Lightning campaigns, unconditional victory and mixed results of the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945...

Vladivostok, PrimaMedia. These days, 73 years ago, the whole country was celebrating the victory in the Great Patriotic War, and tension was growing in the Far East. Part of the military resources that was freed up in the western part was transferred to the Far Eastern Front in anticipation of the next battles, but with Japan. The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of World War II, lasted less than a month - from August 9 to September 2, 1945. But this month has become a key month in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region, completing and, conversely, initiating many historical processes lasting decades. On the 72nd anniversary of the start of the Soviet-Japanese War, RIA PrimaMedia recalls where the battles took place, what they fought for and what unresolved conflicts the war left behind.

Background of the war

We can assume that the prerequisites for the Soviet-Japanese war arose exactly on the day when the Russian-Japanese war ended. japanese war- on the day of the signing of the Peace of Portsmouth on September 5, 1905. Russia lost the Liaodong Peninsula leased from China (the port of Dalian and Port Arthur) and southern part Sakhalin Islands. Significant was the loss of influence in the world as a whole and in the Far East, in particular, caused by an unsuccessful war on land and the death of most of the fleet at sea. The feeling of national humiliation was also very strong: revolutionary uprisings took place throughout the country, including in Vladivostok.

This situation was strengthened during the revolution of 1917 and the ensuing civil war. On February 18, 1918, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided on the occupation of Vladivostok and Harbin, as well as the zone of the Chinese Eastern Railway, by the Japanese troops. About 15,000 Japanese soldiers were in Vladivostok during the foreign intervention. Japan actually occupied the Russian Far East for several years, and left the region with great reluctance under pressure from the United States and Great Britain, who feared the excessive strengthening of yesterday's ally in the First World War.

These events will be remembered by Lieutenant Gerasimenko, a member of the CPSU (b) (12 MZhDAB) in 1945. His words are given in the political report of the head of the political department of the Pacific Fleet, which contains other quotes from the personnel of the ships and parts of the fleet, who received the news of the outbreak of war with Japan with great enthusiasm.

The words of Lieutenant Gerasimenko in the political report of the head of the political department of the Pacific Fleet

At the same time, there was a process of strengthening Japan's positions in China, which was also weakened and fragmented. The reverse process that began in the 1920s - the strengthening of the USSR - rather quickly led to relations between Tokyo and Moscow that could be calmly described as " cold war". By the end of the 1930s, tensions reached a peak, and this period was marked by two major clashes between the USSR and Japan - the conflict on Lake Khasan (Primorsky Territory) in 1938 and on the Khalkhin Gol River (Mongolian-Manchurian border) - in 1939 .

The words of the pilot Neduev in the political report of the head of the political department of the Pacific Fleet
Photo: From the funds of the Military History Museum of the Pacific Fleet

Fragile Neutrality

Having suffered quite serious losses and convinced of the power of the Red Army, Japan chose on April 13, 1941 to conclude a neutrality pact with the USSR. Our country also benefited from the pact, since Moscow understood that the main focus of military tension lay not in the Far East, but in Europe. For Germany itself, Japan's partner in the "Anti-Comintern Pact" (Germany, Italy, Japan), which saw the country of the Rising Sun as the main ally and future partner in the "New World Order", the agreement between Moscow and Tokyo was a serious slap in the face. Tokyo, however, pointed out to the Germans the existence of a similar neutrality pact between Moscow and Berlin.

The two main aggressors of the Second World War could not agree, and each led his own main war- Germany against the USSR in Europe, Japan - against the USA and Great Britain on Pacific Ocean.

However, relations between the USSR and Japan during this period could hardly be called good. It was obvious that the signed pact was not valuable for any of the parties, and the war was only a matter of time.

The Japanese command developed not only plans to capture a significant part Soviet territory, but also the system of military control "in the zone of occupation of the territory of the USSR." In Tokyo, the following territories were still considered their vital interests when dividing the "vanquished" Soviet Union. In a document titled "The Plan for the Management of the Territories in the Sphere of the Co-Prosperity of the Great East Asia", which was established by the Japanese Ministry of War together with the Ministry of Colonies in 1942, noted:

Primorye should be annexed to Japan, the areas adjacent to the Manchurian Empire should be included in the sphere of influence of this country, and the Trans-Siberian road should be given under the complete control of Japan and Germany, with Omsk being the point of demarcation between them.

The presence of a powerful force of Japanese armed forces on the Far Eastern borders forced the Soviet Union throughout the Great Patriotic War with Germany and its allies to keep in the East from 15 to 30% of the combat forces and means of the Soviet armed forces - more than 1 million soldiers and officers in total.

Washington and London knew the exact date of the entry of the Soviet Union into the war in the Far East. To the Special Representative who arrived in Moscow in May 1945 american president G. Hopkins I.V. Stalin stated:

Germany surrendered on May 8th. Consequently, the Soviet troops will be in full readiness by August 8

Stalin was true to his word, and on August 8, 1945, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov made the following statement to the Japanese ambassador in Moscow for transmission to the Japanese government:

Given Japan's refusal to capitulate, the Allies turned to Soviet government with a proposal to join the war against Japanese aggression and thereby shorten the time for the end of the war, reduce the number of victims and help restore world peace as soon as possible.

The Soviet government declares that from tomorrow, that is, from August 9. The Soviet Union will consider itself at war with Japan.

The next day, August 10, the Mongolian People's Republic also declared war on Japan.

Ready for war

From the west of the country, a significant number of troops from the fronts and western military districts began to be transferred to the East. Along the Trans-Siberian railway line day and night, military trains with people, military equipment and military equipment walked in a continuous stream. In total, by the beginning of August, a powerful group was concentrated in the Far East and on the territory of Mongolia. Soviet troops numbering 1.6 million people, which had over 26 thousand guns and mortars, 5.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns and over 3.9 thousand combat aircraft.

On the roads of Manchuria. August, 1945
Photo: From the funds of the SAPC

Three fronts are being created - the Trans-Baikal front, headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky, 1st Far East (former Primorsky Group of Forces) led by Marshal of the Soviet Union K.A. Meretskov and the 2nd Far Eastern Front (formerly the Far Eastern Front) under the command of General of the Army M.A. Purkaeva. Pacific Fleet commanded by Admiral I.S. Yumashev.

The Pacific Fleet was also ready. By August 1945, it included: two cruisers built in the Far East, one leader, 12 destroyers, 10 Fregat-class patrol ships, six Metel-class patrol ships, one Albatros-class patrol ship, two patrol ship type "Dzerzhinsky", two monitors, 10 minelayers, 52 minesweepers, 204 torpedo boats, 22 large hunters, 27 small hunters, 19 landing ships. The submarine force consisted of 78 submarines. The main base of the naval forces of the fleet was Vladivostok.

Aviation of the Pacific Fleet consisted of 1.5 thousand aircraft of various types. The coastal defense consisted of 167 coastal batteries with guns ranging in caliber from 45 to 356 mm.

The Soviet troops were opposed by a strong grouping of Japanese troops and Manchukuo troops with a total strength of up to 1 million people. The Japanese army numbered approximately 600 thousand people, of which 450 thousand were in Manchuria, and the remaining 150 thousand were in Korea, mainly in its northern part. However, in terms of the level of armament, the Japanese troops were noticeably inferior to the Soviet ones.

The Japanese built 17 fortified regions in advance along the Soviet and Mongolian borders, eight of them with a total length of about 800 km - against Primorye. Each fortified area in Manchuria relied on natural obstacles in the form of water and mountain barriers.

According to plan military operation, for the complete defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army, the leadership of the USSR allotted only 20–23 days to its grouping of troops. The offensive operations of the three fronts reached 600-800 km in depth, which required a high rate of advance of the Soviet troops.

Lightning war or "August storm"

The Far Eastern campaign of the Soviet troops included three operations - the Manchurian strategic offensive, the South Sakhalin offensive and the Kuril landing.

The offensive of the Soviet troops began, as planned, exactly at midnight from August 8 to 9, 1945 on the ground, in the air and at sea at the same time - on a huge section of the front with a length of 5 km.

The war was fast paced. Possessing rich experience in military operations against the Germans, the Soviet troops broke through the Japanese defenses in a series of quick and decisive blows and launched an offensive deep into Manchuria. Tank units successfully advanced in seemingly unsuitable conditions - through the sands of the Gobi and the Khingan ridges, but debugged over four years of war with the most formidable enemy war machine practically never failed.

