Boris Afonin, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper analyzes the basic domestic policy events, social and economic situation in Japan in 2014 including the results of December elections to the lower house of parliament (house of representatives). The elections’ results have shown the bargaining strength of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP). Jointly with the coalition Komeito party, it holds the majority of seats in both parliament’s houses which allows it to adopt the laws profitable for LDP without hindrance. Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe announced the continuation of the new economic policy in the state dubbed as Abenomics. Economic and financial situation is reviewed in the paper. In the previous year, the government for the first time ever adopted the law allowing Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to apply force abroad, the so-called collective self-defense act. This gave rise to concerns both domestically and abroad. Many analysts consider this law to be an attempt to revise Japan’s constitution, article 9 in particular. In 2014, the state secret act introducing censorship for the media was also adopted. The paper gives a brief summary of Japan’s relationships with its neighbor countries: PRC, Republic of Korea, DPRK and Russia. The author draws a conclusion that, compared with 2013, they did not undergo significant changes; only Russian-Japanese political relationships have cooled down.
Key words: Japan, parliamentary elections, lower and upper house of parliament (House of Representatives and House of Councilors), political parties, ruling Liberal Democratic Party, cabinet of Japan, prime minister, political, social and economic situation, inflation, gross domestic product (GDP), constitution, governmental laws, foreign policy, countries of North East Asia: China, Republic of Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Russia, territorial dispute.

Vitaliy Boldyrev, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper compares the modern state of Russian and American research of the US foreign policy. Diverse variations of the systemic structural method fundamental for the American studies in Russia were analyzed. The modern state of Russian research in this field is considered to be critical which is due to the fact that the available potential has not yet been unlocked by researchers. It is noted that case studies have become the key method in the US political science. In spite of the fact that very effective case models have been created based on this method, they do not allow valid forecasting. We see the way out in creation of a multiple-factor model of the US foreign-policy process based on systemic structural method. It includes the following factors: the president factor; the factor of administration and government; the public policy factor and the foreign policy factor. The optimal methodological tools have been identified for analysis of each factor. The methodologically essential matters have been identified. Their solution dictates the correctness of the multiple-factor model’s application. Namely, the balance should be found between the research’s political and historical components, the proportion of the constant and the random, the whole and the parts should be identified and the role of rational and cultural and civilization motives in decision making should be determined.
Key words: foreign policy, USA, American studies, systemic structural method, case studies, multiple-factor analysis.

Leonid Kozlov, Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service, Vladivostok, Russia.
Anastasiia Nikulina, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany.
Entrepreneurship theory has traditionally regarded political environment as one type of external environment in which a firm operates. The article includes observation of the influence of political culture, political system, political process and public policy of Russia on the behavior of Chinese entrepreneurs in the Russian Far East. Empirically, the article is based on the legal acts which regulate political process in Russia, expert interviews which were conducted between 2006 and 2014 in frames of various scientific projects, participant observation of business communication, Russian-Chinese treaties and agreements, documents of the Russian Trade Representation in the People’s Republic of China, websites of Russian and Chinese government agencies, as well as media publications. It is concluded that regional political environment in the Far East of Russia is becoming unfavorable for the development of small- and medium-sized businesses, due to the fact that Russian government aims at regaining the control over economic processes in this region. Small- and medium-sized businesses have to either engage in risky activities or work in narrow, tested niche areas, where they still keep competitive advantage. On the contrary, such political environment in the Far East is becoming favorable for large-scale Chinese businesses. Foreign policy issues urge the Russian government to treat Chinese economic presence in the region with more tolerance and trust. The Russian side is particularly interested in large investors, who are able to implement comprehensive, long-term projects with leading technologies, and at the same time be predictable politically.
Key words: political environment, international business, Russian Far East, China.

