Harbin
Russian railway builders, like all foreigners in China, enjoyed the right of extraterritoriality. In accordance with article 6 of the contract for the construction of the CER in the right-of-way, all the usual institutions of the Russian administrative system were gradually created: the police, in which Russians and Chinese served, as well as the court. By agreement with the Chinese authorities, the CER was sure to buy out the lands it was alienating for the needs of the road from private owners. The width of the alienated land on the tracks between the stations was set at 40 sazhens (85.4 m) - 20 sazhens in each direction, but in fact it was somewhat less. For large stations, 50 acres of land (54, 5 hectares) were alienated, for other stations and sidings - up to 30 dessiatines (32, 7 hectares). Under Harbin, 5650.03 dessiatines (6158.53 hectares) were originally alienated by several separate plots, and in 1902 the area of alienation increased to 11 102.22 dessiatines (12 101.41 hectares). On the right bank of the Sungari (Harbin) 5701, 21 tithes were alienated, on the left bank (Zaton) - 5401, 01 tithes. This entire area was united by a common border.
The construction of the Southern Line was one of the priority tasks set by the Russian government for the CER Society. Later, on February 5 and June 29, 1899, the tsarist government commissioned the Society to set up a shipping company in the Pacific Ocean. By 1903, the Chinese Eastern Railway possessed twenty large ocean-going steamers. They provided freight and passenger traffic between the ports of the Primorsky region, the Dalny port and major ports in Korea, China and Japan, and carried out the transit of passengers from Western Europe to the Far East. During the Russo-Japanese War, the entire fleet of the Chinese Eastern Railway was completely destroyed.
In Manchuria, new cities arose on the Chinese Eastern Railway: Dalny, Manchuria and Harbin. Harbin became the "heart" of the CER. More than a hundred stations of the road soon turned into flourishing villages. By 1903, the CER Society built 294,061 square meters in them. m of residential premises, and by 1910 - 606 587 sq. m. In 1903, the total number of road employees reached more than 39 thousand people, mostly Russians and Chinese. The cost of the CER, including the maintenance of the port of Dalny and the city of Dalny, by 1903 amounted to 318.6 million rubles in gold. By 1906 it had grown to 375 million rubles. In subsequent years, this amount approached 500 million rubles.
To reduce the construction time of the road, the administration of the CER decided to create a large stronghold directly on the territory of Manchuria, which would meet one, but the main requirement: a huge amount of construction materials needed to ensure this gigantic communication must be provided here at the lowest cost. This point was chosen the place where the railway line intersects the Sungari River. And it was named simply: Sungari, or the railway village of Sungari. This is how the city of Harbin was founded, which became the "heart" of Zheltorussia. The author of the name "Zheltorossiya", given to the CER and adjacent areas, is unknown. But, by the end of the 1890s. the term Zheltorosiya was widely used not only by the population, but also by the press.
One of the most important preparatory measures for the construction of the road was the organization of the river flotilla of the CER. She bore the brunt of delivering to Manchuria a huge amount of cargo and equipment required for construction. The work on the creation of the flotilla was supervised by engineer S. M. Vakhovsky. In 1897, he was sent to Belgium and England, where he signed a contract for the supply of shallow-draft steamers and metal barges for the Chinese Eastern Railway, suitable for navigation on the Sungari. Disassembled by sea, they were delivered from Europe to Vladivostok, and from there, for assembly and launching, they were transported to the Iman station of the Ussuriyskaya railway, and then to Krasnaya Rechka near Khabarovsk. Vakhovsky organized the assembly of ships. The first steamer, so called "First", was launched on July 20, 1898. Soon the "Second" steamer was launched. In total, 18 steamers were assembled and launched, named from "First" to "Eighteenth", 4 boats, 40 steel and 20 wooden barges and one dredger. During the construction of the road and the city of Harbin, this flotilla transported at least 650 thousand tons of various cargoes.
On May 6, 1898, the first steamer set off from Khabarovsk up the Ussuri to Harbin. It was the steamer "Blagoveshchensk", rented from a private Amur society. On board it were the heads of the construction department, headed by S. V. Ignatius, accompanied by workers, employees and Cossacks of the Security Guard. The swimming was difficult. The main obstacle was the numerous Sungari rifts and shoals. The water in the river was low. In Manchuria, where there is almost no snow in winter, its melting does not cause the water level in the rivers to rise. The water in the rivers rises during the period of intense and frequent monsoon rains - in July and August. Due to numerous delays in the shallows, when the heaviest cargo had to be unloaded from the steamer, this journey along the Sungari lasted more than 20 days. On May 28, 1898 the steamer "Blagoveshchensk" arrived in Harbin. This day is considered the day of the foundation of the city. Although the personnel of the CER began to arrive even earlier.
