Breaking the blockade of Leningrad briefly. Background and position of the city

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

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

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

For massive 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.

German attack on the USSR

The capture of Leningrad was an integral part of the war plan developed by Nazi Germany against the USSR - the Barbarossa plan. It stipulated that the Soviet Union should be completely defeated within 3-4 months of the summer and autumn of 1941, that is, during a lightning war (“blitzkrieg”). By November 1941, German troops were supposed to capture the entire European part of the USSR. According to the Ost (East) plan, it was planned to exterminate within a few years a significant part of the population of the Soviet Union, primarily Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, as well as all Jews and Gypsies - at least 30 million people in total. None of the peoples inhabiting the USSR should have had the right to their own statehood or even autonomy.

Already on June 23, the commander of the Leningrad Military District, Lieutenant General M. M. Popov, ordered the start of work to create an additional line of defense in the Pskov direction in the Luga area.

On July 4, this decision was confirmed by the Directive of the Headquarters of the High Command signed by G.K. Zhukov.

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. On June 21-25, German naval and air forces operated from the territory of Finland against the USSR. On the morning of June 25, 1941, by order of the Air Force Headquarters of the Northern Front, together with the aviation of the Baltic Fleet, they launched a massive attack on nineteen (according to other sources - 18) airfields in Finland and Northern Norway. Aircraft from the Finnish Air Force and the German 5th Air Force were based there. On the same day, the Finnish parliament voted for war with the USSR.

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

Entry of enemy troops to Leningrad

In 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 4, Wehrmacht units entered the Leningrad region, crossing the Velikaya River and overcoming the fortifications of the “Stalin Line” in the direction of Ostrov.

On July 5-6, enemy troops occupied the city, 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 with a length of 175 kilometers and a total depth of 10-15 kilometers were built. Defensive structures were built by the hands of Leningraders, mostly women and teenagers (men went into the army and militia).

The German offensive was delayed at the Luga fortified area. Reports from German commanders to headquarters:

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. More than 700 tanks were built in 1941 alone and remain in the city. During the same time, 480 armored vehicles and 58 armored trains, often armed with powerful naval guns, were produced. At the Rzhev artillery range, no 406 mm caliber naval gun was found operational. It was intended for the lead battleship Sovetsky Soyuz, which was already on the slipway. This weapon was used when shelling German positions. The German offensive was suspended for several weeks. Enemy troops failed to capture the city on the move. This delay caused sharp dissatisfaction with Hitler, who made a special trip to Army Group North with the aim of preparing a plan for the capture of Leningrad no later than September 1941. In conversations with military leaders, the Fuhrer, in addition to purely military arguments, brought up many political arguments. He believed that the capture of Leningrad would not only provide a military gain (control over all the Baltic coasts and the destruction of the Baltic Fleet), but would also bring huge political dividends. The Soviet Union will lose the city, which, being the cradle of the October Revolution, has a special symbolic meaning for the Soviet state. In addition, Hitler considered it very important not to give the Soviet command the opportunity to withdraw troops from the Leningrad area and use them in other sectors of the front. He hoped to destroy the troops defending the city.

In long, exhausting battles, overcoming crises in different places, German troops spent a month preparing to storm the city. The Baltic Fleet approached the city with its 153 guns of the main caliber of naval artillery, as the experience of the defense of Tallinn showed, in its combat effectiveness superior to guns of the same caliber of coastal artillery, which also numbered 207 guns near Leningrad. The city's sky was protected by the 2nd Air Defense Corps. The highest density of anti-aircraft artillery during the defense of Moscow, Leningrad and Baku was 8-10 times greater than during the defense of Berlin and London.

On August 14-15, the Germans managed to break through the swampy area, bypassing the Luga fortified area from the west and, having crossed the Luga River at Bolshoi Sabsk, entering the operational space in front of Leningrad.

On June 29, having crossed the border, the Finnish army began military operations on the Karelian Isthmus. On July 31, a major Finnish offensive began in the direction of Leningrad. 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 border of the Karelian fortified area. Leningrad's connection with the rest of the country through the territories occupied by Finland was restored in the summer of 1944.

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

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

On September 6, 1941, Hitler, by his order (Weisung No. 35), stops the advance of the North group of troops on Leningrad, which had already reached the suburbs of the city, and gives the order to Field Marshal Leeb to hand over all Gepner tanks and a significant number of troops in order to begin “as quickly as possible.” attack on Moscow. Subsequently, the Germans, having transferred their tanks to the central section of the front, continued to surround the city with a blockade ring, no more than 15 km from the city center, and moved on to a long blockade. In this situation, Hitler, realistically imagining the enormous losses that he would suffer if he entered into urban battles, doomed his population to starvation by his decision.

On September 8, soldiers of the North group captured the city of Shlisselburg (Petrokrepost). From this day the blockade of the city began, which lasted 872 days.

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). At the same time, information about the closure of the encirclement was not reported to the Soviet high command, hoping for a breakthrough. And on September 13, Leningradskaya Pravda wrote:

This silence cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of citizens, since the decision to supply food was made too late.

All summer, day and night, about half a million people created defense lines in the city. One of them, the most fortified, called the “Stalin Line” ran along the Obvodny Canal. Many houses on the defensive lines were turned into long-term strongholds of resistance.

On September 13, Zhukov arrived in the city, and took command of the front on September 14, when, contrary to popular belief, disseminated in numerous feature films, the German offensive had already been stopped, the front was stabilized, and the enemy canceled his decision to attack.

Problems of evacuation of residents

The situation at the beginning of the blockade

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

First wave of evacuation

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

• Reluctance of residents to leave the city;
• Many children from Leningrad were evacuated to areas of the Leningrad region. This subsequently led to 175,000 children being returned back to Leningrad.

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

Second wave of evacuation

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

• evacuation across Lake Ladoga by water transport to Novaya Ladoga, and then to the station. Volkhovstroy motor transport;
• evacuation by air;
• evacuation along the ice road across Lake Ladoga.

During this period, 33,479 people were transported by water transport (of which 14,854 were from non-Leningrad population), by aviation - 35,114 (of which 16,956 were from non-Leningrad population), by march through Lake Ladoga and by unorganized motor transport from the end of December 1941 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 evacuation period - from September 1941 to April 1942 - about 659 thousand people were taken out of the city, mainly along the “Road of Life” across Lake Ladoga.

