The true story of the siege of Leningrad is a tribute to its victims. A true story about the blockade and animals in Leningrad

Leningrad was surrounded on September 8, 1941. At the same time, there was no enough supplies that could provide the local population with essential goods, including food, for a long time.

During the blockade, front-line soldiers were given 500 grams of bread a day on ration cards, workers at factories - 250 (about 5 times less than the actual required number of calories), employees, dependents and children - 125 in general. Therefore, the first cases of starvation were recorded after a few weeks after the ring of the Blockade was closed.

In conditions of an acute shortage of food, people were forced to survive as best they could. 872 days of the siege is a tragic, but at the same time heroic page in the history of Leningrad.

It was incredibly difficult during the Siege of Leningrad for families with children, especially the smallest. Indeed, in the face of a shortage of food, many mothers in the city ceased to produce breast milk... However, women found ways to save their baby. History knows several examples of how nursing mothers cut their nipples on their breasts so that babies receive at least some calories from the mother's blood.

It is known that during the Siege, the starving residents of Leningrad were forced to eat domestic and street animals, mainly dogs and cats. However, it is not uncommon for pets to become the main breadwinners of entire families. For example, there is a story about a cat named Vaska, who not only survived the Blockade, but also brought mice and rats almost every day, of which a huge number were bred in Leningrad. From these rodents, people cooked food in order to somehow satisfy their hunger. In the summer, Vaska was taken out into the countryside to hunt birds.

By the way, after the war, two monuments to cats from the so-called "meowing division" were erected in Leningrad after the war, which made it possible to cope with the invasion of rodents, destroying the last food supplies.

Read about how cats literally saved the besieged Leningrad here: http://amarok-man.livejournal.com/264324.html " How cats saved Leningrad"

Hunger in Leningrad reached such a degree that people ate everything that contained calories and could be digested by the stomach. One of the most "popular" products in the city was flour glue, which held the wallpaper in houses. It was scraped off paper and walls, so that it was then mixed with boiling water and thus made at least a little nutritious soup. Similarly, building glue was used, the bars of which were sold in the markets. Spices were added to it and jelly was cooked.

Jelly was also made from leather products - jackets, boots and belts, including army ones. This skin itself, often soaked in tar, was impossible to eat because of the unbearable smell and taste, and therefore people got the hang of first burning the material on fire, burning out the tar, and only then boiling nutritious jelly from the leftovers.

But wood glue and leather products are only a small part of the so-called food substitutes, which were actively used to fight hunger in besieged Leningrad. By the time the Blockade began, the factories and warehouses of the city contained a fairly large amount of material that could be used in the bread, meat, confectionery, dairy and canning industries, as well as in public catering. Edible products at this time were cellulose, intestines, technical albumin, needles, glycerin, gelatin, cake, etc. They were used to make food as industrial enterprises as well as ordinary people.

One of the actual reasons for the famine in Leningrad is the destruction by the Germans of the Badayevsky warehouses, where the food supplies of the multimillion city were stored. The bombing and subsequent fire completely destroyed a huge amount of food that could have saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. However, the inhabitants of Leningrad even managed to find some food in the ashes of former warehouses. Eyewitnesses say that people gathered land at the place where the sugar reserves burned down. They then strained this material, and boiled and drank the cloudy sweetish water. This high-calorie liquid was jokingly called "coffee".

Many surviving residents of Leningrad say that one of the common products in the city in the first months of the Blockade was cabbage cabbage. The cabbage itself in the fields around the city was harvested in August-September 1941, but it root system with the nomads remained in the fields. When the problems with food in besieged Leningrad made themselves felt, the townspeople began to travel to the suburbs to dig out of the frozen ground the plant bits that had recently seemed unnecessary.

And during the warm season, the inhabitants of Leningrad literally ate pasture. Grass, foliage and even tree bark were used due to the small nutritional properties. These foods were ground and mixed with others to make tortillas and cookies. The people who survived the Blockade said that hemp was especially popular - there is a lot of oil in this product.

An amazing fact, but during the War, the Leningrad Zoo continued its work. Of course, some of the animals were taken out of it even before the start of the Blockade, but many animals still remained in their enclosures. Some of them died during the bombing, but a large number survived the war thanks to the help of sympathizers. At the same time, the zoo staff had to go to all sorts of tricks to feed their pets. For example, to force tigers and vultures to eat grass, it was wrapped in the skins of dead rabbits and other animals.

And in November 1941, a replenishment even happened at the zoo - a baby was born to Elsa's hamadryas. But since the mother herself, due to a meager diet, did not have milk, milk formula for the monkey was supplied by one of the Leningrad maternity hospitals. The kid managed to survive and survive the Blockade.

The siege of Leningrad lasted 872 days from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. According to the documents of the Nuremberg trials, during this time 632 thousand people from the 3 million pre-war population died from hunger, cold and bombing.

The first ordeal that befell the courageous Leningraders was regular shelling (the first of them date back to September 4, 1941) and air strikes (although for the first time enemy aircraft tried to penetrate the city limits on the night of June 23, but they succeeded only on September 6). However, the German aviation did not drop the shells chaotically, but according to a clearly verified scheme: their task was to destroy as much as possible more civilians, as well as strategically important facilities.

On the afternoon of September 8, 30 enemy bombers appeared in the sky over the city. High-explosive and incendiary bombs rained down. The fire engulfed the entire southeastern part of Leningrad. The fire began to devour the wooden storage facilities of the Badayevsky food warehouses. Flour, sugar and other types of food were burning. It took almost 5 hours to calm the conflagration. "Hunger is hanging over the multimillion population - there are no Badaevsky food warehouses." “At the Badayevsky warehouses on September 8, a fire destroyed three thousand tons of flour and two and a half tons of sugar. This is what is consumed by the population in just three days. The main part of the reserves was dispersed to other bases ..., seven times more than was burned up at the Badayevskys. " But the products thrown away by the explosion were not available to the population, since cordon was set up around the warehouses.

During the blockade, over 100 thousand incendiary and 5 thousand high-explosive aerial bombs, about 150 thousand shells were dropped on the city. In the autumn months of 1941 alone, the air raid warning was announced 251 times. The average duration of the shelling in November 1941 was 9 hours.

Without losing hope to take Leningrad by storm, on September 9 the Germans launched a new offensive. Main blow was applied from the area west of Krasnogvardeysk. But the command of the Leningrad Front transferred part of the troops from the Karelian Isthmus to the most threatening sectors, and replenished the reserve units with detachments of the people's militia. These measures allowed the front to stabilize on the southern and southwestern approaches to the city.

