Blockade of Leningrad, children of the blockade... Everyone heard these words. One of the most majestic and at the same time tragic pages in the archives of the Great Patriotic War. These events are included in world history as the longest and most terrible siege of the city in its consequences. The events that took place in this city from 09/08/1941 to 01/27/1944 were shown to the whole world great spirit a people capable of heroic deeds in conditions of hunger, disease, cold and devastation. The city survived, but the price paid for this victory was very high.

Blockade. Start

Plan "Barbarossa" - that was the name of the enemy strategy, according to which the capture of the Soviet Union was carried out. One of the points of the plan was the defeat and complete capture of short time Leningrad. Hitler dreamed of taking the city no later than the autumn of 1941. The plans of the aggressor were not destined to come true. The city was captured, cut off from the world, but not taken!

The official beginning of the blockade was recorded on September 8, 1941. It was on this autumn day that German troops captured Shlisselburg and finally blocked the land connection of Leningrad with the entire territory of the country.

In fact, everything happened a little earlier. The Germans systematically isolated the city. Yes, from July 2 german planes railroads were regularly bombed, preventing the supply of food by this method. On August 27, communication with the city through the railways was already completely interrupted. After 3 days, there was a break in the connection of the city with hydroelectric power plants. And from September 1, all commercial stores stopped working.

In the beginning, almost no one believed that the situation was serious. Yet people who felt something was wrong began to prepare for the worst. The shops were empty very quickly. Right from the first days, food cards were introduced in the city, schools and kindergartens were closed.

Children of the besieged city

The blockade of Leningrad was imprinted with grief and horror on the fate of many people. Blockade children are special category the inhabitants of this city, who were deprived of their childhood by circumstances, were forced to grow up much earlier and fight for survival at the level of adults and experienced people.

At the time of the closing of the blockade ring, in addition to adults, 400 thousand children remained in the city different ages. It was the concern for children that gave the Leningraders strength: they were taken care of, protected, tried to hide from the bombings, comprehensively cared for. Everyone understood that the only way to save the children was to save the city.

Adults could not protect children from hunger, cold, disease and exhaustion, but everything possible was done for them.

Cold

Life in besieged Leningrad was hard, unbearable. The shelling was not the worst thing that the hostages of the city had to endure. When all the power plants were turned off and the city was enveloped in darkness, the most difficult period. A snowy, frosty winter has come.

The city was covered with snow, frosts of 40 degrees led to the fact that the walls of unheated apartments began to be covered with frost. Leningraders were forced to install stoves in their apartments, in which everything was gradually burned for warmth: furniture, books, household items.

A new trouble came when the sewers froze. Now water could be taken only in 2 places: from the Fontanka and the Neva.

Hunger

Sad statistics says that the biggest enemy of the city's inhabitants was hunger.

The winter of 1941 was a test of survival. To regulate the provision of people with bread, food cards were introduced. The size of the ration was constantly decreasing, in November it reached its minimum.

The norms in besieged Leningrad were as follows: those who worked were supposed to have 250 gr. bread, the military, firefighters and members of the extermination squads received 300 grams each, and children and those who were on someone else's support - 125 grams each.

There were no other products in the city. 125 grams of besieged bread did not bear much resemblance to our ordinary, well-known flour product. This piece, which could only be obtained after many hours of standing in line in the cold, consisted of cellulose, cake, wallpaper paste, mixed with flour.

There were days when people could not get this coveted piece. During the bombing, the factories were not working.

People tried to survive as best they could. They tried to fill their empty stomachs with what they could swallow. Everything was used: first-aid kits were emptied (they drank castor oil, ate Vaseline), they tore off the wallpaper to get the remains of the paste and cook at least some soup, they cut into pieces and boiled leather shoes, they prepared jelly from wood glue.

Naturally, food was the best gift for the children of that time. They were constantly thinking about delicious things. The food that regular time disgusted, was now the ultimate dream.

Holiday for children

Despite the terrible, deadly living conditions, Leningraders with great zeal and zeal tried to ensure that the children who were held hostage by the cold and hungry city lived full life. And if there was nowhere to get food and warmth, then it was possible to make a holiday.

So, during the terrible winter, when there was a blockade of Leningrad, the children of the blockade celebrated. By the decision of the executive committee of the Lensoviet, they were organized and carried out for the small inhabitants of the city.

All theaters in the city took this active participation. were drawn up holiday programs, which included meetings with commanders and fighters, an artistic greeting, game program and dancing by the Christmas tree, and most importantly - lunch.

There was everything at these holidays, except for the games and the dance part. All due to the fact that weakened children simply did not have the strength for such entertainment. The children were not having fun at all - they were waiting for food.

The festive dinner consisted of a small piece of bread for yeast soup, jelly and a cutlet made from cereals. The children, who knew hunger, ate slowly, carefully collecting every crumb, because they knew the price of the besieged bread.

Hard times

It was much harder for children during this period than for an adult, fully conscious population. How to explain why during the bombing you need to sit in a dark basement and why there is no food anywhere, to children? About the blockade of Leningrad in people's memory there are many scary stories about abandoned babies, lonely guys who tried to survive. After all, it often happened that when leaving for the coveted ration, the relatives of the child simply died on the way, did not return home.

The number of orphanages in the city grew inexorably. In one year, their number grew to 98, and in fact at the end of 1941 there were only 17. About 40 thousand orphans tried to keep and keep in these shelters.

Every little resident besieged city has its terrible truth. The diaries of the Leningrad schoolgirl Tanya Savicheva became famous all over the world.

The symbol of the suffering of Leningraders

Tanya Savicheva - now this name symbolizes the horror and hopelessness with which the inhabitants of the city were forced to fight. What then survived Leningrad! told the world this tragic story through his diary entries.

This girl was youngest child in the family of Maria and Nikolai Savichev. At the time of the blockade, which began in September, she was supposed to be a 4th grade student. When the family learned about the beginning of the war, it was decided not to leave the city anywhere, but to stay in order to provide all possible assistance to the army.

