Alisa freindlich and other celebrities who survived the siege of Leningrad. How in besieged Leningrad people, in spite of everything, performed their important work

The first difficult test that fell to the lot of 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 shells chaotically, but according to a well-defined scheme: their task was to destroy as many civilians as possible, as well as strategically important objects.

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, tk. 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 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. The main blow was delivered from the area west of Krasnogvardeisk. But the command of the Leningrad Front transferred part of the troops from the Karelian Isthmus to the most threatening sectors, 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 the 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 resolution 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 engineering and technical workers of the coal, oil, metallurgical industries were supposed to have 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, in Leningrad, cut off from the mainland, there 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 the established throughout the Union of daily norms of 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 threat of a fuel hunger looms over the city. 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 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 Nazi troops on Tikhvin, so 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 railway, 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 on 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 should be remembered 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 raked 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. Dmitry Vasilyevich Pavlov, authorized by the State Defense Committee for food supply of Leningrad, in his essay "Leningrad in the Siege" wrote: after the surviving cat or dog, they chose everything that could be used for food from home first-aid kits: castor oil, petroleum jelly, glycerin; 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. The 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 the plants and factories of Leningrad, such as Kirovsky, Izhora, "Electrosila", "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 in a sitting position, 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. Often, some of the workers stayed overnight in the shop, saving time on 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 to the troops of the Western Front, as well as a significant number of other types of weapons. 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 for the accomplishment of labor feats, recharge, or rather, food is needed. 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.

The production of vitamin C was established from the needles, 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 a 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 that 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, fired 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 papers 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, gathering their courage, got up day after day and went to their favorite work, which, 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 school year of 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 teachers' 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 no strength even 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 to study the lake. In November, the study of Ladoga unfolded 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 near 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 later were merged into one. Its chief was Major General A.M.Shilov, authorized by the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, and the military commissar was the deputy head of the front’s political administration, brigade commissar I.V. Shishkin.

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, so they had 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 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 Fuhrer 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 THE LENINGRADS FOR THE NEW YEAR.

Today, in addition to the monthly food standards, the population of the city will be given: 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 New Year's trees in schools and kindergartens from January 1 to January 10, 1942. 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 coming 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 that 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. It is noteworthy that cellulose was no longer used as one of the ingredients in bread baking.

Another rescue mission is connected with the Ladoga highway - 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 a wooded and swampy area, for the effectiveness of the offensive, considerable material and technical means as well as food. The lack of all of the above, coupled with the active resistance of the German fascist 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 thaw, 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 required for a standard ration. These canteens helped to recover about 260 thousand people (mainly workers of industrial enterprises).

Canteens also operated general type where at least a million people ate (according to statistics for April 1942), that is, most of the city. 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 established 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. The collection of edible wild plants was also practiced. The gardening 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 cause 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 working tools, the emaciated inhabitants 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. Almost five hardest 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 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 an 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 have become 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.



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 began to throw 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 unknown pushed the saleswoman and rushed 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 argue that under the influence of a terrible feeling of hunger, people lose their moral foundations. If this was the case, 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, 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 my card, 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 on 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 railway linking Leningrad with the country. There were very few vehicles for delivery across the lake, moreover, the ships were constantly raided by enemy aircraft.

And at this time, on the outskirts of the city, in factories and factories, on the streets and squares, the hard 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 a short time created a defensive belt of anti-tank ditches 626 km long, 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 cannon fire was approaching every day, but it did not frighten the defenders of the city, but hurried to finish the job.

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 adults, they dug trenches, checked blackouts in residential buildings, walked around apartments and collected non-ferrous scrap metal needed to make 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. To make pomegranates with this mixture, bottles were required. 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 were sleep deprived, malnourished, but enthusiastically carried out the tasks assigned to them. The Kirov plant was dangerously close to the location of the German troops. Defending their hometown and factory, thousands of workers, serving 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 adolescents, stood at their machines, tenacious and diligent. Shells exploded in the shops, 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, in 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.

- “There were not many of us left at the plant in Leningrad then, but the people were firm, fearless, tempered, the majority were communists.

... The plant has started to release 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 the 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 an alternator for 25 kilovolt-amperes.

We are very fortunate to have machines for the production of wall clock, 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 the 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 given a tiny soldering iron and a jar of dry alcohol, a piece of tin and rosin, as well as a special important details to replace those who could pass the work faster than others. "

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

Barricades and anti-tank obstacles with a total length of 25 km were erected on the streets and intersections, 4,100 dots 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: just about it would 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.

I must say 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 (Bolsheviks) sent responsible workers to the regions to organize partisan detachments and underground groups. The head of the district party committee was I.D. Dmitriev.

The only way to define the boundaries of what is possible is to go beyond these boundaries. Four human ages: infancy, childhood, adolescence, aging. Henri Bataille

actress, 78 years old

At the beginning of the blockade, Lida Fedoseyeva was two years old, her family shared a communal apartment with forty tenants! Her mother, along with two children - daughter Lida and son German - spent the entire blockade in besieged Leningrad. The next year after the end of the war, Lida Fedoseyeva went to school.

Alisa Freundlich

actress, 82 years old

That September, Alisa Freundlich went to first grade, and a week later the blockade began. According to the actress, her family was "saved" by pre-war supplies of mustard, which made the infamous blockade jelly edible from carpentry glue. From the memoirs of the actress: “They burned mainly with furniture, burned everything, except for what one had to sleep and sit on. The complete collection of Tolstoy's works, a lifetime edition, burned down in the stove. But here it is: either death, or books on fire ... ”The actress's condition aggravated her origin - the German surname aroused the hatred of those around her.

