How many years have passed since the siege of Leningrad. Facts from the life of the besieged city
The blockade of Leningrad is one of the most terrible and difficult pages in the history of our country.
January 27- Full Liberation Day Soviet troops Leningrad from the blockade of its Nazi troops (1944)
16 long months residents of the northern capital were waiting for liberation from the fascist encirclement.
In 1941 Hitler launched military operations on the outskirts of Leningrad in order to completely destroy the city.
In July - September 1941, 10 divisions of the people's militia were formed in the city. Despite the most difficult conditions, the industry of Leningrad did not stop its work. Assistance to the blockade was carried out on the ice of Lake Ladoga. This highway was called the "Road of Life". On January 12-30, 1943, an operation was carried out to break the blockade of Leningrad ( "Spark").
September 8, 1941 the ring around the important strategic and political center closed.
January 12, 1944 at dawn, an artillery cannonade thundered. The first blow inflicted on the enemy was extremely strong. After two hours of artillery and aviation preparation, the Soviet infantry moved forward. The front was broken through in two places five and eight kilometers wide. Later, both sections of the breakthrough connected.
January 18 The blockade of Leningrad was broken, the Germans lost tens of thousands of their soldiers. This event meant not only a major failure of Hitler's strategic plans, but also his serious political defeat.
January 27 as a result of offensive operations of the Leningrad, 20th Baltic and Volkhov fronts, with the support of the Baltic Fleet, the main forces of the enemy group of forces "North" were defeated and the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted. The front line moved away from the city by 220-280 kilometers.
The defeat of the Nazis near Leningrad completely undermined their positions in Finland and other Scandinavian countries.
During the blockade, about 1 million inhabitants died, including more than 600 thousand from starvation.
During the war, Hitler repeatedly demanded that the city be razed to the ground and its population completely destroyed.
However, neither shelling and bombing, nor hunger and cold broke its defenders.
The beginning of the blockade
Shortly after the start of the Great Patriotic War
Leningrad found itself in the grip of enemy fronts. From the southwest, the German Army Group North (Commander Field Marshal W. Leeb) approached him; from the north-west, the Finnish army set its sights on the city (commander Marshal K. Mannerheim). According to the Barbarossa plan, the capture of Leningrad was to precede the capture of Moscow. Hitler believed that the fall of the northern capital of the USSR would give not only a military gain - the Russians would lose the city, which is the cradle of the revolution and has a special symbolic meaning for the Soviet state. The battle for Leningrad, the longest in the war, lasted from July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944.
July-August 1941 German divisions were suspended in the battles on the Luga line, but on September 8 the enemy went to Shlisselburg and Leningrad, which had a population of about 3 million people before the war, was surrounded. Approximately 300 thousand more refugees who arrived in the city from the Baltic states and neighboring regions at the beginning of the war must be added to the number of those who found themselves in the blockade. From that day on, communication with Leningrad became possible only via Lake Ladoga and by air. Almost daily, Leningraders experienced the horror of artillery shelling or bombing. As a result of fires, residential buildings were destroyed, people and food supplies were killed, incl. Badaevsky warehouses.
At the beginning of September 1941 Stalin recalled General of the Army G.K. Zhukov and told him: "You will have to fly to Leningrad and take command of the front and the Baltic Fleet from Voroshilov." The arrival of Zhukov and the measures taken by him strengthened the defense of the city, but it was not possible to break through the blockade.
The plans of the Nazis in relation to Leningrad
Blockade, organized by the Nazis, was aimed precisely at the extinction and destruction of Leningrad. On September 22, 1941, a special directive noted: “The Fuhrer has decided to wipe the city of Leningrad off the face of the earth. It is supposed to surround the city with a tight ring and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground ... In this war, waged for the right to exist, we are not interested in preserving at least part of the population. On October 7, Hitler gave another order - not to accept refugees from Leningrad and push them back to enemy territory. Therefore, any speculation - including those circulated today in the media - that the city could have been saved if it had been surrendered to the mercy of the Germans, should be attributed either to the category of ignorance or a deliberate distortion of historical truth.
The situation in the besieged city with food
Before the war, the metropolis of Leningrad was supplied with what is called "from the wheels", the city did not have large food supplies. Therefore, the blockade threatened with a terrible tragedy - hunger. As early as September 2, we had to strengthen the food savings regime. From November 20, 1941, the lowest norms for issuing bread on cards were established: workers and engineering and technical workers - 250 g, employees, dependents and children - 125 g. Soldiers of the first line units and sailors - 500 g. A mass death of the population began.
In December, 53 thousand people died, in January 1942 - about 100 thousand, in February - more than 100 thousand. The surviving pages of the diary of little Tanya Savicheva do not leave anyone indifferent: ... “Uncle Alyosha on May 10 ... Mom on May 13 at 7.30 in the morning ... Everyone died. Only Tanya remained. Today, in the works of historians, the figures of the dead Leningraders vary from 800 thousand to 1.5 million people. Recently, data on 1.2 million people have been appearing more and more often. Grief has come to every family. During the battle for Leningrad, more people died than England and the United States lost during the entire war.
"The road of life"
Salvation for the besieged was the "Road of Life" - a route laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga, along which food and ammunition were delivered to the city from November 21, and the civilian population was evacuated on the way back. During the period of the "Road of Life" - until March 1943 - over the ice (and in the summer on various ships) 1615 thousand tons of various cargoes were delivered to the city. At the same time, more than 1.3 million Leningraders and wounded soldiers were evacuated from the city on the Neva. A pipeline was laid to transport oil products along the bottom of Lake Ladoga.
The feat of Leningrad
However, the city did not give up. Its residents and leadership then did everything possible to live and continue to fight. Despite the fact that the city was in the most severe conditions of the blockade, its industry continued to supply the troops of the Leningrad Front with the necessary weapons and equipment. Exhausted by hunger and seriously ill workers performed urgent tasks, repaired ships, tanks and artillery. Employees of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing have preserved the most valuable collection of grain crops.
Winter 1941 28 employees of the institute died of starvation, but not a single box of grain was touched.
Leningrad inflicted tangible blows on the enemy and did not allow the Germans and Finns to act with impunity. In April 1942, Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and aviation thwarted the operation of the German command "Aisstoss" - an attempt to destroy the ships of the Baltic Fleet standing on the Neva from the air. Opposition to enemy artillery was constantly improved. The Leningrad Military Council organized a counter-battery fight, as a result of which the intensity of shelling of the city significantly decreased. In 1943, the number of artillery shells that fell on Leningrad decreased by about 7 times.
