Siege of Leningrad city during the siege. Interesting facts about the siege of Leningrad for children and adults briefly

The hero city, which was under a military blockade by German, Finnish and Italian armies for more than two years, today remembers the first day of the siege of Leningrad. On September 8, 1941, Leningrad found itself cut off from the rest of the country, and city residents bravely defended their homes from the invaders.

The 872 days of the siege of Leningrad went down in the history of the Second World War as the most tragic events worthy of memory and respect. The courage and bravery of the defenders of Leningrad, the suffering and patience of the city’s residents - all this will remain an example and lesson for new generations for many years to come.

Read 10 interesting, and at the same time terrifying facts about the life of besieged Leningrad in the editorial material.

1. "Blue Division"

German, Italian and Finnish soldiers officially took part in the blockade of Leningrad. But there was another group, which was called the “Blue Division”. It was generally accepted that this division consisted of Spanish volunteers, since Spain did not officially declare war on the USSR.

However, in fact, the Blue Division, which became part of a great crime against the Leningraders, consisted of professional soldiers of the Spanish army. During the battles for Leningrad, the Blue Division was considered by the Soviet military to be the weak link of the aggressors. Due to the rudeness of their own officers and meager food, fighters of the Blue Division often went over to the side of the Soviet army, historians note.

2. "Road of Life" and "Alley of Death"

Residents of besieged Leningrad managed to escape from starvation in the first winter thanks to the “Road of Life”. IN winter period 1941-1942, when the water on Lake Ladoga froze, communication with the “Big Land” was established, through which food was brought to the city and the population was evacuated. 550 thousand Leningraders were evacuated through the “Road of Life”.

In January 1943 soviet soldiers for the first time broke through the blockade of the occupiers, and on the liberated site was built Railway, which was called "Victory Road". On one section, the Victory Road came close to enemy territories, and trains did not always reach their destination. The military called this stretch “Death Alley.”

3. Harsh winter

The first winter of besieged Leningrad was the harshest the inhabitants had seen. From December to May inclusive, the average air temperature in Leningrad was 18 degrees below zero, the minimum mark was recorded at 31 degrees. Snow in the city sometimes reached 52 cm.

In such harsh conditions, city residents used any means to keep warm. Houses were heated with potbelly stoves; everything that burned was used as fuel: books, paintings, furniture. Central heating there was no work in the city, sewerage and water supply were turned off, work in factories and factories stopped.

4. Hero cats

In modern St. Petersburg, a small monument to a cat has been erected, few people know, but this monument is dedicated to the heroes who twice saved the inhabitants of Leningrad from starvation. The first rescue occurred in the first year of the siege. Hungry residents ate all their domestic animals, including cats, which saved them from starvation.

But later, the absence of cats in the city led to a widespread invasion of rodents. The city's food supplies were under threat. After the blockade was broken in January 1943, one of the first trains had four cars with smoky cats. This breed is the best at catching pests. The supplies of the exhausted city residents were saved.

5. 150 thousand shells

During the years of the siege, Leningrad was subjected to an incalculable number of airstrikes and artillery shelling, which were carried out several times a day. In total, during the siege, 150 thousand shells were fired at Leningrad and more than 107 thousand incendiary and high-explosive bombs were dropped.

To alert citizens about enemy air raids, 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the city streets. The signal for airstrikes was the sound of a metronome: its fast rhythm meant the start of an air attack, a slow rhythm meant a retreat, and on the streets they wrote “Citizens! During artillery shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous.”

The sound of the metronome and the inscription warning of shelling preserved on one of the houses became symbols of the blockade and the resilience of the residents of Leningrad, which was still unconquered by the Nazis.

6. Three waves of evacuation

During the war years, the Soviet military managed to carry out three waves of evacuation local population from a besieged and hungry city. Over the entire period, it was possible to withdraw 1.5 million people, which at that time amounted to almost half of the entire city.

The first evacuation began in the first days of the war - June 29, 1941. The first wave of evacuation was characterized by the reluctance of residents to leave the city; in total, a little more than 400 thousand people were evacuated. The second wave of evacuation - September 1941-April 1942. The main route for evacuating the already besieged city was the “Road of Life”; in total, more than 600 thousand people were evacuated during the second wave. And the third wave of evacuation - May-October 1942, just under 400 thousand people were evacuated.

7. Minimum ration

Hunger became the main problem of besieged Leningrad. The beginning of the food crisis is considered to be September 10, 1941, when Nazi aircraft destroyed the Badayevsky food warehouses.

The peak of the famine in Leningrad occurred between November 20 and December 25, 1941. The norms for the distribution of bread for soldiers on the front line of defense were reduced to 500 grams per day, for workers in hot shops - to 375 grams, for workers in other industries and engineers - to 250 grams, for employees, dependents and children - to 125 grams.

