How the Russians mined Chinese gold illegally

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

For a whole year, the Chinese authorities did not even realize that Russian gold miners had founded their own independent republic on their territory.

At the end of the 19th century, a gold rush swept the Far East of the Russian Empire and the neighboring northern territories of China. Tens of thousands of "free miners" rushed to the numerous mines in order to conduct there not always legal mining.

Sometimes, whole “states” with their “president”, legislative and judicial structures, law enforcement agencies and armed forces were even formed around such mines. The most famous of them was the Zheltugin Republic, founded by Russian hunters for the precious metal, which was then also called the Amur California or simply Zheltuga.

It is noteworthy that this Russian "state" was created on the territory of Chinese Manchuria, where the death penalty was provided for unauthorized gold mining. Enjoying freedom, the Zheltugins did not respect local laws. However, they were not at all opposed to the fact that someday their "republic" would join the Russian Empire.

From chaos to order

The history of Amur California began in the spring of 1883 when local residents accidentally discovered several high quality gold nuggets on the Zheltuga River in Chinese territory. Since the closest large Chinese settlement, Aigun, was hundreds of kilometers away, and Russian settlements were literally next to the border river Amur, the unique place was quickly chosen by Russian gold miners.

At first, the colony was a real anarchist nativity scene. In addition to the prospectors, all sorts of adventurers, swindlers and bandits came here. Murder and robbery became commonplace.

There was also little order in gold mining. Instead of consistently careful processing of the mines, the prospectors destroyed the deposits with the barbaric pit "pig", quickly rendering them unsuitable for further exploitation. They were in a hurry, realizing that at any moment Chinese troops could come and punish the intruders.

However, time passed, and Beijing did not react in any way to the Russian colony that appeared in its lands (As it turned out later, the authorities simply did not know about it). The Zheltugins decided that they could stay in Manchuria for a long time, and the first thing they did was to put things in order here.

State within a State

Zheltuga was divided into five regions: four Russians and one Chinese (the Chinese became the second largest ethnic group in the "republic"). From each quarter, two elders were elected, who together formed the board of the colony.

The entire political life of the settlement took place on the central square - "Orlov Pole", where the "state" black and yellow flag (symbolizing the unity of land and gold) fluttered and a gallows was installed for especially careless citizens.

The Zheltugin Republic had its own court, treasurer and law enforcement forces of up to 150 people. At the head of the "state" was an elected president. The first to take this post was Karl Johann Fassé, a native of Austria-Hungary, who resolutely and harshly brought order to the "Amur California". So in one day they hanged thirty people accused of murder.

“From the first days of the approval of the board,” said the eyewitness, “many who thought they could joke with him had a bad time. The first two weeks could justly be called the time of a terrible flogging. They flogged every day for theft, and for sodomy, etc. - in a word, they flogged from morning to night for any offense, and only after such influence from the foremen on lovers of someone else's property and strong feelings did they calm down a little."

Flourishing

With the arrival of order in Zheltuga, the colony began to grow rapidly. During the year, its population increased from several hundred to nine thousand people. The maximum number of inhabitants for the entire existence of the settlement numbered up to twenty thousand.

Since Russians constituted the majority of the "republic", Russian became the official language. With the Chinese "Californians" they communicated in a simplified language common in the border areas - the so-called Kyakhta pidgin.

Like mushrooms, shops, baths, jewelry shops, taverns, gambling houses and hotels for numerous Russian and Chinese gold buyers appeared in Zheltug. There was even a theater, a photographic laboratory, a menagerie, a whole troupe of circus performers and two orchestras. All of them regularly paid taxes, which went to public needs. So, they opened their own hospital in the colony.

The Zheltugin republic grew and became rich. Gold literally lay underfoot; in addition to money, it was also used as a means of payment. In the local casino "Chita" the prospectors calmly lost such sums that they could comfortably live their whole lives.

The rout

Almost a year after the birth of "Amur California", the Chinese authorities finally learned about it. Abman (governor) Aigun began literally tossing messages at the leadership of the Amur region with requests to assist in the eviction of strangers. Soon, the government of the Empress Tsi Xi expressed its protest to St. Petersburg.

In Russia, officials were well aware of the existence of the Zheltugin Republic and even actively collaborated with it. The Chinese were told at the official level that they had not heard anything about such a "state", and if such a state existed, then they had no right to interfere in the internal affairs of China.

In fact, Russia has given China carte blanche to deal with the "Californians" in its own way. At the same time, Cossack detachments were sent to Zheltuga with instructions to warn the miners that no state support and military protection would be provided to them and the best way out for them would be to immediately leave Chinese territory.

In February 1885, the first reconnaissance detachment of Chinese troops appeared in the vicinity of Zheltuga. On August 18 of the same year, a Qing officer arrived at the colony with a demand to clear the territory within eight days. Despite the fact that he had only sixty soldiers at his disposal, the colony began to scatter.

After the expiration of the term, the Qing detachment entered the empty Zheltuga, burned down a couple of dwellings and beheaded several Chinese hiding here. However, after his departure, the "Californians", who had been waiting all this time in the vicinity, began to return back.

Learning soon that life in the "republic" continues as before, Beijing sent in January 1886 already 1600 soldiers with instructions to burn the colony to the ground, drive the Russians beyond the Amur, and execute the Chinese living in the settlement for illegal gold mining.

This time, it was useless for the inhabitants of Zheltuga to use a trick. In order not to worsen relations with Russia, its citizens were given free access to their homeland, which cannot be said about their Chinese counterparts. “As soon as the Chinese soldiers saw the Zheltugins moving on the ice of the Amur, they rushed at the defenseless compatriots,” wrote Alexander Lebedev, a researcher of the history of the “republic,” in 1896: “Of course, everyone scattered wherever they fell; they ran over snowdrifts and potholes, climbed over ice floes, hid behind their ledges.

The frost chilled their limbs, hunger and fatigue deprived of their strength, the fugitives fell, rose and ran again, trying to reach the coast and hide in the village. But there was no salvation either. They killed and tortured on our shore, snatched the Russians out of the crowd, tormented them in the streets, burst into Russian huts and dragged their victims out of there. It was a massacre, terrible, ugly and brutal."

After the defeat of Amurskaya California, the prospectors scattered throughout the Russian Far East. Not wishing to lose the habit of their former luxurious life, they tried to found new freedom-loving "republics" in the mines, inexorably dispersed by the local authorities. Finally, only the Bolsheviks in the early 1930s were able to solve the problem of massive illegal gold mining in the country.