Soviet-Chinese armed conflict: Damansky Island. Five most acute conflicts between the USSR and China

On the night of March 2, 1969, a Soviet-Chinese border conflict began on Damansky Island. At the cost of their lives, 58 Soviet soldiers and officers were stopped big war between the two states.

The deterioration of Soviet-Chinese relations that began after Stalin's death and Khrushchev's condemnation of the personality cult resulted in a virtual confrontation between the two world powers in Asia. Mao Zedong's claims to China's leadership in the socialist world, the harsh policy towards the Kazakhs and Uighurs living in China, and China's attempts to challenge a number of border territories from the USSR aggravated relations between the powers to the limit. In the mid 60s. the Soviet command is consistently building up groupings of troops in Transbaikalia and the Far East, taking all possible measures in the event of a possible conflict with China. Tank and combined-arms armies were additionally deployed in the Trans-Baikal Military District and on the territory of Mongolia, and fortified areas were equipped along the border. Since the summer of 1968, provocations from the Chinese side have become more frequent, and have become almost constant on the Ussuri River near Damansky Island (less than 1 sq. Km in area). In January 1969, the General Staff of the Chinese Army developed an operation to seize the disputed territory.

2nd frontier post of the 57th Imansky frontier detachment "Nizhne-Mikhailovka". 1969

On the night of March 2, 1969, 300 Chinese soldiers occupied the island and set up firing positions on it. In the morning, the Soviet border guards discovered the violators, apparently determining their number, about one platoon (30 people), in an armored personnel carrier and two cars, headed to the island to expel the uninvited guests to their territory. The border guards advanced in three groups. At about 11 o'clock, the Chinese fired on the first of them, consisting of two officers and 5 soldiers from small arms, while simultaneously opening fire from guns and mortars on two others. Help was hastily called.

After a long skirmish, the Soviet border guards drove the enemy out of Damansky, with 32 border guards killed and 14 more wounded. A mobile group led by the commander of the Iman border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Demokrat Leonov, hastily moved into the area of ​​hostilities. Its avant-garde was made up of 45 border guards on 4 armored personnel carriers. As a reserve, this group was covered by about 80 fighters of the sergeant school. By March 12, units of the 135th Pacific Red Banner Motorized Rifle Division were brought up to Damanskoye: motorized rifle and artillery regiments, a separate tank battalion and the Grad multiple rocket launcher systems division. On the morning of March 15, the Chinese, with the support of tanks and artillery, launched an offensive against Damansky. During the counterattack by a tank platoon, the commander of the Iman detachment, Leonov, was killed. 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 to their shore and now it stands in the Beijing Military Museum). In this situation, the commander of the 135th division gave the order to bring down howitzers, mortars and Grad installations on Damansky and adjacent Chinese territory. After a fire raid, the island was occupied by motorized riflemen on armored personnel carriers.

The losses of the Soviet troops in this attack amounted to 4 combat vehicles and 16 people killed and wounded, for a total of 58 dead and 94 wounded. Four participants in the Daman battles: senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Lieutenant Colonel Democrat Leonov, head of the Iman border detachment, Vitaly Bubenin, head of the Kulebyakina Sopka frontier post, and Sergeant Yuri Babansky, were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Strelnikov and Leonov - posthumously. The Chinese lost, according to various estimates, from 500 to 700 people.

But the tension on the border persisted for about a year. During the summer of 1969, our border guards had to open fire more than three hundred times. Damansky Island soon de facto went to the PRC. De jure, the border line along the fairway of the Ussuri River was fixed only in 1991, and it was finally fixed in October 2004, when the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree on the transfer of part of the Big Ussuri Island to China.

