Le isole Curili nelle relazioni russo-giapponesi

Over the last few years, the world’s attention has turned to Far East, on various occasions, first of all because of the apprehension for the possible consequences of an escalation in the Korean Peninsula, and the tensions along the 38th parallel have become a relatively familiar theme at the international public opinion. While the eyes were all on the last ‘Cold War frontier’, recalled by both the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang and the extravagances of its regime, a sinister hybrid of an absolute monarchy and a communist dictatorship, another controversial frontier not far from Korea has remained almost completely ignored, that between the Russian Federation and Japan in the Kuril islands. This is a controversy that began at the end of the eighteenth century and that, among other things, it has continued to this day to the point that it has even prevented the conclusion of a peace treaty between Moscow and Tokyo, that would formally end the Second World War in the Pacific. The genesis and evolution of this dispute and its implications in the system of Russian-Japanese relations are the subject of this article.