The Presidential Library illustrates the Battle for Leningrad in the Great Patriotic War

"The longest, fierce and heroic battle of the Great Patriotic War entered the history of the Second World War as a phenomenon that still causes great interest of Russian and foreign researchers", writes military historian Nikolai Oleinik in a dissertation Battle for Leningrad: Study of Events and Analysis of Losses in the Luban Offensive Operation (January-July 1942). Its digital copy is available on the Presidential Library's portal.

July 10, 2020, marks the 79th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle for Leningrad. It lasted more than three years until August 9, 1944. The digital collections of the Presidential Library Memory of the Great Victory, The Defence and Siege of Leningrad, as well as digital copies of unique materials from the Library’s collection, feature the high price paid for the Victory.

At the beginning of the offensive on Leningrad the Army Group North was vastly superior to the troops of the North-Western Front in the infantry - 2.4 times, in guns - 4 times, in mortars - 5.8 times, in tanks - 1.2 times, in aircraft - 9.8 times. However, the prompt attack of German troops was broken by the repulse of Soviet soldiers fighting on the Luga Defence Line. The construction of fortifications both on the approaches to Leningrad and in the city involved the civilian population. Since June 29, by the decision of the Leningrad City Executive Committee, men from 16 to 50 years old and women from 16 to 45 years old were engaged in military defence works. Those who worked in factories or anywhere had to work for three hours, unemployed - eight hours. On this day section of the Presidential Library reports that city-front constructed hundreds of kilometres of defences with the effort of 1 million of Leningrad residents., Over 200 thousand people joined the people’s volunteer corps, over 19 thousand served in the anti-aircraft defence units.

The hero of the essay Company's Party Organizer, published in the newspaper Na Strazhe Rodiny (Defending the Motherland), Nikolai Akimov said: "My mother and mother-in-law live in Leningrad. Mother is old and mother-in-law is 65 years old. Both of them are volunteers. A 12-year-old niece is on duty in the attic of the house during the raids of fascist buzzards. <...> Our mothers understand, children with a sensitive heart feel that fascism is death. You and I must win. Victory is life".

Despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, on September 8, troops of Army Group North captured Shlisselburg, cutting off Leningrad from the mainland. By September 14, the front line was just 4 km from the Kirov Plant and 16 km from the Winter Palace. Communication with Leningrad was supported only by air and Lake Ladoga.

The fascist invaders stooped to anything. "Our newspaper published some documents that belonged to the murdered German officers and soldiers. Nothing in the world can be compared with this in the bloody-mindedness and banditry. One of the documents, the so-called Memo of the German Victory, is a direct and open order of the German command to eliminate the Soviet people at whole. "Kill every Russian, Soviet," says the Memo, "don’t stop, if you see an old man or woman, a girl or a boy, kill them all". Moreover, each soldier had a certain norm: "Remember, for the greatness and victory of Germany, for your personal glory - you must kill exactly 100 Russians", reported the newspaper Na Strazhe Rodiny (Defending the Motherland) on October 29, 1941.

During the Battle for Leningrad, around 150,000 shells fired in the city and 102,520 incendiary and 4,653 high-explosive bombs were dropped. However, the most dangerous was hunger.

The Presidential Library's portal, along with other unique documents, releases the memoirs of Nina Petrovna Polotskaya, a resident of the besieged Leningrad: "The unbearable hunger made them cook and ate everything: flour paste, sawdust, leather belts. Even school leather shoes were eaten. The happiness was when it was possible to get something like real human food in addition to precious bread, the most beloved, most desired food during the Siege..." The Siege of Leningrad lasted the terrible 872 days. On this day section states that according to various sources, from 400 thousand to 1 million people died during the Siege. 97 percent of them died of starvation...

The events of the Operation Iskra carried out in January 1943 near Leningrad are highlighted by the materials of The Defence and Siege of Leningrad collection. The historical moments of the breakthrough of the Siege are available in the newsreels: Soviet military leaders bowed over the maps while developing the operation; machine gunners in white camouflage uniforms; meeting of soldiers of the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts...

On the morning of January 18, on the outskirts of Workers Settlement No. 1 near Shlisselburg, units of the 123rd Infantry Brigade of the Leningrad Front merged with units of the 372nd Division of the Volkhov Front. On the same day, Shlisselburg and the southern coast of Lake Ladoga were liberated. Around midnight, the radio informed about the break of the Siege. Taida Dada Mikhailovich describes this happy moment in her diary. The relatives of the besieged Leningrad resident handed over a unique document to the Presidential Library's collection. "Today at 23.30 the radio brought good news. The troops of the two fronts joined, breaking through the blockade of Leningrad!... Our troops defeated several fascist divisions, captured about 1,200 soldiers and officers, obtained military trophies."

An enemy ring was completely withdrawn only a year later - on January 27, 1944. But the situation on the entire Leningrad Front improved significantly with breaking the Siege.

On January 14, 1944, the Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive Operation began. The handwritten Diary of Zinaida Antonovna Ryzhkova evidences about the mood of Leningrad residents during these days: "01/22/1944. There was a cannonade in the morning. At first, we thought it was anti-aircraft guns because the fire was visible at the south. And then we realized that it was our troops moving to break through the Siege of Leningrad... My heart sank with the feeling of something special, big and exciting, happening at that moment. We were with our defenders with all our hearts".

On January 26, Leningradskaya Pravda reported: "Two days ago, another victory added to the list of Red Army achievements: our troops captured large railway junctions and forceful German defence points - the cities of Pushkin and Pavlovsk. The fighting is on the outskirts of Gatchina..." The same issue contains photographs of David Trachtenberg entitled - The last battles for the City of Lenin. Only one day left until the Siege was completely lifted...

Irina Yuryevna Neustrueva describes January 27, 1944, in her memoirs about childhood in the besieged Leningrad. "This day stuck to our memory as a time of common celebration. I remember that strangers embraced and cried with joy on the street. On the evening, the first salute thundered - 24 artillery salvos... It was something unusual. After almost three years of darkness, cold and hunger, for the first time, people, without fear of shelling, literally crowded the street, admired the bright salute rockets against the black winter sky, laughed loudly and cried".

The Battle for Leningrad had great military-strategic and political significance. It continued for another six months - until August 9, 1944. The defenders of the city and its residents survived and took a victory over the enemy - both military and moral. The longest battle in the history of the Second World War became a symbol of the courage of the entire Soviet people.