The Russian military is improving the basing system in the Far East and, in particular, in the Kuril Islands. So, in April, a three-month expeditionary campaign of a detachment of ships of the Pacific Fleet began to the islands of the Great Kuril ridge. “The main goal is to study the possibilities of the prospective basing of the forces of the Pacific Fleet,” emphasized Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Moreover, this year, according to the statement of Russian officials, coastal missile systems "Ball" and "Bastion", unmanned aerial vehicles of the new generation "Eleron-3" will be deployed here. It is easy to guess that one of the reasons for this decision was Japan's claims to the Kuril Islands. And actually, whose are they?
JAPANESE HERE AND HAVE NOT SEEN IN EYES
Naturally, I will not prove that the Slavs have lived on the islands from time immemorial, but there were no Japanese born there either. The indigenous people of the Kurils are the Ainu. Outwardly, the Ainu had nothing to do with the Mongoloid race. There are three versions of the origin of the Ainu - from the Caucasus, from Siberia and from the south of the Pacific Ocean. Let's pay attention to the name "Ainu", which means "people". That is, they were the only people in their habitats.
The first Russian people to visit the Kuril Islands were the Cossacks Danil Antsiferov and Ivan Kozyrevsky. In 1711, at the head of a small detachment, they explored the northern island of Shumshu. In 1713, Kozyrevsky landed on Paramushir, where he had to fight the Ainu, who did not want to pay yasak to the royal treasury. Kozyrevsky mapped both islands and declared them the territory of the Russian state.
The Russians have never heard of any Japanese on the Kuril Islands. The fact is that the third Japanese shogun Iemitsu, with three successive decrees (1633, 1636 and 1639), under the threat of death, forbade the Japanese to leave their country, as well as to build large ships for long voyages. At the same time, the country was closed to foreigners. An exception was made only for the Dutch and Chinese, whose merchant ships were allowed to enter Nagasaki in limited numbers, where bargaining took place on the island of Desima.
By the way, Japan of the XVII-XVIII centuries consisted of Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and other southern islands. As for the northern island of Hokkaido, by the middle of the 17th century it was not part of the Japanese centralized state. Later in the south of Hokkaido, the Japanese principality of Matsunae arose, but most of the Ainu living there remained independent.
This is confirmed by a curious petition to Catherine II, which was sent to her in 1788 by the head of the northeastern American company, Ivan Golikov. On behalf of the company, he asked "to prevent the attempts of other powers to build a fortress and a harbor on the 21st (Shikotan) or 22nd (Hokkaido) of the Kuril Islands to establish trade with China, Japan, to the most capable discoveries and bring the empress under a high power" "The neighboring islands, which, as we know for certain, do not depend on any power … to this day."
Golikov asked to allocate 100 soldiers with artillery to him in order to "have help and protection from the state side and protection from any oppression and for protection …". He also asked to issue a loan, 200 thousand rubles, for 20 years and to provide a monopoly right to exploit the islands and mainland land "as open, current and the one that they will open."
Ekaterina refused. But what is the offer! And after all, it was not initiated by St. Petersburg officials, but by people who have lived for many years in the Far East. Could anyone have suggested building a fortress somewhere on Honshu? And the fortress was needed not for protection from the Japanese, but from the "assassination attempt of other powers", the same Portuguese.
SMOKERS IN EXCHANGE FOR SOUTH SAKHALIN
On April 25 (May 7), 1875, a Russian-Japanese treaty was concluded in St. Petersburg, according to which Russia transferred the Kuril Islands to Japan in exchange for South Sakhalin. The Russian Empire was represented at the negotiations by Alexander Gorchakov, the Japanese - by Enomato Takzaki.
The cult of the "iron chancellor" Gorchakov has long been established in Russia. Alas, in real life, this person constantly harmed Russia. So, from 1855 to 1870, he slowed down not only the construction of warships on the Black Sea, but also modern shipyards in Nikolaev. Iron Chancellor Bismarck laughed at our paper chancellor: "Build battleships on the sly in Nikolaev, and there will be a protest of diplomats - refer to the stupidity of Russian officials and bureaucracy." Indeed, from 1859 to 1870 there was a continuous war for the redistribution of European borders, and no one dreamed of a war with Russia due to the discrepancy between the size of its battleships and the articles of the Paris Peace of 1856.
