Humanitarian Interaction in the Sphere of Culture Between Amur Region and Heilongjiang Province in the Late Xx - Early Xxi Centuries

The article is devoted to the research of humanitarian interaction between the regions of two states - Amur Region (RF) and Heilongjiang Province (PRC) at the turn of XX-XXI centuries. With the normalization of Russian-Chinese relations and the opening of borders, humanitarian cooperation has become an integral factor in Russian-Chinese ties between the border territories, which are in exceptional geographical proximity to each other. Humanitarian contacts between the border territories of Russia and China - Amur Region and Heilongjiang Province - are developing in various spheres. An important place is occupied by the sphere of culture. In the article the authors examine the importance of humanitarian contacts in the sphere of culture for the normalization of Russian-Chinese relations, analyze the peculiarities of the development of humanitarian cooperation in the last decade of the XX century and in the beginning of the XXI century, highlight a number of significant international cultural projects ("Russian-Chinese Fair of Culture and Art", Russian-Chinese Festival of Arts "Amur - the River of Friendship", etc.). The authors conclude that despite the sporadic and chaotic humanitarian contacts in the 1990s, in the 2000s a number of large-scale events between Amur Region and Heilongjiang Province have developed and become traditional, attracting an increasing number of participants from both countries and becoming a kind of brands of border territories. Humanitarian interaction in the sphere of culture, realized in the Russian-Chinese borderland, has a direct impact on the development of Russian-Chinese relations at all levels. The work uses the problem-chronological method of research. The authors present documents from the funds of the State Archive of the Amur region and the archive of the Foreign Ministry's representative office in Blagoveshchensk, revealing the features and the course of joint cultural events in the Russian-Chinese borderland. Materials of collections of documents of the archival bureau of Heihe and materials of the Chinese mass media in the author's translation are used in the research.