On February 7, 1943, just 19 days after the blockade was broken, the first train from the mainland arrived at the Finlyandsky railway station in the still besieged Leningrad, thanks to a 33-kilometer railway line built in record time.
The railway communication of Leningrad with the country was interrupted in August 1941, when the enemy cut the Oktyabrskaya Main Line, went to the nearest approaches to the city and closed the blockade ring.
The only thread connecting the northern capital with the mainland was the legendary Road of Life. A total of millions of tons of cargo were transported to the shore of Ladoga - food, fuel, ammunition, which were transported across the lake to the besieged city: for navigation - on boats and barges, in winter - on trucks along an icy track. This minuscule was clearly not enough for a huge city. At the end of the 42nd, in order to increase the delivery of goods across Ladoga, they began to build a pile-ice crossing. By mid-January 1943, she was almost ready. But it was not useful: on January 18, 1943, after a week of fierce battles of Operation Iskra, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts united, breaching a gap in the blockade ring - a narrow corridor a dozen kilometers wide, which our soldiers held for a whole year until the blockade was completely lifted. Thanks to this, a real opportunity arose to establish a transport conveyor to provide the city-front with everything necessary, of course, by military standards.
Already on January 19, military builders, railway workers, thousands of Leningrad women arrived on the left bank of the Neva, in the liberated Shlisselburg, in order to build a bridge across the Neva and a railway line as soon as possible in the cut-through corridor. Of the 33 kilometers from Shlisselburg to Polyany, eight ran in the front-line zone, under the enemy's nose. 5000 people chopped wood, made sleepers, brought soil from the nearest quarry in bags, since cars could not drive through the swamps, laid the rails. And all this in January frosts, under the piercing wind of Ladoga, with constant shelling. Sappers defused more than two thousand mines, hundreds of unexploded ordnance and aerial bombs. At the same time, the construction of a bridge across the Neva began in the area of the Staraya Ladoga Canal. The width of the river there is 1050 meters, and the depth is 6.5 meters.
The first, temporary bridge crossing turned out to be 1300 meters long. In fact, it was a semicircular overpass frozen into the ice, its curved side facing Ladoga, against the current - for strength. They worked around the clock and also under enemy fire. Now it is difficult even to imagine, although this is so - the bridge was built in 11 days.
On February 2, the flyover was tested, and on the 6th, two days ahead of schedule, the first train from the mainland traveled along it to the besieged city. The locomotive had a poster "Hello to the heroic defenders of Leningrad!" and a portrait of Stalin.
A participant in those events, a veteran machinist, in 1943 - a representative of the People's Commissariat of Railways in Volkhovstroy, and after the Great Patriotic War - the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of Karelia, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Valdemar Virolainen told the "VPK" correspondent: "The last 10 days I was among the builders, and got on the first train at the station of Mesopotamia. At the depot we organized a competition among drivers for the right to drive the first train to Leningrad. German batteries were hitting us all the time, but fortunately not a single shell hit either the train or the road. We had to stand at the Levoborezhnoy station because the military was loading tanks. And then I took control of the train into my own hands. He himself moved across the Neva on a new bridge. Here I was met by Pavel Luknitsky, a war correspondent for the Leningrad Front. Back in April 1942, dreaming about the future, I told him that I would take the first train to Leningrad, and he said: I will meet you. And so it happened. He climbed into the locomotive, we hugged, shed a tear. And then the train led to the Melnichiy brook. We were met in all settlements. There was general jubilation. We passed Rzhevka - in fact, the city line and arrived at the Finlyandsky railway station - on the same platform on which I met Lenin in April 1917. A guard of honor of soldiers-railroad workers, a brass band lined up on the platform. There are a lot of people. It was a real holiday …"
The correspondent of the All-Union Radio on the Leningrad Front, Matvey Frolov, reported to Moscow and the whole country about the arrival of the first train: “We have been waiting for the first train at the Finland Station since the morning of February 6, but the meeting took place only the next lazy, at 10 o'clock 9 minutes. A part of the text from the reportage of that time has been preserved in my notebook: “The train is already close, the smoke is visible … Listen, friends, a real train! A little time will pass, and somewhere at the stop, a passenger will say to the cashier solemnly and joyfully: "To Leningrad!" And, probably, at this moment the cashier will smile and congratulate the passenger heartily. Yes, cashiers have not sold tickets to Leningrad for a long time”. It was said on the day the first train arrived."
Each train from the mainland transported more cargo than a day and a half shift on the ice of the Road of Life (it operated until the spring flood - until the end of March 1943). In addition to fuel and ammunition, wheat, rye, potatoes, canned food, cheese and other products were transported to Leningrad by rail. And just a few days after the start of railway traffic in Leningrad, food supply standards were introduced, established for the largest industrial centers of the country. Workers of defense factories and metallurgical workshops began to receive 700 grams of bread a day, workers of other enterprises - 600, employees - 500, children and dependents - 400. Moreover, soon the city managed to create three-month, and even four-month stocks of grain and flour. products.
