The success of the Nevelskoy expedition began a new stage of Russian expansion in the Amur valley and Sakhalin. At first the Russia government acted with extreme caution. The highest officials of the Russian Empire (including the Foreign Minister, Minister of War, Chief of Naval Staff, and Minister of Domestic Affairs) were named to a Special Committee, which reviewed all questions relating to government policy on the Amur. The Committee prepared a decree, approved by the Tsar on 3 February 1850, which ordered:

"1) The establishment of a winter camp on Schastye Bay or some other location on the southeastern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk exclusive of the estuary of the Amur, and especially, of the river itself;

"2) In this winter camp the Russian-American Company shall conduct trade with the Gilyaks, though in no wise or manner touching on the estuary or the Amur river."

Nevelskoy was made responsible for the execution of this Decree. However, Captain First Class G.I. Nevelskoy conducted himself on the Amur as if there were neither Special Committee nor any confirmed policy by the Emperor on the Amur question. Acting swiftly, in July 1850 Nevelskoy and a party of six sailors, two Gilyaks and a topographer ascended the Lower Amur by whale boat and canoe as far as Tyr (about 70 miles from the mouth of the Amur). Here they met a party of Manchu.

Nevelskoy described tills remarkable meeting as follows: "... I approached the most senior of the Manchu... He asked me impudently, why was I here and what right had I to be here? In turn I asked the Manchu, why was he here and by what rights? At this the Manchu, with even more impudence than before, answered that no one except the Manchu had the right to be in these parts. I objected that, since it was the Russians who had the exclusive and total right to be here, I must insist that he, the Manchu, and all his Manchu compatriots must immediately quit these parts. Whereupon the Manchu, indicating the mob about him, demanded of me that I withdraw and that, if need be, he would compel me to do so by force, since no one could be here without their, the Manchu's, permission. With this he made a signal to the Manchu around him to begin carrying out his order. In answer to this threat I pulled from my pocket a double-barreled pistol, pointed it at the Manchu and announced that if anyone dare make a move to carry out mis insolent demand I would instantly blow him to kingdom come. At my signal, armed sailors immediately appeared at my side. This completely unexpected action caught the mob so unawares that it was the Manchu who found themselves yielding..."

After such a decisive (and as events transpired, very effective) action, Nevelskoy on behalf of his government announced to the Manchu and Gilyaks that the coastline of the Tatar Straits, "and all of the Amur valley as far as the Korean border, including the island of Sakhalin, are possessions of Russia." Thereupon the Russians sailed down the Amur as far as Cape Kuyegda, where on 1 August 1850, Nevelskoy raised the Russian flag. That was the beginning of the Nikolayevsk military post and Russian dominion on the Amur.

Nevelskoy's actions (the armed conflict with the Manchu, the proclamation of the Amur valley and Sakhalin to be Russian possessions, the founding of Nikolayevsk post) were not simply unauthorized improvisation on the instructions he received, they were in fact in flagrant contradiction of government policy. The Special Committee met in December of that year to examine the self-willed actions of Captain First Class Nevelskoy. He found support from some members of the Committee (Minister of Domestic Affairs L.A.Perovskiy, Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N.Muravyev, and Chief of Naval Staff A.S.Menshikov), but not all. A majority of the Committee admitted that "these actions were insolent in the extreme and would occasion... most severe punishment, as they were counter to the Will of the Most High and, moreover, they might have a harmful influence on our friendly relations with China..." The Committee recommended dismantling Nikolayevsk Post and in future trading with "the Gilyaks and other peoples living on the southeastern coast of the Sea of Okhotsk, but in no way touching upon the river Amur, its basin, Sakhalin or the shores of the Tatar Straits." As for Nevelskoy, he was to be reduced in rank to a common sailor.

The recommendations of the Special Committee (had they been confirmed by the Tsar) would have signaled Russia's outright refusal to possess the Amur valley and Sakhalin. However, Governor Muravyev managed to convince Nicholas I not to affirm the Special Committee decision. As a result, the Russian Emperor termed Nevelskoy's act "dashing, noble and patriotic," adding: "Where once the Russian flag has flown, it must not be lowered again."