Unparalleled self-sacrifice ordinary Leningraders helped them not only to defend their beloved city. It showed the whole world where the limit of the possibilities of fascist Germany and its allies lies.
Actions of the leadership of the city on the Neva
Although in Leningrad (as in other regions of the USSR during the war years) there were some scoundrels among the authorities, the party and military leadership of Leningrad basically remained at the height of the situation. It behaved adequately to the tragic situation and did not "fatten" at all, as some modern researchers claim.
In November 1941 The secretary of the city committee of the party, Zhdanov, established a rigidly fixed cut-down rate of food consumption for himself and all members of the military council of the Leningrad Front. Moreover, the leadership of the city on the Neva did everything to prevent the consequences of a severe famine. By decision of the Leningrad authorities, additional meals were organized for exhausted people in specially hospitals and canteens. In Leningrad, 85 orphanages were organized, which took tens of thousands of children left without parents.
In January 1942 at the Astoria Hotel, a medical hospital for scientists and creative workers began to operate. Since March 1942, the Lensoviet allowed residents to set up personal gardens in courtyards and parks. The land for dill, parsley, vegetables was plowed up even at St. Isaac's Cathedral.
Attempts to break the blockade
With all the mistakes, miscalculations, voluntaristic decisions, the Soviet command took maximum measures to break through the blockade of Leningrad as soon as possible. have been undertaken four attempts to break the enemy ring.
First- in September 1941; second- in October 1941; third- at the beginning of 1942, during the general counter-offensive, which only partially achieved its goals; fourth- in August-September 1942
The blockade of Leningrad was not broken then, but the Soviet sacrifices in offensive operations of this period were not in vain. Summer-autumn 1942 the enemy failed to transfer any large reserves from near Leningrad to the southern flank Eastern Front. Moreover, Hitler sent for the capture of the city the administration and troops of the 11th Army of Manstein, which otherwise could be used in the Caucasus and near Stalingrad.
Sinyavino operation of 1942 Leningrad and Volkhov fronts ahead of the German attack. Manstein's divisions intended for the offensive were forced to immediately engage in defensive battles against the attacking Soviet units.
"Nevsky Piglet"
The hardest battles in 1941-1942. took place on the "Nevsky Piglet" - a narrow strip of land on the left bank of the Neva, 2-4 km wide along the front and only 500-800 meters deep. This bridgehead, which the Soviet command intended to use to break through the blockade, was held by the Red Army for about 400 days.
A tiny plot of land was at one time almost the only hope for saving the city and became one of the symbols of the heroism of the Soviet soldiers who defended Leningrad. The battles for the Nevsky Piglet claimed, according to some sources, the lives of 50,000 Soviet soldiers.
Operation Spark
And only in January 1943, when the main forces of the Wehrmacht were drawn to Stalingrad, the blockade was partially broken. The course of the deblocking operation of the Soviet fronts (Operation Iskra) was led by G. Zhukov. On a narrow strip of the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, 8-11 km wide, land communications with the country were restored.
Over the next 17 days, a railway and a highway were laid along this corridor.
January 1943 became a turning point in the Battle of Leningrad.
The final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad
The situation in Leningrad has improved significantly, but the immediate threat to the city continued to remain. In order to finally eliminate the blockade, it was necessary to push the enemy beyond Leningrad region. The idea of such an operation was developed by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command at the end of 1943 by the forces of the Leningrad (General L. Govorov), Volkhov (General K. Meretskov) and the 2nd Baltic (General M. Popov) fronts in cooperation with the Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega flotillas the Leningrad-Novgorod operation was carried out.
Soviet troops went on the offensive on January 14, 1944. and already on January 20 Novgorod was liberated. On January 21, the enemy began to withdraw from the Mga-Tosno area, from the section of the Leningrad-Moscow railway that he had cut.
January 27 in commemoration of the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days, fireworks thundered. Army Group North suffered a heavy defeat. As a result of the Leningrad-Novgorod Soviet troops reached the borders of Latvia and Estonia.
The value of the defense of Leningrad
Defense of Leningrad was of great military-strategic, political and moral importance. The Hitlerite command lost the possibility of the most effective maneuver of strategic reserves, the transfer of troops to other directions. If the city on the Neva had fallen in 1941, then the German troops would have joined with the Finns, and most of the troops of the German Army Group North could have been deployed in a southerly direction and hit the central regions of the USSR. In this case, Moscow could not resist, and the whole war could go according to a completely different scenario. In the deadly meat grinder of the Sinyavino operation in 1942, Leningraders saved not only themselves with their feat and indestructible stamina. Having fettered the German forces, they provided invaluable assistance to Stalingrad, the whole country!
The feat of the defenders of Leningrad, who defended their city in the conditions of the most difficult trials, inspired the entire army and the country, earned deep respect and gratitude from the states of the anti-Hitler coalition.
In 1942, the Soviet government established ", which was awarded to about 1.5 million defenders of the city. This medal remains in the memory of the people today as one of the most honorary awards of the Great Patriotic War.
The blockade of the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) during the Great Patriotic War was carried out by German troops from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 in order to break the resistance of the city's defenders and capture it.
In undertaking an attack on the USSR, the fascist German leadership attached exclusively importance capture of Leningrad. It planned to strike the army group "North" from eastern Prussia in the northeast direction and two Finnish from the southeastern part of Finland in the southern and southeastern directions to destroy the Soviet troops located in the Baltic states, to seize the ports on the Baltic Sea, including Leningrad and Kronstadt, to acquire the most convenient sea and land communications for supplying their troops and an advantageous starting area for striking at the rear of the Red Army troops covering Moscow. The offensive of the Nazi troops directly on Leningrad began on July 10, 1941. In August, heavy fighting was already on the outskirts of the city. On August 30, German troops cut the railroads connecting Leningrad with the country.
On September 8, 1941, the Nazi troops captured Shlisselburg and cut off Leningrad from the whole country from the land. An almost 900-day blockade of the city began, communication with which was maintained only through Lake Ladoga and by air.
The only military-strategic transport highway passed through Lake Ladoga, connecting the besieged Leningrad with the country in September 1941 - March 1943. It was named by Leningraders "Dear Life". During the navigation periods, transportation along the "Road of Life" was carried out along the water route on the ships of the Ladoga military flotilla and ships of the North-Western River Shipping Company, during the freeze-up - along the ice road by motor transport.
