: Before the start of the Great Patriotic War, a decree was adopted to create a “Total Defense Zone” around Moscow. It included various fortifications, which were supposed to delay the Nazis for some time as they approached the borders of the capital. In the shortest possible time, impressive structures, pillboxes, tank guns and many trenches were erected. The prisoners had to hold the line. In case there was a riot in the ranks or the fortifications were captured by the Nazis, the entire territory was strewn with charges. Luckily there was no need to defend ourselves. The enemy army was stopped literally “on the approaches” to the fortified area, not reaching several kilometers. This review will focus on a fortification system located near the city of Nakhabino (Novo-Rizhskoe direction).
(Total 15 photos)
1. The territory of the positions is fenced and at first glance empty.
2. But if you look carefully, in some thickets you can see “Sticking out” Tank guns
3. Under each cannon there is an emergency exit, located a little further away.
4. There are two small rooms inside. The first, where the gun itself is located
5. The second is a room with a cabinet for storing ammunition
6. In addition to numerous cannons, you can find two huge hills hiding a huge area for vehicles.
8. The second “hill” is tightly closed.
9. You can also find small residential dugouts hiding in the thickets or a half-collapsed trench.
10. Inside, as a rule, the room is cylindrical in shape, separated by a partition.
11. This is what this room looks like from the outside (Layout from the museum part).
12. Another type of dugout (Metal rods covered with fabric are used as a spacer).
The small island of Shumshu in the Kuril ridge is known as the site of the bloodiest battle in the Russo-Japanese War. The blood is stirred by legends about underground samurai, who, without hearing the general’s order to surrender, remained in their underground fortifications. Shumshu Island has been known in Russian history since the 18th century. Over the course of several centuries, its population changed citizenship several times. Today the island is uninhabited. There is no one here except the researchers of the annual expeditions, who come to work for a while in harsh climatic conditions, and 7-8 lighthouse keepers. We will tell you the most interesting facts from the history of the island and its military past. You will find out what this amazing place is like now.
Location, climate and natural features
The area of the island is slightly less than 400 km 2. It belongs to the group of the Northern Kuril Islands. Shumshu and Kamchatka are separated by the First Kamchatka Strait, 11 km long. The second Kamchatka Strait is smaller (2 km), it separates Shumshu from Paramushir. There are no volcanoes on the island, which is very surprising. Among the reservoirs, it is worth noting a fresh lake, small rivers, and swamps.
The climate here is arctic and harsh. Flora and fauna are very weakly expressed: seaweed grows well on the shores, seals, sea otters and sea lions swim. On the island itself there are small rodents and foxes, and polar bears from Kamchatka often come.
About how the poor Ainu ended up on Shikatau
Initially, the ancient Ainu tribe lived here. This small people came to the island of Shumshu (in the photo below you can see representatives of the ethnic group) after they were forced out of the Japanese islands. The Ainu lived in yurts and engaged in fishing and hunting. The nation became part of the Russian Empire in the 18th century, after a detachment of Yakut Cossacks landed on their land. They did not immediately accept citizenship; they were independent and original. Later, Catherine the Second wrote in orders that the Russians should not offend the Ainu and should not take taxes from them, but trade furs and other trade goods with them by exchange.
During the reign of Nicholas I, Japan declared Sakhalin and all the Kuril Islands sovereign. The Crimean War, which began a little later, forced the Russian emperor to sign the Treaty of Shimoda in 1855. According to this Russian-Japanese treaty, the border between the countries began to pass between the islands of Iturup and Urup. Shumshu remained Russian for another 20 years, until the signing of the Treaty of St. Petersburg (in 1875), and then passed to Japan.
The few Ainu were dissatisfied; they liked the Russians more, who conducted mutually beneficial trade with them and did not interfere with their centuries-old way of life. The Japanese, having come to Shumshu, after some time again evicted the remaining Ainu to the island of Shikatau. The poor people began to die due to dramatically changed living conditions. Some scientists even talk about the deliberate genocide of the Ainu by the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun.
How the inventive Japanese increased the usable area of the island and created a system of underground fortifications
Shumshu has been Japanese for 70 years. Samurai are characterized as cruel and emotionless warriors, devoid of fear of death. From time immemorial, their military leaders were distinguished by great intelligence and cunning, and the ability to carry out sophisticated executions. Their soldiers became famous for their atrocities against children and women, their cynicism and callousness, and the lack of any pity during the Russo-Japanese War.
Since the 30s. XX century and until 1945, these people turned a piece of territory with an area of 30 x 20 km into an incredible military garrison. What is most impressive is the system of underground fortifications on Shumshu Island. At a depth of up to 70 m, military hospitals, barracks, warehouses with large supplies of provisions were built, and electricity was installed. Concrete artillery and machine gun bunkers were deployed on the surface and shelters were created for soldiers and military equipment.
Captured Chinese and Koreans, whom the Japanese drove to the island as labor, took part in the construction. After the garrison was ready, the unfortunate builders (more than 1000 people) were drowned in the sea. Shumshu Island was ready to resist the Soviet Army and hold its defense to the end.
Events of August 1945
One of the commanders-in-chief of the Japanese army were the sons of Emperor Hirokito, and losing the battle for them meant great shame for the entire empire. To help them were tanks, fortresses with artillery, air defense and the entire Kataoko naval base. The number of samurai was more than 10,000 people.
The Soviet Army sent marines and troops without heavy armored vehicles, which were not possible to deliver to the island. On August 17, the first bombing of the island by our troops began. The Japanese's clever camouflage did not produce the expected results. Then our landing craft encountered concrete jams, the military jumped into the icy water and sank to the bottom under a heavy load of ammunition. Some were able to walk underwater to the shore from a depth of more than two meters. The Japanese fled in fear. Aviation from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which carried out bombing attacks, helped the Soviet military a little. Gradually the Japanese were pushed back to the south of the island.
On August 19, the enemy capitulated, but on August 20, when our ships approached the shore, they were surrounded by fire from Japanese batteries. On August 23, the assault on Shumshu Island was completed, the Japanese general signed the terms of surrender. During this short, but very cruel and bloody battle, the Soviet Army lost 418 people, more than a hundred were missing.
After the war, life began to gradually recover. Many people came here to earn money by fishing with their entire families, and then stayed to live on the island. The population was restoring a cannery built by the Japanese. The former name Kataoko was changed to Baykovo. The village gradually deteriorated, and other fishing settlements appeared near military bases.
Terrible tsunami
This happened in the summer of 1952. A wave about 20 m high simply washed away the village. A lot of people died. Settlements and fishing bases disappeared; even the heavy tanks that remained from the war were washed away by the pressure of the sea elements.
Scientists recognized that this natural disaster was the largest in the entire history of Russia. Moreover, our people were not prepared for this kind of danger. They just didn’t know that there could be a tsunami here. They did not listen to the few indigenous residents who built their yurts “for some reason” on the hills. They built their houses closer to the sea or in the lowlands, where it was more comfortable. The number of victims and the scale of the disaster were deliberately kept silent by the party. According to official data, more than 2,000 people died, according to unofficial data - more than 50,000.
Gradual desertion of Shumshu Island
In other years, the island experienced earthquakes, which were an echo of the natural disasters occurring on the neighboring island of Paramushir. People lived, as if on a volcano, in small two-story houses; in the hallway there was always a ready-made bag with the most necessary things and documents in case of an accident.
After the tsunami, people were afraid to go to the island to work, much less stay here to live. Gradually there was no population left at all. At the beginning of this century, the island was officially recognized as uninhabited.
Two lighthouses and 7 people
Today it is a closed territory controlled by a military base of the Russian Federation. In the north, on Cape Kurbatov, there is a lighthouse, and another one in the west of Shumshu Island - Chibuiny Lighthouse.
Both of them do not play a significant role for navigation, because now there are more advanced radio systems for coordinating ships and electronic navigators. However, the lighthouses are not being written off from service, nor are the seven people who work on them.
What is the purpose of annual expeditions to the long-suffering island?
After the war, not only unexploded shells and bombs, fortifications, and rusty military equipment remained here, but also the remains of soldiers who were officially “missing in action.”
At the beginning of the 21st century, under the guise of “scientific researchers”, those who wanted to profit from war trophies, especially Japanese ones, came. The underground fortifications remained with covered entrances and exits. There were rumors that samurai remained there - Japanese soldiers who did not hear the order of their general to surrender and remained in their underground shelter with huge canning and drinking supplies. These rumors arose at different times. For example, in the 40s of the last century, several young women in the village went missing. In our century, a team of seekers went down into the dungeon, but never returned. There is no actual evidence, but experts say that the Japanese may indeed have remained underground in the terrible year of 1945.
Expeditions in recent years, according to the law, must be of a truly military-historical nature. Recently, the remains of both Japanese and Soviet soldiers have been found, which were transferred to the homeland of the soldiers. Exploration work is carried out on Shumshu every year. The authorities of the Sakhalin region are planning to organize a war memorial on the island. Today, the glory of our liberating soldiers is immortalized in a monument that is visible on the highest point of the island.
Near Miedzyrzecz, north of Zielona Góra, there is the largest underground fortification system in Europe. Thousands of German bunkers are preserved here, connected by a system of tunnels and corridors.
There have been, are, and will continue to be legends about this area for a long time, each darker than the other.
