There is not enough air, it is hard to breathe, it seems that the underground haze absorbs your entire being … Reading the notes of the search engines is difficult and sometimes simply impossible: I take a breath and again read these lines, scorched by tragedy. They came to me from the Center for War Veterans, where historical evidence of past wars and various conflicts is accumulating.
The tragedy of Adzhimushkaya must be lived through, passed through his soul. We need to become a part of it, so that, perhaps, over time, we can finally understand what happened there. The defense of the quarries lasted for about six months. Limestone quarries became a natural obstacle on the way of German troops to the Kerch Strait. The total area of the workings is approximately 170 hectares.
Here, five kilometers from Kerch, in mid-May 1942, more than 13,000 servicemen and civilians took refuge, who managed to organize a defense that the Germans could not break for a long time. Deprived of the opportunity to replenish water and food supplies, the defenders of the underground garrison laid down their heads here, but several regiments of the 11th Wehrmacht army under the command of Erich Manstein did not surrender: only 48 defenders, according to the official version, survived after 170 days. And some say that there are only seven surviving defenders. Although there is information about 136 defenders who were collected after the war. But they stayed.
German historical forums mention two iconic fortresses - the Brest fortress and the Adzhimushkaya fortress (bitter or gray stone in translation from the Turkic language).
Few people know, but the quarries were divided into two parts - central and small, which were not connected with each other. In the central part, the main garrison was located under the command of Colonel Egunov. In a small part - their depth is up to 30 meters, they are two-tiered, up to 15 kilometers long - a garrison is located under the command of Lieutenant Povazhny. Under the ground, it was possible to establish the work of field kitchens, to install electric lighting: the current was generated from a tractor, which is now stored in an underground museum.
The Nazis used large quantities of explosives against Soviet soldiers and even used poison gas. The Germans burned everything around, twice surrounded the area with barbed wire. They tied people to bombs and lowered them down into the quarries and shouted that it would be so with everyone.
From the act of the commission of a separate Primorsky army, February 16, 1944: “In all directions of the quarries there are a large number of rusted helmets, rifle and machine-gun cartridges, shells, gas masks, rotten uniforms, corpses and skeletons of people were found, as can be seen from the clothes of former military personnel. Many have gas masks at the ready. The postures of corpses, the position of the limbs indicate that death occurred with a strong psychological experience, with convulsions, and agony. In the same adits, not far from the location of the corpses, five mass graves were discovered, in which a total of about three thousand people were buried."
Mikhail Petrovich Radchenko. Remember it. Teenager. He survived and lived out his life in the village of Adzhimushkai. He did not go underground: even years later, he could smell the faint smell of gases.
The first gas attack had the most terrible consequences, many did not immediately figure out what was happening: smoke and stench were already circulating in the corridors of the quarries. About 800 people died of suffocation that day. Then the Germans almost every day, from 10 o'clock in the morning, for 6-8 hours, started the gases. But regular gas attacks did not work. The Red Army men learned to resist them: they wore gas masks and built gas shelters in distant dead-end adits, where gas practically did not penetrate.
Only one feature film, Descended from Heaven, tells about all the horror and suffering that people have experienced. Thirst tormented. To get to the two wells, several human lives had to be paid. There is an episode in the film about a nurse who goes out to fetch water without a weapon. In fact, the sisters went out to fetch water several times, the Germans allowed them to draw it, but then opened fire.
The well with sweet water (it tasted like that) the Germans threw the corpses of Soviet soldiers, there is a version that they threw them there alive: since they were twisted in pairs by barbed wire. But the well with salt water was thrown with various construction rubbish.
Then the military engineers did the almost impossible: within two days, after calculating, they made a horizontal passage right from the caves leading to the salt well. Water! Water! They got drunk and stocked up for future use, realizing that the Germans might find this tunnel. And so it happened.
But the defenders of the underground garrison dug three wells. One of them, located on the territory of the second battalion of the central part of the quarries, survived and is still part of the museum exposition. They gouged the wells within one month using a pickaxe, an ordinary sapper shovel and a crowbar. The depth of the well in the stone monolith is 15 meters. The vaults over the well were strengthened, and he himself was guarded. Only a narrow circle of people had access to water. Every liter of water was strictly accounted for. And, although the Nazis managed to collapse the soil on one of the three wells, the two remaining were enough to provide a garrison that was thinning day by day.
The Germans drilled pits on the surface, planted aerial bombs there (from 250 to 1000 kilograms) and detonated them, causing huge boulders to collapse. Tons of rock were crumbling, killing people.
“After these explosions, the earth swelled, the shock wave killed a lot of people,” said Mikhail Petrovich Radchenko.
The soldiers, too, came up with their own special team of listeners, which was obliged to identify in time the places where the Germans are drilling. To take people away from the landslides in advance. Today you can see a gigantic detonation with a height of about 20 meters here.
For many years, the legendary Rostov search engine Vladimir Shcherbanov has been not only a journalist, but also a member of the military search engine that keeps watch of memory. So, I publish Shcherbanov's notes.
“The brush in my hands trembles barely noticeably, throwing stone sawdust off the dark remains. Muscles begin to ache from tension, cuts in the eyes. We have been working for the second hour. From time to time I ask:
- Shine here. Give more light.
And again the ringing silence. You can't hear the guys, you can't even hear your own breathing, only occasionally - the rustling of sand in the next gallery.
The fighter's remains lay near the wall under a 20-centimeter layer of stones and dust. The arms are folded neatly over the chest. A thought flashed through: "I did not die here, but was buried, which means that there will be no documents - they should have been taken from the hospital." And yet something is confusing, something is wrong.
