Liepaja: North Pier, Karosta and Eiffel Bridge. Karosta military camp Liepaja drawbridge in front of the military town

The Liepaja military town, also known as Karosta (military port - lat.), also known as the former port of Alexander III, is, in my opinion, the most impressive and famous part of the city, formed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries as a large naval port and outpost of the Russian Empire. in the Baltic. Liepaja (then the city was called Libau) had an ice-free commercial port and a dubious decision was made to establish a base for the Baltic Navy here. Doubtful, because it (the base) could not provide a reliable and safe cover due to its extreme proximity to the Prussian border, which was 60 kilometers from Libau. And it was not difficult for the fleet of a potential enemy to block access to the sea for the Russian squadron. By the way, several decades before the construction of the military port, Libau was given preference over Vindava (Ventspils) in choosing the candidate for the main commercial port of Russia in the southern Baltic, since it froze less and was closer to European markets.

At the end of the 19th century, Libau again came to the fore - they decided to build a military port here, and the special Commission “On the connection and joint actions of land and sea forces in the defense of the state” rejected such options as Vindava, Moonsund and Catherine Harbor, which is already in the north of the Kola Peninsula . As a result, the fate of history played a cruel joke on Liepaja after the collapse of the USSR - I won’t say anything about Moonsund and Catherine Harbor, but Ventspils, which is 100 km north of Liepaja, in Soviet times turned into a powerful trading port with modern berths and piers, and it really survived rapid flourishing, which, with the skillful management of the legacy left behind, has had a positive impact on the well-being of the city even today - and Liepaja, having received the status of a closed city as a base of the USSR Navy, was left with nothing in 1991. One confirmation of this is the severe desolation of the military town (aka Karosta) in the last two decades.

One way or another, today it is an impressive and unique architectural monument, an area with its own characteristics and a unique aura, which had a hard time surviving the troubled 90s, and now, as Latvian information sources say, it is gradually turning into a solid tourist attraction. However, it is still far from great fame, since, with all the desire, the phenomenon of two and a half Baltic states and one and a half Germans coming to visit the most famous object of the town, the Liepaja garrison prison, I cannot call massive. Attracting tourists is a difficult and creative task, it takes more than one decade. So you can consider that with this post I am promoting Liepaja on the Internet, although I did not receive a penny from the local tourist center. Joke!

In fact, the walk turned out to be not entirely complete, because I planned to come here again the next day, but it didn’t work out, so I’ll catch up next time, which will hopefully be in the summer.

I'll tell you this - until recently, about five years ago, the military town was a terrible hole, but recently the local authorities seem to have taken up the task of improving this area. They are repairing roads, laying new sidewalks, and providing housing for low-income people. Personally, I expected to see the situation much sadder, but I noticed that the process is slowly moving in a positive direction. Very slowly, but progressing. There is a long way to go when a mass tourist, and that tourist is an ordinary Liepaja resident, will be able to come to the town and say that it’s cool here.

The administrative building of the ship repair plant, which once repaired warships. Now the enterprise seems to be operating, but far from being on the same scale as before. With the collapse of the USSR and the establishment of a planned economy, thousands of military personnel and civilians left the city, for whom there was no work left, and the 90s were marked by a general exodus of the active, able-bodied part of the population.

Nearby you can see a depressing sight on the site of the former Baltika cultural center. There are many similar boarded up and forgotten buildings in Karosta and Tosmare (Tosmare is the adjacent area), but again, I repeat, time is needed.

During the Soviet era, military personnel, their families, workers from surrounding industries and civilian civilians lived in a military town. The area was pleasant and well-groomed, but in the mid-90s it was dangerous to go here. Suddenly a huge number of various gopniks, lumpen and outcasts appeared, the criminal situation was extremely unfavorable.

Now about 7 thousand people live in Karosta. I talked to people living there. They are positive, don’t complain, there are shops, transport links to the main city are good and regular. Just poverty, salaries are very low, pensions are also small, there is little work.

This is the Tosmare residential area, a courtyard between five-story buildings. Noteworthy is the graffiti with the Russian flag, which stands out brightly against the background of the February greyness. By the way, the national composition of the current residents of the town is approximately this: 70% are Russian speakers, and for the remaining 30% Latvian is their native language.

One of the local attractions is the water tower, built in 1905 and providing water to the entire territory of the Military Port.

The territory of the military camp is literally crammed with railway tracks, especially when approaching it. Those paths in the picture lead to the grain-loading terminal on the banks of the Military Canal, which is discussed below.

