When the events took place in Damansky. Border conflict on Damansky Island

Damansky - Soviet-Chinese border conflict in 1969 over an island on the Ussuri River (about 1,700 m long and 500 m wide), in the area of ​​which fighting between Soviet and Chinese troops took place on March 2 and 15, 1969. On the night of March 2, 1969, 300 Chinese troops secretly occupied Damansky and set up camouflaged firing points there. In their rear, on the left bank of the Ussuri, reserves and artillery support (mortars and recoilless rifles) were concentrated. This act was undertaken as part of Operation Retaliation, which was led by the deputy commander of the Shenyang Military Region, Xiao Cuanfu.

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

Supported by mortar fire from their shore, the Chinese secured a position behind the embankment on the island and again forced the Soviet soldiers to lie down. But Bubenin did not retreat. He regrouped his forces and organized a new attack using armored personnel carriers. Having bypassed the island, he led his maneuver group to flank the Chinese and forced them to abandon their positions on the island. During this attack, Bubenin was wounded, but did not leave the battle and brought it to victory. In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed and 14 were wounded.

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

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

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

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

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

Book materials used: Nikolay Shefov. Battles of Russia. Military-historical library. M., 2002.

Damansky is an island with an area of ​​0.74 km on the Ussuri River, along which the state border of Russia with the People's Republic of China passes. In Chinese the island is called Zhenbao - “precious island”.

It received its Russian name in 1888 during research for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. Traveling engineer Stanislav Damansky died in these places during a storm while crossing by boat. His body was found near an “unnamed” island, which was given the name of the deceased.

In the early 60s, Soviet-Chinese contradictions of a political and ideological nature intensified.

In 1964, at a meeting with the Japanese delegation, Mao Zedong said: “There are too many places occupied by the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union covers an area of ​​22 million km2, and its population is only 200 million people.” Almost immediately, the Chinese leadership laid claim to 1.5 million km2 (22 disputed areas, 16 of them in the western and 6 in the eastern part of the Soviet-Chinese border). The Chinese government stated that a number of territories in the regions of Primorye, Tuva, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and the Central Asian republics ceded to Russia as a result of unequal treaties imposed on China.

On February 25, 1964, consultations began in Beijing on clarifying the Soviet-Chinese border. The Soviet delegation was headed by a plenipotentiary representative with the rank of Deputy Minister P.I. Zyryanov (head of the Main Directorate of Border Troops of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR), Chinese - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China Tseng Yong-quan.

During the six-month work, the border was clarified. It was decided to take the questions that arose regarding the ownership of a number of islands on the Argun River “out of brackets” in order to consider this issue separately. However, N.S. opposed this. Khrushchev, saying: “Either everything or nothing.”

Meanwhile, the situation on the Soviet-Chinese border was deteriorating. Violations began to be demonstrative in nature. If from October 1964 to April 1965 there were 36 cases of 150 Chinese citizens and military personnel entering Soviet territory, then in just 15 days of April 1965 the border was violated 12 times with the participation of more than 500 people, including military personnel.

In mid-April 1965, about 200 Chinese, under the cover of military personnel, crossed into Soviet territory and plowed 80 hectares of land, citing the fact that they were occupying their territory. In 1967, 40 anti-Soviet provocations were organized. In the same year, the Chinese side tried to unilaterally change the border line in a number of areas.

One of the first provocations.

At the same time, fierce battles took place between border guards and provocateurs in the area of ​​Kirkinsky and Bolshoi islands.

This is how V. Bubenin recalled this time former boss 1st border outpost of the Iman (Dalnerechensky) border detachment.

« Provocations followed one after another, three or four a week. People were exhausted and tired. They served on the border for 8-10 hours, and participated in eliminating provocations for 4-5 hours. But everyone understood that this was necessary, because this was real combat work. The greatest punishment was considered to be if someone was removed from participating in the elimination of provocations...

To protect personnel and reduce the risk of injury during forceful contact, we began to use spears and clubs. The soldiers carried out my command with great pleasure and zeal to prepare something new and at the same time the most ancient weapons primitive man. Each soldier had his own, made of oak or black birch, lovingly planed and sanded. And there is a lanyard tied to the handle so that it doesn’t fly out of your hands. They were kept in a pyramid along with weapons. So, when alarmed, the soldier took the machine gun and grabbed a club. And as a group weapon they used slingshots...

They helped us out a lot at first. When the Chinese attacked us with a wall, we simply put the spears forward... without allowing contact, we threw them back. The soldiers really liked it. Well, if some daredevil did break through, then, excuse me, he voluntarily ran into a club.

...In this simple way we excluded direct contact with provocateurs. Moreover, it was noted more than once that some of them wore knives on their belts under their outer clothing and it was very easy to run into them.”

Rohatyns are the “secret” weapon of border guards.

In the winter of 1968-1969. The first battles with provocateurs began on Damansky Island, located 12 km from the 1st outpost “Kulebyakiny Sopki” and 6 km from the 2nd outpost “Nizhne-Mikhailovka” of the Iman (Dalnerechensky) border detachment.

It was here that Soviet border guards first encountered PLA soldiers. Initially, the Chinese soldiers did not remove their weapons from their shoulders and were quickly forced out of the island. However, in December the Chinese used weapons for the first time, this time as clubs. V. Bubenin recalled: “ They took carbines and machine guns from their shoulders and, waving them, rushed at us. Several of our soldiers immediately received a strong blow... Strelnikov and I gave orders to our soldiers to use their rifle butts... A new battle on the ice began».

On March 1, the weather did not go well at night. A blizzard arose, and by evening the snowfall intensified. On the night of March 2, on their shore, opposite Damansky Island, taking advantage of unfavorable weather, the Chinese concentrated up to an infantry battalion, two mortar batteries and one artillery battery.

With the forces of three infantry companies, up to three hundred people, they reached the island, the two remaining companies took up defense on the shore. The battalion command post was located on the island, and a wired connection was established with the shore. All personnel were dressed in camouflage suits. On the island, the Chinese dug cells and disguised themselves. The positions of mortar and artillery batteries, heavy machine guns were located so that direct fire could be fired at armored personnel carriers and Soviet border guards.

At 10.40 (local time) on March 2, about 30 servicemen from the Chinese border post “Gunsy” began moving towards Damansky.

The battle was brutal. The Chinese finished off the wounded. The head of the medical service of the detachment, Major of the Medical Service V. Kvitko, said: “ The medical commission, which, in addition to me, included military doctors, senior lieutenants of the medical service B. Fotavenko and N. Kostyuchenko, carefully examined all the dead border guards on Damansky Island and found that 19 wounded would have remained alive, because during the battle they received non-fatal injuries injuries. But then they were finished off in Hitler’s style with knives, bayonets and rifle butts. This is irrefutably evidenced by cut, stabbed bayonet and gunshot wounds. They shot point blank from 1-2 meters. Strelnikov and Buinevi were finished off at this distance h"

The head of the outpost is senior lieutenant I. Strelnikov.

Tormented Ivan Strelnikov after the battle.

According to official data, up to 248 Chinese soldiers and officers were killed in this battle, 32 soldiers and officers were killed on the part of the border guards, and one border guard was captured.

Dead Soviet soldiers.

As it turned out, the Chinese are prepared for such a turn of events and have a sufficient number of anti-tank weapons. Due to their heavy fire, the counterattack failed. Moreover, Leonov exactly repeated Bubenin’s bypass maneuver, which did not come as a surprise to the Chinese. In this direction they had already dug trenches where grenade launchers were located. The lead tank in which Leonov was located was hit, and the colonel himself, who was trying to get out through the lower hatch, died.

Head of the Imansky (Dalnerechensky border detachment) D. Leonov.

Two other tanks still managed to break through to the island and take up defense there. This allowed the Soviet soldiers to hold out on Damansky for another 2 hours. Finally, having shot all the ammunition and not receiving reinforcements, they left Damansky.

The failure of the counterattack and the loss of the newest T-62 combat vehicle with secret equipment finally convinced the Soviet command that the forces brought into the battle were not enough to defeat the Chinese side, which was very seriously prepared.

Captured T-62 tank in the PLA museum. Beijing.

Then the forces of the 135th Motorized Rifle Division deployed along the river came into play, whose command ordered its artillery (including a separate BM-21 Grad rocket division) to open fire on the Chinese positions on the island. This was the first time that Grad rocket launchers were used in battle, the impact of which decided the outcome of the battle. A significant part of the Chinese soldiers on Damansky (more than 700 people) were destroyed by a barrage of fire.

At this point, active hostilities virtually ceased. But from May to September 1969, Soviet border guards opened fire on intruders in the Damansky area more than 300 times.

In the battles for Damansky from March 2 to 16, 1969, 58 Soviet soldiers were killed and 94 were seriously injured. For their heroism, four servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov and Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin and Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.

For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Junior Sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky. In the fall of 1969, the USSR actually agreed to transfer the island to the PRC.

In 1991, a corresponding agreement was signed. The new owners filled up the channel, and the peninsula became part of the Chinese coast (Zhalanashkol).

Photo chronicle of events.

Lydia Strelnikova at her husband's grave.

ONCE ONE TIME, I READ MAO’S QUOTES...

Vladimir Vysotsky.

Once, after reading Mao’s quotes,
They came to us with a large portrait of him,
We slightly violated the charter then...

I remembered a song, I remembered a verse,
It was as if they were whispering in my ear:
“Stalin and Mao listen to them,” -
That's why it's a mess.

Supported by mortar fire,
Silently, slowly, as if on a hunt,
The Chinese army ran towards me, -
Later it turned out that the number was equal to a company.

Previously, at least bite your elbows, but don’t shoot,
Better at home drink condensed cocoa -
But today they ordered: not to let in, -
Now shish, but pasaran, Comrade Mao!

I used to shoot from my knees - while running -
I'm just not used to slow decisions,
I used to shoot at an imaginary enemy,
And now we’ll have to hit live targets.

The mines are falling, and the company is rushing -
Whoever can - on the water, without knowing the ford...
What a shame - this very mortar
We gave it to the Chinese people.

