Memorial complex “Valley of Heroes. Excursions to the valley of death, karelia War in the valley of death karelia on the map

70 years ago, on November 30, 1939, the Soviet-Finnish (winter), "unknown" war began. For 105 days there were fierce and stubborn battles that brought a lot of grief to both the Soviet people and the Finns. Unfortunately, in Russia, only some media reported briefly about this sad date. And from our leadership there was no reaction at all. Probably, the indication of the May meeting of 1940 at the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, at which the analysis of hostilities took place, is not recommended to remember this war, and is still valid. In Finland, the opposite is true. In Helsinki, mourning events were held at the monument to Marshal Karl Mannerheim and at the military cemetery in Hietaniemi. In addition, a memorial service was held in the Cathedral of the Finnish capital, in which the country's President Tarja Halonen and her husband took part.

We want to address our material to everyone who is interested in the fatherland, who cherishes the concepts of honor, valor, heroism of the Russian warrior. And let's talk about little known fact the death of the 18th Infantry Division in the infamous "Valley of Death" near the Karelian town of Pitkyaranta. These people had a terrible fate.

THE SMELL OF WAR

Since the beginning of November, the division has been preparing for war. The mood of the fighters was upbeat, and no one doubted an early victory. The roads from Petrozavodsk and Lodeynoye Pole were clogged with troops. But on November 7, when everyone was listening on the radio to the speech of People's Commissar Voroshilov in front of the troops, not a word was said about relations with Finland. The commanders began to draw bold conclusions: the diplomats agreed, the Finns agreed with our sound demands, seeing what force was rushing to their borders. And on November 12, Voroshilov ordered the LenVO troops to be put on alert and by November 17 to be ready for anything. On November 20, the division was visited by the Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Party Committee Zhdanov and the commander of the Leningrad Military District Meretskov. They were met by division commander Cherepanov and regimental commissar Razumov. The guests were taken to the demonstration regiment 316, commanded by Colonel Kondrashov. There they were shown the excellent training of snipers, told that they were not afraid of winter and trained to sleep in huts without stoves and heating. The mood of the fighters is fighting - to teach a lesson to the presumptuous Finnish pug. The guests were satisfied. Zhdanov announced that the division was fully combat-ready, and ordered the creation of a 15-day supply of food, ammunition and fodder. On November 28, the entire division began to seethe: near Mainil, our cannons fired at ours, there are dead and wounded. It is reported on the radio that rallies are taking place all over the country and the Soviet people are declaring that the White Finnish adventurers will be punished for the blood of our comrades. In the evening, by order of a member of the Military Council of the LenVO Zhdanov, secretary of the regional party committee of the Karelian Republic Kupriyanov and a representative of the headquarters of the 8th army, which included the division, arrived from Petrozavodsk. An order was read for the 8th Army on the appointment of Cherepanov as commander of the 56th corps, and Colonel Kondrashov as commander of the 18th division, assigning him an extraordinary military rank brigade commander

TOMORROW WILL BE WAR

On the evening of November 29, a meeting was held at the division headquarters, at which the order was read to the LenVO troops.

"ORDER TO THE TROOPS OF THE LENINGRAD MILITARY DISTRICT"

The patience of the Soviet people and the Red Army came to an end. It's time to give a lesson to the presumptuous and impudent political gamblers who have thrown a brazen challenge to the Soviet people, and to radically destroy the center of anti-Soviet provocations and threats to Leningrad!

Comrade Red Army soldiers, commanders, commissars and political workers!

Fulfilling the sacred will of the Soviet Government and our Great People, I order:
Troops of the Leningrad Military District to cross the border, defeat the Finnish troops and once and for all ensure the security of the northwestern borders of the Soviet Union and the city of Lenin - the cradle of the proletarian revolution.

We are going to Finland not as conquerors, but as friends and liberators of the Finnish people from the oppression of the landowners and capitalists.

We are not going against the Finnish people, but against the Kajander-Erkno government, which oppresses the Finnish people and provoked a war with the USSR.

We respect the freedom and independence of Finland, received by the Finnish people as a result of the October Revolution and the victory of Soviet Power.

Together with the Finnish people, the Russian Bolsheviks, led by Lenin and Stalin, fought for this independence.

For the security of the northwestern borders of the USSR and the glorious city of Lenin!

For our beloved Motherland! For the Great Stalin!

Forward, sons of the Soviet people, soldiers of the Red Army, to the complete annihilation of the enemy.

Commander of the LenVO troops comrade. Meretskov K.A.
Member of the Military Council comrade. Zhdanov A.A.»

Then the task of the division was set:

1. Take the border village of Kyasniaselka. Further, adhering to the main road leading south to Pitkyaranta-Sortavala, with an offensive line of up to 8 kilometers.

2. Take possession of the villages of Uoma, Lavajärvi, Mitro, South Lemetti, Koyrinoya.

3. Go to the direction of Impilahti-Laskelya-Sortavala and immediately capture the city of Sortavala.

4.On final stage goes to the rear of the Finnish troops and connects with our troops fighting on the Karelian Isthmus.

After the end of the meeting, news came that Molotov had spoken on the radio and announced the break in relations with Finland. Thus began the Soviet-Finnish war.

WAR

The war began on November 30, 1939 at 8 o'clock in the morning. First there was shelling, and then the Soviet troops crossed the border. Border Kiasniaselka was occupied quickly, without a fight. The first losses appeared - a T-26 tank was blown up on a mine and the entire crew died. And the division rushed further to the west, because by Stalin's birthday it was necessary to complete the assigned combat mission.

