Habomai archipelago and shikotan island. Kurile Islands. Dossier

The Russians first appeared on the Kuril Islands in the 17th century, but even earlier on the islands were the Dutch and, of course, the Japanese. Under Peter the Great at the beginning of the 18th century, Russia laid claim to these islands and began to take tribute from the Ainu, local residents... Japan also considered these islands to be its own and also tried to take tribute from the Ainu. In 1855, the first treaty on the border between Russia and Japan was signed (Treaty of Shimoda). Under this treaty, the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai were ceded to Japan, and the rest of the Kurils to Russia.

In 1875, according to the Petersburg Treaty Kurile Islands are fully incorporated into Japan. In exchange, Japan recognizes Sakhalin Island as part of Russia (until 1875 Sakhalin was jointly owned). In 1905, after the defeat of Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, the Portsmouth Treaty was concluded, according to which the southern part of Sakhalin Island was ceded to Japan, the Kuril Islands were both Japanese and remained Japanese, i.e. The Kuril Islands have never been torn away from Russia by force.

In 1941, a Neutrality Pact was signed between the USSR and Japan. The contract was concluded for 5 years (from April 25, 1941 to April 25, 1946). In April 1945, the USSR announced the denunciation of the treaty with Japan, but according to clause 3, either side is obliged to warn the other side of the denunciation one year before the expiration of the treaty, that is, the neutrality pact remained in effect until April 1946.

On August 9, 1945, the USSR began a war with Japan, which de facto meant a violation of the treaty of neutrality. The USSR explained the entry into the war with Japan by commitments to the allies given at the Yalta Conference in February 1945 in exchange for promises to transfer the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin to the USSR. Article 3 of the Crimean Agreement contains text on the transfer of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union, but specific islands are not listed. Clause 8 of the Potsdam Declaration of the Three Powers (USA, England and China) of July 26, 1945 reads: “ .... Japanese sovereignty will be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku and those smaller islands that we indicate". Less large islands were never listed later.

On August 14, Japan accepts the terms of surrender and informs the governments of the United States, Britain, China and the USSR. On September 2, 1945, the act of surrender was officially signed, but the act of surrender did not say anything about the ownership of the Kuril Islands.

In 1951, the Allies and Japan signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty. Japan renounces claims to the Kuril Islands. Later, the Japanese government announced that the islands of Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai, being "primordially Japanese territories", were not included in the term "Kuril Islands" that appeared in the text of the treaty.

The agreement was preliminary prepared by the governments of the United States and England before the start of the conference. The treaty does not say anything about the sovereignty of the USSR over the Kuriles. The Soviet delegation proposed to include in the treaty the recognition of the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but the Soviet proposals were not brought up for discussion. Soviet representatives refused to sign the San Francisco Treaty.

During the discussion of the San Francisco Treaty in the US Senate, a resolution was adopted containing the following clause: " It is envisaged that the terms of the Treaty will not mean the recognition of Russia of any rights or claims in the territories belonging to Japan on December 7, 1941.."

In 1956, in the Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan, Moscow agreed to the transfer of the islands of Shikotan and Habomai to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty. However, the Japanese government demanded the transfer of all 4 islands, as a result, the signing of the agreement did not take place.

In 2005, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed readiness to resolve the territorial dispute in accordance with the provisions of the 1956 Soviet-Japanese declaration, that is, with the handover of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan, but the Japanese side did not compromise.

Even in the Middle Ages, all wars ended with the signing of treaties between the victors and the vanquished. The Kuril Islands were incorporated into the USSR without any treaty. Konigsberg, Vyborg, the Baltic States, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and the USSR annexed Bessarabia to itself formally legally. The post-war borders of the USSR in Europe were recognized by the world community. The border with Japan is not legally fixed, there is no peace treaty.

In 1944, Japanese-owned islands in the Pacific Ocean (Mariana, Caroline, Marshall Islands and the Palau archipelago) were occupied by the Americans. In July 1947, the UN transferred control of these islands to the United States. Your choice (independence or commonwealth with the USA) indigenous population The islands made their own in referendums in the 70s and 80s. In 1945, the USSR evicted the indigenous inhabitants of these islands, the Japanese and the Ainu, from the Kuriles, and settled them with Soviet citizens from the mainland. The UN has never transferred control of the Kuril Islands to the USSR.

