Vadim Zemlyanskiy, Information, Historical and Scientific Center — The Historical Military Library of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Saint-Petersburg, Russia. E-mail: groningen1991@gmail.com.
The paper is devoted to the study of the coalition of political forces of Primorye in 1920. The purpose of the research is to consider the cooperation of political parties and movements as a means of peacefully stopping the intervention and preserving the Far East region for Russia. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were set: to study the reasons for creating a coalition, to characterize the main stages of its formation and to consider the grounds for its termination. The Bolsheviks were the initiators of the creation of the “united national front”. Having insufficient strength to resist the Japanese troops after the April speech, the communists abandoned the idea of sovietization of Primorye and began to cooperate with the socialist parties. Having created an “inter-party socialist conference”, the Bolsheviks united the efforts of all left-wing forces to establish joint peaceful work. The creation of the highest executive body — the Council of Governors of Departments, and the parliament — the Provisional National Assembly of the Far East led to the formation of a broad coalition with the participation of representatives of non-socialist parties and organizations. Non-socialists entered the presidium of the National assembly and later the Council of Governors of Departments including the position of deputy chairman. The formation of the coalition ended in August 1920 with the entry of the Socialist Revolutionaries into the Council. The coalition lasted three months. Due to the impossibility of influencing the general policy in the Council, the non-socialists withdrew from it. The result of the coalition’s activities was the peaceful development of Primorye and the beginning of the process of unification of the regions of the Far East.
Keywords: Provisional National Assembly of the Far East, Council of Governors of Departments, parliamentarism, Provisional Government of the Far East, Primorye region, Civil War in the Russian Far East in 1918—1922.

Tatiana Poznyak, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: tzpoznyak@mail.ru.
The paper is devoted to the analysis of the “political technologies” of the Bolsheviks in the struggle for power in the Far Eastern Republic. In the difficult conditions of the necessity to create an image of a democratic state — the preservation of private property, parliament, a multi-party system, freedom of speech, the press, assemblies, the universal direct equal and secret vote (“four tails”) — the Bolsheviks managed to establish their power in the buffer state. The main methods that allowed the Bolsheviks to secure their supremacy were the leadership of the representative and executive bodies in the republic and control by the RCP (Bolsheviks) represented by Dalburo through the communist fractions and the fraction of the peasant majority, personnel policy, the “truncated” nature of parliamentarism, the staging of support for the masses, etc. The main field of Bolshevik political technologies was the election campaigns to the Constituent and People’s Assemblies of the Far Eastern Republic, regional assemblies of commissioners. The democratic nature of the elections, proclaimed in the constitution, was greatly devalued due to the use of administrative resources by the Bolsheviks. In addition to relatively legal methods (rallies, meetings, press, distribution of literature, secondment of instructors, etc.), the Bolsheviks also used illegal methods: control of the composition of election committees, direct obstruction of the freedom of elections (disruption of inconvenient assemblies, rejection of opposition lists under far-fetched pretexts, arrests of opposition representatives, closure of newspapers), deception or misleading illiterate voters, forgery of election results, etc. In 1922, the attack on democratic freedoms became full-scale and led to the transition to the Soviet order in many areas even before the abolition of the buffer state.
Keywords: Far Eastern Republic, election campaigns, political technologies, Dalburo of the Central Committee of the RCP(b), personnel, Bolsheviks, parliament, opposition.

Anna Zakolodnaia, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: zakolodnay@mail.ru.
The paper deals with the peculiarities of the activity of the Primorsky resettlement area on the eve and during the Civil War. Considerable attention is paid to the analysis of its relations with various power structures and political forces. The first changes in the resettlement department occurred in the spring-summer of 1917 when the peasant chiefs were abolished, and the number of resettlement sites (subdistricts), as well as the number of heads of the resettlement was reduced to five. The relationship between the resettlement organization and the zemstvo was the most difficult. The First Extraordinary Primorsky Regional Zemstvo Assembly decided to liquidate the Resettlement Administration. The implementation of the decision was stopped by the Soviets who came to power. The reorganization of the resettlement department continued under the anti-Bolshevik governments, which made decisions on the transfer of veterinary and medical centers and later orphanages to the zemstvo. Difficulties in financing the institution, caused by the unstable domestic political situation, loss of communication with the center, and inflation led to the reduction in the volume of the “traditional” work. The military operations, the seizure of hospitals, resettlement centers and other property belonging to the Primorsky resettlement area often led to its looting, which, in the face of the lack of funds, made subsequent reconstruction difficult. During the Civil War, the financial situation of the department’s employees deteriorated significantly. They were forced to keep subsidiary farms in order to provide themselves with food.
Keywords: Civil War, resettlement, Far East, zemstvo.

