Kuriles - a new bastion in the east
The Russian military is improving the basing system in the Far East and, in particular, in the Kuril Islands. So, in April, began a three-month expeditionary expedition of a detachment of Pacific ships fleet to the islands of the Greater Kuril ridge. “The main goal is to explore the possibilities of promising basing the forces of the Pacific Fleet,” said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Moreover, already this year, according to the statement of Russian officials, the Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems, the new generation unmanned aerial vehicles Eleron-3 will be deployed here. It is easy to guess that one of the reasons for this decision was Japan's claim to the Kuril Islands. And actually, whose are they?
JAPANESE HAVE NOT SEEN THROUGH THE EYES
To prove that the Slavs lived on the islands from time immemorial, I, naturally, will not, but the Japanese have never been there. Indigenous people Kuriles - Ainu. Outwardly, the Ainu had nothing to do with the Mongoloid race. There are three versions of the origin of the Ainu - from the Caucasus, from Siberia and from the South Pacific. Pay attention to the name "Ainu", which means "people." That is, they were the only people in their habitats.
The first Russian people to visit directly on the Kuril Islands were the Cossacks Danil Antsiferov and Ivan Kozyrevsky. In 1711, at the head of a small detachment, they explored the northern island of Shumshu. In 1713, Kozyrevsky landed on Paramushir, where he had to fight the Ainu, who did not want to pay tribute to the royal treasury. Kozyrevsky plotted both islands on the map and declared them the territory of the Russian state.
The Russians have never heard of any Japanese on the Kuril Islands. The fact is that the third Japanese shogun Iemitsu with three consecutive decrees (1633, 1636 and 1639 years), under the threat of the death penalty, forbade the Japanese to leave the borders of their country, as well as build large ships for long voyages. At the same time, the country was closed to foreigners. An exception was made only for the Dutch and the Chinese, whose merchant ships were allowed to call at Nagasaki in limited quantities, where bargaining was taking place on DeSima Island.
By the way, Japan of the XVII – XVIII centuries consisted of Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and other southern islands. As for the northern island of Hokkaido, by the middle of the XVII century it was not part of the centralized Japanese state. Later in the south of Hokkaido, the Japanese principality of Matsunae arose, but the majority of the Ainu people who lived there remained independent.
This is confirmed by the curious request of Catherine II, which was sent to her in 1788, the head of the northeast American company, Ivan Golikov. On behalf of the company, he asked “to prevent the assassination of other powers from building a fortress and a harbor on 21 (Shikotan) or 22 (Hokkaido) from the Kuril Islands to establish trade with China, Japan, to the most capable discoveries and bringing under high power” of the empress "The neighboring islands, which are from any country, as we know for sure ... still do not depend."
Golikov asked 100 soldiers with artillery to be allocated to him in order to “have help and protection from any kind of oppression from the state party and to guard ...”. I also asked for a loan, 200 thousand rubles, for 20 years and grant a monopoly on the exploitation of the islands and continental land "as open, the current and the one they open."
Catherine refused. But what is the offer! And after all, it was not Petersburg officials who initiated it, but people who lived for many years in the Far East. Could anyone suggest building a fortress somewhere on Honshu? And the fortress was needed not to defend against the Japanese, but against the “assassination of other powers,” the same Portuguese.
SOUTH SAKHALIN COURSES IN EXCHANGE
25 April (7 May) 1875 of the year in St. Petersburg was concluded the Russian-Japanese agreement, according to which Russia transferred the Kuril Islands to Japan in exchange for South Sakhalin. Alexander Gorchakov represented the Russian empire at the negotiations, Enomato Takzaki represented the Japanese one.
In Russia, the cult of the Iron Chancellor of Gorchakov has long been created. Alas, in real life this man constantly harmed Russia. So, from 1855 to 1870, the year slowed down not only the construction of warships on the Black Sea, but also modern shipyards in Nikolaev. Iron Chancellor Bismarck laughed at our paper chancellor: "Build little armadillos in Nikolaev, and there will be a protest of diplomats - refer to the stupidity of Russian officials and bureaucracy." Indeed, from 1859 to 1870, there was a continuous war for the redivision of European borders, and no one thought about a war with Russia because of the inconsistency of the size of its battleships to the articles of the Paris world 1856.
