Brief Leningrad blockade. Blockade Leningrad

January 27, the day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad, is special in the history of our country. Today, on this date, the Day of Military Glory is celebrated annually. The city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) itself received the title of Hero City on May 1, 1945. On May 8, 1965, the northern capital was awarded the "Gold Star" medal and the Medal for Leningrad was also received by 1.496 million inhabitants 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 blockade 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". On the Internet portal "Archives of St. Petersburg" a virtual exhibition of various archival documents relating to the history of this city during the blockade was created. About 300 historical originals of the time were published. These documents are grouped into ten different sections, each of which is accompanied by expert comments. All of them reflect various aspects of life in Leningrad during the blockade.

Reconstruction of the wartime situation

Today it is not easy for young Petersburgers to imagine 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 aforementioned places in St. Petersburg, there are various cultural institutions, as well as theaters, which did not stop their activities even in those difficult blockade years. Here, the windows of the houses were sealed with crosses, as was done in Leningrad at that time in order to protect against air raids, barricades from sandbags on the pavements were reconstructed, anti-aircraft guns, military trucks were brought to complete the reproduction of the situation of that time. So the seventieth anniversary of the siege of Leningrad was marked. According to estimates, approximately 3,000 buildings were destroyed by shells during the events of those years, and more than 7,000 were significantly damaged. Residents of besieged Leningrad erected various defensive structures to protect themselves from 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 streets of the city.

Siege of Leningrad: main events and figures

The defense of the city, which began on September 8, 1941, lasted about 900 days and ended in 1944. January 27 - All these years, the only way through which the necessary products were delivered to the besieged city, as well as the seriously wounded and children were taken out, was laid in winter on the ice of Lake Ladoga. It 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 it happened only the next year - in 1944. Thus, the residents had to wait a long time before the blockade of the city of Leningrad was finally lifted. Died during this period, according to various sources, from 400 thousand to 1.5 million inhabitants. The following number figured at the Nuremberg trials - 632 thousand dead. Only 3% of them - from shelling and bombing. The rest of the inhabitants died of starvation.

Beginning of events

Today, military historians believe that not a single city on earth in the entire history of warfare gave as many lives for the Victory as Leningrad did at that time. On the day (1941, June 22), in this city, as well as throughout the region, martial law was immediately introduced. On the night of June 22-23, fascist German aviation tried to make a raid on Leningrad for the first time. This attempt ended unsuccessfully. None of the enemy aircraft was allowed to enter the city.

The next day, June 24, the Leningrad Military District was transformed into the Northern Front. Kronstadt covered the city from the sea. It was one of the bases located at that time in the Baltic Sea. With the advance of the enemy troops on the territory of the region, a heroic defense began on July 10, which the history of Leningrad can be proud of. On September 6, the first Nazi 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, 251 air raid alerts were issued.

Loudspeakers and famous metronome

However, the stronger the threat faced the hero city, the more united the inhabitants of Leningrad opposed the enemy. About 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the streets to warn Leningraders about air raids that were taking place in the first months. The population was notified by radio network about the air raid alert. 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 alarm had been announced, and its slow rhythm meant a retreat. Mikhail Melaned, the announcer, announced the alarm. There was not a single area in the city to which an enemy projectile could not reach. Therefore, the streets and areas in which the risk of being hit was the greatest were calculated. Here, people hung out signs or wrote with paint that this place was the most dangerous during shelling.

According to the plan of Adolf Hitler, 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 him out.

The first shelling of the city

Every inhabitant, including the elderly and children, became the defender of Leningrad. A special army was created in which thousands of people rallied into partisan detachments and fought the enemy on the fronts, participated in the construction of defensive lines. The evacuation of the population from the city, as well as the cultural values ​​of various museums and industrial equipment, began 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 divisions of the army under the name "North" failed to break into Leningrad on the move, although the front came close to the city. Systematic shelling began on 4 September. Four days later, the enemy captured the city of Shlisselburg, as a result of which land communication with the Great Land of Leningrad was stopped.

This event was the beginning of the blockade of the city. It turned out to be over 2.5 million inhabitants, including 400 thousand children. By the beginning of the blockade, the city did not have the necessary food supplies. As of September 12, they were calculated for only 30-35 days (bread), 45 days (cereals) and 60 days (meat). Even with the strictest economy, coal could last only until November, and liquid fuel - only until the end of the current one. Food rations, which 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 fierce. Often the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. Thousands of people died of hunger and cold. The peak of mortality was the time from November 20 to December 25 of this difficult 1941. During this period, the norms for issuing bread to fighters were significantly reduced - up to 500 grams per day. For those who worked in the hot shops, they amounted to only 375 grams, and for the rest of the 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 4,000 people died of starvation every day. This figure was 100 times higher than the pre-war mortality rate. At the same time, male mortality significantly prevailed over female. By the end of the war, representatives of the weaker sex made up the bulk of the inhabitants of Leningrad.

The Role of the Road of Life in Victory

Communication with the country was carried out, as already mentioned, by the Road of Life of besieged Leningrad, passing through Ladoga. It was the only highway that was available between September 1941 and March 1943. It was along this road that the evacuation of industrial equipment and the population from Leningrad took place, the supply of food to the city, as well as weapons, ammunition, reinforcements and fuel. In total, over 1,615,000 tons of cargo was delivered to Leningrad along this route, and about 1.37 million people were evacuated. At the same time, in the first winter, about 360 thousand tons of cargo were received, and 539.4 thousand residents were evacuated. A pipeline was laid along the bottom of the lake in order to supply oil products.

Protecting the Road of Life

The Hitlerite troops constantly bombed and fired at the Road of Life in order to paralyze this only saving way. To protect it from air strikes, as well as to ensure uninterrupted operation, the means and forces of the country's air defense were involved. In various memorial ensembles and monuments today, the heroism of the people who made it possible for uninterrupted movement along it is 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 the 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 broken for the first time, as we have already said, in 1943, on January 18th. This was carried out by the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts together with the Baltic Fleet. The Germans were pushed back. Operation "Iskra" took place during the general offensive of the Soviet Army, which was widely deployed in the winter of 1942-1943 after the enemy troops were surrounded near Stalingrad. Army "North" acted against the 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 also cleared of the enemy. A corridor was formed between it and the front line, the width of which was 8-11 km. Through it within 17 days (just think about this period!) Automobile and railway routes were laid. After that, the supply of the city improved dramatically. The blockade was completely lifted on 27 January. The day of lifting the siege of Leningrad was marked by fireworks that lit up the sky of this city.

The siege of Leningrad was the most brutal in the history of mankind. Most of the residents who died at that time are buried today at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery. The defense lasted, to be precise, 872 days. Leningrad of the pre-war time after that was no more. The city has changed a lot, many buildings had to be restored, some were rebuilt.

Diary of Tanya Savicheva

From the terrible events of those years, there are many testimonies. One of them is Tanya's diary. Leningradka began to conduct it at the age of 12. It was not published, since it consists of only nine terrible records about how members of the family of this girl died in succession 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 kept in the showcase of the memorial of the aforementioned Piskarevsky cemetery, where 570 thousand Leningraders were buried during the blockade of those who died of starvation or bombing in the period from 1941 to 1943, as well as in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill .

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

00:21 — REGNUM On this day 75 years ago, on January 18, 1943, the Soviet troops broke through the enemy blockade of Leningrad. It took another year of stubborn fighting to completely eliminate it. The day of breaking the blockade is always celebrated in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Today the President of Russia will visit the residents of both regions Vladimir Putin, whose father fought and was seriously wounded in the battles on the Nevsky Piglet.

The breakthrough of the blockade was the result of Operation Iskra, which was carried out by the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, united south of Lake Ladoga and restored land communications between Leningrad and the mainland. On the same day, the city of Shlisselburg was liberated from the enemy, "locking" the entrance to the Neva from the side of Ladoga. Breaking the blockade of Leningrad was the first example in military history of the release of a large city by a simultaneous strike from outside and from within.

As part of the shock groups of the two Soviet fronts, which were supposed to break through the powerful defensive fortifications of the enemy and eliminate the Shlisselburg-Sinyavino ledge, there were more than 300 thousand soldiers and officers, about 5 thousand guns and mortars, more than 600 tanks and more than 800 aircraft.

On the night of January 12, the positions of the German fascists were subjected to an unexpected air raid by Soviet bombers and attack aircraft, and in the morning massive artillery preparation began using large-caliber barrels. It was carried out in such a way as not to damage the ice of the Neva, along which the infantry of the Leningrad Front, reinforced by tanks and artillery, soon moved on the offensive. And from the east, the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front went on the offensive against the enemy. She was given the task of capturing the numbered workers' settlements north of Sinyavino, which the Germans had turned into fortified strongholds.

During the first day of the offensive, the advancing Soviet units with heavy fighting managed to advance deep into the German defenses by 2-3 kilometers. The German command, faced with the threat of dismemberment and encirclement of its troops, organized an urgent transfer of reserves to the place of the breakthrough planned by the Soviet units, which made the battles as fierce and bloody as possible. Our troops were also reinforced with a second echelon of attackers, new tanks and guns.

On January 15 and 16, 1943, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts fought for separate strongholds. On the morning of January 16, the assault on Shlisselburg was launched. On January 17, the stations Podgornaya and Sinyavino were taken. As former Wehrmacht officers later recalled, the control of German units in the places of the Soviet offensive was disrupted, there were not enough shells and equipment, a single line of defense was crushed, and individual units were surrounded.

The Nazi troops were cut off from reinforcements and defeated in the area of ​​workers' settlements, the remnants of the broken units, throwing weapons and equipment, scattered through the forests and surrendered. Finally, on January 18, units of the shock group of troops of the Volkhov Front, after artillery preparation, went on the attack and joined the troops of the Leningrad Front, having captured workers' settlements Nos. 1 and 5.