During the siege, bread was prepared from a mixture of rye and oat flour, cake and unfiltered malt. It had a completely black color and a bitter taste.

8. The Case of the Scientists

During the first two years of the siege of Leningrad, from 200 to 300 employees of Leningrad higher education institutions were convicted in the city. educational institutions and members of their families. Leningrad NKVD department in 1941-1942. arrested scientists for “anti-Soviet, counter-revolutionary, treasonous activities.”

As a result, 32 highly qualified specialists were sentenced to death. Four scientists were shot, the rest death penalty were replaced by various terms of forced labor camps, many died in prisons and camps. In 1954-55, the convicts were rehabilitated, and a criminal case was opened against the NKVD officers.

9. Duration of blockade

The siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War lasted 872 days (September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944). But the first breakthrough of the blockade was carried out in 1943. On January 17, during Operation Iskra, Soviet troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts managed to liberate Shlisselburg, creating a narrow land corridor between the besieged city and the rest of the country.

After the blockade was lifted, Leningrad was under siege for another six months. German and Finnish soldiers remained in Vyborg and Petrozavodsk. After the offensive operation of the Soviet troops in July-August 1944, they managed to push the Nazis back from Leningrad.

10. Victims

On Nuremberg trials The Soviet side announced 630 thousand people died during the siege of Leningrad, however, this figure is still in doubt among historians. The real death toll could reach up to one and a half million people.

In addition to the number of deaths, the causes of death are also terrifying - only 3% of all deaths in besieged Leningrad were due to artillery shelling and airstrikes by the fascist military. 97% of deaths in Leningrad from September 1941 to January 1944 were due to starvation. Dead bodies lying on the streets of the city were perceived by passers-by as an everyday occurrence.

January 27, the day the siege of Leningrad was lifted, is special in the history of our country. Today, on this date, Military Glory Day is celebrated annually. The city of Leningrad itself (now St. Petersburg) received the title of hero city on May 1, 1945. On May 8, 1965, the northern capital was awarded the Golden Star medal and the Medal for Leningrad was also received by 1.496 million residents of this city.

"Leningrad under siege" - a project dedicated to the events of that time

The country has preserved the memory of these heroic events to this day. January 27 (the day the siege of Leningrad was lifted) in 2014 is already the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the city. The Archival Committee of St. Petersburg presented a project called “Leningrad under siege.” A virtual exhibition of various archival documents relating to the history of this city during the siege was created on the Internet portal "Archives of St. Petersburg". About 300 historical originals of that time were published. These documents are combined into ten different sections, each of which is accompanied by expert comments. All of them reflect different aspects of life in Leningrad during the siege.

Reconstruction of the wartime situation

Today it is not easy to imagine for young St. Petersburg residents that the magnificent city-museum in which they live was sentenced to complete destruction by the Germans in 1941. However, he did not capitulate when he was surrounded by Finnish and German divisions, and managed to win, although he was seemingly doomed to death. In order for the current generation of city residents to have an idea of ​​what their great-grandfathers and grandfathers had to endure in those years (which the surviving residents of besieged Leningrad remember as the most terrible time), one of modern streets The city, Italian, as well as Manezhnaya Square were “returned” to the 70th anniversary in the winter of 1941-1944. This project was called "Street of Life".

In the above-mentioned places of St. Petersburg there are various cultural institutions, as well as theaters, which did not stop their activities even during those difficult blockade years. Here, the windows of the houses were covered with crosses, as was done at that time in Leningrad to protect against air raids, barricades made of sandbags on the pavements were reconstructed, anti-aircraft guns and military trucks were brought in to completely reproduce the situation of that time. This is how the seventieth anniversary of the siege of Leningrad was celebrated. According to estimates, approximately 3 thousand buildings were destroyed by shells during the events of those years, and more than 7 thousand were significantly damaged. Residents of besieged Leningrad erected various defensive structures to protect themselves from artillery shelling. They built about 4 thousand bunkers and pillboxes, equipped about 22 thousand different firing points in buildings, and also erected 35 kilometers of anti-tank obstacles and barricades on the city streets.

Siege of Leningrad: main events and figures

The defense of the city, which began in 1941 on September 8, lasted about 900 days and ended in 1944. January 27 - All these years, the only route along which the necessary products were delivered to the besieged city, as well as the seriously wounded and children were taken out, was carried out in winter along the ice of Lake Ladoga. This was the Road of Life of besieged Leningrad. We will talk about it in more detail in our article.

The blockade was broken on January 18, 1943, and Leningrad was completely cleared on January 27. And this happened only the next year - in 1944. Thus, residents had to wait a long time before the blockade of the city of Leningrad was finally lifted. According to various sources, from 400 thousand to 1.5 million inhabitants died during this period. The following number appeared at the Nuremberg trials - 632 thousand dead. Only 3% of them are from shelling and bombing. The rest of the inhabitants died of hunger.

