Today we will once again celebrate the Day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade. Recently, for the sake of interest in Yandex, I typed the words "Blockade of Leningrad" and received the following answer: "After breaking the blockade, the siege of Leningrad by enemy troops and navy continued until September 1944."
Do you understand something? Yes, it's not like a tenth grader, even a university graduate can't figure it out. How did it happen that in 73 years several hundred books and thousands of articles on the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944 were published, but so many blank spots and omissions remained? And in general, how could besieged Leningrad hold out for 872 days? After all, there has never been such a siege in the history of mankind!
In the first months of the Great Patriotic War, German troops defeated parts of the Red Army in the Baltics, Belarus and Ukraine, swiftly captured the Crimea and … stood rooted to the spot on the outskirts of Leningrad. What happened? Maybe Soviet pilots, tank crews and infantry fought less courageously near Minsk, Kiev and Uman? But there, in a few days, much larger Soviet groups were completely destroyed and captured than near Leningrad.
In the Khrushchev-Brezhnev era, we were assured that the enemy was stopped by the "Leningrad Bolsheviks." Even at school, this led me to seditious thoughts that, they say, the communists were second-class in Kiev, and in Minsk, which was surrendered on the sixth day of the war, it was generally substandard. And now the liberals claim that the Germans were stopped by the "Petersburg intelligentsia". It is de-refined in a special way. Like, the Germans listened to Shostakovich and Olga Berggolts and immediately stopped.
No. The Germans were stopped by the Russian god of war - the heavy artillery of forts, railway installations and ships. And the competent actions of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command helped to hold on, thanks to which, despite the blockade, Leningrad was not only supplied with food, but also the combat power of the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet was maintained at a high level.
NOBODY WAS GOING TO GIVE UP
Since 1991, the liberals have blamed the blockade for the deaths on … Stake. Well, the Dozhd TV channel went as far as conducting a poll: "Was it necessary to surrender Leningrad in order to save hundreds of thousands of lives?" Allegedly, 53% answered "yes", and 47% - "no". Such a survey is both blasphemy and complete idiocy. With equal success, one may ask, was it not better for the inhabitants of Leningrad to fly to Mars?
To begin with, the Soviet troops never surrendered. In 1904, General Stoessel surrendered Port Arthur to the Japanese, and in May 1905, Admiral Nebogatov in the Tsushima Strait - a squadron of four battleships. In 1942, the British surrendered the most powerful fortress of Singapore, and even earlier, in May – June 1940, the Dutch, Belgian and French armies surrendered to the Germans. In 1941-1945, not a single regiment, not a single warship surrendered in our country. Simply surrender to the enemy was not provided for in the charter of the Red Army.
By the time of the capture of Shlisselburg on September 6, 1941, the troops of the Leningrad Front consisted of over half a million soldiers and officers. And this is without the Baltic Fleet. Neither the front nor the fleet has nowhere to leave Leningrad. All that remained was to fight or surrender. And if someone from the command had given the order to surrender, he would have been immediately shot by officers or even soldiers. Even Stalin, having given the order to surrender the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet without a fight, would have signed his own death warrant.
Hitler was not going to accept the surrender of Leningrad. He ordered the city to be razed to the ground. Even if a miracle happened and the Fuhrer signed up as a humanist, the Germans were not able to supply the city, since all the highways and railways in the occupied territories worked to the limit of their capabilities and still could not fully provide the Wehrmacht with either fuel, food, or ammunition.
Cities, even occupied by the Germans on the move, without prolonged battles, such as Minsk and Kiev, lost during the occupation from 70 to 90% of the population.
By the way, according to the rules of war, since the 16th century, it was necessary to leave all military equipment and property intact when a city or a fortress was surrendered. Otherwise, the other side will consider the garrison to be in violation of military laws and deal with it accordingly.