The blockade of Leningrad was broken. On the same day, Shlisselburg was completely liberated, and the entire southern shore of Lake Ladoga came under the control of the Soviet command, which soon made it possible to connect Leningrad with the country by road and rail and save hundreds of thousands of people who remained in the city besieged by the enemy from starvation.

According to historians, the total combat losses of the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts during the operation "Iskra" amounted to 115,082 people, of which 33,940 people were irretrievable. Soldiers and officers of the Red Army sacrificed themselves to save Leningraders who did not surrender to the enemy from a painful death. In military terms, the success of the Iskra operation meant the final loss of the enemy's strategic initiative in the northwestern direction, as a result of which the complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad became inevitable. It happened a year later, on January 27, 1944.

“The breaking of the blockade eased the suffering and hardships of the people of Leningrad, instilled in all Soviet citizens confidence in victory, opened the way to the complete liberation of the city, - recalled today, January 18, in his blog on the website of the Federation Council, the speaker of the upper house Valentina Matvienko. — The inhabitants and defenders of the city on the Neva did not allow themselves to be broken, they withstood all the tests, once again confirming that greatness of spirit, courage and selflessness are stronger than bullets and shells. In the end, it is not force that always triumphs, but truth and justice.”

As already reported IA REGNUM, on the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the blockade, Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit the region. He will lay flowers at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery, where many thousands of Leningrad residents and defenders of the city rested, visit the Nevsky Piglet military-historical complex and the Breakthrough Panorama Museum in the Kirovsky District of the Leningrad Region, meet with veterans of the Great Patriotic War and representatives of the search detachments working on the battlefields of that war.

Veterans and blockade survivors of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, activists of public, military-historical and youth movements will gather at noon at a solemn rally at the Sinyavino Heights memorial, dedicated to the breaking of the blockade, in the village of Sinyavino, Kirovsky District, Leningrad Region.

At 17:00 in the center of St. Petersburg there will be a flower-laying ceremony at the memorial sign "Days of Siege". During the event, pupils of the association of teenage and youth clubs "Perspektiva" of the Central District will read poems about the Great Patriotic War, and the blockade survivors will share stories about life and death in the besieged city. Candles will be lit in memory of the dead, after which flowers will be laid at the memorial plaques.

The blockade of Leningrad by German and Finnish troops lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During the blockade, according to various sources, from 650 thousand to 1.5 million people died, mainly from starvation. The blockade was completely lifted on January 27, 1944.

Blockade of Leningrad - a 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 the Italian naval forces during the Great Patriotic War. It 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 enough food and fuel supplies. The only way to communicate with Leningrad was Lake Ladoga, which was within the reach of the artillery and aircraft of the besiegers; the enemy’s united naval flotilla also operated on the lake. The capacity of this transport artery did not meet the needs of the city. As a result, the massive famine that began in Leningrad, aggravated by the especially harsh first blockade winter, problems with heating and transport, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths among residents.

After the blockade was broken, the siege of Leningrad by enemy troops and fleet continued until September 1944. In order to force the enemy to lift the siege of the city, in June - August 1944, Soviet troops, supported by ships and aircraft of the Baltic Fleet, carried out the Vyborg and Svir-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 of 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 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 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 be carried out only after the capture of Leningrad and Kronstadt. Already in Directive No. 32 of June 11, 1941, Hitler determined the time for the completion of the "victorious campaign to the East" as the end of autumn.

Leningrad was the second largest city in the USSR with a population of about 3.2 million people. It provided the country with almost a quarter of all the products of heavy engineering and a third of the products of the electrical industry, it had 333 large industrial enterprises, as well as a large number of plants and factories of local industry and artels. They employed 565 thousand people. Approximately 75% of the products produced were for 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 solve a number of important tasks, namely:

to seize the powerful economic base of the Soviet Union, which before the war accounted for about 12% of all-Union industrial output;

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

secure the left flank of the GA "Center", leading the offensive against Moscow, and free up large forces of the GA "Sever";

consolidate their dominance in the Baltic Sea and secure the supply of ore from the ports of Norway 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, the naval and air forces of Germany acted from the territory of Finland against the USSR. On June 25, 1941, in the morning, on the orders of the Headquarters of the Air Force of the Northern Front, together with the aircraft of the Baltic Fleet, they launched a massive attack on nineteen (according to other sources - 18) airfields in Finland and Northern Norway. Aircraft of the Finnish Air Force and the German 5th Air Army were based there. On the same day, the Finnish parliament voted for war with the USSR.

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

Exit of enemy troops to Leningrad

On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. In the first 18 days of the offensive, the main shock fist of the troops aimed at Leningrad - the 4th Panzer Group fought more than 600 kilometers (at a rate of 30-35 km per day), crossed the Western Dvina and Velikaya rivers. On July 5, units of the Wehrmacht 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 Kievskoe Highway through Luga.

Already on June 23, the commander of the Leningrad Military District, Lieutenant General M. M. Popov, ordered the start of work on the creation of an additional line of defense in the Pskov direction in the Luga region. On June 25, the military council of the Northern Front approved the scheme for the defense of 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 Rybatsky. 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 the militia).

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

Gepner's tank group, whose vanguards were exhausted and tired, made only slight progress 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. The enemy troops failed to capture the city on the move. This delay caused a sharp discontent of Hitler, who made a special trip to Army Group North in order to prepare 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 give not only a military gain (control over all the Baltic coasts and the destruction of the Baltic Fleet), but 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 region and use them in other sectors of the front. He expected to destroy the troops defending the city.

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

On June 29, having crossed the border, the Finnish army began hostilities against the USSR. On the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns showed little activity at first. A major Finnish offensive towards Leningrad in this sector began on 31 July. By the beginning of September, the Finns crossed the old Soviet-Finnish border on the Karelian Isthmus, which existed before the signing of the 1940 peace treaty, to a depth of 20 km and stopped at the turn of the Karelian fortified area. Communication between Leningrad and 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 General Staff of the German Armed Forces, was sent to Mannerheim's headquarters in Mikkeli. But he was refused the participation of the Finns in the attack on Leningrad. Instead, Mannerheim led a successful offensive in the north of Ladoga, cutting off 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, thus blocking a number of routes for the supply of goods to Leningrad.

Stopping the Finns on the Karelian Isthmus approximately on the line of the Soviet-Finnish border of 1918-1940, in his memoirs, Mannerheim explains his own unwillingness to attack Leningrad, in particular, arguing that he agreed to take the post of Supreme Commander of the Finnish Forces, provided that he would not lead an offensive against cities. On the other hand, this position is disputed by Isaev and N.I. Baryshnikov:

The legend that the Finnish army set 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 and was caused by tactical tasks, then between the Ladoga and Onega lakes the old border was crossed along its entire length and to a great depth.

As early as September 11, 1941, Finnish President Risto Ryti told the German envoy in Helsinki:

"If 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 guns of the main caliber of naval artillery, and 207 barrels of coastal artillery were also on the defense of the city. The sky of the city 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 is 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 lorry along Lesnoy Prospekt from the Levashovo airfield. A little ahead of us was a crowded tram. He brakes before the stop, where there is a large group of people waiting. A shell burst is heard, and many at the bus stop fall, covered in blood. The second gap, the third ... The tram is smashed to pieces. Piles of the dead. The wounded and maimed, mostly women and children, are scattered along the cobblestone pavement, moaning and crying. A blond-haired boy of seven or eight years old, who miraculously survived at a bus stop, covering his face with both hands, sobs over his murdered mother and repeats: “Mom, what have they done…”

Autumn 1941

Failed blitzkrieg attempt

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

On September 8, the soldiers of the "North" group captured the city of Shlisselburg (Petrokrepost), taking control of the source of the Neva and blocking Leningrad from land. From that day began the blockade of the city that lasted 872 days. All rail, river and road communications were cut off. Communication with Leningrad was now supported only by air and Lake Ladoga. From the north, the city was blocked by Finnish troops, who were stopped by the 23rd Army near the Karelian UR. Only the only railway connection with the coast of Lake Ladoga from the Finland Station has survived - 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 taken in the ring of Leningrad and suburbs was about 5000 km².

The formation 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, who took command of the front on September 14. The exact date of Zhukov's arrival in Leningrad is still a matter of controversy and varies between September 9-13. According to G.K. Zhukov,

“The situation that developed near Leningrad, Stalin at that moment assessed 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 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 cruel measures. In particular, he issued an order that for unauthorized retreat and leaving the defense line around the city, all commanders and soldiers were subject to immediate execution.

“If the Germans were stopped, they achieved this by letting them bleed. How many of them were killed in these September days, no one will ever count ... Zhukov's iron will stopped the Germans. He was scary in those days of September."

Von Leeb continued successful operations on the nearest approaches to the city. Its purpose was to strengthen the blockade ring and divert the forces of the Leningrad Front from the help of the 54th Army, which had begun operations to unblock the city. In the end, the enemy stopped 4-7 km from the city, in fact, 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. A tram even ran from the factory to the front line. It was an ordinary 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 in the base, the German air forces carried out massive bombing of ships and objects of the Kronstadt naval base. Several ships were sunk and damaged, in particular, the battleship Marat was heavily 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 Panzer and 36th Motorized Divisions from this sector. Considering the need for troops on the Leningrad sector of the front, where the enemy has 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

The ideology of the German side

In the directive of the Chief of Staff of the German Naval Forces 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 settlement is of no interest ...

4. It is supposed to surround the city with a tight ring and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. If, due to the situation that has developed 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 saving at least 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, informed the OKW that the streams of civilian refugees from Leningrad were seeking refuge in the German trenches and that he did not have the opportunity to feed and care for them. The Führer immediately gave the order (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 one by one for evacuation to the interior of Russia should only be welcomed. The population must be forced to flee the city by artillery and aerial bombardment. The more numerous the population of cities, fleeing deep into Russia, the more chaos the enemy will have and the easier it will be for us to manage and use the occupied regions. All senior officers must be aware of this desire of the Fuhrer.

