- The area around Helsinki was fortified during the first world war by
the Imperial Russia. The fortifying job was started quickly in August 1914, as
the war had just broken out and there was the fear, that the German troops might
try to attack towards St. Petersburg, through Finland. To prevent this or at
least to slow down the German troops, Krepost Sveaborg or in Finnish Viapori, was
build around Helsinki.
- The construction of Krepost Sveaborg, was halted in the early part of the 1918 and at that time, three different fortification rings had been constructed to the land fortification. The islands, located near of Helsinki, were also fortified and were meant to protect the city from attack, which would come from the sea.
- Most of the people, even Finnish, seem to think that Viapori implies only to Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) and when you tell them, that there's tens of kilometers of trench, tens of bunkers, caves and shelters in and around of Helsinki and extending to Vantaa and Espoo too, they look you like you must be crazy. But that's the case and it's one of the hidden and forgotten secrets of the Helsinki area. The fortification today, is not consistent one anymore, as the construction of urban areas and roads have destroyed a lot from the great fortification. Also the fact, that the actual fortifying plan was developed, extended and modified many times, during the four years, means that there is parts from the fortification nearly everywhere in Helsinki. First, it was just meant to protect a small approach to Helsinki, but as guns got bigger during the war and most likely experiences from the West Front started to spread out, the defensive line was extended further and further away from Helsinki, finally going also in Espoo and Vantaa.
- One could call this fortification a real waste, as no real
battles were fought here and the Germans never landed, at least not in the
purpose to march to St. Petersburg. The only battle, or actually skirmish, was
fought between the Germans and Red's which had taken control of Helsinki and the
fortification. The German troops which had landed to Hanko were marching towards
Helsinki, to help the White forces.
The Germans finally arrived near of Leppävaara in Espoo and faced the first constructions of the Krepost
Sveaborg, meaning barbed wire
and other defensive obstacles. As the negotiations between the Red's and Germans hadn't
succeeded, the German artillery started the bombardment and after a while, the
Red's started to pull out from their positions. The whole German occupation of
Helsinki, can be described with the similar incidents. The battle fought here,
was nothing like the battles fought in the Western Front. Personally, I have no
doubt, that if the Red's would have been willing to defend Helsinki, using
Krepost Sveaborg, the Germans most likely would have not been able to get
through. The fortification is sturdy and well build, as it's still hiding there
in the many small wooden areas of Espoo, Vantaa and Helsinki
- After the White army had gained victory over the Red's, the new Finnish army evaluated the whole fortification and abandoned the land fortifications as they had no strategic meaning anymore. The sea fortifications instead, that meant gun sites on nearby islands, were taken to use and some of them still are part of Finnish defense system. After the land fortification was abandoned, it started it's eventual disappearance into history, as people used to carry construction materials, like wood and stone away from the fortification. Also during the time between the two world wars, scrap iron was collected and for Krepost Sveaborg this meant, that most of the bunkers and shelter rooms were blown to pieces, in order to collect the iron, which had been used to reinforce the bunkers and shelters. Luckily, not all of them were destroyed completely.
- However, even when the imminent destruction of the fortification was ceased and it's value was started to understand, it really hasn't changed the way people are still today destroying it. I've seen too many examples of people pouring out trash and other garbage to the trenches and someone had even build his house on top of a machine gun position. It's not completely covered by the yard, but not much is missing from that point. I've tried to come up explanations, why people behave like this and the most obvious explanation is, that these vandals, who might be well educated, don't have any knowledge about Krepost Sveaborg. They don't know anything about it and so, they cannot appreciate it's historical value. It's just a sad thing to see those trenches disappearing completely, especially when the whole fortification is protected by the law.
- I actually enjoy to
photograph Viapori as I have always been interested about history. Also the
enjoyment of finding trenches from some dense bushes and trees is great. Some
part of this fortification is completely overrun by vegetation. Some parts on
the other hand, people have destroyed, by building houses and power plants on
top of Viapori, like mentioned previously. There is plans to protect the
fortification and actually, much have been done in few locations. However, I do
believe that the work at the moment is nearly useless and a waste of money. The
city can renovate the trenches and bunkers, but it cannot leave someone to guard
the place and as soon as the renovation work has stopped, the destruction of
Viapori continues as usual. I believe that a better way to protect the place,
would be to educate people a bit more, so that every time you mention Viapori,
people wouldn't ask that how do I find that much to see from Suomenlinna (Sveaborg).
