ABSTRACT
Russia has figured only marginally in Western thoughts about the Pacific. The term "Pacific Islands" conjures up Micronesia and Polynesia rather than Sakhalin, the Kuriles, or the Aleutians. "East Asia" brings to mind China, Japan, and Korea, but not the enormous expanse of territory between these countries and the Arctic. Siberian regionalism found articulate spokesmen in two Tomsk intellectuals, Nikolai Yadrintsev and Dmitry Potanin. Both men called Siberia a "colony" abused by the Center as a dumping ground and milch cow. The events of 1917–1922 both weakened and enhanced Russian influence in Asia. Dissolution of the empire and the subsequent failure of the "White" counterrevolutionary movement undermined Russian military and economic power in Asia, as well as in Europe. Chinese, Japanese, and Americans alike subscribe to the notion of Russian territorial expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. Russia's frontiers in Asia have expanded and ebbed, as have the frontiers of China and Japan.
