In 1969, the most tense year since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union threatened to use nuclear weapons against China.
In this regard, Chairman Mao resolutely issued an order: all important leaders of various departments should withdraw from the capital to avoid this huge crisis.
Since the late 1950s, relations between China and the Soviet Union in the north have continued to deteriorate.
In 1958, the Soviet Union even made an unreasonable request to the Chinese side to "establish a common fleet and guard China's territorial waters", which was resolutely rejected.
Since then, the Soviet Union has continued to deploy troops on the border, and the strength of the army has gradually increased to 1 million. At the same time, the Soviet Union also stationed tens of thousands of tanks and armored vehicles, as well as 3,000 aircraft, in a vain attempt to force the Chinese side to comply with its strong military strength.
It was also from this time that Chairman Mao, with a far-sighted strategic vision, made comprehensive arrangements for the conflicts and even wars that might break out in the future.
He paid special attention to the threat from the north, put forward the defense policy of "decentralization from the north to the south", and shifted the focus of national defense to the north.
And Chairman Mao's meticulous arrangements have indeed paid off.
In March 1969, the Zhenbao Island incident broke out, because the People's Liberation Army had psychological preparations in advance, the Soviet army not only did not succeed in invading, but also suffered a lot of losses.
As a result, the self-proclaimed Soviet Union became so angry that its defense minister, Marshal Grechko, even forcefully shouted that the threat would be "eliminated once and for all" with a "surgical nuclear strike."
At that time, the Soviet Union deployed more than 30 medium-range cruise missile bases in the Far East, and its country also had intercontinental ballistic missiles with ultra-long-range attack capabilities.
Both can carry multi-million-ton nuclear warheads and can carry out devastating nuclear strikes against China at any time.
At this time, although China had successfully tested the first atomic bomb 3 years ago, the research on nuclear bombs was still in its infancy.
Nuclear strength is seriously insufficient compared to that of the superpower Soviet Union.
Despite facing such a difficult situation, Chairman Mao was not at all timid.
On March 15, he said emphatically at an internal meeting: "Even if our leadership organs are destroyed, we will fight as usual!" ”
At the same time, however, Chairman Mao was well aware of his own principle of "strategic contempt for the enemy and tactical attention to the enemy", and he also made full preparations for the Soviet nuclear threat.
And this preparation is to evacuate the relevant personnel.
After analysis by Premier Zhou and several founding marshals, they unanimously deduced that the main targets of the Soviet surgical nuclear strike were most likely the mainland's nuclear missile bases, the northeast heavy industry bases, and large cities, including Beijing.
Premier Zhou therefore suggested that evacuation, concealment and protective construction be carried out in the main cities concerned, and that action should be taken immediately.
This reasonable proposal of the Prime Minister was adopted by Chairman Mao, and on August 28, 1969, with Chairman Mao's approval, the state issued an order for nuclear war readiness.
We call on the broad masses of the people to be ready to smash the war of aggression, spontaneously stop all sabotage activities that provoke trouble, and immediately begin to make early plans for evacuation.
On September 1, the evacuation officially began, of which Beijing was the first to start evacuating.
As the capital of China at that time, its importance was self-evident, and state organs and a large number of universities were located here.
First of all, a large number of cultural institutions, units and their families in Beijing were evacuated to the area south of Beijing, far from the Soviet Union.
For example, the troupes belonging to the Ministry of Culture, the Literary Association and the Writers Association moved to Hubei.
And the colleges and universities that cultivate the pillars of the state have also moved to the countryside urgently.
For example, part of the famous Peking University was arranged to the shores of Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province, and part was arranged to Hanzhong. The University of Science and Technology, which is of strategic importance for the development of science and technology in the mainland, was evacuated to Hefei.
At that time, these cultural institutions also undertook the important task of preserving materials, and while they were moved to the south, they carried a large number of important archives and precious historical relics from various units.
History and culture are the soul of a nation and a country, and Chairman Mao's first purpose in evacuating them was to ensure that even if the mainland was destroyed by the Soviet nuclear bomb, it could be rebuilt with these precious materials and would not be destroyed by the country.
I have to say that an important reason why Chairman Mao is Chairman Mao is that he has great foresight in this regard.
After the evacuation of the cultural institutions, Chairman Mao decided to start evacuating the leadership.
On October 14, according to Chairman Mao's proposal, the state officially issued a notice asking cadres and some veteran comrades in Beijing to begin evacuations for war preparedness.
In order not to let the Soviet Union know the specific situation, on October 17, Premier Zhou invited the leaders to the capital gymnasium to discuss evacuation arrangements in the name of watching the sports performance party.
Since then, the major leaders have gone to all parts of the country.
For example, Chairman Mao flew to Wuhan by special plane and presided over the major state policies in the middle, Marshal Zhu went to Guangzhou and sat in the south, and Deng Gong arrived in Nanchang to carry out work.
At the same time, for the sake of confidentiality, all leaders also need to clean up and turn in office documents before traveling to all parts of the country.
Moreover, they cannot have contact with other non-essential persons and can only be accompanied by family members.
