Albazin
Encyclopedia
Skovorodinsky District
Skovorodinsky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the twenty in Amur Oblast, Russia. Its administrative center is the town of Skovorodino. Population: 34,269 ; Population of Skovorodino accounts for 32.4% of the district's population....
of Amur Oblast
Amur Oblast
Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , situated about east of Moscow on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers. It shares its border with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, People's Republic of China in the south, and Zabaykalsky...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, noted as the site of Albazin , the first Russian settlement on the Amur River.
Before the arrival of Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
, Albazino belonged to the Daur people - the Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are the peoples who speak Tungusic languages. The word originated in Tunguska, an ill-defined region of Siberia.-Peoples:Tungusic peoples are:*Evenks*Evens*Jurchens *Manchu*Negidals...
indigenous to this area. The town was originated by prince Albaz as the capital of Solon
Solon (disambiguation)
*Solon was a pre-Socratic Athenian statesman, lawmaker, and elegiac poet;*the Solon language is a member of the Tungusic family;...
Khanate (Sinicized: 索伦汗国).
Later in 17th century, the town was center of a petty kingdom
Petty kingdom
A petty kingdom is one of a number of small kingdoms, described as minor or "petty" by contrast to an empire or unified kingdom that either preceded or succeeded it...
known as Yagsi (Manchu
Manchu language
Manchu is a Tungusic endangered language spoken in Northeast China; it used to be the language of the Manchu, though now most Manchus speak Mandarin Chinese and there are fewer than 70 native speakers of Manchu out of a total of nearly 10 million ethnic Manchus...
: Yaksa; ; ). The name of state came from Nikifor Chernigovsky's coat of arms - Jaxa.
In the late 1640s, a team of Russian Cossacks under Yerofey Khabarov
Yerofey Khabarov
Yerofey Pavlovich Khabarov or Svyatitsky Erofej Pavlovič Chabarov , was a Russian entrepreneur and adventurer, best known for his exploring the Amur river region and his attempts to colonize the area for Russia...
arrived to explore Dauria. They were keen to gain a foothold in the proximity of the Amur River and, after several clashes with the Daurs under Prince Albaza or Albaaši (Sinicized: 阿尔巴西), established a Russian fort of Albazin in 1651. The Russians were defeated here by the Manchus in 1686 (see below). By the Treaty of Nerchinsk
Treaty of Nerchinsk
The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until...
the area was assigned to China.
Following the Treaty of Aigun
Treaty of Aigun
The Treaty of Aigun was a 1858 treaty between the Russian Empire, and the empire of the Qing Dynasty, the sinicized-Manchu rulers of China, that established much of the modern border between the Russian Far East and Manchuria , which is now known as Northeast China...
in 1858 a new Amur Cossack
Amur Cossacks
The Amur Cossack Host , a Cossack host created in the Amur region and Primorye in the 1850s on the basis of the Cossacks relocated from the Transbaikal region and freed miners of Nerchinsk region....
stanitsa
Stanitsa
Stanitsa is a village inside a Cossack host . Stanitsas were the primary unit of Cossack hosts.Historically, the stanitsa was a unit of economic and political organisation of the Cossack peoples primarily in the southern regions of the Russian Empire.Much of the land was held in common by the...
appeared on the site. A municipal museum is sited among the remains of the 17th-century Russian fort.
The Sieges of Albazin
For background see Russian-Manchu border conflictsRussian-Manchu border conflicts
The Russian–Manchu border conflicts were a series of intermittent skirmishes between the Manchus and the Cossacks in which the Cossacks tried and failed to gain the land north of the Amur River...
. In late 1650 Albazin was built as winter quarters by Yerofei Khabarov on the northernmost part of the Amur River, 125 miles downstream from the junction of the Argun and Shilka. Thereafter it was little used as the Russians concentrated on the richer grain-growing lands downriver. In 1658 the Manchus drove the Russians out of the Amur country and the land was left to outlaws and adventurers. In 1665 Nikifor Chernigovsky
Nikifor Chernigovsky
Nikifor Chernigovsky was a Polish noble who was exiled to Siberia in the course of the Polish-Russian war. In 1656 in an act of revenge he murdered the voyevoda of Ilimsk and fled to the Amur where he reoccupied the ruins of Albazin and gathered a band of supporters.-Life:He became Russian...