The so-called Red Store in common parlance, based on the color of the building material. There is also a White Store nearby, meaning there is also some kind of local retail chain there, but the locals call the stores the same: red and white.

Some part of the town is occupied by similar housing stock - houses built after the war.

Some roads in Karosta are still paved with concrete aircraft slabs, which are gradually being removed.

Major repairs, replacement of the road surface and communications on the street where Podplav was located - a military diving base. Let me explain that in 1906, the first scuba diving training detachment in Russia was organized in Podplav. The birthplace of Russian scuba diving is located right here, in Liepaja. And in Soviet times there was a submarine base for the Baltic Fleet.

This part of the town is the most neglected. The condition of the buildings is deplorable.

Podlav's services and barracks were located here; the newest submarines of the Baltic Fleet were once based here. Now there are no submarines or Podplav in the Military Town, but the only diver training center in the Baltics operates. And sappers are also trained there.

There was a large swimming pool somewhere here, but no trace of it remains. Here, by the way, there seems to be an open passage to Podplav harbor, but there are also prohibitory signs. So I didn’t go further into the closed port area.

A little more of the Soviet housing stock of Karosta. Do you want to know how much real estate in such houses costs? A 2-room apartment of 48 square meters that requires minor cosmetic repairs can be rented for 4-5 thousand euros. There are frankly few people willing so far.

Liepaja St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, which was consecrated in 1903 in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II and his family. During the times of the Latvian USSR, the cathedral housed an ordinary sailor's club and a cinema.

From the cathedral, in a straight line, 300 meters to the shore. On the horizon you can see the northern pier, protecting the port of Liepaja from wind and sand deposits.

Then I headed to the ruins of Libavskaya, and left the military town through the famous drawbridge, which is on the Military Canal. The bridge was designed according to the sketch of the same Eiffel and was intended to ensure navigation along the canal of the military camp of the Libau base and land communication between Karosta, which is a separate administrative unit, and Libau. The bridge is formed from two identical movable trusses, which each rotate 90 degrees in its own direction.

Some information about the bridge. It is considered a technical monument and is the only surviving drawbridge in Latvia. It is interesting that Alexander Gustav Eiffel himself only sketched a technical sketch, according to which the final project was developed in St. Petersburg, and the metal structures were brought from Bryansk.

The bridge failed several times; it was damaged by the German army during the First World War and during the Great Patriotic War. And a little less than 10 years ago, a completely anecdotal incident occurred - the Anna tanker, sailing under the flag of Georgia, crashed into the northern span of the bridge, again damaging it, and this happened before the long-awaited large-scale reconstruction. The reconstruction project had to be revised again.

The military canal, the construction of which required enormous, expensive hydraulic engineering work.

The gloomy but calm Baltic Sea is on the horizon.

Next I’m heading to “mainland” Liepaja and hoping to return to the town in the summer. What can we say in summary? The area is difficult and ambiguous, little by little changes are taking place for the better. Of course, there are many terrible neglected corners in the town, there is a lot of work ahead, but...perhaps now there is a slow awakening after many years of hibernation.

If you come to Latvia for a short time and are choosing which city to see besides Riga, then it is best to go to Liepaja. It’s easy to get here (you can even take a plane from Riga), and the city itself is very beautiful and interesting. By car, Uncle Austria and I got there from Jelgava in 2 and a half hours, despite the fact that we got snowed on the way.

All regional roads in Latvia are two-lane (four-lane highways with a divider are found only in the vicinity of Riga). The quality of the roads is high - the asphalt is smooth, bump stops are often installed on the sides, the markings are fresh everywhere, there are enough signs and indicators. There will be a separate post about roads.

Wind turbines are found closer to Liepaja. The city stands on the shores of the Baltic Sea, from which strong winds constantly blow (this is even reflected in the culture, but more on that later).

In a grove near the entrance to the city there is an abandoned Soviet memorial. Soviet monuments in Latvia are not maintained or repaired in any way, which is why they are gradually destroyed over time.

We enter the city from the north, where the Karosta district is located (Karosta, translated from Latvian, “military port”). The port was built in 1890-1906 as a Russian naval base and bore the name of Tsar Alexander III, who founded it, and in Soviet times was used by the USSR Baltic Fleet. We drive past the old water tower.

In the 1960-1970s, a panel microdistrict was built for military personnel and their families. After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the population of the area fell, and unemployment, crime, drug addiction and other social ills increased greatly. The area is still considered very disadvantaged; predominantly Russian-speaking people live here. Looks very depressing.

Nothing but shabby panels and vacant lots.

I can't imagine what you can do here.