And only when France was smashed to pieces by Prussia, Gorchakov broke out in the famous circular. But it was paper bravado - there were no battleships or shipyards where they could be built on the Black Sea.
Due to Gorchakov's fault, full-fledged battleships on the Black Sea were commissioned only in 1895, when neither the "donkey" nor the "emir" had been alive for a long time.
It was Gorchakov who was the main initiator of the sale of Alaska to America. After that, the Russian-American company was in agony and there was no one to deal with the Kuriles.
As a result, the head of the Ministry of Finance, Mikhail Reitern, said: “In view of the little benefit that Russia has gained so far from the Kuril Islands, and the difficulties associated with the supply of food to the population of these islands, despite its insignificance, and I, for my part, admit that it is much more profitable for us to exchange these islands for the southern part of Sakhalin."
By 1875, several dozen Russians and a couple of hundred Creoles lived on the Kuril Islands. Our admirals were of little interest to them. In 1875, the Nissen-Kan corvette went to accept the Kuril Islands into Japanese citizenship. And 83 Russian subjects from the Kuril Islands were taken out only in September 1877 on the clipper "Abrek".
Well, Yuzhny Sakhalin handed over the corvette Assaga-Kan, and received the clipper "Horseman".
Undoubtedly, the economic importance of South Sakhalin is much greater than the Kuril Islands. On this occasion, the Japanese media rallied: "Sakhalin was exchanged for an insignificant ridge of pebbles."
RUSSIAN BASE IN NAGASAKI
In addition to Sakhalin, Russia acquired a naval base in Nagasaki.
Already in July 1875, the head of the Pacific Ocean squadron, Rear Admiral Orest Puzino, ordered the head of the Pacific Ocean ship detachment to conclude a contract with the Japanese landowner Siga on a 10-year lease of a plot of land on which, “without leaving the allocated amount, it was supposed to install and equip a bathhouse, a hospital, a boat shed and a smithy."
In Nagasaki, the “Russian village” of Inos also emerged with a St. Petersburg tavern, the Neva hotel with a buffet and billiards, etc. “And so that no visitor of a different nationality would get into it, the owners thought it necessary to nail a plaque above the entrance with a warning in Japanese, Russian and English, which says that“only Russian officers are allowed here”.
Hundreds of geisha and dozens of contract wives lived in Inos. Gentlemen officers signed a marriage contract for two to three years, depending on the length of the stay of their ship in the Pacific Ocean. A house in Inos was bought for my wife, where the officer lived. Then admirals and lawful wives in St. Petersburg looked at things easier than now. Everyone knew, they took it for granted, and for a quarter of a century there was not a single scandal or "personal case".
The conclusion of peace with Japan and the acquisition of a base in Nagasaki in 1875 were extremely important in the light of the next Anglo-Russian "military troubles" in 1875-1876, and then in 1878.
FISH, RUMORS AND MILITARY OBJECTS
The Japanese did not really know what to do with the Kurils. I open the 16th volume of the Russian "Military Encyclopedia", published in 1914 - a publication for that time quite reliable. The article "Kuril Islands" says: "They are unsuitable for agriculture in terms of climatic conditions … Due to the poverty of nature and the severity of the climate, the permanent population does not exceed 600 people."
In addition to them, Japanese fishing factories for the primary processing of fish periodically appeared on the islands. However, in 1907-1935, the Japanese set up similar trading posts in … Kamchatka. This was done, of course, without the knowledge of the local authorities. Moreover, Japanese fish producers both under tsarism and under Soviet rule spread rumors among the Kamchadals that the peninsula would soon go to Japan.
Modern Japanese historians claim that the construction of military installations on the islands began in 1940. Several Russian historians echo them. Personally, I believe that military construction in the Kuril Islands began five years earlier.
