Leningrad city hero briefly facts for a student. Hero City Leningrad




Early August - the German offensive developed in three directions. In the north, the goal of offensive operations was the capture of Leningrad. The offensive in the central direction had the ultimate goal of destroying the capital of the country - Moscow. In the southeastern direction, the German command planned to seize Ukraine, the Crimean peninsula and enter the Caucasus. In a short time, German troops advanced 400-500 km in the northwest direction, 450-600 km in the west, and 300-350 km in the southwest.

On July 10, 1941, the German offensive begins in the Leningrad direction. Gradually, German troops began to compress the ring around Leningrad.

At the end of August, the railways connecting Leningrad with the country were cut. Communication with him was carried out only through Lake Ladoga and by air. On September 8, land communication between Leningrad and the country was stopped. The 900-day blockade of the city began. In September, one of the largest enemy air raids on Leningrad was made. 276 planes took part in it, during one day the city was bombed 6 times. On November 20, the hunger blockade of Leningrad began.

For sixteen months, the great city of Lenin stood like an unshakable cliff, fighting off ferocious attacks, artillery strikes, brutal bombings. The enemy did everything possible to first by storm, and after the failure of the storm with a barbaric blockade, to bring Leningrad to its knees. The glorious city lived under fire for many months, steadfastly enduring hunger and cold, and finally waited for a bright day - a breakthrough of the fascist blockade by part of the forces of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts. After careful preparation, on January 12, 1943, at dawn, an artillery cannonade thundered from both sides. The decisive battle has begun. It was necessary to overcome a powerful strip of fortifications erected by the Germans. The Soviet troops were blocked by dense barbed wire, solid minefields, high ramparts, several lines of pillboxes and bunkers. But nothing could resist the onslaught of Soviet fighters who sought to liberate Leningrad from the blockade.

The first blow inflicted on the enemy was extremely strong. After two hours of artillery and aviation preparation, at 11:15 a.m., the Soviet infantry moved forward with the support of artillery fire. The front was broken in two places.

In one section, the width of the breakthrough was 5 kilometers, in the neighboring section - 8 kilometers. Later, both sections of the breakthrough connected. The struggle around the main strongholds of the enemy began to boil.

Shots rumbled all around, the air was filled with the breath of a fierce battle.

January 18, 1943 is a big day in the history of the Soviet struggle against Nazi Germany. Breaking the blockade of Leningrad, under the walls of which the Germans lost tens of thousands of their soldiers, was not only a major failure of Hitler's strategic plans, but also his serious political defeat.

In the battle for Leningrad, over 350 thousand soldiers of the Leningrad Front were awarded orders and medals, 226 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, about 1.5 million people were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".

The heroic defense of Leningrad is a mass, nationwide feat. On May 1, 1945, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Leningrad was declared a hero city. In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 8, 1965, for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of the city of Leningrad in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the difficult conditions of a long enemy blockade, the hero city of Leningrad, previously awarded for These merits were awarded the Order of Lenin, the Gold Star medal was awarded.

The city, which is called the Northern Capital, was renamed Petrograd in 1914. Ten years later - to Leningrad. Hero City is a title given to Sank...

Hero City Leningrad: history and photos

By Masterweb

20.04.2018 11:00

The city, which is called the Northern Capital, was renamed Petrograd in 1914. Ten years later - to Leningrad. Hero City - a title received by St. Petersburg in 1965. The blockade of Leningrad continued for almost nine hundred days. According to various estimates, from six hundred thousand to two million inhabitants of the city died during the war years. Many books and films are dedicated to the heroes of Leningrad. The events from the history of St. Petersburg related to the Soviet period are described in the article.

In 1924 there was a flood, which was the second largest in the history of the city. Until 1941, this was the main event in the history of Leningrad. There are nine hero cities in Russia, including Kerch and Sevastopol. Throughout the territory of the former Soviet Union, there are only twelve settlements with the highest degree of distinction. The blockade is a terrible page in the history of St. Petersburg. The period that brought Leningrad the title of Hero City began on September 8, 1941. Day of liberation of the city from the fascist blockade - January 27, 1944.

Hitler attack

According to the plan "Barbarossa", signed by the Fuhrer, the capture of the Soviet Union was to be carried out in three directions: GA "North", GA "Center", GA "South". The Nazi command planned to attack Moscow after the capture of Leningrad. But plans have changed. The Germans never took Moscow. The city, which was the second largest in the Soviet Union and in which a quarter of the country's heavy engineering was concentrated, withstood a long blockade.

The territory encircled by the Germans in September 1941 had an area of ​​five thousand square kilometers. Most of the troops of the Leningrad Front were blocked. This is about a million people, not counting the inhabitants of Leningrad. The heroes of the city on the Neva were not only soldiers and officers, but also ordinary people. In those terrible days, even children performed feats.

We were given medals in 1943, and only in 1945 were we given passports.

These are the words of the poet Yuri Voronov, who survived the siege of Leningrad at the age of 12. Why Hero City? Why did St. Petersburg receive this title? The answers to these questions are in the facts below.

Hopeless position

That is how Stalin called the situation that developed in September 1941. Already a few days after the beginning of the blockade, the generalissimo said: "Leningrad will probably soon have to be considered lost."

