USSR's plans to attack China

From an archive website, comes a discussion of the Soviet plans to invade China in the event of a war. Not sure how much this plan holds if the Sovs were also fighting a war in Europe.

Soviet Union's then total armed forces stationed in Asia included 1.27 million troops, 14,300 tanks and 4,200 airplanes. Among 59 army divisions in total, 45 divisions, or 675,000 troops were stationed along the USSR-China border.
On China's side, there were over 2 million troops regularly stationed near the northern borders, among which the Shenyang Army Region alone had 830 thousands.
In the Far East where transportations were long and difficult, the best strategy for the Soviet Union to win a war against China at that time was to plan a quick decisive attack, considering as what they faced was a large country that had great long term defense abilities, huge active armed forces and sufficient military reserves. In such a strategy, they would first make full use of firepower to destroy China's strongest military corps, i.e., the Shenyang Army Region, then seize rich farm lands and oil fields in the northeast of China, and ultimately force China's summation. But if they were to launch attacks along the east border, they would need at least 1.2 to 1.5 million troops, with three front armies surrounding the Shenyang Military Region, and one front army containing the Beijing Military Region. For doing so, they would have to dispatch 2 front armies, 67 army divisions, and the entire command systems as well as forces of 14 army groups from the Back Baikal and the Far East Regions so to reach a total scale of 4 front armies, 20 army groups and 100 army divisions. Based on their transportation abilities at that time, it would take to them at least 80 days to have all troops in place. That would be too slow; China could easily figure it out and take pre-emptive attacks. On the other hand, the inventories and transportation capacities USSR had in the Far East wouldn't be able to support a protracted war. Therefore, the real intention that the USSR had when they stationed massive military forces along the USSR-China borders was to force China to come back to the negotiating table. Their focus at that time was still on Europe.
On the other hand, China was prepared to defend possible USSR invasion in all front lines with much bigger number of troops and military equipments stationed in entire northern China. China realized that if the Soviet Union was to launch attacks, they would come from three directions, north, northeast and northwest. From north, the well-equipped USSR Number 39 Mechanized Army Group stationed in Mongolia could suddenly attack Beijing. Considering the Soviet military possessed quick offensive tactics and advanced weapons and other equipments, it was not impossible for them to reach Beijing city within 3 to 4 days.

View Larger Map

By: Brant