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

Change in war tactics

The battles near Leningrad did not stop, but their character changed. German troops began to destroy the city with massive artillery shelling and bombing. Bombing and artillery strikes 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 depots, and they succeeded in this task. So, in particular, on September 10, they managed to bomb the famous Badaev warehouses, where there were significant food supplies. The fire was grandiose, thousands of tons of food burned, molten sugar flowed through the city, soaked into the ground. However, contrary to popular belief, this bombardment could not be the main cause of the ensuing food crisis, since Leningrad, like any other metropolis, is supplied “from the wheels”, and the food stocks destroyed along with warehouses would be enough for the city only for a few days. .

Taught by this bitter lesson, the city authorities began to pay special attention to the disguise of food stocks, 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 the townspeople: demographic factors

As of January 1, 1941, a little less than 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 associated with its proximity to the border and isolation from raw material 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 an “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 absence of any future for him at all), there is no reason to assert that the fate of the population of the city in the event of capitulation would be better than the fate of the real conditions of the blockade.

The actual beginning of the blockade

September 8, 1941 is considered the beginning of the blockade, when the land connection between Leningrad and the whole country was interrupted. However, the inhabitants of the city lost the opportunity to leave Leningrad two weeks earlier: the railway connection was interrupted on August 27, and tens of thousands of people gathered at the stations and in the suburbs, waiting for the possibility of a breakthrough to the east. The situation was further complicated by the fact that with the outbreak 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 check and accounting of all edible stocks were completed. Food cards were introduced in Leningrad on July 17, that is, even before the blockade, but this was done only in order to restore order in the supply. The city entered the war with the usual supply of food. The rationing rates for food rationing were high, and there was no food shortage before the blockade began. The reduction in the norms for issuing products for the first time occurred on September 15. In addition, on September 1, the free sale of food was banned (this measure was in effect until mid-1944). While the "black market" was preserved, the official sale of products in the so-called commercial stores at market prices ceased.

In October, the inhabitants of the city felt a clear shortage of food, and in November a 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 before the ice set. While the ice was gaining sufficient thickness for the movement of vehicles, there was practically no traffic through Ladoga. All these transport communications were under constant enemy fire.

Despite the lowest norms for issuing bread, death from starvation 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

Ration blockade

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

Based on the actual consumption, the availability of basic food products on September 12 was (the figures are given according to the accounting data made by the trade department of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, the commissariat of the front and the Red Banner Baltic Fleet):

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

The food norms in the troops defending the city were reduced several times. So, from October 2, the daily norm of bread per person in the front line units was reduced to 800 grams, for the rest of the 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. For other food items from the daily allowance, the norms were also cut. For the civilian population, the norms for the release 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 size of the food ration was:

Workers - 250 grams of bread per day,

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

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

Blockade bread recipes 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 the raw materials for bread were left for 35 days. In September 1941, bread was made from a mixture of rye, oatmeal, barley, soybean and malt flour, then at different times they began to add flaxseed cake and bran, cotton cake, wallpaper dust, flour basting, shakes out of sacks of corn and rye flour to this mixture. To enrich the bread with vitamins and useful trace elements, flour was added from pine bast, birch branches and seeds of wild herbs. In early 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 made up to 50% of 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. On September 24, 40% of bread consisted of malt, oats and husks, and later cellulose (at different times from 20 to 50%). On December 25, 1941, the norms 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 give out 600 g of bread per field ration per day, and 400 g per rear ration. From February 10, the front line ration increased to 800 g, in other parts - up to 600. From February 11, new supply standards for the civilian population were introduced: 500 grams of bread for workers, 400 for employees, 300 for children and non-workers. Impurities have almost disappeared from the bread. But the main thing is that the supply has become regular, products on the cards have begun to be issued in a timely manner and almost completely. On February 16, even high-quality meat was issued for the first time - frozen beef and lamb. There has been a turning point in the food situation in the city.

the date setting a standard	workers hot shops	workers and engineering	Employees	Dependents	Children up to 12 years

Resident alert system. Metronome

In the first months of the blockade, 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the streets of Leningrad. The radio network carried information for the population about raids and air raids. The famous metronome, which went down in the history of the blockade of Leningrad as a cultural monument of the resistance of the population, was broadcast during the raids through this network. A fast rhythm meant an air alert, a slow rhythm meant a hang up. Announcer Mikhail Melaned also announced the alarm.

Deterioration of the situation in the city

In November 1941, the situation of the townspeople deteriorated sharply. Death from starvation has become massive. Special funeral services daily picked up about a hundred corpses alone on the streets.

Countless stories have been preserved of people falling from weakness and dying - at home or at work, in stores or on the streets. Elena Skryabina, a resident of the besieged city, wrote in her diary:

“Now they die so simply: first they cease to be interested in anything, then they go to bed and don’t get up anymore.

“Death rules the city. People die and die. Today, when I was walking down the street, a man was walking in front of me. He could barely move his legs. Overtaking him, I involuntarily drew attention to the terrible blue face. I thought to myself, I'm probably going to die soon. Here one could really say that the seal of death lay on the face of a person. After a few steps, I turned around, stopped, followed him. He sat down on the pedestal, 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 do not resist death. They die like they fall asleep. And the surrounding half-dead people do not pay any attention to them. Death has become a phenomenon observed at every step. They got used to it, there was complete indifference: after all, not today - tomorrow such a fate awaits everyone. When you leave the house in the morning, you stumble upon corpses lying in the gateway on the street. The corpses lie for a long time, as there is no one to clean them up.

D. V. Pavlov, authorized by the GKO to provide food 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. By this time, internal resources were completely exhausted, and delivery through Lake Ladoga was carried out on a small scale. 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 taps were opened, from which residents of neighboring houses could take water. Most of the Vodokanal workers were transferred to the barracks, but the residents also had to take water from damaged pipes and holes.

The number of victims of famine grew rapidly - every day more than 4,000 people died in Leningrad, which was a hundred times higher than the death rates in peacetime. There were days when 6-7 thousand people died. In December alone, 52,881 people died, while the losses for January-February were 199,187 people. Male mortality significantly exceeded female - 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.

Cold exposure

Another important factor in the increase in mortality was cold. With the onset of winter, the city practically ran out of fuel supplies: electricity generation was only 15% of the pre-war level. The centralized heating of houses stopped, the water supply and sewerage froze or were turned off. Work has stopped at almost all factories and plants (except defense ones). Often, city dwellers who came to the workplace could not do their work due to the lack of water supply, heat and energy.

The winter of 1941-1942 turned out to be much colder and longer than usual. The winter of 1941-1942, in terms of cumulative indicators, is one of the coldest for the entire period of systematic instrumental observations of the weather 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 was 178 days, that is, half a year. During this period, there were 14 days with an average daily t > 0 °C, mainly in October, that is, there were practically no thaws usual for winter Leningrad weather. Even in May 1942, there were 4 days with a negative average daily temperature; on May 7, the maximum daytime temperature rose only to +0.9 °C. There was also a lot of snow in winter: the height of the snow cover by the end of winter was more than half a meter. In terms of the maximum height of snow cover (53 cm), April 1942 is the record holder for the entire observation period, up to 2013 inclusive.

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

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

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

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

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

March was a little warmer than February - the average t = -11.6 °С (with the average for 1753-1940 t = -4.5 °С). 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 meteorological observations up to 2013.

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

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

“The cold was somehow internal. He permeated everything. The body was generating too little heat.

The human mind was the last to die. If the arms and legs have already refused to serve you, if the fingers could no longer fasten the buttons of the coat, if the person no longer had any strength to cover his 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 to work. People wrote diaries and believed that they would be able to live another day.”

Housing and communal services and transport

In winter, sewerage did not work in residential buildings; in January 1942, water supply operated only in 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 taken apart for firewood. Fuel extraction has become an important part of the life of Leningraders. Due to the lack of electricity and the massive destruction of the contact network, the movement of urban electric transport, primarily trams, stopped. This event was an important factor contributing to the increase in mortality.

According to D.S. Likhachev,

“... when the stop of the tram traffic added another two or three hours of walking from the place of residence to the place of work and back to the usual daily work load, 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 from two ends” - these words expressively characterized the situation of a city resident who lived in conditions of starvation rations and enormous physical and mental stress. In most cases, families did not die out immediately, but one at a time, gradually. While someone could walk, he brought food on the cards. The streets were covered with snow, which was not removed all winter, so it was very difficult to move along them.

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 rates in special hospitals created at plants and factories, as well as in 105 city canteens. The hospitals functioned 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, plants and institutions. 64 canteens were organized outside the enterprises. Food in these canteens was produced according to specially approved standards. From April 25 to July 1, 1942, 234 thousand people took advantage of 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 to operate at the Astoria Hotel. In the dining room of the House of Scientists during the winter months, from 200 to 300 people ate. On December 26, 1941, the Leningrad City Executive Committee ordered the Gastronom office to organize a one-time sale at state prices without food cards to academicians and corresponding members of the USSR Academy of Sciences with home delivery: 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, from January 1942, new orphanages were opened in the city. For 5 months, 85 orphanages were organized in Leningrad, which accepted 30 thousand children left without parents. The command of the Leningrad Front and the leadership of the city sought to provide orphanages with the necessary food. By a resolution of the Military Council of the Front of February 7, 1942, the following monthly norms for supplying orphanages per child were approved: 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 are opening their own hospitals, where scientists and other university employees could rest for 7-14 days and get 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 cereals , 0.5 eggs, 350 g of bread, 50 g of wine per day, and the products were issued with cutting coupons from food cards.

An additional supply of the leadership of the city and the region was also organized. According to the surviving evidence, the leadership of Leningrad did not experience difficulties in feeding and heating residential premises. 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-class food and entertainment were at the service of vacationing representatives of the nomenklatura.

