UDC 001; 303.01
Palamar N. G. To the Question on the Establishment of the Frontier of the Russian Federation
Annotation: In recent years, a significant number of works by domestic and foreign scientists have been devoted to the formation of state borders. At the same time, the influence of the principles applied in the process of forming the boundaries of the state has not been sufficiently studied. Based on the study, it is concluded that the principles have a significant impact on the establishment and international legal registration of the state border. The topic of this study, with rare exceptions, has not been properly reflected in Russian historiography.
Keywords: state border, passage of the state border, principles of establishing and changing the passage of the state border, territory of the state, delimitation, demarcation.
Abstract: In recent years a significant amount of works of domestic and foreign scientists covers the formation of frontiers. At the same time, the influence of the principles applied in the course of state borders formation is investigated insufficiently. On the basis of the conducted research a conclusion that principles have essential impact on establishment and international legal registration of a frontier is made. The subject of the research with rare exception has not found due reflection in the native historiography.
Keywords: frontier, frontier passage, principles of establishment and change of frontier passage, state territory, delimitation, demarcation.
A fairly large number of studies have been devoted to the formation of state borders over the past decades. This, in turn, allows us to study in more detail the issues of formation of the state border of the Russian Federation, namely the principles on the basis of which the establishment and change of its course occurs.
At the present stage of development, the passage of the state border of the Russian Federation is established and changed by international treaties and federal laws. Documents on changes and clarifications of the location of the state border on the ground, made in order to verify the state border on the basis of international treaties and agreements of the Russian Federation, are put into effect in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.
In accordance with the provisions of paragraph 2 of Article 5 of the Federal Law “On the State Border of the Russian Federation”, the passage of the state border, unless otherwise provided by international treaties of the Russian Federation, is established: on land - along characteristic points, relief lines or clearly visible landmarks; at sea - along the external border of the territorial sea of the Russian Federation; on navigable rivers - in the middle of the main fairway or thalweg of the river; on non-navigable rivers and streams - in their middle or in the middle of the main branch of the river; on lakes and other bodies of water - along an equidistant, median, straight or other line connecting the exits of the state border to the shores of the lake or other body of water. The state border passing along a river, stream, lake or other body of water does not move either when the outline of their banks or water level changes, or when the bed of the river, stream deviates in one direction or another; on water reservoirs and other artificial reservoirs - in accordance with the state border line that ran in the area before it was flooded; on bridges, dams and other structures passing through rivers, streams, lakes and other bodies of water - in the middle of these structures or along their technological axis, regardless of the passage of the state border on the water.
The state border on the ground is indicated by clearly visible boundary signs. The description and procedure for installing border markers are determined by international treaties of the Russian Federation and decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation.
The basic principles of establishing and changing the course of the state border, establishing and maintaining legal relations on the state border are enshrined in Article 2 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the State Border of the Russian Federation”. The Russian Federation, when establishing and changing the course of its state border, establishing and maintaining relations with foreign states on the state border, as well as regulating legal relations in border areas (water areas) of the Russian Federation and on the routes of international communications running on Russian territory, is guided by the principles of: ensuring security Russian Federation and international security; mutually beneficial all-round cooperation with foreign countries; mutual respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity of states and the inviolability of state borders; peaceful resolution of border issues.
The principle of ensuring the security of the Russian Federation lies in the coordinated activities of federal government bodies, government bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, local governments, carried out by them within the limits of their powers by adopting political, organizational and legal, diplomatic, economic, defense, border, intelligence, counterintelligence , operational-search, customs, environmental, sanitary-epidemiological, environmental and other measures. In addition, organizations and citizens participate in these activities in accordance with the established procedure.
The principle of mutually beneficial comprehensive cooperation with foreign states is formulated in the Declaration of Principles of International Law. The principle obliges states to cooperate with each other, regardless of the differences in their political, economic and social systems. It also defines the main directions: maintaining peace and security; universal respect for human rights; implementation of international relations, including in the field of border policy and in the field of security in accordance with the principles of sovereign equality and non-interference, etc. This principle secured the agreement of states on the recognition of legal force for the norms of international law. For him, the general position that the only way to create legally binding norms for sovereign states is their agreement remains important. The Declaration of Principles of International Law of October 24, 1970 states: “Each State shall settle its international disputes with other States by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered.”
The principle of mutual respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity of states and the inviolability of state borders implies recognition of existing borders, renunciation of any territorial claims now and in the future, renunciation of any other encroachments on the territory and borders of neighboring states.
Each state is obliged to respect the sovereignty of another state, that is, the supremacy and independence of state power, manifested in appropriate forms in its domestic and foreign policy activities. In other words, respect the right of the state within its own territory to exercise legislative, executive, administrative and judicial power without any interference from other states, as well as independently pursue its foreign policy.
The principle of peaceful resolution of border issues is enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, in Article 2 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On the State Border of the Russian Federation” and in all international acts setting out the principles of international law, as well as in a number of resolutions of the UN General Assembly. One of the first multilateral treaties to reflect this principle was the Pact of Paris of 1928 (Treaty on the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy), which proclaimed the need to settle or resolve all disputes or conflicts between states only by peaceful means.
In accordance with the UN Charter, the 1970 Declaration of Principles of International Law stated the principle as follows: “Each State shall settle its international disputes with other States by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace, security and justice are not endangered.”
Under modern concepts of international law, states are required to resolve their disputes only peacefully through the following means: negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, litigation, recourse to regional agreements or bodies, or other peaceful means of their choice, including good offices .
In particular, the Manila Declaration for the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes of 1982 declares that states that are parties to an international dispute, as well as other states, must refrain from any action that could aggravate the situation to such an extent that jeopardize the maintenance of international peace and security, and thereby impede the resolution of the dispute or constitute an obstacle to its peaceful settlement.
The international legal basis for determining approaches to the peaceful settlement of disputes and conflict situations arising in the relations between the CIS member countries is the provisions of the CIS Charter, adopted on January 22, 1993. In Art. 17 of the CIS Charter, the member states of the Commonwealth undertake, in a spirit of cooperation, to make efforts to achieve a fair peaceful resolution of their disputes through negotiations or to reach agreement on an appropriate alternative dispute resolution procedure.
The considered principles for establishing the state border of the Russian Federation correspond to the basic principles of international law: non-use of force or threat of force; territorial integrity of states; inviolability of state borders; peaceful resolution of international disputes; sovereign equality of states; non-interference in the internal affairs of states; cooperation between states; conscientious fulfillment of international obligations; equality and self-determination of peoples; respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Therefore, the establishment of a state border on the basis of a voluntary and equal agreement of neighboring states, a clear contractual consolidation of the border line and its marking on the ground are of great importance for ensuring the strength and stability of the border, for preventing territorial disputes and conflicts.
The formation of the state border includes two successive stages: delimitation and demarcation. At the same time, sometimes they distinguish between allocation, which is carried out before delimitation, and border management.
J. Prescott noted that “Placement means the initial political division of territory between two states. Delimitation means choosing the location of the border and defining it. Demarcation is the creation of a boundary in the landscape."
The main stages are delimitation and demarcation.
In international practice, delimitation (from the Latin delimitatio - establishing boundaries) refers to the determination of the position and direction of the state border by agreement between neighboring states, fixed in the agreement and graphically depicted on the maps attached to the agreement.
A map with the state border line marked on it is, as a rule, signed or initialed and sealed with the official seals of the contracting parties and is an integral part of the border delimitation agreement. A description of the border is given in one of the articles of the border treaty or is its appendix. Delimitation treaties are generally subject to ratification.
Demarcation (French demarcatio) is the establishment of a state border on the ground and its marking with boundary markers in accordance with the delimitation agreement, maps and descriptions attached to it. Demarcation is carried out by mixed (demarcation) commissions consisting of representatives of neighboring states. The tasks of the demarcation commission include determining and marking the passage of the border on the ground by constructing special boundary markers, drawing up a protocol containing a description of the demarcated border and a demarcation map indicating the border line, drawing up protocols for each boundary marker with the corresponding diagrams, indicating the coordinates of all boundary markers , photographs, etc.
As a result of demarcation, accuracy, clarity, visibility and clarity of the border markings should be ensured at any time of the year and from the greatest possible distance. Documents on border demarcation come into force after the exchange of notifications of their approval by the governments of neighboring states.
In international practice, there are three ways to draw boundaries: orographic, geometric and astronomical (geographical).
With the orographic method, the border is drawn taking into account the features of the terrain: along a river, mountain range, etc. The Russian Federation has drawn its borders with Mongolia, China and some other countries using the orographic method.
The geometric method of drawing a boundary involves drawing a straight line between fixed points on the land surface without taking into account the relief of the earth's surface and any natural landmarks. Russia has geometric borders in some areas with China and Finland.
The method of drawing the state border along a parallel or meridian is called astronomical (geographical). Such borders are found mainly on the African continent (Angola, Egypt, Sudan, Chad).
In the event of a significant change, complete or partial destruction of border markers, by agreement between neighboring countries, border re-demarcation is carried out, that is, checking and restoring the state border line on the ground based on demarcation documents, marking it with border markers (restoration of destroyed or lost border markers, replacement of signs of one type with signs of a different type, establishment of additional boundary markers) drawing up a new protocol-description, maps and protocols of boundary markers, if necessary.
By mutual agreement of the parties, minor changes to the border line are possible during the redemarcation. Such changes were made, for example, on the USSR border with Poland in 1951, on the USSR border with Norway in 1963 and 1967; on the USSR border with Turkey in 1967-1977, as well as in a number of other directions.
Establishing a state border is of great importance for the normalization of relations between neighboring states, especially in cases where there were disagreements between them in the past regarding border issues.
Treaties on border issues are particularly stable. They cannot be terminated because they do not contain provisions for denunciation. They cannot be canceled unilaterally (cancelled). Any action to change the position of the border is possible only by mutual agreement of the parties.
Border treaties are not subject to the fundamental change of circumstances clause - “Rebus sic stantibus”: “the boundaries established by the treaty and their regime are not affected by succession, and each successor state is obliged to comply with these treaties.”
Such stability of border agreements contributes to the maintenance of good neighborly relations between states, the implementation of the principles of the inviolability of state borders and the territorial integrity of states, which have received universal recognition, enshrined in a number of fundamental international legal documents and having an imperative nature.
Thus, the formation of the state border of the Russian Federation and changes in its location are carried out on the basis of the principles set out in the Federal Law “On the State Border of the Russian Federation”, through a set of measures for its delimitation and demarcation, and changes in the location of the state border are possible only on the basis of a bilateral agreement.
Palamar Nikolay Grigorievich— Candidate of Military Sciences, Associate Professor, Doctoral Student of the Department of History and International Relations
Samatov O. Peaceful resolution of disputes within the CIS (international legal issues) // Law and Army. 2005. No. 1.
See: Turovsky R.F. Political regional studies: textbook. manual for universities / R. F. Turovsky; State University // Higher School of Economics. M., 2006. pp. 154-155.
Redemarcation
Redemarkation
(fr. redemarcation) restoration, clarification of border markers on the state border.
New dictionary of foreign words. - by EdwART,, 2009 .
Redemarcation
redemarcation, g. [from fr. re and demarcation]. Restoration of border markers on the state border.
Large dictionary of foreign words. - Publishing House "IDDK", 2007 .
Redemarcation (re), And, and. (fr. redemarcation).
legal, military Restoration and clarification of border markers on the state border.
||
Wed. demarcation.
Explanatory dictionary of foreign words by L. P. Krysin. - M: Russian language, 1998 .
Synonyms:
- recourse claim
- redressing
See what “redemarcation” is in other dictionaries:
redemarcation- clarification, restoration Dictionary of Russian synonyms. re-demarcation of noun, number of synonyms: 2 restoration (50) ... Synonym dictionary
REDEMARKATION- restoration of border signs, lines, barriers on the state border. Raizberg B.A., Lozovsky L.Sh., Starodubtseva E.B.. Modern economic dictionary. 2nd ed., rev. M.: INFRA M. 479 p.. 1999 ... Economic dictionary
REDEMARKATION- REDEMARKATION, redemarcation, female. (from French re and démarcation). Restoration of border markers on the state border. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 … Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
redemarcation- and, f. redemarcation f. re back, again + demarcation distinction. Checking the previously established state border with the restoration or replacement of border signs on the ground. BAS 1. Lex. SIS 1937: redemarkation...
Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language
Chapter 10
(1946-1953)
SECURITY OF THE STATE BORDER DURING THE COLD WAR PERIOD
Under the influence of a number of new factors, the main one of which was the formation of the world socialist camp, the country's leadership continued to improve the border troops. The rapid withdrawal of the USSR and the West from allied positions and the beginning of the Cold War predetermined the main trend in the development of Soviet border policy - strengthening the protection of state borders.
10.1. SITUATION AT THE STATE BORDER
The Soviet Union emerged from the Second World War with enormous human and material losses. The war took more than 25 million lives. The invaders completely or partially destroyed and burned 1,710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages and hamlets, over 6 million buildings, depriving 25 million people of their homes, destroyed about 32 thousand large and medium-sized industrial enterprises and 65 thousand km. railway tracks. Significant damage was caused to agriculture. In value terms, its size amounted to more than 580 billion rubles, that is, about 30 percent of the country’s total national wealth.
The direct material losses of the USSR as a result of the war were not the only problem after its end. There was an urgent need to transfer the entire national economy to a peaceful 422 situation. The wartime army demanded urgent reductions.
For the Soviet Union, an important result of the world war was that it extended its influence to almost all countries of Eastern Europe. Where by June 1945 the garrisons of the Soviet occupation forces were located, the process of forming new state regimes began. During elections in these countries, everything was done to create a “most favored nation” regime for left-wing parties and movements. The fulfillment of this task was facilitated by the fact that all levers of state administration were in the hands of the Soviet military administration - control over the financial sector, the justice system, the licensing system, etc.
In 1949, released by the department of propaganda and agitation of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, for the seventieth anniversary of I.V. Stalin’s brochure stated: “The historical situation of our time is fundamentally different from the situation in which the First and Second World Wars were prepared. For the first time in the history of mankind, an organized peace front arose, setting the task of saving humanity from a new world war, exposing and isolating the bloody gang of warmongers, and ensuring peaceful cooperation of peoples.”
In official documents, the “organized front of peace” was understood as the world socialist camp that formed after the appearance of people’s democracies on the planet’s map. The main character in it was the USSR, which took on the role of “big brother.” A common thesis was that “young democracies” were learning communism from the works of Lenin and Stalin. Particularly noted was the transition to the path of creating a regime of people's democracy in China, which was “confirmation of the wise foresight of Comrade Stalin.”
The comparison of the international situation that developed in the post-war period with the situation on the eve of the world wars was natural. By 1949, the former allies found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades. Only the balance of power was different. The USSR, which had significantly increased its authority during the years of the war against fascism, now had a very strong position. The West, primarily the United States, countered its rapidly growing influence on world affairs and the expansion of the socialist camp by tightening its foreign policy course. The colossal confrontation between two socio-political systems, two blocs has brought the world to the brink of a new catastrophe. A period of international relations began, called the Cold War. The situation was complicated by the emergence of fundamentally new types of weapons of mass destruction based on the release of atomic energy. Naturally, all this directly affected the domestic and foreign policies of the participants in the confrontation, including their border policy.
One of the important results of the Second World War for the USSR, along with the emergence of a kind of “buffer” in the form of people’s democracies between the West and the Soviet Union, was the expansion of its territory. A study of the documents shows that the settlement of territorial issues and the coordination of the principles of functioning of the border protection system with neighboring states during the period under review were undertaken by the Soviet Union in a strict contractual manner. Moreover, agreements and other documents were mainly of three types - on resolving territorial issues, on friendship and cooperation, and on the state border regime. Thus, back in September 1944, an armistice agreement was signed in Moscow between the USSR and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on the one hand, and Finland, on the other, which stipulated the transfer of the Finnish region of Petsamo to the Soviet Union (Pechenga). In October 1945, a protocol was drawn up and approved, containing a description of the state border line in this section.
It should be noted that the establishment of good neighborly relations with Finland became one of the pillars of Soviet foreign policy.
On February 3, 1947, a Soviet-Finnish treaty was signed, according to which Finland ceded to the USSR a territory of 176 km 2 in the area of the Janoskoski hydroelectric power station and the Niskakoski regulated dam on the river. Paatso-Joki with buildings and structures located on this territory. For this territory, including the cost of buildings and structures located on it, the Soviet Union undertook to pay Finland 700 million Finnish marks. By the end of 1947, the Soviet-Finnish border was re-demarcated by checking and restoring border markers on the ground. In general, it was restored along the lines of 1940, with the exception of sections that were transferred to the USSR.
In 1946, the Soviet Union entered into an agreement with Norway, which provided for the complete restoration of the entire Soviet-Norwegian border. From August 1946 to December 1947, its demarcation and re-demarcation was carried out. The results of this work were consolidated by the signing of the relevant documents on December 18, 1947 in Moscow. In October 1950, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ratified an agreement between the Soviet Union and Norway on the border regime and on the procedure for resolving border conflicts and incidents.
The establishment of borders with countries of people's democracy had a number of features. The official line here was a mutually beneficial settlement of all border issues. First of all, this concerned Poland. The Crimean Conference of the leaders of the three great powers - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, held in February 1945 in Yalta, determined that the eastern borders of Poland should run along the Curzon line with a retreat from it in some areas up to 8 km in favor of Poland. Despite this decision, the border agreement between the USSR and Poland, signed on August 16, 1945 in Moscow, while generally maintaining the border within the Curzon line, implied a deviation from it in a number of sections by up to 30 km in favor of Poland.
By mutual agreement, the population living in the areas where the border was changed could choose their own citizenship. The USSR also agreed to satisfy the request of the Polish government to exchange certain sections of territory. This was caused by the desire of Poland, which needed oil, to obtain oil-bearing areas west of Drogobuzh from the Soviet Union. The agreement on the exchange of sections of state territory came into force on May 31, 1951. At the same time, the Soviet Union refused any compensation not only for oil, but also for the costs associated with moving the border.
The Soviet-Polish agreement of 1945 did not provide for border demarcation in the Transcarpathian region. The agreement on its demarcation was signed in Warsaw on April 2, 1946. The results of the demarcation work carried out in 1946-1947 were approved by a protocol-description on April 30, 1947.
In May 1948, troops of units of the Belarusian and Ukrainian border districts reached new deployment points on the demarcated Soviet-Polish border. The next step after demarcation was the conclusion of an agreement between the USSR and Poland on the regime of the Soviet-Polish border, ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 20, 1949.
The establishment of the Soviet-Czechoslovak border was associated with the resolution of the issue of Transcarpathian Ukraine, reunited with the Ukrainian SSR. On June 29, 1945, in Moscow, the USSR and Czechoslovakia signed an agreement, according to which the border line between the two countries was established from November 1945 to April 1946.
The results of the demarcation were recorded in a descriptive protocol signed on May 8, 1946 in Uzhgorod. The conclusion of an agreement with Czechoslovakia raised the question of the need to regulate border relations with Hungary.
Since 1944, the Soviet-Hungarian border actually ran along the line of the old Czechoslovak-Hungarian border. To solve territorial problems, in accordance with a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and on the basis of the peace treaty with Hungary of February 10, 1947, a mixed Soviet-Hungarian commission for demarcation of the state border was formed. The work of the commission began in September 1948 and ended on July 30, 1949 with the signing of the final documents 13. In January 1949, troops of the Transcarpathian border district entered the newly demarcated sections of the border between the USSR and Hungary.
On February 24, 1950, the Soviet Union signed an agreement with the Hungarian People's Republic on the regime of the Soviet-Hungarian state border, as well as a convention on the procedure for resolving border conflicts and incidents. At the same time, agreements were reached on the regime of the water section of the border along the river. Tisse.
Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia had to resolve a difficult issue - to divide not only the territory, but also the population living on it. In Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine there were about 11 thousand families whose close relatives lived in Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Therefore, agreements on the state border regime with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia had clauses containing rules for simplified border crossing by residents of border areas of these countries using passes issued by representatives of both sides. In many ways, regular meetings of border representatives of friendly countries should have contributed to the resolution of these issues.
In a similar way, territorial issues were resolved with Romania. On February 4, 1948, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was signed between the USSR and the Romanian People's Republic, which served as the basis for the demarcation of the Soviet-Romanian border. In accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, it was carried out in October-December 1948. The result of the demarcation was the signing on September 27, 1949 of the final documents that determined the line of the border.
Significant territorial changes in the western section of the Soviet border resulted from the annexation of part of the territory of East Prussia with its capital, Königsberg, to the USSR. The transfer of this territory to the Soviet Union was stipulated by the Potsdam Agreement of August 2, 1945 and was an internationally recognized action. Two-thirds of the territory of East Prussia was transferred to Poland, one-third was formed on April 7, 1946, the Königsberg (from June 4, 1946, Kaliningrad) region of the RSFSR 17. The annexation of East Prussia required additional efforts to formalize and secure borders, since the indigenous population, in accordance with the decision of the Moscow session of the foreign ministers of the four powers - the USSR, the USA, Great Britain and France, held in March 1947, was subject to eviction Germany was faced with the process of settling the newly acquired lands by immigrants from the internal regions of the USSR.
Another state that was building a people's democracy in the neighborhood of the Soviet Union was the Mongolian People's Republic. On February 27, 1946, a Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance was signed between it and the Soviet Union. He created the basis for formalizing the corresponding border relations. The length of the established Soviet-Mongolian border was almost 3.5 thousand km.
The strengthening of the USSR's position in the eastern direction was associated with the formation of the People's Republic of China in October 1949. It should be noted that this was a certain merit of the Soviet border guards from the Far East, who repeatedly provided assistance to the People's Liberation Army of China.
The formation of a friendly state in the east - the People's Republic of China - allowed the Soviet Union to abandon the use of the Chinese Eastern Railway, Port Arthur and Dalny. Based on a special agreement signed on February 14, 1950, the USSR abandoned them in favor of China. In 1950-1951 As a result of Soviet-Chinese negotiations, a regime for the use of border sections of rivers was developed.
The growth of cooperation between the USSR and the PRC in the field of internal construction and joint counteraction to the West caused a sharp aggravation of the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, where the United States and its allies launched military preparations, trying to maximally strengthen their positions. The growing confrontation served as one of the detonators of the Korean War, which began in 1950. The war between North and South Korea became a conflict on a global scale after the introduction of UN troops to the Korean Peninsula with the sanction of the Security Council.
The situation in the Far East was difficult for another reason. After the war, the Kuril Islands and South Sakhalin, previously held by Japan, were annexed to the USSR on the basis of the Potsdam Agreement. The adopted state border protection regime extended to the Chukotka Peninsula and the Bering Strait islands. Already in January 1946, these territories were taken under protection by border troops. Speaking about the strategic significance of the measures taken, Stalin said that “from now on, the Kuril Islands will serve not as a means of separating the Soviet Union from the ocean and as a base for a Japanese attack on our Far East, but as a means of direct communication of the Soviet Union with the ocean and a defense base our country from Japanese aggression."
An important circumstance that determined the essence and content of the post-war border policy of the USSR was that by 1950 the Soviet Union bordered 13,687 km with countries that were also building socialism. In addition, the state of the “border of good neighbors” was achieved with Finland and Afghanistan, with which an agreement was concluded back in July 1946 to clarify the border line.
The most tense border during this period was the USSR border with Norway, Turkey and Iran, which were used by our opponents to directly influence the Soviet Union.
In 1949, on the initiative of the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created, which in its practical activities turned out to be very far from its charter goals. This, however, was greatly facilitated by the policy of the USSR, aimed at creating a world socialist camp.
By 1950, the United States already had more than 300 military bases in various parts of the world, which was regarded by the leadership of the USSR as a direct threat to national security. The appearance of the atomic and then the hydrogen bomb in the Soviet Union deepened the confrontation and sharply accelerated the arms race.
In the current conditions, the USSR made efforts to increase both its own military potential and the potential of its allies. An important role was played by border policy, aimed at establishing strict political control at the borders.
One of the priority directions of the USSR border policy in 1946-1953. there was direct assistance to the allies in the socialist camp in the creation and strengthening of their border guards. By pursuing this policy, the USSR surrounded itself with a kind of second ring of borders.
Even at the last stage of the war, Soviet border troops took under protection the borders of a number of Eastern European states - Poland, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, etc. So, for example, in March 1945, at the request of the Polish government, a 420-kilometer section of the Polish-Czechoslovak border. For this purpose, a special Southwestern District of the Border Troops of the NKVD of the USSR was formed, consisting of five border detachments and a separate maneuver group with a total number of 9,693 people. At the end of April 1945 they had already reached the border. The district military command was stationed in the city of Krakow. The troops returned to Soviet territory only after Poland formed its own border guard in July - September 1945.
In March 1946, units of the Hungarian army guarding the border were subordinated to the Separate Command of Border Troops. On August 27, 1946, at the proposal of G. Dimitrov, the People's Assembly of Bulgaria adopted a law on the formation of border troops with their subordination to the military department.
Before the creation of the state bodies of East Germany, its border was also guarded by Soviet border guards, who at the same time fought against banditry and the unauthorized movement of the population into the western zones of occupation.
Our advisers worked in the troops of most people's democracies until 1950. At the same time, Soviet military educational institutions began to train specialists for the border troops of these states. The main attention was paid to the training of the command and management personnel. Combat experience was acquired in a joint fight against reconnaissance and sabotage groups and gangs, which were abundant in post-war Eastern Europe.
The foreign policy of the Soviet Union completely excluded any revision of the borders established after the war in Europe. Characteristic in this sense were the words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A.A. Gromyko, which he said at the XXIII Congress of the CPSU in 1966: “... not a single border pillar on European soil needs the blessing of those who do not like the results of the war. The issue of borders in Europe has been resolved finally and irrevocably. The state borders of our friends and allies are on the same strong castle as our own borders.” With these words, the USSR put an end to the question of the post-war border structure. The state border of the Soviet Union as of January 1, 1946 had a length of 503,316.2 km, of which the land section (including river and lake) was 20,220.3 km and the sea section was 301,10.9 km.
The situation on the borders of the USSR during the period under review, despite the formation and strengthening of fraternal Soviet regimes of power on the territory of most neighboring states, was not simple. The intensification of the Cold War, the intensive increase in efforts to destabilize the internal political situation of the USSR, undertaken by the United States and its allies, were associated with the initiation of anti-state actions by nationalist movements in a number of regions.
Armed uprisings against Soviet power were undertaken primarily in those territories that became part of the USSR before and after the war - in the Baltic states, Western Ukraine, and the regions of Belarus bordering Poland. Support for nationalist formations was carried out from the territory of Sweden, Norway and, for a short time, Finland. In addition, the territories of Czechoslovakia and Poland were widely used, where Home Army bases remained after the war.
The activities of the military formations, which proclaimed national liberation from under the hand of the “big brother” as their main slogan, quickly acquired a gangster character. Their ideology became more and more harsh and cynical.
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) directly declared the admissibility of any means of fighting Moscow and its “accomplices” from among the local population. Only after the liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi troops, more than 50 thousand people died at the hands of “independence fighters” - military personnel and civilians.
After the departure of Nazi units, more than 100 warehouses of weapons and explosives remained on the territory of Latvia. Over 2,500 specially trained saboteurs were to act as the core of future resistance to the Soviet authorities. By 1945, there were more than 11 thousand people in the Latvian formations leading the armed struggle against the USSR.
Gangs formed by the Nazis back in 1941-1942 were active in Lithuania. to fight the partisans of the Lithuanian Liberation Army.
The situation in Estonia was also difficult, especially since in Sweden alone by 1949 there were about 37 thousand Estonian emigrants, some of whom, after appropriate training, were used to be sent to the USSR for the purpose of armed struggle.
Against the backdrop of the activities of nationalist movements, which seriously complicated the situation on the border, the intelligence services of the Western bloc intensified their intelligence work. The border with Finland, the Baltic coast, and the Carpathian section of the border with Poland were most often used to send agents. Crossing the border line using equipment - parachute equipment, high-speed boats, submarines, etc. - was increasingly used.
The coordinator of intelligence work was the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), created in the United States in 1947. The main goal of the intelligence and subversive activities of the special services was to inflict economic, military and political damage on the Soviet Union.
Economic difficulties caused by the Cold War, further bureaucratization of administrative structures, and ideological narrow-mindedness made the task of protecting the state border extremely difficult.
10.2. REORGANIZATION OF BORDER FORCES
The situation that had developed at the end of the war on the Soviet border required urgent comprehensive measures to recreate, improve, and, in many ways, rebuild the system of its protection.
The formation of the border service system in the first post-war years began with clarification of the legal status of border troops and rationalization of their management. The transformations were directly related to changes in the structure of government of the USSR that occurred immediately after the war.
