Damansky, Dulaty, Zhalanashkol are unknown pages in the history of the Soviet-Chinese conflict. The military conflict between the USSR and China in the area of ​​about. damansky

I was looking for new information on Fuyuan and Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island and came across a blog of a Chinese traveler who was recently in Fuyuan County, but, more interestingly, he recently visited the area of ​​Zhenbao Island (珍宝岛, Damansky Island, which went to China). Somewhere on the Internet there are rumors that allegedly there is a museum on Damansky dedicated to the events of 1969, about clashes between Soviet and Chinese troops and border guards, and that Russians are not allowed there. I don’t know, there is definitely a memorial there, but they let it in exactly metered - there, on the island, there is a barracks for the border guards of the PLA. There are several more stones with inscriptions about the "precious island". In general, I propose to see how Damansky Island looks now.

59 kilometers (36 in a straight line) south of Damansky Island is the village of the same name. The traveler first arrived there.

Village and village. It looks like Russian. By the way, on the map it is called differently. Located here.

From the village, the Chinese went to Damansky Island itself. On the way, I met a car of Chinese border guards.

The Internet very often comes across the phrase that, allegedly, the Chinese filled up the channel of the Ussuri River, which separated Damansky Island and the indigenous coast of the PRC. But, as you can see from the photo, and Google maps show that there is nothing like that - the channel exists. Its width is two hundred meters.

In front of the entrance to the ice crossing, on the left, there is such a monument. Some nonsense is written on this cobblestone, I could not figure it out: 百年首捷，一岛独胜: the main victory in centuries. For what centuries, if the events were in 1969?

The author also writes that a Soviet tank fell through the ice, and after a couple of months the Chinese got it from Ussuri (this is true), then they dragged it to Harbin and then dragged it to Beijing and put it in a military museum. Here he is.

The author does not write any malicious comments about Russia and the USSR, but simply discusses why this could happen. Further, he writes that the USSR was so angry with the PRC that it was ready to use nuclear weapons against China and the Chinese were overwhelmed. And he also connects the construction of the Beijing subway precisely with the nuclear threat - the subway was supposed to serve as a shelter and that, supposedly, part of the subway is still not in use, that is, that it is an ordinary mothballed bomb shelter.

Here are the Chinese border guards going from Damansky Island to the native coast.

According to publicly available information, our (Chinese in the sense) border guards killed and wounded more than 230 people (according to the Soviet version - 152, of which 58 were killed), damage to tanks and armored vehicles - 19; Chinese border guards died - 92 victims. There are different opinions and assumptions about the reasons for the start of the conflict, perhaps the conflict is closely related to the upcoming party congress.

Half a century. For history, in principle, there is no time limit. On the one side. On the other hand ... Forty-nine years ago, our fighters and border guards clashed with PLA soldiers in unequal fight. And they won.

It is difficult to say how we will interpret and remember these events in 2019. And will they be remembered at all - simply because we no longer have Damansky Island, but China has Precious Island. Yes, and with the PRC, there seems to be peace, friendship, and so on. Let's see.

But today we want to remember not the events, no. We will remember the events next year. More precisely, we recall, but not in detail in terms of events.

Once upon a time, in 1888, during the survey work for the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, railway engineer Stanislav Damansky died. Drowned in the treacherous Ussuri River. The event is tragic, but ordinary for those places. Taiga and numerous Siberian rivers even today are dangerous.

The comrades found the body of the deceased engineer not far from the nameless island. And, according to the tradition that still exists, they named the island after the deceased - Damansky Island.

The island is small. 0.74 square kilometers area. 1500-1700 meters long and 500-600 meters wide. It's hard to live on it. During the spring flood, it is well flooded. But it is quite possible to conduct business activities on a rotational basis.

Legally, the island became part of Russia in 1860, even without being discovered. According to the Beijing Treaty, the border between China and Russian Empire began to pass along the Chinese bank of the Amur. In fact, the people on both sides used the rivers without restrictions. Moreover, a few Chinese and Russians lived quite friendly side by side. And the islands that either appear or disappear on the rivers were considered like draws.

I deliberately started the story from afar. Simply because there are still a lot of discrepancies in this issue in our and Chinese sources. Discrepancies that make it difficult to understand the background of the events described below. Who is right and who is wrong?

Now the stingy figures obtained from the award department of the archive of the RF Ministry of Defense. For the heroism and courage shown in the performance of official duties during the events of March 2 and 15, 1969, 300 people were awarded in the Damansky Island area, 59 of them posthumously. From total number 216 awarded were servicemen of the border troops, 80 - servicemen of the Soviet army, 4 - civilians.

Four border guards and one serviceman of the Soviet Army (three posthumously) were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. Three were awarded the Order of Lenin. 18 people - the Order of the Red Banner (6 posthumously). 65 people were awarded the Order of the Red Star (6 posthumously). 29 people were awarded (!) Order of Glory III degree (4 posthumously). 118 people were awarded the medal "For Courage" (40 posthumously). 62 - medal "For Military Merit".

The events in the Damansky area did not come as a surprise to the top leadership of the USSR and the PRC. Intelligence worked well. Therefore, reports were periodically sent to Moscow about the impending provocation in the region of the island. And the border guards who served in the area saw everything perfectly. Moreover, periodic fights with Chinese agricultural army fighters have become the norm. border guards were forbidden to use.

This period in the history of China is called beautiful - the cultural revolution. In fact, what the young supporters of Mao, the Red Guards (Red Guards, Red Guards) were doing, had nothing to do with culture. They were used by the authorities for provocations. By 1968-69, attacks even on border patrols were commonplace.

What happened on Damansky on Sunday, March 2? Alas, this Sunday was a working day for the entire Far Eastern District. The troops participated in exercises to repel an enemy attack from the Primorye region. Including the border guards guarding the section of the border on the Ussuri River. The main forces and military equipment of the border guards were deployed 50 kilometers inland. Three dozen border guards remained at the outposts.

Taking advantage of the weakening of the frontier posts, the Chinese decided on a provocation. At night, a company of the PLA crossed the island and secretly took up a position on a high west bank islands. In the afternoon, at about 10-20, up to 30 Chinese border guards came out onto the Ussuri ice.

The head of the 2nd outpost "Novo-Mikhailovka", Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, decides to push the Chinese out of Soviet territory. On the BTR-60PB and two cars, he and a group of 31 border guards advance to the place of violation.

On the spot, Strelnikov divided the group into two detachments. One, under the command of the head of the outpost, was supposed to drive the Chinese off the ice in front of the island. The second is to cut off a group of up to 20 people who hid on the island. The border guards had no idea about the ambush prepared by the Chinese...

At that moment, when the officer demanded to leave the Soviet territory, at the command of the Chinese officer (raised hand), the ambush shot the border guards at close range. The same fate befell the second group under the command of Sergeant Rabovich. Of the 11 people, 9 were killed on the spot. Corporal Akulov was taken prisoner in an unconscious state. Only one wounded man remained alive - Private Serebrov.

Hearing the shooting, junior sergeant Yuri Babansky took over the command of the outpost. At that time, there were 12 people left at the outpost. Branch. They were the ones who took the fight. Half an hour later there were five left.

At this time, the commander of the neighboring 1st outpost "Kulebyakiny Sopki" Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin advanced to the aid of his neighbors in the BTR-60PB and two vehicles. At about 11:30 he joined Babansky's group. 24 border guards from "Kulebyakina Sopka" and five from "Novo-Mikhailovka" took up defensive positions with the support of two armored personnel carriers.

