Who owns the Kuril Islands? Great Kuril ridge

A series of Far Eastern island territories are represented by Kurile Islands, they have one side, this is the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the other is about. Hokkaido in . The Kuril Islands of Russia are represented by the Sakhalin region, which stretches approximately 1,200 km in length with an area of ​​15,600 square kilometers.

The islands of the Kuril chain are represented by two groups located opposite each other - called Big and Small. Large group, located in the south, belongs to Kunashir, Iturup and others, in the center are Simushir, Keta and in the north are the remaining island territories.

Shikotan, Habomai and a number of others are considered the Lesser Kuril Islands. For the most part, all island territories are mountainous and reach a height of 2,339 meters. The Kuril Islands on their lands have approximately 40 volcanic hills that are still active. Also here are the locations of hot springs mineral water. The south of the Kuril Islands is covered with forests, and the north attracts with unique tundra vegetation.

The problem of the Kuril Islands lies in the unresolved controversial issue between the Japanese and Russian parties over who owns them. And it has remained open since the Second World War.

After the war, the Kuril Islands became part of the USSR. But Japan considers the territories of the southern Kuril Islands, and these are Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan with the Habomai group of islands, its territory, without having a legal basis. Russia does not recognize the fact of a dispute with the Japanese side over these territories, since their ownership is legal.

The problem of the Kuril Islands is the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of relations between Japan and Russia.

The essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia

The Japanese are demanding the Kuril Islands be returned to them. Almost the entire population there is convinced that these lands are originally Japanese. This dispute between the two states has been going on for a very long time, escalating after the Second World War.
Russia is not inclined to yield to Japanese state leaders on this issue. The peace agreement has not yet been signed, and this is connected precisely with the four disputed South Kuril Islands. About the legality of Japan's claims to the Kuril Islands in this video.

Meanings of the Southern Kuril Islands

The Southern Kuril Islands have several meanings for both countries:

1. Military. The Southern Kuril Islands are of military importance due to the only access to the Pacific Ocean for the country's fleet. And all because of the scarcity of geographical formations. IN this moment ships leave in ocean waters through the Sangar Strait, because it is impossible to pass through the La Perouse Strait due to icing. Therefore, submarines are located in Kamchatka - Avachinskaya Bay. The military bases operating during the Soviet era have now all been looted and abandoned.
2. Economic. Economic importance – in Sakhalin region quite serious hydrocarbon potential. And the fact that the entire territory of the Kuril Islands belongs to Russia allows you to use the waters there at your discretion. Although its central part belongs to the Japanese side. Besides water resources, there is such a rare metal as rhenium. By extracting it, the Russian Federation is in third place in the production of minerals and sulfur. For the Japanese, this area is important for fishing and agricultural needs. This caught fish is used by the Japanese to grow rice - they simply pour it onto the rice fields to fertilize it.
3. Social. By and large, there is no special social interest for ordinary people in the southern Kuril Islands. This is because there are no modern megacities, people mostly work there and their lives are spent in cabins. Supplies are delivered by air, and less often by water due to constant storms. Therefore, the Kuril Islands are more of a military-industrial facility than a social one.
4. Tourist. In this regard, things are better in the southern Kuril Islands. These places will be of interest to many people who are attracted by everything real, natural and extreme. It is unlikely that anyone will remain indifferent at the sight of a thermal spring gushing out of the ground, or from climbing the caldera of a volcano and crossing the fumarole field on foot. And there’s no need to talk about the views that open up to your eyes.

For this reason, the dispute over the ownership of the Kuril Islands never gets off the ground.

Dispute over Kuril territory

Who owns these four island territories - Shikotan, Iturup, Kunashir and the Habomai Islands - is not an easy question.

Information from written sources points to the discoverers of the Kuril Islands - the Dutch. The Russians were the first to populate the territory of Chishimu. Shikotan Island and the other three were designated for the first time by the Japanese. But the fact of discovery does not yet provide grounds for ownership of this territory.

The island of Shikotan is considered the end of the world because of the cape of the same name located near the village of Malokurilsky. It impresses with its 40-meter drop into the ocean waters. This place is called the edge of the world due to the stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
Shikotan Island translates as Big city. It stretches for 27 kilometers, measures 13 kilometers in width, and occupies an area of ​​225 square meters. km. Most high point The island is the mountain of the same name, rising 412 meters. Part of its territory belongs to the state nature reserve.

Shikotan Island has a very rugged coastline with numerous bays, capes and cliffs.

Previously, it was thought that the mountains on the island were volcanoes that had ceased to erupt, with which the Kuril Islands abound. But they turned out to be rocks displaced by shifts of lithospheric plates.

A little history

Long before the Russians and Japanese, the Kuril Islands were inhabited by the Ainu. The first information from Russians and Japanese about the Kuril Islands appeared only in the 17th century. A Russian expedition was sent in the 18th century, after which about 9,000 Ainu became Russian citizens.

A treaty was signed between Russia and Japan (1855), called Shimodsky, where boundaries were established allowing Japanese citizens to trade on 2/3 of this land. Sakhalin remained no man's territory. After 20 years, Russia became the undivided owner of this land, then lost the south in the Russo-Japanese War. But during the Second World War, Soviet troops were still able to regain the south of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands as a whole.
A peace agreement was nevertheless signed between the victorious states and Japan, and this happened in San Francisco in 1951. And according to it, Japan has absolutely no rights to the Kuril Islands.

But then the Soviet side did not sign, which was considered by many researchers to be a mistake. But there were serious reasons for this:

• The document did not specifically indicate what was included in the Kuril Islands. The Americans said that it was necessary to apply to a special international court for this. Plus, a member of the Japanese delegation announced that the southern disputed islands are not the territory of the Kuril Islands.
• The document also did not indicate exactly who would own the Kuril Islands. That is, the issue remained controversial.

In 1956, the USSR and the Japanese side signed a declaration preparing a platform for the main peace agreement. In it, the Country of the Soviets meets the Japanese halfway and agrees to transfer to them only the two disputed islands of Habomai and Shikotan. But with a condition - only after signing a peace agreement.

The declaration contains several subtleties:

• The word “transfer” means that they belong to the USSR.
• This transfer will actually take place after the signatures on the peace treaty have been signed.
• This applies only to the two Kuril Islands.

This was a positive development between the Soviet Union and the Japanese side, but it also caused concern among the Americans. Thanks to Washington pressure, the Japanese government completely changed ministerial positions and new officials who took high positions began to prepare a military agreement between America and Japan, which began to operate in 1960.

After this, a call came from Japan to give up not two islands offered to the USSR, but four. America puts pressure on the fact that all agreements between the Country of Soviets and Japan are not necessary to be fulfilled; they are supposedly declarative. And the existing and current military agreement between the Japanese and the Americans implies the deployment of their troops on Japanese territory. Accordingly, they have now come even closer to Russian territory.

Based on all this, Russian diplomats stated that until all foreign troops are withdrawn from its territory, a peace agreement cannot even be discussed. But in any case, we are talking about only two islands in the Kuril Islands.

As a result, American security forces are still located on Japanese territory. The Japanese insist on the transfer of 4 Kuril Islands, as stated in the declaration.

The second half of the 80s of the 20th century was marked by the weakening of the Soviet Union and in these conditions the Japanese side again raises this topic. But the dispute over who will own the South Kuril Islands remains open. The Tokyo Declaration of 1993 states that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, and accordingly, previously signed papers must be recognized by both parties. It also indicated the direction to move towards resolving the territorial affiliation of the disputed four Kuril Islands.

The advent of the 21st century, and specifically 2004, was marked by the raising of this topic again at a meeting between Russian President Putin and the Prime Minister of Japan. And again everything happened again - the Russian side offers its conditions for signing a peace agreement, and Japanese officials insist that all four South Kuril Islands be transferred to their disposal.

2005 was marked by the Russian president's willingness to end the dispute, guided by the 1956 agreement, and transfer two island territories to Japan, but Japanese leaders did not agree with this proposal.

In order to somehow reduce tensions between the two states, the Japanese side was offered to help develop nuclear energy, develop infrastructure and tourism, and also improve the environmental situation, as well as security. The Russian side accepted this proposal.

At the moment, for Russia there is no question of who owns the Kuril Islands. Without any doubt, this is the territory of the Russian Federation, based on real facts - based on the results of the Second World War and the generally recognized UN Charter.

Kurile Islands

If you look at the map of Russia, then in fact Far East, between Kamchatka and Japan you can see a chain of islands, which are the Kuril Islands. The archipelago forms two ridges: the Greater Kuril and the Lesser Kuril. The Great Kuril Ridge includes about 30 islands, as well as a large number of small islets and rocks. The Small Kuril ridge runs parallel to the Big one. It includes 6 small islands and lots of rocks. At the moment, all the Kuril Islands are controlled by Russia and are part of its Sakhalin region; some of the islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between Russia and Japan. The Kuril Islands are administratively part of the Sakhalin region. They are divided into three regions: North Kuril, Kuril and South Kuril.

The Kuril Islands are an area of ​​active volcanic activity. Marine terraces of different altitudes play a significant role in the formation of the islands' topography. Coastline replete with bays and capes, the shores are often rocky and steep, with narrow boulders and pebbles, less often sandy beaches. Volcanoes are located almost exclusively on the islands of the Great Kuril Ridge. Most of these islands are active or extinct volcanoes, and only the northernmost and most southern islands composed of sedimentary formations. Most of the volcanoes of the Kuril Islands arose directly on the seabed. The Kuril Islands themselves represent the peaks and ridges of a continuous mass hidden under water. mountain range. The Great Kuril Ridge is a wonderful visual example of the formation of a ridge on the earth's surface. There are 21 known active volcanoes on the Kuril Islands. The most active volcanoes of the Kuril ridge include Alaid, Sarychev Peak, Fuss, Snow and Milna. Decaying volcanoes, which are in the solfata stage of activity, are located mainly in the southern half of the Kuril ridge. On the Kuril Islands there are many extinct volcanoes Atsonupuri Aka Roko and others.

The climate of the Kuril Islands is moderately cold, monsoonal. It is determined by their location between two huge bodies of water - the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. average temperature February from - 5 to - 7 degrees C. The average temperature in August is from 10 degrees C. The features of the monsoon climate are more pronounced in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, which is more influenced by the Asian continent, which cools in winter, from where cold and dry westerly winds blow. Only the climate of the southernmost islands is affected by the warm Soya Current, which is fading here.

