Why tourists are not allowed on the Klukhor pass. From Balkaria to Svaneti or a trip through the Twiberian Pass in the Caucasus

Parts of the Edelweiss division that broke through to the Klukhor pass through partisan barriers were restrained by the forces of only one first battalion of the 815th regiment. The advantage was on the side of the enemy, and he captured the highest and most favorable points of the pass and broke through to his southern slopes. This forced the command to urgently transfer from the Marukh Pass the 3rd battalion of the 808th regiment, which was under operational control of the commander of the 810th regiment, Major V. A. Smirnov.

The commander of the 3rd Rifle Corps, General K. N. Leselidze, arrived at the battlefield in August. The commander of the 46th Army, General V.F. Sergatskov, additionally sent to the pass from Batumi the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment of the 9th Mountain Rifle Division, contrary to the order of the authorized Headquarters of Beria. The 815th regiment was commanded by Major A. A. Korobov. We found Korobov in Sukhumi, where he settled, having retired after a serious illness. In the courtyard of his quiet house on the outskirts of the city, under trees laden with autumn fruits, we talked with him twenty years after these battles.

“After the capture of the pass by the Germans,” Korobov said, “I had to seriously think about positions that were more convenient for defense. They were well prepared. And from that position, the Germans could no longer bring us down. And soon we began to receive reinforcements, though not from the Marukh Pass - the units of Major Smirnov could not get through to us. The 956th artillery regiment, several units of the 155th rifle brigade, the 121st mountain rifle regiment under the command of Major Arshava, as well as special mountain rifle and climbing teams came to us.

Alexander Anatolyevich recalled that the Germans' defense was also built firmly, in two echelons. One height especially at which quite large forces of the Nazis gathered together was especially pestering our positions. Essentially neither night nor day our units could secretly conduct a single maneuver. And then they decided to destroy this height with those who are on drink.

In absolute silence, with extraordinary precautions, poods of ammonal were laid under the height. The huntsmen suspected nothing until the very moment when a powerful explosion shook the mountains.

- It rushed so that the stones already fell on our headquarters ...

At the forefront of the Nazis, panic began. A company of machine gunners, headed by senior lieutenant Vorobyov, supported by other units, crushed them and went on. They drove the Germans eight hundred meters, took their position and brought prisoners.

“My soldiers were excellent,” Korobov said suddenly, and smiled somehow sadly. “After all, it was not in resort conditions that they fought, it seemed they could have become coarse, lost human warmth, but no. They took care of each other doubly carefully. I remember in the early days of the fighting was the chief of staff

Nikolay Georgievich Karkusov (Former instructor-propagandist of the 956th artillery regiment, who fought on the Klukhor pass, now reserve officer I.E. Pukhaev informed us that Karkusov was no longer able to return to the front and served at critical posts in the ZakVO system until the end of the war. He worked as a military commissar of the South Ossetian Autonomous Region since 1946. He could not extract a bullet stuck in the lungs, the wound healed the health of Nikolai Georgievich, and he died in 1948. He was buried in Tskhinvali). He, in my opinion, was a graduate of the Baku Infantry School, and came to the regiment very young. In those days, quite often difficult situations arose. During one battle, the regiment headquarters was also surrounded. I was just in the battalion, and Karkusov decided to break through with a platoon of guards from the circle and save the banner of the regiment.

In this battle, he was seriously injured by a bullet. They carried him out, put him on a makeshift stretcher from brushwood, adapted two horses for them - one in front and the other behind - and only three days later they brought him to the village of Zakharovka, where there was a field hospital. We presented him for an award, and he was soon awarded the Order of the Red Star. I don’t know where he went after the hospital, because he lay in various hospitals for a long time, and the war was going on ...

Alexander Anatolyevich inquired when we tracked him down after the first book was published, what fate we knew. We talked about the fate of Shvetsov and Rodionov, and in turn asked whether he remembers this incident.

- I remember that there was a case of unauthorized execution, but I don’t know the details.

He was silent for a moment, wrapped his arms around his knees with wide brown hands, and sat, swaying slightly.

- Hmmm ... Miscellaneous happened in those days. Beria also called me on the pass, asking how are you. Nothing, I answer, only there is nothing to eat and ammunition is not enough. There is nothing to shoot. “Hold on,” he says, and hangs up. Soon after, the Army Special Officer arrived and began to take an interest in the fact that I had no incidents. So he said bluntly: “Is everything okay with you? Why aren’t you giving incidents? ” - “But no,” I answer, “I don’t give it.” When they will, I will report. ”

So he left with nothing. I must say that Beria was beria, and a lot depended on people. In my regiment, the detective was the Kuban Cossack Kurakov, a wonderful man, a real communist. In vain didn’t give anyone an insult ...

It was already evening when we parted. Twilight filled the garden, the yellow-orange persimmon fruits became dark and heavy, and the far-flung mountains dressed in bluish fog. We left but in the quiet street of Sukhumi, and a heavy, tall man stood at the gate and looked after us. He looked like a craftsman resting after work ... (A year after our meeting, Alexander Anatolyevich Korobov died of a heart attack and was buried in the Sukhumi cemetery, where the commander of the 121st mountain rifle regiment, Major Arshava, who died at the Klukhor pass) is buried)

Our meetings and correspondence with the participants in the battles at the Klukhor Pass did not end there, of course. Our fellow journalist from Georgia informed us that the former battery commissioner of the 256th artillery regiment, Alexander Samuilovich Andguladze, was found. He now lives in the city of Borjomi and works there at a glass factory. We immediately wrote him a letter and soon met with him.

Alexander Samuilovich said that in late August, the 3rd division of the 256th artillery regiment of the 9th mountain rifle division, located in the Batumi region, was transferred to the disposal of the 956th artillery regiment of the 394th rifle division and was quickly transferred to the Klukhor pass .. .

This is good luck! General Sergatskov told us in Moscow that, in addition to the entire regiment, in the 9th division there were also units that were in reserve, which he sent to the passes. But which units, he could not remember. And finally, there is a man who helped figure this out.

...– Our division was commanded by Major V. Kalinin, a very talented, energetic and experienced officer ... There was a night when we passed Sukhumi. Due to the air raid, the city plunged into darkness. At the heights around the city, volleys of anti-aircraft batteries flashed and rays of searchlights that prevented German bombers from breaking through to Sukhumi ...

Here is the front line. It turned out that the 815th regiment as a result of heavy fighting lost a large number of personnel, but continues to restrain the experienced and cunning enemy, which was the Edelweiss division. The arrival of our division inexpressibly pleased the soldiers of the regiment.

- Now we hit the fritz! they said. We quickly took up firing positions and entered the battle. lasting about ten days. Our positions were not as comfortable as those of the Germans: we had to shoot from the bottom up. But as a result of this multi-day battle, the advance of the Nazis was suspended, and thus, the first part of the command mission was completed. The second part of this task was the gradual pushing of the Germans to the top of the pass and beyond ...

Alexander Samuilovich at our meeting told a lot about the fighting episodes, about his comrades. One episode, which Andguladze himself considers “the most significant”, we want to bring here. He was interested in passing, and also because shortly before that, Korobov was telling us in Sukhumi about German submachine gunners who had made their way to our rear. It was about them that Alexander Samuilovpch spoke. He only began his narrative by recalling the beginning of the previously conceived operation of our command. The implementation of the operation plan began at four in the morning with artillery preparation, in which Major Kalinin’s battery also participated. In an hour only this battery released about two thousand mines at the enemy. The enemy suspiciously quickly returned intense fire, and this duel continued until automatic fire broke out in the rear of our batteries. As it turned out later, the operation of our command accidentally coincided in time with the operation of the command of the Edelweiss division. It was on that morning that German submachine gunners went to the rear of our units with the task of destroying them and making way for Sukhumi. The Nazis, confident of a happy outcome, were only given a daily ration, saying that they would get everything else, including fine Georgian wine, on the shores of the warm sea, among palm trees and flowers.

Groups of German submachine guns leaked almost to the headquarters of the division, and a battle ensued everywhere. They were met by the cadets of the Sukhumi school at the division headquarters, and in other places by units of the 815th regiment (A.S. Andguladze brings a little memory here. Of course, other units also took part in the defeat of the German submachine gunners, but indirectly. by this time, the 121st mountain rifle regiment of the 9th mountain rifle division and a mountaineering detachment, which A.M. Gusev would discuss later), and our artillery units prevented the German offensive from the front and thereby deprived enemy machine gunners support. As a result of a fierce battle, enemy machine gunners were destroyed, and some were captured.

Andguladze personally participated in the interrogation of a young German submachine gunner. He held on arrogantly, answered questions, proud of his membership in the Edelweiss division.

“I am twenty years old,” he said. - In the fortieth year, I graduated from high school. Then, on the orders of the Führer, he underwent military training in Austria, and then became a soldier.

He deeply believed that Hitler would win the war. After the war, he was going to return to Germany to continue his education and become an engineer.

I asked him:

- Hitler kaput?

- Nine! He cried out angrily and jumped out of his chair.

He was mistaken, this young German fooled by Goebbels propaganda. More than twenty years have passed since then. And the whole world now knows what fate befell Hitlerism.

