Editing Sino-Soviet split (section)

=== Border conflict ===
{{Main|Sino-Soviet border conflict}}
[[File:China USSR E 88.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|The Sino-Soviet split allowed minor border disputes to escalate to firefights for areas of the Argun and Amur rivers (Damansky–Zhenbao is southeast, north of the lake (2 March – 11 September 1969).]]
In the late 1960s, the continual quarrelling between the CCP and the CPSU about the correct interpretations and applications of Marxism–Leninism escalated to small-scale warfare at the [[China–Russia border|Sino-Soviet border]].<ref name="Lüthi, Lorenz M. 2008 p. 340">Lüthi, Lorenz M. ''The Sino-Soviet split: Cold War in the Communist World'' (2008), p. 340.</ref>

In 1966, for diplomatic resolution, the Chinese revisited the national matter of the Sino-Soviet border demarcated in the 19th century, but originally imposed upon the [[Qing dynasty]] by way of unequal treaties that annexed Chinese territory to the [[Russian Empire]]. Despite not asking the return of territory, the PRC asked the USSR to acknowledge formally and publicly that such an historic injustice against China (the 19th-century border) was dishonestly realized with the 1858 [[Treaty of Aigun]] and the 1860 [[Convention of Peking]]. The Soviet government ignored the matter.

In 1968, the [[Soviet Army]] had massed along the {{convert|4380|km|mi|adj=on}} border with the PRC, especially at the [[Xinjiang]] frontier, in [[Northwest China|north-west China]], where the Soviets might readily induce the [[Turkic peoples]] into a separatist insurrection. In 1961, the USSR had stationed 12 divisions of soldiers and 200 aeroplanes at that border. By 1968, the Soviet Armed Forces had stationed six divisions of soldiers in [[Outer Mongolia]] and 16 divisions, 1,200 aeroplanes, and 120 medium-range missiles at the Sino-Soviet border to confront 47 light divisions of the Chinese Army. By March 1969, the border confrontations [[Sino-Soviet border conflict|escalated]], including fighting at the [[Ussuri|Ussuri River]], the [[Zhenbao Island incident]], and [[Tielieketi]].<ref name="Lüthi, Lorenz M. 2008 p. 340"/>

After the border conflict, "spy wars" involving numerous espionage agents occurred on Soviet and Chinese territory through the 1970s.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Soviet-Chinese Spy Wars in the 1970s: What KGB Counterintelligence Knew, Part I {{!}} Wilson Center|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/soviet-chinese-spy-wars-1970s-what-kgb-counterintelligence-knew-part-i|access-date=29 September 2021|website=www.wilsoncenter.org|language=en|archive-date=29 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929034413/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/soviet-chinese-spy-wars-1970s-what-kgb-counterintelligence-knew-part-i|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Soviet-Chinese Spy Wars in the 1970s: What KGB Counterintelligence Knew, Part II {{!}} Wilson Center|url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/soviet-chinese-spy-wars-1970s-what-kgb-counterintelligence-knew-part-ii|access-date=29 September 2021|website=www.wilsoncenter.org|language=en|archive-date=29 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929034402/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/blog-post/soviet-chinese-spy-wars-1970s-what-kgb-counterintelligence-knew-part-ii|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1972, the Soviet Union also [[Renaming of geographical objects in the Russian Far East|renamed placenames in the Russian Far East]] to the [[Russian language]] and [[Russification|Russified]] [[Toponymy|toponyms]], replacing the native and/or Chinese names.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Saparov |first=Arseny |date=2003-01-01 |title=The alteration of place names and construction of national identity in Soviet Armenia |journal=Cahiers du monde russe. Russie - Empire russe - Union soviétique et États indépendants |language=fr |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=179–198 |doi=10.4000/monderusse.8604 |issn=1252-6576 |quote=The deterioration of Russian-Chinese relations in December 1972 resulted in the replacement of Chinese place-names in the border districts (Charles B. Peterson, art. cit.: 15-24). Up to 500 place-names were changed in the Far East. (B.A. Diachenko, "Pereimenovaniia v primor'e," in Vsesoiuznaia nauchno-prakticheskaia konferentsiia "Istoricheskie nazvaniia -- pamiatniki kul'tury" 17-20 aprelia 1989. Tezisy dokladov i soobshchenii (Moscow, 1989): 111.|doi-access=free }}</ref>