Will the Kuril Island of Matua become a new base for the Russian Pacific Fleet. Secrets of Matua: what the bowels of the Kuril Island hide The results of the expedition to the island of Matua

Matua is a small island located in the very center of the Kuril chain. During the Great Patriotic War, the Japanese turned it into an impregnable fortress, planning to use it as a springboard in case of war with the USSR.

The Russian Ministry of Defense is taking unprecedented measures to develop military infrastructure on Sakhalin and the Kuriles. The expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) has begun engineering work to study fortifications on the Kuril Island of Matua. This was announced by the head of the press service of the Eastern Military District, Colonel Alexander Gordeev.

“On the slopes of the hills and at the foot of the Sarychev volcano, the liberation of potterns (underground corridors for communication between fortifications, fortress forts or strongholds of fortified areas) and warehouses from rubble has begun,” Gordeev said. -Five groups of searchers "carry out earthworks using a bulldozer, excavator and other special equipment."

According to the participants of the military-historical expedition, scientific research will help to find answers to many questions and “dispel the halo of mystery of the island of Matua”. Before starting work in each fortification, air samples are taken, which are carefully analyzed in the laboratory for the presence of toxic substances.

Until the end of World War II, Japan actively explored these islands, including the mysterious island of Matua, located in the center of the Kuril chain. On this island, Japan mined some valuable minerals. After the end of World War II, Truman even turned to Stalin with a request to transfer the island of Matua to the United States. The island was not given away, but for some reason we don’t use its dungeons ourselves.

During the Second World War, allied aircraft, bombing everything that belonged to Japan in the Pacific, bypassed Magua. And when the war ended, President Truman turned to Stalin with an unexpected request to provide the United States with only one of the islands in the center of the Kuriles occupied by Soviet troops. Why did the small island of Matua attract the president of America so much?

Matua is a small island located in the very center of the Kuril chain. During the Great Patriotic War, the Japanese turned it into an impregnable fortress, planning to use it as a springboard in case of war with the USSR. The war really began, but in 1945, 3811 Japanese soldiers and officers "valiantly" surrendered to 40 Soviet border guards.

The island, which went to the USSR, was pitted up and down with ditches, trenches and artificial caves. Numerous pillboxes and hangars were built to last. The entire coast of Matua along the perimeter was cordoned off by a dense ring of pillboxes made of stone or hollowed out in the rock. They were made so soundly that members of amateur expeditions, who have been studying the island for many years, claim that today the pillboxes could be used for their intended purpose. Moreover, their device was not limited only to preparing a point for firing. Each such position had an extensive network of underground passages, also carved into the rock.

The island's airfield was built even more carefully. It is located so well and made so technically competently that the planes could take off and land in the wind of any strength and direction. Japanese engineers also provided for an "anti-snow" design. Pipes were laid under the concrete pavement, into which hot water from thermal springs flowed. So the icing of the runway did not threaten the Japanese pilots, and the planes could take off and land both in winter and in summer.

In one of the coastal cliffs, the industrious Japanese cut down a huge cave, where a submarine could easily hide. Nearby was the underground residence of the garrison command, disguised in one of the surrounding hills. Its walls were carefully lined with stone, nearby there is a pool and an underground bathhouse.

One of the secrets of the island is the disappearance of all military equipment without a trace. Despite extensive searches since 1945, nothing has been found on the island. Moreover, there is an amazing, downright mystical pattern - people who tried to search, died in fires, which often happened on the island, fell into avalanches.

In the late 1990s, as a result of an accident, the deputy head of the frontier post, who led these searches, died. And when they tried to restore the destroyed communications, a volcano suddenly woke up, located in the center of the island. The eruption occurred with such force that huge blocks flying out of the vent knocked down birds that soared hundreds of meters from the crater!

Here is the opinion of the enthusiastic researcher Yevgeny Vereshchaga about the unsolved mysteries of the island of Matua: “There is an unusual hill on Matua, more than 120 meters high and 500 meters in diameter.

Nature does not like such regular forms. This involuntarily suggests that all this whopper is made by human hands. This is an artificial hill that served as a camouflaged aircraft hangar. A very wide man-made depression, overgrown with trees and shrubs, clearly stands out on its slope. Probably, the gate to the hangar was located here, which were first blown up and then covered with ash from an erupting volcano.

In addition, hundreds of rusty fuel barrels are scattered on the island - mostly German, and absolutely intact and with fuel from the times of the fascist Third Reich. In translation, the markings on them read "Fuel Wehrmacht, 200 liters." And the dates - 1939, 1943 - up to the victorious 1945.

So, having circled the globe, Hitler's allied submarines moored at Matua and delivered cargo!?

By the way, about the volcano. There were many questions about where the military equipment disappeared, which, judging by the underground structures, was literally stuffed with the island-fortress. One of the participants in amateur expeditions made a seemingly incredible assumption: “Perhaps the Japanese threw all their ammunition into the mouth of the volcano, and then blew it up, causing a powerful eruption. This version, at first glance, sounds like a fantasy. But a road has been laid up the cone of the volcano, where traces of caterpillar vehicles can be discerned even decades later. One can only guess what the Japanese carried along it.”

But all these conspicuous grandiose structures are only the external, visible part of the Japanese secret underground fortress. More than half a century has passed since the end of World War II, but no one has managed to unravel the secrets of the dungeons.

