Tract from the chest
The date was not chosen by chance. It was then, 160 years ago, the head of the diplomatic mission of the Russian Empire, Vice Admiral and Adjutant General Evfimiy Putyatin, due to adverse circumstances, was forced to agree to the assignment to Japan of part of the Russian Kuril Ridge. Using this fact and ignoring subsequent events in Russian-Japanese and Soviet-Japanese relations, the Japanese government, in the absence of any other grounds, stubbornly in its territorial claims refers to the long-standing historical document Simodsky treatise.
7 of February of this year, the Russian Foreign Ministry officially stated: “The attempts of some Japanese political forces and public organizations to artificially link the Shimoda treatise with the current problem of the peace treaty between Russia and Japan, proving Tokyo’s territorial claims to our country, cause disappointment ... By deceiving the Shimoda without derogating the historical significance of this document, the issue (peace treaty) is irrelevant. "
INDIGENABLE PRIORITY OF RUSSIAN
All the Kuril Islands up to Hokkaido during the reign of Empress Catherine II were part of the Russian Empire. This was officially enshrined in the Atlas of the Russian Empire, published in the city of St. Peter in the summer of the 1796 of the reign of Catherine II. At that time, the islands of Iturup (Etorpu), Kunashir, Shikotan (Chicota), now disputed by Japan, were administratively included in the Kamchatka district of the Okhotsk region of the Irkutsk governorship.
As for Japan, it remained a country closed to the outside world until the middle of the XIX century. Its borders in the north were limited to the Matsumae principality in the southern part of the island of Hokkaido. The northern part of Hokkaido was not Japanese territory. In a document dated October 1792, the head of Japan’s central government, Matsudaira, acknowledged that "Nemuro (northern Hokkaido) is not Japanese land." Moreover, the Kuril Islands located to the north of Hokkaido could not be the “original Japanese territories”.
Already during the first diplomatic contacts, official representatives of Russia demanded not to violate its sovereignty over the Kuriles. Thus, real chamberlain Nikolai Rezanov, who arrived in Japan with an official mission, told 23 March 1805 to a representative of the Japanese government: “… To the Japanese Empire, further than the northern tip of Matmai (Hokkaido), did not extend its possessions, all the lands and waters to the north belong to my sovereign ". Then the government of the supreme ruler of Japan (the shogun) did not wish to negotiate and demanded to leave Japan in an offensive manner.
Warnings Rezanov had a basis. From the end of the 18th century, Japanese armed groups began to raid the Southern Kuriles. Japanese sources testify: "After landing 28 on July 1798 of the year on the southern tip of Iturup, the Japanese overturned the signposts of the Russians and put up poles with the inscription:" Etorofu is the possession of Great Japan. " At the same time, Orthodox crosses established on the islands were pulled out and destroyed. This is how the Southern Kuriles appealed to the “originally Japanese territories”.
ADMIRAL ASSIGNMENT
Another attempt to “open up” Japan and establish mutually beneficial trade relations with it was undertaken by the Russian government in the 1853 – 1855 years, when a diplomatic mission led by Admiral Putyatin was sent to the Land of the Rising Sun. After the arrival of the Russian squadron in the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the Japanese, not wanting to negotiate, for several months forced the Russians to wait for the representatives of the central authorities in the hope of taking the Russians into exhaustion and forcing them to leave the Japanese shores. And only when Putyatin threatened to send his ships to the capital of Japan, Edo, without the consent of the Japanese authorities, did the negotiations begin. In the 18 message of November 1853 of the year to the Supreme Council of Japan it was reported: "The ridge of the Kuril Islands, which lies north of Japan, has long belonged to Russia and was in full control of it ...". In response, the Japanese put forward unfounded and obviously unacceptable conditions, demanding the departure of the Russians from Sakhalin and the transfer to Japan of all the Kuril Islands.
31 March 1854, under threat of shelling of Edo from guns of American warships that approached the Japanese capital, signed the American-Japanese agreement, according to which Japan opened the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate for trade with the US.
Of course, it was possible to act according to the American method, blackmailing the Japanese government with the start of hostilities, which would have forced Edo to agree with the recognition of all of Sakhalin and all the Russian smokers. However, Putyatin rejected the methods of force pressure. In a report to Admiral General Grand Prince Konstantin he wrote: “Having other orders, I do not intend to and cannot follow their (American) example, and therefore I will continue to act in relation to the Japanese according to my system of meekness and moderation.”
