It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Ethnic Russians in China. (Discuss)

St Nicholas, a Russian Orthodox church in Harbin, circa 1925, destroyed during the Cultural Revolution

The Harbin Russians or Russian Harbinites were three generations of Russians who lived in the city of Harbin, Manchuria, the junction city of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), from approximately 1898 to the mid-1960s. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that Harbin Russians be merged into this article or section. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (858x587, 91 KB)St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Harbin, China, circa 1925. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (858x587, 91 KB)St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Harbin, China, circa 1925. ... The Russian Orthodox Church (Русская Православная церковь) is that body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: WúchÇŽn JiÄ“jí Wénhuà Dà Gémìng; literally Proletarian Cultural Great Revolution; often abbreviated to 文化大革命 wénhuà dà gémìng, literally Great Cultural Revolution, or even simpler, to 文革 wéngé, Cultural Revolution) in the People... Harbin on a map of China For other meanings of Harbin, see Harbin (disambiguation). ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; Simplified Chinese: 满洲; pinyin: MÇŽnzhōu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... The China Far East Railway (a. ... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...

Timeline

Settlement

The first generation were originally the builders of the China Far East Railway along with employees, and private settlers. Harbin had a total of 68,549 subjects of either the Russian or Chinese Empires, and consisted of fifty-three different nationalities. Harbin also consisted of forty-five spoken languages with Russian and Chinese as the dominant tongues. Only 11.5 percent of all residents were actually born in Harbin, which were made up of local Chinese and Manchus. Countless Russians moved to Harbin in order to work on the railroad. Upon arriving to Harbin, the Russians had to establish it. Life was hard for the builders and early settlers. The railway and the city had to be built from scratch along with houses being constructed and settled. Furniture and personal items were brought in from Russia, and the people had to establish themselves and their facilities. This new place known as Manchuria seemed foreign and alien, while the homeland was so far away. After the Russo-Japanese War, while many Russians moved out, the long-time residents decided to stay. Eventually the roots of the people had taken hold and by 1913 Harbin had become an established Russian colony for the purpose of building and maintaining the China Far East Railway. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The Manchu (manju in Manchu; 滿族 (pinyin: mǎnzú) in Chinese, often shortened to 滿 (pinyin: mǎn) are an ethnic group who originated in northeastern Manchuria. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; Simplified Chinese: 满洲; pinyin: MÇŽnzhōu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... Combatants Imperial Russia Empire of Japan Commanders N/A N/A Strength 500,000 Soldiers 400,000 Soldiers Casualties 134,817+ KIA/POW, 170,000 MIA etc. ... 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

World War I and the October Revolution

The decade from 1913 to 1923 saw Russia through World War I, the Russian Revolution, and the Russian Civil War. In the 1920s Harbin was flooded with about 100,000 to 200,000 Russian émigrés fleeing from Russia which included leaders, officers, soldiers of the White movement, members of White governments in Siberia and the Russian Far East, the intelligentsia, and ordinary people. On September 8, 1920, the Chinese Republic announced that it no longer recognized the Russian consulates in China. On September 23 China ceased relations with representatives of Imperial Russia and deprived Russians of extraterritorial rights. Overnight Russians in China found themselves stateless. Soon afterward, the Chinese took control of the institutions in Harbin such as the courts, police, prison, post office, and some research and educational institutions. 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Conrad von... The Russian Revolution of 1917 was a series of political events in Russia, involving first the overthrow of the system of autocracy, and then the overthrow of the liberal Provisional Government (Duma), resulting in the establishment of the Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. ... Combatants Red Army (Bolsheviks) German Empire? White Army (Monarchists, SRs, Anti-Communists) Commanders Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Tukhachevsky, Semyon Budyonny Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Anton Denikin, Pyotr Wrangel The Russian Civil War was fought from 1917 to 1922. ... The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы) and whose members are known as Whites (Белые, or the derogatory Беляки) or White Russians (a term which has other meanings) comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the... Siberian Federal District (dark red) and the broadest definition of Siberia (red) Siberia (Russian: , Sibir’; Tatar: Seber) is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan constituting almost all of Northern Asia. ... Far Eastern Federal District (highlighted in red) Russian Far East (Russian: Д́альний Вост́ок Росс́ии; English transliteration: Dalny Vostok Rossii) is an informal term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i. ... The intelligentsia (from Latin: intelligentia) is a social class of people engaged in complex mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them (e. ... September 8 is the 251st day of the year (252nd in leap years). ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 3 - Babe Ruth is traded by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for $125,000, the largest sum ever paid for a player at that time. ... National motto: None Official language Mandarin Chinese Capital Taipei¹ Largest city Taipei President Chen Shui-bian Premier Frank Hsieh Area  - Total  - % water Ranked 134th 32,260 km² 10. ... September 23 is the 266th day of the year (267th in leap years). ... Imperial Russia is the term used to cover the period of history from the expansion of Russia under Peter the Great, through the expansion of the Russian Empire from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, to the deposal of Nicholas II of Russia, the last tsar, at the start...

