Soviet-Japanese War table. Manchuria: the last stand

Many believe that the USSR's participation in the war of 1941-1945 ended in May 1945. But this is not so, because after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the entry of the Soviet Union into the war against Japan in August 1945 and the victorious campaign in Far East had the most important military and political significance.
Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were returned to the USSR; behind short term The million-strong Kwantung Army was defeated, which accelerated the surrender of Japan and the end of World War II.

In August 1945, the Japanese armed forces numbered about 7 million people. and 10 thousand aircraft, while the United States and its allies in the Asia-Pacific zone had about 1.8 million people. and 5 thousand aircraft. If the USSR had not entered the war, the main forces of the Kwantung Army could have been concentrated against the Americans and then fighting would have lasted another two years and, accordingly, losses would have increased, especially since the Japanese command intended to fight to the end (and was already preparing to use bacteriological weapons). War Minister Tojo said: “If the white devils dare to land on our islands, the Japanese spirit will go to the great citadel - Manchuria. In Manchuria there is an untouched valiant Kwantung Army, an indestructible military bridgehead. In Manchuria we will resist for at least a hundred years.” At the beginning of August 1945, the United States even went so far as to use atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But despite this, Japan still did not intend to capitulate. It was clear that without the entry of the USSR the war would drag on.
The Allies recognized the decisive importance of the USSR's entry into the war against Japan. They declared that only the Red Army was capable of defeating Japanese ground forces. But in order to enter the war with Japan, the USSR also had its own vital interests. Japan had been hatching plans to seize the Soviet Far East for many years. They almost constantly staged military provocations on our borders. At their strategic bridgeheads in Manchuria, they maintained large military forces, ready to attack the Land of the Soviets.


The situation became especially aggravated when Nazi Germany launched a war against our Motherland. In 1941, after the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Kwantung Army (about 40 divisions, which is significantly more than in the entire Pacific zone), in accordance with the Kantokuen plan approved by the Japanese command, deployed on the Manchurian border and in Korea, waiting for the right moment to begin hostilities against the USSR, depending on the situation in Soviet-German front. On April 5, 1945, the USSR denounced the neutrality pact between the USSR and Japan. On July 26, 1945, at the Potsdam Conference, the United States formally formulated the terms of Japan's surrender. Japan refuses to accept them. On August 8, the USSR informed the Japanese ambassador of joining the Potsdam Declaration and declared war on Japan.


By the beginning of the Manchurian operation, a large strategic group of Japanese, Manchurian and Mengjiang troops was concentrated in the territory of Manchukuo and northern Korea. Its basis was the Kwantung Army (General Yamada), which doubled its forces in the summer of 1945. The Japanese command kept two thirds of its tanks, half of its artillery and selected imperial divisions in Manchuria and Korea, and it also had bacteriological weapons prepared for use against Soviet troops. In total, the enemy troops numbered over 1 million 300 thousand people, 6260 guns and mortars, 1155 tanks, 1900 aircraft, 25 ships.


The USSR began military operations against Japan exactly 3 months after the surrender of Germany. But between the defeat of Germany and the beginning of hostilities against Japan, the gap in time was only for non-military people. During these three months, a huge amount of work was done to plan the operation, regroup the troops and prepare them for combat operations. 400 thousand people, 7 thousand guns and mortars, 2 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery units, and 1,100 aircraft were transferred to the Far East. In order to provide operational camouflage, those divisions that were in 1941–1942 were transferred first. were withdrawn from the Far East. Preparations for the strategic operation were carried out in advance.


August 3, 1945 Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky, appointed Commander-in-Chief of Soviet troops in the Far East, and Chief of the General Staff, Army General A.I. Antonov reported to Stalin the final plan for the Manchurian strategic operation. Vasilevsky proposed to launch an offensive only with the forces of the Trans-Baikal Front, and in the zones of the 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts to carry out only reconnaissance in force so that the main forces of these fronts would go on the offensive in 5–7 days. Stalin did not agree with this proposal and ordered an offensive to be launched simultaneously on all fronts. As subsequent events showed, such a decision by the Headquarters was more expedient, since the fronts’ transition to the offensive at different times deprived the Far Eastern fronts of surprise and allowed the command of the Kwantung Army to maneuver forces and means to consistently deliver attacks in the Mongolian and coastal directions.

On the night of August 9, the forward battalions and reconnaissance detachments of three fronts in extremely unfavorable weather conditions- the summer monsoon, which brings frequent and heavy rains, - moved into enemy territory. The advanced battalions, accompanied by border guards, silently crossed the border without opening fire and in a number of places captured the enemy's long-term defensive structures even before the Japanese crews had time to occupy them and open fire. At dawn, the main forces of the Transbaikal and 1st Far Eastern Fronts went on the offensive and crossed the state border.


