Soviet-Chinese conflict. Damansky, Dulaty, Zhalanashkol - unknown pages of the history of the Soviet-Chinese conflict

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 People's Republic of China. 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 ever 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 CCP 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 Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya and Kulebyakiny Sopki outposts, 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.

In the spring of 1969, a conflict began on the Soviet-Chinese border. During the clashes, 58 Soviet soldiers and officers were killed. However, at the cost of their lives, they managed to stop a big war.

1. Patch of contention
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. Its area is only 0.74 square kilometers. In addition, during the flood on the Ussuri River, he was completely hidden under water. There is a version that Damansky became an island only in 1915, when the current eroded part of the spit on the Chinese coast. Be that as it may, the island, which in Chinese was called Zhenbao, was located closer to the coast of the PRC. According to the international position adopted at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the borders between states should run along the middle of the main fairway of the river. This agreement provided for exceptions: if the border had historically developed along one of the banks, with the consent of the parties, it could be left unchanged. In order not to aggravate relations with a neighbor gaining international influence, the leadership of the USSR allowed the transfer of a number of islands on the Soviet-Chinese border. On this occasion, 5 years before the conflict on Damansky Island, negotiations were held, which, however, ended in nothing, both because of the political ambitions of the leader of the PRC, Mao Zedong, and because of the inconsistency of the USSR Secretary General Nikita Khrushchev.

2. Black Chinese ingratitude
The border conflict on Damansky occurred just 20 years after the formation of the People's Republic of China. More recently, the Celestial Empire was a semi-colonial formation with a poor and poorly organized population, with a territory that was constantly divided into spheres of influence by the strongest world powers. So, for example, the famous Tibet from 1912 to 1950 was an independent state, which was under the "trusteeship" of Great Britain. It was the help of the USSR that allowed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to take power and unite the country. Moreover, the economic, scientific and technical support of the Soviet Union allowed the ancient "sleeping empire" in a few years to create the newest, most modern sectors of the economy, strengthen the army, and create conditions for the modernization of the country. The war in Korea of ​​1950-1953, in which the troops of the Celestial Empire actively, albeit tacitly, took part, showed the West and the whole world that the PRC is a new political and military force that can no longer be ignored. 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, which, of course, could not please the ambitious Nikita Khrushchev. In addition, the policy of the Cultural Revolution pursued by Zedong constantly demanded to keep society in suspense, to create more and more new images of the enemy, both inside and outside the country. And the course towards “de-Stalinization” pursued in the USSR threatened the cult of the “great Mao” himself, which began to take shape in China since the 1950s. Played a role and a very peculiar style of behavior of Nikita Sergeevich. If in the West, kicking the podium and “Kuzkin’s mother” were perceived mainly as a good informational reason for hype in the media, then a much more subtle East, even in Khrushchev’s rather risky proposal to place a million Chinese workers in Siberia at the suggestion of Mao Zedong, saw “the imperial manners of the USSR ". As a result, already in 1960, the CCP officially announced the “wrong” course of the CPSU, relations between previously friendly countries escalated to the limit, and conflicts began to arise on the border, which was more than 7.5 thousand kilometers long.

3. Five thousand provocations
For the USSR, which, by and large, has not yet recovered either demographically or economically after a series of wars and revolutions in the first half of the 20th century and especially after World War II, an armed conflict, and even more so full-scale military operations with a nuclear power, in which, moreover, at that time, every fifth inhabitant of the planet lived, were unnecessary and extremely dangerous. Only this can explain the amazing patience with which the Soviet border guards endured constant provocations from the "Chinese comrades" in the border areas. In 1962 alone, there were more than 5 thousand (!) Various violations of the border regime by Chinese citizens.

4. Originally Chinese territories
Gradually, Mao Zedong convinced himself and the entire population of the Celestial Empire that the USSR illegally owns vast territories of 1.5 million square kilometers, which supposedly should belong to China. Such sentiments were actively inflated in the Western press - the capitalist world, during the period of the Soviet-Chinese friendship, was strongly frightened by the red-yellow threat, now rubbed its hands in anticipation of the clash of two socialist "monsters". In such a situation, only a pretext was needed to unleash hostilities. And such an occasion was the disputed island on the Ussuri River.

5. "Put as many of them as possible..."
The fact that the conflict on Damansky was carefully planned is indirectly recognized even by Chinese historians themselves. For example, Li Danhui notes that in response to "Soviet provocations" it was decided to conduct a military operation with the forces of three companies. There is a version that the leadership of the USSR was aware in advance through Marshal Lin Biao of the upcoming action of the Chinese. On the night of March 2, about 300 Chinese soldiers crossed the ice to the island. Due to the fact that it was snowing, they managed to go unnoticed until 10 am. When the Chinese were discovered, the Soviet border guards did not have an adequate idea of ​​their numbers for several hours. According to a report received at the 2nd outpost "Nizhne-Mikhailovka" of the 57th Iman border detachment, the number of armed Chinese was 30 people. 32 Soviet border guards left for the scene. Near the island, they split into two groups. The first group, under the command of Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, headed straight for the Chinese, 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. As soon as Strelnikov's detachment approached the Chinese, a hurricane of fire was opened on him. Rabovich's group was also ambushed. Almost all border guards were killed on the spot. Corporal Pavel Akulov was captured in an unconscious state. His body with signs of torture was later handed over to the Soviet side. The squad of junior sergeant Yuri Babansky entered the battle, which was somewhat delayed, advancing from the outpost, and therefore the Chinese could not destroy it using the surprise factor. It was this unit, together with the help of 24 border guards who came to the rescue from the neighboring Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, in a fierce battle, showed the Chinese how high the morale of their opponents was. “Of course, it was still possible to withdraw, return to the outpost, wait for reinforcements from the detachment. But we were seized with such fierce anger at these bastards that in those moments we wanted only one thing - to put as many of them as possible. For the guys, for ourselves, for this span of land that no one needs, but still our land, ”recalled Yuri Babansky, who was later awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his heroism. As a result of the battle, which lasted about 5 hours, 31 Soviet border guards were killed. The irretrievable losses of the Chinese, according to the Soviet side, amounted to 248 people. The surviving Chinese were forced to withdraw. But in the border area, the 24th Chinese Infantry Regiment, numbering 5,000 people, was already preparing for combat operations. The Soviet side pulled up the 135th motorized rifle division to Damanskoye, which was given installations of the then secret Grad multiple launch rocket systems.

6. Preventive "Grad"
If the officers and soldiers of the Soviet army demonstrated determination and heroism, then the same cannot be said about the top leadership of the USSR. In the following days of the conflict, the border guards received very conflicting orders. For example, at 15-00 on March 14 they were ordered to leave Damansky. But after the island was immediately occupied by the Chinese, 8 of our armored personnel carriers advanced in battle order from the side of the Soviet frontier post. The Chinese retreated, and the Soviet border guards at 20-00 of the same day were ordered to return to Damansky. On March 15, about 500 Chinese attacked the island again. They were supported by 30 to 60 artillery pieces and mortars. From our side, about 60 border guards on 4 armored personnel carriers entered the battle. At the decisive moment of the battle, they were supported by 4 T-62 tanks. However, after a few hours of battle, it became clear that the forces were too unequal. The Soviet border guards, having shot all the ammunition, were forced to retreat to their own shore. The situation was critical - the Chinese could launch an attack already on the frontier post, and according to the instructions of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, in no case could Soviet troops be brought into conflict. That is, the border guards were left face to face with the many times superior units of the Chinese army. And then the commander of the troops of the Far Eastern Military District, Colonel-General Oleg Losik, at his own peril and risk, gives an order that greatly sobered up the militancy of the Chinese, and, perhaps, forced them to abandon full-scale armed aggression against the USSR. Multiple launch rocket systems "Grad" were introduced into the battle. Their fire practically swept away all the Chinese units concentrated in the Damansky area. Already 10 minutes after the shelling of the Grad, organized Chinese resistance was out of the question. Those who survived began to retreat from Damansky. True, two hours later, the approaching Chinese units unsuccessfully tried to attack the island again. However, the "Chinese comrades" learned the lesson they learned. After March 15, they no longer made serious attempts to seize Damansky.

7. Surrendered without a fight
In the battles for Damansky, 58 Soviet border guards were killed and, according to various sources, from 500 to 3,000 Chinese troops (this information is still kept secret by the Chinese side). However, as happened more than once in Russian history, diplomats surrendered what they managed to keep by force of arms. Already in the autumn of 1969, negotiations were held, as a result of which it was decided that the Chinese and Soviet border guards would remain on the banks of the Ussuri without going to Damansky. In fact, this meant the transfer of the island to China. The island was legally transferred to China in 1991.

45 years ago, a conflict began on the Soviet-Chinese border. During the clashes, 58 Soviet soldiers and officers were killed. However, at the cost of their lives, they managed to stop a big war.

