The Soviet-Japanese War of 1945 was the main component of the last period of World War II and a special campaign of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union of 1941-45.
Even at the Tehran Conference in 1943, the heads of government of the USSR, USA and
In Great Britain, the Soviet delegation, meeting the proposals of the allies and striving to strengthen the anti-Hitler coalition, agreed in principle to enter the war against militaristic Japan after the defeat of Nazi Germany.
At the Crimean Conference of 1945, US President F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill, not hoping for a quick victory over Japan, again turned to the Soviet government with a request to enter the war in the Far East. True to its allied duty, the Soviet government promised to oppose Japan after the end of the war with Nazi Germany.
On February 11, 1945, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill signed a secret agreement, which provided for the USSR's entry into the war in the Far East 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany.
On April 5, 1945, the Soviet government denounced the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, signed on April 13, 1941. The statement on the reasons for the denunciation said that the pact was signed "... before the German attack on the USSR and before the outbreak of war between Japan, on the one hand, and England and the United States of America, on the other. Since then, the situation has changed radically. Germany attacked the USSR, and Japan, an ally of Germany, helps the latter in its war against the USSR. In addition, Japan is at war with the USA and England, which are allies of the Soviet Union. In this situation, the Neutrality Pact between Japan and the USSR has lost its meaning.
Difficult relations between the USSR and Japan had a long history. They began after Japan's participation in the intervention in the Soviet Far East in 1918 and its capture until 1922, when Japan was expelled from its territory. But the danger of war with Japan existed for many years, especially since the second half of the 1930s. In 1938, famous clashes took place on Lake Khasan, and in 1939, the Soviet-Japanese battle on the Khalkhin Gol River on the border of Mongolia and Manchukuo. In 1940, the Soviet Far Eastern Front was created, which indicated a real risk of war.
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria and later Northern China turned the Soviet Far East into a zone of constant tension. Continuous conflicts kept the entire population and especially the troops in anticipation of war. Every day they expected real battles - in the evening no one knew what would happen in the morning.
They hated the Japanese: every Far Easterner, young and old, knew, as they wrote in books and newspapers then, that it was they who threw the partisan Lazo and his comrades alive into the furnace of a steam locomotive. Although at that time the world did not yet know what the secret Japanese “731st detachment” was doing with the Russians in Harbin before the war.
As you know, in the initial period of the war with Germany, the Soviet Union had to maintain a significant contingent of its troops in the Far East, part of which was sent to the defense of Moscow at the end of 1941. The transferred divisions played an important role in the defense of the capital and the defeat of German troops. The redeployment of troops was facilitated by the US entry into the war with Japan after its attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor.
It is very important to note that Japan is stuck in a war with China, in which, by the way, it lost 35 million people. This figure, which our media began to print quite recently, speaks of the unusually cruel nature of the war for China, which, in general, is characteristic of the Asian mentality.
It is this circumstance that explains Japan’s non-entry into the war against the USSR, and not the reports of our intelligence officer Richard Sorge (who, most likely, was a double agent, which does not detract from his merits). I believe that this is why Sorge, of course a great intelligence officer, did not carry out the order Moscow about returning to the Union, where he would have been shot much earlier before his execution in a Japanese dungeon.
It must be said that the Soviet Union, long before 1945, began to prepare for a battle with Japan, which was explained by the increased power of the army and the skill of its headquarters. Already from the end of 1943, part of the replenishment of the Soviet army arrived in the Far East to replace those who had served here previously and had good military training. Throughout 1944, the newly formed troops, through continuous exercises, prepared for future battles.
The troops of the Soviet Union, who were in the Far East throughout the war with Germany, rightly believed that their time had come to stand up for their Motherland, and they must not lose their honor. The hour of reckoning with Japan has come for the unsuccessful Russian-Japanese War at the beginning of the century, for the loss of its territories, Port Arthur and the Russian ships of the Pacific Fleet.
From the beginning of 1945, troops released on the Western Front began to arrive in the Far East. The first trains from the Soviet-German front in 1945 began to arrive in March, then month after month the intensity of traffic increased and by July it reached its maximum. From the moment it became clear that our troops would advance to punish, as they then called, “militaristic” Japan, the army lived in anticipation of retribution for years of Japanese threats, provocations and attacks.
The troops transferred from the West to the eastern theater of operations had good equipment, honed by years of fierce battles, but, most importantly, the Soviet army went through the school of the great war, the school of battles near Moscow and Kursk, the school of street fighting in Stalingrad, Budapest and Berlin, storming the fortifications of Koenigsberg, crossing large and small rivers. The troops gained invaluable experience, or rather, experience paid for by the millions of lives of our soldiers and commanders. Air battles of Soviet aviation over Kuban and in other military operations showed the increased experience of the Soviet army.
At the end of the war with Germany, this was the experience of the victors, capable of solving any problems, regardless of any of their losses. The whole world knew this, and the Japanese military leadership understood this.
In March-April 1945, the Soviet Union sent an additional 400 thousand people to the troops of its Far Eastern group, bringing the number of the group to 1.5 million people, 670 T-34 tanks (and a total of 2119 tanks and self-propelled guns), 7137 guns and mortars and many other military equipment . Together with the troops stationed in the Far East, the regrouped formations and units formed three fronts.
At the same time, in the units and formations of the Japanese Kwantung Army opposing Soviet troops in Manchuria, where the main combat operations took place, there were absolutely no machine guns, anti-tank rifles, rocket artillery, there was little RGK and large-caliber artillery (in infantry divisions and brigades as part of artillery regiments and divisions in most cases there were only 75 mm guns).
The concept of this operation, the largest in scope in World War II, provided for military operations over an area of ​​about 1.5 million square kilometers, as well as in the waters of the Sea of ​​Japan and Okhotsk.
The Soviet-Japanese War had enormous political and military significance. So on August 9, 1945, at an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council for the Management of the War, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki said: “The entry of the Soviet Union into the war this morning puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war further.”
The Soviet Army defeated the strong Kwantung Army of Japan. The Soviet Union, having entered the war with the Japanese Empire and, having made a significant contribution to its defeat, accelerated the end of World War II. American leaders and historians have repeatedly stated that without the USSR's entry into the war, it would have continued for at least another year and would have cost an additional several million human lives.
The commander-in-chief of the American armed forces in the Pacific, General MacArthur, believed that “Victory over Japan can be guaranteed only if the Japanese ground forces are defeated.” US Secretary of State E. Stettinius stated the following:
“On the eve of the Crimean Conference, the American chiefs of staff convinced President Roosevelt that Japan could capitulate only in 1947 or later, and its defeat could cost America a million soldiers.”
Today, the experience of the Soviet army, which carried out this military operation, is studied in all military academies around the world.
As a result of the war, the USSR returned to its territory the territories annexed by Japan from the Russian Empire at the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905 following the Peace of Portsmouth (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and Dalniy), as well as previously ceded to Japan in 1875, the main group of the Kuril Islands and the southern part of the Kuril Islands assigned to Japan by the Treaty of Shimoda in 1855.
The military operations against Japan showed an example of interaction between several countries, primarily: the USSR, the USA and China.
Today's relations between Russia, the heir and legal successor state of the USSR, and Japan are complicated by the absence of a peace treaty between our countries. Modern Japan does not want to recognize the results of World War II and demands the return of the entire southern group of the Kuril Islands, received by Russia, as an indisputable result of victory, paid for with the lives of Soviet heroic warriors.
We see a rapprochement in the positions of our countries in the joint development of disputed territories.
* * *
Separately, we should dwell on our losses in this little-remembered war. According to various sources, Soviet troops lost more than 30 thousand people, including 14 thousand killed. Against the backdrop of the victims and destruction that the country suffered in the war with the Germans, this seems to be not much.
But I would like to remind you that as a result of the Japanese attack on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, on the central base of the Pacific Fleet of the US Navy, the Americans lost 2,403 people killed and 1,178 wounded (on that day the Japanese sunk 4 battleships, 2 destroyers of the American fleet, several ships received severe damage).
The United States celebrates this day as the National Day of Remembrance for those killed at Pearl Harbor.
Unfortunately, the Soviet-Japanese War, the grandiose battle of World War II, despite its uniqueness and scale, still remains little known and little studied by historians in Russia. The date of signing the surrender of Japan is not customary to celebrate in the country.
In our country, no one commemorates those who died in this war, because someone decided that these numbers were small compared to the incalculable losses on the Soviet-German front.
And this is wrong, we must value every citizen of our country and remember everyone who gave their lives for our beloved Motherland!