Olga Ustyugova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: ustyugova75@mail.ru.
The paper deals with the position of Russian trade entrepreneurship forced to exist in competition with foreigners during the rule of the Provisional Priamur Government — one of the last white governments in the Russian Far East. Due to the lack of local entrepreneurs’ own capital, the government depended on the Japanese, who practically brought it to power and used Primorye’s economic resources uncontrollably, and on foreign firms, which had necessary financial resources. Declaring the priority of market mechanisms and freedom of trade and entrepreneurship, the government did not apply state regulation of the economy. However, after the increase of taxes and fees as well as under the conditions of limited resources and increasing expenditures for the army, it faced growing discontent of trade and industrial organizations. Dependence on foreign, primarily Japanese, capital forced the Provisional Priamur Government to give preference to foreign entrepreneurs. The local businesses expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of support of domestic entrepreneurship by the government. Intended to protect the interests of local capital, the Primorsky District Chamber of Commerce and Industry often supported the power. An initiative to establish a network of commercial and industrial organizations of Russian entrepreneurs with the aim of restoring Russian trade and combating foreign domination in the local market, as well as appeal for tax exemptions, failed to find acceptance among the authorities.
Keywords: Russian Far East, Civil War, foreign Intervention, Provisional Priamur Government, entrepreneurship, trade.

Natalya Belyaeva, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: minava204@rambler.ru.
The article is based on an episode from the history of the Czechoslovak Central Economic Commission at the final stage of the Civil War. Created as a government agency to solve a number of economic problems, the Commission, after the evacuation of the Czechoslovak corps from Vladivostok, was transformed into a partnership on shares and continued active commercial activity. Its activities attracted the attention of the Vladivostok customs, which convicted the company of violating customs rules — hiding goods from customs control, evading customs duties, trading in excisable goods prohibited for import. The main attention in the article is drawn to the confiscation proceedings of customs — the investigation of the case of smuggling on a particularly large scale. Based on the findings of the Vladivostok Customs Fund in the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East, the vicissitudes of the resonant case that began in the summer of 1921 and ended in the fall of 1923 are shown. The course of the investigation, problems and obstacles arising in the course of it are analyzed. Based on the documents identified in the Vladivostok Customs Fund in the Russian State Historical Archive of the Far East (Fund 25), which were first introduced into scientific circulation, a full cycle of investigation of cases of smuggling was reconstructed on the basis of the current norms of the Russian customs charter. The problem of the economic activity of the interventionists and the struggle for compliance with the interests of the treasury, which sometimes did not coincide not only with the interests of individuals, but also with the interests of officials, was raised.
Keywords: Civil War, Far East, intervention, Czechoslovak corps, economic activity, smuggling, confiscation proceedings.

Galina Romanova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: galnikrom@yandex.ru.
The paper is devoted to the study of the issue of the property of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER) and the role of the Far Eastern Republic (DVR) in Russian-Chinese Relations during the Civil War of 1918—1922. The novelty of the work is that a comprehensive analysis of these aspects was carried out in comparison with the assessment of Chinese historians for the first time in Russian historiography. The paper thoroughly examines the “Karakhan Declarations” (1919—1920) which were used by Soviet Russia to establish a new type of interstate relations based on equality with the Republic of China. Considerable attention is paid to the status of the CER during the intervention in the Far East: the creation of the “Interunion Railway Committee”, the attempts of the government of North China, which was under significant pressure from the Western powers and Japan, to appropriate all rights to the railway to the detriment of the interests of the Far East and the RSFSR, the US plans to “internationalize” the CER at the Washington Conference of 1921—1922, the desire of the interventionists to use the road for their own purposes. Taking into account a certain transformation of the views of domestic historians on the past of the country, the conclusion is made about the not entirely clear formulation of the issue of the CER in the first Declaration of the government of Soviet Russia in 1919, which allowed the government of North China to count on the “free transfer” of the road to the Republic of China, while the Declaration of 1920 was due to a more pragmatic approach, which testified to the growing national interests in maintaining the road as state property.
Keywords: Soviet Russia, Republic of China, Far Eastern Republic (DVR), declaration, Chinese-Eastern Railway (CER), Civil War, Russian-Asian Bank, negotiations, property, mission, historiography.

Natalya Potapova, Sakhalin State University, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. E-mail: napotapova@yandex.ru.
Andrey Kiselev, Sakhalin State University, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia. E-mail: and94859610@yandex.ru.
The paper examines the measures of the Soviet government aimed at combating the dominance of foreign currency in the Russian Far East after the end of military intervention in the region from the end of 1922 to 1925 based on the example of the Japanese yen. The study is aimed at reconstructing the process of displacement of the Japanese yen from the money circulation of the Russian Far East. The paper introduces unpublished archival materials and published sources into scientific discourse. The study is based on the analysis of the organizational and legal aspect of the topic. The problems that local financial authorities had to face during the establishment of the monopoly of the Soviet currency are indicated. The difficulties and duration of this process led to the frontier position of the region, strong trade ties with foreign countries that supplied essential goods to the Far Eastern market, the long stay of Japanese interventionists and financial organizations on its territory, the aggressive policy of monetary and economic expansion towards the economy of the Russian Far East organized by the Japanese Empire during military intervention. The measures taken to establish the independence of foreign currency of the Far East from foreign countries, to stabilize and unify monetary circulation in the region, and to bring it in line with the all-Russian one are identified. The paper is intended for historians and economists who study the processes taking place both during and after the Civil War and military intervention in the Far East of Russia.
Keywords: foreign intervention, Japanese yen, money turnover, foreign currency, monetary expansion, Far Eastern Republic (DVR), Far East of Russia, Japan, Civil War, Dalrevkom, Gubfin department.

Svetlana Beloglazova, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: Beloglazov1@yandex.ru.
The paper examines the history of the school reform in the Far Eastern Republic poorly studied in all-Russian and regional historiography. The new archival materials revealed by the author, which were presented by circular letters of the Ministry of Public Education of the Far Eastern Federal Republic and the People’s Commissariat of the RSFSR, correspondence with regional departments of public education of the Far Eastern Federal Republic and private individuals, have been introduced into scientific discourse. The main directions of the reform are shown: the formation of a state network of a unified school, the preparation of new curricula for reformed schools, the restructuring of the educational process, school management and organizational life of the school through the introduction of school self-government, the creation of regional and county commissions for the election of organizers of educational institutions and a network of demonstration institutions that implemented the principles of a Unified Labor School in practice. The author notes that the reorganization of the entire network of pre-revolutionary schools into a single two-stage system took longer than the organizers of the reform had planned, but the task of creating a unified school was solved. The implementation of the principles of the unified labor school was partially solved. Disagreements over the model of the new school caused the incompleteness of the transition to new curricula and the restructuring of the educational process based on the principle of labor education and training. Due to the protest moods in society, the introduction of co-education was not completed. The introduction of fees for the right to study violated the principle of a Unified Labor School on the free and general availability of education, which was most clearly manifested with the onset of the financial and economic crisis in the Far Eastern Republic that forced the ministry to transfer schools to local governments.
Keywords: Far Eastern Republic, secondary schools, education reform.

Alena Sorokoletova, V.K. Arsenyev Museum-reserve of the History of the Far East, Vladivostok, Russia; School of Arts and Humanities Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: sorokoletova.alena98@mail.ru.
The paper discusses one of aspects of the history of the education and enlightenment system in the Far Eastern Republic — the problems of preschool education. Based on the analysis of the publications of the journal “The Zemstvo Life in Primorye”, the paper demonstrates tasks, principles and difficulties in the organization of preschool work as well as highlights the main activities of the preschool department of the Ministry of Public Education of the Far Eastern Republic. Compared with archival documents, the paper shows that the journal “The Zemstvo Life in Primorye” quite objectively reflects the real conditions for the development of preschool education. The conclusion is made about the identity of approaches in the Far Eastern Republic and Soviet Russia to the organization of preschool work on the principles of free education and a Unified labor school. The results show that the Ministry of Public Education was not able to conduct multifaceted work on reforming all areas of education in the conditions of the protracted Civil War, acute shortage of funds, qualified teaching staff. The power and the pedagogical community recognized the importance of the development of preschool institutions as the basis of a Unified labor school, but the development of school and extracurricular education was designated as a priority. This fact had a negative impact on the development of preschool work and contributed to the introduction of mainly theoretical work in this direction.
Keywords: Far Eastern Republic, Ministry of Public Education, Unified labor school, preschool education and upbringing, journals.

Larisa Dudar’, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: dudar.la@dvfu.ru. Aleksandr Isaev, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: isaev.aa@dvfu.ru.
Based on archival documents, the problems of organization and functioning of the normalized distribution system in the Far East of the USSR between 1929 and 1934 are studied, and the peculiarities of perception of this system by the population of the region are analyzed. By the end of the 1920s, there was a crisis in the food supply and consumer goods due to the industrialization and collectivization. Food problems forced the Soviet leadership to turn to the practice of normalized distribution of basic consumer goods. The supply problem was particularly acute in the Far East, which largely depended on the supply of food and industrial goods from the center. Frequent interruptions in supplies forced local authorities to seek a way out in violation of the current rules and regulations of distribution. The functioning of the card distribution system caused an ambiguous response from various social groups of the Far Eastern population. It was manifested in positive and negative statements and speeches, refusal to work, violation of labor discipline, increased turnover of workers and employees, etc. The greatest indignation was caused by the lack of order in issuing passbooks and selling products, rising prices, long queues, abuse of official position of responsible trade workers, the presence of a system of closed distributors, theft of goods by employees of commodity bases and stores, etc. Despite the measures taken by the authorities to normalize supply and prevent negative reactions, the situation continued to be difficult until the abolition of card distribution in 1935.
Keywords: card system, cooperative trade, public sentiments, criticism of state policy, normalized distribution system, closed distributors.

Andrey Grinko, Far Eastern State Agrarian University, Blagoveshchensk, Russiа. E-mail: andrey2007-85@mail.ru.
The paper examines the peculiarities of life of the rural population of the Far Eastern region between the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s based on the analysis of letters and appeals to the media and authorities. This type of historical sources is insufficiently studied on the scale of the Far East although its importance cannot be overestimated. During this period, there was a duality of perception of the surrounding reality by residents. On the one hand, there was a socio-economic and cultural development of rural areas: infrastructure was created, financial opportunities of people increased, and there was an influx of migrants from other regions of the country. On the other hand, a significant number of villagers were very dissatisfied with the situation in the housing, household, cultural and other spheres. The villagers expressed their thoughts about life in the Far Eastern countryside and a negative attitude to certain aspects in letters which were sent to the editorial offices of newspapers and Soviet political authorities. The analysis of these materials indicates the predominance of problematic topics and the growth of an apathetic, indifferent attitude to a number of everyday phenomena. One of the main consequences of this perception of reality, reflected in the written appeals, was the desire to move to a more prosperous locality — a rural district center or town. In fact, this trend became dominant by the end of the analyzed period.
Keywords: Far East, rural population, late socialism, everyday life, standard of living, mass media, deficit.

Galina Pustovoit, North-Eastern State University, Magadan, Russia. E-mail: g.pustowoit2009@yandex.ru.
The paper is devoted to the 30th Anniversary of the first International Pedagogical University in Magadan organized on the basis of the Magadan State Pedagogical Institute. The author highlights the problem of the history of the transformation of the educational structure, which received an international status, as an experimental model of the regional university system in the Magadan region necessary for the realization of the economic needs of the region. The aim of the work is to reconstruct the process of regionalization of Russian education on the materials of the Magadan region, to determine the main directions of state policy in the field of higher education in the early 1990s, as well as to identify the specifics of the implementation of educational policy in the region under the influence of new social challenges. The novelty of the work is due to the fact that for the first time, using the local example of a regional university and systematized evidence extracted from its records management, the author considers the process of forming the concept of a regional university and practical organizational tasks in terms of adapting the structure of a higher school to the needs of society. Based on archival documents, the paper analyses the reasons for choosing the region to open such university, examines the main aspects of the preliminary work on the creation of the educational institution, shows the significant efforts of the Soviet-American pedagogical community, state and party organizations in the development of the university in the context of urgent needs, as well as the results of its organization in Magadan. Special attention is paid to the activities of the rector of the Magadan State Pedagogical Institute E.M. Kokorev under whose leadership the formation of the new scientific and educational institution took place. It is concluded that a project was formulated by the leaders of the institute and the region to reform the Magadan State Pedagogical Institute and its status. At the initial stage the university was rebranded and was named the International Pedagogical University (1992), and the stages of implementation of this project were outlined.
Keywords: Magadan region, higher education, Magadan State Pedagogical Institute, International Pedagogical University.

Irina Sayapina, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: irisan.bk@gmail.com.
The paper presents the results of the analysis of the ceramic collection of the Mohe layer obtained during the stationary study of the Krasnoe Ozero settlement (Primorye Region, Terneisky district) in 2001 and 2017. Monuments of the Mohe culture are widespread in the south of the Russian Far East. Nevertheless, the degree of their study is unequal in different territories. Therefore, the issues related to the Mohe culture including chronological framework, migration processes and geographical distribution remain controversial. Many problems cannot be solved without identifying local variants of culture and the specifics of cultural genesis. The Krasnoe Ozero settlement is located on the eastern coast of Primorye, one of the least explored territories. The conducted study of the ceramic material of the Mohe layer of the site confirms the conclusions based on planigraphic, stratigraphic and preliminary ceramic analyzes that the representatives of the Mohe culture lived in the basin of the Dzhigitovka river in northeastern Primorye at the end of the sixth Century AD. The analysis of the ornamentation allows to conclude that the ceramic tradition of this population combines the features of the vessels of the Nayfeld local chronological group and the vessels of the Troitsky look. Earlier, this feature of many Mohe sites in Primorye was recorded in the literature. These results are important for understanding the ethnocultural processes that took place on the territory of eastern Primorye in the early Middle Ages.
Keywords: Eastern Primorye, Mohe culture, vessels, ornament, dating, settlement.

He Yumeng, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: he-yumeng@qq.com.
This paper examines general characteristics of Bohai settlements and their role in the territorial and administrative structure of the Bohai State (698—926). The author uses the results of studies of Bohai settlements on the territory of China. Their comparison with similar sites in Russia shows that Bohai valley settlements have a number of common features. They are located on unflooded hills on the banks of rivers, they are multi-layered settlements, the Bohai layer sometimes can be divided into several building horizons. Various residential, economic and industrial structures are found on the territory of the settlements. As an element of the administrative-territorial structure, the settlements often located in the vicinity of townsites, and temples and tombs were sometimes situated next to them. The status of settlements sometimes could be raised to towns for various reasons, and this reflects the process of urbanization of the state. Numerous economic objects, artifacts and materials, which were found in the settlements, helped to reconstruct the daily life of the Bohai inhabitants and to establish different types of economic and trade life. The settlements fulfilled the functions appropriate to their administrative position and were an important part of the state system. The study of this type of settlements contributes to a better understanding of the administrative-territorial structure of the state and expands our knowledge of the material and spiritual culture of the common inhabitants of the Bohai state.
Keywords: settlement, Bohai Kingdom, administrative-territorial structure, urbanization, daily life, PRC.

Anatoly Startsev, Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnology of the Peoples of the Far East, FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia. E-mail: starcev.42@mail.ru.
The paper discusses the extraction of fur-bearing animals living along the banks of various rivers and in the mountain-taiga spurs of the Amur and Primorye by the Tungus-Manchurian peoples. Starting from October and until March, small ethnic groups caught fox, raccoon, badger, otter, mink, column, sable, squirrel, and other animals. The extraction of fur animals was carried out in different ways: raccoon and badger were hunted with the help of dogs, other fur-bearing animals were caught with loops installed on animal paths, taken with the help of crossbows, traps of the infringing and pressing types, and other devices built from freshly cut trees. All wooden traps were built on the spot long before hunters began to use them. This was due to the fact that fur animals had to get used to new smells and changes in the places where the traps were set. In the second half of the 20th Century, metal traps became widespread, which allowed aboriginal hunters to develop new methods of catching fur-bearing animals. Traditional tools for hunting fur animals corresponded to the social, economic and cultural level of development of the indigenous peoples of the region, and the numerous national terminology of hunting objects and tools, typical for different peoples, indicates ethnic and cultural contacts of the Evenks, Evens, Negidals, Nanais, Ulchis, Orochs, Oroks, Udege and other ethnic groups. All this testifies to the complex ethnogenetic processes that took place in the history of the peoples of the Lower Amur and Primorye in the past.
Keywords: aborigine, tradition, hunting, tools, automatic traps, traps, fur-bearing animals, territory, Lower Amur, Primorye.