Ethnicity and War Japanese Migrants in Socio-Political Discourse of Russian Empire on the Eve of and During the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-1905

The article that is based on the material of the Russian Empire on the eve of and during the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905 analyzes mechanisms of actualization and politicization of ethnicity under the influence of processes that occur in the international arena. Having considered the transformation of the Russian socio-political discourse about the Japanese who lived in Russia at the turn of the 19th-20th century Ya. Guzei shows how, as the dispute with Japan escalated into the armed conflict, ethnicity turned into the distinguishing feature of the Japanese in the symbolic field of the Russian Empire, transforming the previously unnoticed migrants into the nation hostile towards the Russian national interests.