War Reserve: Journey to Tyuters Island. Bolshoi Tyuters Island Tyuters Island during the war

In the Baltic, on an island Big Tyuters, sum up the interim results of the expedition to search for and remove equipment from the Great Patriotic War

The event, organized by the Russian Geographical Society together with the Ministry of Defense, started in early May and will end on August 14. In less than four months, searchers must comb the island, collect German military equipment, which it is full of, and take it to the mainland. This is the first such expedition: before that only sappers worked here. According to experts, the island can be called unique: wild, almost uninhabited (only two people at the lighthouse), crammed like a museum under open air, artifacts abandoned 70 years ago.

Eight square kilometers of taiga and stone

We depart from Levashovsky military airfield. The weather is flyable, despite the low purple sky. Several officers of different branches of the military are loaded on board. And two soldiers with a can for berries.

“We asked, they took us,” they share, informing along the way that they still have a whopping 4 months left until the end of their service. - Interesting! There will be something to tell at home...

Bolshoi Tyuters, which, if you look at the map, lies near Estonia and Finland, is about an hour’s flight, 180 kilometers. The island came under the jurisdiction of our country back in 1721, when Peter I defeated the Swedes in the Northern War. In 1920 it suddenly became part of independent Finland. 20 years later he returned to us again. After three years the Finns and Germans ruled there. Since 1944 he has been Russian again.

Throughout the post-war period, these eight square kilometers of stone and taiga have been empty: unnecessarily. Yes, and dangerous. Until 2005, when sappers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations came to the island, it was filled with shells and mines.

From the porthole, Tyuters looks like a cozy green fluffy hat in the middle of the water. When lowered, extensive sand dunes on the banks, stepped rock formations. On the western shore there is a lighthouse match. A thread of forest road stretches through the island. And the expedition camp: white military tents, cargo equipment.

Key to Gulf of Finland

Let's unload. The strong smell of pine needles hits your nose. There is an unusual silence in my ears.

We change into a UAZ and, using the cab to pick up tree branches along the winding path, we drive to the site of one of the finds. A month ago, there, in the windfalls, they discovered a curious specimen - a Wehrmacht anti-aircraft gun.

The island, I must say, looks truly wild. But in past centuries there was a large Finnish fishing village here, there was a wooden church, a school, and later a narrow-gauge railway.

During World War II, the garrison of German troops on Tyuters amounted to 2 thousand soldiers: one person per four square meters! And it is no coincidence - together with neighboring Gogland and a couple of smaller islands, this ridge played a strategic role - the key to the Gulf of Finland. Whoever owned the archipelago controlled the entrance to the bay. Between the islands, the Germans stretched anti-submarine nets and laid mine chains. Gogland was controlled by the Finns, Bolshoi Tyuters by the Germans. Ours made attempts to return them, but to no avail. That is why our Baltic Fleet stood, not entering into major battles until 1944, locked in Kronstadt and Leningrad...

Each field kitchen tank contains a grenade

On one of the hills across the road there is a Ural tractor and a truck crane. Nearby is the same gun - an 88-mm Bofors cannon.

“It was produced in Sweden,” the head of the expedition, General Valery Kudinsky, explains. — One of the best examples of anti-aircraft weapons of that time: automatic, reliable. Her condition is at the moment satisfactory. Cleaned, restored - and almost like new. They also found ammunition in the ground nearby: 80 shells in oiled paper. They used these very guns to hit our planes.

The search work, the general explains, has now been completed. From May to June, members of the expedition combed the island length and breadth: they walked in chains, 20 - 30 meters from each other. Now the task is to deliver what was found to the pier. A total of 207 objects were discovered. 137 of them need to be pulled out using heavy equipment - these same tractors and cranes. Half are already on the shore, half in the forest. Among the finds are anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft fire control posts, field kitchens, searchlights, trailers of various capacities, and fuel barrels.

All without exception, it must be said, are out of order. The Germans left the island hastily. They abandoned everything and left this land on September 18, 1944. Guns and trailers were blown up. There is a grenade in each field kitchen tank. There are several through shots into each barrel...

