From September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1943, Leningrad was tightly closed by a military blockade ring, the city was surrounded by fascist troops. On January 18, 1943, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts broke through the blockade, it was a turning point in the battle for the city. It was only in January 1944 that he was completely released. For 872 days Leningrad survived and fought. 
I just can’t get past this date and its significance for a million people, especially after a post from the author BabaYagaProtiv ... I am not a native Petersburger, but my family and I have become part of this city, its history, people's memory. My acquaintances and friends, whose families survived this terrible tragedy, truly celebrate this date. For example, my friend's grandmother drove a tram, and the grandparents of other friends worked at the Kirov factory, and others in the hospital. The stories of their "ordinary" exploits are passed on to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 
The evacuation of the city's residents began in June 1941. Explanatory work was carried out among the population about the need to leave Leningrad, since many residents did not want to leave their homes. Before the German attack on the USSR, there were no developed plans for the evacuation of the population of Leningrad - the possibility of the Germans reaching the city was considered minimal. After Leningrad was cut off from all strategic land supply lines with the rest of the country, the delivery of goods and ammunition to the city was organized along Lake Ladoga - the "Road of Life", as it is now called. 
Zoo after the bombing 
During the years of the blockade, according to various sources, from 600 thousand to 1.5 million people died, 97% of whom died of starvation. 
Barrage balloons on Nevsky Prospekt 
Women on the construction of an anti-tank ditch
Photos of a woman who survived the blockade. Made in May 1941, May 1942 and October 1942 respectively 
By order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of May 1, 1945, Leningrad, along with Stalingrad, Sevastopol and Odessa, was named a hero city for the heroism and courage shown by the inhabitants of the city during the blockade. On May 8, 1965, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Hero City of Leningrad was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal. In 2009 and 2014, a non-commercial and non-political campaign "The Ribbon of the Leningrad Victory" was held. Olive color symbolizes Victory, and green - the color of life. They also repeat the colors of the block of the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" - the main award of the blockade. 
For 872 terrible days, every minute, every second, the city lived in spite of its enemies: libraries, theaters worked, competitions were held, here is the story of tennis champion Natalya Vetoshnikova. But this is a story about the masters of the Leningrad puppet theater - there were 12 of them in the besieged city. In the winter of 1941, they all suffered from exhaustion, but they arranged a Christmas tree for the children of besieged Leningrad. The actors recited the story of Aladdin and the magic lamp, avoiding any mention of food. But most of the children sitting in the hall did not look at the screen, but at the cauldron with liquid oatmeal jelly - a New Year's treat. 
From the memoirs of a boy who came to the New Year tree:“In early January 1942, it was a frosty, overcast, cold day. My relatives told me that there would be a Christmas tree for children and that I should go there. I was then 10 years and 9 months old. There were quite a lot of children in the puppet theater where I went. We were invited to go from the large hall-foyer into the inner long room, which, as I remember, was perpendicular to the line of Nekrasov Street. Along this dark (there was no light) room was a long table. I remember that we were given a full three-course meal, including a meat patty. They gave me bread, which I put aside to take home, but ate it on the way (I wanted to eat). There was a feeling of cold. Where it stood and whether the tree itself was - I don’t remember. ”
By 2020, it is planned to build a museum and exhibition complex "Defense and Siege of Leningrad" in St. Petersburg on Smolnaya Embankment not far from the Smolny and Tauride Palaces. This project was named "The City that Endured" by Nikita Yavein's "Studio 44" team. The museum itself will consist of eight towers: four buildings will be devoted to science, culture, production and life of the besieged city, four more towers are intended for art installations with a "strong emotional impact." Their conditional names are: “Hunger”, “Cold”, “Fire” and “Sorrow”. 
In the center there will be an irregularly shaped chamber square, where an exposition dedicated to the diaries of the blockade survivors will be located. A Hall of Remembrance will be built above it. It will be covered with a dome with a small hole through which daylight will penetrate inside. The names of the victims of the blockade will be written on the walls. 
