Nazi metaphysics of Leningrad Just a month after the attack on the Soviet Union, Nazi troops reached the approaches to Leningrad. The speedy capture of the city was set as the main task for Army Group North. Outnumbering Soviet troops

Soviet metaphysics of Leningrad Maintaining the spirit of the defenders of the besieged city, as well as its many inhabitants, was an important task. The Soviet system of agitation and propaganda entered the war based on the concept of Leningrad as an exemplary socialist

Architectural text of Leningrad For the purposes of our work, it will be sufficient to turn to the work of such a leading Soviet architect as N.A. Trotsky. Having received professional training under the guidance of I.A. Fomin and L.N. Benois, he mastered the language of classicism and

Arithmetic or higher mathematics? Returning to the question of the specificity of the Russian/Russian system and, accordingly, their reception and representation, we repeat that no unambiguous characteristic exhausts the problems of Russian history and modernity, none of

At the beginning of September 1941, two months after the start of the Great Patriotic War, Nazi troops captured the city of Shlisselburg in the Kirov district of the Leningrad region. The Germans took control of the source of the Neva and blocked the city from land. Thus began the 872-day siege of Leningrad.

“Everyone felt like a fighter”

When the blockade ring closed, residents began to prepare for a siege. Grocery stores were empty, Leningraders withdrew all their savings, and the evacuation from the city began. The Germans began to bomb the city - people had to get used to the constant roar of anti-aircraft guns, the roar of airplanes, and explosions.

“Children and adults carried sand into the attics, filled iron barrels with water, laid out shovels... Everyone felt like a fighter. The basements were supposed to become bomb shelters,” recalled Leningrad resident Elena Kolesnikova, who was nine years old at the start of the blockade.

Photo report: 75 years ago the siege of Leningrad began

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According to Georgy Zhukov, Joseph Stalin spoke of the current situation as “catastrophic” and even “hopeless.” In fact, terrible times had come in Leningrad - people were dying of hunger and dystrophy, there was no hot water, rats were destroying food supplies and spreading infections, transport was at a standstill, and there was not enough medicine for the sick. Due to frosty winters, water pipes froze and houses were left without water. There was a catastrophic shortage of fuel. There was no time to bury people - and the corpses lay right on the street.

At the same time, as the siege survivors recalled, despite the horror occurring, the theaters and cinema halls were not empty. “Artists sometimes visited us. There were no big concerts, but two people came and gave performances. We went to the opera,” said Leningrad resident Vera Evdokimova. Choreographer Obrant created a children's dance group - boys and girls gave about 3 thousand concerts during those terrible days of the siege. Adults who came to the performances could not hold back their tears.

It was during the siege that Dmitry Shostakovich began work on his famous symphony, “Leningradskaya”.

Clinics, kindergartens, and libraries continued to operate. Boys and girls, whose fathers had gone to the front, worked in factories and took part in the air defense of the city. The “Road of Life” was in operation - the only transport route across Lake Ladoga. Before the onset of winter, food barges traveled along the “Road of Life,” which were constantly shot at by German planes. When the lake froze, trucks began to drive across it, sometimes falling through the ice.

Blockade menu

Children and grandchildren of blockade survivors have repeatedly noticed how they take care of bread, eat up the last crumbs, and do not even throw away moldy remains. “When renovating my grandmother’s apartment, I found many bags of moldy crackers on the balcony and in the closet. Having survived the horrors of the siege, my grandmother was afraid of being left without food for the rest of her life and for many years she stored bread,” recalls the grandson of a siege survivor. Residents of Leningrad, cut off from the rest of the world by German troops, could only count on a modest ration, consisting of practically nothing but bread, which was issued by ration cards. Of course, the military received the most - 500 g of bread per day. Workers received 250 g, everyone else - 125. Siege bread bore little resemblance to pre-war or modern bread - everything went into the dough, including wallpaper dust, hydrocellulose, and wood flour. According to historian David Glanz, inedible impurities reached 50% in some periods.

Since the winter of 1941, the volume of bread issued has increased slightly, but it was still sorely lacking. Therefore, the blockade survivors ate everything they could.

Jelly was prepared from leather products - belts, jackets, boots. First, they burned tar out of them in a stove, then soaked them in water, and then boiled them. Otherwise, you could die from poisoning. Flour glue was widespread and was used for wallpapering. They scraped it off the walls and made soup from it. And from construction glue, which was sold in bars at markets, jelly was prepared by adding spices. At the very beginning of the blockade, the Badayevsky warehouses, where the city’s food supplies were stored, burned down. Residents of Leningrad collected soil from the ashes in the place where sugar reserves had burned. Then this land was filled with water and allowed to settle. When the earth settled, the remaining sweet, high-calorie liquid was boiled and drunk. This drink was called earth coffee. When spring came, they gathered grass, cooked soups, and fried nettle and quinoa cakes.

People went crazy from hunger and cold and were ready to do anything to survive. Mothers fed their children with their own blood by cutting veins or nipples. People ate domestic and street animals and... other people. In Leningrad they knew that if someone’s apartment smelled of meat, then it was most likely human flesh. Often the bodies of the dead were left in apartments, because it was dangerous to take them to the cemetery: Leningraders, mad with hunger, tore up the snow and earth at night and engaged in corpse-eating. Organized gangs operated in the city, luring people to their homes, killing and eating them. Parents killed one child to feed the rest of their children. The law of the jungle has come into force - the survival of the fittest. Of course, this was prosecuted criminally and caught cannibals were threatened with execution, but nothing could restrain animal hunger.

The diary of Tanya Savicheva, a girl who day after day recorded the death of all her loved ones, became a kind of symbol of the horrors of the blockade. Tanya Savicheva herself died in 1944, already in evacuation.

When the blockade was lifted and people again had access to food, a wave of deaths swept across Leningrad again. Starving Leningraders pounced on food, eating everything in one sitting, and then died painfully - their body was simply unable to digest what they had eaten. Those who retained control over themselves heeded the doctors' recommendations and ate little by little semi-liquid food.

During the 872 days of the siege, more than a million people died, mostly from starvation. By the way, a year ago, St. Petersburg geneticists studied The DNA of 206 siege survivors was used to establish that those with certain genotypes, which allow the human body to use energy very economically, were able to endure the terrible siege famine.

In the examined blockade survivors, variants of genes responsible for economical metabolism were 30% more common.

Apparently, these innate qualities helped people survive extreme food shortages and other horrors of war.

The siege of Leningrad ended on January 27, 1944 - then the Red Army, with the help of Kronstadt artillery, forced the Nazis to retreat. On that day, fireworks rang out in the city, and all residents left their homes to celebrate the end of the siege. The symbol of victory was the lines of the Soviet poetess Vera Inber: “Glory to you, great city, / Which united the front and rear, / Which / Withstood unprecedented difficulties. Fought. Won".

The first difficult test that befell the courageous Leningraders was regular artillery shelling (the first of which date back to September 4, 1941) and air strikes (although for the first time enemy planes tried to penetrate the city limits on the night of June 23, but they were unable to break through succeeded only on September 6). However, German aviation did not drop shells chaotically, but according to a clearly calibrated pattern: their task was to destroy as many civilians as possible, as well as strategically important objects.