It was clear that the Nazis' plan to seize Leningrad had failed. Having failed to achieve the previously set goals, the top of the Wehrmacht came to the conclusion that only a long siege of the city and incessant air raids could lead to its capture. One of the documents of the operational department of the General Staff of the Third Reich "On the Siege of Leningrad" dated September 21, 1941 said:

“B) First, we blockade Leningrad (hermetically) and destroy the city, if possible, with artillery and aircraft.

c) When terror and famine have done their job in the city, we will open separate gates and release the unarmed people.

d) The remnants of the "fortress garrison" (as the enemy called the civilian population of Leningrad - ed. note) will remain there for the winter. In the spring we will penetrate the city ... we will take out all that is left alive into the depths of Russia, or we will take prisoner, we will raze Leningrad to the ground and transfer the area north of the Neva to Finland. "

These were the plans of the foe. But the Soviet command could not put up with such circumstances. September 10, 1941 is the date of the first attempt to release the blockade of Leningrad. The Sinyavinskaya operation of the troops of the 54th separate army and the Leningrad Front began with the aim of restoring the land connection of the city with the country. The Soviet troops lacked strength and could not complete the abandoned task. The operation ended on September 26.

Meanwhile, the situation in the city itself became more and more difficult. In besieged Leningrad, 2.544 million people remained, including about 400 thousand children. Despite the fact that from the middle of September the "air bridge" began to operate, and a few days earlier, small lake ships with flour began to moor to the Leningrad coast, food stocks were decreasing at a catastrophic rate.

July 18, 1941 Council People's Commissars The USSR adopted a decree to introduce cards for the most important food products (bread, meat, fats, sugar, etc.) and for essential manufactured goods (by the end of summer by cards, such goods were already issued throughout the country). They set the following norms for bread:

Workers and engineers and technicians in the coal, oil, metallurgical industries were entitled to from 800 to 1200 gr. bread a day.

The rest of the mass of workers and engineering and technical workers (for example, industries light industry) were issued in 500 gr. of bread.

Employees various industries of the national economy received 400-450 gr. bread a day.

Dependents and children had to be content with 300-400 grams. bread a day.

However, by September 12, Leningrad, cut off from the mainland, remained: grain and flour ─ for 35 days, cereals and pasta ─ for 30 days, meat and meat products ─ for 33, fats ─ for 45, sugar and confectionery ─ for 60 days. day in Leningrad there was the first reduction in installed throughout the Union daily norms bread: 500 gr. for workers, 300 gr. for employees and children, 250 gr. for dependents.

But the enemy did not calm down. Here is the entry from September 18, 1941, appeared in the diary of the chief of staff of the ground forces of fascist Germany, Colonel-General F. Halder: “The ring around Leningrad is not yet closed as tightly as we would like ... The enemy has concentrated large human and material forces and means ... The situation here will be tense until, as an ally, he makes himself feel hungry. " Herr Halder, to the great regret for the inhabitants of Leningrad, thought absolutely right: hunger was really felt more and more every day.

From October 1, the townspeople began to receive 400 grams. (workers) and 300 gr. (other). Food, delivered by waterway through Ladoga (for the entire autumn navigation ─ from September 12 to November 15 ─ 60 tons of provisions were brought in and 39 thousand people were evacuated), did not cover even a third of the needs of the urban population.

Another significant problem was the acute shortage of energy resources. Before the war, Leningrad plants and factories operated on imported fuel, but the siege disrupted all supplies, and the available supplies were melting before our eyes. The city is under the threat of a fuel hunger. To prevent the emerging energy crisis from becoming a catastrophe, on October 8, the Leningrad Executive Committee of Working People's Deputies decided to procure firewood in the regions north of Leningrad. There were sent detachments of logging companies, which consisted mainly of women. In mid-October, the detachments began their work, but from the very beginning it became clear that the logging plan would not be fulfilled. The Leningrad youth also made a significant contribution to resolving the fuel issue (about 2 thousand Komsomol members, mostly girls, took part in the logging). But even their work was not enough for the full or almost complete provision of the enterprises with energy. With the onset of cold weather, the factories stopped one after another.

Only the lifting of the siege could make the life of Leningrad easier, for which on October 20 the Sinyavinskaya operation of the troops of the 54th and 55th armies and the Nevsky operational group of the Leningrad Front started. It coincided with the offensive of the German fascist troops on Tikhvin, therefore, on October 28, the deblockade had to be postponed due to the aggravated situation in the Tikhvin direction.

The German command's interest in Tikhvin arose after the failures with the capture of Leningrad from the south. It was this place that was a hole in the encirclement ring around Leningrad. And as a result of heavy fighting on November 8, the Nazis managed to occupy this town. And this meant one thing: Leningrad lost the last railroad along which cargoes went to the city along Lake Ladoga. But the Svir River remained inaccessible to the enemy. Moreover: as a result of the Tikhvin offensive operation in mid-November, the Germans were driven back across the Volkhov River. The liberation of Tikhvin took place only a month after his capture - on December 9.

On November 8, 1941, Hitler arrogantly uttered: “Leningrad itself will raise its hands: it will inevitably fall, sooner or later. No one will get free from there, no one will break through our lines. Leningrad is destined to starve to death. " It might have seemed to someone then that it would be so. On November 13, another decrease in the norms for the issuance of bread was recorded: workers and engineering and technical workers were given 300 grams each, the rest of the population ─ 150 grams each. But when navigation in Ladoga had almost ceased, and virtually no provisions were delivered to the city, even this meager ration had to be cut. The lowest bread supply rates for the entire period of the blockade were set at the following levels: workers were given 250 grams each, employees, children and dependents - 125 grams each; troops of the first line and warships ─ 300 gr. bread and 100 gr. crackers, the rest of the military units ─ 150 gr. bread and 75 gr. crackers. It is worth remembering that all such products were not baked from first-class or even second-class wheat flour. The blockade bread of that time had the following composition:

rye flour ─ 40%,

cellulose ─ 25%,

meal ─ 20%,

barley flour ─ 5%,

malt ─ 10%,

cake (if available, replaced cellulose),

bran (if available, meal was replaced).

In the besieged city, bread was undoubtedly the highest value. For a loaf of bread, a bag of cereal or a can of stew, people were ready to give even family jewelry. Have different people there were different ways of dividing a slice of bread, which was given out every morning: someone cut it into thin slices, someone cut it into tiny cubes, but they all agreed on one thing: the most delicious and satisfying is the crust. But what kind of satiety can we talk about when each of the Leningraders lost weight before our eyes?

In such conditions, it was necessary to recall the ancient instincts of hunters and food getters. Thousands of hungry people flocked to the outskirts of the city, to the fields. Sometimes, under a hail of enemy shells, emaciated women and children shoveled the snow with their hands, dug the ground ossified from frost in order to find at least a few potatoes, rhizomes or cabbage leaves remaining in the soil. Authorized State Committee Defense for the food supply of Leningrad Dmitry Vasilyevich Pavlov in his essay "Leningrad in the Siege" wrote: different ways searching for food: they caught rooks, fiercely hunted for the surviving cat or dog, they chose everything that could be used for food from home first-aid kits: castor oil, petroleum jelly, glycerin; soup, jelly was made from wood glue ”. Yes, the townspeople caught everything that ran, flew or crawled. Birds, cats, dogs, rats ─ in all these living creatures, people saw, first of all, food, therefore, during the blockade, their population within Leningrad and the surrounding environs was almost completely destroyed. There were also cases of cannibalism, when babies were stolen and eaten, the most fleshy (mainly buttocks and thighs) parts of the body of the deceased were cut off. But the increase in mortality was still appalling: by the end of November, about 11 thousand people had died of starvation. People fell right on the streets, going to work or returning from it. A huge number of corpses could be observed in the streets.

