Eestlased kaugel idas – v ljar ndamisest assimileerumiseni

After incorporating the Ussuri region into Russia, the latter’s primary aim was to colonize the coast of the Sea of Japan to make it not only nominal but also a real property of Russia. In order to find re-settlers for this region, Russian officials started search in the western corner of their empire – on Estonian islands Saaremaa and Muhumaa, where people already worked as fishermen and were also interested in getting some land. They were an exact match to the Russians’ needs for populating the other end of their empire, the land beside the Pacific. In the second half of the 19th century the grounds for regular ship connection between Odessa and Vladivostok were laid. In 1898 Estonian scouts went to the Ussuri region to see the land they were offered (at the expense of Russia). The scouts were satisfied – the sea was filled with fish and the territory was surrounded with forests. Every individual settler was granted 15 hectares of land, each family – 100 hectares, and they were freed from taxes for five years; besides, they were supplied with food for 18 months and allocated some money for buying tools. Estonian settlers could also count on getting 1000 roubles for fishing equipment and setup. However, the land was not totally uninhabited. The Chinese lived there seasonally – they cultivated the land and lived in their shacks, but they had no legal right to the land. As an unpleasant surprise, they found out that the land they had been using was now in the possession of Estonians. Estonians were surprised as well when they realized that the land allocated to them was already partly cultivated and in use; yet, they gained advantage from the situation. As rightful owners, they rented part of their lands to the Chinese. The conditions for land cultivation and fishing in the Pacific were different from those in Estonia. It took time before people adapted to local climate, landscape, soil and fishing opportunities. Two villages were settled by Estonians: Liiviküla (founded in 1899) and Linda (founded in 1903). By the year 1915 there were 141 households with 691 people (236 men and 455 women). 80 of them were fisherman. Then the revolution and the First World War broke out, and contact with the homeland was lost. In 1922 the Red Army reached Vladivostok. This started a new phase in the life of Estonians of the Far East. In 1924 the associations of fishermen were established, and in 1929 a kolkhoz named “Liflandets” was founded on the basis of these associations. In 1931, when Juhan Hanslepp was elected the chairman of the kolkhoz, it was renamed to Nov i Mir