Georgy Zhukov arrived in the city on September 9th. According to other sources, on the 13th. For unauthorized abandonment of the line of defense, he applied harsh measures, up to and including execution. The American publicist Salisbury, who wrote a book about the siege of Leningrad, said: "Zhukov was terrible in those September days. He demanded one thing: attack, attack and attack!" Soviet troops advanced despite the lack of rifles, ammunition and physical strength.

The German Field Marshal von Leeb, meanwhile, continued successful operations on the outskirts of the city. The enemy stopped four kilometers from Leningrad, the front line passed near the Kirov plant, which, in spite of everything, continued to work. On September 21, an operation began to destroy the ships of the Baltic Fleet. Serious damage was inflicted on the battleship "Marat", which killed more than three hundred people.

But then the most terrible days in the history of the hero city of Leningrad had not yet begun. Briefly, the then plans of the German command can be summarized by quoting Colonel General Franz Halder:

The situation will be tense until our ally, hunger, comes to our aid.

And he really came. But the city did not give up even a year after the destruction of all food supplies.

Badaev warehouses

Two weeks after the start of the blockade, the Germans changed tactics. They set about destroying the city - they dropped incendiary bombs on Leningrad in order to organize massive fires. Food warehouses were the main target. The largest of them was destroyed in September. Three thousand tons of flour were stored in the Badaev warehouses.

The road of life

The inhabitants of Leningrad felt the shortage of food in October. In November, the famine began. Food was delivered to Leningrad through Lake Ladoga, along the "Road of Life". For obvious reasons, this path was possible only in winter frosts. However, both in December and in January, the vehicles in which the products were transported often fell through the ice, which was facilitated by the Germans, who were also shelling the Road of Life. To this day, trucks lie at the bottom of Lake Ladoga, which never reached their destination.

During the days of the blockade, both Soviet and foreign correspondents were in the city. The photos they take are terrifying. The heroes of the city of Leningrad are not only soldiers who tried to break through the ring, but also local residents who withstood hunger.


Death on the Leningrad streets

In November 1941, funeral services were picking up hundreds of corpses daily from the streets of the city. Mortality has become widespread. A man dying on the street did not cause any emotions in passers-by, exhausted from hunger.

By the winter of 1941, funeral services were no longer up to the task. The bodies of Leningraders lay in the alley, on the street. There was no one to clean them up. The period from November 1941 to January 1942 was the most difficult in the history of the blockade of Leningrad. About four thousand people died of starvation every day in the city.

The goal of the Nazis was to make the blockade so strong that "the mouse would not slip either there or back." But by the winter of 1941, there were no mice in the city ...

Harsh Leningrad winter

Despite the fact that in January Lake Ladoga was covered with a thick layer of ice, and trucks with food began to move slowly along it, it was in the cold that the number of victims from hunger increased. It was especially difficult for emaciated Leningraders to endure frosts. And the winter of 1941-1942 turned out to be longer and colder than usual.


Tanya Savicheva

The terrible days in the history of St. Petersburg are known thanks to the diaries kept by the dying blockade survivors. Exhausted people hoped to survive. Some of them made entries in their diaries with the last of their strength. On the wall of house No. 13, located on the 2nd line of Vasilyevsky Island, there is a memorial plaque in memory of Tanya Savicheva. During the blockade, the girl kept a diary, which became one of the symbols of the hero city of Leningrad. WWII Tanya Savicheva did not survive. She was taken out of besieged Leningrad, but she died of exhaustion already in the evacuation.

Tanya Savicheva was born into a large family in 1930. In May 1941, the girl graduated from the third grade. Relatives were dying before her eyes. She, like her two older sisters, was evacuated in August 1942 to the Nizhny Novgorod region. Tanya Savicheva survived the siege of Leningrad, but died in the village of Shatki from intestinal tuberculosis.


Shelling

Hitler issued an order according to which the German command was to shoot civilians. With the help of artillery shelling, the population was supposed to be forced to flee. Thus Hitler hoped to create disorder in the central part of Russia. In Cartier Raymond's book "Secrets of War" it is said that the German military leaders initially protested against this order. They refused to shoot at civilians. However, the Fuhrer was adamant.

During the blockade, there were no safe areas in Leningrad. Each of them at any moment could be destroyed by an enemy projectile. But on certain streets, the risk of becoming a victim of artillery was especially great. On the walls of houses in such dangerous places there were special warning inscriptions. Of course, they have not survived to this day, but some of them have been recreated in memory of the blockade. So, on Ammermann Street, on the wall of house No. 25, you can see a warning sign. This memorial plaque is one of the numerous monuments of the Hero City of Leningrad.


Liberation of the city

January 14, 1944 began the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation. Five days later, the Red Army achieved significant success. January 27, 1944 the hero city of Leningrad was liberated from the enemy blockade. There were fireworks that day.

The evacuation began in the summer. Ironically, many residents refused to leave their homes. But of those who agreed to go, few survived. Exhausted Leningraders died on the road and in hospitals from ailments caused by years of famine.

monuments

The city has a lot of places reminiscent of the victims of the blockade. One of the most famous monuments is the Obelisk "To the Hero City of Leningrad". It is located on Vosstaniya Square and was installed in 1985. The obelisk is a granite monolith 36 meters high. Decorated with bronze bas-reliefs and crowned with a star. The project of the monument was created by the architect Vladimir Lukyanov.


Piskarevskoye Memorial Cemetery is located in the north of St. Petersburg. A monument to the heroes of Leningrad was erected here. The cemetery was founded before the war - in 1939. During the years of the blockade, it turned into a place of mass graves. There are several mass graves here. Both the soldiers of the Leningrad Front and civilians who died of starvation are buried in them.

Those who died during the war years were also buried at the Nevsky cemetery, which was razed to the ground two decades after the Great Victory. In its place, in 1977, the Cranes memorial was erected.

The road that supplied the city with food was located near the front line. She was under the protection of special military units. In December 1941, defensive lines were built on the ice, consisting mainly of ice fortifications. Today, where the "Road of Life" passed, seven monuments and more than forty memorial pillars have been erected.

Other well-known monuments: "Torn Face", the memorial route "Rzhevsky Corridor", the sculpture "Grieving Mother". In total, there are more than twenty sights associated with the blockade of Leningrad in St. Petersburg.


Blockade Museum

It was opened in 1946. But until 1990 it was called the Leningrad Defense Museum. True, for several decades this institution was closed. As a result of the so-called "Leningrad case", the premises were transferred to the Ministry of the Navy. Many exhibits were destroyed. Restoration began only during the years of perestroika.

The museum is located at the address: Solyanoy lane, building 9. The exposition includes about 20 thousand items, including furniture, things that give an idea of ​​the life of Leningraders in the period 1942-1944.

post-war period

The restoration of the city began immediately after the liberation. In 1950, a plan for the development of Leningrad was approved, which envisaged the expansion of the territory around the historical center. In the 1950s, new architectural ensembles appeared in the northern capital. In 1960, construction began on the western part of Vasilyevsky Island, which changed the face of the historic district. The center of Leningrad was included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1990. A year later, the city was renamed St. Petersburg.

Kievyan street, 16 0016 Armenia, Yerevan +374 11 233 255

Introduction - 2

I. The Last Peaceful Days. - 2

II. Preparing for an attack. - 3

III. On the way to Leningrad. Blockade. - four

IV. blockade problems. - 6

V. Road of life. - 8

VI. Long awaited time. - 8

Conclusion - 10

List of used literature - 11

Doing.

The city of Leningrad bears the name of the great leader - V.I. Lenin. Here began the Great October Socialist Revolution.

Leningrad is the largest industrial, scientific and cultural center of our country. This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. For revolutionary, military and labor merits, Leningrad was awarded two orders of V.I. Lenin, the Order of the October Revolution, and the Order of the Red Banner. For an unprecedented feat during the Great Patriotic War, he was awarded the honorary title "City - Hero" and the medal "Gold Star".

Hitler hated the name of the city on the Neva, the glorious traditions and patriotism of its inhabitants. Here is an excerpt from the secret directive of the German naval headquarters “On the future of St. Petersburg” dated September 22, 1941: “The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of St. Petersburg off the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, there is no interest in the continued existence of this large settlement. It was proposed to blockade the city and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. On our part, there is no interest in preserving at least part of the population of this large city.

To carry out their barbaric plan, the Nazi command sent huge military forces to Leningrad - more than 40 selected divisions, more than 1,000 tanks and 1,500 aircraft.

Together with the Germans, Leningrad was advancing: the army of the White Finns, the "Blue Division" from fascist Spain, the legionnaires of the Netherlands, Holland, Belgium, Norway, recruited from fascist henchmen. The enemy troops outnumbered ours by several times. To help the Soviet wars in Leningrad, a people's militia was formed. Workers, employees, students joined it. In the occupied areas of the Leningrad region, underground groups and partisan detachments were created, where brave people went, ready to make any sacrifice in the name of the Motherland.

I. Last peaceful days.

What were those endlessly long 900 days?

Back in December 1940, our intelligence officer reported that about 60 thousand German soldiers were concentrated near the Norwegian-Finnish border. She directly warned: “The attack should be in the spring on Leningrad. Be on guard." At the same time, it became known that Russian was being studied in the occupying fascist troops in northern Europe. In Finland, roads leading to the Soviet border were built, a restricted zone was created in the border areas, free entry to port cities was closed, on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, and from June 10, the evacuation of the population from the border regions began, covertly began to mobilize and transfer troops to the Soviet border.

In recent days, the Germans have behaved extremely suspiciously, for various reasons they ended up in Leningrad. In particular, German merchant ships weighed anchor without completing their loading.

The quiet, white night of June 22 was fraught with insidious, unexpected dangers not only there, near the land state border closest to Leningrad. Here are some messages taken from various sources.

3 o'clock 20 minutes. Pilots Shavrov and Boyko, who were patrolling on the outskirts of Leningrad, drove off a flight of Messerschmitt-110s that were trying to shell one of our airfields.

3 o'clock 30 minutes. On the approaches to Kronstadt, a fascist plane fired on the Luga steamer.

3 o'clock 45 min. 12 foreign planes dropped magnetic mines on the Kronstadt roadstead.

And the city began to select and reconnoiter possible defensive lines between Pskov and Leningrad. Free troops and, most importantly, the local population are involved in the work.

II. Preparation for the attack.

An extremely difficult situation developed.

The borders of East Prussia were crossed by Army Group North: the 16th, 18th armies and the 4th tank group - a total of 29 divisions. They were supported by the 1st Air Fleet. This grouping was supposed to capture the Baltic states, our Baltic ports, including Kronstadt and Leningrad, thereby depriving the Baltic Fleet of all its bases. This pursued a purely military, strategic goal. It was also political. Hitler considered it necessary to specifically explain that as a result of the implementation of this plan, the Soviet Union “will lose one of the symbols of the revolution, which has been the most important for the Russian people over the past 24 years, and that the spirit of the Slavic people will be seriously undermined as a result of the heavy impact of the fighting, and with the fall of Leningrad, a complete catastrophe may come.

