Chinese Museum, which Russians are not allowed to enter

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

There is a very strange museum not far from the Russian-Chinese border in the Aigun region (in another version Aihui) of the Heihe urban district. Russian excursions are not carried here. Moreover, despite the fact that the inscriptions, signs and even descriptions of the expositions are duplicated in Russian, Russians are not allowed into the museum at all. For no money.

It's hard to believe, but when we tried to buy a ticket, we received a categorical refusal.

2. Officially, the museum is called "Aigun Historical Museum". In theory, it should be an ordinary museum of local lore, what's wrong with that?

In fact, everything is not easy. There are different pages in Russian-Chinese relations. It was in Aigun in May 1858 that the Aigun Treaty was signed, which established the Russian-Chinese border along the Amur River.

3. The agreement was drawn up and written by Rafail Aleksandrovich Chernosvitov, a Siberian gold miner, "Petrashevist", a friend of Count Muravyov, Governor General of Eastern Siberia.

The agreement was signed by:

from the Russian Empire: Adjutant General Count N. N. Muravyov and State Counselor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Pyotr Perovsky;

from the Qing empire: Aigun Amban, adjutant general, court nobleman, Imp. Aigun, Amur commander-in-chief, Prince Aisingero Ishan and assistant division chief Dziraminga.

4. For signing the Aigun Treaty, NN Muravyov received the title of "Amur" and became Muravyov-Amursky. In Irkutsk, on Zamorskaya Street, the triumphal Amur Gates were built, Zamorskaya Street was renamed Amurskaya. In Blagoveshchensk, on the embankment, there is also a monument to the Governor-General.

5. The Chinese consider this treaty unequal. China, weakened by the Opium Wars and the Taiping uprising, was forced to make concessions under the threat of Muravyov to open a second front. By signing the Aigun Treaty, China lost a large territory.

6. I don't know what is written in hieroglyphs (who knows, tell me), but these are scenes that depict the signing of the Aigun Treaty.

7. They say that every ruler of China must visit the museum in Aigun without fail.

8. There is a description of the exposition on the Internet, because of which Russians are not allowed here. It's in Chinese:

You can try using online translation to understand the meaning.

9. Some compatriots still get into the museum, posing as citizens of other states. Here is what leon667 writes from Yakutsk:

"Atrocities, painting, killing of civilians in China", photo: leon667

A few more reviews:

Russians are not allowed

There is evidence that, in addition to the Aigun Treaty, the museum also displays other pages of history that do not color Russian-Chinese relations, in particular, the Chinese pogrom in Blagoveshchensk in 1900. Then several thousand Chinese who lived on the Russian bank of the Amur were killed.

10. I acknowledge the right of China to evaluate and interpret the treaty. Politics is a complicated thing, not all agreements are mutually beneficial.

But I do not understand why, in this case, duplicate signs in Russian, if visiting the museum is prohibited for Russians? It's like making a museum in Blagoveshchensk, hanging signs in Russian, English and Chinese, but defiantly not letting in the Chinese.