The Image of Russia in China: A Brief Historiography of Russian studies

Abstract

The article describes the process of developing studies of the image of Russia in China based on Russian and Chinese sources. In the last quarter of the XX century. Soviet people became particularly interested in the attitude of the Chinese to the USSR / Russia. Russian studies of the image of their country in China are mainly associated with the names of S.L. Tikhvinsky, Y.M. Galenovich, N.V. Ten, M.E. Panina, O.D. Tugulova, I.V. Stavrov, etc. The article analyzes the main results of the research conducted by these authors. It is noted that, exploring the image of Russia in China according to Chinese literary sources, Russian authors mainly call such Chinese names as Ke Huixin, Zheng Chunli, Wu Yan, Li Suian, Wu He, etc. Among these sources, a special place belongs to the monograph “The Image of Russia in China (1949–2009)”, published by Li Suian in 2012, who was the first to perform a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the process of forming the image of Russia in China. All these studies convey the precious experience of studying the image of Russia in China. This experience is based on a comprehensive diachronic analysis carried out within the framework of imagological research.