Ilya Kramnik, military observer for RIA Novosti.

The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of the Second World War, lasted less than a month - from August 9 to September 2, 1945, but this month became key in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region, ending and, conversely, initiating many historical processes lasting decades.

Background

The preconditions for the Soviet-Japanese War arose exactly on the day when the Russian-Japanese War ended - on the day the Portsmouth Peace was signed on September 5, 1905. Russia's territorial losses were insignificant - the Liaodong Peninsula leased from China and the southern part of Sakhalin Island. Much more significant was the loss of influence in the world as a whole and in the Far East, in particular caused by the unsuccessful war on land and the death of most of the fleet at sea. The feeling of national humiliation was also very strong.
Japan became the dominant Far Eastern power; it exploited marine resources practically uncontrollably, including in Russian territorial waters, where it carried out predatory fishing, crab fishing, sea animals, etc.

This situation intensified during the 1917 revolution and the subsequent Civil War, when Japan actually occupied the Russian Far East for several years, and left the region with great reluctance under pressure from the United States and Great Britain, who feared the excessive strengthening of yesterday's ally in the First World War.

At the same time, there was a process of strengthening Japan’s position in China, which was also weakened and fragmented. The reverse process that began in the 1920s - the strengthening of the USSR, which was recovering from military and revolutionary upheavals - quite quickly led to the development of relations between Tokyo and Moscow that could easily be described as a “Cold War”. The Far East has long become an arena of military confrontation and local conflicts. By the end of the 1930s, tensions reached a peak, and this period was marked by the two largest clashes of this period between the USSR and Japan - the conflict on Lake Khasan in 1938 and on the Khalkhin Gol River in 1939.

Fragile neutrality

Having suffered quite serious losses and being convinced of the power of the Red Army, Japan chose on April 13, 1941 to conclude a neutrality pact with the USSR and give itself a free hand for the war in the Pacific Ocean.

The Soviet Union also needed this pact. At that time, it became obvious that the “naval lobby,” which was pushing the southern direction of the war, was playing an increasingly important role in Japanese policy. The army's position, on the other hand, was weakened by disappointing defeats. The likelihood of war with Japan was not assessed very highly, while the conflict with Germany was getting closer every day.

For Germany itself, Japan’s partner in the Anti-Comintern Pact, which saw Japan as its main ally and future partner in the New World Order, the agreement between Moscow and Tokyo was a serious slap in the face, and caused complications in relations between Berlin and Tokyo. Tokyo, however, pointed out to the Germans that there was a similar neutrality pact between Moscow and Berlin.

The two main aggressors of World War II could not agree, and each waged their own main war - Germany against the USSR in Europe, Japan against the USA and Great Britain in the Pacific Ocean. At the same time, Germany declared war on the United States on the day of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, but Japan did not declare war on the USSR, as the Germans hoped for.