The beginning of events

Today, military historians believe that not a single city on earth in the entire history of warfare has given as many lives for the Victory as Leningrad did at that time. On the day (1941, June 22), martial law was immediately introduced in this city, as well as throughout the region. On the night of June 22-23, Nazi aviation attempted to carry out a raid on Leningrad for the first time. This attempt ended unsuccessfully. Not a single enemy aircraft was allowed to approach the city.

The next day, June 24, the Leningrad Military District was transformed into the Northern Front. Kronstadt covered the city from the sea. This was one of the bases located in the Baltic Sea at that time. With the advance of enemy troops into the region on July 10, a heroic defense began, of which the history of Leningrad can be proud. On September 6, the first fascist bombs were dropped on the city, after which it began to be systematically subjected to air raids. In just three months, from September to November 1941, the air raid warning was announced 251 times.

Loudspeakers and the famous metronome

However, the stronger the threat faced the hero city, the more united the inhabitants of Leningrad opposed the enemy. To warn Leningraders about ongoing air raids, about 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the streets in the first months. The population was notified by the radio network about the air raid warning. The famous metronome, which went down in history as a cultural monument of the time of resistance, was broadcast through this network. Fast rhythm it meant that a military alert had been declared, and a slow one meant the all-clear. Mikhail Melaned, the announcer, announced the alarm. There was not a single area in the city that an enemy shell could not reach. Therefore, the streets and areas where the risk of being hit was greatest were calculated. Here people hung signs or wrote with paint that this place was the most dangerous during shelling.

According to Adolf Hitler's plan, the city was to be completely destroyed, and the troops defending it were to be destroyed. The Germans, having failed in a number of attempts to break through the defenses of Leningrad, decided to starve it out.

The first shelling of the city

Every resident, including the elderly and children, became a defender of Leningrad. A special army was created in which thousands of people rallied into partisan detachments and fought the enemy at the fronts, participating in the construction of defensive lines. The evacuation of the population from the city began, as well as cultural values various museums and industrial equipment already in the first months of hostilities. On August 20, enemy troops occupied the city of Chudovo, blocking the railway in the Leningrad-Moscow direction.

However, the army divisions called “North” failed to break into Leningrad on the move, although the front approached close to the city. Systematic shelling began on September 4. Four days later, the enemy captured the city of Shlisselburg, as a result of which land communications with the mainland of Leningrad were stopped.

This event marked the beginning of the blockade of the city. It had over 2.5 million inhabitants, including 400 thousand children. At the beginning of the blockade, the city did not have the necessary food supplies. As of September 12, they were designed for only 30-35 days (bread), 45 days (cereals) and 60 days (meat). Even with the strictest savings coal could only last until November, and liquid fuel only until the end of this year. The food standards that were introduced under the rationing system began to gradually decline.

Hunger and cold

The situation was aggravated by the fact that the winter of 1941 was early in Russia, and in Leningrad it was very severe. Often the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. Thousands of people died from hunger and cold. The peak of mortality was from November 20 to December 25 of this difficult year of 1941. During this period, the norms for the distribution of bread to soldiers were significantly reduced - to 500 grams per day. For those who worked in hot shops, they were only 375 grams, and for other workers and engineers - 250. For other segments of the population (children, dependents and employees) - only 125 grams. There were practically no other products. More than 4 thousand people died from hunger every day. This figure was 100 times higher than pre-war mortality rates. Male mortality significantly prevailed over female mortality. By the end of the war, representatives of the fairer sex made up the bulk of the inhabitants of Leningrad.

The role of the Road of Life in Victory

The connection with the country was provided, as already mentioned, by the Road of Life of besieged Leningrad, passing through Ladoga. This was the only highway that existed in the period from September 1941 to March 1943. It was along this road that industrial equipment and the population were evacuated from Leningrad, food was supplied to the city, as well as weapons, ammunition, reinforcements and fuel. In total, more than 1,615,000 tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad along this route, and about 1.37 million people were evacuated. Moreover, in the first winter, about 360 thousand tons of cargo arrived, and 539.4 thousand residents were evacuated. A pipeline was laid along the bottom of the lake to supply petroleum products.

Protection of the Road of Life

Hitler's troops constantly bombed and shelled the Road of Life in order to paralyze this only path of salvation. To protect it from air strikes, as well as provide uninterrupted operation the country's air defense assets and forces were mobilized. Today, various memorial ensembles and monuments immortalize the heroism of the people who made uninterrupted movement along it possible. The main place among them is occupied by “The Broken Ring” - a composition on Lake Ladoga, as well as an ensemble called “Rumbolovskaya Mountain”, located in Vsevolzhsk; in the village of Kovalevo), which is dedicated to the children who lived in Leningrad in those years, as well as a memorial complex installed in a village called Chernaya Rechka, where the soldiers who died on the Ladoga road rested in a mass grave.

