1960s in frontier history, it is, first of all, the confrontation on the Soviet-Chinese border. It ended with bloody battles on Damansky Island, on the Ussuri River in the Primorsky Territory (March 2 and 15, 1969) and a clash in the Zhalanashkol Lake area (August 12-13 of the same year) in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan.
At the same time, the battle of March 2 had no analogues in world history and even entered the encyclopedia "Great battles and battles of the 20th century": 30 Soviet border guards, armed mainly with machine guns and machine guns, defeated a Chinese battalion reinforced by artillery (500 people), killing 248 soldiers and officers of the enemy ...
Panorama of Damansky Island (helicopter shot)
Map of Damanskoye surroundings, owned by Colonel D.V. Leonov
But in general, all these three battles are also a series of debuts in the use of various types of weapons, mainly small arms, and in the development of tactics for dealing with them in specific combat situations.
No way without a horn!
Even before the shutters of machine guns clattered and shots rang out on Damansky, the border guards “went to the Chinese”, who were then massively violating the border, with home-grown edged weapons. They themselves, to their surprise, returned to what was used, probably, only by prehistoric people in cave times and by peasants in the course of large and small peasant uprisings. The Museum of the Border Troops has characteristic photographs taken in the winter of 1968.
Hero Soviet Union Major General Vitaly Bubenin (at that time a lieutenant, head of the 2nd outpost "Kulebyakiny Sopki") told the author of these lines about one of the first clashes with violators because of the Ussuri. On November 6, 1967, a dozen and a half Chinese went out onto the ice of the river, began to peck holes and set up nets. As soon as the border guards approached, the uninvited guests quickly gathered in a heap and unequivocally put in front of them what they used to break through the ice - crowbars, ice picks and axes. It was not possible to expel them peacefully - they had to use the "tactic of the stomach", as the soldiers themselves called this method. That is, they were taken by the arms and, trying to envelop the Chinese in a semicircle, to force them out of the border.
Border guards of the 1st outpost "Nizhne-Mikhailovka" on an armored personnel carrier, but with "medieval" spears
Soon, dissatisfied with the sluggish actions of the inhabitants of the border area, the Chinese organizers of the provocations sent "Mao's guardsmen" - Red Guards and Tszaofans - to Damansky. These are radicals from young people under the age of 35, who helped the “great helmsman” to successfully carry out the cultural revolution, to carry out a series of purges. And these fanatics, Bubenin notes, from one provocation to another became more and more furious and fierce.
It was then that, in order to protect the personnel and reduce the risk of injury during forceful contact, Lieutenant Bubenin “invented” horns and clubs. He described in detail the tactics of dealing with them in the book Bloody Snow of Damansky, Events of 1966-1969, published in 2004 by the publishing houses "Border" and "Kuchkovo Pole". We quote with the permission of the author:
« The soldiers with great pleasure and zeal carried out my command to prepare a new and at the same time the most ancient weapon of primitive man. V each soldier had his own oak or black birch, lovingly planed and polished club. A lanyard is attached to the handle so that it does not fly out of the hands. They were stored in a pyramid along with weapons. So, on alarm, the soldier took the machine gun and grabbed the club. And as a group weapon used spears. In their appearance, in terms of tactical and technical data, in terms of the purposes of application, they resembled the weapons of Siberian hunters, who in ancient times went with them to a bear.
They helped us out a lot in the beginning. When the Chinese were throwing a wall at us, we simply put our spears forward, just like in medieval battles. The soldiers liked it very much. Well, if some daredevil nevertheless broke through, then, excuse me, he voluntarily ran into a club».
But the Maoists also changed the tactics of provocations, introducing some novelty into each one. Against border clubs and horns, they "improved" their stakes and sticks, reinforcing them with nails at the ends.
Fire foam and jet
And soon Bubenin used regular fire extinguishers from an armored personnel carrier against violators. He came up with the following: when the armored personnel carrier caught up with the Chinese, powerful jets of foam suddenly hit them from the loopholes of one of the sides of the armored vehicle. " The Chinese are literally crazy- said General Bubenin. - Immediately they rushed in all directions, but most fell into the wormwood, near which they stood. We got out and, in order not to get frostbite, quickly left the island. True, out of annoyance and anger, they managed to mock the armored personnel carrier: they left traces of crowbar blows on the sides, doused them with tar».
After some time, Bubenik used the restless and ... fire truck. He borrowed it for a while from the district fire chief. While there were no provocations, Lieutenant Bubenin trained his fire brigade for several days. Next - again we quote the memoirs of General Bubenin:
« On that December day, about a hundred Chinese came out onto the Ussuri ice. We moved to expel them. Our column had a rather menacing appearance; An armored personnel carrier walked ahead, followed by a ZIL with a huge fire barrel resembling a gun barrel, a GAZ-66 with guards, sparkling with fresh red paint. The Chinese were definitely in shock ... As usual, they climbed on our soldiers with stakes. And then I gave the command to run away to the fire truck and cover it. At the same time, she roared and a powerful ice jet hit the crowd of Chinese running after the soldiers from the fire barrel. It had to be seen!»
Automatic as a club
In February 1968, a new battle on the ice took place, in which up to a thousand military personnel already participated from the Chinese coast of the Ussuri in the area of \u200b\u200bKirkinsky Island. There were significantly fewer border guards. Bubenin supplemented the picture of this "cold battle" with the following details: The crackling of stakes, butts, skulls and bones was heard ... The soldiers, wrapping their belts around their hands, fought with what was left of them».
In this fight, Bubenin used an armored personnel carrier for the first time against an angry mob of Maoists. He acted unconsciously, only feeling that there was no other way out. The situation was on the verge of irreparable, some kind of spark was missing, and so that it would not arise, the head of the outpost jumped into an armored personnel carrier and ordered it to be sent directly to the Chinese. The car went to ram the crowd, cutting off the outrageous from the border guards. The Chinese shied away from the powerful wheels and armor in fear, began to scatter ... Silence reigned. The battle was over.
« We looked around, looked around... - says Bubenin, - Imagine, they fought in such a way that about fifty machine guns and machine guns fell into complete disrepair! Only trunks with belts remained of them, the rest is scrap metal».
First shots
In one of the described battles on the ice, the Chinese from an ambush tried to capture a whole group of border guards. Soldiers from the reserve were the last to rush to the rescue.
“At that moment,” recalls General Bubenin, “two pistol shots sounded on the Chinese side. Immediately, the shutters of our machine guns clicked. Fortunately, the soldiers still did not dare to open fire without a command. And it seemed to me: now, now ... I rushed to them and, shaking my fists, screamed with all my might; “Not shooting-a-at! Put the fuse on! Everyone back!" The soldiers lowered their barrels reluctantly.
The first warning fire on provocateurs was opened in August 1968. The Chinese managed to force out the border guards from the islands mentioned above and establish crossings. That's when machine guns hit the sky, and then mortars were used. With the help of the latter, they destroyed the crossings and "liberated" the islands.
In January 1969, not the Red Guards, but the soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) acted against the Soviet border guards on Damansky. “During the skirmishes,” writes in his historical research Damansky and Zhalanashkol. 1969," military journalist Andrey Musalov, - our border guards managed to beat off several dozen guns.
When inspecting the weapons, it was found that in some machine guns and carbines the cartridges were sent to the chamber "... Bubenin in his memoirs specifies that in one of the fights he and his subordinates managed to get trophies in the form of five Kh-9957 carbines, an AK-47 assault rifle and pistol "TT", and almost all of them were ready for fire use.
“Without a machine gun at the border, you are zero”
Meanwhile, despite the most difficult situation on the border, the diversion of forces for the expulsion of the Chinese and the elimination of the consequences of provocations, intensified fire training was going on at the 1st and 2nd outposts.
« My subordinates shot uniquely, - Vitaly Bubenin recalls. - The 2nd outpost, where I was the chief, spent 24 hours a day at the shooting range. Shot - went to work. It was like this: if you shoot a little, then you are reprimanded for this at a meeting in the detachment. Two or three ammunition for educational practice kindly shoot! Everyone at the outpost knew how to shoot from all standard weapons, including my wife».
AK-47 private V. Izotov. This machine gun fired at Damansky ...
One curious case is connected with Bubenin's wife, Galina, which Vitaly Dmitrievich described in his book "The Bloody Snow of Damansky". In the summer of 1968, the head of the detachment, Colonel Leonov, arrived at his outpost - he decided to see how young officers live. He asked where Galina was, expressed a desire to talk with her. " Approaching the house, - writes Bubenin, - I heard incomprehensible sounds, remotely resembling hammer blows on a nail. — My wife seems to be doing some renovations. It didn't seem like she was going to. As we entered the yard, we heard the sounds of small-caliber rifle firing. The arrow was not yet visible, but the cans hung on the picket fence, accurately made their way one after another. It became clear to me: my wife practiced the skills of owning military weapons».
