When the Russians discovered how vulnerable their territories in the Pacific were
after the Russo-Japanese war of the early 20th century,
they decided to fortify their strongholds. Hence, by the time World War 2 broke out,
they were more than ready to fend off their old opponents from the shores of Russky Island.
To protect the city of Vladivostok in Eastern Russia,
the Soviet Navy had created a system of coastal defenses that was admired
by its allies and respected by its enemies: the Vladivostok Fortress.
Still, it wasn’t until the 1930s that the complex was crowned with the Voroshilovskaya Battery,
the repurposed main turrets from the antique battleship Poltava, which reincarnated as the
battleship in the mountain and served her country like she wasn’t allowed in her previous life…
Here to Stay
Vladivostok, meaning “to rule the east,”
is a city located about 9,334 kilometers to the east of Moscow. However, the region in
the Northern Pacific was disputed among the powers of the East for centuries.
An island lies just across the peninsula, and it became part of the Russian Empire
only when Qing China ceded the territory under the Convention of Peking in 1860 as part of the
region unofficially known as Outer Manchuria. The area was eventually renamed Russky Island,
or Russian Island. As the saying goes: (QUOTE) “The Russians are here to stay.”
And they meant it.
Through the end of the century and into the early 1900s, an unusual yet impenetrable
fortress was built on the island as a lock to protect the entrance to the Russian mainland.
A system of fortifications called the Vladivostok Fortress complex was built in a modern style,
including interconnected forts, artillery batteries, and gunpowder magazines.
Moreover, the fortifications stood at key elevated sites on the main
line of defense of the island and the country.
Soon, the fortress proved especially useful against a particular enemy: the Japanese.
When the Russo-Japanese war broke out in early 1904, the Japanese Navy assaulted the city.
Author and historian Vladimir Kalinin said in an interview that: (QUOTE) “A Japanese cruiser
squadron came here, [...] armored cruisers with 203-millimeter guns. The weather was [...] minus
31 degrees Celsius. The bay was filled with ice, and the Japanese ships had difficulty maneuvering.
They shelled the eastern part of the city with its military workshops, as well as the batteries
and forts under construction. Nevertheless, the Japanese didn’t even try to sail through
the Eastern Bosporus, a narrow strait between the Russky Island and the Muravyov peninsula.
That’s because they were certain this would have been a reckless mission.”
From then on, Russky Island would become the stuff of legends.
Borders
At the end of the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, a peace treaty was signed,
but the Russians were forced to lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur.
Besides, they also lost the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway Station
at Kuanchentszy and the southern part of Sakhalin Island.
What’s more, Russia had to give the victors fishing rights in
their territorial waters under unfavorable terms.
Vladivostok was the sole naval base in the Pacific at the end of the Trans-Siberian railway,
not to mention the only well-equipped commercial port in the Far East. The value of the fortress
was unquestionable, but the conditions of the structures were less than promising.
During the following decades, many conflicts would hamper the rebuilding efforts, beginning
with the revolutionary actions in Vladivostok shortly after the defeat against Japan.
Later on, World War 1 and the Russian Revolution would effectively halt the progress altogether,
as materials, weaponry, and manpower were urgently needed elsewhere.
As the years passed, the structure continued to deteriorate, and it wasn’t until the 1930s that
the Russians, now under the Communist regime, were once again threatened by their neighbors.
Still reeling from the global embarrassment against the Japanese after three decades,
the Soviets had to defend their stronghold in the
Pacific from another roaming Japanese battleship squadron at all costs.
This time, however, there might be no ice to repel the invading forces,
and the USSR had to prepare for an incoming assault.
Russky Island was a geographically ideal location for a defensive fort,
as its outward enclave was on the path of an invading navy.
As such, the Admiralty proposed an idea to provide firepower to the island just outside the city,
and it came in the form of an old, badly-burned battleship whose guns could still be salvaged.
A Standalone Vessel
Poltava was the second of the Gangut-class battleships,
the first class of dreadnoughts in the history of the Russian Navy.
She was also the seventh of seven ships named after the Russian victory over Sweden in 1709.
