Moscow: Academia Publ., 2000, 199 p.

(c) 2002

The author examines the political biographies of two presidents of the Republic of China (KR), which is not recognized by the world community, but exists de facto in Taiwan-Jiang Jinggui and Li Denghui - against the background of the history of Russian-Chinese relations and compares the radical transformations of the last decades of the last century in Taiwan and in the USSR/Of Russia.

The book is based on a wide range of literary sources, mainly Chinese, as well as archival materials and eyewitness accounts, and contains a lot of information previously unknown to Russian readers, even specialists.

The biography of Chiang Kai-shek's son Jiang Jingguo, to whom most of the book is devoted, impresses with the abundance of dramatic episodes, the range of roles that the era forced him to play. In the 1920s, he was a student at the University of St. Petersburg. Sun Yat-sen, who trains cadres for the revolutionary struggle in China, is an ardent adherent of the world revolution, who publicly disowned his father after he carried out an anti-communist coup in 1927. In the 1930s, he was deputy editor-in-chief (pseudonym Elizarov) of the large-circulation newspaper Za Tyazheloe Mashinostroenie at Uralmash in Sverdlovsk, a member of the CPSU(b), a soldier of the ideological front, a happy husband and father, a cheerful character who lives under the hood of security agencies. In 1937, only slightly affected by the first wave of the campaign of mass repression, he managed to return to China.

During the period of glasnost and perestroika, several essays on Jiang Jingguo's life in the USSR appeared in our press, but his further fate was only mentioned in passing. For the first time in Russian literature, A. G. Larin traced the entire life path of this outstanding political figure, finding in his biography a lot of interesting things for the Russian reader. For example, Jiang Jingguo, released to his homeland by the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b), underwent a special "brainwashing" there, studying the works of Chinese philosophers, the theory of Sun Yat-sen's "three people's principles" and the Kuomintang's completely new point of view on the activities of the Soviet and Chinese Communist Parties. Starting his new career from a modest administrative position in a remote corner of Jiangxi Province, he soon surprised others with unprecedented social experiments: he created canteens for the poor, shelters for the homeless, cooperatives for farmers; he drew up a five - year plan-a masterpiece of economic romanticism, which, according to his plan, ended with the electrification and industrialization of the district. Before becoming President of the Kyrgyz Republic and becoming famous as one of the creators of the "Taiwan miracle", Jiang Jingguo was in charge of all the work of the special services of Taiwan: in this capacity, he organized-

page 206

He supervised the flight of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over the territory of mainland China and supervised the stay of the Soviet agent V. Lui on the island.

Episodes from the life of Jiang Jingguo are interspersed in the book with many fragments that relate to both well-known and little-known pages of Chinese history. The reader, who is not an expert, will be able for the first time to look through the eyes of the losing side at the civil war in China, at such episodes as the retreat of the Kuomintang army, its evacuation to Taiwan, etc.

Having several versions of this or that phenomenon in front of him, A. G. Larin considers them all, without trying to impose his opinion on the reader. For example, in one of the later works of Jiang Jino, a conversation with Stalin on the topic of the fate of the MNR is described in detail. Stalin looks extremely unattractive, as a "real imperialist", and Jiang Jingguo himself - as a bold defender of the just demands of the Chinese people. However, no record of such a conversation has been found in Russian archives. The author leaves open the question of whether the text of Jiang Jingguo can be considered a genuine document.

The activities of Jiang Jingguo's successor, Li Denghui, who served as the country's president from 1988 to 2000, are given much less space in the book, because his life is not so rich in unusual twists, is not so close to our history, and there are fewer significant facts for us. Nevertheless, it certainly contains a lot of remarkable things: under Li Denghui, Taiwan has become a typical Western-style democratic society with high living standards, not only material, but also cultural.

Following the entire chain of political and economic transformations in Taiwan, the author reflects on the topic of dictatorship, democracy and society. He talks about the establishment of a one-party dictatorship in Taiwan in the 1950s and its subsequent replacement by a multi-party system, about Taiwanese methods of reform, and constantly compares (if not directly, then in a hidden form) similar processes in Taiwan and in Russia. American studies have repeatedly noted similarities between the Kuomintang, which was called a "Leninist" or "quasi-Leninist" type of party, and the Chinese Communist Party. The author, developing the theme of similarities between dictatorships, even if they were built on different economic bases, pays special attention to analogies: propaganda slogans under both Chiang Kai-shek and Jiang Jing had a mobilizing character, called people to selfless work in the name of revolution, and affirmed the unity of the party and the people.

Jiang Jingguo's work in the Kuomintang highlighted this fact in a curious way. The ideological formulas that he brought back from the USSR, including the famous slogan "Cadres decide everything", as well as the glorification of the leader, turned out to be very useful for educating the Kuomintang youth. Familiar to Jiang from his own experience, the Komsomol found its mirror image in Taiwan in the form of the Anti-Communist Youth Union (Anti-Komsomol) with similar organizational principles and working methods.