In September 1941, there were more submarines in Leningrad than in the entire Kriegsmarine. It was not without reason that Churchill tearfully prayed to Stalin to blow up the ships if the Germans took Leningrad. With competent use by the Germans of the ships of the Baltic Fleet, they could disrupt the supply of England and "win" the battle for the Atlantic.
There were more heavy guns on the forts of Leningrad, on NIMAP (training ground on Rzhevka) and in units of the Leningrad front than on all our other fronts and in the rear. Stalin sarcastically wrote to Zhdanov: "You have more heavy tanks (KV) than on all other fronts."
And all this had to be given to the Germans? And pay for the surrender of Leningrad with millions of lives?
In the event of the surrender of Leningrad, Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and the Northern Fleet would be lost, communications with the allies in the North would be interrupted. Well, then … Further let the fans of fantasy add.
ALMOST DISCONTINUED EVACUATION
And now a few words about what the authorities and residents of the city did before the start of the blockade. Why did not hundreds of thousands of dependents (non-working women, children, pensioners) leave the city on vacation even before the start of the war? Didn't they read the Soviet press? As a student, I studied the filings of the Pravda newspaper for the years 1939-1940. It described in detail and objectively about the massive bombing of cities in Germany and Italy by British aviation and, accordingly, the Luftwaffe - British cities. Didn't it occur to anyone that Leningrad would be bombed in the very first days of the war? Fortunately, from the north, even with the new border, the flight time to the city was less than 10 minutes.
At the beginning of 1941, the population of Leningrad was about 3 million people, of which more than 2.5 million were people who arrived there several years, or even months ago. Judge for yourself: in 1920, 722 thousand people lived in Leningrad. Of these, at least 200 thousand were deported or imprisoned in the 1930s (there were special purges of the city from nobles, former officials and intellectuals, a declassified element, etc.).
Family ties were much closer 80 years ago, and it was not considered shameful to go to the village to see a second cousin for permanent residence. Well, the state, free of charge or for 30%, gave vouchers to rest homes, sanatoriums, pioneer camps, etc.
Alas, by June 22, very few had left Leningrad on vacation, despite the widespread talk about the war.
A week after the start of the war, on June 30, a city evacuation point was opened at 6 Griboyedov Canal. A few days later, regional evacuation points were also opened. On the 12th (!) Day of the war, the Leningrad City Council adopted a resolution to evacuate 400 thousand children from the city. Alas, according to this decree, before the start of the blockade, only 311,400 children were removed.
July – August 1941. The widespread retreat of our troops. In the north, the cannonade roars - the Finns are advancing. The Germans are bombing Leningrad. And hundreds of thousands of stubborn ladies categorically refuse to evacuate. The instructors of the regional committee began to threaten the stubborn with the deprivation of ration cards. In response: "And we can live without them." It is not hard to guess that the main motive both before June 22 and in the first 8 weeks after was - "What if my Petya goes on a spree?"
Nevertheless, 706,283 people were sent through evacuation points (and there were other evacuation routes) until September 6, 1941. In October – November 1941, 33,479 people were evacuated on the ships of the Ladoga Flotilla.
539 thousand people were taken out on the Ladoga ice. And finally, with the opening of navigation in 1942, from May to November, 448 699 people left on ships through Ladoga. On November 1, 1942, the evacuation from Leningrad was officially completed. Further, leaving the city was made only with special passes.
SUPPLY OF THE CITY
The headquarters did everything possible to organize the Leningrad-Bolshaya Zemlya air bridge.
On September 20, 1941, the State Defense Committee (GKO) adopted a decree "On the organization of air transport communications between Moscow and Leningrad", according to which it was supposed to deliver 100 tons of cargo to the city every day and evacuate 1000 people.
For transportation, the Special Northern Air Group of the Civil Fleet, based in Leningrad, and the Special Baltic Aviation Detachment, which was included in its structure, began to be used. Also allocated were three squadrons of the Moscow Special Purpose Air Group (MAGON) consisting of 30 Li-2 aircraft, which made their maiden flight to Leningrad on September 16. Later, the number of units involved in air supply was increased. Heavy bombers TB-3 were also used for transportation.
