Russian Manchuria (Russia)

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Russian Manchuria
Приаму́рье (Russian)
外满洲 (Chinese)
Region
Manchuria.png
Russian Manchuria, north and east of the China-Russia border, shown in light red.
Country Russia [1]
Named for Russia, Manchuria
Area
[2]
 • Total910,000 km2 (350,000 sq mi)

Russian Manchuria, sometimes [1] [2] [3] called Outer Manchuria, refers to a region of Russia [1] in Northeast Asia that historically formed part of Manchuria, and now constitutes the southern part of the Russian Far East. Manchuria, which more normatively refers to Northeast China, originally included areas in present-day Russian Manchuria. Control of areas within the region was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Qing China during the Amur Annexation in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Treaty of Peking, [4] with the term 'Russian Manchuria' arising after the Russian annexation. The same general area became known as Green Ukraine after a large number of settlers from Ukraine came to the region.

Contents

History of the term

"Manchuria" was coined in the 19th century to refer to the northeastern part of the Qing Empire, the traditional homeland of the Manchu people. After the 1858 and 1860 cessions, the ceded areas were known as Russian Manchuria. [1] [5] [6] [7] [8] The term "Outer Manchuria" became popularized in the late 2000s.[ citation needed ] In Chinese, names for the region include Wai Manzhou or Wai Dongbei [9] [ better source needed ] (Russian : Приаму́рье, romanized: Priamurye; [note 1] simplified Chinese :外满洲; traditional Chinese :外滿洲; pinyin :Wài Mǎnzhōu or simplified Chinese :外东北; traditional Chinese :外東北; pinyin :Wài Dōngběi; lit. 'outer northeast').

Russian Manchuria comprises the modern-day Russian areas of Primorsky Krai, southern Khabarovsk Krai, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the Amur Oblast and the island of Sakhalin. [7] [10] : 338 (map) 

The northern part of the area was disputed by Qing China and the Russian Empire, in the midst of the Russia's Far East expansion, between 1643 and 1689. The Treaty of Nerchinsk signed in 1689 after a series of conflicts, defined the Sino–Russian border as the Stanovoy Mountains and the Argun River. When the Qing sent officials to erect boundary markers, the markers were set up far to the south of the agreed limits, ignoring some 23,000 square miles of territory. [10] : 38 

In 1809, the Japanese government sent explorer Mamiya Rinzō to Sakhalin and the region of the Amur to determine the extent of Russian influence and penetration. [10] : 334 

To preserve the Manchu character of Manchuria, the Qing dynasty discouraged Han Chinese settlement in Manchuria; nevertheless, there was significant Han Chinese migration into areas south of the Amur and west of the Ussuri. [10] : 332  By the mid-19th century, there were very few subjects of the Qing Empire living in the areas north of the Amur and east of the Ussuri, [10] : 333  and Qing authority in the area was seen as tenuous by the Russians. [10] : 336  In 1854, the Tartar-general of Heilungkiang memorialized that the only way to stop Russian expansion into the region was to bring Han Chinese settlers to the unpopulated areas. [10] : 339  In 1856, Russian military entered the area north of the Amur on pretext of defending the area from France and the UK, [10] : 341  Russian settlers founded new towns and cut down forests in the region, [10] : 341  and the Russian government created a new maritime province, Primorskaya Oblast, including Sakhalin, the mouth of the Amur, and Kamchatka with its capital at Nikolayevsk-on-Amur. [10] : 341  After losing the Opium Wars, Qing China was forced to sign a series of treaties that gave away territories and ports to various Western powers as well as to Russia and Japan; these were collectively known by the Chinese side [11] as the Unequal Treaties. Starting with the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and, in the wake of the Second Opium War, the Treaty of Peking in 1860, the Sino–Russian border was realigned in Russia's favour along the Amur and Ussuri rivers. As a result, China lost the region [10] : 348  that came to be known as Russian Manchuria (an area of 350,000 square miles (910,000 km2) [2] ) and access to the Sea of Japan. In the wake of these events, the Qing government changed course and encouraged Han Chinese migration to Manchuria ( Chuang Guandong ). [1] [10] : 348 

