And the People's Republic of China. The Daman conflict is another indicator of human irresponsibility and cynicism. Calm had not yet reigned in the world after the Second World War, and pockets of armed confrontation arose here and there. And before coming face to face, the USSR and China actively participated in various confrontations that did not directly concern them.

Background

After the Second Opium War ended, countries such as France, Russia and Great Britain were able to sign treaties with China on favorable terms. Thus, in 1860, Russia supported the Beijing Treaty, according to its terms, a border was drawn along the Chinese bank of the Amur, and Chinese peasants did not have the right to use it.

For a long time, the countries maintained friendly relations. The frontier population was small, so there was no conflict over who owned the deserted river islands.

In 1919, the Paris Peace Conference took place, resulting in the provision of state borders. It stated that the border should run in the middle of the main channel of the river. As an exception, it could pass along the shore, but only in two cases:

1. This is how it happened historically.
2. As a result of the colonization of the lands of one of the parties.

At first, this resolution did not provoke any disagreements or misunderstandings. Only after a while was the provision on state borders taken seriously, and it became an additional reason for the outbreak of the Daman conflict.

In the late 1950s, China began to strive to increase its international influence, so without much delay it entered into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and took an active part in the border war with India. Also, the PRC did not forget about the provision on state borders and decided to use it to revise the existing Soviet-Chinese borders.

The ruling elite of the Soviet Union was not against it, and in 1964 a consultation was held on border issues. True, it ended to no avail - everything remained the same as it was. During the Cultural Revolution in the PRC and after the Prague Spring, the Chinese government declared that the Soviet Union began to support “socialist imperialism,” and relations between the countries deteriorated even more. And at the center of this conflict was the island issue.

What else could have been the prerequisites for the Daman conflict?

After World War II, China became a powerful ally for the USSR. The Soviet Union provided assistance to China in the war with Japan and supported it in the civil war against Kuomintang forces. The Chinese communists began to be loyal to the USSR, and there was a short-lived calm.

This fragile peace lasted until 1950, when the Cold War between Russia and the United States began. Two big countries wanted to unite the Korean Peninsula, but their “noble” aspirations led to global bloodshed.

At that time, the peninsula was split into communist and South Korea. Each side was confident that its vision of the country’s development was true, and on this basis an armed confrontation arose. At first communist Korea was in the lead in the war, but then South Korea came to the rescue came America and the UN forces. China did not stand aside; the government understood that if South Korea wins, the country will have a strong opponent who will certainly attack sooner or later. Therefore, the PRC is on the side of communist Korea.

During the course of hostilities, the front line shifted to the 38th parallel and remained there until the end of the war, until 1953. When the confrontation subsided, the PRC government rethought its position in the international arena. China decides to break away from the influence of the USSR and pursue its own foreign policy, which would not depend on anyone.

This opportunity presented itself in 1956. At this time, the 20th Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow, at which it was decided to abandon the personality cult of Stalin and radically change the foreign policy doctrine. The PRC was not delighted with such innovations; the country began to call Khrushchev’s policy revisionary, and the country chose a completely different foreign policy course.

This split came to be called the war of ideas between China and the Soviet Union. If the opportunity arose, the PRC tried to show that it was opposed to the USSR, like some other countries in the world.

In 1968, a period of liberalization began in Czechoslovakia (Prague Spring). First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Alexander Dubchenko proposed reforms that significantly expanded the rights and freedoms of citizens and also assumed the decentralization of power in the country. Residents of the state supported such changes, but they were not acceptable to the USSR, so the Soviet Union sent troops into the country. This action was condemned by the PRC; this became another, truly real reason for the start of the Daman conflict.

Feelings of superiority or deliberate provocations

Historians claim that as a result of worsening relations between countries, the USSR began to cultivate a sense of superiority over the people of China. Russian border guards chose the exact location of the border for deployment and frightened Chinese fishermen by driving near their boats at high speed.

Although, according to other sources, it was the Chinese side that organized the provocations. Peasants crossed the border and went about their business, not paying attention to the border guards, who had to catch them and send them back. No weapons were used.

