Home – Home – Jornals – Humanitarian sciences in Siberia 2020 number

The paper provides an overview of key works of English- and German-language researchers who wrote about the territorial acquisitions of Russia in the Far East in the 1850s; evaluates their contribution to the study of the topic. It is established that in the second half of the XIX - early XX century Western scholars analyzed the issues of Russia’s expansion in the Far East in the context of international (above all, Russo-British) rivalry (E.G. von Ravestein, A. Krausse, C. von Zepelin). In the XX century historians-emigres significantly contributed to the study of Russian-language materials associated with the topic. In their works Western researchers used theories and concepts of «Russian eastward expansion» (F.A. Golder, R.J. Kerner, T. Lin); «colonization» and «colonialism» (Yu.N. Semyonov, J.Stephan, J.Gibson); methods of «new cultural history» (M. Bassin, C. Weiss). Diplomatic aspects of the history of Russia’s expansion to the Amur region were studied by P. Tompkins, R. Quested, S. Paine; military aspects - by J. Stephan, J. Grainger, A. Rath. Investigating the reasons for which Russia entered the Amur region, historians noted the empire’s constant urge to the sea (A. Krausse, T. Lin); wrote about dominant political reasons related to the imperial expansion (E.G. Ravenstein, D. Dallin, S. Paine etc.), the necessity of expanding the merchant ties (F.A. Golder, R.J. Kerner, T. Lin, M. Mancall, H. Salisbury, J. Gibson). Military and strategic reasons were described by E.G. Ravenstein, A. Krausse, J. Stephan, J. Grainger. Historians commend the role of various participants of the “Amur venture” such as A.F. Middendorf (D. Landgraf), G.I. Nevelskoy (A.A. Lobanov-Rostovskiy), N.P. Ignatyev, A.M. Gorchakov (R. Quested), however, most researchers believe that the most significant role was played by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia, Count N.N. Muravyov-Amursky. Evaluating consequences of acquisition of the Amur and Maritime regions provided by the Treaties of Aigun and Peking, Western authors believe that such vast territorial gains eventually helped turn Russia into a Pacific power; changed the vector of its Far Eastern policy from the North-Eastern to the South-Eastern direction. However, they also made international ravalry more acute, which finally led to the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-1905.