Soviet landing on the coast of Manchuria
Photo: From the funds of the Museum. VC. Arseniev

At midnight, 76 Soviet Il-4 bombers from the 19th long-range bomber aviation corps crossed the state border. An hour and a half later, they bombed large Japanese garrisons in the cities of Changchun and Harbin.

The advance was swift. At the forefront of the Trans-Baikal Front, the 6th Guards tank army, which in five days of the offensive moved forward 450 km and immediately overcame the Greater Khingan ridge. Soviet tankers reached the Central Manchurian Plain a day ahead of schedule and found themselves in the rear of the Kwantung Army. Japanese troops counterattacked, but everywhere to no avail.

The advancing 1st Far Eastern Front had to face already in the first days of the fighting not only strong resistance from the Japanese troops on the borders of the Pogranichnensky, Dunninsky, Khotoussky fortified regions, but also with the massive use of opponents of suicide bombers - kamikaze. Such kamikazes sneaked up on groups of soldiers and blew themselves up among them. On the outskirts of the city of Mudanjiang, a case was noted when 200 suicide bombers, sprawled in thick grass, tried to block the path of Soviet tanks on the battlefield.

The Pacific Fleet deployed submarines in the Sea of ​​Japan, ship detachments were in a state of immediate readiness to go to sea, and reconnaissance aviation made sortie after sortie. Defensive minefields were set up near Vladivostok.

Loading a torpedo with the inscription "Death to the Samurai!" on the Soviet Pacific Fleet submarine of the "Pike" type (V-bis series). Instead of a stern gun, a DShK machine gun was installed on the submarine. In the background is a Pike-class submarine (X series)
Photo: From the funds of the Museum. VC. Arseniev

Landing operations on the Korean coast were successful. On August 11, amphibious assault forces occupied the port of Yuki, on August 13 - the port of Rasin, on August 16 - the port of Seishin, which made it possible to reach the ports of South Korea, and after their capture, it was possible to deliver strong blows to distant enemy bases.

During these amphibious operations, the Pacific Fleet unexpectedly encountered a serious danger in the form of American minelaying. Immediately before the entry of the Soviet Union into the war in the Pacific, American aviation carried out mass laying of magnetic and acoustic mines on the approaches to the ports of Seishin and Racine. This led to the fact that Soviet ships and transports began to be blown up by allied mines during landing operations and with the further use of the ports of North Korea to supply their troops.

Soldiers of the 355th separate battalion marines Pacific Fleet before landing at Seishin
Photo: From the funds of the SAPC

The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front began their offensive with the successful crossing of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. After that, they continued their offensive along the banks of the Songhua River in the direction of the city of Harbin, assisting neighboring fronts. Together with the front, the Red Banner Amur Flotilla advanced deep into Manchuria.

During the Sakhalin offensive operation, the Pacific Fleet landed large landings in the ports of Toro, Esutoru, Maoka, Honto and Otomari. The landing of almost 3.5 thousand paratroopers in the port of Maoka took place with strong opposition from the Japanese.

On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan was accepting the Potsdam Declaration. He paid tribute to those who died in the war and warned his subjects that now "it is necessary to refrain in the strictest way from the expression of emotion." At the end of his address to the Japanese people, the Mikado urged:

"...Let all the people live as a single family from generation to generation, always being firm in their faith in the eternity of their sacred land, mindful of the heavy burden of responsibility and the long road that lies before us. Unite all forces to build the future. Strengthen honesty develop nobility of spirit and work hard to increase the great glory of the empire and go hand in hand with the progress of the whole world."

On this day, many fanatics among the military people committed suicide.

Made himself hara-kiri on the evening of August 15 and Admiral Onishi, the founder of the kamikaze corps in the imperial armed forces. In his suicide note, Onishi looked to the future of the Land of the Rising Sun:

"I express my deep admiration for the souls of the courageous kamikaze. They fought valiantly and died with faith in the final victory. By death, I want to atone for my part of the failure to achieve this victory, and I apologize to the souls of the dead pilots and their destitute families ... ".

And in Manchuria, the fighting continued - no one gave the order to the Kwantung Army to stop the armed resistance of the Soviet Red Army advancing on all fronts. In the following days, at various levels, the question of the surrender of the Japanese Kwantung Army, scattered over the vast territory of Manchuria and North Korea, was being coordinated.

While such negotiation activities were going on, special detachments were created as part of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts. Their task was to capture the cities of Changchun, Mukden, Jilin and Harbin.

Soviet troops in Harbin. August, 1945
Photo: From the funds of the SAPC

On August 18, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East issued an order to the commanders of the fronts and the Pacific Fleet, in which he demanded:

"On all sectors of the front, where they will be stopped fighting on the part of the Japanese-Manchus, immediately stop hostilities on the part of the Soviet troops."

On August 19, the Japanese troops, who resisted the advancing 1st Far Eastern Front, ceased hostilities. A mass surrender began, and on the first day alone, 55,000 Japanese troops laid down their arms. Airborne landings in the cities of Port Arthur and Dairen (Far) were landed on 23 August.

Marines of the Pacific Fleet on their way to Port Arthur. In the foreground, participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Pacific Fleet paratrooper Anna Yurchenko
Photo: From the funds of the SAPC

By the evening of the same day, a tank brigade of the 6th Guards Tank Army entered Port Arthur. The garrisons of these cities capitulated, and the attempts of the Japanese ships stationed in the harbors to go to the open sea were resolutely suppressed.

The city of Dairen (Far) was one of the centers of white emigration. The White Guards were arrested here by the NKVD. All of them were put on trial for their deeds during the Civil War in Russia.

On August 25-26, 1945, Soviet troops of three fronts completed the occupation of the territory of Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula. By the end of August, the entire territory of North Korea up to the 38th parallel was liberated from Japanese troops, who mostly retreated to the south of the Korean Peninsula.

By September 5, all the Kuriles were occupied by Soviet troops. The total number of captured Japanese garrisons on the islands of the Kuril chain reached 50 thousand people. Of these, about 20 thousand people were captured in the South Kuriles. Japanese prisoners of war were evacuated to Sakhalin. The 2nd Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet participated in the capture operation. Photo: From the funds of the SAPC

After the most powerful of the Japanese armies, the Kwantung, ceased to exist, and Manchuria, North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were occupied by Soviet troops, even the most ardent supporters of the continuation of the war in Japan realized that the empire in the Japanese islands had a war in the Pacific. lost in the ocean.

Meeting in China, Soviet soldiers. August, 1945
Photo: From the funds of the SAPC

September 2, 1945 in Tokyo Bay aboard an American battleship"Missouri" signed an act of unconditional surrender of Japan. On the Japanese side, it was signed by Foreign Minister M. Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff of the Army, General Umezu. By authorization of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces, on behalf of the Soviet Union, the act was signed by Lieutenant General K.N. Derevianko. On behalf of the allied nations - American general D. MacArthur.

Thus ended two wars on the same day - World War II and the Soviet-Japanese of 1945.

Results and consequences of the Soviet-Japanese

As a result of the 1945 war, the Red Army and the Allies completely defeated the million-strong Kwantung Army. According to Soviet data, her losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, about 600 thousand were taken prisoner. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 12 thousand people. Of the 1.2 thousand people who made up total losses Pacific Fleet, 903 people were killed or mortally wounded.

Soviet troops got rich military trophies: 4 thousand guns and mortars (grenade launchers), 686 tanks, 681 aircraft and other military equipment.

military prowess Soviet soldiers in the war with Japan was highly appreciated - 308 thousand people who distinguished themselves in battle were awarded government awards. 87 people were awarded high rank Hero of the Soviet Union, six of them became Heroes twice.

As a result of the crushing defeat, Japan lost its leading position in the Asia-Pacific region for many years. The Japanese army was disarmed, Japan itself lost the right to have regular army. The long-awaited calm was established on the Far Eastern borders of the Soviet Union.

With the capitulation of Japan, the long-term intervention of this country in China ended. In August 1945, the puppet state of Manchukuo ceased to exist. The Chinese people were given the opportunity to independently decide their own destiny and soon chose the socialist path of development. The 40-year period of brutal Japanese colonial oppression in Korea also ended. On the political map world, new independent states emerged: the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and others.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its composition the territories previously lost by Russia (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and the Far East, subsequently transferred to China), as well as the Kuril Islands, the ownership of the southern part of which is still disputed by Japan.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuriles (Chishima Retto). But the treaty did not determine the ownership of the islands and the USSR did not sign it. Negotiations on the southern part of the Kuril Islands are still ongoing, and there are no prospects for a quick resolution of the issue.