Third wave of evacuation

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

Consequences

Consequences for evacuees

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

Implications for city leadership

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

Autumn 1941

Blitzkrieg attempt failed

At the end of August 1941, the German offensive resumed. German units broke through the Luga defensive line and rushed towards Leningrad. On September 8, the enemy reached Lake Ladoga, captured Shlisselburg, taking control of the source of the Neva, and blocked Leningrad from land. This day is considered the day the blockade began. All railway, river and road communications were severed. Communication with Leningrad was now maintained only by air and Lake Ladoga. From the north, the city was blocked by Finnish troops, who were stopped by the 23rd Army at the Karelian Ur. Only the only railway connection to the coast of Lake Ladoga from the Finlyandsky Station has been preserved - the “Road of Life”.

This partly confirms that the Finns stopped on the orders of Mannerheim (according to his memoirs, he agreed to take the post of supreme commander of the Finnish forces on the condition that he would not launch an offensive against the city), at the turn of the state border of 1939, that is, the border that existed between The USSR and Finland on the eve of the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939-1940, on the other hand, is disputed by Isaev and N.I. Baryshnikov:

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

The total area of ​​Leningrad and its suburbs encircled was about 5,000 km².

According to G.K. Zhukov, “Stalin at that moment assessed the situation that had developed near Leningrad as catastrophic. Once he even used the word “hopeless.” He said that, apparently, a few more days would pass, and Leningrad would have to be considered lost.” After the end of the Elninsky operation, by order of September 11, G. K. Zhukov was appointed commander of the Leningrad Front, and began his duties on September 14.

The establishment of the city's defense was led by the commander of the Baltic Fleet V.F. Tributs, K.E. Voroshilov and A.A. Zhdanov.

On September 4, 1941, the Germans began regular artillery shelling of Leningrad, although their decision to storm the city remained in force until September 12, when Hitler ordered its cancellation, that is, Zhukov arrived two days after the order to storm was canceled (September 14). The local leadership prepared the main factories for the explosion. All ships of the Baltic Fleet were to be scuttled. Trying to stop the enemy offensive, Zhukov did not stop at the most brutal measures. At the end of the month he signed ciphergram No. 4976 with the following text:

He, in particular, issued an order that for unauthorized retreat and abandonment of the defense line around the city, all commanders and soldiers were subject to immediate execution. The retreat stopped.

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

The beginning of the food crisis

Ideology of the German side

In Hitler's Directive 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”) it was said with all certainty:

According to Jodl's testimony during the Nuremberg trials,

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

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

Changing war tactics

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

Taught by this bitter lesson, city authorities began to pay special attention to the disguise of food supplies, which were now stored only in small quantities. So, famine became the most important factor determining the fate of the population of Leningrad. The blockade imposed by the German army was deliberately aimed at the extinction of the urban population.

The fate of citizens: demographic factors

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

Theoretically, the Soviet side could have had the option of withdrawing troops and surrendering Leningrad to the enemy without a fight (using the terminology of that time, declaring 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 lack of any future for it at all), there is no reason to argue that the fate of the city’s population in the event of capitulation would be better than the fate in the actual conditions of the siege.

The actual start of the blockade

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

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

In October, city residents experienced a clear shortage of food, and in November real famine began in Leningrad. First, the first cases of loss of consciousness from hunger on the streets and at work, the first cases of death from exhaustion, and then the first cases of cannibalism were noted. In February 1942, more than 600 people were convicted of cannibalism, in March - more than a thousand. It was extremely difficult to replenish food supplies: it was impossible to supply such a large city by air, and shipping on Lake Ladoga temporarily stopped due to the onset of cold weather. At the same time, the ice on the lake was still too weak for cars to drive on. All these transport communications were under constant enemy fire.

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

Winter 1941-1942

Leningrader's ration

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

• Bread grain and flour for 35 days
• Cereals and pasta for 30 days
• Meat and meat products for 33 days
• Fats for 45 days
• Sugar and confectionery for 60 days

The norms for the supply of goods on food cards, introduced in the city back in July, decreased due to the blockade of the city, and turned out to be minimal from November 20 to December 25, 1941. The food ration size was:

• Workers - 250 grams of bread per day,
• Employees, dependents and children under 12 years old - 125 grams each,
• Personnel of the paramilitary guards, fire brigades, fighter squads, vocational schools and schools of the FZO, who were on boiler allowance - 300 grams,
• First line troops - 500 grams.

Moreover, up to 50% of the bread consisted of practically inedible impurities added instead of flour. All other products almost ceased to be issued: already on September 23, beer production ceased, and all stocks of malt, barley, soybeans and bran were transferred to bakeries in order to reduce flour consumption. As of September 24, 40% of bread consisted of malt, oats and husks, and later cellulose (at various times from 20 to 50%). On December 25, 1941, the standards for the distribution of 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. On February 11, new supply standards were introduced: 500 grams of bread for workers, 400 for employees, 300 for children and non-workers. The impurities have almost disappeared from the bread. But the main thing is that supplies have become regular, food rationing has begun to be issued on time and almost completely. On February 16, quality meat was even issued for the first time - frozen beef and lamb. There has been a turning point in the food situation in the city.

Resident notification system. Metronome

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

Worsening situation in the city

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

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

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

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

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

Exposure to cold

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

The winter of 1941-1942 turned out to be much colder and longer than usual. The average daily temperature steadily dropped below 0 °C already on October 11, and became steadily positive after April 7, 1942 - the climatic winter amounted to 178 days, that is, half of the year. During this period, there were 14 days with an average daily t > 0 °C, mostly in October. 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 depth of the snow cover by the end of winter was more than half a meter. In terms of maximum snow cover height (53 cm), April 1942 is the record holder for the entire observation period, up to 2010 inclusive.

• The average monthly temperature in October was +1.4 °C (the average value for the period 1743-2010 is +4.9 °C), which is 3.5 °C below normal. In the middle of the month, frosts reached −6 °C. By the end of the month, snow cover had established itself.
• The average temperature in November 1941 was −4.2 °C (the long-term average was −0.8 °C), the temperature ranged from +1.6 to −13.8 °C.
• In December, the average monthly temperature dropped to −12.5 °C (with a long-term average of −5.6 °C). The temperature ranged from +1.6 to −25.3 °C.
• The first month of 1942 was the coldest this winter. The average temperature of the month was −18.7 °C (the average temperature for the period 1743-2010 was −8.3 °C). The frost reached −32.1 °C, the maximum temperature was +0.7 °C. The average snow depth reached 41 cm (the average depth for 1890-1941 was 23 cm).
• The February average monthly temperature was −12.4 °C (long-term average - −7.9 °C), the temperature ranged from −0.6 to −25.2 °C.
• March was slightly warmer than February - average t = −11.6 °C (with long-term average t = −4 °C). The temperature varied from +3.6 to −29.1 °C in the middle of the month. March 1942 was the coldest in the history of weather observations until 2010.
• The average monthly temperature in April was close to average values ​​(+2.8 °C) and amounted to +1.8 °C, while the minimum temperature was −14.4 °C.

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

Heating and transport system

The main heating means for most inhabited apartments were special mini-stoves, potbelly stoves. They burned everything that could burn, including furniture and books. Wooden houses were dismantled for firewood. Fuel production has become an important part of the life of Leningraders. Due to a lack of electricity and massive destruction of the contact network, the movement of urban electric transport, primarily trams, ceased. This event was an important factor contributing to the increase in mortality.

According to D.S. Likhachev,

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

Organization of hospitals and canteens for enhanced nutrition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At the same time, Ribkovsky argues that “such a vacation, in conditions of the front, a long blockade of the city, is possible only with the Bolsheviks, only under Soviet power.”

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

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

Use of food substitutes

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

Attempts to break the blockade. "The road of life"

Breakthrough attempt. Bridgehead "Nevsky Piglet"

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

The main battles were fought on the so-called “Neva patch” - a narrow strip of land 500-800 meters wide and about 2.5-3.0 km long (this is according to the memoirs of I. G. Svyatov) on the left bank of the Neva, held by the troops of the Leningrad Front . The entire area was under fire from the enemy, and Soviet troops, constantly trying to expand this bridgehead, suffered heavy losses. However, under no circumstances was it possible to surrender the patch - otherwise it would have been necessary to force the full-flowing Nevuzanovo, and the task of breaking the blockade would have become much more difficult. In total, about 50,000 Soviet soldiers died on the Nevsky Piglet between 1941 and 1943.

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

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

"The road of life"

Main article:The road of life

“The Road of Life” is the name of the ice road through Ladoga in the winters of 1941-42 and 1942-43, after the ice reached a thickness that allowed the transportation of cargo of any weight. The Road of Life was in fact the only means of communication between Leningrad and the mainland.

Spring-summer 1942

The first breakthrough of the siege of Leningrad

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

Organization of subsidiary farms

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

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

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

Reducing street deaths

In the spring of 1942, due to warming temperatures and improved nutrition, the number of sudden deaths on the city streets decreased significantly. So, if in February about 7,000 corpses were picked up on the streets of the city, then in April - approximately 600, and in May - 50 corpses. In March 1942, the entire working population came out to clear the city of garbage. In April-May 1942, there was a further improvement in the living conditions of the population: the restoration of public utilities began. Many businesses have resumed operations.

Restoring urban public transport

On December 8, 1941, Lenenergo stopped supplying electricity and partial redemption of traction substations occurred. The next day, by decision of the city executive committee, eight tram routes were abolished. Subsequently, individual carriages still moved along the Leningrad streets, finally stopping on January 3, 1942 after the power supply completely stopped. 52 trains stood still on the snow-covered streets. Snow-covered trolleybuses stood on the streets all winter. More than 60 cars were crashed, burned or seriously damaged. In the spring of 1942, city authorities ordered the removal of cars from highways. The trolleybuses could not move under their own power; they had to organize towing. On March 8, power was supplied to the network for the first time. The restoration of the city's tram service began, and a freight tram was launched. On April 15, 1942, power was given to the central substations and a regular passenger tram was launched. To reopen freight and passenger traffic, it was necessary to restore approximately 150 km of the contact network - about half of the entire network in operation at that time. The launch of the trolleybus in the spring of 1942 was considered inappropriate by the city authorities.

Official statistics

Incomplete figures from official statistics: with a pre-war mortality rate of 3,000 people, in January-February 1942, approximately 130,000 people died monthly in the city, in March 100,000 people died, in May - 50,000 people, in July - 25,000 people, in September - 7000 people. The radical decrease in mortality occurred because the weakest had already died: the elderly, children, and the sick. Now the main civilian casualties of the war were mostly those who died not from starvation, but from bombings and artillery shelling. In total, according to the latest research, approximately 780,000 Leningraders died during the first, most difficult year of the siege.

1942-1943

1942 Intensification of shelling. Counter-battery warfare

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

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

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

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

1943 Breaking the blockade

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

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

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

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

1944 Complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade

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

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

Results of the blockade

Population losses

During the years of the blockade, according to various sources, from 300 thousand to 1.5 million people died. So, at the Nuremberg trials the number of 632 thousand people appeared. Only 3% of them died from bombing and shelling; the remaining 97% died of starvation.

Most of the Leningrad residents who died during the siege are buried at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, located in the Kalininsky district. The area of ​​the cemetery is 26 hectares, the length of the walls is 150 m with a height of 4.5 m. The lines of the writer Olga Berggolts, who survived the siege, are carved on the stones. In a long row of graves lie the victims of the siege, numbering in this cemetery alone 640,000 people who died of starvation and more than 17,000 people who were victims of air raids and artillery shelling. The total number of civilian casualties in the city during the entire war exceeds 1.2 million people.

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

Serafimovskoye Cemetery was also the site of mass burials of Leningraders who died and died during the siege of Leningrad. In 1941-1944, more than 100 thousand people were buried here.

The dead were buried in almost all cemeteries in the city (Volkovsky, Krasnenkoy and others). During the battle for Leningrad, more people died than England and the United States lost during the entire war.

Title of Hero City

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

Damage to cultural monuments

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

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

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

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

For many years (until the 90s), the Oranienbaum palace complex fell into disrepair.

Social aspects of life during the siege

Institute of Plant Science Foundation

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

Tanya Savicheva

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

Easter in a besieged city

During the blockade, three churches were opened in the city: Prince Vladimir Cathedral, Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral and St. Nicholas Cathedral. In 1942, Easter was very early (March 22, old style). The entire day of April 4, 1942, the city was shelled, intermittently. On Easter night from April 4 to 5, the city was subjected to a brutal bombing, in which 132 aircraft took part.

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

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

"The Dangerous Side of the Street"

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

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

Cultural life of besieged Leningrad

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

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

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

Soviet Navy (RKKF) in the defense of Leningrad

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

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

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

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

Ground support operations

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

Marines

Personnel brigades (1st, 2nd brigades) of the Marine Corps and units of sailors (3,4,5,6th brigades formed the Training Detachment, Main Base, Crew) from ships 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). Marine units and infantry units formed from sailors proved themselves in breaking through and lifting the Blockade. In total, from the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in 1941, 68,644 people were transferred to the Red Army for operations on land fronts, in 1942 - 34,575, in 1943 - 6,786, not counting parts of the marine corps that were part of the fleet or temporarily transferred to the subordination of military commands.