On November 21, 1941, the maximum amount of cargo per day was delivered to Leningrad - 214 tons. From September to December, more than 5 thousand tons of food were delivered to Leningrad by air and 50 thousand people were taken out.
The laying of a communication cable along the bottom of Ladoga to the mainland began on August 10, and already in October 1941 telephone and telegraph communication via this cable was working smoothly.
At the end of 1941, when the Germans approached the Volkhov hydroelectric power station, part of the electrical equipment was dismantled and evacuated. In the spring of 1942, Volkhovstroy started working again. On the bottom of Lake Ladoga, by order of Stalin, five power cables were laid. The first cable was laid in 47 days, and on September 23, 1942, electricity went to Leningrad.
In December 1942, electricity consumption in Leningrad quadrupled compared to August.
On June 25, 1942, a GKO decree was issued on the creation of a pipeline with a length of 30 km on Ladoga, of which more than 20 km - along the bottom of the lake. By 1942, there were no such structures in the world, but here they had to run a pipeline under aerial bombs and enemy shelling.
The construction of the pipeline began on May 5 and was completed on June 19, 1942, that is, the pipeline was built in just 46 days. Those interested can compare these terms with the construction time of cables and a pipeline through the Kerch Strait in 2014-2016.
On May 20, 1942, gasoline and oil went to besieged Leningrad (sequentially several types of oil products). Work on the construction of the pipeline was carried out so secretly that the Germans did not find out about them until the end of the blockade.
From May 24 to December 3, 1942, the vessels of the Ladoga Flotilla transported 55 thousand tons of fuel, and 32.6 thousand tons were received via the pipeline.
There were other, sometimes even exotic, methods of supplying Leningrad.
Thus, in March 1942, 300 of the best reindeer were selected from the Loukhsky reindeer herding state farm. Reindeer and two wagons of frozen fish were delivered by rail to Tikhvin. There the reindeer were divided into two groups: one went on the ice of Ladoga in teams with fish loaded on sledges, and the other was sent in a herd. As a result, not a single car was required until Leningrad itself.
300 heads of deer - this is about 15 tons of meat - and 25 tons of fish, Leningraders received in March in excess of what could be delivered to the city by road transport on the ice road. And this is more than two months official rate for 10 thousand people.
UNNOTED HEROES
Hundreds of books have been written about the defenders of Leningrad since 1945, but, alas, almost all authors concentrated their attention on the heroism of the personnel, the role of the Communist Party and individual commanders, the actions of aviation, tank and infantry units. The God of War somehow remained in the shadows. And here it is not only a matter of the subjectivism of the authors, but also of the closed nature of materials about the actions of our and German artillery. The fact is that forts, command posts and other underground structures of Leningrad were restored after the war and served the army and navy for many decades. Many of them were used for basing missile units, as communication centers, warehouses, etc.
An extremely explosive topic is the action of Soviet long-range artillery against palaces and other buildings captured by the Germans in the vicinity of Leningrad - in Peterhof, Strelna, Gatchina, Pavlovsk, etc.
With the transfer of the main forces of the fleet from Tallinn to Kronstadt on August 30, 1941, all the ships that arrived, except for the leader "Minsk", which required emergency repairs, were included in the city's defense system. Thus, by the beginning of hostilities to repel the German troops that were breaking through to Leningrad in the artillery defense system there were: battleships "Marat" and "October Revolution", cruisers "Kirov", "Maxim Gorky" and "Petropavlovsk", 1st and 2nd 1st destroyer battalions consisting of 10 pennants and 8 gunboats.
