Death Island is a big tyuter excursion. Mysterious Tyuters Island

In ancient times, Tyuters was a haven for Vikings, then a haven for smugglers. Here, Polish and Swedish privateers robbed merchants going to Narva, and here, it happened, they hid the loot. Northern granites, plowed by an ancient glacier, conceal many secluded places.

All Russian tsars, starting with Peter, attached great importance to protecting the capital of the empire from attack from the sea. The most important and most fortified defense centers were the islands of the Gulf of Finland. And the first to stand in the way of the enemy were two rocks: Gogland and Big Tyuters. During the war, fierce battles were fought for the islands. Our landing forces went on the assault. And the Germans and Finns held the defense.

The only possible channel for heavy ships and submarines is exactly within firing range of their artillery guns from the island. This means whoever owned Tyuters owned the entire Gulf of Finland.

Over the past three centuries the island has been Swedish, Russian, Finnish, Russian again, German and Russian again. But there has never been a large population here. From the 18th century until 1940, it was only a village of Finnish fishermen. After the Winter War, little remained of it. There was also a Lutheran church, but it burned down relatively recently.

Thousands and thousands of ships pass by Tyuters every year. But for recent years 60 almost no human foot has ever stepped on it.

Tyuters is amazingly beautiful. It’s so quiet that your ears are ringing. Mushrooms, fish, berries, rocks, forest, pure water. Here we could build sanatoriums, breathe in the healing pine air and watch the sun set in the cool waters of the Baltic. But the war made its own adjustments to this picture.

The only intact structure on Tyuters is the lighthouse. There is no way without it, the fairway in these places is very difficult. So Big Tyuters shines at night: 1 second on, 1 second off, then 3 seconds on, 9 seconds off. Although the lighthouse is the most high building on the island - 21 m, it’s impossible to see anything below from it. There were no people here for 70 years, the roads and buildings were overgrown, nature took its toll. Even traces railway- and here she was - covered by the crowns of silent Karelian pines.

In October-November 1939, more than 2,000 aerial bombs were dropped on Tyuters and 4,500 shells were fired. But it was, so to speak, just a shooting.

In October 1941, under German pressure, the island was abandoned by the Red Army, but the Soviet command quickly realized their mistake. The narrowness of the bay turned it into a trap - passage along the fairway became deadly dangerous for our ships. The fleet was locked in Kronstadt, as if in a mousetrap. IN New Year's Eve In 1942, the Red Army and Marine Corps landed on Tyuters, but did not last long. There was no supply of food and ammunition, the reinforcements sent simply did not arrive: the ice on the Gulf of Finland was not yet strong, there were ice holes under it, and half a meter of icy water above it. The soldiers froze to death on the way, and few managed to return to the mainland.

Subsequently, it became increasingly difficult to take Bolshoi Tyuters. The Germans transferred so many forces and resources here that it became the largest stronghold among the islands of the Gulf of Finland; they installed batteries of large-caliber guns, anti-aircraft guns and naval guns on the island.

The Nazis, preparing for a serious battle in the Baltic, brought a fantastic amount of ammunition to the island. And the remaining part cannot be counted, but how many were fired at our ships? By our landings? After all, there was still a second landing. And the third. And the fourth. No one can say how many of our soldiers lie here.

It is believed that the Germans mined the area before fleeing the island in 1944. This is wrong. Studying German maps and documents, examining former minefields, you see that the most powerful fortifications of Tyuters did not appear suddenly. All three years that the Germans were on the island, they meticulously built up its defense. Others were added to one row of thorns, new mines were placed both between old ones and in new places, until the quantity and density of all this iron amounted to some fantastic value.

When the Germans left the island, it had no longer played the same strategic importance for them for several months - in September 1944, the Red Army was already very far to the west. It seems that this is another example of Hitler’s stubbornness, clinging to such pieces of land even when there was no longer not only a strategic, but even a tactical need for them. And then they themselves and their garrisons turned into a burden that could no longer be taken care of and was not worth evacuating. Tyuters, obviously, also turned into such a burden - the thrifty Germans were unable, as usual, to take the equipment with them and limited themselves to damaging it.

And no matter how saturated Tyuters was with ammunition, there were even more of them in the strait between Tyuters and the island of Gogland. During the war in these waters, the Germans placed a total of several tens of thousands of mines at the Zeigl (Sea Urchin) minefield, almost half of them in the 9 and a half nautical miles between Gogland and Tyuters.

Under enemy fire, our minesweepers made passages in the minefields, and the Germans methodically dumped new mines into the strait - thousand after thousand.

During the war, only a few submarines of the Baltic Fleet crossed this deadly channel. The power of the fleet was not fully used, and the war left here only in 1944. And she didn't go far. How much explosive metal is at the bottom: lost submarines and boats with torpedoes, downed bombers with full ammunition, dozens of sunken transports with ammunition, several artillery ships with full magazines. These waters will remain unsafe for a long time. Such a concentration of combat losses in one place indicates the enormous importance the warring parties attached to the island.

Today the island is the farthest part of Russia in the northwest. On the northern coast is Finland, on the southern coast is Estonia. Special border zone, special access regime. But thanks to the assistance of border guards and a specially organized expedition of the Russian Geographical Society, we had the opportunity to find out what Bolshoy Tyuters, the most mysterious island Gulf of Finland, and answer the question of what exceptional significance it had for German forces in the Baltic. It’s not easy to talk about this, but perhaps it was this small battle for Tyuters, lost by Soviet troops at the very beginning of the war, that made it possible for the Germans not only to maintain a long blockade of Leningrad, but also delayed our victory.

The first shelters and burial places were dug here back in the time of the Varangians. In tsarist times, artillery positions and gun magazines were built. The Finnish army, having received Tyuters from Russia, started a large construction of fortifications. Before the great war, Soviet troops also built their own fortifications - aboveground and underground. There is an interesting inscription on a German map from the Abwehr archives. It states that there should be 15 underground structures on the island. The last joint Soviet-Swedish mission to clear mines on the island discovered six bunkers on it. The remaining nine were never found. Maybe they didn’t search carefully, or maybe they hid these bunkers with skill? For how long?

There are many versions about the purpose of the mysterious bunkers. The most interesting thing is, of course, that the valuables looted by the Nazis were kept here. After all, Army Group “North”, to which the Tyuters garrison belonged, marauded in these parts with all the breadth of its Teutonic soul. Pskov and Novgorod, Oranienbaum and Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and Strelna - many treasures and art objects were never found after the war either in Germany or anywhere else. Why don't the Germans store them here, under the protection of granite dungeons and the most powerful fortifications of Tyuters?

During the war, the perimeter of the island was braided with several rows of barbed wire. And mines - tens of thousands. And then - guns and machine guns point blank. Our troops landed here. It seems to me that I should step on here open place, under dagger fire, through a minefield - impossible, hopeless. If the cruisers and battleships of the Baltic Fleet had approached and mixed up the German defense with the fire of their twelve-inch guns, the landing would have succeeded. But the tragedy was that the ships of the fleet could navigate these waters only if the island was occupied by ours.

Another version: in these dungeons the Germans had a factory for the production and supply of ammunition. This, of course, is not the Amber Room, although there would be little left of amber in the dampness here.

In general, some kind of shelters or caches are often found here. And almost everywhere there are traces of human presence. But they are clearly not up to anything serious. For weapons production, larger sizes are needed, and for storing valuables - paintings, sculptures - special conditions are needed.

In the Baltic, on the island of Bolshoi Tyuters, the interim results of the expedition to search for and remove equipment from the Great Patriotic War are being summed up

The event, organized by the Russian Geographical Society together with the Ministry of Defense, started in early May and will end on August 14. In less than four months, search engines must comb the island, collect German military equipment, which it is full of, and take it to the mainland. This is the first such expedition: before that only sappers worked here. According to experts, the island can be called unique: wild, almost uninhabited (only two people at the lighthouse), crammed like a museum under open air, artifacts abandoned 70 years ago.

Eight square kilometers taiga and stone

We depart from Levashovsky military airfield. The weather is flyable, despite the low purple sky. Several officers of different branches of the military are loaded on board. And two soldiers with a can for berries.

“We asked, they took us,” they share, informing along the way that they still have a whopping 4 months left until the end of their service. - Interesting! There will be something to tell at home...

To Bolshoy Tyuters, which, if you look at the map, lies near Estonia and Finland, is about an hour’s flight, 180 kilometers. The island came under the jurisdiction of our country back in 1721, when Peter I defeated the Swedes in the Northern War. In 1920 it unexpectedly became part of independent Finland. After 20 years he returned to us again. After three years the Finns and Germans ruled there. Since 1944 he has been Russian again.

Throughout the post-war period, these eight square kilometers of stone and taiga have been empty: unnecessarily. Yes, and dangerous. Until 2005, when sappers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations came to the island, it was filled with shells and mines.

From the porthole, Tyuters looks like a cozy green fluffy hat in the middle of the water. When lowered, extensive sand dunes on the banks, stepped rock formations. On west bank- lighthouse match. A thread of forest road stretches through the island. And the expedition camp: white military tents, cargo equipment.

Key to the Gulf of Finland

Let's unload. The strong smell of pine needles hits your nose. There is an unusual silence in my ears.

We change into a UAZ and, using the cab to pick up tree branches along the winding path, we drive to the site of one of the finds. A month ago, there, in the windfalls, they discovered a curious specimen - a Wehrmacht anti-aircraft gun.

The island, I must say, looks truly wild. But in past centuries there was a large Finnish fishing village, there was a wooden church, a school, and later a narrow-gauge railway.

During World War II, the garrison of German troops on Tyuters amounted to 2 thousand soldiers: one person per four square meters! And it is no coincidence - together with neighboring Gogland and a couple of smaller islands, this ridge played a strategic role - the key to the Gulf of Finland. Whoever owned the archipelago controlled the entrance to the bay. Between the islands, the Germans stretched anti-submarine nets and laid mine chains. Gogland was controlled by the Finns, Bolshoi Tyuters by the Germans. Ours made attempts to return them, but to no avail. That is why our Baltic Fleet stood, not entering into major battles until 1944, locked in Kronstadt and Leningrad...

Each field kitchen tank contains a grenade

On one of the hills across the road there is a Ural tractor and a truck crane. Nearby is the same gun - an 88-mm Bofors cannon.

“It was made in Sweden,” the expedition leader, General Valery Kudinsky, explains. — One of the best examples of anti-aircraft weapons of that time: automatic, reliable. Her condition is this moment satisfactory. Clean, restore - and almost like new. They also found ammunition in the ground nearby: 80 shells in oiled paper. They used these very guns to hit our planes.

The search work, the general explains, has now been completed. From May to June, members of the expedition combed the island length and breadth: they walked in chains, 20 - 30 meters from each other. Now the task is to deliver what was found to the pier. A total of 207 objects were discovered. 137 of them need to be pulled out using heavy equipment - these same tractors and cranes. Half are already on the shore, half in the forest. Among the finds are anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft fire control posts, field kitchens, searchlights, trailers of various capacities, and fuel barrels.

All without exception, it must be said, are out of order. The Germans left the island hastily. They abandoned everything and left this land on September 18, 1944. Guns and trailers were blown up. There is a grenade in each field kitchen tank. There are several through shots into each barrel...

All-terrain vehicles and helicopters

It takes about half an hour to load the cannon. Despite its seemingly compact size, it does not fit entirely onto the tractor. During transportation, on one of the hills it falls creakingly onto the stones. Again we have to adjust the crane, hook the cable...

At the pier we are met by the deputy head of the director of the expedition center of the Russian Geographical Society and the main inspirer of the entire process, Artem Khutorskoy.

“You have to tinker with almost every object like this,” he says. — But some things cannot be removed with wheeled vehicles at all - rocks, windbreaks. We will try by air, using a helicopter.

And he adds that, despite the difficulties, all the work is a joy. They dreamed of this project for many years and studied archives, including German ones. But it was impossible to just pick up and go here—considerable funds were needed. Last December, the project was presented to the President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu, and the Minister of Defense gave the go-ahead: go ahead.

Three-inch gun, unfound aircraft

The result of the work of the military and geographers is obvious: there is a picturesque pile of metal near the pier. For specialists, all of these are valuable exhibits, which in the near future will probably take their place in various military museums across the country.

“Here are the fuel barrels, standard, two-hundred-liter,” says Khutorskoy. — From several countries at once. German, Finnish, Latvian, French. Look at their round timbers - you can make a whole collection here! Or even very interesting object: three-inch gun, manufactured in 1917 at the Putilov plant. It went to independent Finland. And she fought against us during the Great Patriotic War...

- What about the people who died? - I’m interested.

