Point Counterpoint: Temporal Interplay in the Soviet and Chinese Revolutions

In this reflection on How Maoism Was Made, two historians of the Soviet Union describe the relationship between the PRC and the Soviet Union, and how it evolved into a complex temporal dynamic. The sometimes synchronised, sometimes syncopated tempi of socialist construction imparted a characteristic rhythm to the larger history of global socialism. Comparing the PRC with the Soviet Union, two possibilities emerge: a temporal chronology as two communist countries co-existing post-war, and another that measures time in revolutionary life cycles.