Need to know!! history of the Kuril question. Kurile Islands. History, photos, volcanoes, population, climate, nature of the Kuril Islands. Plants, animals, geography, relief of the Kuril Islands
Disputes over the four South Kuril Islands, which currently belong to the Russian Federation, have been going on for quite some time. This land, as a result of agreements and wars signed at different times, changed hands several times. Currently, these islands are the cause of the unresolved territorial dispute between Russia and Japan.
Discovery of the islands
The issue of opening the Kuril Islands is controversial. According to the Japanese side, the Japanese were the first to set foot on the land of the islands in 1644. The map of that time with the designations “Kunashiri”, “Etorofu” and others applied to it is carefully preserved in the National Museum of Japanese History. And the Russian pioneers, according to the Japanese, first came to the Kuril ridge only during the time of Tsar Peter I, in 1711, and on the Russian map of 1721 these islands are called "Japanese Islands".
But in reality, the situation is different: firstly, the Japanese received the first information about the Kuriles (from the Ainu language - “kuru” means “a person who came from nowhere”) from the local residents of the Ainu (the oldest non-Japanese population of the Kuril Islands and the Japanese Islands) during an expedition to Hokkaido in 1635. Moreover, the Japanese did not reach the Kuril lands themselves due to constant conflicts with the local population.
It should be noted that the Ainu were hostile to the Japanese, and initially they treated the Russians well, considering them their "brothers", because of the similarity in appearance and methods of communication between Russians and small peoples.
Secondly, the Kuril Islands were discovered by the Dutch expedition of Maarten Gerritsen de Vries (Vries) in 1643, the Dutch were looking for the so-called. "Golden Lands" The Dutch did not like the land, and they sold a detailed description of them, a map to the Japanese. It was on the basis of Dutch data that the Japanese compiled their maps.
Thirdly, the Japanese at that time did not own not only the Kuriles, but even Hokkaido, only in its southern part there was their stronghold. The Japanese began to conquer the island at the beginning of the 17th century, and the struggle against the Ainu went on for two centuries. That is, if the Russians were interested in expansion, then Hokkaido could become a Russian island. This was facilitated by the good attitude of the Ainu towards the Russians and their enmity towards the Japanese. There are records of this fact. The Japanese state of that time did not officially consider itself the sovereign of not only Sakhalin and the Kuril lands, but also Hokkaido (Matsumae) - this was confirmed in his circular by the head of the Japanese government, Matsudaira, during the Russian-Japanese negotiations on the border and trade in 1772.
Fourthly, Russian explorers visited the islands before the Japanese. In the Russian state, the first mention of the Kuril lands dates back to 1646, when Nekhoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov gave a report to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich about the campaigns of Ivan Yuryevich Moskvitin and spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the Kuriles. In addition, Dutch, Scandinavian and German medieval chronicles and maps report the first Russian settlements in the Kuriles of that time. The first reports about the Kuril lands and their inhabitants reached the Russians in the middle of the 17th century.
In 1697, during the expedition of Vladimir Atlasov to Kamchatka, new information about the islands appeared, the Russians explored the islands up to Simushir (an island of the middle group of the Great Kuril Islands).
18th century
Peter I knew about the Kuril Islands, in 1719 the tsar sent a secret expedition to Kamchatka led by Ivan Mikhailovich Evreinov and Fedor Fedorovich Luzhin. The marine surveyor Evreinov and the surveyor-cartographer Luzhin had to determine whether there was a strait between Asia and America. The expedition reached the island of Simushir in the south and brought local residents and rulers to the Russian state.
In 1738-1739, the navigator Martyn Petrovich Shpanberg (a Dane by origin) traveled along the entire Kuril ridge, mapped all the islands he encountered, including the entire Lesser Kuril ridge (these are 6 large and a number of small islands that are separated from the Greater Kuril ridge by the South - Kuril Strait). He explored the lands up to Hokkaido (Matsumaya), bringing the local Ainu rulers to the Russian state.
In the future, the Russians avoided sailing to the southern islands, mastered the northern territories. Unfortunately, at that time, abuses against the Ainu were noted not only by the Japanese, but also by the Russians.
In 1771, the Lesser Kuril Ridge was withdrawn from Russia and passed under the protectorate of Japan. The Russian authorities, in order to rectify the situation, sent the nobleman Antipin with the translator Shabalin. They were able to persuade the Ainu to restore Russian citizenship. In 1778-1779, Russian envoys brought over 1.5 thousand people from Iturup, Kunashir and even Hokkaido into citizenship. In 1779, Catherine II freed those who accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes.
In 1787, a list of the Kuril Islands up to Hokkaido-Matsumai was given in the "Extensive land description of the Russian state ...", the status of which has not yet been determined. Although the Russians did not control the lands south of Urup Island, the Japanese operated there.
In 1799, by order of the sei-taishogun Tokugawa Ienari, he headed the Tokugawa Shogunate, two outposts were built on Kunashir and Iturup, and permanent garrisons were placed there. Thus, the Japanese secured the status of these territories within Japan by military means.
Space image of the Lesser Kuril Ridge
Agreements
In 1845, the Japanese Empire unilaterally announced its power over all of Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge. This naturally caused a violent negative reaction from the Russian Emperor Nicholas I. But, the Russian Empire did not have time to take action, the events of the Crimean War prevented it. Therefore, it was decided to make concessions and not bring the matter to war.
On February 7, 1855, the first diplomatic agreement between Russia and Japan was concluded - Shimoda Treaty. It was signed by Vice Admiral E. V. Putyatin and Toshiakira Kawaji. According to the 9th article of the treatise, "permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan" was established. Japan moved the islands from Iturup and to the south, Sakhalin was declared a joint, indivisible possession. Russians in Japan received consular jurisdiction, Russian ships received the right to enter the ports of Shimoda, Hakodate, Nagasaki. The Russian Empire received the most favored nation treatment in trade with Japan and received the right to open consulates in ports open to Russians. That is, in general, especially given the difficult international situation of Russia, the treaty can be assessed positively. Since 1981, the Japanese have celebrated the signing of the Shimoda Treaty as the Day of the Northern Territories.
It should be noted that in fact the Japanese received the right to the "Northern Territories" only for "permanent peace and sincere friendship between Japan and Russia", the most favored nation treatment in trade relations. Their further actions de facto annulled this agreement.
Initially, the provision of the Shimoda Treaty on the joint ownership of the island of Sakhalin was more beneficial for the Russian Empire, which was actively colonizing this territory. The Japanese Empire did not have a good fleet, so at that time it did not have such an opportunity. But later, the Japanese began to intensively populate the territory of Sakhalin, and the question of its ownership began to become more and more controversial and acute. The contradictions between Russia and Japan were resolved by signing the St. Petersburg Treaty.
St. Petersburg Treaty. It was signed in the capital of the Russian Empire on April 25 (May 7), 1875. Under this agreement, the Empire of Japan transferred Sakhalin to Russia in full ownership, and in exchange received all the islands of the Kuril chain.
St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875 (Japanese Foreign Ministry Archive).
As a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 and Treaty of Portsmouth On August 23 (September 5), 1905, the Russian Empire, in accordance with the 9th article of the agreement, ceded to Japan the south of Sakhalin, south of 50 degrees north latitude. Article 12 contained an agreement on the conclusion of a convention on fishing by the Japanese along the Russian coasts of the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.
After the death of the Russian Empire and the beginning of foreign intervention, the Japanese occupied Northern Sakhalin and participated in the occupation of the Far East. When the Bolshevik Party won the Civil War, Japan did not want to recognize the USSR for a long time. Only after the Soviet authorities in 1924 canceled the status of the Japanese consulate in Vladivostok and in the same year the USSR recognized Great Britain, France and China, the Japanese authorities decided to normalize relations with Moscow.
Beijing Treaty. On February 3, 1924, official negotiations between the USSR and Japan began in Beijing. Only on January 20, 1925, the Soviet-Japanese convention on the basic principles of relations between countries was signed. The Japanese undertook to withdraw their forces from the territory of Northern Sakhalin by May 15, 1925. The declaration of the government of the USSR, which was attached to the convention, emphasized that the Soviet government did not share political responsibility with the former government of the Russian Empire for the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905. In addition, the agreement of the parties was enshrined in the convention that all agreements, treaties and conventions concluded between Russia and Japan before November 7, 1917, except for the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, should be revised.
In general, the USSR made great concessions: in particular, Japanese citizens, companies and associations were granted the rights to exploit natural resources throughout the territory of the Soviet Union. On July 22, 1925, a contract was signed to provide the Empire of Japan with a coal concession, and on December 14, 1925, an oil concession in Northern Sakhalin. Moscow agreed to this agreement in order to stabilize the situation in the Russian Far East in this way, since the Japanese supported the Whites outside the USSR. But in the end, the Japanese began to systematically violate the convention, create conflict situations.
During the Soviet-Japanese negotiations that took place in the spring of 1941 regarding the conclusion of a neutrality treaty, the Soviet side raised the question of liquidating Japan's concessions in Northern Sakhalin. The Japanese gave their written consent to this, but delayed the implementation of the agreement for 3 years. Only when the USSR began to gain the upper hand over the Third Reich did the Japanese government agree to the implementation of the agreement given earlier. So, on March 30, 1944, a protocol was signed in Moscow on the destruction of the Japanese oil and coal concessions in Northern Sakhalin and the transfer to the Soviet Union of all Japanese concession property.
February 11, 1945 at the Yalta Conference three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States, Great Britain - reached an oral agreement on the entry of the USSR into the war with the Empire of Japan on the terms of the return of South Sakhalin and the Kuril ridge to it after the end of World War II.
In the Potsdam Declaration dated July 26, 1945, it was said that Japanese sovereignty would be limited only to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and other smaller islands, which the victorious countries would indicate. The Kuril Islands were not mentioned.
After the defeat of Japan, on January 29, 1946, by Memorandum No. 677 of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Powers by the American General Douglas MacArthur, the Chisima Islands (Kuril Islands), the Habomadze Islands (Habomai) and the island of Shikotan (Shikotan) were excluded from Japanese territory.
According to San Francisco Peace Treaty dated September 8, 1951, the Japanese side renounced all rights to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. But the Japanese argue that Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and Habomai (the islands of the Lesser Kuril ridge) were not part of the Tisima Islands (Kuril Islands) and they did not refuse them.
Negotiations in Portsmouth (1905) - from left to right: from the Russian side (far side of the table) - Planson, Nabokov, Witte, Rosen, Korostovets.
Further agreements
joint declaration. On October 19, 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan adopted a Joint Declaration. The document ended the state of war between the countries and restored diplomatic relations, and also spoke of Moscow's consent to the transfer of the Habomai and Shikotan islands to the Japanese side. But they were to be handed over only after the signing of the peace treaty. However, later Japan was forced to refuse to sign a peace treaty with the USSR. The United States threatened the Japanese not to give up Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago if they gave up their claims to the other islands of the Lesser Kuril chain.
After Tokyo signed the Cooperation and Security Treaty with Washington in January 1960, extending the American military presence on the Japanese islands, Moscow declared that it refused to consider the issue of transferring the islands to the Japanese side. The statement was substantiated by the security of the USSR and China.
In 1993 was signed Tokyo Declaration about Russian-Japanese relations. It said that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the USSR and recognizes the 1956 agreement. Moscow expressed its readiness to start negotiations on Japan's territorial claims. In Tokyo, this was assessed as a sign of the coming victory.
In 2004, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Lavrov, made a statement that Moscow recognizes the 1956 Declaration and is ready to negotiate a peace treaty based on it. In 2004-2005, this position was confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the Japanese insisted on the transfer of 4 islands, so the issue was not resolved. Moreover, the Japanese gradually increased their pressure, for example, in 2009, the head of the Japanese government at a government meeting called the Lesser Kuril Ridge "illegally occupied territories." In 2010-early 2011, the Japanese got so excited that some military experts began to talk about the possibility of a new Russo-Japanese war. Only a spring natural disaster - the consequences of a tsunami and a terrible earthquake, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant - cooled the ardor of Japan.
As a result, the loud statements of the Japanese led to the fact that Moscow announced that the islands are the territory of the Russian Federation legally following the results of the Second World War, this is enshrined in the UN Charter. And the Russian sovereignty over the Kuriles, which has the appropriate international legal confirmation, is beyond doubt. Plans were also announced to develop the economy of the islands and strengthen the Russian military presence there.
The strategic importance of the islands
economic factor. The islands are economically underdeveloped, but they have deposits of valuable and rare earth metals - gold, silver, rhenium, titanium. The waters are rich in biological resources, the seas that wash the shores of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands are one of the most productive areas of the World Ocean. The shelves, where hydrocarbon deposits have been found, are also of great importance.
political factor. The cession of the islands will sharply lower Russia's status in the world, and there will be a legal opportunity to review other results of the Second World War. For example, they may demand to give the Kaliningrad region to Germany or part of Karelia to Finland.
military factor. The transfer of the islands of the South Kuril chain will provide the naval forces of Japan and the United States with free access to the Sea of Okhotsk. It will allow our potential adversaries to exercise control over strategically important strait zones, which will drastically impair the deployment of the forces of the Russian Pacific Fleet, including nuclear submarines with intercontinental ballistic missiles. This will be a strong blow to the military security of the Russian Federation.
Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, Habomai - four words sound like a spell. The Southern Kuriles are the most distant, most mysterious and most problematic islands in 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 East region. These difficulties only add to the tourist attraction: it is worth seeing Cape World's End, while traveling to it does not require a visa. Although a special permit to visit the border zone is still required.
Cossack Not good and sedentary gilyaks
The islands of Iturup and Kunashir belong to the Greater Kuril Ridge, Shikotan to the Lesser. It is more difficult with Habomai: there is no such name on modern maps, this is the old Japanese designation for the rest of the islands of the Small Ridge. It is used precisely 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 Greater Kuriles, Shikotan is the northernmost of the Lesser ones. Since Habomai is an archipelago consisting of a dozen small and very small parts of the land, the disputed Kuril Islands are actually 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 Hokkaido Prefecture.
Entrance stele of the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk on the island of Kunashir in the Kuril chain. Photo: Vladimir Sergeev / ITAR-TASSThe Russian-Japanese territorial dispute is a product of the 20th century, although the question of the ownership of the islands was more open than clearly defined before. The uncertainty is based on the very history of geography: the Kuril ridge, stretching in an arc from Kamchatka to Hokkaido, was discovered by the Japanese and Russians almost simultaneously.
More precisely, some land shrouded in fog north of Hokkaido was discovered back in 1643 by the Dutch expedition of Friz. The Japanese at that time only mastered the north of Hokkaido, sometimes swimming to the neighboring islands. In any case, on the Japanese map of 1644, Iturup and Kunashir were already marked. Around the same time, in 1646, the Yenisei Cossack Nehoroshko Ivanovich Kolobov, an associate of the explorer Ivan Moskovitin, reported to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich that there were islands in the Sea of Okhotsk with "sitting gilyaks" who kept "fed bears." Gilyaks is the Russian name for the Nivkhs, the Far Eastern natives, and "sedentary" means settled. The Nivkhs were the indigenous people of the islands, along with the ancient people of the Ainu. The bear is a totem animal of the Ainu, who specially raised bears for the most important tribal rituals. The word "gilyaks" 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, is reminiscent of smoking volcanoes, and according to another, it goes back to the Ainu language and the root “kur”, meaning “man”.
Kolobov, perhaps, visited the Kuril Islands before the Japanese, but his detachment definitely did not reach the Small Ridge. Only half a century later, Russian navigators sailed to the island of Simushir in the middle of the Kuriles, and moved south already in the time of Peter I. Russian names for them: 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 secured in 1783 by the decree of Catherine II on the preservation of Russia's right to the lands discovered by Russian navigators. In the Kuriles, free fishing for sea animals was allowed, and Russian settlements began to appear on the islands. The mainland Cossacks collected tribute from the indigenous smokers, periodically going too far. So, in 1771, after the visit of a violent detachment of the Kamchatka centurion Ivan Cherny, the Ainu rebelled and tried to get out of Russian citizenship. But in general, they treated the Russians well - they won against the backdrop of the Japanese, who considered the natives "eastern 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, originally inhabited by the same Ainu, so their practical interest in the South Kuriles flared up only towards the end of the 18th century. Then they officially forbade Russians not only to trade, but simply to appear in Hokkaido, Iturup and Kunashir. A confrontation began on the islands: the Japanese destroyed Russian crosses and put up their own signs in return, the Russians, in turn, corrected the situation, and so on. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian-American campaign was engaged in trade in all the Kuriles, 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 Russian-Japanese state border between the islands of Iturup and Urup, and Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the rest of the islands of the Small Ridge went to Japan. The treaty was signed on February 7, and at the end of the 20th century, this day became a public holiday in Japan - the Day of the Northern Territories. The Shimoda treatise is the point from which the “problem of the South Kuriles” has grown.
In addition, the treaty left the much more important island of Sakhalin in an uncertain position for Russia: it remained in the joint possession of both countries, which again gave rise to conflicts and hindered Russian plans to develop coal deposits in the south of the island. For the sake of Sakhalin, Russia went to the "exchange of territories", and under the new Petersburg Treaty of 1875, it 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. With Sakhalin, too, it did not turn out too well, since hard labor was immediately established on it, 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 government, which signed the Beijing Treaty in 1925. The USSR did not recognize itself as the legal successor of the Russian Empire and, in order to protect its eastern borders from the hostile actions of the "samurai", agreed to very favorable conditions 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 in the Kuriles. These bases almost did not participate in hostilities, except for one case: in 1941, aircraft carriers left Iturup Island, heading for Pearl Harbor. And the Japanese concession in the north of Sakhalin was officially valid until the same 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.
Chisima Islands trick
In September 1945, the Kuriles were occupied by Soviet troops who accepted the surrender of the Japanese garrisons. The Memorandum of General MacArthur and the San Francisco Peace Treaty with the Allies confirmed the fact that Japan renounces the rights to all territories received under the Potsdam Treaty of 1905 - Sakhalin and the Chisima Islands.
Shikotan Island. Whaling plant. 1946. Photo: Patriarche / pastvu.com
It was in this formulation that the root of the "island problem" lurked. According to the Japanese version, the historical province of Tisima is Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands north of Kunashir. Kunashir itself, Iturup and the Small Ridge are not among them. Japan thus did not renounce them, and may lay claim to the "Northern Territories" by law. The Soviet side did not sign the treaty, insisting on changing the wording, therefore, legally, Russia and Japan still remain at 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 clause.
The Russian Federation recognizes itself as the legal successor of the USSR and accordingly recognizes the agreements signed by the Soviet Union. Including the declaration of 1956. Bidding for Shikotan and Habomai continues.
island treasures
The main myth about the South 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 Friz and Ekaterina straits. The straits do not really freeze, but this does not matter much: 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 maritime law. In addition, the main routes of the region do not pass through the South Kuriles.
Another myth is the opposite: as if the Southern Kuriles bring more headaches than they have value, and no one will lose anything from their transfer. This is not true. The islands are rich in natural resources, including unique ones. On Iturup, for example, there is an extremely valuable deposit of the rarest rhenium metal on the Kudryavy volcano.
Kunashir Island. Golovnin volcano caldera. Photo: Yury 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 Southern Kuriles are an ideal place for ecotourism. The vagaries of the local climate, fraught with the most dangerous cataclysms from eruptions to tsunamis, are redeemed by the pristine beauty of the islands in the ocean.
For more than thirty years, the nature of the Southern Kuriles has an official protected status. The Kurilsky Reserve and the Small Kuriles reserve of federal importance protect most of Kunashir and Shikotan and many other small islands of the Small Ridge. And even a sophisticated traveler will not be indifferent to the ecological routes of the reserve to the Tyatya volcano, to the picturesque mineralized lakes of the caldera of the oldest volcano on the islands of Golovnin, to the thicket of the relict 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, fearless foxes, curious anthur seals, graceful Japanese cranes, thousands of flocks of waterfowl on autumn and spring migrations, dark coniferous forests where one of the rarest birds on the planet lives - the fish owl, impenetrable thickets of bamboo above human growth, a unique wild magnolia, hot springs and icy mountain rivers, "boiling" from flocks of pink salmon coming to spawn.
Kunashir Island. Volcano Tyatya. Photo: Vlada Valchenko
And Kunashir - the “black island” - is the village of Goryachiy Plyazh 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. Shikotan, popular with “wild” hikers, has quaint bays, mountains, seal rookeries and bird colonies. And Cape Edge of the World, where you can meet the freshest dawn in Russia.
There are also territorial disputes in the modern world. Only the Asia-Pacific region has several of these. The most serious of them is the territorial dispute over the Kuril Islands. Russia and Japan are its main participants. The situation on the islands, which are considered to be a kind of between these states, has the appearance of a dormant volcano. No one knows when he will start his "eruption".
Discovery of the Kuril Islands
The archipelago, located on the border between and the Pacific Ocean, is the Kuril Islands. It stretches from about. Hokkaido The territory of the Kuril Islands consists of 30 large land areas surrounded on all sides by the waters of the sea and ocean, and a large number of small ones.
The first expedition from Europe, which ended up near the shores of the Kuriles and Sakhalin, was the Dutch navigators led by M. G. Friz. This event took place in 1634. They not only made the discovery of these lands, but also proclaimed them as Dutch territory.
The explorers of the Russian Empire also studied Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands:
- 1646 - discovery of the northwestern Sakhalin coast by the expedition of V. D. Poyarkov;
- 1697 - VV Atlasov becomes aware of the existence of the islands.
At the same time, Japanese sailors began to sail to the southern islands of the archipelago. By the end of the 18th century, their trading posts and fishing trips appeared here, and a little later - scientific expeditions. A special role in the research belongs to M. Tokunai and M. Rinzō. Around the same time, an expedition from France and England appeared on the Kuril Islands.
Island discovery problem
The history of the Kuril Islands has still preserved discussions about the issue of their discovery. The Japanese claim that they were the first to find these lands in 1644. The National Museum of Japanese History carefully preserves a map of that time, on which the corresponding symbols are applied. According to them, Russian people appeared there a little later, in 1711. In addition, the Russian map of this area, dated 1721, designates it as "Japanese Islands." That is, Japan was the discoverer of these lands.
The Kuril Islands in Russian history were first mentioned in the reporting document of N. I. Kolobov to Tsar Alexei from 1646 on the peculiarities of wanderings. Also, data from chronicles and maps of medieval Holland, Scandinavia and Germany testify to indigenous Russian villages.
By the end of the 18th century, they were officially annexed to the Russian lands, and the population of the Kuril Islands acquired Russian citizenship. At the same time, state taxes began to be collected here. But neither then, nor a little later, was any bilateral Russian-Japanese treaty or international agreement signed that would secure Russia's rights to these islands. In addition, their southern part was not under the power and control of the Russians.
The Kuril Islands and relations between Russia and Japan
The history of the Kuril Islands in the early 1840s is characterized by the revitalization of British, American and French expeditions in the Northwest Pacific. This is the reason for a new surge of Russia's interest in establishing diplomatic and commercial relations with the Japanese side. Vice Admiral E. V. Putyatin in 1843 initiated the idea of equipping a new expedition to the Japanese and Chinese territories. But it was rejected by Nicholas I.
Later, in 1844, I.F. Kruzenshtern supported him. But this did not receive the support of the emperor.
During this period, the Russian-American company took active steps to establish good relations with the neighboring country.
First treaty between Japan and Russia
The problem of the Kuril Islands was resolved in 1855, when Japan and Russia signed the first treaty. Before that, a rather lengthy negotiation process took place. It began with the arrival of Putyatin in Shimoda at the end of the autumn of 1854. But soon the negotiations were interrupted by an intense earthquake. A rather serious complication was the support provided by the French and English rulers to the Turks.
The main provisions of the agreement:
- establishment of diplomatic relations between these countries;
- protection and patronage, as well as ensuring the inviolability of the property of citizens of one power in the territory of another;
- drawing the border between the states located near the islands of Urup and Iturup of the Kuril archipelago (preservation of indivisibility);
- the opening of some ports for Russian sailors, the permission to conduct trade here under the supervision of local officials;
- the appointment of a Russian consul in one of these ports;
- granting the right of extraterritoriality;
- receiving by Russia the status of the most favored nation.
Japan also received permission from Russia to trade in the port of Korsakov, located on the territory of Sakhalin, for 10 years. The country's consulate was established here. At the same time, any trade and customs duties were excluded.
Attitude of countries to the Treaty
A new stage, which includes the history of the Kuril Islands, is the signing of the Russian-Japanese treaty of 1875. It caused mixed reviews from representatives of these countries. Citizens of Japan believed that the country's government had done wrong by exchanging Sakhalin for "an insignificant ridge of pebbles" (as they called the Kuriles).
Others simply put forward statements about the exchange of one territory of the country for another. Most of them were inclined to think that sooner or later the day would come when the war did come to the Kuril Islands. The dispute between Russia and Japan will escalate into hostilities, and battles will begin between the two countries.
The Russian side assessed the situation in a similar way. Most representatives of this state believed that the entire territory belongs to them as discoverers. Therefore, the treaty of 1875 did not become the act that once and for all determined the delimitation between the countries. It also failed to be a means of preventing further conflicts between them.
Russo-Japanese War
The history of the Kuril Islands continues, and the next impetus for the complication of Russian-Japanese relations was the war. It took place despite the existence of agreements concluded between these states. In 1904, Japan's treacherous attack on Russian territory took place. This happened before the start of hostilities was officially announced.
The Japanese fleet attacked the Russian ships that were in the outer roadstead of Port Artois. Thus, some of the most powerful ships belonging to the Russian squadron were disabled.
The most significant events of 1905:
- the largest land battle of Mukden in the history of mankind at that time, which took place on February 5-24 and ended with the withdrawal of the Russian army;
- The Tsushima battle at the end of May, which ended with the destruction of the Russian Baltic squadron.
Despite the fact that the course of events in this war was in the best possible way in favor of Japan, she was forced to enter into peace negotiations. This was due to the fact that the country's economy was very depleted by military events. On August 9, a peace conference between the participants in the war began in Portsmouth.
Reasons for Russia's defeat in the war
Despite the fact that the conclusion of the peace treaty determined to some extent the situation in which the Kuril Islands were, the dispute between Russia and Japan did not stop. This caused a significant number of protests in Tokyo, but the effects of the war were very tangible for the country.
During this conflict, the Russian Pacific Fleet was practically completely destroyed, more than 100 thousand of its soldiers were killed. There was also a stop to the expansion of the Russian state to the East. The results of the war were indisputable evidence of how weak the tsarist policy was.
This was one of the main reasons for the revolutionary actions in 1905-1907.
The most important reasons for the defeat of Russia in the war of 1904-1905.
- The presence of diplomatic isolation of the Russian Empire.
- The absolute unpreparedness of the country's troops to conduct combat acts in difficult situations.
- The shameless betrayal of domestic stakeholders and the mediocrity of most Russian generals.
- The high level of development and readiness of the military and economic spheres of Japan.
Until our time, the unresolved Kuril issue is a great danger. After World War II, no peace treaty was signed following its results. From this dispute, the Russian people, like the population of the Kuril Islands, have absolutely no benefit. Moreover, this state of affairs contributes to the generation of hostility between countries. It is precisely the speedy resolution of such a diplomatic issue as the problem of the Kuril Islands that is the key to good neighborly relations between Russia and Japan.
The Southern Kuril Islands are a stumbling block in relations between Russia and Japan. The dispute over the ownership of the islands prevents our neighboring countries from concluding a peace treaty, which was violated during the Second World War, negatively affects the economic ties between Russia and Japan, contributes to an ever-preserving state of distrust, even hostility, of the Russian and Japanese peoples
Kurile Islands
The Kuril Islands are located between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido. The islands stretch for 1200 km. from north to south and separate the Sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean, the total area of the islands is about 15 thousand square meters. km. In total, the Kuril Islands include 56 islands and rocks, but there are 31 islands with an area of \u200b\u200bmore than one kilometer. The largest in the Kuril ridge are Urup (1450 sq. km), Iturup (3318.8), Paramushir (2053), Kunashir (1495), Simushir (353), Shumshu (388), Onekotan (425), Shikotan (264). All the Kuril Islands belong to Russia. Japan disputes ownership only of the Kunashir Islands, Iturup Shikotan and the Habomai Ridge. The state border of Russia runs between the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the Kuril island of KunashirDisputed islands - Kunashir, Shikotan, Iturup, Habomai
Kunashir Island
habomai
The history of the discovery of the Kuril Islands
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In October-November 1648, he was the first of the Russians to pass the First Kuril Strait, that is, the strait separating the northernmost island of the Kuril ridge Shumshu from the southern tip of Kamchatka, under the command of the clerk of the Moscow merchant Usov Fedot Alekseevich Popov. It is possible that Popov's people even landed on Shumshu.
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The first Europeans to visit the Kuril Islands were the Dutch. On February 3, 1643, the two ships Castricum and Breskens, which left Batavia in the direction of Japan, under the general command of Martin de Vries, approached the Lesser Kuril Ridge on June 13. The Dutch saw the shores of Iturup, Shikotan, discovered the strait between the islands of Iturup and Kunashir.
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In 1711, the Cossacks Antsiferov and Kozyrevsky visited the Northern Kuril Islands Shumsha and Paramushir and even unsuccessfully tried to extort tribute from the local population - the Ainu.
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In 1721, by decree of Peter the Great, an expedition of Evreeinov and Luzhin was sent to the Kuriles, who explored and mapped 14 islands in the central part of the Kuril ridge.
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In the summer of 1739, a Russian ship under the command of M. Spanberg rounded the islands of the South Kuril ridge. Spanberg mapped, although inaccurately, the entire ridge of the Kuril Islands from the Kamchatka nose to Hokkaido.
Ainu lived on the Kuril Islands. The Ainu, the first population of the Japanese islands, were gradually forced out by newcomers from Central Asia to the north to the island of Hokkaido and further to the Kuriles. From October 1946 to May 1948, tens of thousands of Ainu and Japanese were taken from the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin to the island of Hokkaido
The problem of the Kuril Islands. Briefly
- 1855, February 7 (new style) - the first diplomatic document in relations between Russia and Japan, the so-called Treaty of Simond, was signed in the Japanese port of Shimoda. On behalf of Russia, it was endorsed by Vice-Admiral E. V. Putyatin, on behalf of Japan - authorized Toshiakira Kawaji.
Article 2: “From now on, the borders between Russia and Japan will pass between the islands of Iturup and Urup. The whole island of Iturup belongs to Japan, and the whole island of Urup and the other Kuril Islands to the north are the possession of Russia. As for the island of Crafto (Sakhalin), it remains undivided between Russia and Japan, as it has been until now.
- 1875, May 7 - a new Russian-Japanese treaty "On the exchange of territories" was concluded in St. Petersburg. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Gorchakov, and on behalf of Japan, by Admiral Enomoto Takeaki.
Article 1. “His Majesty the Emperor of Japan ... cedes to His Majesty the All-Russian Emperor part of the territory of the island of Sakhalin (Krafto), which he now owns .. so that from now on the aforementioned Sakhalin Island (Krafto) will completely belong to the Russian Empire and the border line between the Empires of Russia and The Japanese will pass in these waters through the La Perouse Strait "
Article 2. “In return for the cession of rights to Sakhalin Island to Russia, His Majesty the All-Russian Emperor cedes to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan a group of islands called the Kuril Islands. ... This group includes ... eighteen islands 1) Shumshu 2) Alaid 3) Paramushir 4) Makanrushi 5) Onekotan, 6) Harimkotan, 7) Ekarma, 8) Shiashkotan, 9) Mus-sir, 10) Raikoke, 11) Matua , 12) Rastua, 13) the islets of Sredneva and Ushisir, 14) Ketoi, 15) Simusir, 16) Broughton, 17) the islets of Cherpoy and Brother Cherpoev, and 18) Urup, so that the border line between the Russian and Japanese Empires in these waters will pass through the strait located between Cape Lopatkoy of the Kamchatka Peninsula and Shumshu Island"
- May 28, 1895 - An agreement between Russia and Japan on trade and navigation was signed in St. Petersburg. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Lobanov-Rostovsky and Minister of Finance S. Witte; on behalf of Japan, it was signed by Nishi Tokujiro, Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Russian Court. The treaty consisted of 20 articles.
Article 18 stated that the treaty supersedes all previous Russo-Japanese treaties, agreements and conventions
- 1905, September 5 - Portsmouth Peace Treaty was concluded in Portsmouth (USA), which completed. On behalf of Russia, it was signed by Chairman of the Committee of Ministers S. Witte and Ambassador to the United States R. Rosen, on behalf of Japan by Foreign Minister D. Komura and envoy to the United States K. Takahira.
Article IX: “The Russian Imperial Government cedes to the Imperial Japanese Government in perpetual and complete possession the southern part of the island of Sakhalin and all the islands adjacent to the latter .... The fiftieth parallel of northern latitude is taken as the limit of the ceded territory.
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1907, July 30 - An agreement between Japan and Russia was signed in St. Petersburg, consisting of a public convention and a secret treaty. The convention stated that the parties were obliged to respect the territorial integrity of both countries and all the rights arising from the agreements existing between them. The agreement was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs A. Izvolsky and Ambassador of Japan to Russia I. Motono
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1916, July 3 - in Petrograd Petrograd established the Russo-Japanese alliance. It consisted of a vowel and a secret part. In the secret one, the previous Russian-Japanese agreements were also confirmed. The documents were signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs S. Sazonov and I. Motono
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1925, January 20 - the Soviet-Japanese Convention on the Basic Principles of Relations, ... the declaration of the Soviet government ... was signed in Beijing. The documents were endorsed by L. Karahan from the USSR and K. Yoshizawa from Japan
convention.
Article II: “The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics agrees that the treaty concluded at Portsmouth on 5 September 1905 shall remain in full force and effect. It is agreed that the treaties, conventions and agreements, other than the said Treaty of Portsmouth, concluded between Japan and Russia before November 7, 1917, will be revised at a conference to be held subsequently between the Governments of the Contracting Parties, and that they may be amended or canceled as necessary. changing circumstances require."
The declaration emphasized that the government of the USSR does not share political responsibility with the former tsarist government for the conclusion of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty: “The Plenipotentiary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics has the honor to declare that the recognition by his Government of the validity of the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905 in no way means that The government of the Union shares with the former tsarist government the political responsibility for the conclusion of the said treaty.
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1941, April 13 - Neutrality Pact between Japan and the USSR. The pact was signed by Foreign Ministers Molotov and Yosuke Matsuoka
Article 2 "In the event that one of the contracting parties becomes the object of hostilities by one or more third powers, the other contracting party shall remain neutral throughout the entire conflict."
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1945, February 11 - at the Yalta Conference of Stalin Roosevelt and Churchill, an agreement was signed on the Far East.
"2. The return of the rights that belonged to Russia, violated by the perfidious attack of Japan in 1904, namely:
a) the return to the Soviet Union of the southern part of about. Sakhalin and all adjacent islands, ...
3. Transfers of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union"
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1945, April 5 - Molotov received the Japanese ambassador to the USSR, Naotake Sato, and made a statement to him that in the conditions when Japan was at war with England and the USA, the allies of the USSR, the pact loses its meaning and its extension becomes impossible
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August 9, 1945 - The USSR declared war on Japan.
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1946, January 29 - Memorandum of the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in the Far East, American General D. MacArthur, to the Government of Japan determined that the southern part of Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands, including the Lesser Kuril Ridge (the Habomai group of islands and Shikotan Island), are withdrawn from the sovereignty of the Japanese state
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1946, February 2 - By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, in accordance with the provisions of the Yalta Agreement and the Potsdam Declaration, the South Sakhalin (now Sakhalin) Region of the RSFSR was created in the returned Russian territories
The return of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to the Russian territory made it possible to ensure access to the Pacific Ocean of the ships of the Navy of the USSR, to find a new frontier for the forward deployment of the Far Eastern group of ground forces and military aviation of the Soviet Union, and now the Russian Federation, which was carried far beyond the continent
- 1951, September 8 - Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, according to which it renounced "all rights ... to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin ..., sovereignty over which it acquired under the Portsmouth Treaty of September 5, 1905." The USSR refused to sign this treaty, because, according to Minister Gromyko, the text of the treaty did not enshrine the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
The San Francisco Peace Treaty between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan officially ended World War II, fixed the procedure for paying reparations to allies and compensation to countries affected by Japanese aggression
- 1956, August 19 - in Moscow, the USSR and Japan signed a declaration ending the state of war between them. According to it (including) the island of Shikotan and the Habomai ridge were to be transferred to Japan after the signing of a peace treaty between the USSR and Japan. However, soon Japan, under pressure from the United States, refused to sign a peace treaty, since the United States threatened that if Japan withdraws its claims to the Kunashir and Iturup islands, the Ryukyu archipelago with the island of Okinawa would not be returned to Japan, which, on the basis of Article 3 of the San Francisco Peace the treaty was then administered by the United States
“President of Russia V.V. Putin has repeatedly confirmed that Russia, as a successor state of the USSR, is committed to this document…. It is clear that if it comes to the implementation of the 1956 Declaration, a lot of details will have to be agreed upon ... However, the sequence set out in this Declaration remains unchanged ... the first step before everything else is the signing and entry into force of a peace treaty "(Russian Foreign Minister S . Lavrov)
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1960, January 19 - Japan and the United States signed the "Treaty of Interaction and Security"
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January 27, 1960 - The government of the USSR stated that since this agreement was directed against the USSR, it refuses to consider the transfer of the islands to Japan, since this will lead to the expansion of the territory used by American troops
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2011, November - Lavrov: "The Kuriles were, are and will be our territory in accordance with the decisions that were made following the results of the Second World War"
Iturup, the largest of the South Kuril Islands, became ours 70 years ago. Under the Japanese, tens of thousands of people lived here, life was in full swing in the villages and markets, there was a large military base from where the Japanese squadron left to smash Pearl Harbor. What have we built here over the past years? Recently, here is the airport. A couple of shops and hotels also appeared. And in the main settlement - the city of Kurilsk with a population of just over one and a half thousand people - they laid an outlandish attraction: a couple of hundred meters (!) Of asphalt. But in the store, the seller warns the buyer: “The product is almost expired. Do you take it? And he hears in response: “Yes, I know. Of course I will." And how not to take it if there is not enough food (with the exception of fish and what the garden gives), and there will be no delivery in the coming days, more precisely, it is not known when it will be. Local people like to repeat: we have 3,000 people and 8,000 bears here. There are more people, of course, if you count the military and border guards, but no one even counted the bears - maybe there are more of them. From the south to the north of the island, you have to get along a harsh dirt road through the pass, where hungry foxes guard each car, and roadside burdocks are the size of a person, you can hide with them. Beauty, of course: volcanoes, hollows, springs. But it is safe to ride on the local dirt trails only during the day and when
there is no fog. And in rare settlements, the streets are empty after nine in the evening - a curfew in fact. A simple question - why did the Japanese live well here, while we only get settlements? - most of the inhabitants simply do not occur. We live - we guard the earth.(“Rotational sovereignty”. “Spark” No. 25 (5423), June 27, 2016)
Once a prominent Soviet figure was asked: “Why don't you give Japan these islands. She has such a small territory, and you have such a large one? “That’s why it’s big because we don’t give it back,” the activist answered.
The Kuril Islands are represented by a series of Far Eastern island territories, they have one side, this is the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the other is about. Hokkaido in . The Kuril Islands of Russia are represented by the Sakhalin Oblast, which stretches for about 1,200 km in length with an available area of 15,600 square kilometers.
The islands of the Kuril ridge are represented by two groups located opposite each other - called Big and Small. A large group located in the south belongs to Kunashir, Iturup and others, in the center - Simushir, Keta and in the north are the rest of the island territories.
Shikotan, Habomai and a number of others are considered to be the Small Kuriles. For the most part, all island territories are mountainous and go up to 2,339 meters in height. The Kuril Islands on their lands have about 40 volcanic hills that are still active. Also here is the location of springs with hot mineral water. The south of the Kuriles is covered with forest plantations, and the north attracts with unique tundra vegetation.
The problem of the Kuril Islands lies in the unresolved dispute between the Japanese and Russian sides over who owns them. And it has been open since WWII.
The Kuril Islands after the war began to belong to the USSR. But Japan considers the territories of the southern Kuriles, and these are Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan with the Habomai Islands group, as its territory, without having a legal basis for that. Russia does not recognize the fact of a dispute with the Japanese side over these territories, since their ownership is legal.
The problem of the Kuril Islands is the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of relations between Japan and Russia.
The essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia
The Japanese demand that the Kuril Islands be returned to them. There, almost the entire population is convinced that these lands are originally Japanese. This dispute between the two states has been going on for a very long time, escalating after the Second World War.
Russia is not inclined to concede to the Japanese leaders of the state in this matter. The peace agreement has not been signed to this day, and this is connected precisely with the four disputed South Kuril Islands. About the legitimacy of Japan's claims to the Kuril Islands in this video.
The meanings of the southern Kuriles
The Southern Kuriles have several meanings for both countries:
- Military. The Southern Kuriles are of military importance, thanks to the only outlet to the Pacific Ocean for the country's fleet located there. And all because of the scarcity of geographical formations. At the moment, the ships enter the ocean waters through the Sangar Strait, because it is impossible to pass through the La Perouse Strait due to icing. Therefore, submarines are located in Kamchatka - Avachinskaya Bay. The military bases operating in the Soviet era have now been looted and abandoned.
- Economic. Economic importance - in the Sakhalin region there is a rather serious hydrocarbon potential. And belonging to Russia of the entire territory of the Kuriles, allows you to use the waters there at your discretion. Although its central part belongs to the Japanese side. In addition to water resources, there is such a rare metal as rhenium. Extracting it, the Russian Federation is in third place in the extraction of minerals and sulfur. For the Japanese, this area is important for fishing and agricultural purposes. This caught fish is used by the Japanese to grow rice - they simply pour it into the rice fields for fertilizer.
- Social. By and large, there is no special social interest for ordinary people in the southern Kuriles. This is because there are no modern megacities, people mostly work there and live in cabins. Supplies are delivered by air, and less often by water due to constant storms. Therefore, the Kuril Islands are more of a military-industrial facility than a social one.
- Tourist. In this regard, things are better in the southern Kuriles. These places will be of interest to many people who are attracted by everything real, natural and extreme. It is unlikely that anyone will remain indifferent at the sight of a thermal spring gushing out of the ground, or from climbing the volcano caldera and crossing the fumarole field on foot. And there is no need to talk about the views that open to the eye.
For this reason, the dispute over the ownership of the Kuril Islands has not moved forward.
Dispute over the Kuril territory
Who owns these four island territories - Shikotan, Iturup, Kunashir and the Habomai Islands, is not an easy question.
Information from written sources indicates the discoverers of the Kuriles - the Dutch. The Russians were the first to populate the territory of Chishim. Shikotan Island and the other three are designated for the first time by the Japanese. But the fact of discovery does not yet give grounds for the possession of this territory.
The island of Shikotan is considered to be the end of the world because of the cape of the same name located near the village of Malokurilsky. It impresses with its 40-meter drop into the ocean waters. This place is called the end of the world due to the amazing view of the Pacific Ocean.
Shikotan Island translates as Big City. It stretches for 27 kilometers, has a width of 13 km, occupied area - 225 square meters. km. The highest point of the island is the mountain of the same name, rising to 412 meters. Partially its territory belongs to the state nature reserve.
Shikotan Island has a very indented coastline with many coves, headlands and cliffs.
Previously, it was thought that the mountains on the island are volcanoes that have ceased to erupt, with which the Kuril Islands abound. But they turned out to be rocks displaced by shifts in lithospheric plates.
A bit of history
Long before the Russians and the Japanese, the Kuril Islands were inhabited by the Ainu. The first information among Russians and Japanese about the Kuriles appeared only in the 17th century. A Russian expedition was sent in the 18th century, after which about 9,000 Ainu became citizens of Russia.
A treaty was signed between Russia and Japan (1855), called Shimodsky, where the boundaries were established, allowing Japanese citizens to trade on 2/3 of this land. Sakhalin remained a nobody's territory. After 20 years, Russia became the undivided owner of this land, then losing the south in the Russo-Japanese War. But during the Second World War, Soviet troops were still able to take back the south of Sakhalin land and the Kuril Islands as a whole.
Between the states that won the victory and Japan, nevertheless, a peace agreement was signed and it happened in San Francisco in 1951. And according to it, Japan has absolutely no rights to the Kuril Islands.
But then the Soviet side did not sign, which many researchers considered a mistake. But there were good reasons for this:
- The document did not indicate specifically what was included in the Kuriles. The Americans said that it is necessary to apply for this to a special international court. Plus, a member of the delegation of the Japanese state announced that the southern disputed islands are not the territory of the Kuril Islands.
- The document also did not indicate exactly who the Kuriles would belong to. That is, the issue remained controversial.
Between the USSR and the Japanese side in 1956, a declaration was signed, preparing a platform for the main peace agreement. In it, the Land of the Soviets goes to meet the Japanese and agrees to transfer to them only the two disputed islands of Habomai and Shikotan. But with a condition - only after the signing of a peace agreement.
The declaration contains several subtleties:
- The word "transfer" means that they belong to the USSR.
- This transfer will actually take place after the signing of the peace treaty.
- This applies only to the two Kuril Islands.
This was a positive development between the Soviet Union and the Japanese side, but it caused alarm among the Americans. Thanks to pressure from Washington, the ministerial chairs were completely changed in the Japanese government, and new officials who rose to high positions began to prepare a military agreement between America and Japan, which began to operate in 1960.
After that, a call came from Japan to give up not two islands proposed by the USSR, but four. America puts pressure on the fact that all agreements between the Land of Soviets and Japan are not obligatory to be fulfilled, they are supposedly declarative. And the existing and current military agreement between the Japanese and the Americans implies the deployment of their troops on Japanese territory. Accordingly, now they have come even closer to Russian territory. 
Based on all this, Russian diplomats declared that until all foreign troops were withdrawn from its territory, it was impossible to even talk about a peace agreement. But in any case, we are talking about only two islands of the Kuriles.
As a result, the power structures of America are still located on the territory of Japan. The Japanese insist on the transfer of the 4 Kuril Islands, as stated in the declaration.
The second half of the 80s of the 20th century was marked by the weakening of the Soviet Union, and under these conditions, the Japanese side again raises this topic. But the dispute about who will own the South Kuril Islands, the countries remained open. The Tokyo Declaration of 1993 says that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, respectively, and previously signed papers must be recognized by both parties. It also indicated the direction to move towards the solution of the territorial affiliation of the disputed four Kuril Islands.
The 21st century, and specifically 2004, was marked by the raising of this topic again at a meeting between President Putin of the Russian Federation and the Prime Minister of Japan. And again, everything repeated - the Russian side offers its own conditions for signing a peace agreement, and Japanese officials insist that all four South Kuril Islands be transferred to their disposal. 
The year 2005 was marked by the readiness of the Russian president to end the dispute, guided by the 1956 agreement and transfer two island territories to Japan, but the Japanese leaders did not agree with this proposal.
In order to somehow reduce tension between the two states, the Japanese side was offered to help develop nuclear energy, develop infrastructure and tourism, and improve the environmental and security situation. The Russian side accepted this proposal.
At the moment, for Russia there is no question - who owns the Kuril Islands. Without any doubt, this is the territory of the Russian Federation, based on real facts - following the results of the Second World War and the generally recognized UN Charter. 