This created conditions for the rapid advance of the main forces of the first echelon divisions into the depths of the enemy’s defenses. In some places, for example in the Grodekovo area, where the Japanese managed to timely detect the advance of our advanced battalions and take up defensive positions, the fighting dragged on. But our troops skillfully managed such knots of resistance.
The Japanese continued to fire from some pillboxes for 7–8 days.
On August 10, the Mongolian Empire entered the war. People's Republic. The joint offensive with the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Army developed successfully from the very first hours. The surprise and force of the initial attacks allowed the Soviet troops to immediately seize the initiative. The start of military operations by the Soviet Union caused panic in the Japanese government. “The entry of the Soviet Union into the war this morning,” Prime Minister Suzuki said on August 9, “puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war further.”


Such a high rate of advance by Soviet troops, operating in separate, disparate operational directions, became possible only thanks to a carefully thought-out grouping of troops, knowledge natural features terrain and the nature of the enemy’s defense system in each operational direction, the wide and bold use of tank, mechanized and horse formations, surprise of the attack, high offensive impulse, decisive to the point of audacity and exceptionally skillful actions, courage and mass heroism of the Red Army soldiers and sailors.
In the face of imminent military defeat, on August 14, the Japanese government decided to capitulate. The next day, the cabinet of Prime Minister Suzuki fell. However, the troops of the Kwantung Army continued to stubbornly resist. In this regard, on August 16, an explanation from the Red Army General Staff was published in the Soviet press, which stated:
"I. The announcement of Japan's surrender made by the Japanese Emperor on August 14 is only a general declaration of unconditional surrender.
The order for the armed forces to cease hostilities has not yet been issued, and the Japanese armed forces still continue to resist.
Consequently, there is no actual surrender of the Japanese armed forces yet.
2. The surrender of the Japanese armed forces can only be considered from the moment when the Japanese Emperor gives an order to his armed forces to cease hostilities and lay down their arms and when this order is practically carried out.
3. In view of the above, the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in the Far East will continue their offensive operations against Japan.”
In the following days Soviet troops, developing the offensive, rapidly increased its pace. Military operations to liberate Korea, which were part of the campaign of Soviet troops in the Far East, developed successfully.
On August 17, having finally lost control of the scattered troops and realizing the pointlessness of further resistance, the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army, General Otozo Yamada, gave the order to begin negotiations with the Soviet High Command in the Far East.

At 5 p.m. on August 17, a radiogram was received from the Commander-in-Chief of the Kwantung Army that he had given the Japanese troops the order to immediately cease hostilities and surrender their weapons to Soviet troops, and at 7 p.m., two pennants were dropped from a Japanese plane at the location of the troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front. with an appeal from the headquarters of the 1st Front of the Kwantung Army to cease hostilities. However, in most areas, Japanese troops continued not only to resist, but in some places launched counterattacks.
To speed up the disarmament of the capitulated Japanese troops and the liberation of the territories they had captured, on August 18, Marshal Vasilevsky gave the following order to the troops of the Transbaikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts:
“Due to the fact that the Japanese resistance has been broken, and the difficult condition of the roads greatly impedes rapid advancement the main forces of our troops in carrying out their assigned tasks, it is necessary to immediately seize the cities of Changchun, Mukden, Girin and Harbin to switch to the actions of specially formed, fast-moving and well-equipped detachments. Use the same detachments or similar ones to solve subsequent tasks, without fear of their sharp separation from their main forces.”


On August 19, Japanese troops began to capitulate almost everywhere. 148 Japanese generals, 594 thousand officers and soldiers were captured. By the end of August, the disarmament of the Kwantung Army and other enemy forces located in Manchuria and North Korea. Operations to liberate Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were successfully completed.


During the operation, many difficult military-political issues arose not only for the high command, but also for the commanders, headquarters and political agencies of formations and units in connection with the constantly emerging confrontational situations and clashes between the People's Liberation Army of China and the Kuomintang troops, various political groups in Korea , between the Chinese, Korean and Japanese populations. Constant, hard work was required at all levels in order to resolve all these issues in a timely manner.


In general, careful and comprehensive preparation, precise and skillful command and control of troops during the offensive ensured the successful conduct of this major strategic operation. As a result, the million-strong Kwantung Army was completely destroyed. Its losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, over 15 thousand died from wounds and diseases on the territory of Manchuria, about 600 thousand were taken prisoner. The irretrievable losses of our troops amounted to 12 thousand people.

The enemy's strike forces were completely defeated. The Japanese militarists lost their springboards for aggression and their main supply bases for raw materials and weapons in China, Korea and South Sakhalin. The collapse of the Kwantung Army accelerated the surrender of Japan as a whole. The end of the war in the Far East prevented further extermination and plunder of the peoples of the Eastern and South-East Asia, accelerated the surrender of Japan and led to the complete end of World War II.

