History of the Kuril Islands. Kurile Islands

To the root of the problem

One of the first documents regulating Russian-Japanese relations was the Shimoda Treaty, signed on January 26, 1855. According to the second article of the treatise, the border was established between the islands of Urup and Iturup - that is, all four islands now claimed by Japan today were recognized as the possession of Japan.

Since 1981, the date of the signing of the Shimoda Treaty has been celebrated in Japan as "Northern Territories Day". Another thing is that, relying on the Shimoda treatise as one of the fundamental documents, in Japan they forget about one important point. In 1904, Japan, having attacked the Russian squadron in Port Arthur and unleashed the Russo-Japanese War, itself violated the terms of the treaty, which provided for friendship and good neighborly relations between states.

The Shimoda treaty did not determine the ownership of Sakhalin, where both Russian and Japanese settlements were located, and by the mid-70s a solution to this issue was also ripe. The St. Petersburg Treaty was signed, which was ambiguously assessed by both parties. Under the terms of the treaty, Japan now completely departed all Kurile Islands, and Russia received full control over Sakhalin.

Then, following the results Russo-Japanese War, according to the Portsmouth Treaty, the southern part of Sakhalin to the 50th parallel went to Japan.

In 1925, the Soviet-Japanese Convention was signed in Beijing, generally confirming the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty. As is known, the late 1930s and early 1940s were extremely tense in Soviet-Japanese relations and were associated with a series of military conflicts of various scales.

The situation began to change by 1945, when the Axis began to suffer heavy defeats and the prospect of losing the Second World War became more and more obvious. Against this background, the question arose about the post-war structure of the world. So, according to the terms of the Yalta Conference, the USSR pledged to enter the war against Japan, and to Soviet Union South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands departed.

True, at the same time, the Japanese leadership was ready to voluntarily cede these territories in exchange for the neutrality of the USSR and the supply of Soviet oil. The USSR did not take such a very slippery step. The defeat of Japan by that time was a matter of maybe not a quick, but still time. And most importantly, by refraining from decisive action, the Soviet Union would actually hand the situation in the Far East into the hands of the United States and its allies.

By the way, this also applies to the events of the Soviet-Japanese War and the Kuril landing operation itself, which was not originally prepared. When it became known about the preparations for the landing of American troops on the Kuriles, the Kuril landing operation was urgently prepared in a day. Fierce fighting in August 1945 ended with the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in the Kuriles.

Fortunately, the Japanese command did not know the real number of Soviet paratroopers and, without fully using their overwhelming numerical superiority, capitulated. At the same time, the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk offensive. So, at the cost of considerable losses, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands became part of the USSR.

The Kuril Islands are represented by a series of Far Eastern island territories, 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 Oblast, which stretches for about 1,200 km in length with an available area of ​​15,600 square kilometers.

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

Shikotan, Habomai and a number of others are considered to be the Small Kuriles. For the most part, all island territories are mountainous and go up to 2,339 meters in height. The Kuril Islands on their lands have about 40 volcanic hills that are still active. Also here is the location of springs with hot mineral water. The south of the Kuriles is covered with forest plantations, and the north attracts with unique tundra vegetation.

The problem of the Kuril Islands lies in the unresolved dispute between the Japanese and Russian sides over who owns them. And it has been open since WWII.

The Kuril Islands after the war began to belong to the USSR. But Japan considers the territories of the southern Kuriles, and these are Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan with the Habomai group of islands, as its territory, without having a legal basis for that. 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 demand that the Kuril Islands be returned to them. There, almost the entire population 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 concede to the Japanese leaders of the state in this matter. The peace agreement has not been signed to this day, and this is connected precisely with the four disputed South Kuril Islands. About the legitimacy of Japan's claims to the Kuril Islands in this video.

The meanings of the southern Kuriles

The Southern Kuriles have several meanings for both countries:

1. Military. The Southern Kuriles are of military importance, thanks to the only outlet to the Pacific Ocean for the country's fleet located there. And all because of the scarcity of geographical formations. At the moment, the ships enter the 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. Operating in Soviet time the military bases are now all looted and abandoned.
2. Economic. Economic importance - in the Sakhalin region there is a rather serious hydrocarbon potential. And belonging to Russia of the entire territory of the Kuriles, allows you to use the waters there at your discretion. Although its central part belongs to the Japanese side. Apart from water resources, there is such a rare metal as rhenium. Extracting it, the Russian Federation is in third place in the extraction of minerals and sulfur. For the Japanese, this area is important for fishing and agricultural purposes. This caught fish is used by the Japanese to grow rice - they simply pour it into the rice fields for fertilizer.
3. Social. By by and large there is no special social interest for ordinary people in the southern Kuriles. This is because there are no modern megacities, people mostly work there and live 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 Kuriles. 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 volcano caldera and crossing the fumarole field on foot. And there is no need to talk about the views that open to the eye.

For this reason, the dispute over the ownership of the Kuril Islands has not moved forward.

Dispute over the Kuril territory

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

Information from written sources indicates the discoverers of the Kuriles - the Dutch. The Russians were the first to populate the territory of Chishim. Shikotan Island and the other three are designated for the first time by the Japanese. But the fact of discovery does not yet give grounds for the possession of this territory.

