On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army launched an attack on the Heavily Defended North Camp of the Northeast Army, and due to Zhang Xueliang's policy of non-resistance, the entire Northeast fell into the hands of the Japanese Kou. The fall of the northeast not only caused great harm to China, but also had a profound impact on the relatively stable world pattern after the First World War, and the Japanese army invaded and occupied China's three eastern provinces and used it as a base for military expansion, which not only seriously threatened the survival of the Chinese nation, but also directly challenged the interests of the Soviet Union in the Far East.
After the September 18 Incident, the Soviet Union was most puzzled about whether Japan would use northeast China as a springboard to launch a war of aggression against the Soviet Union, because in history, Japan and Russia also fought many wars. The enemy of the enemy is the friend, so after 1931, the Soviet Union began to pay attention to relations with China, condemning Japan's aggression in the international arena and trying to keep China in check.
Soviet assistance to China was manifested not only in rhetoric but also in deeds. The personnel of the Soviet consulate in the northeast used to assist the Chinese army informally in a semi-official manner. When the Japanese Kwantung Army first invaded the northeast, the Soviet consulate had provided Ma Zhanshan's troops with a batch of Soviet weapons and equipment, and in October 1931, the Soviet Union assisted Ma Zhanshan and the Hailar Security Command with four armored vehicles, 10 artillery pieces, 100 machine guns, 1,000 rifles and a large number of shells and bullets.
The Soviet Union gave strong support to the anti-Japanese volunteer army active in the northeast, not only supporting their weapons, but also allowing them to run to the Soviet side when they were surrounded and suppressed by the Japanese army.
After the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Japanese imperialism launched an all-out war of aggression against China, and China's all-out War of Resistance broke out. The Soviets were very worried about Japan's aggression, but they were still worried that after the Japanese invaded China, they would invade the Soviet Union again, and from July 1937 to September 1940, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published more than 170 articles on China's War of Resistance and condemned Japan's aggression.
At the time of the July 7 Incident, China was still in an agrarian society, many areas were self-sufficient small peasant economies, the industrial level was extremely backward, weapons and equipment, especially modern heavy weapons, all needed to rely on imports, so international military assistance was very important, but at that time, the United States, Britain and other countries adopted an appeasement policy against Japan's aggressive behavior, and the National Government took the Soviet Union as the primary object of assistance and actively carried out the work of winning Soviet aid through diplomatic channels.
After Japan launched an all-out war of aggression against China, the focus of the Soviet Union's policy toward China was to support and assist China in the War of Resistance, hoping that China would drag down the Japanese invading army, prevent the German fascists from fighting on two fronts once they launched a war of aggression, and buy time for the Soviet Union to expand its army.
On July 14, 1937, a week after the Lugou Bridge Incident, Livinov, head of the People's Committee for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, made it clear to the Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union that the Soviet Union was willing to aid China. Soviet diplomatic institutions also called on all countries to sanction Japan on the international stage, actively assisted China, and frequently held the deeds of China's War of Resistance Against Japan, and the people of all ethnic groups in the Soviet Union also wrote letters of condolence to support the Chinese people's War of Resistance Against Japan.
In fact, as early as early 1937, the Soviet Union realized the seriousness of the situation, and China provided a loan of 50 million US dollars, and promised to sell aircraft, tanks and other military technical equipment to the Nanjing government, hoping to increase China's military strength and compete with the Japanese army as much as possible. From 1938 to 1939, the Soviet Union made three loans to the Nationalist government, with a total loan amount of 250 million US dollars and low interest rates.
A few months after the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Soviet Union blockaded China's coastline, and the most convenient shipping from the Soviet Union to China was blocked by the Japanese Navy, and there were only two land routes left: one was to reach Lanzhou via Erenhot, starting from Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia; the other was to reach Lanzhou via Almaty in the Soviet Union, via Dihua (now Urumqi) and Hami. Because the route from Ulaanbaatar to Lanzhou is close to the occupied areas and vulnerable to attack and destruction, the route from Almaty to Lanzhou has become the only option for aiding China. Therefore, Lanzhou became a transit station for Soviet aid to China at that time.
