«Messianic temporality and Border: Eschatological temporality and new ethics of Chinese Russians»

Thе presentation will explore the eschatological ethnography of the Chinese Russian Orthodox community, focusing on their unique ability to preserve Orthodoxy under extreme repression and isolation. The Chinese Russians, descendants of mixed China-Russian-Mongolian Orthodox families, maintain their identity through an oral history marked by three major traumas: the Civil War and famine in Transbaikalia, the Japanese occupation, and the Cultural Revolution. Despite the challenging conditions, the Chinese Russians have developed a new form of Orthodox religiosity characterized by kindness and forgiveness, contrasting sharply with the more militant ethos of the Transbaikal Cossacks. The presentation will delve into how the Chinese Russians construct their identity through binary oppositions like paganism vs. Christianity and elaborate close relations with Mongolian and Evenki neighbors. Their community evaluates the world based on conformity to their ideal image, seeing their mission not as saving the world but integrating with the good to save the rest. The paradoxical strength of the Chinese Russians, whose emotional regime and religiosity continue to be reproduced across generations, provides a path for «Russian salvation» despite experienced challenges.