Features of Fighting Offenses by Chinese People in the Amur Region in the 1930s (Based on the Example of the "Red Cook" Artel)

The subject of the research is a comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of the criminalization of the Chinese diaspora in the Amur region in the early 1930s as an element of the internal policy of the USSR. Using the example of a specific criminal case (considered in 1932) involving the cooperative "Red Culinary" (in the town of Svobodny), the study explores the transformation of ordinary economic activity of an ethnic cooperative into a crime in the context of radical changes in the socio-political course. The purpose of the work is to deconstruct the mechanisms and identify the multi-level motives (economic, political, ideological, xenophobic) of the repressive practices of the Soviet state towards Chinese entrepreneurs and representatives of the Chinese diaspora as a whole, illustrating how offenses became a convenient legal tool for addressing the liquidation of the private sector, "cleansing" border territories, and suppressing ethnic minorities. The research is based on an interdisciplinary methodological foundation, combining a micro-historical approach with methods of historical-legal, socio-economic, and political analysis. The application of a comparative-historical method allowed the specific case to be placed within the broader regional and all-Union context of the repressive campaign against the Chinese population. The analysis of materials reveals a qualitative change in the nature and structure of offenses related to the Chinese population in the Amur region in the early 1930s, compared to the pre-revolutionary period. Their specificity was determined by a unique combination of historical, socio-economic, and political conditions of the early Stalin era. In the context of the curtailment of the NEP and the state ban on private initiative, the traditional entrepreneurial activity of the Chinese (small trade, services, cooperation) was inevitably forced into a semi-legal and illegal channel. Smuggling (gold, currency, goods), speculation, and violations of currency legislation became widespread. On one hand, these actions were a strategy for the economic survival of the diaspora in conditions of discriminatory legislation, while on the other hand, they were a reaction to strict limitations and state monopolization of the market. The legal rootlessness of most Chinese (lack of Soviet citizenship), their discriminatory status as a "class-alien element," and socio-economic marginalization in the context of collectivization created structural preconditions for mass involvement in illegal activities. Crime in this environment was not so much a manifestation of cultural peculiarities as a forced reaction to systemic pressure and the absence of legal channels for economic and social integration.