From behind, someone gave a gentle nudge. I look around. Seminozhenko stands behind her - her eyes are deep, dark, her cheeks have sunken more strongly, cheekbones stand out more sharply. Almost without opening his lips, he says:
- Why boots?
Now I realized what exactly was embarrassing. The soldier was buried in his new cowhide boots. But then, in 1942, there was an order in the dungeons: before the burial of dead comrades, take away weapons, documents, ammunition, warm clothes, shoes. The living had to live and fight - for themselves and for them who had gone.
We carefully examine the places of the premium pockets. At the left, the fingers freeze - there are some papers under the rotted matter. The gray sheets have dents from the once golden letters. Now there is no longer any doubt - the documents are there.
Compressed by time and stone, the Komsomol card and the Red Army book. The soldier wore them on his chest, closer to his heart, until the last day, and even when his comrades crossed his arms, the documents remained there.
The photo has faded. The pages are glued together.
The find is carefully passing from hand to hand, and I see how the palms of the children and girls who have been worked hard during the day tremble, I read the same questions in their eyes: “Who are you, soldier, where were you expected and expected? Where are you still remembered as a handsome, tall, twenty? Perhaps the latest means of examination will help you, one of the few, to lie in a mass grave under your own name!"
Such a find is a rarity. Such a find is an event in the expedition. Of course, all of its participants were agitated by the find. But at first there were few conversations, discussions, hypotheses. Perhaps, everyone should have been alone with the surging thoughts.
The Komsomol card in our minds is not just a crust confirming membership in the youth union, not even just a symbol uniting Komsomol members of different generations, it is, among other things, a high principle.
We will definitely find out, we will definitely find out about him: in what family he grew up, how he lived, how his descendants live, our contemporaries."
“On the first Sunday, the work of the expedition did not go underground, we decided to see the city and visit the local history museum.
Today two guys from Ozyory arrived - Mikhail Polyakov and Ivan Andronov. Both are firefighters from the Moscow region. It turned out that both came to Kerch in May, with an excursion, where they learned about the expedition. We found out the address of the group leader, signed off.
In the evening, by the fire, Andronov recalled his May arrival in Adzhimushkai:
- We left the dungeon as if crushed, relieved to swallow fresh air. I thought: how good it is to live. When they came out of there, there was something vague in my soul, as if they were to blame for something in front of those who remained there."
August 7. Working on the rubble again. Several years ago Valera Leskov found anti-tank weapons (PTR) here under the plates. The gun was transferred to the museum, and the blockage was christened - PTR. Last year, we also found scraps of newspapers and documents in this place. And now Valera insisted that we return to this place again. We dug up the lower slabs along the artificial wall and reached a layer of papers. They began to clear the gallery to the west wall, and came across a small leather bag. The weight was impressive, and something tinkled inside one of the compartments.
But we were amazed and delighted indescribably more than if we saw the gold when the Order of the Red Star and the medal "20 years of the Red Army" slipped out of our wallet. And all this is in good condition, even on the reverse side of the order it was easy to make out the number - 10936.
In the second pocket they found a red order book. Even if it is not possible to read the name of the owner of the order and the medal in the document, it will not be difficult to establish by the number of the award through the army Central State Archives.
Who is this man? Under what circumstances did you lose your awards? What happened to him next? Is he alive? We will be able to answer these and many other questions this year.
For this day, the discovery of awards was the most significant for us. The guys walked around happy, even fatigue seemed less."
“Again we are going to the area of the blockage of the operating table. Now there is no longer any doubt that one of the underground hospitals was located here for a long time. It would seem that everything has been tested more than once, but we still discover something new.
Nadya and Sveta Shalneva have to fight their way through a meter of packed soil, to the gallery floor. The shovel does not take, you have to work with a pickaxe, slowly making your way down. Albina Mikhailovna Zimukha is working a few meters from them. Today she left the kitchen business and also went to the quarries.
Sveta got out of the pit, wiped her forehead and began to examine the walls in the place where Albina Mikhailovna worked:
- Guys, the inscription is interesting!
On the cut of the darkened limestone, something sharp is inscribed with the words: "Sorry, friends."
- Here about five years ago, - recalls S. M. Shcherbak, - we found a burial place where the remains of 25 soldiers were found. Most likely, the inscription refers to this grave.
We stand in silence, looking at the uneven dents of the letters, as if we are trying to discern in them what time has hidden.
Recently, the idea came up for a short winter expedition in February. And unusual - all 7-10 days to live right in the catacombs, where the soldiers of the underground garrison lived and fought. Don't look for a passion for originality or dubious experimentation in this. Now, reading the diaries of the summer expedition, it is easy to understand where this idea came from.
Those who felt the gaze from the catacombs on themselves, who, looking at the inscription on the wall, were transported by their thoughts and hearts to 1942, can be sure: these minutes will not pass without a trace. And when, after a few months, you understand their significance in your life, then it pulls you back to where you can deeper understand and feel them, ordinary soldiers who survived and remained heroes in our memory.
“There are two days and two nights before the end of the expedition. It's time to turn off the camp and put out the lanterns, but the guys didn't even get tired as they should. I am at a loss: how can this be explained? If there was an opportunity, everyone would stay for another week.
In recent days, if there is even a ghostly hope for a find, the guys work feverishly, with passion, as if for the last time."
And although the defense of the quarries officially lasted for five months, individual centers of resistance, as follows from the report of the German command, continued to smolder for many days.