But the international situation did not allow to delay the negotiations, as the Japanese wanted. It was not in favor of Russia and Putyatin’s mission in particular. In the context of the outbreak of hostilities with Great Britain and France during the Crimean War, the Russian squadron could not remain safely on the Japanese coast for an indefinite period of time.
The situation was complicated when the elements interfered with diplomacy. The day after the resumption of negotiations in the city of Shimoda, December 11 1854, as a result of a powerful earthquake and tsunami, the flagship of the Russian mission, the frigate “Diana” was wrecked, and the team led by the Vice-Admiral was on shore, completely dependent on the goodwill of the Japanese .
The current situation could not but affect the course of the negotiations. The Japanese side continued to insist on their demands, in particular, on the issue of including the southern part of Sakhalin to 50 degrees north latitude in Japan. However, since the controversy over Sakhalin was insurmountable, the Japanese began to incline to using the difficult situation for the Russians to persuade them to sacrifice the South Kurils. Having received “complete freedom of action” from the Russian government, in particular with regard to the South Kuril Islands, Putiatin wanted to use the island of Iturup as a trump card in the bargaining over Sakhalin. Unfortunately it failed. Along with Kunashir, Shikotan and other islands, he was given to Japan for the sake of establishing trade relations. This decision Putyatin still causes controversy among historians.
7 February 1855 of the year Putyatin signed the Shimoda treatise, according to which it was established that “the borders between Russia and Japan will pass between the islands of Iturup and Urup”, and Sakhalin is declared “undivided between Russia and Japan”. Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup were ceded to Japan.
In fact, the Southern Kuriles were given without any compensation. Such a sacrifice could have seemed somewhat justified if the Japanese had agreed to recognize Sakhalin as Russian. But that did not happen.
The mitigation of the previously declared territorial conditions for concluding an agreement undertaken by Putiatin was to a certain degree subjective and personal. The Japanese participation and assistance to the shipwrecked, even the willingness to build a new ship for the mission, gave Putyatin a sense of gratitude and an intention to make the most of the right to concessions given to him.
"EXCHANGE" CONTRACT
The territorial division of the Kuriles occurred in favor of Japan. At the same time, the Japanese’s claims to Sakhalin remained a serious problem for Russia. The question of the formalization of this island for Russia has emerged as one of the priorities in the Far Eastern policy of St. Petersburg.
In 1867, the tsarist government, without appreciating the strategic and economic value of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands to a sufficient degree, sold these territories to the United States for a small amount of 7,2. The Japanese decided to use the precedent. At the talks with the Russian consul Yevgeny Butsov, Japanese Foreign Minister Taneomi Fukushima offered to "sell Japan the territory of Sakhalin south of 50 degrees north lat." The answer was no.
In the middle of the 19th century 70, the Japanese authorities realized that Japan was unable to resist Russia on Sakhalin and try to compete with it in the economic development of the island. The idea was born to abandon claims to Sakhalin, and for this encourage Petersburg to cede all Kuril Islands to Kamchatka to Japan. The Russian government considered this proposal to be excessive. The Japanese side was offered a variant in which, in exchange for Sakhalin's recognition, the Japanese would transfer the Kuril Islands with the exception of the three northern ones - Alaid, Shumshu and Paramushir, which would leave for Russia access to the Pacific Ocean.
However, the tsarist government did not show sufficient persistence. In the face of the prospect of a new war with Turkey, which could again be supported by the Western powers, the Russian government was interested in an early resolution of the Far Eastern problems. On April 25 (May 7) of 1875 of the year in St. Petersburg, a document was signed which remained in history under the title “A treaty concluded between Russia and Japan on April 25 of 1875 of the year, with an additional article signed in Tokyo on 10 (22) of August 1875 of the year” . According to it, the rights to all Sakhalin were received by Russia, and all the Kuril Islands passed into the possession of Japan.