Significant amounts of precipitation and a high runoff coefficient favor the development of a dense network of small watercourses on the islands. In total there are more than 900 rivers. The mountainousness of the islands also determines the steep slope of the rivers and the high speed of their flow; There are frequent rapids and waterfalls in river beds. Lowland rivers are a rare exception. The rivers receive their main nutrition from rain; snow nutrition also plays a significant role, especially from snowfields located in the mountains. Only slowly flowing streams within the lowland areas are covered with ice each year. The water of many rivers is unsuitable for drinking due to high mineralization and high sulfur content. There are several dozen lakes of various origins on the islands. Some of them are related to volcanic activity.

The Kuril Islands are home to 1,171 species of vascular plants alone, belonging to 450 genera and 104 families. There are 49 species of trees, including 6 coniferous species, 94 species of shrubs, of which 3 coniferous species, 11 species of woody vines, 9 species of shrubs, 5 species of bamboos, 30 species of evergreens, including 7 coniferous species and 23 deciduous species. In relation, the richest is Kunashir, where 883 species grow. There are slightly fewer species on Iturup (741) and Shikotan (701). The fauna of terrestrial invertebrate animals of the South Kuril Islands is unique and far from fully studied. Here lies the northern border of the distribution of a huge number of species found in addition to the Southern Kuril Islands in Japan, Korea and China. In addition, Kuril species are represented by populations adapted to the unique island conditions of existence. The insect fauna of the southern part of the Kuril archipelago is closer to the fauna of Hokkaido.

The permanent population of the islands lives mainly on the southern islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the northern ones - Paramushir, Shumshu. The basis of the economy is the fishing industry, because basic natural wealth- marine biological resources. Agriculture due to unfavorable natural conditions, has not received significant development. The population today is about 8,000 people. Number of employees in last years increased steadily and reached 3,000 people in 2000. The bulk of the population is employed in industry. In recent years, the birth rate has slightly exceeded the death rate. Natural population decline was replaced by natural population growth. The migration balance is also negative.

The problem of ownership of the southern Kuril Islands is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, which Japan considers unresolved since the end of World War II. After the war, all of the Kuril Islands came under the administrative control of the USSR, but a number of the southern islands are disputed by Japan. The Kuril Islands have important geopolitical and military-strategic significance for Russia and affect Russia’s national security. On the way to solving the problem of the Kuril Islands, our country still has a lot of discussions and disputes to go through, but the only key to mutual understanding between the two countries is the creation of a climate of trust.

Geographical position

On the border Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, between the island of Hokkaido and the Kamchatka Peninsula, lies the Kuril Archipelago.1 The archipelago forms two ridges: the Greater Kuril and the Lesser Kuril. The Great Kuril Ridge stretches for almost 1,200 km between 43 degrees 39 minutes (Cape Veslo on Kunashir Island) and 50 degrees 52 minutes north latitude (Cape Kurbatov on Shumshu Island). The ridge includes about 30 islands (the largest of them are Kunashir, Iturup, Urup, Simushir, Onekotan, Paramushir and Shumshu), as well as a large number of small islands and rocks. The Lesser Kuril Ridge stretches parallel to the Big One for 105 km between 43 degrees 21 minutes and 43 degrees 52 minutes north latitude. It includes 6 small islands (the largest of them is Shikotan) and many rocks. total area The Kuril Islands are 15.6 thousand square meters. km. Length - 1175 km. Area - 15.6 thousand km². Coordinates: 46°30? With. w. 151°30? V. d.? / ?46.5° N. w. 151.5° E. d. They have important military-strategic and economic significance. Includes 20 large and more than 30 small islands. List of islands from north to south:

Northern group:

· Shumshu Atlasov Island (Alaid)

· Paramushir

Antsiferov Island

Middle group:

· Makanrushi

· Avos Rocks

· Onekotan

· Harimkotan

· Chirinkotan

· Shiashkotan

· Rock Traps

· Raikoke

· Sredneva Rocks

· Ushishir Islands

· Ryponkich

· Simushir

· Broughton Island

· Black Brothers

· Brother Chirpoev

Southern group:

· Kunashir

· Small Kuril ridge

· Shikotan

· Islands of the South Kuril ridge

· Polonsky Island

· Shard Islands

Green Island

Tanfilyev Island

Yuri Island

· Demina Islands

· Anuchina Island

· Signalny Island

At the moment, all the Kuril Islands are controlled by Russia and are part of its Sakhalin region; some of the islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.

Administrative division

The Kuril Islands are administratively part of the Sakhalin region. They are divided into three regions: North Kuril, Kuril and South Kuril. The centers of these areas have the corresponding names: Severo-Kurilsk, Kurilsk and Yuzhno-Kurilsk. And there is another village - Malo-Kurilsk (the center of the Lesser Kuril Ridge). Total four Kurilsk. Currently, the Sakhalin region includes 25 municipalities: 17 urban districts and 2 municipal districts, on the territory of which there are 3 urban settlements and 3 rural settlements.

History of the islands

Before the arrival of the Russians and Japanese, the islands were inhabited by the Ainu. In their language, “kuru” meant “a person who came from nowhere,” which is where their second name “Kurilians” came from, and then the name of the archipelago. In Russia, the first mention of the Kuril Islands dates back to 1646. The first Russian settlements of that time are evidenced by Dutch, German and Scandinavian medieval chronicles and maps. In 1644, a map was compiled on which the islands were identified under the collective name “thousand islands”. Then, in 1643, the islands were explored by the Dutch led by Martin Fiers. This expedition amounted to more than detailed maps and described the lands.

XVIII century

In 1738-1739, Martyn Shpanberg walked along the entire ridge, plotting the islands he encountered on the map. Subsequently, the Russians, avoiding dangerous voyages to the southern islands, explored the northern ones. The Siberian nobleman Antipov achieved great success with the Irkutsk translator Shabalin. They managed to win the favor of the Kurils, and in 1778-1779 they managed to bring into citizenship more than 1,500 people from Iturup, Kunashir and even Matsumai (now Japanese Hokkaido). In the same 1779, Catherine II, by decree, freed those who had accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes. But relations with the Japanese were not built: they forbade the Russians from going to these three islands. In the “Extensive Land Description of the Russian State...” of 1787, a list of the 21st islands belonging to Russia was given. It included islands up to Matsumaya, the status of which was not clearly defined, since Japan had a city in its southern part. At the same time, the Russians had no real control even over the islands south of Urup. There, the Japanese considered the Kurils their subjects.

19th century

Representative of the Russian-American Company Nikolai Rezanov, who arrived in Nagasaki as the first Russian envoy, tried to resume negotiations on trade with Japan in 1805. But he too failed. However, the Japanese nobles, who were not satisfied with the despotic policy of the supreme power, hinted to him that it would be nice to carry out a forceful action in these lands, which could push the situation into dead center. This was carried out on behalf of Rezanov in 1806-1807 by an expedition of two ships. Ships were looted, a number of trading posts were destroyed, and a Japanese village on Iturup was burned. They were later tried, but the attack caused serious deterioration for some time Russian-Japanese relations.

XX century

February 2, 1946. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the inclusion of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands into the RSFSR.

1947. Deportation of Japanese and Ainu from the islands to Japan. 17,000 Japanese and an unknown number of Ainu were evicted.

November 5, 1952. Powerful tsunami hit the entire coast of the Kuril Islands, Paramushir was hit the hardest. A giant wave washed away the city of Severo-Kurilsk.

Where did such unusual, exotic names come from? The term "Kuril Islands" is of Russian-Ainu origin. It is associated with the word "kur", which means "man". At the very end of the 17th century, Kamchatka Cossacks for the first time called the inhabitants of the south of Kamchatka (Ainu) and the then unknown southern islands “Kurilians”. Peter I became aware of it in 1701-1707. about the existence of the “Kuril Islands”, and in 1719 the “Kuril Land” was clearly marked on the map by Semyon Remizov for the first time. Any suggestions that the name of the archipelago was given by “smoking” volcanoes belong to the realm of legends.

These are the words of the Ainu language: Paramushir - wide island, Onekotan - old settlement, Ushishir - land of bays, Chiripoy - birds, Urup - salmon, Iturup - large salmon, Kunashir - black island, Shikotan - the best place. Since the 18th century, the Russians and Japanese have tried to rename the islands in their own way. Most often, serial numbers were used - the first island, the second, etc.; only the Russians counted from the north, and the Japanese from the south.

Relief

The Kuril Islands, an area of ​​active volcanic activity, are two parallel underwater ridges, which above sea level are expressed by the chain of islands of the Greater and Lesser Kuril ridges.

The relief of the first is predominantly volcanic. There are over a hundred volcanoes here, more than 40 of which are active. Volcanic edifices often merge at their bases and form narrow, ridge-like ridges with steep (usually 30-40°) slopes, stretched mainly along the strike of the islands. Volcanoes often rise in the form of isolated mountains: Alaid - 2339m, Fussa - 1772m, Milna - 1539m, Bogdan Khmelnitsky - 1589m, Tyatya - 1819m. The heights of other volcanoes, as a rule, do not exceed 1500m. Volcanic massifs are usually separated by low-lying isthmuses, which are composed of Quaternary marine sediments or volcanic-sedimentary rocks of Neogene age. The shapes of volcanoes are different. There are volcanic structures in the form of regular and truncated cones; Often, in the crater of an older truncated cone, a young one rises (Krenitsyn volcano on Onekotan Island, Tyatya on Kunashir). Calderas - giant cauldron-shaped sinkholes - are widely developed. They are often flooded by lakes or the sea and form huge deep-water (up to 500 m) bays (Broughtona on Simushir Island, Lion's Mouth on Iturup).

A significant role in the formation of the islands' topography is played by sea terraces of different altitudes: 25-30 m, 80-120 m and 200-250 m. The coastline is replete with bays and capes, the shores are often rocky and steep, with narrow boulder-pebble, less often sandy beaches .

The Small Kuril Ridge, protruding slightly on the daytime surface, continues in the northeast direction in the form of the underwater Vityaz ridge. It is separated from the bed of the Pacific Ocean by the narrow Kuril-Kamchatka deep-sea trench (10,542 m), which is one of the deepest trenches in the world. There are no young volcanoes on the Lesser Kuril Ridge. The islands of the ridge are flat areas of land leveled by the sea, rising above sea level by only 20-40 m. The exception is the most big Island ridges - Shikotan, which is characterized by low-mountain (up to 214 m) relief, formed as a result of the destruction of ancient volcanoes.

