The largest military warehouses with weapons. Should we dispose of or store old small arms in army warehouses? “Well to Hell”: Kola superdeep well, Murmansk region

All gunpowder workers were given an urgent order to laugh at the statement of Russian lawyers in the Hague court that “the militia found weapons in the mines.” Ah-ah-ah, I'm laughing all over.
The gunpowder robots, drooling when they looked at the “Roshen” confection shown to them, rushed together to perform. Stories on television, articles, cartoons, posts on Twitter and social networks - in general, a complete propaganda set.
There’s just one thing I didn’t understand: what’s so funny, saucepans?
Didn’t anyone tell you, poor people, for example, about Soledar’s underground weapons warehouses, located precisely in the salt mines?

Well, yes, a tank will never enter such a mine. She's small, bgg

These mines store millions of conserved weapons, starting with Maxim and PPSh machine guns (which, by the way, I also saw among the militias at the beginning of the conflict) and ending with AK-47.
In addition to Soledar, there are similar underground warehouses, for example, in Artyomovsk, from where, in particular, the militia initially exported shots for the Grads.
And the list of underground warehouses does not end there.

Underground warehouse in Artyomovsk

There are also State Reserve storage facilities created in Soviet times. My dad, who served in the Soviet Army, talked about many kilometers of underground storage facilities into which trucks loaded everything from weapons, chocolate and stewed meat to frozen cow carcasses.
They were created to overcome possible crises. And is it surprising that when the crisis came, they were reactivated?
Are you still laughing “weapons in the mines, hahaha”, Maidan fools?

In addition, weapons were taken from the warehouses of military units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces located on the territory of the DPR and LPR. The garrisons were disarmed, and the contents of the gunsmiths and garages went to the militia.
Plus huge army warehouses near Lugansk. At the beginning of May 2014, all the contents were removed from there (now we can already tell), and then the empty warehouses, by agreement with the local officers, were blown up (to comply with formalities, such as they did not give weapons to the “separatists”). Ask the headquarters of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense what was stored in these warehouses if you don’t believe me.

Plus a cartridge factory in Lugansk. The same one that, according to junto media reports, was repeatedly “cut up and taken to Russia.” Continues to regularly produce cartridges and shells.
Still funny, deceived fools?

The fourth source of replenishment of the militia with weapons and equipment is Voentorg. But not the mystical Russian one, but the real Ukrainian one. The same one that Bezler was talking about. When you could buy an armored personnel carrier from warrant officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for 5 thousand dollars, and a tank for 10 thousand (wholesale discounts).
Then your fagot idols, Avakov and Turchinov, launched a whole cap competition to see which of them, through their structures, would sell more weapons and equipment to the militia. I'm still not sure which of them won. Keep jumping.

Well, the fifth source of equipment is boilers. The “Lostarmor” portal recorded (with photos and videos) 421 units of captured equipment that went to the militia from the boilers. Laugh, you fools, why aren't you laughing anymore?

As a result, only Colonel of the Information Operations Troops A. Rogers laughs - the stupid gunpowder robots were again given a broken manual.

The country's main defense department says that today Russian armories are literally overflowing with machine guns, sniper rifles and pistols that were produced more than 30 years ago. According to some data, the number of small arms in military arsenals at the beginning of 2012 was about 16 million guns, of which about 35-40% had expired. By the end of 2015, Anatoly Serdyukov’s department plans to dispose of about 4 million weapons.

This was received ambiguously in Russia. Some people are confident that maintaining and increasing the number of small arms in the country is a matter of national security, and therefore no disposal mechanisms in relation to the military arsenal are simply appropriate. Others say that the disposal of old small arms that expired a decade ago is long overdue.

There is a rather remarkable expert opinion, which boils down to the fact that reducing the number of military small arms by 4 million is too small a figure. It is necessary to carry out a larger reduction, leaving no more than 3-4 million units in the reserve arsenal.

All sides have their reasons. Representatives of the first side are confident that the Ministry of Defense is involved in a dubious project that could affect the army’s ability to solve a whole range of problems. The arguments in this case look something like this: small arms were created for the benefit of the Fatherland, and therefore their mass disposal is a blow to the security of the Russian army, which may be faced with the need to participate in a large-scale conflict.

The newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" directly states that the large-scale disposal of small arms initiated by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is similar to an episode more than 100 years ago, when Minister of War Sukhomlinov signed an order in which he allowed the disposal of about 400 thousand rifles of the Berdan No. 2 system . Adjutant General Sukhomlinov said in 1910 that these weapons only cluttered warehouses, and therefore they needed to either be sold or disposed of. However, after the outbreak of the First World War, problems appeared with the armament of the Russian army, which indicated the “flaw” of V.A. Sukhomlinov. Soon the head of the military ministry of imperial Russia was arrested and convicted of treason. Apparently, “MK” makes it clear that the disposal of small arms of the present times can lead to the same consequences as the disposal after the order of V.A. Sukhomlinov in the second decade of the 20th century.

Supporters of plans for the disposal of small arms, announced by Anatoly Serdyukov, are not inclined to dramatize. In their opinion, it is simply incorrect to compare the situation in 1910 and 2012, especially since we are talking about the disposal of small arms that have exhausted their service life. According to these people, if the industry does not work to actually support the army, but to stock exclusively warehouses, and without replacing old types of weapons with new ones, then there is no need to talk about modernizing the army.

Both positions are worthy of respect. Indeed, the permanent storage of old weapons does not fit into modernization plans. However, before mass disposal of anything, it is necessary to conduct an analysis of the production industry. If our enterprises are ready to fulfill all the points of the State Defense Order in terms of creating ultra-modern small arms that can become competitive, including on the world market, then the disposal of old weapons does not look scary. But it often happens that we first carry out total destruction, and then conversations and reflections begin on the fact that the idea was not reasonable and, therefore, began to be implemented in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Well, who will be accused of treason there, and whether such a person will be found in the event of unpleasant events, this is already a big question...

In this regard, so that no double judgments arise on the announced matter, the Ministry of Defense must provide a guarantee that all activities carried out do not go beyond the modernization framework and do not affect the country’s defense capability. And in this case there is only one guarantee - long-term contracts for the production of new high-precision, effective and reliable weapons, which must certainly be implemented.

By the way, at a time when 16 million guns are virtually abandoned in army warehouses, in modern schools life safety lessons (BZh) are generally prohibited from conducting lessons devoted to the study of training weapons... And if just recently a school graduate could add to his credit the fact that the lessons of basic military training revealed to him the basics of handling small arms, today many high school students have seen the Kalashnikov assault rifle, perhaps, depicted in numerous computer games...

After the collapse of the USSR, the young states inherited many once powerful military and scientific facilities. The most dangerous and secret objects were urgently mothballed and evacuated, while many others were simply abandoned. They were left to rust: after all, the economy of most newly created states simply could not support their maintenance; no one needed them. Now some of them represent a kind of mecca for stalkers, “tourist” sites, visiting which involves considerable risk.

“Resident Evil”: a top-secret complex on Vozrozhdenie Island in the Aral Sea

During Soviet times, a complex of military bioengineering institutes was located on an island in the middle of the Aral Sea, engaged in the development and testing of biological weapons. It was an object of such secrecy that most of the employees involved in the landfill maintenance infrastructure simply did not know where exactly they were working. On the island itself there were buildings and laboratories of the institute, vivariums, and equipment warehouses. In the town, very comfortable living conditions were created for researchers and military personnel in conditions of complete autonomy. The island was carefully guarded by the military on land and sea.

In 1992, the entire facility was urgently mothballed and abandoned by all occupants, including the facility's guards. For some time it remained a “ghost town” until it was discovered by looters, who for more than 10 years removed from the island everything that was abandoned there. The fate of the secret developments carried out on the island and their results - cultures of deadly microorganisms - still remains a mystery.

Heavy-duty “Russian Woodpecker”: Radar “Duga”, Pripyat

The Duga over-the-horizon radar station is a radar station created in the USSR for early detection of intercontinental ballistic missile launches by starting flashes (based on the reflection of radiation by the ionosphere). This gigantic structure took 5 years to build and was completed in 1985. The cyclopean antenna, 150 meters high and 800 meters long, consumed a huge amount of electricity, so it was built near the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

For the characteristic sound on air made during operation (knocking), the station was named Russian Woodpecker (Russian Woodpecker). The installation was built to last and could function successfully to this day, but in reality the Duga radar operated for less than a year. The facility stopped operating after the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion.