Perhaps these were the main reasons for the Daman conflict.

Islands

O. Damansky at that time was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai; on the Chinese side, it was located near the main channel of the Ussuri River. The island was small in size: the length from north to south was approximately 1700 meters, from west to east - 600-700. The total area is 0.74 km 2. When floods occur, the land is completely submerged. But despite this, there are several brick buildings on the island, and the water meadows are a valuable natural resource.

Due to the increased number of provocations from China, the situation on the island became increasingly tense. If in 1960 there were about 100 illegal border crossings, then in 1962 their number increased to 5 thousand. The conflict on Damansky Island was approaching.

Information began to appear about an attack by the Red Guards on border guards. Such situations were not isolated; there were already thousands of them.

On January 4, 1969, the first mass provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island, more than 500 Chinese residents took part in it.

To this day, the memories of the junior sergeant who served at the border post that year, Yuri Babansky, have been preserved:

In February, he unexpectedly received an appointment to the post of commander of an outpost department, the head of which was senior lieutenant Ivan 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.” I, of course, 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.”

These were the first preconditions for the conflict on Damansky Island. According to the Chinese version, it was the Russians who acted as provocateurs. They senselessly beat up Chinese citizens who were peacefully going about their business on their own territory. During the Kirkinsky Incident, the Soviet military used armored personnel carriers to dislodge civilians, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several machine gun shots towards Chinese border guards.

True, no matter whose fault these clashes occurred, they could not lead to a serious armed conflict without the approval of the government.

Culprits

Now the most widespread opinion is that the military conflict on Damansky Island was a planned action on the part of China. Even Chinese historians directly or indirectly write about this in their works.

Li Danhui wrote that at the end of the 60s of the last century, the directives of the CPC Central Committee prohibited the Chinese from responding to the “provocations” of Soviet soldiers; only on January 25, 1969 it was allowed to plan retaliatory military actions. For this purpose, three companies of soldiers were recruited. On February 19, the decision on retaliatory military action was approved by the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. There is also an opinion that Marshal Lin Biao warned the USSR government in advance about the upcoming action, which later resulted in a conflict.

An American intelligence bulletin issued on July 13, 1969 stated that China was conducting propaganda that emphasized the need for citizens to unite and urge them to prepare for war.

Sources also say that intelligence promptly notified the forces of the Soviet Union about the armed provocation. In any case, the impending attack was somehow known. In addition, it was difficult not to notice that the Chinese leadership wanted not so much to defeat the USSR, but to clearly demonstrate to America that it was also an enemy of the Soviet Union, and therefore could be a reliable partner for the United States.

The beginning of the conflict. March 1969

The conflict with China on Damansky Island in 1969 began on the first night of March - from the 1st to the 2nd. A group of 80 Chinese military personnel crossed the Ussuri River and landed in the western part of the island. Until 10 a.m., no one noticed these unauthorized intruders, as a result, the Chinese military had the opportunity to improve the location and plan further actions.

At approximately 10:20 a.m., Chinese troops were spotted at a Soviet observation post.

A group of Russian border guards, led by Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, immediately went to the site of the border violation. Arriving on the island, they divided into two subgroups: one, led by Strelnikov, headed towards the Chinese military, the other, led by Sergeant Rabovich, moved along the shore, thereby cutting off a group of Chinese military from moving deeper into the island.

The Chinese conflict on Damansky began in the morning when Strelnikov’s group approached the violators and protested against the unauthorized invasion. The Chinese soldiers suddenly opened fire. At the same time, they open fire on Rabovich’s group. The Soviet border guards were taken by surprise and almost completely destroyed.

The conflict on March 2, 1969 on Damansky Island did not end there. The shots were heard by the head of the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, which was located next door, senior lieutenant Bubenin. He quickly decided to move with 23 soldiers to the rescue. But only upon approaching the island, Bubenin’s group was forced to immediately take a defensive position. The Chinese military launched an offensive operation with the goal of completely capturing Damansky Island. Soviet soldiers courageously defended the territory, not giving the Chinese the opportunity to throw themselves into the river.

