Kurile Islands. Dossier. History of the Kuril Islands. The Kuril Islands in the history of Russian-Japanese relations

A ridge of islands located between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido and separating the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. Includes a total of 56 islands. All of them are part of the Sakhalin region of Russia.

In 1786 the Kuril Islands were declared Russian territory. In 1855, under the terms of the Shimodsky Treaty, the South Kuriles - Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group of islands - were ceded to Japan, and in 1875 - under the terms of the Petersburg Treaty - Japan got the entire Kuril ridge in exchange for South Sakhalin. In 1945, all the islands finally became part of the USSR. The ownership of the South Kuriles is still disputed by the Japanese side.

The first steps in the development of the Kuriles

Before the appearance of the Russians and the Japanese, the Ainu lived on the islands. The etymology of the name of the archipelago goes back to the word "kuru", which in translation from the Ainu language meant "a person who came from nowhere."

The Japanese received the first information about the islands during an expedition to Hokkaido in 1635. In 1644, a map was drawn up, on which the Kuril Islands were designated as "a thousand islands." In 1643, the Dutch expedition of Moritz de Vries visited the archipelago. The Dutch made more accurate and detailed maps of the islands and their description, put Urup and Iturup on the map, but did not assign them to themselves. Today, the strait between these two islands bears the name of Friz.

In 1697, members of the expedition of Vladimir Atlasov to Kamchatka compiled a description of the Kuril Islands from the words of local residents, which later formed the basis of the first Russian map of the archipelago, compiled in 1700 by Semyon Remezov.

In 1711, a detachment of Ataman Danila Antsiferov and Yesaul Ivan Kozyrevsky visited the islands of Shumshu and Kunashir. On Shumshu, the Ainu tried to resist the Cossacks, but were defeated. In 1713 Kozyrevsky led the second expedition to the islands. On Paramushir, he again faced armed opposition from the local population, but this time repelled the attacks. For the first time in the history of the archipelago, its inhabitants recognized the power of Russia over themselves and paid yasak. From the local Ainu and the Japanese, Kozyrevsky learned about the existence of a number of other islands, and also established that the Japanese were forbidden to swim north of Hokkaido, and the inhabitants of the Urup and Iturup islands "live autocratically and are not subject to citizenship." The result of the second campaign of Kozyrevsky was the creation of the "Drawing Map of the Kamchadal Prow and Sea Islands", which for the first time depicted the Kuril Islands from Cape Lopatka in Kamchatka to the coast of Hokkaido. In 1719, the expedition of Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin visited the Kuril Islands, it reached the island of Simushir. In 1727, Catherine I approved the "Opinion of the Senate" on the need to "take possession of the islands lying off Kamchatka."

In 1738-1739, the expedition of Martyn Shpanberg proceeded along the entire Kuril ridge. After this expedition, a new map of the Kuriles was compiled, which in 1745 was included in the Atlas of the Russian Empire. In 1761, the Senate decree allowed free fishing of sea animals on the islands with the return of a tenth of the production to the treasury. During the second half of the 18th century, the Russians actively explored the Kuril Islands. Sailing to the southern islands was dangerous, so the Russians focused on the development of the northern islands, regularly collecting yasak from the local population. Those who did not want to pay yasak and went south were taken hostages from among close relatives - amanats. In 1749, the first school for teaching Ainu children appeared on the island of Shumshu, and in 1756, the church of St. Nicholas, the first on the islands of the ridge, appeared.

In 1766, the centurion Ivan Cherny went to the southern islands, who was instructed to attract the Ainu into citizenship without the use of violence and threats. The centurion ignored the decree and abused his powers, as a result of which in 1771 the indigenous population rebelled against the Russians. Unlike Ivan Cherny, the Siberian nobleman Antipov and translator Shabalin managed to win over the inhabitants of the Kuriles. In 1778-1779, they brought into citizenship more than one and a half thousand people from the islands of Iturup and Kunashir, as well as from the island of Hokkaido. In 1779, Catherine II issued a decree on the release of those who accepted Russian citizenship from all taxes.

In 1786, Japan organized the first expedition to explore the southern islands of the Kuril chain. The Japanese, led by Mogami Tokunai, established that the Russians had founded their settlements on the islands.

Kuril Islands at the endXVIII- middleXIX century

On December 22, 1786, Catherine II ordered the Collegium of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire to officially declare that the lands discovered in the Pacific Ocean, including the Kuril Archipelago, belong to the Russian crown. By this time, Russia fulfilled all three conditions necessary, in accordance with the then accepted international norms, for positioning the territory as its own: first discovery, first development and long-term continuous possession. In the "Extensive land description of the Russian state ..." of 1787, a list of islands that belonged to Russia was given. It included 21 islands up to Matsumae (Hokkaido). In 1787, a large-scale expedition of G.I. Mulovsky was supposed to visit the Kuriles, but because of the outbreak of wars with Turkey and Sweden, it had to be canceled.

In 1795, the campaign of G. I. Shelikhov founded the first permanent Russian settlement in the Kuriles in the southeast of Urup Island. Vasily Zvezdochetov became its manager.

In 1792, the southern islands of the ridge were visited by a new Japanese expedition, Mogami Tokunai, and in 1798, another expedition led by Mogami Tokunai and Kondo Juzo. In 1799, the Japanese government ordered to place outposts with constant protection on Kunashir and Iturup. In the same year, the Japanese authorities officially included the northern part of the island of Hokkaido into the state. In 1800, the first permanent Japanese settlement appeared on Iturup - Xian (now Kurilsk). In 1801, the Japanese attempted to take control of Urup Island, but were resisted by local Russian settlers. In 1802, an office for the colonization of the Kuril Islands was established in the city of Hakodate in the south of Hokkaido.

In 1805, N. P. Rezanov, a representative of the Russian-American campaign, arrived in Nagasaki as an envoy. He tried to resume negotiations with Japanese diplomats on the establishment of the Russian-Japanese border, but failed: Rezanov insisted that Japan did not claim any of the islands north of Hokkaido, while the Japanese demanded territorial concessions.

In May 1807, the Russian vessel "Juno" arrived at Iturup Island, accompanied by the tender "Avos" (commanders - N. A. Khvostov and G. I. Davydov, respectively). The landing on the island destroyed the Japanese settlements, including the large settlement of Xiang, and defeated the local Japanese garrison. Following Iturup, the Russians expelled the Japanese from Kunashir. The government sharply condemned the violent actions taken by Khvostov and Davydov: for "willfulness against the Japanese" they lost their awards for participating in the war against Sweden. In 1808, the Japanese restored the destroyed settlements and significantly increased their military presence in the southern islands. In 1811, the Kunashir garrison captured the crew of the Diana sloop, headed by the ship's commander, V. M. Golovnin. A year and a half later, after the official recognition by Russia of the "arbitrariness" of the actions of Khvostov and Davydov, the sailors were released, and the Japanese troops left Iturup and Kunashir.

In 1830, the Russian-American Company established a permanent Kuril Detachment with headquarters on Simushir Island. In 1845, Japan unilaterally declared sovereignty over the Kuriles and Sakhalin.

Shimodsky Treaty and the Treaty of Petersburg

In 1853, a Russian diplomatic mission headed by Admiral E. V. Putyatin arrived in Japan in order to establish diplomatic and trade relations with Japan. The Russian government believed that the border between the countries should run along the La Perouse Strait and the southern tip of the Kuril chain, and the Kuriles themselves, respectively, belong to Russia. Japan considered the possibility of agreeing to these conditions, but after the entry of the Russian Empire into the Crimean War and the complications of its international position, it demanded that the South Kuriles and South Sakhalin be included in Japan. Putyatin, who, as a last resort, was allowed by the "additional instruction" to agree to recognize the southern islands for Japan, was forced to do so. On January 26 (February 7), 1855, the first Russian-Japanese trade treaty, the Shimoda Treaty, was signed in Shimodo. According to this agreement, the border between the countries was drawn between the islands of Iturup and Urup.

On September 2, 1855, the British and French frigates Peak and Sibylla took possession of Urup Island. The settlement of the Russian-American campaign on the island was devastated, and he himself was proclaimed a joint Anglo-French possession.

The terms of the Shimoda treaty were confirmed by the Yeda Treaty of Trade and Navigation signed by Russia and Japan in 1858. In 1868, when the activities of the Russian-American campaign was terminated, the Kuril Islands were effectively abandoned. On April 25 (May 7), 1875, after the power of the Shogunate fell in Japan, and Emperor Mutsuhito (Meiji) came to power, Russia and Japan signed the Treaty of Petersburg. Under its terms, Russia ceded to Japan the rights to the central and northern parts of the Kuril ridge in exchange for renunciation of claims to the southern part of Sakhalin.

Kuril Islands as part of Japan, the USSR and the Russian Federation

When the territory of the Japanese Empire, the Kuril Islands were under the control of the governorate of Hokkaido. The Japanese administration laid roads and telegraph lines on the islands of Iturup (Etorofu) and Kunashir (Kunashiri), established postal communications, and opened post offices. Fishing was actively developing: in each settlement there was a fish supervision and a salmon breeding enterprise. By 1930, the population of Kunashir was approximately 8,300 people, Iturup - 6,300 people.