All-terrain vehicles and helicopters

It takes about half an hour to load the cannon. Despite its seemingly compact size, it does not fit entirely onto the tractor. During transportation, on one of the hills it falls creakingly onto the stones. Again we have to adjust the crane, hook the cable...

At the pier we are met by the deputy head of the director of the expedition center of the Russian Geographical Society and the main inspirer of the entire process, Artem Khutorskoy.

“You have to tinker with almost every object like this,” he says. — But some things cannot be removed with wheeled vehicles at all - rocks, windbreaks. We will try by air, using a helicopter.

And he adds that, despite the difficulties, all the work is a joy. They dreamed of this project for many years and studied archives, including German ones. But it was impossible to just pick up and go here—considerable funds were needed. Last December, the project was presented to the President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu, and the Minister of Defense gave the go-ahead: go ahead.

Three-inch gun, unfound aircraft

The result of the work of the military and geographers is obvious: there is a picturesque pile of metal near the pier. For specialists, all of these are valuable exhibits, which in the near future will probably take their place in various military museums across the country.

“Here are the fuel barrels, standard, two-hundred-liter,” says Khutorskoy. — From several countries at once. German, Finnish, Latvian, French. Look at their round timbers - you can make a whole collection here! Or another very interesting object: a three-inch cannon, manufactured in 1917 at the Putilov plant. It went to independent Finland. And she fought against us during the Great Patriotic War...

- What about the people who died? - I’m interested.

— As for the Germans, from 1941 to 1944 about 20 soldiers died on Bolshoi Tyuters for various reasons. We found the site of a possible cemetery - eight name tags were found there, which were attached to grave crosses. But the Nazis suffered the main losses in neighboring Gogland. In 1944, when Finland had already withdrawn from the war, the Germans decided to intercept Gogland - it could have gone to us! At first they tried to negotiate peacefully, then they began to intimidate, and in the end they sent their troops there. And the Finns - yesterday's German allies - gave them a serious rebuff. Moreover: they requested air assistance from the Soviet troops - this became the only similar case during the Great Patriotic War. Then ours and the Finns completely defeated the Nazis: up to 700 Germans died, went missing, and were wounded.

- And ours are here, on Bolshoi Tyuters?..

— There were losses. And when we left in '41. And when in 1942 they tried to storm it twice. It is known that later two of our scouts landed here. But they went missing. They lie in the swamps soviet planes- one or two. The lighthouse says that as a boy he remembers the tail of a plane in one of the swamps. But where is unclear. We found parts of the fuselage skin. Nothing more...

Delivery of equipment to the pier will continue in the next two weeks. Then - sending on landing boats to Kronstadt, placement at one of the military arsenals Leningrad region. It is likely that in the coming years, teams will begin work on this patch in the middle of the Gulf of Finland to search for dead soldiers.

By the way

As part of the Russian expedition Geographical Society and the Ministry of Defense at the end of July - beginning of August, search activities are also carried out on the island of Gogland. Unlike Bolshoi Tyuters, only search engines work on Gogland, who are engaged in discovering the burial places of our soldiers ( military equipment was taken from here almost immediately after the war). According to preliminary data, about 500 Red Army soldiers died and were buried here. Work on the island is carried out by a search group of the North-West association of 16 people (including various detachments of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region). This is the first such large-scale event. Currently, many household items and weapons of both Soviet and Finnish soldiers have been discovered - grenades, shells, rifle shields, communication coils, flasks, mugs, spoons, teapots, sanitary stretchers. And the remains of one Red Army soldier: on a cigarette case found nearby, the surname is Sapozhnikov. The search is complicated by the rocky nature of the soil. The island's landing areas are currently being combed.

IN There are many islands, large and small, in the Gulf of Finland...
However, only a few will be able to name any islands other than Kotlin Island, on which Kronstadt is located. At the same time, there are very interesting and beautiful islands.