From the side of the Gulf of Finland, Leningrad was covered by the Kronstadt fortress, the construction of which began under Peter the Great. The strongest fort of Kronstadt was the Krasnaya Gorka fort, which advanced on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland 20 km west of the tip of Kotlin Island.
By the time the Germans approached Leningrad, the following batteries were in service with the Krasnaya Gorka fort.
Battery # 311 - two twin turrets with 305/52 mm cannons. These guns were almost identical to those of the Petropavlovsk-class battleships. Shooting from 305-mm coastal guns was carried out both by sea shells and shells of the military department, and the latter were extremely few.
Battery # 312 - four open 305/52 mm mounts.
Battery No. 313 - three 120/50-mm cannons installed in the southern part of the front's ground defense.
Battery # 322 - introduced in July 1941, had three 152/45 mm Canet cannons.
Fort "Gray Horse" had two coastal batteries - No. 331 with three 152/45-mm Canet cannons and No. 332 with four 120/50-mm cannons. In 1943, on the 332nd battery, the 120-mm guns were replaced with the 130/50-mm B-13.
In addition, the fortress included five island batteries on the South (main) fairway off Koltin Island and seven on the North fairway. The northern forts were located approximately on the line of the present dam.
Finally, dozens of 100–254 mm guns were located on Kotlin Island both in old forts and openly installed during the war.
An important role in the defense of Leningrad was played by the scientific test naval artillery range (NIMAP), located on the eastern outskirts of Leningrad, near the Rzhevka railway station. Tests of naval guns of small and medium caliber, up to 130 mm inclusive, were carried out at NIMAP from "native" machines, and cannons of 152–406 mm caliber - from special testing machines. With the outbreak of the war, polygon machines were adapted for circular fire.
Six batteries and one anti-aircraft group were formed from the guns on the range. These batteries were armed with one 406-mm, one 356-mm, two 305-mm, five 180-mm guns, as well as 12 guns of 100-152 mm caliber.
DUEL OF THE GODS OF WAR
I am afraid that I have bored the reader by listing the coastal batteries and their installation locations. But, alas, without this it is impossible to understand the grandiose artillery battle for Leningrad, which lasted 900 days on an area of over 150 km from west to east and over 100 km from north to south. The ships and coastal batteries were positioned in such a way that the positions of the Germans and Finns were shot at least 20 kilometers away by our guns along the entire perimeter of the defense.
In total, Leningrad was defended by 360 sea and coastal long-range guns of caliber from 406 to 100 mm. These guns of ours entered into a duel unprecedented in the history of artillery with about 250 heavy guns of the Germans.
On the afternoon of September 4, 1941, German artillery first opened fire on Leningrad. The Vitebskaya-sorting station, the Salolin, Krasny Neftyanik and Bolshevik factories were subjected to artillery fire. The Germans fired from the Tosno area.
Soviet military leader, participant in the battles for Leningrad, Colonel-General of Artillery, Candidate of Military Sciences Nikolai Nikolayevich Zhdanov wrote in his book Fire Shield of Leningrad: “The artillery shelling of the city had nothing to do with the armed struggle of the opposing armies. These were barbaric shelling, as a result of which the civilian population suffered, cultural institutions were destroyed, many of them were unique, hospitals, hospitals, schools, various children's institutions."
In September 1941 alone, the Germans fired 5364 shells at Leningrad.
On September 17, the Germans managed to break through to the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland in the area of Novy Peterhof, Strelna, Uritsk and get the opportunity to conduct aimed fire from there from short ranges (30-40 cables - about 5, 5-7, 5 km) at Soviet ships that fired from open firing positions of the outer roadsteads of the Neva Bay and the Morskoy Canal. Our ships were limited in fire maneuvering and were subjected to enemy air and artillery strikes.
In October 1941, the enemy fired 7,950 shells at Leningrad, in November - 11,230 shells. In total, from September to December 1941 inclusive, 30,154 shells fell in the city.
