USE OF HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES, HYDROLOGICAL REGIME OF THE RIVER SLUCH AND ITS FLOODPLAIN IN THE SYSTEM OF PROTECTIVE FORTIFICATIONS IN 1939

Abstract

In the period from 1926 to 1939, a significant number of hydraulic structures were built on the section of the river Sluch fromthe village of Stare Selo to the village of Tsuman (downstream). These structures were to serve as military defensive fortifications, and were part of three divisions: «Chudel», «Yarynivka» and «Horyn». In turn, they were divided into smaller sections – sectors, which numbered 12.The first line of defense included the 170 km long Sarny sector, 358 bastions, Chudel, 77 km, 117 bastions; Lakes – 37 km, 35 bastions; Somуno – 10 km, 18 bastions; Strashiv – 8 km, 18 objects; Chudel – 8 km, 20 bastions; Tynne – 14 km, 26 objects.Completion of construction was planned in 1939. Most of these buildings were built, but unfortunately, Polish troops did not have time to use them due to their destruction by Soviet sabotage groups in September 1939. Nowadays, it makes sense to return to these hydraulic structures, as some of them have remained in working order, some need repair, and their use may be justified by the following reasons: 1) with the help of existing buildings and their restoration it is possible to renaturalize swamps in the peat massif «Kreminne», Lake Tukhove, Lake Serednie and Lake Nyzhnie and the old channel of the river Lev, as a connecting artery connecting the river Pripyat and river lakes. Lions that act as spawning and wintering migrations of aboriginal ichthyofauna; 2) due to the recent events on the border between Poland and Belarus, it can be argued that theexperience of designing and building protective structures of that time should be used now, in a difficult political time for Ukraine; as there is an urgent need for reliable protection of borders from neighbors: Belarus, Russia, from illegal immigrants, manifestations of hybrid war.