Amur expedition

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The Amur Expedition from 1851 to 1855 was a Russian science expedition led by Gennady Nevelskoy with the aim of exploring and developing the areas of the Amur and Ussuri rivers , the Sakhalin Island and other parts of the Far East .

Nevelskoi had set out on behalf of the Russian Governor General of Eastern Siberia Nikolai Muravyov (later Muravyov-Amursky) to establish several outposts on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk . In July 1850 the expedition had advanced downstream the Amur and founded on 1./(13). August 1850 the city of Nikolayevsk . At the end of 1850 Nevelskoi returned to Saint Petersburg . After he had reported to the government, the so-called permanent Amur expedition was launched in February 1851, which consisted of 64 members under the leadership of Nevelskoi. The aim was the exploration of the Amur area and the search for anchorages in the Tatar Sound (northern part of the Sea of Japan between Sakhalin and the mainland). By 1855, the expedition carried out cartographic work, explored land resources and established military bases.

The increase in its military presence in the Far East was a prerequisite for Russia to gain free access to the Pacific and the establishment of territorial claims to the area to the left of the Amur, against the Chinese Empire . Nevelskoi claimed in a memorandum prepared for the tsarist government that the left bank of the Amur had no economic, cultural or other ties with the rest of China. This later provided the most important basis for the Russian demand that China must cede the area on the left of the Amur to Russia, which was enforced in the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 .

The expedition was dissolved in June 1855 and the areas it had discovered and explored were initially placed under the administration of the governor of Kamchatka .

literature

  • AI Alekseev: Gennadij Ivanovič Nevel'skoj . Moscow, 1984 (Russian)