However, relations between the USSR and Japan could hardly be called good - Japan constantly violated the signed pact, detaining Soviet ships at sea, periodically allowing attacks on Soviet military and civilian ships, violating the border on land, etc.

It was obvious that for neither side the signed document was valuable for any long period of time, and war was only a matter of time. However, since 1942, the situation gradually began to change: the turning point in the war forced Japan to abandon long-term plans for a war against the USSR, and at the same time, the Soviet Union began to more and more carefully consider plans for the return of territories lost during the Russo-Japanese War.

By 1945, when the situation became critical, Japan tried to start negotiations with the Western allies, using the USSR as a mediator, but this did not bring success.

During the Yalta Conference, the USSR announced a commitment to start a war against Japan within 2-3 months after the end of the war against Germany. The intervention of the USSR was seen by the allies as necessary: ​​the defeat of Japan required the defeat of its ground forces, which for the most part had not yet been affected by the war, and the allies feared that a landing on the Japanese islands would cost them great casualties.

Japan, with the neutrality of the USSR, could count on the continuation of the war and the reinforcement of the forces of the metropolis at the expense of resources and troops stationed in Manchuria and Korea, communications with which continued, despite all attempts to interrupt it.

The declaration of war by the Soviet Union finally destroyed these hopes. On August 9, 1945, speaking at an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council for War Direction, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki stated:

“The entry of the Soviet Union into the war this morning puts us completely in a hopeless situation and makes it impossible to continue the war further.”

It should be noted that nuclear bombing in this case was only an additional reason for an early exit from the war, but not the main reason. Suffice it to say that the massive bombing of Tokyo in the spring of 1945, which resulted in approximately the same number of casualties as Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined, did not lead Japan to thoughts of surrender. And only the entry of the USSR into the war against the background of nuclear bombings forced the leadership of the Empire to admit the pointlessness of continuing the war.

"August Storm"

The war itself, which in the West was nicknamed the “August Storm,” was swift. Having extensive experience in combat against the Germans, Soviet troops broke through the Japanese defenses with a series of quick and decisive strikes and began an offensive deep into Manchuria. Tank units successfully advanced in seemingly unsuitable conditions - through the sands of the Gobi and the Khingan ridges, but the military machine, fine-tuned over four years of war with the most formidable enemy, practically did not fail.

As a result, by August 17, the 6th Guards Tank Army had advanced several hundred kilometers - and about one hundred and fifty kilometers remained to the capital of Manchuria, the city of Xinjing. By this time, the First Far Eastern Front had broken the Japanese resistance in the east of Manchuria, occupying the largest city in that region - Mudanjiang. In a number of areas deep in the defense, Soviet troops had to overcome fierce enemy resistance. In the zone of the 5th Army, it was exerted with particular force in the Mudanjiang region. There were cases of stubborn enemy resistance in the zones of the Transbaikal and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. The Japanese army also launched repeated counterattacks. On August 17, 1945, in Mukden, Soviet troops captured the Emperor of Manchukuo, Pu Yi (formerly the last Emperor of China).

On August 14, the Japanese command made a proposal to conclude a truce. But virtually military operations on the Japanese side did not stop. Only three days later the Kwantung Army received an order from its command to surrender, which began on August 20. But it did not reach everyone right away, and in some places the Japanese acted contrary to orders.

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation was launched, during which Soviet troops occupied the Kuril Islands. On the same day, August 18, the commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Vasilevsky, gave the order to occupy the Japanese island of Hokkaido with the forces of two rifle divisions. This landing was not carried out due to the delay in the advance of Soviet troops in South Sakhalin, and was then postponed until instructions from Headquarters.

Soviet troops occupied the southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea. The main fighting on the continent lasted 12 days, until August 20. However, individual battles continued until September 10, which became the day the complete surrender and capture of the Kwantung Army ended. The fighting on the islands completely ended on September 5.

The Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

As a result, the million-strong Kwantung Army was completely destroyed. According to Soviet data, its losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, about 600 thousand were captured. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 12 thousand people.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its territory the territories lost by Russia earlier (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and Dalny, later transferred to China), as well as the Kuril Islands, the ownership of the southern part of which is still disputed by Japan.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuril Islands (Chishima Retto). But the agreement did not determine the ownership of the islands and the USSR did not sign it.
Negotiations on the southern part of the Kuril Islands are still ongoing, and there are no prospects for a quick resolution of the issue.

Blitz campaigns, unconditional victory and controversial results of the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945...

Vladivostok, PrimaMedia. These days, 73 years ago, the whole country celebrated victory in the Great Patriotic War, and tension grew in the Far East. Part of the military resources that were freed up in the western part was transferred to the Far Eastern Front in anticipation of the next battles, but this time with Japan. The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of World War II, lasted less than a month - from August 9 to September 2, 1945. But this month became a key month in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region, completing and, conversely, initiating many historical processes lasting decades. On the 72nd anniversary of the start of the Soviet-Japanese War, RIA PrimaMedia recalls where the battles took place, what they fought for and what unresolved conflicts the war left behind.

Prerequisites for the war

It can be considered that the preconditions for the Soviet-Japanese War arose exactly on the day when the Russo-Japanese War ended - on the day the Portsmouth Peace was signed on September 5, 1905. Russia lost the Liaodong Peninsula (the ports of Dalian and Port Arthur) leased from China and the southern part of Sakhalin Island. The loss of influence in the world in general and in the Far East, in particular, was significant, caused by the unsuccessful war on land and the death of most of the fleet at sea. The feeling of national humiliation was also very strong: revolutionary uprisings took place throughout the country, including in Vladivostok.

