History And Reality: Russian East Strategy Research

Russia has occupied the vast Siberia over four centuries, and it’s also over acentury from Russia’s occupation Central Asia to the disintegration of USSR. In2012Vladimir Putin was re-elected president of Russia and the government launched“strategic eastward shift” program which focused on developing the eastern regionand promoting the integration into Asia-Pacific economies. Russia’s previouseastward shifts have all achieved relative success. Are there any experience and rulesto be found? What is the motivation for the current Russia’s eastward shift? Is thereany difference between the internal and external environments of eastward shift whichRussia faces and that of the past? Where is the breakthrough of future development ofRussia’s eastern region? The paper will focus on the analyses and discussions of theseissues.When we talk about Russia’s expansion, it’s natural for us to think of Russia’spossession of a large territory and easy to overlook one fact: Russia’s efforts on thedevelopment and governance of the newly occupied land. Occupation new territorywas only the first step of Russia’s eastward expansion in history, which alwaysfollowed by establishing towns and cities, constructing roads and bridges, developingagriculture and industry, and promoting the development of internal and external trade,etc.. In fact, Russia’s government played a key role in the early development andurban layout of a wide area including the area along Mid-East Railway of NortheastChina. Due to the limitation of a variety of factors including climate, naturalconditions, cultural traditions, political and economic systems, etc., we can not simplycompare the eastern region development of Russia with the U.S. Westward Movement.Despite the unsatisfactory results, development of the eastern region has beenconducting throughout the modern history of Russia. It’s no difficult to imagine whatefforts Russia has devoted to the eastern region development if we compare thecurrent Siberia with that of four hundred years ago.In different historical periods, Russia’s eastward shifts have different strategicobjectives and motivations: In the early days of modern history, the main content of Russia’s eastward shift was territory expansion and developing and governing thenewly occupied land, which was out of survival and security needs. During the early20thcentury, Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union seized strategic places in the FarEast, which aimed to establish a strong country and great power’s status. The SovietUnion government developed Siberia and consolidated the eastern border security,which aimed to accelerate development and enhance the country’s strength, andstruggle for hegemony with the United States and Western countries. Nowadays,Russia’s eastward shift refers to revitalizing the eastern region and integrating intoAsia’s economies, so as to enhance the comprehensive strength and promote nationalrejuvenation. This paper combines history and reality of Russia’s eastward shifts andintends to sort out the facts, trying to explore the doubt: Why the eastern region’seconomic development level has been lagging behind the western region and the restof the world while the resources there are so rich? The paper attempts to make rationalexpectations on the development prospects of Russia’s eastern region on the basis ofsummarizing the experiences and combining with the analyses of the realisticenvironment.