January 27 is a special date in the history of our country. 72 years ago, on January 27, 1944, the blockade of Leningrad was lifted, which lasted 900 long days and nights. The defense of the city on the Neva became a symbol of the unparalleled courage and fortitude of the Soviet people.

According to the decree of the President of Russia on the days of military glory, the Day of the Lifting of the Siege of Leningrad is celebrated on January 27. It was on this day that Soviet troops finally recaptured the city from the fascist invaders.

One of the saddest pages in the history of the USSR and the Second World War began with Hitler's plan to attack the Land of Soviets in the northwestern direction. As a result, the fighting that unfolded near the borders of the city completely blocked the most important road arteries. The city was in a dense ring of invaders, and the threat of a humanitarian catastrophe loomed. By September 8, 1941, it was necessary to state the fact that the city was in a tight ring. In conditions of complete isolation, the city lasted more than two years ...

Hitler's plan

The destruction by blockade of the civilian population of Leningrad 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: we will then have to feed during the winter. The task of destroying these cities must be carried out by aviation. Tanks should not be used for this. It will be "a national disaster that will deprive the centers not only of Bolshevism, but also of Muscovites (Russians) in general."

Hitler's plans were soon embodied in the official directives of the German command. On August 28, 1941, General Halder signed an order from the High Command of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces to Army Group North on the blockade of Leningrad:

“... on the basis of the directives of the supreme 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 strength. Do not demand 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 great casualties on our part, it is forbidden to storm the city with infantry forces. After the defeat of the enemy's air defense and fighter aircraft, his defensive and vital abilities should be broken by destroying waterworks, warehouses, power supplies and power plants. Military installations and the ability of the enemy to defend must be suppressed by fire and artillery fire. Every attempt of the population to go outside through the encirclement troops should be prevented, if necessary - with the use of weapons ... "

On September 29, 1941, these plans were recorded in a directive from the Chief of Staff of the German Naval Forces:

“The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of Petersburg from the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, the continued existence of this largest settlement is of no interest .... It is supposed 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, due to the situation 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 saving at least part of the population.
As you can see, according to the directives of the German command, the blockade was directed precisely against the civilian population of Leningrad. Neither the city nor its inhabitants were needed by the Nazis. The fury of the Nazis towards Leningrad was terrifying.
“The poisonous nest of St. Petersburg, from which the poison bubbles up 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 shell it with artillery and bomb it until the water supply, energy centers and everything that is necessary for the life of the population are destroyed.

THE FIRST BREAKTHROUGH OF THE BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD

Only by January 18, 1943, it was possible to take the first step towards breaking the blockade. Enemy troops were driven out from the southern coast of Lake Ladoga, through the corridor that had been created, besieged Leningrad received contact with the country - food and medicine began to flow into the city, and the evacuation of women, children and the elderly began

COMPLETE REMOVAL OF THE BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD

The day the blockade of Leningrad was lifted came on January 27, 1944, when it was possible to completely break the resistance of the Nazis and break the ring. The Germans went into a deaf and powerful defense, using the tactics of mining during the retreat, as well as constructing concrete protective structures.

The Soviet army threw all the power of its troops, and when attacking enemy positions, it used partisans and even long-range aircraft. It was necessary, as it should, to clear the flanks and defeat the fascist troops in the area of ​​the Luga River and the city of Kingisep. The summary of those years tells in detail about all the subsequent victories of the Soviet army in the western direction. District after district, city after city, region after region went over to the side of the Red Army.

The simultaneous offensive on all fronts gave positive results. On January 20, Veliky Novgorod was liberated. Having defeated the 18th Army, and then the 16th German Army, Soviet troops liberated Leningrad and the Leningrad Region. and on January 27, for the first time during the blockade, fireworks thundered in Leningrad, marking the Day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad!

The blockade, in the iron ring of which Leningrad was suffocating 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 mournful - because everyone who lived to see this holiday during the blockade 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 area occupied by the Nazis

This monstrous tragedy must never be erased from memory. Subsequent generations must remember and know the details of what happened so that this never happens again. It is this idea that Sergei Larenkov from St. Petersburg devoted his series of collages to. Each picture combines frames of the same place as accurately as possible, but taken at different times: during the years of the siege of Leningrad - and now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Zinaida Shishova's poem "Blockade" is little known today. Although during the blockade, her name was not lost. At the end of 1942, she read a poem in the House of Writers in Leningrad, spoke on the Leningrad radio ... Zinaida Shishova's siege poems contain a lot of real living realism.