One of the pioneers of the local catacombs, Colonel Alexander Liskin, says: “Near Lesnoye Lake, an insulated output of an underground power cable was discovered in a reinforced concrete box, instrument measurements on the cores of which showed the presence of an industrial current of 380 volts. Soon the sappers' attention was drawn to a concrete well, which swallowed water falling from a height. At the same time, intelligence reported that perhaps underground power communications were coming from Miedzyrzech. However, it could also be that the current was provided by an autonomous power plant hidden underground, perhaps its turbines were rotated by water falling into the well... They said that the lake was somehow connected to the surrounding bodies of water, and there are many of them here...
Sappers discovered the entrance to the tunnel disguised as a hill. Already at a first approximation, it became clear that this was a serious structure, moreover, probably with various kinds of traps, including mines. They said that once a tipsy foreman on his motorcycle decided to ride through a mysterious tunnel on a bet. We didn’t see the reckless driver again...”
Whatever they say, one thing is indisputable: in the world there is no more extensive and more ramified underground fortified area than the one that was dug in the Werta-Obra-Oder river triangle more than half a century ago. Until 1945, these lands were part of Germany. After the collapse of the “Third Reich” they returned to Poland. Only then did Soviet specialists descend into the top-secret dungeon. We went down, were amazed at the length of the tunnels and left. No one wanted to get lost, explode, disappear into the giant concrete catacombs that stretched tens (!) kilometers to the north, south and west. No one could say for what purpose the double-track narrow-gauge railways were laid there, where and why the electric trains ran through endless tunnels with countless branches and dead ends, what they carried on their platforms, who the passengers were. However, it is known for certain that Hitler visited this underground reinforced concrete kingdom at least twice, coded under the name “RL” - “Reqenwurmlaqer” - “Earthworm Camp”.
Any study of a mysterious object is subject to this question. Why was the giant dungeon built? Why are hundreds of kilometers of electrified railways laid in it?! And a good dozen more different “why?” and “why?”
Only in the eighties was an in-depth engineering and sapper reconnaissance of the camp carried out by the Soviet troops stationed in this area of Poland.
The city of Międzyrzecz traces its glorious history back to the beginning of the formation of the Polish state. Initially, it was the western outpost of the kingdom. A symbol of the glorious and rich history of those times is the imposing medieval castle, built during the time of Casimir the Great on the ramparts of the old fortress. The main advantages of the ancient city are its luxurious forests, rich in all kinds of animals, mushrooms and berries. Hidden in the forests is Glubokoe Lake, one of the most beautiful among the many bodies of water in the Lubuskie Voivodeship. Fans of kayaking will get a lot of emotions and impressions from rafting on the Obra River along one of the most picturesque and interesting kayaking routes. Miedzyrzecz has equestrian centers and a host of other attractions that make these places tempting for tourists.
But the most interesting from an educational point of view will be a visit to the Miedzyrzek fortification area. This is a German fortification system built back in the thirties of the last century on the German-Polish border. It is one of the most valuable monuments of architectural fortification thought of the 20th century. This extraordinary defensive position is often compared to the Magginot Line built by the Germans in France. This fortified area was built in the period from 1934 to 1938 to cover the eastern borders of the Reich from possible attacks by the Polish army. The complex includes over a hundred hydraulic and military structures. The most interesting and educational element of the Miedzyrzek fortification area is a unique system of tunnels running underground, over 30 km long, uniting more than twenty military structures.
Despite the fact that, according to the Treaty of Versailles, the amount of military power for Germany, which lost the war, was limited, in 1925 the German command began building fortifications on its eastern borders. An international commission discovers this a couple of years later and forces the buildings to be demolished. However, construction is starting again. In 1935, Hitler himself came to the construction site, which gave a new impetus and accelerated construction. The construction was planned to be completed in 1944. Underground there was a power plant, a narrow-gauge railway, and barracks and warehouses. Prisoners were brought from labor camps for work. They also worked at the underground aircraft engine plant that was built later. Approaches to the fortified area were built and equipped: a belt of reinforced concrete anti-tank barriers was built. A system of water obstacles, anti-personnel abatis, etc. was erected.
But all this preparation was not successful. The tank brigade of Colonel Gusakovsky, under cover of the night, drove past the guns almost unhindered and took the garrison by surprise. At the site of the breakthrough, an obelisk was erected, built from the debris of the exploded bunker.
One cannot help but recall another unusual attraction of the fortified area: the climate here is very suitable for... bats. Their thirty thousand strong colony spends the winter here every year. This is the largest bat population in Europe. They settled in empty underground rooms after the war, and over time the number of these mammals increased significantly. They sometimes fly here for the winter from hundreds of kilometers away. A special exhibition dedicated to these unusual animals is open for tourists.