The girl's mother sewed clothes for the fighters. Brother Lek, who had poor eyesight, was not taken into the army, he worked at the Admiralty plant. Tanya's sisters, Zhenya and Nina, were active participants in the fight against the enemy. So, Nina, while she had strength, went to work, where, together with other volunteers, she dug trenches to strengthen the defense of the city. Zhenya, hiding from her mother and grandmother, secretly donated blood for the wounded soldiers.

Tanya, when schools in the occupied city started working again in early November, went to study. At that time, only 103 schools were open, but they also stopped working with the advent of severe frosts.

Tanya, being a little girl, also did not sit idle. Together with other guys, she helped dig trenches, put out "lighters".

Soon grief knocked on the family's door. Nina did not return home first. The girl did not come after the most severe shelling. When it became clear that they would never see Nina again, mother gave Tanya notebook sisters. It is in it that the girl will subsequently make her notes.

War. Blockade. Leningrad - a besieged city in which entire families were dying out. So it was with the Savichev family.

Zhenya died next, right at the factory. The girl worked, working hard for 2 shifts in a row. She also donated blood. This is where the power ends.

The grandmother could not bear such grief, the woman was buried at the Piskarevsky cemetery.

And every time grief knocked on the door of the Savichevs' house, Tanya opened her notebook to note the next death of her relatives and friends. Leka soon died, followed by the girl's two uncles, then her mother died.

“The Savichevs are all dead. Only Tanya remained” - these terrible lines of Tanya's diary convey all the horror that the inhabitants of the besieged city had to endure. Tanya is dead. But the girl was mistaken, she did not know that a living person remained among the Savichevs. It was her sister Nina, who was rescued during the shelling and taken to the rear.

It was Nina who, returning to her native walls in 1945, would find her sister's diary and tell the world this story. scary story. The history of a whole people who staunchly fought for their hometown.

Children - heroes of besieged Leningrad

All the inhabitants of the city, who survived and defeated death, should rightfully be called heroes.

Most of the children behaved especially heroically. Little Citizens big country did not sit and wait for the deliverance to come; they fought for their native Leningrad.

Almost no event in the city took place without the participation of children. Children, along with adults, took part in the destruction of incendiary bombs, put out fires, cleared the roads, and sorted out the rubble after the bombing.

The blockade of Leningrad continued. The children of the blockade were forced to replace adults near the factory machines who died, died or went to the front. Especially for children working in factories, special wooden stands were invented and made so that they could, like adults, work on the manufacture of parts for machine guns, artillery shells and machine guns.

In spring and autumn, children actively worked in gardens and state farm fields. During the raids, the teacher's signal served to the fact that the children, taking off their hats, fell face down into the ground. Overcoming the heat, mud, rain and the first frosts, the young heroes of besieged Leningrad harvested a record harvest.

Children often visited hospitals: they cleaned there, entertained the wounded, and helped feed the seriously ill.

Despite the fact that the Germans tried with all their might to destroy Leningrad, the city lived on. Lived and endured. After the blockade was lifted, 15,000 children received the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad."

The road that brings back to life

The only way that gave at least some opportunity to maintain contact with the country. In the summer they were barges, in the winter they were cars moving on ice. Until the beginning of the winter of 1941, tugboats with barges reached the city, but the Military Council of the front understood that Ladoga would freeze and then all roads would be blocked. New searches and intensified preparation of other means of communication began.

Thus, a path was prepared along the ice of Ladoga, which eventually began to be called the "Road of Life". In the history of the blockade, the date was preserved when the first horse-drawn convoy paved the way on the ice, it was November 21, 1941.

Following this, 60 vehicles drove off, the purpose of which was to deliver flour to the city. The city began to receive bread, the cost of which was human life, because progress along this path was associated with great risk. Often cars fell through the ice, drowned, taking people and food to the bottom of the lake. Working as a driver of such a car was deadly. In some places the ice was so fragile that even a car loaded with a couple of bags of cereals or flour could easily be under the ice. Each voyage made this way was heroic. The Germans really wanted to block it, the bombing of Ladoga was constant, but the courage and heroism of the inhabitants of the city did not allow this to happen.

The "Road of Life" really fulfilled its function. Food supplies began to replenish in Leningrad, and children and their mothers were taken out of the city by cars. This path was not always safe. Already after the war, when examining the bottom of Lake Ladoga, toys of Leningrad children were found who drowned during such transportation. In addition to dangerous thawed patches on the icy road, evacuation vehicles were often subjected to enemy shelling and flooding.

About 20 thousand people worked on this road. And only thanks to their courage, fortitude and desire to survive, the city got what it needed most of all - a chance to survive.

Surviving Hero City

The summer of 1942 was very busy. The Nazis stepped up fighting on the fronts of Leningrad. The bombardment and shelling of the city increased markedly.

New artillery batteries appeared around the city. The enemies had maps of the city, and important areas were shelled daily.

The blockade of Leningrad continued. People turned their city into a fortress. So, on the territory of the city, due to 110 large defense units, trenches and various passages, it became possible to carry out a covert regrouping of the military. Such actions served to significantly reduce the number of wounded and killed.

On January 12, the army of Leningrad and Volkhov fronts launched an offensive. After 2 days, the distance between these two armies was less than 2 kilometers. The Germans stubbornly resisted, but on January 18 the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts united.

This day was marked by another important event: the blockade was lifted due to the liberation of Shlisselburg, as well as complete clearance from the enemy south coast Lake Ladoga.

A corridor of about 10 kilometers turned out along the coast, and it was he who restored the land connection with the country.

When the blockade was lifted, there were about 800 thousand people in the city.

The significant date of January 27, 1944 went down in history as the day when the blockade of the city was completely lifted.

On this joyful day, Moscow conceded to Leningrad the right to fire a salute in honor of the lifting of the blockade in commemoration of the fact that the city survived. The order for the troops that won was signed not by Stalin, but by Govorov. Such an honor was not awarded to any commander-in-chief of the fronts during the entire period of the Great Patriotic War.

