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Historical reference
The passage of the Russian-Chinese border was established by numerous legal acts - 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.
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 along the water's edge along the Chinese coast. Thus, the entire river and the islands on it turned out to be Russian.
This obvious injustice continued after the October Revolution of 1917 and the formation of the Chinese People's Republic in 1949, but did not in any way affect Soviet-Chinese relations. And only at the end of the 50s, when disagreements arose between the leadership of the CPSU and the CPC, the situation on the border began to constantly escalate.
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.
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.
These figures are quite approximate, since the size of the island greatly depends on the time of year. For example, in the spring and during summer floods the island is flooded with the waters of the Ussuri, and it is almost hidden from view, and in winter Damansky rises among the frozen river. Therefore, this island does not represent any economic or military-strategic value.
The events of March 2 and 15, 1969 on Damansky Island were preceded by numerous Chinese provocations for the unauthorized seizure of Soviet islands on the Ussuri River (starting in 1965). 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.
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese troops crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western shore of the island among bushes and trees. They didn’t tear up the trenches, they just lay down in the snow, laying down mats.
The equipment of the border violators was fully consistent with the weather conditions and consisted of the following: a hat with earflaps, which differs from a similar Soviet earflap by the presence of two valves on the left and right - to better capture sounds; a quilted jacket and the same quilted pants; insulated lace-up boots; cotton uniform and warm underwear, thick socks; military style mittens - thumb and index finger separately, other fingers together.
The Chinese military personnel were armed with AK-47 assault rifles, as well as SKS carbines. The commanders have TT pistols. All weapons are Chinese-made, manufactured under Soviet licenses.
The perpetrators were wearing white camouflage robes, and they wrapped their weapons in the same camouflage fabric. The cleaning rod was filled with paraffin to prevent it from rattling.
There were no documents or personal items in the Chinese's pockets.
The Chinese extended telephone communications to their shore and lay in the snow until the morning.
To support the intruders, positions of recoilless rifles, heavy machine guns and mortars were equipped on the Chinese coast. Here the infantry with a total number of 200-300 people was waiting in the wings.
On the night of March 2, two border guards were constantly at the Soviet observation post, but they did not notice or hear anything - neither lights nor any sounds. The movement of the Chinese to their positions was well organized and took place completely secretly.
At about 9.00 o'clock a border patrol consisting of three people passed through the island; the squad did not find the Chinese. The violators also did not unmask themselves.
At approximately 10.40, the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost received a report from the observation post that a group of armed people of up to 30 people was moving from the Chinese border post of Gunsy in the direction of Damansky.
The head of the outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, called his subordinates to the gun, after which he called the operational duty officer of the border detachment.
The personnel loaded into three vehicles - GAZ-69 (7 people led by Strelnikov), BTR-60PB (approximately 13 people, senior - Sergeant V. Rabovich) and GAZ-63 (12 border guards in total, led by Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky ).
The GAZ-63, in which Yu. Babansky advanced with his group, had a weak engine, so on the way to the island they were 15 minutes behind the main group.
Having arrived at the place, the commander's gas car and armored personnel carrier stopped at the southern tip of the island. Having dismounted, the border guards moved in the direction of the intruders in two groups: the first was led across the ice by the head of the outpost himself, and Rabovich’s group followed a parallel course directly along the island.
Together with Strelnikov there was a photographer from the political department of the border detachment, Private Nikolai Petrov, who filmed what was happening with a movie camera, as well as a Zorki-4 camera.
Approaching the provocateurs (at about 11.10), 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 answered something loudly, then two pistol shots were heard. The first line 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. The Chinese ran up and snatched the movie camera from Petrov’s hands, but did not notice the camera: the soldier fell on top of it, covering it with a sheepskin coat.
The ambush on Damansky also opened fire - on Rabovich's group. Rabovich managed to shout “For battle,” but this did not solve anything: several border guards were killed and wounded, the survivors found themselves in the middle of a frozen lake in full view of the Chinese.
Some of the Chinese got up from their “beds” and went on an attack on a handful of Soviet border guards. They accepted an unequal battle and shot back to the last.
It was at this moment that Y. Babansky’s group arrived. Having taken a position at some distance behind their dying comrades, the border guards met the advancing Chinese with machine gun fire.
The raiders reached the positions of Rabovich’s group and here they finished off several wounded border guards with machine gun fire and cold steel (bayonets, knives).
The only one who survived, literally by miracle, was Private Gennady Serebrov. He told about the last minutes of his friends’ lives.
There were fewer and fewer fighters left in Babansky’s group, and ammunition was running out. The junior sergeant decided to retreat to the parking lot, but at that moment Chinese artillery covered both vehicles. The car drivers took refuge in an armored personnel carrier left by Strelnikov and tried to enter the island. They failed because the bank was too steep and high. After several unsuccessful attempts to overcome the rise, the armored personnel carrier retreated to shelter on the Soviet shore. At this time, the reserve of the neighboring outpost, led by Vitaly Bubenin, arrived in time.
Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin commanded the neighboring outpost of Sopki Kulebyakina, located 17-18 km north of Damansky. Having received a telephone message on the morning of March 2 about shooting on the island, Bubenin put about twenty soldiers in an armored personnel carrier and hurried to the rescue of his neighbors.
At about 11.30 the armored personnel carrier reached Damansky and entered one of the ice-covered channels. Hearing heavy shooting, the border guards got out of the car and turned in a chain in the direction of the shots coming. Almost immediately they encountered a group of Chinese, and a battle ensued.
The violators (all the same ones, in the “beds”) noticed Bubenin and transferred the fire to his group. The senior lieutenant was wounded and shell-shocked, but did not lose control of the battle.
Leaving in place a group of soldiers led by junior sergeant V. Kanygin, Bubenin and 4 border guards loaded into an armored personnel carrier and moved around the island, going to the rear of the Chinese ambush. Bubenin himself stood at the heavy machine gun, and his subordinates fired through the loopholes on both flanks.
Despite their multiple superiority in manpower, the Chinese found themselves in an extremely unpleasant situation: they were fired upon by groups of Babansky and Kanygin from the island, and from the rear by a maneuvering armored personnel carrier. But Bubenin’s vehicle also suffered: fire from the Chinese coast on the armored personnel carrier damaged the sight, and the hydraulic system could no longer maintain the required tire pressure. The head of the outpost himself received a new wound and concussion.
Bubenin managed to get around the island and take refuge on the river bank. Having reported the situation to the detachment by phone and then transferring to Strelnikov’s armored personnel carrier, the senior lieutenant again went out to the channel. But now he drove the car directly along the island along the Chinese ambush.
The culmination of the battle came at the moment when Bubenin destroyed the Chinese command post. After this, the violators began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded. The Chinese threw mats, telephones, stores, and several small arms at the site of the “beds.” Used individual dressing bags were also found there in large quantities (in almost half of the beds).
Having fired the ammunition, Bubenin’s armored personnel carrier retreated to the ice between the island and the Soviet coast. They stopped to take on board two wounded, but at that moment the car was hit.
Closer to 12.00, a helicopter with the command of the Iman border detachment landed near the island. The head of the detachment, Colonel D.V. Leonov remained on the shore, and the head of the political department, Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Konstantinov, organized a search for the wounded and dead directly on Damansky.
Somewhat later, reinforcements from neighboring outposts arrived at the scene. This is how the first military clash on Damansky ended on March 2, 1969.