On March 15, 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a Law on the transformation of the Council of People's Commissars into the Council of Ministers of the USSR, and the People's Commissariats of the USSR into ministries. The People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs was renamed the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). Based on the order of the Minister of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria on January 15, 1947. The Main Directorate of Border Troops was reorganized with a new staff. It included operational-intelligence, organizational-combatant, political departments and a naval department. In the operational intelligence department, Western, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern departments and a checkpoint department were formed. Each department included two branches - services and intelligence. The border district departments consisted of headquarters, personnel department, naval, intelligence, political, medical and financial departments.
The reserve border detachments (from rifle regiments) created at the final stage of the war, located on the western borders of the USSR, were mostly disbanded in April 1946 by order of the Minister of Internal Affairs. In return, 56 second-line border outposts were set up on the most critical sections of the border of the Lithuanian, Belarusian and Ukrainian border districts, which was a very timely step given the existence of nationalist armed formations in the region and made it possible to more reliably close the border through maneuver of forces and means. .
Among the fundamental organizational measures of this period was the transfer in October 1949 of border troops from the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, which reflected the general direction of the policy of the Soviet leadership and was in keeping with the spirit of the Cold War.
The resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On improving the border service and strengthening the protection of the state border of the USSR”, issued in May 1950, restored the pre-war procedure for manning border troops, that is, through the special selection of conscripts. At the same time, the border troops, and this was a positive fact, were freed from performing a number of functions unusual for them, for example, from self-procurement of fuel and fodder.
In 1950, by order of the Minister of State Security of the USSR, in order to improve interaction, intelligence departments in border districts and departments in detachments were introduced into the staff of headquarters. After the transformations, the headquarters of the border districts included departments - intelligence, border service, communications, organizational development, combat training, and a number of other services. The detachment headquarters consisted of departments - reconnaissance, border service, communications, combat, combat training and services.
In 1953, a number of districts were reorganized. The administrations of the Transcarpathian, Kyrgyz, Transbaikal, Sakhalin and Kamchatka border districts were subject to disbandment, and many border commandant's offices on the western and southeastern border were abolished.
By the end of 1953, the border troops included 14 border districts: Karelo-Finnish, Leningrad, Baltic, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Moldavian, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Turkestan, Tajik, Kazakh, Far Eastern, Pacific.
Immediately after the death of I.V. Stalin on March 5, 1953, the country's leadership carried out a number of major organizational measures, which also affected the fate of the border troops. In March 1953, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a Law on the transformation of a number of ministries
The USSR, in particular, the Military and Naval Ministries of the USSR merged into the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. At a joint meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, a resolution was adopted, according to which the Ministry of State Security merged with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Border troops automatically became subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
The introduction of a new management structure for the state border protection system created certain difficulties in the activities of the border troops. Moreover, the change in the order of subordination coincided with the reduction of troops that began in 1953. At the same time, an attempt was made to soften the border regime, which was very harsh. However, subsequent government decisions on border policy issues largely negated the measures taken. Already in October 1953, the Main Directorate of Border Troops submitted a petition to the highest government bodies to introduce regime restrictions on the border, which was supported by the country's leadership. The restoration of restricted areas has begun. The only limitation was the reduction of prohibited zones to the territories of border village Soviets. This situation was not, however, characteristic of the borders with people's democracies, where things were moving toward a complete abolition of restrictions.
The most important area of state activity in the construction of border troops in 1946-1953. was the formation of personnel, their training and education. First of all, it was necessary to prepare the command staff, the quality of which objectively deteriorated during the war years.
The solution to the problem of staffing the troops with command personnel in the conditions of the beginning of demobilization of the army was greatly facilitated by the opportunity to use the freed-up personnel. To staff the border troops, first of all, personnel from the units and formations of the Red Army and the Ministry of Internal Affairs that were reduced were transferred. The reduction of the USSR Armed Forces made it possible to attract sufficient numbers of commanders with front-line experience to the border protection service. 80 percent of the new arrivals to the border troops were front-line soldiers, but had a very vague understanding of their new responsibilities.
For example, in the Ukrainian border district, only 3 percent of sergeants had previously served in border troops, that is, they had border service experience, 65 came from the operational rear forces of the front, 26 from internal troops, 6 percent from convoy troops. In terms of rank and file, no more than 2 percent were sent to the district from border troops, 37 percent from front operational rear forces, 12 percent from internal troops, 6 percent from convoy units, and 43 percent from army units. Most of the county's officers also lacked border patrol experience.
To resolve pressing personnel issues, a set of measures was adopted, including professional selection, the organization of combat training and the education of personnel.
In 1946-1947 the entire officer corps of the troops passed certification. It was carried out in accordance with the decision made in August 1946 to quickly replace the positions of site commandants and heads of linear border outposts with officers who knew the border service. The implementation of this task was doomed to failure in advance. It was not possible to implement it even if trained officers were concentrated on the most important sections of the border, as was the case, for example, in the Ukrainian border district. Thus, in 1946, 124 out of 144 heads of outposts in this district had only 1-2 years of service.
During the certification of 1946-1947. For various reasons, 2,421 officers were dismissed from the border troops. At the same time, the troops were replenished with 1,005 officers from the military schools of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and 894 officers from the military schools of the Ministry of the Armed Forces of the USSR. In 1946, 31 graduates arrived from military academies to the border troops. All this allowed us to qualitatively change the situation. As of January 1, 1946, out of 14,067 combat officers, 8,531 people did not have a secondary education, which was 60.6 percent. By January 1, 1947, out of 11,600 combat officers, 3,845 people did not have secondary education, that is, already 33.1 percent. If by January 1, 1946, 36.4 percent of political officers did not have any military education, then in 1947 only 17.3 percent remained.
Special training of officers for troops in 1946-1953. was carried out mainly in eight military schools - Alma-Ata, Moscow, Makhachkala, two Kharkov, Ordzhonikidze, Kazan and Kaliningrad. These schools trained the average command, political and technical personnel.
Schools and advanced training courses (SHUOS and KUOS) made a significant contribution to the training of officers. There were four such schools - Moscow, Kamenets-Podolsk, Saratov and Alma-Ata.
Commanding officers with higher military general and specialized education were trained by the Military Institute and the Higher Military Naval Border School.
Since 1946, the main military educational institution has been the Military Institute, created on the basis of a resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. The basis for its formation was the Higher Officers' School. The duration of study at the institute was set at 4 years. For the first time in its history, border troops had the opportunity to train officers with higher military and special education. In 1948, a correspondence education department was added to the main faculty. From the very beginning of the institute’s existence, it operated advanced training courses, at which leading personnel of the border troops underwent retraining. Since 1951, a special course began to function at the institute, which was later transformed into a faculty, where officers of the border and internal troops of the countries of people's democracy were trained. Many students at the Institute of Post-War Recruitment were participants in the Great Patriotic War. The first intake of 1946 included six Heroes of the Soviet Union.
An essential element of the military education system were the Suvorov military schools in Leningrad and Tashkent, whose graduates joined the ranks of military school cadets.
The post-war system of officer training is characterized by a clear practical orientation of training, which was dictated by the situation of those years. However, despite the urgent need for the rapid training of professional border guards, a lot of the trainees' time was spent on various types of political studies. Moreover, immediately after the war, in 1946, compulsory classes on the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism were introduced into the system of commander training. At the same time, the main attention was paid to the study of the “Short Course on the History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)”, the ideological and theoretical works of I.V. Stalin and his associates. The ideological and theoretical education and training of personnel was led by the Political Directorate of the Border Troops.
Despite the fair introduction from an educational point of view of elements of philosophy, political economy and a number of other subjects into commander training plans, in practice humanities training was mainly reduced to the study and interpretation of party documents. A major role in this was played by the evening universities of Marxism-Leninism, which became an element of the system of training and education of officers. The experience of evening party schools spread widely.
Given the declared need to primarily focus on combat training, a significant amount of time, and in ever increasing volumes, was allocated to party political work. The political command of the troops constantly insisted on increasing the effectiveness of ideological work, considering its insufficiency as the main reason for mistakes in protecting the border. Ignorance of the latest party decisions, documents of congresses and party conferences became shameful for the officer. At the same time, for example, in the troops of the Leningrad Border District on December 30, 1947, 46 percent of the propaganda personnel, that is, those who explained party policy to the personnel, had less than 7 years of education, and 53 percent had no military training.
The analysis clearly shows practical priorities in the training of border troops. Directive No. 55 of the Main Political Directorate of the Armed Forces of the USSR “On political and educational work with soldiers, sailors, sergeants and foremen of the Armed Forces of the USSR”, mandatory for implementation in the border troops, came to the districts already in December 1946. The Directive determined -laid down the tasks, forms and methods of political education of personnel, established a unified system of political training for privates and sergeants, and introduced centralized planning of political training.
In March 1947, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks approved the “Regulations on the political bodies of the army and navy,” which also guided the political bodies of the border troops. On August 5, 1947, on the basis of a resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, by order of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the position of deputy head of the outpost for political affairs was introduced at border outposts with a staff of 41 people or more. By this time, 485 political schools and 642 circles for studying the history of the Communist Party were already functioning in the border troops.
On January 21, 1950, the institution of deputy chiefs for political affairs was introduced at border outposts with a staff of at least 11 people. Thus, almost all border troops outposts turned out to be “covered by political influence.”
Very significant was the adoption in May 1950 of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On improving the border service and strengthening the protection of the state border,” in which the effectiveness of the activities of the border troops was directly linked to the state of ideological work in them. In general, the fair formulation of the question about the shortcomings of the border service was of a varied nature in the conclusions.
In development of the main theses of this resolution, on November 12, 1951, the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a resolution “On the state of military discipline in the border troops and measures to strengthen it,” which once again emphasized that the key to all successes of the troops is, first of all, properly organized ideological and educational work. The main reasons for the low, in the government's opinion, military discipline in a number of units and districts were the downplaying of the role of command personnel, weak demands on subordinates, connivance, and shortcomings in the political education of military personnel. Commanders and political workers of all levels pledged to change the style of work, strengthen the unity of command and authority of commanders, and establish statutory order in the units. The main thing in solving these issues was ideological hardening and only then increasing the military-theoretical level and methodological skills.
