A fully funded experience, the Research Trip takes successful applicants to Vladivostok, Khabarovsk, and other cities in the Russian Far East to meet with high ranking international affairs officials and journalists, as well as researchers and professors at prestigious academic institutions. Participants use these unique resources to complete large-scale research projects relating to this key region.
Click here for information about the Spring 2018 Research Trip to the Russian Far East.
In the Spring of 2017, the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies (GIRS) enabled Professor Akaha and four MIIS students – Aleksandra Evert, Matthew Levie, Tracy Lyon, and Rory Roccio – to travel to the Russian Far East from March 24 to April 1 and conduct field research on regional developments in energy, migration, ecology, and international education and their impact on Russia’s relations with the neighboring countries of China, Japan, and Korea. After two months of pre-departure preparation, the group visited Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, the two largest cities in the Russian Far East, and engaged in one-on-one and small-group meetings with university professors and students, researchers, administrators, community leaders, and other local experts on the students’ selected topics.
In Vladivostok the group stayed at the Far Eastern Federal University on
Russky Island, the site of the APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit hosted by President Putin in 2012, and in Khabarovsk they were hosted by the Economic Research Institute, which is a part of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Far Eastern Branch. The students were able to fully utilize their Russian language skills in their formal and informal discussions and add immensely to their vocabulary. These discussions allowed them to gain an in-depth understanding of the varied local and regional perspectives on ongoing developments in the region that would not be possible to gain except through this type of immersive learning opportunity.
With the recent deterioration of Russian-U.S. relations, the conversations with the local people often touched on U.S. policy toward Russia and Russia’s view of it, with plenty of room for disagreements but the MIIS group was very warmly welcomed by the local hosts and further deepened their interest in Russia. Their side-trips took them to a pre-WWII fort on Russky Island, a history and archaeology museum in Khabarovsk, and a Nanai village in Sikachi-Alyan about a 90-minute drive from Khabarovsk. Upon return, the students are busily going through their numerous notes, recorded interviews, and photos with a view to completing their research papers by early May.
For more details from the most recent research trip, click here.
In Spring 2016, Middlebury College students Michelle Kim, Katherine Baughman, and Daniel Bateyko, and Middlebury Institute professor Tsuneo Akaha traveled to Vladivostok and Khabarovsk from March 25 to April 1, as part of the Graduate Initiative in Russian Studies (GIRS). The group had busy but productive itineraries in the two Russian cities, which included meetings with university faculty members, their students, researchers, journalists, regional government officials, and representatives of civil society organizations. Professor Akaha gave a lecture on “Japan’s Policy toward Russia” at the School of Regional and International Studies, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, and at the Economic Research Institute, the two institutions that hosted the visiting team.
The three students as a group and individually met with local experts to discuss their respective 
research topics: Michelle on Russia’s relations with North and South Korea and the nature of relations among the various Korean communities in the Russian Far East; Katie on the impact of the Ukraine crisis on Russia’s relations with Asian countries; and Dan on the relations between the Russian Far East and Japan with a focus on the role of mutual perceptions between Russian and Japanese partners in business and other ventures. They interviewed university professors, researchers, and other local experts from the Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok), the International Relations Department of the Parimorsky Regional Administration (Vladivostok), the Korean Center (Ussuriisk), the Economic Research Institute (Khabarovsk), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Representative Office (Khabarovsk), the International Association of Economic Interaction (Khabarovsk), Khabarovsk State University of Economics and Law, the Far Eastern Institute of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy & Public Service, the Khabarovsk Society of Friendship with Foreign Countries, the Association of Korean Organizations (Khabarovsk), the Association of Korean Families (Khabarovsk), and the Japan Center (Khabarovsk). The students conducted some of these interviews in Russian. This was their first visit to the Russian Far East, so they took advantage of every opportunity available to observe the local scene, from a North Korean restaurant and a Georgian restaurant to the site of the 2012 APEC Summit in Vladivostok, and history and archaeology museums and other cultural sites in Vladivostok and Khabarovsk. They also enjoyed a night-train ride on the last segment of the Trans-Siberian Railroad between these two cities. Following the field trip, the students will be writing a research report based on their field interviews and observations as well as the reading of academic analyses they discussed with Professor Akaha in preparation for the trip.