However, this cheating with dates, on the one hand, should prove the peacefulness of the Land of the Rising Sun, but on the other hand, it puts in an uncomfortable position the Japanese official propaganda groaning about 16, 5 thousand civilians of the Kuril Islands, evicted to Japan in 1947-1949. According to Soviet data, 9149 Japanese citizens were repatriated from the Kuriles, and 10 more asked for Soviet citizenship and were left on the islands.
Let us compare that the Americans at the same time evicted from 70 to 100 thousand Japanese from the islands of Micronesia, most of whom were born on the islands, and by 1941 almost all of them were engaged in economic activities.
But from 9, 2 to 16, 5 thousand Japanese in the Kuril Islands, 95% were brought in in 1940-1944 and were used to service Japanese military facilities. Talking about the deprivation of the homeland of a person who has lived there for two or four years is, to put it mildly, frivolous.
SMOKING "STEPS"
The landing of Soviet troops on the Kuril Islands. 1945 photo
Few people know that the carrier strike force that defeated the American fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, left the naval base on Iturup Island. It was in Hitokappu Bay (now Kasatka Bay) that six Japanese aircraft carriers underwent final training for several weeks. The base on Iturup was well covered from the air, there was a huge airfield. Later it received the name "Petrel", and our 387th Fighter Aviation Regiment was based there until 1993.
The North Kuril Islands were used by the Japanese in 1942-1944 as a base for an attack on the Aleutian Islands.
However, the Americans, with great effort, managed to oust the Japanese from the Aleutian Islands they had captured. It is curious that for the first time the plan to seize the Kuril Islands was considered by the US government back in August 1942. Well, after the liberation of Attu Island from the Japanese in May 1943, both in the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) and in the American press, heated debates began about the seizure of the Kuril Islands and further movement from them southward to Japan itself.
The phrase "a trip to Tokyo on the steps of the Kuril Islands" has become a brand for American journalists. The phrase "from Paramushir to Tokyo is only 2 thousand km" hypnotized the American man in the street.
The commander of the Western Group of Forces, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, presented his plan of operation to the Chief of the OKNSH. DeWitt proposed striking the Kuril Islands in the spring of 1944 in order to create a base for further advance in the direction of Hokkaido and Honshu.
The plan for the attack on the islands did not remain on paper. Since the spring of 1943, American aircraft launched a massive bombardment of the Kuril Islands. The strongest blows were made on the northern islands of Shumshu and Paramushir. So, in just one day of the bombing of Paramushir, seven American bombers landed in Kamchatka. All American aircraft landed on the territory of the USSR (in the Far East) were interned, thanks to which in 1946 we received the Tu-4 “flying fortress” - the creation of Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev.
The Japanese seriously feared an American invasion of the Kuril Islands. As a result, the number of Japanese troops on the islands increased from 5 thousand people at the beginning of 1943 to 27 thousand at the end of the year, and by the summer of 1944 it was increased to 60 (!) Thousand. And this despite the great complexity of the delivery of troops and supplies - storm, American planes and submarines.
But Moscow said "wow!" And the American vultures began to look for another target. It is curious that as early as November 18, 1940, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov proposed to the Japanese to transfer all the Kuril Islands to the USSR in exchange for signing a non-aggression pact.
FATE DECIDED IN TWO MINUTES
On November 29, 1943, US President Franklin Roosevelt, during the Tehran conference, expressed his readiness to seize the Northern Kuriles to improve communications with Vladivostok and asked Stalin if the USSR would take part in this action, acting together with the American armed forces. Stalin avoided a direct answer, but later hinted to Roosevelt that South Sakhalin and the Kuriles should become Russian territory, as this would give the Soviet Union access to the Pacific Ocean and the possibility of a more reliable defense of the Soviet Far East.
During 1944, Stalin twice repeated the Soviet political conditions under which the USSR would agree to enter the war against Japan: on October 14 in a conversation with General John Dean, the head of the American military mission in Moscow, and on December 13 at a meeting with the presidential envoy, Averell Harriman. Stalin told Harriman that all the Kuril Islands should be returned to Russia, justifying this demand by the fact that they used to belong to Russia.