In 2016, Victor L. Larin (Ви́ктор Лавре́нтьевич Ла́рин), the director of the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East in Vladivostok, said that the fact that Russia had built Vladivostok, “is a historical fact that cannot be rewritten,” and that the notion that Vladivostok was ever a Chinese town is a “myth” based on a misreading of evidence that a few Chinese sometimes came to the area to fish and collect sea cucumbers. [12]

Despite the potential for territorial claims (in theory) coextensive with the Qing dynasty, Chinese leaders as of 2014 had not suggested that Mongolia and part of Russian Manchuria would be a legitimate objective. [8] In April 2023, US diplomat John Bolton speculated that China (PRC) is "undoubtedly eyeing this vast territory, which potentially contains incalculable mineral wealth," (referring to Asian Russia generally) further noting that "[s]ignificant portions of this region were under Chinese sovereignty until the 1860 Treaty of Peking". [3]

Place names

Today, there are reminders of the ancient Manchu domination in English-language toponyms: for example, the Sikhote-Alin, the great coastal range; the Khanka Lake; the Amur and Ussuri rivers; the Greater Khingan, Lesser Khingan and other small mountain ranges; and the Shantar Islands. Evenks, a non-Manchu Tungusic people, [1] who speak a closely related Tungusic language, make up a significant part of the indigenous population.

In 1973, the Soviet Union renamed several locations in the region that bore names of Chinese origin. Names affected included: Partizansk for Suchan (Sucheng); Dalnegorsk for Tetyukhe; Rudnaya Pristan for Teyukhe‐Pristan; Dalnerechensk for Iman; Sibirtsevo for Mankovka; Gurskoye for Khungari; Cherenshany for Sinan cha; Rudny for Lifudzin; and Uglekamensk for Severny Suchan. [11] [13]

On February 14, 2023, the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China relabelled eight cities and areas inside Russia in the region with Chinese names. [14] [15] The eight names are: Boli for Khabarovsk, Hailanpao for Blagoveshchensk, Haishenwai (Haishenwei) for Vladivostok, Kuye for Sakhalin, Miaojie for Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Nibuchu for Nerchinsk, Outer Khingan (Outer Xing'an [16] ) for Stanovoy Range, and Shuangchengzi for Ussuriysk. [17]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Now Priamurye usually refers to a narrower region of Amur Oblast and parts of Khabarovsk Krai.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchuria</span> Geographical region in Northeast Asia

Manchuria refers to a region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China or, historically, those areas combined with parts of the Russian Far East. Its definition may refer to varying geographical extents as following: the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning but broadly also including the eastern Inner Mongolian prefectures of Hulunbuir, Hinggan, Tongliao, and Chifeng, collectively known as Northeast China. Historically included homeland of the Jurchens and later their descendants Manchus, which was controlled in whole by Qing China prior to the Amur Annexation in 1858–1860, when parts of the historical region were ceded to the Russian Empire. The two areas involved are Priamurye between the Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorye which runs down the Pacific coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border, sometimes including the island of Sakhalin- collectively known as Russian Manchuria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amur</span> Major river in eastern Russia and northeastern China

The Amur, or Heilong Jiang, is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Manchuria/Northeastern China. The Amur proper is 2,824 kilometres (1,755 mi) long, and has a drainage basin of 1,855,000 km2 (716,000 sq mi). Including its source river Argun, it is 4,444 km (2,761 mi) long. The largest fish species in the Amur is the kaluga, attaining a length as great as 5.6 metres (18 ft). The river basin is home to a variety of large predatory fish such as northern snakehead, Amur pike, taimen, Amur catfish, predatory carp and yellowcheek, as well as the northernmost populations of the Amur softshell turtle and Indian lotus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khabarovsk Krai</span> First-level administrative division of Russia

Khabarovsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia. It is located in the Russian Far East and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. The administrative centre of the krai is the city of Khabarovsk, which is home to roughly half of the krai's population and the largest city in the Russian Far East. Khabarovsk Krai is the fourth-largest federal subject by area, and had a population of 1,343,869 as of 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Far East</span> Geographical region

The Russian Far East is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is administered as a part of the Far Eastern Federal District, which is located between Lake Baikal in eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. The area's largest city is Khabarovsk, followed by Vladivostok. The region shares land borders with the countries of Mongolia, China, and North Korea to its south, as well as maritime boundaries with Japan to its southeast, and with the United States along the Bering Strait to its northeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tungusic languages</span> Language family of eastern Siberia and Manchuria

The Tungusic languages form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the dozen living languages of the Tungusic language family. The term "Tungusic" is from an exonym for the Evenk people (Ewenki) used by the Yakuts ("tongus"). It was borrowed into Russian as "тунгус", and ultimately transliterated into English as "Tungus".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Manchuria</span>

Manchuria is a region in East Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria can refer either to a region falling entirely within present-day China, or to a larger region today divided between Northeast China and the Russian Far East. To differentiate between the two parts following the latter definition, the Russian part is also known as Russian Manchuria, while the Chinese part is known as Manchuria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Aigun</span> 1858 treaty between Russia and China

The Treaty of Aigun was an 1858 treaty between the Russian Empire and the Qing dynasty that established much of the modern border between the Russian Far East and China by ceding much of Manchuria, now known as Northeast China. Negotiations began after China was threatened with war on a second front by Governor-General of the Far East Nikolay Muraviev when China was suppressing the Taiping Rebellion. It reversed the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) by transferring the land between the Stanovoy Range and the Amur River from the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire. Russia received over 600,000 square kilometers (231,660 sq mi) of what became known as Russian Manchuria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty of Nerchinsk</span> 1689 border treaty between Russia and Qing China

The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Range and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Range lasted until the Amur Annexation via the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 and the Convention of Peking in 1860. It opened markets for Russian goods in China, and gave Russians access to Chinese supplies and luxuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Green Ukraine</span> Historical Ukrainian name for land in the southern Russian Far East

Green Ukraine, also known as Zelenyi Klyn or Zakytaishchyna, is a historical Ukrainian name for the land in the Russian Far East area between the Amur River and the Pacific Ocean, an area roughly corresponding to Russian Manchuria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primorskaya Oblast</span>

Primorskaya Oblast was an administrative division of the Russian Empire and the early Russian SFSR, created on October 31, 1856 by the Governing Senate. The name of the region literally means "Maritime" or "Coastal." The region was established upon a Russian conquest of Daur people that used to live along Amur River. Before the Russian conquest of Russian Manchuria, the territory belonged to the Chinese region of Manchuria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikolay Muravyov-Amursky</span> Russian general, statesman, and diplomat (1809–1881)

Count Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyov-Amursky was a Russian general, statesman and diplomat, who played a major role in the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Amur River basin and to the shores of the Sea of Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tungusic peoples</span> Ethno-linguistic family

Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages. They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.

Yishan, courtesy name Jingxuan, was a Manchu lesser noble and official of the Qing dynasty. He is best known for his failure to defend Guangzhou (Canton) from British forces during the First Opium War, and for signing the treaties of Kulja and Aigun with the Russian Empire in 1851 and 1858 respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albazino</span> Village in Skovorodinsky District of Amur Oblast, Russia

Albazino is a village (selo) in Skovorodinsky District of Amur Oblast, Russia, noted as the site of Albazin (Албазин), the first Russian settlement on the Amur River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sino-Russian border conflicts</span> Series of conflicts between China and Russia

The Sino-Russian border conflicts (1652–1689) were a series of intermittent skirmishes between the Qing dynasty of China, with assistance from the Joseon dynasty of Korea, and the Tsardom of Russia by the Cossacks in which the latter tried and failed to gain the land north of the Amur River with disputes over the Amur region. The hostilities culminated in the Qing siege of the Cossack fort of Albazin in 1686 and resulted in the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 which gave the land to China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula</span>

The Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula is a peninsula in Primorsky Krai, Russia, located in the Peter the Great Gulf of the Sea of Japan. Vladivostok, the administrative center of Primorsky Krai, is located on the southern tip of the peninsula.