The battles in the Baltic were fierce, but the Nazis had an overwhelming superiority in forces and were rapidly moving forward. All members of the Military Council agreed that the mobilization of the population for defense work should immediately begin. On June 27, the construction of the Leningrad metro was suspended, the construction of hydroelectric power stations was curtailed: workers, engineers, technicians, machines, materials - everything was transferred to military organizations. Men aged 16 to 50 and women aged 16 to 45 were involved in the work. In construction trusts, at many other enterprises, the manufacture of turret gun mounts, armored and prefabricated reinforced concrete structures, firing points, anti-tank gouges, barbed wire, mines, etc. was established. Stocks of armor at shipbuilding factories were used: in a short time, naval engineers designed up to 20 types of various armor points, often mounting them under enemy fire.

All its inhabitants rose to the defense of Leningrad. In a short time it was turned into a city-fortress. Leningraders built 35 kilometers of barricades, 4,170 pillboxes, 22,000 firing points, created air defense detachments, security detachments at factories and factories, organized duty in houses, and equipped first-aid posts.

III. On the way to Leningrad. Blockade.

Despite the heroism and courage of Soviet soldiers and partisans, in September 1941 the enemy managed to come close to Leningrad and surround it. During the day, the Nazis shelled the city from long-range guns, at night they dropped incendiary and high-explosive bombs from aircraft. Residential buildings, orphanages, hospitals, factories, museums, theaters collapsed, women, old people, children died.

On October 21, 1941, the youth newspaper "Smena" published the order of the Leningrad Regional Committee and the City Committee of the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League "To the Pioneers and Schoolchildren of Leningrad" with a call to be active participants in the defense of Leningrad.

Young Leningraders responded to this call with deeds. Together with adults, they dug trenches, checked blackouts in residential buildings, went 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. Bottles were required to make pomegranates with this mixture. Schoolchildren collected more than a million bottles in just one week.

The cold was coming. Leningrad residents began to collect warm clothes for the soldiers of the Soviet Army. The boys also helped. Older girls knitted mittens, socks and sweaters for the veterans. Soldiers received hundreds of heartfelt letters and parcels from schoolchildren with warm clothes, soap, handkerchiefs, pencils, and notepads.

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

Along with adults, schoolchildren, on duty in the attics and roofs of houses, extinguished incendiary bombs and fires that had arisen. They were called "sentinels of the Leningrad roofs."

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 rockets, showed German pilots targets for bombing. Such an agent was discovered on Dzerzhinsky Street by 6th grade students Petya Semyonov and Alyosha Vinogradov. Thanks to the guys, the Chekists detained him.

During the siege, the Nazis rained down 150,000 heavy shells on the city, dropped 5,000 high-explosive and 10,000 incendiary bombs. 3174 buildings were destroyed and burned, 7143 were damaged. The third part of the housing was destroyed.

As a result of fierce, bloody battles, at the cost of huge losses, the Nazis managed to capture the Mga station and cut the last railway line connecting besieged Leningrad with the country. On September 8, 1941, having captured the city of Shlisselburg (now Petrokrepost), the enemies broke through to the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. Leningrad was completely blocked by land.

The war in its formidable and mortal guise has now come to the streets of Leningrad. The first bombardments of the city fall on 6 and 8 September. The flames of fires flared up, the Badaev food warehouses burned, and the main waterworks was seriously damaged.

Artillery explosions in the streets also became a terrible, incredible routine, to which people nevertheless got used, as to something inevitable and unavoidable: you need to be careful, you need to know which side of the street to go on, have time to lie down, take cover, that’s actually all, what can you do, and then how will it be - war ...

The enemy escalated tension, fear, trying to sow panic, break, shock the weak, shake the soul and will of the strong. Fascist newspapers and radio all over the world trumpeted about the "progressive" encirclement of Leningrad. The fate of Leningrad was considered decided, Hitler had no doubt that the city would fall in the very near future.

The defensive lines stretched for about 400 kilometers, on which our troops opposed Army Group North, but Zhukov realized that everything had now converged on this segment of the front. From Ligov and Uritsk to Pulkovo, along the highway, a car passes through it in about half an hour. The main forces of the Nazis put up against Pulkovo, Ligov, Uritsk. The two guns from the Aurora, which were stationed there, destroyed the fascist tanks until the last minute; seeing themselves surrounded by enemies, the surviving Red Navy men of one of the calculations took refuge in a powder magazine and, when the Nazis approached them, they blew up the gunpowder. A hand-to-hand fight ensued at another gun, the Nazis seized five gunners who received severe wounds, in wild anger they immediately doused them with gasoline and burned them.

On November 8, the Nazis captured Tikhvin with a fight. Berlin radio broadcast a message about the capture of Tikhvin every 30 minutes throughout the whole day; bravura marches thundered over Germany all day. Speaking on November 8 in Munich, Hitler choked with wild joy:

Leningrad will raise its hands: it will inevitably fall sooner or later. No one will be freed from there, no one will break through our lines. Leningrad is destined to starve to death.

Hitler's speech, unfortunately, was not an empty threat. The position of the Leningraders, indeed, has deteriorated sharply.