By December 19, the division had advanced 40 kilometers to the west and captured South Lemetti. There were first battles for the villages of Uoma and Lavajärvi. And the fighters faced the unusual tactics of the Finns - the column rested on a blockage arranged on the road, and as soon as the sappers started clearing, the shelling by snipers (cuckoos) began. Second, the method was rather psychological. Usually, in the morning, a group of skiers would emerge from the forest from two or three sides, shoot for five or ten minutes from behind the trees, and go back into the forest. The method is very efficient. The goal is to intimidate the enemy and create panic.

Already there were losses, crossbows and deserters.

The division was reinforced with the 34th light tank brigade under the command of brigade commander Kondratiev. And this whole armada moved west along the narrow road until it came to a stop...

ENVIRONMENT

December 28 is the day the division began to die. The Finns, secretly passing through forest roads, went to Lavajärvi and, taking advantage of surprise, captured the garrison. The battle lasted almost the whole day, but our Finns could not be knocked back - the road to Petrozavodsk was cut.

Then the second group of Finns hit Woma. Telephone communication with the center was interrupted, apparently, the wires were cut, and the radio could not be contacted. Woma - this was the rear of the division: food depots, shells, cartridges, gasoline, fodder for horses, uniforms.

The convoy carrying winter uniforms could not pass through the Finns, and the rank and file of the division was left without sheepskin coats, felt boots, padded jackets, and the frost was getting stronger.

The division commander Kondrashov did not want to go to the rescue of the rear garrisons (then it would be necessary to abandon the offensive, the schedule and order of the command would be violated).

And in early January, the Finns began to surround the southern and northern Lemetti. Sentinels began to disappear from the posts, and only in the morning was a ski track going into the forest, saying that Finnish scouts again visited the garrison at night.

On January 3, the Finns attacked the garrison from three sides. They rushed to the two headquarters dugouts, apparently, they already knew who was sitting where. The attack was repulsed. The Finns dragged their dead with them, ours remained lying in place. Further, the Finns secretly pulled up artillery and daily began to fire at the positions of the division, the tankers had a particularly hard time, the Finnish artillery methodically shot the crowded stationary tanks. Telephone communication with the regiments was broken and then restored; apparently, the Finns restored it, and now, probably, the entire telephone line is tapped. The snipers became more active, they were especially interested in the commanders, who were not difficult to figure out by their white sheepskin coats. Now the movement around the garrison has become unsafe.

The division commander Kondrashov, in agreement with the tank brigade commander Kondratiev, issued an order to organize a circular defense of the South Lemetti. This means that it is necessary to distribute the remnants of artillery in the alleged areas of the Finnish offensive, the device of bunkers, machine-gun nests, trenches and trenches. An order was also issued to switch to a reduced diet. In order for the fighters not to relax, they staged a demonstrative execution of three people: two crossbows and a sentry who fell asleep at the post. The scouts took prisoners and in the division heard the name of the Finnish commander who led the encirclement of South Lemetti - Major Aarnio Matti Armas "Motti-Matti" (Matti boiler master), commander of the 4th Chasseur Battalion. Finnish planes bombarded the garrison with leaflets in which they called on ordinary soldiers to surrender and exchange what they brought with them for money. Tankers were offered a particularly flattering offer: they offered 10,000 rubles for a tank. The fighters, of course, laughed at these "creations" of the Finns, but there was anxiety, confusion and fear in their souls. But the worst was yet to come. A new trouble was approaching - frosts, and ours were not ready for them.

The first alarming cipher message flew to the headquarters of the 8th Army:

“The situation is critical. command posts regiments are constantly attacked. There were 30-40 people left in the companies. The rear did not arrive. Urgent effective help is required, otherwise it will be too late.”

January 16 was one of the most terrible days. Frost 40 degrees. They say it was up to 50 degrees at night. Many sentries had frostbite on their hands and feet. The medical battalion is full. This is the first trouble, and the second is the endless shelling all day. For the first time Finnish bombers arrived and bombarded the garrison. At dinner, it was announced that the cafeteria was closing. The risk of people moving around the garrison is too great, besides, there is no meat, bread, and the remaining products are subject to careful accounting and will be issued dry rations to the units. The horses had already been eaten - some were slaughtered, some were killed by themselves, for there was no longer any oats or hay in stock. But still the garrison fiercely resisted, and was not going to surrender.

On January 19, a small detachment of tankers from the 34th light tank brigade escaped from North Lemetti and made their way to the South Lemetti garrison. The tankers said that they were also surrounded. Artillery first of all destroyed fuel trucks and immobilized tanks. The machines themselves tried not to destroy, but only to damage, the Finns themselves needed the tanks and they tried to capture them. When the situation became completely hopeless, it was decided to break through to their own, in South Lemetti. They began to destroy the remaining tanks, blew up and burned about 50 vehicles. Vladimir Tereshkov (father of the first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova) and Vladimir Gryaznov remained to cover the retreat, while the column was leaving, they all fired at the Finns. Lasted for about an hour last shell, then died.

And famine began in South Lemetti. Cipher message to the headquarters of the 8th Army dated 01/28/40:

“They were on horseback. Now they are gone - they ate. Airplanes drop little and irregularly. There are no products, they are exhausted. They threw salt, but it crumbled. The people are exhausted. It is necessary to throw crackers, concentrates, salt. Take action.

Planes flew in and dropped cargo, but most of them either got to the Finns or crashed when they fell. Food was still not enough, and some fighters had already begun to cook stew from leather belts.

But the garrison stood, resisted and still hoped for help.

In early February, the Finns began to entangle the garrison with barbed wire. They nailed a thorn directly to the trees in several rows at different heights. Now the division was already exactly in a trap. Snipers shoot all day at anyone who appears in the affected area. It seemed that the Finns had turned the garrison into a shooting range and organized sports competitions. And only with the onset of twilight the garrison began to come to life. The sorties of scouts to the rear of the Finns almost ceased, and if they did, the scouts, as a rule, did not return back.