German troops made numerous attempts to capture the city, but could not break through the defenses of the Soviet troops inside the blockade ring. Then the Nazis decided to starve the city out. According to all the calculations of the German command, Leningrad was to be wiped off the face of the earth, and the population of the city to die of hunger and cold. In an effort to implement this plan, the enemy carried out barbaric bombardments and artillery shelling of Leningrad. In total, during the blockade period, about 150 thousand shells were fired at the city and over 107 thousand incendiary and high-explosive bombs were dropped. During shelling and bombing, many buildings in Leningrad were destroyed.
Extremely difficult conditions were created in the city for the inhabitants and the troops defending it. In the besieged city (with suburbs), although the evacuation continued, 2.887 million inhabitants remained, including 400,000 children.
Food supplies were extremely limited. From the beginning of the introduction of the rationing system (from July 18, 1941), the norms for issuing food to the population of the city were repeatedly reduced. In November-December 1941, a worker could receive only 250 grams of bread a day, while employees, children and the elderly - only 125 grams.
The bread was raw and contained up to 40% impurities.
Since the autumn of 1941, famine began in Leningrad. Surrogate bread was almost the only food for most of the blockade, other food (meat, fats, sugar) was issued in extremely limited quantities, intermittently.
In the second half of November 1941, a road was laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga. Ammunition, weapons, food, medicines, fuel were brought along it, and the sick, wounded, disabled were evacuated from Leningrad (from September 1941 to March 1943, more than 1.6 million tons of cargo were transported to Leningrad, about 1.4 million were evacuated Human). The work of the route did not stop, despite the bombing, shelling, bad weather. With the beginning of the work of the Ladoga highway, the bread ration began to gradually increase (from December 25, 1941 - 200-350 grams).
Violation of stable communication with the country, the cessation of the regular supply of fuel, raw materials and food had a catastrophic effect on the life of the city. Fuel supplies have run out. Electricity was cut off to residential buildings, trams and trolleybuses stopped. In January 1942, due to severe frosts, they broke down central heating, water and sewer networks. Utilities have stopped working. Residents went for water to the Neva, Fontanka, other rivers and canals. Temporary stoves were installed in residential buildings. The dismantling of wooden buildings for fuel was organized.
Acute lack of food, early onset of cold weather, exhausting walks to work and home, constant nervous tension undermined people's health. The death rate increased every week. The most weakened people were sent to hospitals, hospitals were created for patients with dystrophy, children were placed in orphanages and nurseries.
Leningraders selflessly overcame the consequences of the blockade winter. In late March - early April 1942, they did a great job of sanitizing the city. In the spring of 1942, navigation began on Lake Ladoga. Water transportation became the main means of overcoming the consequences of the blockade winter and the revival of the urban economy.
In the summer of 1942, a pipeline was laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga to supply Leningrad with fuel, and in the fall, an energy cable. In December 1942, residential buildings were connected to the power grid.
The struggle for Leningrad was fierce. A plan was developed that provided for measures to strengthen the defense of Leningrad, including anti-aircraft and anti-artillery. More than 4,100 pillboxes and bunkers were built on the territory of the city, 22,000 firing points were equipped in buildings, over 35 kilometers of barricades and anti-tank obstacles were installed on the streets. 300 thousand Leningraders participated in the local air defense units of the city. Day and night they kept their watch at enterprises, in the courtyards of houses, on roofs.
In the difficult conditions of the blockade, the working people of the city gave the front weapons, equipment, uniforms, and ammunition. From the population of the city, 10 divisions of the people's militia were formed, seven of which became personnel. In 1941-1944, two thousand tanks, 1.5 thousand aircraft, 4650 naval and field guns, 850 warships and vessels were manufactured and repaired in the city. various classes; produced 225 thousand machine guns, 12 thousand mortars, 7.5 million shells and mines.
Soviet troops repeatedly tried to break through the blockade ring, but achieved this only in January 1943. To the south of Lake Ladoga, a corridor 8-11 kilometers wide was formed, restoring the land connection between Leningrad and the country.
A railway and a highway were laid through it within 17 days. The establishment of land communications eased the situation of the population and troops in Leningrad.
The blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted during the Leningrad-Novgorod operation carried out by the Soviet troops on January 14 - March 1, 1944.
Artillery shelling of the city ceased, from which about 17 thousand people died and about 34 thousand were injured. The enemy's plans to destroy Leningrad and force the defending Soviet troops to capitulate failed.
January 27, 1944 was the day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the blockade. On this day, a festive salute was given in Leningrad (the only exception was during the Great Patriotic War, other salutes were made in Moscow).
It lasted almost 900 days and became the bloodiest blockade in the history of mankind: more than 641,000 inhabitants died of starvation and shelling (according to other sources, at least one million people). The number of 632 thousand people appeared at the Nuremberg trials. Only 3% of them died from bombing and shelling, the rest died of starvation.
The victims of the blockade were buried in all city and suburban cemeteries, the places of the most mass graves were the Piskarevsky cemetery, the Serafimovsky cemetery.
The feat of the defenders of the city was highly appreciated: over 350 thousand soldiers, officers and generals of the Leningrad Front were awarded orders and medals, 226 of them were awarded the title of Hero Soviet Union. The medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", which was established in December 1942, was awarded to about 1.5 million people.
On January 26, 1945, the city of Leningrad itself was awarded the Order of Lenin.
On December 22, 1942, by the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces, the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" was established, which was awarded to about 1.5 million defenders of the city.
For the first time, Leningrad was named a hero city in Stalin's order of May 1, 1945. In 1965, this title was officially awarded to him.
In May 1965, the city was awarded the Gold Star medal.
The Federal Law "On the Days of Military Glory and Commemorative Dates of Russia" dated March 13, 1995 (with subsequent amendments) established January 27 as the Day of Military Glory of Russia - the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade (1944).
The memorial ensembles of the Piskarevsky and Serafimsky cemeteries are dedicated to the memory of the victims of the blockade and the fallen participants in the defense of Leningrad, and the Green Belt of Glory was created around the city along the former blockade ring of the front.
The anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Leningrad in St. Petersburg is celebrated as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Siege. This day was first celebrated in 1990.
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The wars of 1941-1945 lack dramatic, tragic pages. One of the worst was the blockade of Leningrad. In short, this is the story of a real genocide of the townspeople, which lasted almost until the very end of the war. Let's recap how it all happened.
The attack on the "city of Lenin"
The attack on Leningrad began immediately, in 1941. The grouping of German-Finnish troops was successfully moving forward, breaking the resistance of the Soviet units. Despite the desperate, fierce resistance of the defenders of the city, by August of the same year, all the railways that connected the city with the country were cut, as a result of which the main part of the supply was disrupted.
