From the chronicle of an undeclared war
On March 2, 2021, on the 52nd anniversary of the events on Damansky Island, I followed the news of television and radio throughout the day, hoping to hear at least a few words about that undeclared war. But, unfortunately, I never heard anything … But I heard a lot from the one who, together with his comrades, defended our island in March 1969.
Yuri Babansky:
“I am not afraid to speak of that conflict as an“undeclared war”, since there were those killed and wounded by the USSR and the PRC, which is simply pointless to deny. And the named word "event" does not at all properly place the accents of what is happening, only thickens the colors on a positive or neutral note."
Meanwhile, from the TV screen I was cheerfully told about the coal industry and Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, the radio air chirped something about the first and last president of the USSR, but not a word was heard about the feat, which had already passed fifty years. No one!
The feat on Damanskoye slowly began to be forgotten … Although the indisputable heroism of the border guards still stands out among the "heroes" of show business, who involuntarily meet at the moments of channel switching.
So why did the Russian press, juggling opinions, finally come to the conclusion that the conflict was provoked by the once great Union? Is it not for the sake of a politically strong partner, China, which annually organizes a holiday with pomp on the occasion of the "gift" of the sacred and inviolable territory, for the sake of which the Soviet border guards laid their heads there?
In addition, it was at the present time that the Chinese installed a memorial plaque on Damansky Island in honor of their victims:
And in Russia to this day, only the poems of Vladimir Vysotsky have remained:
And also the memories of living heroes of those times, still able to tell the whole bitter truth.
Fortunately, my conversation with the Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General Yuri Vasilyevich Babansky (not with that young junior sergeant who was forbidden to talk a lot after 1969) in a cozy home atmosphere dispelled all possible myths and prejudices that were growing like an avalanche.
Preconditions for the conflict
So, Sunday, March 2, 1969, was an ordinary working day for the entire Red Banner Pacific Border District. There were planned exercises. Suddenly, Chinese servicemen appeared on Damansky Island, waving red quotes from "The Great Helmsman Mao" - the Chinese party leader Mao Zedong.
The last time he paid a visit to the Kremlin was in November 1957, so that the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Nikita Khrushchev shared with Chinese specialists the drawings of the nuclear submarine. However, having received a sharp refusal, Mao decided to break the bonds of friendship between the two great powers forever. However, there were many other reasons for this.
The PRC representatives argued that, in fact, the island, as they now call it, "Zhenbao", which means "Precious", historically belongs to their territories, since the official cause of the border incident was the demarcation of the border, laid back in 1860.
Other historians believe that the cause of the military conflict was the "Cultural Revolution", during which the leadership of the PRC urgently needed an external enemy in the person of "Soviet revisionists". And what else to talk about, if the then mentality of the PRC allowed them to start a war with the sparrows, interfering with the implementation of grandiose plans and devouring, as it seemed to them, harvest reserves.
So, China then officially declared that the crowded warriors on the border were the fruit of peaceful actions. That is, all the savory spitting at the Soviet border guards, hand-to-hand fights and even the emerging cases of damage to property, when Chinese soldiers poured gasoline on our cars and then threw matches at them, had only a simple explanation - “peaceful actions”.
Remember how it all began
“What is empty now is not about that conversation”: in the former Soviet Union, at the very beginning of that situation, it turns out that our border guards were deprived of ammunition, leaving only with bayonets. When they saw Chinese provocateurs, they usually shouted: "Stop, otherwise we will cut."
A person can be judged by his actions, but who, if not the person himself, can tell about himself better than anyone else. Here is what Yuri Vasilievich Babansky told me:
I was born in the village of Krasnaya Kemerovo region in 1948, in December. It was a bitter frost, as I remember now. He was brought up like all normal guys - at school, on the street, and with the help of a belt from his mother.
I went to school number 45, where I finished four classes, then transferred to school number 60. I finished eight classes, moved to school number 24, where I studied in the ninth grade. But I couldn't, because I was too lazy to go far to school, through the taiga. Then I went in for sports, I was bribed by cross-country skiing, all kinds of competitions, motocross, which we actively conducted.
All this was extremely interesting to me, and because of this, I missed all the lessons. So I was soon kicked out of school. I entered vocational school No. 3, which I successfully graduated with as a mechanic for the repair of chemical equipment.
