Why does Japan lay claim to the southern Kuril Islands? History of the Kuril Islands

The authorities of Russia and Japan have been unable to sign a peace treaty since 1945 due to a dispute over the ownership of the southern part of the Kuril Islands.

The Northern Territories Problem (北方領土問題 Hoppo ryo do mondai) is a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia that Japan considers unresolved since the end of World War II. After the war, all the Kuril Islands came under the administrative control of the USSR, but a number of the southern islands - Iturup, Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril Ridge - are disputed by Japan.

In Russia, the disputed territories are part of the Kuril and South Kuril urban districts of the Sakhalin region. Japan claims four islands in the southern part of the Kuril ridge - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, citing the bilateral Treaty on Trade and Borders of 1855. Moscow's position is that the southern Kuril Islands became part of the USSR (which Russia became the successor of) results of the Second World War, and Russian sovereignty over them, which has the appropriate international legal registration, is beyond doubt.

The problem of ownership of the southern Kuril Islands is the main obstacle to the complete settlement of Russian-Japanese relations.

Iturup(Japanese: 択捉島 Etorofu) is an island in the southern group of the Great Kuril Islands, the largest island of the archipelago.

Kunashir(Ainu Black Island, Japanese 国後島 Kunashiri-to:) is the southernmost island of the Great Kuril Islands.

Shikotan(Japanese 色丹島 Sikotan-to:?, in early sources Sikotan; name from the Ainu language: “shi” - large, significant; “kotan” - village, city) is the largest island of the Lesser Ridge of the Kuril Islands.

Habomai(Japanese 歯舞群島 Habomai-gunto?, Suisho, “Flat Islands”) is the Japanese name for a group of islands in the northwest Pacific Ocean, together with the island of Shikotan in Soviet and Russian cartography, considered as the Lesser Kuril Ridge. The Habomai group includes the islands of Polonsky, Oskolki, Zeleny, Tanfilyeva, Yuri, Demina, Anuchina and a number of small ones. Separated by the Soviet Strait from the island of Hokkaido.

History of the Kuril Islands

17th century
Before the arrival of the Russians and Japanese, the islands were inhabited by the Ainu. In their language, “kuru” meant “a person who came from nowhere,” which is where their second name “Kurilians” came from, and then the name of the archipelago.

In Russia, the first mention of the Kuril Islands dates back to 1646, when N. I. Kolobov spoke about the bearded people inhabiting the islands ainah.

The Japanese received the first information about the islands during an expedition [source not specified 238 days] to Hokkaido in 1635. It is not known whether she actually got to the Kuril Islands or learned about them indirectly, but in 1644 a map was drawn up on which they were designated under the collective name “thousand islands.” Candidate of Geographical Sciences T. Adashova notes that the map of 1635 “is considered by many scientists to be very approximate and even incorrect.” Then, in 1643, the islands were explored by the Dutch led by Martin Friese. This expedition amounted to more than detailed maps and described the lands.

XVIII century
In 1711, Ivan Kozyrevsky went to the Kuril Islands. He visited only 2 northern islands: Shumshu and Paramushira, but he questioned in detail the Ainu who inhabited them and the Japanese who were brought there by a storm. In 1719, Peter I sent an expedition to Kamchatka under the leadership of Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin, which reached the island of Simushir in the south.

In 1738-1739, Martyn Shpanberg walked along the entire ridge, plotting the islands he encountered on the map. Subsequently, the Russians, avoiding dangerous voyages to the southern islands, developed the northern ones and imposed tribute on the local population. From those who did not want to pay it and went to distant islands, they took amanats - hostages from among their close relatives. But soon, in 1766, centurion Ivan Cherny from Kamchatka was sent to the southern islands. He was ordered to attract the Ainu into citizenship without the use of violence or threats. However, he did not follow this decree, mocked them, and poached. All this led to a revolt of the indigenous population in 1771, during which many Russians were killed.

The Siberian nobleman Antipov achieved great success with the Irkutsk translator Shabalin. They managed to win the favor of the Kurils, and in 1778-1779 they managed to bring into citizenship more than 1,500 people from Iturup, Kunashir and even Matsumaya (now Japanese Hokkaido). In the same 1779, Catherine II, by decree, freed those who had accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes. But relations with the Japanese were not built: they forbade the Russians to go to these three islands.

In the “Extensive Land Description of the Russian State...” of 1787, a list of 21 islands belonging to Russia was given. It included islands as far as Matsumaya (Hokkaido), the status of which was not clearly defined, since Japan had a city in its southern part. At the same time, the Russians had no real control even over the islands south of Urup. There, the Japanese considered the Kurilians their subjects and actively used violence against them, which caused discontent. In May 1788, a Japanese merchant ship arriving at Matsumai was attacked. In 1799, by order of the central government of Japan, two outposts were founded in Kunashir and Iturup, and security began to be maintained constantly.

19th century
Representative of the Russian-American Company Nikolai Rezanov, who arrived in Nagasaki as the first Russian envoy, tried to resume negotiations on trade with Japan in 1805. But he too failed. However, Japanese officials, who were not satisfied with the despotic policy of the supreme power, hinted to him that it would be nice to carry out a forceful action in these lands, which could push the situation from a dead point. This was carried out on behalf of Rezanov in 1806-1807 by an expedition of two ships led by Lieutenant Khvostov and Midshipman Davydov. Ships were looted, a number of trading posts were destroyed, and a Japanese village on Iturup was burned. They were later tried, but the attack caused serious deterioration for some time Russian-Japanese relations. In particular, this was the reason for the arrest of Vasily Golovnin’s expedition.

In exchange for ownership of southern Sakhalin, Russia transferred all of the Kuril Islands to Japan in 1875.

XX century
After defeat in 1905 in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia handed over to Japan southern part Sakhalin.
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.
February 2, 1946. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the inclusion of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands into the RSFSR.
1947. Deportation of Japanese and Ainu from the islands to Japan. 17,000 Japanese and an unknown number of Ainu were evicted.
November 5, 1952. A powerful tsunami hit the entire coast of the Kuril Islands, Paramushir was hit the hardest. A giant wave washed away the city of Severo-Kurilsk (formerly Kashiwabara). It was forbidden to mention this disaster in the press.
In 1956, the Soviet Union and Japan adopted the Joint Treaty, officially ending the war between the two countries and handing over Habomai and Shikotan to Japan. However, it was not possible to sign the agreement: the United States threatened not to give Japan the island of Okinawa if Tokyo renounced its claims to Iturup and Kunashir.

Maps of the Kuril Islands

Kuril Islands on English map 1893. Plans of the Kuril Islands, from sketches chiefly mand by Mr. H. J. Snow, 1893. (London, Royal Geographical Society, 1897, 54×74 cm)

Fragment of the map Japan and Korea - Location of Japan in the Western Pacific (1:30 000 000), 1945

Photo map of the Kuril Islands based on a NASA satellite image, April 2010.

List of all islands

View of Habomai from Hokkaido
Green Island (Japanese: 志発島 Shibotsu-to)
Polonsky Island (Japanese: 多楽島 Taraku-to)
Tanfilyeva Island (Japanese: 水晶島 Suisho-jima)
Yuri Island (Japanese: 勇留島 Yuri-to)
Anuchina Island (秋勇留島 Akiyuri-to)
Demina Islands (Japanese: 春苅島 Harukari-to)
Shard Islands
Rock Kira
Cave Rock (Kanakuso) - sea lion rookery on the rock.
Sail Rock (Hokoki)
Rock Candle (Rosoku)
Fox Islands (Todo)
Cone Islands (Kabuto)
Jar Dangerous
Watchman Island (Khomosiri or Muika)

Drying Rock (Odoke)
Reef Island (Amagi-sho)
Signal Island (Japanese: 貝殻島 Kaigara-jima)
Amazing Rock (Hanare)
Rock Seagull

Everyone knows about Japan's claims to the Southern Kuril Islands, but not everyone knows in detail the history of the Kuril Islands and their role in Russian-Japanese relations. This is what this article will focus on.

Everyone knows about Japan's claims to the Southern Kuril Islands, but not everyone knows in detail the history of the Kuril Islands and their role in Russian-Japanese relations. This is what this article will focus on.

Before moving on to the history of the issue, it is worth telling why the Southern Kuril Islands are so important for Russia *.
1. Strategic location. It is in the ice-free deep-sea straits between the South Kuril islands that submarines can enter the Pacific Ocean underwater at any time of the year.
2. Iturup has the world's largest deposit of the rare metal rhenium, which is used in superalloys for space and aviation technology. World production of rhenium in 2006 amounted to 40 tons, while the Kudryavy volcano releases 20 tons of rhenium every year. This is the only place in the world where rhenium is found in pure form and not in the form of impurities. 1 kg of rhenium, depending on purity, costs from 1000 to 10 thousand dollars. There is no other rhenium deposit in Russia (in Soviet times, rhenium was mined in Kazakhstan).
3. Stocks of others mineral resources The Southern Kuriles comprise: hydrocarbons - about 2 billion tons, gold and silver - 2 thousand tons, titanium - 40 million tons, iron - 270 million tons
4. The Southern Kuril Islands are one of 10 places in the world where, due to water turbulence due to the meeting of warm and cold sea currents, food for fish rises from the seabed. This attracts huge schools of fish. The value of seafood produced here exceeds $4 billion a year.

