Tribuna’s guest is a member of the Federation Council Committee on Agrarian and Food Policy and Use of Natural Resources, Yuri Kushnar, Senator from the Amur Region.
- As part of our program we have the rubric "From Kamchatskiy Territory to the Kaliningrad Region" I know that the Amur Region is rich in terms of tourist attractions, and from the standpoint of history. Tell about it in detail.
- This region is interesting and beautiful. But I would probably highlight those events which will take place this year in the Amur Region, and they are connected with the exploration by Russia or, yes, by all the nations of Russia, the exploration of the Far East. The fact is that the exploration of the Far East went on continiously, it went by steps. First of all Russians arrived there, or Russia came, with its pioneers went to Yakutsk, Kamchatka was next, Khabarov and his squad came to the Amur from Yakutsk, through Sretensk. And the village of Albazino that exists to this day, during that time, in 1650, Khabarov came to the fortress, which protected, in which daurian soldiers, daurian tribes lived, which represented the name of the warlord who led the garrison of the fortress, Albazin, and the fortress was named after him. Khabarov led daurians from this fortress, took it, and since then, in general, this place has always been Russian. This year in the Amur Region we will celebrate the 365th anniversary of the appearance of Russians in Amur. And essentially, from here, from Albazino, began the further movement down the Amur, and in fact, the exploration of the southern Far East.
The history of the Ostrogo-Albazinskaya fortress is unique. The Manchu did not needed a strong contender in the face of Russia here, so in 1685 Manchus besieged this fortress. The fortress went from hands to hand, it was burned down, the Russians came to rebuild it again. Ultimately, as a result of this 'Albazino Chair', in this place, in the Albazinskaya fortress, it was defended by a total number of one thousand Cossacks. And almost all of them died. In the end, only 100 people went out of the Albazinskiy burg. Nevertheless, the Russians did not give up, but signed a peace agreement. The Nerchinskiy Peace, in fact, led to the fact that the Russians left and a large part of the territory formally went to Manchus, but according to this Nerchinskiy Treaty they had no right to economically develop this area. And after more than 150 years, when Muravyov came with all the power of Russia, of course, they forced the signing of the Aigunskiy Treaty, and since then you could say that the very serious colonization and exploration of the Far East started.
Therefore, in fact, the history of the Russian Far South, the Far East, begins from Albazino. his year will be the celebration of the 365th anniversary of Albazino as a settlement, the first city of the Amur region. On the other hand, 350 years of the bringing of the Cupid icon, it was brought from Sretensk, the Albazinskaya Icon of the Mother of God. It is the only miraculous icon of the Far East. I just want to say that Russian culture is largely Orthodox
-I know that archaeological excavations are conducted at the Albazino burg.
-Yes, but they started somewhere around the 1970s, there were a few attempts. But this latest expedition operates under the patronage of the Petropavlovsk Fund, founded by my predecessor in the Federation Council, Pavel Maslowskiy. I, too, am a member of the Board of Trustees of the Fund. This fund financed this archaeological expedition. And in general, the success is very significant. Many artifacts have been found there, but the most interesting is probably the fact that, in the course of excavations, they uncovered the burial ground of the Cossacks, who defended, one thousand Cossacks, who died there, they are practically on this small patch, the burg is 100 by 70 meters, such an area. It is, in general, very small. And a few graves, quite large. I think that if these excavations will go on then we can find all of those who defended the fort.
There are now the most modern methods are used, firstly, for research. Let's start with the fact that, during the excavation, the methods that are used are used for exploiting mineral resources, for exploration and subsoil study. This is happening for the first time, well, not for the first time, but in Russia it is surely the first time it has happened during archaeological excavations. And then, on the remains of the defenders, a completely innovative way of determining the recovery of the image of those whose remains these are has been applied. And today we know who those people were, those Cossacks who defended the Albazinskiy burg.
- Can you actually see the faces of those people?
- Yes, today it's all in a museum exposition there. In Albazino there is an Amur branch of the museum. The exhibition is very interesting by itself. There is a reason to go there. The potential of the Amur Region is still not disclosed. In September there will be a burial of the remains of the defenders of Albazino, it will be a huge event, not least because it is the most ancient military burial. We are going to re-bury those who were not buried according to the Orthodox tradition during the Civil War, soldiers who defended their homeland during the Second World War II, and the Cossacks defended the frontiers of Russia 350 years ago.
- The practical issue: is the airport in Blagoveshchensk far from Albazino?
- Of course, there are problems with logistics. It's really far away, to Skovorodino 700 km, and from Skovorodino 80-85 km more. There is a road, but there are still a lot of organizational issues. Today, there is a place to go to, there is a place to stay, a place to worship there, a chapel, a museum. If we do everything, there will be a monument at the spot where the events took place. Perhaps, soon a temple will be put there. Because the development of history is inextricably linked with the history of the Orthodox Church. That is, the Russians came and the first thing they did was to bring with them an icon and set up the Holy Trinity Monastery.
- How close is the Amur Region's cooperation with neighboring Chinese provinces?
- The question, of course, is how to organize this cooperation. The fact is that the Far East today is home to a population of 6.5 million, in the provinces of Heilongjiang 100 million people live. So compare their potential, human in the first place – it is simply huge in comparison with us.
- On the bank of the Amur there is a huge number of industrial enterprises, and a lot has been spoken about discharges ...
- Somewhere in the Songhua River there has been discharge, but as far as I know, this is the only case.
- Is this more like media hype?
- Of course. The Chinese people are quite responsible. The country and the people are quite unique, you need to know how to work with them, you should be able to do it, it's not easy, but we are forced to turn to each other, the time has come. And so we need to find a common language. Joint projects already exist. The Chinese will have travelled the road that it needed to travel from the end of the 1980s to the present day. They have achieved very significant results. Today they produce very high quality mining equipment, and we have to buy it. And I have a question – why didn't Russia do the same? It becomes a bit of a pity for our country. We do not have enough manpower. Today the population of the Far East has decreased by almost 20% from 8 million in 1992. The quality of life is not improving, people are leaving. We must make sure that the quality of life in the Far East is not only as good, it is better, to be able to achieve fast growth, and then people will come to the Far East.
- This is one of the priority tasks of the state. The newly designed ministry has taken steps to attract international partners, the APEC forum was successfully held in Vladivostok...
- Everything is aimed at finding common ground and mutual understanding in order to move from words to deeds. My colleagues, clients, with whom I had worked before becoming a senator, had done much in this direction. Today they cooperate very closely with China, with their Chinese partners, with Chinese financial institutions. These are companies that are engaged in production of ferrous metals, iron and titanium.
Even the bridge which will be built in the Jewish Autonomous Region is a result of interaction between the Chinese and Russian sides. In the Amur Region there are many projects – oil, gas, refining, a chemical plant practically on the border with China. All this together should provide an impetus for economic development. But most importantly, the quality of life should be changed, the conditions in which we live, because medicine today, and education today is much worse than in central Russia. This is a huge problem. We need to do quite serious work in order to change the situation. We should not lose to China, because with such a huge neighbor we risk being absorbed simply by this human mass.