He, the great helmsman, has been climbing out for a long time,
And now, without resting on this,
Our brothers lay down and fired a volley...
You know the rest from the newspapers.
1969

44 years have passed since the bloody battles on Damansky Island. This epochal event of the 20th century, which brought the world to the brink of war, an inimitable standard of the highest patriotism, courage, heroism, unparalleled bravery, selfless love and devotion to one’s homeland, and professional military skill is little mentioned in the state official media. It's as if he never existed. As if, while defending our Motherland, on our own, I emphasize, on our own territory, we were doing something shameful, which is embarrassing to even mention.

Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich born on November 12, 1947 in Kuibyshev, Novosibirsk region. Russian. Called up on July 3, 1966 by the Kuibyshev RVC Novosibirsk region. Private, gunner of the 2nd border post of the 57th border detachment of the Pacific border district. Killed in battle on the island. Damansky March 2, 1969. Buried March 6, 1969, in a mass grave on the territory of the 2nd border post “Nizhne-Mikhailovka”, Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. Reburied on May 30, 1980 at the military section of the city cemetery in Dalnerechensk, Primorsky Territory, memorial “Glory” fallen heroes" Awarded the Medal “For Courage” and the Honorary Badge of the Komsomol Central Committee “For Military Valor” (posthumously).

“... Hello mom, dad, Sasha and Seryozha! Sorry that I haven’t written for a long time, I really don’t like writing letters, and there’s really nothing special to write about. Alive, healthy, don’t worry about me... There’s nothing new, I still go to work, draw, and wait for demobilization. The weather is warm, it melts during the day, spring is coming, it starts early here... Lyudmila writes often, in general she’s doing great for me.

How are you, my “oldies”! How are the bros doing? Seryozha has probably grown big. And you, Sasha, how are you doing in sports? Don't be offended that I rarely deprive. Don’t think that I forget you, if only you knew how much I miss you all!”

Vladimir Shusharin wrote this letter to his parents on February 27, 1969. And on March 2, when the letter had not yet reached the addressee, a monstrous tragedy broke out on the border where Vladimir served, which every person now knows about and which causes pain and indignation in everyone...

On the night of March 2, about three hundred armed Chinese soldiers, violating the Soviet state border, crossed the channel of the Ussuri River to the Soviet island of Damansky. Dressed in white camouflage robes, they dispersed on the island in the forest and bushes, behind the natural elevation of the area, and lay in ambush. Military units and fire weapons - mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns - were concentrated on the Chinese coast of the Ussuri.

In the morning, another 30 armed Chinese intruders headed from the Chinese coast across the state border of the USSR to Damansky Island.

The commander of the N outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, together with Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Buinevich, taking with them six border guards, including our fellow Kuibyshevite Vladimir Shusharin, went out to meet the violators, intending to protest to the Chinese and demand that they leave Soviet soil . Border guards did this repeatedly when Chinese intruders appeared in these places. The provocateurs approached Strelnikov’s group and unexpectedly opened fire on it at point-blank range...

... The large two-story house on the central street of the city seemed to become gloomy and silent. Three old women stand near the gate, quietly talking:

What a guy he was! He won’t offend anyone, he’ll treat everyone well...

This is about him, about Vladimir. He lived in this house before being drafted into the army, walked along these alleys of the kindergarten, climbed these steps to the eleventh apartment, in which great, unbearable grief now settled. A thin woman, exhausted from tears, was bending over the photographs laid out on the table. Who can’t understand a mother’s heart! It is not easy, oh how difficult it is for Anastasia Zinovievna to come to terms with a bereavement.

The eldest son died. The mother is crying, but along with the tears, severe condemnation of the arrogant provocateurs is seething in her heart, and pride is heard in her son, who heroically gave his life for the inviolability of the sacred borders of our Motherland. This same feeling of pride lives in Vladimir’s father, Isaiah Pavlovich. I heard him speak at a meeting of power workers at the Barabinskaya State District Power Plant:

Our son died at the hands of bandits while defending the borders of the Motherland. It's hard for us parents. But we know that he did not flinch in difficult times and fulfilled his soldier’s duty to the end. Vladimir grew up in a good family. They raised him well, managed to instill in him high moral qualities. His parents, school, and the team in which he worked before joining the army must be given credit for the fact that a real hero grew out of a former naughty boy.

Vladimir Shusharin enjoyed special love among the border guards. He was considered the unit's artist. While still at school, Vladimir was interested in painting and studied in a fine arts club. After school, this hobby did not leave him. A circle of drawing enthusiasts worked at the Palace of Culture named after V.V. Kuibyshev. A mechanic at motor depot No. 8, Vladimir Shusharin, was also a regular participant. In the army, in his free moment, he usually took a pencil or brush and, sitting somewhere in the rest room or on the street, near the outpost, drew. The Lenin room of the outpost is decorated and decorated with his hands.

Vladimir began his military service in the most “prosaic” way. While still at home, he received a specialty as a mechanic. That's why he was sent to a unit that needed people who knew technology. But a few months later the guy asked to go to the border, and his request was granted.

On that fateful morning of March 2, Vladimir Shusharin, together with his friends, was the first to meet the violators. He, like the head of the outpost I. Strelnikov, like all his comrades, did not want blood to be shed on the ice of Ussuri. The provocateurs were demanded to leave foreign territory. Eight Soviet border guards stopped against thirty Chinese bandits. They were asked to change their minds, but they committed a malicious provocation and opened fire on the border guards. Vladimir Shusharin was one of the first to fall. Two machine gun bursts pierced the soldier’s chest...

There were many times fewer of them than the Chinese bandits. Taking advantage of this, the provocateurs mocked the wounded and killed. As if afraid that the dead would rise, they continued to barbarously deal with the corpses. But the provocateurs paid dearly for the lives of the dead Soviet soldiers. Despite their incomparable superiority in strength, they suffered big losses and were thrown out of Soviet soil.

... Once upon a time during the civil war there, in the East, Vladimir’s great-grandfather died from a White Guard bullet. Afterwards, there, in the east, his grandfather Zinovy ​​Nikitich Kuzmin, who now lives in our city, guarded the borders of the Motherland, and subsequently heroically fought in the west with the Nazis. A wounded, elderly man, he has many government awards. Vladimir Shusharin did not disgrace the honor of the older generation. He bravely accepted death, defending the inaccessibility of the borders of his beloved Motherland.

“Dear Anastasia Zinovievna and Isai Pavlovich! Your son, private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich, died a heroic death on March 2, 1969 while guarding and defending the state border of the USSR. Command and Political management Border Troops of the Soviet Union express their deepest condolences to you. The feat of your son is a vivid example of selfless service to our great Soviet Motherland, to the cause of communism. The bright memory of your son, the faithful and courageous defender of the socialist Fatherland, will forever remain in the hearts of his military friends, border guard soldiers and the entire Soviet people.”

Vladimir’s parents received such a letter from the command and political department of the USSR border troops. Everyone adds their voice to the words of this letter. soviet people, we will always be proud of the feat of our fellow countryman. There, at the Strelnikov outpost, soldiers are still performing their difficult service. And every time they go on patrol, they come to the mass grave to swear an oath of allegiance to their fallen comrades. And we know that the border is locked again and that the work of Vladimir Shusharin and his friends is reliably continued by other Soviet soldiers.

March 2, 1969. Chronicle of events

On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese troops in winter camouflage, armed with AK assault rifles and SKS carbines, crossed to Damansky Island and lay down on the western shore of the island. At 10:40, the 2nd outpost “Nizhne-Mikhailovka” of the 57th Iman border detachment received a report from an observation post that a group of armed people of up to 30 people was moving in the direction of Damansky. An alarm group of 32 Soviet border guards under the command of the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, drove to the scene of events in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and an armored personnel carrier BTR-60PB.

At 11:10 Gaz-69 and BTR-60 arrived at the southern tip of the island.

Alarm group of the 2nd border post near the island. Damansky. Photo by an unknown Chinese war photographer
Arriving at the site of the border violation, the border guards split into two groups. The first, of 7 people under the command of Strelnikov, headed towards the Chinese soldiers standing on the ice of the river southwest of the island. The second group of 13 border guards, led by Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov’s group, moving along the southern coast of the island.

The beginning of the armed provocation was captured by military photographer Private Nikolai Petrov, who photographed and filmed the events, recording the fact of border violations and the procedure for expelling violators. The Chinese soldiers took the movie camera with them, but did not notice the camera, which Petrov, having taken last photo, tucked his sheepskin coat into the lapel...

The first photo of Petrov, taken from a distance of 300-350 m, shows soldiers of the Chinese army who violated the state border.

In the second photo, a chain of Chinese and three border guards walking towards them are clearly visible. On the right is the shore of Damansky Island: somewhere there, among the trees and bushes, a Chinese ambush is hidden.

Approaching the Chinese, I. Strelnikov protested about the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese shouted something loudly to his soldiers, after which those in front parted, and those in the rear opened machine-gun fire on our border guards. The last shot was taken by Petrov a few moments before his death: the nearest Chinese soldier raised his hand - most likely this is a signal to open fire.

Strelnikov, Buinevich and the border guards accompanying them died immediately. The ambush on Damansky opened fire on Rabovich's group. Several border guards were killed, the survivors lay down and opened fire on the Chinese who rushed to attack. They fought until the last bullet...

The only one who miraculously survived from Sergeant Rabovich’s group was Private Gennady Serebrov. Having regained consciousness in the hospital, he spoke about the last moments of his friends’ lives:

- Our chain stretched along the shore of the island. Pasha Akulov ran ahead, followed by Kolya Kolodkin, then the rest. Egupov ran in front of me, and then Shusharin. We were chasing the Chinese, who were leaving along the rampart towards the bushes. There was an ambush there. They had barely jumped out onto the rampart when they saw three Chinese soldiers in camouflage suits below. They lay three meters from the shaft. At this time, shots were fired at Strelnikov’s group. We opened fire in response. Several Chinese in the ambush were killed. They shot in long bursts...