After the events of March 2, reinforced squads (at least 10 border guards, armed with group weapons) constantly went to Damansky.
In the rear, at a distance of several kilometers from Damansky, a motorized rifle division of the Soviet Army (artillery, Grad multiple rocket launchers) was deployed.
The Chinese side was also accumulating forces for the next offensive. Near the island on Chinese territory, the 24th Infantry Regiment of the National Liberation Army of China (PLA), numbering about 5,000 (five thousand troops), was preparing for combat.
At about 15.00 hours on March 14, 1969, the Iman border detachment received an order from a higher authority: to remove Soviet border guards from the island (the logic of this order is not clear, just as the person who gave this order is unknown).
The border guards retreated from Damansky, and a revival immediately began on the Chinese side. Chinese military personnel in small groups of 10-15 people began to rush to the island, others began to take up combat positions opposite the island, on the Chinese shore of the Ussuri.
In response to these actions, Soviet border guards in 8 armored personnel carriers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin deployed into battle formation and began to move towards Damansky Island. The Chinese immediately retreated from the island to their shores.
After 00.00 on March 15, a detachment of Lieutenant Colonel Yanshin, consisting of 60 border guards in 4 armored personnel carriers, entered the island.
The detachment settled down on the island in four groups, at a distance of about 100 meters from each other, and dug trenches for prone shooting. The groups were commanded by officers L. Mankovsky, N. Popov, V. Solovyov, A. Klyga. Armored personnel carriers constantly moved around the island, changing firing positions.
At about 9.00 on March 15, a loudspeaker installation started working on the Chinese side. Soviet border guards were called upon to leave “Chinese” territory, renounce “revisionism,” etc.
On the Soviet shore they also turned on a loudspeaker. The broadcast was conducted in Chinese and in rather simple words: “Remember 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 went on the attack.
A fierce battle began, which lasted about an hour. By 11.00, the defenders began to run out of ammunition, and then Yanshin delivered them from the Soviet shore in an armored personnel carrier.
Colonel Leonov reported to his superiors about the enemy's superior forces and the need to use artillery, but to no avail.
At about 12.00 the first armored personnel carrier was hit, and twenty minutes later the second. Nevertheless, Yanshin’s detachment steadfastly held its position even in the face of the threat of encirclement.
Moving back, the Chinese began to group on their shore opposite the southern tip of the island. Between 400 and 500 soldiers clearly intended to attack the rear of the Soviet border guards.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that communication between Yanshin and Leonov was lost: the antennas on the armored personnel carriers were cut off by machine-gun fire.
In order to thwart the enemy's plan, the grenade launcher crew of I. Kobets opened accurate fire from its shore. This was not enough under the current conditions, and then Colonel Leonov decided to carry out a raid on three tanks. A tank company was promised to Leonov on March 13, but 9 vehicles arrived only at the height of the battle.
Leonov took his place in the lead vehicle, and three T-62s moved towards the southern tip of Damansky.
Approximately at the place where Strelnikov died, the command tank was hit by the Chinese with a shot from an RPG. Leonov and some crew members were injured. Having left the tank, we headed to our shore. Here Colonel Leonov was hit by a bullet - right in the heart.
The border guards continued to fight in scattered groups and did not allow the Chinese to reach the western coast of the island. The situation was heating up, the island could be lost. At this time, a decision was made to use artillery and introduce motorized rifles into battle.
At 17.00 hours, the Grad installation division launched a fire strike at places where Chinese manpower and equipment were concentrated and at their firing positions. At the same time, the cannon artillery regiment opened fire on the identified targets.
The raid turned out to be extremely accurate: the shells destroyed Chinese reserves, mortars, stacks of shells, etc.
The artillery fired for 10 minutes, and at 17.10 motorized riflemen and border guards went on the attack under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov. The armored personnel carriers entered the channel, after which the fighters dismounted and turned towards the rampart along the western bank.
The enemy began a hasty retreat from the island. Damansky was liberated, but at about 19.00 some Chinese firing points came to life. Perhaps at this moment it was necessary to launch another artillery strike, but the command considered this inappropriate.
The Chinese tried to recapture Damansky, but three of their attempts ended in failure. After this, the Soviet soldiers retreated to their shore, and the enemy took no further hostile actions.
Epilogue (Russian version)
On October 20, 1969, negotiations between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC were held in Beijing. The result of these negotiations: it was possible to reach an agreement on the need to carry out demarcation measures on sections of the Soviet-Chinese border. As a result: during the demarcation of the border between the USSR and China in 1991, Damansky Island was transferred to the PRC. Now he has a different name - Zhenbao-dao.
One of the common points of view in Russia is that the point is not who Damansky ultimately went to, but what the circumstances were at a particular historical moment in time. If the island had then been given to the Chinese, this would, in turn, have created a precedent and would have encouraged the then Chinese leadership to make further territorial claims to the USSR.
According to many Russian citizens, in 1969 on the Ussuri River for the first time since the Great Patriotic War real aggression was repelled, with the goal of seizing foreign territories and resolving specific political issues.
Ryabushkin Dmitry Sergeevich
www.damanski-zhenbao.ru
Photo - http://lifecontrary.ru/?p=35
Brief historical and geographical information
Damansky (Zhenbaodao) – small desert island on the Ussuri River. The length is about 1500-1700 m, the width is about 500 m. The island was 47 m from the Chinese coast and 120 m from the Soviet coast. However, in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860 and the map of 1861, the border line between the two states did not run along the fairway, but along the Chinese bank of the Ussuri. Thus, the island itself was an integral part of Soviet territory.
In the spring of 1969, the CPC Central Committee began preparations for the IX CPC Congress. In this regard, the Chinese leadership was very interested in a “victorious” conflict on the Soviet-Chinese border. Firstly, striking the USSR could unite the people under the banner of the “great helmsman”. Secondly, a border conflict would confirm the correctness of Mao’s course of turning China into a military camp and training for war. In addition, the incident guaranteed the generals solid representation in the country's leadership and expanded powers of the military.
In mid-1968, the Chinese military leadership studied the option of striking in the Suifenhe area. Here, the main posts of the Soviet border guards were located near the territory of the PRC and it seemed easy to capture them. To solve this problem, units of the 16th Field Army were sent to Suifenhe. However, ultimately the choice fell on Damansky Island. According to Li Danhui, an employee of the Research Institute of Modern China of the Academy of Social Sciences of the People's Republic of China, the Damansky area was not chosen by chance. On the one hand, as a result of the border negotiations in 1964, this island had allegedly already ceded to China, and, therefore, the reaction of the Soviet side should not have been too violent. On the other hand, since 1947, Damansky was under the control of the Soviet army, and, therefore, the effect of carrying out an action on this section of the border would be greater than in the area of \u200b\u200bother islands. In addition, the Chinese side took into account that the Soviet Union had not yet created a sufficiently reliable base in the place chosen for the attack, which is necessary for conducting offensive operations, and, therefore, would not be able to launch a large-scale retaliatory strike.
On January 25, 1969, a group of officers from the Shenyang Military District completed the development of a combat action plan (codenamed “Retribution”). To implement it, it was planned to use approximately three infantry companies and a number of military units secretly located on Damansky Island. On February 19, the plan, codenamed “Retribution,” was approved by the General Staff, agreed with the Foreign Ministry, and then approved by the CPC Central Committee and personally by Mao Zedong.