The terrible cold weather that set in at the end of November was added to the total hunger. The thermometer often dropped to -40˚ Celsius and barely rose above -30˚. The water supply is frozen, the sewer is out of order and heating system... There was already a complete lack of fuel, all power plants stopped, city transport froze. Unheated rooms in apartments, as well as cold rooms in institutions (the windows of buildings were knocked out by the bombing), were covered with frost from the inside.

Leningraders began to install iron temporary stoves in their apartments, bringing pipes out of the windows. They burned everything that could burn at all: chairs, tables, wardrobes and bookcases, sofas, parquet floors, books and more. It is clear that such "energy resources" were not enough for a long period. In the evenings, hungry people sat in the dark and cold. The windows were patched with plywood or cardboard, so the chilly night air entered the houses almost unhindered. To keep warm, people put on everything they had, but this did not help either: whole families died in their own apartments.

The whole world knows a small notebook that became a diary kept by 11-year-old Tanya Savicheva. A little schoolgirl, who was not lazy, wrote down: “Zhenya died on 28 December. at 12.30 o'clock in the morning of 1941. Grandmother died on January 25. at 3 o'clock. days 1942 Lenya died on March 17 at 5 o'clock. in the morning of 1942. Uncle Vasya died on April 13 at 2 am 1942. Uncle Lyosha ─ on May 10 at 4 am. day 1942 Mom ─ May 13 at 7 o'clock. 30 minutes. in the morning of 1942 the Savichevs all died. There is only Tanya left. "

By the beginning of winter, Leningrad had become a “city of ice,” as the American journalist Harrison Salisbury wrote. The streets and squares are covered with snow, so the lower floors of the houses are barely visible. “The chime of trams has ceased. Trolleybus boxes frozen in the ice are frozen. There are few passers-by on the streets. And those whom you see walk slowly, often stop, gaining strength. And the hands on the street clock froze in different time zones. "

The Leningraders were already so exhausted that they had neither the physical capabilities nor the desire to go down into the bomb shelter. Meanwhile, the air attacks of the fascists became more and more intense. Some of them lasted for several hours, causing enormous damage to the city and exterminating its inhabitants.

With particular ferocity, the German pilots aimed at factories in Leningrad, such as Kirovsky, Izhora, Elektrosila, Bolshevik. In addition, the production lacked raw materials, tools, materials. It was unbearably cold in the workshops, and from touching the metal, my hands were cramping. Many production workers performed the work while sitting, since it was impossible to stand for 10-12 hours. Due to the shutdown of almost all power plants, some of the machines had to be set in motion by hand, which increased the working day. Quite often, some of the workers stayed overnight in the shop, saving time for fulfilling urgent front-line orders. As a result of such selfless labor activity, in the second half of 1941, the active army received from Leningrad 3 million shells and mines, more than 3 thousand regimental and anti-tank guns, 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles, 58 armored trains and armored platforms. The working people of Leningrad and other sectors of the Soviet-German front also helped. In the fall of 1941, during the fierce battles for Moscow, the city on the Neva sent over a thousand artillery pieces and mortars, as well as a significant number of other types of weapons, to the troops of the Western Front. The commander of the Western Front, General G.K. Zhukov, sent a telegram to AA Zhdanov on November 28 with the words: "Thanks to the Leningraders for helping the Muscovites in the fight against the bloodthirsty Nazis."

But to accomplish labor feats, you need recharge, or rather, food. In December, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, city and regional committees of the party took urgent measures to save the population. On the instructions of the city committee, several hundred people carefully examined all the places where food was stored before the war. At the breweries, the floors were opened and the remaining malt was collected (in total, 110 tons of malt were accumulated). In the mills, flour dust was scraped off the walls and ceilings, every sack was shaken out where flour or sugar had once been. The remains of edibles were found in warehouses, in vegetable stores and railway cars. In total, about 18 thousand tons of such remains were collected, which, of course, was a great help in those difficult days.

From the needles, the production of vitamin C was established, which effectively protects against scurvy. And scientists of the Forestry Academy under the leadership of Professor V.I.Sharkov in a short time developed a technology for the industrial production of protein yeast from cellulose. The 1st Confectionery Factory began daily production of up to 20 thousand dishes from such yeast.

On December 27, the Leningrad City Committee adopted a resolution on the organization of hospitals. City and regional hospitals operated in all large enterprises and assumed bed rest for the weaker workers. Relatively rational nutrition and warm room helped tens of thousands of people survive.

At about the same time, the so-called household detachments began to appear in Leningrad, which included young Komsomol members, mostly girls. The pioneers of this extremely important activity were the youth of the Primorsky District, whose example others followed. In the memo, which was given to the members of the detachments, one could read: “You ... are entrusted with taking care of the daily household needs of those who are most difficult to endure the hardships associated with enemy blockade... Caring for children, women and the elderly is your civic duty ... ". Suffering from hunger themselves, the soldiers of the domestic front brought water from the Neva, firewood or food to the ailing Leningraders, heated stoves, cleaned apartments, washed clothes, etc. Many lives have been saved as a result of their noble labor.

When mentioning the incredible difficulties that the residents of the city on the Neva faced, it is impossible not to say that people gave themselves up not only at the machines in the workshops. Scientific works were read in bomb shelters, dissertations were defended. The State Public Library named after V.I. M.E.Saltykova-Shchedrin. “Now I know: only my work saved my life,” said a professor once, who was an acquaintance of Tatiana Tess, the author of an essay about the besieged Leningrad called “My dear city”. He told me, "how almost every evening he went from home to the scientific library for books."

With each passing day, the steps of this professor became slower and slower. He constantly struggled with weakness and dire weather conditions, and was often caught off guard by air raids on the way. There were even times when he thought that he would not reach the library doors, but each time he climbed the familiar steps and entered his own world. He saw librarians whom he had known for "a good ten years." He also knew that with the last bit of strength they were enduring all the blockade difficulties, that it was not easy for them to get to their library. But they, having gathered their courage, got up day after day and went to their favorite work, which, just like that professor, kept them alive.

It is believed that not a single school worked in the besieged city in the first winter, but this is not the case: one of the Leningrad schools worked for the entire academic year 1941-42. Its director was Serafima Ivanovna Kulikevich, who gave this school thirty years before the war.

Every school day, teachers invariably came to work. In the teacher's room there was a samovar with boiled water and a sofa on which one could take a breath after a hard road, because in the absence of public transport, hungry people had to overcome serious distances (one of the teachers passed thirty-two (!) Tram stops from home to school). There was not even the strength to carry the briefcase in his hands: it hung on a string tied to his neck. When the bell rang, the teachers went to classrooms where the same exhausted and emaciated children sat, in whose homes irreparable troubles always happened ─ the death of a father or mother. “But the children got up in the morning and went to school. They were not kept in the world by the meager bread ration that they received. The strength of the soul kept them alive. "

There were only four senior classes in that school, in one of which only one girl remained - a ninth-grader Veta Bandorina. But teachers still came to her and prepared her for a peaceful life.

However, it is impossible to imagine the history of the Leningrad blockade epic without the famous "Road of Life" ─ a highway laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga.