The 33-kilometer railway line in Leningrad was named the Victory Road. Each flight through a thoroughly fired corridor, under enemy fire, to spite him - was our victory and feat.
Until the beginning of April, it was possible to carry out 7-8 trains per night. And for the city and the front, at least 30-40 trains per day were required.
Immediately after the opening of railway traffic and the commissioning of the Shlisselburg-Polyany line, the construction of a more reliable, not ice, but high-water railway bridge across the Neva began. It was built half a kilometer downstream of the pile overpass. The new crossing, 852 meters long and a little over 8 meters high, was supported by 114 pillars. Ice protection structures were erected around, as well as booms from floating mines, which the enemy could throw from aircraft. They thought over counter-battery and anti-aircraft protection, even the smoke of the crossing, which made it difficult to orient the enemy gunners during air strikes and shelling. The design immediately provided for five 20-meter spans for small ships and even one drawbridge - for the passage of large ships with high masts. Vehicles also followed the bridge, for this they erected a flooring of logs. Despite all the difficulties and losses, the crossing was erected in a month and four days. On March 18, the last superstructure was installed, and on the same day at 18:50 a break-in train passed over the bridge. Regular traffic was opened at dawn, at 5:25 a.m. on March 19, after which the temporary ice-pile overpass was initially wanted to be dismantled, but due to frequent shelling, it was left as a backup until the ice on the Neva was broken.
In parallel, an 18-kilometer bypass line was built along the swamps along the Staroladozhsky Canal - at a safer distance from the enemy.
The railroad and railway workers had to endure the most serious trials with the onset of spring, when the erosion of the track began with the melting of the marshy soil. In some areas, whole links were submerged in water and mud, so that the trains passing through them sometimes looked like steamers. Drawdowns of the rails often led to self-uncoupling of the cars, and the road had to be stopped. In March, train traffic was interrupted four times, in April - 18 times. More than 3,000 people supported the track, adding ballast at night, lifting and strengthening the tracks. In some places, the rails were flooded with water until the very autumn frosts. The linemen walked along the water, checking the joints, changing bolts in the water, placing linings under the rails, checking the clearances …
Everyone who served the Victory Road was transferred to martial law, and qualified railroad workers were recalled from the front. Among those who drove the trains through the Sinyavinsky swamps was Georgy Fedorov: “At first, trains went only at night due to constant shelling. But the front and Leningrad demanded more. It was necessary to deliver food, ammunition, fuel. By March 43rd, the 48th locomotive column of the special reserve took over the front watch. Trains started in the afternoon. Everyone who was on the locomotive felt like a combat unit.
The girls-stokers had to throw 140-150 cubic meters of firewood into the furnace. And they were not afraid of shells, although people died under shelling all the time. To allow more trains to pass along the track, instead of automatic blocking, a manual one was used. All the way there were officers on duty, giving trains a "green street" or a red signal with their lanterns. This allowed for increased throughput. This is how we worked throughout the 43rd year, until the blockade was completely lifted."
And, of course, the highway, which was vital for the city, passing along the very front line, would not have been able to work without reliable defense. For a whole year, the soldiers of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts provided the strategic corridor. Despite desperate attempts to expand it, it was not possible. They only managed to knock out the Nazis from the skyscrapers, where the observation posts were located, correcting the shelling of the highway. And yet the plans of the German command to restore the blockade of Leningrad were thwarted, not to mention the fact that with constant attacks our soldiers forced the Fritzes to divert significant forces from other sectors of the front.
And the railway line lived, worked, bringing ammunition, fuel, food to the besieged city and providing a decisive offensive on January 44, as a result of which the enemy was driven back from the walls of Leningrad. Every day the number of trains with cargo for Leningrad and from Leningrad grew - on the way back from the besieged city, the trains did not run empty: they took out not only the sick and wounded, but also equipment, weapons and ammunition for other fronts, which were produced by the blockade enterprises. If in February and March 1943, 69 and 60 trains passed to Leningrad, respectively, then in April 157 were passed, in May - 259, in June - 274, in July - 369, in August - 351, in September - 333, in October - 436, in November - 390, in December - 407. About the same - in the opposite direction. In total, by the end of 1943, 3105 trains followed the strategic route to Leningrad, and from it 3076 trains. Almost 4.5 million tons of cargo were brought to the besieged city, including 630 thousand tons of food, 426 thousand tons of coal, 1381 thousand tons of firewood, 725, 7 thousand tons of peat.
And on February 23, 1944, less than a month after the complete lifting of the blockade, freight traffic was restored on the main Leningrad-Moscow route. On March 20, the Krasnaya Arrow passenger train started operating again. This could hardly have happened if it had not been for the Victory Road of the 43rd - in a narrow corridor along Ladoga, recaptured from the Nazis.
In memory of the heroic blockade flights, a steam locomotive EU 708-64 was installed at the Volkhovstroy station, which delivered the first train from the Great Land to Leningrad on February 7, 1943, and at the Petrokrepost station - a steam locomotive EM 721-83, which brought the first train from the besieged Leningrad.