Geological structure

On the territory of the Kuril Islands, formations of the Cretaceous, Paleogene, Neogene and Quaternary periods come to the surface within two garlands of islands: Bolshekurilskaya and Malokurilskaya. The most ancient Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks, represented by tuff breccias, lava breccias, spherical lavas of basalts, andesite-basalts, andesites, tuffs, tuffites, tuff sandstones, tuff siltstones, tuff gravels, sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, are noted on the islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge. IN geological structure The Greater Kuril Ridge includes volcanogenic, volcanogenic-sedimentary, sedimentary deposits of Neogene and Quaternary age, intruded by numerous relatively small extrusive and subvolcanic bodies and dikes of a wide petrographic range - from basalts and dolerites to rhyolites and granites. The territory of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands and the adjacent waters of the Seas of Japan and Okhotsk are part of the transition zone from the continent to the ocean, entering the northwestern segment of the Pacific Mobile Belt. West Side This region belongs to the Hokkaido-Sakhalin geosynclinal-folded system, and the eastern part belongs to the Kuril-Kamchatka geosynclinal-island-arc system of a folded-block structure. The main difference between these systems lies in the Cenozoic history of development: in the Hokkaido-Sakhalin system in the Cenozoic sedimentation processes prevailed, and volcanism occurred sporadically and in local structures: the Kuril-Kamchatka system at that time developed in the mode of an active volcanic arc, which left its mark on the composition of the formed here are structural-material complexes. Cenozoic deposits were the first to be folded; formations of this age in the Kuril-Kamchatka system were subject to block dislocations, and folded structures are not characteristic of them. Significant differences are also noted in the pre-Cenozoic formations of the two tectonic systems. The first-order structures for both systems are troughs and uplifts that developed throughout the Cenozoic. The formation of the structural plan of the region was largely determined by faults.

Minerals

On the islands and coastal zone industrial reserves of non-ferrous metal ores, mercury, natural gas, and oil have been explored.2 On the island of Iturup, in the area of ​​the Kudryaviy volcano, there is the only known rhenium deposit in the world. Here, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese mined native sulfur. The total resources of gold on the Kuril Islands are estimated at 1,867 tons, silver -9,284 tons, titanium -39.7 million tons, iron - 273 million tons. Currently, mineral development is not numerous.

Volcanism

Volcanoes are located almost exclusively on the islands of the Great Kuril Ridge. Most of these islands are active or extinct volcanoes, and only the northernmost and southernmost islands are composed of sedimentary formations. These layers of sedimentary rocks on the mentioned islands formed the foundation on which volcanoes arose and grew. Most of the volcanoes of the Kuril Islands arose directly on the seabed. The topography of the seabed between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido is a steep ridge with bottom depths of about 2,000 m towards the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and near the island of Hokkaido even over 3,300 m and with depths over 8,500 m towards the Pacific Ocean. As you know, directly southeast of the Kuril Islands there is one of the deepest ocean trenches, the so-called Tuscarora Trench. The Kuril Islands themselves represent the peaks and ridges of a continuous mountain range hidden under water. The Great Kuril Ridge is a wonderful visual example of the formation of a ridge on the earth's surface. Here you can observe the bend of the earth's crust, the crest of which rises 2-3 km above the bottom of the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk and 8-8.5 km above the Tuscarora depression. Along this bend, faults formed along its entire length, along which fiery liquid lava burst in many places. It was in these places that the volcanic islands of the Kuril ridge arose. Volcanoes poured out lava, ejected mass volcanic sand and debris that settled nearby in the sea, and it became and is becoming smaller and smaller. In addition, the bottom itself, due to various geological reasons, can rise, and if such a geological process continues in the same direction, then after millions of years, and maybe hundreds of thousands, a continuous ridge will form here, which, on the one hand, will connect Kamchatka with Hokkaido, and on the other hand, will completely separate the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. The volcanoes of the Kuril ridge are located on arc-shaped faults, which are continuations of the faults of Kamchatka. Thus, they form one volcanic and tectonic Kamchatka-Kuril arc, convex towards the Pacific Ocean and directed from southwest to northeast. The activity of volcanoes on the Kuril Islands in the past and currently is very intense. There are about 100 volcanoes, of which 40 are active and in the solfata stage of activity. Initially, volcanoes arose in the Upper Tertiary on the extreme southwestern and northeastern islands of the Kuril ridge, and then they moved to its central part. Thus, volcanic life on them began quite recently, only one or several million years, and continues to this day.

Active volcanoes

There are 21 known active volcanoes on the Kuril Islands, of which five stand out for their more active activity; the most active volcanoes of the Kuril ridge include Alaid, Sarychev Peak, Fuss, Snow and Milna. Among active volcanoes The most active volcano in the Kuril Islands is Alaid. It is also the highest among all the volcanoes in this range. As a beautiful cone-shaped mountain, it rises directly from the surface of the sea to a height of 2,339 m. At the top of the volcano there is a small depression, in the middle of which a central cone rises. Its eruptions occurred in 1770, 1789, 1790, 1793, 1828, 1829, 1843 and 1858, i.e. eight eruptions in the last 180 years. As a result of the last eruption, a volcanic island with a wide crater called Taketomi was formed. It is a side cone of the Alaid volcano.

Sarychev Peak ranks second in terms of intensity of volcanic activity and is a stratovolcano located on the island of Matua. It looks like a two-headed cone. On the high (1,497 m) peak there is a crater with a diameter of about 250 m and a depth of about 100 - 150 m. Near the crater on outside the cone had many cracks, from which white vapors and gases were released (August and September 1946). To the southeast of the volcano there appear to be small side cones. Starting from the 60s of the 18th century to the present, its eruptions occurred in 1767, around 1770, around 1780, in 1878-1879, 1928, 1930 and 1946. In addition, there is numerous data on its fumarolic activity. So in 1805, 1811, 1850, 1860. he was smoking. In 1924, an underwater eruption occurred near it. Thus, at least seven eruptions have occurred over the past 180 years. They were accompanied by both explosive activity and outpourings of basaltic lava.

The Fussa Peak volcano is located on the island of Paramushir and is a free-standing beautiful cone, the western slopes of which abruptly fall into the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Fuss Peak erupted in 1737, 1742, 1793, 1854 and 1859, with last eruption, i.e. 1859, was accompanied by the release of suffocating gases.

Volcano Snow is a small low dome-shaped volcano, about 400 m high, located on Chirpoy Island. At its top there is a crater about 300 m in diameter. Apparently, it belongs to the shield volcanoes. There is an indication without an exact date about the eruption of this volcano in the 18th century. Additionally, Mount Snow erupted in 1854, 1857, 1859, and 1879.

Volcano Miln is located on the island of Simushir, it is a two-headed volcano with an internal cone 1526m high. Lava flows are visible on the slopes, which in some places extend into the sea in the form of huge lava fields. There are several side cones on the slopes. There is information about the volcanic activity of the Milna volcano dating back to the 18th century. According to more accurate information, its eruptions occurred in 1849, 1881 and 1914. To less active volcanoes include the volcanoes Severgina, Sinarka, Raikoke and Medvezhiy.

Decaying volcanoes

Decaying volcanoes, which are in the solfata stage of activity, are located mainly in the southern half of the Kuril ridge. Only the intensely smoking Chikurachki volcano, 1817 m high, located on the island of Paramushir, and the Ushishir volcano, located on island of the same name, are located in the northern half of the ridge. Ushishir Volcano (400 m) the edges of its crater form a ring-shaped ridge, destroyed only on the southern side, due to which the bottom of the crater is filled with sea. Cherny Volcano (625 m) is located on the Black Brothers Island. It has two craters: one at the top, with a diameter of about 800 m, and the other is fissure-shaped on the southwestern slope.

Extinct volcanoes

On the Kuril Islands there are many extinct volcanoes of various shapes - cone-shaped, dome-shaped, volcanic massifs, the “volcano within a volcano” type. Among the cone-shaped volcanoes, Atsonupuri, 1206 m high, stands out for its beauty. It is located on the island of Iturup and is a regular cone; at its top there is an oval-shaped crater, about 150 m deep. Cone-shaped volcanoes also include the following volcanoes: Aka (598 m) on the island of Shiashkotan; Roko (153m), located on the island of the same name near the island of Brat Chirpoev (Black Brothers Islands); Rudakova (543m) with a lake in a crater, located on the island of Urup, and the Bogdan Khmelnitsky volcano (1587m), located on the island of Iturup. The volcanoes of Shestakov (708 m), located on the island of Onekotan, and Broughton, 801 m high, located on the island of the same name, have a dome-shaped shape. Volcanic massifs include the Ketoi volcano - 1172 m high, located on the island of the same name, and the Kamuy volcano - 1322 m high, located in the northern part of Iturup island. The “volcano within a volcano” type includes: On Onekotan Island, Krenitsyn Peak.

Climate

The climate of the Kuril Islands is determined by their location between two huge bodies of water - the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. The climate of the Kuril Islands is moderately cold, monsoonal. The average temperature in February (the coldest month on the islands) is from - 5 to - 7 degrees C. The average temperature in August is from 10 degrees C in the north to 16 degrees C in the south. Precipitation per year is 1000-1400 mm. The features of the monsoon climate are more pronounced in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, which is largely influenced by the Asian continent, which cools in winter, from where cold and dry westerly winds blow. Winter in the south is cold, with frosts down to -25°. In the north, winter is milder: frosts only reach -16°. The northern part of the ridge is under the influence of the Aleutian baric minimum in winter; Along its western periphery, cyclonic activity is developing, which is associated with stormy winds and significant precipitation. Sometimes up to 1.5 m of snow falls per day. The effect of the Aleutian minimum weakens by June and fades away in July-August. The sea waters washing the islands warm up more slowly in summer than the land, and winds blow through the Kuril ridge from the ocean to the mainland. They carry a lot of water vapor, the weather becomes cloudy and foggy (due to the temperature difference between the cold sea masses and the warming land). Thick fogs last for weeks; cloudiness prevents the sun's rays from heating the sea and islands. However, in summer there is not such a noticeable increase in precipitation as in the mainland monsoon region of the Far East, since a lot of precipitation also falls in winter. During the three summer months, only 30-40% of the annual amount falls, equal to 1000-1400 mm. The average temperature of the warmest month, August, ranges from 10° in the north to 17° in the south. In September, the effect of the Aleutian minimum intensifies again, and therefore prolonged drizzling rains begin in the northern half of the Kuril Arc. In the south, monsoon rains are replaced by good weather, disturbed occasionally by typhoons. The general severity of the climate of the Kuril Islands is due not only to the low temperatures of the waters of the neighboring Sea of ​​Okhotsk, but also to the influence of the cold Kuril Current, which washes the island ridge from the east. Only the climate of the southernmost islands is affected by the warm Soya Current, which is fading here.