An old proverb says: “Friends are in trouble.” Once again, it was confirmed in the battle in question. When German machine gunners showered the battery with a hail of bullets, Junior Sergeant Yakunin was mortally wounded. He fell on a hill. Bullets literally plowed the earth around him. Kakhetian Ekizashvili jumped to him and tried to save him, but he was seriously wounded. Kumyk Kurmyshov, also under bullets, picked up the wounded scout Abokhadze on his shoulders, carried him out of a dangerous place and safely covered the rocks in the crevice. All our units fought heroically. In this battle, the commander of the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment, Major Ivan Ivanovich Arshava, heroically died. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin. Andguladze himself received the Order of the Red Banner of War. The junior lieutenants Grachev and Shulga, lieutenant Sisenko were awarded the orders of the Red Star, and the soldiers Gogichaishvili, Gogua, Kurmyshov, Ekizashvili and others received medals “For Courage”.

Later, this battery, in which Andguladze served, was sent some time later to help the soldiers who defended the Marukh Pass. From the stories of other participants in the battles, we already know that she provided them with significant assistance ...

The story of Alexander Samuilovich was supplemented by reserve major Petr Dmitrievich Emelyanov, also a resident of the city of Borjomi, former commissar of a separate chemical protection company. Now, many years later, when the remnants of the Hitlerite’s chemical shells were discovered in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Northern Marukh glacier, fortunately remaining unused, we understand that such troops were needed by our troops. He spoke about the headquarters of the division.

The command post of the division commander was located in the village of Gentsvish.

A major role in the defense of the Klukhor Pass belongs to the brave and active officer, division chief of staff Major T.M. Zhashko (Tikhon Makarovich Zhashko, retired lieutenant colonel, now lives in Moscow, works as the head of the personnel department of one of the plants). The division commander Lt. Col. Kantaria suffered from heart disease, high-altitude, thin air led him to painful attacks. While in Chkhalta, the corps commander, General Leselidze, ordered him to hand over the division to the chief of staff Zhashko through a liaison officer, and to go to the hospital himself.

A few words about General K. N. Leselidze himself. Former member of the Military Council of the 46th Army, G. G. Sanakoev, who now lives in Tbilisi, recalls that he was a modest man and a brave warrior. If the situation at the front was complicated to the limit, he would come to the front line and personally lead the battles. So it was in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Klukhor pass. Participation in the battle of General Leselidze greatly raised the morale of fighters, exhausted from fatigue.

“I also remember such a case,” says Sanakoev. - In early February 1943, already under Maykop, we were preparing an offensive. It was appointed at six in the morning, and one rifle brigade and two divisions took part in it, including the 9th division, which did not have much combat experience then.

It was a foggy and rainy night. At two o'clock Leselidze called me and said:

- I think to go to the ninth, check readiness.

“Nothing will happen there,” I say, “experienced commanders.” And there’s nothing to go to in such weather.

“Well then, let's go on foot.” Get ready. We took two gunners with us and went. We go and go astray, because the darkness is dark in the gorges, nothing is visible around. True, it was quiet, so in one of the gorges, deep in it, we suddenly heard a conversation, and what language they speak is not clear. We ask aloud: who are they? In response, automatic queues. Leselidze calls himself and orders to immediately rise and approach.

A minute later, two signalman soldiers came up, apologized, We, they say, thought that the Germans ...

“Okay,” the general said peacefully. - Well, at least they shot. Lead the pass to the division ...

Interesting information about the family of General Konstantin Nikolozovich Leselidze we found in one of the articles of the newspaper “Evening Tbilisi”. This is what correspondence author L. Dolidze wrote about.

“Like the sun in a drop of water, the happy life of Soviet Georgia was reflected in this small village, spreading its rich possessions on the green hills of the picturesque Gurin ... The village became unrecognizable, but only one part of it remained untouched. This is a jealously guarded by all the inhabitants, a little slanting from time to time wooden house where the Leselidze family lived ... ”

Life was difficult before the revolution for such poor people as Nikoloz Leselidze was. Therefore, he consciously came to the people who were preparing the revolution, in the ranks of the Batumi proletariat. Later, Leselidze became one of the leaders of the Ozurget (now Makharadzevsky) Revolutionary Committee, took part in the famous Nasaliral battle with royal punishers. Nikoloz was exiled to Siberia for his revolutionary activities, and his little sons had a hard time until his native Soviet power came to Georgia.

Three brothers had grown up at that time - Datiko, Konstantin and Victor - immediately joined the ranks of the Red Army. From the first days of World War II, they, as well as the youngest brother, Valerian, began to fight in the forefront of the country's defenders.

Colonel Konstantin Leselidze and his gunners smashed the enemy, and during the retreat, as if the preponderance of forces was already on our side. Here's how it says in the award sheet, dated July 31, 1941:

“The artillery corps, under the direct leadership of Colonel Leselidze Konstantin Nikolozovich, destroyed over 100 enemy tanks. In the most fierce battles (near Minsk, near Volma, on the Berezin and Dnieper rivers), a brave commander directed the execution of fascist tanks directly at firing positions. ”

As we see, personal courage in a combat situation was familiar to Leselidze even before the battles in the Caucasus. When Hitler’s tanks came close to Tula at the end of October 1941, the skill and determination of Konstantin Nikolozovich essentially saved the city. Fighters and commanders who had the opportunity to fight under his leadership said in those days that General Leselidze manages artillery as a conductor of an orchestra.

Then there was the Caucasus, and after it, in the spring of 1943, Leselidze commanded a special 18th landing army and cleared the Kuban from the Nazis. In September, in cooperation with units of the Black Sea Fleet, this army storms Novorossiysk and, after five days of bloody battles, takes control of it.

Later, Colonel General Leselidze commanded the units that were part of the First Ukrainian Front. February 21, 1944 he died in battle. His body was transported to Tbilisi and buried there with great military honors.

It is hardly possible to overestimate the importance of the fighting of the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment, which also included a detachment of climbers. This regiment, sent to the passes by order of Sergatskov, arrived at the Klukhor pass, as much as possible during the time - in August 1942. The 815th regiment, in brutal combat with powerful enemy forces, was literally bleeding and slowly moving away from the pass. The help arrived in time when separate fascist units tried to go along the rocky ridges of the side ridges to cover our troops from the flanks. Among those who came to the rescue was Alexander Mikhailovich Gusev, Honored Master of Sports of the USSR in mountaineering. We met in Moscow. It was he who gave us details about the actions of the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment and climbers in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Klukhor pass.

Long before the war, Alexander Mikhailovich was engaged in mountaineering a lot and already then had the title of master of sports - he received the title of Honored Master of Sports during the war for organizing mountain training of troops and conducting military operations in the mountains.

Alexander Mikhailovich was a mountaineering instructor, hibernated at a weather station on Elbrus and remembers well that contrary to the opinion of some military men: “We can’t fight on Elbrus”, climbers did not exclude the possibility of war in the mountains and raised young people under the slogan: “Who does not get lost in the snow mountains - he does not get scared in battle. ” When the war began, an initiative group of climbers from the All-Union section of mountaineering appealed to the appropriate organizations with a request to send mountaineering instructors to mountain units for mountain training. The General Staff of the Red Army, of course, accepted this proposal and immediately after that about two hundred experienced climbers were transferred from various parts where they served after mobilization to the headquarters of the Transcaucasian Front.

These climbers became instructors of the school of military mountaineering and skiing urgently organized in Zakfronta, and also became instructors in twelve specially trained and equipped separate mountain rifle detachments, which were attached to the units operating on the passes. These climbers, in addition, became part of the climbing department created at the headquarters of the Zakfront for the general organization of training and direct participation in the defense of the Main Caucasian Range. Instructions and memos on the rules of movement in the mountains were compiled, the work of the security service of high mountain garrisons in the winter was provided.

Alexander Mikhailovich Gusev, one of the active members of the initiative group, was sent to the 9th Mountain Division, which, as we recall, was located at the beginning of 1942 on the Turkish border, in the Batumi region. This circumstance, recalls Alexander Mikhailovich, as well as the fact that the division’s command — division commander Colonel Evstigneev, division commissioner Stolyarov and chief of staff Major Melnikov attached the utmost importance to mountain training — ensured the successful deployment of training activities for the division’s personnel in mountain traffic.

By the summer of 1942, a combined company was created from the most powerful climbers of the division, soldiers and officers in case special operations were carried out in the mountains. Alexander Mikhailovich Gusev was appointed commander of this company. But he did not have to command a company for long. In August, when fighting broke out at the Marukh and Klukhor passes, Gusev and a group of mountaineering officers who knew these areas well submitted a report to the Military Council of the 46th Army with a request to send them to the units operating on the passes. Soon the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment hastily left for the Kluhor Pass area and Gusev, saying goodbye to the regiment commander Major Arshava, hoped to fight there together. Arshava promised to take Gusev to his post of PNS-2, however, two days after the regiment left, everyone who submitted the report was summoned to the army headquarters and after a short conversation with a member of the Military Council Yemelyanov was sent to the passes with the task “.. .providing combat, reconnaissance and consultation of the command about the terrain in the area of \u200b\u200bthe passes ... ”Thus, the junior lieutenant Shpilevsky was sent to Mamisonsky pass, the junior lieutenants Kelye and Gubanov to the Elbrus direction, and Gusev, who at that time had the rank of military technician of the first wound hectares, and junior lieutenant Gusak - to the Klukhorsky direction at the disposal of the headquarters of the 394th Infantry Division.

