On The Issue Of The Name And Renaming Of The Far East

Abstract

The Russian Far East is located in the easternmost and northeastern parts of our country. This vast territory stretches from north to south for 4.5 thousand km from the Bering Strait to the Russian-Korean border. The Far Eastern territory is washed by the Chukchi, Okhotsk and Japanese Seas, the Arctic and Pacific Oceans, and is covered by mountain ranges that run parallel to the sea coast. The region is characterized by an extraordinary variety of natural zones where the Earth rarest animals live (Amur tiger, Ussuri leopard), unique plants grow (lemongrass, wild grapes, medicinal ginseng). The region currently includes such components as the Khabarovsk Region and the Magadan Region, Primorye, Amur Region, Kamchatka, Sakhalin with the Kuril Islands, Chukotka. The indigenous peoples (the Tungus-Manchu and the Paleo-Asians) that have long been inhabiting the territory of the Far East do not have a common name for their country in their history and culture. In general, the ethnonym “people using dogs” distinguishes the peoples of the Amur River in a special cultural niche in the region. The question of why the aborigines do not have their own name for their territory has no answer yet.