The blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days. During this time, more than one million people died from starvation. After the end of World War II, the Nuremberg trials of Nazi and fascist criminals took place.
Representatives of the USSR indicted the commander of the German army group "North", due to the actions of which so many civilians of the besieged city died. On this charge, General von Leeb was acquitted. At that time, the Geneva Convention had not yet spelled out a clause on which it would be forbidden to use hunger as a military strategy in relation to civilians.
Survivors in the besieged city owe much to the emergence of the motorway ("Road of Life") through Lake Ladoga. It was she who allowed to break the siege ring, because of its geographical location, Leningrad is not able to survive without food supplies.
Paved value
The highway worked from autumn 1941 to spring 1943. Her appointment was to connect the besieged Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with the country. Officially, it was called Military Highway No. 101.
Since September 1941, Soviet troops, together with the civilian population, were surrounded by German and Finnish troops. The city was not ready for the blockade and did not have the necessary supplies of food and fuel. All necessary supplies could be delivered by air or through a lake.
The "Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga made it possible to evacuate part of the population and partially provide food to survivors.
Cargo transportation on ice
In October 1941, research began for the construction of a route through Lake Ladoga, in winter it was covered with ice. After preliminary calculations, construction began in November. It was assumed that the width of the route will be 10 meters, so that cars can move simultaneously in both directions. Every 5-7 kilometers, special points for heating were built.
The direction of the road was chosen based on the presence of a solid ice cover. He had to withstand heavy loads. The main mode of transport was GAZ-AA, popularly called the “one and a half”. In order to prevent mass failures under the ice between the machines there should have been a distance of at least 100 meters. At the same time, a railway line was laid across the lake.
The created “Road of Life” (Leningrad) passed 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 cabins, sandbags, which were frozen with ice. Every one or two kilometers, anti-aircraft machine guns were installed , and every three kilometers - small-caliber artillery guns. Six fighter regiments defended the highway from the air.
During the first winter of the blockade on the “Road of Life”, more than 500 thousand residents were evacuated and about 250 thousand tons of food delivered. It was mainly flour, grain, cereals, meat products, fats, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, vitamin C. The work of the ice road continued in the winter of 1942-1943.
Cargo transportation by water
With melting ice, the road through Lake Ladoga did not cease to exist. Since the spring of 1942, transportation on ice has been replaced by navigation on water. However, due to the fact that ice still remained in some areas, the break between deliveries through the lake amounted to a whole month. In April, it was already impossible to transport cargo on ice, and barges could only go on water from the end of May.
The country's leadership needed to carry out work on the restoration of damaged ships. In working condition there were no more than 15 barges. They decided to build barges on the spot. The site for work was the pulp and paper mill in Syasstroy. At the same time, the construction of metal ships began in Leningrad itself, which were transported for final assembly by rail.
Guards were engaged in anti-aircraft artillery divisions, fighter aviation regiments. They had to fight the forces of the German-Finnish-Italian flotilla.
In 1942, about 400 thousand inhabitants were evacuated by water, 350 thousand tons of food were delivered. At the same time, 290 thousand troops were delivered to the city. In addition to food and petroleum products, cattle and horses were brought to the city.
Since April 1943, cargo transportation through the lake continued. Although their number has decreased, since a significant part of the cargo has 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 on the lake. This thread connected the multi-million city with the country. Such information is available in textbooks and directions for tourists. However, there are data on which the "Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga passed along a different path. The existence of other lines for transportation is evidenced by many facts.
Inconsistency in calculations
Confirmation of the existence of several roads are simple calculations. So for the first winter of the blockade, the highway worked 150 days. About 350 thousand tons of cargo were officially transported. It turns out that 2400 tons were delivered to Leningrad per day.
They transported cargo “one and a half”, into the body of which one and a half tons could be loaded. Another half a ton could be hooked on a sled. That is, for a flight one car loaded to failure could translate two tons. Every day the road was crossed by 1200 fully loaded "one and a half". Moreover, they had to move in both directions.
Ice could not withstand such an onslaught. Moreover, in addition to the trucks, buses ran along the highway and transported about half a million civilians over these 150 days. Tanks were also transported along Ladoga, from which weapons towers were removed to relieve weight. Hardly one blockade “Road of Life” could withstand such loads, especially since ice acted as a road.
The mystery of sunken trucks
During the transportation, about a thousand cars went under the ice. Many of them are still under water today. When the water in the lake is especially clear, the pilots capture the outlines of the trucks visually. They are not always on 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 departed from the route in order to cash in on transportation and to dump some of the cargo. However, there were not so many such cases, and there were many hundreds of trucks sunk away from the highway. So the question of whether Leningrad provided Lake Ladoga only due to one road is rather controversial.
Reasons for the existence of several tracks
The official road ("Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga) No. 101 of Kokorevo-Kobona, of course, existed and acted. However, the calculations and the location of many sunken trucks indicate that it could not be the only one.
All cards and documents on this case have been classified for a long time and are stored in special archives. Perhaps this secrecy is due to the desire not to reveal all the ways in the event of another war.
Reasons why there could be several runs:
- Danger from German aviation. The overwhelming superiority of German aviation in the winter of 1941 was undeniable. Having marked the road through the lake, the Nazis bombed it regularly. To minimize losses from air raids, 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 could not withstand a constant load. Eyewitnesses of those years indicate that only 60-70 cars could pass along the road. Then the ice began to crack, it took time to recover. So, the movement was supposed to move on a new path. Otherwise, Leningrad would not be able to receive such an amount of cargo.
Creation of a railway line
Only the railway could handle large freight traffic. By 1942, a line was drawn on the eastern shore of the lake. This allowed to increase cargo transportation. Thanks to all these methods, the blockade of Leningrad was partially lifted.
The memory of the broken ring of the blockade
To maintain the health of the ice cover, hundreds of thousands of people were involved. They lived on ice, filling in the cracks, building wooden flooring. The feat of these people, like the drivers themselves, is difficult to truly appreciate. At the cost of the lives of many of them, the blockade was lifted. Lake Ladoga was the way out that allowed to break the ring of death for many civilians.
Monuments dedicated to the "Road of Life" are located along the land section from Leningrad to Ladoga. All of them are included in the memorial "Green Belt of Glory", which extends for many kilometers. The memorial consists of seven monuments, 46 memorial pillars along the highway, 56 pillars by rail.
The most memorable are the monuments on 40 and 103 kilometers of the highway. The first is the “Broken Ring” memorial (architect Filippov V.G.), which symbolizes the breaking of the blockade ring formed by German-Finnish troops over Leningrad in the fall of 1941. At 103 kilometers there is a monument "Legendary Lorry" (architect A. Levenkov). He depicts a car that rides out of ice.