Battles on Amur River (1900)

The Battles on the Amur River were border clashes between Chinese Imperial Army troops along with Boxers against Russian forces. They were part of the Boxer Rebellion.

Battles
The Russians aimed for control over Amur River for navigation.

The Chinese treated Russian civilians leniently and allowed them to escape to Russia, even notifying them that since a state of war existed, that they should leave the war zone; by contrast, Russian Cossacks killed civilians who tried to flee in the Chinese villages, westerners noted that the Chinese followed "civilized warfare" while the Russians massacred people. The Chinese summoned all available men to fight, and the Chinese forces and garrisons gathered artillery and bombarded Russian troops and towns across the Amur. Despite the Cossacks repulsing Chinese army crossings into Russia, the Chinese army troops increased the amount of artillery and kept up the bombardment. In revenge for the attacks on Chinese villages, Boxer troops burned Russian towns and almost annihilated a Russian force at Tieling.

Russian governor K. N. Gribsky ordered Cossacks to destroy all Chinese posts on Amur river, and Cossacks completed the order during July. On July 20, Russian forces (including 16 infantry companies, a hundred Cossacks and 16 cannons) crossed the Amur near Blagoveshchensk with support from the steamers Selenga and Sungari. On July 20, Russian troops captured Saghalien; on July 22, Aigun.

After the victory over the Chinese forces, the general-governor of Amur Region, Nikolai Grodekov, decided to annex the right bank of the Amur River, and sent a telegram to the Sankt-Peterburg, but Russian Minister of War Aleksey Kuropatkin forbade such an action: "Because of restoring the good relation with China in the nearest future, His Majesty decided not to annex any part of China"