The blockade lasted 900 days. This is the most bloody, cruel and inhuman blockade in the history of mankind. Her historical meaning huge. holding back huge forces German troops throughout this time, the inhabitants of Leningrad provided invaluable assistance to military operations in other sectors of the front.

More than 350 thousand soldiers participating in the defense of Leningrad received their orders and medals. 226 people were awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 1.5 million people were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".

The city itself received for heroism and steadfastness honorary title Hero City.

Original taken from bogomilos to Leningrad during the blockade was crammed with food.

With anger and indignation I reject the ridiculous accusation that I claimed that all Leningraders were cannibals. Vice versa! I can name a lot of those who obviously were not cannibals. This is all the leadership of the city, their rations included black and red caviar, fruits, beef, pork, lamb, etc. Of course, they looked at human meat with disgust.

And, finally, the entire army, down to the last soldier and sailor. What to say about human meat, they looked at the besieged bread with disgust and cooked it separately for them.

Here they are, true heroes who have maintained a high moral level among all these degraded old men, insolent women and depraved children!

This is repeated year after year. The first people of St. Petersburg speak and say, referring to the blockade: “You defended the city, you brought huge contribution to victory, you are heroes” and the like.

In fact: the main reason why Leningrad was not occupied by the Germans was Hitler's order forbidding troops to enter the city (by the way, there was a similar order regarding Moscow). In practice, after the establishment of the blockade line, the Germans abandoned any action to further seize the territory.

And it is not true that the Germans wanted to starve the population of Leningrad. Separate negotiations were held in Smolny with German command. The Germans offered to lift the blockade in exchange for the destruction of the Baltic Fleet, or rather submarines.

Zhdanov offered to surrender the city with the entire population in exchange for the withdrawal of troops along with weapons. Unilaterally, the Germans offered the unimpeded withdrawal of the entire civilian population from the city, and also allowed the free transport of food to the city.

And these were not just words - several grain carts passed unhindered to Leningrad (with one of them, sister Olga Berggolts calmly arrived from Moscow through two front lines.

By the way, many indirect facts indicate that the city was literally stuffed with food (the Confectionery factory worked almost the entire blockade, also oil and fat plants). After the war, the stew was “thrown out” into trade, made, as follows from the inscriptions on the banks, in 1941 in Leningrad! The population of the city - women, children, the elderly did not decide anything and did not protect anyone and could not protect. The authorities cared only that they died out calmly and without unrest.

As for "patriotism", there was none. Men in best case trying to survive. This led to a huge scale of crime. Murders, especially of children, have become commonplace. Teenagers united in real gangs attacked food trucks, shops and warehouses. They were ruthlessly killed by the guards.

Read the memo received by the military, for whatever reason, sent to the city. This memo considered the city as hostile, warned of the possibility of a surprise attack, and in case of danger, offered to immediately use weapons.

In the city, they acted freely and with impunity. German agents. During the raids it was possible to observe rockets unusual for us - the so-called "green chains". They indicated to the aircraft targets for bombing. These agents were never caught. The frightened population not only did not help the NKVD in the fight against spies, but avoided all contacts with the authorities, agreeing to perform any tasks for a can of canned food.

After dogs, cats, pigeons, even crows with rats were eaten, the only meat available to the population was the people themselves.

Modern psychology makes it possible, through appropriate surveys, to reveal what people hide with all their might. There was a (secret, of course) study of survivors of the blockade on this topic. The result was stunning.

There is such a thing as justice. Even the most notorious scoundrel and a criminal if unjustly offended.

All blockade survivors, regardless of how they survived, are entitled to compensation from the state and society that put them in such a position. But when they are called heroes and glorified, then this is only an attempt to pay with words, not money.

Gentlemen speakers! You all know as well as I do. Anyone who is really interested in the blockade can find out. And your false statements are a frank depreciation of all high words, a contribution to the general destruction of the morality of the whole country!

Damn you!

I am not telling you this, but rather an objective and cynical intellectual (an intellectual in the second generation!) These are those who were killed during the blockade of Leningrad.

I am a careful and practical person; I'm just writing about how it all happened. I had to wait for this time for quite a long time.

If you are wondering what really happened at that time, then read the publications that appeared in recent times. You can also listen to "Echo of Moscow" and their program "The Price of Victory". Cautious people also work there, and from this what they report becomes even more reasonable ...

There is no point in wasting time on propaganda fabrications of the past.

In short, I declare only the most general conclusion: in the blockade of Leningrad, not the Germans, but our authorities were interested in the fact that the population of the city died of starvation.

The Germans, on the contrary, made attempts to charge the provision of food for the useless population of Leningrad, in the form of old people, women and children, to us. They didn't succeed.

Well, that's all right. "Everything for the front, everything for the Victory."

And we did everything that was needed for the front.

And now I'm just passing on to you the death curses of those who died of starvation in the icy ruthless city, especially children.

I am their age.

Damn you!

Lessons from the blockade and the desire for extinction

We are still not so imbued with civilization as to completely depend on refined food. Perhaps, on the contrary, genetically we have not yet fully adapted to such a diet. We are surrounded by a completely edible world for us. The plants surrounding us are more than 90% not only edible, but even beneficial to our health. It is quite possible to eat cow parsnip and burdock. The coltsfoot is edible whole. In burdock, for example, you can eat roots, stems, leaf cuttings; the leaves themselves are bitter and inedible. Reed roots that grow in abundance along the banks Gulf of Finland, Sestroretsk and Lakhtinsky floods, as well as along numerous rivers and streams, can be dried, ground in hand mills or meat grinders. If you are already a completely helpless bungler, then feel free to rip off the lichen from the trunks of trees, stones, walls of buildings. You can either eat it or cook it. It is quite possible to dine on shellfish, many insects, frogs and lizards. From the beginning of the war to the beginning of the blockade, there was enough time to dry, pickle, salt unlimited supplies of all this food.

