The Soviet Offer to China of 1919

The first major effort of Soviet Russia to win the sympathies of China and to establish direct contact with its government was a manifesto of July 25, 1919. Previously the Bolsheviks had directed their propaganda and diplomatic efforts at the Entente Powers, with only occasional words for “the oppressed peoples of the East.” As Siberia was being rewon and its armies were approaching the long Sino-Soviet frontier, the Kremlin now focused greater attention on the Far East with its vast potential of revolutionary resources and its reservoir of anti-imperialist, anti-Western sentiments.