In February 1945, as part of the Yalta Conference, the Soviet government promised the United States and Great Britain to start a war with Japan on the condition that the USSR would receive the southern part of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. On August 9, 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan. On August 14, Emperor Hirohito issued a decree of surrender, but Japanese troops on Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands continued to resist. On August 18, Soviet forces launched the Kuril landing operation. By September 1, the islands of the Kuril archipelago were completely occupied by Soviet units. On September 2, Japan signed the act of surrender.

On February 2, 1946, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on the inclusion of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the RSFSR. For a short time, these territories formed the Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk region as part of the Khabarovsk Territory, and then, in 1947, they were merged with the Sakhalin Region and transferred to the direct subordination of the RSFSR. In the same year, the deportation of the Japanese and the few Ainu who remained on the islands was carried out.

On November 5, 1952, the coast of the Kuril Islands was badly damaged by a powerful tsunami. The most serious damage was inflicted on Paramushir: the city of Severo-Kurilsk was washed away by a giant wave. The tragedy was not advertised in the media.

The Kuril Islands in Japan's Relations with the USSR and the Russian Federation

On September 8, 1951, Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty, according to which it renounced all possessions outside the Japanese islands, including South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The USSR did not sign the treaty, refusing to participate in the conference until its completion. Because of this, Japan's refusal from the Kuril Islands was not officially recorded. In 1955, when Soviet-Japanese peace talks began in London, Japan - largely under US pressure - put forward claims to the Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai Islands. On October 19, 1956, in Moscow, the USSR and Japan signed a joint declaration, which stated the termination of the state of war between states, the restoration of peace and good neighborly relations, as well as the resumption of diplomatic relations. The terms of the agreement assumed the return of Shikotan Island and the Lesser Kuril Ridge (Habomai Islands) to Japan, but after the conclusion of a peace treaty. Already in 1960, the government of the USSR abandoned its previous intention and from then until 1991 considered the territorial issue with Japan finally resolved. Only on April 19, 1991, during a visit to Japan, M. S. Gorbachev admitted that there were territorial differences between the USSR and Japan.

In 1992, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation was preparing a visit by President Boris N. Yeltsin to Japan in order to negotiate the future of the South Kuriles. The trip, however, did not take place, largely due to the opposition of the deputies of the Supreme Council to the idea of ​​transferring part of the islands. On October 13, 1993, the President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Japan signed the Tokyo Declaration, and on November 13, 1998, the Moscow Declaration. Both documents stated that the parties should continue negotiations with a view to concluding a peace treaty as soon as possible and normalizing bilateral relations. The Moscow Declaration planned the conclusion of a peace treaty for the year 2000, but this never happened.

On July 3, 2009, the Japanese Parliament adopted an amendment to the law "On Special Measures to Help Solve the Problem of the Northern Territories", declaring Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and the Habomai Islands as Japan's "ancestral territories". The Federation Council protested about this. In November of the same year, the Japanese government called the southern islands of the ridge "illegally occupied" by Russia, which also led to a protest - this time from the Russian Foreign Ministry. In subsequent years, the Japanese side repeatedly protested against visits to the southern islands of the Kuril chain by high-ranking Russian officials and top officials of the state.

Russia may call into question fishing by Japanese fishermen in the South Kuriles in case of further violations of fishing rules by Japan, the Russian Foreign Ministry says.

The Kuril Islands are a chain of volcanic islands between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the island of Hokkaido (Japan), which separate the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. They consist of two parallel ridges of islands - the Greater Kuril and the Lesser Kuril. The first information about the Kuril Islands was reported by the Russian explorer V.V. Atlases.

In 1745 most of the Kuril Islands were plotted on the "General Map of the Russian Empire" in the Academic Atlas.

In the 70s of the XVIII century in the Kuriles there were permanent Russian settlements under the command of the Irkutsk tradesman Vasily Zvezdochetov. On the map of 1809, the Kuriles and Kamchatka were attributed to the Irkutsk province. In the 18th century, the peaceful colonization by Russians of Sakhalin, the Kuriles and the northeast of Hokkaido was basically completed.

In parallel with the development of the Kuriles by Russia, the Japanese were advancing to the Northern Kuriles. Reflecting the Japanese onslaught, Russia in 1795 built a fortified military camp on the island of Urup.

By 1804 in the Kuriles, a dual power actually developed: in the Northern Kurils, the influence of Russia was more strongly felt, in the South - of Japan. But formally, all the Kuriles still belonged to Russia.

February 7, 1855 The first Russian-Japanese treaty was signed - the Treatise on Trade and Borders. He proclaimed relations of peace and friendship between the two countries, opened three Japanese ports for Russian ships and established a border in the South Kuriles between the islands of Urup and Iturup.

In 1875 Russia signed the Russo-Japanese treaty, according to which it ceded 18 Kuril Islands to Japan. Japan, in turn, recognized the island of Sakhalin as wholly owned by Russia.

From 1875 to 1945 The Kuril Islands were under the control of Japan.

February 11, 1945 between the leaders of the Soviet Union, the USA and Great Britain - I. Stalin, F. Roosevelt, W. Churchill signed an agreement according to which, after the end of the war against Japan, the Kuril Islands should be transferred to the Soviet Union.

September 2, 1945 Japan signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender, accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of 1945, which limited its sovereignty to the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku and Hokkaido, as well as to the smaller islands of the Japanese archipelago. The islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai went to the Soviet Union.

February 2, 1946 By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuril Islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Khabomai were included in the USSR.

September 8, 1951 At an international conference in San Francisco, a peace treaty was concluded between Japan and 48 countries participating in the anti-fascist coalition, according to which Japan renounced all rights, titles and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The Soviet delegation did not sign this treaty, referring to the fact that it regards it as a separate agreement between the US and Japanese governments. From the point of view of treaty law, the question of the ownership of the South Kuriles remained uncertain. The Kuriles ceased to be Japanese, but did not become Soviet. Using this circumstance, Japan in 1955 presented the USSR with claims to all the Kuril Islands and the southern part of Sakhalin. As a result of two years of negotiations between the USSR and Japan, the positions of the parties drew closer: Japan limited its claims to the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup.

October 19, 1956 In Moscow, the Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan was signed on ending the state of war between the two states and restoring diplomatic and consular relations. In it, in particular, the Soviet government agreed to the transfer of Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan.

After conclusion in 1960 of the Japanese-American security treaty, the USSR annulled the obligations assumed by the 1956 declaration.

During the Cold War, Moscow did not recognize the existence of a territorial problem between the two countries. The presence of this problem was first recorded in the Joint Statement of 1991, signed following the visit of the President of the USSR to Tokyo.

The Japanese side makes claims to the southern Kuril Islands, motivating them with references to the Russian-Japanese Treaty on Trade and Borders of 1855, according to which these islands were recognized as Japanese, and also that these territories are not part of the Kuril Islands, from which Japan refused under the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1951.

In 1993 In Tokyo, the President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Japan signed the Tokyo Declaration on Russian-Japanese Relations, which recorded the agreement of the parties to continue negotiations with the aim of concluding a peace treaty as soon as possible by resolving the issue of ownership of the islands mentioned above.

In recent years, in order to create at the talks an atmosphere conducive to the search for mutually acceptable solutions, the parties have been paying great attention to establishing practical Russian-Japanese interaction and cooperation in the area of ​​the islands. One of the results of this work was the beginning of the implementation in September 1999 of an agreement on the most facilitated procedure for visiting the islands by their former residents from among Japanese citizens and members of their families. Cooperation is being carried out in the fishery sector on the basis of the current Russian-Japanese Agreement on fishing near the southern Kuriles dated February 21, 1998.

The position of the Russian side on the issue of border delimitation is that the southern Kuril Islands passed to our country as a result of the Second World War on a legal basis in accordance with the agreements of the allied powers (Yalta Agreement of February 11, 1945, Potsdam Declaration of July 26, 1945 G.). Reaffirming its commitment to the previously reached agreements on holding negotiations on a peace treaty, including the issue of border delimitation, the Russian side emphasizes that the solution to this problem should be mutually acceptable, not damage the sovereignty and national interests of Russia, and receive the support of the public and the parliaments of both countries.

The Kuril archipelago is a chain of 56 large and small islands of volcanic origin. They are part of the Sakhalin region and stretch from north to south from Kamchatka to the shores of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The largest of them are Iturup, Paramushir, Kunashir and Urup, only three are inhabited - Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan, and besides them there are many small islands and rocks that stretch for 1200 km.

The Kuril Islands are interesting, first of all, for their nature. Volcanoes (most of which are active), lakes, thermal springs, diverse landscapes and national parks - a real paradise for photographers and other lovers of beautiful views.

There is practically no infrastructure on the islands, with transport, hotels and catering here to this day everything is not easy, but the unique nature and landscapes compensate for all the inconveniences.

How to get there

It is difficult to get to the islands of the Kuril archipelago, but it is even more difficult to get out. All Kuril transport - airplanes and ferries - is tied to weather conditions, and they are far from always favorable in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. Flight delays are measured not in hours, but in days, so when planning travel, it is always worth laying in a few spare days for possible waiting.

Paramushir (Northern Kuriles) is reached from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky by boat or helicopter. The Yuzhno-Kuril Islands, which are more popular among tourists, come from Sakhalin - by plane from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk or by ferry from Korsakov.

By plane

Flights from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to Yuzhno-Kurilsk on Kunashir Island and to Kurilsk on Iturup Island are operated by Aurora Airlines. According to the schedule, planes depart every day, but in reality they depend on the weather. Travel time - 1 hour 20 minutes one way, ticket price - from 400 USD round trip. Keep in mind that tickets should be purchased in advance, as they are sometimes sold out months in advance. Prices on the page are for November 2018.

