... Hunger is permanent, cannot be switched off ... the most painful, most dreary of all during meals, when food was approaching the end with terrifying speed, without bringing saturation.

Lydia Ginzburg

The thoughts of all the inhabitants of Leningrad were busy with how to eat and get food. Dreams, aspirations and plans were first relegated to the background, then forgotten altogether, because the brain could only think about one thing - about food. Everyone was starving. Zhdanov established a strict military ration in the city - half a kilogram of bread and a bowl of meat or fish stew a day. The destruction of the Badaev warehouses on September 8 aggravated an already critical situation. During the first six months of the blockade, the rations steadily decreased, and in the end it was no longer enough to sustain life. It was necessary to look for food or some kind of replacement for it. After several months, there were almost no dogs, cats and birds in cages left in the city.

Bread card of the blockade. December 1941

Suddenly, one of the last sources of fat, castor oil, was in demand. His supplies soon ran out.

Bread baked from flour swept off the floor along with garbage, nicknamed the “blockade loaf”, turned out black as coal and had almost the same composition. The broth was nothing more than boiled water with a pinch of salt and, if you were lucky, a cabbage leaf. Money lost all value, like any non-food items and jewelry - it was impossible to buy a crust of bread with family silver. Even birds and rodents suffered without food, until they all disappeared: either starved to death or were eaten by desperate people. The poetess Vera Inber wrote about a mouse in her apartment, desperately trying to find at least one crumb. People, while they still had strength, stood in long lines for food, sometimes for whole days in the piercing cold, and often returned home empty-handed, filled with despair - if they remained alive. The Germans, seeing long queues of Leningraders, dropped shells on the unfortunate inhabitants of the city. And yet people stood in lines: death from a shell was possible, while death from starvation was inevitable.

Notebook of Tanya Savicheva

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

RIA Novosti archive, image #907 / Boris Kudoyarov / CC-BY-SA 3.0

Everyone had to decide for themselves how to dispose of a tiny day's ration - eat it in one sitting in the hope (in vain) that the stomach at least for a while will seem like it has digested something, or stretch it out for a whole day. Relatives and friends helped each other, but the next day they were desperately quarreling among themselves about who got how much. When all alternative sources of food ran out, people in desperation turned to inedibles - livestock feed, linseed oil and leather belts. Soon, belts, which at first people ate out of desperation, were already considered a luxury. Wood glue and paste containing animal fat were scraped off furniture and walls and boiled. People ate the earth collected in the vicinity of the Badaev warehouses for the sake of the particles of melted sugar contained in it.

The city ran out of water as water pipes froze and pumping stations were bombed. Without water, the taps dried up, the sewer system stopped working. People used buckets for the administration of natural needs and poured sewage into the street. In desperation, the inhabitants of the city punched holes in the frozen Neva and scooped up water in buckets. Without water, bakeries could not bake bread. In January 1942, when water shortages became particularly acute, 8,000 men with sufficient strength left to form a human chain, passing hundreds of pails of water from hand to hand, just to get the bakeries up and running again.

Numerous stories have been preserved about the unfortunate who stood in line for many hours for a piece of bread only to have it snatched from their hands and greedily devoured by a man who was distraught with hunger. The theft of bread cards became widespread; the desperate robbed people in broad daylight or ransacked the pockets of corpses and those who had been wounded during German shelling. Obtaining a duplicate turned into such a long and painful process that many died without waiting for the new ration card to end its wanderings in the jungle of the bureaucratic system. There was a moment when only Zhdanov personally could issue a duplicate. The Germans, through their informants, monitored the extent to which the inhabitants of the city had lost the ability to support each other: for them, this was a measure of the decline in the morale of the Leningraders.

Hunger turned people into living skeletons. Ration sizes reached a minimum in November 1941. The ration of manual laborers was 700 calories per day, while the minimum norm is approximately 3000 calories. Employees were entitled to 473 calories per day, while the norm is 2000-2500 calories, and children received 423 calories per day - less than a quarter of what a newborn needs.

The limbs swelled, the bellies swelled, the skin tightened around the face, the eyes sunk, the gums bled, the teeth grew from malnutrition, the skin became covered with ulcers.

The fingers stiffened and refused to straighten. Children with shriveled faces looked like old people, and old people looked like the living dead. Hunger deprived young people of their youth. Children, left overnight orphans, wandered the streets like lifeless shadows in search of food. Terrible hunger and frost robbed people of all their strength. People weakened, fainted. Every movement hurt. Even the process of chewing food became unbearable.

It was easier to lie in bed than to get up and go in search of food. But people got up, they had no choice, because they understood that if they did not do this, they would never get up again. Exhausted and frozen, people did not change clothes and walked in the same clothes for months. There was another sinister reason why people didn't change their clothes. Lydia Ginzburg described it this way:

They lost sight of their body.

It went into the depths, walled up with clothes, and there, in the depths, it changed, was reborn. The man knew it was getting scary.

Some in the blockade ate very satisfying and even managed to get rich. Leningraders themselves wrote about them in their diaries and letters. Here are quotes from the book "Blockade ethics. Ideas about morality in Leningrad in 1941-1942."

V. Bazanova, who more than once denounced the machinations of sellers in her diary, emphasized that her housekeeper, who received 125 g of bread a day, “always weighs 40 grams, or even 80 grams” - she usually bought bread for the whole family. The sellers managed and imperceptibly, taking advantage of the low lighting of the shops and the semi-conscious state of many blockade runners, to pull out more coupons from the “cards” when handing over bread than was supposed to be. In this case, it was difficult to catch them by the hand.

They also stole in canteens for children and teenagers. In September, representatives of the Leninsky district prosecutor's office checked cans of soup in the kitchen of one of the schools. It turned out that the liquid soup can was intended for children, and with the "regular" soup - for teachers. The third can contained "soup like porridge" - its owners could not be found.

It was all the easier to cheat in canteens because the instructions that determined the order and norms for the output of prepared food were very complex and confusing. The technique of theft in kitchens was described in general terms in the previously cited memorandum of the brigade for examining the work of the Main Directorate of Leningrad canteens and cafes: “Porridge of a viscous consistency should have a weld of 350, semi-liquid - 510%. The extra addition of water, especially at high throughput, goes completely unnoticed and allows canteen workers to keep kilograms of food without weighing it down.”

A sign of the collapse of moral standards in the "time of death" were attacks on exhausted people: they were deprived of both "cards" and food. Most often this happened in bakeries and shops, when they saw that the buyer hesitated, shifting products from the counter into a bag or bags, and “cards” into pockets and mittens. Robbers attacked people and near shops. Often, hungry townspeople came out with bread in their hands, pinching off small pieces from it, and were absorbed only in this, not paying attention to possible threats. Often they took away the "appendage" to bread - it was possible to eat it faster. Children were also victims of attacks. It was easier to take food away from them.

... "Here we are dying of hunger like flies, and in Moscow yesterday Stalin again gave a dinner in honor of Eden. It's just a disgrace, they are eating there<�…>and we cannot even get a piece of our bread as a human being. They arrange all sorts of brilliant meetings there, and we are like cavemen.<�…>we live, ”E. Mukhina wrote in her diary. The rigidity of the remark is also emphasized by the fact that she knows nothing about the dinner itself and how “brilliant” it looked. Here, of course, we are not dealing with the transfer of official information, but with its peculiar processing, which provoked a comparison of the hungry and the well-fed. The feeling of injustice gradually accumulated. Such sharpness of tone could hardly have been suddenly revealed if it had not been preceded by less dramatic, but very frequent assessments of smaller cases of infringement of the rights of blockade survivors - this is especially noticeable in the diary of E. Mukhina.

The feeling of injustice due to the fact that the hardships are laid out differently on Leningraders has arisen more than once - when sent to clean the streets, because of warrants for rooms in bombed-out houses, during evacuation, due to special food standards for "responsible workers". And here again, as in conversations about dividing people into “necessary” and “unnecessary”, the same topic was touched upon - about the privileges of those in power. The doctor, called to the head of the IRLI (he constantly ate and "got sick with his stomach"), cursed: he was hungry, and he was called to the "over-eaten director." In a diary entry on October 9, 1942, I. D. Zelenskaya comments on the news about the eviction of all those living at the power plant and using heat, light and hot water. Either they were trying to save money on human misfortune, or they were following some instructions - I. D. Zelenskaya was little interested in this. First of all, she emphasizes that this is unfair. One of the victims, a worker who occupied a damp, non-residential room, “was forced to travel there with a child on two trams ... in general, two hours on the road one way.” “You can’t do this to her, this is unacceptable cruelty.” No arguments of the authorities can be taken into account also because these “mandatory measures” do not concern him: “All the families [of leaders. - S. Ya.] live here as before, inaccessible to the troubles that befall mere mortals.