Even more than similarities, the author is interested in differences that-alas! "they don't turn out in our favor. We are talking about the pace, methods and, most importantly, the effectiveness of economic and political reforms. In Taiwan, the privatization of state - owned property (which played a leading role in key industries) was gradual and - perhaps partly due to this gradual nature-did not lead either to a weakening of the political framework of society or to a catastrophic decline in the regulatory role of the state in the economy. Industrialization on the island was carried out not at the expense of overexploitation of the population, but, on the contrary, was accompanied by an increase in their well-being, an increase in the level of education. Jiang Jingguo, who served as President of the Kyrgyz Republic (1978-1988) after Chiang Kai-shek's death, said: "We are more willing to develop the economy more slowly than to widen the gap between rich and poor at too high a rate."

The transition from dictatorship to democracy was carried out, in contrast to the USSR, carefully and prudently, without excesses and painful convulsions, as a result of which it was called the "quiet revolution". Why did Taiwan do what the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia failed to do? - A. G. Larin mentions such reasons.

First, the change in the political system in Taiwan was not accompanied by a break in the basis, which was already established by this time. Second, the one-party dictatorship, authoritarian in nature, allowed for a certain amount of free-thinking and, from the very beginning, according to Sunyatsen's theory of the "three people's principles", was conceived as a temporary system, which should be replaced by a parliamentary republic; this approach favourably differed from the previous one.-

page 207

alism from utopian-communist ideas about the death of the socialist state, which did not contribute to, but prevented, its reform in accordance with the requirements of the time. Third, Taiwanese leaders knew about democracy firsthand, and they were familiar with the functioning of democratic institutions in the United States, where many of them studied, including Li Denghui.

There are a number of other reasons (for example: the national homogeneity of Taiwan, which sharply distinguishes it from the USSR; the special attention of Kuomintang leaders to maintaining stability in society, caused by the fear that riots may push the leaders of the PRC to take active actions against the island), but the phenomenon of Taiwan in this case cannot be considered unique. Without much upheaval, dictatorship gave way to democracy in a number of other countries. Another thing that was unique was the internal and external situation of the USSR. Therefore, no matter how interesting the author's comparisons are and how convincing his conclusions are, Taiwan can hardly be considered a carrier of such an experience that could be directly transferred to Russian soil.

Nevertheless, Taiwan is interesting for us as it has impressive precedents that should be seriously considered and should not be ignored if we want to have a full-fledged theory of social development. And a peer-reviewed book might be useful here. In particular, it repeatedly brings us back to a far from simple question: what are the criteria for progressivity of a particular political system? The answer, which includes the experience of both Russia and Taiwan, should contain as the most important criterion the ability of the system to actually ensure a high level of national welfare.

Without succumbing to laudatory rhetoric, A. G. Larin examines not only the facade of Taiwanese democracy, but also its reverse side. The successful transformation of the entire huge mechanism of managing society into a new quality gave rise to euphoria, carelessness, and overestimation of their own capabilities among its creators and performers, which, of course, was reflected in the tone of both official speeches and numerous publications. The President of the country, a devout Christian who preached and was prone to philosophical reflections, began to draw in his speeches idyllic pictures of social harmony, almost fully realized on the island. Numerous programs for improving public institutions appeared, but they were clearly declarative; beautiful slogans such as "deepening democracy", creating a "clean government", etc.were voiced, the specific meaning of which did not rise above proposals such as "stop brawls in parliament" or "reduce the cost of election campaigns".

The author has shown that under the shadow of newfound democratic freedoms in Taiwan, corruption, financial fraud, income leakage, election fraud, etc. flourished-something that was resolutely fought during the dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek and Jing, but with less success over the years. At the end of Jiang Jing's presidency, these abuses were fiercely criticized by the liberal opposition, who expected democracy to restore justice and order. Alas, in a democracy, "black" and "gold" politics - the fusion of power with the criminal world and financial circles-have become the norm of public life. Behind-the-scenes group struggles in the ruling party, which has been in power for many decades, have escalated to unprecedented levels. After it split and lost the 2001 presidential election, analysts cited the phenomena described in the peer-reviewed paper as the cause of these events.

In conclusion, a few small comments. The author does not always manage to maintain a lively, imaginative style of presentation: where it is a question of purely economic or political matters, the text becomes noticeably drier. Probably, it was impossible to avoid this, because without excursions into politics, the content of the work would have become much poorer, and the material, as is well known, largely determines the style of narration. Given that our readership is less familiar with Chinese culture than with European culture, the author has tried to minimize the number of Chinese names, titles, and small realities. However, for Sinologists, there is an extensive bibliography at the end of the book. And one last thing. It seems to me that the title of the book does not accurately reflect its content: in fact, it tells about the activities of not two, but three presidents of Taiwan, starting with Chiang Kai-shek. Combining the genre of political journalism with a scientific depth of content, the book can be of interest to both specialists and a wide range of readers. I think that any historian or political scientist will not regret the time spent on getting acquainted with it.

Permanent link to this publication: