Customer Reviews

The Russian Far East: A History

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Despite its title, this book is about the politics of the Amur basin and the Primorsk since about 1850. It has a definite American and cold war flavor, but no bias that I can see. Good overview.

When the book describes the history of the region prior to the 20th century, the reader might be struck by the sheer ineptitude and incompetence of the Chinese dynasties. They failed to recognise the import of the incursions by the Tsarist forces into what for a millennium was part of the Chinese sphere of influence. The inward looking nature of the Chinese imperial government was taken advantage of by Tsars that encouraged the eastward expansion across the Urals.

There were occasions when China did respond aggressively, and indeed drove back Russian forces. But a lack of follow through doomed those efforts. There can be a palpable frustration, as the geographic proximity of China to the regions made its logistics far simpler than Russia's.

The rewriting of history by the Soviets included the massive deprecating of Chinese influences in their far eastern regions. In contrast, the book attempts to give a more accurate portrayal of the historical contributions.