In the middle of the 20th century, especially in the 21st century, it is impossible to justify territorial seizures by the right of the strong (who is stronger - that is right). The disputed southern Kuril islands did not belong to Russia for a single day until 1945 and should be returned free of charge to their rightful owner - Japan.

Image copyright RIA Image caption Before Putin and Abe, the issue of signing a peace treaty between Russia and Japan was discussed by all their predecessors - to no avail

During a two-day visit to Nagato and Tokyo, the Russian president will agree with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on investments. The main question - about the ownership of the Kuril Islands - will, as usual, be postponed indefinitely, experts say.

Abe became the second G7 leader to host Putin since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The visit was supposed to take place two years ago, but was canceled due to sanctions against Russia, supported by Japan.

What is the essence of the dispute between Japan and Russia?

Abe is making progress in a multi-year territorial dispute, in which Japan claims the islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, as well as the Habomai archipelago (in Russia there is no such name, the archipelago together with Shikotan are united under the name of the Small Kuril Ridge).

The Japanese elite are well aware that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small ones. But how to explain to society that they are forever abandoning the big islands? Alexander Gabuev, expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center

At the end of World War II, in which Japan fought on the side of Nazi Germany, the USSR expelled 17,000 Japanese from the islands; a peace treaty was never signed between Moscow and Tokyo.

The 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty between the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition and Japan established the sovereignty of the USSR over South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands, but Tokyo and Moscow did not agree on what to mean by the Kuriles.

Tokyo regards Iturup, Kunashir and Habomai as their illegally occupied "northern territories". Moscow considers these islands to be part of the Kuriles and has repeatedly stated that their current status is not subject to revision.

In 2016, Shinzo Abe flew to Russia twice (in Sochi and Vladivostok), he and Putin also met at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima.

In early December, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow and Tokyo have coincidences in their positions on the peace treaty. In an interview with Japanese journalists, Vladimir Putin called the absence of a peace treaty with Japan an anachronism that "must be eliminated."

He also said that the foreign ministries of the two countries need to resolve "purely technical issues" between themselves so that the Japanese would be able to visit the southern Kuriles without a visa.

However, Moscow is embarrassed that if the southern Kuriles are returned, US military bases may appear there. Such a possibility was not ruled out by the head of the National Security Council of Japan, Shotaro Yachi, in a conversation with the secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, the Japanese newspaper Asahi wrote on Wednesday.

Should we wait for the return of the Kuriles?

The short answer is no. "We should not wait for any breakthrough agreements, and ordinary ones too, on the issue of the ownership of the southern Kuriles," said former Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Georgy Kunadze.

"The expectations of the Japanese side, as usual, are at odds with those of Russia," Kunadze said in an interview with the BBC. , in fact, a trophy of war following the results of the Second World War, and even that Russia's rights to the Kuriles are enshrined in international treaties. "

The latter, according to Kunadze, is a controversial issue and depends on the interpretation of these agreements.

"Putin is referring to the agreements reached in Yalta in February 1945. These agreements were of a political nature and presupposed an appropriate legal and contractual formalization. It took place in San Francisco in 1951. The Soviet Union did not sign a peace treaty with Japan at that time. , there is no other consolidation of the rights of Russia in the territories that Japan refused under the San Francisco Treaty, "the diplomat sums up.

"The parties are trying to deflate the ball of mutual expectations of the public as much as possible and show that a breakthrough will not occur," comments Alexander Gabuev, an expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

"The red line of Russia: Japan recognizes the results of World War II, renounces its claims to the southern Kuriles. We, as a gesture of goodwill, are handing over to Japan two small islands, and on Kunashir and Iturup we can make a visa-free entry, a free zone of joint economic development - everything that whatever, - he believes. - Russia cannot give up two large islands, since it would be a loss, these islands are of economic importance, a lot of money has been invested there, there is a large population, the straits between these islands are used by Russian submarines when they go out to patrol the Pacific Ocean. ...

Japan, according to Gabuev's observations, in recent years has softened its position on the disputed territories.

