Olga Vasil’evna Dyakova,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of sciences, Vladivostok, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Waterway “from Jurchens to Russians” in the Razdol’naya River Basin of Southern Primorye
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2022-3-6
A brief overview of the development and use of water communications in Southern Primorye from ancient times to the end of the 19th century is presented. In the south of Primorye, one of the main water, land, and sea communication routes was the Razdolnaya River (old name – Suifong), which sources are located in the Northeast of China in Heilongjiang Province, and the mouth flows into the Amur Bay of the Sea of Japan in the Southern Primorye of Russia. Numerous settlements, cities and fortifications accompanied the highways. The waterways of communication in the Razdolnaya basin received a significant flourishing under the Jurchen state of Eastern Xia (1215–1234). This waterway served the capital of Eastern Xia, the city of Kaiyuan (Krasnoyarovskoye settlement) and “Dvugradie” (South Ussuri and West Ussuri settlements). The Jurchens of Eastern Xia had a military fleet that controlled the sea, land and river borders with neighboring countries, especially with the Koryo state (918–1392) and the Mongol Yuan Empire (1268–1381). Border-defensive walls and ramparts erected at the main strategic points controlled and guarded the waterway. A sailing boat served as a means of transportation along the waterway, the image of which was preserved on a vessel from the Jurchen settlement of Shayginskoye. Passenger and commodity shipping in the Razdol’naya basin was preserved and actively developed during Russia’s development of the territory of the Far East until the beginning of the 20th century. The highway was served by steamships, lighthouses, berths, passengers, cargo, and materials for the construction of the railway between Vladivostok and Khabarovsk were transported.
Publishing: 28/06/2022
The article has been received by the editor on 28/02/2022
How to cite: Dyakova O.V. Waterway “from Jurchens to Russians” in the Razdol’naya River Basin of Southern Primorye // Historical Courier, 2022, No. 3 (23), pp. 77–85. [Available online: http://istkurier.ru/data/2022/ISTKURIER-2022-3-06.pdf]
Links: Issue 3 2022
Keywords: waterways; highways: Primorye; Eastern Xia; Poltsevskaya culture; Bohai; Jurchen; Razdol’naya; Suifong