The People's Militia of Leningrad is 75 years old. Solemn and mourning ceremonies will also be held

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On January 27, at 20:00, a reconstruction of the Leningrad salute of 1944 will be held on the Field of Mars, and then at 21:00 the first volleys will be fired at the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress. By tradition, the festive event dedicated to the Day of Complete Liberation from the Nazi Siege will end with fireworks: at 21:00, artillery fireworks will thunder near the walls of the Peter and Paul Fortress, and thousands of bright sparks will color the sky above the city.

Fireworks in honor of the 74th anniversary of the complete liberation of the hero city of Leningrad from the fascist blockade will be fired by artillerymen of the Western Military District (ZVO) on January 27 from four points in St. Petersburg, Colonel Igor Muginov, head of the press service of the ZVO, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday.

According to him, more than 500 military personnel of the district, twelve 85-mm D-44 guns of the St.

Anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad in 2018: The blockade of Leningrad, which began on September 8, 1941, lasted almost 900 days

After the blockade was broken on January 18, 1943, the siege of the city continued for another year. In January-February, Soviet troops carried out the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, as a result of which the enemy was driven back more than 200 km from the city. On January 27, 1944, the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted.

A solemn celebration of the 74th anniversary of the complete liberation of Leningrad by the Soviet troops from the blockade by the Nazi troops will take place at St Petersburg University.

Program

13:00 Opening of the exhibition dedicated to the activities of the search team of St. Petersburg State University "Ingria"

13:00–14:00 Registration of participants and distribution of gifts

14:00 Laying flowers at the Memorial

14:00 Solemn concert

Anniversary of the lifting of the blockade of Leningrad in 2018: 75 years ago, Soviet troops released Leningrad

The only way - the "Road of Life", along which food was delivered to the city, was laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga. The blockade was broken on January 18, 1943, but before it was completely lifted on January 27, 1944, Leningraders had to wait another year. During the years of the blockade, according to various sources, from 400 thousand to 1.5 million people died. The number of 632 thousand people appeared at the Nuremberg trials. Only 3% of them died from bombing and shelling, the rest died of starvation.

The blockade of Leningrad began on September 8, 1941. The city was surrounded by German, Finnish and Spanish troops, supported by volunteers from Europe, Italy and North Africa. Leningrad was not ready for a long siege - the city did not have an adequate supply of food and fuel.

The only way to communicate with Leningrad was Lake Ladoga, but bandwidth this transport artery - the famous "Road of Life", was not enough to meet the needs of the city.

Frozen due to frosty winters water pipes and houses were left without water. Fuel was sorely lacking. People did not have time to bury - and the corpses lay right on the street.

At the very beginning of the blockade, the Badaev warehouses burned down, where the food supplies of the city were stored. The inhabitants of Leningrad, cut off from the whole world by German troops, could only count on a modest ration, consisting of almost one bread, which was given out on cards. Over a million people died during the 872 days of the blockade, mostly from starvation.

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The Siege of Leningrad (September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944) - a tragic period in the history of the city on the Neva, when more than 640 thousand inhabitants died of starvation alone, tens of thousands died during shelling and bombing, died in evacuation.

Encirclement of Leningrad

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War On June 22, 1941, a strike in the direction of Leningrad was entrusted to the German Army Group North, which was supposed to destroy the Red Army in the Baltic states, capture naval bases on the Baltic Sea, and capture Leningrad by July 21. On July 9, Pskov was captured, on July 10, German units broke through the front and the forces of the 4th Panzer Group of the Army "North" reached the Plus River and then rushed to Luga. On August 21, the Germans occupied the Chudovo station, thereby cutting off the October railway, and captured Tosno 8 days later. On August 30, a large Mga railway junction was captured. From September 8, 1941, when the Germans captured Shlisselburg, the 871-day blockade of Leningrad began.