In these stories, Bubenin is supplemented by General Yuri Babansky (by the time of the battles for the island, he served at the 1st outpost):
- A lot of attention was paid to fire training in the Border Troops. Each fired exclusively from his machine gun, and not from one or two brought to the shooting range, as, I know, happened then in the units of the Soviet army ... If the border guard at the training post did not learn to shoot accurately enough, then he continues to improve fire skills at the outpost. The first thing he does when he arrives at the outpost is to get a machine gun and two magazines to go with it. And every day he cleans his weapon, cherishes it, grooms it, shoots it, shoots it. At the outpost, weapons are an integral part Everyday life border guard. Understanding that without a machine gun at the border you are zero, everyone who has tried on a green cap comprehends in the course of military service. If something happens, you are obliged to accept the battle and hold a section of the border until reinforcements arrive. It happened on Damansky ...
“The tactics of the border troops,” the general continues. - based on combat techniques that allow you to save people's lives. And during the battle, these techniques were just used by us - already subconsciously; when they fired at us, we did not lie in one place, but quickly changed positions, ran across, rolled over, camouflaged, fired back ... And the fact that we defeated the Chinese forces that were much superior to us - I explain only by our combat training, by the fact that our soldiers they knew how to shoot well, they owned their weapons superbly! Plus, of course, courage, courage, high moral qualities. But gun ownership is the most important factor.
Debuts Damansky
The events of March 2 and 15, 1969 have been repeatedly described in the literature and periodicals, so there is no point in repeating. We only recall that the group of senior lieutenant Strelnikov, consisting of seven people, was shot by the Chinese at close range in the first moments of the battle - not one of this seven had time to respond with a single bullet. A minute earlier, Private Nikolai Petrov, who was taking photographs and filming during negotiations with provocateurs, managed to take his last shot. You can clearly see how the Chinese soldiers disperse into position... The battle on March 2 began at about 11 am and lasted more than an hour and a half...
The last pictures taken by a newsreel, Private N. Petrov. In a minute, the Chinese will open fire to kill and Petrov will be killed ...
The parties acted against each other with practically the same type of small arms - Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns (the Chinese, as you know, during the years of the "indestructible friendship of the two peoples" acquired a license from the Soviet Union for the production of the AK-47 assault rifle). It was at Damansky that the Kalashnikov assault rifle, which was already widespread all over the world, for the first time became the main type of weapon used by both opposing sides. In addition, the Chinese were armed with carbines and grenade launchers.
Let us dwell only on the most remarkable moments of the battle, which have become novelties in the use of weapons.
The group of Sergeant Babansky, who followed Strelnikov to intercept the violators, lagged behind and took the fight after the head of the outpost was killed. In his study, military journalist Andrey Musalov writes that “as a result of intense shooting, Babansky’s group almost completely shot ammunition” (note that in that battle, the border guards had two magazines in their pouches, and the Chinese had, as they say now, “bras” , or "unloading" - six each). Babansky himself told the author of these lines the following:
- When we were moving around the island, below, about 25-30 meters, I saw negotiators, ours and Chinese. You could hear them talking in raised tones. I realized that something was wrong, and at that moment I heard a single shot on the island. After that, the Chinese parted and shot all our guys point-blank, along with Strelnikov. And it became clear to me that it was necessary to open fire. I gave a command to my subordinates, who ran after me in a chain: “Fire at the Chinese!”
We quickly intuitively felt that if we shoot in bursts - and the rate of fire of the machine gun is 600 rounds per minute - then we will use up the ammunition load in a second, and the Chinese will simply shoot us. Therefore, they began to shoot single. And - aiming, and not anywhere. And it saved us. We fired at the nearest enemy, because he was more dangerous to us than the one who hid somewhere in the distance. We suppressed the Chinese firing points, especially machine-gun ones, and this made it possible to reduce the density of their fire, and to give us the opportunity to survive.
In general, it is best to shoot single shots from a machine gun. To create a psychological environment, as if to induce panic in the ranks of the enemy, fire in bursts is important, but in terms of its real destructive power, it is ineffective ...
Due to the fact that the weapons were of the same type and the cartridges of both sides were of the same caliber, in a number of cases the border guards borrowed ammunition from the dead Chinese. The most remarkable episode is associated with the actions of junior sergeant Vasily Kanygin and the cook of the outpost, Private Nikolai Puzyrev. They managed to destroy a large number of Chinese soldiers (later calculated - almost a platoon), and at that moment they ran out of ammunition. Bubble crawled up to the dead and took from them six stores mentioned above. This allowed both to continue the fight.
General Babansky, in a conversation with me, also noted the reliability of weapons: - " No one had any failures, despite the fact that the machine guns hit the ground, rolled in the snow…»
Machine gunner Sergeant Nikolai Tsapaev, who once gave an interview to Komsomolskaya Pravda, commented on his PK machine gun: “ I fired at least five thousand shots from my rifle machine gun. The barrel turned gray, the paint melted, but the machine gun worked flawlessly».
A group of border guards from the outpost of V. Bubenin (the picture was taken shortly after the fighting in Damascus, armored personnel carriers of reinforcement troops are visible in the background
For the first time in a clash, armored personnel carriers equipped with KPVT and PKT turret machine guns were used. In the late 1960s, these armored personnel carriers were still considered a novelty. BTR-60PB, unlike other modifications, was fully armored. Bubenin, who acted on one of these vehicles, suppressed enemy firing points with machine guns, and crushed the Chinese with wheels. In one of the episodes of the battle, according to him, he managed to put down an entire infantry company of PLA soldiers who were moving to the island in order to reinforce the violators already fighting. When one armored personnel carrier was hit, Bubenin moved to another, again went out on it to the Maoists and destroyed a fair number of them before this vehicle was also hit by an armor-piercing projectile.
Therefore, already on March 15, PLA soldiers went out into battle armed with a significant number of hand grenade launchers, because here, in order to prevent a new military provocation, not two armored personnel carriers were involved, but 11, four of which operated directly on the island, and seven were in reserve.
The tension of that battle can be judged from the recollections of Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Yanshin, commander of the motorized border group, who was operating on one of the wheeled armored vehicles: “ In my commander's car there was a continuous roar, fumes, powder smoke. I saw that Sulzhenko, who was firing from the machine guns of the armored personnel carrier, threw off his sheepskin coat, then his pea coat, unbuttoned the collar of his tunic with one hand. I see, he jumped up, kicked the seat with his foot and poured fire while standing. Without looking back, he holds out his hand for a new can of cartridges. Loading Round only manages to load the tapes. “Don’t get excited,” I shout, “save ammo!” I point out the targets to him ... Because of the continuous fire, explosions of mines and shells of neighboring armored personnel carriers, it is not visible ... Then the machine gun fell silent. Sulzhenko was taken aback for a moment. Reloads, presses the electric trigger - only a single shot follows. He went to the cover of the machine gun, opened it, fixed the malfunction. Machine guns started working…»
“Against border armored personnel carriers,” points out in his book “Damansky and Zhapanashkol. 1969 "Andrey Musalov, - the Chinese left a large number of lone grenade launchers. They camouflaged themselves well among the bushes and trees that grew densely on the island. Yanshin singled out a group of border guards from the landing force, whose task was to destroy grenade launchers. Under heavy fire, this group had to seek out the grenade launchers, suppress them with small arms fire and prevent them from approaching the armored personnel carriers within the range of an RPG shot. This tactic gave a result - the fire from the RPG decreased.
To reduce the probability of defeat, armored personnel carriers did not stop maneuvering for a minute, moving from one natural shelter to another. At critical moments, when the threat of defeat of armored personnel carriers increased, Yanshin deployed paratroopers in a chain. They, together with the crew of the armored personnel carrier, inflicted fire damage on the enemy. After that, the paratroopers got on the armored personnel carrier and followed to the next shelter.
Armored personnel carriers, in which the ammunition was ending, left the battlefield, moved to the Soviet coast of the Ussuri, where an ammunition depot was organized. Having replenished the supply, the combat vehicles again left for Damansky. Every minute the enemy increased the density of mortar fire. From the “heavy” weapons, the border guards had only SPG-9 heavy grenade launchers and heavy machine guns KPVS.
Captured weapons captured in the battles on Damansky (SKS carbine and M-22 assault rifle made in China)
In total, in that battle, the Chinese managed to knock out and completely disable three armored personnel carriers of the border guards, but all the vehicles directly involved in the battle had more or less damage. The main fire weapon that was used against armored personnel carriers was the RPG-2 hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher. Against each armored personnel carrier, Mao's army commanders threw up to a dozen lone grenade launchers. As Musapov notes, “despite the fact that Chinese grenade launchers, manufactured, like the rest of Chinese weapons, according to Soviet technology, were inferior to Soviet models, they turned out to be a very formidable weapon. Later, this was convincingly proved in the course of the Arab-Israeli conflicts.”
