Legend Of The Fort

The Naval Fortress of Emperor Peter the Great was the largest naval fortress complex ever built in the world, consisting of an extensive system of coastal artillery batteries, land fortifications, and support infrastructure. Planning, design and construction by the Russian Empire started between 1906 and 1918 (officially from 1912), the fortress was designed to protect the Gulf of Finland and the approaches to St. Petersburg, the imperial capital. 

The idea for the fortress emerged in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), particularly following the disastrous Battle of Tsushima, where nearly the entire Russian Baltic Fleet was destroyed. This catastrophic loss left St. Petersburg vulnerable to a potential naval invasion. 

With the rebuilding of the fleet requiring years, the Russian military urgently needed a faster, more cost-effective way to defend the capital and secure the empire’s northwestern borders. Thus, the concept of a massive, layered defensive belt of coastal artillery, and land fortification was born. Its purpose was to make the Gulf of Finland virtually impenetrable to any enemy fleet, effectively sealing off maritime access to the capital until a new navy could be constructed.

The fortress system included over 300 coastal and land artillery batteries, sea mine fields with tenth of thousands sea mines, system of underground bunkers connected with tunnels, deep tunnel shelters in rocks, observation posts, command centers, and logistical facilities such as specialized railway system, quarries, factories, barracks. Key fortifications were strategically placed on both the northern and southern shores of the Gulf of Finland, as well as on several islands. Central position of fortresses was Porkkala peninsula and Reval city, including surrounding islands.

 In strategic terms, the fortress functioned as a “Baltic wall"—a maritime counterpart to the land-based defensive lines like the French Maginot Line or the later Mannerheim Line in Finland. It was not only meant to protect St. Petersburg but also to exert control over naval traffic through the Gulf of Finland, which served as a critical access point to the Russian heartland.Despite the scale and ambition of the project, full completion was never realized. The outbreak of World War I, followed by two Russian revolts of 1917, abduction of Tsar and subsequent Civil War, interrupted construction. 

Nonetheless, many of the installations were finished and remained operational through the interwar period and some was repaired and modernized by Finland and Estonia, later playing a role during the Winter War (1939–1940) and World War II. Today, remnants of the Naval Fortress of Emperor Peter the Great serve as rare and remarkable examples of early 20th-century military engineering. Some sites are open to the public and attract historians, military enthusiasts, and tourists interested in Russia’s imperial and wartime history, some are still function as military facilities and forbidden to visit.

HISTORICAL PHOTOS RELATED TO EVENTS IN NAVAL FORTRESS OF EMPEROR PETER THE GREAT

Another outstanding personality associated with the Navy,  Noblessner Shipyard and the Naval Fortress of Emperor Peter the Great — Ivan Grigoryevich Bubnov.

He was born on January 6, 1872 in Nizhny Novgorod, in a merchant family. At the age of 15, after graduating from a real school, he came to Kronstadt, passed the entrance exams and entered the Technical School of the Maritime Department. He graduated with honors, and at the age of 19, being the youngest of the graduates of 1891, he became a ship engineer. 

From 1912-1917 Consultant at the Noblessner U-boat yard in Reval. A little bit of what he was working on: The Sevastopol-class battleships were a series of Russian battleships, the first dreadnoughts of the Russian Navy. The project was developed by the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, under the leadership of Professor of the Maritime Academy I. G. Bubnov in 1907. At the Baltic Shipyard in 1911-1912, Bubnov supervised the design of battlecruisers of the Izmail and Svetlana types, by the way, the cruiser Svetlana was built in Reval in 1913-1915. In the spring of 1912, Bubnov left the Service at the Baltic Shipyard and became a consultant at the shipyard of the joint-stock company Noblessner in Reval, which received an order to build 12 submarines of the Bars type. At the same time, he continued to work on promising boat projects and in March 1914 presented a project of a submarine with a boiler-turbine power source. 

He developed a super-dreadnought-Battleship engineer Bubnov comparable in power to the Japanese Yamato of the Second World War. It was distinguished by detailed study, powerful artillery, increased speed and an acceptable level of armor Revolutionary events stopped the design of Bubnov’s super-powerful battleships with 406-mm artillery. He developed a super-dreadnought-Battleship engineer Bubnov comparable in power to the Japanese Yamato of the Second World War. It was distinguished by detailed study, powerful artillery, increased speed and an acceptable level of armor. Revolutionary events stopped the design of Bubnov’s super-powerful battleships with 406-mm artillery.

Currently, there is not a single ship and warship in the world that has not been built thanks to him. Theoretical developments and individual principles of mathematical analysis of this brilliant Russian nugget formed the basis of complex computer programs. And besides, I.G. Bubnov can be safely called the father of the submarine fleet.