Big Tyuters reveals its secrets. Bolshoy Tyuters Island in the Gulf of Finland: expedition, photo Three-inch cannon, unidentified aircraft

The island of Big Tyuters in post-war times, especially in the seventies, was called nothing else than the "island of death." He received such a terrible nickname thanks to the active work of the Germans - they totally mined his territory. A lot of time has passed since the end of the war, but peaceful sappers and researchers die from the diligent work of the Nazis. The conditions and nature on the island make it time to build sanatoriums and recreation centers, but the war still throws up its terrible "gifts".

Role

The islands are plentiful all over the world. Each has its own purpose. One of them - paradise for recreation, others are commercial harbors or pirate havens. Likewise, the island of Bolshoi Tyuters has its own destiny. Its fate was to defend against enemies from the sea. The war sprinkled blood on the island - fierce battles were fought here. For several centuries, he now and then passed from one hand to another. Most often they were Russians. Everything passes by him - ships, people, it seems that time stopped here 60 years ago. During this period, very few people visited it - they were mainly expeditions.

Characteristics of the island

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

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

The inhabitants of the island. Lighthouse

The island of Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland has, in addition to interesting landscapes and vegetation is no less fascinating fauna. A rare species of mollusks - a predatory black slug - found its habitat here. Especially many of them can be found at the foot of the rocks. Among the inhabitants of the island there are raccoon dogs, at least their tracks have been found many times. In addition, a wild ram is running around the island; it escaped from the former lighthouse several years ago.

By the way, about the lighthouse. He is the only habitat on the island. Its height is 21 meters, the focal plane is located at 75 meters. There are two living 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 Finnish fishermen's village on it. However, the war swept her off the face of the island too.

Island today

Bolshoi Tyuters Island in the Gulf of Finland is one of those places where time has stood still. Buildings and structures are overgrown, even the lighthouse keeper does not risk moving far from his workplace, since the island can present an unpleasant surprise, which the Germans generously presented it with. Since the latter left it in a hurry, they left behind not only but also a lot of equipment, ammunition, heavy weapons. But at the same time, there is simply indescribable beauty of nature, which, unfortunately, can only be seen by a few. To neutralize the dangerous island, sapper troops 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 such landings in the post-war years. However, even half of the island cannot be called safe.

Forgotten technique

The island of Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland, a photo of which can be seen in the review, is real. Considering that its samples are abundant on the island, there are unique among them. Such as, say, a 40 caliber automatic anti-aircraft gun "Boforos". The amount of equipment that the Germans left behind can be enough for a large museum. Expeditions that are exploring its territory find many specimens, some 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 goes to the Big Tyuters Island to investigate the "white spots" on the map of Europe. Due to the dense mining on it, even decades after the end of the war, servicemen were killed. It is for the neutralization of the territory that such studies are carried out. One of the last was the "Gogland" expedition, which, in addition to Bolshoi Tyuters, also covered some of the outer islands of the Gulf of Finland. Before the landing of the main assault force, the berths and areas for helicopters were equipped. Of its achievements, it can be noted the discovery of about 200 units military equipment, weapons. Most of them are unique. After examining it for the availability of equipment, representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society followed the search engines. On this moment a search is underway for the remains of soldiers who died during the Great Patriotic War.

Island trip

It is very dangerous to go to the island on your own. Of course it is historical site, where there are unique samples of equipment and weapons, but there are much more mines on it. Its nature is amazing, it is very quiet and calm here. The only thing that gives out is the island, which works to avoid ship wrecks. Ships have been passing by for more than 60 years. This is the peculiarity that Bolshoy Tyuters Island has. How to get to it is immediately visible on the map. The main routes are by water or by helicopter. If, nevertheless, there is a great desire to touch this part of the history, you can go to the neighboring one, and from it you can also examine Bolshoi Tyuters from afar.

