Four-legged blockade runners. Leningrad Zoo during the siege

The Leningrad Zoo, which was open during the siege, is not a feast during the plague. So, at least, many people think, objecting to opponents who insist that the famous hippopotamus Beauty should have been fed to starving children, and not nursed through the incredible efforts of barely alive zoo employees.

“How many people would Beauty feed? Five, ten? Her meat would be enough for a week, well, two... And then what? She would hardly have radically saved anyone’s life. But, having survived, she gave something more: joy, faith that life goes on. After all, the zoo was open throughout the blockade, and Leningrad children specially came to look at it. At least here they learned to smile again,” says zoo employee Dmitry Vasilyev. instead of the commonly used “hippopotamus”) Beauty was brought to the St. Petersburg Zoo in 1911. She survived two revolutions, a change of owners of the zoo, a blockade, and died only in 1951.”

Saving Beauty was a seemingly impossible task. And the problem was not only the huge volumes of food that the two-ton hippopotamus needed. The main thing was to protect her skin, because the water supply did not work, and without regular warm baths, the delicate skin of hippopotamuses quickly becomes rough, cracks, becomes infected, and the animal dies of sepsis.

“During the blockade, instead of the usual 40 kilograms of food, she received 4-6 kg of a mixture of vegetables, grass, hay and cake and another 30 kg of steamed sawdust to fill her stomach. Zoo staff daily carried 50 buckets of water from the ice hole in the frozen Neva and warmed her on the wreckage of a roller coaster that burned down next door, in the garden of the People’s House, they washed Beauty by hand, and then rubbed the skin with fat and camphor oil,” says Dmitry Vasilyev. “I don’t know if it was a feat.” ordinary work of ordinary people."

At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the Leningrad Zoo had about 500 species of animals in its collection. In 1940 he turned 75 years old, and he was a real cultural and scientific treasure of Leningrad. Therefore, after the start of the war, the first and only train equipped for transporting animals, 80 of the most valuable animals were evacuated from the banks of the Neva to Kazan: the black rhinoceros Milli, tigers, black panthers, polar bears, and the American tapir. Pelicans, large parrots, kangaroos, some monkeys, and reptiles left. Those involved in the evacuation were planning to return for the others, but did not have time. The blockade of Leningrad began.

“The Leningrad youth children who helped in the zoo saw one of the most terrible images of the war in August 1941,” says Dmitry Vasilyev. “Then the order was issued to kill all large predatory animals. There was a risk that tigers and lions, frightened by explosions and bombings, would run out wooden enclosures and rush onto the streets of Leningrad. The future employee of the zoo, and in 1941, a youth member Olga Podleskikh, said that she realized the full horror of the war when in August, as usual, she came to the zoo and saw a whole mountain of corpses of shot lions, leopards and wolves. in pools of blood... According to her, it was then that they, the children, realized that the war was not somewhere far away, but here it was, nearby.”

Dmitry Vasiliev says that a collection of predators was destroyed, the number of which even exceeds the current one. But then there were no more options. Even if the animals had not escaped, it would still not have been possible to feed them. True, they could feed others... But they didn’t think about this in August 1941.

“Then it was worse. On September 4, 1941, there was the first shelling of Leningrad from long-range guns. On September 6, the first air raid. On September 8, during the second bombing, shells hit the zoo,” says the curator. “Of course, the Germans did not need the zoo itself, but it was located close to the Peter and Paul Fortress, on the beach of which our anti-aircraft guns were located. Nearby was the entire central part of Leningrad. Therefore, bombs fell on the zoo, several buildings with animals, ticket offices, youth rooms, and a monkey barn, built in 1911, were destroyed. Several managed to escape along with the monkeys, and were later caught throughout the city...”

The bomb also hit the elephant barn, where the famous Betty the elephant lived since the beginning of the century. Vasiliev says that current stories about her being eaten are nothing more than legends. “It was the beginning of September 1941, no one had yet thought about the blockade and famine. She was simply buried on what is now Goat Mountain,” they say at the zoo.

