How did the Mannerheim line go? Mannerheim Line: Summakylä fortified area

When I collected information about the bunkers of the Mannerheim Line and was about to talk about them, I almost came up with a tasty post. From school lessons I knew that fortifications ran along the line from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. Stop, stop! But I was in bunkers much further north, not far from the White Sea, in the area of Medvezhyegorsk. Nesostykovochka, however... But then we need to figure it out.

Let's start from November 1939, when the Red Army crossed the borders of Finland and the infamous Soviet-Finnish War began. One of the most catastrophic operations of the Soviet Union in its history. In 4 months, the Soviet army would lose 450 thousand people. These are huge losses, considering that the enemy there was a small country that was not particularly noticed in military conflicts.

The plans of the Soviet command were to capture Helsinki in 2 weeks. And it would have been successful if not for the Finnish defensive line of defense - the Mannerheim Line.
The construction of the defense line was carried out from 1931 to 1939, during the leadership of the State Committee of Finland by Marshal Mannerheim. Construction of the line was completed a week before the start of the war. The line covered 130 km from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga.

It is interesting that Carl Gustav Mannerheim graduated from a military school in St. Petersburg. And in 1906 he received the command of the Russian General Staff to make a study trip from Tashkent to China. The Asian expedition lasted about 2 years. Mannerheim brought from there plans for more than 20 fortified cities of China. He studied fortifications. Masterpieces that are impossible to take by storm!
Mannerheim applied his knowledge for 8 years in the construction of a defensive line on the Karelian Isthmus.

In 1941, the Soviet Union sent huge additional forces to this line, which managed to break through the defenses. But the command could not be proud of such a victory.

And in June 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. And Mannerheim gave the order to begin construction of a long-term line on the Maselga Isthmus. By mid-1944, the Finnish army created the front-line Medvezhyegorsk defense line, which intercepted the isthmus between Lake Segozero and the Povenets Bay of Lake Onega.

Thus, a second Mannerheim Line is being created, near Medvezhyegorsk. We explored it near the village of Vichka.

The proximity of bunkers (a bunker is a long-term concreted firing point) is indicated by huge stones laid out in rows - anti-tank barriers. The stones are pointed, shaped like pyramids

Combined barriers. You can still get entangled in the barbed wire

Now there is peace here, mushrooms and berries are growing

We didn’t understand what kind of structure this was, most likely it was also protective

The bunkers are well camouflaged and practically invisible in winter. But a machine gunner could be looking at us from this embrasure

Let's come closer

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A machine gunner sat at the top, with a large sector of fire open to his gaze.

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The thickness of the armored cap is 10 cm. The vandals wanted to saw it through welding, but they failed. Well, they did it in 1941, but in 2013 they can’t do it!

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Ventilation holes are located on the ground surface

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And now we go to the bunker. The structure is unthinkable!

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We go underground. Absolute darkness. Sometimes, even despite the illumination of the lanterns, the camera could not find a focusing point.

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A real underground fortress!

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There was a casemate or barracks here

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All walls of the bunker are vertical reinforced concrete with a thickness of 70-90 cm. The thickness of the internal walls is from 40 to 60 cm. The internal height of the premises is about 2 meters.
Exhaust ventilation with the help of pipes extending onto the bunker cover from every room except vestibules and the corridor.

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A hole for water drainage or, conversely, a water line?

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The bunker is quite viable)

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The holes are insulated with a material similar to glass wool.

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Ascent to the embrasure

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Kostya took the place of the machine gunner

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And he photographed the scene of the shelling for us.

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Bunkers have several inputs and outputs

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The interior walls are whitewashed with lime.

77 years ago, Soviet troops of the 7th Army broke through the Mannerheim Line

Artillery point. Mannerheim Line

On November 30, 1939, a war began between the USSR and Finland, which lasted only three months, if we approach the assessment of these historical events from the objective side, and lasted three long months, if we evaluate the actions of the Soviet Union or Soviet Russia, as our country was most often called abroad, from the standpoint of hatred and double standards.

But the very appearance of Finland on the world stage is entirely due to Russia.

Russian Emperor Alexander I in 1809, after the end of the war with Sweden and the annexation of Finland to Russia, included the Vyborg province into its composition. The Grand Duchy of Finland was formed, which received state self-government for the first time in its history, and in addition, the original Russian lands.

"Suomenmaan kartta" 1881. The section of the map highlighted in white is the project for Finland's access to the Arctic Ocean

The Finns as part of Russia enjoyed unheard-of privileges that the conquered peoples of the same British Empire could only dream of: the principality had its own army, in which only Finns served. Moreover, Finnish officers had the freedom to choose - to serve in their homeland or make a career in the Russian army, this is what Carl Gustav Mannerheim, the future honorary marshal of the Finnish state, did in particular. The Principality of Finland lived according to the laws issued by the Finnish Diet; the main means of payment for the population was the Finnish mark.

Having received state independence from the hands of the Soviet government in 1917 within the borders of the Grand Duchy, Finland immediately lost interest in its former benefactor - Russia, also seeking to expand its territory at the expense of its neighbor, tormented by world and civil wars.

However, Finnish troops that invaded Soviet Karelia in 1922 were defeated by the Red Army and were forced to retreat.

Finland was not at all such a harmless sheep and a “peace-loving” neighbor of the USSR, as modern Western historians want to present it.