On February 16, mortar shelling began in the morning. Then the guns spoke. The Finns went on the attack, but having fallen under our machine-gun fire, they retreated. The frost reached 40 degrees. Then a psychic attack began: Finnish women sang in the forest, beat tambourines and danced. They were followed by former sailors, participants in the Kronstadt rebellion, who settled in Finland. They bawled in Russian “Yablochko” to the accordion and swore obscenities. They were covered by the cadets of Vyborgskaya military school. The defenders of the garrison thought they were crazy.

In the meantime, in this hype, without any permission to leave the encirclement, at your own peril and risk, a dozen of our tanks went to break through the ring. The remnants of two battalions of the tank brigade of the 179th motorized rifle and 224th reconnaissance, the remnants of the 208th and 316th regiments rushed with the tankers. But they failed to escape, they ran into an ambush and almost everyone died - 1,700 people.

Ciphergram dated 19.02.40:

"Army Headquarters. Kovalev. Why are you starving? Give food. Help, help out, otherwise we will all die. Kondrashov.

“The situation is difficult. We bear losses, healthy 360, sick 750. Weakened completely. Help urgently. There is no strength to hold on."

Ciphergram dated 22.02.40:

"Cherepanov, Seryukov. Aviation mistakenly bombed us. Help. Help us out or we'll all die."

Everyone who remained alive after the encirclement recalled that they regarded this bombing as a unique gift from the command for the Day of the Red Army.

February 23 - The Day of the Soviet Army began with the shelling of Finnish artillery. The Finns rolled out the guns (which had been captured from the division at one time) for direct fire and from about three hundred meters fired at the remnants of the division's tanks with direct fire. After two hours, almost all the tanks were destroyed. It was the end. All the hope of the division's defense, all its firepower, were tank guns.

Ciphergram dated 23.02.40:

“We are dying. The disaster has begun. We need permission to leave. We are waiting until 16:00. Kondrashov. Kondratiev.

... There were no commands to exit, to break through.

Ciphergram dated 27.02.40:

“You are persuading us all the time, like little children. It's a shame to die when such a large army stands nearby. We demand immediate permission to leave. If this permission is not given, we will accept it ourselves or the Red Army men will accept it. Kondrashov. Kondratiev.

And finally, the long-awaited order came ...

BREAKTHROUGH

28.02.40 At 18.00, permission was received to leave the encirclement. At 21.00 a breakthrough will be made. The remnants of the division and the 34th tank brigade will be divided into two columns. The stronger ones go in the first column - the division commander Kondrashov and the brigade commander Kondratiev are in charge. In the second column are the weakened. The chief of staff of the division, Colonel Alekseev, is in command of the entire operation, he will also lead the second column. Military Commissar Razumov is instructed to take out and save the banner of the division. It was decided to leave the wounded, and there were more than three hundred of them, at the mercy of the winner. Gathering at 20.30.

At 21.00 reconnaissance went ahead, followed by sappers with scissors. When the thorn was cut, the whole column rushed forward at a run. Everyone shouted "Hurrah!" and fired on the go anywhere. The advance detachment ran into the Finnish camp, the existence of which was not known. A very fierce battle ensued there, and this saved the main column from inevitable death. About two hundred people died in this battle, including Commissar Alexei Razumov, the banner of the division was captured by the enemy (the Finns broadcast about this on the radio and wrote in leaflets). And the column moved on... There were more skirmishes with Finnish outposts, but they were bombarded with grenades and fled on. Alekseev encouraged: do not spare sweat - you will save blood! When dawn broke, our planes appeared and began to indicate the path of advance, and soon the column went to its own.

And the first column suffered a completely different fate - tragic. This echelon was supposed to follow the second column, closing the line. It had relatively strong fighters, and in the event of a pursuit, they had to repulse the Finns and protect the second, weaker column. But this column, almost 2,000 people, moved along the road to Kiasniaselka, which led them to Lemetti. The Finns foresaw this option and made blockages on the road, laid mines, and after the blockages, bunkers were built on both sides of the road. Having let the column in, driving it into the mines, the Finns began to destroy the column and exterminated it completely. The entire column was killed and captured. All except division commander Kondrashov and his adjutant. Kondrashov changed into the uniform of an ordinary Red Army soldier, took off his overcoat and Budyonovka from the dead soldier, and, together with his adjutant, caught up with the second column and trailed at its very tail. Destroyed the first column of the 4th Jaeger Battalion under the command of Major Matti Aarnio (Matti boiler master).

Divisional commander Kondrashov was shot on February 29, 1940 without trial or investigation in the courtyard of the hospital in the village of Salmi, the fate of brigade commander Kondratiev is unknown.

So the 18th Rifle Division, Order of the Red Banner of War, perished. Out of 15,000 people, 1,237 people left the encirclement, half of them were wounded, frostbitten. The death toll on this small patch was 10 percent of the total number of deaths in the entire Soviet-Finnish war.

Alexey Nikolaevich Razumov - head of the political department of the division, regimental commissar.

Southern Lemetti after being captured by Finnish troops. Photo from Finnish archives.

RESULTS

The fighting in the area of ​​the city of Pitkyaranta was extremely fierce and the Red Army units suffered heavy losses in this direction. 18th s.d. was almost completely destroyed (out of 15 thousand, about 1300 people survived). During the winter war, this was the only unit of the Red Army that was completely defeated. Since this division was recruited mainly from Karelia, this meant that in 1940 thousands of children in the KASSR were orphaned.

The irretrievable losses of the Red Army (killed, dead from wounds and missing) in the Pitkyaranta direction as a whole amounted to at least 35 thousand people from 11/30/1939 to 3/13/1940. These are the greatest losses suffered by the Armed Forces of the USSR during the entire period of the Second World War on the front from the Svir to the Barents Sea.