The area, however, has many attractions. One of them is a large Russian church, St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral, built in 1900-1903 according to the design of V. Kosyakov.

In Latvia, filming is prohibited in absolutely all churches (regardless of religion). Right at the entrance, and sometimes even on the doors, there will be a sign notifying about this. It is not clear why this is needed. I’m not during the service and I’m not disturbing anyone.

What remains of the Russian garrison are many historical buildings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including barracks, admiral's mansions, various buildings and even a palace in which the Tsar stayed only once. Some of the buildings are in use.

But most were abandoned after the withdrawal of Soviet troops.

You can enter some, although there is nothing to see there.

There was a playpen here in tsarist times.

And here is the stoker.

We can only hope that someday there will be money for reconstruction, and a historical museum complex will be opened here. Or something else. It is a pity to see such a valuable historical heritage being destroyed.

Currently, the museum operates in the port guardhouse, although it is only open from May to September. At the museum you can take part in a historical reconstruction - spend a day in prison as a prisoner. In addition to the prison itself, the museum organizes excursions throughout the port.

The bay is separated from the open sea by artificially built structures.

If you have a lot of free time, then you can see a lot of interesting things in the port - fortifications, underground bunkers, and other defensive structures. The photo below is taken from Wikipedia, by Andrius Vanagas, 2006.

The Liepaja industrial port is visible in the distance.

Some facilities are used by the Latvian armed forces.

A swing bridge built in 1904-1906, designed by the German engineer Harald Hull, is laid across the port canal. In the 1920s, the bridge received the name of Oskar Kalpak (1882-1919), the first commander of the Latvian battalion, which later became the basis for the national army of the first Republic of Latvia.

In Soviet times, the civilian population was prohibited from entering the territory of the military camp, so there was a checkpoint near the bridge.

Now the passage is free. Several times a day, traffic is blocked and ships pass through the canal.

The bridge is in a disengaged state.

Breeding video.

Now let's head to the city center.

A large post about Liepaja, which includes three parts: a military town built as a naval base for the Russian Empire at the end of the 19th century, coastal fortifications of the same time and one of the non-tourist areas of the city, which was formed again at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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One of the local attractions is the water tower, built in 1905 and providing water to the entire territory of the Military Port.

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Some part of the town is occupied by similar housing stock - houses built after the war.

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Some roads in Karosta are still paved with concrete aircraft slabs, which are gradually being removed.

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This part of the town is the most neglected. The condition of the buildings is deplorable.

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From the cathedral, in a straight line, 300 meters to the shore. On the horizon you can see the northern pier, protecting the port of Liepaja from wind and sand deposits.

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Then I headed to the ruins of the Libau sea fortress. This is an interesting place for fans and admirers of military history, fortresses and various types of fortifications. This is the so-called 3rd coastal battery, located on the northern outskirts of the military town.

They decided to build a powerful and modern sea fortress in 1890 as a cover for a military port on the Baltic, the need for the creation of which had been brewing for a long time. However, the fate of the fortress was tragic and, to some extent, mediocre; less than 20 years later it was simply abolished and liquidated, and this despite the colossal funds spent on construction, and the construction of the fortress itself was recognized as a strategic mistake.

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In general, a system of such fortifications surrounded the entire coast of the city and has survived relatively well to this day, being today a city landmark on a par with the military town of Karosta, the Liepaja tram and the successfully preserved urban development of the late 19th century. Moreover, they even tried to blow up artillery batteries, underground structures and warehouses, but this did not give the desired result.

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These days, especially in summer, these places are extremely popular with locals. And I got to the forts in the February fog and the sea was calm, with waves, of course, the view would have been more spectacular. This is a real haven for professional photographers. As I write these lines and smile, I remember how ten years ago I saw the royal fort in the pages of a Latvian men’s magazine. And one of his former classmates against his background in a very interesting and piquant form))

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In fact, I was lucky with the weather, I think, because the strong, piercing cold wind that usually blows in these parts is not the most pleasant companion for a seaside walk, but it turned out to be a good and calm walk. Although of all the forts this time I was only at the 3rd coastal battery, it is the one in the pictures. This time I had practically no personal time in Liepaja; I tried to combine private meetings with my interests. Overall, I think it turned out quite well; I saw, albeit in a “gallop across Europe” style, almost everything I had planned.

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Everything here is very impressive, this system of forts and seaside fortifications surrounding the city is truly unique of its kind. What's happening to the forts now? Nature takes its toll. Over the years, the wind and sea undermine its former power and destroy the old fortress; concrete pieces of buildings fall off and fall into the water.

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The spectacle is sad and sad at the same time.