So when did the blockade of Leningrad begin? Briefly list the events that preceded this, you can long. But the official date is September 8, 1941. Despite the fiercest battles on the outskirts of the city, the Nazis could not take it “with a swoop”. And therefore, on September 13, artillery shelling of Leningrad began, which actually continued throughout the war.
The Germans had a simple order regarding the city: wipe it off the face of the earth. All defenders were to be destroyed. According to other sources, Hitler simply feared that during a massive assault, the losses of German troops would be unreasonably high, and therefore ordered the blockade to begin.
In general, the essence of the blockade of Leningrad was to ensure that "the city itself fell into the hands, like a ripened fruit."
Population Information
It must be remembered that at that time there were at least 2.5 million inhabitants in the blockaded city. Among them were about 400 thousand children. Almost immediately, food problems began. Constant stress and fear from bombing and shelling, lack of medicines and food soon led to the fact that the townspeople began to die.
It was estimated that during the entire blockade, at least a hundred thousand bombs and about 150 thousand shells were dropped on the heads of the inhabitants of the city. All this led to both mass deaths of the civilian population and catastrophic destruction of the most valuable architectural and historical heritage.
The first year turned out to be the most difficult: German artillery managed to bomb food warehouses, as a result of which the city was almost completely deprived of food supplies. However, there is also an opposite opinion.
The fact is that by 1941 the number of residents (registered and visitors) totaled about three million people. The bombed Badaev warehouses simply could not physically accommodate such a quantity of products. Many modern historians quite convincingly prove that there was no strategic reserve at that time. So even if the warehouses had not been damaged by the actions of German artillery, this would have delayed the onset of famine in best case for a week.
In addition, just a few years ago, some documents from the archives of the NKVD concerning the pre-war survey of the strategic reserves of the city were declassified. The information in them paints an extremely disappointing picture: “ Butter covered with a layer of mold, stocks of flour, peas and other cereals are affected by mites, the floors of storage facilities are covered with a layer of dust and rodent droppings.
Disappointing conclusions
From September 10 to 11, the responsible authorities made a complete re-account of all food available in the city. By September 12, a full report was published, according to which the city had: grain and ready-made flour for about 35 days, stocks of cereals and pasta were enough for a month, meat stocks could be stretched for the same period.
Oils remained exactly for 45 days, but sugar and ready-made confectionery was stored for two months at once. There were practically no potatoes and vegetables. In order to somehow stretch the stocks of flour, 12% of ground malt, oatmeal and soy flour were added to it. Subsequently, cakes, bran, sawdust and ground bark of trees began to be put there.
How was the food problem solved?
From the very first days of September food cards were introduced in the city. All canteens and restaurants were immediately closed. Livestock available at local agricultural enterprises was immediately slaughtered and handed over to procurement centers. All feed of grain origin was brought to flour mills and ground into flour, which was subsequently used to make bread.
Citizens who were in hospitals during the blockade were cut out rations for this period from coupons. The same procedure applied to children who were in orphanages and institutions preschool education. Virtually all schools have canceled classes. For children, the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad was marked not so much by the opportunity to finally eat, but by the long-awaited start of classes.
In general, these cards cost the lives of thousands of people, as the cases of theft and even murder committed in order to obtain them increased dramatically in the city. In Leningrad in those years, there were frequent cases of raids and armed robberies of bakeries and even food warehouses.
With persons who were convicted of something like this, they did not stand on ceremony, shooting on the spot. There were no courts. This was explained by the fact that each stolen card cost someone a life. These documents were not restored (with rare exceptions), and therefore the theft doomed people to certain death.
The mood of the inhabitants
In the early days of the war, few believed in the possibility of a complete blockade, but many began to prepare for such a turn of events. In the very first days of the German offensive that began, everything more or less valuable was swept off the shelves of stores, people removed all their savings from the Savings Bank. Even jewelry stores were empty.
However, the famine that began sharply crossed out the efforts of many people: money and jewelry immediately depreciated. Food cards (which were obtained exclusively by robbery) and food became the only currency. Kittens and puppies were one of the most popular goods in city markets.
Documents of the NKVD testify that the blockade of Leningrad that had begun (the photo of which is in the article) gradually began to inspire anxiety in people. Quite a few letters were confiscated, in which the townspeople reported on the plight of Leningrad. They wrote that not even cabbage leaves were left in the fields; in the city it was already impossible to get old flour dust, from which wallpaper paste was previously made.
By the way, in the most difficult winter of 1941, there were practically no apartments left in the city, the walls of which would be covered with wallpaper: hungry people simply cut them off and ate, since they had no other food.
Labor feat of Leningraders
Despite the enormity of the situation, courageous people continued to work. And to work for the good of the country, releasing a lot of weapons. They even managed to repair tanks, make cannons and submachine guns literally from "grass material". All weapons received in such difficult conditions were immediately used for fighting on the outskirts of the unconquered city.
But the situation with food and medicine became more complicated day by day. It soon became obvious that only Lake Ladoga could save the inhabitants. How is it connected with the blockade of Leningrad? In short, this is the famous Road of Life, which was opened on November 22, 1941. As soon as a layer of ice formed on the lake, which theoretically could withstand the cars loaded with products, their crossing began.
The beginning of the famine
Hunger was approaching inexorably. As early as November 20, 1941, the grain allowance was only 250 grams per day for workers. As for dependents, women, children and the elderly, they were supposed to be half as much. First, the workers, who saw the condition of their relatives and friends, brought their rations home and shared with them. But soon this practice was put to an end: people were ordered to eat their portion of bread directly at the enterprise, under supervision.
This is how the blockade of Leningrad went. The photos show how exhausted the people who were in the city at that time were. For every death from an enemy shell, there were a hundred people who died of terrible hunger.
At the same time, it must be understood that “bread” in this case was understood as a small piece of sticky mass, in which there was much more bran, sawdust and other fillers than the flour itself. Accordingly, the nutritional value of such food was close to zero.
When the blockade of Leningrad was broken, people who received fresh bread for the first time in 900 days often fainted from happiness.
On top of all the problems, the city water supply system completely failed, as a result of which the townspeople had to carry water from the Neva. In addition, the winter of 1941 itself turned out to be extremely severe, so that doctors simply could not cope with the influx of frostbitten, cold people, whose immunity was unable to resist infections.
Consequences of the first winter
By the beginning of winter, the grain ration had almost doubled. Alas, this fact was explained not by the breaking of the blockade and not by the restoration of normal supplies: by that time, half of all dependents had already died. Documents of the NKVD testify to the fact that the famine took absolutely incredible forms. Cases of cannibalism began, and many researchers believe that no more than a third of them were officially recorded.