Soviet- Japanese war(1945)- the war between the USSR and Mongolia, on the one hand, and Japan and Manchukuo, on the other, which took place from August 8 to September 2, 1945 on the territory of Manchuria, Korea, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands; component Second World War. It was caused by the USSR's allied obligations to its partners in the anti-Hitler coalition - the USA and Great Britain, which had been at war with Japan since December 1941 - as well as the desire of the Soviet leader I.V. Stalin to improve the strategic position of the USSR in the Far East at the expense of Japan. It ended with the defeat of Japanese troops and the general surrender of Japan to its opponents in World War II.

In February 1945, at the Crimean Conference of the heads of the leading countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, the USSR committed itself to entering the war with Japan two to three months after the end of the war with Germany in Europe. After the surrender of Germany, during May - July 1945, large forces of Soviet troops were transferred from Europe to the Far East and Mongolia, sharply strengthening the group previously deployed there. On April 5, the USSR denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact concluded in April 1941, and on August 8, 1945 declared war on Japan.

The Soviet war plan provided for a strategic offensive operation in Manchuria (which was part of the puppet state of Manchukuo created by the Japanese) with the aim of defeating the Japanese Kwantung Army and Manchukuo troops deployed there, an offensive operation on Southern Sakhalin and operations to capture the Kuril Islands and a number of ports of Japan-owned Korea. The idea of ​​the Manchurian strategic offensive operation included striking in converging directions by forces of three fronts - Transbaikal from Transbaikalia and Mongolia, 2nd Far Eastern from the Amur region and 1st Far Eastern from Primorye - dissecting the Japanese group and the entry of Soviet troops into the central regions of Manchuria.

The troops of the Transbaikal Front (Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky) captured the Hailar fortified area, and with the main forces overcame the Greater Khingan ridge and reached the Manchurian Plain. The Soviet-Mongolian group, operating on the right wing of the front, launched an offensive on Kalgan (Zhangjiakou) and Dolonnor, cutting off the Kwantung Army (General O. Yamada) from the Japanese troops operating in Northern China.

Troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front (Marshal of the Soviet Union K.A. Meretskov), advancing towards the Transbaikal Front, broke through the fortified areas of the Japanese on the borders of Primorye and Manchuria and repelled a Japanese counterattack in the Mudanjiang area. The group operating on the left wing of the front entered Korean territory, and the Pacific Fleet landed troops that occupied the North Korean ports of Yuki, Racine and Seishin.

Troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front (Army General M.A. Purkaev), operating together with the Amur military flotilla in the auxiliary strategic direction, they crossed the Amur and Ussuri, broke through the fortified areas of the Japanese, overcame the Lesser Khingan ridge and advanced to Qiqihar and Harbin.

On August 14, the Japanese leadership decided to capitulate, but the troops of the Kwantung Army were given the order to surrender only on August 17, and they began to capitulate only on the 20th. Since not everyone obeyed the order, hostilities continued.

Now not only the Transbaikal Front, but also the 1st Far Eastern Front, having overcome the East Manchurian Mountains, reached the Manchurian Plain with its main forces. His troops launched an attack on Harbin and Jilin (Jilin), and the main forces of the Transbaikal Front troops launched an attack on Mukden (Shenyang), Changchun and Port Arthur (Lüshun). On August 18 - 19, Soviet airborne assaults captured largest centers Manchuria - Harbin, Girin, Changchun and Mukden, and on August 22 - the naval base of Port Arthur and the port of Dairen (Far).

Troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, with the support of the Pacific Fleet, which landed a number of amphibious assault forces, occupied the southern part of Sakhalin Island on August 16 - 25, and the Kuril Islands on August 18 - September 1. Troops of the 1st Far Eastern Front occupied the northern half of Korea.

On September 2, 1945, the act of surrender of Japan was signed - formally ending hostilities. However, individual clashes with Japanese units who did not want to capitulate continued until September 10.

A peace treaty between the USSR and Japan, which would formally end the war, was never signed. On December 12, 1956, the Soviet-Japanese declaration came into force, declaring the state of war between the two countries ended.

The actual result of the war was the return to the USSR of southern Sakhalin, seized by Japan from Russia in 1905, the annexation of the Kuril Islands, which had belonged to Japan since 1875, and the renewal by the Soviet Union of lease rights to the Kwantung Peninsula with Port Arthur and Dalniy (ceded by Russia to Japan in 1905 .).

This may seem strange, but for Russia today, World War II is not yet completely over. The country does not have a peace treaty with one of the countries of the aggressive bloc. The reason is territorial issues.

This country is the Japanese Empire, the territory is the Southern Kuril Islands (they are now on everyone’s lips). But is it really that they were not so divided by two great countries that they got involved in a world massacre for the sake of these sea rocks?

No, of course. Soviet-Japanese War(it is correct to say this, since in 1945 Russia did not act as a separate subject of international politics, acting exclusively as the main, but still only an integral part of the USSR) had deep reasons that did not appear in 1945. And no one then thought that the “Kuril issue” would drag on for so long. The reader will be briefly told about the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 in the article.