True, such a conflict on the Damansky Peninsula could not last long. Lieutenant Bubenin made a fateful decision, which on March 2 determined the outcome of the battle for the island. Sitting on an armored personnel carrier, Bubenin headed to the rear of the Chinese troops, thereby trying to completely disorganize them. True, the armored personnel carrier was soon knocked out, but this did not stop Bubenin, he reached the transport of the killed lieutenant Strelnikov and continued his movement. As a result of this raid, the command post was destroyed and the enemy suffered serious losses. At 13:00 the Chinese began to withdraw troops from the island.

Due to the military conflict between the USSR and China on Damansky Island on March 2, the Soviet army lost 31 people, 14 were wounded. According to Soviet data, the Chinese side was left without 39 soldiers.

Events from March 2 to March 14, 1969

After the end of the first stage of the military conflict, the military command of the Iman border detachment arrived on the Damansky Peninsula. They planned activities that could stop similar provocations in the future. It was decided to increase the border detachments. As an additional increase in combat effectiveness, the 135th Motorized Rifle Division settled in the area of ​​the island with the latest Grads in its arsenal. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment was deployed against the Soviet army.

True, the countries did not limit themselves to military maneuvers: organizing a demonstration in the center of the capital is a sacred matter. Thus, on March 3, a demonstration took place near the Soviet embassy in Beijing, the participants of which demanded an end to aggressive actions. Also, the Chinese press began publishing completely implausible and propaganda materials. The publications stated that Soviet army invaded Chinese territory and opened fire on troops.

The Moscow newspaper Pravda also did not remain indifferent and expressed its point of view about the border conflict on Damansky Island. Here the events that took place were described more reliably. On March 7, the Chinese embassy in Moscow was picketed and pelted with ink bottles, apparently the public learned of the implausible rumors that were spreading among the Chinese about the Soviet army.

Whatever it was, and such provocative actions on March 2-14 did not significantly affect the course of events, a new border conflict on Damansky Island was just around the corner.

Fight in mid-March

On March 14, at approximately three o'clock in the afternoon, the Soviet army received an order to retreat; the Russian participants in the Daman conflict had to leave the island. Immediately after the retreat of the Soviet army, the Chinese military began to occupy the territory of the island.

The USSR government could not calmly look at the current situation; obviously, the border conflict on Damansky Island in 1969 was forced to move to the second stage. The Soviet army sent 8 armored personnel carriers to the island; as soon as the Chinese noticed them, they immediately moved to their shore. On the evening of March 14, the Soviet border guards were given the order to occupy the island, a group under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin immediately carried it out.

On the morning of March 15, fire was opened on Soviet troops. The Daman conflict of 1969 entered its second phase. According to intelligence data, about 60 enemy artillery barrels fired at the Soviet troops; after the shelling, three companies of Chinese fighters went on the offensive. However, the enemy failed to capture the island; the Daman conflict of 1969 was just beginning.

After the situation became critical, reinforcements moved to Yanshin’s group, a group led by Colonel D. Leonov. The newly arrived soldiers immediately engaged the Chinese in the south of the island. In this conflict on Damansky Island (1969), Colonel Leonov dies, his group suffers serious losses, but still does not leave their occupied positions and inflicts damage on the enemy.

Two hours after the start of the battle, the ammunition was expended, and the Soviet troops had to retreat from Damansky Island. The 1969 conflict did not end there: the Chinese felt their numerical advantage and began to occupy the vacated territory. But at the same time, the Soviet leadership gives the go-ahead for the use of Grads to launch a fire strike against enemy forces. At approximately 5 pm, Soviet troops opened fire. The Chinese suffered heavy losses, the mortars were disabled, and ammunition and reinforcements were completely destroyed.

Half an hour after the artillery attack, motorized riflemen began to attack the Chinese, followed by border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonels Konstantinov and Smirnov. The Chinese troops had no choice but to hastily leave the island. The conflict with China on the Damansky Peninsula continued at seven o'clock in the evening - the Chinese decided to counterattack. True, their efforts were ineffective, and the position of the Chinese army in this war did not change significantly.