Yuliya Kamornaya, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper illustrates the measures taken by Qing government for recovery, expansion and preservation of Confucian primary basic education as a part of traditional China’s ruling policy jiaohua (transformation through education). The paper shows the process of recovery and expansion of such traditional institutions of Confucian education as paid community schools in the greater part of Qing Empire and widespread introduction of free primary education institutions in the country beginning from the 18th century which was due to transformation of views of the government and educated elite circles of the Chinese society on the primary schools’ functions. The main principles of organization, management and financing of community and charity schools are described; the characteristic features of traditional Confucian approach to primary education determining the specific directions of the state policy in this field are identified. The author approaches the problem’s research in the context of using the primary education’s field by Manchiruan authorities as a tool of political legitimation of their power, a means of ideological indoctrination of the Chinese population’s educated strata. In this regard, identification of the correspondence between the political measures taken by Qing government and the traditional political, ideological and cultural views dominant in the Chinese educated strata’s community in the period described is of the greater interest than evaluation of real success or failure of Manchurian government’s educational policy.
Key words: Qing government, policy of transformation through education (jiaohua ??), basic primary education (mengguan ??), community schools (shexiue ??), free or charity schools (yixiue ??), power’s political legitimation.

Svetlana Lazareva, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper based on analysis of archive materials deals with characteristic features of governmental and public organizations in the Russian Far East whose goal was rendering assistance to non-regular soldiers, their family members, disabled servicemen and refugees during World War I. The author identifies the following types of assistance rendered by special committees: collecting clothes and food products for the moneyless, payment of allowances, providing free medical care and fare, assistance in job search, organization of retraining courses, and care for orphaned children. The Far-Easterners’ contribution for the moneyless is characterized: voluntary contributions from the salary of employees, government officials and workers; participation in one-day collections and alms-basket collections; charitable concerts and nights arranged by students of schools, gymnasiums and colleges; preparing presents for the army, etc. The author concludes that the assistance to moneyless from 1914 to 1917 was manifold and targeted. It was in the spotlight of local authorities and public organizations. In spite of all difficulties arising, non-regular soldiers, their family members, disabled servicemen and refugees were provided with welfare at the living wage level thanks to the efforts of the authorities and public benefit events. It is proved that the activity of governmental and public organizations during World War I and their manifold community outreach allowed to solve many social problems in the Russian Far East.
Key words: Russia, Primorskaya Oblast, Priamurye Governorate General, governmental and public organizations, assistance forms, war.

Yuriy Zaytsev, the Subsidiary of the Center for Naval Education and Research, Naval Academy, Vladivostok, Russia.
The Soviet Pacific navy was built in the pre-war years and during the Great Patriotic War under the conditions of growing tension of the military political situation and energetic activity of intelligence agencies of Japan and its allies. Their concern was the composition and stationing of the fleet’s forces, the ships being built, their armament and combat capabilities, the personnel’s morale and many other matters pertaining to war and state secrets. To keep the Pacific navy fleet’s composition and nature of actions private, the state military and political authorities took measures which could prevent the intelligence’ activity. Complicated situation in the Far East remained unchanged upon end of World War II: civil war in China and Korean war into which USA and USSR were drawn did not allow the government to decrease its security awareness. The paper reviews the essential measures of the Soviet government intended to create the conditions minimizing the efficiency of the foreign intelligence’s actions. First, free travel near Vladivostok (main base of Pacific navy) within the positioning area of Primorsky Krai’s military units, in border regions and other base areas of army and navy, and contacts of secret information carriers were restricted. Second, no secret information had to be derived from print media (local and garrison newspapers, leaflets, etc.). Third, special areas were created in Vladivostok and Primorsky Krai where, in order to avoid data leakage, no persons having no regard to army and navy were admitted.
Key words: Far East, Vladivostok, special areas.