Now I watched the wonderful film by Roberto Benigni "Life is Beautiful", and once again I realized what a war of horror, pain and suffering. It is very disappointing that, thanks to certain propaganda, people, especially outside the countries of the former USSR, attribute the main contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany and its allies entirely to the United States. Completely forgetting and devaluing the feat of the entire Soviet people, therefore, I modestly hope to make a tiny contribution to historical truth and justice with my post. Thanks for reading.
Having captured Leningrad, Hitler planned thereby to open his way towards Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, and this meant a regular flow of aid from the allies. But Leningrad turned out to be a tough nut to crack, and was not going to give up. This blockade will forever remain in world history as a military-strategic event. For the first time, the method of a two-sided powerful blow to the enemy was applied. Namely, from the inside of the besieged city and from the outside. Such an offensive was not only perfectly planned and prepared, but also skillfully carried out. Partisans played a huge role in the liberation of the city and lifting the blockade. The memory of the fallen soldiers will forever remain in the hearts of every person.
Since August 1941, there have been battles near Leningrad, and in early September, access to the city was blocked by rail, and then completely by land.
When the blockade was just beginning, the city did not need anything - there was enough fuel and food to live for a long time. But German aviation dealt a heavy blow to food warehouses. Famine began in Leningrad. Hitler set himself the goal of completely destroying and wiping Leningrad off the face of the earth. Soviet troops rebuffed the Germans while trying to break through the blockade ring. The Nazis did not like this very much, and they decided to starve people, thereby achieving their victory in such a cruel way. The Germans carried out daily air raids and bomb drops not just every day, but two or three times a day. First of all, they tried to destroy the warehouses where food supplies were stored. Further, factories and plants that produced products for the front were destroyed. The Germans tried with all their might to intimidate people, but the Soviet people did not bow down and did not give up. In the winter of 1941-1942, of course, there was no heating. People burned books, furniture, wooden buildings and small buildings. But at the same time, the locals did not quit their jobs. Teenagers worked in the places of their fathers, grandfathers and brothers who went to the front, kindergartens, hospitals, libraries and theaters worked.
The city had a connection only with Lake Ladoga. However, the opponents did not allow them to use the only thread connecting the besieged city with the land, as a result of which thousands and hundreds of thousands of deaths began. The situation was aggravated by winter, when problems with movement began. The Germans regularly shelled the "road of life", but the Soviet troops did not stop, and tried again and again to deliver provisions, ammunition and fuel to the city. They took back children, wounded soldiers and sick, dying citizens. The blockade of Leningrad lasted a long and exhausting 872 days.
- July 1941 - The Wehrmacht went on the offensive against Leningrad for the first time.
- 1941, August 30 - The Germans cut the railways that connected the city with the entire USSR.
- September 8, 1941 - Complete blockade of the city from land.
- 1941, November - Complete shutdown of the city from electricity.
- 1942, May-June - Laying of a pipeline for transporting oil products to Leningrad along the bottom of Lake Ladoga.
- 1942, autumn - The laying of the energy cable, as it was called the "cable of life", was completed. The city receives electricity.
- January 10, 1943 - Soviet troops carried out the offensive operation "Iskra".
- January 12, 1942 - The troops of the Soviet army launched counter attacks between Sinyavin and Shlisselburg.
- 1943, January 18 - Breaking the blockade of Leningrad. Improved rail and road links.
- January 14, 1944 - The offensive of the Soviet army.
- January 27, 1944 - The complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad.
The city on the Neva, Leningrad, was under blockade for just over 29 months. It was the worst time in the history of the entire city. Thousands of people died of hunger, thousands of cold in terrible frosts. It would seem that the bombing and shelling should have pacified this people and forced them to surrender, but the Soviet people never knelt before the invaders. So it is this time. They steadfastly endured and cursed Hitler and his entire army. They continued to go to work and help their army by making large quantities of shells, ammunition, uniforms and weapons.
This video tells about the blockade of Leningrad.
The blockade from Leningrad was finally lifted in 1944 on January 27.
The Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts participated in Operation Iskra, which was aimed at breaking through the blockade. Thanks to correct calculations, the courage of the soldiers, the will to win, the blockade was broken. To the commander of the Leningrad Front, Marshal of the USSR Govorov L.A. and the commander of the Volkhov Front Meretskov K.A. was subsequently awarded the extraordinary rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.
How was the blockade of Leningrad?
The blockade of Leningrad began from the moment the last land road to the city was blocked. The bombing continued every day for several months. A terrible food savings began. They were issued on cards. The weight of the bread was indicated on the food card according to the profession. The workers received the most. But the Germans destroyed the warehouses with food, so the norms of bread decreased. Delivering food to the city was extremely difficult. The only road left was on Lake Ladoga. But the Germans regularly shelled it, and cars simply did not reach the city. People died of starvation much more often than from shelling. They lost consciousness and died right at their workplaces, on the street, in the store. The city was buried in corpses, and then rats filled the city. After the blockade was lifted, cats were brought to the city, on which they hoped to destroy these vile and dangerous rodents.
This video presents a unique documentary about the siege of Leningrad. Don't forget to leave your questions, comments and
Elena Tynyanaya
January 27
noted. It is impossible to remember without a shudder the horrors of the Great Patriotic War. It will forever remain black pages in the history of our country. Leningrad blockade was the worst event for Leningraders. January 27 is a special date that even preschoolers know in our city.
And on the eve of this great event, the children and I looked at books, photographs besieged city watched the presentation. Yesterday the children constructed models of the memorial "broken ring". The children themselves chose this monument for crafts.
And today we had a thematic holiday, to which we invited Oleg Vasilyevich, who met this terrible time at the age of seven. We remembered those tragic events, recited poems and sang songs for our honored guest. And then Oleg Vasilievich Yudin told us how he went to the Obvodny Canal for water, how he stood for hours in the cold with a card for bread, how they boiled pieces of wallpaper, glue, burned furniture ... The most indelible impression on children(and for adults too) produced a story about how, standing in line with cards, he ran out of bread in front of him, and he, a little boy, begged the woman who gave out the bread to give at least something to his little sisters, who were exhausted waiting for their piece of bread. The woman collected crumbs and a few small crusts and gave them to him. And the boy rushed home with all his might, afraid that someone would take away or he would drop these precious crumbs.
And when we watched the presentation, the children especially remembered Tanya Savicheva, Leningrad schoolgirl, who kept a diary, where she recorded how, one by one, relatives died of hunger in front of her eyes. I myself could never hold back tears, reading the last pages diary: The Savichevs are dead. All died. Only Tanya remained
We honored the heroes who defended our city with a minute of silence.
LOW BOW AND ETERNAL MEMORY TO THEIR IMMORTAL FEAT!
WE REMEMBER! WE ARE PROUD!
Related publications:
Project "Day of lifting the blockade" The project of the group "Vitaminki" "The Day of the Lifting of the Blockade" Type of project: creative - informational Terms of the project: short-term (1 week).
September 17 - Bryansk Liberation Day. Creativity of children on the theme "Bryansk is my favorite land" We are moving further and further away from the military.
Don't you dare forget the victory won by blood, Descendant. And then we would not have to fight again, Like your ancestors. Vladimir Khurkin. Among many.
Let machine guns not scribble, And formidable cannons be silent, Let smoke not swirl in the sky, Let the sky be blue, People and cities do not die. The world is needed.
Abstract of the open event is dedicated to "January 27 - the day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade" 2015 Tasks: To expand children's knowledge about the heroic defense of Leningrad. Tell children about the life of adults and.
Musical and literary composition in honor of the 73rd anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad for a group preparatory to school Children enter the hall in pairs and stand in two columns to Gliere's Hymn to the Great City. 1. To you, the heroic defenders of Leningrad! 2. To you, the participants.
Presentation "Voronezh Liberation Day" Topic: January 25 - the day of the liberation of Voronezh. The presentation was created to conduct a thematic lesson within the framework of the thematic week dedicated to.
