Beyond the Amur

Beyond the Amur charts the pivotal role that an overlooked frontier river region and its environment played in Qing China’s politics and Sino-Russian relations.

By employing a cross-border perspective, Zatsepine's monograph is refreshing, as most previous studies have limited their scope to one side of the river.

Anna Belogurova, Freie Universität:

Beyond the Amur is an enjoyable read, with stories of informal networks across the border, of the individuals whose life stories usually remain outside official narratives… The book will be of interest of historians of border zones and to historians of Russia and China as well as to the general reader.

Peter Gordon:

For those interested in Sino-Russian relations or Northeast Asia generally, Beyond the Amur provides considerable background on a huge, yet still largely undocumented, region. More generally, it serves as a reminder that our current world of highly securitised borders, with strict control of passage, is relatively recent and perhaps anomalous.

Blaine Chiasson, Wilfrid Laurier University, and author of Administering the Colonizer: Manchuria’s Russians under Chinese Rule, 1918–29:
Victor Zatsepine’s history of the formation and environmental condition of the Amur River region, a frontier or meeting place between China and Russia, is essential reading for anyone who wants a better understanding of Sino-Russian relations.

Olga Bakich, University of Toronto, and author of Valerii Pereleshin: Life of a Silkworm:
Beyond the Amur offers a fresh and detailed look at the Amur frontier region and its rich history of environmental challenges, military conflict, and ethnic and political encounter.