The island of Shikotan is considered to be 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 end of the world due to the amazing view of the Pacific Ocean.
Shikotan Island translates as Big City. It stretches for 27 kilometers, has a width of 13 km, occupied area - 225 square meters. km. most high point island is the mountain of the same name, rising to 412 meters. Partially its territory belongs to the state nature reserve.

Shikotan Island has a very indented coastline with multiple bays, capes and cliffs.

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

A bit of history

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

A treaty was signed between Russia and Japan (1855), called Shimodsky, where the boundaries were established, allowing Japanese citizens to trade on 2/3 of this land. Sakhalin remained a nobody's territory. After 20 years, Russia became the undivided owner of this land, then losing the south in the Russo-Japanese War. But during WWII Soviet troops nevertheless, they were able to regain back the south of Sakhalin land and the Kuril Islands as a whole.
Between the states that won the victory and Japan, nevertheless, a peace agreement was signed and it 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 many researchers considered a mistake. But there were good reasons for this:

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

Between the USSR and the Japanese side in 1956, a declaration was signed, preparing a platform for the main peace agreement. In it, the Land of the Soviets goes to meet the Japanese and agrees to transfer to them only the two disputed islands of Habomai and Shikotan. But with a condition - only after the signing of 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 signing of the peace treaty.
• This applies only to the two Kuril Islands.

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

After that, a call came from Japan to give up not two islands proposed by the USSR, but four. America puts pressure on the fact that all agreements between the Land of Soviets and Japan are not obligatory 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, now they have come even closer to Russian territory.

Proceeding from all this, Russian diplomats declared that until all foreign troops were withdrawn from its territory, it was impossible even to talk about a peace agreement. But in any case, we are talking about only two islands of the Kuriles.

As a result, the power structures of America are still located on the territory of Japan. The Japanese insist on the transfer of the 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 under these conditions, the Japanese side again raises this topic. But the dispute about who will own the South Kuril Islands, the countries remained open. The Tokyo Declaration of 1993 states that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, respectively, and previously signed papers must be recognized by both parties. It also indicated the direction to move towards the solution of the territorial affiliation of the disputed four Kuril Islands.

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

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

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

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

TASS-DOSIER. On December 15, 2016, the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan begins. It is assumed that one of the topics during his talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be the question of ownership of the Kuril Islands.

Currently, Japan is putting forward territorial claims to the Russian islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a group of small islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge (the Japanese name is Habomai).

The TASS-DOSIER editors have prepared material on the history of this problem and attempts to solve it.

background

The Kuril archipelago is a chain of islands between Kamchatka and the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It is formed by two ridges. The largest of the islands of the Great Kuril ridge are Iturup, Paramushir, Kunashir. The largest island of the Lesser Kuril Ridge is Shikotan.

Initially, the islands were inhabited by the Ainu tribes. The first information about the Kuril Islands was received by the Japanese during the expedition of 1635-1637. In 1643 they were surveyed by the Dutch (led by Martin de Vries). The first Russian expedition (led by V.V. Atlasov) reached the northern part of the Kuriles in 1697. In 1786, by decree of Catherine II, the Kuril archipelago was included in the Russian Empire.

On February 7, 1855, Japan and Russia signed the Shimodsky Treaty, according to which Iturup, Kunashir and the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge were transferred to Japan, and the rest of the Kuriles were recognized as Russian. Sakhalin was declared a joint possession - an "undivided" territory. However, some unsettled questions about the status of Sakhalin led to conflicts between Russian and Japanese merchants and sailors. The contradictions of the parties were resolved in 1875 with the signing of the St. Petersburg Treaty on the exchange of territories. In accordance with it, Russia transferred all the Kuril Islands to Japan, and Japan renounced claims to Sakhalin.

On September 5, 1905, as a result of the Russo-Japanese War, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed, according to which part of Sakhalin south of the 50th parallel passed into the possession of Japan.

return of the islands

At the final stage of the Second World War, during the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the USSR named the return of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands among the conditions for the start of hostilities against Japan. This decision was enshrined in the Yalta Agreement between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain of February 11, 1945 ("Crimean Agreement of the Three Great Powers on the Far East"). On August 9, 1945, the USSR entered the war against Japan. From August 18 to September 1, 1945, Soviet troops carried out the Kuril landing operation, which led to the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in the archipelago.

On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender, accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. According to the document, Japanese sovereignty was limited to the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido, as well as the smaller islands of the Japanese archipelago.

On January 29, 1946, the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in Japan, American General Douglas MacArthur, notified the Japanese government of the exclusion of the Kuril Islands from the territory of the country. On February 2, 1946, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuril Islands were included in the USSR.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951, concluded between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan, Tokyo renounced all rights, titles and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the Soviet delegation did not sign this document, since it did not stipulate the question of the withdrawal of the occupying troops from the territory of Japan. In addition, the treaty did not spell out which particular islands of the Kuril archipelago were discussed and in whose favor Japan refuses them.

This was the main reason for the existing territorial problem, which is still the main obstacle to the conclusion of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan.

The essence of the disagreement

The principal position of the USSR and Russia was and is that "the belonging of the southern Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai) to the Russian Federation is based on the generally recognized results of the Second World War and the unshakable post-war international legal basis, including the UN Charter. Thus, Russian sovereignty over them has a corresponding international legal form and is beyond doubt" (statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated February 7, 2015).

