Bomarsund

Initially, it was planned to create a fortification in the Bomarsund area on the basis of the bastion defensive system, known in Europe from the beginning of the 16th century , and already considered obsolete by the beginning of the 19th century . The bastion fortress was built on the principle of deep defense and had several layers of ditches and earthen ramparts. If the enemy captured the first line of defense, the defense could be continued from the second line, if the second - on the third and so on.

The plan adopted for construction was based on the concepts of the French engineer René de Montalembert , who represented the siege as a battle of artillerymen - who has more guns, has the advantage during the battle. Guns were installed in buildings consisting of several floors, which allowed to double or triple their number. This system required many structures with hundreds of guns and a huge garrison for their maintenance.

Bomarsund Fortress was located on the shore and therefore had to withstand attacks from both sides - from the sea and from the land. For naval vessels, the strategy with the most cannons in a number of separate batteries works best, which means that the ships could not attack all the defenses at a time. Land batteries over marine batteries have a major advantage in a fixed support, so it’s virtually impossible to successfully attack a well-built stone fort from the sea.

To confront the ground army, it is necessary to complicate the artillery of the enemy and the advancement of his infantry, which requires a defensive wall with a glacis . The main principle is that a larger number of defensive structures covers a larger area for defense, which minimizes the risk that the attack can be sent to any single point.

Defense System

The system consists of a defensive belt, the base of which is a large fortified fort in the form of a closed semicircle with a diameter of 1100 m with a wall length exceeding 3000 m. The main fort was located in the lowland and the semicircular side was facing the sea. A system of towers was designed to increase defenses in the depths of the island at dominant heights. Obviously, the towers were also built according to the Montalamber system and carried the main load on the defense of the main fort from land. In total, it was planned to build 6 towers, which were supposed to cover the main fort in a semicircle from the side of the island.

From the main fort in the southeast were (clockwise): a fortified warehouse 300 m long, tower A, a military hospital 300 m long, tower B, first battery, tower C, second battery, tower D, third battery, tower E, garrison barracks and tower F. All separate defensive structures had to be connected to each other by walls, in front of which was a glacis that protected buildings and walls from cannon fire. Each fortified building was two stories high, and defensive towers were three floors high, which made it possible to increase by 50% the number of guns that could be directed against the enemy. The total number of planned guns was 350 barrels.

By the beginning of the Crimean War , only Tower A, a hospital and warehouses were partially built. Only tower C ( Fin. Brännklint Tower ) was completely built. The construction of tower D, located at a prevailing height, was only about to begin.

To the north and east of the central fortress, seven more defensive towers were planned, with a total of 150 cannons. They were supposed to protect the territory from the attack of the fleet from the north, as well as from landing on the island ( Fin. Prästö ).

Main Fort

The walls of the fort were made of brick , the outer side is faced with wild granite , which gave the building an impregnable appearance and a peculiar beauty.

The main fort consisted of 162 casemates , of which 115 were designed to accommodate guns and their calculations in the composition of eight to ten people. Large caliber guns were installed on the ground floor. ^[3] In other rooms there were kitchens, warehouses with food and ammunition, an office. There were also religious buildings for various faiths; the largest and richest was, of course, the Orthodox. There were toilets under the ramps leading to the second floor, and wells were pierced to supply drinking water. In the fort's two wings, approximately 84 numbers were given to officers and their families. The total area of ​​the structure was about 18,000 m².

Towers fin. Prästö and Fin. Notvik

Of the twelve round towers, only three were built on Bomarsund.

Towers on fin island . Prästö and cape fin. Notvik provided protection from a naval assault from the north. Similarly to the Main Fort, these towers carried both the function of defensive structures and the function of barracks. Each of them was planned for 125 people.

Tower fin. Brännklint

The only tower completed at the beginning of hostilities out of six planned along the perimeter of the fortress. It was of a similar construction and the same size as the fin towers . Prästö and Fin. Notvik guarding the strait from the north. The main difference between this tower was the presence of embrasures only on the north and west sides, while inside the defensive perimeter there were ordinary windows. But since the perimeter was not completed, the tower during the hostilities was isolated and vulnerable.

Garrison city fin. Skarpans

The city grew both inside and outside the defensive perimeter of the Bomarsund fortress. The first city, Old Fin. Skarpans was not planned and appeared spontaneously. The name comes from a farm ( Fin. Skarpans ) that existed on this site before the Russian Empire bought this land. By the end of the 1830s and during the 1840s, a new settlement was planned, with a strict layout and wide straight roads - New Skarpans. Military and civilians lived here, in 1842 administrative buildings were rebuilt, in 1845 a school was opened, as well as a pharmacy, shops and other institutions. The buildings were built of wood, with yellow, blue or gray facades .

In the spring of 1854, fearing an attack, the population of the city was prepared for evacuation, and gradually the city was cleared of people. On August 3, 1854, all buildings were burned to prevent their use as a cover during an assault by the enemy. Finnish city . Skarpans has never been rebuilt again.

Island fin. Prästö

In the initial period of construction of the Bomarsund fortress on the island of Fin. Prästö was built a military hospital, next to it appeared about 30 private houses. All buildings were destroyed by the Russian garrison on the eve of the battle of 1854.

The island of Prästö was also called the "Island of the Dead" due to the fact that six burial places were created here. Initially, Russian Orthodox burials appeared, located on the western side of the island, then Jewish and Muslim cemeteries appeared in the neighborhood. In the late 1840s, new burials appeared on the eastern side of the island: Orthodox, Lutheran and Catholic.

