On the Colonial Expansion of Tsarist Russia and the Railway Construction in Eastern Province of China

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Tsarist Russia built a wide-gauge railway that crossed northeast China. The Railway in Eastern province of China, its arteries start from Manzhouli in the west, passes through Harbin in the middle and reaches Suifenhe in the east, and it is connected with the Russian Rear Baikal Railway and the South Wusuli Railway in the end. Later, Russia obtained the right to build the southern line of the railway through the Renewal Contract, thus forming the trend of connecting Europe and Asia. After the opening of the railway, Northeast China was forced to open passively in the shock of the steam-powered locomotive in which capitalism was established. Although the Railway in Eastern province of China has the legal basis of the Contract of Jointly running Eastern Province Railway Company, there are various unequal treaties in political, economic, military, social, cultural and other fields derived from it, all at the expense of China’s interests. In fact, it was the Russian who took the lead in the struggle for the interests of the world capitalist powers in our northeast. Starting with the Contract for the Joint operation of Eastern Province Railway Company, the Russians are able to misinterpret it arbitrarily. If they cannot explain it, they will show their strength by actual control, or regain their interests under various names such as “renewal” and “supplement”. This fully reflects that many texts on Sino-Russian relations around the railway in Eastern province of China basically follow the “law of the jungle”.