An internal document of the Gorbachev government: “We are obliged to return Habomai and Shikotan to Japan. Kurile Islands. History, photos, volcanoes, population, climate, nature of the Kuril Islands. Plants, animals, geography, relief of the islands of the Kuril ridge.
(Picture from here: http://www.27region.ru/news/index.php/newscat/worldnews/19908-----l-r-)
“Japan claims four islands in the Kuril ridge - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, citing the bilateral 1855 Treaty on Trade and Frontiers. Moscow's position is that the southern Kuriles became part of the USSR (of which Russia became the successor) following the results of the Second World War, and Russian sovereignty over them, which has the appropriate international legal form, is beyond doubt. "
(Source: Korrespondent.net, 08.02.2011)
A bit of history (which was researched and published by A.M. Ivanov here - http://www.pagan.ru/lib/books/history/ist2/wojny/kurily.php)
“The 50s of the 19th century is the period of the“ discovery of Japan ”by the Americans and the Russians. The representative of Russia was Rear Admiral E.V. Putyatin, who arrived on the frigate Pallada, who, in a letter to the Japanese Supreme Council dated November 6, 1853, insisted on the need for delimitation, pointing out that Iturup belongs to Russia, since for a long time it was visited by Russian industrialists, who long before the Japanese created there their settlements. The border was supposed to be drawn along the La Perouse Strait "
(E. Ya. Fainberg. Russian-Japanese relations in 1697-1875, M., 1960, p. 155).
Article 2 of the "Russian-Japanese Treaty on Trade and Frontiers" dated January 26 (February 7), 1855, signed by the parties in the city of Shimoda, states: “From now on, the borders between Russia and Japan will pass between the islands of Iturup and Urup... The entire island of Iturup belongs to Japan, and the entire island of Urup and other Kuril Islands to the north are the possessions of Russia... As for the island of Krafto (Sakhalin), it remains undivided between Russia and Japan, as it was until now. "(YV Klyuchnikov and AV Sabanin. International politics of modern times in contracts, notes and declarations. Part I. M., 1925. p.168-169). See the picture above.
But on April 25 (May 7), 1875, the Japanese forced Russia, weakened Crimean war 1953-1956, to sign an agreement in St. Petersburg, according to which:
« In return for the cession of rights to Sakhalin Island to Russia ... His Majesty the Emperor of All Russia ... cedes to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan a group of islands called the Kuril Islands, which he owns, so that from now on the said group of Kuril Islands will belong to the Japanese Empire. This group includes the following 18 islands (a list follows), so that the borderline between the Russian and Japanese empires in these waters will pass through the strait located between Cape Lopatkoyu of the Kamchatka Peninsula and Shumshu Island. "
(Yu.V. Klyuchnikov and A.V. Sabanin. International politics of modern times in contracts, notes and declarations. Part I, M., 1925, p.214)
To make it clear, it should be clarified that at that time the southern part of Sakhalin Island belonged to the Japanese, and the northern one - to Russia (by the way, both La Perouse and Kruzenshtern considered Sakhalin a peninsula).
“On the night of August 8-9, 1945, the USSR violated its obligations related to the neutrality pact, and began a war against Japan, although there was no threat to Russia from its side, and seized Manchuria, Port Arthur, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. islands. A landing on Hokkaido was also being prepared, but the Americans intervened, and the occupation of the island of Hokkaido by the Red Army was not implemented.
After the war, the question arose of concluding a peace treaty with Japan. In accordance with international law, only a peace treaty draws the final line under the war, finally resolves all controversial issues between former enemies, finally settles territorial problems, clarifies and establishes state borders. All other decisions, documents, acts are all just a prelude to a peace treaty, its preparation.
In this sense, the Yalta agreement between Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt is not a final solution to the problem of the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, but just a "protocol of intentions" of the allies in the war, a statement of their positions and a promise to pursue a certain line in the future, when preparing a peace treaty ... In any case, there is no reason to believe that the problem of the Kuril Islands was already resolved in Yalta in 1945. Finally, it must be resolved only in a peace treaty with Japan. And nowhere else ...
Some say that if four islands are returned to Japan, then Alaska must be returned to Russia. But what kind of return can we talk about, if Alaska was sold to the United States in 1867, the sale and purchase agreement was signed, the money was received. Today one can only regret it, but all the talk about the return of Alaska is groundless.
Therefore, there is no reason to fear that the possible return of the four Kuril Islands to Japan will cause a chain reaction of activity in Europe.
You must also understand that this is not a revision of the results of the Second World War, because the Russian-Japanese border is not internationally recognized: the results of the war have not yet been summed up, the passage of the border has not been recorded. Today, not only the four southern Kuril Islands, but all the Kuril Islands and the southern part of Sakhalin below the 50th parallel do not legally belong to Russia. They are still occupied territory to this day. Unfortunately, the truth - historical, moral and, most importantly, legal - is not on the side of Russia "
Nevertheless, when negotiations were held in London in 1955 on the normalization of Soviet-Japanese relations, the Soviet delegation agreed to include in the draft peace treaty an article on the transfer to Japan of the islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge (Habomai and Sikotan), which was reflected in a joint declaration signed after stay of Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama in Moscow on October 13-19, 1956:
"The USSR, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Sikotan Island to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of the Peace Treaty between the USSR and Japan."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kurile Islands
- a chain of islands between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean with a slightly convex arc. The length is about 1200 km. The total area is 10.5 thousand sq. Km.
The islands are extremely unevenly populated. The population resides permanently only in Paramushir, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan. There is no permanent population on the other islands. At the beginning of 2010, there are 19 settlements: two cities (Severo-Kurilsk, Kurilsk), an urban-type settlement (Yuzhno-Kurilsk) and 16 villages.
The maximum value of the population was observed in 1989 and was 29.5 thousand people(excluding conscripts).
Urup
An island in the southern group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands. Administratively included in the Kuril urban district of the Sakhalin region. Uninhabited.
The island stretches from northeast to southwest for 116 km. with its width up to 20 km. Area 1450 sq. Km. The relief is mountainous, heights up to 1426 m (High Mountain). Lake Vysokoe is located between the Vysokaya and Kosaya mountains of the Krishtofovich ridge at an altitude of 1016 m. Waterfalls with a maximum height of 75 m.
Currently Urup is uninhabited. On the island there are non-residential settlements of Kastrikum and Kompaneiskoye.
The Frisa Strait is a strait in the Pacific Ocean that separates Urup Island from Iturup Island. Connects the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. One of the largest straits of the Kuril ridge. The length is about 30 km. The minimum width is 40 km. The maximum depth is over 1300 m. The coast is steep and rocky.
(Today Japan and Russia are separated by the Soviet Strait, the length of which is about 13 km. The width is about 10 km. Maximum depth over 50 m... See picture above)
Iturup
The island stretches from northeast to southwest for 200 km, width from 7 to 27 km. Area - 3200 sq. km. Consists of volcanic massifs and mountain ranges. There are many volcanoes and waterfalls on the island. Iturup is separated by the Frisa Strait from Urup Island, located 40 km away. to the northeast; by the Catherine Strait - from the island of Kunashir, located 22 km to the southwest.
The city of Kurilsk is located in the central part of the island on the shores of the Kuril Bay of the Sea of Okhotsk, in 2010 the population was 1,666.