January 27, the day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad, is special in the history of our country. Today, on this date, the Day of Military Glory is celebrated annually. The city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) itself received the title of Hero City on May 1, 1945. On May 8, 1965, the northern capital was awarded the "Gold Star" medal and the Medal for Leningrad was also received by 1.496 million inhabitants of this city.
"Leningrad under siege" - a project dedicated to the events of that time
The country has preserved the memory of these heroic events to this day. January 27 (the day the blockade of Leningrad was lifted) in 2014 is already the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the city. The Archival Committee of St. Petersburg presented a project called "Leningrad under siege". On the Internet portal "Archives of St. Petersburg" a virtual exhibition of various archival documents relating to the history of this city during the blockade was created. About 300 historical originals of the time were published. These documents are grouped into ten different sections, each of which is accompanied by expert comments. All of them reflect various aspects of life in Leningrad during the blockade.
Reconstruction of the wartime situation
Today it is not easy for young Petersburgers to imagine that the magnificent city-museum in which they live was sentenced to complete destruction by the Germans in 1941. However, he did not capitulate when he was surrounded by Finnish and German divisions, and managed to win, although he was seemingly doomed to death. In order for the current generation of city residents to have an idea of what their great-grandfathers and grandfathers had to endure in those years (which the surviving residents of besieged Leningrad remember as the most terrible time), one of the modern streets of the city, Italian, as well as Manezhnaya the area was "returned" to the 70th anniversary in the winter of 1941-1944. This project was called "Street of Life".
In the aforementioned places in St. Petersburg there are various cultural institutions, as well as theaters, which did not stop their activities even in those difficult blockade years. Here, the windows of the houses were sealed with crosses, as was done in Leningrad at that time in order to protect against air raids, barricades from sandbags on the pavements were reconstructed, anti-aircraft guns, military trucks were brought to complete the reproduction of the situation of that time. So the seventieth anniversary of the siege of Leningrad was marked. According to estimates, approximately 3,000 buildings were destroyed by shells during the events of those years, and more than 7,000 were significantly damaged. Residents of besieged Leningrad erected various defensive structures to protect themselves from shelling. They built about 4 thousand bunkers and pillboxes, equipped about 22 thousand different firing points in buildings, and also erected 35 kilometers of anti-tank obstacles and barricades on the streets of the city.
Siege of Leningrad: main events and figures
The defense of the city, which began on September 8, 1941, lasted about 900 days and ended in 1944. January 27 - All these years, the only way through which the necessary products were delivered to the besieged city, as well as the seriously wounded and children were taken out, was laid in winter on the ice of Lake Ladoga. It was the Road of Life of besieged Leningrad. We will talk about it in more detail in our article.
The blockade was broken on January 18, 1943, and Leningrad was completely cleared on January 27. And it happened only the next year - in 1944. Thus, the residents had to wait a long time before the blockade of the city of Leningrad was finally lifted. Died during this period, according to various sources, from 400 thousand to 1.5 million inhabitants. The following number figured at the Nuremberg trials - 632 thousand dead. Only 3% of them - from shelling and bombing. The rest of the inhabitants died of starvation.
Beginning of events
Today, military historians believe that not a single city on earth in the entire history of warfare gave as many lives for the Victory as Leningrad did at that time. On the day (1941, June 22), in this city, as well as throughout the region, martial law was immediately introduced. On the night of June 22-23, fascist German aviation tried to make a raid on Leningrad for the first time. This attempt ended unsuccessfully. None of the enemy aircraft was allowed to enter the city.
The next day, June 24, the Leningrad Military District was transformed into the Northern Front. Kronstadt covered the city from the sea. It was one of the bases located at that time in the Baltic Sea. With the advance of the enemy troops on the territory of the region, a heroic defense began on July 10, which the history of Leningrad can be proud of. On September 6, the first Nazi bombs were dropped on the city, after which it began to be systematically subjected to air raids. In just three months, from September to November 1941, 251 air raid alerts were issued.
