Where is Sakhalin Island located? Geographical location, borders of the Sakhalin region. Where is Sakhalin

Due to the large meridional elongation of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands and their mountainous terrain, the distribution of soil and vegetation cover exhibits wide zoning and vertical zonation.
The humid monsoon climate and mountainous terrain of the region determined some of the features of the soil and vegetation cover of Sakhalin. The main ones include the dominance of taiga landscapes. In most of the island, the dominant type of vegetation is the dark coniferous spruce-fir taiga of Ayan spruce and Sakhalin fir, with the participation of Mayer fir and Glen spruce in the south of the island.
The northern part of the island is dominated by forests and woodlands of Dahurian larch with thickets of wild rosemary, dwarf cedar, blueberries, cranberries, etc. There are many peat bogs with poorly developed grass cover and an abundance of lichen.
The arcs occupy small areas and consist mainly of reed grass, sedges and forbs. The North Sakhalin Plain is dominated by bog and podzolic soils, and on the Schmidt Peninsula - mountain podzolic soils.
To the south of the village of Nysh, the spruce-fir taiga begins with the dominance of spruce forests - green moss forests, moving further south into spruce-fir forests with a predominance of fir and with a carpet of ferns in the grass stand, where mountain-podzolic and mountain brown forest soils have formed under them.
In the forests of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands there are many shrubs that form thickets both in the valleys and in the mountains: currants, rose hips, vidina, holly, skimmia, euonymus, aralia, eleutherococcus and many others. In the south of the island there are a large number of vines: actinidia, grapes, hydrangea. In river valleys on alluvial soils, floodplain forests grow, formed by willow, choicenia, alder, elm poplar with an admixture of white birch, ash, rowan, bird cherry and thickets of bushes.-Large grass formations are confined to river valleys and the foothills of slopes, especially widespread in the southern part of Sakhalin, as well as on Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan. Stone-birch forests, under which mountainous
forest acidic soils, in the south they descend to the sea. In the southern part of Sakhalin and on the Kuril Islands, thickets of Kuril bamboo, as well as shrubs, yellow maple, diervilla, honeysuckle, etc. are ubiquitously developed. The highest areas of the mountains with mountain-peaty-gley soils are occupied by thickets of dwarf cedar and mountain-tundra formations.
The vegetation of the Kuril Islands is more diverse: the forests of the southern part of Kunashir have much in common with the forests of the southwestern part of Sakhalin, and the vegetation cover of the island, located north of the island of Rasshua, is similar to the vegetation of Kamchatka and is characterized by the predominance of subalpine shrubs of dwarf pine and Kamchatka alder, in combination with heath, meadow and meadow-bog groups. The north of Kunashir and most of Iturup are covered with coniferous forests of fir and larch with areas of broad-leaved forest consisting mainly of oak. The northern tip of Iturup and Urup are occupied by peculiar sparse forests of stone birch with dense and tall thickets of Kuril bamboo with the participation of yew, samukha, euonymus, etc. Spruce-fir forests grow on Shikotan. The other islands of the Malaya Kuril ridge are completely treeless and covered with herb meadows.
In the north and center of Sakhalin, reindeer are found, and among the birds, the white partridge lives. Everywhere on Sakhalin, as well as on Paramushir and some other islands of the Kuril ridge, there are foxes, white hare, and ermine. On Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, elk, deer, roe deer, badger, black grouse, etc., which are common to Siberia, are absent. Among the birds known on Sakhalin are the stone grouse, hazel grouse, cuckoo, great spotted woodpecker, and many songbirds. Tundra partridge, nutcracker, etc. nest on the Kuril Islands. Representatives of the Indo-Malayan avifauna live in the forests of the southern group of the Kuril Islands, and in the south of Sakhalin - Japanese avifauna. The fauna of the seas and sea coasts of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is quite rich. These are seals, spotted seals, bearded seals, fur seals, and sea lions, forming coastal and ice rookeries. On Tyuleny Island there is one of the largest rookeries of fur seals, famous for their excellent fur. There are also sea lion rookeries here, which provide valuable, durable leather. Besides,
Steller sea lions also form rookeries on such islands of the Kuril ridge as Shumshu, Onekotan, Shiashkotan, etc. In the south of the island of Urup lives the largest herd in Russia of the most valuable fur-bearing animal, the sea otter, which feeds on fish and sea urchins. Most marine mammals in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Sea of ​​Japan move south for the winter. In the waters of the seas and oceans surrounding the region there are various species of whales, fish (herring, saury, navaga, pollock, flounder, chum salmon, pink salmon, masu salmon), crabs, mollusks, etc. A variety of salmon fish come into the Sakhalin and Kuril rivers for spawning - chum salmon, pink salmon, masu salmon. The life of many birds is also connected with the sea, such as guillemots, cormorants, guillemots, fulmars, puffins, which form bird colonies on Cape Terpeniya, the Tyuleny and Moneron islands, and especially on the Kuril Islands.

The picturesque topography of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, the unique fauna and vegetation, and rich natural resources make the Sakhalin region one of the interesting corners of our Motherland.

The origin of the names of cities and rivers, villages and straits on the island is extremely diverse. French and Japanese names exist alongside Soviet abbreviations and indigenous names. La Perouse Strait (French navigator) and the city of Tomari (formerly Tomarioru), the village of Ulva (Nivish language - “village at the top” and Pogibi, Urkt Bay (River Boat Transport Administration) and the very simple and more familiar names Trudovoye and Vostochnoye.

In the 18th century, maps published in Western Europe, off the coast of the Pacific Ocean, north of China, depicted the huge country of Tataria. The French navigator La Perouse was also convinced of the existence of this mysterious Tataria.

Having reached the strait separating Sakhalin from the mainland on his ships, La Perouse, without hesitation for long, named it Tatar. As a result of this misunderstanding, the strait still bears a random and unfounded name. The Tatar Strait is the name given to the entire body of water separating the island from the mainland.

Cape Krillon is the southernmost point of the Krillon Peninsula and the entire Sakhalin Island. The name was given in honor of the French military leader Louis-Balbes de Crillon by the great French navigator Jean-François de La Perouse.

The population on the island is just as diverse: Russians and Koreans, Ukrainians and Tatars, even about a hundred Japanese. The latter were born and raised in the Japanese southern Sakhalin. They can obtain Japanese citizenship at any time, but they have all already started families and consider themselves Russians. However, the most real and loyal inhabitants of Sakhalin are the indigenous peoples of the island: the Oroks and Nivkhs.

At the moment, many Nivkhs and Oroks (ulta) continue to maintain a traditional way of life, open their own family farms, and try to do business. Fishing, reindeer herding, and collecting wild plants are often the main sources of food and income for many representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North of Sakhalin. In the life of the Nivkhs, dog breeding plays an important role as a method of transportation when hunting.

