History of the southern Kuril Islands. History of the Kuril Islands. Kuril Islands in the history of Russian-Japanese relations

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

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

The editors of TASS-DOSSIER have prepared material about 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 chain are Iturup, Paramushir, Kunashir. Most big island Malaya Kuril ridge - Shikotan.

The islands were originally inhabited by Ainu tribes. The first information about the Kuril Islands was obtained 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 (under the leadership of V.V. Atlasov) reached the northern part of the Kuril Islands in 1697. In 1786, by decree of Catherine II, the Kuril archipelago was included in Russian Empire.

On February 7, 1855, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Shimoda, according to which Iturup, Kunashir and the islands of the Lesser Kuril Ridge were transferred to Japan, and the rest of the Kuril Islands were recognized as Russian. Sakhalin was declared a joint possession - an "undivided" territory. However, some unresolved issues about the status of Sakhalin led to conflicts between Russian and Japanese merchants and sailors. The contradictions between 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 its claims to Sakhalin.

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

Return of the islands

At the final stage of World War II, 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 Far East Issues”). 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 on 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 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 country's territory. 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, legal grounds and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. However, the Soviet delegation did not sign this document, since it did not stipulate the issue of the withdrawal of occupation forces from Japanese territory. In addition, the agreement did not specify which islands of the Kuril archipelago were discussed and in whose favor Japan was abandoning them.

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

The essence of the disagreement

The principled position of the USSR and Russia was and is that “the ownership of the southern Kuril Islands (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai) Russian Federation is based on the generally accepted results of the Second World War and the unshakable post-war international legal framework, including the UN Charter. Thus, Russian sovereignty over them has the appropriate international legal form and is not subject to doubt" (statement of the Russian Foreign Ministry dated February 7, 2015).

Japan, citing the Shimoda 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 usually called “ northern territories."

Declaration of 1956

In 1956, the USSR and Japan concluded a Joint Declaration, which formally declared the end of the war and restored bilateral diplomatic relations. In it, the USSR agreed to transfer the island of Shikotan to Japan and uninhabited islands(reserving Iturup and Kunashir) after concluding a full-fledged peace treaty. The declaration was ratified by the parliaments of 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 assumed in 1956. At the same time, the Soviet Union stipulated the transfer of the islands by Japan fulfilling two conditions - the signing of a peace treaty and the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country's territory.

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 a visit to Moscow in 1973 (the first Soviet-Japanese summit).

Intensification of 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 USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in April 1991, the joint communiqué included a provision on the parties’ intention to continue negotiations on the normalization of relations and a peaceful settlement, including territorial issues.

The existence of a 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 parties’ desire to resolve the issue of the territorial ownership of the disputed islands.

In the Moscow Declaration (November 1998), President Yeltsin and Premier Keizo Obuchi "reaffirmed 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 was necessary to create conditions and a favorable atmosphere for “joint economic and other activities” in the South Kuril Islands without prejudice to the legal positions of both parties.

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 Habomai. In June 2009, the Japanese Parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Special Measures to Promote the Solution of the “Northern Territories Problem,” according to which Japanese government agencies are ordered to make every effort to return the “ancestral lands of Japan” as quickly as possible.

Visits to the islands by senior Russian officials cause a negative reaction in Tokyo (Dmitry Medvedev visited the islands in 2010 as president, in 2012 and 2015 as chairman of the government; 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 negotiations. It was raised especially often by the administration of Shinzo Abe, who again took the post of Prime Minister in 2012. However, it has still not been possible to finally bring the positions closer together.

In March 2012, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that on the territorial issue it is necessary to “achieve an acceptable compromise or something like “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 or public polemics” and agreed on a “new approach” to solving bilateral problems, but the details of the agreements were not reported.

It's simple. Underneath Japanophilia lies the desire to transform the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from an internal Russian one into a sea open to the “world community.” With great consequences for us, both military and economic.

Well, who was the first to develop 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,” which is where their second name “Kurilians” came from, and then the name of the archipelago.

In Russia, the Kuril Islands were first mentioned in the reporting document of N. I. Kolobov to Tsar Alexei in 1646 about the peculiarities of the wanderings of I. Yu. Moskvitin. Also, data from chronicles and maps of medieval Holland, Scandinavia and Germany indicate indigenous Russian villages. N.I. Kolobov spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the islands. The Ainu were engaged in gathering, fishing and hunting, living in small settlements throughout the Kuril Islands and on 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 their territory historical homeland, as happened, for example, with the North American Indians. The arrival of the Russians led to the spread of more effective means of hunting and metal products among the local population, and most importantly, it contributed to the cessation of bloody inter-tribal strife. Under the influence of the Russians, these peoples began to engage in agriculture and move to a sedentary lifestyle. Trade revived, Russian merchants flooded Siberia and the Far East with goods the existence of which they had never even imagined local population.