— As for the Germans, from 1941 to 1944, about 20 soldiers died on Bolshoi Tyuters for various reasons. We found the site of a possible cemetery - eight name tags were found there, which were attached to grave crosses. But the Nazis suffered the main losses in neighboring Gogland. In 1944, when Finland had already withdrawn from the war, the Germans decided to intercept Gogland - after all, it could have gone to us! At first they tried to negotiate peacefully, then they began to intimidate, and in the end they sent their troops there. And the Finns - yesterday's German allies - gave them a serious rebuff. Moreover: they requested air assistance from the Soviet troops - this was the only such case during the Great Patriotic War. Then ours and the Finns completely defeated the Nazis: up to 700 Germans died, went missing, and were wounded.

- And ours are here, on Bolshoi Tyuters?..

— There were losses. And when we left in '41. And when in 1942 they tried to storm it twice. It is known that later two of our scouts landed here. But they went missing. They lie in the swamps soviet planes- one or two. The lighthouse says that as a boy he remembers the tail of a plane in one of the swamps. But where is unclear. We found parts of the fuselage skin. Nothing else…

Delivery of equipment to the pier will continue in the next two weeks. Then - sending on landing boats to Kronstadt, placement at one of the military arsenals Leningrad region. It is likely that in the coming years, teams will begin work on this patch in the middle of the Gulf of Finland to search for dead soldiers.

By the way

As part of the expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Ministry of Defense, search activities are also carried out on the island of Gogland in late July - early August. Unlike Bolshoi Tyuters, only search engines work on Gogland, who are engaged in discovering the burial places of our soldiers (military equipment was removed from here almost immediately after the war). According to preliminary data, about 500 Red Army soldiers died and were buried here. Work on the island is carried out search party association "North-West" of 16 people (including various detachments of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region). This is the first such large-scale event. Currently, many household items and weapons of both Soviet and Finnish soldiers have been discovered - grenades, shells, rifle shields, communication coils, flasks, mugs, spoons, teapots, sanitary stretchers. And the remains of one Red Army soldier: on a cigarette case found nearby, the surname is Sapozhnikov. The search is complicated by the rocky nature of the soil. The island's landing areas are currently being combed.

Bolshoi Tyuters Island in post-war times, especially in the seventies, was called nothing more than “the island of death.” He received such a terrible nickname thanks to the active work of the Germans - they completely mined his territory. A lot of time has passed since the end of the war, but peaceful sappers and researchers are dying due to the diligent work of the Nazis. The island has such conditions and nature that it’s time to build sanatoriums and recreation centers, but the war still throws up its terrible “gifts.”

Role

Islands around the world are numerous. Everyone has their own purpose. One of them - paradises for recreation, others are trading harbors or pirate havens. Likewise, the island of Bolshoi Tyuters has its own destiny. His destiny was defense against enemies from the sea. The war sprinkled the island with blood - fierce battles were fought here. Over the course of several centuries, it passed from one hand to another every now and then. Most often they were Russians. Everything passes by it - ships, people, it seems that time stopped here 60 years ago. Very few people visited it during this period - mostly these were expeditions.

Characteristics of the island

Bolshoi Tyuters Island in the Gulf of Finland is a granite rock with an area of ​​just over 8 square meters. km. There are two capes on it - Tuomarinem and Teiloniemi, an indicator highest point- 56 meters. The soil on it is diverse, this is due to many geological and morphological conditions. In addition to bare granite rocks, here you can find places with Unique glacial wells were also discovered on the island - they are also called boilers.

The east coast is characterized by dunes and sparse groups of plants. Also here you can find a place where about 300 species of flora exist on just one square meter. The central part is occupied by forests; 10% are swamps. Among them, small hanging swamps are considered a very interesting phenomenon; they are most often located in rock cracks. On the island you can see forests, rocks, swamps, coastal shallows, meadows, beaches, and dune fauna. In places of villages that were once inhabited, individual vegetation is also present.

Island inhabitants. Lighthouse

The island of Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland has, in addition to interesting landscapes and vegetation, an equally fascinating fauna. A rare species of mollusk - the predatory black slug - has found its habitat here. Particularly many of them can be found at the foot of the cliffs. Among the inhabitants of the island there are raccoon dogs, at least their traces have been discovered many times. In addition, a wild ram runs around the island; it escaped from the previous lighthouse several years ago.

By the way, about the lighthouse. It is the only habitat on the island. Its height is 21 meters, the focal plane is located at 75 meters. Two people live on the island - the caretaker and his wife.

Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland has never had a significant population. For some time there was a village of Finnish fishermen on it. However, the war swept her away from the face of the island.

Island today

Bolshoi Tyuters Island in the Gulf of Finland is one of those places where time has stood still. The buildings and structures are overgrown, even the lighthouse keeper does not risk straying far from his workplace, since the island can present an unpleasant surprise, which the Germans generously bestowed upon him. Since the latter left it in a hurry, they left behind not only but also a lot of equipment, ammunition, and heavy weapons. But at the same time, the nature here is simply indescribably beautiful, which, unfortunately, only a few can see. To neutralize the dangerous island, sapper landings are regularly sent to it. In addition, they are often joint; for example, the work of Russian and Swedish sappers in 2005 made it possible to detect and neutralize more than 30 thousand objects that could explode at any moment. There were seven similar landings in the post-war years. However, even half of the island cannot be called safe.

Forgotten technology

The island of Bolshoy Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland, a photo of which can be seen in the review, is real. Considering that its specimens are present in abundance on the island, among them there are unique ones. Such as, say, the 40-caliber Boforos automatic anti-aircraft gun. The amount of equipment that the Germans left behind could fill a large museum. Expeditions that explore its territory discover many specimens, some of which can be restored. To date, there are about two hundred units of equipment that have been moved to the mainland. There are also 6 in-depth fortifications on the island.

Expeditions

The expedition is sent to Bolshoi Tyuters Island to study the “white spots” on the map of Europe. Due to dense mining, even decades after the end of the war, military personnel died there. It is to neutralize the territory that such studies are carried out. One of the latest was the Gogland expedition, which, in addition to Bolshoi Tyuters, covered some of the outer islands of the Gulf of Finland. Before the landing of the main landing force, piers and platforms for helicopters were arranged. Among its achievements, one can note the discovery of about 200 units of military equipment and weapons. Most of them are unique. After examining it for the presence of equipment, representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society followed the searchers. At the moment, a search is underway for the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War.

Travel to the island

Going to the island on your own is very dangerous. Of course it is historical place, where unique examples of equipment and weapons are located, but there are significantly more mines on it. Its nature is amazing; it is very quiet and peaceful here. The only thing that gives the island is that it works to avoid shipwrecks. Ships have been passing by for over 60 years. This is the peculiarity that Bolshoi Tyuters Island has. How to get to it is immediately visible on the map. The main routes are by water or by helicopter. If you still have a great desire to touch this part of history, you can go to the neighboring one, and from there you can also explore Bolshoi Tyuters from afar by water.

Ghosts of the Island

This is what they call the equipment that “rests” on the territory. Big Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland, if it had not been mined, could be called an open-air museum of military equipment. It seems that anti-aircraft guns have become part of nature; sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them from tree trunks or a fallen branch. It can bury itself in the dunes and reveal only a third of itself from under the sands. On the coastal slopes in the trees you can see defensive weapons of 37 caliber. There are pieces of equipment scattered everywhere, including engines. In the forests you can even find a gas generator station and a cable laying machine. Fuel barrels are scattered here and there. You can also find personal flasks of the Germans. All the equipment simply merged with nature, trees sprouted in the car bodies, some tools were covered with moss and grass. If it were not for the danger that lurks around every corner, fascinating excursions could be held here.

conclusions

The island has long been considered a restricted area. There have been successful attempts to clear it, but it is not yet possible to completely ensure safety. Far-reaching plans include making an open-air museum on the territory of Bolshoi Tyuters. But it all comes down to the financial part of the issue. It takes a lot of money to create minimal infrastructure. In addition, the path to the island is very difficult and expensive. That is why it remains completely unexplored and almost deserted.

Last week, the Hogland search expedition, sent by the Russian Ministry of Defense to the island of Bolshoy Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland, loaded several dozen pieces of German military equipment and weapons from World War II onto the landing boats of the Baltic Fleet (this is reported by the Internet portal of the Russian Ministry of Defense). At the end of the war, the Germans, hastily leaving Bolshoi Tyuters, were forced to leave a large amount of heavy weapons, military equipment, ammunition and other property on the island. Among the finds discovered by the expedition are the legendary German FlaK 18/36 anti-aircraft guns of 88 mm caliber, the Swedish Bofors L60 anti-aircraft gun and rare models of German artillery trailers.

The island is located to the west of the Baltic coast of Russia, so for an observer from St. Petersburg the sun sets behind Bolshoi Tyuters
hodar.ru

The expedition has been working on the island since July 15: it includes representatives of the All-Russian public organization “Russian Geographical Society”, the All-Russian social movement to perpetuate the memory of those who died defending the Fatherland and the “Russian Search Movement”. The total number of the expedition is more than 80 people.