"The Japanese elite understands very well that Russia will never return two large islands, so they are ready to take a maximum of two small islands. But how can we explain to society that they are forever abandoning large islands? Japan is looking for options in which it takes the small ones and retains its claim to large. For Russia, this is unacceptable, we want to resolve the issue once and for all. These two red lines are not yet close enough to expect a breakthrough, "the expert said.

What else will be discussed?

The Kuril Islands are not the only topic discussed by Putin and Abe. Russia needs foreign investment in the Far East.

According to the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri, trade between the two countries has decreased due to the sanctions. Thus, imports from Russia to Japan decreased by 27.3% - from 2.61 trillion yen ($ 23 billion) in 2014 to 1.9 trillion yen ($ 17 billion) in 2015. And exports to Russia by 36.4% - from 972 billion yen ($ 8.8 billion) in 2014 to 618 billion yen ($ 5.6 billion) in 2015.

The Japanese government intends to acquire a part of the gas fields of the Russian company Novatek, as well as a part of the shares of Rosneft, through the state corporation of oil, gas and metals JOGMEC.

It is expected that dozens of commercial agreements will be signed during the visit, and Rosatom's head Alexei Likhachev, Gazprom head Alexei Miller, Rosneft head Igor Sechin, head of the Russian Direct investments Kirill Dmitriev, entrepreneurs Oleg Deripaska and Leonid Mikhelson.

So far, Russia and Japan are only exchanging pleasantries. By the fact whether at least part of the economic memorandums will come true, it will become clear whether they can also agree on something.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Japan in mid-December. It is already clear in advance that the main content of the meeting, at least for the Japanese side, will be the issue of the Kuril Islands. Following the results of World War II, the South Kuriles, occupied by Soviet troops in September 1945, were incorporated into the USSR. But soon Japan demanded that four islands be returned to it - Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and Habomai - back. In numerous negotiations, the USSR and Japan seemed to have initially agreed that only two smaller islands would withdraw to Japan. But the United States blocked the agreement, threatening the Japanese that if a peace treaty with the USSR was signed, they would not return the island of Okinawa, where their military base was located.

The Russians and the Japanese began almost at the same time to develop these lands inhabited by the Ainu - the oldest and indigenous population of the Kuriles. Japan first heard about the "northern territories" only in the 17th century, at about the same time Russian explorers told about them in Russia. Russian sources first mention the Kuril Islands in 1646, and Japanese sources in 1635. Under Catherine II, signs were even installed on them with the inscription "Land of Russian possession."

Later, a number of interstate treaties were signed (1855, 1875) regulating the rights to this territory - in particular, the Shimoda Treaty. In 1905, after the Russo-Japanese War, the islands finally became part of Japan along with South Sakhalin. At present, both for the Russians and for the Japanese, the Kuril issue is a matter of principle.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russian public opinion is especially keen on any potential loss of at least some part of the territory. The recent transfer of a piece of land to China did not cause much outrage, since China is steadily perceived as our country's main ally, and even these lands along the Amur River meant little to the bulk of Russians. It is quite another matter - the Kuriles with their military base, blocking the entrance from The Pacific to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. They are perceived as the eastern outpost of Russia. According to a public opinion poll conducted by the Levada Center in May, 78% of Russians oppose the transfer of the Kuril Islands to Japan, and 71% of Russians are against the transfer of only Habomai and Shikotan to Japan. To the fundamental question "What is more important: to conclude a peace treaty with Japan, having received Japanese loans and technologies, or to preserve two deserted small islands?" 56% also chose the latter, while 21% chose the former. So what will be the fate of the Far Eastern islands?

Version 1

Russia will give Japan the entire Kuril ridge

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already held 14 (!) Meetings with Vladimir Putin. This year alone, the Japanese prime minister has been to Russia twice, in Sochi and in Vladivostok, and proposed a plan for the settlement of the territorial issue there. In the case of the transfer of the islands, Japan promises the development of economic cooperation on 30 projects with a total value of $ 16 billion - in the field of energy, medicine, Agriculture, in urban planning, the growth of small and medium-sized businesses. And also the construction of a gas pipeline to Japan from Sakhalin, the development of industry Of the Far East, cultural contacts and more. Plus, it guarantees that if the Kuril Islands are transferred to it, no military contingent from the United States will be deployed there.

