ABSTRACT
Just after the end of the American Civil War, the first transcontinental railway was completed. Nearly 30 years passed before the ‘iron way’ reached across Siberia to Manchuria at a time when international rivalry was becoming increasingly tense. Both China and Japan, not to mention the Western powers, were concerned with the impact that the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern railways might have. Unrest in China at the beginning of the twentieth century in the shape of the Boxer Rebellion was followed by the Russo-Japanese War, making a great impact not only in the Far East but throughout the world, contributing in particular to the first Russian Revolution.
Meanwhile, the remarkable railway city of Harbin populated by Chinese and Russians grew amid a hinterland frequented by bandits. From the very beginning, there was a distinctive quality about Harbin, much accentuated with the arrival of the war as it provided shelter for the wounded and entertainment for officers and men awaiting the call from the front or recovering after a stint in the frontline.
