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Sino-Soviet conflict 1969. Sino-Soviet armed conflict: Damansky Island

Soviet-Chinese border conflict on Damansky Island- armed clashes between the USSR and the PRC and March 15, 1969 in the area of \u200b\u200bDamansky Island (Chinese 珍宝, Zhenbao- "Precious") on the Ussuri River, 230 km south of Khabarovsk and 35 km west of the regional center Luchegorsk ( 46°29′08″ s. sh. 133°50′40″ E d. HGIOL).

The largest Soviet-Chinese armed conflict in the modern history of Russia and China.

Background and causes of the conflict

Map with places of conflicts in 1969

As a result of worsening relations with China, the Soviet border guards began to zealously follow the exact location of the border. According to the Chinese side, Soviet border boats terrified Chinese fishermen by passing near their boats at high speed and threatening to drown them.

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, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing, declaring that they were on 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 “arranged” provocations and beat up Chinese citizens who were engaged in economic activities where they always did it. During the Kirkinsky incident, Soviet border guards used armored personnel carriers to force out civilians, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single automatic shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.

It has been repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault it 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. There is a version according to which the leadership of the USSR was aware in advance through Marshal Lin Biao of the upcoming action of the Chinese, which resulted in a conflict.

In a U.S. State Department Intelligence Bulletin dated July 13, 1969: “Chinese propaganda emphasized the need for internal unity and urged the population to prepare for war. It can be assumed that the incidents were set up solely to strengthen domestic politics.

Chronology of events

Events March 1-2 and the next week

The command of the surviving border guards was taken over by junior sergeant Yuri Babansky, whose squad managed to covertly disperse near the island due to a delay in moving out from the outpost and, together with the crew of the armored personnel carrier, took on a firefight.

Babansky recalled: “After 20 minutes of the battle, out of 12 guys, eight remained alive, after another 15 - five. Of course, it was still possible to retreat, 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.

Around 13:00, the Chinese began their 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 commission of the KGB of the USSR chaired by Colonel-General N. S. Zakharov) amounted to 39 people killed.

At about 13:20, a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Imansky border detachment and its chief, Colonel Democrat Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts, the reserves of the Pacific and Far Eastern border districts were involved. 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, numbering 5,000 men, was preparing for combat operations.

Settlement and aftermath

In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed and died from wounds (including four officers), 94 people were wounded (including nine officers). Information about the irretrievable losses of the Chinese side is still closed, they amount, according to various estimates, from 100 to 300 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 from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.

For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel Democrat Leonov Ivan Strelnikov (posthumously), junior sergeant Vladimir Orekhov (posthumously), senior lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, junior sergeant Yuri Babansky. Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: three - Orders of Lenin, ten - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, ten - Orders of Glory III degree, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit" .

Mass grave of the Heroes of Damansky in Dalnerechensk

Mass Grave (square on Geroev Damansky St. and Lenin St.)

Art. lieutenant Buinevich

Head of the frontier post Grigoriev

Colonel Leonov

Art. Lieutenant Mankovsky

Art. Lieutenant Strelnikov

Notes

As a result of the battle on March 15, 1969, Chinese troops were driven out of Damansky with heavy losses and did not return to the island until September, when the Soviet border guards were ordered not to open fire on the violators. Cm.: Ryabushkin D.S. Myths of Damansky. - M.: AST, 2004. - S. 151, 263-264.
According to P. Evdokimov (Spetsnaz Rossii newspaper, March 2004): “In fact, he went to China already in the same 1969. The Soviet border guards were ordered not to patrol it, and their Chinese counterparts continued to do so with enviable regularity.

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, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing, declaring that they were on 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 staged 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 Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost of the 57th Imansky border detachment that a group of up to 30 armed 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, moved in battle formation 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 troops 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 of the 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.

Damansky - the Soviet-Chinese border conflict of 1969 over an island on the Ussuri River (about 1700 m long and 500 m wide), in the area of \u200b\u200bwhich on March 2 and 15, 1969, battles took place between Soviet and Chinese troops. On the night of March 2, 1969, 300 Chinese troops secretly occupied Damansky and equipped camouflaged firing points there. In their rear, on the left bank of the Ussuri, reserves and artillery support (mortars and recoilless rifles) were concentrated. This act was undertaken as part of Operation Retaliation, which was led by Xiao Quanfu, Deputy Commander of the Shenyang Military Region.

In the morning, Chinese soldiers opened fire on 55 Soviet border guards marching towards the island, led by the head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka frontier post, Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov. The border guards, led by the surviving commander - junior sergeant Yu. Babansky - lay down and entered into battle with the superior forces of the Chinese. Soon reinforcements came to their aid on armored personnel carriers, led by the head of the neighboring Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin.

With the support of mortar fire from their shore, the Chinese secured themselves behind the embankment on the island and again forced the Soviet soldiers to lie down. But Bubenin did not back down. He regrouped his forces and organized a new attack in armored personnel carriers. Bypassing the island, he brought his mobile group to the flank of the Chinese and forced them to leave their positions on the island. During this attack, Bubenin was wounded, but did not leave the battle and brought him to victory. In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured.

On the morning of March 15, the Chinese again went on the offensive. They brought the strength of their forces to an infantry division, reinforced by reservists. Attacks by the method of "human waves" continued for an hour. After a fierce battle, the Chinese managed to push back the Soviet soldiers. Then, to support the defenders, a tank platoon headed by the head of the Iman border detachment (it included the Nizhne-Mikhailovka and Kulebyakiny Sopki outposts), Colonel D. Leonov, moved to counterattack.

But it turned out that the Chinese were prepared for such a turn of events and had a sufficient amount of anti-tank weapons. Due to their heavy fire, the counterattack failed. Moreover, Leonov exactly repeated Bubenin's detour maneuver, which did not come as a surprise to the Chinese. In this direction, they have already dug trenches where grenade launchers were located. The lead tank, in which Leonov was located, was hit, and the colonel himself, who was trying to get out through the lower hatch, died. Two other tanks still managed to break through to the island and take up defense there. This allowed the Soviet soldiers to hold out for another 2 hours on Damansky. Finally, having shot all the ammunition and not having received reinforcements, they left Damansky.

The failure of the counterattack and the loss of the latest T-62 combat vehicle with secret equipment finally convinced the Soviet command that the forces put into battle were not enough to defeat the Chinese side, which was prepared very seriously. Then the forces of the 135th motorized rifle division deployed along the river entered the business, the command of which ordered its artillery (including a separate BM-21 “grad” rocket division) to open fire on the positions of the Chinese on the island. This was the first time that Grad rocket launchers were used in combat, the impact of which decided the outcome of the battle. A significant part of the Chinese soldiers on Damansky (more than 700 people) was destroyed by a firestorm.

On this active hostilities actually stopped. But from May to September 1969, Soviet border guards opened fire more than 300 times on violators in the Damansky area. In the battles for Damansky from March 2 to March 16, 1969, 58 Soviet soldiers were killed, 94 were seriously injured. For their heroism, four servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov and Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin and Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.

The battle for Damansky became the first serious clash between the Armed Forces of the USSR and the regular units of another major power since the Second World War. After Soviet-Chinese negotiations in September 1969, it was decided to give Damansky Island to the People's Republic of China. The new owners of the island filled up the channel, and since then it has become part of the Chinese coast (Zhalanashkol).

Used materials of the book: Nikolai Shefov. Russian battles. Military History Library. M., 2002.

The rapid rapprochement between Russia and China involuntarily recalls the events of 45 years ago on Damansky Island: in 15 days of armed confrontation, 58 Soviet border guards, including 4 officers, were killed due to a piece of land measuring 1 km2 on the Ussuri River separating the two countries. Then, in March 1969, only a madman could dream of a “pivot to the East” and “contracts of the century” with the Chinese.

The song “Red Guards walk and roam near the city of Beijing” Vladimir Vysotsky - talent is always perspicacious! - wrote in 1966. “... We sat for a while, And now we’re going to play hooligans - It’s really quiet, - Mao and Liao Bian thought, - How else can you counter the World atmosphere: Here we’ll show a big fiddle to the USA and the USSR!” In addition to the verb “counter-trap”, which has become an integral part of the vocabulary of our first person, this couplet is also notable for the mention of a certain “Liao Bian”, who, of course, is none other than Marshal Lin Biao, at that time the Minister of Defense of the PRC and the right hand Chairman Mao. By 1969, the big "Maoist fiddle" for the Soviet Union had finally matured.

"Special Weapon Number 1"

However, there is a version that Lin Biao was the only person in the PRC synclite who opposed the secret directive of the CPC Central Committee of January 25, 1969 on military operations by three companies near Damansky Island "in response to Soviet provocations." By “provocations,” Chinese propaganda meant the unwillingness of Soviet border guards to let Chinese Red Guards into Soviet territory, which at that time was this tiny island in the Ussuri and which China considered its own. It was strictly forbidden to use weapons, violators were restrained with the help of “special weapons number 1”, a horn on a long handle, and “belly tactics” - they closed the line and pressed with their whole body on fanatics with Mao quotes and portraits of the leader in their hands, pushing them back a meter where they came from. There were other methods, which one of the participants in those events speaks about in the most interesting documentary film by Elena Masyuk “The Hieroglyph of Friendship”: they took off their pants, turned their bare asses to the portraits of Mao - and the Red Guards retreated in horror ... During January-February, both on Damansky and on Kirkinsky - this is another island on the Ussuri - Soviet and Chinese border guards more than once met in hand-to-hand combat, however, there were no casualties. But then things took a more serious turn.

On the night of March 1-2, a company of Chinese soldiers in full combat gear crossed to Damansky and entrenched on its western bank. On an alarm signal, 32 Soviet border guards left for the scene, including the head of the 2nd Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya frontier post of the 57th Iman border detachment, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov. He protested to the Chinese and was shot point-blank along with 6 of his comrades. Having accepted an unequal battle, almost completely - 11 people out of 12 - the border group covering Strelnikov, led by Sergeant Rabovich, also died. In total, during the fighting with the Chinese on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured. In an unconscious state, the Chinese captured, and then brutally tortured Corporal Pavel Akulov. In 2001, photographs of Soviet soldiers who died on Damansky from the archives of the KGB of the USSR were declassified - the pictures testified to the abuse of the dead by the Chinese.

Everything was decided by "Grad"

The question that often arose both among contemporaries of those events and later: why at the decisive moment Damansky, despite the aggressive attitude of the Chinese, was guarded in the usual regular mode (there is a version that not only our intelligence warned about the inevitability of a conflict on the Kremlin Island through secret channels , but also Lin Biao personally, which, allegedly, Mao later found out about); why reinforcements arrived in time after the first losses, and finally, why even on March 15, when fresh units of the Chinese army (24th Infantry Regiment, 2 thousand soldiers) entered the battle on Damansky after massive shelling of Soviet positions, when in a supernova Soviet tank knocked out by the Chinese T-62, the head of the Imansky border detachment, Colonel Leonov, died - why was the ban of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU on bringing troops of the Far Eastern Military District into the Damansky region not lifted then?

When the commander of the district, Colonel-General Oleg Losik, on the 15th gave the order to deploy the 135th motorized rifle division in the battle area and iron the Chinese positions from the then-secret BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, he actually acted at his own peril and risk. The “hail” that fell on the heads of the Chinese - and the main part of the material and technical resources and manpower of the enemy was destroyed in one gulp - discouraged them from continuing the war for Damansky: Beijing did not yet have such weapons. According to Russian data, the final Chinese losses ranged from 300 to 700 people killed, while Chinese sources still do not give exact numbers.

By the way, in August 1969, the Chinese again decided to test the strength of the Soviet borders: in the area of Lake Zhalanashkol in Kazakhstan, they landed 80 of their special forces. But here they were already met fully armed: as a result of a 65-minute battle, the group lost 21 people and was forced to retreat. But this episode, undoubtedly victorious for the USSR, remained almost unnoticed. Whereas Damansky, as the personification of the readiness of our army to repulse Maoist China, was talked about in the USSR for a long time, although the question of why, in fact, our soldiers shed blood there, arose very soon.

What did they fight for...

On September 11, 1969, the USSR premier Alexei Kosygin and the head of the State Council of the PRC, Zhou Enlai, at the talks at the Beijing airport - Kosygin was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh - discussed the situation around Damansky and agreed: the parties, in order to avoid an escalation of the conflict and to maintain a truce, should remain busy for this moment positions. Most likely, Beijing knew in advance about Moscow's readiness for such a compromise - before the start of negotiations, Chinese soldiers landed on Damansky. And so they remained in their “occupied positions” ...

In 1991, as a result of the signing of the Soviet-Chinese agreement on the demarcation of the border, Damansky was officially ceded to China. Today, there is no island with that name on the map - there is Zheng-Bao-Dao ("Precious Island" - translated from Chinese), on which Chinese border guards take the oath at the brand new obelisk to their fallen heroes. But the lessons of those events are not only in the name change. And not even that Russia, to please China, has elevated a purely recommendatory principle of international law into an absolute one: given that the border supposedly must necessarily pass through the middle of the fairway of the border rivers, hundreds of hectares of land have already been transferred to China, including cedar forests in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territory. The border, "island" dossier perfectly illustrates how patient, persistent and resourceful the Chinese dragon is in pursuing its own interests.

Yes, since 1969, too much water has flowed in the Ussuri and Amur. Yes, China and Russia have changed a lot since then. Yes, Putin and Xi Jinping sit side by side at the Victory Parade on May 9 and will most certainly sit side by side at a similar parade in Beijing in September. But the fact is that both "Pu" and Xi with their large-scale intentions are mere mortals. And the dragon, according to legend, lives a very long time. He is practically immortal.

21-05-2015, 20:05

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The largest Soviet-Chinese armed conflict in the modern history of Russia and China.

Background and causes of the conflict[ | ]

Map with places of conflicts in 1969

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, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing, declaring that they were on 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 the island () with the participation of 500 people [ ] .

It has been repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault it 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, he 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. There is a version according to which the leadership of the USSR was aware in advance through Marshal Lin Biao of the upcoming action of the Chinese, which resulted in a conflict.

Chronology of events[ | ]

Events March 1-2 and the next week[ | ]

Around 13:00, the Chinese began their retreat.

At about 13:20, a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Imansky border detachment and its chief, Colonel Democrat Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts, the reserves of the Pacific and Far Eastern border districts were involved. Reinforced detachments of border guards went to Damansky, and in the rear the Soviet army was deployed with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. On the Chinese side, he was preparing for military operations numbering 5 thousand people.

Settlement and aftermath[ | ]

On September 11, in Beijing, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR Alexei Kosygin, who was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh, and the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai, agreed to stop hostile actions and that the troops remain in their positions without leaving Damansky.

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 went to the PRC.

In 2001, photographs of the discovered bodies of Soviet soldiers from the archives of the KGB of the USSR were declassified, indicating the facts of abuse by the Chinese side, the materials were transferred to the museum of the city of Dalnerechensk.

In 2010, the French newspaper Le Figaro published a series of articles citing an appendix to the People's Daily, claiming that the USSR was preparing a nuclear attack on the PRC in August-October 1969. A similar article was published in the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post. According to these articles, the United States refused to remain neutral in the event of a nuclear attack on the PRC and on October 15 threatened to attack 130 Soviet cities. “Five days later, Moscow canceled all plans for a nuclear strike, and negotiations began in Beijing: the crisis is over,” the newspaper writes. The scholar Liu Chenshan, who describes this episode with Nixon, does not specify on what archival sources he is based. He acknowledges that other experts disagree with his claims.