Built by the Admiralty Shipyard at Saint Petersburg, she was laid down in June of 1909
and launched two years later. The battleship was completed and combat-ready by 1915.
Poltava was to defend the mouth of the Gulf of Finland against the Germans.
Nevertheless, the enemy never attempted to enter,
and she was instead assigned as a training vessel and provided cover for minelaying operations.
Most of the Baltic Fleet evacuated the area in March of 1918,
and she was laid up due to a shortage of crews. Then, in November of 1919, the dreadnought
suffered a severe fire that broke out in her forward boiler room, gutting much of her interior.
Although many proposals were made to reconstruct or even modernize the
ship over the next two decades, none were carried out. In the meantime,
Poltava became a source of spare parts for her sister ships and was also used as a barracks ship.
Deemed beyond salvageable, she would never serve as a standalone vessel, and the Russian Navy
eventually saw an opportunity to harvest her still-functional guns to defend Vladivostok.
A Miracle of Engineering
Several kilometers away from Novik Bay in the southern part of Russky
Island stands coastal turret battery No.981, otherwise known as Voroshilovskaya Battery.
The Vladivostok Fortress was defended by 180-millimeter batteries, but given
the sturdiness of the Japanese vessels, they weren’t deemed sufficient to protect the city.
Vladimir Kalinin explained that the enemy battleships could have tolerated fire from
the lighter-caliber weapons and still: (QUOTE) “Shell[ed] the city unpunished.”
Consequently, the heavy weapons from the Poltava battleship
were taken to the island and named after the People’s Commissar for Defense,
Klim Voroshilov, an active supporter of the development.
In 1931, the Revolutionary Military Council laid out the coastal defense so that it couldn’t be
seen from the sea. The construction started in 1932, employing the area’s natural landscape.
The battery was completed in two years, so quickly that it was considered a miracle of engineering.
Consisting of two towers, the complex is connected to an underground corridor
that is 250 meters long. While only the towers can be seen from the outside,
they are actually the top element of five-storied underground buildings running 15 meters deep.
Its concrete vault was built over three meters wide so the battery
could withstand an airdropped bomb of up to one ton. Meanwhile, the turrets had triple
52-caliber Obukhovskii 305-millimeter guns, with a range of 35 kilometers.
Roughly 400 people were needed to operate the whole battery,
but one tower required a complement of 75.
Historian and writer Oleg Stratiyevsky said: (QUOTE)
“Russian battleships were superior to enemy ships in terms of rate of fire.
It was the transition: the golden age of mechanics combined with electricity. They had electrical
motors and [...] a well proven mechanical actuation as a backup. In fact, the turret,
weighing 900 tons, can be rotated manually. You only need 10 men for this. It's very impressive.”
Still, the mighty guns were never fired in combat in 63 years of service.
The Battleship in the Mountain
Unlike other large-caliber batteries around the world, the Voroshilovskaya one
remained in service until the fall of the Soviet Union and beyond. Meanwhile,
Poltava was scrapped shortly after the end of the war, but her turrets served through 1997.
The guns were last fired in 1992, and they were soon decommissioned.
Despite their perfect accuracy, with the worst deviation being 1.5 meters, their readiness was
not a high priority for Russia in the 1990s, as their economy was so dire that the Navy failed to
send food rations to their troops stationed on the island, and at least four men lost their lives.
On the other hand, the USSR could have allowed the stationary guns to stay combat-ready,
but as the country advanced in the research of coastal-based anti-ship missiles in the 1950s,
the batteries were displaced as the backbone of coastal defenses.
The batteries also served as an additional threat, given that in the Soviet economic system,
maintaining existing guns was cheaper than replacing them,
and Soviet generals strived to be prepared for anything.
However, the coastal fortress never fired a single shot during the war.
The guns’ mere existence was enough to prove that the enemy was at a disadvantage.
Ironically, it was their silence that justified their success.
In 1995, the complex was declared a historical monument, and roughly three years later,
the Military History Museum of the Pacific Fleet in Vladivostok was opened for visitors.
In Russia, Poltava is fondly referred to as: (QUOTE) "The world's longest battleship."
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