Changchun Conference

negotiations that took place from Sept. 4 through Sept. 26, 1922, in Ch’angch’un, China, between representatives of the Far East Republic (FER) and the RSFSR on one side and Japanese representatives on the other.

The successes of the People’s Revolutionary Army of the FER, the strengthened international and domestic position of Soviet Russia and its allied republics, the sharpening of imperialist contradictions in the Far East, and growing difficulties in Japan’s internal politics forced the Japanese government to resume the negotiations that were broken off at the Dairen Conference of 1921–22. In May and June 1922, Japan proposed that negotiations begin. On June 30 the government of the FER agreed on condition that the talks be conducted between Japan on one side and the FER and the RSFSR on the other. On July 19 the Japanese government accepted the proposal of the FER and declared that it would evacuate its troops from the Primor’e by Nov. 1, 1922, at the latest.

From the outset the Japanese delegation attempted to limit the conference to Far Eastern issues of interest only to Japan and suggested the conclusion of a treaty with the FER alone. The delegation of the RSFSR and FER opposed this proposal but agreed to adopt the Dairen draft as a basis for negotiations. The Japanese then announced that their government had agreed to conclude a treaty with both the FER and the RSFSR provided that the treaty was restricted to questions affecting the Far East; after the treaty was signed, negotiations could begin on an agreement that would apply to the entire RSFSR.

Japan also stated that it would not evacuate Northern Sakhalin until the issues raised by the Nikolaevsk incident were settled. In the early morning of Mar. 12, 1920, Japanese troops in Niko-laevsk-na-Amure, in violation of an agreement, had attacked partisans in the city and had been defeated; the Japanese government, using the incident as a pretext for continuing its intervention, had then occupied Northern Sakhalin. The delegation of the FER and RSFSR categorically opposed linking the evacuation of Northern Sakhalin with a settlement of the Nikolaevsk issues.

The negotiations in Ch’angch’un were broken off by the Japanese. In early October, White Guard detachments were routed in the Spassk Operation of 1922; the People’s Revolutionary Army of the FER approached Vladivostok, which on October 25 was abandoned by the Japanese and the remaining White Guards. In accordance with an agreement of Jan. 20,1925, on the basic principles of mutual relations between the USSR and Japan, Japanese troops were removed from Northern Sakhalin by May 15 of that year, thus ending the period of foreign intervention in the Far East.