Before we begin the description concerning the events at Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, we should remember what Japan was like in 1938. Nominally the emperor rules, but in reality the military and oligarchs have power. The entire top military ranks, the local Chubais and other Khodorkovites, are sleeping and looking for someone to rob and fill their purses with. And since your country has already been plundered, you can only grab something outside of Japan.
Nationalists, lured by the oligarchs, call on the people to fight against everyone who has offended and is offending the Japanese. The Russians, the USA, England, the Chinese (who are waging a civil war among themselves) and the Koreans for company are assigned as the culprits for everything. The USSR looked weaker than the USA and England, and they decided to start there. But, rightly fearing for their own skins, they did not dare to start a war without considering “is it worth it?” and “can we?” For this, it was decided to conduct reconnaissance in force, without starting a full-scale war. The place where it was decided to try our strength was near Lake Khasan. If you want to fight, there will be a reason, you just have to look for it. They found a reason and made a claim to the territory, which “suddenly” turned out to be “disputed.” To get things started, diplomats step in and, rather rudely, offer to leave the “disputed” territories. Attempts to point out what was wrong were met with threats of force.
Due to the increased threat of a military attack from Japan, the OKDVA was transformed into the Far Eastern Front on July 1, 1938. Marshal of the Soviet Union V.K. Blucher is appointed commander
(He was considered an expert on the East: it was under his command that in 1929, units of the Red Army defeated Chinese troops in a clash on the Chinese Eastern Railway. But at that time he was no longer the same dashing grunt. He drank himself to death, abandoned worries about providing the rear, and did not train soldiers and officers , distracted soldiers for chores. And cheerful reports were sent to Moscow about the constantly growing combat readiness.), a member of the Military Council was divisional commissar P. I. Mazepov, and chief of staff was corps commander G. M. Stern.
On the morning of June 13, 1938, the head of the NKVD department for the Far Eastern Territory, State Security Commissioner 3rd Rank Genrikh Lyushkov, ran over to the Japanese. Currying favor with his new masters, he spoke in detail about the deployment of Soviet troops, about the codes used in military communications, and handed over the radio communication codes, lists and operational documents he had taken with him.
The 19th Infantry Division, numbering up to 20 thousand people, which was to capture the hills adjacent to Lake Khasan, as well as a brigade of the 20th Infantry Division, a cavalry brigade, three separate machine-gun battalions and tanks began an offensive, with the goal (to begin with) of capturing border heights. Heavy artillery, armored trains, and anti-aircraft guns were brought here. Up to 70 combat aircraft were concentrated at nearby airfields.
The measures taken to strengthen defense capabilities turned out to be timely.
At the end of July 1938, the Japanese Armed Forces started a conflict, believing that here, in conditions of roadlessness and swampy terrain, it would be much more difficult for the Red Army to concentrate and deploy its troops. If the attack was successful, the Japanese plans went much further than moving the border near Lake Khasan.
On July 23, Japanese units located in Korea and Manchuria on the border with the USSR began expelling residents from border villages. And the next morning, artillery firing positions appeared in the area of the sandy islands on the Tumen-Ula River. Armored trains lurked on the railway. At Bogomolnaya heights, one kilometer from Zaozernaya, firing positions for machine guns and light artillery were set up. Japanese destroyers were cruising in Peter the Great Bay, near the territorial waters of the USSR. On July 25, in the area of border checkpoint No. 7, our border detachment was subjected to rifle and machine-gun fire, and the next day a reinforced Japanese company captured the border height of Devil’s Mountain...
Dreaming of quickly returning to bottles and his young wife, Marshal Blucher decided to voluntarily engage in a “peaceful resolution” of the conflict. On July 24, secretly from his own headquarters, as well as from the deputies who were in Khabarovsk. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Frinovsky and Deputy. People's Commissar of Defense Mekhlis, he sent a commission to the height of Zaozernaya. As a result of the “investigation”, carried out without the involvement of the head of the local border station, the commission found that our border guards were to blame for the conflict, allegedly violating the border by 3 meters. Having performed this act worthy of current “peacekeepers” like Shevardnadze and Lebed, Blucher sent a telegram to the People’s Commissar of Defense, in which he demanded the immediate arrest of the head of the border section and other “those responsible for provoking the conflict.” However, this “peace initiative” did not meet with understanding in Moscow, from where came a strict order to stop fussing with the commissions and implement the decisions of the Soviet government to organize resistance to the Japanese.
Early in the morning of July 29, under the cover of fog, two Japanese detachments crossed our state border and began an attack on Bezymyannaya Height. The border detachment under the command of Lieutenant A. M. Makhalin met the enemy with fire. For several hours, eleven warriors heroically repelled the onslaught of many times superior enemy forces. Five border guard soldiers were killed and the rest were wounded, mortally - Lieutenant Makhalin. At the cost of heavy losses, the Japanese managed to take control of the heights. A reserve of border guards and a rifle company under the command of the communist Lieutenant D. Levchenko arrived at the battlefield. With a bold bayonet attack and grenades, our valiant warriors knocked out the invaders from Soviet soil.
Having cleared the hill, the soldiers equipped trenches. At dawn on July 30, enemy artillery rained concentrated fire on them. And then the Japanese went on the attack several times, but Lieutenant Levchenko’s company fought to the death. The company commander himself was wounded three times, but did not leave the battle. A platoon of anti-tank guns under Lieutenant I. Lazarev came to the aid of Levchenko’s unit and shot the Japanese with direct fire. One of our gunners was killed. Lazarev, wounded in the shoulder, took his place. The artillerymen managed to suppress several enemy machine guns and destroy up to a company of infantry. It was with difficulty that the platoon commander was forced to leave for dressing. A day later he was back in action and fought until the final victory...