Water resources

Significant amounts of precipitation and a high runoff coefficient favor the development of a dense network of small watercourses on the islands. In total there are more than 900 rivers. Due to the mountainous surface of the islands, surface runoff is divided into numerous small drainage basins, forming a system of streams spreading from the central hills. The mountainousness of the islands also determines the steep slope of the rivers and the high speed of their flow; There are frequent rapids and waterfalls in river beds. Lowland rivers are a rare exception. Approaching the sea, some rivers cascade down from high cliffs, others emerge onto a flat, sandy or swampy coast; at the mouths of these rivers there are often shallow bars, pebble spits and embankments that block the entry of boats into the rivers even at high tide. The rivers receive their main nutrition from rain; snow nutrition also plays a significant role, especially from snowfields located in the mountains. River floods occur in spring and after heavy rains in summer. Mountain rivers They are not covered with ice every year, and the waterfalls freeze only in exceptionally severe winters. Only slowly flowing streams within the plain areas are covered with ice each year; The longest freeze-up duration is 4-5 months. The water of many rivers is unsuitable for drinking due to high mineralization and, in particular, high sulfur content. There are several dozen lakes of various origins on the islands. Some of them are associated with volcanic activity. These are small and deep mountain lakes lying in the Craters of extinct volcanoes; sometimes volcanic dam lakes are found. The waters of these lakes have a yellowish color due to the release of sulfur springs. On the coast there are larger, usually lagoon-type lakes up to 10 km long, often containing fresh water; They are separated from the sea by dunes and are often connected to it through small channels.

Flora and fauna

On the Kuril Islands, according to D.P. Vorobyov, there are 1171 species of vascular plants belonging to 450 genera and 104 families. There is no more accurate information, since no one was involved in generalizing and analyzing the flora of the region after him. Of these, 47 species (4%) are alien plants. There are 49 species of trees, including 6 conifers, 94 species of shrubs, of which 3 are coniferous, 11 species of woody vines, 9 species of shrubs, 5 species of bamboos, 30 evergreen species, including 7 coniferous and 23 deciduous. heather and lingonberry predominate - 16 species. In floristic terms, the richest is Kunashir, where 883 species grow. There are slightly fewer species on Iturup (741) and Shikotan (701). All types of trees, 10 types of vines and 4 types of bamboo are found on these islands. The flora of vascular plants of the Kuril Islands reveals significant similarities with the flora neighboring countries and regions. Species common to Kamchatka - 44%, with Sakhalin - 67%, with Japan - 78%, with Primorye and Amur region - 54%, with North America - 28%. Common species for the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin account for 56.7% of the total flora of Sakhalin. In the Kuril Islands, only 2 families of the Sakhalin flora are absent - watercolors and boxwoods; they are not present in Kamchatka and Primorye. The flora of the Kuril Islands is significantly poorer in comparison with the flora of Primorye and the Amur region: on the islands there are no representatives of 240 genera of the flora of this part of the mainland, including apricot, microbiota, ephedra, hazel, hornbeam, barberry, deutzia, mistletoe, etc. The flora of the Japanese island of Hokkaido, closest to the Kuril Islands, has 1,629 species. The Japanese flora has the greatest similarity with the flora of the southern Kuril Islands (37.7%) and less similarity with the flora northern islands(17.86%). In the 60s of the last century, among the species of vascular flora of the Kuril Islands, Vorobyov counted 34 endemics. But this number, in his opinion, should be reduced due to the description of some of them in Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and Japan. Among the endemics there are 4 species of cereals, sedges - 2 species, willows - 5, dandelions - 8, borer - 1, St. John's wort - 1, wormwood - 1. 26 species of endemics were found only on one island, the remaining 8 are present on several islands. Significant differences in the ecological situation on the islands also determined the spread individual species, and quantitative representation of some taxa. The number of species on the islands given below is not definitively established. Research is constantly making adjustments. Literary data indicate that 883 species grow in Kunashir, 741 in Iturup, 701 in Shikotan, 399 in Urup, 393 in Simushin, 241 in Ketoye, 139 in Paramushir, 169 in Alaid. Extensive algae thickets are common off the coast of the Kuril Islands. The vegetation of fresh water bodies is not very rich.

Fauna and wildlife

The fauna of terrestrial invertebrate animals of the South Kuril Islands is unique and far from fully studied. Here lies the northern border of the distribution of a huge number of species found in addition to the Southern Kuril Islands in Japan, Korea and China. In addition, Kuril species are represented by populations adapted to the unique island conditions of existence. The insect fauna of the southern part of the Kuril archipelago is closer to the fauna of Hokkaido. However, the insect fauna of the islands is given a certain uniqueness by the Kuril endemics, the presence of which was established only in recent years. Currently, 37 species and subspecies of endemic insect species are known, found in the territory of Kunashir and Shikotan. The fauna of the orders Hemiptera (230 species), Coleoptera (weevil beetles alone account for 90 species), Orthoptera (27 species), mayflies (24 species) and other representatives of this vast class is diverse. There are currently 4 species of South Kuril insects listed in the Red Book of Russia. These are: wrinkled-winged ground beetle, Maksimovich's beauty, mimevsemia similar, asteropethes owl. In addition, two species of swallowtails common in the reserve: the Maaka tailtail and the blue tailtail are included in the regional Red Book of the Sakhalin region. On Kunashir Island and the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge (including Shikotan) there are currently 110 species of non-marine mollusks. The species composition of inland water fish is richest in Kunashir and numbers 22 species. The most widespread are salmon (pink salmon, chum salmon, Dolly Varden). Sakhalin taimen, spawning in the lakes of the island, are listed in the Red Book of Russia. In the Kurilsky Nature Reserve on Kunashir Island there are 3 species of amphibians - the Far Eastern frog, the Far Eastern tree frog and the Siberian salamander. The total number of birds found on the territory of the Kuril Nature Reserve and the Small Kuriles Nature Reserve is 278 species. There are 113 species of rare birds, of which 40 species are listed in the Red Books of the IUCN and the Russian Federation. About 125 bird species nest on the islands. The Kuril Islands are home to a unique population of the island subspecies of the fish owl. This area has the highest density of this species in the world. At least 26 pairs of these birds nest in Kunashir; in total there are just over 100 pairs left in the world. The South Kuril Islands are home to 28 species of mammals. Of these, 3 species of marine mammals are listed in the Red Books of the IUCN and the Russian Federation - the Kuril sea otter, the island antur seal and the sea lion. An endemic species, the Shikotan vole, lives on the island of Shikotan. The largest representative of terrestrial fauna is the brown bear, found only in Kunashir (more than 200 animals). On Kunashir Island, chipmunk, sable, weasel and acclimatized European mink are also found in the thickets. On the territory of the islands of Kunashir and Shikotan, fox and mountain hare are widespread. The most numerous representatives of the fauna are small mammals: shrews (the most common species is the clawed shrew) and rodents (red-gray vole, Japanese mouse). On the territory of the small islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge, only fox, red-and-gray vole, rat, house mouse and clawed shrew are found. Among the cetaceans in the waters of the islands, you can often find families of killer whales, minke whales, pods of Pacific white-sided dolphins, white-winged and common porpoises.

Population

76.6% of the population are Russians, 12.8% Ukrainians, 2.6% Belarusians, 8% other nationalities. The permanent population of the islands lives mainly on the southern islands - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the northern ones - Paramushir, Shumshu. The basis of the economy is the fishing industry, because The main natural wealth is marine bioresources. Agriculture did not receive significant development due to unfavorable natural conditions. There are certain features in the formation of the population of the Kuril Islands. After the deportation of Japanese citizens in the post-war years, the influx of labor was mainly carried out by immigrants from the mainland. Nationally, the population was mainly represented by Slavic peoples. Representatives of the peoples of the North and Koreans were practically absent from the Kuril Islands. This trend continues to this day. Over the past decades, the process of forming a permanent population on the islands has continued, primarily due to local natives and people of retirement age who, due to the current difficult socio-economic situation, are not able to move to the mainland. The population, both current and permanent, continues to decline after the collapse of 1990 and today is about 8,000 people. The reasons for this situation are low natural population growth and migration outflow of Kuril residents. Consistently, more of them leave than arrive. Analysis of the age and sex structure of the population leads to the conclusion that the process of its formation has not yet ended. The main indicator of this is the predominance of men over women, an increased proportion of people of working age and a small number of elderly residents, which is not typical for most regions of the country. Let's consider those who are engaged in the field of work. The number of employees has steadily increased in recent years and reached 3,000 people in 2000. At the same time, the number of unemployed has been declining in recent years. The district's labor resources were distributed as follows: the bulk of the working-age population is employed in industry, the rest are evenly distributed among other sectors of the national economy. In recent years, the birth rate has slightly exceeded the death rate. Thus, we can say that natural population decline has been replaced by natural population growth. The migration balance is also negative. Although the outflow of population that took place in the 90s has decreased. Most young people receive higher education (60-70%). In general, the population of the Kuril Islands is decreasing. This is primarily due to the remoteness of the islands, undeveloped transport infrastructure, unfavorable weather conditions, difficult socio-economic situation. To this should be added the uncertainty of the future political status of a number of the South Kuril Islands, the territory of which Japan claims. Residents of the disputed islands, and even regional authorities, are practically excluded from the ongoing negotiations between Moscow and Tokyo.

Weekly tour, one-day hiking and excursions combined with comfort (trekking) in the mountain resort of Khadzhokh (Adygea, Krasnodar region). Tourists live at the camp site and visit numerous natural monuments. Rufabgo waterfalls, Lago-Naki plateau, Meshoko gorge, Big Azish cave, Belaya River Canyon, Guam gorge.

History of the Kuril Islands

The narrow strait separating Kunashir from Hokkaido is called the Strait of Izmena in Russian. The Japanese have their own opinion on this matter.

The Kuril Islands got their name from the people who inhabited them. “Kuru” in the language of these people meant “man,” the Cossacks called them “Kurils” or “Kurilians,” and they called themselves “Ainu,” which in meaning was not much different from “Kuru.” The culture of the Kurils, or Ainu, has been traced by archaeologists for at least 7,000 years. They lived not only on the Kuril Islands, which were called "Kuru-misi", that is, "land of people", but also on the island of Hokkaido ("Ainu-moshiri"), and in the southern part of Sakhalin. In their appearance, language and customs, they differed significantly from both the Japanese in the south and the Kamchadals in the north.