Chuang Guandong is descriptive of the rush of Han people into Manchuria, mainly from the Shandong Peninsula and Zhili, during the hundred-year period beginning in the last half of the 19th century. During the first two centuries of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, this part of China, the traditional homeland of the ruling Manchus, was, with few exceptions, closed to settlement by Han civilians, with only certain Manchu bannermen, Mongol bannermen, and Han bannermen allowed in. The Manchuria/Northeast China area now has an overwhelmingly Han population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amur Annexation</span> Annexation of the southeast corner of Siberia

The Amur Annexation was the annexation of the southeast corner of Siberia by the Russian Empire in 1858–1860 through a series of unequal treaties forced upon the Qing dynasty of China. The two areas involved are Priamurye between the Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorye which runs down the coast from the Amur mouth to the Korean border, including the island of Sakhalin. The territory now known as Russian Manchuria, part of the wider region called Manchuria, was formerly under the sovereignty of Qing China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manchuria under Ming rule</span>

Manchuria under Ming rule refers to the domination of the Ming dynasty over Manchuria, including Northeast China and Russian Manchuria. The Ming rule of Manchuria began with its conquest of Manchuria in the late 1380s after the fall of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty, and reached its peak in the early 15th century with the establishment of the Nurgan Regional Military Commission, but the Ming power waned considerably in Manchuria after that. Starting in the 1580s, the Jianzhou Jurchen chieftain Nurhaci began to take control of most of Manchuria over the next several decades, and in 1616 he established the Later Jin. The Qing dynasty established by his son Hong Taiji would eventually conquer the Ming and take control of Southern China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russia in the Opium Wars</span>