By order of the PLA General Staff, the border outposts in the Damansky area were assigned at least one reinforced platoon, transformed into 2-3 patrol groups. The success of the action had to be ensured by the element of surprise. After completing the task, a quick withdrawal of all forces to pre-prepared positions was envisaged.
Figure 87
Chinese soldiers with Mao quote books in their hands argue with Soviet officers about the border
Moreover, special attention was paid to the importance of capturing evidence from the enemy of his guilt in aggression - samples of Soviet weapons, photographic documents, etc.
Further events unfolded as follows.
On the night of March 1 to 2, 1969 a large number of Chinese military personnel secretly concentrated on their shore of the island. It was later determined that it was a regular PLA battalion, numbering more than 500 people, five companies strong, supported by two mortar and one artillery batteries. They were armed with recoilless rifles, large-caliber and heavy machine guns, and hand grenade launchers. The battalion was equipped and armed according to wartime standards. Subsequently, information appeared that he had undergone six months of special training to conduct combat operations on the border. That same night, with the help of three infantry companies numbering about 300 people, he entered the island and took up defense along the line of the natural rampart. All Chinese soldiers were dressed in camouflage suits, and their weapons were adjusted so that they did not make any unnecessary sound (ramrods were filled with paraffin, bayonets were wrapped in paper so as not to shine, etc.).
The positions of two 82-mm batteries and artillery (45-mm guns), as well as heavy machine guns, were located so that it was possible to fire at Soviet equipment and personnel with direct fire. The mortar batteries, as an analysis of the combat operations later showed, had clear firing coordinates. On the island itself, the battalion's fire system was organized so that it was possible to conduct barrage fire from all fire weapons to a depth of 200 to 300 meters, along the entire front of the battalion.
On March 2, at 10.20 (local time), information was received from Soviet observation posts about the advance of two groups of military personnel, consisting of 18 and 12 people, from the Chinese border post "Gunsi". They pointedly headed towards the Soviet border. The head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, having received permission to expel the Chinese, with a group of border guards in an BTR-60PB (No. 04) and two cars, moved towards the violators. The commanders of the neighboring outposts, V. Bubenin and Shorokhov, were also informed about the incident. The head of the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, senior lieutenant V. Bubenin, was ordered to provide insurance for Strelnikov’s group. It should be said that, despite the fact that the Chinese have been bringing up military units in their closest border area for a week, and before that they have been improving the routes to the border for a long time, no measures have been taken to strengthen outposts or military surveillance by the command of the Pacific Border District was. Moreover, on the day of the Chinese invasion, the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost was only half staffed. On the day of the events, instead of three officers on staff, there was only one at the outpost - senior lieutenant I. Strelnikov. There were slightly more personnel at the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost.
At 10.40, senior lieutenant I. Strelnikov arrived at the scene of the violation, ordered his subordinates to dismount, take the machine guns “on the belt” and turn around in a chain. The border guards split into two groups. The main commander was Strelnikov. The second group of 13 people was led by Junior Sergeant Rabovich. They covered Strelnikov’s group from the shore. Having approached the Chinese about twenty meters, Strelnikov said something to them, then raised his hand and pointed towards the Chinese coast.
Figure 88
The last photo taken by N. Petrov. The Chinese soldiers are clearly moving into position. Literally in a minute, fire will be opened at point-blank range on the Soviet border guards and the battle will begin. March 2, 1969
Private Nikolai Petrov, standing behind him, took photographs and films, recording the fact of border violations and the procedure for expelling violators. He took a few shots with the FED Zorki-4 camera, and then raised the movie camera. At this moment, one of the Chinese sharply waved his hand. The first line of Chinese parted, and the soldiers standing in the second line opened machine-gun fire on the Soviet border guards. Shooting was carried out at point-blank range from 1-2 meters. The commander of the outpost, senior lieutenant I. Strelnikov, the detective of the special department of the 57th border detachment, senior lieutenant N. Buinevich, N. Petrov, I. Vetrich, A. Ionin, V. Izotov, A. Shestakov, died on the spot. At the same time, fire was opened on Rabovich’s group from the side of the island. It was fired from machine guns, machine guns and grenade launchers. Several border guards were killed immediately, the rest scattered and returned fire. However, being practically in open space, they were very soon completely destroyed. After this, the Chinese began to finish off the wounded with bayonets and knives. Some had their eyes gouged out. Of the two groups of our border guards, only one survived - Private Gennady Serebrov. He received bullet wounds in his right hand, leg and lower back, and a “control” blow with a bayonet, but survived. Later, Serebrov, who had lost consciousness, was carried out by border guard sailors from a brigade of patrol boats who arrived to help the Novo-Mikhailovka outpost.
By this time, a group of junior sergeant Yu. Babansky had arrived at the battlefield, lagging behind Strelnikov (the group was delayed on the way due to a technical malfunction of the vehicle). The border guards dispersed and opened fire on the Chinese lying on the island. In response, PLA soldiers opened fire with machine guns, machine guns and mortars. Mortar fire was concentrated on armored personnel carriers and vehicles standing on the ice. As a result, one of the cars, GAZ-69, was destroyed, the other GAZ-66 was severely damaged. A few minutes later, the crew of armored personnel carrier No. 4 came to Babansky’s rescue. Using fire from the turret machine guns, he suppressed the enemy’s firing points, which made it possible for the five surviving border guards of Babansky’s group to escape from the fire.
10-15 minutes after the start of the battle, a man group from the 1st border outpost “Kulebyakiny Sopki” under the command of Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin approached the battlefield.
Figure 89
Border guards of the 1st border outpost who took part in the battles of March 2 and 15 on Damansky. March 1969
“Having landed from an armored personnel carrier, under the cover of the eastern shore,” recalls V. Bubenin, “we turned into a chain and jumped out onto the island. This is about 300 meters from the place where the tragedy had just occurred. But we didn’t know about it yet. there were 23 people. In battle formation, we began to move in the direction of the dying fire. When we went deeper about 50 meters, we saw that a platoon of Chinese soldiers was attacking us from the rampart. They ran towards us, shouted and fired. The distance between us was from 150 to 200 meters ". It was quickly shrinking. I not only heard the shooting, but also clearly saw flames flying out of the barrels. I understood that a battle had begun, but I also hoped that it was not true. I hoped that they were using blanks to scare them."
With a decisive attack, the Chinese were driven back behind the embankment on the island. Despite the wound, Bubenin, leading the survivors, went around the island in an armored personnel carrier and suddenly attacked the Chinese from the rear.
“A dense mass of Chinese,” writes V. Bubenin, “jumped from the steep bank and rushed to the island through the channel. The distance to them was up to 200 meters. I opened fire with both machine guns to kill. Our appearance in their rear turned out to be so unexpectedly, the running crowd suddenly slowed down and stopped, as if they had stumbled upon a concrete wall. They were completely at a loss. They didn’t even fire at first. The distance between us was quickly closing. Submachine gunners also joined in the shooting. The Chinese fell as if cut down, many turned and rushed to their shore. They climbed onto it, but, overwhelmed, slid down. The Chinese opened fire on their own, trying to return them to the battle. Everything was mixed up in this heap, combative, seething. Those who were turned around began to make their way to the island in groups. At some point they were so close that we shot them point-blank, hit them with their sides and crushed them with our wheels."