Children were especially bad at that time. Many of them were forced to stay alone for a long time in empty, cold apartments. If their parents died of starvation at work or if they died during constant shelling, the children spent 10-15 days in complete solitude. More often than not, they also died. Thus, the children of the blockade of Leningrad endured a lot on their fragile shoulders.
Front-line soldiers recall that it was Leningraders who always stood out among the crowd of seven-eight-year-old teenagers in the evacuation: they had creepy, tired, and too adult eyes.
By the middle of the winter of 1941, there were no cats and dogs left on the streets of Leningrad, there were practically no even crows and rats. Animals have learned that it is better to stay away from hungry people. All the trees in the city squares lost most of their bark and young branches: they were collected, ground and added to flour, just to slightly increase its volume.
The blockade of Leningrad lasted less than a year at that time, but during the autumn cleaning, 13 thousand corpses were found on the streets of the city.
The road of life
The real “pulse” of the besieged city was the Road of Life. In summer it was a waterway through the waters of Lake Ladoga, and in winter this role was played by its frozen surface. The first barges with food passed through the lake already on September 12th. Navigation continued until the thickness of the ice made it impossible for ships to pass.
Each flight of sailors was a feat, as German planes did not stop hunting even for a minute. I had to go on flights every day, for any weather conditions. As we have already said, the cargo was first sent over the ice on November 22. It was a horse carriage. After just a couple of days, when the thickness of the ice became more or less sufficient, the trucks also set off.
No more than two or three bags of food were put on each car, since the ice was still too unreliable and cars constantly sank. Deadly flights continued until the spring. Barges took over the “watch”. The end of this deadly carousel was put only by the liberation of Leningrad from the blockade.
Road number 101, as this road was then called, made it possible not only to maintain at least the minimum food ration, but also to take many thousands of people out of the blockaded city. The Germans constantly tried to interrupt the message, not sparing for this shells and fuel for aircraft.
Fortunately, they did not succeed, and today the Road of Life monument stands on the shores of Lake Ladoga, as well as the Museum of the Siege of Leningrad, which contains many documentary evidence of those terrible days.
In many respects, the success with the organization of the crossing was due to the fact that the Soviet command quickly attracted fighter aircraft to defend the lake. AT winter time anti-aircraft batteries were mounted directly on the ice. notice, that Taken measures gave very positive results: so, already on January 16, more than 2.5 thousand tons of food were delivered to the city, although the delivery of only two thousand tons was planned.
The Beginning of Freedom
So when did the long-awaited lifting of the blockade of Leningrad take place? As soon as the first major defeat was inflicted near Kursk, the country's leadership began to think about how to free the imprisoned city.
The actual lifting of the blockade of Leningrad began on January 14, 1944. The task of the troops was to break through the German defense in its thinnest place to restore the land communication of the city with the rest of the country. By January 27, fierce battles began, in which the Soviet units gradually gained the upper hand. It was the year of lifting the blockade of Leningrad.
The Nazis were forced to start a retreat. Soon the defense was broken through in a section about 14 kilometers long. Along this path, columns of trucks with food immediately went into the city.
So how long did the blockade of Leningrad last? Officially, it is believed that it lasted 900 days, but the exact duration is 871 days. However, this fact does not in the least detract from the determination and incredible courage of its defenders.
Liberation Day
Today is the day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad - this is January 27th. This date is not a holiday. Rather, it is a constant reminder of the horrifying events that the inhabitants of the city were forced to go through. In fairness, it should be said that the real day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad is January 18, since the corridor we were talking about was broken through on that very day.
That blockade claimed more than two million lives, and mostly women, children and the elderly died there. As long as the memory of those events is alive, nothing like this should be repeated in the world!
Here is the entire blockade of Leningrad briefly. Of course, that terrible time can be described quickly enough, only the blockade survivors who were able to survive it remember those horrific events every day.
The problem of victims of the Leningrad blockade has been worrying historians and the public for 65 years since Leningrad was liberated from enemy siege.
At present, the only official document claiming to determine the number of victims of the blockade is "Information from the Commission of the Leningrad City Executive Committee for the Establishment and Investigation of the Atrocities of the Nazi Invaders and Their Accomplices on the Number of the Population Who Died in Leningrad." The document is dated 25/V 1945 and prepared for the Nuremberg trials. According to this document, 649,000 people died during the blockade: 632,253 people died of starvation, 16,747 people were killed by bombs and shells. According to the title of the document, it determines the number of those and only those blockade survivors who died directly within the city. The final document was published in the collection "Leningrad under siege" (1995). The editorial comment states that the count of the dead blockade was carried out according to the nominal lists of the registry offices provided by the NKVD LO. The lists contain the following data: last name, first name, patronymic, year of birth, nationality, cause of death. The commentary says that more than forty volumes of the lists of names used in the preparation of this document are stored in the Central State Administration of St. Petersburg.
Thus, official statistics limited themselves to calculating victims in one group of the besieged Leningrad population, namely, in the group of identified Leningraders who died within the city. This is the largest, but not the only group of dead Leningraders.
The document does not contain information on four other groups of the population of besieged Leningrad. These groups included:
unidentified (nameless) Leningraders who died in the city from starvation or were killed in the process of air aggression,
blockade runners who died of dystrophy outside the city, in the process of evacuation, Leningraders who died from the consequences of injuries, refugees from the Leningrad region and the Baltic states who died in a blockaded city from alimentary dystrophy or were killed in the process of air aggression.
From the title of the document it follows that the calculation of victims in these groups of blockade runners was not even part of the Commission's task.
From the title of the document of the Commission it follows that the purpose of its work was “to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices. The document was prepared for the Nuremberg trials of fascist criminals and was used at this international tribunal as the only document on the victims of the Leningrad blockade. In this regard, limiting the registration of dead blockade survivors to only one group of the population of besieged Leningrad is unjustified and causes bewilderment. But no less bewildering is the fact that for 64 years this clearly understated information has remained the only official document on the statistics of the victims of the Leningrad blockade.
An analysis of the blockade situation gives reason to believe that the number of victims of the blockade significantly exceeded the value that suited the official statistics.
The blockade of Leningrad was the most severe, massive and long-term marginal situation in the history of people. The particular severity of the blockade was determined by the influence of three extreme factors:
constant psychological pressure 900-day siege of the city with air raids, bombing and artillery attacks, the loss of loved ones, the daily threat of death,
almost complete hunger for four months followed by almost 2 years of partial fasting and 3 years of food restriction,
bitter cold the first blockade winter.
Any of the extreme factors could be fatal. In the winter of 1941-1942, these factors acted in a fatal trinity.