This situation intensified during the 1917 revolution and the subsequent Civil War. On February 18, 1918, the Supreme Council of the Entente decided to occupy Vladivostok and Harbin, as well as the CER zone, by Japanese troops. There were about 15 thousand Japanese soldiers in Vladivostok during the foreign intervention. Japan actually occupied the Russian Far East for several years, and left the region with great reluctance under pressure from the United States and Great Britain, who feared the excessive strengthening of yesterday's ally in the First World War.

These events will be recalled by Lieutenant Gerasimenko, a member of the CPSU (b) (12 MZHDAB) in 1945. His words are given in the political report of the head of the political department of the Pacific Fleet, which contains other quotes from the personnel of ships and fleet units who received the news of the start of the war with Japan with great enthusiasm.

The words of Lieutenant Gerasimenko in the political report of the head of the political department of the Pacific Fleet

At the same time, there was a process of strengthening Japan’s position in China, which was also weakened and fragmented. The reverse process that began in the 1920s - the strengthening of the USSR - quite quickly led to the development of relations between Tokyo and Moscow that could easily be described as a “cold war”. By the end of the 1930s, tensions reached a peak, and this period was marked by two major clashes between the USSR and Japan - the conflict on Lake Khasan (Primorsky Krai) in 1938 and on the Khalkhin Gol River (Mongolian-Manchurian border) in 1939.

The words of pilot Neduev in the political report of the head of the political department of the Pacific Fleet
Photo: From the funds of the Pacific Fleet Military History Museum

Fragile neutrality

Having suffered quite serious losses and being convinced of the power of the Red Army, Japan chose to conclude a neutrality pact with the USSR on April 13, 1941. Our country also benefited from the pact, since Moscow understood that the main source of military tension lay not in the Far East, but in Europe. For Germany itself, Japan's partner in the Anti-Comintern Pact (Germany, Italy, Japan), which saw the Land of the Rising Sun as its main ally and future partner in the New World Order, the agreement between Moscow and Tokyo was a serious slap in the face. Tokyo, however, pointed out to the Germans that there was a similar neutrality pact between Moscow and Berlin.

The two main aggressors of World War II could not agree, and each waged their own main war - Germany against the USSR in Europe, Japan against the USA and Great Britain in the Pacific Ocean.

However, relations between the USSR and Japan during this period could hardly be called good. It was obvious that the signed pact was not valuable for either side, and war was only a matter of time.

The Japanese command developed not only plans to seize a significant part of Soviet territory, but also a system of military command “in the zone of occupation of the territory of the USSR.” Tokyo still considered the following territories to be its vital interests during the division of the “defeated” Soviet Union. A document entitled "Territorial Administration Plan for the Co-Prosperity of Greater East Asia," which was created by the Japanese War Ministry jointly with the Colonial Ministry in 1942, noted:

Primorye should be annexed to Japan, areas adjacent to the Manchu Empire should be included in the sphere of influence of this country, and the Trans-Siberian Road should be placed under the complete control of Japan and Germany, with Omsk being the point of demarcation between them.

The presence of a powerful group of Japanese armed forces on the Far Eastern borders forced the Soviet Union throughout the Great Patriotic War with Germany and its allies to keep from 15 to 30% of the combat forces and assets of the Soviet armed forces in the East - in total more than 1 million soldiers and officers.

Washington and London knew the exact date of the Soviet Union's entry into the war in the Far East. To the special representative of the American President, G. Hopkins, I.V., who arrived in Moscow in May 1945. Stalin stated:

Germany's surrender took place on May 8. Consequently, Soviet troops will be in full readiness by August 8

Stalin was true to his word, and on August 8, 1945, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V.M. Molotov made the following statement to the Japanese ambassador in Moscow for transmission to the Japanese government:

Considering Japan's refusal to capitulate, the allies turned to the Soviet government with a proposal to join the war against Japanese aggression and thereby shorten the time frame for ending the war, reduce the number of casualties and contribute to the speedy restoration of world peace.

The Soviet government declares that from tomorrow, that is, from August 9. The Soviet Union will consider itself at war with Japan.

The next day, August 10, the Mongolian People's Republic declared war on Japan.

Ready for war

From the west of the country, a significant number of troops from the fronts and western military districts began to be transferred to the East. Military trains with people, military equipment and military equipment walked along the Trans-Siberian Railway day and night in a continuous stream. In total, by the beginning of August, a powerful group of Soviet troops numbering 1.6 million people was concentrated in the Far East and on the territory of Mongolia, with over 26 thousand guns and mortars, 5.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns and over 3.9 thousand combat aircraft.

On the roads of Manchuria. August, 1945
Photo: From GAPC funds

Three fronts are created - Transbaikal, led by Marshal of the Soviet Union R.Ya. Malinovsky, 1st Far Eastern (former Primorsky Group of Forces) led by Marshal of the Soviet Union K.A. Meretskov and the 2nd Far Eastern Front (formerly the Far Eastern Front) under the command of Army General M.A. Purkaeva. The Pacific Fleet is commanded by Admiral I.S. Yumashev.

The Pacific Fleet was also ready. By August 1945, it included: two cruisers built in the Far East, one leader, 12 destroyers, 10 Frigate-class patrol ships, six Metel-class patrol ships, one Albatross-class patrol ship, two patrol ships ships of the Dzerzhinsky type, two monitors, 10 minelayers, 52 minesweepers, 204 torpedo boats, 22 large hunters, 27 small hunters, 19 landing ships. The submarine force consisted of 78 submarines. The main base of the naval forces of the fleet was Vladivostok.

The Pacific Fleet aviation consisted of 1.5 thousand aircraft of various types. The coastal defense consisted of 167 coastal batteries with guns ranging in caliber from 45 to 356 mm.