Leningrad blockade

2,544,000 civilians of the city (including approximately 400,000 children), 343,000 residents of suburban areas, and troops defending the city were surrounded. Food and fuel supplies were limited (only for 1-2 months). On September 8, 1941, as a result of an air raid and a fire, the food warehouses named after A. A.E. Badaeva.

Food cards were introduced: from October 1, workers and engineering and technical workers began to receive 400 g of bread per day, all the rest - 200 g. Stopped public transport, because by the winter of 1941 - 1942 there were no fuel reserves and electricity left. Food supplies were rapidly declining, and in January 1942 there was already only 200/125 grams of bread per person per day. By the end of February 1942, more than 200,000 people had died in Leningrad from cold and hunger. But the city lived and fought: factories continued to produce military products, theaters and museums worked. All the time when the blockade was going on, the Leningrad radio did not stop, where poets and writers spoke. On July 2, 1942, the score of Dmitry Shostakovich's 7th symphony was delivered from the Urals, which on August 9, 1942 was performed by the Radio Committee orchestra in Leningrad besieged by the Germans.

In connection with the termination of communication with the mainland, the road across Lake Ladoga, which became the legendary "Dear Life", acquired special significance. By water, goods were delivered to Leningrad in September - November 1941, and when the lake froze over, food, fuel and other goods began to be transported over the ice. The residents of the city, weakened by hunger, were also taken out along the "Road of Life": first of all, children, women with children, the sick, the wounded and the disabled, as well as students, workers of the evacuated factories and their families were evacuated.

On March 25, 1942, a decision was made to clear the city from blockages of snow, ice, dirt, sewage, corpses, and by April 15, the city was put in order by the forces of exhausted Leningraders and soldiers of the local garrison. Trams started running again in Leningrad.

In the next blockade winter of 1942 - 1943, the situation in besieged Leningrad improved significantly: public transport was running, enterprises were operating, schools, cinemas were opened, water supply and sewerage were operating, city baths were operating, etc.

The defense of the city was first led by K.E. Voroshilov, and after his removal - by Zhukov, the economic side was handled by Kosygin, who actually replaced the first secretary of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Comrade A.A. Zhdanov. It was Kosygin who organized the movement on the "Road of Life" and settled the differences between the civil and military authorities.

Breakthrough and lifting of the blockade

The breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad began on the orders of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on January 12, 1943, with the offensive of the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts in cooperation with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (KBF) south of Lake Ladoga. A narrow ledge separating the troops of the fronts was chosen as the place for breaking the blockade. On January 18, the 136th Rifle Division and the 61st Tank Brigade of the Leningrad Front broke into Rabochey Settlement No. 5 and joined units of the 18th Rifle Division of the Volkhov Front. On the same day, units of the 86th Infantry Division and the 34th Ski Brigade liberated Shlisselburg and cleared the entire southern coast of Lake Ladoga from the enemy. In the corridor cut along the coast, in 18 days, the builders erected a crossing across the Neva and laid a railway and a highway. The enemy blockade was broken.

For 872 days, according to official figures, more than 600 thousand civilians and over 300 thousand soldiers and officers were killed. Memorial candles will be lit on the mass graves of the Piskarevsky cemetery, where many victims are buried. The action of memory will take place at the memorial complex in the village of Maryino.

Thursday, January 18 marks the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the siege of Leningrad. On the anniversary of this significant event, the Proryv panorama museum appeared in the city on the Neva. Among the first is Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with veterans and search engines. In a purely military sense, the breakthrough of the blockade, perhaps, is inferior to the Battle of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk battles. However, this does not detract from its colossal significance and greatness. In fact, it was not so much a military as a humanitarian operation, which made it possible to save hundreds of thousands of Leningraders, who would hardly have been able to survive the second blockade winter. It was an invaluable psychological and moral victory. The lifting of the blockade was, perhaps, a turning point, after which the majority of Soviet citizens no longer doubted the inevitable victory over a terrible enemy ..