The Japanese, referring to the secrecy of this information, stubbornly did not respond to requests from first Soviet and then Russian researchers of the island of Matua. It was also not possible to understand the strange interest in the island of the American president.

What does the Kuril Island hide in its depths? But what if the death of the military researchers of the island, and the volcano that woke up at the wrong time, and the interest of the American president in Matua, and the refusal of the Japanese to provide materials are not a random chain of events? Perhaps, in the secret, not yet found dungeons of the island-fortress, there is not rusted and no one needs military equipment today, but secret laboratories that developed secret weapons that were never used during the war?

At dawn on August 12, 1945, three days before Japan announced its surrender, a deafening explosion sounded in the Sea of Japan, not far from the Korean Peninsula. A fireball with a diameter of about 1000 meters rose into the sky. It was followed by a giant mushroom cloud. According to American expert Charles Stone, Japan's first and last atomic bomb was detonated here, and the explosion power was about the same as that of the American bombs detonated a few days earlier over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

C. Stone's statement that during the Second World War, Japan was working on the creation of an atomic bomb and achieved success, was met with great doubt by many US scientists. The military historian John Dower was more cautious about this information.

According to this famous scientist, it is impossible to completely exclude the possibility that at dawn on August 12, 1945, Japan's first and last atomic bomb was detonated in the Sea of Japan off the coast of Korea. Evidence of this can serve as a huge secret military Khinnam complex, located on the territory of modern North Korea. It was powerful enough and equipped with everything necessary for the production of an atomic bomb.

The plausibility of Ch. Stone's unexpected hypothesis is confirmed by the research of the former American intelligence officer Theodore McNally. At the end of World War II, he served in the analytical intelligence headquarters of the commander of the Allied forces in the Pacific, General MacArthur.

In his article, McNally writes that American intelligence had reliable data on a large Japanese nuclear center in the Korean city of Heungnam, but kept information about this facility secret from the USSR. Moreover, on the morning of August 14, 1945, American aircraft brought back to their airfields air samples taken over the Sea of Japan near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula. The processing of the obtained samples gave stunning results. She showed that in the aforementioned area of the Sea of Japan on the night of August 12-13, an unknown nuclear device exploded!

If we assume that the development of the most terrible weapon of the 20th century, nuclear, was really going on in the underground city on the island-fortress, then this gives an answer to many questions that baffle the organizers of amateur research expeditions.

Why did President Truman, addressing Stalin, ask to transfer the island of Matua to the USA?

Even before the end of World War II, the Americans began to prepare for an armed clash with the USSR. After the declassification of materials about the Second World War, a folder with the inscription "Unthinkable operation" was found in the British archives. Indeed, no one could think of such an operation! The date on the document is May 22, 1945. Consequently, the development of the operation was started even before the end of the war. The plan was described in the most detailed way ... a massive strike on Soviet troops!

The main trump card in a military clash could be nuclear weapons, available only to the United States. Soviet tank divisions that went through the Second World War were located in the center of Europe. If Stalin, in addition to his superiority in ground forces, also received nuclear weapons created by Japanese scientists, then in the event of a military clash, the outcome of the war would be a foregone conclusion and Europe would become completely socialist.

Why do the Japanese, referring to the secrecy of information, stubbornly refuse to respond to requests from first Soviet and then Russian researchers of the island of Matua?

And how should they act?

If an underground secret center were discovered on the island of Matua, in which nuclear weapons were developed, and not only developed, but also the technology for their manufacture was brought to practical implementation, this would lead to a reassessment of the events of the Second World War. The atomic bombing of Japanese cities would have been justified: the American pilots simply outstripped the future Japanese atomic raids. Demands for the return of the South Kuriles could be seen as a desire to continue work on the creation of secret weapons, which stopped as a result of the defeat of Japan.

And on this mysterious island, the Russian Pacific Fleet launched an unprecedented survey.

The representative of the Eastern Military District recalled that "mobile airfield complexes have already been deployed on the island to ensure the flights of aircraft." The drainage system has been cleared and preparations for the landing of helicopters of any type have been completed.

The personnel of the military-historical expedition continues to be active in Dvoinaya Bay in order to “prepare the coastal section of the island for the approach of a large landing ship to the shore using the “point-blank” method for loading equipment and materiel,” Gordeev said.

As previously reported, 200 members of the expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society, the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet, led by Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Andrei Ryabukhin, on six ships and vessels left Vladivostok on May 7 and arrived on May 14 on the island of Matua.

The development of the plan for the second expedition to the island of Matua in the Kuril chain has been completed, the researchers will go there in June 2017, said Vladimir Matveev, a representative of the Pacific Fleet.

“At the headquarters of the Pacific Fleet (Pacific Fleet), preparations are underway for a research expedition to the island of Matua, which will take place from June to September 2017. At present, the development of a detailed survey plan for the Kuril Island has been completed, the personnel and the necessary equipment for survey work have been determined,” he said.

Matveev recalled that "an expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) and the Pacific Fleet in the amount of 200 people led by Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral Andrei Ryabukhin conducted large-scale research on the island of Matua in 2016."

