Blockade of Leningrad: interesting facts. 900 days of the siege of Leningrad

One of the most tragic pages of the Great Patriotic War is the blockade of Leningrad. History has preserved many facts that testify to this terrible test in the life of the city on the Neva. Leningrad was surrounded by fascist invaders for almost 900 days (from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944). Of the two and a half million inhabitants living in the northern capital before the outbreak of the war, during the blockade, more than 600,000 people died of starvation, and several tens of thousands of townspeople died from bombing. Despite the catastrophic shortage of food, severe frost, lack of heat and electricity, the Leningrad people bravely stood up to the fascist onslaught and did not give up their city to the enemy.

About the siege of the city through the decades

In 2014, Russia celebrated the 70th anniversary of the siege of Leningrad. Today, just as several decades ago, the Russian people highly appreciate the feat of the inhabitants of the city on the Neva. About blockade Leningrad, a large number of books written, a lot of documentary and feature films. About the heroic defense of the city tell students and students. In order to better imagine the situation of people caught in Leningrad surrounded by fascist troops, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the events connected with its deposition.

Blockade of Leningrad: interesting facts about the significance of the city for the invaders

To capture the Soviet lands, the Nazis developed a plan for Barbarossa. In accordance with him, the Nazis planned to conquer the European part of the USSR in a few months. The city on the Neva during the occupation of the Soviet Union played an important role, because Hitler believed that if Moscow is the heart of the country, then Leningrad is his soul. The Fuhrer was sure that as soon as the northern capital falls under the onslaught of German fascist troops, the morale of the huge state will be weakened, and after that it can easily be conquered.

Despite the resistance of our troops, the Hitlerites managed to make significant advances in the interior of the country and surround the city on the Neva from all sides. September 8, 1941 went down in history as the first day of the siege of Leningrad. It was then that all land routes from the city were cut, and he was surrounded by an enemy. Every day Leningrad was subjected to artillery shelling, but did not surrender.

The northern capital was in the blockade ring for almost 900 days. In the whole history of the existence of mankind this was the longest and most terrible siege of the city. Despite the fact that before the beginning of the blockade some residents managed to evacuate from Leningrad, in it there continued to be a large number of townspeople. These people suffered terrible torments, and not all of them managed to survive until the liberation of their native city.

Horror of hunger

Regular air strikes are not the worst thing that the Leningraders experienced during the war. The supply of food in the besieged city was not enough, and this led to a terrible famine. The supply of food from other settlements prevented the blockade of Leningrad. Interesting facts left the townspeople about this period: the local population fell into hungry fainting right on the street, the cases of cannibalism no one surprised. Every day more and more deaths from exhaustion were fixed, corpses lay on city streets, and there was nobody to clean them.

With the beginning of the siege, the Leningraders began to issue food cards on which they could get bread. Since October 1941, the daily bread standard for workers was 400 g per person, and for children under 12 years, dependents and employees - 200 g. But this did not save the townspeople from hunger. Food supplies 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. Because of the lack of flour, it consisted of half of inedible impurities, was black and bitter. The Leningraders did not complain, because for them a piece of such bread was the only salvation from death. But the famine did not last for 900 days of the siege of Leningrad. Already at the beginning of 1942 the daily bread norms increased, and he himself became more qualitative. In mid-February 1942, residents of the city on the Neva for the first time were given frozen rum and beef meat in a ration. Gradually the food situation in the northern capital was stabilized.

Abnormal winter

But not only famine was remembered by the citizens of the blockade of Leningrad. The history contains the facts that the winter of 1941-1942 was unusually cold. Frosts in the city stood from October to April and were much stronger than in previous years. In some months, the thermometer dropped to -32 degrees. The situation was aggravated by heavy snowfalls: by April 1942 the height of snowdrifts was 53 cm.

Despite the abnormally cold winter, because of the lack of fuel in the city, it was not possible to start the central heating, there was no electricity, the water supply was cut off. In order to somehow warm the apartment, the Leningraders used stoves-burzhujki: they burned everything that could burn - books, rags, old furniture. Hungry with hunger, people could not stand the cold and died. The total number of citizens who died from exhaustion and frosts, by the end of February 1942, exceeded 200 thousand people.

By the "road of life" and life surrounded by the enemy

Until the complete lifting of the siege of Leningrad, the only way through which the inhabitants were evacuated and supplied the city, Lake Ladoga remained . On it, trucks and horse carts were transported in winter, and barges went around the clock in the summer. The narrow road, completely unprotected from bombardments from the air, was the only link between the besieged Leningrad and the world. The locals called Lake Ladoga "the road of life", because if it were not for it, the victims of the fascists would be incommensurably larger.

For about three years, the blockade of Leningrad lasted. Interesting facts of this period indicate that, despite the catastrophic situation, life continued in the city. In Leningrad, even during the famine, military equipment was manufactured, theaters and museums were opened. The fighting spirit of the townspeople was supported by famous writers and poets who regularly performed on the radio. By the winter of 1942-1943 the situation in the northern capital was no longer as critical as it used to be. Despite regular bombings, life in Leningrad has stabilized. Earned factories, schools, cinemas, baths, managed to restore water supply, the city began to walk public transport.

Curious facts about St. Isaac's Cathedral and cats

On the very last day of the siege of Leningrad, he was subjected to regular shelling. Shells, leveled with many of the buildings in the city, flew the side of St. Isaac's Cathedral. It is not known why the fascists did not touch the building. There is a version that they used its high dome as a reference point for shelling the city. The basement of the cathedral served as a storage for valuable museum exhibits, thanks to which they managed to be preserved intact until the end of the war.

Not only the fascists were a problem for the townspeople, while the blockade of Leningrad lasted. Interesting facts indicate that in the northern capital in a large number of divorced rats. They destroyed the meager supplies of food 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-catchers, were transported to it through the "road of life" from the Yaroslavl region. The animals coped with the mission entrusted to them and gradually destroyed the rodents, saving people from another famine.

Ridding the city of enemy forces

The liberation of Leningrad from the fascist blockade occurred on January 27, 1944. After two weeks of offensive, the Soviet troops managed to push the Nazis away from the city. But, despite the defeat, the invaders besieged the northern capital for about six months. It was only after the Vyborg and Svirsko-Petrozavodsk offensive operations, finally carried out by the Soviet troops in the summer of 1944, that the enemy was finally pushed back from the city.

Memory of the besieged Leningrad

On January 27, Russia marks the day when the complete blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted. On this memorable date, the country's leaders, church ministers and ordinary citizens come to Piskarevskoye cemetery in St. Petersburg, where the ashes of hundreds of thousands of Leningraders, who died from hunger and shelling, rest in mass graves . 900 days of the blockade of Leningrad will forever remain a black page in the history of our country and will remind people of the inhuman crimes of fascism.