I am one of those search engines who like to dig into places where battles took place during the Civil War. I was lucky in this regard, since I often visit the area of Uralsk (Kazakhstan). Since school, I knew that the 25th Chapaev Division passed through these places. I went to a place that was already well known to me; it was the outskirts of a village near the city of Uralsk. Having arrived at the place, I began to rummage through the depressions in the ground in the form of trenches.
Right on the bank of the cliff, near the river, I caught a signal, it looked like it was a big find, and by digging in the rather soft soil in this area, I dug up a whole handful of cartridges from a Maxim machine gun, as well as a couple of wheels from this type of weapon.
I decided to check this place again and my metal detector again did not stop, showing that this was not the whole find. I began to dig deeper and came across old, rotten boards, having cleared this place a little, I began to dig further, digging again I heard the clang of iron, having dug the hole wider I saw a large, rusty sheet of iron, the thought flashed in my head: “Could it really be here? bunker? Already burning with interest, I grabbed the edge of the sheet with both hands and tried to lift it, but the sheet was very heavy, I only managed to move it a little. Having moved the iron, I saw a depression under it. After working with the shovel a little more and making a larger hole, there was no longer any doubt that it was a bunker. The depression was quite large, I was afraid to go down there; I couldn’t see what was there because it was very dark there. I had to go back to the car to get a flashlight. Returning to the excavation site, I shined a light into the resulting depression, to my endless joy I saw the remains of parts from the Mosinka, the bolt and the remains of the magazine box and many cartridges were clearly visible. I did not dare to climb into this recess. Having covered this place with branches, I went home to get a search magnet. Returning to the place, hastily scattering the branches, I tied a magnet to a rope and began to lift the Mosinka parts to the surface, along with them I also lifted a mass of 7.62 mm caliber cartridges from a rifle of the 1891 model.
I was very pleased with my finds and returned home happy. The items I found from the Civil War took their rightful place in the collection of my finds.
Sent by comrade Dmitry M.