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A mega-project of the past, on which huge amounts of money were spent without meaning and without any benefit.

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The next two photos were taken half a kilometer or so from the forts. It is truly unrealistically beautiful; my photos, of course, will not convey such impressions. The low steep shore of the Baltic Sea, the freshest air, a pine forest, a wind-fallen tree on yellow sand and many kilometers of deserted beach. Beauty. Baltic Beauty.

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I left across the famous drawbridge on the Military Canal. The bridge was designed according to the sketch of the same Eiffel and was intended to ensure navigation along the canal of the military camp of the Libau base and land communication between Karosta, which is a separate administrative unit, and Libau. The bridge is formed from two identical movable trusses, which each rotate 90 degrees in its own direction.

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The military canal, the construction of which required enormous, expensive hydraulic engineering work.

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The gloomy but calm Baltic Sea is on the horizon.

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And a little about the most colorful area of the city, in my humble opinion. This is Jaunliepaja or New Liepaja, located between the railway station and the Trade Canal, which connects the Baltic Sea with Lake Liepaja and divides the city into two parts. The architecture of the turn of the 19th-20th centuries has been perfectly preserved here, when Liepaja developed at a fantastic - I’m not afraid of this loud definition - pace. Judge for yourself, in 1871 the railway came here, which gave a serious impetus to the development of the city and commercial port, two decades later a military port for the fleet of the Russian Empire began to be built in Liepaja, industry began to develop by leaps and bounds, including metallurgy, the first in the Baltic states appeared tram. By the beginning of the First World War, the population of Liepaja numbered more than 100 thousand people, almost twice as much as in Vladivostok (now, for comparison, 70-80 thousand, data vary). In general, there were objective prerequisites for the city to grow into a large-scale city on the level of Königsberg or Helsinki. Historically, however, Libau's lot was extremely unfortunate, somewhat gloomy.

All the future supposed authority of the city sank in the abyss of two world wars, instability and changes in government regimes. Now, frankly speaking, Liepaja is a provincial Latvian town, year after year losing active and efficient people who leave either for Riga or Europe. I will say right away that it is clear that the overall picture is visually slowly improving, the city authorities are trying to do something, but it will not be possible to radically and quickly change the situation for the better. But if you don’t go into the vicissitudes of the current economic situation of the city, but simply come for the purpose of tourism, then Liepaja is certainly good for its amazing charm of neglect, which manifests itself precisely in the area in question. 100-year-old wooden and brick houses, a former working-class suburb, almost untouched by the destruction of the last war, in contrast to the city center, which has undergone significant changes in its appearance.

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A striking example of the city's architecture is a solid three-story red brick house.

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On the main square of New Liepaja, there used to be a good market with local peasant products.

I have lived almost my entire adult life in Latvia. Studying at school until the 9th grade, then leaving Latvia for two years and returning to study at the Riga Medical Institute, working in the region for 35 years. Chernobyl disability pension. After all, I am a descendant of the “occupier”, by the standards of our nationalists.... I don’t want to discuss this topic, but I want to remember “that city that does not exist” and which I often dream about to this day, the city of my childhood - Priekule, where the military unit was stationed 44008, where my father was transferred from Transbaikalia. Note that they translated, and did not ask for it. Orders, as you know, are not discussed!

There are two Priekules in Latvia. Everyone knows one - the Cesis region, where potatoes are grown, but there is also the Liepaja region, 40 km from Liepaja. A small town with a railway station, where there was a military unit nearby, occupying an area larger than the town itself. The part was missile, strategic troops. Now it's no secret, but the missile silos were located in Vained, in the forest. It was an open secret even then, because from the Priekule-Vainede dirt road there was a straight asphalt road leading into the forest (someone came up with the idea of “secret” like that!), and when the local “groove” bus stopped near this turn, the driver announced: "Rakesu baze!" (missile base). It was, of course, a mockery, but this is Kurzeme, where Russians are hated most of all, especially the military, and where they won’t even give you water if you don’t speak Latvian!

We arrived there in the winter of 1961. It was slushy and damp, it was raining and snowing at zero temperatures, and after Transbaikalia with its frosts below thirty and waist-deep snow, or even more, it seemed very disgusting!

The military town was located separately at a distance of 300 meters from the outskirts of the city of Priekule. The city also included a Russian school on the nearest outskirts, where I was assigned to fourth grade.
The houses in the military town were two-story, “Stalinist” buildings, well made, brick, plastered, and in the construction phase there were two more “three-story” modern buildings. Part of the housing stock was located in “Finnish” houses made of wood, with two apartments, two rooms each with a kitchen and a “backlash-closet” toilet and a small plot of land for garden beds. There was tap water.

