by Evgeniy Balakin
[REGNUM] On August 18, Russia marks the 80th anniversary of the landing of Soviet paratroopers on Shumshu, an island in the north of the Kuril Islands. The Japanese turned the small island, located just 12 km from the coast of Kamchatka, into an impregnable fortress.
The heavy fighting on Shumshu, which began after the formal surrender of the Japanese Empire, became the first and decisive stage of the Kuril landing operation and one of the last major battles of World War II.
On the 80th anniversary, a reconstruction of the battle took place on the island, in which more than one and a half hundred history buffs from all over Russia, Belarus and China took part.
As the head of the movement "Clubs of Historical Reconstruction of Russia" Alexey Novikov said, it was a real military-historical expedition. "Our guys followed the detachment's route. They got to Shumsha from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on a warship, landed and set up a camp that reflects the realities of 1945," Novikov noted.
The memory of the heroes of the Kuril operation was also honored by the First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko and the Governor of the Sakhalin Region Valery Limarenko, who arrived in Shumsha.
"Everything is happening as it did 80 years ago, in thick fog. We have followed the path of our ancestors. Sea vessels are approaching the island... Hundreds of people are transferring to landing ships, which are being brought right to the shore..." the Sakhalin regional portal Sakh. Online quoted one of the reenactors.
After the reconstruction of the battle, the distinguished guests visited the memorial to the Kamchatka soldiers who died during the liberation of the Kuril Islands. Part of the memorial events was the ceremonial burial of seven Soviet soldiers whose remains were found on the island by searchers.
The renovation and expansion of the memorial in honor of the paratrooper heroes is being carried out on the instructions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Several months before the anniversary of the Battle of Shumshu, the memorial grounds were improved, captured Japanese equipment was preserved, and the entrance area was renovated.
On the anniversary of the start of the battle for Shumshu, the first stage of the new military-historical memorial complex was opened. On July 18, a four-meter monument was opened in honor of two Heroes of the Soviet Union - marines Nikolai Vilkov and Pyotr Ilyichev.
24-year-old Vilkov and 18-year-old Ilyichev died a heroic death, covering the Japanese embrasures with their bodies.
WAR AFTER CAPITULATION
In the West, it is generally accepted that Japan ceased resistance on August 15, 1945.
That day, Emperor Hirohito addressed his subjects with a statement that the country accepted the Allied conditions set forth at the Potsdam Conference. The decision to surrender was supposedly dictated by the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9. But the first use of the new weapon by the Americans was "merely" a massacre of civilians.
The Imperial armed forces continued their resistance, which was broken by the forces of the Red Army.
The Soviet Union entered the war with Japan on August 9, 1945, fulfilling the obligations of the Yalta Conference, where in exchange for participation in the war against Japan, our country returned South Sakhalin (lost as a result of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905) and the Kuril Islands. Russia ceded the archipelago to Japan under the Treaty of Shimoda of 1875 - in exchange for the Japanese recognizing Sakhalin Island as Russian territory.
Events developed rapidly: by August 12, the Red Army had broken through the defenses of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria (this, among other things, stopped the sadistic "experiments" of Detachment 771 ). The collapse of the front essentially prompted Hirohito to issue a declaration of capitulation. However, the Kwantung Army finally surrendered on August 20.
And despite the Mikado's manifesto, Japanese troops continued to hold the Kuril Islands from Shumshu to Kunashir. It is believed that the garrisons did not lay down their arms because of problems with communications - but more likely, because of an unwillingness to surrender.
On August 15, Joseph Stalin received a letter from US President Harry Truman, which proposed that the Japanese garrisons on the Kuril Islands surrender to the commander of the US Pacific Fleet.
Further correspondence between Washington and Moscow indicated that the United States, despite the Yalta agreements, allowed for the possibility of establishing its own control over the Kuril Islands. This event accelerated the decision to begin the landing operation: Stalin ordered Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky to urgently land troops on the Kuril Islands.
THE LAST LANDING
On August 16, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Ivan Yumashev, gave the order to begin the operation. Soviet forces under the overall command of Major General Alexei Gnechko included the 101st Rifle Division (commander - Lieutenant General Porfiry Dyakov ), a marine battalion, artillery and engineering units.
The naval forces under the command of Captain 1st Rank Dmitry Ponomarev consisted of 64 ships of the Pacific Fleet: the minelayer Okhotsk, the patrol ships Dzerzhinsky and Kirov, minesweepers, and landing ships. Air support was provided by the 128th Mixed Aviation Division (78 aircraft).
On August 17 at 17:00, ships with landing troops left Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky under the cover of fighters and a submarine. They had to overcome the night fog, reach the island in a matter of hours and take the enemy by surprise.
