Siege Leningrad: photo chronicle. Lake Ladoga remained the only route of communication with besieged Leningrad. Poem about the siege of Leningrad.

The Road of Life across Lake Ladoga is a famous transport route, which during the Great Patriotic War turned out to be the only connecting thread with besieged Leningrad. In summer - on water, and in winter - on ice. It remained the only link between Leningrad and the rest of the country from September 1941 to March 1943.

Preceding Events

The road of life across Lake Ladoga turned out to be in demand after complete blockade Leningrad. This happened due to the failures that the Soviet army suffered at the very beginning of the war. German and Finnish troops almost completely surrounded the Northern capital.

In an instant, almost two and a half million civilians, as well as several hundred thousand people living in the suburbs, found themselves isolated in besieged Leningrad. It was decided not to surrender the city. To provide such a number of people with food and everything necessary, this route was needed, which was equipped on the coast of Ladoga, which remained under the control of Soviet troops. Air transport was an alternative, but it could not deliver all the necessary cargo.

Food situation

It is worth noting that at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the city had enough food. Flour - for almost two months, cereals - for almost three. There should have been enough meat for 38 days, butter for a month and a half.

After the German attack, food supplies to the city were intermittent. Therefore, already at the beginning of September, a week before the complete blockade, in Leningrad there was only two weeks of flour left, 23 days of cereals, exactly three weeks of fat, and no more than 19 days of meat products.

Thus, after the supply channels to Leningrad were blocked, the city was on the brink of disaster in a matter of days.

The road of life through Lake Ladoga

In order to supply Leningrad with everything necessary, it was necessary to send cargo by water transport. There were roads and railways from the city itself to the Ladoga coast. But to accommodate a large volume of cargo, they had to be expanded. Build new berths and dig special fairways for them.

It is worth noting that before the start of the war, most of the cargo to the city went around this lake - through shipping canals. Therefore, there were very few ships capable of operating on the lake. At the same time, the decision that the organization of a highway along Lake Ladoga was necessary was made on August 30 by a special resolution of the State Defense Committee.

Osinovets Bay, which was located one and a half kilometers from the Ladoga Lake station, was chosen to receive ships. And also Goltsman Bay, which stood another kilometer and a half further. The ports were built using four dredgers.

As of September, the North-Western River Shipping Company, to which Leningrad belonged, had at its disposal 5 lake tugs and another 72 river tugs, about a hundred barges.

Route to Leningrad

Cargoes to Leningrad were sent along the Road of Life through Lake Ladoga along one pre-approved route.

From the Volkhov railway station they were transported to a river pier in the Gostinopole region. Here they were transferred to numerous barges. They were transported by tugs to Novaya Ladoga. From there they were accompanied by a dozen tugboats. Sometimes they were replaced by river flotilla ships. So they got to Osinovets Bay.

Here they were already transferred to a narrow-gauge railway and sent along the Irinovskaya branch of the Oktyabrskaya Railway. Then they went directly to Leningrad.

All transportation was led by the Ladoga military flotilla. The head of the entire route, including the ports, was Major General Shilov.

To ensure that the Germans could not interfere with the delivery of goods to besieged Leningrad, a special detachment operated air defense, located on the right bank of the lake. It covered the entire route from German air raids.

The first barges

The first barges along the Road of Life arrived in Leningrad on September 12, 1941. During the whole of September, the city received about 20,000 tons of cargo. However, transportation still remained unsafe. Due to storms on Ladoga, several barges sank.

On September 17 and 18, two barges with people on them crashed. On one there were 520 military personnel heading to Leningrad. Only 300 people were saved. On the other - 300 civilians who were evacuated from the city. Most of them died. After this, transporting people on barges was prohibited. For this purpose, only self-propelled vessels began to be used.

They, in turn, were regularly bombed by German aircraft. In November 1941, an aerial bomb tore off the bow patrol ship"Constructor". About 200 people died. These were mostly civilians who were evacuated from the city.

After the freeze-up began, the automobile ice road opened on November 22. Some ships managed to deliver cargo until December 4th.

In total, in the autumn of 1941, about 60,000 tons of cargo were transported along the Road of Life, two thirds of which were food. It was possible to evacuate about 33,000 Leningraders. German aircraft sank five tugs and 14 barges.

At this time, due to limited food supplies, a card system was introduced in Leningrad. Employees, dependents and children were entitled to only 200 grams of bread per day. Workers - 400 each. Since November 1, the situation has worsened. The norms were reduced to 150 and 300 grams, respectively.

Siege winter

The road to life during the Great Patriotic War along the ice route began to be prepared back in October. It was assumed that it would be two-lane, up to ten meters wide. Feeding and heating points were installed every five kilometers.

For its operation and protection, a road department was created, headed by engineer Monakhov. He was subordinate only to the chief of front rear services.

When organizing the ice road, it was found that the phenomenon of resonance was often destructive. For example, a heavy truck could overcome a route on ice without problems, but a passenger car driving behind it could fall through the ice at a certain speed. Therefore, to avoid such accidents, a strictly defined speed was prescribed for cars.

Winter 1942-1943

The next winter turned out to be no less difficult, although preparations for it began in advance. In the winter of 1942-1943, it was decided to lay a narrow-gauge railway along the road, in addition to the highway. Its cargo turnover was supposed to be 2,000 tons of cargo per day.

In addition, horse-drawn transport was opened on December 20. And after another four - for the automobile. At the beginning of December 1942, they began to build a pile-ice railway. By mid-January 1943, about ten and a half kilometers had been built. Then, after the blockade was broken, construction was stopped.

Shlisselburg was liberated already in mid-January. At the same time, the road of life passed on ice until March 1943.

Results of the work of the Road of Life

In total, during the existence of this route, 206,000 tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad.

112,000 tons were fodder and products. Including 56,000 tons of flour, almost 10 thousand tons of cereals, two and a half thousand tons of meat, almost five thousand tons of fish, about three thousand tons of sugar, about seven and a half thousand tons of vegetables.

Also, 18 and a half thousand tons of coal and more than 50 thousand tons of ammunition were brought to the besieged city.

Monuments to the Road of Life

To date, 7 monuments have been installed on the road of life. Monuments appeared all along its length. All of them are included in the "Green Belt of Glory".

Over the first few kilometers, where there were transport columns from the Rzhevka railway station to Leningrad, four memorial steles were installed. They are called the "Rzhev Corridor". They are a natural continuation of the road of life through Leningrad itself.

On the third kilometer of the route there is a memorial complex “Flower of Life”. It was created in 1968 according to the design of architects Melnikov and Levenkov. There are also eight steles here, which represent pages from the diary of Leningrad schoolgirl Tanya Savicheva, who survived the entire siege. They were created in 1975 by the same Levenkov.

On the tenth kilometer of this road there is the Rumbolovskaya Gora complex, and on the 17th kilometer there is the Katyusha complex near the village of Kornevo. At the Ladoga Lake railway station, a monument to a steam locomotive occupies a key place. And near the village named after Morozov, the Crossing monument was erected.

The “Broken Ring” monument deserves special mention. It is located on the shore of Lake Ladoga, at the 40th kilometer of the highway to which this article is devoted. Landmark - the village of Kokkorevo. It was at this point that the convoys headed for the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.

The memorial consists of two reinforced concrete arches, symbolizing the siege ring in which the city of Leningrad found itself. The gap that can be seen between them is the Road of Life. Under the arches on the concrete platform you can see traces of car treads. And next to it are two more white reinforced concrete balls. They imitate searchlight installations that were actively used during the Great Patriotic War. The composition of the memorial complex is completed by an authentic anti-aircraft gun.

The monument appeared in 1966. In 2014, the Eternal Flame was lit here, which was specially brought from the Piskarevsky cemetery. The traditional winter marathon under the symbolic name “Road of Life” starts near it every year.

75 years ago the ice “Road of Life” began operating ( official name from November 26 - military highway No. 101), laid on frozen Lake Ladoga. From the very beginning of the blockade, the lake served as the only route of communication with besieged Leningrad, apart from the dangerous and less fruitful air transport. In the winter of 1941-1942, more than 360 thousand tons of cargo were delivered along the ice route: food, ammunition, dry alcohol, soap, etc., as well as more than 500 thousand people were evacuated and some industrial equipment was removed. Also along the “Road of Life” 6 rifle divisions and a tank brigade.

When German and Finnish troops cut off all land routes of communication with Leningrad, reached the Neva, making transportation along it impossible, and surrounded the city (September 8, 1941), ammunition and food began to be transported, and city residents were evacuated along the waterway through Ladoga . All available vessels on or near Ladoga were involved, berths were quickly erected and fairways were dug, and the State Defense Committee considered various routes along the lake.

With the onset of cold weather, movement on water ceased and preparations for the construction of the ice track, which began in October, came to an end. Military engineer 1st rank Vasily Georgievich Monakhov supervised the preparation and further construction of the ice route. Since October, he and his subordinates have been collecting scattered information about the ice regime and ice cover of the lake, which by that time was still quite poorly studied. Monakhov later recalled that this data was completely insufficient for the start of construction of the ice road, and said: “Essentially, we were walking blindly.”

Despite all the risks and unpredictability of the ice, on November 19 it was decided to lay a route along the route Cape Osinovets - Zelentsy Islands. For several days before this, 12 groups led by Monakhov examined the thickness and reliability of the ice, and it became clear that the path through Zelentsy was the least dangerous, while ice-free areas were found on the previously proposed path through the Careggi lighthouse. This route was modified from time to time and additional road branches were added. The length of the main route was about 30 km, the width was mainly 10 meters - to allow two-way traffic. Nutritional and heating points were located every 7 km.

While the ice was not thick enough for cars, trucks and heavier vehicles, only horse-drawn and lightly loaded sleighs were allowed on the track. A little later, they sent an unloaded convoy, which successfully reached the opposite bank. On November 22, a column of 60 cars with sleighs attached to them moved from the western to the eastern bank. On the eastern bank, the transport was loaded with 70 tons of food, and the convoy set off for Return trip. By the second half of December, the ice had become so strong that it could support 1000 tons of cargo.

The movement of transport and the functioning of road points were hampered not only by enemy aircraft and artillery, which those defending the route vigorously fought against Soviet troops, but also physics. The resonance effect was often harmful, causing the ice to repeatedly crack and create holes into which a car could fall. To avoid such incidents, vehicle drivers are prohibited from reaching speeds above the designated safe limit. In addition, the ice cracked on its own in some places, so at times the route had to be changed somewhat.

On April 21, due to the impossibility of further movement on ice and in some areas through water (30-40 cm deep), the route was closed. However, for several days after this, rare transportation was carried out.

Today is a special day in St. Petersburg. It was on this day, in 1941, that the Nazis closed a blockade ring around Leningrad, in which the city lived for a terrible 872 days. It was on this day that the Nazis first carried out a massive bombardment of the Northern capital, an enemy ring closed around the city and the countdown began on the terrible days and nights of the defense of Leningrad, which shocked the whole world with its tragedy and heroism. The city was frequently bombed, and hunger became constant companion every Leningrader.

The only way of communication with besieged Leningrad Lake Ladoga remained, located within the reach of the besiegers’ artillery. The capacity of this transport artery was inappropriate to the needs of the city. The famine that began in the city, aggravated by problems with heating and transport, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths among residents.

The capture of Leningrad was integral part developed Nazi Germany plan of war against the USSR - plan "Barbarossa". It provided that 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 to capture all European part THE USSR.

According to Hitler's plan, Leningrad was to be razed to the ground, and the troops defending it were to be destroyed. Having failed in their attempts to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops inside the blockade ring, the Germans decided to starve the city out. On September 13, artillery shelling of the city began, which continued throughout the war.

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 lost the opportunity to leave Leningrad two weeks earlier: railway communication was interrupted on August 27, while 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 with the outbreak of the war, Leningrad was flooded with at least 300,000 refugees from the Baltic republics and neighboring Russian regions.

More than 2.5 million residents, including 400 thousand children, found themselves in a blocked city. There were very few supplies of food and fuel. The catastrophic food situation of the city became clear on September 12, when inspections and accounting of all food supplies were completed. The ensuing famine, aggravated by bombings, heating problems and transport paralysis, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths among residents.

But Leningraders continued to work - administrative and children's institutions, printing houses, clinics, theaters worked, scientists continued to work. Teenagers worked in factories, replacing their fathers who had gone to the front.

Lake Ladoga remained the only route of communication with besieged Leningrad. On November 22, vehicles began moving along the ice road, which was called the Road of Life. The Germans bombed and shelled the road, but they failed to stop the movement. In winter, the population was evacuated and food was delivered. In total, about a million people were evacuated.

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 number of high-quality food, which for a depleted body turned out to be essentially poison. At the same time, as all researchers unanimously note, there could have been much more victims if local authorities areas where evacuees were accommodated did not make extraordinary efforts to provide Leningraders with food and qualified medical care.

In December 1941 the situation worsened sharply. Deaths from hunger became widespread. The sudden death of passersby on the streets became common - people were going somewhere about their business, fell and died instantly. Special funeral services picked up about a hundred corpses from the streets every day. Another important factor in the increase in mortality was the cold. January and early February 1942 became the most terrible, critical months of the blockade.

In January 1942, the Red Army made its first attempt to break the blockade. The troops of the two fronts - Leningrad and Volkhov - in the area of Lake Ladoga were separated by only 12 km. However, the Germans managed to create an impenetrable defense in this area, and the forces of the Red Army were still very limited. Soviet troops suffered huge losses, but were never able to move forward. The soldiers who broke through the blockade ring from Leningrad were severely exhausted.

Only on January 18, 1943, the encirclement was broken and the enemy was driven back from the city. January 27, 1944 is the day of the complete lifting of the siege of Leningrad, which became the bloodiest in the history of mankind.

According to various sources, over the years, from 400 thousand to 1.5 million people died in the city.

By order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of May 1, 1945, Leningrad received the title of hero city for the heroism and courage shown by its residents during the siege. On May 8, 1965, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the hero city of Leningrad was awarded the order Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to find the names of all those killed, but it is necessary to remember this terrible date, these terrible events that led to the death of thousands of people.

September 8 is rightfully considered a sacred date for St. Petersburg residents. Despite the fact that quite a lot of time has passed, the memory of their feat will be eternal.

Leningrad blockade-- military blockade by German, Finnish and Spanish (Blue Division) troops 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 had only insufficient supplies of food and fuel. The only route of communication with besieged Leningrad remained Lake Ladoga, which was within reach of the besiegers’ artillery. The capacity of this transport artery was inappropriate to the needs of the city. The famine that began in the city, aggravated by problems with heating and transport, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths among residents. In June - August 1944, Soviet troops, with the support of ships and aircraft of the Baltic Fleet, carried out the Vyborg operation of 1944 and the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation of 1944, liberated the city of Vyborg on June 20, and Petrozavodsk on June 28.

The attack of Germany and Finland on the USSR and the exit of their troops to Leningrad. The capture of Leningrad was an integral part of the developed Nazi Germany plan of war against the USSR - plan "Barbarossa". 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 plan "Ost" ("East"), it was planned to exterminate within several years a significant part of the population of the Soviet Union, primarily Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians [source not specified 256 days], as well as all Jews and Gypsies - at least 30 in total million people. None of the peoples inhabiting the USSR should have had the right to their own statehood or even autonomy. [source not specified 256 days]

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

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.

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

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, including using 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, a 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 October revolution, has a special symbolic meaning. 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 For a month they were preparing for the assault on the city. The Baltic Fleet approached the city with its 153 naval artillery guns, as the experience of the defense of Tallinn showed that its combat effectiveness was superior to the coastal artillery guns of the same caliber, 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 near Sabsk, entered the operational space in front of Leningrad.
On June 29, having crossed the border, the Finnish army began fighting 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, 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 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:

In September 1941, a small group of officers, on instructions from the command, was driving a lorry along Lesnoy Prospekt from the Levashovo airfield. A little ahead of us was a tram crowded with people. He slows down to a stop where there is a large group of people waiting. A shell explodes, and many at a stop fall, 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...

On September 6, 1941, Hitler, with 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, who realistically imagined 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). But the city was ready for defense. 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, feature films, the German offensive had already been stopped and the front had been stabilized. Problems of evacuation of residents.

Situation before the blockade

Throughout the blockade, great importance was attached to the evacuation of city residents, although it was poorly organized and chaotic. 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. However, the first trains with evacuated people left Leningrad on June 29, a week after the start of the war.

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:

1. Reluctance of residents to leave the city;
2 Many children from Leningrad were evacuated to the regions 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:

1. evacuation across Lake Ladoga by water transport to Novaya Ladoga, and then to the station. Volkhov by motor transport;
2. evacuation by air;
3. 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 and before 22.1.1942 - 36,118 people (population not from Leningrad), from 22.1.1942 to 15.4.1942 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 of all people whom the authorities considered necessary to remove was completed.

Consequences of the blockade

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.

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.

Autumn 1941 Blitzkrieg attempt fails

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, 1941, 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-in-Chief 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:

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

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.” According to popular belief, Stalin was very dissatisfied with the actions of Marshal K.E. Voroshilov, who commanded the troops of the Leningrad Front defending the city. However, this is unlikely, since K. E. Voroshilov commanded the Leningrad front from September 5 to 13, and if you believe the memoirs of G. K. Zhukov, then until September 10, that is, according to Zhukov, Voroshilov commanded the front for only five days (See article Leningrad Front). 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 commanded by the commander of the Baltic Fleet V.F. Tributs, K.E. Voroshilov and A.A. Zhdanov.

One of the reasons for Voroshilov’s removal could be his behavior at the front: brought up in the spirit Civil War, he once, at a critical moment, personally raised the sailors of the 6th brigade to attack Marine Corps Baltic Fleet. The sailors, who saw the marshal in front of them, were enthusiastically drawn into the counterattack and repelled the enemy attack. When Stalin found out about this, he immediately recalled Voroshilov to Headquarters.

On September 4, 1941, the Germans began regular artillery shelling of Leningrad, although the decision to storm the city was not canceled until September 12, when Hitler ordered its cancellation, i.e. 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.

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 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 German side

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”) stated with certainty:

2. The Fuhrer decided to wipe out the city of Leningrad from the face of the earth. After defeat Soviet Russia the continued existence of this largest settlement 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 the Northern Army Group, 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.

Changing war tactics

Soviet poster 1941--1943.

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 this task was a success. 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 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, 1941, 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 first occurred on September 15. In addition, on September 1, the free sale of food was prohibited (this measure would remain 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 felt a clear shortage of food, and in November real famine began in Leningrad. First, the first cases of loss of consciousness from hunger on the streets and at work, the first cases of death from exhaustion, and then the first cases of cannibalism were noted. 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: by air to ensure the supply of such big city was impossible, and navigation on Lake Ladoga temporarily ceased 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

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 troops for the third time - had to reduce the norms for the distribution of bread. 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.

Worsening situation in the city

In November 1941, the situation for the townspeople worsened sharply. Deaths from hunger became widespread. The sudden death of passers-by on the streets became common - people went somewhere about their business, fell and died instantly. Special funeral services picked up about a hundred corpses from the streets every day.

Preserved countless stories of people simply collapsing and dying - at home or at work, in stores or on the streets

Exposure to cold

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

“The Road of Life” is the name of the ice road through Ladoga in the winter of 1941-1943, after the ice reached a thickness allowing the transportation of cargo of any weight. The Road of Life was in fact the only means of communication between Leningrad and the mainland.

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 further improvement living conditions of the population: restoration of public utilities began. Many businesses have resumed operations.

1943. Breaking the blockade

Main article: Operation Spark

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 3 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 kilometers.

1944 Lifting the blockade

Main article: Operation January Thunder

On January 14, the Krasnoselsko-Ropshinsky operation of the troops of the Leningrad Front began, as a result of which on January 27, 1944, the blockade was completely lifted. As a result of a powerful offensive by the troops of the Leningrad Front, German troops were thrown back from Leningrad to a distance of 60-100 km and, 872 days after the start, the blockade ended. On this day, Moscow ceded the right to Leningrad to fireworks to commemorate the final lifting of the blockade. Interesting fact: the order to the victorious troops was signed, contrary to the established order, not by Stalin, but on his instructions - by Govorov. Not a single front commander was awarded such a privilege during the Great Patriotic War.

Rank hero city

By order Supreme Commander-in-Chief dated May 1, 1945, Leningrad, together 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 medal “ Golden Star".

Role Soviet navy(RKKF) in the defense of Leningrad

leningrad blockade war crisis

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. - with October 13, 1941), cadets naval schools(separate cadet brigade of the VMUZ Leningrad, commander Rear Admiral Ramishvili). Also, at various stages of the battle for Leningrad, the Peipus and Ilmen military flotillas were created.

The siege of Leningrad lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 - 872 days. By the beginning of the blockade, the city had only insufficient supplies of food and fuel. The only route of communication with besieged Leningrad remained Lake Ladoga, which was within reach of the besiegers’ artillery. The capacity of this transport artery was inappropriate to the needs of the city. The famine that began in the city, aggravated by problems with heating and transport, led to hundreds of thousands of deaths among residents. By different estimates During the years of the blockade, from 300 thousand to 1.5 million people died. The number of people involved in the Nuremberg trials was 632 thousand. Only 3% of them died from bombing and shelling, the remaining 97% died from starvation. Photos of Leningrad resident S.I. Petrova, who survived the blockade. Made in May 1941, May 1942 and October 1942 respectively:

"Bronze Horseman" in siege garb.

The windows were sealed crosswise with paper to prevent them from cracking from explosions.

Palace Square

Cabbage harvest at St. Isaac's Cathedral

Shelling. September 1941

Training sessions for “fighters” of the self-defense group of Leningrad orphanage No. 17.

New Year's Eve in the surgical department of the City Children's Hospital named after Dr. Rauchfus

Nevsky Prospekt in winter. The building with a hole in the wall is Engelhardt's house, Nevsky Prospekt, 30. The breach is the result of a German air bomb hit.

A battery of anti-aircraft guns near St. Isaac's Cathedral fires, repelling a night raid by German aircraft.

At the places where residents took water, huge ice slides formed from water splashed in the cold. These slides were a serious obstacle for people weakened by hunger.

3rd category turner Vera Tikhova, whose father and two brothers went to the front

Trucks take people out of Leningrad. “Road of Life” - the only way to the besieged city for its supply, passed along Lake Ladoga

Music teacher Nina Mikhailovna Nikitina and her children Misha and Natasha share the blockade ration. They talked about the special attitude of blockade survivors to bread and other food after the war. They always ate everything clean, without leaving a single crumb. A refrigerator filled to capacity with food was also the norm for them.

Bread card for a siege survivor. During the most terrible period of the winter of 1941-42 (the temperature dropped below 30 degrees), 250 g of bread per day was given to manual workers and 150 g to everyone else.

Starving Leningraders are trying to get meat by cutting up the corpse of a dead horse. One of the most terrible pages of the blockade is cannibalism. More than 2 thousand people were convicted of cannibalism and related murders in besieged Leningrad. In most cases, the cannibals faced execution.

Barrage balloons. Balloons on cables that prevented enemy planes from flying low. Balloons were filled with gas from gas tanks

Transportation of a gas holder at the corner of Ligovsky Prospekt and Razyezzhaya Street, 1943.

Residents of besieged Leningrad collect water that appeared after artillery shelling in holes in the asphalt on Nevsky Prospekt

In a bomb shelter during an air raid

Schoolgirls Valya Ivanova and Valya Ignatovich, who extinguished two incendiary bombs that fell into the attic of their house.

Victim of German shelling on Nevsky Prospekt.

Firefighters wash the blood of Leningraders killed as a result of German shelling from the asphalt on Nevsky Prospekt.

Tanya Savicheva is a Leningrad schoolgirl who, from the beginning of the siege of Leningrad, began keeping a diary in notebook. This diary, which became one of the symbols of the Leningrad blockade, has only 9 pages, and six of them contain the dates of death of loved ones. 1) December 28, 1941. Zhenya died at 12 o'clock in the morning. 2) Grandmother died on January 25, 1942, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. 3) Leka died on March 17 at 5 am. 4) Uncle Vasya died on April 13 at 2 am. 5) Uncle Lyosha May 10 at 4 pm. 6) Mom - May 13 at 730 am. 7) The Savichevs died. 8) Everyone died. 9) Tanya is the only one left. At the beginning of March 1944, Tanya was sent to the Ponetaevsky nursing home in the village of Ponetaevka, 25 kilometers from Krasny Bor, where she died on July 1, 1944 at the age of 14 and a half years from intestinal tuberculosis, having gone blind shortly before her death.

On August 9, 1942, in besieged Leningrad, Shostakovich’s 7th symphony, “Leningradskaya,” was performed for the first time. The Philharmonic hall was full. The audience was very diverse. The concert was attended by sailors, armed infantrymen, air defense soldiers dressed in sweatshirts, and emaciated regulars of the Philharmonic. The performance of the symphony lasted 80 minutes. All this time, the enemy’s guns were silent: the artillerymen defending the city received orders to suppress the fire of German guns at all costs. Shostakovich's new work shocked the audience: many of them cried without hiding their tears. During its performance, the symphony was broadcast on the radio, as well as over the loudspeakers of the city network.

Dmitry Shostakovich in a fireman's suit. During the siege in Leningrad, Shostakovich, together with students, traveled outside the city to dig trenches, was on duty on the roof of the conservatory during the bombing, and when the roar of the bombs subsided, he again began composing a symphony. Subsequently, having learned about Shostakovich’s duties, Boris Filippov, who headed the House of Arts Workers in Moscow, expressed doubt whether the composer should have risked himself so much - “after all, this could deprive us of the Seventh Symphony,” and heard in response: “Or maybe it would be different.” If there weren’t this symphony, all this had to be felt and experienced.”