The Chinese Eastern Railway, the largest line from Transbaikalia to Vladivostok with a branch to the Dalny and the base of the Russian fleet Port Arthur, was put into operation 110 years ago, on June 14, 1903. According to the Russian-Chinese defensive treaty of 1896, the land under the road was leased to Russia for 80 years. The Chinese Eastern Railway not only crossed the mainland of northeastern China and exited as a separate branch to the Yellow Sea (until 1904), but also had a "right of way" along the road under Russian control. It was guarded by Russian guards (up to 25,000 bayonets and sabers with 26 guns), transformed in 1901 into the Zaamursky district of the border guards.

The wits of that time called Manchuria "Yellow Russia". Jokes are jokes, and the Russian colonization of Manchuria was only a matter of time. The Chinese Eastern Railway, in essence, tightly “attached” it to Russia with two dissecting branches. The residence of the tsar's governor had already been transferred to Port Arthur for Far East. No wonder the Japanese were in such a hurry to start hostilities in the zone of the southern section of the road (just six months after its opening). The "Russification" of Manchuria proceeded rapidly. Here, along the 2,400-mile route, there were new Russian cities (Qiqihar, Harbin, Changchun, Dalniy, Port Arthur, etc.) with multi-storey buildings and large beautiful churches, sawmills and brick factories, coal mines, shipping companies, marinas, warehouses , depot, offices, shops, hospitals, a district military hospital with 485 beds, schools, 20 railway schools, higher educational establishments, libraries, newspapers, magazines and even ... resorts.

But what about all this, including 370 locomotives, about 2700 goods and 900 passenger cars, 20 steamships, 1390 versts of railroad tracks (since 1905), 1464 railway bridges, 9 tunnels, became after 1917? Where did the many thousands of Russian railway personnel and the many thousands of border guards go?

The CER suffered its first losses in 1905. By the way, it played a more negative than a positive role in the Russo-Japanese War. Commander-in-Chief Adjutant General A.N. Kuropatkin, very afraid of losing the only railroad linking our troops with Russia, constantly pressed against the southern branch of the CER, making it difficult for himself to maneuver and making it easier for the enemy to bypass and cover. At the same time, the capacity of the road was not so great as to quickly transfer hundreds of thousands of soldiers with artillery and horse-drawn traction to the theater of operations. This was only possible more than a year after the start of the war. But Port Arthur had already fallen by that time, and the fleet was lost in the Tsushima Strait. According to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty between Russia and Japan most of the southern branch of the road (the section from Changchun to the south), which turned out to be in the territory occupied by the Japanese, was transferred to Japan. Yes, and this branch of Russia became unnecessary with the loss of Port Arthur and Dalny.

Broke after 12 years October Revolution. At first, it did not greatly affect the status of the road. Until October 1917, the CER was a joint-stock company with the participation of state capital. And although in December 1917 the Bolsheviks in Petrograd closed the Russian-Asian Bank, through which the settlements of the CER were carried out, and liquidated the Board of the CER Society, legally this Society remained the owner of the road. In addition, the authority of Russia in China was so great that until September 1920, local authorities recognized the rights of the pre-revolutionary Russian railway administration in the “right of way”. As before, there was a Russian court and Russian security troops (already, however, small), subordinate to the Managing Director of the Board of the CER Society, Lieutenant General D.L. Croatian, who played a major role in political career Admiral Kolchak.

When the revolution reached Harbin at the end of 1917, a Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies arose here. On December 13, 1917, he was preparing to seize power. By that time, there was almost nothing left of the powerful border guards, with the exception of six hundred cavalry, since the Zaamurs had gone to the fronts of the First World War. The non-combatant militia squads, created to replace the Amur infantry, were not combat-ready and propagated by the Bolsheviks. But General Horvath, with the help of guard officers and Chinese soldiers who remained loyal to him, disarmed the Red Guards and sent them out of China. It was thanks to the firmness of Horvat that the CER, unlike other Russian railways, retained during the years of the revolution and the civil war normal throughput and “presentation”, it even continued to run international express trains with dining cars, which, of course, in 1917- 1922 and could not be imagined in Russia.

The fall of Kolchak inevitably affected the status of the CER. On March 22, 1920, the Russian guard troops in the "exclusion zone" were replaced by Chinese ones. The “buffer” Far Eastern Republic, which soon arose, claimed rights to the CER, but they did not really listen to it. At the end of 1920, the Board of the Chinese Eastern Railway, in agreement with the Chinese, declared the road an international joint-stock enterprise. In February 1921, the road was taken over by the International Technical Committee headed by engineer B.V. Ostroumov. Unlike their predecessors, no administrative rights in the "right-of-way" he had not. But Ostroumov was an excellent manager and economist. Under him, the Chinese Eastern Railway from an unprofitable enterprise, which had a deficit of two and a half million gold rubles in 1921, turned into a prosperous one, with a net profit of 6 million rubles (in 1922). Great importance Ostroumov attached appearance roads. Judging by the photographs of the spacious covered platforms of the Harbin railway station of those years, any modern railway station can envy them.

It was Ostroumov who came up with the idea of ​​arranging the now famous climatic resorts in the PRC along the CER line: Imyanpo, Echo, Laoshao-gou, Fulyaerdi, Barim, Khingan and Zhalantun. They even composed a promotional song:

Oh, Zhalantun - what a panorama,
Oh, Zhalantun, what a beauty!

"Kurortnaya Liniya" significantly increased the income of the road.

But, despite the fact that under Ostroumov, predominantly Russian people continued to work on the CER, it no longer served the state interests of Russia - neither "white" nor "red". It was, as they say now, a "transnational corporation". In addition, the days of the independent existence of the International Society of the CER were numbered. The Americans put a lot of pressure on the Chinese to put the tasty and strategically important road under their control.