Ghosts of the island

This is what they call the technique that "rests" on the territory. Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland, if it had not been mined, could have been 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 branch that has fallen. It can drown in the dunes and only one third of itself stands out from under the sands. Defensive weapons .37 caliber can be seen in the trees on the coastal slopes. Parts of equipment, including engines, are scattered everywhere. 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 equipment simply united with nature, trees sprouted in the bodies of the machines, some of the tools were covered with moss and grass. If it were not for the danger that lurks at every corner, it would be possible to conduct exciting excursions here.

conclusions

The island has long been considered a banned territory. There have been successful attempts to de-mine it, but it is not yet possible to fully 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 a minimal infrastructure. In addition, the path to the island is very difficult and expensive. That is why it remains completely unexplored and almost deserted.

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

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 on the way of the enemy were two rocks: Gogland and Bolshoi Tyuters. During the war, fierce battles were fought over the islands. Our landings were on the assault. And the Germans and Finns held the defense.

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

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

Thousands upon thousands of ships pass by Tyuters every year. But for recent years 60 practically never set foot on it.

Tyuters is strikingly handsome. It so quietly happens that the ears ring. Mushrooms, fish, berries, rocks, forest, purest water... It would be better to build sanatoriums here, breathe the healing pine air and watch the sun go down in the cool waters of the Baltic. But the war made its own adjustments to this picture.

The only whole structure on Tyuters is a lighthouse. You can't do 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 is impossible to see something below from it. For 70 years there were no people here, roads and buildings were overgrown, nature took its toll. Even traces railroad- and here she was too - they covered 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, if I may say so, only sighting.

In October 1941, under the onslaught of the Germans, the island was abandoned by the Red Army, but the Soviet command quickly realized its mistake. The narrowness of the bay turned it into a trap - the passage along the fairway for our ships was becoming deadly. The fleet was trapped in Kronstadt. V new year's eve In 1942, the Red Army and the Marine Corps landed on Tyuters, but did not last long. There was no supply of food and ammunition, the reinforcements sent simply did not reach: the ice on the Gulf of Finland had not yet matured, under it there were openings, above it - half a meter ice water... The soldiers froze right on the way, and few managed to return to the mainland.

Subsequently, it was more and more difficult to take Bolshoi Tyuters. The Germans transferred so much manpower and resources here that it became the largest stronghold among the islands of the Gulf of Finland, installed batteries of large-caliber guns, anti-aircraft guns and ship guns on the island.

Preparing for a serious battle in the Baltic, the Nazis brought a fantastic amount of ammunition to the island. And the rest is beyond counting, but how much was fired at our ships? On our landings? After all, there was still a second landing. And the third one. And the fourth. How many of our soldiers lie here - no one can say.

It is believed that the Germans mined the area before they fled the island in 1944. This is not true. Studying German maps and documents, examining the 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 defenses. Others were added to one row of thorns, new mines were placed between the old and new places, until the amount and density of all this iron reached some fantastic value.

When the Germans left the island, it had not played the former 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, to cling to such patches of land even when they were no longer strategic, but even tactical. And then they themselves and their garrisons turned into a burden, which was no longer possible to take care of and which was not worth evacuating. Obviously, Tyuters also became such a burden - the thrifty Germans could not, as usual, take the equipment with them and confined 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 at the Zeigl (Sea Urchin) minefield, the Germans put a total of several tens of thousands of mines, and almost half - on 9 and a half nautical miles between Hogland and Tyuters.

Under enemy fire, our minesweepers made passages in minefields, and the Germans methodically dumped new mines into the strait - a thousand after a 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. Yes, and not far gone. How much explosive metal is on the bottom: dead submarines and boats with torpedoes, downed bombers with full ammunition, dozens of sunken transports with ammunition, several artillery ships with full cellars. These waters will be unsafe for a long time to come. Such a concentration of combat losses in one place speaks of the colossal importance attached to the island by the opposing sides.

Today the island is the farthest part of Russia in the northwest. On the northern coast - Finland, on the southern - already Estonia. Special border zone, special admission 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 Bolshoi Tyuters is, the most mysterious island of the Gulf of Finland, and to answer the question of how exceptional it was for the German forces in the Baltic. It is not easy to talk about this, but: perhaps it was this small battle for Tyuters, lost by the Soviet troops at the very beginning of the war, that enabled the Germans not only to maintain a long blockade of Leningrad, but also delayed our victory.