, a Pole who had been exiled to Siberia, murdered the voyevoda of Ilimsk
Ilimsk
Ilimsk was a small town in Siberia, within today's Irkutsk Oblast of Russia. The town was flooded by the Ust-Ilimsk Reservoir in the mid-1970s....
and fled to the Amur where he reoccupied the ruins of Albazin and gathered a band of supporters. In 1672 Albazin was recognized as a legal settlement and Chernigovsky was pardoned.
The Manchus did little about Albazin because their forces were tied up in southern China and because they were concerned about possible Russian backing for their enemies in Mongolia. With the southern problem nearly solved (Taiwan was conquered in 1683), in the spring of 1682 the Kangxi Emperor
Kangxi Emperor
The Kangxi Emperor ; Manchu: elhe taifin hūwangdi ; Mongolian: Энх-Амгалан хаан, 4 May 1654 –20 December 1722) was the fourth emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the first to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, from 1661 to 1722.Kangxi's...
made a tour through Manchuria and began preparations to deal with the Amur problem. His plan was to build up such a large force that the Russians would withdraw without fighting, for, as he said "The use of force is not a good thing. We use it only under compulsion." Troops were moved up to Aigun
Aigun
Aigun was a historic town of China in northern Manchuria, situated on the right bank of the Amur River, some 30 km south from the central urban area of Heihe .The Chinese name of the town, which literally means "Bright Jade", is a transliteration of the original Manchu Aigun was a historic...
and crops were planted to feed them. An attack was delayed due to disagreements among the planners and the difficulty of moving supplies northward.
From 1681 there were Manchu threats against Albazin, talks were held on the Nun River
Nun River
The Nun River is a river in Nigeria. The Nun is formed when the Niger River splits in two, forming the Nun and Forcados rivers.The Nun River is immortalised in the poetry of Gabriel Okara. His poem is a nostalgic ode to the river that passes through his home....
and minor Russian forts were destroyed along the Zeya. By the end of 1683 all Russian bases except Albazin had been eliminated. Moscow responded by making Ivan Vlasov voyevoda of Nerchinsk and appointing Akeksey Tolbuzin to a new voyevodstvo at Albazin(July 1684). An attempt to move men and supplies east failed due to shortages and inefficiency.
1685: The siege began on June 23, 1685. On the 26th there was an indecisive day-long battle. The Manchus thereupon piled dry wood along the fort's wooden walls and when they began to light it, Tolbuzin surrendered (exact date uncertain). The 600 or so defenders were allowed to withdraw to Nerchinsk. About 45 opted to go with the Manchus where they joined the Russian colony in Peking
Albazinians
The Albazinians are one of the few groups of Chinese of Russian descent. There are approximately 250 Albazinians in China who are descendants of about fifty Russian Cossacks from Albazin on the Amur River that were resettled by the Kangxi Emperor in the northeastern periphery of Beijing in 1685...
. The Manchus burned the fort and withdrew, but did not destroy the crops. When news of the defeat reached Moscow in November it was decided to abandon the Amur and send an ambassador to Peking.
1686: One day after leaving Albazin, the retreating Russians met a group of reinforcements who brought word that an even larger group under Baiton had reached Nerchinsk. Since the fort was lost they continued their withdrawal. Some time after July 10, 1685 scouts reported that the Manchus were gone and the crops still standing. Vlasov sent 669 well-armed men under Tolbuzin to gather the harvest. The crops were gathered, Albazin was refortified with earthen walls and efforts were made to bring the natives back into subjection. The Manchus arrived on July 18, 1686 and began a tight siege and a steady cannonade. On the fifth day of the siege Tolbuzin was killed by a cannon ball and replaced by Afanasii Baiton. The Russians had enough food to last until Easter, but were short of water. The siege continued until early winter. In late October messengers arrived in Peking announcing Moscow's desire to negotiate. An order was issued to relax the siege. At this time less than 66 men, out of an original 826, were left alive (most had died of disease, especially scurvy). On December 25 Baiton sent one of his men to request provisions. A few more than twenty men remained in the fort, all ill and undernourished. When, in August 1687, Kangxi heard (incorrectly) that the Russian ambassador had reached Mongolia, he ordered the Manchu troops withdrawn.
By the treaty of Nerchinsk
Treaty of Nerchinsk
The Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 was the first treaty between Russia and China. The Russians gave up the area north of the Amur River as far as the Stanovoy Mountains and kept the area between the Argun River and Lake Baikal. This border along the Argun River and Stanovoy Mountains lasted until...
(1689), Albazin was abandoned and destroyed.