Description of the attraction
In the city of Kerch, there are Adzhimushkay quarries, which are underground. And they are named so after the existing village of Adzhimushkai, where from May to October 1942, part of the troops belonging to the Crimean Front conducted a heroic defense against the fascist invaders.
Fierce battles took place on the Kerch Peninsula, and on May 8, 1942, the Germans launched an offensive, capturing Kerch on May 16. The troops that defended the city were evacuated to the Taman Peninsula. The part of the troops that belonged to the Crimean Front and did not manage to evacuate was cut off. They had to take up defensive positions in the underground Adzhimushkay quarries. The local population took refuge in the same quarries. Around the Adzhimushkay quarries, the Nazis erected rows of wire barriers. Their entrances were first blown up and then heaped up with stones. In the adits, which were underground, they pumped in smoke mixed with asphyxiant gas, arranged partial collapses. But, our besieged people made heroic sorties, and inflicted clear blows on the enemy, destroying his posts and part of the heavy tanks.
Those besieged underground were in dire need of food and water, there was not enough medicine and ammunition, but this did not stop them from fighting the fascist invaders. Not only in battles, but also from wounds, suffocation, landslides and hunger, thousands of our soldiers and part of the civilian population died. The defense, which was heroically carried out in the Adzhimushkai quarries, diverted significant enemy troops from other lines.
The quarries were liberated by our troops at the end of November 1943.
In 1972, a detachment "Search", originally from Odessa, descended into the catacombs, together with enthusiasts from Kerch and Crimean speleologists, sappers and signalmen to work with the goal of finding military staff documents and documents of the party organization of the members of the underground besieged garrison.
The expedition had to work in difficult conditions with numerous landslides and taluses with objects that could explode at any moment, in conditions of weak mine lighting. The workers of the first expedition found shells of various calibers. On their way, there were mines and grenades and hundreds of 45-mm shells that were not exploded. But as the results of this expedition showed, they turned out to be modest.
Therefore, in the summer of 1973, a large expedition was created and sent, led by the military historian V. V. Abramov. Defense veterans F. F. Kaznacheev and S. S. Shaidurov worked in the expedition, with the help of which the main reference point for the defense of all sectors was established. The central adit served as a reference point, and the main radio was located there. This expedition found 150 items that are echoes of the military actions besieged in the Adzhimushkay quarries. Among the finds were two gas-smoke bombs, which were not completely burned out. The members of this expedition concluded that the Nazis used asphyxiant poisonous substances, which they let along with the smoke to poison the besieged people in the quarries.
