Marking the 75th Anniversary of the Great Victory. "The great city standing "as stable as Russia"

"The history of mankind knows dark and gloomy pages when the greatest works - monuments of the centuries-long way of development of human culture were erased from the face of the earth", writes architect Vladimir Pilyavsky in the Siege time brochure Palace Square in Leningrad (1944), provided by the Presidential Library's portal. "But all the crimes of ancient times and the Middle Ages can't be compared with the invasion of our Motherland ... by the Nazi hordes of Hitler, which invasion not only revived but also surpassed in progress the wildest and most barbaric crimes that history has ever known. <...> One of the monstrous crimes of the Nazis was the aerial bombardment and an unimportant, from a military point of view, methodical artillery shelling of Leningrad".

Military deception of monuments in Leningrad

It is known that Hitler planned not only to capture the city but completely destruct it. An Extraordinary State Commission for the Establishment and Investigation of the Crimes of Nazi Invaders and Accomplices completed the "Act of the Leningrad City Commission on the deliberate elimination by German fascist barbarians of the Leningrad residents and the damage caused to the economy, cultural and historical monuments of the city during the war and the Siege" (1945). It notes: "Documents captured in the destroyed headquarters of one of the artillery groups of Germans during the defeat of fascist troops near Leningrad in January 1944 evidence of the deliberate destruction of the historical, art and cultural objects of Leningrad. Among the captured documents were found plans of Leningrad, which included such "military" objects as museums, palaces, institutes, etc. For example, the Hermitage was listed as object №. 9, Anichkov Palace (Palace of Pioneers) - object № 192, Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy - object № 708, Erisman Hospital - object № 89, residential quarter on Bolshaya Zelenina Street - object № 757. Each object number has own artillery data: aims, calibers, and types of missiles".

When the Siege was launched, Leningrad became an aim for the regular bombing. To preserve the city, it was necessary not only to protect people but also to cover the most significant architectural monuments, as well as strategic objects of military importance.

Architects were involved in the preparation of defensive measures to save the city. Their work was coordinated by the Architectural and Planning Department, which was headed by Nikolai Baranov. He faced three main tasks: the design and construction of defensive positions, field measurements of buildings, and camouflage.

There was something to think about, each object had a unique solution. Such large monuments as, for example, the Bronze Horseman and the monument to Nicholas I were covered with sandbags and wooden shields. Not large monuments were removed from their pedestals and buried in the ground. The famous sculptures of the Summer Garden, the monument to Peter I before the Engineers' Castle, the horses by Klodt from Anichkov Bridge were saved in this way.

Architect and artist Yakov Rubanchik describes in his book "Nevsky Prospect" (1944) the main highway of the city with palaces, magnificent mansions, and old houses: "In the days of World War II, the Prospect was harsh and suspicious. Its crossroads are invulnerable. Each house is a fortress. Each window is ready to meet the enemy with a shower of lead bullets. <...> The prospect of front-line Leningrad continues to fulfill its role as the most important artery of the city during the days of World War II".

The method of volume disguise was used to cover buildings. Pieces of fabric, painted in the color of green plants with special paint were sewn on the camouflage nets along with the real tree branches. To prevent them from fading, botanists urgently developed a technology of preserving cut plants.

One of the first camouflaged buildings was Smolny. Camouflage nets were waved from the roof of the building at an angle to hide its U-shape. Lawns of the square were dug up, and models of houses were built on the Proletarian Dictatorship square. To hide the bend of the Neva, according to which Smolny could be identified, Sovetsky (now Suvorovsky) Prospekt was continued with the depiction of a river.

Barrage balloons played a major role in the protection of architectural monuments. Their large forms hid the outlines of houses. Other landmarks of the city - bridges - were disguised by installing wooden structures that did not interfere with transport, but created the illusion of ruins. Station buildings were also disguised as ruins. Temporary copies of them were constructed nearby.

Mikhail Bobrov talks about the preservation of the spiers of the Admiralty building and the Peter and Paul Cathedral

The most difficult thing was to hide the domes and spiers, which gilded roofs glittered and were detectable from afar. This work involved only experienced specialists in the field of architecture and building, but also ... masters of sports with climbing skills.

Mikhail Bobrov (1923–2018) was appointed the chief in a group of four alpinists. He was the youngest member of the group, reconnaissance officer of the Leningrad Front, who fought on the front line of the battle for the city. After the war, the "Guardian Angel" of the Peter and Paul Cathedral had the keys from it and become an honorary citizen of Saint-Petersburg. The film by the Presidential Library "Mikhail Bobrov. Guardian Angel" is available on the institution's portal. Besides, specialists of the Presidential Library recorded Bobrov’s memoirs about the protection of the city’s architectural dominions. The Presidential Library's portal features Bobrov’s memoirs as a video lecture along with hundreds of other documents about the Siege that people brought or sent to the library on Senate Street, 3.

Thus, Mikhail Bobrov speaks in a video lecture: "Why did the Germans so accurately shoot at schools, hospitals, industrial facilities, tram stops? When our scouts penetrated the German artillery positions (they were located at the former Duderhof station, on Voronya Gora, on the Pulkovo Heights, in Strelna, from which they hit the city through the bay) and captured German officers, they found in their papers a detailed plan of Leningrad with all the city's dominants. The domes glittered not only during the day but also on moonlit nights. The maps contained indicated distance from the German artillery position to, for example, the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Shooting with such a tip was very easy.

We faced the challenge of covering these landmarks. Some officers offered to disassemble all our dominants. The second offer was to build timber scaffoldings and with their help mask all objects. But there was a problem of getting lumber because it was completely used for the construction of blockhouses, bunkers, blindages! The third offer was to use air barrage balloons, which rose to a height of 1400-1500 m. But such balloon gave no opportunity to approach the object.

