The First Border Chapel of the Far East

Abstract

The article concerns participation of state authorities of the Khabarovsk Territory in complex and painful geopolitical problems, in this case, relating to the so-called “disputed territories” of the Russian Federation and People’s Republic of China. The material focuses on the role of the regional leader, the Head of the Khabarovsk Territory V. I. Ishaev, in building a complex, multi-stage and sometimes contrary to the diplomacy, system for defending the Russian border: negotiations on the demarcation of the border were conducted at level of leaders of the two states, but there was a risk of difficulties for the Khabarovsk Territory residents due to falling the settlements of the region including the city of Khabarovsk into the border strip. The author has shown how the presence of Russia was indicated through the Orthodox symbols in the zone of demarcation line with China long before the actual transfer of a part of the Big Ussurian Island to the PRC. In this case it was the establishment of a worship cross, and then the construction of an Orthodox chapel of the Holy Warrior-martyr Victor, which eventually turned out to be only 200 meters from the Sino-Russian border. The head of the region managed to mobilize forces and funds for the construction of a 26-meter temple in a record time of 5 weeks. Despite the short time-frame for the design of the temple-chapel performed by the Khabarovsk architects A. E. Mameshin and A. V. Mameshina, all calculations of the building parameters turned out to be so well calibrated that during the 2013 Amur flood the chapel did not submerge. For the first time, the drawings and exact parameters of the first frontier Orthodox church-chapel of the Holy Warrior-martyr Victor on the Big Ussurian Island, as well as the memoirs of the chief architect of the project A. E. Mameshin are published in this material.

Keywords

• far east
• khabarovsk krai
• china
• chapel
• big ussurian island
• state border
• territorial disputes