Under these conditions, the Soviet government showed enviable activity (enviable - in comparison with the foreign economic activity of the current government). Using its influence on the then leadership of the Kuomintang party and other leftist forces in China, the Soviet Union persistently sought the right to jointly manage the CER with the Chinese, while simultaneously revoking the rights of the International Society. The Americans, in their usual habit, wanted to take everything, so our proposals for the Chinese looked more tempting.

In 1924, the USSR and China signed an agreement on the joint operation and ownership of the road. Now the staff of the CER was supposed to be half Chinese, half Soviet. But in reality, parity did not last long. There was a civil war in China, and the opposing sides tried to use the CER in their military interests. This led to the fact that in January 1926 the Soviet manager of the road, Ivanov, even banned transportation for the Chinese.

More than twenty thousand Soviet employees and railway workers arrived at the CER. A unique situation developed in the “exclusion zone”, which had previously existed only in the Far Eastern Republic (1920-1922): the joint peaceful residence of the “Reds” and “Whites” (the number of which fluctuated in different years between 70,000 and 200,000 people). This found an original reflection in the poems of the Harbin poet Arseniy Nesmelov (Metropolsky):

At the pink depot building
With scorch marks of soot and dirt,
Behind the farthest rail track,
Where the coupler with a lantern does not climb, -
Skinned and driven to a dead end,
The Kappel, a white armored car, is rusting.

... And next to him - the irony of fate,
Her thunderous laws -
Raising the hammer and sickle coats of arms,
The red wagons are coming to rest...

The Soviet Union, oddly enough, suited this ambiguous position. In words, the Soviet authorities demanded (but not too insistently) from the Chinese to send white émigrés to the USSR, but in reality they did not really want to change the established “status quo”. “You are more needed here,” they confidentially told their former compatriots, according to L.I. Chuguevsky. Political situation in China was extremely unstable, yesterday's ally of the Kuomintang suddenly became an enemy after the coup of Chiang Kai-shek, so the Russian "fifth column" in Manchuria would not interfere with the USSR at all. In addition, the agents of the GPU felt themselves in the "exclusion zone", like a fish in water. It is this that can explain many of the oddities in the attitude of the Bolsheviks towards the Harbin emigrants. For example, the same A. Nesmelov, who fled from the USSR in 1924, was actively published in 1927-1929. in the Soviet magazine Siberian Lights, and the editors did not at all hide from readers where the author lives.

In July 1929, a conflict began between the dictator (Chinese governor) of Manchuria Zhang Xueliang and the Soviet administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway, which turned into full-scale hostilities between the Red Army and the Chinese militarists by autumn. This local war, which, by the way, significantly exceeded the famous conflict on Damansky Island in terms of the scope of military operations, is now almost forgotten. However, in 1929 the streets of all cities and villages of our country were hung with posters: "Hands off the Chinese Eastern Railway!" But 10 years before that, Soviet Russia officially abandoned the CER as a "shameful relic of Russian colonialism"...

Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army under the command of V.K. Blucher crossed the Argun, Amur and Ussuri rivers, defeated the troops of General Zhang Xueliang and took control of the Chinese Eastern Railway. In December 1929, the Chinese were forced to sign in Khabarovsk a protocol on the restoration of Soviet rights to the CER and the normalization of the situation on the border between the USSR and China.

The second stage of Russia's presence on the Chinese Eastern Railway lasted a little over 10 years. In 1931, Manchuria was captured by the Japanese. They decided to create on its territory a puppet state of Manchukuo, headed by Pu Yi, the son of the last Chinese emperor. The legal status of the CER became extremely uncertain. In 1934, the Japanese demanded Soviet Union sell them a road. In case of refusal, they would, of course, take it away for free. The Soviet authorities relented - for a small sum of 150 million yen. At the end of March 1935, the evacuation of 24,000 Soviet railroad workers to their homeland began. It continued until June 28; in total, 104 echelons went to the USSR.

A small part of the White emigrants joined the “returnees”, another, also small, left for Australia, Latin America, Europe, but the main part remained in Manchukuo. At first, the Japanese and puppet authorities oppressed the Russian colony in every possible way. But soon the Japanese realized their mistake, because the Chinese for the most part treated them as enemies, and the Russians, by and large, did not care under whose authority they lived in a foreign land - Chinese or Japanese. Normal relations began to be established between the occupation authorities and Russian emigrants. The Japanese, unlike, say, the current governments of the Baltic countries, considered it quite possible to teach in Russian in secondary and high school. They abolished the Shinto oath for Russian employees, generally "warmed up" to Orthodoxy. During the reign of Pu Yi, the number of Orthodox churches in Harbin increased by 3 times. In 1937, our community widely celebrated the centenary of the death of A.S. Pushkin, and next year - the 950th anniversary of the Baptism of Russia.

In September 1945, Japan was utterly defeated in Manchuria by the Red Army. Manchukuo also collapsed. Russia regained all the pre-revolutionary possessions in Manchuria (albeit already as a co-owner): both the CER with the southern branch, and Port Arthur, and Dalny - Stalin, unlike Khrushchev and Gorbachev, was sensitive to any territorial and property losses. But he had a soft spot for Mao Zedong. He even forgave him the revisionist phrase in the CPC Program of 1945: "The CPC is guided in all its work by the ideas of Mao Zedong" (and Khrushchev, by the way, did not forgive him). On the day of his 70th birthday, Stalin took off his watch and gave it to Mao: now, they say, your time has come. This was not the first and not the last metaphor of Stalin in his relations with the younger Chinese comrade: he generally raised Mao in a similar spirit. Despite the honor shown to Mao (he was settled in December 1949 at Stalin's dacha in Kuntsevo), he waited a whole month for a reception from Stalin and during this time he did not see him even once, although he lived on the second floor, and Stalin - on the first. Then, according to Mao's memoirs, he could not stand it and scandalized: they say, I am the head of the largest country in terms of population and the leader of the world's largest Communist Party, give me Stalin! No sooner said than done: the same evening the meeting with Stalin took place. And in the morning, the waitress, carrying Mao upstairs with coffee, almost dropped the tray when she saw at the stairs, though not a ghost, but not reality - a gray-haired Stalin in the uniform of a generalissimo. He stood looking down at her. And this was at such and such an early hour, although, as you know, he never got up before noon! Then Stalin behaved even more unusually, if not indecently. He suddenly took the tray away from the waitress, saying, "I'll take it myself," and carried the coffee to Mao Zedong on the second floor - in bed, so to speak.

