China's five-thousand-year history is a history of multi-ethnic battles. Historically, there is also such a nation that rose up to resist and protect their homeland when China's territory was invaded on a large scale.
In the end, however, for various reasons, they were forced to become part of the invaders. People of this nation call themselves Nevkhs.
The yellow people of Sakhalin Island
Speaking of the Nevkhs, one has to mention a place called Sakhalin Island. Its current location is at the mouth of China's Heilongjiang River, with an area of about 76,400 km.
The early Nephkhs were active in sakhalin and its surroundings, and these areas, as early as the Sui and Tang dynasties, had been incorporated into The Territory of China.
In the 10th year of the new century (722), the Tang Dynasty established its rule around Sakhalin Island, where the Nevkh people lived.
The Tang Dynasty people named it after the Libu of Heishui County, and set up the Heishui Governor's Mansion here, calling them the tribes living in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River. Subordinate to youzhou Jiedushi, the rule was abolished after Tang Xianzong.
Therefore, the Nevkhs used to be a chinese people, but at that time there was no name.
During the Jin, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, these people were called "Jili Charming", which means "people who live in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River".
By the Time of the Qing Dynasty, the Manchus called them "Feyakas". The name is still in use today.
Winters on Sakhalin Island are extremely cold and crops are extremely difficult to grow, so the agricultural development of the Nevkh people is extremely slow, and they mainly live by hunting and hunting.
This primitive way of life led to their relatively short stature, but their bones were thick, their limbs were strong, their body fat rate was low, their motor nerves were extremely developed, and their fighting power was strong.
Due to the perennial cold environment, the Nivkh people need to replenish a lot of calories every day to resist the cold.
Fatty meat, seal meat, salmon and other fatty foods have naturally become their favorite.
The way of cooking is also very primitive, air-dried and frozen or simply eaten raw, so the teeth of the Nevkh people are generally very worn.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the water conservancy was greatly developed, and people could reach farther away by boat, and Sakhalin Island, a relatively remote place, was initially developed, and the government carried out preliminary jurisdiction over the Sakhalin Island area and transported many tools.
The living conditions of the Nivkhs have improved, and the Government has formulated appropriate development policies based on local conditions.
Nivkh on Sakhalin Island has a simple nature, everyone works together to obtain food, and there is no right to fight and all kinds of intrigue.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, Nurhaci unified the Jurchens, and he found that the Nevkhs had strong fighting power, so he selected some Nivkhs to accompany him in the battle. The Nevkhs also made great achievements as a result.
When the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, the Nevkh did not choose to enter the rich Central Plains. They returned to their homeland of Sakhalin Island and continued to live a primitive life away from the world.
In order to strengthen their management, the Qing government ordered them to compile household registrations in units of name and village, and set up positions such as surname chiefs and township chiefs to count the approved population.
Sakhalin Island formed a stable trade route with the inland, and the Qing government sometimes married some noble ladies to the local Nevkh people to promote relations between the area and the inland.
The Nivkhs buy salt, cloth and other daily necessities from outside. Accordingly, some furs and others will be bought and sold to inland merchants.
This mutually helpful relationship made the Nevkh people have great trust in the Qing government at that time.
The northeast pass belongs to the bitter cold land. However, the birthplace of the Manchu Qing was in the northeast, and they regarded the northeast as the land of Longxing, and in order to prevent others from destroying the "dragon vein", they forbade the people inside the Guan to enter the outside of the Guan.
Due to the large area of the northeast region, the small import population, coupled with the restrictions of the government, the population of the northeast region became more and more sparse, which also laid hidden dangers for the later Russian invasion of the northeast.
War, the ownership of Sakhalin Island
Under the diligent governance of the three emperors of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, the Qing government experienced about one hundred and thirty-four years of Kangqian's prosperity.
But born in sorrow, died in comfort. Prosperity and decline seemed to be a constant curse, and the national fortunes of the Qing government began to decline. Sakhalin Island, which is located on the edge, has also been affected.
Corruption within the Qing government became increasingly serious, and the national strength was also declining, and prosperity was no longer prosperous.