5 laps

The reasons for the militarization of the Japanese Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century are clear - rapid industrial development, coupled with territorial and resource limitations. The country needed food, coal, and metal. The neighbors had all this. But they didn’t want to share just like that, and at that time no one considered war to be an unacceptable way to resolve international issues.

The first attempt was made back in 1904-1905. Russia then shamefully lost to a tiny but disciplined and united island state, losing Port Arthur (everyone has heard of it) and the southern part of Sakhalin in the Treaty of Portsmouth. And even then, such small losses became possible only thanks to the diplomatic talents of the future Prime Minister S. Yu. Witte (although he was nicknamed “Count Polosakhalinsky” for this, the fact remains a fact).

In the 1920s, in the Land of the Rising Sun, maps called “5 circles of national interests of Japan” were printed. There, different colors in the form of stylized concentric rings indicated the territories that the ruling circles of the country considered it right to conquer and annex. These circles included almost the entire Asian part of the USSR.

Three tankers

At the end of the 30s, Japan, which had already successfully waged wars of conquest in Korea and China, “tested the strength” of the USSR. There were conflicts in the Khalkhin Gol region and on Lake Khasan.

It turned out bad. The Far Eastern conflicts marked the beginning of the brilliant career of the future “Marshal of Victory” G.K. Zhukov, and the entire USSR sang a song about three tankers from the banks of the Amur, where there was a phrase about samurai under the pressure of steel and fire (later it was remade, but this is the original version) .

Although Japan agreed with its allies on the distribution of future spheres of influence within the framework of the Anti-Comintern Pact (also called the “Berlin-Rome-Tokyo Axis”, although it requires a rich imagination to understand what the axis looks like in the author’s understanding of such a term), it did not indicate when exactly each side must take its own.

The Japanese authorities did not consider themselves so bound by obligations, and events in the Far East showed them that the USSR was a dangerous adversary. Therefore, in 1940, a treaty on neutrality in case of war was concluded between the two countries, and in 1941, when Germany attacked the USSR, Japan chose to deal with Pacific issues.

Allied duty

But the USSR also did not have much respect for treaties, so within the framework of the anti-Hitler coalition, talk immediately began about its entry into the war with Japan (the USA was shocked by Pearl Harbor, and England was afraid for its colonies in South Asia). During the Tehran Conference (1943), a preliminary agreement was reached on the USSR's entry into the war in the Far East after Germany's defeat in Europe. The final decision was made during the Yalta Conference, when it was stated that the USSR would declare war on Japan no later than 3 months after the defeat of Hitler.

But the USSR was not led by philanthropists. The country's leadership had in this matter self-interest, and not only provided assistance to the allies. For their participation in the war, they were promised the return of Port Arthur, Harbin, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Ridge (transferred to Japan by treaty by the tsarist government).

Atomic blackmail

There was another good reason for the Soviet-Japanese War. By the time the war ended in Europe, it was already clear that the Anti-Hitler coalition was fragile, so that the allies would soon turn into enemies. At the same time, “Comrade Mao’s” Red Army fought fearlessly in China. The relationship between him and Stalin - complex issue, but there was no time for ambition, since we were talking about the possibility of enormously expanding the space controlled by the Communists at the expense of China. Little was required for this - to defeat the almost million-strong Kwantung Japanese Army stationed in Manchuria.

The United States had no desire to fight the Japanese face to face. Although technical and numerical superiority allowed them to win at a low cost (for example, the landing on Okinawa in the spring of 1945), the spoiled Yankees were very frightened by military samurai morality. The Japanese equally calmly chopped off the heads of captured American officers with swords and committed hara-kiri for themselves. There were almost 200 thousand dead Japanese in Okinawa, and a few prisoners - officers ripped open their bellies, privates and local residents drowned, but no one wanted to surrender to the mercy of the winner. And the famous kamikazes were defeated, rather, by moral influence - they did not achieve their goals very often.

Therefore, the United States took a different route - nuclear blackmail. There was not a single military presence in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Atomic bombs destroyed 380 thousand (in total) civilian population. The atomic “bogeyman” was also supposed to restrain Soviet ambitions.

Realizing that Japan would inevitably capitulate, many Western leaders already regretted getting the USSR involved in the Japanese issue.

Forced march

But in the USSR at that time blackmailers were categorically disliked. The country denounced the neutrality pact and declared war on Japan exactly on time - August 8, 1945 (exactly 3 months after the defeat of Germany). It was already known not only about successful atomic tests, but also about the fate of Hiroshima.

Before that, serious preparatory work. Since 1940, the Far Eastern Front existed, but it did not conduct military operations. After the defeat of Hitler, the USSR carried out a unique maneuver - 39 brigades and divisions (tank and 3 combined arms armies) were transferred from Europe along the only Trans-Siberian railway during May-July, which amounted to about half a million people, more than 7,000 guns and more than 2,000 tanks. This was an incredible amount of movement in such a short time and in such a unfavorable conditions so many people and equipment over such a distance.