The demands of the party and country leadership on local border troops resulted in the systematic use of extreme disciplinary measures against personnel. The main method of educational work was “dispersal”, and the main means were arrests with detention in a guardhouse and other measures. For example, in the second half of 1952, in the Moldavian border district, arrests accounted for 85 percent of the total number of penalties imposed on personnel, in Tajik - 83 percent, in Azerbaijan - 80 percent. Collective punishment was often applied for the misdeeds of individual military personnel. There were deprivations of dismissal from some soldiers and sergeants of the entire unit for long periods.
Assessing the overall activities of the border troops in the post-war period, it should be noted that, despite the large number of shortcomings and contradictions caused primarily by excessive ideologization of decisions made at the government level, there was a lot of rationality in the field of border policy and vitally necessary.
One of the most important incentives in the border service was public recognition of the usefulness and honorability of the military labor of border soldiers. On April 29, 1949, the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to establish the “Excellent Border Guard” badge. A year later, in July 1950, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established the medal “For Distinction in the Protection of the State Border of the USSR.”
The most important direction of the USSR border policy in the post-Left War period was the improvement of border protection, including by involving the population of border areas in this matter. Back in March 1943, the “Instruction for the NKVD border troops on the organization and procedure for involving the local population of the border strip in the protection of the state border of the USSR” was put into effect, in accordance with which the formation of assistance brigades from border residents began. The activities of these brigades on the western border of the USSR were complicated from the very beginning by opposition from bandit groups.
However, despite the difficulties, voluntary groups gradually became more widespread. The issue of coordinating their actions with the border troops was discussed at a special meeting at the Ministry of Internal Affairs in April 1947. Based on the decisions of the meeting, work began on political education and special training of members of the assistance brigades. Doctors, veterinarians and other military specialists were asked to provide them with the necessary assistance.
Much attention was paid to the patriotic education of youth and schoolchildren. The GUPV strongly supported the creation of militarized border circles and sections in schools in border areas.
The use by the Cold War enemy of increasingly sophisticated technical means of crossing the border and reconnaissance of border areas required the command of the border troops to take adequate measures. This was expressed in the definition of engineering and technical support for the border security system as a priority area of practical activity.
First of all, the task was set to improve control means. In order to develop them as quickly as possible, in 1947 the Central Research Laboratory (TSRL), which existed in the pre-war years, was restored. The laboratory was charged with developing issues related to the use of new achievements in engineering technology, communications, signaling and energy in border protection. At the same time, the task was set to improve the means of communication, signaling and surveillance already used at the border, and to develop methods for equipping the border strip. For example, one of the first tasks of the GUPV laboratory was the selection of wild thorny bushes for the creation of hedges on the border.
After the war, the design of a standard concrete border post with a chrome-plated coat of arms of the USSR was developed. At the request of GUPV, the industry began to manufacture observation towers in a collapsible version from metal, which speeded up their installation. Border troops began to receive new searchlights and other lighting equipment.
Control and trace strips (CTBs) were actively created. By 1953, all the most important sections of the border were equipped with them. The total length of the checkpoint was 14,077 km, that is, almost 70 percent of the land section of the border.
Back in 1945, tests began on the border of the electrical signaling system. After improvement, it began to be widely supplied to the troops. Later, additional new alarm systems were created. By 1953, the total length of borders equipped with these means of control was about 4 thousand km. Sections of 583 border outposts in the most important directions were blocked.
To maintain signaling systems and communications equipment, in February 1953, communications groups were introduced into the staff of linear border outposts. In the same year, vehicle searchlight stations appeared in the states of the border detachments.
In the post-war years, much attention was paid to the armament of border troops. The troops received new automatic weapons.
An important step was the re-establishment of maritime border units in 1946. They included border guard ships and boats that remained in service at the end of the war. Of these, separate divisions of patrol ships and boats were formed. Soon the units began to receive more modern ships such as the “Big Hunter” and others.
Considerable attention was paid to border troops aviation. The An-2 became the main aircraft of border aviation. New aviation regiments and separate air squadrons were formed within the troops. Already in 1952, the issue of using new air machines - helicopters - in border protection was fundamentally resolved.
Border troops in a short time took the USSR border, including its new sections, under complete control. In the minds of the majority of Soviet people, the Soviet Union was represented as an impregnable bastion, whose borders were vigilantly guarded by border guards, multiplying the “immortal traditions of the knight of the proletarian revolution, Felix Dzerzhinsky.”
10.3. SERVICE AND COMBAT ACTIVITY OF BORDER TROOPS
The main direction of the service and combat activities of the border troops in the post-war period was to increase efforts to ensure reliable border protection. The documents that made up the regulatory framework of the border service, among the tasks of the border troops, determined: preventing illegal crossing of the state border by people, vehicles and various goods, and in the event of attempts to violate the border, suppressing them by any means, including physical territorial destruction, the fight against spies and saboteurs, repelling incursions into the territory of the USSR by armed groups, implementing measures to comply with the access control regime, assisting the relevant government services to control the use of state resources, including in territorial waters, monitoring fulfillment of the terms of agreements with neighboring states on border issues, etc.
The main document regulating the activities of border troops remained the “Regulations on the protection of state borders of the USSR”, approved on June 15, 1927 by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. The affiliation and order of subordination of the checkpoints, their purpose and responsibilities were determined by the “Regulations on checkpoints of the OGPU” of 1927, and a special “Instruction on the operation of checkpoints”.
These documents had a number of significant shortcomings. They vaguely established the procedure for the actions of border troops to comply with the access control regime, did not define the regime of the state border, did not delimit the rights and responsibilities of the subjects of state power of the USSR in protecting the border, and did not sufficiently fully reflect the conditions for the use of weapons. The changing situation on most of the Soviet border after the war urgently required new guiding documents.
In the current conditions, the border troops in their daily activities were guided primarily by the orders and instructions of the People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR, and since 1949, by the USSR Ministry of State Security and the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs.
One of the first post-war documents that determined the main directions of activity of the border troops was the order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR “On measures to improve the protection of the state border” (February 1946). It contained a list of general activities that needed to be carried out as a matter of priority, especially in relation to the western section of the border, and determined the degree of responsibility of commanders and superiors for the state of the border service.
Very characteristic was the introduction into the order of a clause on the absolute prohibition of violations of the state border. The People's Commissar obliged the relevant commanders to pursue the violators who broke into the territory of the USSR “relentlessly, with the utmost effort and means, until they are completely detained.” Responsibility for searching for border violators rested with the heads of border detachments.
There was one more point in the document, the appearance of which became a sign of the times. The border troops pledged to intensify efforts to prevent Soviet citizens from leaving the cordon.
In June 1946, the troops received an order from the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, which supplemented the clauses of the 1927 “Regulations on the Protection of State Borders of the USSR” regarding the use of weapons by border troops personnel when protecting the state border. The appearance of the order was caused by the fact that soldiers and officers of the troops, serving on the border, did not always use weapons correctly, opening fire to kill when it was not necessary. The “front-line” consciousness of the personnel should have been rebuilt in a peaceful way.
The order limited the use of weapons. It was permitted only when repelling an armed attack or when it was necessary to break armed resistance, in conditions of obvious danger to border guards, when detainees tried to escape and it was impossible to prevent this in any other way or way. Without warning, weapons could only be used in a confrontation with armed border violators. The same order determined the procedure for the use of weapons by sea border ships and boats.
The border protection service during the period under review was also regulated by the instructions of the Main Directorate of Border Troops sent to the troops. Particular attention was paid to organizing the interaction of border troops with representatives and units of other departments, whose official interests were realized, among other things, in the border strip. First of all, it was about cooperation with units of the Soviet Army. For example, in the “Instructions on the relationship and interaction of the Soviet Army and the border troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR”, approved in September 1947, units of the Soviet Army stationed in the 7.5-kilometer border strip were obliged to participate in the detention of state violators -tional border.
Thus, assessing the overall regulatory framework for the service and combat activities of border troops in 1946-1953, it should be noted that the use of pre-war regulations and instructions as basic documents created some difficulties that had to be overcome with the help of clarifying documents . Changes in the situation at the border forced decisions to be made on the fly to make adjustments to the organization of the border protection service.
Its character and dynamics in the post-war period had a number of features caused, as already mentioned, by both objective and subjective reasons. First of all, this is the need to organize the protection of the newly annexed territories. An important feature was the presence in the border strip of the western section of the border of armed formations that fought against state power. In addition, the outbreak of the Cold War led to the strengthening of the border politically.
These circumstances required differentiation of the service and combat activities of border troops in different sections of the border. The process of adapting the troops to the new situation was ongoing. Thus, the main line of command in relation to borders with capitalist countries was to strengthen them in every possible way, as well as tighten the border regime.
Measures to strengthen border security in 1946-1953. primarily carried out in the Baltic sector, in the coastal strip of the Estonian and Latvian SSR, in the Iranian sector. Security of the Barents Sea coast, the Soviet-Turkish border and the Black Sea coast in general was strengthened. Particular attention was paid to protecting the state border with Japan.
All this required a search for the most rational forms and methods of service and combat activity of troops. In September-October 1947, the troops conducted an experiment to change the organization of border protection services. Based on the temporary instructions, it was recommended that it be organized by the department. The main goal of this event was to increase the role of junior command personnel and strengthen the interaction of border guards.
The instructions provided for the transition of outposts to a new organization. With a total strength of 50 people, the outpost now consisted of a directorate, 6-7 reconnaissance and search units and a dog service section. The department for carrying out service was assigned an area along the front up to 1500 m and in depth - up to 500 m. Moreover, during the daytime it was dispersed by one person at a distance of visual communication. Observation posts and secrets could be created within the department.