Later, on the same day, T-62 tanks were used against the Chinese. However, the Chinese were ready to meet them. On the way of the movement of the tank group, they camouflaged several anti-tank guns. Here, in ambush, there were many grenade launchers. The lead car was hit immediately, the crew that tried to leave it was destroyed by small arms fire. The head of the border detachment, Colonel Democrat Leonov, who was in this T-62, died from a sniper's bullet that hit the heart. The rest of the tanks were forced to withdraw.
The outcome of the case, in the end, was decided by the firing debut of the BM-21 Grad army multiple launch rocket division, which hit the Chinese 20 km deep into their territory. At that time, the super-secret "Grad" within 10 (according to other sources 30) minutes fired several volleys of high-explosive fragmentation ammunition. The defeat was impressive - almost all the reserves, warehouses and ammunition points of the enemy were destroyed. The Chinese fired harassing fire on the island for another half an hour, until they finally calmed down.
Zhalanashkol
The events in the area of Lake Zhalanashkol in August 1969 (they are also described in some detail in the literature) differed from the point of view of the use of weapons and military equipment there by the more precise tactics of the Chinese military personnel. By that time, they already had not only the bloody experience of Damansky, but also the lessons of bloodless military provocations in the area of the village of Dulaty (Kazakhstan) on May 2-18 and in the area of the Tasta River on June 10 (also Kazakhstan).
Participants in the battles on the Kamennaya Hill (Zhalanashkol, August 1969)
Captured Chinese pistol "model 51". Caliber 7.62 mm, weight 0.85 kg, magazine capacity 8 rounds.
Under Dulaty, as the candidate of military sciences, Colonel Yuri Zavatsky describes those events in the magazine Veteran of the Border (No. 3/1999), the Chinese defiantly began to dig in on the hills located on Soviet territory. The Soviet military command also defiantly brought the Grads here. And for two weeks, both sides, improving their positions and conducting reconnaissance, waged a psychological confrontation.
The Chinese soon realized that “you can’t argue against the Grads” and, after negotiations, got out of the so-called contested area. In the area of the Tasta River, as Musalov describes that skirmish, fire was opened. Here, the border guards expelled a shepherd who defiantly drove a flock of sheep across the border. The Chinese armed cavalry, who were supporting the actions of the shepherd, were the first to pull the shutters; they were helped from two more directions, including from the dominant height on Chinese territory. But the calculation of the machine gun of privates Viktor Shchyugarev and Mikhail Boldyrev suppressed all firing points at this height with well-aimed fire. And then both stopped by fire and the sortie of an armed group of Maoists. It is not known whether the Chinese were collecting corpses, but the Russian "green caps" repelled this provocation without loss.
And in August events broke out near Zhalanashkol. Here, the tactics of fighting the Chinese against armored personnel carriers were further developed. The Maoists managed to dig in at night on three hills on the Soviet side, which they considered "originally Chinese." And in the morning they began to transfer reinforcements to their positions. In order to prevent the movement of the armed forces of the enemy, the chief of staff of the detachment in charge of this sector, Lieutenant Colonel Nikitenko, advanced to intercept in three armored personnel carriers.
On the demands of the head of the Zhalanashkol outpost, Lieutenant Yevgeny Govor, to leave the territory, the Chinese immediately responded with machine gun and carbine fire. While the situation was reported to the “tops” (and there, as in the cases on Damansky, they were replayed from chief to chief), the enemy continued to dig in. And then Nikitenko decided to attack him in armored personnel carriers with the support of assault groups.
On one of them, at number 217, which moved to the flank of the enemy positions, the PLA soldiers concentrated their most dense fire. The armored personnel carrier proved to be very tenacious. All external equipment was demolished by bullets and shrapnel, wheels were riddled, armor was pierced in several places, and the turret was jammed from a grenade explosion. Second lieutenant Vladimir Puchkov, who was sitting behind a machine gun, was wounded in the thigh, but after bandaging the wound, he continued to fire. Three more wheeled armored vehicles rushed to the rescue of the 217th. It was then that the Chinese grenade launchers showed themselves most actively: Damansky's experience was not in vain.
By the way, after the battle, one was found among the corpses of the Chinese, who during his lifetime was awarded a sign with a portrait of Mao Zedong. Under the image of the "great helmsman" it was indicated that the award was granted "in honor of the victorious repulse of the aggression of the Soviet revisionists on the island of Zhenbaodao." Since the Chinese in their own way called - and are now calling - the Damansky Island, which had gone to them, according to the agreements with Russia in the 1990s.
One of the grenade launchers, who approached the armored personnel carrier at a dangerous distance, was killed by the gunner junior sergeant Vladimir Zavoronitsyn, who hit the enemy with onboard machine guns. The border armored personnel carriers constantly maneuvered back and forth, preventing the Maoist grenade launchers from conducting aimed fire. At the same time, the drivers tried to stick to the enemy with the thickest frontal armor. Only half an hour after the start of the battle, the 217th was finally put out of action.
The battle near Lake Zhalanashkol is also notable for the fact that in the last minutes both sides used hand grenades against each other here. From the crest of the height they occupied, the Chinese threw black grenades with thick, for some reason unmasking white wooden handles at the attacking border guards. In response, Private Viktor Ryazanov managed to throw grenades at the dead enemies. This became the “victory point” in that fierce battle. True, Ryazanov himself was mortally wounded and died in a helicopter on the way to the hospital.
Loss ratio
The losses of Soviet border guards and servicemen of the border troops of China and the PLA in the battles of 1969 are as follows. On Damansky Island on March 2, 31 border guards were killed and 20 were injured. The provocateurs lost at least 248 people killed (as many of their corpses were found directly on the island after the end of the battle).
Vitaly Bubenin recalled how on March 3, Colonel-General Zakharov, the first deputy chairman of the KGB chairman of the USSR, arrived at Damansky, who personally crawled the entire island, studied all the circumstances of an unequal firefight. After that, Zakharov said to Lieutenant Bubenin: “ Son, I went through the civil war, the Great Patriotic War, the fight against the OUN in Ukraine. I saw everything. But I didn't see it!».
By the way, Bubenin and Babansky themselves are still "modest". In a conversation with me, not one of them “claimed” to have more Chinese losses than officially recognized, although it is clear that dozens of corpses remained on Chinese territory, and the losses of the Maoists may well be 350-400 people.
On March 15, 21 border guards and 7 motorized riflemen were killed. There were more wounded - 42 people. The Chinese lost over 700 people. The number of wounded on the Chinese side amounted to several hundred people. In addition, 50 Chinese soldiers and officers were shot for cowardice.
Near lake Zhalanashkol 2 border guards were killed and about 20 people were wounded and shell-shocked. A dozen killed Chinese were buried on Soviet territory alone.
All this suggests that it is not enough to have good weapons (let us recall once again: both the Soviet border guards and the Maoists had about the same weapons), you also need to master them perfectly.
Original taken from parker_111 in the Conflict on Damansky Island.1969
After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision appeared that the borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily), run along the middle of the main fairway of the river. But it also provided for exceptions, such as drawing a border along one of the coasts, when such a border developed historically - by agreement or if one side colonized the other coast before the other began to colonize it.
In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive. Nevertheless, in the late 1950s, when the PRC, seeking to increase its international influence, came into conflict with Taiwan (1958) and participated in the border war with India (1962), the Chinese used the new border provisions as an excuse to revise the Soviet -Chinese border.
The leadership of the USSR was ready to go for it, in 1964 a consultation was held on border issues, but ended to no avail.
Due to ideological differences during the Cultural Revolution in China and after Prague Spring In 1968, when the PRC authorities announced that the USSR had embarked on the path of "socialist imperialism", relations became especially aggravated.
Damansky Island, which was part of the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, is located on the Chinese side of the main channel of the Ussuri. Its dimensions are 1500-1800 m from north to south and 600-700 m from west to east (an area of about 0.74 km²).
During the flood period, the island is completely hidden under water and does not represent any economic value.
Since the early 1960s, the situation around the island has been heating up. According to the statements of the Soviet side, groups of civilians and military personnel began to systematically violate the border regime and enter Soviet territory, from where they were expelled each time by border guards without the use of weapons.
At first, at the direction of the Chinese authorities, peasants entered the territory of the USSR and defiantly engaged in economic activities there: mowing and grazing, declaring that they were on Chinese territory.
The number of such provocations increased dramatically: in 1960 there were 100 of them, in 1962 - more than 5,000. Then the Red Guards began to attack border patrols.