The fate of the Kuriles was finally decided in two minutes in Yalta at a closed meeting on February 8, 1945. Stalin began the conversation by uniting the Kuriles and South Sakhalin into one whole: "I just want to return to Russia what the Japanese took away from her." Roosevelt readily agreed with this: “A very reasonable proposal of our ally. The Russians only want to return what was taken from them. " After that, the conference participants moved on to discuss other issues.
Tokyo remained completely unaware of the Soviet-American negotiations. The Japanese were frantically looking for diplomatic moves in order to at least achieve guarantees of the neutrality of the USSR, and as a maximum to persuade Stalin to become an arbiter in peace negotiations with the United States and Britain.
Back in September 1944, Foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru prepared a project, according to which, in particular, it was planned to cede the Central and Northern Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union.
Well, in August-September 1945, Soviet paratroopers occupied all the Kuril Islands.
On September 2, 1945, Stalin addressed the citizens of the USSR: “The defeat of the Russian troops in 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, left hard memories in the minds of the people. It fell on our country as a black spot. Our people believed and expected that the day would come when Japan would be defeated and the stain would be eliminated. For forty years we, people of the older generation, have been waiting for this day. And now the day has come. Today Japan has declared itself defeated and signed an act of unconditional surrender. This means that South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands will go to the Soviet Union, and from now on they will serve not as a means of separating the Soviet Union from the ocean and as a base for the Japanese attack on our Far East, but as a means of direct communication of the Soviet Union with the ocean and the base of our country's defense against the Japanese. aggression.
In September 1945, President Harry Truman proposed to Stalin the creation of an American air and naval base on one of the Kuril Islands. Stalin agreed, but on condition of the creation of a similar Soviet base on one of the Aleutian Islands. Further, the White House did not raise this topic.
AMERICAN PRODUCTS
In 1946-1990, quite effective border control was organized in the Kuril Islands. So, already in 1951, in the South Kuril Islands, there were two border guards per 1 km of the coast. However, despite the creation of nine separate border detachments of patrol ships, at sea one ship fell on 80 km of the border.
Well, the Americans constantly staged provocations in the Kuril region. Here is just a brief chronicle of the incidents at the already mentioned Burevestnik airfield on Iturup.
On October 7, 1952, an American reconnaissance aircraft RB-29 appeared over Yuri Island. A pair of La-11 rose from the Burevestnik. RB-29 was shot down, eight people were killed.
On November 7, 1954, RB-29A appeared near Tanfiliev Island. He was intercepted by a pair of MiG-15s from the Petrel. The Yankees were the first to open fire. RB-29 was badly damaged and fell on the coast of Hokkaido Island.
On June 1, 1968, in the Kuril Islands region, the border was violated by an American jet liner DC-8 with 24 crew members and 214 American servicemen en route to Vietnam. The plane entered the Soviet airspace 200 km away. A pair of MiG-17 fighters tried to force the DC-8 to land, but he began to climb and tried to escape into the clouds. Another pair of MiGs rose from the Burevestnik. A line of tracer shells was given along the course of the liner. The liner commander stopped "playing pranks" and landed the liner at the Burevestnik airfield.
On April 4, 1983, six attack aircraft from the aircraft carriers Midway and Enterprise, maneuvering 200 km east of the Kuriles, entered Soviet airspace. Moreover, the attack aircraft from low altitude practiced strikes on Zeleny Island for 15 minutes. However, our fighters never took off from the Burevestnik. The fact is that, due to bad weather, the MiG-21SM would not have been able to land back, and there would not be enough fuel to reach the Sakhalin airfield. After debriefing, six months later, more advanced MiG-23 aircraft arrived at the Burevestnik.
The Americans behaved no less impudently at sea. So, American submarines were doing utter chaos in the Sea of Okhotsk.
In October 1971, the nuclear submarine "Khelibat" entered the territorial waters of the USSR with equipment for a special operation. Slowly moving along the coast of Kamchatka, the Americans examined the signs on the coast, and finally good luck - a sign was noticed prohibiting any underwater work in this place. The Americans released a controlled underwater robot, with the help of which they were able to make out a thick 13-centimeter cable at the bottom. The boat moved away from the coast and hung over the cable line, four divers fixed the information pickup equipment. With the first intercept data, Halibat headed for Pearl Harbor. Then the Khalibat submarine installed an even more sophisticated listening system on the cable in the Sea of Okhotsk, which was called the "cocoon" in the United States. At the end of 1971, "Khalibat" again entered the Sea of Okhotsk to retrieve the information accumulated by the "cocoon".