IV. blockade problems.

Under the conditions of the blockade, the most difficult thing was to supply the population and troops with food and water, the military equipment of the front - with fuel, factories and factories - with raw materials and fuel.

Food supplies in the city were dwindling every day. Gradually reduced the rate of issuance of products. From November 20 to December 25, 1941, they were the lowest, negligible: workers and engineers 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. It was almost the only food of the Leningraders. Those who had carpenter's glue, rawhide belts at home, also ate them.

The blockade brought other hardships to the people of Leningrad.

In the winter of 1941-1942, the city was shackled by a fierce cold. There was no fuel or electricity. Exhausted by hunger, exhausted and exhausted by continuous bombing and shelling, Leningraders lived in unheated rooms with windows sealed with cardboard, because the windows had been shattered by the blast wave. The lamps glowed dimly. The water and sewer lines froze. For drinking water, they had to go to the Neva embankment, go down to the ice with difficulty, take water in quickly freezing ice holes, and then deliver it home under fire.

Trams, trolleybuses, buses stopped. Leningraders had to walk to work on snow-covered and not cleared streets. The main "transport" of the city's residents is children's sledges. They carried belongings from destroyed houses, furniture for heating, water from the hole in cans or saucepans, seriously ill and dead, wrapped in sheets (there was no wood on the coffins).

Death entered all houses. Exhausted people were dying right on the streets. Over 640 thousand Leningraders died of starvation.

Enemies hoped that heavy hardships would awaken base, animal instincts in Leningraders, 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, stop defending the city, and eventually surrender it. On January 30, 1942, Hitler cynically declared: “We are not deliberately storming Leningrad. Leningrad will eat itself out."

But the Nazis miscalculated. They did not know the Soviet people well. Those who survived the blockade still remember the profound humanity of the Leningraders who suffered immensely, their trust and respect for each other.

The challenge to the enemy was the work of 39 schools in the besieged city. Even in the terrible conditions of blockade life, when there was not enough food, firewood, water, warm clothes, many Leningrad children studied. Writer Alexander Fadeev said: "And the greatest feat of Leningrad schoolchildren is that they studied."

Dangerous and hard was the way to school and back home. Indeed, on the streets, as on the front line, shells often exploded, and they had to go, overcoming the cold and snow drifts.

In the bomb shelters, the basements of the buildings where classes were held, it was so cold that the ink froze. The “potbelly stove” stove standing in the center of the class could not heat it, and the students sat in coats with turned up collars, hats and mittens. His hands were numb, the chalk kept slipping out of his fingers.

The students were staggering from hunger. All had a common disease - dystrophy. And scurvy was added to it. Bleeding gums, shaking teeth. Pupils died not only at home, on the street on the way to school, but, it happened, right in the classroom.

“I will never forget Zinaida Pavlovna Shatunina, an honored teacher of the RSFSR,” recalls Olga Nikolaevna Tyuleva, “she was already over 60 years old. During this fierce time, she came to school in an ironed dark dress, a snow-white collar and demanded the same smartness from us schoolchildren. I looked at her and thought: What a rage the Nazis would have come to see our teacher. By her example, she prepared us for the everyday little feat - in inhuman conditions to be able to remain human.

V. Road of life.

The whole country helped Leningrad in its heroic struggle. Food and fuel were delivered from the mainland to the besieged city with incredible difficulties. Only a narrow strip of water from Lake Ladoga remained uncut. But in late autumn, the lake froze over and the movement of ships on it stopped. And then an ice road was laid along Lake Ladoga, the People very accurately called it the Road of Life. The salvation of the inhabitants of Leningrad, the provision of the front with everything necessary depended on it. On November 22, 1941, the first trucks carrying flour entered the ice, which had not yet strengthened.

She was 18 years old. At the wheel of a truck, she was carrying help to Leningraders as part of a convoy. The Road of Life was mostly driven at night, without headlights on. It was cold, but it was not allowed to close the cabin door so that, if necessary, one could jump out. The ice was thin, although it was constantly flooded with water. Constant bombardments broke the ice. The cars went under the ice, urgently had to reload, take someone else's cargo. They moved slowly, without panic, without unnecessary noise. An escort stood on the footboard with a lantern in his hand, showing the way to the driver and indicating the distance. But the services of escorts were used only by beginners. The wounded and children were taken back. We reloaded at the station, rested a little during the day and again on the way back ... So her business trip, which began with the Ural assistance to besieged Leningrad, continued until the end of the winter season, while there was ice on Ladoga. She can’t calmly talk about those days, tears interfere. Especially difficult are memories of children: hungry, light as fluff, with a sallow complexion, sunken eyes, helpless and gullible. That is probably why she came to the family where, after the death of her mother, five orphans were left (the eldest is 11 years old, and the youngest is 2 years old) and replaced them worthily with their own mother.

VI. Long awaited time.

Finally, the spring of 1942 came, which the people of Leningrad had been waiting for with such impatience. But with spring came new worries. In winter, the city was not cleared of corpses. Leningraders were threatened by another mortal enemy - an epidemic. The fascists hoped very much for her. The city needed to be cleared. It was not easy to work for hungry, exhausted people. But the city was completely cleared.

That summer in Leningrad, every strip of land in parks, squares, and wastelands was dug up and sown. Starving for the winter, Leningraders suffering from scurvy were in dire need of vitamins. And besides vegetables, wild-growing edible herbs, berries and mushrooms could give them. Schoolchildren collected them in city parks and in suburbs not occupied by the enemy.

