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Fifty kilometers outside central Moscow, the bucolic village of Pervomayskoye might seem like an unusual place to celebrate Russia’s growing ties with China. But a new Chinese cultural center and museum hopes to do just that.
In July, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and her Chinese counterpart, Liu Yandong, sped into town for the ceremonial opening of a Chinese Communist Party Museum. Amid a display of more pomp and circumstance than the village had seen in years, 8,000 residents suddenly found themselves at the nexus of Sino-Russian relations.
Pervomayskoye, it turned out, had once hosted a famous Chinese Communist Party Conference. It presented Russia and China with a golden opportunity to showcase joint history and consolidate bilateral relations.
With the collapse of relations with the West after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, Russia’s ties with China have taken on new significance. Interest in China and its culture, which “never existed before,” is now growing among Russians, says Svetlana Krivokhizh, a lecturer at the Higher School of Economics.
And public diplomacy — efforts to establish dialogue between societies and cultures — has been increasingly pursued by both sides.
Old Ties, New Relations
Some consider the museum complex in Pervomayskoye, a former aristocratic manor from the 18th century, to be the birthplace of the Chinese revolution.
In 1928, when nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek was purging socialists back home, exiled Chinese communists held their only party conference outside China in that building. Known as the Sixth Party Conference, the event has long been significant to the Chinese leadership — seen as a moment when other communists came to the Chinese revolutionaries’ assistance.
Starting in Soviet times, Beijing pleaded with the Russian authorities for permission to build a museum commemorating the conference. Their efforts met with little success until 2013. At the G20 summit meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the Russian president agreed to rent the historic building to Moscow’s Chinese cultural center.
The Chinese took two years to deal with Russia’s notorious red tape. When they finally made it to Pervomayskoye to begin renovation work, they found a building in ruins. Bombed by Germany during World War II, the manor had stood empty throughout the 1990s, and nearly burnt to the ground in a 2011 fire.
Today, after 10 months of intensive restoration, the building has been returned to its former, imperial glory. Pastel yellow walls, marble floors, and crystal chandeliers now stand as monument of Chinese and Russian unity.
Mao Comes to Moscow
This is an interesting article. Pervomayskoye is really rural from what I can find.
In July, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets and her Chinese counterpart, Liu Yandong, sped into town for the ceremonial opening of a Chinese Communist Party Museum. Amid a display of more pomp and circumstance than the village had seen in years, 8,000 residents suddenly found themselves at the nexus of Sino-Russian relations.
Pervomayskoye, it turned out, had once hosted a famous Chinese Communist Party Conference. It presented Russia and China with a golden opportunity to showcase joint history and consolidate bilateral relations.
With the collapse of relations with the West after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, Russia’s ties with China have taken on new significance. Interest in China and its culture, which “never existed before,” is now growing among Russians, says Svetlana Krivokhizh, a lecturer at the Higher School of Economics.
And public diplomacy — efforts to establish dialogue between societies and cultures — has been increasingly pursued by both sides.
Old Ties, New Relations
Some consider the museum complex in Pervomayskoye, a former aristocratic manor from the 18th century, to be the birthplace of the Chinese revolution.
In 1928, when nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek was purging socialists back home, exiled Chinese communists held their only party conference outside China in that building. Known as the Sixth Party Conference, the event has long been significant to the Chinese leadership — seen as a moment when other communists came to the Chinese revolutionaries’ assistance.
Starting in Soviet times, Beijing pleaded with the Russian authorities for permission to build a museum commemorating the conference. Their efforts met with little success until 2013. At the G20 summit meeting between Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the Russian president agreed to rent the historic building to Moscow’s Chinese cultural center.
The Chinese took two years to deal with Russia’s notorious red tape. When they finally made it to Pervomayskoye to begin renovation work, they found a building in ruins. Bombed by Germany during World War II, the manor had stood empty throughout the 1990s, and nearly burnt to the ground in a 2011 fire.
Today, after 10 months of intensive restoration, the building has been returned to its former, imperial glory. Pastel yellow walls, marble floors, and crystal chandeliers now stand as monument of Chinese and Russian unity.
Mao Comes to Moscow
This is an interesting article. Pervomayskoye is really rural from what I can find.