I have studied with a pencil the daily reports on the firing of our artillery for all 872 days of the blockade, and I can assure you that not a single shelling of the enemy remained unanswered by our artillery.
Since Soviet times, we have seen enough in the movies, how our soldiers near Moscow and Stalingrad from anti-tank rifles, like ducks, knock out dozens of "Tigers" and "Panthers". Therefore, I am afraid that the reader will doubt my statements that our heavy artillery near Leningrad acted not only efficiently, but also with minimal losses. So, all (!) Guns survived at NIAP. The same can be said about Krasnaya Gorka, Rif and other forts.
During the entire siege of Leningrad in 1941-1944, not a single large and medium caliber railway installation was lost. And at the same time, with their help, hundreds of enemy guns were defeated or suppressed and thousands of enemy soldiers were destroyed.
NATISK ARTILLERS
Exit to position, fast and accurate strike and instant retreat. At the same time, complete camouflage before the impact, during the impact and after the impact.
The railway installations near Leningrad did not look like the artillery transporters in reference books or museums. They were more like a bush - a bunch of branches and camouflage nets. The installation fires a 356-180 mm projectile and leaves in half a minute. “Yes, in what half a minute? - the historian will be indignant. “After all, according to the instructions, 30 (!) Minutes are given for the transition of the ZhDAU from the combat position to the traveling position”.
Well, who cares about instruction, and who cares about life. The commanders and soldiers simply ignored all the instructions. So, the platforms were not removed, the mounting was carried out in a marching manner at the exit from the firing positions, the longitudinal bars were rolled to the side, and the support cushions were left in place. The retreat from the position to a distance of 400-500 m was made on its own and at low speeds, with unsecured supporting legs. Subsequently, the supporting legs were no longer thrown onto the carts, but only raised by 20–30 cm from the rail head.
Of course, the outstretched "legs" of the ZhDAU could have demolished the dacha platform, would have caused a train wreck on the oncoming track. But all the buildings were demolished a long time ago, there could be no oncoming trains physically.
This was the most commonly used method. Cannon No. 1 fired a shot and began retreating to a new position at a distance of 100-200 meters. Then gun no. 2 fired and also began to retreat. Well, when, after firing, gun No. 3, raising its "legs" a few centimeters above the ground, began to retreat, gun No. 1 fired, which had already taken up a new position.
To prevent the enemy's sound-measuring stations and optical means from detecting the firing of railway transporters, 122-mm A-19 cannons and 152-mm howitzer-cannons ML-20 opened fire with them. Sometimes railway installations of 130-100 mm caliber were also involved. In addition, explosives were actively used, imitating the shots of heavy weapons.
AND HELP FACTORIES
So, not a single ZhDAU was killed by the enemy. But from the frequent, almost daily fire, the trunks wore out, the recoil devices, locks, lifting mechanisms, etc. failed. But here the Leningrad plants "Bolshevik", Kirovsky, "Arsenal" (plant named after Frunze) came to the rescue.
So, according to the reports of the Bolshevik plant, more than 3 thousand items were manufactured during the blockade.(!) bodies of naval guns and 20 thousand shells of medium and large caliber. Well, let's say that liners were included in the reports along with the trunks. But the difference is in cost, not survivability.
The Germans knew about the activities of the "Bolshevik" and at the beginning of 1942 installed 10 long-range stationary batteries in the Fedorovskoye-Antropshino region specifically to destroy the workshops of the "Bolshevik". In addition, German railway installations regularly ran on the Novo-Liseno-Pavlovsk line, which also fired at the plant. And they, in turn, were suppressed by our ZhDAU along with stationary naval batteries and guns of ships stationed on the Neva. An ideal example of mutual assistance from the rear and the front.
FINNS WERE THAN THE NAZIS
In recent years, assertions have appeared in the media that Leningrad was saved by … Marshal Mannerheim. This is what the current Minister of Culture says. Mannerheim de ordered his troops to stop at the 1939 border, forbade them to fire and bomb Leningrad, etc.
