The Presidential Library on the occasion of the 81st anniversary of the beginning of the siege of Leningrad

81 years have passed since the beginning of the siege, one of the most tragic stages of the Great Patriotic War. It is still impossible to talk about these events with indifference especially when you are dealing with real witnesses of history - documents, leaflets and handwritten diaries of those years.

The basic principle of the plan of the Nazi attack on the USSR was surprise, the German leadership diligently misinformed Moscow. Although, according to the documents recently declassified and presented electronically on the Presidential Library’s portal, it was quite difficult to convince Stalin that the Fuhrer was not interested in the Soviet state. In addition, Hitler himself was probably somewhat misinformed about the combat readiness of the Land of the Soviets. By the time of the attack on the USSR, Hitler, one might say, was already accustomed to the fact that his principle of blitzkrieg was working. Veni, vidi, vici. And at first, until August 1941, the Germans believed that the Barbarossa plan would bring them success in the case of the Soviet Union as well. The German government even rejected the proposal of Propaganda Minister Goebbels to prepare warm clothes for the soldiers, as they were sure that there would be no more war in winter.

Having taken Leningrad, the Nazi troops would have been able to eliminate the main bases of the Baltic Fleet, disable the city's military industry, and also prevent the counteroffensive against German troops moving towards Moscow.

Hitler was so sure of the imminent capture of Leningrad that he even chose a place for a solemn speech - the balcony of the Astoria Hotel, located in the heart of the city on St. Isaac's Square. Moreover, on his orders, invitation cards for this performance were printed in advance, and military pilots received orders not to bomb the hotel in any case.

But Leningrad, despite the fact that it was systematically destroyed by regular shelling and starvation for two and a half years, survived and was never captured, and the date on Hitler's invitation cards was never put down.

Residents of Leningrad did not think to give up. In a short time, an army of people's militia was formed: rifle divisions, machine-gun and artillery battalions and partisan regiments, several marching battalions. In the city itself, self-defense groups of residential buildings were created without fail in all houses, the majority of which were women and children. They had to quickly eliminate the fires, drop incendiary bombs from the roof, and provide assistance to the victims.

In August 1942, the world masterpiece, which became a symbol of the fight against fascism, Dmitri Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, was performed in the city. And so that the rehearsals of the orchestra were possible, a hospital was opened for exhausted musicians in the same Astoria.

The performances of the artists of the Musical Comedy Theater did not stop. During the performance, according to eyewitnesses, sometimes they had to hide in a bomb shelter, and after the shelling, the audience and artists returned to their places, and the performance continued. In defiance of the Nazis, the legendary blockade football match, which seemed impossible both then and now, was even held.

The poetess Olga Bergholz regularly performed on the radio, becoming a friend, a consolation, a confirmation for the exhausted and exhausted Leningraders that one must hold on.

The memoirs of the inhabitants of the city, who survived the horror of the siege, are, perhaps, one of the most important parts of the major electronic collection Defene and Siege of Leningrad. These artifacts - memoirs, handwritten diaries, letters from relatives and friends - were brought to the Presidential Library by readers. Unique materials were digitized and posted on the institution's portal.

“Mom stayed with us alone. I remember the evening at the end of August 1941, - says Irina Yuryevna Neustruyeva in her memoirs, - we stood in line for bread at the bakery ... An air raid began, but the line did not disperse. A woman approached and excitedly announced that the Germans had taken the city of Mga. Everyone excitedly discussed this event, realizing that now the railway connection between Leningrad and the country was interrupted, which means that leaving the city and delivering food would be impossible...” A few days later, again standing in line for groceries, everyone saw a glow. It was the Badaev warehouses that were burning. “Many women cried”, - recalls Irina Yurievna, “realizing that the city was doomed to famine…”

According to various estimates, from 600 thousand to 1.5 million people died in the besieged Leningrad. 97% died of starvation: every day about 4 thousand people died of exhaustion. Cake, wallpaper glue, leather belts were used as food.

To help residents, the Main Directorate of Leningrad canteens, together with scientists and doctors, organized research to “search for additional food resources” and published a brochure Using wild edible plants for food. It turns out that pancakes, meatballs, mashed potatoes and minced meat can be made from plantain. Dandelion leaves collected in spring, clover, shepherd's purse make a good salad, and porridge from dandelion roots.

By the spring of 1942, leaflets were issued: “Every worker of Leningrad should consider it his civic duty to grow vegetables for himself and his family in his personal garden, free the state from the need to supply him with vegetables. <…> Collect stove ash for your gardens. It will increase your vegetable harvest”. The call was heard, cabbage, potatoes, carrots were grown on St. Isaac's Square, in the Summer Garden.

“I was a kid, and did not accomplish any feats”, - Evgeny Vladislavovich Aganin said in his memoirs. His children's drawing This is War was accidentally discovered in family papers and transferred to the Presidential Library for digitization. – Father, uncle and aunt were awarded medals. All the hardships of the enemy siege, hunger and cold, bombing - withstood more than two and a half million residents of the city who remained here. We waited and hoped, died and lived on. Glory to those who lay in the trenches on the front line and did not surrender the city to the enemy. History does not know such feats of the people. Thanks to the heroes". Better not to say.