In 1654, the Yakut Cossack foreman M. Stadukhin visited there. In the 60s, part of the northern Kuril Islands was put on the map by the Russians, and in 1700 the Kuril Islands were put on the map of S. Remizov. In 1711, the Cossack ataman D. Antsiferov and captain I. Kozyrevsky visited the Paramushir Shumshu islands. The following year, Kozyrevsky visited the islands of Iturup and Urup and reported that the inhabitants of these islands lived “autocratically.”

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

Russian navigators Captain Shpanberg and Lieutenant Walton in 1739 were the first Europeans to open the way to the eastern shores of Japan and visit Japanese islands Hondo (Honshu) and Matsmae (Hokkaido), described the Kuril ridge and mapped all the Kuril Islands and east coast Sakhalin.

The expedition established that only one island of Hokkaido was under the rule of the “Japanese Khan”, the rest of the islands were not subject to him. Since the 60s, interest in the Kuril Islands has noticeably increased, Russian fishing vessels are increasingly landing on their shores, and soon the local population - the Ainu - on the islands of Urup and Iturup were brought into Russian citizenship.

The merchant D. Shebalin was ordered by the office of the port of Okhotsk to “convert the inhabitants of the southern islands into Russian citizenship and start trading with them.” Having brought the Ainu under Russian citizenship, the Russians founded winter quarters and camps on the islands, taught the Ainu to use firearms, raise 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 first in this line of missionaries is the name of Ivan Petrovich Kozyrevsky (1686-1734), in the monasticism of Ignatius. A.S. Pushkin wrote that “Kozyrevsky in 1713 conquered the two Kuril Islands and brought Kolesov news of the trade of these islands with the merchants of the city of Matmaya.” In the texts of the “Drawing sea ​​islands" Kozyrevsky was written: "On the first and other islands in Kamchatka Nos, the autocratic ones shown smoked on that campaign with affection and greetings, and brought others in military order, again in tribute payment." Back in 1732, the famous historian G.F. Miller noted in the academic calendar: “Before this, the local residents did not have any faith. But in twenty years, by order of His Imperial Majesty, churches and schools were built there, which give us hope, and from time to time this people will be brought out of their delusion.” Monk Ignatius Kozyrevsky in the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, at his own expense, founded a church with a limit and a monastery, in which he himself later took monastic vows. Kozyrevsky managed to convert “the local people of other faiths” - the Itelmen of Kamchatka and the Kuril Ainu.

The Ainu fished, beat sea animals, baptized Orthodox churches their children, wore Russian clothes, had Russian names, spoke Russian and proudly called themselves Orthodox. In 1747, the “newly baptized” Kurilians from the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, numbering 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.”

By order of Catherine II in 1779, all taxes not established by decrees from St. Petersburg were cancelled. Thus, the fact of the discovery and development of the Kuril Islands by Russians is undeniable.

Over time, the fisheries in the Kuril Islands 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 Kuril Islands weakened. In Japan, by the end of the same century, interest in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin was just awakening, because before that the Kuril Islands were practically unknown to the Japanese. The island of Hokkaido - according to the testimony of Japanese scientists themselves - was considered a foreign territory and only a small part of it was populated and developed. At the end of the 70s, Russian merchants reached Hokkaido and tried to establish trade with local residents. Russia was interested in purchasing food from Japan for Russian fishing expeditions and settlements in Alaska and the islands Pacific Ocean, but it was never possible to establish trade, since it was prohibited by the law on the isolation of Japan of 1639, 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 were an envoy, and this law can never be repealed by anyone on pain of death."

And in 1788, Catherine II sent a strict order to Russian industrialists in the Kuril Islands so that they “do not touch the islands under the jurisdiction of other powers,” and a year before she issued a decree on equipping a round-the-world expedition for accurate description and mapping the islands from Masmaya to Kamchatka Lopatka, so that they “all formally belong to the possession of the Russian state.” It was ordered not to allow foreign industrialists to “trade and trade in places belonging to Russia and to deal peacefully with local residents.” But the expedition did not take place due to the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1791.

Taking advantage of the weakening of Russian positions in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, Japanese fish farmers first appeared in Kunashir in 1799, and the next year in Iturup, where they destroyed Russian crosses and illegally erected a pillar with a designation indicating that the islands belonged to Japan. Japanese fishermen often began to arrive on the shores South Sakhalin, carried out fishing, robbed the Ainu, which was the cause of frequent skirmishes between them. In 1805, Russian sailors from the frigate "Juno" and the tender "Avos" placed a pole with the Russian flag on the shore of Aniva Bay, and the Japanese anchorage on Iturup was devastated. The Russians were warmly received by the Ainu.

At the beginning of 1855, in Shimoda, Putyatin signed the first Russian-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship, in accordance with 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 and Hakodate were opened for Russian ships and Nagasaki.

The Shimoda Treaty of 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.”

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

Alexander II, who had previously sold Alaska in 1867 for a symbolic sum at that time - 11 million rubles, and this time made a big mistake by underestimating strategic importance The Kuril Islands, which were later used by Japan for aggression against Russia. The Tsar naively believed that Japan would become a peace-loving and calm neighbor of Russia, and when the Japanese, justifying their claims, refer to the 1875 treaty, for some reason they forget (as G. Kunadze “forgot” today) about its first article: “.. "Eternal peace and friendship will continue to be established between the Russian and Japanese Empires."

