Tianjin treatise 1858 of the year. Towards a solution to the problem of Cupid
13 June 1858 of the year in the Chinese city of Tianjin was signed the Russian-Chinese agreement, included in history as the Tientsin treatise. The contract consisted of 12 articles. He confirmed peace and friendship between the two states, and guaranteed the inviolability of property and the personal security of Russians living in China and Chinese in the Russian Empire. The agreement was signed by Count Evfimiy (Efim) Vasilyevich Putiatin and the plenipotentiary representative of the Chinese side, Hua Shan.
The Treaty of Tianjin affirmed the right of St. Petersburg to send envoys to Beijing and suggested the opening of a number of Chinese ports for Russian ships. Land trade was allowed without any restrictions regarding the number of merchants participating in it, the quantity of goods brought in and the capital used.
The Russian side received the right to appoint consuls to ports open to Russia. Russian nationals, along with nationals of other states, gained the right of consular jurisdiction and extraterritoriality in the Chinese state. The Russian Empire also received the right to maintain the Russian spiritual mission in the Chinese capital.
Regarding the border between the two countries, it was decided that a study would be conducted at the border by proxies from both governments, and their data would constitute an additional article to the Tianjin Treaty. Negotiations of the two countries on territorial delimitation concluded in 1860 with the signing of the Beijing Treaty.
Evfimy (Efim) Vasilyevich Putyatin.
Background of the agreement
The expansion of Western European countries, the prologue of which was their access to the world ocean at the end of the 15th century, the beginning of the so-called Epochs of great geographical discoveries, was not the only one on the planet. The largest territorial acquisitions were also made by Russia and China. For the Russians, land acquisition became the basis of foreign policy under the sovereign Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible. In a fairly tight historical time frame, Russian influence spread over vast territories that were located thousands of kilometers from the center of the state. The Russian state included the lands of Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian Khanate, the Nogai Horde. At the end of the 16th century, vast territories of Western Siberia were annexed. In the 1630s, the Russians settled in the Lena River basin and continued to move in adjacent territories. Founded in 1632, the Yakut jail became the center of further movement, hence the batches of Russian explorers went to the Arctic Ocean, to the Kamchatka Peninsula, to the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and to the Amur region.
The change of dynasties in China in the middle of the 17 century (the establishment of the power of the Manchu Qing dynasty) also contributed to an increase in military activity around the perimeter of the land borders. At the end of the 17th century, Russian settlers were driven out of the Amur Region, the Manchus subjugated Mongolia, and Tibet was annexed in 1728. In the middle of the 18 century, Dzungaria and Kashgaria passed into the possession of the Qing Dynasty. Thus, Russia and China came into direct contact.
The first clash of Russians and Chinese occurred in the second half of the 17 century in the Amur River basin. For the Manchus, the arrival of the Russians in a region that bordered on their domain was extremely unpleasant. Because of the war in Southern China, they didn’t have significant forces for the expansion and development of Dauria, so they tried to create as much as possible a powerful buffer of semi-dependent nations. In the second half of the 17th century, measures were taken in northern Manchuria to strengthen the region’s controllability. In 1662, the position of Jiangjun (military governor) of Ningut Province was established, and in 1683, Heilongjiang-cheng (Sakhalyan-Ula-Hotton), the center of the province of the same name, was founded on the left bank of the Amur River.
The conflict of strategic interests of the two powers in the Amur region led in the 1680-ies to a local war and the diplomatic victory of the Qing power. In June, 1685, the Manchu troops captured the center of the Russian Amur Region - Albazin. Despite the rapid restoration of the fortress, after the withdrawal of the Manchu troops and the successful resistance of the Russian fortress during the second siege of 1686-1687, Russia was forced to cede. The representative of Moscow, Fyodor Golovin, yielding to the military and diplomatic pressure of the Qing empire, 27 August 1689 signed the Nerchinsky Treaty, which liquidated the Russian presence in the Amur region.
Territorial delimitation in Northern Mongolia has become more advantageous for the Russian state. The Burinsky and Kyakhtinsky agreements 1727 of the year established the border from the hill of Abagayta in the east to the Shabin-Dabaga pass in the system of the Sayan Mountains in the west. Although the Russian side had to give up some of its claims during negotiations with Tsina, but the ceded lands were not mastered by the Russian settlers. This border was quite viable, it, with the exception of one site (Tuva), has existed to the present.