The living conditions of these peoples have hardly changed. True, recently the majority have moved from small dwellings to houses with gas heating and water. But the national cuisine remained the same: stroganina (freshly frozen meat) from fish and deer, yukola - fish meat, dried in the wind, smoked over a fire, and some completely unusual dishes for non-aboriginals - pudding made from nerp (seal) fat with fish skin whipped into foam and sprinkled with redberry berries (klopovka) on top.

Traditions have also remained virtually unchanged. “Feeding the spirit of water” is an ancient ritual of feeding the spirit master of the sea. This is a traditional holiday, which is held on the eve of the main salmon poutine of the year. The elders treat the sea spirit with branches of fireweed, dried lingonberries, pieces of pie and crackers, throwing food into the coastal wave.

Kalni is an ancient musical instrument of the Nivkhs. This is a long tube made from the dried stem of a plant called "bear's pipe", reaching a height of two meters. The technique of playing this instrument is special - the Nivkhs seem to sing their melodies in kalni.

Unfortunately, the development of oil and gas resources on Sakhalin disfigures and kills nature, and with it the habitats and hunting grounds of the Nivkhs and Oroks, the preservation of whose identity directly depends on the abundance of animals in the taiga, on the fullness of the rivers and the sea. Residents are being displaced from their traditional habitats. Also, the hunting of seals, sea lions, dolphins or beluga whales, rooted in the life of peoples, is now strictly regulated.

But no matter what, the Nivkhs and Oroks (ults) continue to honor their traditions. In the village of Nogliki, the original habitat of the island's indigenous peoples, there is a one-of-a-kind national school for Aboriginal children.

Vladimir Sangi is the founder and classic of Nivkh literature. His novels and stories are firmly included in the “golden fund” of literature. He created the Nivkh alphabet and primer, wrote many children's books, journalistic and scientific articles. Sangi is also a supporter of the revival of Nivkh dog breeding.

The first primer of the Uilta language. Today the number of people speaking the Uilta language does not exceed several dozen. This primer became proof that all languages, regardless of the number of people speaking them, are capable of serving as a full-fledged means of communication.

By the way, an interesting story happened during the population census in Ukraine. According to the processed data, 959 Oroks lived in the country, of which only 12 called the Orok language their native language, 179 people (19%) considered Ukrainian their native language, 710 people. (74%) - Russian. At the same time, according to the 1989 USSR population census, there were only 2 Oroks in the Ukrainian SSR. Obviously, this unprecedented “growth” of the small Far Eastern people was caused by the mass recording of Ukrainian Tolkienists as orcs, which gave rise to confusion when processing the results - fantasy characters were recorded as consonant with the orcs, as well as the orcs, the number of which in Ukraine also increased hundreds of times compared to Soviet times.

The first Russian settlements appeared as a result of the emergence of the largest penal servitude in Russia at that time, very difficult and the most powerless. Very little remains of the once-expanded penal servitude on the island. A couple of dozen shackles in local museums, photographs and books, including A.P. Chekhov about his journey to the penal island. By the way, the fact that Chekhov visited Sakhalin and wrote a book about it makes the local population proud. On September 22, 1968, in the city of Aleksandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, in the “house from the time of the Sakhalin hard labor, built in 1886 by the exiled settler K.H. Landsberg,” the historical and literary museum “A.P. Chekhov and Sakhalin” was opened.

The only woman “worthy” to wear shackles was Sofia Bluvshtein or Sonya Zolotaya Ruchka. She tried numerous times to escape from the island, which is why she was put in shackles. But thanks to this adventurous person, the first drama theater was organized on Sakhalin.

The tunnel at Cape Jonquiere is the little that remains of the convict past. Cape Jonquière with its entire mass fell onto the coastal sandbank, and passage along it would have been completely impossible if a tunnel had not been dug. They dug it without consulting an engineer, without any fuss, and as a result it turned out dark, crooked and dirty.

At the very foot of the cliff there is a tunnel on the shore.

By 1905, the economy consisted of limited coal mining by convicts, seasonal fishing, and weak agriculture, labor-intensive in Sakhalin conditions. After the transfer of Southern Sakhalin to the Japanese Empire in 1905, as a result of the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, a different life began on the island. A huge number of enterprises, about 700 km of railways, ports and lighthouses, all this Japanese heritage is still used by the residents of Sakhalin.

Until 1905, there was no railway on Sakhalin, nor any ordinary roads. Road construction was one of the main tasks on the island. The railway had a narrow gauge (1067 mm). This road, along with its rolling stock, remained after Japan took possession of the island.

"Devil's Bridge" is a railway bridge located near the Nikolaychuk station in the Kholmsky district. A unique structure built by the Japanese in the 1920s. The train passed along this road through two tunnels, drove out almost to the very top of the hill and passed over a bridge at an altitude of 38 m, from where a beautiful panorama opens up. Currently the bridge is not functioning.

Some bridges are still used by motorists and trains.

Ruins of a bridge on the Ulyanovka River.

Lighthouses are an integral part of the island. Many of the lighthouses currently standing and operating were built during the Japanese Empire on the island. Aniva lighthouse was built in 1939. This unique structure was installed on a small rock called Sivuchya. Now it works in autonomous mode, it is deteriorating, but continues to provide good light to all sailors, although they are increasingly checking their course using satellites.

The spiritual life of the inhabitants of the new lands worried the empire, as did the improvement of the island. There were many Japanese temples on Sakhalin - more than 200. The buildings themselves were wooden, naturally, they were all dismantled long ago. Now only some concrete or granite elements of the temple complexes remain. For example, in Uglegorsk (formerly Esutoru) 1 of 2 surviving large temple complexes is located. It was built in 1940 in honor of the 2600th anniversary of the Empire. Only the torii of the Esutoro Jinja Temple have survived.

Torii is one of the most recognizable signs of the Land of the Rising Sun. They serve as ritual gates, installed in front of Shinto shrines or shrines. Torii of the Higashi Shiraura Jinja Temple in the village of Vzmorye:

Stele "Senso kinenhi" of Tomarioro Jinja Temple. War monument at the entrance to the temple. The stella is made in a manner typical for military monuments, when the image of an artillery shell is used as a commemorative object.

Remains of the torii of the Tomarioru Jinza Temple in the city of Tomari:

Bowl of the Merei Hachiman Jinja Temple in the port of Prigorodnoye. Before visiting the temple and turning to the deity, it was necessary to perform the rite of harai or misogi - purification, which consisted of washing the mouth and hands with water.

The abandoned and forgotten Japanese city of Ambetsu. This attraction is especially interesting because the Russians settled all the former Japanese cities after 1945, gradually destroying everything Japanese there, and for unknown reasons they forgot about Ambetsu, located almost at the 50th parallel - the border of the two states. The road to the former city is overgrown and impassable, and it can only be approached along the sea.

Along the entire shore, beautiful, smoothed fragments of painted pottery have been thrown up by the sea. When the Japanese moved out, they buried their property in the ground: then no one believed that they were leaving these lands forever, and streams still carry these relics into the ocean.