Probably, the fort was intended for the defense of a convenient harbor and was the naval base of the empire near Sweden. Obviously, without support from the sea and without communication with the mainland, the unfinished fortress remained in an isolated position and could not withstand a long-term siege.

After the end of the war of 1808-1809 and the conclusion of the Friedrichsham Peace Treaty , Finland and the Åland Islands, which formerly belonged to the Kingdom of Sweden , became part of the Russian Empire. The islands became the westernmost outpost of the Empire, a garrison was stationed on their territory and a decision was made to build a military fort here.

Already in 1809, Russian engineers began mapping the area and designing a new fortress. Large fortifications were planned on the eastern side of the main island, which were to serve as a bridgehead capable of withstanding a long siege to strengthen the contingent of Russian troops in Finland. The place dominates the main channels leading to Lumparn Bay and gives control of this natural harbor. One of the channels was named Bomarsund. During the year, all the main preparatory measures for the construction of the fort were completed: the forest at the site of the fort was laid down, on the island of Fin. Prästö was built a military hospital.

In connection with the Patriotic War of 1812 and the death of the Russian commander Barclay de Tolly , responsible for the construction of Bomarsund, the construction of the fort had to be stopped.

During a visit to the islands in 1820, Nikolai Pavlovich , the Grand Duke and the inspector of fortresses, decided to resume construction and ordered new plans to strengthen Bomarsund.

Work on the islands began in 1830 with the construction of wooden barracks and other buildings for the military contingent and prisoners sent to the island to build the fort (a total of about 1000 people).

In 1832, the construction of the Main Fort began, it lasted 12 years.

In 1839, the 11th Finnish battalion was quartered and an Orthodox church was erected.

In 1842, work began on the construction of the Finnish tower . Prästö , two years later the Finnish tower . Notvik . These two towers were supposed to protect Bomarsund primarily from naval attacks from the north.

In 1846, work began on the construction of a new hospital and warehouses. Over the next seven years, a hospital, warehouses, first, second and fourth towers, but only a third fin , were partially built . Brännklint has been completed completely. Further construction could not be continued, since the fortress was transferred to martial law .

The Battle of Bomarsund

In the Crimean War that began in 1853, England and France acted on the side of the Ottoman Empire . Later, the northern front was opened by the Western powers, and a combined armada went to the Gulf of Finland to prevent Russian ships from moving far from Kronstadt (in London they feared that 28 battleships of the Baltic Fleet would hit the UK) ^[4] .

The Baltic Sea was blocked, Bomarsund isolated. The battle took place in August 1854 between the Russian defending forces and the Anglo-French operational group of ships. On the day the attack began, Commandant Bomarsund, the artillery colonel Bodisko, had 2175 people (counting officers, clerks, non-combatants), but only 1,600 were under arms and with guns . There were about 12,000 attackers. After four days of battle, the fortress was taken. Later, the fortress was finally destroyed, since the British wanted to impede the military activities of Russia on the islands.

From the garrison of 2500 people were taken 2000 prisoners, most of them were Finns. Three hundred Finnish grenadiers , mostly snipers defending the fortress, were captured and escorted to Lewis Prison, England . They were later allowed to return to Finland. The prisoners wrote a song about the battle and their conclusion - “The Battle for Bomarsund” ( Fin. Oolannin sota ).

In 1856, the Paris Peace Treaty assigned the Åland Islands the status of a demilitarized zone ^[5] , which is still being maintained.

In Britain , in the city of Lewis ( East Sussex County) and now there is a monument ^[6] , erected in 1878 by the Russian emperor Alexander II in memory of the defenders of Bomarsund - 28 Finns who died in captivity in 1854 - 1856 in the Lewis Naval Prison ^{[7 ]} .

The fate of the ruins

The blown up walls of Bomarsund laid the foundation of many buildings. Houses on the islands were built of red bricks; they were used in the capital soon laid down. The Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption in Helsinki is also partially built of Bomarsund brick. It was in Bomarsund that Emperor Alexander II signed a deed of gift, according to which the estate in the village of Ramony, Voronezh province, was transferred to the Princess of Oldenburg ^[8] . Presumably, as a gift, he sent her a stone from the wreckage of the fortress with a dedicatory inscription. This stone was installed as a monument in front of the castle, but in the 1960s and 1970s it fell underground ^[9] . It was found only in 2011 through the efforts of local schoolchildren and the search organization Don, and without an inscription ^[9] . The fortress was never rebuilt, although the vents of formidable cannons still look out into the sea from the dilapidated walls.

• Graham Robins ym .: Bomarsund - det ryska imperiets utpost i väster
• Isela Valve: Det flög en kråka över Bomarsund
• Gardberg, CJ Kivestä ja puusta. Suomen linnoja, kartanoita ja kirkkoja. - Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, 2002. - ISBN ISBN 951-1-17423-1 .
• Bomarzund // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.

• Friedrich Engels. The capture of Bomarsund
• “Russian memory of the Scandinavian archipelago” (inaccessible link) , Natalia Gracheva, “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, 05/07/2008
• “The Battle of Bomarsund” , Nikita Shevtsov, the newspaper Trud, No. 168, 09/10/2005
• Bomarsund (Swedish)
• Crimean War in the Baltic