1 Million Ruble Trade Deal Masks Claim Lin Biao Survived Plane Crash

By Vera Kessler · August 13, 2026

Secret suspicions in Pyongyang masked diplomatic frictions and whispers that Lin Biao avoided the Mongolian plane crash, contradicting the official narrative of the time.

On February 4, 1972, Zachary Yanakiev, a Third Secretary at the Bulgarian embassy in Pyongyang, met with a man he had known since his college years. That man was Kostatz Chifliku, the military attaché at the Albanian embassy. The meeting was not a social call; it had been requested by Major Bulanov, the assistant military attaché at the Soviet embassy.

The resulting report, an English translation of a Bulgarian document provided by the Cold War International History Project, captures a moment of profound diplomatic fragmentation. In early 1972, the socialist world was not a monolith but a collection of suspicious neighbors, and Pyongyang served as a crossroads where these frictions were monitored with meticulous, often mundane, detail.

Chicken Factories and Train Freight

According to the report, the relationship between Albania and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in 1971 had developed, though Yanakiev notes this progress was "not significantly" so. The markers of this friendship were specific and narrow. A delegation from the Albanian Youth Organization had visited for the sixth congress of the Korean Socialist Youth Organization, and specialists had traveled to the DPRK to study "chicken production" with the intent of purchasing equipment for a chicken factory.

Trade was similarly modest but precise. A contract for 1972 had been signed, projecting a 20 percent increase over 1971, totaling "1 million rubles in both directions." However, the logistics of this exchange highlighted the distance and the lack of trust. Because the volumes of goods were too small to justify Albanian ships, the merchandise was hauled by train from the DPRK to Chinese harbors.

There were also signs of cooling. The Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) had declined an invitation to attend the Albanian Party’s Congress the previous year. The reason given was a vague reference to "certain circumstances," a phrase that in the lexicon of Cold War diplomacy often masked deeper ideological disputes or tactical disagreements.

An "Internal Chinese Issue"

Chifliku provided Yanakiev with the Albanian perspective on the shifting tectonic plates of Asian diplomacy, specifically the visit of Richard Nixon to China. For the leadership in Tirana, this was viewed as an "internal Chinese issue," and as such, Albania had remained silent, offering no official statement or mention of the visit during its own Party Congress.

When the conversation turned to the possibility of normalizing relations between Albania and the Soviet Union, Chifliku was blunt. He noted that while the Soviet Union had explored options for normalization, "all turned futile." This stagnation existed alongside a rapid warming of ties between China and the DPRK. Chifliku believed that Sino-Korean relations were developing so quickly they may have already "surpassed those between the DPRK and the USSR," though he conceded that this did not necessarily happen at the expense of the Soviet-Korean relationship.

Despite these observations, Chifliku admitted that the Chinese embassy was not sharing specific information with the Albanians. This lack of transparency extended to the movements of Korean delegations headed by Pak Seong-cheol, Jeong Jun-taek, and Heo Dam. While the Chinese were reportedly very interested in which European, Latin American, and Near Eastern countries these delegations visited, Chifliku could only offer rumors regarding a high-ranking Korean delegation's potential visit to China.

A Plane in Mongolia

The meeting touched upon the internal chaos then gripping the Chinese leadership. Chifliku claimed there was dissent within the top ranks and asserted that Liu Shaoqi was still alive. His most provocative claim concerned Lin Biao. Contrary to the official narrative of the time, Chifliku suggested that Lin Biao had intended to flee the country but was "not on the airplane that crashed in Mongolia."

Instead, Chifliku proposed that the plane likely carried Xian Yun Shen, the former chief of the general staff of the army. When Yanakiev mentioned reports from the British press suggesting the CIA had helped uncover Lin Biao’s group, Chifliku offered no reply. This silence on the role of Western intelligence, contrasted with his willingness to speculate on the identities of those in a plane crash, suggests a careful calibration of what information was safe to exchange.

The Fifth Congress Booklet

As the meeting concluded, Chifliku made a specific request: he wanted the KWP’s booklet of by-laws, specifically the changes approved at the Fifth Congress. He wanted to review the revisions or, at the very least, be told what the most important changes were. Yanakiev informed him that he did not have the booklet and had not inquired about it, promising to update him if he learned anything.

In his closing remarks to the Bulgarian Ambassador, Yanakiev noted that because of their shared college history, the meeting had proceeded without "nagging." He observed that Chifliku had "taken pains to seem sincere," particularly regarding the claims that the Chinese embassy kept the Albanians in the dark. Yet, Yanakiev remained skeptical. He left the encounter with the feeling that Chifliku was deliberately avoiding detail on the true nature of Sino-Korean and Sino-Albanian relations.