The command was also worthy. General management was carried out by Marshal A. M. Vasilevsky. And the main blow to the Kwantung Army was to be delivered by R. Ya. Malinovsky. Mongolian units fought in alliance with the USSR.

Excellence comes in different forms

As a result of the successful transfer of troops, the USSR achieved clear superiority over the Japanese in the Far East. The Kwantung Army numbered about 1 million soldiers (probably somewhat less, since the units were short-staffed) and was provided with equipment and ammunition. But the equipment was outdated (if compared with the Soviet one, it was pre-war), and among the soldiers there were many recruits, as well as forcibly conscripted representatives of conquered peoples.

The USSR, by combining the forces of the Trans-Baikal Front and the arriving units, could field up to 1.5 million people. And most of them were experienced, experienced front-line soldiers who went through Crimea and Rome on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Suffice it to say that 3 directorates and 3 divisions of the NKVD troops took part in the hostilities. But only the victims of the “revelatory” articles of the 90s can believe that these units only knew how to shoot the wounded trying to go to the rear or suspect honest people of treason. Anything happened, of course, but... There were no barrier detachments behind the NKVDists - they themselves never retreated. These were very combat-ready, well-trained troops.

Take in pincers

This aviation term best describes strategic plan called the Manchurian operation of R. Ya. Malinovsky to defeat the Kwantung Army. It was assumed that a simultaneous very powerful blow would be delivered in several directions, which would demoralize and split the enemy.

That's how it was. Japanese General Otsuzo Yamada was amazed when it turned out that the guards of the 6th Tank Army were able to overcome the Gobi and Greater Khingan in 3 days, advancing from Mongolia. The mountains were steep, and the rainy season ruined the roads and overflowed the mountain rivers. But the Soviet tank crews, who were able to almost carry their vehicles by hand through the Belarusian swamps during Operation Bagration, could not be prevented by some streams and rain!

At the same time, attacks were carried out from Primorye and from the Amur and Ussuri regions. This is how the Manchurian operation was carried out - the main one in the entire Japanese campaign.

8 days that shook the Far East

This is exactly how long (from August 12 to August 20) the main combat operations of the Russo-Japanese War (1945) took place. The terrible simultaneous attack of three fronts (in some areas, Soviet troops managed to advance more than 100 km in one day!) at once split the Kwantung Army, deprived it of part of its communications, and demoralized it. The Pacific Fleet interrupted communication between the Kwantung Army and Japan, the opportunity to receive help was lost, and even contacts in general were limited (there was a minus - many groups of soldiers of the defeated army were for a long time not aware that they had been given the order to surrender). Mass desertion of recruits and those conscripted by force began; officers committed suicide. The “emperor” of the puppet state of Manchukuo Pu Yi and General Otsuzo were captured.

In turn, the USSR perfectly organized the supply of its units. Although this could be accomplished almost only with the help of aviation (huge distances and the lack of normal roads interfered), heavy transport aircraft coped with the task perfectly. Soviet troops occupied vast territories in China, as well as northern Korea (present-day DPRK). On August 15, Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, announced on the radio that surrender was necessary. The Kwantung Army received the order only on the 20th. But even before September 10, individual detachments continued hopeless resistance, trying to die undefeated.

The events of the Soviet-Japanese War continued to develop at a rapid pace. Simultaneously with the actions on the continent, steps were taken to defeat the Japanese garrisons on the islands. On August 11, the 2nd Far Eastern Front began operations in the south of Sakhalin. The main task was the capture of the Koton fortified area. Although the Japanese blew up the bridge, trying to prevent the tanks from breaking through, this did not help - it took Soviet soldiers only one night to establish a temporary crossing using improvised means. The battalion of Captain L.V. Smirnykh especially distinguished himself in the battles for the fortified area. He died there, receiving the posthumous title of Hero of the Soviet Union. At the same time, ships of the North Pacific Flotilla landed troops at the largest ports in the south of the island.

The fortified area was captured on August 17. The surrender of Japan (1945) occurred on the 25th, after the last successful landing in the port of Korsakov. From it they tried to take valuable things home. All of Sakhalin came under the control of the USSR.

However, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin operation of 1945 went somewhat slower than Marshal Vasilevsky had planned. As a result, the landing on the island of Hokkaido and its occupation did not take place, as ordered by the marshal on August 18.

Kuril landing operation

The islands of the Kuril ridge were also captured through amphibious landings. The Kuril landing operation lasted from August 18 to September 1. Moreover, in fact, battles were fought only for the northern islands, although military garrisons were located on all of them. But after fierce battles for the island of Shumshu, the commander of the Japanese troops in the Kuril Islands, Fusaki Tsutsumi, who was there, agreed to capitulate and surrendered himself. After this, the Soviet paratroopers no longer encountered any significant resistance on the islands.

