Update

Dear Friends of Harbiner Stories,

I’m sorry for delays in approving posts and writing any new posts. I had hoped to have more time this fall to add more to our site, unfortunately I started at a new job that took all my free time. Be patient with me!  This project is still very interesting to me and I hope to add some more after the new year.

In the meantime, you can still add or post through the comments and I will try to be better about approving comments sooner.

Maybe in the winter, I will get to my Mom’s and pick up the drawings made by (my Baba) Nina’s classmates.  Friends drew pictures into a book and there are signatures that go with each drawing.  That was one thing I had planned to do.  These are very charming. Also the name of these kinds of books in Russian and translated would be great.

Another thing I wanted to do was to summarize some articles that I got from the library on different subjects related to Russians in China in the 1900s.  If you see something you would like to read and summarize, send me a post or a note and I will communicate with you and post it.  Or you can post it yourself on a Google site and I would share the link.

Again, I apologize and hope to get back to this site in the future. Let’s keep this discussion alive.

Best to you, Lisa

Chinese Pidgin Russian

Molly E. McCann (memccann@umail.ucsb.edu) Double Major: Linguistics & Slavic Languages & Literatures (UC Santa Barbara) Title: Chinese Pidgin Russian in Dersu Uzala Abstract: Chinese Pidgin Russian is an extinct contact language which was once spoken in Eastern Russia and Manchuria and is based on Russian, Chinese, and indigenous languages. There is little recorded data of the pidgin, which makes Vladimir Klavdievich Arseniev‘s book Dersu Uzala—an account of his 1907 expedition in the Ussuris—a vital source of information on the language. My project includes a brief history of the language, language issues surrounding Arseniev and his book, and an overview of the phonologic, morphologic, lexical, and syntactic features of Chinese Pidgin Russian.

Harbin Russian Bibliography Book

Harbin Russian Imprints:
Bibliography as History, 1898-1961
Materials for a Definitive Bibliography
Edited and introduced by Olga Bakich

From       http://www.rosspub.com/harbin.htm

Harbin, a city in northeastern China (formerly Manchuria), was the center of a Russian colony from 1898 to 1917 and host to the primary Russian presence in the region.  Russians originally came to the area to build and operate the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER); after the Russian Revolution, Harbin became one of many enclaves for the first wave of Russian emigration.

From 1898 to the early 1960s, four generations of Russians lived in Harbin, which after the October Revolution, remained one of the last outposts of Tsarist Russia.  Harbin Russians were caught in the ongoing political struggle first between Tsarist Russia and China and later between the USSR, China, and Japan.  All three powers—the Chinese Government in the 1920s, the Japanese Manchukuo government (1932-1945), the Soviet government (1920s to the late 1950s), and the communist Chinese government (1949-onwards)—did all they could to reduce and eventually eliminate the presence of Harbin Russians, who devotedly preserved the Russian language, culture, religion and lifestyle.

Russian publishing in Harbin began in 1898 and continued until the early 1960s.  The great volume and diversity of Russian publications (books, serials, calendars, and maps) in Harbin have not previously been adequately recorded and studied.  This bibliography catalogs 4,261 imprints: 3,447 books, 182 newspapers, 338 journals, 201 single-issue [однодневные] publications, 51 maps, 42 calendars, as well as numerous leaflets, posters, and postcards.  All titles included in this bibliography were published in Harbin and are primarily in the Russian language.

The Bibliography is the result of the author’s extensive research, conducted in university and community libraries and archives in several countries, documenting an estimated 85% of the total number of Harbin Russian publications.  The remainder is comprised of imprints that were either destroyed or lost and others that may still exist but have yet to be located and cataloged.  For this reason, this book is intended to serve as the foundation for a definitive bibliography of Harbin imprints.

The unusual history of this close-knit Russian community produced a remarkable and varied literature, which will be of interest to all Slavic scholars and researchers.  The publication of Harbin Russian Imprints, Bibliography as History, 1898-1961: Materials for a Definitive Bibliography makes this unique body of publications accessible for the first time to the academic community.