After 30 minutes of battle, the Chinese realized that it would not work to take the border guards alive. Then the mortars came into play. Bubenin decides to attack the armored personnel carrier. However, during the attack, the machine gun jammed. The senior lieutenant returned for the second. But now he attacked the Chinese from the rear.

Alas, the armored personnel carrier was "sufficient" only to destroy an enemy company on the ice. From the wrecked car, Bubenin with the fighters leaves towards the Soviet coast. But, having stepped onto Strelnikov's armored personnel carrier, he transfers to it and continues the fight. This time the command post was destroyed. But when trying to pick up the wounded, the stopped armored personnel carrier is shot from an RPG-2.

At about 13:00, the Chinese began to retreat... At the same time, Colonel Leonov, head of the border detachment, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts and the reserve of the Pacific and Far Eastern border districts arrived in the conflict area. In the depths, a motorized rifle division was deployed, equipped, among other things, with BM-21 Grad, which was then strictly classified.

On opposite side the 24th infantry regiment was deployed, numbering up to 5 thousand people. Border guards were also reinforced at the expense of neighboring outposts.

The losses of the parties in this battle: the USSR - 45 people, 31 of them were killed. China - 39 killed. The number of wounded is unknown. This is according to our experts. The Chinese have classified their losses.

The next aggravation of the conflict dates back to March 14. At 15-00 an order was received to remove the border guards from the island. The Chinese immediately pulled up their units to the abandoned positions. Then the border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Yanshin advanced to the island. 45 people supported by 4 armored personnel carriers.

On March 15, after mutual psychological processing of the enemy through loudspeakers, after an artillery attack with forces of up to 60 barrels, the Chinese launched an attack with 3 companies. Colonel Leonov advanced on 4 T-62 tanks to help Yanshin.

In battle, one of the tanks sank, and Leonov's tank was hit by a grenade launcher. Leonov himself died trying to leave the burning car. But the actions of the tankers made it possible for the Yanshin group to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the available forces would not be enough to defend the island.

Then the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General Oleg Losik, took responsibility.

He ordered to strike with Grads. At 17-00 on March 15, "Grads" were used for the first time in a combat situation. The result stunned the Chinese. The personnel, ammunition depots, headquarters and command posts were destroyed. At 17:20, the 2nd battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment went on the attack. The Chinese fled to their shore.

Soviet units also returned. Individual pockets of resistance fired until 19:00. However, they were quickly suppressed by motorized riflemen. The conflict was over.

In conclusion, I want to give a complete list of awarded soldiers and officers for Damansky today. Someone is no longer with us, someone is alive. The fact is that the awarding of participants in the battles was carried out by 6 decrees Supreme Council, most of which were then classified.

Two decrees on conferring the title Hero of the Soviet Union Yu. V. Babansky, D. A. Bubenin, D. V. Leonov (posthumously) and I. I. Strelnikov (posthumously) were signed on March 21, 1969.

For courage and courage shown in the defense of the state border, award:

Order of Lenin:
1. Junior Sergeant Kanygin Vasily Mikhailovich.
2. Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Dmitrievich Konstantinov

Order of the Red Banner:
1. Senior Lieutenant Buinevich Nikolai Mikhailovich (posthumously)
2. Private Anatoly Grigoryevich Denisenko (posthumously)
3. Sergeant Ermalyuk Viktor Markianovich (posthumously)
4. Private Zakharov Valery Fedorovich
5. Private Kovalev Pavel Ivanovich
6. Private Shamov Arkady Vasilyevich

Order of the Red Star:
1. Private Drozdov Sergei Matveyevich
2. Junior Sergeant Kozus Yuri Andreevich
3. Second Lieutenant Koleshnya Mikhail Illarionovich
4. Corporal Korzhukov Viktor Kharitonovich (posthumously)
5. Junior Sergeant Ivan Ivanovich Larichkin
6. Private Legotin Vladimir Mikhailovich
7. Private Petr Leonidovich Litvinov
8. Junior Sergeant Pavlov Alexei Petrovich
9. Private Petrov Nikolai Nikolaevich (posthumously)
10. Private Serebrov Gennady Aleksandrovich
11. Strelnikova Lidia Fedorovna
12. Private Shmokin Evgeny Viktorovich
13. Senior Lieutenant Shorokhov Vladimir Nikolaevich

Medal "For Courage":
1. Private Aniper Anatoly Grigorievich
2. Private Burantsev Valentin Alekseevich
3. Private Velichko Petr Alexandrovich
4. Private Vetrich Ivan Romanovich (posthumously)
5. Private Vishnevsky Vasily Andreevich
6. Private Gavrilov Viktor Illarionovich (posthumously)
7. Corporal Davydenko Gennady Mikhailovich (posthumously)
8. Private Danilin Vladimir Nikolaevich (posthumously)
9. Sergeant Dergach Nikolai Timofeevich (posthumously)
10. Private Egupov Viktor Ivanovich (posthumously)
11. Private Eremin Nikolai Andreevich
12. Junior Sergeant Yerukh Vladimir Viktorovich
13. Private Alexei Romanovich Zabanov
14. Private Zmeev Alexei Petrovich (posthumously)
15. Private Zolotarev Valentin Grigorievich (posthumously)
16. Private Izotov Vladimir Alekseevich (posthumously)
17. Private Ionin Alexander Filimonovich (posthumously)
18. Private Isakov Vyacheslav Petrovich (posthumously)
19. Private Kalashnikov Kuzma Fedorovich
20. Private Kamenchuk Grigory Alexandrovich (posthumously)
21. Private Kisilev Gavril Georgievich (posthumously)
22. Junior Sergeant Kolokin Nikolai Ivanovich (posthumously)
23. Corporal Kolkoduev Vladimir Pavlovich
24. Private Kuznetsov Alexei Nifantevich (posthumously)
25. Private Lobov Nikolai Sergeevich
26. Junior Sergeant Loboda Mikhail Andreevich (posthumously)
27. Private Malakhov Petr Ivanovich
28. Corporal Mikhailov Evgeny Konstantinovich (posthumously)
29. Private Nasretdinov Islamgali Sultangaleevich (posthumously)
30. Private Nechay Sergey Alekseevich (posthumously)
31. Private Ovchinnikov Gennady Sergeevich (posthumously)
32. Private Pasyutu Alexander Ivanovich (posthumously)
33. Private Petrov Alexander Mikhailovich
34. Private Pinzhin Gennady Mikhailovich
35. Private Pyotr Yegorovich Plekhanov
36. Corporal Prosvirin Ilya Andreevich
37. Private Puzyrev Nikolai Fedorovich
38. Corporal Putilov Mikhail Petrovich
39. Sergeant Rabovich Vladimir Nikitievich (posthumously)
40. Sergeant Sikushenko Pavel Ivanovich
41. Private Smirnov Vladimir Alekseevich
42. Private Syrtsev Alexei Nikolaevich (posthumously)
43. Private Shestakov Alexander Fedorovich (posthumously)
44. Private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich (posthumously)

Medal "For Military Merit":
1. Avdeev Anatoly Georgievich - foreman of the state industrial enterprise
2. Avdeev Gennady Vasilievich - a fisherman of the state industrial enterprise
3. Avdeev Dmitry Artemyevich - beekeeper of the state farm
4. Captain Avilov Anatoly Ivanovich
5. Major Bazhenov Vladimir Sergeevich
6. Lieutenant Voronin Nikolai Nikolaevich
7. Senior Sergeant Gladkov Yuri Gavrilovich
8. Major of the medical service Kvitko Vyacheslav Ivanovich
9. Petty officer I article Kurchenko Ivan Dmitrievich
10. Captain 2nd rank Makeev Vasily Stepanovich
11. Private Milanich Gennady Vladimirovich
12. Colonel Pavlinov Boris Vasilyevich
13. Corporal Rychagov Alexander Mikhailovich
14. Major Sinenko Ivan Stepanovich
15. Junior Sergeant Mikhail Egorovich Fadeev

For heroism and courage shown in the defense of the state border of the USSR, to award junior sergeant Viktor Viktorovich Orekhov the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).

