ABSTRACT
Sino-Soviet diplomatic records from the 1920s show in great detail how the USSR used secret diplomacy to sever Outer Mongolia from China, reclaim control over the CER, and recover virtually all of tsarist Russia's unequal rights and privileges in China, including the Boxer Indemnity, territorial concessions, and extraterritoriality. These records not only reveal that Russia's imperialist foreign policy in China remained remarkably constant both before and after the October Revolution, but they also serve as one of the best indicators of what the USSR sought to accomplish after World War II. Most important, they unveil what the real status quo was in Sino-Soviet diplomatic relations; the exact meaning of status quo proved extremely important during the Yalta talks in February 1945, and during Sino-Soviet talks from June through August 1945.
