Message lifting the blockade of Leningrad. Green Belt of Glory and monuments in memory of the blockade

Every year on January 27, our country celebrates the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade (1944). This is the Day of Military Glory of Russia, which was established in accordance with the Federal Law “On Days of Military Glory (Victory Days) of Russia” dated March 13, 1995. On January 27, 1944, the heroic defense of the city on the Neva, which lasted for 872 days, ended. German troops failed to enter the city and break the resistance and spirit of its defenders.

The Battle of Leningrad became one of the most important battles of World War II and the longest during the Great Patriotic War. It became a symbol of the courage and dedication of the city’s defenders. Neither terrible hunger, nor cold, nor constant artillery shelling and bombing could break the will of the defenders and residents of the besieged city. Despite the terrible hardships and trials that befell these people, the Leningraders survived and saved their city from the invaders. The unprecedented feat of the residents and defenders of the city remained forever in Russian history a symbol of courage, perseverance, greatness of spirit and love for our Motherland.

The stubborn defense of the defenders of Leningrad pinned down large forces of the German army, as well as almost all the forces of the Finnish army. This undoubtedly contributed to the victories of the Red Army in other sectors of the Soviet-German front. At the same time, even while under siege, Leningrad enterprises did not stop producing military products, which were used not only in the defense of the city itself, but were also exported to the “mainland”, where they were also used against the invaders.

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, one of the strategic directions according to the plans of Hitler’s command was Leningrad. Leningrad was on the list of the most important objects of the Soviet Union that needed to be captured. The attack on the city was led by a separate Army Group North. The objectives of the army group were to capture the Baltic states, ports and bases Soviet fleet in the Baltic and Leningrad.

Already on July 10, 1941, German troops began an attack on Leningrad, the capture of which the Nazis attached great strategic and political importance. On July 12, the advanced units of the Germans reached the Luga defensive line, where their advance was delayed by Soviet troops for several weeks. Heavy tanks KV-1 and KV-2, which arrived at the front directly from the Kirov plant, actively entered the battle here. Hitler's troops failed to take the city on the move. Hitler was dissatisfied with the developing situation, he personally made a trip to Army Group North in order to prepare a plan to capture the city by September 1941.

The Germans were able to resume the offensive on Leningrad only after the regrouping of troops on August 8, 1941 from the bridgehead captured near Bolshoi Sabsk. A few days later, the Luga defensive line was broken through. On August 15, German troops entered Novgorod, and on August 20 they captured Chudovo. At the end of August, fighting was already taking place on the near approaches to the city. On August 30, the Germans captured the village and the Mga station, thereby cutting off the railway communication between Leningrad and the country. On September 8, Hitler's troops captured the city of Shlisselburg (Petrokrepost), taking control of the source of the Neva and completely blockading Leningrad from land. From this day the blockade of the city began, which lasted 872 days. On September 8, 1941, all railway, road and river communications were severed. Communication with the besieged city could only be maintained by air and waters of Lake Ladoga.

On September 4, the city was first subjected to artillery shelling; German batteries fired from the direction of the occupied city of Tosno. On September 8, on the first day of the beginning of the blockade, the first massive raid of German bombers was carried out on the city. About 200 fires broke out in the city, one of which destroyed large Badayevsky food warehouses, which only worsened the situation of the defenders and the population of Leningrad. In September-October 1941, German aircraft carried out several raids on the city per day. The purpose of the bombing was not only to interfere with the work of the city's enterprises, but also to sow panic among the population.

The conviction of the Soviet leadership and people that the enemy would not be able to capture Leningrad restrained the pace of the evacuation. More than 2.5 million civilians, including about 400 thousand children, found themselves in the city blocked by German and Finnish troops. There were no food supplies to feed such a number of people in the city. Therefore, almost immediately after the encirclement of the city, it was necessary to seriously save food, reducing food consumption standards and actively developing the use of various food substitutes. At different times, blockade bread consisted of 20-50% cellulose. Since the introduction of the card system in the city, food distribution standards to the city population have been reduced many times. Already in October 1941, residents of Leningrad felt a clear shortage of food, and in December real famine began in the city.

The Germans knew very well about the plight of the city’s defenders, that women, children and old people were dying of hunger in Leningrad. But this was precisely their plan for the blockade. Unable to enter the city by fighting, breaking the resistance of its defenders, they decided to starve the city and destroy it with intense artillery shelling and bombing. The Germans made the main bet on exhaustion, which was supposed to break the spirit of the Leningraders.

In November-December 1941, a worker in Leningrad could receive only 250 grams of bread per day, and employees, children and the elderly - only 125 grams of bread, the famous “one hundred and twenty-five blockade grams with fire and blood in half” (a line from the “Leningrad Poem” Olga Berggolts). When on December 25 the bread ration was increased for the first time - by 100 grams for workers and by 75 grams for other categories of residents, exhausted, exhausted people experienced at least some kind of joy in this hell. This insignificant change in the norms for the distribution of bread inspired Leningraders, albeit very weak, but hope for the best.

It was the autumn and winter of 1941-1942 that was the most terrible time in the history of the siege of Leningrad. The early winter brought a lot of problems and was very cold. The heating system in the city did not work; there was no hot water; to keep warm, residents burned books, furniture, and dismantled wooden buildings for firewood. Almost all city transport stopped. Thousands of people died from dystrophy and cold. In January 1942, 107,477 people died in the city, including 5,636 children under the age of one year. Despite the terrible trials that befell them, and in addition to hunger, Leningraders suffered from very severe frosts that winter (the average monthly temperature in January 1942 was 10 degrees below the long-term average), they continued to work. Administrative institutions, clinics, kindergartens, printing houses, public libraries, theaters operated in the city, and Leningrad scientists continued their work. The famous Kirov plant also worked, although the front line passed from it at a distance of only four kilometers. He did not stop his work for a single day during the blockade. 13-14 year old teenagers also worked in the city and stood at the machines to replace their fathers who had gone to the front.

In the autumn on Ladoga, due to storms, navigation was seriously complicated, but tugboats with barges still made their way into the city, bypassing the ice fields until December 1941. Some amounts of food were delivered to the city by plane. Solid ice was not established on Lake Ladoga for a long time. Only on November 22 did vehicles begin to move along a specially built ice road. This highway, important for the entire city, was called the “Road of Life”. In January 1942, the movement of cars along this road was constant, while the Germans fired and bombed the highway, but they were unable to stop the traffic. At the same winter, the evacuation of the population began from the city along the “Road of Life”. The first to leave Leningrad were women, children, the sick and the elderly. In total, about one million people were evacuated from the city.

As the American political philosopher Michael Walzer later noted: “More civilians died in besieged Leningrad than in the inferno of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.” During the years of the blockade, according to various estimates, from 600 thousand to 1.5 million civilians died. At the Nuremberg trials, the number of 632 thousand people appeared. Only 3% of them died from artillery shelling and bombing, 97% became victims of starvation. Most of the Leningrad residents who died during the siege are buried at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery. The cemetery area is 26 hectares. In a long row of graves lie victims of the siege; approximately 500 thousand Leningraders were buried in this cemetery alone.

Soviet troops managed to break the blockade of Leningrad only in January 1943. This happened on January 18, when the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts met south of Lake Ladoga, breaking through a corridor 8-11 kilometers wide. In just 18 days, a 36-kilometer-long railway was built along the shore of the lake. Trains started running along it to the besieged city again. From February to December 1943, 3,104 trains passed along this road into the city. The corridor cut through land improved the position of the defenders and residents of the besieged city, but there was still a year left before the blockade was completely lifted.

By the beginning of 1944, German troops had created a defense in depth around the city with numerous wood-earth and reinforced concrete defensive structures, covered with wire barriers and minefields. In order to completely liberate the city on the Neva from the blockade, the Soviet command concentrated a large group of troops, organizing an offensive with the forces of the Leningrad, Volkhov, and Baltic fronts, supported by the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, whose naval artillery and sailors seriously helped the city’s defenders throughout the blockade.

On January 14, 1944, troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts began the Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation, the main goal of which was the defeat of Army Group North and the liberation of the territory Leningrad region and the complete lifting of the blockade from the city. The first to strike the enemy on the morning of January 14 were units of the 2nd Shock Army. On January 15, the 42nd Army went on the offensive from the Pulkovo area. Overcoming the stubborn resistance of the Nazis - the 3rd SS Panzer Corps and the 50th Army Corps, the Red Army knocked out the enemy from their occupied defensive lines and by January 20, near Ropsha, surrounded and destroyed the remnants of the Peterhof-Strelny German group. About a thousand enemy soldiers and officers were captured, more than 250 were captured artillery pieces.

By January 20, the troops of the Volkhov Front liberated Novgorod from the enemy and began to displace German units from the Mgi area. The 2nd Baltic Front managed to capture the Nasva station and captured a section of the Novosokolniki - Dno road, which was the basis of the line of communications of the 16th Wehrmacht Army.

On January 21, the troops of the Leningrad Front launched an offensive, the main target of the attack was Krasnogvardeysk. On January 24-26, Soviet troops liberated Pushkin from the Nazis and recaptured the October Railway. The liberation of Krasnogvardeysk on the morning of January 26, 1944 led to the collapse of the continuous line of defense of Nazi troops. By the end of January, the troops of the Leningrad Front, in close cooperation with the troops of the Volkhov Front, inflicted a heavy defeat on the 18th Army of the Wehrmacht, moving forward 70-100 kilometers. A number of important settlements were liberated, including Krasnoye Selo, Ropsha, Pushkin, Krasnogvardeysk, and Slutsk. Good preconditions were created for further offensive operations. But most importantly, the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted.

Back on January 21, 1944, A. A. Zhdanov and L. A. Govorov, who no longer doubted the success of the further Soviet offensive, personally addressed Stalin with a request, in connection with the complete liberation of the city from the blockade and from enemy shelling, to allow the issuance and publication of an order front troops, and also in honor of the victory, fire a salute in Leningrad on January 27 with 24 artillery salvoes from 324 guns. On the evening of January 27, almost the entire population of the city took to the streets and watched with jubilation the artillery salute, which heralded a very important historical event in the history of our entire country.

The Motherland appreciated the feat of the defenders of Leningrad. More than 350 thousand soldiers and officers of the Leningrad Front were presented with various orders and medals. 226 defenders of the city became Heroes of the Soviet Union. About 1.5 million people were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”. For perseverance, courage and unprecedented heroism during the days of the siege, the city on January 20, 1945 was awarded the order Lenin, and on May 8, 1965 received the honorary title “Hero City Leningrad”.

Based on materials from open sources

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. May 8, 1965 northern capital The Golden Star medal was awarded 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 the modern streets of the city, Italian, as well as Manezhnaya The area was "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, which the history of Leningrad can be proud of. 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. Its fast rhythm meant that a military alert had been announced, and its slow rhythm 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 the cultural values ​​of 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 the current 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. In various memorial ensembles and monuments today, the heroism of the people who made uninterrupted movement along it possible was immortalized. 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 the general offensive of the Soviet Army, which expanded 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!), automobile and railway routes 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 was just recording terrible events of her life - “visits of death” to her family home. 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 siege of Leningrad lasted exactly 871 days. This is the longest and most terrible siege of the city in the entire history of mankind. Almost 900 days of pain and suffering, courage and dedication.
Many years after the breaking of the siege of Leningrad, many historians, and even ordinary people, wondered: could this nightmare have been avoided? Avoid - apparently not.

For Hitler, Leningrad was a “tidbit” - after all, here is the Baltic Fleet and the road to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, from where help came from the allies during the war, and if the city had surrendered, it would have been destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth. Could the situation have been mitigated and prepared for in advance? The issue is controversial and worthy of separate research.


