Confrontation between Russia and China: The largest conflicts

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

For more than three centuries Russia and China were neighbors and rivals in the Far East. Nevertheless, the number of major conflicts between them during this time can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

1. Siege of Albazin

In 1650, the Cossack detachments sent by the Moscow Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich to explore the east of Siberia reached the Amur River, which flows into the Pacific Ocean. It was here that the Russians, for the first time in history, came into large-scale contact with Chinese civilization.

Engraving depicting the siege of Albazin from the book by N. Witsen "Northern and Eastern Tartaria". Amsterdam, 1692.

Of course, the Russians and the Chinese learned about each other much earlier - back in the Middle Ages, they were "introduced" by the Mongols during their campaigns of conquest. However, there were no permanent contacts between them, and then there was no interest in establishing them between the two peoples.

The situation developed in a completely different way in the second half of the 17th century. The arrival of Russian troops on the banks of the Amur, inhabited by Daurian tribes who paid tribute to the Qing Empire, was perceived by the latter as an invasion of its zone of interests.

The Cossacks intended to forcefully bring the “prince Bogdai”, about whom the Daurs had told them, to obedience to the Russian tsar, not even suspecting that the mighty Chinese emperor himself was hiding under this “prince”.

For several decades, Russian troops participated in clashes with Chinese and Manchu troops (the Manchu dynasty reigned in China in 1636).

The culmination of the confrontation was the two sieges of the Albazin fort, which Russia intended to make its stronghold in the conquest of the Far East.

Manchu Emperor Aixingero Xuanye.

For several weeks in June 1685, a Russian garrison of 450 men withstood the siege of the Qing army (from 3 to 5 thousand soldiers). Despite the large numerical advantage, the Chinese and Manchu soldiers were inferior to the Russians in combat training, which allowed Albazin to withstand. Nevertheless, not hoping for the arrival of reinforcements, the garrison capitulated on honorable terms and went to their own.

Russia, however, was not about to surrender so easily. A year later, the Russians rebuilt the dilapidated fortress abandoned by the Chinese, and were again besieged by the Qing troops. As a result of fierce assaults, the enemy lost up to half of his five thousandth army, but Albazin was never able to take it.

In accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, Russian troops left the fortress, which was then destroyed by the Chinese.

Despite the temporary success, the bloody battles for Albazin showed Beijing that it would not be so easy for it to knock out the Russians from the Far East.

2. Boxing war

Ihetuani.

At the end of the 19th century, the leading European powers, as well as the United States and Japan, taking advantage of China's technological backwardness, were actively engaged in the economic exploitation of the country. In the end, the Chinese, unwilling to see their homeland become a semi-colony, revolted in 1899 against foreign domination known as the ihetuan (boxer) uprising.

A wave of murders of foreigners and Chinese Christians, arson of churches and buildings of European missions swept across China. The government of Empress Cixi rushed from one side to the other, now opposing the uprising, now supporting it. When the Ichtuan began sieging the embassy district in Beijing in June 1900, it was the pretext for a large-scale intervention in China.

The troops of the so-called Alliance of Eight Powers (USA, Great Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, as well as the Russian, German and Japanese empires) in August with battles occupied the Chinese capital, and the Russian detachment of Lieutenant General Nikolai Linevich was the first to break into the city. After rescuing the diplomats, the Allies paraded right in front of the palace complex of the Chinese emperors, known as the Forbidden City, which was taken as a serious insult in China.

Russian cavalry attacking a detachment of Ichtuanians (Alphonse Lalauze).

Manchuria became another important theater of military operations between the Russians and the Chinese during this period. Russia had big plans for this region. Taking advantage of China's heavy defeat in the war against Japan in 1895, she was able to conclude a number of agreements with the Chinese government, according to which she received the right to lease part of the Liaodong Peninsula (where the Port Arthur naval base was immediately established), as well as to build a him from Russian territory and the Chinese-Eastern Railway (CER), which runs through the whole of Manchuria. It completely belonged to Russia, and up to 5 thousand Russian soldiers were brought in to protect it.

This open penetration of Russia into the region eventually led to a disastrous clash with the Japanese in 1904. However, a couple of years earlier, the Ihetuani attacked the Russian positions in Manchuria. They destroyed sections of the Chinese Eastern Railway under construction, pursued Russian builders, railroad workers and soldiers, and brutally tortured and killed those they could reach.

