Siege of Leningrad: briefly about the events. How long did the blockade last? Liberation of Leningrad

Day of Military Glory of Russia - Day of lifting the siege of Leningrad (1944) noted in accordance with Federal law dated March 13, 1995 No. 32-FZ “On the days of military glory (victory days) of Russia.”

In 1941, Hitler launched military operations on the outskirts of Leningrad to completely destroy the city. On September 8, 1941, the ring closed around an important strategic and political center. On January 18, 1943, the blockade was broken, and the city had a corridor of land communication with the country. On January 27, 1944, Soviet troops completely lifted the 900-day fascist blockade of the city.

As a result of the victories of the Soviet Armed Forces in Stalingrad and Kursk battles, near Smolensk, on the Left Bank Ukraine, in the Donbass and on the Dnieper at the end of 1943 - beginning of 1944 favorable conditions for a major offensive operation near Leningrad and Novgorod.

By the beginning of 1944, the enemy had created a defense in depth with reinforced concrete and wood-earth structures covered minefields and wire fences. The Soviet command organized an offensive by forces of the 2nd shock, 42nd and 67th armies of the Leningrad, 59th, 8th and 54th armies of the Volkhov, 1st shock and 22nd armies of the 2nd Baltic fronts and Red Banner Baltic Fleet. Also involved long-range aviation, partisan detachments and brigades.

The goal of the operation was to defeat the flank groups of the 18th Army, and then, through actions in the Kingisepp and Luga directions, complete the defeat of its main forces and reach the Luga River line. In the future, operating in the Narva, Pskov and Idritsa directions, defeat the 16th Army and complete the liberation Leningrad region and create conditions for the liberation of the Baltic states.

On January 14, Soviet troops went on the offensive from the Primorsky bridgehead to Ropsha, and on January 15 from Leningrad to Krasnoe Selo. After stubborn fighting on January 20, Soviet troops united in the Ropsha area and eliminated the encircled Peterhof-Strelninsky enemy group. At the same time, on January 14, Soviet troops went on the offensive in the Novgorod area, and on January 16 - in the Lyuban direction, and on January 20 they liberated Novgorod.

To commemorate the final lifting of the blockade, a festive fireworks display was given in Leningrad on January 27, 1944.

Nazi genocide. Siege of Leningrad

On the evening of January 27, 1944, festive fireworks roared over Leningrad. The armies of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts drove German troops away from the city and liberated almost the entire Leningrad region.

The blockade, in the iron ring of which Leningrad suffocated for 900 long days and nights, was put to an end. That day became one of the happiest in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Leningraders; one of the happiest - and, at the same time, one of the most sorrowful - because everyone who lived to this holiday During the blockade, I lost either relatives or friends. More than 600 thousand people died of terrible starvation in the city surrounded by German troops, several hundred thousand in the Nazi-occupied area.

Exactly a year later, on January 27, 1945, units of the 28th Rifle Corps of the 60th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp - an ominous Nazi death factory, where about one and a half million people were killed, including one million one hundred thousand Jews Soviet soldiers Only a few were saved - seven and a half thousand emaciated people who looked like living skeletons. The Nazis managed to drive away everyone else - those who could walk. Many of the liberated Auschwitz prisoners could not even smile; their strength was only enough to stand.

The coincidence of the day of lifting the siege of Leningrad with the day of the liberation of Auschwitz is more than a mere coincidence. The blockade and the Holocaust, of which Auschwitz became a symbol, are phenomena of the same order.

At first glance, such a statement may seem erroneous. The term “Holocaust,” which has taken root with some difficulty in Russia, refers to the Nazi policy aimed at exterminating the Jews. The practice of this destruction could be different. Jews were brutally killed during the Baltic and Ukrainian nationalists pogroms, shot at Babi Yar and Minsk Yama, exterminated in numerous ghettos, exterminated in industrial scale in numerous death camps - Treblinka, Buchenwald, Auschwitz.

The Nazis sought to " final decision Jewish question", to the destruction of the Jews as a nation. This crime of incredible proportions was prevented thanks to the victories of the Red Army; however, even the partial implementation of the Nazi murder plan led to truly horrific results. About six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis and their collaborators, approximately half of whom were Soviet citizens.