Unlike the Amur Region and Siberia, the demarcation of zones of Russian and Chinese strategic interests in Central Asia by the middle of the 19th century was not formalized in the form of agreements. This situation is explained by the later penetration of two powers into this region, as well as by the presence of quite strong local government entities in Central Asia. After the establishment of the province of Iliyujianism in 1762, the Chinese authorities began to persistently try to turn the territory of Kazakhstan into a buffer zone between their territory and the Russian possessions. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, the khans of the Kazakh zhuzes showed increasing interest and desire to go under the protection of the “white king”. The Qing embassy in the Russian empire 1731 of the year made a direct promise to take Russian interests into account when dividing the territorial heritage of the Dzungarian Khanate. Later, the establishment of the Russian administrative system in the Semirechye region and the intensification of the contradictions between China and Kokand forced the Xinjiang authorities to agree to maintain the status quo here.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Russian Empire became the most powerful military power in Europe and gained relative stability on the western frontiers. This geopolitical position allowed St. Petersburg to seriously think about revising the agreements that caused damage to political and economic interests and the prestige of a great power. The loss of the Amur River, the only transport artery that could connect the metropolis with the Pacific possessions, caused great irritation both in Petersburg and in the center of Eastern Siberia — Irkutsk. Until the middle of the 19 century, St. Petersburg made several attempts to resolve this issue through diplomatic negotiations with the Chinese side. It should be noted that similar attempts were made earlier. For example, even during the stay of the Russian embassy in Beijing in 1757, the head of the mission VF Bratishchev handed over to the Lifanyuan (the Chamber of Dependent Territories - this department, which was responsible for the relations of the Chinese state with its western neighbors) the letter of the Senate, it contained a request from St. Petersburg to allow the passage of food for the Far Eastern possessions of Russia. The mission of Count Yu.A. received the same instructions in 1805. Golovkina, who, due to protocol obstacles, was never able to get to Beijing.
Later in St. Petersburg there was a slight drop in interest in the development of Cupid. This was due to the position of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was led by Karl Nesselrode (headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1816 - 1856). Nesselrode was a supporter of Russia's full orientation towards European politics. He believed that the active Eastern policy of Russia could lead to a rupture of relations with China, irritation of the European powers, especially England. Therefore, Tsar Nicholas I himself was forced to push through the decision on the equipment and dispatch of the expedition consisting of the Menelaus corvette and one transport. The expeditionary detachment had to go from China to Japan and Japan from the Black Sea under the command of Putyatin to establish trade relations with these countries and to explore the estuary and the mouth of the Amur River, which was considered inaccessible from the sea. But since the expedition needed 250 thousand rubles to equip this important expedition for the Russian Empire, the Ministry of Finance spoke in support of Foreign Minister Count Nesselrode, and Putyatin’s expedition was canceled. Instead of the Putyatin expedition, with great caution and with a secret instruction to the mouth of the Amur, the brig "Konstantin" was sent under the command of Lieutenant Gavrilov. Lieutenant Gavrilov clearly stated in his report that in the conditions in which he was put, his expedition could not fulfill the task set. However, Foreign Minister Carl Nesselrode reported to the emperor that His Majesty’s order was executed exactly, that research by Lieutenant Gavrilov proved once again that Sakhalin is a peninsula, the Amur River is inaccessible from the sea. Therefore, it was concluded that Cupid does not matter for the Russian Empire. After that, the Special Committee, headed by Count Nesselrode and with the participation of the War Minister Count Chernyshev, Quartermaster General Berg and others, decided to recognize the Amur River basin belonging to China and forever renounce any claims to it.
Only the “arbitrariness” of Gennady Ivanovich Nevelsky corrected the situation. Having been appointed to the Far East and enlisted the support of the Governor of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Nikolayevich Muravyov (this statesman played a prominent role in the development of the eastern territories of the empire), and the Chief of the Naval Chief of Staff Menshikov, G. Nevelskoy, without the Highest Permit, decided to go on an expedition. On the transport ship "Baikal" in the summer of Nevelskoy, 1849 reached the mouth of the Amur River in the summer and discovered a strait between the mainland and Sakhalin Island. In 1850, Nevelska, was again sent to the Far East. Moreover, he received an order “not to touch the mouth of the Amur”. However, caring not so much about geographical discoveries, as about the interests of the Nevelsk Motherland, contrary to the prescription, he founded the Nicholas Post (the modern city of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur) at the mouth of the Amur, raising the Russian flag there and declaring the sovereignty of the Russian Empire over these lands.
