A historian who reread Sino-Soviet relations through Cold War archives
Shen Zhihua is a historian of the Cold War, the Soviet Union, and Sino-Soviet relations who led the Center for Cold War International History Studies at East China Normal University. He expanded the documentary basis of Chinese Cold War scholarship by personally collecting declassified Russian materials and editing large archival compilations. His work explains the Sino-Soviet split through the interaction of state interests and competition within the international communist movement, questioning accounts that reduce China’s choices to ideological solidarity alone. His studies of the Korean War and the Sino-Soviet alliance trace the calculations of China, the Soviet Union, and Korea, bringing a major Chinese interpretation of the Cold War to an international readership.
Career Timeline
- 1950Born in Beijing
- 1971–1978Worker and propaganda cadre at Shijingshan Power Plant
- 1978–1982Graduate student in world history at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
- 1983–1984Imprisoned on a state-secrets charge, released early
- 1993–2002Founded a private historical research center and edited Soviet archival collections
- 2004–현재Lifelong professor and director of the Cold War International History Studies Center at East China Normal University