From the very beginning of its existence, it took the path of anti-Sovietism and Russophobia. And due to its position, it was a much more dangerous neighbor for the USSR than modern Ukraine for Russia.

Of course, in itself it did not pose a threat to the USSR. But every small “independent” state that occupies a strategically important place on the world map will always have a “good” friend-master from among the great powers, whose services cannot be refused. And Finland actively used such patronage for its own purposes, changing owners depending on the situation.

Protest demonstration of workers in Turku on March 29, 1917, which led to the establishment of Soviet power in Finland. In 1918, Mannerheim and the troops of the German interventionists destroyed Soviet Finland, allied with Russia.

At first, the new Finnish government rushed into the arms of the Kaiser's Germany, suppressing revolutionary sentiments in the country with the help of German bayonets. When Germany was defeated in World War I and caught in the flames of revolution, Finland abruptly changed course and offered itself to England and France.

And already English and French engineers, replacing the German ones, supervised the construction of fortifications in Finland, which later received the name Mannerheim Line.

Fortifications on the Mannerheim Line. View from an airplane. 1944

But the Finnish pandemonium in search of a powerful master - an ally, with the help of which some ardent Finnish politicians hoped to increase the size of their state several times in order to be called nothing less than a Great Country, did not end there.

German map of Finland 1941. The solid green line marks the border between Finland and the USSR as of March 1941

Having lost the “winter war” with the USSR and having fulfilled all the winner’s demands for territorial claims, terribly offended by the French and British, who never began military operations against the USSR on the side of Finland, the ambitious northern country took a fatal step - it joined the Hitler coalition.

Finland, along with Germany, bears full responsibility for the attack on the USSR in 1941, for the siege of Leningrad, in which more than a million residents of the long-suffering city died from hunger and disease.

And there is no need to justify her actions by the fact that her troops did not go further than the old Soviet-Finnish border, supposedly limiting themselves to what belonged to her by right. They didn’t go because they couldn’t overcome the Soviet defense line - the Karelian fortified area, an analogue of the famous Finnish Mannerheim line, the construction of which was completed almost simultaneously with the Finnish one.

But Finnish President Risto Heikki Ryti had already prepared a speech on the occasion of the capture of Leningrad, which in particular said the following:

“For the first time in history, the once so magnificent capital, located close to our borders, fell. This news, as expected, lifted the spirit of every Finn... for us Finns, Petersburg really brought evil. It was a monument to the Russian state and its aggressive aspirations.”

It is easy to notice that in this enemy rhetoric no distinction is made between the Soviet state and Tsarist Russia; for the West, any Russia is a potential enemy, and its lands are an object of envy and desire.

In 1945, the Finnish president and members of his governments, with the exception of Mannerheim, who forbade his troops to fire long-range guns at besieged Leningrad, were put on trial and convicted as war criminals.

In the thirties of the last century, the Soviet government repeatedly turned to the Finns with various options for resolving the territorial issue to ensure the security of Leningrad, since the state border ran very close to the city limits.

But despite extremely profitable offers that promised Finland a huge increase in territory east of Lake Ladoga, and considerable financial benefits, the government of this Scandinavian country, incited by England and France, invariably refused the Soviet Union. Sooner or later, this short-sighted position of Finland could lead to war, as the commander-in-chief of the Finnish armed forces, K. G. Mannerheim, repeatedly tried to bring to the attention of his government.

Undoubtedly a patriot of his country, although a Swede by birth, a fierce opponent of foreign interference in the affairs of the state, he was not at all eager to fight with the country of the Soviets, although he never changed his anti-Soviet position.

Mannerheim and the troops of the German interventionists are preparing to defeat Soviet Finland. 1917

But unlike other top-ranking Finnish politicians, he was not a Russophobe. A former officer of the Russian army, a cavalry general, a Knight of St. George, a hero of the Russo-Japanese War, a participant in the famous Brusilov breakthrough, who gave more than 30 years of military service to the Russian state, and never renounced the oath of allegiance to the Emperor of the Russian Empire. The portrait of Nicholas II stood on his desk until the end of his days. Well, Mannerheim’s only wife, Russian noblewoman Anastasia Nikolaevna Arapova, who gave him two daughters, undoubtedly connected him with the Russian world, even though the couple divorced in 1919.

Adolf Hitler arrived in Finland to celebrate Mannerheim's 75th birthday

But they did not listen to the advice of an experienced military man.

The last negotiations that could lead to a peaceful resolution of the conflict took place in November 1939 in Moscow.

In the end, Finland once again categorically refused the proposals of the USSR, the Finnish delegation interrupted negotiations with the Soviet side and left Moscow on November 13. When she crossed the border, Finnish border guards fired at the Soviet checkpoint. Minefields appeared in the Gulf of Finland, firefights began on the demarcation line between Finnish and Soviet troops, and the Red Army crossed the Finnish border on November 30, 1939.

The Soviet government did not set the task of capturing Finland or changing the existing system - in the alarming conditions of the already begun World War II, first of all, it was necessary to secure Leningrad, which was located 32 km from the Soviet-Finnish border.

The Finnish leadership, overestimating its strength, believed that in the event of war, Finland, relying on powerful fortifications - the Mannerheim Line, could successfully defend itself for at least six months, and during this time its allies would find a way to influence the situation in the direction desired by the Finns.