Despite the death of many border guards, the second wounding of V. Bubenin and the damage to the armored personnel carrier, the battle continued. Having transferred to an armored personnel carrier of the 2nd outpost, Bubenin struck the Chinese in the flank. As a result of the unexpected attack, the battalion command post and a large number of enemy personnel were destroyed.
Sergeant Ivan Larechkin, privates Pyotr Plekhanov, Kuzma Kalashnikov, Sergei Rudakov, Nikolai Smelov fought in the center of the battle formation. On the right flank, junior sergeant Alexey Pavlov led the battle. In his department were: Corporal Viktor Korzhukov, privates Alexey Zmeev, Alexey Syrtsev, Vladimir Izotov, Islamgali Nasretdinov, Ivan Vetrich, Alexander Ionin, Vladimir Legotin, Pyotr Velichko and others.
By 2 p.m. the island had completely come under the control of Soviet border guards.
According to official data, in just over two hours, Soviet border guards killed up to 248 Chinese soldiers and officers on the island alone, not counting the channel. During the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed. About 20 border guards were injured of varying degrees of severity, and Corporal Pavel Akulov was captured. After severe torture, he was shot. In April, his mutilated body was dropped from a Chinese helicopter onto Soviet territory. There were 28 bayonet wounds on the body of the Soviet border guard. Eyewitnesses recall that almost all the hair on his head was torn out, and those scraps that remained were completely gray.
The Chinese attack on Soviet border guards alarmed the Soviet political and military leadership. On March 2, 1969, the USSR government sent a note to the PRC government, in which it sharply condemned the Chinese provocation. It stated, in particular: “The Soviet government reserves the right to take decisive measures to suppress provocations on the Soviet-Chinese border and warns the government of the People’s Republic of China that all responsibility for possible consequences adventurist policy aimed at aggravating the situation on the border between China and the Soviet Union lies with the government of the People's Republic of China." However, the Chinese side ignored the statement of the Soviet government.
In order to prevent possible repeated provocations, several reinforced motorized maneuver groups from the reserve of the Pacific Border District (two motorized rifle companies with two tank platoons and a battery of 120-mm mortars) were transferred to the area of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka and Kulebyakiny Sopki outposts. The 57th border detachment, which included these outposts, was allocated an additional flight of Mi-4 helicopters from the Ussuri border squadron. On the night of March 12, units of the 135th motorized rifle division of the Far Eastern Military District (commander - General Nesov) arrived in the area of recent fighting: 199th motorized rifle regiment, artillery regiment, 152nd separate tank battalion, 131st separate reconnaissance battalion and rocket BM-21 "Grad" division. The operational group created by the head of the troops of the Pacific Border District, headed by the deputy chief of the district troops, Colonel G. Sechkin, was also located here.
Simultaneously with the strengthening of the border, reconnaissance activities were intensified. According to intelligence data, including aviation and space intelligence, the Chinese have concentrated large forces in the area of Damansky Island - mainly infantry and artillery units. At a depth of up to 20 kilometers, they created warehouses, control centers and other structures. On March 7, a concentration of up to an infantry regiment of the PLA with reinforcements was revealed in the Daman and Kirkinsky directions. 10-15 kilometers from the border, reconnaissance discovered up to 10 batteries of large-caliber artillery. By March 15, a battalion of Chinese had been identified in the Guber direction, a regiment with attached tanks in the Iman direction, up to two infantry battalions in the Panteleimon direction, and up to a battalion in the Pavlovo-Fedorov direction. In total, the Chinese concentrated a motorized infantry division with reinforcements near the border.
During these days, the Chinese also conducted intensive reconnaissance, even using aviation for this purpose. The Soviet side did not interfere with this, hoping that, having seen the real strength of the Soviet side, they would stop provocative actions. That did not happen.
On March 12, a meeting of representatives of the Soviet and Chinese border troops took place. During this meeting, an officer of the Chinese border post Hutou, referring to the instructions of Mao Zedong, expressed a threat to use armed force against the Soviet border guards guarding Damansky Island.
March 14 at 11.15 Soviet posts During surveillance, a group of Chinese military personnel was noticed moving towards Damansky Island. She was cut off from the border by machine gun fire and was forced to return to the Chinese coast.
At 17.30 two Chinese groups of 10-15 people entered the island. They installed four machine guns and other weapons at firing positions. At 18.45 we took up our starting positions directly on the shore from it.
To preempt the attack, by 6.00 on March 15, a reinforced maneuver group of the border detachment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin (45 people with grenade launchers) on 4 BTR-60PBs was deployed to the island. To support the group, a reserve of 80 people was concentrated on the shore (the school of non-commissioned officers of the 69th border detachment of the Pacific Border District) on seven armored personnel carriers with LNG and heavy machine guns.
At 10.05 the Chinese began to capture the island. The path for the attackers was cleared by the fire of about three mortar batteries, from three directions. The shelling was carried out on all suspicious areas of the island and river where Soviet border guards could be hiding.
Yanshin's group entered the battle.
“...in the command vehicle there was a continuous roar, fumes, gunpowder smoke,” recalls Yanshin. “I saw Sulzhenko (he was firing from the machine guns of the armored personnel carrier) take off his fur coat, then his pea coat, unbutton the collar of his tunic with one hand... I see the guy jumped up and kicked the seat and while standing pours fire.
Figure 90
Commander of the motorized maneuver group of the 57th border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel E.I. Yanshin with his soldiers. Damansky, March 15, 1969
Without looking back, he reaches out his hand for a new can. Loader Kruglov only manages to load the tapes. They work in silence, understanding each other with one gesture. “Don’t get excited,” I shout, “save your ammo!” I show him goals. And the enemy, under cover of fire, again went on the attack. A new wave is rolling towards the shaft. Due to continuous fire, explosions of mines and shells, neighboring armored personnel carriers are not visible. I command in plain text: “I’m going on a counterattack, cover Mankovsky and Klyga with fire from the rear.” My driver Smelov rushed the car forward through the fire curtain. It deftly maneuvers among the craters, creating conditions for us to shoot accurately. Then the machine gun fell silent. Sulzhenko was confused for a moment. Reloads, presses the electric trigger - only a single shot follows. And the Chinese are running up. Sulzhenko opened the cover of the machine gun and fixed the problem. The machine guns started working. I command Smelov: “Forward!” We repulsed another attack..."
Having lost several people killed and three armored personnel carriers, Yanshin was forced to retreat to our shore. However, at 14.40, having replaced personnel and damaged armored personnel carriers, replenishing ammunition, he again attacked the enemy and knocked them out of their occupied positions. Having brought up reserves, the Chinese concentrated massive mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire on the group. As a result, one armored personnel carrier was shot down. 7 people died immediately. A few minutes later the second armored personnel carrier caught fire. Senior Lieutenant L. Mankovsky, covering the retreat of his subordinates with machine gun fire, remained in the car and burned out. An armored personnel carrier, commanded by Lieutenant A. Klyga, was also surrounded. Only half an hour later, the border guards, having “groped” for a weak area of the enemy positions, broke through the encirclement and united with their own.
While the battle was going on on the island, nine T-62 tanks approached the command post. According to some reports, by mistake. The border command decided to take advantage of the opportunity and repeat the successful raid of V. Bubenin, carried out on March 2. The group of three tanks was led by the head of the Iman border detachment, Colonel D. Leonov. However, the attack failed - this time the Chinese side was ready for a similar development of events. When Soviet tanks approached the Chinese coast, heavy artillery and mortar fire was opened on them. The lead vehicle was almost immediately hit and lost speed. The Chinese concentrated all their fire on her. The remaining tanks of the platoon retreated to the Soviet shore. The crew trying to get out of the damaged tank was shot with small arms. Colonel D. Leonov also died, having received a fatal wound to the heart.