As a result of military operations in 1945, the Soviet Union again annexed South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. At the end of World War II, there were about 350 thousand Japanese on the island. The Soviet government decided that not a single Japanese and everything that was built by the occupiers should remain on the island. It’s good that they came to their senses in time, because almost all the roads and railways of Southern Sakhalin were built by the Japanese.

Brick factory built by the Japanese.

The Japanese were unanimously evicted from the island and sent to their historical homeland. But the Koreans, whom the Japanese brought to the island as inexpensive labor, could not boast of freedom. They had no choice - they were not needed in Japan, and in their impoverished, war-torn native Korea too. Until a certain point, they did not have all the rights of Soviet citizens and could hardly leave the island. Now Koreans are equal citizens of the Russian Federation. Few of them know Korean, most of them only old people. Absolutely cut off from their homeland, but nevertheless retaining their everyday and culinary habits. Kimchi cabbage, dry pollock, spices, pickled fern and burdock on the tables of Sakhalin residents - this is all their influence.

Dry pollock:

There are a lot of monuments on the island from the times of Japan and the Soviet Union, but many of them are lost, overgrown with local bamboo, destroyed and completely forgotten.

Estate near the city of Kholmsk. There used to be a Japanese hospital here.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the island began to decline. The once rich and developing island began to quietly die, for this process continues to this day. People left their cities and villages as a huge number of enterprises closed. Nobody needed paper and brick factories, fish farms abandoned all their ships and boats, nets and other equipment and simply became overgrown with grass and “died.” Coal mines and fur farms, timber processing and ship repair enterprises, ports and fish and crab processing plants perished and fell into disrepair.

A crab vat near an abandoned fish processing plant.

Abandoned boats of a fishing collective farm in the village of Nekrasovka.

Ruins of a paper mill in the city of Kholmsk.

At the moment, the main industries are oil and natural gas production, fishing and fish processing. But the majority of the population continues to live in poverty, as the closure of almost most enterprises has made its presence felt. Life is supported in those places where oil and gas production takes place and in the capital of the region, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. People are trying to move to the south of the island, where there is more life besides oil and gas.

70% of Alaska's revenue comes from the oil industry. In the budget of the Sakhalin region, “oil” money makes up only 26%, but this is the contribution of Sakhalinmorneftegaz. Russia and the region receive little from the Sakhalin-1 and Sakhalin-2 projects. Production sharing agreements between foreign companies were thought out extremely well. At one time, Standard Oil (the future Exxon, Chevron and others) at the beginning of the 20th century planned to negotiate with Japan on the development of oil fields, but, alas, nothing came of it.

Odoptu-Sea is an oil and gas field located on the continental shelf of Sakhalin Island.

It is extremely expensive to live in such a fish and oil region. On an island with spawning rivers, buying fish is an extremely expensive pleasure. Fish, caviar, crabs and shellfish cost the same, both in Moscow or Almaty, and in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk itself. This contributes to the flourishing of poaching in all corners of Sakhalin. People have to survive. True, most often poachers who work on a large scale destroy fish only for caviar. The fish are thrown away, they don’t need the fish. Because this is not survival, this is business.

Gasoline A 92 costs 30 rubles (150 tenge) per liter. A loaf of white bread costs 33 rubles (165 tenge). Living on Sakhalin is an expensive pleasure. Unlimited Internet speed up to 1500 kbps. costs 20,250t. Asphalt roads are only in the south of the island, which are also repaired every six months.

There is a huge outflow of population and the state is not even trying to create more or less normal living conditions on the island. The only thing when the Sakhalin region receives the attention of both the capital and local authorities is the claims and desires of Japan towards this region.

For Japan, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are extremely important: they are sea routes and fisheries. After all, almost all the fish that swim to spawn in the Sakhalin and other rivers pass through the Southern Kuril Islands.

Meanwhile, the nature of Sakhalin is being disfigured and destroyed due to the development of oil fields. Local residents are neither hot nor cold from oil and gas production; they just have to live, and some survive on an increasingly polluted island.

One day, indigenous peoples wrote an interesting letter to the local administration. It said that Sakhalin is the land only of the island’s aborigines. That neither the Nivkhs nor the Oroks gave their land to Japan or Russia. True, it ended not so patriotically. People asked for more money from all manipulations with the island: for oil, gas and fish. Because their habitat is being destroyed and they are being driven out. Now Sakhalin Energy pays 300 thousand dollars for 3.5 thousand representatives of the indigenous peoples of Sakhalin, or 90 dollars a year for each. Incredible generosity...

Knowing that the first liquefied natural gas plant in Russia has already been opened on Sakhalin, what mistakes foreign companies make in developing the shelf and what damage all this brings to the island, one’s hands are itching to give the island to the indigenous population. Let them live for themselves, catch fish and seals, but the island will preserve its unique nature and beauty.

Russia's largest island is Sakhalin, where there are significant natural gas deposits. The island is located off the eastern coast of Asia and is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Tartary, the width of which at its narrowest is just over seven kilometers, and at its widest three hundred and twenty-eight.

Where is Sakhalin

From a geological point of view, the island belongs to the Eurasian continent. From an economic-geographical point of view - to the Far Eastern economic region of the Asia-Pacific region. Administratively, the island is the Sakhalin region with its center in the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

Black River Rocks - this is how the traditional name of the island Sahallyan-Ulla is translated from Chinese, from which the Russian name comes. However, there is an alternative name used by the Japanese - Karafuto. Translated from the language of the Ainu, the indigenous local population, this name means “Land of the God of the Mouth.” But in modern Japanese, a transcription of the Russian name of the island, sounding like “Saccharin,” is increasingly used.

History of the study

Several Russian sailors are of key importance in the history of exploration of the island's coast. One of them is Admiral Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, who in 1805 made a long voyage along the coast of the island, carefully exploring it and describing it. However, during his expedition, the traveler was not able to completely bypass it, so the question of whether it was a peninsula or the entire island remained unclear.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the region attracted close attention from key world powers and an increasingly powerful Japan, which sent several expeditions to explore the Far Eastern coast. Two Japanese admirals made several voyages along the coast of Sakhalin and came to the conclusion that it was an island, but European researchers did not trust Japanese data.

Only in 1849, the Russian explorer Gennady Nevelsky managed to sail around Sakhalin on the ship "Baikal" and finally put an end to the question: where is Sakhalin and what is it after all - a peninsula or an island. The name of the admiral is immortalized in the name of the strait he discovered, which is now called the Nevelskoy Strait and is the narrowest part of the large Tatar Strait.

Island climate

The region where Sakhalin Island is located is located in a temperate monsoon climate zone, which is influenced by factors such as the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, the Pacific Ocean and mountainous terrain.

The island experiences long, cold springs and relatively warm autumns. Climatic seasons, when compared with the European part of the country, change with a delay of about three weeks. This means that the warmest month of the year is August, and the coldest month is February.

At the same time, snow can remain on Sakhalin until mid-May, and rare snowfalls can occur in June. But flowers can be found in flower beds in cities until mid-October. The island's position between the Pacific Ocean and the cold Sea of ​​Okhotsk significantly affects the climate and makes the weather difficult to predict.

History and politics

The Far Eastern region has long been under the scrutiny of key global and regional players, but in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Japan and Russia played decisive roles.

The first attempts to regulate the status of the island in accordance with international standards were made in 1855, when an agreement was signed between Japan and the Russian Empire, which went down in history as the Treaty of Simondon. The text stated that the island was a “joint indivisible possession” of both powers. However, this formulation did not make the relations of the countries transparent, since the status of the island was actually not determined.

In order to resolve all existing issues, the states signed a new agreement in 1875. According to the newly signed St. Petersburg Treaty, Russia received possession of Sakhalin, and Japan took possession of all the Northern Kuril Islands.

After Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, the southern part of Sakhalin went to Japan. For a long time, Sakhalin served as a source of tension between the two neighboring countries, until Japan occupied the northern part of the island in 1925. However, after the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II, the entire island and all the Kuril Islands ceded to the USSR. But this did not become the final chord in the territorial dispute between Russia and Japan - today the Land of the Rising Sun lays claim to some islands of the Kuril archipelago, and a peace treaty between the countries has not been signed.

Economy of Sakhalin

The region where Sakhalin is located is very rich in natural resources. The island's wealth includes offshore gas fields and marine biological reserves.

In addition, the Sakhalin region is the place where the Sakhalin-2 project is located, which was first discussed back in 1988. The project involved the development of two offshore fields, one of which contains mainly oil with associated gas, and the other, on the contrary, consists mainly of natural gas with a small oil content.

Southern Sakhalin, where the island's largest city and the region's capital is located, is the economic and transport center of the region. The entire population of the Sakhalin region does not exceed five hundred thousand people. The largest city in Sakhalin, where the airport and administrative offices are located, is Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, which has a population of one hundred and ninety-four thousand people.

Ecology of the island

The Sakhalin region is exposed to significant environmental risks, since the extraction of hydrocarbons on the shelf is associated with certain technological difficulties.

In 2007, major international environmental organizations filed a lawsuit against the British government with the intention of obliging it not to provide a loan to a company engaged in offshore development on Sakhalin. This behavior was caused by the fact that the Sakhalin Energy company did not have the necessary documentation and environmental assessment.

Russia Region Sakhalin region Population 520 thousand people

Sakhalin island

Sakhalin- an island off the east coast of Asia. It is part of the Sakhalin region, the largest island in the Russian Federation. It is washed by the Seas of Okhotsk and Japan. It is separated from mainland Asia by the Tatar Strait (at its narrowest part, the Nevelskoy Strait, is 7.3 km wide and freezes in winter); from the Japanese island of Hokkaido - through the La Perouse Strait.

The island got its name from the Manchu name of the Amur River - “Sakhalyan-ulla”, which translated means “Black River” - this name, printed on the map, was mistakenly attributed to Sakhalin, and in subsequent editions of maps it was printed as the name of the island. The Japanese call Sakhalin Karafuto, this name goes back to the Ainu "kamuy- kara-puto-ya-mosir", which means "land of the god of the mouth".

In 1805, a Russian ship under the command of I.F. Kruzenshtern explored most of the coast of Sakhalin and concluded that Sakhalin was a peninsula. In 1808, Japanese expeditions led by Matsuda Denjuro and Mamiya Rinzou proved that Sakhalin is an island. Most European cartographers were skeptical of the Japanese data. For a long time, on various maps Sakhalin was designated either an island or a peninsula. Only in 1849 did an expedition under the command of G.I. Nevelsky put a final point on this issue, passing on the military transport ship “Baikal” between Sakhalin and the mainland. This strait was subsequently named after Nevelsky.

Geography

The island extends meridionally from Cape Crillon in the south to Cape Elizabeth in the north. Length 948 km, width from 26 km (Poyasok isthmus) to 160 km (at the latitude of the village of Lesogorskoye), area 76.4 thousand km².

Map of Sakhalin Island 1885

Relief

The island's topography is composed of medium-high mountains, low mountains and low-lying plains. The southern and central parts of the island are characterized by mountainous terrain and consist of two meridionally oriented mountain systems - the Western Sakhalin Mountains (up to 1327 m in height - the city of Onor) and the East Sakhalin Mountains (up to 1609 m in height - the city of Lopatina), separated by the longitudinal Tym- Poronayskaya lowland. The north of the island (with the exception of the Schmidt Peninsula) is a gently rolling plain.

The shores of the island are slightly indented; large bays - Aniva and Terpeniya (widely open to the south) are located in the southern and middle parts of the island, respectively. The coastline has two large bays and four peninsulas.

The following 11 districts are distinguished in the relief of Sakhalin:

  1. Schmidt Peninsula (about 1.4 thousand km²) is a mountainous peninsula in the far north of the island with steep, sometimes steep banks and two meridional ridges - Western and Eastern; highest point - Three Brothers (623 m); connected to the North Sakhalin Plain by the Okha Isthmus, the width of which at its narrowest point is just over 6 km;
  2. The North Sakhalin Plain (about 28 thousand km²) is a gently hilly territory south of the Schmidt Peninsula with a widely branched river network, poorly defined watersheds and individual low mountain ranges, stretches from the Bay of Baikal in the north to the confluence of the Nysh and Tym rivers in the south, the highest point - Daakhuria town (601 m); The north-eastern coast of the island stands out as a sub-region, which is characterized by large lagoons (the largest are Piltun, Chaivo, Nyisky, Nabilsky, Lunsky bays), separated from the sea by narrow strips of alluvial spits, dunes, low sea terraces - it is in this sub-region and the main Sakhalin oil and gas fields are located on the adjacent shelf of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk;
  3. The Western Sakhalin Mountains stretch almost 630 km from the latitude of the village. Khoe (51º19" N) in the north to the Crillon Peninsula in the extreme south of the island; the average width of the mountains is 40-50 km, the largest (at the latitude of Cape Lamanon) is about 70 km; the axial part is formed by Kamysovy (north of the Poyasok isthmus) and South Kamyshovy ridges;
  4. The Tym-Poronayskaya lowland is located in the middle part of the island and is a hilly lowland stretching approximately 250 km in the meridional direction - from Terpeniya Bay in the south to the confluence of the Tym and Nysh rivers in the north; reaches its maximum width (up to 90 km) at the mouth of the Poronai River, and its minimum (6-8 km) in the valley of the Tym River; in the north it passes into the Nabil lowland; covered with a thick cover of Cenozoic sediments, composed of sedimentary deposits of the Quaternary period. sandstones, pebbles; the heavily swampy southern part of the lowland is called the Poronai “tundra”;
  5. The Susunai Lowland is located in the southern part of the island and stretches for about 100 km from Aniva Bay in the south to the Naiba River in the north; from the west the lowland is limited by the Western Sakhalin Mountains, from the east by the Susunaisky ridge and the Korsakov plateau; in the southern part the width of the lowland reaches 20 km, in the center - 6 km, in the north - 10 km; absolute heights in the north and south do not exceed 20 m above sea level, in the central part, on the watershed of the Susuya and Bolshaya Takaya river basins, reach 60 m; belongs to the type of internal lowlands and is a tectonic depression filled with a large thickness of Quaternary deposits; within the Susunai Lowland are the cities of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Aniva, Dolinsk and about half the island’s population lives;
  6. The East Sakhalin Mountains are represented in the north by the Lopatinsky mountain cluster (the highest point is the city of Lopatin, 1609 m) with ridges radiating from it; two spurs in the opposite direction represent the Nabilsky ridge; in the south, the Nabilsky ridge passes into the Central Ridge, in the north, sharply descending, into the North Sakhalin Plain;
  7. lowland of the Terpeniya Peninsula - the smallest of the areas, occupies most of the Terpeniya Peninsula east of Terpeniya Bay;
  8. The Susunaisky ridge stretches from north to south for 70 km and has a width of 18-120 km; the highest points are Mount Pushkinskaya (1047 m) and Chekhov Peak (1045 m); composed of Paleozoic deposits, at the foot of the western macroslope of the ridge is the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk;
  9. The Korsakov plateau is bounded from the west by the Susunay lowland, from the north by the Susunay ridge, from the east by the Muravyovsky lowland, from the south by Aniva Bay, and has a slightly undulating surface formed by a system of flat-topped ridged ridges elongated in the northeast direction; at the southern end of the plateau on the shores of Aniva Bay is the city of Korsakov;
  10. The Muravyovskaya Lowland is located between the Aniva Bay in the south and the Mordvinova Bay in the north, and has a ridged topography with flat tops of the ridges; within the lowland there are many lakes, incl. the so-called “Warm Lakes”, where South Sakhalin residents like to go on vacation;
  11. The Tonino-Aniva ridge stretches from north to south, from Cape Svobodny to Cape Aniva, for almost 90 km, the highest point is Mount Kruzenshtern (670 m); composed of Cretaceous and Jurassic deposits.

View of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from the high shore near the lighthouse in the Warm Lakes area

Climate

The climate of Sakhalin is cool, moderate monsoon (average January temperature from −6ºС in the south to −24ºС in the north, August - from +19ºС to +10ºС, respectively), maritime with long snowy winters and short cool summers.

The climate is influenced by the following factors:

  1. Geographical location between 46º and 54º N. latitude. determines the arrival of solar radiation from 410 kJ/year in the north to 450 kJ/year in the south.
  2. The position between the Eurasian continent and the Pacific Ocean determines the monsoon climate. It is associated with the humid and cool, rather rainy Sakhalin summer.
  3. Mountainous terrain affects the direction and speed of the wind. A decrease in wind speed in intermountain basins (in particular, in the relatively large Tym-Poronai and Susunai lowlands) contributes to air cooling in winter and warming in summer; it is here that the greatest temperature contrasts are observed; at the same time, the mountains protect the named lowlands, as well as the western coast, from the effects of the cold air of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk.
  4. In summer, the contrast between the western and eastern coasts of the island is enhanced by the respectively warm Tsushima Current of the Sea of ​​Japan and the cold East Sakhalin Current of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.
  5. The cold Sea of ​​Okhotsk affects the island's climate as a giant thermal accumulator, determining a long, cold spring and relatively warm autumn: snow in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk sometimes lasts until mid-May, and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk's flower beds can bloom until early November. If we compare Sakhalin with similar (in terms of climatic indicators) territories of European Russia, then the seasons on the island succeed each other with a delay of about three weeks.

Air temperature and precipitation in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the 21st century (temperature: II.2001-IV.2009; precipitation: III.2005-IV.2009):

Options / Months I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII Year
Maximum air temperature, ºС 1,7 4,1 9,0 22,9 25,0 28,2 29,6 32,0 26,0 22,8 15,3 5,0 32,0
Average air temperature, ºС −11,6 −11,7 −4,6 1,8 7,4 12,3 15,5 17,3 13,4 6,6 −0,8 −9,0 3,2
Minimum air temperature, ºС −29,5 −30,5 −25,0 −14,5 −4,7 1,2 3,0 4,2 −2,1 −8,0 −16,5 −26,0 −30,5
Total precipitation, mm 49 66 62 54 71 38 37 104 88 96 77 79 792

The maximum temperature on Sakhalin (+39ºС) was observed in July 1977 in the village. Pogranichnoye on the east coast (Nogliki district). The minimum temperature on Sakhalin (-50ºС) was recorded in January 1980 in the village. Ado-Tymovo (Tymovsky district). The recorded temperature minimum in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is −36ºС (January 1961), maximum is +34.7ºС (August 1999).

The highest average annual precipitation (990 mm) falls in the city of Aniva, the least (476 mm) at the Kuegda weather station (Okha district). The average annual precipitation in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (according to long-term data) is 753 mm.

The earliest stable snow cover appears on Cape Elizaveta (Okha district) and in the village of Ado-Tymovo (Tymovsky district) - on average October 31, the latest - in the city of Korsakov (on average December 1). The average dates for the disappearance of snow cover are from April 22 (Kholmsk) to May 28 (Cape Elizabeth). In Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, stable snow cover appears on average on November 22 and disappears on April 29.

The most powerful typhoon in the last 100 years (“Phyllis”) hit the island in August 1981. The maximum precipitation then fell on August 5-6, and in total from August 4 to 7, 322 mm of precipitation fell in the south of Sakhalin (about three monthly norms) .

Inland waters

The largest rivers of Sakhalin:

River Administrative district(s) Where does it flow Length, km Basin area, km² Average annual runoff volume, km³
Poronai Tymovsky, Smirnykhovsky, Poronaisky Terpeniya Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 350 7990 2,49
Tym Tymovsky, Nogliki Nyisky Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 330 7850 1,68
Naiba Dolinsky Terpeniya Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 119 1660 0,65
Lutoga Kholmsky, Anivsky Aniva Bay, Sea of ​​Okhotsk 130 1530 1,00
Shaft Nogliki Chaivo Bay, Sea of ​​Okhotsk 112 1440 0,73
Ainskaya Tomarinsky lake Ainsk 79 1330 ...
Nysh Nogliki Tym River (left tributary) 116 1260 ...
Uglegorka (Esutoru) Uglegorsky Sea of ​​Japan (Strait of Tartary) 102 1250 0,57
Langeri (Langry) Okhinsky Amur Estuary of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 130 1190 ...
Big Okhinsky Sakhalin Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 97 1160 ...
Rukutama (Vitnitsa) Poronaisky lake Nevskoe 120 1100 ...
Deer Poronaisky Terpeniya Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 85 1080 ...
Lesogorka (Taimyr) Uglegorsky Sea of ​​Japan (Strait of Tartary) 72 1020 0,62
Nabil Nogliki Nabilsky Bay of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk 101 1010 ...
Malaya Tym Tymovsky Tym River (left tributary) 66 917 ...
Leonidovka Poronaisky Poronai River (right tributary) 95 850 0,39
Susuya Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Anivsky Aniva Bay, Sea of ​​Okhotsk 83 823 0,08

There are 16,120 lakes on Sakhalin with a total area of ​​about 1,000 km². The areas of their greatest concentration are the north and southeast of the island. The two largest lakes of Sakhalin are Nevskoye with a mirror area of ​​178 km² (Poronaisky district, near the mouth of the Poronai River) and Tunaicha (174 km²) (Korsakovsky district, in the north of the Muravyovskaya lowland); both lakes belong to the lagoon type.