The blockade of Leningrad is not the first experiment in this direction. In 1917-18. The Bolsheviks introduced a "grain monopoly" and began to shoot peasants who brought grain to the city. However, at that time it was not possible to bring the matter to an end, to the Piskarevsky cemetery and Victory Park on the ashes of those burned. The population simply fled to the villages.

In the 1950s I was surprised to learn that in the Leningrad region there are villages that cannot be reached in winter, and in summer only by tractor. During the war, neither the Germans nor the Red Army saw such villages. Is that sometimes the ubiquitous deserters.

In many cities there were empty houses: people left for the city, or the authorities evicted the "kulaks", and in 1939 also the Finns, evicted for the convenience of management from farms and small villages to villages along the roads.

So it was quite where to run.

But the opposite happened: the people fled to the city.

What happened, what broke in the psychology of the people?

Not only to fight for their rights and even for life itself, for the life of their children and families, Leningraders were not capable.

Operation Blockade

Scoundrels adore decent people, they simply idolize them. Their most cherished desire is that everyone around them be just the same saints. It is for this that they (the scoundrels) agitate, call, persuade. Well, of course, this love is purely platonic.

Didn't surprise you interesting fact: they have been talking about help, benefits for the blockade of Leningrad for more than half a century. And they don't just talk. Budget money, apartments and so on are allocated for this.

I know this firsthand: about 40 years ago I helped the blockade survivors to get the apartments due to them, and I remember what it cost them. With habitual arrogance, I can say that if it were not for my help, they would not have received anything. After all, if all the allocated assistance reached the addressees (those under blockade), then there would be no problem with them!

There have always been villains. They did not go anywhere during the blockade either. I must say that for many this time was a time of fabulous enrichment. When the museum of the blockade was created in its first execution, it so happened that it turned out to be a large number of memories that reported facts that were very eloquent. And this is very dangerous for the rascals. And the museum was liquidated. The collected materials are destroyed (of course, only those that were dangerous). By the way, at one time the number of blockades began to grow rapidly. Can you tell me why or can you guess the reasons for the “strange” phenomenon?

Here's what's especially amazing. So many revelations of abuses, waste of public funds in all areas. And complete silence and splendor in matters related to the blockade. No checks. Everything is honest and noble. But it's so simple. For example, obtaining apartments. Naturally, in the first place, the more seriously injured, the wounded, who have lost their health and relatives, should receive it. In principle, it is quite simple to draw up a certain scale.

But how was it really?

Another lie about the Blockade

“Leningrad was supplied with food “from the wheels”. Food supplies in Leningrad were on ... (further, depending on the speaker's imagination)."

Guys! We are in a country of seasonal food production. Not just grains and vegetables. Even the slaughter of livestock, the production of milk and eggs, in those days when special breeds had not yet been bred, was seasonal.

So, willy-nilly, for Moscow and Leningrad, and in general for the whole country, food supplies are created for at least a year. The only question is where they are stored. Once, indeed, in the villages, from where they were taken out in the winter, but also quite quickly: in 1-2 months. Soviet authority shortened and mechanized this path. Railways made it possible to quickly deliver crops to the place of consumption.

Where did these undoubtedly genuine alarm cries come from: “there is food left for 2 days in the city”? We are talking about food in the consumer network, practically about products that are in stores. Grain in elevators and flour mills, stocks of sugar, cocoa, and other ingredients in confectionery factories and other food processing enterprises were not included.

Even in Peaceful time more than a year's supply of food was, if not in the city, then nearby, in the nearest suburbs. You have to be a very unscrupulous person to pass off products in the consumer network for everything available.

By the way, consider this paradox: Leningrad region is able to satisfy one need of the city: potatoes!

It would seem that there is no bread, you have to sit on potatoes ...

Where did the potatoes disappear to?

The main question of the blockade

This was shortly after the war. At that time, the famine in Leningrad was still concealed, Leningraders died from “barbaric bombing and shelling”, but not from hunger. That was the official version.

However, the famine was already on the sly spoken. Anyway, I already knew enough about him. I asked my friend, who spent his childhood in the blockade, in the city itself.

- "Hunger?" He was surprised. “We ate normally, no one died of starvation!” It was shocking that this man was distinguished by amazing truthfulness. It was an amazing mystery to me until I thought to ask about his parents. And everything immediately fell into place!

His mother worked in Smolny. He lived in a guarded house and spent the entire blockade walking only in the courtyard of the house. They didn’t let him into the city (and they did it right!) He didn’t see anything and didn’t know.

Our historians sometimes like to conclude their speeches on the blockade with vague hints, something along the lines of "not everything has been said about the blockade, much remains to be learned." Well, if for half a century, in the presence of hundreds of thousands of living witnesses, they could not find out everything, then it is unlikely that they will be able to. Or rather, they want to.

The main issue is, of course, food. How much it was, where it was and who disposed of it.

Take the wartime Pravda binders. You will find there a bunch of fiery articles: “Leave not a single spikelet to the enemy! Take away or destroy food!” And food stocks were really taken out cleanly. There are published memoirs about the roads of Ukraine in the first months of the war. They were packed. Clogged not with refugees (unauthorized evacuation was prohibited), but with cows, sheep and other livestock. They were driven, of course, not beyond the Urals, but to the nearest meat processing plant, from where they were sent further in the form of carcasses, canned food, etc. Workers of meat-packing plants were exempted from conscription.

Look at the map of the railways of Russia. All food could be brought only to two cities: Moscow and Leningrad. Moreover, Leningrad was “lucky” - trains to Moscow were filled with strategic raw materials, factory equipment, Soviet and party institutions, and there was almost no room for food. Everything had to be taken to Leningrad.

As you know, the girls of the city were sent to dig anti-tank ditches (by the way, they turned out to be useless). And what did the young men do? Cadets of numerous military schools and universities? The holidays were canceled, but without any preparation it was impossible to immediately send them to the front, so they studied during the day and unloaded the wagons in the evening. Wagons with food, mind you.