The number of such events was in the thousands, each of them involved up to several hundred people.
On January 4, 1969, a Chinese provocation was carried out on Kirkinsky Island (Qiliqingdao) with the participation of 500 people.
According to the Chinese version of events, the Soviet border guards themselves staged provocations and beat up Chinese citizens who were engaged in economic activities where they always did it.
During the Kirkinsky incident, they used armored personnel carriers to oust civilians and crushed 4 of them, and on February 7, 1969, they fired several single automatic shots in the direction of the Chinese border detachment.
However, it has been repeatedly noted that none of these clashes, no matter whose fault they occurred, could result in a serious armed conflict without the approval of the authorities. The assertion that the events around Damansky Island on March 2 and 15 were the result of an action carefully planned by the Chinese side is now the most widely spread; including directly or indirectly recognized by many Chinese historians.
For example, Li Danhui writes that in 1968-1969, the directives of the CPC Central Committee limited the response to Soviet provocations, only on January 25, 1969, it was allowed to plan "retaliatory military operations" near Damansky Island with the forces of three companies. On February 19, the General Staff and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC agreed to this.
Events March 1-2 and the next week
On the night of March 1-2, 1969, about 300 Chinese military personnel in winter camouflage, armed with AK assault rifles and SKS carbines, crossed to Damansky and lay down on the higher western coast of the island.
The group remained unnoticed until 10:40, when a report was received from the observation post at the 2nd Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost of the 57th Imansky border detachment that a group of up to 30 armed people was moving in the direction of Damansky. 32 Soviet border guards, including the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, left for the scene in GAZ-69 and GAZ-63 vehicles and one BTR-60PB. At 11:10 they arrived at the southern tip of the island. The border guards under the command of Strelnikov were divided into two groups. The first group under the command of Strelnikov went to a group of Chinese servicemen who were standing on the ice southwest of the island.
The second group, under the command of Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group from the southern coast of the island. Strelnikov protested the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese troops leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese servicemen raised his hand, which served as a signal for the Chinese side to open fire on the groups of Strelnikov and Rabovich. The moment of the beginning of the armed provocation was captured on film by military photojournalist Private Nikolai Petrov. Strelnikov and the border guards following him died immediately, and a squad of border guards under the command of Sergeant Rabovich also died in a short-lived battle. Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the surviving border guards.
Having received a report about the shooting on the island, the head of the neighboring, 1st outpost of the Kulebyakiny Sopki, Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin, drove out in the BTR-60PB and GAZ-69 with 20 fighters to help. In battle, Bubenin was wounded and sent an armored personnel carrier to the rear of the Chinese, skirting the northern tip of the island on the ice, but soon the armored personnel carrier was hit and Bubenin decided to go with his soldiers to the Soviet coast. Having reached the armored personnel carrier of the deceased Strelnikov and reseeding in it, Bubenin's group moved along the positions of the Chinese and destroyed them command post. They began to retreat.
In the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 were injured. The losses of the Chinese side (according to the KGB commission of the USSR) amounted to 247 people killed
At about 12:00 a helicopter arrived at Damansky with the command of the Iman border detachment and its chief, Colonel D.V. Leonov, and reinforcements from neighboring outposts. Reinforced detachments of border guards went to Damansky, and the 135th motorized rifle division was deployed in the rear Soviet army with artillery and installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system. On the Chinese side, the 24th Infantry Regiment of 5,000 men was preparing for combat operations.
On March 3, a demonstration was held in Beijing near the Soviet embassy. On March 4, the Chinese newspapers "People's Daily" and "Jiefangjun Bao" (解放军报) published an editorial "Down with the new tsars!" invaded Zhenbaodao Island on the Wusulijiang River in our country's Heilongjiang Province, opened rifle and cannon fire on the border guards of the People's Liberation Army of China, killing and injuring many of them." On the same day, the Soviet newspaper Pravda published an article entitled “Shame on provocateurs!” According to the author of the article, “an armed Chinese detachment crossed the Soviet state border and headed for Damansky Island. On the Soviet border guards guarding this area, fire was suddenly opened from the Chinese side. There are dead and wounded." On March 7, the Chinese embassy in Moscow was picketed. The demonstrators also threw ink bottles at the building.
Events March 14-15
On March 14, at 15:00, an order was received to remove border guard units from the island. Immediately after the departure of the Soviet border guards, Chinese soldiers began to occupy the island. In response to this, 8 armored personnel carriers under the command of the head of the motorized maneuver group of the 57th border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel E. I. Yanshin, moved in battle formation towards Damansky; The Chinese retreated to their shore.
At 20:00 on March 14, the border guards received an order to occupy the island. On the same night, a group of Yanshin dug in there, consisting of 60 people in 4 armored personnel carriers. On the morning of March 15, after broadcasting through loudspeakers from both sides, at 10:00, from 30 to 60 barrels of Chinese artillery and mortars began shelling Soviet positions, and 3 companies of Chinese infantry went on the offensive. A fight ensued.
From 400 to 500 Chinese soldiers took up positions off the southern part of the island and prepared to go behind Yanshin's rear. Two armored personnel carriers of his group were hit, the connection was damaged. Four T-62 tanks under the command of D.V. Leonov attacked the Chinese at the southern tip of the island, but Leonov’s tank was hit (according to various versions, by a shot from an RPG-2 grenade launcher or blown up by an anti-tank mine), and Leonov himself was killed by a Chinese sniper when trying to leave a burning car.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that Leonov did not know the island and, as a result, the Soviet tanks came too close to the Chinese positions. However, at the cost of losses, the Chinese were not allowed to enter the island.
Two hours later, having used up ammunition, the Soviet border guards were still forced to withdraw from the island. It became clear that the forces brought into battle were not enough and the Chinese significantly outnumbered the border guards. At 17:00, in a critical situation, in violation of the instructions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU not to bring Soviet troops into conflict, on the orders of the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District Oleg Losik, fire was opened from secret at that time multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) "Grad".
The shells destroyed most of the material and technical resources of the Chinese group and the military, including reinforcements, mortars, and stacks of shells. At 17:10, motorized riflemen of the 2nd motorized rifle battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and border guards under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Smirnov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov went on the attack in order to finally crush the resistance of the Chinese troops. The Chinese began to withdraw from their positions. Around 19:00, several firing points “came to life”, after which three new attacks were made, but they were also repulsed.
The Soviet troops again retreated to their shore, and the Chinese side no longer undertook large-scale hostile actions on this section of the state border.
In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 people killed and died from wounds (including 4 officers), 94 people were wounded (including 9 officers).
The irretrievable losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people. A memorial cemetery is located in Baoqing County, where the ashes of 68 Chinese soldiers who died on March 2 and 15, 1969 are located. Information received from a Chinese defector suggests that other burials exist.
For their heroism, five servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Junior Sergeant V. Orekhov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.
Many border guards and military personnel of the Soviet Army were awarded state awards: 3 - Orders of Lenin, 10 - Orders of the Red Banner, 31 - Orders of the Red Star, 10 - Orders Glory III degrees, 63 - medals "For Courage", 31 - medals "For Military Merit".
Settlement and aftermath
The Soviet soldiers failed to return the destroyed T-62 due to constant Chinese shelling. An attempt to destroy it with mortars was unsuccessful, and the tank fell through the ice. Subsequently, the Chinese were able to pull it ashore and now it stands in the Beijing Military Museum.
After the ice melted, the exit of Soviet border guards to Damansky was difficult and Chinese attempts to capture it had to be hindered by sniper and machine-gun fire. On September 10, 1969, a ceasefire was ordered, apparently to create a favorable background for negotiations that began the next day at the Beijing airport.
Damansky and Kirkinsky were immediately occupied by the Chinese armed forces.
On September 11, in Beijing, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A. N. Kosygin, who was returning from the funeral of Ho Chi Minh, and the Premier of the State Council of the PRC, Zhou Enlai, agreed to stop hostile actions and that the troops remain in their positions. In fact, this meant the transfer of Damansky to China.
On October 20, 1969, new negotiations were held between the heads of government of the USSR and the PRC, and an agreement was reached on the need to revise the Soviet-Chinese border. Further, a series of negotiations were held in Beijing and Moscow, and in 1991 Damansky Island finally went to the PRC.
The Soviet leadership failed to take advantage of Khrushchev's removal to normalize relations with China. On the contrary, under Brezhnev they worsened even more. The blame for this falls on both sides - from the second half of 1966, the Chinese leadership, headed by Mao Zedong, organized a number of provocations on transport and the Soviet-Chinese border. Claiming that this border had been forcibly established by the Russian tsarist government, it laid claim to several thousand square kilometers of Soviet territory. The situation was especially acute on the river border along the Amur and Ussuri, where a hundred years after the signing of the border treaty, the fairway of the river changed, some islands disappeared, others approached the opposite bank.
