Blagoveshchensk

Blagoveshchensk (Russian: Благовещенск, IPA: [bləɡɐˈvʲeɕːɪnsk], lit. 'City of the Annunciation') is a city and the administrative center of Amur Oblast, Russia. It is located at the confluence of the Amur and the Zeya Rivers, opposite the Chinese city of Heihe.

The Amur has formed Russia's border with China since the 1858 Aigun Treaty and the 1860 Treaty of Peking. The area north of the Amur belonged to the Manchu Qing dynasty by the Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689 until it was ceded to Russia by the Aigun Treaty in 1858.

The early residents of both sides of the Amur in the region of today's Blagoveshchensk were the Daurs and Duchers. An early settlement in the area of today's Blagoveshchensk was the Ducher town whose name was reported by the Russian explorer Yerofey Khabarov as Aytyun in 1652, as Aigun from 1683 to 1685, and as Aigun Old Town from 1685 until the massacre in 1900, which is known to Russian archaeologists as the Grodekovo site, after the nearby village of Grodekovo about 25–30 km (16–19 mi) southeast of Blagoveshchensk. The Grodekovo site is thought by archaeologists to have been populated since ca. AD 1000.

As the Russians tried to assert their control over the region, the Ducher town was probably vacated when the Duchers were evacuated by the Qing to the Sungari or Hurka in the mid-1650s. Since 1673, the Chinese reused the site for their fort ("Old Aigun", in modern literature), which served in 1683-1685 as a base for the Manchus's campaign against the Russian fort of Albazin further north.

After the capture of Albazin in 1685 or 1686, the Chinese relocated their town, to a new site on the right (southwestern, i.e. presently Chinese) bank of the Amur, about 3 miles (4.8 km) downstream from the original site; it later became known as Aigun.

The series of conflicts between Russians and China ended with Russia's recognition of the Chinese sovereignty over both sides of the Amur by the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689.

As the balance of power in the region had changed by the mid-19th century, the Russian Empire was able to take over the left (generally northern, but around Blagoveshchensk, eastern) bank of the Amur from China. Since the 1858 Aigun Treaty and the 1860 Treaty of Peking, the river has remained the border between the countries, although the Qing subjects were allowed to continue to live in the so-called Sixty-Four Villages east of the Amur and the Zeya (i.e., within today's Blagoveshchensk's eastern suburbs).

Although Russian settlers had lived in the area as early as 1644 and was known as Hailanpao (Chinese: 海兰泡; simplified Chinese: 海兰泡; traditional Chinese: 海蘭泡; pinyin: Hǎilánpāo), the present-day city began in 1856 as the military outpost of Ust-Zeysky; this name means settlement at the mouth of the Zeya River in Russian. Tsar Alexander II gave approval for the founding of the city in 1858 as the seat of government for the Amur region, to be named Blagoveshchensk (literally "the city of good news") after the parish church which was dedicated to the Annunciation. According to Blagoveshchensk authorities, by 1877 the city had some 8,000 residents, with merely 15 foreigners (presumably, Chinese) among them.