Estonian Mine Museum

    The Baltic is not really the sea. This is a bay consisting of several even smaller bays. Depths are relatively shallow, distances too. A good coastal defense battery hits 30-50 kilometers. Therefore, there is no reason to block sea battles in the Baltic. He pushed the minefield across, left a 10-kilometer passage off the coast, which is covered by a battery on some deserted cape - and sleep peacefully. The main war in the Baltic is a mine, therefore it is not surprising that in Tallinn there is a mine museum, which cannot be passed by any means. It is located, by the way, in the former powder warehouse of a local castle.


    The museum was created by a former Soviet mine officer, an ethnic Estonian German. The person is wonderful and enthusiastic. Therefore, if you have time, he will lead you through his powder warehouse for more than one hour. Although the exposition fits on some 60-80 square meters. So go ahead. I will try here to retell his tour. If anyone needs pruflink - its troubles. let him seek him.



    Background

    What is Estonia in the Russian Empire. This is the main supplier of Germans of noble origin. Mr. Kruzenshtern and, it seems, also Bellingshausen - just from here. From here comes Herr Jacobi, who has contributed a great treasure to the Russian mine business. It is natural that German engineers needed Estonian workers who were well-trained in the German order for about 600-700 years of domination.

    Therefore, in Tallinn before the First World War, not only mines were produced, but also the main mine depots of the Russian fleet were located. In 1918 there was a terrible mess. Here you are young Estonia, and the reckless Bolsheviks, and the useless white movement. In this confusion, almost the entire mine arsenal remained in the port of Tallinn. By the way, in more than seventy years, history will almost repeat itself.

    So, the 18th year of the young republic gathers a rich harvest of Russian mines (round) and catches an even greater number of German mines (oblong) - after all, they thoroughly littered the first world Baltic. In total, about 400 mines and even more anchor trolleys were thrown at the port.



    There are no miners of their own - sailors and officers from Estonia trained in mine affairs are scattered in different flotillas of the empire. Retirees are called. Grandfathers, scratching their heads come up with a brilliant move. At one time, each company had a special anchor trolley under each mine. Estonians decided the whole arsenal of what to put on the standard, which greatly simplified the task. The rich arsenal is exchanged for other weapons and given to the neighbors of the Baltic states. So 2 wedges, rifles were obtained. The Poles exchanged part of the mines for cavalry spurs. It was at the very beginning of independence, so the exchange went on the principle of who has what. Mines on the spurs - immediately became a joke. Already at the time of NATO, Estonian miners trained in the United States. The internship took place in the Marine Regiment, which was once cavalry and retained its full dress form from equine times. In parting, all Estonian minerals were presented with a full set of dress uniform ... with spurs.



    Incidentally, this is a memorial to the 20th anniversary of the service of the head of the Estonian pre-war mine service - a nobleman of Lithuanian-Belarusian origin, Mr. Malevich. In 38, he retired and left for Kaunas - the further fate is unknown.

    History

    Mines first appeared in the mid-19th century. Then they were galvanic. That is, the mine was placed in the strait, an electric wire led to it from the station. At the right moment, the miner closed the contact and the mine exploded. For the first time in Germany, a minefield was set up to protect Kiel Bay. The infernal cars were supplied by the young enterprise of Herr Siemens. Herr Siemens successfully married. His father-in-law was a scientist and, in fact, invented a galvanic mine. Herr Siemens made some improvements, set up production and broke through the order. So marriage is a profitable business.


    As an illustration, here's a wife with the first Siemens phone. For mine batteries, a good connection was needed :) In the background is a mineral weapon - the same remote control.

    And here are the Russian-made galvanic mines themselves. Russia bought a license from a German and happily riveted them. "Naked" mine - galvanic. "Horned" is a new step in mine art.


    This is the so-called mine Herzi. Herzi was a kind of French alchemist. In experiments on the extraction of gold from lead, he created an electrolyte easy to manufacture. They say that Edison was very grateful to Herzi for having received a freebie an excellent tool for experiments. The miners were grateful for another reason. In the mine horns is a capsule with electrolyte. When you hit the side of the ship, the capsule breaks, activates the battery, the electric circuit closes - an explosion. This is how it looks about inside.



    As soon as the mines became an effective weapon, they came up with a counteraction - trawls. This is a cable that reaches for the ship and breaks the mine from the anchor. The miners — mine defenders — immediately got their answers. Here they are. These are floats, on whose anchor cables there are cartridges. Upon contact with the trawl, they exploded and tore the cable. In addition to them, there were also original defenders. Here is a large German in the background. It's just a very heavy mine, in which instead of trotting concrete. She saved minefields in coastal channels. Because of the shallow depths, they were trawled in small vessels. Having collected a pair of such defenders in his trawl, the cutters, at times, simply could not move.



    This beauty that I have not turned over is a French mine. Intended for the Dutch East Indies - hence the color.


    The next two pictures are the formidable Soviet weapon M-26 sonar mine. It exploded almost from a scream.





    Traditional mines with herzi liquid were dangerous when staged in winter conditions. There were times when falling overboard they hit the ice and exploded. In the USSR, a simple and effective fuse was invented, which became the source of cruel mine jokes.
    So, a massive cast-iron cap is put on the “horn”. Under it is a strong spring. Here, the picture is only a third of the full size. At the bottom of the check. Before setting, the mine is tightly wrapped with an iron cable. In the cable lock - in the castle sugar. Getting into the water the sugar melts, the lock diverges, the cable pulls out the pin, the spring shoots off the cast-iron fuse. He flies with terrible force. Young officers used to like to joke with their comrades: to come and visit and give their wife and child such a horn with a fuse. At some point, the child or spouse, not familiar with the intricacies of the mine business, pulled the check ... According to our guide, the consequences were sad for the whole atmosphere of the apartment, and sometimes for the walls.



    And here is the founder-keeper himself with swift Soviet monsters with charges from 300 to 600 kg. TNT equivalent.



    This is the pride of Soviet industry. Hydroacoustic magnetic anti-submarine mine. The USSR shoved old stuff into its social brothers and taught far from all technologies. The guide has a lot of stories about social brothers who saw this monster swearing and cursing Soviet military assistance. The military and civil engineers swore. The fact is that here the carrier cable is combined with an electric cable and antenna. The technology for a long time remained exclusively military and civilian was not transmitted, although it could be useful.



    The Baltic Sea is polluted by mines. Now, in general, everything is cleared. But still minesweepers, entering the Baltic Sea, declare combat trawl. There is a double service, badges and salary. Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev in 1956 decided to stop considering trawling in the Baltic fighting. Although they cleared it from mines almost to the end of the USSR. Here is a calendar on which there are monuments to Finnish minerals. We photographed one of them later in Helsinki.



    All kinds of anti-landing mines. Striped - educational coloring. Right green - modern NATO. Not subject to discharge. Frankly, I did not understand whether he had training there, or military ones.



    various air mines.


    exposition of the first half of the 20th century


    experimental coloring



    and this is a Soviet brilliant weapon of attack. floating air mine. according to one of the strategies of the third world. at the beginning of hostilities, these mines were to be dumped by thousands into the English Channel, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and other busy shipping regions. they explode from everything - from a direct collision, from the sound of the engine, from the magnetic circuit of the circuit. Floating by the will of waves, such mines could paralyze any naval movement in a matter of days. But there was a “float” in them, which was blown off ten days later. Below is a contact fuse. Lying on the ground, such a mine self-destructed. It was assumed that in these 10 days, Soviet tanks would just reach the English Channel - and the sea was already clear.


    And this contraption, which brought a lot of trouble to the Swedes. Hydroacoustic automatic tracking station. Delivered like a mine, it captures any creeps in range, whether it be an American aircraft carrier or a submarine. In the 80th year, during the Olympics, such stations were instructed at the entrances to the Gulf of Riga, where the regatta took place. They were torn by a storm. Many were caught by the Swedes. Only thanks to the mine museum did they learn what to do with this whopper and which side to approach,



    but the museum itself



    is everything. somewhere, I definitely forgot something, somewhere messed up.

    CYSES. Here is the Russian mine "fish". intended for shallow depths and rivers. made in Tallinn. During the First World War it was used in Belarus as well. In the area of ​​Brest in particular. In the museum of mines there is a "fish" itself, but an anchor trolley has not yet been found from it. So if you suddenly find a piece of iron, here is the contact information

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