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Abstract
Migration between China and Russia has a long and complex history. This migration was encouraged by the geographical proximity of the two countries, by the complementarity of their economies and by their intense political relations. With the outbreak of First World War, Russia was forced to resort to Chinese workers in order compensate for the shortage of labor caused by the military conscription of large numbers of Russian peasants and workers. Chinese workers were employed on major railway building and military fortification projects, mining, and in arms and other military production. This paper explores the war experiences of the Chinese in Russia during the First World War and analyses their contribution to the Russian war effort.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The average monthly salary of a Russian worker in the Russian Far East was 68 rubles and 45 kopecks, and that of the Chinese—50 rubles and 17 kopecks, which allowed a Russian employer to economize nearly 30% only in terms of wages’ difference. However, the real economy was made on laborers’ accommodation and monthly food supply: costs for a Russian worker amounted to 21 rubles 17 kopeks and only 5 rubles 29 kopeks for a Chinese one (Soloviev Citation1989, 67).
2 Zhili [直隶] was the metropolitan province under the Qing Empire. It was abolished in 1928. It was composed of parts of modern provinces of Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and included Beijing and Tianjin.
3 For instance, according to the estimation of the local Russian journal, The Economic Life in the Russian Far East, there were between 150,000 and 200,000 Chinese residing in the Russian Far East and in the Trans Baikal region in 1922. This figure reflects the scale of Russian recruiting operations in China during the war (Petrov Citation2003, 596).
4 For instance, all the workers that were hired to construct the railroad in Semirechye came from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. Semirechye (literally “seven rivers”) is a region in Central Asia that was incorporated into the Russian Empire in the nineteenth century. It included the lands that now constitute parts of Southeastern Kazakhstan and of Northern Kirgizstan (Larin Citation2009, 64).
5 Kizel county is located in the west-central Russia, on the western slope of the Ural Mountains, along the Kizel River (Kama's basin).
6 The Sajen, or Russian Fathom, equals 7 English feet or 2.13 meters.
7 Revda is a town situated in Sverdlovsk region, in the west-central Russia, in the mid-Urals.
8 Stoiba is a village in Selemdzha district, located in the Amur region.
9 Versta is a unit of length, used in Imperial Russian, equal to 1.067 kilometers.
10 Despite the presence of the guards, many Chinese laborers managed to escape. For instance, among 2,451 workers who were recruited to work at the Kizel factories in Perm region, 933 ran off on the way to their workplace (GASO, F.73, Op.1, D.388, L.46–59).
11 For example, in September 1916, the Committee of army provisioning and food supply asked the Minister of the Interior to authorize the recruitment of 600 Chinese. They were to help the Russian construction battalions dig trenches at the front-line positions. The permission was granted, despite the adoption of the new rules (GARF: F.102, Op.75, D.29, L.178-178 ob.).
12 According to the contract drafted by the Japanese recruiting agent who hired the Chinese to work in Nizhny-Tagil, every laborer received one padded coat, one pair of trousers, one hat, and one pair of winter boots (GASO: F.643, Op.4, D. 333, L.34–35a ob.).
13 For example, the Chinese who worked at the construction of the Murmansk railway were given cooking cauldrons, washing basins, cups, big and small spoons, chopsticks, kettles, buckets, shovels, picks, baskets, yokes, wire, and rope (Rossiyskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [RGIA], F.417, Op.1, D.40, L.5–10).
14 1 square sajen equals 4.55 m2; 48 square sajen equals 218.4 m2.
15 Russian sanitary authorities estimated that in order to stay healthy, a person needs at least 2 cubic sajen of oxygen; in barrack No 1 the Chinese had only 0.77 cubic sajen per person.
16 Pood is a unit of mass in the Russian Empire, which equals 16.38 kilograms.
17 Russian town situated in the southeast of Perm region.
18 Funt or Russian pound is the basic unit of weight in Imperial Russia. It is equal to 409.5 grams.
19 For instance, in the aftermath of the violent incident in the mines in Kizel, Russian authorities court-martialed nineteen Chinese workers who were charged with murder of two Chinese interpreters and one Chinese guard. Four of them were sentenced to forced labor for fifteen years, and two was sentenced to death by hanging (GAPK, F.65, Op.5, D.154, L.50).
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Olga V. Alexeeva
Olga V. Alexeeva is Associate Professor of Chinese history at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Canada. Her current research focuses on the political history of early Republican China with particular reference to China's experience in World War I. She has also published several works on the overseas Chinese history, most recently Les Chinois à Saint-Pétersbourg. Histoire et portrait d’une communauté en mutation, (Presses de l’Université du Québec, 2015).