The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of World War II, lasted less than a month, but this particular month became a key one in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region...

Site note: "... Marshal Vasilevsky ... crushed Japan without any atomic bomb ... At the same time, the proportion of losses Soviet army, the best and most effective army in the world in the Kwantung operation: 12 thousand dead our soldiers and officers and 650 thousand dead and captured Japanese. And this despite the fact that we were advancing ... We were advancing, and they were sitting in concrete pillboxes that had been built for 5 years before that ... This is an ingenious, best offensive operation in the history of the 20th century ... "

Ilya Kramnik, military observer for RIA Novosti.

The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of World War II, lasted less than a month - from August 9 to September 2, 1945, but this month became a key one in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region, and, conversely, initiating many historical processes lasting decades.

background

The prerequisites for the Soviet-Japanese war arose exactly on the day when the Russo-Japanese war ended - on the day the Portsmouth Peace was signed on September 5, 1905. Russia's territorial losses were insignificant - the Liaodong Peninsula rented from China and the southern part of Sakhalin Island. Much more significant was the loss of influence in the world as a whole and in the Far East, in particular, caused by an unsuccessful war on land and the death of most of the fleet at sea. The feeling of national humiliation was also very strong.
Japan became the dominant Far Eastern power; it exploited marine resources almost uncontrollably, including in Russian territorial waters, where it carried out predatory fishing, crab fishing, sea animal hunting, etc.

This situation intensified during the revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War, when Japan actually occupied the Russian Far East for several years, and left the region with great reluctance under pressure from the United States and Great Britain, who feared the excessive strengthening of yesterday's ally in the First World War.

At the same time, there was a process of strengthening Japan's positions in China, which was also weakened and fragmented. The reverse process that began in the 1920s - the strengthening of the USSR, which was recovering from military and revolutionary upheavals - rather quickly led to relations between Tokyo and Moscow that could easily be described as a "cold war". The Far East has long become an arena of military confrontation and local conflicts. By the end of the 1930s, tensions reached a peak, and this period was marked by the two largest clashes between the USSR and Japan in this period - the conflict on Lake Khasan in 1938 and on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939.

Fragile Neutrality

Having suffered quite serious losses and convinced of the power of the Red Army, Japan chose to conclude a neutrality pact with the USSR on April 13, 1941, and free its hands for the war in the Pacific Ocean.

This pact was also needed by the Soviet Union. At that time, it became obvious that the "naval lobby", pushing the southern direction of the war, was playing an increasing role in Japanese politics. The position of the army, on the other hand, was weakened by offensive defeats. The probability of war with Japan was not very high, while the conflict with Germany was getting closer every day.

For Germany itself, Japan's partner in the Anti-Comintern Pact, which saw Japan as the main ally and future partner in the New World Order, the agreement between Moscow and Tokyo was a serious slap in the face and caused complications in relations between Berlin and Tokyo. Tokyo, however, pointed out to the Germans the existence of a similar neutrality pact between Moscow and Berlin.

The two main aggressors of World War II could not agree, and each waged his main war - Germany against the USSR in Europe, Japan - against the USA and Great Britain in the Pacific Ocean. At the same time, Germany declared war on the United States on the day of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, but Japan did not declare war on the USSR, which the Germans had hoped for.

However, relations between the USSR and Japan could hardly be called good - Japan constantly violated the signed pact, detaining Soviet ships at sea, periodically allowing attacks by Soviet military and civilian ships, violating the border on land, etc.

It was obvious that the signed document was not valuable for any of the parties for any long period, and the war was only a matter of time. However, since 1942, the situation gradually began to change: the marked turning point in the war forced Japan to abandon long-term plans for a war against the USSR, and at the same time, the Soviet Union began to consider plans for the return of those lost during Russo-Japanese War territories.

By 1945, when the situation became critical, Japan tried to start negotiations with the Western allies, using the USSR as an intermediary, but this did not bring success.

During the Yalta Conference, the USSR announced an obligation to start a war against Japan within 2-3 months after the end of the war against Germany. The intervention of the USSR was seen as necessary by the allies: to defeat Japan, it was necessary to defeat its ground forces, which for the most part had not yet been affected by the war, and the allies feared that landing on the Japanese islands would cost them great sacrifices.

Japan, with the neutrality of the USSR, could count on the continuation of the war and the reinforcement of the forces of the mother country at the expense of resources and troops stationed in Manchuria and Korea, communication with which continued, despite all attempts to interrupt it.

The declaration of war by the Soviet Union finally destroyed these hopes. On August 9, 1945, speaking at an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council for the Direction of War, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki stated:

"The entry into the war of the Soviet Union this morning puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war."

It should be noted that nuclear bombings in this case became only an additional reason for an early exit from the war, but not the main reason. Suffice it to say that the massive bombing of Tokyo in the spring of 1945, which caused about the same number of victims as Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, did not lead Japan to thoughts of surrender. And only the entry into the war of the USSR against the backdrop of nuclear bombings forced the leadership of the Empire to recognize the futility of continuing the war.

"August Storm"

The war itself, nicknamed in the West "August Storm", was swift. Possessing rich experience in military operations against the Germans, the Soviet troops broke through the Japanese defenses in a series of quick and decisive blows and launched an offensive deep into Manchuria. Tank units successfully advanced in seemingly unsuitable conditions - through the sands of the Gobi and the Khingan ridges, but the military machine, debugged over the four years of the war with the most formidable enemy, practically did not fail.

As a result, by August 17, the 6th Guards Tank Army advanced several hundred kilometers - and about one hundred and fifty kilometers remained to the capital of Manchuria, the city of Xinjing. By this time, the First Far Eastern Front had broken the resistance of the Japanese in eastern Manchuria, occupying The largest city in that region - Mudanjiang. In a number of areas in the depths of the defense, Soviet troops had to overcome fierce enemy resistance. In the zone of the 5th Army, it was carried out with special force in the Mudanjiang area. There were cases of stubborn resistance by the enemy in the zones of the Trans-Baikal and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. The Japanese army also made repeated counterattacks. On August 17, 1945, in Mukden, Soviet troops captured the Emperor of Manchukuo Pu Yi (formerly - the last Emperor China).

On August 14, the Japanese command made a proposal to conclude a truce. But in practice, hostilities on the Japanese side did not stop. Only three days later, the Kwantung Army received an order from its command to surrender, which began on August 20. But even he did not immediately reach everyone, and in some places the Japanese acted contrary to the order.

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation was launched, during which Soviet troops occupied the Kuril Islands. On the same day, August 18, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Vasilevsky, ordered the occupation of the Japanese island of Hokkaido by forces of two rifle divisions. This landing was not carried out due to the delay in the advance of Soviet troops in South Sakhalin, and then postponed until the instructions of the Headquarters.

Soviet troops occupied the southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea. The main fighting on the continent was carried out for 12 days, until August 20. However, individual battles continued until September 10, which became the day the complete surrender and capture of the Kwantung Army ended. The fighting on the islands ended completely on 5 September.

Japan's surrender was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

As a result, the millionth Kwantung Army was completely defeated. According to Soviet data, its losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, about 600 thousand were taken prisoner. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 12 thousand people.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its composition the territories previously lost by Russia (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and the Far East, subsequently transferred to China), as well as the Kuril Islands, the ownership of the southern part of which is still disputed by Japan.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuriles (Chishima Retto). But the treaty did not determine the ownership of the islands and the USSR did not sign it.
Negotiations on the southern part of the Kuril Islands are still ongoing, and there are no prospects for a quick resolution of the issue.

background

At the Yalta Conference of the participating countries anti-Hitler coalition, held in February 1945, the United States and Great Britain obtained from the USSR the final consent to enter the war with Japan three months after the victory over Nazi Germany. In exchange for participation in hostilities, the Soviet Union was to receive South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, lost after the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

At that time, the Neutrality Pact was in force between the USSR and Japan, concluded in 1941 for a period of 5 years. In April 1945, the USSR announced the unilateral termination of the pact on the grounds that Japan was an ally of Germany and waged war against the allies of the USSR. “In this situation, the Neutrality Pact between Japan and the USSR lost its meaning, and the extension of this Pact became impossible,” the Soviet side said. The sudden termination of the treaty threw the Japanese government into disarray. And it was from what! The position of the Land of the Rising Sun in the war was approaching critical, the allies inflicted a number of heavy defeats on the Pacific theater of operations. Japanese cities and industrial centers were subjected to continuous bombardment. Not one in the least reasonable person in the Japanese government and command no longer believed in the possibility of victory, the only hope was that they would be able to wear down the American troops and achieve acceptable terms of surrender for themselves.

