The blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days. During this time, more than one million people died of starvation. After the end of World War II, the Nuremberg trials of Nazi and fascist criminals took place.

Representatives of the USSR charged the commander of the group german army"North", because of the actions of which so many civilians of the besieged city died. On this charge, General von Leeb was acquitted. At that time, there was not yet a clause in which it would be forbidden to use starvation as a military strategy in relation to the civilian population.

Survivors in the besieged city owe a lot to the appearance of the highway (“Road of Life”) through It was she who allowed the blockade ring to be broken, because due to its geographical location Leningrad is not able to survive without food supplies.

The meaning of the paved path

The road operated from autumn 1941 to spring 1943. Her appointment was to connect the besieged Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with the country. Officially, it was called military highway No. 101.

From September 1941, Soviet troops, along with the civilian population, were surrounded by German and Finnish troops. The city was not ready for the blockade and did not have the necessary supplies of food and fuel. Everything needed could be delivered by air or across the lake.

The "Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga made it possible to evacuate part of the population and partially provide the survivors with food.

Trucking on ice

In October 1941, research began for the construction of a route across Lake Ladoga, in winter it was covered with ice. After preliminary calculations, construction began in November. It was assumed that the width of the track would be 10 meters, so that cars could move simultaneously in both directions. Every 5-7 kilometers special points for heating were built.

The direction of the road was chosen based on the presence of a strong ice cover. He had to withstand large loads. The main one was the GAZ-AA, popularly called the "one and a half". In order to prevent mass failures under the ice, there should have been a distance of at least 100 meters between the cars. At the same time, a railway line was laid across the lake.

The created "Road of Life" (Leningrad) passed not far from the front line, it required protection, which was provided by military units. The ice section of the road had two defensive lanes, created with the help of wooden log cabins, sandbags, which were frozen with ice. Small-caliber artillery guns were installed every one or two kilometers, and every three kilometers. From the air, the highway was protected by six fighter regiments.

During the first winter of the blockade, more than 500,000 residents were evacuated along the Road of Life and about 250,000 tons of food were delivered. It was mainly flour, grain, cereals, meat products, fats, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, vitamin C. The work of the ice road continued in the winter of 1942-1943.

Cargo transportation by water

With the melting of ice, the road through did not cease to exist. From the spring of 1942, transportation on ice was replaced by navigation on water. However, due to the fact that ice still remained in some areas, the gap between deliveries across the lake was a whole month. In April, it was no longer possible to carry cargo over the ice, and barges were able to go through the water only from the end of May.

The country's leadership needed to carry out work to restore damaged ships. No more than 15 barges were in working order. We decided to build barges on the spot. The pulp and paper mill in Syasstroy became the site for the work. At the same time, in Leningrad itself, the construction of metal ships began, which were transported for final assembly by rail.

Anti-aircraft artillery divisions and fighter aviation regiments were engaged in the protection of the route. They had to fight with the forces of the German-Finno-Italian flotilla.

In 1942, about 400 thousand inhabitants were evacuated by water, food was delivered for 350 thousand tons. At the same time, 290 thousand military personnel were delivered to the city. In addition to food and oil products, horses were also delivered to the city.

From April 1943, cargo transportation across the lake continued. Although their number has decreased, since a significant part of the cargo has already been transported by rail, launched since 1942.

Was the "Road of Life" (Leningrad) alone?

The official route is the path from Kokorev to Kobona along the lake. This thread connected the multi-million city with the country. Such information is available in textbooks and for tourists. However, there are data according to which the "Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga passed along a different path. Many facts testify to the existence of other lines for transportation.

Calculation inconsistency

Confirmation of the existence of several roads are simple calculations. So during the first winter of the blockade, the road worked for 150 days. About 350,000 tons of cargo was officially transported. It turns out that 2400 tons were delivered to Leningrad per day.

Carried cargo "one and a half", in the back of which it was possible to load one and a half tons. Another half ton could be attached to a sled. That is, for a flight, one car loaded to capacity could transfer two tons. Every day, 1,200 fully loaded lorries crossed the road. At the same time, they had to move in both directions.