Lifting the blockade of Leningrad

The blockade of Leningrad was first broken, as we have already said, in 1943, on January 18. This was carried out by the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts together with the Baltic Fleet. The Germans were driven back. Operation Iskra took place during a general offensive of forces Soviet army, which unfolded widely in the winter of 1942-1943 after enemy troops were surrounded at Stalingrad. Army "North" acted against Soviet troops. On January 12, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts went on the offensive, and six days later they united. On January 18, the city of Shlisselburg was liberated, and the southern coast of the strategically important Lake Ladoga was cleared of the enemy. A corridor was formed between it and the front line, the width of which was 8-11 km. Within 17 days (just think about this period!), highways and railways were built through it. After this, the city's supply improved dramatically. The blockade was completely lifted on January 27. The day of the lifting of the siege of Leningrad was marked with fireworks that lit up the sky of this city.

The siege of Leningrad became the most brutal in the history of mankind. Most of the residents who died at that time are buried today at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery. The defense lasted, to be exact, 872 days. Leningrad of the pre-war period no longer existed after that. The city has changed a lot; many buildings had to be restored, some had to be built anew.

Diary of Tanya Savicheva

There is a lot of evidence left from the terrible events of those years. One of them is Tanya's diary. The Leningrad girl started teaching it at the age of 12. It was not published because it consists of only nine terrible records about how members of this girl’s family consistently died in Leningrad at that time. Tanya herself also failed to survive. This notebook was presented at the Nuremberg trials as an argument accusing fascism.

This document is located today in the museum of the history of the hero city, and a copy is stored in the display case of the memorial of the above-mentioned Piskarevsky cemetery, where 570 thousand Leningraders were buried, who died of hunger or bombing during the siege in the period from 1941 to 1943, as well as in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill .

The hand, losing strength due to hunger, wrote sparingly and unevenly. The child's soul, stricken by suffering, was no longer capable of living emotions. The girl only recorded the terrible events of her life - “visits of death” to her family’s house. Tanya wrote that all the Savichevs died. However, she never found out that not everyone died, their family continued. Sister Nina was rescued and taken out of the city. She returned in 1945 to Leningrad, to her home, and found Tanya’s notebook among the plaster, fragments and bare walls. Brother Misha also recovered from a serious wound received at the front. The girl herself was discovered by employees of the sanitary teams who were going around the houses of the city. She fainted from hunger. She, barely alive, was evacuated to the village of Shatki. Here, many orphans grew stronger, but Tanya never recovered. For two years, doctors fought for her life, but the girl still died. She died in 1944, on July 1.

The war of 1941-1945 is full of dramatic and tragic pages. One of the worst was the siege of Leningrad. Briefly speaking, this is the story of a real genocide of the townspeople, which stretched almost until the very end of the war. Let's remember once again how all this happened.

Attack on the “city of Lenin”

The offensive against Leningrad began immediately, in 1941. A group of German-Finnish troops successfully moved forward, breaking through the resistance of Soviet units. Despite the desperate, fierce resistance of the city’s defenders, by August of that 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 siege of Leningrad begin? It would take a long time to briefly list the events that preceded this. But the official date is September 8, 1941. Despite the fiercest fighting on the outskirts of the city, the Nazis were unable to take it “at once.” Therefore, on September 13, the 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 had 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 gave the order to begin the blockade.

In general, the essence of the blockade of Leningrad was to ensure that “the city itself fell into one’s hands, like a ripe 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 problems with food began. Constant stress and fear from bombing and shelling, a lack of medicine 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 city residents. All this led to both massive deaths of civilians and catastrophic destruction of the most valuable architectural and historical heritage.

The first year was 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 the exact opposite opinion.

The fact is that by 1941 the number of residents (registered and visitors) numbered about three million people. The bombed Badayev warehouses simply physically could not accommodate such an amount of food. 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 German artillery, this delayed the onset of famine in best case scenario for a week.

In addition, just a few years ago, some documents from the NKVD archives concerning the pre-war survey of the city’s strategic reserves were declassified. The information in them paints an extremely disappointing picture: “Butter is 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 carried out a complete inventory 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, supplies of cereals and pasta were enough for a month, and supplies of meat could be extended for the same period.

There was enough oil left for exactly 45 days, but sugar and ready-made confectionery products were stored for two months at once. There were practically no potatoes and vegetables. In order to somehow stretch the flour reserves, 12% of ground malt, oatmeal and soybean flour were added to it. Subsequently, they began to put oil cakes, bran, sawdust and ground tree bark there.