On August 23-24 the Northern Kuril Islands were occupied, and on the 22nd the occupation of the southern islands began. In all cases, the Soviet command allocated airborne units for this purpose, but more often the Japanese surrendered without a fight. The most great forces were allocated for the occupation of the island of Kunashir (this name is now widely heard), since it was decided to create military base. But Kunashir also surrendered virtually without a fight. Several small garrisons managed to evacuate to their homeland.

Battleship Missouri

And on September 2, the final surrender of Japan (1945) was signed on board the American battleship Missouri. This fact marked the end of World War II (not to be confused with the Great Patriotic War!). The USSR was represented at the ceremony by General K. Derevyanko.

Little blood

For such a large-scale event, the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 (you learned about it briefly from the article) was inexpensive for the USSR. In total, the number of victims is estimated at 36.5 thousand people, of which slightly more than 21 thousand died.

Japanese losses in the Soviet-Japanese War were greater. They had more than 80 thousand dead, more than 600 thousand were captured. Approximately 60 thousand prisoners died, almost all of the rest were repatriated before the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Those soldiers were sent home first Japanese army who was not of Japanese nationality. The exceptions were those participants in the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 who were convicted of war crimes. A significant part of them was transferred to China, and there was a reason for it - the conquerors dealt with participants in the Chinese Resistance, or at least those suspected of it, with medieval cruelty. Later in China, this topic was explored in the legendary film “Red Kaoliang”.

The disproportionate ratio of losses in the Russo-Japanese War (1945) is explained by the clear superiority of the USSR in technical equipment and the level of training of soldiers. Yes, the Japanese sometimes offered fierce resistance. At the height of Ostraya (Khotou fortified area), the garrison fought until the last bullet; the survivors committed suicide, and not a single prisoner was taken. There were also suicide bombers who threw grenades under tanks or at groups of Soviet soldiers.

But they did not take into account that they were not dealing with Americans who were very afraid of dying. The Soviet soldiers themselves knew how to cover the embrasures with themselves, and it was not easy to scare them. Very soon they learned to detect and neutralize such kamikazes in time.

Down with Portsmouth shame

As a result of the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945, the USSR got rid of the shame of the Portsmouth Peace, which ended the hostilities of 1904-1905. He again owned the entire Kuril ridge and all of Sakhalin. The Kwantung Peninsula also passed to the USSR (this territory was then transferred to China by agreement after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China).

What other significance does the Soviet-Japanese War have in our history? Its victory also contributed to the spread of communist ideology, so successfully that the result outlived its creator. The USSR no longer exists, but the PRC and the DPRK do, and they never tire of astonishing the world with their economic achievements and military power.

Unfinished War

But the most interesting thing is that the war with Japan is not actually over for Russia yet! There is no peace treaty between the two states to this day, and today’s problems around the status of the Kuril Islands are a direct consequence of this.

A general peace treaty was signed in 1951 in San Francisco, but there was no USSR signature on it. The reason was precisely the Kuril Islands.

The fact is that the text of the treaty indicated that Japan was refusing them, but did not say who should own them. This immediately created the basis for future conflicts, and for this reason, Soviet representatives did not sign the treaty.

However, it was impossible to remain in a state of war forever, and in 1956 the two countries signed a declaration in Moscow to end such a state. Based on this document, diplomatic and economic relations now exist between them. But a declaration of an end to the state of war is not a peace treaty. That is, the situation is again half-hearted!

The declaration indicated that the USSR, after concluding a peace treaty, agreed to transfer back to Japan several islands of the Kuril chain. But the Japanese government immediately began to demand the entire Southern Kuril Islands!

This story continues to this day. Russia continues it as the legal successor of the USSR.

In 2012, the head of one of the Japanese prefectures, heavily damaged by the tsunami, presented President V.V. Putin with a purebred puppy in gratitude for Russian assistance in eliminating the consequences of the disaster. In response, the president gave the prefect a huge Siberian cat. The cat is now almost on the payroll of the prefect's office, and all the employees adore and respect him.

This cat's name is Mir. Maybe he can purr understanding between two great states. Because wars must end, and after them peace must be concluded.

Background

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

At that time, the Neutrality Pact, concluded in 1941 for a period of 5 years, was in force between the USSR and Japan. In April 1945, the USSR announced the unilateral termination of the pact on the grounds that Japan was an ally of Germany and was waging war against the allies of the USSR. “Under this situation, the Neutrality Pact between Japan and the USSR has lost its meaning, and the extension of this Pact has become impossible,” the Soviet side said. The sudden termination of the treaty threw the Japanese government into confusion. And there was a reason! The Land of the Rising Sun's position in the war was approaching critical; the allies inflicted a number of heavy defeats on it in the Pacific theater of operations. Japanese cities and industrial centers were subjected to continuous bombardment. Not a single one man of sense The Japanese government and command no longer believed in the possibility of victory; they relied only on the fact that they would be able to exhaust the American troops and achieve acceptable terms of surrender for themselves.

