Reform of the Traditional Education System in Manchuria in the Context of Sino-Russian Interaction at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries

This article examines the understudied history of reforming the traditional education system in Northeast China (Manchuria). Educational reform was an integral part of the modernization processes that began in China after the defeat of the Qing Empire in the Opium Wars with European powers. The outdated education system no longer met the contemporary needs of national development, as it was unable to ensure the Qing Empire’s global parity with world leaders. The goal of the education reform was to transform the traditional system, drawing on foreign experience, into a fundamentally new system of education consistent with European standards. The reform in China’s northeastern provinces was based on the introduction and use of elements of Russian education. The study identified three stages in the study of the Russian language and the establishment of Sino-Russian educational institutions in Northeast China, which played a significant role in intercultural communication and the development of Russian-Chinese cooperation.