Beginning in 1860, more than 1 million square kilometers of land in the entire Outer Northeast belonged to Tsarist Russia. There are mainly two losers who gave up this huge territory to the Russians.
One is Heilongjiang General Yishan, this guy is the great-great-grandson of Yinyu, the fourteenth son of Kangxi. Zushang was indeed a hero, and once led troops into Tibet to defeat the Dzungar Khanate, but Yishan sold more than 600,000 square kilometers of land north of Heilongjiang to Tsarist Russia.
The other is Emperor Xianfeng, although the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty" that sold more than 1 million square kilometers in the northeast was signed by Prince Gong Yitong, but his fourth brother Emperor Xianfeng did not nod, and this matter could not be done.
Today, the Far East has been occupied by Russia for more than 165 years. However, it is strange that the Far East has not only not developed well, but has become economically deteriorating and its population is getting smaller and smaller. What's going on?
The territory is large, the population is small, the investment is large, and the income is small
The Outer Northeast has more than 1 million square kilometers, which is the Russian Far East in the traditional sense, and the Far East in a broad sense has to include Yakutia, Kamchatka, Magadan, Chukotka and other places.
The Russian Far East has more than 6 million square kilometers and a population of more than 7 million, which is really vast and sparsely populated. There are more than 60 areas the size of Jiangsu Province, which can only accommodate the population of one prefecture-level city, which shows how empty this place is.
With such a large territory and such a small population, how much manpower and material resources must be invested in order to develop? The cost is immeasurable. Among other things, infrastructure is a big expense.
If Russia wants to develop the Far East well, it must invest a lot of money to build the roads first. Otherwise, even if there are countless resources in the Far East, it will be useless to dig them out and not be able to transport them.
In addition to mobilizing national power and focusing on building some national-level projects to meet the basic living needs of local people, Russia can no longer afford such heavy economic expenses and improve local infrastructure construction.
Without the necessary supporting facilities, it is difficult to attract investment. For example, if there is a coal mine somewhere, it is not difficult to mine, but if you want to transport the excavated coal to other places, you have to find a way to build a road of several hundred kilometers or even lay a railway. I didn't earn much money.
The more reluctant you are to spend money and invest, the less people want to stay there. The local population is getting smaller and smaller, and the local economy is naturally deteriorating. The economy is getting worse and worse, and young people are naturally more reluctant to stay here. It's almost a vicious circle.
This is understandable, if there is no special policy support, the same part-time job, young people in Moscow or St. Petersburg earn much more money than in the Far East, and they may do much less work, so why do people stumble in the Far East? Isn't it fragrant to go to the big city?
The Far East, which includes Siberia, is a traditional Russian penal colony
When Russia seized large swaths of the Far East in 1860, it did adopt a number of preferential immigration policies. After all, it is a stolen territory, and for the sake of stability here, they must want the local area to be filled with Russians. As long as the Russians are the majority, in the future, whether you vote or divide by population, this place has nothing to do with Russia.
For example, every family that immigrated to the Far East received 100 Russian acres of land for free and did not have to pay taxes for 20 years. The temptation was so great that many people who could not get along in the European part of Russia would go to the Far East to try their luck, and perhaps become landlords by accident.
But even so, no one was willing to go to the Far East, after all, it was too far, and there was no Trans-Siberian Railway at that time, so the whole journey could only be relied on, and if you were not careful, you would have to give your life to the cold and freezing Siberia.
In order to enrich the local population, the tsar also racked his brains, and finally simply gave up treatment and placed a large number of exiles in the Far East. Since you don't want to come, and you need Russians here, it may be the best way to do so.
From then on, the Far East, like Siberia, became one of the main areas of exile for the Russians.
During the Soviet era, the main area of exile was concentrated in Siberia. After all, the Far East is still a little better than the living conditions of most of Siberia, and it is indeed a bit wasteful to give prisoners a place to live.
In order to develop the Far East, the Soviet Union also invested a lot of money here, built many universities and laboratories here, and sprinkled a lot of subsidies here every year. However, the effect is not ideal, and a lot of money is scattered, and even a sound cannot be heard.
After all, the living conditions in the local area are far inferior to those in the European part, so the leaders of the same level can get much less extra money. For this reason, the appropriation from above, they can spend it as much as they want, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and they don't have to think about decency and assessment, and what they put in their pockets is real.
Therefore, until the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Far East was in a state of half-death and struggled to maintain it. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy was even more sluggish, and it was naturally impossible to focus on developing here.
The Far East is too far from the core of Russia to be controlled by Moscow
Although there is a Trans-Siberian Railway that connects the European part of Russia with the Far East, the Far East is still too far from the core of Russia.
If Russia spends so much money on building the Far East, it is very likely that it will not be controlled by Moscow at a certain historical point after it develops here.
This is a very real problem, and it is not that the Far East has not come out to do it alone. From 1920 to 1922, the Far Eastern Republic was also established here, independent of Soviet Russia.