After you explain what Viapori is, the comment that oh yes, we had those in our
backyard when we lived in our last place. So there's no respect and knowledge for the
place and if there's no respect knowledge, the destruction wont stop.
- I started photographing Krepost Sveaborg three years ago and I estimated that it should only take two summers to complete the whole tour of the fortification. Well, three summers has now passed and I estimate, that I haven't seen even half of the fortification yet. Of course there is locations, that I most likely wont see during my lifetime, as those are located in a military areas and unfortunately it wont happen in my lifetime, that the military would give up these areas back to the civilian use.
- If you plan to go and check Viapori with your own eyes, I would advise you to do that during the spring, summer or autumn. If you go and explore during the winter, don't be surprised if you fall down from some precipice and break your neck. Or maybe you will just fall down to some trench, because you couldn't see it from snow. Also look where you step, because like I said, some areas are completely covered with vegetation and you won't notice trenches or bunkers without roofs, before you are on the edge. Remember also to cover your body completely with clothes as you probably don't want that the nettles stings you? Army that now occupy this fortification is called insects. Meaning that there is wasp nests on the ground. Step on top of one of those nests and you wish you were wearing something else than a t-shirt and shorts. Snakes, beetles and ants are part of this army also. Those part of the fortification that are located a bit outside of the city, host also some wild cats or wild animals, not sure though, because I wasn't foolish enough to question the ownership of one bunker with the "thing" that was making that "noise" inside of the bunker corridors. At least not before I had a little backup.
- The location that I have
given indicates that in which name the general area is called, but
don't expect that when you step out of the
subway or bus, you will immediately
see caves and trenches. GPS co-ordinates should point you to a general
direction and if you own ability to look, you should find some part of the
trench or a bunker system.
- For finding the remaining fortifications and for
gathering these lists of locations, I've used three different sources, which for
some reason differ a bit from each others. The first and by far the most
important source has been the web site: www.novision.fi/viapori/.
The other two also very important sources have been the inventories made in
Espoo and in Helsinki by Sirkku Laine. The inventories named as Ensimmäisen
Maailmansodan Aikainen Maalinnoitus Espoossa and Ensimmäisen Maailmansodan
Aikainen Maalinnoitus Helsingissä have been a great help of trying to pin point
some areas.
- However, these sources differ a bit from each others. For example the web site lists some positions, which the official inventory for some reason hasn't listed at all. Then again, some locations might appear in the inventory, which are not listed in the web site. Also the web site doesn't list remains from a guard houses etc and that's quite understandable as drawing out a map, which includes every possible place, can get quite confusing.
- I've numbered the positions using mainly the numbers from the official inventory. In case that there's some conflicting information in the web site and in the inventory, I've named the positions as: Position 1 (2?), meaning that in inventory the position is numbered 1 and in the web site as 2. The first number or a question mark after position, marks always the number in the inventory and the second number or question mark, marks always the web site numbering system. For sea front, I've only relied to the web site. Same goes also for the fortifications which are located in Vantaa. Those are still without official inventory.
- I would like to express my gratitude for these sources, which have been an absolutely great help!
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- The area of the land fortification contains four areas, which would indicate that the Krepost Sveaborg was supposed to be armed with the heavy 305mm cannons. However the official documents remain nearly silent about these heavy batteries and as the batteries were never completely finished, it remains a question mark whether or not the four areas where the remains of the batteries can be seen today, were suppose to be armed with the heavy 305mm cannons.
- Contains 1 gallery
- The commandant of Krepost Sveaborg was General Bauer from 1913 to 1915 and after him, General Pastsenko remained as the commandant till 1917 when the October Revolution spread out in Russia. After the revolution, Colonel Kovanko held the commandant post till the Russians started to leave from the fortification and from Finland, which had proclaimed it's independency 6th of December 1917. The land front, sea front and the artillery all had their own commandants, who were subordinated to the commandant of Krepost Sveaborg. The commandants and their staff were located in Viapori, which today is known as Suomenlinna (Finland's Fortress).
