The 22nd Karelian Fortified Region (KaUR; russian: Карельский укрепленный район; Карельский укрепрайон; КаУР) is a 60 km wide

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

defensive

fortified district A fortified district or fortified region (russian: Укреплённый район, Укрепрайон, ukreplyonny raion, ukrepraion) in the military terminology of the Soviet Union, is a territory within which a complex system of defense fo ...

to the north of

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

(now Saint Petersburg) that was built in 1928–1932, 1938–1939, 1941–1944 and 1950–1965 in the Soviet part of the

Karelian Isthmus The Karelian Isthmus (russian: Карельский перешеек, Karelsky peresheyek; fi, Karjalankannas; sv, Karelska näset) is the approximately stretch of land, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga in northwestern ...

amongst other fortified areas (including the Stalin Line) constructed around that time in order to defend the western borders of the Soviet Union. The KaUR spans the old Finno-

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

border from

Valkeasaari Beloostrov (russian: Белоо́стров; fi, Valkeasaari; ), from 1922 to World War II Krasnoostrov (russian: Красноо́стров, lit=Red Island, link=no), is a municipal settlement in Kurortny District of the federal city of St. ...

near the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland through Lempaala to Nizhniye Nikulyasy Bay on the western shore of Lake Ladoga. The

42nd Rifle Division The 42nd Rifle Division was a unit of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. The division, first formed in 1940, was nearly destroyed in the opening days of the Operation Barbarossa defending the Brest Fortress. Disbanded in late Decembe ...

was formed from individual infantry and

construction battalion , colors = , mascot = Bumblebee , battles = Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Cape Gloucester, Los Negros, Guam, Peleliu, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima, Philippine ...

s within the Region on 17 January 1940. Its commander in 1941 was General Major Mikhail Andrianovich Popov. Among Soviet definitions of Fortified Regions were: *Fortified Region as a fortified area, equipped in engineering terms for defence, line of defense in the form of long-term centers of resistance strongholds that are in interaction and forming general group (tens of kilometers of engineering structures, different obstacles, managed and unmanaged minefields),Soviet Military Encyclopedia 8 185 with a garrison of

Fortified district troops A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

designed to perform defensive tasks.Military Encyclopedic Dictionary (WEC), Ṃ, VI, 1984, 863 pages with illustrations (plate), 30 sheets (plate) *Fortified area as a system of permanent fortifications, permanent resistance in these special garrisons and

combined arms Combined arms is an approach to warfare that seeks to integrate different combat arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects (for example by using infantry and armour in an urban environment in which each supports the other) ...

. Restricting the opponent for all his front, they create the possibility of concentration of large forces and means for applying the enemy crushing blows in other areas. Troops battling in fortified areas require special tenacity, endurance and stamina.Source = Chapter Two, "The organization of the Red Army troops" 1. Combat arms and combat use, the Red Army Field Manual (CP-39)
Red Army Field Manual (IP-39), 1939

References

External links

KaUR (Karelian Fortified Area at the Northern Fortress)
History of the Karelian Isthmus World War II defensive lines World War II sites in Russia Fortified regions of the Soviet Union {{soviet-stub

See also

References

External links