The first days of the siege of Leningrad
On September 8, 1941, in continuation of the offensive of the fascist army, the city of Shlisselburg was captured, thus closing the blockade ring. In the first days, few people believed in the seriousness of the situation, but many residents of the city began to thoroughly prepare for the siege: literally in a few hours, all savings were withdrawn from the savings banks, the shops were empty, everything possible was bought up.


Not everyone was able to evacuate when systematic shelling began, but it began immediately, in September, the routes for evacuation were already cut off. There is an opinion that it was the fire that occurred on the first day of the siege of Leningrad at the Badaev warehouses - in the storage of the city's strategic reserves - that provoked the terrible famine of the siege days.


However, recently declassified documents provide slightly different information: it turns out that there was no “strategic reserve” as such, since in the conditions of the outbreak of war it was impossible to create a large reserve for such a huge city as Leningrad was (and about 3 people lived in it at that time). million people) was not possible, so the city fed on imported products, and existing supplies would only last for a week.


Literally from the first days of the blockade, ration cards were introduced, schools were closed, military censorship was introduced: any attachments to letters were prohibited, and messages containing decadent sentiments were confiscated.






Siege of Leningrad - pain and death
Memories of the siege of Leningrad by people who survived it, their letters and diaries reveal to us a terrible picture. A terrible famine struck the city. Money and jewelry have lost value.


The evacuation began in the fall of 1941, but only in January 1942 did it become possible to withdraw a large number of people, mainly women and children, through the Road of Life. There were huge queues at the bakeries where daily rations were distributed. In addition to hunger, besieged Leningrad was also attacked by other disasters: very frosty winters, sometimes the thermometer dropped to -40 degrees.


The fuel ran out and the water pipes froze - the city was left without electricity, and drinking water. Rats became another problem for the besieged city in the first winter of the siege. They not only destroyed food supplies, but also spread all kinds of infections. People died and there was no time to bury them; the corpses lay right on the streets. Cases of cannibalism and robbery appeared.












Life of besieged Leningrad
At the same time, Leningraders tried with all their might to survive and not let them die hometown. Moreover, Leningrad helped the army by producing military products - the factories continued to operate in such conditions. Theaters and museums resumed their activities.


This was necessary - to prove to the enemy, and, most importantly, to ourselves: the blockade of Leningrad will not kill the city, it continues to live! One of the striking examples of amazing dedication and love for the Motherland, life, and hometown is the story of the creation of one piece of music. During the blockade, the famous symphony of D. Shostakovich, later called “Leningrad”, was written.


Or rather, the composer began writing it in Leningrad, and finished it in evacuation. When the score was ready, it was delivered to the besieged city. By that time, the symphony orchestra had already resumed its activities in Leningrad. On the day of the concert, so that enemy raids could not disrupt it, our artillery did not allow a single fascist plane to approach the city!


Throughout the blockade days, the Leningrad radio worked, which was for all Leningraders not only a life-giving spring of information, but also simply a symbol of ongoing life.







The Road of Life is the pulse of a besieged city
From the first days of the siege, the Road of Life began its dangerous and heroic work - the pulse of besieged Leningrad. In summer there is a water route, and in winter there is an ice route connecting Leningrad with the “mainland” along Lake Ladoga. On September 12, 1941, the first barges with food arrived in the city along this route, and until late autumn, until storms made navigation impossible, barges walked along the Road of Life.


Each of their flights was a feat - enemy aircraft constantly carried out their bandit raids, weather often they were also not to the advantage of the sailors - the barges continued their voyages even late autumn, until the ice appears, when navigation is basically impossible. On November 20, the first horse-drawn sleigh train descended onto the ice of Lake Ladoga.


A little later, trucks started driving along the ice Road of Life. The ice was very thin, despite the fact that the truck was carrying only 2-3 bags of food, the ice broke, and there were frequent cases when trucks sank. At the risk of their lives, the drivers continued their deadly flights until spring.


Military Highway No. 101, as this route was called, made it possible to increase bread rations and evacuate a large number of people. The Germans constantly sought to break this thread connecting the besieged city with the country, but thanks to the courage and fortitude of Leningraders, the Road of Life lived on its own and gave life to the great city.


The significance of the Ladoga highway is enormous; it has saved thousands of lives. Now on the shore of Lake Ladoga there is the Road of Life Museum.
Children's contribution to the liberation of Leningrad from the siege. Ensemble of A.E.Obrant
At all times, there is no greater grief than a suffering child. Siege children are a special topic. Having matured early, not childishly serious and wise, they did their best, along with adults, to bring victory closer. Children are heroes, each fate of which is a bitter echo of those terrible days. Children's dance ensemble A.E. Obranta is a special piercing note of the besieged city.

During the first winter of the siege of Leningrad, many children were evacuated, but despite this, for various reasons, many more children remained in the city. The Palace of Pioneers, located in the famous Anichkov Palace, went under martial law with the beginning of the war.
It must be said that 3 years before the start of the war, a Song and Dance Ensemble was created on the basis of the Palace of Pioneers. At the end of the first blockade winter, the remaining teachers tried to find their students in the besieged city, and from the children remaining in the city, choreographer A.E. Obrant created a dance group.


"Tachanka". Youth ensemble under the direction of A. Obrant
It’s scary to even imagine and compare the terrible days of the siege and pre-war dances! But nevertheless, the ensemble was born. First, the guys had to be restored from exhaustion, only then they were able to start rehearsals. However, already in March 1942 the first performance of the group took place. The soldiers, who had seen a lot, could not hold back their tears looking at these courageous children. Do you remember how long the siege of Leningrad lasted? So, during this considerable time, the ensemble gave about 3,000 concerts.


"Red Navy Dance" Youth ensemble under the direction of A. Obrant
Wherever the guys had to perform: often the concerts had to end in a bomb shelter, since several times during the evening the performances were interrupted by air raid alarms; it happened that young dancers performed several kilometers from the front line, and in order not to attract the enemy with unnecessary noise, they danced without music, and the floors were covered with hay.
Strong in spirit, they supported and inspired our soldiers; the contribution of this team to the liberation of the city can hardly be overestimated. Later, the guys were awarded medals “For the Defense of Leningrad.”
Breaking the blockade of Leningrad
In 1943, a turning point occurred in the war, and at the end of the year, Soviet troops were preparing to liberate the city. On January 14, 1944, during the general offensive of the Soviet troops, the final operation to lift the siege of Leningrad began.


The task was to deliver a crushing blow to the enemy south of Lake Ladoga and restore the land routes connecting the city with the country. By January 27, 1944, the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, with the help of Kronstadt artillery, broke through the blockade of Leningrad. The Nazis began to retreat. Soon the cities of Pushkin, Gatchina and Chudovo were liberated. The blockade was completely lifted.


The Siege of Leningrad is a tragic and great page in Russian history, which claimed more than 2 million human lives. As long as the memory of these terrible days lives in the hearts of people, finds a response in talented works of art, and is passed from hand to hand to descendants, this will not happen again! The blockade of Leningrad was briefly but succinctly described by Vera Inberg, her lines are a hymn to the great city and at the same time a requiem for the departed.

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 a 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 - there was no heating, there was no hot water, and Leningraders began to burn furniture, books, and dismantle wooden buildings for firewood. 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 took part in local units air defense cities. 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, traffic on the winter road was already constant. 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

Siege of Leningrad - military blockade of the city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) by German, Finnish and Spanish (Blue Division) troops with the participation of volunteers from North Africa, Europe and naval forces Italy during the Great Patriotic War. Lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 (the blockade ring was broken on January 18, 1943) - 872 days.

By the beginning of the blockade, the city did not have sufficient supplies of food and fuel. The only route of communication with Leningrad remained Lake Ladoga, which was within the reach of the artillery and aviation of the besiegers; a united enemy naval flotilla was also operating on the lake. Bandwidth this transport artery did not meet the needs of the city. As a result, a massive famine that began in Leningrad, aggravated by the particularly harsh first blockade winter, problems with heating and transport, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths among residents.

After breaking the blockade, the siege of Leningrad by enemy troops and navy continued until September 1944. To force the enemy to lift the siege of the city, in June - August 1944, Soviet troops, with the support of ships and aircraft of the Baltic Fleet, carried out the Vyborg and Svirsk-Petrozavodsk operations, liberated Vyborg on June 20, and Petrozavodsk on June 28. In September 1944, the island of Gogland was liberated.

For mass heroism and courage in defending the Motherland in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, shown by the defenders of besieged Leningrad, according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 8, 1965, the city was awarded the highest degree of distinction - the title of Hero City.

January 27 is the Day of Military Glory of Russia - the Day of the complete lifting of the blockade of the city of Leningrad (1944).

Residents of besieged Leningrad collect water that appeared after artillery shelling in holes in the asphalt on Nevsky Prospekt, photo by B. P. Kudoyarov, December 1941

German attack on the USSR

On December 18, 1940, Hitler signed Directive No. 21, known as Plan Barbarossa. This plan provided for an attack on the USSR by three army groups in three main directions: GA “North” on Leningrad, GA “Center” on Moscow and GA “South” on Kyiv. The capture of Moscow was supposed to take place only after the capture of Leningrad and Kronstadt. Already in Directive No. 32 of June 11, 1941, Hitler defined the end of the “victorious campaign in the East” as the end of autumn.

Leningrad was the second most important city in the USSR with a population of about 3.2 million people. It provided the country with almost a quarter of all heavy engineering products and a third of the electrical industry products; it was home to 333 large industrial enterprises, as well as a large number of factories of local industry and artels. They employed 565 thousand people. Approximately 75% of the output was in the defense complex, which was characterized by a high professional level of engineers and technicians. The scientific and technical potential of Leningrad was very high, where there were 130 research institutes and design bureaus, 60 higher educational institutions and 106 technical schools.

With the capture of Leningrad, the German command could resolve a number of important tasks, namely:

to take possession of the powerful economic base of the Soviet Union, which before the war provided about 12% of the all-Union industrial output;

capture or destroy the Baltic navy, as well as the huge merchant fleet;

secure the left flank of the GA “Center”, which is leading the attack on Moscow, and release large forces of the GA “North”;

consolidate its dominance in the Baltic Sea and secure the supply of ore from Norwegian ports for German industry;

Finland's entry into the war

On June 17, 1941, a decree was issued in Finland on the mobilization of the entire field army, and on June 20, the mobilized army concentrated on the Soviet-Finnish border. Starting from June 21, 1941, Finland began to conduct military operations against the USSR. Also, on June 21-25, naval and military forces operated from the territory of Finland against the USSR. air force Germany. On the morning of June 25, 1941, by order of the Headquarters, the Air Force of the Northern Front, together with the aviation of the Baltic Fleet, launched a massive attack on nineteen (according to other sources - 18) airfields in Finland and Northern Norway. Aircraft from the Finnish Air Force and the German 5th Air Force were based there. On the same day, the Finnish parliament voted for war with the USSR.

On June 29, 1941, Finnish troops crossed the state border and began a ground operation against the USSR.

Entry of enemy troops to Leningrad

On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. In the first 18 days of the offensive, the main strike force of the troops aimed at Leningrad -4th tank group fought over 600 kilometers (at a rate of 30-35 km per day), crossed the Western Dvina and Velikaya rivers. On July 5, Wehrmacht units occupied the city of Ostrov in the Leningrad region. On July 9, Pskov, located 280 kilometers from Leningrad, was occupied. From Pskov, the shortest route to Leningrad is along the Kyiv Highway, passing through Luga.

Already on June 23, the commander of the Leningrad Military District, Lieutenant General M. M. Popov, ordered the start of work to create an additional line of defense in the Pskov direction in the Luga area. On June 25, the Military Council of the Northern Front approved the defense scheme for the southern approaches to Leningrad and ordered construction to begin. Three defensive lines were built: one along the Luga River then to Shimsk; the second - Peterhof - Krasnogvardeysk - Kolpino; the third - from Avtovo to Rybatskoye. On July 4, this decision was confirmed by the Directive of the Headquarters of the High Command signed by G.K. Zhukov.

The Luga defensive line was well prepared in engineering terms: defensive structures were built with a length of 175 kilometers and a total depth of 10-15 kilometers, 570 pillboxes and bunkers, 160 km of scarps, 94 km of anti-tank ditches. Defensive structures were built by the hands of Leningraders, mostly women and teenagers (men went into the army and militia).

On July 12, advanced German units reached the Luga fortified area, where the German offensive was delayed. Reports from German commanders to headquarters:

Gepner's tank group, whose vanguards were exhausted and tired, advanced only slightly in the direction of Leningrad.

The command of the Leningrad Front took advantage of the delay of Gepner, who was waiting for reinforcements, and prepared to meet the enemy, using, among other things, the latest heavy tanks KV-1 and KV-2, just released by the Kirov plant. The German offensive was suspended for several weeks. Enemy troops failed to capture the city on the move. This delay caused sharp dissatisfaction with Hitler, who made a special trip to Army Group North with the aim of preparing a plan for the capture of Leningrad no later than September 1941. In conversations with military leaders, the Fuhrer, in addition to purely military arguments, brought up many political arguments. He believed that the capture of Leningrad would not only provide a military gain (control over all the Baltic coasts and the destruction of the Baltic Fleet), but would also bring huge political dividends. The Soviet Union will lose the city, which, being the cradle of the October Revolution, has a special symbolic meaning for the Soviet state. In addition, Hitler considered it very important not to give the Soviet command the opportunity to withdraw troops from the Leningrad area and use them in other sectors of the front. He hoped to destroy the troops defending the city.

The Nazis regrouped their troops and on August 8, from a previously captured bridgehead near Bolshoy Sabsk, they began an offensive in the direction of Krasnogvardeysk. A few days later, the defense of the Luga fortified area was broken through at Shimsk; on August 15, the enemy took Novgorod, and on August 20, Chudovo. On August 30, German troops captured Mga, cutting the last railway connecting Leningrad with the country.

On June 29, having crossed the border, the Finnish army began military operations against the USSR. On the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns initially showed little activity. A major Finnish offensive towards Leningrad in this sector began on July 31. By the beginning of September, the Finns crossed the old Soviet-Finnish border on the Karelian Isthmus that existed before the signing of the 1940 peace treaty to a depth of 20 km and stopped at the border of the Karelian fortified area. Leningrad's connection with the rest of the country through the territories occupied by Finland was restored in the summer of 1944.

On September 4, 1941, General Jodl, Chief of the Main Staff of the German Armed Forces, was sent to Mannerheim's headquarters in Mikkeli. But he was refused participation of the Finns in the attack on Leningrad. Instead, Mannerheim led a successful offensive in the north of Ladoga, cutting the Kirov railway, the White Sea-Baltic Canal in the area of ​​Lake Onega and the Volga-Baltic route in the area of ​​the Svir River, thereby blocking a number of routes for the supply of goods to Leningrad.

In his memoirs, Mannerheim explains the stop of the Finns on the Karelian Isthmus approximately on the line of the Soviet-Finnish border of 1918-1940 by his own reluctance to attack Leningrad, in particular claiming that he agreed to take the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish troops on the condition that he would not conduct an offensive against cities. On the other hand, this position is disputed by Isaev and N.I. Baryshnikov:

The legend that the Finnish army had only the task of returning what was taken by the Soviet Union in 1940 was later invented retroactively. If on the Karelian Isthmus the crossing of the 1939 border was episodic in nature and was caused by tactical tasks, then between Lakes Ladoga and Onega the old border was crossed along its entire length and to great depth.

Back on September 11, 1941, Finnish President Risto Ryti told the German envoy in Helsinki:

“If St. Petersburg no longer exists as a large city, then the Neva would be the best border on the Karelian Isthmus... Leningrad must be liquidated as a large city.”

At the end of August, the Baltic Fleet approached the city from Tallinn with its 153 main-caliber naval artillery guns, and 207 coastal artillery barrels were also defending the city. The city's sky was protected by the 2nd Air Defense Corps. The highest density of anti-aircraft artillery during the defense of Moscow, Leningrad and Baku was 8-10 times greater than during the defense of Berlin and London.

On September 4, 1941, the city was subjected to the first artillery shelling from the city of Tosno occupied by German troops:

“In September 1941, a small group of officers, on instructions from the command, was driving a semi-truck along Lesnoy Prospekt from the Levashovo airfield. A little ahead of us was a tram crowded with people. He slows down to a stop where there is a large group of people waiting. A shell explodes, and many people fall at a stop, bleeding profusely. The second gap, the third... The tram is smashed to pieces. Heaps of dead. The wounded and maimed, mostly women and children, are scattered on the cobblestone streets, moaning and crying. A blond boy of about seven or eight years old, who miraculously survived at the bus stop, covering his face with both hands, sobs over his murdered mother and repeats: “Mommy, what have they done…”

Autumn 1941

Blitzkrieg attempt failed

On September 6, Hitler signed a directive on preparations for the attack on Moscow, according to which Army Group North, together with Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus, should encircle Soviet troops in the Leningrad area and no later than September 15 transfer to Army Group Center part of its mechanized troops and aviation connections.

On September 8, soldiers of the North group captured the city of Shlisselburg (Petrokrepost), taking control of the source of the Neva and blockading Leningrad from land. From this day the blockade of the city began, which lasted 872 days. All railway, river and road communications were severed. Communication with Leningrad was now maintained only by air and Lake Ladoga. From the north, the city was blocked by Finnish troops, who were stopped by the 23rd Army at the Karelian Ur. Only the only railway connection to the coast of Lake Ladoga from the Finlyandsky Station has been preserved - the “Road of Life”. On the same day, German troops unexpectedly quickly found themselves in the suburbs of the city. German motorcyclists even stopped the tram on the southern outskirts of the city (route No. 28 Stremyannaya St. - Strelna). The total area of ​​Leningrad and its suburbs encircled was about 5,000 km².

The establishment of the city's defense was led by the commander of the Baltic Fleet V.F. Tributs, K.E. Voroshilov and A.A. Zhdanov. On September 13, Zhukov arrived in the city, and assumed command of the front on September 14. Exact date Zhukov's arrival in Leningrad remains a subject of debate to this day and varies between September 9-13. According to G.K. Zhukov,

“Stalin at that moment assessed the situation that had developed near Leningrad as catastrophic. Once he even used the word “hopeless.” He said that, apparently, a few more days would pass, and Leningrad would have to be considered lost.”

On September 4, 1941, the Germans began regular artillery shelling of Leningrad. The local leadership prepared the main factories for the explosion. All ships of the Baltic Fleet were to be scuttled. Trying to stop the unauthorized retreat, Zhukov did not stop at the most brutal measures. He, in particular, issued an order that for unauthorized retreat and abandonment of the defense line around the city, all commanders and soldiers were subject to immediate execution.

“If the Germans were stopped, they achieved this by bleeding them. No one will ever count how many of them were killed in those September days... Zhukov’s iron will stopped the Germans. He was terrible in these days of September."

Von Leeb continued successful operations on the nearest approaches to the city. Its goal was to strengthen the blockade ring and divert the forces of the Leningrad Front from helping the 54th Army, which had begun to relieve the blockade of the city. In the end, the enemy stopped 4-7 km from the city, actually in the suburbs. The front line, that is, the trenches where the soldiers were sitting, was only 4 km from the Kirov Plant and 16 km from the Winter Palace. Despite the proximity of the front, the Kirov plant did not stop working throughout the entire period of the blockade. There was even a tram running from the plant to the front line. It was a regular tram line from the city center to the suburbs, but now it was used to transport soldiers and ammunition.

On September 21-23, in order to destroy the Baltic Fleet located at the base, the German air force carried out massive bombing of ships and facilities at the Kronstadt naval base. Several ships were sunk and damaged, in particular the battleship Marat was seriously damaged, on which more than 300 people died.

The Chief of the German General Staff, Halder, in relation to the battles for Leningrad, wrote the following in his diary on September 18:

“It is doubtful that our troops will be able to advance far if we withdraw the 1st Tank and 36th Motorized Divisions from this area. Considering the need for troops on the Leningrad sector of the front, where the enemy has concentrated large human and material forces and means, the situation here will be tense until our ally, hunger, makes itself felt.”

The beginning of the food crisis

Ideology of the German side

In the directive of the Chief of Staff of the German Navy No. 1601 of September 22, 1941, “The Future of the City of St. Petersburg” (German. Weisung Nr. Ia 1601/41 vom 22. September 1941 “Die Zukunft der Stadt Petersburg”) said:

"2. The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of Leningrad off the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, the continued existence of this largest populated area is of no interest...

4. It is planned to surround the city with a tight ring and, through shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. If, as a result of the situation created in the city, requests for surrender are made, they will be rejected, since the problems associated with the stay of the population in the city and its food supply cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war being waged for the right to exist, we are not interested in preserving even part of the population.”

According to Jodl's testimony during the Nuremberg trials,

“During the siege of Leningrad, Field Marshal von Leeb, commander of Army Group North, reported to the OKW that streams of civilian refugees from Leningrad were seeking refuge in the German trenches and that he had no means of feeding or caring for them. The Fuhrer immediately gave the order (dated October 7, 1941 No. S.123) not to accept refugees and push them back into enemy territory.”

It should be noted that in the same order No. S.123 there was the following clarification:

“...not a single German soldier should enter these cities [Moscow and Leningrad]. Whoever leaves the city against our lines must be driven back by fire.

Small unguarded passages that make it possible for the population to leave individually for evacuation to the interior of Russia should only be welcomed. The population must be forced to flee the city through artillery fire and aerial bombardment. The larger the population of cities fleeing deep into Russia, the greater the chaos the enemy will experience and the easier it will be for us to manage and use the occupied areas. All senior officers must be aware of this desire of the Fuhrer."

German military leaders protested against the order to shoot at civilians and said that the troops would not carry out such an order, but Hitler was adamant.

Changing war tactics

The fighting near Leningrad did not stop, but its character changed. German troops began to destroy the city with massive artillery shelling and bombing. Bombing and artillery attacks were especially strong in October - November 1941. The Germans dropped several thousand incendiary bombs on Leningrad in order to cause massive fires. They paid special attention to the destruction of food warehouses, and they succeeded in this task. So, in particular, on September 10 they managed to bomb the famous Badayevsky warehouses, where there were significant food supplies. The fire was enormous, thousands of tons of food were burned, melted sugar flowed through the city and was absorbed into the ground. However, contrary to popular belief, this bombing could not be the main cause of the ensuing food crisis, since Leningrad, like any other metropolis, is supplied “on wheels”, and the food reserves destroyed along with the warehouses would only last the city for a few days .

Taught by this bitter lesson, city authorities began to devote Special attention masking food supplies, which were now stored only in small quantities. So, famine became the most important factor determining the fate of the population of Leningrad.

The fate of citizens: demographic factors

According to data on January 1, 1941, just under three million people lived in Leningrad. The city was characterized by a higher than usual percentage of the disabled population, including children and the elderly. It was also distinguished by an unfavorable military-strategic position due to its proximity to the border and isolation from raw materials and fuel bases. At the same time, the city medical and sanitary service of Leningrad was one of the best in the country.

Theoretically, the Soviet side could have the option of withdrawing troops and surrendering Leningrad to the enemy without a fight (using the terminology of that time, declare Leningrad " open city", as happened, for example, with Paris). However, if we take into account Hitler’s plans for the future of Leningrad (or, more precisely, the lack of any future for it at all), there is no reason to argue that the fate of the city’s population in the event of capitulation would be better than the fate in the actual conditions of the siege.

The actual start of the blockade

The beginning of the blockade is considered to be September 8, 1941, when the land connection between Leningrad and the entire country was interrupted. However, city residents had lost the opportunity to leave Leningrad two weeks earlier: railway communication was interrupted on August 27, and tens of thousands of people gathered at train stations and in the suburbs, waiting for the opportunity to break through to the east. The situation was further complicated by the fact that since the beginning of the war, Leningrad was flooded with at least 300,000 refugees from the Baltic republics and neighboring Russian regions.

The catastrophic food situation of the city became clear on September 12, when the inspection and accounting of all food supplies were completed. Food cards were introduced in Leningrad on July 17, that is, even before the blockade, but this was done only to restore order in supplies. The city entered the war with the usual supply of food. Food rationing standards were high, and there was no food shortage before the blockade began. The reduction in food distribution standards occurred for the first time on September 15. In addition, on September 1, the free sale of food was prohibited (this measure was in effect until mid-1944). While maintaining the “black market”, the official sale of products in so-called commercial stores market prices stopped.

In October, city residents felt a clear shortage of food, and in November real famine began in Leningrad. First, the first cases of loss of consciousness from hunger on the streets and at work, the first cases of death from exhaustion, and then the first cases of cannibalism were noted. Food supplies were delivered to the city both by air and by water through Lake Ladoga until ice set in. While the ice was thick enough for vehicles to move, there was virtually no traffic through Ladoga. All these transport communications were under constant enemy fire.

Despite the lowest standards for the distribution of bread, death from hunger has not yet become a mass phenomenon, and the bulk of the dead so far have been victims of bombing and artillery shelling.

Winter 1941-1942

Rations for blockade survivors

On the collective and state farms of the blockade ring, everything that could be useful for food was collected from fields and gardens. However, all these measures could not save from hunger. On November 20 - for the fifth time the population and the third time the troops - the norms for the distribution of bread had to be reduced. Warriors on the front line began to receive 500 grams per day; workers - 250 grams; employees, dependents and soldiers not on the front line - 125 grams. And besides bread, almost nothing. Famine began in blockaded Leningrad.

Based on the actual consumption, the availability of basic food products as of September 12 was (the figures are given according to accounting data carried out by the trade department of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, the front commissariat and the KBF):

Bread grain and flour for 35 days

Cereals and pasta for 30 days

Meat and meat products for 33 days

Fats for 45 days

Sugar and confectionery for 60 days

Food standards among the troops defending the city were reduced several times. Thus, from October 2, the daily norm of bread per person in front line units was reduced to 800 grams, for other military and paramilitary units to 600 grams; On November 7, the norm was reduced to 600 and 400 grams, respectively, and on November 20 to 500 and 300 grams, respectively. The norms for other food products from the daily allowance were also cut. For the civilian population, the norms for the supply of goods on food cards, introduced in the city back in July, also decreased due to the blockade of the city, and turned out to be minimal from November 20 to December 25, 1941. The food ration size was:

Workers - 250 grams of bread per day,

Employees, dependents and children under 12 years old - 125 grams each,

Personnel of the paramilitary guards, fire brigades, fighter squads, vocational schools and FZO schools who were on boiler allowance - 300 grams.

Recipes for blockade bread changed depending on what ingredients were available. The need for a special bread recipe arose after a fire at the Badaevsky warehouses, when it turned out that there were only 35 days of raw materials left for bread. In September 1941, bread was prepared from a mixture of rye, oatmeal, barley, soy and malt flour, then flaxseed cake and bran, cotton cake, wallpaper dust, flour broom, and shakes from bags of corn and rye flour were added to this mixture at different times. To enrich the bread with vitamins and beneficial microelements, flour from pine bast, birch branches and wild herb seeds was added. At the beginning of 1942, hydrocellulose was added to the recipe, which was used to add volume. According to the American historian D. Glantz, practically inedible impurities added instead of flour accounted for up to 50% of the bread. All other products almost ceased to be issued: already on September 23, beer production ceased, and all stocks of malt, barley, soybeans and bran were transferred to bakeries in order to reduce flour consumption. As of September 24, 40% of bread consisted of malt, oats and husks, and later cellulose (at various times from 20 to 50%). On December 25, 1941, the standards for issuing bread were increased - the population of Leningrad began to receive 350 g of bread on a work card and 200 g on an employee, child and dependent card; the troops began to issue 600 g of bread per day for field rations, and 400 g for rear rations. From February 10, the norm at the front line increased to 800 g, in other parts - to 600 g. From February 11, new supply standards were introduced for the civilian population: 500 grams of bread for workers, 400 for employees, 300 for children and non-workers. The impurities have almost disappeared from the bread. But the main thing is that supplies have become regular, food rationing has begun to be issued on time and almost completely. On February 16, quality meat was even issued for the first time - frozen beef and lamb. There has been a turning point in the food situation in the city.

date establishing a norm	Workers hot shops	Workers and engineers	Employees	Dependents	Children up to 12 years

Resident notification system. Metronome

In the first months of the blockade, 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the streets of Leningrad. The radio network carried information to the population about raids and air raid warnings. The famous metronome, which went down in the history of the siege of Leningrad as a cultural monument of the population’s resistance, was broadcast during the raids through this network. A fast rhythm meant air raid warning, a slow rhythm meant lights out. Announcer Mikhail Melaned also announced the alarm.

Worsening situation in the city

In November 1941, the situation for the townspeople worsened sharply. Deaths from hunger became widespread. Special funeral services daily picked up about a hundred corpses from the streets alone.

There are countless stories of people collapsing and dying - at home or at work, in shops or on the streets. A resident of the besieged city, Elena Skryabina, wrote in her diary:

“Now they die so simply: first they stop being interested in anything, then they go to bed and never get up again.

“Death rules the city. People die and die. Today, when I walked down the street, a man walked in front of me. He could barely move his legs. Overtaking him, I involuntarily drew attention to the eerie blue face. I thought to myself: he will probably die soon. Here one could really say that the stamp of death lay on the man’s face. After a few steps, I turned around, stopped, and watched him. He sank onto the cabinet, his eyes rolled back, then he slowly began to slide to the ground. When I approached him, he was already dead. People are so weak from hunger that they cannot resist death. They die as if they were falling asleep. And the half-dead people around them do not pay any attention to them. Death has become a phenomenon observed at every step. They got used to it, complete indifference appeared: after all, not today - tomorrow such a fate awaits everyone. When you leave the house in the morning, you come across corpses lying in the gateway on the street. The corpses lie there for a long time because there is no one to clean them up.

D. V. Pavlov, the State Defense Committee’s authorized representative for food supply for Leningrad and the Leningrad Front, writes:

“The period from mid-November 1941 to the end of January 1942 was the most difficult during the blockade. Internal resources by this time they were completely exhausted, and imports through Lake Ladoga were carried out in insignificant quantities. People pinned all their hopes and aspirations on the winter road.”

Despite the low temperatures in the city, part of the water supply network worked, so dozens of water pumps were opened, from which residents of surrounding houses could take water. Most of the Vodokanal workers were transferred to a barracks position, but residents also had to take water from damaged pipes and ice holes.

The number of famine victims grew rapidly - more than 4,000 people died every day in Leningrad, which was a hundred times higher than the mortality rate in peacetime. There were days when 6-7 thousand people died. In December alone, 52,881 people died, while losses in January-February were 199,187 people. Male mortality significantly exceeded female mortality - for every 100 deaths there were an average of 63 men and 37 women. By the end of the war, women made up the bulk of the urban population.

Exposure to cold

Another important factor in the increase in mortality was the cold. With the onset of winter, the city almost ran out of fuel reserves: electricity generation was only 15% of the pre-war level. Centralized heating of houses stopped, water supply and sewage systems froze or were turned off. Work has stopped at almost all factories and plants (except for defense ones). Frequently come to workplace The townspeople were unable to complete their work due to lack of water, heat and energy supplies.

The winter of 1941-1942 turned out to be much colder and longer than usual. The winter of 1941-1942, according to aggregate indicators, is one of the coldest for the entire period of systematic instrumental weather observations in St. Petersburg - Leningrad. The average daily temperature steadily dropped below 0 °C already on October 11, and became steadily positive after April 7, 1942 - the climatic winter amounted to 178 days, that is, half of the year. During this period, there were 14 days with an average daily t > 0 °C, mostly in October, that is, there were practically no thaws usual for Leningrad winter weather. Even in May 1942, there were 4 days with a negative average daily temperature, May 7 Maximum temperature during the day it rose only to +0.9 °C. There was also a lot of snow in winter: the depth of the snow cover by the end of winter was more than half a meter. By maximum height snow cover (53 cm) in April 1942 is the record holder for the entire period of observation, up to 2013 inclusive.

The average monthly temperature in October was +1.4 °C (the average value for the period 1753-1940 is +4.6 °C), which is 3.1 °C below normal. In the middle of the month, frosts reached −6 °C. By the end of the month, snow cover had established itself.

The average temperature in November 1941 was −4.2 °C (the long-term average was −1.1 °C), the temperature ranged from +1.6 to −13.8 °C.

In December, the average monthly temperature dropped to −12.5 °C (with a long-term average for 1753-1940 of −6.2 °C). The temperature ranged from +1.6 to −25.3 °C.

The first month of 1942 was the coldest this winter. The average temperature of the month was −18.7 °C (the average temperature for the period 1753-1940 was −8.8 °C). The frost reached −32.1 °C, the maximum temperature was +0.7 °C. The average snow depth reached 41 cm (the average depth for 1890-1941 was 23 cm).

The February average monthly temperature was −12.4 °C (the long-term average was −8.3 °C), the temperature ranged from −0.6 to −25.2 °C.

March was slightly warmer than February - average t = −11.6 °C (with an average for 1753-1940 t = −4.5 °C). The temperature varied from +3.6 to −29.1 °C in the middle of the month. March 1942 was the coldest in the history of weather observations until 2013.

The average monthly temperature in April was close to average values ​​(+2.4 °C) and amounted to +1.8 °C, while the minimum temperature was −14.4 °C.

In the book “Memoirs” by Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, it is said about the years of the blockade:

“The cold was somehow internal. It permeated everything through and through. The body produced too little heat.

The human mind was the last thing to die. If your arms and legs have already refused to serve you, if your fingers can no longer button the buttons of your coat, if a person no longer has any strength to cover your mouth with a scarf, if the skin around the mouth has become dark, if the face has become like a dead man’s skull with bared front teeth - the brain continued working. People wrote diaries and believed that they would be able to live another day.”

Housing and communal services and transport

In winter, the sewage system did not work in residential buildings; in January 1942, water supply operated in only 85 houses. The main heating means for most inhabited apartments were special small stoves, potbelly stoves. They burned everything that could burn, including furniture and books. Wooden houses were dismantled for firewood. Fuel production has become an important part of the life of Leningraders. Due to a lack of electricity and massive destruction of the contact network, the movement of urban electric transport, primarily trams, ceased. This event was an important factor contributing to the increase in mortality.

According to D.S. Likhachev,

“... when the tram stop added another two to three hours of walking from the place of residence to the place of work and back to the usual daily workload, this led to additional expenditure of calories. Very often people died from sudden cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness and freezing on the way.”

“The candle burned at both ends” - these words expressively characterized the situation of a city resident who lived under conditions of starvation rations and enormous physical and mental stress. In most cases, families did not die out immediately, but one by one, gradually. As long as someone could walk, he brought food using ration cards. The streets were covered with snow, which had not been cleared all winter, so movement along them was very difficult.

Organization of hospitals and canteens for enhanced nutrition.

By decision of the bureau of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Leningrad City Executive Committee, additional medical nutrition was organized at increased standards in special hospitals created at plants and factories, as well as in 105 city canteens. The hospitals operated from January 1 to May 1, 1942 and served 60 thousand people. From the end of April 1942, by decision of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, the network of canteens for enhanced nutrition was expanded. Instead of hospitals, 89 of them were created on the territory of factories, factories and institutions. 64 canteens were organized outside the enterprises. Food in these canteens was provided according to specially approved standards. From April 25 to July 1, 1942, 234 thousand people used them, of which 69% were workers, 18.5% were employees and 12.5% ​​were dependents.

In January 1942, a hospital for scientists and creative workers began operating at the Astoria Hotel. In the dining room of the House of Scientists, from 200 to 300 people ate in the winter months. On December 26, 1941, the Leningrad City Executive Committee ordered the Gastronom office to organize a one-time sale with home delivery at state prices without food cards to academicians and corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences: animal butter - 0.5 kg, wheat flour - 3 kg, canned meat or fish - 2 boxes, sugar 0.5 kg, eggs - 3 dozen, chocolate - 0.3 kg, cookies - 0.5 kg, and grape wine - 2 bottles.

By decision of the city executive committee, new orphanages were opened in the city in January 1942. Over the course of 5 months, 85 orphanages were organized in Leningrad, accepting 30 thousand children left without parents. The command of the Leningrad Front and the city leadership sought to provide orphanages with the necessary food. The resolution of the Front Military Council dated February 7, 1942 approved the following monthly supply standards for orphanages per child: meat - 1.5 kg, fats - 1 kg, eggs - 15 pieces, sugar - 1.5 kg, tea - 10 g, coffee - 30 g , cereals and pasta - 2.2 kg, wheat bread - 9 kg, wheat flour - 0.5 kg, dried fruits - 0.2 kg, potato flour -0.15 kg.

Universities open their own hospitals, where scientists and other university employees could rest for 7-14 days and receive enhanced nutrition, which consisted of 20 g of coffee, 60 g of fat, 40 g of sugar or confectionery, 100 g of meat, 200 g of cereal , 0.5 eggs, 350 g of bread, 50 g of wine per day, and food was issued by cutting out coupons from food cards.

Additional supplies were also organized for the leadership of the city and region. According to surviving evidence, the leadership of Leningrad did not experience difficulties in feeding and heating living quarters. The diaries of party workers of that time preserved the following facts: any food was available in the Smolny canteen: fruits, vegetables, caviar, buns, cakes. Milk and eggs were delivered from a subsidiary farm in the Vsevolozhsk region. In a special rest house, high-quality food and entertainment were available to vacationing representatives of the nomenklatura.

Nikolai Ribkovsky, an instructor in the personnel department of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, was sent to rest in a party sanatorium, where he described his life in his diary:

“For three days now I have been in the hospital of the city party committee. In my opinion, this is simply a seven-day rest home and it is located in one of the pavilions of the now closed rest house of the party activists of the Leningrad organization in Melnichny Ruchey. The situation and the whole order in the hospital are very reminiscent of a closed sanatorium in the city of Pushkin... From the cold, somewhat tired, you stumble into a house with warm cozy rooms, blissfully stretch your legs... Every day meat - lamb, ham, chicken, goose, turkey, sausage; fish - bream, herring, smelt, and fried, both boiled and aspic. Caviar, balyk, cheese, pies, cocoa, coffee, tea, 300 grams of white and the same amount of black bread per day... and to all this, 50 grams of grape wine, good port wine for lunch and dinner. You order food the day before to your liking. Comrades say that the district hospitals are in no way inferior to the City Committee hospital, and at some enterprises there are such hospitals that our hospital pales in comparison.

Ribkovsky wrote: “What’s even better? We eat, drink, walk, sleep, or just laze around listening to the gramophone, exchanging jokes, playing dominoes or playing cards... In a word, we relax!... And in total we pay only 50 rubles for the vouchers.”

In the first half of 1942, hospitals and then canteens with enhanced nutrition played a huge role in the fight against hunger, restoring the strength and health of a significant number of patients, which saved thousands of Leningraders from death. This is evidenced by numerous reviews from the blockade survivors themselves and data from clinics.

In the second half of 1942, to overcome the consequences of the famine, the following were hospitalized: in October - 12,699, in November 14,738 patients in need of enhanced nutrition. On January 1, 1943, 270 thousand Leningraders received increased food supply compared to all-Union standards, another 153 thousand people visited canteens with three meals a day, which became possible thanks to the navigation of 1942, which was more successful than in 1941.

Use of food substitutes

A major role in overcoming the food supply problem was played by the use of food substitutes, the repurposing of old enterprises for their production and the creation of new ones. A certificate from the secretary of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Ya.F. Kapustin, addressed to A.A. Zhdanov, reports on the use of substitutes in the bread, meat, confectionery, dairy, canning industries, and in public catering. For the first time in the USSR, food cellulose, produced at 6 enterprises, was used in the baking industry, which made it possible to increase bread baking by 2,230 tons. Soy flour, intestines, technical albumin obtained from egg white, animal blood plasma, and whey were used as additives in the manufacture of meat products. As a result, an additional 1,360 tons of meat products were produced, including table sausage - 380 tons, jelly 730 tons, albumin sausage - 170 tons and vegetable-blood bread - 80 tons. The dairy industry processed 320 tons of soybeans and 25 tons of cotton cake, which produced an additional 2,617 tons of products, including: soy milk 1,360 tons, soy milk products (yogurt, cottage cheese, cheesecakes, etc.) - 942 tons. A group of scientists from the Forestry Academy under the leadership of V. I. Kalyuzhny developed a technology for producing nutritional yeast made of wood. The technology of preparing vitamin C in the form of an infusion of pine needles was widely used. Until December alone, more than 2 million doses of this vitamin were produced. In public catering, jelly was widely used, which was prepared from plant milk, juices, glycerin and gelatin. Oatmeal waste and cranberry pulp were also used to produce jelly. The city's food industry produced glucose, oxalic acid, carotene, and tannin.

A steam locomotive carries flour along tram rails in besieged Leningrad, 1942

Attempts to break the blockade.

Breakthrough attempt. Bridgehead "Nevsky Piglet"

In the fall of 1941, immediately after the blockade was established, Soviet troops launched two operations to restore Leningrad's land communications with the rest of the country. The offensive was carried out in the area of ​​the so-called “Sinyavinsk-Shlisselburg salient”, the width of which along the southern coast of Lake Ladoga was only 12 km. However, German troops were able to create powerful fortifications. Soviet army suffered heavy losses, but was never able to move forward. The soldiers who broke through the blockade ring from Leningrad were severely exhausted.

The main battles were fought on the so-called “Neva patch” - a narrow strip of land 500-800 meters wide and about 2.5-3.0 km long (this is according to the memoirs of I. G. Svyatov) on the left bank of the Neva, held by the troops of the Leningrad Front . The entire area was under fire from the enemy, and Soviet troops, constantly trying to expand this bridgehead, suffered heavy losses. However, surrendering the patch would mean crossing the full-flowing Neva again, and the task of breaking the blockade would become much more difficult. In total, about 50,000 Soviet soldiers died on the Nevsky Piglet between 1941 and 1943.

At the beginning of 1942, the high Soviet command, inspired by the success of the Tikhvin offensive operation, decided to attempt the complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade with the help of the Volkhov Front, with the support of the Leningrad Front. However, the Lyuban operation, which initially had strategic objectives, developed with great difficulty, and ultimately ended in the encirclement and defeat of the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front. In August - September 1942, Soviet troops made another attempt to break the blockade. Although the Sinyavinsk operation did not achieve its goals, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts managed to thwart the German command’s plan to capture Leningrad under the code name “ Northern lights"(German: Nordlicht).

Thus, during 1941-1942, several attempts were made to break the blockade, but all of them were unsuccessful. The area between Lake Ladoga and the village of Mga, in which the distance between the lines of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts was only 12-16 kilometers (the so-called “Sinyavin-Shlisselburg ledge”), continued to be firmly held by units of the 18th Army of the Wehrmacht.

Spring-summer 1942

Partisan convoy for besieged Leningrad

On March 29, 1942, a partisan convoy with food for the city residents arrived in Leningrad from the Pskov and Novgorod regions. The event was of great inspiring significance and demonstrated the inability of the enemy to control the rear of his troops, and the possibility of releasing the city by the regular Red Army, since the partisans managed to do this.

Organization of subsidiary farms

On March 19, 1942, the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council adopted a regulation “On personal consumer gardens of workers and their associations,” providing for the development of personal consumer gardening both in the city itself and in the suburbs. In addition to individual gardening itself, subsidiary farms were created at enterprises. For this purpose, vacant plots of land adjacent to enterprises were cleared, and employees of enterprises, according to lists approved by the heads of enterprises, were provided with plots of 2-3 acres for personal gardens. Subsidiary farms were guarded around the clock by enterprise personnel. Vegetable garden owners were provided with assistance in purchasing seedlings and using them economically. Thus, when planting potatoes, only small parts of the fruit with a sprouted “eye” were used.

In addition, the Leningrad City Executive Committee obliged some enterprises to provide residents with the necessary equipment, as well as to issue manuals on agriculture (“Agricultural rules for individual vegetable growing”, articles in Leningradskaya Pravda, etc.).

In total, in the spring of 1942, 633 subsidiary farms and 1,468 associations of gardeners were created; the total gross harvest from state farms, individual gardening and subsidiary plots for 1942 amounted to 77 thousand tons.

Decrease in mortality

In the spring of 1942, due to warming and improved nutrition, the number of sudden deaths on the streets of the city. So, if in February about 7,000 corpses were picked up on the streets of the city, then in April - approximately 600, and in May - 50 corpses. With a pre-war mortality rate of 3,000 people, in January-February 1942, approximately 130,000 people died monthly in the city, in March 100,000 people died, in May - 50,000 people, in July - 25,000 people, in September - 7,000 people. In total, according to the latest research, approximately 780,000 Leningraders died during the first, most difficult year of the siege.

In March 1942, the entire working population came out to clear the city of garbage. In April-May 1942, there was a further improvement in the living conditions of the population: the restoration of public utilities began. Many businesses have resumed operations.

Restoring urban public transport

On December 8, 1941, Lenenergo stopped supplying electricity and partial redemption of traction substations occurred. The next day, by decision of the city executive committee, eight tram routes were abolished. Subsequently, individual carriages still moved along the Leningrad streets, finally stopping on January 3, 1942 after the power supply completely stopped. 52 trains stood still on the snow-covered streets. Snow-covered trolleybuses stood on the streets all winter. More than 60 cars were crashed, burned or seriously damaged. In the spring of 1942, city authorities ordered the removal of cars from highways. The trolleybuses could not move under their own power; they had to organize towing.

