The Russian Far East : A History / John J. Stephan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephan, John J., author.

Language:

German

Subjects (All):

Russia.

Asia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (508 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 1994.

Summary:

Wedged between China, Korea, Japan, and the United States, the Russian Far East has for centuries been a meeting ground for Eurasian and American peoples and cultures. Conventionally regarded as perimeter, it is in fact a collage of overlapping borderlands with a distinct historical identity. Based on a quarter-century of research by a leading authority on the area, this is a monumental survey of Pacific Siberia from prehistoric times to the present. Drawing from political, diplomatic, economic, geographical, social, and cultural evidence, the book reveals that this vast, rugged, and supposedly insular land has harbored vibrantly cosmopolitan lifestyles. For over a millennium, Chinese culture found expression in Tungus, Mongol, and Korean polities. Russian penetration in the seventeenth century eventually turned the region into a colony sustained by state subsidies, foreign enterprise, and a mosaic of Ukrainian, Estonian, Finnish, German, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese communities. Tsarists and Soviet penal policies contributed to the diversity and volatility of Far Eastern society. Regional aspirations articulated by Siberian intellectuals, disingenuously institutionalized in a Far Eastern Republic (1920-22), survived lethal bouts of economic and demographic engineering to come to life again in the post-Soviet era. The Russian Far East today reverberates with autonomist rhetoric, but if the region is no longer an appanage, it is still far short of independence. For the time being, the robust tradition of cosmopolitanism is reinventing itself under the banner of capitalism. Reexamining twentieth-century history through a Far Eastern prism, the book offers fresh and often provocative perspectives on imperial rivalries, colonialism, revolution, civil war, and utopianism gone awry in Northeast Asia.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Preface

Contents

Maps and Illustrations

Text Abbreviations and Acronyms

Introduction

PART I «» NORTHEAST ASIAN ECUMENE

1 Geography and Prehistory

2 The Chinese Millennium

3 Russian Entree

4 Amur Setback

5 Pacific Window

6 Return to the Amur

PART II «» THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

7 Toward a Far Eastern Viceroyalty

8 Patterns of Settlement

9 East Asian Communities

10 International Emporium

11 Stirrings of a Regional Consciousness

12 Rumblings

13 Revolution

14 Civil War

15 Intervention

16 The Far Eastern Republic

PART III «» THE SOVIET FAR EAST

17 Anomalous Enclave

18 The Far Eastern Cohort

19 Red-Bannered Satraps

20 Building Socialism on the Pacific

21 Center vs. Periphery

22 "Cleansing" Dalkrai

23 Kolyma

24 War Without a Front

25 A Front Without War

26 Khrushchevian Interlude

27 The Era of Stagnation

28 Frontier Ethos

Conclusion: Stormy Activity in a Time of Troubles

Appendixes

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF information screen (De Gruyter, viewed November 29, 2022).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-5036-1545-6

OCLC:

1312727063