There are many large and small islands in the Gulf of Finland. It has long been known that some of them contain ruins of fortifications and the remains of broken military equipment. Scientific expedition The Russian Geographical Society (RGS) examined a group of the Outer Islands in 2013 and confirmed these facts in its reports. Islands such as Gogland, Maly Tyuters, Bolshoy Tyuters, Sommers and Seskar, which have a strategically significant location, served as important strongholds for the Germans during the war.

Bolshoi Tyuters Island (marked in red)
navytech.ru

Bolshoi Tyuters Island is located 180 km west of St. Petersburg, is about 2.5 km across, and its area is approximately 8.3 square meters. km. Bolshoi Tyuters is located south of the island Gogland, forming with it a kind of gate through which the main sea route leading to the ports of St. Petersburg and Vyborg passes. It was this location of the island that determined its role as a location for coastal batteries. Currently, of the existing buildings on the island, there is only a lighthouse with a height of 21 m.

The lighthouse of Bolshoy Tyuters Island is maintained by a keeper who does not risk straying far from it, fearing the deadly “surprises” of wartime
smallbattle. ru

Over the years, garrisons were stationed on the islands, fortifications with minefields were built and coastal batteries, keeping the sea routes at gunpoint. Some islands changed their owners, alternately being Swedish, Finnish, Russian, and during the Great Patriotic War, some of them were occupied by German troops (Bolshoi Tyuters was held by the Germans almost until the end of 1944). Fierce battles in the Gulf of Finland cost the warring parties thousands of victims, and the exact number of Soviet soldiers and officers who died here has not yet been established.

Channel One's story about the search expedition to Bolshoi Tyuters

Not all islands were completely cleared of mines and shells after the end of the war, especially those in border areas that were closed to the public. There is reason to believe that in addition to old military equipment, the remains of soldiers who died in the battles for their liberation may be found on the islands.

At the end of the war, the Germans, hastily leaving Bolshoy Tyuters, were forced to leave a large amount of heavy weapons, military equipment and ammunition on it. In addition, minefields and barriers remained here, and in such large quantities that Bolshoy Tyuters earned a reputation as an “island of death”, since military personnel continued to die on it for many years after the war. In the post-war period, sapper units arrived on the island several times (seven such landings are known) and carried out work to clear the territory. In particular, in 2005, a joint expedition of Russian and Swedish sappers worked here, neutralizing more than 30 thousand explosive objects.

Despite all efforts to clear mines from the island, Bolshoi Tyuters still poses a great danger to people
postleduvremeni.ru

Preparations for the expedition of the Russian Ministry of Defense to the islands of the Gulf of Finland began in the spring of this year. Reconnaissance expedition "Gogland", consisting of representatives of the RF Ministry of Defense, the Russian Geographical Society and participants in the search movement, visited the Outer Islands at the end of May and completed a large amount of work: studied the area, outlined search areas, laid out routes, carried out engineering markings, prepared berths and sites, compiled an inventory of the remains of weapons and military technology.

The island, closed to visitors, has become a kind of nature reserve, preserving weapons and equipment from World War II in its forests.
poludurkoff.net

After a reconnaissance expedition in early July, a landing party of sappers from the Baltic Fleet naval engineering regiment was landed on the islands. Naval sappers, working on maps prepared by the reconnaissance expedition, conducted a study of a number of areas, freeing them from explosive objects. During a week of work, sappers discovered more than seven hundred mines, shells and other ammunition, which were destroyed by explosion. Anti-personnel mines posed a particular danger, the fuses of which had been activated for several decades and could detonate at any moment.

Among the military equipment found there are many valuable samples. In the photo - presumably a Bofors L60 automatic anti-aircraft gun of 40 mm caliber
postleduvremeni.ru

Specialists of the Russian Ministry of Defense working on the islands report that about two hundred samples of German weapons and military equipment have already been assembled and shipped. After delivery to the mainland, those found samples that are subject to restoration will be restored and will become exhibits of Russian military history museums and memorial parks. As Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a recent interview, the restored samples of weapons and equipment will become exhibits of the Patriot military-patriotic park, where it is planned to transport the exhibitions of some military museums.

Loading finds onto ships of the Baltic Fleet
military.rf

The expedition also reportedly discovered the remains of a Red Army soldier, who has yet to be identified. Work on the island will last until August 14.