And only when France was shattered by Prussia, did Gorchakov erupt into a famous circular. But it was paper bravado - there were no battleships or shipyards where they could be built on the Black Sea.
Due to Gorchakov’s fault, full-fledged battleships on the Black Sea were put into operation only in the 1895 year, when neither the donkey nor the emir was alive for a long time.
It was Gorchakov who was the main initiator of the sale of Alaska to America. After that, the Russian-American company was in agony and there was no one to engage in smoking.
As a result, Mikhail Reytern, head of the Ministry of Finance, said: “In view of the small benefit that Russia has gained from the Kuril Islands until now, and the difficulties with which food supply to the population of these islands, despite its insignificance, and I, for my part, admit that it is much more profitable for us to exchange these islands for the southern part of Sakhalin ”.
By 1875, several dozens of Russians and a couple of hundred Creoles lived in the Kuril Islands. Our admirals were of little interest. In 1875, the Nissen-Kan corvette went to take Kurils into Japanese citizenship. And 83 Russian nationals from the Kuril Islands were taken out only in September 1877 of the year on the Abrek clipper.
Well, South Sakhalin was handed over by the Assagan-Kan corvette, and the “Horseman” clipper received it.
There is no doubt that the economic significance of South Sakhalin far exceeds the Kuril Islands. On this occasion, the Japanese media outraged: "Sakhalin was exchanged for a small chain of pebbles."
RUSSIAN BASE IN NAGASAKI
In addition to Sakhalin, Russia acquired a naval base in Nagasaki.
Already in July, 1875, the maritime ministry manager ordered Rear-Admiral Orestu Pusino, head of the Pacific ships detachment, to conclude a contract with Japanese landowner Sigoy about a 10-year lease of a plot of land, on which, “without leaving the allocated amount, it was supposed to install and equip a bathhouse, hospital , boat shed and forge. "
The “Russian village” of Inos with the St. Petersburg tavern, the hotel “Neva” with a buffet and billiards, etc., appeared in Nagasaki. “And so that any visitor of a different nationality didn’t get into it, the hosts considered it necessary to nail the board with a warning sign in Japanese, Russian and English in English, which say that“ only Russian officers are allowed here. ”
Inos was inhabited by hundreds of geishas and dozens of female contractors. Gentlemen concluded a marriage contract for two or three years, depending on the duration of their ship in the Pacific. His wife bought a house in Inos, where Mr. Officer lived. Then the admirals and legal wives in Petersburg looked at things easier than they did now. Everyone knew, took it for granted, and in a quarter of a century there was not a single scandal or “personal business.”
The conclusion of peace with Japan and the acquisition of a base in Nagasaki in 1875 were extremely important in the light of the next Anglo-Russian “military alarms” of 1875 – 1876, and then of 1878.
FISH, RUMOR AND MILITARY OBJECTS
The Japanese did not really know what to do with the Kuriles. I open the 16 volume of the Russian “Military Encyclopedia”, published in 1914, the publication for that time is quite reliable. The article “The Kuril Islands” states: “They are unsuitable for agriculture in climatic conditions ... Due to the poverty of nature and the severity of climate, the permanent population does not exceed 600 people”.
In addition to these, Japanese fishing trading posts for the primary processing of fish periodically appeared on the islands. However, the Japanese have arranged similar trading posts in 1907 – 1935 in ... Kamchatka. This was done, of course, without the knowledge of the local authorities. Moreover, Japanese fishermen under tsarism and under Soviet rule spread rumors among the Kamchadals that the peninsula would soon move to Japan.
Modern Japanese historians claim that the construction of military facilities on the islands began in 1940. They echo and several domestic historians. Personally, I think that military construction in the Kuriles began five years earlier.
However, this cheating with dates, on the one hand, should prove the peace-loving nature of the Land of the Rising Sun, but on the other, it puts the Japanese official propaganda in the embarrassing position, moaning about 16,5 thousands of civilians of the Kurils evicted to Japan in 1947 – 1949. According to Soviet data, 9149 Japanese citizens were repatriated from Kuriles, and 10 also asked for Soviet citizenship and were left on the islands.
