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Kurile Islands - 1990

Kurile Islands - 1990

Jacek Pałkiewicz
2006-06-17 15:59:04

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as islanders call the mainland Russia.

After the visit of then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to Japan in 1991, the framework was established for mutual visits without passports or visas between Japanese citizens and the current Russian residents of the Northern Territories. This was done as a provisional measure to enhance mutual understanding and create an appropriate environment for negotiations toward the solution of the territorial issue and the conclusion of a peace treaty until these matters are resolved.

Japan's Enduring Interest

Under this framework, it is reported that 1,381 Japanese nationals visited the Northern Territories and 1,400 current Russian residents of the Northern Territories visited Japan during the period 1992-1995. A visit to the graves in the Northern Territories, where the remains of relatives of the former Japanese residents are at rest, was first made in 1964, as a result of negotiations with the Soviet side. These negotiations were conducted from a humanitarian viewpoint, in response to the yearnings of the former Japanese residents. After enduring difficulties to reach agreement between Japanese side and the Soviet side with respect to voyage procedures, the talks were resumed in 1986 and have been made continuously since. Since 1990 visits have been made to all the four islands of the Northern Territories.

Now, most of the Russian civilians on the islands live in seven towns, in which 40 percent of the houses do not have indoor plumbing. Live there has always been hard, reportedly. But, especially, since the end of Soviet rule, government support has dwindled, and it is become even harder. One problem is that nearly all the wealth from the main industry-- fishing-- goes to Moscow.

Kurile islanders may be the kin of mainland Russians, bound by blood and language, but in a sense, they are also the citizens of a client state, whose wealth is extracted and sent abroad. Changing old process of fishing industry on the islands was Boris Yeltsin's aim in December 1992, when he issued an order to create Kuril Islands free economic zone. The idea was to liberate the islands from the heavy hand of Moscow by giving them control over the exports, the right to keep foreign currency earned through trade, and the power to impose quotas on foreign vessels fishing in Kuril waters. Also, the tax on a company's earnings, now about eighty percent, would drastically cut to give entrepreneurs to start new businesses. But, Yeltsin could not authorize the plan. Under the Russian constitution, only the Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly, can do that, and so far the Duma balked.

The population shrank by a third following the devastating earthquake in 1994, though some of those who left are now returning. Despite all the hardships, the rough volcanic islands exert a powerful hold. It is the same kind of frontier appeal that makes Alankans such vehement boosters of their state, reportedly.