It can hardly be seen, but it's there.
This forest is full of small hills and the very first time I was there I faced the back of the pillbox. I climbed just another gentle slope only to realise that I was standing on the very roof of it. At that time we hadn't yet mapped the area and I was simply combing a seemingly endless forest looking for traces of concrete hidden in the thicket.
This is a small, one-chamber pillbox which was supposed to house a heavy machine gun. Because it doesn't face the direction from which the enemy could come, and because it is still perfectly covered with its original earth embankment, it gives you a clue to what the enemy would see if one had ever came that way. Yes, he would see nothing.
But this little concrete slab has an interesting feature - sort of. Soviet builders were in a hurry and they did not put enough wooden planks at the top of the opening where the armored housing should fit. Therefore, when a fresh concrete was poured in, the planks sagged under the heavy load. The effect is what we call "a smiley".
It is a serious construction flaw, something which would make fitting a heavy armored housing very difficult, or maybe even impossible. Even if they somehow manage to cram one in, the result would deny the very idea of constructing this pillbox: it would not be a single monolith and its resistance to direct hits would be low.
But it never came to this. Instead, the builders fled and the enemy never even came close to it. And so it sits there and keeps its smile - in the forest in the middle of nowhere.
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