Japan, referring to the Shimodsky Treaty of 1855, claims that Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and a number of small islands never belonged to the Russian Empire and considers their inclusion in the USSR illegal. In addition, according to the Japanese side, these islands are not part of the Kuril archipelago and therefore they do not fall under the term "Kuril Islands", which was used in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951. Currently, in Japanese political terminology, the disputed islands are called " northern territories.

Declaration of 1956

In 1956, the USSR and Japan signed a Joint Declaration that formally declared the end of the war and restored bilateral diplomatic relations. In it, the USSR agreed to transfer the island of Shikotan and the uninhabited islands to Japan (reserving Iturup and Kunashir) after the conclusion of a full-fledged peace treaty. The declaration was ratified by the parliaments of the two states.

However, in 1960, the Japanese government agreed to sign a security treaty with the United States, which provided for the maintenance of the American military presence on Japanese territory. In response, the USSR annulled the obligations undertaken in 1956. At the same time, the Soviet Union stipulated the transfer of the islands by the fulfillment by Japan of two conditions - the signing of a peace treaty and the withdrawal foreign troops from the territory of the country.

Until the early 1990s. the Soviet side did not mention the 1956 declaration, although Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka tried to return to discussing it during his visit to Moscow in 1973 (the first Soviet-Japanese summit).

Intensified dialogue in the 1990s

The situation began to change with the beginning of perestroika in the 1980s, the USSR recognized the existence of a territorial problem. Following the visit of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in April 1991, the joint communique included a provision on the intention of the parties to continue negotiations on the normalization of relations and on a peaceful settlement, including territorial issues.

The presence of the territorial problem was also confirmed in the Tokyo Declaration, signed following negotiations between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Japanese Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in October 1993. The document recorded the desire of the parties to resolve the issue of territorial ownership of the disputed islands.

In the Moscow Declaration (November 1998), President Yeltsin and Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi "confirmed their determination to make every effort to conclude a peace treaty by the year 2000." Then the Russian side for the first time expressed the opinion that it is necessary to create conditions and a favorable atmosphere for "joint economic and other activities" in the South Kuriles without prejudice to the legal positions of both sides.

Modern stage

In 2008, Japanese politicians began to introduce the term "illegally occupied northern territories" in relation to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai. In June 2009, the Japanese Parliament passed amendments to the special measures to help solve the "problem of the northern territories", according to which the Japanese government agencies are ordered to make every effort to return the "original lands of Japan" as soon as possible.

Visits to the islands by top Russian officials provoke a negative reaction in Tokyo (Dmitry Medvedev visited the islands in 2010 as president, in 2012 and 2015 as prime minister; the first two times he was in Kunashir, the last in Iturup). Japanese leaders periodically make "inspections of the northern territories" from an airplane or boat (the first such inspection was made by Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki in 1981).

The territorial issue is regularly discussed at Russian-Japanese talks. It was especially often raised by the administration of Shinzo Abe, who again took over as prime minister in 2012. However, it has not yet been possible to finally bring positions closer together.

In March 2012, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that on the territorial issue it was necessary "to achieve an acceptable compromise or something like a hikiwake" ("draw", a term from judo). In May 2016, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Japanese Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on the need to develop dialogue in a "constructive manner, without emotional outbursts, public controversy" and agreed on a "new approach" to solving bilateral problems, but the details of the agreements were not reported.

The history of the end of the Second World War is interesting.

As you know, on August 6, 1945, the US Air Force dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, and then on August 9, 1945, on Nagasaki. The plans were to drop several more bombs, the third of which would be ready by August 17-18 and would have been dropped if such an order had been given by Truman. Tom did not have to solve the dilemma, since on August 14-15 the Japanese government announced its surrender.

Soviet and Russian citizens, of course, know that by dropping nuclear bombs, the Americans committed a war crime, purely to scare Stalin, and the Americans and Japanese - that they forced Japan to capitulate in World War II, which saved at least a million human lives, mostly military and civilian Japanese, and of course, allied soldiers, mainly from among the Americans.

Imagine for a moment, did the Americans scare Stalin with a nuclear bomb, even if they suddenly set such a goal? The answer is obvious - no. The USSR entered the war with Japan only on August 8, 1945, i.e. 2 days after the bombing of Hiroshima. The date of May 8 is not accidental. At the Yalta Conference on February 4-11, 1945, Stalin promised that the USSR would go to war with Japan 2-3 months after the end of the war with Germany, with which [Japan] had a neutrality pact concluded on April 13, 1941 (see. the main events of World War II according to the author of this LJ). Thus, Stalin fulfilled his promise on the last day of the promised 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany, but immediately after the bombing of Hiroshima. Would he have fulfilled this promise or not without it, is interesting question, perhaps historians have an answer to it, but this is not known to me.

So, Japan announced its surrender on August 14-15, but this did not lead to the end of hostilities against the USSR. The Soviet army continued to advance in Manchuria. Again, it is obvious to Soviet and Russian citizens that hostilities continued because the Japanese army refused to surrender because some did not reach the surrender order, and some ignored it. The question is, of course, what would happen if the Soviet army stopped offensive operations after August 14-15. Would this lead to the surrender of the Japanese and save about 10 thousand lives of Soviet soldiers?

As is known, between Japan and the USSR, and after Russia, there is still no peace treaty. The problem of a peace treaty is linked to the so-called "northern territories" or the disputed islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge.