The village of Sungari quickly began to turn into a city. The first railway hospital was opened. Soon a capital, superbly equipped central hospital of the CER was opened in New Harbin. A canteen for builders was opened, and the first hotel “Rooms for Passengers Gamarteli” was opened. A branch of the Russian-Chinese Bank began its operations. Trade and services are developing. The construction managers took care of both the printing house and the elementary school for the children of workers and employees. In February 1898, the first small house church was opened in Anper's house in Old Harbin. And the first Orthodox priest in Manchuria was Father Alexander Zhuravsky. Later, a small but very beautiful three-domed church was built in Old Harbin between Officer and Army streets. Back in 1898, Harbin was connected to Russia by a telegraph line, which greatly facilitated the construction of the road.
At first, the builders of the Chinese Eastern Railway had big problems with the food that Russians were used to. There were no basic products familiar to Russians, since the Chinese did not grow potatoes or cabbage in Manchuria, did not keep dairy cattle, so there was practically no beef and dairy products in the markets. VN Veselovzorov, in his memoirs, published in the Harbin newspaper “Russian Voice”, wrote: “The inhabitants and servants of the road suffered from a lack of rye bread and buckwheat porridge. Game - pheasants, cozulite, red deer - was abundant, but bored, and it was almost impossible to get ordinary beef, since it was also imported. Russian cabbage, potatoes were rare during the construction of the city. They, like butter, were brought from Siberia. But alcoholic beverages were abundant thanks to duty-free trade and the free ports of Vladivostok and Port Arthur. For example, cognac of the best brand "Three stars" - Martel cost 1 ruble 20 kopecks a bottle, and a quarter of vodka cost 30-40 kopecks! For an empty bottle, the peasants gave chicken, for a hundred eggs they took a quarter (25 kopecks), and for a couple of pheasants - 20 kopecks! At the same time, it cost 2 gold rubles to shave at the hairdresser's.
In 1899 g.about 14 thousand people from the Russian Empire lived in Harbin, mostly Russians, but there were also Poles, Jews, Armenians and other nationalities. According to the results of the first census in the history of Harbin, conducted on March 15, 1903, the population of the Harbin right-of-way was 44.5 thousand people. Of these, there were 15, 5 thousand Russian subjects, Chinese subjects - 28, 3 thousand people. By 1913, Harbin was actually a Russian colony for the construction and repair of the Chinese Eastern Railway. The population of the city was 68, 5 thousand people, mainly Russians and Chinese. The census records the presence of citizens of 53 different countries. In addition to Russian and Chinese, they spoke 45 more languages.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the volume of construction in Harbin increased even more. Since 1901, the area of newly built residential premises has increased annually by 22,750 square meters. m. At the same time, the building of the Road Administration with an area of about 16,800 square meters was under construction. m, security headquarters (over 2,270 sq. m.), male and female commercial schools (over 7,280 sq. m.), the Railway Hotel (about 3,640 sq. m.), a postal and telegraph office, schools for boys and girls and the building of the Public Assembly, the central hospital was being completed. At the beginning of 1903, a large beautiful building of the Russian-Chinese Bank was erected on Vokzalny Avenue.
The administration paid great attention to the cultural leisure of Russian builders. One of the entertainments was a visit to the Railway Meeting, which opened on December 25, 1898, in Old Harbin in the evenings. Harbinians were very fond of choirs, both secular and church ones. They have always been extremely popular in Harbin. The first amateur choir sang on the small stage of the Railway Meeting. Amateurs played various musical instruments brought from Russia. The first concerts of professional artists who came from Russia became a great holiday for the residents of Harbin.
Over time, along with such types of recreation, places of rest and entertainment of a slightly different type began to appear in Harbin, for example, cafeshantan (a cafe with an open stage where songs and dances are performed) under the loud name "Bellevue". Among the builders, the overwhelming majority of young and single men, this institution was extremely popular. This and similar establishments were also very popular with the officers of the Security Guard, who lived for months on deserted halts and crossings of the road line. Harbin was the most attractive holiday destination for the military. The distance of 200 and even 300 versts to Harbin was considered a trifle for young officers and was often overcome by them both ways on horseback. Therefore, the cafe was constantly packed with people and worked all night. “Shrouded in clouds of tobacco smoke, under the light of kerosene lamps and candles, the“Romanian”orchestra thundered on the stage-platform,“French”chansonnets performed, the corps de ballet danced. It was, so to speak, a stage. And nearby, to the side, at green tables, between the regulars, random players and indispensable participants in such companies - the gamblers there was a gamble of nine, a piece of iron, a shtos and a jar. Stacks of gold coins passed from hand to hand. The resulting misunderstandings were sometimes resolved by quarrels and fights, but without shooting. The Russians preferred to wield not revolvers, but fists."
CER. Art. Manchuria. Railway station
Protection of the CER
As predicted by the most far-sighted opponents of the Great Route through Chinese territory, the road had to be protected by rather large military forces. Zheltorussia has its own army - the Security Guard of the CER. Colonel A. A. Gerngross, the former commander of the 4th Transcaspian Rifle Brigade, became the first head of the Security Guard. The personnel of the Security Guard served on free hiring, most of it were Cossacks. Initially, 5 horse hundreds were formed: one from the Tersk Cossack army, two from the Kuban, one from the Orenburg and one hundred of a mixed composition. December 26, 1897all five hundred arrived in Vladivostok on the Voronezh steamer and began serving in Manchuria. The salaries of the Security Guard were much higher than those of the army. Thus, the privates received 20 rubles in gold a month, the sergeants - 40 rubles with ready-made uniforms and a table. For the Cossacks of the Guard, their own uniform was created: black open jackets and blue leggings with yellow stripes, caps with yellow edging and a crown.
In accordance with the treaty with China, the Russian Empire was not supposed to introduce units of the regular army into Manchuria. And to further emphasize the difference between the Security Guards and units of regular troops, they did not wear shoulder straps. On the officer's uniform, they were replaced by the image of a yellow dragon. The same dragon adorned centesimal badges and was on buttons and cap badges, which is why a riot almost broke out in the Ural hundred. The Cossacks decided that the dragon is the seal of the Antichrist and it is not fitting for a Christian to wear such an image. They refused to wear dragons on themselves, but the authorities threatened, and the Cossacks found a way out - they began to wear caps with cockades back, because the seal of the Antichrist is placed on the forehead, and nothing is said about the back of the head. In addition, the officers wore gilded shoulder harnesses. But they very painfully endured the absence of shoulder straps, especially during trips to Russia.
Interestingly, the army officers did not like the officers of the Security Guard, and the Security Guard itself was called "customs guard" or "Matilda's guard" - after the name of the wife of the chief of the entire Border Guard corps S. Yu. Witte Matilda Ivanovna. Warrant officer AI Guchkov - the future minister of the Provisional Government, future generals and leaders of the White armies AI Denikin, LG Kornilov - served in the Guard of the CER at various times.
By 1900, the security guards of the CER consisted of: Headquarters (Harbin); Convoy of the chief chief of the security guard of the CER; 8th company (two thousand bayonets); 19 hundred (two thousand checkers). In 1901, on May 18, 1901, according to the "all-subject" report of S. Yu. Witte, the states of the district were approved by the tsar: 3 generals, 58 headquarters and 488 chief officers, 24 doctors, 17 veterinarians, 1 priest, 1 art official, 25 thousand. the lower ranks, as well as 9 384 combat and artillery horses. Composition: District headquarters and artillery headquarters were located in Harbin, four Zaamur brigades. On January 9, 1901, the Zaamur District of the Separate Border Guard Corps was formed on the basis of the Guard Guards of the Chinese Eastern Railway.
Judging by the recollections and memoirs of the participants in the construction of the CER, the Security Guard carried out its service regularly. Its main task was to protect builders, stations and railway lines. Each brigade consisted of two line and one reserve detachment, which had "general numbering throughout the district, separately line and separately reserve." The task of the line detachments included service along the railway. The reserve detachments were supposed to support and, if necessary, replenish parts of the line detachments and serve as a training point for the newly arrived replenishment. The ratio of the number of companies, hundreds, batteries in the detachments depended on the length of the section, the number of stations, the population of the area and the nature of the attitude of local residents to the railway. The detachment sections were divided into company sections. Companies were located at stations and near important points along the railway line in track barracks at a distance of about 20 miles from each other. The track barracks were adapted to defend against detachments of "several hundred men without artillery." The personnel of the company was distributed as follows: 50 people were in the reserve at the headquarters of the company, and the rest were at posts along the line. The posts were located at a 5-verst distance from each other, each numbering from 5 to 20 personnel. A tower for observation and a "milestone" - a tall post wrapped in tarred straw was built at each post. During an alarm or attack, the straw was set on fire, which served as a signal for neighboring posts. The line was continuously patrolled from post to post.
