贈地開發遠東 俄羅斯東進運動能否成功

KAMEN-RYBOLOV, Russia — Standing ankle deep in mud in a swampy grassland more than 4,000 miles from his home, Yuri A. Bugaev surveyed a mosquito-infested wasteland that the Russian government is offering to would-be pioneers under its own modern-day version of the 1862 Homestead Act in the United States.

俄羅斯卡緬雷博洛夫——尤里‧A‧布加耶夫(Yuri A. Bugaev)站在一塊溼軟的草地上，泥深及膝。他審視着這一片離家4000英里（約6437千米）、蚊蟲肆虐的荒原。現在，俄羅斯政府正通過一項好比當代版美國1862年《宅地法》(Homestead Act)的法案，把這片荒原許諾給想當拓荒先鋒的公民。

“This is not really what I had in mind,” said Mr. Bugaev, who had traveled across seven time zones from St. Petersburg, Russia, to scout the possibilities for settlers in the country’s sparsely populated Far East, a territory roughly two-thirds the size of the United States.

“這裏和我想的不一樣，”布加耶夫說。他跨越了七個時區，從聖彼得堡來到人跡罕至的遠東地區，查看在這裏開墾定居的可能性。這片地區的面積約有美國的三分之二大。

The nine Far Eastern regions targeted for settlement in the government’s land giveaway, which began on June 1, encompass more than a third of Russia but are home to only 6.1 million people. This is just 4 percent of the country’s population and compares with the 110 million Chinese living across the border in the three provinces that make up Manchuria.

俄羅斯政府自6月1日開始贈送位於遠東九個行政區的土地供人屯墾，面積涵蓋了超過三分之一的俄羅斯國土，卻僅有610萬居民，只佔人口總數的4%。在國界另一邊的中國東北三省則有1.1億人口。

Mr. Bugaev is a dedicated, if largely sedentary, Cossack, a centuries-old fraternity of Slavic warriors, freebooters and freedom-loving rebels. A romantic throwback to earlier generations of Cossacks who settled and secured the borders of the Russian empire.

儘管很少走動，布加耶夫仍是個執着的哥薩克人；幾百年來，哥薩克人是斯拉夫勇士的一支，是一羣江洋大盜與愛好自由的反叛軍。他有一顆浪漫懷舊的心，想要重返早期哥薩克人定居並保衛俄羅斯帝國邊疆的生活。

For years, he said, he had dreamed of Russia embracing, or rather re-embracing, the pioneer spirit, and he was delighted by the Kremlin’s backing of a program meant to reassert the country’s manifest destiny as a continent-straddling power.

他說自己多年來夢想着俄羅斯能煥發出（或者說重新煥發）開拓者的精神。這項屯墾計劃的背後有克里姆林宮的支持，意在重新確立俄羅斯作爲跨洲強國的天命。

All the same, he conceded that not many Russians living in the European side of Russia, who dream of a house in London or Paris, not a shack in a swamp near China, share his zeal for a new life in wild eastern regions that many associate with labor camps and convicts.

儘管如此，他也承認，住在歐洲那半邊國土上的俄國人大多夢想着一套倫敦或巴黎的房子，而不是中俄邊境的沼澤邊上的破木屋，他們很少會像他一樣有着去東部蠻荒地尋找新生活的熱情；很多人會把那樣的生活和勞改營與罪犯聯繫起來。

“Most people these days don’t want an adventure,” he said.

“這年頭，大多數人都不願意冒險了。”他說。

The Russian government, however, is intent on proving otherwise and on giving some substance to a command by President Vladimir V. Putin in 2013 that the development of Siberia and the Far East must be “our national priority for the entire 21st century.”

然而，俄羅斯政府想要證明事實並非如此，並希望總統普京在2013年發出的一道命令能得到一定程度的落實，也就是西伯利亞與遠東地區的發展必須是“我國在整個21世紀的首要任務”。

How to get people to settle in the Far East is a question that has preoccupied and confounded Russian rulers since the establishment of a Russian naval base on the Pacific Ocean at Okhotsk in the 17th century. Cossacks, convicts and desperate peasants have often been the only takers.

自從俄國領導人17世紀在太平洋沿岸的鄂霍次克(Okhotsk)建立海軍基地以來，如何讓人民來到遠東地區定居便一直是讓他們既掛心又頭痛的課題。哥薩克人、罪犯與絕望的農民，常是唯一願意去的人。

In Communist times, labor camps, heavy investment in remote industrial sites and the construction of a second railroad across Siberia and the Far East revived the eastward flow of people. But this ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and residents began to drift away. A population of more than eight million dwindled by about two million.

在共產黨時代，勞改營、對偏遠工業區的大筆投資，還有第二條西伯利亞大鐵路的興建，人口東遷再次興起。然而人潮在1991年蘇聯解體後停止了。遠東地區居民開始外流，原本有800多萬的人口減少了約200萬。

Russia’s Ministry for the Development of the Far East, the agency managing this latest development gambit, cited a survey it commissioned, saying that 20 percent of Russians would be ready to move east if given free land. Younger Russians, the ministry said, were even more enthusiastic, with more than 50 percent expressing an interest in heading east to take advantage of the offer — one free hectare, about two and a half acres, a person.

