The blockade of Leningrad looks like a primitive falsification. Damage to cultural monuments

During the first 18 days of the offensive, the enemy's 4th tank group fought more than 600 kilometers (at a rate of 30-35 km per day), crossed the Western Dvina and Velikaya rivers. On July 5-6, enemy troops occupied Ostrov, and on July 9, Pskov, located 280 kilometers from Leningrad. From Pskov, the shortest route to Leningrad is along the Kyiv Highway, passing through Luga.

On July 19, by the time the advanced German units left, the Luga defensive line was well prepared in engineering terms: defensive structures were built with a length of 175 kilometers, at a depth of 10-15 kilometers. Defensive structures were built by the hands of Leningraders, mostly women and teenagers (men went into the army and militia). In total, over half a million civilians took part in the construction.

The German offensive was suspended for several weeks. Enemy troops failed to capture the city on the move. This delay infuriated Hitler, who made a special trip to Army Group North with the aim of preparing a plan to capture Leningrad no later than September 1941. In conversations with military leaders, the Fuhrer, in addition to purely military arguments, brought up many political arguments. He believed that the capture of Leningrad would not only provide a military gain (control over all the Baltic coasts and the destruction of the Baltic Fleet), but would also bring huge political dividends. The Soviet Union will lose the city, which, being the cradle of the October Revolution, has a special symbolic meaning for the Soviet state. In addition, Hitler considered it very important not to give the Soviet command the opportunity to withdraw troops from the Leningrad area and use them in other sectors of the front. He hoped to destroy the troops defending the city. On September 13, artillery shelling of the city began, which continued throughout the war.

Problems of evacuation of residents

Situation before the blockade

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

The total area of ​​Leningrad and its suburbs encircled was about 5,000 square kilometers.

One of the reasons for Voroshilov’s removal could be his behavior at the front: more than once or twice he personally led operations on the ground, saving the situation. Brought up in the heroic traditions of the Civil War, he once, at an acute critical moment of the situation, personally, moving ahead of the chain, led soldiers on the offensive in a marshal's uniform. The soldiers, who saw the marshal in front of them, were enthusiastically drawn into the counterattack and repelled the enemy attack. When Stalin found out about this, he immediately recalled Voroshilov to Headquarters.

Zhukov was considered one of the most talented generals, but he was also one of the most brutal. When solving combat missions, he did not hesitate to make any sacrifices, achieved his goals, regardless of any losses. This man was able to stop the German offensive in a situation that seemed absolutely hopeless.

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

• 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

Exposure to cold

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

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

The situation is getting worse

January and early February 1942 became the most terrible, critical months of the blockade. In the first half of January, the entire non-working population of the city did not receive any food products on cards at all. Impurities in the bread issued already amounted to 60%, and electricity generation decreased to 4% of the pre-war level. The most severe frosts came in January - the average monthly temperature was minus 19 degrees Celsius - much lower than the average for this month in Leningrad, which is usually minus 8 degrees. Moreover, during 8 January days the thermometer showed minus 30 and below. Drinking water has become a great shortage, and its transportation to apartments and institutions is a real feat.

The number of famine victims grew rapidly - more than 4,000 people died every day. So many people died in the city in peacetime within 40 days. There were days when 6-7 thousand people died. Men died much faster than women (for every 100 deaths, approximately 63 men and 37 women). By the end of the war, women made up the bulk of the urban population.

Siege of Leningrad. The situation at the front from June to December 1941

Attempts to break the blockade. "Road of Life"

Breakthrough attempt. "Nevsky Piglet"

In January 1942, the Red Army made its first attempt to break the blockade. The troops of the two fronts - Leningrad and Volkhov - in the area of ​​​​Lake Ladoga were separated by only 12 km. However, the Germans managed to create an impenetrable defense in this area, and the forces of the Red Army were still very limited. Soviet troops suffered huge losses, but were never able to move forward. The soldiers who broke through the blockade ring from Leningrad were severely exhausted. One of the commanders recalls in his memoirs how at the beginning of 1942 he decided to find out how far his weakened soldiers could walk on their own without a long stop. It turned out that most of the strength ran out after 400 meters, and according to the command plan, it was necessary to walk 800 meters.

The main battles were fought on the so-called “Neva Patch” - a narrow strip of land 300-500 meters wide and about 1 km long on the left bank of the Neva, held by troops of the Leningrad Front. The entire area was under fire from the enemy, and Soviet troops, constantly trying to expand this bridgehead, suffered heavy losses. However, under no circumstances was it possible to surrender the patch - otherwise the full-flowing Neva would have to be crossed again, and the task of breaking the blockade would become much more complicated. Total for 1941−1943 More than 300,000 Soviet soldiers died on the Nevsky Piglet.

During 1942, five attempts were made to break the blockade, but all of them were unsuccessful. In January 1943, the collapse of hope for a quick deliverance from the torment of the blockade became a severe psychological stress for the residents of the besieged city. The knowledge that the famine could last for several more months seemed unbearable.

"Road of Life"

Damage to cultural monuments

Enormous damage was caused to historical buildings and monuments of Leningrad. It could have been even larger if very effective measures had not been taken to disguise them. The most valuable monuments, for example, the monument to Peter I next to St. Isaac's Cathedral, the monument to Lenin near the Finlyandsky Station, were hidden under sandbags and plywood shields. But the greatest, irreparable damage was caused to historical buildings and monuments located in the German-occupied suburbs of Leningrad. The Great Catherine Palace in Tsarskoe Selo and the Great Palace in Peterhof were destroyed. The famous Amber Room, presented to Peter I by the King of Prussia, was completely taken away by the Germans.

Blockade rewards

The obverse of the medal depicts the outline of the Admiralty and a group of soldiers with rifles at the ready. Along the perimeter is the inscription “FOR THE DEFENSE OF LENINGRAD.”
The reverse side of the medal depicts the Hammer and Sickle. Below it is the text in capital letters: “FOR OUR SOVIET MOTHERLAND.”
In 1985, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” was awarded to about 1 470 000 Human. Among those awarded are 15 thousand children and teenagers.

Established by the decision of the Leningrad City Executive Committee “On the establishment of the sign “Residents of besieged Leningrad”” No. 5 of January 23, 1989.
On the front side there is an image of a torn ring against the background of the Main Admiralty, a tongue of flame, a laurel branch and the inscription “900 days - 900 nights”; on the reverse there is a hammer and sickle and the inscription “To a resident of besieged Leningrad.”
As of 2006, there were 217 thousand people living in Russia who were awarded the “Resident of Siege Leningrad” badge.

The role of the Soviet Navy (RKKF) in the defense of Leningrad

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

At the very beginning of the war, the Naval Defense of Leningrad and the Lake District (MOLiOR) was created. On August 30, 1941, the Military Council of the North-Western Direction determined that “the main task of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet 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 turned out to be useful during the retreat in 1941, the defense and attempts to break the Blockade in 1941-43, and the breakthrough and lifting of the Blockade in 1943-44.

It is worth highlighting the following areas of activity of the fleet, which were important at all stages of the Battle of Leningrad:

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

• Operations on enemy sea and lake communications (primarily by submarines, torpedo boats, and aviation).

• Prevention of enemy landing operations (most famously, the destruction of the German-Finnish flotilla and the repulsion of the landing force during the battle for Suho Island, Lake Ladoga, October 22, 1942.

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

the first days of the siege of Leningrad

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

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

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

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

German plans: war of annihilation

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

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

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

Vera Inber, Soviet poet and prose writer

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

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

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

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

Leningraders: in the ring of ignorance

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

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

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

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

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

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

bread grain and flour - for 35 days;

cereals and pasta - for 30 days;

meat and meat products - for 33 days;

fats - for 45 days.

The norms for issuing bread at that time were:

workers - 800 g;

employees - 600 g;

dependents and children - 400 g.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The front has stabilized: who won?

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

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

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

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

Alexander Werth, British journalist, 1943

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

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

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

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

change from 07/25/2013 - ()

Most likely, previously carefully hidden information has finally begun to leak out to people, which can reveal to us the real organizers of that terrible war, the real goals that they set for themselves, and the real events that took place during that terrible and cruel time.

It seems to us that we know almost everything about the Great Patriotic War, because thousands of books have been written about it, hundreds of documentaries and feature films have been created, many paintings and poems have been written. But in reality, we only know what has long been emasculated and put on public display. There may also be some part of the truth, but not all of it.

You and I will now be convinced that we know very little even about the most important, as we were told, events of that War. I would like to draw your attention to an article by Alexei Kungurov from Chelyabinsk entitled “On mathematics and historical reality,” which at one time was undeservedly ignored by all the world’s media.

In this short article, he cited several facts that shatter the existing legend about the siege of Leningrad. No, he does not deny that there were protracted and heavy battles there, and there were a huge number of civilian casualties.

But he claims that there was no blockade of Leningrad (complete encirclement of the city), and provides convincing evidence for this assertion.

He reaches his conclusions by analyzing publicly available, widely known information using logic and arithmetic. You can watch and listen in more detail about this in the recording of his Internet Conference “Managing History as a Knowledge System”...

In Leningrad at that time there were many oddities and incomprehensibility, which we will now voice, using many fragments from the above-mentioned article by Alexei Kungurov.

Unfortunately, no reasonable and substantiated explanations have yet been found for what was happening in Leningrad at that time. Therefore, we have to hope that correctly formulated questions will help you and me find or calculate the correct answers.

In our additions to Alexey Kungurov’s materials, we will also use only publicly available and widely known information, repeatedly voiced and confirmed by photographic materials, maps and other documents.

So, let's go in order.

RIDDLE ONE

Where did this term come from?

Blockades exactly the city of Leningrad in reality there wasn't. This sonorous term was most likely coined to shift the blame onto the Germans for the mass casualties among the urban population. But There was no encirclement of the city of Leningrad in that War!

In the summer of 1941, according to available publicly available information, a certain, rather large territory of several thousand square kilometers, on which the city of Leningrad was and is now located, was cut off by German troops from the rest of the country. This happened at the end of August 1941:

“After stubborn battles, the enemy’s 39th motorized corps captured the large railway junction of Mga on August 30. The last railway connecting Leningrad with the country was cut..."

RIDDLE SECOND

Why were there so few shells?

A. Kungurov’s article begins with an analysis of the written statement that 148,478 shells fell on the city during the siege. Historians describe these events as follows:

“Leningraders lived in constant nervous tension, shelling followed one after another. From September 4 to November 30, 1941, the city was shelled 272 times for a total duration of 430 hours. Sometimes the population remained in bomb shelters for almost a day. On September 15, 1941, the shelling lasted 18 hours 32 m, on September 17 - 18 hours 33 m. In total, during the blockade of Leningrad, about 150 thousand shells were fired ... "

Kungurov, through simple arithmetic calculations, shows that this figure is taken from the air and may differ from reality by several orders of magnitude! One artillery battalion of 18 large-caliber guns is capable of firing 232,000 rounds during the mentioned 430 hours of shelling!

But the blockade, according to established data, lasted much longer than three weeks, and the enemy had several hundred times more guns. Therefore, the number of fallen shells, which newspapers of that time wrote about, and then copied by everyone who wrote to us about the blockade, should have been several orders of magnitude greater if the blockade had taken place in the form to which we were all taught.

On the other hand, many photographs of besieged Leningrad show that destruction in the central part of the city was minimal! This is only possible if the enemy was not allowed to attack the city with artillery and aircraft.

However, judging by the maps, the enemy was only a few kilometers from the city, and the reasonable question of why the city and military factories were not completely turned into ruins in a couple of weeks remains open.

RIDDLE THIRD

Why was there no order?

The Germans did not have orders to occupy Leningrad. Kungurov writes about this very clearly as follows:

“Von Leib, commander of Army North, was a competent and experienced commander. He had up to 40 divisions (including tank ones) under his command. The front in front of Leningrad was 70 km long. The density of troops reached the level of 2-5 km per division in the direction of the main attack. In this situation, only historians who do not understand anything about military affairs can say that under these conditions he could not take the city.

We have repeatedly seen in feature films about the defense of Leningrad how German tankers drive into the suburbs, crush and shoot trams. The front had been broken and there was no one ahead of them. In their memoirs, Von Leib and many other German army commanders stated that they were forbidden to take the city, gave the order to retreat from advantageous positions..."

Isn’t it true that the German troops behaved very strangely: instead of easily capturing the city and advancing further (we understand that the militias that were shown to us in the movies are in principle incapable of providing serious resistance to regular troops), the invaders have been standing near Leningrad for almost 3 years, allegedly blocking all land approaches to it.

And taking into account the fact that there were most likely no or very few counterattacks from the defenders, for the advancing German troops this was not a war, but a real sanatorium! It would be interesting to know the true reaction of the German command to this legend of the blockade.

RIDDLE FOUR

Why did the Kirov plant work?

"It is known that The Kirov plant worked throughout the blockade. The fact is also known - he was located 3 (three!!!) kilometers from the front line. For people who did not serve in the army, I will say that a bullet from a Mosin rifle can fly at such a distance if you shoot in the right direction (I am simply silent about artillery guns of larger caliber).

Residents were evacuated from the Kirov plant area, but the plant continued to work under the very nose of the German command, and it was never destroyed (although one artillery lieutenant with a battery of not the largest caliber could have handled this task, with the right task and sufficient ammunition) ... "

Do you understand what is written here? It is written here that the fierce enemy, who continuously fired cannons and bombed the surrounded city of Leningrad for 3 years, did not bother to destroy the Kirov plant, which produced military equipment, during this time, although this could have been done in one day!

How can this be explained? Either because the Germans did not know how to shoot at all, or because they did not have an order to destroy the enemy’s plant, which is no less fantastic than the first assumption; or the German troops that stood near Leningrad, performed another function, unknown to us yet...

To understand what a city truly treated by artillery and aviation looks like, find military photos of Stalingrad, which was shelled not for 3 years, but for much less time...

Thus, the reasons for the mystery of the siege of Leningrad may be worth looking in a slightly different plane than we are used to doing?

On September 1, 1939, at 4:45 a.m., without a declaration of war, on Hitler’s orders, German troops crossed the Polish border, and an hour later their planes bombed Warsaw. The Wehrmacht began implementing the “Plan Weiss” (“White Plan”). On September 3, after some hesitation, the governments of England and France, bound by a mutual assistance pact with Poland, declared war on Germany.

The Second World War began, which lasted six years and ended on September 2, 1945, when the act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay aboard the American battleship Missouri. 61 states took part in this war, that is, 80 percent of the world's population.

Military operations took place over a vast area from the shores of Novaya Zemlya and Alaska in the north to the borders of Egypt, India and Australia in the south, from the Atlantic coast in the west to the Kuril and Hawaiian Islands in the east. The war claimed almost 60 million lives, about half of which were sons and daughters of the peoples of the former Soviet Union. The number of wounded and maimed at the front and in the rear exceeded 90 million people.

Having declared war on Germany, England and France, however, did not provide significant and effective assistance to Poland. Despite the steadfastness and courageous resistance of the Polish army, the collapse of Poland under the blows of the fascist aggressors occurred with lightning speed. Within 18 days, the Wehrmacht won a decisive victory, although Warsaw held out until September 28, and the last Polish fortress surrendered on October 5.

On the Western Front, England and France did not conduct any military operations against Germany for 7 months. What happened there was then called the “strange war.” “The silence on the Western Front,” wrote W. Churchill, “was broken only by an occasional cannon shot or an occasional patrol.”

On April 9, 1940, German troops, supported by the navy and air force, unexpectedly invaded Denmark and Norway. The Danish army, by order of the king and the government, laid down its arms without resistance. In Norway, the Germans met fierce resistance. The British and French landed amphibious assault to help the Norwegian army repel the Wehrmacht attack. But the superiority of forces was on the side of the Germans, who defeated the Norwegians and forced the evacuation of the Anglo-French troops.

On May 10, 1940, German hordes invaded Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg and struck through their territory on the northern flank of France - in the center of the front through the Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line from the southeast. The Germans broke through the Allied front on the Meuse River and reached the English Channel coast. On May 14, the Dutch army capitulated, and on May 28, the Belgian army. Almost 400 thousand British, French and Belgians were cut off from their main forces at Dunkirk and then blocked. Hitler could have delivered a decisive blow to the blockaded Allied forces, but unexpectedly stopped the advance of German tanks in late May and early June. Having abandoned all their equipment, the Allies managed to transport 338 thousand people to the British Isles, including 215 thousand British and 123 thousand French and Belgians. On June 22, France capitulated.

On June 10, 1940, Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, whose troops captured British Somalia, part of Kenya and Sudan in August, and in September invaded Egypt from Libya. Having received reinforcements, the British went on the offensive and defeated the Italian army. Having launched a wide offensive in northeast Africa (Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia), British troops eventually forced the Italians to capitulate. Hitler decided to take part in the Scramble for Africa. German troops were deployed to Libya. In March 1941, Italian-German troops went on the offensive and blocked the English garrison in Tobruk.

Attempts by the Italians in October 1940 to develop an offensive from Albania (which they occupied back in 1939) to Greece ended in failure. With the defeat of France, Hitler and his generals developed a plan for an invasion of the British Isles across the English Channel (“Zelewe”), but subsequently abandoned it due to the preparations for an attack on the USSR.

In August 1940, massive aerial bombing of England by German aircraft began, which continued until May 1941 (“Battle of Britain”). The people and government of England showed resilience and courage, their resistance was not broken.

In April 1941, German and Italian troops occupied Yugoslavia and Greece, and in May they captured the island of Crete, which became a Nazi military base in the Mediterranean. This significantly escalated the naval hostilities that began back in 1939 in the so-called “Battle of the Atlantic.”

Having brought almost all of Western Europe under control, Germany begins to concentrate its main efforts against the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. After Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, an anti-Hitler coalition began to take shape, and after the United States entered the war, it finally took shape with the goal of defeating Germany and its allies. The armed forces of the USSR, USA and Great Britain fought against the armies of the states of the militaristic-fascist bloc.

On December 7, 1941, that is, during the days of the transition to a counteroffensive near Moscow, Japan, without declaring war, attacked the possessions of the United States and England in the Pacific Ocean. On December 8, the United States declared war on Japan. Great Britain and its dominions did the same. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The zone of the Second World War expanded, the war took on a global character. Enormous battles unfolded, many of which can be identified as the decisive battles of the Second World War.

The Battle of Leningrad occupies a special place in world military history due to its duration, tenacity, unprecedented resistance and tragedy experienced by the defenders of the blockaded city.

The Battle of Leningrad geographically covered almost the entire northwestern part of the Soviet Union. The struggle for Leningrad, which lasted over three years, involved troops of the Northern (later Leningrad), Northwestern, Volkhov, Karelian and 2nd Baltic fronts, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega flotillas, as well as long-range aviation formations.

On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people began. In terms of waging war against the Soviet Union, the military-political leadership of Germany assigned a special place to the capture of Leningrad, given its importance as the largest political, economic and military-strategic center of the country. The capture of Leningrad and the capture of the Baltic Sea coast was considered the most important goal of the Wehrmacht offensive, which was enshrined in the attack plan of the Soviet Union - “Plan Barbarossa”. In this directive, the capture of Leningrad was considered an “urgent task.”

Army Group North, aimed at Leningrad, was given the main task: advancing from East Prussia in cooperation with Army Group Center, to destroy the Soviet troops fighting in the Baltic states. “Only after achieving this urgent task, which should culminate in the capture of Leningrad and Kronstadt,” the directive said, “should offensive operations be continued to capture the most important communications center of the defense industry—Moscow...” (The Defeat of German Imperialism in the Second World War. Articles and Documents. M., 1960. P. 201.) The German command intended to take Moscow only after the fall of Leningrad, the capture of which was supposed to create the necessary preconditions for the successful offensive of the Wehrmacht troops on the Soviet capital, entail the death of the Baltic Fleet, the loss of the Murmansk railway.

Army Group North (commander Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb) included the 16th (commander Colonel General Ernst Busch) and the 18th (commander Colonel General Georg von Küchler), as well as the 4th Panzer Group ( commander Colonel General Erich Gopner) - a total of 29 divisions. From the air, Army Group North was supported by the 1st Air Fleet, which had 760 combat aircraft. In addition, part of the forces of Army Group Center (3rd Tank Army and the main forces of the 9th Army) was supposed to participate in the initial attack on the troops of the Baltic Military District. In total, this group consisted of about 725 thousand people, more than 13 thousand guns and mortars in the fight month after month 1941-1944.

Following the instructions of Headquarters, on July 5, the Military Council of the Front created the Luga Operational Group under the command of Lieutenant General K. P. Pyadyshev. In addition to the rifle divisions withdrawn from the front north of Leningrad, it included three divisions of the people's militia, Leningrad rifle and machine gun and infantry schools. Almost all artillery regiments of the Reserve of the High Command (RGK) were transferred to the southwest.

The construction of defensive structures began. Although defensive work on the Luga line was not completed, minefields were laid in the directions of probable movement of German tanks, anti-tank ditches were dug, and rubble was placed on forest roads.

The situation in the northwestern direction continued to deteriorate. German troops took Ostrov on July 6, and Pskov on July 9. Thus, by July 10, the enemy had captured almost the entire Baltic region and invaded the distant approaches to Leningrad. The Battle of Leningrad began - the longest battle of the Great Patriotic War.

On July 10, the Main Command of the North-Western Direction was formed (Commander-in-Chief Marshal K. E. Voroshilov), to which the troops of the Northern and North-Western Fronts, the Baltic and Northern Fleets were subordinated.

On this day, July 10, German and Finnish troops went on the offensive on the southwestern and northern approaches to Leningrad. Almost simultaneously, the enemy launched strikes in the Luga, Novgorod and Staraya Russian directions, in Estonia, in the Petrozavodsk and Olonets directions.

The 41st Motorized Corps, with two tank, one motorized and one infantry divisions, advanced along the Pskov-Luga highway and two days later reached the Plyussa River, where it encountered organized resistance from the advanced units of the Luga operational group. The German command changed the direction of the main attack. The main forces of the 41st Motorized Corps were turned to the northeast, towards the Kingisepp direction. Now the enemy’s calculations were based on reaching Leningrad through the Koporye Plateau. On July 14, an advance detachment with 20 tanks crossed the Luga River 20-25 km southeast of Kingisepp and created a bridgehead on its northern bank near the village. Ivanovskoe. The next day, the enemy took a bridgehead in the Bolshoi Sobok area. Here the German troops were stopped by hastily transferred units of the 2nd People's Militia Division and the combined regiment of the Kirov Infantry School.

The German 56th motorized corps attacked in the direction of Porkhov - Novgorod. The 8th Panzer Division captured the city of Soltsy and advanced units reached the Mshaga River near Shimsk.

On July 14, the 11th Army (General V.I. Morozov) of the Northwestern Front suddenly launched a counterattack in the area of ​​the city of Soltsy. In four days of fighting, the German 8th Panzer Division suffered heavy losses. The German 56th Mechanized Corps was thrown back 40 km to the west.

Increasing resistance of Soviet troops on the Luga defensive line and a counterattack in the area of ​​the city of Soltsy led to the fact that the German command was forced to suspend the attack on Leningrad until the main forces of Army Group North arrived.

In the northern direction, Soviet troops, with the support of the Ladoga military flotilla, fought defensive battles in July-August. By the end of August, the 23rd Army retreated to the old state border. By the end of September, the troops of the 7th Army were pushed back to the Svir River. Here the front stabilized until June 1944.

From August 8, the enemy launched an offensive in the Red Guard direction, and from August 10 - in the Luga-Leningrad and Novgorod-Chudov directions. On August 12, the 16th German Army broke the defenses at Shimsk and began to develop an offensive towards Novgorod.

In this difficult situation, the defenders of Leningrad received help. The 34th and 11th armies of the Northwestern Front launched a counterattack in the Staraya Russa area. They advanced almost 60 km, creating a threat of reaching the rear of Army Group North. The German command was forced to suspend the offensive in the Luga direction and transfer the 39th Motorized Corps from the Novgorod direction to repel the attack of Soviet troops. But still, on August 19, Soviet troops abandoned the city of Novgorod, and on August 20, the Germans took Chudovo.

On August 21, defensive battles began on the near approaches to Leningrad. On August 23, the Northern Front was divided into two fronts, Karelian (commanded by Lieutenant General V.A. Frolov) and Leningrad. General M. M. Popov remained the front commander.

On August 25, units of the enemy’s 1st and 28th Army Corps and the 39th Motorized Corps broke through the defenses of the 48th Army in Chudovo and began to rapidly develop an offensive in the direction of Leningrad. On August 28, German troops captured Tosno; on the 29th, Kirishi came close to Kolpino.

New changes occurred in the leadership of Soviet troops at this time. On August 29, the High Command of the North-Western Direction was abolished, and Marshal Voroshilov took command of the Leningrad Front on September 5.

German troops were approaching Leningrad. Having captured the Mga station, the enemy cut the last railway connecting Leningrad with the country. Shlisselburg (Petrokrepost) fell. At Lake Ladoga, German troops closed the blockade ring around Leningrad on September 8.

Two days after this, Army General G.K. Zhukov took command of the Leningrad Front. In the current critical situation, he is taking measures to mobilize forces to repel the formations of Army Group North, rushing towards Leningrad. Some troops from the Karelian Isthmus are being transferred to the most threatening sectors of the front. Reserve units are replenished with militia units. A significant number of sailors are being transferred from ships to land. To combat enemy tanks, some of the anti-aircraft guns of the city's air defense are brought in.

In September, fierce fighting continued in the immediate vicinity of the city. At the cost of heavy losses, the Germans took Krasnoye Selo, Pushkin, Ligovo, and New Peterhof.

The fighting took place near the villages of Volodarsky and Uritsk, on the Pulkovo Heights. The German command threw all its forces into the Offensive, but they were unable to advance a single step. German units encountered resistance everywhere, which they were never able to overcome.

On September 25, the commander of Army Group North, Field Marshal Leeb, reported to the headquarters of the Supreme High Command that he could not continue the offensive with the available forces. So for the first time in the Second World War, the largest group of German troops would be stopped. Army Group North was forced to go on the defensive. This was the first major defeat of the Wehrmacht, the failure of the “blitzkrieg” strategy.

In battles on the distant and near approaches to Leningrad, Soviet troops lost almost 345 thousand people, of which 214 thousand were irretrievable losses. At the cost of these losses, Leningrad closed the path to the Wehrmacht in the northwestern sector of the Soviet-German front.

German troops sought to strangle the defenders of Leningrad in the grip of the blockade, destroying the city with air strikes and heavy artillery fire. During the battle, about 150 thousand shells were fired at the city and over 100 thousand incendiary and about 5 thousand high-explosive bombs were dropped. In the city, 16,467 people were killed by shells and bombs and 33,782 were injured. More than a million people died from starvation. From the very beginning of the German blockade, the Soviet command made attempts to unblock the city. The troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts fought fierce battles in January-April 1942 in the Lyuban and August-October in the Sinyavinsk directions with the aim of breaking the blockade, but they did not achieve success.

By the end of 1942, the situation in Leningrad continued to be difficult. The problem of communications with the country was still very acute. On December 8, 1942, the Supreme Command Headquarters, by a special directive, determined the tasks of the troops of the Leningrad (commanded by Lieutenant General L. A. Govorov) and Volkhov (army commander K. A. Meretskov) fronts to break the blockade of Leningrad. The general plan of the operation ("Iskra") was to defeat the German troops defending the Shlisselburg-Sinyavinsky ledge, which separated the troops of the two fronts, with counter strikes from two fronts - Leningrad from the west and Volkhov from the east, with the support of the Red Banner Baltic Front and the Ladoga Flotilla. the depth of which did not exceed 16 km. The grouping of the Leningrad Front was the 67th Army of Major General M.P. Dukhanov. The Volkhov Front grouping consisted of the 2nd Shock Army under Lieutenant General V.Z. Romanovsky. Securing the left flank of the 2nd Shock Army was entrusted to the 8th Army under the command of Major General F.N. Starikov. By the beginning of Operation Iskra, about 245 thousand soldiers and officers, 4079 guns and mortars of 76 mm caliber and larger, 530 tanks, 637 rocket launchers were concentrated in two armies - the 67th and 2nd Shock. In addition, the 8th Army numbered 52.5 thousand people. There was a favorable balance of forces compared to the German troops. Up to 900 aircraft were used for aviation support. The enemy at that time had 132 aircraft, but during the operation their number increased to 250. (Leningrad in the fight month after month 1941-1944. St. Petersburg, 1994. P. 188.)

On January 12, 1943, after powerful artillery preparation, the 67th and 2nd shock armies rushed towards each other and already on the first day broke through the main German defense line between Shlisselburg and Sinyavin. On January 18, the troops of the fronts united, clearing the enemy from a corridor 8-11 km wide between Lake Ladoga and the front line, through which a railway was built, called the “Victory Road”. Breaking the blockade was a turning point in the battle for Leningrad.

In the summer and autumn of 1943, troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts actively thwarted the enemy’s attempts to again reach the coast of Lake Ladoga and restore the blockade. Soviet troops cleared the Kirishi bridgehead on the Volkhov River from the Germans, captured the powerful defense center of Sinyavino and improved their operational position. (The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Encyclopedia. M., 1985. P. 403.)

The final defeat of German troops near Leningrad and the complete lifting of the blockade of the city occurred in January 1944. Forces of the troops of the 2nd shock, 42nd and 67th armies of the Leningrad Front, 8th, 54th and 59th armies of the Volkhov Front, 1st shock and 22nd armies of the 2nd Baltic Front (commander General Army M. M. Popov) in cooperation with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega flotillas, the Leningrad-Novgorod operation was carried out, in which long-range aviation was involved (Air Marshal A. E. Golovanov). Soviet troops on three fronts outnumbered the enemy in number of troops by 1.7 times, in the number of guns and mortars by 2 times, in tanks and self-propelled guns - artillery installations by 4.1 times, in combat aircraft - by 3.7 times.

On January 14, 1944, Soviet troops went on the offensive from the Oranienbaum bridgehead to Ropsha (2nd Shock Army of General I.I. Fedyuninsky), and on the 15th from Leningrad to Krasnoye Selo (42nd Army of General I.I. Maslenikov). On the morning of January 20, after stubborn fighting, the advancing troops of both armies united in the Ropsha area.

This completed the encirclement of the enemy's Krasnoselsko-Ropshin group, the remnants of which were destroyed the next day. On January 27, to commemorate the complete lifting of the blockade, a ceremonial fireworks display rang out on the banks of the Neva.

On the morning of December 14, the troops of the 59th Army of General I. T. Korovnikov (Volkhov Front) went on the offensive north of Novgorod, and on January 16 - in the Lyuban direction. On January 20, Novgorod was liberated. By the end of January 1944, troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts liberated the cities of Pushkin, Slutsk (Pavlovsk), Krasnogvardeysk (Gatchina), Tosno, Lyuban and Chudovo. The Germans tried to narrow the river line. Luga, but on February 12, Soviet troops, in cooperation with partisans, captured Poroda Luga, and by February 15 they completely broke through the enemy’s defenses. The Volkhov Front was disbanded, the troops of the Leningrad and 2nd Baltic Fronts continued to pursue the enemy in the Pskov and Ostrovsky directions. By the end of March 1, they reached the Latvian border. (Ibid., p. 403.)

During the offensive battles, Soviet troops inflicted a heavy defeat on Army Group North, completely lifted the blockade of Leningrad, liberated almost the entire Leningrad and Novgorod regions, part of the Kalinin region and entered the territory of Estonia. The preconditions were created for the defeat of the enemy in the Baltic states and in the area north of Leningrad.

The final operation of the Battle of Leningrad was carried out in 1944 by troops of the left wing of the Leningrad and left wing of the Karelian fronts (commanded by Army General K. A. Meretskov) with the assistance of the forces of the Baltic Front, Ladoga and Onega military flotillas. Soviet troops defeated the Finnish army, Finland's exit from the war was a foregone conclusion, liberating the northern regions of the Leningrad region, ensuring the security of Leningrad and the territory of the Karelo-Finnish Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

By August 10, 1944, the battle for Leningrad, which had great political and military-strategic significance, ended. It influenced the course of military operations in other sectors of the Soviet-German front and attracted large forces of German troops and the Finnish army. The German command could not transfer troops from near Leningrad to other directions when decisive battles took place there.

