Islands transferred to China. The State Duma wants to find out why Putin gave China one and a half islands. Amur waves in border relations
Over the past 25 years, Russia has given China as much land as it could not take over the previous century and a half. Friendship continues
Chinese army soldier. Photo: PhotoXPress
In the arms
"Chinese politics is an endless path of cunning."
Sun Tzu, Chinese politician of the 6th century BC.
In connection with the intention of the authorities of the Trans-Baikal Territory to lease more than 300 thousand hectares of agricultural land to China for 49 years, I think it is necessary to recall how much of their territory the USSR, and then Russia, gave to China over the past 25 years.
The agreement between the USSR and the People's Republic of China on the Soviet-Chinese state border on its eastern part was signed on May 16, 1991, and ratified by the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation on February 13, 1992. It was decided to draw the border along the fairway of navigable rivers and the middle of non-navigable rivers. Before this, the border mainly ran along the Chinese coast, in accordance with previously concluded Soviet-Chinese agreements. In the fall of 1991, a demarcation commission was created, headed by Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Genrikh Kireev. No comments were given to the Soviet people about the change in the border on the Far Eastern borders. Everything happened quietly, almost secretly. The commission worked for seven years. During this time, Russia gave China approximately 600 islands on the Amur and Ussuri rivers, as well as 10 square kilometers of land territory. Russia lost another one and a half thousand hectares of land in Primorye during the demarcation of the border in November 1995, implementing the 1994 Agreement between Russia and the People's Republic of China on the Russian-Chinese state border on its Western part.
After Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement in 1991 according to which the border with China should pass along the Amur waterway, the Chinese had the opportunity to challenge Russia’s ownership of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands in the Khabarovsk region, as well as Bolshoi Island in the Amur region.
Well, then Boris Yeltsin announced that these islands had become a disputed territory. Meanwhile, these islands became disputed due to the long-term efforts of the Chinese side to change the course of the Amur.
More about these efforts of the Chinese below.
We gave our...
“Mountains and rivers are easy to change, but human character is difficult.”
Chinese proverb
Boris Tkachenko, a leading researcher at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, is confident that the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which was in force in February 1992, “did not allow changes to the state border, and referred the solution to issues entailing changes in the territory of the Russian Federation exclusively to the competence of the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation. Consequently, the ratification of the agreement between the Soviet Union and China on changing the state border was carried out with violations. That is, there was no ratification. Because the congress was in effect at that time. The issue had to be brought to the congress. The Supreme Council of the Russian Federation was the body that did not have the authority to do this. With the same success it could have been ratified at a meeting of the Moscow City Council, regional council, village council...”
According to the Declaration of Sovereignty of the Russian Federation of June 12, 1990, any changes in the territory of the Russian Federation could not occur without the will of the people, expressed through a referendum. “What did we get? They received a border change that was not in our favor, they simply gave us theirs. We received an influx of low-quality Chinese goods, a flow of Chinese who live here as if at home. As the Russian Federation weakens, the Chinese will bring all these treaties to light and will prove that the Aigun and Beijing treaties of the 19th century were unequal, since they were concluded during the period of China’s weakening. China was forced to give in. And then the question will be asked: get out. And when there are no longer 200 thousand of them here, but two million or 20 million, can you imagine what will happen?!” - says Tkachenko.
By the way, in the 90s, the spiritual leader of China Deng Xiaoping already spoke about contractual “injustice”: “In the second half of the 19th century, Tsarist Russia forced the rulers of the Qing dynasty of China to conclude a number of unequal treaties. Thus, tsarist Russia captured a total of over one and a half million square meters. km of Chinese territory."
Not far from the city of Heihe, the Chinese built a museum of their Chinese shame. It talks about the unfavorable international treaties that China has ever entered into.
We are also talking about the Beijing (1860) and Aigun (1858) treaties. “Not to forget the national shame, to revive the spirit of the Chinese nation” - this is the message of the Museum of Infamy. Foreigners are not allowed into this museum, just like into the museum complex on the former Soviet island of Damansky, where there were fierce battles with the Chinese in 1969.
Damansky, now a Chinese island
Then 58 Soviet border guards and more than 800 Chinese citizens died. In 1991, Damansky was given to China. On Zhenbao, or “Precious Island” as the Chinese call it, which has an area of only 0.74 square meters. km, an obelisk was erected with the names of the national heroes of China who died on Damansky. This is where Chinese border guards now take the oath. And since 2009, the former Damansky has also hosted an officially approved national base for the education of patriotism.
Chinese border guards now take the oath of office in this building on what was once a Russian island.
By the way, in the 90s, the then governor of the Primorsky Territory, Evgeny Nazdratenko, by analogy with the Chinese Museum of Shame, wanted to erect a pillar of shame in the center of Vladivostok as a sign of disagreement with the transfer of part of the territory of the Primorsky Territory to China. But something went wrong. The pole was never installed. But it would be necessary. At least in memory of the fact that
Border guards from the Khasansky district of Primorsky Krai themselves came to the government with the initiative to move the border towards Russia, citing the fact that it is difficult for them to serve some areas of inaccessible terrain. And so they proposed to give these lands to China. 300 hectares! It turned out quite patriotic!
On a friendly basis
“Two tigers in one den - which one will survive, which one will die?”
Chinese proverb
In 1991, the then Soviet Union agreed that one and a half thousand square meters. km of Soviet land will be developed jointly with China. That is, Soviet citizens and Chinese could cut hay on equal terms and fish in the river areas adjacent to the islands. In fact, these lands were solely used by the Chinese; Soviet and then Russian border guards did not allow their citizens to enter the islands. Five years later, the islands went to China.
In 1999, as Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin signed a government decree on the joint economic use of individual islands and adjacent water areas of border rivers. With this resolution, Russia allowed the joint economic use of the Verkhnekonstantinovsky Island and the adjacent waters of the Amur River (Heilongjiang), which are under the sovereignty of the Russian Federation, and allowed the border population of the Chinese People's Republic engage in traditional economic activities in the area.
In turn, the Chinese side allowed Russian citizens living in the border area to conduct joint farming on the island of Menkesilizhouzhu and island No. 1 of the Longzhangdao group of islands and the adjacent waters of the Argun River.
The Chinese made full use of Russian land, and Russian border guards never allowed Russian citizens onto the Chinese islands.
Separately, it is worth mentioning our two islands, which the Chinese seized by force back in 1985. After that, the Soviet and then Russian border guards did not even go there. These unnamed islands with a total area of 2.4 square meters. km have serial numbers 1007 and 1008 and are located in the Khabarovsk Territory beyond the fairway of the Kazakevich channel, that is, their belonging to Russia has always been indisputable. Nevertheless, on the maps of Russian military intelligence it is said that “here the Chinese fish, graze livestock, 10-15 people in winter, and 30-40 people in summer.”
Near these islands, the Chinese for several years filled up the Kazakevich channel with soil, flooding a barge with stones in it. As a result, the Kazakevich channel became unnavigable.
In the same way, the Chinese, in violation of international treaties, unilaterally strengthened their bank of the Amur and erected about 600 kilometers of dams, which gradually led to a change in the river’s fairway.
We continue to give
“If there is a gap, there will be fly larvae.”
Chinese proverb
On October 15, 2004, in Beijing, Putin signed the “Additional Agreement on the Russian-Chinese State Border on its Eastern Part,” which spoke of the voluntary transfer to China of Tarabarov Island, part of the Bolshoi Ussuri Island in the Khabarovsk Territory and Bolshoy Island in the Chita Region. All these islands were of strategic importance for the state. A large fortified area and a border outpost were located on Bolshoy Ussuriysky, and the takeoff trajectory of military aircraft of the 11th Air Force and Air Defense Army (now the 3rd Air Force and Air Defense Command), which is stationed in Khabarovsk, passed over Tarabarov. In addition, on these islands there were dachas for Khabarovsk residents, hayfields... On Bolshoy Island, with an area of 70 square meters. km, a border post was located and drinking water was collected for part of the region.
