The Russian Far East

The Last Frontier?

Susan F. Davis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Edition: 1
• Year: 2003
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Print ISBN:
  9780415274258
• Subtopic: Development Economics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134479252
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book is a comprehensive introduction to the contemporary Russian Far East (RFE) and offers an argument about federal relations and power in the state. It is the only easily available, single volume book to examine the RFE in such depth.

1

INTRODUCTION

The Russian Far East (RFE) is a large and remote region with a harsh climate and a small, and diminishing, population. The region has a history, resource base, and a sense of distance from Moscow that often make its leaders and inhabitants less than compliant to central authority. The future of this vast region will be affected by the willingness of the Kremlin to negotiate deals with each of the components of the RFE (the ongoing federal bargaining), the economic situation in the Russian Federation as a whole, the situation with the military forces based in the RFE as well as the state of the entire Russian defense budget, the attitude of the inhabitants, and the skill of Far Eastern politicians.

In addition, the “neighborhood” will have a strong effect on how the future unfolds for the RFE. The long border with China, the short border with North Korea, the proximity of Japan as well as other Pacific Rim countries, and the level of interest or investment in the region by other powers such as the United States and South Korea will have an impact on the choices and opportunities facing Far Eastern leaders.

The history of the RFE is the story of a frontier similar to the westward expansion of the United States. Russians (and other Slavic and European groups) went East to capture wealth in furs and natural resources, to escape governmental control, find additional freedom, often as either outcasts or exiles, and to find markets for their goods. Others went to the frontier for reasons of state. They were sent to protect investments, property, borders, and state claims to resources, either as settlers or as troops. This dichotomy of rationales for populating the frontier gives the region a dual personality in which both cooperation and conflict permeate most activities. Those who live in the Far East have an odd mix of independence and pioneering, and anti-authority attitudes coupled with a desire for help from the central government on issues of importance like energy policy and export rules. This dichotomy is reinforced by geography. The RFE is much closer in geographic terms to Northeast Asia than it is to Moscow. Many in the RFE felt and feel that their future is tied to that of Asia and yet their present is tied to Moscow. And in economic terms, it is easier, cheaper, and more logical for the RFE to trade with Asia than with Moscow. However, the region is reliant upon Moscow for food subsidies, wage payments, monetary policy, and much more.

Culturally, much of the region looks to Moscow. Xenophobia and racial tensions abound in the Far East as about seven million Russian citizens face 123 million Chinese in the four nearby Chinese provinces. Again, the RFE is pulled two ways. This leaves contemporary leaders with a number of conflicting choices and paradoxes: Are they Asian or Russian? Should they look East or West for economic, political, and security issues? Can they look in one direction for some needs, while focusing in the opposite direction for others?

Each of the ten regions encompassed in the RFE has a slightly different story and a slightly different relationship with Moscow, the federal center of Russia. Russia has an asymmetric federalism with different powers for the ethnic republics than for the “regions” that are primarily ethnically Russian. A number of subsidiary units also still exist such as autonomous okrugs that again have a different grant of power. Constitutionally, the ethnic republics have more power than the “regions.” However, in the unpredictable floating crap game that is Russian politics today, the reality is often quite different. Some governors have managed to attain equal status with the ethnic republics and aspire to even better federal terms. It is this on-going bargaining based primarily on blat and sviazi (loosely translated as power, influence, and relationships) that interests me. In the process of analyzing the relationship the RFE has with Moscow, I will provide the reader with basic demographic, economic, and political information about each of the ten components of the RFE as well as clarify the nature of federal relations today. I will also look at how history and geography affect the choices and possibilities the leaders of Russia and the RFE face as they move away from the Soviet past and into the uncertain future.

The RFE encompasses one quarter of Russian Federation territory. The RFE is over 5,700 miles from Moscow and ten hours by plane. Much of the RFE is six to nine time zones away from European Russia. The remoteness from the federal center of the Russian Federation has certain costs and benefits for the region. In some ways, this region has the same “frontier mentality” that made the American West famous. There are many who argue that parts of the RFE are very similar to the “Wild West” with few lawmen and many lawbreakers. Even under Soviet rule, there was a feeling of freedom that permeated the region due to its distance from Moscow. As a matter of fact, one story that came out of 1991 goes as follows:

About 6 months after the collapse of the Soviet Union, foreign tourists began to travel to points previously forbidden. One group of adventure tourists went to Chukotka for some camping and to view the wildlife. They happened upon a group of natives and asked them for their impressions of life after the USSR. The Chukchi villagers were unaware that the Soviet Union had collapsed and said that the regime had never bothered them much and they doubted that the new regime would be that interested in them either!

The population of the RFE is approximately 7.5 million, or 5 percent of Russia’s total population. Russians constitute about 81 percent of the population (although many are descended from Ukrainian emigrants); 6 percent are descendants of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and native peoples.¹ With about 1.2 persons per square kilometer, the RFE has the lowest population density in Russia (Table 1.1). As a result of the harsh climate and difficult living conditions in the northern areas, decreases in regional wage differential payments, and the decrease in federal subsidies to the region, there is a substantial annual migration of population to other regions of Russia that has been increasing in recent years.