At first we were put up in the officers' hotel, which smelled of shoe polish and, oddly enough, of celery, probably someone had it growing in a pot. After a while they settled in a Finnish house - the apartment of the deputy regiment commander became available.

The part itself was located next to a serious fence with a checkpoint. There were barracks, a canteen with a bakery, a vehicle park, warehouses, hangars, a club with a wide-screen cinema and a gym, headquarters and so on, even a medical battalion.
At first, my father worked in the unit, but when the silos were loaded with missiles, duty began in Vained. In 1963, my father went to exercises and missile launches in the Chita region at the Achinsk test site. From there, missiles were launched towards Novaya Zemlya, with nuclear warheads. I, of course, learned this recently from the memoirs of rocket scientists.

How eventful our boyhood life was! I quickly got acquainted with all the guys, I was quickly brought up to date on the main activities and entertainment. Well, football in the summer and hockey in the winter that goes without saying, skiing is basically ski jumping on the mountain near a part with a slope of about 45 degrees and a springboard in the middle of the mountain.
The amazing feeling of flying ten meters! I jumped on ordinary wide soldier's skis, until one time I flew far and landed not on the mountainside, but on the horizontal part of the track. Naturally my legs couldn’t stand it and I plunged into the compressed snow with my stomach. I don’t know how the diaphragm didn’t burst, but the impact caused paralysis for a while, and I couldn’t breathe. Dying. One of the boys drove up, saw that I was blue and pressed on my chest to help me breathe. And I began to breathe.
I got really scared! Still would! You lie and witness your death...! I never jumped from the springboard again. We played ice hockey. There were no clubs and they made them themselves, cutting them out of growing trees where there was a bend at the bottom for a hook, knocking them out of slats, but they quickly broke. They chopped until it was dark and they lost sensitivity in their toes. The goalkeeper was dressed in homemade pads and felt boots, and a sweatshirt with plywood on his chest. "Don't lift the puck higher than your stomach!" - they shouted, but anything came out...

In the summer, life was in full swing! Trips to Brick Lake on a bicycle, to the park for a “swim”, fishing in “Pereplyuyka” - a river that flowed along the part and flowed along the railway, under it, and flowed into the dam of the industrial plant. There were roach, barbel, pike and most importantly trout! Yes, yes, trout weighed 200-400 grams, which, however, was extremely difficult to catch. If she saw you, she will never take the bait! It was easier to catch it in the spring on donks, which were set at night. Sometimes there were 5-8 pieces! Yummy!

In the summer they stabbed barbels with a fork on a stick. Pike - on a fishing rod with a large cork float and a crucian carp on a hook. There was no spinning. While there were children's interests, we went to the unit through the checkpoint, where the soldiers let us in because they knew the officers' children by sight. In the unit, near the warehouses, one could find a lot of interesting things for the boys, including gas masks, the rubber of which was the best for making slingshots. This weapon was very common and the “specialists” used it with very high accuracy. There you could also find frame latches and copper tubes for 5.6 mm caliber. At that time, small cartridges could be obtained and even bought for older comrades. And the latch was needed to make a firing pin for the MK pistol. But I started doing this later.

Another very valuable find were ordinary photographic films, which burned while celluloid toys burned with a bright flame with a hiss, like matches.
There was a lot of film in the landfill; soldiers often took photographs of each other for relatives and demobilization albums.
Films were needed to launch rockets!
The film was rolled into a roll, then twisted into foil in many layers in the form of a tube, then the front part was twisted into a point, and the back part was made in the form of a rocket stabilizer with a hole for the gases to escape. The rocket was installed in any tray and heated with a match from the stabilizer side. She started to smoke, then took off and took off! Sometimes it flew 20 meters or more. Aluminum toothpaste tubes were also used for the same purpose, only they had to be dried over a fire and the residues had to be shaken out. But they flew further and higher!

In the unit, it was also possible to get dry calcium carbide for launching cans and exploding bottles. Well, everyone knows about banks. You need to dig a small hole and pour some water into it. In a tin can of stewed meat, make a hole in the center with a nail. Carbide is placed in the hole and the can is pressed tightly. Immediately you need to bring a lit piece of newspaper to the hole on a stick or twig. The can flies up 20-30 meters with a strong bang! One day I got hit on the nose with one of these cans. Blood spurted out like a fountain and was barely stopped by ice from the refrigerator; his nose was broken. The “lights” under the eyes were cool! He told his father that he fell from a tree...
Do you know how to make a carbide bottle - grenade?
The carbide was chopped into pieces so that it would fit into the neck, water was poured into the bottle one-third full, grass was pushed on top until it narrowed and carbide was poured onto it. Instead of a cork, a carefully fitted stick of damp willow was hammered in so that it would be tight and the neck would not burst. The projectile was safe until it tipped over and the carbide came into contact with water. The explosion was strong and fragments of the bottle could have hit you thirty meters away! Sometimes the bottle would be torn off the stick that was stuck in the ground and it would take off like a rocket! Stupid!

In the fall we went for mushrooms, of which there were many in the surrounding forests! I carried them in baskets, and my mother salted, pickled and fried them. Also a help for the home.

There was a small shed near the house. My father insulated it with hay and we got chickens and ducks, and for a couple of years we even kept geese and rabbits. There was also a vegetable garden, the weeding of which was entrusted to me.
Lost business! "I hate it!" Picking grass for the rabbits is also on me! I had to learn how to mow and they made a braid for me. I also had to look after my sisters in the summer if they didn’t go to kindergarten.

Over time, more interesting activities appeared. They began to make “arsonists” - pistols made of copper tubes filled with lead, with a hole for igniting the charge, which were initially loaded with sulfur from matches, a newspaper in the form of a wad and a pellet from a crayon or lead. It was firing great, and they even hit the right places. Then he made a homemade small-caliber pistol.

Due to the fact that Priekule was part of the “Kurzeme Pocket” during the war, very bloody battles took place there, and Priekule changed hands 15 times. Accordingly, there are a lot of weapons and ammunition left there from the war. The boys quickly identified this and began the search for weapons and ammunition. They dug up former trenches and dugouts and always found something. The most valuable thing was to find “zincs” with Russian cartridges. They were sealed and the cartridges were perfectly preserved inside in oil paper. Weapons were also found, but mostly rusty and unsuitable for shooting.
German cartridges were without “zinc” and were often unusable, but they did come across explosive bullets and “tracers”. German weapons were sometimes good, especially those found in abandoned farmsteads and attics. Kurzeme residents are thrifty people! Maybe it will come in handy again...
There were problems with the cartridges, sometimes they would fire, sometimes they wouldn’t. The Russian ammunition was good, but there was nothing to shoot with! Here's the problem... They began to make “arsons” from sawed-off barrels and load them with gunpowder and bullets. Now that's shooting! When you hit an old stump with an explosive bullet, the stump will be smashed to pieces!

Later, mines and shells began to explode. They were trained by “local spill specialists” on what can be touched and what cannot, since the shell or mine is armed, that is, it was fired from the barrel, but did not explode. By the way, the sappers also talked about this at school.
Before the holidays, a couple of weeks before, sappers showed up at the school and offered to show who saw the explosives and where and released them from classes. All the boys knew where to eat and in the end only the girls studied. They traveled far and showed only what had already been examined for explosions, but, unfortunately, could not be touched. The rest they blew up in the fires themselves.
It was a good time.

One day, sappers detonated a 500 kg bomb in a swamp on the spot, since it could not be touched and only the stabilizer was visible. They took us far away, but it jerked so hard that all our entrails were turned over and we filled our mouths full of earth, because we were lying down!
Why did the sappers call the boys and not search for and clear the mines themselves?
Everything is very simple, the ground there is so full of fragments that the mine detector is useless.
There are flat clearings near the brotherly cemetery of soldiers who died during the liberation of Priekule (outside the city), but sappers forbade plowing in these places due to the danger of an explosion. The local authorities and people were stubborn and decided to send these sappers to….
And they launched a caterpillar tractor with a trailed plow and a rider on it (they had those at that time) to plow such a flat field. Well, of course they caught a shell... The rider was blown to pieces, and the tractor driver ran another 200 meters towards the hospital, pierced through by shrapnel through the tank, cabin and seat. They didn't plow anymore...

After our explosions, it was necessary to “get away” quickly, since the sappers and the “special officer” arrived in an instant and could severely punish us. The craving for weapons and explosions is like a drug for a drug addict - and you know it’s death, but you want it!
I can’t count how many of my weapons my father threw away! And there’s a sea of ammunition!

In the seventh grade, an interest in girls appeared and weapons faded into the background. On the first - “dancing - shmantsy - squeezing”.

In the eighth grade, my father bought me a single-barreled hunting rifle so that I would play less with trophy weapons and get me addicted to hunting, mainly poultry and hares, fortunately there was a lot of this stuff there and at the training ground I could safely hunt ducks, partridges and even black grouse and hares. I like it. My studies were beneficial, and I became an accurate and avid hunter by the age of 16, when I received the “Voenohota” hunting license.
In ninth grade I left Priekule with sadness. My father was transferred to Belarus.

