Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-21T15:14:30.106Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Traitors in Limbo: Chinese Trials of White Russian Spies, 1937–1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2020

Yun Xia Open the ORCID record for Yun Xia [Opens in a new window]
Yun Xia*
Affiliation:
Shanghai University, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: yunxia_SHU@shu.edu.cn
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Following the October Revolution, tens of thousands of White Russians sought refuge in China and became inevitably involved in the escalating Sino-Japanese War (1931–1945). The Japanese deployed measures of coercion, material incentives, and ideological indoctrination to recruit White Russians for Japan’s military and political maneuvers in the China theater of WWII. With the conclusion of the war, the Chinese Nationalist government launched a legal campaign against all collaborators with Japan and labeled them hanjian, “traitors to the Han Chinese,” regardless of the race and nationality of the defendants. Based on archival materials in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Russian, this article examines the context and process of the incrimination of White Russians in China’s postwar trials of traitors. With no consular support and little diplomatic significance, the White Russians became the ideal foreigners for the Chinese government to exercise its newly recovered judicial sovereignty and to claim its legitimacy in administering justice related to war crimes. Dozens of White Russians were convicted of the crime of hanjian and sentenced to prison terms of varied lengths.

Keywords

White RussiansSino-Japanese Warcollaboratorsrefugeeswar crime trials
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 49 , Issue 6 , November 2021 , pp. 1096 - 1112
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Association for the Study of Nationalities

