Recently, a Russian speaker came to visit us, and during the speech, he spoke very quickly and did not leave time for the translator to translate. It is estimated that the translators are confused: Boss, why should you go back to your home?
As a result, the Russian speaker said frankly: I'm sorry, I came to China as if I was going home, so I didn't leave time for the translators, and I thought everyone could understand Russian.
It's worth playing, but how is coming to China like coming home? Could it be that he used to be in China and has feelings for it? However, the mention of Russian is reminiscent of some past events in which Chinese learned Russian.
The first places in China to establish state-run Russian language schools should be in Xinjiang and Northeast China
Russia and China have dealt with each other too many times in modern times. The main thing is that we are being pressed to the ground by them to deal with, and it doesn't feel very good, after all, we will be cut if we have nothing to do, who can bear it.
The earliest in modern times was in 1847, when Tsarist Russia had continuously sent people to cross the Outer Khingan Mountains and illegally enter the Outer Khingan Mountains on the mainland. In 1858, Tsarist Russia passed the Treaty of Aihui, taking away more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang.
Since this time, China has been involved in an ambiguous relationship with Russia in modern times. Since then, there have been too many unequal treaties signed with Tsarist Russia, and naturally the requirements for Russian-speaking talents have increased.
In the 1860 Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing, Tsarist Russia ceded more than 1 million square kilometers of land in the Outer Northeast. In 1864, Tsarist Russia cut off 440,000 square kilometers of the outer northwest through the "Sino-Russian Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary". In 1881, the two sides signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, and Tsarist Russia once again ceded more than 70,000 square kilometers of land in the northwest.
Among these unequal treaties, there were also a large number of sub-treaties, and if the Qing Dynasty did not have professionals who knew Russian, it would be difficult to do this job, and it was very likely that it would be played by the Russians. After all, in the corner of the treaty, the Russians usually leave a small line: If there is a disagreement, the final interpretation belongs to Russia.
In order to prevent the signing of a large number of treaties in the future, the Qing Dynasty successively opened a number of Russian language schools in Xinjiang and Northeast China, intending to systematically train a group of Russian language professionals.
In 1887, three years after the signing of the Sino-Russian Treaty on the Continued Exploration of the Kashgar Boundary, Xinjiang expressed great pressure. Why? Because after the signing of the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty, there were already Russian consuls in Ili, Kashgar, Tacheng, Turpan and other places in Xinjiang, and Russian consuls in Suzhou, Kulun and other places were added in the entire northwest.
In addition, the duty-free zones for Russians to do business in Xinjiang have also been extended to Ili, Tacheng, Kashgar, Urumqi and other places north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.
As a result, a large number of Tsarist Russian officials and non-governmental businessmen poured into Xinjiang. If you don't have enough Russian-speaking talent, you won't be able to cope with it. For this reason, Liu Xiangqin, the governor of Xinjiang, specially applied to the Qing court to set up the Xinjiang Russian Museum in 1887 according to the model of the Jingshi Tongwen Museum, which was specially used to train Russian language talents. After 1908, it was renamed the Sino-Russian Specialized School.
The situation is slightly different on the northeast side.
In 1884, Wu Dashi led people to the northeastern Jilin border to investigate, and found that the Russians had illegally advanced on the basis of the boundaries demarcated by the treaty, and seized a large area of mainland territory.
For this reason, Wu Dashi fought with the Russians on the basis of reason, and came up with a little comparison of the treaty, and finally recovered a lot of territory for the Qing Dynasty. At this time, the Northeast also realized the importance of Russian talents, so in 1887, the Jilin general Xi Yuan specially applied to the Qing court, and also established the Hunchun Russian Academy in Hunchun in accordance with the model of the Jingshi Tongwenguan, which was responsible for cultivating Russian translators in the Northeast. Later, after the scale was expanded, the academy was moved to Jilin City in 1897.
These two academies are relatively early government schools specializing in the study of the Russian language. As for the Jingshi Tongwen Museum that I have just mentioned, it was a foreign language learning school personally run by Prince Gong Yitong, the leader of the Westernization faction, in 1861, which seems to mark the beginning of the Westernization movement in modern China. In 1863, the Russian Language Pavilion was established in the Tongwen Building.