“Specialists have conducted more than a thousand laboratory studies on physical, chemical and biological indicators. More than 200 measurements of the external environment were also made. Radiation and chemical reconnaissance of more than 120 kilometers of the route was carried out, all the fortifications of the island and more than 100 historical objects were examined. The divers carried out work on the hydrographic study of the bays and bays of the island,” he specified.

Earlier, the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Sergei Avakyants, noted that scientific expeditions to the island of Matua had not been carried out since 1813.

“The Japanese began to develop Matua from 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 facilities are a separate topic that requires deep study,” the commander said.

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

“If on all the islands the Japanese garrisons fought fiercely, to 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 show any resistance. We concluded that the garrison had fulfilled its main task - to remove all traces and all the facts that could lead to the disclosure of the true nature of the activities on this island," Avakyants said.

He noted that Toporkovy Island also requires further study, which may be connected to Matua by underground tunnels.

“With the permission and at the direction of the President of the Russian Geographical Society (Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu - ed.), in 2017 we are conducting the second expedition with the involvement of a wide range of specialists - the Academy of Sciences, the Russian Geographical Society and Moscow State University. The fauna and flora of this island, volcanic activity, water supply system, underground structures, including underwater ones, require further study. And besides, it is necessary to carry out archaeological research,” the admiral concluded.

The defensive hypostasis of the "mysterious island" of Matua

Recently, the mention of the small island of Matua in the Kuril chain has become frequent not only in Russian, but also in foreign media. So why is this "mysterious island" so famous?

"Matua" in translation from the Ainu language means "Little burning bays." This island is located in the middle part of the Kuril chain between the islands of Raikoke and Rasshua.

Recall that in early May, a scientific expedition, consisting of six (!!!) warships of the Pacific Fleet, with more than two hundred people on board - scientists and specialists equipped with heavy equipment, underground search tools, various materials and equipment.

The expedition was organized not by social activists or semi-underground treasure seekers, which happened more than once, but for the first time jointly by the Russian Geographical Society (RGS) and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation itself. We also recall that Army General Sergei Shoigu is not only the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, but also the President of the Russian Geographical Society. Agree, this leads to certain thoughts.

“There are a lot of mysteries, a lot of interesting things, a mysterious island,” the President of the Russian Geographical Society and the Minister of Defense said in parting words to the expedition participants, noting that there are many fortifications, mines, grottoes, runways, a road leading to the volcano on Matua ... He did not hide that the expedition includes speleologists, researchers of underwater worlds, military specialists.

“And there are many different mysteries in the military part. To this day, no one can answer where the huge amount of equipment and ammunition that were prepared to repel the Soviet troops went. And where did two-thirds of the garrison that was on this island disappear, ”Sergey Kuzhugetovich recalled.

Such a degree of awareness of the highest official of the Russian military department indicates that the situation has been studied and the decision to reconnoiter has been made.

Yes, and the expedition is headed by the Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet (Pacific Fleet), Vice Admiral Andrey Ryabukhin. And this is a direct target designation for "reconnaissance in combat terrain."

The commander of the Eastern Military District (VVO), Colonel General Sergei Surovikin, completely opened the curtain of secrecy: “The Russian military is considering the possibility of basing the forces of the Pacific Fleet (Pacific Fleet) on the island of Matua in the Kuril ridge,” he said.

1. Matua Island is one of the geological and historical pearls of the Kuril chain. The island is elongated meridionally in the form of an oval, convex to the east, slightly concave to the west. Length from northwest to southeast about 11 km, width 6.4 km, area 52 km2.

Most of the island is occupied by a conical active volcano Fuyo (Sarychev Peak) 1485 m high, constantly smoking and from time to time ejecting lava flows flowing down from the crater along the northeastern slope.

The volcano got its name in honor of the honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy, Admiral G.A. Sarychev. This polar explorer was the first to most accurately establish the position of the island of Matua.

Towards the shore they take the form of hills and, descending more and more, pass into a flat sandy coast with two capes; the continuation of the latter are underwater reefs up to 1.8 km long.

The slopes of Mount Fuyo are dissected by hollows, but for the most part they are covered with stone placers, especially thick at the sole.

Approximately one third of the foot of the volcano is occupied by undersized shrubs. Their dwarf growth, no more than a meter, they obviously compensate for their extraordinary density. The thickets are so thick that you can't get through.

In the highlands, a strip of alpine meadows begins. And even higher - unstable slag and stones. At the tip, hydrosolfators plentifully throw jets of water vapor into the air.

The crater, from which sulfurous gases hiss and roar, is filled to the brim with lava. On the southeastern side, its walls rise 40 m above its boiling interior. On the eastern side, they almost disappear, and in the west they are almost equal to the level of the volcanic funnel.

There is a version that from this side part of the crater was specially blown up by the Japanese so that during the eruption the lava would flow into the Sea of Okhotsk. Since 1760, at least a dozen volcanic eruptions have been known.

So in 1946, volcanic bombs were thrown out through the Dvoynaya Strait (1.6 km) to Toporkovy Island by an explosive wave of terrifying force. The ash from the eruption reached as far as Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky itself. Hot avalanches that year flowed into the bays, forming three new capes.

On the other side of the island, a giant tsunami wave that penetrated deep into the gentle coast of Ainu Bay brought and piled up huge tree trunks, washed away a layer of soil and opened the entrances to old half-flooded adits. Similar structures are pierced in the rocks throughout the island.

