Russian sinological education in Manchuria in the beginning of the 20th century

A significant, yet peculiar, chapter of history for Russian sinology is seen through establishment of sinological education in Manchuria. It was in the beginning of the 20th century that Russians of Harbin began studying the Chinese language. It became compulsory to learn the language in The Men’s CER School of Commerce and Harbin Commercial School as early as 1907. Local population partly did not appreciate it. In 1911-1912 academic year, the issue of discarding Chinese as a compulsory subject was initiated by the parents'' association but ignored by the CER governing body. After the 1917 revolution, Russian sinology in Manchuria received a quantum leap. Chinese was being taught either regularly or periodically in various Russian high schools. Much attention to it was given in The Dostoevsky Gymnasium, where Nikolai Glebov and Leonid Ulyanitsky were teachers. Other renowned names who worked at schools are Pavel Shkurkin and Colonel Von Schareberg-Schorlemer. In 1929, the education department for Special District of Eastern Provinces pronounced Chinese to be mandatory at all Russian high schools and institutes. Around the same time, institutes of higher education also embraced it. Among them was Harbin’s Department of Law where sessions in economy of the East were introduced. Students got to study not only the language but also geography of East Asia’s countries, trading and industrial systems, currency, law, and history of China. Ippolit Baranov headed the Chinese Language Department. Konstantin Uspensky and Sergei Usov were teachers there. In 1925, there was opened The Institute of Oriental and Commerce Studies. Aleksei Khionin was filling the post of principal continuously up to 1940. Many Russian sinologists, either independently or in coordination with the Chinese, managed to publish a number of learner’s dictionaries and textbooks. They also enjoyed their own associations in public and scholarly circles, such as Harbin’s Society of Russian Orientalists, and Society of Manchurian Oblast Researchers. The latter’s linguistics section was headed by sinologist G. A. Sofoklov. Russian sinology in China went through numerous disturbances and became an integral component of all-Russian history of sinology.