The role of education in the development of Russian-Chinese relations: history and modernity

The purpose of the article is to determine the role of education in the historical development of Russian-Chinese interaction in the context of ensuring national interests of the powers. The article deals with the role of education in the development of Russian-Chinese relations since the end of the 19th century in the context of historical retrospect. Historiographic analysis shows that Russian researchers have not considered education as an instrument of geopolitical influence of Russia in China education from the late 19th century until the present day. An unambiguously negative attitude toward Russian cultural influence is characteristic for the Western researchers. The humanitarian relations between the two states are interpreted by them in the context of Russian / Soviet cultural expansion and the use of cultural contacts with China as a springboard for ideological propaganda. Within the framework of the "soft power" concept, the authors, using the retrospective method, consider education as one of the effective tools for ensuring national interests of the state. Based on the functional-systemic and comparative methods the Russian and Soviet system of education is established to have had a significant influence on the development of relations between the two countries. The authors noted that Russia's involvement in the problems of Chinese education and culture was largely determined by Russian geopolitical goals in the region. An important milestone in the history of Russian-Chinese relations in the field of education was the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway at the beginning of the 20th century in the Northeast of China. First in Harbin, and then in Tianjin and Shanghai, Russian educational institutions were established and they preserved traditions and methods of Russian education. The article focused on the role of education in the period from October 1917 to 1949 presented by the activities of cultural and educational societies and establishment of new educational institutions. From 1949 until the mid-1950s the system of higher education in China was restructured according to the Soviet model. The authors note that Sino-Soviet cooperation in the educational sphere was reduced against the background of worsening political relations in the 1970s, which subsequently resulted in the rejection of the Soviet model of education and led to the introduction of elements of the Western-type educational system in Chinese educational institutions. The article reveals that in the retrospective of Russian-Chinese relations education was one of their instruments of indirect impact on relations between the two powers. The authors come to a conclusion about the loss of Russia's once leading position, and the emergence of an objective danger to the Russian state, in turn, to become an object of Chinese soft power.

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