Foreign Minister Lavrov then said: the interests of the residents of the Khabarovsk Territory were not harmed after the signing of the additional agreement to the bilateral border treaty.
“We have something to prove the unconditional benefit of this agreement; in it, the interests of Russian citizens, primarily those living in Khabarovsk, are protected,” Lavrov said. Minister Lavrov, before saying this, should have gone to the Khabarovsk Territory and studied the mood of the people on the spot.
Khabarovsk residents were actively indignant and protested, but the federal press was silent about this.
At that time, only two governors - Primorsky Territory Nazdratenko and Khabarovsk Ishaev - resisted the transfer of Russian territories to China. Nazdratenko wrote letters to Chernomyrdin asking for a revision of the 1991 border agreement with China, and Viktor Ishaev even ordered the construction of a pontoon bridge connecting Khabarovsk with the island of Bolshoy Ussuriysky, where the chapel of the martyr-warrior Victor was installed - in memory of those who died defending Far Eastern borders of Russia.
Obelisk of Remembrance and Chapel of the Martyr Warrior
Ishaev also began excavation work to connect the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky, and he did not particularly allow the Chinese into the Khabarovsk Territory. “The territory is ours, Russian. So it was, is and will be,” said Ishaev. But everything is in vain. In 2005, Russia gave China Tarabarov Island, half of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island (half, apparently, only because the chapel built by Ishaev was on the island) and Bolshoy Island in the Chita region. A total of 337 sq. km.
O. Bolshoy Ussuriysky. On one half there is a Chinese border post, on the other there is a Russian chapel.
“Delayed dispute” method
“It’s better not to know hieroglyphs than not to know people.”
Chinese proverb
The “deferred dispute” method, developed in the PRC back in the 70s, has brought results. This method boils down to taking border-territorial disputes beyond the framework of bilateral international relations and waiting until “the conditions are ripe” to resolve the issue on acceptable terms for China, or, even better, simply on Chinese terms. This time the Chinese did not wait long for a situation favorable to them to ripen. In 25 years, China received as much land from Russia as it could not get for a century and a half. “Any concessions and hesitations on our part, as experience has proven, are understood by the Chinese as a sign of weakness and encourage them to further extortion,” wrote the Minister of War of Tsarist Russia, Vladimir Sukhomlinov, at the beginning of the last century.
Maps, atlases and school textbooks in China continue to be published with descriptions of the territories “temporarily abandoned by China”, in which Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Nakhodka, Amur Region, Buryatia and Sakhalin are designated by Chinese names. For example, on maps in a high school history textbook, part of Russian territory is marked as former Chinese land with the following explanation:
“Thanks to the Treaty of Aigun in 1858, Tsarist Russia cut off more than 600,000 square meters. km of Chinese territory. Thanks to the Treaty of Beijing in 1860, Tsarist Russia cut off about 400,000 square meters. km of Chinese territory...
Thanks to the Treaty of Ili in 1881 and subsequent five border agreements, Tsarist Russia cut off more than 70,000 square meters. km of Chinese territory."
And in the directory of Heilongjiang Province, which borders our Far East and Primorye, it is reported: “ Chinese city Heilongnao is located on the northern bank of the river. Heilongjiang, Aihui County. In 1858, after Tsarist Russia forced China to sign the Treaty of Aigun, it captured it and renamed it the city of Blagoveshchensk.”
The Concept of National Security of the Russian Federation, in force from 2000 to 2009, stated, among other things: “Threats to the national security and interests of the Russian Federation in the border area are caused by the economic, demographic and cultural-religious expansion of neighboring states into Russian territory.” The current concept, valid until 2020, does not say a word about expansion.
It must be said that not only Russia gave up its lands to China when demarcating the border, but also Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. Thousands of kilometers of the former Soviet Union eventually passed to the People's Republic of China.
However, China still has territorial claims to India, Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia. Recently, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that work on creating a artificial islands. China increased itself by 8 square meters. km of land that will be used for the construction of military and civilian facilities. And this despite the fact that the Spratly archipelago is controversial. In addition to China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Taiwan and the Philippines claim it. Huang Jing, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the Lee Kuan Yew Institute of Public Policy in Singapore, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal: “China can now tell its people that it has achieved what it wanted. China thus shows that it has the initiative and can do whatever it considers to be in its interests.”
Strategic partnership
“You can only buy by mistake, but you cannot sell by mistake.”
Chinese proverb
Ravil Geniatulin, the former head of the Chita region, and then the entire Trans-Baikal Territory, spoke about his region: “The economic potential of the forests makes it possible to harvest wood for all types of use up to 50 million cubic meters, and the proximity of sales markets in China, Japan and other countries of the Pacific region makes it attractive and beneficial for international cooperation.” For the past two decades, active deforestation has been going on both in the Trans-Baikal Territory, and in Primorye, and in the Irkutsk region. For example, in Primorye, up to 1.5 million cubic meters of wood are illegally cut down annually, and in the Amur Region, more than half of the regional forest fund is given over to logging.
In 1998, the Chinese government completely banned commercial logging on its territory for 20 years. This forest protection program is called the “Great Green Wall” by the Chinese. For many years, the Chinese have been purchasing roundwood, that is, unprocessed wood, from Malaysia, Gabon, Cameroon, North Korea and in Russia. Russia leads the list.
Moreover, it is believed that 80 percent of Russian timber going to China is stolen. Chita, Irkutsk - the largest illegal timber markets are located here. Purchasing a permit supposedly for sanitary felling, loggers cut down first-grade lumber, and take only the lower, most valuable part of the trunk, and abandon the rest at the felling site.
In a number of regions of the Far East and Transbaikalia, Chinese entrepreneurs are already absolute monopolists in the logging industry.
Joint Russian-Chinese wood processing enterprises most often turn out to be simply a fiction. The Chinese government even passed a law banning the purchase of processed timber from Russia. Only unprocessed timber is purchased. In a continuous stream, loaded trains with unprocessed wood move towards the Chinese border.
It should be noted that Chinese enterprises operating on Russian territory very often do not follow the norms of the legislation of the Russian Federation, but are actually Chinese colonies where the laws of the People's Republic of China apply.
It is fundamentally important that in all production areas the Chinese try to raise their national flag and place information signs in Chinese.
According to the officially unadvertised resolution of the State Council of the People's Republic of China "On measures to further stabilize the problem of employment and distribution of labor resources", the main efforts should be aimed at expanding the export of labor from Northeast China to the sparsely populated agricultural areas of Russia adjacent to the state border. Chinese organizations are directed to explore opportunities to convert Chinese workers' contracts from seasonal to year-round employment. At the same time, great importance is given to renting land and creating compact places for Chinese citizens to live. So the authorities of the Trans-Baikal Territory, wanting to lease hundreds of hectares of Russian land for 49 years, are simply complying with the resolution of the State Council of the People's Republic of China.
Very revealing in the context of Russian-Chinese partnership economic relations was the speech of the acting governor of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Alexander Levinthal, at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum: “I was recently appointed governor, and investors rushed to me. They say: "Let's develop Agriculture" But it turns out that there is practically none! Because the whole land is cut into shreds, and 80% of the territories are controlled by the Chinese - in various ways, legal and illegal. At the same time, 80% of the land is planted with soybeans, which are killing the land.”
It is not only soybeans that are killing the earth, but also Chinese pesticides, which are actively used by Chinese agricultural workers on rented land.
“China is our biggest neighbor, it’s a big, roughly speaking, fat pig that lies in our underbelly of Siberia and the Far East. And it must be carefully studied - what global strategic goals they set for themselves. I do not believe at all in a strategic partnership between Russia and China. I think this is a far-fetched thing. For us, it all comes down to declarations; it seems that we have declared a partnership. Partnership must be expressed in concrete actions. How did China help us? Nothing. For now, we are interesting to them as a supplier of the latest developments in the field of military technologies and equipment, as a source of raw materials. But time will pass when everything will be sucked out of here, and in this regard we will be uninteresting to them,” says historian Boris Tkachenko.
