{{nowrap|{{small|{{transliteration|zh|Rè'ěrtújiāGònghéguó}}}}}}
{{native_name|ru|ЖелтугинскаяРеспублика}}
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Zheltuga Republic | |||||||||
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1883–1886 | |||||||||
Flag | |||||||||
Status | Unrecognized proto-state | ||||||||
President | |||||||||
• 1883–1885 | Karl Fassi | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Established | 1883 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1886 | ||||||||
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The Zheltuga Republic (Chinese :熱爾圖加共和國; pinyin :Rè'ěrtújiā Gònghéguó; Russian : Желтугинская республика, Zheltuginskaya Respublika), or simply Zheltuga (Russian : Желтуга), was a short-lived 19th-century proto-state in the Amur river basin set up by Russian and Chinese gold miners illegally settling on Chinese territory ruled by the Qing dynasty. It was nicknamed "California on the Amur" (referencing the California Gold Rush). [1] Its population reached 12,000 prospectors at its peak. [2] [note 1] However, the proto-state was crushed by the Qing forces by 1886. [3]
In 1883, gold was discovered along the Albazikha river (also known as the Emur), a tributary of the Shilka, itself a tributary of the Amur, leading to Chinese and Russian prospectors flocking to the area and creating a settlement on the right bank of the Amur itself across from Ignashino. [5] : 993 The settlement was nicknamed Ignashinskaia Kaliforniia (due to its proximity to Ignashino). [2] : 238 It is suggested that the settlement was named Zheltuga after the Zhelta river, a tributary of Albazikha.
As early as 1884, Russian and Chinese prospectors went up the Amur from Blagoveshchensk to Ignashino and then illegally crossed the river to the Chinese side. In winter, the journey was made by foot. Most of the Chinese settlers were coolies hailing from Shandong province in China. There were also Manchu settlers, who mainly hailed from Aigun. The settlement was also a hotbed for criminals, with escaped convicts from Nerchinsk penal labor colonies and Sakhalin being blamed for violence in the settlement. Also notable for settling at Zheltuga were deserters from other private gold mines on the Amur, as well as Old Believers from Transbaikal. Women were not allowed (aside from the family members of a few miners, who were allowed to settle in 1885), and so a sex industry developed across the river from Zheltuga. [2] : 239–41 The "International California" comprised, according to one source, "Koreans, Orochons, Jews, Germans, French, Poles, Americans, Siberians, and many various adventurers who mostly arrived from America and became the leaders of the masses". [6] : 137 Visiting French travelers claimed that the Republic was inhabited by Honghuzi, although this claim was not found elsewhere. However, it is plausible that the Qing government referred to them as Honghuzi due to the Republic's illegal nature. [7] : 138
As Zheltuga swelled in size, so did its needs. In spring 1885, a visiting journalist counted eighteen hotels and multiple entertainment services such as a billiards saloon and a photography atelier. Merchants (among them Old Believers and Jews) supplied alcohol to the settlement while transporting its gold at the same time. Businesses within the settlement paid tax to a common treasury, the funds of which were used to maintain the local church, the public bathhouse, and the hospital, as well as to pay high-ranking executives. [2] : 241–2 [1]
At first, Zheltuga was a hotbed of violence and reckless activity. Miners would dig random pits in the hopes of finding gold, destroying any hope of using the land mined for further exploitation. The looming danger of a Chinese attack meant that the miners were constantly in a rush and wanted to find as much gold as possible. However, it became obvious that the Chinese would not attack Zheltuga as they simply did not know of its existence. [1]
Important decisions within the community were undertaken by miners' meetings called Orlinoe poe at the central field of Orlovo pole (Eagle Field). The main street within the settlement was named Millionaia street. There were ten leaders important in Zheltuga at any given time, elected from their own districts. Zheltuga had five districts (four Russian, one Chinese), each represented by two foremen. Once it was established that the settlement was relatively safe from Chinese attack, the leaders of Zheltuga decided to bring order to the community. A black-and-yellow flag was created, symbolizing the land and the gold. The miners established a law between them, written down in a "statute" of twenty clauses, mainly focused on the distribution of punishment. A court of law as well as a law enforcement agency was set up, responsible for harshly enforcing order within the settlement. [1] These laws were heavily enforced from their promulgation to the creation of a semblance of order within the settlement. The leaders of Zheltuga came and went quickly, reflecting the state of the community as one in constant flux. During this time, the community was led by a man referred to as "Adolf Karlovich Fass", a secretive man who was arrested in March 1885 in Ignashino and identified as an Italian by the name of Karl Fassi. [note 2] Following Fassi, leadership may have been taken over from him by a telegrapher by the name of Sakharov. One of the last leaders of Zheltuga was a lawyer by the name of Pavel P. Prokunin, who was related to the House of Golitsyn. After having been deposed by the miners, Prokunin gave his account of Zheltuga to a local historian in Blagoveshchensk. [2] : 242–5 The President of the Republic received 400 rubles a month, [note 3] while the ten foremen received 200 rubles. [6] : 141
