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Issues of 2008

From ⌠Double Southern■ to fort ⌠Constantine■

Being the biggest fort in the Gulf of Finland, fort ╚Konstantin╩ is among the most important surviving forts in Kronstadt today. Notably, the fort unites a number of structures erected at various times. Like many other Kronstadt fortifications, ╚Konstantin╩ has been in a state of neglect for a long time. However, nowadays St. Petersburg government is going to turn the site into a museum and a tourist center.

Fort ╚Constantine╩ (or ╚Konstantin╩) is one of the forts of the Kronstadt fortification system. Its history started in 1807. In the December of that year, Alexander I signed a decree on strengthening the Kronstadt fortifications in connection with a possibility of a war with England. It has to be mentioned that the history of the Kronstadt fortifications is tightly connected with the history of the diplomatic relations between the Russian Empire and the British one.

Kronstadt was traditionally the seat of the Russian admiralty and the base of the Russian Baltic Fleet were located in Kronstadt guarding the approaches to Saint Petersburg. The historic centre of the city and its fortifications are part of the World Heritage.

In 1808, in course of the Russo-Swedish war of 1807√1809, Russia succeeded in capturing the Swedish fortress of Sveaborg, defending the capital of Finland Helsinki from the sea, as well as all the rest of Finland. It was the turning point of the war deciding the Russian victory and securing the position of Kronstadt. In 1807, however, even the attack of the British Navy at Kronstadt was possible.

Special Administrative Commission was organized by the Admiralty in order to construct the new fortifications around Kronstadt. It was rather complex to build a battery from stone in the deep waters of the Kronstadt main roads, so the ancestor of Fort ╚Constantine╩ was build of wooden logs. In the winter of 1808, the construction works began. The prepared on shore frames of oak logs were filled with stones from barges and sunk on the spot in the waters of Kronstadt. On this basement, a wooden two-storey fort was constructed. This type of design was the reason of its name, ╚Southern Double╩.

The wooden structure was regularly seriously damaged in spring by floating ice and by storms in autumn, but mostly serious damage was produced by flooding. The famous flooding of 6√7 November 1824 produced the major damage to the fortification. The water rose by 3.5 meters above the ordinary level, accompanied by a severe storm. Some Kronstadt fortifications were nearly swept away by the waves. The town of Kronstadt also was subjected to major destructions. The ╚Double Southern╩ registered especially heavy damages on the lower floor, which was totally under water. Some guns were swept into the waters of the Gulf. The stock of powder was destroyed as well as the barracks for the storage of ammunition.

It was clear that in these geographical conditions the Fort had to be made from stone and not from wood. In the 1830-s the ╚Double Southern╩ was visited by Emperor Nicholas I, who ordered to rename it to Fort ╚Constantine╩ in the honor of his son, Grand Prince Constantine, who was appointed to General-Admiral in 1831.

In the winter of 1863√1864, in connection with the suppression of the Polish rebellion and subsequent increasing of the English threat, the program of improving the Cronstadt fortifications was adopted. The program included mounting of steel armour parapets aimed at the protection of the guns and the personnel.

The armor plates of the parapets were 7 inches thick on a granite pad and 10 inches thick without it. The plates were at first produced by the John Brown Company of Sheffield, England. Later, the Izhora plants of Kolpino continued the production.

Some barracks of brickwork plated with granite were also erected. The territory of the Fort was enlarged by dumping a lot of sand and by fortifying the shores with stones.

In 1879, a battery of two 11-inch guns was constructed according to the design by General G.E. Pauker. These two guns were mounted on special steam powered platforms, which descended under the protection of the armored parapet after firing a shot, thus hiding a gun from enemy fire.

However, in 1877 the armor parapets were partially dismantled and a casemate, housing two 13.5-inch guns by Krupp was erected. These guns had a rather limited sector of fire, due to a rather small size of the gun ports, which was dictated by the need to protect the interior of the casemate from the debris of enemy shells. For this reason, these guns bore the name of the guns of the close fire. They were meant for a single short distance deadly shot at an approaching enemy ship rather than for extensive shelling.