During the military operations on March 14-15, the Soviet army lost 27 soldiers and 80 were wounded. As for the losses in the Daman conflict of the Chinese side, this data was strictly classified. It can be tentatively assumed that their losses amounted to about 200 people.

Resolution of the confrontation

During the conflict with China on the Damansky Peninsula, Soviet troops lost 58 people, among the dead were four officer soldiers, 94 people were wounded, including 9 officers. What losses the Chinese side suffered is still unknown, this is classified information, and historians only speculate that the number of Chinese soldiers killed ranges from 100 to 300 people. In Bioqing County there is a memorial cemetery where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who died in the Daman conflict of 1969 rest. One of the Chinese defectors said that there were other graves, so the number of soldiers buried could exceed the 300 mark.

As for the Soviet Union, for their heroism, five military men received the title “Hero of the Soviet Union.” Among them:

• Colonel Democrat Vladimirovich Leonov - the title was awarded posthumously.
• Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Strelnikov - awarded posthumously.
• Junior Sergeant Vladimir Viktorovich Orekhov - received the rank posthumously.
• Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Dmitrievich Bubenin.
• Junior Sergeant Yuri Vasilievich Babansky.

Many border guards and military personnel received state awards. For conducting military operations on Damansky Island, the participants were awarded.

• Three Orders of Lenin.
• Ten Orders of the Red Banner.
• Order of the Red Star (31 pieces).
• Ten Orders of Glory, Third Class.
• Medal "For Courage" (63 pcs.).
• Medal "For Military Merit" (31 pcs.).

During the operation, the Soviet army left the T-62 tank on enemy soil, but due to constant shelling it could not be returned. There was an attempt to destroy vehicle from a mortar, but this idea was not crowned with success - the tank ingloriously fell through the ice. True, a little later the Chinese were able to pull him to their shore. It is currently a priceless exhibit in the Beijing Military Museum.

After hostilities ended, Soviet troops left the territory of Damansky Island. Soon the ice around the island began to melt, and it was difficult for Soviet soldiers to cross to its territory with their former agility. The Chinese took advantage of this situation and immediately took up positions on the lands of the border islands. To thwart the enemy's plans, Soviet soldiers fired at him from cannons, but this did not give any tangible result.

The Daman conflict did not end there. In August of the same year, another major Soviet-Chinese armed conflict occurred. It went down in history as an incident near Lake Zhalanashkol. Relations between states have truly reached a critical point. Between the USSR and the PRC the possibility of a nuclear war was closer than ever.

Provocations and military clashes along the Soviet-Chinese border continued until September. As a result of the border conflict, the leadership was finally able to realize that it was impossible to continue an aggressive policy towards its northern neighbor. The state in which the Chinese army was found only once again confirmed this idea.

On September 10, 1969, the order came to cease fire. Apparently, in this way they tried to create a favorable environment for political negotiations, which began the next day after receiving the order at Beijing airport.

As soon as the shooting stopped, the Chinese immediately took up stronger positions on the islands. This situation played an important role in the negotiations. 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 met and agreed that it was time to stop military operations and various kinds of hostile actions. They also agreed that the troops would remain in the positions they had previously occupied. Roughly speaking, Damansky Island passed into the possession of China.

Negotiation

Naturally, this state of affairs did not please the government of the USSR, so on October 20, 1969, another negotiations took place between the Soviet Union and the PRC. During these negotiations, the countries agreed that it was necessary to review the documents confirming the position of the Soviet-Chinese border.

After this, a whole series of negotiations took place, which were held alternately in Moscow and in Beijing. And only in 1991, Damansky Island finally became the property of the PRC (although de facto this happened back in 1969).

Nowadays

In 2001, the USSR KGB archive declassified photographs of the discovered bodies of Soviet soldiers. The images clearly indicated the presence of abuse on the Chinese side. All materials were transferred to the Dalnerechensk Historical Museum.

