Outer Manchuria - History

History

Different ancient nations lived in this area. The original inhabitants apparently were the Mohe and other Tungus tribes. Other entities occupying parts of this area include the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo and Balhae, whose territories extended from the northern Korean peninsula to the southern and central parts of inner and outer Manchuria.

According to the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, the Sino-Russian border was the Argun River and the Stanovoy Mountains until the Pacific coast. This latter was defined differently in the three versions of the Treaty, viz. Latin, Russian and Manchu. The eastern end of the boundary was generally held to be the Uda river, so leaving Outer Manchuria to China. However, Outer Manchuria was ceded by the Qing Dynasty to Russia in the Treaty of Aigun of 1858 and the Treaty of Peking of 1860. A small region to the north of the Amur known as the Sixty-Four Villages, east of the Heilongjiang river, was kept by China according to the Treaty of Aigun, but invaded and annexed by Russia in 1900. From 1860 to 1917 Outer Manchuria was part of the Russian Empire. After the October Revolution of 1917 the Japanese and a group of Ukrainians (see Green Ukraine) tried to gain control of this region, but in 1920, the Far East Republic was established which became a buffer republic between Russia and Japan, before it was absorbed into the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic two years later.

Outer Manchuria formed part of the Far Eastern provinces of the USSR and was used as the launch-pad for the Soviet assault on Japanese occupied Inner Manchuria in 1945. During the Chinese Civil War Chinese communist forces began the war with large amounts of Inner Manchuria already in their hands; in 1949 the victorious communists established the People's Republic of China.

In 1959 tension arose between Chinese Inner Manchuria and Russian Outer Manchuria over the interpretation of the treaties of Aigun and Peking. This was as much an attempt to undo European colonialism as an ideological split between Mao Zedong and Nikita Khrushchev. In 1969, tensions led to considerable loss of human lives in an open military conflict for control of the Damansky Island.

In 2004, Russia agreed to transfer Yinlong Island as well as one half of Heixiazi Island (zh:黑瞎子岛) to China, ending a long-standing border dispute between Russia and China. Both islands are found at the confluence of the Amur and Ussuri Rivers, and were until then administered by Russia and claimed by China. The event was meant to foster feelings of reconciliation and cooperation between the two countries by their leaders, but it has also sparked different degrees of discontents on both sides. Russians, especially Cossack farmers of Khabarovsk who would lose their plowlands on the islands, were unhappy about the apparent loss of territory. The transfer has been ratified by both the Chinese National People's Congress and the Russian State Duma. The official transfer ceremony was held on-site 14 October 2008.