Loudspeakers and famous metronome
However, the stronger the threat faced the hero city, the more united the inhabitants of Leningrad opposed the enemy. About 1,500 loudspeakers were installed on the streets to warn Leningraders about air raids that were taking place in the first months. The population was notified by radio network about the air raid alert. The famous metronome, which went down in history as a cultural monument of the time of resistance, was broadcast through this network. Its fast rhythm meant that a military alarm had been announced, and its slow rhythm meant a retreat. Mikhail Melaned, the announcer, announced the alarm. There was not a single area in the city to which an enemy projectile could not reach. Therefore, the streets and areas in which the risk of being hit was the greatest were calculated. Here, people hung out signs or wrote with paint that this place was the most dangerous during shelling.
According to the plan of Adolf Hitler, the city was to be completely destroyed, and the troops defending it were to be destroyed. The Germans, having failed in a number of attempts to break through the defenses of Leningrad, decided to starve him out.
The first shelling of the city
Every inhabitant, including the elderly and children, became the defender of Leningrad. A special army was created in which thousands of people rallied into partisan detachments and fought the enemy on the fronts, participated in the construction of defensive lines. The evacuation of the population from the city, as well as the cultural values of various museums and industrial equipment, began already in the first months of hostilities. On August 20, enemy troops occupied the city of Chudovo, blocking the railway in the Leningrad-Moscow direction.
However, the divisions of the army under the name "North" failed to break into Leningrad on the move, although the front came close to the city. Systematic shelling began on 4 September. Four days later, the enemy captured the city of Shlisselburg, as a result of which land communication with the Great Land of Leningrad was stopped.
This event was the beginning of the blockade of the city. It turned out to be over 2.5 million inhabitants, including 400 thousand children. By the beginning of the blockade, the city did not have the necessary food supplies. As of September 12, they were calculated for only 30-35 days (bread), 45 days (cereals) and 60 days (meat). Even with the strictest economy, coal could last only until November, and liquid fuel - only until the end of the current one. Food rations, which were introduced under the rationing system, began to gradually decline.
Hunger and cold
The situation was aggravated by the fact that the winter of 1941 was early in Russia, and in Leningrad it was very fierce. Often the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. Thousands of people died of hunger and cold. The peak of mortality was the time from November 20 to December 25 of this difficult 1941. During this period, the norms for issuing bread to fighters were significantly reduced - up to 500 grams per day. For those who worked in the hot shops, they amounted to only 375 grams, and for the rest of the workers and engineers - 250. For other segments of the population (children, dependents and employees) - only 125 grams. There were practically no other products. More than 4,000 people died of starvation every day. This figure was 100 times higher than the pre-war mortality rate. At the same time, male mortality significantly prevailed over female. By the end of the war, representatives of the weaker sex made up the bulk of the inhabitants of Leningrad.
The Role of the Road of Life in Victory
Communication with the country was carried out, as already mentioned, by the Road of Life of besieged Leningrad, passing through Ladoga. It was the only highway that was available between September 1941 and March 1943. It was along this road that the evacuation of industrial equipment and the population from Leningrad took place, the supply of food to the city, as well as weapons, ammunition, reinforcements and fuel. In total, over 1,615,000 tons of cargo was delivered to Leningrad along this route, and about 1.37 million people were evacuated. At the same time, in the first winter, about 360 thousand tons of cargo were received, and 539.4 thousand residents were evacuated. A pipeline was laid along the bottom of the lake in order to supply oil products.
Protecting the Road of Life
Constantly bombed and shelled the Road of Life by the Nazi troops in order to paralyze this only saving way. To protect it from air strikes, as well as to ensure uninterrupted operation, the means and forces of the country's air defense were involved. In various memorial ensembles and monuments today, the heroism of the people who made it possible for uninterrupted movement along it is immortalized. The main place among them is occupied by the "Broken Ring" - a composition on Lake Ladoga, as well as an ensemble called "Rumbolovskaya Mountain", located in Vsevolzhsk; in the village of Kovalevo), which is dedicated to the children who lived in Leningrad in those years, as well as a memorial complex installed in the village called Chernaya Rechka, where the soldiers who died on the Ladoga road rested in a mass grave.
Lifting the blockade of Leningrad
The blockade of Leningrad was broken for the first time, as we have already said, in 1943, on January 18th. This was carried out by the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts together with the Baltic Fleet. The Germans were pushed back. Operation "Iskra" took place during the general offensive of the Soviet Army, which was widely deployed in the winter of 1942-1943 after the enemy troops were surrounded near Stalingrad. Army "North" acted against the Soviet troops. On January 12, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts went on the offensive, and six days later they united. On January 18, the city of Shlisselburg was liberated, and the southern coast of the strategically important Lake Ladoga was also cleared of the enemy. A corridor was formed between it and the front line, the width of which was 8-11 km. Through it for 17 days (just think about this period!) Automobile and railway routes were laid. After that, the supply of the city improved dramatically. The blockade was completely lifted on 27 January. The day of lifting the siege of Leningrad was marked by fireworks that lit up the sky of this city.
The siege of Leningrad was the most brutal in the history of mankind. Most of the residents who died at that time are buried today at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery. The defense lasted, to be precise, 872 days. Leningrad of the pre-war time after that was no more. The city has changed a lot, many buildings had to be restored, some were rebuilt.
Diary of Tanya Savicheva
From the terrible events of those years, there are many testimonies. One of them is Tanya's diary. Leningradka began to conduct it at the age of 12. It was not published, since it consists of only nine terrible records about how members of the family of this girl died in succession in Leningrad at that time. Tanya herself also failed to survive. This notebook was presented at the Nuremberg trials as an argument accusing fascism.
This document is located today in the museum of the history of the hero city, and a copy is kept in the showcase of the memorial of the aforementioned Piskarevsky cemetery, where 570 thousand Leningraders were buried during the blockade of those who died of starvation or bombing in the period from 1941 to 1943, as well as in Moscow on Poklonnaya Hill .
The hand, which was losing strength due to hunger, wrote sparingly, unevenly. Struck by suffering, the child's soul was no longer capable of living emotions. The girl only recorded the terrible events of her life - "death visits" to her family's house. Tanya wrote that all the Savichevs were dead. However, she never found out that not everyone died, their race continued. Sister Nina was rescued and taken out of the city. She returned in 1945 to Leningrad, to her native home, and found Tanya's notebook among the plaster, fragments and bare walls. Brother Misha also recovered from a severe wound received at the front. The girl herself was discovered by employees of the sanitary teams who went around the houses of the city. She fainted from hunger. She, barely alive, was evacuated to the village of Shatki. Here, many orphans got stronger, but Tanya never recovered. For two years, doctors fought for her life, but the girl still died. She died in 1944, July 1st.
00:21 — REGNUM On this day 75 years ago, on January 18, 1943, the enemy blockade of Leningrad was broken through by Soviet troops. It took another year of stubborn fighting to completely eliminate it. The day of breaking the blockade is always celebrated in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Today the President of Russia will visit the residents of both regions Vladimir Putin, whose father fought and was seriously wounded in the battles on the Nevsky Piglet.
The breakthrough of the blockade was the result of Operation Iskra, which was carried out by the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, united south of Lake Ladoga and restored land communications between Leningrad and the mainland. On the same day, the city of Shlisselburg was liberated from the enemy, "locking" the entrance to the Neva from Ladoga. Breaking the blockade of Leningrad was the first example in military history of the release of a large city by a simultaneous strike from outside and from within.
As part of the shock groups of the two Soviet fronts, which were supposed to break through the powerful defensive fortifications of the enemy and eliminate the Shlisselburg-Sinyavino ledge, there were more than 300 thousand soldiers and officers, about 5 thousand guns and mortars, more than 600 tanks and more than 800 aircraft.
On the night of January 12, the positions of the German fascists were subjected to an unexpected air raid by Soviet bombers and attack aircraft, and in the morning massive artillery preparation began using large-caliber barrels. It was carried out in such a way as not to damage the ice of the Neva, along which the infantry of the Leningrad Front, reinforced by tanks and artillery, soon moved on the offensive. And from the east, the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front went on the offensive against the enemy. She was given the task of capturing the numbered workers' settlements north of Sinyavino, which the Germans had turned into fortified strongholds.
During the first day of the offensive, the advancing Soviet units with heavy fighting managed to advance deep into the German defenses by 2-3 kilometers. The German command, faced with the threat of dismemberment and encirclement of its troops, organized an urgent transfer of reserves to the place of the breakthrough planned by the Soviet units, which made the battles as fierce and bloody as possible. Our troops were also reinforced with a second echelon of attackers, new tanks and guns.
On January 15 and 16, 1943, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts fought for separate strongholds. On the morning of January 16, the assault on Shlisselburg was launched. On January 17, the stations Podgornaya and Sinyavino were taken. As former Wehrmacht officers later recalled, the control of German units in the places of the Soviet offensive was disrupted, there were not enough shells and equipment, a single line of defense was crushed, and individual units were surrounded.
The Nazi troops were cut off from reinforcements and defeated in the area of workers' settlements, the remnants of the broken units, throwing weapons and equipment, scattered through the forests and surrendered. Finally, on January 18, units of the strike group of troops of the Volkhov Front, after artillery preparation, went on the attack and joined the troops of the Leningrad Front, capturing workers' settlements Nos. 1 and 5.
The blockade of Leningrad was broken. On the same day, Shlisselburg was completely liberated, and the entire southern shore of Lake Ladoga came under the control of the Soviet command, which soon made it possible to connect Leningrad with the country by road and rail and save hundreds of thousands of people who remained in the city besieged by the enemy from starvation.
According to historians, the total combat losses of the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts during the operation "Iskra" amounted to 115,082 people, of which 33,940 people were irretrievable. Soldiers and officers of the Red Army sacrificed themselves to save Leningraders who did not surrender to the enemy from a painful death. In military terms, the success of the Iskra operation meant the final loss of the enemy's strategic initiative in the northwestern direction, as a result of which the complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad became inevitable. It happened a year later, on January 27, 1944.
“The breaking of the blockade eased the suffering and hardships of the people of Leningrad, instilled in all Soviet citizens confidence in victory, opened the way to the complete liberation of the city, - recalled today, January 18, in his blog on the website of the Federation Council, the speaker of the upper house Valentina Matvienko. — The inhabitants and defenders of the city on the Neva did not allow themselves to be broken, they withstood all the tests, once again confirming that greatness of spirit, courage and selflessness are stronger than bullets and shells. In the end, it is not force that always triumphs, but truth and justice.”
As already reported IA REGNUM, on the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the blockade, Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit the region. He will lay flowers at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery, where many thousands of Leningrad residents and defenders of the city rested, visit the Nevsky Piglet military-historical complex and the Breakthrough Panorama Museum in the Kirovsky District of the Leningrad Region, meet with veterans of the Great Patriotic War and representatives of the search detachments working on the battlefields of that war.
Veterans and blockade survivors of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, activists of public, military-historical and youth movements will gather at noon at a solemn rally at the Sinyavino Heights memorial, dedicated to the breaking of the blockade, in the village of Sinyavino, Kirovsky District, Leningrad Region.
At 17:00 in the center of St. Petersburg there will be a flower-laying ceremony at the memorial sign "Days of Siege". During the event, pupils of the association of teenage and youth clubs "Perspektiva" of the Central District will read poems about the Great Patriotic War, and the blockade survivors will share stories about life and death in the besieged city. Candles will be lit in memory of the dead, after which flowers will be laid at the memorial plaques.
The blockade of Leningrad by German and Finnish troops lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During the blockade, according to various sources, from 650 thousand to 1.5 million people died, mainly from starvation. The blockade was completely lifted on January 27, 1944.