俄羅斯遠東地區發展部(Ministry for the Development of the Far East)負責最近這次大開發。該部援引本部門指派的調查的結果，聲稱若能無償獲得土地的話，有20%的俄羅斯人願意遷往遠東。該部還說，年輕一代俄羅斯人的意願甚至更強，有超過50%的受訪者表示，爲了每人一公頃免費土地的懸賞——他們有興趣東進。

But as often happens in Russia, grandiose hopes and plans have run far ahead of the reality on the ground, where bureaucrats, appalling weather and immense distances conspire to smother the Kremlin’s ambitions.

不過就像在俄羅斯經常發生的，眼下現實與宏圖大願總有很大差距。官僚體系、嚴酷的天氣，還有千山萬水的距離，加在一起扼制着克里姆林宮的雄心。

“It is all pie in the sky,” said Vladimir V. Mishchenko, the head of the Khankaisky district, one of nine pilot areas chosen by Moscow to test the free land program. He complained that the whole thing had been dreamed up by people in Moscow who had no understanding of the Far East but needed to show the Kremlin that they were doing something.

“這都是畫餅充飢，”興凱斯基區區長弗拉基米爾‧V‧米申科(Vladimir V. Mishchenko)說。興凱斯基是莫斯科選中的九個免費屯墾試行區之一。米申科抱怨道，這整個計劃都是莫斯科官員憑空想出來的，那些官員完全不瞭解遠東地區，卻又要讓克林姆林宮看到他們沒有閒着。

For the moment, the free land is restricted to small areas, like the Khankaisky area around Kamen-Rybolov, an isolated settlement north of Vladivostok, and is open only to Russians already living in the Far East.

目前該計劃免費發放的土地僅限於小片區域，像是卡緬雷博洛夫鄰近的興凱斯基，這是海參崴北面的一塊孤立屯墾區，僅開放給已在遠東居住的俄羅斯人。

Starting in February, however, all Russian citizens can apply, and Mr. Bugaev wants to make sure he is ready to “help save Russia.”

不過，所有俄羅斯公民從2月開始都能申請免費土地了。布加耶夫想確定自己已做好“幫助拯救俄羅斯”的準備。

At the start of his scouting mission, after a nine-hour flight to Vladivostok from Moscow, he found his hotel packed with Chinese, mostly tourists. Donning his Cossack fur hat, he declared his mission even more urgent than he had thought.

他從莫斯科乘飛機九個小時抵達海參崴，開始土地勘查的任務，並發現他落腳的旅館裏滿是中國人，其中大多數是遊客。頭戴哥薩克毛皮帽子的布加耶夫宣稱，這項任務比他原本想象的更爲迫切。

He set off the next day for Kamen-Rybolov to inspect the land on offer, driving for hours in torrential rain through sodden taiga and mostly empty villages.

布加耶夫隔天便向卡緬雷博洛夫進發，勘查那些可供領取的土地。他在傾盆大雨中開了好幾小時的車，穿過浸泡在水氣中的針葉林與罕有人煙的村莊。

Undaunted, he said he thought there were enough hardy souls ready to join his organization, the Far Eastern Hectare Social Movement, a private outfit set up in St. Petersburg to drum up interest in the free land program and to organize new settlements.

他毫不氣餒，認爲應該有些足夠吃苦耐勞的人準備要加入他的遠東一頃地社會運動(Far Eastern Hectare Social Movement)組織；這個在聖彼得堡創立的私人團體是爲了提高衆人對免費屯墾地計劃的興趣，並幫助組織移民定居。

Its website explains that it is possible to be a pioneer without even leaving home, at least to start with. People can simply apply for free land and pool what they get so a larger plot can be developed by a few adventurous souls.

該團體的官網解釋道，大家不用離鄉背井也能當個拓荒者，至少剛開始時這是沒問題的。只要去申請免費土地，再把分到的地塊集中形成大片土地，就能讓少數有冒險精神的人先去開疆闢土。

If this works, those who contribute land but stay behind in St. Petersburg can move east later, after most of the hard work is done.

這種做法要是成功的話，那些貢獻土地卻留在聖彼得堡後方的人，就能等到大部分苦差事都了結以後再東徙了。

“Virtually nobody wants to come out here right now,” Mr. Bugaev conceded, complaining that the available plots — about 12,000 square yards a person — cannot possibly support sustainable agriculture or any other business venture. (American pioneers got more than 60 times that amount — 160 acres — under the Homestead Act.)

“幾乎沒人想要現在就進駐遠東，”布加耶夫承認。他也抱怨目前可申請的放領地——每人約1.2萬平方碼（約1公頃）——不可能作爲可持續農業的用地，或用於任何其他商業投資。（從前《宅地法》撥給美國拓荒者的土地是這個面積的60倍以上，約合65公頃。）

The Russian plan has been derided as a dreamy patriotic stunt cooked up by Kremlin image makers or a scam that will end up enriching officials, who have the right to take back the land after five years if they decide development targets have not been met.

