"The road of life" through Lake Ladoga: historical facts

The blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days. During this time, more than one million people died from starvation. After the Second World War, the Nuremberg trials of Nazi and fascist criminals took place.

Representatives of the USSR brought charges against the commander of the German Army Group "North", because of the actions of which killed such a number of civilians in the besieged city. On this charge, General von Leib was acquitted. At that time, the Geneva Convention did not yet have a paragraph on which it would be forbidden to use hunger as a military strategy towards civilians.

Those who survived in the besieged city owe much to the appearance of the motorway ("The Road of Life") through the Ladoga Lake. It was she who allowed to break the blockade ring, because because of its geographical location, Leningrad is not able to survive without delivering food.

Meaning of the paved path

Worked road from the autumn of 1941 to the spring of 1943. Her appointment was in connection with the besieged Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with the country. Officially, it was called the Military Road No. 101.

Since September 1941, Soviet troops, together with the civilian population, have been surrounded by German and Finnish troops. The city was not ready to blockade and did not have the necessary supplies of food and fuel. Delivering everything you need could be aviation or through the lake.

The "road of life" through Lake Ladoga made it possible to evacuate a part of the population and partially provide the surviving people with food.

Cargo transportation by ice

Since October 1941, a study began for the construction of the route through Lake Ladoga, in the winter it was covered with ice. After preliminary calculations, construction began in November. It was assumed that the width of the route would be 10 meters, so that cars could move simultaneously in both directions. Every 5-7 kilometers were built special points for heating.

The direction of the road was chosen on the basis of the presence of a solid ice cover. He had to withstand large loads. The main mode of transport was GAZ-AA, called in the people "lorry". In order to prevent mass dips under the ice between the machines there should be a distance of at least 100 meters. At the same time, a railway branch was laid across the lake.

The "Road of Life" (Leningrad) was built near the front line, it demanded protection, which was provided by military units. The ice section of the road had two defensive lines, created with the help of wooden log houses, sandbags, which were frozen in ice. Every one or two kilometers, antiaircraft machine guns were installed , and every three kilometers - small artillery guns. From the air the highway was protected by six fighter regiments.

During the first winter of the blockade, more than 500,000 residents were evacuated along the "Road of Life" and about 250,000 tons of food were delivered. Basically it was flour, grain, cereals, meat products, fats, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, vitamin C. The ice road continued in the winter of 1942-1943.

Cargo transportation by water

With the melting of ice, the road through Lake Ladoga did not cease to exist. Since the spring of 1942, transportation on ice has been replaced by navigating the water. However, due to the fact that the ice still remained in some areas, a break between deliveries through the lake amounted to a whole month. In April, it was already impossible to carry the load across the ice, and barges could only go through the water from the end of May.

The country's leadership needed to carry out work to restore damaged ships. In the working condition was no more than 15 barges. They decided to build a barge on site. The site for work was a pulp and paper mill in Syasstroy. Simultaneously, in Leningrad itself, the construction of metal vessels began, which were transported for final assembly by rail.

The guards of the way were engaged in antiaircraft artillery divisions, fighter regiments. They had to fight the forces of the German-Finno-Italian flotilla.

In 1942 about 400 thousand people were evacuated by water, 350 thousand tons of food were delivered. At the same time, 290 thousand servicemen were delivered to the city. In addition to products and petroleum products, cattle and horses were brought to the city.

Since April 1943, cargo transportation through the lake has continued. Though their quantity has decreased, since a considerable part of cargoes have already been transported by rail, launched since 1942.

Was the "Road of Life" (Leningrad) one?

The official route is the path from Kokorev to Kobona along the lake. This thread connected a multi-million city with the country. Such information is placed in textbooks and routing sheets for tourists. However, there are data on which the "Way of Life" through Lake Ladoga went on a different path. The existence of other lines for transportation is evidenced by many facts.

Mismatch in calculations

Confirmation of the existence of several roads are simple calculations. So for the first winter of the blockade of the road worked 150 days. Officially, about 350 thousand tons of cargo were shipped. It turns out that 2400 tons were delivered to Leningrad in 24 hours.

Transported a load of "polutorki" in the body of which you could load a half tons. Another half a ton could be attached to a sleigh. That is, for a flight one loaded to the point of failure the car could transfer two tons. Every day, the road was crossed by 1200 fully loaded "half-tails". At the same time they had to move in both directions.

Ice could not withstand such an onslaught. Moreover, in addition to trucks on the highway, shuttle buses have also shuttled, which for these 150 days have taken out about half a million civilians. Also, along Ladoga, tanks were transported from which gun towers were removed to facilitate weight. Hardly a blockade "Road of Life" would withstand such loads, especially as ice served as a road.

Riddle of sunken trucks

During the transportations under the ice took about a thousand cars. Many of them are still under water today. When the water in the lake is particularly clear, the pilots fix visually the outlines of the trucks. They are not always on the route of the official route. Some of them are located hundreds of kilometers from the well-known "Road of Life".

There are documents from which it becomes clear that some drivers have departed from the route to cash in on the transportation and to pour out a part of the cargo. However, there were not many such cases, and there were many hundreds of trucks that were sunk far from the road. So the question of whether Lake Ladoga provided Lake at the expense of a single road is rather controversial.

Reasons for the existence of several routes

The official road ("The Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga) No. 101 Kokorevo-Cobona, of course, existed and operated. However, the calculation and location of many sunken trucks indicate that it could not be the only one.

All the cards and documents on this case have been kept secret for a long time and stored in special archives. Perhaps such secrecy is due to the desire not to disclose all the paths in the event of another war.

The reasons for which there could be several routes:

• The danger from the German aviation. The overwhelming superiority of German aviation in the winter of 1941 was undeniable. Denoting the road through the lake, the Nazis regularly bombed it. To minimize losses from air strikes, it was necessary to change the route. The first lines were laid closer to the shores of the lake, but as the ice strengthened, the route was drawn closer to its center.

• The ice did not withstand a constant load. Eyewitnesses of those years show that on the road could pass only 60-70 cars. Then the ice began to crack, it took time to restore it. So, the movement had to move to a new path. Otherwise, Leningrad could not receive such a quantity of cargo.

Creation of a railway line

With a large cargo in the state could cope with only the railway. By 1942, on the eastern shore of the lake, a line was laid. This allowed to increase freight traffic. Thanks to all these methods, the blockade of Leningrad was partially lifted.

Memory of the torn ring of the blockade

To maintain the ice cover, hundreds of thousands of people were involved. They lived on ice, flooding the emerging cracks, building wooden decks. The feat of these people, like the drivers themselves, is difficult to assess for real. The blockade was lifted by the lives of many of them. Ladoga Lake was the way out, which allowed to break the ring of death for many civilians.

Along the land plot from Leningrad to Ladoga are monuments that are dedicated to the "Road of Life". All of them enter the memorial "Green Belt of Glory", which extends for many kilometers. The memorial consists of seven monuments, 46 commemorative pillars along the highway, 56 pillars by rail.

The most memorable are monuments on 40 and 103 kilometers of highway. The first is the memorial "The Broken Ring" (architect Filippov VG), which symbolizes the rupture of the blockade ring formed by the German-Finnish troops over Leningrad from the autumn of 1941. At 103 km stands the monument "Legendary lorry" (architect Levenkov AD). He depicts a car that rides, escaping from the ice.