The Soviet troops were opposed by a strong group of Japanese troops and Manchukuo troops totaling up to 1 million people. The Japanese army numbered approximately 600 thousand people, of which 450 thousand were in Manchuria, and the remaining 150 thousand were in Korea, mainly in its northern part. However, in terms of armament, Japanese troops were noticeably inferior to Soviet ones.

Along the Soviet and Mongolian borders, the Japanese built 17 fortified areas in advance, eight of them with a total length of about 800 km - against Primorye. Each fortified area in Manchuria relied on natural obstacles in the form of water and mountain barriers.

According to the plan of the military operation, the leadership of the USSR allocated only 20–23 days for its group of troops to completely defeat the Japanese Kwantung Army. Offensive operations on three fronts reached a depth of 600–800 km, which required high rates of advance of Soviet troops.

Lightning War or "August Storm"

The Far Eastern campaign of the Soviet troops included three operations - the Manchurian Strategic Offensive, the South Sakhalin Offensive and the Kuril Landing.

The offensive of the Soviet troops began, as planned, exactly at midnight from August 8 to 9, 1945 on the ground, in the air and at sea simultaneously - on a huge section of the front with a length of 5 km.

The war was fast paced. Having extensive experience in combat against the Germans, Soviet troops broke through the Japanese defenses with a series of quick and decisive strikes and began an offensive deep into Manchuria. Tank units successfully advanced in seemingly unsuitable conditions - through the sands of the Gobi and the Khingan ridges, but the military machine, fine-tuned over four years of war with the most formidable enemy, practically did not fail.

Soviet landing on the coast of Manchuria
Photo: From the funds of the museum named after. VC. Arsenyev

At midnight, 76 Soviet Il-4 bombers from the 19th Long-Range Bomber Aviation Corps crossed the state border. An hour and a half later, they bombed large Japanese garrisons in the cities of Changchun and Harbin.

The offensive was carried out rapidly. At the forefront of the Transbaikal Front was the 6th Guards Tank Army, which advanced 450 km in five days of the offensive and immediately overcame the Greater Khingan ridge. Soviet tank crews reached the Central Manchurian Plain a day earlier than planned and found themselves deep in the rear of the Kwantung Army. Japanese troops counterattacked, but were unsuccessful everywhere.

The advancing 1st Far Eastern Front had to face, already in the first days of fighting, not only strong resistance from Japanese troops on the borders of the Pogranichnensky, Dunninsky, Khotou fortified areas, but also the massive use of suicide bombers by the enemy - kamikazes. Such kamikazes would sneak up on groups of soldiers and blow themselves up among them. On the approaches to the city of Mudanjiang, an incident was noted when 200 suicide bombers, sprawled in thick grass, tried to block the path of Soviet tanks on the battlefield.

The Pacific Fleet deployed submarines in the Sea of ​​Japan, naval detachments were in a state of immediate readiness to go to sea, reconnaissance aircraft made sortie after sortie. Defensive minefields were set up near Vladivostok.

Loading a torpedo with the inscription "Death to the Samurai!" for the Soviet Pacific Fleet submarine of the "Pike" type (V-bis series). Instead of a stern gun, the submarine is equipped with a DShK machine gun. A Pike-class submarine (X series) is visible in the background.
Photo: From the funds of the museum named after. VC. Arsenyev

Landing operations on the Korean coast were successful. On August 11, naval landing forces occupied the port of Yuki, on August 13 - the port of Racine, on August 16 - the port of Seishin, which made it possible to reach the ports of South Korea, and after their capture it was possible to deliver strong attacks on remote enemy bases.

During these landing operations, the Pacific Fleet unexpectedly faced a serious danger in the form of American minelaying. Immediately before the Soviet Union entered the war in the Pacific, American aircraft carried out a massive laying of magnetic and acoustic mines on the approaches to the ports of Seisin and Racine. This led to the fact that Soviet ships and transports began to be blown up by allied mines during landing operations and during the further use of North Korean ports to supply their troops.

Soldiers of the 355th Separate Marine Battalion of the Pacific Fleet before landing in Seishin
Photo: From GAPC funds

The troops of the 2nd Far Eastern Front began their offensive with the successful crossing of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. After this, they continued their offensive along the banks of the Songhua River towards the city of Harbin, assisting neighboring fronts. Together with the front, the Red Banner Amur Flotilla advanced deep into Manchuria.

During the Sakhalin offensive operation, the Pacific Fleet landed large troops in the ports of Toro, Esutoru, Maoka, Honto and Otomari. The landing of almost 3.5 thousand paratroopers in the port of Maoka took place under strong opposition from the Japanese.

On August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced that Japan accepted the Potsdam Declaration. He paid tribute to those who died in the war and warned his subjects that they must now "strictly refrain from expressing emotion." At the conclusion of his speech to the Japanese people, the Mikado called:

"...Let all the people live as one family from generation to generation, always firm in their faith in the eternity of their sacred land, remembering the heavy burden of responsibility and the long road that lies before us. Unite all forces to build the future. Strengthen honesty , develop nobility of spirit and work hard to increase the great glory of the empire and go hand in hand with the progress of the whole world."

On this day, many fanatics from among the military people committed suicide.

Admiral Onishi, the founder of the kamikaze corps in the imperial armed forces, also committed hara-kiri on the evening of August 15. In his suicide note, Onishi looked to the future of the Land of the Rising Sun:

“I express my deep admiration for the souls of the courageous kamikazes. They fought valiantly and died with faith in the final victory. With death, I want to atone for my part in the failure to achieve this victory, and I apologize to the souls of the fallen pilots and their destitute families...”