March 2, 1969. 11-25

A group of junior sergeant Babansky’s border guards who arrived at the battle site suffered heavy losses while fighting off the advancing Chinese. Ammunition was running out. “After 20 minutes of battle,” recalled Yuri Babansky, “out of 12 guys, eight remained alive, and after another 15, five. Of course, it was still possible to retreat, return to the outpost, and wait for reinforcements from the detachment. But we were seized with such fierce anger at these bastards that in those moments we wanted only one thing - to kill them as much as possible. For the guys, for ourselves, for this inch that no one needs, but still our land... Suddenly we heard a completely wild curse and a resounding “hurray!” - it was from the other side of the island that the guys from the neighboring outpost of Senior Lieutenant Bubenin were rushing to our rescue. The Chinese, having abandoned the dead, rushed to their shore, and for a long time I could not believe that death had passed by ... "

Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin commanded the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, located fifteen kilometers north of Damansky. Having received a telephone message about what was happening on the island, he and twenty-two border guards hurried to the BTR-60 to help their neighbors...

March 2, 1969 Damansky Island. Report of the head of the 1st border post, Lieutenant Bubenin, via the communication line to the operational duty officer of the 57th border detachment, Major V. Bazhenov:

I’m reporting the situation: there’s a battle going on on the island... on Damansky Island it’s already about the hour is ticking fight. Strelnikov? Apparently, his outpost and he died... Yes, I am fighting with my 21 personnel... Yes, a lot... heavy fire from mortars, artillery... machine gun and machine gun fire. Everything is burning, my armored personnel carrier is hit, there are dead and wounded... I can’t hear you,... I can’t hear...

The driver of the armored personnel carrier, Corporal A. Shamov, picks up the phone.

Comrade Major, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin loses consciousness... yes, he is seriously wounded, covered in blood, burnt... No, he seems to be alive... he regains consciousness.

Yes, I’m Bubenin, I’m listening to you... Lead people out? No, I can't. open place, they’ll kill everyone, I’ll lose everyone. My reserve has arrived, I’m going into battle again. No, I can’t, major... I can’t retreat, I’m going into battle, that’s it... Goodbye...

At that moment, help arrived - a group of Sergeant Sikushenko arrived from the 1st outpost, and Bubenin, having transferred with seven border guards to Strelnikov’s armored personnel carrier, continued the attack...

From the memoirs of Vitaly Bubenin: “I fought the entire subsequent battle in the subconscious, being in some other world. Having climbed ashore and got into an armored personnel carrier, the soldiers and I went to the enemy’s rear. In front of the car, stunned Chinese stood up from under the snow one after another. Only then did we realize how many of them had come for our souls... For more than two hours of battle, we circled around their positions, crushing and shooting. When, after the next circle, we got to the other side, it turned out that only four of the entire outpost were left standing. We sent the dead and wounded to the outpost, silently hugged, stood for a while and went back towards the island. Everyone understood that he would never return from this battle.”

In the last attack Bubenin was destroyed on the island command post Chinese battalion. This decided the outcome of the battle. Chinese soldiers began to retreat to their territory, taking with them the wounded and dead...

Vladimir Grechukhin, photographer of the district newspaper “Border Guard on Pacific Ocean", ended up on the island an hour and a half after the end of the battle. It smelled of gunpowder, blood, death...

Burnt out GAZ-69 of the 2nd border post. Damansky Island. March 2, 1969

A shell hole in the right side of BTR-60 No. 04 of the 2nd border outpost

At the position of the Chinese battalion


Chinese command post destroyed by Bubenin's group
On March 2, 1969, in the battle near Damansky Island, up to 250 Chinese soldiers and 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured. The Komsomol organizer of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Corporal Akulov, went missing...

March 2, 1969. 12-00

A helicopter carrying the command of the Iman border detachment landed near the island. The head of the political department, Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Konstantinov, organized a search for the wounded and dead directly on Damansky.

From the memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov:

Everything around was burning: bushes, trees, two cars. We flew over our territory, watching Damansky. They saw our soldiers near some tree and landed. I began to send groups of soldiers to search for the wounded; every minute was precious. Babansky reported that they found Strelnikov and his group. We crawled there on our bellies. They lay like that next to each other. First of all, I checked the documents. At Buinevich's - on the spot. Strelnikov's - disappeared. Private Petrov, sent to the outpost by the political department for film and photo documentation, lost his film camera. But under his sheepskin coat we found the camera with which he took his last three shots, which went around the whole world.

They broke branches, laid out the corpses and, standing in full height, let's go to our people. The soldiers were dragging the bodies, and the officers and I were a little behind - with machine guns and machine guns we covered the retreat. So we left. The Chinese did not open fire...

Junior Sergeant Alexander Skornyak recalls:

“We went out onto the ice, where the guys lay down, drove up GAZ-69 cars and began loading the bodies in twos and threes. Some were still warm, apparently, but had only recently died from their wounds. You start to lift the guy, and blood comes out of his mouth like a fountain. I still remember the smell of blood in the cold, the smell of death. The Chinese even mocked the dead - they stabbed them with bayonets. Officers Buinevich and Strelnikov especially suffered. The snow was red with blood. The Chinese carried away their dead during the retreat. But we found one of their soldiers among ours. He was dressed warmly, there was an AK-47 assault rifle and a field telephone lying nearby...

“Our people were tortured both alive and after death. They cut them, smashed their heads... - said Vladimir Grechukhin. – The Chinese dragged away the seriously wounded Komsomol organizer of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Corporal Pavel Akulov. I was there when his body was handed over to his relatives - the remains of his hair were gray. Pavel's corpse was disfigured beyond recognition. And only the mother was able to identify her son by the mole on his index finger...

Chinese soldiers finished off the wounded Soviet border guards with point-blank shots and cold steel. This shameful fact for the People's Liberation Army of China is evidenced by documents from the Soviet medical commission.

From the report of the head of the medical service of the 57th border detachment, Major of the Medical Service V.I. Kvitko: “The medical commission, which, in addition to me, included military doctors, senior lieutenants of the medical service B. Fotavenko and N. Kostyuchenko, carefully examined all the border guards who died on Damansky Island and found that 19 of the wounded would have survived because they received non-fatal wounds during the battle. But then, in fascist fashion, they were finished off with knives, bayonets and rifle butts. This is irrefutably evidenced by cut, stabbed bayonet and gunshot wounds. They shot point blank from one to two meters. Strelnikov and Buinevich were finished off from such a distance.”

On March 5 and 6, border guards were buried at outposts. Grechukhin's photographs show rows of coffins. The stern faces of the dead. Many have their heads hidden under white gauze bandages...

Funeral of the victims at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost. March 6, 1969
Junior Sergeant Alexander Skornyak says:

Our guys were buried on the third day. Generals from the district arrived. The parents of the victims arrived. The political department campaigned for everyone to be buried in Nizhne-Mikhailovka, at the border post. All the fallen were immediately posthumously awarded: officers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, sergeants and soldiers were awarded orders. But this did not make it any easier for those close to me. And no one could have imagined that soon the dead border guards and soldiers would be laid next to each other...

Background to the conflict

Passage of the Russian-Chinese border at Far East established by the Nerchinsk Treaty of 1689, the Burinsky and Kyakhtinsky Treaties of 1727, the Aigun Treaty of 1858, the Beijing Treaty of 1860, the Treaty Act of 1911. According to Article 1 of the Beijing Treaty, “the lands lying on the right bank (to the south), up to the mouth of the Ussuri River, belong to the Chinese state. Further from the mouth of the Ussuri River to Lake Khinkai, the boundary line follows the Ussuri and Sungacha rivers. The lands lying... on the western (left) side are the Chinese state.”

After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision emerged that borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily) run along the middle of the main channel of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the banks, when such a border was formed historically - by agreement, or if one side colonized the second bank before the other began to colonize it. In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect.

Despite the fact that, according to previously concluded agreements, the entire Ussuri River and the islands located on it turned out to be Russian, this did not have any impact on Soviet-Chinese relations. Only in the late 1950s, when the PRC, striving for the growth of its international influence, came into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border regulations as a reason to revise the Sino-Soviet border.

The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the Chinese desire to draw a new border along the rivers and was even ready to transfer a number of lands to the PRC. However, this readiness disappeared as soon as the ideological and then interstate conflict flared up. Further deterioration of relations between the two countries ultimately led to open armed confrontation on Damansky Island.

The events of March 2 and 15, 1969 on Damansky Island, starting in 1965, were preceded by numerous Chinese provocations for the unauthorized seizure of Soviet islands on the Ussuri River. At the same time, Soviet border guards always strictly adhered to the established line of behavior: provocateurs were expelled from Soviet territory, and weapons were not used by the border guards.

Historical information.
At the end of the 60s, Damansky Island territorially belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, bordering the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. The distance of the island from the Soviet coast was about 500 m, from the Chinese coast - about 300 m. From south to north, Damansky stretches 1500-1800 m, and its width reaches 600-700 m. Actual sizes The islands are highly dependent on the time of year and the level of flood waters. It has no economic or military-strategic value.

Border guards of the 57th Iman border detachment who died in battle on March 2, 1969.

• Art. Lieutenant Buinevich Nikolai Mikhailovich, detective officer of the special department of the 57th border detachment.

1st border outpost “Kulebyakiny Sopki”:

• Sergeant Ermolyuk Viktor Mikhailovich
• Corporal Korzhukov Viktor Kharitonovich
• Private Vetrich Ivan Romanovich
• Private Gavrilov Viktor Illarionovich
• Private Zmeev Alexey Petrovich
• Private Izotov Vladimir Alekseevich
• Private Ionin Alexander Filimonovich
• Private Syrtsev Alexey Nikolaevich
• Private Nasretdinov Islamgali Sultangaleevich

2nd border post "Nizhne-Mikhailovka":

• Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov Ivan Ivanovich
• Sergeant Dergach Nikolai Timofeevich
• Sergeant Rabovich Vladimir Nikitich
• Junior Sergeant Kolodkin Nikolai Ivanovich
• Junior Sergeant Loboda Mikhail Andreevich
• Corporal Akulov Pavel Andreevich (died in captivity from his wounds)
• Corporal Davydenko Gennady Mikhailovich
• Corporal Mikhailov Evgeniy Konstantinovich
• Private Danilin Vladimir Nikolaevich
• Private Denisenko Anatoly Grigorievich
• Private Egupov Viktor Ivanovich
• Private Zolotarev Valentin Grigorievich
• Private Isakov Vyacheslav Petrovich
• Private Kamenchuk Grigory Alexandrovich
• Private Kiselev Gavriil Georgievich
• Private Kuznetsov Alexey Nifantievich
• Private Nechai Sergei Alekseevich
• Private Ovchinnikov Gennady Sergeevich
• Private Pasyuta Alexander Ivanovich
• Private Petrov Nikolai Nikolaevich
• Private Shestakov Alexander Fedorovich
• Private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich

Memorial plaque on the mass grave of border guards at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost

TASS message

On the night of March 2, about 300 armed Chinese soldiers, violating the Soviet state border, crossed the channel of the Ussuri River to Damansky Island. This group, dressed in white camouflage robes, dispersed on the island and lay in ambush. Military units and fire weapons were concentrated on the Chinese coast of the Ussuri - mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.