The concept of "blockade" has long become a household word. It has lost its military meaning, turning into a symbol of grief, horror and unimaginable suffering that befell the inhabitants of the city on the Neva. At the same time becoming a monument to their courage and resilience. The blockade lasted 872 days, it claimed the lives of more than a million Soviet people, and most of the dead were civilians. There would have been even more casualties if, on January 18, 1943, the Soviet troops had failed to break through the enemy's defenses and break the encirclement.

Prologue. Luga border

In Hitler's plan "Barbarossa" Leningrad appeared as one of the main targets in delivering a surprise first strike, and the capture of Moscow was supposed to be only a field of how the city on the Neva would be taken. After that, it was supposed to deploy the troops of Army Group North to the south and surround the capital. The North group was led by Wilhelm von Leeb, a hereditary military man, a veteran of the First World War. At first, everything went well for the aggressor and the Germans advanced at a speed of about thirty kilometers a day, but they were stopped in the Luga area. This is one of the not very famous, but very important episodes of the Great Patriotic War, the prologue of the battle for Leningrad. A small feat, the first in a long list of merits of the heroes of Leningrad and very characteristic of that time.

This line of defense began to be created back in June, literally in the first days of the war. The very fact of making such a decision was extremely bold, because it allowed the enemy to penetrate deep into the country, when even hinting at such a thing was life-threatening - one could immediately end up under a tribunal for alarmist moods. However, the commander of the Leningrad district, General Markian Mikhailovich Popov and his deputy, General Konstantin Pavlovich Pyadyshev, were not afraid, and already on June 23 the latter led the work on creating the defensive line Kingisepp - Luga - Lake Ilmen. It was built by Leningraders - ordinary residents, mostly women and teenagers. Men were drafted into the army or worked in military factories.

In the most difficult conditions, Leningraders managed to create a superbly fortified echeloned line 175 km long, with a depth of 10-15 km, which included 94 km of anti-tank ditches, 160 km of scarps, 570 pillboxes and bunkers. On July 4, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief agreed with the decision of the district leadership and approved it (in fact, retroactively), and a week later, the troops of the district that had taken the line already engaged in battle with the advancing enemy. The Germans at first managed to penetrate the defensive line and create several bridgeheads, but the operational groups of the reserve that approached quickly stabilized the situation. The defense was led by General Pyadyshev, an officer of the imperial army, who fought with the Germans back in the First World War, and he acted very successfully.

And then the inexplicable happened: in mid-July, Pyadyshev was arrested on charges of anti-Soviet agitation. Allegedly, in the late 1930s, in letters to his wife, he spoke unflatteringly about repressions in the army environment. Despite the requests of several generals, Pyadyshev was convicted and sent to a camp, where he died a few years later. Naturally, he was subsequently acquitted and rehabilitated. But even without its creator, the well-organized defense of the Luga line delayed the advance of the enemy for more than a month and made it possible to prepare defensive lines on the near approaches to Leningrad.

“Somewhere in the middle of August, I still had to leave the Luga fortifications. A hundred and a half remained from our regiment, maybe less. The fortifications were excellent. When they were made, I don't know. The trenches in full profile are sheathed with boards. With machine gun nests. Dugouts in three or four rolls. These fortifications saved us many lives. Then it turned out that the one who built them, General Pyadyshev, was handed over to the tribunal and shot. By order of Stalin. Then several top commanders were shot. All for nothing. For intimidation, or what? - wrote Daniil Granin in the book "My Lieutenant".

At the end of August, Vyacheslav Molotov, who left for Leningrad, received the following telegram from Stalin: “Don't you think that someone is purposely opening the way for the Germans in this important area? What kind of person is Popov? What, in fact, is Voroshilov busy with and how is his assistance to Leningrad expressed? I am writing about this because I am very alarmed by the incomprehensible inaction of the Leningrad command.”

