Qualla: Urup

Urup: Introduction

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Mohonu at English Wikipedia., Public domain. In the Ainu language, urup means sockeye salmon. The island that bears the name is the fourth largest in the Kuril chain, a 120-kilometer slab of volcanic rock running northwest to southeast through the Sea of Okhotsk. Nobody lives here permanently anymore. The Ainu are gone. The Japanese garrison surrendered in 1945. The Soviet border troops withdrew in 1991. What remains is four groups of volcanoes, colonies of seabirds, and a gold mine operated by temporary workers — the last human enterprise on an island that five nations have, at various points, tried to claim.

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Image: The original uploader was Mohonu at English Wikipedia. | Public domain

Urup: A Landscape of Extremes

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Фото Алексей Романов, CC BY-SA 4.0. Urup is essentially rectangular, 120 kilometers long and 20 wide, with an area of 1,430 square kilometers. Four volcanic groups define the terrain. The Kolokol Group, at 1,328 meters, erupted as recently as 1973. Rudakov, a 524-meter cone, holds a funnel-shaped crater with a lake...

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Image: Фото Алексей Романов | CC BY-SA 4.0

Urup: Phantom Islands and Real Ambitions

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Vallee, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1643, the Dutch ship Castricum under Maarten Gerritsz Vries became the first recorded European vessel to reach this part of the Kurils. Vries's confused account — longitude was nearly impossible to calculate accurately — spawned the phantom island Company Land, a nonexistent c...

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Image: Vallee | CC BY-SA 4.0

Urup: The Crimean War Reaches the Pacific

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Фото Алексей Романов, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1855, as Russia and Japan divided the Kurils through the Treaty of Shimoda, the Crimean War brought yet another set of claimants. A Franco-British naval force, led by HMS Pique and the French frigate Sybille, arrived at the Russian settlement of Tavano in late August. Captain ...

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Image: Фото Алексей Романов | CC BY-SA 4.0

Urup: Garrison Island

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Image captured by the NASA Expedition 23 crew, Public domain. Under the 1875 Treaty of Saint Petersburg, the entire Kuril chain passed to Japan. The remaining Aleut inhabitants were transferred to Kamchatka and replaced by Japanese colonists. During World War II, all civilians were relocated to the home islands, and the Imperial Japanese Ar...

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Image: Image captured by the NASA Expedition 23 crew | Public domain

Urup: Empty but Not Forgotten

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Фото Алексей Романов, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Soviet troops withdrew when the USSR dissolved in 1991. Their airfield was converted to a bombing range. Today the island's only economic activity is a gold and silver mine called KurilGeo, formerly owned by the Solway Group and reportedly sold to an Armenian company in 2022....

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Image: Фото Алексей Романов | CC BY-SA 4.0