Already the first battles on July 29-30 showed that this was not an ordinary border incident.
Meanwhile, Blucher actually sabotaged the organization of armed resistance to the invading aggressors. Things got to the point that on August 1, during a conversation over a direct wire, Stalin asked him a rhetorical question: “Tell me, Comrade Blucher, honestly, do you have a desire to really fight the Japanese? If you don’t have such a desire, tell me directly, as befits a communist, and if you have a desire, I would think that you should go to the place immediately.” However, having gone to the scene, the marshal only interfered with his subordinates. In particular, he stubbornly refused to use aviation against the Japanese under the pretext of fear of causing damage to the civilian Korean population of the adjacent strip. At the same time, despite the presence of a normally working telegraph connection, Blucher avoided talking via direct wire with People's Commissar Voroshilov for three days.
Due to the remote location and the almost complete absence of roads, the advance of the 40th Infantry Division to the border was slow. The situation was complicated by continuous heavy rains. At 3 o'clock in the morning on July 31, the Japanese opened artillery fire and, with the help of two infantry regiments, launched an offensive on the heights of Zaozernaya and Bezymyannaya. After a fierce four-hour battle, the enemy occupied these heights. Our leading battalions retreated to the east of Lake Khasan: the battalion of the 119th regiment - to a height of 194.0, the battalion of the 118th to Zarechye. The main forces of the 40th Infantry Division at that time were on the march 30-40 km from the battle area.
At the direction of the People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov, the troops in the Primorsky Territory, as well as the forces of the Pacific Fleet, were put on combat readiness. Repelling the enemy attack was entrusted to the 39th Rifle Corps under the command of brigade commander V.N. Sergeev. It included the 40th Rifle Division named after S. Ordzhonikidze (commander Colonel V.K. Bazarov), the 32nd Saratov Rifle Division (commander Colonel N.E. Berzarap) and the 2nd Mechanized Brigade (commander Colonel A.P. . Panfilov). The chief of staff of the front, corps commander G.M. Stern, arrived in the combat area with a group of commanders.
The Japanese, having captured Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya, covered these hills with deep trenches within three days. Machine gun platforms, dugouts, firing positions for mortars and artillery, wire fences and anti-tank ditches were equipped. Armored hoods for machine guns were installed at key positions, and snipers were disguised behind rocks. The narrow passages between the lake and the border were mined.
The commander of the 40th Infantry Division made the decision to attack the enemy at the heights on the move on August 1 and restore the situation on the border. However, due to impassable roads, units of the division reached their starting lines late. Corporal Stern, who was at the command post of the formation, ordered the attack to be postponed until the next day.
On August 2, the commander of the Far Eastern Fleet troops, V.K. Blucher, arrived in Posiet. Having familiarized himself with the situation, he approved the actions of G. M. Stern and gave instructions for more thorough preparation of the troops for the attack.
On the same day, the 40th Infantry Division went on the offensive. The main attack on the Bezymyannaya height was carried out from the north by the 119th and 120th Infantry Regiments, with the attached 32nd separate tank battalion and two artillery divisions. The 118th Infantry Regiment was advancing from the south.
The fight was brutal. The enemy was in extremely advantageous positions. In front of his trenches lay a lake, which did not allow our troops to attack the heights from the front: it was necessary to bypass the lake, that is, move along the border itself, strictly within our own territory, under enemy flank fire.
The 119th Infantry Regiment, having forded and swam the northern part of Lake Khasan, reached the northeastern slopes of the Bezymyannaya Sochka by the end of August 2, where it encountered strong fire resistance from the Japanese. The soldiers lay down and dug in.
By that time, the 120th Infantry Regiment had captured the eastern slopes of the Bezymyannaya hill, however, having encountered strong enemy opposition, it stopped the attack and lay down. The 118th Infantry Regiment captured a hollow to the west of Height 62.1 and by the end of the day reached the eastern and southeastern slopes of Bezymyannaya.
The infantry was assisted by the 32nd separate tank battalion of Colonel M.V. Akimov.
No matter how great the courage of the Soviet soldiers, all attempts by our troops on August 2 and 3 to drive the Japanese out of the occupied territory were unsuccessful. The front command, on the instructions of the People's Commissar of Defense on August 3, entrusted the task of defeating the enemy to the 39th Rifle Corps, whose commander was G. M. Stern. The corps included the 40th, 32nd, 39th rifle divisions and the 2nd mechanized brigade with reinforcements.
Meanwhile, trying to gain time to bring even larger forces to the Lake Khasan area and gain a foothold on captured Soviet soil, the Japanese government resorted to a diplomatic maneuver. On August 4, the Japanese Ambassador to Moscow met with the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR M. M. Litvinov and stated that his government intended to resolve the conflict “peacefully.” This “peaceful path” meant an attempt to impose on the Soviet side negotiations on border changes, as well as to achieve the retention of Japanese troops in a number of areas of our territory. Such an impudent proposal was, naturally, resolutely rejected. The Soviet government firmly stated that a cessation of hostilities was possible only if the situation that existed before July 29 was restored. The Japanese refused this.