And in Manchuria the fighting continued - no one gave the order to the Kwantung Army to stop armed resistance to the Soviet Red Army advancing on all fronts. In the following days, agreement was held at various levels on the surrender of the Japanese Kwantung Army, scattered across the vast territory of Manchuria and North Korea.

While such negotiations were ongoing, special detachments were created as part of the Transbaikal, 1st and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. Their task was to capture the cities of Changchun, Mukden, Jilin and Harbin.

Soviet troops in Harbin. August, 1945
Photo: From GAPC funds

On August 18, the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East gave the commanders of the fronts and the Pacific Fleet an order in which he demanded:

“In all sectors of the front where hostilities on the part of the Japanese-Manchus will cease, hostilities on the part of the Soviet troops will also immediately cease.”

On August 19, Japanese troops resisting the advancing 1st Far Eastern Front ceased hostilities. Mass surrender began, and on the first day alone, 55 thousand Japanese troops laid down their arms. Airborne assault forces were landed in the cities of Port Arthur and Dairen (Dalniy) on August 23.

Marines of the Pacific Fleet on their way to Port Arthur. In the foreground, participant in the defense of Sevastopol, Pacific Fleet paratrooper Anna Yurchenko
Photo: From GAPC funds

By the evening of the same day, a tank brigade of the 6th Guards Tank Army entered Port Arthur. The garrisons of these cities capitulated, and attempts by Japanese ships stationed in the harbors to escape to the open sea were decisively suppressed.

The city of Dairen (Far) was one of the centers of white emigration. The NKVD authorities arrested the White Guards here. All of them were put on trial for their actions during the Russian Civil War.

On August 25–26, 1945, Soviet troops on three fronts completed the occupation of the territory of Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula. By the end of August, the entire territory of North Korea up to the 38th parallel was liberated from Japanese troops, who mostly retreated to the south of the Korean Peninsula.

By September 5, all the Kuril Islands were occupied by Soviet troops. The total number of captured Japanese garrisons on the islands of the Kuril chain reached 50 thousand people. Of these, about 20 thousand people were captured in the Southern Kuril Islands. Japanese prisoners of war were evacuated to Sakhalin. The 2nd Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet took part in the capture operation. Photo: From GAPC funds

After the most powerful of the Japanese armies, the Kwantung Army, ceased to exist, and Manchuria, North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were occupied by Soviet troops, even the most ardent supporters of continuing the war in Japan realized that the Empire in the Japanese Islands was fighting a war in the Pacific lost in the ocean.

Meeting of Soviet soldiers in China. August, 1945
Photo: From GAPC funds

On September 2, 1945, the act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay on board the American battleship Missouri. On the Japanese side, it was signed by Foreign Minister M. Shigemitsu and Chief of the Army General Staff, General Umezu. By authority of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces, on behalf of the Soviet Union, the act was signed by Lieutenant General K.N. Derevianko. On behalf of the allied nations - American General D. MacArthur.

This is how two wars ended on the same day - World War II and the Soviet-Japanese war of 1945.

Results and consequences of the Soviet-Japanese

As a result of the 1945 war, the Red Army and its allies completely destroyed the million-strong Kwantung Army. According to Soviet data, its losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, about 600 thousand were captured. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 12 thousand people. Of the 1.2 thousand people who made up the total losses of the Pacific Fleet, 903 people were killed or mortally wounded.

The Soviet troops received rich battle trophies: 4 thousand guns and mortars (grenade launchers), 686 tanks, 681 aircraft and other military equipment.

The military valor of Soviet soldiers in the war with Japan was highly appreciated - 308 thousand people who distinguished themselves in battle were awarded government awards. 87 people were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union, six of them became twice Heroes.

As a result of the crushing defeat, Japan lost its leading position in the Asia-Pacific region for many years. The Japanese army was disarmed, and Japan itself lost the right to have a regular army. Long-awaited calm was established on the Far Eastern borders of the Soviet Union.

With the surrender of Japan, the country's long-term intervention in China ended. In August 1945, the puppet state of Manchukuo ceased to exist. The Chinese people were given the opportunity to decide their own destiny and soon chose the socialist path of development. It also ended Japan's 40-year period of brutal colonial oppression in Korea. New independent states have emerged on the political map of the world: the People's Republic of China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and others.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its territory the territories lost by Russia earlier (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and Dalny, later transferred to China), as well as the Kuril Islands, the ownership of the southern part of which is still disputed by Japan.

According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuril Islands (Chishima Retto). But the agreement did not determine the ownership of the islands and the USSR did not sign it. Negotiations on the southern part of the Kuril Islands are still ongoing, and there are no prospects for a quick resolution of the issue.

The war between the USSR and Japan in 1945, which became the last major campaign of the Second World War, lasted less than a month, but it was this month that became key in the history of the Far East and the entire Asia-Pacific region...

Note website: "...Marshal Vasilevsky...crushed Japan without any atomic bomb...At the same time, the proportion of losses of the Soviet Army, the best and most effective army in the world in the Kwantung operation: 12 thousand dead of our soldiers and officers and 650 thousand dead and captured Japanese. And this despite the fact that we were advancing... We were advancing, and they were sitting in concrete pillboxes, which they had been building for 5 years... This is a brilliant offensive operation, the best in the history of the 20th century...”

Soviet-Japanese War 1945, part of World War II and the Pacific War. Also known as battle for manchuria or Manchurian operation, and in the West - as Operation August Storm.

Chronology of the conflict

April 13, 1941 - a neutrality pact was concluded between the USSR and Japan. It was accompanied by an agreement on minor economic concessions from Japan, which were ignored by it.