The proposed structure of the outpost was rejected during a practical test among the troops due to the impossibility of systematically using technical control means with such an organization of the service.
Taking into account the special regime of the state border with the countries of people's democracy, the command of the border troops approached the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs in 1948 with a proposal to allow outposts of some sections of the western border to send border patrols one person at a time. This made it possible, if necessary, to increase the number of border patrols. The corresponding permission from the Minister of Internal Affairs was received.
Strengthening the protection of the state border became a stable trend in the border policy of the Soviet Union in the post-war years. This confirms the steady increase in the density of border security. Thus, in the Leningrad border district it increased from an average of 5.5 people per kilometer in 1940 to 7.8 people in 1950, in the Lithuanian border district - from 8.7 to 9.4, respectively, in the Belorussian border district - from 8.8 to 10.4, in Ukrainian - from 7.5 to 9.4, in Moldavian - from 1.3 to 4.9 people. In the Transcarpathian border district in 1950, the border security density was 7.8 people per kilometer.
It should be noted that, despite the increasing density of border security, in the conditions of constantly increasing requirements for its reliability, the border service did not become easier. The reasons for this were the isolation of outposts from the infrastructure of economic regions on most sections of the border, the increasing volume of official tasks, a shortage of personnel, and a poor supply of technical means.
The main efforts of the border troops in 1946-1953. were focused on preventing and suppressing state border violations and combating smuggling. In addition, troops were involved in carrying out tasks of deporting the population (as was the case, for example, in the territory of the part of East Prussia annexed to the USSR), participated in maintaining public order in border areas, and fought against nationalist armed forces .
One of the most important indicators of the effectiveness of the service and combat activities of the border troops was the rapid decrease in the number of violations of the State Border of the USSR. In 1946, 19,173 violators were detained. At the same time, 8,638 of them tried to penetrate into the territory of the USSR, and 10,535 went beyond the cordon. In 1947, the total number of detained violators was 13,806 (in the USSR - 6320, from the USSR - 7486). The ratio in favor of those leaving the USSR was determined by the annexation of new territories, in some cases the forced isolation of relatives, as well as the attempt of gangs to escape from the attacks of the army and border troops.
With the change in the border regime on sections of the border with the “fraternal countries of socialism”, as well as in connection with successful actions against armed gangs, the situation began to change. Along with the sharp drop in the total number of violations, the ratio also changed. Beginning in 1948, the number of people going to the USSR significantly exceeded the number of people trying to leave its borders. This was greatly facilitated by the resettlement of the local population from the territory of the forbidden zones and the tightening of preventive measures against those who “had emigrant sentiments.” All this made it possible to systematically reduce the number of violations of the state border. When detaining violators, border guards often had to deal with armed resistance. Most often this happened during operations to eliminate gangs and reconnaissance and sabotage groups.
On June 24, 1948, the border guard of the Batumi border detachment, consisting of border guards I. Vasyukhno and M. Smolyaninov, following along the state border line, discovered traces of violators.
The dog picked up the trail and began chasing. The intruders, discovered soon, opened fire on the squad. A shootout ensued, during which Corporal Vasyukhno was mortally wounded. The border patrol that arrived to help detained one of the violators, the second was captured the next morning. On January 5, 1951, by order of the Minister of State Security, one of the outposts of the Georgian border district was named after Ivan Vasyukhno.
The service of border guards in the Soviet-Iranian direction was difficult. Border guards were repeatedly fired upon from the adjacent side. Iranian army units tried to seize certain parts of our territory and threatened the population of border areas with violence. Thus, on November 19, 1949, the Iranian military fired at Soviet sappers working on the border island of Eddy Evler. On the same day, the observation towers of the border outpost in the village of Mechet-Magli came under fire.
The fight against smuggling remained an important area of service and combat activity of the border troops. The checkpoint personnel vigilantly suppressed any attempts to smuggle prohibited items across the border. For example, at the Brest checkpoint in 1946, contraband worth 2 million rubles and a large amount of weapons were seized. From 1946 to 1950, border guards of the Reni OKPP of the Black Sea District detained 290 border violators, discovered and seized contraband worth 1 million 300 thousand rubles.
Effective actions of border guards have significantly reduced the flow of contraband moving across the border. If in 1946 321 attempts to smuggle in the amount of 25,340,410 rubles were prevented, then already in 1947 these figures decreased noticeably - 44 people were detained, and the cost of smuggling amounted to 14,224,301 rubles. In 1953, 17 attempts to smuggle prohibited items with a total value of 1,017,015 rubles were prevented.
In the post-war period, due to the strengthening of border security, special responsibility was assigned to border control authorities in terms of allowing people through the border. At the same time, the politicization of the border guard system directly affected the dynamics of entry. There was a decrease in the total number of citizens crossing the border. This reflected the general tendency of state policy to isolate the Soviet people “from the corrupting influence of the West.” In addition, the idea was persistently propagated that almost every foreigner was a spy. In this regard, entry into the USSR was also limited. A considerable part of the service time of the border guards of the western and northwestern sections of the State Border of the USSR in the post-Left War period was spent fighting the nationalist underground.
The participation of border troops in the fight against rebel armed groups in the western regions of Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states can be divided into two stages. At the first stage (1944-1946), the main task of the state security agencies, internal affairs and border troops was the elimination of large armed groups, and primarily in the areas of the restored border.
The state security and internal affairs bodies led the implementation of this task. Thus, the general leadership of the fight against the OUN underground and the liquidation of armed OUN detachments in the western regions of Ukraine was entrusted to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Ukrainian SSR, Commissar of State Security of the 3rd Rank Ryasny, the People's Commissar of State Security of the Ukrainian SSR, Commissar of State Security of the 3rd Rank Savchenko and the Chief of the Border Troops of the Ukrainian District, General - Lieutenant P.V. Burmak, and direct management of operational work was entrusted to the UNKVD - UNKGB for the Lvov, Stanislav and Chernivtsi regions of Ukraine. The same system of interaction was created in the western regions of Belarus and the Baltic republics.
The fight against the nationalist underground and its armed formations included political measures, operational activities and military operations. In addition, security measures were carried out in cities, other populated areas and in areas where operations were carried out.
Political events were carried out primarily by government authorities and were aimed at creating a negative attitude towards the nationalists among the local population and destroying the social base of the rebel movement. Border troops and state security agencies carried out operational activities on the border and in border areas according to a unified plan. The effectiveness of this work was expressed, for example, in the fact that from August to December 1944, 32 overseas detachments numbering 8,287 people and 52 detachments operating in our border strip, numbering 9,510, were identified and registered only in the Ukrainian border district. Human.
The beginning of particularly wide-ranging armed uprisings dates back to mid-August 1944, when the mobilization of conscript contingents into the Red Army was announced in the liberated territory.
The main form of struggle between border troops and nationalist formations was the conduct of special operations to search for and eliminate gangs simultaneously over large areas, involving large forces and means. In a number of cases, plans for such operations were approved by the military councils of the fronts. The operation was usually led by the chiefs of troops of the border districts created by this time or the chiefs of troops protecting the rear of the fronts. Thus, from August 22 to 27, 1944, a special operation was carried out to clear the Rava-Russky, Ugnovsky, Magerovsky, Nemirovsky and Yavorsky districts of the Lviv region from OUN-UPA gangs. The operation under the leadership of the chief of troops of the Ukrainian border district, Lieutenant General P.V. Burmak, according to the plan approved by the Military Council of the front, six border regiments of troops to protect the rear of the 1st Ukrainian Front, five formed border detachments of troops of the Ukrainian district and three regiments (two rifle and one cavalry) of the Red Army were brought in, especially for the period of the operation withdrawn from the front line.
During the operation, 1,549 were killed, 541 bandits were captured, and fortified points prepared by the OUN for long-term defense were destroyed or burned.
In the course of the fight against gangs, the tactics of the actions of border units were improved, in which a number of features were visible. For example, when a large gang tried to break through from our rear beyond the cordon, the first to engage in battle with it were units of the internal troops or the border district located on the district border. They restrained the advance of bandits to the border and actively conducted reconnaissance of their forces and intentions. The border detachment informed the command of the nearest military unit about the current situation, strengthened border security and put forward its reserve in the directions of the gang’s movement. The latter occupied an advantageous position in advance, built the most expedient battle formation, and with sudden fire and a strike, in cooperation with the pursuing units, eliminated the gang or forced it into a protracted battle, gaining time for the main district reserves to approach.
At the end of September 1944, the NKVD, taking into account the experience of fighting gangs, decided to change the staffing structure of the border detachments created in May - June of this year. The number of border posts was increased from 32 to 50, man groups - from 150 to 250 people. The total staffing level of border detachments was increased from 1630 to 1864 people. Each detachment had 20 line and 4 reserve outposts, which were consolidated into four border commandant's offices. The units received vehicles, which significantly increased the maneuverability of their units.
Measures were taken to improve the combat training of troops and increase the vigilance of personnel. In the western border districts, all officers who arrived to replenish the detachments after graduating from college were trained for a month and a half. They specifically addressed issues of organizing and fighting gangs. Staff training was regularly conducted with staff officers.
The experience of border guards in combating armed gangs, accumulated at the final stage of the war, was skillfully used in the second half of the 40s and early 50s.
The main methods of action of troops during special operations were blocking, covering the most likely directions of the gang’s movement, searching or combing the area in a blocked area, encirclement, attack and pursuit. In all cases, military operations were preceded by intelligence and intelligence activities carried out by state security agencies.
