Moshchny (; ; , ) is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

Gulf of Finland The Gulf of Finland (; ; ; ) is the easternmost arm of the Baltic Sea. It extends between Finland to the north and Estonia to the south, to Saint Petersburg—the second largest city of Russia—to the east, where the river Neva drains into it. ...

of the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, located some 120 km west of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. The island is a part of the

Leningrad Oblast Leningrad Oblast (, ; ; ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). The oblast has an area of and a population of 2,000,997 (2021 Russian census, 2021 Census); up from 1,716,868 recorded in the 2010 Russian census ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. The area of the island is approximately 13.9 km². After the Finnish Civil War and until the Russo-Finnish

Winter War The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peac ...

the island was a part of Finland and belonged to the province of Viipuri. The island, which had the largest population of the Finnish islands in the gulf was evacuated in 1939 - an operation that lasted merely a few hours. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, when

Leningrad Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

was almost entirely surrounded and many other islands had been conquered by the Germans and the Finns, Admiral Tributs decided to keep islands of

Seiskari Seskar (; ; ), or Siskar, is an island in the Gulf of Finland, part of the Leningrad Oblast of Russia. Important Bird Area The island has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of ...

and Lavansaari which proved to be very important bases as the war progressed. The Russians had a minor naval station and a radar on the island. On November 18, 1942 three Finnish motor torpedo boats ''Syöksy'', ''Vinha'' and ''Vihuri'', as well as a minelaying KM-boat made an assault on the harbour of Lavansaari. ''Syöksy'' managed to hit the gunboat ''Krasnoye Znamya'' with one torpedo. The Soviet vessel was sunk in her moorings, but was eventually raised on 13 November 1943.''Attacken mot Lövskärs hamn''
The German naval forces wanted to prevent the Soviet naval forces from operating to the West of Lavansaari by mine-laying two large

sea mine barrage A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order sections ...

s. The

Seehund ''Seehund'' (German: "seal"), also known as Type XXVII, was a midget submarine built by Nazi Germany during World War II. Designed in 1944 and operated by two-man crews, it was used by the ''Kriegsmarine'' (German Navy) during the closing month ...

I, II, III and IV barrages ware laid from 3 August to 26 August 1942 and the larger barrage to the West of Seehund, The Seeigel I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII and VIII barrages from 21 May to 25 May 1942 and from 10 June to 23 June 1942. Both the Seeigel and Seehund barrages were recognised by the Finnish Navy as ''Suursaari - Kiskolan rivi'', i.e. Suursaari - Kiskola line. Seeigel I-IV and VI-VIII consisted of 2 526 pieces of sea mines together with Seeigel V in the depth of from two metres to three metres below the water surface. As an exception to the other barrages, Seeigel V had mines in the 25 metres depth from the water surface. In June the supplementary mine-laying consisted of 244 magnetic seamines, about 3000 anchored depth mines and about 1,630 minesweeping obstacles. The smaller barrage, the Seehund consisted of only about 200 mines and about 250 minesweeping obstacles against the surface vessels and minesweeping. On 23 June 1943 German bombers sank the Soviet motor torpedo boat, MO-171 off the waters of Lavansaari. On 14 May 1944, a German motor torpedo boat sank the Soviet motor torpedo boat MO-122 with a torpedo.

References

* {{Coord, 60, 00, N, 27, 50, E, region:RU_type:isle, display=title Russian islands in the Baltic Islands of Leningrad Oblast

Former populated places in Finland