Not only that, most of the evacuation sites where the leaders went were in the vicinity of the Beijing-Guangzhou railway line, so that when the war broke out, it was conducive to mutual exchanges.
In this way, by October 20, the leaders were quickly evacuated, but the leaders were not enough to evacuate, and Chairman Mao also did follow-up work: the construction of the rear area.
(Large rear construction)
In addition to moving state organs and universities to the interior, the industrial system has been moved to the rear area relative to the Soviet Union, which is known as the "three-line construction".
The first, second, and third lines are divisions made by the state according to the strategic position of the rear area. The third line, in short, is the vast area in the southwest and northwest except for Tibetan areas and Xinjiang.
The construction of the third line is divided into the construction of the third line and the construction of the small third line, and the construction of the third line is mainly based on the national defense industry and basic industries.
The construction of the small third line focuses on the production of small arms and light weapons and its supporting industries, and their main purpose is to build a large rear.
As early as 1964, Chairman Mao was keenly aware of the threat from the north and began the construction of the third line.
By 1969, war was on the verge of breaking out.
Under the guidance of the principle of "digging deep holes, accumulating grain in large quantities, and not seeking hegemony" put forward by the great man, the whole country soon entered a state of readiness for war, and the speed of advancing the construction of the third line was greatly accelerated.
During this period, the national economy began to move closer to the war, and a large number of civilian enterprises were converted into military enterprises, and together with the former military enterprises, they were moved to the third-tier mountainous areas where traffic was blocked.
The main task of these military enterprises is to step up the development of anti-tank weapons and equipment against the Soviet Union.
Therefore, these companies are very particular about the location of the site.
They follow the principle of "backing, dispersing, concealing, and entering the cave", and are all prepared for war, and most of the enterprise buildings are built with national defense standards.
The exterior of the building is backed by mountains, which is not only very reliable, but also effective in evading enemy reconnaissance.
Its interior is built with high-strength cement underground fortifications, so that it can combine peacetime and wartime and combat and defense.
Not only that, all localities in the rear areas have also strengthened their strategic material reserves, mobilized and built a three-level strategic reserve system, and truly achieved "war preparation, famine preparation, and service to the people."
The implementation of the third-line construction provides a solid guarantee for the leaders to continue to work after the evacuation.
It also greatly enhanced the mainland's national defense strength and promoted the industrialization of the central and western regions, laying the foundation for the balanced development of the mainland regions later.
While preparing for civil war, Chairman Mao understood that China alone could not defeat the superpower Soviet Union, so he began to look for foreign aid that could help the mainland.
It was the Cold War, and the world was divided into two lineups, and the only one who could compete with the Soviet Union was the United States.
However, it is logically impossible for the Old United States to help the Chinese side, and they are even more than happy to see the Chinese side and the Soviet Union lose both.
However, Chairman Mao knew that "the enemy of the enemy is a friend," and it is not impossible for Laos and the United States to help the Chinese side. In this regard, he made the following analysis: "At this time, Laos and the United States were constantly losing in the Vietnam War, and their global strategic interests were greatly damaged, and they temporarily fell into the inferior position in the struggle for hegemony. So he desperately needed a great power ally who could directly participate in the confrontation with the Soviet Union and help him share the pressure, and this great power ally could only be China. ”
In addition, the then old US President Richard Nixon was a "hawk", and the hawks all advocated being tough on the Soviet Union and improving relations with China.
(U.S. President Richard Nixon)
Therefore, as early as the beginning of 1969, when Nixon had just become the president of the Old United States, Chairman Mao entrusted Marshal Chen Yi with advanced international thinking to form an international relations research group to focus on Sino-US and Soviet relations.
Chairman Mao's judgment could not be said to be incorrect, and Nixon spied on the news that the Soviet Union was preparing to strike China nuclearly, and quickly decided to share the news with China.
He believes that the Soviet nuclear strike will not only affect China, but also be detrimental to the old United States against the Soviet Union, and the pollution caused by it will certainly affect the 250,000 US troops stationed in Asia, which the United States cannot tolerate.
So on August 28, Nixon, through domestic dissemination, implicitly conveyed the news of the Soviet nuclear strike to the Chinese side, and the Chinese side was prepared in advance.
In addition, Nixon asked his assistant Kissinger to relay a message to the Soviet Union.
If the Soviet Union is desperate to launch a nuclear war, the United States is ready to use the Soviet nuclear weapons code deciphered during the Cuban Missile Crisis to launch a nuclear counterattack to 134 key areas within its territory.
It was precisely because of Chairman Mao's preparations for these steps that the Soviet Union never dared to act rashly, and in the end did not dare to launch a nuclear strike.
On October 20, 1969, negotiations between The Chinese side and the Soviet Union were held in the capital, and the relations between the Chinese side and the Soviet Union began to ease, and a nuclear crisis disappeared.
Resources:
"The Past Can't Bear to Become History"
"1969, the country is on the verge of nuclear attack"
"Unveiling the 1969 Evacuation of High Cadres"
1969: A Nuclear Crisis on the Brink of Extinction