Despite the heavy losses among the border guards, Moscow was still wary of introducing regular army units into battle. The Center's position is obvious. While the border guards were fighting, everything boiled down to a border conflict, albeit with the use of weapons. The involvement of regular units of the armed forces turned the clash into an armed conflict or a small war. The latter, given the mood of the Chinese leadership, could result in a full-scale one – and between two nuclear powers.
The political situation was apparently clear to everyone. However, in a situation where border guards were dying nearby, and army units were in the role of passive observers, the indecisiveness of the country's leadership caused disagreement and natural indignation.
“The army men sat down on our communication line, and I heard how the regiment commanders criticized their superiors for their indecision,” recalls the head of the political department of the Iman detachment, Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Konstantinov. “They were eager to go into battle, but were tied hand and foot by all sorts of directives.” .
When a report came from the battlefield about two damaged armored personnel carriers of Yanshin’s group, the deputy chief of staff of the Grodekovsky detachment, Major P. Kosinov, on his personal initiative, moved to the rescue in one armored personnel carrier. Approaching the damaged vehicles, he covered their crews with the side of his armored personnel carrier. The crews were removed from the fire. However, during the retreat, his armored personnel carrier was hit. While leaving the burning car as the last one, Major Kosinov was wounded in both legs. After some time, the unconscious officer was pulled out of the battle and, considered dead, was placed in the barn where the dead lay. Fortunately, the dead were examined by a border guard doctor. He determined from the pupils that Kosinov was alive and ordered the wounded man to be evacuated by helicopter to Khabarovsk.
Moscow remained silent, and the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General O. Losik, made the sole decision to help the border guards. The commander of the 135th MRD was given the order to suppress enemy personnel with artillery fire, and then attack with the forces of the 2nd battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and motorized maneuver groups of the 57th border detachment.
At approximately 17.10, an artillery regiment and a division of Grad installations of the 135th MSD, as well as mortar batteries (Lieutenant Colonel D. Krupeinikov) opened fire. It lasted for 10 minutes. The strikes were carried out to a depth of 20 kilometers across Chinese territory (according to other sources, the shelling area was 10 kilometers along the front and 7 kilometers in depth). As a result of this strike, the enemy's reserves, ammunition supply points, warehouses, etc. were destroyed. His troops advancing to the Soviet border suffered heavy damage. In total, 1,700 shells from mortars and the Grad multiple launch rocket system were fired at the Daman and Chinese coasts. At the same time, 5 tanks, 12 armored personnel carriers, the 4th and 5th motorized rifle companies of the 2nd battalion of the 199th regiment (commander - Lieutenant Colonel A. Smirnov) and one motorized group of border guards moved into the attack. The Chinese put up stubborn resistance, but were soon driven off the island.
In the battle on March 15, 1969, 21 border guards and 7 motorized riflemen (soldiers of the Soviet army) were killed and 42 border guards were wounded. Chinese losses amounted to about 600 people. In total, as a result of the fighting on Damansky, Soviet troops lost 58 people. Chinese - about 1000. In addition, 50 Chinese soldiers and officers were shot for cowardice. The number of wounded on the Soviet side, according to official data, was 94 people, on the Chinese side - several hundred.
At the end of hostilities, 150 border guards received government awards. Including five were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (Colonel D.V. Leonov - posthumously, senior lieutenant I.I. Strelnikov - posthumously, senior lieutenant V. Bubenin, junior sergeant Yu.V. Babansky, commander of the machine gun squad of the 199th motorized rifle regiment junior sergeant V.V. Orekhov), 3 people were awarded the Order of Lenin (Colonel A.D. Konstantinov, Sergeant V. Kanygin, Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin), 10 people were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 31 - the Order of the Red Star, 10 - the Order of Glory III degree, 63 - the medal "For Courage", 31 - the medal "For Military Merit".
In China, the events at Damansky were proclaimed a victory for Chinese weapons. Ten Chinese military personnel became Heroes of China.
In the official interpretation of Beijing, the events at Damansky looked like this:
“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 with fire. This forced our soldiers to take action self-defense.
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.
Figure 91
Yu.V. Babansky (right) during the award ceremony in the Kremlin. April 1969
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."
After the end of the armed conflict in the Damansky area, a motorized rifle battalion, a separate tank battalion and a BM-21 Grad rocket division of the 135th motorized rifle division remained in combat positions. By April, one motorized rifle battalion remained in the defense area, which soon also left for its permanent location. All approaches to Damansky from the Chinese side were mined.
At this time, the Soviet government took steps to resolve the situation through political means.
On March 15, the leadership of the USSR sent a statement to the Chinese side, which issued a sharp warning about the inadmissibility of armed border conflicts. It noted, in particular, that “if further attempts are made to violate the inviolability of Soviet territory, then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and all its peoples will resolutely defend it and give a crushing rebuff to such violations.”
Figure 92
Funeral of Senior Lieutenant I.I. Strelnikova. March 1969
On March 29, the Soviet government again issued a statement in which it spoke in favor of resuming negotiations on border issues that had been interrupted in 1964 and invited the Chinese government to refrain from actions on the border that could cause complications. The Chinese side left these statements unanswered. Moreover, on March 15, Mao Zedong, at a meeting of the Cultural Revolution Group, raised the issue of current events and called for urgent preparations for war. Lin Biao, in his report to the 9th Congress of the CPC (April 1969), accused the Soviet side of organizing “continuous armed incursions into the territory of the PRC.” There, the course towards “continuous revolution” and preparations for war was confirmed.
Nevertheless, on April 11, 1969, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK, in which it proposed to resume consultations between plenipotentiary representatives of the USSR and the PRC, expressing their readiness to begin them at any time convenient for the PRC.
On April 14, in response to a note from the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Chinese side stated that proposals regarding the settlement of the situation on the border were “being studied and a response will be given to them.”
During the “study of proposals,” armed border clashes and provocations continued.
On April 23, 1969, a group of Chinese, numbering 25-30 people, violated the border of the USSR and reached Soviet island No. 262 on the Amur River, located near settlement Kalinovka. At the same time, a group of Chinese military personnel concentrated on the Chinese bank of the Amur.
On May 2, 1969, another border incident occurred in the area of the small village of Dulaty in Kazakhstan. This time, Soviet border guards were prepared for a Chinese invasion. Even earlier, to repel possible provocations, the Makanchinsky border detachment was significantly strengthened. By May 1, 1969, it had 14 outposts of 50 people each (and the Dulaty border outpost - 70 people) and a maneuver group (182 people) on 17 armored personnel carriers. In addition, a separate tank battalion of the district was concentrated in the detachment’s area (the village of Makanchi), and according to the plan of interaction with army formations - a motorized rifle and tank company, a mortar platoon of a support detachment from the 215th motorized rifle regiment (the village of Vakhty) and a battalion from the 369th 1st motorized rifle regiment (Druzhba station). Border security was carried out by surveillance from towers, patrols on cars and checking the control strip. The main merit of such operational readiness of the Soviet units belonged to the head of the troops of the Eastern Border District, Lieutenant General M.K. Merkulov. He not only took measures to strengthen the Dulatin direction with his reserves, but also achieved the same measures from the command of the Turkestan Military District.
Subsequent events developed as follows. On the morning of May 2, a border patrol noticed a flock of sheep crossing the border. Arriving at the scene, Soviet border guards discovered a group of Chinese military personnel numbering about 60 people. To prevent an obvious conflict, the Soviet border detachment was reinforced with three reserve groups from nearby outposts, a company of the 369th motorized rifle regiment with a platoon of tanks and two maneuver groups. The actions of the Soviet border guards were ready to be supported by the fighter-bombers of the air regiment based in Ucharal, as well as the motorized rifle and artillery regiments, two jet and two mortar divisions concentrated in the nearest areas.
To coordinate actions, a district operational group was formed, headed by the chief of staff, Major General Kolodyazhny, located at the Dulaty outpost. A forward command post headed by Major General G.N. was also located here. Kutkikh.
At 16.30, Soviet border guards began to “squeeze” the enemy, who also received significant reinforcements, from the territory of the USSR. The Chinese were forced to retreat without a fight. The situation was finally resolved diplomatically by May 18, 1969.
On June 10, near the Tasta River in the Semipalatinsk region, a group of Chinese military personnel invaded the territory of the USSR 400 meters and opened machine-gun fire on Soviet border guards. Return fire was opened on the intruders, after which the Chinese returned to their territory.
On July 8 of the same year, a group of armed Chinese, violating the border, took refuge on the Soviet part of Goldinsky Island on the Amur River and fired machine guns at Soviet rivermen who arrived on the island to repair navigation signs. The attackers also used grenade launchers and hand grenades. As a result, one riverman was killed and three were wounded.
Armed clashes continued in the area of Damansky Island. According to V. Bubenin, in the subsequent summer months after the incident, Soviet border guards were forced to use weapons more than 300 times to counter Chinese provocations. For example, it is known that in mid-June 1969, an “experimental” multiple launch rocket system of the “Grad” type, which arrived from Baikonur (combat crew of military unit 44245, commander - Major A.A. Shumilin), visited the Damansky area. The combat crew included, in addition to military personnel, specialists involved in supporting space programs. Among them were: Yu.K. Razumovsky is the technical manager of the lunar complex, Papazyan is the technical manager of the rocket-technical complex, A. Tashu is the commander of the Vega guidance complex, L. Kuchma, the future president of Ukraine, at that time an employee of the testing department, Kozlov is a telemetry specialist, I. A. Soldatova – test engineer and others. The “experiment” was controlled by a high-ranking state commission, which included, in particular, the commander of the missile forces Kamanin.
Perhaps the strike of Major A.A. Shumilin was demonstrative, with the aim of stimulating the Chinese side to begin peaceful negotiations to resolve the contradictions that had arisen. In any case, on September 11, 1969, during confidential negotiations between the head of the Soviet government A. Kosygin and the Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai in Beijing, an agreement was reached to begin official negotiations on border issues, which took place on October 20, 1969.
However, even a month before the meeting of representatives of the Soviet and Chinese governments, another large-scale armed provocation occurred on the Soviet-Chinese border, which claimed dozens of lives.
The conflict on Damansky Island in 1969 reflected the contradictions between China and the USSR
They are of an old nature. Good neighborly relations alternated with periods of instability. The dispute over Damansky Island occupies a special place in the conflict with China.
Causes of the conflict
After the end of the Opium Wars in the 19th century, Russia and some Western European countries were able to reap considerable benefits. In 1860, Russia signed the Treaty of Beijing, according to which state border passed along the Chinese bank of the Amur and the Ussuri River. The document excluded the use of river resources by the Chinese population and assigned island formations in the river bed to Russia.
For several decades, relations between the countries remained smooth. The following contributed to the elimination of friction and disagreement:
- small population of the border strip;
- lack of territorial claims;
- political situation.
In the forties of the last century, the Soviet Union received a reliable ally in China. This was facilitated by military assistance in the conflict with the Japanese imperialists and support in the fight against the Kuomintang regime. But soon the situation changed.
In 1956, the 20th Party Congress was held, at which Stalin’s cult of personality was condemned and the methods of his rule were criticized. China watched the events in Moscow warily. After a short silence, Beijing called the actions of the Soviet government revisionism, and relations between the countries cooled.
The rhetoric between the parties took on the character of open claims, including territorial ones. China demanded that Mongolia and other lands be transferred to Chinese jurisdiction. In response to harsh statements from the Chinese side, Soviet experts were recalled from Beijing. Russian-Chinese diplomatic relations have degraded to the level of chargés ad interim.
The territorial claims of the Chinese leadership were not limited to their northern neighbor. Mao's imperial ambitions turned out to be larger and broader. In 1958, China began active expansion against Taiwan, and in 1962 it entered into a border conflict with India. If in the first case the Soviet leadership approved of the behavior of its neighbor, then in the issue with India it condemned Beijing’s actions.
Attempts to resolve territorial issues
Relations between the USSR and China continued to deteriorate. The Chinese side raised the issue of the illegality of state borders. Beijing's claims were based on the decisions of the Paris Conference of 1919, which regulated the drawing of borders between countries. The treaty delimited states along shipping routes.
Despite the strictness of the interpretations, the document provided for exceptions. According to the provisions, it was allowed to draw dividing lines along the coast if such boundaries had developed historically.
The Soviet leadership, not wanting to aggravate relations, was ready to agree with the Chinese. To this end, bilateral consultations were held in 1964. They planned to discuss:
- territorial disputes;
- agreement on border lands;
- legal regulations.
But due to a number of reasons, the parties did not reach an agreement.
China's preparation for war
In 1968, unrest began in Czechoslovakia due to dissatisfaction with the rule of the Communist government. Fearing the collapse of the Warsaw bloc, Moscow sent troops to Prague. The riot was suppressed, but there were no casualties.
The Chinese leadership condemned Moscow's actions, accusing the USSR of excessive imperial ambitions and revisionist policies. Beijing cited the disputed islands, which included Damansky, as an example of Soviet expansion.
Gradually, the Chinese side moved from rhetoric to action. Peasants began to appear on the peninsula and engage in agriculture. Russian border guards expelled farmers, but they crossed the line again and again. Over time, the number of provocations grew. In addition to civilians, Red Guards appeared on the island. The Falcons of the Revolution were extremely aggressive, attacking border patrols.
The scale of provocations grew, the number of attacks increased. The number of participants in illegal activities numbered in the hundreds. It became clear that the provocative attacks were taking place with the consent of the Chinese authorities. There is evidence that during 1968-1969 Beijing used attacks for domestic political purposes. In January 1969, the Chinese planned a military scenario on the island. In February it was approved by the General Staff and the Foreign Ministry.
How the USSR prepared for war
KGB agents working in the PRC repeatedly reported to Moscow about possible unfriendly actions of the Chinese. The reports said that as a result of the growing escalation, a large-scale Soviet-Chinese conflict was possible. The government of the Soviet Union decided to attract additional troops. For this purpose, units from the central and western military districts were transferred to the eastern borders.
Attention was paid to the army equipment of personnel. The troops were additionally supplied with:
- heavy machine guns;
- communications and detection means;
- uniforms;
- combat vehicles.
The border was equipped with new engineering systems. The personnel of the border detachments was increased. Among the border guards, classes were held to repel aggression and study incoming weapons and equipment. The interaction of mobile groups and maneuverable detachments was practiced.
Chinese attack on the USSR 1969 – the beginning of the war
On the night of March 2, 1969, Chinese border guards secretly crossed the border of the USSR and set foot on Damansky Island. They headed to its western part, where they took up an advantageous position on a hill. The soldiers were dressed in white camouflage coats and had light covers on their weapons. Warm uniforms were hidden under the robes, and the Chinese calmly endured the cold. Training and alcohol also contributed to this.
The foresight of the Chinese border guards was evident in the careful preparation for the operation. The soldiers were equipped with machine guns, carbines, and pistols. Individual parts of the weapon were treated with special compounds that eliminated metallic sounds. Sites have been prepared in the coastal strip for:
- recoilless rifles;
- heavy machine guns;
- mortar crews.
The coastal group consisted of about 300 people. The main detachment involved about a hundred fighters.
2nd of March
Thanks to secretive night transfers and camouflage, Chinese fighters managed to remain undetected for a long time. They were discovered only at 10 o'clock in the morning. The commander of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, decided to move towards the enemy. The outpost garrison was divided into 2 parts. The first headed towards the nearest group of Chinese. The task of the second was to neutralize the military heading deep into Damansky.
Having approached the Chinese soldiers, the commander asked for clarification of what their presence on Soviet territory meant. In response, machine gun fire rang out. At the same time, machine gun fire was opened on the second group under the command of Rabovich. Surprise and deceit left no chance for the Russian soldiers. Only a few Soviet border guards managed to survive.
Shooting was heard at a nearby outpost. The unit's commander, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin, with two dozen soldiers moved out in an armored personnel carrier in the direction of the peninsula. The Chinese attacked the group, opening fire. The platoon bravely held the defense, but the forces were unequal. Then the commander made a strategically precise and only correct decision. Using the fire maneuverability of the combat vehicle, he went on the offensive. The raid on the enemy’s flank yielded results: the Chinese wavered and retreated.
USSR and China conflict continues
With the outbreak of hostilities on the island, the Soviet command decided to increase the number of troops in the Damanskongo area. A motorized rifle division, reinforced by a division of Grad multiple launch rocket systems, advanced to the hot spot. In response, the Chinese deployed an infantry regiment.
In the dispute over Damansky Island, China took more than just military actions. They used:
- diplomatic techniques;
- political methods;
- use of media.
A picket was held near the Soviet embassy in Beijing condemning the actions of the Soviets. Chinese newspapers launched a series of angry articles. Distorting the facts and throwing in outright lies, they accused the Soviet side of aggression. Newspapers were full of headlines about the invasion of Russian troops into Chinese territory
The USSR did not remain in debt. On March 7, a rally was organized near the Chinese Embassy in Moscow. The picketers protested the unfriendly actions of the Chinese authorities and threw ink at the building.
March 15th
The Soviet-Chinese conflict entered a new phase on March 14. On this day, Soviet troops were ordered to abandon their positions on the island. After the units retreated, the Chinese began to occupy the territory. Then a new order arrived: push back the enemy. 8 armored personnel carriers advanced towards the enemy. The Chinese retreated, and our units again settled on Damansky. The military commander was Lieutenant Colonel Yanshin.
The next morning the enemy opened hurricane artillery fire. After a lengthy artillery barrage, the Chinese again attacked the island. Colonel Leonov's group hastened to help Yanshin. Despite the losses, the unit managed to stop the enemy. Leonov was wounded. He died from his wounds.
Ammunition was running out, and the Soviet troops had to retreat. Despite the enemy's numerical superiority, Soviet soldiers showed:
- heroism;
- courage;
- courage.
Outnumbering the Russians and inspired by success, the enemy continuously attacked. A significant part of Damansky came under Chinese control. Under these conditions, the command decided to use the Grad systems. The enemy was stunned and suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment. The offensive of the Chinese troops stalled. Attempts to regain the initiative were unsuccessful.
Number of victims
As a result of the clashes on March 2, 31 servicemen were killed on the Soviet side, and 39 on the Chinese side. On March 15, 27 Russian soldiers died. The damage from the Chinese side is assessed differently. According to some reports, the number of dead Chinese exceeds several hundred. The greatest damage to the Chinese side was caused by Grad rocket launchers.
During the entire conflict, Soviet troops lost 58 people, the Chinese - about 1000. 5 Soviet soldiers received the title of Hero, many were awarded orders and medals.
Results of the war
The main result of the incident was the realization by the Chinese leadership of the impossibility of confrontation with the USSR. The courage and valor of Soviet soldiers is evidence of the strength of spirit of the fighters. The ability to act in difficult conditions and overcome critical situations with dignity commanded respect. The Soviet Union demonstrated the ability to quickly redeploy large formations, and the use of Grad systems left no chance for the enemy.
All these factors prompted the Chinese leadership to come to the negotiating table. In the fall, a number of meetings were held at high level. Agreements were reached to end conflicts and revise some boundaries.
Damansky Island today
For twenty years, Damansky’s fate was not finally decided. Consultations on disputed territories were carried out repeatedly. Only in 1991 the island officially received the status of Chinese territory.
In honor of the fallen Chinese soldiers, an obelisk was opened on the island, where schoolchildren are taken and flowers are laid. There is a border post nearby. Chinese media rarely return to the topic of conflict. In those distant days, the Chinese showed:
- perfidy;
- cruelty;
- deceit.
Contrary to the truth, some Chinese journalists and historians consider the Soviet Union to be the guilty party.
Conclusion
The Daman incident went down in history as a conflict between political elites. Exorbitant ambitions, reluctance to hear the arguments of the other side and the desire to achieve goals by any means almost led to a new tragedy and dragged the world into another war. Only thanks to the heroism of Soviet soldiers did the world avoid this danger.
The largest armed conflict in the 20th century between China and the USSR occurred in 1969. For the first time, the general Soviet public was shown the atrocities of the Chinese invaders on Damansky Island. However, people learned the details of the tragedy only many years later.
Why did the Chinese abuse the border guards?
According to one version, the deterioration of relations between the Soviet Union and China began after unsuccessful negotiations on the fate of Damansky Island, which arose in the fairway of the Ussuri River as a result of the shallowing of a small part of the river. According to the Paris Peace Agreement of 1919, the state border of the countries was determined along the middle of the river fairway, but if historical circumstances indicated otherwise, then the border could be determined based on priority - if one of the countries was the first to colonize the territory, then it was given preference when resolving the territorial issue .
Strength tests
It was a priori assumed that the island created by nature should have come under the jurisdiction of the Chinese side, but due to unsuccessful negotiations between the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev and the leader of the PRC Mao Zedong, the final document on this issue was not signed. The Chinese side began to use the “island” issue to improve relations with the American side. A number of Chinese historians argued that the Chinese were going to give the Americans a pleasant surprise, to show the seriousness of the break in relations with the USSR.
For many years, the small island - 0.74 square kilometers - was a tasty morsel that was used to test tactical and psychological maneuvers, the main purpose of which was to test the strength and adequacy of the reaction of Soviet border guards. Minor conflicts have occurred here before, but it never came to an open clash. In 1969, the Chinese committed more than five thousand recorded violations of the Soviet border.