The Soviet government, in turn, also underestimating the enemy, believed that the USSR would be able to force Finland to fulfill all the demands placed on it in two to three weeks of military operations.

It was under these conditions that the war began, which in Finland is called “winter”, and in our country “Finnish”.

J.V. Stalin, accepting responsibility for this difficult decision, directly pointed out the inevitable need for war:

“It would be great stupidity, political myopia, to miss the moment and not try to quickly resolve the issue of the security of Leningrad while there is a war in the west. That is why our government did the right thing by not dismissing this case and opening military action immediately after the break in negotiations with Finland.”

To carry out the operation, the Red Army concentrated a 425,000-strong military group on the Finnish borders - the leaders of the USSR believed that this would be quite enough to achieve success, especially since the superiority in aircraft and tanks on the Soviet side was simply overwhelming.

But she was opposed by the Finnish armies, well prepared for war in winter conditions, numbering 265,000 people - in the conditions of deeply echeloned defense of these troops, the Finns were more than enough to hold back the first onslaught and achieve local successes on individual sectors of the front. The total number of Finnish armed forces, including trained reservists, reached 600,000 people.

And the Finnish army had the most modern weapons. In addition to the supply of weapons from abroad, Finland began producing its own small arms, including new types - in particular the Suomi assault rifles, which turned out to be a very effective melee weapon.

And the nine-round Finnish anti-tank rifles left virtually no chance for light Soviet tanks to even get close to the Finnish positions.

Nevertheless, by December 10, 1939, pursuing the retreating enemy, the Red Army soldiers on the Karelian Isthmus reached the main structures of the Mannerheim Line along the entire length of the front, from Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland.

Two Soviet soldiers with a Maxim machine gun in the forest on the Mannerheim Line. 1940

But an incorrect assessment of the situation led to an approximately equal balance of forces in the decisive direction of the attack.

And the Soviet troops, of course, were unable to overcome the Mannerheim Line on the move, which, according to the commander-in-chief of the British armed forces, General Kers, “no army is able to defeat.” The artillery was unable to destroy the enemy's concrete pillboxes, and the tank formations suffered heavy losses, unable to overcome the first line of barriers.

The international situation has also deteriorated sharply. A powerful anti-Soviet campaign was launched in the foreign press, which exaggerated the theme of “the danger of a world communist revolution” in every possible way. The United States imposed an embargo on the supply of aviation equipment and technology to the USSR. The League of Nations, in which the imperialist powers played the main role - the USA, England and France - decided to exclude the USSR from this international organization.

Great Britain and France, taking advantage of the fact that Germany did not take any active actions on the Western Front, almost openly began to prepare for war against the USSR, while at the same time inclining Sweden and Norway to an open armed conflict with the USSR, of course, promising their help. Moreover, the interests of Finland were taken into account in the last place - the British and French were in no hurry to send their troops to the Scandinavian Peninsula, for fear of provoking a clash with Germany in this region.

Armored machine gun point on a high-rise building. The firing sector covered all approaches to the hill

They developed the basic plan for the invasion of the USSR from the south - from Iran. First of all, it was planned to seize the Baku oil fields and secede the Transcaucasian republics from the USSR. Diplomatic and behind-the-scenes negotiations were conducted with the aim of involving the Balkan states, Romania, Greece and Turkey in the war against the USSR.

Yes, and Japan, which received a blow in the teeth at Khalkin Gol, did not fear any international sanctions, and at that time was tormenting a huge but weak China with impunity, was ready at any moment to stab the Soviet Union in the back.

It is interesting that one of the coordination headquarters of the Western allies preparing for war against the USSR was deployed in the now widely known Syrian city of Aleppo, and the city itself belonged to Turkey.

The supply of English and French weapons to the Finnish army increased sharply, and recruitment centers were opened in many Western countries to send volunteers to help Finland. According to official data, at least 10,000 military personnel arrived from Sweden alone. And the military and economic assistance of this country to Finland exceeded the amount of 490 million crowns.

Machine gun and artillery point

In addition to the southern direction, in the second half of March 1940, England and France were preparing an operation to invade the USSR from the north. Initially, it was planned to land the expeditionary force in Petsamo and advance towards Kandalaksha and Murmansk. Almost simultaneously, coalition troops were supposed to occupy Sweden and Norway.

Interestingly, Germany planned its invasion of Denmark and Norway around the same time frame, leaving Sweden to become a cash cow for the supply of strategic raw materials.

The Soviet Union could avoid very dangerous events in only two ways - either admit defeat in the war, or, indeed, end it victoriously in the shortest possible time.

But to solve this problem, it was first necessary to go through the Mannerheim Line.

This grandiose complex of defensive fortifications, consisting of six defense lines, passed the last test on the eve of the Soviet-Finnish war, during exercises to repel the “Soviet threat”, and received rave reviews from Western military experts, who were convinced that the Finnish “miracle” was not which is not inferior to the French Maginot Line, and just as impregnable.

From the very beginning, Finnish fortifications were built at a considerable distance from the border, precisely where the terrain allowed them to be used most effectively.

They were built not for a year, or two, but for more than twenty years, with some interruptions, and the sums spent on this were simply astronomical for Finland, and the tight-fisted Finns had no intention of throwing money away.

The main fortification belt of the Mannerheim line stretched 150 km from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. To overcome the entire line of defense, the enemy had to overcome at least 90 km of defensive structures, where over 1000 bunkers and bunkers awaited him, of which 296 were modern powerful fortresses.

Entering the trenches

In 1937, in the Finnish fortified area, under the leadership of Mannerheim, they began to build the most ambitious and practically invulnerable to enemy artillery bunkers - “ millionaires", so called because of their exorbitant cost, the construction of each of them cost the Finnish treasury more than 1 million crowns.

The combat casemates of the bunkers were connected by underground passages; underground shelters for people and ammunition were reliably covered with multi-meter layers of earth and concrete. The cross-artillery and machine-gun fire of these monsters did not leave a single piece of “dead space” on the approaches to the Finnish positions. In total, by the beginning of the war, 7 bunker fortresses had been erected.

Around these bunkers, simpler fortifications were erected: bunkers, dugouts, trenches. The front line was protected by minefields, wire fences, anti-tank ditches and battlements. Zones were prepared for artificial flooding of large areas of the area.

To strengthen the anti-tank weapons of the Mannerheim line, 125 40-mm Bofors automatic guns were purchased from Sweden, which were placed in positions just before the start of the war.

Entering the trenches

By the end of December 1939, the front had stabilized, it became clear to the Soviet command that its initial plans had little correspondence with reality, and it was necessary to make drastic decisions, since time was working for the enemy.

And they followed - first of all, the military leadership was replaced: instead of Army Commander 2nd Rank K.A. Meretskov, who had led military operations since the beginning of the war, was appointed Army Commander 1st Rank S.K. Tymoshenko, who proved himself well during the Polish campaign for the liberation of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

He became the commander of the Northwestern Front formed to break through the Mannerheim Line, immediately beginning energetic preparations for the decisive offensive. K.A. Meretskov was not removed from the theater of military operations; on the contrary, he led the 7th Army in the west of the Karelian Isthmus, where the direction of the main attack was planned. This area was not chosen by chance - it was here, on the vast flat fields, that Soviet troops could massively use their main trump card - tank formations and heavy artillery.

In order to mislead the enemy, the Finnish fortifications were subjected to constant artillery fire along the entire line of contact; specially created units carried out reconnaissance in force in various areas, probing the enemy’s defense line.

Pavel Rudov © IA REGNUM

Entering the trenches

25 Soviet divisions were preparing to break through the front line. The total number of Soviet troops was increased to 600,000 people, which gave the ratio of forces necessary for a successful offensive to 3:1.

But this is not the main thing - taking into account the miscalculations of the initial period of the war, the troops were provided with everything necessary to conduct combat operations in the harsh conditions of a very cold snowy winter - winter uniforms, white camouflage coats, ski equipment, equipment and ammunition. The army received mobile heating units.

Combined assault groups were created and received special training to capture and destroy bunkers. Each group included five to six tanks, half of which were flamethrowers, several guns, a platoon of sappers, up to an infantry company with light and heavy machine guns, and snipers. It was precisely these units that opened the famous Finnish defense, destroying several impregnable million-dollar bunkers. The first to move towards enemy positions were minesweeper tanks, making passages in the minefields.

The infantry in the offensive were covered with steel armored shields mounted on special skis, which immediately reduced losses from enemy machine-gun and rifle fire. And the T-26 light tanks, which had wide tracks, easily dragged armored vehicles with explosives through the snow - with them, sappers blew up pillboxes blinded by artillery and tank fire. Up to 3 tons of explosives were spent on one firing point.

Trenches

Part of the defensive structures was destroyed by “Stalin’s sledgehammers” - large-caliber 203 mm B-4 howitzers, whose 100 kg concrete-piercing shells saved many lives of Soviet soldiers.

It should be noted that the latest Soviet T-34 tanks did not participate in the Finnish war, and the KV-1 heavy tanks were used in small numbers for test purposes.

Between 1 and 3 February 1940, the first attacks by Soviet troops followed. With great difficulty the Finns repelled them. By February 5, a significant part of the defensive fortifications of the Finns' first line of defense was swept away by the fire of Soviet large-caliber artillery, and the Red Army assault groups moved forward, destroying the surviving enemy firing points.

Finnish soldiers fought desperately, knowing that the end was coming...

Trenches

The general offensive of the Northwestern troops began on February 11 after a 3-hour artillery preparation and a bomber strike in the Summa-Lyakhte sector.

Despite the unfavorable weather conditions, bomber aircraft were active, striking Finnish fortified areas, bridges, railway stations, and communications.

And the Finnish defense could not stand it and was broken through in several places at once. During the first 24 hours, Soviet troops advanced up to one and a half kilometers in some areas, wedging deeply into the hitherto impregnable Mannerheim Line. Three days later, when the depth of the breakthrough reached three kilometers, it became clear that nothing could stop our soldiers - even if the line of fortifications stretched all the way to the capital of Finland.

One of the entrances to the dungeon. The well-trodden path makes you wonder if the Finns are still going into the trenches.

Chief Marshal of Artillery N.N. Voronov writes in his memoirs:

“On February 15, a hurricane of our bombs and shells hit the village of Summa. I was at a forward observation post. After the artillery moved the fire to the required depth, the tanks and infantry simultaneously launched an attack. This time the enemy could not withstand the onslaught. He was threatened with encirclement from the flanks, and he began to retreat.

The stronghold fell before my eyes.”

The threat of encirclement loomed over the Finnish army defending the first defensive line - Soviet troops broke through its defenses to a depth of 10 km, and the breakthrough front expanded - it already exceeded 4 km.

By February 17, the central part of Mannerheim's fortifications had been broken through from Lake Vuoksi in the east to the Gulf of Finland in the west, and the Finnish marshal ordered the troops to retreat. He still made frantic attempts to contain the Soviet troops on new frontiers, changed the leadership of units and units, threw reserves into battle directly from the march - but everything was in vain, the Red Army inexorably moved forward, covering up to 10 kilometers per day.

A fortified area built from granite blocks to prevent the advance of armored vehicles

The second line of defense could not save the situation; the Finns could not hold out on these lines either. On one of the sectors of the front, 15 Finnish tanks launched a desperate counterattack, quite surprising the Soviet soldiers, whose positions only three vehicles reached intact...

On March 3, the troops of the 7th Army reached Vyborg and began to cover it from two sides. Realizing that the Finnish troops were on the verge of complete destruction, Mannerheim reported to the government on March 9 that the war was lost, although fierce fighting still continued in all directions.

Finland's hope for a favorable outcome of the war collapsed along with the Mannerheim Line; after the inevitable fall of Vyborg, the path to the capital of Finland, Helsinki, was open for Soviet troops.

Views from the hill to Onega

A participant in the Finnish events, Soviet Major General Leonid Fedorovich Minyuk, who became G.K.’s adjutant during the Great Patriotic War. Zhukova describes this significant event that led Finland to defeat in the war:

“The breakthrough of the Mannerheim Line occupies one of the most notable places in the history of wars in terms of military valor, combat effectiveness and combat tactics. Difficult terrain conditions, forests, swamps, lakes, which added strength to this line of defense, made it more powerful than any other defensive structure in Europe. The valiant Red Army was the first in history to break through such a defensive structure. This is an undoubted merit of the Red Army."

At the same time, no less fierce battles unfolded on the diplomatic front - Finland hysterically appealed to its allies, openly demanding immediate military assistance. But when it smelled of something fried, her neighbors and patrons acted according to the law of the jungle: “every man for himself.”

Germany had almost completed preparations for the invasion of Norway, England was also trying to go there, being literally a few days late in its plans, and the Finnish issue faded into the background in these plans, unless it was a convenient excuse for the appearance of English soldiers on the Scandinavian Peninsula.

View from the hill to Onega

Sweden, not wanting to become an arena for a clash between three great powers - England, the USSR and Germany, cleverly got out of the situation by recalling its neutrality and refusing to allow foreign troops through its territory. To Germany, the Swedish government guaranteed supplies of iron ore and other types of strategic raw materials, half of the Swedish merchant fleet was leased to England until the end of the war, and the Soviet Union was satisfied with Sweden's official refusal to send its troops to Finland.

Sweden's position was supported by Norway, fearing both Germany and England, whose fleet sharply intensified its presence in Norwegian territorial waters.

Finland has finally realized that it is simply being led by the nose - England and France, although they promise military assistance, are throwing up their hands, referring to the position of Sweden. The Swedes nod at the threat from Germany and do not want to get involved in the war with the USSR on the side of Finland, which is already clearly suffering a military defeat.

The last straw was the refusal of France and England to mediate in peace negotiations between Finland and the USSR - Western countries clearly wanted the war to continue. Offended and offended by this behavior of their patrons, the Finns, with the help of Sweden, turned to the USSR with a proposal to conclude peace, having previously agreed to all the conditions, trying to save the remnants of their army from complete defeat.

Sopka

Negotiations began in Moscow on March 8, and on the 13th a peace treaty was signed. The Finns were forced to fulfill all the demands of the Soviet side.

The border on the Karelian Isthmus moved 150 km from Leningrad, Finland abandoned the city of Vyborg with the Vyborg Bay and islands, the western and northern coast of Lake Ladoga with the cities of Suoyarvi, Sortavala, and Kyakisalma in favor of the USSR. In addition, the Rybachy and Sredny peninsulas went to the USSR, and a 30-year lease of the Hanko Peninsula completely solved the problem of covering the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. And, of course, no one proposed any exchange of territories to the Finns.

The Soviet-Finnish peace treaty, according to which the parties, among other things, assumed obligations to refrain from attacking each other and not to participate in coalitions hostile to each other, completely delegitimized the actions of England, France and Germany in the Scandinavian Peninsula. And according to British military experts, it gave “the USSR the opportunity to dominate the Gulf of Finland and strengthen its strategic positions in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic States against Germany.”

Thus, for a certain historical period, the USSR solved the problem of strengthening its security in the northwestern direction, paying for it with the lives of 131,000 soldiers and officers who died in battles and went missing. Their lives saved the northern capital of Russia from plunder and complete destruction by a ruthless enemy who attacked the USSR on June 22, 1941, without declaring war.

For military exploits accomplished during the Finnish War, 412 Soviet military personnel of all branches of the military were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and Army Commander 1st Rank S.K. was awarded this high award. Timoshenko, and on May 7, 1940 he was awarded the highest military rank - Marshal of the Soviet Union.