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

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

Confrontation

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

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

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

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

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

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

The 1st Far Eastern Front of the Red Army faced fierce resistance from the Japanese, who had fortified themselves on the heights of Ostraya and Camel, which were part of the Khotou fortified area. The approaches to these heights were swampy, rugged big amount small rivers. Scarps were dug on the slopes and wire fences were installed. The Japanese carved out firing points in the granite rock mass. The concrete caps of the pillboxes were about one and a half meters thick.

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

In the battles for the city of Mudanjiang, the Japanese actively used kamikaze saboteurs. Tied with grenades, these people rushed at Soviet tanks and soldiers. On one section of the front, about 200 “live mines” lay on the ground in front of the advancing equipment. The suicide attacks were only initially successful. Subsequently, the Red Army soldiers increased their vigilance and, as a rule, managed to shoot the saboteur before he could get closer and explode, causing damage to equipment or manpower.

The final

On August 15, Emperor Hirohito made a radio address in which he announced that Japan accepted the terms of the Potsdam Conference and capitulated. The Emperor called on the nation for courage, patience and the unification of all forces to build a new future.

Three days later - August 18, 1945 - at 13:00 local time, an appeal from the command of the Kwantung Army to the troops was heard on the radio, saying that, due to the pointlessness of further resistance, a decision had been made to surrender. Over the next few days, Japanese units that did not have direct contact with headquarters were notified and the terms of surrender were agreed upon.

Most of the military accepted the terms of surrender without objection. Moreover, in the city of Changchun, where the forces of the Soviet troops were not enough, the Japanese themselves guarded military installations for several days. At the same time, a small number of fanatical soldiers and officers continued to resist, refusing to obey the “cowardly” order to cease hostilities. Their war only stopped when they died.

On September 2, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay on board the American battleship Missouri. The signing of this document marks the official end of World War II.

In February 1945, a conference was held in Yalta, at which representatives of the countries that were part of Great Britain and the United States were present and managed to obtain consent from the Soviet Union to take direct part in the war with Japan. In exchange for this, they promised him to return the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, lost during the Russo-Japanese War of 1905.

Termination of the peace treaty

At the time the decision was made in Yalta, the so-called Neutrality Pact was in force between Japan and the Soviet Union, which was concluded back in 1941 and was supposed to be valid for 5 years. But already in April 1945, the USSR announced that it was terminating the agreement unilaterally. Russo-Japanese War (1945), the reasons for which were that the Land of the Rising Sun in last years acted on the side of Germany, and also fought against the allies of the USSR, became almost inevitable.

Such a sudden statement literally plunged the Japanese leadership into complete confusion. And this is understandable, because its position was very critical - the Allied forces inflicted significant damage on it in the Pacific Ocean, and industrial centers and cities were subjected to almost continuous bombing. The government of this country understood perfectly well that it was almost impossible to achieve victory in such conditions. But still, it still hoped that it would be able to somehow wear down and achieve more favorable conditions for the surrender of its troops.

The United States, in turn, did not expect victory to be easy. An example of this is the battles that took place over the island of Okinawa. About 77 thousand people fought here from Japan, and about 470 thousand soldiers from the United States. In the end, the island was taken by the Americans, but their losses were simply astounding - almost 50 thousand killed. According to him, if the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had not begun, which will be briefly discussed in this article, the losses would have been much more serious and could have amounted to 1 million soldiers killed and wounded.

Announcement of the start of hostilities

On August 8, in Moscow, the Japanese Ambassador to the USSR was presented with a document at exactly 5 p.m. It said that the Russian-Japanese War (1945) was actually starting the very next day. But since there is a significant time difference between the Far East and Moscow, it turned out that there was only 1 hour left before the start of the Soviet Army’s offensive.

The USSR developed a plan consisting of three military operations: Kuril, Manchurian and South Sakhalin. They were all very important. But still, the Manchurian operation was the most large-scale and significant.

Strengths of the parties

On the territory of Manchuria, the Kwantung Army, commanded by General Otozo Yamada, was opposed. It consisted of approximately 1 million people, more than 1 thousand tanks, about 6 thousand guns and 1.6 thousand aircraft.

At the time when the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 began, the forces of the USSR had a significant numerical superiority in manpower: only there were one and a half times more soldiers. As for equipment, the number of mortars and artillery exceeded similar enemy forces by 10 times. Our army had 5 and 3 times more tanks and aircraft, respectively, than the Japanese had the corresponding weapons. It should be noted that the superiority of the USSR over Japan in military equipment was not only in its numbers. The equipment at Russia's disposal was modern and more powerful than that of its enemy.

Enemy fortified areas

All participants in the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 understood perfectly well that sooner or later, it had to begin. That is why the Japanese created a significant number of well-fortified areas in advance. For example, you can take at least the Hailar region, where the left flank of the Transbaikal Front of the Soviet Army was located. Barrier structures in this area were built over more than 10 years. By the time the Russo-Japanese War began (August 1945), there were already 116 pillboxes, which were connected to each other by underground passages made of concrete, a well-developed trench system and a significant number of Japanese soldiers, whose numbers exceeded the divisional number. This area was covered by Japanese soldiers.

In order to suppress the resistance of the Hailar fortified area, the Soviet Army had to spend several days. In war conditions this is a short period of time, but during the same time the rest of the Transbaikal Front advanced forward by about 150 km. Considering the scale of the Russo-Japanese War (1945), the obstacle in the form of this fortified area turned out to be quite serious. Even when its garrison surrendered, the Japanese warriors continued to fight with fanatical courage.

In the reports of Soviet military leaders one can often see references to soldiers of the Kwantung Army. The documents said that the Japanese military specifically chained themselves to machine gun frames so as not to have the slightest opportunity to retreat.

Workaround maneuver

The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 and the actions of the Soviet Army were very successful from the very beginning. I would like to note one outstanding operation, which consisted of a 350-kilometer throw of the 6th Tank Army through the Khingan Range and the Gobi Desert. If you look at the mountains, they seem to be an insurmountable obstacle to the passage of technology. The passes that Soviet tanks had to go through were located at an altitude of about 2 thousand meters above sea level, and the slopes sometimes reached a steepness of 50⁰. That is why cars often had to drive in a zigzag.

In addition, the advancement of technology was further complicated by frequent heavy rains, accompanied by river floods and impassable mud. But, despite this, the tanks still moved forward, and already on August 11 they overcame the mountains and reached the Central Manchurian Plain, to the rear of the Kwantung Army. After such a large-scale transition, Soviet troops began to experience an acute shortage of fuel, so it was necessary to arrange additional delivery by air. By using transport aviation managed to transport about 900 tons of tank fuel. As a result of this operation, more than 200 thousand Japanese soldiers were captured, as well as a huge amount of equipment, weapons and ammunition.

Defenders of the Acute Heights

The Japanese War of 1945 continued. In the sector of the 1st Far Eastern Front, Soviet troops encountered unprecedentedly fierce enemy resistance. The Japanese were well entrenched on the heights of Camel and Ostraya, which were among the fortifications of the Khotou fortified area. It must be said that the approaches to these heights were cut by many small rivers and were very swampy. In addition, there were wire fences and excavated scarps on their slopes. The Japanese soldiers had cut out the firing points in advance right into the granite rock, and the concrete caps protecting the bunkers reached a thickness of one and a half meters.

During the fighting, the Soviet command invited the defenders of Ostroy to surrender. A man from among the local residents was sent to the Japanese as an envoy, but they treated him extremely cruelly - the commander of the fortified area himself cut off his head. However, there was nothing surprising in this action. From the moment the Russo-Japanese War began (1945), the enemy, in principle, did not enter into any negotiations. When the Soviet troops finally entered the fortification, they only found dead soldiers. It is worth noting that the defenders of the height were not only men, but also women who were armed with daggers and grenades.

Features of military operations

The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 had its own specific features. For example, in the battles for the city of Mudanjiang, the enemy used kamikaze saboteurs against units of the Soviet Army. These suicide bombers tied grenades around themselves and threw themselves under tanks or at soldiers. There was also a case when, on one section of the front, about two hundred “live mines” lay on the ground next to each other. But such suicidal actions did not last long. Soon soviet soldiers They became more vigilant and managed to destroy the saboteur in advance before he got close and exploded next to equipment or people.

Surrender

The Russo-Japanese War of 1945 ended on August 15, when Emperor Hirohito addressed his people by radio. He stated that the country had decided to accept the terms of the Potsdam Conference and capitulate. At the same time, the emperor called on his nation to remain patient and unite all forces to build a new future for the country.

3 days after Hirohito’s address, a call from the command of the Kwantung Army to its soldiers was heard on the radio. It said that further resistance was pointless and there was already a decision to surrender. Since many Japanese units did not have contact with the main headquarters, their notification continued for several more days. But there were also cases when fanatical military personnel did not want to obey the order and lay down their arms. Therefore, their war continued until they died.

Consequences

It must be said that the Russo-Japanese War of 1945 was of truly enormous not only military but also political significance. managed to completely defeat the strongest Kwantung Army and complete the Second world war. By the way, its official end is considered to be September 2, when the act of surrender of Japan was finally signed in Tokyo Bay right on board the US battleship Missouri.

As a result, the Soviet Union regained territories that had been lost back in 1905 - a group of islands and part of the South Kuril Islands. Also, according to the peace treaty signed in San Francisco, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin.