Original taken from parker_111 in the Conflict on Damansky Island.1969
After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision appeared that the borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run along the middle of the main fairway of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the coasts, when such a border developed historically - by agreement or if one side colonized the other coast before the other began to colonize it.
In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect. Nevertheless, in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, came into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border provisions as an excuse to revise the Soviet -Chinese border.
The leadership of the USSR was ready to go for it, in 1964 a consultation was held on border issues, but ended to no avail.
In connection with ideological differences during the Cultural Revolution in China and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when the PRC authorities declared that the USSR had embarked on the path of "socialist imperialism", relations became especially aggravated.
Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Its dimensions are 1500-1800 m from north to south and 600-700 m from west to east (an area of about 0.74 km²).
During the flood period, the island is completely hidden under water and does not represent any economic value.
Since the early 1960s, the situation around the island has been heating up. According to the statements of the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons.
At first, on the instructions of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activity: mowing and grazing, claiming to be in Chinese territory.
The number of such provocations increased dramatically: in 1960 there were 100 of them, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then the Red Guards began to attack border patrols.
The number of such events was in the thousands, each of them involved up to several hundred people.
On January 4, 1969, a Chinese provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island (Qiliqingdao) with the participation of 500 people.
According to the Chinese version of events, the Soviet border guards themselves organized provocations and beat up Chinese citizens who were engaged in economic activities where they always did it.
During the Kirkinsky incident, they used armored personnel carriers to oust civilians and crushed 4 of them, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single automatic shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.
However, it has been repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault they occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without the approval of the authorities. The assertion that the events around Damansky Island on March 2 and 15 were the result of an action carefully planned by the Chinese side is now the most widely spread; including directly or indirectly recognized by many Chinese historians.
For example, Li Danhui writes that in 1968-1969, the directives of the CPC Central Committee limited the response to Soviet provocations, only on January 25, 1969, it was allowed to plan "retaliatory military operations" near Damansky Island with the forces of three companies. On February 19, the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC agreed to this.
Events March 1-2 and the next week
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese military personnel in winter camouflage, armed with AK assault rifles and SKS carbines, crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western coast of the island.
The group remained unnoticed until 10:40, when a report was received from the observation post at the 2nd outpost "Nizhne-Mikhailovka" of the 57th Imansky border detachment that a group of armed people numbering up to 30 people was moving in the direction of Damansky. 32 Soviet border guards, including the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, left for the scene in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and one BTR-60PB. At 11:10 they arrived at the southern tip of the island. The border guards under the command of Strelnikov were divided into two groups. The first group under the command of Strelnikov went to a group of Chinese servicemen who were standing on the ice southwest of the island.
The second group, under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group from the southern coast of the island. Strelnikov protested the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese troops leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese servicemen raised his hand, which served as a signal for the Chinese side to open fire on the groups of Strelnikov and Rabovich. The moment of the beginning of the armed provocation was captured on film by military photojournalist Private Nikolai Petrov. Strelnikov and the border guards following him died immediately, and a squad of border guards under the command of Sergeant Rabovich also died in a short-lived battle. Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the surviving border guards.
Having received a report about the shooting on the island, the head of the neighboring, 1st outpost of the Kulebyakiny Sopki, Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, drove out in the BTR-60PB and GAZ-69 with 20 fighters to help. In battle, Bubenin was wounded and sent an armored personnel carrier to the rear of the Chinese, skirting the northern tip of the island on the ice, but soon the armored personnel carrier was hit and Bubenin decided to go with his soldiers to the Soviet coast. Having reached the armored personnel carrier of the deceased Strelnikov and reseeded into it, the Bubenin group moved along the positions of the Chinese and destroyed their command post. They began to retreat.
In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured. The losses of the Chinese side (according to the KGB commission of the USSR) amounted to 247 people killed
At about 12:00 a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Iman border detachment and its chief, Colonel D.V. Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts. Reinforced detachments of border guards went to Damansky, and the 135th motorized rifle division of the Soviet Army was deployed in the rear with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment of 5,000 men was preparing for combat operations.
On March 3, a demonstration was held in Beijing near the Soviet embassy. On March 4, the Chinese newspapers "People's Daily" and "Jiefangjun Bao" (解放军报) published an editorial "Down with the new tsars!" invaded Zhenbaodao Island on the Wusulijiang River in our country's Heilongjiang Province, opened rifle and cannon fire on the border guards of the People's Liberation Army of China, killing and injuring many of them." On the same day, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article entitled “Shame on provocateurs!” According to the author of the article, “an armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border and headed for Damansky Island. On the Soviet border guards guarding this area, fire was suddenly opened from the Chinese side. There are dead and wounded." On March 7, the Chinese embassy in Moscow was picketed. The demonstrators also threw ink bottles at the building.
Events March 14-15
On March 14, at 15:00, an order was received to remove border guard units from the island. Immediately after the departure of the Soviet border guards, Chinese soldiers began to occupy the island. In response to this, 8 armored personnel carriers under the command of the head of the motorized maneuver group of the 57th border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel E. I. Yanshin in order of battle moved towards Damansky; The Chinese retreated to their shore.
At 20:00 on March 14, the border guards received an order to occupy the island. On the same night, a group of Yanshin dug in there, consisting of 60 people in 4 armored personnel carriers. On the morning of March 15, after broadcasting through loudspeakers from both sides, at 10:00 from 30 to 60 barrels of Chinese artillery and mortars began shelling Soviet positions, and 3 companies of Chinese infantry went on the offensive. A fight ensued.
From 400 to 500 Chinese soldiers took up positions off the southern part of the island and prepared to go behind Yanshin's rear. Two armored personnel carriers of his group were hit, the connection was damaged. Four T-62 tanks under the command of D.V. Leonov attacked the Chinese at the southern tip of the island, but Leonov's tank was hit (according to various versions, by a shot from an RPG-2 grenade launcher or blown up by an anti-tank mine), and Leonov himself was killed by a Chinese sniper when trying to leave a burning car.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that Leonov did not know the island and, as a result, the Soviet tanks came too close to the Chinese positions. However, at the cost of losses, the Chinese were not allowed to enter the island.
Two hours later, having used up ammunition, the Soviet border guards were still forced to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the forces brought into battle were not enough and the Chinese significantly outnumbered the border guards. At 17:00, in a critical situation, in violation of the instructions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU not to bring Soviet troops into conflict, on the orders of the commander of the Far Eastern Military District Oleg Losik, fire was opened from secret at that time multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) "Grad".
The shells destroyed most of the material and technical resources of the Chinese group and the military, including reinforcements, mortars, and stacks of shells. At 17:10, motorized riflemen of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov went on the attack in order to finally crush the resistance of the Chinese troops. The Chinese began to withdraw from their positions. Around 19:00, several firing points “came to life”, after which three new attacks were made, but they were also repulsed.
The Soviet troops again retreated to their shore, and the Chinese side no longer undertook large-scale hostile actions on this section of the state border.
In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed and died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers).
The irretrievable losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people. A memorial cemetery is located in Baoqing County, where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who died on March 2 and 15, 1969 are located. Information received from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.
For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov (posthumously), senior lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), junior sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), senior lieutenant V. Bubenin, junior sergeant Yu. Babansky.
Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: 3 - Orders of Lenin, 10 - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, 10 - Orders of Glory III degree, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit" .
Settlement and aftermath
The Soviet soldiers failed to return the destroyed T-62 due to constant Chinese shelling. An attempt to destroy it with mortars was unsuccessful, and the tank fell through the ice. Subsequently, the Chinese were able to pull it ashore and now it stands in the Beijing Military Museum.
After the ice melted, the exit of Soviet border guards to Damansky was difficult and Chinese attempts to capture it had to be hindered by sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, a ceasefire was ordered, apparently to create a favorable background for negotiations that began the next day at the Beijing airport.
Damansky and Kirkinsky were immediately occupied by the Chinese armed forces.
On September 11, in Beijing, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. N. Kosygin, who was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh, and the Premier of the State Council of the PRC, Zhou Enlai, agreed to stop hostile actions and that the troops remain in their positions. In fact, this meant the transfer of Damansky to China.
On October 20, 1969, new negotiations were held between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC, and an agreement was reached on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Further, a series of negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, and in 1991 Damansky Island finally went to the PRC.
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History reference
The passage of the Russian-Chinese border was established by numerous legal acts - the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689, the Burinsky and Kyakhta treatises of 1727, the Aigun Treaty of 1858, the Beijing Treaty of 1860, and the Treaty of 1911.
In accordance with generally accepted practice, borders on rivers are drawn along the main fairway. However, taking advantage of the weakness of pre-revolutionary China, the tsarist government of Russia managed to draw a border on the Ussuri River along the water's edge along the Chinese coast. Thus, the entire river and the islands on it turned out to be Russian.
This obvious injustice persisted after the October Revolution of 1917 and the formation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, but did not affect Sino-Soviet relations in any way. And only at the end of the 1950s, when disagreements arose between the leadership of the CPSU and the CCP, did the situation on the border become constantly aggravated.
The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the desire of the Chinese to carry out new frontier along the rivers and was even ready for the transfer of a number of lands to the PRC. However, this readiness disappeared as soon as the ideological and then the interstate conflict flared up. Further deterioration of relations between the two countries eventually led to an open armed confrontation on Damansky Island.
Damansky Island in the late 60s territorially belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, bordering on Chinese province Heilongjiang. The distance of the island from the Soviet coast was about 500 m, from the Chinese - about 300 m. From south to north, Damansky is extended by 1500 - 1800 m, and its width reaches 600 -700 m.
These figures are quite approximate, since the size of the island is highly dependent on the time of year. For example, in spring and during summer floods, the island is flooded with the waters of the Ussuri, and it is almost hidden from view, and in winter Damansky rises among the frozen river. Therefore, this island does not represent any economic or military-strategic value.
The events of March 2 and 15, 1969 on Damansky Island were preceded by numerous provocations by the Chinese on the unauthorized seizure of the Soviet islands on the Ussuri River (starting from 1965). At the same time, the Soviet border guards always strictly adhered to the established line of conduct: provocateurs were expelled from Soviet territory, the border guards did not use weapons.
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese troops crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western coast of the island among bushes and trees. The trenches were not torn off, they simply lay down in the snow, laying down mats.
The outfit of the border violators was quite consistent with the weather conditions and consisted of the following: a hat with earflaps, which differs from a similar Soviet earflap in the presence of two flaps on the left and right - in order to better capture sounds; padded jacket and the same cotton pants; insulated lace-up boots; cotton uniform and warm underwear, thick socks; army-style mittens - thumb and index finger separately, the rest of the fingers together.
The Chinese soldiers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and SKS carbines. The commanders have TT pistols. All Chinese-made weapons, manufactured under Soviet licenses.
The offenders were in white camouflage coats, they wrapped their weapons with the same camouflage cloth. The ramrod was filled with paraffin - so as not to rattle.
There were no documents or personal belongings in the pockets of the Chinese.
The Chinese extended a telephone connection to their shore and lay in the snow until morning.
To support the intruders, positions of recoilless guns, heavy machine guns and mortars were equipped on the Chinese coast. Here the infantry with a total number of 200-300 people was waiting in the wings.
On the night of March 2, two border guards were constantly at the Soviet observation post, but they did not notice or hear anything - neither lights nor any sounds. The advance of the Chinese to their positions was well organized and completely covert.
At about 9:00 a.m., a border detachment consisting of three people passed through the island, the detachment did not find the Chinese. Violators also did not begin to unmask themselves.
At about 10.40, a report was received at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost from the observation post that a group of up to 30 armed people was moving from the Chinese border post of Gunsy in the direction of Damansky.
The head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, raised his subordinates on command "to the gun", after which he called the operational duty officer of the border detachment.
The personnel plunged into three vehicles - GAZ-69 (7 people led by Strelnikov), BTR-60PB (about 13 people, senior - Sergeant V. Rabovich) and GAZ-63 (a total of 12 border guards, led by junior sergeant Yu. Babansky ).
GAZ-63, on which Yu. Babansky advanced with his group, had a weak engine, so on the way to the island they lagged behind the main group by 15 minutes.
Arriving at the place, the commander's "gazik" and the armored personnel carrier stopped at the southern tip of the island. Dismounting, the border guards moved in the direction of the violators in two groups: the first was led along the ice by the head of the outpost himself, and Rabovich's group walked in a parallel course directly along the island.
Together with Strelnikov, there was a photographer from the political department of the border detachment, Private Nikolai Petrov, who filmed what was happening with a movie camera, as well as with a Zorkiy-4 camera.
Approaching the provocateurs (at about 11.10), I. Strelnikov protested about the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese answered something loudly, then two pistol shots rang out. The first line parted, and the second opened a sudden automatic fire on Strelnikov's group.
Strelnikov's group and the head of the outpost himself died immediately. The Chinese who ran up snatched a movie camera from Petrov's hands, but did not notice the camera: the soldier fell on him, covering him with a sheepskin coat.
The ambush on Damansky also opened fire - on Rabovich's group. Rabovich managed to shout "To battle", "but this did not solve anything: several border guards were killed and wounded, the survivors ended up in the middle of a frozen lake in full view of the Chinese.
Part of the Chinese got up from their "beds" and went on the attack on a handful of Soviet border guards. They took an unequal battle and fired back to the last.
It was at this moment that Y. Babansky's group arrived in time. Having taken a position at some distance behind the dying comrades, the border guards met the advancing Chinese with machine gun fire.
The raiders reached the positions of the Rabovich group and here they finished off several wounded border guards with automatic bursts and edged weapons (bayonets, knives).
The only one who survived literally by a miracle was Private Gennady Serebrov. He told about the last minutes of the life of his friends.
There were fewer and fewer fighters left in the Babansky group, ammunition was running out. The junior sergeant decided to retreat to the parking lot, but at that moment the Chinese artillery covered both vehicles. The car drivers took refuge in an armored personnel carrier left by Strelnikov and tried to enter the island. They did not succeed, because the coast was too steep and high. After several unsuccessful attempts to overcome the rise, the armored personnel carrier retreated to a shelter on the Soviet coast. At this time, the reserve of the neighboring outpost, led by Vitaly Bubenin, arrived in time.
Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin commanded the neighboring outpost of Sopka Kulebyakina, located 17-18 km north of Damansky. Having received a telephone message on the morning of March 2 about shooting on the island, Bubenin put about twenty fighters in an armored personnel carrier and hurried to the rescue of his neighbors.
At about 11.30 am, the armored personnel carrier reached Damansky and entered one of the ice-covered channels. Hearing heavy gunfire, the border guards disembarked from the car and deployed in a chain in the direction of the gunshots. Almost immediately they ran into a group of Chinese, and a fight ensued.
The violators (still the same, in "beds") noticed Bubenin and transferred fire to his group. The senior lieutenant was wounded and shell-shocked, but did not lose control of the battle.
Leaving in place a group of soldiers led by junior sergeant V. Kanygin, Bubenin and 4 border guards plunged into an armored personnel carrier and moved around the island, going into the rear of the Chinese ambush. Bubenin himself stood up to a heavy machine gun, and his subordinates fired through the loopholes on both flanks.
Despite the multiple superiority in manpower, the Chinese found themselves in an extremely unpleasant situation: from the island they were fired on by groups of Babansky and Kanygin, and from the rear - by a maneuvering armored personnel carrier. But the Bubeninskaya car also got it: the sight was damaged by fire from the Chinese coast on the armored personnel carrier, the hydraulic system could no longer maintain the required tire pressure. The head of the outpost himself received a new wound and concussion.
Bubenin managed to bypass the island and take cover on the river bank. Having reported by phone to the detachment about the situation and then reseeding in Strelnikov's armored personnel carrier, the senior lieutenant again went out to the channel. But now he drove the car directly across the island along the Chinese ambush.
The climax of the battle came at the moment when Bubenin destroyed the Chinese command post. After that, the violators began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded. The Chinese left mats, telephones, shops, and several small arms in place of the "beds". In the same place, in a large number (almost in half of the “beds”), used individual dressing bags were found.
Having shot the ammunition, Bubenin's armored personnel carrier retreated to the ice between the island and the Soviet coast. They stopped to take on board two wounded, but at that moment the car was hit.
Closer to 12.00, a helicopter with the command of the Iman border detachment landed near the island. The head of the detachment, Colonel D.V. Leonov remained on the shore, and the head of the political department, Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Konstantinov, organized a search for the wounded and dead directly on Damansky.
A little later, reinforcements from neighboring outposts arrived at the scene. Thus ended the first combat clash on Damansky on March 2, 1969.
After the events of March 2, reinforced detachments (at least 10 border guards armed with group weapons) constantly went to Damansky.
In the rear, at a distance of several kilometers from Damansky, a motorized rifle division of the Soviet Army was deployed (artillery, Grad multiple rocket launchers).
The Chinese side also accumulated forces for the next offensive. The 24th Infantry Regiment of the National Liberation Army of China (PLA) numbering about 5,000 (five thousand military personnel) was preparing for combat operations near the island in the territory of the PRC.
At about 3:00 pm on March 14, 1969, the Imansky border detachment received an order from a higher authority: to remove the Soviet border detachments from the island (the logic of this order is not clear, just as the person who gave this order is unknown).
The border guards withdrew from Damansky, and immediately a revival began on the Chinese side. Chinese servicemen in small groups of 10-15 people began to move to the island in dashes, others began to take up combat positions opposite the island, on the Chinese coast of the Ussuri.
In response to these actions, the Soviet border guards on 8 armored personnel carriers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin turned into battle formation and began to advance towards Damansky Island. The Chinese immediately withdrew from the island to their shore.
After 00.00 on March 15, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Yanshin, consisting of 60 border guards in 4 armored personnel carriers, entered the island.
The detachment settled down on the island in four groups, at a distance of about 100 meters from each other, dug trenches for prone firing. The groups were commanded by officers L. Mankovsky, N. Popov, V. Solovyov, A. Klyga. Armored personnel carriers constantly moved around the island, changing firing positions.
Around 9:00 am on March 15, a loudspeaker installation started working on the Chinese side. Soviet border guards were urged to leave "Chinese" territory, to renounce "revisionism", and so on.
A loudspeaker was also turned on on the Soviet coast. The broadcast was in Chinese and quite in simple words: "Think about it before it's too late, before you are the sons of those who liberated China from the Japanese invaders."
After some time, silence fell on both sides, and closer to 10.00, Chinese artillery and mortars (from 60 to 90 barrels) began shelling the island. At the same time, 3 companies of Chinese infantry went on the attack.
A fierce battle began, which lasted about an hour. By 11:00, the defenders began to run out of ammunition, and then Yanshin delivered them from the Soviet coast in an armored personnel carrier.
Colonel Leonov reported to his superiors about the superior forces of the enemy and the need to use artillery, but to no avail.
At about 12.00 the first armored personnel carrier was knocked out, twenty minutes later - the second. Nevertheless, Yanshin's detachment steadfastly held its position even in the face of the threat of encirclement.
Stepping back, the Chinese began to group on their shore opposite the southern tip of the island. From 400 to 500 soldiers clearly intended to hit the rear of the Soviet border guards.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that communication between Yanshin and Leonov was lost: the antennas on the armored personnel carriers were cut off by machine-gun fire.
In order to frustrate the enemy's plan, the grenade launcher crew of I. Kobets opened well-aimed fire from his shore. This was not enough under the circumstances, and then Colonel Leonov decided to make a raid on three tanks. The tank company was promised to Leonov on March 13, but 9 vehicles came up only at the height of the battle.
Leonov took a seat in the lead car, and three T-62s moved towards the southern tip of Damansky.
Approximately at the place where Strelnikov died, the command tank was hit by the Chinese with a grenade launcher (RPG). Leonov and some crew members were injured. Leaving the tank, we headed for our shore. Here a bullet hit Colonel Leonov - right in the heart.
The border guards continued to fight in scattered groups and did not allow the Chinese to reach the western coast of the island. The situation was heating up, the island could be lost. At this time, it was decided to use artillery and bring motorized rifles into battle.
At 5:00 pm, the "Grad" installation division launched a fire attack on the places of accumulation of manpower and equipment of the Chinese and their firing positions. At the same time, the cannon artillery regiment opened fire on identified targets.
The raid turned out to be extremely accurate: the shells destroyed the Chinese reserves, mortars, stacks of shells, etc.
Artillery hit for 10 minutes, and at 17.10 motorized infantry and border guards went on the attack under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov. The armored personnel carriers entered the canal, after which the fighters dismounted and turned towards the rampart along the western bank.
The enemy began a hasty retreat from the island. Damansky was liberated, but around 19.00 some Chinese firing points came to life. Perhaps at that moment it was necessary to deliver another artillery strike, but the command considered it inappropriate.
The Chinese tried to recapture Damansky, but three of their attempts ended in failure. After that, the Soviet soldiers retreated to their shore, and the enemy did not take any more hostile actions.
Epilogue (Russian version)
On October 20, 1969, talks were held in Beijing between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC. The result of these negotiations: it was possible to reach an agreement on the need to carry out demarcation measures on sections of the Soviet-Chinese border. As a result: during the demarcation of the border between the USSR and China in 1991, Damansky Island went to the PRC. Now he has a different name - Zhenbao-dao.
One of the points of view widespread in Russia is that the point is not who, in the end, Damansky went to, but what the circumstances were at a particular historical moment in time. If the island had then been given to the Chinese, this would, in turn, have created a precedent and would have encouraged the then Chinese leadership to further territorial claims to the USSR.
According to many Russian citizens, in 1969, for the first time after the Great Patriotic War, real aggression was repelled on the Ussuri River, which was aimed at seizing foreign territories and resolving specific political issues.
Ryabushkin Dmitry Sergeevich
www.damanski-zhenbao.ru
Photo - http://lifecontrary.ru/?p=35
The history of troubles on the border between Russia and China goes back to the 17th century, when Russian settlers arrived in the Amur region. After a series of clashes, Russia and the Qing Empire concluded the first border treaty in the history of the two countries in Nerchinsk. Subsequently, the demarcation line was repeatedly shifted, its outlines were refined.
In the 20th century, relations between the USSR and China looked cloudless for some time. The two largest socialist countries were in close alliance, the USSR provided China with a variety of assistance - economic, technical, military. However, in 1969 an armed conflict unfolded between the states.
Stalinist 1940s and early 1950s became a "honeymoon" in relations between the two countries. Soviet logistical assistance laid the foundations for China's future industrial power in many ways. However, with the coming to power in the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, relations began to cool. First, in Beijing, the debunking of Stalin's personality cult was negatively perceived. In addition, ideological differences were widening between the USSR and China. The idea of "peaceful coexistence" with Western countries, voiced by Khrushchev, did not find understanding with Mao Zedong. The Chinese leader was annoyed by the calmness of Moscow, which did not support Beijing in a series of border incidents where the interests of China, India and Taiwan intersected. And most importantly, Mao believed that China should come to the fore in the socialist world - the place of the slave did not suit him. The paths of the USSR and China began to diverge.
Against this background, the issue of the border became more acute. According to the Beijing Treaty of 1860, in those places where the borders went along the rivers, the border did not pass along the fairway or the line of the middle of the river, as is usually the case, but along the Chinese bank. Thus, the islands on the river were ceded to the USSR, which the Chinese considered as a flagrant injustice. In addition, the border between the USSR and China was not clearly defined in a number of areas, even border markers were often absent.
All 1960s Tensions increased on the Soviet-Chinese border. Most often, the Chinese in large groups demonstratively tried to penetrate the territory of the USSR, and the violators were brought to the place centrally. Armed with stakes and metal rods, they tried to force the Soviet border guards out of the islands on the Ussuri. The Chinese smashed the headlights and viewing devices of cars and armored personnel carriers, tried to beat the border guards themselves. There is a known case when peasants, under the cover of soldiers, tried to penetrate Soviet territory and plow it, chanting political slogans. More often, however, detachments of Chinese, numbering from several dozen to several hundred people, tried to break through the border with Mao's quotes in their hands. The border guards did not open fire and only drove the violators back. There was a categorical ban on the use of firearms. To expel the Maoists, improvised means were used, ranging from rifle butts to fire engines, and home-made blunt horns and clubs were also used.
In January 1968, the USSR Foreign Ministry issued a note on the events on Kirkinsky Island, where the Chinese were most active. However, a series of incidents at Kirkinsky had no serious consequences. A year later, the PRC tested the strength of the Soviet border guards on Damansky Island.
This island, located north of Vladivostok, is a strip of land about half a kilometer wide and over 1,500 meters long. The channel separating Damansky from the western, Chinese coast of the Ussuri has a width of only 47 meters, from the Soviet - 120 meters. The island is stretched along the river from the northeast to the southwest.
During the period of Soviet-Chinese friendship, Chinese from the border zone freely came to this island to graze cattle and make hay. However, with the beginning of the cooling of relations between the two countries, this practice was stopped. Now that the river was frozen, there were constant fights with the Maoists trying to cross it. The clashes lasted for several hours, and the border guards were often injured.
In February 1969, the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army of China approved the plan for the operation to capture Damansky. This action was planned to put pressure on the USSR during future border negotiations. Three reconnaissance companies of 200-300 people each were selected for the operation, they were commanded by officers with combat experience. The armed action was preceded by the usual skirmishes, in which the Chinese side was no longer political activists, but directly military personnel. So far, only clubs have been used as weapons by both sides. In January 1969, border guards recaptured several dozen machine guns and carbines from Chinese soldiers and found that the captured weapons were loaded with live ammunition.
After that, the head of the Imansky border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov, in whose area of responsibility Damansky was, sent a report to the headquarters of the military district and asked to send additional equipment. In addition, Leonov asked for clear instructions, but received only confirmation of previous orders: to push violators to Chinese territory, and not to use weapons. Leonov did what he could: he reinforced the outposts near Damansky with people and armored personnel carriers at the expense of his own reserves, and also organized constant training with live fire.
Key events unfolded on the night of March 1-2, 1969. Three infantry companies of the Chinese army crossed to Damansky Island, where they remained until the morning. The Chinese took measures to disguise themselves, so that they were not noticed even by a detachment of border guards, who bypassed Damansky on skis. However, on the morning of March 2, observers at the border post discovered a group of armed Chinese of at least 30 people moving towards Damansky. At the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, people were alerted. The head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, with 30 subordinates, left to meet the violators, intending to oust the Chinese from the island.
In front of Damansky, the border guards split up. Strelnikov walked from the front along with six border guards, two more groups moved at some distance. At 11 am Strelnikov approached the Chinese and demanded to leave the island. In response, the Chinese soldiers opened fire. The head of the outpost died on the spot along with everyone who was nearby. The same fate befell the detachment covering the flank. On the third group, under the command of junior sergeant Babansky, they opened fire from machine guns and mortars, but he organized the defense and requested support by radio.
The remnants of the detachment were saved thanks to the clear actions of the commander of the neighboring frontier post, Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, who advanced to the battlefield at the head of the maneuver group. For more than half an hour, his detachment fought without visible results. Then Bubenin decided to bypass the island on the ice in an armored personnel carrier and go to the rear of the Chinese unit. The officer's plan was completely justified: he managed to catch a Chinese company crossing the river on the ice and destroy it with the fire of a heavy machine gun of an armored vehicle. The armored personnel carrier was damaged by return fire, but Bubenin moved to another armored personnel carrier and brought the attack to an end. After some time, the second armored personnel carrier was destroyed by an armor-piercing projectile from the Chinese coast, but in the end it was Bubenin's raid that turned out to be decisive for the course of the battle. The Chinese suffered heavy losses, and, judging by the fragments of field telephones found, the command post was destroyed. The perpetrators have left the island.
This day was the bloodiest for the Soviet side. 31 people died, 14 border guards were injured. One soldier went missing, later the Chinese side handed over his body.
Having learned about the heavy battle on Damansky, a commission headed by the chief of staff of the border troops, Lieutenant General V.A. Matrosov and the deputy chairman of the KGB, Colonel General N.S. Zakharov, left for the Imansky border detachment. The government of the USSR sent a note of condemnation to Beijing, declaring its readiness to take decisive measures to stop the provocations. A maneuver group led by Lieutenant Colonel E. I. Yanshin, consisting of 45 people and 4 armored personnel carriers, advanced to Damansky. A reserve detachment deployed on the Soviet coast. Parts of the 135th division of the Far Eastern Military District were urgently pulled up to the border, and strong points were erected at the positions of the border detachment. Meanwhile, the leadership of the KGB, which was in charge of the border troops, received instructions from Moscow: not to allow the seizure of Soviet territory and at the same time not to allow the conflict to escalate into a large-scale war.
On March 14, a group of Chinese soldiers again tried to penetrate Damansky. The fire of the machine gun on duty stopped them, but then the border guards were ordered to retreat from the island. They were supposed to be replaced by the maneuverable group of Yanshin. Since the border guards left the island before the maneuver group arrived, the Chinese occupied Damansky again on March 15. At about 11:35 a group of Yanshin approached the island, which entered into battle with the invaders. Despite the fact that better trained and equipped with armored Soviet soldiers had an advantage, the Chinese, constantly receiving reinforcements from their coast, continued to resist. The commanders of the border guards asked for help from the leadership of the military district, but they never received it. Army units were forbidden to engage in battle due to fears that a border clash would escalate into a war.
The interaction of foot border guards and armored personnel carriers made it possible to inflict heavy losses on the enemy and, on the whole, to successfully fight. However, the Chinese, who had a large number of hand grenade launchers, knocked out part of the armored personnel carriers. The wounded accumulated at the border guards. At that moment, an important event took place. A tank company consisting of nine T-62 tanks approached the command post of the border detachment. Colonel Leonov reassigned the KGB vehicles on the spot and tried to repeat the success of the Bubenin raid, that is, bypass the island on ice. However, this time the Chinese prepared for such a development of events and opened heavy fire from grenade launchers. The lead tank was hit by a hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher (according to another version, the T-62 hit a mine), the crew died trying to get out of the car. Colonel Leonov was killed by a bullet while leaving the tank.
Yanshin's maneuver group gradually ran out of ammunition, but nevertheless remained stable and fought. The capabilities of the Soviet troops were seriously limited by the lack of artillery support. The battle was fought on its own by border guards with the support of tanks, while the Chinese constantly fired mortars to suppress.
While a fierce battle was going on around Damansky, key decisions were made in Moscow. The commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Colonel General O. A. Losik, constantly asked Moscow, trying to get an order to use rocket artillery against the Chinese. At the disposal of the 135th motorized rifle division was a division of rocket launchers "Grad". The officers of the division were determined and were only waiting for orders from the capital. However, the leadership ignored requests from the Far East. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, L. I. Brezhnev, was just at that moment on his way to Budapest, and the delegation also included the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs and the head of government, A. N. Kosygin. As a result, Losik (according to other sources - his deputy, Lieutenant General P. M. Plotnikov) made an independent decision to use heavy weapons. At 17:10, fire was opened on the rear positions of the Chinese group artillery regiment and the Gradov division of the 135th division. At the same time, two army motorized rifle companies launched a counterattack on Damansky. The Chinese were driven off the island. The impact of artillery - primarily psychological - was powerful enough to end the confrontation with one quick attack.
As it turned out later, the Chinese soldiers managed to visit a Soviet tank that was shot down during the battle and remove various equipment from it, including secret devices for stabilizing the gun. What was left of the tank was flooded in Ussuri, firing mortars at the ice. Subsequently, the skeleton of the combat vehicle was lifted and taken to Beijing, where it is installed in the Museum of the People's Liberation Army of China to this day.
The battle of March 15 was the culmination of the confrontation on Damansky. Subsequently, the provocations undertaken by the Chinese side did not reach such a scale, their activity began to decline. Later, another relatively large armed incident took place in the area of Lake Zhalanashkol, but the Chinese soldiers who crossed the border were surrounded and quickly defeated, with one intruder captured alive. After these events, the military gave way to diplomats, the outline of the Soviet-Chinese border began to be determined at the negotiating table.
As a result of the fighting on Damansky, 58 Soviet servicemen were killed. It is much more difficult to determine the losses of the Chinese side. After the clashes in the USSR, the deaths of 800 and even 2000 Chinese were announced. Of course, this is an "upper estimate". Official Chinese figures show 71 killed and 88 wounded. These data are certainly confirmed by the presence of graves. However, there is reason to believe that this information is underestimated. Thus, the military hospital where the Chinese wounded were treated reported the treatment of 200 fighters who arrived there as a result of the fighting on the island. In addition, there is information about the execution for cowardice of a number of Chinese soldiers and officers. Be that as it may, the official version of Beijing gives an idea of the lower limit of the losses of Chinese troops.
In the autumn of 1969, negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, as a result of which the border agreements were revised. Damansky Island went to China, in 1991 the transfer was finalized.
Four border guards and one motorized rifleman received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for the battle on Damansky. For Vitaly Bubenin, the confrontation on the Far Eastern island was the first step in an impressive career: in 1974 he became the commander of the Alpha group, and retired already in the 1990s. major general.
The incident on Damansky Island leaves a number of questions, first of all, to the political leadership of the country. Key decisions were made locally. The categorical ban on opening fire eventually led to the execution of border guards. Moscow had several days to develop a coherent plan of action, but the border guards opposing the Chinese were left face to face with the enemy, without the help of army units with their heavy equipment. The use of tanks again took place thanks to the strong-willed decision of the army and KGB officers on the spot. Finally, the command of the motorized rifle division and the military district put an end to the confrontation, while Moscow actually removed itself from the leadership of events.
Soviet soldiers showed their usual perseverance and courage, but in the end, the Chinese achieved at the negotiating table what they could not achieve on the battlefield ...
In the early spring of 1969, a conflict began on the Soviet-Chinese border. During the clashes, 58 Soviet soldiers and officers were killed. However, at the cost of their lives, they managed to stop a big war.
0.74 square km
The two most powerful socialist powers at that time, the USSR and the PRC, almost started a full-scale war over a piece of land called Damansky Island. Its area is only 0.74 square kilometers. In addition, during the flood on the Ussuri River, he was completely hidden under water.
There is a version that Damansky became an island only in 1915, when the current eroded part of the spit on the Chinese coast. Be that as it may, the island, which in Chinese was called Zhenbao, was located closer to the coast of the PRC. According to the international position adopted at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the borders between states should run along the middle of the main fairway of the river. This agreement provided for exceptions: if the border had historically developed along one of the banks, with the consent of the parties, it could be left unchanged. In order not to aggravate relations with a neighbor gaining international influence, the leadership of the USSR allowed the transfer of a number of islands on the Soviet-Chinese border. On this occasion, 5 years before the conflict on Damansky Island, negotiations were held, which, however, ended in nothing, both because of the political ambitions of the leader of the PRC, Mao Zedong, and because of the inconsistency of the USSR Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev.
Five thousand provocations
For the USSR, which, by and large, has not yet recovered either demographically or economically after a series of wars and revolutions in the first half of the 20th century and especially after World War II, an armed conflict, and even more so full-scale military operations with a nuclear power, in which, moreover, at that time, every fifth inhabitant of the planet lived, were unnecessary and extremely dangerous. Only this can explain the amazing patience with which the Soviet border guards endured constant provocations from the "Chinese comrades" in the border areas.
In 1962 alone, more than 5,000 (!) various violations border regime by Chinese citizens.
Native Chinese territories
Gradually, Mao Zedong convinced himself and the entire population of the Celestial Empire that the USSR illegally owns vast territories of 1.5 million square kilometers, which supposedly should belong to China. Such sentiments were actively inflated in the Western press - the capitalist world, during the period of the Soviet-Chinese friendship, was strongly frightened by the red-yellow threat, now rubbed its hands in anticipation of the clash of two socialist "monsters".
In such a situation, only a pretext was needed to unleash hostilities. And such an occasion was the disputed island on the Ussuri River.
"Put as many of them as possible..."
The fact that the conflict on Damansky was carefully planned is indirectly recognized even by Chinese historians themselves. For example, Li Danhui notes that in response to "Soviet provocations" it was decided to conduct a military operation with the forces of three companies. There is a version that the leadership of the USSR was aware in advance through Marshal Lin Biao of the upcoming action of the Chinese.
On the night of March 2, about 300 Chinese soldiers crossed the ice to the island. Due to the fact that it was snowing, they managed to go unnoticed until 10 am. When the Chinese were discovered, the Soviet border guards did not have an adequate idea of their numbers for several hours. According to a report received at the 2nd outpost "Nizhne-Mikhailovka" of the 57th Iman border detachment, the number of armed Chinese was 30 people. 32 Soviet border guards left for the scene. Near the island, they split into two groups. The first group, under the command of Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, headed straight for the Chinese, who were standing on the ice southwest of the island. The second group, under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group from the southern coast of the island.
As soon as Strelnikov's detachment approached the Chinese, a hurricane of fire was opened on him. Rabovich's group was also ambushed. Almost all border guards were killed on the spot. Corporal Pavel Akulov was captured in an unconscious state. His body with signs of torture was later handed over to the Soviet side. The squad of junior sergeant Yuri Babansky entered the battle, which was somewhat delayed, advancing from the outpost, and therefore the Chinese could not destroy it using the surprise factor. It was this unit, together with the help of 24 border guards who came to the rescue from the neighboring Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, in a fierce battle, showed the Chinese how high the morale of their opponents was. “Of course, it was still possible to withdraw, return to the outpost, wait for reinforcements from the detachment. But we were seized with such fierce anger at these bastards that in those moments we wanted only one thing - to put as many of them as possible. For the guys, for ourselves, for this span of land that no one needs, but still our land, ”recalled Yuri Babansky, who was later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his heroism.
As a result of the battle, which lasted about 5 hours, 31 Soviet border guards were killed. The irretrievable losses of the Chinese, according to the Soviet side, amounted to 248 people.
The surviving Chinese were forced to withdraw. But in the border area, the 24th Chinese Infantry Regiment, numbering 5,000 people, was already preparing for combat operations. The Soviet side pulled up the 135th motorized rifle division to Damanskoye, which was given installations of the then secret Grad multiple launch rocket systems.
Preventive "Grad"
If the officers and soldiers of the Soviet army demonstrated determination and heroism, then the same cannot be said about the top leadership of the USSR. In the following days of the conflict, the border guards received very conflicting orders. For example, at 15-00 on March 14 they were ordered to leave Damansky. But after the island was immediately occupied by the Chinese, 8 of our armored personnel carriers advanced in battle formation from the side of the Soviet frontier post. The Chinese retreated, and the Soviet border guards at 20-00 of the same day were ordered to return to Damansky.
On March 15, about 500 Chinese attacked the island again. They were supported by 30 to 60 artillery pieces and mortars. From our side, about 60 border guards on 4 armored personnel carriers entered the battle. At the decisive moment of the battle, they were supported by 4 T-62 tanks. However, after a few hours of battle, it became clear that the forces were too unequal. The Soviet border guards, having shot all the ammunition, were forced to retreat to their own shore.
The situation was critical - the Chinese could launch an attack already on the frontier post, and according to the instructions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, in no case could Soviet troops be brought into conflict. That is, the border guards were left face to face with the many times superior units of the Chinese army. And then the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District, Colonel-General Oleg Losik, at his own peril and risk, gives an order that greatly sobered up the militancy of the Chinese, and, perhaps, forced them to abandon full-scale armed aggression against the USSR. Multiple launch rocket systems "Grad" were introduced into the battle. Their fire practically swept away all the Chinese units concentrated in the Damansky area. Already 10 minutes after the shelling of the Grad, organized Chinese resistance was out of the question. Those who survived began to retreat from Damansky. True, two hours later, the approaching Chinese units unsuccessfully tried to attack the island again. However, the "Chinese comrades" learned the lesson they learned. After March 15, they no longer made serious attempts to seize Damansky.
Surrendered without a fight
In the battles for Damansky, 58 Soviet border guards and, according to various sources, from 500 to 3,000 Chinese troops were killed (this information is still kept secret by the Chinese side). However, as has often happened in Russian history, what they managed to keep by force of arms, the diplomats surrendered. Already in the autumn of 1969, negotiations were held, as a result of which it was decided that the Chinese and Soviet border guards would remain on the banks of the Ussuri, without going to Damansky. In fact, this meant the transfer of the island to China. The island was legally transferred to China in 1991.
