AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION The history of Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands is very complicated, contradictory and controversial. This is explained first of all by the fact that the original historical sources have been inadequately studied. Secondly, these islands have been the source of acute territorial disputes between Japan and the Russian Empire (later its successor state, the USSR). Because of this, many Russian (Soviet) and Japanese researchers have attempted not so much to study the history of the islands as to find arguments to bolster their government's claims in the age-old dispute. Soviet historians devoted most of their attention to finding proof of the fact that ''Sakhalin and the Kurils belong to our Motherland by right of prior discovery, prior exploration, prior settlement and prior annexation." Everything that did not suit this postulate was ignored, covered up, or denounced as a falsification. Naturally, it is difficult to speak of the objectivity of this kind of research. Now historians have the opportunity to recreate a truer history of Sakhalin and the Kurils thanks to the discontinuation of pre-publication censorship, easier access to materials in state archives and libraries, and the development of relations with foreign researchers and organizations. Of course, censorship under any regime is capable of pressuring the historian to act against his conscience by fulfilling whatever task the authorities set for him. It seems to me that the first thing historians should do in working toward an objective history of Sakhalin and the Kurils is to give up the "prior discovery" psychology. We need to appreciate the fact that these were not some kind of unknown lands added to Russia, but islands already settled by peoples having an ancient history uniquely their own. I think the main point about the history of Sakhalin and the Kurils is the process by which these territories were settled and developed by man. During this centuries-long process, cultures arose or were brought here from neighboring countries, flowered, and declined. One dominant culture/economic type was displaced by another. And Russians (no less than other nations) were not the first, nor will they be the last, in this long history of struggle, co-existence and displacement of cultures on our islands.