The impact of these pathogenic factors caused a severe pathology of the blockade: pathological psycho-emotional stress, alimentary dystrophy, hypothermia.
The marginality of the situation determined the mass character of severe pathology. According to the head of the City Health Department of that time, F.I. Mashansky (1997), in 1942, up to 90% of Leningrad residents suffered from alimentary dystrophy. According to the historian of blockade medicine P.F. Gladkikh (1995), dystrophy was detected in 88.6% of blockade victims.
The works of clinicians-blockade testify to a significant depletion of the body, a decrease in all physiological functions (see Alimentary dystrophy .., 1947, Simonenko V.B. et al., 2003). The state of the body at the 2nd–3rd stages of exhaustion was “minimal life” (Chernorutsky M.V. 1947), a shock to the biological foundations of the body’s vital activity (Simonenko V.B., Magaeva S.V., 2008), which, in itself , predetermined extremely high mortality. According to the ideas of physiology and medicine of that time, the condition of the blockade was incompatible with life.
According to the assumption of the Leningrad historians V.M. Kovalchuk, G.L. Soboleva, (1965, 1995), S.P. Knyazev (1965), from 800 thousand to 1 million people died in besieged Leningrad. This information was included in the monograph Essays on the History of Leningrad (1967), but, due to the secrecy of the blockade archives, was not substantiated by the relevant documents. The data of the besieged historian A.G. Medvetsky (2000) are most fully substantiated, but even this information needs to be clarified due to the fact that the author used the results of indirect calculations and made allowances.
Historian-archivist N.Yu.Cherepenina (2001), head of the department of publications, documents of the Central state archive Petersburg (TsGA St. Petersburg), states that in the declassified archives, previously unknown documents with data on the total number of dead blockade fighters were not found.
Conducted by us comparative analysis A complex of archival documents makes it possible to clarify the number of victims of the blockade and to identify the sources of its underestimation by official statistics. In our work, we used documents published in the collections "Leningrad under siege" (1995) and "Siege of Leningrad in the documents of declassified archives" (2005). In the absence of the necessary information in the published documents, we turned to the materials of the articles by N.Yu.
It is advisable to analyze the number of victims of the blockade by groups of dead Leningraders.
Blockade fighters who died in the city
There is reason to believe that the number of blockade survivors who died from starvation, belonging to the only recorded group (649 thousand people), is underestimated, due to the difficulties of accounting for the population during the period of mass famine and incorrect methods of medical and sanitary statistics during the period of mass mortality from dystrophy: during 1941 –43 years dystrophy was not taken into account by the city health authorities as an independent nosological form of the disease. In this regard, during the period of mass death from alimentary dystrophy, the death certificates of the registry offices indicated a different reason (see Simonenko V.B., Magaeva S.V., 2008).
The fact that up to 1959 the registry offices continued to receive information about the dead from their relatives who returned from evacuation also testifies to the incomplete accounting of the victims of the famine in the name lists. According to incomplete information, the number of additional registered death certificates exceeded 35.8 thousand people. The report of the City Statistical Office (GSO) notes that the number of such acts is large (TsGA St. Petersburg, cited by N.Yu.Cherepenina (2001-c)). However, after 65 years, the official statistics of victims of the blockade has not replenished.
Unnamed victims of the blockade
During the period of mass death from starvation, a significant part of the dead blockade remained unidentified. The registration of the dead was carried out in the system of registry offices of the UNKVD, when applying for a certificate for burial. During the period of almost complete famine, the vast majority of the blockade survivors did not have the strength to bury their relatives and friends. Consequently, there was no need to register the death. Many families and entire communal apartments died out completely, and the dead remained unburied for several months.
Winter 1941–41 exhausted by hunger, people died on the streets, in a state of starvation and hypothermia. Documents were found far from all the dead. Unidentified were the corpses frozen into the snow and ice, and the corpses that ended up in the water during the ice drift.
Victims in a group
evacuated blockade
The severe condition of the blockade survivors suffering from alimentary dystrophy indicates a high risk of mass deaths in the process of evacuation to the rear.
The publications do not contain a generalized document with data on the number of evacuees from the blockade. According to the City Statistical Office (GSU) on the mechanical movement of the population (the term "mechanical movement of the population" defines the departed and arrived population, in contrast to the "natural population movement", taking into account births and deaths) of besieged Leningrad in 1941–43. and information from the City Evacuation Commission, total, starting from December 1941 to 1943 inclusive, about 840.6 thousand people were evacuated from besieged Leningrad.
The published documents do not contain data on the number of Leningraders who died in the evacuation. According to indirect calculations of the historian A.G. Medvetsky (2000), 360,000 blockade survivors died during the evacuation. Thus, there is reason to believe that in the process of evacuation outside of Leningrad, about 42% of the blockade fighters could have died from total number evacuees. Given the severity of nutritional dystrophy before the winter evacuation of 1941–42 and the spring evacuation of 1942, this number of victims does not seem implausible.
The published documents do not contain information about the number of Leningraders killed during the bombing of transport with evacuated blockade fighters. Despite the emblem of the Red Cross, enemy aircraft ambulances were heavily bombed. During the summer evacuation of 1942 alone, 6,370 aerial bombs were dropped on the ports of Lake Ladoga.
To clarify the number of Leningraders who died during the evacuation, it is necessary to conduct a further search for direct data. It can be assumed that this information can be found in the archives of the NKVD, according to the registration of those who arrived at the final point of evacuation. AT war time all visitors to a new place of residence were carefully taken into account, and the archives of the UNKVD are still successfully used to restore the involvement in the blockade of people who did not return to Leningrad after the war.
Victims in a group of refugees
The published documents do not contain information about the number of those who died in besieged Leningrad and in the process of evacuating refugees from the Leningrad region, the Karelian-Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian SSRs. According to the report of the City Evacuation Commission (1942), between the beginning of the war and April 15, 1942, 324,382 refugees were evacuated.
Given the severity of the situation of refugees, it must be assumed that the number of victims in this group is large (Sobolev G.L., 1995).
Victims of air aggression
There are reasons to believe that the official data of the Commission of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council on the killed (16,747 people) and wounded directly in Leningrad (33,782 people) are underestimated, because they do not correspond to the scale of destruction in a city with dense buildings and a high population density, with the dominant principle living in communal apartments. Since the beginning of the war, the already high population density has increased due to the arrival of refugees.
