View source for Sakhalin

{{Infobox Islands
|name = Sakhalin
|image_name = Sea of Okhotsk map ZI-2b.PNG
|image_caption =
| image_map      = {{Location map|Russia|lat=51|long=143}}
|native_name = 
|native_name_link = 
|location = [[Russian Far East]], [[Pacific Ocean]]
|coordinates= 45°50' 54°24' N
|archipelago =
|total_islands = 1
|major_islands =
|area = 
|rank = 23rd
|highest_mount = Lopatin
|elevation_m = 1609
|country = Russia
|country_admin_divisions_title =
|country_admin_divisions =
|country_largest_city = [[Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk]],[[Toyohara]]
|country_largest_city_population = 174,203
|population = 673,100
|population_as_of = 2005
|density_km2 = 8.62
|ethnic_groups = [[Russian people|Russians]], [[Korean people|Koreans]], [[Nivkhs]], [[Oroks]], [[Evenks]] and [[Yakuts]].
}}

'''Sakhalin''' ({{lang-ru|Сахали́н}}, {{IPA2|səxʌˈlʲin}}; [[Japanese language|Japanese]]: {{nihongo|''Karafuto''|樺太}} or {{nihongo|''Saharin''|サハリン}}; {{lang-zh|庫頁/库页 ''Kùyè''}} or 薩哈林/萨哈林 ''Sàhālín''), also known as '''Saghalien''', is a large, long Russian island in the North Pacific, placed between 45°50' and 54°24'&nbsp;N.  It is part of [[Russia]] territory and is its largest island, administered as part of [[Sakhalin Oblast]]. The indigenous peoples of the island are the Sakhalin [[Ainu people|Ainu]], [[Oroks]], and [[Nivkhs]].<ref>[http://museum.sakh.com/eng/10.shtml "The Indigenous Peoples"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090317085144/http://museum.sakh.com/eng/10.shtml |date=2009-03-17 }} - The Sakhalin Regional Museum&nbsp;— Sakh.com</ref> Most Ainu relocated to [[Hokkaidō]] when Japanese were gone from the island in 1949.<ref>Reid, Anna. ''The Shaman's Coat: A Native History of Siberia''. New York, New York: Walker & Company.  2003. pp.148-150 {{ISBN|0-8027-1399-8}}</ref>

The 1904-1905 [[Russo-Japanese War]] resulted a [[Japanese Empire|Japanese]] [[victory]] when the [[Imperial Russian Navy]] and the [[Imperial Russia|Imperial Russian Army]] got defeated by the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] and the [[Imperial Japanese Navy]] in 1905 when the [[Empire of Japan|Empire Of Japan]] led by [[Emperor Meiji]] declared war on [[Tsar Nicholas II]] in 1904 when [[Trans-Siberian railway]] was to built more [[Railway track|Railway Tracks]] in [[Manchuria]] in the [[Qing dynasty|Qing Dynasty]] and [[Korean Empire|Korea]] . Japan took the southern part of Sakhalin and renamed it to South Sakhalin and control it from 1905-1945 .

In August 1945 during the end of the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]] and [[World War 2]] in [[Asia]] the [[Soviet Union]] led by [[Joseph Stalin]] invaded South Sakhalin after he invaded [[Manchukuo]] this war would be known as the [[WW2|Soviet-Japanese War Of 1945]] .

Sakhalin is the subject of a whole book by Anton Chekhov (1895), reprinted in many Russian editions of his collected works. It has been translated into English. Of other old books, there is an interesting one by an Englishman, Charles H. Hawes, To the Uttermost East. (N.Y.: Scribner;s, 1904). Now, however, the island is experiencing an oil boom.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Other websites==
*[http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3 An old map of Sakhalin and 2 other islands from 1854]


[[Category:Pacific islands]]
[[Category:Islands of Russia]]
[[Category:Sakhalin Oblast]]