From Solanus, New Series, Vol. 17, 2003: “Olga Bakich’s Harbin Russian Imprints represents a life’s work by the leading specialist on Russian Harbin…. Imprints begins with a lengthy and most useful Introduction, based on a rich array of primary sources, and tracing both the history and the publishing activity of Russian Harbin from 1898 to 1961…. The 4261 individual entries afford a maximum of information…. The sections on newspapers and journals, in particular, are awe-inspiring bibliographic work…. [E]legantly produced…, no student of the Russian emigration will be able to do without [it].”

This volume should prove to be a valuable research tool for scholars interested in the history and culture of Russia, the Russian presence in Harbin and northern China, and the region as a whole.

ISBN: 0-88354-386-9, ca. 598 pages, library binding, acid-free paper……………………………….$95

info@rosspub.com

Manchuria’s Russians under Chinese Rule, 1918-29 – Administering the Colonizer

Administering the Colonizer
Manchuria’s Russians
under Chinese Rule, 1918-29
Blaine R. Chiasson

http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2010/AdministeringTheColonizer.pdf

49-page document

1 Introduction: Where Yellow Ruled White – Harbin, 1929 / 1
2 Railway Frontier: North Manchuria before 1917 / 16
3 The Chinese Eastern Railway: From Russian Concession to Chinese
Special District / 38
4 Securing the Special District: Police, Courts, and Prisons / 56
5 Experiments Co-Administering the Chinese Eastern Railway / 98
6 Manchurian Landlords: The Struggle over the Special District’s Land / 120
7 Whose City Is This? Special District Municipal Governance / 151
8 Making Russians Chinese: Secondary and Post-Secondary Education / 184
9 Conclusion: Playing Guest and Host on the Manchurian Stage / 209

Contemporary Chinese Studies / The University of British Columbia
This series, a joint initiative of UBC Press and the UBC Institute of Asian
Research, Centre for Chinese Research, seeks to make available the best scholarly
work on contemporary China. Volumes cover a wide range of subjects
related to China, Taiwan, and the overseas Chinese world.

Music: The Hills of Manchuria

The Hills of Manchuria by Ilya Shatrov orginated in the Russo-Japanese War 1904/05.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWDgs34wilk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNQTFkdxRvc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZsK0pSbSIo

Harbin Commercial School More Pictures

This photo was likely taken in 1924 or early in 1925.

The below photos may or not be at the Commercial School for Girls. One caption reads Bookkeeping Class.

Harbin Commercial School for Girls

Updated.  As did many others, my grandmother attended and graduated from the Commercial School for Girls in Harbin, China in 1925. Nina, age 18, graduated as a Candidate of Commerce, and was awarded a silver medal from the Harbin Commercial School (now People’s Technical University NOT Harbin Commercial University?). Nikolai Borzov, 1871-1955, was the People’s Technical University Founder. The Commercial School was a high-standard Russian-language high school. Graduates who left for farther shores were accepted into to the best European & American universities.

1925 Graduation Photo

Here is a photo of Nina’s class 1925.  Names from the back of the photo were translated by Yelena, the ESL program director at the school where I teach. Then, translated and typed back into Russian by Boris Alexeev.  Thank you both! (The column notations below refer to how the names were listed on the back of the photo. They do not necessarily correspond to the rows of people.)

Right Column Правый ряд
Anischenko, ? Анищенко, ?
Moskalenko, Nina Москаленко, Нина
Sergunina, Raya Сергунина, Рая
Yegorova, Olga Егорова, Ольга
Vragimina?, Lyusya Врагинина, Люся ?Vraginina?
Vishnevskaya, Ira Вишневская, Ира
Levinskaya, Lyalya Левинская, Ляля
Korneeva, Nina Корнеева, Нина
Chistyakova, Zhenya Чистякова, Женя
Voroninova, Olya Воронинова, Оля
Popova, Natalya Попова, Наталья
Makirova?, Lida Макарова, Лида ?Makarova?
Belikova, Olya or Беликова, Оля
Lebedeva, Nina or Лебедева, Нина (my grandmother)
Vengner, Liza or Венгнер, Лиза
Serdyukova, Tusya or Сердюкова, Туся
Tershova, Shura or Тершова, Шура
Belonozhkina, Nina or Белоножкина, Нина
Kruglova, Tonya or Круглова, Тоня

Left Column Левый ряд
Leschinskaya, ?  or Лещинская, ?
Lurepova, ? 8 grade  or Лурепова, ? 8 оценка?
Voznesenskiy, ? or Вознесенская, ?
Itelin?, ? 8 grade or Ителин, ? 8 оценка?
Storozhev, ? (music) or Сторожев, ? (музыка)
Mordinskiy, ? or Мординский, ?
Volontsevich, ? or Волонцевич, ?
V?topomov? or Втопомов?
Kuznetsova, L.N. or Кузнецова, Л.Н.
Tomin, G.F. or Томин, Г.Ф.
Fejodorov, K.G. or Федоров К.Г.
Orlov, H.M. or Орлов, Н.М.
Vard, G.K. or Вард, Г.К.
Kustrutskaya, S.A. or Кустрюцкая, С.А.
Lyudvikovskaya, E.A. or Людвиковская, Е.А.
Korobov, ? or Коробов, ?
Kostyuchin, N.I. or Костючин, Н.И.
Ipurkin, N.V. or Ипуркин, Н.В.

President of the School Board: Nilus
Director: N. Ustrialoff
Inspector: O. Golubzev
Secretary of the Pedagogical Committee: I. Fedorov

Some other links, related to the names or research done in this area:http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/collections/28634/Nikolai Viktorovich Borzov
http://en.hit.edu.cn/ Harbin Institute of Technology/People’s Technical University
http://en.hit.edu.cn/about/oldalbum.htm
http://english.hrbcu.edu.cn/ Harbin Commercial University
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/discussionpost/I_am_currently_doing_research_on_the__Russian_school_Lyceum_of_St_Nicholas._Is_it_still_a_school_and_whereabouts_in_Harbin_would_it_have_been._Any_i_28941

St. Nicholas Cathedral, Brisbane QLD, Australia

St. Nicholas (ROCOR) is considered Australia’s First Russian Orthodox Church and will be 90 years old in 2013.

My penpal Alla pointed me to this old and sweet Russian church in Australia and sent me a link.  She says “I may have been one of the first babies Christened in this Church after it was built. My son Steven was christened there in 1965.”

The size of it reminds me of the Holy Trinity Cathedral (OCA) in San Francisco that my Great Grandfather (a priest) was associated with: a small, charming, family-oriented church and also one of the oldest Russian Orthodox churches (for the United States).

• stnicholascathedral.com
• www.epa.qld.gov.au/chims/placeDetail.html;jsessionid=7f00000130d64ff4b4a90c5e4b5484cffd2ac7b05ba7.e34NaN8SbNyKci0SahuTaNuQahn0n6jAmljGr5XDqQLvpAe?siteId=15133

Blog Photo

The photo in the masthead of my blog is from a collection of photographs from a close friend of the family. I would love to know more about it.  As I am an Adult ESL teacher, I asked a Chinese student about the photo.  She recognized it as a famous place near Beijing, but she could not tell me the name.  She believes it no longer exists. Eventually, I shall find out the name of this place though it will take some time and help.

Meanwhile in my first search, I found this wonderful collection of old photos from China.  Take a look….

http://hahn.zenfolio.com/juniper/

http://maximumcities.net/Photoweb/index.html (The Photographer’s Bibliography)

Book: The Tarasov Saga by Gary Nash

A. Malikoff wrote about: The Tarasov Saga

I have to mention the Tarasov Saga by Gary Nash. It is a very well written and researched book about life in Harbin and Shanghai. If you ever manage to get a copy it’s well worth while. I believe it has been translated into Russian and launched this year sometime. As far as I know you can only get the book from Gary and he lives in Sydney Australia. Great for any researchers.

http://www.tarasovsaga.com/

Also available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+tarasov+saga&x=0&y=0