Soviet-Chinese armed conflict

[Eugen]

45 years ago, 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 patch of land called Damansky Island. The Damansky island on the Ussuri River was part of the Pozharsky district of the Primorsky Territory 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 extend in the middle of the river, but, in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860, along the Chinese coast. 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 not only was able to unite, but began to develop rapidly, strengthening the army and creating the conditions necessary for the modernization of the economy.

• 1. The Damansky island on the Ussuri River was part of the Pozharsky district of the Primorsky Territory 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 extend along the middle of the river, but, in accordance with the Beijing Treaty of 1860, along 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 not only was able to unite, but began to develop rapidly, strengthening the army and creating the conditions necessary for the modernization of the economy. However, after Stalin's death, a period of cooling began in Sino-Soviet relations. Mao Zedong now claimed almost the role of the leading world leader of the communist movement, which Nikita Khrushchev could not agree with. At the same time, the policy of the Zedong Cultural Revolution constantly demanded to keep society in tension, to create more and more new images of the enemy, both inside and outside the country, and the process of “de-Stalinization” in the USSR generally threatened the cult of the “great Mao”, which gradually took shape 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 on borders 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 went unnoticed, the Soviet border guards received a signal about an armed group of people up to 30 people only at 10:32 in the morning.

• 4. 32 border guards left under the command of the chief of the outpost of the senior lieutenant "Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya" Ivan Strelnikov. Approaching the Chinese military, Strelnikov demanded that they leave Soviet territory, but in response fire from small arms was opened. Senior lieutenant Strelnikov and the border guards following him died, only one soldier managed to survive. Thus began the famous Daman conflict, which had not been written about for a long time, but which everyone knew about.

• five. The shooting was heard at the neighboring outpost "Kulebyakiny hills." Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin went to the rescue with 20 border guards and one armored personnel carrier. The Chinese attacked aggressively, but retreated a few hours later. Residents of the neighboring village of Nizhnemikhailovka came to the aid of the wounded.

• 6. That day 31 Soviet border guards died, another 14 servicemen 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 in Beijing near the Soviet embassy; on March 7, the Chinese embassy in Moscow was picketed.

• 8. Weapons seized from the Chinese

• nine. 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" lasted for an hour. After a fierce battle, the Chinese managed to oust the Soviet soldiers.

• ten. Then, to support the defenders, a tank platoon headed by the head of the Iman border detachment, which included the outposts Nizhne-Mikhailovskaya and Kulebyakiny Sopki, Colonel Leonov, moved into a counterattack.

• eleven. But, as it turned out, the Chinese were prepared for such a turn of events and had enough anti-tank weapons. Because of their dense 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 entered into the 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, whose command gave the order of their artillery, including the separate BM-21 Grad division, to open fire on the positions of the Chinese on the island. This was the first time Grad missile launchers were used in battle, the strike of which decided the outcome of the battle.

• fourteen. The Soviet troops retreated to their own 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, 94 soldiers and 9 officers, wounded and died from wounds. The losses of the Chinese side are still classified information and, according to various estimates, range from 100-150 to 800 and even 3000 people.

In the foreground photo: Colonel D. Leonov, lieutenants V. Bubenin, I. Strelnikov, V. Shorokhov; background: personnel of the first frontier post. 1968

• sixteen. For their heroism, four servicemen received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union: Colonel D. Leonov and Senior Lieutenant I. Strelnikov (posthumous), Senior Lieutenant V. Bubenin and Junior Sergeant Y. Babansky.

Source: https://fotowow.io.ua/album666484

 

[Краев Евгений Леонидович]

Thanks, interesting!