Mao was so struck by this purely Chinese metaphor that he never again dared to demand anything from Stalin and until his death did not say a single bad word about him. Soon, in February 1950, Stalin gave his favorite a new gift - the CER (actually passed into the hands of the Chinese in 1952-1953). The third (and last) stage of the Russian ownership of the CER was completed.

Russian emigrants began to leave the “exclusion zone” as early as 1946. Many of those who left for the USSR on a patriotic upsurge were arrested here, many voluntarily went to develop virgin lands. The bulk of the "Harbinites" (20,000 people) moved to Australia, where they founded the current fairly large Russian colony. By 1953 there was not a single Russian emigrant in Manchuria. By that time, the last Soviet employees had left the CER. In 1955, our military left Port Arthur and Dalniy. The history of the Russian CER and the "right of way" is over. But it is an integral and highly visible part of our common history.

See also:
Red Army on the eve of the Great Patriotic War
On January 20, 1925, the USSR and Japan signed the Beijing Treaty.
"Muromets" against the samurai!

History

Choice of direction and design

The history of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) is closely intertwined with the history of the Trans-Siberian Railway (Trans-Siberian) and has largely Negative influence on the fate of one of constituent parts Transsib - Amur railway.

In connection with the growing activity of the Western powers at the end of the XIX century. in East Asia and the Far East, the Russian Empire began to show heightened concern about the situation of a significant part of its territories in Siberia and the Far East, which were actually cut off from the central part of the country. The task arose of implementing a set of urgent measures to populate the outskirts, which required connecting them with the center by stable and convenient transport communications. In the same year, a decision was made to build the Trans-Siberian Railway. Its construction began simultaneously from Vladivostok and Chelyabinsk, was carried out with public funds and demonstrated unprecedented rates of railway construction until then - 7.5 thousand km of a new railway line were laid in 10 years. On the eastern side, the Trans-Siberian was brought from Vladivostok to Khabarovsk, where construction work was hampered by the need to build a huge bridge across the Amur. On the western side, the railway tracks were brought to Transbaikalia.

Supporters of the option of passing the Trans-Siberian along the Amur justified it by the subsequent growth of economic and economic opportunities. social development Russian territories Eastern Siberia and the Far East. S. M. Dukhovskoy, who was the Governor-General of the Amur region in the period 1893-1898, stated that even with the accession of Manchuria to Russian Empire the importance for Russia of the Amur railway would remain enormous, as well as its “colonization and base building significance”. He emphasized that in no case should the construction of the railway line along the Amur, which was planned earlier, be stopped.

The supporter of the Manchu version was the Minister of Finance S. Yu. Witte, who believed that the railway would contribute to the peaceful conquest of Manchuria. The increased activity of Japan in the Far East, which threatened the interests of the Russian Empire in China, also played in favor of the Manchurian version. In addition, the Manchurian option made it possible for Russia to enter new markets in the Asia-Pacific region. In the end, the concept of the Minister of Finance for the construction of a railway line, called the Chinese Eastern Railway, through the territory of Manchuria, won. Only the defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 demonstrated to the government the fallacy of this decision, which accelerated the construction of the Amur railway.

When discussing plans for the construction of the CER, it was decided to involve private capital in it, for which a corresponding preparatory work. In December, the Russian-Chinese Bank was established with an initial capital of 6 million rubles. For its formation, 3/8 of the funds were provided by the St. Petersburg International Bank, and 5/8 came from 4 French banks.

Start of road construction

August 16 (27), 1897 was the day the construction of the CER began. Construction was carried out simultaneously from the location of the Construction Department in three directions and from the three terminal points of the CER - Grodekovo station in Primorye, from Transbaikalia and Port Arthur - in June of the year, Russia received a concession for the construction of the southern branch of the CER (later known as the South Manchurian Railway road), which was supposed to provide access to the CER of the Far (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Luishun), located on the Liaodong Peninsula, "taken" by the Russian Empire in March 1898 in accordance with the Russo-Chinese Convention of 1898.

In connection with the length of the highway, it was initially decided to break down the construction into separate sections with the appointment of their own managers. The line between the stations Manchuria in Transbaikalia and Pogranichnaya in Primorye was divided into 13 construction sections, the line from Harbin to Port Arthur was divided into 8 sections.

Road opening

Shipping Company CER

The joint-stock company CER also participated in the equipment of the seaport in Vladivostok and, through the mediation of the Russian East Asian Shipping Company, made voyages to the ports of Japan, Korea and China. By 1903, the CER Society already owned its own fleet of 20 steamboats.

Road after the October Revolution

Attempts to alienate the road

On July 17, 1929, the government of the USSR announced the severance of diplomatic relations with China, in November 1929, the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army carried out a swift operation to liberate the CER. On December 22, 1929, in Khabarovsk, the authorized representative of the Republic of China, Cai Yuanshen, and the authorized representative of the USSR, agent of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs Simanovsky, signed the "Khabarovsk protocol", according to which the status quo was restored to the Chinese Eastern Railway in accordance with the Beijing and Mukden treaties.

The main cargo flow from Europe went not by sea, but by rail, which reduced the delivery time of goods by 3 times. In the first third of the XX century. The CER was the main transport artery of the Far East. The road accelerated settlement Amur region and Primorye, the economic growth of the Russian Far East and Northern Manchuria.