Back in October, work began on the study of the lake. In November, however, Ladoga's research was launched in full force. Reconnaissance aircraft took aerial photographs of the area, and a road construction plan was actively developed. As soon as the water exchanged its liquid state of aggregation for a solid one, this area was surveyed almost daily by special reconnaissance groups together with the Ladoga fishermen. They examined the southern part of the Shlisselburg Bay, studying the ice regime of the lake, the thickness of the ice off the coast, the nature and places of descents to the lake, and much more.

In the early morning of November 17, 1941, from the low bank of Ladoga near the village of Kokkarevo, a small detachment of fighters descended on the still fragile ice, led by a military technician of the 2nd rank L.N.Sokolov, company commander of the 88th separate bridge-building battalion. The pioneers were tasked with scouting and plotting the route of the ice route. Together with the detachment, two guides from local old-timers walked along Ladoga. A brave detachment, tied with ropes, successfully passed the Zelentsy Islands, reached the village of Kobona, and returned back the same way.

On November 19, 1941, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front signed an order on the organization of transportation on Lake Ladoga, on the laying of an ice road, its protection and defense. Five days later, the plan for the entire route was approved. From Leningrad, it passed to Osinovets and Kokkarevo, then descended to the ice of the lake and ran along it in the area of ​​the Shlisselburg Bay to the village of Kobona (with a branch to Lavrovo) on the eastern shore of Ladoga. Further, through swampy-wooded places, it was possible to reach two stations of the Northern Railway ─ Zaborie and Podborovye.

Initially, the military road on the ice of the lake (VAD-101) and the military road from the Zabor'e station to the village of Kobona (VAD-102) existed as if separately, but were later combined into one. Its chief was Major General A.M.Shilov, authorized by the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, and Brigadier Commissar I.V. Shishkin, Deputy Head of the Front Political Directorate, was its military commissar.

The ice on Ladoga is still fragile, and the first sled train is already on its way. On November 20, the first 63 tons of flour were delivered to the city.

The hungry city did not wait, therefore it was necessary to go to all sorts of tricks in order to deliver the largest mass of food. For example, where the ice cover was alarmingly thin, it was built up with planks and brush mats. But even such ice could sometimes “let down”. On many sections of the track, it was only able to withstand a half-loaded vehicle. And it was unprofitable to drive cars with a small load. But even here a way was found, and a very peculiar one: half of the load was placed on the sleds, which were attached to the cars.

All efforts were in vain: on November 23, the first convoy of vehicles delivered 70 tons of flour to Leningrad. From that day on, the work of drivers, road operators, traffic controllers, doctors, full of heroism and courage, began - work on the world famous "Road of Life", work that only a direct participant in those events could best say. Such was Senior Lieutenant Leonid Reznikov, who published in "Front Road" (a newspaper about the Ladoga military highway, which began to be published in January 1942, editor - journalist B. Borisov) verses about what fell to the lot of the driver of a lorry at that harsh time:

“We forgot to sleep, we forgot to eat ─

And they rushed with loads on the ice.

And in a mitten there was a hand on the steering wheel,

Eyes closed on the move.

The shells whistled as a barrier before us,

But the way was ─ to his native Leningrad.

They got up to meet a blizzard and blizzard,

But the will knew no barriers! "

Indeed, the shells were a serious obstacle in the way of the brave chauffeurs. The aforementioned Colonel-General of the Wehrmacht F. Halder in December 1941 wrote in his war diary: "The movement of enemy vehicles on the ice of Lake Ladoga does not stop ... Our aviation began raids ..." and 85mm anti-aircraft guns, many anti-aircraft machine guns. From November 20, 1941 to April 1, 1942, Soviet fighters flew about 6.5 thousand times to patrol the area over the lake, conducted 143 air battles and shot down 20 aircraft with a black and white cross on the hull.

The first month of operation of the ice line did not bring the expected results: due to difficult weather conditions, not the best state of technology and German air raids, the transportation plan was not fulfilled. Until the end of 1941, 16.5 tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad, and the front and the city demanded 2 thousand tons daily.

In his New Year's speech, Hitler said: “We are not deliberately storming Leningrad now. Leningrad will consume itself! ”3 However, the Fuehrer miscalculated. The city on the Neva not only showed signs of life - it tried to live as it would be possible in peacetime. Here is the message published in the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper at the end of 1941:

"FOR LENINGRAD RESIDENTS FOR THE NEW YEAR.

Today, in addition to the monthly food standards, the population of the city will receive: half a liter of wine each ─ workers and employees and a quarter liter each ─ dependents.

The Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council decided to hold from 1 to 10 January 1942 in schools and kindergartens Christmas trees... All children will be treated to a festive two-course dinner without clipping ration coupons. ”

Such tickets, which you can see here, gave the right to plunge into a fairy tale to those who had to grow up ahead of time, whose happy childhood became impossible due to the war, whose best years were marred by hunger, cold and bombing, the death of friends or parents. And, nevertheless, the city authorities wanted the children to feel that even in such a hell there are reasons for joy, and the onset of the new 1942 is one of them.

But not everyone survived until the onset of 1942: in December 1941 alone, 52,880 people died of hunger and cold. The total number of victims of the blockade is 641,803 people.

Probably, something similar to a New Year's gift was the addition (for the first time in the entire time of the blockade!) To the wretched ration that was supposed to. On the morning of December 25, each worker received 350 grams, and “one hundred and twenty-five grams of blockade ─ with fire and blood in half,” as Olga Fedorovna Berggolts wrote (which, by the way, along with ordinary Leningraders, endured all the hardships of the enemy siege), turned into 200 ( for the rest of the population). Undoubtedly, this was also facilitated by the "Road of Life", which from the new year began to operate more actively than the previous one. Already on January 16, 1942, instead of the planned 2 thousand tons, 2, 506 thousand tons of cargo were delivered. From that day on, the plan was regularly overfulfilled.

January 24, 1942 ─ and a new allowance. Now, according to the work card, they gave out 400 grams, according to the employee's card - 300 grams, according to the card of a child or dependent - 250 grams. of bread. And after some more time ─ February 11 ─ workers began to give out 400 grams. bread, everyone else ─ 300 gr. Notably, cellulose was no longer used as one of the ingredients in bread baking.

Another rescue mission is connected with the Ladoga Route - the evacuation, which began at the end of November 1941, but became widespread only in January 1942, when the ice became sufficiently strong. First of all, children, the sick, the wounded, the disabled, women with young children, as well as scientists, students, workers of the evacuated factories with their families and some other categories of citizens were subject to evacuation.

But the Soviet armed forces did not doze either. From January 7 to April 30, the Luban offensive operation was carried out by the troops of the Volkhov Front and part of the forces of the Leningrad Front, aimed at breaking the blockade. At first, the movement of Soviet troops in the Luban direction had some success, but the battles were fought in wooded and swampy areas, for the effectiveness of the offensive, considerable material and technical means, as well as food, were needed. The lack of all of the above, coupled with the active resistance of the Nazi troops, led to the fact that at the end of April the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts had to go over to defensive actions, and the operation was completed, since the task was not completed.

Already at the beginning of April 1942, due to serious warming, the Ladoga ice began to melt, in some places "puddles" up to 30-40 cm deep appeared, but the lake highway was closed only on April 24.

From November 24, 1941 to April 21, 1942, 361,309 tons of cargo were brought to Leningrad, 560,304 thousand people were evacuated. The Ladoga Highway made it possible to create a small emergency reserve of food products ─ about 67 thousand tons.

Nevertheless, Ladoga did not stop serving people. During the summer-autumn navigation, about 1,100 thousand tons of various cargoes were delivered to the city, and 850 thousand people were evacuated. During the entire period of the blockade, at least one and a half million people were taken out of the city.

And what about the city? "Although shells were still exploding in the streets and fascist planes were buzzing in the sky, the city, in defiance of the enemy, revived along with the spring." The sun's rays reached Leningrad and carried away the frosts that had tormented everyone for so long. Hunger also began to gradually recede: the bread ration increased, the distribution of fats, cereals, sugar, meat began, but in very limited quantities. The consequences of the winter were disappointing: many people continued to die from dystrophy. Therefore, the struggle to save the population from this disease has become strategically important. Since the spring of 1942, the most widespread are food points, to which dystrophies of the first and second degrees were attached for two to three weeks (with the third degree, a person was hospitalized). In them, the patient received meals, one and a half to two times more calories than was supposed to be for a standard ration. These canteens helped to recover about 260 thousand people (mainly workers in industrial enterprises).

There were also canteens of a general type, where (according to statistics for April 1942) at least a million people, that is, most of the city, ate. There they handed in their ration cards and in return received three meals a day and soy milk and kefir in addition, and starting from summer ─ vegetables and potatoes.

With the onset of spring, many went out of town and began to dig up land for vegetable gardens. The party organization of Leningrad supported this initiative and called on each family to have their own vegetable garden. In the city committee even a department of agriculture was created, and advice on growing this or that vegetable was constantly heard on the radio. Seedlings were grown in specially adapted urban greenhouses. Some of the factories have launched the production of shovels, watering cans, rakes and other garden tools. Individual plots were strewn with the Field of Mars, the Summer Garden, St. Isaac's Square, parks, squares, etc. Any flower bed, any piece of land, even a little suitable for such farming, was plowed and sown. Over 9 thousand hectares of land were occupied by potatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, onions, cabbage, etc. Practiced and collecting edible wild plants... The vegetable garden venture was another good opportunity to improve the food supply for the troops and the population of the city.

In addition, Leningrad was heavily polluted during the autumn-winter period. Not only in morgues, but even just in the streets were unburied corpses, which, with the arrival of warm days would begin to decompose and become the cause of a large-scale epidemic, which the city authorities could not allow.

On March 25, 1942, the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council, in accordance with the GKO decree on cleaning up Leningrad, decided to mobilize the entire working population to work on cleaning yards, squares and embankments from ice, snow and all kinds of sewage. With difficulty lifting their tools, the emaciated residents fought on their front line - the line between cleanliness and pollution. By the middle of spring, at least 12 thousand yards were put in order, more than 3 million square meters. km of streets and embankments now sparkled with cleanliness, took out about a million tons of garbage.

April 15 was truly significant for every Leningrader. For almost five difficult autumn and winter months, everyone who worked covered the distance from home to the duty station on foot. When there is emptiness in the stomach, legs go numb in the cold and do not obey, and shells whistle overhead, then even some 3-4 kilometers seem like hard labor. And then, finally, the day came when everyone could get on the tram and get at least to the opposite end of the city without any effort. By the end of April, trams were running on five routes.

A little later, they also restored such a vital public service as water supply. In the winter of 1941-42. only about 80-85 houses had running water. Those who were not among the lucky ones who inhabited such houses were forced to take water from the Neva throughout the cold winter. By May 1942, the taps in the bathrooms and kitchens began to rustle again from running H2O. Water supply again ceased to be considered a luxury, although the joy of many Leningraders knew no bounds: "It is difficult to explain what the siege was experiencing, standing at an open tap, admiring the stream of water ... Respectable people, like children, splashed and splashed over the sinks." The sewerage network was also restored. Baths, hairdressing salons, repair shops were opened.

As on New Year, on May Day 1942, Leningraders were given the following additional products: children ─ two tablets of cocoa with milk and 150 grams each. cranberries, adults ─ 50 gr. tobacco, 1.5 liters of beer or wine, 25 gr. tea, 100 gr. cheese, 150 gr. dried fruits, 500 gr. salted fish.

Having strengthened physically and received moral support, the residents who remained in the city returned to the workshops for the machines, but there was still not enough fuel, so about 20 thousand Leningraders (almost all of them were women, teenagers and pensioners) went to harvest firewood and peat. Through their efforts, by the end of 1942, factories, factories and power plants received 750 thousand cubic meters. meters of wood and 500 thousand tons of peat.

Peat and firewood mined by Leningraders, added to coal and oil, brought from outside the blockade ring (in particular, through the Ladoga pipeline, built in record time - less than a month and a half), breathed life into the industry of the city on the Neva. In April 1942, 50 (in May ─ 57) enterprises produced military products: in April-May, 99 guns, 790 machine guns, 214 thousand shells, more than 200 thousand mines were sent to the front.

The civilian industry tried to keep up with the military by resuming the production of consumer goods.

Passers-by on the city streets have thrown off their wadded trousers and sweatshirts and dressed up in coats and suits, dresses and colored headscarves, stockings and shoes, and Leningrad women are already "powdering their noses and painting their lips."

Extremely important events took place in 1942 at the front. From August 19 to October 30, the Sinyavskaya offensive operation of the troops took place

Leningrad and Volkhov fronts with the support of the Baltic Fleet and the Ladoga military flotilla. This was the fourth attempt to break the blockade, like the previous ones, which did not solve the set goal, but played a definitely positive role in the defense of Leningrad: another attempt by the Germans on the inviolability of the city was thwarted.

The fact is that after the heroic 250-day defense of Sevastopol Soviet troops I had to leave the city, and then the whole Crimea. So in the south, the Nazis felt better, and it was possible to focus all the attention of the German command on the problems in the north. On July 23, 1942, Hitler signed Directive No. 45, in which, in common terms, he "gave the go-ahead" for the operation to storm Leningrad in early September 1942. At first it was called "Feuerzauber" (in the translation from German - "Magic fire"), then - "Nordlicht" ("Northern Lights"). But the enemy not only failed to make a significant breakthrough to the city: the Wehrmacht during the hostilities lost 60 thousand people killed, more than 600 guns and mortars, 200 tanks and the same number of aircraft. The prerequisites were created for a successful breakthrough of the blockade in January 1943.

The winter of 1942-43 was not as gloomy and lifeless for the city as the previous one. There were no longer mountains of rubbish and snow on the streets and avenues. Trams are common again. Schools, cinema and theaters were opened. Plumbing and sewerage systems operated almost everywhere. The windows of the apartments were now glazed, and not ugly boarded up with improvised materials. There was a small supply of energy and food. Many continued to engage in socially useful work (in addition to their main job). It is noteworthy that on December 22, 1942, the presentation of the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" began to all those who distinguished themselves.

The city saw some improvement in the food situation. In addition, the winter of 1942-43 turned out to be softer than the previous one, so the Ladoga highway during the winter of 1942-43 was in operation for only 101 days: from December 19, 1942 to March 30, 1943. But the drivers did not allow themselves to relax: the total cargo turnover amounted to more than 200 thousand tons of cargo.



- What is interesting about the study of the health of people who survived the siege of Leningrad 70 years ago for today's people?

- Now, when the life expectancy of people is increasing, it is important that they remain healthy physically and mentally as long as possible. Therefore, scientists are actively trying to understand what contributes to a healthy and long life.

We have a unique group of people, the study of which will allow us to investigate these problems: people who survived the blockade of Leningrad and have now lived more than 70 years after it. Most of the people we examined, of course, had health problems, but, as it turned out, there were no more of them than the representatives of the control group.

- How many blockades are left in St. Petersburg now?

- It is difficult to say for sure, but in May 2015 there were 134 thousand people in the media.

- How did you look for people to attract them for research?

- We turned to the community of residents of besieged Leningrad "Primorets". We were given lists of over 600 people, and we started inviting people. We were especially interested in those who suffered a blockade in the womb. Such people are the most difficult to find, because it was extremely difficult for a woman to get pregnant, bear and give birth to a child at this time. We managed to find 50 people, and a total of 300 blockade soldiers took part in our study. We divided them into groups: those who were a child during the blockade, an infant, or were born during the blockade. In the control group, we took people of the same age who were not in Leningrad during the blockade, but came to live in this city after the war.

- How did you compare those who survived the blockade and those in the control group?

- We examined the participants in our study on several parameters. First, we looked at general state health, what diseases had already developed by the time of the study. In addition, we measured blood pressure and pulse, blood counts (cholesterol, blood sugar, kidney function); assessed the work of the heart and blood vessels; figured out how these people eat; conducted psychological and cognitive tests.

We are currently searching in three main areas. The first is nutritional features. The hypothesis is that until now those residents of besieged Leningrad have survived who ate a healthy diet with limited calories. The main cause of death in the post-war period was stress and overcompensation in nutrition: when the hunger ended, some of those who suffered it began to eat more than the norm. Obesity, high blood pressure began to develop, and people died. And those who remained in moderation in their diet (according to scientists today, this is one of the main factors of longevity), are still alive.

Moderate caloric restriction is considered one of the few ways associated with increased life expectancy. A possible explanation is the relationship between a decrease in the caloric content of food intake and the length of telomeres of chromosomes of peripheral leukocytes. The length of chromosome telomeres is currently considered as one of the biomarkers of aging in the body, allowing to predict cardiovascular risk and complications such as myocardial infarction, stroke, diabetes mellitus, cognitive dysfunction.

The second thing we looked at was psychological characteristics... We tested the hypothesis that optimism and communication skills could help these patients survive.

Finally, we studied the genetic characteristics of long-lived blockades. “Good” genes are, we assume, the main factor that allowed people to survive that difficult time. In addition, there is epigenetics - changes on the surface of DNA that allowed blockers to survive and, possibly, pass on something to their descendants. Therefore, at the next stage, we want to invite their children and grandchildren to check whether they have inherited these or those "tags".

- What differences did you find?

- In our study, blockade patients had shorter telomeres compared to the control group, and intrauterine fasting was the strongest factor affecting telomere length. Usually, shorter telomeres are associated with a greater risk of developing various diseases, but we found that this did not happen in the case of blockade.

- Will it be possible, as a result of your research, to answer exactly what saved those blockades who have survived to this day?

“The biggest limiting factor in our study is that we cannot compare with the survivors of the blockade data from those who have already died. In addition, it is impossible to accurately "measure" the impact of hunger. Firstly, these are already elderly people, and they do not remember all the details, and secondly, in other regions of the Soviet Union, where the participants of the control group came from, it was not heaven either. In addition, so many years have passed and so many things have affected their health. Therefore, we write "possible connection", "possible consequences" - there are too many confounding factors for categorical conclusions.

Among the participants in those events who had to endure all the horrors of war, hunger, cold, the loss of loved ones and relatives, including the stars of cinema, theater, music, etc.

Janina Zheimo

The famous Soviet Cinderella lived for a whole year in the besieged city. Despite her small stature and fragility of the figure, the actress was enrolled in a fighter battalion. Just like all Leningraders, during the day she hurried to work, and at night she went to watch on the roofs of houses, to extinguish incendiary bombs.

In the worst days Janina Zheimo stayed in the city, filmed, performed in front of the soldiers with concerts, received her 125 grams of bread, so after years she said: "Hitler did one good deed - I lost weight."

Sergey Filippov

Reviewing military photos of those years, you can see a thin, emaciated man with a small piece of bread. This is a resident of besieged Leningrad, who is so similar to Sergei Filippov. It is difficult to say whether he is it or not, because no data about this has been preserved. All employees of the Comedy Theater, where the actor worked in 1941, were to be evacuated to Dushanbe.

Filippov could have stayed in the city, but he could have left. We do not undertake to claim that these two photos depict the same person, but the striking similarity is undoubtedly.

Leonid and Victor Kharitonov

After the appearance on the screens of "Soldier Ivan Brovkin" Leonid Kharitonov became a real idol. On the screen, he created the image of a good-natured, modest and charming, but unlucky guy who literally everyone fell in love with. The younger brother, Viktor Kharitonov, became an actor and director, founded the Experiment Theater. But all this happened after the war.

The terrible events of the 20th century also affected the Kharitonov family. In 1941, future artists Leonid and Viktor were only 11 and 4 years old. In besieged Leningrad, in order to survive, children even had to eat soap. According to younger brother, it was because of this that Leonid developed an ulcer that tormented him all his life.

In the newsreel of those years there is a frame with two very thin children, one of them is reading a book, and the other is sleeping on the steps - these are Lenya and Vitya.

About the blockade on the 23rd minute of the video

Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina

When the blockade began, the future actress was not even three years old. Her family at that time lived in one of the St. Petersburg communal apartments, which housed more than 40 people. That time Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina does not like to remember.

Like everyone else, she had to go through hunger, devastation, because of which she had to grow up quickly. After the siege of the city was over, my mother took Lida and her brother to her grandmother at Peno station.

Alisa Freundlich

Another actress who, from her own experience, felt the whole horror of war and life in the besieged city is Alisa Freundlich. In 1941, she had just started school. At the beginning of the war, their house, located in the very center of Leningrad, fell into a zone of intense shelling.

And in the winter of 1941 it was completely destroyed. To survive, as the actress recalls, she and her mother and grandmother had to cook wood glue and fill it with mustard for taste, which the thrifty grandmother saved from pre-war times.

Galina Vishnevskaya

The future opera singer spent all 900 days of the siege in Leningrad. At that time she was 15 years old. She lived with her grandmother. After the parents divorced, it was she who took over the upbringing of the girl. During the blockade, young Galya lost the most dear person for her - her grandmother.

After that, she began to serve in the air defense units of the city, helping as much as she could, including with her singing talent.

Ilya Reznik

In 1941, when the war began, he was only three years old. Ilya Reznik lived in Leningrad with his grandparents. The father went to the front (in 1944 he died), and the mother met another, remarried and gave birth to triplets, abandoned her eldest son. After the blockade was broken, the family was evacuated to Sverdlovsk and then returned.

Ilya Glazunov

The future artist was born into a hereditary noble family. Father was a historian, mother — nee Flug — was the great-granddaughter of the famous historian and extra, Konstantin Ivanovich Arseniev, educator of Alexander II. All members big family Ilya Glazunov (dad, mom, grandmother, aunt, uncle) died of starvation in besieged Leningrad.

And little Ilya, who was then 11 years old, was managed by relatives in 1942 to take out of the city along the "Road of Life".

Elena Obraztsova

The opera singer connects all her childhood memories with besieged Leningrad... When the war began, she was 2 years old. Despite her young age, Elena Obraztsova remembered for her entire life the all-consuming feeling of hunger and cold, constant air raids, long lines for bread in 40-degree frost, draining corpses that were taken to the hospital.

In the spring of 1942, she managed to evacuate along the "Road of Life" to the Vologda Oblast.

Joseph Brodsky

Was born famous poet and a prose writer in Leningrad in 1940 in an intelligent Jewish family. When he was one year old, the war and the siege of the city began. Due to his young age, he remembered little about it. In memory of the blockade, there is a photo of little Joseph on a sled. It was on them that his mother took him to the bakery.

During the bombing, little Joseph often had to be hidden in a laundry basket and taken to a bomb shelter. In April 1942, the family was evacuated from the city.

Valentina Leontieva

In 1941 she turned 17 years old. During the blockade, the fragile Valya Leontyeva, along with her sister Lyusya, were in the air defense detachment, helping to extinguish incendiary bombs. Their 60-year-old father, in order to receive additional rations and feed, thus, the family became a donor.

Once, through negligence, he injured his arm, which caused blood poisoning, and soon he died in the hospital. In 1942, Valentina and her family were evacuated from the city along the Road of Life.

Larisa Luzhina

The future actress and her family met the beginning of the war in Leningrad. Then Luzhina was only two years old. Not everyone survived the blockade: the older sister, who was 6 years old, the father, who returned from the front due to injury, died of hunger, the grandmother - from a shell fragment. Kira Kreilis-Petrova remembers the blockade well, in 1941 she was 10 years old

However, even then, she was able to joke and support those around her. During the bombings, she painted herself a mustache with soot and amused the children roaring with fear in the bomb shelter.

Claudia Shulzhenko

The singer met the beginning of the war on a tour in Yerevan. Klavdia Shulzhenko voluntarily joined the ranks of the active army and returned to the city, becoming a soloist of the front-line jazz orchestra of the Leningrad Military District.

Together with her husband, the artist Coralli, during the blockade, they gave more than 500 concerts. With their performances, the ensemble helped people believe in victory and not give up in difficult times. The team existed until 1945 and received many awards.

Dmitry Shostakovich

In the summer of 1941, Shostakovich began writing his new symphony, which he later dedicated to the fight against fascism. When the blockade began, he was in the city and, to the sound of bombing and shuddering of the walls of the house, continued to work on his work.

At the same time, he helped to keep watch on the roofs of houses and extinguish incendiary bombs. Confirmation of this - a photo of the composer in a fire helmet, which was placed on the cover of the British magazine "Times". The editors of the site hope that the next generations will not forget about the feat of Leningraders and defenders of the city.
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Leningrad became a front city in September. Shells exploded at the thresholds of dwellings, houses collapsed. But with this horror of war, the townspeople remained loyal to each other, showed camaraderie and mutual assistance and care for those who, deprived of their strength, could not serve themselves.

On one of the quiet streets of the Volodarsky district, in the evening, a densely built man entered the bakery. He looked at all the people in the store and two women sellers, he suddenly jumped up behind the counter and started throwing bread from the shelves into the hall of the store, shouting: "Take it, they want to starve us, do not give in to persuasion, demand bread!" Noticing that no one was taking the loaf and there was no support for his words, the stranger pushed the saleswoman and ran to the door. But he did not manage to leave. The men and women who were in the store detained the provocateur and handed over to the authorities.

The history of besieged Leningrad overturns the arguments of those authors who claim that under the influence of a terrible feeling of hunger, people lose their moral foundations. If this was so, then in Leningrad, where long time 2.5 million people starved, there would be complete arbitrariness, not order. I will give examples in support of what has been said, they tell the actions of the townspeople and their way of thinking in the days of acute hunger more than any words.

Winter. Chauffeur truck going around the snowdrifts, he hurried to deliver freshly baked bread to the opening of shops. At the corner of Rasstannaya and Ligovka, near the truck, a shell exploded. The front part of the body was cut off like an oblique one, loaves of bread were scattered on the pavement, the driver was killed by a splinter. The conditions for theft are favorable, there is no one and no one to ask. Passers-by, noticing that the bread was not guarded by anyone, raised the alarm, surrounded the crash site and did not leave until another car arrived with the bakery's forwarder. The loaves were collected and delivered to the shops. The hungry people guarding the car with bread felt an irresistible need for food, however, no one allowed themselves to take even a piece of bread. Who knows, maybe soon many of them starved to death.

For all the suffering, Leningraders did not lose either honor or courage. Here is the story of Tatyana Nikolaevna Bushalova:
- "In January I began to weaken from hunger, I spent a lot of time in bed. My husband Mikhail Kuzmich worked
accountant in a construction trust. He was also bad, but still went to the service every day. On the way, he went to the store, received bread on his and mine, and returned home late at night. I divided the bread into 3 parts and at a certain time we ate a piece with tea. The water was warmed up on the "potbelly stove". Chairs, wardrobe, books were burned in turn. I was looking forward to the evening hour when my husband came home from work. Misha quietly told me who died of our acquaintances, who was sick, whether it was possible to change something from things to bread.

Imperceptibly, I put a larger piece of bread for him, if he noticed, he was very angry and refused to eat at all, believing that I was infringing upon myself. We resisted the coming death as best we could. But everything comes to an end. And he came. On November 11, Misha did not return home from work. Not finding a place for myself, I waited all night for him, at dawn I asked my flatmate Yekaterina Yakovlevna Malinina to help me find a husband. Katya responded to help. We took a children's sleigh and followed my husband's route. We stopped, rested, and every hour our strength left us. After a long search, we found Mikhail Kuzmich dead on the sidewalk. He had a watch on his hand, and 200 rubles in his pocket. CARD was not found. "

Of course, in such a big city there were some freaks. If the vast majority of people endured
deprivation, continuing to work honestly, were found which could not but cause disgust. Hunger revealed the true essence of every person.

Akkonen, the store manager of the Smolninskaya district office, and her assistant Sredneva, weighed people when they were selling bread, and exchanged the stolen bread for antiques. By the verdict of the court, both criminals were shot.
The Germans captured the last railroad linking Leningrad with the country. Vehicle on delivery across the lake was extremely small, in addition, the ships were subjected to constant raids by enemy aircraft.

