Empire’s Communication System: Railways and the Formation of a Cross-Border Socio- Cultural Space in the Far East

Abstract. Russian exploration of the Far East is often interpreted in Russian and foreign historiography as the history of the empire's colonisation of new territories, geopolitical confrontation between world powers and the struggle for new markets. Less often one can find studies that focus on the problems of positive interaction, including cultural interaction, in the border territories of the region. In this discussion, the participants were offered questions that allow them to change their research optics and assess these processes from the perspective of global history. The change in the theoretical approach allowed the authors to move away from national and state narratives and look at the history of the Far East as a process of interaction between different elements of social reality (institutions, people, living environment, etc.) in cross-border conditions. No less relevant in this context is the problem of distance, when remoteness and weak links with the region naturally gave rise to new forms of political, economic and social relations in the state structure. Central to this context is the story of the creation of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the development of the territories adjacent to it. Switching between different scales of analysis will reveal the mechanisms of overcoming cultural and political boundaries at the interstate, regional and local levels. 

Keywords: Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), The Far East, Trans-Siberian Railway, cross-border.