In fact, the Finns did not stop at the old border, but on the line of the Karelian UR - an impregnable line of Soviet fortifications that had been built since the 1920s.
The Finns really did not fire at Nevsky Prospekt and Kirovsky Zavod, since the batteries of the Germans were very close. But Finnish shells almost daily covered the northwestern regions of Leningrad: Lisiy Nos, Olgino, Kronstadt region, etc. Finnish shells reached the Finlyandsky railway station area.
Recently my book "Who Saved Leningrad in 1941?" The book is based on previously secret and top secret Soviet documents, as well as materials recently published in Germany and Finland. The book describes in detail which artillery batteries of the Germans and Finns and from where they fired at Leningrad, and how our artillerymen suppressed the fire of these batteries. How many shells were consumed in this case, etc., etc.
Finnish aviation did not really appear over Leningrad until February 1944. But this was done not by order of Mannerheim, but at the suggestion of Reichsmarschall Goering, in order to avoid clashes with the Luftwaffe. Finnish pilots flew mainly on British and Soviet captured aircraft, and it was very difficult for the Germans to distinguish them from Soviet and Lend-Lease aircraft. But on the ships of the Ladoga Flotilla, which transported people and food for Leningrad, the Finnish aviation worked much more efficiently than the German.
The fundamental difference between the Germans and the Finns is that the Germans killed and sent commissars, communists, partisans, etc. to concentration camps. And the Finns did it only because the person was an ethnic Russian.
According to the 1939 census, 469 thousand people lived in Karelia. Of these, 63.2% are Russians, 23.2% are Karelians and 1.8% are Finns. Even before June 22, 1941, Marshal Mannerheim ordered, after the seizure of Soviet Karelia, all ethnic Russians to be imprisoned in concentration camps. Indeed, back in 1922, the Academic Karelian Society of Finland developed the theory of national superiority. According to this theory, the Finns were at the highest stage of development, then the Finno-Ugric peoples, at the lowest stage were the Slavs and Jews. And already two weeks after the capture of Karelia by the Finns, 14 concentration camps for ethnic Russians functioned there. They were mainly occupied by old people, women and children. There were other camps for prisoners of war.
So, in the concentration camp Olovoinen No. 8 out of 3000 prisoners by the day of liberation, about 1500 people remained alive. In 1942, 201 people from the free population of Petrozavodsk died, and 2493 people died in concentration camps.
HOLIDAY SHOULD BE CELEBRATED PUBLICLY
Should we celebrate January 27 as the day of the final lifting of the blockade? Of course it is. But not as the final liquidation of the siege ring, but only as the defeat of the German troops near Leningrad.
During the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation - as the First Stalinist strike is now called - our troops from January 4 to March 1, 1944, threw back Wehrmacht units 120-180 km from their original positions near Leningrad. Nevertheless, not for a single day from the beginning of March to June 1944 in Leningrad did the counter-battery firing of ships of the Baltic Fleet, forts of Kronstadt and railway artillery cease. Moreover, the intensity of these firing was not inferior to 1941-1942. Who were they shooting at? For the Germans entrenched near Narva?
Alas, the northern sector of the blockade ring remained untouched, and heavy shells flew from there to Kronstadt, Olgino, Lisiy Nos and other areas of Leningrad. And then our gunners received an order …
Only on June 9, 1944, the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad began. The Finnish troops were struck by hundreds of batteries of heavy guns of the Leningrad Front and the Baltic Fleet, including ships, forts, railway installations and 406-180-mm installations of the research sea range. 31 divisions, 6 brigades and 4 fortified areas went on the offensive.
And on June 17, 1944, 180-mm railway installations already smashed Vyborg. The Finns hoped very much for the British, and on June 20 heavy Churchill tanks burst into Vyborg. But, to the great disappointment of the Finns, they had red stars on them.