Oleg Tupikin

In 1939-1940 of the last century, the Finns were able to prove to the whole world that the idea of defending their own borders using fortified areas (URs) had not completely outlived its usefulness. The Finns were able to build on the Karelian Isthmus many protective structures for artillery and machine guns, various kinds of underground warehouses and shelters, and erected a number of anti-personnel and anti-tank barriers, making bunkers their main trump card. It was the bunkers that formed the basis of a strong defense, and although there were not many of them, they were located in the right numbers and in the right places.

Mannerheim Line

The Mannerheim Line, named after the Finnish marshal, was a chain of fortifications 135 km long and up to 90 km deep on the Karelian Isthmus from the shore of the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. The shore of the bay was covered with large-caliber coastal batteries, and in the Taipale area on the shore of Lake Ladoga, the Finns erected a number of reinforced concrete forts, installing 8 120-mm and 152-mm coastal guns in them. At the same time, the basis of the fortifications was the terrain itself. The entire territory of the Karelian Isthmus was covered with forests, crossed by dozens of small and medium-sized rivers, and many lakes. Numerous boulders and rocky ridges were found everywhere in the forests. The Belgian General Badu noted: “Nowhere in the world have I seen natural conditions more favorable for the construction of fortified lines than on the Karelian Isthmus.”

The basis of the line were concrete structures tactically connected to each other - bunkers, shelters and command posts. The main position of the Mannerheim line consisted of 22 strong points, occupying 3–4 km along the front and up to 1–2 km in depth. Each strong point consisted of several reinforced concrete bunkers and additional field fortifications (bunkers, dugouts, machine gun nests, rifle trenches). The strongholds were equipped with minefields, anti-tank barriers and numerous rows of barbed wire.

The Mannerheim Line bunkers are divided according to their construction into the first generation (1920-1937) and the second generation (1938-1939). The first generation bunkers were quite small, designed to install 1-2 machine guns, and did not have shelters for the garrison or any internal equipment. The thickness of their reinforced concrete walls reached 2 m, and the thickness of the floors was 1.75-2 m. Subsequently, most of these bunkers were modernized: the walls were thickened, armor plates were placed on the embrasures.

The second generation bunkers were called “millionaires” by the Finnish population, since their cost exceeded 1 million Finnish marks. A total of 7 such bunkers were erected. The initiator of their construction was Baron Mannerheim, who returned to politics in 1937, and was able to extract funds from the government for their construction. “Millionaires” were large modern reinforced concrete structures that had 4-6 embrasures, mainly of flanking action, of which 1-2 could be guns. Some of the most advanced and heavily fortified bunkers were Sj4 “Poppius” (had embrasures for firing in the western casemate) and Sj5 “Millionaire” (had embrasures for firing in both casemates). The flanking fire pillboxes were called “Le Bourget” casemates, named after the French engineer who introduced them back in the First World War. Such bunkers were perfectly camouflaged with snow and stones, which made them very difficult to detect on the ground; in addition, it was almost impossible to penetrate these casemates from the front.

According to the data contained in the book “Secrets and Lessons of the Winter War,” the Mannerheim line consisted of about 280 reinforced concrete machine-gun and artillery bunkers. Not too many - about 2 bunkers per 1 km. front, if you stretch them all in one line, but they were located at a depth of 90 km. Thus, one bunker accounted for almost 43 sq. km. Of course, in addition to the bunkers, there were many other engineering fortifications, but it was the bunkers that were the basis, the core of each strong point.

Invisible pillboxes

It would seem that it could be simpler - they discovered a bunker, rolled out a gun for direct fire and planted a shell in its embrasure. However, this can only be found in movies or paintings. The attacking Red Army soldiers could not see the real Finnish bunkers in principle; they were hiding behind the earthen hills. It was not possible to reach them with artillery or tank fire.

The main difficulty in fighting Finnish bunkers was that they were all very skillfully tied to the terrain and located in such a way that they were simply not visible from a great distance, hiding in the folds of the terrain or forest, and artillery and tanks could not get close to them due to numerous artificial and, most importantly, natural obstacles. In addition, many pillboxes were intended only for flanking fire and were not visible from the front at all. To fire at a bunker, a tank or gun had to be turned around, exposing its side to fire from the front.

The excellent location of firing points on the ground led to numerous mistakes by artillery observers, who simply did not see the explosions of their shells or incorrectly determined the range to the target. As a result, the Soviet infantry found itself face to face with the bunker, the bunkers surrounding it and the trenches of the Finnish infantry. And the Finnish infantrymen shot excellently.

As a result, a huge consumption of ammunition for each bunker, large losses in tanks and people, the troops are marking time, despite the overwhelming superiority in all types of weapons.

General features of Finnish bunkers

This information is taken from a report dated April 1, 1940, by Army Commander 2nd Rank N.N. Voronov, chief of artillery of the Red Army. Later, he would become the famous chief marshal of artillery, who already in 1943, together with Rokossovsky, would accept the surrender of the 6th German Army in the ruins of Stalingrad.

a) Almost the majority of the bunkers were on the surface, and only a number of them partially crashed into folds of the terrain or hillsides. In this case, there is no need to talk about underground structures (especially about multi-story ones); at best, some bunkers can be classified as semi-underground. The explanation for this is that in the conditions of the Karelian Isthmus it is very difficult to find places where structures could be lowered underground. There is either rocky soil, or groundwater very close to the surface, or even a swamp.

b) Most of the bunkers were intended to conduct flanking fire (firing along the front) on the flank of attacking troops and were not designed to repel frontal attacks. It can be noted that each bunker covered the approaches to the neighboring one. From the front, such bunkers were protected by folds of the terrain (they were built on the reverse slopes of heights, or had artificial earth-filled hills or forests in front of them). Most bunkers were inaccessible to guns and attacking tanks. Flanking fire allowed bunker garrisons to cut off attacking infantry from their tanks.

c) According to the projects, bunkers were supposed to withstand direct hits from shells with a caliber of up to 203 mm, but in practice, some of them were made of low-quality concrete (300-450 kg/sq. cm. with a minimum resistance for fortification structures - more than 750 kg/sq. cm . cm.).

d) The bunkers were heated by stoves (although some bunkers were equipped with central heating). The lighting is partly electric, partly by kerosene lamps of the "Bat" type. Water supply from wells dug in the barracks. There were no latrines in the bunkers. Communication between bunkers is partly telephone, partly only visual.

This report will not really please People's Commissar Voroshilov, but it reflected the true state of affairs on the Mannerheim line. This line of defense could not be compared with the French Maginot Line, which had multi-story powerful defensive structures and solid artillery, including large-caliber guns. The same report also contains information that the Finnish army had a very small number of artillery pieces, mostly outdated systems.

In his memoirs, Voronov listed examples of Finnish artillery. There were 37-mm Bofors anti-tank guns (the Finns managed to stuff these guns into a number of bunkers during the battles), 3-inch Russian guns of the 1902 model, 12 and 15-cm howitzers of the Schneider system from the First World War. Most of the shells for Finnish heavy artillery were produced before 1917, which is why up to 1/3 of the shells simply did not explode.

For the most part, the Finns simply had nothing to install in bunkers, so most of them were machine guns. Only 8 bunkers had artillery. Moreover, a number of them did not even have special devices for mounting machine guns (casemate systems); the Finns used ordinary easel and light machine guns in them.

Many bunkers did not have permanent garrisons trained to conduct combat in such a structure; they were occupied by ordinary rifle units that brought with them weapons, ammunition and food, i.e. some bunkers simply did not have reserves for long-term autonomous operation. The installation of armored caps on bunkers built after 1936, used to protect observers, turned out to be erroneous - they only unmasked the structure. Periscopes, which were more suitable for monitoring the terrain and did not reveal bunkers, were beyond the means of the rather poor Finnish army.

In the end, neither the extremely favorable location nor the staunchness of the defenders brought victory to the Finns. The Mannerheim Line was broken, and the enormous numerical and technical superiority of the Red Army took its toll. All bunkers that got in the way of the Soviet infantry were destroyed either by heavy howitzer artillery or by sappers.

Sources used:
www.army.armor.kiev.ua/fort/findot.shtml
www.popmech.ru/article/116-liniya-mannergeyma
materials from the free Internet encyclopedia "Wikipedia"

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The Mannerheim Line is a whole complex of defensive structures created between 1920 and 1930. on the Finnish part of the Karelian Isthmus. It was in these places that fierce battles took place during the terrible Soviet-Finnish or “Winter” War. In Finland, only the main line of defense was called the “Mannerheim Line”. It was named in honor of the lieutenant general of the Russian army, the commander-in-chief of the marshal of the Finnish army, and later the president of Finland - Carl Gustav Mannerheim.

The strengthening of the strategically important region of the Karelian Isthmus began in 1918, that is, immediately after Finland gained independence, and continued until the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940. The initial line of defense was called the “Enkel Line” and crossed the entire Karelian Isthmus from Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland.

Despite the fact that by 1924 a powerful fortified area had appeared here, in 1927 it became clear that it was necessary to improve the defensive structures, which was done throughout 1931-1932. The new objects had enormous firepower, but were also expensive, for which they received the nickname “millionaires.”

Of course, the Mannerheim line played a certain role during the Soviet-Finnish War, but its significance was greatly exaggerated on both sides - on the Suomi side to strengthen morale, and on the USSR side to justify failures and heavy losses. The direct builder of the line and participant in the conflict, Carl Gustav Mannerheim, spoke about this. However, the fortifications that have survived today are of great historical interest.

To visit the defensive line, it is better to book an excursion, during which, in addition to a story and overview of the structures, you can see the weapons and equipment of both sides at war, as well as learn interesting details about the “Winter” War. Or even try a field lunch or tea by the fire.

Mannerheim Line

Coordinates

The most convenient section of the Mannerheim Line to visit is the fortified area of Summakylä, near the village of Kamenka. The distance from St. Petersburg to it is a little more than a hundred kilometers along the E18 highway, then take the exit to Kirillovskoye, then follow the A125 highway, and at the intersection with A125 turn left. Defense structures are located very close to the highway.

February 15, 1940 Soviet troops finally broke through the Mannerheim Line- a powerful complex of Finnish defensive structures, considered impregnable. This marked a turning point in the Winter War of 1939-1940 and in military history as such. Today we will remind you what this legendary Finnish defensive line was like and tell you about six most interesting facts related to the “Mannerheim Line” - the history of its construction and operation.

Mannerheim Line or Enckel Line?

The line of defensive structures on the Karelian Isthmus received the name of Mannerheim, the Finnish commander-in-chief, and then the President of Finland, only at the end of 1939, when a group of foreign journalists visited its construction. The journalists returned home and wrote a series of reports about what they saw, in which they mentioned the term that later became official.