At 4:10 am Moscow time, another 30 armed intruders headed from the Chinese coast across the state border of the USSR to Damansky Island. A group of Soviet border guards led by the head of the outpost, Strelnikov, arrived at the site of the border violation on the Ussuri ice.
As before, the border guards had the intention of protesting to the Chinese about the violation of the border and expelling them from the territory of the Soviet Union. Fire was opened on the Soviet border guards, and they were literally shot at point-blank range. Artillery and mortar fire was opened on another group of border guards from the Chinese coast.

Together with reinforcements arriving from a neighboring outpost, Soviet border guards expelled the intruders.
TASS, March 9, 1969

In March-April 1969, protest rallies were held in the city and region against Chinese provocation on the Soviet border and meetings with border guards who took part in the battles near Damansky Island.

From the newspaper “Working Life”. Kuibyshev NSO

Feat on Damansky Island

Sacred are your borders, Motherland!
We angrily brand Maoist bandits.

1
We are on the high, snowy bank of the Ussuri River, at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka border outpost.

Ussuri is a dazzling white, tightly curved horseshoe, covered with ice and snow. On our side, the hills are covered with unfallen oaks, rolling, wave after wave, to the distant cape. And on the other side there is a lowland, red grasses, bushes... There is China! From the border tower, through the eyepieces of the rangefinder tube, you can see dry tree crowns, fanza under red tiles, smoke... Between these shores lies Soviet land - Damansky Island, that small island, two kilometers long, where the snow is now ripped apart by mines, strewn with spent cartridges, watered with blood .

Ten days ago, on March 2, as already reported in the press, here on Damansky Island, a small detachment of Soviet border guards fought an unequal battle with a Chinese battalion specially trained for sabotage, which vilely violated the Soviet border under the cover of darkness. The gang of violators was supported from the Chinese coast by an anti-tank battery, heavy mortars, grenade launchers...

The Maoist bandits were defeated and expelled from Soviet soil. But 29 Soviet soldiers and 2 officers died a brave death in battle for their Motherland.

2
A border guard officer leads us to a pile of equipment abandoned by the Chinese. Here are tin flasks with the remains of hypocrisy - they drank it all night before the provocation. Here are the worn mats - the Chinese lay on them after they sneaked onto the island at night like thieves and hid. Here is a telephone cable, telephones in red plastic cases, through which the command was transmitted from the island to the firing positions of guns and mortars to open fire on the Soviet border guards. And from all this there is a stupefying, sickening smell of spilled hypocrisy.

We were shown the helmets of our fallen soldiers, new green helmets, shot through, with flakes of torn metal. There was dried blood on the straps. It is clear that the bullet came from top to bottom: they shot at the wounded border guards lying in the snow from very close range.

Major of the medical service Vyacheslav Ivanovich Vitko made the following statement to us:

“A special medical examination established that 19 of our border guards, who initially received non-fatal wounds in the leg, arm, and shoulder, were then brutally and vilely finished off. This is irrefutably evidenced by cut, bayonet and gunshot wounds. They shot from a distance of one or two meters. So the Maoist bandits finished off the wounded senior lieutenant Strelnikov with a point-blank shot. Military doctors - lieutenants of the medical service B. Potavenko, N. Kostyuchenko and I drew up a report about these atrocities. The 19 wounded Soviet border guards would have been alive if the killers had not finished them off with knives, bayonets, and bullets.

3
The helicopters landed one after another at the hill. From them, from the approaching cars, the mothers and fathers of the fallen soldiers came out and ran along the snowy slope, filled with dazzling bright sun, to where the sounds of a funeral march were heard, either fading or growing...

A taut tent. Honor guard with machine guns. The red color hits your eyes: the coffins lined with red are standing in a row. And in them, frozen, beautiful, despite the terrible wounds, are the faces of our soldiers.

Mothers run in. They fall to one, to another. Not that one, not that one... There he is! And he falls dead on his son’s body, kisses his wounds, grabs his hands, and sobs inconsolably. And next to it is another, a third... We stand right there and, unable to hold back the tears, listen, write down everything as it was said here, how it burst out of the mother’s heart.

“My son, my hope... What did they, the monsters, do to you... Yes, they cut you up, stabbed you... You wrote to me that your forelock was growing, but they smashed your whole head...

...The young widow grabbed the tent stake: she looks and looks at the one in the coffin, bandaged...

...The gray-haired father is crying, the soldiers standing on the guard of honor are wiping away their tears. The reporter writes something in a notepad, sobbing...

They were carried on their shoulders and placed carefully under the sun. Scarlet red and the green line of border caps. They lay there, young, surrounded by a dense crowd. The sky above them is high, and spring clouds float in it. And in these white flying clouds it was as if the echo of the recent victorious battle still lived. And there, on the island, their blood burns...

The fallen soldiers are lying, and workers from Iman, peasants from the surrounding villages, friends, comrades in the border service, officers, generals are saying goodbye to them... Smoke from the gun salute flowed over the river. A wide mass grave, their native land accepts them. The first handfuls hit the coffin lids. And Ussuri, white, bright, opened the wings of her sleeves over this sacred grave.

4
Military hospital. Here lie the wounded heroes of Damansky Island. Twenty-year-old boys, but already scorched by the fire of the first brutal battle in their lives. Here, along with them, is their combat commander, senior lieutenant Vitaly Dmitrievich Bubenin. He is thirty years old. He was born in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, in the family of a party worker. After graduating from technical school, he worked as a mechanic. Then - the army, border school and, finally, the outpost. He served as political officer at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, under senior lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Strelnikov. Same age, young officers, they became friends. Then Bubenin was appointed head of the neighboring outpost. Bubenin fought heroically in battle, captivating all the fighters.

He talks about what remains in his memory and heart for the rest of his life.

Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin:

- Exactly at eleven o’clock on March 2, the duty officer from the outpost of my friend, senior lieutenant Strelnikov, called us. At Damansky the battle was already in full swing. Out of alarm, we went there. We jumped onto the island, and here we were met from three sides by Chinese cannons, mortars, and grenade launchers. The fire density was high. I was hurt. I lost consciousness for a minute... When the Chinese knocked out an armored personnel carrier, we moved to another vehicle. And again - bypassing the island... And I’ll tell you honestly, the guys fought for their native Soviet land like lions. Every single one of them, not sparing their lives. As a commander, I can only be proud of them.

Private Mikhail Putilov:

- During the battle, we see two of our wounded crawling through the snow. We go straight to them. They began to pick them up, and the Chinese fired cannons at our armored transporter. They hit the stern and wounded us. And the commander too. But we also gave them a good deal... I was lying by a tree, wounded, and I saw how the Chinese were carrying away the dead and wounded from the island, running to their side...

Private Gennady Serebrov:

“My right arm and leg were broken by bullets. I lay there and saw how they committed atrocities against my wounded comrades - Shusharin and Egupov. They finished them off, the bastards...

We also talked with Colonel D.V. Leonov, the combat commander of the border guards.

- Young guys come to serve us. Such a young man puts on a soldier’s overcoat, and you think: will he turn out to be a real warrior, a military defender of the Motherland? In the battle on Damansky Island, ours were true heroes. And there is nothing surprising about this. After all, the guy was raised by his father and mother, school, Komsomol, Soviet power, our party. A wonderful Russian woman, Agnia Andreevna Strelnikova, raised ten children. Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov was a talented commander. On May 9, Victory Day, he would have turned thirty years old... Strelnikov went to the island with soldiers to reason with the border violators, to demand the cleansing of our Soviet land, as had happened more than once before. And they?!.. They shot Strelnikov at point-blank range.

Strelnikov’s friend, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin, who is now in the hospital, especially distinguished himself in battle. I drove up to the battle site and saw our friends, the local fishermen Avdeevs, carrying the wounded Bubenin in their arms. His face is covered in blood. We put the senior lieutenant under a tree. I order the doctor to evacuate him immediately.

“I won’t go, Comrade Colonel,” objected Bubenin. “There, in the fire, are my soldiers, and I’m supposed to be with them to the end.”

He stood up, but his legs couldn’t hold him up: apparently he’d lost a lot of blood... Together with the doctor, we finally put him in the car and sent him to the hospital. What else can I say?.. Real heroes, loyal soldiers of our socialist Fatherland, fought on Damansky Island!

5
When the clear March day faded, the relatives and friends of the fallen gathered for a funeral feast. The father of senior lieutenant Strelnikov, Ivan Matveevich, stands up. During World War II he was a soldier and received 12 wounds.

“Only now have we buried our children,” he said. “I have other sons, and each of them would have done the same as Ivan.” There's nothing more I can say.

The father of border guard Nikitin stood up:
- All of us, fathers, went through the Patriotic War... Today we lost our sons, but the people will not forget them. I curse Mao and his accomplices, this is their dirty work.

This is the father of Sergeant Nikolai Dergach speaking - Timofey Nikitich.

- Tomorrow I turn fifty years old. This is how things turned out... Mao killed my only son... Kolya was only twenty years old, just beginning to live... Now, in peacetime, I am a state farm worker. And during the Patriotic War I was an artilleryman. And, by the way, in 1945 he came to China with his regiment to drive away the Japanese from Chinese land. What does this mean? We defeated the Kwantung Army of the Japanese imperialists in order to help the Chinese people. After 1949, plants and factories helped China build. And Mao will execute real communists in his own country and will set his sights on our Soviet land... Apparently, his affairs are bad, the Chinese people do not believe him, and therefore he is looking for salvation in black robbery.