How was the food issue resolved?

From the very first days of September, food cards were introduced in the city. All canteens and restaurants were immediately closed. Livestock owned by local enterprises Agriculture, was immediately slaughtered and delivered to procurement points. All feed of grain origin was taken to flour mills and ground into flour, which was subsequently used to make bread.

Citizens who were in hospitals during the blockade had their rations cut out from their coupons for that period. The same procedure applied to children who were in orphanages and preschool educational institutions. Almost all schools have canceled classes. For children, the breaking of the siege 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 cases of theft and even murders committed in order to obtain them sharply increased in the city. In Leningrad in those years, there were frequent cases of raids and armed robberies of bakeries and even food warehouses.

Persons who were caught in something similar were treated with little ceremony and were shot on the spot. There were no ships. This was explained by the fact that every stolen card cost someone their life. These documents were not restored (with rare exceptions), and therefore the theft doomed people to certain death.

Residents' sentiments

In the first days of the war, few believed in the possibility complete blockade, but many began to prepare for such a turn of events. In the very first days of the German offensive, everything more or less valuable was swept off store shelves, people withdrew all their savings from the Savings Bank. Even jewelry stores were empty.

However, the onset of famine abruptly canceled out the efforts of many people: money and jewelry immediately became worthless. The only currency was ration cards (which were obtained exclusively through robbery) and food products. In city markets, one of the most popular goods were kittens and puppies.

NKVD documents indicate that the beginning of the blockade of Leningrad (a photo of which is in the article) gradually began to instill anxiety in people. Many letters were confiscated in which townspeople reported on the plight of Leningrad. They wrote that there was not even cabbage leaves, in the city you can no longer get old flour dust, which used to be used to make wallpaper glue.

By the way, during the most difficult winter of 1941, there were practically no apartments left in the city whose walls were covered with wallpaper: hungry people simply tore them off and ate them, since they had no other food.

Labor feat of Leningraders

Despite the enormity of the current situation, courageous people continued to work. Moreover, to work for the benefit of the country, producing many types of weapons. They even managed to repair tanks, make cannons and submachine guns literally from “scrap material.” Everything received in such difficult conditions the weapons were immediately used for battles on the outskirts of the unconquered city.

But the situation with food and medicine became more difficult 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 support cars loaded with products, their crossing began.

The beginning of famine

Famine was approaching inexorably. Already on November 20, 1941, the grain allowance was only 250 grams per day for workers. As for dependents, women, children and the elderly, they were entitled to half as much. At first, the workers, who saw the condition of their relatives and friends, brought their rations home and shared them with them. But this practice was soon put to an end: people were ordered to eat their portion of bread directly at the enterprise, under supervision.

This is how the siege of Leningrad took place. The photos show how exhausted the people who were in the city at that time were. For every death from an enemy shell, a hundred people died of terrible hunger.

It should be understood that “bread” in this case meant a small piece of sticky mass, which contained much more bran, sawdust and other fillers than flour itself. Respectively, nutritional value such food was close to zero.

When the siege of Leningrad was broken, people who for the first time in 900 days received fresh bread, often fainted from happiness.

To top off 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 harsh, so doctors simply could not cope with the influx of frostbitten and cold people, whose immunity was unable to resist infections.

Consequences of the first winter

By the beginning of winter, the bread ration was almost doubled. Alas, this fact was not explained by the breaking of the blockade or the restoration of normal supplies: it was simply that by that time half of all dependents had already died. NKVD documents testify to the fact that the famine took completely incredible forms. Cases of cannibalism began, and many researchers believe that no more than a third of them were officially recorded.

It was especially bad for children at that time. Many of them were forced to remain alone for long periods of 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 completely alone. More often than not, they also died. Thus, the children of the siege of Leningrad bore a lot on their fragile shoulders.

Front-line soldiers recall that among the crowd of seven-eight-year-old teenagers in the evacuation, it was the Leningraders who always stood out: they had creepy, tired and too adult eyes.

By mid-winter 1941, there were no cats or dogs left on the streets of Leningrad; there were practically no crows or rats. Animals have learned that it is better to stay away from hungry people. All the trees in city squares had lost most of their bark and young branches: they were collected, ground and added to flour, just to increase its volume a little.

The siege of Leningrad lasted at that time less than a year, but during the autumn cleanup, 13 thousand corpses were found on the city streets.

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 on September 12th. Navigation continued until the thickness of the ice made it impossible for ships to pass.

Each flight of the sailors was a feat, since the German planes did not stop the hunt for a minute. We had to go on flights every day, in all weather conditions. As we have already said, cargo was first sent across ice on November 22. It was a horse-drawn train. After just a couple of days, when the ice thickness became more or less sufficient, the trucks set off.

