Sakhalin

Sakhalin (Russian: Сахали́н, IPA: [səxɐˈlʲin]) is an island in <a href="/facts/Northeast_Asia/2oh4HM7W">Northeast Asia</a>. Its north coast lies 6.5 km (4.0 mi) off the southeastern coast of <a href="/facts/Khabarovsk_Krai/jx4uU4RM">Khabarovsk Krai</a> in <a href="/facts/Russia/jfkCwyxn">Russia</a>, while its southern tip lies 40 kilometres (25 mi) north of the <a href="/facts/Japanese_archipelago/zvCaDa4M">Japanese island</a> of <a href="/facts/Hokkaido/kwacDkYD">Hokkaido</a>. An island of the <a href="/facts/West_Pacific/bdxgXRVM">West Pacific</a>, Sakhalin divides the <a href="/facts/Sea_of_Okhotsk/T4QL1000">Sea of Okhotsk</a> to its east from the <a href="/facts/Sea_of_Japan/eDf8AHIq">Sea of Japan</a> to its southwest. It is administered as part of <a href="/facts/Sakhalin_Oblast/RCEmHMXH">Sakhalin Oblast</a> and is the largest <a href="/facts/List_of_islands_of_Russia/jg4s2ern">island of Russia</a>, with an area of 72,492 square kilometres (27,989 sq mi). The island has a population of roughly 500,000, the majority of whom are <a href="/facts/Russians/RBG9H1Rj">Russians</a>. The <a href="/facts/Indigenous_peoples/zyzBMXBS">indigenous peoples</a> of the island are the <a href="/facts/Ainu_in_Russia/4c3Mh3Du">Ainu</a>, <a href="/facts/Oroks/ysHEjqxn">Oroks</a>, and <a href="/facts/Nivkh_people/6MQUNsFu">Nivkhs</a>, who are now present in very small numbers.
The island's name is derived from the <a href="/facts/Manchu_language/5FNskcAr">Manchu</a> word Sahaliyan (ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ), which was the name of the <a href="/facts/Qing_dynasty/5j6r4p5m">Qing dynasty</a> city of <a href="/facts/Aigun/JB8LKVH0">Aigun</a>. The Ainu people of Sakhalin paid tribute to the <a href="/facts/Yuan_dynasty/mQl0o0XN">Yuan</a>, <a href="/facts/Ming_dynasty/p3bSVwUH">Ming</a>, and <a href="/facts/Qing_dynasty/5j6r4p5m">Qing</a> dynasties and accepted official appointments from them. Sometimes the relationship was forced but control from dynasties in <a href="/facts/China/lTjIXY5p">China</a> was loose for the most part.
The ownership of the island has been contested during the past millienium, with China, Russia, and Japan all making claims on the territory at different times. Over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries it was Russia and Japan, and the disputes sometimes involved military conflicts and divisions of the island between the two powers. In 1875, Japan ceded its claims to Russia in exchange for the northern <a href="/facts/Kuril_Islands/HBRsFdgN">Kuril Islands</a>. In 1897 more than half of the population were Russians and other European and Asian minorities. In 1905, following the <a href="/facts/Russo-Japanese_War/YWIxIkE2">Russo-Japanese War</a>, the island was divided, with <a href="/facts/Southern_Sakhalin/NItXQ5Ie">Southern Sakhalin</a> going to Japan. After the <a href="/facts/Siberian_intervention/7NePRPdA">Siberian intervention</a>, Japan invaded the northern parts of Sakhalin, and ruled the entire island from 1918 to 1925. Russia has held all of the island since <a href="/facts/Soviet_invasion_of_South_Sakhalin/yhtvA8bL">seizing</a> the Japanese portion in the final days of <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> in 1945, as well as all of the Kurils. Japan no longer claims any of Sakhalin, although it does still <a href="/facts/Kuril_Islands_dispute/bqKRj53z">claim the southern Kuril Islands</a>. Most Ainu on Sakhalin moved to Hokkaido, 43 kilometres (27 mi) to the south across the <a href="/facts/La_P%25C3%25A9rouse_Strait/ts58QANE">La Pérouse Strait</a>, when Japanese civilians were displaced from the island in 1949.

Sakhalin open-in-new

Sakhalin