The first landing went unnoticed
A secret directive of the Chinese military leadership is known, according to which a special operation plan was developed for the armed seizure of the Damansky Peninsula. The first from the Chinese side to move to break through was the landing force, which took place on the night of March 1-2, 1969. They took advantage of the prevailing weather conditions. Heavy snow fell, which allowed 77 Chinese soldiers to pass unnoticed along the frozen Ussuri River. They were dressed in white camouflage robes and armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. This group was able to cross the border so secretly that its passage was unnoticed. And only the second group of Chinese, numbering 33 people, was discovered by an observer - a Soviet border guard. A message about a major violation was transmitted to the 2nd Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya outpost, which belongs to the Iman border detachment.
The border guards took a cameraman with them - Private Nikolai Petrov filmed the events taking place with a camera until the last moment. But the border guards did not have an accurate idea of the number of violators. It was assumed that their number did not exceed three dozen. Therefore, 32 Soviet border guards were sent to eliminate it. Then they split up and moved into the area of the violation in two groups. The first task is to neutralize the intruders peacefully, the second task is to provide reliable cover. The first group was led by twenty-eight-year-old Ivan Strelnikov, who was already preparing to enter the military academy in Moscow. As cover, the second group was led by Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich.
The Chinese clearly understood in advance the task of destroying the Soviet border guards. While the Soviet border guards planned to resolve the conflict peacefully, as was the case more than once: after all, minor violations constantly occurred in this area.
A raised Chinese hand is a signal to attack
Strelnikov, as the most experienced commander and head of the outpost, was ordered to negotiate. When Ivan Strelnikov approached the violators and offered to leave Soviet territory peacefully, the Chinese officer raised his hand - this was the signal to open fire - the first line of Chinese fired the first salvo. Strelnikov was the first to die. Seven border guards accompanying Strelnikov died almost immediately.
Private Petrov filmed everything that was happening until the last minute.
Gray hair and gouged out eyes
Rabovich's covering group was unable to come to the aid of their comrades: they were ambushed and died one after another. All border guards were killed. The Chinese were already mocking the dead border guard with all their sophistication. The photographs show that his eyes were gouged out and his face was mutilated with bayonets.
The surviving corporal Pavel Akulov faced a terrible fate - torture and painful death. They captured him, tortured him for a long time, and then threw him out of a helicopter into Soviet territory only in April. Doctors counted 28 puncture wounds on the body of the deceased; it was clear that he had been tortured for a long time - all the hair on his head had been pulled out, and a small strand was all gray.
True, one Soviet border guard managed to survive in this battle. Private Gennady Serebrov was seriously wounded in the back, lost consciousness, and a repeated blow to the chest with a bayonet was not fatal. He managed to survive and wait for help from his comrades: the commander of the neighboring outpost Vitaly Bubenin and his subordinates, as well as the group of junior sergeant Vitaly Babansky, were able to provide serious resistance to the Chinese side. Having a small supply of forces and weapons, they forced the Chinese to retreat.
31 dead border guards put up worthy resistance to the enemy at the cost of their lives.
Losik and Grad stopped the conflict
The second round of the conflict occurred on March 14. By this time, the Chinese military deployed a five-thousandth regiment, the Soviet side - the 135th motorized rifle division, equipped with Grad installations, which were used after receiving a number of conflicting orders: the party leadership - the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee - urgently demanded that Soviet troops be removed and not brought into island. And as soon as this was accomplished, the Chinese immediately occupied the territory. Then the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Oleg Losik, who passed the second world war, ordered to open fire on the enemy with the Grad multiple launch rocket system: in one salvo - 40 shells within 20 seconds were capable of destroying the enemy within a radius of four hectares. After such a shelling, the Chinese military no longer took any large-scale military actions.
The final point in the conflict was put by the politicians of the two countries: already in September 1969, an agreement was reached that neither Chinese nor Soviet troops would occupy the disputed island. This meant that Damansky de facto passed to China; in 1991, de jure the island became Chinese.
On the night of March 2, 1969, a Soviet-Chinese border conflict began on Damansky Island. At the cost of the lives of 58 Soviet soldiers and officers, they managed to stop a major war between the two states.
The deterioration of Soviet-Chinese relations, which began after the death of Stalin and Khrushchev’s condemnation of the cult of personality, resulted in an actual confrontation between the two world powers in Asia. Mao Zedong's claims to China's leadership in the socialist world, tough policies towards Kazakhs and Uyghurs living in China, and China's attempts to challenge the USSR for a number of border areas extremely strained relations between the powers. In the mid-60s. The Soviet command is consistently increasing troop groups in Transbaikalia and the Far East, taking all possible measures in case of a possible conflict with China. In the Trans-Baikal Military District and on the territory of Mongolia, tank and combined arms armies were additionally deployed, and fortified areas were developed along the border. Since the summer of 1968, provocations from the Chinese side have become more frequent, becoming almost constant on the Ussuri River in the area of the Damansky island (less than 1 sq. km in area). In January 1969, the General Staff of the Chinese Army developed an operation to capture the disputed territory.
2nd border outpost of the 57th Iman border detachment “Nizhne-Mikhailovka”. 1969
On the night of March 2, 1969, 300 Chinese soldiers occupied the island and set up firing positions on it. In the morning, Soviet border guards discovered the intruders, apparently having determined their number, approximately one platoon (30 people), in an armored personnel carrier and two cars, headed to the island to expel the uninvited guests to their territory. The border guards advanced in three groups. At about 11 o'clock, the Chinese fired small arms at the first of them, consisting of two officers and 5 soldiers, while simultaneously opening fire with guns and mortars on the other two. Help was hastily called.
After a long firefight, Soviet border guards drove the enemy out of Damansky, with 32 border guards killed and another 14 wounded. A maneuver group led by the commander of the Iman border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Democrat Leonov, hastily moved to the combat area. Its vanguard consisted of 45 border guards in 4 armored personnel carriers. As a reserve, this group was covered by about 80 soldiers from the sergeant school. By March 12, units of the 135th Pacific Red Banner Motorized Rifle Division were pulled up to Damansky: motorized rifle and artillery regiments, a separate tank battalion and a division of Grad multiple launch rocket systems. On the morning of March 15, the Chinese, supported by tanks and artillery, launched an attack on Damansky. During the counterattack by a tank platoon, the commander of the Iman detachment, Leonov, was killed. Soviet soldiers were unable to return the destroyed T-62 due to constant Chinese shelling. An attempt to destroy it with mortars was unsuccessful, and the tank fell through the ice. (subsequently, the Chinese were able to pull it to their shores and now it stands in the Beijing military museum). In this situation, the commander of the 135th division gave the order to unleash fire from howitzers, mortars and Grad launchers on Damansky and adjacent Chinese territory. After the fire raid, the island was occupied by motorized riflemen in armored personnel carriers.
The losses of Soviet troops in this attack amounted to 4 combat vehicles and 16 people killed and wounded, and a total of 58 killed and 94 wounded. Four participants in the Daman battles: the head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, the head of the Iman border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Democrat Leonov, the head of the Kulebyakina Sopki border outpost, Vitaly Bubenin, and Sergeant Yuri Babansky, were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Strelnikov and Leonov – posthumously. The Chinese lost, according to various estimates, from 500 to 700 people.
But tension on the border remained for about a year. During the summer of 1969, our border guards had to open fire more than three hundred times. Damansky Island soon de facto ceded to the PRC. The de jure border line along the fairway of the Ussuri River was fixed only in 1991, and it was finally fixed in October 2004, when the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree on the transfer of part of the Greater Ussuri Island to China.
