NYT: A "Russian Village" In China Has Vodka, But No Russians
8- 5.01.2026, 22:40
- 9,448
Russian culture in Enhe survived only as a "folkloric caricature".
No one speaks Russian anymore in the Enhe locality established by the Chinese authorities as an "ethnic Russian settlement." This is according to a report by The New York Times, published on January 4.
The journalists who visited Enhe found that there are log huts like in the Russian Federation, signs with the Cyrillic alphabet, "but no Russians," although "thousands" used to live there.
The publication points out that Vladimir Putin is at war against Ukraine because he calls it part of the "Russian world" because they speak Russian, but at the same time in China the Russian Federation has lost "a centuries-old foreign outpost of its language and culture."
In Enhe, according to the NYT's contributor, there is "little left of Russia except nostalgia and decorations for tourists." But there are still birch trees, thick snow, Siberian-style log cabins, the Cyrillic alphabet and vodka, the publication says.
"Ethnic Russians" who used to live here have lost touch with their homeland as a result of generations of mixed marriages with Chinese, Mongolians and other locals.
The head of the village, Li Peng, a distant descendant of the Russians, admitted that in a few years the locals will be like the rest of the Chinese. He "understands only a few words of Russian" and speaks Chinese at home, and celebrates Orthodox Easter "only as a cultural holiday," far from religion.
Media writes that 40 percent of Enhe's population of 2,895 people are considered ethnic Russians. But few of these "Russians" speak any language other than Chinese.
Russian culture in Enhe survives mainly in the form of "folkloric caricatures designed to attract Chinese tourists." In the local museum, it is represented by samovars, matryoshkas, plaques honoring Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, a wooden sauna, and wax figures of Russians in old traditional clothing.
A local shepherd asked by a NYT reporter about Putin does not know that he is the illegitimate president of the Russian Federation and has only "heard of someone with that name in the media."
Also, in Enhe, they no longer teach Russian in elementary school. Media recalls that Putin was outraged about this when he spoke about a similar situation in the Baltic States and Ukraine.
The Orthodox church in Enhe has also disappeared, and the cross on top of the golden dome on the closed wooden building in the center of the village has been torn down. Journalists write that local officials deny it was ever there, but "the cross is clearly visible in old photos."
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