According to the Japanese Prime Minister, Russia reacted positively to this plan. Japanese loans, technology, etc. may be suitable negotiation terms. Moreover, according to a poll by the Levada Center, only slightly more than half of Russians - 55% - believe that the level of trust in Putin will decline if he decides to return the Kuril Islands to Japan. 9% believe that his rating will increase, and 23% - that it will remain at the current level.

Version 2

Russia will hand over Habomai and Shikotan to Japan

In early November, in Tokyo, negotiations with the leaders of the Japanese parliament were held by the chairman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko. Their purpose was clearly a desire to outline the Russian position in advance. Matvienko stated unambiguously: “The Kuril Islands ceded to us following the results of World War II, which is recorded in international documents. And therefore, Russia's sovereignty over them is beyond doubt. There are things that Russia will never agree to. Limiting Russian sovereignty over the Kuril Islands, and even more so transferring them to the jurisdiction of Japan, is one of them. This is the position of all our people, here we have a national consensus. "

On the other hand, why not assume that Matvienko could have played the role of the "bad cop" in the classical scheme? So that the Japanese negotiators are then more accommodating with the first person, who may well become a "good policeman" and agree on favorable terms... Even during his first presidential visit to Japan, Putin actually recognized the validity of the 1956 Declaration, and in 2001 a Russian-Japanese statement on the recognition of its legal validity was published.

And the Japanese seem to be ready for this. According to a poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, 57% of the country's residents do not demand the indispensable return of the entire Kuril ridge, but will be satisfied with a more flexible solution to the “territorial issue”.

Version 3

All Kuril Islands will remain Russian

Last week, the Ministry of Defense announced the deployment of the Bal and Bastion coastal missile systems in the South Kuriles, much to the disappointment of the Japanese authorities, who clearly did not expect anything like that. It is unlikely that our military would have dragged the latest defense systems so far, knowing that the islands are being prepared for transfer to the Japanese.

In addition, the islands are of great strategic importance. As long as they belong to Russia, not a single foreign submarine can enter the Sea of ​​Okhotsk unnoticed. If at least one island goes to Japan, then Russia will lose control over the straits and any warship will be able to get to the center of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk without Moscow's permission.

But the main guarantee that Moscow will never agree to exchange the Kuriles is not missile systems at all. The fact is that Tokyo has territorial claims following the results of World War II not only to Moscow, but also to Seoul, and, which is especially important, to Beijing. Therefore, even if we assume the unthinkable that the Russian authorities intend to fulfill the idea of ​​Nikita Khrushchev and give the Japanese a couple of islands for the sake of improving relations, one must understand that the negative reaction of the Chinese and Koreans to this step will follow immediately. In response to such a geopolitical tripping, China may present its territorial claims to Russia, and Zhongguo will find grounds for this. And Moscow understands this well. So the current political "round dances" around the Kuriles will not lead to serious consequences - most likely the parties simply let each other blow off steam.

In 2012, a visa-free exchange between the South Kuriles and Japanwill start on April 24th.

On February 2, 1946, by a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Kuril Islands Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai were incorporated into the USSR.

On September 8, 1951, at an international conference in San Francisco, a peace treaty was concluded between Japan and 48 countries participating in the anti-fascist coalition, according to which Japan renounced all rights, legal grounds and claims to the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin. The Soviet delegation did not sign this treaty, referring to the fact that it regards it as a separate agreement between the governments of the United States and Japan. From the point of view of contractual law, the question of the ownership of the South Kuriles remained undefined. The Kuril Islands ceased to be Japanese, but did not become Soviet. Taking advantage of this circumstance, Japan in 1955 presented the USSR with claims to all the Kuril Islands and the southern part of Sakhalin. As a result of two years of negotiations between the USSR and Japan, the positions of the parties became closer: Japan limited its claims to the islands of Habomai, Shikotan, Kunashir and Iturup.

