Documents of Presidential Library tell about strength and courage of women residents of besieged Leningrad

"The stronger gender is not men, but women," Dmitry Tarasevich wrote in his memoirs, published in the book The Siege of Memory Pages. According to him, this realization came during the hardest time of the siege - in the winter of 1941-42. He wrote: "I was the first to give up, but they saved me. They shared their last piece of bread with me and always encouraged me."

"The Soviet women suffered greatly during the war years. From the memorable days of June 1941, they carried a heavy burden on their shoulders. It was not easy to see husband, son or father leave to the frontline. It was also not easy to be the head of a family, alone without a husband, raising children and taking on the responsibilities of a man at work, whether in a factory or on a collective farm. However, the Soviet woman knew that it was her duty to do so in the name of her country. And she did not hesitate to step up and take on these challenges." – these words were written on pages of the Soviet newspaper Izvestiya on March 8th, 1945.

The role of women during the approach to the long-awaited Victory Day is presented in the collections of the Presidential Library, such as Memory of the Great Victory and Defence and Siege of Leningrad.

From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, many young women and girls went to the front to fight. Even more stayed behind to work in factories and hospitals to support the Red Army's efforts and help bring victory over the enemy.

Women took on a wide range of jobs during the war, from working long hours in factories and hospitals to doing hard labor on farms and defense plants. They played a crucial role in supporting the war effort from the start.

According to the book The Battle for Leningrad: Pilots, published in 1944, women in Leningrad built anti-tank obstacles, using spades and other tools to lay down gatehouses in swampy areas and dig full-profile trenches. The city was preparing for a prolonged struggle against the enemy, and women were at the forefront of this effort.

On the same days, it became mandatory to create local air defense groups in all homes in Leningrad. Most of these groups were led by women. The article Rebuff published on September 10, 1941 in the newspaper Leningradskaya Pravda describes how difficult and dangerous their work was.

The article The Conveyor Works at High Speeds published in Leningradskaya Pravda on November 5, 1941 says that since the beginning of the war, the factory became primarily a women's enterprise. By processing high-strength steel, women were able to exceed all production standards. The success of women in mastering difficult male professions was truly amazing.

Lidiya Khvalovskaya, who lived through the siege as a teenager, remembers in her Diary how she began working as a turner in November 1941 at the age of 15. She worked in two shifts, from 08:00 am to 14:00 and from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., with an hour break for lunch. She stood on her 4:00feet for 11 hours at the Kerger machine.

And at home, many faced an even greater challenge - the eyes of children dying of hunger. In the book The Memory of the Page of the Siege, in the memoirs of Tatiana Frei, a girl who survived all 900 days of the Siege of Leningrad, there are these words:

"I still wonder how a person can survive in difficult conditions! Mom was always seen as a calm, quiet woman with a gentle nature, but under the conditions of the Leningrad Siege, she showed an iron will. She would buy bread for two days, divide it in half, and then divide each half into nine equal portions. We would receive bread crumbs three times a day, but she never showed us that she was afraid. She did not cry, even in the most difficult moments. Day after day, she methodically fought for our survival."

Women not only fought to protect the lives of their children, sacrificing their last resources, but also tried their best to preserve the feeling of normal childhood for them. Dmitry Tarasevich recalled a meeting in 1942:

"Two days before New Year's Eve, mother gathered some warm clothes and traded them for a bucket of potato peels. I made potato pancakes and sweet treats from the peels (my mother had been saving them for a while). Among the decorations for the Christmas tree, which we made from fir branches, were some leftover sweets from last year's tree."

There were no other children in besieged Leningrad. Instead, they found care and affection from various women: schoolteachers, kindergarten teachers, nurses, and orderlies. Galina Zavinskaya, in her memoirs, describes how the kindergarten she attended survived the siege. The author always remembers how the teachers tried their best to preserve childhood for the children. They even created jelly from wallpaper: "I did not participate in the preparation of the wallpaper, but I heard adults joking about whether the jelly was striped or flowery that day."

On October 13, 1942, the newspaper Uchitelskaya Gazeta published a speech by Valentina Fedorovna Lyubova, a teacher at the 105th school in Leningrad, at an anti-fascist rally. In her speech, she talked about how during the war, many children lost their parents. However, she said that not a single child felt like an orphan thanks to the efforts of teachers. They visited houses, sent orphans to children's homes, and took sick babies to hospitals.

She remembered two boys, brothers from the 1st and 2nd grade, who came to school one morning and said that their house had been bombed and their mother died under the rubble, and their father died at the front. They asked her not to send them home, as they wanted to stay in school.

It's hard to imagine now, but during the siege of the city, maternity hospitals continued to operate in besieged Leningrad and new lives were born there. These newborns had to be protected from the cold, hunger, darkness, and guns. The issue of the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper on December 31st, 1942, during the hardest times of the siege, featured a photograph by the famous "siege photographer" David Trakhtenberg. The caption accompanying the image reads: "Here are the youngest children of Leningrad. Their year of birth was 1942. They were born and grew up during the siege, protected and defended. May they grow up strong and healthy, so that their future generations will envy them for being born in Leningrad during these difficult times."

In the memory of generations, the poetess Olga Bergholz remains the muse of the besieged city and a symbol of the strength and courage of the Russian spirit. Her courageous work at the radio mic, where she became a "sister in anger and sorrow" to thousands of Leningrad citizens surrounded by enemy troops, is an example of heroism that cannot be forgotten. Her poignant poems, which were spoken from the heart of the city under siege, can now be rediscovered through the portal of the Presidential Library.

Another poet of the besieged city, Vera Inber, arrived in Leningrad with her husband on the eve of the beginning of the siege, at the end of August 1941. She performed on radio, in factories, and went to the front. From October 1941 to November 1943, she created her poem of grief and fortitude - Pulkovo Meridian.

Olga Bergholts referred to Anna Akhmatova as one of her mentors who "deserved to be bowed down to." In a speech recorded on the Presidential Library's portal, Olga Fedorovna stated that it was Anna Akhmatova who had taught her "infinite courage" and that their friendship, despite the challenges of life, had never been interrupted "for a single day or year."

Anna Akhmatova experienced the war in Leningrad, where she survived the onset of the siege along with other citizens, enduring fear of bombings and shelling. Only a few people were aware that Anna Andreevna, dressed in a gas mask, was serving as an air defense fighter, sewing sandbags to line the shelter trenches during her duty.