Russia-China relations on the Siberian axis: Expansion, diplomacy, and trade in the 17th century

The 17th century marked a period of reconstruction for Russia, marked by the Romanov dynasty's assumption of leadership and the redirection of the imperial vision eastward after the turbulent "Time of Troubles" (Smutnoye Vremya). With internal stability secured, the Russian administration accelerated the colonization of Siberia, driven by the ambition to access new commercial markets. Russians began using this ancient geography as a strategic corridor to establish contact with China. Diplomatic initiatives, such as those led by Ivan Petlin (1618) and Fyodor Baykov (1654), shaped Russia’s frontiers toward the Pacific and laid the diplomatic groundwork for the 1689 Treaty of Nerchinsk. Against this historical backdrop, this study examines Russia's evolving relations with China via Siberia, not solely through the lens of official interstate diplomacy but also within the context of local dynamics. The research demonstrates that diplomatic traffic along the Moscow-Beijing axis became functional because of logistical, linguistic, and intelligence support provided by the region's Turkic peoples, as evidenced by historical data and travel narratives of the period. The primary objective of this study is to analyze 17th-century Russo-Chinese relations through the Siberian axis, revealing that these relations were not merely a bipolar structure but constituted a multi-layered border regime shaped by intermediary agents in the region.