The head of the Trans-Baikal Territory, Konstantin Ilkovsky, signing a protocol of intent with the Chinese company Huae Xinban to lease land within the framework of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, explained his decision by the low demand for agricultural land. Apparently, this is why the Chinese will get the land for just pennies. The rent will be only 250 rubles per year per hectare, that is, less than five dollars. This is really profitable! But obviously not for Russia. According to official information, the investor - the Chinese company Huae Xinban - plans to grow fodder, grains, oilseeds, and also medicinal herbs for pharmacology, develop industrial cattle breeding, poultry farming, and beef cattle breeding.
In fact, the Sinban company is a well-known enterprise in the region. It has been “feeding” Transbaikalia with its projects for a long time. For example, since 2004 they promised to build a large modern pulp and paper mill here. But it hasn’t been built yet. But over the years, the most valuable forests between the Shilka and Argun rivers were exported to China through the Pokrovka-Logukhe winter crossing, and a dam was illegally poured for the construction of a 10-meter dam in the bed of the Amazar River, a large tributary of the Upper Amur.
Shaded green are plots with a total area of 928,122 hectares that the Chinese leased for 49 years for the construction of the Amazar Pulp and Paper Mill in the Mogochinsky district of the Trans-Baikal Territory
The pulp and paper mill should be built on land that was leased for 49 years by several Chinese companies: Zabaikalskaya Botai LPK LLC (founder - Heilongjiang Zhongte Botai Ecology and Trade LLC), Express LLC (founder - Heilongjiang Investment Management Company LLC). Fu Jin"), LLC "Rusles" (founder - LLC Industrial Enterprise "Rongchengxinyuan" of the city of Argun). The total area of land leased by the Chinese is 1,844,407 hectares, that is, almost the entire strip of forests adjacent to the state border with China is given over for felling. “The logging is carried out by Chinese citizens, who simultaneously destroy the resources of hunting and commercial species of animals and fish resources, not only in the areas being cut down, but also in vast adjacent territories,” it is written in analytical note on the problem of forest management and the creation of specially protected natural areas in the border areas of the Trans-Baikal Territory, prepared by employees of the Trans-Baikal State University and the State Natural Resources biosphere reserve"Daursky".
And here’s what Oleg Polyakov, Minister of Natural Resources of the region, said about the Chinese lease last fall: “This long-term lease agreement was concluded 14 years ago as part of the project for the construction of the Amazar Pulp and Paper Mill. We cannot terminate it now, as the construction of the pulp and paper mill continues. There are no such deals happening now.” Well, yeah, it's not happening! Not even a year had passed since Minister Polyakov’s statement, when the head of Transbaikalia, Ilkovsky, again offered land to the Chinese at a low price.
By the way, the authorities of the Trans-Baikal Territory want to lease land not only to the Chinese. Recently, at a meeting of cooperation groups between the Federation Council and the State Great Khural of Mongolia, First Deputy Prime Minister of the regional government Alexei Shemetov said that the authorities of the Trans-Baikal Territory are ready for any investor to come to the territory of Transbaikalia, including agreeing to lease land to Mongolian investors.
But the Mongols are still silent. Even at a price of five dollars per hectare. Maybe they are waiting for the Russians to agree to give three dollars?
On December 31 last year, President Putin signed a decree on the creation of priority development territories (TOR) (Federal Law No. 473). And the other day, Prime Minister Medvedev proudly announced that the first three territories had been identified - in the Khabarovsk Territory and Primorye. The presidential decree, amazing in its “patriotism,” was signed on the eve of the New Year. In fact, the application of Russian legislation in priority areas is limited, including the abolition of local self-government. According to the signed law, these territories can be leased to foreigners for 70 years (with the right of extension), foreign workers do not require a work permit, there are no restrictive quotas for the import of foreign labor, a free customs zone is introduced, the seizure of land plots and those located on them objects real estate from Russian citizens at the request of the management company. In addition, foreigners are allowed to extract and export minerals and hydrocarbons, cut down forests, fish, and shoot animals in any quantity and without compensation for losses. Residents of priority development areas will pay reduced rates of insurance premiums (Pension Fund - 6%; Social Insurance Fund - 1.5%; Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund - 0.1%), and the lost income of residents will be compensated by interbudgetary transfers provided from the federal budget. And all this is explained by the rapid economic development of the territories.
In reality, this means that the Chinese no longer have any restrictions on entering Russian territory and exporting our natural resources to the Middle Kingdom. With this decree, Putin actually gave China our Far East. This gift was probably made in exchange for an “extraordinarily profitable” contract for the supply of Russian gas to China.
“The Russian and the Chinese are brothers forever”... We remember this song from 1949 during the friendship of Stalin and Mao, and we know what happened then...
In a solemn atmosphere, border pillars were opened on the land section of the border, and the parties exchanged notes confirming the completion of the determination of the Russian-Chinese border line along its entire length. The Russian Foreign Ministry, having reduced the presence of the media, limited the publicity of the ceremony, writes the Kommersant newspaper.
According to eyewitnesses of the transfer of the islands, who wished to remain anonymous, about a hundred representatives of the PRC and 30 Russian officials and security officials took part in the event. The Chinese delegation arrived at the scene of the event (the shore of the Big Ussuri Island closest to the PRC) on boats, setting up a temporary tent camp nearby.
Near the border pillars (stone Chinese and wooden Russian) covered with fabric, the participants of the ceremony were greeted by four girls in national costumes of both countries. After the ceremonial raising of the state flags, the veils from the border pillars were removed, representatives of the parties exchanged notes confirming the entry into force of the additional protocol describing the border line (signed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi in Beijing in July 2008), and short speeches in which the method of resolving the border dispute was set as an example to the world community as “conflict-free.” After this, members of the Russian delegation left the ceremony site.
Let us remember that the state affiliation of the Amur Islands was uncertain for more than forty years. According to the Beijing Treaty of 1860, the Russian-Chinese border in the Khabarovsk region ran along the southern shore of the Amur and Ussuri, and, accordingly, the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky were Russian. In 1991, an intergovernmental agreement was concluded, according to which the Soviet-Chinese border was drawn primarily along the main fairway of the Amur. Thus, some of the islands that previously belonged to the USSR went to China (for example, Damansky Island, over which a border conflict occurred in 1969). The islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky, as well as Bolshoy Island on the Argun River, were removed from the scope of the agreement. China continued to consider these islands disputed.
In October 2004, during Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, an additional agreement on the Russian-Chinese border was signed, providing for the transfer of the Bolshoi and Tarabarov islands to China, as well as the division of the Bolshoi Ussuri Island into Russian and Chinese parts. The federal law approving the additional agreement was ratified by both chambers of the Russian parliament and signed by the president in 2005. On July 21, 2008, the heads of the Foreign Ministries of the Russian Federation and China, in development of the provisions of the agreement, signed the “Additional protocol describing the line of the Russian-Chinese state border on its eastern part,” which determined the line of the border in the area of the Bolshoi, Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky islands. The Chinese side received the entire territory of Tarabarov Island (in the Chinese version - Yinlongdao, Silver Dragon Island) and half of the Big Ussuri Island (Heixiazidao, Black Bear Island). The total area of the territory transferred under Beijing's control was 174 square meters. km.
The decision to transfer the islands on the Amur to China was negatively received by a number of public organizations and opposition parties in the Khabarovsk Territory. In particular, deputies of the Khabarovsk Duma insisted on the extreme importance of the fortified area located on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, designed to hold back the onslaught in the event of aggression from China. In addition, the take-off trajectory of air force and air defense combat aircraft lies over Tarabarov Island. Residents of Khabarovsk were extremely unhappy in 2004 with the prospect of transferring the islands. Representatives of public and political associations made harsh statements.
