Will the Kuril Island of Matua become a new base for the Russian Pacific Fleet? The Japanese fortress of the island of Matua will be covered by the Russians “Boreas Results of the expedition to the island of Matua

TV channel "Zvezda" filmed documentary“Matua Island” about the research expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Experts went to the island back in 2016 and spent many months collecting materials about its natural, historical and cultural heritage. Why exactly Matua interested the Russian Geographical Society and what secrets the island keeps - in the material “360”.

From a no-man's island to a mothballed military base

Matua Island is part of the middle group of the Great Kuril Islands and belongs to Sakhalin region. However, this was not always the case. The original population of Matua is considered to be the Ainu - ancient people Japanese islands. In his language the island is called the “hellmouth.”

For a long time, Matua existed on its own, and only in the 17th century did the first expeditions set off to the Kuril Islands. The Japanese, Russians and Dutch visited there and even claimed the land as the property of their East India Company.

By 1736, the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and became Russian subjects, paying the residents of Kamchatka yasak - a tax in kind in the form of furs, livestock and other items. Russian Cossacks regularly visited the island, and the first scientific expedition arrived on Matua in 1813. The island's population has always been small: in 1831, only 15 inhabitants were counted on Matua, although at that time the census only counted adult men. In 1855 Russian empire officially received the right to the island, but 20 years later Matua found itself under Japanese rule - such was the price for Sakhalin.

Shortly before World War II, the island became a major stronghold Kuril ridge. A fort with anti-tank ditches, underground tunnels and trenches appeared on Matua. An underground residence in the hill was created for the officers. After the start of the war, Nazi Germany supplied fuel to Matua. The island has become one of the key naval bases Japan. In August 1945, a garrison of 7.5 thousand people capitulated without firing a shot. Matua passed to the Soviet Union.

Until 1991, there was a military unit. During this time, not only historians, but also politicians were interested in Matua. US President Harry Truman, immediately after the end of World War II, offered Joseph Stalin to cede the island for a US naval base. Then the leader of the USSR, either jokingly or seriously, agreed to exchange Matua for one of the Aleutian Islands. The question is closed.

The Russian border outpost was located on Matua until 2000. Then the entire naval infrastructure of the island was mothballed, and the inhabitants left it. Matua is now uninhabited. The small island, 11 kilometers long and just over six kilometers wide, still holds many secrets. Members of the Russian Geographical Society and employees went to open them Russian ministry defense

Secrets of Matua

Last September, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sergei Avakyants, told reporters about the results of the first expedition to Matua. It started in April and lasted almost six months. The expedition was attended by the Minister of Defense and President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu.

Research on Matua took place for the first time since 1813. According to Avakyants, many underground structures were discovered on the island. Some of them definitely belonged to the fort, but the purpose of the rest has not yet been determined.

Initially there was an assumption that these were warehouses, but everything was removed from them. And if these were warehouses, then any material traces would remain. Moreover, it was discovered that a high-voltage cable was connected to these premises, and the power supply system made it possible to supply up to 3 thousand volts there. Naturally, this is excess voltage for warehouse premises. But it is obvious that some work was carried out in these structures
Sergey Avakyants.

Among the unusual finds is a high-voltage cable on the slope of the Sarychev volcano. Nearby are the remains of an old road that leads to the crater of the volcano. At the same time, from a helicopter, members of the expedition noticed the entrances to underground structures. What exactly is in the thickness of the volcano is still unknown. Experts were also interested in another question: why the garrison surrendered without a fight in August 1945. This behavior is not typical for Japanese soldiers, which indicates a well-thought-out plan. “We concluded that the garrison fulfilled its main task - it removed all traces and all facts that could lead to the disclosure of the true nature of activities on this island,” the admiral explained.

Photo: RIA Novosti / Roman Denisov

Last year, members of the expedition decided to study the collected materials, and a few months later return to Matua to reveal other secrets of the island. What else will surprise Russians with a small piece of land that went from no-man's land to a secret Japanese fort, time will tell.

The second joint expedition of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society to the island of Matua has ended. Its participants - historians, archaeologists, ecologists and hydrographers - spoke at the next meeting of the Russian Geographical Society about their amazing finds discovered on this small, but very mysterious island Kuril ridge, reports the correspondent. IA SakhalinMedia.

Participants of the second joint expedition of military and scientists to Kuril Island Matua summed up the results of their work. At the next meeting of the Sakhalin branch of the Russian Geographical Society, they made reports in which they told what new secrets the island had revealed for them and what discoveries gave rise to new questions.

Opened the meeting Chairman of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Ponomarev. He noted that cooperation with the Pacific Fleet has provided new opportunities for studying the Kuril Islands.

“The most expensive part of an expedition is transport delivery to the Kuril Islands. But the fact that Sergei Shoigu headed the Russian Geographical Society, allowed us to organize such joint projects with the Ministry of Defense. The military is also heading to Matua for its own research purposes. And they take our scientists with them. We use this cooperation to our advantage. Our research concerns history, archeology, and ecology. Such multifunctionality helps the comprehensive study of islands - both on land and in the sea,” Ponomarev said.

Meeting with members of the expedition to Matua. Photo: IA SakhalinMedia

He recalled that Matua is a very interesting island from the point of view of local historians. It is located in the middle of the Kuril ridge and was previously used by the Japanese as a transit point on the route from north to south, as well as a powerful naval base and airfield.

Local historian Igor Samarin during this expedition he continued his last year's work. His main task was to restore the pattern of Japanese long-term fire installations on the island. Last year, such a map was compiled, but, as it turned out, the island is still fraught with many discoveries.

“This year, quite by accident, our military colleagues discovered a ceramic pipe coming out of the ground. They lowered an improvised video camera into it - a smartphone with a flashlight, and found a room there. At a depth of three meters there was a concrete structure adjacent to an artillery rangefinder post. It turned out that there was a fire control command post underground there. From there, commands were transmitted to the guns using electronics,” said Igor Samarin.

Also, one of the tasks of this year was the study of a Japanese command post on one of the heights of the island. Samarin’s group dug up this concrete structure and got inside.

But scientists made the most interesting discoveries by studying small, not always obvious details. So, next to one of the soldiers’ barracks we found a lampshade. Igor Samarin explains: according to the testimony of the Japanese military themselves of those years, naval sailors lived better than the infantry and they were the only ones who had electricity. So the found lampshade reinforced the belief that it was sailors who lived in the barracks on the island.

“Many ordinary things were revelations. Here we found a beer bottle, the most ordinary one, but on the bottom there was a production date of “18 S 8”. For a knowledgeable person, this is simple - August 16, according to European chronology - 1941. 25 such bottles were found on the island. From them it was possible to determine the time when the bottles were delivered to the island. It turned out that the first supplies of provisions began in 1938 and ended in 1943. And in 1944, the blockade of the island of Matua by American submarines began,” Samarin continued his report.

The scientists did not ignore the Japanese kitchen heaps near each dugout. Bird bones were found among the waste. As it turned out, the Japanese actively used local puffins for food. They also ate mice - voles. There was even an exchange in kind - one mouse cost two cigarettes. Rodent skins were transported to the metropolis to make gloves.

In total, historians brought from the island 86 items from the Japanese and Soviet periods - from baby booties and dishes to fuel barrels and handicraft stoves.

Scientists also managed to solve another mystery that the Matua Islands have kept since the Second World War. For more than 70 years, the fate of the American submarine Herring, which sank two Japanese ships off Matua, was unknown and there was conflicting information about it. Hydrographers, led by the captain of a large hydrographic boat Igor Tikhonov, combed the entire water area of Dvoynaya Bay using a multi-beam echo sounder. And an object very similar to a submarine was discovered in the area of Cape Yurlov at a depth of 110 meters. The military will determine what to do next with this discovery.

As part of the expedition, researchers also studied a more ancient period of the island’s history. Yes, group archaeologist Olga Shubina discovered on the island more than a hundred pits from the ancient dwellings of the first inhabitants of the island. Most likely they belonged to the ancient Ainu, who lived here 2.5 - 3 thousand years ago. Scientists conducted excavations at the sites of the finds and marked the boundaries of the archaeological sites.

At the end of the meeting, Chairman of the Sakhalin Russian Geographical Society Sergei Ponomarev announced that scientists had created a working group dedicated to the unification geographical names on the island of Matua.

“Many objects in Matua still bear Japanese or “folk” Soviet names. The group is preparing a proposal for the official name of about three dozen bays, capes and heights, so that when drawing up maps and diagrams we can use the same designations and understand each other,” Ponomarev said.

The second expedition of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society to the Matua island of the Kuril ridge landed today in Aina and Dvoynaya bays. A detachment of ships of the Pacific Fleet delivered more than 100 military personnel and civilian specialists and 30 pieces of equipment here.

Earlier, the Ministry of Defense announced plans to create a base for Pacific Fleet ships on Matua and restore the airfield. Head of the Russian Military Department Sergei Shoigu noted: “We intend to restore, and not only restore, but also actively exploit this island.”

From June to September, the expedition center of the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Geographical Society and military sailors plan to map the area, explore the Sarychev Peak volcano, hydrography and topography of the coastal bottom, and compile an atlas of marine life in the adjacent water area. Hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, soil scientists, submariners, searchers and archaeologists will work on Matua. Experts will conduct an analysis chemical composition natural waters and potential soil fertility. This is an area of increased seismic activity, and volcanologists intend to reconstruct the activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano over the past 100 thousand years in order to assess the volcanic danger of the territory in the future.

Lost in the ocean, Matua, with an area of only 52 square kilometers, is not without reason arousing such keen interest.

Strategic importance

The Navy is studying the possibility of creating a base for ships in the Kuril Islands. Long-range aviation also has its own interest. Two expeditions to Matua are actually a full cycle of design and survey work that must be completed on the eve of large-scale construction of a new naval base, or more precisely, a logistics support point for the Pacific Fleet.

The first expedition explored Matua in May-July 2016. Specialists conducted radiation and chemical reconnaissance, studied fortifications and other historical sites, performed more than a thousand laboratory studies, and made hundreds of measurements of the external environment, including the hydrography of bays and bays.

Matua is an island of the middle group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands (in a straight line to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky - 670 kilometers, to the Japanese Hokkaido - 740 kilometers). Administratively. During World War II it was one of the largest Japanese naval bases. The indigenous inhabitants of the island were hunters - the Ainu; in 1875 they were replaced by Japanese soldiers. In 1945, Soviet border guards settled on the island, and later air defense units. In 2000, military facilities on Matua were mothballed, and the island became uninhabited for 15 years.

The island resembles a fortress in the middle of the ocean. Matua is reliably protected by inaccessible cliffs and high banks. Not bad Japanese pillboxes, paved roads, three runways of a military airfield, as well as spacious underground structures of unknown purpose.

In the southwestern part of Matua there is a convenient and relatively safe strait for basing ships, protected from the winds by the small island of Toporkovy. It was here that the Japanese roadsteads and piers were located. Since the 1930s, the island served the Japanese as a springboard for further expansion towards Kamchatka.

In August 1945, Soviet paratroopers discovered practically unarmed Japanese on Matua: the 3,800 surrendered soldiers and officers had only 2,000 rifles, and the pilots, sailors and artillerymen simply disappeared (the garrison numbered 7.5 thousand military personnel). For comparison: on Shumshu Island, Soviet troops captured more than 60 Japanese tanks. From interrogations of the commander of the northern group, General Tsumi Fusaki, it is known that the Matua garrison was not subordinate to him and was controlled directly from headquarters in Hokkaido. The island had a special status and keeps many secrets to this day.

New fortress

Russia borders on the sea with 12 countries, and not all of them are friendly. Until recently, our Pacific neighbors, the United States, practiced military-political “containment” of Russia. And Japan claims four Russian islands— Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan and Habomai. And it seems quite logical to strengthen the Far Eastern borders, where since 2015 a unified coastal defense system has been created, necessary to control the strait zones of the Kuril Islands and the Bering Strait, cover fleet deployment routes and increase the combat stability of naval strategic nuclear forces. The steel Kuril ridge is a forced measure, but very effective.

The Kuril Islands are forming. Today, the Sea of Okhotsk is almost completely covered by the DBK (it is logical to assume the presence of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems on the Kuril Islands line). New missile capabilities make it possible to create specially protected sea areas (anti-access/area-denial), most favorable for SSBN combat patrols - four thousand miles from San Francisco and the positions of American ground-based strategic forces in the states of Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota .

The Kuril Islands and Kamchatka must turn into indestructible sea fortress Russia. And to realize this goal small island Matui is of great importance.

The second large-scale expedition of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society will go to the Kuril island of Matua in 2017. The commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Sergei Avakyants, announced this on Wednesday, September 14, at a media club meeting.

The Japanese began to develop the island in the 1930s and gave it exclusively military significance. “The island served as a springboard for further expansion and capture of the Kamchatka Peninsula. A unique system of underground structures was created, connected by a single system of tunnels. Underground structures are a separate topic that requires in-depth study,” said Admiral Sergei Avakyants.

According to him, underground structures are divided into two types: fortifications and structures of unknown purpose - rectangular, square and round, up to 150 meters long.

“Initially there was an assumption that these were warehouse premises, but everything was removed from them. And if these were warehouse premises, then some material traces would have remained. Moreover, it was discovered that a high-voltage cable and power supply system were connected to these premises allowed up to 3 thousand volts to be supplied there. Naturally, this is excessive voltage for storage facilities. But, obviously, some work was carried out in these structures,” TASS quotes the head of the expedition.

The admiral also reported that the same high-voltage cable was discovered on the slope of the Sarychev volcano. “The volcano is alive, the volcano is still breathing. Powerful eruptions occur every 25 years. The remains of an old road leading to the volcano’s mouth have been discovered. From a helicopter, characteristic entrances to underground structures from the water surface are visible. Serious deep-sea research is needed in the northern and northwestern parts of the volcano ", Avakyants emphasized.

He noted that during the expedition, dishes were discovered with symbols characteristic of the imperial family - stars, that is, the island was visited by the highest military-political leadership of Japan during the war, and the garrison was given exceptional attention.

“If on all the islands the Japanese garrisons fought fiercely, until the last soldier, then the island of Matua capitulated last, but capitulated without a fight. The garrison numbered 7.5 thousand people and, which is not typical for the Japanese army, did not offer any resistance,” - the commander said. “We concluded that the garrison fulfilled its main task - it removed all traces and all facts that could lead to the disclosure of the true nature of activities on this island,” he continued.

According to the admiral, the expedition also studied the volcanic activity of the island and discovered the remains of an ancient paleovolcano dating back several million years. “Thus, the version that the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands and the Japanese Islands were a continuous strip of land requires confirmation,” Avakyants noted.

The commander of the Pacific Fleet believes that Toporkovy Island, which is presumably connected to Matua by underground tunnels, also requires further study. "With the permission and on the instructions of the President of the Russian Geographical Society, in 2017 we are conducting a second expedition involving a wide range of specialists from the Academy of Sciences, the Russian Geographical Society and the Moscow state university. The fauna and flora of this island, volcanic activity, water supply system, underground structures, including underwater, require further study. And, in addition, archaeological research is necessary,” the admiral concluded.

The Eastern Military District Command has the possibility of a future basing of the Pacific Fleet forces on the island of Matua.

A detachment of the Pacific Fleet, including a large landing ship"Admiral Nevelskoy", the keel vessel KIL-168 and the rescue tug "SB-522", delivered members of the joint expedition of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society, as well as more than 30 units of various equipment, to the Kuril Island of Matua.

Matua Island is located in the middle part of the Kuril ridge and is significantly removed from populated areas Sakhalin and Kamchatka. The size of the island is 11 kilometers long and 6 and a half wide. It is characterized by an abnormally cold climate with big amount precipitation. Matua has one of the most active active volcanoes region - Sarycheva volcano. A powerful layer of historical and cultural heritage has been preserved here, which is divided into Ainu, Japanese and Russian. In addition, on Matua there is the northernmost point of distribution of Corded Ware - the Neolithic archaeological culture "Jōmon".

This year, the scientific composition of the expedition has expanded significantly. Hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, landscape scientists, soil scientists, submariners, searchers and archaeologists from Vladivostok and Moscow, Kamchatka and Sakhalin will work on the island of Matua. The Expedition Center of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society and personnel Pacific Fleet.

During the work, materials will be collected for the preparation of an atlas identifying marine life in the waters of the island of Matua and neighboring islands, and also video filming of the bottom topography at dive sites was carried out to analyze hydrographic characteristics.

The activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano over the past 100 thousand years will be reconstructed, and the level of its modern activity will be determined. This is necessary to assess the volcanic hazard of the territory and formulate a long-term forecast.

In addition, work will continue to search and study historical sites. military equipment and fortifications from the Second World War. Archaeological work to identify and study historical and cultural monuments of various eras, including the Ainu era, will be developed.

Based on the results of the 2017 expedition, materials will be prepared on the prospects for further development of the island: maps of dangerous natural phenomena, an analysis of alternative energy sources, the chemical composition of natural waters, and potential soil fertility was carried out.

In 2016 Russian geographical society An expedition to Matua was organized for the first time together with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Its goal was to study artifacts of the Second World War and compile a historical and geographical portrait of the island.