Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

pallas · 7th August 2009, 08:07 PM

the Honghuzi (meaning "red beards" supposedly because thats what the chinese called the russians when they first appreared in the amur/baikal region in the late 1600s, because of the russians "barbarity" and rough treatment of the tungus/yakuts and the imposition of the yasak and the "women tax" as examples, the chinese eventually used the words to describe their own bandits and outlaws)) where bandits who operated out of manchuria, as to weather they where manchu or han chinese or a mixture of both, im not certain, but they raided russian settlements in the priamur, primorye and sometimes even the transbaikal for over a century...(im not sure of the exact date of when they started raiding russian territory, im guessing since the 1840s-50s when the russians became active in the amur region again)

here is an excerpt from "the russian far east: a history" by john j stephan:

"to cope with the ubiquitous Honghuzi, the Khudyakovs erected watchtowers, dug underground bunkers and kept their powder dry, enabling them to repulse periodic assaults. less provident homesteaders took fatal risks. one day in 1879 a finnish sea captain,Fridolf Heeck returned to his home in Sidemi on an Amur bay peninsula opposite Vladivostok to find his house in ruins, his common law wife and manservant slaughtered and his seven year old son abducted. What befell the Khudyakov and Heeck families threatened isolated southern Primorye settlements well into the 20th century."

the american expeditionary force that occupied the russian far east in 1919 apparently took casualties from the honghuzi

some honghuzi may have operated as late as the sino russian border war in 1968.

7th August 2009, 08:07 PM	#3
pallas Member Join Date: Oct 2008 Posts: 53	the Honghuzi (meaning "red beards" supposedly because thats what the chinese called the russians when they first appreared in the amur/baikal region in the late 1600s, because of the russians "barbarity" and rough treatment of the tungus/yakuts and the imposition of the yasak and the "women tax" as examples, the chinese eventually used the words to describe their own bandits and outlaws)) where bandits who operated out of manchuria, as to weather they where manchu or han chinese or a mixture of both, im not certain, but they raided russian settlements in the priamur, primorye and sometimes even the transbaikal for over a century...(im not sure of the exact date of when they started raiding russian territory, im guessing since the 1840s-50s when the russians became active in the amur region again) here is an excerpt from "the russian far east: a history" by john j stephan: "to cope with the ubiquitous Honghuzi, the Khudyakovs erected watchtowers, dug underground bunkers and kept their powder dry, enabling them to repulse periodic assaults. less provident homesteaders took fatal risks. one day in 1879 a finnish sea captain,Fridolf Heeck returned to his home in Sidemi on an Amur bay peninsula opposite Vladivostok to find his house in ruins, his common law wife and manservant slaughtered and his seven year old son abducted. What befell the Khudyakov and Heeck families threatened isolated southern Primorye settlements well into the 20th century." the american expeditionary force that occupied the russian far east in 1919 apparently took casualties from the honghuzi some honghuzi may have operated as late as the sino russian border war in 1968.