Punishment within Zheltuga was strict – some punishments would be doled out with a ternovnik, or spiked whip, which meant almost certain death. Thieves received 500 ternovnik whips, sodomites, other criminals accused of "unnatural vices and crimes", people carrying weapons while drunk, people who made false gold sand, and people who shot guns within the limits of the Republic without a good cause received 500 normal whips, people who brought women into Zheltuga without express permission were hit 400 times with a stick, people who offered up their work tools as a pledge received 300 blows with a stick, and people who made loud noises at night were dealt 200 blows with a stick. [6] : 141
The growth of a multiethnic community in Zheltuga led to needs to communicate effectively. As so, the Kyakhta pidgin language (a combination of Russian and Chinese) was likely spoken in the settlement. Russian, however, was the official language, owing to the population mainly consisting of Russians. [1] Inhabitants of Zheltuga also likely used different signs and notches to communicate with each other when there was a language barrier, a practice common in the general region. [6] : 137
The population of Zheltuga was divided occupationally into several categories. The majority of the population were categorized into priiskateli (standard miners) and khishchniki / khitniki ("predators"). The second major category were the spiritonosy (alcohol carriers), who sold vodka to the miners. Due to constant fighting among drunk miners, drinking was banned within 50 versts from a pit (reduced to 25 versts later on). The common punishment for open drunkenness was one hundred lashes with a whip, and traders were generally not allowed to sell alcohol, leading to the use of underhanded tactics – some spiritonosy would buy land near a mine and disguise their workers as miners who would secretly trade diluted vodka for gold. The third main category were the torgovtsy (merchants). Merchants were further divided into temporary and permanent merchants, the latter of which numbered 300 during the heyday of the Zheltuga Republic. Most torgovtsy were Molokans or Jews, supplied mostly by the Dickson & Co. Trading House. The people of Zheltuga also traded with Cossacks during the earlier days of the settlement. [6] : 137–8
Zheltuga grew so fast that within a few years of its founding, the settlement had a theater, two orchestras, a menagerie, and a full troupe of circus performers. [1] The Casino Chita, nicknamed "Monte Carlo" by locals, was also founded, and at its height, miners would lose up to 4,000 rubles at a table. Across the settlement, high-quality hotels sprung up, with names like "New China", "Russia", "Marseille", and "California", reportedly not at all inferior to European ones. [2] : 242 The local hospital, run by funds raised from taxes, was free, providing three free meals a day for patients. Most of the patients who were hospitalized suffered from typhus and scurvy. [6] : 138–9
Throughout most of the course of the Zheltuga Republic's life, the officials in China did not know about its existence. The Russians, who knew about Zheltuga and actively cooperated with it, refused to acknowledge its existence. When word got to the governor of Aigun of the existence of the Republic[ when? ], the governor repeatedly petitioned Baron A.N. Korff of Priamur to expel the miners, but was ignored. Later on, Empress Dowager Cixi personally sent a letter to the Russian Tsar, Alexander III, in protest. The Russians sent Cossacks to Zheltuga to warn the settlers of a Chinese attack as well as block passage from the Russian to the Chinese side of the Amur. [1] [2] : 246
Throughout 1885, Chinese forces started to become active around the area of Zheltuga. In July 1885, the Russian government officially called for the return of all Russian subjects to Russian territory. [2] : 246 On August 18, 1885, a Qing official, along with 60 soldiers, visited the settlement to demand evacuation within eight days. The Chinese returned after the deadline passed and found Zheltuga mostly empty. The settlers, however, had simply hidden away nearby, and began to return. In January 1886, the Chinese again sent a detachment to the Republic of 1,600 soldiers ordered to raze the colony, deport the Russians, and execute any Chinese. The decision to allow the Russian settlers free passage home was to ensure that a worsening of relations with Russia would not occur. The settlement dispersed as a result, and Zheltuga was burned to the ground. The Russian survivors, most of whom moved to different parts of the country, attempted to replicate Zheltuga, but failed. [1] The Chinese survivors who fled to the left bank of the Amur successfully started to mine gold at other sites in the Amur river basin, albeit with less success. [8] : 135 The city of Mohe was founded nearby, with an official gold mine opened there the year after. [5] : 994 "Transnational endeavors" of Chinese miners in Russian territory similar to those of the Zheltuga miners sprung up in the years following the fall of the Zheltuga Republic. [9]
Manchuria is a term that refers to a region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China, and historically parts of the modern-day Russian Far East, often referred to as Outer Manchuria. Its definition may refer to varying geographical extents as follows: in the narrow sense, the area constituted by three 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; in a broader sense, the area of historical Manchuria includes the aforementioned regions plus the Amur river basin, parts of which were ceded to the Russian Empire by the Manchu-led Qing dynasty during the Amur Annexation of 1858–1860. The parts of Manchuria ceded to Russia are collectively known as Outer Manchuria or Russian Manchuria, which include present-day Amur Oblast, Primorsky Krai, the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, the southern part of Khabarovsk Krai, and the eastern edge of Zabaykalsky Krai.
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.
Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia, located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya rivers in the Russian Far East. The oblast borders Heilongjiang province of the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the south.
A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Greece, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile, South Africa, the United States, and Canada while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.
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 Outer Manchuria, while the Chinese part is known as Northeast China.
The Treaty of Aigun was an 1858 treaty between the Russian Empire and Yishan, official of the Qing dynasty of China. It 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 Outer Manchuria. While the Qing government initially refused to recognize the validity of the treaty, the Russian gains under the Treaty of Aigun were affirmed as part of the 1860 Sino-Russian Convention of Peking.
The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty of China after the defeat of Russia by Qing China at the Siege of Albazin in 1686. 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.
Outer Manchuria, sometimes called Russian Manchuria, refers to a region in Northeast Asia that is now part of the Russian Far East but historically formed part of Manchuria. While Manchuria now more normatively refers to Northeast China, it originally included areas consisting of Priamurye between the left bank of Amur River and the Stanovoy Range to the north, and Primorskaya which covered the area in the right bank of both Ussuri River and the lower Amur River to the Pacific Coast. The region was ruled by a series of Chinese dynasties and the Mongol Empire, but control of the area was ceded to the Russian Empire by Qing China during the Amur Annexation in the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Treaty of Peking, with the terms "Outer Manchuria" and "Russian Manchuria" arising after the Russian annexation.
Blagoveshchensk is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, opposite to the Chinese city of Heihe. Population: 241,437 (2021 Census); 214,390 (2010 Census); 219,221 (2002 Census); 205,553 (1989 Soviet census).
The Otago gold rush was a gold rush that occurred during the 1860s in Central Otago, New Zealand. This was the country's biggest gold strike, and led to a rapid influx of foreign miners to the area – many of them veterans of other hunts for the precious metal in California and Victoria, Australia. The number of miners reached its maximum of 18,000 in February 1864.
Heihe is a prefecture-level city of northern Heilongjiang province, China, located on the Russian border, on the south bank of the Amur (Heilong) River, across the river from Blagoveshchensk. At the 2020 census, 1,286,401 people lived in the prefecture-level city of whom 223,832 lived in the built-up area made of Aihui District.
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.
The Sixty-Four Villages East of the River were a group of Manchu, Daur and Han-inhabited villages located on the left (north) bank of the Amur River opposite of Heihe, and on the east bank of Zeya River opposite of Blagoveshchensk. The area totaled 3,600 square kilometers (1,400 sq mi).
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.
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.
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.
Honghuzi were armed Chinese robbers and bandits who operated in the areas of the eastern Russia-China borderland during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Their activities extended over southeastern Siberia, the Russian Far East, and Manchuria/Northeast China. The word honghuzi has been variously transliterated as hong huzi, hunhutsi,hong hu zi, hunghutze, hun-hutze, etc. There is also a common transliteration from Russian, khunkhuzy, and a back-formation for the singular, khunkhuz. Korean immigrants to Manchuria in the 20th century called the honghuzi ma-jeok (마적,馬賊). Groups of honghuzi were recruited as guerrillas by the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 into chunchu (チュンチュ) sabotage units.
The territory currently known as Tuva has been occupied by various groups throughout its history. Sources are rare and unclear for most of Tuva's early history. Archeological evidence indicates a Scythian presence possibly as early as the 9th century BC. Tuva was conquered relatively easily by the succession of empires which swept across the region. It was most likely held by various Turkic khanates until 1207. It was then ruled by various Mongol-led regimes until the 18th century, when it submitted to the Manchu-led Qing dynasty. Slow Russian colonization during the 19th century led to progressive annexation of the region to Russia in the 20th century. The region was then controlled by the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union before finally joining the Russian Federation in 1992. Throughout this whole time, the borders of Tuva have seen very little modification.
The Russian invasion of Manchuria or Chinese expedition occurred in the aftermath of the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) when concerns regarding Qing China's defeat by the Empire of Japan, and Japan's brief occupation of Liaodong, caused the Russian Empire to speed up their long held designs for imperial expansion across Eurasia.
The Amur Oblast with the center in Blagoveshchensk was formed on December 20, 1858 by the Personal Decree No. 33862. By this Decree, on the proposal of the Governor–General of Eastern Siberia and the Siberian Committee, the Amur Region was made up of lands "located on the left bank of the Amur River, starting from the junction of the Shilka and Argun Rivers or from the borders of the Trans–Baikal and Yakutsk Oblasts, along the entire course of the Amur, to the mouth of the river Ussuri and to the new border of the Primorsky Oblast".
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