 This 1983: Doomsday page is a Proposal.
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| Sino-Soviet War | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Soviet Union  Mongolia  North Korea East Turkestan
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 People's Republic of China
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 Republic of China
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| Yuri Andropov† | Deng Xiaoping† | Chiang Ching-kuo† | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| Millions | 450 million civilian and military | 8 million Taiwanese civilian and military | ||||||
The Sino-Soviet War was a theatre of conflict in "World War III" between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
History[]
Pre-Doomsday Conflicts[]
Sino Soviet Split[]
The Sino-Soviet Split was a significant diplomatic and ideological rift that occurred between the Soviet Union and China, beginning in the late 1950s and culminating in the 1960s. The split stemmed from deepening disagreements over Marxist ideology, leadership, and national interests. Initially, both countries had been allies in the communist bloc, but tensions began to rise after Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin in 1956, which China’s Mao Zedong viewed as an attack on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and an affront to Stalin’s legacy. Mao also opposed Khrushchev’s more moderate and peaceful approach to international relations, particularly his policy of "peaceful coexistence" with capitalist countries, which China saw as a betrayal of revolutionary principles. Over time, these ideological differences turned into political and economic conflicts.
The split was exacerbated by disputes over leadership in the global communist movement and divergent national interests. Mao criticized the Soviet Union for not supporting China’s efforts to become a nuclear power and for failing to aid in the Chinese revolution's progress in Southeast Asia. The conflict reached a peak when the Soviet Union withdrew technical and economic aid from China, leading to a severing of ties in the early 1960s. The split had far-reaching consequences for global geopolitics, as it led to a realignment of alliances in the Cold War, with China increasingly moving toward its own path of socialism, which often ran counter to Soviet policies. The Sino-Soviet Split also influenced the global communist movement, fracturing international solidarity and creating two competing centres of communist power.
China and NATO[]
Up until 1983, China’s relationship with NATO was largely characterized by a mixture of caution and indifference, shaped by the complex dynamics of the Cold War. Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China was ideologically aligned with the Soviet Union, creating a clear divide between it and the Western bloc led by the United States and NATO. The alliance between China and the Soviet Union was initially strong, but tensions soon emerged, culminating in the Sino-Soviet Split in the late 1950s. This division meant that China, while still ideologically opposed to NATO, was not actively engaged in direct conflict with the alliance. Instead, China focused on consolidating its power domestically and pursuing its own independent foreign policy, particularly through the promotion of Maoist revolutionary ideals in the developing world.
During the 1960s and 1970s, China’s relations with NATO remained minimal, as China’s primary concern was its position vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. However, the shift in China’s foreign policy during the 1970s, particularly after President Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972, marked a significant change in the global political landscape. While China remained opposed to NATO’s military alignment, the rapprochement with the United States led to a degree of indirect cooperation, especially in the context of counterbalancing Soviet influence. NATO itself, however, had little direct engagement with China during this period, as China was largely isolated from the West, except for its interactions with the United States. By 1983, China's foreign policy was focused on pragmatic development, but its stance on NATO remained one of cautious distance, largely due to its broader geopolitical focus on managing relations with both the Soviet Union and the United States.
Nuclear Exhange[]
The Soviet attack against China was a pre-emptive measure. When all-out nuclear war broke out, the USSR wanted to deny the PRC the opportunity to exploit a moment of Soviet weakness. The objective was not total victory, but neutralizing the threat that the People's Republic could present.
The nuclear exchange during the Sino-Soviet War began at precisely 8:40 AM Beijing Time, when a coordinated series of nuclear missile strikes were launched at major Chinese cities in the northeast, east, and south, alongside presumed military installations across the nation. Due to the chaos and lack of on-the-ground surveys, the specific launch sites and targets remain unclear, but it is widely believed that the head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and key military leaders were among those obliterated in the strike. Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of China at the time, was reported missing and presumed dead, with much of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) command structure decimated in the process. This left the nation in disarray, with the centralized leadership structure effectively collapsed.
In a harrowing act of retaliation, a surviving faction within China’s strategic rocket forces launched a nuclear missile at Taipei, Taiwan, levelling the city centre and resulting in the deaths of the Kuomintang (KMT) leadership. This attack marked a significant escalation in the conflict, further solidifying the narrative of mutual destruction between the two former communist allies. On the mainland, the surviving military officials and civilians quickly shifted from shock and confusion to vengeful outrage, directing their anger northward at the Soviet Union. Initial suspicions of Soviet involvement were later corroborated by research conducted by the World Census Reclamation Bureau (WCRB) and Chinese officials, who noted that the timing of the strikes—delivered suddenly and without the delay that would be expected of American targets in the Soviet Union—further pointed to Soviet culpability.