Z. S. Livshits, having visited the Philharmonic, did not find “swollen and dystrophics” there. It is not limited to just this observation. Emaciated people "do not care about fat" - this is her first attack against those "music lovers" who met her at the concert. The latter made a good life for themselves on the basis of common difficulties - this is her second attack. How did you "arrange" life? On the "shrinkage-utruska", on the body kit, just on theft. She has no doubts that the majority of the audience in the hall is only “commercial, cooperative and bakery people” and is sure that they received “capitals” in such a criminal way ... AI Vinokurov does not need arguments either. On March 9, 1942, when he met women among the visitors of the Musical Comedy Theater, he immediately assumed that they were either waitresses from canteens or grocery store saleswomen. He hardly knew this for sure - but we will not be far from the truth if we consider that the same appearance of the “theater-goers” served here as the rating scale.

D.S. Likhachev, entering the office of the deputy director of the institute for economic affairs, each time noticed that he ate bread, dipping it in sunflower oil: “Obviously, there were cards left from those who flew away or left along the road of death.” The blockade survivors, who discovered that the saleswomen in the bakeries and the cooks in the canteens, all their hands were hung with bracelets and gold rings, reported in letters that "there are people who do not feel hunger."

... “Only those who work in the grain places are fed” - in this diary entry on September 7, 1942, the blockade survivor A.F. Evdokimov expressed, perhaps, the general opinion of Leningraders. In a letter to G. I. Kazanina, T. A. Konoplyova told how their friend became fat (“right now you don’t know”), having gone to work in a restaurant - and the connection between these phenomena seemed so clear that they didn’t even discuss it. Perhaps they did not know that out of 713 employees of the confectionery factory named after. N. K. Krupskaya, who worked here in early 1942, no one died of starvation, but the sight of other enterprises, next to which stacks of corpses lay, spoke volumes. In the winter of 1941/42, 4 people died per day at the State Institute of Applied Chemistry (GIPH), and up to 5 people died at the Sevkabel plant. At the factory. Molotov during the issuance of food "cards" on December 31, 1941, 8 people died in line. About a third of the employees of the Petrograd Communications Office died, 20-25% of the workers of Lenenergo, 14% of the workers of the plant named after. Frunze. At the Baltic railway junction, 70% of conductors and 60% of track staff died. In the boiler room of the plant. Kirov, where they set up a morgue, there were about 180 corpses, and at bakery No. 4, according to the director, “three people died during this difficult winter, but ... not from exhaustion, but from other diseases.”

B. Kapranov has no doubt that not everyone is starving: sellers have a "fat" of several kilograms of bread a day. He does not say how he knows this. And it is worth doubting whether he could have received such accurate information, but each of the subsequent entries is logical. Since the "fat" is such, it means that they "make a lot of money." Is it possible to argue with this? He goes on to write about the thousands that the thieves have accumulated. Well, and this is logical - stealing kilograms of bread a day, in a hungry city, one could get rich. Here is a list of those who overeat: "Military officials and the police, employees of military registration and enlistment offices and others who can take everything they need in special stores." Is he familiar with everyone, and so much so that they tell him without hesitation about their prosperity? But if the store is special, it means that they give more than in ordinary stores, and if so, then it is indisputable that its visitors "eat ... as we ate before the war." And here is the continuation of the list of those who live well: cooks, canteen managers, waiters. "Everyone in the slightest degree occupying an important post." And you don't have to prove anything. And not only he thinks so: “If we received in full, then we would not starve and would not be sick ... dystrophics,” complained in a letter to A. A. Zhdanov, workers of one of the factories. They don’t seem to have hard evidence, but, they ask, “look at the whole canteen staff ... how they look - they can be harnessed and plowed.”

L. Razumovsky left a more fictionalized and picturesque story about a suddenly rich bakery worker. The narrative is based on almost polar examples: her obscurity in peacetime and her "elevation" in the days of war. “They seek her disposition, fawn over her, seek her friendship” - it is noticeable how this feeling of disgust grows and will accept her prosperity. She moved from a dark room to a bright apartment, bought furniture and even bought a piano. The author deliberately emphasizes this interest in music that suddenly appeared in the baker. He does not consider it superfluous to scrupulously calculate how much it cost her: 2 kg of buckwheat, a loaf of bread, 100 rubles. Another story - but the same scenario: “Before the war, she was an exhausted, ever-needy woman ... Now Lena has blossomed. This is a rejuvenated, red-cheeked, smartly and cleanly dressed woman! ... Lena has many acquaintances and even caretakers ... She moved from the attic in the courtyard to the second floor with windows on the line ... Yes, Lena works at the base!

Reading the minutes of the discussion in Smolny of the film The Defense of Leningrad, it is difficult to get rid of the impression that its viewers were more concerned with the "decency" of the panorama of the blockade shown here than with the reconstruction of its true history. The main reproach: the film does not give a charge of vivacity and enthusiasm, does not call for labor achievements... “The decline is overdone in the film,” A. A. Zhdanov noted. And when you read the account of P. S. Popkov’s speech delivered here, you understand that, perhaps, this was precisely what was the main thing here. PS Popkov feels like an excellent editor. The film shows a line of dead people. This is not necessary: ​​“The impression is depressing. Part of the episodes about the coffins will have to be removed. He saw a car frozen in the snow. Why show it? "This can be attributed to our disorder." He is outraged that the work of factories and factories is not covered - he preferred to remain silent about the fact that most of them were inactive during the first blockade winter. The film features a blockade falling from exhaustion. This also needs to be ruled out: "It is not known why he is staggering, maybe drunk."

The same P. S. Popkov, at the request of the climbers who covered the high spiers with covers, to give them “letter cards”, replied: “Well, you work in the fresh air.” Here is an accurate indicator of the level of ethics. “What do you care about the district council, cash cow,” the chairman of the district executive committee shouted at one of the women who asked for furniture for the orphanage. There was enough furniture in the mothballed "hearths" - a significant part of the children were evacuated from Leningrad. This was not grounds for refusing assistance. The reason could be fatigue, and fear of responsibility, and selfishness. And it doesn’t matter what they were disguised with: seeing how they didn’t do what they could do, you can immediately determine the degree of mercy.

... “In the district committee, the workers also began to feel a difficult situation, although they were in a somewhat more privileged position ... No one died from the apparatus of the district committee, the Plenum of the district committee and the secretaries of the primary organizations. We managed to defend the people, ”recalled the first secretary of the Leninsky district committee of the CPSU (b) A. M. Grigoriev.

The story of N. A. Ribkovsky is noteworthy. Released from "responsible" work in the fall of 1941, he, along with other townspeople, experienced all the horrors of "death time". He managed to escape: in December 1941 he was appointed an instructor in the personnel department of the Leningrad City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In March 1942, he was sent to the hospital of the city committee in the village of Melnichny Ruchey. Like any blockade survivor who survived the famine, he cannot stop in his diary entries until he gives the entire list of foods that he was fed: “The food here is like in peacetime in a good rest home: varied, tasty, high quality ... Meat every day - lamb , ham, chicken, goose ... sausage, fish - bream, herring, smelt, and fried and boiled, and aspic. Caviar, salmon, cheese, pies and the same amount of black bread for the day, thirty grams of butter and all this, fifty grams of grape wine, good port wine for lunch and dinner ... I and two other comrades get an additional breakfast, between breakfast and lunch: a couple of sandwiches or a bun and a glass of sweet tea.”

Among the sparse stories about food in Smolny, where rumors are mixed with real events, there are those that can be treated with some confidence. O. Grechina in the spring of 1942, my brother brought two liter jars (“one contained cabbage, once sour, but now completely rotten, and the other - the same rotten red tomatoes”), explaining that they were cleaning the cellars of Smolny, taking out barrels of rotten vegetables. One of the cleaners was lucky enough to look at the banquet hall in Smolny itself - she was invited there "for service." They envied her, but she returned from there in tears - no one fed her, "but there was nothing on the tables."