Russia received the right to build the CER through the territory of Manchuria in accordance with the Russian-Chinese agreement of May 22, 1896, according to which the right-of-way (about 6 thousand hectares - Harbin, 54.5 hectares - large stations, about 33 hectares - sidings; the entire strip alienation - 113,951 ha) was a concession area. On August 17, 1896, the rights to build the CER and operate a concession for a period of 80 years were granted to the Russian-Chinese Bank (since 1910 - the Russian-Asian Bank). For the construction and operation of the road, the CER Society was created, the board of which was in St. Petersburg, and the road management was in Harbin. Favorable tariff and customs regimes were created for Russia on the territory of the concession, the right to transit troops was secured, and a system of territory management was organized according to the Russian model. In the right-of-way, Russian subjects had the right to extraterritoriality. In June 1898, Russia received a concession for the construction of the southern branch of the CER, which was supposed to provide access to the Liaodong Peninsula to the ports of Dalniy (Dalian) and Port Arthur (Luishun), leased under the Russo-Chinese Convention of March 15, 1898.

Road opening

Survey work in Northern Manchuria along the line of the CER was carried out in 1895-97 under the leadership of A.A. Gershova, I.L. Prosinsky, F.S. Girshman, S.N. Kholkova, I.I. Oblomievsky, I.P. Bocharov. Chief Engineer of the CER - A.I. Yugovich. The construction was carried out in 1897-1903: the western branch of Manchuria-Harbin (1899), the eastern branch of Harbin-Pogranichnaya (1899), the southern branch of Harbin-Kuan-chengzi (1901), additional branches of Jalainorskaya, Yangaiskaya, Harbin-Far, Nangaunling-Port- Arthur, Dafan-shen-Dalianwang, Dashiqiao-Yingkou (1903). Traffic along the CER was opened in 1903.

The length of the western and eastern lines of the road was 1.5 thousand km (single-track), the southern - 950 km, 1,464 bridges were built, 9 tunnels were laid, including the double-track Khingan tunnel. At the end of 1904, 441 million rubles were invested in the construction of the CER, including 71.7 million spent on restoration work after the Yihetuan uprising (Boxer uprising, see below). Chinese campaign), and 11.9 million for the creation of a marine and river fleet CER. After Russo-Japanese War Under the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905, the southern section of the Kuanchenzi-Port Arthur and Dalniy road went to Japan, which subsequently formed the independent South Manchurian Railway (SMZhD). Russia has lost property in South Manchuria worth 123 million rubles.

Road after the October Revolution

By 1914, Russia had invested 851.4 million rubles in the economy of Manchuria. By 1917, the volume of capital investments in the Chinese Eastern Railway amounted to 708.5 million rubles. (including the cost of the southern section and government coverage of the road deficit). Significant capital investments have made it possible to create a developed transport and social infrastructure, to stimulate the development of the forestry, mining and manufacturing industries, to accelerate the urbanization of Northern Manchuria, which increased the influx of people from other regions of China and from Russia. According to population censuses, the number of Russian-speaking population along the lines of the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1907 amounted to 24.8 thousand people, including in Harbin in 1903 - 15.5 thousand, 1913 - 43.5 thousand. 5 thousand Russians. The Russians lived compactly along the entire right-of-way of the CER, but the most densely populated was the western branch, as well as border rural areas, including the Trekhrechie region located north of the CER. Revolution and affected the right-of-way of the CER: in November 1917, the Harbin Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies was formed; acted in 1918 Business office D.L. Croatian ; in 1919 the territory was subject to Russian government admiral A.V. Kolchak ; in 1920-21 was considered by the authorities Far Eastern Republic as part of it.

In the early 1920s Chinese authorities have taken steps to reduce Russian influence on the Chinese Eastern Railway. In 1918, the protection of the CER was transferred from the Russian side to the Chinese, in October 1920 the CER right-of-way was renamed the Special Region of the Eastern Provinces (ORVP) of China. In the early 1920s the management system of the Chinese Eastern Railway was transformed, the court and penitentiary institutions were sinized, abolished Russian model territory management, public and city ​​government , subjects of the former Russian Empire are deprived of extraterritoriality. The civil war led to mass emigration to Manchuria. The number of the Russian-speaking population in Northern Manchuria was about 200-250 thousand people, including in Harbin in 1920 - 131 thousand, in 1921 - 165 thousand, in 1922 -155 thousand, as a result of which the city became the center of white emigration in China. The establishment of Soviet-Chinese relations in 1924 and the signing of an agreement on the CER with the Peking (May 31, 1924) and Mukden (September 20, 1924) governments provided for the management of the railway on a parity basis, and an equal ratio of Soviet and Chinese personnel was established. In 1925-35, the number of Russians in Northern Manchuria was about 150 thousand people, including 30-35 thousand emigrants in Harbin, 25-27 thousand Soviet citizens, 4-7 thousand who took Chinese citizenship. In 1929, the Chinese side made an attempt to nationalize the Chinese Eastern Railway, which led to a rupture of diplomatic relations and armed conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway (October-November 1929) with the participation of the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army. The conflict was settled during negotiations that ended with the signing of the Khabarovsk Protocol on December 22, 1929, which restored the rights of the USSR in relation to the road.

