This is an outrageous border negotiation. In 1964, China and the Soviet Union formally began negotiations on the border issue between the two countries, and the Soviet Union had obviously promised to return Zhenbao Island to China, but in the end it rebelled, which not only directly triggered the battle of Zhenbao Island not long ago, but also led to the unfortunate death of 71 border guards on the mainland.
Why, then, did China and the Soviet Union start border talks in 1964? What were the results of this negotiation? What is the connection between this negotiation and the subsequent Zhenbao Island self-defense counterattack? Today, Brother Leng will take you to understand the difficult demarcation process of the Sino-Soviet border.
On November 14, 1860, in order to seek perfection, the Qing government signed the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty with Tsarist Russia without any bottom line, and since then, 400,000 square kilometers of territory east of the Ussuri River in China have been pocketed by Tsarist Russia. But even so, Russia's covetousness for Chinese territory is still expanding rapidly.
By the end of the 19th century, Tsarist Russia had occupied more than 1.5 million square kilometers of Territory in China. After the October Revolution, although Russia issued two "declarations on China," it also openly stated that it would abrogate all treaties concluded by the Russian government and China and abandon the seizure of all Chinese territory. But in the actual negotiation stage, Russia repeatedly rebelled.
Around the 1930s, when the mainland was in the midst of frequent wars, Russia once again took advantage of the situation and secretly divided more than 600 islands on the mainland into Russia's territory along the Ussuri and Heilongjiang rivers.
By the time of the founding of New China, three completely different "boundary lines" had emerged between China and the Soviet Union. The first is the treaty line based on the Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty; the second is the unilateral map line drawn by the Soviet Union, which in many areas has completely deviated from the treaty line, and has assigned many Chinese territories other than those stipulated in the treaty to the territory of the Soviet Union; however, the most infuriating thing is the Soviet Union's line of actual control, which occupies a large amount of China's territory.
The border between China and the Soviet Union is more than 7,600 kilometers long, with more than 4,200 kilometers in the middle and more than 3,400 kilometers in the west, while the disputed territory between China and the Soviet Union covers an area of about 35,000 square kilometers, with the Middle East accounting for more than 1,300 square kilometers and the western part accounting for 34,000 square kilometers. However, due to the beginning of the founding of New China, China and the Soviet Union ushered in a long "honeymoon period", so the two countries did not clearly demarcate the border, which also laid hidden dangers for future border conflicts.
In 1956, Sino-Soviet relations began to crack and drift apart, and Khrushchev, then the leader of the Soviet Union, continued to provoke contradictions between the two countries. In 1959, the Soviet Union first favored India in the Sino-Indian border conflict, and then withdrew all technical experts to aid China by means of pressure, and terminated all aid projects. In addition, since 1960, the Soviet Union has been constantly stirring up disputes on the Sino-Soviet border.
In August 1960, the Soviet Union provoked the first border incident in the Bozi Aigle Pass area of Xinjiang, where Soviet border guards attacked and expelled mainland herders for no reason, causing a large degree of losses to the mainland border people. It was also after this incident that the mainland government proposed to the Soviet government twice in succession for border negotiations, but the Soviet Union repeatedly found various reasons to prevaricate, but the mainland government did not give up.
In September 1963, the mainland again proposed to resolve the "unequal treaty problem" with the Soviet government, and two months later, the mainland re-affirmed the importance of resolving the Sino-Soviet border issue with a tougher attitude. Under the unremitting efforts of the mainland, the Soviet Union finally accepted the mainland's demand for negotiations, but it did not expect that this negotiation did not solve substantive problems, but on the contrary laid greater hidden dangers for the future.
The initial negotiations ended in failure
This is a border negotiation that is doomed to fail. For a full 6 months, the mainland has been fighting for legitimate territory, but the Soviet Union has repeatedly made clever arguments, and the two sides of the negotiations have finally dispersed unhappily. Unexpectedly, this negotiation would become the fuse of the future Sino-Soviet armed conflict.
On February 8, 1964, the first meeting of the first Sino-Soviet border negotiations was held in Beijing. It can be seen from the respective delegations sent by China and the Soviet Union that both sides attach great importance to this negotiation. The Soviet Union sent The Commander of the Border Guard Army, General Zelyanov, as the head of the regiment, and the deputy head of the regiment was Serbakov, Minister Counsellor of the Soviet Embassy in China. The mainland appointed Zeng Yongquan, vice minister of foreign affairs, as the head of the delegation, and Yu Zhan, director of the Department of Eastern Europe of the Soviet Union, as the deputy head of the delegation. Unexpectedly, at the beginning of this negotiation, China and the Soviet Union fell into huge differences.
The first differences between China and the Soviet Union focused on "unequal treaties" The mainland believes that the 19 border treaties signed by Tsarist Russia and the Qing government in that year were all completed under the condition of China's weak national strength and were unequal treaties. But even so, the mainland is still willing to abide by the treaty and reasonably resolve the border issue on the basis of ensuring the interests of the two countries. Unexpectedly, this statement on the mainland was immediately refuted by the Soviet Union.
The Soviet side said that whether it was the "Yaohun Treaty" or the "Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty", all the previous treaties signed by the two sides were a reasonable practice for Russia to "reclaim its territory", so there was no problem of "inequality" in the treaty. However, when Tsarist Russia invaded China, this was an indisputable fact. In order to resolve this difference, the two sides held a long debate.
The second disagreement between China and the Soviet Union is mainly on the issue of the "boundary line". Before the negotiations, the mainland had already made its position clear: in order to prevent the deterioration of relations between the two countries, the border issue should try to meet the interests of both sides. However, the Soviet side shamelessly insisted that there was no border problem between the Soviet Union and China.
The Soviet representative believed that the Sino-Soviet border had long been demarcated, and that it was stipulated in the treaty and guarded by Soviet troops. The Soviet side was even more arrogant in saying: "Wherever the Soviet Union believes that the 'border' is, the border line is where it is, this question cannot be questioned, let alone negotiate!" "Despite repeated efforts by the mainland representatives, in the end the Soviet representatives still believed that the Two Sides only needed to determine individual lots and did not need to negotiate the border.
It is precisely because of the many differences that the border negotiations between China and the Soviet Union have been delayed in reaching a conclusion, and just when the delegations on both sides are at a loss, Chairman Mao's remarks have greatly accelerated the speed of negotiations.
On July 10, 1964, Chairman Mao received Japanese Socialists in Beijing, during which time Chairman Mao suddenly and publicly stated: "The Soviet Union occupies too many places, more than a hundred years ago, they occupied Boli, Vladivostok and the Kamchatka Peninsula east of Lake Baikal on the mainland, and we have not settled these accounts with them..."
Chairman Mao's remarks shocked the Soviet side, and the attitude of the Soviet delegation changed even more suddenly, and soon after, the delegations of the two sides agreed on the direction of the eastern boundary line, including the Heilongjiang and Ussuri Rivers, and the Soviet Union promised to return Zhenbao Island to China. I thought that the Sino-Soviet border issue would be resolved quickly, but I did not expect that when the Soviet representatives returned to China to report, the results of the negotiations between China and the Soviet Union were completely rejected by Khrushchev.
In August 1964, seeing that the border negotiations could not achieve a clear result in the short term, the Soviet Union proposed to end the negotiations first and continue to agree later, and in this way, the first Sino-Soviet border negotiations were completely concluded. However, a huge hidden danger has also sprouted...
With unremitting efforts, the border issue has finally been successfully resolved
This is a 40-year-long border conflict, since 1964, the Sino-Soviet border has never had a moment of tranquility, especially before March 1969, the Soviet Union provoked a total of 4189 conflicts on the border, and in order to defend territorial sovereignty, the mainland military and civilians have paid a heavy price.
Since the first border negotiations, the frequency of Sino-Soviet border conflicts has greatly increased, and the core point of the dispute is the ownership of Zhenbao Island and Qiliqin Island. These two islands are the inherent territory of the mainland, the mainland residents have long been engaged in fishing and other productive activities, and the mainland border troops will often patrol the island, but since 1966, the Soviet side has repeatedly sent troops to attack the Chinese on the island.
In the two years from 1967 to 1969, the Soviet armed forces invaded Zhenbao Island and Qiliqin Island several times. In January 1968, Soviet militants openly crossed the centerline of the main channel of the Ussuri River and launched a frenzied attack on the fishermen on Qiliqin Island, resulting in 4 fishermen on the mainland being crushed to death by Soviet armored vehicles and seriously injuring 9 people.
On December 27, 1968, the Soviet Union sent a 75-man squad of 7 armored vehicles and trucks to Zhenbao Island and beat up the mainland patrol soldiers. For the crazy provocations of the Soviet Union, out of many considerations, the mainland has always maintained a rational and restrained attitude, but the Soviet side not only did not restrain in the slightest, but became more and more rampant, and at the end of January 1969, the Central Military Commission officially ordered: The border troops can choose the right time to counterattack the Soviet Union!
On March 2, 1969, the Soviet Border Guard again launched an attack on Zhenbao Island from upstream and downstream, resulting in the casualties of 6 soldiers on the mainland. In desperation, the mainland border troops could only counterattack in self-defense. Unexpectedly, the mainland's counterattack soon attracted crazy retaliation from the Soviet Union.
After the 2nd, the Soviet Union mobilized more than 50 tanks and several helicopters to launch a wanton bombardment of Zhenbao Island, but under the stubborn resistance of our army, the Soviet troops finally returned home.
In the nearly 1 month of zhenbao island self-defense counterattack, the mainland border defense force repelled more than ten Soviet attacks, at the cost of 71 casualties, caused 230 casualties to the Soviet army, and also destroyed 19 Soviet tank armored vehicles.
Shortly after the end of the Treasure Island incident, China and the Soviet Union engaged in decades-long negotiations on the border issue. Finally, in 1991, the foreign ministers of China and the Soviet Union formally signed the agreement on the eastern section of the Sino-Soviet border, which was signed. The direction of the border between China and the Soviet Union in the eastern section has been basically determined, and in 2004, China and the Soviet Union signed the "Supplementary Agreement" again, and at this point, the boundary of the eastern section of china and the Soviet Union has finally been clearly demarcated.
Since the founding of New China, the mainland government has been working on border demarcation and territorial recovery. Our predecessors have brought new life to the country with their blood and lives, and in addition to remembering their heroic deeds, we should also remember our new mission: to forge ahead and create a more prosperous and strong future for the motherland.
After a long period of testing, Sino-Russian relations have also ushered in a new situation, I hope that the two countries can continue to work together to overcome all difficulties and obstacles on the way forward, I hope that China and Russia can maintain long-term friendly and good-neighborly relations in the future, make common progress, and jointly run towards a better future!