A non-Mongoloid type of face, thick hair, a thick beard, pronounced vegetation all over the body - ethnographers searched for the ancestral home of the Ainu in both the Caucasus and Australia. In accordance with one of the latest hypotheses, the Ainu, who have lived on their islands for centuries, represent a “splinter” of a special, ancient race.

The Cossacks called them “shaggy”, and this nickname was used even in official Russian papers. One of the first explorers of Kamchatka, Stepan Krasheninnikov, wrote about the Kurils: “They are incomparably more polite than other peoples: and at the same time they are constant, just-hearted, ambitious and meek. They speak quietly without interrupting each other’s speeches... Old people are held in great reverence...”

In the XVII - 19th centuries The Japanese had a different name for the island of Hokkaido - Ezo. In the old days, the term “edzo” meant the “northern savages” who obey no one. Gradually, Ezo in Japan began to mean all the lands north of the island. Hondo (Honshu), including Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The Russians called Hokkaido Matsmai, since in its southwestern part there was a city of the same name, built by the Matsumae samurai clan.

One of the first expeditions to the lands of Ezo was undertaken by the Japanese in 1635. Presumably, a certain Kinfiro, a translator from Ainu who served with the feudal lords of Matsumae, took part in it. Whether Kinfiro managed to get to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands or received information about them from the Ainu is not known for certain, however, based on the results of his journey in 1644, a map was drawn up on which, although conditionally, Karafuto (Sakhalin) and Tsisimi - “a thousand islands” were indicated " - that's what the Japanese called the Kuril Islands. Almost at the same time, in 1643, the Southern Kuriles region was explored by the Dutch expedition of Maarten Fries, who was searching for mythical countries rich in gold and silver. The Dutch not only compiled good maps, but also described the lands they discovered (the journal of senior navigator Cornelius Kuhn was preserved and published), among which it is easy to recognize Iturup, Kunashir, and other islands of the South Kuril Islands.

In Russia, the first information about the Kuril Islands appeared in the reports of Vladimir Atlasov, who made the famous campaign against Kamchatka in 1697. But the first descriptions of the islands were compiled not by him, but by the Cossack Ivan Kozyrevsky, who, by a sad irony of fate, participated in the murder of Atlasov. To beg for forgiveness, Kozyrevsky went to the Kuril Islands in 1711, but visited only the first two islands - Shumshu and Paramushir, where he questioned in detail the “shaggy” people who lived there. He supplemented his report with information received from the Japanese, who were brought to Kamchatka during a storm in 1710.

In 1719, Peter I sent two surveyors to Kamchatka - Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin. Officially - to find out whether America has come together with Asia. However, the content of the secret instructions they had was obviously different, since the surveyors, contrary to expectation, directed their ship not to the north, but to the south - to the Kuril Islands and Japan. They managed to pass only half of the ridge: near the island of Simushir, the ship lost its anchor and was thrown back to Kamchatka by the winds. In 1722, Evreinov personally presented Peter with a report on the expedition and a map of the islands examined.

In 1738-1739, Martyn Shpanberg, a member of the Bering expedition, walked south along the entire Kuril ridge and mapped the islands he encountered. Spanberg's ship rounded Matsmai and anchored off the coast of Hondo - here the first meeting in history between the Russians and the Japanese took place. She was quite friendly, although not without mutual wariness. Avoiding risky voyages to the Southern Kuril Islands, the Russians developed the islands closest to Kamchatka, subjugating the “furry ones” and demanding yasak (fur tax) from them in sea otter skins. Many did not want to pay yasak and went to distant islands. To keep the Kurils, the Cossacks took amanats (hostages) from among their children and relatives.

In 1766, at the direction of the Siberian governor, the toyon (leader) from the island of Paramushir, Nikita Chikin, and the centurion from Kamchatka, Ivan Cherny, were sent to the southern Kuril Islands. They had to “persuade the Kurils into citizenship, without showing, not only deeds, but also a sign of rude actions and bitterness, but greetings and affection.” Chikin himself was one of the “shaggy” ones and easily found a common language with his fellow tribesmen, but, unfortunately, he died suddenly on Simushir and Black stood at the head of the party. The centurion walked to the 19th island (Iturup), along the way, by force bringing the “shaggy” ones into citizenship. From them he learned that the Japanese had a fortress on the 20th (Kunashir). During the winter on the 18th island (Urupa), Cherny drank, poached and mocked both his companions - the Cossacks and the “shaggy ones”. On the way back, the centurion took with him the “descended” (runaway) Kurilians, and kept them tied up on the ship, which is why many died. Cherny’s “exploits” did not go unnoticed; he came under investigation, but died in Irkutsk from smallpox. Embittered by the actions of Cherny and other merchants, the “shaggy” rebelled in 1771 and killed many Russians on the islands of Chirpoy and Urup.

In 1778, the Siberian nobleman Antipin, familiar with the Japanese language, was sent to the Southern Kuril Islands. At Urup he was joined by the Irkutsk townsman and translator Shabalin. The instructions given by the head of Kamchatka, Matvey Bem, ordered “to establish peaceful contact with the Japanese and the shaggy ones,” and “under death penalty do not offend the wild, as happened on Aleutian Islands...". Antipin and Shabalin managed to win the sympathy and favor of the “shaggy” ones, and in 1778-1779 more than 1,500 Kurils from Iturup, Kunashir and Matsmay were brought into Russian citizenship. Contacts with the Japanese were unsuccessful. Strictly adhering to the state policy of self-isolation, Japanese officials conveyed to Antipin a ban not only from trading on Matsmai, but also from going to Iturup and Kunashir. The expedition of Antipin and Shabalin was not continued: in 1780, their ship, anchored off the island of Urup, the strongest tsunami was thrown onto land at a distance of 400 meters from the shore! With great difficulties, the sailors managed to return to Kamchatka using kayaks...

In 1779, by her decree, Catherine II freed the Kuril residents who had accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes. The “Extensive Land Description of the Russian State...”, published in 1787 by order of the Empress, contains a list of the Kuril Islands, “of which 21 are now considered under Russian possession...”. The 21st island was Shikotan, and about the 22nd, Matsmai, it was said that the Japanese have a city on its southern side, but how far their possession extends in the northern side of Matsmai is unknown.

Meanwhile, the Russians had no real control over the islands located south of the 18th (Urupa). In the report of the navigator Lovtsov, who visited Matsmai in 1794, it was reported: “The Kurilians, who live on the 22nd, as well as on the 19th, 20th and 21st islands, are revered by the Japanese as their subjects and are used by them in grave ways.” work... And from this it is noticeable that all the Kuril residents are extremely dissatisfied with the Japanese... In May 1788, one Japanese merchant ship came to Matsmai. The Kuriles attacked the ship. All 75 Japanese were killed, and the goods were taken and divided. An official was sent from Matsmaya and executed 35 people...”

In 1799, by order of the central government of Japan, the two principalities founded outposts on Kunashir and Iturup, and since 1804, the protection of these islands was carried out constantly.

An attempt to resume negotiations with the Japanese on trade was made in 1805, when the founder of the Russian-American Company (RAC), actual state councilor Nikolai Rezanov, arrived in Nagasaki - the only port in Japan where foreign ships were allowed to enter. However, his audience with the governor was a failure. The acts handed over by the Japanese side finally formulated the refusal of trade relations with Russia. As for the Russian ships, they were asked not to stop at anchor and rather depart from the Japanese shores. Offended by the refusal, Rezanov made it clear to Japanese officials that the Russian emperor had ways to teach him to treat him with respect. In his report to the king, he also reported that the Japanese nobles, suffering from the despotism of the spiritual ruler "dairi", hinted to him, Rezanov, that the Japanese should be "moved" from the north and remove some industry - this would supposedly give the Japanese government a reason to establish trade relations with Russia... Rezanov instructed Lieutenant Khvostov and Midshipman Davydov to carry out this “hint”, forming an expedition of two ships.

In 1806, Khvostov expelled the Japanese from Sakhalin, destroying all trading posts in Aniva Bay. In 1807, he burned down a Japanese village on Iturup, and distributed goods from the stores to the Kurils. On Matsmai, Khvostov captured and plundered 4 Japanese ships, after which he left the Matsmai governor a paper with the following content: “The Russians, having now caused such little harm to the Japanese empire, wanted to show them only through ... that further stubbornness of the Japanese government could completely deprive him of these lands "

Believing that Khvostov's pirate raids were sanctioned by the Russian government, the Japanese prepared to retaliate. That is why the completely peaceful appearance of Captain Vasily Golovnin in Kunashir in 1811 ended with his capture and imprisonment for more than 2 years. Only after official government papers were delivered to the Matsmai governor of Okhotsk, which stated that “Khvostov and Davydov were tried, found guilty, punished and are no longer alive,” Golovnin and his friends received freedom.

After the release of Golovnin, the Irkutsk governor forbade Russian ships and canoes to sail further than the 18th island (Urupa), on which a colony of the Russian-American Company had existed since 1795. In fact, by the middle of the 19th century, the strait between Urup and Iturup began to serve as a border between states, which was recorded in the treaty of 1855, signed by Admiral Putyatin in the Japanese city of Shimoda. In a secret instruction to Putyatin, endorsed by Nicholas I, it was written unambiguously: “Of the Kuril Islands, the southernmost, which belongs to Russia, is the island of Urup, to which we could limit ourselves...”.

The 1855 treaty left the status of Sakhalin uncertain, and in 1875 a new treaty was signed in St. Petersburg, according to which Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin, receiving in return all the Kuril Islands up to Kamchatka itself. The Ainu from Sakhalin did not take Russian citizenship and moved to Hokkaido. The Ainu of the northern Kuril Islands decided to remain on their islands, especially since the RAC, to which they were in virtual slavery, ceased its activities in 1867. Having accepted Japanese citizenship, they retained Russian surnames and the Orthodox faith. In 1884, the Japanese government resettled all the Northern Kuril Ainu (there were no more than 100 of them) to Shikotan, forcibly transforming them from fishermen and hunters into farmers and cattle breeders. At that time, the population of the Southern Kuril Islands, concentrated mainly in Iturup and Kunashir, was about 3,000 people, of which 3/4 were Japanese.

After Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, an agreement was signed in Portsmouth in 1905, according to which the southern part of Sakhalin (below the 50th parallel) also ceded to Japan. In 1920, Japan occupied and northern part Sakhalin, where intensive oil development began. Historian Dmitry Volkogonov discovered evidence that Lenin was ready to sell northern Sakhalin to the Japanese in 1923, and the Politburo was going to ask for $1 billion for it. However, the deal did not materialize, and in 1925 a joint declaration in Beijing reaffirmed the provisions of the Portsmouth Treaty.