Since then, Priekule has often appeared in my dreams.
In 1968 I returned to Latvia and entered medical school. The town was still functioning and I even went hunting to Priekule once. I haven’t been there since 1974, but I saw the town all the time in my dreams, and apparently my soul has become attached to it.

In 1999, I couldn’t resist and went to look at the military town. It would be better not to go. The military town, except for three five-story buildings built later, was completely DESTROYED! It was as if someone had bombed it - piles of bricks instead of houses! Finnish houses, except two, have been demolished. The same is with the unit itself - all the barracks are destroyed! Everything is overgrown with forest and grass.

What kind of hatred one must have in order to destroy everything and spend so much work out of hatred just to demolish the “memories” of the time of the Union! Or maybe everything was more prosaic and was dismantled for building materials?

From all points of Priekule, only a tall red brick water tower in a military town is visible, which alone “looks” at the ruins of residential buildings and unit buildings that were once handed over intact to the local authorities of Priekule...
The local “fighters against the Union that had sunk into oblivion” failed to master this relic! It’s just dangerous, it could collapse and bury the destroyers!

In Vained not only the mines and caponiers remained, but also a runway made of thick concrete slabs, which could even accommodate strategic missile carriers. And they couldn’t even use it.
The school has been preserved, but it is now a Latvian school. And there is still a bridge across the river. In the last three five-story buildings, which were built later, stove pipes stick out of the windows and homeless people live in the last one.

The town of Priekule itself has somehow shrunk and become orphaned, all the old shops and department store are closed, the hospital is barely breathing, the industrial plant is closed, the lake is drained and overgrown with grass. There are few people and no young people are visible at all.
A couple of restored churches and monuments to the Baron of Corfu only emphasize the wretchedness and desolation of the town...

Once upon a time, life was in full swing here! And we also looked for a secret passage from the baron’s castle to the church, which was lined with bricks and went under the river. And they found him. With flashlights we managed to reach approximately the river, but beyond that everything was flooded. And it was risky to go there - there could be mine traps from the war.
War and devastation are still present today, only in the minds... and hearts!
He left upset and with a hard heart. I arrived in a city that does NOT exist! And it will never happen again...

Liepaja is the westernmost and third largest city in Latvia, the largest in Courland-Kurzeme. Its historical center, the so-called Vecliepaja (Old Liepaja) occupies the isthmus between the Baltic Sea and Lake Liepaja. To the north of the Old Town, between the Trade Canal connecting the sea and the lake, and the railway station is the city of New (Jaunliepaja), where the main industrial enterprises of Libau were concentrated in pre-revolutionary times. Behind the railway there are suburbs, partially occupied by the Soviet sleeping area, and even further north, already behind the Karosta Canal, the area of the same name, which previously housed a large imperial and then Soviet naval base with a residential town. So, in fact, I’ll try to talk about all of this in the next few episodes.

And I’ll start right from the outskirts, from Karosta. A naval base in the prosperous and, strangest of all, just a provincial city of Libau, several tens of kilometers from the borders with Germany, began to be built in 1893. T.N. “Port of Alexander III” was supposed to become one of the main bases of the imperial fleet, and the state did not skimp on it, investing a ton of money (more than 15 million rubles) in hydraulic engineering and other construction work, which included not only the construction of port and fortifications, the laying of a railway branches and the creation of a residential town, but also, for example, digging a special shipping canal inland, where the fleet was actually supposed to be located.

During Soviet times, Karosta was a closed military town, which, among other things, housed a submarine base. Now, with the military leaving here, the area is eking out a rather depressive existence, while at the same time being of considerable interest to lovers of military history. I’m not one of the latter, but I still found it necessary to look here for an hour to, so to speak, get a general idea of the local buildings and atmosphere. We also walked along the long Northern Pier, built at the end of the 19th century to protect the new port harbor from Baltic storms.

Liepaja was the last new Latvian city on our May trip, and this was the case when we left the sweets for dessert.

1. Liepaja in Latvia is known as a very windy place, so it is not surprising that the country’s largest wind farm, a wind power plant with 33 wind turbines from the German company Enercon, is located here. This entire farm is clearly visible when approaching the city from Kuldiga.

3. Entrance sign to the city with a coat of arms and an anchor.

4. To begin with, we immediately went to the Northern Pier.

5. Beach in his area.

6. On the shore you can see the remains of the former Libau fortress and a lonely windmill.

7. This is the former 3rd battery of the fortress. In general, lovers of fortification and abandonment in Liepaja in general and Karosta in particular would find a lot of material for a fierce frantic fap.

