During the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government locked off the land of Longxing in the northeast for more than 200 years because it was worried that the influx of Han Chinese would change the local ethnic structure! Only a few exiles and a few small ethnic groups lived here.
In the mid-19th century, when the Qing Dynasty's national power was declining and internal and external troubles were in danger, Tsarist Russia was planning its expansion plan. In 1860, Russia forced the Qing Dynasty to sign the Treaty of Aihui, seizing more than 600,000 square kilometers of land on the north bank of the Qing Dynasty's Heilongjiang River.
Then, in the same year, the Sino-Russian Treaty of Beijing gave Russia more than 400,000 square kilometers on the east bank of the Ussuri River. Tsarist Russia's ambitions did not stop, and in 1864, through the "Sino-Russian Treaty on the Survey and Demarcation of the Northwest Boundary", it ceded 440,000 square kilometers of land in the outer northwest from the Qing Dynasty.
The Treaty of Ili in 1881 was the icing on the cake, when Russia seized 70,000 square kilometers of land from the Outer Northwest. To sum up, Tsarist Russia seized more than 1.5 million square kilometers of land from the east.
During the time of Peter the Great, Tsarist Russia was already eyeing the Northeast region. At that time, the main focus of Tsarist Russia's expansion was in the Baltic and Black Seas, but its interest in the Heilongjiang River valley never stopped.
By the end of the 60s of the 19th century, the army of Tsarist Russia had reached the Heilongjiang River valley as the border between China and Russia. This expansion was not just for the sake of land, but also for the strategic formation of an encirclement of China.
At the end of the 19th century, Tsarist Russia came up with an even bolder "Yellow Russia Plan" to include the entire land north of the Great Wall into its sphere of influence. This includes the three major regions of Xinjiang, Mongolia and Northeast China.
Tsarist Russia achieved this through military means and an emigration policy. They granted land and tax exemptions to immigrants to these regions, and also established a base for the Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok to strengthen their control over the Far East.
During the Soviet era, in order to further develop these regions, a large amount of subsidies were given to the local area, and scientific research and higher education institutions were built, turning the area into a key development project.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia's economy was in difficulty, and these subsidies were drastically reduced, leading to a massive loss of local population, from 8.2 million in 1991 to 6.29 million in 2010.
This series of historical events is not a simple land struggle, but also a contest of national identity and political control. The fact that Russia occupies large swathes of land on the map does not mean that they have complete control over the cultural and national psychology of these regions.
Tsarist Russia's immigration policy was not simply aimed at developing land, but more at forming a stable Russian nationalist position on these strategic points. Through such a policy, Russia hopes to consolidate its political and military influence in Asia by cultivating a loyal population in the Far East.
In the 21st century, the Russian government has sought to stabilize the population of the Far East through various measures, such as introducing a new immigration policy and providing more economic and social benefits, but the success of these efforts seems limited. The population of the Far East continues to decline.
The question of the Russian Far East is, in a sense, a microcosm of the history of imperial expansion. The complexity of this region lies in its vast geography and abundant resources, as well as its complex population structure and deep historical background.
This history is for us a look back at the past, a reflection on the future. In the current situation of rapid development, every country needs to handle its own ethnic policy more prudently and respect the rights and culture of every ethnic group in order to truly achieve lasting peace and development.