Naval and coastal artillery

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

Artillery guns of the fort "Krasnaya Gorka"

Fleet Aviation

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

Operations in the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga

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

"The road of life"

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

Naval mine blockade

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

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

On June 5, 1946, the Hydrographic Department of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet issued Notice to Mariners No. 286, which announced the opening of navigation 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. By decree of the government of St. Petersburg since 2005, this day is considered an official city holiday and is known as Day of breaking through the naval mine blockade of Leningrad . Combat trawling did not end there and continued until 1957, and all Estonian waters became open for navigation and fishing only in 1963.

Evacuation

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

Landing operations

Landing operations were carried out that distracted enemy forces at the beginning of the war (a number of them ended tragically, for example the Peterhof landing, the Strelninsky landing) and allowed for a successful offensive in 1944. In 1941, the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga Flotilla landed 15 troops, in 1942 - 2, in 1944 - 15. Of the attempts to prevent enemy landing operations, the most famous are the destruction of the German-Finnish flotilla and repelling the landing during the battle for the island. Dry in Lake Ladoga on October 22, 1942.

Memory

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

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

To sailors and minesweepers

Losses of minesweepers during the Second World War:

• were blown up by mines - 35
• torpedoed by submarines - 5
• from air bombs - 4
• from artillery fire - 9

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

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

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

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

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

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

Memory

Dates

• September 8, 1941 - The day the Siege began
• January 18, 1943 - Day of the Breaking of the Blockade
• January 27, 1944 - Day of complete lifting of the Siege
• June 5, 1946 - Day of breaking through the naval mine blockade of Leningrad

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.” On the reverse side of the medal there is a hammer and sickle. Below them is the text in capital letters: “For our Soviet Motherland.” As of 1985, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” was awarded to about 1,470,000 people. Among those awarded are 15 thousand children and teenagers.

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. It should be noted that not all those born during the siege received the memorial sign and the status of a resident of besieged Leningrad, since the mentioned decision limits the period of stay in the besieged city required to receive them to four months.

Monuments to the defense of Leningrad

• Eternal flame
• Obelisk “Hero City Leningrad” on Vosstaniya Square
• Monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square
• Memorial route "Rzhevsky Corridor"
• Memorial "Cranes"
• Monument “Broken Ring”
• Monument to the traffic controller. On the Road of Life.
• Monument to the Children of the Siege (opened on September 8, 2010 in St. Petersburg, in the park on Nalichnaya Street, 55; authors: Galina Dodonova and Vladimir Reppo. The monument is a figure of a girl in a shawl and a stele symbolizing the windows of besieged Leningrad).
• Stele. The heroic defense of the Oranienbaum bridgehead (1961; 32nd km of the Peterhof highway).
• Stele. Heroic defense of the city in the area of ​​the Peterhof highway (1944; 16th km of the Peterhof highway, Sosnovaya Polyana).
• Sculpture “Grieving Mother”. In memory of the liberators of Krasnoye Selo (1980; Krasnoye Selo, Lenin Ave., 81, square).
• Monument-cannon 76 mm (1960s; Krasnoe Selo, Lenin Ave., 112, park).
• Pylons. Heroic defense of the city in the Kievskoe highway zone (1944; 21st km, Kyiv highway).
• Monument. To the heroes of the 76th and 77th fighter battalions (1969; Pushkin, Alexandrovsky Park).
• Obelisk. Heroic defense of the city in the Moscow Highway zone (1957).

Kirovsky district

• Monument to Marshal Govorov (Strachek Square).
• Bas-relief in honor of the fallen Kirov residents - residents of besieged Leningrad (Marshal Govorova St., 29).
• The front line of the defense of Leningrad (Narodnogo Opolcheniya Ave. - near the Ligovo railway station).
• Military burial place “Red Cemetery” (Stachek Ave., 100).
• Military burial ground “Southern” (Krasnoputilovskaya St., 44).
• Military burial ground “Dachnoe” (Narodnogo Opolcheniya Ave., 143-145).
• Memorial “Siege Tram” (corner of Stachek Ave. and Avtomobilnaya Street next to the bunker and the KV-85 tank).
• Monument to the “Dead Gunboats” (Kanonersky Island, 19).
• Monument to the Heroes - Baltic sailors (Mezhevoy Canal, no. 5).
• Obelisk to the defenders of Leningrad (corner of Stachek Ave. and Marshal Zhukov Ave.).
• Caption: Citizens! During artillery shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous at house No. 6, building 2 on Kalinin Street.

Museum of the Siege

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

To the Defenders of Leningrad

• Green Belt of Glory
• Cross-monument to signalman Nikolai Tuzhik

Residents of the besieged city

• Citizens! During shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous
• Monument to the loudspeaker on the corner of Nevsky and Malaya Sadovaya.
• Traces from German artillery shells
• Church in memory of the days of the siege
• Memorial plaque on house 6 on Nepokorennykh Ave., where there was a well from which residents of the besieged city drew water
• The Museum of Electric Transport of St. Petersburg has a large collection of blockade passenger and freight trams. The collection is currently under threat of reduction.
• Blockade substation on Fontanka. There is a memorial plaque on the building " 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.

Events

• In January 2009, the “Leningrad Victory Ribbon” event was held in St. Petersburg, dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the final lifting of the siege of Leningrad.
• On January 27, 2009, the “Candle of Memory” event was held in St. Petersburg to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the complete lifting of the Siege of Leningrad. At 19:00, citizens were asked to turn off the lights in their apartments and light a candle in the window in memory of all residents and defenders of besieged Leningrad. City services lit torches on the Rostral columns of the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island, which from a distance looked like giant candles. In addition, at 19:00, all FM radio stations in St. Petersburg broadcast a metronome signal, and 60 metronome beats were also heard over the city warning system of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and over the radio broadcast network.
• Tram commemorative runs are held regularly on April 15 (in honor of the launch of the passenger tram on April 15, 1942), as well as on other dates associated with the blockade. The last time blockade trams ran was on March 8, 2011, in honor of the launch of a freight tram in the besieged city.

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

Attack on the “city of Lenin”

The offensive against Leningrad began immediately, in 1941. A group of German-Finnish troops successfully moved forward, breaking through the resistance of Soviet units. Despite the desperate, fierce resistance of the city’s defenders, by August of that year all the railways that connected the city with the country were cut, as a result of which the main part of the supply was disrupted.

So when did the siege of Leningrad begin? It would take a long time to briefly list the events that preceded this. But the official date is September 8, 1941. Despite the fiercest fighting on the outskirts of the city, the Nazis were unable to take it “at once.” Therefore, on September 13, the artillery shelling of Leningrad began, which actually continued throughout the war.

The Germans had a simple order regarding the city: wipe it off the face of the earth. All defenders had to be destroyed. According to other sources, Hitler simply feared that during a massive assault the losses of German troops would be unreasonably high, and therefore gave the order to begin the blockade.