December 1, 1943 - Tehran Conference. The Allies are outlining the contours of the post-war structure of the Asia-Pacific region.

February 1945 - Yalta Conference. The allies agree on the post-war structure of the world, including the Asia-Pacific region. The USSR takes upon itself an unofficial commitment to enter the war with Japan no later than 3 months after the defeat of Germany.

June 1945 - Japan begins preparations to repel the landing on the Japanese Islands.

July 12, 1945 - the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow appeals to the USSR with a request for mediation in peace negotiations. On July 13, he was informed that an answer could not be given due to the departure of Stalin and Molotov to Potsdam.

July 26, 1945 - At the Potsdam Conference, the United States formally formulates the terms of Japan's surrender. Japan refuses to accept them.

August 8 - The USSR announces to the Japanese ambassador its adherence to the Potsdam Declaration and declares war on Japan.

August 10, 1945 - Japan officially declares its readiness to accept the Potsdam terms of surrender with the reservation regarding the preservation of the structure of imperial power in the country.

August 14 - Japan officially accepts the terms of unconditional surrender and informs the allies.

Preparing for war

The danger of war between the USSR and Japan existed since the second half of the 1930s; in 1938, clashes took place on Lake Khasan, and in 1939, the battle at Khalkhin Gol on the border of Mongolia and Manchukuo. In 1940, the Soviet Far Eastern Front was created, which indicated a real risk of war.

However, the aggravation of the situation on the western borders forced the USSR to seek a compromise in relations with Japan. The latter, in turn, choosing between the options of aggression to the north (against the USSR) and to the south (against the USA and Great Britain), was increasingly inclined to the latter option, and sought to protect itself from the USSR. The result of a temporary coincidence of interests of the two countries was the signing of the Neutrality Pact on April 13, 1941, according to Art. 2 of which:

In 1941, the countries of Hitler's coalition, except Japan, declared war on the USSR (Great Patriotic War), and in the same year Japan attacked the United States, starting the war in the Pacific.

In February 1945, at the Yalta Conference, Stalin promised the allies to declare war on Japan 2-3 months after the end of hostilities in Europe (although the neutrality pact stipulated that it would expire only a year after the denunciation). At the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allies issued a declaration demanding the unconditional surrender of Japan. That same summer, Japan tried to negotiate mediation with the USSR, but to no avail.

War was declared exactly 3 months after the victory in Europe, on August 8, 1945, two days after the first use of nuclear weapons by the United States against Japan (Hiroshima) and on the eve of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Strengths and plans of the parties

The commander-in-chief was Marshal of the Soviet Union A. M. Vasilevsky. There were 3 fronts: the Trans-Baikal Front, the 1st Far Eastern and the 2nd Far Eastern (commanders R. Ya. Malinovsky, K. A. Meretskov and M. A. Purkaev), with a total number of approximately 1.5 million people. The MPR troops were commanded by Marshal of the MPR Kh. Choibalsan. They were opposed by the Japanese Kwantung Army under the command of General Otsuzo Yamada.

The Soviet command's plan, described as the "Strategic Pincers", was simple in concept but grandiose in scale. It was planned to encircle the enemy over a total area of ​​1.5 million square kilometers.

Composition of the Kwantung Army: about 1 million people, 6260 guns and mortars, 1150 tanks, 1500 aircraft.

As noted in the “History of the Great Patriotic War” (vol. 5, pp. 548-549):

Despite the efforts of the Japanese to concentrate as many troops as possible on the islands of the empire itself, as well as in China south of Manchuria, the Japanese command paid attention to the Manchurian direction, especially after the Soviet Union denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact on April 5, 1945. That is why, of the nine infantry divisions remaining in Manchuria at the end of 1944, the Japanese deployed 24 divisions and 10 brigades by August 1945. True, to organize new divisions and brigades, the Japanese could only use untrained conscripts of younger ages and limitedly fit older conscripts - 250 thousand of them were conscripted in the summer of 1945, who made up more than half of the personnel of the Kwantung Army. Also, in the newly created Japanese divisions and brigades in Manchuria, in addition to the small number of combat personnel, there was often a complete absence of artillery.

The most significant forces of the Kwantung Army - up to ten infantry divisions - were stationed in the east of Manchuria, bordering on Soviet Primorye, where the First Far Eastern Front was stationed, consisting of 31 rifle divisions, a cavalry division, a mechanized corps and 11 tank brigades. In northern Manchuria, the Japanese held one infantry division and two brigades - against the Second Far Eastern Front consisting of 11 rifle divisions, 4 rifle and 9 tank brigades. In the west of Manchuria, the Japanese stationed 6 infantry divisions and one brigade - against 33 Soviet divisions, including two tank, two mechanized corps, a tank corps and six tank brigades. In central and southern Manchuria, the Japanese held several more divisions and brigades, as well as both tank brigades and all combat aircraft.

It should be noted that the tanks and aircraft of the Japanese army in 1945, according to the criteria of that time, could not be called anything other than obsolete. They roughly corresponded to Soviet tank and aircraft equipment of 1939. This also applies to Japanese anti-tank guns, which had a caliber of 37 and 47 millimeters - that is, suitable only for fighting light Soviet tanks. What prompted the Japanese army to use suicide squads, strapped with grenades and explosives, as the main improvised anti-tank weapon.

However, the prospect of a quick surrender of the Japanese troops seemed far from obvious. Given the fanatical, and sometimes suicidal, resistance put up by Japanese forces in April-June 1945 on Okinawa, there was every reason to believe that a long, difficult campaign was expected to take over the last remaining Japanese fortified areas. In some sectors of the offensive, these expectations were fully justified.