1. Kotlin Island
The most famous, most important and most populated island in the Gulf of Finland. The length of the island is about 12 km, the maximum width is less than 3 km, the area is about 16 square meters. km. The island is connected to the mainland by a road passing through a complex of flood protection structures (Dambe). On part of the island is the city of Kronstadt.

The island is located on the legendary routes “from the Varangians to the Greeks” and “from the Varangians to the Arabs”, and is mentioned in the 1269 agreement between Novgorod and the Hansa. The city that stood on this site was at least 500 years older than St. Petersburg. And given that the contract stated that ships would be reloaded on the island, “as it was in ancient times,” the city was much older. Subsequently, arriving merchants waited on the island for pilots from Novgorod, who led trade caravans across the Neva and Volkhov to Ilmen.

There is a legend according to which the Swedes, when landing on the Russian island, hastily fled, leaving a pot on the fire. This legendary bowler hat is depicted on the coat of arms of Kronstadt. The name Kotlin supposedly comes from the word “boiler”. According to another legend, Kotlin was named so because on old maps the neck of the Gulf of Finland east of the island resembled a cauldron.

On an islet dumped on the shallows south of Kotlin Island by Peter I in 1703, Fort Kronshlot was founded, which blocked the main fairway leading to the mouth of the Neva, where it was being built, for a potential enemy. new capital Empire - St. Petersburg. On May 7, 1704, the fortifications, which included two batteries on Kotlin Island, came into operation (the date of the founding of Kronstadt).

In 1723, a fortress was founded on Kotlin and given the name Kronstadt. Peter I considered Kronstadt part of the capital.

1. Gogland Island
This small granite island, located in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland, is one of the most famous islands Gulf of Finland. Gogland is located 180 km west of St. Petersburg. Its area is about 21 square meters. km, height - up to 176 m.

The basis of the island is granite, which forms many different-sized hills and valleys, where small fresh lakes glacial origin. The entire coastline is indented with hundreds of bays of all shapes and sizes.

Although the island is considered one of the most dangerous places for shipping in the Baltic, local residents have long been considered excellent sailors and were willingly hired as sailors on sailing ships.

The nature of Gogland is rich and diverse. There are about 700 species of vascular plants alone (for comparison, the same number of species are in the Leningrad and Pskov regions, which are tens of times larger than Gogland). Almost 80% of the island's territory is covered with coniferous and small-leaved forests. The foot of the rocks is covered with blueberries, raspberries, alpine currant and juniper bushes.

The fauna is represented by 25 species of beetles, 6 species of amphibians and reptiles, 126 species of birds (a quarter are listed in the Red Book of Nature of the Leningrad Region). As for mammals, their composition is unknown because it is constantly changing. Shrews and various mice are often seen here, sometimes white hare, squirrels and foxes, European mink, and raccoon dog.

Gogland is a Mecca for archaeologists and historians. Stone Age human sites, medieval pirates, the Battle of Hogland, envoys of Peter the Great, the death of "Lefort", "America", the Struve meridian, Popov's radio communication session in 1900, 300 years of wars, endless fortifications and dozens of sunken ships, battles of World War II, constant a change of owners, which ended only in 1947 with the return of the island home to Russia.

At the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, Alexander Popov tested his wireless telegraph on the islands of the archipelago, and from 1963 to 2012, Maly Vysotsky Island was leased from Finland. During this period, specialized expeditions to Maly Vysotsky, which did not belong to Finland, but temporarily did not belong to Russia, were popular among radio amateurs, and where a special call sign was used for communication sessions.

3. Sommers
Peter the Great gave this rocky island to his jester Jan Lacoste along with the mocking title of “Samoyed King”. It is located in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland.

The next time the island made its mark in Russian history was during the Great Patriotic War, and this happened under very tragic circumstances. In June 1942, Sommers, captured by Finnish troops, was recklessly landed by amphibious assault. The desperate battle lasted for three days, but the poor planning of the operation prevailed over the steadfastness and courage of the Soviet soldiers. Of the one and a half thousand Red Navy men who landed on this piece of land, none survived. The island was only liberated after Finland left the war in 1944.

