ABSTRACT

The Russian government’s early policies toward Chinese immigration varied from encouragement to intolerance but were mainly governed by economic factors: the need for labour and the state of commerce. In the early decades, Russia was interested in utilizing cheap Chinese labour in constructing urban infrastructure and also needed it to create a self-sustaining agriculture, all the more that peasants and Cossacks were at first reluctant to settle here because of the enormous distance from their homes, the perils of the journey, and the isolation of the region during the winter. Thus, from the beginning, there were various flows of Chinese migrants: independent agricultural colonists going to the Amur and Ussuri valleys; hunters, gatherers, and outlaws going to the taiga; and labourers going to regions of agricultural settlements and to the cities. Soon they were to be joined by merchants.