Rural settlements: Reidovo, Kitovoe, Rybaki, Goryachi Kluchi, Burevestnik, Shumi-Gorodok, Gornoe.
Non-residential settlements: Active, Glorious, September, Wind, Hot Water, Pioneer, Iodny, Lesozavodsky, Berezovka.
Kunashir
The island stretches from northeast to southwest for 123 km, width from 7 to 30 km. Area - 1490 sq. Km. The structure of Kunashir resembles neighboring Iturup and consists of three mountain ranges. The highest peak is Tyatya volcano (1819 m) with a regular truncated cone topped with a wide crater. This beautiful tall volcano is located in the northeastern part of the island. Kunashir is separated by the Catherine Strait from Iturup Island located 22 km northeast. The rivers of Kunashir, as elsewhere in the Kuril Islands, are short and shallow. The most long river- Tyatina, originating from the Tyatya volcano. The lakes are mainly lagoon (Sandy) and caldera (Hot).
In the central part of the island on the coast of the South Kuril Strait there is urban-type settlement Yuzhno-Kurilsk - the administrative center of the Yuzhno-Kurilsk urban district.In 2010, the population of the village was 6 617 inhabitants.
Non-residential settlements: Sergeevka, Urvitovo, Dokuchaevo, Sernovodsk.
Kurile Islands
If you look at the map of Russia, then in the Far East itself, between Kamchatka and Japan, you can see a chain of islands, which are the Kuriles. The archipelago forms two ridges: the Big Kuril and the Small Kuril. The Great Kuril Ridge includes about 30 islands, as well as a large number of small islands and rocks. The Small Kuril Ridge stretches parallel to the Big. It includes 6 small islands and many rocks. At the moment, all the Kuril Islands are controlled by Russia and are part of its Sakhalin region, some of the islands are the subject of a territorial dispute between Russia and Japan. The Kuril Islands are administratively part of the Sakhalin Region. They are divided into three regions: Severokurilskiy, Kurilskiy and Yuzhno-Kurilskiy.
The Kuril Islands, which are an area of active volcanic activity. Marine terraces of different altitude levels play a significant role in the formation of the island relief. The coastline abounds in bays and capes, the shores are often rocky and steep, with narrow boulder-pebble, less often sandy beaches. Volcanoes are located almost exclusively on the islands of the Greater Kuril ridge. Most of these islands are active or extinct volcanoes, and only the northernmost and southernmost islands are composed of sedimentary formations. Most of the volcanoes of the Kuril Islands arose directly on the seabed. The Kuril Islands themselves represent the peaks and ridges of a continuous mountain range still hidden under water. The Great Kuril Ridge is a wonderful illustrative example of the formation of a ridge on the earth's surface. There are 21 active volcanoes in the Kuril Islands. The most active volcanoes of the Kuril ridge include Alaid, Sarychev peak, Fuss, Snow and Milna. Decaying volcanoes in the solfatara stage of activity are located mainly in the southern half of the Kuril ridge. On the Kuril Islands there are many extinct volcanoes Atsonupuri Aka Roko and others.
The climate of the Kuril Islands is moderately cold and monsoon. It is determined by their location between two huge bodies of water - the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean. The average temperature in February is from -5 to -7 degrees C. The average temperature in August is from 10 degrees C. The features of the monsoon climate are more pronounced in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, which is more influenced by the Asian mainland cooling in winter, from where the cold and dry western winds. Only the climate of the southernmost islands is somewhat softened by the damping warm current of Soya.
Significant amounts of precipitation and a high flow coefficient favor the development of a dense network of small streams on the islands. There are over 900 rivers in total. The mountainousness of the islands also determines the steep slope of the rivers and the high speed of their flow; rapids and waterfalls are frequent in river beds. Rivers of the plain type are a rare exception. The river receives its main nourishment from rains; snow supply also plays a significant role, especially from snowfields in the mountains. Only slowly flowing streams within flat areas are covered with ice annually. The water of many rivers is not potable due to its high salinity and high sulfur content. There are several dozen lakes of various origins on the islands. Some of them are associated with volcanic activity.
The mysterious Kuriles are a paradise for any romantic traveler. Inaccessibility, uninhabitedness, geographical isolation, active volcanoes, far from a "beach climate", scanty information - not only do not scare away, but also increase the desire to get to the foggy, fire-breathing islands - the former military fortresses of the Japanese army, still hiding deep underground many secrets.
The Kuril arc connects two worlds - Kamchatka and Japan with a narrow chain of islands, like an openwork bridge. The Kuriles are part of the Pacific volcanic ring. The islands are the tops of the tallest structures of the volcanic ridge, protruding from the water only for 1-2 km, and going into the depths of the ocean for many kilometers.
In total, there are over 150 volcanoes on the islands, of which 39 are active. The highest of them is the Alaid volcano - 2339 m, located on the Atlasov Island. Volcanic activity is associated with the presence of numerous thermal springs on the islands, some of them medicinal.
Experts compare the Kuril Islands with a huge Botanical Garden, where representatives of various flora coexist: Japanese-Korean, Manchurian and Okhotsk-Kamchatka. Here grow together - polar birch and millennial yew, larch with spruce and wild grapes, elfin cedar and velvet tree, interweaving of woody vines and carpet thickets of lingonberries. Traveling around the islands, you can visit various natural areas, to get from the pristine taiga to the subtropical thickets, from the moss tundra to the jungle of giant grasses.
The seabed around the islands is covered with dense vegetation, in the thickets of which numerous fish, mollusks, marine animals find refuge, and the crystal clear water allows fans of underwater travel to navigate well in the jungle of seaweed, where unique finds also happen - sunken ships and Japanese military equipment- reminders of military events in the history of the Kuril archipelago.
Yuzhno-Kurilsk, Kunashir 
GEOGRAPHY, WHERE ARE, HOW TO GET THERE
The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido, separating the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean with a slightly convex arc.
The length is about 1200 km. The total area is 10.5 thousand km². There is a state border to the south of them. Russian Federation with Japan.
The islands form two parallel ridges: the Big Kuril and the Small Kuril. Includes 56 islands. They are of great military-strategic and economic importance. The Kuril Islands are part of the Sakhalin Region of Russia. The southern islands of the archipelago - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group - are disputed by Japan, which includes them as part of the Hokkaido prefecture.
The Kuril Islands belong to the regions of the Far North
The climate on the islands is maritime, rather harsh, with cold and long winters, cool summers, and high air humidity. The mainland monsoon climate is undergoing significant changes here. In the southern part of the Kuril Islands, frosts in winter can reach −25 ° C, the average temperature in February is −8 ° C. In the northern part, winters are milder, with frosts down to -16 ° C and -7 ° C in February.
In winter, the islands are affected by the Aleutian baric minimum, the effect of which weakens by June.
The average August temperature in the southern part of the Kuril Islands is +17 ° C, in the northern part - +10 ° C.
Iturup Island, White Rocks Kuril Islands 
List of KURIL ISLANDS
List of islands with an area of more than 1 km² in the direction from north to south.