In 2005, “tens of thousands of signatures against the transfer of the islands” were collected and sent to Moscow, but this did not change Moscow’s decision in any way.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the Khabarovsk Territory, Yuri Berezutsky, believes that the final transfer of the islands to the PRC opens up great prospects for residents of the region. “We have a unique opportunity, which does not exist anywhere else in the country, to intensify not only trade, but also cultural interaction,” said Mr. Berezutsky.
Let us recall that the government of the Khabarovsk Territory, having come to terms with the transfer of the islands to the People's Republic of China, has been developing in recent years a project to create a joint Russian-Chinese trade zone on the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, which provides for the construction of a customs-border crossing on the island and a permanent bridge instead of the currently existing pontoon one. In the future, it is planned to create a new cross-border corridor between China and Russia in this territory.
Having visited Khabarovsk, it is impossible not to discuss an issue that greatly worries many Russian citizens, and Khabarovsk residents are especially concerned. Chinese territory is visible from the beautiful embankment of this city with the naked eye. The majestic Amur flows nearby. There are several islands in the middle of the river. In 2008, Russia transferred Tarabarova Island and part of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island to China.
Why did this happen? The liberal public has presented and continues to present what happened as a “unilateral” and “unjustified” concession on the part of our country in relation to China.
The best way to understand a situation is to look at the facts.
This is an article by Khabarovsk resident Artem Yakovlevich Krivosheev, who tried to sort out the whole situation, as they say, “piece by piece.”
“Why did Russia agree to transfer Tarabarova Island and part of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island to China? Indeed, it is difficult to agree that the concession of 174 sq. m. km. Russian territory is the success of our diplomacy. However, gentlemen, journalists who shout “about selling Russia’s interests”, however, as always, act in opportunistic interests and greatly simplify the problem. Let's try to figure out what made Russian President do so. And the history of the issue dates back to 1858...
Until 1858, the modern Amur Region, the Jewish Autonomous Region, the southern part of the Khabarovsk Territory and the Primorsky Territory, according to the Nerchinsk Treaty of Russia and China in 1689, were, as it were, “neutral territory”. Then this suited both states. However, with the beginning of the confrontation between Russia and England (after the Napoleonic Wars), the situation with the significance modern territory The Amur region is beginning to change. The danger of these territories being occupied by the British and French was growing, and then, having a kind of “wedge” jutting into the continent, the sea powers could successfully launch a fight against both mainland China and mainland Russia.
The consequences of such a development of events were well represented by the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia N.N. Muravyov: “There was a not unfounded assumption that the British would occupy the mouth of the Amur,” reported N.N. on February 25, 1849. Muravyov to Emperor Nicholas I. - What forces and means will be required from the government then so that Eastern Siberia does not become English, when there is an English fortress at the mouth of the Amur, and English ships sail along the Amur to Nerchinsk and even to Chita? ... If instead of an English fortress there was a Russian fortress at the mouth of the Amur, as well as in the Peter and Paul port in Kamchatka, and a flotilla sailed between them, and for greater precautions, that in these fortresses and on the flotilla the garrisons, crew and authorities were delivered from inside Russia “then with these small funds Russia’s possession of Siberia and all its inexhaustible riches would be secured for eternity.”
The Crimean War and the ongoing Opium Wars in China clearly demonstrated that if the Russians do not occupy the Amur region, then the British will do it or, in extreme cases, the French, following in the wake of their policies. Being a talented politician and having authority from the emperor, Governor-General N. N. Muravyov initiated the conclusion of a new treaty on borders with China. According to the Aigun Treaty of May 16, 1858, the entire left bank of the Amur, right up to the mouth of the river, was given to Russia. A direct addition to the agreement was the Treaty of Beijing, concluded between Russia and China on November 2 (14), 1860, as part of a series of treaties between China and European countries in Beijing, which was burned and looted by the British and French. The border between the two countries was established along the Amur, Ussuri and Sungari, through lake. Khanka, up to the river Tumindzyan. Russia, thus, finally secured the Ussuri region. The western border between the two countries was also fixed. The agreement provided for the subsequent determination of the border on the ground, both in its eastern and western sections.
According to the agreement, the eastern border between Russia and China was established starting from the confluence of the Shilka and Argun rivers, downstream the river. Amur to the place where the river flows into it. Ussuri. The treaty avoided the issue of ownership of the islands. However, as part of the demarcation work, the Russian side drew up and attached to the agreement a map with a scale of 25 versts per inch, attached to the text of the Beijing Treaty. An indication of the presence of such a map is in Article 1 of the text of the treaty, which reads: “In addition, in pursuance of the ninth article of the Tianjin Treaty, a compiled map is approved, on which the boundary line, for greater clarity, is marked with a red line and its direction is shown in letters of the Russian alphabet: A, B, C, D, D, E, G, 3, I, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, R, S, T, U. This map is signed by the authorized representatives of both states and sealed with their seals ". It was on this map that Count N.P. Ignatiev drew the border line in red pencil along the Chinese bank of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, and in the Khabarovsk region along the Kazakevichev channel. However, at the conclusion of the Beijing Treaty, the Chinese representative Prince Gong refused to sign this map, and in 1861 - 1886. a description of the border line was compiled only on its section from the mouth of the river. Ussuri to the mouth of the river. Foggy, which seriously confused the matter of demarcating the state border along the Amur River. Thus, the Beijing Treaty provided for gradual work on border demarcation. This work was carried out in Primorye, Central Asia, on the Argun, but on the Amur, until the beginning of the 1990s, no work was carried out to demarcate the state border; only a general delimitation line was recorded.
Thus, although this is surprising, Russia and China did not define a clear border on the Amur for various reasons for more than 100 years - from 1860 to 1990.
All this gave rise to a lot of controversy and difficulties. The Beijing Treaty did not say anything about the ownership of the islands; the Chinese representative, according to the terms of the treaty, did not sign the map. However, the Emperor of China approved the decree along with the map. In addition, the agreement indicated that the border runs downstream of the river. Amur to the place where the river flows into it. Ussuri. The question arose of what should be considered the confluence of the Ussuri River and the Amur. Even among Russian scientists there was no unity on what should be considered the mouth of the river. Ussuri: points located in the area of the station. Kazakevicheva or in the Khabarovsk region.
However, understanding the strategic importance of these islands for the then military post of Khabarovka, Russia immediately established control over the islands of Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov. To avoid border conflicts, all activities on the islands were limited to haymaking. To fix the line of the state border on the ground, the Russian-Chinese demarcation commission in 1861, on the Chinese coast opposite the village of Kazakevicheva, installed a wooden post with the letter “E”, which had coordinates 48º16"20"N. and 152º37" E. In 1886, the wooden pillar was replaced with a stone one, installed in the same place. On the "Map of China and the Amur River Coast" (1859) and "Map of Manchuria" (1897) published in Russia. ) the archipelago was designated as Russian territory.Despite this, the Chinese side has repeatedly made claims to the archipelago, accusing the other side of deception and unauthorized removal of the demarcation pillar.
However, before the outbreak of the First World War, the demarcation of the state border along the Amur was not carried out. For example, according to the instructions of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the coastal population in 1911 was asked to “use those islands that they recognize as belonging to them, without paying attention to the protests of the Chinese,” until the end of the demarcation. In addition, determining the boundary along the main fairway (based on the maximum depth of the channel) on the Amur and Ussuri was very difficult. The point is in the peculiarities of their flow. These rivers carry a lot of silt, which constantly settles on the bottom - and, naturally, exactly where the main river flow goes, that is, along the fairway. As a result, the river fairway shifts every now and then. There are quite a few islands on the rivers. As a rule, silt settles on one side of the island, and on the other side, at the same time, bottom sediments are washed away by the current. Therefore, the fairway continually passes from one side of the island to the other. Thus, the island, which until recently was considered to belong to one of the parties, according to the fairway rule, turns out to belong to the other. Based on this principle, it is not at all possible to determine the ownership of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands. Since there was no clear understanding of what is considered the main fairway. This feature of the Amur and Ussuri rivers was used by the Chinese side in conducting “irrigation wars” in the area of Bolshoy Ussuriysk and Tarabarov, with a serious aggravation of relations with the USSR under Khrushchev, and subsequently under Brezhnev. The meaning was simple: the Chinese sank barges with sand in the Kazakevichev channel, increasing its siltation, which subsequently caused the channel to move north and the automatic annexation of the disputed islands to Chinese territory. Accordingly, we carried out dredging work. Some funny things happened: the Chinese filled up the channel at night, and we deepened it during the day.