* * *
...We left the border in the evening. The sun was finishing its journey, gilding the purple forests, white hills, the quiet Ussuri and our island of Damansky, crouched against its chest.

The first stars are about to appear in the sky. They will shine over the mass grave. A little time will pass - an obelisk will rise here. And he, like an eternal sentry, will guard the sleep of Damansky’s heroes.

Private Vladimir Shusharin

Certificate of commendation from the Komsomol city committee. 1962 From the archive high school No. 4. Kuibyshev NSO.

Vladimir Shusharin with friends before being drafted into the army. 1966 From the personal archive of Valery Kubrakov

The notice of the death of Private Shusharin dated March 11, 1969, stored in the archives of the Kuibyshev RVC, was signed by Colonel Leonov. On March 15, the head of the 57th Iman border detachment, Colonel Democrat Vladimirovich Leonov, died in a battle near Damansky Island

Entry in the book of irretrievable losses of the Kuibyshev RVC
Extract from the Examination Report drawn up by the head of the medical service of the 57th border detachment, Major V.I. Kvitko: “Private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich, born in 1947. Multiple bullet wounds in the chest and anterior abdominal wall. Death occurred from damage to the chest and abdominal organs."

Memorial "Glory to the Fallen Heroes"

Memorial "Glory to the Fallen Heroes". Dalnerechensk. 2008




Registration card of a military burial in Dalnerechensk from the Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense. With her help, it was possible to establish the date of birth of Vladimir Shusharin - November 12, 1947.

On the other side of the border

The events of 1969 on Damansky Island became a symbol of the victory of Chinese weapons over Soviet revisionism

Ten PLA soldiers were awarded the title of "Hero of China"

Hero of the People's Republic of China Zhou Denguo, who was the first to open fire on Soviet border guards on March 2, 1969
In the official interpretation of Beijing, the events at Damansky looked like as follows:

“On March 2, 1969, a group of Soviet border troops numbering 70 people with two armored personnel carriers, one truck and one passenger vehicle invaded our island of Zhenbaodao in Hulin County, Heilongjiang Province, destroyed our patrol and then destroyed many of our border guards by fire. This forced our soldiers to take self-defense measures.

On March 15, the Soviet Union, ignoring repeated warnings from the Chinese government, launched an offensive against us with 20 tanks, 30 armored personnel carriers and 200 infantry, with air support from its aircraft.

The soldiers and militias who bravely defended the island for 9 hours withstood three enemy attacks. On March 17, the enemy, using several tanks, tractors and infantry, tried to pull out a tank that had previously been knocked out by our troops. Hurricane response artillery fire from our artillery destroyed part of the enemy forces, the survivors retreated.”

Commemorative bas-relief depicting the heroic deeds of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in March 1969

Book "Myths of Damansky"

Book by D.S. Ryabushkin’s “Myths of Damansky” is dedicated to the military border conflicts of March 1969 on Damansky Island. These dramatic events destroyed the “great friendship” between the USSR and the PRC and almost led to a limited nuclear war between them.

The book uses extensive documentary and literary material, eyewitness accounts. The text is accompanied by illustrations, documentary and reference appendices.

Intended for a wide range of readers interested in military history. Published in 2004 with a circulation of only 3,000 copies.

Did you read the article to the end? Please take part in the discussion, express your point of view, or simply rate the article.

Damansky Island, which sparked a border armed conflict, occupies 0.75 square meters in area. km. From south to north it stretches for 1500 - 1800 m, and its width reaches 600 - 700 m. These figures are quite approximate, since the size of the island greatly depends on the time of year. In the spring, Damansky Island is flooded with the waters of the Ussuri River and it is almost hidden from view, and in winter the island rises like a dark mountain on the icy surface of the river.

From the Soviet coast to the island it is about 500 m, from the Chinese coast - about 300 m. In accordance with generally accepted practice, boundaries on rivers are drawn along the main fairway. However, taking advantage of the weakness of pre-revolutionary China, the tsarist government of Russia managed to draw the border on the Ussuri River in a completely different way - along the water's edge along the Chinese coast. Thus, the entire river and the islands on it turned out to be Russian.

Disputed Island

This obvious injustice continued after October Revolution 1917 and the formation of the Chinese People's Republic in 1949, but for some time did not influence Soviet-Chinese relations. And only at the end of the 50s, when ideological differences arose between the Khrushchev leadership of the CPSU and the CPC, the situation on the border gradually began to worsen. Mao Zedong and other Chinese leaders have repeatedly expressed the view that the development of Sino-Soviet relations presupposes a solution to the border problem. The “decision” meant the transfer of certain territories to China, including islands on the Ussuri River. The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the Chinese desire to draw a new border along the rivers and was even ready to transfer a number of lands to the PRC. However, this readiness disappeared as soon as the ideological and then interstate conflict flared up. Further deterioration of relations between the two countries ultimately led to open armed confrontation on Damansky.

Disagreements between the USSR and China began in 1956, when Mao condemned Moscow for suppressing unrest in Poland and Hungary. Khrushchev was extremely upset. He considered China a Soviet “creation” that should live and develop under the strict control of the Kremlin. The mentality of the Chinese, who have historically dominated East Asia, assumed a different, more equal approach to solving international (especially Asian) problems. In 1960, the crisis intensified even more when the USSR suddenly recalled its specialists from China, who had helped it develop the economy and the Armed Forces. The completion of the process of severing bilateral ties was the refusal of the Chinese communists to participate in the XXIII Congress of the CPSU, which was announced on March 22, 1966. After the entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Chinese authorities declared that the USSR had embarked on the path of “socialist revanchism.”

The provocative actions of the Chinese at the border have intensified. From 1964 to 1968, in the Red Banner Pacific border district alone, the Chinese organized more than 6 thousand provocations involving about 26 thousand people. Anti-Sovietism became the basis of the CPC's foreign policy.

By this time, the “cultural revolution” (1966–1969) was already in full swing in China. In China, the Great Helmsman arranged public executions"pests" who were slowing down the "great economic policy Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward." But an external enemy was also needed, to whom larger mistakes could be attributed.

KHRUSHCHEV GOT STUPID

In accordance with generally accepted practice, boundaries on rivers are drawn along the main fairway (thalweg). However, taking advantage of the weakness of pre-revolutionary China, the tsarist government of Russia managed to draw a border on the Ussuri River along the Chinese coast. Without knowing Russian authorities The Chinese could not engage in either fishing or shipping.

After the October Revolution, the new Russian government declared all “tsarist” treaties with China “predatory and unequal.” The Bolsheviks thought more about the world revolution, which would sweep away all borders, and least of all about state benefit. At that time, the USSR provided active assistance to China, which was waging a war of national liberation with Japan, and the issue of disputed territories was not considered important. In 1951, Beijing signed an agreement with Moscow, according to which it recognized the existing border with the USSR, and also agreed to the control of Soviet border guards over the Ussuri and Amur rivers.

Without exaggeration, relations between peoples were fraternal. Residents of the border strip visited each other and engaged in barter trade. Soviet and Chinese border guards celebrated the holidays of May 1 and November 7 together. And only when disagreements arose between the leadership of the CPSU and the CPC, the situation on the border began to escalate - the question of revising the borders arose.

During consultations in 1964, it became clear that Mao was demanding that Moscow recognize the border treaties as “unequal,” as Vladimir Lenin had done. The next step should be the transfer of 1.5 million square meters to China. km of “previously occupied lands”. “For us, such a formulation of the issue was unacceptable,” writes Professor Yuri Gelenovich, who took part in negotiations with the Chinese in 1964, 1969 and 1979. True, the head of the Chinese state, Liu Shaoqi, proposed starting negotiations without preconditions and basing the delimitation in river areas on the principle of drawing the border line along the fairway of navigable rivers. Nikita Khrushchev accepted Liu Shaoqi's proposal. But with one caveat - we can only talk about islands adjacent to the Chinese coast.

The stumbling block that did not allow the continuation of negotiations on water boundaries in 1964 was the Kazakevich channel near Khabarovsk. Khrushchev became stubborn, and the transfer of the disputed territories, including Damansky, did not take place.

Damansky Island with an area of ​​about 0.74 square meters. km territorially belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. From the island to Khabarovsk – 230 km. The distance of the island from the Soviet coast is about 500 m, from the Chinese coast – about 70–300. From south to north, Damansky stretches for 1500–1800 m, its width reaches 600–700 m. It does not represent any economic or military-strategic value.

According to some sources, Damansky Island was formed on the Ussuri River only in 1915, after river water eroded the bridge with the Chinese shore. According to Chinese historians, the island as such appeared only in the summer of 1968 as a result of a flood, when a small piece of land was cut off from Chinese territory.

FISTS AND BUTTS

In winter, when the ice on the Ussuri became strong, the Chinese went out into the middle of the river, “armed” with portraits of Mao, Lenin and Stalin, demonstrating where, in their opinion, the border should be.

From a report to the headquarters of the Red Banner Far Eastern District: “On January 23, 1969, at 11.15, armed Chinese soldiers began to bypass Damansky Island. When asked to leave the territory, the violators began shouting, waving quotation books and fists. After some time they attacked our border guards..."

A. Skornyak, a direct participant in the events, recalls: “The hand-to-hand combat was brutal. The Chinese used shovels, iron rods, and sticks. Our guys fought back with the butts of their machine guns. Miraculously, there were no casualties. Despite the numerical superiority of the attackers, the border guards put them to flight. After this incident, clashes occurred on the ice every day. They always ended in fights. By the end of February, at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost there was not a single fighter “with a whole face”: “lanterns” under the eyes, broken noses, but a fighting mood. Every day there is such a “spectacle”. And the commanders are ahead. The head of the outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, and his political officer, Nikolai Buinevich, were healthy men. Many Chinese noses and jaws were twisted with rifle butts and fists. The Red Guards were afraid of them like hell and everyone shouted: “We will kill you first!”

