Chinese Historiography of the CER and the Russian Presence in Northeast China

Abstract. The paper is devoted to reviewing Chinese historiography of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) in the context of national history and the study of Chinese-Russian relations. The purpose of the paper is to determine the stages and results of the study of the history of the CER and the Russian presence in Northeast China (Manchuria) by the Chinese specialists, in terms of analysis of the research topics, basic theoretical and methodological approaches, key concepts and main results. The study is based on the scientific publications of Chinese researchers who made a significant contribution to the development of the issues related to the history of the CER that allows us generalizing the accumulated historiographic experience. In Chinese historiography, an independent direction has developed that is associated with the study of the history of the Chinese Eastern Railway. Most of the works of Chinese researchers are characterized by an analysis of the role of the CER in the context of assessing the nature of Chinese-Russian (Soviet) relations. However, Chinese experts have come a long way to recognize the comprehensive and positive impact of this transport route for the Northeast region of China. Cooperation between historians of Russia and China in the 1990s–the first decade of the 2000s positively impacted the expansion of the problems concerned and the source base, the translation and publication of Russian-language sources into the Chinese language, and the comprehension and development of the accumulated historiographical experience.

Keywords: Chinese historiography, historiographical direction, CER, Northeast China, Chinese-Russian relations.