Zhdanov's telegram to Stalin is known: "All warehouses are crammed with food, there is nowhere else to take it." For some reason, no one gives an answer to this telegram. But it is obvious: Use all the free premises left from the evacuated factories and institutions, historical buildings, etc. Of course, such a “way out” as simply distributing food to the population was categorically excluded.

Oddly enough, but it is possible to objectively and documentary evaluate total food brought to Leningrad. Whole line publications: "Railways during the war", "Civilian fleet in the war" with good departmental pride indicate many tens of thousands of tons of food delivered to Leningrad.

Anyone can simply add up the given figures (even if they are somewhat overestimated!) And divide them by the number of population and troops and by 900 days of blockade. The result will be simply amazing. On such a diet, not only will you not die of hunger, but you will not be able to lose weight!

Once I managed to ask the historian a question: "So who ate all the food, and even so quickly?" To which he received the answer: "Zhdanov handed over all the food to the army."

So what, you say. In any besieged city, food is transferred to the control of the military. The main thing is that it does not leave the city. For any opinion about mental capacity our military cannot be imagined that they took him to Vologda or Central Asia. It was just that guards were posted at the warehouses, and their location was declared a military secret.

Here is such a final "secret" - Leningraders were dying of starvation near warehouses full of food.

What makes us related to the Germans and sharply distinguishes us from the Americans, the French and the British? We, like the Germans, lost the war. The real winners are the Communist Party and its wise leadership. They defeated not only the Germans, but also us.

I confess honestly - I do not really feel sorry for the old men and women who died in the blockade. They themselves chose and tolerated this leadership.

However, I feel very sorry for the children, the future of Russia. They might be sorry...

It is probably fair that in such a country children stop being born!

How the Badaev warehouses burned

An interesting feature of the Bolsheviks was their desire for "scientific" or at least "scientific". In particular, this was reflected in their attitude to such a phenomenon as hunger. Hunger diligently studied, did quite practical implications and, finally, quite "scientifically" used for their own purposes. Already the famine in the Volga region was under the supervision of numerous (of course, well-fed!) Observers who compiled and sent detailed reports. Frankly carried out "genetic" selection, selectively saving those who seemed promising for the creation of a "new" person. Further history country has provided tremendous opportunities in this regard. Extensive materials were collected, which were studied at the secret institutes of the NKVD and the KGB.

War. All for the front, all for victory!

For victory, among other things, it was useful to quickly get rid of the "useless" population of Leningrad. This could provide a properly organized famine.

The centralized supply system made it easy to do this. In the prewar years, the population was not allowed to have subsidiary farms and make large food supplies. However, in the summer of 1941, all food supplies from the western regions of the country were taken to Leningrad. Leningraders unloaded this food, held it in their hands. And the whole city knew about him. Therefore, it was necessary to come up with some explanation for the "disappearance" of food from the city.

So the operation "Badaev warehouses" was developed. These warehouses were never the main ones and were inferior in size to many others, but were, however, the most famous, mainly because they traditionally stored sweet things - sugar and confectionery. Sometimes they were sold cheap directly from the warehouse.

Lawyers know that, due to individual perception, witness statements never completely match. However, the stories about the fire at the Badaevsky warehouses are very similar to the memorized text: thick smoke over Leningrad, burning sugar “flowing like a river”, sweet burnt earth that was sold after the fire ...

In fact, when the air defense observers saw the start of a fire in the warehouse area, they immediately reported it to the fire brigade. From all parts of the city, fire brigades immediately rushed to the warehouses. However, they were stopped by the cordon of the NKD. Until the very end of the fire, no one was allowed into the territory of the warehouses and no one saw the fire near! The firefighters standing at the cordon opened fire hydrants and found that there was no water and the system was blocked.

Warehouses burned down quickly and to the ground, leaving neither charred food nor ingots of melted sugar. As for the sweet burnt earth, the earth of any sugar refineries is always sweet, both before the fire and after.

But what about the thick black smoke that hung over the city? There was smoke, but not from burnt warehouses. At the same time, cakes (the famous "duranda") were burning, or rather smoldering, at a neighboring oil and fat plant. By the way, why they caught fire and why they were not extinguished - this is very interest Ask! There was practically no fire there, but there was a lot of smoke.

After the fire, it was announced that the bulk of the city's food stocks had perished. This immediately made it possible to impose drastic restrictions on the distribution of food and start the planned famine.

In this story, it is not the composure and insensitivity of our authorities that is striking (we have seen something else!), but the amazing gullibility of the blockade. The vast majority still believes that the famine was caused by the fire of the Badaev warehouses and all the other nonsense that "historians" inspire us.

Well, well, sugar can still burn if it is laid in such a way as to provide free access to air, so be it, but what about canned food, potatoes, grains, meat, sausage and fish, dairy products? After all, they can only be burned in special furnaces.

In addition, could it really be that all the food brought in (plus the mandatory, since the Civil War, strategic food reserves) could have ended in a couple of weeks?!

What is happening to us?

Maybe we really are the Land of Fools?

Vadim Fomchenko.

The blockade of Leningrad lasted exactly 871 days. This is the longest and most terrible siege of the city in the history of mankind. Almost 900 days of pain and suffering, courage and selflessness. After many years after breaking the blockade of Leningrad many historians, and even ordinary people, wondered if it was possible to avoid this nightmare? Escape, apparently not. For Hitler, Leningrad was a "tidbit" - after all, the Baltic Fleet and the road to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk are located here, from where help from the allies came from during the war, and if the city had surrendered, it would have been destroyed and wiped off the face of the earth. Was it possible to mitigate the situation and prepare for it in advance? The issue is controversial and deserves a separate study.