The enemy has already occupied the Klukhor pass and squeezed the 815th regiment to the confluence of the Gwandra and Klukhor rivers. Next to this place in the Svanese village of Gentsvish was the headquarters of the division. Having traveled 70 kilometers a day and overtaking the 121st regiment, climbers arrived here on August 27. The headquarters was already surrounded by German machine gunners who had broken through to the rear of our units, artillery and mortars of the enemy fired on the riverbank near the village where our batteries were located. The climbers barely managed to report on their appointment and that the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment was approaching, as they were included in the all-round defense, in which the staff themselves participated. Shells were tearing nearby, shots were heard in the forest - the enemy fired at the headquarters from rocks and trees. Two hours later, regiment units approached and immediately went into battle under the direct supervision of Major General Leselidze and Major Arshava. Units deepened into the forest, climbers remained in the defense of the headquarters. The battle flared up. The dead and wounded appeared, prisoners hobbled. Only by night did the battle begin to subside. A significant part of the bursting machine gunners was destroyed or captured. The 121st regiment, merging with the orders of the 815th regiment, stopped the enemy just above the confluence of the Gwandra and Klukhor rivers.

The next day, the arriving climbers, during a conversation with the command, suggested sending a detachment to the enemy rear, which, passing from the Gvandra gorge through the Klych ridge, would attack the German headquarters, located, apparently, not far from the "Southern Shelter", the place where the climbers spent the night, with a waterfall. The proposal was accepted, and on August 30, climbers with two teams of 25 and 50 people began to implement the plan. Alexander Mikhailovich at the head of a detachment of 50 people had to break through the Klych pass, and the detachment under the command of Gusak was obliged to climb to the edge of the ridge and cover the left flank, where it was assumed that there were groups of enemy spotters. These actions to seize the enemy headquarters were also coordinated with the actions of the 121st Mountain Regiment,

The operation began with failure, because, contrary to our intelligence, the Klych pass turned out to be the enemy and the pass could not be cleared of him until September 9, when reinforcements arrived, with a prize, Gusev himself and a small group of climbers had to climb the summit that dominated the pass and fire from above to weaken resistance of the German mountain shooters.

In the end, the Germans could not stand it and began to retreat to the main gorge, to the road, to the Klukhor pass. They managed to break away from our units and disguise their withdrawal. And our units themselves at that moment did not conduct active hostilities, since the 121st regiment took positions from the 815th regiment, which had weakened in battles, which was assigned to rest and reformation.

“However, this operation,” recalls Alexander Mikhailovich, “was the beginning of our attack on the Klukhor direction, units of the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment advanced to the junction of the roads coming from the Klukhor and Nakhar passes. A further offensive was now prevented by the enemy, who was located on the Nakhar pass and its southern slopes, for the road to the Klukhor pass passed to the left under these slopes.

Our detachment, - says Alexander Mikhailovich, - which began to be called mountaineering, went to the headquarters of the division and was no longer disbanded. My assistant in the detachment was appointed Lieutenant Khatepov. We did not part with him until the end of the fighting under the pass. I still have the best memories of this experienced commander, brave and calm in any situation, and a wonderful person. After he left as part of the division to other sectors of the front and, they say, was seriously wounded. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about his future fate, an attempt to find him failed ...

At that time, the main part of the detachment consisted of 50 people, but depending on the nature of the assignment, the number of fighters could change — in one case they became fewer, in the other more. In the Nakhara operation, which will be discussed below, Gusev participated with a minimum number of the most experienced climbers, because the path chosen by the detachment to carry out the task was technically difficult for many.

This campaign to the rear of the Nahar Pass from the gorge of the Gwandra River was started in order to sow panic in the location of German troops. At the moment when the panic reaches its highest limit, they explained at the headquarters that part of the 121st Mountain Infantry Regiment would hire a pass.

Gusev left the squad on September 12. And on September 14, on the day of the assault on the pass, the weather worsened sharply, it began to snow, it became very cold, and a blizzard began. Dawn came, muddy to impenetrability, and no matter how many climbers peered in the direction where the pass was and where the visual signals were supposed to come from, they saw nothing. The descent to the Germans began blindly. Soon, in front of them, they heard the characteristic noise of the moving German units and opened fire directly at the noise. At the same time, through the rumble and whistle of the wind, climbers heard shooting at the pass, where the regiment went on the offensive. For a day the detachment wandered in the fog and in the snow and, only having received the instructions of the headquarters, returned through the ridge to their own, several people found themselves with frostbitten limbs.

The 121st regiment went to one side of the ridge of the saddle and on September 19 cleared the southern slopes of the enemy. Then he still advanced, but here on his way was a narrow gorge, greatly strengthened by the Nazis.

“One of these days,” recalls Alexander Mikhailovich, “I arrived at the headquarters to meet the new division commander, Colonel Belekhov. There I learned about the death of the commander of the 121st Mountain Infantry Regiment, Major Arshava, and the severely wounded chief of staff of the regiment, Captain Kozhemyakin. It became hard and bitterly in my soul ... ”

Meanwhile, the regiment continued to slowly bite into the German defense. Major Ageev took command of the regiment at that time. But the advance was too expensive for us, we paid for it with the lives of many fighters, and therefore Gusev’s detachment was asked to go to the front and destroy the enemy firing points located on the slopes of the gorge. On the spot it became clear that it would be more profitable if the detachment came to the rear of the Germans defending the gorge from the Simli-Mipari gorge through the spur of the ridge going from the top of Mount Hakel. This plan was approved by the division commander, and the operation began. A day later, Gusev’s detachment went up to the ridge and found that on the other side two groups of German riflemen, up to 150 people, climb this ridge. The Germans, in turn, sought to penetrate the rear of our troops. Encountered by the strong fire of Gusev’s detachment, the Germans, taking losses, took refuge in the rocks and for the next four days tried to knock ours out of the pass. But reinforcements began to arrive at Gusev, and soon his detachment grew to three hundred men.

Now, fearing for their rear areas (the entire road from the ridge to the Klukhor pass was visible from the ridge and it could be kept under fire), the enemy weakened his attention in the gorge and established a powerful barrier against the climbing detachment. And some time later, our command developed an operation to enter the Germans from the ridge to the rear, who continued to defend the gorge. The operation was somewhat delayed due to a new change of regiments: in September, the 121st Mountain Rifle Regiment, valiantly fulfilling its military duty, went on vacation, and the rested and replenished 815th regiment returned to replace it.

Due to its complexity, the detachment of Lieutenant Vorobyev was assigned to Gusev’s detachment to carry out the operation directly. With this and his detachment, Gusev had to go down at night to the gorge and block it. One part of the detachment was supposed to hit the enemy from the rear in the gorge itself, the other was charged with the task of not letting the Germans from the Kluhor pass to help their own.

To fully guarantee success, one more condition was required. It was necessary to destroy the enemy’s barrier, which stood under the ridge, above the bottom of the gorge, against our positions. After a brief meeting at the headquarters of the 815th regiment and at the headquarters of the division, it was decided to secretly prepare for the explosion a huge rock hanging over the Germans. Shards of her were to be buried by the rangers. For three days, disguising himself in the midday clouds, Gusev, with a group of fighters, spread the tol into granite rock cracks. Then it was blown up. Operation was successfully completed. It was held from October 12 to 14. The Germans, who defended the gorge, were partially destroyed, partially captured, and only a small group managed to escape. Soon, the 815th regiment passed the gorge and replaced climbers, taking the line over the pass. Here, the advanced units of the regiment were located until the departure to Sukhumi in December 1942, when the 1st separate mountain rifle detachment replaced it.

In mid-November, Gusev was recalled to Tbilisi, the headquarters of the Transcaucasian Front, where he was appointed head of the climbing department, whose tasks we have already described above. At the end of December, he was entrusted with the organization of deep reconnaissance on the Caucasian ridge, through the gorge of the Sekene River Reck, in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Mordy Pass leading to the upper reaches of the Kuban River, to the path along which the Germans supplied their garrison at the Khotyu-Tau Pass and Elbrus. Before going there with a detachment of 120 people, Alexander Mikhailovich twice participated in aerial reconnaissance over this massif of the ridge and over Elbrus. Here, in particular, what is said about these flights in the award description for a 3rd-rank engineer A.M. Gusev, which is now stored in the Central Archive of the Soviet Army:

“... T. Gusev made two sorties on the R-10 aircraft as a navigator of a shooter in the Elbrus-Klukhor pass area. Intelligence provided data on the location and movement of enemy units at the passes, established the results of the bombing at Shelter Eleven. During the reconnaissance, he twice engaged in battle with the ground units of the enemy, located in the Shelter of eleven and on the northern slopes of the passes ... ”

Alexander Mikhailovich told us in detail how military events developed in the future, already on earth.

Gusev participated in the implementation of another, very responsible assignment of command. The Germans, having occupied the Elbrus region, put swap flags on both peaks of Elbrus. They did not stand there for long. In February 1943, Gusev received an order to lead the operation to remove the fascist flags from the highest mountain in Europe and establish the banners of the Soviet state there.

“... Through the Cross Pass,” recalls Alexander Mikhailovich, “and then through Nalchik and the Baksan Gorge, we reached the foot of Elbrus along the destroyed roads. On Elbrus, two groups joined our detachment, one under the leadership of Lieutenant Gusak, and the second under the leadership of Lieutenant Marents. Both of these groups were formed from the units defending the passes of the Elbrus region. On February 13 and 17, two groups led by Gusak and mine climbed both peaks, and the task was completed: the fascist banners from Elbrus were dropped and red Soviet flags were hoisted.

In the summer of 1943, the climbing department was disbanded, and Gusev returned to his direct military specialty - he was appointed head of the theoretical department of the Oceanographic Institute serving the Navy. Now Doctor of Physical Sciences, Professor Alexander Mikhailovich Gusev is the head of the department at Moscow State University. He can often be seen in the summer in the mountains of the Caucasus, where his alarming youth passed ...