Imperial Russia was a participant of the Chinese Opium Wars, more specifically in the second and third wars which occurred in 1856-1860. Russia played a role of mediator, being both an ally with Britain, France, and the United States and negotiator with the elites of the Qing dynasty. Throughout the whole war period Russia provided minimal amount of military aid and used diplomatic power to present its interests in the conflict. As a result of the ratified agreements in 1860 Russia received former Manchurian lands along the Ussuri river and increased its economical influence on China.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Schneider, Julia C. (2017). "The New Setting: Political Thinking after 1912". Nation and Ethnicity: Chinese Discourses on History,. p. 277. ISBN   978-90-04-33011-5. ISSN   1574-4493. OCLC   974211957. "In the mid-19th century, the Qing government gave over (so-called) Outer Manchuria, where mostly non-Manchu Tungusic people dwelled, to the Russian Empire by the Treaty of Aigun (Aigun tiaoyue, 1858) and the (First) Convention of Peking (Beijing tiaoyue, 1860)....The Convention of Peking, one of several unequal treaties, moreover assigned the parts in the East of the Ussuri River (Wusulijiang) to Russia. Outer Manchuria, also called Russian Manchuria was never claimed to be part of a Chinese nation-state. Today it belongs to the Russian Federation, is no longer referred to as Outer Manchuria, and is considered to be part of Siberia. Consquently, the name Manchuria refers only to Inner Manchuria today. In the following, I will refer to Inner Manchuria as Manchuria."
  2. 1 2 3 Kissinger, Henry (2011). "From Preeminence to Decline". On China . New York: Penguin Press. p. 68. ISBN   978-1-59420-271-1. LCCN   2011009265. OCLC   1025648355. "For these services Moscow exacted a staggering territorial price: a broad swath of territory in so-called Outer Manchuria along the Pacific coast, including the port city now called Vladivostok.¹⁴ In a stroke, Russia had gained a major new naval base, a foothold in the Sea of Japan, and 350,000 square miles of territory once considered Chinese."
  3. 1 2 Bolton, John (April 12, 2023). "A New American Grand Strategy to Counter Russia and China". The Wall Street Journal . ISSN   0099-9660. OCLC   781541372. Archived from the original on 29 April 2023."New Russian leaders may or may not look to the West rather than Beijing, and might be so weak that the Russian Federation’s fragmentation, especially east of the Urals, isn’t inconceivable. Beijing is undoubtedly eyeing this vast territory, which potentially contains incalculable mineral wealth. Significant portions of this region were under Chinese sovereignty until the 1860 Treaty of Peking transferred “outer Manchuria,” including extensive Pacific coast lands, to Moscow."
  4. ↑ O'Hanlon, Michael E. (2015). "Conflicts Real, Latent, and Imaginable". The Future of Land Warfare. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. p. 55. ISBN   978-081572689-0. OCLC   930512519.
  5. ↑ "SAGHALIN, or SAKHALIN". The Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XXI (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1886. p. 147.
  6. ↑ "Manchuria". The New International Encyclopaedia. Vol. XII. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company. 1906. p. 782. "MANCHURIA, man-cho͞oʹre-a (the land of the Manchus). The northeastern part of the Chinese Empire, situated east of Mongolia and the Argun River (which formerly traversed Manchurian territory), south of the Amur River (which separates it from Siberia), and west of the Usuri, which separates it from Primorsk (Maritime Province) or Russian Manchuria (a Chinese possession until 1860)."
  7. 1 2 "Amoor, Territory of". A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World (New Revised ed.). Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company. 1898. p. 489. OCLC   83607338. "Amoor, Territory of, a name applied to Russian Manchooria, or the region of Southeastern Siberia acquired from the Chinese and Japanese by the Russians since 1858. It is bounded on the N. by Siberia proper, on the E. by the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan, the coast being Russian as far S. as the river Toomen, which divides it from Corea (the island of Saghalin being now included) ; on the W. by Chinese Manchooria, the rivers Oosooree, Argoon, Soongaree, and Amoor forming (for the most part) the boundary; and on the N.W. by the government of Transbaikalia. Its area, 905,462 square miles, is over four times that of France. It is divided into the provinces of Amoor and Primorsk."
  8. 1 2 Steinberg, James; Michael E. O'Hanlon (2014). "The Determinants of Chinese Strategy". Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN   978-0-691-15951-5. LCCN   2013035849. OCLC   861542585.
  9. ↑ Callahan, William A. (2010). China: The Pessoptimist Nation. Oxford University Press. p. 240. ISBN   978-0-19-960439-5. OCLC   754167885.
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  11. 1 2 "China Assails New Siberia Names". The New York Times . March 8, 1973. ISSN   0362-4331. OCLC   1645522. Archived from the original on June 22, 2023.
  12. ↑ Higgins, Andrew (July 23, 2016). "Vladivostok Lures Chinese Tourists (Many Think It's Theirs)". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331. OCLC   1645522. Archived from the original on July 27, 2016.
  13. ↑ "NCNA Condemns New Soviet Place Names in Far East". Daily Report: People's Republic of China. Foreign Broadcast Information Service. I (45): A 1. 7 March 1973. ISSN   0892-0141. OCLC   1113433.
  14. ↑ Pao, Jeff (February 25, 2023). "China's ironic reticence on land grab in Ukraine". Asia Times . Archived from the original on February 25, 2023.
  15. ↑ Jan van der Made (March 21, 2023). "Territorial dispute between China and Russia risks clouding friendly future". Radio France Internationale . Archived from the original on March 21, 2023.
  16. ↑ Nahaylo, Bohdan (February 26, 2023). "OPINION: China Challenges Russia by Restoring Chinese Names of Cities on Their Border". Kyiv Post . Archived from the original on February 26, 2023.
  17. ↑ "公开地图内容表示规范". Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China (in Simplified Chinese). 2023. p. 7. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023.

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