Owls. secret

On the basis of the order of the commander of the 15th Army, commander of the 2nd rank comrade. Kurdyumov, a commission chaired by the Military Commissar of the 56th Rifle Corps - Brigadier Commissar Comrade. Seryukov as a part of members: I.D. commander of the 18th SD - Colonel Alekseev, and.d. military commissar of the 18th SD - art. political officer Natsuna, deputy. early Special Department 56 UK - art. lieutenant Kozlov, head of the 2nd department of the 56th SC - captain Mochalov, examined the Lemetti South area and established the following:

Lemetti South bears the traces of fierce and stubborn battles, representing a continuous cemetery of corpses, broken combat and transport vehicles. The entire defense area of ​​the KP 18 SD is pitted with craters from shells, 90% of the trees in the defense area are mowed down art. shells. 10 dugouts were found, destroyed by art. shells of 152 m / m artillery, with people who were there. The remaining dugouts were mostly blown up by the Finns when they occupied Lemetti. Found 18 corpses of Red Army soldiers,
burned by the Finns in dugouts, one corpse was found in a dugout, tied with wires to the bunks and shot, and one corpse with a rope tightened around its neck. Cars, trees, iron pipes of dugout stoves and all local objects are riddled with bullets and shell fragments. All military and economic property and personal property was demolished and piled by the Finns along the road.

The command post of the 18th SD was surrounded by the enemy with a strength of more than a regiment, as evidenced by the presence of trenches, equipped machine-gun emplacements and artillery firing positions, and the presence of a Finnish camp and a Finnish command post 2.5 km east of Lemetti South (coordinates 4022G, 4024A map 100.000). The enemy trenches were located from the trenches of the Lemetti defenders in places at a distance of 50-100 m.

In front of the trenches, the Finns installed a wire fence in 3 rows (the wire is stretched over trees) and one row of a wire fence made of spiral barbed wire. For the most part, the trenches of the Finns were dug in full profile and connected by communication passages to each other and to dugouts located half a kilometer from the trenches. On the road in the direction of Lovajärvi, 400 meters from the front line of defense, the Finns dug an anti-tank ditch and made a blockage. The road towards Lovajärvi has large blockages, in some places reaching up to a kilometer.

The firing positions of the Finnish artillery, which fired at KP 18 SD, were: a battery of 152 m / m in the Mitro area, 2 guns of 122 m / m in Lemetti Severnoye (3rd battery of the 3rd AP, captured by the Finns at the end of January 1940 .), battery 76 m/m in the area of ​​the fork of the Lovajärvi-Koivuselka road and battery 76 m/m in the area of ​​the farm southwest of Lemetti South. The presence of the last 2 batteries is confirmed by the found equipped OP (firing positions) and spent cartridges in the OP area. Anti-tank cannon semi-caponiers were also found, 2 in the area of ​​​​the anti-tank ditch, 2 at a height against the southeastern defense sector and one against the southwestern defense sector.

Inspection established 16 equipped trenches for easel machine guns. The rest of the enemy grouping was on the heights near the road to Lovajärvi and on a height southeast of Lemetti.

513 of our corpses were found on the spot in the defense area of ​​the command post, both in the trenches and outside the trenches.

In the area of ​​​​breaking through the enemy’s defenses, a column of the head of the headquarters of the 18th SD, Colonel Alekseev, discovered 201 corpses, mainly in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe enemy defenses and near wire obstacles. In the area of ​​​​breaking through the enemy defenses, a column of the head of the headquarters of the 34th LTBR, ​​Colonel Smirnov, found 150 corpses, and 120 corpses of the remaining seriously wounded were found in hospital dugouts. Finnish corpses were not found, because. those were removed by the Finns in the period from 29.2.40 to 17.3.40.

Of all the combat vehicles, weapons were seized and taken out by the Finns; wheels and, to a large extent, motors have been removed from all transport vehicles. An insignificant part of the combat and transport vehicles was taken out by the Finns, as evidenced by the traces of the withdrawal of vehicles. All the material part in its condition is irretrievably lost.

With regard to the northern column, it was established:

The path of movement passed from the defense area in a north-easterly direction further along the Finnish road, which runs parallel to the Lemetti-Lovajärvi road for a kilometer and a half. On the way of the column, 150 dead were found during the withdrawal from the defense area, 78 corpses along the Finnish road, including the military commissar of the 34th LTBR regimental commissar Gaponyuk.

About 400 dead were found in the area of ​​the Finnish camp, which is 2.5 km east of Lemetti, among which the following were identified: Head of the Political Department of the 18th SD Battalion Commissars. Razumov, Chief Artillery 56 SC - Colonel Bolotov, military commissar 97 OBS - senior political instructor Tyurin, military commissar 56 ORB - Art. political instructor Suvorov, pom. head of the political department for the Komsomol, political instructor Samoznaev, instructor of the political department of the 18th SD - political instructor Smirnov with his wife, representative of the Air Force of the 8th Army, Lieutenant Permyakov, Head. VHS 18 SD-Major Bulynin, Head of the Division's Vehicle Fleet - ml. military technician Kulpin, political instructor Ilyinsky and doctor Balueva. The rest of the people of the Northern Column are wanted.

In the area of ​​the death of the Northern Column, the following was established: the trees, for the most part, bear traces of a two-way shootout, which indicates the armed resistance of the Northern Group. During the examination, it was found that, despite the presence of mortal wounds, a significant part of the dead bears traces of shooting in the head and finishing off with rifle butts. One of the victims, shod in Finnish Peksa boots, is put upside down against a tree. The wife of the instructor of the political department of the 18th SD, Smirnova (who worked on a school desk in the political department) was naked and our hand grenade was inserted between her legs. From the majority commanders buttonholes and sleeve insignia were torn off. The orders that the commanding staff had were pulled out by the Finns with matter.

