New Embassy in New China: On the 65th Anniversary of the Construction of the USSR Embassy Campus in Beijing

The article examines the problems associated with the relocation of the USSR Embassy in China in the 1950s from its old location on Dongjiaominxiang (Nan’guan) Street in Beijing and the construction of a new embassy campus on the territory of the former Russian Orthodox Mission (ROM) in the Beiguan district. The article substantiates the idea that, although the decision to move the address of the construction of the new Soviet embassy appeared spontaneously during the design work, it was dictated by the objective need to ensure favorable conditions for the activities and development of the embassy in the context of growing cooperation with the PRC. Moreover, the relocation of the Soviet embassy to another location was linked to the general plan of the Chinese government to move foreign diplomatic missions from the Legation Quarter of Beijing in order to “end the half-century shame” of China’s semi-colonial past. The article, based on archival data, provides a comparative analysis of the areas and volumes of office and residential buildings and other objects on the old and new embassy grounds, and describes the volume and nature of construction work and improvements, the implementation of which required significant costs and time (1954–1959). The article pays attention to the fact of destruction during construction of church buildings of the ROM. At the same time, the author points out that in recent years, some historical shrines have been restored on the embassy territory. Particularly important was the revival of the Dormition Church in 2009. Such an approach to some extent compensates for the losses incurred during the construction of the new embassy in the 1950s. The article concludes that the construction of the USSR embassy in a new location turned out to be correct and providential, since the land acquired by the first Russian people in Beijing — the Albazinians and the ROM, remained with our country Russia.