The first shelters and burials were dug here in the days 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 big war, Soviet troops also built their own fortifications - aboveground and underground. There is an interesting inscription on the German map from the archives of the Abwehr. It says that there should be 15 underground structures on the island. The last joint Soviet-Swedish demining mission found six bunkers on the island. The other nine were never found. Maybe they didn't look carefully, or maybe they sheltered these bunkers with knowledge of the matter? For a long time?

There are many versions of the purpose of the mysterious bunkers. The most interesting - of course, about the fact that the values ​​plundered by the Nazis were kept here. After all, the army group "North", to which the Tyuters garrison belonged, marauded in these parts with the full breadth of its Teutonic soul. Pskov and Novgorod, Oranienbaum and Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and Strelna - many treasures and art objects after the war were never found either in Germany or anywhere else. Why don't the Germans keep them here, under the protection of granite undergrounds and the most powerful fortifications of Tyuters?

During the war years, the perimeter of the island was braided with barbed wire in several rows. And mines - tens of thousands. And then - guns and machine guns at close range. Our troops landed here. It seems to me that to advance here, in an open place, under dagger fire, across a minefield, is impossible, hopeless. If the cruisers and battleships of the Baltic Fleet approached, mixed the German defenses 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 on condition that the island was occupied by ours.

Another version: in these dungeons, the Germans had a factory for the production and equipment of ammunition. This, of course, is not the Amber Room, although little would have remained of amber in the local dampness.

In general, some kind of shelter, caches are often found here. And almost everywhere there are traces of a person's presence. But they obviously do not pull on something serious. For weapons production, larger sizes are needed, and special conditions for storing valuables - paintings, sculptures.

The complex expedition of the Russian Geographical Society with the support of the Russian Ministry of Defense continues to survey the outer islands of the Gulf of Finland. The group went to Big Tyuters and Gogland to study their geography, geology, biology and historical and cultural heritage.

The "Island of Death" is parting with the legacy of the war - volunteers from all over the country are preparing hundreds of tons of rusty military iron for removal from Bolshoi Tyuters. Shells from shells, fragments of ammunition will soon be disposed of. But this land is still fraught with danger.

Despite the fact that seven demining operations have already been carried out here, the volunteers find another cache of ammunition. Sappers, who had recently worked in Syrian Palmyra, discovered on the island a hundred German anti-personnel mines - the so-called "frogs" without detonators.

“When the Germans left here, they did not have time to take everything with them, and they buried something and hid it. Look, they are in excellent condition, even the paint has not peeled off, ”the commander of the demining group of the 30th engineer regiment Ilya Shcherbakov shows a mine.

Bolshoi Tyuters, Gogland and neighboring islands literally block the exit to the Baltic from the Gulf of Finland. From 1941 to 1944, it was from here that the Germans fired at Soviet ships and aircraft.

Bolshoy Tyuters Square - only eight square kilometers... But during the war years, the Germans made it absolutely impregnable: rows of barbed wire surrounded the entire island, machine-gun nests were located every 50-100 meters. Everything was done so that the Soviet troops could not take it.

Tyuters defended a garrison of three thousand, while the combat losses for almost three years of the war amounted to only 30 people.

A German military cemetery is located on the island. Now the servicemen of the separate search battalion of the Western Military District, at the request of the People's Union of Germany, are carrying out work on the exhumation of the remains of German soldiers.

“Since here is a forest, wild place, even last year there were attempts by marauders to penetrate the island, despite the remoteness. Therefore, if you imagine the idea of ​​leaving and not touching anything, unfortunately, this will not work, ”explains Dmitry Volkov, an employee of the People's Union of Germany.

Members of the joint expedition of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian Geographical Society hope to find the remains of Soviet soldiers who participated in several landings. Hundreds of soldiers and sailors went missing in these places.

“It seemed that after the last expedition, well, everyone was already - walking this island up and down, everything interesting was evacuated from here. And it seems that we all know, but it turned out that a lot of interesting things remained, ”notes Valery Kudinsky, head of the International Complex Expedition“ Gogland ”.

On Bolshoy Tyuters, several more bunkers were found, which were equipped by the Germans in granite rocks. Their goals are still unknown. This mystery of the island is now trying to solve geophysicists.

Here, presumably, there may be grottoes, the entrances to which were filled up by the Germans during the retreat. They could hide anything - from stocks of weapons and food to valuables and art objects plundered by the Nazis near Leningrad.

For 70 years, mined up and down, Tyuters remained a preserve of the war at the end, and only now he finally began to reveal his secrets.

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

The event, organized by the Russian Geographical Society in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense, started in early May and will end on 14 August. In less than four months, the search engines must comb the island, collect the 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 in the lighthouse), packed, like an open-air museum, with artifacts abandoned 70 years ago.

Eight square kilometers of taiga and stone

We leave from the Levashovsky military airfield. The weather is flying, despite the low purple sky. Several officers of different types of troops are loaded on board. And two soldiers with a basket for berries.

“They asked, they took us,” they share, informing in passing that they still have 4 months left until the end of the service. - Interesting! There will be something to tell at home ...

Bolshoi Tyuters, which, if you look at the map, lies near Estonia and Finland itself, 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 began to belong to the independent Finland. After 20 years he returned to us again. After three years the Finns and the Germans were in charge there. Since 1944 he is Russian again.

All the post-war period, these eight square kilometers of stone and taiga are empty: unnecessarily. And it's dangerous. Until 2005, when the miners of the Ministry of Emergency Situations came to the island, it was packed with shells and mines.

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

Gulf of Finland Key

We are unloading. The strong smell of pine needles hits the nose. In the ears - an unusual silence.

We change to a UAZ and, picking branches of trees along the winding path with the cabin, we go to the place of one of the finds. A month ago, there, in the windbreaks, a curious specimen was discovered - an anti-aircraft gun of the Wehrmacht.

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

During the Second World War, the garrison of German troops on Tüters was 2 thousand soldiers: one person per four square meters! And it is no coincidence - together with neighboring Gogland and a couple of smaller islets, this ridge played a strategic role - a key to the Gulf of Finland. Whoever owned the archipelago controlled the entrance to the bay. Between the islands, the Germans pulled anti-submarine nets, stuck mine lines. Hogland was controlled by the Finns, Bolshoy Tyuters by the Germans. We tried to get them back, but to no avail. That is why our Baltic Fleet stood, not engaging in major battles until 1944, locked in Kronstadt and Leningrad ...

In each tank of the field kitchen - a pomegranate

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

- It was made in Sweden, - introduces the head of the expedition, General Valery Kudinsky. - One of the best examples of anti-aircraft weapons of the time: automatic, reliable. Her condition is currently satisfactory. Clean, refurbish - and almost as good as new. Ammunition was found nearby in the ground: 80 shells in oiled paper. It was from these same cannons that they hit our planes.

The search work, the general explains, has now been completed. From May to June, the expedition members combed the island far and wide: 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 found. 137 of them need to be pulled out with the help of heavy equipment - these very 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.

Everything without exception, I must say, is out of order. The Germans left the island in haste. They abandoned everything and on September 18, 1944, they left this land. Cannons and trailers blew up. In each tank of the field kitchen - a pomegranate. In each barrel - several through shots ...

All-terrain vehicles and helicopters

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

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

“Almost every object has to be fiddled with like this,” he says. - And something generally cannot be taken out with wheeled vehicles - rocks, windbreaks. We will try it by air, using a helicopter.

And he adds that, despite the difficulties, all work is a joy. They dreamed of this project for many years, studied archives, including German ones. But it was impossible to just take and go here - a lot of money was needed. In December last year, 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 cannon, aircraft not found

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

- Here are the standard two-liter barrels for fuel, - says Khutorskoy. - Immediately from several countries. German, Finnish, Latvian, French. Look at their round timber - here you can make up a whole collection! Or else very interesting object: three-inch cannon, manufactured in 1917 at the Putilov factory. She went to independent Finland. And fought against us during the Great Patriotic War ...

- And how are 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 - there were found eight name tags that were attached to the 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 Hogland - after all, we could get it! 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 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 were killed, disappeared and were wounded.

- And ours here, on Bolshoi Tyuters? ..