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The actress's father managed to evacuate and did not return to the family, and in the winter of 1941, a shell hit Freundlich's house:
“We returned home and saw broken glass and doors, a piano, poor man, covered in plaster, everything was scattered…”

At the same time, Freundlich continued to go to school, but the hours spent in the class could hardly be called study: “I remember how intensely I looked at the clock: when will the arrow finally reach the required division and it will be possible to eat a tiny slice from the ration of bread? Our grandmother arranged such a tough regime for us, and that is why we survived. "

Galina Vishnevskaya

opera singer, 1926-2012

The future artist met the beginning of the blockade with a 15-year-old schoolgirl, an orphan. Galina's mother left her almost immediately after birth in the care of her grandmother, and her father had a new family. The artist's grandmother did not survive the blockade. “Until now, no one has described the horror that was during the blockade,” said the artist. At the age of 16, Vishnevskaya served in air defense units, and also performed with songs on ships, in Kronstadt forts and dugouts.

“It is difficult to describe the state of a person in a blockade,” Vishnevskaya recalls. - I didn’t even suffer from hunger, but just quietly weakened and slept more and more. I lived in a kind of half-sleep. Swollen from hunger, she sat alone, wrapped in blankets, in an empty apartment and dreamed ... Not about food. Castles, knights, kings floated before me. Here I am walking through the park in beautiful dress with crinolines, the duke appears, falls in love with me, marries me ... It was only the eternal feeling of cold, when nothing could keep one warm ... "

Ilya Reznik

poet, 79 years old

The future poet was abandoned by his mother in childhood, who later remarried and gave birth to triplets. The father of the future poet fought and died at the front in 1944. Reznik survived the blockade with his paternal grandparents, who later adopted the boy. In 1943, the family was evacuated to the Urals, but by the end of the war they returned to Leningrad.

Ilya Glazunov

artist, 1930−2017

Valentin Mastyukov / TASS

During the blockade, Glazunov lost his parents, uncle, aunt and grandmother ... 12-year-old Ilya was taken out of the city across Lake Ladoga along the famous "Road of Life", but after the blockade was lifted in 1944, Glazunov returned to his native Leningrad.

Elena Obraztsova

opera singer, 75 years old

Shadrin Victor / TASS

At the time the blockade began, the artist was only 2 years old, but she remembered a lot from her childhood: “Air raids, bomb shelters, queues for bread in 40-degree frost, a hospital under the window, where corpses were taken, terrible hunger when they cooked and ate everything that was made of genuine leather. " In 1943, the Obraztsov family was evacuated to the Vologda Oblast.

Valentina Leontieva

announcer and TV presenter, 1923-2007

The war found Leontyeva a 17-year-old graduate ... Instead of the institute, Valentina Mikhailovna and her sister enrolled in the sandworm, helped the wounded and sick, but Leontyeva could not save her own father ... The man donated blood for the needs of the front in order to get additional rations for the family, and once, dismantling furniture on firewood, injured his hand, blood poisoning began. He died in the hospital. After his death, the family managed to evacuate: “In 1942, the“ Road of Life ”was opened, we managed to leave. Me, mom and sister Lucy got out. Mom saved us by forcing us to smoke so that we would less want to eat, but Lyusin's son, whom she gave birth to at the beginning of the war, died on the road, his sister was not allowed to bury him. She buried the body in a nearby snowdrift. "

"Survivors of the blockade"

Introduction

You need to know what a war is like
to know what kind of peace it is ...

A. Adamovich, D. Granin

Studying the life of my great-grandfather, Nikolai Danilovich, I discovered that most of the life of my relatives on the side of my mother, Yulia Evgenievna Kirillova, was spent in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Among them there are native Leningraders, relatives who came to this city and, of course, relatives who are now living and living there.

In January, Russia marks another anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad. This event has the most direct relation to my family, as many of my relatives have gone through one of the terrible stages of the Great Patriotic War- the blockade of Leningrad, fought in the Red Army on the outskirts of the city, were militias of the city militia, residents of the besieged Leningrad. This work is dedicated to them.

The purpose of this research work consists in summarizing the collected material about my relatives related to the besieged Leningrad.

Methods scientific research: field(a trip to St. Petersburg and visits to places associated with the blockade of Leningrad and the life of my relatives - the State Memorial Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad, the Road of Life Museum, the Railway of Life Museum, Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery, Nikolsky Naval Cathedral, our ancestral house No. 92 on the Moika River Embankment street); communication with relatives, contact with whom has long been lost; historical analysis of sources and scientific literature. I met an amazing woman - Ugarova \ Zaitseva \ Galina Nikolaevna, who is now 80 years old. She is the oldest representative of the Leningrad line of relatives. Thanks to her memories, I reconstructed many forgotten pages of my family history;

The historical part of the research was based on works on the history of the Great Patriotic War by domestic authors, materials from periodicals, and the personal archive of the Poluyanchik-Moiseev family.

In besieged Leningrad

St. Petersburg (Leningrad) is one of the largest spiritual, political, economic, scientific and cultural centers in the country. Then, in June 1941, few people suspected that what to endure the city over the next three years, laying on the altar of the common Victory hundreds of thousands of his sons and daughters. My family did not even know about it. In those fateful days in the Red Army, a career officer, my maternal great-grandfather, Nikolai Danilovich Poluyanchik, served on the North-Western Front. (Three times Knight of the Order of the Red Star, Lieutenant Colonel (04/26/1913-02.08.1999) was born in Petrograd in the family of a peasant in the Minsk province, Slutsk district, Lansk volost, the village of Yaskovichi, in the family of Daniil Iosifovich and his wife Evdokia Nikolaevna.)

The German offensive against the Soviet Union was to develop in three main directions. Army Group South advances from the Lublin region to Zhitomir and Kiev, Army Group Center from the Warsaw region to Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow, Army Group North advances from East Prussia through the Baltic republics to Pskov and Leningrad. The group "North" included the 16th and 18th armies, the 1st air fleet and the 4th Panzer Group, a total of 29 divisions, the total number of troops reached about 500 thousand people. The troops were well armed and equipped with perfect communications. Hitler entrusted the command of the "North" group to General - Field Marshal von Leeb, who was instructed to destroy the units of the Soviet Army located in the Baltic States, and develop an offensive through Dvinsk, Pskov, Luga, capture all naval bases on the Baltic Sea and capture Leningrad by July 21 ...

