the economic achievements of Polish Diaspora in Manchuria and inner Mongolia , 1898 – 1936 *

For a century and a half the Far East, including Inner Mongolia and Manchuria was the scene of endless wanderings and long sojourns of political exiles from Poland, whom Russian tyranny drove into that wilderness, and many of whom made significant contriDOI: 10.17951/rh.2019.47.197-223 * The article is dealing mainly with Polish entrepreneurs, employers and traders, mainly conducting their business activities from the last decade of the nineteenth century to the midthirties of the twentieth century within the borderland between Russia, Inner Mongolia and North China. At that time, Polish entrepreneurialism was at the peak of its potential in the region. What followed next, however, was the rapid downfall of the local Polish community, accompanied by a drastic decline of the role played by major Polish merchants and industrialists, who were eventually replaced by Japanese businessmen and manufacturers. (Archiwum Archidiecezjalne w Gnieźnie [hereinafter: AAG], Archiwum Prymasa Polski [hereinafter: APP], ref. no. 65, p. 480). The issue of Polish involvement in Manchurian and Inner Mongolian economy as well as industry after 1936 requires further research. Unfortunately, there are limited traces of business activities undertaken by members of Polish enclave in the late 1930s and 1940s. Most of them can be found in Polish press that was issued in Harbin, especially in the shape of advertisements and commercials targeted towards small artisans, craftsmen and shopkeepers (‘Tygodnik Polski’ 18 V 1941, 20, p. 4; ‘Tygodnik Polski’ 25 V 1941, 21, p. 2; ‘Ojczyzna. Niezależny Tygodnik Demokratyczny’ 16 XII 1945, 1, p. 4). Thus, little is known about the Poles who set up or continued businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit, after 1936 when Japan had strengthened its grip over Manchuria (‘Plan for Key Industries’, Manchuria: A Semi-monthly Publication of the Manchuria Daily News, vol. 1, 1936, p. 180). Moreover, this paper presents historical and geopolitical context which, in time, gave rise to the economic accomplishments of Poles in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Nevertheless, the article is not meant to cover all subjects connected with the functioning of the local Polish diaspora that had existed there for more than half a century. 198 MariUsz Borysiewicz butions to the economic development of that part of Asia. In the course of time numerous Poles – partly political exiles and partly voluntary emigrants, being gifted with a spirit of enterprise – built up large industrial undertakings and made great fortunes, both in sparsely populated steppes of Inner Mongolia and vast forests of Northeastern China. Such were, for instance, the industrialist Władysław Kowalski (1870–1940) and the mining engineer Kazimierz Grochowski (1873–1937). Both of them were prominent representatives of the Polish diaspora in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Kowalski, widely respected by other diasporas in the area, made millions in business and became one of the most influential manufacturers as well as philanthropists across Manchuria. Grochowski, on the other hand, supervised the geological survey on the Amur, on Sakhalin and in Inner Mongolia, and found petroleum in Manchuria. The presence of Polish community in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia cannot be separated from the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway that linked Siberia with North China and drew people from the far reaches of the Tsarist Russia in their tens of thousands to the largely wild and uncharted region in the borderland between Russia, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria.

For a century and a half the Far East, including Inner Mongolia and Manchuria was the scene of endless wanderings and long sojourns of political exiles from Poland, whom Russian tyranny drove into that wilderness, and many of whom made significant contri- DOI: 10.17951/rh.2019.47.197-223 * The article is dealing mainly with Polish entrepreneurs, employers and traders, mainly conducting their business activities from the last decade of the nineteenth century to the midthirties of the twentieth century within the borderland between Russia, Inner Mongolia and North China. At that time, Polish entrepreneurialism was at the peak of its potential in the region. What followed next, however, was the rapid downfall of the local Polish community, accompanied by a drastic decline of the role played by major Polish merchants and industrialists, who were eventually replaced by Japanese businessmen and manufacturers.  65, p. 480). The issue of Polish involvement in Manchurian and Inner Mongolian economy as well as industry after 1936 requires further research. Unfortunately, there are limited traces of business activities undertaken by members of Polish enclave in the late 1930s and 1940s. Most of them can be found in Polish press that was issued in Harbin, especially in the shape of advertisements and commercials targeted towards small artisans, craftsmen and shopkeepers ('Tygodnik Polski ' 18 V 1941, 20, p. 4;'Tygodnik Polski' 25 V 1941, 21, p. 2;'Ojczyzna. Niezależny Tygodnik Demokratyczny' 16 XII 1945, 1, p. 4). Thus, little is known about the Poles who set up or continued businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit, after 1936 when Japan had strengthened its grip over Manchuria ('Plan for Key Industries', Manchuria: A Semi-monthly Publication of the Manchuria Daily News, vol. 1, 1936, p. 180). Moreover, this paper presents historical and geopolitical context which, in time, gave rise to the economic accomplishments of Poles in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Nevertheless, the article is not meant to cover all subjects connected with the functioning of the local Polish diaspora that had existed there for more than half a century.