- There were losses. And when we left in 41st. And when in 1942 they tried to storm it twice. It is known that later two of our scouts landed here. But they are missing. In the swamps lie Soviet planes - one or two. The lighthouse says that he remembers as a boy the tail of an airplane in one of the swamps. But where is unclear. We found parts of the fuselage skin. Nothing more…

Delivery of equipment to the berth 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 to search for dead soldiers will begin work on this patch in the middle of the Gulf of Finland.

by the way

As part of the expedition of the Russian Geographical Society and the Ministry of Defense in late July - early August, search activities are also carried out on the island of Gogland. Unlike Bolshoy Tyuters, only search engines work on Gogland, which are engaged in discovering the graves of our soldiers (military equipment was removed from here almost immediately after the war). According to preliminary data, about 500 Red Army soldiers were killed and buried here. Work on the island is being carried out by the search group of the North-West association of 16 people (including various detachments of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region). This is the first such large-scale action. 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, and sanitary stretchers. And the remains of one soldier of the Red Army: on the cigarette case found nearby, the name is Sapozhnikov. The search is complicated by the stony nature of the soil. Currently, the amphibious directions of the island are being combed.

Last week, the search expedition "Gogland", sent by the Russian Ministry of Defense to the island of Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland, loaded several dozen units of German military equipment and weapons from the Second World War onto landing boats of the Baltic Fleet (according to the Internet portal of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation). 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 anti-aircraft guns FlaK 18/36 caliber 88 mm, the Swedish anti-aircraft gun Bofors L60 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 killed in the defense of the Fatherland and the "Search Movement of Russia". The total number of the expedition is over 80 people.

The Gulf of Finland is home to many small and large islands. It was known for a long time that some of them preserved the ruins of fortifications and the remains of broken military equipment. A scientific expedition of the Russian Geographical Society (RGO) in 2013 surveyed the Outer Islands group and confirmed these facts in their reports. Such islands as Gogland, Maly Tyuters, Bolshoi Tyuters, Sommers and Seskar, which have a strategically significant location, served as important strongholds for the Germans during the war years.

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

The Bolshoi Tyuters lighthouse is serviced by a caretaker who does not dare to stray far from it, fearing the deadly "surprises" of the wartime
smolbattle. ru

V different years garrisons were deployed on the islands, fortifications were built with minefields, and coastal batteries were installed to keep sea routes at gunpoint. Some of the islands changed their masters, alternately being Swedish, then Finnish, then 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). The fierce battles in the Gulf of Finland cost the belligerents thousands of victims, and the exact number of Soviet soldiers and officers who died here has not yet been established.

The plot of the First channel about the search expedition to Bolshoi Tyuters

After the end of the war, not all islands were completely cleared of mines and shells, especially those that were in the border areas 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 Bolshoi Tyuters, were forced to leave on it a large amount of heavy weapons, military equipment and ammunition. In addition, there are still minefields and obstacles, and in such a large number 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 (it is known about seven such landings), which were working 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 the island, Bolshoy Tyuters still poses a great danger to people.
posleduvremeni.ru

Preparations for the expedition of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to the islands of the Gulf of Finland began in the spring of this year. The reconnaissance expedition "Gogland", which consisted of representatives of the RF Ministry of Defense, the Russian Geographical Society and members of the search movement, visited Outer islands at the end of May and completed a large amount of work: she studied the terrain, mapped the search areas, laid routes, carried out engineering markings, prepared berths and sites, compiled inventories of the remains of weapons and military equipment.

The island, closed for visits, has become a kind of nature reserve, having preserved weapons and equipment from the Second World War in its forests.
poludurkoff.net

After a reconnaissance expedition, in early July, sappers from the Baltic Fleet's naval engineering regiment landed on the islands. Navy 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 detonation. At the same time, anti-personnel mines represented a particular danger, the fuses of which were in an activated state for several decades and could detonate at any time.

Among the found military equipment there are many valuable samples. The photo shows a presumably 40 mm Bofors L60 automatic anti-aircraft gun.
posleduvremeni.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 collected and shipped. After delivery to The mainland those found samples that are subject to restoration will be restored and 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 expositions of some military museums.

Loading finds on ships of the Baltic Fleet
military.rf

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