At the Yalta Conference in 1945, Stalin said that he would like to discuss the political conditions under which the USSR would enter the war against Japan. Roosevelt noted that he believed that there would be no difficulty regarding the transfer to Russia of the southern half of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands at the end of the war.

On August 8, 1945, the USSR fulfilled its obligations and attacked Japan. At the beginning of September, Soviet troops occupied the Kuril Islands, including the occupied island of Shikotan and the Habomai ridge, which both geographically and according to Japanese territorial division did not then belong to the Kuril Islands. In 1946-1947, all Japanese from Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, numbering about 400 thousand, were repatriated. All the Ainu were deported to Hokkaido. At the same time, more than 300 thousand Soviet settlers arrived on Sakhalin and the islands. The memory of the almost 150-year stay of the Japanese in the Southern Kuril Islands was intensively erased, sometimes using barbaric methods. On Kunashir, Buddhist monuments that stood along the entire coast were blown up, and many Japanese cemeteries were desecrated.

At the 1951 peace conference in San Francisco, the USSR delegation proposed to include in the text of the peace treaty with Japan a clause recognizing the sovereignty of the USSR over southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but in the circumstances “ cold war“The position of the USA and Great Britain was already different than in 1945, and the USSR’s proposals were not accepted. The final text of the treaty included a provision on Japan’s renunciation of all rights and claims to the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin, but it did not say, firstly, in whose favor Japan was renouncing these territories, and secondly, the concept of “Kuril Islands” was not deciphered islands,” which each side naturally understood in its own way. As a result, the USSR did not sign the treaty, but Japan did, which gave it the formal right to immediately raise the issue of returning the South Kuril Islands.

The refusal of the Soviet delegation in San Francisco to sign a peace treaty legally left Russia and Japan in a state of war. In 1956, a joint declaration was signed in Moscow between the USSR and Japan, which contained the consent of the Soviet Union to return Shikotan Island and the Habomai ridge to Japan immediately after the conclusion of a peace treaty. But in 1960, the USSR government unilaterally refused to implement the clause of the declaration on the return of the islands, citing "

" its rejection of the contents of the new Japan-US security treaty.

Since 1990, Japanese citizens have had the opportunity to visit the burial places of their relatives in the Southern Kuril Islands (the first such visits began back in 1964, but were subsequently discontinued). Many abandoned Japanese cemeteries were restored by Russian residents of the islands.

In 1993, a declaration on Russian-Japanese relations was signed in Tokyo, which sets out the need for an early conclusion of a peace treaty based on resolving the issue of ownership of the Southern Kuril Islands. In 1998, the Moscow Declaration on the establishment of a creative partnership between Russia and Japan was signed...

The strait separating Kunashir from Hokkaido is narrow. On Russian maps it is called the Strait of Treason - in memory of the captivity of Captain Golovnin. Many today believe that this name is unfortunate. But the time for renaming, apparently, has not yet come.

Statement Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe about the intention to resolve the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands and again attracted the attention of the general public to the so-called “problem of the Southern Kurils” or “northern territories”.

Shinzo Abe's loud statement, however, does not contain the main thing - an original solution that could suit both sides.

Land of the Ainu

The dispute over the Southern Kuril Islands has its roots in the 17th century, when there were neither Russians nor Japanese on the Kuril Islands.

The indigenous population of the islands can be considered the Ainu, a people whose origins are still debated by scientists. The Ainu, who once inhabited not only the Kuril Islands, but also all the Japanese islands, as well as the lower reaches of the Amur, Sakhalin and the south of Kamchatka, have today turned into a small nation. In Japan, according to official data, there are about 25 thousand Ainu, and in Russia there are just over a hundred of them left.

The first mentions of the islands in Japanese sources date back to 1635, in Russian sources - to 1644.

In 1711, a detachment of Kamchatka Cossacks led by Danila Antsiferova And Ivan Kozyrevsky first landed on the northernmost island of Shumshu, defeating a detachment of local Ainu here.

The Japanese also showed more and more activity in the Kuril Islands, but no demarcation line and no agreements existed between the countries.

Kuriles - to you, Sakhalin— us

In 1855, the Shimoda Treaty on trade and borders between Russia and Japan was signed. This document for the first time defined the border of the possessions of the two countries in the Kuril Islands - it passed between the islands of Iturup and Urup.

Thus, the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands came under the rule of the Japanese emperor, that is, the very territories around which there is a dispute today.

It was the day of the conclusion of the Shimoda Treaty, February 7, that was declared in Japan as the so-called “Northern Territories Day”.

Relations between the two countries were quite good, but they were spoiled by the “Sakhalin issue.” The point is that on southern part This island was claimed by the Japanese.

In 1875, a new treaty was signed in St. Petersburg, according to which Japan renounced all claims to Sakhalin in exchange for the Kuril Islands - both Southern and Northern.

Perhaps, it was after the conclusion of the 1875 treaty that relations between the two countries developed most harmoniously.

Exorbitant appetites of the Land of the Rising Sun

Harmony in international affairs, however, is a fragile thing. Japan, emerging from centuries of self-isolation, was rapidly developing, and at the same time its ambitions were growing. The Land of the Rising Sun has territorial claims against almost all its neighbors, including Russia.

This resulted in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, which ended in a humiliating defeat for Russia. And although Russian diplomacy managed to mitigate the consequences of military failure, nevertheless, in accordance with the Portsmouth Treaty, Russia lost control not only over the Kuril Islands, but also over South Sakhalin.

This state of affairs did not suit not only Tsarist Russia, but also the Soviet Union. However, it was impossible to change the situation in the mid-1920s, which resulted in the signing of the Beijing Treaty between the USSR and Japan in 1925, according to which the Soviet Union recognized the current state of affairs, but refused to acknowledge “political responsibility” for the Portsmouth Treaty.

In subsequent years, relations between the Soviet Union and Japan teetered on the brink of war. Japan's appetite grew and began to spread to the continental territories of the USSR. True, the defeats of the Japanese at Lake Khasan in 1938 and at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 forced official Tokyo to slow down somewhat.

However, the “Japanese threat” hung like a sword of Damocles over the USSR during the Great Patriotic War.

Revenge for old grievances

By 1945, the tone of Japanese politicians towards the USSR had changed. There was no talk of new territorial acquisitions—the Japanese side would have been quite satisfied with maintaining the existing order of things.

But the USSR gave an undertaking to Great Britain and the United States that it would enter the war with Japan no later than three months after the end of the war in Europe.

The Soviet leadership had no reason to feel sorry for Japan - Tokyo behaved too aggressively and defiantly towards the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s. And the grievances of the beginning of the century were not forgotten at all.

On August 8, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. It was a real blitzkrieg - the million-strong Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria was completely defeated in a matter of days.

On August 18, Soviet troops launched the Kuril landing operation, the goal of which was to capture the Kuril Islands. Fierce battles broke out for the island of Shumshu - this was the only battle of the fleeting war in which the losses of Soviet troops were higher than those of the enemy. However, on August 23, the commander of the Japanese troops in the Northern Kuril Islands, Lieutenant General Fusaki Tsutsumi, capitulated.

The fall of Shumshu became the key event of the Kuril operation - subsequently the occupation of the islands on which the Japanese garrisons were located turned into acceptance of their surrender.

Kurile Islands. Photo: www.russianlook.com

They took the Kuril Islands, they could have taken Hokkaido

On August 22, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, without waiting for the fall of Shumshu, gives the order to troops to occupy the Southern Kuril Islands. The Soviet command is acting according to plan - the war continues, the enemy has not completely capitulated, which means we should move on.

The initial military plans of the USSR were much broader - Soviet units were ready to land on the island of Hokkaido, which was to become a Soviet zone of occupation. One can only guess how the further history of Japan would have developed in this case. But in the end, Vasilevsky received an order from Moscow to cancel the landing operation in Hokkaido.

Bad weather somewhat delayed the actions of Soviet troops in the Southern Kuril Islands, but by September 1, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan came under their control. The Habomai island group was completely taken under control on September 2-4, 1945, that is, after the surrender of Japan. There were no battles during this period - the Japanese soldiers resignedly surrendered.

So, at the end of World War II, Japan was completely occupied by the Allied powers, and the main territories of the country came under US control.

Kurile Islands. Photo: Shutterstock.com

On January 29, 1946, Memorandum No. 677 of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur, excluded the Kuril Islands (Chishima Islands), the Habomai (Habomadze) group of islands, and Shikotan Island from Japanese territory.

On February 2, 1946, in accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region was formed in these territories, consisting of Khabarovsk Territory RSFSR, which on January 2, 1947 became part of the newly formed Sakhalin region as part of the RSFSR.

Thus, de facto, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands passed to Russia.

Why didn't the USSR sign a peace treaty with Japan?

However, these territorial changes were not formalized by a treaty between the two countries. But the political situation in the world has changed, and yesterday’s ally of the USSR, the United States, turned into Japan’s closest friend and ally, and therefore was not interested either in resolving Soviet-Japanese relations or in resolving the territorial issue between the two countries.

In 1951, a peace treaty was concluded in San Francisco between Japan and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, which the USSR did not sign.

The reason for this was the US revision of previous agreements with the USSR, reached in the Yalta Agreement of 1945 - now official Washington believed that the Soviet Union had no rights not only to the Kuril Islands, but also to South Sakhalin. In any case, this is exactly the resolution that was adopted by the US Senate during the discussion of the treaty.

However, in the final version of the San Francisco Treaty, Japan renounces its rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But there’s a catch here too - official Tokyo, both then and now, states that it does not consider Habomai, Kunashir, Iturup and Shikotan to be part of the Kuril Islands.

That is, the Japanese are sure that they really renounced South Sakhalin, but they never renounced the “northern territories”.

The Soviet Union refused to sign a peace treaty not only because its territorial disputes with Japan were unresolved, but also because it did not in any way resolve similar disputes between Japan and the then USSR ally, China.

Compromise ruined Washington

Only five years later, in 1956, the Soviet-Japanese declaration on ending the state of war was signed, which was supposed to be the prologue to the conclusion of a peace treaty.

A compromise solution was also announced - the islands of Habomai and Shikotan would be returned to Japan in exchange for unconditional recognition of the sovereignty of the USSR over all others disputed territories. But this could happen only after the conclusion of a peace treaty.

In fact, Japan was quite happy with these conditions, but then a “third force” intervened. The United States was not at all happy about the prospect of establishing relations between the USSR and Japan. The territorial problem acted as an excellent wedge driven between Moscow and Tokyo, and Washington considered its resolution extremely undesirable.