The tests conducted at the Fort Constantine resulted in the higher command drawing a conclusion that the gunhouses of the turret type were the optimal for these powerful guns. Taking into account the status of the Fort as of the main test site of the Kronstadt fortress, a 752-meter long dam was constructed connecting the Kotlin Island, which is the main island of the Kronstadt fortress, and Fort ╚Constatine╩. The railway line was laid upon this dam, which greatly improved the supplies to the Fort. This line was included in the fortress railroad network, which existed till 1920-s.

In 1897, the Fort was subjected to a capital reconstruction. A new concrete facility for a Canet gun (6-inch) battery was constructed at the place of the armored parapet batteries. The territory of the island was enlarged again. The workforce performing that job included 856 ground diggers, 102 carpenters and 135 horses.

The Russo-Japanese war of 1904√1905 led to a great social revolt, known as the First Russian Revolution. The armed appraisal was resolutely suppressed by military force. A certain number of the revolt participants were court-martialled and executed. There is a certain information that some number of the revolutionaries was executed in Fort ╚Constatine╩, this being, however, strange, because the regular place for the executions was on the Cape Lisiy Nos.

In 1908, a new mexometer (distance measuring instrument) of the Launitz type was mounted at the Fort adding to its reputation of the main test field of the Kronstadt Fortress.

Gradually, the life in the country and the Kronstadt Fortress normalized. The Imperial Baltic fleet was going to include the new battleships armed with 12 guns of 12-inch caliber each. The new era of the competition between military ships and sea fortresses was dawning. Fort ╚Constatine╩ gradually was transforming in a second line bulwark of the sea defense.

In the period of the beginning of WW I, Fort Constantine was armed with two 11-inch guns on the ╚vanishing╩ platforms (Pauker▓s Battery) and two ╚close range╩ guns of 13.5-inch, as well as with two cannons of 10-inch caliber, and two 120mm canons produced by Obukhov Plant, St.Petersburg. The latter had locks by a famous English company, Vickers.

In the central part of the Fort eight 6-inch Canet cannons and two 120-mm guns were positioned. On the right hand of this battery we could see eight old 11-inch cannons of the 1867 model. In 1914, half of the guns were sent to the batteries in other points of the Baltic, being more close to the border and more important.

In 1913, the construction of ╚The Emperor Peter the Great Sea Fortress╩, including the mighty turret-type batteries of 14-inch guns mounted on both the Estonian and Finnish shores of the Baltic, began. It led to diminishing the military importance of the Cronstadt fortress and its forts.

This situation resulted in further dismantling of the most of the ╚Constantine▓s╩ heavy artillery.

The Fort fought bravely during WW II, its four-gun battery shelling the German soldiers on the southern shore of the Finnish Gulf.

In 1947, the battery of the fort was modernized and equipped with new artillery. However, in 1955, the whole Kronstadt fortress with all its forts was put out of operation and disbanded.

Today, we pass the considerably widened connection dam heading from Kotlin Island to Fort ╚Constantine╩ and find ourselves in the very middle of the small fortified island. We find here the fortification facilities constructed in rather different epochs: a submachine gun pillbox, constructed in 1934√1935, and Pauker▓s battery of lifted 11-inch guns.

To the left of the main entrance, we meet the commanding center of the Fort on the upper floor of the two-storey building that had a power station on its first floor. An armored parapet, for protecting five 9.5-inch guns survived till nowadays. This bulwark has a really striking and formidable appearance.

As many other forts of the Kronstadt fortress Fort ╚Constantine╩ was left in negligence and slow degradation in course of many years. Today, the situation has changed.

Today a certain St.Petersburg transport company purchased the whole facility and is busy with constructing a real tourist complex there with piers, hotel, cafe, etc. From the pier of the Fort, the tourists will be able to sail on small boats around the rest of the Cronstadt fortress facilities and its forts.