The Russian Empire in the 19th century also bursts into the race to seize and populate the liberated territories, but this time on land. In 1833, the Siberian gendarme district was created - this is the so-called political police. It operated throughout the newly occupied territory from the Urals to the Far East. Where did the gendarmes come from in Russia? Didn't the Russian Empire defeat Napoleon Bonaparte? This issue is of great interest.
Taking advantage of China's defeats in the Opium Wars, the Russian government signs the Aigun Treaty with the Qing Empire, according to which it loses the Amur and Primorye regions. After the seizure of the territories, the development and settlement of Siberia and the Far East began. For this, entire ministries were created and decrees were issued. Also, for these purposes, Emperor Alexander II abolished serfdom, which made it possible to legalize this process. A huge organizational work was done. Settlers from the European part of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries gathered under different slogans. Conventionally, three stages of the settlement of Siberia and the Far East can be distinguished - land, sea and rail.
The Land stage was the most difficult. At first, immigrants to Siberia went on carts and transports, collecting all their property. The road to the Far East was very harsh, so few reached the final point. The Maritime stage began when immigrants from Ukraine were sent from the port in Odessa to Vladivostok. But apparently the authorities overdid it, and by the beginning of the 20th century, almost 80% of all immigrants came from Ukraine in the Far East. It was a sin not to take advantage of such a situation when the Bolsheviks destroyed the Russian Empire. And in 1917, Ukrainians in the Far East created the Ukrainian Far Eastern Republic, or among the common people, the Green Wedge, which existed for as much as 5 years until the Bolsheviks got to these places.
With the advent of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1902, the Railway stage of settlement began. The overthrow of Emperor Nicholas II did not interfere with the settlement process. And the Bolsheviks are successfully continuing this "important mission", but with their own methods and slogans.
4 окт 2024