In general, the essence of the blockade of Leningrad was to ensure that “the city itself fell into one’s hands, like a ripe fruit.”

Population information

It must be remembered that at that time there were at least 2.5 million inhabitants in the blockaded city. Among them were about 400 thousand children. Almost immediately problems with food began. Constant stress and fear from bombings and shelling, a lack of medicine and food soon led to the fact that the townspeople began to die.

It was estimated that during the entire blockade, at least a hundred thousand bombs and about 150 thousand shells were dropped on the heads of the city residents. All this led to both massive deaths of civilians and catastrophic destruction of the most valuable architectural and historical heritage.

The first year was the most difficult: German artillery managed to bomb food warehouses, as a result of which the city was almost completely deprived of food supplies. However, there is also the exact opposite opinion.

The fact is that by 1941 the number of residents (registered and visitors) numbered about three million people. The bombed Badayev warehouses simply physically could not accommodate such an amount of food. Many modern historians quite convincingly prove that there was no strategic reserve at that time. So even if the warehouses had not been damaged by the German artillery, this would have delayed the onset of famine by a week at best.

In addition, just a few years ago, some documents from the NKVD archives concerning the pre-war survey of the city’s strategic reserves were declassified. The information in them paints an extremely disappointing picture: “Butter is covered with a layer of mold, stocks of flour, peas and other cereals are affected by mites, the floors of storage facilities are covered with a layer of dust and rodent droppings.”

Disappointing conclusions

From September 10 to 11, the responsible authorities carried out a complete inventory of all food available in the city. By September 12, a full report was published, according to which the city had: grain and ready-made flour for about 35 days, supplies of cereals and pasta were enough for a month, and supplies of meat could be extended for the same period.

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

How was the food issue resolved?

From the very first days of September, food cards were introduced in the city. All canteens and restaurants were immediately closed. The livestock available at local agricultural enterprises was immediately slaughtered and delivered to procurement centers. All feed of grain origin was taken to flour mills and ground into flour, which was subsequently used to make bread.

Citizens who were in hospitals during the blockade had their rations cut out from their coupons for that period. The same procedure applied to children who were in orphanages and preschool educational institutions. Almost all schools have canceled classes. For children, the breaking of the siege of Leningrad was marked not so much by the opportunity to finally eat, but by the long-awaited start of classes.

In general, these cards cost the lives of thousands of people, as cases of theft and even murders committed in order to obtain them sharply increased in the city. In Leningrad in those years, there were frequent cases of raids and armed robberies of bakeries and even food warehouses.

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

Residents' sentiments

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

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

NKVD documents indicate that the beginning of the siege of Leningrad (a photo of which is in the article) gradually began to instill anxiety in people. Quite a few letters were confiscated in which townspeople reported the plight in Leningrad. They wrote that there weren’t even cabbage leaves left in the fields; the old flour dust from which they used to make wallpaper glue was no longer available anywhere in the city.

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

Labor feat of Leningraders

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

But the situation with food and medicine became more difficult day by day. It soon became obvious that only Lake Ladoga could save the inhabitants. How is it connected with the blockade of Leningrad? In short, this is the famous Road of Life, which was opened on November 22, 1941. As soon as a layer of ice formed on the lake, which theoretically could support cars loaded with products, their crossing began.

The beginning of famine

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

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

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

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

To top off all the problems, the city water supply system completely failed, as a result of which the townspeople had to carry water from the Neva. In addition, the winter of 1941 itself turned out to be extremely harsh, so doctors simply could not cope with the influx of frostbitten and cold people, whose immunity was unable to resist infections.

Consequences of the first winter

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

It was especially bad for children at that time. Many of them were forced to remain alone for long periods of time in empty, cold apartments. If their parents died of starvation at work or if they died during constant shelling, the children spent 10-15 days completely alone. More often than not, they also died. Thus, the children of the siege of Leningrad bore a lot on their fragile shoulders.

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

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

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

The road of life

The real “pulse” of the besieged city was the Road of Life. In summer it was a waterway through the waters of Lake Ladoga, and in winter this role was played by its frozen surface. The first barges with food passed through the lake on September 12th. Navigation continued until the thickness of the ice made it impossible for ships to pass.

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

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

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

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

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

The beginning of freedom

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

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

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

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

Liberation Day

Today is the day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad - January 27th. This date is not a holiday. Rather, it is a constant reminder of the horrific events that the city's residents were forced to go through. To be fair, it should be said that the real day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad is January 18, since the corridor we were talking about was broken through on that very day.

That blockade claimed more than two million lives, and mostly women, children and old people died there. As long as the memory of those events is alive, nothing like this should happen again in the world!

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

The 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, 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 and examined urgent issues of strengthening its defense, evacuation of enterprises and population, and supplies. On August 30, the State Defense Committee 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 social 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 grand 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.

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

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

After breaking the blockade, the siege of Leningrad by enemy troops and navy continued until September 1944. To force the enemy to lift the siege of the city, in June - August 1944, Soviet troops, with the support of ships and aircraft of the Baltic Fleet, carried out the Vyborg and 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 artillery shelling in holes in the asphalt on Nevsky Prospekt, photo by B. P. Kudoyarov, December 1941

German attack on the USSR

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finland's entry into the war

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

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

Entry of enemy troops to Leningrad

On June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR. In the first 18 days of the offensive, the main strike force of the troops aimed at Leningrad, the 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, Wehrmacht units occupied the city of Ostrov in the Leningrad region. On July 9, Pskov, located 280 kilometers from Leningrad, was occupied. From Pskov, the shortest route to Leningrad is along the Kyiv Highway, passing through Luga.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autumn 1941

Blitzkrieg attempt failed

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The beginning of the food crisis

Ideology of the German side

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

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

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

According to Jodl's testimony during the Nuremberg trials,

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

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

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

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

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

Changing war tactics

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

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

The fate of citizens: demographic factors

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

Theoretically, the Soviet side could have had the option of withdrawing troops and surrendering Leningrad to the enemy without a fight (using the terminology of that time, declaring 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 lack of any future for it at all), there is no reason to argue that the fate of the city’s population in the event of capitulation would be better than the fate in the actual conditions of the siege.

The actual start of the blockade

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

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

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

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

Winter 1941-1942

Rations for blockade survivors

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

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

Bread grain and flour for 35 days

Cereals and pasta for 30 days

Meat and meat products for 33 days

Fats for 45 days

Sugar and confectionery for 60 days

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

Workers - 250 grams of bread per day,

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

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

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

Resident notification system. Metronome

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

Worsening situation in the city

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exposure to cold

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

The winter of 1941-1942 turned out to be much colder and longer than usual. The winter of 1941-1942, according to aggregate indicators, is one of the coldest for the entire period of systematic instrumental weather observations in St. Petersburg - Leningrad. The average daily temperature steadily dropped below 0 °C already on October 11, and became steadily positive after April 7, 1942 - the climatic winter amounted to 178 days, that is, half of the year. During this period, there were 14 days with an average daily t > 0 °C, mostly in October, that is, there were practically no thaws usual for Leningrad winter weather. Even in May 1942, there were 4 days with a negative average daily temperature; on May 7, the maximum daytime temperature rose only to +0.9 °C. There was also a lot of snow in winter: the depth of the snow cover by the end of winter was more than half a meter. In terms of maximum snow cover height (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 °C (the average value for the period 1753-1940 is +4.6 °C), which is 3.1 °C below normal. In the middle of the month, frosts reached −6 °C. By the end of the month, snow cover had established itself.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Housing and communal services and transport

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

According to D.S. Likhachev,

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

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

Organization of hospitals and canteens for enhanced nutrition.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“For three days now I have been in the hospital of the city party committee. In my opinion, this is simply a seven-day rest home and it is located in one of the pavilions of the now closed rest house of the party activists of the Leningrad organization in Melnichny Ruchey. The situation and the whole order in the hospital are very reminiscent of a closed sanatorium in the city of Pushkin... From the frost, somewhat tired, you stumble 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, both boiled and jellied caviar, balyk, cheese, pies, cocoa, coffee, tea, 300 grams of white and the same amount of black bread per day... and with all this, 50 grams of grape wine, good port wine for lunch and dinner. the day before, to their liking, comrades say that the district hospitals are in no way inferior to the city committee hospital, and at some enterprises there are such hospitals that our hospital pales in comparison.

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

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

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

Use of food substitutes

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

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

Attempts to break the blockade.

Breakthrough attempt. Bridgehead "Nevsky Piglet"

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

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

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

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

Spring-summer 1942

Partisan convoy for besieged Leningrad

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

Organization of subsidiary farms

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

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

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

Decrease in mortality

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

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

Restoring urban public transport

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

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

Official statistics

1942-1943

1942 Intensification of shelling. Counter-battery combat

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

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

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

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

1943 Breaking the blockade

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

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

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

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

Jubilant Leningrad. The blockade is lifted, 1944

1944 Complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade

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

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

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

2. In honor of the victory, fire a twenty-four artillery salvo from three hundred and twenty-four guns in Leningrad on January 27 this year at 8:00 p.m.

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

Evacuation of residents

The situation at the beginning of the blockade

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

First wave of evacuation

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

Reluctance of residents to leave the city;

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

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

Second wave of evacuation

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

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

evacuation by air;

evacuation along the ice road across Lake Ladoga.

During this period, 33,479 people were transported by water transport (of which 14,854 were not from the Leningrad population), by aviation - 35,114 (of which 16,956 were from non-Leningrad population), by march through Lake Ladoga and by unorganized motor transport from the end of December 1941 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 evacuation period - from September 1941 to April 1942 - about 659 thousand people were taken out of the city, mainly along the “Road of Life” across Lake Ladoga.

Third wave of evacuation

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

Consequences

Consequences for evacuees

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

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

Implications for city leadership

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

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

City supply

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

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

Results of the blockade

Population losses

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

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

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

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

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

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

Title of Hero City

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

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

Damage to cultural monuments

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

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

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

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

Social aspects of life during the siege

Institute of Plant Science Foundation

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

Tanya Savicheva

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

Easter in a besieged city

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

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

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

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

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

"The Dangerous Side of the Street"

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

From a letter from KGIOP

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

Cultural life of besieged Leningrad

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

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

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

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

Holocaust in Pushkin.

The Scientists' Case

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

Soviet Navy (RKKF) in the defense of Leningrad

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

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

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

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

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

Ground support operations

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

Marines

Personnel brigades (1st, 2nd brigades) of the Marine Corps and units of sailors (3, 4, 5, 6th brigades formed the Training Detachment, Main Base, Crew) from ships 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). Marine units and infantry units formed from sailors proved themselves in breaking through and lifting the Blockade. In total, from the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in 1941, 68,644 people were transferred to the Red Army for operations on land fronts, in 1942 - 34,575, in 1943 - 6,786, not counting parts of the marine corps that were part of the fleet or temporarily transferred to the subordination of military commands.

180 mm gun on a railway transporter

Naval and coastal artillery

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

Fleet Aviation

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

Operations in the Baltic Sea and Lake Ladoga

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

"The road of life"

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

Naval mine blockade

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

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

On June 5, 1946, the Hydrographic Department of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet issued Notice No. 286 to seafarers, 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. By decree of the government of St. Petersburg, since 2005, this day is considered an official city holiday and is known as the Day of Breaking the Naval Mine Blockade of Leningrad. Combat trawling did not end there and continued until 1957, and all Estonian waters became open for navigation and fishing only in 1963.

Evacuation

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

Landing operations

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

Memory

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

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

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

For minesweepers

Losses of minesweepers during the Second World War:

were blown up by mines - 35

torpedoed by submarines - 5

from air bombs - 4

from artillery fire -

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

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

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

Inscription on the stele.

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

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

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

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

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

Inscription on a memorial plaque installed on the stele.

Memory

Dates

Blockade awards and memorial signs

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

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

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

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

Monuments to the defense of Leningrad

Obelisk to the Hero City

on the square Uprisings

Eternal flame

Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery

Obelisk “Hero City Leningrad” on Vosstaniya Square

Monument to the heroic defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square

Memorial route "Rzhevsky Corridor"

Memorial "Cranes"

Monument “Broken Ring”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kirovsky district

Monument to Marshal Govorov (Strachek Square).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monument "Tank-winner" in Avtov.

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

Museum of the Siege

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

Residents of the besieged city

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

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

Traces from German artillery shells

Church in memory of the days of the siege

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

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

Blockade substation on Fontanka. On the building there is a memorial plaque “The feat of the trammen of besieged Leningrad.” After 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 siege stickleback St. Petersburg, Kronstadt district

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

Events

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

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

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

Historiography

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

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

The Battle of Leningrad and its blockade, which lasted from 1941 to 1944, are the clearest example of the courage, inflexibility and unquenchable will to victory of the Soviet people and the Red Army.

Background and position of the city

From the very moment of its founding, St. Petersburg was located in a very advantageous, but at the same time dangerous place for a large city. The proximity of first the Swedish and then the Finnish border only aggravated this danger. However, throughout its history, St. Petersburg (in 1924 it received a new name - Leningrad) has never been captured by the enemy.