Damansky (Zhenbaodao)- a small uninhabited island on the Ussuri River. The length is about 1500-1700 m, the width is about 500 m. The island was located 47 m from the Chinese and 120 m from the Soviet coast. However, in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860 and the map of 1861, the border line between the two states did not pass along the fairway, but along the Chinese bank of the Ussuri. Thus, the island itself was an integral part of Soviet territory.

In the spring of 1969, the CPC Central Committee set about preparing for the 9th Congress of the CPC. In this regard, the Chinese leadership was very interested in the "victorious" conflict on the Soviet-Chinese border. First, striking the USSR could rally the people under the banner of the "great helmsman." Secondly, a border conflict would confirm the correctness of Mao's course of turning China into a military camp and preparing for war. In addition, the incident guaranteed the generals solid representation in the country's leadership and the expansion of the powers of the military.

In mid-1968, the Chinese military leadership studied the option of striking in the Suifenhe area. Here, the main posts of the Soviet border guards were located near the territory of the PRC and it seemed easy to capture them. To solve this problem, units of the 16th field army were sent to Suifenhe. However, in the end, the choice fell on Damansky Island. According to Li Danhui, an employee of the Research Institute of Modern China of the Academy of Social Sciences of the People's Republic of China, the Damansky district was not chosen by chance. On the one hand, as a result of the border negotiations in 1964, this island allegedly already went to China, and, consequently, the reaction of the Soviet side should not have been too violent. On the other hand, since 1947 Damansky was under the control of the Soviet army, and, therefore, the effect of the action on this section of the border would be greater than in the area of ​​other islands. In addition, the Chinese side took into account that the Soviet Union had not yet created a sufficiently reliable base in the place chosen for the attack, which is necessary for conducting offensive operations, and, therefore, would not be able to launch a large-scale retaliatory strike.

On January 25, 1969, a group of officers from the Shenyang Military Region completed the development of a combat plan (codenamed "Retribution"). For its implementation, it was supposed to use about three infantry companies and a number of military units secretly located on Damansky Island. On February 19, the plan, codenamed "Retribution", was approved by the General Staff, coordinated with the Foreign Ministry, and then approved by the CPC Central Committee and personally by Mao Zedong.

By order of the General Staff of the PLA, at least one reinforced platoon, transformed into 2-3 patrol groups, was attached to the border outposts in the Damansky area. The success of the action was supposed to provide a factor of surprise. After completing the task, a quick withdrawal of all forces to pre-prepared positions was envisaged.

Moreover, special attention was paid to the importance of capturing from the enemy evidence of his guilt in aggression - samples of Soviet weapons, photographic documents, etc.

Further events unfolded as follows.

On the night of March 1-2, 1969, a large number of Chinese military personnel secretly concentrated on their coast of the island. Later it was established that it was a regular PLA battalion, numbering more than 500 people, five companies, supported by two mortar and one artillery batteries. They were armed with recoilless rifles, heavy and heavy machine guns, hand grenade launchers. The battalion was equipped and armed according to the wartime states. Subsequently, there was evidence that he had undergone six months of special training for combat operations on the border. On the same night, with the forces of three infantry companies numbering about 300 people, they went to the island and took up defense along the line of a natural rampart. All Chinese servicemen were dressed in camouflage suits, and their weapons were fitted so that they did not make an extra sound (the ramrods were filled with paraffin, the bayonets were wrapped in paper so that they would not shine, etc.).

The positions of two 82-mm batteries and artillery (45-mm guns), as well as heavy machine guns, were located so that it was possible to fire at Soviet equipment and personnel with direct fire. Mortar batteries, as the analysis of hostilities later showed, had clear firing coordinates. On the island itself, the battalion's fire system was organized in such a way that it was possible to conduct barrage fire from all fire weapons to a depth of 200 to 300 meters, along the entire front of the battalion.

On March 2, at 10.20 am (local time), information was received from Soviet observation posts about the advancement of two groups of 18 and 12 military personnel from the Chinese border post "Gunsy". They defiantly headed towards the Soviet border. The head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, having received a sanction for the expulsion of the Chinese, with a group of border guards in an BTR-60PB (No. 04) and two cars advanced towards the violators. The heads of neighboring outposts V. Bubenin and Shorokhov were also informed about the incident. Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin, the head of the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, was ordered to insure Strelnikov's group. It should be said that, despite the fact that the Chinese have been pulling up military units in their immediate border area for a week, and before that they have been improving the exit routes to the border for a long time, no measures have been taken to strengthen the outposts or military surveillance by the command of the Pacific Border Circle. It was. Moreover, on the day of the Chinese invasion, the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost was only half staffed. On the day of the events, instead of three officers in the state, there was only one at the outpost - Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov. There were also slightly more personnel at the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost.

At 10.40, Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov arrived at the scene of the violation, ordered his subordinates to dismount, take machine guns "on the belt" and turn around in a chain. The guards split into two groups. The main commander was Strelnikov. The second group of 13 people was led by junior sergeant Rabovich. They covered Strelnikov's group from the shore. Approaching the Chinese about twenty meters, Strelnikov said something to them, then raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the Chinese coast.
Head of the outpost senior lieutenant I. Strelnikov.
Private Nikolai Petrov, who was standing behind him, was filming and filming, recording the fact of border violations and the procedure for expelling violators. He took several shots with the Zorkiy-4 FED camera, and then raised the movie camera. At that moment, one of the Chinese waved his hand sharply.

THE LAST PICTURES MADE BY THE PHOTOCHRONICER PRIVATE N. PETROV. IN A MINUTE THE CHINESE WILL OPEN FIRE AND PETROV WILL BE KILLED.

The first line of the Chinese parted, and the soldiers standing in the second line opened automatic fire on the Soviet border guards. Shooting was carried out point-blank from 1-2 meters. On the spot, the commander of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov, the detective of the special department of the 57th border detachment, Senior Lieutenant N. Buynevich, N. Petrov, I. Vetrich, A. Ionin, V. Izotov, A. Shestakov, died. At the same time, fire was opened on the Rabovich group from the side of the island. It was fired from machine guns, machine guns and grenade launchers. Several border guards were killed immediately, the rest scattered and returned fire. However, being practically in open space, they were very soon completely destroyed. After that, the Chinese began to finish off the wounded with bayonets and knives. Some had their eyes gouged out. Of the two groups of our border guards, only one remained alive - Private Gennady Serebrov. He received bullet wounds in the right hand, leg and lower back, a "control" blow with a bayonet, but survived. Later, Serebrov, who had lost consciousness, was carried out by border guard sailors from the patrol boat brigade, who arrived to help the Novo-Mikhailovka outpost.

By this time, a group of junior sergeant Yu. Babansky arrived at the battlefield, lagging behind Strelnikov (the group was delayed on the way due to a technical malfunction of the machine). The border guards dispersed and opened fire on the Chinese lying on the island. In response, the PLA soldiers opened fire with automatic weapons, machine guns and mortars. Mortar fire was concentrated on armored personnel carriers and vehicles standing on the ice. As a result, one of the cars - GAZ-69 was destroyed, the other GAZ-66 was badly damaged. A few minutes later, the crew of armored personnel carrier No. 4 came to the rescue of Babansky. With fire from turret machine guns, he suppressed enemy firing points, which made it possible for the five surviving border guards of Babansky's group to get out of the fire.


10-15 minutes after the start of the battle, a mangrupp from the 1st frontier post "Kulebyakiny Sopki" under the command of Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin approached the battlefield.

“Having disembarked from the armored personnel carrier, under the cover of the eastern shore,” recalls V. Bubenin, “we turned around in a chain and jumped out to the island. This is about 300 meters from the place where the tragedy had just occurred. But we didn’t know about it yet. there were 23 people. In battle order, they began to move in the direction of the fading fire. When we went deeper by about 50 meters, we saw that we were being attacked from the rampart to a platoon of Chinese soldiers. They ran towards us, yelled and fired. The distance between us was from 150 to 200 meters "It was rapidly declining. I not only heard the shooting, but also clearly saw how the flame flies out of the barrels. I understood that the battle had begun, but I still hoped that this was not true. I hoped that the idlers were frightened."

With a decisive attack, the Chinese were driven back behind an embankment on the island. Despite the wound, Bubenin, leading the survivors, bypassed the island in an armored personnel carrier, suddenly attacked the Chinese from the rear.

“A dense mass of Chinese,” writes V. Bubenin, “having jumped off a steep bank, rushed to the island through the channel. The distance to them is up to 200 meters. I opened fire from both machine guns to kill. Our appearance in their rear turned out to be so unexpected that the running crowd sharply slowed down their run and stopped, as if they had stumbled upon a concrete wall. They were completely at a loss. They didn’t even fire at first. The distance between us was rapidly shrinking. Machine gunners also joined in the shooting. The Chinese fell as if they had been cut down, many turned and rushed to their shore. They climbed on it, but, defeated, crawled down. The Chinese opened fire on their own, trying to return them to the battle. Everything was mixed up in this heap, fighting, ebullient. Those who were turned around began to make their way to the island in groups. at some point they were so close that we shot them at point-blank range, hit them with the side and crushed them with wheels.