Let's start. Under the cut, a Google earth image of the territory of Hokkaido (Japan) and now Russian territories to the north - Sakhalin, Kuriles and Kamchatka. The Kuril Islands are divided into the Big Ridge, which includes large and small islands from Shumshu in the north to Kunashir in the south, and the Small Ridge, which includes Shikotan in the north to the islands of the Habomai group in the south (limited in the diagram by white lines).

From the blog

To understand the problem disputed territories let's plunge into the deaf history of the development of the Far East by the Japanese and Russians. Before those and others, local Ainu and other nationalities lived there, whose opinion, according to the good old tradition, does not bother anyone because of their almost complete disappearance (Ainu) and / or Russification (Kamchadals). The Japanese were the first to enter these territories. First they came to Hokkaido, and by 1637 they had mapped Sakhalin and the Kuriles.

From the blog

Later, Russians came to these places, drew up maps and dates, and in 1786 Catherine II declared the Kuriles her possessions. Sakhalin thus remained a draw.

From the blog

In 1855, namely on February 7, an agreement was signed between Japan and Russia, according to which Urup and the islands of the Great Kuril ridge to the north went to Russia, and Iturup and the islands to the south, including all the islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge - to Japan. Sakhalin, speaking modern language, was a disputed possession. True, due to the small number of Japanese and Russian populations, the issue was not so serious at the state level, except that merchants had problems.

From the blog

In 1875, the issue of Sakhalin was settled in St. Petersburg. Sakhalin passed completely to Russia, in return Japan received all the Kuril Islands.

From the blog

In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began in the Far East, in which Russia was defeated, and as a result, in 1905, the southern part of Sakhalin passed to Japan. In 1925 the USSR recognizes this state of affairs. After there were all sorts of minor skirmishes, but the status quo lasted until the end of World War II.

From the blog

Finally, at the Yalta Conference on February 4-11, 1945, Stalin discussed the issue of the Far East with the Allies. I repeat, he promised that the USSR would enter the war with Japan after the victory over Germany, which was already just around the corner, but in return the USSR would return Sakhalin, as illegally conquered by Japan during the war of 1905, and would receive the Kuriles, though in an indefinite amount.

And here the most interesting begins in the context of the Kuril Islands.

August 16-23 with fights Soviet army breaks the Japanese grouping in the Northern Kuriles (Shumshu). On August 27-28, without a fight, since the Japanese surrendered, the Soviet Army takes Urup. On September 1, there is a landing on Kunashir and Shikotan, the Japanese do not offer any resistance.

From the blog

September 2, 1945 Japan signs the surrender - Second World War officially completed. And here comes the Crimean operation to seize the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge, located south of Shikotan, known as the Habomai Islands.

The war is over, and the Soviet land continues to grow with native Japanese islands. Moreover, I never found when Tanfilyev Island (a completely deserted and flat piece of land off the very coast of Hokkaido) became ours. But it is certain that in 1946 a frontier post was organized there, which became a well-known massacre, which was staged by two Russian border guards in 1994.

From the blog

As a result, Japan does not recognize the seizure of its "northern territories" by the USSR and does not recognize that these territories have passed to Russia as the legal successor of the USSR. February 7 (according to the date of the agreement with Russia in 1855) celebrates the day of the Northern Territories, which, according to the agreement of 1855, include all the islands south of Urup.

An attempt (unsuccessful) to solve this problem was made in 1951 in San Francisco. Japan, under this treaty, must renounce any claims to Sakhalin and the Kuriles, with the exception of Shikotan and the Habomai group. The USSR did not sign the treaty. The United States signed the treaty with the proviso: It is envisaged that the terms of the Treaty will not mean the recognition for the USSR of any rights or claims in the territories that belonged to Japan on December 7, 1941, which would prejudice the rights and legal foundations of Japan in these territories, nor will any however there were provisions in favor of the USSR with respect to Japan contained in the Yalta Agreement.»

Soviet comments on the treaty:

Gromyko's (USSR Foreign Minister) remark on the treaty: The Soviet delegation has already drawn the attention of the conference to the inadmissibility of such a situation when the draft peace treaty with Japan does not say that Japan should recognize the sovereignty of the Soviet Union over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The project is in gross contradiction with the obligations in respect of these territories undertaken by the United States and Britain under the Yalta Agreement. http://www.hrono.ru/dokum/195_dok/19510908gromy.php

In 1956, the USSR promised Japan to return Shikotan and the Habomai group if Japan did not lay claim to Kunashir and Iturup. Whether the Japanese agreed with this or not, opinions differ. We say yes - Shikotan and Habomai are yours, and Kunashir and Iturup are ours. The Japanese say that everything south of Urup is theirs.

UPD Declaration text: At the same time, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Shikotan Islands to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion.

The Japanese then played back (like under pressure from the Americans), linking together all the islands south of Urup.

I do not want to predict how history will unfold further, but most likely Japan will take advantage of ancient Chinese wisdom and wait until all the disputed islands sail to them themselves. The only question is whether they will stop at the 1855 treaty or go further to the 1875 treaty.

____________________________

Shinzo Abe announced that he would annex the disputed islands of the South Kuril chain to Japan. “I will solve the problem of the northern territories and conclude a peace treaty. As a politician, as a prime minister, I want to achieve this at all costs,” he promised his compatriots.

