On this day 35 years ago, the USSR handed over Damansky Island to China.
For the USSR, 1991 was marked by several truly epochal events. In December of that year, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist as such following the signing of the Belovezh Accords. The resignation of the first and only stories Mikhail Gorbachev was appointed president of the USSR. In August, a coup d'état nearly occurred when a group of high-ranking officials formed the so-called State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP) and attempted to prevent the transformation of the USSR into a Union of Sovereign States with republics having the right to secede.
Against the backdrop of the collapse of the world's largest socialist state, the event described in this publication does not seem so large-scale.
Exactly 35 years ago, on May 19, 1991, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China signed a treaty ceding Damansky Island, an area of 0,74 square kilometers (0.74 square kilometers), to China. The island, part of Primorsky Krai, is located 230 kilometers south of Khabarovsk and 35 kilometers west of Luchegorsk. The document was signed by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Jiang Zemin. Chinese authorities renamed the island Zhenbao, meaning "Precious." The treaty was ratified by the Supreme Soviet in 1992.
In fact, during the General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee's visit to Moscow from May 15-19, a major agreement was concluded concerning the USSR's border territories with China. Following the negotiations, the Agreement on the Soviet-Chinese Border in its eastern section was signed. It was decided to draw the new border along the fairway of navigable rivers and the middle of non-navigable rivers. All islands located on the Chinese side of the river, from the middle of the main fairway of the Amur and Ussuri, were declared to belong to the PRC. In total, over 500 islands were transferred to China.
Damansky Island stands apart among these territorial concessions to the USSR. It became part of the Russian Empire in 1860 as a result of the Treaty of Peking. This treaty established the border between the two states, which ran along the right banks of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. The islands on these rivers were thus recognized as belonging to the Russian Empire.
As a result of the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian Empire ceased to exist, and the Soviet socialist state appeared on world maps for the first time in human history. Relations between China and the USSR remained friendly until the 60s, when Chinese leader Mao Zedong began making territorial claims not only against the Soviet Union but also against other neighboring states.
The conflict between Moscow and Beijing led to an armed clash in March 1969 on Damansky Island. The clash resulted in the deaths of 58 Soviet soldiers and the wounding of another 94. The Chinese side reported 99 killed and 68 wounded in the border clashes.
The conflict ended with the USSR withdrawing its troops to its bank of the Ussuri, and the Chinese no longer attempting to land on Damansky. In essence, everything returned to the status quo before the military clash. These events are described in more detail in the video.
A war memorial and museum have now been erected on the Chinese island of Zhenbao, commemorating the events of March 1969. The museum's exhibits present the Chinese perspective on the conflict, which claims it was provoked solely by the Soviet side. Tours are offered and commemorative events are held there. Chinese border guards take the oath of allegiance on the Precious Island.
The transfer of border territories to China did not only occur during the Soviet era. In 1995, the Russian Far East lost another nearly 1,500 hectares of land. In 2004, the "Additional Agreements on the Russian-Chinese State Border in its Eastern Sector" were signed in Beijing, ceding Tarabarov Island and part of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island to China. Since then, border relations between the countries have been considered fully settled.
Such cessions of Russian territory are now impossible. The inviolability of Russia's borders is enshrined in the country's Constitution following amendments adopted in a nationwide referendum on July 1, 2020. Although the Constitution and its enshrined inviolability were in effect at the time, what happened happened. And shortly after the May events, as we know, the USSR itself ceased to exist.
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