Russia has effectively lost access to the Pacific Ocean. Japan, whose imperial ambitions continued to increase, actually had the opportunity to begin a naval blockade of Sakhalin and the entire Far Eastern Russia at any moment.

The population of the Kuril Islands immediately after the establishment of Japanese power was described by the English captain Snow in his notes about the Kuril Islands:
“In 1878, when I first visited the northern islands...all northern residents spoke Russian more or less tolerably. All of them were Christians and professed the religion of the Greek Church. They were visited (and are still visited to this day) by Russian priests, and in the village of Mairuppo in Shumshir a church was built, the boards for which were brought from America. ...The largest settlements in the Northern Kuril Islands were in the port of Tavano (Urup), Uratman, on the shore of Broughtona Bay (Simushir) and the above-described Mairuppo (Shumshir). Each of these villages, in addition to huts and dugouts, had its own church...”

Our famous compatriot, Captain V.M. Golovnin, in the famous “Notes of the Fleet of Captain Golovnin...” mentions the Ainu, “who called himself Alexei Maksimovich.” ...

Then there was 1904, when Japan treacherously attacked Russia.
At the conclusion of the peace treaty in Portsmouth in 1905, the Japanese side demanded Sakhalin Island from Russia as an indemnity. The Russian side stated then that this was contrary to the 1875 treaty. What did the Japanese respond to this?

War crosses out all treaties, you have suffered defeat and let’s proceed from the current situation.
Only thanks to skillful diplomatic maneuvers did Russia manage to retain the northern part of Sakhalin for itself, and southern Sakhalin went to Japan.

At the Yalta Conference of the Heads of Power, countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition, held in February 1945, it was decided after the end of the Second World War that South Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands should be transferred to the Soviet Union, and this was a condition for the USSR to enter the war with Japan - three months after end of the war in Europe.

On September 8, 1951, in San Francisco, 49 countries signed a peace treaty with Japan. The draft treaty was prepared during the Cold War without the participation of the USSR and in violation of the principles of the Potsdam Declaration. The Soviet side proposed to carry out demilitarization and ensure democratization of the country. Representatives of the USA and Great Britain told our delegation that they came here not to discuss, but to sign an agreement and therefore would not change a single line. The USSR, and along with it Poland and Czechoslovakia, refused to sign the treaty. And what’s interesting is that Article 2 of this treaty states that Japan renounces all rights and title to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Thus, Japan itself renounced its territorial claims to our country, confirming this with its signature.

1956, Soviet-Japanese negotiations on normalizing 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 sent a note to Japan stating that if Japan renounces its claims to Kunashir and Iturup and is satisfied with only two islands, then in this case the United States will not give up the Ryukyu Islands , where the main island is Okinawa. The Americans confronted Japan with the unexpected and difficult choice- to get the islands from the Americans, you need to take ALL the Kuril Islands from Russia. ...Either neither Kuril nor Ryukyu and 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 the transfer of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan impossible. Our country, of course, could not give up the islands for American bases, nor could it bind itself to any obligations to Japan on the issue of the Kuril Islands.

A.N. Kosygin once gave a worthy answer regarding Japan’s territorial claims to us:
- The borders between the USSR and Japan should be considered as the result of the Second World War.

We could put an end to this, but we would like to remind you that just 6 years ago, M.S. Gorbachev, at a meeting with the SPJ delegation, also resolutely opposed the revision of borders, emphasizing that the borders between the USSR and Japan are “legal and legally justified” .

One of the first documents regulating Russian-Japanese relations was the Treaty of Shimoda, 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 that Japan claims today were recognized as the possession of Japan. Since 1981, the day of the conclusion of the Shimoda Treaty in Japan has been celebrated as “Northern Territories Day”. Another thing is that, relying on the Shimoda Treaty as one of the fundamental documents, Japan forgets 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 first paragraph 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 ripe. In 1875, the St. Petersburg Treaty was signed, which was assessed ambiguously by both parties, viewing it as their own failure. Under the terms of the agreement, all the Kuril Islands were now completely transferred to Japan, and Russia received full control over Sakhalin.

