According to various Chinese and Korean records, the southern part of Khabarovsk Krai was originally occupied by one of the five semi-nomadic
Shiwei, the Bo Shiwei tribes, and the
Black Water Mohe tribes living, respectively, on the west and the east of the
Bureya and the
Lesser Khingan ranges. In 1643,
Vassili Poyarkov's boats descended the
Amur, returning to
Yakutsk by the
Sea of Okhotsk and the
Aldan River, and in 1649–1650,
Yerofey Khabarov occupied the banks of the Amur. The resistance of the Chinese, however, obliged the
Cossacks to quit their forts, and by the
Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), Russia abandoned its advance into the basin of the river. Although the Russians were thus deprived of the right to navigate the Amur River, the territorial claim over the lower courses of the river was not settled in the Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689. The area between the
Uda River and the
Greater Khingan mountain range (i.e. most of Lower Amuria) was left undemarcated and the Sino-Russian border was allowed to fluctuate. Later in the nineteenth century,
Nikolay Muravyov conducted an aggressive policy with China by claiming that the lower reaches of the Amur River belonged to
Russia. In 1852, a Russian military expedition under Muravyov explored the Amur, and by 1857, a chain of Russian Cossacks and peasants had been settled along the whole course of the river. In 1858, in the
Treaty of Aigun, China recognized the Amur River downstream as far as the
Ussuri River as the boundary between Russia and the Qing Empire, and granted Russia free access to the Pacific Ocean. The Sino-Russian border was later further delineated in the
Treaty of Peking of 1860 when the
Ussuri Territory (the
Maritime Territory), which was previously a joint possession, became Russian. Khabarovsk Krai was established on 20 October 1938, when the
Far Eastern Krai was split into the Khabarovsk and
Primorsky Krais.
Kamchatka Oblast, which was originally subordinated to the Far Eastern Krai, fell under the Jurisdiction of Khabarovsk Krai, along with its two National Okrugs,
Chukotka and
Koryak. In 1947, the northern part of Sakhalin was removed from the Krai to join the southern part and form
Sakhalin Oblast. In 1948, parts of its southwestern territories were removed from the Krai to form
Amur Oblast. In 1953,
Magadan Oblast was established from the northern parts of the Krai and was given jurisdiction over Chukotka National Okrug, which was originally under the jurisdiction of Kamchatka oblast. In 1956, Kamchatka Oblast became its own region and took Koryak National Okrug with it. The Krai took its modern form in 1991, just before the
USSR's collapse when the
Jewish Autonomous Oblast was separated from its jurisdiction and made into a direct federal subject of Russia. On 24 April 1996, Khabarovsk signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement would be abolished on 12 August 2002. ==Administrative divisions==