Overseas countries had long been eyeing China, and when they found that there was an opportunity to take advantage of it, they brazenly launched a war, and in June 1840, the Opium War broke out, and the Qing government's national gate was torn apart in this war.
When the door of the country was opened by violence and the government tried to resist, it found that manpower and force were no longer the same. Those countries that have coveted China for a long time will not miss this opportunity and begin to encroach on China.
Russia, China's "good neighbor", will certainly not miss this opportunity to share a piece of the pie. In the northeast of China, small movements are constant.
Because of the policies of the early Qing government, the northeast region was sparsely populated and could hardly resist Russian armed forces.
The Qing government was struggling to cope with the aggression of the Anglo-French coalition forces, and had no time to take care of the northeast, so it could only blindly make concessions.
In fact, during the Kangxi Dynasty, the Russians had a lot of ideas about the Sakhalin Island region, and they sent Cossack cavalry to invade Sakhalin Island.
The Cossack cavalry was well armed and strong.
But the heroic Nevkhs did not give in, and while they resisted, they asked the Qing government for help, and finally miraculously defended Sakhalin Island.
However, with the signing of the Treaty of Yaohun and the Treaty of Beijing, Sakhalin Eventually left the Qing government and came under Russian jurisdiction.
At the beginning of the agreement, the Nevkhs on Sakhalin Island still did not submit to Russian jurisdiction, and they began to spontaneously resist Russian rule.
Because of their primitive life, the weapons used by the Nivkhs for war were only rudimentary knives and forks and bows and arrows, and although they themselves were extremely physically qualified and strong in combat, they were almost crushed in the face of the heavily armed Russian army.
The young elite of the Nevkhs were almost wiped out in this revolt.
Russia holds the administration of Sakhalin Island.
Between 1857 and 1906, the Russians established colonies on Sakhalin Island, mainly for criminals and political exiles.
The local Nevkhs resisted by protesting or armed uprisings, but were eventually ruthlessly suppressed.
The number of immigrants soon surpassed that of the Nevkhs and became the main population of the island.
The influx of a large number of immigrants has also brought epidemics of diseases such as smallpox and plague, and the survival of the Nivkh people has been seriously threatened.
They complained to the Russian rulers, did not get any response, and in the eyes of the Russian rulers they were only a sub-class nation.
During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, although the life of the Nevkh people could not be said to be rich and noble, they also had no worries about food and clothing.
The Russian invasion, they were almost as a prisoner of the order.
For a long time after being colonized, the Nevkhs still maintained the habit of paying tribute to the Qing government, trying to get the Qing government to pull them out of the sea of suffering, but they did not know that the Qing government had long been unable to protect itself.
On the eve of the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the Nevkhs did not give up, and they contacted the Qing government officials who passed by here and expressed their desire to return to China:
Since the Luocha (Russia) came, I wanted to cut off my hair and be obedient, but I was really reluctant, and the women were even more jealous, but I hoped that the big countries would drive the Luocha back to The Country hundreds of years ago.
In the end, to no avail, this time Sakhalin Island left China's embrace permanently.
In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out in order to compete for the right to rule the three eastern provinces of China. The defeat at the Battle of Tsushima basically declared Russia's defeat in this war.
The Subsequent Peace of Portsmouth was signed, marking the separate rule of Sakhalin Island by Japan and Russia.
Subsequently, japan and Russia had numerous disputes over the ownership of Sakhalin Island, and then the Chinese authorities maintained a neutral attitude.
After Japan's unconditional surrender in 1945, Sakhalin Island came under complete Soviet rule.
Existential crisis, assimilation
As early as 1880, Japanese fishing companies have been licensed to fish in the waters and rivers around Sakhalin Island.
Industrial fishing has upset the ecological balance of fish in the Sakhalin Valley, and the Nevkhs have repeatedly fallen into food famine.
Their way of living had to be changed, introducing some Russian-style food to alleviate the existential crisis. Russian food has since taken its place in the Nevkh recipes.
The change in food culture is only the first step in the assimilation of the Nevkh people.
