Ablazhey Natalia N.,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Institute of History of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia, е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Nazemtseva Elena N.,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Military History Institute, Military Academy of the General Staff, Russian Armed Forces, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Russian Enclave in Chinese Altai in 1917: Results of Сolonization of Russian-Chinese Borderland
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2020-4-6
The article introduces into scientific circulation the Report of Moshkin who was an employee of the Consulate of the Russian Empire in Shara-sume and an ensign of the Siberian separate mortar artillery battery. Moshkin reports about his trip to nine Russian villages located near the Russian-Chinese border in the Altai district of the Chinese province of Xinjiang in April-May 1917. The trip was carried out in connection with the need to put the population under loyalty oath to the Provisional Government. At the same time, there was a task to assess the number and religious composition of Russian colonists, their financial status and the international situation in the region. The report was deposited in the collection entitled “Chinese Desk. 1914–1917” (No. 143) of the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire. The introductory article and comments on the document provided a brief history of the agrarian colonisation of the Ili region by Russian immigrants and the mass resettlement of Kazakhs, which were of a spontaneous nature. The Altai district constituted a natural extension of the Semipalatinsk region geographically and ethnographically, and opened up access to trade and economic influence of Russia over Western Mongolia and Xinjiang. The Chinese side was inclined to regard the migrations of Kazakhs and the resettlement of Russians in Xinjiang as an increase of the Russian influence. The Russian enclave in the Chinese Altai existed until the mid-1960s. Those Russians who lived there tried to maintain a traditional and separate way of life in spite of both foreign policy and domestic political events.
Publishing: 29/08/2020
How to cite: Ablazhey N.N., Nazemtseva E.N. Russian Enclave in Chinese Altai in 1917: Results of Сolonization of Russian-Chinese Borderland // Historical Courier, 2020, No. 4 (12), pp. 67–86. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2020/ISTKURIER-2020-4-06.pdf
Links: Issue 4 2020
Keywords: China; Xinjiang; Russian diaspora; Old Believers