The etymology of Sakhalin can be traced back to the Manchu hydronymSahaliyan Ula (Manchu:ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ ᡠᠯᠠ) for "Black River" (i.e. theAmur River). Sakhalin shares this etymology with the Chinese province ofHeilongjiang (Chinese:黑龍江;pinyin:Hēilóngjiāng;lit. 'blackdragon river').
Japanese settlement on Sakhalin dates to at least theEdo period.Ōtomari was supposedly established in 1679, and cartographers of theMatsumae domain mapped the island, and named it "Kita-Ezo". During theMing andQing dynastiesChina considered the island part of its empire, and included the Sakhalin peoples in its "system for subjugated peoples". At no time though was any attempt ever made to establish an Imperial military presence on the island. Japan, concerned aboutRussian expansion in northeast Asia, unilaterally proclaimedsovereignty over the whole island in 1845. Russiansettlers ignored the claim (and the similar claim of China), however, and, beginning in the 1850s, established coal mines, administration facilities, schools, prisons and churches on the island.
In 1855, Russia and Japan signed theTreaty of Shimoda, which declared that both nationals could inhabit the island: Russians in the north, and Japanese in the south, without a clear boundary between. Russia also agreed to dismantle its military base at Ōtomari. Following theSecond Opium War, Russia forced the Qing to sign theTreaty of Aigun andConvention of Peking, under which China lost all territories north ofHeilongjiang (Amur) and east ofUssuri, including Sakhalin, to Russia. ACzaristpenal colony was established in 1857, but the southern part of the island was held by the Japanese until the 1875Treaty of Saint Petersburg, when they ceded it to Russia in exchange for theKuril islands. After theRusso-Japanese War, Russia and Japan signed theTreaty of Portsmouth of 1905, which resulted in the southern part of the island below 50° N passing to Japan; the Russians retained the other three-fifths of the area. South Sakhalin was administered by Japan asKarafuto-chō (樺太庁), with the capital Toyohara, now known asYuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Anton Chekhov museum inAlexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky. It is the house where he stayed in Sakhalin during 1890.
After theRussian Revolution and subsequentcivil war northern Sakhalin ultimately became governed by theRussian SFSR as a part ofFar Eastern Oblast (1922–1926),Far Eastern Krai (1926–1938) andKhabarovsk Krai (included Russian-administered territories of Sakhalin in 1938–1947). Sakhalin Oblast was established on 20 October 1932 as a part of Far Eastern Krai, and became part ofKhabarovsk Krai upon the latter foundation in 1938.
In August 1945, theSoviet Union took over the control of the entire Sakhalinand Kuril Islands. The Soviet attack on South Sakhalin started on August 11, 1945, about a month before theSurrender of Japan in World War II. The56th Rifle Corps consisting of the79th Rifle Division, the 2nd Rifle Brigade, the 5th Rifle Brigade and the214th Tank Brigade attacked the Japanese 88th Division. Although the Red Army outnumbered the Japanese by three times, they could not advance due to strong Japanese resistance. It was not until the 113th Rifle Brigade and the 365th Independent Naval Infantry Rifle Battalion from Sovietskaya Gavan (Советская Гавань) landed on Tōrō (塔路), a seashore village of western Sakhalin on August 16 that the Soviets broke the Japanese defense line. Japanese resistance grew weaker after this landing. Actual fighting continued until August 21. However, this was relatively limited in scope. From August 22 to August 23, most of the remaining Japanese units set truce agreements with the Soviet Army. The Soviets completed the conquest of Sakhalin on August 25, 1945, by occupying the capital of Sakhalin, then known as Toyohara. Japanese sources claim that 20,000 civilians were killed during the invasion.
Shakhtyorsk narrow gauge railway750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in), Central Processing Plant inShakhtyorskThis JapaneseD51 steam locomotive stands outside present day Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Railway Station Sakhalin Island, Russia.
Soviet-conquered areas of South Sakhalin and Kuril Islands were declared a South Sakhalin Oblast by the Soviet authorities in a decree issued on 2 February 1946.[7] Almost a year later, on January 2, 1947, the South Sakhalin Oblast was disbanded and included into Sakhalin Oblast, forming present-day boundary of the latter. On the same day Sakhalin Oblast was excluded fromKhabarovsk Krai.[8] The Japanese who had been living there before mostly repatriated to Japan, but at least one-third of Koreans were refused repatriation; stuck on the island, they and their descendants became known as theSakhalin Koreans. The Karafuto Prefecture was abolished by Japan as a legal entity on June 1, 1949.
TheTreaty of San Francisco (1952) provides, that Japan renounces "all right, title and claim to the Kurile Islands, and to that portion of Sakhalin and the islands adjacent to it over which Japan acquired sovereignty as a consequence of the Treaty of Portsmouth of September 5, 1905". However, the status of thesouthern Kuril Islands remainsdisputed, as Japan does not consider them to be a part of the Kuril Islands (calling them "Northern Territories" instead) and, thus, claims sovereignty over them as "unaffected" by the 1952 renunciation. The issue remains a major strain onJapanese-Russian relations. Even now, no official peace treaty has been signed between the two nations.[9]
In addition, because the treaty did not explicitly specify cession of the renounced areas to the Soviet Union, Japan officially considers South Sakhalin and northern Kuril Islands to be a territories of undetermined ownership and these areas are marked as No Man's Land with white color on Japanese maps, although Japan currently has a Consulate-General in Sakhalin's capital city ofYuzhno-Sakhalinsk, located on the renounced territory.[10]
In 1995 the 7.0 MwNeftegorsk earthquake shook the former settlement ofNeftegorsk with a maximumMercalli intensity of IX (Violent). Total damage was$64.1–300 million, with 1,989 deaths and 750 injured. The settlement was not rebuilt. On 24 April 1996 Sakhalin Oblast, alongsideRostov Oblast, signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy.[11] This agreement would be abolished on 4 March 2002.[12]
According to the first post World War II Soviet Census in 1959, the population of the oblast numbered 649,405. That figure dropped slightly to 615,652 in 1970 before rising to 661,778 in 1979 and peaking at 710,242 in 1989. Throughout this time period, the Russian population increased slightly in percentage from 77.7% in 1959 to 81.6% in 1989. Following the collapse of theSoviet Union in 1991, the population of the oblast has declined sharply. Compared with the Soviet 1989 Census, the population of the Oblast according to the Russian 2002 Census had declined by 163,547 or 23.0%, to 546,695. The 2010 population of 497,973 recorded in 2010 is the lowest on record since the oblast was created, although the decline was less (8.9%) than during the 1990s.
As of the 2002 census, 333 residents of the oblast still identified themselves as ethnic Japanese.[citation needed]
Most of the 888 Japanese people living in Russia (2010 Census) are also of mixed Japanese-Ainu ancestry, although they do not acknowledge it (full Japanese ancestry gives them the right of visa-free entry to Japan).[13]
Several Russian, French, South Korean, British, Canadian and Americanoil andgas companies have been either drilling or prospecting for oil and gas on the island since the mid-1990s.[14]Coal and somemanganese had been mined there by theSoviet authorities since the 1920s.
Due to restrictions, the entire Sakhalin Oblast and its internal and territorial waters except forYuzhno-Sakhalinsk are considered to be aborder zone, which means that the freedom of movement for foreigners is dramatically restricted and any movement outside of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk requires registration to theFederal Security Service (FSB) and theBorder Guard. Scuba diving and recreation on the seacoast is permitted only in places defined by the Border Guard.[15]
Population: According to the2021 census, there were 466,609 people residing in Sakhalin oblast. The population density was 5.4 inhabitants per square kilometre (14/sq mi). 82.4% lived in urban areas. The annual population growth stood at −0.6% (2010-21).
Most inhabitants are descendants of Russian and other Slavic settlers. The indigenousAinu people have historically inhabited the southern part of Sakhalin Island, with only a small number remaining today. The Ainu are not recognized as a separate ethnic group in the Russian census, making it difficult to estimate their total population. Another indigenous group, theNivkh people, live mainly in the north of the island and amount for roughly 2,000 people. There exists a notable minority ofSakhalin Koreans, who can trace their roots to the immigrants from theGyeongsang andJeolla provinces of Korea during the late 1930s and early 1940s, the latter half of theJapanese ruling era. After the Red Army had seized control over southern Sakhalin at the end of WW2, all but a few Japanese thererepatriated successfully, while most Koreans could not secure permission to depart either to Japan or their home towns in South Korea. In 2021, there were roughly 16,000 Sakhalin Koreans, down from 25,000 in the2010 census and 42,000 in the1959 census.[19][21]
According to a 2012 survey[22] 21.6% of the population of Sakhalin Oblast adheres to theRussian Orthodox Church, 4% are unaffiliated genericChristians, 2% adheres to otherOrthodox churches or is an Orthodox believer without belonging to any church, 1% of the population adheres to theSlavic native faith (Rodnovery) or tolocal Siberian native faiths, 1% adheres to forms ofProtestantism. In addition, 37% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 15% isatheist, and 18.4% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.[22]
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