Tatiana Poznyak, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper discusses public leisure activities in the towns of the Russian Far East at the initial stage of its development. Under the conditions of the local society’s paucity, detachment from the information sources and the region’s geographical remoteness from the empire’s central regions, the citizens’ daily entertainment were limited to mutual visits, family and bachelor chat-ins, hunting, walks outdoors, reading the hardly procured books. The contemporaries noted that the local society was prone to insobriety, playing cards, gossip and endless monotonous conversations. Specific Far-Eastern entertainment of that period included visiting Manchurian fairs, welcoming vessels during navigation season, dog sledding, adventurous and life-threatening games and pranks. The essential motive of public leisure activities in Russian Far-Eastern towns was the necessity to relieve monotonous and quite boring life. They required reconstruction of leisure practices habitual for Russian educated society. In Nikolaevsk-on-Amur during the Crimean War, thanks to abundance of military officers and government officials, enthusiasts made an attempt to go beyond the limits of common entertainment: they settled a navy assembly, or an officers’ club. Its creation enlivened the daily and holiday leisure time of the local society substantially. Dancing, literary and drama nights, balls and plays were organized in the assembly. The first attempts to organize leisure activities in other towns and military posts — folk festivals, dancing nights, concerts, amateurs’ plays — were made by sparse public organizations.
Key words: town, leisure time, Russian Far East, local society.

Gennady Turmov, Far-Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
Vladimir Kalinin, G.B. Elyakov Pacific Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, FEB RAS, Amur Region Research Association (Primorye Regional Department of Russian Geographical Society), Vladivostok, Russia.
Nikolay Ayushin, Pacific Research Center Federal State Unitary Enterprise TINRO Center, military historical club Vladivostok Fortress, Vladivostok, Russia.
Roman Avilov, nstitute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Research Library of the Far-Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
This paper continues the work on identifying the persons captured on a group photograph of officials of the Vladivostok Fortress Builder’s Administration with their wives made in the late May 1914 on the occasion of taking part from the assistant of the Fortress Builder in charge for works on Muraviev-Amursky Peninsula, a military engineer, colonel Genrikh Bronislavovich Kriger-Voynovsky who was being transferred to Saint-Petersburg. With use of the family archive of Tatyana Yuryevna Arnold (Saint-Petersburg), her grandfather, senior worker of the Administration, the Vladivostok Fortress’ builder, military engineer, lieutenant colonel Gleb Ivanovich Nadarov was identified. He was a son of Ivan Pavlovich Nadarov, a prominent combat leader and researcher of the Russian Far East, infantry general. The paper cites materials about the Nadarovs family including Ivan Pavlovich himself. His military activities and results of his Far East’s research are explored. The general’s death year, 1922, has been established in this paper for the first time. Based on the general’s signature which he had affixed on the book Kobzar by T.G. Shevchenko given by him to his grandson Sergey Vasilyevich Korenev and dated September 26 1921, the version on his execution in 1920 widespread in literature was conclusively contested. Dramatic moments of the Nadarovs family’s history are described. One of the misconnected with membership of one of the general’s sons, a young officer Boris Ivanovich Nadarov, in a militant terrorist organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. He was preparing an assassination attempt for internal affairs minister Konstantin Vyacheslavovich Pleve who condoned the plotter and, due to the young reduced artilleryman’s active repentance, admitted him to bail of his parents resident in Chita where Ivan Pavlovich Nadarov served as the military governor of Transbaikal Oblast. During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904—1905, Boris Ivanovich was returned his commissioned rank. He distinguished himself at battle fields and continued his military service as an engineer. The Nadarovs family’s history is described from the Civil War’s beginning until the 1930’s repressions. The work on identifying the persons captured on the group photograph is still in progress.
Key words: Vladivostok fortress, group photograph, Nadarovs family, military engineers, research of the Russian Far East.

Vladimir Podmaskin, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper regards signs and symbols used by indigenous peoples of the Russian Far East as a traditional form of registering and transferring social information in the form of pictorial writing: objects, events and actions are depicted as symbols (pictograms). According to written source sand samples of decorative arts, this writing method was preserved in the regional ethnicities up to the 1930’s. Pictography is closely related to drawing and decorative patterns. These methods of graphic communication are virtually inseparable. The genuine development of writing system and its wide spread use are possible only when such links become stable. The writing’s emergence was a result of the need not to record oral speech but to transfer information in space and time. For this purpose, theme unavailable to figurative arts, not language, were more fit. While the society was developing, the need to transfer the increasingly accurate and massive information volumes grew, but this was impossible without developing and recording the vocabulary and grammar which brought the writing nearer to the live speech. The paper proves that information and communication phenomena characterizing the culture’s evolution explain the decorative arts’ emergency and the writing system’s origin. Purpose of any sample of writing is transferring information about a certain situation. The writing emerged from the decorative arts by schematization, simplification, sorting the pictures and the links between them.
Key words: ideogram, pictography, petroglyphs, tags, tamgas, decorative patterns, shamans’ drawings, tattoos.

Marina Osipova, Ethnography Department of the Khabarovsk Territorial Museum after N.I. Grodekov, Khabarovsk, Russia.
The paper considers one of traditional folk dances of Hokkaido Ainu: bird dances, a sort of play circle dances. Since old times, bird shave accompanied humans. Song shave been composed in their honor; birds have frequently become principal characters of epic works; their movements were imitated. Practically no aboriginal ethnic groups disputed the “divine” origin of birds and the Ainu dancing culture even developed a series of dances connected with the image of these representatives of the animal world. There is a number of reasons for development of “bird” dances: kin relationships between humans and birds, their assistance in arrangement of decent existence of humans, education, fostering creative skills, humans’ protection and laying them to rest. Therefore, a cult of the revered feathered race emerged in the Ainu’s animistic world view and, as a result, sophisticated dances were developed in their honor. Birds’ names were always in titles of such dances present. Travelers and researchers of the past ages mentioned how beautiful and graceful the movements of the Ainu “bird” dance performers were, but, unfortunately, no choreographic descriptions were presented; there was also no orderliness in determining the purpose of such dances. There are no papers in Russian historiography dealing with the above-mentioned dance type which, nonetheless, constitutes a significant part of the ethnicity’s dancing legacy. A demand arose to fill in this gap in the Hokkaido Ainu’s ethnography by analyzing the existing materials and interpreting the observations. Therefore, an attempt was made to determine choreographic features of such dances and their meaning based on the deep symbolism of their meanings. The paper uses literary sources and field materials as well as modern theoretical ethnochoreological products.
Key words: Hokkaido Ainu, “bird” dance, circular dance, chain-circular dance, chain-line dance, the bird-god.

Elena Goncharova, the Museum of Archeology and Ethnography of Altai, Altai State University; degree-seeking applicant in the Department of Russian History (Altai State University), Barnaul, Russia.
Improvement of Russian transport communication system in the late 19th century and gradual involvement of Siberia into the Russian-wide market resulted in enhancing growth of its economy. Emergence of new opportunities for organization and functioning of commercial and industrial enterprises intensified the regional urbanization providing for population inflow from the entire territory of the Russian Empire. A Siberian governorate’s town at the turn of 19th—20th centuries was a complex social and cultural entity consisting of numerous ethnical and religious communities. The regional multiculturalism promoted to special social, economic, cultural and spiritual development of Siberian Jewry as a national and religious minority. Successful integration of Jewish entrepreneurs into the regional state of life had a positive impact on the possibility of preservation of their ethnical and religious uniqueness. The Jews’ rights for residence outside of the pale of settlement, purchasing real property and performing commercial and industrial business were highly regulated by the laws of the Russian Empire. Jewish entrepreneurs in Krasnoyarsk invested a great share of their funds into construction of residential and trade buildings, shops and offices, business, public and religious buildings. The buildings were designed by eminent architects. Not only do the residential houses of Jewish entrepreneurs who moved to the city at the turn of 19th—20th centuries in Krasnoyarsk’s downtown demonstrate the success of their owners, but also visualize, directly or indirectly, their ethnical and religious background. Stylistic features of facade designs of the Jewish entrepreneurs’ houses are united with “national codes” of Jews and the newest tendencies in the Russian Empire’s architecture of the of the turn of 19th—20th centuries. The paper was written with use of holdings of governorate’s architect V.A. Sokolovsky (Krasnoyarsk Regional Natural History Museum), published statistical sources and media materials of Russia and Siberia of the turn of 19th—20th centuries.
Key words: Jewish people, entrepreneurship, architecture, urbanization, acculturation.

