On 7 September 1689, in the eastern Russian town of Nerchinsk, the first ever treaty was signed between the Manchu Qing dynasty of China and the empire of Russia. The ambassadors of Russia dressed in ‘cloth of gold and black sable furs’. By contrast, the Manchus put forward an image of ‘studied simplicity’, their silk umbrellas providing the only hint of grandeur. The treaty itself was written in Latin, the use of a third language being required to bring these two cultures together. Over the centuries, the two great powers of the East Asian landmass wavered between friendship and enmity, treaty agreements being interspersed with invasions. Today, the ‘unlimited friendship’ between Xi and Putin may overturn the global order that has existed since 1945. But even now, it is unclear how much the two leaders feel a natural affinity and how much is pragmatism. In his superb survey of the ties between the two countries over the past four centuries, Philip Snow shows that their relationship has always been unpredictable.

Snow’s approach is chronological, and his book is based on a wide reading of histories of both countries and of original materials in Russian and Chinese. He pays particular attention to the past two centuries and the paths to revolution in both countries. The late 19th century saw revolutionary movements develop in China and Russia, and both imperial regimes were toppled in the early 20th century. At this point, there was little direct contact between the communist forces in China and in Russia, but that would change radically after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.

The Bolshevik Revolution and the establishment of the Comintern were followed inevitably by Soviet infiltration of China. In China, the first target was not the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), still just a few hundred members large in its early years, but the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) of Sun Yat-sen.