Historical and cultural complex “Stalin Line”

The “Stalin Line” is a system of fortified areas (URs) along the old western border of the USSR from the Karelian Isthmus to the shores of the Black Sea. The defense line was built from 1928 until the fall of 1939.

The basis of the combat power of the URs was long-term reinforced concrete structures - bunkers, designed to accommodate a garrison, install guns and machine guns. Over a length of 1,835 km, more than 4 thousand long-term firing points were erected. Four fortified areas (Polotsk, Minsk, Slutsk and Mozyr) were located on the territory of Belarus. In total, by the mid-1930s, the USSR had 13 fortified areas in the European part of the country: Karelian fortified area - on the border with Finland, Kingisep and Pskov fortified areas - on the border with Estonia and Latvia. The border with Poland was covered by Polotsk, Minsk, Mozyr, Korostensky, Novograd-Volynsky, Letichevsky, Mogilev-Yampolsky URs. Finally, the Rybnitsa and Tiraspol URs were located on the border with Romania. A separate fortified area was built to cover Kyiv - Kyiv. The length of the UR along the front was mainly 60 – 140 km. So the USSR got its own line, which received the unofficial name “Stalin Line”, by analogy with the already well-known “Maginot Line” and “Mannerheim Line”.

Minsk was the most powerful fortified area of the Belarusian Military District. Its main task was to cover an important economic, political and transport hub - the city of Minsk. The decision to begin work on the construction of the Minsk fortified region was made by a resolution of the Council of Labor and Defense of the USSR dated February 15, 1932. The length of the fortified area along the front was 140 km. The depth of defense ranged from one to 5.5 kilometers in different areas. In total there were 327 bunkers. Structurally, MiUR consisted of 10 battalion defense areas (BRO) and 7 separate company areas (RRO). We are located on the territory of a separate company area “C”, which included 18 long-term firing points, of which 3 were artillery semi-caponiers, one anti-tank firing point with a T-26 tank turret, the rest were machine-gun bunkers and command posts. The border ran 4.5 km from these positions.

The historical and cultural complex “Stalin Line” was created for the 60th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and opened on June 30, 2005 in memory of the defenders of the borders of Minsk. The idea of creating a unique monument belongs to the “Memory of Afghanistan” charitable foundation for helping internationalist soldiers.

The territory of the historical and cultural complex “Stalin Line” covers an area of about 30 hectares. The historical basis of the complex consists of buildings preserved from the 30s. last century, long-term firing points (pillboxes) of the Minsk fortified area. These are an artillery semi-caponier, three-embrasure and two-embrasure machine gun bunkers, as well as a command and observation post (COP). Currently, two structures are open for inspection - artillery semi-caponier No. 134 and three-embrasure machine gun bunker No. 292.

There are anti-tank and anti-personnel barriers, field filling positions and engineering equipment of the border section have been recreated. Military equipment from the Great Patriotic War and post-war years is widely represented - aviation, armored vehicles, artillery. A ferry crossing and a low-water engineering bridge built according to pre-war drawings are demonstrated on an artificial reservoir. After the inspection, you can taste soldier’s porridge at the Na Prival cafe, shoot with real historical weapons and drive rare tanks from the 30s-40s.