Our house stands without a radio, without light,
Only warmed by human breath...
And in our six-room apartment
There are three tenants left - me and you
Yes, the wind blowing from the darkness...
No, however, I'm mistaken - there are four of them.
The fourth, taken out on the balcony,
Waiting for the funeral for a week.
Who has not been to the Volkov cemetery?
If there is not enough strength at all -
Hire others, ask someone else
For tobacco, for three hundred grams of bread,
But don't leave a corpse in the snow,
Don't let your enemy rejoice.
After all, this is also strength and victory
On days like these, bury your neighbor!
Frozen ground meters deep
Not amenable to crowbar and shovel.
Let the wind knock down, let it catch
The forty-degree cold of February,
Let the skin freeze to the iron,
I don't want to be silent, I can't
Through slingshots I shout to the enemy:
"Damn, you get numb there too!
You remember it well
And order your children and grandchildren
Look here, beyond our borders...
Yes, you tortured us with pestilence and fire,
Yes, you bombed and bombed our house
But are we homeless from this?
You sent a shell for a shell,
And this is twenty months in a row,
But did you teach us to be afraid?
No, we are calmer than a year ago,
Remember, this city is Leningrad,
Remember, these people are Leningraders!

Yes, Leningrad has cooled down and depopulated,
And empty floors rise
But we know how to live, we want and we will,
We defended this right to live.
There are no panties here
There should not be timid,
And this city is invincible
What are we for lentil soup
We will not sell our dignity.
There's a break - we'll take a break
There is no respite - we will fight again.
For a city devoured by fire,
For the sweet world, for everything that was in it.
For our city tested by fire,
For the right to be called a Leningrader!
Stay as you stood, our city is majestic,
Over the fresh and bright Neva,
As a symbol of courage, as the embodiment of glory,
How reason and will triumph!

Leningrad blockade- one of the most tragic and important episodes of the Great Patriotic War. The blockade began on September 8, 1941, its breakthrough was carried out on January 18, 1943, and the date of the complete lifting of the blockade was January 27, 1944. The exit of German troops to Leningrad

The capture of Leningrad was an important part of the Barbarossa plan developed by the Nazi command. Hitler believed that such a takeover would bring both military and political benefits. First, Germany would gain control over the Baltic coast, as well as the ability to destroy the Baltic Fleet and the troops defending the city. Secondly, Hitler believed that the capture of Leningrad would demoralize the Soviet command and population.

From the very beginning of the blockade, the Nazi command assumed the complete destruction of the city, not seeing any benefit for themselves in the existence of Leningrad and its inhabitants. On the part of the Soviet command, the option of surrendering the city was not considered.

Even before the blockade began, attempts were made to evacuate the urban population. Initially, children were evacuated (many of them were sent to the Leningrad region and, as the hostilities developed, they were returned back). Subsequently, people were taken out of the city along the ice road through Lake Ladoga and with the help of aircraft.

Marshal Zhukov played a decisive role in the defense of Leningrad. It was he who, as commander of the Leningrad Front, managed to stop the German offensive on the Pulkovo Heights and prevent the enemy from entering the city.

food problem

After that, the tactics of conducting battles by the German troops changed. Their main goal was the destruction of the city, and he was subjected to new attacks. In an effort to cause fires in Leningrad, the Germans subjected it to massive bombardments. Thus, they managed to destroy the large Badaev warehouses, where significant food supplies were stored. This made the prospect of famine real.

On September 8, 1941, land communication between Leningrad and the rest of the country was completely interrupted. The free sale of food was banned, and the norms for issuing products decreased. The real famine in the city began by November. The most difficult period of the Leningrad blockade was the winter of 1941-1942.

