Everything about Harbin Russians totally explained
The term
Harbin Russians or
Russian Harbinites refers to several generations of
Russians who lived in the city of
Harbin, a major junction city on the
Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), from approximately
1898 to the mid-
1960s.
The people in the
Soviet Union used the terms
KVZhDist and
Harbinets (
Harbinite, "person from Harbin") to refer to a person with any type of ties to the China Eastern Railway.
KVZhDist comes from the Russian initials for China Eastern Railway, КВЖД, transliterated as KVZhD.
Timeline
Settlement
The first generation of
Harbin Russians were mostly the builders and employees of the
Chinese Eastern Railway. They moved to Harbin in order to work on the railroad. At the time Harbin wasn't an established city. The city was almost built from scratch by the builders and early settlers. Houses were constructed, furniture and personal items were brought in from Russia. After the
Russo-Japanese War, while many Russians left Harbin, a lot of long-time residents decided to stay. By
1913, Harbin had become an established Russian colony for the construction and maintenance work on the
China Eastern Railway. A record shows Harbin had a total of 68,549 people, most of which are of
Russian and
Chinese descent. There were a total of 53 different nationalities. Along with
Russian and
Chinese, there are 45 spoken languages used in Harbin at the time. Only 11.5% of all residents were born in Harbin.
World War I and the October Revolution
In the decade from
1913 to
1923, Russia went through
World War I, the
Russian Revolution, and the
Russian Civil War. In the
1920s Harbin was flooded with 100,000 to 200,000 Russian
White émigrés fleeing from Russia. They were mostly officers and soldiers involved in the
White movement, members of the White governments in
Siberia and
Russian Far East. There were both the
intelligentsia and ordinary people. Harbin held the largest Russian population outside of the state of Russia.
On
September 8,
1920, the
Chinese Republic announced that it would no longer recognize 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. Shortly afterward, the Chinese government took over control of the institutions in Harbin such as courts, police, prison, post office, and some research and educational institutions.
In
1924, an agreement was signed in
Beijing regarding the control of the
China Eastern Railway. The agreement stated that only Soviet and Chinese citizens could be employed by the CER. This meant the Harbin Russians had to choose not only their nationality, but also their political identity. Many Harbin Russians took Soviet citizenship for
patriotic reasons. However, there were also Harbin Russians who remained stateless and eventually was let go from CER. Gradually, the national and the political identity of the Harbin Russians split the group into opposing sides. This led to a strong
Soviet Union presence in Harbin.
Japanese occupation
In the mid-
1930s, the
Japanese occupied
Manchuria, and turned it into the
puppet state of
Manchukuo. In
1935, the
Soviet Union sold its share of the
China Eastern Railway to
Japan via
Manchukuo. In the spring and summer of 1935, thousands of Harbin Russians went on trains with their passports and belongings, and left for the
Soviet Union.
From 1932 to 1945, Harbin Russians had a difficult time under the Manchukuo régime, then the Japanese occupation. Some Harbin Russians initially thought the occupation was good, in hoping the Japanese would help them in their anti-Soviet struggles, and provide protection from the Chinese, who were desperately trying restore the sovereignty of Harbin.
Many Harbin Russians returned to the
Soviet Union after 1935. Nearly all of them were arrested during the
Great Purge (1936 - 1938), charged with espionage and counter-revolutionary activity according to the
NKVD Order no. 00593 of
September 20,
1937.
Some Harbin Russians moved to other cities such as
Shanghai,
Beijing,
Tianjin,
Qingdao, and eventually left China. By the 1930s, Shanghai's Russian community had grown to 25,000.
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After World War II
In 1945, after the
Soviet Army occupied Harbin, the Soviets sent all those Harbin Russians whom they identified as
White Guardists and those who had collaborated with the Japanese authorities to
labor camps.
After 1952, the Soviet Union initiated a second wave of repatriation of Harbin Russians. By the mid-1960s virtually all Harbin Russians had left Harbin. There were several
Russian connections in Australia resulting from refugees leaving Harbin.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Harbin Russians'.
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