The bloody events took place in March 1969 on Damansky Island on the river. Ussuri, where the Chinese fired on the Soviet border detachment, killing several people. Large Chinese forces landed on the island, well prepared for combat. Attempts to restore the situation with the help of Soviet motorized rifle units were not successful. Then Soviet command used the Grad multiple launch rocket system. The Chinese were virtually annihilated on this small island (about 1700 m long and 500 m wide). Their losses numbered in the thousands. On this active fighting actually stopped.
But from May to September 1969, Soviet border guards opened fire on violators in the Damansky area more than 300 times. In the battles for the island from March 2 to March 16, 1969, 58 Soviet soldiers were killed, 94 were seriously injured. For their heroism, four servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The battle for Damansky became the first serious clash between the Armed Forces of the USSR and the regular units of another major power since the Second World War. Moscow, despite its local victory, decided not to aggravate the conflict and give Damansky Island to the People's Republic of China. The Chinese side subsequently filled up the channel separating the island from their coast, and since then it has become part of China.
On September 11, 1969, on the Soviet initiative, a meeting of the heads of government of the USSR (A.N. Kosygin) and the PRC (Zhou Enlai) took place, after which protracted negotiations on border issues began in Beijing. After 40 meetings in June 1972 they were adjourned. The Chinese government chose to improve relations with the United States, countries Western Europe and Japan. In 1982-85. Soviet-Chinese political consultations were held alternately in Moscow and Beijing at the level of government representatives with the rank of deputy foreign ministers. There were no results for a long time. Soviet-Chinese relations were settled only by the end of the 1980s.
ALIVE MATROSOV!
Our special correspondents V. Ignatenko and L. Kuznetsov are reporting from the area of Damansky Island
Here, on the front line, as soon as the smoke of the last battle cleared, we were told about the exceptional courage of the Far Eastern border guard sailors. Not on distant oceanic meridians, not in campaigns on super cruisers and submarines, sailors distinguished themselves these days. In mortal combat with the Maoist provocateurs on March 2 and 15, guys in pea coats stood shoulder to shoulder with the officers and soldiers of the outposts.
It is not difficult to recognize them among the military people of the border region: only the sailors have black sheepskin coats, and hats and caps with anchors are pulled down somehow in a special way, sort of casually, but within the framework of the charter.
Fortunately, the sailors got out of the fire without loss. Shells and lead bursts lay side by side, spread over their heads. But, alive and unharmed, the guys rose to height, shook off the hot, smoking earth and rushed to the counterattack ... We saw these young Komsomol guys, in whose veins the blood of fathers, defenders of the legendary Malaya Zemlya, flows.
We want to talk about one sailor in particular. Long before dawn, on March 15, when there were all signs of preparing a new provocation near Damansky, Captain Vladimir Matrosov took up an observation post on a spit a few meters from the gently sloping coast of the island. He could see the provocateurs fidgeting fussily on the Chinese coast in the predawn twilight. From time to time, the hoarse sounds of motors were heard: it must have been brought up to the firing lines of the gun. Then silence again, viscous, cold.
A few hours later, the first round hit from the Chinese side, then the second, the first shells exploded ... The Maoists rushed in chains at Damansky. Our fire weapons began to speak, the vanguard of the Soviet border guards moved to the island.
I am Break! I am Break! How do you hear? The enemy is in the southern part of the island, - Matrosov shouted into the radiotelephone. This was the turn of his combat mission. - How did you understand?
I am Burav. You are understood!
A minute later, our fire became more accurate, the Chinese faltered.
I am Break! I am Break! The enemy moved to the northeast. - The sailors did not have time to finish: a mine struck nearby. He fell into the snow. It's gone! And the phone is intact.
I am Break! I am Break! Volodya continued. - How did you understand me?
And the earth shook again. Again the elastic wave pushed the sailor. And again, I just had to shake off the ground.
Then Matrosov got used to it. True, he did not get over the unpleasant feeling that someone invisible from the other side was watching him, as if he knew how much now depended on his, Volodina, adjustment of the fire. But again, the callsigns "Cliff" flew on the air ...
He saw our border guards fighting on the island. And if suddenly one of ours stumbled and fell, he knew: it was the Mao Zedong lead that threw the soldier to the ground. This was the second fight in the life of Matrosov ...
Captain Matrosov kept in touch with the command post for several hours. And all this time he was the epicenter of a barrage of fire.
Vladimir, one might say, is a border guard from the cradle. His father, Stepan Mikhailovich, only recently retired with the rank of colonel of the border troops, and the younger Matrosov, as far as he can remember, lived all the time on the edges of his native land, at outposts. From childhood, he knew the anxieties of the cutting edge, and this region planted good seeds of masculinity and kindness in his soul, and over time, having strengthened, these seeds began to grow. When the time came for Vladimir to choose his fate, there was no doubt: he chose the path of his father. Studied and became an officer. Now he is 31 years old. He is a communist. Frontier hardening before being assigned to this area was in the Kuril Islands. Probably not one of the eleven sailors who participated in the battle on Damansky is now dreaming of getting Matrosov's party recommendation. After all, Vladimir became a communist at their age, and they went through their first baptism of fire together: a communist and Komsomol members.
In the division, senior officers told us: “You noticed how similar our Matrosov is ...” And we, without listening to the end, agreed: “Yes, he is very similar to that legendary Alexander Matrosov.” Everything seems to happen on purpose. It seems that the journalistic move is naked to the limit. But no, this amazing external similarity is not more important. A hundred times brighter is the kinship of their characters - heroic, truly Russian. More important is the identity of their lofty spirit, the fieryness of their hearts in a difficult hour.
Historians of the Great Patriotic War find new evidence of many exploits of privates, sergeants, officers who repeated the feat of Matrosov. They died gloriously, and they became immortal, because in the Russian warrior there is this "sailor's" vein, this attitude to victory even at the cost of one's life.
Vladimir Matrosov is alive!
May he live happily to a ripe old age. May there be peace and harmony in his house, where his daughters are growing up: the second-grader Sveta and the five-year-old Katya. May they always have a dad...
N-sky division of maritime border guards
Red Banner Pacific
border district, March 20
YURI VASILIEVICH BABANSKY
Babansky Yuri Vasilievich - commander of the Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya border outpost department of the Ussuri Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the border detachment of the Pacific border district, junior sergeant. Born on December 20, 1948 in the village of Krasny Yar, Kemerovo Region. After graduating from an eight-year school, he graduated from a vocational school, worked in production, and then was drafted into the border troops. He served on the Soviet-Chinese border in the Pacific border district.
The commander of the department of the border outpost of Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya (Damansky Island) of the Ussuri Order of the Red Banner of Labor of the border detachment, junior sergeant Babansky Yu.V. showed heroism and courage during the border conflict on March 2 - 15, 1969. Then, for the first time in the history of the border troops, after June 22, 1941, the border guards of the detachment took battle with the units of the regular army of the neighboring state. On that day, March 2, 1969, Chinese provocateurs who invaded Soviet territory shot from an ambush a group of border guards who had come out to meet them, led by the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov I.I.
Junior Sergeant Yuri Babansky took command of the group of border guards who remained at the outpost and boldly led them into the attack. The Maoists unleashed heavy machine gun and grenade launcher fire, mortars and artillery fire on the brave handful. Throughout the battle, Junior Sergeant Babansky skillfully led his subordinates, shot accurately, and assisted the wounded. When the enemy was knocked out of Soviet territory, Babansky went on reconnaissance to the island more than 10 times. It was Yuri Babansky with a search group who found the group of I.I. Strelnikov, and under the muzzles of machine guns and machine guns of the enemy organized their evacuation, it was he and his group on the night of March 15-16 who discovered the body of the heroically deceased head of the border detachment, Colonel D.V. Leonov and carried him off the island...
By decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of March 21, 1969, Junior Sergeant Yu.V. Babansky was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (Gold Star medal No. 10717).
After graduating from the military-political school, Babansky Yu.V. continued to serve in the border troops of the KGB of the USSR in various officer positions, including during the period of hostilities in Afghanistan. In the 1990s, he was deputy head of the troops of the Western Border District, was a member of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, was elected a deputy of the Supreme Council of Ukraine.
Currently, reserve lieutenant general Yu.V. Babansky is a military pensioner, engaged in social activities. He is the chairman of the all-Russian organizing committee for the action "Argunskaya Zastava" and at the same time is the chairman public organization"Union of Heroes", Honorary citizen of the Kemerovo region. Lives in Moscow.
THE COUNTRY DID NOT KNOW YET
... They loved fire training at the outpost. They often went out to shoot. And the time in recent months for study has become less and less. The Red Guards did not give rest.