Underwater submarine shelter: Balaklava, Crimea

According to knowledgeable people, this top-secret submarine base was a transshipment point where submarines, including nuclear ones, were repaired, refueled and replenished with ammunition. It was a gigantic complex built to last, capable of withstanding a nuclear strike; under its arches, up to 14 submarines could be accommodated simultaneously. This military base was built in 1961 and abandoned in 1993, after which it was dismantled piece by piece by local residents. In 2002, it was decided to build a museum complex on the ruins of the base, but so far things have not gone beyond words. However, local diggers willingly take everyone there.

"Zone" in Latvian forests: Dvina missile silo, Kekava, Latvia

Very close to the capital of Latvia, in the forest there are the remains of the Dvina missile system. Built in 1964, the facility consisted of 4 launch shafts approximately 35 meters deep and underground bunkers. Much of the premises is currently flooded, and visiting the launch site without an experienced stalker guide is not recommended. Also dangerous are the remnants of toxic rocket fuel - heptyl, which, according to some information, remain in the depths of launch silos.

“The Lost World” in the Moscow region: Lopatinsky phosphate mine

The Lopatinskoye phosphorite deposit, 90 km from Moscow, was the largest in Europe. In the 30s of the last century, they began to actively develop it using the open pit method. At the Lopatinsky quarry, all main types of multi-bucket excavators were used - moving on rails, moving on tracks, and excavators walking at an “added” step. It was a giant development with its own railroad. After 1993, the field was closed, abandoning all the expensive imported special equipment.

Mining of phosphorites has led to the emergence of an incredible “unearthly” landscape. The long and deep troughs of the quarries are mostly flooded. They are interspersed with high sandy ridges, turning into table-flat sandy fields, black, white and reddish dunes, pine forests with regular rows of planted pines. Giant excavators - "absetzers" - resemble alien ships rusting on the sands in the open air. All this makes the Lopatin quarries a kind of natural-technogenic “reserve”, a place of increasingly lively pilgrimage for tourists.

“Well to Hell”: Kola superdeep well, Murmansk region

The Kola superdeep well is the deepest in the world. Its depth is 12,262 meters. Located in the Murmansk region, 10 kilometers west of the city of Zapolyarny. The well was drilled in the northeastern part of the Baltic shield solely for scientific research purposes in the place where the lower boundary of the earth's crust comes close to the surface of the Earth. In the best years, 16 research laboratories worked at the Kola superdeep well, they were personally supervised by the Minister of Geology of the USSR.

Many interesting discoveries were made at the well, for example, that life on Earth appeared 1.5 billion years earlier than expected. At depths where it was believed that there was no and could not be organic matter, 14 species of fossilized microorganisms were discovered - the age of the deep layers exceeded 2.8 billion years. In 2008, the facility was abandoned, the equipment was dismantled, and the destruction of the building began.

As of 2010, the well has been mothballed and is gradually being destroyed. The cost of restoration is about one hundred million rubles. The Kola superdeep well is associated with many implausible legends about a “well to hell” from the bottom of which the cries of sinners are heard, and the drills are melted by hellish flames.

"Russian HAARP" - multifunctional radio complex "Sura"

In the late 1970s, as part of geophysical research, a multifunctional radio complex “Sura” was built near the city of Vasilsursk, Nizhny Novgorod region, to influence the Earth’s ionosphere with powerful HF radio emission. The Sura complex, in addition to antennas, radars and radio transmitters, includes a laboratory complex, a utility unit, and a specialized transformer electrical substation. The once secret station, where a number of important studies are still being carried out today, is a thoroughly rusted and battered, but still not completely abandoned object. One of the important areas of research carried out at the complex is the development of ways to protect the operation of equipment and communications from ion disturbances in the atmosphere of various natures.

Currently, the station operates for only 100 hours a year, while the famous American HAARP facility runs experiments for 2,000 hours over the same period. The Nizhny Novgorod Radiophysical Institute does not have enough money for electricity - in one day of work, the test site equipment deprives the complex of a monthly budget. The complex is threatened not only by lack of money, but also by theft of property. Due to the lack of proper security, “hunters” for scrap metal continually sneak into the station’s territory.

