Political Situation in the Far East

Russia had barelybegun the process of opening up the Amur valley and Sakhalin when it was interrupted by the Manchurians.

In the early 17th century a federation of Manchurian tribes created a strong state on the territory of modern northeastern China, which in 1644 occupied the whole of the Chinese empire. The Manchu established the Tzin dynasty, which ruled over China until 1911. The Manchurian Emperor was alarmed by the rapid growth of Russian settlements and sent a 5,000-strong contingent to sail down the Sungari River and raze Russian forts. Chinese armies invaded the areas of Russian settlements, and besieged firstly Udinsk, then Albazin. The Manchurians besieged Albazin on June, 1685 and, and after ten days of siege 400 Cossacks surrendered. Russia evacuated the property of Cossacks and their families to Nerchinsk and Yakutsk. 45 Cossack hostages were taken to Beijin, where their descendants, known as “Albazinians”, lived for a long time.

On August 27^th, 1689 (after Sophia's deposition), Russian diplomat Fyodor Golovin concluded in Nerchinsk a peace treaty with the Manchurians. He did it mainly under the pressure of circumstances. A border conflict resulted in the Treaty of Nerchinsk, whereby the Russians had to give up the territory and to raze the fortress of Albazin, whereas the opposite side promised not to settle there as well and to create a buffer zone*. The terms of the peace treaty were practically dictated by the Manchurians: the Amur and the Ussuri regions, whose frontiers though were not exactly defined, went to China for the next 150 years.

The Nivkhi actively participated in driving the Russians off the Lower Amur. The primary reason for this was cruelty and greed of the Cossacks. During two and a half centuries after the Cossacks were forced to leave the Amur, the Nivkhi were still telling of the "Russians, who were very cruel, ate the human’s meat, and beheaded their women."

The Nerchinsk Treaty with China had cut Russia off the Amur River and the way to the Pacific for nearly two hundred years. Later Ekaterina II wrote, “If the Amur only served us as a convenient way to supply Kamchatka and all our property near the Sea of Okhotsk, it would be important for us to own it.” The future Amur admiral G.I. Nevelskoy finished this exclamation, “That is how great monarchs understood the importance of the Priamursky region for Russia”.

However, the movement to the east “towards the sun” did not stop. Conditions of the treaty were fulfilled by the summer of 1690 in the upper and middle Amur. As for its lower reaches as well as on the Amgun and Tugur rivers, people did not hurry to destroy their settlements. The Russians settled on the Shantary islands, Sakhalin, north of the Far East. The north – east direction became the major movement of Russian free men.

One of the reasons why the Russians lost the Amur battle was, without doubt, due to the unstable situation in Russia because in Moscow there was an obscure struggle for the throne between Regent Sofia and her stepbrother Peter I.

After Peter I became Tzar the situation in the Far East had changed for the better.

13. Look at the picture by a Chinese artist: “A battle for Albazin between Russian Cossacks and Daurs”. Explain what you see there.