The small Tuapse Defense Museum is located in one of the residential buildings on the Central Square. Its exposition occupies two halls. Here you can get acquainted with the events of 1942, when the Germans tried to break through Tuapse to the Black Sea coast, to the bases of the Soviet Navy. The Tuapse Defense Museum was established in 1999, on the initiative of local historian Eduard Pyatigorsky.
In 1942, Hitler set his troops the task of capturing the oil fields of the Caucasus. They managed to capture the fields of Grozny and Maykop, but the main oil fields of Baku were located beyond the Caucasian Ridge. It was not possible to pass through the narrow passage in Derbent, along the shore of the Caspian Sea. On the other side of the Caucasian Ridge, Russian troops managed to stop the Germans in Novorossiysk.
In the summer of 1942, the Germans decided to seize the mountain passes in the area of Elbrus. The main battles were fought in the area of the Klukhort pass (2781 m), but even there the Germans failed to achieve success. As a result, on September 25, German troops launched a powerful assault on Tuapse. The height of the Shahumyan pass, which leads from Maykop to Tuapse, is only 512 meters, so the assault was carried out by large military formations, including tanks. During this assault, the city of Tuapse was almost completely destroyed, but the Germans failed to break through the defense line.
On November 26, 1942, Soviet troops went on the offensive and completely defeated a group of Germans and Romanians near Tuapse. After that, the Germans stopped trying to break through the defense at Tuapse. In January 1943, after the encirclement of the 6th Paulus army near Stalingrad, there was a risk of the defeat of the entire Caucasian group of Germans. It immediately began a hasty retreat from the Caucasus.
In the Tuapse Defense Museum, you can get acquainted with these events on the basis of photographs, documents and exhibits. The museum has a diorama by the artist Sidorov, which gives an idea of what the city of Tuapse looked like from the Hill of Heroes during the assault.