During this period, the lowest norms for the issuance of bread were introduced (250 g - workers, 125 g - employees, dependents and children under 12 years old). To the problem of hunger was added cold, turning off the heating, stopping all transport in the city. The winter was cold, and there were almost no thaws. The main means of heating were wood-burning stoves, they went to the ice-holes on the Neva for water. Gradually, death from starvation became massive. The sudden death of passers-by on the streets has become commonplace. Special funeral services picked up about a hundred corpses daily from the streets. Dystrophy became the main Leningrad disease. People fell from weakness and exhaustion. On the streets of the besieged, there was a sign: one who fell once did not get up again. Movement along the streets was extremely difficult, since the transport did not work, and all the streets were covered with snow. The death toll rose to thousands a day. The corpses lay for a long time on the streets and in apartments - there was almost no one to clean them up. The situation was aggravated by constant shelling and air raids.

In besieged Leningrad

During 1942, many attempts were made to break the blockade, but none of them were successful. The only means of communication between Leningrad and the mainland was the ice road along Lake Ladoga - the "Road of Life".

The situation in the city improved in the spring and summer of 1942 as the cold weather receded. The number of street deaths has decreased, vegetable gardens have been arranged in squares, boulevards and squares. Gradually, the norms for issuing bread increased. The first tram was launched, effective measures were taken to prevent epidemics in the city.

As the food situation in the city improved, shelling intensified, and the number of bombings increased. Information about the raids for the population throughout the blockade was carried by the Leningrad radio network. The famous Leningrad metronome was broadcast through it. Its fast rhythm meant an air alert, slow - the end. Subsequently, the metronome became a monument to the resistance of Leningraders.

Cultural life continued in the besieged, starving Leningrad. With the exception of a few of the most difficult months, schools continued to operate, theatrical life continued. Dmitri Shostakovich's symphony, dedicated to Leningrad, was first played in the city during the siege and was broadcast by the Leningrad radio. The radio itself was of great importance in supporting the spirit of the people of Leningrad.

People at that time fought not only for survival, but also for the preservation of other values. Museum collections, architectural monuments, collections of the largest libraries, the precious collection of seeds of the Institute of Plant Growing were saved by Leningraders during the blockade.

Breaking the blockade

In January 1943, the Iskra operation of the Soviet troops was crowned with success. During it, on January 18, 1943, the blockade ring was broken and a permanent connection between Leningrad and the mainland was established. The final lifting of the blockade was carried out on January 27, 1944.

The Soviet fleet played a significant role during the blockade. He participated in the suppression of enemy artillery, the defense of the "Road of Life", his personnel brigades were involved in land battles.

According to the Nuremberg Trials, 632,000 people died during the blockade, most of them starved to death. Most of the dead Leningraders were buried at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery, where a monument to the blockade was erected. Another blockade memorial is the Moscow Victory Park: during the war years there was a brick factory there, in the ovens of which the bodies of the dead were cremated.

In 1965, for the courage and heroism of its defenders, Leningrad was one of the first to be awarded the title of Hero City.

Special blockade awards were established - the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" and the badge "Inhabitant of the besieged Leningrad".

The text was prepared by Maria Shustrova

Literature:
Granin D., Adamovich A. blockade book. St. Petersburg, 1994.
Matyushina O. K. Song about life. M., 1978.
Hass G. German occupation policy in the Leningrad region (1941-1944) No. 6, 2003

January 18, 1943 troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts. The long-awaited victory came during Operation Iskra, which began on 12 January. The Red Army, advancing along the shore of Lake Ladoga, managed to break through a corridor about 10 km wide in the German defense. This made it possible to resume the supply of the city. The blockade was completely broken on January 27, 1944.

In July 1941, German troops entered the territory of the Leningrad Region. By the end of August, the Nazis occupied the city of Tosno, 50 km from Leningrad. The Red Army fought fierce battles, but the enemy continued to tighten the ring around the northern capital.

In the current situation, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, sent a telegram to Vyacheslav Molotov, a member of the GKO, who was then in Leningrad:

“We have just been informed that Tosno has been taken by the enemy. If this continues, I'm afraid that Leningrad will be surrendered idiotically stupid, and all the Leningrad divisions are at risk of being captured. What are Popov and Voroshilov doing? They do not even report on the measures they are thinking of taking against such a danger. They are busy looking for new lines of retreat, in this they see their task. Where do they get such an abyss of passivity and purely rustic submission to fate? In Leningrad there are now many tanks, aviation, eres (rockets). Why are such important technical means not operating on the Lyuban-Tosno section? ... Don't you think that someone deliberately opens the way for the Germans in this decisive section? ... What, in fact, is Voroshilov busy with and how is his assistance to Leningrad expressed? I am writing about this because I am very alarmed by the incomprehensible inaction of the Leningrad command ... ".

