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4 Colonisation and Russia’s “Green” Civilising Mission in the Far East
Abstract This paper aims to shed light on the environmental implications of Russian colonisation of Primor′e through a close examination of attitudes toward nature and its use in the late tsarist and early Soviet eras. It finds that Russian observers showed great concern for the region’s environment(s) from an early stage but that such concerns, along with the conservationist measures they prompted, stemmed from the widespread belief that ecological degradation was a product of backwardness and barbarism, especially on the part of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese migrants, as well as peasant settlers. Tsarist elites associated environmental stewardship with civilisation and believed it was the empire’s responsibility to bring rational, civilised nature-use to the Far East. This “green” civilising mission was remarkably consistent during the late tsarist era and continued into the early Soviet period.
Keywords Russian Far East, Primorskii Krai, environment, colonisation, nationality