He graduated from vocational school and was immediately drafted into the border troops. Honestly, conscientiously served as a soldier, junior sergeant, squad leader. At the insistent request and recommendation of my superiors, he remained to serve in the border troops for the rest of his life. And that "Gold Star" with a red ribbon, equally belonging to each of the victims, did not allow me to leave the service so easily.
Tough times give birth to strong people
Yuri Babansky was born after the Great Patriotic War and saw front-line soldiers with his own eyes. Then there was no talk of shirking the service. All the guys with enthusiasm went to fulfill their duty to the Motherland. In addition, constant physical exercise contributed to this, and Babansky was no exception.
A little over a month before the border conflict, he was simply thrown out of a helicopter at his duty station, and he walked with a duffel bag to the border outpost, where he did not find anyone. I barely managed to say: "Where are all the people?" - as a car arrived from Damansky.
From the cockpit I heard: “Hand-to-hand combat is going on in Damansky. Free people get into the car. Yuri got into the car and drove off to dislodge the Chinese from the island. So he got on January 22, 1969 on Damansky Island. Junior Sergeant Babansky had no idea what could happen in the future during the state border guard service.
From the fact that in this photo, as they say now, the events in Damansky began.
Fatal mistake - fatal outcome
An armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border. The head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Strelnikov, boldly went out to meet the border violators with a peaceful proposal to leave the territory of the Soviet Union, but was brutally killed from an ambush set up by Chinese provocateurs.
Later, a non-staff photographer, Private Nikolai Petrov, who is part of Strelnikov's group, was robbed of a movie camera, assuring that the USSR had launched an attack, but Petrov managed to hide the camera with evidence under a fur coat when he was already falling on the snow from his wounds.
The first, together with Strelnikov, were killed three more border fighters, but the surviving border guards held out and fought back. With the death of Ivan Strelnikov, all responsibility fell on the shoulders of Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky, who was trained to act in a similar situation.
Babansky independently carried the bodies of the dead border guards in his arms. He killed two Chinese snipers and the same number of machine gunners. After March 2, he went out on reconnaissance with a group every day, risking his life. On March 15, he took part in the largest battle, where weapons and military equipment were involved.
We will not forget the "forgotten" battles
Yuri Vasilyevich told me about Damansky, I repeat, quite a lot, and without pathos and without cuts. But, unfortunately, in recent years in Russia the topic of the feat of border guards on Damanskoye has completely ceased to be covered.
Today's youth have no idea at all about that border conflict. And therefore, concluding our conversation with Yuri Babansky, I asked him:
How do you feel about such, say, "forgetting" of national history, in contrast to China, which openly honors its heroes?
- It's a shame to realize, but young people, who are already over 20 years old, do not know about it, as you can see, nothing. Often, you can hear the following: “We forgot the Great Patriotic War, we hardly remember the war with the French in 1812, we don't remember the Civil War at all”.
These are those who do not remember and are losing their country, their authority, their prestige. There is no need to talk about any patriotism. Worse, young people first of all see the pacifist formulation "cannon fodder" and say something like this: "The men were at Damanskoye, they died." And no one will remember with a kind word …
China in this regard shows the highest degree of public policy, based on a person. He does not forget his fighters: they are shown, honored, they do everything to make them live well and be respected.
In 1969, for example, they made an idol of me. When we were constantly talking about the feat of the border guards from the TV screen, everyone admired us. Then the political power changed, relations with China improved, and we naturally fell silent.
As far as we know, the border guards were ordered not to respond to provocations from China. But when it was impossible not to answer, an order was received to defend the island in such a way that the conflict remained within the framework of a border clash, so that the two nuclear superpowers did not enter a global war. How did you do it?
- In principle, when wise people wrote instructions, instructions for the border service, they were guided by common sense. There is our frontier outfit, on the other side their frontier outfit, two warring countries, there is no war in the original sense - they don't want to, but they insult each other, maybe there will be a skirmish.
Is this war? A typical example of a border conflict, since then there will be an apology, the whole situation is dealt with within the border conflict. But people like Mao Zedong, although he was smart, and some of our commanders did not fully feel the weight of the entire disaster.
The Chinese were the first to start when our armored personnel carriers were burned on March 2. From their shore artillery fired at ours. We also responded to this with our artillery strike. This is an undeclared war - immediately understandable.
The war is short-lived, because no one can estimate by its length: how many days it will last. Some wars have been fought for centuries, and some - "shoot" and ended. So in this case, there were practically military operations.
