Do people live there in the Kuril Islands? Moving to the northern and southern Kuriles for permanent residence. Kuril Islands on the map of Russia

Hi all! If I don’t continue the stories about the Great Kuril Adventure of this season right now, then I won’t have time to finish telling them before the start of the next season :) Therefore, we are now making a small swim 50 kilometers southwest of Broughton Bay along the east coast of Simushir (30 kilometers in a straight line) - and we arrive to inspect and contemplate the Zavaritsky volcano, […]

October 11, 2019

And I return to the coverage of the Great Kuril Adventure-2019. Let me remind you that we said goodbye to the island of Simushir and moved further to the south-west along the vector of our movement. The next islands in this direction will be 1) the unremarkable Broughton Island (like the bay of the same name, named after the British navigator and explorer William Broughton); and 2) a couple of small islands with rather remarkable names. Both islands together […]

October 9, 2019

If you are in Lebanon, do not miss the absolutely magical Jeita Grotto Caves, which are located just half an hour from the center of Beirut. Two caves. The upper one is with huge halls and dry, the lower one is smaller in size, but longer (about 2 and 7 km) and a late river flows through it. It all looks like this. Upper cave:

October 7, 2019

Surely, for most of you, the Beirut brand will cause not the most positive cognitions. Unfortunately, there are quite objective reasons for this. Everything is very simple. There has been a war here for a very long time. Which, as the rock classic says, is "a war without special reasons ...". And there are different opinions on this matter, I don’t want to get into these stories […]

October 7, 2019

I continue the historical and archaeological branch of stories from Lebanon. Moreover, there is something to see here on this topic. It is here, after all, that several of the oldest cities in the world stand, and one of them is Byblos (or Byblos). How old he really is is not known for certain. But the Internet lies, they say that people lived here already 9 thousand years ago! Local […]

From Moscow to the disputed Kuril Islands 9500 kilometers. "GoogleMaps” pessimistically states: “you won’t be able to walk and drive here” and “public transport doesn’t run here.” For an ordinary resident of Russia, the Kuriles are the end of the world, and the everyday life and habits of the Kuril people are no more famous than the habits of Antarctic penguins. Previously, Telegraph talked about the history of the territorial conflict between Russia and Japan, and then found out if Russian Kuril residents want to become citizens of Japan (spoiler: they don’t). This time we have collected the stories of local residents about everyday issues so that the disputed territories become closer and more understandable.

The girl is crying, the farik has flown away

Transport inaccessibility of the Kuril Islands remains the main problem of the region. Communication with the mainland is difficult, unpredictable and, at the same time, extremely expensive. Modern airports have begun to appear on the islands only in recent years, but are still not equipped with all-weather navigation systems, so their operation is possible only in the absence of fog and strong winds, which rarely happens in the Kuriles.

The waterway to the Kuriles is more predictable. From Sakhalin to the islands of Kunashir, Iturup and Shikotan, the ship "Igor Farkhutdinov" (in the common people "farik"), named after the Governor of Sakhalin, who died in a MI-8 helicopter crash in 2003, goes. With a capacity of just 140 passengers and departing twice a week, sailing times are highly dependent on weather conditions, the number of passengers and cargo being carried. The road to Kunashir, depending on the route, takes 1-1.5 days - the ship stays in the port of Shikotan for a long time. In addition, the ship, having already reached its destination, is not always able to approach the pier due to difficult weather conditions.

The inconvenience doesn't end there. In the Ekaterina Strait separating Kunashir from Iturup Island, passengers prone to seasickness has a hard time due to strong ship's pitching. The wind can reach a speed of 30 m / s, and at this moment it is impossible to move around the ship. It remains only to lie on the beds and restrain the urge to vomit.

For tourists, such adventures while traveling to the ends of the world add additional adrenaline to the blood, and Kuril residents are forced to carefully plan each trip to the mainland, which costs 4,000 rubles in a 4-bed cabin on the lower deck with amenities in the corridor.