Since the end of the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, there has been a territorial dispute between the two states over four islands between Kamchatka, Russia and Hokkaido, Japan. The dispute continued as Stalin joined World War II against Japan, in hopes that he would gain the islands after Russia experienced a humiliating loss in the Russo-Japanese War. During the Yalta Conference, Stalin was promised Japanese territory if the Allies defeated the Axis powers, but when the time came to honor this agreement, the Cold War had already begun and the Allied Powers failed to honor their agreements. Since Germany was already divided, the United States did not want to divide another country and share power with the Soviet Union. The islands that have been under dispute since the end of World War II include Iturup Island, Kunashir Island, Shikotan Island, and the Habomai Islands.
This territorial dispute has been one obstacle keeping Russia and Japan from signing any peace treaty, which makes this dispute a major obstacle in Japanese-Russian relations, which are growing in importance as Russia is looking to the East for allies after sanctions have been established against Russia due to the reunification of Crimea. The reunification of Crimea is not only a factor in relationships with the West, but also with Japan. It could be damaging to Russo-Japanese relations If a settlement is reached between the two nations over the Kuril Islands and then the local Russian population on the islands tried to reunify themselves with Russia in the same manner as the residents of Crimea were able to do so.
In Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, international law around these islands were discussed with experts, professors, and students of the different universities. They mostly agreed that it should be understood that past agreements and negotiations between previous leaders of the two countries cannot be used as a legal right over a specific island, but the fate of these islands rely solely on the diplomatic relations and negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe.
When I finally went, thanks to the Russian Graduate Initiative at MIIS, I met a 3rd generation Korean, whose family had been in Russia since the early 1900s and I was lucky enough to hear her family history. Our class met a Russian scholar of Korean Studies, who is also a regional government official, and he discussed in more detail about the interactions between the two cultures in the past and the future cooperation that can emerge between Russia and the two Koreas. Overall, it was a privilege to meet these individuals and other academics who shed some light on Russia-Korea relations. Furthermore, it was truly interesting for me to hear how Russia, especially the Far Eastern region, contributed to Korean history.
What I didn’t expect was that I would meet North Koreans. I knew that there was a North Korean presence in Primorsky Krai and though the focus of my research paper is on Russian-North Korean relations, I didn’t think that I might interact with them, even if it was very limited. The very first night we arrived, we went to Pyongyang Café, which is a North Korean state-owned restaurant, in Vladivostok. At the restaurant, I talked to our server in Korean and it was nice to hear the distant, but familiar North Korean accent that I used to hear from my grandparents. During the trip, several people mentioned how Russia, North Korea and South Korea were working together in the region. North Koreans were brought in as guest workers to Russia to work in Russia’s construction and logging industries, which were partly financed by South Korean investments. Though, I still have many questions regarding this trilateral cooperation, it was interesting for me to think that this North Korean and South Korean interaction is happening on Russian territory. Finally, on our last day in Khabarovsk, I saw some North Korean laborers on the bus. Ironically, we were on a South Korean bus. By “South Korean,” I don’t just mean buses that are made my South Korean companies, but those old buses that were actually used in South Korean cities.
I am very grateful that I was given this opportunity and some day, I wish to go back. The trip made me think about all the past connections between Russia and the two Koreas. At the same time, I am thinking about the future. Although the Russia-North Korea-South Korea cooperation may not directly lead to reunification efforts, there is potential and I want to go back to explore that potential.
There is only so much you can learn about a place from a week-long stay. Even after surveying numerous secondary and primary sources, I can only report my impressions of the Russian Far East; though impressions are, admittedly, a step up from assumptions.
As we explored Vladivostok, the birthplace of Yul Brynner whose precarious position in world atlases had piqued my curiosity years ago, we exposed two myths. Empirically and via conversations with local laymen and experts, we realized that the famed ‘Kitaizatsiya’ – that is, colonization of the Russian Far East by Chinese immigrants – so often claimed in otherwise reputable Western media as well as sensational Russian outlets, is nonexistent. While it is true that Chinese merchants and laborers enter the Russian Far East seasonally to find work, especially in the agricultural and forestry industries, it is apparent that they do not take up permanent residence in the area. Perhaps because of their proximity and consistent exposure to Asians, residents of the region are all the more European – linguistically, culturally, ethnically, and according to self-identification. Secondly, though extreme poverty certainly exists in Russia as it exists in many nations, in the cities of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk Russia’s classification as a ‘developing country’ is challenged. Though the fall of the rouble and the price of oil in the past year have certainly harmed the Russian economy, the destitution often associated with Russia in Western popular culture is exaggerated.