World War I accelerated the growth and maturity of the Russian Revolution, and in March 1917, the February Revolution broke out in the Russian Empire, the Tsar stepped down, and the Russian Empire disintegrated. After several years of constant war, by 1922, the Soviet Union was founded.
In order to better manage the Nivkhs, the Soviet Union established the Nivkh Autonomous Region in the Sakhalin Island region to guarantee the fishing rights of the local people, which was not abolished until around 1960.
Although the fishing rights of the Nevkhs were initially guaranteed, the ensuing obligations were almost devastating to them.
Since the free record, the Nevkh people have made a living from fishing, and this way of life has lasted for more than a thousand years.
Because during Japanese rule, the population of fish around Sakhalin Island rapidly decreased, and although the government gave them fishing rights, there were no fish to catch in the water.
The early economic policy of the Soviet Union was centered on agriculture, and the Nivkhs were also required to work in agriculture on various farms.
But the Nevkhs, who have been fishing and hunting for generations, believe that arable land is sinful and destructive to nature, and they are reluctant to engage in this labor. Although Sakhalin Island's cold climate is not suitable for crop growth.
The Soviet government had to recruit a large number of laborers from within the country to work on Sakhalin Island, while the Nevkhs, who did not want to engage in agricultural work, were also classified as inferior.
Subsequently, in order to accelerate the "Russification" of the Nevkhs, the Nevkh language was banned in public places such as schools and hospitals.
Russian was also added as a course to the Nivkh teaching materials. The Soviet authorities also used Sakhalin Island as a model for the transition from primitive to socialist society in order to speed up the progress of assimilation.
In the long colonial career, the nivkhs have long been exhausted, and they have only a recalcitrant attitude towards everything, and they have no resistance to this cultural invasion.
A large number of folk tales about the Nevkhs have been forgotten, and their beliefs, religions, etc., have gradually been covered up by history.
Status of the Nivkhs
On January 2, 1947, the Soviet Union combined Sakhalin Island and the surrounding Kuril Islands to form Sakhalin Oblast.
Since then, Sakhalin Oblast has become the new home of the Nevkhs, and in the later period, officials in Sakhalin Oblast, in order to restrict the fishing activities of the Nevkhs, have adopted heavy taxes and other methods, and the fishermen have paid much more taxes than crops.
Under such a strong pressure system, in order to survive, the Nivkhs also began to gradually rely on the collective economy, and their eating habits were more inclined to the Russian style.
In 1962, the Soviet government replanned the Nivkh settlements by merging smallErif villages into several large settlements.
A 1979 census showed that the total population of the Nevkhs active in Sakhalin Oblast was about 4,400.
By 1986, the number of Nevkh villages in Sakhalin Oblast had been reduced from 82 to 13. The gathering of the crowd did not increase the population of the Nevkhs too much.
By 1991, the Soviet Union had collapsed, and the survival of the Nevkhs was once again affected.
They had long been accustomed to a collective economy, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the state-funded collective farm system was completely abolished, and the Nevkhs once again faced serious existential challenges.
Primitive fishing and hunting techniques have long been forgotten, and the current environment has long been unsuitable for this way.
Due to sakhalin island's abundant oil reserves, in the early 21st century, the northern part of Sakhalin island was developed by some large enterprises in the west, and the Nevkh settlements in the area were partially destroyed, and residents had to find a new place to live.
Today, more than 80 percent of Sakhalin's roughly 500,000 population is former Russians, as well as as 100 ethnic groups, including Koreans and Ukrainians, and the Nevkhs have become one percent of this race.
The absolute large population race that was once Sakhalin Island has fallen into such a situation, which makes people feel a lot of emotions. A beautiful and kind nation, because of the infinite desires of human beings, has been encroached upon by the homeland, and it is almost about to dissipate in the long river of history.
They also strengthened themselves and fought for their destiny. But relying on others, pinning one's fate on others, coupled with the ever-changing historical pattern, has finally become the current situation.
If one day, when you go to Sakhalin Island, you come across a person who looks like a Chinese, but speaks fluent Russian, he may be a Nevkh. If yes, please show him your kindness, because hundreds of years ago, they were also our family, and their ancestors also shed their blood for the country.