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Story of Soviet bravery in defense of China revisited
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VISITORS to the Liberation Park in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, can stop in front of a gigantic marble tombstone and pay homage to the 15 Soviet pilots buried there.
They were among a total of 211 Soviet pilots who fought and died alongside their Chinese counterparts during China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1937-1945).
Thanks to media exposure, people in China are quite familiar with the deeds of the Flying Tigers, a group of American volunteer fighter pilots led by General Claire Lee Chennault.
By contrast, the devotion and sacrifice of Soviet servicemen in China is much less well-known.
Zhang Jianhua, professor of history at the Beijing Normal University, has spent years documenting the history of Soviet participation in China’s war against Japan.
“During their four-year-and-two-month stay in China, Soviet pilots were known as the ‘Eagles over China,’” said Zhang.
To help China fend off the fascist threat from Japan, the Soviet Union decided to supply military aid, including sending “volunteers” to fight on China’s side. The pilots fought as volunteers because the Soviet Union wasn’t officially at war with Japan at the time.
Altogether, the Soviet Union supplied 1,250 aircraft and 3,665 men, including 1,091 pilots and more than 2,000 support personnel, Zhang told Shanghai Daily.
The Soviet pilots participated in dogfights over Wuhan and Nanjing, then the capital of the Republic of China, and also raided the Japanese air base in Songshan, Taiwan, in a long-range surprise attack that destroyed 64 Japanese aircraft and killed 130 troops.
Unsung heroes
Their exploits were enthusiastically celebrated in China in ditties and street tales, and wherever they went, they were cheered on by the Chinese people who knew these foreigners were fighting for their country.
Since their mission in China was formally confidential, Soviet airmen were required to assume anonymity in China, and they were not allowed to reveal their destinations to their families before departing for China.
Strict secrecy requirements meant that news of their deaths was kept a secret and even withheld from families back home.
A typical example here is squadron leader Gregory Kulischenko, who died in the campaign over Wuhan in October 1939. His tombstone bore no name, date of birth, nationality or epigraph.
Kulischenko’s family had long thought that he died either fighting the Nazis or in the Spanish Civil War as a volunteer against the fascist regime of General Franco — until they learned through a Chinese source in 1958 that Kulischenko was interred in China.
The bravery of the Soviets endeared them to the Chinese. Their discipline and fighting spirit won them respect.
According to American publications, Chennault’s Flying Tigers were well-fed, comfortably accommodated and lavishly paid for their services. Crew members of the lowest rank were paid US$600 a month, while Chennault himself earned US$1,000 a month, said Zhang.
By contrast, the Soviets received no pay.
They were often confined to barracks in the vicinity of their airfields to keep their identities secret, reduce unnecessary fraternization with locals and maintain readiness in case of incoming air raids.
Friendship remembered
Their role as unsung heroes greatly improved the image of the “demonized” Soviet Union in the eyes of Chinese people at the time, who were often fed a diet of anti-Communist propaganda by the ruling Nationalists.
However, the signing of a Soviet-Japanese non-aggression pact in April 1941 undermined the good will directed toward the Soviet Union. Indeed, it swelled the ranks of the right-wing, anti-Soviet Nationalists.
Growing distrust spelled an end to Soviet aid to China in October, 1941, whereupon the Soviet airmen left China, and the remaining Soviet aircraft were turned over to Chinese air forces.
History is fickle in that the deeds of these heroic Soviet servicemen were swept under the carpet when the Nationalists saw it necessary to denigrate their former ally.
Later, in the 1960s, Sino-Soviet Union relations suffered further setbacks over a series of strategic and ideological differences.
“But this history of friendship and a joint quest for justice will never be forgotten by the Chinese and Russian people,” said professor Zhang.
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