The vigorous actions of the Nevelskoy expedition caused discontent and irritation in part of the government circles of Russia. The Special Committee considered his deed to be daring, which should be punished by being demoted to sailors, which was reported to Russian Emperor Nicholas I. However, after hearing the report by Nikolai Muravyov, the emperor called the deed of Nevelsky “youthful, noble and patriotic”, and even awarded the captain Vladimir’s Order 4 degree. Nikolai imposed the famous resolution on the report of the Special Committee: “Where the Russian flag is raised, it should not descend.” Amur expedition was of great importance. She proved that navigation along the Amur River is possible up to the exit to the Amursky Liman, as well as the possibility of ships leaving the estuary both to the north and to the south. It was proved that Sakhalin is an island and that from the mouth of the Amur River, as well as from the eastern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, you can directly enter the Sea of Japan without skirting Sakhalin. The absence of a Chinese presence on the Amur was proved.
In February 1851, a message was sent to Lifanyuan that probed the position of China on the naval defense of the Amur estuary from the British by Russian forces. fleet. The actions of the Russian Empire formally assumed not an anti-Chinese, but an anti-British character. St. Petersburg foresaw a clash with European powers and feared attacks from Britain in the Far East. In addition, the desire to play in Beijing’s anti-British mood was also present in this action. China was defeated in the first Opium War of 1840-1842. and was humiliated by the terms of the Nanjing Treaty of August 29, 1842. However, at the beginning of 1850 the emperor died in China, this led to an outbreak of struggle between supporters of hard and soft lines against the European powers. The appeal of St. Petersburg was never considered.
It should be noted that in the Russian Empire long before the middle of the XIX century. there were opinions that allowed a one-sided and even a forceful solution to the problem of Amur. So, back in 1814, diplomat Ya.O. Lambert said that the Chinese would never allow the Russians to swim across the Amur, if they were not forced to do so. But, the real awakening of interest in the problem of the Amur region in the middle of the XIX century. First of all, it is connected with the name of Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyev, appointed in 1847 for the post of Governor General of Eastern Siberia. He was a supporter of strengthening the influence of the Russian Empire in the Far East. In his letters, the Governor-General indicated that: "The one who owns the left bank and the mouth of the Amur owns Siberia." According to Muravyov, several directions should have become the guarantee of the success of the process of strengthening Russia's position in the Far East. First, it was necessary to strengthen the Russian military power in the region. For this, the Trans-Baikal Cossack army was created and measures were planned to strengthen the defense of Petropavlovsk. Secondly, it was an active migration policy. It was due not only to geopolitical reasons (it was necessary to populate vast areas with Russian people to consolidate them), but also a demographic explosion in the central provinces of the empire. Overcrowding in the central provinces, with low yields and depletion of land, could lead to a social explosion.
Monument to Count Muravyov-Amursky in Khabarovsk.
Nikolay Muravyev, having received the results of the expeditions of A.F. Middendorf, N.Kh. Akhte and G.I. Nevelsky, decided to hold a series of rafting Russian ships on the Amur in order to resettle the Cossacks in unoccupied places on the left bank. The military-strategic need for such alloys and the development of the Amur, became particularly clear after the start of the Crimean War in October 1853. This war clearly showed the danger to the unprotected Pacific frontiers of the Russian Empire. 14 April 1854, Governor-General Muravyov, sent a letter to Beijing warning the Chinese about the upcoming rafting and raised the question of the need for Chinese representatives to arrive in place for negotiations. The absence of an official response from Beijing, as well as the events of August 1854 of the year in Petropavlovsk, where only the heroism of the local garrison saved the fortress from being defeated by the British, prompted the governor-general of Eastern Siberia to take more active steps.
In the 1855 year, during the second rafting, Russian immigrants founded the settlements of Irkutsk, Mikhailovskoye, Novo-Mikhailovskoye, Bogorodskoye, Sergeevskoye, the village of Suchi opposite the Mariinsky Lent on the left bank of the Amur River. On the initiative of Nikolai Muravyev, 28 of October 1856, Emperor Alexander II approved the project of building a military line along the left bank of the Amur River. As a result, on the question of joining the Amur region to the mid-1850-ies. The point of view of statesmen such as Muravyov finally won out, and Russian diplomats now had to register a change of position in the region. China at that time experienced a decline, experienced a severe internal crisis, became a victim of the expansion of the Western powers. The Qing Dynasty could not by force hold the territories, which in Beijing were considered to be their own.
In June, 1855, the emperor ordered Muravyov to begin negotiations with the Chinese on the establishment of the Russian-Chinese border line. On September 15, in the Mariinsky Post, where the governor-general of Eastern Siberia was at that time, the Qing delegation arrived. At the first meeting, the representative of Russia orally motivated the desirability of changing the border of the two countries with the needs of organizing a more effective defense of the region against the naval forces of the Western powers. The Amur River was named the most indisputable and natural border between Russia and China. The Chinese side asked to provide them with a written statement of the proposals of Nikolai Muravyov for transfer to the capital. The Qing empire was in a difficult position and risked getting a unilateral denunciation of the St. Petersburg Nerchinsky Agreement. The Chinese, in order to save face and justify the cession of land, came up with a formula for transferring territory from grace in order to support the Russian Empire, which needed to improve the supply routes of its Pacific possessions. In addition, another real motive of this act was given by the head of Beijing diplomacy, Prince Gong. He believed that the main tactical task in the middle of the XIX century. - This is the destruction of internal rebels.
30 March 1856 was signed the Treaty of Paris, the Crimean War ended. The new head of the Foreign Ministry, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, in a program circular from 21 of August, announced new priorities for Russian diplomacy: Russia refused to defend the principles of the Holy Alliance and went on to “concentrate forces”. However, in the Far East, Russia intended to pursue a more active foreign policy that would take into account its own national interests. The idea of the former Minister of Commerce (1804-1810) and Foreign Affairs (1807-1814) N.P. Rumyantsev on the transformation of the Russian Empire into a trade bridge between Europe and Asia.
In 1857, envoy Count Evfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin was sent to the Qing Empire. He had the task to solve two basic questions: the borders and the distribution of the status of the most favored nation to Russia. After a series of approvals, the Russian government of Russia agreed to hold talks in the largest Chinese settlement in the Amur - Aigun.
In December, 1857 in Lifanyuan was informed that Nikolai Muraviev was appointed as the plenipotentiary of Russia. At the beginning of May 1858, the military governor of Heilongjiang and Shan province left for talks with him. At the first meeting, the Russian delegation handed over to the Chinese side the text of the draft treaty. In it, the article 1 provided for the establishment of borders along the Amur River so that the left bank to the mouth belonged to Russia, and the right bank to the river. Ussuri - to China, then on r. Ussuri to its origins, and from them to the Korean Peninsula. In accordance with article 3, the subjects of the Qing dynasty during 3 years were to relocate to the right bank of the Amur. In the process of subsequent negotiations, the Chinese achieved co-ownership status for the Ussuri region and Russia's permission to live forever with extraterritorial status for several thousand of its subjects, who remained in the transferred territories east of the estuary. Zeya 16 May 1858 was signed by the Treaty of Aigun, which consolidated the legal outcome of the negotiations. Article 1 Aigun Treaty established that the left bank of the river. Cupid, ranging from p. Argun to the sea mouth of the Amur, will be the possession of Russia, and the right bank, counting downstream, to the river. Ussuri, possession of the Qing state. Lands from the Ussuri River and to the sea, before determining the border between the two countries in these places, will be in the common possession of China and Russia. In the Chinese documents, the concepts of "left bank" and "right bank" were absent, which is why in the later published comments I had to clarify the content of this paragraph.
However, shortly after its signing, the 16 contract of May was threatened with unilateral cancellation. The Chinese emperor ratified it, but the opponents of Russia's territorial concessions only strengthened the criticism of the treaty. They believed that Y Shan had violated the emperor's decree on the “strict observance” of the Nerchinsky Treaty. In addition, Yi Shan, having agreed to the inclusion in the treaty text of a joint ownership clause in the Ussuriysk Territory, exceeded its authority, since this region was administratively part of the province of Jilin. As a result of their activities, the clause on the position of the Ussuri region was disavowed, but for a short time.
The solution of the problem of ownership of the Ussuri region by Russia was entrusted to the special envoy Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev. During this period, China was defeated by England, France and the United States in the second opium war of 1856-1860, there was a fierce peasant war in the country (Taiping uprising of 1850 — 1864). The Qing court fled from the capital of the country, and Prince Gong was left to negotiate with the winners. He applied for mediation to the representative of Russia. Skillfully playing on the contradictions between the British, French and Americans in China, as well as on the fear of the Qing dynasty, Nikolai Ignatiev achieved a truce and refusal of the command of the British-French Expeditionary Force from the storming of the Chinese capital. Considering the services rendered by the Russian envoy in resolving the war with the Europeans, the Qins agreed to meet the demands for the full transfer of the Russian Empire to the Ussuri region. November 2 The 1860 of the Year was signed by the Beijing Treaty. He established the final border between China and Russia in the Amur region, Primorye and to the west of Mongolia.
The Treaty of Tianjin affirmed the right of St. Petersburg to send envoys to Beijing and suggested the opening of a number of Chinese ports for Russian ships. Land trade was allowed without any restrictions regarding the number of merchants participating in it, the quantity of goods brought in and the capital used.
The Russian side received the right to appoint consuls to ports open to Russia. Russian nationals, along with nationals of other states, gained the right of consular jurisdiction and extraterritoriality in the Chinese state. The Russian Empire also received the right to maintain the Russian spiritual mission in the Chinese capital.
Regarding the border between the two countries, it was decided that a study would be conducted at the border by proxies from both governments, and their data would constitute an additional article to the Tianjin Treaty. Negotiations of the two countries on territorial delimitation concluded in 1860 with the signing of the Beijing Treaty.
Evfimy (Efim) Vasilyevich Putyatin.
Background of the agreement
The expansion of Western European countries, the prologue of which was their access to the world ocean at the end of the 15th century, the beginning of the so-called Epochs of great geographical discoveries, was not the only one on the planet. The largest territorial acquisitions were also made by Russia and China. For the Russians, land acquisition became the basis of foreign policy under the sovereign Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible. In a fairly tight historical time frame, Russian influence spread over vast territories that were located thousands of kilometers from the center of the state. The Russian state included the lands of Kazan, Astrakhan, Siberian Khanate, the Nogai Horde. At the end of the 16th century, vast territories of Western Siberia were annexed. In the 1630s, the Russians settled in the Lena River basin and continued to move in adjacent territories. Founded in 1632, the Yakut jail became the center of further movement, hence the batches of Russian explorers went to the Arctic Ocean, to the Kamchatka Peninsula, to the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and to the Amur region.
The change of dynasties in China in the middle of the 17 century (the establishment of the power of the Manchu Qing dynasty) also contributed to an increase in military activity around the perimeter of the land borders. At the end of the 17th century, Russian settlers were driven out of the Amur Region, the Manchus subjugated Mongolia, and Tibet was annexed in 1728. In the middle of the 18 century, Dzungaria and Kashgaria passed into the possession of the Qing Dynasty. Thus, Russia and China came into direct contact.
The first clash of Russians and Chinese occurred in the second half of the 17 century in the Amur River basin. For the Manchus, the arrival of the Russians in a region that bordered on their domain was extremely unpleasant. Because of the war in Southern China, they didn’t have significant forces for the expansion and development of Dauria, so they tried to create as much as possible a powerful buffer of semi-dependent nations. In the second half of the 17th century, measures were taken in northern Manchuria to strengthen the region’s controllability. In 1662, the position of Jiangjun (military governor) of Ningut Province was established, and in 1683, Heilongjiang-cheng (Sakhalyan-Ula-Hotton), the center of the province of the same name, was founded on the left bank of the Amur River.
The conflict of strategic interests of the two powers in the Amur region led in the 1680-ies to a local war and the diplomatic victory of the Qing power. In June, 1685, the Manchu troops captured the center of the Russian Amur Region - Albazin. Despite the rapid restoration of the fortress, after the withdrawal of the Manchu troops and the successful resistance of the Russian fortress during the second siege of 1686-1687, Russia was forced to cede. The representative of Moscow, Fyodor Golovin, yielding to the military and diplomatic pressure of the Qing empire, 27 August 1689 signed the Nerchinsky Treaty, which liquidated the Russian presence in the Amur region.
Territorial delimitation in Northern Mongolia has become more advantageous for the Russian state. The Burinsky and Kyakhtinsky agreements 1727 of the year established the border from the hill of Abagayta in the east to the Shabin-Dabaga pass in the system of the Sayan Mountains in the west. Although the Russian side had to give up some of its claims during negotiations with Tsina, but the ceded lands were not mastered by the Russian settlers. This border was quite viable, it, with the exception of one site (Tuva), has existed to the present.
Unlike the Amur Region and Siberia, the demarcation of zones of Russian and Chinese strategic interests in Central Asia by the middle of the 19th century was not formalized in the form of agreements. This situation is explained by the later penetration of two powers into this region, as well as by the presence of quite strong local government entities in Central Asia. After the establishment of the province of Iliyujianism in 1762, the Chinese authorities began to persistently try to turn the territory of Kazakhstan into a buffer zone between their territory and the Russian possessions. However, by the beginning of the 19th century, the khans of the Kazakh zhuzes showed increasing interest and desire to go under the protection of the “white king”. The Qing embassy in the Russian empire 1731 of the year made a direct promise to take Russian interests into account when dividing the territorial heritage of the Dzungarian Khanate. Later, the establishment of the Russian administrative system in the Semirechye region and the intensification of the contradictions between China and Kokand forced the Xinjiang authorities to agree to maintain the status quo here.
At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Russian Empire became the most powerful military power in Europe and gained relative stability on the western frontiers. This geopolitical position allowed St. Petersburg to seriously think about revising the agreements that caused damage to political and economic interests and the prestige of a great power. The loss of the Amur River, the only transport artery that could connect the metropolis with the Pacific possessions, caused great irritation both in Petersburg and in the center of Eastern Siberia — Irkutsk. Until the middle of the 19 century, St. Petersburg made several attempts to resolve this issue through diplomatic negotiations with the Chinese side. It should be noted that similar attempts were made earlier. For example, even during the stay of the Russian embassy in Beijing in 1757, the head of the mission VF Bratishchev handed over to the Lifanyuan (the Chamber of Dependent Territories - this department, which was responsible for the relations of the Chinese state with its western neighbors) the letter of the Senate, it contained a request from St. Petersburg to allow the passage of food for the Far Eastern possessions of Russia. The mission of Count Yu.A. received the same instructions in 1805. Golovkina, who, due to protocol obstacles, was never able to get to Beijing.
Later in St. Petersburg there was a slight drop in interest in the development of Cupid. This was due to the position of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was led by Karl Nesselrode (headed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1816 - 1856). Nesselrode was a supporter of Russia's full orientation towards European politics. He believed that the active Eastern policy of Russia could lead to a rupture of relations with China, irritation of the European powers, especially England. Therefore, Tsar Nicholas I himself was forced to push through the decision on the equipment and dispatch of the expedition consisting of the Menelaus corvette and one transport. The expeditionary detachment had to go from China to Japan and Japan from the Black Sea under the command of Putyatin to establish trade relations with these countries and to explore the estuary and the mouth of the Amur River, which was considered inaccessible from the sea. But since the expedition needed 250 thousand rubles to equip this important expedition for the Russian Empire, the Ministry of Finance spoke in support of Foreign Minister Count Nesselrode, and Putyatin’s expedition was canceled. Instead of the Putyatin expedition, with great caution and with a secret instruction to the mouth of the Amur, the brig "Konstantin" was sent under the command of Lieutenant Gavrilov. Lieutenant Gavrilov clearly stated in his report that in the conditions in which he was put, his expedition could not fulfill the task set. However, Foreign Minister Carl Nesselrode reported to the emperor that His Majesty’s order was executed exactly, that research by Lieutenant Gavrilov proved once again that Sakhalin is a peninsula, the Amur River is inaccessible from the sea. Therefore, it was concluded that Cupid does not matter for the Russian Empire. After that, the Special Committee, headed by Count Nesselrode and with the participation of the War Minister Count Chernyshev, Quartermaster General Berg and others, decided to recognize the Amur River basin belonging to China and forever renounce any claims to it.
Only the “arbitrariness” of Gennady Ivanovich Nevelsky corrected the situation. Having been appointed to the Far East and enlisted the support of the Governor of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Nikolayevich Muravyov (this statesman played a prominent role in the development of the eastern territories of the empire), and the Chief of the Naval Chief of Staff Menshikov, G. Nevelskoy, without the Highest Permit, decided to go on an expedition. On the transport ship "Baikal" in the summer of Nevelskoy, 1849 reached the mouth of the Amur River in the summer and discovered a strait between the mainland and Sakhalin Island. In 1850, Nevelska, was again sent to the Far East. Moreover, he received an order “not to touch the mouth of the Amur”. However, caring not so much about geographical discoveries, as about the interests of the Nevelsk Motherland, contrary to the prescription, he founded the Nicholas Post (the modern city of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur) at the mouth of the Amur, raising the Russian flag there and declaring the sovereignty of the Russian Empire over these lands.