A few days later, Markian Popov was removed from command of the troops in the Leningrad region, Marshal Voroshilov took his place. Stalin did not forgive the generals for their initiative.

Since the end of August, the defenders of the Luzhka line, who did not have time to retreat to reserve positions (there was no order to retreat), fought in encirclement, and not everyone managed to break through to Leningrad. Although some scattered and out of ammunition units resisted until September 15th. But the dead units succeeded in the main thing - the Germans could not take Leningrad on the move and were forced to urgently change strategic plans. Plan "Barbarossa" began to burst at the seams.

The city was defended by up to half a million fighters of the Leningrad Front, who took up prepared positions, and the entire Baltic Fleet with powerful naval guns. Not to mention the three million people who are ready to help the troops, and more than three hundred enterprises that produced up to 12% of the entire industrial output of the USSR. And the tighter the Nazis squeezed the ring around Leningrad, the fiercer the resistance became. The Wehrmacht command understood that an attempt to take the city turned into a fortress would inevitably lead to huge losses, if it worked out at all.

From the directive of the Chief of Staff of the German Naval Forces No. 1601 of September 22, 1941 “The Future of the City of St. Petersburg”: “2. The Fuhrer decided to wipe the city of Leningrad off the face of the earth. After the defeat of Soviet Russia, the continued existence of this largest locality is of no interest ... 4. It is supposed to surround the city with a tight ring and, by shelling from artillery of all calibers and continuous bombing from the air, raze it to the ground. If, due to the situation that has developed in the city, requests for surrender are made, they will be rejected, since the problems associated with the stay of the population in the city and its food supply cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war being waged for the right to exist, we are not interested in saving at least part of the population. .

And here is another order of the Fuhrer, No. S.123 of October 7, 1941: “... not a single German soldier should enter these cities (Moscow and Leningrad). Whoever leaves the city against our lines must be driven back by fire.

Small unguarded passages that make it possible for the population to leave one by one for evacuation to the interior of Russia should only be welcomed. The population must be forced to flee the city by artillery and aerial bombardment. The more numerous the population of cities, fleeing deep into Russia, the more chaos the enemy will have and the easier it will be for us to manage and use the occupied regions. All senior officers must be aware of this desire of the Fuhrer.

By the way, these documents make absolutely meaningless the recent discussion about whether it was worth defending Leningrad at all or whether it was necessary to hand it over to the enemy to save the civilian population. Obviously, the Germans were not going to take the city and at least to some extent help its inhabitants.

After the capture of Shlisselburg and the actual establishment of a blockade, von Leeb's troops switched to positional defense. The German command decided not to storm Leningrad, but, together with the Finnish troops, encircle it and wait for all the inhabitants of the besieged city to die of starvation. A significant part of the fascist troops, primarily the 4th Panzer Group of Erich Hoepner, was transferred to Moscow in the second half of September.

Chief of staff ground forces Wehrmacht General Franz Halder these days wrote in his famous "War Diary": "Given the need for troops on the Leningrad sector of the front, where the enemy has concentrated large human and material forces and means, the situation here will be tense until it gives itself to know our ally is hunger.”

Cynical, but very clear.

The scary word "blockade"

September 8: the fall of Shlisselburg and the beginning of the blockade. On the same day, a fire on the largest in the city of Badaevsky food warehouses. Whether it was a successful hit by a fascist shell, or it was set on fire, is not known for sure. There were many accomplices of the enemy in the city, the Germans actively used saboteurs. Here is how the native Leningrader, the remarkable scientist and poet Alexander Moiseevich Gorodnitsky, who saw everything with his own eyes, describes those terrible days:

Weeks of the first blockade,
Fights for Gatchina and Mgu,
Burning Badaev warehouses
On the low Nevsky bank.

Flour is burning, over the area
The smoke rises high
Beautiful green flame
Burning sugar.

