Centre for East Asian Studies

Title of Research: The Russians in Tianjin, 1901 - 1945

Supervisor (s): Professor Robert Bickers and Dr Maurizio Marinelli

My thesis will focus on the Russian presence in the Chinese city of Tianjin during the first half of the twentieth century. A Russian population existed in the city from the establishment of the territorial concession in 1901 until the return of the foreign districts to Chinese control in 1945, during which period their situation changed dramatically: part of the Romanov empire until 1917; officially under the aegis of the Soviet consulate after 1924; stateless and ambiguous in between. I will examine the reciprocal relationship between policies implemented in the concession and their intellectual context: the contemporary ideas and debates about empire, nation, race and identity that informed policy-making and attitudes towards the Chinese and the other colonial powers in the city. I will explore how these ideas were reflected in practice and how they were modified as a result of experience, as well as attempting to assess their significance within the broader context of Russian and Soviet foreign policy in East Asia.