Let's compare that from the islands of Micronesia, Americans at the same time evicted thousands of Japanese from 70 to 100, most of whom were born on the islands, and almost all of them were engaged in economic activities by the year of 1941.
But from 9,2 to 16,5, thousands of Japanese in the Kuril Islands were 95% imported in the 1940 – 1944 years and used to service Japanese military installations. To talk about depriving the homeland of a person who lived on it for two or four years, to put it mildly, is not serious.
KURILSKY “STEPS”
The landing of the Soviet troops in the Kuril Islands. 1945 Photo of the Year
Few people know that the carrier strike force, which defeated the American fleet at Pearl Harbor 7 in December 1941, left the naval base on the island of Iturup. It was in the Gulf of Hitokappu (now Kasatka Bay) that the six Japanese aircraft carriers had their last training for several weeks. The base on Iturup was well covered from the air, there was a huge airfield there. Later, it was named the Petrel, and our 1993 fighter regiment was based there until 387.
The North Kuril Islands were used by the Japanese in 1942 – 1944 as a base for attacking the Aleutian Islands.
However, the Americans with great effort managed to oust the Japanese from the Aleutian Islands captured by them. It is curious that for the first time the plan to capture the Kuril Islands was considered by the US government in August 1942. Well, after the release of Atta’s island in May 1943 of the year, both in the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (OKNSH) and in the American press, there was a stormy debate about the seizure of the Kuril Islands and further movement from them to the south of Japan itself.
The phrase “a trip to Tokyo on the steps of the Kuril Islands” has become a brand of American journalists. The phrase "from Paramushir to Tokyo just 2 thousand. Km" hypnotized the American man in the street.
The commander of the Western Group of Forces, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, presented his plan of operation to the Chief of the Special Forces Command Department Devitt proposed to strike at the Kuril Islands in the spring of 1944, with the aim of creating a base for further advancement towards Hokkaido and Honshu.
The plan of attack on the islands did not remain on paper. Since the spring of 1943, the American aviation launched a massive bombardment of the Kuril Islands. The most powerful blows were delivered to the northern islands of Shumshu and Paramushira. So, in just one day of bombing Paramushir in Kamchatka seven American bombers landed. All American planes landed on the territory of the USSR (in the Far East) interned, so in 1946 we received the Tu-4 “flying fortress” - the work of Andrei Nikolaevich Tupolev.
The Japanese seriously feared the American invasion of the Kuriles. As a result, the number of Japanese troops on the islands increased from 5 thousand people at the beginning of 1943 to 27 thousand at the end of the year, and by the summer of 1944, the year was reduced to 60 (!) Thousand. This is despite the greater complexity of troop delivery and supply - storm, American aircraft and submarines.
But Moscow said “yuck!”, And the American vultures began to look for another goal. It is curious that even 18 in November 1940 of the year by the Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov suggested that the Japanese hand over to the USSR all the Kuril Islands in exchange for signing a non-aggression pact.
FATE DECIDED FOR TWO MINUTES
29 November 1943 President of the United States Franklin Roosevelt expressed readiness to seize the Northern Kuriles to improve communications with Vladivostok and asked Stalin whether the USSR would take part in this action, acting together with the US armed forces. Stalin left the direct answer, but later hinted to Roosevelt that South Sakhalin and the Kuriles should become Russian territory, as this would give the Soviet Union access to the Pacific Ocean and the possibility of a more reliable defense of the Soviet Far East.
During 1944, Stalin twice repeated the Soviet political conditions under which the USSR would agree to enter the war against Japan: 14 in October in an interview with General John Dean, the head of the US military mission in Moscow, and 13 in December at a meeting with the envoy of the President Averell Harriman. Stalin told Harriman that all the Kuril Islands should be returned to Russia, justifying this claim by the fact that they belonged to Russia before.
Finally, the fate of the Kurils decided in two minutes in Yalta at a closed session of February 8 1945. Stalin began the conversation by combining the Kurils and South Sakhalin into one whole: "I just want to return to Russia what the Japanese took from her." Roosevelt readily agreed with this: “A very reasonable proposal of our ally. Russians only want to return what was taken from them. ” After that, the conference participants proceeded to discuss other issues.