On 12 February 1851, in the presence of the heir to the throne Alexandr Nikolayevich (the future Emperor Alexander ?), the Special Committee met once again to discuss the Amur question. However, this time they resolved to retain Nikolayevsk Post. An Amur Expedition, headed by none other than G.I. Nevelskoy, was organized to explore the Amur valley. And it was decided to propose talks with the Chinese government on joint security measures for excluding foreign intervention on the Lower Amur and Sakhalin.

Returning to the Far East, Nevelskoy continued his investigations of the Amur valley and Sakhalin. In autumn 1851 he learned from the Sakhalin Nivkhi of the existence of bituminous coal deposits on the island. "The Gilyak who brought the coal said that the natives extract it to the south of the village of Pogobi (later Russified to Pogibi—M.V.), and that it is found in great quantities right up to the very seashore." Lt. Nikolay Boshnyak was dispatched to the island to suivey these coal fields. He left Petrovsk Post on 20 February 1852 accompanied by the Nivkhi Pozvein, and the pair, traveling across the ice on the Amur estuary, reached Pogobi on Sakhalin a week later. Boshnyak surveyed the Sakhalin shore from Pogobi to Due, and near the villages of Mgachi, Arkovo and Due he found the open seams of coal he sought. Then Boshnyak crossed the mountain range, descended to the ??? river and followed it downstream to the Sea of Okhotsk. Boshnyak and Pozvein finally returned to Nikolayevsk on 3 April 1852.

In the 1840's-50's, the United States of America began its expansion in the Far East. Already in 1845 the U.S. Congress had given the President full authority to establish trade relations with Japan. After several failed attempts at negotiation, the U.S. government sent in 1852 a large naval squadron headed by Commodore Matthew Perry to the shores of Japan to force the Japanese government to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the U.S. As soon as Russia learned of the impending action, the Imperial government immediately decided to send to the Far East a squadron of their own under command of Vice-Admiral Yev-fimiy Putyatin, and to establish a Russian military post on southern Sakhalin.

In August 1853, the Russian squadron reached the shores of Japan. Soon after, talks began toward the signing of a Russo Japanese treaty on trade and boundaries. The negotiations were extremely difficult, and several times were suspended. Finally on 7 February 1855 (26 January, according to the old Russian calendar), the first RussoJapanese Treaty was.signed in the city of Shimoda. The Treaty of Shimoda specified that the boundary between Russia and Japan would lie between the islands of Urup and Iturup. Urup and all the Kuril Islands to the north became Russian territories. Iturup was proclaimed aJapanese possession, and by implication, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group remained in Japanese possession. Sakhalin was left unpartitioned.

Not long afterwards, the question of the boundary with China was re-examined. According to the Treaties ofAigun (1858) and Peking (1860), the left bank of the Amur and Ussuri region became the property of Russia. This significantly strengthened Russia's strategic posture in the Far East in general and on Sakhalin in particular.

While Putyatin's squadron was on its way to Japan, Nevelskoy was busy preparing a military landing party for Sakhalin. First, on 18 August 1853 a small group headed by Dmitriy Orlov was landed on the western coast from the transport Baikal. On 30 August Orlov, in the presence of local inhabitants, raised the Russian flag and laid the foundation for a military post near the mouth of the Kusunnai river. This post, named Ilyinskiy, was abandoned by Orlov scarcely a month later on 25 September "due to the lack of provision."

Then, on 21 September 1853 another Russian landing party was deposited by the Nikolay near the settlement ofTomari-Aniva. After a meeting with Amu elders and Japanese representatives, Nevelskoy proclaimed Sakhalin a possession of Russia, and stated that the purpose of the Russian landing was to protect the lives and property of the native population and Japanese from foreigners. Nevelskoy founded Muravyev Post on a small hill with Japanese buildings clustered at the foot (the territory of present-day Korsakov) and stationed sixty-three men and nine field cannon under command of Major Nikolay Busse. This first Russian post on the shore of Aniva bay would exist for another eight months, during which time the garrison conducted explorations of the southern half of Sakhalin. Especially fruitful were the expeditions of Lt. Nikolay Rudanovsky.