Russian Orthodox Saint Sofia Church built in 1907, Harbin

In 1924 in Beijing, a Sino-Soviet agreement was signed leading to a complete takeover of the China Far East Railway by Sino-Soviet management. This led to a strong Soviet Union presence in Harbin. The agreement stated that only Soviet and Chinese citizens could be employed by the CFER. This meant that now the citizens of Harbin had to decide not only on their nationality, but also their political identity. Many Harbins took Soviet citizenship for patriotic reasons. Sadly, there were some Harbin residents who remained stateless and eventually lost their jobs with the China Far East Railway. Gradually, the national and especially the political identity of the people of Harbin were splitting each other up into opposing sides. Saint Sofia Church. ... Saint Sofia Church. ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Beijing [English Pronunciation] (Chinese: 北京 [Chinese Pronunciation]; Pinyin: BÄ›ijÄ«ng; IPA: ), a city in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem(s): The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital Moscow Largest city Moscow Official language(s) None; Russian de facto Government Federation of Soviet Republics  - Last President Mikhail Gorbachev  - Last Premier Ivan Silayev... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ...

Japanese occupation

In the mid 1930s, the Japanese occupied Manchuria, including Harbin, and turned it into the puppet state of Manchukuo. In 1935, the Soviet Union sold its share of the China Far East Railway to Manchukuo; that is, Japan. In the spring and into the summer of 1935, thousands of Harbin people loaded onto trains with their passports and belongings, and left for the Soviet Union. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Manchuria (Manchu: Manju; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲; Simplified Chinese: 满洲; pinyin: Mǎnzhōu, Russian: ) is a vast territorial region in northeast Asia. ... Manchukuo (1932 to 1945) (Simplified Chinese: 满洲国; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲國; Pinyin: Mǎnzhōu Guó Kanji: 満州国) was a former country in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia under the leadership of the Emperor Puyi, the last emperor of Qing Dynasty. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

People in the Soviet Union used the terms KVZhDist and Harbinets (Harbinite, "person from Harbin") for any person connected in one way or another to the China Far East Railway (whose Russian initials were КВЖД, transliterated as KVZhD).

Russian Harbinites had an unpleasant time under the Manchukuo régime (1932 - 1945) and later under the Japanese occupation. After 1935, many Harbinites returned to the Soviet Union. Nearly all of them came under arrest during the Great Purge (1936 - 1938), charged with espionage and counter-revolutionary activity according to the NKVD Order no. 00593 of September 20, 1937. The Great Purge (Russian: ) is the name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union during the late 1930s. ... NKVD Order no. ... September 20 is the 263rd day of the year (264th in leap years). ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Some Harbin residents moved to Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, and other cities and eventually left China completely. The remaining Harbin Russians could not or would not leave even while they were faced with the increasing advancement of Japan in Manchukuo. Some Harbins even welcomed the occupation with hopes that the Japanese would help in their anti-Soviet struggles. They also looked to them for protection from the Chinese efforts to restore sovereignty in Harbin. These Russians also dreamed of liberating Russia, but remained blind to the lingering Chinese struggle for independence. Eventually, the last generation of Harbin Russians left Manchukuo for good, never to return again. Shanghai (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Shanghainese: ), stuated on the banks of the Yangtze River Delta in East China, is the largest city of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Beijing [English Pronunciation] (Chinese: 北京 [Chinese Pronunciation]; Pinyin: Běijīng; IPA: ), a city in northern China, is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). ... (Chinese: ; pinyin: Tiānjīn; Postal System Pinyin: Tientsin) is one of the four municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China. ... (Simplified Chinese: 青岛; Traditional Chinese: 青島; pinyin: Qīngdǎo; Wade-Giles: Ching-tao), well-known to the West by its Postal System Pinyin transliteration Tsingtao, is a sub-provincial city in eastern Shandong province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Manchukuo (1932 to 1945) (Simplified Chinese: 满洲国; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲國; Pinyin: Mǎnzhōu Guó Kanji: 満州国) was a former country in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia under the leadership of the Emperor Puyi, the last emperor of Qing Dynasty. ...

After World War II

In 1945, after the Soviet Army had occupied Harbin, the Soviets sent to labor camps all those Russian Harbinites whom they identified as White Guardists or who had collaborated with the Japanese authorities. This article is about the armed forces of the Soviet Union. ... A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are engaged in penal labor. ... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы) and whose members are known as Whites (Белые, or the derogatory Беляки) or White Russians (a term which has other meanings) comprised some of the Russian forces, both political and military, which opposed the Bolsheviks after the...

After 1952, the Soviet Union initiated a second wave of repatriation of Russian Harbinites, and by the mid-1960s virtually all of them had left Harbin; this time no repressions took place. There are several Russian connections in Australia resulting from refugees from Harbin finding sanctuary there. The first Russian citizen known to have become a permanent resident of Australia was John Potozky, a former Russian Army officer who landed in Hobart, Tasmania on the 18 February 1804. ...

See also

• Ethnic Russians in China
• Chiang Fang-liang

It has been suggested that Harbin Russians be merged into this article or section. ... Faina Chiang Fang-liang (蔣方良; pinyin: Jiǎng Fāngliáng) (May 15, 1916–December 15, 2004) was the wife of President Chiang Ching-kuo and served as First Lady of the Republic of China on Taiwan from 1978 to 1988. ...

External links

• The Tarasov Saga
• Gary Nash Russian Emigre Interview
• Russian Emigre Radio Documentary

References

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

NKVD order re Harbinites, in Russian

• Mara Moustafine. Secrets and Spies: The Harbin Files. A Vintage Book series, Random House, Australia Pty Ltd, 468 pp.