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Khabarovsk is a city (since 1880) in Russia, the
center of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia and the
Khabarovsk Territory. One of the largest political, educational and
cultural centers of the Far East of Russia. Population - 618 150
people. (2018). The area of the city is 386 km².
Located in
the center of the intersection of international rail and air
transport routes on the right bank of the Amur Canal and the Amur
River in the Middle Amur Lowland, near the border with China (the
ship from the river station to the nearest Chinese village of Fuyuan
is about 65 km).
The distance to Moscow in a straight
line (by air) is approximately 6,100 km, by rail - 8,533 km. The
city has two airports, a railway station, four railway stations, a
highway junction, a river port.
It was founded on May 31 (old
style) in 1858 as the military post of Khabarovka by the
Governor-General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Muravyov, named after
the 17th century Russian explorer Erofei Khabarov. The First Builder
- the commander of the 13th Siberian Linear Battalion, Captain Yakov
Dyachenko.
Chinese early dynasties
The tribe of the Tungusic peoples are
the indigenous people of the region. Later the city was named
"Boli"(伯力 in Chinese) and was controlled by ancient miners of China.
Located at the crossing of Heilong River(Amur) and Usuli
River(Ussuri), traditional tribes of different nations with
different cultures and styles shows the diversity of the settlers.
Beiwei dynasty and Nanbeichao had claimed to own this region. In
Tang Dynasty (618-907), Boli was the capital of Heishui (a region in
Tang Dynasty. Heishui, literally means Black Water, was the ancient
name of Heilong River, which is also called Amur by Russians), known
as Heishuiduhufu(黑水都护府, government of Heishui). The Liao dynasty and
Jin dynasty (Two states governed by the Khitan people and the
Jurchen people of Northeast Asia, respectively) took sovereignty of
Boli before Mongols captured the city. Ming and Qing took control of
the city effectively. Before 1860, this was a typical Chinese city,
with more than 50% Han residents.
17th-century Russian
explorers
In the mid-17th century, the Amur Valley became the
scene of hostilities between the Russian Cossacks, trying to expand
into the region and to collect tribute from the natives, and the
rising Manchu Qing Dynasty, intent on securing the region for
itself.
Khabarov's Achansk
The Russian explorers and
raiders of the 1650s set up a number of more or less fortified camps
(ostrogs) on the Amur; most of them were in use for only a few
months, and later destroyed. It is usually thought that the first
such camp in the general area of today's Khabarovsk was the
fortified winter camp named Achansk (Ачанск) or Achansky gorodok
(Ачанский городок), built by the Cossacks of Yerofey Khabarov in
September 1651 after they had sailed to the area from the upper
Amur. The fort was named after the local tribe whom Khabarov's
people called "Achans". Already on October 8 the fort was
unsuccessfully attacked by joint forces of Achans and Duchers (who
had good reasons to hate the Cossacks, due to their rather
heavy-handed tribute-extraction tactics), while many Russians were
away fishing. In late November, Khabarov's people undertook a
three-day campaign against the local chief Zhakshur (Жакшур) (whose
name is also known in a more Russian version, Zaksor (Заксор)),
collecting a large amount of tribute and announcing that the locals
were now subjects of the Russian Czar. Similar campaign was waged
later in winter against the Ducher chief Nechiga (Нечига), farther
away from Achansk.
On March 24 (or 26), 1652, Fort Achansk
was attacked by Manchu cavalry, led by Ninguta's commander Haise,
reinforced by Ducher auxiliaries, but the Cossacks stood their
ground in a day-long battle and even managed to seize the attackers'
supply train. Once the ice on the Amur broke in the spring of 1652,
Khabarov's people destroyed their fort and sailed away.
The
exact location of Khabarov's Achansk has long been a subject for the
debate among Russian historians and geographers. A number of
locations, both upstream and downstream of today's Khabarovsk, have
been proposed since Richard Maack, one of the first Russian scholars
to visit the region, identified Achansk in 1859 with the ruins on
Cape Kyrma, which is located on the southern (Chinese) shore of the
Amur, upstream of Khabarovsk. The most widely accepted point of view
is probably that of Boris Polevoy, who believed that Khabarov's
Achansk was located in the Nanai village later known as Odzhal-Bolon
(Russian: Оджал-Болонь), located on the left bank of the Amur,
closer to Amursk than to Khabarovsk. One of his arguments was that
both Khabarov's Achan (sometimes also spelled by the explorer as
Otshchan, Отщан), and Wuzhala (乌扎拉) of the Chinese records of the
1652 engagement are based on the name of the Nanai clan "Odzhal"
(Оджал), corresponding to the 20th-century name of the village as
well. (The name of the clan was also written as "Uzala", as in the
name of its best known member, Dersu Uzala).
Polevoy's view
appeared to gain wide support among the Russian geographer
community; petitioned by the Amur Branch of the Russian Geographical
Society, the Russian Government renamed the village of Odzhal to
Achan in 1977, to celebrate its connection with Khabarov's raid.
As to the Cape Kyrma ruins, thought by Maack to be the remains
of Achansk, B.P. Polevoy identified them as the remains of another
ostrog - namely, Kosogorsky Ostrog, where Onufriy Stepanov stayed a
few years later.
Qing Empire
After the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), the area
became an uncontested part of the Qing Empire for the next century
and a half. Modern historical maps of the Qing period published in
China mark the site of future Khabarovsk as Bólì (Chinese: 伯力). All
of the middle and lower Amur region was nominally part of the Jilin
Province, run first out of Ninguta and later out of Jilin City.
French Jesuits who sailed along the Ussury and the Amur in 1709
prepared the first more or less precise map of the region. According
to them, the indigenous Nanai people were living on the Ussury and
on the Amur down to the mouth of the Dondon River (i.e., in the
region including the site of the future Khabarovsk). These people
were known to the Chinese as Yupi Dazi ("Fish skin Tartars").
From Khabarovka to Khabarovsk
In 1858, the area was ceded to
Russia under the Treaty of Aigun. The Russians founded the military
outpost of Khabarovka (Хаба́ровка), named after Yerofey Khabarov.
The post later became an important industrial center for the region.
Town status was granted in 1880; in 1893, it was given its present
name.
In 1894, a department of Russian Geographical Society
was formed in Khabarovsk and to found libraries, theatres and
museums in the city. Since then, Khabarovsk's cultural life has
flourished. Much of the local indigenous history has been well
preserved in the Regional Lore Museum and Natural History Museum and
in places like near the Nanai settlement of Sikachi-Alyan, where
cliff drawings from more than 13,000 years ago can be found. The
Khabarovsk Art Museum exhibits a rare collection of old Russian
icons.
In 1916, the Khabarovsk Bridge across the Amur was
completed, allowing Trans-Siberian trains to cross the river without
using ferries (or temporary rail tracks over the frozen river in
winter).