The southernmost cape of the island of Matua is called Yurlov after the skipper, who was part of the Second Kamchatka Expedition and wintered on the island in 1756-1757. True, a typo crept into the maps, and now this place is often called Cape Orlov.

There are no completely closed bays on Matua. If you look at the island on maps or aerial photography, it may seem that there is no good shelter for a ship near the island at all.

In practice, there is a convenient and relatively safe place. This is the strait in the southwestern part of the island, covered from the west by the small island of Ivaki (Toporkovy). It was here that the Japanese raid was located, the berths were located.

Approaches to the islands from the sea are safe everywhere up to 0.18 km from the coast. Anchorages are in two bays.

Ainu Bay (Ainu, Ainuwan) is located in the southwest of the island and serves as a refuge for a few ships in calm and easterly winds. Depth 14-25 m; sandy soil. Landing is convenient on the sandy shore near the mouth of the Khesupo River.

Yamato Bay (Yamoto). Located between the islands of Matsuwa and Iwaki. The best of all the bays of the ridge. It is divided into two parts by a bridge connecting the islands. You can go from one bay to another along a hollow near about. Iwaki, 9 m deep.

The soil in both parts of the bay is sandy. Depending on the winds, you can use the northern or southern parts of the bay

Despite the proximity of a very restless and formidable volcanic "neighbor", the Ainu from time immemorial equipped their dwellings on Matua, which were located on the banks of the only fresh stream. The last Ainu families were resettled by the Japanese in Shikotan at the beginning of the 20th century.

After the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, according to the Treaty of Portsum, the Kuril Islands and half of Sakhalin were ceded to Japan. The Japanese have long laid eyes on the island of Matua because of its successful middle - geographical position, non-foggy climate and the convenience of anchoring ships of various types.

They equipped fishing camps, a fur farm and a marine reserve on Matua. Then a guard post, a weather station, a Shinto shrine were built here.

Fortification surprises, military secrets and political mysteries of the island of Matua

During the Great Patriotic War, the Japanese turned Matua into a naval fortress - a miracle of fortification art.

The entire coast of the island along the perimeter was cordoned off by a dense ring of pillboxes made of stone or hollowed out in the rock. They were made so soundly that members of amateur expeditions, who have been studying the island for many years, claim that today the pillboxes could be used for their intended purpose.

Moreover, their device was not limited only to preparing a point for firing. Each such position had an extensive network of underground passages, also carved into the rock.

In one of the coastal cliffs, numerous Chinese and Korean prisoners of war cut down a huge cave where a submarine could easily hide. Nearby was the underground residence of the garrison command, disguised in one of the surrounding hills. Its walls were carefully lined with stone, nearby there is a pool and an underground bathhouse.

The island's airfield was built even more carefully.

It is located so well and made so technically competently that the planes could take off and land in the wind of any strength and direction along three (!!!) runways (runways) up to 85 meters wide and up to 1850 m long.

Japanese engineers also provided for an "anti-icing" design. Pipes were laid under the concrete pavement, into which hot water from thermal springs flowed. So the icing of the runway did not threaten the Japanese pilots, and the planes could take off and land both in winter and in summer.

Most of the fortification works are carefully disguised and still are. Here is the private opinion of enthusiastic researcher Yevgeny Vereshchaga: “There is an unusual hill on Matua, more than 120 meters high and 500 meters in diameter. Nature does not like such regular shapes. This involuntarily suggests that all this whopper was made by human hands.

This is an artificial hill that served as a camouflaged aircraft hangar. A very wide man-made depression, overgrown with trees and shrubs, clearly stands out on its slope. Probably, here was the gate to the hangar, which was first blown up, and then covered with ash from an erupting volcano.

But even these conspicuous or disguised grandiose structures are only the external, visible part of the Japanese secret underground fortress. More than 70 years have passed since the end of World War II, but no one has managed to unravel the secrets of the dungeons.

The Japanese, referring to the secrecy of this information, stubbornly did not respond to requests from first Soviet and then Russian researchers of the island of Matua.

According to its fortification data, the naval fortress of Matua is theoretically and practically impregnable. Take the word of the author - a fortification officer by military education.

However, on August 26, 1945, 3,795 Japanese soldiers and officers "valiantly" surrendered to 40 Soviet border guards.

But the trophies amounted to only 2127 rifles, 81 light machine guns, 464 heavy machine guns and 98 grenade launchers, which is clearly "not a lot". In addition, among the listed trophies taken on Matua, there were no artillery pieces, anti-aircraft guns and tanks.

Why? Where are the food, stocks of uniforms and means of communication of the garrison. And where did about 10,000 Chinese and Korean prisoners of war disappear to?

In fact, there are many questions in the history of the landing of Soviet troops on Matua. One of the participants in amateur expeditions made a seemingly incredible assumption: "Perhaps the Japanese threw all their ammunition and prisoners into the mouth of the volcano, and then blew it up, causing a powerful eruption."

This version, at first glance, sounds like a fantasy. But a road has been laid up the cone of the volcano, where traces of caterpillar vehicles can be discerned even decades later. One can only guess what the Japanese carried along it.

And is there more. At the Potsdam Conference in 1945, US President Harry Truman, out of nowhere, turned to Stalin with an unexpected request to provide the United States with only one of the islands in the center of the Kuriles, which should be occupied by Soviet troops - Matua.