Kuril Islands, schematic map. Photo source: 7nn.ru

Later, as a result of the Russian-Japanese War, according to the Treaty of Portsmouth, the southern part of Sakhalin up to the 50th parallel went to Japan. The Treaty of Portsmouth did not last long. In April 1918, Japanese military intervention began in the Russian Far East, which was interference in the internal affairs of the country and was contrary to the 1905 treaty. From the Japanese side, these events were considered as part of the First World War with the countries of the German bloc, and the end of the war itself dates back to 1922 ., despite the fact that the Japanese stayed on the territory of the former Russian Empire the longest - until mid-May 1925, when their last units were withdrawn from Northern Sakhalin. At the same time, in 1925, a Soviet-Japanese convention was signed in Beijing, which generally confirmed the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty. As you know, the late 30s and early 40s were extremely tense in Soviet-Japanese relations and were associated with a series of military conflicts of varying scales, from constant clashes on the border to the undeclared war on Khalkhin Gol. The Molotov-Matsuoka Pact concluded in April 1941 somewhat eased tensions, but could not guarantee the security of the Soviet Far East. In a statement to German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, the Japanese Foreign Ministry noted in May 1941: “no Japanese prime minister or foreign minister will be able to force Japan to remain neutral if a conflict arises between the USSR and Germany. In this case, Japan will be forced, naturally, to attack Russia on the side of Germany. No Neutrality Pact will help here.” The only limiting factor remained the powerful Soviet military group of the Far Eastern Front.

The situation began to gradually change when a radical turning point emerged in World War II, and the prospect of defeat for Tokyo became increasingly obvious. Against this background, the question of the post-war world order arose. Thus, according to the terms of the Yalta Conference, the USSR pledged to enter the war against Japan, and Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were transferred to the Soviet Union. 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. But the Soviet Union did not take such a very slippery step. The defeat of Japan by that time was not a quick matter, but it was still a matter of time. And most importantly, by avoiding decisive action, the Soviet Union would actually be handing the situation in the Far East into the hands of the United States and its allies. This also applies to the events of the Soviet-Japanese War and the Kuril Landing Operation itself, which was not initially envisaged and was considered an extremely risky enterprise. When it became known about the preparations for the landing of American troops on the Kuril Islands, the Kuril landing operation was urgently prepared within 24 hours. Fierce fighting in August 1945 ended with the surrender of the Japanese garrisons in the Kuril Islands. Fortunately, the Japanese command did not know the real number of Soviet paratroopers and, without fully using their overwhelming numerical superiority, hastened to capitulate. At the same time, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin offensive operation was carried out.

Japanese cavalry pursues Austro-German troops near Khabarovsk. Not a very plausible example of Japanese propaganda during the period of intervention of 1918−1925. Photo source: propagandahistory.ru

On September 2, 1945, the act of surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay. But this document dealt with military and partly political issues, but did not in any way indicate territorial changes following the Second World War. And the peace treaty itself between the victorious powers and Japan was signed in San Francisco only on September 8, 1951. Japan, according to this document, renounced all rights to the Kuril Islands. However, the Soviet delegation did not sign this agreement. A number of researchers consider this a serious mistake of Soviet diplomacy, but there were very good reasons for this. Firstly, the document did not indicate what the Kuril Islands were or list them: the American side stated that only a special international court could establish this. And the head of the Japanese delegation stated that Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai do not belong to the Kuril Islands group. Secondly, it is interesting that Japan renounced the rights to the islands, but the document did not indicate to whom these islands were transferred. Clause C of Article 2 of the treaty read: “Japan renounces all rights, title and claims to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin Island and the adjacent islands over which Japan acquired sovereignty under the Portsmouth Treaty of September 5, 1905”... Thus Thus, the agreement did not confirm the USSR’s right to the Kuril Islands. After Stalin's death, an attempt was made to solve the problem bilaterally. On October 19, 1956, a Soviet-Japanese declaration was signed, designed to prepare the basis for the preparation of a peace treaty. On this wave, the USSR “meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer to Japan of the islands of Habomai and Sikotan (Shikotan), however, with the fact that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will take place after the signing of the peace treaty.” But, like many legal documents, this declaration, which Japanese politicians like to remember with such reverence these days, has a number of subtleties.

Soviet paratroopers on Shumshu, 1945. Photo source: /tainyvselennoi.ru

Firstly, if the USSR is ready to transfer, then such a document recognizes the very belonging of the islands to the Soviet Union. Because you can only transfer what you own... Secondly, the transfer must take place after the signing of a peace treaty. And thirdly, we were talking only about the two southern islands of Habomai and Shikotan.

For 1956, this declaration really became a positive breakthrough in Soviet-Japanese relations, which greatly alarmed the United States. Under pressure from Washington, the Japanese cabinet was replaced, and the course was set for signing a US-Japanese military treaty, which was finalized in 1960.

Then, for the first time, the Japanese side, not without the help of the United States, voiced demands for the transfer of not two, but all four islands. The United States pointed out that the Yalta agreements are declarative, but not at all binding. Since the agreement included clauses on the deployment of American bases in Japan, a memorandum from the USSR government to the Japanese government dated January 27, 1960 noted: “The new military treaty signed by the Japanese government is directed against the Soviet Union, as well as against the Chinese People's Republic, cannot contribute to ensuring that the transfer of the islands indicated to Japan expands the territory used by foreign troops. In view of this, the Soviet government considers it necessary to declare that only subject to the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Japanese territory and the signing of a peace treaty between the USSR and Japan, the islands of Habomai and Shikotan will be transferred to Japan, as provided for in the Joint Declaration.”

