Japanese military operations in the area of ​​Lake Khasan and the Khalkhin Gol River in 1938-39.

In the summer of 1938, Japan invaded Soviet territory in the area of ​​Lake Khasan at the junction of the borders of the USSR, China (Manchukuo) and Korea with the aim of capturing a strategically important area (a ridge of hills west of the lake, including the Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya hills) and creating an immediate threat Vladivostok and Primorye in general. This was preceded by a propaganda campaign launched by Japan on the issue of the so-called “disputed territories” on the Soviet-Manchurian border in Primorye (the line of which was clearly defined in the Hunchun Protocol of 1886 and was never questioned by the Chinese side - ed.), which ended with the presentation to the Soviet Union in July 1938 of a categorical demand for the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the transfer to Japan of all territories west of Khasan under the pretext of the need to fulfill “Japanese obligations” to Manchukuo.

The battles, in which the 19th and 20th divisions, an infantry brigade, three machine-gun battalions, a cavalry brigade, separate tank units and up to 70 aircraft were involved on the Japanese side, lasted from June 29 to August 11, 1938, and ended in defeat Japanese group.

In May 1939, also under the pretext of an “unresolved territorial dispute” between Mongolia and Manchuria, Japanese troops invaded Mongolian territory in the area of ​​the Khalkhin Gol (Nomongan) River. The purpose of the Japanese attack this time was an attempt to establish military control over the region bordering Transbaikalia, which would pose a direct threat to the Trans-Siberian Railway - the main transport artery connecting the European and Far Eastern parts of the country, which in this area runs almost parallel to the northern border of Mongolia and in immediate proximity to it. In accordance with the Mutual Assistance Agreement concluded in 1936 between the USSR and the Mongolian People's Republic, Soviet troops took part in repelling Japanese aggression together with Mongolian troops.

Military operations in the Khalkhin Gol region lasted from May to September 1939 and were significantly larger in scale than the events near Hassan. They also ended in the defeat of Japan, whose losses amounted to: about 61 thousand people killed, wounded and captured, 660 destroyed aircraft, 200 captured guns, about 400 machine guns and more than 100 vehicles (the losses of the Soviet-Mongolian side amounted to more than 9 thousand. Human).

In the Verdict of the Tokyo International Military Tribunal for the Far East of November 4-12, 1948, the actions of Japan in 1938-39. at Khasan and Khalkhin Gol were qualified as “an aggressive war carried out by the Japanese.”

Marian Vasilievich Novikov

Victory at Khalkhin Gol

Novikov M.V., Politizdat, 1971.

The brochure of military historian M. Novikov introduces the reader to the military operations of the Soviet-Mongolian troops on the Khalkhin Gol River against the Japanese aggressors, who violated the borders of the Mongolian People's Republic in the spring of 1939.

The courage and combat skill of the Red Army soldiers and Mongolian cyrics, the superiority of Soviet military equipment led to victory. The Battle of Khalkhin Gol will forever remain an example of the fraternal community of two socialist countries, a stern warning to aggressors.

Lake Khasan is a small freshwater lake located in the southeast of Primorsky Krai near the borders with China and Korea, in the area of ​​which a military conflict occurred between the USSR and Japan in 1938.

At the beginning of July 1938, the Japanese military command reinforced the garrison of border troops located west of Lake Khasan with field units that concentrated on the eastern bank of the Tumen-Ula River. As a result, in the area Soviet border Three infantry divisions of the Kwantung Army, a mechanized brigade, a cavalry regiment, machine-gun battalions and about 70 aircraft were stationed.

The border conflict in the area of ​​Lake Khasan was fleeting, but the losses of the parties were significant. Historians believe that in terms of the number of killed and wounded, the Khasan events reach the level of a local war.

According to official data published only in 1993, Soviet troops lost 792 people killed and 2,752 people wounded, Japanese troops lost 525 and 913 people, respectively.

For heroism and courage, the 40th Rifle Division was awarded the Order of Lenin, the 32nd Rifle Division and the Posyet Border Detachment were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 26 servicemen were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 6.5 thousand people were awarded orders and medals.

The Khasan events of the summer of 1938 were the first serious test of the capabilities of the USSR Armed Forces. Soviet troops gained experience in the use of aviation and tanks, and in organizing artillery support for the offensive.

The international trial of major Japanese war criminals held in Tokyo from 1946 to 1948 concluded that the Lake Hassan attack, which was planned and carried out using significant forces, could not be regarded as a simple clash between border patrols. The Tokyo Tribunal also considered it established that hostilities were started by the Japanese and were clearly aggressive in nature.

After World War II, the documents, the decision and the very meaning of the Tokyo Tribunal were interpreted differently in historiography. The Khasan events themselves were assessed ambiguously and contradictorily.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

A kind of preface to the coming Sino-Japanese war was a cascade of limited territorial seizures carried out by Japanese troops. Imperial Army in northeast China. Formed in 1931 on the Kwantung Peninsula, the Kwantung Group of Forces (Kanto-gun) in September of the same year, having staged a provocation by blowing up a railway near Mukden, launched an attack on Manchuria. Japanese troops quickly rushed deep into Chinese territory, capturing one city after another: Mukden, Girin, and Qiqihar fell in succession.

Japanese soldiers pass by Chinese peasants.

By that time, the Chinese state had already existed for three decades in conditions of continuous chaos. The fall of the Manchu Qing Empire during the Xinhai Revolution of 1911-1912 opened a series of civil strife, coups and attempts by various non-Han territories to break away from the Middle Power. Tibet actually became independent, the separatist Uighur movement in Xinjiang did not stop, where the East Turkestan region even arose in the early 30s Islamic republic. Outer Mongolia and Tuva separated, where the Mongolian and Tuvan People's Republics were formed. And in other regions of China there was no political stability. As soon as the Qing dynasty was overthrown, a struggle for power began, punctuated by ethnic and regional conflicts. The South fought with the North, the Han carried out bloody reprisals against the Manchus. After the unsuccessful attempt of the first President of the Republic of China, the commander of the Beiyang Army, Yuan Shikai, to restore the monarchy with himself as emperor, the country was drawn into a whirlpool of infighting between various cliques of militarists.

Sun Yat-sen is the father of the nation.

In fact, the only force that really fought for the reunification and revival of China was the Zhongguo Kuomintang party (Chinese National People's Party), founded by the outstanding political theorist and revolutionary Sun Yat-sen. But the Kuomintang was decidedly lacking in strength to pacify all regional juntas. After the death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925, the position of the National People's Party was complicated by confrontation with the Soviet Union. Sun Yat-sen himself sought rapprochement with Soviet Russia, hoping with its help to overcome the fragmentation and foreign enslavement of China, and to achieve its rightful place in the world. On March 11, 1925, the day before his death, the founder of the Kuomintang wrote: "The time will come when the Soviet Union, like best friend and ally, will hail a mighty and free China when, in the great battle for the freedom of the oppressed nations of the world, both countries march forward hand in hand and achieve victory.".

Chiang Kai-shek.

But with the death of Sun Yat-sen the situation changed dramatically. Firstly, the Kuomintang itself, which essentially represented a coalition of politicians of various stripes, from nationalists to socialists, began to split into different factions without its founder; secondly, the Kuomintang military leader Chiang Kai-shek, who actually headed the Kuomintang after the death of Sun Yat-sen, soon began to fight against the communists, which could not but lead to a worsening of Soviet-Chinese relations and resulted in a series of border armed conflicts. True, Chiang Kai-shek was able to Northern Expedition 1926-1927, at the very least, to unite most of China under the rule of the Kuomintang government in Nanjing, but the ephemeral nature of this unification was beyond doubt: Tibet remained uncontrolled, in Xinjiang centrifugal processes only grew, and cliques of militarists in the north retained strength and influence, and their loyalty to the Nanjing government remained declarative at best.

Soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang.

Under such conditions, it is not surprising that China, with its population of half a billion, could not provide a serious rebuff to Japan, which is poor in raw materials and has a population of 70 million. In addition, while Japan, after the Meiji Restoration, underwent modernization and had an outstanding industry by the standards of the Asia-Pacific region of that time, it was not possible to carry out industrialization in China, and the Republic of China was almost entirely dependent on foreign supplies to obtain modern equipment and weapons. As a result, a striking disparity in the technical equipment of the Japanese and Chinese troops was observed even at the lowest, most elementary level: while the Japanese infantryman was armed with an Arisaka repeating rifle, the infantrymen of the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang en masse had to fight with pistols and dadao blades, a technique the latter were often made in artisanal conditions. About the difference between opponents in more complex types of equipment, as well as in organizational terms and military training I don't even have to say it.

Chinese soldiers with dadao.

In January 1932, the Japanese took the cities of Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan, approaching the eastern end of the Great Wall of China and capturing almost the entire territory of Manchuria. Having occupied Manchurian territory, the Japanese immediately ensured the seizure politically by organizing the All-Manchurian Assembly in March 1932, which declared the creation of the state of Manchukuo (Manchurian Power) and elected as ruler the last monarch of the Qing Empire, overthrown in 1912, Aisingyoro Pu Yi, from 1925 years under Japanese patronage. In 1934, Pu Yi was proclaimed emperor, and Manchukuo changed its name to Damanzhou Diguo (Great Manchu Empire).

Aisingyoro Pu I.

But no matter what names the “Great Manchu Empire” took, the essence of this fake state formation remained obvious: big name and the pretentious title of the monarch were nothing more than a translucent screen, behind which the Japanese occupation administration was quite clearly visible. The falsity of Damanzhou-Digo was visible in almost everything: for example, in State Council, which was the center of political power in the country, each minister had a Japanese deputy, and in fact these Japanese deputies carried out the policy of Manchuria. The real supreme power of the country was the commander of the Kwantung Group of Forces, who simultaneously served as the Japanese Ambassador to Manchukuo. Also pro forma in Manchuria there was the Manchu Imperial Army, organized from the remnants of the Chinese Northeast Army and largely staffed by Honghuzi, on military service often they came only to obtain funds for their usual craft, that is, banditry; Having acquired weapons and equipment, these newly minted “soldiers” deserted and joined the gangs. Those who did not desert or rebel usually fell into drunkenness and opium smoking, and many military units quickly turned into brothels. Naturally, the combat effectiveness of such " armed forces" strived for zero, and real military force The Kwantung Group of Forces remained on the territory of Manchuria.

Soldiers of the Manchurian Imperial Army during exercises.

However, not the entire Manchu Imperial Army was a political decoration. In particular, it included formations recruited from Russian emigrants.
Here it is necessary to make a digression and again pay attention to the political system of Manchukuo. In this public education Almost the entire internal political life revolved around the so-called “Manchukuo Harmony Society”, which by the end of the 30s was transformed by the Japanese into a typical anti-communist corporatist structure, but one political group, with the permission and encouragement of the Japanese, stood apart - these were the White emigrants. In the Russian diaspora in Manchuria, not just anti-communist, but fascist views have long been rooted. At the end of the 20s, a teacher at the Harbin Faculty of Law, Nikolai Ivanovich Nikiforov, formed the Russian Fascist Organization, on the basis of which the Russian Fascist Party was established in 1931, general secretary of which Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky became a member of the RFO. In 1934, in Yokohama, the RFP united with Anastasy Andreevich Vosnyatsky, formed in the USA, into the All-Russian Fascist Party. The Russian fascists in Manchuria counted the Chairman of the Council of Ministers among their harbingers Russian Empire in 1906-1911 by Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin.
In 1934, the “Bureau for Russian Emigrants in the Manchu Empire” (hereinafter referred to as BREM) was formed in Manchuria, the curator of which was Major of the Japanese Imperial Army, assistant to the head of the Japanese military mission in Harbin, Akikusa Xiong, who participated in the intervention in Soviet Russia during the years Civil War; in 1936, Akikusa joined the Japanese General Staff. Using ARVs, the Japanese placed the White emigrants in Manchuria under the command of the Kwantung Group of Forces. Under Japanese control, the formation of paramilitary and sabotage detachments from among white emigrants began. In accordance with the proposal of Colonel Kawabe Torashiro, in 1936 the unification of the White emigrant detachments into one military unit began. In 1938, the formation of this unit, called the Asano detachment after the name of its commander, Major Asano Makoto, was completed.
The formation of units from Russian fascists clearly demonstrated anti-Soviet sentiments among the Japanese elite. And this is not surprising, given the nature of the state regime that had developed in Japan by that time, especially since the Soviet Union, despite all the contradictions and conflicts with the Kuomintang, began to take steps towards supporting the Republic of China in the fight against Japanese intervention. In particular, in December 1932, on the initiative of the Soviet leadership, diplomatic relations with the Republic of China were restored.
The separation of Manchuria from China became the prologue to the Second World War. The Japanese elite made it clear that they would not limit themselves to Manchuria alone, and their plans were an order of magnitude larger and more ambitious. In 1933, the Empire of Japan withdrew from the League of Nations.

Japanese soldiers in Shanghai, 1937.

In the summer of 1937, limited military conflicts finally escalated into a full-scale war between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China. Chiang Kai-shek repeatedly called on representatives of the Western powers to help China, argued that only by creating a united international front can Japanese aggression be contained, and recalled the Washington Treaty of 1922, which confirmed the integrity and independence of China. But all his calls found no answer. The Republic of China found itself in conditions close to isolation. ROC Foreign Minister Wang Chonghui gloomily summed up Chinese pre-war foreign policy: "We always hoped too much in England and America".

Japanese soldiers massacre Chinese prisoners of war.

Japanese troops rapidly advanced deep into Chinese territory, and already in December 1937, the capital of the republic, Nanjing, fell, where the Japanese committed an unprecedented massacre that ended the lives of tens, or even hundreds of thousands of people. Massive looting, torture, rape and murder continued for several weeks. The march of Japanese troops across China was marked by countless savages. In Manchuria, meanwhile, the activities of Detachment No. 731 under Lieutenant General Ishii Shiro, which was developing bacteriological weapons and conducting inhumane experiments on people, were in full swing.

Lieutenant General Ishii Shiro, commander of Detachment 731.

The Japanese continued to split China, creating political objects in the occupied territories that were even less similar to states than Manchukuo. Thus, in Inner Mongolia in 1937, the Principality of Mengjiang was proclaimed, led by Prince De Wang Demchigdonrov.
In the summer of 1937, the Chinese government turned to the Soviet Union for help. The Soviet leadership agreed to the supply of weapons and equipment, as well as to the dispatch of specialists: pilots, artillerymen, engineers, tank crews, etc. On August 21, a non-aggression treaty was concluded between the USSR and the Republic of China.

Soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army of China on the Yellow River. 1938

Fighting in China became increasingly large-scale. By the beginning of 1938, 800 thousand soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army fought on the fronts of the Sino-Japanese War. At the same time, the position of the Japanese armies became ambiguous. On the one hand, the Mikado's subjects won victory after victory, inflicting colossal losses on the Kuomintang troops and those supporting the Chiang Kai-shek government regional forces; but on the other hand, there was no breakdown of the Chinese armed forces, and gradually the Japanese ground forces began to get bogged down in hostilities on the territory of the Middle Power. It became clear that the 500-million-strong China, even if lagging behind in industrial development, torn by strife and supported by almost no one, was too heavy an opponent for the 70-million-strong Japan with its meager resources; even the amorphous, inert, passive resistance of China and its people created too much tension for the Japanese forces. And military successes ceased to be continuous: in the Battle of Taierzhuang, which took place from March 24 to April 7, 1938, the troops of the National Revolutionary Army of China won their first major victory over the Japanese. According to available data, Japanese losses in this battle amounted to 2,369 killed, 719 captured and 9,615 wounded.

Chinese soldiers at the Battle of Taierzhuang.

In addition, Soviet military assistance became increasingly visible. Soviet pilots sent to China bombed Japanese communications and air bases and provided air cover for Chinese troops. One of the most effective actions of Soviet aviation was the raid of 28 SB bombers, led by Captain Fedor Petrovich Polynin, on the port of Hsinchu and the Japanese airfield in Taipei, located on the island, on February 23, 1938, on the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. Taiwan; Captain Polynin's bombers destroyed 40 Japanese planes on the ground, after which they returned safe and sound. This air raid shocked the Japanese, who had never expected enemy aircraft to appear over Taiwan. And by aviation actions Soviet aid was not limited: in units and formations of the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang, samples of Soviet-made weapons and equipment were increasingly discovered.
Of course, all of the above actions could not but arouse the wrath of the Japanese elite, and the views of the Japanese military leadership increasingly began to focus on the northern direction. The attention of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army to the borders of the Soviet Union and the Mongolian People's Republic increased greatly. But still, the Japanese did not consider it possible for themselves to attack their northern neighbors without having a sufficient understanding of their forces, and first they decided to test the defense capability of the Soviet Union on Far East. All that was needed was a reason, which the Japanese decided to create in a way known since ancient times - by making a territorial claim.

Shigemitsu Mamoru, Japanese Ambassador to Moscow.

On July 15, 1938, the Japanese charge d'affaires in the USSR showed up at the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and officially demanded the withdrawal of Soviet border guards from the heights in the area of ​​Lake Khasan and the transfer of territories adjacent to this lake to the Japanese. The Soviet side responded by presenting the documents of the Hunchun Agreement, signed in 1886 between the Russian and Qing empires, and the map attached to them, which exhaustively testified to the location of the heights of Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya on Russian territory. The Japanese diplomat left, but the Japanese did not calm down: on July 20, the Japanese ambassador in Moscow, Shigemitsu Mamoru, repeated the demands of the Japanese government, and in the form of an ultimatum, threatening the use of force if Japanese demands were not met.

Japanese infantry unit on the march near Lake Khasan.

By that time, the Japanese command had already concentrated 3 infantry divisions, separate armored units, a cavalry regiment, 3 machine gun battalions, 3 armored trains and 70 aircraft near Khasan. Main role In the upcoming conflict, the Japanese command assigned the 20,000-strong 19th Infantry Division, which belonged to the Japanese occupation forces in Korea and was directly subordinate to the imperial headquarters. A cruiser, 14 destroyers and 15 military boats approached the area of ​​the mouth of the Tumen-Ola River to support Japanese ground units. On July 22, 1938, the plan to attack the Soviet border received approval at the level of the Showa tenno (Hirohito).

Patrol of Soviet border guards in the area of ​​Lake Khasan.

The Japanese preparations for the attack did not go unnoticed by the Soviet border guards, who immediately began building defensive positions and reported to the commander of the Red Banner Far Eastern Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher. But the latter, without informing either the People's Commissariat of Defense or the government, on July 24 went to the Zaozernaya hill, where he ordered the border guards to fill up the dug trenches and move the installed wire fences away from the no-man's land. The border troops did not obey the army leadership, due to which Blucher’s actions can only be regarded as a gross violation of subordination. However, on the same day, the Military Council of the Far Eastern Front gave the order to put units of the 40th Infantry Division on combat readiness, one of the battalions of which, together with the border outpost, was transferred to Lake Khasan.

Marshal of the Soviet Union Vasily Konstantinovich Blucher.

On July 29, the Japanese, with the help of two companies, attacked a Soviet border post located on the Bezymyannaya hill with a garrison of 11 border guards and penetrated into Soviet territory; Japanese infantrymen occupied the heights, but with the arrival of reinforcements, border guards and Red Army soldiers pushed them back. On July 30, the hills came under Japanese artillery fire, and then, as soon as the gunfire died down, the Japanese infantry again rushed into the attack, but the Soviet soldiers were able to repel it.

People's Commissar of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov.

On July 31, People's Commissar of Defense Marshal Kliment Efremovich Voroshilov ordered the 1st Red Banner Army and the Pacific Fleet to be put on combat readiness. By that time, the Japanese, having concentrated in striking fist two regiments of the 19th Infantry Division captured the Zaozernaya and Bezymyannaya hills and advanced 4 kilometers deep into Soviet territory. Having good tactical training and considerable experience in combat operations in China, the Japanese soldiers immediately secured the captured lines by tearing off full-profile trenches and installing wire barriers in 3-4 rows. The counterattack of two battalions of the 40th Infantry Division failed, and the Red Army soldiers were forced to retreat to Zarechye and to height 194.0.

Japanese machine gunners in battles near Lake Khasan.

Meanwhile, the chief of staff of the front, commander Grigory Mikhailovich Stern, arrived at the site of hostilities on the instructions of Blucher (for unknown reasons, who did not go on his own, and also refused to use aviation to support ground troops, justifying his unwillingness to cause damage to the Korean civilian population), the chief of staff of the front, commander Grigory Mikhailovich Stern, accompanied by the deputy people's commissar of defense, army commissar Lev Zakharovich Mekhlis. Stern took command of the troops.

Komkor Grigory Mikhailovich Stern.

Army Commissar Lev Zakharovich Mehlis.

On August 1, units of the 40th Infantry Division converged on the lake. The concentration of forces was delayed, and in telephone conversation between Blucher and the Main Military Council, Stalin directly asked Blucher: “Tell me, Comrade Blucher, honestly, do you have a desire to really fight the Japanese? If you don’t have such a desire, tell me directly, as befits a communist, and if you have a desire, I would think that you should go to place immediately".

Soviet machine gunners in the area of ​​Lake Khasan.

On August 2, Blucher, after a conversation with Stalin, went to the combat area, ordered an attack on the Japanese without crossing the state border, and ordered the deployment of additional forces. The Red Army soldiers managed to overcome the wire fences with heavy losses and get close to the heights, but the Soviet riflemen did not have enough strength to take the heights themselves.

Soviet riflemen during the battles near Lake Khasan.

On August 3, Mehlis reported to Moscow about Blucher’s incompetence as a commander, after which he was removed from command of the troops. The task of launching a counterattack against the Japanese fell on the newly formed 39th Rifle Corps, which, in addition to the 40th Rifle Division, included the 32nd Rifle Division, the 2nd Separate Mechanized Brigade and a number of artillery units moving towards the battle area. In total, the corps numbered about 23 thousand people. It fell to Grigory Mikhailovich Stern to lead the operation.

The Soviet commander observes the battle in the area of ​​Lake Khasan.

