The fate of the archive of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). 1898-1953

Scientific article

doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-3-930-942

For citation

Krotova, Maria V. (2024), Fate of the archive of the Chinese Eastern Railroad (CEL). 1898-1953 years, Herald of an Archivist, № 3, pp. 930-942, doi 10.28995/2073-0101-2024-3-930-942

Krotova, Maria V., St. Petersburg State University of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

The fate of the archive of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER). 1898-1953

Abstract

The article is devoted to the fate of the complex of archival documents of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CEL), exported in parts from China to the USSR in 1935-1953. The relevance of the article is conditioned by the fact that the question about the fate of the CEL archive has not been raised in the research literature. Meanwhile, it is of great importance not only for archivists, but also for specialists dealing with the problems of foreign policy of the Russian Empire and the USSR, history of Russian-Chinese relations, peculiarities of Russian presence in Manchuria. The question about formation and export of the CEL documents complex is closely connected with the history of the road, built in 1898-1903 on the territory of North-Eastern China (Manchuria). In connection with political events CEL changed owners and way of management several times. For half a century of existence of the road a considerable array of documents was accumulated, which remained scattered for a long time, but the most part of it was in Harbin. In 1952, in the process of transferring the China-Changchun Railway (CCR) to the People's Republic of China (PRC), the question of the fate of the huge archive of the railway arose. Initially, a special commission in Harbin decided to destroy most of the documents, but the USSR Ministry of Railways insisted on exporting them to the Soviet Union. The article focuses on the process of deciding the fate of the CEL archive in 1952, its division, transfer of some documents to the Chinese side and export of the main body of materials to the USSR in 1953. The historical and genetic method was used to clarify the circumstances that influenced the fate of the archive. The article is based on the principle of preserving the integrity of the archival information environment. Currently, most of the documents exported from China are kept in the fonds 323 “Board of the CEL Society” of the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA). Some documents are concentrated in Moscow and are kept in the fonds of the Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE). Until 1990 the fund 323 in RGIA was inaccessible for a wide range of researchers, but after its declassification the documents of CEL are actively used both for scientific work and genealogical research. The author comes to the conclusion that due to the professionalism of the employees of the archives of the Ministry of Railways, who understood the value of the set of documents, most of the materials of the CEL were transported from the PRC to the USSR, and the structure of acquisition was preserved almost completely.

Keywords

Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), Chinese Changchun Railway (CCR), PRC, USSR, Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE), Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), principle of integrity of archival documents, historical sources.

Download the article: krotova_doi

References

Ablazhey, N. N., Li, D. (2023), Chinese historiography about CEL and Russian presence in the North-East of China, The New Past, № 4, pp. 64-82.

Ablova, N. E. (2005), CEL and Russian emigration in China: international and political aspects of history (the first half of the XX century), Russian Panorama, Moscow, Russia, 430 p.

Bryankina, E. A., Ryzhak, N. V. (2003), Periodicals of “Russian Harbin”, Oriental Collection, № 1 (12), pp. 38-42.

Inozemtseva, Z. P. (2023), Archival information environment in the views of V. N. Avtokratov (1922-1992), History and Archives, vol. 5, № 1, pp. 138-146.

Samoilov, N. A., Starovoitova, E. O., Khodyakov, M. V., Yanchenko, D. G. (2016), The Chinese-Eastern Railroad - the historical heritage of two nations: prospects for study, Modern History of Russia, № 3 (17), pp. 205-210.

About the authors

Krotova Maria V., Doctor of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor, St. Petersburg State University of Economics, Department of International Relations and Political Science, Professor, St. Petersburg, Russia, +7-921-550-25-37, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The article was received in the editorial office on 26.02.2024, recommended for publication on 20.06.2024.