<펌> Arabat Fortress (Crimea)

"Arabat" - a fortress on the Arabat Spit

   At the base of the Arabat Spit, off the coast of the Crimea, near the salt mine, is the old, already destroyed Turkish fortress “Arabat”. It was built, it is believed, in the second half of the 17th century, in the southern base of the Arabat Spit, two kilometers north-west of the village of Ak-Monai (Kamenskoe) on a narrow sandy strip between the Arabat Bay and Sivash. Written sources left almost no information about this fortress. Meanwhile, she witnessed stormy and tragic events. The walls of the fortress are still preserved. Laid out by a powerful ashlar, only overgrown with dereza and thistles. The fortress is surrounded by a deep moat and high shaft, and in the fortress itself there is a zindan for prisoners. They say that previously there was Laz from the fortress, coming out 100 meters in the Sea of ​​Azov. Turkish combat swimmers climbed on it and unexpectedly attacked the ships besieging the fortress. 

   In 1475, the Crimea was occupied by Turkish troops. They defeated the Genoese fortresses, destroyed the major medieval principality of Theodoro in the south-western Crimea, subordinated the Crimean Khanate to their power. In all strategic points of the peninsula, the conquerors built new or strengthened old fortresses.
   The first Arabat fortress appeared on the map in 1651. Turkish traveler Evliya елelebi, who visited Crimea at about this time, tells in his “Book of Travels” the history of this fortress: “In place of a plain, with grass and tulips overgrown, Mehmed Girei Khan erected it. He built it for the reason that once a few Cossack slaves, taking advantage of the opportunity, swam from this cape (meaning Arabatskaya arrow) the Sea of ​​Azov. From there, they reached the Kalmyk Tatars. ”

   Come on, if the lads just ran away! No, the Cossacks, desperate heads, returned, bringing with them a whole horde of Kalmyks. Presumably, the latter were convinced by stories about how easy it was to get to the rich Crimea on a deserted spit. “So, unexpectedly, they invaded Crimea, devastating him and robbing him.” Khan Mehmed Giray was forced to personally lead the punitive expedition. As a result, the Kalmyks were defeated and “all Cossack slaves were taken back into captivity, and on returning to the Crimea, they were measured by a fair punishment ...”. And so that no one else put a spit on the peninsula would stick, Mehmed Giray set up a fortress with the simple name Rabat at the southern tip of the spit, which is translated from Arabic as a suburb or military post. Over time, Rabat transformed into Arabat and presented the name of the current Arabat Spit. The fortress is “truly reliable and powerful.

   Indeed, the Arabat fortress was built by an experienced military engineer. A complex perimeter, including five bastions and two gates, suggested the possibility of a long-term siege and active attacks. Gun loopholes, oriented to the east, north and west and located in several rows, made it possible to simultaneously use tools of different systems and power.
   The fortress and the garrison with it cooled the hotheads, and after that memorable "escape and raid" incidents no longer happened. Rabat gradually began to desolate. During the Russian-Turkish war of 1735-1739, Russian units took advantage of this, and they easily entered the Crimea twice along the Arabat Spit. Khan Arslan Giray, who later became the ruler of the Crimea, took the defense seriously and once again “locked” the entrance to the Crimea, repairing and strengthening Rabat and other fortresses. Therefore, the next battle at the Arabat fortress was valorous and difficult.

   One of the goals of the next campaign of Russia to the Crimea in 1771 was “to pull the fortresses from the hands of the Turkish”. Carrying out this plan, on the night of June 18, the detachment of General Shcherbatov stormed Arabat. The fight was short and brutal: “The front Russian plutongs flew into the moat in the air; when, using the peak and slingshots, they mounted the shaft, the rear plutongers and artillery made continuous firing. Half an hour later the Russians were on the rampart, and the fortress surrendered, ”writes the historian S. Solov'ev in his work“ The History of Russia since Ancient Times ”.
   The fortress was so significant that the joyful news of the successful assault on Arabat was rushed to inform Catherine the Great. The Empress’s letter to General-in-Chief Dolgorukov: “Prince Vasiliy Mikhailovich! I received a pleasant news from you about the assault by Major General Prince Scherbatov of the Arabat fortress. Please say my confession for so many and various services and writings ... ”. 
   Within two weeks, the Russian army occupied all the strategic points of the Crimean peninsula. The military talent of Prince Dolgorukov, the courage and military skill of the soldiers led to the fact that there were no longer any Turkish troops on the peninsula.
   After the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, the fortress lost its military significance. They remembered it only in the Crimean War of 1853-1856. Renovated, revetted walls with hewn limestone. The garrison, armed with 17 guns, successfully prevented the landing of paratroopers on the Arabat spit and hampered the advance of enemy ships in Azov.

   At the end of the Crimean War, the garrison was withdrawn, and the deserted, disarmed fortress gradually turned into a quarry for residents near the village located. But the dilapidated walls again and again (in 1920 and 1941-1944) served as a reliable shield and white, and red, and brown. It is interesting that one of the key scenes of the film “Two Comrades Served”, widely known in Soviet times, was filmed here. Director Yevgeny Karelov found the Arabat fortress more cynogenic than its “sister”, the Perekop fort, where, in fact, the heroic and tragic events of the late fall of 1920 took place. Therefore, whites in the film held their last bridgehead in the Crimea right here. Remembers Arabatskaya fortress and one of the main characters of the film,
   How many battles have happened on these walls, how many times has this piece of sushi passed from hand to hand! About the recent military past of the Arabat reminds Dot of the times of the Great Patriotic War. The upper part of the pillbox was torn off by a powerful explosion, but all the same - the concrete cap continues to squint at the narrow gap, vigilantly watching the road going alongside. 
   It's a shame that our state does not care about the preservation of the historical monument. If the fortress in Turkey were closer to Antalya, tourists would be brought to it in droves, even a legend would have been invented to paint something. And here - nobody needs anything. True, there is one change - straight to the wall of the fortress, as one of the bastions, was attached DAI post with a barrier.