Harbin Russians

The term Harbin Russians or Russian Harbinites refers to several generations of Russians who lived in the city of Harbin, in Manchuria from approximately 1898 to the mid-1960s. Harbin, a major junction city on the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER), came successively under the control of the Ta-tsing (Qing dynasty) Empire, the Republic of China, Manchukuo and the People's Republic of China in this period.

The people in the Soviet Union used the terms "KVZhDist" (Russian: КВЖДист, "person of the China Eastern Railway" Russian: КВЖД) and "Harbinets" (Харбинец, "Harbinite/person from Harbin") to refer to a person with any type of ties to the China Eastern Railway.

The first generation of Harbin Russians were mostly the builders and employees of 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, Harbin had become an established Russian colony for the construction and maintenance work on the China Eastern Railway. A record shows Harbin had a total of 68,549 people, most of which are of Russian and Chinese descent. There were a total of 53 different nationalities. Along with Russian and Chinese, there were 45 spoken languages used in Harbin at the time. Only 11.5% of all residents were born in Harbin. There were lively religious activities, too, by the Russians (Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin), Ukrainians (Church of the Intercession in Harbin), Poles (Sacred Heart Cathedral of Harbin), Germans (Harbin Nangang Christian Church), Danish (Danish Lutheran Church), and others. A few kilometers of Harbin there is a railway station of Asheng (Ashihé) which was a settlement of hundreds of white Russians till 1955. A large community, with orthodox church, independent college, library and a social club. The common language was Russian, with some Siberian variations. Many Czarist Imperial officers amongst "old believers" contributed to maintain strong links to Russian culture, literature and music. Almost the entire population of Asheng emigrated, to Australia and Brazil.

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