Blagoveshensk – Far East Russia

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Below is some basic information about Blagoveshensk. The Engage Russia team will be visiting Blagoveshensk over the next few weeks and months and will be posting videos, photos, and print materials from those trips as soon as they become available.  If you are interested in getting more information about Blagoveshensk or creating a partnership in that area, send an email to TellMeMore@EngageRussia.org.

Blagoveshensk, Far East Russia

History
Although Russian settlers lived in the area as early as 1644, the present-day city of Blagoveshensk began in 1856 as the military outpost of Ust-Zeysky, its name meaning settlement at the mouth of the Zeya River in Russian. Tsar Alexander II gave approval for the founding of the city in 1858, with the town to be named Blagoveshchensk, after the parish Church of the Annunciation and declared to be seat of government for the Amur region.

The city was an important river port and trade center during the late 1800s, with growth further fuelled by a gold rush early in the 20th century and by its position on the Chinese border, just hundreds of metres across from the city of Heihe.

In the course of the Boxer Rebellion, Chinese insurgents shelled the city in July 1900. According to the Orthodox tradition, the city was saved by a miraculous icon of Our Lady of Albazin, which was prayed to continuously during the shelling which lasted almost two weeks. In those days the police, aided by Cossacks, decided to drive the entire ethnic Chinese community from the Russian bank of the Amur River over to the Chinese side. Civilians were driven into the river at gunpoint and many of them drowned. In total, about 3,000 people were reported to have died.

The city was also the site of conflict during the Russian Civil War, with Japanese troops occupying the city in support of the White Army. From 1920 until 1922, the city was declared part of the Far Eastern Republic, an area which was nominally independent, but in reality a buffer zone under control of the Russian SFSR.

The city became capital of the Amur Oblast in the Soviet Union in 1932.

During the Cultural revolution the city was subject to the Maoist propaganda blasted from loudspeakers across the river 24 hours a day.

Economy
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the city’s economic focus has turned to border trade with China, the town is now home to a large Chinese expatriate community. Main industries in the town include metal and timber processing, as well as paper production. The city is served by a branch railway connecting it to the Trans-Siberian railway, as well as a river port and airport. 

Text source: Wikipedia – 2009