HARBIN, or KHARBIN, a city of Manchuria, China, in the province of Kirin, situated on the Sungari river, 615 N. E. of Port Arthur and 350 miles N. W. of Vladivostok. The city is not the result of natural development, but was the built-up headquarters of the military and railroad administration of the Russian Imperial Government in Manchuria. The first buildings were erected in 1896, the larger part being the residences of the Russian officials while the native quarter was largely made up of the railroad workers and other manual laborers. During the Russo-Japanese War, in 1904, the city was an important base for the Russian forces. In 1907, in accordance with the terms of the Chino-Japanese Treaty of 1905, the city was officially thrown open to the trade of the world. Consulates were established here by Germany, Great Britain, France, and the United States. As the central point of railway admin istration, it was natural that many ex tensive railway repair machine shops should be established here, but there were also 18 flour mills, meat packing establishments, brick yards, sugar re fineries, candle factories. During the
World War Harbin was active as a central depot of supplies along the route by which Russia received munitions of war from her allies. After the fall of the Czar's Government and the tem porary Revolutionary regime under Kerensky, the Bolsheviki attempted to establish a soviet government here, in 1918, but the intervention of the United States and other Allied forces drove the influence of the Bolsheviki out of Man churia. Nominally the Russian Govern ment, as represented by various anti Bolshevik Cossack leaders, still is in pos session, but actually it is occupied by the Japanese. The total population before the World War was about 60,000.