butions to the economic development of that part of Asia. In the course of time numerous For a century and a half the Far East, including Mongolia and Manchuria, was the scene of endless wanderings and long sojourns of political exiles from Poland, whom Russian tyranny drove into the wilderness, and many of whom made significant contributions to the economic development of that segment of the Asian continent 1 . In the course of time numerous Poles -partly political exiles and partly voluntary emigrants, being gifted with a spirit of enterprise -built up large industrial undertakings and made great fortunes both in sparsely populated steppes of Inner Mongolia and vast forests of Northeastern China 2 . There were several historical currents at work in the past that contributed to a steady influx of European merchants, traders and entrepreneurs into the borderland region between Tsarist Russia and Qing China, which encompassed, inter alia, the area of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia 3 .
In the seventeenth century, the Russians were gradually pushing towards Chinese Empire by way of Siberia. Because of that, the Sea of Okhotsk was reached by Russian hunters early in the next century. No sooner had the Amur River been navigated than Kamchatka was explored and a treaty was concluded with the rulers of China. In 1768 and the following years, an organized exploration of the eastern reaches of the whole of Imperial Russia was undertaken 4 . The climax of these processes of 1 R. Dyboski, L. Krzyżanowski, Poland in World Civilization, New York 1950, p. 107. managed to regain a firm control of Manchuria after Soviet advisers withdrew from the region in 1955 and therefore it came under the sole supervision of the central government in Beijing 11 . At that time, various movements for autonomy in Inner Mongolia came under strict control of the Chinese Communist Party 12 .
Until 1905, Russian Empire occupied a privileged position in Manchuria. Russians seized the opportunity to extend their influence in Northern China by creating a new railway infrastructure, namely, a semi-colonial Chinese Eastern Railway 13 and a number of settlements along the railway's right-of-way zone 14 . The single-track line was meant to provide a shortcut for the world's longest railroad, the Trans-Siberian Railway 15 , from near the Siberian city of Chita, across northern Inner Manchuria through Harbin to the Russian port of Vladivostok 16 . Furthermore, both Russia and Japan struggled with the policy of whether to annex Manchuria and Inner Mongolia or leave them in present condition and simply pour more forces into the region. For instance, Nicholas Steinfeld, Director of the Russian Chamber of Commerce in Harbin, advocated vigorously that Russia join hands with Japan and divide Manchuria, as a protection against Japanese economic exploration of Northern Manchuria 17 . Russian government, on the contrary, was more circumspect and cautious 18 . All these considerations lost their meaning when the Japanese took complete control of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia in 1931 19 and, less than a year later, created the puppet state of Manchukuo 20 .