On the afternoon of September 8, 30 enemy bombers appeared in the sky above the city. High explosive and incendiary bombs rained down. The fire engulfed the entire south-eastern part of Leningrad. The fire began to devour the wooden storage facilities of the Badaevsky food warehouses. Flour, sugar and other types of food were burning. It took almost 5 hours to quell the fire. “Hunger hangs over a population of millions ─ there are no Badayev food warehouses.” “On September 8, a fire at the Badaevsky warehouses destroyed three thousand tons of flour and two and a half tons of sugar. This is what the population consumes in just three days. The bulk of the reserves were dispersed to other bases..., seven times more than what burned at Badaevsky.” But the products thrown away by the explosion were not available to the population, because... A cordon was established around the warehouses.

In total, during the blockade, over 100 thousand incendiary and 5 thousand high-explosive bombs and about 150 thousand shells were dropped on the city. In the autumn months of 1941 alone, the air raid warning was announced 251 times. The average duration of shelling in November 1941 was 9 hours.

Without losing hope of taking Leningrad by storm, on September 9 the Germans launched a new offensive. The main blow was delivered from the area west of Krasnogvardeysk. But the command of the Leningrad Front transferred part of the troops from the Karelian Isthmus to the most threatening areas and replenished the reserve units with militia detachments. These measures allowed the front to stabilize on the southern and southwestern approaches to the city.

It was clear that the Nazis' plan to capture Leningrad had failed. Having failed to achieve their previously set goals, the top of the Wehrmacht came to the conclusion that only a long siege of the city and incessant air raids could lead to its capture. One of the documents of the operational department of the General Staff of the Third Reich, “On the Siege of Leningrad,” dated September 21, 1941, said:

“b) First we blockade Leningrad (hermetically) and destroy the city, if possible, with artillery and aircraft.

c) When terror and hunger have done their work in the city, we will open separate gates and let unarmed people out.

d) The remnants of the “fortress garrison” (as the enemy called the civilian population of Leningrad ─ author’s note) will remain there for the winter. In the spring we will penetrate the city... we will take everything that remains alive into the depths of Russia or we will take prisoners, raze Leningrad to the ground and hand over the area north of the Neva to Finland.”

Such were the plans of the adversary. But the Soviet command could not put up with such circumstances. The first attempt to liberate Leningrad dates back to September 10, 1941. The Sinyavinsk operation of the troops of the 54th Separate Army and the Leningrad Front began with the aim of restoring land connections between the city and the country. The Soviet troops lacked strength and were unable to complete the abandoned task. On September 26, the operation ended.

Meanwhile, the situation in the city itself became more and more difficult. There were 2.544 million people left in besieged Leningrad, including about 400 thousand children. Despite the fact that the “air bridge” began to operate in mid-September, and a few days earlier small lake ships with flour began to moor to the Leningrad shore, food supplies were declining at a catastrophic speed.

On July 18, 1941, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution to introduce cards for essential food products (bread, meat, fats, sugar, etc.) and for manufactured goods of basic necessity (by the end of summer, such goods were already issued using cards throughout the country). They set the following standards for bread:

Workers and engineering workers in the coal, oil, and metallurgical industries were entitled to 800 to 1200 grams. bread a day.

The rest of the workers and engineering and technical workers (for example, in light industry) were given 500 grams. of bread.

Employees of various sectors of the national economy received 400-450 grams. bread a day.

Dependents and children had to be content with 300-400 grams. bread per day.

However, by September 12, in Leningrad, cut off from the mainland, there remained: bread grain and flour ─ 35 days, cereals and pasta ─ 30, meat and meat products ─ 33, fats ─ 45, sugar and confectionery ─ 60 days.1 In this day in Leningrad, the first reduction in the daily bread standards established throughout the Union took place: 500 grams. for workers, 300 gr. for employees and children, 250 gr. for dependents.

But the enemy did not calm down. Here is the entry dated September 18, 1941, in the diary of the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of Nazi Germany, Colonel General F. Halder: “The ring around Leningrad is not yet closed as tightly as we would like... The enemy has concentrated large human and material forces and means . The situation here will be tense until hunger makes itself felt as an ally.” Herr Halder, to the great regret of the inhabitants of Leningrad, thought absolutely correctly: the hunger was indeed felt more and more every day.

From October 1, citizens began to receive 400 grams. (workers) and 300 gr. (other). The food delivered by waterway through Ladoga (during the entire autumn navigation ─ from September 12 to November 15 ─ 60 tons of provisions were delivered and 39 thousand people were evacuated) did not cover even a third of the needs of the urban population.

Another significant problem was the acute shortage of energy resources. In pre-war times, Leningrad plants and factories operated on imported fuel, but the siege disrupted all supplies, and the available supplies melted before our eyes. The threat of fuel hunger hangs over the city. In order to prevent the emerging energy crisis from becoming a disaster, on October 8 the Leningrad Executive Committee of Workers' Deputies decided to procure firewood in areas north of Leningrad. Logging detachments, which consisted mainly of women, were sent there. In mid-October, the teams began their work, but from the very beginning it became clear that the logging plan would not be fulfilled. Leningrad youth also made a significant contribution to resolving the fuel issue (about 2 thousand Komsomol members, mostly girls, took part in logging). But their efforts were not enough to completely or almost completely supply enterprises with energy. With the onset of cold weather, the factories stopped one after another.

Life in Leningrad could only be made easier by lifting the siege, for which purpose the Sinyavinsk operation of the troops of the 54th and 55th armies and the Neva operational group of the Leningrad Front started on October 20. It coincided with the offensive of the fascist German troops on Tikhvin, so on October 28 the release of the blockade had to be postponed due to the aggravated situation in the Tikhvin direction.

The German command became interested in Tikhvin after the failure to capture Leningrad from the south. It was this place that was the gap in the encirclement ring around Leningrad. And as a result of heavy fighting on November 8, the Nazis managed to occupy this town. And this meant one thing: Leningrad lost the last railway along which cargo was transported to the city along Lake Ladoga. But the Svir River remained inaccessible to the enemy. Moreover: as a result of the Tikhvin offensive operation in mid-November, the Germans were thrown back across the Volkhov River. Tikhvin's release took place only a month after his capture, on December 9.

On November 8, 1941, Hitler arrogantly said: “Leningrad itself will raise its hands: it will inevitably fall, sooner or later. No one will free themselves from there, no one will break through our lines. Leningrad is destined to die of starvation.” It might have seemed to some then that this would be the case. On November 13, another decrease in bread distribution standards was recorded: workers and engineering workers were given 300 grams each, and the rest of the population ─ 150 grams. But when navigation in Ladoga had almost ceased, and provisions were virtually not delivered to the city, even this meager ration had to be cut. The lowest standards for bread distribution for the entire period of the blockade were set at the following levels: workers were given 250 grams each, employees, children and dependents - 125 grams each; first line troops and warships ─ 300 grams each. bread and 100 gr. crackers, other military units ─ 150 gr. bread and 75 gr. crackers. It is worth remembering that all such products were not baked from first-class or even second-class wheat flour. The siege bread of that time had the following composition:

rye flour ─ 40%,

cellulose ─ 25%,

meal ─ 20%,

barley flour ─ 5%,

malt ─ 10%,

cake (if available, replaced cellulose),

bran (replace meal if available).

In the besieged city, bread was, of course, the highest value. For a loaf of bread, a bag of cereal or a can of stew, people were ready to give up even family jewelry. Different people had different ways of dividing the slice of bread that was given out every morning: some cut it into thin slices, others into tiny cubes, but everyone agreed on one thing: the most delicious and satisfying thing was the crust. But what kind of satiety can we talk about when each of the Leningraders was losing weight before our eyes?

In such conditions, one had to remember the ancient instincts of hunters and food earners. Thousands of hungry people flocked to the outskirts of the city, to the fields. Sometimes, under a hail of enemy shells, exhausted women and children shoveled the snow with their hands, digging into the frost-numb soil to find at least a few potatoes, rhizomes or cabbage leaves remaining in the soil. The Commissioner of the State Defense Committee for food supply of Leningrad, Dmitry Vasilyevich Pavlov, in his essay “Leningrad in the Siege” wrote: “To fill empty stomachs, to drown out the incomparable suffering from hunger, residents resorted to various methods of finding food: they caught rooks, hunted furiously for the surviving cat or dog, from home medicine cabinets they chose everything that could be used for food: castor oil, Vaseline, glycerin; soup and jelly were made from wood glue.” Yes, the townspeople caught everything that ran, flew or crawled. Birds, cats, dogs, rats ─ in all these living creatures, people saw, first of all, food, so during the blockade their population within Leningrad and the surrounding area was almost completely destroyed. There were also cases of cannibalism, when babies were stolen and eaten, and the most fleshy (mainly buttocks and thighs) parts of the body of the dead were cut off. But the increase in mortality was still terrifying: by the end of November, about 11 thousand people died from exhaustion. People fell right on the streets while going to or returning from work. A huge number of corpses could be seen on the streets.

Added to the total famine were the terrible cold that arrived at the end of November. The thermometer often dropped to -40˚ Celsius and almost never rose above -30˚. The water supply froze, the sewer and heating systems failed. There was already a complete lack of fuel, all power plants stopped, and city transport froze. Unheated rooms in apartments, as well as cold rooms in institutions (the glass windows of buildings were knocked out due to bombing), were covered with frost from the inside.

Leningraders began installing temporary iron stoves in their apartments, leading the pipes out of the windows. Everything that could burn was burned in them: chairs, tables, wardrobes and bookcases, sofas, parquet floors, books, etc. It is clear that such “energy resources” were not enough for a long period. In the evenings, hungry people sat in the dark and cold. The windows were patched with plywood or cardboard, so the chilly night air entered the houses almost unhindered. To keep warm, people put on everything they had, but this did not help: entire families died in their own apartments.

The whole world knows a small notebook, which became a diary, kept by 11-year-old Tanya Savicheva. The little schoolgirl, whose strength was failing, was not lazy and wrote down: “Zhenya died on December 28. at 12.30 o'clock. morning 1941. Grandmother died on January 25th. at 3 o'clock day 1942 Lenya died on March 17 at 5 o'clock. morning 1942 Uncle Vasya died on April 13 at 2 a.m. 1942 Uncle Lyosha ─ May 10 at 4 a.m. day 1942 Mom ─ May 13 at 7 o'clock. 30 min. in the morning of 1942, the Savichevs all died. Tanya is the only one left."

By the beginning of winter, Leningrad had become a “city of ice,” as American journalist Harrison Salisbury wrote. The streets and squares are covered with snow, so the lower floors of the houses are barely visible. “The chime of the trams has stopped. Boxes of trolleybuses frozen in ice. There are few passers-by on the streets. And those you see walk slowly, stopping often, gaining strength. And the hands on the street clocks are frozen in different time zones.”

The Leningraders were already so exhausted that they had neither the physical ability nor the desire to go down to the bomb shelter. Meanwhile, the Nazi air attacks became more and more intense. Some of them lasted for several hours, causing enormous damage to the city and exterminating its inhabitants.

With particular ferocity, German pilots aimed at plants and factories in Leningrad, such as Kirovsky, Izhorsky, Elektrosila, Bolshevik. In addition, the production lacked raw materials, tools, and materials. It was unbearably cold in the workshops, and touching the metal made my hands cramp. Many production workers did their work while sitting, since it was impossible to stand for 10-12 hours. Due to the shutdown of almost all power plants, some machines had to be set in motion manually, which caused longer work hours. Often some of the workers stayed overnight in the workshop, saving time to complete urgent front-line orders. As a result of such dedicated labor activity, in the second half of 1941, the active army received from Leningrad 3 million shells and mines, more than 3 thousand regimental and anti-tank guns, 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles, 58 armored trains and armored platforms. The workers of Leningrad also helped other sections of the Soviet-German front. In the fall of 1941, during the fierce battles for Moscow, the city on the Neva sent over a thousand artillery pieces and mortars, as well as a significant number of other types of weapons, to the troops of the Western Front. On November 28, the commander of the Western Front, General G. K. Zhukov, sent a telegram to A. A. Zhdanov with the words: “Thank you to the Leningraders for helping Muscovites in the fight against the bloodthirsty Nazis.”

But to accomplish feats of labor, recharge, or rather nutrition, is necessary. In December, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, city and regional party committees took emergency measures to save the population. On instructions from the city committee, several hundred people carefully examined all the places where food was stored before the war. At the breweries, they opened up the floors and collected the remaining malt (in total, they managed to accumulate 110 tons of malt). At the mills, flour dust was scraped off the walls and ceilings, and every bag that once contained flour or sugar was shaken out. Food remains were found in warehouses, vegetable stores and railway cars. In total, about 18 thousand tons of such remains were collected, which, of course, was a considerable help in those difficult days.

The production of vitamin C was established from pine needles, which effectively protects against scurvy. And scientists from the Forestry Academy, under the leadership of Professor V.I. Sharkov, quickly developed a technology for the industrial production of protein yeast from cellulose. The 1st confectionery factory began daily production of up to 20 thousand dishes from such yeast.

On December 27, the Leningrad city committee adopted a resolution on the organization of hospitals. City and regional hospitals operated in all large enterprises and provided bed rest for the most weakened workers. Relatively rational nutrition and a warm room helped tens of thousands of people survive.

Around the same time, so-called household detachments began to appear in Leningrad, which included young Komsomol members, most of them girls. The pioneers of such extremely important activities were the youth of the Primorsky region, whose example was followed by others. In the memo that was given to the members of the detachments, one could read: “You... are entrusted with taking care of the daily household needs of those who most seriously endure the hardships associated with the enemy blockade. Taking care of children, women and the elderly is your civic duty...” Suffering from hunger themselves, the soldiers of the domestic front brought water from the Neva, firewood or food to the weak Leningraders, lit the stoves, cleaned apartments, washed clothes, etc. Many lives were saved as a result of their noble work.

When mentioning the incredible difficulties faced by the residents of the city on the Neva, it is impossible not to say that people gave themselves not only to the machines in the workshops. Scientific papers were read out in bomb shelters and dissertations were defended. The State Public Library was never closed for a single day. M. E. Saltykova-Shchedrin. “Now I know: only work saved my life,” once said a professor who was an acquaintance of Tatyana Tess, the author of an essay about besieged Leningrad entitled “My Dear City.” He told how “almost every evening he went from home to the scientific library to get books.”

Every day this professor's steps became slower and slower. He constantly struggled with weakness and terrible weather conditions, and on the way he was often taken by surprise by air raids. There were even moments when he thought that he would not reach the library doors, but each time he climbed the familiar steps and entered his world. He saw librarians whom he had known for “a good dozen years.” He also knew that they, too, were enduring all the difficulties of the blockade with the last of their strength, and that it was not easy for them to get to their library. But they, having gathered their courage, got up day after day and went to their favorite work, which, just like that professor, kept them alive.

