Albazino

Albazino (Russian: Алба́зино; Chinese: 阿勒巴沁) is a village (selo) in Skovorodinsky District of Amur Oblast, Russia, noted as the site of Albazin (Албазин), the first Russian settlement on the Amur River. Before the arrival of Russians, Albazino belonged to the Daur people, the Mongolic peoples indigenous to this area. The town was originated by prince Albaz as the capital of Solon Khanate (Sinicized: 索倫汗國). Later in the 17th century, the town was the center of the short-lived petty Polish-speaking state of Jaxa (Manchu: yaksa; Chinese: 雅克薩; Russian: Якса, romanized: Yaksa). In the late 1640s, a team of Russian Cossacks under Yerofey Khabarov arrived to explore Dauria. They were keen to gain a foothold in the proximity of the Amur River and, after several clashes with the Daurs under Prince Albaza or Albaaši (Sinicized: 阿爾巴西), established a Russian fort of Albazin in 1651. The Russians were defeated here by Qing China at the Siege of Albazin in 1686 (see below). By the Treaty of Nerchinsk the area was assigned to Qing China. Following the Treaty of Aigun in 1858 a new Amur Cossack stanitsa appeared on the site. A municipal museum is sited among the remains of the 17th-century Russian fort.