The instructor of the personnel department of the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Nikolai Ribkovsky, 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 house 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 Creek. The situation and the whole order in the hospital is very reminiscent of a closed sanatorium in the city of Pushkin ... From the cold, somewhat tired, you tumble into the house, with warm cozy rooms, blissfully stretch your legs ... Every day meat - lamb, ham, chicken, goose, turkey, sausage; fish - bream, herring, smelt, and fried, and boiled and aspic caviar, salmon, 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. The comrades say that the district hospitals are in no way inferior to the Gorkomovsky hospital, and that some enterprises have hospitals that make our hospital pale before them.

Ribkovsky wrote: “What is even better? We eat, drink, walk, sleep, or just sit back listening to the gramophone, exchanging jokes, playing dominoes or playing cards with the “tragus” ... In a word, we have a rest! ... And in total we paid only 50 rubles for the tickets.

In the first half of 1942, hospitals, and then canteens for 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 the numerous reviews of the blockade survivors themselves and the data of polyclinics.

In the second half of 1942, in order to overcome the consequences of the famine, 12,699 patients were hospitalized in October and 14,738 patients in need of enhanced nutrition were hospitalized in November. As of January 1, 1943, 270,000 Leningraders received increased food security compared to the all-Union norms, another 153,000 people attended canteens with three meals a day, which became possible due to a more successful navigation than in 1941 in 1942.

Use of food substitutes

An important role in overcoming the problem of food supply was played by the use of food substitutes, the conversion of old enterprises to their production and the creation of new ones. The certificate of the Secretary of the City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Y.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. As additives in the manufacture of meat products, soy flour, intestines, technical albumin obtained from egg white, animal blood plasma, and whey were used. 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. 320 tons of soybeans and 25 tons of cotton cake were processed in the dairy industry, which produced an additional 2,617 tons of products, including: soy milk 1,360 tons, soy milk products (yogurt, cottage cheese, syrniki, etc.) - 942 tons. from 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 vegetable milk, juices, glycerin and gelatin. For the production of jelly, oat grinding waste and cranberry cake were also used. The food industry of the city produced glucose, oxalic acid, carotene, 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 autumn of 1941, immediately after the blockade was established, the Soviet troops undertook two operations in order to restore land communications between Leningrad and the rest of the country. The offensive was carried out in the area of ​​the so-called "Sinyavino-Slisselburg ledge", the width of which along the southern coast of Lake Ladoga was only 12 km. However, German troops were able to create powerful fortifications. The Soviet army suffered heavy losses, but did not manage 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 "Nevsky 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 patch was shot through by the enemy, and the Soviet troops, constantly trying to expand this bridgehead, suffered heavy losses. However, the surrender of a patch would mean a second forcing of the full-flowing Neva, and the task of breaking the blockade would become much more complicated. In total, about 50,000 Soviet soldiers died on the Nevsky Piglet in 1941-1943.

At the beginning of 1942, the Soviet high command, inspired by the success in the Tikhvin offensive operation, decided to attempt the complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade by the forces of the Volkhov Front, with the support of the Leningrad Front. However, the Luban 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 through the blockade. Although the Sinyavino operation did not achieve its goals, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts managed to thwart the plan of the German command to capture Leningrad under the code name "Northern Lights" (German: Nordlicht).

Thus, during the years 1941-1942, several attempts were made to break through 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 "Sinyavino-Shlisselburg ledge"), continued to firmly hold the units of the 18th Wehrmacht Army.

Spring-summer 1942

Partisan convoy for besieged Leningrad

On March 29, 1942, a partisan convoy with food for the inhabitants of the city 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 plots

On March 19, 1942, the executive committee of the Lensoviet adopted the regulation “On personal consumer gardens of workers and their associations,” which provides for the development of personal consumer gardening both in the city itself and in the suburbs. In addition to the actual individual gardening, subsidiary farms were also created at enterprises. To do this, 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. Ancillary farms were guarded around the clock by the personnel of enterprises. Garden owners were assisted in acquiring seedlings and using them economically. So, 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 agricultural benefits (“Agro-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 was significantly reduced. So, if in February about 7,000 corpses were picked up on the streets of the city, then in April - about 600, and in May - 50 corpses. With a pre-war death rate of 3,000 people, in January-February 1942, about 130,000 people died in the city every month, 100,000 people died in March, 50,000 people died in May, 25,000 people died in July, and 7,000 people died in September. In total, according to recent studies, approximately 780,000 Leningraders died during the first, most difficult year of the blockade.

In March 1942, the entire able-bodied population came out to clean up the city from garbage. In April-May 1942, there was a further improvement in the living conditions of the population: the restoration of communal services began. Many businesses have reopened.

Restoration of urban public transport

On December 8, 1941, Lenenergo cut off electricity supply and partial redemption of traction substations took place. The next day, by decision of the city executive committee, eight tram routes were abolished. Subsequently, individual cars were still moving along the streets of Leningrad, finally stopping on January 3, 1942 after the power supply was completely cut off. 52 trains remained frozen in the snow-covered streets. Snow-covered trolleybuses stood on the streets all winter. More than 60 cars were smashed, burned down or seriously damaged. In the spring of 1942, the city authorities ordered the removal of cars from highways. The trolleybuses could not go on their own, so we had to organize towing.

On March 8, for the first time, voltage was given to the network. The restoration of the city's tram economy began, a freight tram was put into operation. On April 15, 1942, voltage was given to the central substations and a regular passenger tram was launched. In order 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 a trolleybus in the spring of 1942 was considered inexpedient by the city authorities.

official statistics

1942-1943

1942 Activation of the shelling. Counter-battery fight

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

By the summer, the leadership of Nazi Germany decided to intensify hostilities on the Leningrad front, and, first of all, to intensify artillery shelling and bombardment of the city.

New artillery batteries were deployed around Leningrad. In particular, super-heavy guns were deployed on railway platforms. They fired shells at a distance 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 outlined several thousand of the most important targets, which were shelled daily.

At this time, Leningrad turns into a powerful fortified area. 110 large defense centers were created, many thousands of kilometers of trenches, communication lines and other engineering structures were equipped. This created the opportunity to carry out covert regrouping of troops, the withdrawal of soldiers from the front line, and the pulling up of reserves. As a result, the number of losses of our troops from shell fragments and enemy snipers has sharply decreased. Reconnaissance and camouflage positions were established. Counter-battery combat with enemy siege artillery is being organized. As a result, the intensity of shelling of Leningrad by enemy artillery significantly decreased. For these purposes, the naval artillery of the Baltic Fleet was skillfully used. The heavy artillery positions 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, and to the flank and rear of the 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 about 7 times.

1943 Breaking the blockade

On January 12, after artillery preparation, which began at 9:30 and lasted 2:10, at 11:00 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 advanced three kilometers towards each other. friend from 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, striving to keep Workers' Settlements 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 grouping, located to the north of the settlements, several times unsuccessfully tried to break through the narrow neck to the south to their main forces.

On January 18, the 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. For seventeen days, automobile and railway (the so-called "Victory Road") roads were laid along the coast. Subsequently, the troops of the 67th and 2nd Shock armies tried to continue the offensive in a southerly direction, but to no avail. The enemy continuously transferred fresh forces to the Sinyavino area: from January 19 to January 30, five divisions and a large amount of artillery were brought up. To rule out the possibility of the enemy's re-entry to Lake Ladoga, 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 plants 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, however, seriously fortified 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. Blockade lifted, 1944

1944 Complete liberation of Leningrad from enemy blockade

Main articles: Operation January Thunder, Novgorod-Luga Offensive Operation

On January 14, the troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts began the Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation. By January 20, Soviet troops had achieved significant success: the units of the Leningrad Front defeated the Krasnoselsko-Ropshinsky enemy grouping, and parts of the Volkhov Front liberated Novgorod. This allowed L. A. Govorov and A. A. Zhdanov to turn to I. V. Stalin on January 21:

In connection with the complete liberation of the city of Leningrad from the enemy blockade and from enemy artillery shelling, we ask you to allow:

2. In honor of the victory won, fireworks in Leningrad on January 27 this year at 20.00 hours with twenty-four artillery salvos from three hundred and twenty-four guns.

JV Stalin granted the request of the command of the Leningrad Front and on January 27 a salute was fired in Leningrad to mark the final liberation of the city from the blockade, 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 by Stalin. None of the commanders of the fronts during the Great Patriotic War was awarded such a privilege.

Evacuation of residents

The situation at the beginning of the blockade

The evacuation of the inhabitants of the city began already on 06/29/1941 (the first trains) and was of an organized nature. At the end of June, the City Evacuation Commission was established. Explanatory work began among the population about the need to leave Leningrad, as 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 evacuations

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

The reluctance of residents to leave the city;

Many children from Leningrad were evacuated to the regions of the Leningrad region. Subsequently, this led to the fact that 175,000 children were 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 later 175,000 were returned back) and 164,320 workers and employees who were evacuated along with enterprises.

Second wave of evacuations

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;

evacuation by aircraft;

evacuation along the ice road across Lake Ladoga.

During this period, 33,479 people were taken out by water transport (of which 14,854 people were not from Leningrad), by aviation - 35,114 (of which 16,956 were not from Leningrad), by marching order across Lake Ladoga and by unorganized vehicles from the end of December 1941 to 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 period of evacuation - 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, during the blockade period, 1.5 million people were evacuated from the city. By October 1942, the evacuation was completed.

Effects

Consequences for evacuees

Part of the exhausted people taken out of the city could not be saved. Several thousand people died from the consequences 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, having received a large amount of high-quality food, which for an exhausted organism turned out to be essentially poison. At the same time, there could have been much more victims if the local authorities of the regions where the evacuees were placed 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. Settled forever on the "mainland". For a long time the city was closed. To return, a “call” from relatives was needed. Most of the surviving relatives did not have. Those who returned after the “discovery” of Leningrad could not get into their apartments, other people arbitrarily occupied the housing of the blockade.

Implications for City Leadership

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

“The most severe during the blockade was hunger, as a result of which dystrophy developed among the inhabitants. 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 minimized.