Muravyev Post was dismantled on 30 May 1854 to preclude its capture by a possible Anglo-French landing on Sakhalin. This fear was by no means unfounded. The Crimean War had broken out and an allied Anglo-French squadron, then roaming in Far Eastern waters, was a serious threat to Russian interests. The Allies had already landed three times on Sakhalin (on the northern tip of the island, near Cape Zhonkyer, and on Aniva Bay), and a Russian squadron had narrowly escaped pursuit by passing through the Tatar Straits (which the English and French thought was a bay). The destruction of a Russian post on Sakhalin could severely undermine Russia's position on the island, reducing its prestige in me eyes of both the Japanese and the Ainu.

On 25 August 1855, an Anglo-French squadron consisting of the frigates Peak and Sibilla arrived at Urup Island. Troops were landed on 2 September. The Allies found a small settlement of the Russian-American Company, manned only by Aleuts who had been transported there by the Company. They assured the English and French that "only three Russians live in the settlement and they took off in a boat to another part of the island" some time before the Allies arrived. Soon after the landing, the frigate commanders raised the English and French flags on the flagstaff of the Russian battery, promised the Aleuts the patronage of the Allied powers, and organized elections for a temporary Governor of Urup (the Aleut Artemiy was the victor). The Russian-American Company warehouses were looted, first by the Aleuts and then by the Allies. The next day, 3 September, the English and French set fire to the greater part of the Russian buildings and left Urup.

After the conclusion of the Crimean War, one by one Russian military posts reappeared on Sakhalin. In 1856, Captain-Lieutenant Nikolay Chikhachev founded the military post of Due, which became the first long-term Russian settlement on the island. In 1857, N.V.Rudanovsky established Kusunnai post on De Langley Bay, and two years later Manue Post on the Okhotsk coast, thus establishing control over the Po-yasok isthmus (the narrowest part of the island). In 1867 two infantry companies landed on southern Sakhalin: the first at Kusunnai Post and the second in the area of Busse Bay, where Muravyev Post had been. In 1869 the post of Korsakov was founded on the spot where Muravyev Post had been abandoned in 1854. In that same year Tichmenev Post (near present-day Poronaysk) was founded at the mouth of the Poronay River. A year later Mauka Post (present-day Kholmsk) was established on the southeastern coast of Sakhalin. Field troops were stationed at the posts; by 1870, Russia already had a battalion of infantry on the island, divided into detachments at each of the military posts. In the early 1870's, Korsakov, Muravyev, Due and Ku-sunnai posts were the largest on Sakhalin. Most of the other posts consisted of two to fifteen men.

Russia's increased military presence on Sakhalin was accompanied by intensification of diplomatic pressure on Japan. Already in 1859 during his visit to Japan, Governor Muravyev had posed the question of the transfer of Sakhalin to Russia. Japanese representatives declined the offer. The question was raised again by the Russian side during negotiations in 1862 and 1867.

At last the question of ownership of Sakhalin was decided by the Treaty of St. Petersburg, which was signed on 7 May 1875 (25 April, according to the old Russian calendar). According to mis Treaty, Japan forfeited to Russia all rights to Sakhalin in exchange for possession of the Kuril islands belonging to Russia (Urup and all islands to the north up to and including Shumshu).

Several months later an addendum to the Treaty was signed in Tokyo which provided for the right of (Russian and Japanese) inhabitants of the exchanged territories to remain as permanent residents in the localities they had heretofore occupied, and confirmed their right to continue their industry in complete freedom, without the imposition of taxes of any kind. These privileges were not extended to the native population;

on the contrary, "natural inhabitants" who wanted to remain where they had always lived were forced to change their citizenship, or move to a territory which belonged to their state. Under these terms, several hundred Sakhalin Ainu who did not want to accept Russian citizenship boarded ship for Hokkaido and were resettled there in a valley of the Iskari river. Later on in the 1880's some of those Ainu who had emigrated from Sakhalin began returning to the land of their ancestors. These returnees from Hokkaido were called the Iskari Ainu.

The small Russian population of the Kurils for the most part ignored the proffered rights and privileges and instead left for Russia. As for the northern Kuril Ainu (by 1875 numbering a little over 100), they elected to remain in their homeland and accepted Japanese citizenship. Despite their wishes, an 1884 resolution by the Japanese Government resettled all northern Kuril Ainu to Shikotan, where a small village was built for them, and they were to engage in agriculture and livestock breeding.

The Russian government settled on penal servitude and deportation as the primary means for colonizing Sakhalin. The first exiles appeared on the island as early as 1858. In 1869 Sakhalin was officially announced a zone of penal servitude and deportation, and over the years of its existence some thirty to forty thousand people (according to various estimates) were sent there to serve their time. Though some who were sentenced to Sakhalin penal servitude and deportation were political prisoners (about sixty in all), the vast majority were criminals.

During the period of penal servitude on Sakhalin, the Russian administration on the island devoted most of its attention to the development of the coal industry and agriculture. Convict labor was primarily employed in the coal mines. Sakhalin was practically the only coal mining region in the Far East right up to the end of the 19th century, and supplied the ships of the Siberian flotilla, the Pacific squadron, and commercial vessels of Russia and other countries. However, the Sakhalin coal industry could not keep pace with the region's fast-growing demand for coal, propelled by the rapid development of the Amur valley and Maritime regions. In the years before the RussoJapanese War, maximum coal extraction on the island was 60 thousand tons a year, with 45-47 thousand tons of that transported off the island at the mm of the 20th century. Meanwhile the annual coal demand of the shipping company of the Chinese Eastern Railway alone was more than 80 thousand tons, Vladivostok port needed about 40 thousand tons, the Ussuriisk Railway more than 30 thousand tons, and the Voluntary Fleet nearly 24 thousand tons.

Permanent agricultural settlements on Sakhalin took in men who had finished serving their time, exile settlers, and members of families who voluntarily followed prisoners to Sakhalin. A large number of these settlements appeared in the 1880's and early 1890's, as mass transportation of deportees from European Russia by sea began with the first voyage of the Voluntary Fleet in 1879. Those criminals who had finished their term of penal servitude were allowed to move from the prison to the settlements, and were compelled to work the land. Until 1879 there were only three Russian settlements on Sakhalin, not including the military posts: Malo Aleksandrovka (founded in 1869), Novo Mikhailovka (founded in 1872), and Rykovskoye (founded in 1878, present-day Kirovskoye). Derbin-skoye (present-day Tymovsk) was founded in 1880. Alexandrovsk Post was founded in 1881, and the offices of the Sakhalin Penal Servitude Administration transferred there from the military post in Due. In southern Sakhalin, settlements were started in 1882 at Solovyovka, Mitsulka, Nairo and Vladimi-rovka (on the territory of modern-day Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk). By 1895 there were 147 Russian settlements, and by the turn of the 20th century the population of Sakhalin exceeded 40,000.

One of the chief occupations of both the indigenous and transient populations of Sakhalin was fishing. By the beginning of the 20th century approximately 90 thousand tons of fish were harvested annually (mostly herring and salmon). As in the first half of the 19th century, the fishing industry on Sakhalin was largely controlled by the Japanese, and practically all the fish and seafood caught here was exported to Japan. A Russian fishing industry was also organized during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but even the Russian fish processors were more oriented toward the Japanese market.

Other branches of industry on Sakhalin were only beginning to develop. Timber, for example, was used exclusively for local needs (construction, fuel for heating, bracings for mine shafts). The first attempts at developing Sakhalin's oil fields date from the 1880's to the beginning of the 20th century.

The scientific study of Sakhalin continued in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as numerous hydrographic, geological, botanical, zoological, and ethnographic expeditions visited the region. Leopold Shrenk, Fyodor Shmidt, Innokenty Lopatin, Konstan-tin Staritsky, Stepan Makarov, Mikhail Mitsul, Ivan Polyakov, Aleksey Nikolsky, Mikhail Dobrotvorsky, Bronislav Pilsudsky, and Lev Shtem-berg made important contributions to the investigation of Sakhalin. The island was visited by well-known journalists and writers, including An-ton Chekhov in 1890 .

The colonization of Sakhalin by Russia, and of the Kurils by Japan, led to qualitative changes in the lives of its native peoples. First of all, they had already become a minority in their own homeland by the beginning of the 1880's. By 1897, natives comprised only 15 percent of the total population of Sakhalin. This process occurred a little more slowly on the Kurils.

Colonization dealt a severe blow to the traditional way of life of the Ainu, Nivkhi and Uilta. It was accompanied by rapid destruction of the environment to which the aborigines of Sakhalin had adapted over the course of centuries. With the appearance of the Russians and Japanese on the island came over-exploitation of its natural resources. The native inhabitants of the island were deprived of the lands and ranges that they needed to feed themselves, resulting in impoverishment and frequent famines.

In the beginning of the 20th century, a sharp rivalry over the domination of northeast China and Korea led to a war between Russian and Japan. While the outcome of the Russo Japanese War of 1904-05 was largely decided at the walls of Port Arthur, on the fields of battle in Manchuria, and in the waters of the Tsushima Straits, the outcome of the peace talks in large measure depended on the results of military actions on secondary fronts.

Though the Kurils were located many hundreds of miles from the main theaters of military action, in that first summer of 1904 they were fated to become the springboard for the first Japanese invasion of Russian territory in history. The initiator of this exploit was retired Fleet Lieutenant Gunji Shigetada. Earlier in 1892-93 he had organized a Kurils Service Society, whose primary aim was the development of the northern Kuril islands. Thanks to Shigetada's tireless efforts, by the beginning of the 20th century a modest Japanese colony had been built on Shumshu, the most northerly ofJapan's possessions. The colonists engaged in fishing, hunting marine mammals, and agriculture.

Hearing of the outbreak of war with Russia, Gunji at his own initiative began preparations for an invasion of Kamchatka. With this goal, he formed a detachment from a number of male colonists which on 6 Junel904 landed on the southwest coast of Kamchatka. "Gunji's conquest endured just as long as it took for a detachment of Russian infantry to march from Petropavlovsk to Ozemy," remarked American historian John Stephan. On 6June, after a stealthy approach to the Japanese camp, the Russian detachment made a surprise attack on the unwanted guests. The majority of the Japanese ran. Several participants in the adventure (including Gunji himself) ended up in the blockhouse, returning to Japan only at the end of 1905.

The next Russian territory to become the target of Japanese expansion was Sakhalin. This time, however, it was not dilettantes and volunteers who prepared and carried out the seizure, but military professionals.

The war first came to the very shores of Sakhalin on 7 August 1904, when the Russian cruiser Novik fired on the Japanese cruiser Tsushima in Aniva Bay. Following the batde, the Russians scuttled the damaged Novik (she would be raised later by the Japanese) not far from Korsakov Post, leaving many of her crew stranded on the island.

On 24 June 1905, a 53-ship Japanese squadron sailed to Sakhalin and began landing some 14,000 troops on the shores of Aniva Bay (mis was the 15th Division under command of General Haraguchi Kanenari). At this time in the south of Sakhalin there were less than 200 Russian soldiers and about a thousand voluntary militia from the ranks of prisoners and exiles, giving the Japanese a twelve-fold manpower advantage.

In view of the inequality of forces, Russian troops on southern Sakhalin decided upon a switch in tactics to guerilla warfare, forming five partisan brigades. Partisan actions went on for more than a month in the south of the island, but in the end all were either wiped out or captured. Only the brigade under command of Vasiliy Bykov succeeded after more than a month of combat to break out from occupied Sakhalin and reach the Lower Amur.

The balance of forces was also tipped against the Russians in northern Sakhalin. The commandant of the island, Lt. General Mikhail Lyapunov, had at his disposal more than 5000 soldiers, officers and militia. On 11 July aJapanese squadron of 70 ships approached the shores of northern Sakhalin near Aleksandrovsk Post and landed troops in the northern Arkovo valley under cover of artillery fire. Russian forces, offering little resistance, retired inland. After a surrender ultimatum from General Haraguchi, Lyapunov capitulated on 16 July.

The occupation of Sakhalin at the very end of the RussoJapanese war had very little military significance. However, the operation significantly strengthened the position of the Japanese delegation at the peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. On 23 August 1905 the Portsmouth Peace Treaty between Russian and Japan was signed, by which Russia ceded to Japan the southern half of Sakhalin. The boundary was drawn at the 50th parallel. The negotiating parties were prohibited from erecting all types of military installations on Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it, and were to permit the free passage of shipping in the La Perouse and Tatar Straits. Russian citizens were given the right either to sell their property and leave for their own country, or remain in southern Sakhalin. The overwhelming majority of the Russian population quit the nowJapanese southern half of Sakhalin and left for the mainland.