It was announced to the Japanese authorities that if a compromise was reached with the USSR on the “Kuril problem” on the terms of the division of the islands, the United States would leave the island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago under its sovereignty.

The threat was truly terrible for the Japanese - we were talking about an area with more than a million people, which has the greatest historical significance for Japan.

As a result, a possible compromise on the issue of the Southern Kuril Islands melted away like smoke, and with it the prospect of concluding a full-fledged peace treaty.

By the way, control over Okinawa finally passed to Japan only in 1972. Moreover, 18 percent of the island’s territory is still occupied by American military bases.

Complete dead end

In fact, no progress in territorial dispute has not happened since 1956. During the Soviet period, without reaching a compromise, the USSR came to the tactic of completely denying any dispute in principle.

In the post-Soviet period, Japan began to hope that Russian President Boris Yeltsin, generous with gifts, would give up the “northern territories.” Moreover, such a decision was considered fair by very prominent figures in Russia - for example, Nobel laureate Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Perhaps at this moment the Japanese side made a mistake, instead of compromise options like the one discussed in 1956, they began to insist on the transfer of all the disputed islands.

But in Russia the pendulum has already swung in the other direction, and those who consider the transfer of even one island impossible are much louder today.

For both Japan and Russia, the “Kuril issue” has become a matter of principle over the past decades. For both Russian and Japanese politicians, the slightest concessions threaten, if not the collapse of their careers, then serious electoral losses.

Therefore, Shinzo Abe’s declared desire to solve the problem is undoubtedly commendable, but completely unrealistic.

In the destructive euphoria of “perestroika,” Russian diplomats inadvertently gave the Japanese government reason to hope for a revision of the results of World War II, and although Tokyo today shows a subtle diplomatic flair, these hopes remain. The concession of the Kuril Islands, in addition to a blow to Russia’s strategic positions in Pacific Ocean would set an extraordinary precedent for the resumption of territorial disputes around the world.

After the destruction of the Yalta-Potsdam order, active attempts are being made to achieve its legal revision. In connection with these disputes, we undertake to resolutely assert that the changes that have occurred do not at all entail the possibility of challenging the remaining territorial results of the Yalta-Potsdam agreements. Satisfying Japanese claims for the “return” of the islands would mean undermining the very principle of the inviolability of the results of World War II. This is especially dangerous now, when the US and NATO aggression against sovereign Yugoslavia has made the map of Europe unsteady.

The ideologists of perestroika considered it uncivilized to defend Russia's historical achievements. Under the communists, all phenomena and achievements were explained by the merit of the only true teaching, which gave rise to jokes like: “The party teaches that gases expand when heated.” During perestroika, gases stopped expanding when heated, just as anecdotally, because that was what the party that had lost power taught. Russian grief thinkers have again reached the point of absurdity, with pathos renouncing all the paternal tombs of not only Soviet, but also the entire Russian history.

There are two Japans - before and after the war

The term "return" in relation to an item territorial claims post-war Japanese state should be permanently withdrawn from official language Russian officials.

This term is a conceptual revision of the results of the war, meaning indirect recognition of the new Japan as the legal successor (continuity) of the Japanese state that started and lost the war.

Complete and unconditional surrender is fundamentally different from simple capitulation in its legal, political and historical consequences. Simple surrender means only recognition of defeat in hostilities and does not affect the international legal personality of the defeated power. Such a state, even if completely defeated, retains sovereignty and itself as legal side negotiates peace terms. But complete and unconditional surrender means the cessation of the existence of a subject of international relations, the dismantling of the former state, the loss of its sovereignty and all powers of power passing to the winners, who themselves determine the conditions of peace and the post-war order. In place of the previous one, a new subject of international law arises, which may have legal succession in relation to it. To what extent, limited or almost complete, the winners decide. The new states of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic and Japan were created on the terms of allies within new borders, with new constitutions and authorities. This is especially clear in the case of Germany, which even received a new official name

. Neither Germany nor the GDR had full sovereignty even after 40 years. Their sovereignty in terms of international law had a so-called derivative character - derived from the powers of the allies, who retained part of their powers in the form of quadripartite responsibility. One can give an example of how the United States used its powers in relation to Germany two decades after the victory. In 1973 During the Arab-Israeli War, Foreign Minister Walter Scheel officially objected to the sending of American weapons from Germany to Israel and the use of its ports and airfields, and stated that Germany did not want to deteriorate relations with the Arab world and was choosing the role of a neutral state. There was an immediate rebuke from Washington. The State Department, in a strongly worded official note, stated, and the United States, based on its rights arising from the principles of the post-war settlement, has the right, without notice, to take any actions from the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany that it deems necessary for its interests. The lack of complete sovereignty and continuity in relation to the Reich was demonstrated even by the moment of German unification. It is unlikely that anyone could interfere with this process; however, in order for the new state to gain sovereignty, the four powers had to agree to unification and formally resign, which was done in the “Two Plus Four” Treaty.

The concept of the Japanese government is based on non-recognition of precisely this basis for the post-war settlement. In the case of Japan, the external manifestations of the loss of sovereignty and interruption of international legal personality are less obvious. Japan retained its former emperor. This fact is used to argue that Japan's legal personality has not been interrupted, and that the continuation of the former imperial sovereignty means the continuity of the state. However, in reality there was no continuity, but recognition of the succession of imperial power took place, but the source of the preservation of the imperial dynasty is completely different - it is the will and decision of the victors.

Japan's position does not stand up to criticism that it cannot consider itself bound by the Yalta agreements, since it was not a party to them. If we recognize the right of today's Japan to challenge the territorial decisions of the victors, is it possible to guarantee that in the future the Oder-Neisse line, drawn not by the Germans, but by the victorious powers, who did not ask for the consent of Field Marshal Keitel, will not be questioned. Today's Japan is a post-war state, and a settlement can only proceed from the post-war international legal framework, especially since only this basis has legal force. What is especially interesting in this matter is that all the historical treaties of the past, which Japanese politicians refer to, have lost force in today’s disputes, not even in 1945, but back in 1904, with the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War.

History of the "Kuril issue" and international law

The entire “historical” layer of the Japanese side’s argumentation has no relation to the rights of today's Japanese state, although it certainly has something to do with Japanese history. In this argumentation, a special place is occupied by references to treaties of the 19th century - the Shimoda Trade Treaty of 1855, according to which the border was drawn between the islands of Urup and Iturup, and Sakhalin remained undelimited, as well as to the St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875, according to which Japan recognized everything Sakhalin to the Russians, all the Kuril Islands were transferred to Japan.

In modern Japanese literature, only those official historical studies and maps of the past are given, where in one way or another the Kuril Islands are designated as possessions of Japan. However, Japanese historians of the past gave Russia undisputed priority in the discovery and development of the islands and pointed out that until the middle of the 19th century, Japan did not consider its possessions not only the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, which was considered a peninsula there, while on the Russian side it had already been explored in detail , but even the island of Hokkaido, which was not yet inhabited. But already in late XIX V. Japan is seeking to oust Russian settlers from the Kuril Islands, destroy their posts, and evict the indigenous inhabitants - the Ainu, who, before the advent of the Russian pioneers, had not seen the Japanese and had not paid tribute to anyone.

Experts in the USSR, based on archival materials, foreign sources and cartographic data, gave a convincing answer to all unfounded attempts by Japan to distort the history of the discovery of the Kuril Islands. These works were prepared in the 60-70s, as a rule, for official use. They are scrupulously documented and free from propaganda sharpness, which the modern reader often suspects of bias.

Japanese diplomats believe that in recent years they have received irrefutable evidence of the “original” ownership of a number of islands currently disputed. We are talking about the instructions to Admiral Putyatin, with which he went to negotiate with Japan in 1853. Under A. Kozyrev, this archival document was “kindly” provided to Japan from the archives of the Russian Foreign Ministry by employees of the Kozyrev school - an action that at all times was considered incompatible with the official and departmental ethics of a diplomat - simply a betrayal. In the instructions for the negotiations in 1854, Nicholas I considered it possible, under certain conditions, to agree to the insistence of Japan and recognize that “of the Kuril Islands, the southernmost, belonging to Russia, is the island of Urup”... so that “from our side the southern tip of this island would be (as it essentially is now) border with Japan."

The Japanese side, and such “Russian” diplomats as G. Kunadze and others. interpret these words as evidence that the disputed islands did not belong to Russia even before 1855, and that the Russian government itself knew this and allegedly did not consider the Kuril Islands to be south of Urup Russian territory. However, these words only mean that the Russian government proceeded from the general recognition that the islands north of Urup belonged to Russia, and was aware that Japan disputed the ownership of the islands south of Urup.

At that time, the border between Russia and Japan had not yet been formally enshrined in an international bilateral treaty, which was what had to be done. The very construction of the phrase “as it is now in fact is", just means that in the opinion of the Sovereign there was a discrepancy between the proper border due to the ownership of the islands of Russia, and the line that "in fact", that is, in real circumstances it had to be observed in order to avoid sharp clashes with Japan, which claims the territory. Russia lacked a sufficient population capable of self-defense, economic infrastructure and armed posts in the Far East, that is, there was no military-political opportunity to actually exercise its sovereignty over these islands in the face of constant encroachments by the Japanese. The difficult international situation on the eve of the Crimean War forced us to behave in such a way as not to intensify the severity of relations, that is, to “essentially” retreat from our historical rights.

The mentioned Russian-Japanese treaties are like any territorial demarcations are a reflection of the balance of power and the international situation. The Treaty of Simoda was concluded at the height of the Crimean War, when English and French squadrons ruled the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky was besieged, and although the attack of the English landing force was repulsed, the port was even evacuated to Nikolaevsk-on-Amur. At any moment, the British could land on the Kuril Islands, which were not formally delimited in an international treaty. It was safer for Russia to make a delimitation in which part of the islands would be under the jurisdiction of Japan, which was weak in naval terms, but would not be subject to occupation by the strongest naval power, Great Britain. In addition, Japan’s agreement to trade food with Russia, which could not maintain its military posts on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands due to chronic food shortages, was considered a great success. Japan, which pursued a policy of complete isolation, for a long time categorically refused to sell even salt and flour.

Even then, the United States played an openly anti-Russian role and began a massive infiltration into the Far East-Pacific region. The United States considered Russia one of the main obstacles to its expansion, and Japan as a tool against it. American missions constantly convinced Japan not to agree to recognition of southern Sakhalin as Russian and suggested that Russia was seeking to seize Hokkaido. Russian diplomats had to disavow these insinuations, and the Americans even had to make official apologies. American printing in the 70s. XIX century openly expressed the hope that as a result of cooperation between the United States and Japan, a “reduction in Russia’s possessions in the eastern part of Asia” would be achieved.