The way out of both columns was chosen tactically correctly, because. exit from the defense area in other directions, in particular to the south, would be disastrous for both columns due to the presence of enemy defenses in the Koivuselka, Kuikka area, as well as the presence of a large number of firepower and enemy activity behind Lately from South.

There was no thorough preparation for the exit. The presence of the Finnish camp was not known due to the lack of deep reconnaissance recently. The exit was hastily made, as evidenced by the receipt by the Chief of Staff of the 18th SD - Colonel Alekseev, an order to leave at 18.00 on 28.2.40, which indicated the start of the exit at 21.00. The remaining 3 hours before the exit were clearly not enough to organize the exit.

Chairman of the Commission, Military Commissar of the 56th SC, Brigadier Commissar Seryukov

Members:
I. D. commander of the 18 SD Colonel Alekseev
I.D. military commissar 18 SDst. political instructor Natsun
Deputy early Special Department of the NKVD 56 SK Art. Lieutenant Kozlov
Beginning 2 department 56 SK captain Mochalov

BITTER LESSONS

From the memoirs of General of the Army, former commander of the Leningrad Military District Anatoly Ivanovich Gribkov

The "winter" war is well known to me, since I participated in it as a twenty-year-old lieutenant, commander of a tank platoon in the 100th separate tank battalion of the 122nd rifle division in the Kandalaksha direction.

Many documents and testimonies made public today give reason to believe that there were no shelling of our territory by the Finns near the village of Mainila. All this was fabricated by our respective services.

I survived 105 days of this shameful war, for which our "valiant and legendary" Red Army was not ready. The sad fate of the 18th division befell our other divisions and brigades.

The cruel and sad lessons of the Soviet-Finnish war were considered at the March (1940) plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and in April at a meeting of the Main Military Council. People's Commissar of Defense Marshal K. E. Voroshilov, as it has now become known, said that neither he, nor the General Staff, nor the command of the Leningrad Military District could even imagine all the difficulties that the Red Army would face.

And indeed it is. What was the powerful line of Mannerheim, we found out only when we approached the pillboxes. In this war, many things were not in our favor. The Finnish soldier was warmly and comfortably dressed in white camouflage jackets and trousers, skied well, skillfully wielded a 69-round Suomi submachine gun. And our fighter went into battle in a cold overcoat, Budyonovka, boots with windings, a rifle of the 1891-1930 model, with skis in his hands. Although the border troops and the NKVD troops were already armed with machine guns. Marshal G. I. Kulik, Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, said: "A machine gun is for American gangsters, and our Red Army soldier needs a rifle with a long four-sided bayonet."

I witnessed the scenes - these are show trials, executions of fighters and commanders in front of the ranks, executions without trial or investigation.

In the 1970s, as commander of the Leningrad Military District, I officially visited Finland several times and met Finnish veterans of that war. They told me that the Red commanders who were taken prisoner were more afraid of their senior commanders and KGB officers than of the enemy.

When I, as a participant in the Finnish war, are asked how we fought, I remember with bitterness how the Finns taught us to fight in practice. The rear of our regiments, divisions, and corps were not ready for war. The interaction between the branches of the armed forces is organized very badly. Discipline was built on fear of superiors. The cowardly Lev Mekhlis was especially raging. Even the commanders of the armies and fronts were afraid of him both in the Finnish and in the Patriotic War. Historians must calculate how much he ruined the command and political staff, how much.

During the Tehran Conference in 1943, as R. Sherwood mentions in his book Roosevelt and Hopkins, Stalin said at dinner that “in the war with Finland Soviet army proved to be poorly organized and fought very badly.

In May 1940, the new People's Commissar of Defense, S. K. Timoshenko, in his order No. 120, self-critically summed up the main results of the war, revealed the entire unpreparedness of our troops, and set tough, specific tasks for the retraining of the Red Army. I remember how our brigade commander of the 39th tank brigade D. D. Lelyushenko brought this order to the command staff. Unfortunately, there was little time left to prepare for a major war. She was already on the doorstep of our house.

Until recently, our true losses in the "winter" war were concealed. It is now generally accepted that 126,875 people died. The losses of the Finns are five times less.

A few years ago, the Finnish government allowed Russia to erect a monument on its territory in the Suomussalmi area, a monument to the fallen soldiers of the 163rd and 44th divisions. Together with Patriarch Alexy II, I participated in the opening of this monument. I stood at the “Grieving Russia” and thought about what the fighters and commanders of these divisions and other units that were surrounded had experienced?

Travel company "Rodina" invites all residents of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region go to Death Valley, Karelia. The military-historical complex is a mystical place filled with pain, suffering, hope. According to tourists who visited the territory of the Valley of Heroes, local lands are saturated with a special, bewitching energy. Corporate, group tours are organized taking into account the individual wishes of customers.

Valley of Heroes

There are many mystical places in Karelia, but Valley of Heroes- historically significant. The military-historical complex is located at a distance of 19 kilometers from the city of Pitkyaranta (a crossroads between Petrozavodsk and Sortavala.

The complex received its status due to the tragic events of 1939-1940, when the Soviet Union attacked Finland. This is one of the most bitter wars, claiming many lives. Not far from Pitkyaranta, a battle took place that destroyed the 18th Infantry Division. Missing a lot Soviet soldiers, and Finland lost 22 thousand soldiers.

"Cross of Sorrow"

"Cross of Sorrow"- a memorial dedicated to the thousands of soldiers of the warring states who died in the winter war. Located in the Pitkyaranta region, Karelia, the Valley of Heroes. This is the first monument to the Winter War.

When the Red Army captured Pitkäranta on December 10, 1939, the Finnish state prepared strong resistance, and the battles that lasted until February were fierce. The Red Army lost at least 35,000 soldiers - the heaviest losses of the Second World War of the northern regions Eastern Front . The surrounding area, known as the "valley of death", is a historical and memorial complex "Valley of Heroes" with graves, the remains of fortifications.