Molotov replied to the telegram as follows: “1. Upon arrival in Leningrad, at a meeting with Voroshilov, Zhdanov and members of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, the secretaries of the regional committee and the city committee, they sharply criticized the mistakes made by Voroshilov and Zhdanov ... regarding the artillery and aviation available here, possible assistance from the sailors, especially with naval artillery, issues of evacuation, eviction of 91 thousand Finns and 5 thousand Germans, as well as issues of food supply to Leningrad.

According to historians, there are no grounds to accuse Voroshilov of treason. In July and the first half of August 1941, being the commander-in-chief of the troops of the North-Western direction, Voroshilov carried out several successful counterattacks, regularly went to the front. The reasons why one of the first marshals of the USSR suddenly lost control of the situation are still unclear, experts say. On September 11, Voroshilov was removed from his post as commander of the North-Western Direction and the Leningrad Front. Georgy Zhukov became the new commander.

On September 2, the Germans cut the last railway connecting the city with the "mainland". The dense enemy ring around Leningrad closed on September 8, 1941. Now communication with the northern capital could be maintained only through Lake Ladoga and by air.

In the early days, the people of Leningrad were not told anything about the blockade. Moreover, the local command decided not to report the state of siege to the Headquarters either, hoping to break the blockade within two weeks.

The newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" published on September 13 a message from the head of the Sovinformburo Lozovsky: "The statement of the Germans that they managed to cut off all the railways connecting Leningrad with the Soviet Union is an exaggeration common for the German command."

Leningrad residents learned about the blockade only at the beginning of 1942, when they began to massively evacuate the population from the city along the Road of Life.

* * *

More than 2.5 million inhabitants turned out to be in besieged Leningrad, including.

Young Leningrader Yura Ryabinkin left memories of the first day of the blockade hell in his notes: “And then the most terrible thing began. Gave alarm. I didn't even pay attention. But then I hear a noise in the yard. I looked out, looked first down, then up and saw ... 12 Junkers. Bombs exploded. One after another deafening explosions, but the glass did not rattle. It can be seen that the bombs fell far, but were extremely powerful. ... They bombed the harbor, the Kirov factory and, in general, that part of the city. The night has come. In the direction of the Kirov Plant, a sea of ​​\u200b\u200bfire was visible. Little by little the fire subsides. Smoke penetrates everywhere, and even here we feel its pungent smell. It stings a little in my throat. Yes, this is the first real bombing of the city of Leningrad.”

There were not enough food supplies in the city, it was decided to introduce a system of food distribution by cards. Gradually, bread rations became smaller and smaller. From the end of November, the inhabitants of the besieged city received 250 grams of bread on a work card and half as much on an employee and a child.

“Aka handed me my 125g this morning. bread and 200 gr. candy. I have already eaten almost all of the bread, what is 125 gr., it is a small slice, and I need to stretch these sweets for 10 days ... The situation in our city continues to be very tense. We are being bombed from planes, fired upon from guns, but that's still nothing, we're already so used to it that we're just surprised at ourselves. But the fact that our food situation is deteriorating every day is terrible. We don’t have enough bread,” recalled seventeen-year-old Lena Mukhina.

In the spring of 1942, scientists from the Leningrad Botanical Institute published a brochure with drawings of forage grasses growing in parks and gardens, as well as a collection of recipes from them. So on the tables of the inhabitants of the besieged city appeared cutlets from clover and wood lice, casserole from goutweed, dandelion salad, soup and nettle cakes.

According to the data of the NKVD Directorate for the Leningrad Region dated December 25, 1941, if before the start of the war less than 3500 people died in the city every month, then in October the figure increased to 6199 people, in November - up to 9183 people, and 39,073 Leningraders died in 25 days of December . In the following months, at least 3 thousand people died per day. During the 872 days of the blockade, about 1.5 million people died.

However, despite the monstrous famine, the besieged city continued to live, work and fight the enemy.

* * *

Soviet troops unsuccessfully tried four times to break the enemy ring. The first two attempts were made in the autumn of 1941, the third - in January 1942, the fourth - in August-September 1942. And only in January 1943, when the main German forces were drawn to Stalingrad, the blockade was broken. This was done during Operation Iskra.

According to legend, during the discussion of the name of the operation, Stalin, remembering previous failed attempts and hoping that during the fifth operation the troops of the two fronts would be able to unite and jointly develop success, said: “And let the Iskra burst into flames.”

By the time the operation began, almost 303 thousand people were at the disposal of the 67th and 13th air armies of the Leningrad Front, the 2nd shock army, as well as part of the forces of the 8th army and the 14th air army of the Volkhov Front, about 4, 9 thousand guns and mortars, more than 600 tanks and 809 aircraft. Command of the Leningrad Front was entrusted to Colonel-General Leonid Govorov, Volkhovsky - to Army General Kirill Meretskov. Marshals Georgy Zhukov and Klim Voroshilov were responsible for coordinating the actions of the two fronts.

Our troops were opposed by the 18th Army under the command of Field Marshal Georg von Küchler. The Germans had about 60 thousand people, 700 guns and mortars, about 50 tanks and 200 aircraft.

“At 9:30 am, the morning frosty silence was broken by the first salvo of artillery preparation. On the western and eastern sides of the Shlisselburg-Mga corridor of the enemy, thousands of guns and mortars from both fronts simultaneously spoke. For two hours a fiery hurricane raged over enemy positions in the directions of the main and auxiliary attacks of the Soviet troops. The artillery cannonade of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts merged into a single powerful roar, and it was difficult to make out who was firing and from where. Black fountains of explosions rose up ahead, trees swayed and fell, logs of the enemy's dugouts flew upwards. For every square meter of the breakthrough area, two or three artillery and mortar shells fell, ”Georgy Zhukov wrote in his Memoirs and Reflections.

A well-planned attack paid off. Overcoming the resistance of the enemy, the shock groups of both fronts managed to connect. By January 18, the soldiers of the Leningrad Front broke through the German defenses on the 12-kilometer section of Moscow Dubrovka - Shlisselburg. Having united with the troops of the Volkhov Front, they managed to restore the land connection between Leningrad and the country along a narrow strip of the southern shore of Lake Ladoga.

“January 18 is the day of the great triumph of our two fronts, and after them the entire Red Army, the entire Soviet people. ... The 18th Volkhov division in the south and the 372nd division in the north, together with the heroic defenders of Leningrad, broke through the fascist ring. The sparkle of the Iskra turned into the final fireworks - a salute with 20 volleys from 224 guns, ”recalled Kirill Meretskov.

During the operation, 34 thousand Soviet soldiers were killed. The Germans lost 23 thousand people.

Late in the evening of January 18, the Soviet Information Bureau informed the country about the breaking of the blockade, and volleys of festive fireworks sounded in the city. Over the next two weeks, engineers built a railway and a highway along the reclaimed corridor. A little more than a year remained before the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad.

“The breaking of the blockade of Leningrad is one of the main events that marked a radical turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War. This instilled in the soldiers of the Red Army faith in the final victory over fascism. Also, one should not forget that Leningrad is the cradle of the revolution, a city that was of particular importance for the Soviet state,” said Vadim Trukhachev, Ph.D.

German troops launched a powerful offensive, and on August 30, 1941, the city was in a vice. On September 8, the Germans blocked the Moscow-Leningrad railway, took Shlisselburg and surrounded Leningrad from land. Bloody battles began on the Pulkovo Heights and the southern outskirts of the city. On September 9, G.K. arrived in Leningrad. Zhukov. Having removed Voroshilov from command, he canceled all preparations for the surrender of the city.

It was ordered to defend Leningrad to the last man. Fearing heavy losses during the assault, he ordered a long-term siege to begin, saying: “This city must be starved to death. Cut off all supply routes so that the mouse cannot slip through. Bomb mercilessly, and then the city will collapse like an overripe fruit.”

Began constant bombing and shelling. Heavy siege artillery was brought up, the Nazis began methodically destroying the city. During the blockade, the Germans dropped 100,000 bombs and 150,000 shells on Leningrad.

The civilian population found itself in a particularly tragic situation. By the time of the complete blockade, only a small part of the inhabitants (less than 500 thousand people) had been evacuated to the rear. There are 2.5 million citizens left in the city, including 400,000 children.

The first blockade winter was the most difficult. The Germans managed to bomb the food warehouses, leaving Leningrad without supplies.