And then the young architect of the Vasileostrovsky district Natalya Ustvolskaya, the climber herself, suggested using climbers who were in the city. They found Olga Firsova, she unloaded mines in the port, a thread went from her to her friend - Alla Prigozheva. The third was Alois Zemba. He came to my hospital. Thus our group of four was assembled.

Specialists allowed painting gold leaf only on the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Neither the Admiralty, nor the spire of the Engineering Castle, nor other churches and cathedrals could be painted. The fact is that the dome of St. Isaac's Cathedral and the spire of the Peter and Paul Cathedral were covered with real pure gold, and the rest of the monuments were covered with thin gilding of gold leaf. They were also offered to be covered with canvas, because it was then impossible to wash off camouflage paint without harm to the coating.

It was decided to begin the disguise with St. Isaac's Cathedral. Its hat glittered over the whole city and was clearly visible from everywhere. We climbed up, attached to the railing and first painted the dome cap, the cross. Wounded sailors gave us buckets of paint. As soon as the dome and four belfries were painted, the targeted artillery shelling ceased in the area.

Then they proceeded to the Admiralty. It was harder there - it was all about the complex design of the spire. We used the usual climbing equipment: we climbed to perform the incredibly difficult task of disguising. The military girls sewed us a huge canvas "skirt", it weighed half a ton, but we managed to lift it. This is where the first German shelling of the climbers began. When we fixed the canvas and dismissed it, and Olya Firsova went upstairs to tighten and stitch the heavy fabric, the Messerschmidt jumped out of the Palace Square and gave it a machine-gun burst. Miraculously, Olya was not hurt, then she said that she saw the face of the pilot.

The winter of the most difficult, the first siege year has come. In the freezing cold, and sometimes it reached 43 degrees, we proceeded to camouflage the Peter and Paul Cathedral. We started work by hanging blocks so that we could lift ourselves and pick up paint buckets. In addition to frost, there were strong winds. Upstairs it was hard to work. With strong gusts of wind, the spire tilted 80–85 cm, and sometimes more than 1 m. But we coped with the task.

...Poor rations on the cards did not save, and our small high-altitude platoon suffered losses: the exhausted Alois Zemba died in the evacuation, Olga Firsova became seriously ill with scurvy and ended up in the hospital. On May 1 Alla Prigozheva died”.

The Germans destroyed the 8th hydroelectric station and 840 industrial facilities

Nevertheless, the destruction was not completely avoided. During the siege of Leningrad, 187 historical buildings of the city were destroyed and damaged.

The "Act of the Leningrad City Commission on the deliberate extermination by German fascist barbarians of the civilians of Leningrad and the damage caused to the economy and cultural and historical monuments of the city during the war and siege" states that "the world famous Winter Palace ... suffered significant damage from a high-explosive bomb and ten artillery shells. The building of the Admiralty... was repeatedly subjected to bombing and shelling. Twenty-six high-explosive bombs, fifty artillery shells and hundreds of incendiary bombs were dropped on it”.

During the siege, 8 shells fell into the Senate and Synod building, and the Synodal Church was almost completely destroyed. The repair started already in 1944...

However, not only classical ensembles of the city center and dozens of ancient buildings, but also objects of industrial architecture, many of which were created by world-famous architects, were recognized as true masterpieces of architecture. It was also important to carefully mask them. They were significantly superior to ordinary buildings, so they were turned into “residential quarters” - on the roofs of the workshops, models of buildings were installed that looked like real ones from the air.

“The enemy caused enormous destruction to enterprises of the Leningrad industry, not related to objects of military significance. <...> The Germans completely destroyed one of the best power plants in Leningrad - the 8th hydroelectric power station, whose capacity was 200 thousand kilowatts. <...> German barbarians completely destroyed the cotton factory “First of May”, the Lenmyasokombinat named after S. M. Kirov and a number of other industrial enterprises, equipped with the latest technology. <...> They destroyed 840 industrial buildings and damaged 3090. 218 steam boilers, 16 steam turbines, 389 electric generators, 7110 electric motors, over 3700 metal machines, 195 bank broaches, 446 water and many other industrial equipment were destroyed and damaged, ” - it is reported in the above "Act of the Leningrad City Commission on the deliberate extermination by German fascist barbarians of the civilians of Leningrad and the damage caused to the economy and cultural and historical monuments of the city during the war and siege"

But the time has come for the liberation of the siege from the ring of fire. No matter how the enemies sought to destroy Leningrad, their fury was powerless against the firmness of the Russian spirit, not broken by the inhuman trials of the 900-day blockade.

“In the course of the days of the Great Patriotic War, the Palace Square became the front-city square”, - writes architect Vladimir Pilyavsky in the brochure Palace Square in Leningrad (1944). - Shells, bombs plowed and dug up the area. More than once the glass of windows strewn the asphalt of the sidewalks with tiny sparkles. New scars appeared on the facades of beautiful classical buildings. But the area is indestructible, as the city itself is indestructible”.

A historic, unforgettable evening on January 27, 1944 is the day of the final breakthrough of the siege and the defeat of the Germans near Leningrad. At 20 o'clock, a victorious salute of 24 shots from 324 guns thundered over the Palace Square in honor of the liberation from the enemy blockade. “Thousands of Leningraders flocked to the main square of their city at the treasured hour,” continues Pilyavsky. - On their faces, lit by the fire of rockets, the glee shone. <...> And again the golden facets of the Admiralty Spire flare over a magnificent square, as a symbol of the Great City, standing “unshakably like Russia””