Unknown page of history: the dispatch of Chinese workers to the USSR (1954–1957)

ABSTRACT In 1954, during his trip to China, Khrushchev asked Mao Zedong to send one million Chinese workers to the Soviet Far East and Siberia to participate in the ‘construction of communism’. The same year, the two parties signed an agreement, but only 2000 people eventually travelled to the USSR. The failure of the two parties to openly discuss existing issues and communicate their concerns ultimately prevented a mutually beneficial programme from being successfully implemented. At the same time, it further complicated bilateral relations.