In turn, the Americans understood that victory over Japan would not be easy. A good example of this are the battles for the island of Okinawa. The Japanese had about 77,000 people on the island. The Americans fielded about 470,000 against them. The island was taken, but the Americans lost nearly 50 thousand soldiers killed and wounded. According to the estimate of the US Secretary of War, a final victory over Japan, provided the Soviet Union did not intervene, would have cost America about a million dead and wounded.

The document declaring war was handed over to the Japanese ambassador in Moscow at 17:00 on August 8, 1945. It said that hostilities would begin the next day. However, taking into account the time difference between Moscow and the Far East, in fact, the Japanese had only one hour before the Red Army went on the offensive.

Confrontation

The strategic plan of the Soviet side included three operations: Manchurian, South Sakhalin and Kuril. The most significant and large-scale was the first one, and it is on it that we should dwell in more detail.

In Manchuria, the Kwantung Army under the command of General Otsuzo Yamada became an enemy of the USSR. It included about a million personnel, more than 6,000 guns and mortars, about 1,500 aircraft, and more than 1,000 tanks.

The grouping of Red Army troops at the time the offensive began had a serious numerical superiority over the enemy: only there were 1.6 times more fighters. In terms of the number of tanks, the Soviet troops outnumbered the Japanese by about 5 times, in artillery and mortars - 10 times, in aircraft - more than three times. Moreover, the superiority of the Soviet Union was not only quantitative. The equipment that was in service with the Red Army was much more modern and powerful than that of its enemy.

The Japanese had long understood that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable. Therefore, they created a large number of fortified areas. Let us consider as an example one of them - the Hailar region, against which the left flank of the Trans-Baikal Front of the Red Army acted. This area has been under construction for over 10 years. By August 1945, it consisted of 116 pillboxes connected by concrete underground communication passages, a developed system of trenches and a large number of engineering defensive structures. The area was defended by Japanese troops numbering more than a division.

It took the Soviet troops several days to suppress the resistance of this fortified area. It would seem that not too long a time, the troops were not stuck for months. But during this time, in other sectors of the Trans-Baikal Front, the Red Army managed to advance more than 150 kilometers. So by the standards of this war, the obstacle was quite serious. And even after the main forces of the garrison of the Hailar region surrendered, separate groups of Japanese soldiers continued to fight, demonstrating examples of fanatical courage. In Soviet reports from the battlefield, soldiers of the Kwantung Army are constantly mentioned, who chained themselves to machine guns so as not to be able to leave the position.

Against the backdrop of a very successful actions The Red Army should be noted for such an outstanding operation as the 350-kilometer throw of the 6th Guards Tank Army across the Gobi Desert and the Khingan Range. The Khingan Mountains seemed like an insurmountable obstacle to technology. Passes through which soviet tanks, were located at an altitude of about 2 thousand meters above sea level. The steepness of the slopes in some places reached 50 degrees, so the cars had to move in a zigzag. The situation was complicated by continuous heavy rains, impassable mud and overflow of mountain rivers. Nevertheless, Soviet tanks stubbornly moved forward. By August 11, they had crossed the mountains and found themselves in the rear of the Kwantung Army, on the Central Manchurian Plain. The army experienced a shortage of fuel and ammunition, so the Soviet command had to establish supplies by air. Transport aviation delivered more than 900 tons of tank fuel alone to our troops. As a result of this unprecedented offensive, the Red Army managed to capture only about 200,000 Japanese prisoners. In addition, a large number of weapons and equipment were captured.

The 1st Far Eastern Front of the Red Army faced fierce resistance from the Japanese, who fortified on the heights of Ostraya and Camel, which were part of the Khotous fortified area. The approaches to these heights were swampy, rugged large quantity small streams. Scarps were excavated on the slopes and wire fences were installed. The Japanese cut down firing points in a granite rock massif. Concrete caps of pillboxes had a thickness of about one and a half meters.

The defenders of the height of Ostraya rejected all the demands of the Soviet troops for surrender. The commander of the fortified area cut off his head to a local resident, who was used as a truce (the Japanese did not go into dialogue with the Red Army at all). And when the Soviet troops finally managed to break into the fortifications, they found only the dead there. Moreover, among the defenders were not only men, but even women armed with grenades and daggers.

In the battles for the city of Mudanjiang, the Japanese actively used kamikaze saboteurs. Strapped with grenades, these people rushed at Soviet tanks and soldiers. On one of the sectors of the front, about 200 "live mines" lay on the ground in front of the advancing equipment. Suicide attacks were successful only at first. In the future, the Red Army increased their vigilance and, as a rule, managed to shoot the saboteur before he could approach and explode, causing damage to equipment or manpower.

The final

On August 15, Emperor Hirohito made a radio address announcing that Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Conference and capitulated. The emperor called on the nation to courage, patience and unite all forces to build a new future.

Three days later, on August 18, 1945, at 13:00 local time, the Kwantung Army Command addressed the troops on the radio, saying that in view of the futility of further resistance, a decision was made to surrender. Over the next few days, the Japanese units that did not have direct contact with the headquarters were notified and the terms of surrender were agreed.

Most of the military accepted the terms of surrender without objection. Moreover, in the city of Changchun, where the strength of the Soviet troops was not enough, the Japanese themselves guarded military facilities for several days. However, a small number of fanatical soldiers and officers continued to resist, refusing to obey the "cowardly" order to cease hostilities. Their war stopped only when they died.

On September 2, 1945, an act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. The signing of this document is the official date for the end of World War II.

Cherevko K.E.
Soviet-Japanese war. August 9 - September 2, 1945

flickr.com/ [email protected]

(To the 65th anniversary of the victory over militaristic Japan)

If the preservation of the neutrality pact between the USSR and Japan in 1941-1945. allowed the Soviet Union to transfer troops and military equipment from the Soviet Far East and from Eastern Siberia to the Soviet-German front, then the defeat of Japan's European allies put on the agenda the issue of the accelerated redeployment of the Soviet armed forces from Europe in the opposite direction, so that the USSR could fulfill its obligation to by their allies to enter on their side into the war with Japan, which has waged a war of aggression against them since 1941, no later than three months after the defeat Nazi Germany given by him at the Yalta conference on February 12, 1945.

On June 28, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander approved war plan with japan, according to which all preparatory measures were to be completed by August 1, 1945, and it was instructed to start the fighting itself by special order. At first, these actions were planned to begin on August 20-25 and be completed in one and a half to two months, and in case of success, even in a shorter time. The troops were tasked with strikes from the Mongolian People's Republic, the Amur Region and Primorye to dismember the troops of the Kwantung Army, isolate them in Central and Southern Manchuria, and completely liquidate scattered enemy groupings.

In response to a memorandum from the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral N.N. Kuznetsov dated July 2, Stalin gave him a number of instructions, in accordance with which the Soviet naval commander put before the Pacific Fleet of the USSR following tasks:

1. to prevent the landing of Japanese troops in Primorye and the penetration of the Japanese Navy into the Tatar Strait;
2. disrupt communications of the Japanese Navy in the Sea of ​​Japan;
3. inflict air strikes on the ports of Japan upon detection of an accumulation of enemy military and transport ships there;
4. support ground forces occupation operations naval bases in North Korea, in South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, as well as be ready for landing in Northern Hokkaido.

Although the implementation of this plan was originally scheduled for 20-25 August 1945, it was later moved by the General Staff of the Red Army to midnight from 8 to 9 August.

Japanese Ambassador to Moscow Sato was warned that from August 9 the Soviet Union would be at war with his state. On August 8, less than one hour before this deadline, he was summoned by Molotov to the Kremlin at 17:00 Moscow time (23:00 Japan time), and he was immediately read and handed the declaration of war by the USSR government. He received permission to send it by telegraph. (True, this information never reached Tokyo, and Tokyo was first informed about the USSR's declaration of war on Japan from a message from Moscow Radio at 4:00 on August 9.)

In this regard, attention is drawn to the fact that Stalin signed the directive on the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan on August 9 at 16:30 on August 7, 1945, i.e. after receiving news of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which marked the beginning of "atomic diplomacy" against our country.

