History 23/01/20 How the Chinese justified the seizure of the Soviet Damansky island
In 1969, as a result of skirmishes with the Chinese on Damansky island and lake Zhalanashkol in total, killed 60 Soviet soldiers. Explaining the actions of their military, the Chinese leadership blamed the Soviet Union, which he allegedly arranged a provocation, wanting to make a border conflict.
the Maoists against Moscow
Historically, the border along the Ussuri river between tsarist Russia and the Qing Empire was established by several treaties – Iganski, Beijing and St. Petersburg. The demarcation of the borders of the USSR and the Republic of China started already in the 1920-1930-ies. According to the signed documents, Chinese territory ended at the river, and the Islands were ceded to the Russians. This situation was acceptable to all until the 1960s, when Beijing suddenly remembered the concept of “frontier river”, established in 1919 at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Established international practice meant the boundary at the center of the channel of the river. With this approach, the Damansky island could really be considered Chinese.
the Main cause of the confrontation was ideological differences between Mao Zedong and the leadership of the Communist party, which began after Stalin’s death and Khrushchev’s speech at the XX Congress. The Maoists accused the Soviet Union in the seizure of foreign territories. In 1964, the “great helmsman” has declared that the Soviet Union “occupied too much space”. According to the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist party of China through unequal treaties of the Soviet neighbors, have seized 1.5 million square km of Chinese territory. It was primarily about the former “Outer Manchuria” (the Amur region, Primorye, Khabarovsk Krai), as well as on certain areas of Kazakhstan and Central Asia.
Prague spring of 1968 gave Beijing a reason to declare that the Soviet Union pursued a policy of “socialist imperialism.” Business in China at that time was bad: “Cultural revolution” seriously affected the economic indicators were in full swing. To consolidate his power, Mao Zedong needed an external enemy. Instigated by Maoist red guards at the meetings raised placards with demands to “smash the dog heads” of Brezhnev and Kosygin.
Justification for conflict
Pushing their citizens for violation of the border, the Chinese claimed that the Soviet border guards supposedly do “provocations”, beating residents of the PRC, engaged in business activities in the “usual” for themselves places. These words do not look absurd, Chinese farmers once plowed the whole island on tractors. In fact, the island was chosen by the red guards, not doing anything but chanting slogans from Mao’s quotations. When the Russians asked them to leave, they climbed into the fray. It came to the fact that the Ministry of foreign Affairs of China officially demanded from Moscow to admit “the fact of the seizure of Chinese territories”.
in a Similar way, apparently, the Chinese are going to justify the shooting near lake Zhalanashkol, the ensuing 13 Aug 1969. The USSR allegedly illegally seized a small section of the “Chinese” land with a hill in the center. Here the red guards were making faces and spitting in the Soviet border guards, provoking them to reciprocal actions.
“Once my eyes ran to our territory. Demanded to get – do not respond. Gave a warning shot up and chickened out, then took off,” recalled Eugene Dialect, Deputy chief of the frontier “Zhalanashkol”.
However, propaganda statements after the armed clashes in Eastern Kazakhstan was not followed. Probably the result was not the one expected by the Chinese, and it was resolved not to betray to wide publicity. In September 1969, tensions between countries began to subside – helped Kosygin talks with the Chinese leadership. In respect of damanskii island was the status quo, in fact, he became neutral territory. The menin October, the Chinese foreign Ministry reiterated phrase about “half a million square kilometers of the occupied Chinese territory”, and in subsequent years, the border provocations continued, although not so bloody.
Timur Sagdiyev
Source:
© Russian Seven
see also: editor’s choice, “Russian Seven”thieves in law on the eve of the Olympics-80 struggled with prestupnostyu snipers at the end of the great Patriotic was not wearing a distinctive Black snakepower devil in Khakassia: the most mysterious place in Sibirtrans Saturn in Capricorn: how will it affect RussianAcademy article also Listen to the podcast “the Russian Seven”. Share: Comments Comments on the article “How the Chinese justified the seizure of the Soviet Damansky island” Please log in to leave a comment! br>
Share on Tumblr