Natural resources

Sakhalin is characterized by a very high potential of natural resources. In addition to biological resources, the reserves of which Sakhalin ranks among the first in Russia, the island and its shelf have very large hydrocarbon reserves. In terms of the volume of explored reserves of gas condensate, the Sakhalin region ranks 4th in Russia, gas - 7th, coal - 12th and oil - 13th, while within the region the reserves of these minerals are almost entirely concentrated in Sakhalin and its shelf. Other natural resources of the island include timber, gold, and platinum.

Flora and fauna

Both the flora and fauna of the island are impoverished both in comparison with the adjacent areas of the mainland and in comparison with the island of Hokkaido located to the south.

Flora

As of the beginning of 2004, the island's flora includes 1,521 species of vascular plants, belonging to 575 genera from 132 families, with 7 families and 101 genera represented only by alien species. The total number of alien species on the island is 288, or 18.9% of the entire flora. According to the main systematic groups, the vascular plants of the Sakhalin flora are distributed as follows (excluding aliens): vascular spores - 79 species (including lycosperms - 14, horsetails - 8, pteridophytes - 57), gymnosperms - 9 species, angiosperms - 1146 species ( including monocotyledons - 383, dicotyledons - 763). The leading families of vascular plants in the flora of Sakhalin are sedges ( Cyperaceae) (121 species excluding aliens - 122 species including aliens), Asteraceae ( Asteraceae) (120 - 175), cereals ( Poaceae) (108 - 152), Rosaceae ( Rosaceae) (58 - 68), ranunculaceae ( Ranunculaceae) (54 - 57), heather ( Ericaceae) (39 - 39), cloves ( Caryophyllaceae) (38 - 54), buckwheat ( Polygonaceae) (37 - 57), orchids ( Orchidaceae) (35 - 35), cruciferous ( Brassicaceae) (33 - 53).

Fauna

Pink salmon go to spawn in an unnamed river flowing into Mordvinov Bay

"Red Book"

The fauna, flora and mycobiota of the island include many rare protected species of animals, plants and fungi. 12 species of mammals recorded on Sakhalin, 97 species of birds (including 50 nesting), seven species of fish, 20 species of invertebrates, 113 species of vascular plants, 13 species of bryophytes, seven species of algae, 14 species of fungi and 20 species of lichens (t .i.e. 136 species of animals, 133 species of plants and 34 species of fungi - a total of 303 species) have protected status, i.e. are listed in the Red Book of the Sakhalin Region, while about a third of them are simultaneously included in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

Among the "federal Red Book" flowering plants, the flora of Sakhalin includes Aralia cordate ( Aralia cordata), calypso bulbosa ( Calypso bulbosa), Glen's cardiocrinum ( Cardiocrinum glehnii), Japanese sedge ( Carex japonica) and lead gray ( C. livida), real lady's slippers ( Cypripedium calceolus) and grandiflora ( C. macranthum), Gray's bifolia ( Diphylleia grayi), leafless muzzle ( Epipogium aphyllum), Japanese kandyk ( Erythronium japonicum), tall pot-bellied ( Gastrodia elata), iris xiphoid ( Iris ensata), ailantholfolia nut ( Juglans ailanthifolia), Calopanax sevenloba ( Kalopanax septemlobum), tiger lily ( Lilium lancifolium), Tolmachev's honeysuckle ( Lonicera tolmatchevii), long-legged winged seed ( Macropodium pterospermum), miyakia wholeleaf ( Miyakea integrifolia) (Miyakia is the only endemic genus of vascular plants on Sakhalin), Nestflower capulaceae ( Neottianthe cucullata), peonies obovate ( Paeonia obovata) and mountain ( P. oreogeton), rough bluegrass ( Poa radula) and Wright's viburnum ( Viburnum wrightii), i.e. 23 species. In addition, eight more “federal Red Book” plants are found on the island: two species of gymnosperms - Sargent’s juniper ( Juniperus sargentii) and pointed yew ( Taxus cuspidata), three species of pteridophytes - Asian polushnika ( Isoеtes asiatica), leptorumora Mikel ( Leptorumohra miqueliana) and Wright's mecodium ( Mecodium wrightii), two species and one variety of mosses - Bryoxyphium japonica ( Bryoxiphium norvegicum var. japonicum), nekera northern ( Neckera borealis), and plagiothecium obtuse ( Plagiothecium obtusissimum).

Population

According to the results of the 2002 census, the population of the island was 527.1 thousand people, incl. 253.5 thousand men and 273.6 thousand women; about 85% of the population are Russians, the rest are Ukrainians, Koreans, Belarusians, Tatars, Chuvashs, Mordovians, several thousand people each are representatives of the indigenous peoples of the North - Nivkhs and Oroks. From 2002 to 2008 The population of Sakhalin continued to decline slowly (by about 1% per year): mortality still prevails over birth rates, and the attraction of labor from the mainland and from countries neighboring Russia does not compensate for the departure of Sakhalin residents to the mainland. At the beginning of 2008, about 500 thousand people lived on the island.

The largest city on the island is the regional center of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (173.2 thousand people; 01/01/2007), other relatively large cities are Korsakov (35.1 thousand people), Kholmsk (32.3 thousand people), Okha (26.7 thousand people), Nevelsk (17.0 thousand people), Poronaysk (16.9 thousand people).

The population is distributed among the regions of the island as follows (results of the 2002 census, people):

Area Whole population %% of total Urban population Rural population
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and subordinate settlements 182142 34,6 177272 4870
Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky 17509 3,3 14764 2746
Anivsky 15275 2,9 8098 7177
Dolinsky 28268 5,4 23532 4736
Korsakovsky 45347 8,6 39311 6036
Makarovsky 9802 1,9 7282 2520
Nevelsky 26873 5,1 25954 921
Nogliki 13594 2,6 11653 1941
Okhinsky 33533 6,4 30977 2556
Poronaisky 28859 5,5 27531 1508
Smirnykhovsky 15044 2,9 7551 7493
Tomarinsky 11669 2,2 9845 1824
Tymovsky 19109 3,6 8542 10567
Uglegorsky 30208 5,7 26406 3802
Kholmsky 49848 9,5 44874 4974
Sakhalin in general 527080 100 463410 63670

Story

Archaeological finds indicate that people appeared on Sakhalin in the Paleolithic, approximately 20-25 thousand years ago, when glaciation lowered the level of the World Ocean and restored land “bridges” between Sakhalin and the mainland, as well as Sakhalin and Hokkaido. (At the same time, along another land “bridge” between Asia and America, located on the site of the modern Bering Strait, Homo sapiens moved to the American continent). In the Neolithic (2-6 thousand years ago), Sakhalin was inhabited by the ancestors of modern Paleo-Asian peoples - the Nivkhs (in the north of the island) and the Ainu (in the south).