On June 22, the enemy attacked the cover parts of the 8th and 11th Soviet armies. The blow was so powerful that soon our military formations lost contact with the headquarters of their armies. Scattered units could not stop the hordes of fascists and by the end of the first day of the war, the formations of the enemy's 4th tank group broke through the defense line and rushed forward. A few days later, von Leeb's troops, having captured Lithuania and Latvia, entered the RSFSR. Motorized units rushed to Pskov. The actions of the enemy field forces were actively supported by the 1st Air Fleet. From the north, Finnish troops, consisting of 7 infantry divisions, attacked Leningrad across the Karelian Isthmus On July 10, enemy tank units, having broken through the front of the 11th Army south of Pskov, moved in a wide stream towards Luga. Before Leningrad, there were 180-200 km; with the rapid pace of advance that the Germans managed to take from the first days of the war, it took them 9-10 days to approach Leningrad.

From the memoirs of Nikolai Danilovich's great-grandfather Poluyanchik: “By June 29, 1941, our 708th rifle regiment was 115 s.d. was nominated to the state border in the area of ​​Lakhtenpohja, took up defensive positions on the left flank of 168th rifle division. 7 pages of the army. The enemy delivered the main blow at the junction of the 7th and 23rd armies, trying to break through to the northwestern coast of Lake Ladoga. On 04/07/1941, with the forces of two rifle regiments, the enemy managed to break through the defenses in the Mensuvaari area and develop an offensive on the city of Lahdenpohja. 08/10/1941, starting a new offensive with the main blow in this direction. After stubborn battles, the enemy broke through the defenses at the junction of the 462 and 708 rifle regiments. We retreated to the defense zone of 168th rifle division. on this day the Finns captured the city of Lahdenpohja and reached the shores of Lake Ladoga. At this time, I received the first shrapnel wound to the right side of my face. In the hospital in Leningrad, the splinter was removed, and I was sent by the transit point of the city to my division, which without 708th rifle regiment. fought a defensive battle in the area of ​​Vyborg. The troops of the 23rd army were ordered to withdraw to the line of the former Manngerheim line. 08/26/1941 in a defensive battle of the headquarters of the 115th rifle division. I received a second shrapnel wound in the knee joint of my right leg and was evacuated to Leningrad. Then by plane to Moscow. Then in the ambulance train to the city of Orenburg to the evacuation hospital No. 3327. "

In July 1941, in heavy bloody battles, the troops of the North-Western and Northern Fronts, the sailors of the Baltic Front, the people's militia detained the enemy on the distant approaches to Leningrad, at the cost of heavy losses in early September, the Nazis managed to go directly to the city. Unable to capture the city on the move, the enemy went over to a long siege.

From the memoirs of Galina Nikolayevna Ugarova: “My husband Dmitry Semyonovich Ugarov was unsuitable for military service for medical reasons, but he considered it his duty to volunteer for the front. He, as part of one of the divisions of the people's militia, defended the suburbs of Leningrad - Pulkovo, Gatchina. " age who had experience of the civil war. On the hastily volunteers were trained and hastily sent to the front. Insufficient training of new formations and their weak armament entailed many casualties. Only severe necessity forced to take such measures. "

All its inhabitants rose to defend Leningrad. In a short time, it was turned into a fortress city. Leningraders built 35 kilometers of barricades, 4170 pillboxes, 22 thousand firing points, created air defense detachments, security detachments at factories and factories, organized shifts in houses, and equipped first-aid posts.

From September 8, Leningrad was blocked from land, and the movement of ships from Lake Ladoga along the Neva was paralyzed. Fascist propaganda, fueling the offensive spirit of its soldiers, announced that institutions, factories, and the population were being evacuated from Leningrad, and that the city, unable to withstand the attacks of German troops and their Finnish allies, would surrender in a few days.A terrible danger loomed over Leningrad, heavy fighting was going on day and night. These 900 days of siege were not an easy test for the inhabitants of Leningrad. They heroically survived the grief that suddenly fell upon them. But, in spite of everything, they not only managed to withstand all the hardships and hardships of the blockade, but even actively helped our troops in the fight against the fascist invaders.

Over 475 thousand people worked on the construction of fortifications near Leningrad from July to December. 626 km of anti-tank ditches were dug, 50 thousand roadblocks, 306 kilometers of forest obstructions, 635 km of wire obstacles, 935 km of communication tunnels were installed, 15 thousand bunkers and bunkers were erected. In Leningrad itself, 110 defense centers were built 25 km of barricades, 570 artillery pillboxes, about 3,600 machine-gun pillboxes, 17 thousand embrasures in buildings, about 12 thousand rifle cells and a large number of other structures.

In 1942, the industry of Leningrad mastered the production of more than 50 new types of weapons and ammunition, fired over 3 million shells and mines, about 40 thousand aerial bombs, 1260 thousand hand grenades. Labor heroism of Leningraders made it possible to speak and send to the front in the second half of 1941. 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles, 58 armored trains.

During the blockade, 2,000 tanks, 1,500 aircraft, 225,000 machine guns, 12,000 mortars, about 10 million shells and mines were manufactured and repaired. In the most difficult period of the unprecedented blockade in the history of September-November 1941, the norms for the distribution of bread to the population decreased 5 times. From November 20, 1941, workers began to receive 250 grams of surrogate bread a day, employees and dependents - 125 grams. To help Leningrad and its defenders, by the decision of the Central Committee of the Party and the Government, the "Road of Life" was created.

The history of besieged Leningrad overturns the arguments of those authors who argue that under the influence of a terrible feeling of hunger, people lose their moral foundations. If this were the case, then in Leningrad, where 2.5 million people starved for a long time, 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. The truck driver, driving around the snowdrifts, was in a hurry to deliver freshly baked bread to the opening of the stores. 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 grow weak from hunger, spent a lot of time in bed. My husband Mikhail Kuzmich worked as an accountant in a construction trust. He was also bad, but still went to work every day. to the store, I received bread on my and my card and returned home late in the evening. I divided the bread into 3 parts and at a certain time we ate a piece, washed down with tea. The water was warmed on the stove. Stools, 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 friends, who was sick, whether it was possible to change something from things to bread. I was angry and refused to eat at all, believing that I was infringing upon myself. We resisted as best we could the coming death. 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, on the At dawn I asked my flatmate Ekaterina Yakovlevna Malinina to help me find my 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. CARDS were not found. "Hunger revealed the true essence of each person.