On a ferryboat

Ferry "Igor Farkhutdinov" from the port of Korsakov leaves according to the schedule twice a week to the islands of Kunashir, Shikotan and Itupur (this is the same route with several stops). The schedule is very approximate, so it is impossible to buy tickets online in advance, and the departure time varies from several hours to a day. Tickets are sold at the box office of the Korsakov port in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, it is no longer possible to buy them at the port itself.

You can buy a ticket only one way, return tickets are sold after sailing on the ship itself (you need to sign up for a purchase).

The ferry takes about 20 hours, the conditions there are not the most luxurious, but quite decent: four- and two-bed cabins, as well as deluxe cabins with private facilities, there is an inexpensive restaurant and bar on board (there prices are already higher), as well as a small library . Ticket price - from 2800 RUB per person.

When crossing from Sakhalin to Kunashir, it is usually very rocking, and many passengers complain of seasickness, so just in case, you should have motion sickness pills with you.

Obtaining an entry permit

To visit the Kuril Islands, you need a pass to the border zone, it is issued by the Sakhalin Coast Guard Department of the FSB in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The application can be submitted on working days in the morning from 9:30 to 10:30 (you only need a passport and a photocopy of it, which can be done on the spot), the next morning the pass will be ready, there are usually no problems with obtaining it.

If you try to come to the Kuriles without a pass, at least you will be fined (about 500 RUB), and at the maximum, you will be sent back to Sakhalin on the same flight.

The pass is issued only to the islands indicated in the application, so you need to indicate all the places you are going to visit.

Search for flights to the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (the nearest airport to the Kuril Islands)

Weather in the Kuril Islands

The most comfortable weather for traveling around the Kuril Islands is from mid-June to mid-September. In June and July, the least rains, and August is considered the hottest month by local standards - here it is about +15 ° С. The Southern Kuriles are consistently cooler than the northern ones, here in August it is about +10…+12 °С, and in the Northern Kuriles at the same time - up to +16…+18 °С due to warm currents.

September and October are the rainiest months in the Kuril archipelago, and the air temperature in October is about +8…+10 °C. Humidity in this region is quite high all year round.

In winter, in the south - frosts down to -25 ° С, in the north it is slightly warmer - up to -16 ... -18 ° С.

Kuril Islands Hotels

The tourist infrastructure on the Kuril Islands is not developed. There are several small hotels in Kunashir and one in Iturup. The total hotel stock is about 70 rooms, there are no large hotels, and all buildings are low-rise due to the high seismicity of the region.

It is not possible to reserve a room through popular online booking systems - these hotels are not presented there. You need to book directly by phone (online booking forms and even not every hotel has its own website) or through a travel agency.

The average cost of living is about 3000 RUB per day for a double room. The conditions are quite spartan, but the bed and bathroom are in the room.

Cuisine and restaurants

There are few cafes and restaurants on the Kuril Islands, they are all located in cities and usually at hotels. The restaurant in the House of Russian-Japanese Friendship in Yuzhno-Kurilsk is considered the best, where Japanese tourists often stop.

Also in cities and towns there are small cafes and shops where you can buy delicious seafood snacks: squid, octopus, etc. Prices for everything except fish and seafood are about 20-30% higher than on the mainland.

Entertainment and attractions

The main attraction of the Kuril archipelago is its amazing nature. This is a mountain range that rises from the depths of the ocean and shows only its peaks. There are about 40 active and many extinct volcanoes on the Kuril Islands, the highest of the active volcanoes is Alaid on Atlasov Island, 30 km from Paramushir Island in the Northern Kuriles. Its height is 2339 m and with its outlines and the correct shape of the cone, it resembles the Japanese Fuji volcano.

The island-volcano Chirinkotan is almost inaccessible due to the rocky shore, you can moor to it only by boat in one single place - at the highest cliff. The volcano is constantly smoking, and the island itself is notable for the fact that hundreds of birds gather here for bird markets.

In the northern part of the island of Iturup, you can see the White Rocks - the ridges of the porous structure of volcanic origin stretch for 28 km and are cut by picturesque canyons. The coast near the rocks is covered with white quartz and black titanomagnetite sand.

On the island of Kunashir, a warehouse of Japanese left boots has been partially preserved. In the Japanese army, the left and right boots were stored separately to prevent theft, and also so that the enemy could not use them if they found a warehouse.

Lakes and thermal springs

The lakes of the Kuril Islands are also famous for their beauty. Especially picturesque is the mountain lake Osen on the island of Onekotan. It is round in shape, the banks are framed by sheer 600-700-meter cliffs. On the island of Kunashir there is a boiling lake Ponto. The water here seethes, bubbling, jets of gas and steam whistle out near the shores.

On the slopes of the Baransky volcano there are unique thermal springs and reservoirs, and on a rocky plateau there is a whole geothermal station that generates electricity. There are geysers, lakes, sulfur streams and pools of boiling mud. The most famous hot lake is the "Emerald Eye", the temperature of which reaches 90 degrees. The Boiling River flows out of it with hot and acidic water, which in one place breaks off and falls from an 8-meter height in a hot waterfall.

The water in the sea around the islands is crystal clear, and the bottom is covered with vegetation, where fish and other marine life live. Divers will be interested here: in addition to marine life, at the bottom you can see sunken Japanese ships and other military equipment.

National parks

There are two national parks on the territory of the Kuril archipelago. The reserve "Small Kuriles" is located on several islands at once, mostly on Shikotan, and also part of the Pacific Ocean belongs to it. The reserve was established in 1982 to preserve the population of rare birds and animals, mainly marine ones. Seals, northern fur seals, gray dolphins, humpback whales and other animals live here.

In 2006, the Federal Target Program "Social and Economic Development of the Kuril Islands for 2007-2015" was adopted. The main goals of the program are to improve the living standards of the population, solve energy and transport problems, and develop fisheries and tourism. At the moment, the volume of FTP is 21 billion rubles. The total amount of funding for this program / including budgetary and non-budgetary sources / is almost 28 billion rubles. In the coming years, the main funds will be directed to the creation and development of a system of roads, airports and seaports. The main attention will be paid to such facilities as the Iturup airport, the sea terminal on Kunashir Island, the cargo-and-passenger complex in the Kitovy Bay on Iturup Island, and others. including 3 kindergartens in Kunashir, a hospital with a polyclinic in Iturup, a hospital in Shikotan, as well as a number of housing and communal services.

The Kuril Islands are a chain of islands between the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Japanese island of Hokkaido, separating the Sea of ​​Okhotsk from the Pacific Ocean. They are part of the Sakhalin region. Their length is about 1200 km. The total area is 10.5 thousand square meters. km. To the south of them is the state border of the Russian Federation with Japan. The islands form two parallel ridges: the Greater Kuril and the Lesser Kuril. Includes 30 large and many small islands. They are of great military-strategic and economic importance.

The territory of the North Kuril City District includes the islands of the Greater Kuril Ridge: Atlasova, Shumshu, Paramushir, Antsiferova, Makanrushi, Onekotan, Kharimkotan, Chirinkotan, Ekarma, Shiashkotan, Raikoke, Matua, Rasshua, Ushishir, Ketoi and all nearby small islands. The administrative center is the city of Severo-Kurilsk.

The Southern Kuril Islands include the islands of Iturup, Kunashir / belong to the Greater Kuril ridge /, Shikotan and the Habomai ridge / belong to the Lesser Kuril ridge /. Their total area is about 8.6 thousand square meters. km.

Iturup, located between the islands of Kunashir and Urup, is the largest island in the Kuril archipelago in terms of area. Area - 6725 sq. km. The population is about 6 thousand people. Administratively, Iturup is part of the Kuril City District. The center is the city of Kurilsk. The basis of the economy of the island is the fishing industry. In 2006, the most powerful fish factory in Russia "Reidovo" was launched on the island, processing 400 tons of fish per day. Iturup is the only place in Russia where a deposit of rhenium metal has been discovered; since 2006, gold deposits have been explored here. Burevestnik Airport is located on the island. In 2007, within the framework of the Federal Target Program, the construction of a new Iturup International Airport began here, which will become the main air harbor in the Kuriles. The runway is currently under construction.

Kunashir is the southernmost of the Kuril Islands. Area - 1495.24 sq. km. The population is about 8 thousand people. The center is the urban-type settlement of Yuzhno-Kurilsk /population 6.6 thousand people/. It is part of the South Kuril urban district. The main industry is fish processing. The entire territory of the island is a border zone. Civil and military transportation on the island is carried out by Mendeleevo Airport. For several years, reconstruction was carried out there in order to improve air communication between Kunashir and the neighboring islands of the Kuril chain, Sakhalin and other Russian regions. On May 3, 2012, permission was received to put the airport into operation. The work was carried out in accordance with the Federal target program "Socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands / Sakhalin region / for 2007-2015". As a result of the project, the airfield was reconstructed to receive An-24 aircraft, and the engineering support of the airport was brought to the requirements of the NGEA and FAP standards.

On Iturup and Kunashir, the only large formation of the Russian Armed Forces on the islands of the Kuril ridge is deployed - the 18th machine-gun-artillery division.

