimensional crisis of nationalism, national interests, domestic politics, personal problems, cultural differences, border issues, Soviet-American détente, communication misunderstanding, and different interpretations of ideology. The goal of this diploma thesis is to analyse the important domestic and foreign factors which contributed to the worsening of Sino-Soviet relations. In this interdisciplinary study, the author wants to over bridge the differences between Diplomatic History and International Relations Theory, the subfields of History and Political Science. In the first part, there is an analysis of current Sino-Soviet Split historiography (Lorenz Lüthi, Sergey Radchenko, Xia Yafeng, Austin Jersild) by using theories of International Relations (liberalism, realism and constructivism). The second part provides a historical description of the Sino-Soviet Split. Emphasis is placed on the Chinese side and especially regarding the role of Mao Zedong. This thesis focuses on the period between 1958 and 1964, nevertheless it is neccessary to include preceding and subsequent phases of the relations. It is essential due to cultural, ideological and national factors. These factors endured a long time and it would be impossible to..