And to be shipped to China within six months[1]
(June 21, 1951)

Comrade Filippov[2]:

(1) Comrade Gao Gang[3] has returned and conveyed your various opinions, which I consider entirely correct and which should be carried out accordingly. Among them, regarding the issue of planting rubber trees, we are prepared to immediately begin planning and hope that the Soviet government will dispatch representatives to assist us in carrying out this planning.

(2) In the eight months since our army has been fighting in Korea, we have deeply felt the disparity between enemy and our own equipment and the urgent necessity of improving our army’s equipment. Comrade Gao Gang previously requested from you the equipment for sixty divisions, which you have already graciously promised. This is the minimum requirement for our army on the Korean battlefield this year. According to Comrade Gao Gang’s report upon his return, you believe that our request for the equipment of each division is still not strong enough, and you propose that each division must be equipped with tanks and have increased artillery firepower. I consider this entirely correct and essential for fighting against imperialism. I have already cabled Comrade Xu Xiangqian[4] to conduct concrete discussions entirely in accordance with your opinions.

(3) According to a telegram from Xu Xiangqian, he has held preliminary discussions with the Soviet General Staff, which believes that for the sixty divisions, according to the organizational proposal put forward by the Soviet General Staff, only sixteen divisions (including three Korean divisions) can be shipped this year, while the remaining forty-four divisions will have to be shipped gradually from next year to the year after. This creates a contradiction between the needs of the Korean battlefield and the time available.

(4) In order to meet the urgent needs of the Korean battlefield, I request you to consider, in accordance with the order list handed by Gao Gang to Xu Xiangqian for processing, having the infantry weapons and various artillery pieces, tanks, aircraft, automobiles and automobile parts, various gasoline and medical supplies, and other weapons and matériel for the sixty divisions begin to be shipped starting from July this year and completed by the end of this year, with one-sixth shipped each month, so that the various divisions and regiments on the Korean battlefield may temporarily receive replenishment according to their current organization, thereby benefiting the war situation.

(5) If the weapons can be shipped in their entirety this year according to our order list, the weapons still insufficient according to the standards of the new organization proposed by the Soviet General Staff can continue to be shipped next year. At the same time, we may also, based on the condition of weapons shipments, successively transfer a number of divisions and regiments for reorganization, gradually equipping the sixty divisions according to the new organization.

(6) Because the submission of our order list was delayed by three months, it has caused great delay, and now today I am suddenly making to you a request for such a large quantity and for shipment to China within six months, which will cause you great difficulty, especially regarding whether the transportation issue can be accomplished. Please handle it according to what is possible under the circumstances.

Mao Zedong
June 21, 1951

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[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Stalin.
[2] Filippov, i.e., Stalin.
[3] Gao Gang, then serving as First Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Commander and Political Commissar of the Northeast Military Region of the People's Liberation Army.
[4] Xu Xiangqian, then serving as Chief of the General Staff of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central People's Government, leading a military-industrial delegation of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China on a visit to the Soviet Union.