On December 25, 1991, Christmas was one of the most memorable days in the whole world. On a snowy winter night, the sickle and hammer flag, symbolizing the supreme power of the Soviet Union, slowly descended from the Kremlin, officially ceasing its political presence.
Yeltsin with Gorbachev
Subsequently, Russia, the largest ally of the Soviet Union, declared its independence, and the first president was the controversial figure who provided an important impetus for the collapse of the Soviet Union, Boris Nikolaevich Yeltsin.
Yeltsin served as president of Russia for eight years, until 1999, when he announced his resignation and elected Putin as his successor. In the eyes of Russians, there is hardly anything to praise about the Yeltsin era, and many believe that his greatest contribution was to hand over power to Putin.
But in the eyes of Chinese, Yeltsin was an international friend worthy of praise, and it is not an exaggeration to award him a large medal weighing a ton. Why are Yeltsin's assessments so mixed?
Yeltsin visited China
Yeltsin and "shock therapy"
It has to be admitted that when Yeltsin became Russia's first president, he faced a headache mess.
Since at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the member countries adopted the principle of "the more inheritance property, the more debts it inherits", Russia, as the largest member country, inherited about 70% of the Soviet Union's military strength, but also inherited about 61% of the Soviet Union's debt, involving more than 100 billion US dollars.
Yeltsin
In order to pay off foreign debts and restore the national economy as soon as possible, Yeltsin rushed to the hospital and turned to the International Monetary Fund for help.
According to the suggestions of a number of Western economists, Yeltsin boldly promoted the market-oriented reform of the Russian economy, taking economic privatization and economic liberalization as two key directions of development, while adopting a tight fiscal policy to accelerate Russia's pace of getting rid of the Soviet legacy system.
Yeltsin
For Yeltsin's series of economic instruments, people call it "shock therapy", which means that Yeltsin's policies caused huge shocks to the Russian market, and even a state of "shock". However, with the help of this set of "fierce drugs", Russia's paper economic data has improved significantly, which seems to represent the effectiveness of "shock therapy".
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
But this is not the case, Yeltsin's "shock therapy" led to the division of state assets by private oligarchs, creating a group of oligarchs who were rich and rival, and the gap between the rich and the poor in society widened sharply.
In the end, Yeltsin's Russia fell into the oligarchic crisis brought about by "shock therapy", and the standard of living of the people came to a standstill. Coupled with the internal and external troubles caused by the defeat in the Chechen war, these factors made Yeltsin lose confidence and eventually handed over the presidency to Putin.
Yeltsin and China
It can be said that it is precisely because the "shock therapy" has caused too much trauma to the Russian economy that Yeltsin has been criticized by many Russians to this day. After all, to this day, Russia's oligarchs still control the country's economic lifeline, and even if they are as strong as Putin, they feel powerless against the oligarchy.
However, during the Yeltsin era, China's relationship with Russia was quite close, and it can even be said that Yeltsin found a most trustworthy strategic partner for Russia.
Yeltsin
Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, in order to make up for the technological gap in the military as soon as possible, China spent 3 billion yuan to sign a contract for 24 Su-27SKs. But before the delivery of the fighters was completed, the Soviet Union had already declared its disintegration.
China still has considerable misgivings about the new Russian president, Boris Yeltsin, especially about Yeltsin's refusal to recognize the contract signed by the Soviet Union.
But to China's satisfaction, Yeltsin showed a very friendly attitude towards China, not only delivered the 24 Su-27SKs from the previous contract to China on time, but also led a delegation to China in 1992, aiming to reach deeper military technology export cooperation with China.
So in the 90s, China imported countless advanced military technologies from Russia, which advanced the level of the domestic military industry by at least 20 years.
Su-27 fighter
It is worth mentioning that during the 8 years of Yeltsin's rule, he visited China four times, and each visit brought a contract for the export of military technology, so it is no exaggeration for China to award him a large medal weighing one ton.
Sino-Russian cooperation in the Yeltsin era
So how much military technology did Yeltsin provide China? This is actually reflected in the "934 Project" prepared by China's official preparations.
At the "934 Project" arms exhibition, Russia disclosed almost all non-strategic weapons to China, and made it clear that as long as China pays for it, all weapons at the exhibition can be exported, including the production technology of these weapons.
Russian "Tornado" rocket artillery
When the Chinese delegation entered the exhibition, they were surprised to find that Russia's latest BM-30 Tornado rocket launcher, BMP3 tank turret, 2S19 self-propelled howitzer, thermobaric bomb and laser-guided bomb were on display.
The performance of these army equipment is about 15~20 years ahead of the PLA Army at that time, but now China only needs to spend money, and even adopt the method of light industrial products to offset the production drawings and finished products of these equipment.
Russian heavy thermobaric bombs
In the Air Force, Yeltsin approved the demonstration of Russia's newly upgraded Su-27, later known as the Su-30 advanced fighter, and specially developed the Su-30 special version of the Su-30MKK in accordance with Chinese requirements when exporting.
As for the navy, Yeltsin generously exported four Hyundai-class destroyers currently in service with the Russian Navy directly to China, which later became the "Four King Kongs" of the Chinese Navy, helping the Chinese Navy through the first decade of the 21st century in the period of technological precipitation.
Hyundai-class destroyers
All in all, in the Yeltsin era, Russia's military technology exports to China involved three major branches of the military, land, sea and air, and basically exported all of Russia's military industry to China. Yeltsin, on the other hand, did this to compensate for the economic losses caused by "shock therapy" in the country.
Therefore, in the eyes of Russians, Yeltsin destroyed the foundations of Russia and was a historical sinner; But from China's point of view, Yeltsin was the "messenger of friendship" between the two countries and one of the "founders" of China's military modernization.
Resources
[1] The History of Military Reform after the Collapse of the Soviet Union.Sohu.com
[2] On the first anniversary of Yeltsin's death, Putin praised him as a world-class outstanding figure . Xinhua
[3] Revealing the mysterious "934" guided artillery project plan of the Chinese military Global Network