Bread was delivered only by aircraft or by road laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga. Under constant bombing and shelling, drivers, despite huge losses, delivered only a small amount of necessary products along the Road of Life.

Hunger was approaching with terrible inexorability. Since November 20, the daily norm of bread for workers was only 250 g, and for employees, dependents and children - half as much. According to the blockade survivors, this ration of bread was a small raw piece, consisting of bran and a small part of flour.

Residents began to eat everything that could drown out the feeling of hunger. To top it off, the city water supply system failed, and water had to be taken from the Neva and canals.

The winter of 1941 was unusually severe. The lack of heating was a monstrous ordeal for the inhabitants.

Despite the difficult situation, the inhabitants of the city participated in its defense. People worked at enterprises, produced ammunition, repaired military equipment.

At the end of December, the grain ration became twice as large - by this time a significant part of the population had died. The famine took on unprecedented proportions. Cases of cannibalism began. Many residents, weakened, fell and died on the streets. In the spring of 1942, after the snow melted, 13,000 corpses were found in the city.

Particularly difficult was the situation of children left without parents. Exhausted, they lay in cold apartments, barely moving. Horror from the endured hardships froze in their faces. Many of them did not see hot food or even boiling water for 10-15 days.

At the same time, city leaders and everyone assigned to the Smolny canteen, as well as NKVD officers, received normal food. Airplanes delivered delicacies for senior management. During the blockade, a bakery for the nomenklatura continued to operate.

During the blockade, 642,000 people died of starvation. However, there is an opinion that in fact the losses are higher - up to 850 thousand people.

On January 24, 1944, the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts launched an offensive, as a result of which the blockade was completely lifted.

By that time, 560 thousand inhabitants remained alive in the city - 5 times less than at the beginning of the blockade.

The most bloody and heroic siege in the history of mankind continued for 872 days.

The most difficult and tragic period in the life of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During the Battle of Leningrad 1941–44, Soviet troops staunchly and heroically held back the enemy on the distant, and then on the near approaches to Leningrad. On August 20, 1941, Nazi troops occupied the city of Chudovo, cutting off the Leningrad-Moscow railway. By August 21, the enemy reached the Krasnogvardeisky fortified area in the south, on the same day, Finnish troops captured the city of Keksholm (now Priozersk) on the western shore of Lake Ladoga. On August 22, fighting began in the Oranienbaum direction. The Nazi troops failed to immediately break into Leningrad, but the front came close to the city in its southwestern part. With the breakthrough of the enemy on August 30, the last railway line was cut at the Mga station. which connected Leningrad with the country. On September 8, 1941, the enemy captured the city of Shlisselburg, land communication with Leningrad was completely stopped. A blockade of the city began, the communication of which with the country was maintained only by air and along Lake Ladoga. By the end of September, the front on the southwestern and southern approaches to Leningrad had stabilized. It passed along the lines: the Gulf of Finland, Ligovo, the southern slopes of the Pulkovo Heights, the approaches to Kolpino, the banks of the Neva from Ivanovsky to Shlisselburg. In the southwest, the front was located 6 km from the Kirov Plant, in the Dachnoye area. The front line of defense of the Soviet troops passed through the territory of the modern Krasnoselsky district, Kirovsky district, Moskovsky district. In the northwest and northeast, the front line stabilized in September 1941 on the line of the old Soviet-Finnish border.

In the besieged city (with suburbs), although the evacuation continued, 2,887,000 civilians remained, including about 400,000 children. Stocks of food and fuel were extremely limited (for 1-2 months). On September 4, the enemy, seeking to implement plans for the destruction of Leningrad, began shelling Leningrad, from September 8 - massive air raids. At the end of August, a commission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the State Defense Committee arrived in the city, which considered urgent issues of strengthening its defense, evacuating enterprises and the population, and supplying it. On August 30, the State Defense Committee transferred to the Military Council of the Leningrad Front all functions related to organizing a rebuff to the enemy.

At the end of September 1941, the State Defense Committee allowed the Military Council of the Leningrad Front to independently determine the volume and nature of the production of the main types of defense products in Leningrad. The City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks began placing orders for factories, supervised their implementation, and from October directly supervised the work of the entire industry of Leningrad. The hard heroic work of Leningraders and the well-organized work of industry made it possible to organize the production of defense products in the city. In the second half of 1941 (from the beginning of the war to December 14), Leningrad factories produced 318 aircraft, 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles, 6 armored trains and 52 armored platforms, over 3 thousand artillery pieces, about 10 thousand mortars, over 3 million shells and mines , 84 ships of various classes were completed and 186 were converted.

On the "Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga, the evacuation of the population and industrial equipment was carried out, the delivery of food, fuel, ammunition, weapons and human reinforcements for the troops in Leningrad. Violation of stable communication with the country, the cessation of the regular supply of fuel, raw materials and food had a catastrophic effect on the life of the city. In December 1941, Leningrad received electricity almost 7 times less than in July. Most of the factories stopped working, the movement of trolleybuses and trams, the supply of electricity to residential buildings stopped. In January 1942, due to severe frosts, the central heating, water supply and sewerage networks failed. Residents went for water to the Neva, Fontanka, other rivers and canals. Temporary stoves were installed in residential buildings. The dismantling of wooden buildings for fuel was organized.

Famine began in Leningrad in the autumn of 1941, from which 53,000 people died in December. In January-February 1942, about 200,000 Leningraders died of starvation. Party and Soviet bodies took measures to alleviate the living conditions of Leningraders. The most weakened people were sent to hospitals, hospitals were created for patients with dystrophy, boilers were installed in the houses, children were placed in orphanages and nurseries. Komsomol organizations created special Komsomol-youth household detachments, which provided assistance to thousands of sick, exhausted and exhausted from hunger people.

In the winter of 1941–42, about 270 factories and plants were mothballed. Of the 68 leading enterprises in the defense, shipbuilding and machine-building industries in January 1942, only 18 were operating at less than full capacity. Tanks and weapons were being repaired. In January-March, about 58 thousand shells and mines, over 82 thousand fuses, over 160 thousand hand grenades were manufactured.

Leningraders selflessly overcame the consequences of the blockade winter. At the end of March - beginning of April 1942 they did a great job of sanitary cleaning of the city. In the spring of 1942, navigation began on Lake Ladoga. Water transportation became the main means of overcoming the consequences of the blockade winter and the revival of the urban economy. In June, the Ladoga pipeline was put into operation, laid along the bottom of Lake Ladoga to supply fuel to Leningrad, then 2 months later the city received energy from the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric station via an underwater cable.

By a resolution of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front (July 5, 1942) "On necessary measures for the city of Leningrad," it outlined the ways for the development of Leningrad industry and the municipal economy. Workers from mothballed factories, from light and local industry, public utilities, employees from the administrative apparatus were sent to the military industry, and the population unemployed in social production was mobilized. Almost 75% of all workers were women. By the end of 1942, the work of industrial enterprises noticeably intensified. Since autumn, tanks, artillery pieces, mortars, machine guns, machine guns, shells, mines have been produced - about 100 types of defense products. In December, the connection to the power grid of residential buildings began. The whole country helped in the revival of the economic life of Leningrad.

In January 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken by Soviet troops, and a railroad was built along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. through Shlisselburg - "Road of Victory". Restoration of the railway ties with the country, improving the supply of fuel and electricity to Leningrad, and the population with food, made it possible to expand the work of urban industry more widely. In the spring, 15 leading factories received GKO assignments, and 12 assignments from people's commissariats. In July 1943, 212 enterprises of union and republican subordination were already operating in Leningrad, producing over 400 types of defense products. By the end of 1943, about 620 thousand people remained in Leningrad, of which 80% worked. Almost all residential and public buildings received electricity, were provided with water supply and sewerage.

As a result of the Krasnoselsko-Ropsha operation of 1944 in January-February, the blockade from Leningrad was completely lifted. In honor of the complete lifting of the blockade, a salute was fired in Leningrad on January 27, 1944.

During the blockade, the enemy caused enormous damage to Leningrad. In particular, 840 buildings of industrial enterprises were put out of action, about 5 million m2 of living space were damaged (including 2.8 million m2 completely destroyed), 500 schools, 170 medical institutions. As a result of the destruction and evacuation of enterprises in Leningrad, only 25% of the equipment that Leningrad industry had before the war remained. Enormous damage was done to the most valuable monuments of history and culture - the Hermitage, the Russian Museum, the Engineer's Castle, palace ensembles of the suburbs.

During the blockade in Leningrad, only according to official records, 641 thousand inhabitants died of starvation (according to historians, at least 800 thousand), about 17 thousand people died from bombing and shelling, and about 34 thousand were injured.

LOOK POET

We know what's on the scales now

And what is happening now.

The hour of courage has struck on our clocks,

And courage will not leave us.

It's not scary to lie dead under the bullets,

It's not bitter to be homeless,

And we will save you, Russian speech,

Great Russian word.

We will carry you free and clean,

And we will give to our grandchildren, and we will save from captivity

SECURITY DIARY

The Savichevs are dead. "All died." "There is only Tanya."

LENINGRAD SYMPHONY

On June 22, 1941, his life, like the life of all people in our country, changed dramatically. The war began, the previous plans were crossed out. Everyone began to work for the needs of the front. Shostakovich, along with everyone else, dug trenches, and was on duty during air raids. He made arrangements for concert teams sent to active units. Naturally, there were no pianos at the forefront, and he shifted the accompaniments for small ensembles, doing other necessary, as it seemed to him, work. But as always with this unique musician-publicist — as it was from childhood, when momentary impressions of the turbulent revolutionary years were conveyed in music — a major symphonic idea dedicated to what was happening immediately began to mature. He began to write the Seventh Symphony. The first part was completed in the summer. He managed to show it to his closest friend I. Sollertinsky, who on August 22 was leaving for Novosibirsk together with the Philharmonic Society, of which he had been artistic director for many years. In September, already in besieged Leningrad, the composer created the second part and showed it to his colleagues. Started work on the third part.

On October 1, by special order of the authorities, he, along with his wife and two children, was airlifted to Moscow. From there, after half a month by train, he went further east. Initially, it was planned to go to the Urals, but Shostakovich decided to stop in Kuibyshev (as Samara was called in those years). The Bolshoi Theater was based here, there were many acquaintances who for the first time accepted the composer and his family, but very quickly the city leadership allocated him a room, and in early December - a two-room apartment. A piano, loaned by a local music school, was placed in it. We could continue to work.

Unlike the first three parts, created literally in one breath, work on the final progressed slowly. It was sad, unsettling. Mother and sister remained in besieged Leningrad, which experienced the most terrible, hungry and cold days. The pain for them did not leave for a minute ...

The last part did not work for a long time. Shostakovich understood that in the symphony dedicated to the events of the war, everyone was expecting a solemn victorious apotheosis with the choir, a celebration of the coming victory. But there were no grounds for this yet, and he wrote as his heart prompted. It is no coincidence that the opinion later spread that the finale was inferior in significance to the first part, that the forces of evil turned out to be embodied much stronger than the humanistic principle opposing them.

On December 27, 1941, the Seventh Symphony was completed. Of course, Shostakovich wanted his favorite orchestra to perform it - the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mravinsky. But he was far away, in Novosibirsk, and the authorities insisted on an urgent premiere: the performance of the symphony, which the composer called Leningrad and dedicated to the feat of his native city, was given political significance. The premiere took place in Kuibyshev on March 5, 1942. The orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of Samuil Samosud played.

After the Kuibyshev premiere, the symphonies were held in Moscow and Novosibirsk (conducted by Mravinsky), but the most remarkable, truly heroic, was conducted by Karl Eliasberg in besieged Leningrad. To perform a monumental symphony with a huge orchestra, musicians were recalled from military units. Before the start of rehearsals, some had to be taken to the hospital - fed, treated, since all ordinary residents of the city became dystrophic. On the day of the performance of the symphony - August 9, 1942 - all the artillery forces of the besieged city were sent to suppress enemy firing points: nothing should have interfered with the significant premiere.

And the white-columned hall of the Philharmonic was full. Pale, emaciated Leningraders filled it to hear the music dedicated to them. Speakers carried it throughout the city.

The public around the world perceived the performance of the Seventh as an event of great importance. Soon there were requests from abroad to send the score. Competition for the first performance of the symphony flared up between the largest orchestras in the Western Hemisphere. Shostakovich's choice fell on Toscanini. A plane carrying precious microfilms flew through a world engulfed in the flames of war, and on July 19, 1942, the Seventh Symphony was performed in New York. Her victorious march around the globe began.