Chinese Workers on the Construction of the CER 1898–1899

In the Russian historiography of the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, there is a tradition of studying the contribution of Russians to the construction of the road and the city of Harbin. However, along with the Russians, from the first days of the construction of the CER, the Chinese worked alongside the Russians. From the first days of construction work, most of the construction workers of the CER were Chinese. Based on the evidence of the Russian builders of the CER and the first researchers of the road, the historical picture of Chinese participation in the construction of the road and the city of Harbin is restored, a set of issues and problems related to the involvement of Chinese in the construction site, the organization of work, the relationship between representatives of two peoples and states is revealed. Both published materials and documents stored in archival collections of Russia and the USA, documents of Russian and Chinese origin are involved in the work. The chronological scope of the study is limited to the first stage of the construction of the CER (1898 — early 1900). The first Chinese workers arrived at the construction site with Russian engineers or were recruited locally. Then several tens of thousands of Chinese were recruited and sent to construction work, the vast majority through large contracts concluded in the provinces of Shandong and Zhili (Hebei). The first and most important Chinese contractor who organized the supply of workers and the organization of their work was entrepreneur Cai Lianbi, who collaborated with the head of construction, engineer A.I. Yugovich. Russian Russian-Chinese cooperation's first experience in the construction of the CER was complex and contradictory, but on the whole it was successful, which determined the future fruitful RussianChinese cooperation on the CER for several decades.