I. Metter told how a member of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, A.A. Samoil chocolate cake"; it was eaten by fifteen people and, in particular, I. Metter himself. There was no shameful intent here, just A. A. Kuznetsov was sure that in a city littered with the corpses of those who died from exhaustion, he also had the right to make generous gifts at someone else's expense to those he liked. These people behaved as if a peaceful life was going on, and you could feel free to relax in the theater, send cakes to artists and make librarians look for books for their "relaxation minutes".

06/19/1999 at 00:00, views: 39701

Wars are different - liberation and local, cold and targeted, as in Yugoslavia. But the one that our country has experienced can only be called the Great Patriotic War. Next week we will once again celebrate a terrible date - June 22. On the eve of this day, MK reporters reveal one more of the blackest pages of the war. What is a blockade? 125 grams of heavy, sticky, like putty, smelling of kerosene (protection against the "corpse" epidemic) bread per day? The healthy aroma of vanishing life - gasoline, tobacco, horses, dogs - replaced by the smell of snow, wet stone and turpentine? “The blockade is when mothers ate their children,” says Galina Yakovleva, one of the 5,500 Muscovites who survived 900 days and nights in the besieged city. - The first time I encountered cannibalism at the very beginning of the blockade. I was friends at school with one boy, he disappeared. Thought it was under fire. I come to his house, the "aroma" of meat fills the whole room. His parents ate him... Meat pies with Senna At the beginning of 1942, a new type of crime appeared in Leningrad - murder for the purpose of obtaining food. On the street there were roving gangs of murderers. They robbed people standing in lines, snatched cards or food from them, organized raids on bread shops, broke into apartments, took away valuables. At the same time there were rumors about circles and brotherhoods of cannibals. In Galina's memory forever remained the story of an eyewitness who accidentally looked into the apartment where such gangs gathered. “A strange, warm, heavy smell came from the room,” he said. “In the twilight one could see huge pieces of meat hanging on hooks from the ceiling. And one piece was with a human hand with long fingers and blue veins ...” Once Galya quietly trudged to the bakery. Then no one moved normally, their legs did not rise. Passing by the archway of a house, she saw furious eyes and trembling hands. An incomprehensible creature in gray croaked: "Girl, come closer." Here Galya not only remembered the gossip of her neighbors about the uncles who ate children, but felt them with all her being. For cannibals, the blockade runners took people with a healthy blush on their faces. They were divided into two types: those who preferred fresh meat, and corpse eaters. The existence of the latter was guessed from pieces of thighs, buttocks, and arms cut from corpses. Once Galina's mother bought a meat pie on Sennaya Square. Then she regretted it. There could not. There were many of these pies on the market. As many as missing people. Then abductions of children became more frequent, and parents stopped letting them go out alone. - At one time, the most respectable families, as it seemed before the war, began to celebrate holidays, - Galina Ivanovna recalls with horror. - My mother and I also got on such a holiday. There were bowls of white meat on the tables. It tasted like chicken. Everyone ate in silence, for some reason no one asked where such a luxury came from. Before we left, the mistress of the house cried: "This is my Vasenka ...". And one of our neighbors cut her daughter into pieces, ground and cooked pies ... Cases of cannibalism, of course, existed. Doctors later called this phenomenon "hungry psychosis." It is possible that some women only thought they were eating their child. Those who actually ate human flesh were in the final stages of insanity. After a year of continuous bombing and starvation, 12-year-old Galya also felt on the verge of insanity. 17-year-old old women died to songs about Stalin On one of the blockade days, Gali's beloved cat disappeared. The girl sobbed, realizing that she had been eaten. A month later, she was crying about something else: "Why didn't we eat it ourselves?" After the winter of 1942, not a single cat, dog, bird, or rat was left on the streets of Leningrad... "Daddy, why didn't we eat such delicious wood glue jelly before the war?" - Galya wrote to her father at the front. At that time, Galya perfectly remembered two basic rules for survival. Firstly, do not lie down for a long time, and secondly, do not drink much. After all, many died from swelling, filling the stomach with water. Galya and her mother lived in the basement of an 8-storey building on Theater Square, on the corner of the Griboyedov Canal. One day my mother went out into the stairwell. There was an old woman on the steps. She didn't move anymore, just rolled her eyes in a strange way. She was dragged into the apartment and put a crumb of bread in her mouth. She died a few hours later. The next day, it turned out that my grandmother was 17 years old, and she rolled her eyes, because she lived on the floor above. The children of besieged Leningrad looked like shriveled old men. They used to sit on a bench, frown their brows and remember what the mixture of "potatoes, beets and pickles" is called. On the second floor, a neighbor, Aunt Natasha, sang a lullaby to her baby every day to the sound of shells: "Sashka, the bombs are flying, Sasha, the bombs are flying." But Galya was most afraid of another song. Songs about Stalin. For three years, at exactly 10 pm on the radio, a report of the Information Bureau began, after which the song sounded: "The people compose a wonderful song about Stalin, our dear and beloved ...". To this tune, the Germans began to bomb Leningrad. Funeral foremen ... They began to appear in December - children's narrow sleds with runners, brightly painted red or yellow. Usually they were given at Christmas. Children's sled... They suddenly appeared everywhere. They were moving towards the icy Neva, towards the hospital, towards the Piskarevsky cemetery. The monotonous creak of the runners made its way through the whistling bullets. This creak was deafening. And on the sled - the sick, the dying, the dead ... The worst thing was in the laundry, where the corpses were piled, and in the hospital, where they could only walk. In winter, corpses were everywhere. When for the first time Galya saw a truck full of corpses, she screamed: "Mom, what is this? Like people?! They are moving!" No, they didn't move. It was from strong gusts of wind that dangling arms and legs swayed. Gradually, the eye got used to the icy dead. Every day, special funeral brigades combed the entrances, attics, basements of houses, nooks and crannies of courtyards and took the corpses to the nearest cemeteries. In the first two years of the blockade, almost all 14-15-year-olds died. Galya knew all the details of the burial from her father's friend, Stefan. He was German by nationality, but he lived all his life in Leningrad. During the blockade, he was accepted into the funeral brigade. Somehow, the girl followed him to work ... In the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe Piskarevsky cemetery they dug a huge deep ditch, piled corpses there, rolled it on top with a skating rink, folded it again and rolled it again, and so on several layers. Then they covered it with earth. Often, sappers prepared long ditches, piled corpses there and blew them up with dynamite. In the winter of 1942, 662 mass graves were dug at the Volkovo Cemetery, at Bolshaya Okhta, at Serafimovsky, Bogoslovsky, Piskarevsky, "Victims of January 9" and Tatarsky, their total length was 20 kilometers. At the very beginning of the blockade, there were still some semblance of coffins, then they began to wrap the corpses in sheets, rugs, curtains, tied a rope around their necks and dragged them to the cemetery. Once, near her entrance, Galya stumbled over a small corpse, packed in wrapping paper and tied with an ordinary rope. Later, people no longer had the strength to even carry the corpse out of the apartment. - Last year I was at the Piskarevsky cemetery, - says the blockade. - And one woman put a candle right on the road. After all, the real burials are located in the place where the asphalt is now. It was after the war that everyone was outplayed, they allegedly made graves ... While thousands of people swelled from hunger, another thousand profited from this. There are still rumors about the artificiality of the blockade hunger. Dairy workers received gold, silver, and diamonds for a glass of milk. And there was always milk. More enterprising people organized the sale of the so-called "Badaev's land" dug in the cellars of the burnt-out Badaev's warehouses. It was mud, where tons of melted sugar poured out. The first meter of land was sold for 100 rubles per glass, the land taken deeper - for 50 rubles. And on the black market, you could buy a kilogram of black bread for 600 rubles. For the first blockade New Year, Galya received 25 grams of salmon on children's cards. - Then I tried this fish for the first and last time. More, unfortunately, the case was not - she sighs. And recently, Galina turned to the mercy of the new Russians by publishing a free ad in one of the capital's newspapers: "45 years of work experience, a labor and war veteran would like to eat for real once and go to the opera house."