The trip to the Sea of Okhotsk to listen to the cable communication line has become regular. The US National Security Agency even codenamed the operation "Ivy Bells" ("Bindweed" or "Ivy Bells"). Errors were taken into account and a conclusion was drawn from past lessons. Bell received an order to further improve the listening device.
And in 1974 and 1975 the Khalibat submarine made a cruise to the Sea of Okhotsk with a special device on the hull of the ski type - "skegi", which allowed it to lie down softly on the ground, without resorting to the help of an anchor.
Then the Sifulf nuclear submarine was involved in Operation Bindweed, which made two cruises to the Sea of Okhotsk - in 1976 and 1977.
In 1976, the American submarine Greyback entered Soviet territorial waters in Prostor Bay off Sakhalin to find the remains of a Soviet Tu-95 strategic bomber that had fallen into the sea in the area.
The operation received the code designation "Blue Sun". The submarine released underwater saboteurs who discovered the remains of the Tu-95 at a depth of 40 m. The Americans managed to deliver two hydrogen bombs and friend or foe identification equipment on board the Greyback.
To counter the invasion of American ships and submarines into the Sea of Okhotsk in November 1962, the 171st submarine brigade from the 6th submarine squadron of the Pacific Fleet was redeployed from Nakhodka Bay to Nagayev Bay (near Magadan). Initially, the brigade included submarines S-173, S-288 and S-286, all boats of Project 613, as well as the Sever floating base. In the spring of 1963, the brigade included boats S-331, S-173 and S-140, and by the fall of 1967, the 171st brigade had 11 boats of project 613. In 1987, on the basis of the 171st brigade in Nagayevo, it was formed 420th separate submarine division. In 1994, it was disbanded, and two Project 877 submarines became part of the 182th brigade.
FIGHT FOR THE SEA OF OKHOTSK
In 1970-1980, our submariners learned how to shoot in the Arctic from the ice hole and break through the ice with a conning tower or special torpedoes. However, the ice does not save the nuclear missile carriers from the American nuclear submarines-killers. Our missile carriers in the Arctic are continuously monitored by one to four such submarines.
In such a situation, the Sea of Okhotsk with an area of 1603 thousand square meters can serve as the optimal area for combat patrolling of our missile carriers. km. Its average depth is 821 m, and the greatest is 3916 m. The Sea of Okhotsk is located inside the territory of the Russian Federation, and only a small piece of the Japanese island of Hokkaido overlooks it. From the Hokkaido side, the sea can be entered through two straits - Kunashirsky (length 74 km, width 24–43 km, maximum depth 2500 m) and La Perouse (length 94 km, width at a narrow point 43 km, maximum depth 118 m).
Curiously, Japan has narrowed the width of its territorial waters in the La Perouse Strait to allow American submarines with atomic weapons on board to maneuver. After all, Japan (except for Okinawa) formally pledged not to have nuclear weapons on its territory.
The total width of all straits between the Kuril Islands is about 500 km. Almost all of them are blocked by the territorial waters of Russia, that is, there is a real possibility of blocking all the straits, except for the Kunashir and La Perouse, from the penetration of submarines of a potential enemy. For this, network barriers, mines and a variety of devices can be used.
For about 15 years our strategic missile carriers have been launching ballistic missiles from the Sea of Okhotsk. Shooting is carried out at the Chizha training ground in the Arkhangelsk region. Note that if from the Barents Sea at the Kura test site in Kamchatka, a significant part of the missiles were launched during their testing, then from the Sea of Okhotsk they are launched exclusively during combat training and combat patrols.
Strengthening the defenses of the Kuril Islands simultaneously solves two important tasks of strategic importance. Firstly, it reduces all talk about the return of the "northern territory" to idle chatter, and secondly, it ensures the safety of patrolling our missile carriers in the Sea of Okhotsk. The Kurils need a good castle from all uninvited visitors.