From childhood, Yuri Babansky was taught to consider the Chinese as brothers. But when he first saw the angry hooting mob brandishing clubs and weapons, shouting anti-Soviet slogans, he could not understand what was happening. He did not immediately learn to understand that faith in the holy bonds of brotherhood was trampled by the Maoists, that people deceived by Mao's clique are capable of any crime. The Chinese staged demonstrations with the slogans of the "great helmsman." Then they attacked the Soviet border guards with their fists. “This is how they were fooled,” Babansky thought. “But the fathers of our children fought for the liberation of China and died for People’s China.” There was a strict order: not to succumb to provocations. Machine guns in the back. And only the courage and endurance of the Soviet border guards did not allow the incidents to turn into a bloody conflict.
The Maoists were getting bolder. Almost daily in the morning they went out on the Ussuri ice, behaved cheekily. provocative.
On March 2, 1969, the border guards, as usual, had to expel the raging Maoists who had crossed the border back home. As always, the head of the outpost, Ivan Ivanovich Strelnikov, came out to meet them. Silence. You can only hear how the snow creaks under the boots. These were the last moments of silence. Babansky ran up the hillock and looked around. From the cover group, only Kuznetsov and Kozus fled after him. "I got away from the guys." Ahead, slightly to the right, stood the first group of border guards - the one that followed Strelnikov. The head of the outpost protested to the Chinese, demanding to leave Soviet territory.
And suddenly the dry frosty silence of the island was torn open by two shots. Behind them - frequent automatic bursts. Babansky did not believe. Didn't want to believe. But the bullets were already burning the snow, and he saw how one by one the border guards from Strelnikov's group fell. Babansky jerked a machine gun from behind his back, joined the store:
Get down! Fire! - he commanded and in short bursts began to mow down those who had just shot his comrades point-blank. Bullets whistled nearby, and he fired and fired. In the excitement of the battle, he did not notice how he had used up all the cartridges.
Kuznetsov, - he called the border guard, - give me a store!
They'll give you a ride. Enough for everyone. Be on the left, and I'm up to the tree.
He knelt down, threw up his machine gun and fired aimed fire from behind a tree. Cold-blooded, prudent. Eat! One, second, third...
There is an invisible connection between the shooter and the target, as if you are sending a bullet not from a machine gun, but from your own heart, and it hits the enemy. He was so carried away that Sergeant Kozushu had to shout several times:
Yurka! Who is it in camouflage, ours or the Chinese?
Kozus was firing to the right of Babansky, a large group of Maoists was moving towards him, having taken refuge on the island in the evening. They walked straight ahead. The distance was shrinking every minute. Kozu fired several bursts and just had time to think that there weren’t enough cartridges, when he heard Babansky’s command: “Save cartridges!” and moved the lever to single fire.
Goat! Be careful not to go around to the right!
Like Babansky, he did not stay in place, changed positions and fired aimed. The ammo ran out.
Kuznetsov! And Kuznetsov! - he called and looked to where the border guard had just fired. Kuznetsov sat bent over, his head in his hands. The face is bloodless, the lower lip is slightly bitten. Lifeless eyes. A spasm clenched her throat, but there was no time to grieve. I took the rest of the cartridges from Kuznetsov. And then right in front of him, about thirty meters away, he saw a Chinese machine gun. Babansky fired, hit the machine gunner. Now we need to help Kozushu. Babansky acted swiftly and precisely. He shot through the channel and fired at the advancing enemy on the right. The Chinese machine gun again had a soldier. Yuri fired again. He was glad that the machine gun never fired a single burst.
Goat! Cover up! - Babansky ordered hoarsely and crawled to his group, which lay in the lowland. He crawled along the pitted island, blackened by fire and iron. Howled, mines whistled, explosions roared. In my head flashed: “How are the guys? Are you alive? How much longer can they hold out? The main thing is ammunition ... ”The guys were lying in a lowland, pressed by fire. Babansky did not have time to feel fear - there was only rage in him. I wanted to shoot, to destroy the killers. He ordered the border guards:
Swing to the tree! Observe! Bikuzin! Fire towards the parapet!
The border guards lay down in a semicircle, six meters apart. The cartridges were divided equally. Five or six per brother. Shells and mines exploded. It seemed to get off the ground - and you are gone. One bullet whistled over Babansky's ear. “Sniper,” flashed through my head. “You have to be careful.” But Kozus, who was covering him, had already removed the Chinese shooter. Suddenly, the fire died down. Preparing for a new attack, the Chinese regrouped. Babansky decided to take advantage of this:
One at a time, the distance is eight - ten meters, dashes to the leading marks! Yezhov - to the armored personnel carrier! Let support!
Babansky did not yet know that the riverbed was under fire. He did not know whether Eremin, who had been sent by him to the outlet, had time (“Let them send cartridges!”) To inform the outpost of the order of the commander. The Maoists pressed on. Five Soviet border guards led by junior sergeant Yuri Babansky against an enemy battalion. The border guards took a more advantageous position - at the leading signs. The Chinese are no more than a hundred meters away. They opened heavy fire. This fire was supported from the shore by a mortar battery. For the first time for twenty-year-old guys, armed combat has become a reality: life is next to death, humanity is next to treachery. You are against the enemy. And you must defend justice, you must defend your native land.
Guys, help is coming! Bubenin should come up. We must stand, because our land!
And Bubenin came to their aid. On his armored personnel carrier, he invaded the rear of the Chinese, introduced panic into their ranks and essentially decided the outcome of the battle. Babansky did not see the armored personnel carrier, he only heard the rumble of its motors on the river, right in front of them, and understood why the enemy faltered, receded back.
Running after me! - Yuriy commanded and led the fighters to the northern part of the island, where the bells came to the rescue. "Five machine guns is also a force!" Babansky fell, froze, then crawled. Bullets whistled from all sides. The body tensed. If only there was some pothole, a funnel - no, a snow-covered meadow spread like a tablecloth. Apparently, Yuri Babansky was not destined to die, apparently, "he was born in a vest." And this time the shells and mines spared him. He reached the bushes, looked around: the guys were crawling after him. I saw: help was coming from the Soviet coast in an extended chain. Baban sighed in relief. I wanted to smoke. It didn't take long for someone to find two cigarettes. He smoked them one by one. The tension of the battle has not subsided yet. He still lived with the excitement of the struggle: he picked up the wounded, searched for the dead, carried them out of the battlefield. It seemed to him that he was numb, unable to feel. But tears came to his eyes when he saw the face of Kolya Dergach, a fellow countryman and friend, mutilated by the Chinese. Late in the evening, completely tired, he turned on the radio at the outpost. Music was on the air. It seemed unthinkable, impossible, unnatural. And then, suddenly, the meaning of the border service was revealed in a new way: for the sake of children sleeping peacefully, for the sake of this music, for the sake of life, happiness, justice, there are guys in green caps at the border. They stand to death. The country did not yet know about what happened on Damansky ...
It has been 45 years since that spring of 1969, when an armed conflict broke out on one of the Far Eastern sections of the Soviet-Chinese border. We are talking about Damansky Island, located on the History of the USSR shows that these were the first military operations in the entire post-war period, in which army forces and the KGB took part. And it was all the more unexpected that the aggressor turned out to be not just a neighboring state, but a fraternal, as everyone believed then, China.
Location
Damansky Island on the map looks like a rather insignificant piece of land, which is approximately 1500-1800 m long and about 700 m wide. It is impossible to establish its exact parameters, since they depend on the specific time of the year. For example, during spring and summer floods, it can be completely flooded with the waters of the Ussuri River, and in the winter months, the island rises in the middle of a freezing river. That is why it does not represent any military-strategic or economic value.
In 1969, Damansky Island, a photo of which has been preserved since those times, with an area of just over 0.7 sq. km, was located on the territory of the USSR and belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. These lands bordered on one of the provinces of China - Heilongjiang. The distance from Damansky Island to the city of Khabarovsk is only 230 km. From the Chinese coast, it was removed at a distance of about 300 m, and from the Soviet - at 500 m.
History of the island
There have been attempts to draw a border between China and Tsarist Russia in the Far East since the 17th century. It is from these times that the history of Damansky Island begins. Then the Russian possessions stretched all over from the sources to the mouth, and were located both on the left and partially on the right side of it. Several centuries passed before precise boundary lines were established. This event was preceded by numerous legal acts. Finally, in 1860, almost the entire Ussuri region was given to Russia.
As you know, the communists led by Mao Zedong came to power in China in 1949. In those days, it was not particularly spread about the fact that it was the Soviet Union that played the main role in this. 2 years after completion civil war, in which the Chinese Communists emerged victorious, Beijing and Moscow signed an agreement. It stated that China would recognize the existing this moment border with the USSR, and also agrees that the Amur and Ussuri rivers be under the control of the Soviet border troops.
Earlier in the world, laws were already adopted and in force, according to which the borders passing along the rivers are drawn exactly along the main fairway. But the government tsarist Russia took advantage of the weakness and compliance of the Chinese state and drew a line of demarcation in the section of the Ussuri River not along the water, but directly along the opposite bank. As a result, all the water area and the islands on it ended up on Russian territory. Therefore, the Chinese could fish and swim along the Ussuri River only with the permission of the neighboring authorities.
Political situation on the eve of the conflict
The events on Damansky Island became a kind of culmination of the ideological differences that arose between the two largest socialist states - the USSR and China. They began back in the 1950s with the fact that the PRC decided to raise its international influence in the world and in 1958 entered into an armed conflict with Taiwan. After 4 years, China took part in the border war against India. If in the first case the Soviet Union expressed its support for such actions, then in the second case, on the contrary, it condemned it.
In addition, the differences were aggravated by the fact that after the so-called Caribbean Crisis, which broke out in 1962, Moscow sought to somehow normalize relations with a number of capitalist countries. But the Chinese leader Mao Zedong took these actions as a betrayal of the ideological teachings of Lenin and Stalin. There was also a factor of rivalry for supremacy over the countries that were part of the socialist camp.
For the first time, a serious relationship was outlined in 1956, when the USSR participated in the suppression of popular unrest in Hungary and Poland. Then Mao condemned these actions of Moscow. The recall also contributed to the deterioration of the situation between the two countries. Soviet specialists who were in China and helped him successfully develop both the economy and the armed forces. This was done due to numerous provocations by the PRC.
In addition, Mao Zedong was very concerned that Soviet troops were still stationed in Western China, and specifically in Xinjiang, which had remained there since 1934. The fact is that the soldiers of the Red Army took part in the suppression of the Muslim uprising in these lands. as Mao was called, he feared that these territories would go to the USSR.
By the second half of the 60s, when Khrushchev was removed from his post, the situation became completely critical. This is evidenced by the fact that before the conflict on Damansky Island began, diplomatic relations between the two countries existed at the level of only temporary attorneys.
Border provocations
It was after the removal of Khrushchev from power that the situation on the island began to heat up. The Chinese began to send their so-called agricultural divisions to the border sparsely populated territories. They resembled the Arakcheev military settlements that operated under Nicholas I, which were able not only to fully meet their food needs, but also, if necessary, to defend themselves and their land with weapons in their hands.
In the early 60s, events on Damansky Island began to develop rapidly. For the first time, reports flew to Moscow that numerous groups of Chinese military and civilians were constantly violating the established border regime and entering Soviet territory, from where they were expelled without using weapons. Most often, these were peasants who defiantly engaged in grazing or mowing grass. At the same time, they stated that they were supposedly in China.
Every year the number of such provocations increased, and they began to acquire a more menacing character. There were facts of attacks by the Red Guards (activists of the cultural revolution) on Soviet border patrols. Such aggressive actions on the part of the Chinese already numbered in the thousands, and several hundred people were involved in them. An example of this is the following event. Only 4 days have passed since 1969 came. Then on the island of Kirkinsky, and now Qilingqingdao, the Chinese staged a provocation, in which about 500 people participated.
Group fights
While the Soviet government was saying that the Chinese were a brotherly people, the increasingly unfolding events on Damansky were evidence to the contrary. Whenever the border guards of the two states accidentally crossed paths in the disputed territory, verbal skirmishes began, which then escalated into hand-to-hand skirmishes. Usually they ended with the victory of the stronger and larger Soviet soldiers and pushing the Chinese to their side.
Each time, the PRC border guards tried to film these group fights and subsequently use them for propaganda purposes. Such attempts were always neutralized by the Soviet border guards, who did not hesitate to beat pseudo-journalists and confiscate their film footage. Despite this, the Chinese soldiers, fanatically devoted to their "god" Mao Zedong, again returned to Damansky Island, where they could be beaten again or even killed in the name of their great leader. But it is worth noting that such group fights never went beyond hand-to-hand combat.
China's preparations for war
Each border conflict, even insignificant at first glance, heated up the situation between the PRC and the USSR. The Chinese leadership constantly built up its military units in the territories adjacent to the border, as well as special units that formed the so-called Labor Army. At the same time, vast militarized state farms were built, which were a kind of military settlements.
In addition, detachments were formed from among active citizens. They were used not only to protect the border, but also to restore order in all settlements located near it. The detachments consisted of groups of local residents, led by representatives of public security.
1969 The border Chinese territory with a width of about 200 km received the status of a forbidden one and was henceforth considered an advanced one. defensive line. All citizens who had any family ties on the side of the Soviet Union or sympathized with it were resettled in more remote areas of China.
How the USSR prepared for war
It cannot be said that Damansky conflict took the Soviet Union by surprise. In response to the buildup of Chinese troops in the border zone, the USSR also began to strengthen its borders. First of all, they relocated some units and formations from the central and western parts of the country both to Transbaikalia and to Far East. Also, the border strip was improved in terms of engineering structures, which were equipped with an improved technical security system. In addition, enhanced combat training of soldiers was carried out.
Most importantly, the day before, when the Soviet-Chinese conflict broke out, all border outposts and individual detachments were provided with big amount as well as anti-tank hand grenade launchers and other weapons. There were also armored personnel carriers BTR-60 PB and BTR-60 PA. In the border detachments themselves, maneuver groups were created.
Despite all the improvements, the means of protection still turned out to be insufficient. The fact is that the impending war with China required not only good equipment, but also certain skills and some experience in mastering this new technology, as well as the ability to apply it directly in the course of hostilities.
Now, so many years after the Damansky conflict occurred, we can conclude that the country's leadership underestimated the seriousness of the situation on the border, as a result of which its defenders were completely unprepared to repel aggression from the enemy. Also, despite the sharp deterioration in relations with the Chinese side and the significantly increased number of provocations occurring at the outposts, the command issued a strict order: “Do not use weapons, under any pretext!”
Start of hostilities
The Soviet-Chinese conflict of 1969 began with the fact that about 300 soldiers dressed in winter camouflage uniforms crossed the border of the USSR. It happened on the night of March 2. The Chinese crossed over to Damansky Island. The conflict was brewing.
I must say that the enemy soldiers were well equipped. The clothes were very comfortable and warm, in addition, they were wearing white camouflage robes. Their weapons were also wrapped in the same cloth. To keep it from rattling, the ramrods were filled with paraffin. All the weapons that were with them were made in China, but only under Soviet licenses. The Chinese soldiers were armed with AK-47s and TT pistols.
Having crossed to the island, they lay down on its western shore and took up a position on a hill. Immediately after that, a telephone connection with the shore was established. At night there was a snowfall, which hid all their traces. And they lay until morning on mats and from time to time warmed themselves by drinking vodka.
Before the Daman conflict had yet escalated into an armed clash, the Chinese prepared a line of support for their soldiers from the coast. There were pre-equipped sites for recoilless guns, mortars, as well as heavy machine guns. In addition, there was also an infantry numbering up to about 300 people.
The reconnaissance of the Soviet border detachment did not have devices for night observation of the surrounding territories, so they completely did not notice any preparations for military operations on the part of the enemy. In addition, it was 800 m from the nearest post to Damansky, and visibility at that time was very poor. Even at 9 o'clock in the morning, when a border detachment consisting of three people was patrolling the island, the Chinese were not found. Border violators did not give themselves away.
It is believed that the conflict on Damansky Island began from the moment when, at about 10.40 am, a report was received from the military personnel of the observation post at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka frontier post, located 12 km to the south. It said that a group of armed people, numbering up to 30 people, was discovered. She was moving from the side of the border with China in the direction of Damansky. The head of the outpost was Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov. He gave the order to advance, and the personnel got into combat vehicles. Strelnikov and seven soldiers went to the GAZ-69, Sergeant V. Rabovich and 13 people with him - to the BTR-60 PB and Yu. Babansky's group, consisting of 12 border guards, to the GAZ-63. The last car was 15 minutes behind the other two, as it turned out to have engine problems.
First casualties
Upon arrival, a group led by Strelnikov, which included the photographer Nikolai Petrov, approached the Chinese. They protested against the illegal crossing of the border, as well as the demand to immediately leave the territory of the Soviet Union. After that, one of the Chinese shouted loudly and their first line parted. PRC soldiers opened automatic fire on Strelnikov and his group. Soviet border guards died on the spot. Immediately, a movie camera was taken from the hands of the already dead Petrov, with which he filmed everything that happened, but the camera was never noticed - the soldier, falling, covered him with himself. These were the first victims, with which the Damansky conflict was just beginning.