Tokyo remained completely unaware of the Soviet-American negotiations. The Japanese were frantically searching for diplomatic moves in order to at least secure the neutrality of the USSR and, at the most, to persuade Stalin to become an arbiter in the peace negotiations with the United States and Britain.
As early as September 1944, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Sigemitsu Mamoru, prepared a draft, on which, in particular, it was planned to cede the Central and Northern Kurile Islands to the Soviet Union.
Well, in August-September 1945, the Soviet paratroopers occupied all the Kuril Islands.
2 September 1945, Stalin addressed the citizens of the USSR: “The defeat of the Russian troops in 1904, during the Russo-Japanese War, left heavy memories in the minds of the people. It lay on our country a black spot. Our people believed and waited for the day when Japan would be broken and the stain would be eliminated. For forty years we, the people of the older generation, have been waiting for this day. And this day has come. Japan today declared itself defeated and signed an act of unconditional surrender. This means that South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands will withdraw to the Soviet Union, and from now on they will serve not as a means of separating the Soviet Union from the ocean and the base of the Japanese attack on our Far East, but as a means of direct communication of the Soviet Union with the Japanese aggression.
In September 1945, President Harry Truman proposed to Stalin to create an American aviation and naval base on one of the Kuril Islands. Stalin agreed, but on the condition of creating a similar Soviet base on one of the Aleutian Islands. Further, the White House did not raise this topic.
AMERICAN SHOWS
In the 1946 – 1990 years, a rather effective border control was organized in the Kuriles. So, already in 1951 on the South Kuril Islands on the 1 km of the coast there were two border guards. However, despite the creation of nine separate border patrols of patrol vessels, one ship was on the 80 km of the border at sea.
Well, the Americans constantly organized provocations in the Kuriles region. Here is just a brief chronicle of incidents at the already mentioned “Petrel” airfield on Iturup.
October 7 1952 of the year on the island of Yuri American scout RB-29 appeared. From the "Petrel" rose a pair of La-11. RB-29 was shot down, eight people died.
November 7 The X-NUMX of the year RB-1954А appeared at the island of Tanfiliev. He was intercepted by a pair of MiG-29 from "Petrel". The Yankees were the first to open fire. The RB-15 was badly damaged and fell on the coast of Hokkaido Island.
1 June 1968, in the Kuril Islands region, was broken by the American DC-8 jet airliner with 24 crew members and 214 US military personnel traveling to Vietnam. The aircraft entered 200 km in Soviet airspace. A pair of MiG-17 fighters attempted to force the DC-8 to land, but he began to climb and tried to escape into the clouds. Another pair of MiGs went up from the Stormy Petrel. At the rate of the liner was given a turn tracer shells. The commander of the airliner stopped "prank" and landed the airliner on the Burevestnik airfield.
4 April 1983, six attack aircraft from the aircraft carriers Midway and Enterprise, maneuvering in 200 km east of the Kuril Islands, entered Soviet airspace. Moreover, the attack aircraft for 15 minutes from a low altitude practiced strikes on the island of Green. However, our fighters did not take off from the "Petrel". The fact is that due to the bad weather, the MiG-21CM could not get back, and it would not be enough to reach the airfield of Sakhalin. After debriefing six months later, more advanced MiG-23 vehicles arrived at the Petrel.
The Americans were no less brazen about the sea. Thus, American submarines worked utter chaos in the Sea of Okhotsk.
In October, the 1971 of the year, the nuclear submarine "Khalibat" with the equipment for carrying out a special operation penetrated the territorial waters of the USSR. Slowly moving along the coast of Kamchatka, the Americans examined the signs on the coast, and finally, good luck - a sign was issued to ban any underwater work in this place. The Americans released a controlled underwater robot, with which they managed to see a thick 13-centimeter cable at the bottom. The boat moved away from the shore and hung over the cable line, four divers fixed the information retrieval equipment. Having received the first data interception, "Halibat" headed for Pearl Harbor. Then the boat "Halibat" put on the cable in the Sea of Okhotsk an even more perfect listening system, which in the USA was called the "cocoon". At the end of 1971, the “Halibat” re-entered the Sea of Okhotsk to retrieve the accumulated “cocoon” of information.