No more than two or three bags of food were placed on each car, since the ice was still too unreliable and the cars constantly sank. Deadly flights continued until spring. The barges took over “on watch.” The end of this deadly merry-go-round was only brought about by the liberation of Leningrad from the siege.

Road number 101, as this route was then called, made it possible not only to maintain at least a minimum food standard, but also to remove many thousands of people from the blockaded city. The Germans constantly tried to interrupt communications, sparing no expense on shells and fuel for aircraft.

Fortunately, they did not succeed, and on the shores of Lake Ladoga today there is a monument “Road of Life”, and also a museum of the Siege of Leningrad has been opened, which contains a lot of documentary evidence of those terrible days.

The success in organizing the crossing was largely due to the fact that the Soviet command quickly attracted fighter aircraft to defend the lake. IN winter time anti-aircraft batteries were mounted directly on the ice. notice, that Taken measures gave very positive results: for example, already on January 16, more than 2.5 thousand tons of food were delivered to the city, although only two thousand tons were planned to be delivered.

The beginning of freedom

So when did the long-awaited lifting of the siege of Leningrad take place? As soon as the German army suffered its first major defeat near Kursk, the country's leadership began to think about how to liberate the imprisoned city.

The lifting of the blockade of Leningrad began on January 14, 1944. The task of the troops was to break through the German defense at its thinnest point in order to restore the city's land communication with the rest of the country. By January 27, fierce fighting began, in which the Soviet units gradually gained the upper hand. This was the year the siege of Leningrad was lifted.

The Nazis were forced to begin a retreat. Soon the defense was broken through an area about 14 kilometers long. Columns of food trucks immediately started heading into the city along this route.

So how long did the siege of Leningrad last? It is officially believed that it lasted 900 days, but the exact duration is 871 days. However, this fact does not in the slightest degree detract from the determination and incredible courage of its defenders.

Liberation Day

Today is the day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad - January 27th. This date is not a holiday. Rather, it is a constant reminder of the horrific events that the city's residents were forced to go through. To be fair, it should be said that the real day of lifting the siege 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 old people died there. As long as the memory of those events is alive, nothing like this should happen again in the world!

Here is the entire blockade of Leningrad in brief. Of course, it is possible to describe that terrible time quite quickly, but the siege survivors who were able to survive it remember those terrifying events every day.

the first days of the siege of Leningrad

On September 8, 1941, on the 79th day of the Great Patriotic War, a blockade ring closed around Leningrad

The Germans and their allies advancing on Leningrad had the categorical goal of its complete destruction. The headquarters of the Soviet command allowed for the possibility of surrendering the city and began the evacuation of valuables and industrial facilities in advance.

Residents of the city knew nothing about the plans of either side, and this made their situation especially alarming.

About the “war of tactics” on the Leningrad front and how it affected the besieged city - in the TASS material.

German plans: war of annihilation

Hitler's plans did not leave Leningrad any future: the German leadership and Hitler personally expressed intentions to raze the city to the ground. The same statements were made by the leadership of Finland, Germany’s ally and partner in the military operations for the siege of Leningrad.

In September 1941, Finnish President Risto Ryti directly stated to the German envoy in Helsinki: “If St. Petersburg no longer exists as Big City, then the Neva would be best border on the Karelian Isthmus... Leningrad must be liquidated as a large city."

The Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces (OKH), giving the order to encircle Leningrad on August 28, 1941, defined the tasks of Army Group North advancing on the city as the most dense encirclement. At the same time, an attack on the city by infantry forces was not envisaged.

Vera Inber, Soviet poet and prose writer

On September 10, the First Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR, Vsevolod Merkulov, arrived in Leningrad on a special mission, who, together with Alexei Kuznetsov, the second secretary of the regional party committee, was supposed to prepare a set of measures in the event of the forced surrender of the city to the enemy.

“Without any sentimentality, the Soviet leadership understood that the struggle could develop even according to the most negative scenario,” the researcher is confident.

Historians believe that neither Stalin nor the command of the Leningrad Front knew about the Germans’ abandonment of plans to storm the city and the transfer of the most combat-ready units of Gepner’s 4th Tank Army to the Moscow direction. Therefore, until the blockade was lifted, this plan of special measures to disable the most important strategic facilities in the city existed and was periodically checked.

"In Zhdanov's notebooks ( First Secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. - Approx. TASS) at the end of August - beginning of September there is a record that it is necessary to create illegal stations in Leningrad, keeping in mind that the possibility of continuing the fight against the Nazis and the occupiers can occur in conditions when the city is surrendered,” says Nikita Lomagin.