俄羅斯當局的這番盤算，被譏爲克林姆林宮爲粉飾形象所炮製的愛國煙霧彈，亦有可能是讓官員最終得以中飽私囊的騙局，因爲他們要是認爲預定發展目標沒達成，有權在五年後收回土地。

The Kremlin, however, has thrown its weight behind the program, set in motion this summer with a blitz of publicity on state news media presenting the Far East as an El Dorado of opportunity, and the start of a government website that allows citizens to view plots of land and make online applications.

然而克里姆林宮大力支持，從今年夏天開始在官營媒體上發動全面宣傳，把遠東地區說成是遍地黃金的機遇之地，還設立了一個政府網站讓俄國公民查看放領地，進行在線申請。

The official website went down as soon as it was unveiled, a mishap that Aleksei A. Navalny, the renowned anticorruption campaigner, said was probably a deliberate malfunction engineered by officials so they could grab the best land for themselves.

不過這個網站纔剛上線就關閉了。知名反腐倡議人士阿列克謝·A·納瓦爾尼(Aleksei A. Navalny)表示，這很有可能是官員故意安排的技術故障，好讓他們能將最好的土地佔爲己有。

Mr. Navalny, in a report last month, noted that coveted plots on the shore of a picturesque lake outside Kamen-Rybolov had been snapped up by the time the website started working again. Yan P. Ovodenko, a local official, denied that the lakeside plots had all been taken.

納瓦爾尼在上月發表的一份報導中指出，在卡緬雷博洛夫外圍一個風景如畫的湖邊上，有一些誘人放領地，而這些土地在該網站重新上線時，都已被搶佔一空。當地官員宜安‧P‧歐沃丹科(Yan P. Ovodenko)則否認這些湖畔放領地已被全數認領出去。

A more serious blow to Mr. Bugaev’s hopes was delivered by Mr. Mishchenko, the district head. While the area might look empty, he explained, nearly all the land is already owned or at least claimed by somebody. And even if Mr. Bugaev were to get allotted land, developing it would require cooperation from 22 different government agencies responsible for enforcing a thicket of rules and regulations.

興凱斯基區區長米申科又給布加耶夫的盼望加上更沉重的一擊。米申科解釋道，這塊地方看來雖然十分空曠，不過所有土地幾乎都已經有主人了，或者至少已經有人聲稱擁有產權。就算布加耶夫能取得政府發放的土地，想要開始開發，還要得到負責執行各類繁複規章的22個行政機關的協調行動才行。

“The water code, you have to abide by it; town planning code, you have to abide by it; land code, you have to abide by it; border area rules, you have to abide by them; prescriptions of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, you have to abide by them; forest regulation, you have to abide by it,” the district chief said.

“水資源法、城鎮規劃法、土地法、邊境區域規章、聯邦動植物監測局的指示、森林管制條例......這些規矩你全都得照着走。”這位區長表示。

Of the 460 people who have applied since June 1, Mr. Mishchenko said, 390 have been rejected outright because they failed to provide the necessary information. In all, only four people, all from Vladivostok, have thus far secured plots.

米申科又說，自6月1號起已提交申請的460人當中，有390人因沒有提供必要信息，已直接被拒絕了。目前全部申請人裏只有四位獲得了放領地，且他們都來自海參崴。

“For any meaningful agriculture, you need 5,000 hectares to start off,” Mr. Mishchenko said. “And those lands don’t exist. They’ve been snapped up a long time ago.”

“想要進行任何有意義的農耕，一開始總需要5000公頃的土地，”米申科表示，“而這樣的土地並不存在。它們早在很久以前就被搶光了。”

Undeterred by his initial finding in Khankaisky district, Mr. Bugaev pressed on. A Cossack leader in the regional administration in Vladivostok, Oleg Melnikov, assured him that the land giveaway was on track and faced no serious problems.

布加耶夫並沒有因爲最初在凱興斯基發現的情況而受挫，他繼續向前推進。在海參崴地區政府工作的一位哥薩克領導歐雷格‧梅尼可夫(Oleg Melnikov)向他保證，土地發放計劃運作如常，並沒有遭遇任何嚴重問題。

A local company involved in agriculture also liked Mr. Bugaev’s plans for an updated version of collective farming and urged him to focus on trying to find people in St. Petersburg ready to apply for plots of land.

一個涉足農業的當地公司也對布加耶夫的改進版集體農業計劃感興趣，並敦促布加耶夫把精力放在在聖彼得堡尋找有志申請土地的人上面。

“I think this will all work out,” Mr. Bugaev said, warily eyeing Chinese tourists crowded in the lobby of his Vladivostok hotel. “This is not just for adventure but to save Russia.”

“我想一切會水到渠成，”布加耶夫在海參崴的旅館裏這麼說，同時向大廳裏成羣的中國遊客投以警惕的眼光。“這不只是爲了冒險，也是爲了拯救俄羅斯。”