Strait of Tartary

The toponym is derived from the Medieval ethnonym Tartars, which was applied to various Turkic and Mongol semi-nomadic empires, including the Yuan dynasty that ruled over China and the straits of Northeast Asia.

S-117 was a Soviet Shchuka class submarine that was lost on or about December 15, 1952, due to unknown causes in the Strait of Tartary in the Sea of Japan.

The southeastern part of the Strait of Tartary was the site of one of the tensest incidents of the Cold War, when on September 1, 1983, Korean Air Lines Flight 007, carrying 269 people including a sitting U.S. congressman, Larry McDonald, strayed into the Soviet air space and was attacked by a Soviet Su-15 interceptor just west of Sakhalin Island.

An intensive naval search by the U.S. with assistance of Japanese and Korean vessels was carried on in a 225 square miles (580 km2) area of the strait just north of Moneron Island.

[5] Since 1973, Vanino-Kholmsk train ferry operates across the strait, connecting the port of Vanino, Khabarovsk Krai on the mainland with Kholmsk on Sakhalin Island.

[8] A tunnel under the strait, to provide a road and/or rail connection between Sakhalin and the mainland, was begun under Joseph Stalin, but abandoned incomplete after his death.

The Strait of Tartary connects the Sea of Okhotsk to the Sea of Japan.
The coasts of the "Channel of Tartary " were charted by La Pérouse in 1787. The land adjacent to it from the west was referred to at the time as the " Chinese Tartary "
Early 18 c. French map depicting the Vries Strait and the Strait of Tartary.
Vanino, here in early May 2008, is an important port on the Strait of Tartary
Map including the Tatar Strait