Organization of Resettlement to the Far East of the Russian Empire by Ships of the Volunteer Fleet in the Second Half of the XIX Century

The Far East is a relatively new region of Russia. It became fully part of Russia only in 1860 after the signing of the Beijing Peace Treaty with China. This peace treaty definitively defined the border between Russia and China along the Amur River, and also transferred Primorye to Russia. The annexation of this region to Russia and its integration into the empire were complicated by the difficult foreign policy situation in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region. It was possible to prevent foreign interference in the newly annexed lands and achieve strategic and economic benefits only through further development and colonization of the Far East by Russian settlers. The opening of the sea route on the ships of the Volunteer Fleet helped accelerate the colonization of the South Ussuri region by the Russian population. The final qualifying work examines the resettlement of peasants from the South-West of the Russian Empire to the South Ussuri Territory on ships of the Volunteer Fleet in the second half of the XIX century, with special attention paid to the use of ships as something more than just the process of moving from point A to point B. This underlines the importance of taking into account the difference between these two points - travel, moments on the road and lives lived on the move. Despite the development of the history of mobility and the concept of transit travel, in the historiography of resettlement to the Far East, sea transportation was not considered separately, but studied in the context of resettlement as a whole. Therefore, in this document it is proposed to divide the study of maritime transportation and resettlement into separate objects of study. It is also important to note that for Russia, the method of developing the territory through mass resettlement by sea is unique, so it is necessary to consider the paradox of resettling people on warships unsuitable for these purposes.