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.

The population of the besieged city was eagerly awaiting news of the 54th Army advancing from the east. On January 13, 1942, the offensive of the troops of the Volokhov Front 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.

In the conditions of the blockade, the most difficult was the supply of the population and troops with food and water, the military equipment of the front - with fuel, plants and factories - with raw materials and fuel. Food supplies in the city were dwindling every day. The norms for the dispensing of products were gradually reduced. From November 20 to December 25, 1941, they were the lowest, negligible: workers and engineers and technicians received only up to 250 grams of surrogate bread, and employees, dependents and children - only 125 grams per day! There was almost no flour in this bread. It was baked from chaff, bran, cellulose. This was almost the only food for the Leningraders. Those who had carpentry glue and rawhide belts at home also used them for food.

From the memoirs of my great-grandfather Nikolai Danilovich Poluyanchik: “My wife Poluyanchik \ Shuvalova \ Tamara Pavlovna lived in Leningrad with her parents Pavel Efimovich Shuvalov and Claudia Ivanovna Shuvalova. In this winter of 1941-1942, they had to cook jelly from glue. That was the only way to save their lives in those days. " The blockade brought other hardships to Leningraders. In the winter of 1941-1942, the city was gripped by a fierce cold. There was no fuel or electricity. Exhausted from hunger, exhausted and exhausted by the continuous bombing and shelling, Leningraders lived in unheated rooms with windows sealed with cardboard, because the windows were blown out by the blast wave. The smokers glowed dimly. Plumbing and sewerage are frozen. For drinking water, one had to go to the embankment of the Neva, with difficulty descend on the ice, take water in rapidly freezing ice holes, and then bring it home under fire.

Trams, trolleybuses, buses stopped. Leningraders had to walk to work on snow-covered and uncleared streets. The main "transport" of the city residents is children's sleighs. They carried belongings from destroyed houses, furniture for heating, water from an ice hole in cans or pots, seriously ill and dead, wrapped in sheets (there was no wood for the coffins).

Death entered all houses. Exhausted people were dying in the streets. Over 640 thousand Leningraders died of hunger. From the memoirs of my great-grandfather Poluyanchik Nikolai Danilovich: “My parents Poluyanchik Daniil Osipovich and Poluyanchik Evdokia Nikolaevna were in the besieged city. They lived at house number 92 on the street. River embankment Washing. In the cold winter of 1942, my father died of hunger. My mother, on a children's sleigh, overcoming pain and suffering, according to Christian customs, took her husband to church, where they got married, where they baptized their children, to a funeral service. \ Photo24 \. (Metropolitan of Ladoga and Snkt-Petersburg Alexy (Simansky) refused to leave the city, and, starving together with the population every day, despite the bombing, celebrated the Liturgy. People for consecration, instead of prosphora required at the service, carried small pieces of cellulose bread - the highest sacrifice. ) After that, she took her husband on a sled to St. Isaac's Cathedral, where special funeral services took the dead people. Father was buried at the Piskarevskoye cemetery, but in which grave it is not known. Mother did not have the strength to get to the cemetery. "

The father of my great-grandfather - Daniil Osipovich Poluyanchik, was born in Belarus in the Minsk province of the Slutsk district, Lanskoy volost, the village of Yaskovichi in 1885, nowBaranovichi district. He worked as a printer in three printing houses in Leningrad. He got married in 1912. On the military service was not called. He died of starvation in Leningrad during the blockade in March 1942. He was taken by his wife on a sled to the church and then by car to the cemetery. He was buried in a mass grave at the Piskarevskoye cemetery.

My great-grandfather lived with my parents, brother and sister in a house on the embankment of the river. Moika, studied at school number 42 in Leningrad.From the memoirs of Galina Nikolaevna Ugarova: “The father and mother of my husband Dmitry Semenovich Ugarov lived in besieged Leningrad. In the winter of 1943, they were severely emaciated. One of the days of winter, the husband's father, Semyon Ivanovich Ugarov, went to his brother. A few hours later, his wife Vera Ivanovna Ugarova went in search of her missing husband with her sister Anna Ivanovna Kuracheva. She never found her husband. "

The enemies hoped that severe hardships would awaken in the Leningraders base, animal instincts, drown out all human feelings in them. They thought that the starving, freezing people would quarrel among themselves over a piece of bread, over a log of firewood, would cease to defend the city and, in the end, would surrender it. On January 30, 1942, Hitler cynically declared: "We are not deliberately storming Leningrad. Leningrad will consume itself." ... The challenge to the enemy was the work of 39 schools in the besieged city. Even in the terrible conditions of the besieged life, when there was not enough food, firewood, water, warm clothes, many Leningrad children studied. The writer Alexander Fadeev said: "And the greatest feat of schoolchildren in Leningrad is that they studied."

At the time of the blockade, there were 2 million 544 thousand civilians in the city, including about 400 thousand children. In addition, 343 thousand people remained in the suburban areas (in the blockade ring). In September, when systematic bombing, shelling and fires began, many thousands of families wanted to leave, but the paths were cut off. The mass evacuation of citizens began only in January 1942 along the ice road.

November came, Ladoga began to gradually become covered with ice. By November 17, the ice thickness reached 100 mm, which was not enough to open the movement. Everyone was expecting frost.

November 22 came the long-awaited day when the cars took to the ice. Observing the intervals, at low speed, they followed the trail of the horses for the load.

It seemed the worst is now behind us, you can breathe more freely. But the harsh reality overturned all the calculations and hopes for an early improvement in the nutrition of the population.

But at the beginning, the transportation on the lake gave negligibly little in comparison with what was needed.

At first they carried two or three sacks of flour on sledges, then cars with bodies half-loaded went. The drivers began to attach sleds on cables to the cars, and the sleds were also loaded with flour. Soon it was possible to take a full load, and the cars - at first one and a half, then three-ton and even five-ton went out onto the lake: the ice got stronger.

On November 22, the convoy returned, leaving 33 tons of food in the city. The next day, only 19 tons were delivered. On November 25, only 70 tons were delivered, the next day - 150 tons. Warming came on November 30, only 62 tons were transported.

On December 22, 700 tons of food were delivered across the lake, the next day 100 tons more. On December 25, the first increase in the norms of giving out bread, to workers by 100 grams, to employees, dependents and children by 75 grams, took place. How many joy and tears people had, Galina Ivanovna notes, because of these grams.

During the entire operation of the road, 361 419 tons of various cargoes were delivered along it to Leningrad, of which 262 419 tons were food. This not only improved the supply of the heroic Leningraders, but also made it possible to create a certain supply of food by the time the ice road was completed, which amounted to 66,930 tons.

The ice road also played an important role in the evacuation of the city's population. It was a very difficult task. Evacuation from Leningrad was not subject to the amateur part of the population, but also the workers of the evacuated factories, institutions, scientists, etc.

The mass evacuation began in the second half of January 1942, after the State Defense Committee on January 22, 1942. adopted a decree on the evacuation of 500 thousand residents of Leningrad.

From the memoirs of my great-grandfather Nikolai Danilovich Poluyanchik: “My wife Tamara Pavlovna Poluyanchik, together with her parents, P.E. Shuvalov, K.I. Shuvalova and my mother's sister, Anna Ivanovna Kuracheva, were taken out on the ice Road of Life in January 1942. My sister left Leningrad at the insistence of my mother Evdokia. Sister Nadezhda had two young children. We were evacuated to Kazakhstan. "

Early December 1942 Soviet troops surrounded, and in January - early February 1943 defeated the main enemy grouping, broke through the German defenses and went on the offensive, throwing the enemy hundreds of kilometers to the west, using the favorable situation, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, reinforced by reserves, struck from both sides on the fortified enemy positions south of Ladoga.

The sixteen-month blockade of Leningrad was broken through by the efforts of Soviet soldiers on January 18, 1943.

The city's supply has improved dramatically. Coal was brought in, industry received electricity, frozen factories and factories came to life. The city was recuperating.

The general situation on the Soviet-German front remained tense and did not allow at this time to completely defeat the German troops near Leningrad.

By the end of 1943, the situation had changed radically. Our troops were preparing for new decisive strikes against the enemy.

The hour of reckoning has come. The Lenfront troops, well trained and equipped with military equipment, under the command of General of the Army Govorov, in mid-January 1944, went on the offensive from the Oranienbaum and Pulkovo areas. The forts and ships of the Baltic Fleet opened hurricane fire on the fortified positions of the Germans. At the same time, the Volkhov Front struck the enemy with all its might. Before the start of the offensive of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, the 2nd Baltic Front bound the enemy reserves with active actions and did not allow them to be transferred to Leningrad. As a result of a plan carefully developed by talented commanders, a well-organized interaction of the troops of the three fronts and the Baltic Fleet, the strongest group of Germans was defeated, and Leningrad was completely freed from the blockade.

“From the memoirs of Galina Nikolaevna Ugarova:“ My husband's brother, Dmitry Semenovich Ugarov, Vladimir Semenovich Ugarov survived the blockade. He worked at the Marty plant Admiralty Shipyards and received an increased food ration card as an employee. He survived thanks to his mother Ugarova Vera Ivanovna, who herself did not live to see victory for 1 year, died of exhaustion in 1944. Even when the food supply improved, the exhausted emaciated people continued to die. "

1.5 million defenders of Leningrad were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad", including my relatives.

Chronological dates of some important events of the siege of Leningrad.

1941 year

4 September The beginning of the artillery shelling of Leningrad

8 September The capture of Shlisselburg by the Germans. The beginning of the blockade of Leningrad. The first massive enemy air raid on the city.

12-th of September Reducing the norms for the distribution of bread, meat, cereals to the population. Arrival in Osinovets of the first ships with food from the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.

September 29 Stabilization of the front line around Leningrad.

1 october Reduction of the norms for the distribution of bread to the population and the norms of food allowances for the troops.

the 13th of November Reducing the distribution of food to the population

November 16 The beginning of the transportation of food supplies by air to Leningrad.

20 November Reduction of the norms of distribution of bread and other foodstuffs to the population

November 22 The beginning of the movement of vehicles along the Ice Road across the lake

9th December Defeat of the German group at Tikhvin. Liberation of Tikhvin from the invaders.

December 25 The first increase in the norms of distribution of bread to the population

1942 year

January 24 The second increase in the norms for the distribution of bread to the population

February 11 Increase in the norms for the distribution of food to the population

December 22 The medal "For the Defense of Leningrad" was established by the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR

1943 year

18 january Break of the blockade. Connection of the Leningrad and Volokhov fronts

February 6 The first train arrived in Leningrad on the newly built railway in the breakthrough strip.

1944 year

January 14 - 27 Complete liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade.

List of relatives who died, survived the blockade and defense of Leningrad.

Dead during the blockade:

1. Poluyanchik Daniil Osipovich \ 1986-1942 g. into the blockade. He was buried in a common grave at the Piskarevskoye cemetery in Leningrad.

2. Ugarova \ Gasilova \ Vera Ivanovna \? - 1944 \ was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. She died of starvation in 1944.

3. Ugarov Semyon Ivanovich \? - 1942 \ was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. From 1936 to 1942 he lived in Leningrad. He died during the blockade. Where he was buried is unknown.

Blockade survivors:

4. Dmitry Semenovich Ugarov \ 1919-2005 \ was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. In 1935 he moved to Leningrad and went to the front as a volunteer. He fought near the city of Leningrd. He defended Pulkovo, Gatchina.

5. Poluyanchik \ Ivanova \ Evdokia Nikolaevna \ 1888-1964 \, was born in the city of Kalyazin, got married in Petrograd in 1912, gave birth to three children: Nikolai, Pavel, Maria. Survived the blockade. After the war she lived in Uglich.

6. Ugarov Vladimir Semenovich \ 1927-1995 \, was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. In 1936 he moved to Leningrad. Survived the blockade. Graduated from FZU, worked at the Marty plant / Admiralty shipyards \. In 1944 he was sentenced to forced labor for being late for work in Molotovsk. Then he lived in the town of Myshkin, where he was buried.

They were taken out along the "Road of Life".

7. Poluyanchik \ Shuvalova \ Tamara Pavlovna \ 30.09.1920-07.03.1990 \ was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district Yaroslavl region... She lived in Leningrad. She was taken to the blockade along the "Road of Life" along Lake Ladoga. She lived in Myshkin, got married. She was a housewife. Since 1957 she lived in Uglich. She worked in the organization Raypotrebsoyuz. Buried in the city of Uglich.

8. Zakharyina \ Poluyanchik \ Nadezhda Danilovna \ 1917-1998 \ lived in Leningrad. She gave birth to three children. Sons - Vladimir, Yuri. Vladimir and Yuri live in Leningrad, pensioners. Daughter Lydia / 1939-1998 \ lived and died in Leningrad. Exported from the city along the "Road of Life".

9. Shuvalov Pavel Efimovich \ 1896-1975 \ was born in the village of Glotovo, Myshkinsky district. He worked at the Kazitsky factory and the Vera Slutskaya factory in Leningrad. Exported along the "Road of Life". Lived in Uglich

10. Shuvalova \ Gasilova \ Claudia Ivanovna \ 1897-1967 \, was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district, lived in Leningrad, gave birth to two children, lived in the city of Uglich. Exported along the "Road of Life" in 1942.

11. Kuracheva \ Gasilova \ Anna Ivanovna \ 1897-1987 \, was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. From 1936 to 1942 and from 1950 to 1957 she lived in Leningrad. Exported along the "Road of Life". From 1957 to 1987 she lived in Uglich, where she was buried.

12 ... Poluyanchik Nikolay Danilovich. My great-grandfather on the side of my mother, three times holder of the Order of the Red Star, Lieutenant Colonel Poluyanchik Nikolai Danilovich \ 04/26/1913-02.08.1999. A career officer. He took part in the battles for the defense of Leningrad.

I also identified relatives who lived in Leningrad at different times:

Pavel Semenovich Ugarov \ 1924-1995 \ was born in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. In 1935 he moved to live in Leningrad. In 1941 he was captured. After captivity he lived in the village of Potapovo, Myshkinsky district. In 1947 he moved to live in Leningrad. He worked as a cashier in a circus, a bookbinder in a printing house. He died and was buried in Leningrad.

1. Mishenkina Alla Dmitrievna

2. Mishenkin Yuri Vasilievich

3. Mishenkina Maria Yurievna

4. Mishenkina Antonina Yurievna

5. Kiselevich Kirill Nikolaevich

6. Kiselevich Anna Kirillovna

7. Mishenkin Alexander Kirillovich

8. Zakharyin Yuri Grigorievich

9. Zakharyin Vladimir Grigorievich

10. Alexey Zakharyin

11. Zakharyin Andrey Vladimirovich

12. Balakhontseva Olga Lvovna

13. Ivanova Zinaida Nikolaevn

Eternal fires burn at the Piskarevskoye and Serafimovskoye cemeteries .

His monuments and monuments, the names of streets, squares and embankments tell different stories and stories. Many of them are like scars left by severe trials and bloody battles. Time, however, does not extinguish the living feeling of human gratitude to those who with their lives blocked the path to the city of the fascist hordes. Cutting through the sky, at the entrance to the city, in its southern front gate, a four-sided obelisk rose, on the sides of which, like our contemporaries, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, bronze figures of heroic participants in the legendary defense of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War froze; hundreds of thousands of Soviet people, by their own labor or their own means, took part in its construction. It turned into a 220-kilometer belt of Glory, dressed in granite and concrete of monuments, memorials, a fiery, incompressible ring of blockade: at Pulkovo and Yam-Izhora, at Kolpin, at the Pulkovo Heights, in the area of ​​Ligov and the former Uritsk, along the borders of the Oranienbaum "patch", on the Nevsky "patch", like immortal sentries, obelisks, steles, memorial signs, sculptures, guns and combat vehicles raised on pedestals were frozen in the guard of honor. Memorial pillars are lined up along the Road of Life from Leningrad to the Ladoga coast. Eternal fires burn at the Piskarevskoye and Serafimovskoye cemeteries

Along the entire Road of Life route, 900 birches have been planted according to the number of days of the blockade. All birches are tied with red bands as a symbol of memory. About 470 thousand Leningraders were buried at the Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery (as of 1980). Men, women, children ... They also wanted to live, but they died in the name and for the sake of the future, which has become our present today. The victims of the blockade of Leningrad and the soldiers of the Leningrad Front (about 470 thousand people in total; according to other sources, 520 thousand people - 470 thousand blockade and 50 thousand servicemen) are buried in the mass graves.). The largest number of deaths occurred in the winter of 1941-1942.

In two pavilions at the entrance to the Piskarevskoye cemetery there is a museum dedicated to the feat of the inhabitants and defenders of the city:Tanya Savicheva's diary - a Leningrad schoolgirl who survived the horrors of the winter of 1941-1942.

For heroism and courage shown in the battle for Leningrad, 140 soldiers of the army, 126 - of the fleet, 19 partisans were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. 350 thousand soldiers, officers and generals - participants in the defense of Leningrad, 5.5 thousand partisans and about 400 workers of the ice road were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.

1.5 million defenders of Leningrad were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".

The enemies hoped that severe hardships would awaken in the Leningraders base, animal instincts, drown out all human feelings in them. They thought that the starving, freezing people would quarrel among themselves over a piece of bread, over a log of firewood, would cease to defend the city and, in the end, would surrender it. On January 30, 1942, Hitler cynically declared: "We are not deliberately storming Leningrad. Leningrad will consume itself." The challenge to the enemy was the work of 39 schools in the besieged city. Even in the terrible conditions of the besieged life, when there was not enough food, firewood, water, warm clothes, many Leningrad children studied. The writer Alexander Fadeev said: "And the greatest feat of schoolchildren in Leningrad is that they studied."

"Eternal memory to the lost, and the deceased inhabitants and wars

besieged Leningrad! Glory to those who survived! "

Bibliography

Literature:

A.V. Molchanov Heroic Defense Leningrad. St. Petersburg: "Madam", 2007.57s,

Survivors of the blockade / Comp. S.A. Irkhina. Yaroslavl, "Upper Volga", 2005.156s

The feat of Leningrad // Ontology works of art about the war in 12 volumes. V.3. M., Sovremennik., 1987, 564s.

Pavlov D.S.Leningrad in the blockade. M .: "Young Guard", 1989. 344s.

Zhukov G.K. Memories and Reflections, M. Press agency "Novosti", 1990.T.2.368 p.

I. I. Lisochkin With fire and blood in half. M. "Science", 312s.

Ladoga Native. Leningrad. Lenizdat, 1969 487s.

Defense of Leningrad 1941-1944 M. "Science", 1968 675s.

Vinogradov I.V. Heroes and Destinies, Leningrad. Lenizdat, 1988 312s.

Bezman E.S. Sentinels of the partisan broadcast. M. Science, 1976 267s.

Tributs. V.F. The Balts are marching into battle. Leningrad. Lenizdat, 1973, 213s.

Periodicals:

"Battle for Leningrad" // "Krasnaya Zvezda" 09/04/1991.

Some ate very satisfying food during the blockade and even managed to get rich. Leningraders themselves wrote about them in their diaries and letters. Here are quotes from the book "Siege Ethics. Conceptions of Morality in Leningrad in 1941-1942."

B. Bazanova, who more than once denounced the machinations of the sellers in her diary, emphasized that her housekeeper, who received 125 grams of bread per day, “was always weighed 40 grams or even 80 grams” - she usually bought bread for the whole family. The sellers managed to unnoticeably, taking advantage of the low illumination of shops and the semi-swooning state of many blockades, to pull out of the "cards" when transferring bread large quantity coupons than it was supposed to. In this case, it was difficult to catch them by the hand.

They also stole from canteens for children and adolescents. In September, representatives of the Leninsky District Prosecutor's Office checked soup cans in the kitchen of one of the schools. It turned out that the liquid soup can was intended for children, and the "regular" soup was for teachers. In the third can was "soup like porridge" - its owners could not be found.

It was all the easier to cheat in canteens because the instructions that determined the order and norms for the output of ready-made food were very complex and confusing. The technique of theft in kitchens was described in general terms in the previously cited memo of the team on the inspection of the work of the Main Directorate of Leningrad canteens and cafes: “Porridge of a viscous consistency should have a weld of 350, semi-liquid - 510%. Excess water addition, especially with a high throughput, goes completely unnoticed and allows canteen workers, without weighing them down, to keep kilograms of food for themselves. "

Attacks on exhausted people were a sign of the disintegration of moral norms in the "time of death": both "cards" and foodstuffs were taken away from them. Most often this happened in bakeries and shops, when they saw that the buyer hesitated, shifting products from the counter into a bag or bags, and "cards" in pockets and mittens. The robbers attacked people and near the shops. Often, hungry townspeople came out of there with bread in hand, plucking small pieces from it, and were absorbed only in this, not paying attention to possible threats. Often they took away the "appendage" to the bread - it was possible to eat it faster. Children were also victims of attacks. It was easier to take food away from them.

... "Here we are starving like flies, but in Moscow Stalin gave another dinner yesterday in honor of Eden in Moscow. It's a disgrace, they are eating there.<�…>and we cannot even receive a piece of our own bread in a human way. They arrange all sorts of brilliant meetings there, and we are like cavemen<�…>we live, ”E. Mukhina wrote in her diary. The harshness of the remark is also emphasized by the fact that she does not know anything about the dinner itself and how “brilliant” it looked. Here, of course, we are not dealing with the transmission of semi-official information, but with its kind of processing, provoking a comparison of the hungry and the well-fed. The feeling of injustice accumulated gradually. Such a sharpness of tone could hardly have been revealed suddenly, if it had not been preceded by less dramatic, but very frequent assessments of smaller cases of infringement of the rights of the blockade - this is especially noticeable in E. Mukhina's diary.

The feeling of injustice due to the fact that the hardships are laid out in different ways on Leningraders, arose more than once - when sent to clean the streets, because of orders for rooms in bombed-out houses, during evacuation, due to special nutritional standards for "responsible workers." And here again, as in conversations about dividing people into "necessary" and "unnecessary," the same topic was touched upon - about the privileges of those in power. The doctor, summoned to the head of the IRLI (he constantly ate and "fell ill with a stomach"), cursed: he was hungry, but he was called to the "over-eaten director." In his diary entry on October 9, 1942, ID Zelenskaya comments on the news of the eviction of all those living at the power plant and using heat, electricity and hot water. Either they tried to save money on human misfortune, or they followed some instructions - I.D. Zelenskaya was of little interest. First of all, she emphasizes that this is unfair. One of the victims - a worker who occupied a damp, uninhabited room, "was forced to wander there with a child on two trams ... in general, two hours on the road one way." "You can't do that to her, it's unacceptable cruelty." None of the arguments of the bosses can be taken into account also because these "mandatory measures" do not concern him: “All families [of the leaders. - S. Ya.] Live here as before, unattainable for the troubles that befell mere mortals. "

ZS Livshits, having visited the Philharmonic, did not find there "swollen and dystrophic". It is not limited to just this observation. Emaciated people “have no time for fat” - this is her first attack on those “music lovers” who met her at the concert. The latter made a good life for themselves on common difficulties - this is her second attack. How did you “arrange” life? On the "shrinkage-utruske", on the body kit, simply on theft. She has no doubts that the majority of the audience is present only "trading, cooperative and bakery people" and is sure that they received the "capital" in just such a criminal way ... Arguments are not needed by A. I. Vinokurov. Having met women among the visitors of the Theater of Musical Comedy on March 9, 1942, he immediately assumed that they were either waitresses from canteens or shop assistants in grocery stores. He hardly knew for sure - but we will not be far from the truth if we consider that the same appearance of the "theater-goers" was used as a rating scale.

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

... "Only those who work in grain places are fed" - in this diary entry on September 7, 1942, the blockademan AF Evdokimov expressed, perhaps, the general opinion of the Leningraders. GI Kazanina's letter to TA Konopleva described how their acquaintance had grown fat (“you don’t know right now”), having entered a restaurant job - and the connection between these phenomena seemed so clear that it was not even discussed. Perhaps they did not know that out of 713 workers of the confectionery factory named after NK Krupskaya, who worked here at the beginning of 1942, no one died of hunger, but the sight of other enterprises, next to which lay piles of corpses, spoke volumes. In the winter of 1941/42, at the State Institute of Applied Chemistry (GIPH), 4 people died a day, at the Sevkabel plant up to 5 people. At the plant them. Molotov, during the issuance of food ration cards on December 31, 1941, 8 people died in line. Died about a third of the employees of the Petrograd communications office, 20-25% of the workers of Lenenergo, 14% of the workers of the plant. Frunze. At the Baltic railway junction, 70% of the conductor personnel and 60% of the railway personnel died. In the boiler room of the plant. Kirov, where a morgue was set up, there were about 180 corpses, and at bakery No. 4, according to the director, "three people died during this difficult winter, but ... not from exhaustion, but from other diseases."

B. Kapranov has no doubts that not everyone is starving: sellers have a “fat” of several kilograms of bread a day. He does not say how he knows this. And it is worth doubting whether he could have received such accurate information, but each of the subsequent entries is logical. Since the "fat" is such, it means that they are "great money". How can you argue with this? Then he writes about the thousands that the thieves have amassed. Well, and this is logical - stealing kilograms of bread a day, in a hungry city, one could get rich. Here is a list of those who overeat: "The military ranks and the police, the employees of the military registration and enlistment offices and others who can take everything they need in special stores." Is he familiar with everyone, and so much so that they tell him about their prosperity without hesitation? But if a store is special, it means that they give more than in ordinary stores, and if so, then there is no doubt that its visitors "eat ... as we ate before the war." And here is the continuation of the list of those who live well: cooks, canteen managers, waiters. "Everyone in the slightest degree occupies an important post." And nothing needs to be proved. And he is not the only one who thinks so: “If we received in full, then we would not starve and would not be sick ... with dystrophies,” complained workers of one of the factories in a letter to A. A. Zhdanov. They don't seem to have irrefutable evidence, but, they ask, "look at the entire staff of the cafeteria ... how they look - they can be harnessed and plowed."

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

Reading the minutes of the discussion in Smolny of the film "Defense of Leningrad", it is difficult to get rid of the impression that its viewers were more concerned with the "decency" of the panorama of the blockade shown here than with recreating its true history. The main reproach: the film does not give a charge of vigor and enthusiasm, does not call for labor achievements ... “The picture is overdone by decline,” A. A. Zhdanov noted. And reading the report on the speech delivered here by PS Popkov, you understand that, perhaps, this was the main thing here. PS Popkov feels like an excellent editor. The film shows a line of the dead. This is not necessary: ​​“The impression is depressing. Some of the episodes about coffins will have to be removed. " He saw a car frozen in the snow. Why show it? "This can be attributed to our disorder." He is outraged that the work of factories and plants is not covered - that most of them were inactive in the first winter of the blockade, he preferred to remain silent. The film depicts a blockade falling from exhaustion. This, too, must be excluded: "It is not known why he staggers, maybe drunk."

The same P.S.Popkov, to the request of the climbers, who covered the high spiers with covers, to give them "letter cards", replied: "Well, you work for fresh air". Here is an accurate indicator of the level of ethics. "What do you want the district council, cash cow", - the chairman of the district executive committee shouted at one of the women who asked for furniture for the orphanage. There was enough furniture in the mothballed "hearths" - a significant part of the children were evacuated from Leningrad. This was not a reason for refusing assistance. The reason could be fatigue, fear of responsibility, and selfishness. And no matter what they disguised themselves with: seeing how they did not do what they could do, one can immediately determine the degree of mercy.

... “In the district committee, the workers also began to feel a difficult situation, although they were in a somewhat more privileged position ... No one from the staff of the district committee, the plenum of the district committee and the secretaries of the primary organizations died. We managed to defend the people, ”recalled the first secretary of the Lenin District Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) AM Grigoriev.

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

Among the scant stories about food in Smolny, where rumors are mixed with real events, there are those that can be treated with a certain degree of confidence. O. Grechina in the spring of 1942, my brother brought two liter jars ("one contained cabbage, once sour, but now completely rotten, and the other - the same rotten red tomatoes"), explaining that they cleaned the basements of Smolny, taking out barrels of rotten vegetables. One of the cleaning ladies was lucky enough to have a look at the banquet hall in Smolny itself - she was invited there "for service." They envied her, but she returned from there in tears - no one fed her, "and after all, what was not on the tables."

I. Metter told how the actress of the theater of the Baltic Fleet, a member of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front A.A. Samoilovy chocolate cake "; it was eaten by fifteen people and, in particular, I. Metter himself. There was no shameful intent here, just A.A.Kuznetsov was sure that in a city littered with the corpses of those who died from exhaustion, he also had the right to make generous gifts at someone else's expense to those he liked. These people behaved as if a peaceful life continued, and it was possible, without hesitation, to relax in the theater, send cakes to the artists and make librarians look for books for their "minutes of rest."