We receive many letters from readers, which say one thing: it is necessary as soon as possible to collect all the remains of soldiers who died on passes and ridges, in clefts of rocks and ice cracks. It is necessary to bury them with military honors. Recently, we received a letter from Armenia from Markosyan Grigor Ashotovich. Three photographs were attached to the letter. The first one shows three young men sitting somewhere among the mountain screes, under a mighty rock. Two in front, one - a typical resident of Svaneti - a little behind. They look in front of them, at the stones turned to the sides, and at the bones of a soldier lying under these stones. Two other photographs tell how these bones were carefully collected and then buried with honors in the city of Leninakan, in the homeland of the deceased. In the front car, the remains were driven to the cemetery. It also shows a portrait of a soldier - a young man with a courageous and calm look. Who are all these people? This is what the author of the letter, Grigor Markosyan, reports about this.

“Dear comrades! On June 22, 1964, I received a letter from the village of Azhary, Gulripshsky District, Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, from a resident of this village, Comrade Chopliani Carlo. Here it is: “Having visited the battlefield near the Nakharsky pass the other day, I found a soldier’s grave and with it a sheet in an airtight box indicating the soldier’s identity and address. The soldier is Ashot Gevorkovich Markosyan, a native of the Armenian SSR, from the city of Leninakan, who lived at the address: Zheleznodorozhnaya, 31, apt. 7, died in 1942 in the battles for the Nahar Pass. The remains of him are saved. Please inform us if you are interested in the location of the grave, I can show it. The sheet is with me ... ”

I immediately went with my brother to the specified address. We drove from Sukhumi by car, and forty kilometers walked from the village of Azhary to the places of fighting. The dead soldier is my father. The sheet preserved in the soldier’s medallion contained the address of the soldier’s wife - my mother.

The climb to the places was very difficult. We came to the very edge of the glacier. The place where they found the remains of his father was under a rock. Nearby lay spent cartridges, cartridges, a box of grenades, a gas mask, a half-decayed dressing bag. Tai Chopliani found the locket. We transported the found remains to Leninakan and buried here with honor ... Perhaps you know one of the participants in the battles that took place in the region of the Nakharsky pass. Maybe someone knows something about my dead father, who was an ordinary soldier. Before the war, he worked as a senior accountant at the Lepinakan branch of the railway. Captured in the army in April 1942. The last letter we received from him in August of the same year from Batumi. He has been a communist since 1926. In 1930, he participated in the destruction of banditry in Dilijan. We are sure that he fulfilled to the end his duty as a soldier to his homeland ... ”

Judging by the fact that the family received the last letter from Ashot Gevorkovich from Batumi, he apparently served in that regiment of the 9th Mountain Division, which Sergatskov sent to the pass from the reserve. Perhaps, in fact, fighters from this regiment who remember the soldier Markosyan will still be found. But this incident also indicates that the mountains still keep many secrets, and these secrets are waiting to be revealed. It is difficult to say what findings are still awaiting us, about what feats and fate we will hear ...

When in September the fighting on the Klukhor direction ended and most of the units were sent from there to other sectors of the front, the 1st separate mountain rifle detachment remained to guard the pass. And although the fighters no longer experienced such tension as at the beginning, nevertheless, war is war, even if it is positional. Often still had to engage in fierce battles with the enemy, separated from our positions only by a narrow strip of deep, flowing from frosty dry snow. And in these fights, people died, leaving in the souls of their comrades the bitterness of loss for many long years to come.

Isn’t the heroic even in his everyday life the story told to us by the former soldier of the detachment, now the electric fitter SMU-3 in the city of Prikumsk, Stavropol Territory, Vasily Ivanovich Tsykalo. This is the story of the death of a friend of Vasily Ivanovich, but it seems to us to be a wonderful page in the history and his own life.

In December of the forty-second year, Vasily Ivanovich, as part of the department, in which his friend Viktor Tsyplakov was, was sent to intelligence with the ultimate mission to get the “language”. Intelligence ran into an ambush, a shootout began. Victor was with a light machine gun and therefore began to cover with fire the branch’s withdrawal. It safely departed, Victor's machine gun fell silent, and the Germans soon calmed down. Then ours carefully began to look out for Tsyplakov. He was nowhere to be seen. Vasily Ivanovich went in search of him and soon found traces of blood in the snow. Looking into the ice crack, near which the bloody chain broke, he saw a friend. Fortunately, the crack was not deep, and Vasily Ivanovich pulled Victor upstairs.

Hiding behind the stones, he examined his friend. He was wounded in both legs and in the chest, and the boots felt numb and frozen. Night fell, and, somehow bandaging the wound on his chest and putting on Victor all that was warm on him, Vasily Ivanovich carried him to the detachment.

“Nevertheless, I could not save him,” Vasily Ivanovich writes to us. “He lost too much blood. He died during the operation, and I buried him near a large pine tree, laying stones over the grave. After the war, he visited Makhachkala, with Viktor’s relatives and told them how he died ...

And in conclusion of the chapter on Klukhor, we give the story of Ivan Petrovich Golota, the former commissar of the 1st separate mountain rifle detachment, who continued to fight on the Klukhor pass when all other units had already left. He now lives in Belarus, works as the head of the transport office of the Gomel regional post office.

In the first days of January 1943, the detachment received a short order on the radio: to persecute the Germans to the 1st mountain rifle detachment, throw them off the Klukhor pass and release Teberda. The deadline is two days.

With the onset of dawn, our skiers, firing machine guns on the move, rushed to the German defense. The Nazis, randomly firing back, left their positions and rushed to the descent from the pass. Golota with one fighter was carried away by the pursuit and flew out onto a huge snow cornice over a cliff. The cornice broke and they flew down. Snow crammed into clothes, into ears, into weapons. Shaking off, Golota saw that he was below the pass, next to the Germans. They fired two automatic bursts at the daredevils, but other soldiers arrived in time from the cliff. The Germans ran down the gorge. Fighters, heated by the battle, began to jump from above to Golota, immediately got on their skis and continued to pursue the rangers.

Soon spruce forest began. Here, the trail in many places was blocked by blockages, and mined sections came across. From shots and mine explosions, snow fell from high spruce trees, flowing to the earth with a transparent, glittering muslin gleaming under the sun. The soldiers advanced towards Teberda, carrying boxes of ammunition and food.

Soon the path turned into a narrow road, and there it is not known where the horse pulled from the sled came from. The driver, a national of Karachai, said:

- Take, comrade, a horse.

A woman rode with him. Smiling, she got off the sleigh, and the soldiers quickly loaded the swap boxes and, facilitated, went forward faster. Twilight was already thickening, when Teberda appeared, a skirmish with the departing Germans began. By midnight, Teberda was cleansed or them.

“Even now I am scared to think about what we saw in this resort village,” said Pyotr Ivanovich.

In the morning a woman came up to me and Marchenko and said:

- Dear you are ours. There are hundreds of children in the sanatorium who are about to die. Help save them ...

We immediately went to the sanatorium. We met a doctor, a middle-aged man, with a very tired, exhausted face. When he spoke, he pressed his hand on his throat - he had it artificial - and his voice was hoarse, trembling, With him we went into the first room. Marchenko and I literally froze in the doorway.

On the twelve beds, covered with old sheets, lay lifeless creatures. Pale, with no signs of a single bloodline, they looked at us with deeply sunken, indifferent eyes. Even their lips were white. They were but ten or twelve years old.

Sister lifted a sheet from one boy. The boy was half naked, in a short shirt. It was as if glued from bones barely covered with dry skin. If not for the skin, the bones would probably have crumbled.

We did not go to other rooms. It was necessary to take urgent measures. We returned to the squad and told the fighters about everything. They all gave up their food supplies - crackers, sugar, and canned food. Collected sent to the sanatorium. We called the inhabitants of Teberda, told them about the children. Residents carried their last stocks - flour, potatoes, chickens. Some old grandfather brought a ram.

In addition, we gave an urgent telegram to Sukhumi. On the second day, the plane delivered sugar, cocoa, condensed milk ... As we learned, before the war, children were treated in the atomic sanatorium. By the time the Germans captured Teberda, there were about one and a half thousand. The Nazis decided to starve them to death. One nurse told us that they set a daily ration for children: three potatoes. In the morning od-pa, for lunch alone and for dinner alone. When distributing, a German soldier was necessarily present. If the sister put two potatoes for someone, the fascist knocked out a tray and.) Stamped the potatoes on the floor with his hands and boots, and the other children remained completely hungry.

The employees of the sanatorium spoke a lot of good things about a doctor with an artificial throat. They said that he was a communist and had some kind of order. With the advent of the Germans, he buried it all. Only because of his worries and risk, although the children were exhausted, they were still alive. More than once, a doctor was called to the commandant’s office. And reprisal against him was prevented by our arrival ... (It was Mirots Zinovievich Kessel, former head of the department of the Evpatoria sanatoriums for children with bone tuberculosis. After the liberation of Crimea, he returned to his duties in Evpatoria and died there a few children ago)

On the third day in the morning a guy with a bandaged hand approached Golota.

“Are you a squad commissar?”

“I have a very important message for you.”

- I'm hearing you.

- I'm a Komsomol member, I ask for a series. Someone gave me here to the Germans, I was arrested, and on New Year's Eve two drunken soldiers led me to the river on the outskirts at night. As soon as they approached the river, I rushed into the icy water. They started firing, so they shot me in the arm, but I survived. Before your arrival, I hid in the mountains, saw and heard what they were doing there ... See that gorge over there?

The guy showed with his good hand to the slopes of the gorge overgrown with coniferous forest, steeply turning to the right of the river.

- Yes. I see.

“They took the children there and buried them in gas chambers.” There they shot many.

