The establishment of diplomatic ties by the Soviet Union with all the countries of Southeast Asia except the Philippines and South Vietnam, and the growing influence sought by it in the area, indicates that the publication of more work on Russian relations with Southeast Asia would be of interest, and it is the purpose of this article to survey the course of these relations to date, to see what general picture emerges and what possibilities of further research exist. This survey is, of necessity, extremely superficial.

The article discusses recently published material on the subject of the author's book on Sino-Russian relations entitled The Expansion of Russia in East Asia 1857–60 (with an introductory chapter on 1792–1856). The two Chinese document collections Szu-kuo hsintang and Chou-pan i-wu shih-mo, edited by Kuo Ting-i, contain a number of hitherto unpublished Chinese government papers. One document in the Szu-kuo hsintang confirms that Putiatin defied Russian government orders when he negotiated for the Amur at Tientsin. Others throw light on the activities of the anti-Russian clique of princes and dignitaries, who influenced Ch'ing policy in these years, on Perovskii's mission to China and on the mutual present giving after the conclusion of the Sino-Russian treaties. The Soviet document collection Vneshnaia politika Rossii v XIX i nachale XX veka gives new facts about the Golovkin mission to China in 1805, but excludes all mention of the Amur. The extracts from K. A. Skachkov's Peking diary published in Moscow also exclude foreign affairs. Finally, the author's researches into the private papers of the 8th Earl of Elgin are described. They appear to confirm Ignatiev's claim that Elgin was ignorant of his negotiations with the Chinese in Peking in autumn 1860.