Albazinians

There are approximately 250 Albazinians in China who are descendants of about fifty Russian Cossacks who fought at the Siege of Albazin on the Amur River that were resettled by the Kangxi Emperor in the northeastern periphery of Beijing in 1685.

The majority of its inhabitants agreed to evacuate their families and property to Nerchinsk, whereas several young Cossacks resolved to join the Manchu army and to relocate to Beijing.

An old icon of St. Nicholas, evacuated by the Cossacks from Albazin, was placed in this unusual church, dedicated to the Holy Wisdom.

The Albazinian company was placed into the Manchu Bordered Yellow Banner and lived in the northeast of the "Tartar city" in Beijing.

Although several Albazinian families found it reasonable to move to the Soviet Union during the Cultural Revolution, the bulk of them still reside in Beijing and Tianjin.

After the first siege of Albazin in 1685, most of the Cossacks were allowed to return to Russian territory at Nerchinsk, but nearly 45 of them decided to surrender to the Manchus.

They were enrolled in the seventeenth company of the fourth regiment of the Bordered Yellow Banner and given space in the northeast corner of the Tatar City of Peking (at a different place from the O-lo-ssu Kuan).

The fifth article of the Treaty of Kyakhta authorized the permanent presence of a church, a priest with three assistants and six students to learn the local language.