President of the Russian Federation B. N. Yeltsin and Prime Minister of Japan R. Hashimoto. Meeting without ties. Krasnoyarsk 1997 Photo source: fishkamchatka.ru

In the 1970s, there was no noticeable progress regarding the signing of a peace treaty. Japan understood perfectly well that in the conditions of the Cold War, Japan was the most important ally of the United States in the Pacific Ocean and any concession on the part of the USSR in at the moment impossible. But in the context of the weakening of the USSR, in the second half of the 1980s, the issue of transferring the Kuril Islands was again raised by Japan. A number of steps of Soviet and young Russian diplomacy did not correspond to the interests of the state. One of the key mistakes was recognizing the problem of the disputed ownership of the islands and conducting negotiations in a direction favorable to the opposing side. The Kuril Islands could well become a bargaining chip in the policies of both Gorbachev and Yeltsin, who were counting on decent material compensation in exchange for the islands. And if the first and last president of the USSR led an accelerated process, Yeltsin allowed the transfer of the islands in the distant future (15-20 years). But at the same time, the authorities could not help but take into account the colossal costs that would inevitably appear within the country in the event of territorial concessions. As a result, this pendulum policy continued throughout almost the entire “Yeltsin era,” when Russian diplomacy moved away from directly solving the problem, which, in the conditions of the crisis, had a negative impact in all respects. At the present stage, the process has reached a dead end and there is no serious progress on the issue of the Kuril Islands due to the extremely uncompromising position of Japan, which sets as a precondition the transfer of all four islands, and then the discussion and signing of a peace treaty. One can only guess what further conditions the Japanese Foreign Ministry may put forward.

Sources and literature.
1. History of international relations in the Far East 1945−1977. M., 1978.
2. Koshkin A. A. Japanese Front of Marshal Stalin. Russia and Japan: the century-long shadow of Tsushima. M., 2004.
3. Crimean conference of the leaders of the three allied powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (February 3−11, 1945). Collection of documents. M., 1979.
4. Kutakov L. N. Russia and Japan. M., 1988.
5. Russian Kuriles. History and modernity. Collection of documents. M., 2015.
6. Starshov Yu. V. Russian-Japanese War. Dictionary-reference book. M., 2004.
Lead photo: special. sakhalinmuseum.ru
Announcement photo: i. sakh.com

Disputes about the four South Kuril Islands, which currently belong to the Russian Federation, have been going on for quite some time. As a result of agreements and wars signed at different times, this land changed hands several times. Currently, these islands are the cause of an unresolved territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.

Discovery of the islands

The issue of the discovery of the Kuril Islands is controversial. According to the Japanese side, the Japanese were the first to set foot on the islands in 1644. A map of that time with the designations marked on it - “Kunasiri”, “Etorofu”, etc. was carefully preserved in National Museum Japanese. And Russian pioneers, the Japanese believe, first came to the Kuril ridge only during the time of Tsar Peter I, in 1711, and on the Russian map of 1721 these islands are called “Japanese Islands”.

But in reality the situation is different: firstly, the Japanese received the first information about the Kuril Islands (from the Ainu language - “kuru” means “a person who came from nowhere”) from the local Ainu residents (the oldest non-Japanese population of the Kuril Islands and the Japanese Islands) during an expedition to Hokkaido in 1635. Moreover, the Japanese did not reach the Kuril lands themselves due to constant conflicts with the local population.

It should be noted that the Ainu were hostile to the Japanese, and initially treated the Russians well, considering them their “brothers”, due to the similarity in appearance and methods of communication between the Russians and small nations.

Secondly, the Kuril Islands were discovered by the Dutch expedition of Maarten Gerritsen de Vries (Fries) in 1643, the Dutch were looking for the so-called. "Golden Lands" The Dutch did not like the lands, and they sold their detailed description and map to the Japanese. It was on the basis of Dutch data that the Japanese compiled their maps.

Thirdly, the Japanese at that time did not control not only the Kuril Islands, but even Hokkaido; only their stronghold was in its southern part. The Japanese began conquering the island at the beginning of the 17th century, and the fight against the Ainu continued for two centuries. That is, if the Russians were interested in expansion, then Hokkaido could become a Russian island. It made it easier good attitude the Ainu towards the Russians and their enmity towards the Japanese. There are also records of this fact. The Japanese state of that time did not officially consider itself the sovereign of not only Sakhalin and the Kuril lands, but also Hokkaido (Matsumae) - this was confirmed in a circular by the head of the Japanese government, Matsudaira, during Russian-Japanese negotiations on the border and trade in 1772.

Fourthly, Russian explorers visited the islands before the Japanese. In the Russian state, the first mention of the Kuril lands dates back to 1646, when Nekhoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov gave a report to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich about the campaigns of Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin and spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the Kuril Islands. In addition, Dutch, Scandinavian and German medieval chronicles and maps report about the first Russian settlements in the Kuril Islands at that time. The first reports about the Kuril lands and their inhabitants reached the Russians in the middle of the 17th century.