These same ethnic groups formed the main population of the island during the Middle Ages, with the Nivkh migrating between Sakhalin and the lower Amur, and the Ainu migrating between Sakhalin and Hokkaido. Their material culture was similar in many ways, and their livelihood came from fishing, hunting and gathering. At the end of the Middle Ages (in the 16th-17th centuries), Tungus-speaking peoples appeared on Sakhalin - Evenks (nomadic reindeer herders) and Oroks (Uilta), who, under the influence of the Evenks, also began to engage in reindeer herding.

According to the Treaty of Shimoda (1855) between Russia and Japan, Sakhalin was recognized as their joint undivided possession. According to the Treaty of St. Petersburg of 1875, Russia received ownership of the island of Sakhalin, in return transferring to Japan all the northern Kuril Islands. After the defeat of the Russian Empire in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and the signing of the Treaty of Portsmouth, Japan received South Sakhalin (the part of Sakhalin Island south of the 50th parallel). As a result of the victory over Japan during World War II, the entire territory of Sakhalin Island and all the Kuril Islands were included in the Soviet Union (RSFSR). To the territory or part of the territory of the island. Sakhalin currently has no claims from Japan or any other country.

Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk was founded by Russians in 1882 under the name Vladimirovka. After the victory of the USSR and its allies in World War II, along with the entire island, it passed to the USSR.

They are represented by two nationalities, which we will consider in great detail and from different points of view. Not only the history of these people is interesting, but also their characteristic features, way of life and traditions. All this will be discussed below.

Indigenous people of Sakhalin

As for the peoples who lived here, two main groups should immediately be distinguished - the Nivkhs and the Ainu. Nivkhs are the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin, who are the most ancient and numerous. Most of all, they chose the territory of the lower reaches of the Amur River. Later, Oroks, Nanais and Evenks lived here. However, the bulk of the Nivkhs were still located in the northern part of the island. These people were engaged in hunting, fishing, as well as sea lion and seal fishing.

The Evenks and Oroks were mainly engaged in reindeer husbandry, which forced them to lead. For them, the deer was not only food and clothing, but also a transport animal. They were also actively involved in sea animal hunting and fishing.

As for the modern stage, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin can now do whatever they want. They can revive the economy, engage in hunting, reindeer herding or fishing. There are also masters of fur appliqué and embroidery in the area. At the same time, even modern peoples preserve and honor their traditions.

Life and customs of the indigenous people of Sakhalin

The Nivkhs are an ethnic group that has lived in the lower reaches of the Amur River since ancient times. These are a single people with a clearly defined national culture. People settled in small groups, choosing the most convenient places from a geographical point of view. They located their houses near fishing grounds for fish and animals. The main activities were aimed at hunting, collecting berries and herbs, and fishing.

By the way, they did the latter throughout the year. The fishing for anadromous salmon fish was very important, from which they prepared supplies for the whole winter and food for animals. At the beginning of summer we caught pink salmon, then chum salmon. In some rivers and lakes one could find sturgeon, whitefish, kaluga, pike, and taimen. Flounder and salmon were also caught here. The population ate all their catch raw. They were salted only for the winter. Thanks to fish, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin Island received fat and material for sewing clothes and shoes.

Fishing for sea animals was also popular. People consumed the resulting products (meat or seals) and used them to feed animals. The resulting fat was also eaten, but sometimes it could be stored for several years. Skins of sea animals are used for gluing skis, sewing clothes and shoes. When there was free time, people picked berries and hunted.

Living conditions

Let's start looking at the life and customs of the indigenous people of Sakhalin with the tools they used for their crafts. These were self-catchers, drive-ins or seines. Each family was very large and patriarchal. The whole family lived together. The household was also shared. The resulting fishery products could be used by all family members.

Parents lived in the dwelling with their sons and their families. If someone died, families of brothers and sisters lived together. Attention was also paid to orphans and elderly members of the clan. There were also separate families, small ones, who did not want to live with their parents. On average, 6-12 people lived in a dwelling, depending on various factors. However, there are cases when up to 40 people could live in one winter road at the same time.

Nivkh society was primitive communal, since the clan was at the top of the social ladder. The whole family lived in one place, had common animals and a household. The clan could also own religious or outbuildings. The nature of the economy was exclusively natural.

Cloth

The indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin, described by Kruzenshtern, had special signs. Women wore large earrings, which were made of copper or silver wire. In shape they resembled the connection of a ring and a spiral. Sometimes earrings could be decorated with glass beads or stone circles of different colors. Women wore robes, greaves and armlets. The robe was sewn like a kimono. It was bordered by a large collar and hem, which were different from the color of the robe. Copper plates were sewn onto the hem for decoration. The robe was wrapped to the right side and fastened using buttons. Winter robes were insulated with a layer of cotton wool. Also, women wore 2-3 robes at a time in cold weather.

The elegant robes had very bright colors (red, green, yellow). They were decorated with bright fabric and ornaments. Most attention was paid to the back, on which designs were made using threads and openwork decorations. Such beautiful little things were passed down through generations and were greatly appreciated. So we learned about the clothing of the indigenous people of Sakhalin. Ivan Kruzenshtern, whom we talked about above, was the man who led the first Russian trip around the world.

Religion

What about religion? The beliefs of the Nivkhs were based on animism and the cult of crafts. They believed that everything has its own spirit - earth, water, sky, taiga, etc. Interestingly, bears were especially revered, since they were considered the sons of the owners of the taiga. That is why hunting for them has always been accompanied by religious events. In winter, a bear holiday was celebrated. To do this, they caught the animal, fed and raised it for several years. During the holiday, he was dressed in special clothes and taken to houses, where he was fed from human dishes. Then they shot the bear with a bow, sacrificing it. Food was placed near the head of the killed animal, as if treating it. By the way, he described the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin as very intelligent people. It was the Nivkhs who cremated the dead, and then buried them under ritual lamentation somewhere in the taiga. The method of air burial of a person was also sometimes used.

Ainu

The second largest group of indigenous inhabitants of the Sakhalin coast are the Ainu, who are also called the Kurilians. These were also common in Kamchatka and the Khabarovsk Territory. According to the 2010 census, just over 100 people were found, but it is believed that more than 1,000 people have this origin. Many of those who recognized their origin live in Kamchatka, although since ancient times the Ainu mostly lived on Sakhalin.

