Different types of fuel were driven through the pipeline to Leningrad in turn - from diesel fuel to naphtha. Camouflage measures were observed brilliantly: the Germans did not know anything about the existence of this artery.

Sokolova's next task was to lay a power line along the bottom of the power line to the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station that same autumn. During this navigation, she was seriously wounded by shelling. Soon the blockade was broken, and trains went to Leningrad, and in 1944 the siege was completely lifted, but now the divers faced new tasks. The waters around Leningrad were littered with debris from bridges, structures, equipment, and littered with mines. Nina Sokolova took part in putting the city and its environs in order.

In total, she spent 644 hours underwater - almost a month. Sokolova was called the legend of EPRON. The woman has two orders of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War II degree and the Badge of Honor.

After the war, she taught for a long time at the Higher Naval School. Nina Sokolova died in 2001 at the age of 89.

In the autumn of 1941, divers began laying telephone cables along the bottom of Lake Ladoga, providing communication with the "mainland". After several unsuccessful attempts on October 30, the task was completed. During the work, Sokolova came up with the idea that in the same way it is possible to lay a gas pipeline along the bottom. Prior to this, fuel was supplied to Leningrad by barges, and the main problem was the low throughput.

Nina Ivanovna proposed her idea to the head of military restoration work, Ivan Zubkov, who sent a request for permission to the Defense Committee. In the spring of 1942, a group of divers and special workers conducted reconnaissance at the bottom of Lake Ladoga. Construction began at the Osinovetsky lighthouse, where a large forest grew on the shore, in which hundreds of builders, vehicles, equipment and pipes were hiding.

At the cost of incredible efforts, a secret pipeline with alluvial stations and fuel tanks was stretched out in just a month and a half. In some places, pipes were laid at a depth of 35 meters, and thanks to elaborate camouflage, the Germans never found out about the existence of the pipeline.

The bold idea of ​​Nina Sokolova made it possible to provide the city with fuel, which helped to defend Leningrad and save thousands of lives of citizens. During the war, more than 45 thousand tons of fuel were driven through the pipeline.

Simultaneously with the installation of pipes, Nina Sokolova participated in the laying of electricity along the bottom to the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric station. During these works, the girl was seriously injured. Having healed her wounds, she participated in the clearance of underwater mines and clearing debris. After the blockade of Leningrad was lifted, Nina Vasilievna received the rank of colonel-engineer, and for her service she spent almost 650 hours under water. After the war, Sokolova was engaged in teaching and passing on her experience as a diver.

The children of Nina Sokolova carefully keep their mother's ceremonial tunic in the wardrobe. The first woman is a diver in the Union. Hundreds of hours spent at depth. From the first days of the blockade, she was part of EPRON - this special underwater service worked on Lake Ladoga. During the Great Patriotic War, they had to restore submarine power cables damaged by bombing in the blockaded city, build moorings on the Road of Life, raise trucks that had gone under the ice, barges with food, and fuel tanks.

She grew up as the eldest child in a large family. From an early age, her mother took her to help when she was hired for day work. After leaving school, she left for Leningrad and entered the Institute of Water Transport. I chose hydraulic engineering. In 1936 she was sent to the Special Purpose Underwater Expedition. At that time, a port was being built in Sochi, and she was instructed to lead divers when laying giant concrete massifs. The brave girl decided to explore everything herself. In Leningrad, she took a two-month improvement course and at the same time mastered diving.

The head of the EPRON, Rear Admiral Fotiy Krylov, signed a certificate authorizing underwater descents to a depth of 10 meters. This is the only document issued to a woman in the history of diving. She received her baptism of fire in the Barents Sea. It was in 1939. There was a war with the White Finns. She was assigned to supervise the construction of a landing pier in Polyarny. The young engineer did an excellent job, she herself descended into the icy water.

Ladoga has become a special page in the fate of Nina. The lake occupied a significant place in the strategic plans of the German command. It is no coincidence that it was mentioned many times in the documents of the Nazi Wehrmacht. On the night of July 1, 1941, the German offensive began with the aim of reaching Lake Ladoga. Coming to the south coast, the enemy closed the blockade ring. The only way connecting Leningrad with the country became possible only along Lake Ladoga. Nina Sokolova worked on the Road of Life from the first days of the war. Divers often had to work in the conditions of artillery shelling and air raids. Osinovetsky port especially attracted the Nazis. There was a large lighthouse, a railway line to the lake and moorings. Diving work in Osinovets was carried out around the clock. In September 1941, the Leningrad Front landed troops across the Neva, in the area of ​​Nevsky Dubrovka. An emergency rescue team was created to cross the river, which included Nina. The main task of the group was laying a route along the bottom of the river for towing tanks and artillery under water.