Briefly note key dates 17th-18th century Russian history associated with the Kuril Islands.

1654 or, according to other sources, 1667-1668- the voyage of a detachment led by Cossack Mikhail Stadukhin near the northern Kuril Island of Alaid. In general, the first Europeans to visit the Kuril Islands were the expedition of the Dutchman Martin Moritz de Vries in 1643, which mapped Iturup and Urup, but these islands were not assigned to Holland. Frieze became so confused during his journey that he mistook Urup for the tip of the North American continent. The strait between Urup and Iturup 1 now bears the name of de Vries.

1697 Siberian Cossack Vladimir Atlasov led an expedition to Kamchatka to conquer local tribes and impose taxes on them. The descriptions of the Kuril Islands he heard from the Kamchadals formed the basis of the earliest Russian map of the Kuril Islands, compiled by Semyon Remezov in 1700. 2

1710 The Yakut administration, guided by the instructions of Peter I “on inspecting the Japanese state and conducting trades with it,” orders the Kamchatka clerks, “to conduct the courts, which are decent, for the overflow of land and people to the sea by all sorts of measures, how to inspect; and if people appear on that land, and those people of the great sovereign under the tsar’s highly autocratic hand will again, as soon as possible, by all means, depending on the local situation, be brought and tribute collected from them with great zeal, and a special plan be made for that land.” 3

1711- A detachment led by ataman Danila Antsiferov and captain Ivan Kozyrevsky will explore the northern Kuril Islands - Shumshu and Kunashir 4. The Ainu who lived on Shumshu tried to resist the Cossacks, but were defeated.

1713 Ivan Kozyrevsky leads the second expedition to the Kuril Islands. At Paramushir, the Ainu gave the Cossacks three battles, but were defeated. For the first time in the history of the Kuril Islands, their residents paid tribute and recognized the power of Russia 5 . After this campaign, Kozyrevsky produced a “Drawing map of the Kamchadal nose and sea islands.” This map for the first time depicts the Kuril Islands from the Kamchatka Cape Lopatka to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. It also includes a description of the islands and the Ainu - the people who inhabited the Kuril Islands. Moreover, in the descriptions attached to the final “drawing”, Kozyrevsky also provided a number of information about Japan. In addition, he found out that the Japanese were forbidden to sail north of the island of Hokkaido. And that “Iturupians and Urupians live autocratically and are not subject to citizenship.” The inhabitants of another large island of the Kuril ridge - Kunashir 6 - were also independent.

1727 Catherine I approves the "Opinion of the Senate" on the Eastern Islands. It pointed out the need to “take possession of the islands lying near Kamchatka, since those lands belong to Russian ownership and are not subject to anyone. The Eastern Sea is warm, not ice-cold... and may in the future lead to commerce with Japan or Chinese Korea "7.

1738-1739- The Kamchatka expedition of Martyn Shpanberg took place, during which the entire ridge of the Kuril Islands was traversed. For the first time in Russian history, contact took place with the Japanese on their territory - at an anchorage near the island of Honshu, sailors purchased food from local residents 8. After this expedition, a map of the Kuril Islands was published, which in 1745 became part of the Atlas of the Russian Empire 9, which was published in Russian, French and Dutch. In the 18th century, when not all territories in globe were examined European countries, the established “international law” (which, however, concerned only European countries) gave preemptive right to own “new lands” if the country had priority in publishing a map of the corresponding territories 10.

1761 The Senate decree of August 24 allows free fishing of sea animals in the Kuril Islands with the return of 10th of the catch to the treasury (PSZ-XV, 11315). During the second half of the 18th century, the Russians developed the Kuril Islands and created settlements on them. They existed on the islands of Shumshu, Paramushir, Simushir, Urup, Iturup, Kunashir 11. Yasak is regularly collected from local residents.

1786 December 22 On December 22, 1786, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire was supposed to officially declare that the lands discovered in the Pacific Ocean belonged to the Russian crown. The reason for the decree was “attacks by English commercial industrialists on the production of trade and animal trade in the Eastern Sea” 12. In pursuance of the decree, a note was drawn up in the highest name about “announcing through Russian ministers at the courts of all European maritime powers that these lands discovered by Russia cannot otherwise be recognized as belonging to your empire.” Among the territories included in the Russian Empire was the “ridge of the Kuril Islands touching Japan, discovered by Captain Shpanberg and Walton” 13 .

In 1836, jurist and historian of international law Henry Wheaton published the classic work “Fundamentals of International Law,” which also addressed issues of ownership of new lands. Viton identified the following conditions for the acquisition by the state of the right to a new territory 14:

1. Discovery
2. First development-first occupation
3. Long-term continuous possession of the territory

As we see, by 1786, Russia had fulfilled all these three conditions in relation to the Kuril Islands. Russia was the first to publish a map of the territory, including in foreign languages, the first to establish its own settlements there and began to collect yasak from local residents, and its possession of the Kuril Islands was not interrupted.

Only Russian actions regarding the Kuril Islands in the 17-18th century were described above. Let's see what Japan has done in this direction.
Today, the northernmost island of Japan is Hokkaido. However, it was not always Japanese. The first Japanese colonists appeared on the southern coast of Hokkaido in the 16th century, but their settlement received administrative registration only in 1604, when the administration of the Principality of Matsumae (in Russia then called Matmai) was established here. The main population of Hokkaido at that time was the Ainu, the island was considered a non-Japanese territory, and the Matsumae domain (which did not occupy all of Hokkaido, but only its southern part) was considered “independent” of the central government. The principality was very small in size - by 1788 its population was only 26.5 thousand people 15. Hokkaido became fully part of Japan only in 1869.
If Russia had more actively developed the Kuril Islands, then Russian settlements could have appeared in Hokkaido itself - it is known from documents that at least in 1778-1779 the Russians collected yasak from the inhabitants of the northern coast of Hokkaido 16 .

To assert their priority in the discovery of the Kuril Islands, Japanese historians point to the “Map of the Shoho Period” dated 1644, which shows the group of Habomai islands, the islands of Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup. However, it is unlikely that this map was compiled by the Japanese as a result of the expedition to Iturup. Indeed, by that time, the successors of the Tokugawa shogun continued his course of isolating the country, and in 1636 a law was passed according to which the Japanese were forbidden to leave the country, as well as to build ships suitable for long voyages. As Japanese scholar Anatoly Koshkin writes, the “Map of the Shoho period” “is not so much a map in the true sense of the word, but a plan-scheme similar to a drawing, most likely made by one of the Japanese without personal acquaintance with the islands, according to the stories of the Ainu” 17 .

At the same time, the first attempts of the Matsumae principality to establish a Japanese trading post on the island of Kunashir, closest to Hokkaido, date back only to 1754, and in 1786, an official of the Japanese government, Tokunai Mogami, examined Iturup and Urup. Anatoly Koshkin notes that “neither the Principality of Matsumae nor the central Japanese government, having no official relations with any of the states, could legally put forward claims to “exercise sovereignty” over these territories. In addition, as evidenced by documents and confessions of Japanese scientists, the bakufu government (the shogun's headquarters) considered the Kuril Islands a "foreign land." Therefore, the above actions of Japanese officials in the southern Kuril Islands can be considered as arbitrariness, carried out in the interests of seizing new possessions. Russia, in the absence of official claims to the Kuril Islands from other states, according to the laws of that time and according to generally accepted practice, included the newly discovered lands into its state, notifying the rest of the world about this.” 18

The colonization of the Kuril Islands was complicated by two factors - the complexity of supplies and the general shortage of people in the Russian Far East. By 1786, the southernmost outpost of the Russians became a small village on the southwestern coast of the island. Iturup, where three Russians and several Ainu settled, having moved from Urup 19. The Japanese could not help but take advantage of this, and began to show increased interest in the Kuril Islands. In 1798, on the southern tip of Iturup Island, the Japanese overturned Russian signposts and erected pillars with the inscription: “Etorofu - the possession of Great Japan.” In 1801, the Japanese landed on Urup and arbitrarily erected a signpost on which they carved an inscription of nine hieroglyphs: “The island has belonged to Great Japan since ancient times.” 20
In January 1799, small Japanese military units were exhibited in fortified camps at two points on Iturup: in the area of ​​​​the modern Gulf of Good Origin (Naibo) and in the area of ​​​​the modern city of Kurilsk (Syana) 21. The Russian colony on Urup languished, and in May 1806, Japanese envoys did not find any Russians on the island - there were only a few Ainu there 22 .

Russia was interested in establishing trade with Japan, and on October 8, 1804, on the ship “Nadezhda” (participating in I.F. Krusenstern’s round-the-world expedition), the Russian ambassador, actual state councilor Nikolai Rezanov arrived in Nagasaki. The Japanese government was playing for time, and Rezanov managed to meet with the secret surveillance inspector K. Toyama only six months later - on March 23, 1805. In an insulting manner, the Japanese refused to trade with Russia. Most likely, this was caused by the fact that the Western Europeans who were in Japan were setting the Japanese government anti-Russian. For his part, Rezanov made a sharp statement: “I, the undersigned of the Most Serene Sovereign Emperor Alexander 1st, actual chamberlain and cavalier Nikolai Rezanov, declare to the Japanese government: ... So that the Japanese Empire does not extend its possessions beyond the northern tip of the island of Matmaya, since all lands and waters to the north belongs to my sovereign" 23

As for the anti-Russian sentiments that were fueled by Western Europeans, the story of Count Moritz-August Beniovsky, who was exiled to Kamchatka for participating in hostilities on the side of the Polish confederates, is very indicative. There, in May 1771, together with the Confederates, he captured the galliot St. Peter and sailed to Japan. There he gave the Dutch several letters, which they in turn translated into Japanese and delivered to the Japanese authorities. One of them later became widely known as the “Beniovsky warning.” Here it is:

“Honorable and noble gentlemen, officers of the glorious Republic of the Netherlands!
The cruel fate that had carried me across the seas for a long time brought me a second time to Japanese waters. I went ashore in the hope that I might perhaps be able to meet your Excellencies here and receive your help. I am truly very upset that I did not have the opportunity to talk with you personally, because I have important information that I wanted to tell you. The high regard I have for your glorious state prompts me to inform you that this year two Russian galliots and one frigate, in fulfillment of secret orders, sailed around the coast of Japan and recorded their observations on the map in preparation for the attack on Matsuma and the adjacent islands, located at 41°38′ north latitude, the offensive planned for next year. For this purpose, on one of the Kuril Islands, located closest to Kamchatka, a fortress was built and shells, artillery and food warehouses were prepared.
If I could talk to you in person, I would tell you more than what can be entrusted to paper. Let your Excellencies take such precautions as you deem necessary, but, as your fellow believer and zealous well-wisher of your glorious state, I would advise, if possible, to have a cruiser ready.
With this I will allow myself to introduce myself and remain, as follows, your humble servant.
Baron Aladar von Bengoro, army commander in captivity.
July 20, 1771, on the island of Usma.
P.S. I left a map of Kamchatka on the shore that may be of use to you.”

There is not a word of truth in this document. “It is puzzling what Beniovsky’s goal was in telling the Dutch such false information,” noted American researcher Donald Keene. - There can be no doubt about their unreliability. Far from any aggressive plans towards Japan, the Russians strained every effort to preserve their Pacific possessions... Beniovsky undoubtedly knew the real state of affairs, but love of truth was never one of his virtues. Perhaps he hoped to curry favor with the Dutch by exposing to them the fictitious Russian conspiracy." 24

However, let's return to Nikolai Rezanov. After unsuccessful negotiations in Japan, Rezanov went on an inspection to the Russian colonies on the northwestern coast of America and the Aleutian Islands.
From the Aleutian island of Unalaska, where one of the offices of the Russian-American Company was located, on July 18, 1805, he wrote letter 25 to Alexander I:

By strengthening American institutions and building courts, we can force the Japanese to open trade, which the people very much want from them. I don’t think that Your Majesty will charge me with a crime, when now having worthy employees, such as Khvostov and Davydov, and with whose help, having built ships, I set off next year to the Japanese shores to destroy their village on Matsmai, drive them out of Sakhalin and smash them along the shores fear, so that, meanwhile, taking away the fisheries and depriving 200,000 people of food, the sooner force them to open a trade with us, to which they will be obliged. Meanwhile, I heard that they had already dared to establish a trading post on Urup. Your will, Most Gracious Sovereign, is with me, punish me as a criminal for not waiting for the command, I get down to business; but my conscience will reproach me even more if I waste time in vain and do not sacrifice Your glory, and especially when I see that I can contribute to the fulfillment of Your Imperial Majesty’s great intentions.

So, Rezanov, in the interests of the state, under his own responsibility, made an important decision - to organize a military operation against Japan. He assigned its leadership to Lieutenant Nikolai Khvostov and Midshipman Gavriil Davydov, who were in the service of the Russian-American Company. For this purpose, the frigate “Juno” and the tender “Avos” were transferred under their command. The officers' task was to sail to Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands and find out whether the Japanese, having penetrated these islands, were really oppressing the Kuriles brought into Russian citizenship. If this information was confirmed, the officers were to “drive away” the Japanese. That is, it was about protecting the territories belonging to the Russian Empire from the illegal actions of the Japanese.

In Southern Sakhalin, which Khvostov and Davydov visited twice, they liquidated a Japanese settlement, burned two small ships and captured several merchants from Matsumae. In addition, Khvostov issued a letter to the local Ainu elder, accepting the inhabitants of Sakhalin as Russian citizenship and under the protection of the Russian emperor. At the same time, Khvostov hoisted two Russian flags (RAK and state) on the shore of the bay and landed several sailors who founded a settlement that existed until 1847. In 1807, a Russian expedition liquidated the Japanese military settlement on Iturup. The Japanese captured were also released there, with the exception of two who were left as translators 26 .
Through the released prisoners, Khvostov conveyed his demands to the Japanese authorities 27:

“Russia’s neighborhood with Japan made us desire friendly ties for the true well-being of this last empire, for which the embassy was sent to Nagasaki; but the refusal to do so, which was insulting to Russia, and the spread of Japanese trade across the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, as possessions of the Russian Empire, finally forced this power to take other measures, which will show that the Russians can always harm Japanese trade until they are notified through the inhabitants of Urup or Sakhalin about the desire to trade with us. The Russians, having now caused such little harm to the Japanese empire, wanted to show them only by the fact that the northern countries of it could always be harmed by them, and that further stubbornness of the Japanese government could completely deprive it of these lands.”

It is characteristic that the Dutch, having translated Khvostov's ultimatum to the Japanese, added on their own that the Russians were threatening to conquer Japan and send priests to convert the Japanese to Christianity 28 .

Rezanov, who gave the order to Khvostov and Davydov, died in 1807, so he could not protect them from punishment for military actions that were not coordinated with the central government. In 1808, the Admiralty Board found Khvostov and Davydov guilty of unauthorized violation of government instructions on the purely peaceful development of relations with Japan and atrocities against the Japanese. As punishment, awards to officers for their bravery and courage shown in the war with Sweden were revoked. It is worth noting that the punishment is very mild. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the Russian government understood the correctness of the actions of the officers who actually expelled the invaders from Russian territory, but could not help but punish them due to violation of instructions.
In 1811, captain Vasily Golovnin, who landed on Kunashir to replenish water and food supplies, was captured by the Japanese along with a group of sailors. Golovnin was on a circumnavigation of the world, which he set off on in 1807 from Kronstadt, and the purpose of the expedition, as he wrote in his memoirs, was “the discovery and inventory of little-known lands of the eastern edge of the Russian Empire.” 29 He was accused by the Japanese of violating the principles of self-isolation of the country and together with his comrades spent more than two years in captivity.
The shogun's government also intended to use the incident with the capture of Golovnin to force the Russian authorities to make an official apology for the raids of Khvostov and Davydov on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Instead of an apology, the Irkutsk governor sent an explanation to the shogun's governor on Ezo Island that these officers had taken their actions without the consent of the Russian government. This turned out to be enough to free Golovnin and other prisoners.
The monopoly right to develop the Kuril Islands belonged to the Russian-American Company (RAC), created in 1799. Its main efforts were aimed at the colonization of Alaska, as a region much richer than the Kuril Islands. As a result, by the 1820s, the actual border on the Kuril Islands was established along the southern tip of the island of Urup, on which there was a settlement of RAK 30.
This fact is confirmed by the decree of Alexander I of September 1, 1821 “On the limits of navigation and the order of coastal relations along the coast Eastern Siberia, Northwestern America and the Aleutian, Kuril Islands, etc.” The first two paragraphs of this decree state (PSZ-XXVII, N28747):

1. Carrying out trade in whaling and fishing and all kinds of industry on the islands, in ports and bays and in general along the entire North-West Coast of America, starting from the Bering Strait to 51" North latitude, also along the Aleutian Islands and along the Eastern coast of Siberia; since along the Kuril Islands, that is, starting from the same Bering Strait to the Southern Cape of the island of Urupa, and precisely up to 45" 50" North latitude is granted for the use of the only Russian subjects.

2. Therefore, it is forbidden for any Foreign vessel not only to land on the shores and islands subject to Russia, indicated in the previous article; but also to approach them at a distance of less than a hundred Italian miles. Anyone who violates this prohibition will be subject to confiscation of all cargo.

Nevertheless, as noted by A.Yu. Plotnikov, Russia could also lay claim to, at a minimum, the island of Iturup, because Japanese settlements were only in the southern and central parts of the island, and the northern part remained uninhabited 31.

Russia made the next attempt to establish trade with Japan in 1853. On July 25, 1853, Russian ambassador Evfimy Putyatin arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun. As in the case with Rezanov, negotiations began only six months later - on January 3, 1854 (the Japanese wanted to get rid of Putyatin by starving him out). The issue of trade with Japan was important for Russia, because Russian population Far East was growing, and it was much cheaper to supply it from Japan than from Siberia. Naturally, during the negotiations Putyatin also had to resolve the issue of territorial demarcation. On February 24, 1853, he received “Additional instructions” from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Here is an excerpt from it 32:

On this subject of boundaries, our desire is to be as lenient as possible (without sacrificing our interests), bearing in mind that the achievement of another goal - the benefits of trade - is of essential importance to us.

Of the Kuril Islands, the southernmost, which belongs to Russia, is the island of Urup, which we could limit ourselves to, designating it as the last point of Russian possessions to the south - so that on our side the southern tip of this island would be (as it is now in essence) the border with Japan, and so that on the Japanese side the northern tip of Iturupa Island is considered the border.

At the start of negotiations on clarification of the border possessions of ours and the Japanese, it seems important question about the island of Sakhalin.

This island is of particular importance to us because it lies opposite the very mouth of the Amur. The power that will own this island will own the key to the Amur. The Japanese Government, without a doubt, will firmly stand for its rights, if not to the entire island, which will be difficult for it to support with sufficient arguments, then at least to the southern part of the island: in Aniva Bay the Japanese have fishing, delivering food to many inhabitants of their other islands, and for this circumstance alone they cannot but value this item.

If their Government, during negotiations with you, shows compliance with our other demands - demands regarding trade - then it will be possible to provide you with concessions on the subject of the southern tip of the island of Sakhalin, but this compliance should be limited to this, i.e. In no case can we recognize their rights to other parts of Sakhalin Island.

When explaining all this, it will be useful for you to point out to the Japanese Government that given the situation in which this island is located, given the impossibility of the Japanese to maintain their rights to it - rights that are not recognized by anyone - the said island can become in a very short time the prey of some strong maritime power, whose neighborhood is unlikely to be as beneficial and safe for the Japanese as the neighborhood of Russia, whose selflessness they have experienced for centuries.

In general, it is desirable that you arrange this issue of Sakhalin in accordance with the existing benefits of Russia. If you encounter insurmountable obstacles on the part of the Japanese Government to the recognition of our rights to Sakhalin, then it is better in this case to leave the matter in its current position ( those. undelimited - statehistory).

In general, while giving you these additional instructions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not at all prescribe them for indispensable execution, knowing full well that at such a far distance nothing unconditional and indispensable can be prescribed.

Your Excellency therefore remains absolute freedom actions.

So, we see that this document recognizes that the actual border between Russia and Japan runs along the southern tip of Urup. Putyatin’s main task becomes, at a minimum, to reject Japan’s claims to all of Sakhalin, and, at a maximum, to force the Japanese to recognize it as completely Russian, because This island is of strategic importance.
Putyatin, however, decided to go further and in his message to the Supreme Council of Japan dated November 18, 1853, he proposed drawing a border between Iturup and Kunashir. As A. Koshkin notes, the Japanese government, at that moment experiencing pressure from the United States and Western European countries that wanted to open Japan to trade, was afraid that Russia might join them, and therefore did not exclude the possibility of demarcation, according to which all the islands, including the most southern - Kunashir, were recognized as Russian. In 1854, Japan compiled a “Map of the Most Important Maritime Borders of Great Japan,” on which its northern border was drawn along the northern coast of Hokkaido. Those. under favorable circumstances, Putyatin could return Iturup and Kunashir to Russia 33.

However, the negotiations reached a dead end, and in January 1854 Putyatin decided to interrupt them and return to Russia to find out about the progress Crimean War. This was important because... The Anglo-French squadron also operated off the Pacific coast of Russia.
On March 31, 1854, Japan signed a trade treaty with the United States. Putyatin again went to Japan to achieve for Russia the establishment of relations with Japan at a level no lower than with the United States.
Negotiations again dragged on, and on December 11, 1854 they were complicated by the fact that as a result of the tsunami, the frigate “Diana”, on which Putyatin arrived (during his second arrival in Japan, he specially sailed on only one ship, so that the Japanese would not get the impression that Russia wants to demonstrate strength), crashed, the team found itself ashore and the Russian ambassador found himself completely dependent on the Japanese. The negotiations took place in the city of Shimoda.

As a result of the intransigence of the Japanese on the issue of Sakhalin, Putyatin made the maximum compromise in order to sign an agreement with Japan. On February 7, 1855, the Shimoda Treaty was signed, according to which Sakhalin was recognized as undivided, and Russia recognized Japan's rights to Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup. Thus, the situation with the Southern Kuril Islands, which had existed de facto for many years, was officially recognized. However, because legally, these 4 islands were part of the Russian Empire, which was officially announced back in 1786; many historians now reproach the Russian ambassador for the fact that the Southern Kuril Islands were given to Japan without any compensation and that he should have defended at least to the end the largest of them is the island of Iturup 34. According to the agreement, three Japanese ports were opened for trade with Russia - Nagasaki, Shimoda and Hakodate. In strict accordance with the Japanese-American treaty, the Russians in these ports received the right of extraterritoriality, i.e. they could not be tried in Japan.
To justify Putyatin, it is worth noting that the negotiations were conducted at a time when there was no telegraph connection between Japan and St. Petersburg, and he could not promptly consult with the government. And the route either by sea or by land from Japan to St. Petersburg took only a little in one direction less than a year. In such conditions, Putyatin had to take full responsibility upon himself. From the moment of his arrival in Japan until the signing of the Shimoda Treaty, negotiations lasted 1.5 years, so it is clear that Putyatin really did not want to leave with nothing. And since the instructions he received gave him the opportunity to make concessions on the Southern Kuril Islands, he made them, having first tried to bargain for Iturup.

The problem of using Sakhalin, caused by the absence of a Russian-Japanese border on it, required a solution. On March 18, 1867, the “Temporary Agreement on Sakhalin Island” was signed, drawn up on the basis of the “Proposals for a temporary agreement on cohabitation” of the Russian side. According to this agreement, both parties could move freely throughout the island and erect buildings on it. This was a step forward, because... Previously, although the island was considered undivided, the Russians did not use the southern part of Sakhalin, which the Japanese considered theirs. After this agreement, by order of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia M. Korsakov, the Muravyovsky military post was founded in the vicinity of Busse Bay, which turned into the center of the Russian development of Southern Sakhalin. This was the southernmost post on Sakhalin, and it was located significantly south of the Japanese posts 35.
The Japanese at that time did not have the opportunity to actively develop Sakhalin, so this agreement was more beneficial for Russia than for Japan.

Russia sought to solve the problem of Sakhalin completely and completely obtain it into its own possession. For this, the tsarist government was ready to cede part of the Kuril Islands.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs authorized the military governor A.E. Crown and E.K. Byutsov, appointed Russian charge d'affaires in China, to continue negotiations on Sakhalin. Instructions were prepared for them. Byutsov was instructed to convince the Japanese Foreign Ministry to send its representatives to Nikolaevsk or Vladivostok to finally resolve the issue of Sakhalin on the basis of establishing a border along the La Perouse Strait, exchanging Sakhalin for Urup with adjacent islands and preserving Japanese fishing rights.
Negotiations began in July 1872. The Japanese government stated that the concession of Sakhalin would be perceived by the Japanese people and foreign countries as the weakness of Japan and Urup with the adjacent islands would be insufficient compensation 35 .
Negotiations that began in Japan were difficult and intermittent. They resumed in the summer of 1874 already in St. Petersburg, when one of the most educated people of then Japan, Enomoto Takeaki, arrived in the Russian capital with the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

On March 4, 1875, Enomoto first spoke about abandoning Sakhalin for compensation in the form of all the Kuril Islands - from Japan to Kamchatka 36. At this time, the situation in the Balkans was deteriorating, the war with Turkey (which, as during the Crimean War, could again be supported by England and France) was becoming more and more real, and Russia was interested in solving Far Eastern problems as soon as possible, incl. Sakhalin

Unfortunately, the Russian government did not show sufficient persistence and did not appreciate the strategic importance of the Kuril Islands, which closed the exit to the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of ​​​​Okhotsk, and agreed to the demands of the Japanese. On April 25 (May 7), 1875, in St. Petersburg, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov from Russia and Enomoto Takeaki from Japan signed an agreement under which Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin in exchange for Russia’s cession of all the Kuril Islands. Also, under this agreement, Russia allowed Japanese ships to visit the port of Korsakov on South Sakhalin, where the Japanese consulate was established, without paying trade and customs duties for 10 years. Japanese ships, merchants and fishing merchants were given most favored nation treatment in the ports and waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Kamchatka 36 .

This agreement is often called an exchange agreement, but in fact we are not talking about an exchange of territories, because Japan did not have a strong presence on Sakhalin and real possibilities to keep him - the renunciation of rights to Sakhalin became a mere formality. In fact, we can say that the treaty of 1875 recorded the surrender of the Kuril Islands without any real compensation.

The next point in the history of the Kuril issue is the Russian-Japanese War. Russia lost this war and, according to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905, ceded to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin along the 50th parallel.

This agreement has the important legal significance that it actually terminated the agreement of 1875. After all, the meaning of the “exchange” agreement was that Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin in exchange for the Kuril Islands. At the same time, on the initiative of the Japanese side, a condition was included in the protocols of the Portsmouth Treaty that all previous Russian-Japanese agreements would be annulled. Thus, Japan deprived itself of the legal right to own the Kuril Islands.