Boiling, flashing oil,
Fountain throwing up.
Three days over the city did not go out
Sad fireworks.

And we guessed vaguely
Breathing hot air
What is in that fire every minute
Someone's soul is on fire.

And they understood doomedly
Inhaling the sweet aroma
What follows this black smoke
And our souls will fly away

And shells fell into the city,
The sun was setting over the bay
And the burnt house collapsed nearby,
Boulevard opposite blockage.

I need to forget this
Yes, imagine, I can not -
Burning Badaev warehouses
On the scorched shore.

The first winter was the worst. The city was not ready for the blockade, although how could one possibly prepare for such a horror. It was impossible to prepare such a supply of food to feed three million people for several months, especially since the country was forced to provide for the entire front, and not just Leningrad. We can talk about some individual specific mistakes of the leadership, but quite objectively the situation was catastrophic. The city has always lived on imported food, there were few warehouses. Even if in August it was possible to prepare a little more, this would only briefly delay the onset of famine, but it would still come to the city.

grain and flour - for 35 days;

cereals and pasta - for 30 days;

meat and meat products - for 33 days;

fats - for 45 days.

The cards were introduced back in July. But it was obvious that even with the strictest economy of stocks could not be enough before the start of winter. And I had to stretch it out for many months. According to the recollections of many blockade survivors, by the end of autumn, animals - cats, dogs, pigeons, even mice and rats - had disappeared in the city. At first, many did not notice what had happened, and only with time they realized that this was the terrible approach of famine.

The terrible everyday life of Leningrad has been described more than once, and it is already impossible to add something new to them. The diary pages of Tanya Savicheva, which cannot be read without tears, the excited poems of Olga Berggolts, the feat of the employees of the Institute of Plant Growing, 29 of whom died of starvation, but did not touch the unique sowing fund.

People were dying right on the streets, death gradually became a daily routine. Refugees from the occupied suburbs were the first to die - they were settled in schools and houses of culture, but they were not supposed to have cards. Here is the first encounter with death, described by academician Dmitry Sergeevich Likhachev, a blockade runner, in his book “Memoirs”: “I remember that for some reason I was in a paid clinic on Bolshoy Prospekt of the Petrograd side. In the reception area, several people were lying on the floor, picked up from the street. They put heating pads on their arms and legs. Meanwhile, they simply had to be fed, but there was nothing to feed them. I asked: what will happen to them next? I was told: "They will die." "But can't we take them to the hospital?" - “There is nothing, and there is still nothing to feed them with. They need to be fed a lot, as they have a strong degree of exhaustion. Nurses dragged the corpses of the dead into the basement. I remember one was still quite young. His face was black: the faces of the starving people darkened greatly. The nurse explained to me that it was necessary to drag the corpses down while they were still warm. When the corpse becomes cold, lice crawl out. The city was infested with lice: the starving had no time for “hygiene”.

But that was only the beginning. By the end of autumn, hunger and cold had become the true masters of Leningrad. No laws and punishments stopped the distraught people.

“I once saw a terrible picture. At the corner of Bolshoy and Vvedenskaya there was a special school, a military school for young people. The students were starving there, as elsewhere. And they were dying. Finally, the school decided to dissolve. And who could - left. Some were led under the arms of their mother and sister, staggered, tangled in their overcoats, hanging on them, as if on hangers, fell, they were dragged. There was already snow, which, of course, no one removed, it was terribly cold. And below, under the special school, there was a Grocery Store. They gave out bread. Boys, especially those suffering from hunger (teenagers need more food), threw themselves on bread and immediately began to eat it. They didn't try to run away, just to eat more before they took it away. They turned up their collars in advance, expecting beatings, lay down on bread and ate, ate, ate. And other thieves were waiting on the stairs of the houses and they took food, cards, passports from the weakened ones. It was especially difficult for the elderly. Those who had their cards taken away could not restore them. It was enough for such weakened people not to eat for a day or two, as they could not walk, and when their legs stopped working, the end came. Usually families did not die immediately. As long as there was at least one person in the family who could walk and buy bread, the rest, who were lying, were still alive. But it was enough for this latter to stop walking or fall somewhere on the street, on the stairs (it was especially hard for those who lived on high floors), as the end of the whole family came, ”wrote Academician Likhachev in his Memoirs.