The first days of the siege of Leningrad

On September 8, 1941, during the offensive of the fascist army, the city of Shlisselburg was captured, thus the blockade ring was closed. In the early days, few believed in the seriousness of the situation, but many residents of the city began to thoroughly prepare for the siege: in just a few hours, all savings were withdrawn from the savings banks, the shops were empty, everything that was possible was bought up. Not everyone managed to evacuate when systematic shelling began, but they began immediately, in September, the evacuation routes were already cut off. There is an opinion that it was the fire that occurred on the first day blockade of Leningrad in the Badaev warehouses - in the storage of the city's strategic reserves - provoked a terrible famine during the blockade days. However, recently declassified documents give somewhat different information: it turns out, as such, " strategic reserve"did not exist, since in the conditions of the outbreak of war to create a large reserve for such huge city what Leningrad was like (and about 3 million people lived in it at that time) was not possible, so the city ate imported food, and the existing stocks would only be enough for a week. Literally from the first days of the blockade, ration cards were introduced, schools were closed, military censorship was introduced: any attachments to letters were prohibited, and messages containing decadent moods were confiscated.

Siege of Leningrad - pain and death

Memories of the blockade of Leningrad people who survived it, their letters and diaries reveal a terrible picture to us. A terrible famine struck the city. Money and jewelry depreciated. The evacuation began in the autumn of 1941, but only in January 1942 did it become possible to withdraw a large number of people, mostly women and children, through the Road of Life. There were huge queues at the bakeries, where daily rations were given out. Beyond hunger besieged Leningrad Other disasters also attacked: very frosty winters, sometimes the thermometer dropped to -40 degrees. Fuel ran out and water pipes froze - the city was left without electricity, and drinking water. Another problem for the besieged city in the first blockade winter was rats. They not only destroyed food supplies, but also spread all kinds of infections. People were dying, and they did not have time to bury them, the corpses lay right on the streets. There were cases of cannibalism and robbery.

Life of besieged Leningrad

Simultaneously Leningraders tried with all their might to survive and not let them die hometown. Not only that: Leningrad helped the army by producing military products - the factories continued to work in such conditions. Theaters and museums restored their activities. It was necessary - to prove to the enemy, and, most importantly, to ourselves: Leningrad blockade will not kill the city, it continues to live! One of clear examples amazing selflessness and love for the motherland, life, hometown is the story of the creation of one piece of music. During the blockade, D. Shostakovich's most famous symphony was written, later called "Leningrad". Rather, the composer began to write it in Leningrad, and finished already in the evacuation. When the score was ready, it was taken to the besieged city. By that time, the symphony orchestra had already resumed its activities in Leningrad. On the day of the concert, so that enemy raids could not disrupt it, our artillery did not let a single fascist aircraft near the city! All blockade days worked Leningrad radio, which was for all Leningraders not only a life-giving source of information, but simply a symbol of continuing life.

Road of Life - the pulse of the besieged city

From the first days of the blockade, the Road of Life - pulse began its dangerous and heroic work besieged Leningrada. In summer - water, and in winter - an ice path connecting Leningrad with the "mainland" along Lake Ladoga. On September 12, 1941, the first barges with food came to the city along this route, and until late autumn, until storms made navigation impossible, barges went along the Road of Life. Each of their flights was a feat - enemy aircraft constantly made their bandit raids, weather often, too, were not in the hands of the sailors - the barges continued their voyages even late autumn, until the very appearance of ice, when navigation is already basically impossible. On November 20, the first horse and sledge convoy descended onto the ice of Lake Ladoga. A little later, trucks went along the ice Road of Life. The ice was very thin, despite the fact that the truck was carrying only 2-3 bags of food, the ice broke through and it was not uncommon for the trucks to sink. At the risk of their lives, the drivers continued their deadly journeys until the very spring. Military highway No. 101, as this route was called, made it possible to increase the bread ration and evacuate a large number of people. The Germans constantly tried to break this thread connecting the besieged city with the country, but thanks to the courage and fortitude of the Leningraders, the Road of Life lived by itself and gave life to the great city.
The significance of the Ladoga highway is enormous, it has saved thousands of lives. Now on the shore of Lake Ladoga there is a museum "The Road of Life".

Children's contribution to the liberation of Leningrad from the blockade. Ensemble of A.E.Obrant

At all times no more grief than a suffering child. Blockade children - special topic. Having matured early, not childishly serious and wise, they, along with adults, did their best to bring victory closer. Children are heroes, each fate of which is a bitter echo of those terrible days. Children's dance ensemble A.E. Obranta - a special piercing note of the besieged city. In the first winter blockade of Leningrad many children were evacuated, but despite this different reasons there were still many children in the city. The Palace of Pioneers, located in the famous Anichkov Palace, switched to martial law with the outbreak of war. I must say that 3 years before the start of the war, the Song and Dance Ensemble was created on the basis of the Palace of Pioneers. At the end of the first blockade winter the remaining teachers tried to find their pupils in the besieged city, and the choreographer A.E. Obrant created a dance group from the children who remained in the city. It is terrible even to imagine and compare the terrible blockade days and pre-war dances! Nevertheless, the ensemble was born. At first, the guys had to be restored from exhaustion, only then they were able to start rehearsals. However, already in March 1942, the first performance of the band took place. The fighters, who had seen a lot, could not hold back their tears, looking at these courageous children. Remember How long did the siege of Leningrad last? So during this considerable time the ensemble gave about 3,000 concerts. Wherever the guys had to perform: often the concerts had to end in a bomb shelter, since several times during the evening the performances were interrupted by air raid alerts, it happened that young dancers performed a few kilometers from the front line, and in order not to attract the enemy with unnecessary noise, they danced without music, and the floors were covered with hay. Strong-willed, they supported and inspired our soldiers, the contribution of this team to the liberation of the city can hardly be overestimated. Later, the guys were awarded medals "For the Defense of Leningrad".

Breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad

In 1943, a turning point occurred in the war, and at the end of the year, Soviet troops were preparing to liberate the city. January 14, 1944 during the general offensive Soviet troops started final operation on lifting the blockade of Leningrad. The task was to inflict a crushing blow on the enemy south of Lake Ladoga and restore the land routes connecting the city with the country. Leningrad and Volkhov fronts by January 27, 1944, with the help of Kronstadt artillery, carried out breaking the blockade of Leningrad. The Nazis began to retreat. Soon the cities of Pushkin, Gatchina and Chudovo were liberated. The blockade was completely lifted.

Tragic and great page Russian history, claiming more than 2 million human lives. While the memory of these terrible days lives in the hearts of people, finds a response in talented works of art, is passed from hand to hand to descendants - this will not happen again! Siege of Leningrad briefly, but Vera Inberg succinctly described, her lines are a hymn to the great city and at the same time a requiem to the departed.

You can call it a feat, but you can understand that it was the work, beloved or necessary in the conditions of war, that gave people the opportunity to feel the power of their will, and this was the very life that turned out to be more important than the existence of the physical, and in the end became the very Victory . Collected photographic evidence of this experience.

In the dirt, in the darkness, in hunger, in sadness,
Where death, like a shadow, dragged on its heels,
We were so happy
They breathed such stormy freedom,
That the grandchildren would envy us.

(Olga Bergholz)

Artists and climbers camouflaged urban objects

During the blockade, there were about a hundred members of the Union of Artists in the city. In addition to creating campaign posters, they were engaged in masking urban objects. For example, models of buildings were erected on the roofs of workshops, creating the illusion of residential areas.

With the high-rise dominants of the city - domes and spiers - they did this: gilded by electroplating (for example, the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral), painted with oil gray paint to match the sky (the paint can be washed off from such gilding), and covered with gold leaf covered with huge covers.

Since most of the climbers were called to the front, participants were attracted for these works. sports section DSO "Art": pianist O. A. Firsova, secretary of the DSO A. I. Prigozheva, employee of the film studio "Lenfilm" A. A. Zemba, junior lieutenant M. M. Bobrov, cellist M. I. Shestakov, artist T. E. Wiesel. The team was led by architect S. N. Davydov and engineer L. A. Zhukovsky. The work was carried out in extreme conditions, each of the members of the brigade showed incredible self-control.

Energy workers and citizens broke through the energy blockade and launched tram traffic

After the blockade ring closed, an energy blockade began in the city. By February 1942, only one station was operating, carrying a load of only 3,000 kW, and when steam locomotives froze at the station at night and it completely stopped, the workers were able to start one locomotive with incredible efforts and set up the work of the enterprise.

To help with the energy supply of the city, 3,000 Leningraders went to fell wood, special women's teams were formed to harvest peat, and it was allowed to demolish all wooden buildings within the city.

Thanks to the efforts of people, at the end of February 1942, tram traffic was restored in the city - according to the recollections of Leningraders, this event made many perk up.

In the narrowest place of Lake Ladoga, it was decided to lay 120 kilometers of armored cable. There was no water, no steam, no electricity at the Sevkabel plant, but by the summer of 1942, the plant's workers were able to produce more than 100 kilometers of cable that can withstand a voltage of 10 kilovolts - 270 drums of 11 tons each.

Three construction battalions, divers, signalmen, with the help of mobilized workers from Leningrad enterprises, were able to lay a cable along the bottom of the lake - and on September 23, 1942, at 09:40, the energy of the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric station began to flow into the besieged city.

The blockade cable is still in use: it was raised from the bottom of Ladoga and laid under the sidewalk of Nevsky Prospekt.

5,000 people built railroad tracks on the Road of Life

In the winter of 1942–1943, the construction of a 35-kilometer pile-ice railway crossing began simultaneously from the two shores of Lake Ladoga. The construction was led by I. G. Zubkov, thanks to him a street in the Kirovsky district was named after him.

More than 5,000 people worked at the construction site - mobilized workers (mostly women) - and military builders. They worked around the clock, lived next to the construction site in dugouts. There were constant enemy attacks on the construction site, people fell through the ice, ice shifts broke already clogged piles, but in spite of everything, work continued anew.

On January 18, 1943, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts broke through the blockade of Leningrad. This road is no longer needed. Its builders were immediately transferred to work on the same bridge across the Neva at the site of the breakthrough.

During the blockade, composer Dmitri Shostakovich worked on the construction of defensive lines and, as part of the conservatory team, put out fires from incendiary bombs.

Despite the fact that Shostakovich asked to go to the front, he applied to Civil uprising, The Military Council of the front ordered the immediate evacuation of the composer and his family to Kuibyshev, where at the end of December 1941 he completed work on the famous Seventh Symphony.

Zookeepers rescue animals

The Leningrad zoo was closed only in the winter of 1941-1942. Already in the spring, exhausted employees began to prepare it to receive visitors. 162 animals were exhibited. Over the summer, about 7,400 Leningraders came to see them, which means that people needed a zoo in the besieged city.

Zoo employees, headed by director Nikolai Sokolov, restored buildings after the bombing, treated wounded animals, and searched for those who had escaped from destroyed enclosures. They collected the corpses of horses killed by shells in the fields, risking their lives, gathered vegetables in abandoned fields, mowed the remaining grass in all possible points of the city, collected mountain ash and acorns. The predators were fed with a mixture of grass and bagasse, sewn into the skins of rabbits. Rats were specially caught for the golden eagle.

Elephant Betty died from a bomb explosion in September 1941, and Hippo Beauty was able to survive thanks to the help of employee Evdokia Ivanovna Dashina. Every day, Evdokia Ivanovna brought a forty-bucket barrel of water on a sled from the Neva to take care of Beauty's skin, which, without constant moisturizing, began to crack.

In November 1941, a cub was born to the hamadryas Elsa. But the exhausted monkey had no milk. A nearby maternity hospital came to the rescue, providing a daily portion of donor milk. And the newborn hamadryas survived in the besieged city.

OHM staff in St. Isaac's Cathedral rescued museum valuables from suburban palaces

St. Isaac's Cathedral during the war years was the place where the exhibits of the Leningrad palace-museums were kept, which they managed to take out from Peterhof, Lomonosov, Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Gatchina - a total of 120 thousand museum items.

In the cathedral, the United Management of Museums (OHM) was created, where many employees of museums located in the territory occupied by the Nazis worked. The head (OHM) was Evdokia Ignatievna Ledinkina, the chief curator was Serafima Nikolaevna Badaeva, a researcher at the Gatchina Palace.

All employees were transferred to the barracks regime by order of the Administration of Palaces and Parks of Leningrad. They slept on plank beds, covered with clothes. In the first months of the siege, 62 employees of suburban museums lived in the cathedral, by the spring of 1942 there were only 40 of them. It was very damp in the basements, so the employees had to pull heavy boxes with exhibits out to dry, and drag them back in case of an alarm.

In May 2005, a memorial plaque with the names of those who preserved the treasures of national culture during the years of the siege was unveiled in the basement of the cathedral.

During the war years, the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing on St. Isaac's Square, 4 had huge collection grains. Several tons of various grain crops were stored in the institute's fund. They were intended for post-war reconstruction Agriculture. 28 employees of the institute died of starvation, but never touched a single grain, not a single grain of rice or a potato tuber.

Leningraders donated blood for the front

From the first days of the war, a mass of people went to the Leningrad Institute of Blood Transfusion (now the Russian Research Institute of Hematology and Transfusiology) who wanted to donate blood to help the wounded at the front. In 1941, almost 36 thousand Leningraders were registered as donors, in 1942 - almost 57 thousand, and in 1943-1944 - 34 thousand people each.

When donor depletion began, the single dose of blood sampling was reduced to 170 milliliters. Only in 1943, the dose was increased to 200 milliliters, and in 1944 - to 250. In total, during the war years, the institute prepared about 113 tons of canned blood.

Donors received special rations, but most of them refused monetary compensation after donating blood, and this money went to the defense fund. At the end of 1942, 510 thousand rubles were collected, and the management of the institute sent a telegram to I.V. Stalin, in which he asked to use these funds for the construction of the Leningrad Donor aircraft.

The newspapers "Smena" and "Leningradskaya Pravda", large-circulation newspapers of large factories continued to be published in the city, as well as all-Union publications were printed on matrices dropped from aircraft. Employees of newspapers and printing houses, at the cost of their lives and incredible efforts, continued to work as usual.

The newspaper "Leningradskaya Pravda" did not come out only once - on January 25, 1942, the number had already been typed up, but it could not be printed: on that day there was no electricity in the city.

A photo: aloban75.livejournal.com, integral-russia.ru, topic.lt, myhistori.ru, karpovka.com, kobona.ru, warheroes.ru, zoopicture.ru, isaak.spb.ru, sanktpeterburg.monavista.ru, regnum. ru, marina-shandar.livejournal.com, novayagazeta.ru, mir-i-mi.ucoz.ru, restec-expo.ru, 1944-2014.livejournal.com, waralbum.ru, miloserdie.ru

Instruction

After the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the enemy troops immediately moved to Leningrad. By the end of the summer-beginning of the fall of 1941, all transport routes of communication with the rest were cut off. Soviet Union. On September 4, daily shelling of the city began. On September 8, the "North" group took the source of the Neva. This day is considered to be the beginning of the blockade. Thanks to the "iron will of Zhukov" (according to the historian G. Salisbury), the enemy troops were stopped 4-7 kilometers from the city.

Hitler was convinced that Leningrad must be wiped off the face of the earth. He gave the order to surround the city with a dense ring and constantly shell and bomb. At the same time, none German soldier should not have entered the territory besieged Leningrad. In October-November 1941, several thousand incendiary bombs were dropped on the city. Most of them are for food warehouses. Thousands of tons of food were burned.

In January 1941 there were almost 3 million inhabitants in Leningrad. At the beginning of the war, at least 300 thousand refugees from other republics and regions of the USSR arrived in the city. On September 15, the norms for issuing products for ration cards. In November 1941 famine. People began to lose consciousness at work and on the streets of the city, dying from physical exhaustion. Several hundred people were convicted of cannibalism in March 1942 alone.

Food was delivered to the city by air and across Lake Ladoga. However, for several months of the year, the second route was blocked: in the autumn, so that the ice was strong enough to support cars, and in the spring, until the ice melted. Ladoga lake constantly shot through German troops.

In 1941, the front line soldiers received 500 grams of bread per day, the able-bodied population working for the benefit of Leningrad - 250 grams, soldiers (not from the front line), children, the elderly and employees - 125 grams each. In addition to bread, they were given practically nothing.

Only a part worked in the city water supply network and mainly due to street speakers. It was especially difficult for people in the winter of 1941-1942. In December, more than 52 thousand people died, in January-February - almost 200 thousand. People died not only from hunger, but also from the cold. Plumbing, heating and sewerage were turned off. Since October 1941, the average daily temperature has been 0 degrees. In May 1942 the temperature fell below zero several times. Climatic winter lasted 178 days, that is, almost 6 months.

At the beginning of the war, 85 orphanages were opened in Leningrad. In a month, 15 eggs, 1 kilogram of fat, 1.5 kilograms of meat and the same amount of sugar, 2.2 kilograms of cereals, 9 kilograms of bread, a pound of flour, 200 grams of dried fruits, 10 grams of tea and 30 grams of coffee were allocated per month for each of 30 thousand children. . The leadership of the city did not suffer from hunger. In the dining room of Smolny, officials could take caviar, cakes, vegetables and fruits. In party sanatoriums every day they gave ham, lamb, cheese, salmon, pies.

The turning point in the food situation came only at the end of 1942. In the bread, meat and dairy industries, food substitutes began to be used: cellulose for bread, soy flour, albumin, animal blood plasma for meat. Nutritional yeast began to be made from wood, and vitamin C was obtained from the infusion of pine needles.