Divers received 300 grams of bread, some cereal and some fat. In September-October 1941, they raised over 4,000 sacks of grain from sunken barges. The salvaged bread already the next day was received on cards in besieged Leningrad. In a combat situation, when the besieged city was suffocating without fuel, a detachment of divers made sometimes unimaginable decisions. The rails, on which the fuel tanks got stuck, ran into Lake Ladoga. An idea was born: to lower tanks with gasoline into the water and tow to the other side, and then put them back on the rails. Underwater railway descents and ascents were laid in the shortest possible time by the Epronovites of the 27th detachment. Tanks with fuel descended directly from the railway tracks into the water and were delivered by tugboats to the opposite bank on pontoons. The main task assigned to divers in the autumn of 1941 was to provide the command of the Leningrad Front with a stable connection with Moscow. A telephone line could be laid underwater across Lake Ladoga. Despite a strong storm, the divers of the 27th EPRON detachment laid a line. The communication line functioned flawlessly throughout the war. One day, Nina Sokolova came up with the idea to lay a gas pipeline along the bottom of Ladoga. This would save the Red Army from unnecessary risks when transporting goods. The young woman told about her idea at the first opportunity. During a business trip to Moscow, she ended up on the same plane with the head of the restoration work of the Leningrad Front, Ivan Zubkov.

Galina Aleinikova, a family friend: “She told him:“ It’s so simple - to lay a gas pipeline along the bottom near Ladoga. And she began to draw on her knees.

The idea was immediately approved in the capital. Alexei Kosygin called her - he led the evacuation of Leningraders and was engaged in supplying the besieged city. Then Nina Sokolova was urgently called back to Moscow. On April 7, the Defense Committee ordered the construction of the Ladoga gas pipeline to begin.

Evgeny Zubkov, son of Nina Sokolova:

“She never gave an assessment of her work. She did not say that she saved the city, it was part of her service, and, as it turned out later, she took part in many such projects.

In the spring of 1942, at the suggestion of Sokolova, they began laying a gas pipeline along the bottom of the lake. They worked under continuous air strikes. The Ladoga pipeline was laid in 43 days across Lake Ladoga to supply liquid fuel under blockade conditions. The length is 35 km (including 27 km along the bottom of Ladoga). From June 1942 to March 1943, over 40,000 tons of fuel arrived along Ladoga. D. Shinberg was appointed chief engineer of the project. Pipes for the construction were found in Kolpino, at the Izhora plant. They had to be loaded at night, and under fire. During the day, this would be completely impossible. At the plant, steel pipes with an internal diameter of 101 mm were selected, the equipment necessary for the pipeline (pumps, electric motors, etc.) was found, and a workforce was allocated, which for the railway. were brought to the western shore of Ladoga. Vodokanal specialists conducted a survey of the pipeline route.

Scheme of the laid pipeline for fuel along the bottom of Lake Ladoga

The laying of the pipeline began with an accident. On May 26, Ladoga was turbulent, but the participants in the work quickly assembled and welded a 1,000-meter whip. But during an attempt to establish it, the excitement on the lake intensified, the fastening of the whip broke, and it disappeared into the waves. This failure had a heavy impact on the mood of the people. However, the work had to continue. Conclusions were drawn from what had happened. There were no further incidents. Fitting and welding of whips, with an average length of 1.4 kilometers, continued from May 31 to June 14. Fifteen such docked lashes were laid by submariners on the bottom of Ladoga - this is how the lake part of the facility was built. Divers examined the pipeline and fixed it on the ground. The pipeline was tested by pumping first water under high pressure, and then kerosene. On the morning of June 19, the government commission signed the pipeline acceptance certificate, evaluating the work of the construction participants as excellent. It was laid not far from the village of Kosa behind the Kobona piers from the sandy spit of the eastern coast along the bottom of Lake Ladoga to the site near the Borisova Griva station on the western shore of the lake with an output to the main fuel depot No. 1186. The length of the laid pipeline was 29.85 km, from of them, the underwater part accounted for 21 km and 450 m. Its productivity reached up to 350 tons of fuel per day.

During its operation, various types of fuel were alternately pumped: motor gasoline, naphtha, kerosene and diesel fuel. The Artery of Life operated for 20 months, during which Leningrad received more than 40 thousand tons of fuel. It is interesting that this object was not even mentioned in the memoirs of pedantic Germans, including direct participants in those events. It is not told about him in the diary of the Supreme High Command of the Wehrmacht. There is only one reason - they never found out about this unique construction project, which was carried out under their noses in incredibly difficult conditions ... The first Order of the Red Star was awarded to Nina for a talented proposal and for participating in the laying of the pipeline. In the autumn of 1942, she was wounded in the leg and shoulder, concussed. She was in the hospital - and again in her squad. In mid-August 1943, Nina Vasilievna was appointed chief engineer of the Leningrad detachment of underwater technical work. After the war, Sokolova's divers restored bridges, built mooring walls in Leningrad, Kronstadt, Tallinn, cleared bridges. Nina received another rank - "lieutenant colonel-engineer of the Naval Forces." The only female diver in the world, Nina Sokolova, was awarded two Orders of the Red Star, Orders of the Patriotic War II degree and the Badge of Honor, and many medals. At 34, she taught at the Higher Naval School. After the war, she taught at the Higher Naval School. M.V. Frunze, read the most difficult course in hydraulics and hydrodynamics. She passed on her knowledge and experience to future officers. After her resignation in 1958, she conducted military-patriotic work among the youth. She was passionately engaged in gymnastics, yoga, was an active "walrus", a member of the winter swimming club. She raised two children - Marina and Evgeny. On December 17, 2001, at the age of 90, the legendary woman passed away ...

After the war, she was even nominated for the title of Hero of the Union, but the “female” limit of orders was over. And in the engineer's personal diving book there is the number "644". That's how many hours she worked underwater.

In memory of the feat of the legendary female diver, on the centenary of her birth, the governor of St. Petersburg, Georgy Poltavchenko, decided to perpetuate the memory of Nina Vasilievna Sokolova. The Commission on Education, Culture and Science supported the proposal of the Governor of St. Petersburg on the installation of a memorial plaque on the house where she lived, at the address: st. Lenina, 48.

P.S. For the first time I heard this story a few months ago from my mother, who watched a documentary film / program in which Nina Vasilievna herself took part. When the marathon of posts about the heroes of the Second World War began on Gossip, I remembered this story. Since neither my mother nor I remembered the name of this unique woman, then in the search engine I simply scored "laying a pipeline in wartime along the bottom of Lake Ladoga." To my great surprise, most sources wrote the following "unfortunately now it is impossible to establish exactly who this idea belonged to", or that "this idea belonged to the EPRON engineers". And there was mentioned "drawing on the knee" - but, about the author of the drawing - not a word! After reviewing several sources, I finally found a mention of the first female diver who took part in the laying of the pipeline. And only by typing her last name, I found the full story of the feat of Nina Vasilievna Sokolova.

"Again we walked along the ocean floor, watched fish and coral plantations, I was in a spacesuit , - writes the 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the RKSM, a member of the Council and the Executive Committee of the Left Front, Daria Mitina, - I flew with a parachute over the island - it is green, and the water in the sea is, as they say, aquamarine! Had a Balinese massage with jasmine and peppermint aromatherapy".

Well, there were other Komsomol members in space suits. True, there were no corals and aromatherapy. It was for the good of the country.

When thirty-year-old Nina Sokolova, a fragile diver, proposed to stretch a gas pipeline along the bottom of Lake Ladoga to give heat to the besieged city, no one believed that such a thing was even possible. 35 kilometers of pipeline in military conditions? How? And who will do it? “I will,” said Nina. It's fantasy, but it did. Not alone, of course. - with the squad. But she had 70 kilograms of diving equipment on her, and bombed and bombed over her head. Before that, she flew to Moscow, where she reported on her idea to Kosygin, an authorized representative of the State Defense Committee. And I understood that if there was the slightest malfunction in work, I couldn’t take my head off. It was in the spring of 1942 ... Then fuel went into the city, and now no one can say how many lives Nina Vasilievna saved.

She grew up as the eldest child in a large family. From an early age, her mother took her to help when she was hired for day work. After leaving school, she left for Leningrad and entered the Institute of Water Transport. I chose hydraulic engineering. In 1936 she was sent to the Special Underwater Expedition in Sochi, where a new port was being built.

A fragile 24-year-old engineer girl led a hydraulic engineering group that was preparing a stone “cushion” for concrete masses. Divers constantly reported to the boss about the state of the bottom. It was difficult to lead "blindly", and one day Nina Vasilievna said to the foreman of the divers:

Prepare me to the bottom, I will go down with you!

How? - the foreman was taken aback.

You are a woman. And then you need special preparation, permission.

Do what you are ordered!

For several months, diving to the bottom became a common thing for Sokolova. She could now manage the construction site without using other people's information.

Six months later, the chief specialist from the EPRON department gave her a thrashing for such "amateur performance". But he granted the request: he sent divers to Balaklava for courses, after which Nina received
permission to descend in heavy equipment to depths of up to 20 meters. And two years later, Nina Sokolova was sent to the Northern Fleet as a hydraulic engineer. There she examined the coast under water and prepared sites for landing and landing.

Then there was work on the Barents Sea - Nina supervised the construction of a landing pier in Polyarny. In the Pacific Ocean, she laid an oil pipeline from Sakhalin Island to the mainland. During the siege of Leningrad, the 27th EPRON detachment under her leadership restored underwater communications and moorings after the bombing, and when cars went along the Road of Life, EPRON raised sunken weapons and equipment from the bottom of the lake.

Nina Vasilievna prepared the foundations for the mooring piles. The structures were regularly bombed, and divers constantly had to rebuild them under fire. It was Nina Sokolova who came up with the idea to explore the bottom of Ladoga and lay a gas pipeline along the bottom. She also flew to Moscow to report this project, unprecedented at that time in world practice, to the authorized representative of the State Defense Committee of the USSR A. N. Kosygin.

They worked in extremely difficult conditions, under continuous air strikes. The pipeline construction site was chosen in the area of ​​Lake Ladoga near the Osinovetsky lighthouse in early May 1942. The Ladoga pipeline for supplying Leningrad with liquid fuel under blockade conditions was laid in 43 days (from May 5 to June 16, 1942) from Cape Karedzhi to Osinovets and then went to the Borisova Griva railway station of the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region. The length is 35 km (including 27 km along the bottom of Ladoga). Throughput is about 150 tons per day. From June 1942 to March 1943, over 40,000 tons of fuel arrived along Ladoga. And this feat in a month and a half was accomplished by thousands of people - specialists, soldiers, divers.

Sokolova in those harsh days conducted reconnaissance of the bottom as part of a special group of divers. For weeks she spent the night in a dugout, went down under the water. The first Order of the Red Star was awarded to her for a talented proposal and for participation in the laying of the pipeline. The work was carried out secretly, most often under the cover of night. In the autumn of 1942, she was wounded in the leg and shoulder, concussed. She rested in the hospital, and again - in her detachment.

Leningraders who survived the blockade remember how a real electric light was lit in their houses. This happened on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the celebration of the Great October Revolution. The divers of the 27th detachment of EPRON, together with other specialists, managed to conduct Volkhov electricity to the besieged city not through high-voltage ground wires, but along the bottom of Ladoga. Nina and her comrades walked five times 25 underwater kilometers of the route in order to lay electrical cables along the bottom of the lake. At night, in the dark, by touch, taking the feeders from hand to hand, linking them with couplings, the divers pulled the cables evenly, “in line”, under the noses of the Nazis.

In mid-August 1943, Nina Vasilievna was appointed chief engineer of the Leningrad detachment of underwater technical work.

After the blockade was broken, she dismantled the blockade of the passage along the Neva, solved the problems associated with the clearance of the turbine of the Svirskaya hydroelectric power station. The 38-year-old Sokolova ended the war as an engineer - Colonel of the Navy. And for the last eight years of service, this amazing woman taught at the higher naval schools of Leningrad, and in 1958 she retired. In the personal diving book of the first female diver in Russia, there is an entry that says that she spent a total of 638 hours under water.

While the activists of the left roam the ocean floor in search of sensations, I am calm for the rats who have settled down in power. Rats are not in danger.

Photo: Archive of the Kronstadt Maritime Museum

The country's first female diver spent 27 days underwater

Nina Sokolova - engineer-colonel of the Naval Forces of the USSR, diver. In 1943, she participated in the construction of a gas pipeline laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga and became the "artery of life" for the besieged Leningrad.

Nina Sokolova was born in 1912 in Cherepovets in a large family. From an early age, her mother took her to hard work as an assistant, so Nina was accustomed to work and independence from childhood.

In 1931, the girl entered the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport Engineers, and after graduation she received a referral to EPRON - Special Purpose Underwater Expedition, which was engaged in lifting sunken objects, rescuing foreign and domestic ships, building ports, laying underwater pipelines.

To issue a certificate allowing Sokolova underwater descents to a depth of 10 meters, the head of the EPRON, Rear Admiral Fotiy Krylov, needed to obtain the personal permission of Mikhail Kalinin. In the personal file of a military woman, Krylov gave her the following description: “Appointed to the position of head of the hydraulic engineering department. A young energetic worker, constantly improving her knowledge and experience. Firm and persistent in achieving her goals. Straightforward and bold. according to the naval minimum. Demanding, enjoys prestige with fellow employees and subordinates. So Nina became the first female diver in history.

Sokolov began her service in the cold Barents Sea in 1939. By the beginning of World War II, Nina was already the chief engineer of the 27th detachment of EPRON. Her unit restored underwater communications after the bombing, raised sunken weapons, food, and equipment. In the besieged city, the 27th detachment of EPRON worked under the conditions of artillery shelling and air raids: divers lifted sacks of grain from sunken barges, laid an underwater telephone cable.

Underwater railway descents and ascents were built on Ladoga: gasoline tanks stuck by the lake were lowered directly into the water and towed to the opposite shore, where they were again put on the rails. In the spring of 1942, the question of how to cross the bottom of Lake Ladoga became literally a matter of life and death: fuel and lubricants remained for 100 days in the besieged city.

The legendary female diver participated in the construction of a gas pipeline across Ladoga - the "artery of life" for the besieged Leningrad. Vladimir Shatrov, head of the Kronstadt Maritime Museum, says that Ivan Zubkov, head of the Military Restoration Works Department of the Leningrad Front, called Sokolova herself the author of the idea of ​​a life-saving underwater gas pipeline. The construction of this highway has become the main business of life for many - both for the Epronovists and for the specialists of Nefteprovodproekt, the predecessor of the Giprotruboprovod company.

The task was difficult: it was necessary to work quickly and secretly, and there was no experience in building such highways either in domestic or in foreign practice. On April 25, 1942, the State Defense Committee signed a decree on the construction of the pipeline, setting a deadline of 50 days. David Shinberg, an experienced designer of Nefteprovodproekt, was appointed Chief Engineer.

The employees of the Sokolova detachment played a huge role in the implementation of the project: they carried out all underwater work at the bottom of the lake, hydrotesting, participated in the laying of pipes, and provided the necessary water transport for the work.

The laying of the first kilometer lash began on May 26. Ladoga was restless, a strong wind was blowing. The Epron tugboat picked up the head pontoon with a ready whip and moved to the alignment of the route. But during an attempt to establish it, the excitement on the lake intensified, the fastening broke, and the whip disappeared in the waves. From that day on, a rule was established not to work in a storm. Laying work continued from May 31 - fitting and welding of lashes of an average length of 1.4 kilometers. Submariners laid 15 such lashes at the bottom of Ladoga.

The task was completed in 43 days - June 16, 1942. The pipeline with a length of 29 kilometers (of which the underwater part is 21 km) and a diameter of just over a meter was laid at depths of up to thirty-five meters. Two pumping stations were installed on the eastern bank, and a tank farm and a loading rack on the western bank. The performance of the gas pipeline, according to various estimates, ranged from 400 to 600 tons of fuel per day. During the total period of operation - from June 1942 to March 1943 - about 50 thousand tons of gasoline entered the besieged Leningrad through Ladoga. After the blockade was lifted, the pipe was frozen. The Germans never learned about the "artery of life".

Nina Sokolova finished the war with the rank of engineer-lieutenant colonel of the Naval Forces. While working on Ladoga, she was wounded twice. Her personal account under water is 644 hours, that is, almost 27 days. The EPRON legend was awarded two Orders of the Red Star, Orders of the Patriotic War II degree and the Badge of Honor.

At 34, Nina Sokolova became an engineer-colonel, taught at the Higher Naval School. M.V. Frunze (now - the Naval Corps of Peter the Great - St. Petersburg Naval Institute). The only female diver of the last war passed away in 2001, at the age of 90. The name of Nina Vasilievna Sokolova is included in the Golden Book of St. Petersburg.