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Whose Kuril Islands were originally? Conflict between Japan and the USSR over the Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands are represented by a series of Far Eastern island territories; one side is the Kamchatka Peninsula, and the other is the island. Hokkaido in . The Kuril Islands of Russia are represented by the Sakhalin region, which stretches approximately 1,200 km in length with an area of 15,600 square kilometers.
The islands of the Kuril chain are represented by two groups located opposite each other - called Big and Small. A large group located in the south includes Kunashir, Iturup and others, in the center are Simushir, Keta and in the north are the remaining island territories.
Shikotan, Habomai and a number of others are considered the Lesser Kuril Islands. For the most part, all island territories are mountainous and reach a height of 2,339 meters. The Kuril Islands on their lands have approximately 40 volcanic hills that are still active. There are also springs with hot mineral water here. The south of the Kuril Islands is covered with forests, and the north attracts with unique tundra vegetation.
The problem of the Kuril Islands lies in the unresolved dispute between the Japanese and Russian sides over who owns them. And it has remained open since the Second World War.
After the war, the Kuril Islands became part of the USSR. But Japan considers the territories of the southern Kuril Islands, and these are Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan with the Habomai group of islands, its territory, without having a legal basis. Russia does not recognize the fact of a dispute with the Japanese side over these territories, since their ownership is legal.
The problem of the Kuril Islands is the main obstacle to a peaceful settlement of relations between Japan and Russia.
The essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia
The Japanese are demanding the Kuril Islands be returned to them. Almost the entire population there is convinced that these lands are originally Japanese. This dispute between the two states has been going on for a very long time, escalating after the Second World War.
Russia is not inclined to yield to Japanese state leaders on this issue. The peace agreement has not yet been signed, and this is connected precisely with the four disputed South Kuril Islands. About the legality of Japan's claims to the Kuril Islands in this video.
Meanings of the Southern Kuril Islands
The Southern Kuril Islands have several meanings for both countries:
- Military. The Southern Kuril Islands are of military importance due to the only access to the Pacific Ocean for the country's fleet. And all because of the scarcity of geographical formations. At the moment, ships are entering ocean waters through the Sangar Strait, because it is impossible to pass through the La Perouse Strait due to icing. Therefore, submarines are located in Kamchatka - Avachinskaya Bay. The military bases operating during the Soviet era have now all been looted and abandoned.
- Economic. Economic significance - the Sakhalin region has quite serious hydrocarbon potential. And the fact that the entire territory of the Kuril Islands belongs to Russia allows you to use the waters there at your discretion. Although its central part belongs to the Japanese side. In addition to water resources, there is such a rare metal as rhenium. By extracting it, the Russian Federation is in third place in the production of minerals and sulfur. For the Japanese, this area is important for fishing and agricultural needs. This caught fish is used by the Japanese to grow rice - they simply pour it onto the rice fields to fertilize it.
- Social. By and large, there is no special social interest for ordinary people in the southern Kuril Islands. This is because there are no modern megacities, people mostly work there and their lives are spent in cabins. Supplies are delivered by air, and less frequently by water due to constant storms. Therefore, the Kuril Islands are more of a military-industrial facility than a social one.
- Tourist. In this regard, things are better in the southern Kuril Islands. These places will be of interest to many people who are attracted by everything real, natural and extreme. It is unlikely that anyone will remain indifferent at the sight of a thermal spring gushing out of the ground, or from climbing the caldera of a volcano and crossing the fumarole field on foot. And there’s no need to talk about the views that open up to the eye.
For this reason, the dispute over the ownership of the Kuril Islands never gets off the ground.
Dispute over Kuril territory
Who owns these four island territories - Shikotan, Iturup, Kunashir and the Habomai Islands - is not an easy question.
Information from written sources points to the discoverers of the Kuril Islands - the Dutch. The Russians were the first to populate the territory of Chishimu. Shikotan Island and the other three were designated for the first time by the Japanese. But the fact of discovery does not yet provide grounds for ownership of this territory.
The island of Shikotan is considered the end of the world because of the cape of the same name located near the village of Malokurilsky. It impresses with its 40-meter drop into the ocean waters. This place is called the edge of the world due to the stunning view of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.
Shikotan Island translates as Big City. It stretches for 27 kilometers, measures 13 kilometers in width, and occupies an area of 225 square meters. km. The highest point of the island is the mountain of the same name, rising 412 meters. Part of its territory belongs to the state nature reserve.
Shikotan Island has a very rugged coastline with numerous bays, capes and cliffs.
Previously, it was thought that the mountains on the island were volcanoes that had ceased to erupt, with which the Kuril Islands abound. But they turned out to be rocks displaced by shifts of lithospheric plates.
A little history
Long before the Russians and Japanese, the Kuril Islands were inhabited by the Ainu. The first information from Russians and Japanese about the Kuril Islands appeared only in the 17th century. A Russian expedition was sent in the 18th century, after which about 9,000 Ainu became Russian citizens.
A treaty was signed between Russia and Japan (1855), called Shimodsky, where boundaries were established allowing Japanese citizens to trade on 2/3 of this land. Sakhalin remained no man's territory. After 20 years, Russia became the undivided owner of this land, then lost the south in the Russo-Japanese War. But during the Second World War, Soviet troops were still able to regain the south of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands as a whole.
A peace agreement was nevertheless signed between the victorious states and Japan, and this happened in San Francisco in 1951. And according to it, Japan has absolutely no rights to the Kuril Islands.
But then the Soviet side did not sign, which was considered by many researchers to be a mistake. But there were serious reasons for this:
- The document did not specifically indicate what was included in the Kuril Islands. The Americans said that it was necessary to apply to a special international court for this. Plus, a member of the Japanese delegation announced that the southern disputed islands are not the territory of the Kuril Islands.
- The document also did not indicate exactly who would own the Kuril Islands. That is, the issue remained controversial.
In 1956, the USSR and the Japanese side signed a declaration preparing a platform for the main peace agreement. In it, the Country of the Soviets meets the Japanese halfway and agrees to transfer to them only the two disputed islands of Habomai and Shikotan. But with a condition - only after signing a peace agreement.
The declaration contains several subtleties:
- The word “transfer” means that they belong to the USSR.
- This transfer will actually take place after the signatures on the peace treaty have been signed.
- This applies only to the two Kuril Islands.
This was a positive development between the Soviet Union and the Japanese side, but it also caused concern among the Americans. Thanks to Washington pressure, the Japanese government completely changed ministerial positions and new officials who took high positions began to prepare a military agreement between America and Japan, which began to operate in 1960.
After this, a call came from Japan to give up not two islands offered to the USSR, but four. America puts pressure on the fact that all agreements between the Country of Soviets and Japan are not necessary to be fulfilled; they are supposedly declarative. And the existing and current military agreement between the Japanese and the Americans implies the deployment of their troops on Japanese territory. Accordingly, they have now come even closer to Russian territory. 
Based on all this, Russian diplomats stated that until all foreign troops are withdrawn from its territory, a peace agreement cannot even be discussed. But in any case, we are talking about only two islands in the Kuril Islands.
As a result, American security forces are still located on Japanese territory. The Japanese insist on the transfer of 4 Kuril Islands, as stated in the declaration.
The second half of the 80s of the 20th century was marked by the weakening of the Soviet Union and in these conditions the Japanese side again raises this topic. But the dispute over who will own the South Kuril Islands remains open. The Tokyo Declaration of 1993 states that the Russian Federation is the legal successor of the Soviet Union, and accordingly, previously signed papers must be recognized by both parties. It also indicated the direction to move towards resolving the territorial affiliation of the disputed four Kuril Islands.
The advent of the 21st century, and specifically 2004, was marked by the raising of this topic again at a meeting between Russian President Putin and the Prime Minister of Japan. And again everything happened again - the Russian side offers its conditions for signing a peace agreement, and Japanese officials insist that all four South Kuril Islands be transferred to their disposal. 
2005 was marked by readiness Russian President end the dispute, guided by the 1956 agreement, and transfer two island territories to Japan, but Japanese leaders did not agree with this proposal.
In order to somehow reduce tensions between the two states, the Japanese side was offered to help develop nuclear energy, develop infrastructure and tourism, and also improve the environmental situation, as well as security. The Russian side accepted this proposal.
At the moment, for Russia there is no question of who owns the Kuril Islands. Without a doubt, this is the territory Russian Federation, based on real facts - based on the results of the Second World War and the generally recognized UN Charter. 
It's simple. Underneath Japanophilia lies the desire to transform the Sea of Okhotsk from an internal Russian one into a sea open to the “world community.” With great consequences for us, both military and economic.
Well, who was the first to develop these lands? Why on earth does Japan consider these islands to be its ancestral territories?
To do this, let's look at the history of the development of the Kuril ridge.
The islands were originally inhabited by the Ainu. In their language, “kuru” meant “a person who came from nowhere,” which is where their second name “Kurilians” came from, and then the name of the archipelago.
In Russia, the Kuril Islands were first mentioned in the reporting document of N. I. Kolobov to Tsar Alexei in 1646 about the peculiarities of the wanderings of I. Yu. Moskvitin. Also, data from chronicles and maps of medieval Holland, Scandinavia and Germany indicate indigenous Russian villages. N.I. Kolobov spoke about the bearded Ainu inhabiting the islands. The Ainu were engaged in gathering, fishing and hunting, living in small settlements throughout the Kuril Islands and on Sakhalin.
Founded after the campaign of Semyon Dezhnev in 1649, the cities of Anadyr and Okhotsk became bases for exploring the Kuril Islands, Alaska and California.
The development of new lands by Russia took place in a civilized manner and was not accompanied by the extermination or displacement of the local population from the territory of their historical homeland, as happened, for example, with the North American Indians. The arrival of the Russians led to the spread among the local population of more effective means hunting, metal products, and most importantly, contributed to the cessation of bloody inter-tribal feuds. Under the influence of the Russians, these peoples began to engage in agriculture and move to a sedentary lifestyle. Trade revived, Russian merchants flooded Siberia and the Far East with goods, the existence of which the local population did not even know.
In 1654, the Yakut Cossack foreman M. Stadukhin visited there. In the 60s, part of the northern Kuril Islands was put on the map by the Russians, and in 1700 the Kuril Islands were put on the map of S. Remizov. In 1711, the Cossack ataman D. Antsiferov and captain I. Kozyrevsky visited the Paramushir Shumshu islands. The following year, Kozyrevsky visited the islands of Iturup and Urup and reported that the inhabitants of these islands lived “autocratically.”
I. Evreinov and F. Luzhin, who graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Geodesy and Cartography, made a trip to the Kuril Islands in 1721, after which the Evreinovs personally presented a report on this voyage and a map to Peter I.
Russian navigators Captain Shpanberg and Lieutenant Walton in 1739 were the first Europeans to discover the route to the eastern shores of Japan, visited the Japanese islands of Hondo (Honshu) and Matsmae (Hokkaido), described the Kuril ridge and mapped all the Kuril Islands and the eastern coast of Sakhalin.
The expedition established that only one island of Hokkaido was under the rule of the “Japanese Khan”, the rest of the islands were not subject to him. Since the 60s, interest in the Kuril Islands has noticeably increased, Russian fishing vessels are increasingly landing on their shores, and soon the local population - the Ainu - on the islands of Urup and Iturup were brought under Russian citizenship.
The merchant D. Shebalin was ordered by the office of the port of Okhotsk to “convert the inhabitants of the southern islands into Russian citizenship and start trading with them.” Having brought the Ainu under Russian citizenship, the Russians founded winter quarters and camps on the islands, taught the Ainu to use firearms, raise livestock and grow some vegetables.
Many of the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and learned to read and write.
Russian missionaries did everything to spread Orthodoxy among the Kuril Ainu and taught them the Russian language. Deservedly first in this line of missionaries is the name of Ivan Petrovich Kozyrevsky (1686-1734), in the monasticism of Ignatius. A.S. Pushkin wrote that “Kozyrevsky in 1713 conquered the two Kuril Islands and brought Kolesov news of the trade of these islands with the merchants of the city of Matmaya.” In the texts of Kozyrevsky’s “Drawing for the Sea Islands” it was written: “On the first and other islands in Kamchatka Nos, from the autocratic ones shown on that campaign, he smoked with affection and greetings, and others, in military order, brought them back into tribute payment.” Back in 1732, the famous historian G.F. Miller noted in the academic calendar: “Before this, the local residents did not have any faith. But in twenty years, by order of His Imperial Majesty, churches and schools were built there, which give us hope, and from time to time this people will be brought out of their delusion.” Monk Ignatius Kozyrevsky in the south of the Kamchatka Peninsula, at his own expense, founded a church with a limit and a monastery, in which he himself later took monastic vows. Kozyrevsky managed to convert “the local people of other faiths” - the Itelmen of Kamchatka and the Kuril Ainu.
The Ainu fished, beat sea animals, baptized their children in Orthodox churches, wore Russian clothes, had Russian names, spoke Russian and proudly called themselves Orthodox. In 1747, the “newly baptized” Kurilians from the islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, numbering more than two hundred people, through their toen (leader) Storozhev, turned to the Orthodox mission in Kamchatka with a request to send a priest “to confirm them in the new faith.”
By order of Catherine II in 1779, all taxes not established by decrees from St. Petersburg were cancelled. Thus, the fact of the discovery and development of the Kuril Islands by Russians is undeniable.
Over time, the fisheries in the Kuril Islands were depleted, becoming less and less profitable than off the coast of America, and therefore, by the end of the 18th century, the interest of Russian merchants in the Kuril Islands weakened. In Japan, by the end of the same century, interest in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin was just awakening, because before that the Kuril Islands were practically unknown to the Japanese. The island of Hokkaido - according to the testimony of Japanese scientists themselves - was considered a foreign territory and only a small part of it was populated and developed. At the end of the 70s, Russian merchants reached Hokkaido and tried to establish trade with the local residents. Russia was interested in purchasing food in Japan for Russian fishing expeditions and settlements in Alaska and the Pacific Islands, but it was never possible to establish trade, since it was prohibited by the law on the isolation of Japan in 1639, which read: “For the future, while the sun shines peace, no one has the right to land on the shores of Japan, even if he were an envoy, and this law can never be repealed by anyone under pain of death."
And in 1788, Catherine II sent a strict order to Russian industrialists in the Kuril Islands so that they “do not touch the islands under the jurisdiction of other powers,” and a year before she issued a decree on equipment round the world expedition for an accurate description and mapping of the islands from Masmaya to Kamchatka Lopatka, so that they “all formally belong to the possession of the Russian state.” It was ordered not to allow foreign industrialists to “trade and trade in places belonging to Russia and to deal peacefully with local residents.” But the expedition did not take place due to the outbreak of the Russian-Turkish War of 1787-1791.
Taking advantage of the weakening of Russian positions in the southern part of the Kuril Islands, Japanese fish farmers first appeared in Kunashir in 1799, and the next year in Iturup, where they destroyed Russian crosses and illegally erected a pillar with a designation indicating that the islands belonged to Japan. Japanese fishermen often began to arrive on the shores of Southern Sakhalin, fished, and robbed the Ainu, which caused frequent clashes between them. In 1805, Russian sailors from the frigate "Juno" and the tender "Avos" placed a pole with the Russian flag on the shore of Aniva Bay, and the Japanese anchorage on Iturup was devastated. The Russians were warmly received by the Ainu.
In 1854, in order to establish trade and diplomatic relations with Japan, the government of Nicholas I sent Vice Admiral E. Putyatin. His mission also included the delimitation of Russian and Japanese possessions. Russia demanded recognition of its rights to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, which had long belonged to it. Knowing full well what a difficult situation Russia found itself in, while simultaneously waging war with three powers in the Crimea, Japan put forward unfounded claims to the southern part of Sakhalin.
At the beginning of 1855, in Shimoda, Putyatin signed the first Russian-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship, in accordance with which Sakhalin was declared undivided between Russia and Japan, the border was established between the islands of Iturup and Urup, and the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate were opened for Russian ships and Nagasaki.
The Shimoda Treaty of 1855 in Article 2 defines:
“From now on, the border between the Japanese state and Russia will be established between the island of Iturup and the island of Urup. The entire island of Iturup belongs to Japan, the entire island of Urup and the Kuril Islands to the north of it belong to Russia. As for the island of Karafuto (Sakhalin), it is still not divided by the border between Japan and Russia.”
The government of Alexander II made the Middle East and Central Asia the main direction of its policy and, fearing to leave its relations with Japan uncertain in case of a new aggravation of relations with England, signed the so-called St. Petersburg Treaty of 1875, according to which all the Kuril Islands in exchange for recognition of Sakhalin Russian territory was transferred to Japan.
Alexander II, who had previously sold Alaska in 1867 for a symbolic sum at that time - 11 million rubles, and this time made a big mistake by underestimating the strategic importance of the Kuril Islands, which were later used by Japan for aggression against Russia. The Tsar naively believed that Japan would become a peace-loving and calm neighbor of Russia, and when the Japanese, justifying their claims, refer to the 1875 treaty, for some reason they forget (as G. Kunadze “forgot” today) about its first article: “.. . and henceforth eternal peace and friendship will be established between the Russian and Japanese Empires."
Russia has effectively lost access to the Pacific Ocean. Japan, whose imperial ambitions continued to increase, actually had the opportunity to begin a naval blockade of Sakhalin and the entire Far Eastern Russia at any moment.
The population of the Kuril Islands immediately after the establishment of Japanese power was described by the English captain Snow in his notes about the Kuril Islands:
“In 1878, when I first visited the northern islands...all northern residents spoke Russian more or less tolerably. All of them were Christians and professed the religion of the Greek Church. They were visited (and are still visited to this day) by Russian priests, and in the village of Mairuppo in Shumshir a church was built, the boards for which were brought from America. ...The largest settlements in the Northern Kuril Islands were in the port of Tavano (Urup), Uratman, on the shore of Broughtona Bay (Simushir) and the above-described Mairuppo (Shumshir). Each of these villages, in addition to huts and dugouts, had its own church...”
Our famous compatriot, Captain V.M. Golovnin, in the famous “Notes of the Fleet of Captain Golovnin...” mentions the Ainu, “who called himself Alexei Maksimovich.” ...
Then there was 1904, when Japan treacherously attacked Russia.
At the conclusion of the peace treaty in Portsmouth in 1905, the Japanese side demanded Sakhalin Island from Russia as an indemnity. The Russian side stated then that this was contrary to the 1875 treaty. What did the Japanese respond to this?
War crosses out all treaties, you have suffered defeat and let’s proceed from the current situation.
Only thanks to skillful diplomatic maneuvers did Russia manage to retain the northern part of Sakhalin for itself, and southern Sakhalin went to Japan.
At the Yalta Conference of the Heads of Power, countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition, held in February 1945, it was decided after the end of the Second World War that South Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands should be transferred to the Soviet Union, and this was a condition for the USSR to enter the war with Japan - three months after end of the war in Europe.
On September 8, 1951, in San Francisco, 49 countries signed a peace treaty with Japan. The draft treaty was prepared during the Cold War without the participation of the USSR and in violation of the principles of the Potsdam Declaration. The Soviet side proposed to carry out demilitarization and ensure democratization of the country. Representatives of the USA and Great Britain told our delegation that they came here not to discuss, but to sign an agreement and therefore would not change a single line. The USSR, and along with it Poland and Czechoslovakia, refused to sign the treaty. And what’s interesting is that Article 2 of this treaty states that Japan renounces all rights and title to the island of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Thus, Japan itself renounced its territorial claims to our country, confirming this with its signature.
1956, Soviet-Japanese negotiations to normalize relations between the two countries. The Soviet side agrees to cede the two islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan and offers to sign a peace treaty. The Japanese side is inclined to accept the Soviet proposal, but in September 1956 the United States sent a note to Japan stating that if Japan renounces its claims to Kunashir and Iturup and is satisfied with only two islands, then in this case the United States will not give up the Ryukyu Islands , where the main island is Okinawa. The Americans presented Japan with an unexpected and difficult choice - in order to get the islands from the Americans, they had to take ALL the Kuril Islands from Russia. ...Either neither Kuril nor Ryukyu and Okinawa.
Of course, the Japanese refused to sign a peace treaty on our terms. The subsequent security treaty (1960) between the United States and Japan made the transfer of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan impossible. Our country, of course, could not give up the islands for American bases, nor could it bind itself to any obligations to Japan on the issue of the Kuril Islands.
A.N. Kosygin once gave a worthy answer regarding Japan’s territorial claims to us:
- The borders between the USSR and Japan should be considered as the result of the Second World War.
We could put an end to this, but we would like to remind you that just 6 years ago, M.S. Gorbachev, at a meeting with the SPJ delegation, also resolutely opposed the revision of borders, emphasizing that the borders between the USSR and Japan are “legal and legally justified” .
"these territories are not part of the Kuril Islands, which Japan renounced under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951." Pars pro toto. The whole cannot be equal to the part. "...encourage us - dangerously - to mistake parts for the whole." Japan did not renounce the North. He smoked, but from Kuril. San Francisco Treaty of 1951 8 Septembeer. Chapter II. Territory. Article 2. (c) "Japan renounces all right, title and claim to the Kurile Islands, ... Japan renounces all rights, title and claims to the Kurile Islands, ..." website/fareast/20110216/166572662.html 02/16/11 World in our time: Russian anti-aircraft missiles in the Kuril Islands ("Commentary Magazine", USA) J. E. Dyer P.J. Crowley made it equally clear that the treaty does not apply to defense of the Kuril Islands, because the islands are “not under Japanese administration.” J. Crowley also clearly indicated that the treaty does not apply to the defense of the Kuril Islands, since they “are not under Japanese control.” If Japanese the top people look at the Treaty of San Francisco and see after the words “Yap-ya renounces” instead of the real 4 hieroglyphs “Chishima retto” (Kurile Archipelago, Kuril Islands) 4 virtual “Hoppo no Chishima” (Northern Kuril Islands), then what can be a clinical DIAGNOSIS? All the Kuril Islands were and are called in Japanese by one name, which sounds approximately like “Chishima”, which translates as “1000 islands”. The Southern Kuril Islands are called “Minami Chishima” or “Southern Chishima”. In the description of the modern revisionist map of the Nemuro Subprefecture, where they painstakingly included the Southern Kuril Islands. the combination of characters “Minami Chishima” is used. Moreover, in international documents, in particular in memorandum 677 (a separate clause, among others, which removed the Kuril Islands from the sovereignty of Japan), the English transcription of Chishima was used, that is, all the Kuril Islands. It is funny and sad at the same time! Yap-I look like an enraged husband. who discovered after a divorce that he was deprived of access to his body. If you clearly said PASS in the game, you will not be able to get involved in the game again! Japan itself renounced in San Francisco in 1951. If a mother gives her child to an orphanage and signs a notarized waiver of the child, then why should anyone who wants to adopt care that he did not witness the signing of the waiver? The same is true in the case of divorce. How many husbands married to ex-divorced wives witnessed the finalization of that divorce? These are the kind of lawyers we have, both in Japan and in the Russian Federation, God forgive me. THE LAW clearly distinguishes between property “lost (and regained)” and “ABANDONED”. When property is lost, the law considers that the loss occurred accidentally and against the will of the owner. Once found, someone else's property cannot be appropriated and must be returned to the owner in due time. On the contrary, when the owner VOLUNTARILY parts with his property, the law asserts that the property becomes no one’s property, no one’s, and, therefore, not only the above-mentioned property, but also all rights to its maintenance and use are transferred to the FIRST person to take possession of it them. Claims to the San Francisco Treaty are unfounded, since for the Anglo-Saxons the rights of the USSR were self-evident. Japan renounced Kurile (not North-ern Kurile, Japanese Chishima (not Hoppo no Chishima) out of mature reflection, 6 years after the war. What other FORMULA for RENUNCIATION do you need?
which opens only to those
who is truly interested in her...
Kurile Islands.
An archipelago of volcanic islands on the border of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific Ocean, between the island of Hokkaido and the Kamchatka Peninsula (Sakhalin region). It consists of the Greater and Lesser Kuril ridges, separated by the Kuril Straits. The islands form an arc long. OK. 1175 km. Total area 15.6 thousand km?. The largest islands of the Great Kuril Ridge: Paramushir, Onekotan, Simushir, Urup, Iturup, Kunashir. The Lesser Kuril Ridge consists of 6 islands and two groups of rocks; largest o. Shikotan.
Each island is a volcano or a chain of volcanoes, connected by foothills or separated by small isthmuses. The shores are mostly steep, sandy on the isthmuses, and there are few sheltered bays. The islands are mountainous, with heights of 500-1000 m, the Alaid volcano (Atlasova Island on the northern ridge) rises to 2339 m. On the islands approx. 160 volcanoes, including 40 active ones, many thermal springs, and there are strong earthquakes.
The climate is monsoon. Wed. August temperatures from 10 °C in the north to 17 °C in the south, February -7 °C. Precipitation is 600-1000 mm per year, and typhoons are frequent in autumn. There are many lakes, including in craters and lagoons. To the north on the islands there are thickets of alder and rowan, dwarf cedar and heath; on the islands cf. groups - sparse forests of stone birch with Kuril bamboo, to the south. Vakh Island - forests of Kuril larch, bamboo, oak, maple.
Notes on the Kuril Islands" by V. M. Golovnin, 1811
In 1811, the outstanding Russian navigator Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin was commissioned to describe the Kuril and Shantar Islands and the shore of the Tatar Strait. During this task, he, along with other sailors, was captured by the Japanese, where he spent more than 2 years. We invite you to familiarize yourself with the first part of his note “Notes on the Kuril Islands,” which was compiled based on the results of research in the same 1811.
1. About their number and names
If all the islands located between Kamchatka and Japan are understood under the name of the Kuril Islands, then their number will be 26, namely:
1. Alaid
2. Noise
3. Paramushir
4. Flies
5. Makan-Rushi
6. Onekotan
7. Harimkotan*
8. Shnyashkotan**
9. Ekarma
10. Chirinkotan***
11. Musir
12. Raikoke
13. Matua
14. Rasshua
15. Middle Island
16. Ushisir
17. Ketoi
18. Simusir
19. Trebungo-Tchirpoy
20. Yangi-Tchirpoy
21. McIntor**** or Broughton Island
22. Urup
23. Iturup
24. Chikotan
25. Kunashir
26. Matsmai
Here is the real account of the Kuril Islands. But the Kurilians themselves and the Russians who visit them count only 22 islands, which they call: the first, the second, etc., and sometimes by proper names, which are:
Shumshu first island
Paramushir second
The third fly
Makan-Rushi fourth
Onekotan fifth
Harimkotan sixth
Shnyashkotan seventh
Ekarma eighth
Chirinkotan ninth
Musir tenth
Raikoke eleventh
Matua twelfth
Rashua the thirteenth
Ushisir fourteenth
Chum salmon fifteenth
Simusir sixteenth
Tchirpoy seventeenth
Urup eighteenth
Iturup nineteenth
Chikotan twentieth
Kunashir twenty-first
Matsmai twenty-second
The reason for this difference in the number of islands is the following: neither the Kurils nor the Russians living in that region consider Alaid to be the Kuril Island, although in all respects it belongs to this ridge. The islands of Trebungo-Tchirpoy and Yangi-Tchirpoy are separated by a very narrow strait and located not far from them to the NW, the almost bare, small island of Makintor, or Broughton Island, they mean by the general name of the seventeenth island and, finally, the island of Sredny, almost connected to Ushisir by a ridge of surface and pitfalls, they do not consider it a special island. So, with the exception of these four islands, there remain 22 islands, as usual, in the Kuril ridge.
It is also known that in different descriptions and on different maps of the Kuril Islands some of them are called differently: this discrepancy arose from error and ignorance. Here it would not be amiss to mention under what names some of the Kuril Islands are known on the best foreign maps and in the description of Captain Krusenstern.
Musir Island, otherwise called Steller Sea Stones by its residents, is called Stone Traps by Captain Kruzenshtern.
He calls Raikoke Musir, Matua - Raikoke, Rasshua - Matua, Ushisir - Rasshua, Ketoy - Ushisir, Simusir - Ketoy, and on foreign maps they write it Marikan.
The French, after La Perouse, call Tchirpa the Four Brothers.
Foreigners write Urup as Company Land, and the Russian American Company calls it Alexander Island.
Iturup on foreign maps is called the Land of States. Chikotan, or Spanberg Island. Matsmai, or Esso Land.
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The Alaid island mentioned in the text is Atlasov Island, which received its modern name in 1954 - the Alaid volcano island. It is an almost regular volcanic cone, the diameter of the base of which is 8-10 km. Its peak lies at 2339 m (according to historical data, before the strong eruptions of 1778 and 1821, the height of the volcano was much higher), which means that Alaid is the highest volcano in the Kuril ridge.
Please note that the 26th island of the Kuril chain is named Matsmai Island - this is Hokkaido. Hokkaido became part of Japan only in 1869. Until this time, the Japanese lived only on the southern tip of the island, where there was a small Japanese principality. The rest of the territory was inhabited by the Ainu, who even outwardly differed sharply from the Japanese: white-faced, with strong hair, for which the Russians called them “shaggy Kurilians.” It is known from documents that at least in 1778-1779 the Russians collected yasak from the inhabitants of the northern coast of Hokkaido.
The largest of the Kuril Islands in the direction from north to south: Shumshu - 467 square kilometers,
Paramushir - 2479 square kilometers,
Onekotan, or Omukotan, - 521 square kilometers,
Kharimkotan - 122 square kilometers,
Shiyashkotan - 179 square kilometers,
Simusir - 414 square kilometers,
Urup - 1511 square kilometers, Iturup, the largest of the Kuril Islands - 6725 square kilometers.
Kunashir Island - 1548 square kilometers
and Chikotan or Scotan - 391 square kilometers.
Island Shikotan- this place is the end of the world. Just 10 km from the village of Malokurilskoye, behind a small pass, lies its main attraction - Cape World's End. ... Russian navigators Rikord and Golovnin called him Fr. Chikotan.
Small islands are located from north to south: Alaid - 92 square kilometers (Atlasov Island), Shirinki, Makanrushi or Makansu - 65 square kilometers, Avos, Chirinkotan, Ekarma - 33 square kilometers, Musir, Raikoke, Malua or Matua - 65 square kilometers . Islands: Rasshua - 64 square kilometers, Ketoi - 61 square kilometers, Brotona, Chirpoi, Brother Chirpoev, or Brother Hirnoy, (18 square kilometers). Between the islands from the Sea of Okhotsk to the east to the Pacific Ocean there are straits: the Kuril Strait, the Small Kuril Strait, the Strait of Hope, the Strait of Diana, the Bussoli Strait, the De Vries Strait and the Pico Strait.
The entire series of Kuril Islands is of volcanic origin. There are a total of 52 volcanoes, including 17 active ones. There are many hot and sulfur springs on the islands;
earthquakes .
The Ainu, the peoples who inhabited the Kuril Islands, christened each island individually. These are the words of the Ainu language: Paramushir - a wide island, Onekotan - an old settlement, Ushishir - the land of bays, Chiripoy - birds, Urup - salmon, Iturup - large salmon, Kunashir - a black island, Shikotan - the best place. Since the 18th century, the Russians and Japanese have tried to rename the islands in their own way. Most often, serial numbers were used - the first island, the second, etc.; only the Russians counted from the north, and the Japanese from the south.