On the islands of Kunashir and Iturup, under the influence of the Kuril volcanic zone, volcanoes of various sizes stretch. Countless rivers, waterfalls, hot springs, lakes, meadows and bamboo thickets can be attractive for the development of tourism on the islands.

Shikotan is the largest island in the Lesser Ridge of the Kuril Islands. Area - 225 sq. km. The population is more than 2 thousand people. Included in the South Kuril urban district. Administrative center - with. Malokurilskoe. There is a hydrophysical observatory on the island, fishing and marine animal production are also developed here. Shikotan is partially located on the territory of the state nature reserve of federal significance "Small Kuriles". The island is separated by the South Kuril Strait from Kunashir Island.

Khabomai is a group of islands that, together with Shikotan Island, form the Lesser Kuril Ridge. The Habomai include the islands of Polonsky, Shards, Zeleny, Tanfiliev, Yuri, Demina, Anuchin and a number of small ones. Area - 100 sq. km. Included in the South Kuril urban district. The straits between the islands are shallow, filled with reefs and underwater rocks. There are no civilians on the islands - only Russian border guards.

Everyone knows about Japan's claims to the South Kuriles, but not everyone knows in detail the history of the Kuril Islands and their role in Russian-Japanese relations. This is what this article will be devoted to.

Everyone knows about Japan's claims to the South Kuriles, but not everyone knows in detail the history of the Kuril Islands and their role in Russian-Japanese relations. This is what this article will be devoted to.

Before turning to the history of the issue, it is worth explaining why the Southern Kuriles are so important for Russia *.
1. Strategic position. It is in the non-freezing deep-sea straits between the South Kuril Islands that submarines can enter the Pacific Ocean in a submerged position at any time of the year.
2. Iturup has the world's largest deposit of the rare metal rhenium, which is used in superalloys for space and aviation technology. World production of rhenium in 2006 amounted to 40 tons, while Kudryavy volcano emits 20 tons of rhenium every year. This is the only place in the world where rhenium is found in its pure form, and not in the form of impurities. 1 kg of rhenium, depending on the purity, costs from 1000 to 10 thousand dollars. There is no other rhenium deposit in Russia (in Soviet times, rhenium was mined in Kazakhstan).
3. The reserves of other mineral resources of the South Kuriles are: hydrocarbons - about 2 billion tons, gold and silver - 2 thousand tons, titanium - 40 million tons, iron - 270 million tons
4. The Southern Kuriles is one of 10 places in the world where, due to the turbulence of water due to the meeting of warm and cold sea currents, food for fish rises from the seabed. It attracts huge herds of fish. The cost of seafood produced here exceeds 4 billion dollars a year.

Let us briefly note the key dates of the 17th-18th centuries in Russian history associated with the Kuril Islands.

1654 or, according to other sources, 1667-1668- Sailing of a detachment led by Cossack Mikhail Stadukhin near the northern Kuril island of Alaid. In general, among the Europeans, the expedition of the Dutchman Martin Moritz de Vries was the first to visit the Kuriles in 1643, which mapped Iturup and Urup, but these islands were not assigned to Holland. Friz became so confused during his journey that he mistook Urup for the tip of the North American continent. The strait between Urup and Iturup now bears the name of de Vries.

1697 Siberian Cossack Vladimir Atlasov led an expedition to Kamchatka to conquer local tribes and tax them. The descriptions of the Kuril Islands he heard from the Kamchadals formed the basis of the earliest Russian map of the Kuriles, compiled by Semyon Remezov in 1700. 2

1710 the Yakut administration, guided by the instructions of Peter I “on finding the state of Japan and conducting trades with it,” instructs the Kamchatka clerks, “having done the courts, which are decent, for overflowing land and people on the sea with all sorts of measures, how it is possible to see through; and people will appear on that land, and those people of the great sovereign under the tsar’s highly autocratic hand again, as quickly as possible, by all means, according to local conditions, bring and collect yasak from them with great zeal, and make a special drawing for that land. 3

1711- A detachment led by ataman Danila Antsiferov and Yesaul Ivan Kozyrevsky examines the northern Kuril Islands - Shumshu and Kunashir 4 . The Ainu living on Shumshu tried to resist the Cossacks, but were defeated.

1713 Ivan Kozyrevsky leads the second expedition to the Kuril Islands. On Paramushir, the Ainu gave the Cossacks three battles, but were defeated. For the first time in the history of the Kuriles, their inhabitants paid yasak and recognized the power of Russia 5 . After this campaign, Kozyrevsky made a "Drawing map of the Kamchadal nose and sea islands." This map depicts the Kuril Islands for the first time from Cape Lopatka in Kamchatka to the Japanese island of Hokkaido. A description of the islands and the Ainu, the people who inhabited the Kuriles, is also attached to it. Moreover, in the descriptions attached to the final "drawing", Kozyrevsky also reported a number of information about Japan. In addition, he found out that the Japanese were forbidden to sail north of Hokkaido. And that "Iturups and Uruptsy live autocratically and not in citizenship." Also independent were the inhabitants of another large island of the Kuril chain - Kunashir 6 .

1727 Catherine I approves the "Opinion of the Senate" on the Eastern Islands. It pointed out the need to "take possession of the islands lying near Kamchatka, since those lands belong to Russian possession and are not subject to anyone. The Eastern Sea is warm, not icy ... and may in the future follow commerce with Japan or China Korea " 7 .

1738-1739- The Kamchatka expedition of Martyn Shpanberg took place, during which the entire ridge of the Kuril Islands was passed. For the first time in Russian history, contact with the Japanese took place on their territory - at the anchorage near the island of Honshu, sailors purchased food from local residents 8 . After this expedition, a map of the Kuriles was published, which in 1745 became part of the Atlas of the Russian Empire 9, which was published in Russian, French and Dutch. In the 18th century, when not all territories on the globe had yet been explored by European countries, the prevailing "international law" (which, however, applied only to European countries), gave the priority right to own "new lands" if the country had priority in publishing maps of the respective territories 10 .

1761 The Senate Decree of August 24 allows the free fishing of sea animals in the Kuriles with the return to the treasury of the 10th part of the production (PSZ-XV, 11315). During the second half of the 18th century, the Russians explored the Kuril Islands and created settlements on them. They existed on the islands of Shumshu, Paramushir, Simushir, Urup, Iturup, Kunashir 11 . Yasak is regularly collected from local residents.

1786 December 22 On December 22, 1786, the Collegium of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Empire was to officially declare that the lands discovered in the Pacific Ocean belonged to the Russian crown. The reason for the decree was "an attempt on the part of the English merchant industrialists on the production of trade and animal trade on the East Sea" 12 . In pursuance of the decree, a note was drawn up in the highest name about "the announcement through Russian ministers at the courts of all European maritime powers that these open lands by Russia cannot otherwise be recognized as belonging to your empire." Among the territories included in the Russian Empire was also "the ridge of the Kuril Islands, touching Japan, discovered by Captain Spanberg and Walton" 13 .

In 1836, the jurist and historian of international law Henry Wheaton published the classic work Fundamentals of International Law, which, among other things, dealt with the ownership of new lands. Wheaton singled out the following conditions for the acquisition by the state of the right to a new territory 14:

1. Discovery
2. First development-first occupation
3. Long-term uninterrupted possession of the territory

As you can see, by 1786 Russia had fulfilled all these three conditions in relation to the Kuriles. Russia was the first to publish a map of the territory, including in foreign languages, the first to establish its own settlements there and began to collect yasak from local residents, and its possession of the Kuriles was not interrupted.

Above, only Russian actions in relation to the Kuriles in the 17-18th century were described. Let's see what Japan has done in this direction.
Today, Hokkaido is the northernmost island in Japan. However, it was not always Japanese. The first Japanese colonists appeared on the southern coast of Hokkaido in the 16th century, but their settlement received administrative registration only in 1604, when the administration of the principality of Matsumae was established here (in Russia it was then called Matmai). The main population of Hokkaido at that time was the Ainu, the island was considered as a non-Japanese territory, and the principality of Matsumae (which did not occupy the whole of Hokkaido, but only its southern part) was considered "independent" from the central government. The principality was very small in number - by 1788 its population was only 26.5 thousand people 15 . Hokkaido became fully part of Japan only in 1869.
If Russia had more actively developed the Kuriles, then Russian settlements could have appeared on Hokkaido itself - it is known from documents that at least in 1778-1779 Russians collected yasak from the inhabitants of the northern coast of Hokkaido 16 .

Japanese historians, in order to assert their priority in the discovery of the Kuriles, point to the “Map of the Shoho period” dated 1644, on which the group of Habomai islands, the islands of Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup are indicated. However, it is unlikely that this map was compiled by the Japanese based on the results of the expedition to Iturup. Indeed, by that time, the successors of the Tokugawa shogun continued his course of isolating the country, and in 1636 a law was issued according to which the Japanese were forbidden to leave the country, as well as to build ships suitable for long-distance voyages. As the Japanese scholar Anatoly Koshkin writes, the “Map of the Shoho period” “is not so much a map in the true sense of the word, but a plan-scheme similar to a drawing, most likely made by one of the Japanese without personal acquaintance with the islands, according to the stories of the Ainu” 17 .