In 1697, during the expedition of Vladimir Atlasov to Kamchatka, new information about the islands appeared; the Russians explored the islands as far as Simushir (island middle group Great ridge of the Kuril Islands).

XVIII century

Peter I knew about the Kuril Islands; in 1719, the tsar sent a secret expedition to Kamchatka under the leadership of Ivan Mikhailovich Evreinov and Fyodor Fedorovich Luzhin. Marine surveyor Evreinov and surveyor-cartographer Luzhin had to determine whether there was a strait between Asia and America. The expedition reached the island of Simushir in the south and brought local residents and rulers to swear allegiance to the Russian state.

In 1738-1739, the navigator Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg (Danish by origin) walked along the entire Kuril ridge, put all the islands he encountered on the map, including the entire Lesser Kuril ridge (these are 6 large and a number of small islands that are separated from the Great Kuril ridge in the South -Kuril Strait). He explored the lands as far as Hokkaido (Matsumaya), bringing the local Ainu rulers to swear allegiance to the Russian state.

Subsequently, the Russians avoided voyages to the southern islands and developed the northern territories. Unfortunately, at this time, abuses against the Ainu were noted not only by the Japanese, but also by the Russians.

In 1771, the Lesser Kuril Ridge was removed from Russia and came under the protectorate of Japan. The Russian authorities sent the nobleman Antipin with the translator Shabalin to rectify the situation. They were able to persuade the Ainu to restore Russian citizenship. In 1778-1779, Russian envoys brought more than 1.5 thousand people from Iturup, Kunashir and even Hokkaido into citizenship. In 1779, Catherine II freed those who had accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes.

In 1787, the “Extensive Land Description of the Russian State...” contained a list of the Kuril Islands up to Hokkaido-Matsumaya, the status of which had not yet been determined. Although the Russians did not control the lands south of Urup Island, the Japanese were active there.

In 1799, by order of seii-taishogun Tokugawa Ienari, he headed the Tokugawa Shogunate, two outposts were built on Kunashir and Iturup, and permanent garrisons were placed there. Thus, the Japanese secured the status of these territories within Japan by military means.

Agreements

In 1845, the Empire of Japan unilaterally declared its power over all of Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge. This naturally caused a violent negative reaction from the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. But the Russian Empire did not have time to take action; the events of the Crimean War prevented it. Therefore, it was decided to make concessions and not bring matters to war.

On February 7, 1855, the first diplomatic agreement was concluded between Russia and Japan - Treaty of Shimoda. It was signed by Vice Admiral E.V. Putyatin and Toshiakira Kawaji. According to Article 9 of the treaty, “permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan” were established. Japan ceded the islands from Iturup and to the south, Sakhalin was declared a joint, indivisible possession. Russians in Japan received consular jurisdiction, Russian ships received the right to enter the ports of Shimoda, Hakodate, and Nagasaki. The Russian Empire received most favored nation treatment in trade with Japan and received the right to open consulates in ports open to Russians. That is, in general, especially considering the difficult international situation of Russia, the agreement can be assessed positively. Since 1981, the Japanese have celebrated the day of signing the Shimoda Treaty as “Northern Territories Day.”

It should be noted that in fact, the Japanese received the right to the “Northern Territories” only for “permanent peace and sincere friendship between Japan and Russia,” most favored nation treatment in trade relations. Their further actions de facto annulled this agreement.

Initially, the provision of the Shimoda Treaty on joint ownership of Sakhalin Island was more beneficial for the Russian Empire, which was actively colonizing this territory. The Japanese Empire did not have a good navy, so at that time it did not have such an opportunity. But later the Japanese began to intensively populate the territory of Sakhalin, and the question of its ownership began to become increasingly controversial and acute. The contradictions between Russia and Japan were resolved by signing the St. Petersburg Treaty.

St. Petersburg Treaty. It was signed in the capital of the Russian Empire on April 25 (May 7), 1875. Under this agreement, the Empire of Japan transferred Sakhalin to Russia as full ownership, and in exchange received all the islands of the Kuril chain.

As a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and Treaty of Portsmouth On August 23 (September 5), 1905, the Russian Empire, according to Article 9 of the agreement, ceded southern Sakhalin to Japan, south of 50 degrees north latitude. Article 12 contained an agreement to conclude a convention on Japanese fishing along the Russian shores of the Seas of Japan, Okhotsk and Bering.

After the death of the Russian Empire and the beginning of foreign intervention, the Japanese occupied Northern Sakhalin and participated in the occupation of the Far East. When the Bolshevik Party won the victory in Civil War, Japan did not want to recognize the USSR for a long time. Only after the Soviet authorities canceled the status of the Japanese consulate in Vladivostok in 1924 and in the same year the USSR was recognized by Great Britain, France and China, the Japanese authorities decided to normalize relations with Moscow.