We say and write "events", moving away from direct explanations and definitions about what happened. If this is an event, then on an unconscious level it is perceived as something positive, and when people die, it is already a war, because there were casualties on both sides.
Now how can one directly answer the question: "Who gave the Damansky Island?"
Without hesitation, we boldly say - President of the USSR Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev.
After 1991, we carried out demarcation measures that lasted until 2004, negotiating with China about the exact location of the border. But de facto, since September 1969, the Chinese have possessed this island. Although he was considered ours until May 19, 1991.
What is your attitude to the fact that Damansky Island, along with other land areas along the Amur River, were given to China?
- Two components are seething in me now. With my emotional feelings for Damansky, I would prefer that Russia stood its ground and did not give this island, and, I think, no one would get any worse from this. And from a sober position, I find China a country that is still capable of snatching its piece of land.
The fact is that the laid border in 1860 changed over time. It is also necessary to take into account that due to the change in the hydrographic characteristics of the river, the island turned out to be a little closer to the Chinese coast, which is why they began to claim it. I do not exclude that the island may one day be transferred back to Russia. At least, I would like to naively believe in it.
We forget history and it starts to repeat itself
What feelings did you have when you were called up to serve in the border troops?
- Yes, more than fifty years have passed. What can you remember about those feelings? I remember well the time when I was a young man of military age.
At that time, we did not have such a wormhole in Soviet society that we could not turn away from service in any way. All the young guys were eager to go to serve, despite the fact that then the length of service was longer.
He served in the ground forces for three years. I was drafted into the border troops for three years. We were deeply convinced that these were not just years thrown into the wind, but our sacred duty, which was based on the fact that I was born in 1948.
The war ended quite recently. I could not help being affected by what happened after the Victory: the social upsurge in society, the general mood in the country. As in the song “Victory Day” it is sung: “This is a holiday with gray hair on the temples. It is joy with tears in our eyes."
We had to work together with the front-line soldiers, as we called them then, at enterprises and collective farms. Many went to work only on foot: at will or due to circumstances, in the morning such a walking cross of 5-6 kilometers.
Everyone then wore greatcoats and boots, in the same soldier's clothes in which they returned from the front. This was normal. Whether it be festive or casual wear, and it was also a working one.
I remember that a military registration and enlistment office worked with us two years before the call-up. They collected us, checked our health, physical condition, after which they worked, of course, with us, checking our abilities in order to distribute among the types of troops.
I ended up in the border troops, whose representatives came to the military registration and enlistment offices in advance, got acquainted with personal affairs and selected suitable guys. Of course, there were examples when someone expressed a desire to get into a certain military unit.
Their desires were sometimes fulfilled, unless, of course, there were any obstacles to that, for example, with physical health. But so that everyone "wherever I want - I fly there", this has never happened. We learned that we were going to the border to the Pacific Ocean only by train from the sergeants who accompanied us. So I ended up in the border troops.
I want to say that Soviet education undoubtedly brought positive results. Starting from kindergarten, hikes, overnight stays, songs, poems, fairy tales have already been cultivated, and, as a rule, mainly on a patriotic basis. From childhood, we were given the right upbringing.
Then there was a school in which everyone was massively involved in sports activities. A huge number of sections worked. Most importantly, everything was available to each of us, despite the fact that there was no good sports equipment, uniforms, and there were no additional simulators.
I myself was actively involved in skiing at school. The skis were ordinary: drilled boards, which we independently adjusted to mind. Of course, they often broke only because they consisted of two planks.
How did your future destiny develop? After Damansky
- Graduated from the Moscow Border School as an external student. Then she studied at the Lenin Military-Political Academy. He served in the North, in the Arctic, in Leningrad, Moscow, in the Baltic. Then I found myself in Moscow again.
He entered the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU. I was recalled when I was almost finishing my studies. True, then they let me finish with my course. And he was appointed a member of the military council of the district in Kiev.
In 1990 he won the first democratic elections to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It was a tough election - nine alternative candidates, all from Ukraine, where I ran. But we knew how to work, propagandize, convince: everything was fair.
Until 1995, he headed the permanent commission on defense and state security in the Verkhovna Rada. Then he wrote a report and went to Moscow, he wanted to continue the service. But already, as they say, my train has left.
Now I live and work in civilian conditions.