At the same time, the first attempts of the principality of Matsumae to arrange a Japanese trading post on the island of Kunashir closest to Hokkaido date back only to 1754, and in 1786 an official of the Japanese government, Tokunai Mogami, examined Iturup and Urup. Anatoly Koshkin notes that “neither the principality of Matsumae nor the central Japanese government, having official relations with any of the states, could legally put forward claims to “exercise sovereignty” over these territories. In addition, as documents and confessions of Japanese scientists testify, the government of the bakufu (the headquarters of the shogun) considered the Kuriles "foreign land." Therefore, the above actions of Japanese officials in the southern Kuriles can be regarded as arbitrariness perpetrated in the interests of seizing new possessions. Russia, in the absence of official claims to the Kuril Islands from other states, according to the then laws and according to generally accepted practice, included the newly discovered lands in its state, notifying the rest of the world about this. 18

The colonization of the Kuril Islands was complicated by two factors - the difficulty of supply and the general shortage of people in the Russian Far East. By 1786, a small village on the southwestern coast of about. Iturup, where three Russians and several Ainu, who had moved from Urup, settled 19 . The Japanese, who began to show an increased interest in the Kuriles, could not help but take advantage of this. In 1798, on the southern tip of Iturup Island, the Japanese knocked over Russian signposts and set up posts with the inscription: "Etorofu - the possession of Great Japan." In 1801, the Japanese landed on Urup and arbitrarily set up an index pole, on which an inscription of nine hieroglyphs was carved: "The island has belonged to Great Japan since ancient times." 20
In January 1799, small Japanese military units were posted in fortified camps at two points on Iturup: in the area of ​​the modern Good Start (Naibo) Bay and in the area of ​​the modern city of Kurilsk (Syana) 21 . The Russian colony on Urup languished, and in May 1806 Japanese envoys did not find any Russians on the island - there were only a few Ainu 22 .

Russia was interested in establishing trade with Japan, and on October 8, 1804, on the ship "Nadezhda" (participating in the round-the-world expedition of I.F. Kruzenshtern), the Russian ambassador, State Councilor Nikolai Rezanov, arrived in Nagasaki. The Japanese government was playing for time, and only six months later, on March 23, 1805, Rezanov managed to meet with the inspector of secret surveillance K. Toyama Rezanov. In an insulting form, the Japanese refused to trade with Russia. Most likely, this was due to the fact that the Western Europeans who were in Japan set up the Japanese government anti-Russian. For his part, Rezanov made a sharp statement: “I, the undersigned of the most eminent sovereign Emperor Alexander 1, the real chamberlain and cavalier Nikolai Rezanov, declare to the Japanese government: ... So that the Japanese empire does not extend its possessions beyond the northern tip of the island of Matmay, since all the lands and waters to north belong to my sovereign" 23

As for the anti-Russian sentiments that were fueled by Western Europeans, there is a very revealing story of Count Moritz-August Beniovsky, who was exiled to Kamchatka for participating in hostilities on the side of the Polish Confederates. There, in May 1771, together with the Confederates, he captured the St. Peter galliot and sailed for Japan. There he gave the Dutch several letters, which they in turn translated into Japanese and delivered to the Japanese authorities. One of them later became widely known as "Beniovsky's warning". Here it is:

“Highly respected and noble officers of the glorious Republic of the Netherlands!
The cruel fate that had carried me across the seas for a long time brought me a second time to Japanese waters. I went ashore in the hope that I might be able to meet Your Excellencies here and get your help. I am truly very sorry that I did not have the opportunity to talk with you personally, because I have important information that I wanted to tell you. The high respect that I have for your glorious state prompts me to inform you that this year two Russian galliots and one frigate, following a secret order, sailed around the coast of Japan and put their observations on the map, preparing for the attack on Matsuma and the islands adjacent to it, located at 41 ° 38' north latitude, to the offensive scheduled for the next year. For this purpose, on one of the Kuril Islands, which is closer than the others to Kamchatka, a fortress was built and shells, artillery and food depots were prepared.
If I could talk to you personally, I would tell more than what can be trusted to paper. Let Your Excellencies take such precautions as you deem necessary, but, as your fellow believer and zealous well-wisher of your glorious state, I would advise, if possible, to have a cruiser ready.
On this I will allow myself to introduce myself and remain, as follows below, your obedient servant.
Baron Aladar von Bengoro, army commander in captivity.
July 20, 1771, on the island of Usma.
P.S. I left a map of Kamchatka on the shore, which may be of use to you.”

There is not a word of truth in this document. “It is puzzling what purpose Beniovsky was pursuing by giving the Dutch such false information,” noted the American researcher Donald Keane. There can be no doubt about their unreliability. Far from having any aggressive intentions towards Japan, the Russians strained every effort to preserve their Pacific possessions... Beniovsky undoubtedly knew the real state of affairs, but the love of truth was never one of his virtues. Perhaps he hoped to curry favor with the Dutch by exposing to them the fictitious plot of the Russians.

However, let us return to Nikolai Rezanov. After unsuccessful negotiations in Japan, Rezanov went with an inspection to the Russian colonies on the northwestern coast of America and the Aleutian Islands.
From the Aleutian island of Unalashka, where one of the offices of the Russian-American Company was located, on July 18, 1805, he wrote letter 25 to Alexander I:

By strengthening the American institutions and building up the courts, we can also force the Japanese to open a market, which the people very much desire among them. I do not think that Your Majesty will be charged with a crime when I now have worthy employees, what Khvostov and Davydov are, and with the help of which, having built ships, I will set off next year to the Japanese shores to devastate their village on Matsmay, drive them out of Sakhalin and smash them along the shores fear, in order to take away fisheries, and deprive 200,000 people of food, the sooner to force them to open a bargain with us, to which they will be obliged. Meanwhile, I heard that they had already dared to establish a trading post on Urup. Your will, Most Merciful Sovereign, is with me, punish me as a criminal, that without waiting for a command, I get down to business; but my conscience will reproach me even more if I waste time and do not sacrifice Your glory, and especially when I see that I can contribute to the fulfillment of Your Imperial Majesty's great intentions.

So, Rezanov, in the interests of the state, under his own responsibility, made an important decision - to arrange a military operation against Japan. He instructed Lieutenant Nikolai Khvostov and midshipman Gavriil Davydov, who were in the service of the Russian-American Company, to lead it. For this, the Juno frigate and the Avos tender were transferred under their command. The task of the officers was to make a voyage to Sakhalin and the Kuriles and find out whether the Japanese, having penetrated these islands, were oppressing the Kurilians brought into Russian citizenship. If this information was confirmed, the officers were to "drive out" the Japanese. That is, it was about protecting the territories belonging to the Russian Empire from the illegal actions of the Japanese.

In South Sakhalin, which Khvostov and Davydov visited twice, they liquidated a Japanese settlement, burned two small ships, and captured several merchants from Matsumae. In addition, the local Ainu foreman Khvostov issued a letter of acceptance of the inhabitants of Sakhalin into Russian citizenship and under the protection of the Russian emperor. At the same time, Khvostov hoisted two Russian flags (RAC and state) on the shore of the bay and landed several sailors who founded a settlement that existed until 1847. In 1807, the Russian expedition liquidated the Japanese military settlement on Iturup. The captured Japanese were also released there, with the exception of two left as interpreters.
Through the released prisoners, Khvostov conveyed his demands to the Japanese authorities 27:

“Russia's neighborhood with Japan made us wish for friendly ties to the true well-being of this last empire, for which an embassy was sent to Nagasaki; but the rejection of it, insulting to Russia, and the spread of Japanese trade in the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin, as the possessions of the Russian Empire, forced this power to finally use other measures, which will show that the Russians can always harm Japanese trade until they are notified through the inhabitants of Urup or Sakhalin about the desire to trade with us. The Russians, having now caused so little harm to the Japanese empire, wanted to show them only through the fact that the northern countries of it can always be harmed by them, and that further stubbornness of the Japanese government can completely deprive it of these lands.

Characteristically, the Dutch, having translated Khvostov's ultimatum to the Japanese, added on their own behalf that the Russians were threatening to conquer Japan and send priests to convert the Japanese to Christianity.

Rezanov, who gave the order to Khvostov and Davydov, died in 1807, so he could not protect them from punishment for military actions that were not coordinated with the central government. In 1808, the Admiralty Board found Khvostov and Davydov guilty of unauthorized violation of government instructions on the purely peaceful development of relations with Japan and outrages against the Japanese. As a punishment, the awards to officers for the bravery and courage shown in the war with Sweden were annulled. It should be noted that the punishment is very lenient. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the Russian government understood the correctness of the actions of the officers who actually expelled the invaders from Russian territory, but could not but punish them because of the violation of instructions.
In 1811, Captain Vasily Golovnin, who landed on Kunashir to replenish water and food supplies, was captured by the Japanese along with a group of sailors. Golovnin was on a round-the-world voyage, on which he set off in 1807 from Kronstadt, and the purpose of the expedition, as he wrote in his memoirs, was “the discovery and inventory of the little-known lands of the eastern edge of the Russian Empire” 29 He was accused by the Japanese of violating the principles of self-isolation of the country and together with his comrades spent more than two years in captivity.
The government of the shogun also intended to use the incident with the capture of Golovnin to force the Russian authorities to formally apologize for Khvostov's and Davydov's raids on Sakhalin and the Kuriles. Instead of an apology, the governor of Irkutsk sent an explanation to the deputy of the shogun on Ezo Island that these officers had taken their actions without the consent of the Russian government. This was enough to free Golovnin and other prisoners.
The monopoly right to develop the Kuril Islands belonged to the Russian-American Company (RAC), established in 1799. Its main efforts were aimed at the colonization of Alaska, as a region much richer than the Kuriles. As a result, by the 1820s, the actual border in the Kuriles was established along the southern tip of Urup Island, on which there was a RAK 30 settlement.
This fact is confirmed by the decree of Alexander I of September 1, 1821 "On the limits of navigation and the order of coastal relations along the coasts of Eastern Siberia, North-West America and the Aleutian, Kuril Islands, etc." The first two paragraphs of this decree state (PSZ-XXVII, N28747):

1. The production of trade, whale and fishing, and any industry on the islands, in ports and bays, and in general throughout the entire Northwest coast of America, starting from the Bering Strait to 51 "North latitude, also along the Aleutian Islands and along the Eastern coast of Siberia; since along the Kuril Islands, that is, starting from the same Bering Strait to the Southern Cape of Urup Island, and precisely up to 45 "50" North latitude is provided for use by the only Russian citizen.

