Qualla: Maxim Gorky Fortresses https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:34:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/z/v/maxim-gorky-fortresses-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Maxim Gorky Fortresses https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses Maxim Gorky Fortresses: Introduction https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses/ Photo credit Alexandco, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Germans named them for a writer. As their armies battered at Sevastopol in 1942, they found two Soviet coastal batteries so formidable that they gave them a name from Russian literature, calling them Maxim Gorky I and Maxim Gorky II, after the celebrated Soviet author and political activist. Officially these were Armored Coastal Batteries Number 30 and Number 35, but the literary nickname stuck, and it is how the fortresses are remembered in English to this day. Each was a squat crown of steel over the cliffs, turrets lifted from battleships and set into the rock to command the sea approaches to the harbor.

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Image: Alexandco | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/z/v/maxim-gorky-fortresses-wp/sxzv-maxim-gorky-fortresses-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Maxim Gorky Fortresses: The Largest Gun Ever Fired in Anger https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses/ Photo credit Kamelot, Public domain. Maxim Gorky I stood north of the great bay that formed Sevastopol's harbor, its two twin turrets able to fire four thirty-centimeter guns out to sea. When German forces broke through the Perekop Isthmus in October 1941 and drove toward the city, the battery blocked their path. To...

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Image: Kamelot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/z/v/maxim-gorky-fortresses-wp/sxzv-maxim-gorky-fortresses-the-largest-gun-ever-fired-in-anger.mp3 0:06 2 full Maxim Gorky Fortresses: The Last Fortress to Fight https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses/ Photo credit Onegai87, CC BY-SA 3.0. Maxim Gorky II guarded the opposite flank, mounted on seaward cliffs on the southwestern side of Sevastopol and armed with similar battleship turrets. Its end came in the final days of the siege. On 4 July 1942, after the Germans had captured the neighboring Sapun heights, Maxim ...

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Image: Onegai87 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/z/v/maxim-gorky-fortresses-wp/sxzv-maxim-gorky-fortresses-the-last-fortress-to-fight.mp3 0:06 3 full Maxim Gorky Fortresses: Ruins, Robbers, and Remembrance https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses/ Photo credit Dmitry A. Mottl, CC BY-SA 3.0. The two batteries met very different fates after the war. Maxim Gorky I was not only rebuilt but strengthened, fitted with triple gun turrets salvaged from a battleship that raised its firepower from four guns to six, and given thicker armor and a modern fire-control system. It s...

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Image: Dmitry A. Mottl | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/z/v/maxim-gorky-fortresses-wp/sxzv-maxim-gorky-fortresses-ruins-robbers-and-remembrance.mp3 0:06 4 full Maxim Gorky Fortresses: A Name Meant as Grudging Respect https://qualla.com/maxim-gorky-fortresses/ Photo credit Kamelot, Public domain. There is something telling in the name itself. The batteries were officially just numbers, Number 30 and Number 35, cold entries in a defense plan. It was the attackers who gave them a name, reaching past their own military catalogue for a figure from Russian culture and calling ...

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Image: Kamelot | Public domain

]]> Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/z/v/maxim-gorky-fortresses-wp/sxzv-maxim-gorky-fortresses-a-name-meant-as-grudging-respect.mp3 0:06 5 full