Prices are not the first freshness

The remoteness of the Kuriles significantly affects the price and availability of earthly goods, to which the inhabitants of the rest of Russia have long been accustomed. First of all, due to difficulties with the delivery of bulky goods, construction suffers. When Kuril residents talk about finishing apartments, the concept of “good repair” implies the use of wallpaper and paint, poor Kuril residents are content with bare walls. Double-glazed windows are considered a luxury here, so the owners sell the frames separately from the apartments. And in settlements, you can often see empty eye sockets of windows - scarce goods are “attached to legs” as soon as residents leave the house.

“People don't run away from here. Get used to these places. Even the terrible earthquake of 1994 did not frighten them. They rebuilt and live, ”- explains blogger Stasya Svetlaya in her video essay about the island of Shikotan.

Food prices are a favorite topic of Kuril residents. Compared to the mainland, prices are several times higher, because products are delivered only by ships and only when the weather permits. Large cargoes come from Vladivostok, and small goods come from Sakhalin. Island-made bread costs 35-40 rubles, bread from the mainland - 60-80 rubles. Eggs are sold for 110-130 rubles. Sugar - 90 rubles per kg. Cucumbers, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables are 2-3 times more expensive than in Moscow markets. But the appearance of new products is welcome here even despite the high cost. In this regard, Iturup often remembers the spring of 2014, when Easter had to be celebrated without traditional Easter eggs, as the bay was filled with ice until mid-May.

“Products are brought by ship, they deteriorate during transportation, they arrive stale, lethargic, you have to buy only this! We immediately sold out what they brought, then we have to wait again for fresh. The stores seem to have everything, but the prices bite, high! They may be the same as in Moscow, but there are jobs and salaries higher than ours,” said Nina, who works on the island of Kunashir as a cook for 10,000 rubles a month.

The first gas stations on the islands appeared recently. Gasoline here costs about 70 rubles per liter. Many car owners still order it from Vladivostok in barrels. Diesel fuel is cheaper (45 rubles), so motorists generally prefer diesel cars. Where it comes from, local residents prefer to remain silent, only hinting that the military and state-owned enterprises have a lot of it.

A few years before the gas station, the first asphalt plant appeared on the islands, and until that time, settlements in the Kuriles were connected only by dirt roads. Because of this, an all-Russian incident almost happened. During Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Kunashir, he had to drive along a dusty dirt road to Mendeleevo Airport. Local officials feared that the prime minister's security car, which would go ahead of the motorcade, would kick up a cloud of dust that would prevent Medvedev from seeing anything. The road was planned to be watered with hoses before the escort. But on the eve of the arrival of the head of government, it began to rain, which did not stop falling during the day. Medvedev saw Kunashir and was even pleased with what he saw.

“There are no jobs on Shikotan at all. There are only two ways to earn money - serve in the army or work at one of the two local fish factories. Due to what the locals live, I do not understand. There are no serious employers there. You can only do your own business - catch fish or supply products from the mainland, ”- surprised blogger Boca Tipik.

From tanks to trepangs

The southern islands are connected with the military in the most intimate way. Here is the border with Japan, a country that in the last century fought several times with Russia and still has not signed a peace treaty. Long-term defense points have been preserved on Shikotan Island since those times - old IS-2 tanks, the trunks of which are turned towards Japan. The vehicles are dug deep into the hill, trenches are dug between them, which are concreted in some places. Local residents claim that the gun mechanisms are still in good condition.

Now there are FSB border guards on almost every island. On some of them there are no settlements, no roads, not even trees - only border offices. One of the main tasks of the border guards is to stop the illegal fishing of marine biological resources - crab, trepang, sea urchin. The Japanese believe that daily use of trepang prolongs life by at least ten years, which is why it is expensive. The border guards tell the story of how they once detained three Japanese schooners. During interrogation, the violators admitted that only three poaching exits allowed them to build a large house with a swimming pool.

It is also a sin for the keepers of the Russian border to complain about financial difficulties. By local standards, with a salary of 120 thousand rubles, they are almost oligarchs. They can afford to travel to the mainland if necessary and fly on vacation to Sochi.