For courage and heroism shown in the defense of the state border of the USSR to award:

Order of the Red Banner:
1. Lieutenant Barkovsky Mikhail Grigorievich
2. Corporal Bogdanovich Alexander Dmitrievich
3. Major Gatin Zinnur Gatievich
4. Private Kuzmin Alexei Alekseevich (posthumously)
5. Sergeant Ryabtsev Viktor Petrovich
6. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Smirnov
7. Senior Lieutenant Shelest Roman Mikhailovich

Order of the Red Star:
1. Lieutenant Alexandrov Alexander Ivanovich
2. Lieutenant Colonel Rivgad Nazipovich Almaev
3. Senior lieutenant of the medical service Afanasiev Vladislav Matveevich
4. Lieutenant Bayutov Gennady Ivanovich
5. Engineer-Major Volochanov Vladimir Mikhailovich
6. Private Gorokhov Evgeny Alexandrovich
7. Lieutenant Grigorenko Nikolai Yakovlevich
8. Captain Lavrov Yuri Vladimirovich
9. Captain Levitsky Viktor Nikolaevich
10. Senior Lieutenant Melnik Nikolai Artemovich
11. Junior Lieutenant Motorny Peter Antonovich
12. Sergeant Nekhoroshev Alexander Nikolaevich
13. Junior Sergeant Nikonov Sergey Garifovich
14. Lieutenant Ostrovsky Sergey Alexandrovich
15. Engineer-Captain Razdoburdin Yury Sergeevich
16. Lieutenant Sizarev Alexander Mikhailovich
17. Sergeant Sokolnikov Valentin Ivanovich
18. Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Makarovich Solodovkin
19. Lieutenant Colonel Stankevich Eduard Ignatievich
20. Senior lieutenant of the medical service Starev Valery Mikhailovich
21. Private Stepanov Alexander Vladimirovich
22. Lieutenant Troyanov Nikolai Ivanovich
23. Junior Lieutenant Khrapov Nikolai Nikolaevich
24. Lieutenant Colonel Khrulev Gury Petrovich
25. Lieutenant Tsarenko Vladimir Petrovich
26. Major Cherny Evgeny Evstafievich
27. Junior Sergeant Shaimanov Alexander Semenovich
28. Senior Lieutenant Shelkunov Leonid Alexandrovich
29. Sergeant Shlepov Gennady Iosifovich
30. Sergeant Shutov Nikolai Ivanovich
31. Private Shcheglakov Vladimir Andreevich
32. Sergeant Yarulin Rubis Yusupovich
33. Captain Yasnev Igor Valerianovich

Order of Glory III degree:
1. Sergeant Badmazhapov Tsyren Dorzhievich
2. Sergeant Nikolay Ivanovich Baranov
3. Junior Sergeant Vlasov Anatoly Ivanovich (posthumously)
4. Corporal Volozhanin Mikhail Vladimirovich
5. Private Gelvikha Alexander Khristianovich (posthumously)
6. Sergeant Karmazin Vasily Viktorovich (posthumously)
7. Junior Sergeant Knelets Anatoly Leonidovich
8. Private Korobenkov Boris Nikolaevich
9. Junior Sergeant Korolev Nikolai Ivanovich
10. Private Cuckoo Ivan Andreevich
11. Corporal Lemeshev Viktor Alexandrovich
12. Private Loskutkin Boris Ivanovich
13. Junior Sergeant Matisov Gennady Anatolyevich
14. Junior Sergeant Pastukhov Viktor Mikhailovich
15. Private Perevalov Evgeny Stepanovich
16. Private Vladimir Potapov (posthumously)
17. Corporal Reshetnikov Valery Alekseevich
18. Junior Sergeant Viktor Ivanovich Sanzharov
19. Senior Sergeant Shulbaev Veniamin Prokopevich

Medal "For Courage":
1. Private Abdulgazirov Erik Mukhamedovich
2. Corporal Augerwald Oscar Leonardovich
3. Private Bedarev Alexander Vasilyevich (posthumously)
4. Private Valeev Valentin Khairivarovich
5. Private Galimbekov Boris Nuritovich
6. Sergeant Gladkov Vladimir Nikitovich
7. Senior Sergeant Gomanov Valery Ivanovich
8. Sergeant Gorinov Anatoly Grigorievich
9. Private Gubenko Viktor Alekseevich
10. Lieutenant Davletbaev Reinad Tulkubayevich
11. Junior Sergeant Darzhiev Sergey Zanduevich
12. Sergeant Demintsev Vladimir Eduardovich
13. Corporal Detinkin Alexander Nikolaevich
14. Private Egorov Nikolai Petrovich
15. Private Ignatiev Georgy Grigorievich
16. Private Karev Gennady Aleksandrovich
17. Private Karpov Gennady Ivanovich
18. Private Vladimir Sergeevich Kisilev
19. Private Koltakov Sergei Timofeevich (posthumously)
20. Sergeant Korolkov Anatoly Fedorovich
21. Sergeant Kosov Yuri Alexandrovich
22. Private Petr Ivanovich Kochetkov
23. Sergeant Kravchuk Mikhail Ivanovich
24. Junior Sergeant Krainov Vladimir Artemovich
25. Junior Sergeant Krayushkin Viktor Ivanovich
26. Private Kruglik Alexander Sergeevich
27. Private Kryzhanovsky Valentin Vasilyevich
28. Junior Sergeant Krymets Vitaly Vasilyevich
29. Private Kuanyshev Vladimir Fedorovich
30. Private Kuzmin Nikolai Alexandrovich
31. Junior Sergeant Kutlin Anatoly Nikolaevich
32. Junior Sergeant Lavrinenko Nikolai Aleksandrovich
33. Sergeant Lizunov Alexander Mikhailovich
34. Sergeant Lipovka Gennady Nikolaevich
35. Private Lyavin Mikhail Andreevich
36. Private Mamonov Alexander Yakovlevich
37. Private Manzarkhanov Eduard Georgievich
38. Private Muratov Vladimir Ilyich
39. Private Osipov Viktor Leonidovich
40. Junior Sergeant Panov Vyacheslav Ivanovich
41. Private Vladimir Peskov
42. Private Polegaev Gennady Georgievich
43. Lieutenant Polyaev Vladimir Fedorovich
44. Private Popov Alexander Alekseevich
45. Lieutenant Prokhorov Vladimir Pavlovich
46. ​​Corporal Rachenkov Anatoly Zinovievich
47. Private Sovetnikov Yuri Petrovich
48. Junior Sergeant Spitsyn Nikolai Gavrilovich
49. Private Strigin Gennady Matveyevich
50. Private Viktor Alexandrovich Sysoev
51. Senior Sergeant Tereshchenko Alexander Nikolaevich
52. Private Shkramada Gennady Vasilyevich
53. Private Shtoiko Vladimir Timofeevich (posthumously)
54. Corporal Yanovsky Vladimir Ilyich

