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Interkit, 1966-1987

Interkit was an organization created by the Kremlin to coordinate Soviet-bloc analysis of and policy toward China from 1967 until

the mid-1980s. This institution, its name derived from the Russian word for China, “Kitai,” periodically gathered China experts from the USSR, its Warsaw Pact allies, and a shifting mix of other nations aligned with the Kremlin (e.g., Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). In periodic meetings, the participants—primarily communist party functionaries but also, in some cases, diplomatic and/or academic China “hands”—considered the political, economic, ideological, cultural, and other dimensions of dealing with their problematic former ally. See also Sino-Soviet Split. (Image: Cover of elementary school textbook from Guangxi, 1971)

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Popular Documents

August 24, 1968

Telegrams from Romanian Embassy, Beijing, to Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 22-24 August 1968

A series of three telegrams reporting on a reception held at the Romanian Embassy in Beijing on August 23, 1968. Premier Zhou Enlai attended the event and gave a speech condemning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

June 8, 1982

The State of Foreign Policy

Discusses issues related to upholding Sino-Soviet relations, to maintaining an active foreign policy with socialist and capitalist countries, and touching on issues related to various socialist countries at the time.

May 21, 1973

Sixth Interkit Meeting, Record of Meetings with Oleg Rakhmanin and Konstantin Katushev

These are the records of two meetings on the occasion of the Sixth Interkit Meeting. The first of these involves a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), Oleg Rakhmanin, while the second is a meeting with the secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Konstantin Katushev. Both address relations between China and the Soviet Union. The documents discuss the Sino-Soviet border clashes, the Soviet security policy in the Far East and Siberia, and the position of countries such as Yugoslavia, Romania, and Albania, as well as the critical situation in Vietnam and Cambodia.

June 18, 1980

East German Record of a Meeting of Delegation Leaders at the Eleventh Interkit Meeting in Poland

This record of a meeting of the delegation leaders attending the 11th Interkit meeting addresses China's strategy in the area of international relations. The document expresses concern regarding Beijing's policies and calls for unity among the Communist countries. International issues discussed include Soviet-Korean relations, i.e., the Belgrade meeting between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his Korean counterpart Kim Il Sung. Conditions in Albania, Romania, and Yugoslavia, and the positions of these countries within the Communist bloc, are critically assessed. Another topic is the improvement of anti-Maoist propaganda.

March 1970

Report on the China Problem Following the 9th Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party

This study addresses aspects of Chinese domestic and foreign policies after the 9th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Internal party disputes and undemocratic structures are said to characterize the Chinese leadership. The document offers an analysis of the socio-political state of affairs in China and states that the delay in economic growth is due to violations of the economic principles of Socialism. As far as its foreign policy is concerned, China is strengthening its military potential; Beijing's intensified relations with Western countries are condemned.
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Exterior of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

The Interkit Story: A Window into the Final Decades of the Sino-Soviet Relationship

Based on newly available documents from the Russian and East-Central European archives, the paper explores the largely untold story of the Sino-Soviet rivalry and relationship during the latter decades of the Cold War through the activities of "Interkit," an organization set up by the Kremlin to coordinate Soviet-bloc analysis of and policy toward China from 1967 until the mid-1980s.

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