Hero City Kerch, Adzhimushkay Quarries

For all its centuries-old history Kerch has known quite a few examples of its rise and decline, as it was in the Middle Ages during the Ottoman Empire or after the same Russian-Turkish war, but the most notable moment in the history of Kerch are the years of World War II, when the German- Fascist troops sought to capture the city, as a key object in control over the water area of the Kerch Strait.

In this regard, Kerch and its suburbs became the areas of fierce fighting between the troops of fascist Germany and the Red Army, resulting in the city was almost destroyed, and more than 15,000 people of civilians were destroyed as a result of hostilities. And more than 14 thousand inhabitants of the city were hijacked for forced labor in Germany.

At the same time the greatest damage to the German fascist invaders was inflicted on the defenders of the Adzhimushkay quarries. The Soviet troops, who were engaged in covering up the retreating troops, and who had not managed to cross to the opposite shore of the Kerch Strait, took refuge in Adzhimushkay quarries along with the remaining inhabitants of the city.

Having a fairly extensive underground network of courses and shelters, the Adzhimushkay quarries were the best place to organize guerrilla warfare, against the German fascist troops. And, in spite of the fact that the German forces tried in every possible way to destroy the defenders of Kerch who were in the Adzhimushkay quarries, they failed to break their resistance until the arrival of the Soviet troops. And the German troops sheltered the entrances to the quarries with wire barriers, blew up and blocked passages, made mine obstacles on the main routes of guerrilla movement, but this did not lead to the liquidation of the partisan movement.

And although the actions of the guerrillas in the Adzhimushkay quarries did not lead to a significant change in the course of hostilities, but, like many similar centers of resistance in the initial stage of the war, they connected quite significant forces of German troops in the territory of the Soviet Union. And as a token of gratitude and recognition of the merits of Kerch and partisans of the Adzhimushkay quarries, in 1973, Kerch was awarded the title Hero City with the city awarding the city with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal in the cause of the common victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi invaders.