Pride Of Ownership

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The Russians, however, have more people on the islands. Many of the civilians living there were attracted by the high salaries that the Soviet Union used to provide anyone willing to work in such remote places. Today those who came only for the money are bitterly disappointed, faced with sharp price increases and the cutoff of special supplementary pay. That has led many to welcome the notion of a return to Japanese control -- and spawned fanciful dreams of compensation that some guess could reach $100,000 for any leave takers. Says a young mother who came with her husband on a work contract six years ago: "All my friends and I think that we should give up. The government cannot afford to provide its people a good life here."

Nationalistic feelings are strongest among longtime residents like Sergei Kvasov, a fisherman whose father fought with the Red Army on the islands in 1945. Says he: "Among those who were born here, there are no thoughts of giving up. We will fight before quitting these islands." Russian military men insist that the Kuriles are a protective shield for Russian ports on the Sea of Okhotsk and for the nuclear-armed Soviet ballistic-missile submarines that loiter in the sheltered waters.

Governor Valentin Fedorov, a staunch opponent of territorial transfer, argues that giving up the southern Kuriles makes no economic sense. It would, he says, deprive Russia of some of the best fisheries in the Pacific while opening the door for a deluge of Japanese investment that would "once again put us under the Japanese, only this time by peaceful means." For the moment, at least, the nays have it -- but the maneuvering is far from over.