The same situation persisted during the conclusion of the St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875 on the exchange of territories. It was more important to secure in an international legal manner the ownership of all of Sakhalin to Russia and protect it from the shameless military expansion of Western European powers. But even after the conclusion of these treaties, Japan almost never observed them, violating territorial waters and landing on other territories belonging to Russia, and later unleashed the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. And this war completely crossed out all previous decisions, because international law states: a state of war between states terminates the validity of any and all treaties between them. Today's Japan should be reminded of this, as well as the fact that this was precisely what was indicated by the Japanese side to Count S.Yu. Witte, who tried at the Portsmouth negotiations in 1905. save southern Sakhalin, referring to the 1875 agreement. According to the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia ceded all the Kuril Islands and southern Sakhalin to victorious Japan, which Russian diplomacy always viewed as a great defeat.

American Ambassador to Russia as an informant for the Japanese in 1905

A real detective story is the diplomatic game of the United States during the Portsmouth negotiations following the results of the Russo-Japanese War lost by Russia. The United States, of course, “took to heart the cause of universal peace,” which could lead to the much-desired “reduction of Russia’s possessions in the southern part of Asia.” American President Theodore Roosevelt believed that American "future history will be determined more by our position in the Pacific with respect to China than by our position in Atlantic Ocean in relation to Europe." The United States did not consider Japan itself a serious rival, but tried in every possible way to prevent the strengthening of Russian positions. Therefore, from the very beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Theodore Roosevelt's sympathies were on the side of Japan.

By the time of the Portsmouth negotiations, Roosevelt had agreed with the Japanese government on the delimitation of spheres of influence. According to a secret agreement dated July 31, 1905, through an exchange of telegrams between T. Roosevelt and Katsura, the Japanese Prime Minister, Japan renounced its “intentions” regarding the Philippines, leaving them to the will of the United States, and the United States agreed to Japan’s right to establish through military occupation control over Korea. (Against this background, it is inappropriate for Washington to be indignant at the Molotov-Ribbentropp Pact, which only allowed the USSR to restore the territory of historical Russia lost due to the revolution, civil war and interventions). Having such an “American-Japanese alliance” behind him, T. Roosevelt, who took on the role of an “honest broker,” could not be an impartial mediator. The real role of the United States is clarified by the very interesting memoirs of the largest Japanese diplomat of the early twentieth century. Kikujiro Ishii, a direct participant in the events, published in a brilliant translation by O.A. Troyanovsky and with excellent analysis by A.A. Troyanovsky Sr. Ishii later became the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the author of the famous agreement on special rights in China, the Lansing-Ishii Agreement of 1917.

At the Portsmouth Conference, the Japanese delegation demanded not only all of the Kuril Islands, but also all of Sakhalin, and monetary indemnity. Russia represented by Count S.Yu. Witte objected, showing, as Ishii put it, “hysterical stubbornness,” and refused to pay any indemnity at all. It is clear from the memoirs that Japan was so exhausted by the war and wanted peace as quickly as possible that by the end of the negotiations it was ready to agree to the ownership of all of Sakhalin by Russia without any monetary compensation. This was unknown neither to St. Petersburg nor to the Russian delegation, but the decision to concede was made by the Japanese government. Relevant instructions were sent to Portsmouth, ordering the Japanese delegation, in case of further persistence of the Russian delegation, to agree to retain all of Sakhalin for Russia.

At the moment when the Japanese government decided to retreat from its initial demands regarding Sakhalin, Russia was completely unaware of these intentions, Washington was immediately informed by someone about this prospect that did not suit it, and the United States undertook to “help.” How much the United States would like to “reduce Russia’s possessions” is clear from T. Roosevelt’s telegram to Nicholas II. The American “peacekeeper” frightened Japan with insurmountable claims and its determination to resume hostilities, threatening that “continuation of the war could lead to the loss of all Russian territory east of the lake Baikal", that is, to stop the existence of Russia as a Pacific power. These days in St. Petersburg, the American Ambassador to Russia Mayer asked for an audience and began to persuade Nicholas II to make concessions, promising the mediation of President T. Roosevelt in the matter of “persuading” Japan to renounce the indemnity. Nicholas II generally “persisted,” but then “in passing, as if to himself, he noted that it would be possible to consider the possibility of transferring the southern part of Sakhalin to Japan...” Information about Russia’s potential readiness to cede southern Sakhalin was immediately transmitted to President T. Roosevelt, and in less than a day became known to the Japanese side, Ishii in his memoirs strongly denies the assumption (naturally arising in the reader) that the American president could convey this information to Tokyo, however, the facts indicate the opposite.

A fortunate circumstance for Japan was the 14-hour time difference between Tokyo and Portsmouth. Ishii managed to meet with the Prime Minister, who at first doubted the reliability of the information. The Minister of War warned Ishii that he would have to commit hara-kiri if the information turned out to be false. But Ishii was confident in the reliability of the communication channel. It can be assumed that this same channel had already proven itself by informing Roosevelt of the Japanese decision to accept the Russian conditions. Of course, Ishii describes the acquisition of this information as pure "accident" during a conversation with "a friend" "at one of the foreign missions in Tokyo" in which he "learned about what happened during the royal audience." Ishii insisted that the old instructions be immediately withdrawn and new instructions sent. The Japanese delegation postponed the next meeting, then, following new instructions, made the following statement: “The Imperial Government has decided, as a sign of its love of peace, to renounce its demands for all of Sakhalin and is making the last concession, being satisfied with the southern half of the island.” From everything it is clear that the diplomacy of Witte, who received the nickname “Count of Polus-Sakhalinsky,” was not successful. With some firmness, Russia would not have lost the southern part of Sakhalin.

What was decided in Yalta, Potsdam and San Francisco?

The only valid and legally binding international legal documents that should form the basis of the current approach to the problem of the Kuril chain are the decisions of the powers at Yalta, Potsdam and the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan, signed in 1951 by 51 states led by the United States. In accordance with the decisions of the Yalta Conference, all the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island were returned “forever” to the Soviet Union. This was also confirmed by the Potsdam Declaration of the USA, Great Britain and China, which was later joined by the USSR.

The text, compiled even without the USSR, stated that “after complete and unconditional surrender, the sovereignty of Japan will be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and even less large islands, which we will indicate"The last words illustrate the legal consequences of the principle of complete and unconditional surrender - Japan's loss of international legal personality and the right to discuss peace terms. Based on these documents, the US military administration in Japan sent Directive N677 on January 29, 1946. indicating that all Kuril Islands, including Sikotan and Habomai, are excluded from Japanese jurisdiction.

The USSR did not sign the San Francisco Peace Treaty with Japan. International relations in Asia after the war were extremely complex due to the completely new role of communist China, relations with which in Asia were extremely important for the USSR. The West, on the contrary, recognized the Taiwanese Kuomintang government. As a result, in this treaty the United States managed to impose many provisions that were contrary to the interests of the Soviet Union. This agreement does not indicate that the territories in question are transferred to the USSR. But this does not change the immutable fact that in Article 2 of this treaty Japan “renounces all rights, title and claims to the Kuril Islands and that part of Sakhalin Island and the adjacent islands, sovereignty over which Japan acquired under the Treaty of Portsmouth of the 5th September 1905."

Since it seems impossible to circumvent the provisions of the San Francisco Treaty, and their direct undermining would undermine territorial stability in Asia - the status of Outer Mongolia, the independence of Korea, and more, Japan and the United States invented a new argument in the mid-50s, which is intensively imposed on the world community . Now the islands of Sikotan and Habomai allegedly belong to the Hokkaido island system, and the concept of the Kuril Islands allegedly does not cover the “special geographical unit” - the “Southern Kurils” (with a capital “Y”) - Kunashir and Iturup. This is, of course, a geographical “innovation”; even the Encyclopedia Britannica clearly points to Kunashir and Iturup as “the largest of the Kuril Islands”. Any geographical atlas considers the Kuril Islands as a single geographical concept, since the Kuril ridge has all the signs of such a classification.

However, the United States and Japan are completely clear that in the Treaty of San Francisco Japan abandoned everyone Kuril Islands, no doubt. Thus, the book by the American author D. Reese “Seizure of the Kuril Islands by the Soviets” is kept in a special depository in Japanese libraries - it contains an excerpt from the US Navy reference book, published in 1943. in case of military operations in the area. The directory lists all the "Kuril Islands" with their description from the point of view of military navigation. Among them are the very islands that Japan now declares not to belong to the Kuril chain. The book cites a recording of a conversation between A. Dulles and Yoshida, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, who asked whether it was possible to present the matter in such a way that the Yalta-Potsdam decision did not apply to the southern islands of the Kuril chain. Dulles responded that such a dramatic change to previous agreements would require years of debate, which would delay Japan's attainment of full sovereignty indefinitely. So Japan was aware of which islands it was losing.

A high-ranking Japanese official, Nishimura, director of the Peace Treaty Department of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, presenting the terms of the San Francisco Treaty in the Japanese Parliament, explained that “the concept of the Kuril Islands, appearing in the treaty, includes all the islands, both northern and southern.” In response to the reproaches of the nationalists, Nishimura replied in parliament that “the loss of sovereignty entails for Japan the loss of the right to speak out about the ultimate ownership of the territory.”

We must also be calm about the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of October 19, 1956, which ended the state of war and also stated the USSR’s agreement to transfer the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, but after concluding a peace treaty. A declaration is different from a contract and is a protocol of intent. During this time, Japan concluded a military cooperation agreement with the United States, which secured the indefinite presence of American armed forces on its territory. Troops from a third party - the United States - would not fail to appear on the islands. Despite all the short-sightedness of Khrushchev’s statement, it is not about a “return”, but about "transfer", that is, readiness to dispose of one’s territory as an act of goodwill, which does not create a precedent for revising the results of the war. Statements that a peace treaty is supposedly necessary for normal relations are also unfounded. There are cases in international law where post-war settlements were achieved without it. There was no peace treaty with Germany, the state of war with which was ended unilaterally by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and legal acts of the Allied powers.

The principle of the inviolability of the results of the Second World War should be the basis of a new stage of Russian-Japanese relations, and the term “return” should be forgotten forever. But maybe it’s worth letting Japan create a museum of military glory on Kunashir, from which Japanese pilots fantastically bombed Pearl Harbor. Let the Japanese often remember what the Americans did to them in response, and about the US base in Okinawa, but they feel the Russians’ tribute to their former enemy.

 

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