On August 4, the concentration of forces of the 39th Rifle Corps was completed, and Commander Stern gave the order for an offensive to regain control of the state border. At four o'clock in the afternoon on August 6, 1938, as soon as the fog cleared over the banks of Khasan, Soviet aviation With 216 aircraft, it carried out a double bombardment of Japanese positions, and the artillery carried out a 45-minute artillery barrage. At five o'clock, units of the 39th Rifle Corps launched an attack on the Zaozernaya, Bezymyannaya and Machine Gun hills. Fierce battles ensued for the heights and the surrounding area - on August 7 alone, Japanese infantry carried out 12 counterattacks. The Japanese fought with merciless ferocity and rare tenacity; confrontation with them required extraordinary courage from the Red Army soldiers, who were inferior in tactical training and experience, and from the commanders - will, self-control and flexibility. Japanese officers punished the slightest signs of panic without any sentimentality; in particular, Japanese artillery sergeant Toshio Ogawa recalled that when some Japanese soldiers fled during the bombing carried out by red star planes, “three of them were immediately shot by the officers of our division headquarters, and Lieutenant Itagi cut off the head of one with a sword.”.

Japanese machine gunners on a hill near Lake Khasan.

On August 8, units of the 40th Infantry Division captured Zaozernaya and began an assault on Bogomolnaya Heights. The Japanese, meanwhile, tried to divert the attention of the Soviet command with attacks on other sections of the border, but the Soviet border guards were able to fight back on their own, thwarting the enemy’s plans.

Artillerymen of the 39th corps artillery regiment in the area of ​​Lake Khasan.

On August 9, the 32nd Infantry Division knocked out Japanese units from Bezymyannaya, after which the final displacement of units of the Japanese 19th Infantry Division from Soviet territory began. In an attempt to hold back the Soviet onslaught with barrage artillery fire, the Japanese deployed several batteries on an island in the middle of the Tumen-Ola River, but the Mikado gunners lost the duel with the Soviet corps artillery.

A Red Army soldier watches the enemy.

On August 10, in Moscow, Shigemitsu visited the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Maxim Maksimovich Litvinov, with a proposal to begin peace negotiations. During these negotiations, the Japanese launched about a dozen more attacks, but all with unsuccessful results. The Soviet side agreed to a cessation of hostilities as of noon on August 11, leaving units in the positions they occupied at the end of August 10.

People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Maksimovich Litvinov.

Red Army soldiers take pictures at the end of the Khasan battles.

At half past two in the afternoon on August 11, the fighting on the shores of Lake Khasan subsided. The parties concluded a truce. On August 12-13, meetings between Soviet and Japanese representatives took place, at which the disposition of troops was clarified and the bodies of the fallen were exchanged.
The irretrievable losses of the Red Army, according to the study “Russia and the USSR in the wars of the 20th century. Losses of the armed forces,” amounted to 960 people, sanitary losses were estimated at 2,752 people wounded and 527 sick. Of the military equipment, the Soviet troops irrevocably lost 5 tanks, 1 gun and 4 aircraft (another 29 aircraft were damaged). Japanese losses, according to Japanese data, amounted to 526 people killed and 914 wounded, and there is also data on the destruction of 3 anti-aircraft installations and 1 Japanese armored train.

Red Army warrior at his best.

In general, the results of the battles on the banks of Khasan completely satisfied the Japanese. They conducted reconnaissance in force and found that the Red Army troops, despite being more numerous and generally more modern in comparison with the Japanese weapons and equipment, had extremely poor training and were practically unfamiliar with tactics modern combat. In order to defeat well-trained, seasoned Japanese soldiers in a local clash, the Soviet leadership had to concentrate an entire corps against one actually operating Japanese division, not counting the border units, and ensure absolute superiority in aviation, and even under such favorable conditions for the Soviet side, the Japanese suffered fewer losses. The Japanese came to the conclusion that it was possible to fight against the USSR and especially the MPR, because the armed forces of the Soviet Union were weak. That is why the following year there was a conflict between Mongolian river Khalkhin Gol.
However, one should not think that the Soviet side failed to derive any benefit from the clash that took place in the Far East. The Red Army gained practical combat experience, which very quickly became the object of study in the Soviet military educational institutions and military units. In addition, Blücher's unsatisfactory leadership of the Soviet armed forces in the Far East was revealed, which made it possible to carry out personnel changes and take organizational measures. Blucher himself, after being removed from his post, was arrested and died in prison. Finally, the battles at Khalkhin Gol clearly demonstrated that an army recruited on the basis of the territorial-militia principle cannot be strong with any weapons, which became an additional incentive for the Soviet leadership to accelerate the transition to recruiting the armed forces on the basis of universal conscription.
In addition, the Soviet leadership derived a positive information effect for the USSR from the Khasan battles. The fact that the Red Army defended the territory, and the valor displayed in great numbers by Soviet soldiers, increased the authority of the armed forces in the country and caused a rise in patriotic sentiments. Many songs were written about the battles on the banks of Hassan, newspapers reported on the exploits of the heroes of the workers' and peasants' state. State awards were given to 6,532 combat participants, among them 47 women - wives and sisters of border guards. 26 conscientious citizens in the Khasan events became Heroes of the Soviet Union. You can read about one of these heroes here:

And the Red Army due to Japan’s contesting the ownership of the territory near Lake Khasan and the Tumannaya River. In Japan, these events are called the “Zhangufeng Heights Incident.” (Japanese: 張鼓峰事件 Cho:koho: jiken) .

Previous Events

In February 1934, five Japanese soldiers crossed the border line; in a clash with border guards, one of the violators was killed, and four were wounded and detained.

On March 22, 1934, while trying to conduct reconnaissance at the Emelyantsev outpost site, an officer and a soldier of the Japanese army were shot dead.

In April 1934, Japanese soldiers attempted to capture the Lysaya heights in the Grodekovsky border detachment sector; at the same time, the Poltavka outpost was attacked, but the border guards, with the support of an artillery company, repelled the attack and drove the enemy beyond the border line.

In July 1934, the Japanese committed six provocations on the border line, in August 1934 - 20 provocations, in September 1934 - 47 provocations.

During the first seven months of 1935, there were 24 cases of Japanese aircraft invading USSR airspace on the border line, 33 cases of shelling of USSR territory from adjacent territory and 44 cases of violation river border on the Amur River by Manchu ships.

In the fall of 1935, 15 km from the Petrovka outpost, a border guard noticed two Japanese who were trying to connect to the communication line, the soldier was killed and the non-commissioned officer was detained, a rifle and a light machine gun were seized from the violators.

On October 12, 1935, a detachment of Japanese attacked the Baglynka outpost, killing border guard V. Kotelnikov.

In November 1935, the political representative of the USSR in Tokyo, K. K. Yurenev, presented a note of protest to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hirota, in connection with the violations of the Soviet border by Japanese forces that took place on October 6, October 8 and October 12, 1935.

On January 30, 1936, two Japanese-Manchu companies crossed the border at Meshcheryakovaya Pad and advanced 1.5 km into USSR territory before being pushed back by border guards. Losses were 31 Manchu soldiers and Japanese officers killed and 23 wounded, as well as 4 killed and several wounded Soviet border guards.

On November 24, 1936, a cavalry and foot detachment of 60 Japanese crossed the border in the Grodekovo area, but came under machine gun fire and retreated, losing 18 soldiers killed and 7 wounded, 8 corpses remained on Soviet territory.