It was a difficult task to solve. The island garrison, led by Lieutenant General Tsutsumi Fusaki, the 91st Infantry Division numbered 8,500 people, with reinforcements from the neighboring island of Paramushir (up to 12,000 people). The Japanese had more than a hundred guns and 77 tanks at their disposal. The island was turned into a powerful fortified area - 34 concrete bunkers, 24 pillboxes, 310 machine gun nests.
At 02:38, the battery from Cape Lopatka (Kamchatka) began an artillery barrage that lasted until 04:50. At 04:22, the advance detachment (1,363 men under the command of Major Shutov : a battalion of marines, companies of machine gunners, mortar men, submachine gunners, soldiers with anti-tank rifles, sappers, chemical reconnaissance soldiers, and foot scouts) began landing on the northwestern coast of Shumshu.
The conditions were extremely difficult: underwater rocks forced the ships to stop 100-200 meters from the shore, the paratroopers walked waist-deep in icy water, and out of 22 radio stations, only one survived.
By 05:30 the Japanese were taken by surprise. The sentries were captured without a shot being fired. But by 06:00 the garrison raised the alarm.
Landing on the GISU "Polarny" before landing on Shumshu
Japanese artillery from Capes Kokutan-saki and Kotomari-saki opened fire on the landing craft, sinking at least four barges, the patrol boat PK-8, and damaging several other vessels. Japanese aircraft attacked, but lost two aircraft to anti-aircraft fire, only slightly damaging the patrol ship Kirov.
By 09:00 the first echelon (138th rifle regiment with artillery) landed, capturing two dominant heights. From 11:00 to 12:00 the Japanese counterattacked using tanks (up to 60 units), fierce battles with hand-to-hand combat ensued. Soviet soldiers destroyed 17 tanks with grenades and antitank rifles.
In one of the battles, senior sailor Vilkov and Red Navy sailor Ilyichev demonstrated heroism, repeating the feat of Alexander Matrosov.
During the day, the Japanese launched a powerful attack, throwing 18 tanks into battle, but were unable to throw the landing force into the sea: 17 tanks were destroyed, the commander of the tank regiment was killed. By 18:00, Soviet forces, supported by naval artillery, attacked Height 171, a key position fortified with concrete pillboxes. After several hand-to-hand fights, the height was taken by 20:00.
At night, the battles continued with small assault groups, sappers destroyed the pillboxes. The second echelon (373rd rifle regiment) landed, a temporary pier was built to unload 11 guns and ammunition. Aviation conducted about 350 sorties, attacking the Japanese rear.
On August 19, the fighting resumed at a lower intensity: Soviet forces methodically suppressed the firing points with artillery. The Japanese brought up reinforcements from Paramushir (the 73rd Infantry Brigade under the command of Major General Sujino Iwao ).
At 09:00, a Japanese envoy from General Tsutsumi proposed negotiations on surrender, and the fighting stopped. However, the Japanese dragged out the negotiations, continuing their resistance. By evening, the Soviet forces, seeing the futility of the negotiations, were able to displace the enemy from several significant positions.
On August 20, the Japanese fired on the approaching Soviet ships, prompting a retaliatory air and artillery strike. Realizing the hopelessness of the situation, General Tsutsumi officially capitulated on August 22, ordering his troops to surrender. The Soviet troops captured: two generals, 525 officers, 11,700 soldiers on Shumshu.
On August 23, approximately eight thousand Japanese on Paramushir surrendered without a fight.
"THE INTERESTS OF THE COUNTRY WERE DEFENDED AT A HIGH PRICE"
The operation ended on September 1 with the surrender of the Shikotan garrison.
The landing operation became the only battle of the Soviet-Japanese War where Soviet losses (about 1,567 people, including 416 killed) exceeded Japanese losses (1,018 killed), which emphasizes the ferocity of the battles.
The operation demonstrated the Red Army's ability to conduct landings in extreme conditions (fog, cold water, rocky shores) and became the last major landing of the Great Patriotic War.
The success on Shumshu Island led to the surrender of the Japanese garrisons on the remaining islands without significant fighting, ending the operation by September 1, 1945. As part of World War II, the operation marked the de facto end of hostilities in the Far East and laid the foundation for the post-war division of spheres of influence.
This battle highlighted the transition from defensive to offensive operations in the Far East, complementing the defeat of the Kwantung Army in Manchuria and the liberation of Sakhalin.
"Shumshu is a landmark page in our history. In essence, World War II ended on this island," said Yuri Trutnev, the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far East, on August 18, 2025. " Our soldiers, having shown heroism, defeated the superior forces of the Imperial Japanese Army. At a high price, the Red Army soldiers managed to defend the interests of the country, protect the Motherland and give citizens a peaceful sky above their heads. And Shumshu will not let us forget this."