Pillbox No. 186 was built between the first and second lines of defence of the Kyiv Fortified Area. It belonged to the 7th battalion defence area. In 1941 it was part of the “Crimea” strongpoint. The pillbox was defended by the 4th company of the 28th Separate Machine-Gun Battalion under the command of Captain Ivan Yevsiiovych Kiparenko.
During the defence of Kyiv there were fierce battles in this area and it changed hands up to 10 times. Photographs of Pillbox No. 186 taken during the war have survived, and in some of them it is surrounded by German soldiers.
The walls of the pillbox withstood wartime shelling. Although covered with pits from bullets and shells, it did not collapse, and from the 1960s it was used by local residents as a utility building.
In 2012 activists of the International Association of Fortification Researchers “Tsytadel” carried out repairs in the pillbox, restored part of the equipment and opened a museum in it.
Nowadays Pillbox No. 186 is surrounded by residential buildings. It is located near building 3a on Pokrovska Street (formerly Kirov Street).
The pillbox is designed for 10-15 people and has resistance class “M1”. Its walls 1.5 metres thick and ceiling 1.2 metres thick can withstand a direct hit by a 203-mm shell. The pillbox is single-storey and has four combat casemates with one embrasure each, an entrance block with an additional embrasure for firing to the rear, and a commander’s cabin. The pillbox was armed with 4 Maxim heavy machine guns and one (according to other sources 3) DP or DT light machine gun. Some items of equipment have survived in this pillbox that have not survived in any or almost any other.