Despite the death of many border guards, the second wound of V. Bubenin and damage to the armored personnel carrier, the battle continued. Transferring to the armored personnel carrier of the 2nd outpost, Bubenin hit the Chinese on the flank. As a result of an unexpected attack, the battalion command post and a large number of enemy manpower were destroyed.

Sergeant Ivan Larechkin, privates Petr Plekhanov, Kuzma Kalashnikov, Sergei Rudakov, Nikolai Smelov fought in the center of the battle formation. On the right flank, junior sergeant Alexei Pavlov led the battle. In his department were: corporal Viktor Korzhukov, privates Alexei Zmeev, Alexei Syrtsev, Vladimir Izotov, Islamgali Nasretdinov, Ivan Vetrich, Alexander Ionin, Vladimir Legotin, Petr Velichko and others.

By 14.00 the island was completely under the control of the Soviet border guards.

According to official data, in a little over two hours, Soviet border guards destroyed up to 248 Chinese soldiers and officers only on the island, not counting the channels. During the battle on March 2, 31 Soviet border guards were killed. About 20 border guards received injuries of varying severity, and Corporal Pavel Akulov was captured. After severe torture, he was shot. In April, his mutilated body was dropped from a Chinese helicopter into Soviet territory. 28 bayonet wounds were counted on the body of the Soviet border guard. Eyewitnesses recall that almost all the hair on his head was torn out, and those shreds that remained were completely gray.
Dead Soviet border guards
The Chinese attack on the Soviet border guards stirred up the Soviet political and military leadership. On March 2, 1969, the government of the USSR sent a note to the government of the PRC, in which it sharply condemned the Chinese provocation. In particular, it stated: "The Soviet government reserves the right to take decisive measures to stop provocations on the Soviet-Chinese border and warns the government of the People's Republic of China that all responsibility for the possible consequences of the adventurist policy aimed at aggravating the situation on the border between China and the Soviet Union lies with the government of the People's Republic of China. However, the Chinese side ignored the statement of the Soviet government.

In order to prevent possible repeated provocations, several reinforced motorized maneuver groups from the reserve of the Pacific Border District (two motorized rifle companies with two tank platoons and a battery of 120-mm mortars) were deployed to the area of ​​the Nizhne-Mikhailovka and Kulebyakiny Sopki outposts. The 57th border detachment, which included these outposts, was allocated an additional flight of Mi-4 helicopters of the Ussuri border squadron. On the night of March 12, units of the 135th motorized rifle division of the Far Eastern Military District (commander - General Nesov) arrived in the area of ​​recent battles: the 199th motorized rifle regiment, an artillery regiment, the 152nd separate tank battalion, the 131st separate reconnaissance battalion and a jet division BM-21 "Grad". The operational group created by the head of the troops of the Pacific Border District, headed by the deputy chief of the troops of the district, Colonel G. Sechkin, is also located here.

Simultaneously with the strengthening of the border, reconnaissance activities were activated. According to intelligence, including aviation and space, the Chinese concentrated large forces in the Damansky Island area - mainly infantry and artillery units. At a depth of up to 20 kilometers, they created warehouses, command posts and other structures. On March 7, in the Damansky and Kirkinsky directions, a concentration up to the PLA infantry regiment with reinforcements was revealed. In 10-15 kilometers from the border, reconnaissance discovered up to 10 batteries of large-caliber artillery. By March 15, a battalion of Chinese was identified in the provincial direction, a regiment with attached tanks in the Iman direction, up to two infantry battalions in the Panteleymonovsky direction, and up to a battalion in the Pavlovo-Fyodorovsky direction. In total, the Chinese concentrated a motorized infantry division with reinforcements near the border.

These days, the Chinese were also conducting intensive reconnaissance, and even using aviation for this. The Soviet side did not interfere with this, hoping that, seeing the real strength of the Soviet side, they would stop their provocative actions. That did not happen.

On March 12, a meeting of representatives of the Soviet and Chinese border troops took place. During this meeting, an officer of the Chinese border post Hutou, referring to the instructions of Mao Zedong, expressed the threat of the use of armed force against the Soviet border guards guarding Damansky Island.

On March 14, at 11:15 a.m., Soviet observation posts noticed the advance of a group of Chinese military personnel towards Damansky Island. She was cut off from the border by machine gun fire and was forced to return to the Chinese coast.

At 17.30, two Chinese groups of 10-15 people entered the island. They set up four machine guns and other weapons in firing positions. At 18.45 they took their starting positions directly on the shore from it.

To preempt the attack, by 0600 on March 15, a reinforced mobile group of the border detachment under the command of Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin (45 people with grenade launchers) on 4 BTR-60PB was advanced to the island. To support the group, a reserve was concentrated on the shore - 80 people (school of sergeants of the 69th border detachment of the Pacific border district) on seven armored personnel carriers with LNG and heavy machine guns.

At 10:05 the Chinese began to seize the island. The way for the advancing was cleared by the fire of about three mortar batteries, from three directions. The shelling was carried out on all suspicious sections of the island and the river, where Soviet border guards could hide.

Yanshin's group entered the battle.

"... in the command car there was a continuous roar, fumes, powder smoke," Yanshin recalls. and pouring fire while standing.

Without looking back, he holds out his hand for a new jar. Loading Kruglov only manages to load the tapes. Silently they work, with one gesture they understand each other. "Don't get excited," I shout, "save ammo!" I give him goals. And the enemy, under cover of fire, went on the attack again. A new wave rolls to the shaft. Due to continuous fire, explosions of mines and shells, neighboring armored personnel carriers are not visible. I command in plain text: "I'm going to counterattack, cover Mankovsky and Klyga with fire from the rear." My driver Smelov pulled the car forward through the fire screen. Deftly maneuvers among the craters, creates conditions for us to aim shooting. Here the machine gun fell silent. Sulzhenko was taken aback for a moment. Reloads, presses the electric trigger - only a single shot follows. And the Chinese are on the rise. Sulzhenko opened the cover of the machine gun, fixed the malfunction. The machine guns fired. I command Smelov: "Forward!" We repulsed another attack ... ".

Having lost several people killed and three armored personnel carriers, Yanshin was forced to retreat to our shore. However, at 14.40, replacing the personnel and wrecked armored personnel carriers, replenishing ammunition, he again attacked the enemy and knocked him out of his positions. Having pulled up reserves, the Chinese concentrated massive mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire on the group. As a result, one armored personnel carrier was shot down. 7 people died immediately. A few minutes later, the second APC caught fire. Senior Lieutenant L. Mankovsky, covering the retreat of his subordinates with machine gun fire, remained in the car and burned down. An armored personnel carrier, commanded by Lieutenant A. Klyga, was also surrounded. Only half an hour later, the border guards, having "felt" a weak section of the enemy positions, broke through the encirclement and united with their own.

At the time when the battle was going on on the island, nine T-62 tanks approached the command post. According to some information - by mistake. The border command decided to take advantage of the opportunity and repeat the successful raid of V. Bubenin, carried out on March 2. A group of three tanks was led by the head of the Iman border detachment, Colonel D. Leonov.

However, the attack failed - this time the Chinese side was ready for such a development of events. When Soviet tanks approached the Chinese coast, heavy artillery and mortar fire was opened on them. The lead car was almost immediately hit and lost its course. The Chinese focused all their fire on her. The remaining tanks of the platoon withdrew to the Soviet coast. The crew trying to get out of the wrecked tank was shot from small arms. Colonel D. Leonov, who was mortally wounded in the heart, also died.

Damansky Island - a view from the Chinese side.

Two other tanks still managed to break through to the island and take up defense there. This allowed the Soviet soldiers to hold out for another 2 hours on Damansky. Finally, having shot all the ammunition and not having received reinforcements, they left Damansky.

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 brought into battle were not enough to defeat the Chinese side, which was prepared very seriously.

A captured T-62 tank at the PLA Museum. Beijing.

Despite the heavy losses among the border guards, Moscow was still wary of bringing regular army units into battle. The position of the Center is clear. While the border guards were fighting, everything came down to a border conflict, albeit with the use of weapons. The involvement of regular units of the armed forces turned the clash into an armed conflict or a small war. The latter, given the mood of the Chinese leadership, could develop into a full-scale one - and between the two nuclear powers.

The political situation, apparently, was clear to everyone. However, in a situation where border guards were dying nearby, and army units were in the role of passive observers, the indecision of the country's leadership caused disagreement and natural indignation.