In 2010, a French newspaper published a series of articles stating that the USSR was preparing a nuclear strike against China in the fall of 1969. The materials referred to the People's Daily newspaper. A similar publication was published in the print media of Hong Kong. According to these data, America refused to remain neutral in the event of a nuclear attack on China. The articles stated that on October 15, 1969, the United States threatened to attack 130 Soviet cities in the event of an attack on the PRC. True, the researchers do not specify from which sources such data were taken and themselves admit the fact that other experts do not agree with these statements.

The Daman conflict is considered a serious disagreement between two powerful states, which almost led to tragedy. But perhaps no one can say how true this is. Each country adhered to its own point of view, disseminated the information that was beneficial to it, and furiously hid the truth. The result is dozens of lost lives and ruined destinies.

War is always a tragedy. And for us, those who are far from politics and the noble desire to shed blood for a high ideal, it is completely incomprehensible why we must certainly take up arms. Humanity has long left the caves, the cave paintings of bygone times have turned into understandable speech, and there is no longer a need to hunt for survival. But the rituals of human sacrifice have been transformed and turned into completely legitimate armed confrontations.

The Daman conflict is another indicator of human irresponsibility and cynicism. It seems that the tragedy of World War II should have taught the rulers of all countries of the world one simple truth: “War is bad.” Although this is bad only for those who do not return from the battlefield, for the rest you can get a certain benefit from any confrontation - “here’s a medal for you, and then disappear completely.” This principle was also applied during the Daman conflict: the soldiers were sure that they were being provoked by the enemy, and government officials, meanwhile, were resolving their own issues. Some historians believe that the conflict was just an excuse to divert public attention from what was really happening in the world.

The rapid rapprochement between Russia and China involuntarily brings to mind the events of 45 years ago on Damansky Island: in 15 days of armed confrontation over a piece of land measuring 1 km2 on the Ussuri River separating the two countries, 58 Soviet border guards, including 4 officers, were killed. Then, in March 1969, only a madman could dream of a “turn to the East” and “contracts of the century” with the Chinese.

The song “Red Guards Walk and Wander Near the City of Beijing” Vladimir Vysotsky - always a visionary talent! - wrote in 1966. “...We’ve sat for a while, And now we’ll make some hooligans - Something’s quiet, really,” Mao and Liao Bian thought, “What else can you do to counteract the World atmosphere: Here we’ll show the big fig to the USA and the USSR!” In addition to the verb “counterpupit”, which has become an integral part of the vocabulary of our first person, this couplet is also notable for the mention of a certain “Liao Bian”, who, of course, is none other than Marshal Lin Biao, at that time the Minister of Defense of the PRC and the right hand Chairman Mao. By 1969, a major “Maoist fig” for the Soviet Union had finally matured.

"Special weapon number 1"

However, there is a version that Lin Biao was the only person in the PRC synclite who opposed the secret directive of the CPC Central Committee of January 25, 1969 on military operations with three companies near Damansky Island “in response to Soviet provocations.” By “provocations,” Chinese propaganda meant the reluctance of Soviet border guards to allow Chinese Red Guards into Soviet territory, which was then this tiny island on the Ussuri and which China considered its own. Using weapons was strictly prohibited, violators were restrained with the help of “special weapon number 1”, a spear with a long handle, and “belly tactics” - they closed the rank and with their whole body pressed against the fanatics with Mao quote books and portraits of the leader in their hands, pushing them back one meter at a time where they came from. There were other methods, which one of the participants in those events talks about in the most interesting documentary film Elena Masyuk “Hieroglyph of Friendship”: they took off their pants, turned their bare butts towards the portraits of Mao - and the Red Guards retreated in horror... During January-February, both on Damansky and on Kirkinsky - this is another island on Ussuri - Soviet and Chinese border guards met more than once In hand-to-hand combat, however, there were no casualties. But then events took a very serious turn.

On the night of March 1-2, a company of Chinese soldiers in full combat gear crossed to Damansky and secured a foothold on its western bank. At the alarm, 32 Soviet border guards went to the scene of the event, including the head of the 2nd border post “Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya” of the 57th Iman border detachment, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov. He protested to the Chinese and was shot at point-blank range along with 6 of his comrades. Having accepted an unequal battle, the border group covering Strelnikov, led by Sergeant Rabovich, was almost completely killed - 11 out of 12 people. In total, during the battles with the Chinese on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed and 14 were injured. In an unconscious state, Corporal Pavel Akulov was captured by the Chinese and then brutally tortured. In 2001, photographs of Soviet soldiers killed at Damansky from the archives of the KGB of the USSR were declassified - the photographs testified to the abuse of the dead by the Chinese.

Everything was decided by "Grad"

A question that often arose among contemporaries of those events and later: why at the decisive moment Damansky, despite the aggressive attitude of the Chinese, was guarded as usual (there is a version that not only our intelligence warned about the inevitability of a conflict on the island of the Kremlin through secret channels , but also Lin Biao personally, which Mao allegedly later found out about); why did reinforcements arrive after the first losses, finally, why even on March 15, when fresh units of the Chinese army (24th Infantry Regiment, 2 thousand soldiers) entered the battle on Damansky after a massive shelling of Soviet positions (24th Infantry Regiment, 2 thousand soldiers), when in a supernova Soviet tank destroyed by the Chinese T-62, the head of the Iman border detachment, Colonel Leonov, was killed - why was the ban of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee on the entry of troops of the Far Eastern Military District into the Damansky area not lifted?

When the commander of the district, Colonel-General Oleg Losik, gave the command on the 15th to deploy the 135th Motorized Rifle Division in the battle area and iron out Chinese positions using the then-secret BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket systems, he actually acted at his own peril and risk. The “hail” that fell on the heads of the Chinese - and the main part of the enemy’s material and technical resources and manpower was destroyed in one gulp - discouraged them from continuing the war for Damansky: Beijing did not yet have such weapons. According to Russian data, the final Chinese losses ranged from 300 to 700 people killed, but Chinese sources still do not provide exact figures.

By the way, in August 1969, the Chinese again decided to test the strength of the Soviet borders: they landed 80 of their special forces in the area of ​​Lake Zhalanashkol in Kazakhstan. But then they were met fully armed: as a result of a 65-minute battle, the group lost 21 people and was forced to retreat. But this episode, undoubtedly victorious for the USSR, went almost unnoticed. Whereas Damansky, as the personification of our army’s readiness to repel Maoist China, was talked about in the USSR for a long time, although the question of why our soldiers actually shed their blood there arose very soon.

What did they fight for...

On September 11, 1969, the Chairman of the USSR Council of Ministers, Alexey Kosygin, and the head of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, Zhou Enlai, at negotiations at Beijing airport - Kosygin was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh - discussed the situation around Damansky and agreed: the parties, in order to avoid escalation of the conflict and to maintain the truce, should remain employed for this moment positions. Most likely, Beijing knew in advance that Moscow was ready for such a compromise - before the start of negotiations, Chinese soldiers landed on Damansky. And so they remained in their “occupied positions”...

In 1991, as a result of the signing of the Soviet-Chinese agreement on border demarcation, Damansky was officially transferred to China. Today there is no island with that name on the map - there is Zheng-Bao-Dao (“Precious Island” - translated from Chinese), on which Chinese border guards take the oath at the new obelisk to their fallen heroes. But the lessons of those events are not only in changing the name. And it’s not even that Russia, to please China, has elevated a purely advisory principle of international law to an absolute one: taking into account the fact that the border supposedly must necessarily pass through the middle of the fairway of border rivers, hundreds of hectares of land have already been transferred to China, including cedar forests in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories. The border, “island” dossier perfectly illustrates how patient, persistent and resourceful the Chinese dragon is in pursuing its own interests.

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.

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 at 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.

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).

The Damansky conflict of 1969 is an armed clash between the troops of the Soviet Union and the Chinese people's republic. The name of the event was given by geographical position- the battle took place in the area of ​​Damansky Island (sometimes mistakenly called the Damansky Peninsula) on the Ussuri River, which flows 230 kilometers south of Khabarovsk. It is believed that the Daman events are the largest Soviet-Chinese conflict in modern history.

Background and causes of the conflict

After the end of the Second Opium War (1856-1860), Russia signed an extremely beneficial treaty with China, which went down in history as the Treaty of Beijing. According to official documents, the Russian border now ended on the Chinese bank of the Amur River, which meant that only the Russian side could have full use of water resources. No one thought about the ownership of the deserted Amur islands due to the small population in that territory.

In the mid-20th century, China was no longer satisfied with this situation. The first attempt to move the border ended in failure. At the end of the 1960s, the leadership of the PRC began to assert that the USSR was following the path of socialist imperialism, which means that aggravation of relations could not be avoided. According to some historians, the Soviet Union cultivated a sense of superiority over the Chinese. Military personnel, as never before, began to zealously monitor compliance with the Soviet-Chinese border.

The situation in the area of ​​Damansky Island began to heat up in the early 1960s. Chinese military and civilians constantly violated the border regime and entered foreign territory, but Soviet border guards expelled them without the use of weapons. The number of provocations grew every year. In the middle of the decade, attacks on Soviet border patrols by Chinese Red Guards became more frequent.

At the end of the 60s, scuffles between the parties ceased to resemble fights; first, firearms were used, and then military equipment. On February 7, 1969, Soviet border guards for the first time fired several single shots from machine guns in the direction of the Chinese military.

Progress of the armed conflict

On the night of March 1–2, 1969, more than 70 Chinese military personnel, armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and SKS carbines, took up a position on the high shore of Damansky Island. This group was noticed only at 10:20 am. At 10:40 a border detachment of 32 people, led by senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, arrived on the island. They demanded to leave the territory of the USSR, but the Chinese opened fire. Most of the Soviet detachment, including the commander, died.

Reinforcements arrived on Damansky Island in the person of Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin and 23 soldiers. The firefight continued for about half an hour. The heavy machine gun on Bubenin's armored personnel carrier was out of order, and the Chinese were firing from mortars. They delivered ammunition to Soviet soldiers and helped evacuate the wounded residents of the village of Nizhnemikhailovka.

After the death of the commander, junior sergeant Yuri Babansky took over the leadership of the operation. His squad was dispersed on the island, the soldiers took the fight. After 25 minutes, only 5 fighters remained alive, but they continued to fight. At approximately 13:00, the Chinese military began to retreat.

On the Chinese side, 39 people died, on the Soviet side - 31 (and another 14 were injured). At 13:20, reinforcements from the Far Eastern and Pacific border districts began to flock to the island. The Chinese were preparing a regiment of 5 thousand soldiers for the offensive.

On March 3, a demonstration took place near the Soviet embassy in Beijing. On March 4, Chinese newspapers reported that only the Soviet side was to blame for the incident on Damansky Island. On the same day, completely opposite data were published in Pravda. On March 7, a picket was held near the Chinese embassy in Moscow. Demonstrators threw dozens of vials of ink at the walls of the building.

On the morning of March 14, a group of Chinese military personnel moving towards Damansky Island was fired upon by Soviet border guards. The Chinese retreated. At 15:00 a unit of USSR army soldiers left the island. It was immediately occupied by Chinese soldiers. Several more times that day the island changed hands.

On the morning of March 15, a serious battle ensued. Soviet soldiers did not have enough weapons, and what they had was constantly out of order. The numerical superiority was also on the side of the Chinese. At 17:00, the commander of the army of the Far Eastern District, Lieutenant General O.A. Losik violated the order of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and was forced to introduce the secret Grad multiple launch rocket systems into battle. This decided the outcome of the battle.

The Chinese side in this section of the border no longer dared to undertake serious provocations and military operations.

Consequences of the conflict

During the Daman conflict of 1969, 58 people were killed or died from wounds on the Soviet side, and another 94 people were wounded. The Chinese lost from 100 to 300 people (this is still classified information).

On September 11 in Beijing, Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Zhou Enlai and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. Kosygin concluded a truce, which in fact meant that Damansky Island now belongs to China. On October 20, an agreement was reached to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Damansky Island finally became the official territory of the PRC only in 1991.