It is believed that not a single school worked in the besieged city during the first winter, but this is not so: one of the Leningrad schools worked for the entire academic year of 1941-42. Its director was Serafima Ivanovna Kulikevich, who devoted thirty years to this school before the war.

Every school day, teachers invariably came to work. In the teachers’ room there was a samovar with boiled water and a sofa on which one could take a breather after a hard journey, because in the absence of public transport, hungry people had to overcome serious distances (one of the teachers walked thirty-two (!) tram stops from home to school). I didn’t even have the strength to carry the briefcase in my hands: it hung on a rope tied to my neck. When the bell rang, the teachers went to classes where the same exhausted and exhausted children sat, in whose homes irreparable troubles invariably happened - the death of a father or mother. “But the children got up in the morning and went to school. What kept them alive was not the meager bread ration they received. The power of the soul kept them alive.”

There were only four senior classes in that school, in one of which there was only one girl left - ninth-grader Veta Bandorina. But the teachers still came to her and prepared her for a peaceful life.

However, it is impossible to imagine the history of the Leningrad siege epic without the famous “Road of Life” - a highway laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga.

Back in October, work began to study the lake. In November, exploration of Ladoga began in full force. Reconnaissance planes took aerial photographs of the area, and plans for road construction were actively being developed. As soon as the water exchanged its liquid state of aggregation for a solid one, this area was examined almost daily by special reconnaissance groups together with Ladoga fishermen. They examined the southern part of the Shlisselburg Bay, studying the ice regime of the lake, the thickness of the ice near the shores, the nature and places of descent to the lake, and much more.

In the early morning of November 17, 1941, a small detachment of fighters descended from the low bank of Ladoga near the village of Kokkorevo onto the still fragile ice, led by military technician 2nd rank L. N. Sokolov, company commander of the 88th separate bridge-building battalion. The pioneers were given the task of reconnaissance and plotting the route of the ice route. Together with the detachment, two guides from local old-timers walked along Ladoga. The brave detachment, tied with ropes, successfully passed the Zelentsy islands, reached the village of Kobona, and returned back the same way.

On November 19, 1941, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front signed an order on the organization of transportation on Lake Ladoga, on the construction of an ice road, its protection and defense. Five days later, the plan for the entire route was approved. From Leningrad it passed to Osinovets and Kokkorevo, then descended to the ice of the lake and ran along it in the area of ​​Shlisselburg Bay to the village of Kobona (with a branch to Lavrovo) on the eastern shore of Ladoga. Further, through swampy and wooded areas, it was possible to reach two stations of the Northern Railway ─ Zaborye and Podborovye.

At first, the military road on the ice of the lake (VAD-101) and the military road from the Zaborye station to the village of Kobona (VAD-102) existed separately, but later they were combined into one. Its head was the commissioner of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, Major General A. M. Shilov, and the military commissar was the deputy head of the political department of the front, brigade commissar I. V. Shishkin.

The ice on Ladoga is still fragile, but the first sled train is already on its way. On November 20, the first 63 tons of flour were delivered to the city.

The hungry city did not wait, so it was necessary to resort to all sorts of tricks in order to deliver the largest amount of food. For example, where the ice cover was dangerously thin, it was built up using boards and brush mats. But even such ice could sometimes fail. On many sections of the route it was only able to support a half-loaded car. And it was unprofitable to drive cars with a small load. But here, too, a solution was found, and a very unique one at that: half of the load was placed on a sled, which was attached to the cars.

All efforts were not in vain: on November 23, the first convoy of vehicles delivered 70 tons of flour to Leningrad. From that day on, the work of drivers, road maintenance workers, traffic controllers, doctors began, full of heroism and courage - work on the world famous “Road of Life”, work that could only be best described by a direct participant in those events. This was senior lieutenant Leonid Reznikov, who published poems in “Front Road Worker” (a newspaper about the Ladoga military highway, which began publishing in January 1942, editor ─ journalist B. Borisov) about what befell the driver of a lorry at that harsh time:

“We forgot to sleep, we forgot to eat ─

And they raced across the ice with their loads.

And the hand on the steering wheel was cold in a mitten,

They closed their eyes as they walked.

The shells whistled like a barrier in front of us,

But there was a path ─ to my native Leningrad.

We stood up to meet the blizzard and blizzard,

But the will knew no barriers!”

Indeed, the shells were a serious obstacle in the path of brave drivers. Wehrmacht Colonel General F. Halder, already mentioned above, wrote in his military diary in December 1941: “The movement of enemy transport on the ice of Lake Ladoga does not stop... Our aviation began raids...” This “our aviation” was opposed by Soviet 37- and 85-mm anti-aircraft guns, many anti-aircraft machine guns. From November 20, 1941 to April 1, 1942, Soviet fighters flew about 6.5 thousand times to patrol the area above the lake, conducted 143 air battles and shot down 20 aircraft with a black and white cross on the hull.

The first month of operation of the ice highway did not bring the expected results: due to difficult weather conditions, poor condition of equipment and German air raids, the transportation plan was not fulfilled. By the end of 1941, 16.5 tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad, and the front and the city demanded 2 thousand tons daily.

In his New Year's speech, Hitler said: “We are not deliberately storming Leningrad now. Leningrad will devour itself!”3 However, the Fuhrer miscalculated. The city on the Neva not only showed signs of life ─ it tried to live as it would have been possible in peacetime. This is the message that was published in the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper at the end of 1941:

“HAPPY NEW YEAR TO LENINGRADERS.

Today, in addition to the monthly food standards, the city's population will be given: half a liter of wine ─ workers and employees, and a quarter liter ─ dependents.

The Lensovet Executive Committee decided to hold New Year trees in schools and kindergartens from January 1 to January 10, 1942. All children will be treated to a two-course holiday meal without having their ration cards cut out.”

Such tickets as you can see here gave the right to plunge into a fairy tale to those who had to grow up ahead of time, whose happy childhood became impossible due to the war, whose best years were overshadowed by hunger, cold and bombing, the death of friends or parents. And, nevertheless, the city authorities wanted the children to feel that even in such hell there are reasons for joy, and the advent of the new year of 1942 is one of them.

But not everyone lived to see the coming 1942: in December 1941 alone, 52,880 people died from hunger and cold. The total number of victims of the blockade is 641,803 people.

Probably, something similar to a New Year's gift was the addition (for the first time during the entire blockade!) to the wretched ration that was due. On the morning of December 25, each worker received 350 grams, and “one hundred twenty-five blockade grams ─ with fire and blood in half,” as Olga Fedorovna Berggolts wrote (who, by the way, along with ordinary Leningraders endured all the hardships of the enemy siege), turned into 200 ( for the rest of the population). Without a doubt, this was also facilitated by the “Road of Life”, which since the new year has become more active than before. Already on January 16, 1942, instead of the planned 2 thousand tons, 2,506 thousand tons of cargo were delivered. From that day on, the plan began to be exceeded regularly.

January 24, 1942 ─ and a new bonus. Now 400 grams were given out for a work card, 300 grams for an employee’s card, and 250 grams for a child’s or dependent’s card. of bread. And after some time ─ February 11 ─ workers began to be given 400 grams. bread, everyone else ─ 300 gr. Notably, cellulose was no longer used as an ingredient in bread baking.

Another rescue mission is also connected with the Ladoga highway - evacuation, which began at the end of November 1941, but became widespread only in January 1942, when the ice became sufficiently strong. Those who were primarily subject to evacuation were children, the sick, the wounded, the disabled, women with young children, as well as scientists, students, workers of evacuated factories along with their families and some other categories of citizens.

But the Soviet armed forces also did not sleep. From January 7 to April 30, the Lyuban offensive operation of the troops of the Volkhov Front and part of the forces of the Leningrad Front was carried out, aimed at breaking the blockade. At first, the movement of Soviet troops in the Lyuban direction had some success, but the battles were fought in wooded and swampy areas, and considerable material and technical means, as well as food, were needed for the offensive to be effective. The lack of all of the above, coupled with the active resistance of the Nazi troops, led to the fact that at the end of April the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts had to switch to defensive actions, and the operation was completed, since the task was not completed.

Already at the beginning of April 1942, due to serious warming, the Ladoga ice began to thaw, “puddles” up to 30-40 cm deep appeared in some places, but the closure of the lake highway occurred only on April 24.

From November 24, 1941 to April 21, 1942, 361,309 tons of cargo were brought to Leningrad, 560,304 thousand people were evacuated. The Ladoga highway made it possible to create a small emergency supply of food products ─ about 67 thousand tons.

Nevertheless, Ladoga did not stop serving people. During the summer-autumn navigation, about 1,100 thousand tons of various cargo were delivered to the city, and 850 thousand people were evacuated. During the entire blockade, at least one and a half million people were taken out of the city.

What about the city? “Although shells were still exploding in the streets and fascist planes were buzzing in the sky, the city, in defiance of the enemy, came to life along with the spring.” The sun's rays reached Leningrad and took away the frosts that had tormented everyone for so long. Hunger also began to gradually recede: bread rations increased, the distribution of fats, cereals, sugar, and meat began, but in very limited quantities. The consequences of the winter were disappointing: many people continued to die from dystrophy. Therefore, the fight to save the population from this disease has become strategically important. Since the spring of 1942, feeding stations have become the most widespread, to which dystrophies of the first and second degrees were assigned for two to three weeks (in case of the third degree, the person was hospitalized). In them, the patient received meals with one and a half to two times more calories than the standard ration. These canteens helped about 260 thousand people (mostly workers at industrial enterprises) recover.

There were also general canteens, where (according to statistics for April 1942) at least a million people, that is, most of the city, ate. There they handed over their food cards and in return received three meals a day and soy milk and kefir in addition, and starting in the summer, vegetables and potatoes.

With the onset of spring, many went outside the city and began to dig up the ground for vegetable gardens. The Leningrad party organization supported this initiative and encouraged every family to have their own vegetable garden. An agriculture department was even created in the city committee, and advice on growing this or that vegetable was constantly heard on the radio. Seedlings were grown in specially adapted city greenhouses. Some of the factories have started producing shovels, watering cans, rakes and other garden tools. The Field of Mars, Summer Garden, St. Isaac's Square, parks, public gardens, etc. were dotted with individual plots. Any flower bed, any piece of land that was at least somewhat suitable for such farming was plowed and sown. Over 9 thousand hectares of land were occupied by potatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, onions, cabbage, etc. Collecting edible wild plants was also practiced. The vegetable garden idea was another good opportunity to improve the food supply for the troops and the city population.

On top of everything else, Leningrad became heavily polluted during the autumn-winter period. Not only in the morgues, but even just on the streets there were unburied corpses, which, with the arrival of warm days, would begin to decompose and would become the cause of a large-scale epidemic, which the city authorities could not allow.

On March 25, 1942, the executive committee of the Leningrad City Council, in accordance with the resolution of the State Defense Committee on the cleanup of Leningrad, decided to mobilize the entire working population to work on cleaning yards, squares and embankments from ice, snow and all kinds of sewage. Struggling to lift work tools, exhausted residents fought on their front line ─ the line between purity and pollution. By mid-spring, at least 12 thousand yards, more than 3 million square meters, had been put in order. km of streets and embankments were now sparkling clean, about a million tons of garbage had been removed.

April 15 was truly significant for every Leningrader. For almost five difficult autumn and winter months, everyone who worked covered the distance from home to their place of duty on foot. When there is emptiness in your stomach, your legs go numb in the cold and don’t obey, and shells are whistling overhead, then even some 3-4 kilometers seem like hard labor. And finally, the day came when everyone could get on a tram and get to the opposite end of the city without any effort. By the end of April, trams were already running on five routes.

A little later, such a vital public service as water supply was restored. In the winter of 1941-42. only about 80-85 houses had running water. Those who were not among the lucky ones who inhabited such houses were forced to take water from the Neva throughout the cold winter. By May 1942, bathroom and kitchen taps were again noisy with flowing H2O. Water supply again ceased to be considered a luxury, although the joy of many Leningraders knew no bounds: “It’s difficult to explain what the siege survivor experienced, standing at an open tap, admiring the stream of water... Respectable people, like children, splashed and splashed over the sinks.” The sewer network was also restored. Baths, hairdressers, and household repair shops opened.

As on the New Year, on May Day 1942, Leningraders were given the following additional products: children ─ two tablets of cocoa with milk and 150 grams. cranberries, adults ─ 50 gr. tobacco, 1.5 liters of beer or wine, 25 gr. tea, 100 gr. cheese, 150 gr. dried fruits, 500 gr. salted fish.

Having strengthened physically and received moral recharge, the remaining residents of the city returned to the workshops for their machines, but there was still not enough fuel, so about 20 thousand Leningraders (almost all women, teenagers and pensioners) went to collect firewood and peat. Through their efforts, by the end of 1942, plants, factories and power plants received 750 thousand cubic meters. meters of wood and 500 thousand tons of peat.

Peat and firewood mined by Leningraders, added to coal and oil, brought from outside the blockade ring (in particular, through the Ladoga pipeline built in record time ─ in less than a month and a half), breathed life into the industry of the city on the Neva. In April 1942, 50 (in May ─ 57) enterprises produced military products: in April-May, 99 guns, 790 machine guns, 214 thousand shells, and more than 200 thousand mines were sent to the front.

The civilian industry tried to keep up with the military industry by resuming the production of consumer goods.

Passers-by on the city streets have thrown off their cotton pants and sweatshirts and dressed up in coats and suits, dresses and colored headscarves, stockings and shoes, and Leningrad women are already “powdering their noses and painting their lips.”

Extremely important events took place in 1942 at the front. From August 19 to October 30, the Sinyavskaya offensive operation of troops took place

Leningrad and Volkhov fronts with the support of the Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga military flotilla. This was the fourth attempt to break the blockade, like the previous ones, which did not achieve the goal, but played a definitely positive role in the defense of Leningrad: another German attempt on the integrity of the city was thwarted.

The fact is that after the heroic 250-day defense of Sevastopol, Soviet troops had to leave the city, and then the entire Crimea. So it became easier for the fascists in the south, and it was possible to focus all the attention of the German command on the problems in the north. On July 23, 1942, Hitler signed Directive No. 45, in which, in common parlance, he “gave the go-ahead” for the operation to storm Leningrad in early September 1942. At first it was called “Feuerzauber” (translated from German as “Magic Fire”), then ─ “Nordlicht” (“Northern Lights”). But the enemy not only failed to make a significant breakthrough to the city: during the fighting, the Wehrmacht lost 60 thousand people killed, more than 600 guns and mortars, 200 tanks and the same number of aircraft. The preconditions were created for the successful breaking of the blockade in January 1943.

The winter of 1942-43 was not as gloomy and lifeless for the city as the previous one. There were no longer mountains of garbage and snow on the streets and avenues. Trams became commonplace again. Schools, cinemas and theaters opened. Water supply and sewerage systems were available almost everywhere. The windows of the apartments were now glazed, and not ugly boarded up with improvised materials. There was a small supply of energy and food supplies. Many continued to engage in socially useful work (in addition to their main job). It is noteworthy that on December 22, 1942, the presentation of the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” to all those who distinguished themselves began.

There was some improvement in the food situation in the city. In addition, the winter of 1942-43 turned out to be milder than the previous one, so the Ladoga highway was in operation for only 101 days during the winter of 1942-43: from December 19, 1942 to March 30, 1943. But the drivers did not allow themselves to relax: the total cargo turnover amounted to more than 200 thousand tons of cargo.

“In order not to be eaten up by your conscience, you need to act as honor dictates...”
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

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

We will now make sure that we know very little even about the most important, as we were told, events of that War. I would like to draw your attention to the article Alexey Kungurov from Chelyabinsk under the name, which at one time was undeservedly ignored by all the world media. In this short article he gave several facts, which shatter into smithereens the existing legend about the siege of Leningrad. No, he does not deny that there were protracted and heavy battles there, and there were a huge number of civilian casualties.

But he claims that siege of Leningrad(complete city surroundings) did not have, and provides convincing evidence for this assertion. He draws his conclusions by analyzing publicly available, widely known information using logic and arithmetic. You can watch and listen in more detail about this in the recording of his Internet Conference “Managing History as a Knowledge System”... In Leningrad at that time there were many oddities and incomprehensibility, which we will now voice, using many fragments from the above-mentioned article by Alexei Kungurov.

Unfortunately, reasonable and justified explanations what was happening at that time in Leningrad, not found yet. Therefore, we have to hope that correctly formulated questions will help you and me find or calculate the correct answers. In our additions to Alexey Kungurov’s materials, we will also use only publicly available and widely known information, repeatedly voiced and confirmed by photographic materials, maps and other documents. So, let's go in order.

Riddle one

Where did this term come from?

Blockades exactly the city of Leningrad in reality did not have. This sonorous term was most likely coined to shift the blame onto the Germans for the mass casualties among the urban population. But the encirclement of the city of Leningrad in that War did not have!

In the summer of 1941, according to available publicly available information, a certain, rather large territory of several thousand square kilometers, on which the city of Leningrad was and is now located, was cut off by German troops from the rest of the country. This happened at the end of August 1941: “After stubborn battles, the enemy’s 39th motorized corps captured the large Mga railway junction on August 30. The last railway connecting Leningrad with the country was cut..."(http://lenbat.narod.ru/mga.htm).

These maps clearly show the surrounded area in which Leningrad was located:

Riddle two

Why were there so few shells?

A. Kungurov’s article begins with an analysis of the written statement that the city fell during the blockade. 148,478 rounds. Historians describe these events as follows: “Leningraders lived in constant nervous tension, shelling followed one after another. From September 4 to November 30, 1941, the city was shelled 272 times for a total duration of 430 hours. Sometimes the population remained in bomb shelters for almost a day. On September 15, 1941, the shelling lasted 18 hours 32 m, on September 17 - 18 hours 33 m. In total, during the blockade of Leningrad, about 150 thousand shells were fired ... "

Alexey Kungurov, through simple arithmetic calculations, shows that this figure was taken from the air and may differ by several orders of magnitude! One artillery battalion of 18 large caliber guns as mentioned 430 hours capable of firing 232,000 shots! But the blockade, according to established data, lasted much longer than three weeks, and the enemy had several hundred times more guns. Therefore, the number of fallen shells, which newspapers of that time wrote about, and then copied by everyone who wrote to us about the blockade, should have been several orders of magnitude greater if the blockade had taken place in the form to which we were all taught.

On the other hand, many photographs of the siege show that destruction in the central part of the city were minimal! This is only possible if the enemy was not allowed to attack the city with artillery and aircraft. However, judging by the maps linked above, the enemy was only a few kilometers from the city, and a reasonable question is why the city and military factories were not completely turned into ruins in a couple of weeks, remains open.

Riddle three

Why was there no order?

The Germans there was no order occupy Leningrad. Kungurov writes very clearly about this as follows: “Von Leib, commander of Army North, was a competent and experienced commander. He had under his command up to 40 divisions(including tank ones). The front in front of Leningrad was 70 km long. The density of troops reached the level of 2-5 km per division in the direction of the main attack. In this situation, only historians who do not understand anything about military affairs can say that under these conditions he could not take the city. We have repeatedly seen in feature films about the defense of Leningrad how German tankers drive into the suburbs, crush and shoot a tram. The front was broken, and there was no one in front of them. In their memoirs, Von Leib and many other German army commanders stated that they were forbidden to take the city, gave the order to retreat from advantageous positions..."

Isn’t it true that the German troops behaved very strangely: instead of easily capturing the city and advancing further (we understand that the militias that were shown to us in , are not capable of providing serious resistance to regular troops in principle), the invaders almost 3 years worth near Leningrad, allegedly blocking all land approaches to it. And taking into account the fact that, most likely, there were no counterattacks from the defenders or there were very few, then for the advancing German troops it was not a war, but a real sanatorium! It would be interesting to know the true reaction of the German command to this legend about the blockade.

Riddle four

Why did the Kirov plant work?

"It is known that The Kirov plant worked throughout the blockade. The fact is also known - he was in 3 (three!!!) kilometers from the front line. For people who did not serve in the army, I will say that a bullet from a Mosin rifle can fly at such a distance if you shoot in the right direction (I am simply silent about artillery guns of larger caliber). Residents were evacuated from the area of ​​the Kirov plant, but the plant continued to operate under the very nose of the German command, and it was never destroyed (although, with this task could cope with one artillery lieutenant with a battery of not the largest caliber, with a correctly posed task and a sufficient amount of ammunition) ... "

Do you understand what is written here? It is written here that the fierce enemy, who continuously fired cannons and bombed the surrounded city of Leningrad for 3 years, did not bother to destroy the Kirov plant, which produced military equipment, during this time, although this could have been done for one day! How can this be explained? Either because the Germans did not know how to shoot at all, or because they did not have an order to destroy the enemy’s plant, which is no less fantastic than the first assumption; or the German troops that stood near Leningrad carried out another function, unknown to us yet...

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

Riddle five

How was the Kirov plant supplied?

“The Kirov plant produced various products: KV-1 tanks, SAU-152 self-propelled guns, by 1943 they mastered the production of IS-1 and IS-2 tanks (SAU-152s are being assembled in the background). From photographs posted on the Internet, we can imagine the scale of tank production (this is large-scale and mass production). In addition to the Kirov plant, other factories in Leningrad also worked, producing shells and other military products. Since the spring of 1942, tram traffic has resumed in Leningrad... This is only a small piece of reality, very different from historical myths written by professional historians..."

In order for a large machine-building enterprise, such as the Kirov Plant, to operate and produce products, it is necessary very serious, constant supply. And this should be not only electricity in the necessary and very large volumes, but also raw materials (thousands of tons of metal of the required grades), components of thousands of items, tools of thousands of items, food and water for workers and a lot of other things.

Besides this, it was necessary to put it somewhere finished products! These are not fountain pens! These are large products that could only be transported under their own power, by sea or by rail. And the fact that the products were manufactured is confirmed by written evidence:

“Due to the shutdown of almost all power plants, some machines had to be moved manually, which caused longer work hours. Often some of the workers stayed overnight in the workshop, saving time to complete urgent front-line orders. As a result of such dedicated labor activity in the second half of 1941, the active army received from 3 million. shells and mines, more 3 thousand. regimental and anti-tank guns, 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles, 58 armored trains and armored platforms.

2. The workers of Leningrad also helped other sections of the Soviet-German front. In the fall of 1941, during fierce battles for Moscow, the city on the Neva sent troops of the Western Front over a thousand artillery pieces and mortars, as well as a significant number of other types of weapons. In the difficult conditions of the autumn of 1941, the main task of the workers of the besieged city was to supply the front with weapons, ammunition, equipment and uniforms. Despite the evacuation of a number of enterprises, the power of Leningrad industry remained significant. IN September In 1941, city enterprises produced more than a thousand 76 mm guns, over two thousand mortars, hundreds anti-tank guns and machine guns..."

It's a strange blockade: On August 30, 1941, railway communication with the “mainland” was interrupted, and in the fall of 1941, “ over a thousand artillery pieces and mortars, as well as a significant number of other types of weapons...“How was it possible to transport such a colossal amount of weapons from “siege” Leningrad to the Western Front if there was no longer any railway communication? On rafts and boats across Lake Ladoga under continuous fire from German artillery and aircraft that dominated the air at that time? Theoretically this is possible, but practically it is very unlikely...

The desire to capture Leningrad simply haunted the entire German command. In the article we will talk about the event itself and how many days the siege of Leningrad lasted. It was planned, with the help of several armies, united under the command of Field Marshal Wilhelm von Leeb and under the common name "North", to push back Soviet troops from the Baltic states and begin to capture Leningrad. After the success of this operation, the German invaders would have received enormous opportunities to unexpectedly break into the rear of the Soviet army and leave Moscow without protection.

Leningrad blockade. date

The capture of Leningrad by the Germans would automatically deprive the USSR of the Baltic Fleet, and this would worsen the strategic situation several times. There was no opportunity to create a new front to defend Moscow in this situation, because all forces had already been used. Soviet troops would not have been able to psychologically accept the capture of the city by the enemy, and the answer to the question: “How many days did the siege of Leningrad last?” would be completely different. But it happened the way it happened.

Siege of Leningrad: history first attacks of the German army

Making a lot of efforts, the Nazis pushed Soviet troops back to the Baltic states and began an attack on Leningrad in two directions. Finnish troops moved through Karelia, and German planes concentrated near the city itself. Soviet soldiers held back the enemy's advance with all their might and even stopped the Finnish army near the Karelian Isthmus.

Changing the direction of impact

The fascist command changed direction and sent two motorized divisions to Staraya Russa with the support of bombers. In August, the cities of Novgorod and Chudovo were captured and railway lines were blocked. The command of the German troops decided to unite their army with the Finnish army, which was advancing in this direction. Already at the end of August, enemy troops blocked all roads leading to Leningrad, and on September 8 the city was blockaded by the enemy. It was possible to maintain contact with the outside world only by air or water. Thus, the Nazis “besieged” Leningrad and began shelling the city and civilians. There were regular air bombings.
Not finding a common language with Stalin on the issue of defending the capital, on September 12 he went to Leningrad and began active actions to defend the city. But by October 10, due to the difficult military situation, Pod had to go there, and Major General Fedyuninsky was appointed commander instead.

Hitler transferred additional divisions from other areas in order to completely capture Leningrad in a short time and destroy all Soviet troops. The fight for the city lasted 871 days. Despite the fact that the enemy's advance was suspended, local residents were on the verge of life and death. Food supplies became scarcer every day, and the shelling and air raids never stopped.

The road of life

From the first day of the blockade, only one strategic route - the Road of Life - was possible to escape from the besieged city. It passed through Lake Ladonezh, and it was along this route that women and children could escape from Leningrad. Also along this road, food, medicine and ammunition arrived in the city. But there was still not enough food, the shops were empty, and a large number of people gathered near the bakeries in order to receive their rations using coupons. The “Road of Life” was narrow and was constantly under the gun of the Nazis, but there was no other way out of the city.

Hunger

Soon frosts began, and ships with provisions were unable to reach Leningrad. A terrible famine began in the city. Engineers and factory workers were given 300 grams of bread, and ordinary Leningraders only 150 grams. But now the quality of the bread had deteriorated significantly - it was a rubber mixture made from the remnants of stale bread and other inedible impurities. Rations were also cut. And when the frosts reached minus forty, Leningrad was left without water and without electricity during the siege. But factories for the production of weapons and ammunition worked non-stop even in such difficult times for the city.

The Germans were confident that the city would not hold out for long in such terrible conditions; its capture was expected any day. The siege of Leningrad, the start date of which, according to the Nazis, was supposed to be the date of the capture of the city, unpleasantly surprised the command. People did not lose heart and supported each other and their defenders as best they could. They were not going to surrender their positions to the enemy. The siege dragged on, the fighting spirit of the invaders gradually subsided. It was not possible to capture the city, and the situation became more complicated every day by the actions of the partisans. Army Group North was ordered to gain a foothold in place, and in the summer, when reinforcements arrived, to begin decisive action.

First attempts to liberate the city

In 1942, USSR troops tried several times to liberate the city, but they failed to break through the blockade of Leningrad. Although all attempts ended in failure, the offensive weakened the enemy's position and provided an opportunity to try to lift the blockade again. This process was carried out by Voroshilov and Zhukov. On January 12, 1944, the troops of the Soviet Army, with the support of the Baltic Fleet, launched an offensive. Heavy fighting forced the enemy to use all their forces. Powerful attacks on all flanks forced Hitler’s army to begin a retreat, and in June the enemy was driven back 300 km from Leningrad. Leningrad became a triumph and a turning point in the war.

Duration of blockade

History has never known such a brutal and lengthy military siege of a populated area as in Leningrad. How many anxious nights did the residents of the besieged city have to endure, how many days... The siege of Leningrad lasted 871 days. People have endured so much pain and suffering that it would be enough for the whole world until the end of time! The siege of Leningrad was truly bloody and dark years for everyone. It was broken through thanks to the dedication and courage of Soviet soldiers who were ready to sacrifice their lives in the name of their Motherland. After so many years, many historians and ordinary people were interested in only one thing: was it possible to avoid such a cruel fate? Probably not. Hitler simply dreamed of the day when he could take possession of the Baltic Fleet and block the road to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, from where reinforcements for the Soviet army arrived. Was it possible to plan this situation in advance and prepare for it in the slightest degree? “The Siege of Leningrad is a story of heroism and blood” - this is how one could characterize this terrible period. But let's look at the reasons why the tragedy unfolded.

Prerequisites for the blockade and causes of famine

In 1941, at the beginning of September, the city of Shlisselburg was captured by the Nazis. Thus, Leningrad was surrounded. Initially, the Soviet people did not believe that the situation would lead to such dire consequences, but nevertheless, panic seized the Leningraders. The store shelves were empty, all the money was taken from the savings banks literally in a matter of hours, the bulk of the population was preparing for a long siege of the city. Some citizens even managed to leave the village before the Nazis began massacres, bombings and executions of innocent people. But after the brutal siege began, it became impossible to get out of the city. Some historians argue that the terrible famine during the blockade days arose due to the fact that at the beginning of the blockade everything was burned, and with them food supplies designed for the entire city.

However, after studying all the documents on this topic, which, by the way, were classified until recently, it became clear that there were no “deposits” of food in these warehouses initially. During the difficult war years, creating a strategic reserve for the 3 million residents of Leningrad was simply an impossible task. Local residents ate imported food, and this was enough for no more than a week. Therefore, the following strict measures were applied: food cards were introduced, all letters were strictly monitored, and schools were closed. If any attachment was noticed in any of the messages or the text contained a decadent mood, it was destroyed.

Life and death within the boundaries of your favorite city

The Siege of Leningrad - years about which scientists are still arguing. After all, looking through the surviving letters and records of people who survived this terrible time, and trying to answer the question “how many days did the siege of Leningrad last,” historians discovered the whole terrible picture of what was happening. Immediately, hunger, poverty and death fell upon the inhabitants. Money and gold have completely depreciated. The evacuation was planned in the early autumn of 1941, but only by January of the following year it became possible to remove most of the residents from this terrible place. There were simply unimaginable queues near the bread kiosks, where people received rations using cards. During this frosty season, not only hunger and invaders killed people. The record low temperature lingered on the thermometer for a long time. It provoked the freezing of water pipes and the rapid use of all the fuel available in the city. The population was left in the cold without water, light and heat. Hordes of hungry rats became a huge problem for people. They ate all food supplies and were carriers of terrible diseases. As a result of all these reasons, people weakened and exhausted by hunger and disease died right on the streets; they did not even have time to bury them.

Life of people under siege

Despite the severity of the situation, local residents kept the city alive as best they could. In addition, Leningraders also helped the Soviet Army. Despite the terrible living conditions, the factories did not stop their work for a moment and almost all of them produced military products.

People supported each other, tried not to let the city’s culture fall into the dirt, and restored the work of theaters and museums. Everyone wanted to prove to the invaders that nothing could shake their faith in a bright future. The most striking example of love for his hometown and life was shown by the history of the creation of the “Leningrad Symphony” by D. Shostakovich. The composer began work on it while still in besieged Leningrad, and finished it during the evacuation. After completion, it was transferred to the city, and the local symphony orchestra played the symphony for all Leningraders. During the concert, Soviet artillery did not allow a single enemy plane to break through to the city, so that the bombing would not disrupt the long-awaited premiere. The local radio also continued to work, giving local residents a breath of fresh information and prolonging the will to live.

Children are heroes. Ensemble of A. E. Obrant

The most painful topic at all times has been the topic of saving suffering children. The beginning of the siege of Leningrad hit everyone, and the smallest ones first. Childhood spent in the city left a serious imprint on all Leningrad children. All of them matured earlier than their peers, since the Nazis cruelly stole their childhood and carefree time from them. Kids, along with adults, tried to bring Victory Day closer. There are among them those who were not afraid to give their lives for the approach of a joyful day. They remained heroes in many hearts. An example is the history of the children's dance ensemble of A. E. Obrant. During the first winter of the siege, the bulk of the children were evacuated, but despite this, there were still a lot of them in the city. Even before the start of the war, the Song and Dance Ensemble was founded in the Palace of Pioneers. And during wartime, the teachers who remained in Leningrad looked for their former students and resumed the work of ensembles and circles. Choreographer Obrant did the same. From the children who remained in the city, he created a dance ensemble. During these terrible and hungry days, the children did not give themselves time to relax, and the ensemble gradually found its feet. And this despite the fact that before the start of rehearsals, many of the guys had to be saved from exhaustion (they simply could not bear even the slightest load).

After some time, the group began to give concerts. In the spring of 1942, the guys began to tour, they tried very hard to raise the morale of the soldiers. The soldiers looked at these courageous children and could not contain their emotions. During the entire time the blockade of the city lasted, children toured all the garrisons with concerts and gave more than 3 thousand concerts. There were cases when performances were interrupted by bombings and air raids. The guys were not even afraid to go to the front line to cheer up and support their defenders, although they danced without music so as not to attract the attention of the Germans. After the city was liberated from the invaders, all the guys in the ensemble were awarded medals “For the Defense of Leningrad.”

The long-awaited breakthrough!

The turning point in favor of the Soviet troops occurred in 1943, and the soldiers were preparing to liberate Leningrad from the German invaders. On January 14, 1944, the defenders began the final stage of liberating the city. A crushing blow was dealt to the enemy and all land roads connecting Leningrad with other populated areas of the country were opened. Soldiers of the Volkhov and Leningrad Front broke through the blockade of Leningrad on January 27, 1944. The Germans began to gradually retreat, and soon the blockade was completely lifted.

This tragic page in the history of Russia, sprinkled with the blood of two million people. The memory of the fallen heroes is passed down from generation to generation and lives in the hearts of people to this day. How many days the siege of Leningrad lasted, and the courage the people demonstrated, amazes even Western historians.

The price of the blockade

On January 27, 1944, at 8 o’clock in the evening, festive fireworks went up in Leningrad, liberated from the siege. The selfless Leningraders held out for 872 days in the difficult conditions of the siege, but now everything is behind them. The heroism of these ordinary people still amazes historians; the defense of the city is still studied by scientists. And there is a reason! The siege of Leningrad lasted almost 900 days and claimed many lives... It’s hard to say exactly how many.

Despite the fact that more than 70 years have passed since 1944, historians cannot announce the exact number of victims of this bloody event. Below is some data taken from the documents.

Thus, the official figure of those killed in the siege is 632,253 people. People died for several reasons, but mainly from bombing, cold and hunger. Leningraders had a hard time surviving the cold winter of 1941/1942; in addition, constant shortages of food, electricity and water completely exhausted the population. The siege of the city of Leningrad tested people not only morally, but also physically. Residents received a meager ration of bread, which was barely enough (and sometimes not enough at all) not to die of hunger.

Historians conduct their research using documents from the regional and city committees of the All-Union Bolshevik Communist Party that have survived from the war. This information is available to the civil registry office employees who recorded the number of deaths. Once these papers were secret, but after the collapse of the USSR the archives were declassified, and many documents became available to almost everyone.

The death toll mentioned above is very different from reality. The liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade was achieved by ordinary people at the cost of numerous lives, blood and suffering. Some sources say 300 thousand dead, while others say 1.5 million. Only civilians who did not have time to evacuate from the city were included here. Dead military personnel from units of the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet are included in the list of “Defenders of the City.”

The Soviet government did not disclose the true number of deaths. After the blockade of Leningrad was lifted, all data on the dead was classified, and every year the named figure changed with enviable consistency. At the same time, it was claimed that about 7 million people died on our side in the war between the USSR and the Nazis. Now they are announcing a figure of 26.6 million...

Naturally, the number of deaths in Leningrad was not particularly distorted, but, nevertheless, it was revised several times. In the end, they stopped at around 2 million people. The year the blockade was lifted became both the happiest and saddest for people. Only now has the realization come of how many people died from hunger and cold. And how many more gave their lives for liberation...

Discussions about the number of deaths will continue for a long time. New data and new calculations are appearing; the exact number of victims of the Leningrad tragedy, it seems, will never be known. Nevertheless, the words “war”, “blockade”, “Leningrad” evoked and will evoke in future generations a feeling of pride in the people and a feeling of incredible pain. This is something to be proud of. The year is a year of triumph of the human spirit and the forces of good over darkness and chaos.