Japan is close and inaccessible

The Japanese theme in the Kuriles is discussed very carefully. In the 1990s, the Japanese authorities actively helped the Russian population survive when the region experienced power outages and food supplies. Old-timers gratefully recall humanitarian aid, including to poor pensioners: chocolate, flour, sugar, butter, rice. Power plants built by the Japanese still continue to provide light to the houses of Kuril residents.

“There was a time when there were no shops on the island, and goods were imported from Japan. Previously, ships often came here, people often traveled to a neighboring country. Some houses still have Japanese household appliances. Refrigerators, microwaves - everything has been preserved since the 90s, everything works. Now they don’t bring anything, because customs duties have grown a lot,” says Stasya Svetlaya.

The Japanese past is visible everywhere on the Kuril Islands. There are former Japanese factories, Japanese cemeteries, and the Pacific coast of Kunashir near the mouths of the rivers is strewn with fragments of pre-war Japanese porcelain and empty bottles of Japanese beer.

For residents of the southern islands of the Kuril ridge (Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and the Habomai group) there is a visa-free regime with Japan. However, in reality, locals rarely use this right - on average, about 400 people travel there from the Kuriles per year (less than 0.25% of the region's population).

Now no one wants to offend close neighbors, whose houses are perfectly visible in clear weather from the Kuril hills. But local residents categorically do not agree to give the territory. The vast majority of them, despite everyday difficulties, support President Vladimir Putin and believe that in the coming years the Kuriles will catch up with the rest of the country in terms of living standards. Japan is only a good example for them, but by no means a home port worth returning to.

Moving to the Kuriles for permanent residence is a topic that has recently become of interest to potential immigrants. This chain of islands located between Hokkaido and Kamchatka has long been the subject of disputes between Russia and Japan, but after the presidents of these two countries came to an agreement in December 2016 on joint farming on the islands, there was hope that the standard of living and development of these territories will go up. The islands are divided into three parts by the Northern Kuriles, Middle and Southern. Despite the rather average standard of living on these islands, the magnificent nature that will forever remain in your memory even if you just came on an excursion, largely due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean, the climate is more humid and warm, in cold weather, even in February, the lowest temperature is - 5.

Economic and territorial features

The Sakhalin Peninsula, which also includes the northern and middle Kuriles, is one of the most remote and inaccessible regions. The infrastructure there is poorly developed, it is difficult to both arrive there and go back, planes and ferries are often canceled due to weather conditions. But if you still want to move to this region of Russia, rich in amazing nature, then any specialists in social professions will be welcome there: doctors, teachers, etc. For workers in this area, they will gladly provide not only jobs, but also housing for the first time.

Moving to the Northern and Middle Kuriles and how to get permanent residence

It is as easy for a Russian to move there as to any other region, but with foreign citizens the situation is the same as with moving to Russia in general. The procedure for obtaining permanent residence (permanent residence permit) takes place in several stages:

1. Arrive on the territory of the Russian Federation and apply for temporary registration (for this you need the consent of the person receiving you with a Russian passport).
2. Issue a TRP (temporary residence permit, which is issued for a period of three years).
3. Apply for a residence permit (permanent residence permit, valid for 5 years, having lived in the country for this period, subject to certain conditions, you can apply for citizenship).

After you have issued a temporary registration, you need to decide on the basis for submitting documents for a temporary residence permit. It can be obtained in two ways:

• in the usual way (then you must meet one of the main grounds: marriage to a Russian, official employment, family reunification, etc.);
• become a member of the program "Resettlement of compatriots" (in this case, you can apply for citizenship bypassing the procedure for obtaining a residence permit).

Attention! If during the period of the TRP you were absent from the country for more than six months, the temporary residence permit may be canceled!