The Holocaust is an undoubted crime, a symbol of the Nazi policy of genocide towards “racially inferior” peoples. The crime of the siege of Leningrad in the eyes of many, both in the West and in our country, does not look so obvious. Very often we hear that this is, of course, a huge tragedy, but war is always cruel to civilians. Moreover, there are allegations that the Soviet leadership is allegedly to blame for the horrors of the blockade, because they did not want to surrender the city and, thereby, save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

However, in fact, the destruction of the civilian population of Leningrad by blockade was originally planned by the Nazis. Already on July 8, 1941, on the seventeenth day of the war, a very characteristic entry appeared in the diary of the Chief of the German General Staff, General Franz Halder:

“...The Fuhrer’s decision to raze Moscow and Leningrad to the ground is unshakable in order to completely get rid of the population of these cities, which otherwise we will then be forced to feed during the winter. The task of destroying these cities must be carried out by aviation. Tanks should not be used for this. This will be “a national disaster that will deprive not only Bolshevism of centers, but also Muscovites (Russians) in general.”

Hitler's plans were soon embodied in official directives of the German command. On August 28, 1941, General Halder signed an order from the high command ground forces Wehrmacht to Army Group North about the siege of Leningrad:

“...based on the directives of the Supreme High Command, I order:

1. Block the city of Leningrad with a ring as close as possible to the city itself in order to save our forces. Do not put forward demands for surrender.

2. In order for the city, as the last center of red resistance in the Baltic, to be destroyed as quickly as possible without big casualties on our part, it is forbidden to storm the city with infantry forces. After defeating the enemy's air defense and fighter aircraft, his defensive and vital capabilities should be broken by destroying waterworks, warehouses, power supplies and power plants. Military installations and the enemy's ability to defend must be suppressed by fires and artillery fire. Every attempt by the population to escape through the encircling troops should be prevented, if necessary, with the use of weapons..."

As we see, according to the directives of the German command, the blockade was directed specifically against civilian population Leningrad. The Nazis did not need either the city or its inhabitants. The Nazis' fury towards Leningrad was terrifying.

“The poisonous nest of St. Petersburg, from which poison is pouring out into the Baltic Sea, must disappear from the face of the earth,” Hitler said in a conversation with the German ambassador in Paris on September 16, 1941. - The city is already blocked; Now all that remains is to fire at it with artillery and bomb until the water supply, energy centers and everything that is necessary for the life of the population are destroyed.”

Another week and a half later, on September 29, 1941, these plans were recorded in the directive of the Chief of Staff of the German Navy:

“The Fuhrer decided to wipe out the city of St. Petersburg from the face of the earth. After defeat Soviet Russia the continued existence of this largest settlement is of no interest.... It is planned to surround the city with a tight ring and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. If, 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.”

Heydrich gave a characteristic comment on these plans in a letter to Reichsführer SS Himmler dated October 20, 1941: “I would like to humbly draw your attention to the fact that clear orders regarding the cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow cannot be implemented in reality if they are not initially executed with all cruelty."

A little later, at a meeting at the headquarters of the High Command of the Ground Forces, Quartermaster General Wagner summed up the Nazi plans for Leningrad and its inhabitants: “There is no doubt that it is Leningrad that must die of starvation.”

The plans of the Nazi leadership did not leave the right to life for the residents of Leningrad - just as they did not leave the right to life for the Jews. It is significant that the famine was organized by the Nazis in the occupied Leningrad region. It turned out to be no less terrible than the famine in the city on the Neva. Since this phenomenon has been studied much less than the Leningrad famine, we present an extensive quote from the diary of a resident of the city of Pushkin (formerly Tsarskoe Selo):

“December 24. The frosts are unbearable. People are already dying of hunger in their beds by the hundreds every day. In Tsarskoe Selo, there were about 25 thousand left when the Germans arrived. About 5-6 thousand were dispersed to the rear and in the nearest villages, two to two and a half thousand were knocked out by shells, and according to the last census of the Administration, which was carried out the other day, eight-odd thousand remained . Everything else died out. It’s no longer at all surprising when you hear that one or another of our friends has died...

December 27. Carts drive through the streets and collect the dead from their homes. They are folded into anti-air slots. They say that the entire road to Gatchina is lined with corpses on both sides. These unfortunate people collected their last junk and went to exchange it for food. On the way, one of them sat down to rest, did not get up... Maddened by hunger, the old men from the nursing home wrote an official request addressed to the commander of the military forces of our site and somehow forwarded this request to him. And it said: “We ask for permission to eat the old people who died in our house.”

The Nazis deliberately doomed hundreds of thousands of people to starvation both in besieged Leningrad and in the Leningrad region they occupied. So the blockade and the Holocaust are indeed phenomena of the same order, undoubted crimes against humanity. This, by the way, has already been legally fixed: in 2008, the German government and the Commission for the Presentation of Jewish Material Claims against Germany (Claims Conference) came to an agreement according to which Jews who survived the siege of Leningrad were equated to victims of the Holocaust and received the right to one-time compensation .

This decision is, of course, correct, opening the right to compensation for all blockade survivors. The siege of Leningrad is the same crime against humanity as the Holocaust. Thanks to the actions of the Nazis, the city was actually turned into a giant ghetto dying of starvation, the difference from the ghettos in the territories occupied by the Nazis was that auxiliary police units did not break into it to carry out mass murders and the German security service did not carry out mass executions here. However, this does not change the criminal essence of the blockade of Leningrad.

Heroic battle for Leningrad

From the first days of the war, one of the strategic directions, according to the plans of the Nazi command, was Leningrad. Leningrad was among the most important targets targeted for capture.

The Battle of Leningrad, the longest during the entire Great Patriotic War, lasted from July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944. During the 900-day defense of Leningrad, Soviet troops pinned down large German forces and all Finnish army. This undoubtedly contributed to the victories of the Red Army in other sectors of the Soviet-German front.

Leningraders showed examples of perseverance, endurance and patriotism. During the blockade, about 1 million inhabitants died, including more than 600 thousand from hunger. During the war, Hitler repeatedly demanded that the city be razed to the ground and its population completely destroyed. However, neither shelling and bombing, nor hunger and cold broke its defenders.

Already in July - September 1941, 10 divisions were formed in the city people's militia. Despite the difficult conditions, the industry of Leningrad did not stop its work. Assistance to the blockade survivors was carried out on the ice of Lake Ladoga. This transport route was called the “Road of Life”.

On January 12 - 30, 1943, an operation was carried out to break the blockade of Leningrad (“Iskra”). She appeared turning point in the battle for Leningrad. The entire southern coast of Lake Ladoga was cleared of the enemy, and the initiative to conduct military operations in this direction passed to the Red Army.

During the Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation from January 14 to March 1, 1944, Army Group North was severely defeated. On January 27, 1944, Leningraders celebrated the lifting of the blockade.

In the evening there was a salute of 324 guns, about which our famous poetess A.A. Akhmatova wrote these unforgettable lines:

And in the starless January night, Marveling at its unprecedented fate, Returned from the mortal abyss, Leningrad salutes itself.

As a result of powerful attacks, almost the entire Leningrad region and part of the Kalinin region were liberated, and Soviet troops entered Estonia.

Favorable conditions have developed for the defeat of the enemy in the Baltic states.

Photos from open sources

January 27 is the Day of Military Glory of Russia - the day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade in 1944.

The siege of Leningrad is one of the most tragic pages of the Great Patriotic War. It was conducted by German troops from September 8, 1941 and was completed on January 27, 1944. The German command attached importance to the capture of the city as a strategic and political significance. For almost 900 days, communication with Leningrad was maintained only by Lake Ladoga and by air. The enemy conducted continuous bombing and artillery shelling of the city, and made numerous attempts to capture it. During the siege of Leningrad, over 641 thousand residents died from hunger and shelling; according to other sources, at least one million people.

Soviet troops repeatedly tried to break through the blockade ring, but partially achieved this only in January 1943. This was a strategic offensive operation by troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts in cooperation with the Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga military flotilla. The goal was to restore land communications connecting the city with the country. The offensive took place on the Shlisselburg-Sinyavinsky ledge between the city of Mga and Lake Ladoga. The Germans turned this “patch” into a powerful field fortified area, where they concentrated up to five fully equipped divisions and four divisions in the operational reserve. To break through in this direction, the Soviet command created two powerful strike groups, which, with counter strikes, broke through the enemy’s defenses and formed a corridor 8-11 kilometers wide along the shore of Lake Ladoga, restoring the land connection between Leningrad and the country. Further advance Soviet troops there was no development to the south, but breaking the blockade became a turning point in the battle for Leningrad.

The final defeat of the Nazi troops near Leningrad and the complete lifting of the blockade of the city occurred later, during the Leningrad-Novgorod operation from January 14 to March 1, 1944. It was led by troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic Fronts together with the Baltic Fleet. By striking the flanks of the German 18th Army near Leningrad and Novgorod, Soviet troops defeated its main forces. Then, during the offensive, they defeated the 16th Army and liberated Novgorod, Pushkin, Krasnogvardeysk, and Tosno. The October Railway, which connected Moscow with Leningrad, was cleared of the Nazis.

On January 27, 1944, the siege of Leningrad, which lasted 872 days, was finally broken. On this day, an artillery salute and fireworks were given in the city - the only exception during the Great Patriotic War: other fireworks were produced in Moscow. Tens of thousands of city residents took to the streets, squares, and Neva embankments. The fireworks started at 20 o'clock. 24 salvoes from 324 artillery pieces were fired, which were accompanied by fireworks and illumination by anti-aircraft searchlights.

And Army Group North, which kept the city under blockade, suffered a difficult situation and was thrown back 220-280 kilometers from Leningrad. Three divisions were completely destroyed, 23 were defeated. Soviet troops reached the borders of Latvia and Estonia.

The defense of Leningrad had enormous military-strategic, political and moral significance. Hitler's command lost the opportunity to effectively maneuver strategic reserves and transfer troops to other directions. If the city on the Neva had fallen in 1941, the German troops would have united with the Finns. And the main part of the German Army Group North could turn south to strike central regions USSR. In this case, Moscow could not hold out, and the war could take a different scenario. In the monstrous meat grinder of the Sinyavinsk operation, the Leningraders saved not only themselves with their feat and unprecedented fortitude. Having shackled the German forces, they provided invaluable assistance to Stalingrad and the entire country, inspired the army, and aroused deep respect and gratitude from the states of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The soldiers and residents of Leningrad defended the city. Hundreds of thousands of those who fought for him received government awards, 486 received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, eight of them twice.

On December 22, 1942, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” was established, which was awarded to about 1.5 million people. It remains in people's memory as one of the most honorable awards of the Great Patriotic War.

On January 26, 1945, the city itself was awarded the Order of Lenin. On May 1, 1945, Leningrad became a hero city, and on May 8, 1965, it was awarded the Golden Star medal.

The memorial ensembles of Piskarevskoye and Seraphim cemeteries are dedicated to the memory of the victims of the siege and the fallen participants in the defense of Leningrad, and the Green Belt of Glory was created around the city along the former siege ring of the front.

As for our city, today 96 residents of besieged Leningrad and 15 participants in its defense live in Ulyanovsk. On Military Glory Day, they will be congratulated at home by representatives of municipal administrations and Veterans Councils. Thematic book and photo exhibitions will be held in each district, cool watch, mourning rulers. Meetings will be held with the invitation of veterans, military personnel, and “children of war.”

During the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), German troops blocked the city from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. For almost 900 days, communication with Leningrad was maintained only by Lake Ladoga and by air. The enemy conducted continuous bombing and artillery shelling of the city, and made numerous attempts to capture it. During the siege of Leningrad, over 641 thousand residents died from hunger and shelling (according to other sources, at least one million people). During the blockade, Leningraders worked at defense enterprises and fought in the people's militia divisions.

Soviet troops repeatedly tried to break through the blockade ring, but achieved this only in January 1943 during the strategic offensive operation of the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts in cooperation with the Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga military flotilla. The offensive was carried out on the Shlisselburg-Sinyavinsky ledge (between the city of Mga and Lake Ladoga), which the enemy turned into a powerful field fortified area (up to five fully equipped divisions and four divisions in the operational reserve). To break through, the Soviet command created two powerful strike groups, which with counter blows broke through the enemy’s defenses and formed a corridor 8-11 kilometers wide along the shore of Lake Ladoga, restoring Leningrad’s land connection with the country. The further offensive of the Soviet troops to the south did not develop, but the breaking of the blockade became a turning point in the battle for Leningrad.

Soldiers of the Volkhov Front on the offensive during the breakthrough of the siege of Leningrad

The final defeat of the Nazi troops near Leningrad and the complete lifting of the blockade of the city occurred during the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, carried out on January 14 - March 1, 1944 by troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts together with the Baltic Fleet.

During the offensive on January 20, Novgorod was liberated; by the end of January, the cities of Pushkin, Krasnogvardeysk, and Tosno were liberated, and the Oktyabrskaya Railway connecting Moscow with Leningrad was cleared of the enemy.

Meeting of soldiers of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts near Workers' Village No. 5 during the operation to break the blockade of Leningrad (Operation Iskra)

On January 27, 1944, the siege of Leningrad was completely eliminated. On this day, an artillery salute and fireworks display were given in Leningrad (the only exception during the Great Patriotic War; other fireworks were performed in Moscow). On the evening of January 27, the text of an order was transmitted over Leningrad radio to the troops of the Leningrad Front with a message about the complete lifting of the blockade. Tens of thousands of city residents took to the streets, squares, and embankments of the Neva River. The fireworks began at 20:00: 24 salvoes of artillery guns were fired, accompanied by fireworks and illumination by anti-aircraft searchlights.

During the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, the enemy army group “North” was thrown back 220-280 kilometers, three of its divisions were destroyed and 23 were defeated.

The heroic defense of Leningrad became a symbol of courage Soviet people. At the cost of incredible hardships, heroism and self-sacrifice, the soldiers and residents of Leningrad defended the city. Hundreds of thousands of those who fought received government awards, 486 received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, of which 8 people twice. In December 1942, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” was established, which was awarded to about 1.5 million people. Since May 1, 1945, Leningrad has been a hero city, and on May 8, 1965, the city was awarded the Golden Star medal.

Leningraders read an issue of the Pravda newspaper with a message about the breaking of the siege of Leningrad

In St. Petersburg today, various festive and memorial events are taking place dedicated to the 74th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad, honoring veterans of the Great Patriotic War and all residents of the city who survived these terrible days.

In the morning, flowers were laid at the memorial plaque; at the Piskarevskoye memorial cemetery, where hundreds of thousands of Leningraders and defenders of the city were buried during the siege, a solemn funeral ceremony of laying wreaths and flowers took place. Also, wreath-laying ceremonies and flowers took place at the Serafimovskoye, Smolenskoye and Bogoslovskoye cemeteries, the Nevsky military cemetery "Cranes", at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad on Victory Square, at Arc de Triomphe Victory on the Square Military glory in Krasnoe Selo, at the Krasnaya Sloboda memorial.

In memory of the days of the siege, from 10.00 to 13.00 and from 19.00 to 22.00, torches will be lit on the Rostral columns on the spit of Vasilievsky Island, and a concert will be held in the large Oktyabrsky concert hall.

In the evening, St. Petersburg students will launch 900 white and 900 black balloons into the sky, symbolizing the 900 days and nights of the siege, and will honor the heroic feat with a minute of silence.

In honor of the significant date, at 21.00 a festive artillery salute will be given from four points: the beach of the Peter and Paul Fortress, Victory Park, the Park of the 300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg and Piskarevsky Park.

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

Attack on the “city of Lenin”

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

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

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

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

Population information

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

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

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

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

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

Disappointing conclusions

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

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

How was the food issue resolved?

From the very first days of September, food cards were introduced in the city. All canteens and restaurants were immediately closed. Livestock owned by local enterprises agriculture, was immediately slaughtered and delivered to procurement points. All feed of grain origin was taken to flour mills and ground into flour, which was subsequently used to make bread.