Medal "For Military Merit":
1. Private Avdankin Viktor Nikolaevich
2. Private Akimov Vladimir Grigorievich
3. Private Ivan Stepanovich Burnyshev
4. Corporal Gneushev Dmitry Prokofievich
5. Private Dubovichtsky Viktor Ivanovich
6. Corporal Egorov Alexei Ivanovich
7. Corporal Emelianenko Alexander Grigorievich
8. Private Emelyanov Gennady Aleksandrovich
9. Lieutenant Kordubailo Dmitry Semenovich
10. Private Maksimovich Alexander Pavlovich
11. Private Vladimir Ivanovich Nabokov
12. Private Nikonov Ivan Ivanovich
13. Private Ozheredov Sergei Semenovich
14. Sergeant Ponomarev Alexander Petrovich
15. Private Ponomarev Nikolai Alexandrovich
16. Private Poplevin Mikhail Polikarpovich
17. Senior Sergeant Popov Georgy Nikolaevich
18. Junior Sergeant Sinichkin Anatoly Ivanovich
19. Private Solomanin Vladimir Mikhailovich
20. Private Terekhov Nikolai Stepanovich
21. Junior Sergeant Uryvkov Vladimir Nikolaevich
22. Private Utyatnikov Mikhail Alexandrovich
23. Major Fitisov Alexei Grigorievich
24. Private Shikunov Yuri Pavlovich
25. Private Nikolai Antonovich Shokot
26. Private Yasyrev Mikhail Alexandrovich

For courage and courage shown in the defense of the state border of the USSR, to award:

Order of Lenin:
Lieutenant Colonel Yanshin Evgeny Ivanovich

Order of the Red Banner:
1. Corporal Akulov Pavel Andreevich (posthumously)
2. Major Kosinov Petr Ivanovich
3. Senior Lieutenant Mankovsky Lev Konstantinovich (posthumously)
4. Senior Lieutenant Nazarenko Nikolai Ivanovich
5. Senior Lieutenant Solovyov Viktor Mikhailovich

Order of the Red Star:
1. Senior Sergeant Alekseev Yuri Ivanovich
2. Private Bashukov Anatoly Nikolaevich
3. Junior Sergeant Gayunov Vladimir Konstantinovich (posthumously)
4. Junior Sergeant Golovin Boris Aleksandrovich (posthumously)
5. Private Golovin Viktor Fedorovich
6. Lieutenant Gubarev Valery Alexandrovich
7. Captain Deripaskin Geatsent Stepanovich
8. Lieutenant Colonel Zubkov Ivan Vasilyevich
9. Lieutenant Klygu Anatoly Petrovich
10. Junior Sergeant Kobts Ilya Georgievich
11. Major Kornienko Ivan Grigorievich
12. Sergeant Krasikov Nikolai Andreevich (posthumously)
13. Private Nakonechny Vladimir Ivanovich
14. Captain Petrikin Evgeny Vasilyevich
15. Private Petukhov Anatoly Viktorovich
16. Captain Poletavkin Vitaly Alekseevich
17. Private Prosviryakov Leonid Arkadyevich
18. Private Alexey Nikolaevich Salkov
19. Private Shamsudinov Vitaly Gilionovich (posthumously)

Order of Glory III degree:
1. Private Borovsky Vladimir Dmitrievich
2. Private Gribachev Gennady Mikhailovich
3. Corporal Ivanov Gennadly Vasilyevich
4. Private Viktor Trofimovich Kalinin
5. Private Kamzalakov Alexander Alekseevich
6. Private Kozlov Yuri Filippovich
7. Junior Sergeant Rudakov Sershey Alekseevich
8. Private Simchuk Ilya Moiseevich
9. Sergeant Fomin Valentin Mikhailovich
10. Private Shulgin Alexander Mihaflovich

Medal "For Courage":
1. Private Abbasov Tofik Rza oglu (posthumously)
2. Private Akhmetshin Yuri Yurievich (posthumously)
3. Private Bildushkin Vladimir Tarasovich (posthumously)
4. Private Gladyshev Sergey Viktorovich (posthumously)
5. Private Elistratov Nikolai Stepanovich
6. Senior Sergeant Zainetdinov Anvar Akhkiyamovich (posthumously)
7. Junior Sergeant Mikhail Petrovich Ivanov
8. Sergeant Ignatiev Alexei Ivanovich
9. Private Kovalev Anatoly Mikhailovich (posthumously)
10. Captain Kurlykov Vladimir Timoeyevich
11. Junior Sergeant Lutsenko Nikolai Andreevich
12. Junior Sergeant Malykhin Vlidimir Yurievich (posthumously)
13. Captain Matrosov Vladimir Stepanovich
14. Sergeant Mashinets Vyacheslav Ivanovich
15. Private Solyanik Viktor Petrovich (posthumously)
16. Private Tkachenkov Dmitry Vladimirovich (posthumously)
17. Private Chechenin Alexei Ivanovich (posthumously)
18. Private Yurin Stanislav Fedorovich (posthumously)
19. Private Yakimov Ivan Makarovich
20. Private Yakovlev Anatoly Iosifovich (posthumously)

Medal "For Military Merit":
1. Senior Lieutenant Burdin Mikhail Alekseevich
2. Lieutenant Vishnevsky Nikolai Kupriyanovich
3. Private Golubev Mikhail Alekseevich
4. Junior Sergeant Anatoly Sergeevich Kozin
5. Lieutenant Colonel Kukhta Vladimir Andreevich
6. Captain Lebedev Arkady Pavlovich
7. Sergeant Malyshenko Boris Grigorievich
8. Private Martynov Boris Grigorievich
9. Private Mironov Vladimir Vasilyevich
10. Engineer-Captain Vladimir Ignatievich Palkin
11. Private Perederei Petr Grigorievich
12. Private Plotnikov Viktor Alexandrovich
13. Junior Sergeant Anatoly Filippovich Rogov
14. Major Skladanyuk Grigory Andreevich
15. Private Smelov Nikolai Vasilyevich
16. Private Soroku Anatoly Grigorievich
17. Private Ustyugov Mikhail Sergeevich
18. Lieutenant Fatovenko Boris Yakovlevich
19. Private Fedorov Vladimir Mikhailovich
20. Senior Lieutenant Khripel Yuri Timofeevich
21. Private Shalupa Petr Dmitrievich

And four citizens are not from the military.

Order of the Red Star for providing the first medical care Strelnikova Lidia Fedorovna (widow of the head of the 2nd outpost I.I. Strelnikov) was awarded.

Medals "For Military Merit" Avdeevs, Anatoly Gerasimovich, Gennady Vasilyevich and Dmitry Artemyevich were awarded, who brought sleigh carts on March 2, 1969, on which ammunition was transferred to the battlefield.

The list is big. But here, on our pages, it is absolutely appropriate and logical. The memory of those who took the fight 49 years ago is our, one might say, combat mission.

All that remains for us is the memory of those who fought and who died in March 1969.

Damansky Island, and now Precious, is a military-administrative zone of the PRC, and Russians, and other foreigners, cannot get there. But the Chinese military do not just let their tourists go there. They bring it specially, "to Chinese people did not forget his history and remembered the feat on Precious Island.

There is a museum on the island, which presents the Chinese point of view on events. Commemorative events and ceremonies are held to commemorate the dead, the number of which is still a huge secret.

We are left with only such a memory. However, we will remember all the heroes of our time listed above and we will remember their contribution to the understanding of the whole world that what is ours is ours.

Despite the fact that the politicians actually did not give a damn about the blood spilled by our soldiers, we are obliged to keep the memory of the events on Damansky, no matter how relations between Russia and China develop. For whoever remembers the old is out of his sight, and whoever forgets the old is two.

After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision appeared that the borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run along the middle of the main fairway of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the coasts, when such a border developed historically - by agreement, or if one side colonized the other coast before the other began to colonize it.

In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect. Nevertheless, in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, came into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border provisions as an excuse to revise the Soviet -Chinese border.

The leadership of the USSR was ready to go for it, in 1964 a consultation was held on border issues, but ended to no avail.

In connection with ideological differences during the Cultural Revolution in China and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when the PRC authorities declared that the USSR had embarked on the path of "socialist imperialism", relations became especially aggravated.

Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Its dimensions are 1500-1800 m from north to south and 600-700 m from west to east (an area of ​​about 0.74 km²).

During the flood period, the island is completely hidden under water and does not represent any economic value.

Since the early 1960s, the situation around the island has been heating up. According to the statements of the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons.

At first, on the instructions of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activity: mowing and grazing, claiming to be in Chinese territory.

The number of such provocations increased dramatically: in 1960 there were 100 of them, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then the Red Guards began to attack border patrols.

The number of such events was in the thousands, each of them involved up to several hundred people.

On January 4, 1969, a Chinese provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island (Qiliqingdao) with the participation of 500 people.

According to the Chinese version of events, the Soviet border guards themselves staged provocations and beat up Chinese citizens who were engaged in economic activities where they always did it.

During the Kirkinsky incident, they used armored personnel carriers to oust civilians and crushed 4 of them, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single automatic shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.

However, it has been repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault they occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without the approval of the authorities. The assertion that the events around Damansky Island on March 2 and 15 were the result of an action carefully planned by the Chinese side is now the most widely spread; including directly or indirectly recognized by many Chinese historians.

For example, Li Danhui writes that in 1968-1969, the directives of the CPC Central Committee limited the response to Soviet provocations, only on January 25, 1969, it was allowed to plan "retaliatory military operations" near Damansky Island with the forces of three companies. On February 19, the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC agreed to this.

Events March 1-2 and the next week
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese military personnel in winter camouflage, armed with AK assault rifles and SKS carbines, crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western coast of the island.

The group remained unnoticed until 10:40, when a report was received from the observation post at the 2nd Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost of the 57th Imansky border detachment that a group of up to 30 armed people was moving in the direction of Damansky. 32 Soviet border guards, including the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, left for the scene in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and one BTR-60PB. At 11:10 they arrived at the southern tip of the island. The border guards under the command of Strelnikov were divided into two groups. The first group under the command of Strelnikov went to a group of Chinese servicemen who were standing on the ice southwest of the island.

The second group, under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group from the southern coast of the island. Strelnikov protested the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese troops leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese servicemen raised his hand, which served as a signal for the Chinese side to open fire on the groups of Strelnikov and Rabovich. The moment of the beginning of the armed provocation was captured on film by military photojournalist Private Nikolai Petrov. Strelnikov and the border guards following him died immediately, and a squad of border guards under the command of Sergeant Rabovich also died in a short-lived battle. Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the surviving border guards.

Having received a report about the shooting on the island, the head of the neighboring, 1st outpost of the Kulebyakiny Sopki, Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, drove out in the BTR-60PB and GAZ-69 with 20 fighters to help. In battle, Bubenin was wounded and sent an armored personnel carrier to the rear of the Chinese, skirting the northern tip of the island on the ice, but soon the armored personnel carrier was hit and Bubenin decided to go with his soldiers to the Soviet coast. Having reached the armored personnel carrier of the deceased Strelnikov and reseeded into it, the Bubenin group moved along the positions of the Chinese and destroyed their command post. They began to retreat.

In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured. The losses of the Chinese side (according to the KGB commission of the USSR) amounted to 247 people killed

At about 12:00 a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Iman border detachment and its chief, Colonel D.V. Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts. Reinforced detachments of border guards went to Damansky, and the 135th motorized rifle division of the Soviet Army was deployed in the rear with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment of 5,000 men was preparing for combat operations.

On March 3, a demonstration was held in Beijing near the Soviet embassy. On March 4, the Chinese newspapers "People's Daily" and "Jiefangjun Bao" (解放军报) published an editorial "Down with the new tsars!" invaded Zhenbaodao Island on the Wusulijiang River in our country's Heilongjiang Province, opened rifle and cannon fire on the border guards of the People's Liberation Army of China, killing and injuring many of them." On the same day, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article entitled “Shame on provocateurs!” According to the author of the article, “an armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border and headed for Damansky Island. On the Soviet border guards guarding this area, fire was suddenly opened from the Chinese side. There are dead and wounded." On March 7, the Chinese embassy in Moscow was picketed. The demonstrators also threw ink bottles at the building.

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



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

From 400 to 500 Chinese soldiers took up positions off the southern part of the island and prepared to go behind Yanshin's rear. Two armored personnel carriers of his group were hit, the connection was damaged. Four T-62 tanks under the command of D.V. Leonov attacked the Chinese at the southern tip of the island, but Leonov’s tank was hit (according to various versions, by a shot from an RPG-2 grenade launcher or blown up by an anti-tank mine), and Leonov himself was killed by a Chinese sniper when trying to leave a burning car.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that Leonov did not know the island and, as a result, the Soviet tanks came too close to the Chinese positions. However, at the cost of losses, the Chinese were not allowed to enter the island.

Two hours later, having used up ammunition, the Soviet border guards were still forced to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the forces brought into battle were not enough and the Chinese significantly outnumbered the border guards. At 17:00, in a critical situation, in violation of the instructions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU not to bring Soviet troops into conflict, on the orders of the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District Oleg Losik, fire was opened from secret at that time multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) "Grad".

The shells destroyed most of the material and technical resources of the Chinese group and the military, including reinforcements, mortars, and stacks of shells. At 17:10, motorized riflemen of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov went on the attack in order to finally crush the resistance of the Chinese troops. The Chinese began to withdraw from their positions. Around 19:00, several firing points “came to life”, after which three new attacks were made, but they were also repulsed.

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

In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed and died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers).

The irretrievable losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people. Located in Baoqing County memorial cemetery, where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who died on March 2 and 15, 1969 are located. Information received from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.

For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Junior Sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.

Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: 3 - Orders of Lenin, 10 - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, 10 - Orders of Glory III degree, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit" .

Settlement and aftermath
The Soviet soldiers failed 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 ashore and now it stands in the Beijing Military Museum.

After the ice melted, the exit of Soviet border guards to Damansky was difficult and Chinese attempts to capture it had to be hindered by sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, a ceasefire was ordered, apparently to create a favorable background for negotiations that began the next day at the Beijing airport.

Damansky and Kirkinsky were immediately occupied by the Chinese armed forces.

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

On October 20, 1969, new negotiations were held between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC, and an agreement was reached on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Further, a series of negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, and in 1991 Damansky Island finally went to the PRC.

It has been 44 years since the bloody battles on Damansky Island. This epoch-making event of the 20th century, which brought the world to the brink of war, an inimitable standard of the highest patriotism, courage, heroism, unparalleled courage, selfless love and devotion to one’s Motherland, professional military skill, is little mentioned in the state official media. As if he never existed. As if we, defending our Motherland, on our, I emphasize, on our territory, did something shameful, which is embarrassing to even mention.

Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich was born on November 12, 1947 in the city of Kuibyshev, Novosibirsk Region. Russian. Called on July 3, 1966 by the Kuibyshev RVC Novosibirsk region. Private, shooter of the 2nd frontier post of the 57th frontier detachment of the Pacific border district. Killed in battle on about. Damansky March 2, 1969. He was buried on March 6, 1969, in a mass grave on the territory of the 2nd frontier post "Nizhne-Mikhailovka", Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. He was reburied on May 30, 1980 at the military section of the city cemetery of Dalnerechensk, Primorsky Krai, the memorial "Glory to the Fallen Heroes". He was awarded the medal "For Courage" and the Badge of Honor of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League "For Military Valor" (posthumously).

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

How are you, my "oldies"! How are the bros! Seryozha has probably become big. And you, Sasha, how are things in sports? Do not be offended that I rarely deprive. Do not think that I am forgetting you, if you only knew how much I missed you all!”

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

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

In the morning, another 30 armed Chinese violators set off from the Chinese coast across the state border of the USSR to Damansky Island.

The commander of the N-outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, together with Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Buinevich, taking with him six border guards, including our fellow Kuibyshev resident Vladimir Shusharin, went out to meet the violators, intending to protest to the Chinese and demand that they leave Soviet land . So the border guards acted repeatedly when Chinese violators appeared in these places. The provocateurs approached Strelnikov's group and suddenly opened fire on it point-blank...

… A large two-story house on main street the city seemed to grow dark and quiet. Near the gate are three old women, quietly talking:

What a guy he was! He won't hurt anyone, he'll get along with everyone...

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

The eldest son died. The mother is crying, but along with tears, a harsh condemnation of impudent provocateurs boils in her heart, pride is heard for her son, who heroically gave his life for the inviolability of the sacred borders of our Motherland. The same feeling of pride lives in Vladimir's father, Isai Pavlovich. I heard him say at a rally of energy workers at the Barabinsk State District Power Plant:

Our son died from bandit hands while defending the borders of the Motherland. It's hard for us parents. But we know that he did not flinch at a difficult moment, he fulfilled his soldier's duty to the end. Vladimir grew up in a good family. They brought him up in a good way, managed to instill in him high moral qualities. Parents, the school, the team in which he worked before leaving for the army must be given credit for the fact that a real hero has grown out of a former naughty boy.

Vladimir Shusharin enjoyed special love among the border guards. He was considered in the unit as his artist. While still at school, Vladimir was fond of painting, studied in a circle visual arts. After school, this hobby did not leave him. A circle of drawing lovers worked in the Palace of Culture named after V. V. Kuibyshev. Vladimir Shusharin, a mechanic at motor depot No. 8, was also a regular participant. In the army, in his free time, he usually took a pencil or a brush and, having settled down somewhere in the rest room or on the street, near the outpost, he drew. The Leninsky room of the outpost is decorated and framed by his hands.

Vladimir began his military service in the most "prosaic" way. While still at home, he trained as a locksmith. Therefore, he was sent to a unit where people who knew the technique were needed. But a few months later, the guy asked to go to the border, and his request was granted.

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

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

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

“Dear Anastasia Zinovievna and Isai Pavlovich! Your son, Private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich, on March 2, 1969, died a heroic death while guarding and defending the state border of the USSR. The Command and Political Directorate of the Border Troops of the Soviet Union express their deep condolences to you. Your son's feat is a prime example selfless service to our great Soviet Motherland, to the cause of communism. Bright memory about your son, a faithful and courageous defender of the socialist Fatherland, will forever remain in the hearts of his fighting friends, border guards and the entire Soviet people.

Such a letter was received by Vladimir's parents from the command and political administration of the border troops of the USSR. Everyone adds their voice to the words of this letter. Soviet people, we will always be proud of the feat of our fellow countryman. There, at the outpost of Strelnikov, the soldiers still carry out their difficult service. And, every time, going on patrol, they come to the mass grave to take an oath of allegiance to the fallen comrades. And we know that the border is closed again, that the work of Vladimir Shusharin and his friends is reliably continued by other Soviet soldiers.

March 2, 1969 Chronicle of events

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

Alarm group of the 2nd frontier post at about. Damansky. Photograph by an unknown Chinese military photographer
Arriving at the place of violation of the border, the border guards split into two groups. The first, of 7 people under the command of Strelnikov, went to the Chinese soldiers who were standing on the ice of the river southwest of the island. The second group of 13 border guards, led by Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group, moving along the southern coast of the island.

The beginning of the armed provocation was captured by a military photographer, Private Nikolai Petrov, who photographed and filmed the events, recording the fact of border violations and the procedure for expelling violators. The Chinese soldiers took away a movie camera with them, but did not notice the camera, which Petrov, after taking the last picture, put it behind the lapel of his sheepskin coat...

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

The second picture clearly shows a chain of Chinese and three border guards walking towards them. On the right is the coast of Damansky Island: somewhere there, among the trees and bushes, a Chinese ambush lurked.

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

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

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

- Our chain stretched along the coast of the island. Pasha Akulov ran ahead, followed by Kolya Kolodkin, then the rest. Yegupov ran ahead of me, and then Shusharin. We were chasing the Chinese, who were leaving along the rampart towards the bush. There was an ambush. As soon as they jumped out onto the rampart, they saw three Chinese soldiers in camouflage suits below. They lay three meters from the rampart. At this time, shots were fired at Strelnikov's group. We opened fire in response. Several Chinese in the ambush were killed. Shot in long bursts...

March 2, 1969 11-25

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

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

I report the situation: the island is coming a battle… on Damansky Island a battle has been going on for about an hour. Strelnikov? Apparently, his outpost and he died ... Yes, I personnel 21 people are fighting ... Yes, a lot ... heavy fire from mortars, artillery ... automatic and machine-gun fire. Everything is on fire, my armored personnel carrier has been hit, there are dead and wounded... I can’t hear you... I can’t hear you...

The driver of the armored personnel carrier corporal A. Shamov takes the phone.

Comrade Major, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin is losing consciousness... yes, he is seriously wounded, covered in blood, burned... No, he seems to be alive... regaining consciousness.

Yes, I'm Bubenin, I'm listening to you ... Bring people out? No I can not. open place, they will put everyone, I will lose everyone. My reserve came up, I'm going into battle again. No, I can't, Major... I can't retreat, I'm going into battle, that's all... Farewell...

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

From the memoirs of Vitaly Bubenin: “I fought all the further battle on the subconscious, being in some other world. Having got out on the shore and sat in an armored personnel carrier, the fighters and I went to the rear of the enemy. In front of the car, the dumbfounded Chinese got up from under the snow one by one. Only then did we realize how many of them came to our souls ... For more than two hours of fighting, we circled around their positions, crushing and shooting. When, after the next round, we got to the other side, it turned out that four out of the entire outpost were left on their feet. We sent the dead and wounded to the outpost, silently embraced, stood for a while and went back towards the island. Everyone understood that he would not return from this battle.

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

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

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

A shell hole in the starboard side of the BTR-60 No. 04 of the 2nd frontier post

At the position of the Chinese battalion


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

March 2, 1969 12-00

From the memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov:

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

They broke branches, laid down the corpses and, standing up to their full height, went to their own. The soldiers dragged the bodies, and the officers and I fell a little behind - with machine guns and machine guns, we covered the retreat. So they left. The Chinese did not open fire ...

Junior Sergeant Alexander Skornyak recalls:

- We went out onto the ice, where the guys died, drove the GAZ-69 cars and started loading the bodies in twos, threes. Some of them were still warm, you see, only recently died from their wounds. You start to lift the guy, and he has a fountain of blood from his mouth. I still remember the smell of blood in the cold, the smell of death. The Chinese even mocked the dead - they stabbed with bayonets. The officers Buynevich and Strelnikov especially got it. The snow was red with blood. The Chinese carried away their dead during the retreat. But we found one of their soldiers between ours. He was dressed warmly, there was an AK-47 machine gun and a field telephone nearby ...

“Our people were tortured both alive and after death. They cut, smashed their heads ... - said Vladimir Grechukhin. - The Chinese dragged off the seriously wounded Komsomol organizer of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Corporal Pavel Akulov. I was at the time of the transfer of his body to relatives - the remnants of his hair are gray. Pavel's corpse was mutilated beyond recognition. And only the mother was able to identify her son by a mole on his index finger ...

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

From the report of the head of the medical service of the 57th border detachment, major of the medical service V.I. found that 19 of the wounded would have remained alive, because during the battle they received non-fatal wounds. But then, in a fascist way, they were finished off with knives, bayonets and rifle butts. This is irrefutably evidenced by cut, stab bayonet and gunshot wounds. They shot point-blank from one or two meters. From such a distance, Strelnikov and Buinevich were finished off.

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

The funeral of the dead at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost. March 6, 1969
Junior Sergeant Alexander Skornyak says:

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

Background to the conflict

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

Despite the fact that, according to earlier agreements, the entire Ussuri River and the islands located on it turned out to be Russian, this did not have any effect on Soviet-Chinese relations. Only in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, came into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), did the Chinese use the new border provisions as an excuse to revise the Soviet-Chinese borders.

The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the desire of the Chinese 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 the interstate conflict flared up. Further deterioration of relations between the two countries eventually led to an open armed confrontation on Damansky Island.

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

Historical reference.
Damansky Island in the late 60s territorially belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, bordering on Chinese province Heilongjiang. The removal of the island from the Soviet coast was about 500 m, from the Chinese - about 300 m. From south to north, Damansky is extended by 1500-1800 m, and its width reaches 600-700 m. The actual size of the island strongly depends on the season and the level of flood waters . It has no economic or military-strategic value.

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

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

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

TASS message

At 04:10 Moscow time, another 30 armed violators set off from the Chinese coast across the state border of the USSR to Damansky Island. A group of Soviet border guards led by the head of the outpost, Strelnikov, came to the place of violation of the border on the Ussuri ice.
As before, the border guards intended to protest against the Chinese about the violation of the border and expel them from the territory of the Soviet Union. Fire was opened on the Soviet border guards, and they were literally shot at point-blank range. Artillery and mortar fire was opened on another group of border guards from the Chinese coast.

Together with the reinforcements that arrived from the neighboring outpost, the Soviet border guards expelled the violators.
TASS, March 9, 1969

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

From the newspaper "Working Life". Kuibyshev NSO

Feat on Damansky Island

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

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

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

Maoist bandits were defeated and expelled from Soviet soil. But 29 Soviet soldiers and 2 officers died a heroic death in the battle for their homeland.

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

We were shown the helmets of our fallen fighters, new green helmets, shot through, with petals of torn metal. There was blood on the straps. It can be seen that the bullet went from top to bottom: they shot at the wounded border guards lying on the snow from the closest distance.

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

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

3
Helicopters one after another descended from the hill. From them, from the approaching cars, the mothers and fathers of the fallen fighters came out and ran along the snowy slope, flooded with a dazzlingly bright sun, to where they could hear the fading, then the growing sounds of the funeral march ...

Tightly pitched tent. Guard of honor with machine guns. The red color hits the eyes: the coffins lined with kumach stand in a row. And in them, frozen, beautiful, despite the terrible wounds, the faces of our soldiers.

Mothers run. They fall for one, for another. Not the one, not the one... There he is! And he falls dead on his son's body, kisses his wounds, grabs his hands, sobs inconsolably. And nearby - another, third ... We stand right there and, unable to hold back tears, listen, write down everything, as it was said here, how it escaped from the mother's heart.

“My son, my hope… What have they, the monsters, done to you… Yes, they cut you all over, stabbed you… You wrote to me that your forelock is growing, but they smashed your whole head…

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

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

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

The fallen soldiers are lying, and the workers from Iman, peasants from the surrounding villages, friends, comrades from Iman say goodbye to them. border service, officers, generals ... Smoke from a rifle salute flowed over the river. Wide mass grave motherland accepts them. The first handfuls hit the lids of the coffins. And Ussuri, white, bright, opened the wings of her sleeves over this sacred grave.

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

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

Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin:

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

Private Mikhail Putilov:

- During the battle, we see - two of our wounded are crawling in the snow. We go straight to them. They began to pick them up, and in our armored transporter the Chinese fired cannons. They pierced the "stern" - they wounded us. And the commander too. But we gave them the right amount too... I was lying by a tree, wounded, and I saw how the Chinese were carrying away the dead and wounded from the island, fleeing to their side...

Private Gennady Serebrov:

- I got hit by bullets right hand and leg. I lay there and saw how they committed atrocities on my wounded comrades - Shusharin and Yegupov. Killed them, you bastards...

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

“Young guys are coming to serve us. Such a young man puts on a soldier's overcoat, and you think: will he make a real warrior, a combat defender of the Motherland? In the battle on Damansky Island, ours were true heroes. And there is nothing surprising in this. After all, the guy was raised by his father and mother, school, Komsomol, Soviet power, our party. A wonderful Russian woman, Agniya Andreevna Strelnikova, raised ten children. Senior lieutenant Strelnikov was a talented commander. On May 9, on Victory Day, he would have turned thirty years old ... Strelnikov went to the island with fighters to reason with violators of the border, to demand that our Soviet land be cleared, as happened more than once before. And what about them?!.. They shot Strelnikov point-blank.

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

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

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

5
When the March clear day faded, relatives and friends, comrades of the fallen gathered for the feast. The father of Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, Ivan Matveevich, gets up. In the Patriotic War, he was a soldier, received 12 wounds.

“Only now we have buried our children,” he said. “I have other sons, and each of them would do the same as Ivan. I can't say more.

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

Says the father of Sergeant Nikolai Dergach - Timofey Nikitich.

“I turn fifty tomorrow. This is how things turned out... Mao killed my only son... Kolya was only twenty years old, he was just beginning to live... Now, in peacetime, I am a state farm worker. And in the Patriotic War I was an artilleryman. And, by the way, in the forty-fifth year, he came to China with his regiment to drive the Japanese out of Chinese soil. What does it get? We defeated the Kwantung Army of the Japanese imperialists in order to help the Chinese people. After 1949, plants and factories helped China build. And Mao executes real communists at home and swears at our Soviet land ... Apparently, his deeds are bad, the Chinese people do not believe him, and therefore he is looking for salvation in black robbery.

* * *
... We left the border in the evening. The sun was finishing its journey, gilding the snowy forests, the white hills, the hushed Ussuri and our Damansky Island crouching on its chest.

Here are the first stars in the sky. They will shine over mass grave. A little time will pass - an obelisk will rise here. And he, like an eternal sentry, will guard the dream of the heroes of Damansky.