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, the goods were delivered directly to Leningrad along the Irinovskaya railway. During the period of clean water, the supply was by water transport, during the period of freeze-up, an auto-drawn road worked across the lake. Since February 1943, the railroad built through the coast of Ladoga, liberated during the breaking of the blockade, began to be used to supply Leningrad.

Delivery of goods was also carried out by air. Prior to the full operation of the ice route, air supply to the city accounted for a significant part of the entire cargo flow. Organizational measures to establish mass air transportation to the besieged city were taken by the leadership of the Leningrad Front and the leadership of the 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 transport air communications between Moscow and Leningrad." On September 20, 1941, the State Defense Committee adopted a resolution "On the organization of transport air communications between Moscow and Leningrad", according to which it was supposed to deliver 100 tons of cargo to the city daily and evacuate 1000 people. For transportation, the Special Northern Aviation Group of the civilian fleet based in Leningrad and the Special Baltic Aviation Detachment included in it began to be used. Three squadrons of the Moscow Special Purpose Air Group (MAGON) were also allocated, 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. As the main rear base, where goods were delivered by rail and from where they were distributed to the nearest airfields for shipment to Leningrad, the Khvoynaya settlement in the east of the Leningrad Region was chosen. To receive aircraft in Leningrad, the Commandant airfield and the Smolnoye airfield under construction were chosen. Air transportation was covered by three fighter regiments. At first, the main part of the cargo consisted of industrial and military products, and since November, food products have become the basis of transportation to Leningrad. On November 9, a GKO decree was issued on the allocation of aviation for the delivery of goods to Leningrad. It ordered to allocate to the 26 PS-84 aircraft operating on the line another 24 aircraft of this model and 10 TB-3 for a period of 5 days. For a five-day period, a cargo delivery rate of 200 tons per day was indicated, including: 135 tons of millet porridge and pea soup concentrates, 20 tons of smoked meats, 20 tons of fats and 10 tons of milk powder and egg powder. On November 21, the maximum mass 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 transport and 50 thousand people were taken out, of which more than 13 thousand were military personnel of the units deployed near Tikhvin.

Results of the blockade

Population loss

As the American political philosopher Michael Walzer notes, “more civilians died in the siege of Leningrad than in the hell 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% starved to death.

In connection with the famine in the city, there were cases of murders for the purpose of cannibalism. So in December 1941, 26 people were prosecuted for such crimes, in January 1942 - 336 people, in two weeks in February 494 people.

Most of the inhabitants of Leningrad who died during the blockade are buried at the Piskarevsky memorial cemetery, located in the Kalininsky district. The area of ​​the cemetery is 26 hectares, the walls are 150 m long and 4.5 m high. 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 blockade, the number of which 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 the current Moscow Victory Park. A chapel was built on the territory of the park and a monument "The Trolley" was erected - one of the most terrible monuments of St. Petersburg. On such trolleys, the ashes of the dead were taken to nearby quarries after burning in the furnaces of the plant.

The Serafimovskoye cemetery was also a mass burial place for Leningraders who perished 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 of the city (Volkovsky, Krasnenkoe 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 inhabitants of the city during the blockade. On May 8, 1965, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Hero City of Leningrad was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

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

Damage to cultural monuments

Enormous damage was done 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 Finland Station were hidden under sandbags and plywood shields.

But the biggest, irreparable damage was caused to historical buildings and monuments located both in the suburbs of Leningrad occupied by the Germans, and in close proximity to the front. Thanks to the dedicated work of the staff, a significant number of storage items were saved. However, buildings not subject to evacuation and green spaces, directly on the territory of which hostilities were fought, 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, presented to Peter I by the King of Prussia, was completely taken out by the Germans.

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

Irreplaceable for the historical memory of the people was the almost complete destruction of the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Seaside Men's Hermitage, considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, where many Petersburgers were buried, whose names entered the history of the state.

Social aspects of life under blockade

Plant Institute Foundation

In Leningrad, there was the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, which possessed and still possesses 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 starvation, but they kept materials that could help the post-war restoration of agriculture.

Tanya Savicheva

Tanya Savicheva lived in a Leningrad family. The war began, then the blockade. In front of Tanya, her grandmother, two uncles, mother, brother and sister died. When the evacuation of children began, the girl was taken out along the "Road of Life" to the "Mainland". Doctors fought for her life, but medical help came too late. Tanya Savicheva died of exhaustion and illness.

Easter in a besieged city

Under the blockade, divine services were performed in 10 churches, the largest of which were St. Nicholas Cathedral and Prince Vladimir Cathedral, which belonged to the Patriarchal Church, and the Renovationist Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior. In 1942, Easter was very early (March 22, old style). All day on April 4, 1942, the shelling of the city went on, intermittently. On Easter night from April 4 to April 5, the city was subjected to a brutal bombardment, in which 132 aircraft participated.

“About seven in the evening, a frantic anti-aircraft fire broke out, merging into one continuous ramble. The Germans were flying low, low, surrounded by the thickest ridges of black and white gaps.. At night, from two to four approximately, there was again a raid, many planes, frantic fire from anti-aircraft guns. Land mines, they say, were dropped both in the evening and at night, where exactly - no one knows for sure (it seems to be Marty's factory). Many today are in a terrible panic from the raids, as if they should not have happened at all.

Easter matins were held in the churches: under the roar of shell explosions and broken glass.

"The priest" consecrated Easter cakes. It was touching. Women walked with slices of black bread and candles, 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.

"Dangerous Side of the Street"

During the blockade, there was no area in Leningrad that could not be reached by an enemy shell. 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 blockade.

From a letter from KGIOP

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

Cultural life of besieged Leningrad

In the city, despite the blockade, continued cultural and intellectual life. In the summer of 1942, some educational institutions, theaters and cinemas were opened; there were even several jazz concerts. During the first blockade winter, several theaters and libraries continued to operate - in particular, the State Public Library and the library of the Academy of Sciences were opened throughout the entire period of the blockade. The 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 Orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee under Karl Eliasberg, the famous Leningrad Heroic Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich was performed for the first time, which became the musical symbol of the blockade. During the entire blockade in Leningrad, functioning churches worked.

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

The policy of extermination of the Jews pursued by the Nazis also affected the occupied suburbs of besieged Leningrad. So, 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 earlier than Pushkin. It housed special Sonder detachments and Einsatzgruppe A, and since then it has become the center of punitive organs 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.

Case of scientists

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

The Soviet Navy (RKKF) in the defense of Leningrad

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 VMUZ of Leningrad, commander Rear Admiral Ramishvili). Also, at various stages of the battle for Leningrad, the Chudskaya and Ilmenskaya military flotillas were created.

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

"The main task of the KBF is the active defense of the approaches to Leningrad from the sea and preventing 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 proved to be useful during the retreat in 1941, defense and attempts to break through the blockade in 1941-1943, break through and lift the blockade in 1943-1944.

Ground Forces Support Operations

The areas of activity of the fleet, which were important at all stages of the Battle of Leningrad:

Marines

Personnel brigades (1st, 2nd brigades) of the marines and units of sailors (3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th brigades formed the Training Detachment, Main Base, Crew) from ships that were laid up in Kronstadt and Leningrad took part in the battles on land . 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). Parts of the marines and infantry units, formed from sailors, proved themselves during the breakthrough and lifting of the blockade. In total, 68,644 people were transferred from the KBF in 1941 to the Red Army for operations on the land fronts, in 1942 - 34,575, in 1943 - 6,786, not counting the part of the marines that were part of the fleet or temporarily transferred to the command 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 brought in if necessary) effectively suppressed enemy batteries, helped repel land attacks, and supported the offensive of troops. Naval artillery provided extremely important artillery support during the breakthrough of the Blockade, destroying 11 fortification sites, the enemy's railway echelon, as well as suppressing a significant number of his batteries and partially destroying a tank column. From September 1941 to January 1943, naval artillery opened fire 26,614 times, having used up 371,080 shells of 100-406 mm caliber, while up to 60% of the shells were spent on counter-battery combat.

Fleet Aviation

Bomber and fighter aviation of the fleet operated successfully. In addition, in August 1941, a separate air group (126 aircraft) was formed from units of the KBF Air Force, operationally subordinate to the front. During the breakthrough of the Blockade, more than 30% of the aircraft used belonged to the fleet. During the defense of the city, more than 100 thousand sorties were made, of which about 40 thousand were to support the 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 the direct activity in the waters of the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga, which also influenced the course of battles in the land theater:

"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 men, Red Navy men and commanders were transported from Osinovets to the eastern shore of the lake. In 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. In 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 up within the Neva Bay. His combat operations were hindered by a minefield, where, even before the declaration of war, the Germans secretly set up 1060 anchor contact and 160 bottom non-contact mines, including north-west of the island of Naissaar, and a month later there were 10 times more of them (about 10,000 mines) , both own and German. The action of submarines was also hampered by mined anti-submarine nets. After several boats were lost in them, their operations were also stopped. As a result, the fleet carried out operations on the enemy's sea and lake communications mainly by forces of submarines, torpedo boats, and aviation.

After the complete lifting of the blockade, minesweeping became possible, where, according to the armistice, Finnish minesweepers also participated. Since January 1944, a course was set for cleaning the Bolshoi Ship 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 Navigators No. 286, which announced the opening of navigation during daylight hours 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 Baltic Sea. Since 2005, by a decree of the government of St. Petersburg, this day has been considered an official city holiday and is known as the Day of Breaking the Marine Siege of Leningrad. Combat trawling did not end there and continued until 1957, and all the waters of Estonia became open for navigation and fishing only in 1963.

Evacuation

The fleet carried out the evacuation of bases and isolated groupings 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 on July 15-27, from about. Valaam to Osinovets on September 17-20, from Primorsk to Kronstadt on September 1-2, 1941, from the islands of the Bjerki archipelago to Kronstadt on November 1, from the islands of Gogland, Bolshoi Tyuters and others on October 29 - November 6, 1941. This made it possible to preserve the personnel - up to 170 thousand people - and part of the military equipment, partially remove the civilian population, and strengthen the troops defending Leningrad. Due to the unpreparedness of the evacuation plan, errors in determining the routes of the convoys, the lack of air cover and preliminary trawling, due to the actions of enemy aircraft and the death of ships, there were heavy losses in our own and German minefields.

Landing operations

During the battle for the city, landing operations were carried out, some of which ended tragically, for example, the Peterhof landing, the Strelninsky landing. In 1941, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga Flotilla landed 15 landings, 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 reflection of the landing during the battle for about. Dry in Lake Ladoga on October 22, 1942.

Memory

For merits during the defense of Leningrad and the Great Patriotic War as a whole, 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 the personnel of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet during the war amounted to 55,890 people, of which the main part falls on the period of the defense of Leningrad.

On August 1-2, 1969, the Komsomol members of the Smolninsky RK VLKSM installed a memorial plaque with the text from the records of the defense commander for the gunnery sailors who defended the "Road of Life" on Sukho Island.

“... 4 hours of strong hand-to-hand combat. The battery is bombed by planes. Out of 70, we have 13 left, 32 wounded, the rest fell. Guns 3, fired 120 shots. Of the 30 pennants, 16 barges were sunk, 1 was taken prisoner. Killed a lot of fascists...

Minesweeper sailors

Losses of minesweepers during the Second World War:

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 lost ships, the sailors of the BF trawling brigade made commemorative plaques and installed them in the Mine Harbor of Tallinn on the pedestal of the monument. Before the ships left the Mine Harbor in 1994, the boards were removed and transported to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.

May 9, 1990 at the TsPKiO im. S. M. Kirov, a memorial stele was opened, installed at the base during the years of the blockade of the 8th division of boat minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet. In this place, every May 9 (since 2006, also every June 5), veteran minesweepers meet and lower a wreath in memory of the fallen from a boat into the waters of the Middle Nevka.

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

The inscription on the stele.

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

On June 5, 2006, in the Gulf of Finland, the meridian of the lighthouse of Moshchny Island (formerly Lavensaari), by order of the commander of the Baltic Fleet, was declared a memorial place for "glorious victories and the death of the ships of the Baltic Fleet." When crossing this meridian, Russian warships, in accordance with the Ship Charter, give military honors "in memory of the minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet and their crews who died while clearing 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 Naval Corps of Peter the Great.

June 5, 2008 at the pier on the Middle Nevka in the TsPKiO im. S. M. Kirov, a memorial plaque was opened on the stele “To the Minesweepers Sailors”.

June 5 is a memorable date. Day of breaking through the naval mine blockade of Leningrad. On this day in 1946, boats of the 8th DKTShch, together with other minesweepers of the KBF, completed the clearance of mines from the Great Ship Fairway, opening a direct route from the Baltic to Leningrad.

The inscription on the memorial plaque mounted on the stele.

Memory

Dates

Blockade awards and commemorative signs

Main articles: Medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", Sign "Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad"

The front side of the medal depicts the outlines of the Admiralty and a group of soldiers with rifles at the ready. On the perimeter there is an inscription "For the defense of Leningrad". The reverse side of the medal depicts a hammer and sickle. Below them is the text in capital letters: "For our Soviet Motherland." In 1985, about 1,470,000 people were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad". Among those awarded with it are 15 thousand children and teenagers.

The memorial sign "Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad" was established by the decision of the Leningrad City Executive Committee "On the establishment of the sign "Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad" No. 5 dated January 23, 1989. On the front side there is an image of a broken ring against the background of the Main Admiralty, a flame, a laurel branch and the inscription "900 days - 900 nights "; on the back - a hammer and sickle and the inscription "Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad". As of 2006, 217 thousand people lived in Russia, who were awarded the sign "Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad". It should be noted that the memorial sign and the status of a resident of besieged Leningrad received by not all those born in the blockade, since the above decision limits the period of stay in the blockade city to four months, which is necessary to receive them.

By Decree of the Government of St. Petersburg No. 799 dated October 16, 2013 “On the award of St. Petersburg - a 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 badge “Inhabitant of besieged Leningrad”, citizens who lived in the blockade for less than four months did not receive it, as well as payments.

Monuments of the defense of Leningrad

Obelisk to the Hero City

on the square uprisings

Eternal flame

Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery

Obelisk "To the Hero City of 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 blockade (opened on September 8, 2010 in St. Petersburg, in the square 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. Heroic defense of the Oranienbaum bridgehead (1961; 32nd km of the Peterhof highway).

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

Sculpture "Grieving Mother". In memory of the liberators of Krasnoe Selo (1980; Krasnoe Selo, 81 Lenin Ave., square).

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

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

Monument. To the Heroes of the 76th and 77th Fighter Battalions (1969; Pushkin, Aleksandrovsky Park).

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

Kirovsky district

Monument to Marshal Govorov (Stachek Square).

Bas-relief in honor of the dead Kirovites - residents of besieged Leningrad (Marshal Govorov St., 29).

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

Military burial "Red Cemetery" (Stachek Ave., 100).

Military burial "Southern" (Krasnoputilovskaya st., 44).

Military burial "Dachnoye" (pr. People's Militia, d. 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 Gunners” (Kanonersky Island, 19).

Monument to the Heroes - sailors-Baltic (Megeve Canal, d. 5).

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

Caption: Citizens! During shelling, this side of the street is most dangerous at house number 6, building 2 along Kalinina street.

Monument "Tank-winner" in Avtov.

Monument on Yelagin Island at the base of the minesweeper division during the war

Blockade Museum

The State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad - was, in fact, repressed in 1952 during the Leningrad case. Reopened in 1989.

Residents of the besieged city

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

Monument to the loudspeaker at 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 Avenue, where there was a well from which the inhabitants 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 the Fontanka. On the building there is a memorial plaque “To the feat of the trammen of besieged Leningrad. After the harsh winter of 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 besieged stickleback St. Petersburg, Kronstadtsky district

Sign "Blockadnaya Polynya" embankment of the Fontanka River, 21

Events

In January 2009, the action "Leningrad Victory Ribbon" took place in St. Petersburg, timed to coincide with the 65th anniversary of the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad.

On January 27, 2009, the Candle of Memory action was held in St. Petersburg to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the complete lifting of the Siege of Leningrad. At 19:00, the townspeople were asked to turn off the lights in their apartment 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 arrows of Vasilevsky Island, which from afar looked like giant candles. In addition, at 19:00, all FM radio stations in St. Petersburg broadcast a metronome signal, and 60 metronome strikes sounded through the city's public address system of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the radio broadcasting 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 the blockade trams came out 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 for the Wehrmacht and its allied armies. Others see the siege as "the usual and indisputable method of warfare", others see 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 notion 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, repressions of the NKVD) was purposefully hushed up.

The beginning of the blockade

Shortly after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Leningrad found itself in the grip of enemy fronts. From the southwest, the German Army Group North (Commander Field Marshal W. Leeb) approached him; from the north-west, the Finnish army set its sights on the city (commander Marshal K. Mannerheim). According to the Barbarossa plan, the capture of Leningrad was to precede the capture of Moscow. Hitler believed that the fall of the northern capital of the USSR would give not only a military gain - the Russians would lose the city, which is the cradle of the revolution and has a special symbolic meaning for the Soviet state. The battle for Leningrad, the longest in the war, lasted from July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944.

In July-August 1941, the German divisions were suspended in the battles on the Luga line, but on September 8 the enemy went to Shlisselburg and Leningrad, which had a population of about 3 million people before the war, was surrounded. Approximately 300 thousand more refugees who arrived in the city from the Baltic states and neighboring regions at the beginning of the war must be added to the number of those who found themselves in the blockade. From that day on, communication with Leningrad became possible only via Lake Ladoga and by air. Almost daily, Leningraders experienced the horror of artillery shelling or bombing. As a result of fires, residential buildings were destroyed, people and food supplies were killed, incl. Badaevsky warehouses.

In early September 1941, he recalled General of the Army G.K. Zhukov and told him: "You will have to fly to Leningrad and take command of the front and the Baltic Fleet from Voroshilov." The arrival of Zhukov and the measures taken by him strengthened the defense of the city, but it was not possible to break through the blockade.

The plans of the Nazis in relation to Leningrad

The blockade organized by the Nazis was aimed precisely at the extinction and destruction of Leningrad. On September 22, 1941, a special directive noted: “The Fuhrer has decided to wipe the city of Leningrad off the face of the earth. It is supposed to surround the city with a tight ring and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground ... In this war, waged for the right to exist, we are not interested in preserving at least part of the population. On October 7, Hitler gave another order - not to accept refugees from Leningrad and push them back to enemy territory. Therefore, any speculation - including those circulated today in the media - that the city could have been saved if it had been surrendered to the mercy of the Germans should be attributed either to the category of ignorance or a deliberate distortion of historical truth.

The situation in the besieged city with food

Before the war, the metropolis of Leningrad was supplied with what is called "from the wheels", the city did not have large food supplies. Therefore, the blockade threatened with a terrible tragedy - hunger. As early as September 2, we had to strengthen the food savings regime. From November 20, 1941, the lowest norms for issuing bread on cards were established: workers and engineers - 250 g, employees, dependents and children - 125 g. Soldiers of the first line units and sailors - 500 g. A mass death of the population began. In December, 53 thousand people died, in January 1942 - about 100 thousand, in February - more than 100 thousand. The surviving pages of the diary of little Tanya Savicheva do not leave anyone indifferent: “Grandma died on January 25. ... “Uncle Alyosha on May 10 ... Mom on May 13 at 7.30 in the morning ... Everyone died. Only Tanya remained. Today, in the works of historians, the figures of the dead Leningraders vary from 800 thousand to 1.5 million people. Recently, data on 1.2 million people have been appearing more and more often. Grief has come to every family. During the battle for Leningrad, more people died than England and the United States lost during the entire war.

"The road of life"

Salvation for the besieged was the "Road of Life" - a route laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga, along which food and ammunition were delivered to the city from November 21, and the civilian population was evacuated on the way back. During the period of the "Road of Life" - until March 1943 - over the ice (and in the summer on various ships) 1615 thousand tons of various cargoes were delivered to the city. At the same time, more than 1.3 million Leningraders and wounded soldiers were evacuated from the city on the Neva. A pipeline was laid to transport oil products along the bottom of Lake Ladoga.

The feat of Leningrad

However, the city did not give up. Its residents and leadership then did everything possible to live and continue to fight. Despite the fact that the city was in the most severe conditions of the blockade, its industry continued to supply the troops of the Leningrad Front with the necessary weapons and equipment. Exhausted by hunger and seriously ill workers performed urgent tasks, repaired ships, tanks and artillery. Employees of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing have preserved the most valuable collection of grain crops. In the winter of 1941, 28 employees of the institute died of starvation, but not a single box of grain was touched.

Leningrad inflicted tangible blows on the enemy and did not allow the Germans and Finns to act with impunity. In April 1942, Soviet anti-aircraft gunners and aviation thwarted the operation of the German command "Aisshtoss" - an attempt to destroy the ships of the Baltic Fleet standing on the Neva from the air. Opposition to enemy artillery was constantly improved. The Leningrad Military Council organized a counter-battery fight, as a result of which the intensity of shelling of the city significantly decreased. In 1943, the number of artillery shells that fell on Leningrad decreased by about 7 times.

The unparalleled self-sacrifice of ordinary Leningraders helped them not only to defend their beloved city. It showed the whole world where the limit of the possibilities of fascist Germany and its allies lies.

Actions of the leadership of the city on the Neva

Although in Leningrad (as in other regions of the USSR during the war years) there were some scoundrels among the authorities, the party and military leadership of Leningrad basically remained at the height of the situation. It behaved adequately to the tragic situation and did not "fatten" at all, as some modern researchers claim. In November 1941, the secretary of the city party committee, Zhdanov, established a rigidly fixed cut-down rate of food consumption for himself and all members of the military council of the Leningrad Front. Moreover, the leadership of the city on the Neva did everything to prevent the consequences of a severe famine. By decision of the Leningrad authorities, additional meals were organized for exhausted people in specially hospitals and canteens. In Leningrad, 85 orphanages were organized, which took tens of thousands of children left without parents. In January 1942, a medical hospital for scientists and creative workers began to operate at the Astoria Hotel. Since March 1942, the Lensoviet allowed residents to set up personal gardens in courtyards and parks. The land for dill, parsley, vegetables was plowed up even at St. Isaac's Cathedral.

Attempts to break the blockade

With all the mistakes, miscalculations, voluntaristic decisions, the Soviet command took maximum measures to break through the blockade of Leningrad as soon as possible. Four attempts were made to break the enemy ring. The first - in September 1941; the second - in October 1941; the third - at the beginning of 1942, during the general counter-offensive, which only partially achieved its goals; the fourth - in August-September 1942. The blockade of Leningrad was not broken then, but the Soviet victims in offensive operations of this period were not in vain. In the summer-autumn of 1942, the enemy failed to transfer any large reserves from near Leningrad to the southern flank of the Eastern Front. Moreover, Hitler sent for the capture of the city the administration and troops of the 11th Army of Manstein, which otherwise could be used in the Caucasus and near Stalingrad. The Sinyavino operation of 1942 of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts outstripped the German attack. Manstein's divisions intended for the offensive were forced to immediately engage in defensive battles against the attacking Soviet units.

"Nevsky Piglet"

The hardest battles in 1941-1942. took place on the "Nevsky Piglet" - a narrow strip of land on the left bank of the Neva, 2-4 km wide along the front and only 500-800 meters deep. This bridgehead, which the Soviet command intended to use to break through the blockade, was held by the Red Army for about 400 days. A tiny plot of land was at one time almost the only hope for saving the city and became one of the symbols of the heroism of the Soviet soldiers who defended Leningrad. The battles for the Nevsky Piglet claimed, according to some sources, the lives of 50,000 Soviet soldiers.

Operation Spark

And only in January 1943, when the main forces of the Wehrmacht were drawn to Stalingrad, the blockade was partially broken. The course of the deblocking operation of the Soviet fronts (Operation Iskra) was led by G. Zhukov. On a narrow strip of the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, 8-11 km wide, land communications with the country were restored. Over the next 17 days, a railway and a highway were laid along this corridor. January 1943 was a turning point in the Battle of Leningrad.

The final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad

The position of Leningrad improved significantly, but the immediate threat to the city continued to exist. In order to finally eliminate the blockade, it was necessary to push the enemy out of the Leningrad region. The idea of ​​such an operation was developed by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command at the end of 1943 by the forces of the Leningrad (General L. Govorov), Volkhov (General K. Meretskov) and the 2nd Baltic (General M. Popov) fronts in cooperation with the Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega flotillas the Leningrad-Novgorod operation was carried out. Soviet troops went on the offensive on January 14, 1944, and already on January 20 Novgorod was liberated. On January 21, the enemy began to withdraw from the Mga-Tosno area, from the section of the Leningrad-Moscow railway line that he had cut.

On January 27, in commemoration of the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days, a festive fireworks thundered. Army Group North suffered a heavy defeat. As a result of the Leningrad-Novgorod Soviet troops reached the borders of Latvia and Estonia.

The value of the defense of Leningrad

The defense of Leningrad was of great military-strategic, political and moral importance. The Hitlerite command lost the possibility of the most effective maneuver of strategic reserves, the transfer of troops to other directions. If the city on the Neva had fallen in 1941, then the German troops would have joined with the Finns, and most of the troops of the German Army Group North could have been deployed in a southerly direction and hit the central regions of the USSR. In this case, Moscow could not resist, and the whole war could go according to a completely different scenario. In the deadly meat grinder of the Sinyavino operation in 1942, Leningraders saved not only themselves with their feat and indestructible stamina. Having fettered the German forces, they provided invaluable assistance to Stalingrad, the whole country!

The feat of the defenders of Leningrad, who defended their city in the most difficult conditions, inspired the entire army and the country, earned deep respect and gratitude from the states of the anti-Hitler coalition.

In 1942, the Soviet government established the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", which was awarded to about 1.5 million defenders of the city. This medal remains in the memory of the people today as one of the most honorary awards of the Great Patriotic War.

DOCUMENTATION:

I. Nazi plans for the future of Leningrad

1. Already on the third day of the war against the Soviet Union, Germany informed the leadership of Finland about its plans to destroy Leningrad. G. Goering told the Finnish envoy in Berlin that the Finns would also receive "Petersburg, which, after all, like Moscow, is better to destroy."

2. According to a note made by M. Bormann at a meeting on July 16, 1941, "The Finns claim the area around Leningrad, the Fuhrer would like to raze Leningrad to the ground, and then transfer it to the Finns."

3. On September 22, 1941, Hitler's directive stated: “The Fuhrer has 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 settlement is of no interest. It is supposed to surround the city with a tight ring and raze it to the ground by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air. If, due to the situation that has developed 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 saving at least part of the population.

4. Directive of the German Naval Staff September 29, 1941: “The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, there is no interest in the continued existence of this settlement. Finland also declared its disinterest in the further existence of the city directly at the new border.

5. As early as 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.”

6. From the testimony of A. Jodl at the Nuremberg trials: During the siege of Leningrad, Field Marshal von Leeb, commander of Army Group North, told the OKW that the streams of civilian refugees from Leningrad were seeking refuge in the German trenches and that he did not have the opportunity to feed and care for them about them. The Führer immediately gave the order (October 7, 1941) not to accept refugees and push them back into enemy territory

II. The myth of the "fatty" leadership of Leningrad

There was information in the media that in besieged Leningrad A.A. Zhdanov allegedly gorged himself on delicacies, which usually featured peaches or bush cakes. the question of a photograph with “rum women” baked in the besieged city in December 1941 is also being discussed. Diaries of former party workers in Leningrad are also cited, which say that party workers lived almost like in paradise.

In fact: the picture with the "rum women" was taken by the journalist A. Mikhailov. He was a well-known photojournalist for TASS. It is obvious that Mikhailov, indeed, received an official order in order to reassure the Soviet people living on the mainland. In the same context, the appearance in the Soviet press in 1942 of information about the State Prize to the director of the Moscow factory of sparkling wines A.M. Frolov-Bagreev, as a developer of technology for the mass production of sparkling wines "Soviet Champagne"; holding skiing competitions and football competitions in the besieged city, etc. Such articles, reports, photographs had one main purpose - to show the population that not everything is so bad, that even under the most severe conditions of a blockade or siege, we can make confectionery and champagne! We will celebrate the victory with our champagne, hold competitions! We hold on and we will win!

Facts about party leaders in Leningrad:

1. As one of the two on-duty waitresses of the Military Council of the Front, A. A. Strakhova, recalled, in the second decade of November 1941, Zhdanov called her and set a rigidly fixed cut-down rate of food consumption for all members of the military council (commander M. S. Khozin, himself, A .A. Kuznetsov, T.F. Shtykov, N.V. Solovyov): "Now it will be like this ...". "... A bit of buckwheat porridge, sour cabbage soup, which Uncle Kolya (his personal chef) cooked for him, is the height of any pleasure! ..".

2. The operator of the central communication center located in Smolny, M. Kh. Neishtadt: “To be honest, I didn’t see any banquets ... Nobody treated the soldiers, and we weren’t offended ... But I don’t remember any excesses there. Zhdanov, when he came, first of all checked the consumption of products. Accounting was the strictest. Therefore, all this talk about "holidays of the stomach" is more speculation than the truth. Zhdanov was the first secretary of the regional committee and city committee of the party, who carried out all the political leadership. I remember him as a person who was quite scrupulous in everything related to material issues.