“For friends, nothing is a pity!” - answered the generallisimo. But as an "allaverda" he asked for one of the Aleutian Islands.

Why did the small island of Matua attract the President of America so much? The answer to this, perhaps, should be sought in the secrets of the development and mastery of nuclear weapons by the United States, the USSR, Germany and Japan. Yes, and Japan.

According to American expert Charles Stone, Japan's first and last atomic bomb was detonated here, and the explosion power was about the same as that of the American bombs detonated a few days earlier over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In his article, McNally writes that American intelligence had reliable data on the development of nuclear weapons by the Japanese on one of the islands of the Kuril chain (Matua?) and on a large Japanese nuclear center in the Korean city of Hynam, but kept information about these objects secret from the USSR.

Moreover, on the morning of August 14, 1945, American aircraft brought to their airfields air samples taken over the Sea of Japan near the east coast of the Korean Peninsula. The processing of the obtained samples gave stunning results. She showed that in the aforementioned area of the Sea of Japan on the night of August 12-13, an unknown nuclear device exploded!

If we assume that in the underground city on the island-fortress of Matua, the development of the most terrible weapon of the 20th century, nuclear, was really going on, then this gives an answer to many questions that baffle the organizers of amateur research expeditions.

Maybe the interest of the American president in Matua, and the volcano that woke up at the wrong time, and the refusal of the Japanese to provide materials are not a random chain of events? And maybe, in the secret, not yet found dungeons of the island-fortress, not only rusty and useless military equipment is hidden, but secret laboratories that developed secret weapons that were never used during the war?

Say - fiction. Then I ask you to pay attention to the latest facts. The aforementioned expedition had no time to set off for the Great Kuril Ridge, when the Prime Minister of Japan suddenly hurried to set off ...

Not to Washington at all, but to Sochi, to Russian President Vladimir Putin, ignoring the insistent recommendations of the "big brother" - the President of the United States - to refrain from such a step. The details of this high meeting remained "a mystery with seven seals." I do not think that this is a coincidence of facts and events. Other than that, time will tell.

Better late than never

The answer to the surprises, mysteries and mysteries of the island of Matua still waited for their researchers. Ships of the Pacific Fleet are taking part in today's expedition - the large landing ship "Admiral Nevelskoy" and the killer ship KIL-168.

On board are representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet, as well as the Russian Geographical Society, Moscow experts in the field of soil science, geomorphology, paleogeography and other sciences.

“The Japanese created an impressive number of antiamphibious defense facilities on Matua, erected numerous long-term firing points,” said Igor Samarin, one of the expedition members. “Our task is to find them, describe them, put them on a map. I have been to Matua twice already, doing this work. But there are still so many unexplored objects, not enough for one such expedition.

In addition to scientific tasks, the military leadership is considering the possibility of promising deployment of the Pacific Fleet forces there. In the meantime, all the infrastructure necessary to ensure the life of the expedition members has been deployed on the island.

A field camp has already been equipped by the military forces of the Air Defense Forces on Matua, water and electricity supplies have been organized, a communications center and a logistics center have been created. One of the tasks that was announced was the assessment of the state of the local airfield.

The expedition settles on about. Matua, May 2016...

The headquarters of the Eastern Military District (VVO) note that the runways of the airfield are well preserved. “Their favorable location, taking into account the wind rose and the local climate in those years, ensured the landing and take-off of aircraft at any time,” the press service of the Air Defense Forces informed.

"In time, the airfield on the island of Matua in the Kuril chain will become a full-fledged aviation base of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS)," General of the Army Pyotr Deinekin, former commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, believes.

P. Deinekin noted that one of the important criteria for assessing the air power of the state is the ground infrastructure. “In military affairs, there is such a thing as operational basing density. When a large number of aviation equipment is located at one airfield, it can be put out of action in one missile strike or an enemy air raid. And in order not to repeat the air pogrom of 1941, our airfield network is expanding.

The scientific and survey expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) has begun engineering work to restore the airfield on the island of Matua in the center of the Kuril ridge, the Russian Defense Ministry reports.

The runway (RWY) was surveyed, mobile airfield complexes and equipment for flight support were prepared for operation, the airfield drainage system was cleared, and the landing site for helicopters of any type was completed.

The airfield has three runways with a length of more than 1200 m and a width of 85 m with concrete and asphalt pavement.

“As for the airfield on Matua, it is currently too small to support heavy aircraft flights. But in the future, everything will be done to turn this airfield into an aviation base,” said P. Deinekin.

The Headquarters of the Pacific Fleet informs that the expedition of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society has begun engineering work on the island of Matua to restore the mooring facilities of the island of Matua, and is also exploring the fortifications of the Second World War.

The primary task is to prepare the coastal section of the island in Dvoinaya Bay for the approach of the large landing ship "Admiral Nevelskoy" to the shore using the "point-blank" method for full-fledged loading and unloading operations.

In addition, experts have already begun to examine the previously discovered underground fortifications.

There is also an active search for entry points to underground utilities and transitions between structures.

Conclusion

Naturally, this is only part of the information collected by the expedition that is open to the public.

Even after more than 70 years since the liberation of Matua, more questions arise on the island than there are answers to them.