The vigorous actions of the Nevelskoy expedition caused discontent and irritation in part of the government circles of Russia. The Special Committee considered his deed to be daring, which should be punished by being demoted to sailors, which was reported to Russian Emperor Nicholas I. However, after hearing the report by Nikolai Muravyov, the emperor called the deed of Nevelsky “youthful, noble and patriotic”, and even awarded the captain Vladimir’s Order 4 degree. Nikolai imposed the famous resolution on the report of the Special Committee: “Where the Russian flag is raised, it should not descend.” Amur expedition was of great importance. She proved that navigation along the Amur River is possible up to the exit to the Amursky Liman, as well as the possibility of ships leaving the estuary both to the north and to the south. It was proved that Sakhalin is an island and that from the mouth of the Amur River, as well as from the eastern part of the Sea of Okhotsk, you can directly enter the Sea of Japan without skirting Sakhalin. The absence of a Chinese presence on the Amur was proved.
In February 1851, a message was sent to Lifanyuan that probed the position of China on the naval defense of the Amur estuary from the British by Russian forces. fleet. The actions of the Russian Empire formally assumed not an anti-Chinese, but an anti-British character. St. Petersburg foresaw a clash with European powers and feared attacks from Britain in the Far East. In addition, the desire to play in Beijing’s anti-British mood was also present in this action. China was defeated in the first Opium War of 1840-1842. and was humiliated by the terms of the Nanjing Treaty of August 29, 1842. However, at the beginning of 1850 the emperor died in China, this led to an outbreak of struggle between supporters of hard and soft lines against the European powers. The appeal of St. Petersburg was never considered.
It should be noted that in the Russian Empire long before the middle of the XIX century. there were opinions that allowed a one-sided and even a forceful solution to the problem of Amur. So, back in 1814, diplomat Ya.O. Lambert said that the Chinese would never allow the Russians to swim across the Amur, if they were not forced to do so. But, the real awakening of interest in the problem of the Amur region in the middle of the XIX century. First of all, it is connected with the name of Nikolay Nikolayevich Muravyev, appointed in 1847 for the post of Governor General of Eastern Siberia. He was a supporter of strengthening the influence of the Russian Empire in the Far East. In his letters, the Governor-General indicated that: "The one who owns the left bank and the mouth of the Amur owns Siberia." According to Muravyov, several directions should have become the guarantee of the success of the process of strengthening Russia's position in the Far East. First, it was necessary to strengthen the Russian military power in the region. For this, the Trans-Baikal Cossack army was created and measures were planned to strengthen the defense of Petropavlovsk. Secondly, it was an active migration policy. It was due not only to geopolitical reasons (it was necessary to populate vast areas with Russian people to consolidate them), but also a demographic explosion in the central provinces of the empire. Overcrowding in the central provinces, with low yields and depletion of land, could lead to a social explosion.
Monument to Count Muravyov-Amursky in Khabarovsk.
Nikolay Muravyev, having received the results of the expeditions of A.F. Middendorf, N.Kh. Akhte and G.I. Nevelsky, decided to hold a series of rafting Russian ships on the Amur in order to resettle the Cossacks in unoccupied places on the left bank. The military-strategic need for such alloys and the development of the Amur, became particularly clear after the start of the Crimean War in October 1853. This war clearly showed the danger to the unprotected Pacific frontiers of the Russian Empire. 14 April 1854, Governor-General Muravyov, sent a letter to Beijing warning the Chinese about the upcoming rafting and raised the question of the need for Chinese representatives to arrive in place for negotiations. The absence of an official response from Beijing, as well as the events of August 1854 of the year in Petropavlovsk, where only the heroism of the local garrison saved the fortress from being defeated by the British, prompted the governor-general of Eastern Siberia to take more active steps.
In the 1855 year, during the second rafting, Russian immigrants founded the settlements of Irkutsk, Mikhailovskoye, Novo-Mikhailovskoye, Bogorodskoye, Sergeevskoye, the village of Suchi opposite the Mariinsky Lent on the left bank of the Amur River. On the initiative of Nikolai Muravyev, 28 of October 1856, Emperor Alexander II approved the project of building a military line along the left bank of the Amur River. As a result, on the question of joining the Amur region to the mid-1850-ies. The point of view of statesmen such as Muravyov finally won out, and Russian diplomats now had to register a change of position in the region. China at that time experienced a decline, experienced a severe internal crisis, became a victim of the expansion of the Western powers. The Qing Dynasty could not by force hold the territories, which in Beijing were considered to be their own.