Initially, the region was seized by Japan after the Mukden Incident and a pro-Japanese government was installed the following year, exactly on 18th February 1932 21 , with Puyi (190621 , with Puyi ( -1967, the last Qing emperor, being the nominal regent and emperor. Manchukuo's government was abol-ished in 1945 after the defeat of Imperial Japan at the end of the Second World War. The territories formally claimed by the puppet state were first seized in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in August 1945 and then officially transferred to the Chinese administration in the upcoming year 22 . With Japanese investment and rich natural resources, the area became an industrial powerhouse. Thus, Manchukuo had its own issued banknotes, postage stamps and banks 23 . However, European companies were consequently eliminated from the Manchurian market 24 . The worst moment for the Western entrepreneurs, including Polish businessmen, occurred when the Japanese deprived them of timber and mining concessions in the areas of Northern Manchuria and Inner Mongolia 25 . In a similar way, westerners lost their industrial factories and enterprises. During the period of Russian involvement in the region, quickly followed by Japanese expansion and domination 26 , Manchuria became one of the few really prosperous industrialized regions in the Far East as well as Northern China 27 . The Japanese were content with making Manchuria an immense reservoir of raw materials, including rich coking coal, copper and iron, for industries in Japan 28 . Russian policy, in contrast, created a situation in which Manchuria was a desirable destination for manufacturers and businessmen, including the Poles, from Europe, North America and western reaches of the Russian Empire 29 . By then, the northeastern corner of present-day China was commonly described as Manchuria 30 1931, pp. 33-40. 30 Due to its similarity to Manchukuo, the name of the puppet state founded by Imperial Japan in 1932, the term Manchuria became obsolete after Japan's surrender, the event which ended the Second World War. However, the word Manchuria long predates the Japanese invasion, appearing on nineteenth-century Chinese and Japanese maps as well as in European atlases, usually replacing the term Tartary  non-Chinese, from the fact that the area in question was the home of the Manchu tribesmen who established the Manchu or Qing Dynasty which ruled in China from 1644 to 1912. The Chinese, however, referred to this region as the 'Three Eastern Provinces' ('Tung San Sheng'), because of its administrative division into the three provinces of Liaoning, formerly known as Fengtien, in the South, Kirin in the East and Heilungkiang in the North. The eastern border of Manchuria was marked by the Korean Peninsula 31 .
West of Manchuria was Mongolia, the vast area which stretched north of the Chinese Wall and south of Siberia. This territory was formerly divided 32 in common usage into 'inner' and 'outer' Mongolia 33 . Inner Mongolia was a belt lying directly north of what was occasionally called China proper, from Manchuria on the East to Chinese Turkestan on the West 34 . Outer Mongolia was located on the north of this area and along the Siberian frontier. The eastern ends of both Inner and Outer Mongolia, abutting on Manchuria, had extremely close administrative and economic connections with Manchuria 35 . Therefore, this area formed a hinterland of Manchurian affairs, including foreign concessions and business activity. Economic problems existing at that time in Manchuria, to a certain extent, extended into Inner and Outer Mongolia 36 .
Prior to the establishment of the Kuomintang Nationalist Government in China in 1928, Inner Mongolia was divided for administrative purposes into three special administrative areas. From east to west these were Jehol, Chahar and Suiyuan 37 . One of the early acts of the new Chinese administration was to give those areas the full status of provinces, retaining 31 E. Grabowski, Rozwój zaludnienia w Polsce w zestawieniu z innemi krajami. Według spisu z dnia 30-go września 192130-go września roku, Warszawa 1922 The division between Outer and Inner Mongolia was introduced only when the Qing dynasty began ruling the Mongols. In 1911, Outer Mongolia launched an independence movement, to which responded many leagues and banners of Inner Mongolia. At that time, the campaign was brutally suppressed by the Chinese. In 1921, Outer Mongolia again became independent. There were several attempts by the Inner Mongolians to achieve independence, but all failed.  Lattimore, Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers, 1928-1958, London 1962 Н.П. Штейнфельд, Русская торговля в Монголии в характеристике местного купечества, 'Вестник Азии' 1909, 2, pр. 112-129. 36 Н.П. Штейнфельд, Причины упадка русской торговли в Монголии, 'Промышленность и торговля ' 1911, 21, рp. 361-363. 37 1904-1944, Toruń 2009 At the outset, Harbin's town council was dominated by Poles and Germans. The magistrate adopted a key plan for the construction of Harbin, which was developed by Polish engineer, Konstanty Jokisz, in the closing months of 1898 (K. Grochowski, op. cit was gradually increasing 48 . Most of them were tempted by the prospect of high wages and a possibility to start a comfortable life in Manchuria 49 . The whole venture, of strategic importance for Russian Empire 50 , was overseen by the Main Board of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company. The board consisted of six members and was elected by the Tsarist government on 27th December 1896 in Saint Petersburg. What is interesting, between 1896 and 1903, the position of vice president within this institution was held by a Pole, namely, Stanisław Kierbedź, who was responsible for the successful development of the project 51 . Consequently, many Polish engineers, railway workers and specialists, whom Kierbedź knew from the time of works on construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, found employment in managerial positions both in St. Petersburg as well as Vladivostok, and especially in Manchuria. At that time, many other Poles which were engaged in the operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway occupied equally exposed posts within the ranks of the company. For example, Zenobiusz Aleksander Rugiewicz functioned as a Director of the Main Board in St. Petersburg since 1905 52 . Accordingly, Teofil Hirszman, Stefan Offenberg, Karol Weber, Mikołaj Kazi-Girej and Aleksander Łętowski were among the most notable Polish engineers and experts accountable for the expansion of the projected wide-gauge railway line around Harbin 53 .