Beijing Treaty. On February 3, 1924, official negotiations between the USSR and Japan began in Beijing. Only on January 20, 1925, the Soviet-Japanese convention on the basic principles of relations between countries was signed. The Japanese pledged to withdraw their forces from the territory of Northern Sakhalin by May 15, 1925. The declaration of the USSR government, which was attached to the convention, emphasized that the Soviet government did not share with the former government of the Russian Empire political responsibility for the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905. In addition, the convention enshrined the agreement of the parties that all agreements, treaties and conventions concluded between Russia and Japan before November 7, 1917, except for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, should be revised.

In general, the USSR made great concessions: in particular, Japanese citizens, companies and associations were granted the rights to exploit natural raw materials throughout the Soviet Union. On July 22, 1925, a contract was signed to grant the Japanese Empire a coal concession, and on December 14, 1925, an oil concession in Northern Sakhalin. Moscow agreed to this agreement in order to stabilize the situation in the Russian Far East, since the Japanese supported the White Guards outside the USSR. But in the end, the Japanese began to systematically violate the convention and create conflict situations.

During the Soviet-Japanese negotiations that took place in the spring of 1941 regarding the conclusion of a neutrality treaty, the Soviet side raised the issue of liquidating Japan's concessions in Northern Sakhalin. The Japanese gave their written consent to this, but delayed the implementation of the agreement for 3 years. Only when the USSR began to gain the upper hand over the Third Reich, the Japanese government agreed to implement the earlier agreement. Thus, on March 30, 1944, a Protocol was signed in Moscow on the destruction of Japanese oil and coal concessions in Northern Sakhalin and the transfer of all Japanese concession property to the Soviet Union.

February 11, 1945 at the Yalta conference three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain - reached a verbal agreement on the USSR's entry into the war with the Japanese Empire on the terms of the return of South Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge to it after the end of World War II.

In the Potsdam Declaration dated July 26, 1945, it was stated that Japanese sovereignty would be limited only to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and other smaller islands, which would be designated by the victorious countries. The Kuril Islands were not mentioned.

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

According to San Francisco Peace Treaty dated September 8, 1951, the Japanese side renounced all rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But the Japanese claim that Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai (islands of the Lesser Kuril Islands) were not part of the Chishima Islands (Kuril Islands) and they did not abandon them.

Further agreements

Joint Declaration. On October 19, 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan adopted a Joint Declaration. The document ended the state of war between the countries and restored diplomatic relations, and also spoke of Moscow’s consent to the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to the Japanese side. But they were supposed to be handed over only after the signing of a peace treaty. However, later Japan was forced to refuse to sign a peace treaty with the USSR. The United States threatened not to give up Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu Archipelago to the Japanese if they renounced their claims to the other islands of the Lesser Kuril chain.

After Tokyo signed the Cooperation and Security Treaty with Washington in January 1960, extending the American military presence on the Japanese Islands, Moscow announced that it refused to consider the issue of transferring the islands to the Japanese side. The statement was justified by the security issue of the USSR and China.

In 1993 it was signed Tokyo Declaration about Russian-Japanese relations. It stated that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR and recognizes the 1956 agreement. Moscow expressed its readiness to begin negotiations regarding Japan's territorial claims. In Tokyo this was assessed as a sign of impending victory.

In 2004, the head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergei Lavrov, made a statement that Moscow recognizes the 1956 Declaration and is ready to negotiate a peace treaty based on it. In 2004-2005, this position was confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But the Japanese insisted on the transfer of 4 islands, so the issue was not resolved. Moreover, the Japanese gradually increased their pressure, for example, in 2009, the head of the Japanese government at a government meeting called the Lesser Kuril Ridge “illegally occupied territories.” In 2010 and early 2011, the Japanese became so excited that some military experts began to talk about the possibility of a new Russian-Japanese war. Only the spring natural disaster - the consequences of a tsunami and a terrible earthquake, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant - cooled Japan's ardor.

As a result, the loud statements of the Japanese led to Moscow declaring that the islands are the territory of the Russian Federation legally following the Second World War, this is enshrined in the UN Charter. And Russian sovereignty over the Kuril Islands, which has the appropriate international legal confirmation, is beyond doubt. Plans were also announced to develop the economy of the islands and strengthen Russia’s military presence there.

Strategic importance of the islands

Economic factor. The islands are economically underdeveloped, but they have deposits of valuable and rare earth metals - gold, silver, rhenium, titanium. The waters are rich in biological resources; the seas that wash the shores of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are among the most productive areas of the World Ocean. The shelves, where hydrocarbon deposits are found, are also of great importance.

Political factor. The cession of the islands will sharply lower Russia’s status in the world, and there will be a legal opportunity to review other results of the Second World War. For example, they may demand that the Kaliningrad region be given to Germany or part of Karelia to Finland.

Military factor. The transfer of the islands of the South Kuril ridge will ensure Navy Japan and the USA have free access to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Will allow our potential adversaries to exercise control over strategically important strait zones, which will sharply worsen the ability to deploy forces Pacific Fleet Russian Federation, including nuclear submarines with intercontinental ballistic missiles. This will be a strong blow to the military security of the Russian Federation.