In June, 1855, the emperor ordered Muravyov to begin negotiations with the Chinese on the establishment of the Russian-Chinese border line. On September 15, in the Mariinsky Post, where the governor-general of Eastern Siberia was at that time, the Qing delegation arrived. At the first meeting, the representative of Russia orally motivated the desirability of changing the border of the two countries with the needs of organizing a more effective defense of the region against the naval forces of the Western powers. The Amur River was named the most indisputable and natural border between Russia and China. The Chinese side asked to provide them with a written statement of the proposals of Nikolai Muravyov for transfer to the capital. The Qing empire was in a difficult position and risked getting a unilateral denunciation of the St. Petersburg Nerchinsky Agreement. The Chinese, in order to save face and justify the cession of land, came up with a formula for transferring territory from grace in order to support the Russian Empire, which needed to improve the supply routes of its Pacific possessions. In addition, another real motive of this act was given by the head of Beijing diplomacy, Prince Gong. He believed that the main tactical task in the middle of the XIX century. - This is the destruction of internal rebels.
30 March 1856 was signed the Treaty of Paris, the Crimean War ended. The new head of the Foreign Ministry, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov, in a program circular from 21 of August, announced new priorities for Russian diplomacy: Russia refused to defend the principles of the Holy Alliance and went on to “concentrate forces”. However, in the Far East, Russia intended to pursue a more active foreign policy that would take into account its own national interests. The idea of the former Minister of Commerce (1804-1810) and Foreign Affairs (1807-1814) N.P. Rumyantsev on the transformation of the Russian Empire into a trade bridge between Europe and Asia.
In 1857, envoy Count Evfimy Vasilyevich Putyatin was sent to the Qing Empire. He had the task to solve two basic questions: the borders and the distribution of the status of the most favored nation to Russia. After a series of approvals, the Russian government of Russia agreed to hold talks in the largest Chinese settlement in the Amur - Aigun.
In December, 1857 in Lifanyuan was informed that Nikolai Muraviev was appointed as the plenipotentiary of Russia. At the beginning of May 1858, the military governor of Heilongjiang and Shan province left for talks with him. At the first meeting, the Russian delegation handed over to the Chinese side the text of the draft treaty. In it, the article 1 provided for the establishment of borders along the Amur River so that the left bank to the mouth belonged to Russia, and the right bank to the river. Ussuri - to China, then on r. Ussuri to its origins, and from them to the Korean Peninsula. In accordance with article 3, the subjects of the Qing dynasty during 3 years were to relocate to the right bank of the Amur. In the process of subsequent negotiations, the Chinese achieved co-ownership status for the Ussuri region and Russia's permission to live forever with extraterritorial status for several thousand of its subjects, who remained in the transferred territories east of the estuary. Zeya 16 May 1858 was signed by the Treaty of Aigun, which consolidated the legal outcome of the negotiations. Article 1 Aigun Treaty established that the left bank of the river. Cupid, ranging from p. Argun to the sea mouth of the Amur, will be the possession of Russia, and the right bank, counting downstream, to the river. Ussuri, possession of the Qing state. Lands from the Ussuri River and to the sea, before determining the border between the two countries in these places, will be in the common possession of China and Russia. In the Chinese documents, the concepts of "left bank" and "right bank" were absent, which is why in the later published comments I had to clarify the content of this paragraph.
However, shortly after its signing, the 16 contract of May was threatened with unilateral cancellation. The Chinese emperor ratified it, but the opponents of Russia's territorial concessions only strengthened the criticism of the treaty. They believed that Y Shan had violated the emperor's decree on the “strict observance” of the Nerchinsky Treaty. In addition, Yi Shan, having agreed to the inclusion in the treaty text of a joint ownership clause in the Ussuriysk Territory, exceeded its authority, since this region was administratively part of the province of Jilin. As a result of their activities, the clause on the position of the Ussuri region was disavowed, but for a short time.
The solution of the problem of ownership of the Ussuri region by Russia was entrusted to the special envoy Nikolai Pavlovich Ignatiev. During this period, China was defeated by England, France and the United States in the second opium war of 1856-1860, there was a fierce peasant war in the country (Taiping uprising of 1850 — 1864). The Qing court fled from the capital of the country, and Prince Gong was left to negotiate with the winners. He applied for mediation to the representative of Russia. Skillfully playing on the contradictions between the British, French and Americans in China, as well as on the fear of the Qing dynasty, Nikolai Ignatiev achieved a truce and refusal of the command of the British-French Expeditionary Force from the storming of the Chinese capital. Considering the services rendered by the Russian envoy in resolving the war with the Europeans, the Qins agreed to meet the demands for the full transfer of the Russian Empire to the Ussuri region. November 2 The 1860 of the Year was signed by the Beijing Treaty. He established the final border between China and Russia in the Amur region, Primorye and to the west of Mongolia.
Information