The border troops guarding the restored western border fought against bandit formations (operating both in our rear areas and in the rear areas of neighboring states, especially in Poland) in cooperation with internal troops, as well as with the rear units of the fronts and military commandant’s offices , deployed in the liberated territories, and when the need arose, then with infantry units of the Polish Army. The latter was caused by the fact that the gangs operating on the territory of Poland often made raids on Soviet territory and, on the contrary, in order to escape the attack of our troops, hid in Poland. In a number of cases, from Polish territory they fired at Soviet border guards and local residents, and attacked trains and convoys.
Close cooperation between Soviet border guards and Polish troops contributed to the successful fight against gangs in the border regions of the USSR and on Polish territory. In October-December 1944 and during 1945, more than 20 joint special operations were carried out in the border regions of Poland against sections of the 90, 2, 88, 89 and 93rd border detachments.
In September-December 1944, troops of the Ukrainian district carried out 476 special combat operations, of which 123 were against large UPA units. Two or three border detachments and units of internal troops were involved in 37 of these operations, and a number of operations were carried out on Polish territory jointly with Polish units. During the operations, 11,240 people were killed, wounded or detained.
From October 1944 to February 1945, troops of the Carpathian border district conducted 158 special combat operations, during which 5,544 people were killed and 2,980 people were detained.
In 1944, 65 such operations were successfully carried out in the Lithuanian district, a number of them were characterized by a wide scope. So, in December, in an operation that lasted 12 days and took place under the leadership of Major General M.S. Bychkovsky, two border detachments and two rifle regiments of internal troops took part. During it, 15 nationalist groups were defeated, 284 were killed and up to 800 people were captured.
Aviation took part in special combat operations to eliminate large enemy formations. The planes performed a wide variety of tasks: they conducted aerial reconnaissance, guided border units to detected bandits, landed airborne troops in the area of operation, assisted in the destruction of gangs with bombing strikes and machine gun fire, and threw out barriers on their escape routes. During the first half of 1945, border guard pilots of the Ukrainian border district discovered the location of 13 gangs. In 1946, with the help of aerial reconnaissance, 19 gang groups were discovered in sections of the Ukrainian and Carpathian border districts.
By 1946, the main forces of the nationalists were defeated. In 1945 alone, 250 gangs were liquidated, 10,121 were destroyed in battles, 552 were wounded and 17,612 people were detained.
Having lost the opportunity to act in large forces, the rebels began to change tactics, increasingly conspiring their organizations, moving to actions in small groups. However, the personnel of the border troops and the NKVD, skillfully using their acquired experience, successfully continued the fight against the underground. Thus, in 1946, more than 90 bandit groups and 184 OUN organizations were liquidated on the territory of the Stanislav region of Ukraine, and 98 armed groups and organizations were liquidated in the Lvov region. Actions in the Baltic states were also successful. On July 7, 1945, in the forest of the Veiver region of Lithuania, border guards destroyed the headquarters of the brigade of the Iron Wolf formation and destroyed two combat groups. On July 24, 1946, a maneuver group of troops liquidated the Zalgiris armed group during the operation. At the same time, the border guards had no losses.
In 1947-1951 the fight against nationalist movements continued, but now these were small bandit groups and organizations that had gone deeply underground. Since the end of 1947, gangs rarely allowed themselves to appear near the border. In Ukraine, border guards most often detained Bandera members coming from the central OUN line from abroad on underground missions. In 1948-1949 Bandits often acted in groups of 2-3 people, often alone. Over the 5 months of 1948, the border units of the Ukrainian district entered into battle with gang formations 11 times. 19 people were killed, wounded and detained. The losses of the border guards were 3 killed and 5 wounded.
In general, by 1953 the fight against the nationalist underground was completed. In 1947-1953. Border guards neutralized 688 bandits, 35 foreign intelligence agents, captured 51 light and 11 heavy machine guns, 935 rifles and machine guns, 100 pistols and revolvers.
In the fight against bandits and saboteurs, border guards showed courage and heroism. Behind the dry lines of orders from ministers, the service of border soldiers, full of drama and danger, often arose: “Private outpost of the border detachment of the MGB of the Ukrainian district, Corporal A.F. Lepilov, carrying out the task of eliminating the gang, showed bold and decisive actions. In an unequal battle with the bandits, Corporal Lepilov, being wounded twice, overtook the criminals and destroyed them. I order that Corporal Anatoly Filippovich Lepilov be awarded a personalized watch with the inscription: “For excellent border protection from the USSR MGB. Minister of State Security of the USSR."
In February 1948, by order of the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs, a group of border guards was marked. “On February 10, 1948, at the site of the border detachment in the village of Grushatichi (17 km from the border), a group of fellow party workers was attacked by two armed bandits. A search group was assigned to provide assistance and search for the bandits. Junior Lieutenant Ivashchenko, Corporal Bogaev and Soldier Vasilyev, who were part of the group, despite the cold and snow, took off their overcoats and boots that interfered with rapid movement, and pursued the bandits at a distance of 8 km. The bandits stopped 12 times and fired at the pursuing border guards from ambushes. However, the border guards, despite the frost and snow, undressed and barefoot, continued the pursuit. As a result of the energetic and persistent pursuit, courageous and decisive actions of these comrades, the bandits were overtaken by them and their wives were destroyed.”
Border guards also took a great part in protecting public order. Based on Directive of the Minister of Internal Affairs No. 281 of November 29, 1946, they, together with local bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, fought against criminality and hooliganism. In just ten days (from March 10 to March 20, 1947), border patrols in cities and large settlements detained and handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs 272 people, including 4 robbers, 52 border regime violators, 125 passport regime violators. In December 1947, they detained more than 700 people for various offenses.
The naval units of the border troops, among other tasks, increased efforts to economically protect Soviet territorial waters. The organization of this work was facilitated by the arrival of new high-speed ships into the troops.
A particularly important section of the Soviet maritime borders in this regard was the Far Eastern territorial waters, where neighboring states tried to carry out predatory production of fish and seafood. For example, on June 2 and 3, 1952, in the La Perouse Strait, border guards detained two Japanese fishing schooners with 15 tons of fish. Taking into account the current situation, the Main Directorate of Border Troops paid constant attention to providing naval units and improving the tactics of their actions.
The country's leadership rightfully highly appreciated the service and combat activities of the border troops. By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated February 14, 1951, the Sortavala, Prishibsky, Bakhardensky, Pamir border detachments and the Kuvshinosalmsky detachment of border ships were awarded the Order of the Red Banner for the successful completion of border protection tasks. By the same decree, many soldiers, sergeants, officers and generals of the border troops were awarded orders and medals, including 14 border guards - the Order of Lenin, 119 - the Order of the Red Banner, 703 - the Order of the Patriotic War I and II degrees, 567 - the Order of the Red Banner Stars. 1874 soldiers, sergeants and officers were awarded medals of the Soviet Union.
Thus, in 1946-1953. the effectiveness of the service and combat activities of the border troops steadily increased. The total number of border violators has decreased, a strong barrier has been placed on the smuggling route, and work has been intensified to protect the economic interests of the state in territorial waters. This was facilitated by the arrival of new equipment and weapons into the troops, the concentration of border guards on performing their own functional tasks, and qualitative changes in the personnel composition of the troops. The practice included new forms and methods of border protection.
2. GAVO (State Archives of the Volgograd Region). F. 71. Op. 1. D. 640. L. 139. Volume 140.
3. Historical, cultural and natural heritage: anthology / compilation: N.M. Markdorf, V.V. Senkus, I.P. Reshchikova. Novokuznetsk, 2006.
4. Book of memory. Stalingraders in battle and labor 1941 - 1945. Memoirs. Documentation. Photos. Volgograd, 1994.
5. Cultural construction of the Volgograd region 1941 -1980: collection. documents and materials. Volgograd, 1981. T. 2.
6. Lyushin S.P. Labor feat of Volgograd residents. 1943-1962. Volgograd, 1963.
7. Panorama Museum “Battle of Stalingrad”. Volgograd, 1984.
8. Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On measures to improve the protection of cultural monuments” dated October 14, 1948 No. 3898 (Extract).
9. RGASPI (Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History). F. 17. Op. 125.
10. CDNIVO (Center for Documentation of Contemporary History of the Volgograd Region). F. 113. OP. 20. D. 140.
11. TsDNIVO. F. 171. Op. 1.
12. Chuyanov A. On the rapids of the century. Notes of the regional committee secretary. M., 1976.
RESTORATION OF THE TERRITORY AND FORMATION OF THE STATE BORDER OF THE USSR IN THE WESTERN DIRECTION
N.G. Palamar,
Candidate of Military Sciences, Associate Professor, Department of History, Moscow University for the Humanities
NEWSLETTER 2008. No. 4(23)
In 1944, the Red Army solved the main task: the territory of our Motherland was liberated from the fascist occupiers. The country's leadership was faced with the question of restoring the western section of the USSR state border along its entire length.
Back on March 2, 1944, the Main Directorate of Border Troops (hereinafter - GUPV) and Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General
A.N. Apollonov prepared proposals for the use of border regiments to protect the rear of the active army in the restoration and subsequent protection of the state border. But the General Staff did not support these proposals and, in turn, to carry out measures to restore the state border, proposed to form new units as part of the NKVD border troops, allocating for this purpose an additional 57 thousand people from the People's Commissariat of Defense.
On March 25, 1944, the forward detachments of S.G. Trofimenko’s 27th Army reached the state border along the river. Prut in the area northwest of Kali-neshta. On March 26, in the Lopatkin area, formations of the 40th Army of F.F. approached the state border. Zhmachenko, and in the area northwest of Un-gen - formations of the 52nd Army. But only on April 8, 1944, the State Defense Committee (hereinafter - GKO), by its resolution No. 5584ss, obliged the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR to form departments of the western border districts and 34 border detachments.
During the period of formation of border districts and detachments, sections of the state border, the restoration of which was envisaged in the first place, were given under the protection of the NKVD border regiments for protecting the rear of the active army, temporarily transferred to the operational subordination of the GUPV.