In Russia, the Kuril Islands were first mentioned in the reporting document of N. I. Kolobov to Tsar Alexei from 1646 year about the peculiarities of the wanderings of I. Yu. Moskvitin. Also, data from chronicles and maps of medieval Holland, Scandinavia and Germany indicate indigenous Russian villages. N.I. Kolobov spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the islands. The Ainu were engaged in gathering, fishing and hunting, living in small settlements throughout the Kuril Islands and on 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 of more effective means of hunting and metal products among the local population, and most importantly, it contributed to the cessation of bloody inter-tribal strife. Under the influence of the Russians, these peoples began to engage in agriculture and move to a sedentary lifestyle. Trade revived, Russian merchants flooded Siberia and the Far East with goods, the existence of which the local population did not even know.

In 1654, the Yakut Cossack foreman M. Stadukhin visited there. In the 60s, part of the northern Kuril Islands was put on the map by the Russians, and in 1700 the Kuril Islands were put on the map of S. Remizov. In 1711, the Cossack ataman D. Antsiferov and captain I. Kozyrevsky visited the Paramushir Shumshu islands. The following year, Kozyrevsky visited the islands of Iturup and Urup and reported that the inhabitants of these islands lived “autocratically.”

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

Russian navigators Captain Shpanberg and Lieutenant Walton in 1739 were the first Europeans to discover the route to the eastern shores of Japan, visited the Japanese islands of Hondo (Honshu) and Matsmae (Hokkaido), described the Kuril ridge and mapped all the Kuril Islands and the eastern coast of Sakhalin.
The expedition established that only one island of Hokkaido was under the rule of the “Japanese Khan”, the rest of the islands were not subject to him. Since the 60s, interest in the Kuril Islands has noticeably increased, Russian fishing vessels are increasingly landing on their shores, and soon the local population - the Ainu - on the islands of Urup and Iturup were brought under Russian citizenship.
The merchant D. Shebalin was ordered by the office of the port of Okhotsk to “convert the inhabitants of the southern islands into Russian citizenship and start trading with them.” Having brought the Ainu under Russian citizenship, the Russians founded winter quarters and camps on the islands, taught the Ainu to use firearms, raise 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 first in this line of missionaries is the name of Ivan Petrovich Kozyrevsky (1686-1734), in the monasticism of Ignatius. A.S. Pushkin wrote that “Kozyrevsky in 1713 conquered the two Kuril Islands and brought Kolesov news of the trade of these islands with the merchants of the city of Matmaya.” In the texts of Kozyrevsky’s “Drawing for the Sea Islands” it was written: “On the first and other islands in Kamchatka Nos, from the autocratic ones shown on that campaign, he smoked with affection and greetings, and others, in military order, brought them back into tribute payment.” Back in 1732, the famous historian G.F. Miller noted in the academic calendar: “Before this, the local residents did not have any faith. But in twenty years, by order of His Imperial Majesty, churches and schools were built there, which give us hope, and from time to time this people will be brought out of their delusion.” Monk Ignatius Kozyrevsky in the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, at his own expense, founded a church with a limit and a monastery, in which he himself later took monastic vows. Kozyrevsky managed to convert “the local people of other faiths” - the Itelmen of Kamchatka and the Kuril Ainu.

The Ainu fished, beat sea animals, baptized their children in Orthodox churches, wore Russian clothes, had Russian names, spoke Russian and proudly called themselves Orthodox. In 1747, the “newly baptized” Kurilians from the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, numbering 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.”

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

Over time, the fisheries in the Kuril Islands 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 Kuril Islands weakened.In Japan, by the end of the same century, interest in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin was just awakening, because before that the Kuril Islands were practically unknown to the Japanese. The island of Hokkaido - according to the testimony of Japanese scientists themselves - was considered a foreign territory and only a small part of it was populated and developed. At the end of the 70s, Russian merchants reached Hokkaido and tried to start trading with local residents . Russia was interested in purchasing food from Japan for Russian fishing expeditions and settlements in Alaska and the Pacific Islands, but it was never possible to establish trade, as it was prohibited by the Japanese Isolation Law of 1639, which read: “For the future, as long as the sun shines on the world, no one has the right to land on the shores of Japan, even if he were an envoy, and this law can never be repealed by anyone under pain of death.”.
And in 1788 Catherine II sends a strict order to Russian industrialists in the Kuril Islands so that they "did not touch 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 property 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 of the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1791.

Taking advantage of the weakening of Russian positions in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, Japanese fish farmers first appeared in Kunashir in 1799, and the next year in Iturup, where they destroyed Russian crosses and illegally erected a pillar with a designation indicating that the islands belonged to Japan. Japanese fishermen often began to arrive on the shores of Southern Sakhalin, fished, and robbed the Ainu, which caused frequent clashes between them. In 1805, Russian sailors from the frigate "Juno" and the tender "Avos" placed a pole with the Russian flag on the shore of Aniva Bay, and the Japanese anchorage on Iturup was devastated. The Russians were warmly received by the Ainu.
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