Muscovite and Mandarin by Clifford M. Foust

Author:Clifford M. Foust [Foust, Clifford M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Russia & the Former Soviet Union, Asia, China
ISBN: 9780807873649
Google: jQZfDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Published: 2018-06-15T00:41:52+00:00

Catherine’s Conference

Russian military preparations were pushed swiftly ahead in 1764 for what began to look like eventual war with the Chinese. In late spring the Senate listened to reports, once again, of the inadequacy of the forces on the Mongolian border; Iakobi had in his command about twenty-five hundred men in two regiments, one cavalry and one infantry, both understaffed and undersupplied, and an insufficient number of Cossacks.79 The Senate gave him permission to enroll twenty-four hundred of the local Buriats into paramilitary units.80 These irregulars were expected to provide their own maintenance in lieu of paying iasak, and Iakobi was instructed to keep close watch on them so that they did not defect to the Mongol side, since after all they were close kin to the Khalkas. To compensate for the loss of customs revenues which had formerly been used, in part, to pay the salaries of the Iakutsk infantry and cavalry regiments, the Senate also ordered funds to be released from the Kolyvanovoskresensk mines funds. Already ordered in an imperial ukaz of 29 November 1763, the prohibition against the bulk sale and purchase of grain in Irkutsk and Eniseisk was repeated at this time. Artillery and shells were reported in especially short supply in Selenginsk; the new Siberian Governor Chicherin asked for nineteen three-pounders and a bomb mortar.

In October of 1764 Catherine summoned a full conference of seven leading civil and military officials to review the deterioration of trade relations with China and to suggest military measures appropriate to the aggravated situation.81 The conference provided the Empress with a full description of affairs as best they were known and offered recommendations for the defense of the realm in the event of war and for the improvement of the administration of commerce should conflict be avoided. Neither eventuality was slighted.

Reinforcements should be added along most of the frontier, bringing the total strength of Siberian military forces to eleven regiments.82 Units should be augmented at Petropavlovsk on the Ishim; Omsk, Iamyshev, and Ust’-Kamenogorsk on the Irtysh; Zhelenzensk; Biisk on the Ob’; Kuznetsk on the Tom’; and at Irkutsk and Selenginsk, i.e., across the whole sweep of southern Siberia at all the critical towns. Two dragoon regiments should be transferred from Kazan’ to key reserve locations, the Azov regiment to Petropavlovsk and the Revel’ to Omsk. Additional artillery must be dispatched to Omsk and Selenginsk, but the majority of regiments must be held in reserve rather than committing them to inaccessible outposts. Since much of the border was mountainous or otherwise impassable, the rapid transfer of units from one point to another was impossible; this was a sensible defensive posture.

In Transbaikalia minor efforts were to be made. Kudarinsk suburb on the Chikoi River was scheduled for strengthening with ditches, palisades, and earthen redoubts, and one thousand rubles were allocated for an arsenal at Kiakhta to provide all inhabitants with weapons. Two companies of the Selenginsk garrison were detached to improve the fortifications of the Cossack-manned Akchinsk fort between Kiakhta and Nerchinsk on the Onon River.

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