In our opinion, if Stalin, before the Yalta Conference, had agreed with the opinion of the Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Lozovsky, that, while continuing negotiations on the renewal of the neutrality pact with Japan, not to allow the Allies to "draw the USSR into the Pacific War" against her, expressed in his memorandum notes to Molotov dated January 10 and 15, 1945, then the United States - with its allies, having quickly achieved the defeat of Japan as a result of the use of nuclear weapons, would immediately take a dominant position in East Asia and sharply undermine the geostrategic positions of the USSR in this region.

On August 9, 1945, the advanced and reconnaissance detachments of the Trans-Baikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts, respectively, under the command of Marshals of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky and K.A. Meretskov and General of the Army M.A. Purkaev under the general command of Marshal of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky crossed the state border between the USSR and Manchukuo and wedged into enemy territory. With the onset of dawn, they were joined by the main forces of the three fronts, border guards and sailors of the Red Banner Amur River Flotilla. On the same day, Soviet aviation began to operate.

Well mobilized and trained Soviet troops, who had behind them the experience of war with the Nazi armies, armed with first-class weapons because of their time, many times greater than the number of the enemy in the directions of the main attacks, relatively easily crushed the scattered units of the Kwantung Army, which offered stubborn resistance only in individual paragraphs. Nearly complete absence Japanese tanks and aircraft allowed individual Soviet units to penetrate deep into Manchuria almost unhindered.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, after the start of the Soviet-Japanese war, discussions continued on the issue on the adoption of the Potsdam Declaration.

On August 10, the government of Japan, in accordance with the opinion of the emperor, unanimously approved the decision to adopt the Potsdam Declaration, subject to the preservation of the prerogatives of the emperor. "Now after atomic bombing and the entry of the Russians into the war against Japan,” wrote Japanese Foreign Minister S. Togo, “no one objected in principle to the adoption of the Declaration.”

On August 10, the corresponding note was sent to USA. China was also made aware of its content. And on August 13, an official response was received from Washington, which indicated that the final form of government would be established on the basis of free will. Japanese people. To discuss the US government response and make final decision On August 14, a meeting of the government and the high command of the army and navy was convened in the emperor's air raid shelter, at which, in spite of military opposition, the emperor proposed a draft of his rescript on the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and after its approval by the majority of cabinet members on August 15, this document was sent in the USA.

On August 18, the commander of the Kwantung Army, General Yamada, at a meeting with the Soviet command in Shenyang (Mukden), announced the order on the cessation of hostilities and the disarmament of the Kwantung Army. And on August 19, in Changchun, he signed the act of surrender.

On August 17, having received a radiogram with Yamada's statement about his readiness to immediately cease hostilities and disarm, Vasilevsky sent him a reply by radio in which he ordered the Kwantung Army to cease hostilities not immediately, but at 12.00 on August 20, referring to the fact that "Japanese troops went over to counteroffensive on a number of sectors of the front.

During this time, the Soviet troops managed to significantly expand the territories that were part of the zone where they were supposed to accept the surrender of the Japanese armed forces, in accordance with order No. 1 of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Allied Powers in the Pacific, General D. MacArthur of August 14. (The next day after that, he issued a directive on the cessation of hostilities against Japan and, as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Allied Powers, handed it over to the Chief of Staff of the Red Army, General A.I. Antonov, but received an answer that he could take the proposed actions only if will receive an order from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR to this effect.)

In order to maximize the expansion of the zone, which by the time of the surrender of the armed forces of Japan would have been under the control of the Soviet troops, on August 18-19 they landed airborne assault forces in Harbin, Girin and Shenyang (with the capture of Emperor Manchukuo Pu-yi), Changchun and in a number of other cities of Manchuria, and also made significant progress in other areas, in particular, on August 19 they occupied the city of Chengde and reached the Liaodong Peninsula, and on August 22-23 they occupied Port Arthur and Dalny, contrary to the initial intentions of the Americans to send their troops here, ahead of the Russians, under on the pretext that the Kwantung Peninsula is allegedly not included in Manchuria as a Soviet zone for accepting the surrender of the armed forces of Japan.

AT North Korea, the troops in which, as in South Korea, were subordinate to the command of the Kwantung Army, landings were landed by the joint actions of the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front and the Red Navy of the Pacific Fleet, in particular in Pyongyang and Kanko (Hamhin), where they accepted the surrender of Japanese troops.

By August 19, Soviet troops had destroyed 8,674 Japanese troops and captured 41,199 Japanese soldiers and officers.

In accordance with order No. 106 of the commander of the Kwantung Army, General Yamada, dated August 16, the troops subordinate to him in Manchuria and Korea, as well as the troops of Manchukuo, were ordered to immediately stop hostilities, to concentrate in their places of deployment in this moment, and in large cities - on the outskirts and when Soviet troops appear through Soviet parliamentarians, surrender positions, weapons collected in advance to stop resistance, preventing damage to military property and weapons, food and fodder concentrated in other places, control the surrender of Manchukuo troops.

The special order. This document stated that military personnel and civilians who find themselves under the control of the enemy on the basis of the emperor's rescript on the cessation of hostilities on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration are considered by the Japanese authorities not as prisoners of war (hore), but only as internees (yokuryusha). At the same time, the surrender of weapons and submission to the enemy are not, from their point of view, capitulation.

However, this definition of these actions by the Japanese side, although it deserves a positive assessment, since it reduced the bloodshed, did not receive international legal recognition.

It is also important to note the fact that as a result of negotiations on August 18 in the village of Dukhovnoye on the actual surrender of the Japanese troops mentioned above on August 20, the Chief of Staff of the Kwantung Army, General X. Hata obtained from the command of the Red Army the consent to ensure the safety of the Japanese civilian population. However, the obligation was later broken, and these persons were deported to labor camps following the Japanese military personnel.

These days, in relation to the Japanese in the areas occupied by the Red Army, it was proposed to act in accordance with the telegram of Beria, Bulganin and Antonov No. 72929 to Vasilevsky of August 16, in which, in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration, he indicated the axis:

Prisoners of war of the Japanese-Manchurian army will not be taken out to the territory of the USSR. Prisoner-of-war camps must be organized, if possible, in places where the Japanese troops are disarmed ... The food for prisoners of war should be carried out according to the standards that exist in the Japanese army stationed in Manchuria at the expense of local resources.

Although the Japanese often, albeit without enthusiasm, mostly obeyed the orders of their superiors to surrender, battles with small groups of Japanese who ignored these orders were fought in the most diverse regions of Manchuria, especially in the hills. The local Chinese population, who hated their enslavers, actively helped the Soviet troops in their discovery and destruction or capture.

The surrender of Japanese troops on all fronts as a whole was completed by 10 September. In total, during combat operations, Soviet troops captured 41,199 Japanese military personnel and accepted the surrender of 600,000 Japanese soldiers and commanding officers.

“Yes, this issue has been resolved,” Stalin declared at this historic meeting ... “They managed enough in the Soviet Far East during the years of the Civil War. Now their militaristic aspirations have come to an end. It's time to pay off your debts. So they will give them away." And by signing GKO resolution No. 9898ss on the admission, accommodation and labor service of Japanese military personnel. Orally ordered Comrade Vorobyov from the People's Commissariat of Defense through the secretary of the State Defense Committee, "so that he would certainly and in a short time hand over 800 tons of barbed wire to the NKVD", and ordered Beria, who was present at the meeting, to take the implementation of this decision under his control.

This step, illegal from the point of view of the Potsdam Declaration, however, can be explained both by the Japanese attack on Russia in 1904 and the Japanese intervention in Russia in 1918-1925, and active position Japan in the armed border conflicts of the 30s, as well as the difficult internal economic situation.

On the morning of August 9, Soviet artillery began shelling the Japanese border outpost Handenzawa (Handasa), located at 50 degrees north latitude. The Japanese resisted fiercely for three days, hiding in permanent structures, until they were surrounded and destroyed by two battalions of Soviet troops attacking them.

On August 11, Soviet troops launched an offensive in South Sakhalin against the fortified area of ​​Koton (Pobedino) near the Soviet-Japanese border. Japanese troops put up stubborn resistance. The fighting continued until August 19, when the Japanese side officially completely ceased resistance and the surrender of 3,300 Japanese troops was accepted.

In the battles for Maoka (Kholmsk), occupied on August 20, the Japanese lost 300 people, 600 were taken prisoners, and the Soviet soldiers - 77 killed and wounded. Otomari, on the other hand, was taken relatively easily with the capture of 3,400 Japanese troops. The Japanese literature contains the assertion that in response to the proposal of the Japanese side to stop hostilities in South Sakhalin, made on August 17 after receiving an order from Tokyo for a rescript of the emperor on unconditional surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, the Soviet troops in this area, fulfilling the initial order to accept surrender of the Japanese troops from 12.00 on August 20, they refused their offer under the pretext that it was allegedly accompanied by certain conditions, i.e. was not unconditional.

In addition, the Soviet side was aware that in the previous days, the Japanese, in order to regroup forces with the aim of more successful resistance, tried three times to achieve an end to the fighting, using fake truce envoys for this.

This, according to the Japanese side, led to the death of some of the "genuine" truce truants during the skirmish.

By August 25, after the occupation of the cities of Maoka (Kholmsk), Khonto (Nevelsk) and Otomari (Korsakov), the occupation of South Sakhalin by Soviet troops in cooperation with the Soviet Pacific Fleet was completed.

On August 12, the US Navy began military operations in its combat zone south of the Fourth Kuril Strait, subjecting to fierce artillery fire not only the Matua Islands, but also the Paramushir Island, in violation of the agreement reached with the USSR at the Potsdam Conference.

On the same day, US Secretary of State Byrnes ordered their Navy to prepare to occupy the combat zone. "at the appropriate time". On August 14, the original version of the general order to the allied forces No. 1 without mentioning the Kuriles was sent to Stalin.

On August 14, in accordance with the agreement reached between the military representatives of the USSR and the USA at the Potsdam Conference, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff - sent to the State Coordinating Committee on naval war a memorandum on preparations for accepting the surrender of Japanese troops in the zone of the Kuril Islands south of the Fourth Kuril (Onekotan) Strait, which is why the Kuril Islands were not mentioned in the original version of General Order No. 1 of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Allied Powers, General MacArthur.

However, the lack of mention of the Kuriles in this order received by Stalin alerted him, and he suggested that by doing so the American side was trying to evade its obligation to transfer all the Kuril Islands to the USSR, in accordance with the agreement reached in Crimea. That is why, early in the morning of August 15 (Vladivostok time), Stalin ordered Vasilevsky, together with the Pacific Fleet, to prepare for a landing on the Kuril Islands.

On August 16, upon receipt of Truman's telegram of August 15, Stalin raised the question of including all the Kuriles, and not just the Northern ones, in the zone where the surrender of Japanese troops was accepted by Soviet troops. On August 17, a positive response to this proposal was received, and Vasilevsky immediately ordered the landing of troops in the Northern Kuriles.

In his response, Stalin stressed that the Liaodong Peninsula was part of Manchuria, i.e. the Soviet surrender zone of the Kwantung Army, and proposed that Korea be divided along 38 degrees north latitude. on the Soviet and American zones of occupation.

In addition, Stalin proposed that the northern part of Hokkaido from the city of Rumoi to the city of Kushiro be included in the Soviet zone of occupation. The corresponding order N ° 10 on preparations for the occupation of this area from August 19 to September 1 by the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front and Pacific Fleet dated August 18 was sent to the Soviet command. According to the Japanese historian X. Wada, Truman's consent to the Soviet occupation of all the Kuriles was explained by the fact that Stalin went so far as not to claim the occupation of South Korea.

question about occupation of hokkaido was discussed at a meeting of members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR with the participation of Soviet military leaders on June 26-27, 1945, during the consideration of preparations for war with Japan. Marshal Meretskov's proposal to occupy this island was supported by Khrushchev, while Voznesensky, Molotov and Zhukov opposed it.

The first of them substantiated his opinion with the assertion that our army should not be "substituted" under the blow of a powerful Japanese defense, the second declared that the landing on this island was a gross violation of the Yalta agreement, and the third considered the proposal made simply an adventure.

When asked by Stalin how many troops would be needed for this operation, Zhukov replied that four full armies with artillery, tanks and other equipment. Limiting himself to a general statement of the fact that the USSR was ready for war with Japan, Stalin returned to this issue after the success of the Soviet troops in the battles on the fields of Manchuria. The corresponding order - No. 10 on preparations for the occupation of Hokkaido from September 19 to September 1 by the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet of the USSR dated August 18 was sent to Vasilevsky.

agreeing to the Soviet occupation of all the Kuriles, subject to the division of Korea with the United States into zones of occupation at 38 degrees north latitude, Truman categorically rejected Stalin's proposal for the occupation of Northern Hokkaido by the Soviet side. As a result, the said Order No. 1.0 was canceled by Vasilevsky after Stalin's reply of August 22 to Truman on his telegram of August 18.

The refusal of the United States to occupy the northern part of the island of Hokkaido by Soviet troops, where Stalin, in order not to formally violate the provisions of the Potsdam Declaration on the return of Japanese prisoners of war to their homeland, was going to move them for forced labor in special camps, led to the fact that he gave a new order. Vasilevsky's order of August 18, 1945 (to change the original order of Beria and others mentioned above of August 16 on their dispatch to the metropolis) had another tragic consequence that had a detrimental effect on post-war Soviet-Japanese relations - Japanese military personnel who laid down their arms and internees civilians from areas occupied by Soviet troops, on the basis of the order of the State Defense Committee of the USSR No. 9898ss of August 23 (initially 0.5 million people), were sent to special camps in Siberia and the Far East. There they were engaged in forced labor in a harsh climate unusual for the Japanese.

On August 16, Soviet landing craft with troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Army and the people's militia left Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and on August 18 in the morning began landing on the heavily fortified islands of Shumshu (Northern Kuriles) and Paramushir. The enemy met them with heavy fire, and he believed that he was repelling an attack not by Soviet, but by American troops, since the Japanese garrisons did not know about the USSR's entry into the war with Japan, and thick fog made it difficult to identify the enemy.

In the battles for Shumshu, 8800 Soviet soldiers fought, of which 1567 people died. against 23 thousand Japanese, of which 1018 people died. Until August 24, fighting continued for the island of Paramushir.

Battle for the Northern Kuriles began after the adoption by Japan of the Potsdam Declaration and the sending of an order to the Japanese troops to cease hostilities, with the exception of the continuation of active hostilities by the enemy, and the unconditional surrender of Japanese troops on the terms of the said declaration.

In our opinion, heavy losses on both sides could have been avoided if a few days later the Soviet side entered into negotiations with the Japanese garrisons of the Kuril Islands, which by that time, in addition to the emperor's rescript on surrender, had received the same order from their command. As a result, on the morning of August 23, the surrender of all the Japanese began, total number which on about. Shumshu reached, judging only by the personnel of the 73rd and 91st infantry divisions, 13 673 people This point of view is supported by the bloodless occupation by Soviet troops on August 25 of the islands of One Kotan, on August 28 of the islands of Matua, Urup and Iturup and their landing on September 1 on the islands of Kunashir and Shikotan with the capture of 63,840 Japanese troops without fighting.

Simultaneously with the cancellation of the order to land on Hokkaido, Vasilevsky sent a telegram to the commander of the USSR Navy, Admiral Kuznetsov and the commander of the STOF Yumashev, in which, referring to the emperor's rescript on surrender, he suggested that the latter consider the possibility of transporting the main forces of the 87th rifle corps Sakhalin to the South Kuriles (Kunashir and Iturup Islands), bypassing the island of Hokkaido, with a report on their opinion no later than the morning of August 23.

This telegram shows that in connection with the cancellation of the Soviet landing on Hokkaido, the Soviet command, reacting flexibly to the changing situation, decided to try to use this landing to occupy the South Kuriles, after Kuznetsov and Yumashev reacted positively to Vasilevsky's request, starting landing troops here before official signing of the Instrument of Surrender.

As a result, on August 26 began, in fact, separate military operation without the participation of troops, ships and aircraft intended to occupy the Northern and Middle Kuriles up to and including Urup Island.

Captain V. Leonov, having received order N ° 12146 in the city of Korsakov on that day to occupy the islands of Kunashir and Iturup by September 3, due to a lack of fuel on August 28 at 21.50 limited himself to sending only two trawlers to Iturup. On August 28, a forward detachment of Soviet troops landed on this island. The Japanese garrison of the island expressed their readiness to surrender.

On September 1, fearing the small number of Soviet troops, Captain G.I. Brunstein landed on the island of Kunashir, first a forward detachment from the first trawler, and then a second detachment to reinforce him. And although these detachments did not meet the resistance of the Japanese, the occupation of Kunashir was completed only by September 4th. Shikotan Island from the Lesser Kuril Ridge was also occupied by Soviet troops without a fight on September 1.

The operation is Occupation of the Habomai (Flat) Islands- they received these names later, and then they were called Suisho - began on September 2, when Captain Leonov received an order from his command to prepare an operational plan for the occupation of these islands and instructed Captain First Rank Chicherin to lead the appropriate group of troops in case they were occupied. Due to poor communication in difficult weather conditions, Leonov could not, according to him, accurately explain to Chicherin that only the landing plan was required, and not its implementation, which began on September 3.

Arriving in Kunashir at 6.00 on the same day, Chicherin organized two groups for landing on the Habomai Islands: the first to occupy the islands of Shibotsu (Zeleny Island), Suisho (Tanfilyev Island), Yuri (Yuri Island) and Akiyuri (Anuchina Island) , and the second - for the occupation of the islands of Taraku (Polonsky Island) and Harukarumoshir (Dyomin Islands).

On September 3, these groups went without the sanction of a higher Soviet command to these islands and, without meeting any resistance from the Japanese, completed their occupation on September 5; after the signing by the Japanese side of the official Act of Surrender. At the same time, the headquarters of the Far Eastern District called them “native Russian territories” (but only with Japanese names), although these islands could be wrested from Japan only as a measure of punishment for aggression, and not as “native Russian territories”, which they were not .
Having a political and administrative map of Japan, the Soviet command could know that these islands are administratively not part of the Kuril Islands (Chishima), but belong to the Hanasaki district of Hokkaido prefecture. But from the point of view of the usual geographical use in a number of official publications, including explanatory dictionaries and lectures, the Habomai Islands were included in Japan as part of the Kuril Islands. But if the Americans, focusing on the political and administrative division of Japan, occupied them as part of their zone of occupation - the prefectures of Hokkaido, then the Soviet side, obviously, would not insist on a different, usual and, therefore, legally legitimate interpretation of the boundaries of the Kuril Islands, so as not to conflict with the United States. And since the Soviet troops were somehow ahead of the Americans here, the latter, knowing that the Kuriles (Tishima) in common usage included the Habomai Islands, given their low strategic importance, did not, in turn, conflict with the USSR and insist that when distributing zones for accepting the surrender of Japanese troops, the United States took as a basis the political and administrative division of the country, postponing this issue until negotiations on a peace settlement with Japan.

In connection with the above considerations, it is curious that upon arrival at Habomai, the fighters of the Chicherin detachment first of all asked if American troops had landed here, and calmed down only after receiving Negative answer.

It does not matter from a legal point of view, in our opinion, and the reproach addressed to our country that the occupation of the Habomai Islands by the Soviet side occurred after the signing of the Act of Surrender, which legally implemented the final version of MacArthur's general order No. 1 on the distribution of surrender zones of Japanese troops, since these documents do not define the deadline for the implementation of the said order.

On September 2, 1945, the official ceremony of signing the Act of Surrender took place aboard the US battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

On the Japanese side, this document, on behalf of the Emperor and the Government of Japan, was signed by Minister of Foreign Affairs M. Shigemitsu and a representative of the Imperial Headquarters of the Japanese Armed Forces, Chief General Staff E. Umezu, from the allied powers - General D. MacArthur, from the USA - Admiral C. Nimitz, from the Republic of China - Su Yongchang, from Great Britain - B. Fraser, from the USSR - Major General K.N. Derevyanko, then representatives of Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

This document proclaimed acceptance by Japan of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of the Allied Powers- United States, China and Great Britain, joined by the Soviet Union, consent to the unconditional surrender of all armed forces of Japan and the armed forces under its control and the immediate cessation of hostilities, as well as the obligation to comply with all orders of the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Allied Powers, necessary for the implementation this surrender and the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, or any other representative appointed by the Allied Powers.

This document also ordered the Japanese government and the General Staff to immediately release all allied prisoners of war and civilian internees, and ordered the emperor and government to be subordinated to the Supreme Commander of the armed forces of the allied powers.

An important feature of the Far Eastern campaign of the Soviet armed forces in 1945 was concentration of troops and equipment in the directions of the main strikes. For example, the military leadership of the Trans-Baikal Front concentrated 70% of rifle troops and up to 90% of tanks and artillery on the direction of the main attack. This made it possible to increase superiority over the enemy: in infantry - 1.7 times, in guns - 4.5 times, mortars - 9.6 times, tanks and self-propelled guns - 5.1 times and aircraft - 2.6 times. On the 29-kilometer breakthrough section of the 1st Far Eastern Front, the ratio of forces and means was as follows: in manpower - 1.5: 1, in guns - 4: 1, tanks and self-propelled guns - 8: 1, in favor of the Soviet troops. A similar situation developed in the breakthrough areas in the direction of the main attack of the 2nd Far Eastern Front.

As a result of the selfless actions of the Soviet troops, significant damage was inflicted on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment, more than half a million Japanese military personnel were captured and large trophies were taken.

In addition, the Japanese lost about 84,000 killed.

During the Soviet-Japanese War, the courage and heroism of Soviet soldiers. Over 550 formations, units, ships and institutions of the Soviet Armed Forces were awarded guard ranks and honorary titles or awarded military orders of the USSR. 308 thousand soldiers from the Far East were awarded military orders and medals for their personal exploits.

87 soldiers and officers - the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and six, in addition, were awarded the second Gold Star medal.

On September 30, 1945, in commemoration of the brilliant victory of the Soviet armed forces in the final campaign of the Great Patriotic War, the medal "For the Victory over Japan" was established, which was awarded to more than 1.8 million people.

From the period of the invasion of Japanese troops into Manchuria in 1931, under the influence of the Japanese military, the Japanese government began to pursue an anti-Soviet policy, which led to a series of border incidents and armed conflicts in the second half of the 30s. and created in 1941 the threat of Japan's war against the USSR in alliance with Germany and Italy ("Special maneuvers of the Kwantung Army"), despite the conclusion in the same year of the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact. Under these conditions, guided by the principles of modern international law, which allows non-compliance with treaties with aggressors, reflected in the UN Charter of 1945, the Soviet Union, reciprocating the cooperation of the allied powers, primarily the United States, Great Britain and China, contrary to the neutrality pact, decided to enter into a war against Japan, which unleashed an aggressive war against these states.

What were results of the Soviet-Japanese war of 1945? What was her historical meaning and, most importantly for the topic of this work, the role of the Soviet Union in the victory over Japan and thus the end of World War II? The main result of the USSR's war against Japan was its defeat in this war as an integral part of the war in the Pacific and the Far East, as a result of adventurism in the expansionist foreign policy of Japanese militarism. An important role in its failure was also played by the underestimation of the growth of the Soviet military-industrial potential and positive changes in the military doctrine of our country in the 1930s and 1940s compared with the period of the Russo-Japanese War.

The Japanese military doctrine did not take into account the qualitatively increased combat power of the armed forces of our country compared to the period of the Russo-Japanese war, as well as the close coordination and interaction of all branches of the armed forces. By the end of the 30s. certain changes took place in this assessment, which kept Tokyo from entering the war with the USSR in 1941.

With the same stamina and fighting spirit of the Japanese and Soviet military personnel, the latter gained in strength due to the extraordinary power of simultaneous coordinated fire support from artillery, armored forces and aviation.

Some historians reproach the USSR for the fact that the occupation of the southernmost islands of Habomai (Flat) - the southern part of the Lesser Kuril Ridge - took place after the signing of the Act of Surrender from September 3 to 5, 1945. But this was not the only exception, because the battles with the occupation of the territory, occupied by Japanese troops, there were another 40 days after the decision to surrender and on the Asian continent, i.e. after the signing of the aforementioned document on the cessation of the war with Japan as in certain areas Manchuria, and North China, as well as in the region of the southern seas, and the Chiang Kai-shekists, without disarming some Japanese formations, threw them into battle as anti-communist mercenaries in all provinces of North China until 1946.

As for the opinion of foreign scientists from among the critically thinking modern opponents Soviet politics with regard to Japan, as a characteristic, consider the point of view of Professor Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a Japanese by nationality who moved to the United States a long time ago, is interesting, especially as a reflection of the attitude of the Japanese to this war and its consequences for Soviet-Japanese relations. “It would be too unrealistic to expect that the consciousness of Japan's guilt for unleashing the war would also be extended to relations with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, until the Japanese begin a self-critical assessment (in this respect. - K. Ch.) of their past, striking a difficult balance between their commitment to militarism, expansion and war and their justified demand to correct the negative aspects of the Stalinist foreign policy, this historian writes, not without reason, “genuine reconciliation between the two countries is impossible.”

Hasegawa concludes that "the most important reason for this tragedy" is Tokyo's rejection of the Potsdam Declaration immediately after its presentation, which would rule out in principle both the possibility of a war with the USSR and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! And one cannot but agree with this conclusion.

The Soviet Union, with its armed forces, made an important contribution to the victory of the allies over militaristic Japan in the war in the Far East during the Soviet-Japanese war of 1945 - an integral part of the war of its allies in the Pacific Ocean of 1941-1945, but in a broader sense and World War II 1939-1945.

The accession of the USSR to the Potsdam Declaration and its entry into the war against Japan was a decisive factor in Tokyo's decision on the unconditional surrender of its armed forces on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration of the Allies after the use of the United States atomic weapons against the Japanese civilian population in the sense that this event, contrary to calculations on the mediation of the Soviet Union in ending the war in the Pacific, dispelled last hope the imperial government to end it without a crushing defeat, counting on a split in the ranks of the allied coalition.

The victory of the USSR in this war played a huge role in the successful completion of World War II.

Ilya Kramnik, military observer for RIA Novosti.

The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of World War II, lasted less than a month - from August 9 to September 2, 1945, but this month became a key one in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region, and, conversely, initiating many historical processes lasting decades.

background

The prerequisites for the Soviet-Japanese war arose exactly on the day when the Russo-Japanese war ended - on the day the Portsmouth Peace was signed on September 5, 1905. Russia's territorial losses were insignificant - the Liaodong Peninsula rented from China and the southern part of Sakhalin Island. Much more significant was the loss of influence in the world as a whole and in the Far East, in particular, caused by an unsuccessful war on land and the death of most of the fleet at sea. The feeling of national humiliation was also very strong.
Japan became the dominant Far Eastern power; it exploited marine resources almost uncontrollably, including in Russian territorial waters, where it carried out predatory fishing, crab fishing, sea animal hunting, etc.

This situation intensified during the revolution of 1917 and the subsequent Civil War, when Japan actually occupied the Russian Far East for several years, and left the region with great reluctance under pressure from the United States and Great Britain, who feared the excessive strengthening of yesterday's ally in the First World War.

At the same time, there was a process of strengthening Japan's positions in China, which was also weakened and fragmented. The reverse process that began in the 1920s - the strengthening of the USSR, which was recovering from military and revolutionary upheavals - rather quickly led to relations between Tokyo and Moscow that could easily be described as a "cold war". The Far East has long become an arena of military confrontation and local conflicts. By the end of the 1930s, tensions reached a peak, and this period was marked by the two largest clashes between the USSR and Japan in this period - the conflict on Lake Khasan in 1938 and on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939.

Fragile Neutrality

Having suffered quite serious losses and convinced of the power of the Red Army, Japan chose to conclude a neutrality pact with the USSR on April 13, 1941, and free its hands for the war in the Pacific Ocean.

This pact was also needed by the Soviet Union. At that time, it became obvious that the "naval lobby", pushing the southern direction of the war, was playing an increasing role in Japanese politics. The position of the army, on the other hand, was weakened by offensive defeats. The probability of war with Japan was not very high, while the conflict with Germany was getting closer every day.

For Germany itself, Japan's partner in the Anti-Comintern Pact, which saw Japan as the main ally and future partner in the New World Order, the agreement between Moscow and Tokyo was a serious slap in the face and caused complications in relations between Berlin and Tokyo. Tokyo, however, pointed out to the Germans the existence of a similar neutrality pact between Moscow and Berlin.

The two main aggressors of World War II could not agree, and each waged his main war - Germany against the USSR in Europe, Japan - against the USA and Great Britain in the Pacific Ocean. At the same time, Germany declared war on the United States on the day of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, but Japan did not declare war on the USSR, which the Germans had hoped for.

However, relations between the USSR and Japan could hardly be called good - Japan constantly violated the signed pact, detaining Soviet ships at sea, periodically allowing attacks by Soviet military and civilian ships, violating the border on land, etc.

It was obvious that the signed document was not valuable for any of the parties for any long period, and the war was only a matter of time. However, since 1942, the situation gradually began to change: the marked turning point in the war forced Japan to abandon long-term plans for a war against the USSR, and at the same time, the Soviet Union began to consider plans for the return of territories lost during the Russo-Japanese War more and more carefully.

By 1945, when the situation became critical, Japan tried to start negotiations with the Western allies, using the USSR as an intermediary, but this did not bring success.

During the Yalta Conference, the USSR announced an obligation to start a war against Japan within 2-3 months after the end of the war against Germany. The intervention of the USSR was seen as necessary by the allies: to defeat Japan, it was necessary to defeat its ground forces, which for the most part had not yet been affected by the war, and the allies feared that landing on the Japanese islands would cost them great sacrifices.

Japan, with the neutrality of the USSR, could count on the continuation of the war and the reinforcement of the forces of the mother country at the expense of resources and troops stationed in Manchuria and Korea, communication with which continued, despite all attempts to interrupt it.

The declaration of war by the Soviet Union finally destroyed these hopes. On August 9, 1945, speaking at an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council for the Direction of War, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki stated:

"The entry into the war of the Soviet Union this morning puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war."

It should be noted that the nuclear bombings in this case were only an additional reason for an early exit from the war, but not the main reason. Suffice it to say that the massive bombing of Tokyo in the spring of 1945, which caused about the same number of victims as Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, did not lead Japan to thoughts of surrender. And only the entry into the war of the USSR against the backdrop of nuclear bombings forced the leadership of the Empire to recognize the futility of continuing the war.

"August Storm"

The war itself, nicknamed in the West "August Storm", was swift. Possessing rich experience in military operations against the Germans, the Soviet troops broke through the Japanese defenses in a series of quick and decisive blows and launched an offensive deep into Manchuria. Tank units successfully advanced in seemingly unsuitable conditions - through the sands of the Gobi and the Khingan ridges, but the military machine, debugged over the four years of the war with the most formidable enemy, practically did not fail.

As a result, by August 17, the 6th Guards Tank Army advanced several hundred kilometers - and about one hundred and fifty kilometers remained to the capital of Manchuria, the city of Xinjing. By this time, the First Far Eastern Front had broken the resistance of the Japanese in the east of Manchuria, having occupied the largest city in that region - Mudanjiang. In a number of areas in the depths of the defense, Soviet troops had to overcome fierce enemy resistance. In the zone of the 5th Army, it was carried out with special force in the Mudanjiang area. There were cases of stubborn resistance by the enemy in the zones of the Trans-Baikal and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. The Japanese army also made repeated counterattacks. On August 17, 1945, in Mukden, Soviet troops captured the Emperor of Manchukuo Pu Yi (formerly the last emperor of China).

On August 14, the Japanese command made a proposal to conclude a truce. But in practice, hostilities on the Japanese side did not stop. Only three days later, the Kwantung Army received an order from its command to surrender, which began on August 20. But even he did not immediately reach everyone, and in some places the Japanese acted contrary to the order.

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation was launched, during which Soviet troops occupied the Kuril Islands. On the same day, August 18, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Vasilevsky, ordered the occupation of the Japanese island of Hokkaido by the forces of two rifle divisions. This landing was not carried out due to the delay in the advance of Soviet troops in South Sakhalin, and then postponed until the instructions of the Headquarters.

Soviet troops occupied the southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea. The main fighting on the continent was carried out for 12 days, until August 20. However, individual battles continued until September 10, which became the day the complete surrender and capture of the Kwantung Army ended. The fighting on the islands ended completely on 5 September.

Japan's surrender was signed on September 2, 1945 aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

As a result, the millionth Kwantung Army was completely defeated. According to Soviet data, its losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, about 600 thousand were taken prisoner. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 12 thousand people.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its composition the territories previously lost by Russia (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and the Far East, subsequently transferred to China), as well as the Kuril Islands, the ownership of the southern part of which is still disputed by Japan.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuriles (Chishima Retto). But the treaty did not determine the ownership of the islands and the USSR did not sign it.
Negotiations on the southern part of the Kuril Islands are still ongoing, and there are no prospects for a quick resolution of the issue.