On October 19, 1956, a Joint Declaration of the USSR and Japan was signed in Moscow to end the state of war between the two states and to restore diplomatic and consular relations. In it, in particular, the Soviet government agreed to the transfer of the islands of Habomai and Shikotan to Japan after the conclusion of a peace treaty.

After the conclusion of the Japanese-American security treaty in 1960, the USSR canceled the obligations assumed by the 1956 declaration. During the Cold War, Moscow did not acknowledge the existence of a territorial problem between the two countries. The existence of this problem was first recorded in the 1991 Joint Statement signed following the visit of the USSR President to Tokyo.

In 1993, in Tokyo, the President of Russia and the Prime Minister of Japan signed the Tokyo Declaration on Russian-Japanese relations, where the parties agreed to continue negotiations with the aim of concluding a peace treaty as soon as possible by resolving the issue of ownership of the aforementioned islands.

In recent years, in order to create an atmosphere at the negotiations conducive to the search for mutually acceptable solutions, the parties have paid great attention to establishing practical Russian-Japanese interaction and cooperation in the area of ​​the islands.

In 1992, on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement between the inhabitants of the Russian South Kuriles and Japan. Trips are carried out on a national passport with a special insert, without visas.

In September 1999, the implementation of an agreement on the most simplified procedure for visits to the islands by their former residents from among Japanese citizens and their family members began.

Cooperation in the fishery sector is being carried out on the basis of the current Russian-Japanese Agreement on fishing off the southern Kuriles of February 21, 1998.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

The name of the islands "Kurilskie" does not come from the "smoking" volcanoes. It is based on the Ainu word "kur", "kuru" meaning "man". This is what the Ainu, the indigenous inhabitants of the islands, called themselves, this is how they presented themselves to the Kamchatka Cossacks, and they called them “Kurils”, “Kuril men”. This is where the name of the islands originated.

The Ainu gave a suitable name to each island: Paramushir means "wide island", Kunashir - "black island", Urup "salmon", Iturup - "big salmon", Onekotan - "old settlement", Paranay - " big river", Shikotan -" the best place". Most of the Ainu names have survived, although there have been attempts from both the Russian and Japanese sides to rename the islands in their own way. True, none of the parties shone with imagination - both tried to assign ordinal numbers to the islands as names: First Island, Second, etc., but the Russians counted from the north, and the Japanese, naturally, from the south.
The Russians, like the Japanese, learned about the islands in the middle of the 17th century. The first detailed information they were provided by Vladimir Atlasov in 1697. At the beginning of the 18th century. Peter I became aware of their existence, and one after another expeditions began to go to the "Kuril Land". In 1711, the Cossack Ivan Kozyrevsky visited two northern islands Shumshu and Paramushir, in 1719 Ivan Evreinov and Fyodor Luzhin reached the island of Simushir. In 1738-1739. Martyn Shpanberg, walking along the entire ridge, marked the islands he saw on the map. The study of new places was followed by their development - the collection of yasak from the local population, the attraction of the Ainu into Russian citizenship, accompanied, as usual, by violence. As a result, in 1771 the Ainu mutinied and killed many Russians. By 1779, it was still possible to establish relations with the Kuriles, and more than 1,500 people from Kunashir, Iturup and Matsumai (present-day Hokkaido) were brought into Russian citizenship. Catherine II freed all of them from taxes. The Japanese, however, did not like this situation, and they forbade the Russians to appear on these three islands.
By and large, the status of the islands south of Urup was not clearly defined at that time, and the Japanese also considered them their own. In 1799 they founded two outposts at Kunashir and Iturup.
At the beginning of the 19th century, after an unsuccessful attempt by Nikolai Rezanov (the first Russian envoy to Japan) to settle this issue, Russian-Japanese relations only got worse.
In 1855, according to the Treaty of Shimod, Sakhalin Island was recognized as "undivided between Russia and Japan", the Kuril Islands north of Iturup were the possessions of Russia, and the southern Kuriles (Kunashir, Iturup, Shikotan and a number of small) possessions of Japan. Under the treaty of 1875, Russia handed over to Japan all the Kuril Islands in exchange for an official renunciation of its claims to Sakhalin Island.
In February 1945, at the Yalta Conference of the Heads of Powers of the anti-Hitler coalition, an agreement was reached on the unconditional transfer of the Kuril Islands to the Soviet Union after the victory over Japan. By September 1945, Soviet troops occupied the South Kuriles. However, in the Act of surrender, signed by Japan on September 2, nothing was said directly about the transfer of these islands to the USSR.
In 1947, 17,000 Japanese and an unknown number of Ainu were deported to Japan from the islands that became part of the RSFSR. In 1951, Japan began to make claims to Iturup, Kunashir and the Lesser Kuril ridge (Shikotan and Habomai), which were given to it under the Shimoda Treaty in 1855.
In 1956, diplomatic relations between the USSR and Japan were established and a Joint Agreement was adopted on the transfer of the Shikotan and Habomai Islands to Japan. However, the actual transfer of these islands must be made after the conclusion of a peace treaty, which has not yet been signed due to Japan's remaining claims to Kunashir and Iturup.

The ridge of the Kuril Islands is a special world. Each of the islands is a volcano, a fragment of a volcano or a chain of volcanoes, merged with their soles. The Kurils are located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, there are about a hundred volcanoes in total, 39 of them are active. In addition, there are many hot springs. Continuing crustal movements are evidenced by frequent earthquakes and seaquakes, causing tidal waves of the enormous destructive force of the tsunami. The last powerful tsunami was formed during the earthquake on November 15, 2006 and reached the coast of California.
The highest and most active of the Alaid volcanoes on Atlasov Island (2339 m). Actually, the entire island is the surface of a large volcanic cone. The last eruption happened in 1986. The volcano island has an almost regular shape and looks incredibly picturesque in the middle of the ocean. Many people find that its shape is even more correct than that of the famous one.
At the eastern underwater slopes of the Kuril Islands, there is a narrow deep-water depression - the Kuril-Kamchatka trench with a depth of up to 9717 m and an average width of 59 km.
The relief and nature of the islands are very diverse: bizarre shapes coastal rocks, colorful pebbles, large and small boiling lakes, waterfalls. A special attraction is the Columnar Cape on Kunashir Island, which rises above the water with a sheer wall and is all composed of columnar units - giant basalt five- and hexagonal pillars formed as a result of the solidification of lava, poured into the water column, and then raised to the surface.
Volcanic activity, warm and cold sea currents determine the unique diversity of flora and fauna of the islands, which are strongly elongated from north to south. If in the north, under conditions of a harsh climate, woody vegetation is represented by shrub forms, then on southern islands coniferous and deciduous forests grow with big amount lianas; Kuril bamboo forms impenetrable thickets and wild magnolia blooms. There are about 40 species of endemic plants on the islands. There are many bird colonies in the region of the South Kuriles; one of the main routes of bird migration passes here. Salmon fish spawn in the rivers. The coastal zone is a rookery of marine mammals. Underwater world it is distinguished by a special variety: crabs, squid and other molluscs, crustaceans, trepangs, sea cucumbers, whales, orcas. This is one of the most productive areas of the World Ocean.
The largest of the Kuril Islands Iturup. On an area of ​​about 3200 km 2 there are 9 active volcanoes, as well as the city and the unofficial "capital" of the islands due to its central location Kurilsk, founded in 1946 at the mouth of the river with the "speaking name" Kurilka.

Three administrative districts with centers in Yuzhno-Kurilsk (Kunashir).

Kurilsk (Iturup) and Severo-Kurilsk (Paramushir).
Most big Island: Iturup (3200 km 2).

Numbers

Population: about 19,000 people. (2007).

The most high point: Alaid volcano (2339 m) on Atlasov Island.

Length of the Great Kuril Ridge: about 1200 km.
Length of the Small Kuril Ridge: about 100 km.

Economy

Mineral resources: nonferrous metals, mercury, natural gas, oil, rhenium (one of the rarest elements of the earth's crust), gold, silver, titanium, iron.

Fishing for fish (chum salmon, etc.) and sea animals (seal, sea lion).

Climate and weather

Average annual rainfall: about 1000 mm, mostly in the form of snow.

A small amount of sunny days falls in the fall.
Average temperature:-7 ° С in February, + 10 ° С in July.

sights

Curious facts