Russian Сonsuls in Xinjiang: Legislative Initiatives at the Turn of XIX–XX Centuries

The article is devoted to an interesting chapter in the history of international relations in Central Asia, namely, the role of the consular service in tracing ethno-demographic processes in the area of Russian-Chinese border. Observation Russian consuls and analysis of the situation at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries are reflected in the sources that allowed the author to explore the details of the development of the law in 1903 to regulate the uncontrolled immigration. The author studied the array of documents from the archival funds and memoir literature, periodical press materials specified period. Activities of Russian consuls for many years has not been studied as a subject of study, since the coming to power of the Bolsheviks in 1917 and the abdication of Nicholas Romanov 2 put them out of politics. The fate of Russian consuls abroad after 1917 constitutes a separate dramatic page of history. China has actively cooperated with the consuls in Xinjiang, which is understandable position of the state on the eve of the First World War. This is an example of the interested cooperation of Russia and China in solving the problem of spontaneous cross-border migration in Central Asia