Additionally, similar conclusions were reached by the ANZC British expatriate group regarding the fate of Hong Kong, which was similarly obliterated in the nuclear bombardment. To this day the Successors to the Soviet Union deny any attack and claim any missiles launched from their side would have been on either NATO installations in the region, or in retaliation to strikes by the PRC authorities.
Invasion[]
The nuclear barrage was accompanied by an enormous land invasion from points all along the 12,000 kilometers of the Chinese border with the Soviet Union and Mongolia. Columns advanced into Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang. The land invasion, like the nuclear strike, was a preemptive measure: Soviet strategists wanted to occupy a buffer zone that would allow the USSR to block any Chinese counterattack. Commanders along the front hoped that the combination of a nuclear strike and a quick occupation of the borderlands would give them control of the war before the Chinese could reorganize their defense.
The invading armies saw much more success initially than their counterparts in Europe. The headquarters of the 39th Army in Ulaanbaatar was a crucial factor in this difference. NATO had ignored Mongolia in its attacks; the Soviet nuclear and conventional forces placed there were a threat to China, not the West. Meanwhile China's nuclear forces were deemed not prepared to make a quick retaliatory strike. So Ulaanbaatar was spared and took over command and control of the invasion of China when key commands in the Soviet Union were destroyed.
Nonetheless, the advancing forces experienced the same problems as their counterparts in Europe with resupply, reinforcement, and morale. The 39th army was largely recalled to Mongolia; maintaining the only stable pro-Soviet state was now more urgent than territorial gains in China. Forces in Xinjiang handed control over to local rebels as quickly as they could. In the key front in the northeast, the invasion dragged out to a grueling war of attrition.
East Turkestan[]
China's far northwest was the only front where Soviet forces outnumbered those of China. This, together with the Soviets' superior armament, the sparse settlement of the region, and the utter disarray of the Chinese forces, permitted a quick advance. Chinese defenders withdrew from the border, attempting to establish stronger defensive positions closer to Ürümqi, the provincial capital.
Three days after the start of the invasion, Soviet forces had advanced 100 kilometers over the border with the Kazakh SSR to the north and east of Ürümqi, achieving their immediate objective. They had intermittent radio contact with Ulaanbaatar which, while unreliable, permitted forces along this front to receive orders and coordinate their strategy with other surviving Soviets in the far east. Soviet planes soon achieved air superiority, allowing them to conduct airstrikes with impunity. No major advance had been planned from the Kyrgyz SSR and only a small force in the area had survived Doomsday, holding near the border. But reconnaissance flights revealed that the Chinese army had withdrawn from the city of Kashgar, just over the border. When this information was sent to Ulaanbaatar, the order came to occupy the city.
The advancing Soviet army broadcast messages openly courting members of the province's minority ethnic groups - the Uyghur, Hui, Kazakh, Mongol, Kyrgyz, and Tajik people, most of whom historically practiced Islam. In recent decades, China had encouraged immigration of Han Chinese from the country's biggest cities. These relative newcomers now outnumbered Muslims in the capital, though not in the province as a whole. This stoked ethnic tension and discontent toward Chinese policy, but most non-Han in Xinjiang still identified with China and thought of themselves as Chinese. By 1983 the Soviets had spent years supporting Uyghur and East Turkic separatist groups, but these represented only a fringe of the population. However, in the more heavily-Uyghur south, the people felt a strong sense of abandonment by China after the outbreak of the war. The small Soviet force that took Kashgar had to work with the local community and began to take advantage of this alienation. Meanwhile, in northern Xinjiang, the nuclear war and invasion tore open ethnic divisions, resentments, and mistrust. The military junta that took control of the capital began to accuse the population of disloyalty. This accusation was to become self-fulfilling.
In the north, repression, isolation, and food scarcity were becoming intolerable. Unrest grew, diverting soldiers who were needed on the front lines. In late October, Muslims in the city gathered to demand more control over the distribution of food and other rationed goods. When soldiers moved in on them, an all-out riot broke out, tearing through much of the city. A group of opposition leaders escaped behind Soviet lines, revealing that Chinese rule in the province was hanging by a thread. After some exchanges with the command in Ulaanbaatar, a new objective was handed down: the Soviet army was to hand over power to a friendly regime that could contain any further threat in northwestern China, and then withdraw.
As the army intensified airstrikes and artillery bombardment against Chinese lines, East Turkic separatists living in the Soviet Union joined with army political officers to meet with local sympathizers, both Muslim community leaders and deserters from the Chinese army. They formed plans to create a new East Turkestan Republic to replace the PRC regime, a restoration of a state that had appeared twice before during the twentieth century. The Soviet Union would maintain a very limited military presence; it lacked the resources to remain in Xinjiang for much longer. On 31 October, the republic was declared in Kashgar, and nearly all Soviet troops in the city accordingly moved northward toward Ürümqi.