The Treaty of 1875, which is regularly referred to by the Japanese side in disputes about the ownership of the Kuril Islands, after 1905 became simply a historical monument, and not a document with legal force. It would not be amiss to recall that by attacking Russia, Japan also violated paragraph 1 of the Shimoda Treaty of 1855 - “From now on, let there be permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan.”

The next key point is World War II. On April 13, 1941, the USSR signed a neutrality pact with Japan. It was concluded for 5 years from the date of ratification: from April 25, 1941 to April 25, 1946. According to this pact, it could be denounced a year before expiration.
The United States was interested in the USSR entering the war with Japan in order to speed up its defeat. Stalin, as a condition, put forward the demand that after the victory over Japan the Kuril Islands and Southern Sakhalin would go to Soviet Union. Not everyone in the American leadership agreed with these demands, but Roosevelt agreed. The reason, apparently, was his sincere concern that after the end of World War II, the USSR and the USA would maintain a good relationship achieved during military cooperation.
The transfer of the Kuril Islands and Southern Sakhalin was recorded in the Yalta Agreement of the three great powers on issues of the Far East on February 11, 1945. 37 It is worth noting that paragraph 3 of the agreement reads as follows:

The leaders of the three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - agreed that two to three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allies, subject to:
…
3. Transfer of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union.

Those. We are talking about the transfer of all the Kuril Islands without exception, incl. Kunashir and Iturup, which were ceded to Japan under the Treaty of Shimoda in 1855.

On April 5, 1945, the USSR denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact, and on August 8 declared war on Japan.

On September 2, the act of surrender of Japan was signed. Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands went to the USSR. However, after the act of surrender, a peace treaty had yet to be concluded in which new borders would be fixed.
Franklin Roosevelt, who was friendly towards the USSR, died on April 12, 1945, and was succeeded by the anti-Soviet Truman. On October 26, 1950, American ideas on concluding a peace treaty with Japan were conveyed to the Soviet representative at the UN as a means of familiarization. In addition to such unpleasant details for the USSR as the retention of American troops on Japanese territory for an indefinite period, they revised the Yalta agreement, according to which Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were transferred to the USSR 38 .
In fact, the United States decided to remove the USSR from the process of agreeing on a peace treaty with Japan. In September 1951, a conference was to be held in San Francisco, at which a peace treaty between Japan and the allies was to be signed, but the United States did everything to make the USSR find it impossible for itself to participate in the conference (in particular, they did not receive an invitation to the conference China, North Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam, which the USSR insisted on and what was fundamental for it) - then a separate peace treaty would have been concluded with Japan in its American formulation without taking into account the interests of the Soviet Union.

However, these American calculations did not come true. The USSR decided to use the San Francisco conference to expose the separate nature of the treaty.
Among the amendments to the draft peace treaty proposed by the Soviet delegation were the following 39:

Paragraph “c” should be stated as follows:
“Japan recognizes the full sovereignty of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics over the southern part of Sakhalin Island with all the adjacent islands and the Kuril Islands and renounces all rights, title and claims to these territories.”
According to Article 3.
Revise the article as follows:
“The sovereignty of Japan will extend to the territory consisting of the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, as well as Ryukyu, Bonin, Rosario, Volcano, Pares Vela, Marcus, Tsushima and other islands that were part of Japan before December 7, 1941, with the exception of those territories and islands specified in Art. 2".

These amendments were rejected, but the United States could not ignore the Yalta agreements at all. The text of the treaty included a provision that “Japan renounces all rights, title and claims to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin Island and the adjacent islands over which Japan acquired sovereignty under the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905.” 40. From a layman's point of view, it may seem that this is the same as the Soviet amendments. From a legal point of view, the situation is different - Japan renounces its claims to the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, but at the same time does not recognize the sovereignty of the USSR over these territories. With this wording, the agreement was signed on September 8, 1951 between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan. Representatives of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Poland who participated in the conference refused to sign it.

Modern Japanese historians and politicians differ in their assessments of Japan's renunciation of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands contained in the text of the peace treaty. Some demand the abolition of this clause of the agreement and the return of all the Kuril Islands up to Kamchatka. Others are trying to prove that the South Kuril Islands (Kunashir, Iturup, Habomai and Shikotan) are not included in the concept of the “Kuril Islands”, which Japan abandoned in the San Francisco Treaty. The latter circumstance is refuted both by established cartographic practice, when the entire group of islands - from Kunashir to Shumshu on maps is called the Kuril Islands, and by the texts of Russian-Japanese negotiations on this issue. Here, for example, is an excerpt from Putyatin’s negotiations with Japanese commissioners in January 1854. 41

« Putyatin: The Kuril Islands have belonged to us since ancient times and Russian leaders are now on them. The Russian-American company annually sends ships to Urup to buy furs, etc., and on Iturup the Russians had their settlement even before, but since it is now occupied by the Japanese, we have to talk about this.

Japanese side: We thought all Kuril Islands have long belonged to Japan, but since most of of them passed one after another to you, then there is nothing to say about these islands. Iturup but it was always considered ours and we considered it a settled matter, as well as the island of Sakhalin or Crafto, although we do not know how far the latter extends to the north...”

From this dialogue it is clear that in 1854 the Japanese did not divide the Kuril Islands into “Northern” and “Southern” - and recognized Russia’s right to most of the islands of the archipelago, with the exception of some of them, in particular, Iturup. Fun fact - the Japanese claimed that all of Sakhalin belonged to them, but at the same time they did not have it geographical map. By the way, using a similar argument, Russia could lay claim to Hokkaido on the grounds that in 1811 V.M. Golovnin in his “Notes on the Kuril Islands” ranked Fr. Matsmai, i.e. Hokkaido, to the Kuril Islands. Moreover, as noted above, at least in 1778-1779, the Russians collected yasak from the residents of the northern coast of Hokkaido.

Unsettled relations with Japan prevented the establishment of trade, resolving issues in the field of fisheries, and also contributed to the involvement of this country in the anti-Soviet policy of the United States. At the beginning of 1955, the USSR representative in Japan approached Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu with a proposal to begin negotiations on the normalization of Soviet-Japanese relations. On June 3, 1955, Soviet-Japanese negotiations began in the building of the Soviet embassy in London. The Japanese delegation, as a condition for concluding a peace treaty, put forward obviously unacceptable demands - for “the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, the Chishima archipelago (Kuril Islands) and the southern part of Karafuto Island (Sakhalin).”

In fact, the Japanese understood the impossibility of these conditions. The secret instruction of the Japanese Foreign Ministry provided for three stages in putting forward territorial demands: “First, demand the transfer of all the Kuril Islands to Japan with the expectation of further discussion; then, retreating somewhat, seek the cession of the southern Kuril Islands to Japan according to “ historical reasons", and finally, insist on the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, at a minimum, making this demand an indispensable condition for the successful completion of negotiations."
The Japanese Prime Minister himself has repeatedly said that the ultimate goal of diplomatic bargaining was Habomai and Shikotan. Thus, during a conversation with a Soviet representative in January 1955, Hatoyama stated that “Japan will insist during negotiations on the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to it.” There was no talk about any other territories 42.

This “soft” position of Japan did not suit the United States. Thus, it was for this reason that in March 1955 the American government refused to receive the Japanese Foreign Minister in Washington.

Khrushchev was ready to make concessions. On August 9 in London, during an informal conversation, the head of the Soviet delegation A.Ya. Malik (during the war he was the USSR Ambassador to Japan, and then, with the rank of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the representative of the Soviet Union to the UN) suggested that a Japanese diplomat of the rank after Shun'ichi Matsumoto transfer the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, but only after signing a peace treaty.
This is the assessment of this initiative given by one of the members of the Soviet delegation at the London negotiations, later Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences S. L. Tikhvinsky 43:

"I. A. Malik, acutely experiencing Khrushchev’s dissatisfaction with the slow progress of the negotiations and without consulting with the other members of the delegation, prematurely expressed in this conversation with Matsumoto the reserve that the delegation had from the very beginning of the negotiations, approved by the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee (i.e., N.S. Khrushchev himself) position without fully exhausting the defense of the main position in the negotiations. His statement first caused bewilderment, and then joy and further exorbitant demands on the part of the Japanese delegation... N. S. Khrushchev’s decision to renounce sovereignty over part of the Kuril Islands in favor of Japan was a rash, voluntaristic act... The cession to Japan of a part of Soviet territory, which was claimed without permission Khrushchev went to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Soviet people, destroyed the international legal basis of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements and contradicted the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which recorded Japan’s renunciation of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands...”

As this quote makes clear, the Japanese perceived Malik's initiative as weakness and put forward other territorial demands. Negotiations stopped. This suited the USA too. In October 1955, J. Dulles warned in a note to the Japanese government that expanding economic ties and normalizing relations with the USSR “could become an obstacle to the implementation of the Japanese assistance program being developed by the US government.”

Inside Japan, fishermen who needed to obtain licenses to fish in the Kuril Islands were primarily interested in concluding a peace treaty. This process was greatly hampered by the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which, in turn, was due to the absence of a peace treaty. Negotiations resumed. The United States exerted serious pressure on the Japanese government. Thus, on September 7, 1956, the State Department sent a memorandum to the Japanese government in which it stated that the United States would not recognize any decision confirming the sovereignty of the USSR over the territories that Japan had renounced under the peace treaty.

As a result of difficult negotiations, the Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan was signed on October 19. It proclaimed the end of the state of war between the USSR and Japan and the restoration of diplomatic relations. Paragraph 9 of the declaration read 44:

9. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan agreed to continue negotiations on a peace treaty after the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan.
At the same time, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer to Japan of the islands of Habomai and the island of Shikotan with the fact that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan .

However, as we know, the signing of a peace treaty never took place. Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama Ichiro, who signed the Declaration, resigned, and the new cabinet was headed by Kishi Nobusuke, an openly pro-American politician. The Americans, back in August 1956, through the mouth of Secretary of State Allen Dulles, openly proclaimed that if the Japanese government recognizes the Kuril Islands as Soviet, then the United States will forever retain the island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu Archipelago, which were then under American control 45 .

On January 19, 1960, Japan signed the Treaty on Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan with the United States, according to which the Japanese authorities allowed the Americans to use military bases on their territory for the next 10 years and maintain ground, air and naval forces there. . On January 27, 1960, the USSR government announced that since this agreement was directed against the USSR and the PRC, the Soviet government refused to consider the issue of transferring the islands to Japan, since this would lead to an expansion of the territory used by American troops.

Now Japan claims not only Shikotan and Habomai, but also Iturup and Kunashir, citing the bilateral Treaty on Trade and Boundaries of 1855 - therefore, signing a peace treaty based on the 1956 declaration is impossible. However, if Japan renounced its claim to Iturup and Kunashir and signed a peace treaty, would Russia have to comply with the terms of the Declaration and give up Shikotan and Habomai? Let's consider this issue in more detail.

On April 13, 1976, the United States unilaterally adopted the Fish Conservation and Fisheries Management Act, according to which, from March 1, 1977, it moved the border of its fishing zone from 12 to 200 nautical miles from the coast, establishing strict rules for foreign access to it. fishermen Following the United States in 1976, by adopting the relevant laws, Great Britain, France, Norway, Canada, Australia and a number of other countries, including developing ones, unilaterally established 200-mile fishing or economic zones.
In the same year, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of December 10 “On temporary measures for the conservation of living resources and regulation of fisheries in marine areas adjacent to the coast of the USSR,” the Soviet Union also established sovereign rights over fish and other biological resources in its 200-mile coastal zone 46 .
New realities were recorded in the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The concept of an “exclusive economic zone” was introduced, the width of which should not exceed 200 nautical miles. Article 55 of the convention provides that a coastal state in an exclusive economic zone has “sovereign rights for the purposes of exploration, development and conservation natural resources both living and non-living, in the waters covering the seabed, on seabed and in its subsoil, as well as for the purpose of managing these resources, and in relation to other activities for economic exploration and development of the said zone, such as the production of energy through the use of water, currents and wind." Moreover, in this zone it exercises jurisdiction over “the creation and use of artificial islands, installations and structures; marine scientific research; protection and preservation marine environment» 47.

Earlier, in 1969, the Vienna Convention on the Law of international treaties.
Article 62 “Fundamental Change of Circumstances” of this convention states (emphasis added in bold) 48:

1. A fundamental change that occurred in relation to the circumstances that existed at the conclusion of the contract, and which was not foreseen by the parties, cannot be invoked as a basis for termination of the contract or withdrawal from it, except when:
a) the presence of such circumstances constituted an essential basis for the consent of the participants to be bound by the contract; And
b) the consequence of a change in circumstances fundamentally changes the scope of obligations, still subject to performance under the contract.
2. A fundamental change in circumstances cannot be cited as a basis for termination or withdrawal from a contract:
A) if the treaty establishes a boundary; or
b) if such a fundamental change referred to by a party to the contract is the result of a violation by this party of either an obligation under the contract or another international obligation, taken by him in relation to any other party to the agreement.
3. If, in accordance with the previous paragraphs, the participants have the right to refer to a fundamental change in circumstances as a basis for terminating the contract or withdrawing from it, then he has the right to also refer to this change as a basis for suspending the validity of the contract.

The introduction of a 200-mile economic zone is a circumstance that radically changes the scope of the obligations. It is one thing to transfer islands when there was no talk of any 200-mile exclusive zone, and it is a completely different matter when this zone appeared. However, can it be considered that the 1956 declaration falls under paragraph 2a, i.e. to establish a border? The declaration deals with sovereignty over land territories, while between maritime states the border runs along the sea. After the transfer of the islands to Japan, an additional agreement would be required to determine the maritime boundary.
Thus, it can be argued that the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was signed by both the USSR and Japan, is a fundamental change falling under paragraph 1b of Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Those. Russia is not obliged to fulfill the condition of the 1956 Declaration on the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan if Japan suddenly agreed to sign a peace treaty.

On November 14, 2004, the then Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a statement on the NTV channel that Russia recognizes the 1956 Declaration “as existing.”
The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is always ready to fulfill its obligations, especially with regard to ratified documents. But these obligations will be fulfilled “only to the extent that our partners are ready to fulfill the same agreements.”
On May 24, 2005, deputies of the Sakhalin Regional Duma published an open appeal to Sergei Lavrov before his trip to Japan, where they indicated that the 1956 Declaration was no longer binding:

“However, in 1956 there were no internationally recognized 200-mile economic zones, the starting point of which is in this case coast of the Kuril Islands. Thus, now, in the case of the transfer of territories, the object of transfer is not only and not so much the islands, but the adjacent economic zones inseparable from them, which provide up to 1 billion US dollars per year in smuggled seafood alone. Isn’t the emergence of maritime economic zones in the world after 1956 a significant change in the situation?”

To summarize, let us briefly note the main points.

1. The Treaty of Portsmouth 1905 annuls the Treaty of 1875, so references to it as a legal document are not valid. The reference to the Shimoda Treaty of 1855 is irrelevant, because Japan violated this treaty by attacking Russia in 1904.
2. The transfer of Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union was recorded in the Yalta Agreement of February 11, 1945. The return of these territories can be considered both as a restoration of historical justice and as a legitimate war trophy. This is a completely normal practice, with a huge number of examples in history.
3. Japan may not recognize Russia’s sovereignty over these territories, but it also does not have legal rights to them - its renunciation of claims to South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is recorded in the peace treaty signed in San Francisco in 1951.
4. The Japanese indications that Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup are not part of the Kuril Islands (and, therefore, do not fall under the 1951 treaty) do not correspond to either geographical science or the history of previous Russian-Japanese negotiations.
5. After the signing of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and its legalization in international law With a 200-mile exclusive zone, adherence to the 1956 Declaration becomes optional for Russia. Its possible implementation today, as stated by Putin and Lavrov, is not an obligation, but a gesture of goodwill.
6. The Southern Kuril Islands are of great strategic and economic importance, so there can be no question that these are just pieces of land that are not to be pitied.
7. The Kuril Islands - from Alaid to Kunashir and Habomai - Russian land.

* Anatoly Koshkin. Russia and Japan. Knots of contradictions. M.: Veche, 2010. P. 405-406.

In 2012, visa-free exchange between the Southern Kuril Islands and Japanwill begin on April 24.

On February 2, 1946, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuril Islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai were included in the USSR.

On September 8, 1951, at an international conference in San Francisco, a peace treaty was concluded between Japan and the 48 countries participating in the anti-fascist coalition, according to which Japan renounced all rights, legal grounds and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The Soviet delegation did not sign this treaty, citing the fact that it viewed it as a separate agreement between the governments of the United States and Japan. From point of view contract law the question of ownership of the Southern Kuril Islands remained uncertain. The Kuril Islands ceased to be Japanese, but did not become Soviet. Taking advantage of this circumstance, Japan in 1955 presented the USSR with claims to all of the Kuril Islands and the southern part of Sakhalin. As a result of two years of negotiations between the USSR and Japan, the positions of the parties came closer: Japan limited its claims to the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup.

On October 19, 1956, a Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan was signed in Moscow on ending the state of war between the two states and restoring diplomatic and consular relations. In it, in particular, the Soviet government agreed to the transfer to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan.

After the conclusion of the Japan-US Security Treaty in 1960, the USSR abrogated the obligations assumed by the 1956 declaration. During the times" cold war"Moscow did not recognize the existence of a territorial problem between the two countries. The presence of this problem was first recorded in the 1991 Joint Statement, signed following the visit of the USSR President to Tokyo.

In 1993, in Tokyo, the President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Japan signed the Tokyo Declaration on Russian-Japanese relations, which recorded the agreement of the parties to continue negotiations with the aim of speedily concluding a peace treaty by resolving the issue of ownership of the islands mentioned above.

IN last years In order to create an atmosphere during the negotiations that is conducive to the search for mutually acceptable solutions, the parties pay great attention to establishing practical Russian-Japanese interaction and cooperation in the island area.

In 1992, on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement between residents of the Russian Southern Kuril Islands and Japan. Travel is carried out using a national passport with a special insert, without visas.

In September 1999, the implementation of an agreement began on the most simplified procedure for visits to the islands by their former residents from among Japanese citizens and members of their families.

Cooperation in the fisheries sector is being carried out on the basis of the current Russian-Japanese Fisheries Agreement in the Southern Kuril Islands of February 21, 1998.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated his desire to “create a new history” of relations with Russia. Have we made a new friend? Hardly. The history of Japan's territorial claims against the Russian Federation is well known to everyone. But right now, sanctions and the confrontation between Russia and the West give Tokyo an illusory chance to return the Kuril Islands.

Now the Japanese are looking forward to Vladimir Putin's visit, hoping that he will bring the signing of a peace treaty closer. This puts the Russian leader in difficult situation: The country needs allies, but such a deal could once and for all destroy his image as a collector of Russian lands. Therefore, it is absolutely obvious: the islands cannot be returned before the presidential elections. And then?

What exactly Vladimir Putin and Shinzo Abe talked about during an informal meeting in Sochi on May 6 is not known for certain. However, before the visit, the Japanese prime minister did not hide his intention to discuss the territorial issue. And now a return visit of the Russian President is planned soon.

In early April, the Japanese Foreign Ministry developed the so-called “Blue Book” on diplomacy for 2016. It states that strengthening relations with Russia corresponds to national interests and promotes peace and prosperity in the Asian region. Thus, Japan officially declared a course towards rapprochement with Russia.

This has already caused concern in the United States. It is not without reason that back in February, during a telephone conversation, Barack Obama advised Prime Minister Abe to reconsider the timing of his visit to Russia and expressed concern about the softening of Japan’s position towards Moscow, while Western countries introduced anti-Russian sanctions “in an attempt to restore international order.”

An attraction of unprecedented generosity

Why did Tokyo suddenly decide to extend a hand of friendship to Moscow? The editor of the magazine “Russia in Global Affairs” Fyodor Lukyanov believes that “the Chinese factor dominates in relations between Japan and Russia; "Both countries are trying to balance the rise of China as the most important power in the region, and this is leading to a thaw." By the way, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper recently wrote about this: “It is important for the heads of Russia and Japan to meet more often and build trusting relationships also in order to stabilize the situation in Northeast Asia, a region where China is gaining influence and challenges continue.” from the DPRK, which conducts missile and nuclear tests.”

An important milestone in cooperation can be called the construction by Japan on the Pacific coast of Russia of a terminal for receiving liquefied natural gas. According to Gazprom’s plans, the enterprise with a capacity of 15 million tons will be launched in 2018.

Everything would be fine, except that relations between the two countries are overshadowed by an unresolved territorial dispute. After the end of World War II, the USSR annexed four islands of the Kuril chain - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. In addition to fish, the islands are valuable for the minerals found in their depths: gold and silver, polymetallic ores containing zinc, copper, vanadium, etc. It is not surprising that the Japanese consider them theirs and demand their return.

Back in December, the Japanese Prime Minister lamented: “70 years have passed since the end of the war, but, unfortunately, the northern territories have not been returned, the problem has not been solved. We would like to continue to conduct persistent negotiations on the return of the northern territories and the conclusion of a peace treaty. We will deal with this issue with all the forces of the government so that the secret dream of the former residents of the islands comes true.”

Moscow’s position is this: the islands became part of the USSR following the Second World War, and Russian sovereignty cannot be doubted. But is this position so irreconcilable?

In 2012, Vladimir Putin made an encouraging statement for the Japanese: the dispute should be resolved on the basis of compromise. “Something like hikiwake. “Hikiwake is a term from judo when neither side managed to achieve victory,” the president said. What does it mean? Can two of the four islands be returned to Japan?

Such fears are justified. It is enough to recall how in 2010, during the presidency of Dmitry Medvedev, Russia signed an agreement with Norway on the delimitation of maritime spaces in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean. As a result, the country lost 90 thousand square kilometers in the Arctic. In the depths of this territory, according to estimates by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD), there are hydrocarbon deposits with a volume of at least 300 million cubic meters - almost 1.9 billion barrels of oil. Then the Norwegians rejoiced, and other countries, including Japan, immediately remembered their territorial claims to Russia. Is there a guarantee that this attraction of unprecedented generosity will not continue?

Wait for the next leader

One way or another, the Japanese media are now full of optimism. “Prime Minister Abe seeks to resolve the problem of the “northern territories” while he is in power. For him, this is a chance to become the political leader of Japan, who will be able to move the needle on a problem that has existed for 70 years,” writes Asahi Shimbun.

Abe, by the way, has his own interests in this: parliamentary elections will be held in the country this year, and he needs to strengthen his position. Meanwhile, Toyo Keizai publishes an interview with retired diplomat Yoshiki Mine, who states: “Russia has already announced its readiness to return Habomai and Shikotan. At the same time, she put forward certain conditions on which we can agree. Russia's goals are very clear. The problem is what to do with the islands." Mr. Mine believes that Japan should not waste time on trifles, but demand from Russia all the territories that once belonged to Japan, including Sakhalin. But not now, but after the change of leader in Russia. “I think it’s better to wait for a politically strong leader who will be committed to solving this problem,” says a Japanese diplomat. But Russian political experience speaks of something else: it is weak leaders who distribute land left and right, but strong ones never.

Meanwhile, Moscow has not yet shown any signs that could indicate the transfer of the islands to the Japanese flag. Recently it became known that the Russian government intends to invest 5.5 billion rubles in the new priority development territory “Kuril Islands”. The program involves the development of fisheries and mining complexes. In the period from 2016 to 2018, aquaculture enterprises and a processing plant will be located in the Kuril Islands aquatic biological resources and a mining complex. All this, of course, inspires faith that the Russian leadership is not going to give the islands to Japan. Unless he develops the territory specifically for return, in order to get more bonuses for it.

Of course, giving away Russian territories would be extremely harmful for Putin’s electoral potential. And presidential elections in Russia will be held in 2018. By the way, in the matter of relations with Japan, this date comes up with enviable regularity.

Another interesting point is that Japan is considering a scenario similar to the Crimean one for annexing the islands. Back in 2014, former Defense Minister Yuriko Koike stated that a referendum on joining Japan should be held among the population of the Kuril Islands. And recently, the head of the Japanese New Party, Daichi Muneo Suzuki, suggested that the government lift sanctions against Russia in exchange for the islands. They lure and bargain. Oh well...

URUP

ITURUP

KUNASHIR

SHIKOTAN

territory of the disputed islands of the Kuril archipelago.

Emperor?
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herself

KURILE ISLANDS- a chain of volcanic islands between the Kamchatka Peninsula (USSR) and the island. Hokkaido (Japan); separates the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. They are part of the Sakhalin region ( Russian Federation). Length about 1200 km. The area is about 15.6 thousand km2. They consist of two parallel ridges of islands - the Greater Kuril and the Lesser Kuril (Shikotan, Habomai, etc.).

The Great Kuril Ridge is divided into 3 groups: southern (Kunashir, Iturup, Urup, etc.), middle (Simushir, Ketoi, Ushishir, etc.) and northern (Lovushki, Shiashkotan, Onekotan, Paramushir, etc.). Most of the islands are mountainous (height 2339 m). About 40 active volcanoes; hot mineral springs, high seismicity. On the southern islands there are forests; the northern ones are covered with tundra vegetation. Fishing for fish (chum salmon, etc.) and sea animals (seal, sea lion, etc.).

URUP, an island in the Kuril Islands group, territory of the Russian Federation. OK. 1.4 thousand km2. Consists of 25 volcanoes connected by bases. Height up to 1426 m. 2 active volcanoes (Trident and Berga).

ITURUP, the largest island in area (6725 km2) in the group of Kuril Islands (Russian Federation, Sakhalin region). Volcanic massif (height up to 1634 m). Bamboo thickets, spruce-fir forests, dwarf trees. On Iturup - Kurilsk.

KUNASHIR, an island in the Kuril Islands group. OK. 1550 km2. Height up to 1819 m. Active volcanoes (Tyatya, etc.) and hot springs. Pos. Yuzhno-Kurilsk. Kurilsky Nature Reserve.

SHIKOTAN, the largest island in the Lesser Kuril ridge. 182 km2. Height up to 412 m. Settlements— Malokurilskoye and Krabozavodskoye. Fishing. Harvesting sea animals.

The territory of the disputed islands of the Kuril archipelago.

Borders between Russia and Japan in the Kuril Islands region.
Russian navigators Captain Shpanberg and Lieutenant Walton in 1739 were the first Europeans to discover the route to the eastern shores of Japan, visited the Japanese islands of Hondo (Honshu) and Matsmae (Hokkaido), described the Kuril ridge and mapped all the Kuril Islands and the eastern coast of Sakhalin. The expedition found that under the rule of the Japanese Khan [ Emperor?] there is only one island, Hokkaido, the other islands are not under its control. Since the 60s, interest in the Kuril Islands has noticeably increased, Russian fishing vessels are increasingly landing on their shores, and soon the local population (Ainu) on the islands of Urup and Iturup were brought into Russian citizenship. The merchant D. Shebalin was ordered by the office of the port of Okhotsk to “convert the inhabitants of the southern islands into Russian citizenship and start trading with them.” Having brought the Ainu under Russian citizenship, the Russians founded winter quarters and camps on the islands, taught the Ainu to use firearms, raise livestock and grow some vegetables. Many of the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and learned to read and write. By order of Catherine II in 1779, all taxes not established by decrees from St. Petersburg were cancelled. Thus, the fact of the discovery and development of the Kuril Islands by Russians is undeniable.
Over time, the fisheries in the Kuril Islands were depleted, becoming less and less profitable than off the coast of America, and therefore end of the XVIII century, the interest of Russian merchants in the Kuril Islands weakened. In Japan, by the end of the same century, interest in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin was just awakening, because before that the Kuril Islands were practically unknown to the Japanese. The island of Hokkaido - according to the testimony of Japanese scientists themselves - was considered a foreign territory and only a small part of it was populated and developed. At the end of the 70s, Russian merchants reached Hokkaido and tried to establish trade with the local residents. Russia was interested in purchasing food in Japan for Russian fishing expeditions and settlements in Alaska and the Pacific Islands, but it was never possible to establish trade, since it was prohibited by the law on the isolation of Japan in 1639, which read: “For the future, while the sun shines peace, no one has the right to land on the shores of Japan, even if he were an envoy, and this law can never be repealed by anyone under pain of death." And in 1788, Catherine II sent a strict order to Russian industrialists in the Kuril Islands so that they “do not touch the islands under the jurisdiction of other powers,” and a year before she issued a decree on equipping a round-the-world expedition to accurately describe and map the islands from Masmaya to Kamchatka Lopatka, so that “all of them are formally considered to be the possession of the Russian state.” It was ordered not to allow foreign industrialists to “trade and manufacture in places belonging to Russia and to deal peacefully with local residents.” But the expedition did not take place due to the outbreak of Russian-Turkish war [ referring to the war of 1787-1791].
Taking advantage of the weakening of Russian positions in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, Japanese fish farmers first appeared in Kunashir in 1799, and the next year in Iturup, where they destroyed Russian crosses and illegally erected a pillar with a designation indicating that the islands belonged to Japan. Japanese fishermen often began to arrive on the shores of Southern Sakhalin, fished, and robbed the Ainu, which caused frequent clashes between them. In 1805, Russian sailors from the frigate "Juno" and the tender "Avos" placed a pillar with Russian flag, and the Japanese camp on Iturup was devastated. The Russians were warmly received by the Ainu.

In 1854, in order to establish trade and diplomatic relations with Japan, the government of Nicholas I sent Vice Admiral E. Putyatin. His mission also included the delimitation of Russian and Japanese possessions. Russia demanded recognition of its rights to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which had long belonged to it. Knowing full well what a difficult situation Russia found itself in, while simultaneously waging war with three powers in the Crimea, Japan put forward unfounded claims to the southern part of Sakhalin. At the beginning of 1855, in Shimoda, Putyatin signed the first Russian-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship, in accordance with which Sakhalin was declared undivided between Russia and Japan, the border was established between the islands of Iturup and Urup, and the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate were opened for Russian ships and Nagasaki. The Shimoda Treaty of 1855 in Article 2 defines:
“From now on, the border between the Japanese state and Russia will be established between the island of Iturup and the island of Urup. The entire island of Iturup belongs to Japan, the entire island of Urup and the Kuril Islands to the north of it belong to Russia. As for the island of Karafuto (Sakhalin), it is still not divided by the border between Japan and Russia.”

Nowadays, the Japanese side claims that this treaty comprehensively took into account the activities of Japan and Russia in the area of ​​Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands up to the time of its conclusion and was concluded as a result of negotiations between Japan and Russia in a peaceful environment. The plenipotentiary representative of the Russian side at the negotiations, Admiral Putyatin, when signing the treaty, stated: “In order to prevent future disputes, as a result of careful study, it was confirmed that Iturup Island is Japanese territory.” Documents recently published in Russia show that Nicholas I considered the island of Urup to be the southern limit of Russian territory.
The Japanese side considers it erroneous to assert that Japan imposed this treaty on Russia, which was in a difficult situation during the Crimean War. It completely contradicts the facts. At that time, Russia was one of the great European powers, while Japan was a small and weak country that was forced by the United States, England and Russia to abandon the country's 300-year-old policy of self-isolation.
Japan also considers it erroneous that Russia allegedly has “historical rights” to the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai ridge, confirmed by this treaty as Japanese possession, due to their discovery and expeditions. As stated above, both Nicholas I and Admiral E.V. Putyatin (1803-1883+), based on the objective situation of that time, concluded a treaty, realizing that the southern limit of Russia is the island of Urup, and Iturup and to the south of it is the territory of Japan. Since 1855, for more than 90 years, no royal Russia, nor the Soviet Union ever insisted on these so-called "historical rights".
There was no need for Japan to discover these islands, located at the shortest distance from it and visible from Hokkaido with the naked eye. A map of the Shoho era, published in Japan in 1644, records the names of the islands Kunashir and Iturup. Japan was the earliest ruler of these islands. Actually, Japan justifies its claims to the so-called “Northern Territories” precisely by the content of the Shimoda Treaty of 1855 and by the fact that until 1946 the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai ridge were always the territories of Japan and never became the territories of Russia.

The government of Alexander II made the Middle East and Central Asia the main direction of its policy and, fearing to leave its relations with Japan uncertain in case of a new aggravation of relations with England, signed the so-called St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875, according to which all the Kuril Islands in exchange for recognition of Sakhalin Russian territory was transferred to Japan. Alexander II, who had previously sold Alaska in 1867 for a symbolic sum at that time - 11 million rubles, and this time made a big mistake by underestimating the strategic importance of the Kuril Islands, which were later used by Japan for aggression against Russia. The Tsar naively believed that Japan would become a peace-loving and calm neighbor of Russia, and when the Japanese, justifying their claims, refer to the 1875 treaty, for some reason they forget (as G. Kunadze “forgot” today) about its first article: “.. . and henceforth eternal peace and friendship will be established between the Russian and Japanese Empires."
Then there was 1904, when Japan treacherously attacked Russia... At the conclusion of the peace treaty in Portsmouth in 1905, the Japanese side demanded Sakhalin Island from Russia as an indemnity. The Russian side stated then that this was contrary to the 1875 treaty. What did the Japanese respond to this?
- War crosses out all agreements, you were defeated and let’s proceed from the current situation.
Only thanks to skillful diplomatic maneuvers did Russia manage to retain the northern part of Sakhalin for itself, and southern Sakhalin went to Japan.

At the Yalta Conference of the Heads of Power, countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition, held in February 1945, it was decided after the end of the Second World War that South Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands should be transferred to the Soviet Union, and this was a condition for the USSR to enter the war with Japan - three months after end of the war in Europe.
On September 8, 1951, in San Francisco, 49 countries signed a peace treaty with Japan. The draft treaty was prepared during the Cold War without the participation of the USSR and in violation of the principles of the Potsdam Declaration. The Soviet side proposed to carry out demilitarization and ensure democratization of the country. Representatives of the USA and Great Britain told our delegation that they came here not to discuss, but to sign an agreement and therefore would not change a single line. The USSR, and along with it Poland and Czechoslovakia, refused to sign the treaty. And what’s interesting is that Article 2 of this treaty states that Japan renounces all rights and title to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. So Japan herself renounced territorial claims to our country, confirming this with her signature.
Currently, the Japanese side claims that the islands of Iturup, Shikotan, Kunashir and the Habomai ridge, which have always been Japanese territory, are not included in the Kuril Islands, which Japan abandoned. The US government, regarding the scope of the concept of “Kuril Islands” in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, stated in an official document: “(They) do not include and there was no intention to include (in the Kuril Islands) the Habomai and Shikotan ridges, or Kunashir and Iturup, which previously have always been a part of Japan proper and should therefore be rightly recognized as being under Japanese sovereignty."
1956, Soviet-Japanese negotiations on normalizing relations between the two countries. The Soviet side agrees to cede the two islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan and offers to sign a peace treaty. The Japanese side is inclined to accept the Soviet proposal, but in September 1956 the United States sent a note to Japan stating that if Japan renounces its claims to Kunashir and Iturup and is satisfied with only two islands, then in this case the United States will not give up the Ryukyu Islands , where the main island is Okinawa. American intervention played a role and... the Japanese refused to sign a peace treaty on our terms. The subsequent security treaty (1960) between the United States and Japan made the transfer of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan impossible. Our country, of course, could not give up the islands for American bases, nor could it bind itself to any obligations to Japan on the issue of the Kuril Islands.

A.N. Kosygin once gave a worthy answer regarding Japan’s territorial claims to us:
- The borders between the USSR and Japan should be considered as the result of the Second World War.

We could put an end to this, but we would like to remind you that just 6 years ago, M.S. Gorbachev, at a meeting with the SPJ delegation, also resolutely opposed the revision of borders, emphasizing that the borders between the USSR and Japan are “legal and legally justified” .