Taking six people with shovels and a guy, Golota after a while walked along the gorge.

“Here,” said the boy, stopping. The lawn was a coc lawn, quite spacious, with bushes along the edges, and then the forest began. The snow that had just fallen made it very difficult to search, since it was necessary to open every hillock and hill. Finally, someone shouted:

- Fresh land!

The soldiers cleared the snow, and before their eyes appeared a hill of fresh land three meters wide and more than ten meters long. They started digging. The first corpses appeared. Soon they opened the grave and saw the corpses of adults and children. Only a few on the naked body could see spots of gore - traces of fascist bullets. Others did not have bodily injuries; apparently, the Nazis strangled them in gas chambers or buried them alive. The appearance of the children was especially striking: they lay in the same short shirts that the soldiers saw on the children in the sanatorium, and even in appearance did not differ much from those.

The news of the Nazi atrocities spread around Teberda. Crowds of people rushed to the grave. Some rushed to look for relatives, others just stood and cried. A funeral rally spontaneously arose at which the fighters in front of the people vowed revenge on the killers ...

After many years, the atrocities of the Nazis were supplemented by the recollections of eyewitnesses who were treated in the Teberda sanatoriums and I survived only thanks to the advance of our troops. Here is what Konstantin Ivanovich writes to us from Tyumen Zhelezno:

“... Many of the employees who remained with us in the occupation fought with the Germans as best they could: they did not give them sheets, blankets, or hid food, but at gunpoint their warfare did not always end in victory. I had to put up and look for other ways for our salvation. Until the snow and frost, we ate sour - wild apples and pears. They will bake them to us like potatoes, and bring along with some crumbs of household supplies. With the permission of the doctors, Elizabeth Ilyinichna and Roza Borisovna, the staff took the children to their homes and thus saved us. We, the survivors, will never forget these beautiful female doctors who were then shot by the Nazis ...

I remember that the Germans were very afraid of our aircraft, when they flew to the bombing, hid in our sanatorium - they knew, bastards, that these buildings were sacred to our pilots. And then children were taken away in gas chambers, and primarily children of Jewish origin. But Elizaveta Ilinichna and Roza Borisovna saved many of them by redoing documents. There were, however, other doctors who were ashamed to recall ... "

Former patients also wrote about these others, who later graduated from Karachayev Pedagogical Institute and became teachers, A. Nesterov and Adzhigire.

“For the first time after the occupation of the resort of Teberda, the Germans didn’t particularly touch anyone, they just snooped around the sanatoriums and asked everyone: whose children, weren't the people's commissars? And in no way could we marvel at the fact that we are all children of collective farmers, workers and office workers.

“It cannot be,” they said, “only the children of the rich can be treated in such sanatoriums.”

We replied that the country has been treating us all for several years now.

“We don’t have this in Germany,” the Germans said in surprise. “We have private sanatoriums where you can be treated only at your own expense or at the expense of Catholic societies.”

All this was transferred to us by a German boy, Roald Dirks, who was treated with us.

Soon the Germans, having been defeated, so to speak, in determining the social status of the sick, began to find out our nationality. Even in the middle of the street a fascist of a walking patient could stop and ask:

- Are you a yuda?

For the third week, the officers of the German headquarters sent an order to the sanatorium to compile lists of all patients with the surname, name, patronymic, year and place of birth, nationality and state of health. As if checking the fidelity of the head physician, they demanded the same lists three times, and each time their requirements were completely satisfied. Our chief doctor of that time, Baidin Sergey Ivanovich (after the liberation of Teberda by our troops, Baidin was exposed and arrested. He was sentenced to prison as an accomplice of the invaders) did not hesitate to boast that he was sitting in the same room with the German general. He was trembling at the mere thought that he, as a Komsomol member and a saboteur, would be instantly killed if he inaccurately obeyed the slightest order.

Each time the headquarters demanded lists with the above-mentioned information about patients, Baidin instructed the physician-resident of each building to collect them in their buildings. There was a rumor that these lists were needed as if to know how many products would be needed for patients and who could be sent home in order to unload sanatoriums and better feed the remaining patients. And many believed this: after all, his own man is speaking.

The residents made lists - in our buildings Roitman Sofya Moiseevna and Sara Moiseevna, whose last name we do not remember, did it and passed it to Baydin. They hoped for their own salvation if they honestly obey the orders of the Nazis.

However, it sometimes seemed to Baydin that the doctors had inaccurately recorded something about one of the patients, and then he himself appeared in the ward and asked the suspect:

“You are not a Jew?”

So it was with Ilya Ignatov and with us. The worst thing was that many walking sick children went to the residents themselves and asked, “Write me down, please ...” They thought that in fact they would be sent to where there is a lot of bread. In Teberda at that time it was very hungry.

Shortly afterwards, nearly three hundred people were killed near Lysa Gora. And in the sanatoriums they organized the so-called “Jewish corps”, service personnel were not appointed there. Walking Jewish children, themselves barely moving from hunger, looked after the bedridden. We also went to our comrades over a long-term illness, saw how they suffered, but could not help.

“At least something more,” they told us, “or death, or something else, but not this torment.” How long to? Our forces are gone ...

They did not know what awaited them.

And on December 22, 1942, at about three o’clock in the afternoon, some special car drove up — a huge, scooped, covered one. She drove to the "Jewish corps". A German got out of the cab and opened, parted the two halves of the rear wall of the car. Other Germans, accompanied by Baidin, went upstairs. They also ordered Uncle Vanya, our orderly, to go. He told us in great secret what happened next.

“Well, guys, we’ll take you to Cherkessk now,” said Baidin. - Take it, Vanya, bring it ...

“Uncle Vanya,” the kids cried from all sides, “take me, me!” I want to go to Cherkessk.

Uncle Vanya burst into tears of pity for them, because he knew where they would be taken, but the Germans were nearby and were already shouting: “Shnel, schnel! ..” And they grabbed the kids themselves, and the kids were there - three or four years old. There were elders - up to eighteen years old ...

When the guys were packed in a car, the German ordered them to be stacked along the walls; so that the middle of the car remains empty. Finally they carried the last patient, and he said:

- Give me a blanket, because I will freeze there.

- Bring a blanket! - said the German turned up sister. She rushed up the stairs, but did not even have time to overcome the two steps, as the German pushed both halves of the car door. They came together tightly, tightly, something clicked there, there was such a characteristic sound as it happens when you close your wallet, only much stronger.

The German got into the cab to the driver, and the car drove slowly, then stopped not very far from us, in a birch grove. She stopped and buzzed there for a long time, about fifteen minutes. After the buzzing stopped, but stood still until dusk. At dusk, the Germans and the police chief Khabib-Ogly approached her (Khabib-oglu managed to escape, flee with the Nazis). The car drove off again. Since then, we have not heard anything about our comrades ... ”

Here are witnesses of what events and listeners of what stories were the fighters and officers of the 1st mountain rifle detachment, who liberated Teberda.

“We lived there for seven days,” continued Ivan Petrovich Golota. - When they left, we went to the sanatorium to say goodbye. The children began to get better. They were already smiling, little eyes lit up with joy, although the children were still very weak. One boy gave the ladies a picture that he himself drew with a simple pencil on a standard sheet of paper. The picture was called like this:

“The assault of Kluhor and the liberation of Teberda.” I filed this picture in the history of our detachment and then sent it to the Political Administration of the Transcaucasian Front ...

February 16th, 2013, 07:21 pm

Isn't that strange? Our tourist route passed through the pass, which is now accessible only to climbers.

18. It will be cold upstairs and there are no trees there. Everyone took some firewood for the fire.

19. The last trees.

20. It is still warm here.

21.

22. We enter the kingdom of ice.

23. Above is the tongue of the glacier Yu. Chat.

24.

25. The Northern Shelter of the Twiber Pass.
It is located on terraces towering several tens of meters above the glacier.
It was here that we carried firewood. There are already tents in which we will spend the night.

26.

27. Here we were given attack flights, boots and ice axes.

28.

29. Sergey shows the art of owning an ice ax.

30.

31. Volleyball over the clouds.

32.

33. The next morning we were not allowed to have breakfast.
The only thing we were allowed to do was drink a cup of very sweet cocoa.
After that we hit the road.

34. Glacier Fist. Ahead is the False Twiber Pass. We are going to the right.

35.

36. It was very hard to go. Cold, wind, damp and slippery ice underfoot. It seemed that there was no limit to all this.

37. Igor uses every opportunity to rest his injured leg. The photo shows how he squeezes his frozen fingers.

38. I am also exhausted. But we have almost come.

39. Here it is, above us - the Tiber Pass. The last section of the ascent. Sergey closes the column with a guitar (I don’t count).

40. Twiberian pass. On the right is Russia, on the left is Georgia. After a short rest, we begin to go down to the left, to Georgia.
Here's what they write about the pass:The Twiber pass (1B, 3580, d.s.-os., 20) is located in the Main Caucasus Range between the peaks of Kulaktau south and Bodorku north of it; it connects the Kulak glacier with the Lychat, Dzinal, and Twiber glaciers. Serves the way from Balkaria to Svaneti. The path through the pass is one of the most beautiful routes in the Central Caucasus. The name is translated from Svan as “pass leading to the valley”.

41.

42. Behind us is the abyss from which we recently crawled out.

43. We begin the descent from the pass. We move carefully, holding on to the cable. Below is the Lychat glacier.

44. Lame Igor closes the procession.

45. The Twiber River.

Next was the descent, which lasted many hours.
Vegetation appeared, which became increasingly dense, tall and different from that which remained north of the pass.
The air warmed and smelled south.
At the end of the day, we arrived at the South Shelter. There we rested, ate hot food and drank local wine.