"Oil Rocks" - a sea city of oil producers, Azerbaijan

This settlement on trestles standing directly in the Caspian Sea is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's oldest oil platforms. It was built in 1949 in connection with the beginning of oil extraction from the seabed around the Black Rocks - a rock ridge barely protruding from the surface of the sea. Here there are drilling rigs connected by overpasses, on which a settlement of oil field workers is located. The village grew, and in its heyday included power plants, nine-story dormitory buildings, hospitals, a community center, a park with trees, a bakery, a lemonade production plant, and even a mosque with a full-time mullah.

The length of the elevated streets and alleys of the sea city reaches 350 kilometers. There was no permanent population in the city, and up to 2,000 people lived there as part of the rotational shift. The period of decline of Oil Rocks began with the advent of cheaper Siberian oil, which made offshore production unprofitable. However, the seaside town still did not become a ghost town; at the beginning of 2000, major repair work began there and even the laying of new wells began.

Failed collider: abandoned particle accelerator, Protvino, Moscow region

In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union planned to build a huge particle accelerator. The Moscow region scientific center Protvino - the city of nuclear physicists - in those years was a powerful complex of physics institutes, where scientists from all over the world came. A circular tunnel 21 kilometers long was built, lying at a depth of 60 meters. It is still located near Protvino. They even began to deliver equipment into the already completed accelerator tunnel, but then a series of political upheavals struck, and the domestic “hadron collider” remained uninstalled.

The institutions of the city of Protvino maintain the satisfactory condition of this tunnel - an empty dark ring underground. There is a lighting system there, and there is a functioning narrow-gauge railway line. All sorts of commercial projects were proposed, such as an underground amusement park or even a mushroom farm. However, scientists are not giving this object away yet - perhaps they are hoping for the best.

May 1st, 2014 , 10:06 am

On Saturday, April 26, Ukrainian army troops attacked a checkpoint of the Donetsk People's Republic near the city of Soledar (Donetsk region). RIA Novosti reported this.

An important point for understanding the situation: the checkpoint covers the road from the Kharkov-Rostov highway to the Volodarsky salt mine (10 km from Soledar, 40 km from Slavyansk). Since Soviet times, this mine has been turned into one of the largest military warehouses, where weapons stocks from the First and Second World Wars are stored. The militia set up a checkpoint to prevent National Guard militants from reaching the warehouses.

The battle near Soledar turned out to be short. Miners from surrounding mines began to flock to the checkpoint, armed with shovels, crowbars and pipes. Seeing the miners, the paratroopers chose to dive back into the helicopter and fly away, firing a few shots into the air for good measure.

Let us remind you: after the wars of the first half of the twentieth century, a huge amount of weapons remained on the territory of the Soviet Union. At the same time, the legendary Kalashnikov assault rifle was adopted for service, and the need for the previous arsenals disappeared. Some of the obsolete small arms were melted down, others were given to developing countries, but a fair amount was mothballed just in case.

According to experts, from 1 to 3 million weapons are stored in the Soledar salt mine - Mosin “three-line guns”, PPSh-41 and PPS-43 submachine guns, German MP-38/40 submachine guns, Thomson model submachine guns 1928, Fedorov assault rifles, Kar98k Mausers, American Gapand M1, Mauser and Colt pistols, Degtyarev machine guns of the 1928 model, German MG-34, MG-42, and even the famous Maxim and Lewis machine guns. Plus, there are a couple of million canned cartridges for each type of weapon.

All the “barrels” are in very good technical condition - in lubrication, even now take it and shoot. Salt mines are unique in that they maintain a constant temperature and humidity level, so the conditions for storing weapons there are ideal.

Now Soledar's warehouses are guarded by a small detachment of Ukrainian army personnel. In turn, the Ukrainian garrison is blocked by the self-defense forces of the Donetsk Republic.

What is behind the battle near Soledar, are military warehouses of strategic interest?

If weapons spread across the territory of a state, this is always dangerous,” notes Viktor Litovkin, head of the editorial office of military information at ITAR-TASS. - It can be used for blackmail and for sabotage.