H November came. The dry, clear days of October gave way to overcast, cold days with heavy snowfall. The ground was covered with a thick layer of snow, snowdrifts formed on the streets and avenues. A frosty wind drove snow dust into the cracks of dugouts, dugouts, into the broken windows of apartments, hospitals, and shops. Winter set in early, snowy and frosty. The movement of urban transport decreased every day, the fuel was coming to an end, the life of enterprises froze. Workers and employees who lived in remote areas of the city went to work on foot for several kilometers, making their way through deep snow from one end of the city to the other. At the end of the working day, tired, they barely made it home. Here, for a short time, they could throw off their clothes and lie down, stretching out their tired, heavy legs. Despite the cold, sleep came instantly, but was constantly interrupted due to cramps in the legs or overworked hands. In the morning, people got up with difficulty: the night did not strengthen their strength, did not expel fatigue from the body. When you get tired from an excessive but short-term effort, the fatigue disappears overnight, but there was fatigue from the daily depletion of physical energy. And now the working day comes again, the muscles of the arms, legs, neck, heart take on the load. The brain is working hard. Expenditures of forces increased, and nutrition deteriorated. The lack of food, the onset of cold and constant nervous tension exhausted the workers. Jokes, laughter disappeared, faces became preoccupied, stern. People weakened, moved slowly, often rested. The red-cheeked man could only be encountered as a curiosity, and he was looked at with surprise and ambiguity. If a few days ago the whistle and explosions of shells excited the nervous system and made us alert, then at the time described, few people paid attention to the explosions of shells. The thunderous sounds of gunfire sounded like a distant, aimless hoarse bark. People are deeply immersed in their unhappy thoughts.

53 days have passed since the beginning of the blockade. The most severe savings in spending and a small delivery of bread across the lake made it possible to save small remnants of food for November 1: flour for 15 days, cereals for 16, sugar for 30, fat for 22 days and very little meat. The supply of meat products was carried out mainly due to the fact that it was possible to deliver by plane. Everyone understood that there was little food left, as the distribution rates were reduced, but only seven people in the whole city knew the true situation. The receipt of products by waterway, by air and later by ice road was taken into account and summarized by two specially assigned workers. A strictly limited circle of people had information about the receipt and availability of food, and this made it possible to keep the secret of the besieged fortress.

The eve of the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution has come. How much joyful fuss usually happened that evening! Streets, houses are flooded with light, shop windows caress the eye with their decoration and abundance of goods. Apples, red tomatoes, fat turkeys, prunes and many other equally tasty dishes attracted buyers. Everywhere there was a lively trade. Each family was preparing to spend holidays with friends. Noisy joy was shown by the children, excited by the general revival, forthcoming gifts, theatrical performances. In the same memorable year of 1941, the people of Leningrad were deprived of their joys: cold, darkness, and a feeling of hunger did not leave them for a minute. Empty shelves in stores made people sad, turning into a nagging pain in the chest. The holiday was celebrated by giving children 200 grams of sour cream and 100 grams of potato flour, and adults - five pieces of salted tomatoes. Nothing else was found.

On the night of November 7, the enemy decided to present a “gift” to the revolutionary city: heavy bombers, breaking through at high altitude, randomly dropped tons of bombs, some of them fell on houses with a heartbreaking howl, turning them into piles of ruins. A lot of bombs exploded at the bottom of the Neva, shaking the majestic buildings located on the embankment, and even more bombs went deep into the ground without exploding.

At that time, the technique for disarming unexploded bombs was imperfect. They dug them out with shovels, then workers descended into the pits to these shrews, ready to explode at any moment, and began to saw off the fuses in order to defuse the bombs. 20-30 minutes passed, and the threat of explosions was eliminated. But what minutes! How much strength and nervous tension they demanded from these stern fighters who performed a terrible but noble task. There were also cases when bombs exploded and smashed their tamers to shreds. However, the strength of the spirit, the holy faith in the triumph of life did not leave the patriots. They fearlessly continued the feat of their dead comrades. In the detachments of these humble heroes there were many Komsomol girls, some of them defusing bombs 20-30 times. Each time, watching their fights with thousand-kilogram bombs, it was thought that there would not be enough time, and even the strength of these young patriots, to open the iron case and defuse the bomb. But the strength was enough. Pupils of the Leninist Komsomol during the years of severe trials showed what they are capable of in the name of the Motherland.

Events more severe in their consequences took place on the second day of the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution. On November 8, enemy motorized units captured the city of Tikhvin, located 80 kilometers east of Volkhov. The corps commander Schmidt, using the mobility of the troops entrusted to him, defiantly penetrated our defenses to a great depth in a detour, exposing his flanks and putting at risk the communications that connected the troops of the 39th corps, which had come off far from the main forces. It can be assumed that the capture of Tikhvin on November 8 was dictated more by political considerations than by the military readiness of the Germans to carry out this operation and consolidate its results.

As is known, in September the fascist German army could not capture Leningrad by force of arms. Then Hitler proclaimed a new plan - to take the city by famine; he looked upon famine as his best ally in the destruction of the population. His propaganda apparatus seized upon this anchor of saving the prestige of the army with great noise, importunately hammering this idea into the heads of the German people and all the faithful outside of Germany.

Days and weeks passed, and the city did not give up. And then Hitler's headquarters resolutely demanded that the commander of the Nord group move east and cut the last path connecting the besieged with the country. Schmidt managed to push back the defenders and capture the important railway station Tikhvin. Immediately, the German newspapers, radio, official reports began to diligently fan this victory. "Now Leningrad will be forced to surrender without shedding the blood of German soldiers," the German press reported. Agitated public opinion in all countries awaited major events - the fall from day to day of the stronghold of the Bolsheviks.

Another corpse is sent to the cemetery. About the first blockade winter, when
many died of starvation, one eyewitness wrote: “During the worst period of the blockade
Leningrad was in the power of cannibals. God only knows what
horrors were happening outside the walls of the apartments.

Be that as it may, the Nazis acted for political reasons or for military calculation, but they managed to strike at a very sensitive place. The loss of Tikhvin brought a lot of trouble to the defenders, and above all in providing the troops and the population with food, fuel, and ammunition. The message about the capture by the enemy of this small town, lost in the forests of the Leningrad region, has not yet been published, and the rumor, as if driven by the wind, was transmitted from one to another, causing unrest, concern, and unclear ideas among the besieged about how the necessary for life and struggle, loads, how long will the remaining reserves last. And there were deep reasons for this concern. There was very little bread left, and after the loss of Tikhvin, trains with provisions from the depths of Russia began to arrive at the small Zaborye station, 160 kilometers away from Volkhov, which can only be reached by country and forest trails on horseback. In order to transport goods by motor vehicles from the Zaborye station, it was necessary to build a road over 200 kilometers long, bypassing Tikhvin through the forest thicket, and the whole way to Osinovets was more than 320 kilometers. A lot of effort and time was required to build such a long road, in addition, there were great fears that the new "route" in terms of its capacity would not be able to provide the population and troops with food even according to the most hungry standards. And yet, despite sober calculations that the construction of such a road would do little to alleviate the situation of the besieged, despite the forthcoming torment with the transportation of goods along it, the defenders needed the road just like oxygen to a person. Shortly after the loss of Tikhvin, the Military Council decided to build a road along the route: Osinovets - Lednevo - Novaya Ladoga - Karpino - Yamskoye - Novinka - Eremina Gora - Shugozero - Nikulskoye - Lakhta - Veliky Dvor - Serebryanskaya - Fence with a round-trip freight turnover of 2 thousand tons per day, with the opening of a front-line transshipment base in Zaborye. The construction was entrusted to the rear military units and collective farmers of the adjacent villages.

The construction of the road inspired, although weak, but still hope for the supply of food and other essential goods after the construction of the road was completed. The term for the construction of the road was determined at 15 days, while the stocks of food in Leningrad and Novaya Ladoga on November 9 were:

Flour for 24 days, from	them in	New	Ladoga	on the	17 days
Cereals for 18 days	"	"	"	"	10 days
Fat for 17 days	"	"	"	"	3 days
Meat products for 9 days		"	"	"	9 days
Sahara for 22 days

In addition to these supplies, a small amount of meat, fats and other most nutritious foods were delivered by aircraft.