Requirements for the applicant

When obtaining a residence permit, and then citizenship in the general order, you need to meet one of the following points:

1. an adult citizen of another country who has lived for 3 years under the RWP (in the case of registration of the RWP on the basis of marriage, you can apply for a residence permit after only six months);
2. highly qualified specialists (this also includes scientists, athletes, etc.);
3. a foreign disabled person whose guardian is a Russian or a migrant with a residence permit;
4. a citizen of Belarus, a participant in the “resettlement program” or a “native Russian speaker”;
5. an immigrant with refugee status;

If everything is fine with the basis for the application, it is necessary to collect and prepare the necessary package of documents in advance, all documents must be provided in Russian or with a notarized translation. After submitting the documents within two months, the authorities will make a decision on granting or refusing you a residence permit. If two months have passed and you still haven’t received a letter with an answer, don’t rush to panic, call the department in which you submitted the documents, because if the decision was made on the last day of the two-month period, then a notification will be sent to you for now, and it will reach it may take another month for you.

Moving to the South Kuriles features of obtaining permanent residence

For those who decide to move to the Southern Kuriles, the situation looks a little different, since moving to this part of the islands and obtaining permanent residence is the same under the conditions as obtaining this status in the Land of the Rising Sun.
To do this, you must first also obtain a residence permit, and then live on it for a certain period of time, extending it legally.
Who can get a residence permit in Japan:

• Based on learning. To get a higher education in Japan and a residence permit on this basis, the first step is to apply for an annual student visa, which can be extended an unlimited number of times while you continue your studies.
• Get a formal job. In this case, it is necessary to know the language of the country at least at the initial business level, English in Japan is much less important than native, and therefore, in order to get a prestigious position and then apply for citizenship, it will be necessary to graduate from at least a language school.
• Get refugee status. In this case, the immigrant is issued a three-year residence permit, with the possibility of applying for permanent residence after this period.
• On the basis of marriage with a Japanese / Japanese woman. The shortest and fastest way to get permanent residence and citizenship. In addition, children born in a legal marriage will automatically receive citizenship.

Attention! Dual citizenship in Japan is not allowed, but the exception is children under 18 years of age born in a marriage where only one Japanese parent, upon reaching this age, a person is given 2 years to choose citizenship.

The scope of the current until 2015 FTP "Socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands for 2007-2015" is 21 billion rubles.

The bulk of this amount is allocated from the federal budget. The Sakhalin Region also plans to attract funds from private investors for the development of the Kuriles. Private investments in the economy of the islands now amount to a billion rubles a year, and by 2015 they will increase to 6 billion. details about the new infrastructure of the Kuril Islands (many photos) The Kuril Islands include 30 large and many small islands. The population lives permanently only in Paramushir, Iturup, Kunashir and Shikotan. The population of the Kuril Islands 18,735 people Kunashir island- the southernmost island of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands. The population is about 8000 people. Yuzhno-Kurilsk- the administrative center of the South Kuril district.


social housing

In August 2012, a ceremony was held in Yuzhno-Kurilsk to hand over warrants and keys to new apartments. The 10-apartment building was built with funds from the regional and local budgets under one of the regional programs.
House of Culture (medical and educational expedition "Frontiers of Russia", August 2010)
New Kindergarten Port of Yuzhno-Kurilsk New Deep-Water Berth

The commissioning of modern deep-sea berthing complexes in Kunashir and Iturup will bring the transport infrastructure in the Kuriles to a qualitatively new level and improve the quality of life on the islands. Motor ship "Igor Farkhutdinov" moored for the first time at the new berth (February 2011)
The federal program for the socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands and the budget of the Sakhalin Region finance sea ​​station on the territory of the constructed berthing complex in the South Kuril Bay. In this building, in addition to passengers, various services will be located - a border checkpoint, a customs post, port supervision, the administration and control room of the seaport. Completion of construction is planned for 2012.

Mendeleevo Airport The airport was built by the Japanese when the island of Kunashir was still under the control of Japan and since then it has not been practically rebuilt. In 2006, it was closed due to the complete deterioration of the infrastructure and the destruction of the runway. During the reconstruction, within the framework of the Federal Target Program for the socio-economic development of the Kuril Islands, a new passenger terminal, taxiways, a new apron, a runway (RWY), a landing system and lighting equipment were put into operation. The island operates Mendeleevskaya GeoTPP(geothermal power plant), which provides the island with heat and electricity. The energy of a volcano as a source of heat and light for a person is the principle of operation of this station. Commissioning in 2007 of the second stage of the station provided 100% of the heat demand in Yuzhno-Kurilsk. The planned modernization of the Mendeleevskaya GeoTPP will increase its capacity from 3.6 MW to 7.4 MW.
On about. Kunashir has two fish processing plants - LLC PKF "South Kuril Fish Processing Plant" and LLC "Delta". of 25 people successfully copes with large volumes of incoming raw materials.In 2011, the first kilometers of asphalt were laid on Kunashir Island.

Iturup Island-island of the southern group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands, the largest island of the archipelago. Population - 6387 people. Kurilsk is the administrative center of the island. In the village of Kurilsk, a modern microdistrict "Severny" has been built in recent years. Within its boundaries, it is planned to build a large palace of culture and sports, under the roof of which there will be a sports complex, a swimming pool, a house of culture and other institutions. In 2006, a modern fish processing complex "Reidovo" was launched on the island..
Six air-freezing chambers ensure the release of 74 tons of finished frozen fish products per day.
On about. Iturup also has a fish processing plant "Yasny", equipped with a unique freezer tunnel for air freezing fish, which allows you to continuously freeze 210 tons of finished fish products per day. There is a caviar shop, where 3 tons of caviar are produced per day. In addition, a salting shop with a capacity of 25 tons per day and a refrigerator with a capacity of 2300 tons of one-time storage. There are several more fishing enterprises, the largest of which are Skit, Bug, and Continent. The buildings of the Kuril secondary school for 250 students have already been built on the island, as well as a modern central district hospital with 50 beds with a polyclinic for 100 visits per shift. New hospital
sports complex

landscaping work

In February 2012, two 8-apartment buildings were commissioned
The new Iturup airport is located on the sunny side of the island, which will allow you to easily get to the island even in bad weather. The extended 2.2 km long runway will accommodate all types of aircraft operating in the region. There is a geothermal spring with radon waters near Kurilsk.
A few years ago, the springs consisted of two concrete vats for salting fish, in which vacationers took baths, not forgetting to dot the neighborhood with broken bottle glass. Improved geothermal springs by Gidrostoroy company
Shikotan island- the largest island of the Lesser Ridge of the Kuril Islands. Malokurilskoe is the administrative center of the island. The population is about 2100 people. A deep-water pier has already been built and operated at the funds of the federal program in the Malokurilskaya Bay on Shikotan, and in the neighboring Krabozavodskaya Bay on the same Shikotan, the construction of a berth is nearing completion on the terms of co-financing - the own funds of CJSC Gidrostroy and the regional budget.



Fish processing complex "Krabozavodsk" is equipped with the most modern equipment.
the capacity of the workshop allows to receive and process up to 300 tons of raw fish daily.
New kindergarten for 70 places (2010)

“These are hot thermal waters. They approach the very surface, hence the steam, ”explains the driver Vadim. Thanks to the incessant volcanic activity on the islands, it is possible to “drill a hole” anywhere on the earth and receive geothermal energy. Its resources are inexhaustible, it is possible to heat not only houses, but, if desired, streets and sidewalks so that they do not freeze in winter.

It's a paradox, but with such an "energy freebie" in the Kuriles, houses with stove heating are still found.

No cafe, no cinema

There are enough paradoxes on the islands. On Iturup, for example, there is not a single working gas station, which does not prevent the population from driving Japanese SUVs - they are the main vehicle here. To the question: “Where do you get fuel?” - people smile enigmatically. “We mostly use diesel fuel, and the military has a lot of it,” Vadim opens the veil of secrecy.

In fact, a gas station was built on Iturup. But... they can't find her owner. “The federal law on public procurement is to blame,” explains T-atiana Belousova, Head of the Municipal Formation "Kuril City District". - It is not enough to build - we are obliged to announce a tender and find someone who will agree to bring fuel here from the mainland and sell it at a price no lower than the average for Russia. But it's at your own expense! There are no applicants. In general, this law on public procurement is a complete disaster. Maybe it works on a national scale, at the very least, but on our microscale, it doesn’t.”

Many people who left for the mainland in the 90s are now returning to the islands. They say they can't adapt there: not the way of life, not the nature, not enough ocean and endless expanses... But there is something else that beckons here. For a long time, I couldn't figure out what. Maybe money? The Kuril Islands belong to the regions of the Far North. Salaries on average are -50-70 thousand rubles, however, there are vacancies for which they are ready to pay -1.5-2 times more. Plus lifting (about 1 million rubles), plus service housing.

“When, after the “direct line” of the president, we built a house for doctors with 8 apartments, it was a revolution. Housing had not been built for 30 years before, - recalls T. Belousova. - Now people come to us from other regions (from Altai, for example), but still there are not enough personnel - teachers, specialists in the field of housing and communal services. In general, to live here, you need to be highly motivated. In the evening there is nowhere to go especially - no cafe, no cinema ... But still, it has become better here than it was 5 years ago.

Local healing springs work wonders. Photo: AiF / Dmitry Pisarenko

Battle for resources

Soon a new airport will be opened on Iturup, and the Kuril people hope that a stream of foreign tourists will pour into the islands. They still exist (mostly Koreans and Americans), but I want more! The nature of the Kuriles is unique. Where else can you hunt a bear, catch a halibut, and swim in sulfur baths? People go to local healing springs purposefully to be cured of skin ailments - eczema, psoriasis, lichen ... According to statistics, 8 out of 10 people return home healthy. And on the island of Kunashir, they say, there is a thermal spring that relieves infertility. Finally, what is the ecological tourism that is gaining momentum worth: to watch, standing on the shore, how gigantic, hundreds of thousands of tons, shoals of Pacific salmon go to spawn in the river ...

The Kuriles have gold, rhenium (it is used in aircraft rocket technology, precision instruments), rare earth metals. But still, their main wealth is fish. In conditions when Russia has banned the import of seafood from the EU, the USA and Canada, the Kuriles are quite capable of compensating for this loss. By the way, the fishing company, whose factories employ 70% of the population of the Shikotan and Iturup islands, has been supplying its products to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other regions for a long time. Every year, off the South Kuril Islands, it catches and processes 90,000 tons of fish and seafood.

“Perhaps for you the Kuriles are the edge of Russia, but for us it is its beginning.” Photo: Shutterstock.com / Sergey Rogalsky

“If we take all Russian companies, then their catch in the area of ​​the islands of Iturup, Shikotan and Kunashir is 170-180 thousand tons per year,” saysDmitry Grigoriev, director of the fishing enterprise. - What is this fish? More than 100 thousand tons of pollock, 30-40 thousand tons of salmon, 9 thousand tons of squid, 5 thousand tons of cod, as well as significant volumes of saury, greenling, flounder, sea urchin, kelp. In addition, in this area (and it is the exclusive economic zone of the Russian Federation), fishermen from other countries, including Japanese, are fishing. They operate within the framework of intergovernmental agreements. Their total catch exceeds 8,000 tons.”

Of course, the Japanese want to have not 8, but all 180 thousand tons of fish. And their talk about the national dignity that was infringed along with the rejection of the Kuriles is just a beautiful cover in the battle for the region's richest bioresources. For the same reason, Japan is following with extreme hostility the industrial boom that is now happening in the "northern territories" without her participation. “The scary thing is that, thanks to increased economic development, the population of the islands will have self-confidence,” the Japanese newspaper Hokkaido Shimbun once wrote.

It's not just about confidence. Despite the different climate and even the different mentality of the islanders (and what do you want - the ridge stretches for 1200 km!), These people are united by the realization that they belong to a single community. “Call it the Kuril brotherhood if you like, but otherwise it's hard to survive,” one of the fishermen told me. “Perhaps for you the Kuriles are the edge of Russia, but for us it is its beginning.”

And that's what keeps people coming back here. That which attracts them and gives strength to live.