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- Divided into three defensive lines: Two defensive lines going on the East side of Vantaanjoki and one defensive line going in the West side of Vantaanjoki.
- The fortification plan of Viapori harbour was just and just finished when the First World War broke out in August 1914. The construction of the field fortifications was started with a great speed. This field fortification line was to be constructed about seven kilometers from the Viapori harbour, which was the primary objective to be protected. As more and more experiences from the Western front started to arrive and it became clear that the Germans might not be coming any time soon, this field fortification line was abandoned and the construction of a more heavily armed and protected defensive line was started.
- Contains 10 galleries
- Containing the base numbers from I to XIV
- Covering the area East from the Vantaanjoki
- The defense plan of the fortification was based on the use of infantry and artillery that would support the defense. One of the reason why the fortification was never taken in use by the Finnish military forces, was that manning the whole fortification would have required a lot of man power, something for which Finland couldn't afford then and still can't. The defense plan calculated, that the land fortification would have been manned with 54 battalions of infantry. In reality the infantry in Krepost Sveaborg was highly under the planned strength, as approximately only three regiments of infantry and one artillery regiment held the whole defensive line.
- Contains 11 galleries
- Containing the base numbers from XV to XXV
- Covering the area between the Vantaanjoki and Mätäjoki
- The fact that the Great War wasn't going too well for the Imperial Russia, meant also that the fortification was mainly manned with poor quality infantry and equipment, when the better units were moved to the East Front, to face the Germans. The fortification itself was expanding rapidly as the war progressed. After the initial plans, the fortification line was decided to be extended to the area of Tapiola. In the end of the year 1915, the Eastern Defensive Zone was shortened by building a defensive line from Kivikko to Mustavuori. The latest addition to the plans was made at the beginning of the year 1916, when the area of Hakuninmaa was decided to be fortified and thus the Base number XXV was created. The work in the fortification line continued even as late as in February 1918 on some parts of the Eastern Defensive Zone.
- Contains 5 galleries
- Containing the base numbers from XXVI to XXXVII
- Covering the area West from Mätäjoki and including also the fortifications in Pitäjänmäki
- In the end, Krepost Sveaborg was never completely finished and it wasn't used in it's planned purpose. However the Germans seems to have taken the fortification seriously, as they already in September 1915 had some intelligence reports about the fortification. As the Russian troops pulled out from the fortification, they destroyed some parts of it, as agreed with the Germans. The rest of the destruction has come from time, weather, vegetation and from people. Even as late as in 1960's, there existed some plans to destroy the fortification completely. From 1971 onwards the whole fortification line has been protected by the Finnish law of archeological relics. However, even when protected by the law, the fortification is still under pressure of destruction from the people living nearby.
- Contains 1 gallery
- Covering the area in front of Helsinki and the Viapori harbour
- The construction of fortifications to the islands in front of Helsinki, was started few weeks before the Great War started. During the war several concrete batteries were completed to several islands. The sea front was divided into two defensive lines, to the outer one and to the inner one. The inner defensive line consisted those batteries which were constructed at the end of the 19th century. The armament of these batteries was under constant change and many cannons were moved to the land batteries. The Russians left from the islands in April 1918 after which the Finnish military occupied the islands. Most of the sea front batteries are still under the Finnish military control, which makes it nearly impossible to go and see the batteries. The good thing from this is, that the batteries remain in excellent condition, when comparing them to the land fortifications and batteries.
NOTE!: I would like to point out, that the whole line is protected by the Muinaismuistolaki (Finnish Law of Ancient Monuments) and penalty for damaging, digging or altering the line is a fine at least and even more severe penalty can result if the offence is a severe enough.
- The following sources were used, when building this presentation from Krepost Sveaborg:
Punakaartilaisen Päiväkirja (Diary of a Red Guardsman), Viljo Sohkanen
Ensimmäisen Maailmansodan Aikainen Maalinnoitus Espoossa (Land Fortification from the First World War in Espoo), Sirkku Laine
Ensimmäisen Maailmansodan Aikainen Maalinnoitus Helsinki (Land Fortification from the First World War in Helsinki), Sirkku Laine
Suomi 75 - Itsenäisen Suomen Historia 1 (Finland 75 - History of Independent Finland 1), Jukka Tarkka et al.