2. Accordingly, it is forbidden for any foreign ship not only to moor to the shores and islands subject to Russia, indicated in the previous article; but also to approach them at a distance of less than a hundred Italian miles. Anyone who violates this prohibition will be subject to confiscation with the entire cargo.

Nevertheless, as A.Yu. Plotnikov, Russia could still lay claim to, at least, Iturup Island, tk. Japanese settlements were only in the southern and central parts of the island, while the northern part remained uninhabited 31 .

Russia made the next attempt to establish trade with Japan in 1853. On July 25, 1853, the Russian ambassador Evfimy Putyatin arrived in the Land of the Rising Sun. As in the case with Rezanov, negotiations began only six months later, on January 3, 1854 (the Japanese wanted to get rid of Putyatin by starving him out). The question of trade with Japan was important for Russia, because the population of the Russian Far East was growing, and it was much cheaper to supply it from Japan than from Siberia. Naturally, during the negotiations, Putyatin also had to resolve the issue of territorial delimitation. On February 24, 1853, he received an "Additional Instruction" from the Russian Foreign Ministry. Here is an excerpt from it 32:

On this subject of boundaries, it is our desire to be as lenient as possible (without, however, betraying our interests), bearing in mind that the achievement of another goal - the benefits of trade - is of essential importance to us.

Of the Kuril Islands, the southernmost, belonging to Russia, is the island of Urup, to which we could confine ourselves, appointing it the last point of Russian possessions to the south, so that from our side the southern tip of this island was (as it is now in essence) the border with Japan, and that from the Japanese side the northern tip of Iturup Island was considered the border.

At the beginning of negotiations on the clarification of the border possessions of ours and the Japanese, the question of the island of Sakhalin seems to be important.

This island is of particular importance to us because it lies opposite the very mouth of the Amur. The power that will own this island will own the key to the Amur. The Japanese Government, no doubt, will firmly stand up for its rights, if not for the entire island, which it will be difficult for it to support with sufficient arguments, then at least for the southern part of the island: in Aniva Bay, the Japanese have fisheries that provide food for many to the inhabitants of their other islands, and for this circumstance alone they cannot but cherish the aforesaid point.

If, in negotiations with you, their Government shows compliance with our other demands - the demands regarding trade - then you can be compliant on the subject of the southern tip of Sakhalin Island, but this compliant should be limited to this, i.e. we can in no way recognize their rights to other parts of Sakhalin Island.

When explaining all this, it will be useful for you to point out to the Japanese Government that in the situation in which this island is located, if the Japanese cannot maintain their rights to it - rights that are not recognized by anyone - the said island can become in the very shortest time the prey of some strong maritime power, whose neighborhood will hardly be as profitable and safe for the Japanese as the neighborhood of Russia, whose disinterestedness they have experienced for centuries.

In general, it is desirable that you arrange this question about Sakhalin in accordance with the existing interests of Russia. If, however, you encounter insurmountable obstacles on the part of the Japanese Government to the recognition of our rights to Sakhalin, then it is better in this case to leave this matter in its current state ( those. undelimited - statehistory).

In general, in giving you these additional instructions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by no means prescribes them for indispensable execution, knowing full well that nothing unconditional and indispensable can be prescribed at such a distant distance.

Your Excellency is therefore left with complete freedom of action.

So, we see, this document recognizes that the actual border between Russia and Japan runs along the southern tip of Urup. Putyatin's main task is to at least reject Japan's claims to the whole of Sakhalin, and as a maximum - to force the Japanese to recognize it as completely Russian, because. This island is of strategic importance.
Putyatin, however, decided to go further and in his message to the Supreme Council of Japan dated November 18, 1853, he proposed to draw a border between Iturup and Kunashir. As A. Koshkin notes, the Japanese government, which at that moment was under pressure from the United States and Western European countries that wanted to open Japan for trade, was afraid that Russia might join them, and therefore did not exclude the possibility of a demarcation, along which all the islands, including the most southern - Kunashir, were recognized as Russian. In 1854, Japan compiled a "Map of the most important maritime boundaries of great Japan", on which its northern border was drawn along the northern coast of Hokkaido. Those. under favorable circumstances, Putyatin could return Iturup and Kunashir to Russia 33 .

However, the negotiations reached an impasse, and in January 1854 Putyatin decided to break them off and return to Russia to learn about the course of the Crimean War. This was important, because Anglo-French squadron also operated off the Pacific coast of Russia.
March 31, 1854 Japan signed a trade treaty with the United States. Putyatin again went to Japan in order to achieve for Russia the establishment of relations with Japan at a level no lower than with the United States.
The negotiations dragged on again, and on December 11, 1854, they were complicated by the fact that, as a result of the tsunami, the Diana frigate, on which Putyatin arrived (during his second arrival in Japan, he specially sailed on only one ship, so that the Japanese would not get the impression that Russia wants to demonstrate strength), crashed, the team ended up on the shore and the Russian ambassador was completely dependent on the Japanese. The negotiations were held in the city of Shimoda.

As a result of the intransigence of the Japanese on the issue of Sakhalin, Putyatin, for the sake of signing an agreement with Japan, went to the maximum compromise. On February 7, 1855, the Shimodsky Treaty was signed, according to which Sakhalin was recognized as undivided, and Russia recognized Japan's rights to Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup. Thus, the situation with the South Kuriles, which had de facto existed for many years, was officially recognized. However, since legally, these 4 islands were part of the Russian Empire, which was officially announced back in 1786, many historians of the Russian ambassador are now reproached for the fact that the South Kuriles were given to Japan without any compensation and that he should have defended to the end at least the largest of them is the island of Iturup 34 . Under the agreement, three Japanese ports were opened for trade with Russia - Nagasaki, Shimoda and Hakodate. In strict accordance with the Japanese-American treaty, the Russians in these ports received the right of extraterritoriality, i.e. they could not be judged in Japan.
To justify Putyatin, it is worth noting that the negotiations were conducted at a time when there was no telegraph connection between Japan and St. Petersburg, and he could not promptly consult with the government. And the way, both by sea and by land, from Japan to St. Petersburg, only in one direction, took a little less than a year. Under such conditions, Putyatin had to take full responsibility upon himself. From the moment he arrived in Japan until the signing of the Shimoda Treaty, the negotiations lasted 1.5 years, so it is clear that Putyatin really did not want to leave with nothing. And since the instructions he received gave him the opportunity to make concessions on the South Kuriles, he made them, after first trying to bargain for Iturup.

The problem of using Sakhalin, caused by the absence of a Russian-Japanese border on it, required a solution. On March 18, 1867, the "Temporary Agreement on Sakhalin Island" was signed, drawn up on the basis of the "Proposals for a Temporary Agreement on Cohabitation" of the Russian side. Under this agreement, both parties could move freely throughout the island and build buildings on it. This was a step forward, because earlier, although the island was considered undivided, the Russians did not use the southern part of Sakhalin, which the Japanese considered theirs. After this agreement, by order of the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia M. Korsakov, the Muravyevsky military post was founded in the vicinity of Busse Bay, which turned into a center for Russian development of South Sakhalin. It was the southernmost post on Sakhalin and was located well south of the Japanese posts 35 .
The Japanese at that time did not have the opportunity to develop Sakhalin as actively, so this agreement was more beneficial for Russia than for Japan.

Russia sought to solve the problem of Sakhalin finally and completely get it into its possession. For this, the tsarist government was ready to cede part of the Kuril Islands.

The Russian Foreign Ministry authorized the military governor A.E. Crown and E.K. Byutsov, appointed Russian chargé d'affaires in China, to continue negotiations on Sakhalin. Instructions were prepared for them. Butsov was instructed to convince the Japanese Foreign Ministry to send their representatives to Nikolaevsk or Vladivostok to finally resolve the issue of Sakhalin on the basis of establishing a border along the La Perouse Strait, exchanging Sakhalin for Urup with adjacent islands, and preserving the rights of the Japanese to fisheries.
Negotiations began in July 1872. The Japanese government declared that the cession of Sakhalin would be perceived by the Japanese people and foreign states as Japan's weakness and that Urup with the adjacent islands would be insufficient compensation 35 .
The negotiations that began in Japan were difficult and intermittent. They resumed in the summer of 1874 already in St. Petersburg, when Enomoto Takeaki, one of the most educated people of Japan at that time, arrived in the Russian capital in the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

On March 4, 1875, Enomoto spoke for the first time about giving up Sakhalin in exchange for compensation in the form of all the Kuril Islands, from Japan to Kamchatka 36 . At that time, the situation in the Balkans was aggravated, the war with Turkey (which, like during the Crimean War, England and France could again support) became more and more real, and Russia was interested in solving the Far Eastern problems as soon as possible, incl. Sakhalin.

