The Chinese geography book I read when I was a child mentioned that the skeleton of the Northeast Railway is centered on Harbin, extending to Manzhouli (Binzhou Line) in the west, Suifenhe (Binzhou Line) in the east, and Dalian (Harbin-Dalian) in the south. line), in a T-shape. This is well known to everyone, but most people don’t know that this railway is also a witness to China’s history of being exploited by others.
Historically, Tsarist Russia has never stopped its ambition and actions to find an outlet to the east.
When Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar, was crowned in 1896, the Qing government sent Li Hongzhang to celebrate. Nicholas II held secret talks with Li Hongzhang and signed the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" in Moscow.
According to the secret agreement, under the pretext of helping China resist Japan, Russian warships obtained the right to sail into any port in China; Russia obtained the right to build railways in Heilongjiang and Jilin.
In August 1898, the railway construction officially started. With Harbin as the center, it was divided into three lines: east, west and south. The construction of the six endpoints started facing each other at the same time. On July 14, 1903, the entire line was completed and opened to traffic, and it was called the East Railway. The Qing Dynasty Railway, with a total length of about 2,500 kilometers, adopts Russian-made 1,524 mm gauge and is just like a T-shape. It is distributed in the vast area of ??Northeast China.
The last Tsar Nicholas II had a plan to invade China, which was to draw a straight line from K2 on the Sino-Russian border in Xinjiang to Vladivostok, and all the land north of the line would be assigned to Russia. This is The infamous "Yellow Russia Project".
The construction of the Dongqing Railway was also part of the "Yellow Russia Plan". Before the construction of the Dongqing Railway, Russia had passed several unequal treaties and usurped about 1.5 million square kilometers of China's land.
In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion rose in the Northeast. Tsar Nicholas II believed that the time had come to invade the Northeast, so he sent troops into the Northeast under the pretext of helping to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, and gradually occupied it during the military operations to suppress the Boxer Rebellion. All over the east and west.
In order to prevent Russia from monopolizing China, Britain and the United States encouraged Japan to go to war with Russia. With the support of Britain and the United States, Japan officially severed diplomatic relations with Russia on February 6, 1904, and launched an undeclared war on the night of February 8.
Since then, the Russo-Japanese War broke out. Northeastern China became the battlefield for the land confrontation between Japan and Russia. The late Qing government at that time declared neutrality and set aside land to allow the invaders to fight on their own land. The people of Northeast China have suffered great disasters, and their lives and property have suffered unprecedented catastrophe.
The Japanese army gained the upper hand in the war. After the United States achieved its goal of preventing the Russians from going south, it intervened to mediate an armistice between the two sides. On August 10, 1905, representatives from Japan and Russia held negotiations in Portsmouth.
Japan demanded that Harbin be used as the boundary to carve up the Dongqing Railway, while Russia insisted on using Kuanchengzi (now Changchun) as the dividing point. Finally, on June 13, 1907, Tsarist Russia retained ownership of Kuanchengzi Railway Station at the cost of 560,000 rubles. Both sides agreed to use Kuanchengzi as the railway dividing point between the two countries - the north of Kuanchengzi belonged to Tsarist Russia, and the south of Kuanchengzi belonged to Japan.
At this point, the section of railway south of Kuanchengzi Station was renamed the South Manchuria Railway. Japan and Russia carved up Northeast China. Tsarist Russia's "Yellow Russia" plan failed to succeed because of this war, and Japan gained a foothold in Northeast China.
For business and management needs, Japan imitated the British practice of establishing the East India Company. On November 26, 1906, the South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd. (referred to as Manchuria Railway) was officially established in Tokyo.
Because it operated and managed the colonial areas on behalf of the government, the Manchurian Railway was also called the "colonial society". On March 5, 1907, in accordance with Emperor's Decree No. 182, the Manchuria Railway moved its headquarters from Tokyo to the former office building of the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Kanto Governor's Office in Kodama-cho (now Tuanjie Street), Dalian, and changed it to a branch in Tokyo.
On April 1, 1907, the "Manchurian Railway" officially opened for business, with the Investigation Department, the General Affairs Department, the Transportation Department, the Mining Department and the Local Department. At this point, the "Manchurian Railway", an important institution that affects Northeast China and even the entire modern history of China, has officially entered the stage of history.
Since its establishment, South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd. has continued to improve the construction of South Manchuria Railway lines and built a series of new railway branch lines to completely connect the Korean Peninsula and Siberian railways.
At the same time, Manchuria Railway also established the Manchuria Airlines Association to undertake international air services from Manchuria to Japan and North Korea, and had its own cargo terminal in Dalian.
Dalian was planned and designed by the Russians, but the Russian construction was interrupted by the Russo-Japanese War, and it was occupied by Japan after the war. Therefore, Dalian's historical buildings have a variety of styles.
There are two theories about the origin of Dalian's name. One theory is that it comes from the name of the Russians. Tsarist Russia has been looking for a warm entrance to the sea. The Mediterranean is one direction, and the other is China in the east.
After Russia invaded China's Vladivostok, it named it Vladivostok, which means "ruling the east." After coming to Dalian, it called it "Dalini". It means far away.
After the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese occupied the city and renamed it a similar-sounding name: Dalian.
Another theory of the origin of the name Dalian is that it comes from Mongolian. Before the establishment of Dalian Port, this harbor was called Qingniwa by the Han people, and the Mongolians called it "the sea", which is transliterated as "Dalian".
When the Russians built a dock in this harbor, they chose a Russian word with a similar pronunciation based on Mongolian, called Dalini. This statement seems to make sense.
There is a famous lake called Hulun Lake on the Hulunbuir Grassland in Inner Mongolia. Its Mongolian name is Dalai Naoer. "Dalai" means sea in Mongolian, and "Naoer" means It is a lake, and Dalai Nur means a lake like the sea. The pronunciation of Dalian and "Da Lai" are very similar.
In 1920, the Dongqing Railway was renamed China Eastern Railway, referred to as the Eastern Railway.
In 1924, China and the Soviet Union signed the "Sino-Soviet Outline Agreement for the Settlement of Unsettled Cases" and the Agreement on the Provisional Management of the Middle East Railway. The treaty stipulated that the Middle East Railway was a railway jointly operated by China and the Soviet Union and was purely commercial in nature, and promised that China could Use Chinese capital to redeem the railway and all attached properties.
After Zhang Xueliang changed the flag of Northeast China, he took the action of taking back the sovereignty of the China Eastern Railway by force. This was the China Eastern Railway incident that occurred in 1929. China's Northeastern Army was ultimately defeated due to the disparity in strength. Finally, through negotiations, they unconditionally agreed to restore the Eastern Railway to its original state.
On the night of September 18, 1931, the Japanese imperialists forcibly stationed the "Kwantung Army" in Northeast China and blew up a section of the South Manchuria Railway near Liutiao Lake in the northern suburbs of Shenyang, falsely accusing the Chinese army of destroying the railway. , and used this as an excuse to attack and occupy Shenyang, leading to the "September 18th" incident that shocked China and foreign countries. China began a 14-year war of resistance.
In March 1935, the Soviet Union sold the Eastern Railway, which was jointly operated by the Sino-Soviet Communist Party, to Japan at a price.
After Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, Manchukuo lost all jurisdiction, and the South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd. also ceased operations. Most of its assets were taken over by the Soviet Red Army and dismantled and shipped back to China. The Eastern Railway was renamed China After the Changchun Railway was established, it was still under the control of the Sino-Soviet Communist Party.
It was not until December 31, 1952 that the China-East Railway ended its Sino-Soviet administration and was completely returned to Chinese ownership.