Russian Far East | |
|---|---|
.svg) Far Eastern Federal District (highlighted) | |
| Largest city | Khabarovsk |
| Area | |
• Total | 6,952,600 km2 (2,684,400 sq mi) |
| Population (2021) | |
• Total | 7,975,762 |
| • Density | 1.1472/km2 (2.9711/sq mi) |
TheRussian Far East (Russian:Дальний Восток России,IPA:[ˈdalʲnʲɪjvɐˈstokrɐˈsʲiɪ]) is a region inNorth Asia. It is the easternmost part ofRussia and theAsian continent, and is coextensive with theFar Eastern Federal District, which encompasses the area betweenLake Baikal and thePacific Ocean. The area's largest city isKhabarovsk, followed byVladivostok. The region shares land borders with the countries ofMongolia,China, andNorth Korea to its south, as well asmaritime boundaries withJapan to its southeast, and with theUnited States along theBering Strait to its northeast.
Although foreign sources often consider the Russian Far East to be a part ofSiberia, it has been historically categorized separately from Siberia in Russian regional schemes (and previously during theSoviet era when it was called theSoviet Far East).[1]
In Russia, the region is usually referred to as simply theFar East (Russian:Дальний Восток,romanized: Dal'niy Vostok). What is known in English as theFar East is usually referred to as theAsia-Pacific Region (Азиатско-тихоокеанский регион,Aziatsko-tiho-okeanskiy region, abbreviatedАТР (ATR)), orEast Asia (Восточная Азия,Vostochnaya Aziya), depending on the context.
Russians reached the Pacific coast in 1647 with the establishment ofOkhotsk, and theRussian Empire consolidated its control over the Russian Far East in the 19th century, after theannexation of part of ChineseManchuria (1858–1860).Primorskaya Oblast was established as a separateadministrative division of the Russian Empire in 1856, with its administrative center atKhabarovsk.
Several entities with the name "Far East" existed in the first half of the 20th century, all with rather different boundaries:
Until 2000 the Russian Far East lacked officially defined boundaries. A single term "Siberia and the Far East" (Сибирь и Дальний Восток) often referred to Russia's regions east of theUrals without drawing a clear distinction between "Siberia" and "the Far East".
In 2000 Russia'sfederal subjects were grouped into largerfederal districts, one of which, theFar Eastern Federal District, comprisedAmur Oblast, theChukotka Autonomous Okrug, theJewish Autonomous Oblast,Kamchatka Oblast with theKoryak Autonomous Okrug,Khabarovsk Krai,Magadan Oblast,Primorsky Krai, theSakha (Yakutia) Republic, andSakhalin Oblast. In November 2018Zabaykalsky Krai and theRepublic of Buryatia were added; they had previously formed part of theSiberian Federal District.[2] Since 2000, Russians have increasingly used the term "Far East" to refer to the federal district, though the term is often also used more loosely.
Defined by the boundaries of the federal district, the Far East has an area of 6.2 million square kilometres (2,400,000 sq mi)—over one-third of Russia's total area.
Russia in the early 1900s persistently sought a warm-water port on thePacific Ocean for theImperial Russian Navy as well as to facilitate maritime trade. The recently established Pacific seaport ofVladivostok (founded in 1860) was operational only during the summer season, butPort Arthur (leased by Russia from China from 1896 onward) in Manchuria could operate all year. After theFirst Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) and the failure of the 1903 negotiations betweenJapan and theTsar Nicholas II's government, Japan chose war to protect its domination ofKorea and adjacent territories. Russia, meanwhile, saw war as a means of distracting its populace from government repression and of rallying patriotism in the aftermath of several general strikes. Japan issued a declaration of war on 8 February 1904. Three hours before Japan's declaration of war was received by the Russian government, the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Russian1st Pacific Squadron at Port Arthur. Eight days later Russia declared war on Japan.
The war ended in September 1905 with a Japanese victory following the fall of Port Arthur and the failed Russian invasion of Japan through the Korean Peninsula andNortheast China; also, Japan had threatened to invadePrimorsky Krai via Korea. The warring parties signed theTreaty of Portsmouth on 5 September 1905, and both Japan and Russia agreed to evacuate Manchuria and to return its sovereignty to China, but Japan was allowed to lease theLiaodong Peninsula (containing Port Arthur andTalien, akaKwantung Leased Territory), and theRussian rail system in southern Manchuria with its access to strategic resources. Japan also received thesouthern half of the island ofSakhalin from Russia. In 1907 Japan forced Russia to confiscate land from Korean settlers (who formed the majority of Primorsky Krai's population) due to a fear of an invasion of Korea and of the ousting of Japanese troops by Korean guerrillas.[citation needed]
Between 1937 and 1939, the Soviet Union underJoseph Stalin deportedover 200,000 Koreans toUzbekistan andKazakhstan, fearing that the Koreans might act as spies for Japan. Many Koreans died on the way in cattle trains due to starvation, illness, or freezing conditions. Soviet authorities purged and executed many community leaders;Koryo-saram were not allowed to travel outside of Central Asia for the next 15 years. Koreans were also not allowed to use the Korean language and its use began to become lost with the involvement of theKoryo-mar dialect and the use of Russian.
Development of numerous remote locations in the Soviet Far East relied onGulaglabour camps during Stalin's rule, especially in the region's northern half. After the death of Stalin in 1953 the large-scale use offorced labour waned and was superseded by volunteer employees attracted by relatively high wages.
During theJapanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931, the Soviets occupiedBolshoy Ussuriysky Island,Yinlong Island, and several adjacent islets to separate the city ofKhabarovsk from the territory controlled by a possibly hostile power.[3][better source needed]
Indeed, Japan turned its military attention to Soviet territories. Conflicts between the Japanese and the Soviets frequently happened on the border of Manchuria between 1938 and 1945. The first confrontation occurred in Primorsky Krai, theBattle of Lake Khasan (July–August 1938) involved an attempted military incursion of Japanese-controlledManchukuo into territory claimed by the Soviet Union. This incursion was founded in the beliefs of the Japanese side that the Soviet Union had misinterpreted the demarcation of the boundary based on the 1860Treaty of Peking between Imperial Russia andManchu China. Primorsky Krai was always threatened by a Japanese invasion despite the fact that most of the remaining clashes occurred in Manchukuo.
The clashes ended shortly before and after the conclusion ofWorld War II (seeSoviet–Japanese War) when a war-weakened Japan found its territories of Manchukuo,Mengjiang,Korea, andSouth Sakhalininvaded by Soviet and Mongolian troops (August 1945).
Both the Soviet Union and Japan regarded the Primorsky Krai as a strategic location in World War II, and clashes over the territory were common. The Soviets and the otherAllies considered it a key location for the plannedinvasion of Japan through Korea; Japan viewed it as a key location to begin amass invasion of Eastern Russia. The Primorsky Krai served as the Soviet Union's Pacific headquarters in the war to plan an invasion for allied troops of Korea in order to reach Japan.
After the Soviet invasion, the USSR returned Manchukuo and Mengjiang to China;Korea became liberated. The Soviet Union also occupied and annexed Japan'sKuril Islands and southern Sakhalin. The planned Soviet invasion of Japan proper never happened.
During theKorean War, Primorsky Krai became the site of extreme security concern for the Soviet Union.
Vladivostok was the site of theStrategic Arms Limitation Talks in 1974. At the time, the Soviet Union and the United States decided quantitative limits on various nuclear weapons systems and banned the construction of new land-basedICBM launchers. Vladivostok and other cities in Primorsky Krai soon[when?] becameclosed cities because of the bases of theSoviet Pacific Fleet.
Incursions ofAmericanreconnaissance aircraft fromAlaska sometimes happened. Concerns of the Soviet military caused the infamousKorean Air Lines Flight 007 incident in 1983.
In 2016, PresidentVladimir Putin proposed theRussian Homestead Act to populate the Russian Far East.[4]
According to the2021 Census, theFar Eastern Federal District had a population of 7.98 million.Most of it is concentrated in the southern parts. Given the vast territory of the Russian Far East, 6.3 million people translates to slightly less than one person per square kilometer, making the Russian Far East one of the most sparsely populated areas in the world. The population of the Russian Far East has been rapidly declining since thedissolution of the Soviet Union (even more than for Russia in general), dropping by 14% in the last fifteen years.[timeframe?] The Russian government had been discussing a range of re-population programs to avoid the forecast drop to 4.5 million people by 2015, hoping to attract in particular the remaining Russian population of thenear abroad but eventually agreeing on a program to resettle Ukrainian Illegal immigrants.
EthnicRussians andUkrainians make up the majority of the population.
75% of the population is urban. The largest cities are:
The original population groups of the Russian Far East include (grouped by language group):
The region was not connected with the rest of Russia via domestic highways until theM58 highway was completed in 2010.
Uniquely for Russia, most cars haveright-hand drive (73% of cars in the region),[5] though they are still driven on the right-hand side of the road.
Railways are better developed. TheTrans-Siberian Railway andBaikal–Amur Mainline (since 1984) provide a connection with Siberia (and the rest of the country). TheAmur–Yakutsk Mainline is aimed to link the city ofYakutsk to the Russian railway network. Passenger trains connect toNizhny Bestyakh as of 2013.
As in nearby Siberia, for many remote localities, aviation is the main mode of transportation to/from civilisation, but the infrastructure is often poor.
Maritime transport is important for delivering supplies to localities near the Pacific andArctic coasts, and for shipping exports, especially oil, gas and ores.
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