In 1931-32 Japan occupied Manchuria; The puppet state of Manchukuo was formed. Under the conditions of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, after 2 years of negotiations on March 22, 1935, the USSR was forced to agree to the sale of the CER for 140 million yen (about 70 million rubles) and the payment of benefits to Soviet railway workers in the amount of 30 million yen. The road was renamed the North Manchurian Railway (SMZhD). The sale of the CER led to the liquidation of all Soviet diplomatic, trade and economic organizations operating on the territory of Manchukuo, and the export to the USSR of 21.5 thousand Soviet railway workers and members of their families. The arrivals were distributed by rail Central Asia, the European part of the USSR, the Urals and Siberia. According to the operational order of the NKVD of the USSR No. 00593 of September 20, 1937, the NKVD carried out mass repressions against the so-called Harbin residents who returned from China. More than 42,000 people were repressed, including more than 28,000 people sentenced to death. The Soviet citizens who remained on the territory of Manchukuo passed into an emigrant state, the number of Russian emigrants in Harbin in 1936 was 30.6 thousand; 1944 - 34.6 thousand, in 1945 - 29.1 thousand people.

After the end of World War II, the USSR restored its positions in the northeast of China, returning the ARC (which, by agreement of August 14, 1945, entered the joint control of the USSR and China). All lines of the SMZhD and SUMZhD were merged into the Chinese-Changchun Railway (KChZhD), which was under joint management. During on the territory of Manchuria, the bodies of the military counterintelligence "Smersh" of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR arrested about 10 thousand Russian. emigrants who were deported to the USSR and convicted in 1945-48. More than 150,000 emigrants living in China restored their Soviet citizenship, including 29,500 in Harbin.

Transfer of the CER to China

The Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship of February 14, 1950, stipulated the transfer of the CChRW to the PRC. By agreement of February 14, 1952, the USSR transferred the rights to the road to the Chinese side free of charge. The transfer of the road took place on December 31, 1952, after which the road became known as the Harbin Railway. Repatriation of the Soviet population from the territory of Northern Manchuria to the USSR was carried out mainly in 1954-55 and over the years amounted to more than 40 thousand people, while his departure from other regions of the PRC continued until 1961. Repatriates from Northern Manchuria were sent to machine and tractor stations And state farms Southern Urals and Siberia, mainly in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Novosibirsk and Omsk Regions.

Lit.: Historical Review of the Chinese Eastern Railway, 1896-1923. Harbin, 1923; Special Region of the Eastern Provinces of the Republic of China: Reference information on the administrative and judicial structure of the region. Harbin, 1927; Sladkovsky M.I. History of trade and economic relations with China until 1917. M., 1974; He is. History of trade and economic relations with China, 1917-1974. M., 1977; Ablova N.E. History of the CER and Russian emigration in China (the first half of the 20th century). Minsk, 1999; Ablazhey N.N. From East to East: Russian emigration to China in the first half of the 20th century. Novosibirsk, 2007.

Here in the European part of the country, we rarely remember the Far Eastern conflict on the CER. There was also the fact that both before 1929 and after, the USSR actively cooperated with various forces in China in its own interests and, guided by the rules of good taste, some of the joint history had to be "forgotten".

But in the late 1920s, the events on the CER became quite significant in the country's foreign policy life, were widely covered and, in addition, are quite full of interesting details for us today. For starters, this was the first major military operation of the Red Army after the end of civil war with the use of aviation, ships of the Far Eastern (Amur) flotilla, landing forces and tanks. In addition, the command of the Red Army in the Far East had to fight against its own "pupils" from China, where our advisers successfully worked both a few years before the conflict, and more than a dozen years after.

Under the cut, a brief historical background and photos. All photos are clickable.

WHERE IT ALL STARTED

The Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) (built in 1897-1903, until 1917 - the Manchurian road) is a railway line that passed through the territory of Manchuria and connected Chita with Vladivostok and Port Arthur directly with the Trans-Siberian Railway. The road was built by Russians, belonged to Russia and was maintained by its subjects. An exclusion zone existed and was guarded around the road.

Bridge of the Chinese Eastern Railway across the tributary of the Amur river. Sungari

CER station "Manchuria"

Khingan Tunnel

As a result of all the ups and downs of the 20th century, by the end of the 1920s, the status of the road was regulated by Sino-Soviet agreements concluded during the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1924.

At the CER station

The Chinese, having come to their senses after the civil war, sooner or later had to try to change the status of the most important infrastructure facility in their favor. An active part in this was taken by numerous Russian White Guards who settled in Harbin, who, not only did they not sympathize with the Soviets, were also forced to earn their living by serving in the armies of various Chinese authorities.

Joint Russian-Chinese personnel of the CER

The events that led to the hostilities of 1929 took place from the middle of 1925 and are habitually called in our country "Provocations on the CER." These included numerous incidents of detentions of diplomatic workers, raids on the administrative buildings of the Chinese Eastern Railway, as well as border skirmishes.
Particular aggravation was caused by the order of the manager of the CER M.N. Ivanov, in which it was noted that from June 1, 1925, all railway employees who do not have Soviet or Chinese citizenship are subject to dismissal.

“The order was directed, first of all, against emigrants who worked in various structures of the railway. As a result of the actions of A.N. Ivanov, 19,000 railway workers began to apply for transfer to Soviet citizenship, mainly due to economic considerations.

in Chinese service

About a thousand emigrants renounced Soviet citizenship and took Chinese. About a thousand more preferred to be dismissed from the Chinese Eastern Railway than to accept this or that citizenship. A significant part of the emigrants, left without a livelihood, joined the ranks of the Chinese army.
In turn, the policy of provocation conflict situations on the Chinese Eastern Railway, considered, according to N.I. Bukharin, as a "revolutionary finger" launched into China, led to a confrontation with the local Chinese authorities.

The evacuation of Chinese Eastern Railway employees from Harbin after the capture of the road administration by the Chinese

The main northern militarists in Beijing - a group photo of the worst enemies: 1) Zhang Zuolin; 2) Zhang Zongchang; 3) Wu Peifu; 4) Zhang Xueliang (son of Zhang Zuolin). 06/28/1926, Beijing, Shuncheng-wang Palace.