The blockade hardened people, forced them to fight for survival. It is not customary to talk about many episodes, although these are also pages of a terrible blockade history. And this is not the fault of people, only trouble ...

“The soft parts of the corpses lying on the streets were cut off. Cannibalism has begun! First, the corpses were stripped, then cut to the bone, there was almost no meat on them, the cut and naked corpses were terrible. Cannibalism cannot be condemned indiscriminately. Most of it was not conscious. The one who circumcised the corpse rarely ate the meat himself. He either sold this meat, deceiving the buyer, or fed it to his loved ones in order to keep them alive. After all, the most important thing in eating proteins. There was nowhere to get these proteins. When a child dies and you know that only meat can save him, you cut off a corpse ... ”- Likhachev wrote.

By the end of winter, the situation became absolutely terrible, in January, February and March, about a hundred thousand people died. The road of life on the ice of Ladoga could not provide for the city. People lived with the hope of holding out until spring and warmth.

“The corpses of those who died from exhaustion almost did not deteriorate: they were so dry that they could lie for a long time. The families of the dead did not bury their own: they received cards for them. There was no fear of corpses, no relatives were mourned - there were no tears either. The doors were not locked in the apartments: ice accumulated on the roads, as well as all over the stairs (after all, water was carried in buckets, water splashed, exhausted people often spilled it, and the water immediately froze). Cold walked through the apartments. So the folklorist Kalecki died. He lived somewhere near Kirovsky Prospekt. When they came to him, the door of his apartment was half open. It was evident that the last tenants tried to chip away the ice in order to close it, but could not. In cold rooms, under blankets, fur coats, carpets lay corpses: dry, not decomposed. When did these people die? - Academician Likhachev recalled.

The city was dying, but painfully clinging to life. Enterprises worked, tanks went straight from the Kirov and Putilov factories to the front line, people even managed to hold concerts. In March 1942, at the most critical moment, the premiere of Dmitry Shostakovich's 7th "Leningrad" symphony took place at the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theater, which he began to write in the besieged city, and completed already in the evacuation. Football matches took place in May. It is clear that these were "demonstration" events and the participants were specially prepared (simply fattened) for them, but this does not reduce their psychological importance. People did not survive by bread alone.

Operation Spark

Back in the fall, everyone was waiting for "Kulik, who must save the city." They talked about it in the lines for bread. It was about Marshal Grigory Kulik, who was instructed in the autumn of 1941, at the head of a specially created 54th Army, to break the blockade ring. But due to the lack of coordination of actions and the general unpreparedness of the offensive, the Sinyavin operation failed. Then there was the equally unsuccessful 2nd Sinyavinskaya, already in 1942 - the Luban operation, which ended in the encirclement and almost complete destruction of Vlasov's 2nd shock army.

The Germans seriously fortified their lines, they managed to pull up reserves, and besides, they had complete air supremacy. Our troops did not have enough penetrating power, they did not have time to gather strength into a fist, as they were already thrown into the offensive. It is clear that the haste was caused by a desire to alleviate the situation of the dying city, but it only led to unjustified heavy losses.

The January success of 1943 became all the more weighty and significant. At this time, the main actions flared up near Stalingrad, but the Headquarters managed to concentrate enough forces for a breakthrough, and most importantly, to clearly plan the operation, starting it simultaneously from inside the ring and outside. To this end, Marshal Georgy Zhukov was appointed special representative of the Stavka for coordinating the actions of the two fronts. In fact, he led the operation together with the front commanders, Generals Kirill Meretskov and Leonid Govorov.