Name, Area, km², height, Latitude, Longitude
Great Kuril ridge
Northern group
Atlasova 150 2339 50 ° 52 "155 ° 34"
Shumshu 388 189 50 ° 45 "156 ° 21"
Paramushir 2053 1816 50 ° 23 "155 ° 41"
Antsiferova 7 747 50 ° 12 "154 ° 59"
Makanrushi 49 1169 49 ° 46 "154 ° 26"
Onekotan 425 1324 49 ° 27 "154 ° 46"
Harimkotan 68 1157 49 ° 07 "154 ° 32"
Chirinkotan 6 724 48 ° 59 "153 ° 29"
Ekarma 30 1170 48 ° 57 "153 ° 57"
Shiashkotan 122 934 48 ° 49 "154 ° 06"
Middle group
Raikoke 4.6 551 48 ° 17 "153 ° 15"
Matua 52 1446 48 ° 05 "153 ° 13"
Rasshua 67 948 47 ° 45 "153 ° 01"
Ushishir Islands 5 388 - -
Ryponkich 1.3 121 47 ° 32 "152 ° 50"
Yankich 3.7 388 47 ° 31 "152 ° 49"
Ketoy 73 1166 47 ° 20 "152 ° 31"
Simushir 353 1539 46 ° 58 "152 ° 00"
Broughton 7 800 46 ° 43 "150 ° 44"
Black Brothers Islands 37 749 - -
Chirpoy 21 691 46 ° 30 "150 ° 55"
Brother-Chirpoev 16 749 46 ° 28 "150 ° 50" Kuril Islands 
Southern group
Urup 1450 1426 45 ° 54 "149 ° 59"
Iturup 3318.8 1634 45 ° 00 "147 ° 53"
Kunashir 1495.24 1819 44 ° 05 "145 ° 59"
Small Kuril ridge
Shikotan 264.13 412 43 ° 48 "146 ° 45"
Polonsky 11.57 16 43 ° 38 "146 ° 19"
Green 58.72 24 43 ° 30 "146 ° 08"
Tanfilieva 12.92 15 43 ° 26 "145 ° 55"
Yuri 10.32 44 43 ° 25 "146 ° 04"
Anuchina 2.35 33 43 ° 22 "146 ° 00"
Atsonapuri volcano Kuril Islands 
Geological structure
The Kuril Islands are a typical ensimatic island arc at the edge of the Okhotsk Plate. It sits above a subduction zone in which the Pacific plate is being absorbed. Most of the islands are mountainous. The highest altitude is 2339 m - Atlasov Island, Alaid volcano. The Kuril Islands are located in the Pacific Volcanic Ring of Fire in a zone of high seismic activity: out of 68 volcanoes, 36 are active, there are hot mineral springs. Large tsunamis are not uncommon. The most famous tsunami on November 5, 1952 in Paramushira and the Shikotan tsunami on October 5, 1994. The last of the major tsunamis occurred on November 15, 2006 in Simushir.
South Kuril Bay, Kunashir Island 
Earthquakes
In Japan, an average of 1,500 earthquakes are recorded per year, i.e. 4 earthquakes per day. Most of them are associated with movement in the earth's crust (tectonics). Over 15 centuries, 223 destructive earthquakes and 2000 - of average strength have been noted and described: These, however, are far from complete figures, since earthquakes began to be recorded in Japan with special instruments only since 1888. A significant proportion of earthquakes occur in the region of the Kuril Islands, where they are often manifest themselves in the form of seaquakes. Captain Snow, who hunted sea animals here for many years, at the end of the last century, repeatedly observed such phenomena. So, for example, on July 12, 1884, 4 miles west of the stones of Srednevo, the gusty noise and shuddering of the ship continued for about two hours at intervals of 15 minutes and a duration of 30 seconds. The waves of the sea were not noticed at this time. The water temperature was normal, about 2.25 ° C.
Between 1737 and 1888 in the area of the islands, 16 destructive earthquakes were noted, for 1915-1916. - 3 catastrophic earthquakes in the middle part of the ridge, in 1929 - 2 similar earthquakes in the north.
Sometimes these phenomena are associated with underwater lava eruptions. The devastating impacts of earthquakes sometimes raise a huge wave (tsunami) on the sea, which is repeated several times. With tremendous force, it falls on the shores, complementing the destruction from the shaking of the soil. The height of the wave can be judged, for example, by the case with the ship "Natalia", sent by Lebedev-Lastochkin and Shelekhov under the command of navigator Petushkov to the 18th island: “On January 8, 1780, there was a severe earthquake; the sea rose so high that the gukor (ship A.S.), standing in the harbor, was carried to the middle of the island ... "(Berkh, 1823, pp. 140-141; Pozdneev, p. 11). The wave caused by the 1737 earthquake reached a height of 50 m and hit the shore with terrible force, breaking rocks. Several new rocks and cliffs have risen in the Second Strait. During the earthquake on the island. Simushire in 1849, all sources of groundwater dried up, and its population was forced to move to other places.
Paramushir island, Ebeko volcano 
Mendeleev volcano, Kunashir island 
Mineral springs
The presence of numerous hot and highly mineralized springs on the islands is associated with volcanic activity. They are found on almost all islands, especially on Kunashir, Iturup, Ushishir, Raikok, Shikotan, Yekarma. On the first of them there are many boiling springs. On others, hot springs have a temperature of 35-70 ° C. They come out in different places and have a different debit.
On about. The Raikoke spring with a temperature of 44 ° C gushes at the foot of high cliffs and forms bath-like basins in the cracks of solidified lava.
On about. Ushishir is a powerful boiling spring emerging in the crater of a volcano, etc. The water of many springs is colorless, transparent, and most often contains sulfur, which is deposited in places along the edges with yellow grains. For drinking purposes, the water of most sources is unsuitable.
Some springs are considered curative and are used for healing on the inhabited islands. The gases emitted by volcanoes along cracks are often also rich in sulfurous vapors.
Devil's finger Kuril Islands 
Natural resources
Industrial reserves of non-ferrous metal ores, mercury, natural gas, and oil have been explored on the islands and in the coastal zone. On the island of Iturup, in the area of the Kudryavy volcano, there is the richest known rhenium mineral deposit in the world. Here, at the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese mined native sulfur. The total resources of gold on the Kuril Islands are estimated at 1,867 tons, silver - 9,284 tons, titanium - 39.7 million tons, iron - 273 million tons. Currently, the development of minerals is few.
Of all the Kuril straits, only the Frisa Strait and the Catherine Strait are non-freezing navigable.
Bird waterfall, Kunashir 
Flora and fauna
Flora
Due to the large extent of the islands from north to south, the flora of the Kuril Islands is extremely different. On the northern islands (Paramushir, Shumshu and others), due to the harsh climate, woody vegetation is rather scarce and is represented mainly by shrub forms (elfin trees): alder (alkhach), birch, willow, mountain ash, dwarf cedar (cedar). On the southern islands (Iturup, Kunashir), coniferous forests grow from Sakhalin fir, Ayan spruce and Kuril larch with a large participation of broad-leaved species: curly oak, maples, elms, seven-lobed kalopanax with a large number of woody lianas: petiolate hydrangea, Chinese actinida grapes, poisonous eastern toxicodendron, etc. In the south of Kunashir one can find the only wild type of magnolia in Russia - magnolia obovate. One of the main landscape plants of the Kuril Islands, starting from the middle islands (Ketoy and to the south), is the Kuril bamboo, which forms impenetrable thickets on the mountain slopes and forest edges. Due to the humid climate, tall grasses are common on all islands. Various berries are widely represented: crowberry, lingonberry, blueberry, honeysuckle and others.
There are over 40 species of endemic plants. For example, astragalus Kavakamskiy, wormwood, Kuril edelweiss, found on the Iturup island; Otto and Saussurea Kuril, growing on the island of Urup.
The following plants are protected on the island of Iturup: endangered Asian half-eared, flowering plants aralia mainland, heart-shaped aralia, calopanax seven-lobed, Japanese kandyk, Raita's viburnum, Glena cardiocrinum, reverse peony, rhododendron Fori, Sugeroki holly, bogweed pearl wolf-leaf, mountain peony, lichens of Japanese glossodium and nude stereocaulon, gymnosperms of Sargent juniper and acuminate yew, bryoxyfium saatye and alpine atraktylocarpus growing near Baransky volcano. On the island of Urup, Raita's viburnum, cordate aralia and the dumbest plagiottium are protected.
Alaid volcano, Atlasov island 
Fauna
A brown bear lives on Kunashir, Iturup and Paramushir, and a bear was also found on Shumshu, but during a long-term presence on the island of a military base, due to its relatively small size, bears on Shumshu were mostly knocked out. Shumshu is a connecting island between Paramushir and Kamchatka, and individual bears are now found there. The islands are inhabited by foxes and small rodents. A large number of birds: plovers, gulls, ducks, cormorants, petrels, albatrosses, passerines, owls, falconifers and others. Many bird colonies.
The coastal underwater world, unlike the islands, is not only numerous, but also very diverse. The coastal waters are inhabited by seals, sea otters, killer whales, sea lions. Of great commercial importance are: fish, crabs, molluscs, squids, crustaceans, trepangs, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, seaweed, whales. The seas washing the shores of Sakhalin and the Kuriles are one of the most productive regions of the World Ocean.
On the island of Iturup, there are also endemic animals (mollusks): iturup lakustrina, iturup sharovka (Lake Reidovo), Kuril pearl mussel, on the Dobroe lake there are synanodont-shaped kunashiria and iturup shuttle.
On February 10, 1984, the Kurilskiy State Nature Reserve was established. Its territory is inhabited by 84 species included in the Red Book of Russia.
Kunashir Island, Pervukhina Bay
History of the islands
17-18 centuries
The honor of the discovery, exploration and initial development of the Kuril Islands belongs to Russian expeditions and colonists.
The first visit to the islands is attributed to the Dutchman Gerrits Fries, who visited Fr. Uruppu. Calling this land "Companys land" - Companys lant (Reclus, 1885, p. 565), Frieze, however, did not assume that it was part of the Kuril ridge.
The rest of the islands north of Uruppu to Kamchatka were discovered and described by Russian "explorers" and navigators. And the Russians opened Uruppa again at the beginning of the 18th century. Japan at this time only knew o. Kunashiri and the Small Kuril ridge, but they were not part of the Japanese Empire either. The extreme northern colony of Japan was about. Hokkaido.
The clerk of the Anadyr prison, Pentecostal Vl. Atlasov, who discovered Kamchatka. In 1697, he passed along the western coast of Kamchatka to the south to the mouth of the river. Golygina and from here "on the sea I saw as if there are islands."
Not knowing that trade with foreigners had been prohibited in Japan since 1639, Peter I in 1702 gave the task of establishing good-neighborly trade relations with Japan. Since that time, Russian expeditions have persistently made their way south of Kamchatka in search of a trade route to Japan. In 1706, the Cossack M. Nasedkin clearly saw land in the south from Cape Lopatka. On the order of the Yakut voivode about "holding" this land, the Cossack ataman D. Antsiferov and the captain Ivan Kozyrevsky in 1711 went to about. Syumusyu (Shumshu) and Paramusir (Paramushir), and upon their return they drew up a "blueprint" of all the islands. To draw the southern islands, they used the stories of Japanese fishermen who were thrown into Kamchatka by the storm and who saw the southern islands.
In the campaign of 1713, the captain Ivan Kozyrevsky again “visited” the islands beyond the “overflows” (straits) and drew up a new “blueprint”. Geodesists Yevreinov and Luzhin took a survey on the map in 1720 from Kamchatka to the Sixth Island (Simushiru). 10 years later, the brave leader of the "explorers" V. Shestakov with 25 servicemen visited the five northern islands. After him, captain Spanberg, Bering's assistant on his second expedition, carried out substantial work “for the sake of observation and finding a way to Japan”.
During 1738-1739. Spanberg mapped and described almost all of the islands. Based on his materials, 40 islands under Russian names were shown on the "General Map of the Russian Empire" in the Academic Atlas of 1745, for example, the islands of Anfinogen, Krasnogorsk, Stolbovoy, Krivoy, Osypnaya, Kozel, Brother, Sestra, Olkhovy, Zeleny, etc. As a result of Spanberg's work, the composition of the entire island ridge was first revealed and mapped. The previously known extreme southern islands (Kompaneiskaya Zemlya, Island of the States) were identified as constituent parts of the Kuril ridge.
For a long time before that, there was an idea of a certain large "Gama Land" to the east of Asia. The legend of the hypothetical Gama Land was forever dispelled.
In the same years, the Russians got acquainted with the small indigenous population of the islands - the Ainu. According to the largest Russian geographer of that time S. Krasheninnikov, on about. Shumushu by the 40s of the 18th century. there were only 44 souls.
In 1750 he sailed to about. Seamushiru is the foreman of the First Island of Nick. Storozhev. 16 years later (in 1766) foremen Nikita Chikin, Chuprov and centurion Iv. Black again tried to find out the number of all the islands and the number of people on them.
After Chikin's death on the island. Shimushiru I. Black spent the winter on this island. In 1767 he reached Fr. Etorofu, and then settled on about. Uruppu. Returning to Kamchatka in the fall of 1769, Cherny reported that on 19 islands (including Etorofu) 83 "shaggy" (Ainu) took Russian citizenship.
In their actions, Chikin and Cherny were obliged to follow the instructions of the Bolsheretsk Chancellery: “When traveling to distant islands and back ... describe their size, the width of the straits, which are on the islands, animals, also rivers, lakes and fish in them. .. Visiting about gold and silver ores and pearls ... offenses, taxes, robbery ... and other acts contrary to decrees and rudeness and prodigal violence should not be done, expecting the highest mercy and reward for jealousy. " After a while, the Tyumen merchant Yak. Nikonov, as well as the sailors of the trading company Protodyakonov and other "explorers" delivered more accurate news about the islands.
In order to firmly and finally consolidate the islands and develop them, the main commander of Kamchatka, Bem, proposed to build on about. Uruppu fortification, create a Russian settlement there and develop the economy. To implement this proposal and develop trade with Japan, the Yakut merchant Lebedev-Lastochkin equipped an expedition in 1775 under the command of the Siberian nobleman Antipin. The expedition vessel "Nikolay" suffered an accident at about. Uruppu. Two years later, to Antipin on the island. The ship "Natalia" was sent to Urupp from Okhotsk under the command of navigator M. Petushkov.
After wintering on Uruppa "Natalia" went to Akkesi Bay on the island. Hokkaido and met a Japanese ship here. By agreement with the Japanese, Antipin and the translator, the Irkutsk posad Shabalin, appeared in 1779 with Lebedev-Lastochkin's goods on the island. Hokkaido to Akkeshi Bay. Strictly mindful of the instruction received by Antipin that “... having met with the Japanese, to act courteously, affectionately, decently ... to find out what Russian goods they need“ things and what they can get from them in return, set prices and whether they would like for mutual bargaining, make an agreement on some island, which would be guided for the future ... to establish a peaceful relationship with the Japanese, "the merchants counted on trade that would be profitable for both parties. But their hopes were not justified. In Akkesi, they were given the prohibition of the Japanese not only to trade on about. Hokkaido (Matsmai), but also swim at Etorofu and Kunashiri.
From that time on, the Japanese government began to oppose the Russians in every possible way on the southern islands. In 1786, it commissioned the official Mogami Tokunai to inspect the islands. Finding three Russians on Etorofu and interrogating them, Tokunai handed them an order: “Foreign nationals are strictly prohibited from entering Japanese borders. Therefore, I order you to return to your state as soon as possible ”. The movement of Russian merchants to the south for peaceful purposes was interpreted by the Japanese in a completely different way.
Severo-Kurilsk city 
19th century
Nikolai Rezanov, a representative of the Russian-American company, who arrived in Nagasaki as the first Russian envoy, tried to resume negotiations on trade with Japan in 1805. But he also failed. However, Japanese officials who were not satisfied with the oppressive politics supreme power, hints made him understand that it would be nice to conduct a forceful action in these lands, which could push the situation from a dead center. This was done on behalf of Rezanov in 1806-1807 by an expedition of two ships led by Lieutenant Khvostov and Warrant Officer Davydov. Ships were plundered, a number of trading posts were destroyed, and a Japanese village was burned down on Iturup. They were later tried, but the attack for some time led to a serious deterioration in Russian-Japanese relations. In particular, this was the reason for the arrest of Vasily Golovnin's expedition.
The first delimitation of the possessions of Russia and Japan on the Kuril Islands was made in the Shimodsky treatise of 1855.
In exchange for the right to own southern Sakhalin, Russia transferred all the Kuril Islands to Japan in 1875.
XX century
After defeat in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia handed over the southern part of Sakhalin to Japan.
In February 1945, the Soviet Union promised the United States and Great Britain to start a war with Japan, subject to the return of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to it.
February 2, 1946. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the formation of the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region in the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR on the territory of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
November 5, 1952. A powerful tsunami struck the entire coast of the Kuril Islands, Paramushir suffered the most. A giant wave washed away the city of Severo-Kurilsk (formerly Kasivabara). It was forbidden to mention this catastrophe in the press.
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan adopted a Joint Treaty, officially ending the war between the two states and transferring Habomai and Shikotan to Japan. However, it was not possible to sign the agreement, because according to it, it appeared that Japan was giving up the rights to Iturup and Kunashir, which is why the United States threatened not to give Japan the island of Okinawa.
Church of the Holy Trinity, Yuzhno-Kurilsk 
The problem of belonging
At the end of World War II in February 1945, at the Yalta Conference of the Heads of Powers of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition, an agreement was reached on the unconditional return of the southern part of Sakhalin and the transfer of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union after the victory over Japan.
On July 26, 1945, within the framework of the Potsdam Conference, the Potsdam Declaration was adopted, which limited the sovereignty of Japan to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku. On August 8, the USSR joined the Potsdam Declaration. On August 14, Japan accepted the terms of the Declaration and on September 2, 1945, signed the Act of Surrender, confirming these terms. But these documents did not speak directly about the transfer of the Kuril Islands to the USSR.
August 18 - September 1, 1945, Soviet troops carried out the Kuril landing operation and occupied, among other things, the southern Kuril Islands - Urup, Iturup, Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril Ridge.
In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of February 2, 1946, in these territories, after their exclusion from Japan by Memorandum No. 677 of the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces of January 29, 1946, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin Region was formed as part of the Khabarovsk Territory of the RSFSR, which on January 2 In 1947 it became part of the newly formed Sakhalin Oblast as part of the RSFSR.
On September 8, 1951, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, according to which it renounced "all rights, legal grounds and claims to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin Island and adjacent islands, over which Japan acquired sovereignty under the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905. g. " When discussing the San Francisco Treaty in the US Senate, a resolution was adopted containing the following clause: It is envisaged that the terms of the Treaty will not mean recognition for the USSR of any rights or claims in the territories belonging to Japan on December 7, 1941, which would damage the rights and legal foundations of Japan in these territories, just as any provisions in favor of the USSR with respect to Japan, contained in the Yalta Agreement, will not be recognized. In view of serious claims to the draft treaty, representatives of the USSR, Poland and Czechoslovakia refused to sign it. The treaty was also not signed by Burma, DRV, India, DPRK, PRC and Mongolian People's Republic not represented at the conference.
Japan makes territorial claims for the southern Kuril Islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai with a total area of 5175 km². These islands are called the "northern territories" in Japan. Japan justifies its claims with the following arguments:
According to Article 2 of the Shimoda Treaty of 1855, these islands were incorporated into Japan and they are the original possession of Japan.
This group of islands, according to the official position of Japan, is not included in the Kuril Ridge (Chishima Islands) and, having signed the act of surrender and the San Francisco Treaty, Japan did not abandon them.
The USSR did not sign the San Francisco Treaty.
However, the Shimoda treatise is considered canceled due to the Russo-Japanese War (1905).
In 1956, the Moscow Declaration was signed, which ended the state of war and established diplomatic and consular relations between the USSR and Japan. Article 9 of the Declaration states, inter alia:
The USSR, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Sikotan Island to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of the Peace Treaty.
On November 14, 2004, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, on the eve of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan, announced that Russia, as a successor state to the USSR, recognizes the 1956 Declaration as existing and is ready to conduct territorial negotiations with Japan on its basis.
It is noteworthy that on November 1, 2010, Russian President Dmitry A. Medvedev became the first Russian leader to visit the Kuril Islands. President Dmitry Medvedev stressed then that “all the islands of the Kuril ridge are the territory of the Russian Federation. This is our land, and we must develop the Kuril Islands. " The Japanese side remained intransigent and called this visit regrettable, which in turn provoked a response from the Russian Foreign Ministry, according to which there can be no changes in the status of the Kuril Islands.
Some Russian official experts, in search of a solution that could satisfy both Japan and Russia, offer very peculiar options. So, academician K.E. Chervenko in April 2012, in his article On the possibility of a final settlement of the territorial dispute between the Russian Federation and Japan, voiced an approach in which the countries participating in the San Francisco Treaty (states that have the right to determine the international legal status of South Sakhalin with the adjacent islands and all the Kuril Islands) recognize the Kuril Islands de facto the territory of the Russian Federation, leaving Japan the right to consider them de jure (under the terms of the aforementioned treaty) not included in Russia.
Cape Column, Kunashir Island 
Population
The Kuril Islands are extremely unevenly populated. The population resides permanently only in Paramushir, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan. There is no permanent population on the other islands. At the beginning of 2010, there are 19 settlements: two cities (Severo-Kurilsk, Kurilsk), an urban-type settlement (Yuzhno-Kurilsk) and 16 villages.
The maximum value of the population was observed in 1989 and amounted to 29.5 thousand people. In Soviet times, the population of the islands was significantly higher due to high subsidies and a large number of military personnel. Thanks to the military, the islands of Shumshu, Onekotan, Simushir and others were inhabited.
As of 2010, the population of the islands is 18.7 thousand people, including in the Kuril urban district - 6.1 thousand people (on the only inhabited island Iturup, also includes Urup, Simushir, etc.); in the South Kuril urban district - 10.3 thousand people. (Kunashir, Shikotan and other islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge (Habomai)); in the North Kuril urban district - 2.4 thousand people (on the only inhabited island of Paramushir, also includes Shumshu, Onekotan, etc.).
Onekotan island 
Economy and development
On August 3, 2006, at a meeting of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Federal Program for the Development of the Islands from 2007 to 2015 was approved, which includes 4 blocks: the development of transport infrastructure, the fish processing industry, social infrastructure and the solution of energy problems. The program includes:
The allocation of funds for this program is almost 18 billion rubles, that is, 2 billion rubles a year, which is equivalent to about 300 thousand rubles for each inhabitant of the islands, which will increase the population from 19 to 30 thousand people.
Development of the fishing industry - currently there are only two fish factories on the islands, and both are state-owned. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation proposes to create 20 more new fish hatcheries to replenish biological resources. The federal program provides for the creation of the same number of private fish hatcheries and the reconstruction of one fish processing plant.
On the islands, it is planned to build new kindergartens, schools, hospitals, develop a transport network, including the construction of a modern all-weather airport.
The problem of the shortage of electricity, which is four times more expensive in the Kuril Islands than in Sakhalin, is planned to be solved through the construction of power plants operating on geothermal sources, using the experience of Kamchatka and Japan.
In addition, in May 2011, the Russian authorities announced their intention to additionally allocate 16 billion rubles, thereby doubling the funding for the development program of the Kuril Islands.
In February 2011, it became known about plans to strengthen the defense of the Kuriles by an air defense brigade, as well as a mobile coastal missile system with Yakhont anti-ship missiles.
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTOS:
Team Wandering.
Photo: Tatiana Selena, Victor Morozov, Kapustin Andrey, Artem Demin
The Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Geography RAS. Pacific Institute of Geography, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Editorial board .: V. M. Kotlyakov (chairman), P. Ya. Baklanov, N. N. Komedchikov (chief editor), etc .; Resp. ed.-cartographer Fedorova E. Ya. Atlas of the Kuril Islands. - M .; Vladivostok: IPC "DIK", 2009. - 516 p.
Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia for the Sakhalin Region. Report "On the state and protection of the environment of the Sakhalin region in 2002" (2003). Retrieved June 21, 2010. Archived from the original on August 23, 2011.
Sakhalin Region. Official site of the governor and government of the Sakhalin region. Retrieved June 21, 2010. Archived from the original on October 7, 2006.
Makeev B. "The Kuril problem: the military aspect". World economy and international relations, 1993, No. 1, p. 54.
Wikipedia website.
Solovyov A.I. Kuril Islands / Glavsevmorput. - Ed. 2nd. - M .: Publishing house of Glavsevmorput, 1947 .-- 308 p.
Atlas of the Kuril Islands / Russian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Geography RAS. Pacific Institute of Geography, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Editorial board .: V. M. Kotlyakov (chairman), P. Ya. Baklanov, N. N. Komedchikov (chief editor), etc .; Resp. ed.-cartographer Fedorova E. Ya .. - M .; Vladivostok: IPC "DIK", 2009. - 516 p. - 300 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89658-034-8.
http://www.kurilstour.ru/islands.shtml
Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, Habomai - four words sound like a spell. The South Kurils are the most distant, most mysterious and most problematic islands of the country. Probably every literate citizen of Russia has heard about the "problem of the islands", although the essence of the problem for many is as vague as the weather in the Far Eastern region. These difficulties only add to the tourist attraction: it is worth seeing the Cape's End of the World, as long as a visa is not required to travel to it. Although a special permit to visit the border zone is still required.
Cossack Nehoroshko and sedentary gilyaks
The Iturup and Kunashir islands belong to the Big Kuril ridge, Shikotan to the Small. It's more difficult with Habomai: on modern maps there is no such name, this is an old Japanese designation for the rest of the islands of the Small Ridge. It is used exactly when the "problem of the South Kuriles" is being discussed. Iturup is the largest of all the Kuril Islands, Kunashir is the southernmost of the Big Kuriles, Shikotan is the northernmost of the Small. Since Habomai is an archipelago consisting of a dozen small and very small parts of the land, the disputed Kuril Islands are in fact not four, but more. Administratively, they all belong to the South Kuril District of the Sakhalin Region. The Japanese attribute them to the Nemuro District of the Hokkaido Prefecture.
Entrance stele of the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk on the Kunashir island of the Kuril ridge. Photo: Vladimir Sergeev / ITAR-TASSThe Russian-Japanese territorial dispute was a product of the 20th century, although the question of the ownership of the islands was open rather than clearly defined before. The history of geography itself is at the heart of the uncertainty: the Kuril ridge, which stretches in an arc from Kamchatka to Hokkaido, was discovered by the Japanese and the Russians almost simultaneously.
More precisely, some mist-shrouded land north of Hokkaido was discovered back in 1643 by the Dutch expedition of Fries. At that time, the Japanese were just exploring the north of Hokkaido, sometimes swimming to neighboring islands. Anyway, on japanese map 1644 Iturup and Kunashir were already marked. Around the same time, in 1646, the Yenisei Cossack Nekhoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov, an associate of the explorer Ivan Moskovitin, reported to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich that there are islands in the Sea of Okhotsk with "sedentary gilyaks" that keep "fed bears". Gilyaks is the Russian name for the Nivkhs, Far Eastern aborigines, and "sedentary" means sedentary. The Nivkhs were the indigenous population of the islands, along with the most ancient people of the Ainu. The bear is the totem animal of the Ainu, who specially raised bears for the most important ancestral rituals. The word "Gilyaki" in relation to the Kuril and Sakhalin aborigines was used until the 19th century, it can be found in Chekhov's "Sakhalin Island". And the name of the Kuriles themselves, according to one version, reminds of smoking volcanoes, and according to the other - goes back to the language of the Ainu and the root "kur", meaning "man".
Kolobov may have visited the Kuril Islands before the Japanese, but his detachment did not make it to the Small Ridge. Russian sailors only half a century later sailed to the island of Simushir in the middle of the Kuriles, and moved further south during the time of Peter I. In 1739, Martyn Shpanberg from the Second Kamchatka Expedition sailed from Kamchatka south along the entire Kuril ridge to Tokyo Bay and plotted the islands on the map, giving them Russian names: Figured, Three Sisters and Citron. Most likely, Figured is Shikotan, and Three Sisters and Citron is Iturup, mistaken for two islands.
Decrees, treatises and pacts
As a result of the Second Kamchatka Expedition, forty Kuril Islands were included in the 1745 atlas "General Map of Russia". This position was confirmed in 1772, when the islands were transferred under the control of the chief commander of Kamchatka, and once again confirmed in 1783 by the decree of Catherine II on the preservation of Russia's right to the lands discovered by Russian seafarers. In the Kuriles, free hunting of sea animals was allowed, and Russian settlements began to appear on the islands. The mainland Cossacks collected tribute from the indigenous Kuril peoples, periodically going overboard. So, in 1771, after the visit of the violent detachment of the Kamchatka centurion Ivan Cherny, the Ainu rebelled and tried to withdraw from Russian citizenship. But on the whole, they treated the Russians well - they won against the background of the Japanese, who considered the aborigines "oriental savages" and fought with them.