On June 18, the oil pipeline went into operation. The daily capacity of which soon reached 435 tons. At the same time, in the Vsevolozhsk and Pargolovsky districts, which became, as they were called, the besieged "stoker", peat extraction was unfolding. Firewood was also procured, and every opportunity was used to replenish fuel resources.

Since it was not ruled out that the Nazis would try to storm the city, the construction of fortifications both in Leningrad itself and in the front line was resumed from early spring: by the end of 1942, the city had 110 powerful defense centers, the length of street barricades alone exceeded 35 kilometers, an emergency supply of ammunition, gasoline and food would be enough for 30 days of continuous street fighting.

By September 1942, the city's industry resumed the production of almost all types of military equipment that it supplied to the front in the first months of the war, and took up the development of a number of new types of products. In particular, he was the first in the country to establish the production of a submachine gun of the Sudayev system. Besieged, blockaded, still half-starved Leningrad, accumulating strength to crush the besieging armies, at the same time returned to its usual role as one of the largest centers of the defense industry.

Since autumn, preparations for Operation Iskra began. The hour of the offensive was approaching, but winter was late, the first cars went through Ladoga only at the end of December. And how to transport tanks across the Neva?

January 12th. 9.30. Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for! The sky over the Neva was cut by the fiery streaks of a volley of 14 divisions of guards mortars - "Katyushas". Artillery burst out: from the right bank of the Neva about 1900 guns and large-caliber mortars - 144 per kilometer of breakthrough and 2100 from the Volkhov side - 160 per kilometer. There were stubborn battles. And only two weeks later, on the night of February 6, the first trains passed along the Shlisselburg-Polyany railway, laid in record time. The Nazis were still looking from the Sinyavin Heights into the corridor pierced in the blockade ring, furiously, furiously fired at literally every train walking along the new road, but the land connection of the besieged city with the mainland had already been restored anyway.

Conclusion.

Leningrad.

His monuments and monuments, the names of streets, squares, embankments tell in different ways and about different things. Many of them are like scars left from severe trials and bloody battles. The events of that time moved away from us for decades, children born after the war have their own children for a long time, the second generation is growing, for which the Leningrad blockade is books, films, stories of elders. 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. dissecting

the sky, rose at the entrance to the city, in its southern front gate, a tetrahedral obelisk, on the sides of which, like our contemporaries, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the bronze figures of the heroic participants in the legendary defense of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War froze; hundreds of thousands of Soviet people, with their 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 Kolpino, at the Pulkovo Heights, in the area of ​​Ligov and former Uritsk, along the borders of the Oranienbaum “patch”, obelisks, steles, commemorative signs, sculptures, guns and combat vehicles raised on pedestals, froze on the Nevsky "patch", like immortal sentries, in the guard of honor. Commemorative wayposts lined up along the Road of Life from Leningrad to the Ladoga coast. Eternal flames are burning at the Piskarevsky and Serafimovsky cemeteries.

Years go by, but the past is not carried away, and we have not forgotten this feat even now. Each new generation strives to pay tribute to the legendary feat of the Leningraders, who fought to the death in the most accurate, literal meaning of these words; they unconditionally preferred death to infamy to slavery.

The Nazis failed to capture Leningrad either on the move, or by storm, or by siege and starvation. For a long 29 months they fought a fierce, bloody battle with the city, which, in its contribution to the common struggle, was equal to the front. Leningraders survived the horrors of hunger and cold, bombing and shelling, suffered incomparable losses, but did not give up. The front city did not just survive. In this unprecedented battle, the troops blocking it were defeated. Seriously undermined as a result was the spirit of the Nazis themselves, the population of Germany, its satellites. About 470 thousand Leningraders are buried at the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery (in 1980). Men, women, children ... They also wanted to live, but they could not imagine life in captivity, under the heel of the enemy, they considered themselves not entitled to retreat from the frontiers conquered by October. And they died in the name and for the sake of the future, which today has become our happiness.

Bibliography:

1. Mikhailov V.V. Leningrad: The heroic defense of the city in 1941-1944. - M .: Politizdat, 1980. (Cities-heroes).

2. Cherokov V.S. For you, Leningrad. - M .: Military Publishing House, 1978.

3.A. Blatin. Eternal Flame of Leningrad. M .: Publishing house "Soviet Russia", 1976.

4. Inozemtsev I.G. Under the wing - Leningrad. M.: Military Publishing, 1978.

Enormous heroism and resilience of the people of Leningrad manifested itself during the Great Patriotic War. For almost 900 days and nights, under conditions of a complete blockade of the city, the inhabitants not only held the city, but also rendered great assistance to the front. As a result of the oncoming offensive of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts on January 18, 1943, the blockade ring was broken, but only on January 27, 1944, the blockade of the city was completely lifted (for more details, see Siege of Leningrad).