The commander of the Iman border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov, constantly reported that at any moment the conflict could escalate into war. Moscow responded as in 1941: “Do not give in to provocations, resolve all issues peacefully!” And this means - with fists and butts. The border guards put on sheepskin coats and felt boots, took machine guns with one magazine (for a minute of battle) and went onto the ice. To boost morale, the Chinese were given a quotation book with the sayings of the Great Helmsman and a bottle of hanja (Chinese vodka). After taking the “doping,” the Chinese rushed hand-to-hand. Once, during a brawl, they managed to stun and drag two of our border guards into their territory. Then they were executed.

On February 19, the Chinese General Staff approved a plan codenamed “Retribution.” It said, in particular: “... if Soviet soldiers open fire on the Chinese side from small arms- respond with warning shots, and if the warning does not have the desired effect - give a “decisive rebuff in self-defense.”

Tension in the Damansky area increased gradually. At first, Chinese citizens simply went to the island. Then they started coming out with posters. Then sticks, knives, carbines and machine guns appeared... For the time being, communication between the Chinese and Soviet border guards was relatively peaceful, but in accordance with the inexorable logic of events, it quickly developed into verbal skirmishes and hand-to-hand brawls. The most fierce battle took place on January 22, 1969, as a result of which Soviet border guards recaptured several carbines from the Chinese. Upon inspection of the weapon, it turned out that the cartridges were already in the chambers. Soviet commanders clearly understood how tense the situation was and therefore constantly called on their subordinates to be especially vigilant. Preventive measures were taken - for example, the staff of each border post was increased to 50 people. Nevertheless, the events of March 2 were a complete surprise for the Soviet side. On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) crossed to Damansky and lay down on the western coast of the island.

The Chinese were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, as well as SKS carbines. The commanders had TT pistols. All Chinese weapons were made according to Soviet models. There were no documents or personal items in the Chinese's pockets. But everyone has a Mao quote book. To support the units that landed on Damansky, positions of recoilless rifles, heavy machine guns and mortars were equipped on the Chinese coast. Here the Chinese infantry were waiting in the wings total number 200-300 people. At about 9.00 am, a Soviet border patrol passed through the island, but did not find the invading Chinese. An hour and a half later, at the Soviet post, observers noticed the movement of a group of armed people (up to 30 people) in the direction of Damansky and immediately reported this by telephone to the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, located 12 km south of the island. Head of the outpost st. Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov raised his subordinates to the gun. In three groups, in three vehicles - GAZ-69 (8 people), BTR-60PB (13 people) and GAZ-63 (12 people), Soviet border guards arrived at the scene.

Having dismounted, they moved towards the Chinese in two groups: the first was led across the ice by the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, and the second by Sergeant V. Rabovich. The third group, led by St. Sergeant Yu. Babansky, driving a GAZ-63 car, fell behind and arrived at the scene 15 minutes later. Approaching the Chinese, I. Strelnikov protested about the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. In response, the first line of Chinese parted, and the second opened sudden machine-gun fire on Strelnikov’s group. Strelnikov’s group and the head of the outpost himself died immediately. Some of the attackers got up from their “beds” and rushed to attack a handful of Soviet soldiers from the second group, commanded by Yu. Rabovich. They took the fight and fired back literally to the last bullet. When the attackers reached the positions of Rabovich’s group, they finished off the wounded Soviet border guards with point-blank shots and cold steel. This shameful fact for the People's Liberation Army of China is evidenced by the documents of the Soviet medical commission. The only one who literally miraculously survived was Private G. Serebrov. Having regained consciousness in the hospital, he spoke about last minutes the lives of your friends. It was at this moment that the third group of border guards arrived in time under the command of Yu. Babansky.

Taking a position some distance behind their dying comrades, the border guards met the advancing Chinese with machine gun fire. The battle was unequal, there were fewer and fewer fighters left in the group, and ammunition quickly ran out. Fortunately, border guards from the neighboring Kulebyakina Sopka outpost, located 17-18 km north of Damansky, came to the aid of Babansky’s group, commanded by Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin. Having received a telephone message on the morning of March 2 about what was happening on the island, Bubenin put more than twenty soldiers in the armored personnel carrier and hastened to the rescue of the neighbors. At about 11.30 the armored personnel carrier reached Damansky. The border guards disembarked from the car and almost immediately encountered a large group of Chinese. A fight ensued. During the battle, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin was wounded and shell-shocked, but did not lose control of the battle. Leaving several soldiers at the site, led by junior sergeant V. Kanygin, he and four soldiers loaded into an armored personnel carrier and moved around the island, going behind the Chinese. The culmination of the battle came at the moment when Bubenin managed to destroy the Chinese command post. After this, the border violators began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded. This is how the first battle on Damansky ended. In the battle on March 2, 1969, the Soviet side lost 31 people killed - this is exactly the figure that was given at a press conference at the USSR Foreign Ministry on March 7, 1969. As for the Chinese losses, they are not reliably known, since the PLA General Staff has not yet made this information public. The Soviet border guards themselves estimated the total enemy losses at 100-150 soldiers and commanders.

After the battle on March 2, 1969, reinforced squads of Soviet border guards constantly came to Damansky - numbering at least 10 people, with a sufficient amount of ammunition. Sappers carried out mining on the island in case of an attack by Chinese infantry. In the rear, at a distance of several kilometers from Damansky, the 135th motorized rifle division of the Far Eastern Military District was deployed - infantry, tanks, artillery, rocket launchers volley fire "Grad". The 199th Verkhne-Udinsky Regiment of this division took a direct part in further events.

The Chinese were also accumulating forces for the next offensive: in the area of ​​the island, the 24th Infantry Regiment of the People's Liberation Army of China, which consisted of up to 5,000 soldiers and commanders, was preparing for battle! On March 15, noticing the revival on the Chinese side, a detachment of Soviet border guards consisting of 45 people in 4 armored personnel carriers entered the island. Another 80 border guards concentrated on the shore, ready to support their comrades. At about 9.00 on March 15, a loudspeaker installation started working on the Chinese side. A clear female voice in clear Russian called on the Soviet border guards to leave “Chinese territory”, abandon “revisionism”, etc. On the Soviet shore they also turned on a loudspeaker.

The broadcast was conducted in Chinese and in rather simple words: come to your senses before it’s too late, before you are the sons of those who liberated China from the Japanese invaders. After some time, there was silence on both sides, and closer to 10.00, Chinese artillery and mortars (from 60 to 90 barrels) began shelling the island. At the same time, 3 companies of Chinese infantry (each with 100-150 people) went on the attack. The battle on the island was focal in nature: scattered groups of border guards continued to repel attacks by the Chinese, who significantly outnumbered the defenders. According to eyewitnesses, the course of the battle resembled a pendulum: each side pressed back the enemy as reserves approached. At the same time, however, the ratio in manpower was always approximately 10:1 in favor of the Chinese. At about 15.00 an order was received to leave the island. After this, the arriving Soviet reserves tried to carry out several counterattacks in order to expel the border violators, but they were unsuccessful: the Chinese thoroughly fortified themselves on the island and met the attackers with heavy fire.

Only at this point was it decided to use artillery, since there was a real threat of the complete capture of Damansky by the Chinese. The order to attack the Chinese coast was given by the first deputy. Commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General P.M. Plotnikov. At 17.00, a separate rocket division of BM-21 “Grad” installations under the command of M.T. Vashchenko launched a fire strike on Chinese concentration areas and their firing positions.

This is how the then top-secret 40-barreled Grad, capable of releasing all the ammunition in 20 seconds, was used for the first time. After 10 minutes of the artillery attack, there was nothing left of the Chinese division. A significant part of the Chinese soldiers in Damansky and adjacent territory were destroyed by a firestorm (according to Chinese data, more than 6 thousand). IN foreign press immediately there was a buzz that the Russians had used something unknown secret weapon, either lasers, or flamethrowers, or God knows what. (And the hunt began for God knows what, which was crowned with success in the distant south of Africa 6 years later. But that’s another story...)

At the same time, a cannon artillery regiment equipped with 122 mm howitzers opened fire on identified targets. The artillery fired for 10 minutes. The raid turned out to be extremely accurate: the shells destroyed Chinese reserves, mortars, stacks of shells, etc. Radio intercept data indicated hundreds dead soldiers PLA. At 17.10, motorized riflemen (2 companies and 3 tanks) and border guards in 4 armored personnel carriers went on the attack. After a stubborn battle, the Chinese began to retreat from the island. Then they tried to recapture Damansky, but three of their attacks ended in complete failure. After this, the Soviet soldiers retreated to their shores, and the Chinese made no further attempts to take possession of the island.

The Chinese kept harassing fire on the island for another half hour until they finally subsided. According to some estimates, they could have lost at least 700 people from the Grad attack. The provocateurs did not dare to continue. There is also information that 50 Chinese soldiers and officers were shot for cowardice.

The next day, the first deputy chairman of the USSR KGB, Colonel General Nikolai Zakharov, arrived at Damansky. He personally crawled the entire island (length 1500–1800, width 500–600 m, area 0.74 sq. km), studied all the circumstances of the unprecedented battle. After this, Zakharov said to Bubenin: “Son, I passed Civil War, the Great Patriotic War, the fight against the OUN in Ukraine. I saw everything. But I haven’t seen anything like this!”

And General Babansky said that the most remarkable episode in the hour and a half battle was associated with the actions of junior sergeant Vasily Kanygin and the cook of the outpost, Private Nikolai Puzyrev. They managed to destroy the largest number of Chinese soldiers (later they calculated - almost a platoon). Moreover, when they ran out of cartridges, Puzyrev crawled up to the killed enemies and took away their ammunition (each attacker had six magazines for his machine gun, while the Soviet border guards had two), which allowed this pair of heroes to continue the battle...

The head of the outpost, Bubenin, at some point in the brutal firefight, sat on an armored personnel carrier equipped with KPVT and PKT turret machine guns, and, according to him, killed an entire infantry company of PLA soldiers who were moving to the island to reinforce the violators already fighting. Using machine guns, the senior lieutenant suppressed firing points and crushed the Chinese with his wheels. When the armored personnel carrier was hit, he moved to another and continued to kill enemy soldiers until this vehicle was hit by an armor-piercing shell. As Bubenin recalled, after the first shell shock at the beginning of the skirmish, “I fought the entire subsequent battle in the subconscious, being in some other world.” The officer's army sheepskin coat was torn into shreds on the back by enemy bullets.