Despite their age, the weapons in the warehouse in Soledar are quite functional. If, of course, it was stored all these years as it should be. By the way, the Mosin rifle is the best sniper weapon today. Do you know why? Modern sniper rifles are usually automatic, and this negatively affects shooting accuracy. But the “three-line” is reloaded manually - like rifles in modern biathlon (there, too, automatic weapons are not used). If you put a modern optical sight on a Mosin rifle, you will get an excellent sniper weapon.

“SP”: - Are the PPSh-41 and PPS-43 assault rifles also effective weapons?

This is a good weapon, but only by World War II standards. Compared to modern models, these are very inaccurate machines.

“SP”: - What about the “Maxim” and “Lewis” machine guns?

Also a good weapon - for yesterday's wars.

“SP”: - Are the warehouses in Soledar primarily of interest to the National Guard or to the militia of the Donetsk Republic?

They are interesting to both. When you don’t have real modern weapons in your hands, then outdated weapons that can still hit the enemy are never superfluous.

In fact, Soledar's arsenals are good for Gulyai-Polye - in the broad sense of the word. Such weapons are ineffective against regular modern armies, but in order to make the population dependent, or to arm self-defense units, they are quite good.

“SP”: - The mine is guarded by a Ukrainian garrison. Is it possible to protect such a warehouse with small forces?

It all depends on what security and defense systems the warehouse is equipped with. Sometimes even with small forces you can effectively keep such objects under control - remember the story about the 300 Spartans who blocked the gorge and held the 40 thousand army of the Persian king Xerxes? A military warehouse is a complex engineering structure, and when designing it, of course, defense issues are well thought out...

“I’m not sure of the significant value of the weapons in the warehouse in Soledar,” says Anatoly Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis. “I think the landing party was going to strengthen the Ukrainian garrison guarding the arsenal so that weapons from the warehouse would not fall into the hands of self-defense fighters of the South-East.

The fact is that the Ukrainian army itself has enough more modern weapons - gigantic weapons depots have remained in Ukraine since Soviet times. If desired, the National Guard can also be armed with these weapons. But the self-defense forces of the Donetsk People's Republic are interested in the arsenal in Soledar.

I must say that the warehouse in Soledar is the only arsenal of weapons from the First and Second World Wars known to me in the CIS. Indeed, the conditions for storing weapons in a salt mine are ideal. But all the same, it is very old, although it can still work...

15 years ago, the Russian army underwent a total inspection of weapons in storage: in particular, all boxes with machine guns were opened, says Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Center for Military Forecasting at the Institute of Political and Military Analysis. - You won’t believe it: the machine guns from World War II were like new. In 1946-1947 they were preserved - covered with grease. Their wooden butts rotted, but the metal remained untouched by time. I think the situation with weapons in Soledar is the same.

“SP”: - It turns out that you can shoot from it without problems?

This weapon is reliable by World War II standards. If you hit the table with the butt of a PPSh machine gun, holding the weapon vertically, the machine gun will most likely fire. This is a design feature. But otherwise, the weapon is quite reliable.

Now Kyiv seriously fears that the arsenal in Soledar will end up in the hands of the Donetsk People's Republic. Given the low combat readiness of the Ukrainian army, this could be fatal for Kyiv.

There is also an important point: practice shows that it is undesirable to use the army to perform police functions against its own population - such an army becomes demoralized and subsequently fights poorly. In my opinion, by throwing the army into the South-East, Kyiv made a strategic mistake. If it comes to the capture of the arsenal in Soledar by the South-East, the Ukrainian army, disintegrated during the police operation, is unlikely to be able to resist the militias...

South-East of Ukraine: balance of forces(By materials"Komsomolskaya Pravda")

Group of Ukrainian troops

Number of people: more than 15 thousand people;

Armament: 160 tanks, more than 230 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, more than 150 guns and mortars, aviation.

Self-defense units

Number of people: 2.5 thousand people;

Armament: about 200 units of automatic weapons (mostly captured from regional police departments and security services), several dozen units of smooth-bore hunting weapons, 6 infantry fighting vehicles (taken from Ukrainian paratroopers in Kramatorsk).