Ice could not withstand such an onslaught. Moreover, in addition to trucks, buses also plied along the highway, which took out about half a million civilians during these 150 days. Tanks were also transported along Ladoga, from which they filmed weapon towers to lighten the weight. It is unlikely that one blockade "Road of Life" would have withstood such loads, especially since ice acted as a road.

The Mystery of the Sunken Trucks

During the transportation under the ice took about a thousand cars. Many of them are still under water today. When the water in the lake is especially clear, the pilots visually fix the outlines of the trucks. They are not always on the route of the official route. Some of them are located hundreds of kilometers from the well-known "Road of Life".

There are documents from which it becomes clear that some drivers deviated from the route in order to cash in on transportation and dump some of the cargo. However, there were not many such cases, and there were many hundreds of trucks that sank far from the highway. So the question of whether Leningrad was provided by Lake Ladoga only at the expense of one road is rather controversial.

Reasons for the existence of multiple tracks

The official road (“Road of Life” across Lake Ladoga) No. 101 Kokorevo-Kobona, of course, existed and operated. However, calculations and the location of many sunken trucks suggest that she could not be the only one.

All maps and documents on this case were classified for a long time and are stored in special archives. Perhaps such secrecy is due to the desire not to reveal all the ways in the event of another war.

Reasons why there could be multiple tracks:

• Danger from German aircraft. The overwhelming superiority of German aviation in the winter of 1941 was undeniable. Having marked the road across the lake, the Nazis regularly bombed it. To minimize losses from air raids, it was necessary to change the route. The first lines were laid closer to the shores of the lake, but as the ice strengthened, the route was drawn closer to its center.

• The ice could not withstand the constant load. Eyewitnesses of those years testify that only 60-70 cars could pass along the road. Further, the ice began to crack, and it took time to restore it. This means that the movement should have been new way. Otherwise, Leningrad would not be able to receive such an amount of cargo.

Creation of a railway line

Only the railroad could cope with large cargo transportation. By 1942, a line was laid on the eastern shore of the lake. This made it possible to increase cargo transportation. Thanks to all of the above methods, the blockade of Leningrad was partially lifted.

The memory of the broken blockade ring

Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in maintaining the health of the ice cover. They lived on the ice, filling in the cracks that appeared, building wooden decks. The feat of these people, as well as the drivers themselves, is difficult to truly appreciate. At the cost of the lives of many of them, the blockade was lifted. Lake Ladoga became the exit that made it possible to break the ring of death for many civilians.

Along the land section from Leningrad to Ladoga there are monuments dedicated to the "Road of Life". All of them are part of the "Green Belt of Glory" memorial, which stretches for many kilometers. The memorial consists of seven monuments, 46 commemorative pillars along the highway, 56 pillars along the railway.

The most memorable are the monuments at 40 and 103 kilometers of the highway. The first is the Broken Ring memorial (architect V. G. Filippov), which symbolizes the breaking of the blockade ring formed by the German-Finnish troops over Leningrad since the autumn of 1941. At the 103rd kilometer stands the monument "Legendary Lorry" (architect Levenkov A.D.). He depicts a car that rides, breaking out of the ice.

Every schoolchild knows that the legendary Road of Life is a transport artery along Lake Ladoga, which connected from the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in the spring of 1943 besieged Leningrad with the rear of the country. The emaciated Leningraders were taken out along it and food was taken to the hungry city.

The road left from Leningrad. But where did you come? Where are those terminals on the way to the "rear of the country"?

Conduct an experiment: ask this question to friends and acquaintances. If you are not a resident of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, the result will be puzzling. Everyone knows only one end of the road.

However, pathos and moralizing are useless. We don't know, so we'll find out.

On the road!

We choose the path

Remember: it will take stamina and composure. Already a few kilometers before your destination, the navigator will try to take you astray. On a terrible country road, where everything will be as in folk omen: what better car, the further to run for the tractor. Ignore the navigator's cries. Do not turn off the asphalt.

And luck is the reward for perseverance. You are at the target.

A hundred meters to the shore of Ladoga - a wooden arch. A kind of checkpoint, symbolizing the entrance to the ice track. The sign says: "Lenfront. Ice highway, 30 km long." Red flags. Other banners remind us that the more flights, the faster the victory over the enemy and that our cause is just. No step back!