“The army men sat on our communication line, and I heard how the regimental commanders covered their superiors for indecision,” recalls the head of the political department of the Iman detachment, Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Konstantinov. “They were eager to fight, but were bound hand and foot with all sorts of directives” .

When a report came from the battlefield about two wrecked armored personnel carriers of the Yanshin group, the deputy chief of staff of the Grodekovsky detachment, Major P. Kosinov, on his own initiative, on one armored personnel carrier, moved to help. Approaching the wrecked vehicles, he covered their crews with the side of his armored personnel carrier. The crews were withdrawn from the fire. However, during the withdrawal of his armored personnel carrier was hit. Leaving the last burning car, Major Kosinov was wounded in both legs. After some time, the unconscious officer was pulled out of the battle and, considered dead, was put in a barn where the dead lay. Fortunately, the dead were examined by a border guard doctor. He determined from his pupils that Kosinov was alive and ordered the wounded to be evacuated by helicopter to Khabarovsk.

Moscow was still silent, and the commander of the Far Eastern Military District, Lieutenant General O. Losik, made the sole decision to help the border guards. The commander of the 135th MSD was ordered to suppress the enemy's manpower with artillery fire, and then attack with the forces of the 2nd battalion of the 199th motorized rifle regiment and motorized maneuver groups of the 57th border detachment.

At about 17.10, the artillery regiment and the division of installations "Grad" of the 135th MSD, as well as mortar batteries (lieutenant colonel D. Krupeinikov) opened fire. It ran for 10 minutes. The strikes were delivered to a depth of 20 kilometers across Chinese territory (according to other sources, the shelling area was 10 kilometers along the front and 7 kilometers in depth). As a result of this strike, the reserves, ammunition points, warehouses, etc. of the enemy were destroyed. Severe damage was inflicted on his troops advancing to the Soviet border. In total, 1,700 shells from mortars and the Grad multiple launch rocket system were fired at the Damansky and Chinese coasts. At the same time, 5 tanks, 12 armored personnel carriers, the 4th and 5th motorized rifle companies of the 2nd battalion of the 199th regiment (commander - Lieutenant Colonel A. Smirnov) and one motorized group of border guards went on the attack. The Chinese put up stubborn resistance, but were soon driven off the island.

In the battle on March 15, 1969, 21 border guards of 7 motorized riflemen (servicemen of the Soviet army) were killed, 42 border guards were wounded. Chinese losses amounted to about 600 people. In total, as a result of the fighting on Damansky, Soviet troops lost 58 people. The Chinese - about 1000. In addition, 50 Chinese soldiers and officers were shot for cowardice. The number of wounded on the Soviet side, according to official figures, amounted to 94 people, from the Chinese - several hundred.

At the end of hostilities, 150 border guards received government awards. Including five were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (Colonel D.V. Leonov - posthumously, senior lieutenant I.I. Strelnikov - posthumously, senior lieutenant V. Bubenin, junior sergeant Yu.V. Babansky, commander of the machine gun department of the 199th motorized rifle regiment, junior sergeant V.V. Orekhov), 3 people were awarded the Order of Lenin (Colonel A.D. Konstantinov, Sergeant V. Kanygin, Lieutenant Colonel E. Yanshin), 10 people were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 31 - the Order of the Red Star, 10 - the Order of Glory of the III degree, 63 - the medal "For Courage", 31 - the medal "For Military Merit".

Vitaly Bubenin, a participant in the conflict on Damansky Island: “You don’t need to remember this every day, but you shouldn’t forget it either” ...

In China, the events at Damansky were hailed as a victory for Chinese weapons. Ten Chinese servicemen became Heroes of China.

In the official interpretation of Beijing, the events on Damansky looked like this:

"On March 2, 1969, a group of Soviet border troops of 70 people with two armored personnel carriers, one truck and one passenger car invaded our island of Zhenbaodao, Hulin County, Heilongjiang Province, destroyed our patrol and then destroyed many of our border guards with fire. This forced our soldiers to take action self defense.

On March 15, the Soviet Union, ignoring the repeated warnings of the Chinese government, launched an offensive against us with the forces of 20 tanks, 30 armored personnel carriers and 200 infantry, with air support from their aircraft.

Courageously defending the island for 9 hours, the fighters and the people's militias withstood three enemy attacks. On March 17, the enemy, using several tanks, tractors and infantry, tried to pull out a tank that had been hit earlier by our troops. The hurricane return artillery fire of our artillery destroyed part of the enemy forces, the survivors retreated.

After the end of the armed clash in the Damansky area, a motorized rifle battalion, a separate tank battalion and a BM-21 Grad rocket division of the 135th motorized rifle division remained in combat positions. By April, one motorized rifle battalion remained in the defense area, which soon also departed for the place of permanent deployment. All approaches to Damansky from the Chinese side were mined.

At that time, the Soviet government took steps to resolve the situation by political means.

On March 15, the leadership of the USSR sent a statement to the Chinese side, in which a sharp warning was made about the inadmissibility of armed border conflicts. In particular, it noted that "if further attempts are made to violate the inviolability of Soviet territory, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, all its peoples will resolutely defend it and give a crushing rebuff to such violations."

On March 29, the Soviet government again made a statement in which it called for the resumption of negotiations on border issues that had been interrupted in 1964 and suggested that the Chinese government refrain from actions on the border that could cause complications. The Chinese side left these statements unanswered. Moreover, Mao Zedong on March 15 at a meeting of the group on cultural revolution, touching on the issue of current events, called for urgent preparations for war. Lin Biao, in his report to the 9th Congress of the CCP (April 1969), accused the Soviet side of organizing "continuous armed incursions into the territory of the PRC." It also confirmed the course for "continuous revolution" and preparations for war.

Nevertheless, on April 11, 1969, the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a note to the DPRK Foreign Ministry, in which it proposed to resume consultations between the plenipotentiaries of the USSR and the PRC, expressing readiness to start them at any time convenient for the PRC.

On April 14, in response to a note from the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the Chinese side stated that proposals regarding the settlement of the situation on the border "are being studied and an answer will be given to them."

During the "study of proposals" armed border clashes and provocations continued.

On April 23, 1969, a group of 25-30 Chinese violated the border of the USSR and entered the Soviet island No. 262 on the Amur River, located near the village of Kalinovka. At the same time, a group of Chinese servicemen concentrated on the Chinese bank of the Amur.

On May 2, 1969, another border incident occurred near the small village of Dulaty in Kazakhstan. This time the Soviet border guards were ready for a Chinese invasion. Even earlier, to repel possible provocations, the Makanchinsky border detachment was significantly strengthened. By May 1, 1969, he had 14 outposts of 50 people each (and the frontier post "Dulaty" - 70 people) and a maneuver group (182 people) on 17 armored personnel carriers. In addition, a separate tank battalion of the district was concentrated in the detachment’s sector (the village of Makanchi), and according to the plan for interaction with army formations, a motorized rifle and tank companies, a mortar platoon of a support detachment from the 215th motorized rifle regiment (the village of Vahty) and a battalion from 369 1st Motorized Rifle Regiment (Druzhba station). Border protection was carried out by observation from towers, patrols on cars and checking the control strip. The main merit of such operational readiness of the Soviet units belonged to the head of the troops of the Eastern Border District, Lieutenant General M.K. Merkulov. He not only took measures to strengthen the Dulatinsky direction with his reserves, but also achieved the same measures from the command of the Turkestan military district.

Subsequent events unfolded as follows. On the morning of May 2, a border detachment noticed a flock of sheep that had crossed the border. Arriving at the scene, the Soviet border guards found a group of Chinese military personnel numbering about 60 people. To prevent an obvious conflict, the Soviet border detachment was reinforced with three reserve groups from nearby outposts, a company of the 369th motorized rifle regiment with a platoon of tanks, and two maneuver groups. The actions of the Soviet border guards were ready to support the fighter-bombers of the air regiment based in Ucharal, as well as the motorized rifle and artillery regiments concentrated in the nearest areas, two jet and two mortar divisions.

To coordinate actions, an operational group of the district was formed, headed by the chief of staff, Major General Kolodyazhny, located at the "Dulaty" outpost. The advanced command post headed by Major General G.N. Kutkikh.

At 16.30, Soviet border guards began to "squeeze out" the enemy, who also received significant reinforcements, from the territory of the USSR. The Chinese were forced to retreat without a fight. The situation was finally resolved diplomatically by May 18, 1969.

On June 10, in the area of ​​the Tasta River in the Semipalatinsk region, a group of Chinese military personnel invaded the territory of the USSR for 400 meters and opened automatic fire on Soviet border guards. The violators were fired back, after which the Chinese returned to their territory.

On July 8 of the same year, a group of armed Chinese, having violated the border, took refuge on the Soviet part of Goldinsky Island on the Amur River and fired from machine guns at Soviet river-waymen who arrived on the island to repair navigation signs. The attackers also used grenade launchers and hand grenades. As a result, one riverman was killed and three were wounded.

Armed clashes also continued in the area of ​​Damansky Island. According to V. Bubenin, in the following summer months after the incident, Soviet border guards were forced to use weapons more than 300 times to counter Chinese provocations. So, for example, it is known that in mid-June 1969, an "experimental" Grad-type multiple launch rocket system arrived from Baikonur (combat crew of military unit 44245, commander - Major A.A. Shumilin) ​​visited the Damanskoye area. The combat crew included, in addition to military personnel, specialists involved in the provision of space programs. Among them were: Yu.K. Razumovsky is the technical manager of the lunar complex, Papazyan is the technical manager of the missile and technical complex, A. Tashu is the commander of the Vega guidance complex, L. Kuchma, the future president of Ukraine, at that time an employee of the testing department, Kozlov is a telemetry specialist, I. BUT. Soldatova - test engineer and others. The "experiment" was controlled by a high-ranking state commission, which, in particular, included the commander of the missile forces Kamanin.

Perhaps the blow of the calculation of Major A.A. Shumilin was demonstrative, in order to stimulate the Chinese side to start peaceful negotiations to resolve the contradictions that had arisen. In any case, on September 11, 1969, during confidential negotiations between the head of the Soviet government A. Kosygin and the Premier of the State Council of the PRC, Zhou Enlai, an agreement was reached in Beijing on the start of official negotiations on border issues, which took place on October 20, 1969.

However, a month before the meeting between representatives of the Soviet and Chinese governments, another large-scale armed provocation took place on the Soviet-Chinese border, which claimed dozens of lives.

On the night of March 2, 1969, a Soviet-Chinese border conflict began on Damansky Island. At the cost of the lives of 58 Soviet soldiers and officers, they managed to stop a big war between the two states.

The deterioration of Soviet-Chinese relations that began after Stalin's death and Khrushchev's condemnation of the personality cult resulted in a virtual confrontation between the two world powers in Asia. Mao Zedong's claims to China's leadership in the socialist world, the tough policy towards the Kazakhs and Uighurs living in China, and China's attempts to challenge a number of border territories from the USSR aggravated relations between the powers to the limit. In the mid 60s. the Soviet command is consistently building up groupings of troops in Transbaikalia and the Far East, taking all possible measures in the event of a possible conflict with China. Tank and combined-arms armies were additionally deployed in the Trans-Baikal Military District and on the territory of Mongolia, and fortified areas were equipped along the border. Since the summer of 1968, provocations from the Chinese side have become more frequent, and have become almost constant on the Ussuri River near Damansky Island (less than 1 sq. Km in area). In January 1969, the General Staff of the Chinese Army developed an operation to seize the disputed territory.

2nd frontier post of the 57th Imansky frontier detachment "Nizhne-Mikhailovka". 1969

On the night of March 2, 1969, 300 Chinese soldiers occupied the island and set up firing positions on it. In the morning, the Soviet border guards discovered the violators, apparently determining their number, about one platoon (30 people), in an armored personnel carrier and two cars, headed to the island to expel the uninvited guests to their territory. The border guards advanced in three groups. At about 11 o'clock, the Chinese fired on the first of them, consisting of two officers and 5 soldiers from small arms, while simultaneously opening fire from guns and mortars on two others. Help was hastily called.

After a long skirmish, the Soviet border guards drove the enemy out of Damansky, with 32 border guards killed and 14 more wounded. A mobile group led by the commander of the Iman border detachment, Lieutenant Colonel Demokrat Leonov, hastily moved into the area of ​​hostilities. Its avant-garde was made up of 45 border guards on 4 armored personnel carriers. As a reserve, this group was covered by about 80 fighters of the sergeant school. By March 12, units of the 135th Pacific Red Banner Motorized Rifle Division were brought up to Damanskoye: motorized rifle and artillery regiments, a separate tank battalion and the Grad multiple rocket launcher systems division. On the morning of March 15, the Chinese, with the support of tanks and artillery, launched an offensive against Damansky. During the counterattack by a tank platoon, the commander of the Iman detachment, Leonov, was killed. 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 to their shore and now it stands in the Beijing Military Museum). In this situation, the commander of the 135th division gave the order to bring down howitzers, mortars and Grad installations on Damansky and adjacent Chinese territory. After a fire raid, the island was occupied by motorized riflemen on armored personnel carriers.

The losses of the Soviet troops in this attack amounted to 4 combat vehicles and 16 people killed and wounded, for a total of 58 dead and 94 wounded. Four participants in the Damansky battles: Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, head of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Lieutenant Colonel Democrat Leonov, head of the Iman border detachment, Vitaly Bubenin, head of the Kulebyakina Sopka frontier post, and Sergeant Yuri Babansky, were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Strelnikov and Leonov - posthumously. The Chinese lost, according to various estimates, from 500 to 700 people.

But the tension on the border persisted for about a year. During the summer of 1969, our border guards had to open fire more than three hundred times. Damansky Island soon de facto went to the PRC. De jure, the border line along the fairway of the Ussuri River was fixed only in 1991, and it was finally fixed in October 2004, when the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree on the transfer of part of the Big Ussuri Island to China.

It has been 44 years since the bloody battles on Damansky Island. This epoch-making event of the 20th century, which brought the world to the brink of war, an inimitable standard of the highest patriotism, courage, heroism, unparalleled courage, selfless love and devotion to one's Motherland, professional military skill, is little mentioned in the state official media. As if he never existed. As if we, defending our Motherland, on our, I emphasize, on our territory, did something shameful, which is embarrassing to even mention.

Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich was born on November 12, 1947 in the city of Kuibyshev, Novosibirsk Region. Russian. He was called up on July 3, 1966 by the Kuibyshev Military Commissariat of the Novosibirsk Region. Private, shooter of the 2nd frontier post of the 57th frontier detachment of the Pacific border district. Killed in battle on about. Damansky March 2, 1969. He was buried on March 6, 1969, in a mass grave on the territory of the 2nd frontier post "Nizhne-Mikhailovka", Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai. He was reburied on May 30, 1980 at the military section of the city cemetery of Dalnerechensk, Primorsky Krai, the memorial "Glory to the Fallen Heroes". He was awarded the medal "For Courage" and the Badge of Honor of the Central Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League "For Military Valor" (posthumously).

“... Hello mom, dad, Sasha and Seryozha! Excuse me for not writing for a long time, I really don’t like writing letters, and there’s nothing special to write about. Alive, healthy, don't worry about me... There is nothing new, I still go to work, draw, and wait for demobilization. The weather is warm, it thaws during the day, spring is coming, here it starts early here ... Lyudmila writes often, in general, she’s done well with me.

How are you, my "oldies"! How are the bros! Seryozha has probably become big. And you, Sasha, how are things in sports? Do not be offended that I rarely deprive. Do not think that I am forgetting you, if you only knew how much I missed you all!”

Vladimir Shusharin wrote this letter to his parents on February 27, 1969. And on March 2, when the letter had not yet reached the addressee, on the border where Vladimir served, a monstrous tragedy broke out, which everyone now knows about and which causes pain and indignation in everyone ...

On the night of March 2, about three hundred armed Chinese soldiers, violating the Soviet state border, crossed the channel of the Ussuri River to the Soviet Damansky Island. Dressed in white camouflage robes, they spread out on an island in the forest and bushes, beyond the natural elevation of the area, lay in ambush. On the Chinese coast of the Ussuri, military units and fire weapons were concentrated - mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.

In the morning, another 30 armed Chinese violators set off from the Chinese coast across the state border of the USSR to Damansky Island.

The commander of the N-outpost, Senior Lieutenant Ivan Strelnikov, together with Senior Lieutenant Nikolai Buinevich, taking with him six border guards, including our Kuibyshev compatriot Vladimir Shusharin, went out to meet the violators, intending to protest to the Chinese and demand that they leave Soviet land . So the border guards acted repeatedly when Chinese violators appeared in these places. The provocateurs approached Strelnikov's group and suddenly opened fire on it point-blank...

... A large two-story house on the main street of the city seemed to grow dark and quiet. Near the gate are three old women, quietly talking:

What a guy he was! He won't hurt anyone, he'll get along with everyone...

It's about him, about Vladimir. He lived in this house before being drafted into the army, walked along these alleys of the garden, climbed these steps to the eleventh apartment, in which a great, unbearable grief has now settled. A thin woman, exhausted from tears, bent over the photographs laid out on the table. Who can't understand a mother's heart! It is not easy, oh how difficult it is for Anastasia Zinovievna to come to terms with a heavy loss.

The eldest son died. The mother is crying, but along with tears, a harsh condemnation of impudent provocateurs boils in her heart, pride is heard for her son, who heroically gave his life for the inviolability of the sacred borders of our Motherland. The same feeling of pride lives in Vladimir's father, Isai Pavlovich. I heard him say at a rally of energy workers at the Barabinsk State District Power Plant:

Our son died from bandit hands while defending the borders of the Motherland. It's hard for us parents. But we know that he did not flinch at a difficult moment, he fulfilled his soldier's duty to the end. Vladimir grew up in a good family. They brought him up in a good way, managed to instill in him high moral qualities. Parents, the school, the team in which he worked before leaving for the army must be given credit for the fact that a real hero has grown out of a former naughty boy.

Vladimir Shusharin enjoyed special love among the border guards. He was considered in the unit as his artist. While still at school, Vladimir was fond of painting, studied in a circle of fine arts. After school, this hobby did not leave him. A circle of drawing lovers worked in the Palace of Culture named after V. V. Kuibyshev. Vladimir Shusharin, a mechanic at motor depot No. 8, was also a regular participant. In the army, in his free time, he usually took a pencil or a brush and, having settled down somewhere in the rest room or on the street, near the outpost, he drew. The Leninsky room of the outpost is decorated and framed by his hands.

Vladimir began his military service in the most "prosaic" way. While still at home, he trained as a locksmith. Therefore, he was sent to a unit where people who knew the technique were needed. But a few months later, the guy asked to go to the border, and his request was granted.

On that fateful morning of March 2, Vladimir Shusharin, together with his friends, was the first to meet the violators. He, like the head of the outpost I. Strelnikov, like all his comrades, did not want blood to be shed on the Ussuri ice. They demanded from provocateurs that they get out of foreign territory. Eight Soviet border guards stopped against thirty Chinese bandits. They were asked to change their minds, and they went on a malicious provocation, opened fire on the border guards. Vladimir Shusharin fell one of the first. Two automatic bursts pierced the chest of a soldier ...

There were many times fewer of them than Chinese bandits. Taking advantage of this, the provocateurs sneered at the wounded and killed. As if fearing that the dead would rise, they continued to barbarously deal with the corpses. But the provocateurs paid dearly for the lives of the fallen Soviet soldiers. Despite the incomparable superiority in forces, they suffered heavy losses and were thrown out of Soviet soil.

... Once upon a time in the civil war there, in the East, Vladimir's great-grandfather died from a bullet of a White Guard. Later, in the same place, in the east, he guarded the borders of the Motherland, and later heroically fought in the west with the Nazis, his grandfather Zinovy ​​​​Nikitich Kuzmin, who now lives in our city. A wounded, elderly man, he has many government awards. Vladimir Shusharin did not disgrace the honor of the older generation. He courageously accepted death, defending the inaccessibility of the borders of his beloved Motherland.

“Dear Anastasia Zinovievna and Isai Pavlovich! Your son, Private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich, on March 2, 1969, died a heroic death while guarding and defending the state border of the USSR. The Command and Political Directorate of the Border Troops of the Soviet Union express their deep condolences to you. The feat of your son is a vivid example of selfless service to our great Soviet Motherland, to the cause of communism. The bright memory of your son, a faithful and courageous defender of the socialist Fatherland, will forever remain in the hearts of his fighting friends, border guards and the entire Soviet people.

Such a letter was received by Vladimir's parents from the command and political administration of the border troops of the USSR. All Soviet people add their voices to the words of this letter, we will always be proud of the feat of our fellow countryman. There, at the outpost of Strelnikov, the soldiers still carry out their difficult service. And, every time, going on patrol, they come to the mass grave to take an oath of allegiance to the fallen comrades. And we know that the border is closed again, that the work of Vladimir Shusharin and his friends is reliably continued by other Soviet soldiers.

March 2, 1969 Chronicle of events

At 11:10 Gaz-69 and BTR-60 arrived at the southern tip of the island.

Alarm group of the 2nd frontier post at about. Damansky. Photograph by an unknown Chinese military photographer
Arriving at the place of violation of the border, the border guards split into two groups. The first, of 7 people under the command of Strelnikov, went to the Chinese soldiers who were standing on the ice of the river southwest of the island. The second group of 13 border guards, led by Sergeant Vladimir Rabovich, was supposed to cover Strelnikov's group, moving along the southern coast of the island.

The beginning of the armed provocation was captured by a military photographer, private Nikolai Petrov, who photographed and filmed the events, recording the fact of border violations and the procedure for expelling violators. The Chinese soldiers took away a movie camera with them, but did not notice the camera, which Petrov, after taking the last picture, put it behind the lapel of his sheepskin coat...

The first photo of Petrov, taken from a distance of 300-350 m, shows soldiers of the Chinese army who violated the state border.

The second picture clearly shows a chain of Chinese and three border guards walking towards them. On the right is the coast of Damansky Island: somewhere there, among the trees and bushes, a Chinese ambush lurked.

Approaching the Chinese, I. Strelnikov protested about the violation of the border and demanded that the Chinese military personnel leave the territory of the USSR. One of the Chinese shouted something loudly to his soldiers, after which those in front parted, and the rear opened automatic fire on our border guards. The last shot was taken by Petrov a few moments before his death: the nearest Chinese soldier raised his hand - most likely, this is a signal to open fire.

Strelnikov, Buinevich and the border guards accompanying them died immediately. The ambush on Damansky opened fire on Rabovich's group. Several border guards were killed, the survivors lay down and opened fire on the Chinese who rushed to the attack. They fought to the last bullet...

The only one who miraculously survived from the group of Sergeant Rabovich was Private Gennady Serebrov. Having regained consciousness in the hospital, he spoke about the last moments of the life of his friends:

- Our chain stretched along the coast of the island. Pasha Akulov ran ahead, followed by Kolya Kolodkin, then the rest. Yegupov ran ahead of me, and then Shusharin. We were chasing the Chinese, who were leaving along the rampart towards the bush. There was an ambush. As soon as they jumped out onto the rampart, they saw three Chinese soldiers in camouflage suits below. They lay three meters from the rampart. At this time, shots were fired at Strelnikov's group. We opened fire in response. Several Chinese in the ambush were killed. Shot in long bursts...

March 2, 1969 11-25

Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin commanded the Kulebyakiny Sopki outpost, located fifteen kilometers north of Damansky. Having received a telephone message about what was happening on the island, he hurried with twenty-two border guards in an BTR-60 to help his neighbors ...

March 2, 1969 Damansky Island. Report of the head of the 1st frontier post, Lieutenant Bubenin, via the communication line to the operational duty officer of the 57th border detachment, Major V. Bazhenov:

I report the situation: there is a battle on the island ... on Damansky Island, a battle has been going on for about an hour. Strelnikov? Apparently, his outpost and he were killed... Yes, I am fighting with my personnel of 21 people... Yes, a lot... strong fire from mortars, artillery... submachine gun and machine-gun fire. Everything is on fire, my armored personnel carrier has been hit, there are dead and wounded... I can’t hear you... I can’t hear you...

The driver of the armored personnel carrier corporal A. Shamov takes the phone.

Comrade Major, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin is losing consciousness... yes, he is seriously wounded, covered in blood, burned... No, he seems to be alive... regaining consciousness.

Yes, I'm Bubenin, I'm listening to you ... Bring people out? No I can not. An open place, they will put everyone, I will lose everyone. My reserve came up, I'm going into battle again. No, I can't, Major... I can't retreat, I'm going into battle, that's all... Farewell...

At that moment, help arrived - a group of sergeant Sikushenko arrived from the 1st outpost, and Bubenin, having transferred with seven border guards to the Strelnikov armored personnel carrier, continued the attack ...

From the memoirs of Vitaly Bubenin: “I fought all the further battle on the subconscious, being in some other world. Having got out on the shore and sat in an armored personnel carrier, the fighters and I went to the rear of the enemy. In front of the car, the dumbfounded Chinese got up from under the snow one by one. Only then did we realize how many of them came to our souls ... For more than two hours of fighting, we circled around their positions, crushing and shooting. When, after the next round, we got to the other side, it turned out that four out of the entire outpost were left on their feet. We sent the dead and wounded to the outpost, silently embraced, stood for a while and went back towards the island. Everyone understood that he would not return from this battle.

In the last attack, Bubenin managed to destroy the command post of the Chinese battalion on the island. This decided the outcome of the battle. Chinese soldiers began to retreat to their territory, taking with them the wounded and dead ...

Vladimir Grechukhin, a photographer for the regional newspaper Border Guard on the Pacific Ocean, ended up on the island an hour and a half after the end of the battle. It smelled of gunpowder, blood, death ...

Burnt out GAZ-69 of the 2nd frontier post. Damansky Island. March 2, 1969

A shell hole in the starboard side of the BTR-60 No. 04 of the 2nd frontier post

At the position of the Chinese battalion


Chinese command post destroyed by Bubenin's group
On March 2, 1969, up to 250 Chinese soldiers and 31 Soviet border guards were killed in the battle near Damansky Island, 14 were injured. Komsomol organizer of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Corporal Akulov, went missing ...

March 2, 1969 12-00

From the memoirs of Lieutenant Colonel Konstantinov:

Everything around was burning: bushes, trees, two cars. We flew over our territory, watching Damansky. We saw our soldiers near some tree and landed. I began to send groups of soldiers in search of the wounded, the road was every minute. Babansky said that they found Strelnikov and his group. We crept in there like a plastuna. They lay so close together. First of all, I checked the documents. At Buinevich - on the spot. At Strelnikov's, they disappeared. Private Petrov, sent to the outpost by the political department for film and photo documentation, lost his camera. But under a sheepskin coat we found a camera with which he took his last three shots, which went around the whole world.

They broke branches, laid down the corpses and, standing up to their full height, went to their own. The soldiers dragged the bodies, and the officers and I fell a little behind - with machine guns and machine guns, we covered the retreat. So they left. The Chinese did not open fire ...

Junior Sergeant Alexander Skornyak recalls:

- We went out onto the ice, where the guys died, drove the GAZ-69 cars and started loading the bodies in twos, threes. Some of them were still warm, you see, only recently died from their wounds. You start to lift the guy, and he has a fountain of blood from his mouth. I still remember the smell of blood in the cold, the smell of death. The Chinese even mocked the dead - they stabbed with bayonets. The officers Buynevich and Strelnikov especially got it. The snow was red with blood. The Chinese carried away their dead during the retreat. But we found one of their soldiers between ours. He was dressed warmly, there was an AK-47 machine gun and a field telephone nearby ...

“Our people were tortured both alive and after death. They cut, smashed their heads ... - said Vladimir Grechukhin. - The Chinese dragged off the seriously wounded Komsomol organizer of the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost, Corporal Pavel Akulov. I was at the time of the transfer of his body to relatives - the remnants of his hair are gray. Pavel's corpse was mutilated beyond recognition. And only the mother was able to identify her son by a mole on his index finger ...

Chinese soldiers finished off wounded Soviet border guards with point-blank shots and edged weapons. This shameful fact for the People's Liberation Army of China is evidenced by the documents of the Soviet medical commission.

From the report of the head of the medical service of the 57th border detachment, major of the medical service V.I. found that 19 of the wounded would have remained alive, because during the battle they received non-fatal wounds. But then, in a fascist way, they were finished off with knives, bayonets and rifle butts. This is irrefutably evidenced by cut, stab bayonet and gunshot wounds. They shot point-blank from one or two meters. From such a distance, Strelnikov and Buinevich were finished off.

On March 5 and 6, border guards were buried at the outposts. Grechukhin's photographs show rows of coffins. Strict faces of the dead. Many have their heads hidden under white gauze bandages...

The funeral of the dead at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka outpost. March 6, 1969
Junior Sergeant Alexander Skornyak says:

Our guys were buried on the third day. The generals arrived from the district. The parents of the victims arrived. The political department campaigned for everyone to be buried in Nizhne-Mikhailovka, at the frontier post. All the fallen were immediately posthumously awarded: officers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, sergeants and soldiers were awarded orders. But that didn't make it any easier. And no one could have imagined that soon the dead border guards and soldiers would be laid next to them again ...

Background to the conflict

After the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, a provision appeared that the borders between states should, as a rule (but not necessarily) pass in 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 second coast before the other began to colonize it. In addition, international treaties and agreements do not have retroactive effect.

Despite the fact that, according to earlier agreements, the entire Ussuri River and the islands located on it turned out to be Russian, this did not have any effect on Soviet-Chinese relations. Only 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), did the Chinese use the new border provisions as an excuse to revise the Soviet-Chinese borders.

The Soviet leadership was sympathetic to the desire of the Chinese to draw a new border along the rivers and was even ready to transfer a number of lands to the PRC. However, this readiness disappeared as soon as the ideological and then the interstate conflict flared up. Further deterioration of relations between the two countries eventually led to an open armed confrontation on Damansky Island.

The events of March 2 and 15, 1969 on Damansky Island, starting from 1965, were preceded by numerous provocations by the Chinese to arbitrarily seize the Soviet islands on the Ussuri River. At the same time, the Soviet border guards always strictly adhered to the established line of conduct: provocateurs were expelled from Soviet territory, the border guards did not use weapons.

History reference.
Damansky Island in the late 60s belonged to the Pozharsky district of Primorsky Krai, bordering on the Chinese province of Heilongjiang. The removal of the island from the Soviet coast was about 500 m, from the Chinese - about 300 m. From south to north, Damansky is extended by 1500-1800 m, and its width reaches 600-700 m. The actual size of the island strongly depends on the time of year and the level of flood waters . It has no economic or military-strategic value.

• Art. Lieutenant Buinevich Nikolai Mikhailovich, detective of the special department of the 57th border detachment.

• Sergeant Ermolyuk Viktor Mikhailovich
• Corporal Korzhukov Viktor Kharitonovich
• Private Vetrich Ivan Romanovich
• Private Gavrilov Viktor Illarionovich
• Private Zmeev Alexey Petrovich
• Private Izotov Vladimir Alekseevich
• Private Ionin Alexander Filimonovich
• Private Syrtsev Alexey Nikolaevich
• Private Nasretdinov Islamgali Sultangaleevich

• Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov Ivan Ivanovich
• Sergeant Dergach Nikolay Timofeevich
• Sergeant Rabovich Vladimir Nikitich
• Junior Sergeant Kolodkin Nikolai Ivanovich
• Junior Sergeant Mikhail Andreevich Loboda
• Corporal Akulov Pavel Andreevich (died in captivity from his wounds)
• Corporal Davydenko Gennady Mikhailovich
• Corporal Mikhailov Evgeny Konstantinovich
• Private Danilin Vladimir Nikolaevich
• Private Denisenko Anatoly Grigorievich
• Private Egupov Viktor Ivanovich
• Private Zolotarev Valentin Grigorievich
• Private Isakov Vyacheslav Petrovich
• Private Kamenchuk Grigory Alexandrovich
• Private Kiselev Gavriil Georgievich
• Private Kuznetsov Alexey Nifantevich
• Private Nechay Sergey Alekseevich
• Private Ovchinnikov Gennady Sergeevich
• Private Pasyuta Alexander Ivanovich
• Private Petrov Nikolai Nikolaevich
• Private Shestakov Alexander Fedorovich
• Private Shusharin Vladimir Mikhailovich

TASS message

At 04:10 Moscow time, another 30 armed violators set off from the Chinese coast across the state border of the USSR to Damansky Island. A group of Soviet border guards led by the head of the outpost, Strelnikov, came to the place of violation of the border on the Ussuri ice.
As before, the border guards intended to protest against the Chinese about the violation of the border and expel them from the territory of the Soviet Union. Fire was opened on the Soviet border guards, and they were literally shot at point-blank range. Artillery and mortar fire was opened on another group of border guards from the Chinese coast.

Together with the reinforcements that arrived from the neighboring outpost, the Soviet border guards expelled the violators.
TASS, March 9, 1969

In March-April 1969, protest rallies were held in the city and the region against the Chinese provocation on the Soviet border and meetings with border guards participating in the battles near Damansky Island.

From the newspaper "Working Life". Kuibyshev NSO

Feat on Damansky Island

1
We are on the high, snowy bank of the Ussuri River, at the Nizhne-Mikhailovka frontier post.

Ussuri is a dazzling white, tightly arched horseshoe covered with ice and snow. On our side, the hills in the unfallen oaks roll, wave after wave, to the distant cape. And on the other side - a lowland, red grasses, bushes ... There - China! From the border tower, through the eyepieces of the rangefinder, you can see dry crowns of trees, a fanza under red tiles, smoke ... Between these shores lies Soviet land - Damansky Island, that small island, two kilometers long, where the snow is now torn open by mines, strewn with spent shells, watered with blood .

Ten days ago, on March 2, as already reported in the press, here, on Damansky Island, a small detachment of Soviet border guards took an unequal oh with a Chinese battalion specially trained for sabotage, vilely, under cover of night, violated the Soviet border. The gang of violators was supported from the Chinese coast by an anti-tank battery, heavy mortars, grenade launchers ...

Maoist bandits were defeated and expelled from Soviet soil. But 29 Soviet soldiers and 2 officers died a heroic death in the battle for their homeland.

2
The border guard officer leads us to a pile of equipment abandoned by the Chinese. Here are tin flasks with the remnants of the hypocrite - they drank it all night before the provocation. Here are the shabby mats - the Chinese lay on them after they stole onto the island like thieves at night and hid. Here is a telephone cable, telephones in red plastic cases, through which a command was transmitted from the island to the firing positions of guns and mortars to open fire on Soviet border guards. And from all this - a stupefying, nauseating smell of spilled prude.

We were shown the helmets of our fallen fighters, new green helmets, shot through, with petals of torn metal. There was blood on the straps. It can be seen that the bullet went from top to bottom: they shot at the wounded border guards lying on the snow from the closest distance.

Major of the medical service Vyacheslav Ivanovich Vitko made the following statement to us:

- A special medical examination established that 19 of our border guards, who at first received non-fatal wounds in the leg, arm, shoulder, were then brutally, vilely finished off. This is irrefutably evidenced by cut, bayonet and gunshot wounds. Shot from a distance of one or two meters. So the Maoist bandits finished off the wounded senior lieutenant Strelnikov with a shot at close range. About these atrocities, military doctors - lieutenants of the medical service B. Potavenko, N. Kostyuchenko and I drew up an act. 19 wounded Soviet border guards would have been alive if the killers had not finished them off with knives, bayonets, and bullets.

3
Helicopters one after another descended from the hill. From them, from the approaching cars, the mothers and fathers of the fallen soldiers came out and ran along the snowy slope, flooded with a dazzlingly bright sun, to where they could hear the fading, then the growing sounds of the funeral march ...

Tightly pitched tent. Guard of honor with machine guns. The red color hits the eyes: the coffins lined with kumach stand in a row. And in them, frozen, beautiful, despite the terrible wounds, the faces of our soldiers.

Mothers run. They fall for one, for another. Not the one, not the one... There he is! And he falls dead on his son's body, kisses his wounds, grabs his hands, sobs inconsolably. And nearby - another, third ... We stand right there and, unable to hold back tears, listen, write down everything, as it was said here, how it escaped from the mother's heart.

“My son, my hope… What have they, the monsters, done to you… Yes, they cut you all over, stabbed you… You wrote to me that your forelock is growing, but they smashed your whole head…

... The young widow grabbed the stake of the tent: she looks, looks at the one in the coffin, bandaged ...

... The gray-haired father is crying, the soldiers standing in the guard of honor are wiping their tears. The reporter writes something in a notebook, sobbing ...

They carried them on their shoulders and placed them carefully under the sun. Scarlet kumach and a green line of border caps. They lay, young, surrounded by a dense crowd. The sky above them is high, and spring clouds float in it. And in these white flying clouds, it was as if there was still an echo of the recent victorious battle. And there, on the island, their blood burns...

Fallen soldiers are lying, and workers from Iman say goodbye to them, peasants from the surrounding villages, friends, comrades in the border service, officers, generals ... Smoke from a rifle salute flowed over the river. A wide mass grave, native land accepts them. The first handfuls hit the lids of the coffins. And Ussuri, white, bright, opened the wings of her sleeves over this sacred grave.

4
Military hospital. Here lie the wounded heroes of Damansky Island. Twenty-year-old guys, but already scorched by the fire of the first brutal battle in their lives. Here, along with them, their combat commander, Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Dmitrievich Bubenin. He is thirty years old. He was born in Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, in the family of a party worker. After graduating from a technical school, he worked as a mechanic. Then - the army, the border school and, finally, the outpost. He served as political officer at the outpost of Nizhne-Mikhailovka, with Senior Lieutenant Ivan Ivanovich Strelnikov. The same age, young officers, they became friends. Then Bubenin was appointed head of the neighboring outpost. Bubenin fought heroically in battle, captivating all the fighters.

He talks about what remains in the memory and in the heart for life.

Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin:

- Exactly at eleven o'clock on the second of March, the duty officer from the outpost of my friend, Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, called us. At Damansky, the battle was already in full swing. Out of fear, we went there. We jumped out onto the island, and here we were met from three sides by Chinese cannons, mortars, grenade launchers. The intensity of the fire was great. I got hurt. I lost consciousness for a minute... When the Chinese knocked out an armored personnel carrier, we moved into another vehicle. And again - bypassing the island ... And I will tell you in honor, the guys fought for their native Soviet land, like lions. Every single one, not sparing life. As a commander, I can only be proud of them.

Private Mikhail Putilov:

- During the battle, we see - two of our wounded are crawling in the snow. We go straight to them. They began to pick them up, and in our armored transporter the Chinese fired cannons. They pierced the "stern" - they wounded us. And the commander too. But we gave them the right amount too... I was lying by a tree, wounded, and I saw how the Chinese were carrying away the dead and wounded from the island, fleeing to their side...

Private Gennady Serebrov:

“I was shot through my right arm and leg. I lay there and saw how they committed atrocities on my wounded comrades - Shusharin and Yegupov. Killed them, you bastards...

We also talked with Colonel D.V. Leonov, the combat commander of the border guards.

“Young guys are coming to serve us. Such a young man puts on a soldier's overcoat, and you think: will he make a real warrior, a combat defender of the Motherland? In the battle on Damansky Island, ours were true heroes. And there is nothing surprising in this. After all, the guy was raised by his father and mother, school, Komsomol, Soviet power, our party. A wonderful Russian woman, Agniya Andreevna Strelnikova, raised ten children. Senior lieutenant Strelnikov was a talented commander. On May 9, on Victory Day, he would have turned thirty years old ... Strelnikov went to the island with fighters to reason with the violators of the border, to demand that our Soviet land be cleared, as happened more than once before. And what about them?!.. They shot Strelnikov point-blank.

Strelnikov's friend, Senior Lieutenant Bubenin, who is now in the hospital, especially distinguished himself in battle. I drove up to the battlefield and saw our friends, the local fishermen Avdeevs, carrying the wounded Bubenin in their arms. His face is covered in blood. We put the senior lieutenant under a tree. I order the doctor to evacuate him immediately.

“I won’t go, Comrade Colonel,” Bubenin objected. “There, in the fire, are my soldiers, and I’m supposed to be with them to the end.”

He got up, but his legs could not hold: apparently, he had lost a lot of blood ... Together with the doctor, we nevertheless put him in the car and sent him to the hospital. What else can I say?.. Real heroes fought on Damansky Island, loyal soldiers of our socialist Fatherland!

5
When the March clear day faded, relatives and friends, comrades of the fallen gathered for the feast. The father of Senior Lieutenant Strelnikov, Ivan Matveevich, gets up. In the Patriotic War, he was a soldier, received 12 wounds.

“Only now we have buried our children,” he said. “I have other sons, and each of them would do the same as Ivan. I can't say more.

The father of the border guard Nikitin got up:
- All of us, fathers, went through the Patriotic War ... Today we lost our sons, but the people will not forget them. I curse Mao and his accomplices, this is their dirty work.

Says the father of Sergeant Nikolai Dergach - Timofey Nikitich.

“I turn fifty tomorrow. This is how things turned out... Mao killed my only son... Kolya was only twenty years old, he was just beginning to live... Now, in peacetime, I am a state farm worker. And in the Patriotic War I was an artilleryman. And, by the way, in the forty-fifth year, he came to China with his regiment to drive the Japanese out of Chinese soil. What does it get? We defeated the Kwantung Army of the Japanese imperialists in order to help the Chinese people. After 1949, plants and factories helped China build. And Mao executes real communists at home and swears at our Soviet land ... Apparently, his deeds are bad, the Chinese people do not believe him, and therefore he is looking for salvation in black robbery.

* * *
... We left the border in the evening. The sun was finishing its journey, gilding the snowy forests, the white hills, the hushed Ussuri and our Damansky Island crouching on its chest.

Here are the first stars in the sky. They will shine over the mass grave. A little time will pass - an obelisk will rise here. And he, like an eternal sentry, will guard the dream of the heroes of Damansky.

Private Vladimir Shusharin

Memorial "Glory to the Fallen Heroes"

On the other side of the border

“On March 2, 1969, a group of Soviet border troops of 70 people with two armored personnel carriers, one truck and one passenger car invaded our Zhenbaodao island in Hulin County, Heilongjiang Province, destroyed our patrol and then destroyed many of our border guards with fire. This forced our soldiers to take self-defense measures.

On March 15, the Soviet Union, ignoring the repeated warnings of the Chinese government, launched an offensive against us with the forces of 20 tanks, 30 armored personnel carriers and 200 infantry, with air support from their aircraft.

Courageously defending the island for 9 hours, the fighters and the people's militias withstood three enemy attacks. On March 17, the enemy, using several tanks, tractors and infantry, tried to pull out a tank that had been hit earlier by our troops. The hurricane return artillery fire of our artillery destroyed part of the enemy forces, the survivors retreated.

A commemorative bas-relief narrating the heroic deeds of soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) in March 1969

The book "Myths of Damansky"

The book uses extensive documentary and literary material, eyewitness accounts. The text is accompanied by illustrations, documentary and reference applications.

Intended for a wide range of readers interested in military history. Published in 2004 with a circulation of only 3,000 copies.

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