More than 150,000 heavy artillery shells, 4,676 high-explosive and 69,613 incendiary bombs were dropped on Leningrad (Certificate of the Intelligence Department of the Headquarters of the Leningrad Air Defense Army, 1945, Act of the City Commission ..., 1945). During the blockade, 15 million square meters of living space were destroyed, on which 716 thousand people lived, 526 schools and kindergartens, 21 scientific institutions, 840 factories were destroyed (Medvetsky A.G., 2000). This data may indicate a larger population loss than indicated in the official document.
The final document does not provide information about the blockade, who died from injuries and their immediate consequences. According to indirect calculations by A.G. Medvetsky (2000), their number was 11,207 people (Medvetsky A.G., 2000), which is 33.1% of the total number of wounded Leningraders.
Clarification of the number of victims
The published documents of the declassified archives allow us to clarify our understanding of the total number of victims of famine and air aggression by subtracting the total number of Leningraders who survived the entire blockade and evacuees from the total population by the beginning of the blockade.
Before the war, about 3 million people lived in Leningrad (TsSU St. Petersburg, cited by N.Yu. Cherepenina, 2001-a). Of the total number of residents of the blockade ring, 100 thousand Leningraders were mobilized to the front (“The Blockade Declassified”, 1995). Before the start of the blockade, 448.7 thousand Leningraders were evacuated (Report of the City Evacuation Commission, 1942). Consequently, by the beginning of the blockade, the population of Leningrad numbered about 2 million 451 thousand people. By the last month of the blockade (January 1944), 557,760 people remained in Leningrad (Cherepenina N.Yu., 2001-b). The total number of Leningraders evacuated during the blockade is about 840.6 thousand people. Consequently, about 1 million 398 thousand people did not die directly in besieged Leningrad. Thus, about 1,53,000 people perished directly in Leningrad. During the evacuation, 360,000 Leningraders died (see above). Thus, there is reason to believe that, in total, more than 1 million 413 thousand people became victims of the blockade, which is 57.6% of Leningraders at the beginning of the famine and 47% in relation to the three million population of pre-war Leningrad (this number is close to the data of the report City Department of Public Utilities, under the section "Funeral business. Given the significant postscripts identified in this system, it can be assumed that such a coincidence is accidental).
The updated data is 764,000 more than the official statistics (649,000 dead). Thus, 764,000 dead blockade fighters turned out to be unaccounted for by compatriots and Russian history.
Demographic situation after the war
By the last month of the blockade (January 1944), the population of Leningrad had decreased from 3 million to 557,760 people, that is, more than 5 times.
After the blockade, the population of the city was replenished with re-evacuated blockade survivors. The published documents do not contain information about the number of Leningraders who returned from evacuation. In total, 1 million 329 thousand people have been evacuated since the beginning of the war: 488.7 thousand people were evacuated before the start of the blockade (Report of the City Evacuation Commission, 1942), 840.6 thousand people left Leningrad during the blockade (see. higher). 360,000 blockade survivors died on the way during the evacuation and in the first weeks after their arrival at their final destination (see above). Information on the number of deaths from the long-term consequences of the blockade is not available in published documents. Thus, after the blockade, no more than 969 thousand Leningraders could return, purely theoretically. One must think that in reality the number of re-evacuees was less.
The degree of risk of irretrievable losses depended on the time of evacuation. Relatively high chances of surviving and returning to Leningrad were only among those evacuated before the start of the blockade (488.7 thousand people). In the blockade, suffering from severe alimentary dystrophy, evacuated in the winter of 1941-42. (442,600 people), the chances of survival were the smallest. It must be assumed that among the evacuated Leningraders, the blockade of this group suffered the main victims.
With the decrease in the severity of alimentary dystrophy by the end of the summer and autumn evacuation of 1942, the chances of survival increased. During this period, in addition to the disabled population, the blockade was evacuated, the presence of which was not necessary for the military city. According to the decision of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front on July 5, 1942, measures were taken to turn Leningrad into a military city with a minimum of the amateur population. Therefore, in addition to the sick blockade survivors, 40 thousand able-bodied and 72 thousand temporarily disabled workers and employees were evacuated (Cherepenina N.Yu., 2001-b). The blockade survivors of this subgroup had a relatively high chance of remaining viable and returning to Leningrad. In total, from July to December 1942, about 204 thousand people were evacuated. During the period of further improvement in the condition of the blockade, in 1943, about 97 thousand people left Leningrad (Help of the GSU, 1944).
Thus, it can be assumed that the chances of returning could be less than 790 thousand evacuated Leningraders.
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If this number of Leningraders returned, the population of the city would increase from 557,760 people who withstood the entire blockade to no more than 1,347,000 people. As of July 1, 1945, the population of Leningrad exceeded 1 million. By this time, the natural increase in the population amounted to 10 thousand people, the mechanical increase - more than 371.9 thousand people (Cherepenina N.Yu., 2001-b). But the mechanical increase in the population occurred not only due to re-evacuation, but also due to new citizens who arrived from various regions of the USSR for permanent residence and urban refurbishment.
For the first time post-war years the number of the indigenous population was replenished by re-evacuated and demobilized soldiers. In total, 100 thousand Leningraders were mobilized into the Red Army during the blockade (see above). Given the huge military losses, one cannot hope for the return of many front-line soldiers. On the Leningrad front, a total of 460 thousand people died. The irretrievable losses of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts amounted to more than 810 thousand people (see "Battle for Leningrad", 2003).
Apparently, there were no publications of data on the dynamics of post-war changes in the number of former blockade survivors, until the last decade. According to the City Center for the Calculation of Pensions and Benefits and the Committee of the Government of St. Petersburg on Labor and social protection population (quoted by G.I. Bagrov, 2005), total strength residents of besieged Leningrad, living in St. Petersburg, was equal to:
318,518 people as of January 1, 1998,
309,360 people as of January 1, 1999,
202,778 people as of November 1, 2004,
198,013 former blockade survivors remained by June 1, 2005.
According to G.I. Bagrov, obtained from the above sources, by February 2006, about 191,000 former blockade survivors remained in St. Petersburg.
The results of our analysis do not claim to be complete in determining the number of irretrievable demographic losses in Leningrad. Nevertheless, they bring closer to the truth our ideas about the size of the demographic tragedy in Leningrad. This makes it possible to substantiate the necessity and reality of the official revision of health statistics - in memory of the victims of the Leningrad blockade, forgotten by compatriots and the history of Russia.