Despite the extremely small remnants, it would be possible to live until the scheduled opening date of the road under construction, without reducing the allowances for the population and troops. But, unfortunately, two-thirds of the flour reserves and more than half of the cereals were located behind the lake, which at that time began to be covered in small places with thin ice. Only ships of the military flotilla made their way across the lake with difficulty, they transported ammunition, which they were in dire need of, and some food. The weather forecast predicted a drop in temperature in five or six days, but it was impossible to determine the day the movement on the ice began. The situation demanded to reduce food consumption immediately. The Military Council, having discussed the situation, decided to reduce the rations for the distribution of bread and meat to all personnel of the troops and sailors of the Baltic Fleet, and not to reduce rations for the civilian population.

In making this decision, the Military Council proceeded from the following:

a) the inhabitants of the city already received a meager norm, and a further decrease in it would have a detrimental effect on their health;

b) the soldiers and sailors of the first line received 800 grams of bread each, and the soldiers of the rear units received 600 grams each and good welding, therefore, reducing the ration will not affect their physical condition so much;

c) the resulting savings from the reduction in rations for the military will allow them to extend the remnants of bread and live until the winter road across the lake is established.

So they thought, expected and hoped.

Fish was completely excluded from the allowances, it was not available, and it was not possible to replace it with other products. Canned fish and crab were counted instead of meat in equal weight. Potatoes and vegetables were replaced with cereals at the rate of 10 grams of cereals per 100 grams of vegetables.

The military councils of the armies, the commanders and commissars of formations, units and institutions were charged with the duty to establish the strictest control over the expenditure of products, not even allowing individual facts of increasing the allowances in the rear and second echelons by overeating the fighters of the first line. Violators were ordered to be brought to justice.

Five days passed, the air temperature dropped to 6-7 degrees, but the waters of Ladoga did not succumb to these frosts, the winter road on the lake was not established, and no one could help the passionate desire of Leningraders to forge the lake with reliable ice. All the hopes and calculations of the Military Council collapsed. The bread was running out. Time began to work against the besieged. No matter how hard and painful it was, we had to reduce the distribution of bread to the population as well. From November 13, workers were given 300 grams of bread per day, employees, dependents and children under 12 years old - 150 grams each, personnel of paramilitary guards, fire brigades, extermination squads, vocational schools and schools of the FZO, who were on boiler allowance - 300 grams.

This measure made it possible to increase the daily consumption of flour to 622 tons. However, even at this low level of consumption, only a few days lasted. The lake was stormy, strong winds drove waves ashore, fragile ice broke. It was clear that in such weather, food from Novaya Ladoga would not arrive soon, and stocks were running out.

In order to prevent a complete cessation of the distribution of bread and prevent paralysis of the city, seven days after the last reduction, the Military Council reduces the norms for the third time in November. From November 20, workers began to receive 250 grams of bread per day, employees, dependents and children - 125, first-line troops - 500, rear units - 300 grams. Now the daily consumption of flour (together with impurities) was 510 tons, that is, it was the lowest for the entire time of the blockade. For a population of 2.5 million people, only 30 wagons of flour were consumed, but even for them they had to fight fiercely with the enemy and the elements.

Bread was almost the only food during this time. The cut in rations by more than one-third in a short time had a detrimental effect on people's health. Workers, employees and especially dependents began to experience acute hunger. Men and women faded in front of each other, moved slowly, spoke quietly, their internal organs were destroyed. Life left the exhausted body. In these days, death stretched out in all its ugly growth and alerted, ready to mow down the masses of people approaching its path, regardless of gender or age.

Even now, when sixteen years have passed since then, it is difficult to understand how people could endure such a long acute famine. But the truth remains undeniable - Leningraders found the strength to resist and save the city.

For 107 days of blockade (on December 25), the daily consumption of flour was reduced by more than four times, with an almost unchanged number of inhabitants.

Flour consumption per day for periods was as follows (in tons) [The figures for flour consumption for the indicated periods are given from the decisions of the Military Council of the Lenfront No. 267, 320, 350, 387, 396, 409 for 1941.]:

FROM	the beginning of the blockade			on	11	September	2100
"	11	September		"	16	"	1300
"	16	"		"	1	October	1100
"	1	October		"	26	"	1000
"	26	"		"	1	november	880
"	1	november		"	13	"	735
"	13	"		"	20	"	622
"	20	"		"	25	December	510

Figures, like pictures, are perceived differently. Sometimes a cursory glance is enough to understand them, but more often it takes time to fully and deeply comprehend them. In this case, the given figures show the extreme unevenness of bread consumption over the periods and the possibility of avoiding a reduction in the bread ration from November 20th.

In view of the extremely limited stocks of flour in November, it turned out to be impossible to maintain the consumption level of 622 tons per day, and on November 20, the norms of bread for both the civilian population and the troops had to be reduced, bringing the ration to 125 grams for the predominant number of citizens. After that, the consumption of flour, as already mentioned, amounted to 510 tons, or 112 tons less per day. For 34 days (from November 20 to December 25), the demand was reduced by 3808 tons. In September, however, as can be seen from the above data, it was possible to save the same amount of flour in five days by taking measures for a more economical use of products not from September 11th, but from September 5th. But such a measure was not implemented at the beginning of September for the reasons stated above. Of course, one must also take into account the fact that at the time when the enemy was pounding on the door, it was difficult to calculate and foresee what a five-day saving of food in September could bring to the population of the city in November.

The norms for the sale of meat and cereals, which were reduced in September, and in November for sugar and confectionery, did not change until 1942, while the daily consumption of these products was decreasing all the time, as can be seen from the following data:

Daily consumption limit in (tonnes) [Without Lenfront and KBF.]

This reduction was achieved by limiting the supply of products to the public catering network in excess of the norms due on cards. For example, if in September, out of 146 tons of total meat consumption, 50 tons were allocated to canteens, that is, workers received food in addition to rations, then in December only 10 tons were released for these purposes for canteens of the most important defense enterprises. The situation was the same for other products. In essence, with a few exceptions, a 100% offset was introduced for all products received in canteens in the form of a first or second course; thus, the population was deprived of an additional source of food. The food of people in canteens or at home in December consisted exclusively of what was given out on cards. In fact, the inhabitants of the city received only bread every day, the rest of the products were sold once a decade, and then not always and not completely. But if we assume that workers or employees received food completely within the established norms and evenly distributed them for 30 days, then in this case the daily diet was:

For workers and engineering workers

Employees

Dependents

In children (up to 12 years old)

Of course, the given data, especially in calories, are very conditional. In December, as mentioned above, meat was rarely released, most often it was replaced by other products: egg powder, canned food, jelly from lamb intestines, vegetable-blood brawns. There were also days when the population did not receive any meat or fat at all. Groats were given out most of all pearl barley, oatmeal, peas. Pasta was often replaced with rye flour. But even from the given conditional calculation, which should be considered rather overestimated, it is clear that the adult's need for 3000-3500 calories per day was "forgotten". More than 50% of the food in this starvation diet was bread; the consumption of proteins, fats, vitamins and mineral salts was catastrophically negligible.

In order to replenish empty stomachs, drown out the incomparable suffering from hunger, the inhabitants resorted to various methods of finding food: they caught rooks, fiercely hunted for a surviving cat or dog, they chose everything that could be used for food from home first-aid kits: castor oil, petroleum jelly, glycerol; soup, jelly was cooked from carpenter's glue. But not all the people of the huge city could have additional sources of food for at least a few days, since they did not find them.

It was hard for teenagers who crossed the threshold of eleven years. At the twelfth year of life, the children's card was replaced by a dependent one. The child grew older, took an active part in disarming incendiary bombs, took on his fragile shoulders some of the hard work and household chores, helping his parents, and the ration decreased. Depriving themselves of a piece of bread, the parents supported their weak strengths, but inflicted severe wounds on their bodies.

In unheated apartments, the cold has firmly settled, mercilessly freezing exhausted people. Dystrophy and cold drove 11,085 people to the grave in November. Elderly men were the first to fall under the blows of the scythe of death. Their body could not withstand acute hunger at the very beginning, unlike women of the same age or young men.

To increase the viability of weakened people, the health authorities organized a wide network of stationary points where combined methods of treatment were used: they administered cardiovascular drugs, made an intravenous infusion of glucose, and gave some hot wine. These measures saved the lives of many people, but the “forgotten” minimum of human nutrition made itself felt, more and more adults and children died every day. People's legs and arms were weakening, the body was numb, numbness gradually approached the heart, seized it in a vise, and the end came.

These warmly dressed, apparently not at all hungry women drink tea in their
factory canteen. This is a typical photograph taken
in order to show the Soviet people that, despite the blockade,
life in Leningrad goes on as usual. In the background, even
consider fake cakes!

Death overtook people in various positions: on the street - moving, a person fell and did not rise again; in the apartment - went to bed and fell asleep forever; often the life of the machine was interrupted. Burial was difficult. The transport didn't work. The dead were usually taken away without a coffin, on a sled. Two or three relatives or friends pulled the sled along the endlessly long streets; often, having exhausted themselves, they left the deceased halfway, giving the authorities the right to do with the body as they please.

Public utilities and health workers, daily going around the streets and alleys, picked up corpses, filling them with truck bodies.

Cemeteries and entrances to them were littered with frozen bodies covered with snow. There was not enough strength to dig deep frozen ground. MPVO teams blew up the ground and lowered dozens, and sometimes hundreds of corpses into spacious graves, not knowing the names of the buried.

May the dead forgive the living - in those desperate conditions they could not fulfill their duty to the end, although the dead were worthy of a better rite for their honest working life.

In December, 52,881 people died of dystrophy, and even more in January and February. Diverging death pulled out from the ranks of the besieged comrades in the struggle, friends and relatives at every step. Acute pain pierced people from the loss of loved ones. But the high mortality did not give rise to despair among the people. Leningraders were dying, but how? They gave their lives as heroes, crushing the enemy to the last breath. Their death called the living to a persistent, indomitable struggle. And the struggle continued with unprecedented persistence.

It is of scientific interest that there were no epidemics in Leningrad, moreover, acute and infectious diseases in December 1941 decreased compared to the same month in 1940, as can be seen from the following data:

Number of cases
[From the report of the Leningrad Health Department on January 5, 1942.]

How can one explain that with acute hunger, lack of hot water, cold, and an extremely weakened body, there were no epidemics? The example of Leningrad shows that famine does not necessarily go hand in hand with its inseparable companions—infectious diseases and epidemics. A well-organized sanitary regime breaks this unity. Not only in winter, but also in the spring of 1942, when there were the most favorable conditions for outbreaks of infections, there were none in Leningrad. The authorities raised the people to clean the streets, courtyards, stairwells, attics, basements, sewer wells, in a word, all the centers that could give rise to infections. In March-April, 300,000 people worked daily to clean up the city. Checking apartments and obligatory cleanliness prevented contagious diseases. The inhabitants were starving, but until the last day they performed their social duties, which were necessary in the hostel of citizens.

Hunger left a heavy imprint on people: it withered the body, fettered movement, lulled the body. The microbe-causative agent, penetrating inside such a person, did not find conditions for its development and died. Thin as parchment, skin and bones did not seem to create the necessary environment for the development of infectious microbes. Maybe this is not so, but some other force acted, because there are still so many secrets in nature, but one way or another, and there were no epidemics, infectious diseases at the highest stage of development of alimentary dystrophy decreased, and no one can deny this will be able. In the spring of 1942, there was an outbreak of scurvy as a result of prolonged malnutrition, but scurvy was soon expelled from Leningrad, and there were almost no deaths from this disease.

The high mortality in December and in the first months of 1942 was the result of the blockade of the city and the prolonged and acute lack of food caused by it.

Before the eyes of the whole world, the Nazis sought to destroy spiritually and physically the population of one of the most important political and economic centers of the country. “On our side, in this war, which is being waged not for life, but for death, there is no interest in preserving at least part of the population of this large city,” the directive of the chief of staff of the leadership of the German naval warfare to naval officers who were with the army group “Nord » [Directive of the Chief of Staff of the leadership of the German naval war. Berlin, September 29, 1941, No. 1 - 1a 1601/41 - "The future of the city of St. Petersburg." Translation from German.]. And only because of the indomitable will to victory of the Leningraders and their burning hatred for the invaders, the spirit of the people remained adamant.

The Soviet government, through its vigorous actions to deliver food, military equipment and other goods necessary for defense, as well as military measures to divert enemy forces from Leningrad, thwarted the dastardly plans of the Nazis.

In 1947, German doctors reported to the world about the death of the German population from starvation in the western zone of Germany, receiving a diet equal to 800 calories per person per day. They accused the victorious countries of deliberately destroying the German people by starvation. In their memorandum, they wrote: “We, German doctors, consider it our duty to declare to the whole world that everything that happens here is in direct contrast to the “education in the spirit of democracy” promised to us; on the contrary, it is the destruction of the biological basis of democracy. Before our eyes, the spiritual and physical destruction of a great nation is taking place, and no one can escape responsibility for this, unless he does everything in his power to save and help. [Josue de Castro. Geography of the famine, p. 328.]. In fact, as Josué de Castro correctly writes, the Allies were far from the idea of ​​starving the population of Germany: “The low food rations established in Germany in the post-war period were a natural consequence of the devastating war and the collapse of the world economy caused by it” [Josue de Castro. Geography of the Famine, p. 329.]. In other words, through the fault of the Germans themselves, famine engulfed a number of countries, including Germany.

When famine touched Germany and the German population felt deprivation (although there was nothing similar in comparison with the torment endured by the population of Leningrad), German doctors found strong words and means to appeal to the conscience of the peoples of the world "about the death of a great nation." These same doctors did not find a single word of protest against the open actions of their compatriots, the official authorities of Nazi Germany, to destroy the civilian population of Leningrad, the largest industrial center of the USSR, by starvation.

With constant aching pain in the stomach, when hunger pushes people to acts incompatible with the law, strict order was maintained in the city not only by the authorities, but, what is most remarkable, by the citizens themselves.

The driver of the truck, going around the snowdrifts, was in a hurry to deliver freshly baked bread to the opening of shops. At the corner of Rastannaya and Ligovka, a shell exploded near the truck. The front part of the body seemed to be cut off obliquely, loaves of bread scattered along the pavement, the driver was killed by a shrapnel, darkness was around, as if in a whirlpool. The conditions for theft are favorable, there is no one and no one to ask. Passers-by, noticing that the bread was not guarded by anyone, raised the alarm, surrounded the scene with a ring and did not leave until another car arrived with the forwarder of the bakery. The loaves were collected and delivered to the stores. Hungry people guarding a wrecked "car with a valuable cargo, experienced an irresistible need for food, the smell of warm bread kindled their natural desire, the temptation was truly great, but still the consciousness of duty overcame the temptation.

On one of the quiet streets of the Volodarsky district, in the evening, a heavily built man entered the bakery. Carefully, scowling at the buyers and two female sellers who were in the store, he suddenly jumped behind the counter and began throwing bread from the shelves into the store, shouting: “Take it, they want to starve us to death, do not succumb to persuasion, demand bread!” Noticing that no one took the loaves and that his words were not supported, the unknown person, having hit the saleswoman, rushed to the door, but he did not manage to leave. The buyers, as one, rushed to the provocateur, detained him and handed him over to the authorities.

Hundreds of other very diverse examples can be cited to confirm the exemplary behavior and high consciousness of the citizens of such a large city. There was no firewood, people suffered untold hardships, but the trees of parks and gardens were zealously preserved.

The example of besieged and starving Leningrad overturns the arguments of those foreign authors who argue that under the influence of an irresistible feeling of hunger, people lose their moral foundations and a person appears as a predatory animal. If this were true, then in Leningrad, where 2.5 million people were starving for a long time, complete arbitrariness would reign, and not impeccable order.

The behavior of Leningraders during the blockade in conditions of incredible hardships and acute hunger was at a high moral level. People behaved stoically, proudly, preserving the integrity of the human personality until the last minute of their lives. Soviet people have a feeling that is stronger than death, it is love for the socialist system they have created. This feeling guided the Soviet people in their struggle against foreign invaders, in their struggle against hunger and other hardships.

Life in the besieged city went on as usual.

Warriors at the forefront exhausted the enemy with active actions, while incurring losses themselves. Hospitals were overflowing with the wounded, and the conditions for their recovery had deteriorated significantly compared to the initial period of the blockade. The chambers became semi-dark, plywood or cardboard replaced glass, broken by an air wave. The water supply did not work, the supply of electricity was intermittent due to lack of fuel. Shelling and cold created incredible difficulties. But even under these conditions, medical workers achieved brilliant results with good care, timely help, and surgical intervention; they often saved the lives of people who were on the verge of death. Most of the wounded returned to duty. The shelled, who had been in battles, the soldiers were expensive at the front. Wishing to restore the strength of the wounded and sick as soon as possible, the Military Council decided to issue in addition to the basic ration per person per day: egg powder - 20 grams, cocoa powder - 5 grams, dried mushrooms - 2 grams. Everything that the defenders had at their disposal was given to the wounded in the first place.

An obstacle to recovery, and at times to the preservation of the life of the wounded, was the lack of blood for transfusion. There were many who wanted to donate blood, but with the transition to a starvation diet, donors lost strength and could not give blood without serious damage to their health. “It is imperative to support donors with food and have blood for wounded soldiers,” said A. A. Zhdanov. For this purpose, since December 9, special norms have been established for people who donate blood. To the usual ration was added: 200 grams of bread, 30 grams of fat, 40 grams of meat, 25 grams of sugar, 30 grams of confectionery, 30 grams of cereals, 25 grams of canned fish, half an egg per day. Such a ration allowed donors to give blood twice a quarter without compromising their health.

Scientists who refused to evacuate at one time endured hardships in the dark time of the blockade, like all citizens. Many of them, especially the elderly, could not stand the hunger. Upon learning of this, A. A. Zhdanov immediately demanded a list of scientists, reviewed it and sent it to the city trade department with instructions to allocate food to scientists in addition to rations in such a way that they could maintain their health. Few products were needed for this purpose, but the life of scientists was saved.

For those working in peat extraction and logging, a norm of 375 grams of bread per day was set - 125 grams more than for a worker's card. Giving their last strength, the lumberjacks (and these were mostly Komsomol members) supported the life of defense enterprises, bakeries, canteens, made it possible to gradually heat hospitals and hospitals. Working waist-deep in snow, in the cold, they needed another ration, incomparably larger and better, but, alas, there was no such possibility.

The lack of fuel froze not only the water supply, but also people. To warm the water, firewood is needed, but there was none. They burned furniture, books, fences, wooden houses, especially they dismantled and burned a lot of houses to heat apartments and hostels on Okhta, but all this burned out quickly, like fireworks. When houses are provided with fuel and life goes on in the usual steady rhythm, it seems that a little, mere trifles, two or three logs are needed to boil water and cook dinner. The city dweller does not think about how much fuel is needed for a city like Leningrad. And for its capacious belly, more than 120 trains of firewood are needed daily in order to support the more or less normal activity of the urban economy. Only three or four routes of firewood per day were thrown into its voracious mouth, they could not give more fuel either in terms of forest and peat reserves, or in terms of the throughput of the railroads cut off by the blockade. No fences, wooden houses, sheds and furniture could replace even to a small extent the missing firewood and save people from the cold. The houses were left without light, without water, without heating, they, like statues, observed the human drama, the suffering of people and their thirst for life. If the inhabitants of the city hardly, but delivered water to their homes, with an effort overcoming the icy steps of steep stairs, then boiling water was an insoluble problem for them. The lack of hot water caused a lot of grief. In December, the city executive committee opened public points for the release of boiling water at canteens, large residential buildings and on the streets, which brought great relief and joy to the population.

As time went. From small to large, everyone overcame hunger. They worked and lived with strong hope for the triumph of a just cause. They did not grumble at fate, but modestly to themselves, everyone was proud that in difficult times, together with everyone, they were fighting for their beloved city, for the honor of the Motherland. Despite all the hardships, no matter how long the path of struggle may still be, the holy feeling of a just cause raised the blacksmith, engineer, lumberjack, scientist to heroic deeds, the same feeling led the artists when they sang, played, entertained other hungry and tired people, although their own legs gave way and wheezing was heard in their chests. Only true patriots and strong-willed people could endure such hardships.

Almost all theater groups were promptly evacuated to the interior of the country, but the operetta troupe remained. The people loved this theatre. Listening to funny jokes, witticisms, music, people forgot for several hours from the burden of thoughts that never left them.

A fantastic picture rises before your eyes. December. It's 25 degrees outside. It is a little warmer in the unheated room of the theater, and yet the hall is full of people, all in outerwear, many elderly people in felt boots. At three o'clock in the afternoon, the operetta "Rose Marie" began. The artists played in light suits; the faces are sharp, pale, but smiling, and the ballerinas are so thin that it seemed that when moving they would inevitably break. During intermissions, many performers fainted, but the human will defeated the exhausted flesh; they got up, fell down, got up again and continued to play, although their eyes were dimmed. Rarely has a performance gone unhindered; in the midst of the action, the shrill sounds of sirens burst in, warning of danger. In these cases, breaks were announced, the audience was taken out of the theater to the bomb shelter, and the artists in makeup and costumes, armed with tongs for dropping incendiary bombs, climbed onto the icy roofs and stood on duty on the towers. After the lights out, the audience filled the hall, and the artists, descending from the roofs, continued the interrupted game. At the end of the performance, the audience stood up and, as a sign of gratitude, silently and reverently greeted the performers for several minutes (there was not enough strength to applaud). The people of Leningrad cherished the artists and understood at what cost, with what extreme effort of will, they gave joy and caused forgotten laughter from the audience.

A fallen horse is for food. Residents of besieged Leningrad are trying to get food by carving up the corpse of a horse.

The hardships associated with the war, and especially with the blockade of the city, were experienced by all people, but immeasurably more difficulties fell to the lot of women. They worked in production, where they replaced men called up for military service, and ran the household. No one was able to remove their worries about the house, about the children. The meager norms of the products obtained required their strict distribution by day and during the day - by hour. In order not to freeze the children, they got firewood with great difficulty, carefully spending each log. Water was hauled in buckets from nearby rivers. They washed clothes in the dim light of an oil lamp, mended clothes for themselves and their children. Under the weight of all the worries and hardships that the blockade brought, under the conditions of a double load - at work and at home - many women seriously undermined their health. But their will to live, their fortitude, their determination and quickness, their discipline will always serve as an example and inspiration for millions of people.

Hunger tormented people, everyone lived in hope - the winter road was about to be established and food would be brought in, a little more - and there would be bread. But, unfortunately, the lake did not freeze. The days of waiting dragged on.

D.V. Pavlov

From the book "Leningrad in the blockade"

Michael DORFMAN

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the 872-day siege of Leningrad. Leningrad survived, but for the Soviet leadership it was a Pyrrhic victory. They preferred not to write about it, and what was written was empty and formal. Later, the blockade was included in the heroic heritage of military glory. They began to talk a lot about the blockade, but we can find out the whole truth only now. Do we just want to?

“Leningraders lie here. Here the townspeople - men, women, children.Next to them are Red Army soldiers.

Blockade Bread Card

In Soviet times, I ended up at the Piskarevskoye cemetery. I was taken there by Roza Anatolyevna, who survived the blockade as a girl. She brought to the cemetery not flowers, as is customary, but pieces of bread. During the most terrible period of the winter of 1941-42 (the temperature dropped below 30 degrees), 250 g of bread per day was given to a manual worker and 150 g - three thin slices - to everyone else. This bread gave me much more understanding than the peppy explanations of the guides, official speeches, films, even an unusually modest statue of the Motherland for the USSR. After the war, there was a wasteland. Only in 1960 the authorities opened the memorial. Only recently have nameplates appeared, trees have been planted around the graves. Roza Anatolyevna then took me to the former front line. I was horrified how close the front was - in the city itself.

September 8, 1941 German troops broke through the defenses and went to the outskirts of Leningrad. Hitler and his generals decided not to take the city, but to kill its inhabitants with a blockade. This was part of a criminal Nazi plan to starve to death and destroy the "useless mouths" - the Slavic population of Eastern Europe - to clear the "living space" for the Millennium Reich. Aviation was ordered to raze the city to the ground. They failed to do this, just as the Allied carpet bombing and fiery holocausts failed to wipe out German cities from the face of the earth. As it was not possible to win a single war with the help of aviation. This should be thought of by all those who, over and over again, dream of winning without setting foot on the ground of the enemy.

Three quarters of a million citizens died from hunger and cold. This is from a quarter to a third of the pre-war population of the city. This is the largest mass extinction of a modern city in recent history. About a million Soviet servicemen who died on the fronts around Leningrad, mainly in 1941-42 and in 1944, must be added to the account of the victims.

The Siege of Leningrad was one of the largest and most brutal atrocities of the war, an epic tragedy comparable to the Holocaust. Outside the USSR, almost no one knew about it and did not talk about it. Why? Firstly, the blockade of Leningrad did not fit into the myth of the Eastern Front with boundless snow fields, General Zima and desperate Russians marching in droves on German machine guns. Right down to Antony Beaver's wonderful book about Stalingrad, it was a picture, a myth, established in the Western mind, in books and films. Much less significant Allied operations in North Africa and Italy were considered the main ones.

Secondly, the Soviet authorities were also reluctant to talk about the blockade of Leningrad. The city survived, but very unpleasant questions remained. Why such a huge number of victims? Why did the German armies reach the city so quickly, advanced so far deep into the USSR? Why wasn't a mass evacuation organized before the blockade closed? After all, it took the German and Finnish troops three long months to close the blockade ring. Why was there no adequate food supply? The Germans surrounded Leningrad in September 1941. The head of the party organization of the city, Andrei Zhdanov, and the commander of the front, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, fearing that they would be accused of alarmism and disbelief in the forces of the Red Army, refused the proposal of Anastas Mikoyan, Chairman of the Committee for Food and Clothing Supply of the Red Army, to provide the city with food supplies sufficient to the city survived a long siege. A propaganda campaign was launched in Leningrad, denouncing the "rats" fleeing the city of three revolutions instead of defending it. Tens of thousands of citizens were mobilized for defense work, they dug trenches, which soon ended up behind enemy lines.

After the war, Stalin was least interested in discussing these topics. And he clearly did not like Leningrad. Not a single city was cleaned the way Leningrad was cleaned, before the war and after it. Repressions fell upon the Leningrad writers. The Leningrad party organization was crushed. Georgy Malenkov, who led the rout, shouted into the hall: “Only the enemies could need the myth of the blockade to belittle the role of the great leader!” Hundreds of books about the blockade were confiscated from libraries. Some, like the stories of Vera Inber, for “a distorted picture that does not take into account the life of the country”, others for “underestimating the leading role of the party”, and the majority for the fact that there were the names of the arrested Leningrad leaders Alexei Kuznetsov, Pyotr Popkov and others, marching on the "Leningrad case". However, they are also to blame. The Heroic Defense of Leningrad Museum, which was very popular, was closed (with a model of a bakery that gave out 125-gram bread rations for adults). Many documents and unique exhibits were destroyed. Some, like the diaries of Tanya Savicheva, were miraculously saved by the museum staff.

The director of the museum, Lev Lvovich Rakov, was arrested and charged with "collecting weapons for the purpose of carrying out terrorist acts when Stalin arrives in Leningrad." It was about the museum collection of captured German weapons. For him it was not the first time. In 1936, he, then an employee of the Hermitage, was arrested for a collection of noble clothes. Then “propaganda of the noble way of life” was also sewn to terrorism.

"With all their lives, They defended you, Leningrad, the Cradle of the Revolution."

In the Brezhnev era, the blockade was rehabilitated. However, even then they did not tell the whole truth, but they gave out a strongly cleaned up and heroized history, within the framework of the leaf mythology of the Great Patriotic War that was then being built. According to this version, people were dying of hunger, but somehow quietly and carefully, sacrificing themselves to victory, with the only desire to defend the "cradle of the revolution." No one complained, shied away from work, stole, manipulated the rationing system, took bribes, killed neighbors to get their ration cards. There was no crime in the city, there was no black market. No one died in the terrible epidemics of dysentery that mowed down Leningraders. It's not that aesthetically pleasing. And, of course, no one expected that the Germans could win.

Residents of besieged Leningrad collect water that appeared after shelling in holes in the asphalt on Nevsky Prospekt, photo by B.P. Kudoyarov, December 1941

The taboo was also imposed on the discussion of the incompetence and cruelty of the Soviet authorities. The numerous miscalculations, tyranny, negligence and bungling of army officials and party apparatchiks, theft of food, the deadly chaos that reigned on the ice "Road of Life" across Lake Ladoga were not discussed. Silence was shrouded in political repression, which did not stop for a single day. The KGBists dragged honest, innocent, dying and starving people to Kresty, so that they could die there sooner. Before the noses of the advancing Germans, arrests, executions and deportations of tens of thousands of people did not stop in the city. Instead of an organized evacuation of the population, convoys with prisoners left the city until the closing of the blockade ring.

The poetess Olga Bergolts, whose poems, carved on the memorial of the Piskarevsky cemetery, we took as epigraphs, became the voice of besieged Leningrad. Even this did not save her elderly doctor father from arrest and deportation to Western Siberia right under the noses of the advancing Germans. All his fault was that the Bergoltsy were Russified Germans. People were arrested only for nationality, religious affiliation or social origin. Once again, the KGB went to the addresses of the book "All Petersburg" in 1913, in the hope that someone else had survived at the old addresses.

In the post-Stalin era, the entire horror of the blockade was successfully reduced to a few symbols - stoves, potbelly stoves and home-made lamps, when the utilities ceased to function, to children's sledges, on which the dead were taken to the morgue. Potbelly stoves have become an indispensable attribute of films, books and paintings of besieged Leningrad. But, according to Rosa Anatolyevna, in the most terrible winter of 1942, a potbelly stove was a luxury: “No one in our country had the opportunity to get a barrel, pipe or cement, and then they didn’t even have the strength ... In the whole house, a potbelly stove was only in one apartment, where the district committee supplier lived.

“Their noble names we cannot list here.”

With the fall of Soviet power, the real picture began to emerge. More and more documents are being made available to the public. Much has appeared on the Internet. Documents in all their glory show the rot and lies of the Soviet bureaucracy, its self-praise, interdepartmental squabbling, attempts to shift the blame on others, and ascribe merit to themselves, hypocritical euphemisms (hunger was called not hunger, but dystrophy, exhaustion, nutritional problems).

Victim of the "Leningrad disease"

We have to agree with Anna Reed that it is the children of the blockade, those who are over 60 today, who most zealously defend the Soviet version of history. The blockade survivors themselves were much less romantic in relation to the experience. The problem was that they had experienced such an impossible reality that they doubted they would be listened to.

"But know, listening to these stones: No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten."

The Commission for Combating the Falsification of History, set up two years ago, has so far turned out to be just another propaganda campaign. Historical research in Russia is not yet subject to external censorship. There are no taboo topics related to the blockade of Leningrad. Anna Reed says that there are quite a few cases in the Partarkhiv to which researchers have limited access. Basically, these are cases of collaborators in the occupied territory and deserters. Petersburg researchers are much more concerned about the chronic lack of funding and the emigration of the best students to the West.

Outside of universities and research institutes, the leafy Soviet version remains almost untouched. Anna Reid was struck by the attitude of her young Russian employees, with whom she sorted out cases of bribery in the bread distribution system. “I thought that during the war people behaved differently,” her employee told her. “Now I see it’s the same everywhere.” The book is critical of the Soviet regime. Undoubtedly, there were miscalculations, mistakes and outright crimes. However, perhaps without the unwavering brutality of the Soviet system, Leningrad might not have survived, and the war might have been lost.

Jubilant Leningrad. Blockade lifted, 1944

Now Leningrad is again called St. Petersburg. Traces of the blockade are visible, despite the palaces and cathedrals restored in the Soviet era, despite the European-style repairs of the post-Soviet era. “It is not surprising that the Russians are attached to the heroic version of their history,” Anna Reid said in an interview. “Our Battle of Britain stories also don't like collaborators in the occupied Channel Islands, mass looting during German bombing raids, Jewish refugees and anti-fascist internment. However, sincere respect for the memory of the victims of the blockade of Leningrad, where every third person died, means telling their story truthfully.”