Unfortunately, the Russian government did not show due perseverance and did not appreciate the strategic importance of the Kuril Islands, which closed the exit to the Pacific Ocean from the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and agreed to the demands of the Japanese. On April 25 (May 7), 1875, in St. Petersburg, Alexander Mikhailovich Gorchakov on the part of Russia and Enomoto Takeaki on the part of Japan signed an agreement under which Japan renounced its rights to Sakhalin in exchange for the cession of all the Kuril Islands by Russia. Also, under this agreement, Russia allowed Japanese ships to visit the port of Korsakov in South Sakhalin, where the Japanese consulate was established, for 10 years without paying trade and customs duties. Japanese ships, merchants and fishermen were granted the most favored nation treatment in the ports and waters of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk and Kamchatka 36 .

This agreement is often called an exchange agreement, but in fact we are not talking about the exchange of territories, because. Japan did not have a strong presence on Sakhalin and no real opportunities to keep it - the waiver of rights to Sakhalin became a mere formality. In fact, we can say that the 1875 treaty fixed the surrender of the Kuriles without any real compensation.

The next point in the history of the Kuril issue is the Russo-Japanese war. Russia lost this war and, under the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905, ceded to Japan the southern part of Sakhalin along the 50th parallel.

This treaty has such an important legal significance that it actually terminated the treaty of 1875. After all, the meaning of the "exchange" treaty was that Japan renounced the rights to Sakhalin in exchange for the Kuriles. At the same time, at the initiative of the Japanese side, a condition was included in the protocols of the Portsmouth Treaty that all previous Russian-Japanese agreements were annulled. Thus, Japan deprived itself of the legal right to own the Kuril Islands.

The Treaty of 1875, which the Japanese side regularly refers to in disputes about the ownership of the Kuriles, after 1905 became just a historical monument, and not a legally binding document. It would not be superfluous to recall that by attacking Russia, Japan also violated paragraph 1 of the Shimodsky Treaty of 1855 - "From now on, let there be permanent peace and sincere friendship between Russia and Japan."

The next key point is World War II. On April 13, 1941, the USSR signed a neutrality pact with Japan. It was concluded for 5 years from the date of ratification: from April 25, 1941 to April 25, 1946. According to this pact, it could be denounced a year before the expiration of the period.
The United States was interested in the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan in order to accelerate its defeat. Stalin, as a condition, put forward the demand that after the victory over Japan, the Kuriles and South Sakhalin would pass to the Soviet Union. Not everyone in the American leadership agreed with these demands, but Roosevelt agreed. The reason, apparently, was his sincere concern that after the end of World War II, the USSR and the USA would maintain good relations achieved in the course of military cooperation.
The transfer of the Kuriles and South Sakhalin was recorded in the Yalta Agreement of the Three Great Powers on the Far East on February 11, 1945. 37 It is worth noting that paragraph 3 of the agreement reads as follows:

The leaders of the three great powers - the Soviet Union, the United States of America and Great Britain - agreed that two or three months after the surrender of Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan on the side of the Allies, on the condition that:
…
3. Transfer to the Soviet Union of the Kuril Islands.

Those. we are talking about the transfer of all the Kuril Islands without exception, incl. Kunashir and Iturup, who were ceded to Japan under the Shimoda Treaty of 1855.

On April 5, 1945, the USSR denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact, and on August 8 declared war on Japan.

On September 2, the act of surrender of Japan was signed. South Sakhalin with the Kuriles went to the USSR. However, after the act of surrender, it was still necessary to conclude a peace treaty, in which new borders would be fixed.
Franklin Roosevelt, who was kind to the USSR, died on April 12, 1945, and was replaced by the anti-Soviet Truman. On October 26, 1950, American considerations on concluding a peace treaty with Japan were handed over to the Soviet representative in the UN in order to get acquainted. In addition to details unpleasant for the USSR, such as the retention of American troops on Japanese territory for an indefinite period, they revised the Yalta agreement, according to which South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands passed to the USSR 38 .
In fact, the United States decided to remove the USSR from the process of negotiating a peace treaty with Japan. In September 1951, a conference was to be held in San Francisco, at which a peace treaty between Japan and the allies was to be signed, but the United States did everything so that the USSR considered it impossible for itself to participate in the conference (in particular, they did not receive invitations to the conference PRC, North Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam, which the USSR insisted on and what was fundamental for it) - then a separate peace treaty would have been concluded with Japan in its American formulation without taking into account the interests of the Soviet Union.

However, these calculations of the Americans did not materialize. The USSR decided to use the San Francisco conference to expose the separate nature of the treaty.
Among the amendments to the draft peace treaty proposed by the Soviet delegation were the following 39:

Paragraph "c" shall be stated in the following wording:
"Japan recognizes the full sovereignty of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics over the southern part of Sakhalin Island with all the islands adjacent to it and the Kuril Islands and renounces all rights, titles and claims to these territories."
According to article 3.
Rewrite the article as follows:
"Japanese sovereignty will extend to the territory consisting of the islands of Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, as well as Ryukyu, Bonin, Rosario, Volcano, Pares Vela, Marcus, Tsushima and other islands that were part of Japan before December 7, 1941, with the exception of those territories and islands referred to in Art. 2".

These amendments were rejected, but the US could not ignore the Yalta agreements at all. The text of the treaty included a provision stating that "Japan renounces all rights, titles and claims to the Kuril Islands and to that part of Sakhalin Island and the islands adjacent to it, sovereignty over which Japan acquired under the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905." 40. From a philistine point of view, it may seem that this is the same as the Soviet amendments. From a legal point of view, the situation is different - Japan renounces claims to the Kuriles and South Sakhalin, but does not recognize the sovereignty of the USSR over these territories. With this wording, the agreement was signed on September 8, 1951 between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan. Representatives of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Poland, who participated in the conference, refused to sign it.

Modern Japanese historians and politicians differ in their assessments of Japan's renunciation of South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands contained in the text of the peace treaty. Some demand the cancellation of this clause of the treaty and the return of all the Kuril Islands up to Kamchatka. Others are trying to prove that the South Kuril Islands (Kunashir, Iturup, Khabomai and Shikotan) are not included in the concept of the "Kuril Islands", which Japan refused in the San Francisco Treaty. The latter circumstance is refuted both by the established cartographic practice, when the entire group of islands - from Kunashir to Shumshu on maps is called the Kuril Islands, and by the texts of Russian-Japanese negotiations on this issue. Here, for example, is an excerpt from Putyatin's talks with Japanese representatives in January 1854. 41

« Putyatin: The Kuril Islands have belonged to us for a long time, and now Russian chiefs are on them. The Russian-American Company annually sends ships to Urup to buy furs, etc., and Russians had their settlement on Iturup even before, but since it is now occupied by the Japanese, we have to talk about it.

Japanese side: We considered all Kuril Islands have long belonged to Japan, but since most of of them passed one by one to you, then there is nothing to say about these islands. Iturup but it was always considered ours and we considered it a matter settled, as well as the island of Sakhalin or Krafto, although we do not know how far the latter extends to the north ... "

From this dialogue it can be seen that the Japanese in 1854 did not divide the Kuriles into "Northern" and "South" - and recognized Russia's right to most of the islands of the archipelago, with the exception of some of them, in particular, Iturup. Fun fact - the Japanese claimed that the whole of Sakhalin belonged to them, but they did not have its geographical map. By the way, using a similar argument, Russia could lay claim to Hokkaido on the grounds that in 1811 V.M. Golovnin in his "Remarks on the Kuril Islands" ranked Fr. Matsmai, i.e. Hokkaido, to the Kuriles. Moreover, as noted above, at least in 1778-1779, Russians collected yasak from the inhabitants of the northern coast of Hokkaido.

The unsettled relations with Japan hindered the establishment of trade, the resolution of issues in the field of fisheries, and also contributed to the involvement of this country in the anti-Soviet policy of the United States. At the beginning of 1955, the USSR representative in Japan turned to Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu with a proposal to start negotiations on the normalization of Soviet-Japanese relations. On June 3, 1955, Soviet-Japanese negotiations began in the building of the Soviet embassy in London. The Japanese delegation, as a condition for concluding a peace treaty, put forward obviously unacceptable demands - for "the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, the Chisima archipelago (Kuril Islands) and the southern part of Karafuto Island (Sakhalin)".

In fact, the Japanese understood the impossibility of these conditions. The secret instruction of the Japanese Foreign Ministry provided for three stages of putting forward territorial demands: “First, demand the transfer of all the Kuril Islands to Japan, with the expectation of further discussion; then, retreating somewhat, seek the cession of the southern Kuril Islands to Japan for "historical reasons", and, finally, insist on at least the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, making this demand an indispensable condition for the successful completion of negotiations.
The fact that Habomai and Shikotan were the ultimate goal of diplomatic bargaining was repeatedly said by the Japanese Prime Minister himself. So, during a conversation with a Soviet representative in January 1955, Hatoyama stated that "Japan will insist during negotiations on the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to her." There was no talk of any other territories 42 .

Such a "soft" position of Japan did not suit the United States. Thus, it was precisely for this reason that in March 1955 the American government refused to receive the Japanese Foreign Minister in Washington.