Two subgroups

Note that the Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin, are divided into two small subgroups: northern Sakhalin and southern Sakhalin. The former make up only a fifth of all purebred representatives of this people, which were discovered in 1926 during the census. Most of the people in this group were resettled here in 1875 by the Japanese. Some representatives of the nationality took Russian women as wives, mixing their blood. It is believed that the Ainu have become extinct as a tribe, although even today purebred representatives of the nationality can be found.

The South Sakhalin Ainu were evacuated by the Japanese to the territory of Sakhalin after World War II. They lived in separate small groups that still remain. In 1949, there were about 100 people of this nationality who lived on Sakhalin. Moreover, the last three people who were purebred representatives of the nationality died in the 1980s. Now you can only find mixed representatives with Russians, Japanese and Nivkhs. There are no more than a few hundred of them, but they claim to be purebred Ainu.

Historical aspect

The indigenous peoples of Sakhalin Island came into contact with the Russian people in the 17th century. Then trade contributed to this. Only many years later were full-fledged relations built with the Amur and North Kuril subgroups of the nationality. The Ainu considered the Russians their friends, since they differed in appearance from their Japanese opponents. That is why they quickly agreed to accept Russian citizenship voluntarily. It is interesting that even the Japanese could not say for sure who was in front of them - the Ainu or the Russians. When the Japanese first made contact with the Russians in this territory, they called them Red Ainu, that is, with blond hair. An interesting fact is that it was only by the 19th century that the Japanese finally realized that they were dealing with two different peoples. The Russians themselves did not find so many similarities. They described the Ainu as dark-haired people with dark skin and eyes. Someone noted that they look like peasants with dark skin or gypsies.

Note that the nationality under discussion actively supported the Russians during the Russo-Japanese Wars. However, after the defeat in 1905, the Russians left their comrades to their fate, which put an end to the friendly relations between them. Hundreds of people of this people were destroyed, their families were killed, and their homes were plundered. This brings us to why the Ainu were forcibly resettled to Hokkaido by the Japanese. At the same time, during the Second World War, the Russians still failed to defend their right to the Ainu. That is why most of the remaining representatives of the people left for Japan, and no more than 10% remained in Russia.

Relocation

Under the terms of the 1875 treaty, the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin Island were to come under Japanese rule. However, after 2 years, less than a hundred Ainu representatives arrived in Russia in order to remain under its command. They decided not to resettle as the Russian government suggested to them, but to stay in Kamchatka. Because of this, in 1881 they walked for about four months to the village of Yavino, where they planned to settle. Then they managed to found the village of Golygino. In 1884, several more representatives of the nationality arrived from Japan. By the 1897 census the entire population was just under 100 people. When the Soviet government came to power, all settlements were destroyed, and people were forcibly resettled in Zaporozhye, Ust-Bolsheretsk region. Because of this, the ethnic group mixed with the Kamchadals.

During the tsarist regime, the Ainu were forbidden to call themselves that. At the same time, the Japanese declared that the territory inhabited by the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin was Japanese. It is a fact that in Soviet times, people who had Ainu surnames were sent to the Gulag or other labor camps as soulless labor without cause or effect. The reason was that the authorities considered these people to be Japanese. Because of this, a large number of representatives of this ethnic group changed their surnames to Slavic ones.

In the winter of 1953, an order was issued stating that information about the Ainu or their location could not be published in the press. After 20 years, this order was canceled.

Latest data

Note that today the Ainu are still an ethnic subgroup in Russia. The Nakamura family is known, which is the smallest, since it consists of only 6 people who live in Kamchatka. Currently, most of this nation lives on Sakhalin, but many of its representatives do not recognize themselves as Ainu. Perhaps due to fear of repeating the horrors of the Soviet period. In 1979, the Ainu people were erased from the ethnic groups living in Russia. In fact, the Ainu were considered extinct in Russia. It is known that according to the 2002 census, not a single person presented himself as a representative of this nationality, although we understand that they became extinct only on paper.

In 2004, a small but active part of this ethnic group sent a letter personally to the President of Russia with a request to prevent the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan. There was also a request to recognize the Japanese genocide of the people. In their letter, these people wrote that their tragedy could only be compared with the genocide of the indigenous population of America.

In 2010, when the census of the indigenous peoples of northern Sakhalin took place, some people expressed a desire to register themselves as Ainu. They sent an official request, but their request was rejected by the government of the Kamchatka Territory and they were recorded as Kamchadals. Note that at the moment the ethnic Ainu are not organized from a political point of view. They don’t want to recognize their nationality at any level. As of 2012, there were more than 200 people of this nationality in the country, but they were recorded in all official documents as Kurils or Kamchadals. That same year, they were deprived of their hunting and fishing rights.

In 2010, part of the Ainu who lived in Zaporozhye, Ust-Bolsheretsky district, was recognized. However, out of more than 800 people, no more than 100 were officially recognized. These people, as we said above, were former residents of the villages of Yavino and Golygino destroyed by the Soviet regime. At the same time, we must understand that even in Zaporozhye there are many more representatives of this ethnic group than were recorded. Most simply prefer to remain silent about their origin, so as not to incur anger. It is noted that people register themselves in official documents as Russians or Kamchadals. Among the famous descendants of the Ainu, it is worth noting such families as the Butins, Merlins, Lukashevskys, Konevs and Storozhevs.

Federal recognition

Note that the Ainu language actually died out in Russia many years ago. The Kurils stopped using their native language at the beginning of the last century, because they were afraid of persecution from the authorities. By 1979, only three people on Sakhalin could speak the original Ainu language, but all of them had died by the 1980s. Note that Keizo Nakamura spoke this language, and he even translated several important NKVD documents into it. But the man did not pass on his language to his son. The last man, Take Asai, who knew the Sakhalin-Ainu language, died in 1994 in Japan.

Let us note that at the federal level this nationality was never recognized.

In culture

The culture was marked mainly by one group of indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin, namely the Nivkhs. The life, way of life and traditions of this people are described in great detail in G. Gora’s story “The Young Man from a Distant Mountain,” which was published in 1955. The author himself was passionate about this topic, so he collected all his ardor in this story.

Also, the life of this people was described by Chingiz Aitmatov in his story entitled “The Piebald Dog Running by the Edge of the Sea,” which was published in 1977. We also note that a feature film was made based on it in 1990.

Nikolai Zadornov also wrote about the lives of these people in his novel “The Distant Land,” which was published in 1949. N. Zadornov called the Nivkhs “Gilyaks”.

In 1992, an animated film called “The Cuckoo’s Nephew,” directed by Oksana Cherkasova, was released. The cartoon was created based on the fairy tales of the nationality under discussion.

Two ships that were part of the Russian Imperial Navy were also named in honor of the indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin.

To summarize the article, let's say that every nation has an unshakable right to existence and recognition. No one can prohibit a person from legally identifying himself as a member of a particular nationality. Unfortunately, such human freedoms are not always guaranteed, which is very sad in a modern democratic society. Chekhov's statements about the small indigenous inhabitants of Sakhalin were still true...

 

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