Although the 1875 agreement of the year is often referred to as exchange, in fact it was not about exchanging one territory for another, but about surrendering the Kuriles in exchange for Japan’s formal recognition of Russia's rights to Sakhalin. Special attention should be paid to the fact that Russia sacrificed its territory, which was officially, including from the point of view of international law, recognized as such under the 1855 treatise of the year, and the “exchangeable” Japanese rights to Sakhalin had no legal registration. Therefore, the claims of the Japanese side that the Petersburg Treaty of 1875 of the Year “was a truly equal treaty” are valid only for Japan. Russia, as in the 1855 year, for the sake of good-neighborliness with Japan again made significant territorial concessions with serious consequences.
“From the exchange of the Kuril Islands to Sakhalin,” said one of the royal diplomats, “Russia not only did not benefit, but, on the contrary, was mistaken, because if Japan organizes a strong port on any of the Kuril Islands, it will prevent the message of Okhotsk the sea with the Japanese, Russia will lose access to the Pacific Ocean and find itself in networks. On the contrary, if she continued to own the Kuril Islands, the Pacific Ocean would always be open to her. ”
"WAR CANCEL AGREEMENTS"
The 1 th article of the Japan-Russia Treaty of Friendship, which the Japanese government is trying to refer to in its claims to the Kuriles, solemnly proclaimed: "From now on, there will be permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan." In violation of this commitment, the Japanese government, under cover of night, without declaring war on January 27 (February 8), 1904, suddenly attacked the Russian squadron in Port Arthur and launched large-scale military operations against Russia.
Due to well-known international and domestic reasons, the Russian troops and navy suffered several defeats in the outbreak of the war. However, contrary to generally accepted estimates, to speak of Russia's defeat in this war as a state, in our opinion, is not quite true. In this regard, you can take the position of the head of the Russian delegation at the peace talks with Japan in the American resort town of Portsmouth. In response to the list of completely unacceptable and clearly exaggerated demands, the chairman of the Council of Ministers, Sergei Yulievich Vitte, who was sent to the tsar by the Tsar, reasonably told the Japanese: “If Russia were completely defeated, which would have happened only if Japanese troops came to Moscow, then only we would consider it natural to arouse the question of indemnity ... A country whose territory was almost never attacked by the enemy cannot consider itself defeated ... ”
The word "almost" hid an armed seizure during the fighting and the subsequent occupation of the sovereign Russian territory of Sakhalin Island, which the Japanese set out to include in their state. Among the 12 items of the list of requirements for Russia, 5-th item read: "Sakhalin, all the adjacent islands and all public buildings and property are ceded to Japan." The first reaction of Tsar Nicholas II was harsh: "Not an inch of land, not a penny of reward." Trying to reason the Japanese, Witte pointed out that putting forward such a demand directly contradicts the “exchangeable” treatise 1875 of the year. To which the head of the Japanese delegation at the Portsmouth talks arrogantly replied: “The war cancels the treaties. You were defeated, and let's proceed from the current situation. ”
Theodore Roosevelt, who acted as a mediator, resorted to the intimidation of Nicholas II by the Japanese seizing the whole of Eastern Siberia and persuaded him to sacrifice the southern half of Sakhalin for the sake of peace.
5 September 1905 was concluded on the end of the war Portsmouth Peace Treaty. According to the article of the 9 Treaty, Russia was inferior to Japan in the southern half of Sakhalin along the 50 parallel. At the same time, it was of fundamental importance that, since the conclusion of the Portsmouth Treaty, the “exchange” agreement 1875 of the year actually ceased, since the rejection of half of Sakhalin led to the loss of the meaning and content of this agreement. Moreover, at the initiative of the Japanese side, a clause was included in the annex to the protocols of the Portsmouth Treaty that all previous agreements between Japan and Russia are annulled. Thereby, the Simodsky treatise 1855 of the year also lost its force. After the 1905 year, in the absence of any new agreement on the ownership of the Kuriles, Japan owned them no longer de jure, but only de facto.
Once again, Japan lost the right to invoke previous treatises and treaties, having signed the 2 September 1945 of the Act of complete and unconditional surrender, which meant, among other things, the disappearance of the state that concluded them. Therefore, the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is correct and historically reasonable. But the territorial claims of Japan that have no legal and historical substantiation fall under the concept of “revanchism”, the desire to reconsider the results of the Second World War confirmed by international agreements and documents.
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