the title “Empress Dowager Chongqing” (崇慶皇太后). The held his mother in high regard and often consulted her for advice. Some believe that she may have been behind the emperor’s ill-fated selection of Lady Ulanara to be his second empress consort. The Qianlong Emperor often visited his mother. Empress Dowager Chongqing also always accompanied her son on his excursions to Shenyang and the Yangtze River Delta. In her old age, when Empress Dowager Chongqing was no longer fit to travel, the Qianlong Emperor stopped all his trips and only resumed after her death. Empress Dowager Chongqing’s 60th birthday in 1753 was lavishly celebrated. The Qianlong Emperor ordered the roads decorated from to the ,Chinese poems were read in her honour and sacrifices were made to the gods by the emperor and the entire imperial court. In her honour, the emperor also ordered the dredging of a lake at the Garden of Clear Ripples, which he named Kunming Lake, as well as renovated buildings on the lake shore. Empress Dowager Chongqing died in 1777 at the age of 84. She was interred in a separate tomb in the Western Qing tombs in .

М.С. Сидорова 4 курс, Высшая школа политического управления и инновационного менеджмента науч. рук. доц. Л.И. Миляева

The Russian Influence in Harbin Harbin today is still very much influenced by its Russian past. A city once under Russian rule, it is now a center of trade with that country. The influence of Russia came with the construction of the Far East Railway, an extension of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and Harbin, known formerly as a fishing village, began to prosper as the largest commercial center of North Eastern Asia. In 1896, an agreement was signed in Beijing regarding the Russian control of the China Eastern Railway. The agreement stated that only Soviet and Chinese citizens could be employed for railway construction. In fact, Tsarist Russia encouraged Russian settlement in their important Trans-Siberian-Railway outpost by waiving the then 25-year long military service obligation for patriotic reasons. Thus thousands and thousands of Russian engineers, railway builders, employees, Tsarist army soldiers and their families came as the first generation

55 of Harbin Russians mostly to Harbin for the Chinese Eastern Railway. They moved to Harbin in order to work on the railroad. At the time Harbin was not an established city. The city was almost built from scratch by the builders and early settlers. Houses were constructed, furniture and personal items were brought in from Russia. After the Russo-Japanese War, while many Russians left Harbin, a lot of long-time residents decided to stay. By 1913, the Russian population is up to 43091, taking 63% of the total city citizens and Harbin had become an established Russian colony for the construction and maintenance work on the China Eastern Railway. In the 1920s Harbin was flooded with 100,000 to 200,000 Russian White emigres fleeing from Russia. They were mostly officers and soldiers involved in the White movement, members of the White governments in Siberia and Russian Far East. There were both the intelligentsia and ordinary people. Harbin held the largest Russian population outside of the state of Russia. From 1932 to 1945, Harbin Russians had a difficult time under the Manchukuo regime, and the Japanese occupation. Some Harbin Russians initially thought the occupation was good, hoping that the Japanese would help them in their anti-Soviet struggles and provide protection from the Chinese, who were desperately trying to restore the sovereignty of Harbin. Many Harbin Russians returned to the Soviet Union after 1935. Nearly all of them were arrested during the Great Purge (1936–1938), charged with espionage and counter-revolutionary activity. Some Harbin Russians moved to other cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Qingdao, and eventually left China. By the 1930s, Shanghai’s Russian community had grown to 25,000. In 1945, after the Soviet Army occupied Harbin, the Soviets sent all those Harbin Russians whom they identified as White Guardists and those who had collaborated with the Japanese authorities to labor camps. By the mid-1960s virtually all Harbin Russians had left Harbin. So due to the strong decades’ presence of Soviet Russians, Harbin city has acquired Russian style in architecture, education, art, food, clothing, language and more aspects of life. The architecture in Harbin brings the city the name of “Oriental Moscow” and “Oriental Paris”.

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