"They are all heroes in Leningrad...": the way the Battle for the city on the Neva broke out

July 10, 1941 the battle for Leningrad, the longest during the Great Patriotic War, broke out. These almost more than three years have become a symbol of unparalleled valor and glory of the Russian people, a single burst of millions of free hearts... The Nazi leadership was sure that the city on the Neva would fall in just a few days. But it turned out differently.

By the beginning of the battle, the German Army Group Sever had 42 divisions, including seven tank divisions. These were more than 700 thousand experienced fighters hardened in offensive operations and one and a half thousand tanks. In turn, Germany’s ally Finland, on the outskirts of Leningrad, concentrated its two field armies, the Karelian and the Southeast. Over 1000 aircrafts were to support the offensive. All these troops outnumbered Soviet ones by several times. Berlin was confident in the success of the attack, which in fact determined the outcome of the entire situation on the Soviet and German front".

The rare edition “The Battle for Leningrad. 1941–1944” edited by Lieutenant-General S. P. Platonov, which is also available in the digital collections of the Presidential Library, recollects the fascist Marshal Erich von Manstein. Recognized in Berlin as one of the best strategists of the Wehrmacht, he shared Hitler's conviction: the seizure of Leningrad should also inflict moral damage on the Soviet Union, since the Northern capital was considered the “cradle of Bolshevism”. In addition, “the Nazis also hoped to “deprive the Russian fleet of their bases by seizing ports on the Baltic Sea, including Leningrad and Kronstadt”. They hoped that the fall of Leningrad would have a negative impact on the subsequent actions of the Soviet army and the defence capability of the Soviet Union as a whole, and the Nazi fleet would be able to control the Baltic Sea basin uncontrollably”. 

In Reichstag such ideas seemed easy to implement. The Germans were blinded by faith in their own superiority.  The Nazis did not know what real resistance was. Leningrad taught them a good lesson. The Soviet fleet, which the German commanders were going to crush first of all and without much difficulty, gave them an unpleasant surprise. The beginning of the war foresaw the people's commissar of the USSR Navy Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov. He announced a large-scale preparation - the order is literally given in the publication “The Red Banner Baltic Fleet in the battle for Leningrad. 1941–1944” (1973): “During the period of June 22–23, a sudden German attack is possible... Fleets and flotilla be in full combat readiness to meet a possible sudden strike by the Germans or their allies. I order, having switched to operational readiness № 1, to carefully mask the increase in combat readiness”.

In the Baltic, the fascist fleet met with unforeseen difficulties. “The ships of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet closed the entrance to the Gulf of Finland in the area between the island of Dago and the Hanko Peninsula by minefields in several rows. Thus, the advanced defensive mine-artillery position was created, consisting of minefields and powerful artillery batteries of the Hanko peninsula, Dago islands and Omussar, which blocked the mouth of the Gulf of Finland with their fire. This position not only closed access to the bay for enemy ships, but also divided the Finnish fleet into two isolated parts”, - says A. N. Mushnikov in the book The Baltic in Battles for Leningrad (1941–1944)” (1955), which is available in the Presidential Library's collections.

The author also reports in detail about the actions of our naval aviation during the defense of the city on the Neva: “In the first month of the war, the Baltic pilots destroyed about 250 tanks, 248 vehicles, a large number of artillery guns, machine guns and anti-aircraft gun emplacements of the enemy in battles on the distant approaches to Leningrad. In aerial combat, 113 aircraft were shot down. Acting on the sea, Soviet pilots sank about 50 different ships, ships and boats of the enemy”.

Thus, it was possible to achieve an immeasurably important result: the immediate offensive of the German troops, who were tasked with destroying the northern capital, was broken by the tough opposition of the Soviet heroes.

In Leningrad, the city dwellers tirelessly, day and night, from young to old, did everything to not hand over an inch of their native land to the enemy. Under the aiming fire of the fascists, they dug trenches, erected barriers.

The training of the residents of Leningrad for prolonged isolation from the sky was covered by the aces of the Soviet air force — often at the cost of their own lives. This is reflected in the book by B. Brodyansky “The Battle for Leningrad. Pilots" (1944): "Pilots of Leningrad were among the first to meet the monstrous military machine of fascist Germany and blocked its way. It was the Leningrad pilots who initiated the air ramming, which the German air pirates feared like fire... The fire ram on the Leningrad front became a mass phenomenon, the pilots went to it always when the question arose: whether to be captive to the Germans or die for the name of the motherland?"

Military historians conditionally subdivide the battle for the Northern capital into four stages: fighting on the approaches to the city, active defenсe in the conditions of the blockade, breaking the blockade and, finally, the final defeat of the enemy. The first stage was the most difficult and tragic. Despite the dedication of our troops and civilians, the Soviet army suffered serious losses. From July 10, 1941, the Germans launched an offensive on the entire front from Pskov to Idritsa. The enemy’s attacks on the approaches to Leningrad were met by the Red Army in several directions at once — Luga, Novgorod, Starorussky, Petrozavodsk and Olonets, and also in Estonia. Together with the infantry, the Nazis threw heavy armored vehicles into battle. Enemy tanks were subjected to fierce resistance from our gunners, which thoroughly knocked the arrogance of the fascist command and forced him to move more and more to defensive tactics. However, the enemy was still very strong, and until victory over him was, alas, far away. But the invaders did not succeed in taking the Russian man into oblivion.

The album “The Red Banner Ladoga Flotilla in the Battle of Leningrad on the Life Road 1941–1944” (1981), a digital copy of which is stored in the Presidential Library, tells about the exploits of the sailors of the Ladoga military flotilla who guarded the Way of Life.

The authors of the album state that the Ladoga seamen in the city on the Neva always have a special relationship. Maya Bubnova, a schoolgirl who survived the blockade: “We are all heroes in Leningrad. But when I see a person from Ladoga, I want to worship him as valiant among the valiant!”

The amazing bravery of soldiers, sailors, officers and ordinary residents of the blockaded city even amazed the enemy. In May 1943, the Finnish Suomen Kuvalehti magazine was published, where journalists compared Leningrad with a hand that “squeezes the throat of a German soldier rushing to the East”. Years later, assessing the results of the battle for the city on the Neva, many historians note: one of the main achievements of the Soviet army and people is that they managed to protect one of the world's major centers of science and culture from barbarism...

“Under the walls of Leningrad, the Russian arms, the Russian spirit, endurance, unlimited love for the Motherland and Russian ferocious hatred for the enemy won. In the north-west of our vast Motherland, the most ancient Lake Peipsi again witnessed how “the Russians of Prussia were always beaten”, - writes B. Brodyansky. - Under the walls of the historic city on the Neva, the fighters and officers recalled the heroic feats of their ancestors, whose bright image called for revenge on the fascist invaders for the reproach of our sacred land. Descendants have shown themselves worthy of their ancestors".