On November 26, 1936, three Japanese crossed the border and began a topographical survey of the area from the top of Pavlova Hill; when trying to detain them, machine guns and artillery opened fire from the adjacent territory, and three Soviet border guards were killed.

In 1936, at the Hansi outpost site, Japanese soldiers captured the Malaya Chertova heights and erected pillboxes on it.

In May 1937, 2 km from the border, the border guard again noticed the Japanese trying to connect to the communication line, a Japanese soldier was shot, six coils of field telephone cable, wire cutters, and six pickaxes were captured.

On June 5, 1937, in the area of ​​​​responsibility of the 21st Rifle Division of the Red Army, Japanese soldiers invaded Soviet territory and occupied a hill near Lake Khanka, but when approaching the border of the 63rd Rifle Regiment, they retreated to adjacent territory. Regiment commander I.R. Dobysh, who was late with the advance of forces to the border line, was brought to disciplinary responsibility.

On October 28, 1937, at an altitude of 460.1, the border patrol of the Pakshekhori outpost discovered two open trenches surrounded by a wire fence. They opened fire from the trenches, in the shootout the senior squadron, Lieutenant A. Makhalin, was wounded and two were killed Japanese soldier.

On July 15, 1938, a border patrol noticed a group of five Japanese at the top of the Zaozernaya hill, conducting reconnaissance and photographing the area; while trying to detain them, Japanese intelligence officer Matsushima was shot (they found weapons, binoculars, a camera and maps of Soviet territory on him), the rest fled.

In total, from 1936 until the outbreak of hostilities at Lake Khasan in July 1938, Japanese and Manchurian forces made 231 violations of the Soviet border, in 35 cases they resulted in major military clashes. Of this number, in the period from the beginning of 1938 to the start of the battles at Lake Khasan, there were 124 cases of border violations by land and 40 cases of aircraft intrusion into the airspace of the USSR.

During the same period, Western powers (including Great Britain and the USA) were interested in escalation armed conflict between the USSR and Japan in the Far East and the escalation of tensions into the Soviet-Japanese War. One of the forms of encouraging Japan to war against the USSR was the supply of strategic raw materials to the Japanese military industry, the supply of goods and fuel for the Japanese army (an example is the supply of fuel from the USA), which did not stop either after the start of the Japanese offensive in China in the summer of 1937, or after the start of fighting near Lake Khasan [ ] .

Lyushkov's escape

After the outbreak of Japanese aggression in China in 1937, the Soviet state security agencies in the Far East were tasked with intensifying intelligence and counterintelligence activities. However, in the fall of 1937, the head of the NKVD Directorate for the Far Eastern Territory, State Security Commissioner 3rd Rank G.S. Lyushkov, ordered the liquidation of all six operational points on the border, and the transfer of work with agents to border detachments.

On June 14, 1938, in Manchukuo near the city of Hunchun, G.S. Lyushkov crossed the border and surrendered to Japanese border guards. He asked for political asylum and subsequently actively collaborated with Japanese intelligence.

Beginning of the conflict

As a pretext for applying military force The Japanese put forward a territorial claim to the USSR, but the real reason was the active assistance of the USSR to China in the period after the signing of the Soviet-Chinese non-aggression treaty on August 21, 1937 (which caused an aggravation of Soviet-Japanese contradictions and a deterioration in Soviet-Japanese relations). In an effort to prevent China from capitulating, the USSR provided it with diplomatic and political support, logistical and military assistance.

On July 1, 1938, due to the increasing military danger, the Special Red Banner Far Eastern Army of the Red Army was transformed into the Far Eastern Front of the Red Army.

Due to the deterioration of the situation at the site state border near Lake Khasan, as well as the important position of the Zaozernaya hills ( 42°26.79′ N. w. 130°35.67′ E. d. HGIO) and Nameless ( 42°27.77′ N. w. 130°35.42′ E. d. HGIO), from the slopes and peaks of which it was possible to view and, if necessary, shoot a significant space deep into the territory of the USSR, as well as completely block the lakeside defile for access by Soviet border guards. On July 8, 1938, it was decided to establish a permanent border guard post on the Zaozernaya hill.

The Soviet border guards who arrived at the hill dug trenches and installed an inconspicuous wire fence in front of them, which infuriated the Japanese - a unit of infantrymen of the Japanese army, led by an officer, imitated an attack on the hill, turning into a battle formation, but stopped at the border line.

On July 12, 1938, Soviet border guards again occupied the Zaozernaya hill, which was claimed by the puppet government of Manchukuo, which on July 14, 1938 protested about the violation of its border.

On July 15, 1938, in Moscow, the Japanese Ambassador to the USSR Mamoru Shigemitsu demanded in a note of protest to the Soviet government the withdrawal of all USSR troops from the disputed territory. He was presented with documents from the Hunchun Agreement of 1886 and a map attached to them, indicating that the Zaozernaya and Bezymyannaya heights are located on Soviet territory. However, on July 20, the Japanese ambassador presented another note from the Japanese government. The note contained an ultimatum demand for the evacuation of Soviet troops “from illegally occupied territory.”

On July 21, 1938, Japanese Minister of War Itagaki and the Chief of the Japanese General Staff requested permission from the Japanese Emperor to use Japanese troops in combat against Soviet forces at Lake Khasan.

On the same day, July 22, 1938, Japanese Emperor Hirohito approved plans for an attack on the Lake Hasan section of the border.

On July 23, 1938, Japanese units began expelling local residents from border villages. The next day, on the sandy islands on the Tumen-Ula River, the appearance of firing positions for artillery was noted, and at the height of Bogomolnaya (located at a distance of 1 km from the Zaozernaya hill) - firing positions for artillery and machine guns.

On July 24, 1938, Marshal V.K. Blucher, without informing the government and the higher command in the person of the People's Commissariat of Defense about his actions, went to the Zaozernaya hill with a commission to check reports about the situation on the border. He ordered to fill up one of the trenches dug by the border guards and move the wire fence from the no-man's land four meters to the border guards' trenches. Blucher's actions constituted an abuse of authority (the border guard was not subordinate to the army command) and direct interference in the work of the border district headquarters (whose orders were carried out by the border guard). In addition, as further developments showed, Blucher’s actions were wrong.

The balance of forces between the parties

USSR

15 thousand Soviet military personnel and border guards took part in the fighting near Lake Khasan, armed with 237 artillery pieces(179 field artillery guns and 58 anti-tank 45 mm guns), 285 tanks, 250 aircraft and 1014 machine guns (341 heavy machine guns and 673 light machine guns). 200 GAZ-AA, GAZ-AAA and ZIS-5 trucks, 39 fuel tankers and 60 tractors, as well as horse-drawn vehicles, took part in supporting the troops’ actions.

According to updated data, two border boats also took part in the fighting in the area of ​​Lake Khasan ( PK-7 And PK-8) USSR border troops.

Radio intelligence specialists from the Pacific Fleet took an indirect part in the operation - they did not participate in hostilities, but were engaged in radio interception and decoding of Japanese radio transmissions.

Japan

By the beginning of hostilities, the border group of Japanese troops consisted of: three infantry divisions (15th, 19th, 20th infantry divisions), one cavalry regiment, three machine gun battalions, separate armored units (up to a battalion in size), anti-aircraft artillery units, three armored trains and 70 aircraft, 15 warships (1 cruiser and 14 destroyers) and 15 boats were concentrated at the mouth of the Tumen-Ula River. The 19th Infantry Division, reinforced with machine guns and artillery, took a direct part in the hostilities. Also, the Japanese military command considered the possibility of using White emigrants in combat operations - Major of the Japanese General Staff Yamooko was sent to Ataman G.M. Semyonov to coordinate the joint actions of White emigrants and Japanese troops during preparations for hostilities at Lake Khasan.

More than 20 thousand military personnel of the Japanese army took part in the fighting at Lake Khasan, armed with 200 guns and 3 armored trains.

According to the American researcher Alvin D. Cooks, at least 10,000 Japanese troops took part in the fighting at Lake Khasan, of which 7,000 - 7,300 were in the combat units of the 19th Division. This figure, however, does not include the personnel of the artillery units assigned to the division in last days conflict.

In addition, during the fighting near Lake Khasan, the use of 20-mm Type 97 anti-tank rifles by Japanese troops was recorded.

Fighting

On July 24, 1938, the Military Council of the Far Eastern Front gave the order to put the 118th, 119th Infantry Regiments and the 121st Cavalry Regiment of the 40th Infantry Division of the Red Army on alert. It was believed that defense in the rugged swampy terrain was impossible, since this would prevent the Soviet units from reaching the conflict site.

On July 24, the 3rd battalion of the 118th regiment of the 40th Infantry Division and the reserve border post of Lieutenant S. Ya. Khristolubov were transferred to Lake Khasan. Thus, by the beginning of the Japanese offensive, the following forces were available in the combat area:

Before dawn on July 29, Japanese troops numbering up to 150 soldiers (a reinforced company of the border gendarmerie with 4 Hotchkiss machine guns), taking advantage of the foggy weather, secretly concentrated on the slopes of the Bezymyannaya hill and in the morning attacked the hill, on which there were 11 Soviet border guards. Having lost up to 40 soldiers, they occupied the heights, but after reinforcements arrived for the border guards, they were driven back by the evening.

On the evening of July 30, 1938, Japanese artillery shelled the hills, after which the Japanese infantry again attempted to capture Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya, but the border guards, with the help of the arriving 3rd battalion of the 118th joint venture of the 40th SD, repelled the attack.

On the same day, after a short artillery barrage, Japanese troops launched a new attack with up to two regiments of the 19th Infantry Division and occupied the hills. Immediately after the capture, the Japanese began to fortify the heights; full-profile trenches were dug here and wire barriers of 3-4 stakes were installed. At height 62.1 (“Machine Gun”), the Japanese installed up to 40 machine guns.

An attempt at a Soviet counterattack with two battalions was unsuccessful, although two Japanese were destroyed by fire from a platoon of 45-mm anti-tank guns under the command of Lieutenant I.R. anti-tank guns and three Japanese machine guns.

The battalion of the 119th Infantry Regiment retreated to height 194.0, and the battalion of the 118th Regiment was forced to retreat to Zarechye. On the same day, the Chief of Staff of the Front, G. M. Stern, and the Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, Army Commissar L. Z. Mehlis arrived at the headquarters; G. M. Stern assumed overall command of the Soviet troops.

On the morning of August 1, the entire 118th infantry regiment arrived in the area of ​​Lake Khasan, and before noon - the 119th infantry regiment and the 120th command post of the 40th infantry division. The general attack was delayed as units advanced into the fighting area along a single impassable road. On August 1, a direct conversation took place between V.K. Blucher and the Main Military Council, where J.V. Stalin sharply criticized Blucher for commanding the operation.

In border battles with the Japanese on July 29 - August 5, 1938, Soviet troops captured 5 artillery pieces, 14 machine guns and 157 rifles.

On August 4, the concentration of troops was completed, the commander of the Far Eastern Front, G. M. Stern, gave the order for an offensive with the goal of attacking and destroying the enemy between the Zaozernaya hill and Lake Khasan and restoring the state border.

On August 6, 1938, at 16:00, after the fog cleared over the lakes, the bombing of Japanese positions began 216 Soviet aircraft; at 17:00, after a 45-minute artillery barrage and two massive bombings of the Japanese troops, the Soviet offensive began.

• The 32nd Rifle Division and the tank battalion of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade advanced from the north onto the Bezymyannaya Hill;
• The 40th Rifle Division, reinforced by a reconnaissance battalion and tanks, advanced from the southeast onto the Zaozernaya hill.

On August 7, fighting for the heights continued, with Japanese infantry launching 12 counterattacks throughout the day.

On August 8, units of the 39th Corps and the 118th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Division captured the Zaozernaya hill and also launched battles to capture the Bogomolnaya height. In an effort to weaken the pressure on its troops in the Khasan area, the Japanese command launched counterattacks on other sections of the border: on August 9, 1938, at the site of the 59th border detachment, Japanese troops occupied Mount Malaya Tigrovaya to monitor the movement of Soviet troops. On the same day, in the sector of the 69th Khanka border detachment, Japanese cavalrymen violated the border line, and in the sector of the 58th Grodekovsky border detachment, Japanese infantry attacked height 588.3 three times.

On August 10, 1938, the Japanese Ambassador to the USSR M. Shigemitsu visited the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR M. M. Litvinov in Moscow and proposed to begin peace negotiations. The Soviet side agreed to a cessation of hostilities from 12:00 on August 11, 1938, while maintaining troops in the positions that the troops occupied as of 24:00 on August 10, 1938.

During August 10, Japanese troops launched several counterattacks and conducted artillery bombardment of the heights from adjacent territory.

On August 11, 1938, at 13:30 local time, hostilities ceased. In the evening of the same day, south of the Zaozernaya height, the first meeting of representatives of the parties took place to fix the position of the troops. On the same day, August 11, 1938, a truce was concluded between Japan and the USSR.

On August 12-13, 1938, new meetings between Soviet and Japanese representatives took place, at which the parties clarified the location of troops and exchanged the bodies of the dead. It was decided that the boundary should be established based on the 1860 agreement, since there was no later boundary agreement.

Aviation Application

On the eve of the conflict in the Far East, the command of the Red Army Air Force concentrated significant amount aviation. Without taking into account the Pacific Fleet aviation, by August 1938 the Soviet air group consisted of 1,298 aircraft, including 256 SB bombers (17 out of order). Direct command of aviation in the conflict zone was exercised by P. V. Rychagov.

In the period from August 1 to August 8, Soviet aviation carried out 1028 sorties against Japanese fortifications: SB - 346, I-15 - 534, SSS - 53 (from the airfield in Voznesenskoye), TB-3 - 41, R-zet - 29, I-16 - 25. The following were involved in the operation:

In a number of cases, Soviet aviation mistakenly used chemical bombs. However, evidence from eyewitnesses and participants suggests the opposite. In particular, it is said that the delivered chemical bombs were loaded into the bomber only once, and upon takeoff this was discovered in the air. The pilots did not land, but dropped bombs into the silted lake to avoid exploding the ammunition.

During combat operations 4 Soviet aircraft 29 were lost and damaged.

Japanese aviation did not participate in the conflict.

results

As a result of the battles, Soviet troops completed their assigned task of protecting the state border of the USSR and defeating enemy units.

Losses of the parties

The losses of the Soviet troops amounted to 960 people killed and missing (of which, 759 died on the battlefield; 100 died in hospitals from wounds and illnesses; 6 died in non-combat incidents and 95 were missing), 2752 wounded and 527 sick. The majority of the sick people were sick gastrointestinal diseases as a result of drinking bad water. Since all Red Army soldiers who took part in hostilities were vaccinated with toxoid, during the entire period of hostilities there was not a single case of tetanus in military personnel.

