Vol 22, No 1 (2023): The Peoples of Russia in the System of Transnational Relations in Siberia, China and Central Asia

The authors consider the period of stay of Count Sava Lukich Vladislavich-Raguzinsky, from 1725 until 1728, in Eastern Siberia during and after his diplomatic mission to the Qing Empire. His role in the expansion and strengthening of Russia’s influence on the eastern borders is established. Particular attention is paid to the issue of streamlining relations between the local administration and the indigenous population, the restoration of bilateral trade between Russia and China, the arrangement of the border and trade territories, the organization of missionary activities of the Orthodox clergy in Siberia and the Qing Empire. All this significantly influenced the development of the peoples and territories of the region during the process of Russia’s expansion in the east, the change of its role in Russia's foreign policy in the Far East. Nowadays, especially relevant is the provision written by the ally of Peter the Great in the Treaty of Kyakhta that between Russia and China “peace should be sustainable and eternal” and the interstate border should become peaceful at all times.

The authors examine the history of the migration of Chinese subjects from the territory of Xinjiang in the 1860s-1880s and measures taken by the Russian administration aimed at adapting them to the new socio-political and economic conditions. On the basis of the research, the waves and scales of migration are established and their reasons are named. The study of the sources is implemented using the formal legal method, the comparative legal method, the methods of analysis and synthesis of written sources, as well as induction. The application of these methods made it possible to formulate a general conclusion concerning the policy of the Russian Empire in relation to the non-Russian population of the region, including Chinese immigrants. The study of the documents related to the migration of the Xinjiang population to the territory of Russian possessions in Central Asia convinces us that the authorities of the Russian Empire were interested in this process. They sought to find a place for new subjects in the socio-economic communities of the indigenous population of the Turkestan territories. At the same time, the Russian authorities applied to the Chinese settlers the norms characteristic of both nomadic and settled residents. Their goal was to bring the status of former Chinese subjects closer to the status of the main population of the state. The Russian government sought to complete this adaptation through the merger of the former Qing subjects with the population of the internal provinces of the Russian Empire.

The author identifies the main factors that influenced the relationship between Russian merchants and the Tuvan population in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries taking into account a number of features and attracting new sources. The author studies the influence of debt trade on Russian-Tuvan relations, characterizes the policy of the Tuvan noions towards Russian merchants, determines the role of Chinese capital in the development of Russian trade in Tuva, considers the image of Russian merchant in the view of the Tuvans. In the course of the work, the system approach was used which allows us to consider the object of the study as a set of interrelated elements. The novelty of the study is the involvement of previously unused sources that considered the nature of the relationship between Russian merchants and the Tuvan population in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries: the materials of the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region, the Central Archive of the Republic of Tyva, the Scientific Archive of the Manuscript Fund of the Tuva Institute for the Humanities and applied research, the State Archive of the Tomsk Region. The author comes to the conclusion that in the second half of the 19th - early 20th century the Russian-Tuvan relations were contradictory. On the one hand, the Tuvan population that needed goods of Russian merchants showed interest and did not oppose the economic development of the region. Some of the Russian merchants managed to firmly adapt to the Tuvan territory and contact with the local population. On the other hand, the increased inflow of Chinese capital at the beginning of the 20th century, the hostility of the Tuvan noions incited by the Chinese side, as well as the terms of debt trade contributed to the aggravation of Russian-Tuvan economic relations. However, despite numerous difficulties and the unstable situation, Russian merchants managed to maintain their positions in Tuva.

The author analyzes the features and results of trade, economic and political relations of the Chinese province of Xinjiang with Soviet Russia and the USSR in 1921-1922. The main sources for the preparation of the article were historical and archival materials on the trade and economic relations of Xinjiang with Russia and the Soviet Union (1896-1949) in Chinese, as well as documents from a number of Moscow archives (the Russian State Archive of Economics, the Russian State Military Archive, the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation). The analysis showed that during the period under review the Soviet-Xinjiang trade, economic and political relations were rather ambiguous. This is evidenced by statistical data on the volume of trade for 1921 and 1922, which, despite the measures taken by Moscow, did not increase. In addition, it should be emphasized that the range and list of goods supplied by the parties changed significantly. The author comes to the conclusion that in 1921-1922 there did not take place the final restoration and development of all-round ties between the Soviet Union and the Chinese province of Xinjiang. It was the Soviet leadership that was the initiator of the bilateral rapprochement.

The research is devoted to repatriate Lyudmila Maksimilianovna Abramova (1914-2002) who was born in Harbin, lived in China for 40 years and moved to the USSR during the mass repatriation of the Russian population of Manchuria in the 1950s. Through the fate of Liudmila Abramova the authors attempt to reflect the peculiarities of the life of the emigrants in Northern Manchuria in the interwar period. They include the involvement of young people in fascist organizations, work in the Manchukuo authorities, survival strategies, repatriation motives, adaptation practices of repatriates, gender aspects - such as the role of a politician's wife, the participation of women in public organizations. The appeal to the personalized history is due to the fact that in the history of Russian emigration in Manchuria there are many mythologemes that distort the idea of the life and activities of emigrants. In addition, the authors had to face the problem of reconstructing the biography of a “little” person in the absence of ego documents (memoirs, letters, diaries); therefore, the research task was the use of the anthropological approach, microand macroanalysis, historical-biographical and historical-comparative methods. The article is based on unpublished archival documents involving memoirs and diaries of former Harbin residents and oral history materials.

The author raises the issue that was practically unexplored on the impact of the British ultimatum delivered to the USSR in May 1923 on the relations between Moscow and Warsaw. The author cites new documents from the diplomatic correspondence of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs' central office (NKID) with the Polish embassy which show that the uproar caused by the Curzon memorandum in the Soviet leadership extended far beyond the sphere of Soviet-British relations. There are analyzed the concessions that Moscow was ready to make in order to prevent Poland from joining the new anti-Soviet front. The comparative-historical analysis is used to examine the dynamics of changes in the nature and scale of these concessions depending on the tension in Soviet-British relations. The conclusion is made that the Curzon memorandum provoked a turn in the Soviet policy towards Poland which Moscow did not fully abandon even when the fears of forming a new anti-Soviet coalition were dispelled. The article also substantiates the reasons why the Soviet leadership decided not to give up its readiness to make a number of concessions to Poland, despite the fact that in June 1923 there was no threat of a new anti-Soviet intervention and Warsaw's participation in it.

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