Private Vladimir Shusharin

Memorial "Glory to the Fallen Heroes"

On the other side of the border

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

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

Courageously defending the island for 9 hours, the fighters and the people's militias withstood three enemy attacks. On March 17, the enemy, using several tanks, tractors and infantry, tried to pull out a tank that had been hit earlier by our troops. The hurricane return artillery fire of our artillery destroyed part of the enemy forces, the survivors retreated.

A commemorative bas-relief narrating the heroic deeds of soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) in March 1969

The book "Myths of Damansky"

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

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

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

Original taken from parker_111 in the Conflict on Damansky Island.1969

After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision appeared that the borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run along the middle of the main fairway of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the coasts, when such a border developed historically - by agreement or if one side colonized the other coast before the other began to colonize it.


In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect. Nevertheless, in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, came into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border provisions as an excuse to revise the Soviet -Chinese border.

The leadership of the USSR was ready to go for it, in 1964 a consultation was held on border issues, but ended to no avail.

In connection with ideological differences during the Cultural Revolution in China and after the Prague Spring of 1968, when the PRC authorities declared that the USSR had embarked on the path of "socialist imperialism", relations became especially aggravated.

Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Its dimensions are 1500-1800 m from north to south and 600-700 m from west to east (an area of ​​about 0.74 km²).

During the flood period, the island is completely hidden under water and does not represent any economic value.

Since the early 1960s, the situation around the island has been heating up. According to the statements of the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons.

At first, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing, declaring that they were on Chinese territory.

The number of such provocations increased dramatically: in 1960 there were 100 of them, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then the Red Guards began to attack border patrols.

The number of such events was in the thousands, each of them involved up to several hundred people.

On January 4, 1969, a Chinese provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island (Qiliqingdao) with the participation of 500 people.

According to the Chinese version of events, the Soviet border guards themselves staged provocations and beat up Chinese citizens who were engaged in economic activities where they always did it.

During the Kirkinsky incident, they used armored personnel carriers to oust civilians and crushed 4 of them, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single automatic shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.

However, it has been repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault they occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without the approval of the authorities. The assertion that the events around Damansky Island on March 2 and 15 were the result of an action carefully planned by the Chinese side is now the most widely spread; including directly or indirectly recognized by many Chinese historians.

For example, Li Danhui writes that in 1968-1969, the directives of the CPC Central Committee limited the response to Soviet provocations, only on January 25, 1969, it was allowed to plan "retaliatory military operations" near Damansky Island with the forces of three companies. On February 19, the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC agreed to this.

Events March 1-2 and the next week
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese military personnel in winter camouflage, armed with AK assault rifles and SKS carbines, crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western coast of the island.

The group remained unnoticed until 10:40, when a report was received from the observation post at the 2nd Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost of the 57th Imansky border detachment that a group of up to 30 armed people was moving in the direction of Damansky. 32 Soviet border guards, including the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, left for the scene in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and one BTR-60PB. At 11:10 they arrived at the southern tip of the island. The border guards under the command of Strelnikov were divided into two groups. The first group under the command of Strelnikov went to a group of Chinese servicemen who were standing on the ice southwest of the island.

The second group, under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group from the southern coast of the island. Strelnikov protested the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese troops leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese servicemen raised his hand, which served as a signal for the Chinese side to open fire on the groups of Strelnikov and Rabovich. The moment of the beginning of the armed provocation was captured on film by military photojournalist Private Nikolai Petrov. Strelnikov and the border guards following him died immediately, and a squad of border guards under the command of Sergeant Rabovich also died in a short-lived battle. Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the surviving border guards.

Having received a report about the shooting on the island, the head of the neighboring, 1st outpost of the Kulebyakiny Sopki, Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, drove out in the BTR-60PB and GAZ-69 with 20 fighters to help. In battle, Bubenin was wounded and sent an armored personnel carrier to the rear of the Chinese, skirting the northern tip of the island on the ice, but soon the armored personnel carrier was hit and Bubenin decided to go with his soldiers to the Soviet coast. Having reached the armored personnel carrier of the deceased Strelnikov and reseeded into it, the Bubenin group moved along the positions of the Chinese and destroyed their command post. They began to retreat.

In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured. The losses of the Chinese side (according to the KGB commission of the USSR) amounted to 247 people killed

At about 12:00 a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Iman border detachment and its chief, Colonel D.V. Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts. Reinforced detachments of border guards went to Damansky, and the 135th motorized rifle division of the Soviet Army was deployed in the rear with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment of 5,000 men was preparing for combat operations.

On March 3, a demonstration was held in Beijing near the Soviet embassy. On March 4, the Chinese newspapers "People's Daily" and "Jiefangjun Bao" (解放军报) published an editorial "Down with the new tsars!" invaded Zhenbaodao Island on the Wusulijiang River in our country's Heilongjiang Province, opened rifle and cannon fire on the border guards of the People's Liberation Army of China, killing and injuring many of them." On the same day, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article entitled “Shame on provocateurs!” According to the author of the article, “an armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border and headed for Damansky Island. On the Soviet border guards guarding this area, fire was suddenly opened from the Chinese side. There are dead and wounded." On March 7, the Chinese embassy in Moscow was picketed. The demonstrators also threw ink bottles at the building.

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



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

From 400 to 500 Chinese soldiers took up positions off the southern part of the island and prepared to go behind Yanshin's rear. Two armored personnel carriers of his group were hit, the connection was damaged. Four T-62 tanks under the command of D.V. Leonov attacked the Chinese at the southern tip of the island, but Leonov’s tank was hit (according to various versions, by a shot from an RPG-2 grenade launcher or blown up by an anti-tank mine), and Leonov himself was killed by a Chinese sniper when trying to leave a burning car.

The situation was aggravated by the fact that Leonov did not know the island and, as a result, the Soviet tanks came too close to the Chinese positions. However, at the cost of losses, the Chinese were not allowed to enter the island.

Two hours later, having used up ammunition, the Soviet border guards were still forced to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the forces brought into battle were not enough and the Chinese significantly outnumbered the border guards. At 17:00, in a critical situation, in violation of the instructions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU not to bring Soviet troops into conflict, on the orders of the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District Oleg Losik, fire was opened from secret at that time multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) "Grad".

The shells destroyed most of the material and technical resources of the Chinese group and the military, including reinforcements, mortars, and stacks of shells. At 17:10, motorized riflemen of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov went on the attack in order to finally crush the resistance of the Chinese troops. The Chinese began to withdraw from their positions. Around 19:00, several firing points “came to life”, after which three new attacks were made, but they were also repulsed.

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

In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed and died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers).

The irretrievable losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people. A memorial cemetery is located in Baoqing County, where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who died on March 2 and 15, 1969 are located. Information received from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.

For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Junior Sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.

Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: 3 - Orders of Lenin, 10 - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, 10 - Orders of Glory III degree, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit" .

Settlement and aftermath
The Soviet soldiers failed 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 ashore and now it stands in the Beijing Military Museum.

After the ice melted, the exit of Soviet border guards to Damansky was difficult and Chinese attempts to capture it had to be hindered by sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, a ceasefire was ordered, apparently to create a favorable background for negotiations that began the next day at the Beijing airport.

Damansky and Kirkinsky were immediately occupied by the Chinese armed forces.

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

On October 20, 1969, new negotiations were held between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC, and an agreement was reached on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Further, a series of negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, and in 1991 Damansky Island finally went to the PRC.