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

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

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

Residents' sentiments

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

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

NKVD documents indicate that the beginning of the siege of Leningrad (a photo of which is in the article) gradually began to instill anxiety in people. Quite a few letters were confiscated in which townspeople reported the plight in Leningrad. They wrote that there was not even cabbage leaves, in the city you can no longer get old flour dust, which used to be used to make wallpaper glue.

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

Labor feat of Leningraders

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

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

The beginning of famine

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

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

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

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

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

Consequences of the first winter

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

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

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

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

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

Road of Life

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

Each voyage of the sailors was a feat, since german planes did not stop the hunt for a minute. We had to go on flights every day, no matter what weather conditions. As we have already said, cargo was first sent across ice on November 22. It was a horse-drawn train. After just a couple of days, when the ice thickness became more or less sufficient, the trucks set off.

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

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

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

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

The beginning of freedom

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

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

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

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

Liberation Day

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

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

Here is the entire blockade of Leningrad in brief. Of course, describe it scary time you can do it quickly enough, but the blockade survivors who were able to survive it remember those horrific events every day.

Before the blockade began, Hitler had been massing troops around the city for a month. Soviet Union, in turn, also took action: ships of the Baltic Fleet were stationed near the city. 153 main caliber guns were supposed to protect Leningrad from the German invasion. The sky above the city was guarded by an anti-aircraft corps.

However, the German units went through the swamps, and by the fifteenth of August they formed the Luga River, finding themselves in the operational space directly in front of the city.

Evacuation - first wave

Some people were evacuated from Leningrad even before the blockade began. By the end of June, a special evacuation commission was launched in the city. Many refused to leave, inspired by optimistic statements in the press about the speedy victory of the USSR. The commission staff had to convince people of the need to leave their homes, practically agitating them to leave in order to survive and return later.

On June 26, we were evacuated across Ladoga in the hold of a ship. Three ships carrying small children sank when they were hit by mines. But we were lucky. (Gridyushko (Sakharova) Edil Nikolaevna).

There was no plan on how to evacuate the city, since the likelihood that it could be captured was considered almost impossible. From June 29, 1941 to August 27, about 480 thousand people were deported, approximately forty percent of them were children. About 170 thousand of them were taken to points in the Leningrad region, from where they again had to be returned to Leningrad.

Evacuated along Kirovskaya railway. But this route was blocked when German troops captured it at the end of August. Exit from the city along the White Sea-Baltic Canal near Lake Onega was also cut. On September 4, the first Germans fell on Leningrad artillery shells. The shelling was carried out from the city of Tosno.

First days

It all started on September 8, when the fascist army captured Shlisselburg, closing the ring around Leningrad. The distance from the location of the German units to the city center did not exceed 15 km. Motorcyclists in German uniforms appeared in the suburbs.

It didn't seem like it for long then. It’s unlikely that anyone expected that the blockade would drag on for almost nine hundred days. Hitler, the commander of the German troops, for his part, hoped that the resistance of the hungry city, cut off from the rest of the country, would be broken very quickly. And when this did not happen even after several weeks, I was disappointed.

Transport in the city did not work. There was no lighting on the streets, no water, electricity or steam heating was supplied to the houses, and the sewage system did not work. (Bukuev Vladimir Ivanovich).

The Soviet command also did not foresee such a development of events. In the first days of the blockade, the leadership of the units that defended Leningrad did not report that Hitler’s troops were closing the ring: there was hope that it would be quickly broken. This didn't happen.

The confrontation, which dragged on for more than two and a half years, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The blockade runners and the troops who did not allow German troops into the city understood what all this was for. After all, Leningrad opened the road to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, where the ships of the USSR allies were unloaded. It was also clear to everyone that, by surrendering, Leningrad would have signed its own death sentence - this beautiful city simply would not exist.

The defense of Leningrad made it possible to block the path for the invaders to the Northern Sea Route and to divert significant enemy forces from other fronts. Ultimately, the blockade made a significant contribution to the victory Soviet army in this war.

As soon as the news that German troops had closed the ring spread throughout the city, its residents began to prepare. All the products were bought up in the stores, and all the money in the savings banks was withdrawn from the savings books.

Not everyone was able to leave early. When the German artillery began to conduct constant shelling, which happened already in the first days of the blockade, it became almost impossible to leave the city.

On September 8, 1941, the Germans bombed large Badayev food warehouses, and the three million population of the city was doomed to starvation. (Bukuev Vladimir Ivanovich).

These days, one of the shells set fire to the Badayevsky warehouses, where the strategic food supply was stored. This is what is called the cause of the famine that the remaining residents had to endure. But the documents, whose secrecy status was recently lifted, say that there were no large reserves.

It was problematic to preserve enough food for a city of three million during the war. No one in Leningrad prepared for such a turn of events, so food was brought into the city from outside. No one set the task of creating a “safety cushion”.

This became clear by September 12, when the audit of the food that was in the city was completed: the food, depending on its type, was only enough for a month or two. How to deliver food was decided at the very top. By December 25, 1941, bread distribution standards were increased.

The entry of food cards was done immediately - within the first days. The food standards were calculated based on the minimum that would not allow a person to simply die. Stores no longer simply sold groceries, although the black market flourished. Huge queues formed for food rations. People were afraid that they would not have enough bread.

Not prepared

The issue of providing food became the most pressing during the blockade. One of the reasons for such a terrible famine, experts military history They call delay a decision to import food that was made too late.

one tile of wood glue cost ten rubles, then a tolerable monthly salary was around 200 rubles. They made jelly from glue, there was pepper left in the house, bay leaf, and all this was added to the glue. (Brilliantova Olga Nikolaevna).

This happened due to the habit of hushing up and distorting facts so as not to “sow decadent sentiments” among residents and the military. If all the details about Germany's rapid advance had been known to the high command earlier, perhaps our casualties would have been much smaller.

Already in the first days of the blockade, military censorship was clearly operating in the city. Complaining about difficulties in letters to family and friends was not allowed - such messages simply did not reach the recipients. But some of these letters have survived. Like the diaries that some Leningraders kept, where they wrote down everything that happened in the city during the siege months. It was they who became the source of information about what happened in the city before the blockade began, as well as in the first days after Hitler’s troops surrounded the city.

Could the famine have been avoided?

The question of whether it was possible to prevent a horrific famine during the siege in Leningrad is still asked by historians and the survivors of the siege themselves.

There is a version that the country's leadership could not even imagine such a long siege. By the beginning of the autumn of 1941, everything in the city with food was the same as everywhere else in the country: cards were introduced, but the norms were quite large, for some people it was even too much.

The food industry operated in the city, and its products were exported to other regions, including flour and grain. But there were no significant food supplies in Leningrad itself. In the memoirs of the future academician Dmitry Likhachev, one can find lines that no reserves were made. For some reason Soviet authorities did not follow the example of London, where they actively stocked up on food. In fact, the USSR was preparing in advance for the fact that the city would be surrendered to fascist troops. The export of food stopped only at the end of August, after German units blocked the railway connection.

Not far away, on the Obvodny Canal, there was a flea market, and my mother sent me there to exchange a pack of Belomor for bread. I remember how a woman went there and asked for a loaf of bread for a diamond necklace. (Aizin Margarita Vladimirovna).

Residents of the city began to stock up on food themselves in August, anticipating hunger. There were queues outside the shops. But few managed to stock up: those pitiful crumbs that they managed to acquire and hide were very quickly eaten later, during the blockade autumn and winter.

How they lived in besieged Leningrad

As soon as the standards for issuing bread were reduced, the queues at bakeries turned into huge “tails”. People stood for hours. At the beginning of September, German artillery bombing began.

Schools continued to operate, but fewer and fewer children came. We studied by candlelight. Constant bombing made it difficult to study. Gradually, schooling stopped altogether.

During the blockade, I went to kindergarten on Kamenny Island. My mother worked there too. ...One day one of the guys told a friend his cherished dream - a barrel of soup. Mom heard and took him to the kitchen, asking the cook to come up with something. The cook burst into tears and told her mother: “Don’t bring anyone else here... there’s no food left at all. There is only water in the pan." Many children in our garden died of hunger - out of 35 of us, only 11 remained. (Alexandrova Margarita Borisovna).

On the streets you could see people who could barely move their feet: they simply didn’t have the strength, everyone walked slowly. According to the recollections of those who survived the siege, these two and a half years merged into one endless dark night, the only thought in which was to eat!

Autumn days of 1941

The autumn of 1941 was only the beginning of trials for Leningrad. Since September 8, the city was bombed by fascist artillery. On this day from incendiary projectile Badaevsky food warehouses caught fire. The fire was huge, the glow from it could be seen from different parts of the city. There were 137 warehouses in total, twenty-seven of them burned out. This is approximately five tons of sugar, three hundred and sixty tons of bran, eighteen and a half tons of rye, forty-five and a half tons of peas burned there, and vegetable oil 286 tons were lost; the fire also destroyed ten and a half tons butter and two tons of flour. This, experts say, would be enough for the city for only two or three days. That is, this fire was not the cause of the subsequent famine.

By September 8, it became clear that there was little food in the city: in a few days there would be no food. The Military Council of the Front was entrusted with managing the available reserves. Card regulations were introduced.

One day our flatmate offered my mother meat cutlets, but my mother sent her away and slammed the door. I was in indescribable horror - how could I refuse cutlets with such hunger. But my mother explained to me that they were made from human meat, because there was nowhere else to get minced meat in such a hungry time. (Boldyreva Alexandra Vasilievna).

After the first bombing, ruins and shell craters appeared in the city, the windows of many houses were broken, and chaos reigned on the streets. Slingshots were placed around the affected areas to prevent people from going there, because an unexploded shell could get stuck in the ground. Signs were hung in places where there was a likelihood of being hit by shelling.

In the fall, rescuers were still working, the city was being cleared of rubble, and even houses that had been destroyed were being restored. But later no one was interested in this anymore.

By the end of autumn, new posters appeared - with advice on preparing for winter. The streets became deserted, only occasionally people passed by, gathering at the boards where advertisements and newspapers were posted. Street radio horns also became places of attraction.

Trams went to the final station in Srednyaya Rogatka. After September 8, tram traffic decreased. The bombings were to blame. But later the trams stopped running.

Details of life in besieged Leningrad became known only decades later. Ideological reasons did not allow us to speak openly about what was really happening in this city.

Leningrader's ration

Bread became the main value. They stood for rations for several hours.

They baked bread from more than one flour. There was too little of it. For specialists food industry the task was set to come up with what could be added to the dough so that energy value food has been preserved. Cotton cake was added, which was found in the Leningrad port. The flour was also mixed with flour dust that had grown over the walls of the mills, and dust shaken out of the bags where the flour used to be. Barley and rye bran were also used for baking. They also used sprouted grain found on barges that were sunk in Lake Ladoga.

The yeast that was in the city became the basis for yeast soups: they were also included in the ration. The flesh of the skins of young calves became the raw material for jelly, with a very unpleasant aroma.

I remember one man who walked around the dining room and licked everyone’s plates. I looked at him and thought that he would die soon. I don’t know, maybe he lost the cards, maybe he just didn’t have enough, but he’s already gotten to this point. (Batenina (Larina) Oktyabrina Konstantinovna).

On September 2, 1941, workers in hot shops received 800 grams of so-called bread, engineering specialists and other workers - 600. Employees, dependents and children - 300-400 grams.

From October 1, rations were halved. Those who worked in factories were given 400 grams of “bread.” Children, employees and dependents received 200 each. Not everyone had cards: those who failed to get them for some reason simply died.

On November 13, food became even scarcer. Workers received 300 grams of bread per day, others only 150. A week later, the norms dropped again: 250 and 125.

At this time, confirmation came that food could be transported by car on the ice of Lake Ladoga. But the thaw disrupted the plans. From the end of November to mid-December, food did not arrive in the city until strong ice was established on Ladoga. From December twenty-fifth, standards began to rise. Those who worked began to receive 250 grams, the rest - 200. Then the ration increased, but hundreds of thousands of Leningraders had already died. This famine is now considered one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the twentieth century.

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