A 5-meter cast-iron cross with grieving mothers clinging on both sides is a symbol of Russia and Finland, mourning the loss of fighters. The monument is located on an artificial embankment with placed groups of stones, symbolizing the dead soldiers.

The installation of the memorial was carried out on June 27, 2000 in the presence of government delegations from Russia and Finland. Its construction was planned in accordance with the Russian-Finnish agreement of 1992 "on cooperation to preserve the memory of those who died in the war"

The author of the monument is the Karelian sculptor Leo Lankinen, who won the design competition. Because of his death, the monument was completed by Karelian sculptor Eduard Akulov, after site planning by architect Liya Karma, with the help of Finnish landscape experts Seppo Hikala, Seppo Rosenberg.

A few kilometers from Pitkyaranta in 2000, a cast-iron Cross of Sorrow was erected in memory of those who died in the war of 1939-1940 between Soviet Union and Finland. On both sides of the cross are two mothers, Finnish and Russian, mourning their children. The monument was created by the Karelian sculptor Leo Lankinen.

The memorial is located in the Valley of Heroes, but people in Karelia are used to the name Death Valley. Indeed, if you look at the photographs of those times, it is difficult to call these places otherwise. It's probably hard for us to know exactly how many dead there were on both sides. Are called different numbers, but in 105 days of hostilities, approximately 130-150 thousand Soviet soldiers died and went missing, the Finns lost more than 22 thousand people killed. The 18th Infantry Division, advancing on the city, was almost completely destroyed.

The monument with the faces of two grieving mothers - Russian and Finnish - is cast from cast iron and has a height of more than 5 meters. The initiators of its construction were veterans and relatives dead soldiers. This is the first memorial in Russia dedicated to the Winter War, a tribute to all its victims.

On the territory of this sad sight of Karelia there are mass graves.

In 1939-40, bloody battles with the Finns were fought here. The war was short and inglorious. Finland lost 1/6 of its territory.

The era of wars and enmity between our peoples was coming to an end. On the wounded northern frontier land, an era of peace began.

The scientific study and comprehension of this difficult military period in the history of the USSR and Finland has been going on for 60 years and, apparently, will continue for a long time to come.

What was the Finnish occupation regime in reality for the population of Karelia? How did ordinary citizens see the war, whose testimonies are the most valuable document of history? Finally, what is the truth of the war years before us, not restrained by ideological blinkers, prohibitions, the desire to embellish the history of one's country for the sake of national pride?

IN last years scientists from Russia and Finland are increasingly trying to study our common military history, opening up sources that were previously inaccessible to each other and to the reader. The history of the war, which until recently seemed to us unshakable and textbook, suddenly surprises and captivates, offering new topics, forcing us to comprehend and argue. And most importantly, remember...

Behind the monument stands a memorial plate with carved words in Russian and Finnish:

1939 - 1940

Russia and Finland are two sisters.
Finland and Russia are two mothers.
They were embodied in this cross of sorrow.
By themselves.
Their heads merged together
Their hands intertwined in Hope,
For love to win.
And it depends on us.
From everyone.

In this post, under the cut, an obscenely many photos will be placed, more than thirty, but they are worth it. In just one report, the photos will turn out to be more beautiful. The bunny cat can do it. There is even a waterfall here.

In general, we drove quite briskly. On the occasion of the end of the holidays (this happened on the third of May), I was expecting a rather general return to St. Petersburg, however, the movement took place quite the same in both directions. In the Sosnovo district, a nice lady driving a Honda asked a traditionally strange question:
- And what about these ... well, who hitchhike?

And we didn’t hear anything like that until Uglich, that is, 12 days. in Karelia and Vologda region Drivers are obviously smarter. After 30 kilometers to the north, patches of gray snow began to appear in the forest, similar to patches of gray snow, and closer to Pine, deciduous trees became leafless.

Somewhere there we stopped for a bite to eat.
I unsuccessfully stopped the train

Bun sat on the rails

Then, having talked with the toad protecting nature,

We went to eat cakes with juice in a marvelous forest

I have not been in the spring forest for a long time: in the Urals, you know, ticks and all sorts of encephalitis. Well them. And here is the beauty. Well-fed Plyushka sat down by the road, turned on the player and went to Nirvana. That is why, when a low-flying jeep with a catamaran fixed to it stopped a little further than it should have, I had to first run to the car, and then back to Plyushka - she sat there, looking into opposite side and listening to songs. Then the girl did this more than once and I was no longer surprised. Although I thought once to leave for fun. Honestly, it would be fun.

The rafters took us all the way to Kuznechny, where the asphalt ended and Karelia began.

The landscape became completely Middle Ural, only the rocks were granite, gray (not quite gray, but the color that happens if you mix all the plasticine from a Soviet-issue box into one lump). Pine trees grew on the rocks. Here we have limestone in the Urals. It is tender and can't stand trees. And in Karelia there are lakes instead of rivers. And so everything is very similar to the Kama region.

Well, yes. The names are also different. Sometimes it was funny.

Guess the letter, we didn't do it on purpose

And more and more snow

We were driven to Lahdenpokhya (I still remember the name) by a man who invented marvelous pumps that produce 5 kW of thermal energy per 1 kW of electrical energy consumed. He went to a rich customer and, it turns out, did not lie. We talked for a long time on the topic of domestic patent law, boiler supervision and other bastards. And to Sortavala it turned out to be a taxi driver: an uncle stopped by himself, who had just taken a bunch of very drunk Finns to Lokhna and thereby raised money. Also a very interesting man: a military doctor by education, he worked all his life in the mining industry, first in Tomsk, then here in Karelia. And now the owner of the quarry has fled his debts to Switzerland and the director had to taxi. However, Yura's plans are bright, he wants to do his own business by the summer. Like, there are permissions and so on.