My own research questions revolved around FDI in the region, a topic which excited the professors, journalists, and officials with whom we met. There is no question that as transit points and sources of raw materials for the global economy, the Far Eastern regions consider attracting sustainable investment in their infrastructure, be it foreign or domestic, public or private, a top priority. Historically, Japan has been the largest source of foreign capital in the region, and I am gracious to the Japan Center in Vladivostok for meeting with me to further familiarize me with the history of this economic relationship.
Personally, I was happily surprised by how practical my prior education in Russian area studies at Middlebury proved to be. Linguistic and cultural proficiency greatly facilitated my research and charmed my interlocutors; even young, highly educated individuals, likely proficient in English, were more than comfortable conversing with a foreigner in Russian about relatively complex topics. In contrast to many other reports of Russian manners from Western tourists, I found the people I met in the Far East to be especially hospitable, accommodating, and friendly. A unique and emotionally troublous experience for a Westerner in the region is the fleeting contact, almost assured whether the visitor is aware of it or not, with North Korean nationals who have been permitted to stay in Russia as guest workers. Despite the fact that the region’s population is quite small, reports of brain drain and a loss of youth are also inflated; numerous students, with whom we met, were optimistic about employment opportunities in the Russian Far East and saw no need to move to Russia’s west for work.
Though it is relatively unlikely that I will ever have the opportunity to travel to the Russian Far East again, I would unhesitatingly seize the chance. I see in the region opportunities for investment by multinational concerns in the forestry, mining, energy, transportation, and fisheries industries. As I synthesize my resources into a concise regional risk analysis, I hope my work will exceed the expectations of our benefactors at the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
An eight-hour flight usually signifies not only an international flight but also a flight that crosses an ocean, but my eight-hour flight from Moscow to Vladivostok was a Russian domestic flight that crossed an ocean of land, the vast territory of the Russian Federation. In the process of flying from the Russian capital to the Russian Far East, I crossed seven time zones and more than four thousand miles, as the crow flies. Traveling from New York City to Vladivostok via Moscow did indeed feel as if I had embarked upon a journey to the end of the Russian World, especially since Vladivostok is the terminus of the famous Trans-Siberian Railway.
Some consider Vladivostok to be the San Francisco of Russia, mainly due to the numerous hills in Vladivostok, the howling winds blowing in from the Pacific Ocean’s Golden Horn Bay, and the two giant cable-stayed bridges recently constructed for the 2012 APEC Summit. Despite this nomenclature, Vladivostok’s American sister city is San Diego, due to both of these cities being home to their respective nation’s Pacific Fleets, rather than San Francisco. Nevertheless, Vladivostok does have a rather West Coast feel to it, in spite of its location on the Russian East Coast.
Beginning at the end of the Trans-Siberian Railway, we traveled 11 hours overnight by train to reach Khabarovsk, the second largest city in the Russian Far East, after Vladivostok. Due to its inland location, Khabarovsk has a more distinct Russian provincial character than the cosmopolitan character of Vladivostok. Although both cities located thousands of miles from Russia’s metropole, and much closer to the metropoles of the Russian Far East’s Northeast Asian neighbors: China, Japan, Mongolia, and the two Koreas; maintained a specific Russian/European flavor, albeit with an Asian spice.
Walking the streets of Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, one can easily recognize the Northeast Asian aspects of the two cities, as one passes by countless Chinese, Japanese, and Korean shops and restaurants. The intra-city buses are refurbished South Korean buses that still bear the itinerary of the routes they traveled during their former use in South Korea. Most importantly it is impossible not to encounters the peoples from these Northeast Asian countries as one strolls through the cities, whether they have been living in the Russian Far East for many generations, have moved there after the fall of the Soviet Union, or are simply migrant workers. The Russian Far East is dynamic region, which has great potential to develop economically and technologically, as well integrate regionally with its Northeast Asian neighbors.