The second group under the command of Rabovich took on an unequal battle. She shot to the last. Soon the rest of the fighters, led by Yu. Babansky, arrived in time. They took up defensive positions behind their comrades and poured automatic fire on the enemy. As a result, the entire group of Rabovich was killed. Only Private Gennady Serebrov, who miraculously escaped, survived. It was he who told about everything that happened to his comrades.
Babansky's group continued to fight, but the ammunition quickly ran out. So the decision was made to leave. The surviving border guards on the surviving armored personnel carrier took refuge on Soviet territory. Meanwhile, 20 fighters from the nearby Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, led by Vitaly Bubenin, hurried to their rescue. She was north of the island Damansky at a distance of 18 km. Therefore, help arrived only at 11.30. The border guards also joined the battle, but the forces were unequal. Therefore, their commander decided to bypass the Chinese ambush from the rear.
Bubenin and 4 other soldiers, having plunged into an armored personnel carrier, drove around the enemy and began to fire at him from behind, while the rest of the border guards fired from the island. Despite the fact that the Chinese were several times more numerous, they found themselves in an extremely unfavorable situation. As a result, Bubenin managed to destroy the Chinese command post. After that, the enemy soldiers began to leave their positions, taking with them the dead and wounded.
At about 12.00 Colonel D. Leonov arrived on Damansky Island, where the conflict was still ongoing. He, with the main military personnel of the border guards, was on exercises 100 km from the place of hostilities. They also joined the battle, and by the evening of the same day, Soviet soldiers managed to recapture the island.
In this battle, 32 border guards were killed and 14 soldiers were wounded. How many people the Chinese side lost is still unknown, since such information is classified. According to the estimates of the Soviet border guards, the PRC missed about 100-150 of its soldiers and officers.
Continued conflict
But what about Moscow? On this day, Secretary General L. Brezhnev called the head of the USSR border troops, General V. Matrosov, and asked what it was: a simple conflict or a war with China? A high-ranking military official was supposed to know the situation on the border, but, as it turned out, he was not in the know. Therefore, he called the events a simple conflict. He did not know that the border guards had been holding the line for several hours now, despite the multiple superiority of the enemy, not only in manpower, but also in weapons.
After the clash on March 2, Damansky was constantly patrolled by reinforced detachments, and a whole motorized rifle division was deployed in the rear a few kilometers from the island, where, in addition to artillery, there were Grad rocket launchers. China was also preparing for another offensive. A significant number of military personnel were brought to the border - about 5,000 people.
I must say, the Soviet border guards had no instructions about what to do next. There were no relevant orders from General Staff nor from the Minister of Defense. In critical situations, the silence of the country's leadership was commonplace. The history of the USSR is replete with such facts. For example, let's take the brightest of them: in the first days of the Great Patriotic War, Stalin was never able to address the Soviet people. It is precisely the inaction of the leadership of the USSR that can explain the complete confusion in the actions of the military personnel of the frontier post on March 14, 1969, when the second stage of the Soviet-Chinese confrontation began.
At 15.00, the border guards received an order: “Leave Damansky” (it is still unknown who gave this order). As soon as the Soviet troops moved away from the island, the Chinese immediately began to run across to it in small groups and consolidate their combat positions. And at about 20.00, the opposite order was received: "Take Damansky."
Unpreparedness and confusion reigned throughout. Contradictory orders were constantly received, the most ridiculous of them, the border guards refused to carry out. In this battle, Colonel Democrat Leonov died, who was trying to get around the enemy from the rear on the new secret T-62 tank. The car was hit and lost. They tried to destroy her with mortars, but these actions were never successful - she fell through the ice. Some time later, the Chinese raised the tank to the surface, and now it is in the military museum in Beijing. All this happened due to the fact that the colonel did not know the island, so the Soviet tanks approached the enemy positions so imprudently.
The battle ended with the Soviet side having to use Grad rocket launchers against superior enemy forces. This is the first time such a weapon has been used in real combat. It was the Grad installations that decided the outcome of the battle. There was silence after that.
Consequences
Despite the fact that the Soviet-Chinese conflict ended with the complete victory of the USSR, negotiations on the ownership of Damansky lasted almost 20 years. Only in 1991 this island officially became Chinese. Now it is called Zhenbao, which means "Precious" in translation.
During the military conflict, the USSR lost 58 people, 4 of which were officers. The PRC, according to various sources, has lost from 500 to 3,000 of its military personnel.
For their courage, five border guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, three of them posthumously. Another 148 servicemen were awarded other orders and medals.
In March 1969, the two most powerful socialist powers at that time - the USSR and the PRC - almost started a full-scale war over a piece of land called Damansky Island.
In our photo story, we tried to restore the chronology of events.
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1. Damansky Island on the Ussuri River was part of the Pozharsky District of Primorsky Krai and had an area of 0.74 km². It was located a little closer to the Chinese coast than to ours. However, the border did not run along the middle of the river, but, in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860, along the Chinese bank.
Damansky - view from the Chinese coast
2. The conflict on Damansky occurred 20 years after the formation of the Chinese People's Republic. Until the 1950s, China was a weak country with a poor population. With the help of the USSR, the Celestial Empire was not only able to unite, but began to develop rapidly, strengthening the army and creating the conditions necessary for modernizing the economy. However, after Stalin's death, a period of cooling began in Soviet-Chinese relations. Mao Zedong now claimed almost the role of the leading world leader of the communist movement, with which Nikita Khrushchev could not agree.
At the same time, the policy of the Cultural Revolution pursued by Zedong constantly demanded to keep society in suspense, to create new images of the enemy both inside and outside the country, and the process of “de-Stalinization” in the USSR in general threatened the cult of the “great Mao” himself, which gradually formed in China. As a result, in 1960, the CPC officially announced the “wrong” course of the CPSU, relations between countries escalated to the limit, and conflicts often began to occur along the border with a length of more than 7.5 thousand kilometers.
3. On the night of March 2, 1969, about 300 Chinese soldiers crossed to Damansky. For several hours they remained unnoticed, the Soviet border guards received a signal about an armed group of up to 30 people only at 10:32 in the morning.
4. 32 border guards under the command of the head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya outpost, senior lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, left for the scene. Approaching the Chinese military, Strelnikov demanded that they leave Soviet territory, but small arms fire was opened in response. Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov and the border guards following him died, only one soldier managed to survive.
Thus began the famous Damansky conflict, which for a long time was not written anywhere, but which everyone knew about.
5. Shooting was heard at the neighboring outpost "Kulebyakiny Sopki". Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin went to the rescue with 20 border guards and one armored personnel carrier. The Chinese actively attacked, but retreated after a few hours. Residents of the neighboring village of Nizhnemikhailovka came to the aid of the wounded.
6. On that day, 31 Soviet border guards were killed, 14 more soldiers were injured. According to the KGB commission, the losses of the Chinese side amounted to 248 people.
7. On March 3, a demonstration took place near the Soviet embassy in Beijing; on March 7, the PRC embassy in Moscow was picketed.
8. Weapons captured from the Chinese
9. On the morning of March 15, the Chinese went on the offensive again. They brought the strength of their forces to an infantry division, reinforced by reservists. Attacks by the method of "human waves" continued for an hour. After a fierce battle, the Chinese managed to push back the Soviet soldiers.
10. Then, to support the defenders, a tank platoon headed by the head of the Iman border detachment, which included the outposts Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya and Kulebyakiny Sopki, Colonel Leonov, moved to counterattack.
11. But, as it turned out, the Chinese were prepared for this turn of events and had a sufficient amount of anti-tank weapons. Due to their heavy fire, our counterattack failed.
12. The failure of the counterattack and the loss of the latest T-62 combat vehicle with secret equipment finally convinced the Soviet command that the forces put into battle were not enough to defeat the Chinese side, which was prepared very seriously.
13. Then the forces of the 135th motorized rifle division deployed along the river entered the business, the command of which ordered its artillery, including a separate BM-21 Grad division, to open fire on the positions of the Chinese on the island. This was the first time that Grad rocket launchers were used in combat, the impact of which decided the outcome of the battle.
14. The Soviet troops withdrew to their shore, and the Chinese side did not take any more hostile actions.
15. In total, during the clashes, Soviet troops lost 58 soldiers and 4 officers killed and died from wounds, 94 soldiers and 9 officers were wounded. The losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3,000 people.
16. For their heroism, four servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov and Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumously), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin and Junior Sergeant Yu. Babansky.
In the photo in the foreground: Colonel D. Leonov, Lieutenants V. Bubenin, I. Strelnikov, V. Shorokhov; in the background: the personnel of the first frontier post. 1968
The post used materials from Russian77.ru and Ogonyok magazine.