According to Japanese tradition, Shinzo Abe will have to do hara-kiri if he does not keep his word. It is quite possible that Vladimir Putin will help the Japanese prime minister live to a ripe old age and die a natural death.

In my opinion, everything goes to the fact that the long-standing conflict will be settled. The time to establish decent relations with Japan was chosen very well - for the empty hard-to-reach lands, which their former owners now and then look nostalgically, you can get a lot of material benefits from one of the most powerful economies in the world. And the lifting of sanctions as a condition for the transfer of the islands is far from the only and not the main concession, which, I am sure, our Foreign Ministry is now seeking.

So the quite expected surge of quasi-patriotism of our liberals, directed at the Russian president, should be prevented.

I have already had to analyze in detail the history of the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky on the Amur, the loss of which Moscow snobs cannot come to terms with. The post also discussed the dispute with Norway over maritime territories, which was also settled.

I also touched upon the secret negotiations between the human rights activist Lev Ponomarev and the Japanese diplomat about the "northern territories", filmed on video and posted online. Generally speaking, one of this video it is enough for our caring citizens to bashfully swallow the return of the islands to Japan, if it takes place. But since concerned citizens will definitely not keep silent, we must understand the essence of the problem.

background

February 7, 1855 - Shimoda Treatise on Commerce and Frontiers. The now disputed islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands have been ceded to Japan (therefore, February 7 is annually celebrated in Japan as Northern Territories Day). The question of the status of Sakhalin remained unresolved.

May 7, 1875 - Petersburg Treaty. Japan transferred the rights to all 18 Kuril Islands in exchange for the entire Sakhalin.

August 23, 1905 - Treaty of Portsmouth following the results of the Russo-Japanese War. Russia ceded the southern part of Sakhalin.

February 11, 1945 - Yalta Conference. The USSR, USA and Great Britain reached a written agreement on the entry of the Soviet Union into the war with Japan on the condition that South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands be returned to it after the end of the war.

On February 2, 1946, on the basis of the Yalta Agreements, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region was created in the USSR - on the territory of the southern part of Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On January 2, 1947, it was merged with the Sakhalin Oblast of the Khabarovsk Territory, which expanded to the borders of the modern Sakhalin Oblast.

Japan enters the Cold War

On September 8, 1951, the Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan was signed in San Francisco. Regarding the now disputed territories, it says the following: "Japan renounces all rights, titles and claims to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin Island and the islands adjacent to it, sovereignty over which Japan acquired under the Portsmouth Treaty of September 5, 1905."

The USSR sent a delegation to San Francisco headed by Deputy Foreign Minister A. Gromyko. But not in order to sign a document, but to voice their position. We formulated the mentioned clause of the treaty as follows: “Japan recognizes the full sovereignty of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics over the southern part of Sakhalin Island with all the islands adjacent to it and the Kuril Islands and renounces all rights, titles and claims to these territories.”

Of course, in our wording, the treaty is specific and more in line with the spirit and letter of the Yalta agreements. However, the Anglo-American version was adopted. The USSR did not sign it, Japan did.

Today, some historians believe that the USSR should have signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty in the form in which it was proposed by the Americans - this would strengthen our negotiating position. “We should have signed a contract. I don’t know why we didn’t do this - perhaps because of vanity or pride, but above all, because Stalin overestimated his capabilities and the degree of his influence on the United States, ”N.S. wrote in his memoirs .Khrushchev. But soon, as we shall see later, he himself made a mistake.

From today's standpoint, the lack of a signature under the notorious treaty is sometimes considered almost a diplomatic failure. However, the international situation of that time was much more complicated and was not limited to the Far East. Perhaps, what seems to someone a loss, in those conditions became a necessary measure.

Japan and sanctions

It is sometimes erroneously believed that since we do not have a peace treaty with Japan, we are in a state of war. However, this is not at all the case.

On December 12, 1956, a ceremony for the exchange of letters took place in Tokyo, marking the entry into force of the Joint Declaration. According to the document, the USSR agreed to "the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Shikotan Islands to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan."

The parties came to this wording after several rounds. long negotiations. Japan's initial proposal was simple: a return to Potsdam - that is, the transfer of all the Kuriles and South Sakhalin to it. Of course, such a proposal by the losing side of the war looked somewhat frivolous.

The USSR was not going to cede an inch, but unexpectedly for the Japanese, Habomai and Shikotan suddenly offered. This was a reserve position, approved by the Politburo, but announced prematurely - the head of the Soviet delegation, Ya.A. On August 9, 1956, during a conversation with his counterpart in the garden of the Japanese embassy in London, the reserve position was announced. It was she who entered the text of the Joint Declaration.

It must be clarified that the influence of the United States on Japan at that time was enormous (however, as now). They closely monitored all her contacts with the USSR and, undoubtedly, were the third participant in the negotiations, although invisible.

At the end of August 1956, Washington threatened Tokyo that if, under a peace treaty with the USSR, Japan renounces its claims to Kunashir and Iturup, the United States will forever retain the occupied island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago. The note included a wording that clearly played on the national feelings of the Japanese: “The US government has come to the conclusion that the islands of Iturup and Kunashir (along with the islands of Habomai and Shikotan, which are part of Hokkaido) have always been part of Japan and should rightly be considered as belonging to Japan ". That is, the Yalta agreements were publicly disavowed.

