One of the most tragic pages of the GreatWorld War II is considered a blockade of Leningrad. History has preserved many facts testifying to this terrible ordeal in the life of the city on the Neva. Leningrad was surrounded by the fascist invaders for almost 900 days (from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944). Of the two and a half million people living in the northern capital before the start of the war, during the blockade, more than 600,000 people died of starvation, and several tens of thousands of citizens died from bombings. Despite the catastrophic shortage of food, severe frosts, lack of heat and electricity, the people of Leningrad bravely stood up to the Nazi onslaught and did not give the enemy their city.
In 2014, Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the blockadeLeningrad. Today, just as several decades ago, the Russian people highly honor the feat of the inhabitants of the city on the Neva. A large number of books have been written about besieged Leningrad, many documentaries and feature films have been shot. About the heroic defense of the city tell schoolchildren and students. In order to better imagine the position of the people who find themselves in Leningrad surrounded by fascist troops, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the events associated with his besieging.
To capture the Soviet lands from the Nazis wasdeveloped a plan Barbarossa. In accordance with it, the fascists planned to conquer the European part of the USSR in a few months. The city on the Neva in the occupation of the Soviet Union was assigned an important role, because Hitler believed that if Moscow is the heart of the country, Leningrad is his soul. The Fuhrer was convinced that as soon as the northern capital fell under the onslaught of the German fascist troops, the fighting spirit of a huge state would weaken, and after that it could be easily won.
Despite the resistance of our troops,The Nazis managed to significantly advance inland and surround the city on the Neva from all sides. September 8, 1941 entered history as the first day of the blockade of Leningrad. It was then that all land routes from the city were cut, and he was surrounded by the enemy. Every day, Leningrad was subjected to shelling, but did not surrender.
Северная столица находилась в блокадном кольце almost 900 days. In the entire history of the existence of mankind, this was the longest and most terrible siege of the city. Despite the fact that before the blockade, some of the residents were evacuated from Leningrad, a large number of citizens continued to remain in it. The share of these people fell terrible agony, and not all of them managed to live to the liberation of their hometown.
Регулярные авиаудары - это не самое ужасное, что it was possible to survive the Leningrad people during the war. The food supply in the besieged city was not enough, and this led to a terrible famine. Delivery of food from other localities was hampered by the blockade of Leningrad. Interesting facts left the townspeople about this period: the local population fell into hungry fainting on the street, the cases of cannibalism did not surprise anyone. Every day more and more deaths from exhaustion were recorded, the corpses lay on city streets, and there was no one to clean them.
With the beginning of the blockade, Leningrad began to issuefood cards on which it was possible to get bread. From October 1941, the daily bread rate for workers was 400 grams per person, and for children under 12 years old, dependents and employees - 200 g. But this did not save the citizens from starvation. Food stocks were rapidly declining, and by November 1941 the daily portion of bread had to be reduced to 250 g for workers and to 125 g for other categories of citizens. Due to the lack of flour, it consisted half of inedible impurities, was black and bitter. Leningraders did not complain, because for them a piece of such bread was the only salvation from death. But the famine did not continue all 900 days of the blockade of Leningrad. Already at the beginning of 1942, the daily norms of bread increased, and he himself became better. In mid-February 1942, for the first time, residents of the city on the Neva River were given rations of frozen mutton and beef meat. Gradually, the food situation in the northern capital was stabilized.
But not only hunger remembered the townspeopleLeningrad blockade. The history contains the facts that the winter of 1941-1942 was unusually cold. Frosts in the city were from October to April and were much stronger than in previous years. In some months, the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. Heavy snowfall aggravated the situation: by April 1942 the height of snowdrifts was 53 cm.
Despite the abnormally cold winter, duefuel shortages in the city failed to start centralized heating, there was no electricity, the water supply was turned off. In order to somehow warm the dwelling, the people of Leningrad used stoves, the stove: they burned everything that could burn - books, rags, old furniture. Exhausted by hunger, people could not stand the cold and die. The total number of citizens who died from exhaustion and frost, by the end of February 1942 exceeded 200 thousand people.
Until the blockade was completely liftedLeningrad, the only way in which residents were evacuated and supplied the city, remained Lake Ladoga. In the winter, trucks and horse carts were shipped along it, and in summer, barges went around the clock. The narrow road, completely unprotected from aerial bombardment, was the only link between blockade Leningrad and the world. The locals called Lake Ladoga “the road of life”, because if not for it, the victims of the Nazis would be disproportionately more.
About three years the blockade of Leningrad lasted.Interesting facts from this period indicate that, despite the catastrophic situation, life continued in the city. In Leningrad, even during the famine, military equipment was produced, theaters and museums were opened. The morale of the townspeople was supported by famous writers and poets who regularly spoke on the radio. By the winter of 1942-1943, the situation in the northern capital was no longer as critical as before. Despite regular bombing, life in Leningrad has stabilized. Factories, schools, cinemas, bathhouses started working, water supply was restored, and public transport began to walk around the city.
On the very last day of the siege of Leningrad, hesubjected to regular shelling. Shells, razed to the ground many buildings in the city, flown by the side of St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is not known why the Nazis did not touch the building. There is a version that they used its high dome as a landmark for shelling the city. The basement of the cathedral served Leningraders as a repository for valuable museum exhibits, thanks to which they were preserved intact until the very end of the war.
Not only the fascists were a problem for the citizens,while the blockade of Leningrad lasted. Interesting facts indicate that in the northern capital in large numbers divorced rats. They destroyed those meager food supplies that remained in the city. In order to save the population of Leningrad from starvation, 4 wagons of smoky cats, considered to be the best rat cattle, were transported from the Yaroslavl Region along the “road of life” to it. Animals adequately coped with the mission entrusted to them and gradually destroyed rodents, saving people from the next famine.
The liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockadehappened on January 27, 1944. After a two-week offensive, the Soviet troops managed to push the Nazis away from the city. But, despite the defeat, the invaders still besieged the northern capital for about six months. It was finally possible to push the enemy away from the city after the Vyborg and Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operations carried out by the Soviet troops in the summer of 1944.
January 27 in Russia is the day whenthere was a complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad. On this memorable date, the leaders of the country, church ministers and ordinary citizens come to the Piskarevsky cemetery in St. Petersburg, where the remains of hundreds of thousands of Leningraders who died of starvation and artillery bombardment lie in mass graves. The 900 days of the siege of Leningrad will forever remain a black page in Russian history and will remind people of the inhuman crimes of fascism.