"In June of the same year, a meeting of Chiang Kai-shek with former ambassador China in Moscow Zhu Chaoliang on the issue of the CER, and in early July at a meeting of the Chinese generals, held in Beijing under the chairmanship of Chiang Kai-shek, it was decided to seize the road. "The goal of our program is the destruction of unequal treaties," "Red imperialism is more dangerous than white imperialism," said Chiang Kai-shek.

Soviet magazine "Spark", 1929

Meeting of CER employees released from captivity by the Chinese in Moscow

On July 10, 1929, by order of the Nanjing government, the Mukden troops of the Governor of Manchuria, Zhang Xueliang, seized the CER telegraph along the entire line, closed the trade mission and other economic institutions of the USSR. The local authorities removed the Soviet employees from their duties and replaced them with white émigrés. During this provocation, the professional and cooperative organizations of workers and employees of the road were defeated, more than 200 citizens of the USSR were arrested, and about 60 people, including the manager and his assistant, were deported from China.
At the same time, Zhang Xueliang put his troops and detachments of Russian white emigrants on alert and moved them to the Soviet border.

Governor of Manchuria Zhang Xueliang at the review of his aviation

On July 13, 1929, the Soviet government protested these illegal actions and drew the attention of "the Mukden government and the national government of the Republic of China to the extreme gravity of the situation created by these actions."
After a diplomatic squabble, mutual refusals to impracticable demands, on July 20 there was a break in diplomatic relations between the USSR and the central Nanjing government.

Soviet aviators with their "working tool"

Fighters of the armored train No. 13 "Red Ufimets" guarding the Soviet border

Report from the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald on the escalation of tensions between Red and White Russians on the border and the actions of the Chinese to strengthen their defenses in case of outbreak of hostilities

FORCES OF THE PARTIES

VC. Blucher, commander of the ODVA

On August 6, 1929, the Special Far Eastern Army (ODVA) was formed. V.K.Blyukher, who previously worked successfully in China as an adviser to the Kuomintang army, was appointed commander. Now he had to fight against his own wards.

The monitors of the Amur flotilla, still built by the tsar, took an active part in the hostilities

The conflict on the CER with the Chinese became the first real combat clash for our army after the Civil War. Just finished military reform authored by M. Frunze, who introduced the territorial-militia system in the Red Army. By 1928, the number of non-cadre units in the army was 58%. It was the time of the First Five Year Plan. The country was saying goodbye to its agrarian past and hastily began industrialization. One can probably say that we went out to fight the Chinese with revolutionary enthusiasm, reinforced by the experience of the Civil War and the first samples of Soviet military equipment.

Tank MS-1 (T-18)

Seaplanes of the Amur Flotilla

The number of Soviet troops participating in the first stage of the conflict in the Sungaria operation was about 1100 people, 9 tanks (the first combat use domestic tank MS-1), 15 bombers, 6 seaplanes and ships of the Amur flotilla.

The Chinese dig in before the battle

The Chinese had a multiple advantage in manpower everywhere. Detachments of Russian White Guards operated in their ranks. There were several different types of ships and armed steamers, armored trains, and airplanes. The latter never took part in the hostilities "due to weather conditions." The presence of Japanese and European weapons is indicated, as well as the presence of foreign advisers. The main forces of the Mukden army were concentrated in strategic directions: along the Hailar-Manchuria railway; Chzhalainor, Hailar, Tsitsikar - south of Blagoveshchensk, at the mouth of the Songhua River and in the area of ​​​​Turyev Rog.

White officers in the service of the Chinese came across quite often. Not only in Zhang Xueliang's army. I had to somehow feed my families, and getting a job in China was problematic for many reasons. Even the most "garbage" positions were unavailable due to huge amount poor Chinese

FIGHTING (briefly)

The actions of the Red Army were in the nature of preemptive strikes at the places of concentration of the Chinese army. 3 separate operations were carried out: the attack of the Sungari group (divided into 2 stages - the capture of Lakhasusu and the subsequent campaign against Fugdin, the Manchuro-Chzhalaynor operation and the fighting near Lake Khanka in Primorye.

Soviet landing under the cover of guns of river monitors. Polundra!

The battle for Lahasusu began on 10/12/1929 at 06:10 with a seaplane raid on the city and the Chinese flotilla. Further, the ships of the Amur flotilla enter the battle, which disable the artillery of the Chinese flotilla and land troops. The Chinese leave along the river inland and gain a foothold in the city of Fugdin. The landing force continues to move up the river. Songhua.

Soviet aviators show fashion for the autumn/winter 1929 season.

Ranks of brave Chinese with a slight splash of Slavic eyes

Under the banner of his Excellency ... this, God forgive him, yellow-faced trait, you won’t remember them all by nicknames ... Humble!

Soviet river monitor of the Amur flotilla "Sun-Yat-Sen". The ship was laid down in 1907 at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg as an armored river gunboat Shkval.

A day later, the ships of the Amur flotilla were at Fugdin. The Soviet offensive began on October 31 and on November 3, the city was taken. (Later I will make a separate post - I love river battles!) The defeat of the Sungari group has ended. The formations of the Red Army soon leave the territory of China and return to Khabarovsk.

The pilots are in a fighting mood! Charismatic faces with an equally impressive Lewis machine gun

The fighting in the Trans-Baikal direction began on November 17 with the Manchuro-Chzhalaynor operation. Three Soviet divisions and a cavalry brigade advance to cut the railroad between Dalainor and Hailar and encircle the Manchu troops in the area. On November 18, parts of OKDVA entered the city. On the same day, thanks to the support of aviation, it was possible to occupy the Manchuria station.

Soviet tanks MS-1

Aircraft R-1 of the 19th Aviation Detachment "Far East Ultimatum". On board, the unit's emblem is a fist and the inscription "HNN'Aa!"
Soviet-Chinese conflict on K.V.Zh.D., 1929.

