Vladivostok Fortress

Vladivostok Fortress is a system of fortifications built from 1889 to 1918 in Vladivostok, Russia, and the surrounding area.

Vladivostok Fortress
Владивостокская крепость
Vladivostok, Russia
Vladivostok Fortress Old Map
TypeFortress
Site information
Controlled by Russia

During construction, lessons from the Russo-Japanese War were taken into account, so that this is the most fortified of all the fortresses built at this time. Construction of the fortress was halted with the structure about 2/3 complete, due to the disruptive influence of the First World War and the October Revolution.

Features

The fortress—created exclusively by Russian military engineers and builders, soldiers, combat engineers—by the time of the First World War it was one of the few strongholds in the Russian far east.

Armament

On the land front – 1290 guns and 268 machine guns; including 572 ranged weapons, 718 melee weapons, 268 guns, 64 mortars, and 36 rocket machines.

On the coastal front – 316 guns and 56 machine guns; including 212 Ranged weapons, 104 melee weapons, 56 guns, 36 rocket machines.

Garrison

The units stationed at the fortress consisted of:

  • 1st Vladivostok fortress artillery brigade
  • 1st Vladivostok fortress artillery regiment,
  • 2nd Vladivostok fortress artillery brigade
  • 2nd Vladivostok fortress artillery regiment,
  • 3rd Vladivostok fortress artillery regiment,
  • 4th Vladivostok fortress artillery regiment,
  • Vladivostok fortress sapper brigade.

Fortress governors:

  • 7.03.1906–1.07.1908 – Major General Vladimir Alexandrovich Irma;
  • 7.08.1913–1915 – Lieutenant-General Sergey Savich, Chief of Staff of the fortress;
  • 21.12.1887–16.05.1889 – Colonel Nadarov, Ivan Pavlovich, Commanders of the 1st artbrigady;
  • 25.06.1907–? – Colonel Mikhail Makeev;
  • 26.10.1908–20.12.1911 – Colonel Konstantin Alexis;
  • 02.04.1912–after 04.15.1914 – Major General Joseph Antonovich Dumbadze;

Design and construction

By type and scope of fortification, construction can be divided into three stages:

  1. Creating the fortress (1889–1899)
  2. Construction of the second line of defense of the fortress (1899–1905)
  3. Design and construction of the main line of defense of the fortress (1906–1918)

1905–1910

On 5 September 1905 the peace treaty that ended the Russo-Japanese war was signed at Portsmouth. According to the agreement, Russia ceded Japan lease rights to the Liaodong Peninsula, including Port Arthur. Russia lost the southern branch of the Chinese Eastern Railway Station at Kuanchentszy, the southern part of Sakhalin Island, and allowed the Japanese fishing rights in Russian territorial waters on unfavorable terms.

Vladivostok, the end point of the Trans-Siberian railway, was the only Russian naval base on the Pacific Ocean, and the only well-equipped commercial port in the Far East. Thus the value of Vladivostok Fortress increased sharply. However, the state of defensive structures of the fortress was unsatisfactory. In addition, the end of the Russian-Japanese war coincided with the famous revolutionary actions in Vladivostok in October 1905 and January 1906.

1910–1913

The year 1910 brought a final draft of construction plans. The project expected to build forts No. 1-7 and strongholds A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and 3 on the southern side of Ussuri–Sedanka Valley, to Amur Bay; forts No. 9-12 on the southern and eastern shores of the Russian Island; casemated tunnel cellars by the First River, an airfield by the Second River; many other ancillary facilities; and over 200 kilometres (120 mi) of roads.

The concrete construction of forts starting 1910 looked different from fortifications built in 1900–1904. Firstly, the new construction was 2-3 times more effective than the former, design specifications being significantly higher than the old.

First World War

1914 was a turning point in the fortress's construction - the First World War. Deliveries of cement ceased, which previously had been carried by sea from Novorossiysk, since Turkey closed the Straits. Initially, the pace of construction is not reduced because the fortress had accumulated large stocks of cement; but from 1915, with the prolongation of the war, the situation began to deteriorate. By the end of 1916, only about two-thirds of all 11 forts were ready, many of them built with only gorge barracks.

The fortress's capability was increased by four more forts and seven coastal batteries. However, the work during the war didn't compare to that during peaceful years. The signing of the Convention of the Union with Japan made Vladivostok Fortress only a rear guard position. The needs of the fighting front in Europe led to the withdrawal of weapons and various stocks. The material of the fortress artillery was also gradually sent to the front, with the more modern artillery systems being sent first.

Demilitarization

In 1917, construction work in the fortress was completely halted. The forts, batteries and other buildings were only warehouses for equipment. At fortress headquarters, a liquidation committee wrote off assets or otherwise accounted for the cost of construction. We can assume that the Office of the Builder of Vladivostok fortifications worked to preserve the working order of what was left in place. A year later came the "agony". Remaining in the fortress and returning from the fronts, military engineers tried fulfill professional duties to counteract stripping the fortress of equipment.

Then began the so-called "coal and wood-burning catastrophe", with completely devalued money and constantly changing positions on the part of the authorities. Boat construction, the military pigeon station, and telegraph company were auctioned to cover debts. Part of the building materials was transferred to the Vladivostok military-industrial committee for the construction of a shipyard and airfields and hangars in Vladivostok, Verkhneudinsk, Harbin, Qiqihar, Ninguta, and at station Manchuria for the aviation troops of Admiral Kolchak. In late 1918, the Office of the Builder was abolished. Vladivostok fortress engineering management remained until 1923, serving as the supply of engineering troops but from time to time underwent reduction.

In 1923, in connection with the agreement between the Japanese command and the command of the People's Revolutionary Army of the Far Eastern Republic, Vladivostok fortress was demilitarized. The remaining guns were dismantled, headquarters and management disbanded, and the fortifications were permanently abandoned.

Present day

On 30 October 1996, the Vladivostok Fortress Museum, dedicated to the history of the fortress, was opened where Battery Nameless stood. Fort number 7 was rented and turned into a museum. Battery "Paul Mortirnaya" is rented by the Ussuri Cossacks. On 23 December 2019, the fortress' museum received federal status when it was placed under the management of the new Vladimir K. Arseniev Museum of Far East History following the merger of the Vladivostok Fortress museum with the Vladimir K. Arseniev Primorsky Museum.[1]

References
  1. "Музей Арсеньева переименовали в Музей истории Дальнего Востока" [The Arsenyev Museum was renamed into the Museum of the History of the Far East] (in Russian). vl.ru. 26 December 2019. Retrieved 3 March 2021.

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