The affiliation of the "northern territories" of Hokkaido, of course, is a lie - on all military and pre-war Japanese maps, the islands have always been part of the Kuril ridge and have never been designated separately. However, the idea was well received. It was on this geographical absurdity that entire generations of politicians in the Land of the Rising Sun made their careers.

The peace treaty has not yet been signed - in our relations we are guided by the Joint Declaration of 1956.

Issue price

I think that even in the first term of his presidency, Vladimir Putin decided to settle all disputed territorial issues with his neighbors. Including with Japan. In any case, back in 2004, Sergey Lavrov formulated the position of the Russian leadership: “We have always fulfilled and will continue to fulfill our obligations, especially ratified documents, but, of course, to the extent that our partners are ready to fulfill the same agreements . So far, as we know, we have not been able to reach an understanding of these volumes as we see it and as we saw it in 1956.

"Until Japan's ownership of all four islands is clearly defined, a peace treaty will not be concluded," then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi responded. The negotiation process has again reached an impasse.

However, this year we again remembered the peace treaty with Japan.

In May, at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin said that Russia was ready to negotiate with Japan on the disputed islands, and the solution should be a compromise. That is, none of the parties should feel like a loser. “Are you ready to negotiate? Yes, ready. But we were surprised to hear recently that Japan has joined some kind of sanctions - and here Japan, I do not really understand - and is suspending the negotiation process on this topic. So we are ready, is Japan ready, I haven’t learned for myself, ”said the President of the Russian Federation.

It seems that the pain point is found correctly. And the negotiation process (I hope, this time in offices tightly closed from American ears) has been in full swing for at least six months. Otherwise, Shinzo Abe would not have made such promises.

If we fulfill the terms of the 1956 Joint Declaration and return the two islands to Japan, 2,100 people will have to be resettled. All of them live on Shikotan, only a frontier post is located on Habomai. Most likely, the problem of the presence of our armed forces on the islands is being discussed. However, for complete control over the region, the troops deployed on Sakhalin, Kunashir and Iturup are quite enough.

Another question is what reciprocal concessions we expect from Japan. It is clear that the sanctions should be lifted - this is not even discussed. Perhaps access to credits and technologies, expansion of participation in joint projects? Not excluded.

Be that as it may, Shinzo Abe faces a difficult choice. The conclusion of the long-awaited peace treaty with Russia, spiced with "northern territories", would certainly have made him the politician of the century in his homeland. It will inevitably lead to tension in relations between Japan and the United States. I wonder what the Prime Minister would prefer.

And we will somehow survive the internal Russian tension that our liberals will inflate.

From the blog

The Habomai group of islands is labeled "Other Islands" on this map. These are several white spots between Shikotan and Hokkaido.

(The post was written more than two years ago, but the situation has not changed as of the current day, but talk about the Kuriles has intensified again in recent days, - ed.)

The World Politics Review newspaper believes that Putin's main mistake now is "a dismissive attitude towards Japan."
A bold Russian initiative to settle the dispute over the Kuril Islands would give Japan great grounds for cooperating with Moscow.- so today transmits IA REGNUM.
This "disdainful attitude" is expressed in an understandable way - give the Kuriles to Japan. It would seem - what about the Americans and their European satellites to the Kuriles, what is in another part of the world?
Everything is simple. Hidden under Japanophilia is a desire to turn the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from inland Russian into a sea open to the "world community." With great consequences for us, both military and economic.

Well, so who was the first to master these lands? Why on earth does Japan consider these islands to be its ancestral territories?
To do this, let's look at the history of the development of the Kuril ridge.
The islands were originally inhabited by the Ainu. In their language, “kuru” meant “a person who came from nowhere,” from which their second name “smokers” came from, and then the name of the archipelago.

In Russia, the Kuril Islands are first mentioned in the reporting document of N. I. Kolobov to Tsar Alexei from 1646 years about the peculiarities of the wanderings of I. Yu. Moskvitin. Also, data from the chronicles and maps of medieval Holland, Scandinavia and Germany testify to the indigenous Russian villages. N. I. Kolobov spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the islands. The Ainu were engaged in gathering, fishing and hunting, lived in small settlements throughout the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin.
Founded after the campaign of Semyon Dezhnev in 1649, the cities of Anadyr and Okhotsk became bases for exploring the Kuril Islands, Alaska and California.

The development of new lands by Russia took place in a civilized manner and was not accompanied by the extermination or displacement of the local population from the territory of their historical homeland, as happened, for example, with the North American Indians. The arrival of the Russians led to the spread among the local population of more effective means hunting, metal products, and most importantly - contributed to the cessation of bloody tribal strife. Under the influence of the Russians, these peoples began to join agriculture and move on to a settled way of life. Trade revived, Russian merchants flooded Siberia and the Far East with goods, the existence of which was not even known to the local population.

In 1654, the Yakut Cossack foreman M. Stadukhin visited there. In the 60s, part of the northern Kuriles was mapped by the Russians, and in 1700 the Kurils were mapped by S. Remizov. In 1711, the Cossack ataman D. Antsiferov and the captain I. Kozyrevsky visited the Paramushir Shumshu Islands. On the next year Kozyrevsky visited the islands of Iturup and Urup and reported that the inhabitants of these islands live "autocratically."