On January 12, after two hours of preparation, the 2nd Shock Army of General Vladimir Romanovsky (from the Volkhov Front) and the 67th Army of General Mikhail Dukhanov (Leningrad Front) moved towards each other. On the first day, the distance between them was reduced by only two kilometers, on the second by a few more kilometers. The Germans, who had a defense in depth, desperately resisted and counterattacked on the flank of the advancing troops. But it was impossible to stop the impulse of our fighters. On January 18, the troops of the two fronts met, on the same day Shlisselburg was taken. A corridor about ten kilometers wide, cut along the coast of Ladoga, restored the land connection between Leningrad and the country. IN the shortest time along the coast, a railway track and a highway were laid, along which the necessary supplies, primarily food, went to the city. These paths went down in history as the Roads of Victory, as if contrasting with the blockade ice Road of Life.

The lifting of the blockade saved Leningrad. Even though the city was in the enemy's ring for another whole year, it was no longer dying, but was breathing deeply. The city survived, and that was the most important thing. In conditions when the enemy made the destruction of the entire population of Leningrad his main goal, simple survival became the main task and personal contribution of each resident in the struggle for his city. The blockade boy Alexander Gorodnitsky wrote about this:

The wind is angrier and the sky below
On the border of two eras.
All and valor is that he survived,
That I didn't die of hunger.

What did not lie down next to others
In stacks of frozen bodies
What is a shell fragment
Whistled past the ear.

My military experience is pathetic
In that gloomy winter -
I did not put out the lighters,
I didn't stand by.

I remember often
black and white cinema,
Where do I look, eight-year-old,
Through a darkened window.

The howl of a shell is closer, closer,
Shelters are far away.
All and valor is that he survived.
It wasn't easy to survive.

Today is the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad and the establishment of a land connection with the besieged city.
My congratulations to the people of Leningrad, the descendants of the soldiers of the Leningrad, Volkhov fronts and blockade fighters on this date!
Bright memory Soviet soldiers who died in Leningrad and near Leningrad, as well as residents of the city who did not survive the blockade. And those who survived it are almost gone - even those who were just born in those days have already turned 75 ...

Below are scans of the breakthrough issue of Krasnaya Zvezda (January 19, 1943), the main military newspaper of the USSR.
You can read and see how this event was broadcast to contemporaries.

2. An emergency message from the Sovinformburo from the front page of the short circuit (it was read out on the radio on the evening of January 18).

3. And the entire first page of the SC on which it was printed. On the same day, the marshal rank was awarded to G.K. Zhukov.

4. Evening summary of the Soviet Information Bureau reflecting the event in the context of all front-line events.

5. First correspondence from the front.

Happy holiday, Leningraders!

The blockade of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) began on September 8, 1941. The city was surrounded by German, Finnish and Spanish troops, supported by volunteers from Europe, Italy and North Africa. Leningrad was not ready for a long siege - the city did not have an adequate supply of food and fuel.

Lake Ladoga remained the only way to communicate with Leningrad, but the capacity of this transport highway - the famous "Road of Life" - was not enough to satisfy the needs of the city.

In Leningrad came scary times- people were dying of hunger and malnutrition, there was no hot water, rats destroyed food supplies and spread infections, transport stopped, the patients did not have enough medicines.

Due to the frosty winters, water pipes froze and houses were left without water. Fuel was sorely lacking. People did not have time to bury - and the corpses lay right on the street.

Attempts to break the blockade were made several times.

In the autumn of 1941, the 1st and 2nd Sinyavin operations were carried out, but both of them ended in failure and heavy losses. Two more operations were carried out in 1942, but they were also unsuccessful.