8. The harbor from where the 2nd squadron of the Pacific Fleet of Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, who died near Tsushima, left for the Russo-Japanese War, and later Soviet submarines went on combat duty. At the left edge of the photo, the structures of the Liepaja port are visible; on the right, on the horizon, the breakwaters limiting the harbor from the west are barely visible.

9. The port is larger from here.

10. And this is a view in the opposite direction, to the north, into the open Baltic Sea.

11. The Northern Pier was built at the end of the 19th century during the construction of the Port of Alexander III. Its length is 1.8 km and its width is up to 7 meters. Now the pier is open to the public, and I must say, it was quite crowded here, considering the fucking place it is located in.

12. The final part of the pier is in a terrible state. It's probably a little stormy here in a storm.

13. Northern pier towards the shore.

14. The structure looks especially impressive from the beach with its mountain of gouges.

15. Well visible from here is probably the most spectacular building in all of Karosta - St. Nicholas Naval Cathedral.

16. The building was built in 1900-03. according to the design of the St. Petersburg architect Vasily Kosyakov and was consecrated in the presence of Emperor Nicholas II, who mainly financed the construction from his own funds.

17. Now the cathedral is under restoration and is completely surrounded by forests.

18. Around the cathedral, which occupies a central place in the ensemble of the military town, are the remains of pre-revolutionary Karosta. Construction was carried out according to a regular plan using standard (or probably, as they said then, “model”) building designs.

19. There is, of course, a lot of abandoned stuff here. Alas, the middle of a sunny day at the end of May is not the best time to photograph the development of the former military camp. In addition, many buildings are simply not visible behind the trees.

20. And many of those that were not planted on all sides with greenery, as luck would have it, were in backlight.

21. Palace of the Officers' Naval Noble Assembly.

22. This is one of the few pre-revolutionary buildings in Karosta that are currently in use. The Training Center of the Latvian Naval Forces is located here and in neighboring buildings.

23. The city authorities, it seems, have not yet decided what to do with the rest.

24. However, in one of the houses a museum-hotel “Karost Prison” was opened, where everyone is invited to experience the delights of the former prison of the Liepaja naval base. Photo from Wikimapia.

25. I didn’t photograph the building, it’s behind a fence, but I did photograph a tour group of schoolchildren. A man in the uniform of a Soviet colonel lined up the children in a column, said, “Hands behind your head,” ordered them to sit down and then jump into the territory of the establishment. Apparently, this is one of the elements of the museum visit program, allowing you to penetrate deeper into its atmosphere.

26. In general, the development of Karosta and the neighboring military town of Tosmare is quite diverse. There are also Stalinists.

27. And the typical five-story panel buildings faced with small turquoise tiles, of which there are thousands in military camps throughout the former Union and those states where Soviet troops were stationed.

28. Everything looks very depressing, although sometimes you come across renovated buildings.

29. But there is still much more abandoned stuff.

30. I haven’t explored Karosta thoroughly. Both due to unsuitable conditions for photography, and because of the desire to see Liepaja itself in more detail, therefore I am sending you to my colleague’s posts for details nordprod and colleagues periskop.su And . I headed to the Karosta Canal (the same dug artificially) to examine another curious object. Karosta Canal towards the naval base. This entire structure was dug with special dredging machines imported from Marseille. The channel width is 128 meters. In 1965, for such a photograph, I would have been given a personal tour of the interiors of the local prison with a detailed demonstration of all its procedures.

31. The photo shows the exit of the canal to Karosta harbor.

32. The interesting object for which we came here is the beautifully restored Oskar Kalpak Bridge, built across the Karosta Canal in 1903-05. designed by Gustave Eiffel's company.

33. Pay attention to the elegant forged lanterns, which smell like Paryzhom. As ships pass through the canal, both halves of the bridge rotate 90 degrees each in their own direction.

34. There is an electronic board near the bridge with the exact time of the next divorce. Of course, I was tempted to wait, but... There were no noticeable ships nearby, I figured that the bridge might not be opened at all, so I didn’t risk wasting time.

35. Instead, I managed to see Jaunliepaja, the New Town of Libau with a railway station.

This very atmospheric area of the city will be discussed in the next episode.

Liepaja: North Pier, Karosta and Eiffel Bridge. Karosta military camp Liepaja drawbridge in front of the military town

Liepaja: North Pier, Karosta and Eiffel Bridge. Karosta military camp Liepaja drawbridge in front of the military town

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