The Russian Far East measures 6.2 million square kilometers or 36.4 percent of the territory of the Russian Federation. The large size and low population density in the RFE mean that transportation costs are very high and therefore everything is more expensive in the Far East than in European Russia. In addition, these factors also make it harder for governmental and nongovernmental institutions to build close networks within and among the region. Much of the region also lacks a broad-based and diversified economy, and some of the regions are almost totally lacking in manufacturing capabilities, and so they are reliant on goods produced elsewhere, particularly foodstuffs, and so must pay the rising transportation costs in order to survive.

The southern part of the RFE (Amur Oblast, Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Primorskii Krai, and Sakhalin Oblast) accounts for more than 70 percent of the region’s economic potential, including 90 percent of the agricultural production, heavy industry, consumer goods production, and food processing.² The northern part of the RFE (Chukotka, Kamchatka Oblast, Koryak Autonomous Okrug, Magadan oblast, and Sakha) lives off extractive industries ranging from fishing to mining. At present, the RFE produces approximately 5 percent of Russia’s national product but is the number one producer of diamonds and gold as well as a substantial producer of other important resources such as timber, oil, gas, and tin.

Table 1.1 The relative size of the territories of the RFE in the Russian Federation (RF)

Chapter 2 will deal with these basic demographic, historical, and factual matters at a regional level and will introduce the argument of the book. In this book, I will argue that the story of the RFE is one of cooperation and conflict domestically, regionally, and internationally throughout history and in the contemporary period. The RFE is a frontier region, far from the center of empire (be it Tsarist or Soviet, or Russian). It is a harsh and diverse environment in which people must cooperate but also an environment that encourages individualism and self-reliance.

Chapter 3 will explain the political situation in the RFE. First Tsarist St Petersburg and later Soviet and Russian Moscow have struggled to exercise control over the region. The relationship between the RFE and the center has varied greatly over time and has ranged from total dominance to shared federal powers. The RFE continues to struggle for some measure of autonomy while also being dependent on the center for food and investment. These struggles and dichotomies have strong implications for federal relations between the RFE and the Kremlin. There are also numerous personalities and movements that are shaping the politics of the region. I will also analyze the political situation in which the leaders of the Far East have to operate given their position between European Russia and the Pacific Rim.

Chapter 4 will look at the economy of the RFE and how the various territories have fared under the post-Soviet regimes. The RFE is rife with opportunity and corruption. Lawlessness and colorful individuals do exist in the region but so do hardworking, honest citizens who are striving to cope with the dramatic changes of the last decade. Some of the territories in the RFE are more corrupt and others are less so. Some are highly autocratic and others are slightly more democratic. This book will help the reader see those distinctions.

Many of the defense industries that had been heavily reliant on the central budget and the military threats of the Cold War are doing very poorly. However, joint ventures in the fishing, timber, automotive, and oil industries are doing relatively well. In the service industries – restaurants, bars, hotels, tourism – joint ventures abound and are doing well in some areas. There is some entrepreneurship as well, and many of those small businesses are working out nicely.

The Soviet era reliance on extensive methods of economic growth as well as casual attitudes towards the environment and over-militarization have left the RFE with a legacy of ecological and health problems that will seriously affect the region’s ability to grow and progress economically. Clean up alone of the mess left by the previous regime will take decades and many millions of dollars. Health care costs are astronomical. The situation is so bad that some regions are paying to send elderly and ill citizens to European Russia rather than care for them in the Far East. Corruption has added to the environmental problems. Some of the money from Japanese and American sources that was supposed to pay for the decommissioning of nuclear vessels, cleaning up water supplies, and decreasing acid rain has found its way into the hands of corrupt politicians and businessmen and not into fixing the problems faced by the RFE, and the funding has occasionally been halted due to these ongoing problems with corruption as well as due to economic downturns in the primary donor countries. These issues will be dealt with in both the economics chapter and the chapter on the military since the ecological situation is greatly influenced by both economic and military policies.

Chapter 5 focuses on the neighborhood in which the ten territories of the RFE are located. The region has forged closer ties with its Pacific Rim neighbors, including the United States due at least in part to their proximity and therefore lower transportation costs, but also because Moscow no longer has the resources to subsidize and invest in the Far East. Many of the joint ventures in the RFE are with Korean, Japanese, American, and Canadian businesses. Rising tensions and ethnic problems in China affect the region as do population trends. The Chinese population is large and growing, while that in the RFE is small and dwindling. Korea, Japan, and the United States also play important roles in the regional foreign policy of the region and will be dealt with here.

The RFE was a highly militarized area under the Soviet regime. Chapter 6 explains the role and pervasiveness of the military in the Soviet and post-Soviet RFE. Troops were stationed along the border with China and North Korea. The Pacific Fleet (Tikhonoi flot) of warships and submarines sailed out of several Far East harbors. There were border guard regiments, tank brigades, reconnaissance units, and motorized rifle units in the Far Eastern Military District as well as strategic rocket forces. In addition, the Air Force based a large number of military aircraft in the region. Helicopters, planes, and ships were built in enterprises around the Far East as well. Many of these units and enterprises continue to exist on paper but at a much lower stage of readiness and with many fewer troops. Some no longer exist or no longer function. Housing, wage arrears, and morale are all serious problems for the military. In some cases, the regional governments have subsidized local troops in a variety of ways that could cause alarm in Moscow and questions about to whom the troops owe their loyalties.

Political and economic leaders in the RFE, and leaders of the central government in Moscow, face a daunting task. Many of the Russians in the Far East originally came to the region due to the large regional pay differential (hardship pay) that no longer exists, due to obligatory military service, for ideological reasons such as “to build Communism” which, again, no longer exists, or to be near family who had been exiled to the GULAG, the vast Soviet prison system that is mostly a thing of the past as well. Those who can afford to, leave for European Russia or other places where life is less expensive and easier. Many cannot afford to leave. Travel and daily living expenses have risen exponentially since the demise of the USSR so that most Russians, and other ethnic groups, are struggling to survive and cannot afford to move or emigrate. This is especially true in the RFE due to the higher costs involved. In addition, the propiska system³ is still in place in some parts of the country and various permissions and stamps are needed before one can relocate officially.

During the late Soviet period and the Yeltsin years, the regions of Russia took a lot of powers away from the central government and often managed to consider the entire administration of the country as quite superfluous. The RFE flounted central directive and followed its own path. Under Putin, this has changed. Putin has been trying to reassert control and reemphasize the need to keep Russia together and strong. Putin managed to get rid of Evgenii Nazdratenko, the infamously corrupt leader of Primorye; however, the Russian budget cannot pay out the kind of subsidies common under the Soviet Union nor does it have money to invest in the region. Once again the RFE is pulled in two directions.

The last chapter, Chapter 7, will pull together the various threads presented herein and offer some conclusions about the region and its future. The goal of this book is to help the reader to better understand this region of Russia, the following chapters will lead the reader through the conquest of the Far East by the Russian Empire through the Soviet period and into the present. We will look at history, politics, economics, foreign relations, and the role of the military in the RFE in order to gain an appreciation of the situation in the RFE and to analyze the likely future of the RFE.

2

HISTORY AND DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

The history of the Russian Far East (RFE) is intimately bound up with geography. The natural environment, and the challenges it posed for settlers and administrators, shaped the directions of economic, social, and political development in the region. In the northern regions consisting of subarctic tundra and permafrost, builders and settlers were confronted with almost insurmountable construction problems, which have been overcome only at great expense and with the aid of modern technology. The great taiga forests, thick stands of evergreens, represent a great potential resource. However, these same forests have made it costly and time consuming to clear land for agriculture and settlement. The sheer size of the RFE has also confronted Russian authorities with enormous transportation problems. In addition, inhospitable terrain confounds transportation and limits possible sites for settlements, towns, and military outposts, especially in the mountains that run along the coast of the Primorye, and that dominate Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island, limiting population centers on the periphery of the Far East.¹

The great rivers of the region have controlled the tides of settlement. The Lena, the Kolyma, and above all the Amur, are the great highways of the Far East, moving goods and people from one part of the region to another. The river valleys provide easily accessible agricultural and grazing land, sites for towns and forts, and effectively tie the region together. The rivers also enable trade and commerce among settlements and between the Far East, European Russia (via the rail system), and Asia. The native cultures tended to cluster along the rivers: the Yakuts along the Lena, Chukchi in the Kolyma area, and various tribes, both local and Mongol and Manchu/Jurchen emigrants that settled along the Amur. All of these natives adapted to the natural environment of the Far East, subsisting on reindeer herding in the permafrost zone, and on hunting, fishing, gathering, and small-scale agriculture in the more temperate parts of the region. They adopted tribal cultures, emphasizing kinship and clan networks, and conducted limited trade in the byproducts of forest and reindeer, remaining small and scattered in population.²

Over the years, the tribes around the Amur River became increasingly exposed to Chinese and Korean culture and civilization. The Manchu gained control of the plains of Manchuria from the Amur River, and imposed their rule on China.³ Influence flowed in both directions. Timber, reindeer hides, and fish in the Far East acted as a magnet for Chinese and Korean settlers and merchants, who established trading posts in the Amur valley, and in the mountains and hills of the Primorye. Trade and settlement brought conflict, and conflict brought the imperial Chinese government, which began to establish outposts and forts, to protect trade and settlers and control the unruly tribes of the Far East. The forts, trading post...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Tables
• Preface
• Chronology
• Map of the Russian Far East
• 1. Introduction
• 2. History and Demographics of the Russian Far East
• 3. Of Governors, Oligarchs, and Presidential Envoys: Politics and Society In the Russian Far East
• 4. Katastroika and Collapse or Barter, Trade, and Potential Wealth?: The Economies of the Russian Far East
• 5. Regional and Foreign Policies: China, Japan, the Koreas, and the United States
• 6. The Military and the Military–Industrial Complex In the Russian Far East
• 7. Conclusion
• Appendix I: Internet Sites On the Russian Far East
• Appendix II: Major Industries In the Russian Far East
• Notes
• Bibliography