46. In the afternoon we go down to the village of Zhabeshi.

47. The village of Zhabeshi.

48. On the same day we got to Mestia (probably already by bus). We left our backpacks at the camp site and went for a walk around the village. In the middle is Zhenya from Orel.

49. Bus stop.

50. And the local pigs.

52. Chalet. As follows from the comments - this is Zugdidi.

53. At the end of the trip, we rested for several days in New Athos.

We all became friends with each other. It was hard to part. For several years we still wrote letters to each other. But never met again.

p.s.
I found a route sheet for a two-day hike in the Bashil gorge. On this campaign, we went from the Chegem camp site, and then returned there.
I don’t even know why he was with me. Handwriting is not mine. Although my last name is on the list first. Here are the photos:

In the summer of 1964, Igor Morozov and I, through Teberda and Baduk Lakes, reached Dombai, where we agreed to wait for the arrival of Valera Bogdanov in order to join some tour group through the Klukhor Pass.

The word "dombai" means "bison" in Karachay. Once upon a time, whole herds of these mighty animals roamed in the mountain forests.
   Dombayskaya glade, intermountain basin at the foot of the northern slope of the Main Caucasian Range, a picturesque resort area, with alpine lakes, waterfalls, mountain streams and rivers and sources of healing mineral waters.
   From the Dombai glade to the southeast, the powerful rocky massif Dombay-Ulgen (Killed Bison), consisting of 3 peaks, the main of which has a height of 4046 m, is clearly visible. The tops of the mountain ranges are covered with eternal snows and glaciers.

We set up a tent in a large clearing adjacent to the log building of the Solar Valley camp site, where there were a dozen more tents. Above one of them we were attracted by a flag with the inscription "Dzerzhinets". But it was not our cadets, as Igor and I thought at first, but a group of Moscow schoolchildren from a club with that name.

After talking for a few minutes, we realized that it’s better not to have a thing in common with them. The guys seemed arrogant, and on our offer to join them to go through the Klukhor pass, they replied that they should consult.

We bowed and proceeded to the next bonfire. It turned out to be a group of tourists from Murmansk, from the camp "Fisherman of the Arctic". We knew that the "Fisherman" is located next to the camp site of the Kudepsta military district, where we expected to spend the "sea" part of our vacation. This group suited us. Moreover, the Murmansk residents turned out to be much friendlier than the Muscovites, and we agreed that tomorrow we would go along with them.

By evening, Valera Bogdanov found us, and our small cadet team was assembled.
   Early in the morning, a group of Murmansk tourists, to which we joined, left the Dombai glade in the direction of Teberda.

At the confluence of the Gonachkhir and Amanauz rivers, the road forks. Our road goes to the coast of Gonachkhir and turns east, to the Klukhor pass. A bridge has been thrown across the Gonachkhir River. At the fork in the road stopped to enjoy the views. Gonachkhir in translation means "bottleneck" and this name is fully justified: only the river and the narrow lane are placed in the gorge.
  The opposite slope is all green, a continuous moss carpet covers rocks and stones. The flow of water in the river is rapid and often goes under the awnings of washed rocks. On the rocks, you can also see the indentations - boilers washed with water when the bottom level was higher.
  With two serpentines, the road rises high above the river and, rounding the turn, again goes into the forest. From the turn there is a view of the gorge of Gonachkhir just passed.

We cross the bridge over Gonachkhir, leading to the left bank. In the valley, the right sunny slope is covered with pine forest, the left is shaded by dark coniferous species (fir and spruce). On the slopes, along the path of movement of snow avalanches, lie wide strips of oppressed deciduous forest and shrubs.

After three kilometers, behind a small open meadow, the road crosses the bridge to the left bank. But after four kilometers, he returns to the right again. Behind the second bridge, a view of the valley of the Bu-Elgen River opens to the right.

In the depths of it rises the huge wall of Dombay-Elgen. The North Kluhor and Bu-Yelgen rivers merge just above the bridge, below which the river takes the name Gonachkhir.

Behind the mixed forest there is a large, open meadow - this is the floodplain of the Northern Kluhor River. Ahead are the peaks of Hockel and Chotcha. To the left, on the slope, is a small remnant lake-Tumany-kel.
They decided to make a big halt with lunch on the shore of Lake Tumany Köl. In a specially designated place, a fire was built and millet porridge with beef stew was cooked. For dessert, tea with sugar. Our Murmansk companions are brewing something of their own.

The leader of their group did not make us any proposals to join, and we decided not to try to join their team, but to maintain friendly neutrality. In their group, mostly high school students, and we look with interest at their girls.
  We rested a bit and again on the road.
   Northern Kluhor and its tributaries spread over a wide flood plain. From the lake, the road goes along a treeless slope, gradually gaining height. On the way there are stormy streams: Kti-Muruju and Aruchat.

Beyond the Aruchat River, a tall coniferous forest grows, rare in this highland. Short serpentines, the road rises along the slope and overlooks a rocky meadow. From here you can see the waterfall of the North Kluhor River when it exits the lake, as well as the last climb to it, a serpentine on a steep slope.

Below the road you can see the houses of the weather station. Soon, a tired group enters the Northern Shelter tourist camp. Here, before going to the Klukhor pass, we stop for the night. It soon begins to get dark. We make a fire, cook simple food and, having sat with new companions around the fire, go to bed. Tomorrow is an almost 30 kilometer path from the North to the South Shelter.
  At seven o'clock rise. A simple breakfast, and again on the road.
  You can go from the Northern Shelter to the pass along a reliable path, but it is too steep for our group and the instructor suggested walking along the serpentine road. The higher the road rises, the wider the view.

The buildings below at the North Shelter seem very small. Countless turns are tiring, sometimes you want to “cut off” a site, significantly shortening the path, but we decided not to leave the group. After several hours of tiring climb, the picturesque Kluhor Lake appeared to the right.

It lies in a deep rocky notch. Its size is about 500 meters, the water has a greenish-turquoise color. From the lake flows the stream of the North Kluhor River, which, after several meters, falls from the cliffs of the Klukhor Falls. From the south a gently sloping Kluhor Glacier descends to it.

We get off the road and stop at the lake for lunch. From the lake - a wide view of the Gonachkhir Valley and the Teberdinsky section of the Main Range. Having had lunch and a rest, we go on a journey. At the source of the Klukhor River, through an impromptu crossing, we cross the river and, bypassing the smoothed stones, “lamb foreheads”, as their conductor called them, climb the path around the lake.

And the road we left leads a circular climb on the other side of the lake. Now the steep path has gone along the snowfield, it is becoming increasingly difficult to go, the height affects. Finally, we climb the steep scree onto the crest of the main Caucasian ridge. We make a brief stop. The Klukhor Lake is green below.

Above it rises the rocky mass of Kluhor-Bashi with a serpentine of the Military-Sukhumi road. The valleys of Southern Kluhor, Klych, Klych ridge are clearly visible, in the direction of Teberda the view is closed. From the saddle to the Southern Shelter, another 1.5 kilometers in height and four hours in time.

We descend along a steep scree to the gently sloping part of the valley, the bottom of which is covered by a swampy meadow, and after a mile and a half we exit to a large stone. From here, the hiking trail rushes steeply down, cutting off the zigzags of the old road. When descending, to the right of Mount Klych-Karakai, the edge of the glacier is clearly visible.

The trail runs along the main Caucasian ridge and soon enters the zone of alpine pastures. We cross the stream with a waterfall over a snow bridge. The descent is getting steeper. To the left appears the Nakhar Falls and above it is the spacious grassy saddle of the Nahar Pass.

Serpentines of the old road go along both stony sides of the valley. The gorge turns south, and we move on its starboard side. Along the way, there are snowfields, the remains of spring avalanches. We descend along the curved forest, consisting of stone birch, maple and beech. Waterfalls are whipping right from the cliffs onto the road.

The last kilometers to the southern shelter we go along the old Military Sukhumi road. The southern shelter is located in the upper Kodori Gorge, on the right bank of Klych at an altitude of 1250 m above sea level, among huge firs. Near the narzan source and entrance to the gorge Achapara.

In the South Shelter, a tourist group to which we joined was waiting for a car, but there were no seats for us on the bus. Therefore, we decided to spend the night, and the next day to go in the direction of the village of Azhary, to which about 20 kilometers along the chassis.
Saying goodbye to the group, we went to the Narzan springs located next to the huts of the Southern Shelter, in the circle of the river that flows into Klych. There, having found a suitable site, they made a fire, had supper and, having put up a tent, went to bed.

The next morning, we crossed the bridge over Klych and reached the Sukhumi Military Road, which runs along the left bank of the river. After about two hours of travel, from above, from the road they saw Klych waterfall. We came closer and made a short stop, watching the water fall with a powerful stream from a 50-meter ledge.

After Klychsky waterfall, the road went monotonously down, among the mighty broad-leaved forests of beech, birch and maple. After another hour of running, to the right of the road appeared the ruins of the walls, made of well-crafted stone blocks. Here in the early Middle Ages passed the defensive lines of the Abkhaz kingdom.

After a quick look at the fortress, we went further and soon entered the Svan village Omarisharu, which is spread out on both sides of the Sukhumi Military Road. Immediately after Omarishara, the road running along the right bank of the Gvandra River, tributary of Klycha separated from the asphalt highway, and the main road went along the bridge and further along the left bank of Gvandra to the village of Gentsvishi, located in a vast green hollow near the confluence of Klych and Gvandra.