By the beginning of World War II, all the negative aspects of the location of Leningrad became most clearly visible. The Finnish state, whose border was located only 30-40 kilometers from the city, was definitely opposed to the USSR, which created a real threat to Leningrad. In addition, Leningrad was important for the Soviet state not only as a social, cultural and economic center, but also as a large naval base. All this together influenced the decision of the Soviet government to move the Soviet-Finnish border away from the city at all costs.

It was the position of Leningrad, as well as the intransigence of the Finns, that led to the war that began on November 30, 1939. During this war, which lasted until March 13, 1940, the border of the Soviet Union was significantly pushed to the north. In addition, the USSR's strategic position in the Baltic was improved by the lease of the Finnish Hanko Peninsula, on which Soviet troops were now stationed.

Also, the strategic position of Leningrad was significantly improved in the summer of 1940, when the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) became part of the Soviet Union. Now the closest border (still Finnish) lay about 140 km from the city.

By the time of the German attack on the Soviet Union, the headquarters of the Leningrad Military District, commanded by Lieutenant General M. M. Popov, was located in Leningrad. The district included the 7th, 14th and 23rd armies. Aviation units and formations of the Baltic Fleet were also based in the city.

Beginning of the Great Patriotic War (June-September 1941)

At dawn on June 22, 1941, German troops began military operations against the Red Army along almost the entire western border of the USSR - from the White to the Black Sea. At the same time, military operations against the Soviet troops began from Finland, which, although it was in an alliance with the Third Reich, was in no hurry to declare war on the Soviet Union. Only after a series of provocations and the bombing of Finnish airfields and military installations by the Soviet Air Force did the Finnish government decide to declare war on the USSR.

At the very beginning of the war, the situation in Leningrad did not cause concern among the Soviet leadership. Only the lightning-fast offensive of the Wehrmacht, which had already captured Pskov on July 9, forced the Red Army command to begin equipping fortified lines in the city area. It is this time in Russian historiography that is referred to as the beginning of the Battle of Leningrad - one of the longest battles of the Second World War.

However, the Soviet leadership not only strengthened the approaches to Leningrad and Leningrad itself. In July-August 1941, Soviet troops carried out a complex of offensive and defensive actions that helped delay the enemy’s attack on the city for about a month. The most famous such counterattack of the Red Army is the attack in the area of ​​​​the city of Soltsy, where parts of the 56th motorized corps of the Wehrmacht were exhausted. This time was used to prepare Leningrad for defense and concentrate the necessary reserves in the area of ​​the city and on its approaches.

However, the situation still remained tense. In July-August, the Finnish army went on the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus, which by the end of 1941 managed to capture vast territories. At the same time, the lands that went to the USSR as a result of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940 were captured by the Finns in just 2-3 months. From the north, the enemy approached Leningrad and stood 40 km from the city. In the south, the Germans managed to break through the Soviet defenses and already in August captured Novgorod, Krasnogvardeysk (Gatchina) and by the end of the month reached the approaches to Leningrad.

Beginning of the siege of Leningrad (September 1941 - January 1942)

On September 8, German troops reached Lake Ladoga, occupying Shlisselburg. Thus, land communication between Leningrad and the rest of the country was interrupted. The blockade of the city began, lasting 872 days.

After establishing the blockade, the command of the German Army Group North launched a massive assault on the city, hoping to break the resistance of its defenders and free up forces that were urgently needed in other sectors of the front, primarily for Army Group Center. However, the heroic defense of the Red Army units defending Leningrad allowed the Wehrmacht to achieve very modest successes. German troops captured the cities of Pushkin and Krasnoye Selo. Another success of the Wehrmacht was the dissection of the Soviet defense in the Peterhof area, as a result of which the Oranienbaum bridgehead was formed, cut off from the Leningrad group of Soviet troops.

In the very first days of the blockade, the Soviet leadership in Leningrad faced an acute problem of organizing supplies for the city population and troops. There were only enough supplies left in Leningrad for a month, which forced us to actively look for a way out of the situation. At first, the city was supplied by aviation, as well as by sea route through Ladoga. However, by October the food situation in Leningrad had become first disastrous and then critical.

Desperate to take the northern capital of the USSR, the Wehrmacht command began systematic artillery shelling and aerial bombing of the city. The civilian population suffered more from these bombings, which only increased the hostility of the citizens of Leningrad towards the enemy. In addition, at the end of October-November, famine began in Leningrad, claiming from 2 to 4 thousand lives every day. Before the freeze-up on Ladoga, the city's supplies could not satisfy even the minimum needs of the population. The norms for rations issued on ration cards were systematically reduced, becoming minimal in December.

However, at the same time, the troops of the Leningrad Front successfully distracted a fairly large group of the Wehrmacht, preventing it from coming to the aid of German troops in other sectors of the Soviet-German front at critical moments for the country.

Already in the first half of September 1941 (data in different sources vary from September 8 to 13), Army General G.K. Zhukov was appointed commander of the Leningrad Front. His appointment chronologically coincided with the furious assault of the city by the Germans. At this critical time, a real threat hung over the city, if not its surrender, then the loss of part of it, which was also unacceptable. Zhukov's energetic measures (mobilization of Baltic Fleet sailors into land units, prompt transfer of units to threatened areas) were one of the decisive factors that influenced the outcome of this assault. Thus, the most difficult and furious attack of Leningrad was repulsed.

Having no time for respite, the Soviet leadership began planning an operation to unblock the city. In the fall of 1941, two operations were carried out for this purpose, which, alas, had very modest results. Soviet troops managed to capture a small bridgehead on the opposite bank of the Neva in the area of ​​Nevskaya Dubrovka (this bridgehead is now known as the “Neva patch”), which the Germans managed to liquidate only in 1942. However, the main goal - the liquidation of the Shlisselburg salient and breaking the blockade of Leningrad - was not achieved.

At the same time, when the Wehrmacht launched its decisive offensive on Moscow, Army Group North launched a limited offensive towards Tikhvin and Volkhov with the aim of reaching the Svir River, where Finnish troops were located. This meeting east of Leningrad threatened the city with complete disaster, since in this way the maritime connection with the city would be completely disrupted.

By November 8, 1941, the Wehrmacht managed to capture Tikhvin and Volkhov, which created additional difficulties for supplying Leningrad, since the railway leading to the coast of Lake Ladoga was cut. However, at the same time, the troops of the Soviet North-Western Front managed to create a strong defense, which the Germans failed to break through. The Wehrmacht was stopped less than a hundred kilometers from the Finnish troops. The Soviet command, having correctly assessed the state of the enemy and the capabilities of its troops, decided to launch a counteroffensive in the Tikhvin area with virtually no operational pause. This offensive began on November 10, and on December 9, Tikhvin was liberated.

Winter 1941-1942 for many thousands of Leningraders it became fatal. The deterioration of the food situation reached its peak in December 1941, when the daily food allowance for children and dependents dropped to just 125 grams of bread per day. This norm determined many starvation deaths.

Another factor that led to high mortality in Leningrad during the first winter of the siege was the cold. Winter 1941-1942 was abnormally cold, while central heating in Leningrad virtually ceased to exist. However, the cold winter was also a salvation for Leningraders. The frozen Lake Ladoga became a convenient road for supplying the besieged city over the ice. This road, along which food trucks traveled until April 1942, was called the “Road of Life.”

At the end of December 1941, the first increase in the nutritional standard of residents of besieged Leningrad followed, which made it possible to significantly reduce the mortality rate of the population from hunger and disease. During the winter of 1941/1942. There were several more increases in food distribution standards. Leningrad was saved from starvation.

However, the military situation, even after the liberation of Tikhvin and the restoration of land communications between Moscow and the coast of Lake Ladoga, remained difficult. The command of Army Group North understood that it would not be able to carry out an offensive in the winter and spring of 1942, and defended positions for a long defense. The Soviet leadership did not have sufficient forces and means for a successful offensive in the winter of 1941/1942, so the Wehrmacht managed to gain the necessary time. By the spring of 1942, German positions in the Shlisselburg area constituted a well-fortified bridgehead.

The siege of Leningrad continues (1942)

In January 1942, the Soviet command attempted to break through the German defenses in the Leningrad area and release the city. The main force of the Soviet troops here was the 2nd Shock Army, which in January-February managed to break through the German defenses south of Leningrad and significantly advance into the territory occupied by the Wehrmacht. Along with the advance of the army to the rear of Nazi troops, the danger of its encirclement also increased, which was not appreciated in time by the Soviet leadership. As a result, in the spring of 1942 the army was surrounded. After heavy fighting, only about 15 thousand people managed to escape from the encirclement. Most of the soldiers and officers died, some, along with the army commander A. A. Vlasov, were captured.

At the same time, the German leadership, realizing that it would not be possible to take Leningrad, made attempts during the spring-summer of 1942 to destroy the ships of the Soviet Baltic Fleet using airstrikes and artillery shelling. However, here too the Germans failed to achieve any significant results. The death of civilians only increased the hatred of Leningraders towards the Wehrmacht.

In 1942, the situation in the city itself returned to normal. In the spring, large-scale cleanup work was held to remove people who died during the winter and put the city in order. At the same time, many Leningrad enterprises and the tram network were launched, becoming a symbol of the city’s life in the grip of the blockade. The restoration of the city's economy took place under conditions of intense artillery shelling, but people seemed to have gotten used to even this.

To counteract German artillery fire during 1942, a set of measures was carried out in Leningrad to strengthen positions, as well as counter-battery warfare. As a result, already in 1943, the intensity of shelling of the city decreased by 7 times.

And although in 1942 the main events of the Soviet-German front unfolded in the southwestern and western directions, Leningrad played an important role in them. Still diverting large German forces, the city became a major bridgehead behind enemy lines.

A very significant event in the second half of 1942 for Leningrad was the Germans’ attempt to seize Suho Island in Lake Ladoga by landing forces and thereby create serious problems for the city’s supply. On October 22, the German landing began. Fierce fighting immediately broke out on the island, often turning into hand-to-hand combat. However, the Soviet garrison of the island, showing courage and perseverance, managed to repel the enemy landing.

Breaking the siege of Leningrad (1943)

Winter 1942/1943 seriously changed the strategic situation in favor of the Red Army. Soviet troops carried out offensive operations in all directions, and the northwestern was no exception. However, the main event in the northeast of the Soviet-German front was Operation Iskra, the goal of which was to break the blockade of Leningrad.

This operation began on January 12, 1943, and two days later only 5 kilometers remained between the two fronts - Leningrad and Volkhov. However, the Wehrmacht command, realizing the criticality of the moment, hastily transferred new reserves to the Shlisselburg area in order to stop the Soviet offensive. These reserves seriously slowed down the advance of the Soviet troops, but already on January 18 they united, thereby breaking through the blockade of the city. However, despite this success, the further offensive of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts ended in nothing. The front line stabilized for another year.

In just 17 days after the blockade was broken, a railway and road were opened along the corridor to Leningrad, which received the symbolic name “Roads of Victory”. After this, the city's food supply improved even more, and mortality from hunger practically disappeared.

During 1943, the intensity of German artillery shelling of Leningrad also decreased significantly. The reason for this was the effective counter-battery fight of Soviet troops in the city area and the difficult situation of the Wehrmacht in other sectors of the front. By the end of 1943, this severity began to affect the northern sector.

Lifting the siege of Leningrad (1944)

At the beginning of 1944, the Red Army firmly held the strategic initiative. The German army groups "Center" and "South" suffered heavy losses as a result of the battles of the previous summer and winter and were forced to switch to strategic defense. Of all the German army groups located on the Soviet-German front, only Army Group North managed to avoid heavy losses and defeats, largely due to the fact that there had been practically no active operations there since the end of 1941.

On January 14, 1944, troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts began the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, during which they managed to defeat large Wehrmacht forces and liberate Novgorod, Luga and Krasnogvardeisk (Gatchina). As a result, German troops were thrown back hundreds of kilometers from Leningrad and suffered huge losses. Thus, there was a complete lifting of the siege of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days.

In June-July 1944, during the Vyborg operation, Soviet troops pushed Finnish troops back from Leningrad to the north, thanks to which the threat to the city was practically eliminated.

Results and significance of the siege of Leningrad

As a result of the siege of Leningrad, the city's population suffered significant losses. From hunger for the entire period 1941-1944. About 620 thousand people died. During the same period, about 17 thousand people died from barbaric German shelling. The bulk of the losses occurred in the winter of 1941/1942. Military losses during the Battle of Leningrad amount to approximately 330 thousand killed and 110 thousand missing.

The siege of Leningrad became one of the outstanding examples of the resilience and courage of ordinary Soviet people and soldiers. For almost 900 days, almost completely surrounded by enemy forces, the city not only fought, but also lived, functioned normally and contributed to the Victory.

The significance of the Battle of Leningrad is very difficult to overestimate. With stubborn defense, the troops of the Leningrad Front in 1941 managed to pin down a large and powerful German group, excluding its transfer to the Moscow direction. Also in 1942, when the German troops near Stalingrad needed urgent reinforcements, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts actively prevented Army Group North from transferring divisions to the south. The defeat in 1943-1944. This army group put the Wehrmacht in an extremely difficult position.

In memory of the greatest merits of the citizens of Leningrad and the soldiers who defended it, on May 8, 1965, Leningrad was awarded the title of hero city.

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