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Remembering “Millionka” – Vladivostok’s Chinatown Badlands

Posted: January 13th, 2015 | 1 Comment »

“Millionka” (in Russian: Миллионка) was the common name for the “Chinatown” that grew up in the nineteenth century in the Russian Far East city of Vladivostok – around the time of the end of the First World War some reports say that 30% of Vladivostok’s population was Chinese. Nowadays this district, near the port and where once Chinese and Korean junks moored, has the same streets but some of them have been damaged and destroyed – it was considered a rat run of businesses, laundries, restaurants, gambling parlours, threatre and opera houses, brothels, lodging houses and opium dens (regular readers will immediately see why “Millionka” appeals to me!!) – the Tsarist authorities and later the Soviets both considered it a slum, a den of iniquity and a nest of thieves and criminality controlled by gangs and with the police afraid to enter. Soldiers from the First World War and then Whites looking to flee Russia all crowded around the opium dens and brothels of Millionka as Russia saw decades of chaos. In 1914, a reported 1,243 crimes occurred in the district alone. amazingly the area survived, in somewhat muted form, into the Soviet Union era. In 1936 Stalin ordered the area “liquidated” and all Chinese deported. However, at its height, around 1900, Millionka was a labyrinth of alleys housing perhaps as many as 50,000 Chinese in what was roughly the size of two New York City blocks. This may be a conservative figure for the density – one history cites 100,000 Chinese in Millionka plus another 10,000 Koreans. Riots and strikes in 1905 saw the place torched partly and there were regular brawls with Russian sailors, among the gangs of the district and with the authorities.

Pictures of Millionka appear quite hard to find and rare – what I can find are below…..

1922

Millionka in 1922 with Chinese residents and shopkeepers

and a few pics from more recently….

Vldv_millionka_kolh-pogr

A typical Millionka alleyway…

An inner-yard (Admirala Fokina St.,5) of former Millionka in Vladivostok, Russia. Historically Millionka was the local china-town and the biggest center of crime activity

An inner courtyard in Millionka today not dissimilar to the one in 1922 above…

8 And another Millionka back court with original wooden stairs


One Comment on “Remembering “Millionka” – Vladivostok’s Chinatown Badlands”

  1. 1 Katya said at 4:41 pm on January 27th, 2015:

    How interesting! It’s the first time I hear about this place. Thank you for discovering it for your readers! I did a search in Russian and found this curious blog with some great old and new images. http://guran-ussury.livejournal.com/886.html

    In the text, there is a quote from a contemporary writer:

    “Everyone knows the destructive influence that saloons have on local Russians, and the Chinese population is harmed even more grievously by their gambling dens and smoking parlors. There are scores of these establishments in our city; most are operated secretly. As soon as you come near such a place you feel its miasma. The entrance to the “fangzi” is strewn with garbage and human excrement. The stench will force you to close your nose and mouth with your hand. The dark low-ceilinged room is filthy and crowded with Chinese. Mean sooty windows admit virtually no light. Pairs of players sit at the tables and along the benches, surrounded by Chinese onlookers. Occasionally employees hand out small cups of Chinese vodka to the players. It takes enormous effort to spend even ten minutes in this den.”


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