At the end of 1942, the military council of the Leningrad Front prepared plans for two offensive operations - Shlisselburg and Uritskaya. The first was planned to be held in early December, among its tasks was the removal of the blockade and the construction railway. The Shlisselburg-Sinyavinsky ledge, turned by the enemy into a powerful fortified area, closed the blockade ring from the land and separated the two Soviet fronts with a 15-kilometer corridor. During the Uritsa operation, it was supposed to restore land communication with the Oranienbaum bridgehead, an area on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland.

As a result, it was decided to abandon the Uritsky operation, and Stalin renamed the Shlisselburg operation into the Iskra operation - it was scheduled for the beginning of January 1943.

“With the joint efforts of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, defeat the enemy grouping in the area of Lipka, Gaitolovo, Moscow Dubrovka, Shlisselburg and, thus, break the siege of the mountains. Leningrad, by the end of January 1943, the operation will be completed, ”

In the first half of February 1943, it was planned to prepare and carry out an operation to defeat the enemy in the area of the village of Mga and clear the Kirov railway.

The preparation of the operation and the training of troops lasted almost a month.

“The operation was difficult ... The army troops had to overcome a wide water barrier before contact with the enemy, then break through the strong enemy positional defense, which was created and improved for about 16 months,” recalled the commander of the 67th Army Mikhail Dukhanov. - In addition, we had to deliver a frontal strike, since the maneuver was ruled out under the conditions of the situation. Considering all these circumstances, in preparing the operation, we paid much attention to training the troops to skillfully and quickly force a wide water barrier in winter conditions and break through the enemy’s strong defenses.

In total, more than 300 thousand soldiers, almost 5,000 guns and mortars, more than 600 tanks and 809 aircraft were involved in the operation. From the side of the invaders - only about 60 thousand soldiers, 700 guns and mortars, about 50 tanks and self-propelled guns, 200 aircraft.

The start of the operation was postponed until January 12 - the rivers had not yet had time to freeze enough.

The troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts launched counter attacks in the direction of the village of Sinyavino. By evening they had moved three kilometers towards each other from the east and west. By the end of the next day, despite the resistance of the enemy, the distance between the armies was reduced to 5 km, and a day later - to two.

The enemy hastily transferred troops from other sectors of the front to strongholds on the flanks of the breakthrough. Fierce battles were fought on the approaches to Shlisselburg. By the evening of January 15, Soviet troops made their way to the outskirts of the city.

By January 18, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts were as close as possible to each other. In the villages near Shlisselburg, they repeatedly attacked the enemy.

On the morning of January 18, the troops of the Leningrad Front stormed Workers' Settlement No. 5. From the east, a rifle division of the Volkhov Front made its way there.

The soldiers met. The blockade was broken.

The operation ended on January 30 - a corridor 8-11 km wide was formed along the banks of the Neva, which made it possible to restore the land connection between Leningrad and the country.

The blockade of Leningrad ended on January 27, 1944 - then the Red Army, with the help of Kronstadt artillery, forced the Nazis to retreat. On that day, festive fireworks were heard in the city, and all the inhabitants left their homes to celebrate the end of the siege. The lines of the Soviet poetess Vera Inber became a symbol of victory: “Glory to you, great city, / Having merged front and rear, / In unprecedented difficulties that / Survived. Fought. Won".

In the Kirovsky district of the Leningrad region, in honor of the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the blockade, it is planned to open a panorama museum. In the first hall of the museum you can see a video chronicle of attempts to break through the blockade by Soviet troops and an animated film about the tragic days of the blockade. In the second hall with an area of 500 sq. m. there is a three-dimensional panorama that most accurately recreates the episode of the decisive battle of the Iskra operation on January 13 on the Nevsky Piglet near the village of Arbuzovo.

The technical opening of the new pavilion will take place on Thursday, January 18, on the 75th anniversary of the breaking of the siege of Leningrad. From January 27, the exposition will be open to visitors.

On January 18, on the Fontanka Embankment, 21, the Candle of Memory action will take place - at 17:00 candles will be lit here in memory of the victims of the blockade.

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