By the way, such fully armored BTR-60PB were used in combat for the first time. The lessons of the conflict were taken into account as it developed. Already on March 15, PLA soldiers went into battle armed with a significant number of hand grenade launchers. For in order to suppress a new provocation, not two armored personnel carriers were pulled up to Damansky, but 11, four of which operated directly on the island, and 7 were in reserve.

This may indeed seem incredible, “obviously exaggerated,” but the facts are that after the end of the battle, 248 corpses of PLA soldiers and officers were collected on the island (and then handed over to the Chinese side).

The generals, both Bubenin and Babansky, are still modest. In a conversation with me three years ago, not one of them claimed a figure for Chinese losses greater than that officially recognized, although it is clear that the Chinese managed to drag dozens of those killed to their territory. In addition, the border guards successfully suppressed enemy firing points found on the Chinese bank of the Ussuri. So the losses of the attackers could well have been 350–400 people.

It is significant that the Chinese themselves have not yet declassified the figures for losses on March 2, 1969, which look truly murderous against the backdrop of the damage suffered by the Soviet “green caps” - 31 people. It is only known that in Baoqing County there is a memorial cemetery where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who did not return from Damansky alive on March 2 and 15 rest. Of these, five were awarded the title of Hero of the People's Republic of China. Obviously, there are other burials.

In just two battles (the second Chinese attack occurred on March 15), 52 Soviet border guards were killed, including four officers, including the head of the Imansky (now Dalnerechensky) border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov. He, along with Strelnikov, Bubenin and Babansky, was awarded the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). 94 people were wounded, including 9 officers (Bubenin was shell-shocked, and then wounded). In addition, seven motorized riflemen who participated in supporting the “green caps” in the second battle laid down their lives.

According to the memoirs of General Babansky, regular violations of the border by the Chinese without the use of weapons “became a standard situation for us. And when the battle began, we felt that we didn’t have enough ammunition, there were no reserves, and the supply of ammunition was not guaranteed.” Babansky also claims that the Chinese construction of a road to the border, which they explained as the development of the area for agricultural purposes, “we took at face value.” The observed movement of Chinese troops, explained by the exercises, was perceived in the same way. Although observation was carried out at night, “our observers did not see anything: we had only one night vision device, and even that allowed us to see something at a distance of no more than 50–70 meters.” Further - more. On March 2, army exercises were held at the training grounds for all troops stationed in the area. A significant part of the border guard officers were also involved in them; only one officer remained at the outposts. One gets the impression that, unlike the Soviet military, the Chinese intelligence was carried out quite well. “Before the reinforcements reached us, they had to return to their place of permanent deployment to bring the equipment into combat readiness,” Babansky also said. “Therefore, the arrival of the reserve took longer than expected. The estimated time would have been enough for us; we already held out for an hour and a half. And when the army men reached their lines, deployed forces and means, almost everything on the island was already over.”

America saved China from the nuclear wrath of the Soviet Union

In the late 1960s, America saved China from the nuclear wrath of the Soviet Union: this is stated in a series of articles published in Beijing in the supplement to the official publication of the CCP, the journal Historical Reference, Le Figaro reports. The conflict, which began in March 1969 with a series of clashes on the Soviet-Chinese border, led to the mobilization of troops, the newspaper writes. According to the publication, the USSR warned its allies in Eastern Europe about a planned nuclear strike. On August 20, the Soviet Ambassador in Washington warned Kissinger and demanded that the United States remain neutral, but White House intentionally leaked it, and on August 28, information about Soviet plans appeared in the Washington Post. In September and October, tensions reached a fever pitch and the Chinese population was ordered to dig shelters.

The article goes on to say that Nixon, who considered the USSR the main threat, did not need a too weak China. In addition, he feared the consequences of nuclear explosions for 250 thousand American soldiers in Asia. On October 15, Kissinger warned the Soviet ambassador that the United States would not stand by if attacked and would respond by attacking 130 Soviet cities. Five days later, Moscow canceled all plans for a nuclear strike, and negotiations began in Beijing: the crisis was over, the newspaper writes.

According to the Chinese publication, Washington’s actions were partly “revenge” for the events of five years ago, when the USSR refused to join efforts to prevent China from developing nuclear weapons, saying that the Chinese nuclear program did not pose a threat. On October 16, 1964, Beijing successfully conducted its first nuclear test. The magazine recounts three more occasions when China was threatened with nuclear attack, this time from the United States: during Korean War, as well as during the conflict between mainland China and Taiwan in March 1955 and August 1958.

“Researcher Liu Chenshan, who describes the Nixon episode, does not specify on what archival sources he is based. He admits that other experts disagree with his statements. The publication of his article in an official publication suggests that he had access to serious sources, and his article was reread several times,” the publication writes in conclusion.

Political settlement of the conflict

On September 11, 1969, negotiations between the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin and the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai took place at Beijing airport. The meeting lasted three and a half hours. The main result of the discussion was an agreement to stop hostile actions on the Soviet-Chinese border and to stop troops at the lines they occupied at the time of negotiations. It must be said that the formulation “the parties remain where they were before” was proposed by Zhou Enlai, and Kosygin immediately agreed with it. And it was at this moment that Damansky Island became de facto Chinese. The fact is that after the end of the fighting, the ice began to melt and therefore the border guards’ access to Damansky turned out to be difficult. We decided to provide fire cover for the island. From now on, any attempt by the Chinese to land on Damansky was stopped by sniper and machine-gun fire.

On September 10, 1969, the border guards received an order to stop firing. Immediately after this, the Chinese came to the island and settled there. On the same day, a similar story occurred on Kirkinsky Island, located 3 km north of Damansky. Thus, on the day of the Beijing negotiations on September 11, the Chinese were already on the islands of Damansky and Kirkinsky. A.N. Kosygin’s agreement with the wording “the parties remain where they were until now” meant the actual surrender of the islands to China. Apparently, the order to cease fire on September 10 was given in order to create a favorable background for the start of negotiations. The Soviet leaders knew very well that the Chinese would land on Damansky, and they deliberately went for it. Obviously, the Kremlin decided that sooner or later, a new border would have to be drawn along the fairways of the Amur and Ussuri. And if so, then there is no point in holding on to the islands, which will go to the Chinese anyway. Soon after the completion of the negotiations, A.N. Kosygin and Zhou Enlai exchanged letters. In them they agreed to begin work on preparing a non-aggression pact.

While Mao Zedong was alive, negotiations on border issues did not produce results. He died in 1976. Four years later, the “gang of four” led by the widow of the “helmsman” was dispersed. In the 80s, relations between our countries were normalized. In 1991 and 1994, the parties managed to define the border along its entire length, with the exception of the islands near Khabarovsk. Damansky Island was officially transferred to China in 1991. In 2004, it was possible to conclude an agreement regarding the islands near Khabarovsk and on the Argun River. Today, the Russian-Chinese border has been established along its entire length - about 4.3 thousand kilometers.

ETERNAL MEMORY TO THE FALLEN HEROES OF THE BORDER! GLORY TO THE VETERANS OF 1969!

The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy was made -

Soviet-Chinese border conflict on Damansky Island - armed clashes between the USSR and the PRC on March 2 and 15, 1969 in the area of ​​​​Damansky Island (Chinese. 珍宝 , Zhenbao - “Precious”) on the Ussuri River 230 km south of Khabarovsk and 35 km west of the regional center Luchegorsk (46°29′08″s. w. 133°50′ 40″ V. d. (G) (O)). The largest Soviet-Chinese armed conflict in modern history Russia and China.

Background and causes of the conflict

After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision emerged that borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run along the middle of the main channel of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the banks, when such a border was formed historically - by agreement, or if one side colonized the second bank before the other began to colonize it. In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect. However, in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, entered into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border regulations as a reason to revise the Soviet Chinese border. The leadership of the USSR was ready to do this; in 1964, a consultation was held on border issues, but it ended without results. Due to ideological differences during Cultural Revolution in China and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when the PRC authorities declared that the USSR had taken the path of “socialist imperialism,” relations became particularly strained. The island issue was presented to the Chinese side as a symbol of Soviet revisionism and social-imperialism.

Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Its dimensions are 1500–1800 m from north to south and 600–700 m from west to east (area about 0.74 km²). During flood periods, the island is completely hidden under water. However, there are several brick buildings on the island. And water meadows are a valuable natural resource.

Since the early 1960s, the situation in the island area has been heating up. According to statements from the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons. At first, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and demonstratively engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing livestock, declaring that they were on Chinese territory. The number of such provocations increased sharply: in 1960 there were 100, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then Red Guards began to carry out attacks on border patrols. Such events numbered in the thousands, each of them involving up to several hundred people. On January 4, 1969, a Chinese provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island (Qiliqindao) with the participation of 500 people.

Hero of the Soviet Union Yuri Babansky, who served at the border outpost during the year of the conflict, recalled: “... in February he unexpectedly received an appointment to the post of commander of the outpost department, the head of which was Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov. I arrive at the outpost, and there is no one there except the cook. “Everyone,” he says, “is on the shore, fighting with the Chinese.” Of course, I have a machine gun on my shoulder - and to Ussuri. And there really is a fight. Chinese border guards crossed the Ussuri on the ice and invaded our territory. So Strelnikov raised the outpost “at gunpoint.” Our guys were taller and healthier. But the Chinese are not born with bast - they are dexterous, evasive; They don’t climb on their fists, they try in every possible way to dodge our blows. By the time everyone was thrashed, an hour and a half had passed. But without a single shot. Only in the face. Even then I thought: “A cheerful outpost.”

According to the Chinese version of events, Soviet border guards themselves “arranged” provocations and beat up Chinese citizens who were engaged in economic activities where they always did. During the Kirkinsky incident, Soviet border guards used armored personnel carriers to displace civilians, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single machine gun shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.

However, it was repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault it occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without the approval of the authorities. The assertion that the events around Damansky Island on March 2 and 15 were the result of an action carefully planned by the Chinese side is now the most widespread; including directly or indirectly recognized by many Chinese historians. For example, Li Danhui writes that in 1968-1969, the response to “Soviet provocations” was limited by the directives of the CPC Central Committee; only on January 25, 1969, it was allowed to plan “response military actions” near Damansky Island with the forces of three companies. On February 19, the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China agreed to this. There is a version according to which the leadership of the USSR was aware in advance through Marshal Lin Biao of the upcoming Chinese action, which resulted in a conflict.

In a US State Department intelligence bulletin dated July 13, 1969: “Chinese propaganda emphasized the need for internal unity and encouraged the population to prepare for war. It can be considered that the incidents were staged solely to strengthen domestic politics.”

Former KGB resident in China Yu. I. Drozdov argued that intelligence promptly (even under Khrushchev) and very fully warned the Soviet leadership about the impending armed provocation in the Damansky area.

Chronology of events

On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 77 Chinese troops in winter camouflage, armed with SKS carbines and (partially) Kalashnikov assault rifles, crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western shore of the island.

The group remained unnoticed until 10:20, when the 2nd outpost “Nizhne-Mikhailovka” of the 57th Iman border detachment received a report from an observation post that a group of armed people of up to 30 people was moving in the direction of Damansky. 32 Soviet border guards, including the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, went to the scene of events in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and one BTR-60PB (No. 04). At 10:40 they arrived at the southern tip of the island. The border guards under the command of Strelnikov were divided into two groups. The first group, under the command of Strelnikov, headed towards a group of Chinese military personnel standing on the ice southwest of the island. The second group under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich was supposed to cover Strelnikov’s group with south coast islands, cutting off a group of Chinese military personnel (about 20 people) heading deeper into the island.

At about 10:45 Strelnikov protested about the border violation and demanded that Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese servicemen raised his hand up, which served as a signal for the Chinese side to open fire on the groups of Strelnikov and Rabovich. The moment the armed provocation began was captured on film by military photojournalist Private Nikolai Petrov. At this point, Rabovich’s group came to an ambush on the shore of the island, and small arms fire was opened on the border guards. Strelnikov and the border guards who followed him (7 people) died, the bodies of the border guards were severely mutilated by the Chinese military personnel, and in the short-lived battle, the squad of border guards under the command of Sergeant Rabovich (11 people) was almost completely killed - private Gennady Serebrov and Corporal Pavel Akulov survived, later captured in an unconscious state. Akulov’s body, with numerous signs of torture, was handed over Soviet side April 17, 1969.

Having received a report of shooting on the island, the head of the neighboring 1st outpost “Kulebyakiny Sopki”, senior lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, went to the BTR-60PB (No. 01) and GAZ-69 with 23 soldiers to help. Upon arrival at the island at 11:30, Bubenin took up defense together with Babansky’s group and 2 armored personnel carriers. The firefight lasted about 30 minutes, the Chinese began shelling the border guards' combat formations with mortars. During the battle, the heavy machine gun on Bubenin’s armored personnel carrier failed, as a result of which it was necessary to return to its original position to replace it. After that, he decided to send his armored personnel carrier to the rear of the Chinese, skirting the northern tip of the island on the ice, going out along the Ussuri channel to the Chinese infantry company moving towards the island, and began firing at it, destroying the company on the ice. But soon the armored personnel carrier was hit, and Bubenin decided to go out with his soldiers to the Soviet coast. Having reached the armored personnel carrier No. 04 of the deceased Strelnikov and transferred to it, Bubenin’s group moved along the Chinese positions and destroyed their command post, but the armored personnel carrier was hit while trying to pick up the wounded. The Chinese continued to attack combat positions Soviet border guards near the island. Residents of the village of Nizhnemikhailovka and servicemen of the automobile battalion of military unit 12370 assisted the border guards in evacuating the wounded and transporting ammunition.

Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the surviving border guards, whose squad managed to covertly disperse around the island due to a delay in moving from the outpost and, together with the crew of the armored personnel carrier, took up fire.

“After 20 minutes of battle,” Babansky recalled, “out of 12 guys, eight remained alive, and after another 15, five. Of course, it was still possible to retreat, return to the outpost, and wait for reinforcements from the detachment. But we were seized with such fierce anger at these bastards that in those moments we wanted only one thing - to kill them as much as possible. For the guys, for ourselves, for this inch that no one needs, but still our land.”

Around 13:00 the Chinese began to retreat.

In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed and 14 were injured. The losses of the Chinese side (according to the assessment of the USSR KGB commission chaired by Colonel General N.S. Zakharov) amounted to 39 people killed.

At about 13:20, a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Iman border detachment and its chief, Colonel D.V. Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts, the reserves of the Pacific and Far Eastern border districts were involved. Reinforced detachments of border guards went to Damansky, and the 135th motorized rifle division was deployed in the rear Soviet Army with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment, numbering 5 thousand people, was preparing for combat.

On March 4, the Chinese newspapers People's Daily and Jiefangjun Bao (解放军报) published an editorial “Down with the New Tsars!”, blaming the incident on the Soviet troops, who, according to the author of the article, “were driven by a clique of renegade revisionists, brazenly invaded Zhenbaodao Island on the Wusulijiang River in Heilongjiang Province of our country, opened rifle and cannon fire on the border guards of the People's Liberation Army of China, killing and wounding many of them.” On the same day, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article “Shame on the provocateurs!” According to the author of the article, “an armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border and headed towards Damansky Island. Fire was suddenly opened on the Soviet border guards guarding this area from the Chinese side. There are dead and wounded."

On March 7, the Chinese Embassy in Moscow was picketed. Demonstrators also threw ink bottles at the building.

On March 14 at 15:00 an order was received to remove border guard units from the island. Immediately after the withdrawal of the Soviet border guards, Chinese soldiers began to occupy the island. In response to this, 8 armored personnel carriers under the command of the head of the motorized maneuver group of the 57th border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel E. I. Yanshin, moved in battle formation towards Damansky. The Chinese retreated to their shore.

At 20:00 on March 14, the border guards received an order to occupy the island. That same night, Yanshin’s group of 60 people in 4 armored personnel carriers dug in there. On the morning of March 15, after broadcasting from both sides through loudspeakers, at 10:00 from 30 to 60 Chinese artillery and mortars began shelling Soviet positions, and 3 companies of Chinese infantry went on the offensive. A fight ensued.

Between 400 and 500 Chinese soldiers took up positions near the southern part of the island and prepared to move behind Yangshin's rear. Two armored personnel carriers of his group were hit, and communication was damaged. Four T-62 tanks under the command of the head of the 57th border detachment, Colonel D. V. Leonov, attacked the Chinese at the southern tip of the island, but Leonov’s tank was hit (according to different versions, by a shot from an RPG-2 grenade launcher or was blown up by an anti-tank mine), and he Leonov was killed by a Chinese sniper while trying to leave a burning car. The situation was aggravated by the fact that Leonov did not know the island and, as a result, soviet tanks They came too close to the Chinese positions, but at the cost of losses they did not allow the Chinese to enter the island.

Two hours later, having used up their ammunition, the Soviet border guards were nevertheless forced to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the forces brought into the battle were not enough, and the Chinese significantly outnumbered the border guard detachments. At 17:00, in a critical situation, in violation of the instructions of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee not to introduce Soviet troops into the conflict, by order of the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Colonel General O. A. Losik, fire was opened from the then secret multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) ) "Grad". The shells destroyed most of the material and technical resources of the Chinese group and military, including reinforcements, mortars, and stacks of shells. At 17:10, motorized riflemen of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov went on the attack in order to finally suppress the resistance of the Chinese troops. The Chinese began to retreat from their occupied positions. At about 19:00 several firing points came to life, after which three new attacks were launched, but they were repulsed.

Soviet troops again retreated to their shores, and the Chinese side no longer undertook large-scale hostile actions on this section of the state border.

The direct leadership of the units of the Soviet Army that took part in this conflict was carried out by the first deputy commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Hero of the Soviet Union, Lieutenant General P. M. Plotnikov

Settlement and aftermath

In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed or died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers). The irretrievable losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100 to 300 people. In Baoqing County there is a memorial cemetery where the remains of 68 Chinese soldiers who died on March 2 and 15, 1969 are located. Information received from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.

For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D.V. Leonov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Junior Sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky . Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: 3 - Orders of Lenin, 10 - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, 10 - Orders of Glory III degree, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit" .

Soviet soldiers were unable to return the damaged T-62, tail number 545, due to constant Chinese shelling. An attempt to destroy it with mortars was unsuccessful, and the tank fell through the ice. Subsequently, the Chinese were able to pull it to their shores, and now it stands in the Beijing military museum.

After the ice melted, the Soviet border guards' exit to Damansky turned out to be difficult, and Chinese attempts to seize it had to be thwarted by sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, a ceasefire was ordered, apparently to create a favorable background for the negotiations that began the next day at Beijing airport. Immediately, the islands of Damansky and Kirkinsky were occupied by Chinese armed forces.

On September 11 in Beijing, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin, who was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh, and Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai agreed to stop hostile actions and that the troops would remain in their occupied positions. In fact, this meant the transfer of Damansky to China.

On October 20, 1969, new negotiations between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC were held, and an agreement was reached on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Then a series of negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, and in 1991, Damansky Island finally went to the PRC (de facto it was transferred to China at the end of 1969).

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

Literature

Bubenin Vitaly. Bloody snow of Damansky. Events of 1966–1969 - M.; Zhukovsky: Border; Kuchkovo field, 2004. - 192 p. - ISBN 5-86090-086-4.

Lavrenov S. Ya., Popov I. M. Soviet-Chinese split // Soviet Union in local wars and conflicts. - M.: Astrel, 2003. - P. 336-369. - 778 p. - (Military History Library). - 5 thousand, copies. - ISBN 5–271–05709–7.

Musalov Andrey. Damansky and Zhalanashkol. Soviet-Chinese armed conflict of 1969. - M.: Eksprint, 2005. - ISBN 5-94038-072-7.

Dzerzhintsy. Compiled by A. Sadykov. Publishing house "Kazakhstan". Alma-Ata, 1975

Morozov V. Damansky - 1969 (Russian) // magazine “Equipment and weapons yesterday, today, tomorrow.” - 2015. - No. 1. - P. 7-14.