The Amur region was raided by the 1651 Russian expedition of Yerofey Khabarov, after which the indigenous Daur people were either killed or fled further into territory of Qing China.

The precursor of Primorskaya Oblast was the Albazino Voivodeship that existed 1882-86 and was abolished upon the conclusion of the Sino-Russian border conflicts.

[1] Originally the oblast included the entire northeastern portion of Russia and territories of the Cis-Amur region.

It was organized out of the newly acquired territories of the valley of the River Amur, Kamchatka Oblast, and Sakhalin.

The capital of the oblast was originally Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, during 1880-1888 – Khabarovka (presently named Khabarovsk), and during 1888 it was relocated to Vladivostok.