The 1929 Sino-Soviet War

The War Nobody Knew

by Michael Walker

Series: Modern War Studies

Sales Date: February 1, 2021

416 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in

Paperback
9780700632602
Published: February 2021

$32.50

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eBook
9780700623761
Published: February 2017

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Winner: Arthur Goodzeit Award

For seven weeks in 1929, the Republic of China and the Soviet Union battled in Manchuria over control of the Chinese Eastern Railroad. It was the largest military clash between China and a Western power ever fought on Chinese soil, involving more that a quarter million combatants. Michael M. Walker’s The 1929 Sino-Soviet War is the first full account of what UPI’s Moscow correspondent called “the war nobody knew”—a “limited modern war” that destabilized the region’s balance of power, altered East Asian history, and sent grim reverberations through a global community giving lip service to demilitarizing in the wake of World War I.

Walker locates the roots of the conflict in miscalculations by Chiang Kai-shek and Chang Hsueh-liang about the Soviets’ political and military power—flawed assessments that prompted China’s attempt to reassert full authority over the CER. The Soviets, on the other hand, were dominated by a Stalin eager to flex some military muscle and thoroughly convinced that war would win much more than petty negotiations. This was in fact, Walker shows, a watershed moment for Stalin, his regime, and his still young and untested military, disproving the assumption that the Red Army was incapable of fighting a modern war. By contrast, the outcome revealed how unprepared the Chinese military forces were to fight either the Red Army or the Imperial Japanese Army, their other primary regional competitor. And yet, while the Chinese commanders proved weak, Walker sees in the toughness of the overmatched infantry a hint of the rising nationalism that would transform China’s troops from a mercenary army into a formidable professional force, with powerful implications for an overconfident Japanese Imperial Army in 1937.

Using Russian, Chinese, and Japanese sources, as well as declassified US military reports, Walker deftly details the war from its onset through major military operations to its aftermath, giving the first clear and complete account of a little known but profoundly consequential clash of great powers between the World Wars.

"Riveting. Walker marshals a wide array of first-hand sources to demonstrate the military significance of the war. . . . [He] takes us deep into the diplomatic wrangling surrounding the war, from Mukden’s raid on the Russian consulate to Stalin’s opting to continue the war instead of accepting conditional Chinese subservience."—H-Net Reviews
"Walker’s book is essential reading. He gives this important subject the necessary attention it deserves."—Journal of Military History
"Walker has presented a professional and competent work on the volatile and fascinating history of northeast Asia."—Army History
"Walker provides an insightful analysis of a widely overlooked international conflict. His book transcends the limits of political or military history, elegantly uniting the two in one concisely written manuscript."—War in History
"Walker has filled a long-standing gap in modern, pre-communist Chinese history with his impressive work on the 1929 war between a China emerging from its warlord era, and a Soviet Union emerging from its Bolshevik consolidation of the former Russian Empire."—New York Military Affairs Symposium Review
“This unprecedented, credible, and interesting study of the twentieth century’s most obscure war highlights the complexity inherent in the prolonged struggle for political dominance in northeastern Asia.” —David M. Glantz, author of The Stalingrad Trilogy
“In telling the story of the Sino-Soviet conflict, Walker takes a wide-ranging approach that encompasses international politics of the region between China, Japan, and the USSR while simultaneously providing a wealth of detail on the domestic politics affecting decision-making. The military aspects of the war are equally thoroughly documented from the quality of leadership, to the tactics and technology that determined the outcome. This work will be the standard for a long time to come.”—Roger R. Reese, author of Why Stalin’s Soldiers Fought: The Red Army’s Military Effectiveness in World War II
“Long overlooked as inconsequential, the 1929 Sino-Soviet War in fact had profound implications for China, Japan, the Soviet Union and the international order in East Asia. Drawing upon trends in international and world history, Michael M. Walker breathes new life into the study of this war, offering a fluid narrative and detailed analysis of the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the conflict. In doing so, he reveals the complexity and consequence of ‘the war nobody knew.’“—Peter Worthing, author of General He Yingqin: The Rise and Fall of Nationalist China
“The 1929 Sino-Soviet war over control of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria is perhaps the least studied 20th century conflict even while being one of the most important. As detailed by Michael Walker in his groundbreaking monograph, one immediate result of China’s defeat was Japan’s 1931 invasion of Manchuria, and its creation the next year of the Manchukuo puppet state, widely seen as the opening salvo in the Pacific War.”—Bruce Elleman, William V. Pratt Professor of International History US Naval War College