Hundreds of line detachments were also directly involved in the protection of railway facilities. They were distributed along the line at stations and halt stations. Hundreds of guards did not coincide with the boundaries of the company. Their task was to supervise the area adjacent to the railway and protect the outposts and residents of the right-of-way from sudden attacks, for which they sent patrols of up to 15 people. Companies and hundreds of reserve detachments constituted private reserves. They were entrusted with the following tasks: actions against gangs of hunghuzes in a 60-verstniy district on each side of the guarded section of the road, support of track companies and outposts in the event of an attack on them and, if necessary, their replenishment, guarding the station and artificial structures of the railway in the area of their concentration, the allocation of various teams to guard the work carried out by the railway, the appointment of convoys to guard the agents of the railway and escort trains, sending out patrols.
At first, attacks by Hunguz (Sino-Manchu bandit formations) on posts occurred quite often. The security guards repulsed all attacks, then pursued the robbers and inflicted cruel reprisals on them. As a result, the Hunguz were so frightened by the Russian Cossacks that they practically stopped attacking the CER.
Formally, the Security Guard was charged with monitoring the terrain 25 versts away from the railway (the sphere of direct protection) and conducting long-range reconnaissance for another 75 versts (sphere of influence). In fact, the Security Guard operated at a distance of 100-200 versts from the railway. In addition, the guards also guarded steamship communications along the Sungari (convoy on steamers and posts along the banks of the river), large logging of the road, and performed forensic and police functions.
By the beginning of the Japanese war, the Zaamur border guard district was subordinate to the command of the Manchurian army. But the personnel and traditions remained the same. On a vast stretch of the Eastern (Transbaikalia - Harbin - Vladivostok) and Southern branches of the Manchurian roads (Harbin - Port Arthur), there were 4 border guard brigades, with a total of 24 thousand infantry and cavalry and 26 guns. These troops were located in a thin web along the line, with an average of 11 people per kilometer of travel. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. parts of the district, in addition to fulfilling their main task of protecting the CER, took part in hostilities. They prevented 128 railway sabotage and withstood more than 200 armed clashes.
After the Japanese campaign, due to the reduction in the length of the CER, it became necessary to reduce the protection of this highway. According to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, it was allowed to have up to 15 guards per kilometer of railway, including railway workers. In this regard, on October 14, 1907, the Zaamur district was reorganized according to new states and included 54 companies, 42 hundreds, 4 batteries and 25 training teams. These troops were organized into 12 detachments, comprising three brigades. On January 22, 1910, the district was reorganized again and "received a military organization." It included 6 foot regiments, 6 cavalry regiments, which included a total of 60 companies and 36 hundred with 6 machine-gun teams and 7 training units. 4 batteries, a sapper company and a number of other units were assigned to the district.
A similar staffing table of the Zaamur district was maintained until 1915, when at the height of the First World War, part of the personnel was sent to the Austro-German front. Six infantry regiments of two-battalion composition, 6 cavalry regiments of a five-hundredth composition with machine-gun teams, artillery units and a sapper company were sent to the active army. Only 3 infantry battalions and 6 hundreds of cavalry remained in the Zaamur district on the territory of China, which greatly hampered the implementation of the tasks assigned to the district. However, the deteriorating situation on the fronts led to another mobilization (August - September 1915) at the CER, after which only 6 hundred personnel remained in the district. To compensate for the lack of forces, militia squads were organized, in which persons fit only for non-combatant service were involved.
The revolution of 1917 became the reason for the disorganization of the militia squads and made it impossible to fulfill the tasks of protecting the CER. The spontaneous demobilization of the Russian army in 1918 was fully reflected in the Zaamur district. After that, gangs of Hunghuz began to plunder with almost impunity in the CER band. Officially, the protection of the Chinese Eastern Railway ceased to exist in July 1920.
Construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway
From Harbin, the construction of the road was carried out simultaneously in three directions: to the Russian border to the west and east, and to the south - to Dalniy and Port Arthur. At the same time, the road was being built from the terminal points: from Nikolsk-Ussuriisky, from the side of Transbaikalia and Port Arthur, as well as on separate sections between these points. The task was to close the paths as soon as possible, at least on a temporary basis. The road was designed as a single track. The carrying capacity was accepted at 10 pairs of steam locomotives with the prospect of bringing it up to 16 pairs in the future, that is, almost to the upper limit for single-track railways, which was 18 pairs of trains per day.
By the summer of 1901, the laying of the track reached Bukhedu and began to climb to the Khingan ridge. The engineer N. N. Bocharov designed the approach to the future tunnel along the steep eastern slopes of the ridge in the form of a complete loop with a radius of 320 m, in which the lower path passed in a stone pipe under the upper one. This was also due to the need to reduce the length of the future tunnel. Already along the paved path, the machines, equipment and building materials necessary for the construction were delivered to Khingan. The loop and the tunnel were under construction from March 1901 to November 1903. At that time, the railway from Khingan went far to the west, and on October 21, 1901, the Western line was joined at Unur.
The route from Harbin to Vladivostok was connected as early as February 5, 1901 at Handaohezi station, and from Harbin to Dalniy - on July 5 of the same year. The laying of the track on the CER was thus completed along the entire length, and the road was open for working train traffic.
In the autumn of 1901, after the arrival of the necessary equipment, intensive work began on punching a tunnel. Until the completion of the tunnel and loop construction, trains were passed in both directions through a system of temporary dead ends arranged on the eastern slope of the Greater Khingan and the lower run of the loop. The working village that grew up at the eastern portal of the Khingan tunnel was named Loop. First of all, a railway track was laid and dead ends were arranged, with the help of which Bocharov successfully solved the problem of overcoming the Khingan ridge by the railway. These famous Bocharovsky dead ends began immediately behind the Petlya station. Their construction was due to the need to organize a temporary bypass railway communication for the supply of building materials and equipment for the line under construction, as well as for the delivery of passengers until the tunnel is ready. For this, a system of railway dead ends was used - sections of the track, half a kilometer long each, located in three tiers in the form of a zigzag along the slope of the ridge. The dead ends allowed trains to both descend from the steep eastern slope of the Big Khingan and ascend from below to the highest point of the pass, and thus provided the possibility of continuous railway communication bypassing the tunnel long before it was put into operation.
On July 1, 1903, the CER entered regular operation, albeit with a large number of imperfections. The tunnel through the Great Khingan was not yet completed. In the winter of 1903-1904, four luxuriously equipped passenger trains ran weekly between Moscow and the port of Dalniy. They departed from Moscow on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. At noon on the third day, the train arrived in Chelyabinsk, in the morning on the eighth day - in Irkutsk. Then there was a four-hour ferry crossing across Lake Baikal (or a ride along the Circum-Baikal road after it was put into operation). At noon on the twelfth day, the train arrived at the Manchuria station, and five days later - at the Dalny port. The whole trip took 16 days instead of 35 on an ocean-going ship.
The completion of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway immediately improved the socio-economic situation of Manchuria, turning this backward territory into an economically developed part of the Qing empire. By 1908 (in less than seven years) the population of Manchuria had grown from 8, 1 to 15, 8 million people due to the influx from China proper. The development of Manchuria proceeded at such a rapid pace that within a few years Harbin, Dalny and Port Arthur in terms of population overtook the Russian Far Eastern cities of Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. And the surplus of the population in Manchuria led to the fact that in the summer tens of thousands of Chinese moved annually to work in the Russian Primorye, where there was still a shortage of the Russian population, which continued to hinder the development of the region. Thus, as the opponents of the CER predicted, its creation led to the development of the Celestial Empire (its backward outskirts), and not the Russian Far East. And good wishes about Russia's entry into the markets of the Asia-Pacific region remained on paper.
The defeat of Russia in the war with Japan affected the further prospects of the CER. Under the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, most of the southern branch, which ended up in Japanese-occupied territory, was transferred to Japan, forming the South Manchurian Railway (YMZD). This put an end to the plans of the government of the Russian Empire to use the CER to enter the markets of the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, the Russians themselves built strategic communications for the Japanese.