Over the years, Poles occupied significant positions within the local structures of the Russian authorities in railway's right-of-way zone, related to economy, banking, industry, medicine, administration and the judicial system 54 . However, Polish community was extremely diversified, and consisted mostly of builders of the railway line 55 , people looking for a better 48 'Pamiętnik Charbiński' 1923, 1, pp. 23-24;'Listy Harbińskie' 1932, 5, p Grochowski (1873Grochowski ( -1937 or industrialist Władysław Kowalski (1870Kowalski ( -1940 56 , the approximately 1,500 refugees from Kolchak's dispersed 5th Siberian Rifle Division 57 , 1920s immigrants, mostly comprised by former workers of the Warsaw-Vienna railway, who reached the region in pursuit of work, and political exiles or their descendants 58 . Besides the soldiers of the Polish 5th Siberian Rifle Division, the Polish colony in Harbin also consisted of veterans of the Russo-Japanese conflict and former conscripts to the Chinese Eastern Railway Guard 59 .
In spite of intensive Russification, the Poles in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia not only preserved their faith and language, but also greatly contributed to the economic development of Northeastern China 60 .  57 The Polish 5th Siberian Rifle Division was formed on the Russian territory in 1919 during the First World War, but the unit was attached to the White Russian formations and fought mostly in the Russian Civil War. The core of the division was composed of POWs of the former Austro-Hungarian Army and local Poles. The latter were descendants of Poles forcibly resettled to Siberia after failed November Uprising, January Uprising and other struggles with Imperial Russia. On 22nd December 1919, at Taiga, the Polish Legion made a stand against the Red Army but suffered heavy losses. Most of the once 16,000 men strong division were taken as prisoners of war or died during forced labor in the mines. A group of about 1,500, led by Colonel Kazimierz Rumsza, managed to evade capture and reached Harbin on 21st February 1920 (H. Bagiński, Wojsko Polskie na Wschodzie 1914-1920, Warszawa 1921 L.E. Vining, Held by the Bolsheviks. The Diary of a British Officer in Russia, 1919-1920, London 1924. 58 AAN,KPM,ref. no. 6, The Chinese Eastern Railway Guard Force was established by the Main Board of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company in 1897. Soon, however, the unit was transformed into the Trans-Amur Region of the Border Guard Corps in January 1901. The main objective of the guard was to defend the property and employees of the railway company along its right of way belt in Manchuria. After the conversion into the Trans-Amur Border Guard Corps, the force consisted of 25,000 men (H. Bagiński, Wojsko Polskie na Wschodzie 1914-1920, Warszawa 1921; J. Białynia-Chłodecki, Ćwierćwiecze kolonii polskiej w Charbinie na Dalekim Wschodzie, Lwów 1923, p. 5). By then, the unit was under direct jurisdiction of Sergei Witte, Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire. Roughly 15% of all the officers within the Trans-Amur Region of the Border Guard Corps were of Polish origin (K. Grochowski,op. cit.,. 60  With great eagerness, the Polish inhabitants of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia established various businesses, such as factories 74 , industrial enterprises, restaurants, import-export offices, workshops, warehouses, bakeries and shops 75 . These with less means, as well as the younger generation, including neophyte entrepreneurs, found employment among the affluent representatives of the community. Those more destitute were assisted, first on an individual basis, and then gradually, by organized churchsupported charitable institutions and societies, including the Roman Catholic Charitable Society (Rzymsko-Katolickie Towarzystwo Dobroczynności), which was set up in 1903 76 . Equally helpful was a secular association Polish Tavern 77 . This organization not only provided financial support, but also helped to settle disputes among different members of the Polish community and went as far as developing specific forms of justice, such as the Citizens Jury (Sąd Obywatelski) 78 and the Court of Honor (Sąd Honorowy) 79 . These legal institutions were usually made up of highly respected individuals with relevant knowledge and a possible interest in the outcome of a given proceeding 80 Grochowski,op. cit.,p. 73). 77 The Polish Tavern was a social, cultural and educational association operating in Harbin from 1907 to 1949, although it was initially involved in gastronomy ('Praca. Pismo Postępowe Demokratyczne ' 12 V 1918, 8, p. 10). This association initiated the first Polish school, organized language courses for the Polish community and charity fundraising. Further, among other cultural activities, it organized charity balls, and strived at integrating the whole community. The association was divided into several sections dedicated to education, working with youth (Polish Youth Association), culture (Theater Group), and sports (hockey, volleyball, football and yachting teams). The Polish Tavern was the first Polish secular association in Harbin (K. Grochowski, op. cit The Chinese Eastern Railway drew tens of thousands of people from the far reaches of the Tsarist Russia to the largely wild and sparsely populated steppes of Manchuria and Inner Mongolia. Entrepreneurs, merchants and traders came to develop natural resources and provide goods and services in Harbin and other multinational settlements along the railway route 82 . Chinese people from the South were also brought in, usually in large numbers, to work as construction laborers. For the Poles, especially within Imperial Russia, who were confined for more than a century to live under the harsh rule of neighboring empires, Inner Mongolia or Manchuria was the land of opportunity. Eventually, some of them would spread further and become instrumental in the development of Polish companies across the region 83 . Undoubtedly  Syberii (1915Syberii ( -1921 'Życie Warszawy' 8 I 1988, 1, p. 3. 93 Interestingly, the Acheng Sugar Factory in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, was China's first sugar company, founded in 1905 by a Polish businessman. Its initial capital amounted to almost 1 million rubles. After 1949, Acheng became a pillar of the planned economy, the largest sugar plant in China, producing 3,000 tons of beet sugar a day. However, it was old, burdened with debt, and unable to compete with more efficient producers. In 1998, Acheng became China's first major bankruptcy, putting 4,500 employees out of work (Y. Cai, State and Laid-off Stanford 2001, pp. 29-30. 97 А. Петренко, В.Ф. Ковальский -выдающийся хозяйственник Маньчжурии, 'На сопках Маньчжурии' 1996, 34, p. 4. 98 Many Poles, partly political exiles and partly voluntary emigrants, being gifted with a spirit of enterprise, built up large industrial undertakings and made great fortunes both in European Russia and in the Russian Far East, such were: Ignacy Jasiukowicz (1847Jasiukowicz ( -1914, who became, in 1888, managing director of the South Russian Metallurgical Works on the Dnieper and reorganized them on modern lines; the architect Iwan Żółtowski (1867-1959), He came from a family of impoverished petty nobility, which suffered Russian repressions in the aftermath of the January Uprising (1863-1864). In his teenage years, Kowalski was forced to work physically for his own subsistence. In this way, he raised money for a voyage to Vladivostok, where he came via Odessa at the age of twenty-three and quickly found himself among the Polish community 99 .
The wealthiest Pole in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia leased huge forest areas from the Chinese government and conducted extensive business activities 100 . Before coming to Manchuria, Władysław Kowalski worked on the construction of the Ussurian section of the Trans-Siberian Railway, linking Vladivostok with Khabarovsk 101 , which was about 770 km long 102 . However, it did not take him long to understand that supplying wood was the most profitable activity. Therefore, he engaged all his efforts in felling the forests across Manchuria. The money gained in this way he gradually invested in the development of his future establishments. In 1911, Kowalski received his first official timber concession from the local authorities and called it Yablonia 103 . who built some of the most sumptuous modern palatial homes in the residential districts of Moscow; the industrialist Władysław Żukowski , who played a prominent part in the Central Russian Industrial Committee during the First World War; Alfons Koziełł-Poklewski (1809-1890), who worked his way up from modest beginnings to ownership of a large portion of the numerous mines and metal works in the Ural mountains; Ignacy Sobieszczański , who owned coal mines in the neighborhood of Irkutsk; and, of course, Władysław Kowalski, who earned millions in business at Harbin (Ignacy Jasiukowicz. Źródła powodzenia, 'Przegląd Techniczny' 4 XII 1913, 49, pp. 641-643;Wspomnienia pozgonne. Ś. p. Władysław Żukowski, 'Przegląd Techniczny' 13 XII 1916, 49/50, p. 462;S. Lubodziecki, Polacy na Syberii w latach 1917-1920. Wspomnienia, 'Sybirak' 1934R. Dyboski, L. Krzyżanowski, Poland in World Civilization, New York 1950, p. 106 Neja, Polski król Mandżurii, 'Wprost' 2003, 9, p. 68). The two-storey villa with a swimming pool as well as a tennis court, built in the neoclassical style, survived to this day and currently serves as a museum of Mao Zedong (J. Wasilewska-Dobkowska, Sztuka Chin, Warszawa 2009, p. 57). The concession was located 241 km east of Harbin 104 . Thus, his company became a major supplier of wood, mainly railway sleepers, not only for the expanding Chinese Eastern Railway infrastructure 105 , but also for the construction entrepreneurs operating within Harbin and smaller towns in the railway's right of way zone 106 .