Soviet aid to China was carried out in a state of extreme secrecy, and there were strict secrecy measures between convoys, and even the members of the convoy could not inquire about each other or know each other's names. At that time, the number of drivers in China was relatively small, so most of the drivers were Soviets.
In order to maintain the smooth flow of the Soviet Union's aid to China, the National Government established the "Central Transport Commission" and set up 11 bus stations and 4 air stations along the route from Khorgos to Hami. At that time, China's infrastructure was relatively backward, the road conditions were very poor, many drivers pulled the goods over, the whole body did not have a complete place, the hands were blue and purple, and the arms were also swollen. The number of wheels and steel plates replaced by the car is not clear.
In order to ensure the smooth arrival of Soviet aid to China to the front line of the Chinese War of Resistance, the Soviet Union invested a large number of engineering and technical personnel to help China build roads, and China also invested more than 100,000 migrant workers and soldiers, and built hundreds of bridges along the way, as well as numerous transfer stations, gas stations, bus stations, and repair shops.
In the two years from October 1937 to 1939, the Soviet Union transported more than 5,280 vehicles to China, and more than 4,000 Soviets worked on the transport line.
In October 1937, the first batch of Soviet aid to China was 297 aircraft, which were transported to Lanzhou and then flown to various war zones across the country. At that time, in Lanzhou, the Japanese army often bombed indiscriminately, not only to assist Chinese fighters, but also to send pilots to China to fight the Japanese army.
From 1937 to 1941, the Soviet government sent a total of 3,665 people to participate in the Chinese War of Resistance, including 1,091 pilots. The aircraft they brought, according to incomplete statistics, totaled 1250, including 561 Orioles and Swallows, 222 bombers (mostly Katyusha), and 100 trainer aircraft. In large-scale battles such as the Battle of Nanjing, the Battle of Xuzhou, and the Battle of Wuhan, the Soviet Volunteer Air Force was represented, and the Soviet Volunteer Air Force also sacrificed 211 people. In the 1938 battle of Wuhan alone, the Soviet Volunteer Air Force lost more than 100 people.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Kalyakin, who had served as a senior adviser to China's engineers, believed that from October 1937 to January 1942, the Soviet Union supplied China with arms and materials
1235 aircraft, 220 aircraft engines,
1600 cannons, 82 tanks, 14000 light and heavy machine guns, 1850 cars and tractors, 100,000 rifles, 2 million shells, 15 million rifle bullets, 25,000 aircraft bombs.
These Soviet-aided weapons and equipment did make a significant contribution to China's War of Resistance Against Japan, such as the Soviet-aided T-26 tank, which severely damaged the Japanese army in the Battle of Taierzhuang in the spring of 1938. In August 1938, the Nationalist army established the first mechanized division based on equipment provided by the Soviet Union, which was the famous 200th Division. In the Battle of Kunlun Pass in 1939, the T26 tanks of the 200th Division once again severely damaged the Japanese army.
On June 22, 1941, The Nazi Germans launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union, breaking into 300 kilometers of Soviet territory within five days. The aggression of the Nazi German army caused a great blow to the heavy industry of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet army suffered heavy losses in soldiers and weapons, in which case the Soviet Union was no longer able to continue to provide military equipment and material assistance to China.
On July 30, 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent his personal representative, Hopkins, to Moscow for talks with Soviet leaders. During the talks, Molotov said that because the Soviet Union was at war with Germany, it would inevitably affect the assistance of Chinese military supplies. Molotov also told Hopkins that he hoped that the United States would consider the difficulties caused by the Soviet Union's forced war against Germany and give China some necessary assistance. The United States said it would increase aid to China to make up for the Soviet Union's shortcomings in this regard.
The United States initially did not provide much military assistance to China, but after the outbreak of the Pacific War, the Americans also needed China to contain the Japanese army, so they took a series of active measures to aid China and resist Japan, and increased their assistance to China. But by the spring and summer of 1943, the Soviets had taken the initiative on the Eastern Front and began to increase aid to China.