A sunken ship in the Yuzhno-Kurilskaya bay on the Kunashir island of the Kuril ridge. Photo: Vladimir Sergeev / ITAR-TASS
Japan, by that time closed to foreigners for a hundred years, naturally had its own views of the islands. But the Japanese have not yet fully mastered even Hokkaido, which was originally inhabited by the same Ainu, therefore, a practical interest in the Southern Kurils flared up among them only towards the end of the 18th century. Then they officially banned the Russians not only from trading, but also from simply appearing in Hokkaido, Iturup and Kunashir. A confrontation began on the islands: the Japanese destroyed Russian crosses and put their own signs instead, the Russians, in turn, corrected the situation, etc. IN early XIX For centuries, the Russian-American campaign was engaged in trade in all the Kuril Islands, but it was not possible to establish normal ties with Japan.
Finally, in 1855, Russia and Japan signed the first diplomatic treaty - the Shimoda Treaty. The treaty established the Russo-Japanese state border between the islands of Iturup and Urup, and Itrurup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the rest of the islands of the Small Range went to Japan. The treaty was signed on February 7, and at the end of the 20th century, it was this day that became a public holiday in Japan - the Day of the Northern Territories. The Shimodskiy treatise is the point from which the "problem of the South Kuriles" arose.
In addition, the agreement left Sakhalin, a much more important island for Russia, in an uncertain position: it remained jointly owned by both countries, which again gave rise to conflicts and impeded Russian plans to develop coal deposits in the south of the island. For the sake of Sakhalin, Russia agreed to an "exchange of territories", and under the new Petersburg Treaty of 1875 transferred to Japan the rights to all the Kuril Islands, gaining full control over Sakhalin. As a result, Russia lost not only the islands, but also access to the Pacific Ocean - the straits from Kamchatka to Hokkaido were now controlled by the Japanese. Sakhalin also did not work out very well, since hard labor was immediately established there, and coal was mined by the hands of convicts. This could not contribute to the normal development of the island.
Shikotan Island. Members of the expedition to the Kuril Islands with local residents. 1891 Photo: Patriarche / pastvu.com
The next stage was the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. The Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905 canceled all previous agreements: not only the Kuriles, but also the southern half of Sakhalin went to Japan. This position was preserved and even strengthened under the Soviet regime, which signed the Beijing Treaty in 1925. The USSR did not recognize itself as the legal successor Russian Empire and in order to secure its eastern borders from hostile actions by the "samurai", he agreed to very favorable terms for Japan. The Bolsheviks had no claims to the Kuriles and the southern part of Sakhalin, and Japanese companies received a concession - the right to develop oil and coal deposits on Soviet territory.
In the years before World War II, the Japanese built many engineering structures and military bases on the Kuril Islands. These bases almost did not participate in hostilities, except for one case: in 1941, aircraft carriers left Iturup Island and headed for Pearl Harbor. And the Japanese concession in the north of Sakhalin was officially in effect until 1941, when the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was concluded. The pact was terminated in August 1945: following the decisions of the Yalta Conference, the USSR entered the war with Japan, subject to the return of all the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin.
The Tishima Islands trick
In September 1945, the Kuril Islands were occupied by Soviet troops, who accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons. General MacArthur's Memorandum and the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the Allies reinforced the fact that Japan was relinquishing its rights to all territories obtained under the Potsdam Treaty of 1905 - Sakhalin and the Tishima Islands.
Shikotan Island. Whaling factory. 1946 Photo: Patriarche / pastvu.com
This formulation was the root of the "problem of the islands." According to the Japanese version, the historical province of Chishima is Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands north of Kunashir. Kunashir itself, Iturup and the Small Ridge are not among them. Japan, therefore, did not refuse them, and can present legal right to the "northern territories". The Soviet side did not sign the treaty, insisting on a change in the wording, therefore, legally, Russia and Japan remain in a state of war. There is also a joint declaration of 1956, when the USSR promised to transfer Shikotan and Habomai to Japan after the conclusion of peace, and a few years later announced a unilateral rejection of this point.
The Russian Federation recognizes itself as the legal successor of the USSR and accordingly recognizes the agreements signed by the Soviet Union. Including the 1956 declaration. Bargaining for Shikotan and Habomai continues.
Island treasures
The main myth about the Southern Kuriles is the assertion that their loss will lead to the loss of the only non-freezing outlet from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean through the Fries and Catherine straits. The straits do not freeze, but it does not really matter: most of the Sea of Okhotsk freezes anyway, and without icebreakers, winter navigation is impossible here. Moreover, in any case, Japan cannot restrict the passage through the straits, as long as it adheres to the international law of the sea. In addition, the main routes of the region do not pass through the South Kuriles.
Another myth is the opposite: as if the South Kuril Islands bring more headaches than they have values, and no one will lose anything from their transfer. This is not true. The islands are rich natural resources, including unique ones. On Iturup, for example, there is an extremely valuable deposit of the rarest metal rhenium on the Kudryavy volcano.
Kunashir Island. Caldera of the Golovnin volcano. Photo: Yuri Koshel
But the most obvious Kuril resource is natural. Since 1992, Japanese tourists have been actively traveling here on a visa-free exchange, and Kunashir and Iturup have long become the most popular of all Kuril tourist routes. After all, the South Kuriles are an ideal place for ecotourism. The vagaries of the local climate, fraught with the most dangerous disasters from eruptions to tsunamis, are bathed in by the pristine beauty of the islands in the ocean.
For more than thirty years, the nature of the South Kuriles has had an official reserve status. The Kurilskiy nature reserve and the Malye Kuriles nature reserve of federal significance protect most of Kunashir and Shikotan and many other small islets of the Lesser Ridge. And even a sophisticated traveler will not be left indifferent by the ecological routes of the reserve to Tyatya volcano, to the picturesque mineralized lakes of the caldera of the oldest volcano on the islands, Golovnin volcano, in the thicket of the relic forest along the Stolbovskaya ecotrail, to the fantastic basalt rocks of Cape Stolbchaty, similar to a huge stone organ. And there are also bears of a special gray color, unafraid foxes, curious seals, graceful Japanese cranes, flocks of thousands of waterfowl on the autumn and spring flights, dark coniferous forests, where one of the rarest birds on the planet lives - a fish owl, impenetrable thickets of bamboo above human growth, a unique wild-growing magnolia, hot springs and icy mountain rivers "boiling" from flocks of pink salmon entering spawning.
Kunashir Island. Tyatya volcano. Photo: Vlada Valchenko
And also Kunashir - "black island" - is the village of Goryachy Beach with thermal springs, the smoking solfatars of the Mendeleev volcano and the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, which in the future may become a new center of Far Eastern tourism. Iturup, the largest of the Kuril Islands, has “snowy subtropics”, nine active volcanoes, waterfalls, thermal springs, hot lakes and the Ostrovnoy regional reserve. Popular with wild hikers, Shikotan has quaint bays, mountains, seal rookeries and bird colonies. And the Cape of the End of the World, where you can meet the freshest dawn in Russia.
Young Soviet Russia recognized the 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth as valid. It was concluded after the Russo-Japanese War. Under this agreement, Japan not only retained all the Kuril Islands, but also received South Sakhalin.
This was the case with the disputed islands before World War II - even until 1945. I want to once again draw general attention to the fact that until 1945 Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai never belonged to Russia, and to say the opposite is to go against facts. Everything that happened after 1945 is no longer so unambiguous.
During almost the entire period of the Second World War (September 1939 - August 1945), Japan and the Soviet Union were not at war. For in April 1941, a Neutrality Pact was concluded between the two countries, valid for 5 years. However, on August 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and on the same day of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, the Soviet Union, in violation of the Neutrality Pact, entered the war against Japan, the defeat of which was no longer in doubt. A week later, on August 14, Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and surrendered to the allied powers.
After the end of the war, the entire territory of Japan was occupied by the allied forces. As a result of negotiations between the allies, the territory of Japan proper was to be occupied by US troops, Taiwan by Chinese troops, and Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands by Soviet troops. The occupation of the Northern Territories was a military occupation, completely bloodless after hostilities, and therefore subject to termination as a result of a territorial settlement under a peace treaty.
During a war, the occupation of the territory of another country may occur and the occupying country, under international law, has the right to exercise its administration on the basis of military necessity. However, on the other hand, the 1907 Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land and other international legal acts impose certain obligations on this country, in particular, respect for the private rights of the population. Stalin ignored these international norms and, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 2, 1946, included the areas under occupation into the territory of his country.
And here is the opinion of the Japanese side: “We welcome that the Russian government has recently announced that it is considering the territorial problem between Japan and Russia on the basis of legality and justice. Precisely from the point of view of legality and justice, we believe that the mentioned Presidium Decree is illegal and the clarification of this is of paramount importance and the appropriation of the territory of another state through such a unilateral act is legally not allowed. "
A peace treaty between Japan and the United States, Britain and other allied countries was concluded in 1951 in San Francisco. The Soviet Union also took part in the peace conference, but it did not sign the San Francisco Treaty. The following two points are significant in the San Francisco Conference and the San Francisco Peace Treaty regarding the problem of the Northern Territories.
The first is Japan's contractual waiver of all rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. However, Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and the Habomai Range, which have always been Japanese territory, are not part of the Kuril Islands, which Japan abandoned. The US government, regarding the scope of the Kuril Islands in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, stated in an official document: have always been part of Japan proper and, therefore, must be rightly recognized as being under Japanese sovereignty. " The second point is related to the fact that international recognition was not received for the act of annexation of South Sakhalin, the Kuriles and the Northern Territories by the Soviet Union. First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A. Gromyko tried to achieve recognition of Soviet sovereignty over these areas, in particular, by proposing amendments to the treaty, but they were rejected by the conference and were not accepted into the content of the treaty. For this and a number of other reasons, the USSR did not sign the treaty. The San Francisco Treaty makes it clear that it does not confer any rights arising from the treaty to non-signatory countries.
Due to the fact that the USSR did not sign the San Francisco Treaty, from June 1955 to October 1956, negotiations were held between Japan and the Soviet Union with the aim of concluding a separate peace treaty between the two countries. These negotiations did not lead to an agreement: the Japanese side declared that Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai ridge were Japanese territory and demanded their return, and the Soviet side held such a position that, having agreed to return only Shikotan and Habomai, it could not return Iturup and Kunashir.
As a result, Japan and the USSR, instead of a peace treaty, signed a Joint Declaration, that is, an agreement that provided for an end to the state of war and the restoration of diplomatic relations. Article 9 of this treaty states that after the establishment of diplomatic relations, the parties will continue negotiations to conclude a peace treaty; and also the USSR returns, after the conclusion of a peace treaty, the Habomai ridge and the island of Shikotan.
The Japan-Soviet Joint Declaration, ratified by the parliaments of both countries, is a treaty deposited with the UN.
In April 1991, the then President of the USSR M. Gorbachev visited Japan. The Japanese-Soviet Statement published at that time explicitly referred to the Habomai Ridge, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup Islands. The parties agreed that "the peace treaty should become a document of the final post-war settlement, including the resolution of the territorial issue," and an agreement was also reached to accelerate the preparation of a peace treaty.
After the August democratic revolution, Russian President Boris Yeltsin proposed a new approach to the territorial issue inherited by Russia from the USSR, which is naturally and positively assessed since the government of the Russian Federation, inheriting the international legal obligations of the USSR, declares compliance with the UN Declaration. This new approach, firstly, underlines the understanding of the fact that as a result of positive changes in today's world, a new international order is emerging, in which there is no longer a division into winners and losers in World War II. Secondly, it was emphasized that when solving the territorial issue, legality and justice, including respect for the international agreements concluded in the past, become important principles. And that's all. There was no further movement.
As for the policy of the current President Putin, Japanese politicians, led by former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, proposed to adhere to the updated Kavan plan to resolve the problem, announced in April 1998 by Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The Kavan plan is that after the demarcation of the border and the legal consolidation of the islands for Japan, the disputed territories will remain de facto Russian for some time. The Russian delegation, however, rejected this proposal, stating that it could not be regarded as a mutually acceptable compromise. Putin, in turn, suggested moving towards a peace treaty gradually, while simultaneously building up the entire range of relations. To this end, Vladimir Putin invited the Prime Minister to pay an official visit to Russia, and the two leaders agreed to hold official meetings at least once a year - an analogue of what exists between Moscow and Beijing, our "strategic partner."
Now about the population of the ill-fated islands. According to Rudakova, head of the social department of the Kurilsk administration, the Japanese poll the Kuril residents every year if they want the islands to go to Japan. On Shikotan, as a rule, 60 percent do not want this, and 40 do not mind. On other islands, 70 percent strongly oppose it. “On Shikotan, after the 1994 earthquake, everything is Japanese, even fruit. The people are very used to freebies, they do not want to work. They think that the Japanese will always feed them this way, ”says Rudakova. Indeed, this option is not included in the plans of the Japanese. Back in March 1999, the Society for the Study of the Problem of Restoring Japan's Sovereignty over the Northern Territories developed rules according to which Russians would live on the islands after they were handed over to the Japanese. "Residents of Russian origin who have lived for more than 5 years after restoration in Japan, if they wish, have the opportunity to obtain Japanese citizenship after conducting an appropriate individual check," the document says.
Nevertheless, Japan, a mono-national country in which even the descendants of foreigners who settled several generations ago cannot obtain citizenship, pretends that all the rights of the Russians remaining on the islands will be preserved. In order for the people of Kuril to see with their own eyes how wonderful their life will be under the new owners, the Japanese do not spare money for receptions. Iochi Nakano, head of the secretariat of the Hokkaido Commission for the Development of Relations with the Northern Islands, said that the island's government spends $ 1,680 on just one Russian who comes to Hokkaido, not counting contributions from various public organizations. The Japanese authorities seem to have a different perception of what is happening. They are confident that their tactics are yielding positive results. Iochi Nakano says: “Personally, I think there are few Russians on the northern islands who would like to remain Russians. If such exist, it is all the more important to teach them that the northern territories belong to Japan. " Kurilchan is very surprised by the ability of the Japanese to quickly believe in what they want and pass it off as real. Rimma Rudakova recalls how in September 2000, when Putin was in Okinawa, the host Japanese began furiously arguing that a decision had already been made to transfer Shikotan and Habomai, and even started talking about starting negotiations on the transfer of southern Sakhalin. “When we left after ten days, they expressed regret that this had not happened,” she said.