A trip to the Sea of Okhotsk to listen to the cable line became regular. The US National Security Agency even assigned this operation the codename “Ivy Belles” (“Convolvulus” or “Ivy Bells”). Errors were taken into account and a conclusion was drawn from past lessons. The Bell company received an order for further improvement of the listening device.
In the 1974 and 1975 years, the “Khalibat” boat made a trip to the Sea of Okhotsk with a special device on the “skoogie” type hull, which allowed her to lie down gently on the ground without using an anchor.
Then, the nuclear submarine Sifulf, which made two trips to the Sea of Okhotsk - in 1976 and 1977 - was attracted to Operation "Convolvulus".
In 1976, the American submarine Greyback entered the Soviet territorial waters in the Prostor Gulf off the Sakhalin coast in order to locate the remains of the Soviet strategic bomber Tu-95 that had fallen into the sea in the area.
The operation received the code designation "Blue Sun". The boat launched submarine saboteurs who discovered the remains of the Tu-95 at a depth of 40. The Americans managed to deliver two hydrogen bombs and identification equipment “friend-foe” aboard the “Grayback”.
To counter the invasion of US ships and submarines into the Sea of Okhotsk, in November 1962, the 171-brigade of submarines from the 6-th submarine squadron of the Pacific Fleet was redeployed from Nakhodka Bay to Nagaev Bay (near Magadan). Initially, the brigade included the C-173, C-288 and C-286 submarines, all the boats of the 613 project, as well as the North mother ship. In the spring of 1963, the C-331, C-173 and C-140 boats were part of the brigade, and by the fall of 1967, the 171 brigade had 11 boats of the 613 project. In 1987, on the basis of the 171 brigade in Nagaevo, the 420-th separate submarine division was formed. In 1994, it was disbanded, and two submarines of the 877 project became part of the 182 Brigade.
STRUGGLE FOR THE SEA OF KHOTIA
In the 1970 – 1980 years, our submariners learned to shoot in the Arctic from polynyas and punching ice by cutting or special torpedoes. However, the ice does not save nuclear missile carriers from US nuclear submarine "assassin boats". Our rocket carriers in the Arctic are continuously monitored from one to four such submarines.
In such a situation, the Sea of Okhotsk Sea with an area of 1603 thousand square meters can serve as the optimal combat patrol area of our missile carriers. km Its average depth is 821 m, and the greatest is 3916 m. The Sea of Okhotsk is located inside the territory of the Russian Federation, and only a small piece of the Japanese island of Hokkaido goes to it. From Hokkaido, you can enter the sea through two straits - Kunashirsky (length 74 km, width 24 – 43 km, maximum depth 2500 m) and Laperuz (length 94 km, width in a narrow place 43 km, maximum depth 118 m).
Curiously, Japan has narrowed the breadth of its territorial waters in the Strait of La Perouse to allow American submarines to maneuver weapons on board. After all, formally, Japan (except Okinawa) pledged not to have nuclear weapons on its territory.
The total width of all straits between the Kuril Islands is about 500 km. Almost all of them are blocked by the territorial waters of Russia, that is, there is a real possibility of blocking all the straits, except Kunashirsky and La Perouse, from the penetration of submarines of a potential enemy. For this, network barriers, mines and various devices can be used.
Around 15 years from the Sea of Okhotsk Sea, our submarine strategic missile carriers launch ballistic missiles. Shooting lead to the site Chizha in the Arkhangelsk region. Note that if a significant part of the missiles were launched from the Barents Sea along the Kura test site in Kamchatka during their testing, then the Sea of Okhotsk was launched only during combat training and combat patrols.
Strengthening the defense of the Kuril Islands simultaneously solves two important tasks of strategic importance. Firstly, it reduces all talk of the return of the “northern territory” to idle chatter, and secondly, it ensures the safety of patrols of our missile carriers in the Sea of Okhotsk. Smokers need a good lock from all uninvited visitors.
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