As winter set in, Soviet troops began withdrawing to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Siberia, leaving arms to the East Turkestan rebels but taking most heavy equipment with them. The soldiers had seen relatively little combat on the ground, but they were exhausted, underfed, and frightened. World War III in northwest China was ending, but the war for Xinjiang continued. The front lines in the north came to resemble a rural civil war rather than a Soviet front. Fighting dragged on for several more months.
In March, Geydar Aliyev began to consolidate a new Soviet regime in Siberia. One of his priorities was to establish East Turkestan as a stable and reliable ally. He offered a "Mutual-Defence and Economic Cooperation Treaty" and whatever weapons and air support could be spared in the hope of bringing an end to the war and to the PRC in Xinjiang. A mutiny behind Chinese lines in June was the beginning of the end. A cadre of junior officers joined with Hui and Uyghurs in declaring that Ürümqi would join the East Turkestan Republic. The Chinese defensive lines collapsed and rebel forces entered the capital. Despite the participation of Han Chinese soldiers in the rebellion, a wave of anti-Han ethnic violence ensued. Some people were victims of direct attacks, while others were forced to "go back east," which was as good as a death sentence in the arid isolation of Xinjiang. It would be months before the new republic was firmly established across the former province, but major fighting was over in China's northwest.
War of Attrition[]
In northeastern China, what initially began as steady gains by the soviet forces gradually reduced to a slow march through the Chinese interior. By this point it was sure knowledge that Beijing had fallen victim to Soviet nukes. The early months saw the Soviets systematically pushing the PLA out of the Manchurian provinces, at first this proved to be a resounding success however the Soviets, due to the lack of communications and radio interference in the nuclear aftermath, did not know of the growing defensive line spreading across north east China. The PLA were regrouping at Chifeng and fortifying the city. The Soviets were walking into a bloodbath. The Chinese were sure that for every metre gained by the Soviet invasion force, they would pay for it in blood.
The Fall of Chifeng[]
The Soviets slammed into the new great wall of Chinese resistance. Survivors of the Battle of Chifeng describe the frontline as being a river of blood and a scene unlike anything witness on earth. The Chifeng Front would hold the line for months, pushing past the winter of 83 into the spring of 84. This however would not be the defence that the PLA had hoped for and as supply lines were depleted through the ongoing onslaught unfolding in the city eventually one side would fall foul of luck. The Soviets were throwing every able body into the skirmish, many Mongolians would be sent to fight in Chifeng only to gain a few more feet of ground before being decimated. Both sides were hoping on their numbers prevailing but it was the Soviets who would win out the day, much to their misfortune.
By October of 1984 the situation was all but lost for the PLA in the northeast, sure enough the Soviets would overrun their positions at Chifeng and push deeper into the mainland, slaughtering everything in their wake. They were desperate. And desperate people do depraved things. Thus it fell to the commander of the Chifeng Offensive to decide to do the most unforgivable act, to fire a nuclear missile upon their own people. The Soviets were not aware of how many nuclear devices the Chinese had left in their reserves, but on October 29th, 1984 they learned the hard way. Tens of thousands of Soviet and Mongol troops died alongside the few souls which remained in the ruined city of Chifeng.
Just as the southern outskirts of Chifeng were lost to the People's Liberation Army, a 3.3 MT Dong Feng missile saw the city instantly razed to the ground, obliterating the entirety of the city and much of neighbouring Harqin. The surviving Chinese now under Soviet occupation in the Northeast were horrified at the news that a Chinese missile had been fired upon their own, this was the last domino that saw any resistance still existing in Manchuria at this point cease.
The PLA pulled out of the Chifeng region and regrouped further west at Kalgan. The commander who had ordered the strike did not make it back to the new forward base, it is unknown whether he was executed by his men or had committed suicide. However, his brutal act would save the remnant of the People's Liberation Army in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and north-eastern Sichuan.
The Soviets, too heavily wounded and worried of further nuclear retaliation, did not press south. With their offensive now divided between those in Inner Mongolia and the Manchurian offensive, the crater of Chifeng became a de facto "no man's land" for both sides. If the PLA were not above destroying their own cities to ensure survival, now every city invaded had the risk of becoming another Chifeng incident. The Mongolian forces which comprised the bulk of the Soviet offensive were in uproar at the amount of their own dead to the Chinese bomb and wanted retribution. For the next two month both sides entrenched themselves into their respective battle lines, unsure of who would strike first and whether that strike would spell doom for themselves.