On March 8, power was supplied to the network for the first time. The restoration of the city's tram service began, and a freight tram was launched. On April 15, 1942, power was given to the central substations and a regular passenger tram was launched. To reopen freight and passenger traffic, it was necessary to restore approximately 150 km of the contact network - about half of the entire network in operation at that time. The launch of the trolleybus in the spring of 1942 was considered inappropriate by the city authorities.

Official statistics

1942-1943

1942 Intensification of shelling. Counter-battery combat

In April - May, the German command, during Operation Aisstoss, unsuccessfully tried to destroy the ships of the Baltic Fleet stationed on the Neva.

By the summer, the leadership of Nazi Germany decided to intensify military operations on the Leningrad Front, and first of all, to intensify artillery shelling and bombing of the city.

New ones were deployed around Leningrad artillery batteries. In particular, super-heavy guns were deployed on railway platforms. They fired shells at distances of 13, 22 and even 28 km. The weight of the shells reached 800-900 kg. The Germans drew up a map of the city and identified several thousand of the most important targets, which were fired upon daily.

At this time, Leningrad turned into a powerful fortified area. 110 large defense centers were created, many thousands of kilometers of trenches, communication passages and other engineering structures were equipped. This created the opportunity to secretly regroup troops, withdraw soldiers from the front line, and bring up reserves. As a result, the number of losses of our troops from shell fragments and enemy snipers has sharply decreased. Reconnaissance and camouflage of positions were established. A counter-battery fight against enemy siege artillery is organized. As a result, the intensity of shelling of Leningrad by enemy artillery decreased significantly. For these purposes, the naval artillery of the Baltic Fleet was skillfully used. The positions of the heavy artillery of the Leningrad Front were moved forward, part of it was transferred across the Gulf of Finland to the Oranienbaum bridgehead, which made it possible to increase the firing range, both to the flank and rear of enemy artillery groups. Special spotter aircraft and observation balloons were allocated. Thanks to these measures, in 1943 the number of artillery shells that fell on the city decreased by approximately 7 times.

1943 Breaking the blockade

On January 12, after artillery preparation, which began at 9:30 a.m. and lasted 2:10 a.m., at 11 a.m. the 67th Army of the Leningrad Front and the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front went on the offensive and by the end of the day had advanced three kilometers towards each other. friend from the east and west. Despite the stubborn resistance of the enemy, by the end of January 13, the distance between the armies was reduced to 5-6 kilometers, and on January 14 - to two kilometers. The enemy command, trying to hold Workers' Villages No. 1 and 5 and strongholds on the flanks of the breakthrough at any cost, hastily transferred its reserves, as well as units and subunits from other sectors of the front. The enemy group, located to the north of the villages, unsuccessfully tried several times to break through the narrow neck to the south to its main forces.

On January 18, troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts united in the area of ​​Workers' settlements No. 1 and 5. On the same day, Shlisselburg was liberated and the entire southern coast of Lake Ladoga was cleared of the enemy. A corridor 8-11 kilometers wide, cut along the coast, restored the land connection between Leningrad and the country. In seventeen days, a road and a railway (the so-called “Victory Road”) were built along the coast. Subsequently, the troops of the 67th and 2nd Shock armies tried to continue the offensive in south direction, but unsuccessfully. The enemy continuously transferred fresh forces to the Sinyavino area: from January 19 to 30, five divisions and a large amount of artillery were brought up. To exclude the possibility of the enemy reaching Lake Ladoga again, the troops of the 67th and 2nd Shock Armies went on the defensive. By the time the blockade was broken, about 800 thousand civilians remained in the city. Many of these people were evacuated to the rear during 1943.

Food factories began to gradually switch to peacetime products. It is known, for example, that already in 1943, the Confectionery Factory named after N.K. Krupskaya produced three tons of sweets of the well-known Leningrad brand “Mishka in the North”.

After breaking through the blockade ring in the Shlisselburg area, the enemy, nevertheless, seriously strengthened the lines on the southern approaches to the city. The depth of the German defense lines in the area of ​​the Oranienbaum bridgehead reached 20 km.

Jubilant Leningrad. The blockade is lifted, 1944

1944 Complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade

Main articles: Operation "January Thunder", Novgorod-Luga offensive operation

On January 14, troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts began the Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation. Already by January 20, Soviet troops achieved significant successes: formations of the Leningrad Front defeated the enemy’s Krasnoselsko-Ropshin group, and units of the Volkhov Front liberated Novgorod. This allowed L. A. Govorov and A. A. Zhdanov to appeal to J. V. Stalin on January 21:

In connection with the complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade and from enemy artillery shelling, we ask for permission:

2. In honor of the victory, fire a salute with twenty-four artillery salvoes from three hundred and twenty-four guns in Leningrad on January 27 this year at 20.00.

J.V. Stalin granted the request of the command of the Leningrad Front and on January 27, a fireworks display was fired in Leningrad to commemorate the final liberation of the city from the siege, which lasted 872 days. The order to the victorious troops of the Leningrad Front, contrary to the established order, was signed by L. A. Govorov, and not Stalin. Not a single front commander was awarded such a privilege during the Great Patriotic War.

Evacuation of residents

The situation at the beginning of the blockade

The evacuation of city residents began already on June 29, 1941 (the first trains) and was of an organized nature. At the end of June, the City Evacuation Commission was created. Explanatory work began among the population about the need to leave Leningrad, since many residents did not want to leave their homes. Before the German attack on the USSR, there were no pre-developed plans for the evacuation of the population of Leningrad. The possibility of the Germans reaching the city was considered minimal.

First wave of evacuation

The very first stage of the evacuation lasted from June 29 to August 27, when Wehrmacht units captured the railway connecting Leningrad with the regions lying to the east of it. This period was characterized by two features:

Reluctance of residents to leave the city;

Many children from Leningrad were evacuated to areas of the Leningrad region. This subsequently led to 175,000 children being returned back to Leningrad.

During this period, 488,703 people were taken out of the city, of which 219,691 were children (395,091 were taken out, but subsequently 175,000 were returned) and 164,320 workers and employees were evacuated along with enterprises.

Second wave of evacuation

In the second period, evacuation was carried out in three ways:

evacuation across Lake Ladoga by water transport to Novaya Ladoga, and then to Volkhovstroy station by road transport;

evacuation by air;

evacuation along the ice road across Lake Ladoga.

During this period, 33,479 people were transported by water transport (of which 14,854 were not from the Leningrad population), by aviation - 35,114 (of which 16,956 were from non-Leningrad population), by march through Lake Ladoga and by unorganized motor transport from the end of December 1941 until January 22, 1942 - 36,118 people (population not from Leningrad), from January 22 to April 15, 1942 along the “Road of Life” - 554,186 people.

In total, during the second evacuation period - from September 1941 to April 1942 - about 659 thousand people were taken out of the city, mainly along the “Road of Life” across Lake Ladoga.

Third wave of evacuation

From May to October 1942, 403 thousand people were taken out. In total, 1.5 million people were evacuated from the city during the blockade. By October 1942, the evacuation was completed.

Consequences

Consequences for evacuees

Some of the exhausted people taken from the city could not be saved. Several thousand people died from the effects of starvation after they were transported to the " Mainland" Doctors did not immediately learn how to care for starving people. There were cases when they died after receiving a large amount of high-quality food, which turned out to be essentially poison for the exhausted body. At the same time, there could have been much more casualties if the local authorities of the regions where the evacuees were accommodated had not made extraordinary efforts to provide Leningraders with food and qualified medical care.

Many evacuees were unable to return home to Leningrad after the war. They settled permanently on the “Mainland”. For a long time the city was closed. To return, a “call” from relatives was needed. Most of the survivors had no relatives. Those who returned after the “opening” of Leningrad were unable to get into their apartments; other people arbitrarily occupied the housing of the siege survivors.

Implications for city leadership

The blockade became a brutal test for all city services and departments that ensured the functioning of the huge city. Leningrad provided a unique experience in organizing life in conditions of famine. The following fact is noteworthy: during the blockade, unlike many other cases of mass famine, no major epidemics occurred, despite the fact that hygiene in was in the city, of course, much lower normal level due to the almost complete lack of running water, sewerage and heating. Of course, the harsh winter of 1941-1942 helped prevent epidemics. At the same time, researchers also point to effective preventive measures taken by the authorities and medical services.

“The most difficult thing during the blockade was hunger, as a result of which the residents developed dystrophy. At the end of March 1942, an epidemic of cholera, typhoid fever, and typhus broke out, but due to the professionalism and high qualifications of doctors, the outbreak was kept to a minimum.”

City supply

After Leningrad was cut off from all land supply lines with the rest of the country, the delivery of goods to the city was organized along Lake Ladoga - to its western coast, controlled by the besieged troops of the Leningrad Front. From there, cargo was delivered directly to Leningrad via the Irinovskaya Railway. During clean water supply was carried out by water transport; during the freeze-up period, a horse-drawn road operated across the lake. Since February 1943, the railway built through the coast of Ladoga, liberated during the breaking of the blockade, began to be used to supply Leningrad.

Cargo delivery was also carried out by air. Before the full operation of the ice route began, air supply to the city accounted for a significant part of the total cargo flow. The leadership of the Leningrad Front and the city leadership took organizational measures to establish mass air transportation to the besieged city from the beginning of September. To establish air communications between the city and the country, on September 13, 1941, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front adopted a resolution “On the organization of air transport communications between Moscow and Leningrad.” On September 20, 1941, the State Defense Committee adopted a resolution “On the organization of air transport communications between Moscow and Leningrad,” according to which it was planned to deliver 100 tons of cargo to the city daily and evacuate 1000 people. The Special Northern Air Group of the Civil Fleet, based in Leningrad, and the Special Baltic Aviation Detachment included in it, began to be used for transportation. Three squadrons of the Moscow Air Group also stood out special purpose(MAGON) consisting of 30 Li-2 aircraft, which made their first flight to Leningrad on September 16. Later, the number of units involved in air supply was increased, and heavy bombers were also used for transportation. It was chosen as the main rear base, where cargo was delivered by rail and from where it was distributed to the nearest airfields for shipment to Leningrad. locality Coniferous in the east of the Leningrad region. The Komendantsky airfield and the Smolnoye airfield under construction were chosen to receive aircraft in Leningrad. Air transport cover was provided by three fighter regiments. Initially, the bulk of cargo consisted of industrial and military products, and from November food products became the basis of transportation to Leningrad. On November 9, the State Defense Committee issued a decree on the allocation of aviation for the delivery of goods to Leningrad. It ordered the allocation of 24 more aircraft of this model to the 26 PS-84 aircraft operating on the line and 10 TB-3 for a period of 5 days. For a five-day period, the cargo delivery rate was set at 200 tons per day, including: 135 tons of concentrates millet porridge and pea soup, 20 tons of smoked meats, 20 tons of fats and 10 tons of milk powder and egg powder. On November 21, the maximum weight of cargo was delivered to the city - 214 tons. From September to December, more than 5 thousand tons of food were delivered to Leningrad by air and 50 thousand people were taken out, of which more than 13 thousand were military personnel of units transferred to Tikhvin.

Results of the blockade

Population losses

As the American political philosopher Michael Walzer notes, “more civilians died in the siege of Leningrad than in the inferno of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.”

During the years of the blockade, according to various sources, from 600 thousand to 1.5 million people died. So, at the Nuremberg trials the number of 632 thousand people appeared. Only 3% of them died from bombing and shelling; the remaining 97% died of starvation.

Due to the famine, there were cases of murders for the purpose of cannibalism in the city. So in December 1941, they were brought to justice for similar crimes. criminal liability 26 people, in January 1942 - 336 people, in two weeks of February 494 people.

Most of the Leningrad residents who died during the siege are buried at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, located in the Kalininsky district. The area of ​​the cemetery is 26 hectares, the length of the walls is 150 m with a height of 4.5 m. The lines of the writer Olga Berggolts, who survived the siege, are carved on the stones. In a long row of graves lie the victims of the siege, the number of whom in this cemetery alone is approximately 500 thousand people.

Also, the bodies of many dead Leningraders were cremated in the ovens of a brick factory located on the territory of what is now Moscow Victory Park. A chapel was built on the territory of the park and the “Trolley” monument was erected - one of the most terrible monuments in St. Petersburg. On such trolleys, the ashes of the dead were transported to nearby quarries after burning in the factory furnaces.

Serafimovskoye Cemetery was also the site of mass burials of Leningraders who died and died during the siege of Leningrad. In 1941-1944, more than 100 thousand people were buried here. The dead were buried in almost all cemeteries in the city (Volkovsky, Krasnenkoy and others). During the battle for Leningrad, more people died than England and the United States lost during the entire war.

Title of Hero City

By order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of May 1, 1945, Leningrad, along with Stalingrad, Sevastopol and Odessa, was named a hero city for the heroism and courage shown by the city's residents during the siege. On May 8, 1965, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Hero City Leningrad was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

Sailors of the Baltic Fleet with the little girl Lyusya, whose parents died during the blockade. Leningrad, May 1, 1943.

Damage to cultural monuments

Enormous damage was caused to historical buildings and monuments of Leningrad. It could have been even larger if very effective measures had not been taken to disguise them. The most valuable monuments, for example, the monument to Peter I and the monument to Lenin at the Finlyandsky Station, were hidden under sandbags and plywood shields.

But the greatest, irreparable damage was caused to historical buildings and monuments located both in the German-occupied suburbs of Leningrad and in the immediate vicinity of the front. Thanks to the dedicated work of the staff, a significant amount of storage items were saved. However, buildings and green spaces that were not subject to evacuation, directly on the territory of which the fighting took place, were extremely damaged. The Pavlovsk Palace was destroyed and burned down, in the park of which about 70,000 trees were cut down. The famous Amber Room, given to Peter I by the King of Prussia, was completely taken away by the Germans.

The now restored Fedorovsky Sovereign Cathedral has been turned into ruins, in which there was a hole in the wall facing the city across the entire height of the building. Also, during the retreat of the Germans, the Great Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, in which the Germans had built an infirmary, burned down.

The almost complete destruction of the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Primorsky Hermitage, considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, where many St. Petersburg residents were buried, whose names went down in the history of the state, turned out to be irreplaceable for the historical memory of the people.

Social aspects of life during the siege

Institute of Plant Science Foundation

In Leningrad there was the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, which had and still has a gigantic seed fund. Of the entire selection fund of the Leningrad Institute, which contained several tons of unique grain crops, not a single grain was touched. 28 employees of the institute died of hunger, but preserved materials that could help the post-war restoration of agriculture.

Tanya Savicheva

Tanya Savicheva lived with a Leningrad family. The war began, then the blockade. Before Tanya’s eyes, her grandmother, two uncles, mother, brother and sister died. When the evacuation of children began, the girl was taken along the “Road of Life” to the “Mainland”. Doctors fought for her life, but medical help came too late. Tanya Savicheva died from exhaustion and illness.

Easter in a besieged city

During the blockade, services were performed in 10 churches, the largest of which were St. Nicholas Cathedral and Prince Vladimir Cathedral, which belonged to Patriarchal Church, and the renovationist Transfiguration Cathedral. In 1942, Easter was very early (March 22, old style). The entire day of April 4, 1942, the city was shelled, intermittently. On Easter night from April 4 to 5, the city was subjected to a brutal bombing, in which 132 aircraft took part.

“At about seven o’clock in the evening, frantic anti-aircraft fire erupted, merging into one continuous chaos. The Germans were flying low, surrounded by dense ridges of black and white explosions... At night, from approximately two to four, there was another raid, many planes, frantic anti-aircraft fire. The land mines, they say, were dropped both in the evening and at night, where exactly - no one knows for sure (it seems, the Marti plant). Many today are in terrible panic from the raids, as if they should not have happened at all.

Easter matins were held in churches amid the roar of exploding shells and breaking glass.

“The priest “blessed the Easter cakes.” It was touching. Women walked with slices of black bread and candles, and the priest sprinkled them with holy water.

Metropolitan Alexy (Simansky) emphasized in his Easter message that April 5, 1942 marked the 700th anniversary of the Battle of the Ice, in which Alexander Nevsky defeated the German army.

"The Dangerous Side of the Street"

During the siege in Leningrad there was no area that an enemy shell could not reach. Areas and streets were identified where the risk of becoming a victim of enemy artillery was greatest. Special warning signs were placed there with, for example, the text: “Citizens! During shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous.” Several inscriptions have been recreated in the city to commemorate the siege.

From a letter from KGIOP

According to the information available to the KGIOP, no authentic wartime warning signs have been preserved in St. Petersburg. The existing memorial inscriptions were recreated in the 1960-1970s. as a tribute to the heroism of Leningraders.

Cultural life of besieged Leningrad

In the city, despite the blockade, cultural and intellectual life continued. In the summer of 1942, some educational institutions, theaters and cinemas were opened; There were even several jazz concerts. During the first winter of the siege, several theaters and libraries continued to operate - in particular, the State Public Library and the Library of the Academy of Sciences were open throughout the entire period of the siege. Leningrad Radio did not interrupt its work. In August 1942, the city Philharmonic was reopened, where classical music began to be performed regularly. During the first concert on August 9 at the Philharmonic, the orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee under the direction of Carl Eliasberg performed for the first time the famous Leningrad Heroic Symphony of Dmitry Shostakovich, which became the musical symbol of the siege. Throughout the blockade, existing churches remained in operation in Leningrad.

Genocide of Jews in Pushkin and other cities of the Leningrad region

The Nazi policy of extermination of Jews also affected the occupied suburbs of besieged Leningrad. Thus, almost the entire Jewish population of the city of Pushkin was destroyed. One of the punitive centers was located in Gatchina:

Gatchina was captured by German troops a few days before Pushkin. Special Sonder Detachments and Einsatzgruppe A were stationed there, and from then on it became the center of punitive agencies operating in the immediate vicinity. The central concentration camp was located in Gatchina itself, and several other camps - in Rozhdestveno, Vyritsa, Torfyan - were mainly transit points. The camp in Gatchina was intended for prisoners of war, Jews, Bolsheviks and suspicious persons detained by the German police

Holocaust in Pushkin.

The Scientists' Case

In 1941-42, during the blockade, the Leningrad NKVD department arrested from 200 to 300 employees of Leningrad higher educational institutions and members of their families on charges of carrying out “anti-Soviet, counter-revolutionary, treasonous activities.” Based on the results of several trials, the Military Tribunal of the troops of the Leningrad Front and the NKVD troops of the Leningrad District were sentenced to death penalty 32 highly qualified specialists (four were shot, the rest were sentenced to various terms of forced labor camps), many of the arrested scientists died in investigative prisons and camps. In 1954-55, the convicts were rehabilitated, and a criminal case was opened against the NKVD officers.

Soviet Navy (RKKF) in the defense of Leningrad

A special role in the defense of the city, breaking the Siege of Leningrad and ensuring the existence of the city under blockade conditions was played by the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (KBF; commander - Admiral V.F. Tributs), the Ladoga Military Flotilla (formed on June 25, 1941, disbanded on November 4, 1944; commanders : Baranovsky V.P., Zemlyanichenko S.V., Trainin P.A., Bogolepov V.P., Khoroshkhin B.V. - in June - October 1941, Cherokov V.S. - from October 13, 1941) , cadets of naval schools (separate cadet brigade of the Leningrad Military Medical School, commander Rear Admiral Ramishvili). Also, at various stages of the battle for Leningrad, the Peipus and Ilmen military flotillas were created.

At the very beginning of the war, the Naval Defense of Leningrad and the Lake Region (MOLiOR) was created. On August 30, 1941, the Military Council of the North-Western Direction determined:

“The main task of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet is to actively defend the approaches to Leningrad from the sea and prevent the naval enemy from bypassing the flanks of the Red Army on the southern and northern shores of the Gulf of Finland.”

On October 1, 1941, MOLiOR was reorganized into the Leningrad Naval Base (Admiral Yu. A. Panteleev).

The actions of the fleet turned out to be useful during the retreat in 1941, defense and attempts to break the Blockade in 1941-1943, breaking through and lifting the Blockade in 1943-1944.

Ground support operations

Areas of activity of the fleet that were important at all stages of the Battle of Leningrad:

Marines

Personnel brigades (1st, 2nd brigades) took part in battles on land Marine Corps and units of sailors (3, 4, 5, 6 brigades formed the Training Detachment, Main Base, Crew) from ships laid up in Kronstadt and Leningrad. In a number of cases, key areas - especially on the coast - were heroically defended by unprepared and small naval garrisons (defense of the Oreshek fortress). Marine units and infantry units formed from sailors proved themselves in breaking through and lifting the Blockade. In total, from the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in 1941, 68,644 people were transferred to the Red Army for operations on land fronts, in 1942 - 34,575, in 1943 - 6,786, not counting parts of the marine corps that were part of the fleet or temporarily transferred to the subordination of military commands.

180 mm gun on a railway transporter

Naval and coastal artillery

Naval and coastal artillery (345 guns with a caliber of 100-406 mm, more than 400 guns were deployed when necessary) effectively suppressed enemy batteries, helped repel ground attacks, and supported the offensive of the troops. The naval artillery provided extremely important artillery support in breaking the Blockade, destroying 11 fortification units, the enemy's railway train, as well as suppressing a significant number of its batteries and partially destroying a tank column. From September 1941 to January 1943, naval artillery opened fire 26,614 times, expending 371,080 shells of 100-406 mm caliber, with up to 60% of the shells spent on counter-battery warfare.

Fleet Aviation

The fleet's bomber and fighter aviation operated successfully. In addition, in August 1941, a separate air group (126 aircraft) was formed from units of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet Air Force, operationally subordinate to the front. During the breakthrough of the Blockade, more than 30% of the aircraft used belonged to the navy. During the defense of the city, more than 100 thousand sorties were flown, of which about 40 thousand were to support ground forces.

Operations in the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga

In addition to the role of the fleet in battles on land, it is worth noting its direct activities in the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga, which also influenced the course of battles in the land theater of operations:

"The road of life"

The fleet ensured the functioning of the “Road of Life” and water communication with the Ladoga military flotilla. During the autumn navigation of 1941, 60 thousand tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad, including 45 thousand tons of food; More than 30 thousand people were evacuated from the city; 20 thousand Red Army soldiers, Red Navy men and commanders were transported from Osinovets to the eastern shore of the lake. During the navigation of 1942 (May 20, 1942 - January 8, 1943), 790 thousand tons of cargo were delivered to the city (almost half of the cargo was food), 540 thousand people and 310 thousand tons of cargo were taken out of Leningrad. During the navigation of 1943, 208 thousand tons of cargo and 93 thousand people were transported to Leningrad.

Naval mine blockade

From 1942 to 1944, the Baltic Fleet was locked within the Neva Bay. His military operations were hampered by a minefield, where even before the declaration of war the Germans secretly placed 1060 anchor contact mines and 160 bottom non-contact mines, including to the northwest of the island of Naissaar, and a month later their number increased 10 times (about 10,000 mines) , both our own and German. The operation of submarines was also hampered by mined anti-submarine nets. After they lost several boats, their operations were also discontinued. As a result, the fleet carried out operations on the enemy’s sea and lake communications mainly with the help of submarines, torpedo boats, and aircraft.

After the blockade was completely lifted, minesweeping became possible, where, under the terms of the truce, Finnish minesweepers also participated. Since January 1944, a course was set to clean up the Bolshoy Korabelny fairway, then the main outlet to the Baltic Sea.

On June 5, 1946, the Hydrographic Department of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet issued Notice to Mariners No. 286, which announced the opening of navigation in daylight hours days along the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki fairway, which by that time had already been cleared of mines and had access to the Baltic Sea. By decree of the government of St. Petersburg, since 2005, this day is considered an official city holiday and is known as the Day of Breaking the Naval Mine Blockade of Leningrad. Combat trawling did not end there and continued until 1957, and all Estonian waters became open for navigation and fishing only in 1963.

Evacuation

The fleet evacuated bases and isolated groups of Soviet troops. In particular - evacuation from Tallinn to Kronstadt on August 28-30, from Hanko to Kronstadt and Leningrad on October 26 - December 2, from the north-west region. coast of Lake Ladoga to Shlisselburg and Osinovets July 15-27, from the island. Valaam to Osinovets on September 17-20, from Primorsk to Kronstadt on September 1-2, 1941, from the islands of the Bjork archipelago to Kronstadt on November 1, from the islands of Gogland, Bolshoi Tyuters, etc. October 29 - November 6, 1941. This made it possible to preserve personnel - up to 170 thousand people - and some military equipment, partially remove the civilian population, strengthen the troops defending Leningrad. Due to the unpreparedness of the evacuation plan, errors in determining convoy routes, lack of air cover and preliminary trawling, due to the action of enemy aircraft and the loss of ships in friendly and German minefields, there were heavy losses.

Landing operations

During the battle for the city, landing operations were carried out, some of which ended tragically, for example, the Peterhof landing, the Strelna landing. In 1941, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga Flotilla landed 15 troops, in 1942 - 2, in 1944 - 15. Of the attempts to prevent enemy landing operations, the most famous are the destruction of the German-Finnish flotilla and the repulsion of the landing during the battle for the island. Dry in Lake Ladoga on October 22, 1942.

Memory

For their services during the defense of Leningrad and the Great Patriotic War, a total of 66 formations, ships and units of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga Flotilla were awarded government awards and distinctions during the war. At the same time, the irretrievable losses of Red Banner Baltic Fleet personnel during the war amounted to 55,890 people, the bulk of which occurred during the defense of Leningrad.

On August 1-2, 1969, Komsomol members of the Smolninsky Republic Committee of the Komsomol installed a memorial plaque with text from the notes of the defense commander to the artillery sailors who defended the “Road of Life” on Sukho Island.

"... 4 o'clock strong hand-to-hand combat. The battery is being bombed by planes. Out of 70 of us, 13 remained, 32 were wounded, the rest fell. 3 guns, fired 120 shots each. Of the 30 pennants, 16 barges were sunk and 1 was captured. They killed a lot of fascists...

For minesweepers

Losses of minesweepers during the Second World War:

were blown up by mines - 35

torpedoed by submarines - 5

from air bombs - 4

from artillery fire -

In total - 53 minesweepers. To perpetuate the memory of the dead ships, the sailors of the Baltic Fleet trawling brigade made memorial plaques and installed them in the Mine Harbor of Tallinn on the pedestal of the monument. Before the ships left Mine Harbor in 1994, the boards were removed and transported to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

May 9, 1990 at the Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. S. M. Kirov, a memorial stele was unveiled, installed at the site where the 8th division of boat minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet was based during the blockade. In this place, every May 9 (since 2006, every June 5) veteran minesweepers meet and from a boat lower a wreath of memory to the fallen into the waters of the Middle Nevka.

In 1942-1944, the 8th division of minesweeper boats of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet was based at this place in 1942-1944, courageously defending the city of Lenin

Inscription on the stele.

On June 2, 2006, a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the breaking of the naval mine blockade was held at the St. Petersburg Naval Institute - Peter the Great Naval Corps. The meeting was attended by cadets, officers, teachers of the institute and veterans of combat minesweeping of 1941-1957.

On June 5, 2006, in the Gulf of Finland, the meridian of the lighthouse of the island of Moshchny (formerly Lavensaari), by order of the commander of the Baltic Fleet, was declared a memorial place of “glorious victories and deaths of ships of the Baltic Fleet.” When crossing this meridian, Russian warships, in accordance with the Ship's Regulations, render military honors “in memory of the minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet and their crews who died while sweeping minefields in 1941-1957.”

In November 2006, a marble plaque “GLORY TO THE MINERS OF THE RUSSIAN FLEET” was installed in the courtyard of the Peter the Great Naval Corps.

June 5, 2008 at the pier on the Middle Nevka in the Central Park of Culture and Culture named after. S. M. Kirov, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the stele “To the Sailors of Minesweepers”.

June 5 is a memorable date, the Day of breaking the naval mine blockade of Leningrad. On this day in 1946, boats 8 DKTSH, together with other minesweepers of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, completed clearing mines from the Great Ship Fairway, opening a direct route from the Baltic to Leningrad.

Inscription on memorial plaque installed on the stele.

Memory

Dates

Blockade awards and memorial signs

Main articles: Medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”, Badge “To a Resident of Besieged Leningrad”

The obverse of the medal depicts the outline of the Admiralty and a group of soldiers with rifles at the ready. Along the perimeter is the inscription “For the Defense of Leningrad.” On the reverse side of the medal there is a hammer and sickle. Below them is the text in capital letters: “For our Soviet Motherland.” As of 1985, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” was awarded to about 1,470,000 people. Among those awarded are 15 thousand children and teenagers.

The memorial sign “Resident of besieged Leningrad” was established by the decision of the Leningrad City Executive Committee “On the establishment of the sign “Resident of besieged Leningrad” No. 5 dated January 23, 1989. On the front side there is an image of a torn ring against the background of the Main Admiralty, a tongue of flame, a laurel branch and the inscription “900 days - 900 nights"; on the reverse there is a hammer and sickle and the inscription "To a resident of besieged Leningrad." As of 2006, there were 217 thousand people living in Russia who were awarded the badge "To a resident of besieged Leningrad." It should be noted that the memorial sign and the status of a resident of besieged Leningrad Not all those born during the siege were received, since the mentioned decision limits the period of stay in the besieged city required to receive them to four months.

By Decree of the Government of St. Petersburg No. 799 of October 16, 2013 “On the award of St. Petersburg - the memorial sign “In honor of the 70th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade”, a memorial sign of the same name was issued. As in the case of the sign “Resident of besieged Leningrad,” it, as well as payments, were not received by citizens who lived in the siege for less than four months.

Monuments to the defense of Leningrad

Obelisk to the Hero City

on the square Uprisings

Eternal flame

Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery

Obelisk “Hero City Leningrad” on Vosstaniya Square

Monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square

Memorial route "Rzhevsky Corridor"

Memorial "Cranes"

Monument “Broken Ring”

Monument to the traffic controller. On the Road of Life.

Monument to the children of the siege (opened on September 8, 2010 in St. Petersburg, in the park on Nalichnaya Street, 55; authors: Galina Dodonova and Vladimir Reppo. The monument is a figure of a girl in a shawl and a stele symbolizing the windows of besieged Leningrad).

Stele. The heroic defense of the Oranienbaum bridgehead (1961; 32nd km of the Peterhof highway).

Stele. Heroic defense of the city in the area of ​​the Peterhof highway (1944; 16th km of the Peterhof highway, Sosnovaya Polyana).

Sculpture “Grieving Mother”. In memory of the liberators of Krasnoye Selo (1980; Krasnoye Selo, Lenin Ave., 81, square).

Monument-cannon 76 mm (1960s; Krasnoe Selo, Lenin Ave., 112, park).

Pylons. Heroic defense of the city in the Kievskoe highway zone (1944; 21st km, Kyiv highway).

Monument. To the heroes of the 76th and 77th fighter battalions (1969; Pushkin, Alexandrovsky Park).

Obelisk. Heroic defense of the city in the Moscow Highway zone (1957).

Kirovsky district

Monument to Marshal Govorov (Strachek Square).

Bas-relief in honor of the fallen Kirov residents - residents of besieged Leningrad (Marshal Govorova St., 29).

The front line of the defense of Leningrad (Narodnogo Opolcheniya Ave. - near the Ligovo railway station).

Military burial place “Red Cemetery” (Stachek Ave., 100).

Military burial ground “Southern” (Krasnoputilovskaya St., 44).

Military burial ground “Dachnoe” (Narodnogo Opolcheniya Ave., 143-145).

Memorial “Siege Tram” (corner of Stachek Ave. and Avtomobilnaya Street next to the bunker and the KV-85 tank).

Monument to the “Dead Gunboats” (Kanonersky Island, 19).

Monument to the Heroes - Baltic sailors (Mezhevoy Canal, no. 5).

Obelisk to the defenders of Leningrad (corner of Stachek Ave. and Marshal Zhukov Ave.).

Caption: Citizens! During artillery shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous at house No. 6, building 2 on Kalinin Street.

Monument "Tank-winner" in Avtov.

Monument on Elagin Island at the site where the minesweeper division was based during the war

Museum of the Siege

The State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad was, in fact, repressed in 1952 during the Leningrad affair. Renewed in 1989.

Residents of the besieged city

Citizens! During shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous

Monument to the loudspeaker on the corner of Nevsky and Malaya Sadovaya.

Traces from German artillery shells

Church in memory of the days of the siege

Memorial plaque on house 6 on Nepokorennykh Ave., where there was a well from which residents of the besieged city drew water

The Museum of Electric Transport of St. Petersburg has a large collection of blockade passenger and freight trams.

Blockade substation on Fontanka. On the building there is a memorial plaque “The feat of the trammen of besieged Leningrad.” After harsh winter In 1941-1942, this traction substation supplied energy to the network and ensured the movement of the revived tram." The building is being prepared for demolition.

Monument to the siege stickleback St. Petersburg, Kronstadt district

Sign “Blockade Polynya” embankment of the Fontanka River, 21

Events

In January 2009, the “Leningrad Victory Ribbon” event was held in St. Petersburg, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the final lifting of the siege of Leningrad.

On January 27, 2009, the “Candle of Memory” event was held in St. Petersburg to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the complete lifting of the Siege of Leningrad. At 19:00, citizens were asked to turn off the lights in their apartments and light a candle in the window in memory of all residents and defenders of besieged Leningrad. City services lit torches on the Rostral columns of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, which from a distance looked like giant candles. In addition, at 19:00, all FM radio stations in St. Petersburg broadcast a metronome signal, and 60 metronome beats were sounded over the city warning system of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and over the radio broadcast network.

Tram commemorative runs are held regularly on April 15 (in honor of the launch of the passenger tram on April 15, 1942), as well as on other dates associated with the blockade. The last time blockade trams ran was on March 8, 2011, in honor of the launch of a freight tram in the besieged city.

Historiography

Some modern German historians consider the blockade a war crime by the Wehrmacht and its allied armies. Others see the siege as a “usual and undeniable method of warfare,” others view these events as a symbol of the failure of the blitzkrieg, the conflict between the Wehrmacht and the National Socialists, etc.

Soviet historiography was dominated by the idea of ​​the solidarity of society in the besieged city and the glorification of the feat. What did not correspond to this picture (cannibalism, crime, special conditions of the party nomenklatura, NKVD repressions) was purposefully hushed up.