And at this time, on the outskirts of the city, in factories and factories, on the streets and squares, the intense work of many thousands of people was going on everywhere, they were turning the city into a fortress. Citizens and collective farmers of suburban areas in short time created a defensive belt of anti-tank ditches with a length of 626 km, built 15,000 pillboxes and bunkers, 35 km of barricades.

Many construction sites were in close proximity to the enemy and were subjected to artillery fire. People worked 12-14 hours a day, often in the rain, in soaked clothes. This required great physical endurance. What strength raised people to such a dangerous and exhausting job? Belief in the righteousness of our struggle, understanding of our role in the unfolding events. Mortal danger hung over the entire country. The thunder of the cannon fire was approaching every day, but it did not frighten the defenders of the city, but hurried to finish the work started.

On October 21, 1941, the youth newspaper Smena published the order of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the City Committee of the Komsomol "To pioneers and schoolchildren of Leningrad" with an appeal to be active participants in the defense of Leningrad.

Young Leningraders responded with deeds to this appeal. Together with the adults, they dug trenches, checked the blackout in residential buildings, walked around apartments and collected non-ferrous scrap metal necessary for the manufacture of cartridges and shells. Leningrad factories received tons of non-ferrous and ferrous metal collected by schoolchildren. Leningrad scientists came up with a combustible mixture to set fire to enemy tanks. Bottles were required to make pomegranates with this mixture. Schoolchildren collected over a million bottles in just one week.

The cold was approaching. Leningraders started collecting warm clothes for the soldiers of the Soviet Army. The guys also helped them. Older girls knitted mittens, socks and sweaters for front-line soldiers. Fighters received hundreds of heartfelt letters and parcels from schoolchildren with warm clothes, soap, handkerchiefs, pencils, notebooks.

Many schools have been converted into hospitals. Pupils of these schools visited nearby houses and collected tableware and books for hospitals. They were on duty in hospitals, read newspapers and books to the wounded, wrote letters to them at home, helped doctors and nurses, washed the floors and cleaned the wards. To cheer up the wounded soldiers performed in front of them with concerts.

Along with adults, schoolchildren, on duty in attics and rooftops, extinguished incendiary bombs and fires that broke out. They were called "sentries of the Leningrad roofs".

It is impossible to overestimate the labor prowess of the working class of Leningrad. People did not sleep enough, did not eat enough, but enthusiastically carried out the tasks assigned to them. The Kirov plant was dangerously close to the location. German troops... Defending native city and the factory, thousands of workers, employees day and night, erected fortifications. Trenches were dug, gaps were set, firing sectors for guns and machine guns were cleared, approaches were mined.

At the plant, work was going on around the clock to manufacture tanks that showed their superiority over the Germans in battles. Workers, skilled and without any professional experience, men and women, and even teenagers, stood at the machines, tenacious and diligent. In the shops, shells exploded, the plant was bombed, fires broke out, but no one left the workplace. KV tanks left the factory gates every day and went straight to the front. In those inconceivably difficult conditions, military equipment was manufactured at Leningrad factories at an increasing pace. In November-December, during the difficult days of the blockade, the production of shells and mines exceeded a million pieces a month.

On the pages of the factory newspaper, the former secretary of the party committee, later director of the plant named after V.I. Kozitsky, hero of socialist labor N.N. Liventsov.

- “At that time there weren't many of us left at the plant in Leningrad, but the people were firm, fearless, tempered, the majority were communists.

... The plant has started producing radio stations. Fortunately, we had specialists who could resolve issues
the organization of this important business: engineers, mechanics, turners, traffic controllers. From this point of view, it seems to be good, but with machine tools and power supply, things were bad at first.

Skillful hands of the plant's chief power engineer N.A. Kozlov, his deputy A.P. Gordeev, head of the transport department N.A. Fedorov, built a small block-station driven by a car engine with a generator alternating current at 25 kilovolt-amperes.

We were very lucky that there were still machines for the production of wall clocks, they were not sent to the rear and we
used for the production of radio stations. "Sever" was produced in small quantities. Cars drove up to the plant and took them to the front only radio stations that had come off the assembly line.

What a revival at the plant, what an upsurge, what faith in victory! Where did people get their strength from?

There is no way to list all the heroes of the "North" episode. I remember especially well those with whom I came in contact on a daily basis. These are, first of all, the developer of the radio station "Sever" - Boris Andreevich Mikhalin, the chief engineer of the plant G.E. Appelesov, highly qualified engineer-radio operator N.A. Yakovlev and many others.
"Sever" was made by people not only skillful, but also caring, constantly thinking about those whose weapons will become a baby radio station.

Each radio station was provided with a tiny soldering iron and a can of dry alcohol, a piece of tin and rosin, as well as critical parts for replacing those that could be completed faster than others. "

The soldiers and the population made efforts to prevent the enemy from entering Leningrad. In case, nevertheless
it would have been possible to break into the city, a plan was developed in detail for the destruction of enemy troops.

On the streets and intersections, barricades and anti-tank obstacles with a total length of 25 km were erected, 4,100 bunkers and bunkers were built, more than 20 thousand firing points were equipped in buildings. Factories, bridges, public buildings were mined and, upon a signal, would fly up into the air - heaps of stones and iron would fall on the heads of enemy soldiers, rubble would block the path of their tanks. The civilian population was ready for street fighting.

The population of the besieged city was eagerly awaiting news of the 54th Army advancing from the east. Legends circulated about this army: it was about to cut through a corridor in the blockade ring from the Mga side, and then Leningrad would breathe deeply. Time passed, but everything remained the same, hopes began to fade. On January 13, 1942, the offensive of the Volokhov front troops began.

At the same time, the 54th Army of the Leningrad Front under the command of Major General I.I.Fedyuninsky went on the offensive in the direction of Pogostya. The offensive of the troops developed slowly. The enemy himself attacked our positions and the army was forced to conduct defensive battles instead of the offensive. By the end of January 14, shock groups of the 54th Army crossed the Volkhov River and captured a number of settlements on the opposite bank.

To help our Chekists, special Komsomol-pioneer groups of intelligence officers and signalmen were created. During air raids, they tracked down enemy agents who, using missiles, showed German pilots targets for bombing. Such an agent was found on Dzerzhinsky Street by 6th grade students Petya Semyonov and Alyosha Vinogradov.

Thanks to the guys, the Chekists detained him. Soviet women also did a lot to defeat the fascist invaders. They, along with men, heroically worked in the rear, selflessly fulfilled their military duty at the front, fought against the hated enemy in the territories temporarily occupied by the Nazi hordes.

It must be said that the Leningrad partisans fought in difficult conditions. During the entire period of the fascist occupation, the region was front-line or front-line. In September 1941, the Leningrad headquarters was created. partisan movement... With arms in hand, the secretaries of the district committee of the Komsomol Valentina Utina, Nadezhda Fedotova, Maria Petrova went to defend the Motherland. There were many girls among the Komsomol activists who joined the ranks of the people's avengers.

There were many women at that harsh time among the Leningrad partisans. In July 1941, the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent responsible workers to the regions to organize partisan detachments and underground groups. The regional party committee was headed by I.D. Dmitriev.