After the merger, the river is called the Kodor. Part of the village of Gentsvishi is located on the right bank of the Kodor. There our road leading through the bridge led, half a kilometer below the confluence of the rivers. Kodori Gorge from the confluence of rivers to the right tributary of the Kodor

Chhalty is a wide, calm valley. The village of Azhara, the center of the Abkhaz Svaneti, drowning in gardens, freely spreads in it. After the accession of these places to the Russian Empire, the entire mountain population of the Kodori Valley moved to Turkey, and at the end of the 19th century these people were taken by people from Svaneti.
  That summer, when we were there, Azhara was a large village, with three thousand inhabitants. In the village there was a leshoz office, a sawmill, a collective farm board, a post office, and a shop. Then we could not have imagined that in thirty years these places would become the scene of new military operations.

First, during the confrontation between Georgia and Abkhazia. In this war, local Svans will fight on the side of Georgia. Then, with the restoration of “constitutional order”, when the field commanders of the Kodori Valley will fight with Georgia.

In 2008, during the Georgian attack on South Ossetia, Abkhaz units will knock out Georgian troops from the Kodori Gorge. And together with the Georgian troops, almost the entire Svan population of Abkhaz Svaneti will leave, leaving their homes. And then, in July 1964, we went into a rural cafe, ordered a plate of kharcho, and a portion of pasties.

While we were having lunch and discussing what to do next, a bus with military numbers stopped at the cafe. It turned out to be a transport of the Kudepst military camp, which was carrying a group of tourists from the South Shelter. The instructor of the group turned out to be a guy familiar to Igor, with whom he went camping two years ago. There were seats on the bus, and we could not think about how to get to Kudepsta.

By 22 o’clock in the evening we were at the camp site, and putting off the question of negotiations with the leadership until the morning, we went to a familiar meadow, where we were allowed to put up a tent last summer.
  The rest of the vacation was spent in Kudepst. It did not differ much in content from last year's rest. In the afternoon, the beach, evening dancing or romantic walks in the moonlight.

The only exception was a trip to Cape Pitsunda, where we spent three days sunbathing and swimming in the most transparent sea on the entire Black Sea coast, pitching a tent for the night under the crowns of long coniferous pine relic groves.

The identity of the season and place, led to the fact that in my memory the events of those years were messed up. And when in 2010 I received an unexpected letter on the Internet - a reminder of those distant, happy years, I still could not figure out with certainty in which year these romantic meetings took place in 1963 or 1964. Although I immediately remembered the young, pretty Helen, with whom he was friends that summer.

My correspondent, accidentally stumbling upon my page in Prose.ru, writes:
  “... it seemed that I would recognize you without even knowing the name of the author. It was strange then to see yourself in an apartment in the south-west of Moscow, and not in the middle of a cucumber field in Kudepst. ” I don’t remember the cucumber field, but Lenochkin’s expressive eyes and lush, fair hair still stand before my eyes when I remember that summer vacation.
  The great thing is the Internet!

Teberda-Klukhor pass

Of the three crossroads of the Caucasus - the Georgian Military, Military Ossetian and Military Sukhumi, the latter is justly considered the most beautiful of all, and its best section, the Teberda-Klukhorsky Pass resort, passes through the territory of the Teberdinsky Reserve. The distance from the resort of Teberda to the pass is 43 km, to Sukhumi - 171 km.

When leaving the resort there is a control post of the reserve, further movement is allowed only by passes. Kilometers are given from the bridge of the resort of Teberda, with reference to the names existing here. On the fourth kilometer, a narrow road lies high above the river beyond the control post. Ahead to the south, a familiar panorama opens up: Sofruju and Belaly-kaya.

The control post is the border beyond which grazing from the village is not allowed, and this border is clearly visible on the green shoots. She accompanies the road all along her path and higher, on the rise to the pass, pioneer trees are already leading an attack on mountain meadows. The cessation of cattle grazing and unsystematic driving after the organization of the reserve caused an intensification of the processes of natural reforestation.

Beyond the fifth kilometer, a small clearing-Chomalov kosh comes across; here, at the beginning of the summer, on the slope you can see the avalanche from the slope of Devil's Castle. The road goes along the coastal terraces through the coniferous forest, revitalized by small clearings. At the end of the seventh kilometer the road goes around a low rocky ledge, here is the beginning of the path to the valley and to the lakes. At 0.5 km there is a bridge over the Ullu-Muruja river, which flows in a beautiful stormy stream in the corridor of coniferous forest. Behind the bridge, the road goes around a rocky ledge. On the contrary, across the river Teberda, there is a bifurcated gorge of Hadzhibey (to the right) and Baduk (to the left).

From the turn there is a wide view of the Teberda valley with snowy peaks to the south and with a wide branched network of river channels. At the twelfth kilometer is the Gedeij River, with bright water, characteristic of non-glacial food sources.

Then a floodplain opens, often flooded by the river Teberda. The meadow is called Keptala (round meadow). Behind it, a powerful moraine rampart, now overgrown with forest, crosses the road — traces of the activity of an ancient glacier. At the edge of the moraine (from the south) flows a small river Tsvetochnaya, with clean, clear water, overgrown with aquatic vegetation.

On the contrary, across the river Teberda, you can see the Small Hutya waterfall. Snow avalanches often slide along its gorge, often blocking the valley and reaching the bridge through the Flower River. At the fifteenth kilometer, the road goes to the bank of Gonachkhir and turns east, to the Klukhor pass.

Before the turn there is a house of road repairmen. A bridge has been thrown across the Gonachkhir River. This is the road to Dombay. Gonachkhir in translation means "bottleneck" and this name is fully justified: only the river and the narrow lane are placed in the gorge. The opposite slope is all green, a continuous moss carpet covers rocks and stones. And it’s hard to imagine that behind this forest passes the overgrown old bed of Gonachkhir with a well-preserved estuarine step of the trough. The flow of water in the river is rapid and often goes under the awnings of washed rocks. On the rocks, you can also see the indentations - boilers washed with water when the bottom level was higher.

With two serpentines, beautifully decorated with stone retaining walls, the road rises high above the river and, rounding the turn, again goes into the forest. From the turn there is a view of the gorge of Gonachkhir just passed. Early in the morning you can meet chamois here, coming to the river and salt licks, laid down for them by the reserve. Rocks overgrown with grass and forest, their favorite place. In winter, they are often on the road, under an overhanging cliff.

At the nineteenth kilometer, a small meadow. Here are the construction of road workers and the cordon of the reserve. It overlooks the headwaters of Northern Kluhor. The main ridge is not visible, since it is closed by the Mussa-Achitar ridge, which rises beyond the river. Against the cordon is an ancient cave cemetery (X-XI centuries). Once there was a collapse of large boulders. In the chaos of their piling up, in caves and voids, there are ancient burials, plundered and devastated, but above, in the rocks, they may still have remained untouched. Burials were in pine decks and under stones. Coal and bark were found in burials, probably as a means of preserving the body during transportation.

A bridge was built at the cordon across Gonachkhir, leading to the left bank. In the Gonachkhir Valley, the influence of the slope exposure is clearly and clearly visible: the right sunny slope is covered with pine forest, the left is shaded with dark coniferous species (fir and spruce). On the slopes along the path of snow avalanches are wide strips of oppressed deciduous forest and shrubs. At 22 km, behind a small open glade, the road, bypassing the avalanche section, crosses the bridge to the left bank and further, at 26 km, returns to the right.

Behind the second bridge, a view of the Bu-ulgen river valley opens to the right ("the deer is killed"). In the depths of it rises the huge wall of Dombay-ulgen ("the bison is killed"). A little above the bridge, the rivers Northern Klukhor and Bu-ulgen merge, below which the river takes the name Gonachkhir.

Behind the mixed forest there is a large, open meadow - this is the floodplain of the Northern Kluhor River. Ahead are the peaks of Hockel and Chotcha. To the left, on the slope, is a small remnant lake-Tumany-kel. The rivers North Kluhor and its tributaries Kti-Muruju, Aruchat (left), Chotcha (right) are spreading over a wide floodplain. The floodplain is swampy, it is the bottom of an ancient lake. At present, after the termination of cattle grazing, it is overgrown with deciduous forest, but it will remain undergrowth, since the valley is blocked by avalanches.

From the lake, the road goes along a treeless slope, gradually gaining height. Stormy streams meet along the way: Kti-Muruju (Malaya Muruju) and Aruchat. Beyond the Aruchat River, a tall trunk coniferous forest grows, the last on this section of the northern slope of the Main Range.

The last inhabited point on the northern slope of the Main Range is the Northern Shelter, or, as it is more commonly called the “34th kilometer”. A tent camp has been organized here, where tourists spend the night before going to the Kluhor Pass, and a meteorological station. Directly above them, across the river, you can see the Chotchi cliffs, the right-wide gorge of the Chotchi river with a glacier in its depths; above it are the slopes of Bu-ulgen and in the foreground the peak of Dotakh-kai. With short serpentines, the road rises along the slope and overlooks a rocky meadow at the thirty-eighth kilometer. From here you can see the waterfall of the North Kluhor River when it exits the lake, as well as the last climb to it, a serpentine on a steep slope.

At the end of the ascent, the path of the old Sukhumi Military Road, the so-called Turkish path, approaches the modern road. The higher the road rises, the wider the view. The buildings below at the North Shelter seem very small.

Having rounded a low "ram's forehead", the road goes to Lake Klukhor (2,269 m above sea level). It lies in a deep rocky notch. From the south a gently sloping Kluhor Glacier descends to it. About 30 years ago, he reached the shore, now he retreated and in his place a new moraine lake formed, the shore of which is partially the edge of the ice.