The most difficult and tragic period in the life of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During the Battle of Leningrad 1941-44, Soviet troops steadfastly and heroically held back the enemy on the distant and then on the near approaches to Leningrad. On August 20, 1941, Nazi troops occupied the city of Chudovo, cutting the Leningrad-Moscow railway. By August 21, the enemy reached the Krasnogvardeisky fortified area in the south, and on the same day Finnish troops captured the city of Kexgolm (now Priozersk) on the western shore of Lake Ladoga. On August 22, fighting began in the Oranienbaum direction. The Nazi troops did not manage to immediately break into Leningrad, but the front came close to the city in its southwestern part. With the enemy breakthrough on August 30, the last train was cut at the Mga station. d., connecting Leningrad with the country. On September 8, 1941, the enemy captured the city of Shlisselburg, and land communications with Leningrad completely ceased. The blockade of the city began, communication with the country was maintained only by air and across Lake Ladoga. By the end of September, the front on the southwestern and southern approaches to Leningrad had stabilized. It took place at the borders: the Gulf of Finland, Ligovo, the southern slopes of the Pulkovo Heights, the approaches to Kolpino, the bank of the Neva from Ivanovo to Shlisselburg. In the southwest, the front was located 6 km from the Kirov Plant, in the Dachnoye area. The front line of defense of the Soviet troops passed through the territory of modern Krasnoselsky district, Kirovsky district, and Moskovsky district. In the northwest and northeast, the front line stabilized in September 1941 on the line of the old Soviet-Finnish border.

In the blockaded city (with its suburbs), although the evacuation continued, 2 million 887 thousand civilians remained, including about 400 thousand children. Food and fuel supplies were extremely limited (for 1-2 months). On September 4, the enemy, trying to carry out plans for the destruction of Leningrad, began shelling Leningrad, and from September 8 - massive air raids. At the end of August, a commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the State Defense Committee arrived in the city, which examined urgent issues of strengthening its defense, evacuation of enterprises and population, and supplies. On August 30, the GKO transferred to the Military Council of the Leningrad Front all functions related to organizing resistance to the enemy.

At the end of September 1941, the State Defense Committee allowed the Military Council of the Leningrad Front to independently determine the volume and nature of production of the main types of defense products in Leningrad. The City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks began placing orders for factories, controlled their implementation, and since October directly supervised the work of the entire industry of Leningrad. The hard heroic work of Leningraders and the clear organization of industrial work made it possible to establish the production of defense products in the city. In the second half of 1941 (from the beginning of the war until December 14), Leningrad factories produced 318 aircraft, 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and 52 armored platforms, over 3 thousand artillery pieces, about 10 thousand mortars, over 3 million shells and mines , 84 ships of different classes were completed and 186 were converted.

Along the “Road of Life” across Lake Ladoga, the population and industrial equipment were evacuated, food, fuel, ammunition, weapons and manpower were delivered to the troops in Leningrad. The disruption of stable communications with the country and the cessation of the regular supply of fuel, raw materials and food had a catastrophic effect on the life of the city. In December 1941, Leningrad received almost 7 times less electricity than in July. Most factories stopped working, the movement of trolleybuses and trams, and the supply of electricity to residential buildings stopped. In January 1942, due to severe frosts, the central heating, water supply and sewer networks failed. Residents went to fetch water from the Neva, Fontanka, and other rivers and canals. Temporary stoves were installed in residential buildings. The dismantling of wooden buildings for fuel was organized.

In the fall of 1941, famine began in Leningrad, from which 53 thousand people died in December. During January - February 1942, about 200 thousand Leningraders died from hunger. Party and Soviet authorities took measures to alleviate the living conditions of Leningraders. The most weakened people were sent to hospitals, hospitals were created for patients with dystrophy, boilers were installed in homes, children were placed in orphanages and nurseries. Komsomol organizations created special Komsomol youth household detachments that provided assistance to thousands of sick, exhausted and weakened people from hunger.

In the winter of 1941–42, about 270 factories and factories were mothballed. Of the 68 leading enterprises in the defense, shipbuilding and machine-building industries in January 1942, only 18 were not operating at full capacity. Tanks and weapons were being repaired. In January - March, about 58 thousand shells and mines, over 82 thousand fuses, and over 160 thousand hand grenades were manufactured.

Leningraders selflessly overcame the consequences of the blockade winter. At the end of March - beginning of April 1942, they completed a huge job of sanitary cleaning of the city. In the spring of 1942, navigation began on Lake Ladoga. Water transportation became the main means of overcoming the consequences of the blockade winter and reviving the urban economy. In June, the Ladoga pipeline, laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga to supply fuel to Leningrad, went into operation, then 2 months later the city received energy from the Volkhov hydroelectric station via an underwater cable.

The resolution of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front (July 5, 1942) “On necessary measures for the city of Leningrad” outlined the path for the development of Leningrad’s industry and municipal economy. Workers from mothballed factories, from light and local industry, public utilities, employees from the administrative apparatus were sent to the military industry, and the population unemployed in public production was mobilized. Almost 75% of all workers were women. By the end of 1942, the work of industrial enterprises noticeably intensified. Since the fall, tanks, artillery pieces, mortars, machine guns, machine guns, shells, mines - about 100 types of defense products - have been produced. In December, residential buildings began to be connected to the electricity grid. The whole country provided assistance in reviving the economic life of Leningrad.

In January 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken by Soviet troops, and a railroad was built along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. through Shlisselburg - “Victory Road”. Restoration of the railway connections with the country, improved supply of Leningrad with fuel and electricity, and the population with food made it possible to expand the work of the city industry more widely. In the spring, 15 leading factories received orders from the State Defense Committee, and 12 from the People's Commissariats. In July 1943, 212 enterprises of the Union and Republican subordination were already operating in Leningrad, producing over 400 types of defense products. By the end of 1943, about 620 thousand people remained in Leningrad, 80% of whom worked. Almost all residential and public buildings received electricity and were provided with water supply and sewerage.

As a result of the Krasnoselsko-Ropshinsky operation of 1944 in January - February, the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted. In honor of the complete lifting of the blockade, fireworks were fired in Leningrad on January 27, 1944.

During the siege, the enemy caused enormous damage to Leningrad. In particular, 840 industrial buildings were put out of action, about 5 million m2 of living space were damaged (including 2.8 million m2 completely destroyed), 500 schools, and 170 medical institutions. As a result of the destruction and evacuation of enterprises in Leningrad, only 25% of the equipment that Leningrad industry had before the war remained. Enormous damage was caused to the most valuable historical and cultural monuments - the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, the Engineers' Castle, and the palace ensembles of the suburbs.

During the blockade in Leningrad, according to official data alone, 641 thousand residents died of hunger (according to historians - at least 800 thousand), about 17 thousand people died from bombing and shelling, and about 34 thousand were wounded.

POET'S VIEW

We know what's on the scales now

And what is happening now.

The hour of courage has struck on our watch,

And courage will not leave us.

It's not scary to lie dead under bullets,

It's not bitter to be homeless,

And we will save you, Russian speech,

Great Russian word.

We will carry you free and clean,

We will give it to our grandchildren and save us from captivity

BLOCKED DIARY

“The Savichevs are dead.” "Everyone died." “There’s only Tanya left.”

LENINGRAD SYMPHONY

On June 22, 1941, his life, like the lives of all people in our country, changed dramatically. The war began, previous plans were crossed out. Everyone began to work for the needs of the front. Shostakovich, along with everyone else, dug trenches and was on duty during air raids. He made arrangements for concert brigades sent to active units. Naturally, there were no pianos on the front lines, and he rearranged accompaniments for small ensembles and did other necessary work, as it seemed to him. But as always, this unique musician-publicist - as it had been since childhood, when momentary impressions of the turbulent revolutionary years were conveyed in music - began to mature a large symphonic plan dedicated to what was happening directly. He began writing the Seventh Symphony. The first part was completed in the summer. He managed to show it to his closest friend I. Sollertinsky, who on August 22 was leaving for Novosibirsk with the Philharmonic, whose artistic director he had been for many years. In September, already in blockaded Leningrad, the composer created the second part and showed it to his colleagues. Started working on the third part.

On October 1, by special order of the authorities, he, his wife and two children were flown to Moscow. From there, half a month later, he traveled further east by train. Initially it was planned to go to the Urals, but Shostakovich decided to stop in Kuibyshev (as Samara was called in those years). The Bolshoi Theater was based here, there were many acquaintances who initially took the composer and his family into their home, but very quickly the city leadership allocated him a room, and in early December - a two-room apartment. It was equipped with a piano, loaned by the local music school. It was possible to continue working.

Unlike the first three parts, which were created literally in one breath, work on the final progressed slowly. It was sad and anxious at heart. Mother and sister remained in besieged Leningrad, which experienced the most terrible, hungry and cold days. The pain for them did not leave for a minute...

The last part didn't work out for a long time. Shostakovich understood that in the symphony dedicated to the events of the war, everyone expected a solemn victorious apotheosis with a choir, a celebration of the coming victory. But there was no reason for this yet, and he wrote as his heart dictated. It is no coincidence that the opinion later spread that the finale was inferior in importance to the first part, that the forces of evil were embodied much stronger than the humanistic principle opposing them.

On December 27, 1941, the Seventh Symphony was completed. Of course, Shostakovich wanted it to be performed by his favorite orchestra - the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mravinsky. But he was far away, in Novosibirsk, and the authorities insisted on an urgent premiere: the performance of the symphony, which the composer called Leningrad and dedicated to the feat of his native city, was given political significance. The premiere took place in Kuibyshev on March 5, 1942. The Bolshoi Theater Orchestra conducted by Samuil Samosud played.

After the Kuibyshev premiere, the symphonies were held in Moscow and Novosibirsk (under the baton of Mravinsky), but the most remarkable, truly heroic one took place under the baton of Carl Eliasberg in besieged Leningrad. To perform the monumental symphony with a huge orchestra, musicians were recalled from military units. Before the start of rehearsals, some had to be admitted to the hospital - fed and treated, since all ordinary residents of the city had become dystrophic. On the day the symphony was performed - August 9, 1942 - all the artillery forces of the besieged city were sent to suppress enemy firing points: nothing should have interfered with the significant premiere.

And the white-columned hall of the Philharmonic was full. Pale, exhausted Leningraders filled it to hear music dedicated to them. The speakers carried it throughout the city.

The public around the world perceived the performance of the Seventh as an event of great importance. Soon, requests began to arrive from abroad to send the score. Competition broke out between the largest orchestras in the Western Hemisphere for the right to perform the symphony first. Shostakovich's choice fell on Toscanini. A plane carrying precious microfilms flew across a war-torn world, and on July 19, 1942, the Seventh Symphony was performed in New York. Her victorious march across the globe began.