In 1882, a grandiose construction of defensive lines began on the western border of Russia. The project, which was developed by the best architects and fortifiers, was supposed to cover two defensive rings.
During the First World War, the fortress was able to withstand a 16-day siege. For its assault, the German army brought its legendary "Big Bertha". Only her power was able to destroy the fortifications.
In the 20s of the last century, under the bourgeois government, a prison was located in the forts of the fortress. The world's first gas chamber was also built here. True, the gas chamber was used only once; this method of execution turned out to be too expensive.
In 1940, Lithuania became part of the USSR, the fortress was occupied by the troops of the Red Army. When the war broke out, the headquarters of the fifth and eleventh armies were located there. However, very soon the Germans entered Kaunas, and the fortress became a concentration camp.
Jews and Poles were brought here, under the guise of resettlement to the eastern lands. Many were shot and buried near the forts. In the second half of 1943, teams of prisoners were engaged in the destruction of traces of crimes - the corpses were dug up and burned.
At the end of 1943, the fortress was occupied by military units of the Red Army. For some time the forts were abandoned. Later they were given to warehouses, and in the ninth they made a museum, the exhibits of which told about the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.
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The first tragedy in the Kovno fortress
In June 1984, a group of Lithuanian cavers decided to set up a training route in underground passages filled with water. They took professional equipment, scuba gear and wetsuits with them. The young people entered through the side entrance to the fort # 8. The route was laid without incident.
The next day, June 17, instructors from the aquaspeleoclub went to the poste. One of the girls, Marina, went under the water first. As another instructor later said, the muddy water did not allow him to see the light from the girl's lantern; he swam after her, holding on to the signal cable. Suddenly the cable turned, the guy realized that his colleague swam into some room, although they agreed to swim straight.
Following her, he got into some kind of room, he emerged almost under the very ceiling and saw a terrible picture: Marina without a mask was struggling in her dying convulsions. The most terrible and incomprehensible thing was that the young instructor did not allow herself to be saved and resisted in every possible way.
The ghosts of the museum. Eyewitness Andrey
1975 I served in the army. My military unit was located near the eighth fort. Fortifications I was very interested in, being on leave, I often examined them.
In the Historical Museum, I met one employee, a young Lithuanian 25-27 years old. I liked to have conversations with her, Anna, that was the name of my new acquaintance, could spend hours talking to me about the concentration camp. She showed me various secret documents and described in detail the atrocities of the Nazis. It was interesting that she described it as if she herself was a prisoner of a concentration camp.
Service in the army ended, I returned to my native Leningrad. In the spring of 1985, I came to Kaunas with my friend. The first thing I did was to find Anna. But, as it turned out, such an employee has never been here. The old workers could not even understand who I was talking about.
You may think I'm crazy, but I'm sure Anna is a ghost, a former concentration camp prisoner.
Puzzles
There is no information about the underground premises in any of the archives of the fortress. But local residents say that among the prisoners in the concentration camp there were many miners by profession. If this is not speculation, then the Germans were building underground there. What were they building? Most likely, crematoria, in which tens of thousands of prisoners were burned.
In 1988, a scientific expedition from Moscow began to survey the flooded underground premises. But after three days all work stopped - two scientists died, in the very place where the girl instructor died.
