The Tugur River Expedition (1684) and the Origins of the Russian Bannermen

The Russian Bannermen were a distinctive group within the Qing dynasty’s Eight Banners system. They are commonly believed to have originated mainly from Albazin (Ma. yaksa, Ru. Албазин), the largest Russian fortress in the Amur River basin in the seventeenth century. Russians referred to them as Albazinians (Ru. Албазинцы). According to the popular opinion, Qing forces captured Albazin in 1685, and Russian prisoners brought the icon of Albazin to Beijing. The Kangxi Emperor incorporated them into the Bordered Yellow Banner of the Manchus, where they became the core of the Russian Company (Ma. oros niru, Ch. 俄羅斯佐領). In Beijing, the Albazinians built an Orthodox church known as the Bei Guan (Ch. 北館, Ru. Бэй-Гуань). The Qing court respected their faith and permitted the Peter Great to send regular ecclesiastical missions to Beijing. Then it was Albazinians who introduced Orthodoxy into China. There is now a broad scholarly consensus to refer to the Russian Bannermen as Albazinians.

However, the term Albazinians doesn’t fully explain the origins of the Russian Bannermen. According to surviving Manchu and ancient Russian language archives, the majority of prisoners taken in the 1685 campaign were sent to Mukden (Shenyang) and dispersed among the New Manchu companies. The largest group of Russian Bannermen in fact consisted of captives taken during the Qing expedition to the Tugur River (Ma. tuhuru bira, Ru. Р. Тугур) in 1684. Drawing on both archives and maps, I reconstructed the overall course of the expedition. In the summer of 1684, a Qing’s expeditionary force equipped with artillery sailed down the Amur River and entered its major branch, the Henggun (Ma. henggun bira, Ru. Р. Амугун). They then proceeded into a further branch, the Nimelen (Ma. imile bira, Ru. Р. Нимелен), crossed the Magu ridge (Ma. niyengniyeri enduringge alin, Ru. хребет Магу), and surrounded the Cossack settlement named Tugursk (Ru. Тугурск) along the Tugur River. About fifty Cossacks surrendered—forming the largest group of Russian prisoners captured by the Qing. These men belonged to the Yakutsk military district rather than the Albazin. They were sent to Beijing and became the backbone of the Russian company.

Because neither Chinese nor Russian chronicles meticulously recorded this episode, it remained unknown for over two centuries. The well-known term Albazinians therefore cannot encompass the full origins of the Russian Bannermen. This case highlights the importance of Manchu and ancient Russian archives in the study of East Asian history and also substantiates Qing sovereignty over the lower Amur in the 17th century. Artificial intelligence has played a significant role in assisting the author in reading ancient Russian archival materials, and it is foreseeable that AI will become an increasingly important tool in the study of premodern sources in the coming years.