The Ceasefire[]
Both sides were securing their lines as the winter of 1984 crept into the region, bringing with it an uneasy peace as surely, neither side was combat capable in the colder northern Chinese regions. This lull in the battle allowed both sides to truly take stock of their predicament. Their nations were now lying in ashes, their people starving and struggling to survive, moving in vast columns of refugees on a death march looking for a haven that will never come. If their soldiers had any morale to hold fast to in the fight, that had been decimated in the fall of Chifeng the prior autumn.
Though it was not ideal to capitulate to their invaders, the PLA knew it was time to cease fighting and recover the nation that was left before chasing the nation that was lost. This they knew would upset some in their command, as it was the Soviets that had laid waste to vast swathes of their country, but what other choice did they have. To keep the fighting persisting in this way would only lead to the victors ruling over a graveyard.
A message was drafted from the senior command of the PLA, to be sent out with scouts to offer a meeting with Soviet generals in charge of the invasion to sue for peace. A date and time was set to meet unarmed and with a low profile in CITY (im thinking Wuhai or Yinchuan) to discuss the formal ceasefire arrangements between the two war wounded nations.
Word reached the soviet command who were sceptical but exhausted from the long months of fighting along the border. They weighed up their position. Turkmenistan and Manchuria were secure, with Inner Mongolia in its majority falling under soviet protection. They had power in the talks that were to go ahead, but also were wary of the intentions of the PLA representatives. In the end it was agreed that a small delegation would meet in the darkness of night with the PLA and discuss their terms for a ceasefire.
The meeting was tense, both sides were cold in their greetings and business swiftly ensued. The soviets at first were hard lining that the entirety of Inner Mongolia and the Bohai Gulf be turned over to their authority. Manchuria and Turkmenistan by now had turned away from China due to the Chifeng incident and would not return without further bloodshed, a sore point the soviets twisted to their gain.
The PLA were resolute in their response, the Soviets would not receive any land more than they had taken by force thus far and to avoid any further incidents like Chifeng, for which the Chinese assured the Soviets they were more than capable and able to do, the soviets would agree to their terms. Failure to agree was an indication to the Chinese that the Soviets had accepted total annihilation.
The soviets tried to counter saying that the PLA were not the only nuclear ready force in this conflict and that the reserves of Soviet stock far outmatched the PLAs rocket arsenal. The PLA pressed firmly that they were to resolve the matter however they saw fit, and that with the nuclear exchange in 1983, the Soviets surely would not have the capabilities to prevent the destruction of whatever cities they had left in the far east before their own bombs fell on the remnant of the People’s Republic of China.
The discussions would go back and forth in this manner for hours before finally the terms of the ceasefire would be agreed. The Soviets would keep their spoils but no more. A border land would be demilitarised on either side of the line. The DMZ would follow this line up to the No Man’s land at Chifeng, stretching south to the Ruins of Beijing and its environs.
Both delegations signed this agreement, scrawled haphazardly onto a crumpled map brought to the meeting. And returned to their respective sides of the border in the early hours of the morning. IT was announced via radio the following day that all hostilities would cease and that a truce had been signed by agreeing parties for both nations. Thus unofficially the war in the far east ended.
Post Ceasefire Incidents[]
The Last March[]
The most significant contrast of the aftermath of the war was the sorry state of what was left of the People's Republic of China. Having lost almost a third of its territory to the Soviets, two-thirds of its population and the entire region around its capitol being made uninhabitable by 2 years of nuclear war, the surviving leadership made the decision to call all surviving People's Liberation Army and the people at large to its five remaining provinces under its control, whose civilian populations were almost entirely depleted after 2 years of total nuclear war and starvation. Although over ten million Chinese would make the trek to the Taiyuan-led rump state, this was a mere fraction of China's total population. The defeat of the People's Republic of China was made apparent not by the destruction of its cities or people, but by the sorry state its nominal survival. The roughly one hundred million souls still alive outside of Chinese and Soviet-held lands would devolve into a myriad patchwork of city-states, despotic autocracies, a myriad of "People's Republics" led from dozens of different small towns, isolationist minority group holdings and even total lawlessness.
Ulaan Battar Spy Ring Incident
Poisoning of a PRC Official
Red Phone Hotline - Fear of nuclear retaliation.
Modern Situation[]
Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov, "The Last Cosmonaut" and Siberian Premier from 2017 to 2020.
The consequences of the Sino-Soviet War have continued to be felt across Asia, forever transforming the societies which were party to the senseless conflict. However, time has begun to heal the great divide as younger generations born after the War have been more pragmatic in their attitudes with each other. However, those that remained within the People's Republic do not share these optimistic sentiments, instead seeking a return of the lands which were stolen from them by their once-ally.
USSR Integratuion of inner mongolia Manchuria and Xinjiang.
Scavvers in beijing