The re-establishment of Chinese domestic tranquility ended armed confrontation with the USSR, but it did not improve diplomatic relations, because in 1973, the Soviet Army garrisons at the Russo-Chinese border were twice as large as in 1969. The continued military threat from the USSR prompted the PRC to denounce "Soviet social imperialism", by accusing the Soviet Union of being an enemy of world revolution.[citation needed] Sino-Soviet relations would slowly and gradually improve during the 1980s.