One of the Chinese officers, Wei Chang-ling, who died during the conflict

The entire headquarters of the Zhalainor-Manchurian group, led by Liang Zhujiang, was taken prisoner. Heavy fighting with heavy mutual losses ended on November 27 with the defeat of the Manchu grouping near the Khanka Lake, known in the future. There was no further pursuit of the retreating enemy due to the reluctance to aggravate relations with the Japanese. The Soviet troops, having completed the task, left China within a few days.

DENOUNCING
The Chinese requested negotiations, and on December 22, a Soviet-Chinese protocol was signed in Khabarovsk to restore the situation on the CER. In May 1930, for the victory in the conflict, V.K. Blucher was awarded the Order of the Red Star for No. 1.

Real fighting Buryats! - servicemen of the Buryat-Mongolian cavalry division

Participant of those events K.K. Rokossovsky also noted the role of the Buryat-Mongolian division in the pre-dawn battle: “The division especially distinguished itself in the battle in the area southeast of the city of Manchuria, when a column of many thousands of General Liang made an attempt to break through to the east. he was the first to boldly attack the numerous columns of the enemy rushing to the east and, cutting into his ranks, delayed their advance, and then, together with the approaching Kuban, put the enemy to flight. This attack completed the operation to defeat the enemy's Manchu grouping."

The participants in the hostilities on the CER were awarded rather original awards - the badge "Fighter of the OKDVA" (1930). The sign was established Central Council Osoaviakhim in early 1930 for the soldiers of the Red Army and fighters of special detachments formed from members of Osoaviakhim, in memory of these events and was very much appreciated in the Far East.

The ruler of Manchuria, Zhang Xueliang, soon staged a rebellion against the central government. Then he suddenly surrendered and voluntarily appeared before the court. Chiang Kai-shek commuted the rebel's sentence and commuted ten years' imprisonment to house arrest. However, since the “Young Marshal” was supposed to leave the big politics forever, the terms of house arrest were not specified.

1931, from right to left: Yu Fengzhi (Zhang Xueliang's wife), W. Donald (Zhang Xueliang's consultant, Australian), Zhang Xueliang, Countess Ciano (Mussolini's daughter)

For the next 40 years, Zhang Xueliang remained under house arrest; even when the Kuomintang were forced to flee from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, Chiang Kai-shek took Zhang Xueliang with him and continued to keep him in Taipei as his personal prisoner. Even after the death of Chiang Kai-shek in 1975, Zhang Xueliang's freedom of movement was limited, only in 1991, President Lee Tenghui allowed him to leave the island. Despite numerous offers to return to China, where he was considered a hero, Zhang Xueliang flew to Honolulu, where he died in 2001 from pneumonia at the age of 101.

According to reporting documents, in the course of all the battles on the CER, our troops lost 281 people killed, who died from wounds at the stages of sanitary evacuation. (28% of total number losses); wounded, shell-shocked, frostbitten (excluding the lightly wounded, who did not need hospitalization, and the sick) - 729 people. 17 people are missing.
Rifle units had the greatest losses. For example, during the fighting, the 21st Perm Rifle Division lost 232 people, of which 48 people were killed or died from wounds. In the 36th rifle division 61 people died and died from wounds.
The losses of other branches of the military were insignificant. So, out of the total number of casualties, the cavalry brigade accounted for 11 people. killed and 7 people. wounded, to the Far Eastern flotilla - 3 people killed and 11 people. wounded (of which 3 people were injured as a result of a rupture of their guns on a ship during firing), only 1 wounded fell on the aviation detachments participating in the hostilities. From here.

“After the signing of the Khabarovsk protocol, all prisoners of war and those arrested in connection with the conflict on the CER were released, and the Soviet troops were withdrawn from the territory of China. The last detachment returned to the USSR on December 25, 1929. Soon, the normal operation of the CER was restored.
Chinese prisoners of war in the Soviet Union were carefully "processed". Among them were experienced political workers who agitated Chinese soldiers for Soviet power. The barracks were decorated with slogans Chinese"We and the Red Army are brothers!"
A wall newspaper called "Red Chinese Soldier" was published in the camp. Two days later, 27 Chinese prisoners of war applied to join the Komsomol, and 1,240 people applied with a request to leave them in the USSR.

In 1931 Manchuria was finally occupied by Japan. In 1935, after numerous provocations in the area of ​​the road, the USSR sold the Manchukuo Chinese Eastern Railway, in order to return it to itself in 1945, and then again donate it to communist China for political purposes, along with Port Arthur in the early 1950s.