3. When characterizing the nutrition of the party leadership of Leningrad, certain overexposures are often allowed. We are talking, for example, about the often quoted diary of Ribkovsky, where he describes his stay in the party sanatorium in the spring of 1942, describing the food as very good. It should be remembered that in that source we are talking about March 1942, i.e. period after the launch of the railway line from Voibokalo to Kabona, which is characterized by the end of the food crisis and the return of nutrition to acceptable standards. "Supermortality" at that time took place only because of the consequences of hunger, to combat which the most emaciated Leningraders were sent to special medical institutions (hospitals) created by decision of the City Committee of the Party and the Military Council of the Leningrad Front at many enterprises, factories, clinics in winter 1941/1942.

Ribkovsky, before getting a job in the city committee in December, was unemployed and received the smallest “dependent” ration, as a result he was severely malnourished, so on March 2, 1942 he was sent for seven days to a medical institution for severely malnourished people. The food in this hospital corresponded to the hospital or sanatorium standards in force at that time.

Ribkovsky also honestly writes in his diary:

“Comrades say that the district hospitals are in no way inferior to the city committee hospital, and that some enterprises have hospitals that make our hospital pale.”

4. 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 higher rates not only in special hospitals, but also in 105 city canteens. The hospitals functioned from January 1 to May 1, 1942 and served 60 thousand people. Canteens were also organized outside the enterprises. From April 25 to July 1, 1942, 234 thousand people used them. In January 1942, a hospital for scientists and creative workers began to operate at the Astoria Hotel. In the dining room of the House of Scientists in the winter months, from 200 to 300 people ate.

FACTS FROM THE LIFE OF THE BEACHED CITY

More people died during the battle for Leningrad than England and the United States lost during the entire war

The attitude of the authorities towards religion has changed. During the blockade, three churches were opened in the city: the Prince Vladimir Cathedral, the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior and St. Nicholas Cathedral. In 1942, Easter was very early (March 22, old style). On this day, in the Leningrad churches, under the roar of shell explosions and broken glass, Easter matins were held.

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

In the city, despite the blockade, continued cultural and intellectual life. In March, "Silva" was given by the Musical Comedy of Leningrad. In the summer of 1942, some educational institutions, theaters and cinemas were opened; there were even several jazz concerts.

During the first concert after the break on August 9, 1942 at the Philharmonic, the orchestra of the Leningrad Radio Committee under Karl Eliasberg performed for the first time the famous Leningrad Heroic Symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich, which became the musical symbol of the blockade.

During the blockade, no major epidemics occurred, despite the fact that hygiene in the city was, of course, far below normal levels due to the almost complete lack of running water, sewerage and heating. Of course, the severe winter of 1941-1942 helped to prevent epidemics. At the same time, researchers also point to effective preventive measures taken by the authorities and the medical service.

In December 1941, 53 thousand people died in Leningrad, in January 1942 - more than 100 thousand, in February - more than 100 thousand, in March 1942 - about 100,000 people, in May - 50,000 people , in July - 25,000 people, in September - 7,000 people. (Before the war, the usual death rate in the city was about 3000 people per month).

Enormous damage was done 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 and the monument to Lenin at the Finland Station, were hidden under sandbags and plywood shields.

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 inhabitants of the city during the blockade. For mass heroism and courage in defending the Motherland in the Great Patriotic War of 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.

One of the most tragic pages of the Great Patriotic War is the blockade of Leningrad. History has preserved many facts testifying to this terrible ordeal in the life of the city on the Neva. Leningrad was surrounded by fascist invaders for almost 900 days (from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944). Of the two and a half million inhabitants living in the northern capital before the start of the war, more than 600,000 people died of starvation during the blockade, and several tens of thousands of citizens died from bombing. Despite the catastrophic shortage of food, severe frosts, lack of heat and electricity, Leningraders courageously withstood the fascist onslaught and did not give up their city to the enemy.

About the besieged city through the decades

In 2014, Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the siege of Leningrad. Today, as well as several decades ago, the Russian people highly honor the feat of the inhabitants of the city on the Neva. A large number of books have been written about the besieged Leningrad, many documentaries and feature films have been shot. Schoolchildren and students are told about the heroic defense of the city. To better imagine the situation of people who found themselves in Leningrad surrounded by fascist troops, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the events associated with its siege.

Blockade of Leningrad: interesting facts about the significance of the city for the invaders

To capture Soviet lands from the Nazis, it was developed. In accordance with it, the Nazis planned to conquer the European part of the USSR in a few months. The city on the Neva in the process of occupation was assigned an important role, because Hitler believed that if Moscow is the heart of the country, then Leningrad is its soul. The Fuhrer was sure that as soon as the northern capital fell under the onslaught of the Nazi troops, the morale of the huge state would weaken, and after that it could be easily conquered.

Despite the resistance of our troops, the Nazis managed to significantly move inland and surround the city on the Neva from all sides. September 8, 1941 went down in history as the first day of the Siege of Leningrad. It was then that all land routes from the city were cut, and he was surrounded by the enemy. Every day, Leningrad was subjected to artillery shelling, but did not give up.

The northern capital was in the blockade ring for almost 900 days. In the entire history of mankind, this was the longest and most terrible siege of the city. that before the start of the blockade, part of the inhabitants managed to be evacuated from Leningrad, a large number of citizens continued to remain in it. Terrible torments fell on the lot of these people, and not all of them managed to live to see the liberation of their native city.

Horrors of hunger

Regular air strikes are not the worst thing that Leningraders had to endure during the war. The food supply in the besieged city was not enough, and this led to a terrible famine. The blockade of Leningrad prevented the import of food from other settlements. Interesting facts were left by the townspeople about this period: the local population fell in right on the street, cases of cannibalism no longer surprised anyone. Every day more and more deaths from exhaustion were recorded, the corpses lay on the city streets, and there was no one to clean them up.

With the beginning of the blockade, Leningraders began to be given out for which it was possible to get bread. Since October 1941, the daily norm of bread for workers was 400 g per person, and for children under 12 years old, dependents and employees - 200 g. But this did not save the townspeople from starvation. Food stocks were rapidly declining, and by November 1941, the daily portion of bread was forced to be reduced to 250 g for workers and to 125 g for other categories of citizens. Due to the lack of flour, it consisted of half of inedible impurities, was black and bitter. Leningraders did not complain, because for them a piece of such bread was the only salvation from death. But the famine did not last all 900 days of the siege of Leningrad. Already at the beginning of 1942, the daily norms of bread increased, and the bread itself became of better quality. In mid-February 1942, for the first time, the residents of the city on the Neva were given frozen lamb and beef meat in rations. Gradually, the food situation in the northern capital was stabilized.

anomalous winter

But the blockade of Leningrad was remembered not only by hunger. History contains the facts that the winter of 1941-1942 was unusually cold. Frosts in the city were from October to April and were much stronger than in previous years. In some months, the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. The situation was aggravated by heavy snowfalls: by April 1942, the height of the snowdrifts was 53 cm.

Despite the abnormally cold winter, due to a lack of fuel in the city, it was not possible to start centralized heating, there was no electricity, and the water supply was turned off. In order to somehow warm their homes, Leningraders used potbelly stoves: they burned everything that could burn - books, rags, old furniture. Exhausted by hunger, people could not stand the cold and died. The total number of citizens who died from exhaustion and frost, by the end of February 1942, exceeded 200 thousand people.

Along the "road of life" and life surrounded by the enemy

Until the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted, the only way in which the inhabitants were evacuated and the city was supplied was Lake Ladoga. Trucks and horse carts were transported along it in winter, and barges ran around the clock in summer. The narrow road, completely unprotected from aerial bombardment, was the only link between besieged Leningrad and the world. Local residents called Lake Ladoga "the road of life", because if not for it, the victims of the Nazis would have been disproportionately more.

The blockade of Leningrad lasted for about three years. Interesting facts of this period indicate that, despite the catastrophic situation, life continued in the city. In Leningrad, even during the famine, military equipment was produced, theaters and museums were opened. The fighting spirit of the townspeople was supported by famous writers and poets who regularly spoke on the radio. By the winter of 1942-1943, the situation in the northern capital was no longer as critical as before. Despite regular bombings, life in Leningrad stabilized. Factories, schools, cinemas, baths started working, water supply was restored, public transport began to run around the city.

Curious facts about St. Isaac's Cathedral and cats

On the very last day of the siege of Leningrad, he was subjected to regular shelling. The shells that leveled many buildings in the city to the ground, flew around St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is not known why the Nazis did not touch the building. There is a version that they used its high dome as a guide for shelling the city. The basement of the cathedral served as a repository for valuable museum exhibits, thanks to which they managed to keep intact until the very end of the war.

Not only the Nazis were a problem for the townspeople while the blockade of Leningrad lasted. Interesting facts testify that rats have been bred in huge numbers in the northern capital. They destroyed the meager food supplies that remained in the city. In order to save the population of Leningrad from starvation, 4 carloads of smoky cats, considered the best rat-catchers, were transported to it along the "road of life" from the Yaroslavl region. Animals adequately coped with the mission entrusted to them and gradually destroyed the rodents, saving people from another famine.

Ridding the city of enemy forces

The liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade took place on January 27, 1944. After a two-week offensive, the Soviet troops managed to push the Nazis back from the city. But, despite the defeat, the invaders besieged the northern capital for about six months. The enemy was finally driven back from the city only after the Vyborg and Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operations carried out by the Soviet troops in the summer of 1944.

Memory of besieged Leningrad

January 27 is celebrated in Russia as the day when the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted. On this memorable date, the leaders of the country, church ministers and ordinary citizens come to St. Petersburg, where the ashes of hundreds of thousands of Leningraders who died from starvation and shelling are buried. The 900 days of the blockade of Leningrad will forever remain a black page in Russian history and will remind people of the inhuman crimes of fascism.