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Yellow Russia (Russian:Желтороссия,romanized: Zheltorossiya;Chinese:黃俄羅斯計劃, abbr.黃俄）was anImperial Russian plan and colonial project dating back to the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. Its intention was taking Chinese land, especially inNortheast China (Manchuria)[1] andXinjiang.
The term was first coined by Russian journalistIlya Levitov.[1][2][when?]. It involved seizing northeastern lands from the weakenedQing China, resettling Cossacks and peasants to Manchuria, and converting the Chinese inhabitants to Orthodox Christianity.[citation needed]
The concept of Yellow Russia was first used by journalistIlya Levitov, who wrote: “By Yellow Russia I mean the space in which theRussian element mixes with theYellow race, especially the one that stretches fromLake Baikal to thePacific Ocean. This space is, as it were, isolated from Russia and has something in common with it”.[3]
Russian desire for colonial power in the East was largely driven by the desire for a warm-waterport. Russia, and subsequently Russia's naval and trade power in the East was hugely constrained by the fact that it lacked a warm water port on the Pacific, greatly reducing its influence, trade and military power in the region. TheBlack andBaltic Seas provided limited access to the open ocean and could be blocked by Russia's neighbors.
Russia gained a huge amount of influence and power projection capabilities in the Pacific with theConvention of Peking in 1860, gaining all ofOuter Manchuria, and would found the port ofVladivostok, which would become Russia's main power base in the Pacific, however the city's port was icebound for three months a year, and even when the port was thawed had its access to the wider ocean restricted and controlled by Japan, who would be able to isolate the port and cut off its sea access. Thus, access to the Pacific Ocean would depend on relations with Japan. The Japanese could control theLa Pérouse Strait (nearHokkaido) north of Vladivostok, theTsugaru Strait (between Hokkaido andHonshu) in the east, and theTsushima Strait (betweenKorea and Japan) in the south.
In 1861 Russia, seeking a way to break this geographical constraint, attempted tooccupy the island of Tsushima. However, theTokugawa Shogunate in Japan asked theBritish Empire to intervene, and in late 1861 the Russians were forced to end their attempt to take the island and leave Tsushima.
However, slowly but surely Russia was strengthening its position in the Far East. The population of Siberia and the Far East grew to 4.3 million in 1885. By 1897, the population of the eastern part of Russia grew to 6 million people. The Russians established control overSakhalin and the fortsNikolaevsk andMariinsk were built near the mouth of the Amur River.
Following theConvention for the Lease of the Liaotung Peninsula, Russia received theKwantung Region for its use, built theChinese Eastern Railway (CER) and theSouth Manchurian Railway, and also received control of the right-of-way of these railways. The largely Russified cities ofHarbin andDalian were founded in 1898 and 1899 respectively, and in 1901 the ambitious construction of a naval base atPort Arthur began on theLiaodong Peninsula. In 1900, after the suppression of theBoxer Rebellion, Manchuria was occupied by Russian troops.
Russian attempts to increase influence and gain economic power in Manchuria were also encouraged greatly by the businessmanAleksandr Bezobrazov, who in 1896 in a petition toTsar Nicholas II, predicted that war with Japan was inevitable for Russia to pursue an aggressive policy against Japan in Korea and Manchuria. His proposal involved the establishment of a commercial enterprise similar to theBritish East India Company, which would provide the government with financial benefits while increasing influence and soft power in the area. While met with sympathy and support with much of the Russian Cabinet, Bezobrazov was at first thwarted by Finance MinisterSergei Witte, who convinced the Tsar to shut the project down, suspecting Bezobrazov's political intentions.[4]
However, in 1896, King Kojong of Korea was persuaded by Jules Briner, a Russian merchant, to grant a timber concession along the Yalu River border between Korea and Manchuria, with Briner then offering to sell the concession to the Russian government in 1897. Bezobrazov then convinced Tsar Nicholas II of his plan, and the imperial cabinet approved the purchase despite Witte's objections in May 1898. The concession was chartered as a private company in July 1901. Meanwhile, theBoxer Rebellion had resulted in a huge increase in Russian military presence in the area, and Russia was able to obtain similar concessions from China on the Manchurian side of the Yalu River.
Tsar Nicholas later sent Bezobrazov to the region in person, where he alarmed AdmiralYevgeni Ivanovich Alekseyev with talk of war with Japan, and the need to stop the withdrawal of Russian troops from Manchuria. In 1902, with Witte powerless at the court, Bezobrazov was given near unlimited access to state funds and was able to set up a private company called the Yalu River Timber Concessions.
From May 1903 onwards, Bezobrazov's influence continued to increase, as the Tsar, after appointing Alekseyev asviceroy of the Far East, instructed him to discuss economic policy with Bezobrazov rather than Witte. Bezobrazov also returned to Manchuria to organize the Russian Timber Producing Association of the Far East. This Association was merged with the Manchurian Mining Association in August 1903. However, the actual outbreak of conflict between Japan and Russia in February 1904 partially due to the conflicting interests of the two Empires in the region caused the collapse of Bezobrazov's enterprises, which were already financially overextended.
Russia's expansionist goals in East Asia inevitably came into conflict with the interests ofJapan, which had declared imperial claims to the same territories. As a result of theRusso-Japanese War, the Russian expansionist project in the Far East and China collapsed; Russia lost Port Arthur, ceding to Japan also the right to lease theLiaodong Peninsula and the South Manchurian Railway.
In 1932, the Japanese authorities founded thepuppet state ofManchukuo in Manchuria, which included Harbin. In 1935, theUSSR sold the Chinese Eastern Railway to Japan.