Description of the attraction
The monument to the destroyer "Kerch" is located on the embankment of the city of Tuapse and is a huge block of sandstone, in outline resembling the bow of a ship with an admiralty anchor attached to it. The monument was erected in 1968, on the fiftieth anniversary of the tragic events that took place in difficult times for the country.
In the spring of 1918, the Entente army captured Odessa, Nikolaev and Perekop against the army - there was a real threat of the complete occupation of Crimea. The Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin, decided to withdraw the entire Black Sea fleet, based in Sevastopol, to Novorossiysk, in order to avoid the capture of ships by the Germans. In total, twelve destroyers, ten boats and eight transporters, two battleships and five destroyers were transported to Novorossiysk. In response, the Germans, violating the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, occupied Sevastopol and put forward an ultimatum to the Soviet leadership demanding the return of the fleet to Sevastopol within six days. Since the Red Army at that time did not have enough forces to confront, it was decided to flood the entire fleet.
On June 17, 1918, this decision was carried out, and the destroyer "Kerch" played a fatal role in these events. The decision to flood the fleet caused a storm of protests both among the population and the sailors themselves. The only ardent supporter of the flooding of the fleet was the commander of the destroyer "Kerch" - V. A. Kukel, who took over the execution of the order. At dawn on June 19, not far from Tuapse, the destroyer Kerch was also sunk.
It is worth noting that part of the fleet was nevertheless saved and ships were transported to Tsaritsyn, where the Volga-Caspian military flotilla was created on this basis.