Leningraders: in the ring of ignorance

Leningraders followed the development of events from the first days of the war, trying to predict fate hometown. The Battle of Leningrad began on July 10, 1941, when Nazi troops crossed the then border Leningrad region. Siege diaries indicate that already on September 8, when the city was subjected to massive artillery shelling, most of the townspeople realized that the enemy was nearby and tragedy could not be avoided. One of the dominant moods of these months was anxiety and fear.

“Most of the townspeople had a very poor idea of ​​the situation in the city, around the city, at the front,” says Nikita Lomagin. “This uncertainty was characteristic of the mood of the townspeople for quite a long time.” In mid-September, Leningraders learned about the difficult situation at the front from military personnel who found themselves in the city for redeployment and other reasons.

Since the beginning of September, due to the very difficult food situation, the rules for the operation of the supply system began to change.

Leningraders said that not only the food disappeared from the stores, but even their smell, and now in trading floors it smelled empty. “The population began to think about some additional ways to find food, about new survival strategies,” explains the historian.

“During the blockade, there were a lot of proposals from below, from scientists, engineers, inventors, on how to solve the problems that the city faced: from the point of view of transport, from the point of view various kinds food substitutes, blood substitutes,” says Nikita Lomagin.

The fire at the Badayevsky warehouses on the first day of the siege, where 38 food warehouses and storerooms burned down, had a particular effect on the townspeople. The supply of food they had was small and could have lasted the city for a maximum of a week, but as rations tightened, Leningraders became increasingly confident that this fire was the cause of mass starvation in the city.

bread grain and flour - for 35 days;

cereals and pasta - for 30 days;

meat and meat products - for 33 days;

fats - for 45 days.

The norms for issuing bread at that time were:

workers - 800 g;

employees - 600 g;

dependents and children - 400 g.

The mood of the townspeople worsened as changes occurred at the front. In addition, the enemy actively carried out propaganda activities in the city, of which the so-called whisper propaganda was especially widespread, spreading rumors about the invincibility of the German army and the defeat of the USSR. Artillery terror also played a role - constant massive shelling to which the city was subjected from September 1941 until the blockade was lifted.

Historians say that the totality of tragic circumstances that disrupted the normal course of life of Leningraders reached its peak in December 1941, when food standards became minimal, most enterprises stopped working due to a lack of electricity, and water supply, transport, and other city infrastructure practically stopped working.

“This set of circumstances is what we call a blockade,” says Nikita Lomagin. “It’s not just the encirclement of the city, it’s the shortage of everything against the backdrop of hunger, cold and shelling, the cessation of the functioning of traditional connections for the metropolis between workers, engineers, enterprises, teachers, institutions, etc. The rupture of this fabric of life was an extremely severe psychological blow."

The only link connecting the urban space during the blockade was the Leningrad radio, which, according to the researchers, united both the meaning of the struggle and the explanation of what was happening.

“People wanted to hear news, receive information, emotional support and not feel lonely,” says Lomagin.

From the end of September 1941, historians note, the townspeople began to expect an early lifting of the blockade. No one in the city could believe that it would last long. This belief was strengthened by the first attempts to liberate Leningrad, made in September-October 1941, and later by the success of the Red Army near Moscow, after which Leningraders expected that, following the capital, the Nazis would be driven back from the city on the Neva.

“No one in Leningrad believed that this would last for a long time until January 1943, when the blockade was broken,” says Irina Muravyova, a researcher at the State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad. “Leningraders were constantly waiting for a breakthrough and the release of the blockade of the city.”

The front has stabilized: who won?

The front near Leningrad stabilized on September 12. The German offensive was stopped, but the Nazi command continued to insist that the blockade ring around the city shrink closer and demanded that the Finnish allies fulfill the conditions of the Barbarossa plan.

He assumed that the Finnish units, having rounded Lake Ladoga from the north, would meet Army Group North in the area of ​​the Svir River and thereby close the second ring around Leningrad.

“It was impossible to avoid the blockade of Leningrad under those conditions,” says Vyacheslav Mosunov.

“Up until the start of the Great Patriotic War, the defense of Leningrad was built primarily on the condition that the enemy would attack from the north and west,” the historian notes. “The Leningrad Military District, which had the most extensive territory, from the very beginning of hostilities was focused on the defense of the northern approaches to the city. This was a consequence of pre-war plans."

Alexander Werth, British journalist, 1943

The question of declaring Leningrad an open city could never arise, as it did, for example, with Paris in 1940. The war of Nazi Germany against the USSR was a war of extermination, and the Germans never made a secret of this.

In addition, the local pride of Leningrad was of a peculiar nature - an ardent love for the city itself, for its historical past, for the wonderful literary traditions associated with it (this primarily concerned the intelligentsia) here was combined with the great proletarian and revolutionary traditions of the city’s working class. And nothing could bind these two sides of the love of Leningraders for their city into one stronger whole than the threat of destruction hanging over it.