Exactly 42 years ago, on March 2, 1969, the first shots of the Soviet-Chinese border conflict rang out on Damansky Island. The tragedy left a deep imprint in the memory of the great neighboring nations. Looking to the future, we do not forget the past. ETERNAL MEMORY TO THE FALLEN HEROES OF THE BORDER! GLORY TO THE VETERANS OF 1969!

disputed island

Damansky Island, because of which the border armed conflict broke out, occupies 0.75 square meters in area. km. From south to north it stretches for 1500 - 1800 m, and its width reaches 600 - 700 m. These figures are quite approximate, since the size of the island strongly depends on the time of year. In the spring, Damansky Island is flooded with the waters of the Ussuri River and it almost disappears from view, and in winter the island rises like a dark mountain on the icy surface of the river. From the Soviet coast to the island about 500 m, from the Chinese - about 300 m. In accordance with generally accepted practice, the borders on the 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 in a completely different way - along the water's edge along the Chinese coast. Thus, the entire river and the islands on it turned out to be Russian. This apparent injustice persisted after the October Revolution of 1917 and the formation of the Chinese People's Republic in 1949, but for some time did not affect Sino-Soviet relations. And only at the end of the 50s, when ideological differences arose between the Khrushchev leadership of the CPSU and the CPC, the situation on the border began to gradually worsen. Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders have repeatedly said that the development of Sino-Soviet relations presupposes a solution to the border problem. The "solution" meant the transfer to China of certain territories - including the islands on the Ussuri River. The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the desire of the Chinese to draw a new border along the rivers and was even ready to transfer 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.

Tensions in the Damansky area increased gradually. At first, Chinese citizens simply went to the island. Then they began to come out with posters. Then sticks, knives, carbines and machine guns appeared... For the time being, communication between Chinese and Soviet border guards was relatively peaceful, but in accordance with the inexorable logic of events, it quickly turned into verbal skirmishes and hand-to-hand fights. The most fierce battle took place on January 22, 1969, as a result of which the Soviet border guards recaptured several carbines from the Chinese. Upon inspection of the weapon, it turned out that the cartridges were already in the chambers. The Soviet commanders clearly understood how tense the situation was and therefore all the time called on their subordinates to be especially vigilant. Preventive measures were taken - for example, the staff of each frontier post was increased to 50 people. Nevertheless, the events of March 2 turned out to be a complete surprise for the Soviet side. On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 servicemen of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) crossed to Damansky and lay down on the western coast of the island. The Chinese were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, as well as SKS carbines. The commanders had TT pistols. All Chinese weapons were made according to Soviet models. There were no documents or personal belongings in the pockets of the Chinese. But everyone has Mao's quote book. To support the unit that landed on Damansky, positions of recoilless guns, heavy machine guns and mortars were equipped on the Chinese coast. Here the Chinese infantry with a total number of 200-300 people was waiting in the wings. Around 9:00 am, a Soviet border detachment passed through the island, but they did not find the invading Chinese. An hour and a half later, at the Soviet post, observers noticed the movement of a group of armed people (up to 30 people) in the direction of Damansky and immediately reported this by telephone to the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, located 12 km south of the island. Head of outpost Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov raised his subordinates "to the gun." In three groups, in three vehicles - GAZ-69 (8 people), BTR-60PB (13 people) and GAZ-63 (12 people), Soviet border guards arrived at the scene. Dismounting, they moved in the direction of the Chinese in two groups: the first was led along the ice by the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, the second, by Sergeant V. Rabovich. The third group, led by Art. Sergeant Yu. Babansky, moving in a GAZ-63 car, lagged behind and arrived at the scene 15 minutes later. Approaching the Chinese, I. Strelnikov protested about the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. In response, the first line of the Chinese 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. Part of the attackers got up from their "beds" and rushed to attack a handful of Soviet soldiers from the second group, commanded by Yu. Rabovich. Those took the fight and shot back literally to the last bullet. When the attackers reached the positions of the Rabovich group, they finished off the wounded Soviet border guards with point-blank shots and cold steel. This shameful fact for the People's Liberation Army of China is evidenced by the documents of the Soviet medical commission. The only one who literally miraculously survived was Private G. Serebrov. Having regained consciousness in the hospital, he spoke about the last minutes of the life of his friends. It was at this moment that the third group of border guards under the command of Y. Babansky arrived. Taking up a position at some distance behind their dying comrades, the border guards met the advancing Chinese with machine gun fire. The battle was unequal, there were fewer and fewer fighters left in the group, ammunition quickly ran out. Fortunately, the border guards from the neighboring outpost of Kulebyakina Sopka, located 17-18 km north of Damansky, came to the aid of Babansky’s group, commanded by Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin. hurried to the rescue of neighbors. At about 11.30 the armored personnel carrier reached Damansky. The border guards got out of the car and almost immediately ran into big group Chinese. A fight ensued. During the battle, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin was wounded and shell-shocked, but did not lose control of the battle. Leaving several soldiers in place, led by junior sergeant V. Kanygin, he and four fighters plunged into an armored personnel carrier and moved around the island, going into the rear of the Chinese. The climax of the battle came at the moment when Bubenin managed to destroy the Chinese command post. After that, the border violators began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded. Thus ended the first battle on Damansky. In the battle on March 2, 1969, the Soviet side lost 31 people killed - this is exactly the figure that was given at a press conference at the USSR Foreign Ministry on March 7, 1969. As for Chinese losses, they are not known for certain, since the PLA General Staff has not yet made this information public. The Soviet border guards themselves estimated the total losses of the enemy at 100-150 soldiers and commanders.

After the battle on March 2, 1969, reinforced squads of Soviet border guards constantly went out to Damansky - numbering at least 10 people, with a sufficient amount of ammunition. Sappers carried out mining of the island in case of an attack by Chinese infantry. In the rear, at a distance of several kilometers from Damansky, the 135th motorized rifle division of the Far Eastern Military District was deployed - infantry, tanks, artillery, Grad multiple rocket launchers. The 199th Upper Uda Regiment of this division took a direct part in further developments. The Chinese also accumulated forces for the next offensive: in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe island, the 24th Infantry Regiment of the People's Liberation Army of China, which included up to 5,000 soldiers and commanders, was preparing for battle! On March 15, noticing the revival on the Chinese side, a detachment of Soviet border guards consisting of 45 people on 4 armored personnel carriers entered the island. Another 80 border guards concentrated on the shore in readiness to support their comrades. Around 9:00 am on March 15, a loudspeaker installation started working on the Chinese side. Voiced female voice in pure Russian he called on the Soviet border guards to leave "Chinese territory", to abandon "revisionism", etc. A loudspeaker was also turned on on the Soviet coast. The broadcast was conducted in Chinese and in rather simple words: think again 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 (each with 100-150 people) went on the attack. The battle on the island was of a focal nature: scattered groups of border guards continued to repel the attacks of the Chinese, who outnumbered the defenders by far. According to the recollections of eyewitnesses, the course of the battle resembled a pendulum: each side pressed the enemy when the reserves approached. At the same time, however, the ratio in manpower was always about 10:1 in favor of the Chinese. Around 15.00, an order was received to withdraw from the island. After that, the arriving Soviet reserves tried to carry out several counterattacks in order to expel the violators of the border, but they were unsuccessful: the Chinese thoroughly fortified on the island and met the attackers with heavy fire. Only by this moment was it decided to use artillery, since there was a real threat of the complete capture of Damansky by the Chinese. The order to strike the Chinese coast was given by the first deputy. commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General P.M. Plotnikov. At 17.00, a separate rocket division of BM-21 Grad installations under the command of M.T.
So for the first time, the then top-secret 40-barrel "Grad" was used, capable of releasing all the ammunition in 20 seconds. In 10 minutes of artillery raid, nothing remained of the Chinese division. A significant part of the Chinese soldiers in Damansky (more than 700 people) and the adjacent territory were destroyed by a firestorm (according to Chinese data, more than 6 thousand). In the foreign press, the hype immediately went that the Russians used an unknown secret weapon, either lasers, or flamethrowers, or the devil knows what. (And the hunt for this, the devil knows what, began, which was crowned with success in the far south of Africa after 6 years. But that's another story ...)
At the same time, a cannon artillery regiment equipped with 122-mm howitzers opened fire on identified targets. Artillery hit for 10 minutes. The raid turned out to be extremely accurate: the shells destroyed the Chinese reserves, mortars, shell piles, etc. Radio interception data spoke of hundreds of dead PLA soldiers. At 17.10, motorized riflemen (2 companies and 3 tanks) and border guards in 4 armored personnel carriers went on the attack. After a stubborn battle, the Chinese began to withdraw from the island. Then they tried to recapture Damansky, but their three attacks ended in complete failure. After that, the Soviet soldiers retreated to their shore, and the Chinese made no more attempts to take possession of the island.

Political settlement of the conflict

On September 11, 1969, talks were held at the Beijing airport between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin and the Premier of the State Council of the PRC, Zhou Enlai. The meeting lasted three and a half hours. The main result of the discussion was an agreement to stop hostile actions on the Soviet-Chinese border and to stop troops at the lines they occupied at the time of the negotiations. It must be said that the wording "the parties remain where they have been until now" was proposed by Zhou Enlai, and Kosygin immediately agreed with it. And it was at this moment that Damansky Island became de facto Chinese. The fact is that after the end of the fighting, the ice began to melt, and therefore the exit of the border guards to Damansky was difficult. We decided to carry out fire cover of the island. From now on, any attempt by the Chinese to land on Damansky was thwarted by sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, the border guards received an order to cease fire. Immediately after that, the Chinese came to the island and settled there. On the same day, a similar story took place on Kirkinsky Island, located 3 km north of Damansky. Thus, on the day of the Beijing talks on September 11, there were already Chinese on the Damansky and Kirkinsky Islands. The consent of A.N. Kosygin with the wording "the parties remain where they were until now" meant the actual surrender of the islands to China. Apparently, the order to cease fire on September 10 was given in order to create a favorable background for the start of negotiations. Soviet leaders knew perfectly well that the Chinese would land on Damansky, and deliberately went for it. Obviously, the Kremlin decided that sooner or later, they would have to draw a new border along the fairways of the Amur and Ussuri. And if so, then there is nothing to hold on to the islands, which will still go to the Chinese. Shortly after the completion of the negotiations, A.N. Kosygin and Zhou Enlai exchanged letters. In them, they agreed to begin work on the preparation of a non-aggression pact.

The final end to these Soviet-Chinese conflicts was put only in 1991. On May 16, 1991, an agreement was signed between the USSR and the PRC on the eastern section of the border. According to this agreement, the border was established along the main fairway of the rivers. Damansky Island went to China ...

46 years ago, in March 1969, 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.

1. Damansky Island on the Ussuri River was part of the Pozharsky District of Primorsky Krai and had an area of ​​0.74 km². It was located a little closer to the Chinese coast than to ours. However, the border did not run along the middle of the river, but, in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860, along the Chinese bank.
Damansky - view from the Chinese coast


2. The conflict on Damansky occurred 20 years after the formation of the People's Republic of China. Until the 1950s, China was a weak country with a poor population. With the help of the USSR, the Celestial Empire was not only able to unite, but began to develop rapidly, strengthening the army and creating the conditions necessary for modernizing the economy. However, after Stalin's death, a period of cooling began in Soviet-Chinese relations. Mao Zedong now claimed almost the role of the leading world leader of the communist movement, with which Nikita Khrushchev could not agree. At the same time, the policy pursued by Zedong cultural revolution constantly demanded to keep society in suspense, to create new images of the enemy both inside and outside the country, and the process of “de-Stalinization” in the USSR generally threatened the cult of the “great Mao” itself, which was gradually taking shape in China. As a result, in 1960, the CPC officially announced the “wrong” course of the CPSU, relations between countries escalated to the limit, and conflicts often began to occur along the border with a length of more than 7.5 thousand kilometers.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


3. On the night of March 2, 1969, about 300 Chinese soldiers crossed to Damansky. For several hours they remained unnoticed, the Soviet border guards received a signal about an armed group of up to 30 people only at 10:32 in the morning.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


4. 32 border guards under the command of the head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, left for the scene. Approaching the Chinese military, Strelnikov demanded that they leave Soviet territory, but small arms fire was opened in response. Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov and the border guards following him died, only one soldier managed to survive.
Thus began the famous Damansky conflict, about which for a long time not written anywhere, but which everyone knew about.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


5. Shooting was heard at the neighboring outpost "Kulebyakiny Sopki". Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin went to the rescue with 20 border guards and one armored personnel carrier. The Chinese actively attacked, but retreated after a few hours. Residents of the neighboring village of Nizhnemikhailovka came to the aid of the wounded.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


6. On that day, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 more soldiers were injured. According to the KGB commission, the losses of the Chinese side amounted to 248 people.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


7. On March 3, a demonstration took place near the Soviet embassy in Beijing; on March 7, the PRC embassy in Moscow was picketed.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


8. Weapons captured from the Chinese
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


9. On the morning of March 15, the Chinese went on the offensive again. 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.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


10. Then, to support the defenders, a tank platoon headed by the head of the Iman border detachment, which included the outposts Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya and Kulebyakiny Sopki, Colonel Leonov, moved to counterattack.


11. But, as it turned out, the Chinese were prepared for this turn of events and had a sufficient amount of anti-tank weapons. Due to their heavy fire, our counterattack failed.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


12. 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.
Photo: Ogonyok magazine archive


13. 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 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.


14. The Soviet troops withdrew to their shore, and the Chinese side did not take any more hostile actions.


15. Total during collisions Soviet troops 58 soldiers and 4 officers were killed and died from wounds, 94 soldiers and 9 officers were wounded. The losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3,000 people.


16. 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.
In the photo in the foreground: Colonel D. Leonov, Lieutenants V. Bubenin, I. Strelnikov, V. Shorokhov; in the background: the personnel of the first frontier post. 1968

45 years have passed since the spring of 1969, when an armed conflict broke out in one of the Far Eastern sectors Soviet-Chinese border. We are talking about Damansky Island, located on the History of the USSR shows that these were the first fighting for the entire post-war period, in which the army and the KGB took part. And it was all the more unexpected that the aggressor turned out to be not just a neighboring state, but a fraternal, as everyone believed then, China.

Location

Damansky Island on the map looks like a rather insignificant piece of land, which is approximately 1500-1800 m long and about 700 m wide. It is impossible to establish its exact parameters, since they depend on the specific time of the year. For example, during spring and summer floods, it can be completely flooded with the waters of the Ussuri River, and in the winter months, the island rises in the middle of a freezing river. That is why it does not represent any military-strategic or economic value.

In 1969, Damansky Island, a photo of which has been preserved since those times, with an area of ​​just over 0.7 sq. km, was located on the territory of the USSR and belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. These lands bordered on one of the provinces of China - Heilongjiang. The distance from Damansky Island to the city of Khabarovsk is only 230 km. From the Chinese coast, it was removed at a distance of about 300 m, and from the Soviet - at 500 m.

History of the island

There have been attempts to draw a border between China and Tsarist Russia in the Far East since the 17th century. It is from these times that the history of Damansky Island begins. Then the Russian possessions stretched all over from the sources to the mouth, and were located both on the left and partially on the right side of it. Several centuries passed before precise boundary lines were established. This event was preceded by numerous legal acts. Finally, in 1860, almost the entire Ussuri region was given to Russia.

As you know, the communists led by Mao Zedong came to power in China in 1949. In those days, they did not particularly spread about the fact that leading role It was the Soviet Union that played this. 2 years after the end of the Civil War, in which the Chinese Communists emerged victorious, Beijing and Moscow signed an agreement. It stated that China recognizes the current border with the USSR, and also agrees that the Amur and Ussuri rivers be under the control of the Soviet border troops.

Earlier in the world, laws were already adopted and in force, according to which the borders passing along the rivers are drawn exactly along the main fairway. But the government tsarist Russia took advantage of the weakness and compliance of the Chinese state and drew a line of demarcation in the section of the Ussuri River not along the water, but directly along the opposite bank. As a result, all the water area and the islands on it ended up on Russian territory. Therefore, the Chinese could fish and swim along the Ussuri River only with the permission of the neighboring authorities.

Political situation on the eve of the conflict

The events on Damansky Island became a kind of culmination of the ideological differences that arose between the two largest socialist states - the USSR and China. They began back in the 1950s with the fact that the PRC decided to raise its international influence in the world and in 1958 entered into an armed conflict with Taiwan. After 4 years, China took part in the border war against India. If in the first case the Soviet Union expressed its support for such actions, then in the second case, on the contrary, it condemned it.

In addition, the disagreements were aggravated by the fact that after the so-called Caribbean crisis that erupted in 1962, Moscow sought to somehow normalize relations with a number of capitalist countries. But the Chinese leader Mao Zedong took these actions as a betrayal of the ideological teachings of Lenin and Stalin. There was also a factor of rivalry for supremacy over the countries that were part of the socialist camp.

First serious relationship was outlined in 1956, when the USSR participated in the suppression of popular unrest in Hungary and Poland. Then Mao condemned these actions of Moscow. The worsening of the situation between the two countries was also influenced by the recall of Soviet specialists who were in China and helped him successfully develop both the economy and the armed forces. This was done due to numerous provocations by the PRC.

In addition, Mao Zedong was very concerned that Soviet troops were still stationed in Western China, and specifically in Xinjiang, which had remained there since 1934. The fact is that the soldiers of the Red Army took part in the suppression of the Muslim uprising in these lands. as Mao was called, he feared that these territories would go to the USSR.

By the second half of the 60s, when Khrushchev was removed from his post, the situation became completely critical. This is evidenced by the fact that before the conflict on Damansky Island began, diplomatic relations between the two countries existed at the level of only temporary attorneys.

Border provocations

It was after the removal of Khrushchev from power that the situation on the island began to heat up. The Chinese began to send their so-called agricultural divisions to the border sparsely populated territories. They resembled the Arakcheev military settlements that operated under Nicholas I, which were able not only to fully meet their food needs, but also, if necessary, to defend themselves and their land with weapons in their hands.

In the early 60s, events on Damansky Island began to develop rapidly. For the first time, reports flew to Moscow that numerous groups of Chinese military and civilians were constantly violating the established border regime and entering Soviet territory, from where they were expelled without using weapons. Most often, these were peasants who defiantly engaged in grazing or mowing grass. At the same time, they stated that they were supposedly in China.

Every year the number of such provocations increased, and they began to acquire a more menacing character. There were facts of attacks by the Red Guards (activists of the cultural revolution) on Soviet border patrols. Such aggressive actions on the part of the Chinese already numbered in the thousands, and several hundred people were involved in them. An example of this is the following event. Only 4 days have passed since 1969 came. Then on the island of Kirkinsky, and now Qilingqingdao, the Chinese staged a provocation, in which about 500 people participated.

Group fights

While the Soviet government was saying that the Chinese were a brotherly people, the increasingly unfolding events on Damansky were evidence to the contrary. Whenever the border guards of the two states accidentally crossed paths in the disputed territory, verbal skirmishes began, which then escalated into hand-to-hand skirmishes. Usually they ended with the victory of the stronger and larger Soviet soldiers and the displacement of the Chinese to their side.

Each time, the PRC border guards tried to film these group fights and subsequently use them for propaganda purposes. Such attempts were always neutralized by the Soviet border guards, who did not hesitate to beat pseudo-journalists and confiscate their film footage. Despite this, the Chinese soldiers, fanatically devoted to their "god" Mao Zedong, again returned to Damansky Island, where they could be beaten again or even killed in the name of their great leader. But it is worth noting that such group fights never went beyond hand-to-hand combat.

China's preparations for war

Each border conflict, even insignificant at first glance, heated up the situation between the PRC and the USSR. The Chinese leadership constantly built up its military units in the territories adjacent to the border, as well as special units that formed the so-called Labor Army. At the same time, vast militarized state farms were built, which were a kind of military settlements.

In addition, detachments were formed from among active citizens. They were used not only to protect the border, but also to restore order in all settlements located near it. The detachments consisted of groups local residents led by representatives of public security.

1969 The border Chinese territory, about 200 km wide, received the status of a forbidden one and was henceforth considered an advanced defensive line. All citizens who had any family ties on the side of the Soviet Union or sympathized with it were resettled in more remote areas of China.

How the USSR prepared for war

It cannot be said that the Daman conflict took the Soviet Union by surprise. In response to the buildup of Chinese troops in the border zone, the USSR also began to strengthen its borders. First of all, they relocated some units and formations from the central and western parts of the country both to Transbaikalia and to Far East. Also, the border strip was improved in terms of engineering structures, which were equipped with an improved technical security system. In addition, enhanced combat training of soldiers was carried out.

Most importantly, the day before, when the Soviet-Chinese conflict broke out, all border outposts and individual detachments were provided with a large number of anti-tank hand grenade launchers and other weapons. There were also armored personnel carriers BTR-60 PB and BTR-60 PA. In the border detachments themselves, maneuver groups were created.

Despite all the improvements, the means of protection still turned out to be insufficient. The fact is that the impending war with China required not only good equipment, but also certain skills and some experience in mastering this new technology, as well as the ability to apply it directly in the course of hostilities.

Now, so many years after the Damansky conflict occurred, we can conclude that the country's leadership underestimated the seriousness of the situation on the border, as a result of which its defenders were completely unprepared to repel aggression from the enemy. Also, despite the sharp deterioration in relations with the Chinese side and the significantly increased number of provocations occurring at the outposts, the command issued a strict order: “Do not use weapons, under any pretext!”

Start of hostilities

The Soviet-Chinese conflict of 1969 began with the fact that about 300 soldiers dressed in winter camouflage uniforms crossed the border of the USSR. It happened on the night of March 2. The Chinese crossed over to Damansky Island. The conflict was brewing.

I must say that the enemy soldiers were well equipped. The clothes were very comfortable and warm, in addition, they were wearing white camouflage robes. Their weapons were also wrapped in the same cloth. To keep it from rattling, the ramrods were filled with paraffin. All the weapons that were with them were made in China, but only under Soviet licenses. The Chinese soldiers were armed with AK-47s and TT pistols.

Having crossed to the island, they lay down on its western shore and took up a position on a hill. Immediately after that, a telephone connection with the shore was established. At night there was a snowfall, which hid all their traces. And they lay until morning on mats and from time to time warmed themselves by drinking vodka.

Before the Daman conflict had yet escalated into an armed clash, the Chinese prepared a line of support for their soldiers from the coast. There were pre-equipped sites for recoilless guns, mortars, as well as heavy machine guns. In addition, there was also an infantry numbering up to about 300 people.

The reconnaissance of the Soviet border detachment did not have devices for night observation of the surrounding territories, so they completely did not notice any preparations for military operations on the part of the enemy. In addition, it was 800 m from the nearest post to Damansky, and visibility at that time was very poor. Even at 9 o'clock in the morning, when a border detachment consisting of three people was patrolling the island, the Chinese were not found. Border violators did not give themselves away.

It is believed that the conflict on Damansky Island began from the moment when, at about 10.40 am, a report was received from the military personnel of the observation post at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka frontier post, located 12 km to the south. It said that a group of armed people, numbering up to 30 people, was discovered. She was moving from the side of the border with China in the direction of Damansky. The head of the outpost was Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov. He gave the order to advance, and the personnel got into combat vehicles. Strelnikov and seven soldiers went to the GAZ-69, Sergeant V. Rabovich and 13 people with him - to the BTR-60 PB and Yu. Babansky's group, consisting of 12 border guards, to the GAZ-63. The last car was 15 minutes behind the other two, as it turned out to have engine problems.

First casualties

Upon arrival, a group led by Strelnikov, which included the photographer Nikolai Petrov, approached the Chinese. They protested against the illegal crossing of the border, as well as the demand to immediately leave the territory of the Soviet Union. After that, one of the Chinese shouted loudly and their first line parted. PRC soldiers opened automatic fire on Strelnikov and his group. Soviet border guards died on the spot. Immediately, a movie camera was taken from the hands of the already dead Petrov, with which he filmed everything that happened, but the camera was never noticed - the soldier, falling, covered him with himself. These were the first victims, with which the Damansky conflict was just beginning.

The second group under the command of Rabovich took on an unequal battle. She shot to the last. Soon the rest of the fighters, led by Yu. Babansky, arrived in time. They took up defensive positions behind their comrades and poured automatic fire on the enemy. As a result, the entire group of Rabovich was killed. Only Private Gennady Serebrov, who miraculously escaped, survived. It was he who told about everything that happened to his comrades.

Babansky's group continued to fight, but the ammunition quickly ran out. So the decision was made to leave. The surviving border guards on the surviving armored personnel carrier took refuge on Soviet territory. Meanwhile, 20 fighters from the nearby Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, led by Vitaly Bubenin, hurried to their rescue. She was north of the island Damansky at a distance of 18 km. Therefore, help arrived only at 11.30. The border guards also joined the battle, but the forces were unequal. Therefore, their commander decided to bypass the Chinese ambush from the rear.

Bubenin and 4 other soldiers, having plunged into an armored personnel carrier, drove around the enemy and began to fire at him from behind, while the rest of the border guards fired from the island. Despite the fact that there were several times more Chinese, they were in an extremely unfavorable situation. As a result, Bubenin managed to destroy the Chinese command post. After that, the enemy soldiers began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded.

At about 12.00 Colonel D. Leonov arrived on Damansky Island, where the conflict was still ongoing. He, with the main military personnel of the border guards, was on exercises 100 km from the place of hostilities. They also joined the battle, and by the evening of the same day, Soviet soldiers managed to recapture the island.

In this battle, 32 border guards were killed and 14 soldiers were wounded. How many people the Chinese side lost is still unknown, since such information is classified. According to the estimates of the Soviet border guards, the PRC missed about 100-150 of its soldiers and officers.

Continued conflict

But what about Moscow? On this day, Secretary General L. Brezhnev called the head of the USSR border troops, General V. Matrosov, and asked what it was: a simple conflict or a war with China? A high-ranking military official was supposed to know the situation on the border, but, as it turned out, he was not in the know. Therefore, he called the events a simple conflict. He did not know that the border guards had been holding the line for several hours now, despite the multiple superiority of the enemy, not only in manpower, but also in weapons.

After the clash on March 2, Damansky was constantly patrolled by reinforced detachments, and a whole motorized rifle division was deployed in the rear a few kilometers from the island, where, in addition to artillery, there were Grad rocket launchers. China was also preparing for another offensive. A significant number of military personnel were brought to the border - about 5,000 people.

I must say, the Soviet border guards had no instructions about what to do next. There were no relevant orders either from the General Staff or from the Minister of Defense. In critical situations, the silence of the country's leadership was business as usual. The history of the USSR is replete with such facts. For example, let's take the brightest of them: in the early days of the Great Patriotic War Stalin was never able to address the Soviet people. It is precisely the inaction of the leadership of the USSR that can explain the complete confusion in the actions of the military personnel of the frontier post on March 14, 1969, when the second stage of the Soviet-Chinese confrontation began.

At 15.00, the border guards received an order: “Leave Damansky” (it is still unknown who gave this order). As soon as the Soviet troops moved away from the island, the Chinese immediately began to run across to it in small groups and consolidate their combat positions. And at about 20.00, the opposite order was received: "Take Damansky."

Unpreparedness and confusion reigned throughout. Contradictory orders were constantly received, the most ridiculous of them, the border guards refused to carry out. In this battle, Colonel Democrat Leonov died, who was trying to get around the enemy from the rear on the new secret T-62 tank. The car was hit and lost. They tried to destroy her with mortars, but these actions were never successful - she fell through the ice. Some time later, the Chinese raised the tank to the surface, and now it is in the military museum in Beijing. All this happened due to the fact that the colonel did not know the island, so the Soviet tanks approached the enemy positions so imprudently.

The battle ended with the Soviet side having to use Grad rocket launchers against superior enemy forces. This is the first time such a weapon has been used in real combat. It was the Grad installations that decided the outcome of the battle. There was silence after that.

Consequences

Despite the fact that the Soviet-Chinese conflict ended with the complete victory of the USSR, negotiations on the ownership of Damansky lasted almost 20 years. Only in 1991 this island officially became Chinese. Now it is called Zhenbao, which means "Precious" in translation.

During the military conflict, the USSR lost 58 people, 4 of which were officers. The PRC, according to various sources, has lost from 500 to 3,000 of its military personnel.

For their courage, five border guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, three of them posthumously. Another 148 servicemen were awarded other orders and medals.

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, striving 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 was repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault they occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without government approval. 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 was deployed in the rear Soviet army 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 servicemen 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.