On May 20, border protection along the river. Prut was transferred to the newly formed Moldavian Border District. The 123rd and 124th border regiments were transferred to its composition from the NKVD troops protecting the rear of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, which were subsequently reorganized into the 19th and 20th border detachments, respectively. In total, according to the order of the NKVD of the USSR, 34 border detachments numbering 49,424 people were formed. The management of border troops was entrusted to ten border districts: Murmansk, Karelo-Finnish, Leningrad, Baltic, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Carpathian, Moldavian and Black Sea.
The restoration of state border protection was carried out as the country's territory was liberated. By the end of 1944, the protection of the state border in the western direction was completely restored along the entire length from the Barents to the Black Sea. Border guards guarded the border with Norway (122.5 km), Finland (1,347.6 km), Poland (1,265 km), Czechoslovakia (116.2 km), Hungary (145.5 km) and Russia.
Mynia (1,254.4 km), the coast of the Baltic (2,883.7 km) and Black (2,286.7 km) seas.
In order to strengthen the protection of the restored western border, border ships and boats with crews were returned from the Navy, on the basis of which separate divisions were formed in the border districts: Leningrad - 5th and 6th, Baltic - 7th, 8th 1st, 9th and 10th, Black Sea - 11,12 and 13th, Georgian - 1st and 2nd and 14th separate divisions.
Work began on marking the state border on the ground together with representatives of the General Staff of the Red Army. Then detailed descriptions of the border line were drawn up, and border engineering began. At the same time, temporary signs were initially installed, and a clearing 4 m wide was equipped in forest areas. In 1944, 837 km of control and trail strip were plowed, more than 900 observation posts, about 200 km of barriers were built, and more than 2,500 different signaling devices were manufactured.
On April 21, 1945, the Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Post-War Cooperation was signed between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Poland. On its basis, Soviet border guards provided assistance in the creation and development of the Polish border guard.
On June 29, 1945, a Treaty between the USSR and the Czechoslovak Republic on the reunification of Western Ukraine with Soviet Ukraine was signed in Moscow. The border troops were entrusted with the task of guarding and defending the newly defined state border.
On July 17, 1945, in accordance with the decisions of the Potsdam Conference of the Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, the city of Koenigsberg and the adjacent region (now the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation) was transferred to the Soviet Union. By order of the NKVD of the USSR, border troops took protection of a new section of the state border.
On July 27, 1944, the government of the USSR and the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PKNO) signed an agreement on the Soviet-Polish border, which was based on the Curzon line with deviations from it in favor of Poland (in the Belarusian section), the Bialystok region and part of Belovezhskaya Pushcha.
V. Molotov and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Polish Republic
E. Osubka-Morawski signed the Treaty on the Soviet-Polish border. In accordance with it, the border basically corresponded to the “Curzon Line” proposed by the Entente countries in 1920. In Art. 2 of the Treaty stated that the state border between the states runs “from a point located approximately 0.6 kilometers southwest of the source of the San River, northeast to the source of the San River and further down the middle of the San River to a point south of the inhabited point Solina, further east of Przemysl, west of Rava-Russkaya to the Solokiya River, from here along the Solokiya River and the Western Bug River to Nemirov-Yalovka, leaving on the Polish side the part of the territory of Belovezhskaya Pushcha indicated in Article 1, and from here to the junction of the borders of the Lithuanian SSR , the Polish Republic and East Prussia, leaving Grodno on the side of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."
On August 17, 1945, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR issued an order on the formation of naval units of the NKVD border troops in connection with the return of ships, bases and personnel to the border troops from the Navy.
On September 12, 1945, in connection with the adoption of the protection of the state border of the USSR within Transcarpathian Ukraine, by order of the NKVD of the USSR, the Carpathian border district was renamed the Transcarpathian district of the NKVD border troops. The reunification of Ukraine raised the question of the demarcation of a new section of the Soviet-Polish border in the Transcarpathian region, which was not provided for by the 1945 treaty. The importance of this event is evidenced by the fact that already on April 2, 1946, a Protocol on the demarcation of this section of the state border was signed in Warsaw borders.
In 1945, in accordance with the provisions of Chapter VI of the Potsdam Agreement1, the city of Königsberg and the surrounding area was transferred “under the control of the Soviet Union”2. On September 21, 1945, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the acceptance by the border troops of the NKVD of a section of the state border of the USSR with Poland within the former East Prussia in accordance with the Treaty between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Republic on the Soviet-Polish state border, which was ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 13, 1946.
In 1946 - 1947 The entire section of the Soviet-Polish border was demarcated. Based on its results, a Description Protocol was drawn up, signed in Warsaw on April 30, 1947.
In accordance with the Armistice Agreement between the USSR and Great Britain, on the one hand, and Finland, on the other hand, dated September 19, 1944, the formation (establishment and international legal registration) of the state border between the Soviet Union and Norway began. On the initiative of the Soviet government, in 1946 an agreement was signed on the demarcation of the state border, concluded through the exchange of notes dated August 6, 1945, June 2 and July 8, 1946. The demarcation of the Soviet-Norwegian border was carried out from June 6 to September 5, 1947 and already on December 18, 1947, a Protocol was signed describing the passage of the state border line between the USSR and Norway.
On February 10, 1947, a peace treaty was signed with Finland, according to which the state border was the border that existed on January 1, 1941. In accordance with the requirements of the Armistice Agreement of September 19, 1944, Finland transferred the Petsamo (Pechenga) region to the USSR. In addition, Finland ceded (for 700 million Finnish marks) to the USSR a territory of 176 km2 in the area of the Janiskoski hydroelectric power station and the Niskakoski control dam on the Paatso-Joki River with buildings and structures located on this territory.
Peace treaties with Hungary and Romania (dated February 10, 1947), signed by the USSR, Great Britain, USA,
1 Adopted at a conference held in Potsdam
2 On April 7, 1946, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a Decree “On the formation of the Koenigsberg region as part of the RSFSR.”
Australia, the BSSR, Czechoslovakia, India, New Zealand, the Ukrainian SSR, the Union of South Africa, as well as Canada (with Romania and Hungary), Yugoslavia (with Bulgaria and Hungary), established the borders of Hungary as of January 1, 1938. The border of Romania with The Soviet Union was established in accordance with the Soviet-Romanian Agreement of June 28, 1940 and the Soviet-Czechoslovak Agreement of June 29, 1945.
On February 4, 1948, the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance was signed between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Romanian People's Republic. In the same year, on the basis of Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated July 28 No. 2746-1133, from October 20 to December 15, work was carried out to demarcate the Soviet-Romanian border, which resulted in the signing of the relevant documents on September 27, 1949. Based on the results of the demarcation of the state border between the Soviet Union and Romania, Fr. went to the USSR. Zmeiny in the Black Sea.
In 1948, a number of agreements were concluded that had an impact on border cooperation between neighboring countries. Among them are the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Hungarian Republic, approved by the Council of Ministers of the USSR, signed on February 18, and the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Republic of Finland, signed on April 6.
In the next 1949, Treaties on the State Border Regime were signed between the USSR and the Polish Republic, as well as the Finnish Republic (ratified by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on January 20, 1949). On February 24, 1950, a similar agreement was signed and ratified on July 3 with the Hungarian People's Republic on the regime of the Soviet-Hungarian state border. In the same year, a convention was signed on the procedure for regulating
of border conflicts and incidents on the state border.
On May 31, 1951, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Agreement signed on February 15 between the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Polish Republic on the exchange of sections of state territory was ratified, according to which territories of equal size were exchanged, taking into account economic feasibility and gravity.
At the final stage of the formation of the western state border of the USSR, by order of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs dated June 2, 1953, a number of border troops, including the western districts, were reorganized. In accordance with it, the departments of the Transcarpathian and Moldavian border districts were disbanded.
Thus, the most important areas of activity to restore the western state border of the USSR in the post-war years were: demarcation and re-demarcation of the state border; conclusion of treaties and agreements with neighboring states and legislative acts of the USSR on border issues; equipment of the state border in engineering and technical terms, etc. By the mid-50s. XX century The western border of the USSR was mainly formalized in international law.
1. Gazette of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1946. No. 2.
2. Gazette of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1949. No. 6.
3. Gazette of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1949. No. 54.
4. Gazette of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 1951. No. 23.
5. GARF. F.9401. Op.1. D.2006. L.241.
6. Chronicle of the border troops of the KGB of the USSR. M., 1981.
7. Collection of laws of the USSR and decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR: 1938-1975. M., 1975. T. 2.
8. TsPA FSB of Russia. F.14.
9. CPA FSB of the Russian Federation. F.19. Op.11. D.1676. L.51.
10. TsPA FSB of Russia. F.58.
COUNTERING THE NATIONAL OPPOSITION MOVEMENT IN THE KINGDOM OF POLISH AND THE WESTERN PROVINCES OF THE VOLGA DIVISIONS OF THE GENDARME CORPS
The last version of the borders of the part of Poland annexed to the Russian Empire was determined by the decisions of the international Congress of Vienna in 1814. Following the example of a number of European monarchs, Alexander I in 1815 granted a constitutional act to the Kingdom of Poland, which before that was part of the French bourgeois state. However, the government tried to pursue a policy of integrating this territory into the empire. But the specifics and contradictions of the previous socio-political (in particular, the long existence of the state, complex interethnic relations, the leading role of the gentry) and cultural development (European culture, permeated with Catholicism, heightened awareness of ethnicity) gave rise to a permanent process of restoring the independence of the previously existing Polish state. At the same time, it had pronounced features: mass, organization, combined with violence, increased social danger. Therefore, the Kingdom of Poland is natural
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V.V. Romanov,
Candidate of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Legal Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law, Ulyanovsk State University
NEWSLETTER 2008. No. 4(23)