It was with such a baggage of contradictions that the state border existed throughout the years of the First World War, the revolution and the civil war in Russia. In 1929, using the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway as a pretext, our troops occupied the Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. Being in close proximity to Khabarovsk and not previously controlled by our troops, the island could be used to shell the city, where industry was beginning to be built. In 1931, Manchuria was occupied by the Japanese. In light of these events, a military presence on the islands was simply necessary. In addition, the USSR took control of almost all the islands on the Amur and Ussuri. Actually, the border remained in this position until the creation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The young state owed a lot to the USSR; in addition, the general ideology and competent policy towards China of the Stalinist USSR did not give rise to a border problem. The PRC and the USSR acted as a united front in the fight against a common enemy - the Anglo-Saxon powers. On February 14, 1950, in Moscow, the Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance was signed for a period of 30 years, designed, according to I.V. Stalin “to serve the cause of ensuring peace in the Far East against any and all aggressors and warmongers.” In accordance with the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, Mutual Assistance (1950), the Soviet-Chinese border, before the start of the revision of bilateral relations, was the border of good neighborliness, where active ties were maintained between the population of the border areas, lively trade was conducted, and cultural exchange was established. Cooperation agreements were concluded in a number of border areas, including the “Agreement on the procedure for navigation along the border rivers Amur, Ussuri, Argun, Sungacha, and Lake. Khanka and about establishing a navigable situation on these waterways" (1951), about forestry, about the joint fight against forest fires in border areas, etc. Within the framework of these agreements, the actually protected border line was not questioned. The absence of complaints from the Chinese comrades is confirmed by the transfer to the PRC of topographic maps indicating the entire border line. There were no comments from the Chinese side regarding the border line.
Problems began with the death of Stalin and Khrushchev's rise to power. From this example, one can clearly recognize the consequences of a country’s leader not understanding the canons of geopolitics. This “projector” managed to lose a number of positions to the Anglo-Saxon powers over the course of several years and greatly spoil relations with allied China. However, until 1960, China did not make territorial claims. It was this year that the long-standing and unresolved territorial issue began to arise, as a reflection of the general sharp deterioration in relations between the countries. In whose interests? In the interests of the United States, of course. In 1960, the USSR unexpectedly recalled Soviet specialists from China and almost simultaneously the first episode on the border occurred, which showed the existence of disagreements between the USSR and China on the issue of the border line and the ownership of certain sections. We are talking about an incident in 1960, when Chinese herders were grazing livestock in territory under Soviet jurisdiction (in the area of the Buz-Aigyr pass in Kyrgyzstan). When the Soviet border guards arrived, the shepherds declared that they were on the territory of the People's Republic of China. It later turned out that they were acting on a directive from the authorities of their province. On this occasion, the foreign ministries of China and the USSR sent each other several notes and made oral statements in which first Since the formation of the PRC, at the official, diplomatic level, different understandings of the border line with the Soviet Union have emerged.
Since the autumn of 1960, systematic exits of Chinese citizens to the islands on the border rivers of the Far East, which are under our control, began. They told the Soviet border guards that they were on Chinese territory. The reaction of Soviet border guards to incidents also changed. If earlier they simply ignored the trades of Chinese peasants in a number of territories under Soviet jurisdiction, then, starting in 1960, they tried to suppress them.
In the current situation, the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee decided to create an interdepartmental commission consisting of specialists from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the KGB and the Ministry of Defense, whose task was to select and study treaty acts on the border with the PRC. The commission identified 13 areas where there were discrepancies in the maps of the parties and 12 where the distribution of islands was not carried out. The border line itself was not clearly marked on the ground, because Of the 141 border markers, 40 were preserved in their original form, 77 were in a destroyed state, and 24 were missing altogether. It was also noted that the description of the boundary in treaty acts is often general in nature, and many treaty maps are drawn up on a small scale at a primitive level. In general, according to the conclusion of the commission, it was noted that the entire border line with the PRC, except for the section in the Pamirs south of the Uz-Bel pass, was determined by treaties. In the case of border negotiations, the commission proposed drawing the border not along the banks of rivers, but along the line of the middle of the main fairway on navigable rivers and along the line of the middle of the river on non-navigable rivers, and not as it was indicated by the red line on the map attached to the Beijing Treaty, according to which the border ran along the Chinese coast. That is, the border was defined very approximately; its new demarcation was necessary. The uncertainty of the border on the ground provided an excellent reason for creating conflict situations.
And China actively used the border problem as a reason for conflicts. Statistics of violations showed that from 1960 to 1964 their number grew rapidly, and in the second half of the 60s the incidents became more acute. In 1960, the number of violations was about 100, in 1962 there were already about 5 thousand. In 1963, more than 100 thousand Chinese civilians and military personnel took part in illegally crossing the Soviet-Chinese border. Thus, Khrushchev’s quarrel with China marked the beginning of a very difficult and painful process of demarcation of the entire state border. Under Khrushchev, in February 1964, consultations with the PRC on border issues began. Moreover, the Chinese put forward obviously unrealistic demands. Thus, China demanded that the Beijing and Aigun treaties be recognized as “unequal.” Here it is necessary to understand that China’s task at that time was not to resolve territorial disputes, but to aggravate them and provoke a conflict, demonstrating to the United States its determination to confront the USSR.
In April 1964, the parties exchanged topographic maps indicating their understanding of the border line and created a working group, after which they began to directly consider the border line. As a result of studying Chinese maps and comparing them with Soviet ones, it was found that there are discrepancies in drawing the border line on these maps in 22 areas, of which 17 are located on the western part of the Soviet-Chinese border (now the Central Asian republics of the former USSR) and 5 areas on eastern part of the border. These areas approximately coincided with the areas that the interdepartmental commission of 1960 indicated in its note. Chinese maps 3 more areas were identified that did not appear in the commission’s materials, including a fairly large area in the Bedel Pass area (Kyrgyzstan), as well as islands near Khabarovsk.
Based on the results of the review of the maps in Moscow, it was concluded that it was possible to hold negotiations not on individual sections, as previously assumed, but along the entire border, as the Chinese delegation insisted. This approach became possible because along most of the length of the border line there were no vital differences in the border. Along the longest line that required clarification—the river border in the Far East—the parties had the same understanding that the border had to run along the main fairway. In this regard, the delegation was given additional instructions to confirm the border line in areas where the parties understand it equally.
So, let us remember that the border problem was initiated by Khrushchev, who threw mud at Stalin, who was an indisputable authority for Mao Zedong, and committed a number of unfriendly actions towards China. The result of Khrushchev’s short-sighted policy was the fighting on Damansky Island, as well as in Kazakhstan and, most importantly, China’s turn from friendship and cooperation with the USSR to the USA. Which in many ways determined our geopolitical defeat in the early 1990s. The border issue was a consequence of this policy.
Further events developed as follows. During Gorbachev's timeDuring negotiations in 1987 - 1991, which culminated in the signing of the 1991 Soviet-Chinese Border Agreement, it was established that the border on the Amur should pass along the main fairway of the river. Under this agreement, many islands previously controlled by the USSR, including Damansky Island, became Chinese territory.
Now the question. Does anyone remember the angry articles by liberals about how Gorbachev is selling his homeland and giving China several dozen “original Russian islands” at once? Nevertheless, here Mikhail Sergeevich, with his passion for unilateral concessions, still helped resolve the long-term border problem, largely initiated by Khrushchev’s policies.