4. Moshchny Island
It's pretty big island. It used to be densely populated. Now on the island there is only a small border post with a radio technical post and a post for illuminating the surface and underwater situation of the Leningrad naval base.

5. Big Tyuters and Small Tyuters
The two islands are located in the central part of the Gulf of Finland. There are lighthouses on both islands; the attendants are the only inhabitants of the islands. On Maly Tyuters there is a ringed seal.

Bolshoi Tyuters has long been known as the “island of death.” During the Second World War, the Germans mined it; in subsequent years, several attempts were made to clear the island of mines, but only the last seventh was successful. In 2005, Russian and Swedish specialists neutralized more than 30 thousand explosive objects. There are lighthouses on both islands, and members of the staff are the only inhabitants of Tyuters, with the exception of the ringed seal, which is very common on Maly.

6. Fox Island
One of the calmest and greenest islands, lost in Klyuchevskaya Bay of the Vyborg region. Beautiful forests with plenty of mushrooms and berries have been preserved here, as well as clean shores along which all kinds of fish swim and spawn.

This is perhaps one of the calmest and greenest islands of all those listed. There are no conservation restrictions and the island is quite popular place recreation for those who have a boat.

7. Virgin Islands
The Gulf of Finland has its own Virgin Islands. These are practically namesakes Virgin Islands that are located in the Caribbean Sea. South Virgin is especially interesting: there is a mysterious round labyrinth of pebbles, built by ancient people.

This labyrinth is called Paris: some say that in honor of the intricate streets of Paris, others say that this name comes from the Swedish word Paris, that is, church parish, and reflects the sacred essence of this place.

More information about the islands on the website

St. Petersburg, 6 am. In half an hour we will start on the “island of death” - that’s what it was called in the 70s. It acquired a sad reputation because the Germans mined it so much that our sappers died for decades after the war.

Many islands, due to geography or history, have their own purpose: Hong Kong is a commercial harbor, Pearl Harbor is a naval base, Tortuga is a pirate nest, and Ibiza is a luxury resort. Bolshoy Tyuters also has its own destiny.

In ancient times, Tyuters was a haven for Vikings, then a haven for smugglers. Here, Polish and Swedish privateers robbed merchants going to Narva, and here, it happened, they hid the loot. Northern granites, plowed by an ancient glacier, conceal many secluded places.

All Russian tsars, starting with Peter, attached great importance to protecting the capital of the empire from attack from the sea. The most important and most fortified defense centers were the islands of the Gulf of Finland. And the first to stand in the way of the enemy were two rocks: Gogland and Bolshoi Tyuters. During the war, fierce battles were fought for the islands. Our landing forces went on the assault. And the Germans and Finns held the defense.

Perhaps it was this small battle for Tyuters, lost by Soviet troops at the very beginning of the war, that made it possible for the Germans not only to maintain a long blockade of Leningrad, but also delayed our victory.

The only possible channel for heavy ships and submarines is exactly within firing range of their artillery guns from the island. This means whoever owned Tyuters owned the entire Gulf of Finland.

Over the past three centuries the island has been Swedish, Russian, Finnish, Russian again, German and Russian again. But there has never been a large population here. From the 18th century until 1940, it was only a village of Finnish fishermen. After the Winter War, little remained of it. There was also a Lutheran church, but it burned down relatively recently.

Thousands and thousands of ships pass by Tyuters every year. But over the past 60 years, almost no human has set foot on it.

Tyuters is amazingly beautiful. It’s so quiet that your ears are ringing. Mushrooms, fish, berries, rocks, forest, pure water. Here we could build sanatoriums, breathe the healing pine air and watch the sun set in the cool waters of the Baltic. But the war made its own adjustments to this picture.

The only intact structure on Tyuters is the lighthouse. There is no way without it, the fairway in these places is very difficult. So Big Tyuters shines at night: 1 second on, 1 second off, then 3 seconds on, 9 seconds off. Although the lighthouse is the most tall building on the island - 21 m, it’s impossible to see anything below from it. There were no people here for 70 years, the roads and buildings were overgrown, nature took its toll. Even traces railway- and here she was - covered by the crowns of silent Karelian pines.

In October-November 1939, more than 2,000 aerial bombs were dropped on Tyuters and 4,500 shells were fired. But it was, so to speak, just a shooting.

In October 1941, under German pressure, the island was abandoned by the Red Army, but the Soviet command quickly realized their mistake. The narrowness of the bay turned it into a trap - passage along the fairway became deadly dangerous for our ships. The fleet found itself locked in Kronstadt, as if in a mousetrap. IN New Year's Eve 1942, the Red Army landed on Tyuters and Marine Corps, but did not last long. There was no supply of food and ammunition, the reinforcements sent simply did not arrive: the ice on the Gulf of Finland was not yet strong, there were ice holes under it, and half a meter of icy water above it. The soldiers froze to death on the way, and few managed to return to the mainland.

Subsequently, it became increasingly difficult to take Bolshoi Tyuters. The Germans transferred so many forces and resources here that it became the largest stronghold among the islands of the Gulf of Finland, and installed batteries of large-caliber guns, anti-aircraft guns and naval guns on the island.

The Nazis, preparing for a serious battle in the Baltic, brought a fantastic amount of ammunition to the island. And the remaining part cannot be counted, but how many were fired at our ships? By our landings? After all, there was still a second landing. And the third. And the fourth. No one can say how many of our soldiers lie here.

It is believed that the Germans mined the area before fleeing the island in 1944. This is wrong. Studying German maps and documents, examining former minefields, you see that the most powerful fortifications of Tyuters did not appear suddenly. All three years that the Germans were on the island, they meticulously built up its defense. Others were added to one row of thorns, new mines were placed both between old ones and in new places, until the quantity and density of all this iron amounted to some fantastic value.

When the Germans left the island, he had not played the same for them for several months. strategic importance- in September 1944, the Red Army was already very far to the west. It seems that this is another example of Hitler’s stubbornness, clinging to such pieces of land even when there was no longer not only a strategic, but even a tactical need for them. And then they themselves and their garrisons turned into a burden that could no longer be taken care of and was not worth evacuating. Tyuters, obviously, also turned into such a burden - the thrifty Germans were unable, as usual, to take the equipment with them and limited themselves to damaging it.

And no matter how saturated Tyuters was with ammunition, there were even more of them in the strait between Tyuters and the island of Gogland. During the war in these waters, the Germans placed a total of several tens of thousands of mines at the Zeigl (Sea Urchin) minefield, almost half of them in the 9 and a half nautical miles between Gogland and Tyuters.

Under enemy fire, our minesweepers made passages in the minefields, and the Germans methodically dumped new mines into the strait - thousand after thousand.

During the war, only a few submarines of the Baltic Fleet crossed this deadly channel. The power of the fleet was not fully used, and the war left here only in 1944. And she didn't go far. How much explosive metal is at the bottom: lost submarines and boats with torpedoes, downed bombers with full ammunition, dozens of sunken transports with ammunition, several artillery ships with full magazines. These waters will remain unsafe for a long time. Such a concentration of combat losses in one place indicates the enormous importance the warring parties attached to the island.

Expedition

Today the island is the farthest part of Russia in the northwest. On the northern coast is Finland, on the southern coast is Estonia. Special border zone, special regime admission. But thanks to the assistance of border guards and a specially organized expedition of the Russian Geographical Society, we had the opportunity to find out what Bolshoi Tyuters, the most mysterious island in the Gulf of Finland, was, and answer the question of what exceptional significance it had for German forces in the Baltic. It’s not easy to talk about this, but perhaps it was this small battle for Tyuters, lost by Soviet troops at the very beginning of the war, that made it possible for the Germans not only to maintain a long blockade of Leningrad, but also delayed our victory.

Already close to the shore, our captain Andrei calls to the echo sounder - the device produces a strange signal. It looks like a ship. It’s impossible to hold on, you have to try to dive. The depth seems to be small.

Eight meters away lies a German landing barge, broken. Apparently, they were hit while approaching the island. Tyuters was an “island of death” not only for our soldiers, but for the Germans too.

I don’t want to study the barge in detail; it could be loaded with anything, including ammunition. Besides, we must hurry; we must have time to go ashore and set up camp before dark. And this is not such a simple matter in Tyuters.

The island has been deserted for more than 60 years. We looked for a long time for a place to land - there is not a single pier here. You have to unload directly from the ship.

What is so unusual about this small granite rock that is hidden in its depths? The road and place for camp here must be chosen very carefully. The sappers, of course, did an absolutely titanic job here - but God protects the safe. In the same way, we carefully choose our routes around the island.

In this place, more than anywhere else, you feel that Tyuters was the “island of death.” Here every meter is covered with twisted metal. And this feeling of irrationality here is very acute. This is the nature: pine trees, dunes - and these hundreds of tons of twisted metal. He is literally under your feet here.

As in every self-respecting story about mysterious island, we have old map. This is a diagram of the German fortifications of Tyuters during the war.

The first shelters and burial places were dug here back in the time of the Varangians. In tsarist times, artillery positions and gun magazines were built. The Finnish army, having received Tyuters from Russia, began a large construction of fortifications. Soviet troops before big war They also built their own fortifications - aboveground and underground. On our map - German map from the Abwehr archives - there is an interesting inscription. It states that there should be 15 underground structures on the island. And the last joint Soviet-Swedish mission to clear mines on the island discovered six bunkers on it. The remaining nine were never found. Maybe they didn’t search carefully, or maybe they hid these bunkers with skill? For how long?

But the most amazing thing is the technology. Cannons and machine guns, tractors, anti-aircraft guns, broken and completely intact - they seem to be under every bush. In the very places where they were left exactly 70 years ago.

Some of these rarities have been preserved only on this island, in a single copy. There are only a few others left. Be that as it may, any expert from any military museum in the world would give a lot to come to this amazing place.

Of course, a permanent large expedition should work here. After all, this island is still there in 1943. The guns look at the bay in the same way, shells are laid out in a row, barbed wire looks out from the dunes...

The group moves further along the shore, and I want to make my way to the center of the island. Those mysterious bunkers mentioned in German documents haunt me. Maybe it was because of them that ours so fiercely strove for the island, and the Germans defended it just as desperately? After all, in addition to landings, our sabotage groups were also sent to Tyuters, there is such information.

There are many versions about the purpose of the mysterious bunkers. The most interesting thing is, of course, that the valuables looted by the Nazis were kept here. After all, Army Group “North”, to which the Tyuters garrison belonged, marauded in these parts with all the breadth of its Teutonic soul. Pskov and Novgorod, Oranienbaum and Peterhof, Tsarskoe Selo, Gatchina and Strelna - many treasures and art objects were never found after the war either in Germany or anywhere else. Why don't the Germans store them here, under the protection of granite dungeons and powerful fortifications Tyuters?

During the war, the perimeter of the island was braided barbed wire in several rows. And mines - tens of thousands. And then - guns and machine guns point blank. Our troops landed here. It seems to me that advancing here, in the open, under dagger fire, across a minefield, is impossible, hopeless. If the cruisers and battleships of the Baltic Fleet had approached and mixed up the German defense with the fire of their twelve-inch guns, the landing would have succeeded. But the tragedy was that the ships of the fleet could navigate these waters only if the island was occupied by ours.

Another version: in these dungeons the Germans had a factory for the production and supply of ammunition. This, of course, is not the Amber Room, although there would be little left of amber in the dampness here.

In general, some kind of shelters or caches are often found here. And almost everywhere there are traces of human presence. But they are clearly not up to anything serious. For weapons production, larger sizes are needed, and for storing valuables - paintings, sculptures - special conditions are needed.

In general, the result is zero. Although why zero? Such caches - dugouts - found along the shores of the island involuntarily suggest the thought: what if these stone bags are our “mysterious bunkers”? And what the Germans called bunkers were in fact ordinary dugouts that the Germans used as housing and a place where they hid during our air raids. And the fact that previous expeditions failed to find them is not really surprising - they can only be discovered by carefully probing rock after rock, raking away rubble and climbing into every crevice.

The last day of our expedition was marked by one of the most amazing finds. On the western coast of the island we found traces of Soviet soldiers. Traces of those whose names, unlike most of the fighters who remained in these dunes, were preserved in old archives.

In the documents of the Leningrad Front there is fragmentary information about an attempt to send two groups of reconnaissance officers to Bolshoy Tyuters in order to identify enemy defense targets. The Germans immediately managed to capture one group of two people; the second, landed on the island on September 3, 1943, went missing. According to Abwehr data that was at our disposal, the Germans managed to identify light signals given by the group and attempts to go on air. 750 soldiers repeatedly combed the island, but could not find the group. Perhaps we were lucky enough to find the last refuge of our scouts.

At the beginning of the expedition, we asked ourselves the question: what if we managed to recapture Bolshoi Tyuters? Now there is confidence that a lot would change. Although history does not like the subjunctive mood. A little luck - and the Baltic Fleet, locked in the bay by Tyuters' artillery and mines, could fight for supremacy at sea. Our scouts fulfilled their duty to the end, and we must remember everyone who gave their lives on the altar of Victory. He who dies for his homeland never dies. So it was, let it remain so.

Big Tyuters (Finnish: Tytärsaari; Swedish: Tyterskär; Est: Tütarsaar - daughter island) - Russian island in the central part of the Gulf of Finland, located 75 km from the coast of Finland and southeast of Gogland. It is part of the Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region. The area of ​​the island is 8.3 sq. km.

The island of Bolshoi Tyuters in the Gulf of Finland was also called the “island of death” after the war. People continued to die there into the 1950s and 1960s.

The Finns and Germans captured the archipelago, located in the very center of the Gulf of Finland, at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. The islands of Gogland and Bolshoi Tyuters were of exceptional importance. After all, they are located right on the fairway, along which both military and civilian ships sailed in those years, and even now. The Finns then occupied the island of Gogland, and a German headquarters group and a large garrison were located on Bolshoi Tyuters. A powerful battery appeared there to fight the Soviet fleet. It is quite clear that the Nazis, preparing for a serious battle in the Baltic, brought a huge amount of ammunition to the island. In addition, for some time shells were produced right there. In their haste to leave the island, the Germans were unable to remove the accumulated arsenal. They acted insidiously - they mined the territory of the island, essentially turning it into one large mine. The Soviet paratroopers who landed on Tyuters in the summer of 1944 fell into this terrible trap.

There were repeated attempts to clear the fortifications and the territory of the mined island, both immediately after the war and then in the 1950s. In this case, many sappers died. In order not to kill people in vain, they decided to simply not touch the island. At the same time, a lighthouse appeared on Tyuters, which is still working. The population of the mined island still consists of one person - the hermit Leonid Kudinov, who maintains this very lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper lives on a small plot of land and gets everything he needs from Mainland and does not risk going far from home. After all, any careless step could be the last...

It is quite clear that ammunition was found on the ill-fated island. You don't even need to look for them too much. In dugouts, in warehouses, in open areas and underground, there are thousands of shells, mines, and bombs. Next to them you can see German guns that stood for 60 years. All this is mined and can fly into the air even with a slight impact.

In 2005, sappers from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, together with specialists from the Swedish Rescue Services Agency (SHASS), completed the demining of Bolshoi Tyuters Island in the Gulf of Finland.
Sappers discovered and destroyed 30 thousand 339 explosive objects from the Great Patriotic War on the island.

The expedition, which began on August 10, together with sappers from Sweden, included employees of the 294th Center for Special Risk Rescue Operations "Leader", the 179th Rescue Center and the North-Western Regional Center of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.
In addition to numerous mines, shells and aircraft bombs, sappers from the two countries discovered six buried fortifications on the island.