I. Evreinov and F. Luzhin, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Geodesy and Cartography, traveled to the Kuril Islands in 1721, after which the Evreinovs personally handed over to Peter I a report on this voyage and a map.

Russian navigators Captain Spanberg and Lieutenant Walton in 1739 were the first Europeans to open the way to the eastern shores of Japan, visited Japanese islands Hondo (Honshu) and Matsmae (Hokkaido), described the Kuril chain and mapped all the Kuril Islands and the eastern coast of Sakhalin.
The expedition found that under the rule of the "Japanese Khan" is only one island of Hokkaido, the rest of the islands are not subject to him. Since the 60s, interest in the Kuriles has noticeably increased, Russian fishing vessels are increasingly mooring to their shores, and soon the local population - the Ainu - on the islands of Urup and Iturup was brought into Russian citizenship.
Merchant D. Shebalin was ordered by the office of the port of Okhotsk to "convert the inhabitants of the southern islands to Russian citizenship and start bargaining with them." Having brought the Ainu into Russian citizenship, the Russians founded winter huts and camps on the islands, taught the Ainu how to use firearms, breed livestock and grow some vegetables.

Many of the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and learned to read and write.
Russian missionaries did everything to spread Orthodoxy among the Kuril Ainu and taught them the Russian language. Deservedly the first in this line of missionaries is the name of Ivan Petrovich Kozyrevsky (1686-1734), Ignatius in monasticism. A.S. Pushkin wrote that "Kozyrevsky in 1713 conquered two Kuril Islands and brought Kolesov news about the trade of these islands with the merchants of the city of Matmaia." In the texts of Kozyrevsky’s “Drawing of the Sea Islands”, it was written: “On the first and other islands in Kamchatsky Nos, from the autocratic ones shown, he smoked in that campaign with caress and greetings, and others, in military order, again brought him to yasak payment.” Back in 1732, the well-known historian G.F. Miller noted in the academic calendar: “Before this, the inhabitants there had no faith. But for twenty years, by order of his imperial majesty, churches and schools have been built there, which give us hope, and this people will be led out of their error from time to time. Monk Ignatius Kozyrevsky in the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, at his own expense, laid a church with a limit and a monastery, in which he later took the vows. Kozyrevsky succeeded in converting "the local people of other faiths" - the Itelmens of Kamchatka and the Kuril Ainu.

The Ainu fished, beat the sea animal, baptized in Orthodox churches their children, wore Russian clothes, had Russian names, spoke Russian and proudly called themselves Orthodox. In 1747, the "newly baptized" Kurils from the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, who numbered more than two hundred people, through their toen (leader) Storozhev, turned to the Orthodox mission in Kamchatka with a request to send a priest "to confirm them in the new faith."

At the behest of Catherine II in 1779, all fees not established by decrees from St. Petersburg were canceled. Thus, the fact of the discovery and development of the Kuril Islands by the Russians is undeniable.

Over time, the crafts in the Kuriles were depleted, becoming less and less profitable than off the coast of America, and therefore, by the end of the 18th century, the interest of Russian merchants in the Kuriles had weakened.In Japan, by the end of the same century, interest in the Kuriles and Sakhalin was just awakening, because before that the Kurils were practically unknown to the Japanese. The island of Hokkaido - according to the Japanese scientists themselves - was considered a foreign territory and only a small part of it was inhabited and developed. In the late 70s, Russian merchants reached Hokkaido and tried to start a trade with the locals . Russia was interested in acquiring food in Japan for Russian fishing expeditions and settlements in Alaska and the Pacific Islands, but it was not possible to start trade, as it prohibited the 1639 Japan isolation law, which read: "For the future, as long as the sun illuminates the world, no one has the right to land on the shores of Japan, even if he was an envoy, and this law can never be repealed by anyone on pain of death".
And in 1788 Catherine II sends a strict order to the Russian industrialists in the Kuriles, so that they "did not touch the islands under the jurisdiction of other powers", and a year before that, she issued a decree on equipping a round-the-world expedition to accurately describe and map the islands from Masmaya to Kamchatka Lopatka, so that they " formally classify everything as the possession of the Russian state". It was ordered not to allow foreign industrialists to " trade and crafts in places belonging to Russia and with local residents to deal peacefully". But the expedition did not take place due to the outbreak Russian-Turkish war 1787-1791.

Taking advantage of the weakening of Russian positions in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, Japanese fishermen first appear in Kunashir in 1799, and the next year on Iturup, where they destroy Russian crosses and illegally set up a pillar with a sign indicating that the islands belong to Japan. Japanese fishermen often began to arrive on the shores of South Sakhalin, fished, robbed the Ainu, which was the reason for frequent skirmishes between them. In 1805, Russian sailors from the frigate "Yunona" and the tender "Avos" on the shores of Aniva Bay set up a pillar with the Russian flag, and the Japanese parking lot on Iturup was devastated. The Russians were warmly welcomed by the Ainu.
.. .

In 1854, in order to establish trade and diplomatic relations with Japan, the government of Nicholas I sent Vice Admiral E. Putyatin. His mission also included the delimitation of Russian and Japanese possessions. Russia demanded recognition of its rights to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which had long belonged to it. Knowing perfectly well what a difficult situation Russia found itself in, waging a war with three powers in the Crimea at the same time, Japan put forward unfounded claims to the southern part of Sakhalin.

