ON THE CAUSES OF EXTINCTION OF USSURI NATIVES
Authors:   Institute for Demographic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, TKACHEV S.V. , TKACHEVA N.N. ,   Moscow International University
Published: December 2024

The question of the reasons for the extinction of Ussuri “natives” has been of interest to researchers since the mid-19th century, even before the beginning of the active phase of settlement of the Ussuri region by Russian colonists. However, this problem began to be included in the broad public discourse only from the beginning of the twentieth century. This interest was due to two reasons: concern about the uncontrollability of the Chinese in the taiga, especially in the conditions of the Yihetuan Movement that broke out in the border areas in 1900, as well as doubts about the loyalty of the indigenous population on the eastern borders of the Russian Empire during the period of Japan’s strengthening in the region. The peculiarity of Russian colonization of the Ussuri region was that the indigenous peoples continued to live in their traditional territories, and the government tried not to intrude unnecessarily into their life. Aborigines lived as if in a parallel world: society knew that they existed, but in real life settler peasants, burghers and officials practically never crossed their paths with the natives. Contacts were limited only to economic interaction, which was largely controlled by the Chinese. In general, the question of what to do with the “natives” arose. By that time, they were assigned to the peasant class, but in this case they could claim vast tracts of land, which were given to the settlers, and it was naive to expect the natives to plow this land. Their lands could not be taken away, for this could condemn the natives to starvation. At the same time, the number of taiga inhabitants was decreasing. The first census covering the indigenous population of the region was conducted in 1879. Already by that time it showed an extremely low number of aborigines. The situation was getting worse in the following years. However, the indigenous population along the Amur River and to the north of it remained approximately stable. The authors of this article posed two questions: (1) Why was the South Ussuri region sparsely populated by the indigenous population even before its accession to the Russian Empire? (2) What can explain the decline in the number of natives in the period after accession to Russia? The authors considered eight possible causes of the depopulation of the Ussuri region. These are: (1) the Manchu conquest campaigns in the 17th century; (2) exploitation of the indigenous population (primarily by the Chinese); (3) brought diseases; (4) migrations; (5) “decline of morals” among the indigenous population due to the imposition of Christianity, new habits, new spheres of activity; (6) gender imbalance; (7) population regulation by the tiger as a superpredator; (8) decrease in the catch of anadromous fish due to its uncontrolled extraction (primarily by Japanese industrialists) at the beginning of the 20th century. All these reasons influenced the situation with varying degrees of importance and, moreover, intensified the consequences of each of them separately. The Manchu military campaigns became the immediate trigger for the depopulation of the region, while the number of the indigenous population failed to recover over the following centuries. According to the authors, the environmental reasons had the greatest impact here. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, economic reasons became most important. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.