In Leningrad, people could choose between a shameful death in German captivity and an honorable death (or, if you're lucky, life) in your own unconquered city. It would also be a mistake to try to distinguish between Russian patriotism, revolutionary impulse and Soviet organization, or to ask which of these three factors played the more important role in saving Leningrad; all three factors were combined in that extraordinary phenomenon that can be called “Leningrad in the days of the war.”

“For the German command, the offensive turned into an actual military defeat,” notes Vyacheslav Mosunov. “Out of the 4th Panzer Group, only the 41st Motorized Corps was able to fully complete its task without additional help. He managed to break through the defenses of the 42nd Army and complete the task of capturing the Dudergof Heights. However, the enemy was unable to take advantage of his success."

The offensive of fascist troops on Leningrad, the capture of which the German command attached great strategic and political importance, began on July 10, 1941. In August, heavy fighting was already taking place on the outskirts of the city. On August 30, German troops cut the railways connecting Leningrad with the country. On September 8, 1941, Nazi troops captured Shlisselburg and cut off Leningrad from the entire country by land. An almost 900-day blockade of the city began, communication with which was maintained only by Lake Ladoga and by air.

Having failed in their attempts to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops inside the blockade ring, the Germans decided to starve the city out. According to all the calculations of the German command, Leningrad should have been wiped off the face of the earth, and the population of the city should have died of hunger and cold. In an effort to implement this plan, the enemy carried out barbaric bombings and artillery shelling of Leningrad: on September 8, the day the blockade began, the first massive bombardment of the city took place. About 200 fires broke out, one of them destroyed the Badayevsky food warehouses. In September-October, enemy aircraft carried out several raids per day. The enemy's goal was not only to interfere with the activities of important enterprises, but also to create panic among the population. For this purpose, particularly intense artillery shelling was carried out at the beginning and end of the working day. In total, during the blockade, about 150 thousand shells were fired at the city and over 107 thousand incendiary and high-explosive bombs were dropped. Many died during the shelling and bombing, many buildings were destroyed.

The autumn-winter of 1941-1942 was the most terrible time of the blockade. Early winter brought with it cold - heating, hot water there was none, and Leningraders began to burn furniture, books, and disassemble them for firewood wooden buildings. The transport was standing still. Thousands of people died from dystrophy and cold. But Leningraders continued to work - administrative institutions, printing houses, clinics, kindergartens, theaters, a public library were working, scientists continued to work. 13-14-year-old teenagers worked, replacing their fathers who had gone to the front.

The struggle for Leningrad was fierce. A plan was developed that included measures to strengthen the defense of Leningrad, including anti-aircraft and anti-artillery. Over 4,100 pillboxes and bunkers were built in the city, 22 thousand firing points were installed in buildings, and over 35 kilometers of barricades and anti-tank obstacles were installed on the streets. Three hundred thousand Leningraders participated in the local air defense units of the city. Day and night they kept their watch at factories, in the courtyards of houses, on the roofs.

In the difficult conditions of the blockade, the working people of the city provided the front with weapons, equipment, uniforms, and ammunition. From the population of the city, 10 divisions of the people's militia were formed, 7 of which became personnel.
(Military encyclopedia. Chairman of the Main Editorial Commission S.B. Ivanov. Military Publishing House. Moscow. in 8 volumes - 2004 ISBN 5 - 203 01875 - 8)

In the autumn on Lake Ladoga, due to storms, ship traffic was complicated, but tugs with barges made their way around the ice fields until December 1941, and some food was delivered by plane. Hard ice was not installed on Ladoga for a long time, and bread distribution standards were again reduced.

On November 22, the movement of vehicles on the ice road began. This transport route was called the "Road of Life". In January 1942, movement along winter road was already permanent. The Germans bombed and shelled the road, but they failed to stop the traffic.

In winter, the evacuation of the population began. The first to be taken out were women, children, the sick, and the elderly. In total, about a million people were evacuated. In the spring of 1942, when things became a little easier, Leningraders began to clean up the city. Bread distribution standards have increased.

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.

Soviet troops repeatedly tried to break through the blockade ring, but achieved this only in January 1943. A corridor 8-11 kilometers wide has formed south of Lake Ladoga. In 18 days, a 33-kilometer-long railway was built along the southern shore of Ladoga and a crossing across the Neva was erected. In February 1943, trains with food, raw materials, and ammunition traveled along it to Leningrad.

The memorial ensembles of the Piskarevsky Cemetery and the Seraphim Cemetery are dedicated to the memory of the victims of the siege and the fallen participants in the defense of Leningrad; the Green Belt of Glory was created around the city along the former siege ring of the front.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources