How to protect Damansky
2 March 1969, the battle began for a small island on the Ussuri River, which became a symbol of the great courage of Russian border guards
In the postwar stories Russia was the only time when its soldiers had to repel an attack by regular enemy troops on their land. From that battle, the Soviet soldiers came out victorious. Although they got this victory at a high price: March 2 1969, three dozen Russian border guards were killed, reflecting the perfidious attack of Chinese troops on Damansky Island. But 12 days later, everything happened again, and as a result, the total number of Soviet casualties reached 58 people. True, China paid much more for its provocation: according to unofficial data, but official Chinese are carefully hiding to this day! - PLA soldiers and officers were killed from 300 to 1000.
The history of China’s attempts to hurt Russia, taking away its barren island flooded in the middle of the Ussuri River begins with a three-century demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border in the area. Under the terms of the 1911 Treaty of the Year, the border between the two countries passed along the Chinese bank of the Ussuri. But adopted eight years later as a worldwide principle of the “border river”, according to which the border is drawn in the middle of the main fairway or simply in the middle of the river, if it is not navigable, in one fell swoop turned the Ussuri border into a controversial one. In any case, from the point of view of China, which, after long years of weakening of the central government and a prolonged civil war, has again begun to claim the role of a world power.
The role of the catastrophic development of events around Damansky Island, named so in 1888 in honor of Stanislav Damansky, a railway engineer from the Russian expedition who died off the island coast, also played political contradictions between Moscow and Beijing, aggravated after the death of Joseph Stalin. The PRC, which was experiencing the Great Cultural Revolution with a tremendous increase in national and political hysteria, then quickly found the main culprit of its internal problems, accusing the Soviet Union of betraying the ideals of communism and forcing the population to hate Russia more than its own politicians. And at that moment they were rushing back and forth between the two main opponents of the Cold War — the USSR and the USA — in search of a new ally and sponsor. These throwings, according to many historians, became the true cause of the conflict on the Damansky. Say, Beijing has found the most radical way of demonstrating to Washington its hopelessly deteriorated relations with Moscow. And choosing Damansky Chinese leadership made purely strategic considerations: the island is located at a significant distance from the military centers of Primorye, at the junction of the two outposts, poorly accessible to heavy equipment and located much closer to the Chinese coast, which made it easier for Chinese troops to access.
In 1964, Soviet diplomats, realizing how dangerous the situation with the uncertainty of the state border on the Ussuri, offered China to transfer the disputed island to his disposal. However, Beijing simply did not respond to this proposal, hoping to use the Damansky as a trump card in a political game - and immediately began to play it. Over the next few years, the number of provocations on this section of the border increased from a hundred to several thousand per year. At first, Chinese peasants simply began to land on the island (as Chinese politicians later admitted in their memoirs, with full approval from the capital), who mowed hay and grazed cattle, declaring to the Soviet border guards that were expelled, they were on Chinese territory. Then they were replaced by the Red Guilds - youth activists of the Cultural Revolution, ideologically mortified so much that they ceased to adhere to generally accepted human morality. These "red guards" began to openly attack border patrols, hiding at the first danger. However, the Russian frontier guards kept an amazing endurance: until the fateful night on 2 March 1969, they never - we emphasize, not once! - did not apply weapon. Later, the Chinese themselves admitted that they very much hoped for the first shots, but for some reason the Russians preferred fist fights. From which, as provocateurs ascertained with bitterness, our frontier guards invariably emerged victorious due to their superiority in growth and, most importantly, in muscle mass: at that time in China, it was very bad with nutrition ...
Desperate to provoke the Soviet side to the first shots, Beijing decided to spit on political propriety and gave the command to launch Operation Retribution, which was appointed to head the deputy commander of the Shenyang military district Xiao Quanfu. As part of this purely military plan, on the night of 2 in March 1969, around 300, soldiers of the National Liberation Army of China under cover of darkness crossed the ice to Damansky Island and organized several ambushes. The goal was simple: wait for the appearance of border patrols, show them the military presence of China on the island, force the personnel of the nearest Nizhne-Mikhaylovka frontier post, as usual, to go to Damansky, and then destroy them with dense machine-gun fire, supported from the Chinese coast by machine guns and artillery .
The first stage of the conflict, admittedly, proceeded in full accordance with the Chinese plans. On 10: 30 in the morning, a technical observation post noticed that armed people began to cross the island from the Chinese coast. In 10: 40, as follows from the investigation documents, two groups of Chinese - from 30 and 18 people - reached the island, and immediately after that the outpost was raised into a gun. The frontier guards acted the same way as thousands of times before: without removing the automat standing on the guard from the shoulders, they went to meet the Chinese in order to literally shove them off the island, since they could not count on persuasion. But this time everything went differently: when the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Sinelnikov, accompanied by other commanders and soldiers, approached the violators and began to explain to them why they should leave the island (presumably, he pronounced the text literally by heart without thinking about it) , the first row of Chinese suddenly parted, and the second opened fire literally at close range. Almost at the same time, the reserve group of the outpost, which was on the flank of the intruders, got into another ambush. As a result, no more than half of the soldiers and officers of Nizhne-Mikhaylovka survived from 32, and even those were forced to lie down under heavy enemy fire.
Head of the 1 frontier post Bubenin Vitaly Dmitrievich. Photo: damanski-1969.ru
Only two hours later, when the few Nizhne-Mikhaylovka fighters came to the aid of the few who remained in the ranks, the maneuverable groups from the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost under the command of its chief lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, the future creator of the Alpha group of the KGB of the USSR, the Chinese began to retreat. After they left the island, they began to search and collect the bodies of the fallen border guards in Damanskoye. Their appearance horrified even the well-worn officers and doctors: Chinese soldiers did not take prisoners, finishing off wounded shots at point-blank range and mocking the dead, disfiguring and shredding their bodies with bayonets. In the same terrible state, the body of the only captured Nizhne-Mikhaylovka border guard — the corporal Pavel Akulov — was returned home after a month and a half ...
In total, 31 was killed by a Soviet border guard that day in the battle for Damansky Island, and 14 were injured. And after 12 days, in the 14 and 15 battles of March, 27 soldiers and officers were killed, and 80 was injured. Finally leaving the island, which attacked the 24 Infantry Regiment of the PLA numbering 5 thousands of people, the Chinese were only convinced by the shells of the secret weapon of the time - the MLRS Grad - and the decisive counterattack of the Soviet motorized infantry and border guards that followed. Following the events in Damansky, many of their participants were awarded high awards - and many, alas, posthumously. Five people became Heroes of the Soviet Union: the commander of the 57 frontier detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov, the head of the Nizhne-Mikhaylovka outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, senior sergeant Vladimir Orekhov (all three are posthumous), and also senior lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin and junior sergeant Yuriy Baban . In addition, 148 was also awarded to soldiers and officers of the Soviet army and border troops during their lifetime and posthumously. Three - the Order of Lenin, 10 - the Order of the Battle Red Banner, 31 - the Order of the Red Star, 10 - the Order of Glory of the III degree, 63 - the Medal of Courage medal, 31 - the Medal of Military Merit.
By the end of the year, minor clashes in Damansky and around it happened more than once, but the matter did not reach open clashes. 11 September 1969, Moscow and Beijing have agreed to leave the troops in their former positions, and the island became completely deserted. In fact, this meant that the Soviet Union refused to retain this piece of land, which was richly drenched in the blood of Soviet soldiers. In 1991, this decision was legitimized, and the island completely came under the jurisdiction of China. But the loss of Damansky does not mean that his defenders are forgotten - the Russian soldiers, who in an unequal fight won an unconditional victory over their opponent many times over.
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