Shen Zhihua:Why Was It Cold?

“Imagine a routine of hunting for answers to the same question in thousands of pages of declassified files？ That was what I did for years out of sheer faith.”That’s Shen Zhihua， who has been hailed as an “alien” for his unremitting efforts over the years.

Shen worked as an airman， a boiler man， and later a businessman before he became the first Chinese to study the history of the Cold War through first-hand files. Today， he works concurrently as guest professor at several institutes of higher learning， including Peking University， Remin University of China， East China Normal University， and Chinese University of Hong Kong， in addition to a part-time researcher in several research institutes under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences （CASS）.

“We have to work on the puzzles in so many archives to arrive at the original picture of history，” grins Chen.

“Historical research is like a jigsaw puzzle，” asserts Shen Zhihua. “In front of us are fragments of files and historical materials.” The difference is that historical fragments need to be distinguished as true or 1， which requires painstaking effort.“Archives cannot be verified without supportive evidence because many of them are unreliable – far from enough to guarantee the truth. What historians could do is to try their best to revivify the truth of history.”

Hunting for “Food”

“Actually， curiosity triggered my interest in history，” recalls Chen. “In middle school， I often read reminiscences of Winston Churchill and Erwin Rommel， wondering why they were different from what I had known before.”

One thing offered him a key： the longsealed historical archives of the former Soviet Union were decoded in the late 1980s and Russia threw open important archives in the early 1990s， drawing great attention from scholars across the world.

State libraries in such countries as the United States， Germany， Britain， and Norway began to acquire and display large numbers of microfilms and copies of such historical records.

At that time， Shen Zhihua was a successful businessman well into his forties.“Upon hearing the news， I made up my mind to turn my sights away from business to the study of these files， so as to reconstruct the past，” recalls Shen. Many scholars could hardly find such opportunities abroad due to limitations in their social and academic context.

“In China， we had never before done research in world history based on firsthand archives，” explains Shen. “What we had were second-hand or secondary sources， with interpretations that could have been easily out of context， incorrect and relaying erroneous information.”

1994 witnessed the process of approval for the beginning of Shen Zhihua’s research on the Cold War in collaboration with the CASS. In May 1996， the research group of four headed to Moscow.

In Russia， they found the cost of duplicating the files unbearably high： 1 to 2.8 US dollars per page！ At this rate， it would cost tens of thousands of dollars for copying 10，000 files. To make it affordable， Shen extracted and sorted out the material while hiring local Russians to copy the files at a “domestic” price， along with service fees of hundreds of dollars besides Moutai， a famous Chinese liquor.

“Archives are food for historical researchers，” Shen insists. “We could not afford to lose such a chance because until then we had always had the leftovers of others.”

To hunt for “food，” in 1997 and 1998 respectively， Shen Zhihua and scholars from the CASS went to the United States： He also traveled at his own expense with his wife Li Danhui along the China-Russia and China-Mongolia borders， collecting as much data as possible from provincial-level archives and important city- and countylevel archives.

Between 1996 and 2002， Shen spent more than 1.4 million yuan， gathering and preserving over 15，000 historical files， which were then translated.

No wonder a CASS specialist in Russian history sighed： “These files have confirmed our recognition and revision of the history of the former Soviet Union as well as revaluation and appraisal of world history and the history of international relations in the 20th Century.”

Self-Improvement with Historical Truth

Shen Zhihua is known for his obsession with archival research. To him， there was never a shortcut in historical studies. The fundamental rule for the “hunter” is to endure “sitting on a cold stool” and work really hard.

It is especially true for the study of the history of the Cold War. “After the collapse of the Soviet Union， one of the major tasks for a historian was to restructure this phase of history because news during that period was comparatively blocked and subjective， besides being colored by deep-rooted ideological antagonisms.”

When it comes to the historic value of the two decades， Shen insists that there are still shadows of the Cold War. “History is marked by inertia，” he explains. “The War was over， leaving behind its impact on many aspects， such as culture， diplomacy， and political thought.”

Most Chinese scholars committed to the study of the history of the Cold War and the Soviet Union are saddled with a“Chinese complex” because they are trying to crack puzzles， such as “What’s the socialist path about？” “Should China make such a choice in the first place？” “How should it carry on？” “Why did the Soviet Union stop？” and “What’s the future for China？”

For his part， Shen went about his work. He emptied a room for stacking the files in paper boxes； and， he can readily tell the story of each file.

“Nobody in the country can challenge me in terms of the number of the original archives on the Cold War from the Soviet Union，” he grins. “I’ve opened them to the public. Many scholars have come – from China and abroad， including the United States， Japan， South Korea， Poland， and even Russia – to consult and copy. The workload was so heavy that my copying machine broke down.”

Apart from his tireless research， Shen Zhihua has given some of the copies， made at his own expense， to the Peking University library. He has also saved them in discs and gifted these to the China Research Service Center at Chinese University of Hong Kong， for free reference.

As a CASS scholar commented， to certain extent， Shen Zhihua set a benchmark for academic research in terms of openness and freedom.

Yet to Shen， his persistence was for his self-improvement rather than re-moulding the world or influencing others. “The only thing I was doing was to clarify the past， which was purportedly understood but， in fact， not understood correctly，” he remarks.“It’s been all worthwhile.”