As a result, the personnel and guards were able to take refuge in Harbin, the city that was founded by the Russians in 1898, where the administration of the railway was located. For almost a month, from June 27 to July 21, 1900, the 3,000-strong garrison fought off 8,000 Ihetuan and the Qing troops who supported them at that time.

To save the situation, Russian troops were sent to Manchuria. At the same time, St. Petersburg emphasized that Russia does not attempt to seize Chinese territory. After the release of Harbin and participation in the suppression of the Boxing uprising, the troops were indeed withdrawn, but not earlier than the Qing government in 1902 once again confirmed Russia's rights to a naval base in Port Arthur and the Sino-Eastern Railway.

3. Conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway

Chinese cavalry in Harbin. The year is 1929.

The conflict over such an important railroad erupted again almost 30 years later, but China and Russia were already completely different states by that time. The fall of the Russian Empire and the beginning of a civil war on its ruins led to the temporary loss of control by the Russians over the CER. The Japanese even tried to get their hands on it, but to no avail.

When the USSR gained strength and again raised the issue of the Chinese Eastern Railway, it had to agree to the division of control over it with the Republic of China, which was reflected in the 1924 treaty. At the same time, joint management was marked by constant conflicts. Numerous White émigrés who had settled in Harbin and were interested in fomenting enmity with the Bolsheviks added fuel to the fire.

By 1928, Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang party was able to unite China under its own banners and focus on the forcible seizure of the CER: Chinese troops occupied sections of the railway, massively arrested Soviet employees and replaced them with Chinese or White emigrants.

Red Army soldiers with captured Kuomintang banners.

Since the Chinese began to rapidly build up their armed forces on the border with the USSR, the command of the Red Army decided that the Far Eastern Special Army, which is greatly outnumbered by them (16 thousand soldiers against 130 thousand Chinese scattered in different directions), should act preemptively and destroy individual enemy groupings one by one. until they had time to unite.

During three offensive operations in October-December 1929, the troops of the Republic of China were defeated. The Chinese lost 2 thousand people killed and over 8 thousand prisoners, the USSR killed less than 300 soldiers. As often happened during the Russian-Chinese conflicts, the best combat training of Russian soldiers played a role, which brought to naught the numerical superiority of the enemy.

As a result of peace negotiations, the USSR regained the status quo in the issue of control over the Chinese Eastern Railway and secured the release of Soviet workers arrested by the Chinese. However, the bloodshed for the railroad was in vain. Two years later, Manchuria was captured by a much stronger Japan than China. The Soviet Union, feeling that it could not maintain control over the Chinese Eastern Railway, sold it to the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in 1935.

4. Battles for Damansky

Soviet border guards during the conflict in the area of Damansky Island (TASS).

In the 1960s, a significantly stronger China felt confident enough to present territorial claims to its neighbors.

In 1962, a war with India broke out over the disputed region of Aksaychin. From the Soviet Union, the Chinese demanded the return of the small deserted island of Damansky (known in China as Zhenbao - "precious") on the Ussuri River.

The 1964 negotiations led nowhere, and against the general background of deteriorating Soviet-Chinese relations, the situation around Damansky also escalated. The number of provocations reached 5 thousand a year: the Chinese demonstratively crossed over to Soviet territory, mowing and grazing livestock, shouting that they were on their own land. The border guards had to literally push them back.

In March 1969, the conflict entered a "hot" phase. More than 2,500 Chinese soldiers were involved in the fighting on the island, who were opposed by about 300 border guards. The victory for the Soviet side was ensured by the involvement of BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems.

A detachment of Chinese soldiers is trying to break into Damansky Island in the USSR (Sputnik).

“18 combat vehicles fired a salvo, and 720 hundred-kilogram rockets (RS) went to the target in a few minutes! But when the smoke cleared away, everyone saw that not a single shell had hit the island! All 720 RS flew 5-7 km further, deep into Chinese territory, and smashed the village with all the headquarters, rear services, hospitals, with everything that was there at that time! That is why there was silence because the Chinese did not expect such impudence from us!"

As a result of the battles for Damansky, 58 Soviet and 800 Chinese soldiers died (according to Chinese data - 68). The USSR and China froze the conflict, effectively turning the island into a no-man's land. On May 19, 1991, it was transferred to the jurisdiction of the PRC.