In September, coal and oil reserves began to run out. In October, heat and electricity stopped flowing into homes, and all factories stopped, except for those working for defense. Trams stopped running in November. In December, the sewer and water pipes froze. And in the zoo there are still animals, many of which are tropical, in need of warmth, water and light. And almost the entire team - both women and men - went to the front. In addition, in addition to ordinary human compassion for our lesser brothers, we should also remember those times when failure to comply with work discipline was punishable by camps or death. And the animals of the Leningrad Zoo were state property, material assets, and for each - as for company car or a machine - the employee answered with his head. But the animals continued to die. Each corpse was subject to strict reporting. Even a dead deer or bird could not be fed to starving predators without an acceptance certificate. Ungulates were fed with steamed and boiled sawdust; small predators were supplemented with fish oil.

The hardest thing was with the birds of prey - they refused to eat the gruel. Then they thought of wrapping sawdust in animal skins, and the birds, tearing the skins, ate them too.

Animals died not only from hunger, but also from stress. They suffered heart attacks and strokes from the constant roar of bombing. This is how two tigers and cubs died... One day a shell hit a buffalo enclosure. The bison was not hit, but the animal escaped from the fence out of fear and fell into the crater. People began to make bridges, get some boards - and pulled him out of there.

Zoo employees shared everything they could with their charges. And the worst thing is that they couldn’t even do it. “I don’t know whether to tell this story on excursions. It’s really scary,” says Dmitry Vasiliev thoughtfully. “There are three hamadryas baboons left in the zoo. And then, in the most terrible winter of 1941-42, one of them decides to give birth... “Upstairs” They found out and gave the order: to get the baby out at any cost. But the exhausted mother had no milk. Then they began to bring the baby milk every day from the Leningrad maternity hospital, expressed in a bottle. Can you guess whose milk it was? And the baby survived the blockade.” It is unknown whether those children who did not receive milk survived it.

In Leningrad this winter, according to official data, 600 cases of cannibalism were recorded. They ate all domestic and street dogs, cats, and rats. And in the zoo there is a lot of meat in the form of a hippopotamus, birds, animals...

“The zoo was guarded by armed guards. I fully admit that there were attempts to penetrate and steal animals and birds. But I don’t know about them for sure. I also admit that the zoo employees themselves survived because there was something to eat from the killed or dead animals,” says Dmitry Vasiliev. “But for them it was work, ordinary work. Just as a besieged ballerina came to the theater, took off her felt boots and danced, so they fed and looked after their animals, did their job.”

“Yes, but you can’t eat the theater and you can’t feed the children with it. And here, on the one hand, there are children dying of hunger, on the other, the meat of birds and animals...” I express my thoughts out loud.

“The zoo worked throughout the blockade, it was closed only in the first winter of 1941-42. Already in the spring of 1942, it began to prepare to receive visitors. In the autumn of 1942, the zoo’s collection began to be replenished with trophies. Soldiers brought wolves and bear cubs from the front line. In Chelyuskintsev Park (current Udelny Park ) the zoo employees began to plant vegetable gardens, all the lawns were also given over to growing greenery. On July 8, Leningraders came here to look at the remaining 162 animals. Throughout the blockade years, the animal theater of trainers Raevsky and Rukavishnikova “Kroton” worked in the zoo. dogs, monkeys, foxes, goats staged performances in orphanages, hospitals, delighted children in the zoo. Who can measure how many this joy, the hope that life goes on, helped to survive?..

After the war, 16 employees of the zoo were awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad." People and animals survived one of the most terrible events in world history. Unlike their colleagues from the Berlin Zoo or, for example, Konigsberg. But even now, not a single visit to the exhibition of the besieged zoo is complete without questions from contemporaries: was it worth saving the life of the hippopotamus Beauty or the newborn baboon if this could lead to someone’s death by starvation?

The siege of Leningrad is one of the most terrible pages in the history of the city. Harsh winter 1941-1942 completed what was started by the forces of a merciless enemy. It was hard for everyone, the residents were dying from hunger and cold, it seemed that there was nowhere to wait for help. However, even in those terrible times there were people who, without sparing themselves, tried to save the unfortunate animals of the Leningrad Zoo.

1. V.K. Buryak and Betty the Elephant. 1932

How is it possible to save more than 160 animals and birds in a city where enemy shells were constantly exploding on the streets, where the electricity supply was completely cut off, which resulted in the shutdown of the water supply and sewage system, where there was simply nothing to feed the animals?

Of course, the zoo staff tried to save the unique animals even before the siege began. IN urgently About 80 animals were exported to Kazan, among which were black panthers, tigers, polar bears, an American tapir and a huge rhinoceros. However, it was not possible to take everyone away.

2. Entrance to the zoo. Postcard. 1920s.

About 60 inhabitants of the menagerie ended up in Belarus at the beginning of the war. They were brought to Vitebsk to demonstrate to local children. However, people's plans were destroyed by the war that began so unexpectedly. Fleeing from the bombing, the zoo staff tried to save as many animals as possible.

3. Among their charges was an American crocodile. Unfortunately, they could not take him out, since he needed special conditions to move. Someone suggested releasing the crocodile into the waters of the Western Dvina, this idea was supported, and the heat-loving reptile went on a free swim. About her future fate so no one found out.

In Leningrad itself, even before the bombing began, people were forced to shoot those who remained large predators. Of course, it was a pity for the innocent animals, but leaving them meant endangering the inhabitants of the city: having found themselves free as a result of the destruction of the cages by shells, they could well go hunting.

4. Hippopotamus Beauty. 1935

At the beginning of September 41, Leningrad was surrounded. By that time, the zoo still had bison, deer, Betty the elephant, Beauty the hippopotamus, trained bear cubs, fox cubs, tiger cubs, a seal, two donkeys, monkeys, ostriches, a black vulture and many small animals. Oh, it wasn’t easy for them during the bombing!

5. Ruins of an elephant farm.

Most of the animals rushed around the cages in horror, bear cubs growled in fear, birds huddled in a corner, but the chamois, on the contrary, for some reason climbed the hill and stood there, waiting for the end of the shelling. Betty the elephant, as soon as she heard the sound of the siren, hurriedly went to her house. She had no other refuge. Unfortunately, on September 8, one of three high-explosive bombs dropped from a German bomber exploded right next to her enclosure, killing the caretaker and mortally wounding Betty herself. The poor thing died 15 minutes later right on the ruins of the elephant barn. She was buried on the grounds of the zoo.

In that terrible night Smart bear cubs and cheerful fox cubs also died. The walls of the monkey barn were destroyed, causing the primates to scatter around the area. In the morning, employees collected them, trembling with fear, throughout the city. The clumsy bison fell into the funnel. People simply did not have the strength to pull him out of there, so they built a flooring and lured him out with pieces of hay, spreading them from the bottom to the edge of the hole.

7. Ruins of an elephant farm. 1941

Another night a goat and a couple of deer were wounded. Employee Konovalova bandaged the animals, shared her own bread with them and put them on their feet. However, the poor fellows were killed during another attack, which also took away tiger cubs and huge bison.

8. Bomb hit locations. 1941

It was not easy for the hippopotamus Beauty, who was brought to the zoo along with Betty back in 1911. Of course, she was much luckier than her unfortunate friend: she survived and lived a long life. happy life, however, without the selfless help of Evdokia Dashina, the miracle would not have happened. The fact is that the skin of a hippopotamus must be constantly moistened with water, otherwise it quickly dries out and becomes covered with bloody cracks. And in the winter of 1941, the city water supply did not work and the Beauty pool remained empty.

9. E.I. Dashina with the hippopotamus Beauty. 1943

What to do? Every day Evdokia Ivanovna brought a forty-bucket barrel of water from the Neva on a sled. They heated the water and poured it on the poor hippopotamus. The cracks were lubricated with camphor ointment, using up to a kilogram per day. Soon Beauty's skin healed, and she was able to hide underwater with dignity during the bombings. She lived until 1951 and died of old age without earning a single chronic illness. “Here it is, blockade hardening!” - the veterinarians later spoke with admiration.

10. A group of camels against the backdrop of the American mountains. 1936

Of course, in those terrible years the zoo was not funded, and the survival of the animals was entirely dependent on its employees. In the first months of the war, they collected corpses of horses killed by shells in the fields, risking their lives to remove vegetables from the fields. When this opportunity was lost, people mowed the remaining grass with sickles in all possible points of the city, collected rowan berries and acorns. In the spring, all free territory was turned into vegetable gardens, where cabbage, potatoes, oats and rutabaga were grown.

11. Black vulture Verochka. 1946

But this way you can only save vegetarian animals, but what about the rest? If the cubs, indignant, still ate minced vegetables and grass, then the tiger cubs and the vulture completely refused such a diet. For their sake, they found lying around rabbit skins, stuffed them with a mixture of grass, cake and gristle, and greased the outside of the carcasses with fish oil. This way they managed to prevent the fastidious predators from starving to death.

12. Antelope Nilgai Lighthouse. 1946

Birds of prey added fish to this mixture. The vultures agreed to eat only soaked salted fish. But the most intractable was the golden eagle, for which people had to catch rats.

It is known that an adult hippopotamus should receive from 36 to 40 kg of food per day. Of course, during the blockade years there could be no talk of such a “feast”. The beauty was given 4-6 kg of a mixture of grass, vegetables and cake, adding 30 kg of steamed sawdust, just to fill her stomach.

13. Young stock area. 30s.

In November 1941, there was a new addition to the zoo: Elsa the hamadryas gave birth to a baby. The mother did not have milk, but the local maternity hospital provided some donor milk every day, thanks to which the baby was able to survive.

Surprisingly, the Leningrad Zoo closed only in the winter of 1941-1942. Already in the spring, exhausted employees were clearing paths and repairing enclosures in order to admit the first visitors in the summer. 162 animals were exhibited. Over the summer, about 7,400 Leningraders came to see them, which proved the need for such a peaceful institution in those terrible years.

14. Lenzoosad team. Spring 1945.

Many servants spent the night right in the zoo, not wanting to leave their charges even for a moment. There were few of them - only two dozen, but this was enough to save many lives. 16 people were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”, and it was decided not to rename the zoo itself in order to preserve the memory of the heroism of the blockade employees.

Nine days after the start of the war with the Nazi invaders, some of the inhabitants of the Leningrad Zoo were transported to the deep rear. On June 30, 1941, animals of particular value were taken away: a black panther, tigers, lions, Felix the jaguar, Millie the rhinoceros, rare breeds of monkeys and some other species of animals.

At the beginning of September, Leningrad was surrounded.

By that time, the zoo still had bison, deer, Betty the elephant, Beauty the hippopotamus, trained bear cubs, fox cubs, tiger cubs, a seal, two donkeys, monkeys, ostriches, a black vulture and many small animals.
They took the bombing hard.

Most of the animals rushed around the cages in horror, bear cubs growled in fear, birds huddled in a corner, but the chamois, on the contrary, for some reason climbed the hill and stood there, waiting for the end of the shelling. Betty the elephant, as soon as she heard the sound of the siren, hurriedly went to her house. She had no other refuge.

On September 8, 1941, Betty died when one of three high-explosive bombs dropped from a German bomber exploded right next to her enclosure, killing the caretaker and mortally wounding the elephant herself. Betty died 15 minutes later right on the ruins of the elephant farm. She was buried on the grounds of the zoo.

That terrible night, bear cubs and fox cubs died. The walls of the monkey barn were destroyed, causing the primates to scatter around the area. In the morning, employees collected them, trembling with fear, throughout the city. The clumsy bison fell into the funnel. People simply did not have the strength to pull him out of there, so they built a flooring and lured him out with pieces of hay, spreading them from the bottom to the edge of the hole.

Another night a goat and a couple of deer were wounded. Employee Konovalova bandaged the animals, shared her own bread with them and put them on their feet. However, they were killed during another attack, which also took away tiger cubs and huge bison.

One of the residents of the zoo who was not sent to the rear with the rest of the animals was the hippopotamus Beauty, who was brought to the zoo along with the elephant Betty in 1911. Beauty's weight at the time the blockade began in Leningrad was comparable to the weight of thirty adults, and was approximately two thousand kilograms. The thickness of the leather was comparable to the width of the boards used for flooring.

Beauty had her own caretaker, Evdokia Dashina. Only thanks to her selfless help, a miracle happened and the hippopotamus survived.

The fact is that the skin of a hippopotamus must be constantly moistened with water, otherwise it quickly dries out and becomes covered with bloody cracks. And in the winter of '41, the city water supply did not work and Beauty's pool remained empty.

What to do? Every day Evdokia Ivanovna brought a forty-bucket barrel of water from the Neva on a sled. They heated the water and poured it on the poor hippopotamus. The cracks were smeared with camphor ointment, using up to a kilogram per day. Soon Beauty's skin healed, and she was able to hide underwater with dignity during the bombings.

Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the horrors of war and the heroic feat of the inhabitants of the hero city who managed to survive inhuman conditions. Along with people, animals also suffered from enemy shelling. Our story today is about the Leningrad Zoo, and how its exotic inhabitants survived the blockade.

In modern St. Petersburg there is a striking feature that surprises guests of the city, and some of the townspeople unfamiliar with the history of St. Petersburg - the local zoo is still called the Leningrad Zoo. Some people regard this as a funny misunderstanding, others are outraged by such a “relic of the past.” Meanwhile, behind the current name of the zoo lies amazing story feat, incredible courage and perseverance.
The Zoological Garden in St. Petersburg was founded back in 1865, just a year later than in Moscow. Having experienced decline at the beginning of the 20th century, by 1941 the Leningrad Zoo became one of the best not only in the country, but also in Europe.
When the Great Patriotic War broke out, some of the animals of the Leningrad Zoo were in Vitebsk and were bombed in the first days of the war. Some were saved by zoo staff at the risk of their lives, while others disappeared without a trace, such as the American crocodile. The heat-loving animal was forced to be released into the Western Dvina, since it was no longer possible to take it out. But the enemy was rapidly approaching Leningrad. Before the blockade closed, employees managed to evacuate about 80 animals, including a rhinoceros and large predators. Those large predators who could not be taken out had to be shot - it was impossible to allow the animals, in the event of the destruction of the enclosures as a result of the bombing, to break free and begin to threaten the Leningraders.
Several dozen animals and birds remained in the zoo, as well as about two dozen employees who did not go to the front and were not involved in work on the construction of defensive structures. For the zoo employees who remained at their jobs, their own war began, in which they tried in the most difficult, unimaginable conditions save the lives of your pets.
To say that it was not easy is to say nothing. Animals died as a result of bombing and shelling that hit the city. The favorite of Leningrad children, the elephant Betty, a huge, good-natured and naive animal, tried to hide in her house at the sound of explosions, not realizing that it would not protect her from bomb fragments. It was in her house that Betty was mortally wounded during an air raid on the night of September 9, 1941. Two days later, Betty passed away. About 70 animals and birds died from bombing and artillery shelling in the autumn of 1941 in the Leningrad Zoo. Zoo workers bandaged the wounded pets, but many of them died after new air raids. After one of the bombings, the monkey house was destroyed, and the surviving animals fled through the city streets. Employees found them and brought them back. In the eyes of the monkeys one could read immeasurable horror and misunderstanding of what was happening. They huddled close to people, as if begging for help. Of the large predators in the zoo, only Ussurian tiger, young and not dangerous. Bombs and shells spared him, but horror killed him - the animal died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Ungulates, in addition to fragments, were destroyed by craters - having stumbled, the animals broke their legs, which doomed them to death. Only the nilgai antelope named Mayak, the only one of her fellow tribesmen, managed to somehow survive this hell, becoming a real legend of the zoo.
Zoo employees, led by director Nikolai Sokolov, fought as best they could - they restored destroyed enclosures, treated the wounded, and returned fugitives home. But the worst thing was the famine that gripped Leningrad.
What to feed animals when there is nothing for people to eat? How to save animals when you yourself can barely stand on your feet from hunger?
At first, the zoo workers collected the corpses of horses killed during shelling, vegetables from abandoned fields, managed to make hay under shelling, and turned all free territory into vegetable gardens where they grew grass for animals.
The bears were switched to a diet of minced vegetables and grass. Predatory young animals were deceived by feeding them a mixture of grass and cake, sewn into the skins of rabbits left over from pre-war times. Predators would not eat such things, but these dummies were coated with fish oil on top - and the animals believed that they were eating meat.
Birds of prey were fed the same dummies, but with the addition of fish. Only the golden eagle refused to “get into position.” And then the zoo workers began to catch rats for him. The suffering of people and animals was not limited to hunger and bombing - since the winter of 1941, the water supply and sewage system stopped working on the territory of the zoo, and there was no electricity. Wooden parts of the nearby roller coaster were used to heat the enclosures.
The largest animal remaining in the Leningrad Zoo was the hippopotamus Beauty, brought there back in 1911 along with the elephant Betty, who later died. By some miracle, Beauty was saved from the bombs. But how to feed an animal that requires 40 kilograms of food a day? The problem was solved this way - six kilograms of a mixture of grass, vegetables and cake plus 30 kilograms of steamed sawdust. And such a diet saved Beauty’s life. But there was another problem - the hippopotamus vitally needed water, which was not available in the zoo’s pool. Without it, Beauty’s skin would crack and the cracks would bleed, causing the animal terrible suffering.
Beauty was saved by zoo employee Evdokia Dashina. Every day she brought 40 buckets of water on a sled, washed the pet, and lubricated the cracks in the skin with camphor oil. What it cost Evdokia Ivanovna herself, exhausted by hunger, only she knew, but Beauty survived the blockade.
The hippopotamus was very afraid of the bombings and, in order to calm her down, Evdokia Dashina remained next to her during the raids, as if trying to cover the huge animal with her body.
During the first winter of the siege, the incredible happened - a female hamadryas gave birth to a baby. However, the stressed mother lost her milk, which doomed the newborn to death. The Leningrad maternity hospital came to the rescue, providing a small portion of donor milk for the little monkey. And the cub was saved!

In the summer of 1942, the Leningrad Zoo again received visitors. That summer, about 7,400 city residents came there. But the point is not the number, but the fact that the very news about the opening of the zoo strengthened the spirit of the residents of the city squeezed in the grip of the blockade.
The zoo has opened, which means Leningrad continues to live, no matter what. Even though half of the enclosures have been destroyed, there may be trenches and craters all around, but there are 162 animals, just like in Peaceful time, they greet with curiosity the adults and children who come to look at them. Already in 1943, the zoo’s collection began to be replenished with new animals. Throughout the blockade, the “Animal Theater” at the Leningrad Zoo did not stop working, whose artists performed for children and the wounded in hospitals.
Sixteen employees of the Leningrad Zoo, who withstood the blockade and saved many of their pets, were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad.”
When was it returned to the city? historical name Petersburg, the management of the zoo, which was renamed the zoo in 1952, decided to retain the name “Leningradsky” in memory of its employees who accomplished a great feat during the siege.
Among those who today learn about the siege history of the Leningrad Zoo, there are also people with the following opinion: “How was it possible to save animals when people were dying of hunger? How can you give milk to a monkey when children are dying? This is not a feat, but stupidity, a crime of the communists. Animals had to be killed and eaten, thereby saving human lives!”
What can I say? In that terrible war The fight against fascism was not only for life and freedom, but also for human dignity. The great feat of besieged Leningrad is that its inhabitants retained their human appearance during inhuman trials.
The employees of the Leningrad Zoo, enduring suffering and hardship, fought for the sake of the future, which must necessarily come after the Victory. A future in which a zoo preserved no matter what is more important than a person’s own life.
It was for the sake of the future that the employees of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, dying of hunger, preserved unique collection grains It was for the sake of the future that the mosaic artist Vladimir Aleksandrovich Frolov, dying of hunger in besieged Leningrad, created panels for the Moscow metro.
For those who are only interested in their own self-preservation, these actions are incomprehensible. In order to understand this, one must be a Human, and not just conditionally belong to the species Homo sapiens. This is far from the same thing - as the entire history of the world convincingly proves.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the lifting of the Siege of Leningrad. And in honor of this memorable event, I would like to talk about the feat of the residents of our city. Today my story will be about how the Leningrad Zoological Park, which was called a zoo in those days, survived the siege.

Very few people know that the Leningrad Zoo continued its work throughout the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. It was closed only once - in the very first and most terrible winter of the siege (1941-1942), but already in the spring of 1942, the exhausted employees of the zoo on their own restored part of the pens and enclosures, cleared the paths, so that on July 8 the zoo opened its doors to visitors. The zoo continued its work, proving that the besieged city continues to live life to the fullest.

But let's go back to the very beginning of these terrible years. The war began, and almost immediately, on July 30, 1941, the zoo staff managed to evacuate 80 of the most valuable animals from their collection from the city to Kazan. Among them were polar bears, rhinoceros, tigers, tapirs and many others. However, a significant part of the collection nevertheless remained in the city.

On September 8, 1941, the blockade ring closed. And on the same night, 3 high-explosive bombs fell on the zoo, destroying many buildings and premises of the zoo. The townspeople's favorite elephant, Betty, died. She was buried under a pile of rubble from the collapsed elephant barn.

During the Great Patriotic War, the Leningrad Zoo suffered greatly from shelling. Mainly due to its proximity to the Peter and Paul Fortress. But the employees did not lose heart. They, as best they could, rescued and supported the animals that remained to survive the siege of Leningrad.

It is known that one day, after another shelling, the bison fell to the bottom of the crater and could not get out. Exhausted people also could not pull him out of the hole. Then they built a flooring and, laying pieces of hay on it from the bottom to the very top, lured the animal out.

Also once two deer and a goat were wounded. Servant E.A. Konovalova bandaged the animals, gave them part of her bread, fed them by hand, and the animals recovered. Unfortunately, they were killed in subsequent attacks.

By the winter of 1941, the power supply to the zoo was cut off, and the sewerage and water supply systems were out of order. Animals began to die not only from shelling, but also from cold and hunger.

In those days, next to the zoo there was an amusement park with a wooden roller coaster. During the blockade, they helped the zookeepers a lot: when the heating was turned off, they were dismantled for firewood.

But finding food for animals in a besieged city, as we well understand, was a very difficult task.

In the very first days of the war, zoo employees picked up horses killed under fire and collected vegetables in the fields. When this opportunity disappeared, the zoo workers began collecting acorns, rowan berries, and the grunt remaining in the fields. In the meadows, under shelling, they prepared hay. The grass was cut with sickles in all accessible parts of the city. All the vacant places and paddocks of the zoo, as well as the Chelyuskintsev park transferred to its ownership, were sown and turned into vegetable gardens.

The animals had to be switched to new food. The monkeys got used to the new diet. The bears grumbled, but nevertheless got used to eating minced vegetables and grass. But the cubs could not eat this. Then the employees came up with the idea of ​​stuffing rabbit skins, preserved from pre-war times, with a mixture of grass, cake and gristle, and lubricating it with fish oil. The delicious meat smell deceived the animals, and they ate such carcasses. They also fed birds of prey, but for them some fish was added to the mixture. Only the golden eagle refused to eat fish and the zookeepers caught rats for him.

The story of the hippopotamus Beauty, who lived in the Leningrad Zoo at that time, deserves special mention. It was the second largest hippopotamus in zoos in the world - a very valuable specimen, dearly loved both by city residents and zoo employees.

The hippopotamus was given 36-40 kilograms of food per day. In besieged Leningrad, Beauty received 4-6 kilograms of vegetable and herbal mixture per day, and another 30 kilograms of steamed sawdust to fill her stomach. The hippo owes her life to the zoo attendant Dashina Evdokia Ivanovna. Every day she brought or brought on a sled 40 buckets of Neva water to fill her pool, gave her water, warmed her and always washed her. warm water, lubricated the skin with camphor oil. After all, when the skin of a hippopotamus dries out, it cracks and becomes covered with “bloody sweat”! The beauty was very afraid of shelling, and to make it easier for the hippopotamus to survive this, Evdokia Ivanovna hugged her during the raids, lying down with her on the bottom of the pool. Thanks to the feat of Dashina E.I. The beauty survived the entire siege of Leningrad and lived in the zoo until 1951.

The city also helped the zoo. In November 1941, Elsa the hamadryas gave birth to a baby. But the emaciated monkey had no milk to feed him. Then nearby maternity hospital agreed to donate half a liter of donor milk daily. In those years, baby monkeys rarely survived in zoos around the world. And in besieged Leningrad, the little hamadrill survived!

As we have already said, in the summer of 1942 the zoo reopened its doors to visitors. There were 162 animals on display. And during this summer, 7,400 people visited the zoo. And this in a city where it was difficult for people to walk even a short distance!

Surprisingly, in 1943, the first additions to the zoo’s collection began with local animals. In May and June, the cubs Potap and Manya were transferred to the zoo. And at the beginning of 1944, through the efforts of E.P. Rutenberg, an aquarium was organized where one could see sticklebacks, ruffes, minnows and other local fish.

Throughout the blockade years, an animal theater operated in the zoo. Trainers I.K. Raevsky and T.S. Rukavishnikova with a group of trained animals - bear cubs, dogs, a monkey, a fox, a goat - delighted the wounded and children of the city with their performances.

Despite the fact that half of the zoo's buildings were destroyed, and the territory was dug up with craters and trenches, the very fact of the existence of such a peaceful institution in the besieged city supported Leningraders' faith in victory, helping them survive.

Along with the hippopotamus Beauty, visitors to the siege zoo were delighted by the nilgai antelope Mayak, the black vulture Verochka, the bear Grishka and many others. They owe their lives to a few zookeepers. There were few of them - only a couple of dozen people who did not go to the front and were not involved in defensive campaigns.

They continued to care for the animals, obtaining food for them, tirelessly repairing collapsing enclosures and pens, and going on night shifts. Sixteen zoo employees were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad.”

In memory of their feat, the zoo did not change its name along with the city. It is still called Leningradsky to this day. On the wall of the central entrance, visitors are greeted by a memorial plaque, on which the Zoo Administration places fresh flowers for the Day of Lifting the Siege of Leningrad and Victory Day.

And on the territory of the zoo, in its oldest building - the pavilion " Brown bears”, which miraculously survived the war along with the zoo, houses the museum “Zoo during the Siege”. There, current zoo employees organize excursions, telling about the immortal feat of their predecessors.