Progress of the war

At dawn on August 9, 1945, Soviet troops began intensive artillery bombardment from the sea and from land. Then the ground operation began. Taking into account the experience of the war with the Germans, the fortified areas of the Japanese were treated with mobile units and blocked by infantry. The 6th Guards Tank Army of General Kravchenko was advancing from Mongolia to the center of Manchuria.

This was a risky decision, since the difficult Khingan Mountains were ahead. On August 11, army equipment stopped due to lack of fuel. But the experience of German tank units was used - delivering fuel to tanks by transport aircraft. As a result, by August 17, the 6th Guards Tank Army had advanced several hundred kilometers - and about one hundred and fifty kilometers remained to the capital of Manchuria, the city of Xinjing. The First Far Eastern Front by this time had broken the Japanese resistance in the east of Manchuria, occupying the largest city in that region - Mudanjiang. In a number of areas deep in the defense, Soviet troops had to overcome fierce enemy resistance. In the zone of the 5th Army, it was exerted with particular force in the Mudanjiang region. There were cases of stubborn enemy resistance in the zones of the Transbaikal and 2nd Far Eastern fronts. The Japanese army also launched repeated counterattacks. On August 19, 1945, in Mukden, Soviet troops captured the Emperor of Manchukuo, Pu Yi (formerly the last Emperor of China).

On August 14, the Japanese command made a proposal to conclude a truce. But virtually military operations on the Japanese side did not stop. Only three days later the Kwantung Army received an order from its command to surrender, which began on August 20. But it didn’t reach everyone right away, and in some places the Japanese acted contrary to orders.

On August 18, the Kuril landing operation was launched, during which Soviet troops occupied the Kuril Islands. On the same day, August 18, the commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Vasilevsky, gave the order to occupy the Japanese island of Hokkaido with the forces of two rifle divisions. This landing was not carried out due to the delay in the advance of Soviet troops in South Sakhalin, and was then postponed until instructions from Headquarters.

Soviet troops occupied the southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea. The main fighting on the continent lasted 12 days, until August 20. However, individual clashes continued until September 10, which became the day the complete surrender and capture of the Kwantung Army ended. The fighting on the islands completely ended on September 5.

The Japanese surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

As a result, the million-strong Kwantung Army was completely destroyed. According to Soviet data, its losses in killed amounted to 84 thousand people, about 600 thousand were captured. The irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to 12 thousand people.

Meaning

The Manchurian operation had enormous political and military significance. So on August 9, at an emergency meeting of the Supreme Council for War Management, Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki said:

The Soviet Army defeated the strong Kwantung Army of Japan. The Soviet Union, having entered the war with the Japanese Empire and making a significant contribution to its defeat, accelerated the end of World War II. American leaders and historians have repeatedly stated that without the USSR's entry into the war, it would have continued for at least another year and would have cost an additional several million human lives.

The commander-in-chief of the American armed forces in the Pacific, General MacArthur, believed that “Victory over Japan can be guaranteed only if the Japanese ground forces are defeated.” US Secretary of State E. Stettinius stated the following:

Dwight Eisenhower stated in his memoirs that he addressed President Truman: “I told him that since available information indicated the imminent collapse of Japan, I categorically objected to the entry of the Red Army into this war.”

Results

For distinction in battles as part of the 1st Far Eastern Front, 16 formations and units received the honorary name “Ussuri”, 19 - “Harbin”, 149 - were awarded various orders.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its territory the territories lost by the Russian Empire in 1905 following the Peace of Portsmouth (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and Dalny), as well as the main group of the Kuril Islands previously ceded to Japan in 1875 and the southern part of the Kuril Islands assigned to Japan by the Treaty of Shimoda in 1855.

Japan's latest territorial loss has not yet been recognized. According to the San Francisco Peace Treaty, Japan renounced any claims to Sakhalin (Karafuto) and the Kuril Islands (Chishima Retto). But the agreement did not determine the ownership of the islands and the USSR did not sign it. However, in 1956, the Moscow Declaration was signed, which ended the state of war and established diplomatic and consular relations between the USSR and Japan. Article 9 of the Declaration states, in particular:

Negotiations on the southern Kuril Islands continue to this day; the lack of a solution on this issue prevents the conclusion of a peace treaty between Japan and Russia, as the successor to the USSR.

Japan is also involved in a territorial dispute with the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China over the ownership of the Senkaku Islands, despite the existence of peace treaties between the countries (the treaty with the Republic of China was concluded in 1952, with the PRC in 1978). In addition, despite the existence of the Basic Treaty on Japan-Korea Relations, Japan and the Republic of Korea are also involved in a territorial dispute over the ownership of the Liancourt Islands.

Despite Article 9 of the Potsdam Declaration, which prescribes the return home of military personnel at the end of hostilities, according to Stalin's order No. 9898, according to Japanese data, up to two million Japanese military personnel and civilians were deported to work in the USSR. As a result of hard work, frost and disease, according to Japanese data, 374,041 people died.

According to Soviet data, the number of prisoners of war was 640,276 people. Immediately after the end of hostilities, 65,176 wounded and sick were released. 62,069 prisoners of war died in captivity, 22,331 of them before entering the territory of the USSR. An average of 100,000 people were repatriated annually. By the beginning of 1950, there were about 3,000 people convicted of criminal and war crimes (of which 971 were transferred to China for crimes committed against the Chinese people), who, in accordance with the Soviet-Japanese Declaration of 1956, were released early and repatriated to their homeland.

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

Termination of the peace treaty

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

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

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

Announcement of the start of hostilities

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

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

Strengths of the parties

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

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

Enemy fortified areas

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

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

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

Workaround maneuver

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

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

Defenders of the Acute Heights

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

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

Features of military operations

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

Surrender

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

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

Consequences

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

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