However, this agreement bypassed the solution to the border problem near the islands in the Khabarovsk region. And you can see the reason on the map below. The southernmost channel between China and the islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoy Ussuriysky is the Kazakevich channel. If we consider it the confluence of the Ussuri and the Amur, then all the islands are Russian territory. And if we consider the confluence of the Ussuri and the Amur to be the place north of the Big Ussuri Island, then the islands are completely Chinese territory. And this option is unacceptable for Russia, since then the border will pass directly in close proximity to Khabarovsk (the left bank will be the Chinese bank, and Khabarovsk will be on the right).
In fact, this was the last unresolved territorial dispute with China (together with the island of Abagaituy on the Argun) at the time President Putin took office. It is now necessary to understand the geopolitical context in which Putin acted in the early 2000s. From 2003 to 2004, Vladimir Putin initiates an object lesson for those who want to give Russian mineral resources under the control of US monopolies and, by order of the Americans, buy up the State Duma (the YUKOS case and the imprisonment of Khodorkovsky), repeals the essentially colonial law on the PSA (Partition Agreement products), introduces the mineral extraction tax (“Tax on Mineral Resources”, which fills the current state budget). Then Putin takes the next step. In October, Russian-Chinese negotiations open in Beijing, at which, along with a number of unpublished agreements, additional agreements are signed that resolve All existing territorial disputes between Russia and China.
Since in the case of the Khabarovsk Islands it was impossible to apply the principle of delimitation along the fairway, the parties agreed to divide the Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island into the southern Chinese and northern (most developed) Russian parts. In addition, in exchange for the northern part of Bolshoy Ussuriysk, we ceded half of the Abagaituy island on Argun. A new principle was applied - territories were divided according to landmarks on the ground.
Through the cries of liberals “about trade in the Motherland,” the fact was “missed” that for the first time in the history of Russia and China, all claims and controversial issues were removed from the entire length of 4,300 km of the Russian-Chinese border. Of course, the transfer of part of the islands cannot be clearly called a success, and I am far from the idea of justifying our President, but for some reason untruthful journalists do not say that the situation with the state border that developed in the early 2000s was inherited by Putin from Khrushchev and Gorbachev. Where the first quarreled with our main geopolitical ally, as a result of which a territorial issue was initiated, and the second successfully solved this problem, finally ruining the country he led. As a result, the Russian Federation, in terms of strength and influence in the world, and most importantly, the presence of trump cards in the negotiations in 2004, was far from the Stalinist USSR of the 1952 model. In 1952, a border agreement could have been concluded on terms favorable to us, since the space for diplomatic bargaining was incomparably wider.
Was it possible to resolve the territorial issue in the conditions of our time somehow differently? This is a big question. The transfer of part of the island near Khabarovsk was the result of almost 150 years of history of our victories and defeats, the strengthening and weakening of Russia, and was not a “one-time concession on the part of Russia.” So why do liberal journalists and overly emotional patriots scold Putin so much? Let's look at the facts. In October 2004, border agreements were signed in Beijing, and the border issue was finally resolved. Immediately after this, on December 31, 2004, Order No. 1737-r of the Government of the Russian Federation was issued on the design and construction of the Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline with branches to China. (Legal registration of the border was completed only in July 2008, when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi signed an additional protocol describing the line of the Russian-Chinese border in its eastern part.)
The leadership of Russia and China has set a course for cooperation and good neighborly relations with each other, eliminating the last territorial disputes that could seriously spoil relations between the two countries and lead to a Russian-Chinese war, which the United States so badly needs. This is what liberal bloggers and journalists, or rather their overseas sponsors, don’t like.
They need confrontation, or better yet, war between the two most powerful continental countries.
And the more reasons for conflicts there are, the better.
Here, in brief, is the whole story about the ownership of the islands on the Amur.
Artem Yakovlevich Krivosheev."
The transfer of the islands was carried out in accordance with an intergovernmental agreement signed back in 2004, which was ratified by the State Duma in 2005. Everything went quite calmly and even solemnly: the state flags of Russia and China were raised, the border pillars of the states were dug in, representatives of the latter spoke, echoing each other: this act finally marks the end of the delimitation and demarcation of the Russian-Chinese border along its entire 4,300- kilometer long, which will help strengthen relations. The negotiation epic regarding the lands in the Amur channel lasted more than 40 years.
50 KILOMETERS INTO RUSSIA
Back in July, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement noting that “the entry into force of the relevant documents will give an additional impetus to the development of good neighborly ties between Russia and China, primarily the diverse cooperation of the border regions of the two countries.” It was planned to transfer the territories back in August, but, apparently, well-known events in the Caucasus interfered - they waited for relative calm.
At the mentioned ceremony, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Malyshev, once again emphasized that the resolution of the border issue that Moscow and Beijing inherited from history “is based on existing Russian-Chinese border agreements and corresponds to generally recognized norms of international law.” This resolution of the issue “is the result of many years of negotiations in the spirit of equal consultations and embodies high level and the specifics of Russian-Chinese relations of strategic interaction and partnership."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gann spoke in the same spirit: “China and Russia resolved this issue as a result of fruitful cooperation, setting an example of peaceful dialogue and consultation to resolve sensitive issues between the two countries.” According to him, this cessation of the border dispute between Russia and China became an example of diplomatic resolution of complex international issues. What is true is true, if you remember the events on Damansky Island, the 40th anniversary of which will probably be celebrated in a certain way in Russia (and in China, which has “its own view” on them) in less than six months - in March 2009- th.
According to Vladimir Malyshev, border guards of both countries have already begun protecting the newly established state border, which “will become a strip of peace, friendship and cooperation between two great countries and peoples.” And the head of the Regional Border Directorate of the FSB of the Russian Federation for the Far Eastern Federal District, Colonel General Valery Putov, previously said that the border outpost, which was previously stationed on the islands, has been disbanded - instead, a border department has been deployed in the village of Nikolaevka in the Jewish Autonomous Region (JAO). In addition, there will be two border observation posts - one in the area of the settlement of Tamara-Orlovka (EAO), the second - on the Russian part of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. “It is these border units that will now monitor the new section of the Russian-Chinese border,” the general said.
By the time the territories were transferred to the Celestial Empire, the Fortified Region (UR) of the Far Eastern Military District, which was located on Bolshoy Ussuriysk, was also disbanded. The military removed all equipment and property. In the former town, only the buildings of barracks, headquarters, residential buildings, a canteen and a club remained. Once upon a time, this SD was created on an emergency basis to repel possible Chinese aggression on Khabarovsk. Now the pillboxes have been dismantled, the heavy Soviet Joseph Stalin tanks from World War II, which were not so long ago buried here up to their turrets, have been dug up and removed, and numerous observation towers have been dismantled.
HAY AND FISH...
In Russian society, the attitude towards the “final parting” with Tarabarov is ambiguous. Many local residents“they don’t see anything good” in this, just as a number of representatives of regional authorities and functionaries of some parties do not have “positive feelings” about the loss of territories. However, their activity since 2004, when the corresponding decision was made, has been amazing. Basically just calls: “We won’t give!”, “Hands off our islands!”, “Let’s write to the Duma.” And against this background, many local politicians openly promoted themselves, gaining points in the elections held in the region during these years.
These days, the local press once again remembered the poem by local resident Tatyana Dyachikhina, which appeared in leaflets in 2004: “My homeland was taken away from me!/Someone just decided so:/Like a forgotten melody,/Took it and gave it as a gift./Well, just think - a trifle! / But who needs it? / Oil and gas? No, it doesn’t exist: / It’s just marshy land...”
Tarabarov will henceforth be designated on maps as Yinlundao (which translated means “Silver Dragon Island”), and West Side Bolshoi Ussuriysk - Heixiazidao ("Black Bear Island"; its eastern area remained with Russia). It’s beautiful, of course, in translation! But still, this is by no means the case when in the 70s, that is, shortly after the armed conflicts in Damansky and in the area of \u200b\u200bLake Zhalanashkol, a number of settlements and other geographical objects with Chinese names. For example, the city of Iman, where many border guards who died in the battles on Ussuri are buried, became Dalnerechensky, Suchan - Partizansky, the small rivers Shinengou and Sitsa received the names Vodopadnaya and Tigrovaya, respectively.
Tarabarov was never Chinese. This relatively large island (there are many other islands and islets around it), located at the confluence of the Ussuri River and the Amur, received its name in the second decade of the last century, when in 1912 the peasant Sergei Maksimovich Tarabarov settled on it and started a farm here. According to reports in the Far Eastern press, as soon as the authorities decided that it was more profitable to get rid of the island than to defend the principle “We don’t need someone else’s land, but we won’t give up an inch of ours!”, the Tarabarovs suddenly disappeared from the Khabarovsk Territory: who left “in an unknown direction” , who died. Tarabarov was officially assigned to the Soviet Union in 1929. But in 1964, Beijing unilaterally decided to reconsider these “unfair” agreements. From then on, the negotiation process began.
What are the given “one and a half islands”? According to the testimony of local residents and eyewitnesses who visited them, this is a pontoon bridge over the Amur, an open field, feather grass, a dirt road that becomes limp in the rain (indeed, “marsh land”, as in the above excerpt from the poem). The islands are rich only in hay (there were state farm lands here) and fish. A special feature is that valuable species spawn near Tarabarov.
The director of the local agricultural enterprise "Zarya" Leonid Petukhov complained: "We grew the best corn in the region here. Now almost everything we had - 1.3 thousand hectares of excellent land - goes to the Chinese."
On the Russian part of Bolshoi Ussuriysk there is the village of Chumka with several hundred inhabitants (in 2004 there were 412) and numerous dachas (dachas) of Khabarovsk residents. Chumka is such a shabby Russian outback! Several five-story buildings (all without amenities), a nine-year school, a first-aid post, two shops. All! There isn't even a bathhouse. And the bakeries (burnt down) - the residents bake their own bread. Electricity keeps disappearing. In spring and autumn, if the ice on the Amur is too thin, any connection “with the mainland” completely stops. Local historians say that in the 20s, livestock that died from disease were buried here, hence the name of the settlement. “Almost matches,” they joke.
The villagers’ opinions on the transfer of territories vary widely: from “it’s a pity, of course, that they gave it away, but it’s not up to us to decide” to “the whole island should have been given to China.” As one newspaper wrote, “sometimes this ‘Russian-Chinese’ border runs right through families.” Some - even before the transfer of territory - were ready to “defend their native land even on the barricades”; others, especially those who were younger, reasoned pragmatically: let the Chinese take the entire Greater Ussuriysk, if only the people could get out of the swamp and settle in good city apartments! According to the authors of the publication, almost everyone here dreams of escaping from the Russian island: there is no running water or sewerage system, roofs are leaking, people are drinking themselves to death, and people are not happy about the proximity to China. Except that sometimes they look at the city sparkling with neon illumination, filled with goods and cars, which the Chinese built on their shores.
The Orthodox chapel of the holy warrior Victor also remains on the Russian part of Bolshoy Ussuriysk. It was specially built on the border in the late 90s to indicate the Russian presence. Previously, a new dividing line was supposed to pass along its porch, but during field delimitation work the “temple” was moved further. Moreover, the issue was resolved only after Russia undertook to hand over both border outposts on Tarabarov to China intact.
BUT WE WILL NOT GIVE UP THE SMOKES!
By the way, from this “insignificant” example it is clear that Russia gave up an island and half an island, of course, not like a certain “Tsar” house manager Ivan Vasilyevich in the well-known comedy. Remember: “Kemsk volost? Lord, I thought, let them take it for their health!” It was necessary to ensure that Beijing, as they say, did not lose its appetite, because it is known that beyond the Amur and Ussuri, a considerable part of the Russian Far East is considered “Chinese” and, for example, Vladivostok is called Haishenwei on the maps of “expanded” China. According to some reports, during the demarcation, Moscow and Beijing “exchanged” islands: the Chinese, having received territories in the Khabarovsk Territory, renounced their claims to Bolshoy Island in the Chita Region.
In general, the process took a long time. The authorities did not hide: yes, we are inclined to give away the territories, but we are carefully studying all the pros and cons. In addition, the “Japanese factor” was taken into account: as is known, Tokyo has long laid claim to the Kuril Islands and half of Sakhalin (or even the entire island!). It was necessary to arrange the matter in such a way that a “precedent” did not arise. Looks like it worked.
Most experts are inclined to believe that Russia, having weighed and assessed the prospects for developing relations with the PRC, acted quite wisely. As a result, the long-standing territorial dispute with China has been ended, which will undoubtedly ensure much greater trust in contacts with the Middle Kingdom. Moreover, in the opinion of, say, the ex-governor of the Amur region, Vladimir Polivanov, “these islands are not of super-principal importance - they are not the South Kuril ridge: if we gave it to Japan, we would lose the Sea of Okhotsk and the super-rich fisheries reserves of the shelf.” Polivanov is convinced that Russia, having given up Tarabarov and part of Bolshoy Ussuriysk, did not suffer serious economic and territorial losses, but it finally resolved the issue of the border with the country, which today is “the most powerful state in the world, while America is weaker than ever.”
The current governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Viktor Ishaev, is also convinced that “from an economic point of view, we have lost nothing.”
At a recent regular discussion of the Stolypin Club (operating in Russia since 2006), which the author of these lines had a chance to observe, economists, political scientists and businessmen expressed similar points of view. Briefly, they can be summarized as follows: China is growing stronger year by year economically, technologically, politically and militarily, which will allow it to “move” the United States from the pedestal of the sole arbiter of the world order in 15-20 years. And in this situation, being a long-time strategic partner of the Celestial Empire, Russia will undoubtedly receive tangible advantages. In the event of friction with China, Washington will try in every possible way to drive an even deeper wedge between the two large neighboring powers.
Meanwhile, the future of the territories that have received new statuses is still illusory. But in the Khabarovsk Territory, the idea has already matured to create a Russian-Chinese trade zone on the Bolshoy Ussuriysk: on the eve of the transfer of land, the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory, Viktor Ishaev, approached Moscow and Beijing with such an initiative.
A year ago, a certain representative of the Cossacks, Sergei Goncharov, whose people were on duty in the abandoned SD, expressed the hope that “as soon as the islands officially become Chinese, the most convenient customs crossing will open here.” They say that the infrastructure for it already exists: customs officers and border guards can be accommodated in officers’ houses and barracks, and warehouses can be located in the former hospital and club. But no one is talking about the construction of customs terminals on Bolshoy Ussuriysky these days.
As for the Chinese, they have long since begun to settle in these territories. The transfer to the ownership of the People's Republic of China of fields and hayfields, which had been used by the local state farm for decades, is evidenced by a granite pillar with hieroglyphs: these lands belong to Zhongguo (the Middle State). This and 10 other border signs with hieroglyphs appeared on the islands last summer - immediately after the demarcation of the new border was completed. The pillars stretched out in a line across the Big Ussuri Island from the channel to the main channel of the Amur.
On Bolshoy Ussuriysky, as local residents remember, neighbors from across the Amur began to appear five years ago. In groups of 20-30 people, they disembarked from the ships and inspected the island “departing” to them in a businesslike manner. As observers note, all the future owners of Russian soil were, although in civilian clothes, with a clearly military bearing.
ALL PHOTOS
The head of the State Duma Security Committee, Konstantin Kosachev, responded that the deputies were provided with fairly complete information on this matter, in particular, they received a transcript of Lavrov’s speech and a commentary on this speech
RTV International
The State Duma wants to hear from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for what purpose the Russian President signed documents in China on the gratuitous transfer of disputed islands to China: Tarabarova Island and half of Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. The deputies decided to find out what price Russia paid for the Russian-Chinese agreements signed in China. Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to speak at the State Duma today as part of the “government hour”. The deputies suggested that he raise the Russian-Chinese issue.
The question was raised by a member of the Communist Party faction Anatoly Lokot, who said that it should be clarified “at what cost these agreements are concluded.”
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Konstantin Kosachev, responded by saying that the deputies were provided with fairly complete information on this matter, in particular, they received a transcript of Lavrov’s speech and a commentary on this speech related to the agreements recently signed in China. The head of the committee emphasized that “the border demarcation took place in the middle of the disputed islands.” According to him, “there is no talk of unilateral concessions from the Russian side.” Kosachev said that “all those documents that were signed in China were endorsed by all the heads of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation - I emphasize, they were not just agreed upon.” As for the border delimitation agreement itself, it will go to the State Duma for ratification, Kosachev noted.
Putin gave China one and a half islands: losses are being counted in the Far East
Before the president made a broad gesture, the islands belonged to the Khabarovsk Territory. Its inhabitants were wary of the fact that their islands would now be inhabited by the Chinese.
The islands of Tarabarov and Bolshoi Ussuriysky have long been considered disputed territory. In 1991, USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a border treaty with China, and the border was drawn along the Amur channel. Thus, China got its own, “Khabarovsk Kuril Islands” on the Amur.
Before Khabarovsk, along the Kazakevichev channel, there is the only undemarcated section on the Amur. From Khabarovsk to the border is not so much - 25 kilometers. Today. Now, after the transfer of the islands, the border will pass through the city itself, along its coastal line, and in its most developed and populated part - in the Industrial District.
The islands became disputed due to the long-term efforts of the Chinese side to change the course of the Amur River, which defines the state border line. "Behind last years on their shore, the Chinese built about three hundred kilometers of dams in order to artificially direct the Amur in the direction they wanted, to shallow the Kazakevichev channel, along the fairway of which the border is determined in this section,” says Viktor Ishaev, governor of the Khabarovsk Territory.
For many years now, Russian border posts and 16 thousand summer cottages for residents of Khabarovsk have been located on Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island. The new border will pass near the chapel of the martyr-warrior Victor and will divide the island in half. The dachas of Khabarovsk residents will remain on Russian territory, the rest will go to the Chinese. Tarabarov Island, where there are only a few buildings of private companies, will be given to China in its entirety. In total, the Chinese will get approximately 337 square meters. kilometers of Russian territory.
The news about the transfer of the islands was unexpected for the authorities of the Khabarovsk Territory. According to a high-ranking official of the regional administration, no one consulted with the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory before signing the documents. “Governor Ishaev has not yet returned from China. He has been fighting for these islands for 12 years,” the official noted.
Governor Ishaev had his own plans for the Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island. It was this island that Khabarovsk was supposed to “step over”. For rapid development, the city only needed a capital bridge.
According to Far Eastern economists, the transfer of the Bolshoy Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands to the PRC overnight caused damage of 3-4 billion dollars, taking into account the loss of already invested funds, the transfer Khabarovsk airport, as well as border development in new areas. However, according to Moscow economists, after the transfer of the islands, opportunities opened up for Russia to conclude billion-dollar deals with China, so that possible profits will more than cover all losses.
The islands donated by Putin are rich in natural resources
The natural resources of the islands are rich and varied. Land resources are of significant value. Up to 70% of the area can be used as arable land, hayfields or pastures. However, on part of the area, due to economic activities (use of heavy equipment, depletion of meadows), the land has become less productive and requires agrotechnical measures. Floodplain lands, provided they are protected from flooding, are capable of producing high yields of potatoes, vegetables and forage grasses, writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
The islands are home to valuable fur-bearing animal species, ungulates, upland and waterfowl. There are species listed in the Red Books of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the USSR and Russia: Far Eastern and black storks, black and Japanese cranes, mandarin ducks, swan-nose turtles, Far Eastern leatherback turtles and others.
There is a lot of fish in the Amur, its channels and floodplain lakes. Among them, protected species are black carp and Chinese perch. More species of fish constantly live in the vicinity of the islands than in the entire Volga basin. The autumn migration of chum salmon and lamprey takes place near the islands.
The islands are of great recreational importance. Already, there are about 16 thousand garden plots here, which are visited by tens of thousands of city residents.
Modern economic development of the islands is uneven. Their eastern part, adjacent directly to the city, is more developed. On an area of 61 sq. km, a polder was built, protected from flooding by a closed high dam. More than 4 thousand tons of potatoes are grown here per year, up to 1,500 heads of cattle are kept in the summer, and up to 1,700 tons of milk are produced per year. There are projects to expand the polder area.
On an area of 168 sq. km, five agricultural enterprises harvest hay, annually collecting 12-13 thousand tons of hay. Currently, there are 10 farms on the islands, as well as several camp sites for a number of industrial enterprises in the city. On Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island there are two villages with permanent residents.
The first Russian-Chinese border agreement can be considered the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, when the Russians, under forceful pressure from Chinese troops, were forced to recognize Chinese sovereignty over the right bank of the Amur River (before that, it was also being developed by the Russians) and Primorye.
But in the middle of the 19th century, a strengthened Russia bloodlessly annexed 165.9 thousand square kilometers of Primorye, which until then had been under joint management. As a result, China, weak at that time, lost access to the Sea of Japan.
This acquisition was established by the Treaty of Tientsin on June 1, 1858, and confirmed on November 2, 1860 by the Treaty of Beijing. “After the establishment of boundary markers,” it said, “the boundary line should not be changed forever.”
However, it was soon noticed that the boundaries did not pass as established. They agreed to make changes, which was done (very approximately) in 1886.
When discussing the border issue in 1926, it was again noted: “The border line between the USSR and China has repeatedly moved arbitrarily as local population, and local authorities of both sides. As a result, it is necessary first of all to restore the original line as defined by various agreements, protocols, etc. regarding the Russian-Chinese border."
During the occupation of China by Japan, the Soviet Union, in the interests of defense, brought under its control a large number of islands on the Chinese side of the fairway on the Amur and Ussuri, writes Ogonyok.
In 1964, the parties developed a draft agreement. Then a “window” appeared in the form of the Tarabarova and Bolshoy Ussuriysky islands. But the document was not signed, which is why later the Chinese considered it fair enough to attack Damansky Island, which they always considered theirs.
Ultimately, on May 16, 1991, an agreement was signed on the Soviet-Chinese border in its eastern part, which clarified the border on the basis of existing treaties. All subsequent Russian-Chinese agreements on the border were adopted in the development of this document.
After a series of honest and not entirely honest actions by both sides, the border was finally fixed along the Amur and Ussuri. The trouble is that it was not properly demarcated, but the main thing is that rivers quite often change the outlines of their banks, islands and fairways, which is why many purely geometric errors have accumulated in the course of border life. They were almost never corrected or even discussed - as long as China was weak or an ally of Russia, it was not considered a problem at all.
After Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement in 1991 that the border with China should pass along the Amur waterway, the Chinese had the opportunity to challenge Russia’s ownership of the Bolshoi Ussuriysky and Tarabarov islands in the Khabarovsk region.
The most intriguing thing is that the channel along which the border actually runs now is quickly being washed away (and not without the help of the Chinese, who once sank a barge here) and soon, instead of the disputed Bolshoy Ussuriysky Island, a much less controversial peninsula will arise, fused with Chinese territory. At the same time, the Russian coast is eroded by a couple of meters every year, that is, it moves away.
After Vladimir Putin’s decision, the border between the countries will actually pass through Khabarovsk, right along the city beach. Plus, on Bolshoy Ussuriysky there is a border post with fortified structures, here are the hayfields of four collective farms that provide meat and milk for the whole of Khabarovsk - in a word, it is inconvenient and a pity to give it away.
In addition, there is also a problem near Vladivostok. Here the Chinese should get the territory along the left swampy bank of the Tumannaya River, and on this occasion there is a lot of talk about how nothing will stop them from building a port here and making it a competitor to Russian Far Eastern harbors.