In the fifties of the last century, Russian became a popular language
After the end of the Sino-Japanese War in 1895, the Qing Dynasty and Tsarist Russia entered a honeymoon period. Why? Because Japan had been asking the Qing court to cede the Liaodong Peninsula at that time, and Tsarist Russia, together with Germany and France, helped the Qing court redeem the Liaodong Peninsula with 30 million taels of silver.
From then on, a group of high-level leaders headed by Li Zhongtang completely turned to Tsarist Russia and became a pro-Russian faction in the DPRK. These people regarded Tsarist Russia as their biggest backer, and it seemed that only Tsarist Russia could help the Qing Dynasty deal with Japan.
From 1858 to 1881, Tsarist Russia ceded 1.51 million square kilometers of land from the Qing Dynasty, and it has only been more than ten years, and they have forgotten it. It's not forgetting, it should be selective amnesia.
What they didn't expect was that Tsarist Russia's plan to encroach on the Qing Dynasty was also progressing step by step. You treat him as an ally, desperately trying to get up, he treats you as a leek, and tries hard to find a way.
Beginning in 1896, Tsarist Russia demanded the construction of railways in the Northeast, and at the same time as the construction of the railways, Tsarist Russia also began to relocate a series of civilian institutions and buildings to the Northeast. For example, Russian language schools, Russian churches, Russian banks, etc.
Russian language schools, in particular, have led to a general environment for learning Russian at once. After all, the engineers and road guards who built the railway, including some logistics personnel and business personnel, were all Russians. If the Chinese want to deal with them, they have to learn Russian.
By 1900, Tsarist Russia had eaten the entire Northeast. At this time, there are even more Russian-language schools in the Northeast. However, with the defeat of Tsarist Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, the trend of learning Russian in the Northeast suddenly dissipated. After all, the Russian army retreated, and their influence in the northeast was far less than in the past.
For the next 40 years, the atmosphere of learning Russian in China has been very ordinary, after all, Tsarist Russia, including the Soviet Union, had a very general influence on us at that time.
It was not until after 1949 that China and the Soviet Union entered the honeymoon period, and once again set off a wave of learning Russian.
From 1949 to 1951, 12 specialized schools for the study of the Russian language were established on the mainland, with more than 5,000 students enrolled. In addition, more than 50 universities across the country have established Russian language schools.
Due to the influence of the Soviet Union, all secondary schools in Northeast China at that time basically offered Russian language classes. At that time, Russian was not a small language in the land of China, and whoever learned Russian represented glory. On the contrary, English, which is learned everywhere today, was an unpopular language in those days, and it was not taken seriously at all.
Since the sixties of the last century, the Russian language has gradually become a chicken rib
Beginning in 1960, the Sino-Soviet honeymoon period ended, and the craze for learning Russian had not yet subsided. After all, everything needs time to settle slowly.
For example, in 1964, about 67% of the total number of secondary school students learning foreign languages was Russian. About 46% of foreign language majors are studying Russian at universities, while only 54% of students from all other foreign Chinese are studying Russian. It can be said that the Russian language still occupied half of the foreign language learning in China at that time.
After 1966, the situation changed dramatically, and in the past, learning Russian was an honor, but with the gradual deterioration of relations between China and the Soviet Union, learning Russian became a mistake, and many people were treated unfairly during this period.
As a result, a large number of Russian-speaking talents, both teachers and students, began to change careers. There was a disconnect in the number of Russian-speaking talents, and by 1971 there were less than 1,000 people learning Russian in the country.
After 1979, foreign language education was revived, but the days of the Russian language were gone. With the development of globalization, English has become an indispensable subject in secondary school and university classrooms. And Russian, on the other hand, has been lukewarm for decades since, not much different from other minor languages.
Will there be a resurgence of the Russian language?
In the new era, with the deepening of cooperation, will the Russian language once again dominate our list? Will it replace English as a compulsory subject in universities and middle schools again? I don't think it's possible. Of course, there may be an increase in trade, so there will be some training institutions for learning Russian.
In the past, there was a craze for the Russian language because we were in ruins, lagging behind the Soviet Union in all aspects, and we needed to learn a lot from the Soviet Union. After 1960, the Russian language fever slowly cooled down after they refused to teach and all aid experts were withdrawn.
And now we are far superior to our northern neighbors in every way, and we really don't know what to learn from them, why do we have to learn Russian all over the world? This is not determined by the quality of the relationship, but by the relationship between supply and demand, you really have nothing worth learning from me, then I still have to learn a ball. Do you agree with that? Welcome to discuss.