Ekaterina Veka, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper analyzes social, economic and political processes of PRK’s domestic policy under Kim Jong-un. The author repudiates the evidence of the regime’s changes furnished by many experts and notes that the reforms begun by Kim Jong-un are the continuation of his predecessors’ policy. The young leader strains after changes in economy the foundations of which were laid already by Kim Jong-il and is supported by the elite formed by Kim Jong-il introducing his people into the administration only gradually. Unlike his predecessors, Kim Jong-un changes his behavior willing to create a leader’s image more open and comprehensible for members of the public. But “democratic” behavior of the North Korean leader, his “western” hobbies hardly be speak the new political course in the country. The author emphasizes Kim Jong-un’s continuation of hard line foreign policy and his readiness to demonstrate it to Washington and even Beijing. However, the relationships between North Korea and Russia have been changing. The recent two years can be characterized by a new trait: a turnaround towards economic cooperation has occurred under conditions of the established political relationships format. In view of the current international events, Russian Federation and PRK also have a similar foreign political concept; a thaw can be observed in their relationships as a result of growing tense between Moscow and West.
Key words: North Korea, reforms, domestic policy, political regime, Kim Jong-un, Russia, bilateral relationships.

Chu Ling, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia / PRC.
This paper deals with cooperation in power industry between China and Russia, namely in relation to gas. The author describes the details of negotiations in gas field between China and Russia in 2013—2014. The characteristic features of Chinese-Russian gas cooperation during the period of Xi Jinping’s government are analyzed. The gas cooperation between China and Russia with the purpose of providing power-industry cooperation is considered. The research’s methodological basis includes systemic, structural and functional, comparative and political, analytical and synthetic approaches. The paper notes that gas cooperation between China and Russia is an important part of strategic cooperation between the parties in the power industry field. Under conditions of the Ukrainian crisis and sanctions of western countries, successful gas cooperation as an essential branch of strategic Chinese-Russian cooperation is crucial. There is a number of difficulties and problems in Chinese-Russian gas cooperation. But in the short run, if main gas pipeline construction from Russia to China is begun, great demand will arise for high-quality equipment for the pipeline which will boost the environment in this market and promote to development of power companies in both countries. In the long run, enhancing the power-industry cooperation between China and Russia will provide for the further development and Enhancing Strategic Cooperation between two countries in the modern context of geopolitically challenging international climate.
Key words: gas cooperation, strategic cooperation, cooperation in power industry, pricing issue, China-Russia gas pipeline.

Ekaterina Suvorova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia.
The paper considers the history of the education system in PRC from 1949 until the 1990’s. The problem was researched in the context of social and economic changes of that period in the Chinese society. In connection with this, the national education’s history of the second half of the 20th century was divided by the author into 4 stages. Research of the established tendencies showed that specific situation of each of them had been a result of transformations performed by the Communist Party of China. The author emphasizes that the first stage of reforms was performed with USSR’s support and marked with active use of the Soviet experience for creating the education model for the new China and studying the Soviet pedagogic theory and teaching methods used in the Soviet Union’s schools. It was exactly in that period that a wide network of general-education and professional educational institutions was created in the people’s China corresponding to the needs of the Chinese society’s modernization. The situation at the Giant Leap Forward stage and at the Cultural Revolution stage is analyzed. The revisions of the course and tasks in the field of education which followed in those periods are evaluated: they had devastating consequences for the national schooling. The special focus is placed on modernization processes in education connected with economic reforms begun in China in the 1980’s. The Chinese authorities’ revision of the education’s role and place in the Chinese society in the context of economic modernization and its further development upon adoption of the Education Act of 1995 are emphasized.
Key words: education system, reforms, People’s Republic of China, the cultural revolution, modernization.