In lakhdenpokhya just twenty kilometers from the Finnish border decrepit old barracks of the Finnish army. In 1933-1940 years it housed the Vyborg regiment.
After the war the owner of the barracks was replaced, and the building was taken over by the Soviet army. The most famous occupant of the barracks was the current Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who was here in training camp in the 1980s.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the garrison was disbanded. Now about those times reminiscent of a forgotten yard field kitchen.
In better condition than the building of barracks, is a grotto, which the Finns used during the continuation War (Soviet-Finnish war of 1941-1944). We are talking about the so-called “Owl Mountain”, the current owner of which is Russian entrepreneur in the field of tourism Vadim Gavrilenko.
Gavrilenko turned the grotto area of 750 square meters in the Museum of military history, which for the half year was visited by 15 thousand people. The majority of visitors are from St. Petersburg, and Tatiana Kladova.
“I never knew about this Museum. Here you can get information about it,” says Kladova.
The Museum displays the equipment of the Winter war and the continuation War, and layouts found on this site items. In addition to demonstrating gas masks, Finnish knives and weapons, visitors may learn about the organization “Lotta Svärd” (women’s voluntary paramilitary organization in Finland that existed in the period from 1919 to 1944 — approx. TRANS.).
Mannerheim visited these barracks in may 1944.
Elks fighting — the secret weapon of the red army
The most amazing exhibit of the Museum are the pictures of the moose, which was tame in the red army in the 1930-ies, even before the Winter war. Moose was trying to tame and train in Russia for the 19th century. The Soviet Union had made a special manual for their training. In 1934-1937 the training took place 1,5 thousand moose.
Combat moose riding their horns tried to attach the machine gun Degtyarev. The task was to make moose cavalry that can move through the deep snow, as well as a platform for firing, which was not easy. The animals were scared of the sound of gunfire. As far as we know, they never used to perform real-world tasks.
In plans — creation of a military-historical Park
The Museum is located near the Finnish municipality Parikkala, but Finnish tourists rarely come here.
“We can accept large groups of tourists. The Museum is open the whole day”, — says Vadim Gavrilenko.
Gavrilenko wants to create a military-historical Park with a spy camp and tanks.
“We plan to bring in military equipment, hope to cooperate with the Finns”.
Gavrilenko also expects to obtain from Finland drawings of the grotto. According to legend, this area needs to be a network of underground tunnels.
“We gratefully accept any archived data relevant to this place.”