Then our troops were given the order to launch a general offensive. The order, in particular, said: “The task of the corps with attached units is to capture the Zaozernaya heights on August 6 and destroy the enemies who dared to invade our Soviet land.”
G. M. Stern proposed a bold plan: the 32nd Infantry Division with the 3rd Tank Battalion of the 2nd mechanized brigade capture the Bezymyannaya height and, with a strike from the north-west, together with the 40th Infantry Division, expel the enemy from the Zaozernaya height;
The 40th division with the 2nd tank and reconnaissance battalions of the same brigade will capture the Machine Gun Hill height and attack from the northeast together with the 32nd division - the Zaozernaya height; The 39th Infantry Division with the 121st Cavalry Regiment, the motorized rifle battalion of the 2nd Mechanized Brigade was charged with providing cover for the right flank of the corps along the Novo-Kievskoye line, height 106.9.
The operation included artillery preparation by three regiments of corps artillery, as well as support and cover of ground forces by aviation. This time too, infantry and tanks were prohibited from crossing the state border between China and Korea.
The day of the general attack at Lake Khasan coincided with the ninth anniversary of the founding of OKDVA. In the morning, on this occasion, an order was read out in all units and divisions of the corps on behalf of the commander of the Far Eastern Fleet V.K. Blucher. “...Deal a crushing blow to the insidious enemy,” the order said, “to destroy him completely—this is the sacred duty to the Motherland of every soldier, commander, and political worker.”
On August 6, at 16:00, after the thick fog cleared, TB-3 heavy bombers, under the cover of fighters, attacked Japanese troops. More than 250 guns began artillery preparation. After 55 minutes, infantry and tanks rushed into the attack.
The enemy resisted fiercely. Under his machine-gun bursts, fighters in certain directions were forced to lie down in front of barbed wire barriers. But the heavily swampy terrain and dense artillery fire held back our tanks. But all these were just temporary delays.
By the end of the day on August 6, the 118th Infantry Regiment of the 40th Division captured the Soviet part of the Zaozernaya Height. The red banner on its top was hoisted by the secretary of the regiment's party bureau, Lieutenant (later Major General) I. N. Moshlyak, who inspired the soldiers with an example of personal courage. He went on the offensive with the lead battalion, and when the battalion commander died, he replaced him and ensured that the unit completed its combat mission.
The 32nd Rifle Division, under heavy enemy fire, persistently advanced along a narrow strip along Lake Khasan and successively captured the heights of Machine-Gun Hill and Bezymyannaya. The commander of the 1st battalion of the 95th Infantry Regiment, Captain M. S. Bochkarev, raised the soldiers to attack six times.
The fighting went on with unrelenting force. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Having brought up reserves, the enemy repeatedly launched counterattacks. Only on August 7, the enemy attempted them, for example, at the height of Zaozernaya twenty times! But they were all repulsed.
The battle lasted for four days without stopping. It ended with the defeat of Japanese units. On August 9, Soviet territory was completely cleared of foreign invaders. At noon on August 11, hostilities ceased. As a result, the Soviet side lost 960 people killed, died from wounds and went missing, and 3,279 were wounded and sick (Russia and the USSR in the wars of the twentieth century: Statistical research. M., 2001. P. 173). Japanese losses were 650 killed and about 2,500 wounded. Considering that we used aircraft and tanks, and the Japanese did not, the loss ratio should have been completely different. As has often happened in our history, officers and sergeants paid for the sloppiness of the highest military authorities and the poor training of soldiers with their heroism. This, in particular, is evidenced by the large losses of command personnel - 152 killed officers and 178 junior commanders. However, Soviet propaganda presented the results of the Hassan clash as a resounding victory for the Red Army. The country honored its heroes. Indeed, formally the battlefield remained with us, but it should be borne in mind that the Japanese did not particularly try to retain the heights behind them.
As for the main “hero,” a well-deserved reward also awaited him. After the end of hostilities, Blucher was summoned to Moscow, where on August 31, 1938, under the chairmanship of Voroshilov, a meeting of the Main Military Council of the Red Army was held, consisting of members of the military council Stalin, Shchadenko, Budyonny, Shaposhnikov, Kulik, Loktionov, Blucher and Pavlov, with the participation of the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR Molotov and deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Frinovsky, who examined the issue of events in the area of Lake Khasan and the actions of the commander of the Far Eastern Front. As a result, Blucher was removed from his post, arrested and executed on November 9, 1938 (according to another version, he died during the investigation). Taking into account the sad experience of the Blucher leadership, it was decided not to concentrate the command of Soviet troops in the Far East in one hand. On the site of the Far Eastern Front, two separate armies were created, directly subordinate to the People's Commissar of Defense, as well as the Trans-Baikal Military District.
The question arises: were Blucher’s actions ordinary sloppiness, or were they deliberate sabotage and sabotage? Since the materials of the investigative case are still classified, we cannot answer this question unambiguously. However, the version of Blucher’s betrayal cannot be considered deliberately false. So, back on December 14, 1937 Soviet intelligence officer Richard Sorge reported from Japan:
“There are, for example, serious conversations that there is reason to count on the separatist sentiments of Marshal Blucher, and therefore, as a result of the first decisive blow, it will be possible to achieve peace with him on terms favorable for Japan” (The Case of Richard Sorge: Unknown Documents / Publ. A G. Fesyuna, St. Petersburg, M., 2000, p. 15). The defector Lyushkov also told the Japanese about the presence of an opposition-minded group in the command of the Far Eastern Front.
As for the supposed impossibility of betraying such a well-deserved revolutionary commander, history knows a lot similar examples. Thus, the generals of the French Republic, Dumouriez and Moreau, defected to the enemy’s side. In a similar way, in 1814, Napoleon was betrayed by his marshals. And there is no need to talk about the conspiracy of German generals against Hitler, although many of them had services to the Third Reich no less than Blucher did to the USSR.
From the point of view of the Japanese command, reconnaissance in force was more or less successful. It turned out that the Russians were still fighting poorly, even in conditions of numerical and technical superiority. However, due to the insignificant scale of the clash, Tokyo soon decided to conduct a new test of strength.
The Battles of Lake Khasan (July 29, 1938 – August 11, 1938) (known in China and Japan as the Zhanggufeng Heights Incident) arose from mutual claims USSR and Japanese dependent states Manchukuo to the same border area. The Japanese side believed that the USSR misinterpreted the conditions Beijing Treaty of 1860 between Tsarist Russia and China.
Causes of the collision
Throughout the first decades of the twentieth century, there were strong tensions between Russia (then the USSR), China and Japan over the border issue in northeastern China. Here in Manchuria took place Sino-Eastern Railway (CER), which connected China and the Russian Far East. The southern branch of the CER (sometimes called the South Manchurian Railway) became one of the reasons for Russian-Japanese war , subsequent incidents that caused Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945, as well as a series of clashes on the Soviet-Japanese border. The most notable among the latter were 1929 Sino-Soviet conflict And Mukden incident between Japan and China in 1931. Fighting on Lake Khasan broke out between two powers that had long distrusted each other.
This clash was caused by the fact that the Far Eastern Soviet troops and border units NKVD erected additional fortifications on the Manchurian border in the area of Lake Khasan. This was partly prompted by the flight of the Soviet general to the Japanese on June 13-14, 1938 Genrikh Lyushkova, who previously commanded all NKVD forces in the Soviet Far East. Lyushkov conveyed to the Japanese the most important information about the poor state of Soviet defense in this region and about the mass executions of army officers during Great Terror Stalin.
Starting a conflict
July 6, 1938 Japanese Kwantung Army intercepted and deciphered a message sent by the commander of Soviet troops in the Posyet area to his headquarters in Khabarovsk. He asked that headquarters give the soldiers orders to occupy a previously unowned hill to the west of Lake Khasan (near Vladivostok). Owning it was beneficial, since it dominated the Korean port of Rajin and the strategic railways connecting Korea and Manchuria. Over the next two weeks, small groups of Soviet border troops arrived in the area and began to fortify the mentioned heights, setting up firing points, observation trenches, barriers and communications facilities.
At first, Japanese troops in Korea paid little attention to the Soviet advance. However, the Kwantung Army, whose area of responsibility included these heights (Zhanggufeng), became concerned about Soviet plans and ordered troops in Korea to take action. Korean troops contacted Tokyo with a recommendation to send an official protest to the USSR.
On July 15, the Japanese attache in Moscow, Mamoru Shigemitsu, demanded the withdrawal of Soviet border guards from the Bezymyannaya (Shachaofeng) and Zaozernaya (Zhangufeng) hills west of Lake Khasan, insisting that these territories belonged to the neutral zone of the Soviet-Korean border. But his demands were rejected.
Progress of battles near Lake Khasan
The Japanese 19th Division, along with some Manchukuo units, prepared to attack the Soviet 39th Rifle Corps (which consisted of the 32nd, 39th, and 40th Rifle Divisions, as well as the 2nd Mechanized Brigade and two separate battalions ; commander - Grigory Stern). Colonel Kotoku Sato, commander of the Japanese 75th Infantry Regiment, received orders from Lieutenant General Suetaka Kamezo: “At the first news that the enemy moved forward at least a little, You should launch a firm and persistent counterattack.” The meaning of the order was that Sato was to expel the Soviet forces from the heights they occupied.
The Red Army soldiers go on the attack. Fighting on Lake Khasan, 1938
On July 31, 1938, Sato's regiment launched a night attack on the hills fortified by the Red Army. At Zaozernaya, 1,114 Japanese attacked a Soviet garrison of 300 soldiers, killing them and knocking out 10 tanks. Japanese losses amounted to 34 killed and 99 wounded. At the Bezymyannaya hill, 379 Japanese were taken by surprise and defeated another 300 Soviet soldiers, knocking out 7 tanks, and losing 11 people killed and 34 wounded. Several thousand more Japanese soldiers of the 19th Division arrived here. They dug in and asked for reinforcements. But the Japanese High Command rejected this request, fearing that General Suetaka would use reinforcements to attack other vulnerable Soviet positions and thereby cause an unwanted escalation of the conflict. Instead, Japanese troops were stopped in the captured area and ordered to defend it.
The Soviet command assembled 354 tanks and assault guns at Lake Khasan (257 T-26 tanks, 3 ST-26 tanks for laying bridges, 81 BT-7 light tanks, 13 SU-5-2 self-propelled guns). In 1933, the Japanese created the so-called “Special Armored Train” (Rinji Soko Ressha). It was deployed to the "2nd Railway Armored Unit" in Manchuria and served in the Sino-Japanese War and the battles of Hassan, transporting thousands of Japanese soldiers to and from the battlefield and demonstrating to the West "the ability of an Asian nation to absorb and implement Western doctrines of rapid deployment and transportation of infantry."
On July 31, People's Commissar of Defense Klim Voroshilov ordered the 1st Primorsky Army to be put on combat readiness. The Pacific Fleet was also mobilized. Commander of the Far Eastern Front created back in June, Vasily Blucher, arrived to Hassan on August 2, 1938. By his order, they were transferred to the battle zone additional forces, and from August 2-9, Japanese forces on Zhanggufeng came under sustained attack. The superiority of the Soviet forces was such that one Japanese artillery officer calculated that the Russians fired more shells in one day than the Japanese did in the entire two-week battle. Despite this, the Japanese organized effective anti-tank defense. Soviet troops suffered heavy losses in their attacks. Thousands of Red Army soldiers were killed or wounded, at least 9 tanks were completely burned, and 76 were damaged to one degree or another.
But despite repelling several assaults, it was clear that the Japanese would not be able to hold Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya without expanding the conflict. On August 10, Japanese Ambassador Mamoru Shigemitsu sued for peace. The Japanese considered that the incident had an “honorable” outcome for them, and on August 11, 1938 at 13:30 local time they stopped fighting, yielding the heights Soviet troops.
Losses in the battles on Khasan
For the battles on Lake Khasan, more than 6,500 Soviet soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals. 26 of them received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and 95 received the Order of Lenin.
According to the then data, Soviet losses amounted to 792 dead and missing and 3,279 wounded. It is now believed that the number of those killed was significantly higher. The Japanese claimed to have destroyed or damaged about a hundred enemy tanks and 30 artillery pieces. It is difficult to assess how accurate these figures are, but losses of Soviet armored vehicles undoubtedly numbered in the dozens. Japanese losses, according to the General Staff, amounted to 526 killed and missing, plus 913 wounded. Soviet sources increased Japanese casualties to 2,500. In any case, the Red Army suffered noticeably more casualties. Responsibility for this was assigned to Vasily Blucher. On October 22, 1938, he was arrested by the NKVD and apparently tortured to death.
Destroyed Soviet tank. Fighting on Lake Khasan, 1938
The next year (1939) another Soviet-Japanese clash occurred on the Khalkhin Gol River. For the Japanese, it had a much more disastrous result, leading to the defeat of their 6th Army.
At the end Second World War The International Military Tribunal for the Far East (1946) indicted thirteen high-ranking Japanese officials for crimes against peace for their role in starting the fighting at Lake Khasan.
From 1936 to 1938, more than 300 incidents were noted on the Soviet-Japanese border, the most famous of which occurred at the junction of the borders of the USSR, Manchuria and Korea at Lake Khasan in July-August 1938.
At the origins of the conflict
The conflict in the Lake Khasan area was caused by a number of both foreign policy factors and very difficult relations within the ruling elite of Japan. An important detail there was also rivalry within the Japanese military-political machine itself, when funds were distributed to strengthen the army, and the presence of even an imaginary military threat could give the command of Japan’s Korean Army a good opportunity to remind itself, given that the priority at that time was the operations of Japanese troops in China, never brought the desired result.
Another headache for Tokyo was the military aid flowing from the USSR to China. In this case, it was possible to exert military and political pressure by organizing a large-scale military provocation with a visible external effect. All that remained was to find a weak spot on the Soviet border, where an invasion could be successfully carried out and the combat effectiveness of the Soviet troops could be tested. And such an area was found 35 km from Vladivostok.
And while on the Japanese side the border was approached by a railroad and several highways, on the Soviet side there was only one dirt road. . It is noteworthy that until 1938, this area, where there really was no clear boundary marking, was of no interest to anyone, and suddenly in July 1938, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively took up this problem.
After the refusal of the Soviet side to withdraw troops and the incident with the death of a Japanese gendarme, shot by a Soviet border guard in the disputed area, tension began to increase day by day.
On July 29, the Japanese launched an attack on the Soviet border post, but after a hot battle they were driven back. On the evening of July 31, the attack was repeated, and here the Japanese troops already managed to wedge 4 kilometers deep into Soviet territory. The first attempts to drive out the Japanese with the 40th Infantry Division were unsuccessful. However, everything was not going well for the Japanese either - every day the conflict grew, threatening to develop into big war, for which Japan, stuck in China, was not ready.
Richard Sorge reported to Moscow: “The Japanese General Staff is interested in a war with the USSR not now, but later. Active actions on the border were taken by the Japanese to show the Soviet Union that Japan was still capable of demonstrating its power."
Meanwhile, in difficult off-road conditions and poor readiness of individual units, the concentration of forces of the 39th Rifle Corps continued. With great difficulty, they managed to gather 15 thousand people, 1014 machine guns, 237 guns, and 285 tanks in the combat area. In total, the 39th Rifle Corps consisted of up to 32 thousand people, 609 guns and 345 tanks. 250 aircraft were sent to provide air support.
Hostages of provocation
If in the first days of the conflict, due to poor visibility and, apparently, the hope that the conflict could still be resolved diplomatically, Soviet aviation was not used, then starting from August 5, Japanese positions were subjected to massive air strikes.
Aviation, including TB-3 heavy bombers, was brought in to destroy Japanese fortifications. The fighters carried out a series of assault strikes on Japanese troops. Moreover, the targets of Soviet aviation were located not only on the captured hills, but also deep in Korean territory.