Uncover all the secrets of the Kuril island of Matua

One of the priority projects of the Russian Geographical Society today is an expedition to the island of Matua. Despite several months of painstaking work on its study, there are still many mysteries. Tunnels and underground structures have not been fully studied. It remains to be seen where the dishes of the Japanese imperial family and empty fuel barrels came from on Matua, and much more remains to be done.

The other day, TASS reported that several teams of scientists from Vladivostok, Moscow, Kamchatka, and Sakhalin Island will work as part of an expedition to Matua, which will take place from June to September.

At present, the Pacific Fleet Headquarters has completed the development of a detailed survey plan for the Kuril Islands, determined the personnel and the necessary equipment for survey work as part of the expedition to Matua Island in 2017. This year the composition of the expedition will expand significantly. Several teams of hydrogeologists, volcanologists, hydrobiologists, landscape scientists, soil scientists, submariners, search engines and archaeologists from Vladivostok, Moscow, Kamchatka and Sakhalin will work on the island of Matua at once,” said the head of the information support department of the press service of the Eastern Military District (VVO) for the Pacific Navy (Pacific Fleet) Captain 2nd Rank Vladimir Matveev.

According to him, Pacific Fleet psychologists are now completing the professional psychological selection of servicemen participating in the future expedition, who are undergoing special tests and programs to establish the degree of stress resistance and the level of performance in extreme conditions, the psychological compatibility of future expedition members and assess the moral and business qualities of servicemen.

Matua is an island of the middle group of the Great Ridge of the Kuril Islands. The length is about 11 km, the width is 6.4 km. During the Second World War, one of the largest naval bases in Japan was located on it. In 1945, the island was ceded to the USSR, and the Japanese base was turned into a Soviet one. The island has preserved many fortifications, mines, grottoes, two runways, which are heated by thermal springs, so they can be used all year round. In 2000, the base was mothballed and the island of Matua officially became uninhabited.

In 2016, the first joint research expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Russian Geographical Society to Matua took place, in which the military personnel of the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet took part. In total, more than 200 people were involved in the expedition. The Ministry of Defense was interested in the island as a possible base for the forces of the Pacific Fleet. Then, an extensive network of tunnels was discovered on Matua, as well as the sunken Japanese light fighter Mitsubishi Zero, released in 1942.

The second research expedition to Matua will take place from June to September 2017, it is planned to collect materials for the preparation of an atlas-identifier of marine life in the waters of Matua and neighboring islands. Also, the researchers will create a reconstruction of the activity of the Sarychev Peak volcano in the late Pleistocene, including historical eruptions, and map the island. In addition, it is planned to conduct a survey of marine hydrobiont species, compare the biota of adjacent water areas to assess the state of biodiversity, and identify possible ways of migration and interpenetration of elements of flora and fauna in the North Pacific Ocean.

In September last year, tvzvezda.ru correspondent Alexander Stepanov visited Matua. Here are excerpts from his report "The Mystery of Matua Island: When the Japanese Fortress Becomes a Russian Base".

From a bird's eye view, Matua Island seems like a small spot - 11 kilometers long and six and a half wide, two thirds of the island's area is occupied by the active VOLCANO - Sarychev Peak. The island is completely unsuitable for life. Severe climatic conditions: constant winds and rains in summer. Sunny days once or twice and miscalculated. Here, even in June, snow turns white on the slopes of the hills. The snow cap decorates Sarychev Peak all year round. This volcano is famous for being one of the most active active volcanoes in the region. Norov at Sarychev Peak is cool - you can’t call him sleeping. Eruptions, though short-lived, are frequent and strong.

Despite all the natural disasters, the Japanese during the Second World War turned the island into an impregnable fortress, where there were underground tunnels, an airfield, and even a railway. The garrison on the island exceeded three thousand people. In general, the Kuril Islands were used by the Japanese as a strategic barrier to exit from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Pacific Ocean. A whole network of various military defensive fortifications was erected here.

To get to the island by air, you need a fair amount of luck. The so-called windows - small gaps - open very rarely over the island, and people sometimes have to sit at the airfield for several days to get into this window that has opened for a short time. The nearest airfield from which you can get to Matua is on the island of Iturup. It's about 500 kilometers. And if suddenly the weather over Matua deteriorates after the "turntable" has almost flown up to the island, then you have to return to the base on the remaining fuel. As the helicopter pilots say, "with adventures."

When approaching the island, you can see that it is pitted with coastal fortifications. Trenches originating at the very edge of the water. Pillboxes and bunkers, hollowed out in the numerous hills of the island, look like empty loopholes towards the sea. It is noticeable that the island really resembles a fortress rising directly from the sea. In mid-June, Matua has about seven degrees of heat and a piercing wind. You have to warm up in winter: jackets, sweaters, boots with high berets. An expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society, the Eastern Military District and the Pacific Fleet has been working here since May under the leadership of Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral Andrei Vladimirovich Ryabukhin.

Despite the fact that since September 1945 the island passed to the USSR, no real research was carried out on it. The current expedition is designed to unravel the mysteries of the most little-studied island of the Kuril chain. And there are a lot of secrets here. The researchers have three main tasks: to study the military-historical component of the island, to study the volcanic activity of Matua, and to understand how to develop a military infrastructure on the island.

The scientific group of the Russian Geographical Society is engaged in routine, but very necessary work on the island - it makes maps of the island: landscape, geological and soil. Soil and plant samples are taken. The second group is looking for artifacts left over from the Japanese. So, in June, search engines raised the wing of a Japanese aircraft manufactured in 1942 and brought it to the camp. Items that can tell about the life of Japanese soldiers were also found: ammunition, dishes, clothes, household items. Members of the expedition even climbed Sarychev Peak, where two flags were hoisted - the Russian Federation and the Andreevsky flag of the Navy.

Climbing the VOLCANO is not just hoisting flags, the expedition members tried to understand which side the eruption with a plume is going to. From a height you can clearly see where the island has changed its structure, geography, where new beaches have appeared. They found out how Japanese barriers, including anti-mudflow outflows, blocked the path of mud flowing towards the Japanese barracks. I am interested in one of the leaders of the expedition, a full member of the Russian Geographical Society Andrey Ivanov, whether Matua is really a mysterious island where the secrets of imperial Japan are kept, or is it idle speculation of journalists.

“Journalists love to ask questions about riddles,” the scientist smiles. - Of course, it is still difficult to thoroughly study what is left of the Japanese, to understand where the myths are and where the reality is. We managed to find out that the legends that there is an underground city on Matua, built by them at the end of the Second World War, have grounds. We have found quite a few entrances that lead underground, all of them are blown up or filled up. We dug up one such entrance and found behind it numerous underground passages, storage rooms, which were connected to the above-ground system of trenches and trenches by special passages. It's not a legend, it's real."

At the same time, the main goal of the expedition is not to guess Japanese puzzles, but to make a comprehensive assessment of the territory in order to understand how suitable it is for development, whether mudflows and tsunamis will wash away the new infrastructure of the island. The expedition is also interested in how the Japanese garrison solved life support issues, because, as it turned out, there are no water sources on the island.

The head of the expedition, Deputy Commander of the Pacific Fleet Andrei Ryabukhin, told Army Standard that the Japanese used exclusively melt water, which is formed due to melting snow on the volcano. Therefore, many old Japanese filters for water purification are found on Matua, which were invented by the head of the 731st detachment in Manchuria, Shiro Ishii (a Japanese doctor who conducted inhuman experiments on people and developed bacteriological weapons). They assumed two types of cleaning, coarse and fine. Rough with the help of brushes removed all the dirt and debris from the water. During the thin period, water was driven through ceramic filters under pressure, then it went through trenches into special containers.

Part of the system was carried out in the area of the mountain system, and the Japanese arranged part near the lakes, which were formed during the period of snow melting. Pumping stations were installed next to them. By the way, due to the fact that there were many rats on the island, which also used water, strong antibiotics were found here, with which underground hospitals were literally littered. Tablets prevented the defeat of personnel. At the same time, the members of the expedition assert that there was no actual production of bacteriological weapons on the island. After all, if something had gone wrong, then the Japanese garrisons in the Kuriles would have died themselves.

The island was needed primarily as a huge storage and security base for an extended communication line that ran from "big" Japan to the Paramushir and Shumshu islands, where large garrisons were stationed. Only American submarines and surface ships posed a threat to the safety of this route. Since Allied aircraft could not actively bomb the islands due to the flight range, the main emphasis was placed on defense against the fleet. Therefore, a large airfield with two lanes was built on the island, where fighter aircraft and bombers were based.

Also, up to ten thousand people could be on the island in order to strengthen the Japanese garrisons on the northern islands of Shumshu and Paramushir, if necessary. I ask Ryabukhin: did the expedition manage to understand how the defense of the island was built?

“We found out the system of communications and fortification of the Japanese, understood how the defense structure of Matua was built,” he says. - A feature of the structure of the island is a large number of ravines - long gorges in which they concentrated their warehouses. The road system was developed on the island. It was of a serpentine type and led to where separate garrisons were stationed. A warehouse and barracks were equipped next to the garrison, as well as positions for defense - trenches, pillboxes. So far, we can only guess how food and ammunition were transported to the positions. It is already clear that road transport and the railway were developed on Matua.”

Of course, the search engines have not yet found the railway itself, only traces of it are found. One can only guess where it passed - these are tunnels pierced underground and, like arteries, crossing the island. The fact that it worked is also evidenced by numerous finds: trolleys rusted from time to time, fragments of rails. In addition, brass or bronze pipelines were laid throughout the island to supply fuel.

The search engines find characteristic fittings and pumping parts, but the tanks where the fuel was stored have not yet been found either. In addition, the expedition found out how the Japanese built their barracks. They were collapsible and consisted of a metal frame and wood. All pillboxes on the island were also sheathed with wood.

The Japanese airfield is now in a rather deplorable state, it was badly damaged by air raids and natural disasters. Now there are several helipads. However, in the future, its restoration is possible. Of course, the main question is: do we need this piece of land, absolutely unsuitable for normal life?

“Since last year, the Sea of Okhotsk has become our inland sea,” says Andrey Ryabukhin. This is our sea. And here, so to speak, there are many open doors. And everyone wants to enter them. But with what intentions they enter these doors - good or not, you will not immediately understand. In order to reliably protect our territories, we must make efforts so that later we don’t regret that we didn’t do anything. Loopholes still exist, and they must be eliminated, including by creating Russian bases. So far, it is planned that Pacific Fleet units will be located on the island, which will ensure the protection of state interests.”

At the same time, the vice admiral believes that it makes no sense to restore the Japanese infrastructure on the island.

“Now, in modern conditions, going deep underground, building cities and railways there is expensive and impractical. he continues. - Again, all the underground communications that we open are very dilapidated. They crumble, crumbling. The structure of the soil here is peculiar, including rocks that are very fragile. The fact that the Japanese dug up here was very relevant for that time, now it’s gone.”

Conclusions about whether Matua is needed by the armed forces, whether a base will appear there, will be made already this year. And there is a high probability that our troops will still be located on Matua.

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 of the Kuril ridge, reports corr. IA SakhalinMedia.

The participants of the second joint expedition of the military and scientists to the Kuril island of Matua summed up their work. At the next meeting of the Sakhalin branch of the Russian Geographical Society, they made presentations in which they told what new secrets the island revealed to them and what findings gave rise to new questions.

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

“The most expensive part of the expedition is transportation to the Kuril Islands. But the fact that Sergei Shoigu headed the Russian Geographical Society, allowed organizing such joint projects with the Ministry of Defense. The military is also sent to Matua with their research goals. And they take our scientists with them. We use this cooperation to our advantage. Our research concerns history, archeology, ecology. Such versatility helps the complex study of the 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 scheme of Japanese long-term firing structures on the island. Last year, such a map was drawn up, but, as it turned out, the island is fraught with many more discoveries.

“This year, quite by accident, our military colleagues discovered a ceramic pipe coming out of the ground. They lowered an impromptu video camera into it - a smartphone with a flashlight, 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 located underground. From there, with the help of electronics, commands were transmitted to the guns, ”said Igor Samarin.

Also one of the tasks of this year was the study of the 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 from a lamp. Igor Samarin explains: according to the testimony of the Japanese military themselves of those years, naval sailors lived better than infantry and they were the only ones who had electricity. So the found lampshade reinforced the belief that it was the sailors who lived in the barracks on the island.

“Many ordinary things were revelation. Here we found a beer bottle, the most common, but on the bottom - the date of manufacture “18 S 8”. For a knowledgeable person, this is simple - August 16, according to the European calendar - 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 supply 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.

Scientists did not disregard 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 a barter in kind - one mouse was worth two cigarettes. The skins of rodents were transported to the metropolis for the manufacture of gloves from them.

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

Also, scientists managed to uncover 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 conflicting information was preserved about it. Hydrographers led by the captain of a large hydrographic boat, Igor Tikhonov, combed the entire water area of Dvoynaya Bay using a multibeam echo sounder. And an object very similar to a submarine was discovered near Cape Yurlov at a depth of 110 meters. What to do next with this discovery, the military will determine.

As part of the expedition, the researchers also studied a more ancient period in the history of the island. Yes, the 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 finds and marked the boundaries of archaeological sites.

At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the Sakhalin Russian Geographical Society, Sergey Ponomarev, announced that scientists had created a working group dealing with the unification of geographical names on the island of Matua.

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

The Zvezda TV channel made a documentary film 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 for many months collected materials about its natural, historical and cultural heritage. Why exactly Matua was interested in the Russian Geographical Society and what secrets the island keeps - in the material "360".

From no man's island to mothballed military base

Matua Island is part of the middle group of the Great Kuril Ridge and belongs to the Sakhalin Region. However, this was not always the case. The original population of Matua is considered to be the Ainu, the most ancient people of the Japanese islands. In his language, the island is called "hell mouth".

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

By 1736, the Ainu converted to Orthodoxy and became Russian subjects, paying the inhabitants 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 at Matua in 1813. The population of the island has always been small: in 1831, only 15 inhabitants were counted on Matua, although at that time the census took into account only adult men. In 1855, the Russian Empire officially received the right to the island, but 20 years later Matua was under the rule of Japan - that was the price for Sakhalin.

Shortly before World War II, the island became the main stronghold of the Kuril chain. A fort appeared on Matua with anti-tank ditches, underground tunnels and trenches. An underground residence was created for the officers in the hill. After the outbreak of the war, Nazi Germany supplied fuel to Matua. The island became one of Japan's key naval bases. 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 on the island. During this time, Matua was interested not only in historians, but also in politicians. 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. Question closed.

The Russian border outpost was on Matua until 2000. Then the entire naval infrastructure of the island was mothballed, and the inhabitants left it. Now Matua is uninhabited. A small island with a length of 11 kilometers and a width of just over six still holds many secrets. Members of the Russian Geographical Society and employees of the Russian Ministry of Defense went to open them.

Secrets of Matua

In September last year, 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 Defense Minister 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 clarified.

Initially, there was an assumption that these were warehouses, but everything was taken out of them. And if these were warehouses, then any material traces would remain. Moreover, it was found that a high-voltage cable was suitable for these premises, and the power supply system made it possible to supply up to 3 thousand volts there. Naturally, this is an excess voltage for storage facilities. But it is obvious that some work was carried out in these structures.
Sergei 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 mouth of the volcano. At the same time, members of the expedition noticed the entrances to underground structures from a helicopter. What exactly is in the thickness of the volcano is still unknown. The experts were also occupied with 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 had fulfilled its main task - removed all traces and all facts that could lead to the disclosure of the true nature of the activities on this island,” the admiral explained.

Photo: RIA Novosti / Roman Denisov

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

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