In Finland itself, this defense complex was long called the “Enkel Line” in honor of the chief of the General Staff of the young republic, who in the early 20s of the 20th century paid great attention to the construction of defensive structures on the southern borders of his homeland. Construction of the line began in 1920 and was suspended in 1924 when Enckel resigned from his post.

It resumed only in 1932, when the legendary military leader Carl Gustav Mannerheim, who a year earlier became the head of the State Defense Committee, toured the “Enkel Line” with an inspection and gave the order to complete its construction, strengthen and modernize it.

What is the Mannerheim Line?

This is actually where we should have started. The Mannerheim Line is a giant defensive line built by the Finns in 1920-1939 near the border with Soviet Russia. It was created to stop the advance of the Red Army into the country. And there was no doubt in Helsinki that this would happen one day.

The line was created taking into account the landscape of the Karelian Isthmus and ran into the Gulf of Finland in the west and Ladoga in the east. The complex of structures consisted of six defense lines, of which the second, main one, was, in fact, the “Mannerheim Line”.

It consisted of 22 resistance nodes and individual strong points. The features of the landscape made it possible to hold the defense on this line with small forces, while inflicting significant damage to the advancing enemy. And 136 kilometers of anti-tank obstacles, 330 kilometers of barbed wire, mines, gouges, ditches, pillboxes and bunkers did not in any way contribute to the rapid breakthrough of this line.

The pillboxes and bunkers themselves were skillfully hidden from the eyes of the attackers; the terrain made it possible to hide them, disguising them as hills with trees and other natural elements. During the Winter War, there was a rumor among Soviet soldiers that Finnish bunkers were covered with rubber, which is why shells hitting them bounced off - they could not otherwise explain the “survivability” of enemy firing points.

Was the line truly impregnable?

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, domestic propaganda claimed that the Mannerheim Line was one of the greatest defense systems built by Mankind, more impregnable than the legendary French Maginot Line. Therefore, its breakthrough was presented as an unprecedented feat of Soviet soldiers. However, the Finnish field marshal himself, as well as most historians, were very skeptical of such statements.

The inaccessibility of the “Mannerheim Line” is a myth inflated by the Western press and Soviet propaganda. Our command needed to justify the delays at the front (a quick and victorious war was expected), the Finns raised the morale of the soldiers with stories about the wonderful characteristics of the defense system, and the European media needed beautiful stories and hot facts.

In fact, the Mannerheim Line, despite its scale, had many significant shortcomings. Let's start with the fact that at the start of the war it was not completed, and there was still quite a lot of construction work left. In addition, most of the equipment of this defensive complex in 1939 was noticeably outdated, and there were not so many modern firing points. And there was no talk about great depth of defense.

Why did Soviet troops storm the Mannerheim Line for more than two months?

The war with Finland was conceived by the Soviet leadership as a quick armed conflict on foreign territory, which would end in a short time with the victory of our army. The fighting began on November 30, and already on December 12, the Red Army reached the front edge of the main defense line of the Mannerheim Line. However, here they were stuck for two months.

The reason for this is the lack of accurate data on the structure of the “Mannerheim Line”, as well as the lack of personal strength and weapons appropriate to the task. The Soviet army lacked large-caliber artillery to destroy enemy concrete firing points and lacked military experience in breaking through such barriers. And the command did not always behave competently.

For these and many other reasons, the battles for the “Mannerheim Line” lasted more than two months. But they managed to break through it only in February 1940. The general offensive began on February 11. The first breakthrough of the defensive rampart occurred on the 13th, and on the 15th the fall of the Mannerheim Line became irreversible - the 7th Army went behind the Finnish troops, forcing them to retreat to a new line of defense. Thus the fate of the Winter War was decided.

The fighting intensified until March 12, after which the Moscow Peace Treaty was concluded, which recorded the annexation by the Soviet Union of a number of Finnish border territories. In particular, the cities of Vyborg and Sortvalla, as well as the Hanka Peninsula in the depths of Finland, where a Soviet naval base was built, became Russian.

What is a “Karelian sculptor”?

The Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 gave the world several new terms. For example, “Molotov cocktail” and “Karelian sculptor”. The last was the Soviet high-power howitzer of B-4 caliber, the shell of which, after hitting pillboxes and bunkers, turned these structures into a shapeless mess of concrete and reinforcement. These bizarrely shaped structures were visible from afar, which is why they received the nickname “Karelian monuments”. The Finns called the B-4 howitzer “Stalin’s sledgehammer.”

What is now the site of the Mannerheim Line?

Immediately after the end of the Winter War, Soviet sappers made considerable efforts to destroy the remnants of the Mannerheim Line. Most of the firing points were blown up, only those engineering structures that could not be dismantled remained intact.

During the Soviet-Finnish War of 1941-1944, the Finns who reoccupied these territories did not want to restore the “Mannerheim Line”, considering this matter to be futile.

Now all that remains of the once large-scale line of Finnish defense are scattered objects scattered throughout the Karelian Isthmus. They are an object of pilgrimage for military history buffs and a few tourists. There are no attempts to put this monument in order by the Russian or Finnish authorities. However, powerful reinforced concrete fortifications can stand for centuries even in the open air in harsh northern environmental conditions.