Czarnobajewka<p>In 1858, as China was losing the Second Opium War, the Muscovite Empire forced it to conclude an unequal treaty, seizing over 600,000 km² of Outer Manchuria under the threat of invasion. This <a href="https://101010.pl/tags/colonial" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>colonial</span></a> land grab was justified using the language of security concerns.</p><p>As the architect of the treaty, Count Nikolai Muraviev, stated: &quot;Do not believe, gentlemen, that russia is greedy for the expansion of her frontiers... All russia cares for is the security of her boundaries.&quot;<br />russia assured this would be its last and only advance into China.</p><p>However, just 2 years later, right after the British and the French had burned the Summer Palace of the emperor in Beijing, russia took advantage of China&#39;s defeat to enforce a second unequal treaty, annexing yet another enormous portion of China&#39;s territory along the Pacific. </p><p>Throughout the 19th century, tsarist diplomacy consistently invoked security concerns to justify territorial expansion. This created an endless cycle: each new acquisition required further advances to &quot;secure&quot; the empire&#39;s boundaries, driving it to push forward repeatedly.</p><p>The significance of the notion of &quot;security concerns&quot; in the political vocabulary of <a href="https://101010.pl/tags/russianExpansionism" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>russianExpansionism</span></a> has been completely ignored by realist IR scholars. This has led to misguided conclusions and wrong expectations.</p>