Russian Emigration in Manchuria: Inertia of Civil War (1920–1940s)

Abstract. The article discusses one of the most important issues of the history of Russian emigration in China – anti-Soviet activity of the white Russians in Manchuria, which was controversially covered in literature, based on soviet archival documents. Refugees of the October Revolution located mostly on the territory of former Russian concession, were considered by the Soviet special services as a source of danger. Analyzing archival documents and scientific works the author comes to the conclusion that the scale of participation of emigrants in the anti-Soviet struggle is overestimated. System approach to historical research gives the author an opportunity to focus at external and internal influence factors which determined political moods of White Russians in Manchuria as well as forms of their political activities. Who could turn an emigrant mass into an organized force capable of fighting the Soviet power? What kind of anti-Soviet activities did emigrants practice? Answers to these questions help to get close to solving the research problem.

Keywords: Russian emigration in Manchuria, Chinese-Eastern Railway, Manchukuo, The Bureau on Russian Emigrants Affairs in the Machu Empire, “oborontsi” and “porazhentsi”.