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

“Bai’e migaoren panxing shiwunian.” 1947. Shenbao, March 23.Google Scholar
Ying, Bing. 1938. Hanjian xianxingji [Exposure and elimination of hanjian]. Xi’an: Wartime Press.Google Scholar
Chashchin, Kirill. 2014. Russians in China: Genealogical Index (1926-1946). Washington, DC: South Eastern Publisher Inc.Google Scholar
Chashchin, Kirill. 2017. Russians in China: Shanghai D-917 Police Applicants: 1930-1942. Washington, DC: South Eastern Publisher, Inc.Google Scholar
“China’s Treaties and Laws.” 1947. China Weekly Review, April 5.Google Scholar
Ching, Joseph. 1947. “Independent Courts?” China Weekly Review, May 31.Google Scholar
Craw, Clayton Paul. 1968. “The White Russians in China as reported in the China Weekly Review.” MA thesis, University of Southern California.Google Scholar
Deák, István. Europe on Trial: The Story of Collaboration, Resistance and Retribution during WWII. London: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
“Death Overtakes Russian Traitors.” 1946. China Weekly Review, September 7.Google Scholar
“De diantai junshi pinglunyuan Bide yizao daibu.” 1946. Shenbao, March 16.Google Scholar
Wen, Han. 1932. “Zhongguo zhi Bai’e Wenti” [The White Russian Problem in China]. Su’e Pinglun 2 (1).Google Scholar
“Hu Jingbeibu Zuori Pohuo Caozong Jinchao Waihui Zuzhi.” 1947. Shenbao, March 4.Google Scholar
“Japanese Organizing White Russians for ‘Baika-kuo’ Campaigns.” 1939. China Weekly Review, April 22.Google Scholar
“Jiandie hanjian Chuandao fangzi Zigong.” 1947. Shenbao, March 8.Google Scholar
“Juliu zai Shanghai de Suqiao yu Bai’e.” 1946. Shenbao, August 19.Google Scholar
Luo, Ke. 1946. “Bai’e de touqie shengya” [White Russians Who Live on Theft]. Guoji xinwen huabao (55) 1946, 10.Google Scholar
Khisamutdinov, A. 2006. “Хисамутдинов А. Русский клин в «желтые страны»: Забытая концепция бывших губернаторов П.В. Унтербергера (1906 – 10) и Н.Л. Гондатти (1911–16), а также путешественника.” В.К. Арсеньева: Мостик политики между Царской администрацией и Советской властью. http://src-home.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/pdf_seminar/20060317/khisamutdinov.pdf. (Accessed December 5, 2019.)Google Scholar
Kitado, Akira. 2015. “Money Talks; Ideology Walks: Russian Collaborations with the Japanese in Shanghai, 1931-1945.” Social System 18: 139–154.Google Scholar
Kotenev, Anatol M. 1934. “The Status of the Russian Emigrants in China.” The American Journal of International Law 28: 562–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“League of Nation to Help Russian Women in China.” 1935. China Weekly Review, November 15.Google Scholar
Moustafine, Mara. 2013. “Russians from China: Migrations and Identity.” Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Journal 2: 143–158.Google Scholar
“Need to End the Collaboration Issue.” 1948. China Weekly Review, August 14.Google Scholar
“People in the News.” 1946. China Weekly Review, September 21.Google Scholar
Pustovit, V.P. 2013. “АЛЕКСАНДР ПУРИН: ЖИЗНЬ И СУДЬБА.” Kamchatskiy Kray. February 20. http://kam-kray.ru/news/2013/02/20/aleksandr-purin-zhizn-i-sudba.html. (Accessed November 16, 2019.)Google Scholar
Ristaino, R. Marcia. 2000. “The Russian Diaspora Community in Shanghai.” In New Frontiers: Imperialism’s New Community in East Asia, 1842-1953, edited by Bickers, Robert and Henriot, Christian, 192–210. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Ristaino, R. Marcia. 2001. Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora Communities in Shanghai. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
“Russians Apply for Manchukuo Nationality So as to Get Jobs on Railway.” 1935. China Weekly Review, March 23.Google Scholar
“Ruyou Bai’eren Chi Manzhouguo Suofa Huzhao Qingqiu Qianzheng Yingwu Yuqian.” 1932. Zhongshan Xianzheng Jikan 2, 50.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. 1945. “Qu’est-ce qu’un collaborateur?” La République française 8 (2): 14–17.Google Scholar
Samuels, Richard. 2008. Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Schaufuss, Tatiana. 1939. “The White Russian Refugees.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 1 (203): 45–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Shanghai’s White Russian Mercenary Army.” 1928. China Weekly Review, September 15.Google Scholar
“Shantou faxian Bai’e jiandie xianyifan.” 1937. Xianbing zazhi (A Journal for Chinese Garrison Forces), 4: 9, 14.Google Scholar
Stephan, John J. 1978. The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile, 1925-1945. New York and London: Harper & Row Publishers.Google Scholar
“Student Demonstrations.” 1946. China Weekly Review, January 19.Google Scholar
“Sulian Zhuhua Dashiguan Duiyu Bai’e Huifu Sulian Guojian Fu Waijiaobu Banfasixiang.” 1946. Sichuansheng Zhengfu Gongbao [Sichuan Provincial Government Gazette], 392.Google Scholar
“Under New Management?” 1947. China Weekly Review, March 15.Google Scholar
“Unterberger Peter Pavlovich (1881–1960).” 2017. Tsarselo. Ru., February 5. https://tsarselo.ru/yenciklopedija-carskogo-sela/istorija-carskogo-sela-v-licah/unterberger-pyotr-pavlovich-peter-fridrih-1881-1960.html. (Accessed December 3, 2019.)Google Scholar
Wang, Zhicheng, 1993. Shanghai Eqiao shi [A History of Russian Emigrants in Shanghai]. Shanghai: Sanlian Shudian.Google Scholar
Wasserstein, Bernard. 1999. Secret War in Shanghai: An Untold Story of Espionage, Intrigue, and Treason in World War II. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
“White Russians Oppose Military Training.” 1941. The North-China Herald and Supreme Court & Consular Gazette, October 1.Google Scholar
Xia, Yun. 2017. Down with Traitors: Justice and Nationalism in Wartime China. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Zanasi, Margherita. 2008. “Globalizing Hanjian: The Suzhou Trials and the Post-World War II Discourse on Collaboration.” The American Historical Review 3: 731–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
“Zhujin Moufang Liyong Bai’e Raoluan.” 1937. Shenbao, June 12.Google Scholar
Archival Department of the Administration of the Kamchatka Region (ADAKR).Google Scholar
Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan (JCAHR).Google Scholar
National Archives and Records Administration, USA (NARA).Google Scholar
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) files.Google Scholar
Second Historical Archives of China, Nanjing (SHA).Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA).Google Scholar
Archival Department of the Administration of the Kamchatka Region (ADAKR).Google Scholar
Japan Center for Asian Historical Records, National Archives of Japan (JCAHR).Google Scholar
National Archives and Records Administration, USA (NARA).Google Scholar
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) files.Google Scholar
Second Historical Archives of China, Nanjing (SHA).Google Scholar
Shanghai Municipal Archives (SMA).Google Scholar