The monuments of the glorious city and monuments, the names of streets, squares, embankments tell in different ways and about different things. Many of them are like scars left from severe trials and bloody battles. The events of that time moved away from us for decades, children born after the war have their own children for a long time, the second generation is growing, for which the Leningrad blockade is books, films, stories of elders. 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. Splitting the sky, rose at the entrance to the city, in its southern front gate, a tetrahedral obelisk, on the sides of which, like our contemporaries, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the bronze figures of the heroic participants in the legendary defense of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War froze; hundreds of thousands of Soviet people, with their 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 Kolpino, at the Pulkovo Heights, in the area of ​​Ligov and former Uritsk, along the borders of the Oranienbaum “patch”, obelisks, steles, commemorative signs, sculptures, guns and combat vehicles raised on pedestals, froze on the Nevsky "patch", like immortal sentries, in the guard of honor. Commemorative wayposts lined up along the Road of Life from Leningrad to the Ladoga coast. Eternal flames are burning at the Piskarevsky and Serafimovsky cemeteries.

Hitler hated the name of the city on the Neva, the glorious traditions and patriotism of its inhabitants. Here is an excerpt from the secret directive of the German naval headquarters “On the future of St. Petersburg” dated September 22, 1941: “The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of St. Petersburg off the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, there is no interest in the continued existence of this large settlement. It was proposed to blockade the city and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. On our part, there is no interest in preserving at least part of the population of this big city.

To carry out their barbaric plan, the Nazi command sent huge military forces to Leningrad - more than 40 selected divisions, more than 1,000 tanks and 1,500 aircraft. Together with the Germans, Leningrad was advancing: the army of the White Finns, the "Blue Division" from fascist Spain, the legionnaires of the Netherlands, Holland, Belgium, Norway, recruited from fascist henchmen. The enemy troops outnumbered ours by several times. To help the Soviet wars in Leningrad, a people's militia was formed. Workers, employees, students joined it.

In the occupied areas of the Leningrad region, underground groups and partisan detachments were created, where brave people went, ready to make any sacrifice in the name of the Motherland.


Hitler was going to wipe the city off the face of the earth, but the professional military machine faced the fierce resistance of Leningraders. During the blockade period, about 150 thousand shells were fired at Leningrad and 102,520 incendiary and 4,655 high-explosive bombs were dropped. 840 industrial enterprises, more than 10 thousand residential buildings were put out of action. During the blockade, more than 640 thousand Leningraders died of starvation.


In order not to give the city to the enemy, superhuman efforts were required. In Leningrad, a people's militia army numbering 130,000 people was created. Thousands of Leningraders joined partisan detachments. The construction of defensive lines unfolded along a front stretching 900 kilometers and was carried out near Pskov, Luga, Novgorod, Staraya Russa, on the Karelian Isthmus. On the near approaches to Leningrad, a system of all-round defense was created, which consisted of several defensive belts. Over 500 thousand inhabitants participated in the construction of defensive structures. More than 4 thousand pillboxes and bunkers were built in the city, 22 thousand firing points were equipped in the buildings, 35 kilometers of barricades and anti-tank obstacles were erected on the streets.


When the plan to quickly capture the city failed, the German leadership decided to bomb the city and weaken it by blockade. From November 20, 1941, workers began to receive 250 grams of bread per day on food cards, all the rest - 125 grams each. Despite such meager food and incessant bombing, the city stood to the end. During the blockade, workers manufactured and repaired 2,000 tanks, 1,500 aircraft, thousands of naval and field guns, manufactured 225,000 machine guns, 12,000 mortars, over 10 million shells and mines.



Enemies hoped that heavy hardships would awaken base, animal instincts in Leningraders, 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, stop defending the city and, in the end, surrender it.

On January 30, 1942, Hitler cynically declared: “We are not deliberately storming Leningrad. Leningrad will eat itself out."


But the Nazis miscalculated. They did not know the Soviet people well. Those who survived the blockade still remember the profound humanity of the Leningraders who suffered immensely, their trust and respect for each other.

The challenge to the enemy was the work of 39 schools in the besieged city. Even in the terrible conditions of blockade life, when there was not enough food, firewood, water, warm clothes, many Leningrad children studied. Writer Alexander Fadeev said: "And the greatest feat of Leningrad schoolchildren is that they studied."



Dangerous and hard was the way to school and back home. Indeed, on the streets, as on the front line, shells often exploded, and they had to go, overcoming the cold and snow drifts.

In the bomb shelters, the basements of the buildings where classes were held, it was so cold that the ink froze. The “potbelly stove” stove standing in the center of the class could not heat it, and the students sat in coats with turned up collars, hats and mittens. The hands were numb, the chalk kept slipping out of the fingers.




The students were staggering from hunger. All had a common disease - dystrophy. And scurvy was added to it. Bleeding gums, shaking teeth. Pupils died not only at home, on the street on the way to school, but, it happened, right in the classroom.

“I will never forget Zinaida Pavlovna Shatunina, an honored teacher of the RSFSR,” recalls the blockade survivor, Olga Nikolaevna Tyuleva, “she was already over 60 years old. During this fierce time, she came to school in an ironed dark dress, a snow-white collar and demanded the same smartness from us schoolchildren. I looked at her and thought: What fury the Nazis would have come to see our teacher. By her example, she prepared us for the everyday little feat - in inhuman conditions to be able to remain human.



In January 1944, through the heroic efforts of the troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts, in close cooperation with the Baltic Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega military flotillas, the blockade was lifted.




January 12th. 9.30. Beginning of Operation Spark. Here it is, the moment you've been waiting for! The sky above the Neva cut through the fiery stripes of a volley of 14 divisions of guards mortars - "Katyushas". Artillery struck: from the right bank of the Neva about 1900 guns and large-caliber mortars - 144 per kilometer of breakthrough and 2100 from the Volkhov side - 160 per kilometer. There were stubborn battles. And only two weeks later, on the night of February 6, the first trains passed along the Shlisselburg-Polyany railway, laid in record time. The Nazis were still browsing from Sinyavino Heights corridor, pierced in the blockade ring, furiously, literally every train moving along the new road was fired with frenzy, but the land connection of the besieged city with the mainland had already been restored anyway.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War - a section of Channel One about hero cities. And today - one of the most tragic pages of the military annals: the blockade of Leningrad.

872 days of brutal siege, famine, air and artillery strikes. The Nazis decided to wipe the city off the face of the earth, but Leningrad did not give up. Every day of the struggle for life has become heroic.

From these sounds, many Leningraders still shudder. Although, it would seem, an ordinary metronome. Musical pieces are taught under it. Before the war, who would have thought that these clicks would be the signals of an air attack? Fast pace - the beginning, slow - hang up.

The blockade began on September 8, 1941. On this day, the German units captured the Mga station. The last railway line passed through it, connecting Leningrad with the mainland. The Nazis went to the Neva, and the Finnish troops, allied to Hitler, blocked the city from the north. There were bombings before that, but on September 8 and 10, the Germans targeted the Badaev warehouses.

“There was a very strong bombardment. On Vasilievsky Island, there was a communal apartment, my girlfriend and I were standing on the window, and you could see the flames, how the Badaevsky warehouses were burning. That was such a flame,” recalls Inna Strelnikova, a blockade fighter, MPVO fighter.

Warehouses named after People's Commissar of Food Industry Badaev were used as a strategic food storage. After their destruction, it became clear that Leningrad would hold out for a couple of months at most. The population of the city at that time was about two and a half million, plus tens of thousands of refugees from the surrounding villages and cities. In addition, it was necessary to feed the troops of the Leningrad Front. The norms for issuing products were immediately reduced. And within a month, the ration was reduced twice more. As a result, by December, employees and children began to receive 125 grams of bread, 250 - workers, soldiers - 300.

"They gave cake. Not bread, there was no bread. Here they gave it, it was in your pocket. You suck it, and that's it. All the needles of the fir trees were eaten by us. Only trunks, tops remained. 150 meters from the Nazis - barbed wire. They hung loaves of bread. They hung up cans of canned food and shouted: Russians, give up! - says a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a participant in the defense of Leningrad Ivan Sokolov.

It was a planned killing of people. Hunger. Here is the proof - the directive of the chief of staff of the German naval forces, published after the Nuremberg trials. No. 1601 of 1941: "... The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of Leningrad off the face of the earth. The existence of this largest settlement is of no interest ... It is supposed to surround the city with a tight ring and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. If ... requests for surrender are made, they will be rejected ... "

Finnish President Risto Ryti also called for the liquidation of Leningrad. Then these plans were still classified, but even if they were known, the city would still not give up!

In the famous Blockade Book, the writers Ales Adamovich and Daniil Granin collected the memories of Leningraders. Five hundred pages of interviews, documents and diaries, where even those who did not survive remember the terrible days of the siege. And not a single word of surrender. For blockade survivors, the thought of this is insulting even now, 70 years later. Indeed, in the city for 872 days of the blockade, about one and a half million inhabitants died, of which only 3% were from bombing, the rest from starvation.

"Silence. The city lost its sounds. Only the sound of a metronome. Silent long lines at bakeries for bread. Corpses lay on the streets. In the entrances, because they could not be removed. The city was already without dogs, without cats, without birds, even no winter birds was not," says writer Daniil Granin.

And at the same time, the blockade survivors showed incredible humanity - they sacrificed themselves, worked, saved others. In March 1942, the whole city went out to clean up. Leningraders, barely able to stand, chipped off frozen sewage and removed the bodies of dead people, clearing their streets and yards. Thus, the epidemic was avoided. People suffering from dystrophy went to the militia units. Even the blind were asked to go to the front!

"On January 14, 1942, twelve completely blind people, in the medical language - totally blind, were drafted into the Red Army in the Air Defense Forces. And they served in the rank of sergeants" rumors, "says Oleg Zinchenko, leading specialist of the People's Museum of History of St. Petersburg RO VOS.

For days blind sergeants with the help of special sound pickups listened to the sky and warned of an air raid. Moreover, they could even distinguish the type of aircraft and its workload. It was they who corrected the rhythm of the Leningrad metronome.

When Ladoga froze, Leningraders laid an ice track across the lake, called the Road of Life. People were evacuated along it and food was delivered. Immediately after this, the rations, albeit not by much, were increased.

The Kirov plant did not stop throughout the blockade. The front passed four kilometers from the shops, but even under shelling, the workers fired tanks and shells.

Scientists came up with surrogate products: yeast was made from wood, vitamins were made from spruce needles, jelly was made from algae. 28 employees of the Institute of Plant Growing died of starvation, but saved several tons of unique grain crops. The National Library, the theatre, the Philharmonic all worked. The famous Seventh Symphony was written by Shostakovich in besieged Leningrad.

Soviet troops did not stop trying to break through the encirclement. "Nevsky Piglet" - a tiny foothold on the banks of the Neva - our soldiers, despite the monstrous losses, held out all the days of the blockade. And in January 1943, in this place, the enemy ring was finally broken through. And a year later, as a result of the operation "January Thunder", the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts pushed the enemy back 100 kilometers, and the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted.