A holiday of military history in Djuramossa

I was very please to be in the holiday of the military history in Djuramosa. I’ve never seen before so many guests who came from the whole Sweden to participate in this event.
Most of all, I was impressed with military show. Some pictures taken in the hospitable Djuramossa you can see below. Many participants and spectators were able to by a lot of books and DVDs on military history in SMB book tent. Those who got hungry, got a chance to test a real military pea soup. Even a heavy hailstorm failed to spoil such a nice holiday!

Special Finnish mission to Poltava

Pekka Visuri, Doctor of Political Sciences and retired Army colonel, has lectured on some aspects of Ukrainian and Finnish military history on March 12th in the Poltava Battle Museum. The lecture went off enchantingly. Many scholars, teachers and students were present. The lecture was a joint event with the Finnish Embassy in Ukraine. Before the beginning of the lecture the director of the museum Natalia Bilan gave the flour to Ambassador of the Finnish Republic to Ukraine Arja Makkonen, who introduced him to the audience.

The lecturer has worked 15 years as researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki and from 2008 at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. He has been adjunct professor at the National Defence University in Helsinki, specialized in security policy, strategy and political history. At present he is senior fellow at the Aleksanteri Institute, University of Helsinki. He is now working in the EU/CBSS projects (EUSBR, PA 14 and Anvil) concerning the strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, special area civil protection.

Adolf Hitler's World War II Eastern Front military headquarters near Vinnitsa (Ukraine)

Führerhauptquartier Werwolf was the codename used for one of Adolf Hitler's World War II Eastern Front military headquarters located in a pine forest about 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) north of Vinnitsa in the central Ukraine that was used between 1942 and 1943. It was one of a number of Führer Headquarters throughout Europe, and the most easterly ever used by Hitler in person. The name is derived from Werwolf, which is German for werewolf. The naming scheme is in accord with other code-names given to Führerhauptquartiere during the Second World War, such as Wolfsschanze. Several were named for Hitler himself, whose nickname was Wolf, an old German form of Adolf.

The complex was located in a pine forest between the villages of Stryzhavka and Kolo-Mikhailovka on the Kiev highway. It was built between December 1941 and June 1942 under top secret conditions. The Wehrmacht had its regional headquarters in Vinnytsia, and the Luftwaffe had a strong presence at their airbase in Kalinovka, about 20 km away. Hitler's accommodation at Werwolf consisted of a modest log cabin built around a private courtyard with its own concrete bunker. The rest of the complex consisted of about 20 wooden cottages and barracks and up to three "B" class bunkers, surrounded by ring of barbed wire and ground defensive positions connected by underground tunnels. A couple of observation points were set up on platforms in the oak trees surrounding the pine forest. The area was surrounded by a defensive strip of bunkers, anti-aircraft guns and tanks, as well as anti-tank ditches and minefields. There was a tea house, a barber shop, a bathhouse, a sauna, a cinema and even an open swimming pool for the inhabitants' use. Although this pool was primarily intended for Hitler, he never once swam in it. The facility also contained a large vegetable garden organised by the German horticultural company Zeidenspiner to provide Hitler with a secure supply of food. Two artesian wells supplied the site with water, and the site had its own power generation facilities. The bunkers were constructed by Organisation Todt using local Ukrainian workers, forced labour but mainly Russian prisoners of war. Many of the workers were subsequently murdered to maintain secrecy of the site. During his Eastern campaign, Adolf Hitler lived mainly at FHQ Wolfsschanze (near Rastenburg, Poland). He stayed at FHQ Werwolf only three times:

• 16 July to 30 October 1942.
• 19 February to 13 March 1943.
• 27 August to 15 September 1943.

Plans in Ukraine to open a museum at the ruins of a bunker used by Hitler during World War II have provoked concerns it could become a shrine for neo-Nazis. The decision by local authorities in the centrally located city of Vinnitsa to turn the site of the Wehrwolf bunker into a tourist attraction has caused so much controversy that President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych requested on a recent visit to Vinnitsa that the matter be settled in a local referendum. Originally, the museum had been due to open in May 2012 to coincide with the commemoration of victory over the Nazis. But communist and socialist party activists opposed the idea, arguing that the creation of such a museum would be tantamount to spreading Nazi propaganda.

Stasi Museum in Leipzig

This shot of me and my grandson Kirill was taken in 2012 at the entrance to the Museum of  Stasi in Leipzig.

The Ministry for State Security (German:Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), commonly known as the Stasi, was the official state security service of the German Democratic Republic or GDR (informally known as East Germany). It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies in the world.

The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the city. The Stasi motto was "Schild und Schwert der Partei" (Shield and Sword of the Party), that is the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany. Although Stasi was superficially granted independence in 1957, until 1990 the KGB continued to maintain liaison officers in all eight main Stasi directorates, each with his own office inside the Stasi's Berlin compound, and in each of the fifteen Stasi district headquarters around East Germany, including Leipzig. Collaboration was so close that the KGB invited the Stasi to establish operational bases in Moscow and Leningrad to monitor visiting East German tourists. In 1978  KGB officers in East Germany were granted the same rights and powers they enjoyed in the Soviet Union.

For a glimpse of life in Leipzig during the Cold War, many tourists visit the Stasi Museum, which documents the work of the secret service in the former GDR. Set in an original Stasi administration office, the museum gives fascinating and chilling insights into the function, methods and history of the secret service; you can see original surveillance equipment, police documents, letters, photos, a prison cell, and even an odor archive of suspects (yellow napkins in a glass jars).

Soviet cruise missile AS-5 "Kelt" in Poltava

The Raduga KSR-2 (NATO reporting name: AS-5 "Kelt") was a Soviet cruise missile developed in 1958 and entered service in 1962. The missile was normally armed with a conventional high explosive warhead, although it could be fitted with a one megaton nuclear warhead. The first testing of the missile began in 1958, with two missiles being carried under the wings of a modified Tu-16 bomber designated as Tu-16KSR-2. The bomber was fitted with a newly developed search and target illumination radar Ruby which has a maximum range of approximately 200 kilometers. During the tests missiles were fired at ships and ground targets. Once the launching aircraft's radar has locked onto a target, the missile can be launched. The rocket motor fires immediately after release in boost mode, accelerating the missile to its cruise speed. Once the missile turns on an approach course to the target, the motor switches to cruise mode, shutting down one of its chambers. The missile's autopilot then flies a course using inertial guidance toward the target. In anti-shipping mode the missile engages its J-band active radar in the final approach to the target.As about missile’s combat use, Egyptian Tu-16 bombers reportedly launched thirteen KSR-2 and twelve KSR-11 missiles during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
One such cruise missile is preserving in the Poltava Museum of Long-Range Aviation in the open air, which is located on the territory of the former air base. Museum includes Tu-160 strategic bomber, Tu-95 MS turboprop strategic bomber and rocket carrier, Tu-22 M3 long-range supersonic bomber and rocket carrier with changeable geometry of the wings, Tu-22 KN passenger jet, Su-15 UM fighter, Tu-16 medium-range bomber. 

The Ukrainian navy are training killer-dolphins to attack enemy combat swimmers by using special knives and pistols which will be fixed to their heads.

October 15, 2012 (RIA Novosti) A military source in the Ukrainian naval port of Sevastopol told Russian news agency RIA Novosti that the dolphins and other animals will also be detecting mines along the seabed. 

"Ten dolphins are now being trained for special tasks in the Ukrainian state oceanarium and the Ukrainian military are now regularly training the animals for detecting things along the seabed," said the source. "We are now planning training exercises for counter-combat swimmer tasks in order to defend ships in port and on raids."

The army has had a history of training dolphins to protect their shores, dating as far back as to 1973. 

As well as attacking divers, they were used to carry explosives on their heads to plant on enemy ships. 

The source said the army has already completed several successful exercises with the dolphins in finding underwater weapons in the aquarium and outside in open water. "Our dolphins found the items and attached devices to them which were fixed on their heads, after which a buoy on it was sent to the surface to mark it." 

Facing the Climate Continues Its Tour in Ukraine

October 4, 2012 (http://www.si.se)

"Facing the Climate" in Ukraine – is a joint project of the Swedish Institute, Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, and the International Information Center "Green Dossier". To illustrate Sweden’s strong commitment to climate and environment issues, the Swedish Institute launched an exhibition on October 4, 2012 entitled Facing the Climate. In it, five Swedish cartoonists provide some amusing and alarming reflections on climate change. Local artists were invited to give their view of the climate. Since then the climate images reached more than 135.000 visitors when shown by Swedish Foreign missions and their local partners.

Sweden is internationally known as a country that takes environmental issues and sustainability seriously.  But taking something seriously doesn’t necessarily mean viewing it in a humorless way.

“When the Swedish cartoonists are presented to them, local partners are inspired to launch a similar initiative for cartoonists in their own country,” says Project Manager Birgitta Tennander. “So they organized a competition. The winning entries were then shown together with the Swedish cartoons. Sweden has come further than many other countries in dealing with the climate issue – but abroad there is often a considerable potential among young well-educated people who are full of energy and commitment. The project gives us the chance to discuss topical environmental issues in both countries.” Facing the Climate will be on display in Rio, Athens, Tirana, Tel Aviv, Johannesburg, Novosibirsk  and other cities around the world during 2012.