It was later noted: “To defeat the Japanese infantry in the enemy’s trenches and artillery, high-explosive bombs were mainly used - 50, 82 and 100 kg, a total of 3,651 bombs were dropped. 6 pieces of high-explosive bombs 1000 kg on the battlefield 08/06/38. were used solely for the purpose of moral influence on the enemy infantry, and these bombs were dropped into the enemy infantry areas after these areas had been thoroughly hit by groups of SB-bombs FAB-50 and 100. The enemy infantry rushed about in the defensive zone, not finding cover, since almost the entire main line of their defense was covered with heavy fire from the explosions of bombs from our aircraft. 6 bombs of 1000 kg, dropped during this period in the area of the Zaozernaya height, shook the air with strong explosions, the roar of these bombs exploding across the valleys and mountains of Korea was heard tens of kilometers away. After the explosion of 1000 kg of bombs, the Zaozernaya height was covered with smoke and dust for several minutes. It must be assumed that in those areas where these bombs were dropped, the Japanese infantry were 100% incapacitated from shell shock and stones thrown out of the craters by the explosion of the bombs.”
Having completed 1003 sorties, Soviet aviation lost two aircraft - one SB and one I-15. The Japanese, having no more than 18-20 anti-aircraft guns in the conflict area, could not provide serious resistance. And throwing your own aviation into battle meant starting a large-scale war, for which neither the command of the Korean Army nor Tokyo were ready. From this moment on, the Japanese side began to frantically search for a way out of the current situation, which required both saving face and stopping hostilities, which no longer promised anything good for the Japanese infantry.
Denouement
The denouement came when Soviet troops launched a new offensive on August 8, having overwhelming military-technical superiority. The attack by tanks and infantry was carried out based on military expediency and without taking into account compliance with the border. As a result, Soviet troops managed to capture Bezymyannaya and a number of other heights, and also gain a foothold near the top of Zaozernaya, where the Soviet flag was hoisted.
On August 10, the chief of staff of the 19th telegraphed the chief of staff of the Korean Army: “Every day the combat effectiveness of the division is declining. The enemy suffered great damage. He is using new methods of combat and increasing artillery fire. If this continues, there is a danger that the fighting will escalate into even more fierce battles. Within one to three days it is necessary to decide on the division’s further actions... Until now, Japanese troops have already demonstrated their power to the enemy, and therefore, while it is still possible, it is necessary to take measures to resolve the conflict diplomatically.”
On the same day, armistice negotiations began in Moscow and at noon on August 11, hostilities were stopped. Strategically and politically, the Japanese test of strength, and by and large, the military adventure ended in failure. Not being prepared for a major war with the USSR, the Japanese units in the Khasan area found themselves hostage to the created situation, when further expansion of the conflict was impossible, and it was also impossible to retreat while preserving the prestige of the army.
The Hassan conflict did not lead to a reduction in USSR military assistance to China. At the same time, the battles on Khasan revealed a number of weaknesses of both the troops of both the Far Eastern Military District and the Red Army as a whole. The Soviet troops apparently suffered even greater losses than the enemy; at the initial stage of the fighting, the interaction between the infantry, tank units and artillery turned out to be weak. Not on high level turned out to be reconnaissance that failed to reveal enemy positions.
The losses of the Red Army amounted to 759 people killed, 100 people died in hospitals, 95 people missing and 6 people killed in accidents. 2752 people was injured or sick (dysentery and colds). The Japanese admitted the loss to 650 killed and 2,500 wounded. At the same time, the battles on Khasan were far from the last military clash between the USSR and Japan in the Far East. Less than a year later, an undeclared war began in Mongolia on Khalkhin Gol, where, however, the forces of the Japanese Kwantung Army, rather than the Korean ones, would be involved.
Soviet time
Conflict on Lake Khasan
Patrol of Soviet border guards in the area of Lake Khasan, 1938
Throughout the 20-30s. In the 20th century, the aggressiveness of Japan steadily increased, trying to meet the growing needs of the economy and state at the expense of its Far Eastern neighbors. The active opposition of the Soviet Union to Japanese expansion in Southeast Asia created tension in relations between states, manifested in numerous local conflicts. Only on the border with Manchuria in 1936-1938. More than 200 border skirmishes occurred. The Japanese detained several Soviet ships, accusing them of violating Japan's maritime borders.
On July 15, 1938, the Charge d'Affaires of Japan in the USSR appeared at the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs and demanded the withdrawal of Soviet border guards from the heights in the area of Lake Khasan. After the Japanese representative was presented with the Hunchun Agreement between Russia and China of 1886 and the map attached to it, irrefutably indicating that Lake Khasan and the heights adjacent to it from the west are on Soviet territory and that, therefore, there are no violations in this no area, he retreated. However, on July 20, the Japanese ambassador in Moscow, Shigemitsu, repeated his claims to the Khasan area. When it was pointed out to him that such claims were unfounded, the ambassador said: if Japan's demands are not met, it will use force. It should be said that on July 19, 1938, the Soviet embassy in Tokyo was raided, and literally a few days later a border incident occurred between the USSR and Japan in the area of Lake Khasan (Primorye).
The Red Army soldiers go on the attack. Surroundings of Lake Khasan
The reason for the conflict was the construction of a fortification by Soviet border guards, which, according to the Japanese, crossed the border line.
In response, on July 29, 1938, a Japanese company, under the cover of fog, violated the state border of the USSR, shouting “banzai” and attacked Bezymyannaya Height. The night before, a detachment of 11 border guards, led by the assistant head of the outpost, Lieutenant Alexei Makhalin, arrived at this height. The Japanese chains surrounded the trench more and more tightly, and the border guards were running out of ammunition. Eleven soldiers heroically repelled the onslaught of superior enemy forces for several hours, and several border guards died. Then Alexey Makhalin decides to break through the encirclement with hand-to-hand combat. He rises to full height and with the words “Forward! For the Motherland! rushes with the fighters into a counterattack. They managed to break through the encirclement. But out of the eleven, six defenders of Nameless remained alive. Alexey Makhalin also died. (He was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously). At the cost of heavy losses, the Japanese managed to take control of the heights. But soon a group of border guards and a rifle company under the command of Lieutenant D. Levchenko arrived at the battlefield. With a bold bayonet attack and grenades, our soldiers knocked out the invaders from the heights.
At dawn on July 30, enemy artillery brought down dense, concentrated fire onto the heights. And then the Japanese attacked several times, but Lieutenant Levchenko’s company fought to the death. The company commander himself was wounded three times, but did not leave the battle. A battery of anti-tank guns under Lieutenant I. Lazarev came to the aid of Levchenko’s unit and shot the Japanese with direct fire. One of our gunners died. Lazarev, wounded in the shoulder, took his place. The artillerymen managed to suppress several enemy machine guns and almost destroy the enemy company. It was with difficulty that the battery commander was forced to leave for dressing. A day later he was back in action and fought until final success.
Japanese soldiers dug in at Zaozernaya heights
The Japanese invaders decided to deliver a new and main blow in the area of the Zaozernaya hill. Anticipating this, the command of the Posyet border detachment (Colonel K.E. Grebennik) organized the defense of Zaozernaya. The northern slope of the height was guarded by a detachment of border guards under the command of Lieutenant Tereshkin. In the center and on the southern slope of Zaozernaya there was a reserve outpost of Lieutenant Khristolubov and a squad of fighters of a maneuver group with two crews of heavy machine guns. On the southern bank of Khasan there was a branch of Gilfan Batarshin. Their task was to cover the command post of the squad leader and prevent the Japanese from reaching the rear of the border guards. Senior Lieutenant Bykhovtsev’s group strengthened on Bezymyannaya. Near the height was the 2nd company of the 119th regiment of the 40th Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant Levchenko. Each height was a small, independently operating stronghold. Approximately halfway between the heights there was a group of Lieutenant Ratnikov, covering the flanks with reinforced units. Ratnikov had 16 soldiers with a machine gun. In addition, it was assigned a platoon of small-caliber guns and four T-26 light tanks. However, when the battle began, it turned out that the forces of the border defenders were meager. The lesson at Bezymyannaya was useful for the Japanese, and they brought into action two reinforced divisions with a total number of up to 20 thousand people, about 200 guns and mortars, three armored trains, and a battalion of tanks. The Japanese pinned great hopes on their “suicide bombers” who also took part in the battle.
On the night of July 31, a Japanese regiment, with artillery support, attacked Zaozernaya. The defenders of the hill returned fire, and then counterattacked the enemy and drove him back. Four times the Japanese rushed to Zaozernaya and each time they were forced to retreat with losses. A powerful avalanche of Japanese troops, although at the cost of heavy losses, managed to push back our fighters and reach the lake. Then, by decision of the government, units of the First Maritime Army entered the battle; its soldiers and commanders fought heroically alongside the border guards. During fierce military clashes on August 9, 1938, Soviet troops managed to dislodge the enemy from only part of the disputed territories. The Bezymyannaya and Zaozernaya hills were completely occupied later, after the conflict was resolved diplomatically.
Bombing of Zaozernaya Hill
The events on Lake Khasan, for all their complexity and ambiguity, clearly demonstrated the military power of the USSR. The experience of fighting with the regular Japanese army greatly helped the training of our soldiers and commanders during the battles at Khalkhin Gol in 1939 and in the Manchurian strategic operation in August 1945.
Aviators, tank crews, and artillerymen also made a significant contribution to the overall success of repelling the enemy. Accurate bomb strikes fell on the heads of the invaders, the enemy was thrown to the ground by dashing tank attacks, and destroyed by irresistible and powerful artillery salvoes. The campaign of Japanese troops to Lake Khasan ended ingloriously. After August 9, the Japanese government had no choice but to enter into negotiations to end hostilities. On August 10, the USSR government proposed a truce to the Japanese side. The Japanese government accepted our terms, also agreeing to create a commission to resolve the controversial border issue. For mass heroism shown in the battles near Lake Khasan, thousands of Soviet soldiers were awarded high state awards, many became Heroes of the Soviet Union. Settlements, streets, schools, and ships were named after the heroes.
Gabriel Tsobekhia
In 1938, heated clashes broke out in the Far East between the forces of the Red Army and Imperial Japan. The cause of the conflict was Tokyo's claims to ownership of certain territories belonging to the Soviet Union in the border region. These events went down in the history of our country as the battles at Lake Khasan, and in the archives of the Japanese side they are referred to as the “incident at Zhanggufeng Heights.”
Aggressive neighborhood
In 1932, a new state appeared on the map of the Far East, called Manchukuo. It was the result of Japan's occupation of the northeastern territory of China, the creation of a puppet government there and the restoration of the Qing dynasty that had once ruled there. These events caused a sharp deterioration in the situation along the state border. Systematic provocations by the Japanese command followed.
Red Army intelligence repeatedly reported on the large-scale preparation of the enemy Kwantung Army for an invasion of the territory of the USSR. In this regard, the Soviet government presented notes of protest to the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow Mamoru Shigemitsu, in which they pointed out the inadmissibility of such actions and their dangerous consequences. But diplomatic measures did not bring the desired result, especially since the governments of England and America, interested in escalating the conflict, did their best to fuel it.
Provocations at the border
Since 1934, systematic shelling of border units and nearby settlements has been carried out from Manchurian territory. In addition, both individual terrorists and spies and numerous armed detachments were sent. Taking advantage of the current situation, smugglers also intensified their activities.
Archival data indicate that during the period from 1929 to 1935, in just one area controlled by the Posyetsky border detachment, more than 18,520 attempts to violate the border were stopped, smuggled goods worth about 2.5 million rubles, 123,200 rubles in gold currency were seized and 75 kilograms of gold. General statistics for the period from 1927 to 1936 show very impressive figures: 130,000 violators were detained, of which 1,200 were spies who were exposed and admitted their guilt.
During these years, the famous border guard, tracker N.F. Karatsupa, became famous. He personally managed to detain 275 state border violators and prevent the transfer of contraband goods worth more than 610 thousand rubles. The whole country knew about this fearless man, and his name remained forever in the history of the border troops. Also famous were his comrades I.M. Drobanich and E. Serov, who detained more than a dozen border violators.
Border areas under military threat
For the entire period preceding the events, as a result of which Lake Khasan became the center of attention of the Soviet and world community, not a single shot was fired from our side into Manchurian territory. This is important to take into account, since this fact refutes any attempts to attribute actions of a provocative nature to Soviet troops.
As the military threat from Japan took on more and more tangible forms, the command of the Red Army took actions to strengthen the border detachments. For this purpose, units of the Far Eastern Army were sent to the area of possible conflict, and a scheme for interaction between border guards and fortified units was developed and agreed upon with the High Command. Work was also carried out with residents of border villages. Thanks to their help, in the period from 1933 to 1937, it was possible to stop 250 attempts by spies and saboteurs to enter the territory of our country.
Traitor-defector
The outbreak of hostilities was preceded by an unpleasant incident that occurred in 1937. In connection with the activation of a possible enemy, the state security agencies of the Far East were tasked with increasing the level of intelligence and counterintelligence activities. For this purpose, a new head of the NKVD, Security Commissioner 3rd Rank G.S. Lyushkov, was appointed. However, having taken over the affairs of his predecessor, he took actions aimed at weakening the services loyal to him, and on June 14, 1938, after crossing the border, he surrendered to the Japanese authorities and asked for political asylum. Subsequently, collaborating with the command of the Kwantung Army, he caused significant harm to the Soviet troops.
Imaginary and true causes of the conflict
The official pretext for the attack by Japan was claims regarding the territories surrounding Lake Khasan and adjacent to the Tumannaya River. But in reality the reason was the assistance provided Soviet Union China in its fight against interventionists. To repel the attack and protect the state border, on July 1, 1938, the army stationed in the Far East was transformed into the Red Banner Far Eastern Front under the command of Marshal V.K. Blucher.
By July 1938, events had become irreversible. The whole country was watching what was happening thousands of kilometers from the capital, where few people had previously been shown on the map. famous name- Hassan. The lake, the conflict around which threatened to escalate into a full-scale war, was the center of everyone's attention. And soon events began to develop rapidly.
Year 1938. Lake Khasan
Active hostilities began on July 29, when, having previously evicted the residents of border villages and placed artillery firing positions along the border, the Japanese began shelling our territory. For their invasion, the enemies chose the Posyetsky region, replete with lowlands and reservoirs, one of which was Lake Khasan. Located on a hill located 10 kilometers from the Pacific Ocean and 130 kilometers from Vladivostok, this territory was an important strategic site.
Four days after the start of the conflict, particularly fierce battles broke out on the Bezymyannaya hill. Here, eleven border guard heroes managed to resist an enemy infantry company and hold their positions until reinforcements arrived. Another place where the Japanese attack was directed was the Zaozernaya height. By order of the commander of the troops, Marshal Blucher, the Red Army units entrusted to him were sent here to repel the enemy. An important role in holding this strategically important area was played by the soldiers of the rifle company, supported by a platoon of T-26 tanks.
End of hostilities
Both of these heights, as well as the area surrounding Lake Khasan, came under heavy Japanese artillery fire. Despite the heroism of the Soviet soldiers and the losses they suffered, by the evening of July 30, the enemy managed to capture both hills and gain a foothold on them. Further, the events that history preserves (Lake Khasan and the battles on its shores) represent a continuous chain of military failures that resulted in unjustified human casualties.
Analyzing the course of hostilities, the High Command armed forces The USSR came to the conclusion that most of them were caused by the improper actions of Marshal Blucher. He was removed from command and subsequently arrested on charges of aiding the enemy and espionage.
Disadvantages identified during the battles
Through the efforts of units of the Far Eastern Front and border troops, the enemy was driven out of the country. Hostilities ended on August 11, 1938. They completed the main task assigned to the troops - the territory adjacent to the state border was completely cleared of invaders. But the victory came at an unreasonably high price. Among the Red Army personnel, there were 970 dead, 2,725 wounded and 96 missing. In general, this conflict showed the unpreparedness of the Soviet army to conduct large-scale military operations. Lake Khasan (1938) became a sad page in the history of the country’s armed forces.