Above the lake is the Chowluchatsky glacier. The streams flowing from it fall into waterfalls, one of them is called Adam-Krylgan ("The man died"), the memory of the accident here. The road goes around the lake and it remains to the right: the old "Abkhazian" path goes along the rocks to the glacier, leaving the lake to the left. From the lake - a wide view of the Gonachkhir Valley and the Teberdinsky section of the Main Range. It should be borne in mind that the view is limited from the pass: the valleys of the Southern Kluhor, Klych, Klych ridge are visible, but the view is closed towards the Teberda.

The best option to climb to the Klukhor pass from the Northern Shelter along the serpentines is without straightening the road. This is a tireless climb and more interesting in terms of species. There are two ways from the lake to the pass: along the road, if rubble is cleared, and along the Abkhazian path, crossing the river at the source. The trail rises along the rocks above the lake, then goes onto the glacier and along it approaches the saddle of the pass. The road passes the pass slightly higher. The view from the pass is open only to the south.

Descent must be done along the path, as serpentines greatly lengthen it.

In August 1942, Nazi troops tried to break through the Klukhor pass, but were detained. The remains of bomb shelters and destroyed dugouts remind of the fierce battles that were here. The closest exit to the Black Sea was closed to the Nazis, and they suffered heavy losses here. Glade on the thirty-eighth kilometer is also called a German cemetery.

Usually, the Klukhor pass is considered only as a transit route to Sukhumi. Meanwhile, the pass and its region is an end in itself of good tourist routes, not tiring, but informative. Now, if there is a road, the route to the pass can be one-day with access and return by car, but even in this case, the Klukhor pass will not lose its significance as a tourist route.

The military-Sukhumi road, built at the end of the 19th century, is considered the most beautiful of the three crossing roads connecting the Black Sea coast with the Ciscaucasia. And its most picturesque section “Teberda - Klukhor Pass” has become a favorite tourist route.

This way, tourists usually go to the Black Sea coast to Sukhumi, to which 171 from Teberda kilometer.

First 34 kilometers abouttons of tourist camps to the North Shelter, tourists drive on a bus. The road winds along the banks of the Teberda River. Outside the bus window, pine forests run, then alternating dark coniferous higher up the valley. Steep wooded slopes rise to the left, to the right in the gaps between the trees a wide floodplain of the river flashes, divided by channels into low islands. From time to time there are forest glades bordered by the light greens of birches and beech trees.

AT 5 kilometersa stormy stream, bearing the sonorous name of "Shumka" crosses the road from the village. From here the highway makes a sharp turn and after 3-4 kilometersruns out into the wide clearing Chomalov kosh. The road crosses the clearing with an even ribbon and again dark fir and fir trees surround it on both sides. Soon the road runs to the bridge through the wide rumbling stream of Ullu-Muruju (Big Muruju), one of the largest tributaries of Teberda.

Then the road crosses another tributary of Teberda - Gedeij. Behind it is the Keptala glade, on which the reserve cordon is located. A kilometer from the clearing to the left appears a swampy area with dry, dead tree trunks, on the contrary - the so-called; A flower glade, a small transparent one flows through it: a river. Here is a monument to fighters, road builders during the war.

On the 15th kilometer, bypassing the house of road repairmen, the road goes to the bank of the Gonachkhir river and bifurcates here: one goes south through Gonachkhirsky: the bridge is the road to Dombai, the other turns east into the narrow Gonachkhir gorge and curls, climbing steep serpentines , over a frantically bubbling river, clamped in a stone vise.

Across the river, going down to the very shore, peaked dark green spruce spruce up, a soft, fluffy carpet of mosses covered rocks and boulders. And on the opposite, sunny slope, along inaccessible, steep rocks, unpretentious red-trunk pines climb high up. It is dry and hot, smells of tar and juniper, nimble rocky lizards doze on warm stones. And the road runs farther and farther and at the 19th kilometer goes to the cordon of the Gonachkhir reserve.

Behind the cordon on the right in a small clearing is a mass grave with a modest obelisk. Here - the road builders who died under an avalanche in 1944 are buried.

A few more kilometers of the way - and the valley is covered by a huge cone of avalanche removal, overgrown with a young birch forest. In this place, the rivers Northern Klukhor and Bu-ulgen merge, forming the Gonachkhir river. The floodplain of the Kluhor River spread wide further. This is the bottom of a large subglacial lake, which previously occupied an area of \u200b\u200b600--800 hectare(5,5 kilometerslengths and 1 - 1,5 kilometerswidth).

Currently, its bottom is filled with pebbles, and the river here forms countless channels between which sections of sedge bogs alternate with meadows, curtains of willow and birch. Only at   At the foot of the Gonachkhir Range, a small elongated lake, Tumany-köl, or Trout Lake, with surprisingly clear, clear, bluish water, has been preserved. Greatest depth its 23 meter.

The northern shore of the lake is steep and high. A small stream runs from it with cheerful trickles. The rest of the coast -: flat. On warm summer days, it is quite possible to swim here, as the water is warmed well by the sun. The lake is home to large trout, reaching 3 kilogramweight. The slopes of the ridges above the lake are almost treeless as a result of avalanches that reach great power and great destructive power in other years.

In 1963, for example, an avalanche crashed into a lake, splashed its water all the way to the river, and in summer instead of a blue clean mirror, dirty lumps of un-melted snow opened up to the eyes of those passing by. Only in the fall the snow finally melted and the lake was restored. Not far from the lake, the Gitch-Muruju gorge (Malaya Muruju) opens on the left with slopes covered with fir forests with a small admixture of pine.

Fir forests with gaps in the avalanches are stretched to the very Northern Shelter. Northern Shelter is a tourist camp, from where groups of tourists in an organized manner go through the Klukhor pass. There is also a high-altitude weather station operating year-round.

Across the river are the stone ledges of Mount Chotcha, covered with birch twig and tall dark fir. Under their canopy, continuous thickets of Caucasian rhododendron. Occasionally, Pontic rhododendron is also found here. From the west, at the foot of the mountain, the wide and short valley of the Chotcha River goes around.

Tourists make the further way on foot, going to the Kluhor Lakes, the pass and the Black Sea. Although there is a road going up, with short dizzy serpentines almost to the pass itself, it is not always possible to drive along it, as it often happens - it is covered with stones that have fallen from above.

A shorter path to the pass along a steep path originating in a sparse forest edge, overgrown with subalpine tall grass - giant hogweeds and angelica, among which there are flickering dark purple and sulfur-yellow candles of the tax collectors, orange hats of elecampane, purple and bluish bells. On stony placers - thickets; raspberries.

The trail is getting steeper and cooler and finally coming to the first waterfall. This Northern Kluhor, having cut through the rocks smoothed by the glacier, falls into the Hokkel valley and merges here with the Hokkel river. Above the waterfall, the horizon is expanding. The trail goes into a wide hollow, on the bottom of which Kluhor flows.

Thickets of the Caucasian rhododendron descend to its very shores along the northern slope; with them, lilac “streams” of geranium run down with wide hollows, covered either with dark green lingonberry or with bright yellow anemone. And at the end of summer, orange lights of saffron Sharoyan, an ancient plant that came to us from the arid places of the Mediterranean, appear.

Animals are extremely rare here: they avoid places often visited by people. Only occasionally a graceful chamois glides between the rocks between the rocks, somewhere above, in the mountains a clear silhouette of a mighty tour flashes and is empty again, only the sound of pebbles breaking out of hasty hooves is heard.

Even rarer in the early morning or evening dawn with a long whistle, dissecting the air, a large black bird will rush over the gorge and descend on the slope overgrown with rhododendron. This Caucasian grouse flew in to enjoy the delicate greenery of alpine grasses.

Ahead you can see the rise to the lake, from which the Northern Kluhor rushes out with a small stream, then overthrowing by a high and noisy waterfall. On both sides of it, closer to the water, are the soft-lilac hats of the ear-shaped primrose and core, and a little further - a whole sea of \u200b\u200bgolden heads of dream grass and a leotard.

The last climb - and the road goes to the rounded bluish-green Kluhor Lake, lying in a stone bowl at an altitude of 2700 meters   above sea level. Its area is 12 hectare,maximum depth 30 meters. It is only freed from ice in July, and already freezes at the end of September. Streams from two glaciers feed it, one of which, Klukhorsky, has receded significantly in recent years, forming a new lake, constantly covered with ice.

The relatively flat southern shore of Lake Klukhor is replete with yellow, green and blue spots of alpine carpets. From the east and northeast it is surrounded by gloomy masses of almost sheer cliffs with long plumes of gray stony scree and white snow cornices.

Early in the morning in these places it is often possible to hear a loud whistle of overlapping ular, although the birds themselves are very difficult to see. They are extremely careful and at the slightest danger skillfully hide between stones.

Above the lake on the right there is a monument erected on the mass grave of Soviet fighters who died here in August 1942 in a battle with Nazi invaders. On the opposite side of the lake is visible; the tape of the old Sukhumi military road punched in a stone wall. The trail rises along the rocks, leaving lakes on the left, goes to the glacier and goes out to the saddle of the pass through dense firn snow (2786 meters), on which stands an obelisk.

Here, after fierce fighting during the Great Patriotic War, the fascist troops were stopped, trying to break through the Klukhor pass to the Black Sea. The trail descends along the steep southern slope of the Main Caucasian Range - among huge blocks of gneisses, granites, slates - traces of a retreating glacier. After 4-5 hours of walking, the houses of the South Shelter are shown. Sukhumi remains 109 kilometers.