black walls of the legendary fort
Emperor Alexander the first overlooked
the Gulf of Finland near st. Petersburg
this fortress never had a chance to
fight a battle but it was on the front
line of a war a war against a most
devastating enemy the plague just one
and a half centuries ago neither high
walls nor prayers could save people from
this terrible disease
millions of lives were being lost in the
late 19th century another epidemic broke
out in southern Russia here behind the
walls of Fort Alexander researchers of
the special anti plague laboratory
started their battle against this deadly
disease isolated from the whole world
they were developing and producing
vaccines against plague cholera and
typhus which saved thousands of lives
however initially this fortification
near Cronshaw had a different purpose
it's a classic case mated naval Ford of
the era when smoothbore artillery was at
its peak the famous French Fort Boyard
was later built following the same
principle Ford Alexander protected the
southern fairway of the Kronshtadt
roadstead each floor in the fort
resembled a deck of a ship of the line
built one on top of the other from a
bird's-eye view this fortress which was
bristling with cannons looked quite
menacing at the time
so let's fly
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the flooding of November 7th 1824
destroyed virtually all earth and timber
fortifications and piles supported forts
of Kronstadt laid down as far back as
the early 18th century for its crone
Schlacht and Citadel were in a miserable
state st. Petersburg the capital of the
Russian Empire stood virtually
unprotected from the sea Emperor
Nicholas the first decided not just to
restore these fortresses but to rebuild
them in stone he believed that
Kronshtadt has the key to the capital
and a base for Russia's Baltic Fleet
should become a most powerful naval
fortress whose very look would repel the
enemies
you'll it or it would have been too
expensive to build a large Ford because
the basement is immensely expensive here
only for the load-bearing structures
more than five thousand piles were
driven in a while their total number
exceeds eight thousand so you realize
how expensive this is therefore the most
cost efficient cheap quick and simple
way was to build several decks and equip
them with cannons that way you get a
pretty good density of fire so they
decided to build this powerful tower
over three even four floors and 137 guns
which together with fort Paul could fire
through the bay Kronstadt roadstead
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fort Emperor Alexander the first which
defended the southern fairway is located
240 meters to the west from the line
between forts Emperor Peter the first
and Constantine it is an oval 90 by 60
meters stretching from north to south
the fort's brick casemates covered with
granite blocks had three decks on its
frontal side the upper fourth deck was
an open one at the rear eastern side the
casemates had two decks with loopholes
at the bottom the entrance to the fort
from the mooring was protected by a
massive metal gate inside the fort you'd
find two half towers with ladders and
cannonball heating furnaces as well as
two magazines along its rear side the
Ford had a three-story building with a
kitchen Forge and watch room on the
first floor and barracks for soldiers
and officers on the second and third
floors
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the fort's armaments were more than
series right here they had four 333
millimeter mortars which fired at 80
kilogram rounds a bit further here they
had a position for 273 millimeter Peck
so guns the most powerful cannons used
by fortresses at the time and that's
just a small selection of all the fort's
weapons
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Fort Alexander was constructed when
smoothbore artillery was at the peak of
its evolution new gunpowder types were
being invented the guns were being
improved their range power ammunition
on other floors there were 50 196
millimeter like coins and 50 more guns
of other calibers the weight of a salvo
from all the fort's guns amounted to
about 2.5 tons
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a well-positioned gun on the coast is
worth an entire frigate the gun is
standing on the ground it is standing
rigidly
gear you have plenty of space and the
casemates to operate the gun you can
load and discharge it quickly it's not
like on a ship but the decks are low
it's pretty tight and there's a risk of
fire since you have wood around you
however it's worth finishing the wooden
ships weren't the same in this regard
Gus some English ships had their signs
up to 1.2 meters thick so a cannonball
couldn't penetrate them even in the case
of Point Blank fire
with a machine in this room they had
cannonball heating furnaces during a
battle rounds were to be heated to a
very high temperature here before firing
why the answer is simple when a
cannonball like this hits a ship it
immediately causes fire aboard and just
think of what would happen if a red-hot
round hit the ship's gunpowder magazine
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a race was going on between attack
weapons in defense's cannons were
forging ahead even smoothbore guns were
developing new ranges new forces new
gunpowder types ships were engaged not
only with cannonballs but also bombs
mortars were still here two ships were
also engaged with all kinds of curious
exotic grounds such as change shots
these are two halves of the ball chain
together intended to cut the ship's
rigging the shrouds we managed to hold
the masa if you manage to cut the
shrouds the ship could move
by the summer of 1845 when Fort Emperor
Alexander first was commissioned its
combat positions were equipped with 123
guns 32 152 millimeter cannons 20 173
millimeter cannons for 152 millimeter
Karin aids for 173 millimeter Karin aids
50 196 millimeter like coins 9 273
millimeter pecs so guns for 333
millimeter mortars the garrison was
manned by 786 people
the works were supervised on the highest
level by Prince Alexander Sergeyevich
Menshikov and Emperor Nicholas the first
himself special attention was paid to
the fortresses embrasures here you can
see that an embrasure in the fort is all
made of granite it consists of about 15
to 18 parts we should precisely fit it
to one another these granite parts are
designed in such a way so they press
against each other when an external
force effects that are its impact it's
distributed throughout the entire wall
soldiers Denis
later on moorings were arranged at the
fort and a building for the barracks was
completed though the most important
thing for any military installation is
its reliability and functionality Fort
Alexander also had some beautiful
decorations look at this ladder this
elegant intricate design is rather
typical for a bank for a rich house in
st. Petersburg but in no way for a
fortress the Emperor was so impressed by
its beauty that he ordered special
wooden shields be made to cover the
ladder during battle
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great affordable pre-monsoon when the
Ford was being commissioned of course
the Emperor personally visited it and
inspected everything here and when he
was aboard his yacht on the way back the
fort fired a salvo to be frantic I
really wish I could see that by the way
the fort did fires guns a number of
times as they used to hold exercises for
the whole fortress this must have been
beautiful but unfortunately we didn't
have a chance to see this and never will
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the chance to test the strength and
firepower of the new fortification
occurred in 1853 when the Crimean War
broken the main hostilities took place
in the black and Mediterranean Seas but
soon the war reached the Crone's not
roadstead the anglo-french squadron
approached st. Petersburg from secret
sources it became known that the
commander of the anglo-french squadron
Admiral Napier was planning to send his
small ships for a dummy attack on crunch
dot from the north and making use of the
turmoil lead his main forces through the
southern fairway but fort Emperor
Alexander the first was waiting for him
there in full combat readiness
besides Alexander the southern fairway
was defended by forts Krone Schlacht
Emperor Peter the first and Emperor Paul
the first which was under construction
Alexander's mooring was disassembled to
prevent the enemy from deploying a
ground force a minefield was laid
between forts Alexander and Paul a total
of 105 mines the Russian Emperor
achieved his goal Ford Alexander became
the key element in the defense of st.
Petersburg from enemy ships and the
adversary simply didn't dare assault the
Kronshtadt fortress
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in the second half of the 19th century
smoothbore cannons were replaced by
rifled artillery the guns range of fire
increased so did the destructive power
of the new rounds in this arms race fort
Alexander's suffered a devastating
defeat
nope women would it's worth mentioning
one experiment in Sweden may have a
fortress gold of Aksum has about the
same design as our Ford Alexander in the
1860s the Suites held in experiments
with a gun boat approached afforded a
distance of about 6 to 700 meters and
started firing at it at first she was
firing red hot cast-iron cannonballs
these rounds left 20 to 25 centimeter
craters but I did it then she began to
fire a 9 inch rifled gun
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and with a third shot the round
penetrated the wall this two meter thick
brick wall covered with granite
yeah all for it suddenly became outdated
it turned out they were unable to resist
the shells fired by rifled guns
engineers came up with a palliative
solution let's call it so they proposed
to put a metre thick layer of sand on
the roof and cover it with a concrete
pillow of about 70 centimeters to one
metre sake theoretically this was
sufficient to block one head from a nine
inch shell but it turned out that this
solution could not be implemented here
the reason is that when Ford Alexander
was constructed the bending of his false
began to change
they became lower Alexander's vaults
simply couldn't hold this pillar in 1896
the fort was stricken from the military
registry at that time an epidemic of
plague broke out in Russia
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the country was in great need of a
laboratory that could make anti-plague
vaccines and it was decided to use fort
Alexander for this purpose its location
was perfect for setting up a laboratory
while previously the fort served as a
reliable barrier in the path of external
adversaries now it was to contain a
dangerous adversary within its walls
the access to the fort was strictly
limited all connections with the outside
world were via a small steamer
the researchers probably with some dark
humor called her micro among ordinary
people the plague fort aroused true
primal fear citizens of Cronshaw even
feared the winds blowing from the
direction of the fort but I see it that
will appear well abroad in Russia it was
the first laboratory the only laboratory
of the kind because one could work in
such a dangerous agent as a plague only
here in a safe place
it was the third laboratory in the world
by the number of serums and other
medicines produced there carsonfp Parata
and he supplied them all over the world
this is what makes our Ford remarkable
it under reputation not through firing
and killing people but through saving
people
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a special station for preparing the anti
plague vaccine was launched in the fort
in the summer of 1899 dozens of doctors
were carrying out medical experiments in
this lab risking their lives completely
isolated from the rest of the world
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even despite stringent safety measures
to outbreaks of plague took the lives of
two doctors it must be mentioned that a
huge number of people in our country
today Oh their lives to this laboratory
you should throw in your Diliberto dirty
that's because they all have
grandparents and great-grandparents who
were at war and let's say other places
with cholera outbreaks it's got a new
stock for example the cholera epidemic
in Odessa which was cured using the
medicines produced here in the plague
fort II so they are their lives to this
laboratory
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fourthly port Emperor Alexander the
first held important roles during its
history it was a formidable gatekeeper
that deterred attacks with a
demonstration of its granite embrasures
and it was a healer who defeated that
deadly disease today the fort's role is
simply to remain what it is an example
of fortification art and one of the most
remarkable fortresses of Kronstadt
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you
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