Pride Of Ownership

The main town on the Kurile island of Iturup might be any down-and-out frontier settlement in the former Soviet Union. Kurilsk's rutted streets run through neighborhoods of ramshackle houses with outdoor plumbing; the few shops offer only a sparse selection of goods at intimidating prices. The biggest employer, a crumbling fish-processing plant, is several weeks behind in paying wages. Vasily Sadovsky, Kurilsk's vice mayor, confirms the obvious: "Things have been getting worse here for 10 years. Nothing works, not even the streetlights. No one has the initiative to find new bulbs for them."

Now many of the Russians living on the Kurile Islands are hoping for a future better than they ever dreamed. Their homes are on what Japan still calls its Northern Territories, a volcanic archipelago stretching 186 miles from Japan's northern border waters that was seized by the Soviets in the waning days of World War II. Tokyo wants those territories back, and part of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa's strategy is to woo the 25,000 Russian residents with hints of the good life that would blossom under Japan's rule.

Slowly the campaign is working: many islanders still balk at the notion of a return to Japanese sovereignty, but most agree that the holdouts are losing ground. Says a fisherman in Kurilsk: "We live in barbaric conditions, and our government will not help. Who would not agree to Japan's offer for a good sum of money?"

The answer to that question lies in Moscow, where the Kurile issue has stirred political passions. One camp, led by the Russian Foreign Ministry, is willing to do business on Tokyo's terms: the islands returned in exchange for a formal peace treaty, never signed after World War II, and financial support for the comatose Russian economy. Opposed is an unruly chorus of nationalist politicians who threaten to overthrow President Boris Yeltsin if he surrenders any more of the "motherland." They are allied with conservative military men, still smarting from the "loss" of Eastern Europe, who fear that return of the islands will threaten the defense of the Russian Far East.

Yeltsin feels caught in the middle. In recent months he has tried to encourage Tokyo by promising to withdraw most of the islands' 7,000-strong Russian garrison. His government has also floated a compromise in which Japan would get some of the islands, while Russia would keep the larger two of Kunashir and Iturup, where most Russians live. Tokyo has rejected the idea, and Yeltsin, fearful of risking the wrath of his Moscow rivals, has been unable to sweeten the deal further. Last week he canceled a trip to Tokyo rather than confront the issue.

With the collapse of Soviet communism, the possibilities for diplomatic rapprochement might seem to be good, but that is misleading. Even though Moscow and Tokyo talk of settling the dispute in terms of "legitimacy and justice," control of the Kuriles turns more on issues of realpolitik. Says Mikhail Vysokov, director of the Sakhalin Center of Modern History: "Those with power have rights. When Russia had more power, it had more rights. Now Japan has more power."