At the beginning 1855 In the year in Shimoda, Putyatin signed the first Russian-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship, according to which Sakhalin was declared undivided between Russia and Japan, the border was established between the islands of Iturup and Urup, and the ports of Shimoda, Hakodate and Nagasaki were opened for Russian ships.

Shimodsky treatise 1855 in article 2 defines:
« From now on, the border between the Japanese state and Russia will be established between the island of Iturup and the island of Urup. The entire island of Iturup belongs to Japan, the entire island of Urup and the Kuril Islands to the north of it belong to Russia. As for the island of Karafuto (Sakhalin), it is still not divided by the border between Japan and Russia.”

Government Alexander II made the Middle East and Central Asia the main direction of its policy and, fearing to leave its relations with Japan uncertain in the event of a new aggravation of relations with England, went to the signing of the so-called Petersburg Treaty of 1875, according to which all the Kuril Islands, in exchange for the recognition of Sakhalin as Russian territory, passed to Japan.

Alexander II, who before that in 1867 had sold Alaska for a symbolic and at that time amount - 11 million rubles, and this time he made a big mistake, underestimating the strategic importance of the Kuril Islands, which were later used by Japan for aggression against Russia. The tsar naively believed that Japan would become a peaceful and calm neighbor of Russia and,when the Japanesesubstantiating their claimsrefer to the treaty of 1875, then for some reason they forget(as G. Kunadze "forgot" today)about his first article: "... and henceforth eternal peace and friendship will be established between the Russian and Japanese empires".

Russia actually lost access to the Pacific Ocean. Japan, whose imperial ambitions continued to grow, actually got the opportunity at any moment to begin a naval blockade of Sakhalin and the entire Far East of Russia.

The population of the Kuriles immediately after the establishment of Japanese power was described in his notes on the Kuril Islands English captain Snow:
"V 1878 the year when I first visited the northern islands ... all the northern inhabitants spoke Russian more or less tolerably. All of them were Christians and professed the religion of the Greek Church. They were visited (and still visited) by Russian priests, and in the village of Mayruppo in Shumshir a church was built, the boards for which were brought from America. ... The largest settlements in the Northern Kuriles were in the port of Tavano (Urup), Uratman, on the shores of Broughton Bay (Simushir) and the above-described Mairuppo (Shumshir). In each of these villages, except for huts and dugouts, there was a church...”.
Our famous compatriot, Captain V. M. Golovnin, in the famous "Notes of the Navy of Captain Golovnin ..." mentions the Ainu, "who called himself Alexei Maksimovich." ...

Then there was 1904 the year when Japan treacherously attacked Russia.
At the conclusion of the peace treaty in Portsmouth in 1905, the Japanese side demanded from Russia as an indemnity the island of Sakhalin. The Russian side then stated that this was contrary to the 1875 treaty. What did the Japanese say to this?
- The war crosses out all agreements, you have been defeated and let's proceed from the current situation.
Only thanks to skillful diplomatic maneuvers did Russia manage to keep the northern part of Sakhalin for itself, and South Sakhalin went to Japan.

On the Yalta Conference heads of powers, countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition, held in February 1945 year, it was decided after the end of the Second World WarTransfer South Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union, and this was the condition for the USSR to enter the war with Japan- three months after the end of the war in Europe.

8 September 1951 49 states signed a peace treaty with Japan in San Francisco. The draft treaty was prepared during the period " cold war"without the participation of the USSR and in violation of the principles of the Potsdam Declaration. The Soviet side proposed to demilitarize and ensure the democratization of the country. Representatives of the United States and Great Britain told our delegation that they had come here not to discuss, but to sign the treaty, and therefore not a single line should be changed The USSR, and along with it Poland and Czechoslovakia, refused to put their signatures under the treaty.Article 2 of this treaty states that Japan renounces all rights and title to Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. Thus, Japan itself renounced its territorial claims to our country, backing it up with its signature.

1956 year, the Soviet-Japanese negotiations on the normalization of relations between the two countries. The Soviet side agrees to cede the two islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan and offers to sign a peace treaty. The Japanese side is inclined to accept the Soviet proposal, but in September 1956 the United States sends a note to Japan stating that,if Japan renounces its claims to Kunashir and Iturup and will be satisfied with only two islands, then in this case, the US will not give up the Ryukyu Islands, where the main island is Okinawa. The Americans put Japan before an unexpected and difficult choice - in order to get the islands from the Americans, you need to take ALL the Kuriles from Russia. ... Or neither Kuril nor Ryukyu with Okinawa.
Of course, the Japanese refused to sign a peace treaty on our terms. The subsequent security treaty (1960) between the United States and Japan made it impossible for Japan to transfer Shikotan and Habomai. Our country, of course, could not give the islands to American bases, nor could it bind itself to any obligations to Japan on the issue of the Kuriles.

A worthy answer about the territorial claims to us from Japan was given at the time by A.N. Kosygin:
- The borders between the USSR and Japan should be considered as the result of the Second World War.
This could be put an end to, but I would like to remind you that just 6 years ago, M.S. Gorbachev, at a meeting with a delegation from the SPJ, also strongly opposed the revision of borders, while emphasizing that the borders between the USSR and Japan were "legal and legally justified" .