In 1899, Kowalski, together with Frank and Kiliański, was among the first businessmen who began the timber industry in Manchuria, not to mention Inner Mongolia. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Kowalski became one of the most important contractors of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the richest entrepreneur in North China 107 . From 1903107 . From to 1906, Kowalski was engaged in the construction of several steam flour mills in Harbin 108 . Back then the first place in manufacturing industry across Manchuria was taken by flour-milling 109 . In early 1920s, the railway zone contained in all 35 flourmills, which milled up to 300,000 tons of wheat. At least 24 of these mills were situated in Harbin and approximately six were owned by Władysław Kowalski. Besides flour, his mills produced manna and buckwheat grits. Out of the flour produced, about ⅔ were brought to the CER beltway and the remaining ⅓ was consumed directly at the points where the mills were located 110 .
On the eve of the First World War, Kowalski decided to increase the range of services provided by his company. To this end, he built a veneer factory, the only such a manufacture in Northeast China. Hence, in the mid 1920s, he turned out to be among the most influential manufacturers and exporters of timber and veneer in Manchuria 111 . His timber products were sold on Manchurian market as well as exported to Japan, Australia, North and South America 112 . During the years of the First World War and ongoing conflicts within Russian Empire, the factory was still rapidly expanding. This was possible owing to an excellent work management that was implemented in the leased timber concessions. The whole process was based on a well-developed internal transport network, covering railway lines with a length of nearly 200 km 113 . The railway system connected different logging zones and sawmills 114 .
Timber concessions 115 covered an area of approximately 6,157 km 2 , and stretched along the eastern line of The Chinese Eastern Railway 116 , which connected Harbin and Nikolsk-Ussuriysky 117 . At its peak in the beginning of 1925, his company provided employment for almost 10,000 workers across northern parts of Manchuria 118 , including Poles, Russians and the Chinese. Moreover, the reserve stock of timber across his concessions (especially of firs, pines, cedars and oaks) was estimated at nearly one billion cubic feet 119 . This area produced fire-wood, larch wood sleepers, telegraph poles and supporting stanchions for mines. Interestingly, between 1921 and 1924, Kowalski also leased a mining concession from the local government 120 . The scale of his establishment was best evidenced by a wide range of expenses incurred during the initial years of its implementation.
By 1923, Władysław Kowalski had invested a total sum of 10,100,000 dollars in his enterprises within the entire region 121 . Only timber concessions leased by Skidelsky and Popoff, who also tried to expand their ventures into various sectors of Manchurian economy, could match with business carried out by Kowalski. However, they never managed to develop such a wide range of industrial activities 122 .
Many By then, Dimitri Horvath displayed great organizational abilities, and was soon promoted to serve as a head of the Chinese Eastern Railway. At the same time, he sought capable wood suppliers for the rapidly expanding railway infrastructure in the Russian Far East 127 .
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 and decrease of Russian influence in the region, Władysław Kowalski used his Polish passport as a tool of diplomatic immunity for his economic activity. Increasing corruption, lawlessness 128 , and the outburst of a severe worldwide economic depression in 1929 129 , which weakened the financial standing of his establishment, led Kowalski to a desperate decision. Thus, he committed several Chinese officials, followed by Japanese profiteers, to the company and ceded half of the company's assets to them in order to solve the financial problems 130 . Soon, however, the greed and predatory policy of his new partners only worsened the situation of the enterprise, which found itself on the verge of bankruptcy in 1930 131 . In 1936, the Japanese authorities, despite frequent protests of Polish diplomatic missions in Harbin and Tokyo 132 , took over timber concessions previously awarded to Władysław Kowalski. In the end, Kowalski, bankrupt and brought to a state of extreme nervous exhaustion, died of a heart attack on November 22, 1940 in Harbin 133 . His wife and two daughters, however, left Manchuria in the following year. Identical measures were adopted in case of mining concession, with an area of 4,000 square kilometers 134 , belonging to Kazimierz Grochowski 135 .
Kazimierz Grochowski (1873Grochowski ( -1937, who spent thirty years of his life in the Far East and kept close ties with Jack London, was a mining engineer and geologist, specializing in the search for gold and fossil fuels, but also an archaeologist, publicist, and social activist. Grochowski was born on 26th January 1873 in Kochawina near Ruda in Żydaczowski districk, attended junior high school in Jasło and Lviv, but due to the conspiracy activity against Tsarist Russia, he was forced to move to Cracow where he graduated from the local high school 136 . Furthermore, Grochowski studied successively at the University of Vienna as well as at the mining academies in Leoben, Pribram and Freiberg, obtaining the title of mining engineer in 1901 137 . Kazimierz Grochowski started his professional career within the Russian Empire in the Donets Black Coal Basin, however, in 1906 he decided to move to the Far East, where he initially made several shorter research expeditions across the area of present-day Primorsky Krai, working as a geologist, and later on throughout the island of Sakhalin 138 .
In 1909, Kazimierz Grochowski transferred to the vicinity of the Zeya River, and started working for the international concern called the Upper Amur Gold Mining Company, which at the time was a thriving joint stock company with French and German capital. The company was primarily dealing with a large-scale exploration as well as extraction of gold. He first became the head of the Department of Geological Research and, in 1911, the Deputy Director. Kazimierz Grochowski was not only looking for dispersed gold deposits, but also the primary deposits. From 1910 to 1914, Grochowski made four great mining journeys in eastern Siberia, beginning his new career as a gold prospector 139 . The routes of these expeditions ran through the areas of eastern Siberia, which until 1850 belonged to the Chinese Empire and, in geological terms, were still very poorly investigated. In 1917, Grochowski was involved in a Swedish scientific expedition which conducted biological and geological research in western Mongolia. For a long time, using different methods, he sought deposits of gold, silver and other metals in the Amur River Basin. Nevertheless, the area was soon taken over by the Red Army, which led to his arrival in Harbin 140 , where Grochowski actively engaged in social and economic life of the Polish community in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia, functioning as the editor of many local newspapers, such as Listy Polskie z Dalekiego Wschodu, Tygodnik Polski and Pamiętnik Harbiński 141 .
From 1923 to 1932, Kazimierz Grochowski lectured geography and history at the Henryk Sienkiewicz Secondary School in Harbin. What is more, in 1927, he was appointed head of the Henryk Sienkiewicz Secondary School by representatives of the Polish colony in Harbin. By 1934, Grochowski returned to Poland and took the position of the chief geologist within the coal mining company in Katowice. Three years later, he was appointed director of a gold mine in Manila. However, Kazimierz Grochowski died in Harbin on March 12, 1937, during the trip to the Philippines 142 .
Most importantly, in the summer of 1915, Kazimierz Grochowski decided to leave the Upper Amur Gold Mining Company, and less than a year later acquired a mining concession from the Inner Mongolian authorities on February 17, 1916. The concession, covering an area of approximately 4,000 km 2 in Hulunbuir, was eventually approved by the Russian Vice-Consul in Hailar on 29th July 1916. Thus, Grochowski was granted the right to extract, along with other natural resources, oil, coal and gold, especially around the Khalkhyn Gol River in Inner Mongolia. Shortly after receiving concession rights, he was able to open a coal mine, quickly followed by salt and soda processing plants 143 . Unfortunately, Kazimierz Grochowski irretrievably lost his mining concession in 1936 144 , which was part of a wider plan, developed by the Japanese, for economic and military conquest of Manchuria, and consistently implemented at least since 1935 145 .
Owing to a great determination and ambition, both Władysław Kowalski as well as Kazimierz Grochowski made millions in business and consequently were in the group of the most influential entrepreneurs across Northeastern China. However, with the collapse of the largest Polish commercial establishments in the Far East, the majority of other Polish businessmen, merchants, traders and retailers in the borderland between northern China and southern Mongolia, who operated on a much smaller scale, suddenly found themselves in a very difficult position 146 . In the following years, some of them were forced to terminate their business activities in that part of Asia.