Japanese losses were about 650 killed and 2,500 wounded according to Soviet estimates, or 526 killed and 914 wounded according to Japanese figures. In addition, during the fighting near Lake Khasan, Japanese troops suffered losses in weapons and military property. In addition, domestic sinologist V. Usov (FES RAS) noted that, in addition to the official Japanese communiqués, there was also a secret memorandum addressed to Emperor Hirohito, in in which the number of losses of Japanese troops significantly (no less than one and a half times) exceeds the officially published data.

Subsequent events

On November 16, 1938, an exhibition of captured weapons captured from Japanese troops during the fighting at Lake Khasan opened in the Vladivostok City Museum.

Rewarding combatants

The 40th Rifle Division was awarded the Order of Lenin, the 32nd Rifle Division and the Posyet Border Detachment were awarded the Order of the Red Banner, 6,532 participants in the battle were awarded government awards: 26 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (including nine posthumously), 95 were awarded the Order of Lenin, 1985 - the Order of the Red Banner, the Order of the Red Star - 1935 people, the medal "For Courage" - 1336 people, the medal "For Military Merit" - 1154 people. Among the recipients were 47 wives and sisters of border guards.

By order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated November 4, 1938, 646 of the most distinguished participants in the battles at Lake Khasan were promoted to rank.

On November 7, 1938, in the order of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR No. 236 of November 7, 1938, gratitude was declared to all participants in the battles at Lake Khasan

One of the points of accusation against Blucher was the creation of a commission that conducted an investigation at the Zaozernaya height on July 24 and came to the conclusion that Soviet border guards had violated the border line, after which Blucher demanded the partial liquidation of defensive positions at the height and the arrest of the head of the border section.

On October 22, 1938, Blucher was arrested. He pleaded guilty to participating in a military conspiracy and died during the investigation. After his death, he was accused of spying for Japan.

Generalization of combat experience and organizational improvement of the Red Army

The Red Army gained experience in conducting combat operations with Japanese troops, which became the subject of study in special commissions, departments of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, the General Staff of the USSR and military educational institutions and was practiced during exercises and maneuvers. The result was improved training of units and units of the Red Army for combat operations in difficult conditions, improved interaction between units in combat, and improved operational-tactical training of commanders and staffs. The experience gained was successfully applied on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939 and in Manchuria in 1945.

The fighting at Lake Khasan confirmed the increased importance of artillery and contributed to the further development of Soviet artillery: if during the Russian-Japanese War, the losses of Japanese troops from Russian artillery fire amounted to 23% of the total losses, then during the conflict at Lake Khasan in 1938, the losses of Japanese troops from artillery fire of the Red Army accounted for 37% of the total losses, and during the fighting near the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939 - 53% of the total losses of Japanese troops.

To eliminate the shortage of platoon-level command personnel, already in 1938, courses for junior lieutenants and junior military technicians were formed in the troops.

Organization of evacuation of the wounded and treatment medical care During the fighting near Lake Khasan, it took place on the basis of the provisions of the “Charter of the Military Sanitary Service of the Red Army” of 1933 (UVSS-33), however, at the same time, some requirements of sanitary tactics were violated: the conditions in which the fighting took place were not sufficiently taken into account (coastal swamps ); the wounded were carried out during the battle, without waiting for periods of calm in the fighting (which led to an increase in the number of losses); battalion doctors were too close to the battle formations of the troops and, moreover, were involved in organizing the work of company areas to collect and evacuate the wounded (which caused large losses among doctors). Based on the experience gained, after the end of hostilities, changes were made to the work of the military medical service:

• already by the beginning of hostilities on Khalkhin Gol, battalion doctors were transferred to the regiments, and paramedics were left in the battalions (this decision led to a reduction in losses among doctors during the fighting and increased the efficiency of the regimental medical centers);
• The training of civilian surgeons to care for the wounded in the field was improved.

Practical experience in the evacuation and treatment of the wounded, gained during the battles near Lake Khasan, was summarized by a specialist in the field of military field surgery, Professor M. N. Akhutin (who participated in the battles near Lake Khasan as an army surgeon) and Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor A M. Dykhno.

In addition, during the fighting, the vulnerability of the T-26 light tanks (which had bulletproof armor) when the enemy used large-caliber anti-tank rifles and anti-tank artillery was revealed. During the battles, concentrated fire disabled command tanks equipped with radio stations with a handrail antenna, so it was decided to install handrail antennas not only on command tanks, but also on line tanks.

Development of transport infrastructure

The fighting at Lake Khasan initiated the development of transport communications in the south of the Far East. After the end of hostilities at Lake Khasan, the People's Commissariat of Defense petitioned the government to build railway line No. 206 (Baranovsky - Posyet junction), the construction of which was included in the construction plan for 1939.

International Military Tribunal for the Far East

After the end of World War II, in 1946, by the decision of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East 13 dignitaries Japanese Empire were convicted of starting the conflict at Lake Khasan in 1938.

Memory

His native village in the Penza region was named in honor of the assistant head of the border outpost, Alexei Makhalin.

In honor of the political instructor Ivan Pozharsky, one of the districts of the Primorsky Territory, the village of Tikhonovka (Pozharskoye) and the Pozharsky railway crossing, founded in 1942, were named.

In the USSR, streets were named and monuments erected in honor of Hassan's heroes.

Reflection in culture and art

• “Tractor Drivers” is a film directed by Ivan Pyryev, filmed in 1939. The events in the film take place in 1938. At the beginning of the film, Red Army soldier Klim Yarko (played by Nikolai Kryuchkov) returns from the Far East after demobilization. In another fragment, Marina Ladynina’s heroine Maryana Bazhan reads the book “Tankmen” about the events at Lake Khasan. The songs “Three Tankmen” and “March of the Soviet Tankmen” were strongly associated in the minds of the generation of the 30s with events in the Far East.
• “Khasan Waltz” is a film shot in 2008 by director Mikhail Gotenko at the Oriental Cinema studio. The film is dedicated to Alexey Makhalin.

Heroes of the Soviet Union - participants in the fighting at Lake Khasan

File:Hasan6.png

Monument “Eternal glory to the heroes of the battles at Lake Khasan.” Pos. Razdolnoye, Nadezhdinsky district, Primorsky Krai

The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to:

• Borovikov, Andrey Evstigneevich (posthumously)
• Vinevitin, Vasily Mikhailovich (posthumously)
• Gvozdev, Ivan Vladimirovich (posthumously)
• Kolesnikov, Grigory Yakovlevich (posthumously)
• Kornev, Grigory Semyonovich (posthumously)
• Makhalin, Alexey Efimovich (posthumously)
• Pozharsky, Ivan Alekseevich (posthumously)
• Pushkarev, Konstantin Ivanovich (posthumously)
• Rassokha, Semyon Nikolaevich (posthumously)

Orders of NGOs of the USSR

see also

Notes

1. Khasan conflict // “Military Historical Journal”, No. 7, 2013 (last cover page)
2. “Tashkent” - Rifle cell / [under the general. ed. A. A. Grechko]. - M.: Military Publishing House of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR, 1976. - P. 366-367. - (Soviet military encyclopedia: [in 8 volumes]; 1976-1980, vol. 8).
3. Hasan // Great Encyclopedia (62 vols.) / editorial coll., ch. ed. S. A. Kondratov. volume 56. M., “TERRA”, 2006. p.147-148
4. Major A. Ageev. Subject lessons for Japanese samurai. 1922-1937. // How we beat the Japanese samurai. Collection of articles and documents. M., publishing house of the Central Committee of the Komsomol "Young Guard", 1938. pp. 122-161
5. Vitaly Moroz. Samurai reconnaissance in force. // “Red Star”, No. 141 (26601) from August 8 - 14, 2014. pp. 14-15
6. V.V. Tereshchenko. “The border guard is also responsible for protecting borders from armed attacks” // Military Historical Journal, No. 6, 2013. pp. 40-43
7. V. S. Milbach. “On the high banks of the Amur...” Border incidents on the Amur River in 1937-1939. // “Military Historical Journal”, No. 4, 2011. p.38-40
8. K. E. Grebennik. Hassan's diary. Vladivostok, Far Eastern book. publishing house, 1978. pp. 18-53
9. A. A. Koshkin. "Kantokuen" - "Barbarossa" in Japanese. Why Japan didn't attack the USSR. M., “Veche”, 2011. p. 47
10. D. T. Yazov. Loyal to the Fatherland. M., Voenizdat, 1988. p. 164

From 1936 to 1938, more than 300 incidents were noted on the Soviet-Japanese border, the most famous of which occurred at the junction of the borders of the USSR, Manchuria and Korea at Lake Khasan in July-August 1938.

At the origins of the conflict

The conflict in the Lake Khasan area was caused by a number of both foreign policy factors and very difficult relations within the ruling elite of Japan. An important detail was the rivalry within the Japanese military-political machine itself, when funds were distributed to strengthen the army, and the presence of even an imaginary military threat could give the command Korean Army This is a good opportunity for Japan to remind itself, given that the priority at that time was the operations of Japanese troops in China, which did not bring the desired result.

Another headache for Tokyo was the military aid flowing from the USSR to China. In this case, it was possible to exert military and political pressure by organizing a large-scale military provocation with a visible external effect. All that remained was to find a weak spot on the Soviet border, where an invasion could be successfully carried out and the combat effectiveness of the Soviet troops could be tested. And such an area was found 35 km from Vladivostok.

And if from the Japanese side the border was approached Railway and several highways, then on the Soviet side there was one dirt road. . It is noteworthy that until 1938, this area, where there really was no clear boundary marking, was of no interest to anyone, and suddenly in July 1938, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively took up this problem.

After the refusal of the Soviet side to withdraw troops and the incident with the death of a Japanese gendarme, shot by a Soviet border guard in the disputed area, tension began to increase day by day.

On July 29, the Japanese launched an attack on the Soviet border post, but after a hot battle they were driven back. On the evening of July 31, the attack was repeated, and here the Japanese troops already managed to wedge 4 kilometers deep into Soviet territory. The first attempts to drive out the Japanese with the 40th Infantry Division were unsuccessful. However, everything was not going well for the Japanese either - every day the conflict grew, threatening to develop into big war, for which Japan, stuck in China, was not ready.

Richard Sorge reported to Moscow: “Japanese General base interested in a war with the USSR not now, but later. Active actions on the border were taken by the Japanese to show the Soviet Union that Japan was still capable of demonstrating its power."

Meanwhile, in difficult off-road conditions and poor readiness of individual units, the concentration of forces of the 39th Rifle Corps continued. With great difficulty, they managed to gather 15 thousand people, 1014 machine guns, 237 guns, and 285 tanks in the combat area. In total, the 39th Rifle Corps consisted of up to 32 thousand people, 609 guns and 345 tanks. 250 aircraft were sent to provide air support.

Hostages of provocation

If in the first days of the conflict, due to poor visibility and, apparently, the hope that the conflict could still be resolved diplomatically, Soviet aviation was not used, then starting from August 5, Japanese positions were subjected to massive air strikes.

Aviation, including TB-3 heavy bombers, was brought in to destroy Japanese fortifications. The fighters carried out a series of assault strikes on Japanese troops. Moreover, the targets of Soviet aviation were located not only on the captured hills, but also deep in Korean territory.

It was later noted: “To defeat the Japanese infantry in the enemy’s trenches and artillery, high-explosive bombs were mainly used - 50, 82 and 100 kg, a total of 3,651 bombs were dropped. 6 pieces of high-explosive bombs 1000 kg on the battlefield 08/06/38. were used solely for the purpose of moral influence on the enemy infantry, and these bombs were dropped into the enemy infantry areas after these areas had been thoroughly hit by groups of SB-bombs FAB-50 and 100. The enemy infantry rushed about in the defensive zone, not finding cover, since almost the entire main line of their defense was covered with heavy fire from the explosions of bombs from our aircraft. 6 bombs of 1000 kg, dropped during this period in the area of ​​​​the Zaozernaya height, shook the air with strong explosions, the roar of these bombs exploding across the valleys and mountains of Korea was heard tens of kilometers away. After the explosion of 1000 kg of bombs, the Zaozernaya height was covered with smoke and dust for several minutes. It must be assumed that in those areas where these bombs were dropped, the Japanese infantry were 100% incapacitated from shell shock and stones thrown out of the craters by the explosion of the bombs.”

Having completed 1003 sorties, Soviet aviation lost two aircraft - one SB and one I-15. The Japanese, having no more than 18-20 anti-aircraft guns in the conflict area, could not provide serious resistance. And throwing your own aviation into battle meant starting a large-scale war, for which neither the command of the Korean Army nor Tokyo were ready. From this moment on, the Japanese side began to frantically search for a way out of the current situation, which required both saving face and stopping hostilities, which no longer promised anything good for the Japanese infantry.

Denouement

The denouement came when Soviet troops launched a new offensive on August 8, having overwhelming military-technical superiority. The attack by tanks and infantry was carried out based on military expediency and without taking into account compliance with the border. As a result, Soviet troops managed to capture Bezymyannaya and a number of other heights, and also gain a foothold near the top of Zaozernaya, where the Soviet flag was hoisted.

On August 10, the chief of staff of the 19th telegraphed the chief of staff of the Korean Army: “Every day the combat effectiveness of the division is declining. The enemy suffered great damage. He is using new methods of combat and increasing artillery fire. If this continues, there is a danger that the fighting will escalate into even more fierce battles. Within one to three days it is necessary to decide on the division’s further actions... Until now, Japanese troops have already demonstrated their power to the enemy, and therefore, while it is still possible, it is necessary to take measures to resolve the conflict diplomatically.”

On the same day, armistice negotiations began in Moscow and at noon on August 11, hostilities were stopped. Strategically and politically, the Japanese test of strength, and by and large, the military adventure ended in failure. Not being ready for big war with the USSR, Japanese units in the Khasan area found themselves hostage to the created situation, when further expansion of the conflict was impossible, and it was also impossible to retreat while preserving the prestige of the army.

The Hassan conflict did not lead to a reduction in USSR military assistance to China. At the same time, the battles on Khasan revealed a number of weaknesses of both the troops of both the Far Eastern Military District and the Red Army as a whole. The Soviet troops apparently suffered even greater losses than the enemy; at the initial stage of the fighting, the interaction between the infantry, tank units and artillery turned out to be weak. Not on high level turned out to be reconnaissance that failed to reveal enemy positions.

The losses of the Red Army amounted to 759 people killed, 100 people died in hospitals, 95 people missing and 6 people killed in accidents. 2752 people was injured or sick (dysentery and colds). The Japanese admitted the loss to 650 killed and 2,500 wounded. At the same time, the battles on Khasan were far from the last military clash between the USSR and Japan in the Far East. Less than a year later it began undeclared war in Mongolia on Khalkhin Gol, where, however, the forces will no longer be of the Korean, but of the Kwantung Army of Japan.