The true scale of the demographic tragedy of Leningrad will warn new generations about the danger of the revival of the criminal ideology of fascism, the victims of which were more than 1 million 400 thousand Leningrad blockade survivors
P.S. With complete list literature used by the authors can be found on the website of the journal "SPbU"
One of the most tragic pages of the Great Patriotic War is the blockade of Leningrad. History has preserved many facts testifying to this terrible ordeal in the life of the city on the Neva. Leningrad was surrounded by fascist invaders for almost 900 days (from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944). Of the two and a half million inhabitants living in the northern capital before the start of the war, more than 600,000 people died of starvation during the blockade, and several tens of thousands of citizens died from bombing. Despite catastrophic food shortages, very coldy, lack of heat and electricity, Leningraders courageously withstood the fascist onslaught and did not give up their city to the enemy.
About the besieged city through the decades
In 2014, Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the siege of Leningrad. Today, as well as several decades ago, the Russian people highly honor the feat of the inhabitants of the city on the Neva. A large number of books have been written about the besieged Leningrad, many documentaries and feature films have been shot. Pro heroic defense cities tell schoolchildren and students. To better imagine the situation of people who found themselves in Leningrad surrounded by fascist troops, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the events associated with its siege.
Blockade of Leningrad: interesting facts about the significance of the city for the invaders
To capture Soviet lands from the Nazis, it was developed. In accordance with it, the Nazis planned to conquer the European part of the USSR in a few months. The city on the Neva in the process of occupation was assigned an important role, because Hitler believed that if Moscow is the heart of the country, then Leningrad is its soul. The Fuhrer was sure that as soon as the northern capital fell under the onslaught of the Nazi troops, the morale of the huge state would weaken, and after that it could be easily conquered.
Despite the resistance of our troops, the Nazis managed to significantly move inland and surround the city on the Neva from all sides. September 8, 1941 went down in history as the first day of the Siege of Leningrad. It was then that all land routes from the city were cut, and he was surrounded by the enemy. Every day, Leningrad was subjected to artillery shelling, but did not give up.
The northern capital was in the blockade ring for almost 900 days. In the entire history of mankind, this was the longest and most terrible siege of the city. that before the start of the blockade, part of the inhabitants managed to be evacuated from Leningrad, a large number of citizens continued to remain in it. Terrible torments fell on the lot of these people, and not all of them managed to live to see the liberation of their native city.
Horrors of hunger
Regular air strikes are not the worst thing that Leningraders had to endure during the war. The food supply in the besieged city was not enough, and this led to a terrible famine. import food from other settlements interfered with the blockade of Leningrad. Interesting facts left by the townspeople about this period: local population fell in right on the street, cases of cannibalism no longer surprised anyone. Every day more and more deaths from exhaustion were recorded, the corpses lay on the city streets, and there was no one to clean them up.
With the beginning of the blockade, Leningraders began to be given out for which it was possible to get bread. From October 1941 daily rate bread for workers was 400 g per person, and for children under 12 years old, dependents and employees - 200 g. But this did not save the townspeople from hunger. Food stocks were rapidly declining, and by November 1941, the daily portion of bread was forced to be reduced to 250 g for workers and to 125 g for other categories of citizens. Due to the lack of flour, it consisted of half of inedible impurities, was black and bitter. Leningraders did not complain, because for them a piece of such bread was the only salvation from death. But the famine did not last all 900 days of the siege of Leningrad. Already at the beginning of 1942, the daily norms of bread increased, and the bread itself became of better quality. In mid-February 1942, for the first time, the residents of the city on the Neva were given frozen lamb and beef meat in rations. Gradually, the food situation in the northern capital was stabilized.
anomalous winter
But the blockade of Leningrad was remembered not only by hunger. History contains the facts that the winter of 1941-1942 was unusually cold. Frosts in the city were from October to April and were much stronger than in previous years. In some months, the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. The situation was aggravated by heavy snowfalls: by April 1942, the height of the snowdrifts was 53 cm.
Despite the abnormally cold winter, due to a lack of fuel in the city, it was not possible to start centralized heating, there was no electricity, and the water supply was turned off. In order to somehow warm their homes, Leningraders used potbelly stoves: they burned everything that could burn in them - books, rags, old furniture. Exhausted by hunger, people could not stand the cold and died. The total number of citizens who died from exhaustion and frost, by the end of February 1942, exceeded 200 thousand people.
Along the "road of life" and life surrounded by the enemy
Until the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted, the only way in which the inhabitants were evacuated and the city was supplied was Lake Ladoga. Trucks and horse carts were transported along it in winter, and barges ran around the clock in summer. The narrow road, completely unprotected from aerial bombardment, was the only link between besieged Leningrad and the world. Local residents called Lake Ladoga "the road of life", because if not for it, the victims of the Nazis would have been disproportionately more.
The blockade of Leningrad lasted for about three years. Interesting facts of this period indicate that, despite the catastrophic situation, life continued in the city. In Leningrad, even during the famine, military equipment was produced, theaters and museums were opened. The fighting spirit of the townspeople was supported by famous writers and poets who regularly spoke on the radio. By the winter of 1942-1943, the situation in the northern capital was no longer as critical as before. Despite regular bombings, life in Leningrad stabilized. Factories, schools, cinemas, baths started working, water supply was restored, public transport began to run around the city.
Curious facts about St. Isaac's Cathedral and cats
On the very last day of the siege of Leningrad, he was subjected to regular shelling. The shells that leveled many buildings in the city to the ground, flew around St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is not known why the Nazis did not touch the building. There is a version that they used its high dome as a guide for shelling the city. The basement of the cathedral served as a repository for valuable museum exhibits, thanks to which they managed to keep intact until the very end of the war.
Not only the Nazis were a problem for the townspeople while the blockade of Leningrad lasted. Interesting facts testify that rats have been bred in huge numbers in the northern capital. They destroyed the meager food supplies that remained in the city. In order to save the population of Leningrad from starvation, to it along the "road of life" from Yaroslavl region 4 wagons of smoky cats, considered the best rat-catchers, were transported. Animals adequately coped with the mission entrusted to them and gradually destroyed the rodents, saving people from another famine.
Ridding the city of enemy forces
The liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade took place on January 27, 1944. After a two-week offensive, the Soviet troops managed to push the Nazis back from the city. But, despite the defeat, the invaders besieged the northern capital for about six months. The enemy was finally driven back from the city only after the Vyborg and Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operations carried out by the Soviet troops in the summer of 1944.
Memory of besieged Leningrad
January 27 is celebrated in Russia as the day when the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted. On this memorable date, the leaders of the country, church ministers and ordinary citizens come to St. Petersburg, where the ashes of hundreds of thousands of Leningraders who died from starvation and shelling are buried. 900 days of the siege of Leningrad will forever remain a black page in national history and will remind people of the inhuman crimes of fascism.
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