There is historical experience there, and too many resources are invested, and it is very likely that it will be a meat bun beating a dog, and it will never look back. It doesn't make sense to spend that much.
After all, Russia itself is not a very rich country, and it gives Moscow and St. Petersburg so much money every year, and it is difficult to spend the same price on Vladivostok, Hailanpao, and Boli.
Moscow and St. Petersburg, after all, have been with them for hundreds of years, not to mention how relieved they are. But in those urban areas of the Far East, they have only followed themselves for more than 160 years, and they still lack a sense of trust.
The Far East is a complex region, and the problems left over from history have not really been resolved
It is said that it is the Russian Far East, but in fact it is the Outer Northeast of China. Before 1860, there was no concept of the Outer Northeast. This area was under the jurisdiction of the Heilongjiang generals and the Jilin generals respectively, and was the land of Longxing in the Qing Dynasty.
After the Qing army entered the customs in the middle of the 17th century, the area lost a large number of people. Most of the Jurchen aborigines have gone to live in the warmer places of the south, and there are really not many aborigines who remain there.
Moreover, Emperor Kangxi ordered a ban policy on the northeast of Longxing, so the people in the customs could not go outside the customs to reclaim the land. Especially after Kangxi and Tsarist Russia signed the "Treaty of Nebuchu" in 1689, it was agreed that the outer Xing'an Mountains would be the boundary, and the Qing court naturally felt more at ease in the northeast.
The borders of the North have been demarcated, and it stands to reason that the neighbors of the North will not tear up the treaty and openly invade. The people of the south can't go to the northeast and the outer northeast to reclaim wasteland, this place is really impregnable!
Over the years, the Northeast and the Outer Northeast are naturally vast and sparsely populated. But even so, this is not a reason for a blatant invasion by Tsarist Russia. This territory is ours, and how we want to develop it is our internal business, and it is not the turn of outsiders to dictate.
And both sides have a treaty first, can they just tear up the treaty?
I'm sorry, but in the eyes of Tsarist Russia, it really can. Beginning in 1847, Tsarist Russia sent a large number of expeditions to cross the Outer Khingan Mountains and go to the Outer Northeast for reconnaissance.
Their plan was that if there were a large number of Chinese living here, they would return in the name of tourism. If there is no large number of Chinese settled here, then they can build Russian settlements on a large scale.
By 1858, the Russian settlements had been built directly on the north bank of the Heilongjiang River. Heilongjiang General Yishan, under duress, signed the "Aihui Treaty", ceding more than 600,000 countries north of Heilongjiang to Tsarist Russia.
It was an illegal treaty because the magistrates were not qualified to sell their land, but the Russians considered it legitimate, and Russia still celebrates it as their great victory in the East.
In 1860, another Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing was signed, which directly ceded more than 1 million square kilometers of land in the Outer Northeast to Tsarist Russia.
This is clearly an unequal treaty of a deeply aggressive nature, and we absolutely cannot endorse it. Therefore, the problems left over from history are destined to be impossible to be cultivated by Russia here.
In addition, Japan also has a lot of ideas about the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin. They feel that there are also territorial disputes between themselves and Russia in this regard, so there are many contradictions in this place, and they can only use it as a strategic location, and as for economic development, they are not so bold.
Leaving it to China may be a win-win situation
Because the neighbor to the north has made it a strategic location, the economy is relatively backward. In this way, in line with the principle of reciprocity, it is naturally difficult for the Northeast region of China, which is close to the Russian Far East, to make any money from here.
The outlets to the sea in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces in the northeast were all blocked by this area. Foreign trade either relies on Liaoning or the Outer Northeast, and the economy of the Outer Northeast cannot catch up with the Northeast, so it has also invisibly dragged down the development of our Northeast.
From the 20s to the 30s of the last century, Northeast China was the richest place in Asia, and it was the earliest industrialized region in China, with various factories and countless technicians.
It stands to reason that the Northeast will have a good future, but the Outer Northeast is a strategic location for Russia, where a large number of nuclear weapons are deployed, and the possibility of a large amount of nuclear waste cannot even be ruled out.
Therefore, who would be willing to invest a large amount of manpower and material resources in such a place where there is a high probability of causing trouble? For example, who can rest assured that a big city of Shanghai's level is placed next to other people's strategic nuclear weapons? Who would dare to invest?
But if the polar bears keep clinging to the Outer Northeast, there is no future for this place. And with the gradual decline of the population, there will be empty cities left here. In the end, maybe it will come back.
After all, it's far from Moscow, but it's close to Beijing. This long coastline is simply a special economic zone that can be seen by the naked eye in the future. Obviously, if you leave it to China, there will be a future here. And here is given to us, polar bears don't have to worry about the safety of the East, they can concentrate resources to invest in the European part, wouldn't it be a win-win.