Sino-Eastern Railway. CER– Chinese Eastern Railway – this is a railway line built by the mind of Russian engineers and the labor of Russian workers in 1897-1903 according to the Russian-Chinese agreement of 1896 and served to supply Port Arthur, and after loss thereof during the Russo-Japanese War - to shorten the path to Vladivostok. There was a right-of-way around the railroad, which was considered Russian territory. Russian railroad workers lived there, Russian laws were in force and special money of the Russian-Asian bank was in circulation. Joint-Stock Company CER also participated in the equipment of the seaport in Vladivostok and, through the mediation of the Russian East Asian Shipping Company, made voyages to the ports of Japan, Korea and China. By 1903 the Society CER already owned its own fleet of 20 steamships. Money that went to CER D In 1918, Japan sent its troops into the areaCER and in 1920 tried to take possession of it. On March 16, 1920, Chinese troops under the command of Major Lo Bing occupied the Headquarters of the Russian Commander-in-Chief in Harbin and by March 19 completely occupied the right-of-way CER. However, trains to Vladivostok continued to run, and the road was still served by Russian workers and specialists, and the Russian engineer Boris Vasilyevich Ostroumov was the head of the road. On May 31, 1924, the USSR and the Republic of China signed the "Agreement on General Principles for the Settlement of Issues between the USSR and the Republic of China", according to which diplomatic relations were restored between the two countries, and the government of the USSR renounced "special rights and privileges", after which there were Russian concessions in Harbin, Tianjin and Hankou were liquidated with the obligation of the Chinese government not to transfer these rights and privileges to a third power. But at the same time CER remained under the control and maintenance of the Soviet side. Nicholas Cathedral in Harbin However, Zhang Zuolin, supported and instigated by the Japanese, sought to clean up CER to his raking hands, because the road brought us annually tens of millions of gold rubles, on which he tried to put his furry paw. In the end, we got tired of Zhang Zuolin's provocations, and on June 4, 1928, our special services blew up his train on railway station Huanggutun. But after the death of the Generalissimo, his son, 27-year-old Marshal Zhang Xueliang, became the head of the Fengtian clique, who, formally recognizing the power of the Nanjing government of Chiang Kai-shek, continued to pursue an independent policy, and part of this policy were plans to seize CER. After a propaganda campaign in the press, the Chinese police seized the telephone exchange on December 22 CER in Harbin. The flag was lowered on December 29 CER, consisting of Chinese, five-color at the top, and Soviet red at the bottom. Instead, the Kuomintang flag was flown. At the beginning of 1929, the Chinese authorities demanded that the orders of the Soviet general manager of the road be coordinated with the Chinese advisers. On February 2, 1929, the Soviet side proposed to the government of Zhang Xuelian in Mukden to discuss the emerging differences. But the meeting of the Soviet Consul General in Harbin, Boris Melnikov, with Zhang Xueliang ended in mutual accusations and a quarrel. On May 27, 1929, the Chinese police broke into the premises of the Soviet Consulate General in Harbin and seized part of the documents. Under the pretext that a meeting of Comintern workers was taking place in the consulate, 80 people were arrested, including 42 employees of the consulate. Finally, on July 10, 1929, the Chinese militarists actually seized CER, over 200 Soviet employees of the road are arrested, 35 of them are deported to the USSR. This event is considered the starting point of the conflict. On July 17, the USSR severed diplomatic relations with China, and on August 7, the Special Far Eastern Army (ODVA) was formed. Squadron of R-1 aircraft that took part in the conflict On October 12, the Sungari offensive operation ODVA began. During the battle near Lahasusu, the Amur flotilla destroyed 7 out of 11 enemy ships. The next day, Lahasusu was taken. The Chinese troops began to retreat in disorder towards Fugdin and the Soviet cavalry and infantry during the pursuit destroyed more than 500 enemy soldiers and officers. In total, Chinese losses amounted to almost 1,000 killed and wounded. The war entered its decisive phase on 17 November. On that day, the Mishanfus operation began. Suddenly crossing the frozen border river Argun, units of the Red Army, with the support of artillery and aviation, attacked the positions of the Chinese army in the Chzhalaynor area. The first line of defense was crushed within minutes. At the same time, the cavalry cut the railway at Zhalainor, so that the Chinese troops could neither retreat along it nor receive reinforcements. Trapped, the Chinese put up fierce resistance despite losses (almost the entire Chinese 14th Regiment was killed). On November 18, the fighters of the 35th and 36th rifle divisions of the spacecraft, with the support of tanks (about him), managed to break the enemy’s resistance before the reinforcements seen from the air could approach. The remnants of the Chinese soldiers were destroyed by the Kuban cavalry. Simultaneously Soviet troops crossed the border in Primorye near the city of Mishanfu. By November 20, the fighting ended in an unconditional victory for the Red forces, although it is formally believed that the armed conflict that began on October 12 was finally settled on December 22, 1929. Estimates of the losses of the parties are contradictory. According to reporting documents, the Soviet troops then lost 211 soldiers killed. But 60 years later - also according to documents - it was established that there were at least 281 dead. The wounded were officially counted as 729, but later it turned out that more than 1,400 wounded had passed through the hospitals of the Far East. There were 32 missing in action. The losses of the Chinese are much higher: only almost 10 thousand were taken prisoners, and the dead were no longer counted when the figure reached two thousand. On December 22, 1929, in Khabarovsk, the authorized representative of the Republic of China, Cai Yuanshen, and the authorized representative of the USSR, the agent of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs Simanovsky, signed the "Khabarovsk Protocol", according to which the status quo was restored to the Chinese Eastern Railway in accordance with the Beijing and Mukden treaties. In September 1931, Japan began to seize Manchuria under the pretext of combating the lawlessness of local governors. On September 18, Japanese troops invaded Northern Manchuria. On February 5, 1932, Japanese troops occupied Harbin and then incorporated it into the state. Manchukuo, the creation of which on March 1, 1932 was proclaimed by the governors assembled by the Japanese in Mukden. There should be a break in relations Manchukuo with the Republic of China. On September 19, 1934, many months of negotiations were completed on the sale by the Soviet side of the CER to the government Manchukuo conducted by the Consul General of the USSR in Harbin Slavutsky. The amount of the agreed transaction amounted to 140 million yen. March 23, 1935 USSR and Manchukuo signed an agreement on the sale of the CER. It was agreed that in monetary terms Manchukuo will pay 1/3 of the amount, the remaining 2/3 of the amount will be repaid within three years deliveries of Japanese and Manchurian firms on orders from the USSR in Japan. After signing the deal Manchukuo immediately contributed 23.3 million yen. Under control Manchukuo, the road was changed to the European (1435 mm) gauge commonly used on other railways in China. During August 20, 1945, the troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front and ships Amur flotilla with the support of the airborne assault captured Harbin. The CER returned under our control of the USSR. On February 14, 1950, the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance between the USSR and the PRC was signed in Moscow, an agreement on the Chinese Changchun Railway, Port Arthur and Dalniy, which were transferred to China free of charge, and an agreement on the provision of a long-term economic loan by the USSR to the government of the PRC. In 1952, with the transfer of the Chinese Changchun Railway to China, the Russian history of the CER was completed. See