Ukrainians in China

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The 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk, conducted between the Tsardom of Russia and the Qing dynasty, marks the beginning of the Ukrainian community in China. The newfound trade advantages allowed the Russian Orthodox Church to interact with the Orthodox Albazinian community in Beijing. A church known as the Church of Saint Nicholas was established by Maxim Leontiev following his capture in the 1685 Battle of Albazino. However, the church remained stagnant until 1716, when archimandrite Hilarion Lezhaisky (born in Chernihiv) arrived with a ten-person group intending to establish the Russian Orthodox Church in China. Despite early successes, the effort was quickly undermined by Lezhaisky's efforts to obtain more funding from the Qing government, leading to the ten followers returning to Russia a year later. Lezhaisky then fell into alcoholism, dying the next year.^[1]

During the early 19th century, Ukrainian doctor Yosyp Voytsekhovskyi [uk] actively countered cholera in China.^[2]

A wave of Ukrainian migrants began to arrive almost two centuries after Lezhaisky's mission to China, with the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway in the 1890s. Many migrants arrived from Central Asia, where work on the Trans-Caspian railway had recently been completed. This wave of migration formed the backbone of the Ukrainian presence in China, with Ukrainian communities being established in the cities of Dalian, Harbin, Jilin, and Mukden (now Shenyang). Early Ukrainian settlement was soon followed by the establishment of several cultural organisations, including a bandurist choir and the "Ukrainian Club".^[3]

During the Russian Civil War, the Ukrainians of Harbin threw their weight behind the self-declared state of Green Ukraine. On 16 July 1917, Ukrainians in Harbin held a meeting where it was formally determined to join Green Ukraine. In the spring and summer of the same year, two sotnias were raised among the Harbin Ukrainians with the goal of assisting Ukraine properly in its war of independence, leaving for Ukraine from Vladivostok.^[4]

As the Bolsheviks were pushed back from early gains in the Far East by Chinese forces participating in the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, the Chinese military provided protection and support for Green Ukrainian governmental and military bodies, who began issuing Ukrainian passports. However, this venture was short-lived, and by 1920, the Far East had become part of the Far Eastern Republic, a Bolshevik buffer state.^[5]

After the Russian Civil War (particularly after the dissolution of the Far Eastern Republic), the Ukrainian community in Manchuria found its size bolstered by political refugees from Green Ukraine. Many of the Green Ukrainian movement's leaders fled to Manchuria out of fear of persecution, establishing themselves in Harbin and other cities throughout Manchuria. There, they received a chilly reception from the Chinese government, which, in spite of its support for Ukrainians in the Russian Civil War, began attempting to suppress Ukrainian nationalism in 1923. Though some of the Ukrainian communities dispersed (leaving for Hong Kong, Shanghai, or South America), the Ukrainian diaspora in China continued to function.^[5]

The Harbin Ukrainian community was also noticed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists leader Yevhen Konovalets, who sent several OUN members to establish contacts with the community in the mid-1930s. This expedition also aimed to establish connections with the Empire of Japan, which had seized Manchuria and established the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. Konovalets also visited Manchuria to contact the city's Ukrainian community. In 1937, OUN members who had organised the Horodok post office attack [uk] and subsequently fled to Italy were sent to Manchuria with the intention of cooperating with the Japanese government in activities aimed at restoring Green Ukraine and combatting the Soviet government. However, relations between the OUN and Japan quickly soured, with the OUN's refusal to cooperate with the Harbin Russians.^[6]

During the interwar period, Ukrainian organisations continued to be established in Harbin, including a chapter of the Ukrainian Youth Association (which became the Ukrainian Far Eastern Sich^[7]) and Prosvita.^[3] The Ukrainian community in Manchuria boomed at this time, with an estimated population of 30,000–45,000 in the 1930s.^[4] However, the boom ultimately proved to be short-lived, as the Soviet invasion of Manchuria sent the community fleeing southwards to Tianjin and Shanghai. As the Chinese Civil War progressed, many remaining Ukrainians were evacuated to Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, the Philippines.^[5]