To the right, blue-blue Ladoga was showing all the time. There was still sludge in one creek, and seagulls walked through the sludge. The seagulls were white, and the sludge was also blue. We did not see anything more blue during the whole trip, and the letters on the Murmansk fishing port were the same blue, for example. And in Sortavala, Ladoga is also completely blue

In general, Sortavala is great for the rest of drunken Finns. In some bars there is nothing but booze. Well, at least we didn't. And in others, on the contrary, there is everything except the Finns. And it's inexpensive. Bus number 1 runs through the city, until the exit. The buses there are also cool: ordinary PAZs, but with a telly, where they show local news and weather. By the way, at that time they said that it was raining and cold outside, but it was sunny and warm. We laughed. And in vain: weather forecasters were mistaken by only a day.

In the back seat of the PAZik, next to us was a beautiful blonde with her daughter, a beautiful, on the contrary, brunette. The daughter was five years old. At the bus stop, dad came in with a blond boy, they were also beautiful, but not like that. Dad began to drink beer and blink, and the boy handed a bouquet of short yellow dandelions to the girl's mother and said:
- On the. Just don't lose. You put houses in the water, they will stand for a long time.
Then the boy talked to the lady all the way, and ignored his peer. Well, my mother also looked more like a daughter to me. Good boy, right.

From the stop we walked a couple of kilometers along an empty road and then I lost my camera. Well, when I was about to take a picture of Plyushka, I heard the sound of an engine. A white Mercedes van was driving. I already said that we did not have a single day without a flooded van, and this one also slowed down. I held the camera in my left hand and sat down and put it on the seat. Where, going out, and left. Well done, cho.

The Sortavala-Pitkyaranta road is awesome. It is all almost blown up in the rocks and in some places goes along the very, very edge of Ladoga. Really beautiful to the point of impossibility. Only all the rocks are abundantly marked with various cormorants in the style of "Petya from Kostroma was here." You can even track the distribution area of ​​cormorants, damn it.

Having presented the driver with a camera he did not need, we got off at the turn to Pitkyaranta itself.

From here we were again taken away by my mother and the boy, who were traveling from Petrozavodsk. The boy did not pronounce many letters, but he kept calling us to visit. We would have agreed, however, at the very entrance to the city, Anya Matasova met us darurs and took her to the dacha.

After about five minutes of staying at this very dacha, I was completely covered with white envy. Well, I've always envied people with straight arms growing out of nowhere. And Pasha, Anya's husband, he is just like that. Estimate: a great sauna with a chronically heated floor and a veranda overlooking Ladoga. Muskrats live under the veranda and seals swim by.

On the photo, by the way, is not a seal, but me with the Black Banner of Anarchy.

After the bath, the Bunny Cat dived into the icy Ladoga. Horror is simple. Well, at least I didn't catch a cold. The next day we planned a rich cultural program with a motor boat to the quarries and other adventures, however, when we woke up, we found snow and rain and all that.

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They hoped for a long, long time, breaking off only by four o'clock in the afternoon. Due to the arrogance of public transport, they decided to take a taxi to the highway. Estimate: 10 km cost 70 rubles. For two, it turns out cheaper than some minibuses in Moscow. The driver, who was sitting without orders due to the marvelous weather, took us to the highway for free, which is about twice as much as the paid trip. And on the way, he also boasted of a waterfall that grows abundantly in the vicinity of Pitkyaranta.

Quite a decent waterfall, 10 meters high. Two ledges, a pool below. You will slip on a pebble, look at the rapidly rotating world around and goodbye, until the next meeting.

Death Valley begins at Pitkyaranta. There were terrible battles here even in the Finnish war. Here is such a cross of sorrow set up and the stones around are moss.

In the next two hours, we were cold and wet, as we had not been cold and wet since the beginning of the trip and for the rest of the journey too. About a dozen cars passed by, and in almost all the drivers depicted with their hands a certain figure, meaning a quick turn around. To be honest, I expected a busier route from the regional center to the capital of the republic. In short, we were terribly happy with the beaten nine. She drove us 30 km, just to the other side of Death Valley and dropped us off next to the covered bus stop. For which a big and superhuman thanks to her.
The next car took us to the M-18 highway, the rain suddenly stopped, and it became good.

The day after tomorrow, the road to Murmansk suddenly ceased to frighten: well, according to the atlas, 1003 km are indicated, and according to the sign, only 978. What garbage.

The day ended with the already traditional gazelle, which took us almost to the very Petrozavodsk railway station, and we, having wandered a little along the wooden streets, at night were already eating dumplings with emoticons in the very correct house of Ira Mamaeva.

The historical and memorial complex "Valley of Heroes" is located north of the city of Pitkyaranta in the place where the village of Lemetti or, in our opinion, Lemeshki was, about 3 kilometers from the Cross of Sorrow. Farms of local peasants are marked on old Finnish maps. Two Lemetti families lived here, three Kuikki (Kuikka - in Finnish loons, so Gagarins), and also Tenkhamo and Nuutinen. A power plant was built on the Koirin-oy River, which Finnish sappers used during their retreat. The war did not destroy the village. Back in the late 50s, one of the settlers. Apparently, the consolidation of collective farms in the early 60s finally finished the village.

Now Ivan-tea and raspberries grow on the foundations. Soldiers and commanders of the Red Army units who died in the Finnish War, as well as in the Great Patriotic War, are buried in mass graves. In addition, the remains of warriors found in the surrounding forests are reburied here. In the 70s and 80s, these places, loved by the people for the abundance of mushrooms, berries, fish lakes, were called the Valley of Death or simply the Valley. Perhaps the name came from the remains of unburied soldiers that mushroom pickers came across.

The village of Lemetti is known from Finnish war 1939-40, as a place of encirclement of units of the 18th division and 34th light tank brigade. Surrounded were in 2 boilers or "motti" (in Finnish - stack). With us they were listed as Lemetti-northern and Lemetti-south. The Finns have both western and eastern.
In 1943, here along the Ryamen-oy stream, the Finns began to build a defense line (U-line) in order to prevent a breakthrough along the road to the city of Sortavala. The name of the fortification comes from the first letter of the name of Major Urton, who designed it. K. Mannerheim, the commander of the Finnish army in his memoirs, however, calls it the Uuksu line. In July 1944, the guards-paratroopers of the 37th Guards Corps, together with the tankers of the 29th Brigade, with the support of the Guards mortars - Katyushas, ​​tried to break through the fortifications, but the attempts were unsuccessful. The second version of the name Death Valley is just connected with the valley of the Ryamen-oy stream, which had to be crossed in order to attack the Finnish Line U.

At present, a new highway runs away from the memorial. The place of the lapel is indicated by the "Memorial" sign.

In the "Valley of Heroes" there are about 20 fraternal and single military burials, in which the ashes of more than 20 thousand Soviet soldiers are buried (http://monuments.karelia.ru/news/ww.htm). Until now, fragments of field fortifications from 1940 have been preserved - trenches, ditches, rifle cells, dugouts.

From the U-Line there were concrete bunkers on the rocks along the Ryamen-oy. The surrounding landscape has completely preserved its historical memorial appearance.

The main group, consisting of 12 graves (the number is constantly changing due to subburials) is listed in the OBD Memorial as "Pitkyaranta district, 5 km of the road to Petrozavodsk, the Valley of Heroes, on the right." This is Lemetti-southern, the place of encirclement of the headquarters of the 18th division and 34 LTB.

As the researcher of the Finnish War P. Aptekar writes: “In the southern part of the garrison were the headquarters of the 18th division and the 34th brigade, the 83rd tank battalion, units of the 201st separate flamethrower tank battalion, two companies of the 97th rifle regiment, a battery of the 3rd artillery regiment, anti-aircraft machine gun company, separate guns from the corps and howitzer artillery regiments, about 4000 people in total, 226 vehicles, about 10 guns and more than 80 tanks.

The diagram (see new one) shows the location of the graves as of 2003. The graves that appeared as a result of subburials from 1992 to 2003 are circled in green. Numbers according to OBD Memorial.

Some fighters and commanders were buried directly during or immediately after the hostilities of 39-40. When on February 29, 1940, after a decisive attack by the Finns, the positions in Lemetti were finally captured, in trenches, dugouts thrown with grenades and the surrounding forest, the victors counted about 3,100 dead Red Army soldiers. In theory, they all lie here, in these graves. For example, in the grave, which is listed in the OBD at number 207, 33 soldiers of the 56th separate reconnaissance battalion of the 18th division are buried. Other dead were buried after the armistice in March and then until the summer.

On March 12, 1940, a peace treaty was signed. On the second day, with units of the 168th Infantry Division, we went to the battlefields of the 18th Division, buried in mass graves the soldiers who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of our Motherland. ”- Tregubenko A.I., driver of the 381st separate tank battalion of the 18th sd.

“In May, we were sent to clean up the corpses of dead soldiers. Our platoon got territory in the Salmi area. We take the corpse by the floor of the overcoat, put it on a stretcher and drag it to one place. 10-15 corpses were piled into the grave. We will bury, put up a column, nail a plaque with the number of the grave and the number of corpses and no names, no surnames and no honors. I won’t say how much we buried like that, because I don’t know for sure, but I believe that our platoon buried more than one hundred. And we doused the dead horses with gasoline and burned them, ”N.P. Mikhailov, Red Army soldier, 37th Infantry Division.

Photo from the book The death of the division. The second war did not spare the grave. Part of the information about the burials has been lost or is in archives that have not yet been explored. Somewhere here is buried the brigade commander of the 34th brigade Stepan Ivanovich Kondratyev, who shot himself when leaving the encirclement.

In 2000, in honor of the celebration of the 55th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War and the 60th anniversary of the Finnish War, two pink granite obelisks were made and installed in Southern Lemetti at the expense of the Pulp Mill Pitkyaranta OJSC. The monuments were made by the specialists of SMG-Mursula LLC (V. Grachev, V. Serchenya). One obelisk was erected by CJSC "Pitkyaranta SMU", the second - by V. Kondratiev (a resident of Pitkyaranta).

The rest of the graves date back to 1944, when Soviet troops during the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation, South Karelia was liberated. Grave 211 contains the guards paratroopers who stormed the Ryamen-oy line. The grave was formed in 1990 during the reburial of 400 remains found by searchers at the so-called height 110 near Katitsan-lampi lake, also known to the people as "Boot". Here are guardsmen from the 98th or 99th Guards. divisions tried to bypass the Finnish fortifications and cut the road to Loimola. Later, the height was named after one of the guardsmen of Mount Krinitsyn. The stainless steel plate was presented by veterans from Samara, brought and installed on the monument in 1992. In the same winter, dashing hunters fired a gun at her, for which the next summer the local authorities had to explain themselves to Samara veterans.

The new graves contain remains reburied from other places: from Niet-järvi, Mustavara, Voroenkivi, Lavajärvi and even Uoma.

In 1995, the ashes of Captain Krinitsyn, who died among other guardsmen of the 99th division to the north, near Lake Katitsan-lampi, were reburied here in grave No. 200. In 2010, a separate monument was erected to him.

In Northern Lemetti, there is another group of graves marked as "Pitkyaranta district, 3 km of the road to Petrozavodsk, Valley of Heroes" on the left and right. Here, in 1940, the 76th tank battalion of the 34th brigade, some rear units of the 18th rifle divisions with a total number of about 750 people, two guns and about 30 tanks (