Khrushchev was ready to make concessions. On August 9, in London, during an informal conversation, the head of the Soviet delegation, A.Ya. Malik (during the war years he was the USSR ambassador to Japan, and then, in the rank of deputy foreign minister, the representative of the Soviet Union to the UN) suggested that the Japanese diplomat in the rank after Shun'ichi Matsumoto transfer the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, but only after the signing of a peace treaty.
Here is the assessment of this initiative by one of the members of the Soviet delegation at the London talks, later Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences S.L. Tikhvinsky43:

"I. A. Malik, acutely experiencing Khrushchev’s dissatisfaction with the slow progress of the negotiations and without consulting with the rest of the delegation members, prematurely expressed in this conversation with Matsumoto the spare position without exhausting the defense of the main position in the negotiations. His statement caused at first bewilderment, and then joy and further exorbitant demands on the part of the Japanese delegation ... N. S. Khrushchev's decision to renounce sovereignty over part of the Kuril Islands in favor of Japan was a rash, voluntaristic act ... The cession to Japan of part of the Soviet territory, which, without permission Khrushchev went to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Soviet people, destroyed the international legal basis of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements and contradicted the San Francisco Peace Treaty, which recorded the refusal of Japan from South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands ... "

As this quote makes clear, the Japanese perceived Malik's initiative as a weakness and put forward other territorial demands. The negotiations have ceased. This suited the US as well. In October 1955, J. Dulles, in a note to the Japanese government, warned that the expansion of economic ties and the normalization of relations with the USSR "may become an obstacle to the implementation of the US government's assistance program to Japan."

Inside Japan, fishermen were primarily interested in concluding a peace treaty, who needed to obtain licenses to fish in the Kuriles. This process was greatly hampered by the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, which, in turn, was due to the absence of a peace treaty. Negotiations resumed. The United States exerted serious pressure on the Japanese government. So, on September 7, 1956, the State Department sent a memorandum to the Japanese government stating that the United States would not recognize any decision confirming the sovereignty of the USSR over the territories that Japan had renounced under the peace treaty.

As a result of difficult negotiations, on October 19, the Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan was signed. It proclaimed the end of the state of war between the USSR and Japan, the restoration of diplomatic relations. Paragraph 9 of the declaration read 44:

9. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan agreed to continue negotiations on the conclusion of a peace treaty after the restoration of normal diplomatic relations between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan.
At the same time, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, meeting the wishes of Japan and taking into account the interests of the Japanese state, agrees to the transfer of the Habomai Islands and the Shikotan Islands to Japan, however, that the actual transfer of these islands to Japan will be made after the conclusion of a peace treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Japan .

However, as we know, the signing of the peace treaty never took place. Japanese Prime Minister Hatoyama Ichiro, who signed the Declaration, resigned, and the new cabinet was headed by Kishi Nobusuke, an openly pro-American politician. Back in August 1956, the Americans openly proclaimed through Secretary of State Allen Dulles that if the Japanese government recognizes the Kuril Islands as Soviet, the United States will forever retain the island of Okinawa and the entire Ryukyu archipelago, which were then under American control.

On January 19, 1960, Japan signed the US-Japan Interoperability and Security Treaty with the United States, according to which the Japanese authorities allowed the Americans to use military bases on their territory for the next 10 years, to maintain ground, air and naval forces there. . On January 27, 1960, the USSR government announced that since this agreement was directed against the USSR and the PRC, the Soviet government refused to consider the transfer of the islands to Japan, since this would lead to an expansion of the territory used by American troops.

Now Japan claims not only Shikotan and Habomai, but also Iturup and Kunashir, referring to the bilateral Treatise on Trade and Borders of 1855 - therefore, signing a peace treaty based on the 1956 declaration is impossible. However, if Japan abandoned its claim to Iturup and Kunashir and signed a peace treaty, would Russia have to fulfill the terms of the Declaration and give up Shikotan and Khabomai? Let's consider this question in more detail.

On April 13, 1976, the United States unilaterally passed the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, according to which, effective March 1, 1977, they moved the border of their fishing zone from 12 to 200 nautical miles from the coast, establishing strict rules for access to it by foreign fishermen. Following the United States in 1976, by adopting relevant laws, the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Canada, Australia and a number of other countries, including developing ones, unilaterally established 200-mile fishing or economic zones.
In the same year, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of December 10 “On temporary measures for the conservation of living resources and the regulation of fisheries in the sea areas adjacent to the coast of the USSR”, the Soviet Union also established sovereign rights over fish and other biological resources in its 200-mile coastal zone 46 .
New realities were fixed in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. The concept of an "exclusive economic zone" was introduced, the width of which should not exceed 200 nautical miles. Article 55 of the convention provides that a coastal state in the exclusive economic zone has “sovereign rights for the purpose of exploration, exploitation and conservation of natural resources, both living and non-living, in the waters covering the seabed, on the seabed and in its subsoil, as well as in for the management of these resources, and in relation to other economic exploration and exploitation activities of the said zone, such as the production of energy through the use of water, currents and wind.” At the same time, it exercises jurisdiction in this zone in relation to “the creation and use of artificial islands, installations and structures; marine scientific research; protection and conservation of the marine environment” 47 .

Earlier, in 1969, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties was adopted.
Article 62 "Radical change of circumstances" of this convention reads (emphasis in bold is ours) 48:

1. A fundamental change that occurred in relation to the circumstances that existed at the conclusion of the contract, and which was not foreseen by the parties, cannot be referred to as a basis for terminating the contract or withdrawing from it, except when:
a) the existence of such circumstances constituted an essential basis for the consent of the parties to be bound by the treaty; And
b) the consequence of a change in circumstances fundamentally changes the scope of obligations still to be performed under the contract.
2. A fundamental change in circumstances cannot be invoked as grounds for terminating or withdrawing from a treaty:
A) if the treaty establishes a boundary; or
b) if such a fundamental change, to which a party to the treaty refers, is the result of a violation by that party of either an obligation under the treaty or another international obligation assumed by it in relation to any other party to the treaty.
3. If, in accordance with the preceding paragraphs, the parties are entitled to invoke a fundamental change in circumstances as a ground for terminating or withdrawing from a treaty, he may also invoke that change as a ground for suspending the operation of the treaty.

The introduction of the 200-mile economic zone is a circumstance that fundamentally changes the scope of commitments. It is one thing to transfer the islands when there was no talk of any 200-mile exclusive zone, and quite another thing when this zone appeared. However, can it be considered that the 1956 declaration falls under paragraph 2a, i.e. under the boundary? The declaration refers to sovereignty over land areas, while the border between maritime states runs along the sea. After the transfer of the islands to Japan, an additional agreement would be required to determine the maritime border.
Thus, it can be argued that the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which was signed by both the USSR and Japan, is a fundamental change that falls under paragraph 1b of Article 62 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Those. Russia is not obliged to comply with the terms of the 1956 Declaration on the transfer of Habomai and Shikotan, if suddenly Japan agreed to sign a peace treaty.

On November 14, 2004, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, on the air of the NTV channel, made a statement that Russia recognizes the 1956 Declaration "as existing."
The next day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is always ready to fulfill its obligations, especially with regard to ratified documents. But these obligations will be fulfilled "only to the extent that our partners are ready to fulfill the same agreements."
On May 24, 2005, deputies of the Sakhalin Regional Duma published an open appeal to Sergey Lavrov before his trip to Japan, where they pointed out that the 1956 Declaration was no longer binding:

“However, in 1956 there were no internationally recognized 200-mile economic zones, the starting point of which is, in this case, the coast of the Kuril Islands. Thus, now in the case of the transfer of territories, the object of transfer is not only and not only the islands, but also the adjacent economic zones that are inseparable from them, which only produce smuggled seafood worth up to 1 billion US dollars a year. Isn't the emergence of maritime economic zones in the world after 1956 a significant change in the situation?

Summarizing, we briefly note the main points.

1. The Portsmouth Treaty of 1905 annulls the 1875 treaty, so references to it as a legal document are not valid. The reference to the Shimodsky treatise of 1855 is irrelevant, because Japan violated this treaty by attacking Russia in 1904.
2. The transfer of South Sakhalin and the Kuriles to the Soviet Union is fixed in the Yalta Agreement of February 11, 1945. The return of these territories can be considered both as a restoration of historical justice and as a legitimate military trophy. This is a completely normal practice, which has a huge number of examples in history.
3. Japan may not recognize Russia's sovereignty over these territories, but it also has no legal rights to them - its refusal to claim South Sakhalin and the Kuriles is recorded in the peace treaty signed in San Francisco in 1951.
4. The Japanese indications that Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup are not part of the Kuril Islands (and, therefore, are not subject to the 1951 treaty) do not correspond to either geographical science or the history of previous Russian-Japanese negotiations.
5. After signing the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and legalizing the 200-mile exclusive zone in international law, following the 1956 Declaration becomes optional for Russia. Its possible implementation today, as Putin and Lavrov announced, is not an obligation, but a gesture of goodwill.
6. The Southern Kuriles are of great strategic and economic importance, so there can be no question that these are just pieces of land that you don’t feel sorry for.
7. The Kuril Islands - from Alaid to Kunashir and Habomai - Russian land.

* Anatoly Koshkin. Russia and Japan. Knots of contradictions. M.: Veche, 2010. S. 405-406.