Actually, it's a bit odd.

“This is not a modern improvisation,” explains Sergey Markov, head of the Kobon Museum: “Road of Life,” Sergey Markov. “There is this arch on front-line photos: Stalin, red flags, slogans. In general, we now have everything as it was then.”

And the fact that the personality of Stalin evokes different feelings in different people - from a surge of pride in the Motherland to resentment and hatred - is logical and inevitable. Attitude to specific historical characters is your inalienable right. But the Generalissimo cannot be deleted from that war. Otherwise, you get a Hollywood approach to history.

Kobona is a small village on the shores of Lake Ladoga, the first mention of which dates back to 1500. A year after the death of Peter I, the Staraya Ladoga Canal passed through Kobona...

After the Nazis cut off the land routes to Leningrad in 1941, the road through Ladoga became the main road. She went to several places: far from Leningrad, Novaya Ladoga (115 km) and closer to Kobon and Lavrovo.

The peak of traffic fell on Kobona, which is why it is considered the "capital of the Road of Life".

A representative of the House of Romanov, Georgy Mikhailovich Romanov, once came here. At that time, many in Kobon were worried: how would a bearer of royal blood perceive the portrait of Stalin above his head?

I took it normally. Without any pomp, they held a memorial service at the graves of the fallen and those who died of starvation. A monument to the "lorry" was opened (raised in the spring of 2014 from the bottom of Ladoga by divers led by Sergei Sklyanin).

Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich prayed in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, which during the war served as an evacuation hospital for the Road of Life.

visited mass grave. Bishop Mstislav of Tikhvin and Lodeynopolsk told his highness about this place: it was watered with the blood of more than 600 thousand people - so many people died on the Road of Life. Romanov tasted the soldier's porridge from the camp kitchen and overturned the "front" one hundred grams with the veterans.

History - she is a mysterious girl, she simply loves amazing zigzags.

At the bottom

I will not list the facts and figures that characterize the work of the Road of Life. A few hits on the computer keyboard, and they are all in front of your eyes.

Numbers are necessary and important. But this is the case when it is better to see once. On this earth you have to stand with your feet.

And there are difficulties with this.

The nearest city from Kobona is Kirovsk, 60 km from it. There are only two buses, one of which leaves at five in the morning. Somewhat closer - 30 versts - from the Voibakolo railway station. But also not near light. That's why The best way: if you are not driving yourself, then we choose a tourist bus.

The first astonishment: the "capital of the Road of Life" has lost almost all the infrastructure that helped Leningrad survive. There is no longer a huge (by the standards of Ladoga) port, railway, underground towns are empty, there are no hospitals and repair factories. Remained ... memory. In the local museum, for the sake of completeness, you listen to a lecture sitting in an impromptu ZIS-5 body. On these, under the icy wind, the blockades were chosen.

And watch the documentary newsreels of those years in the museum, sitting on suitcases and bundles - everything is the same as it was 75 years ago.

And there are plans to create a grandiose exhibition complex: a diesel locomotive with tanks comes out of the lake, in covered boxes - tanks and trucks raised from the bottom of Ladoga. And also - our fighters that covered the Road of Life, and the fascist bombers that bombed it.

From concept to practical implementation is not so far. Many of the future exhibits are already on the shore: they are being restored right now by enthusiasts of the military-historical center with the unusual name "Jolly Roger". Some are still underwater.

There are disputes between divers and land fans of military history tourism. Some believe that it is necessary to watch all this with scuba gear.

“I am a diver myself, diving in cold waters,” says Sergey Markov. “But how many people can see the sunken equipment from the Road of Life? A maximum of 200 per year. And there are thousands of tourists who come by land.”

A compromise is possible.

“A lot of lorries lie at the bottom in the Zelentsov area (a group of islands in the coastal waters of the south of Lake Ladoga. - Ed.), - continues Sergey, an officer of the Northern Fleet in a past life. - Some lie on their sides, some We, divers, at first thought that this place was some kind of dead place. Why did so many equipment go under the ice exactly there? But one local he told us that after the war a fishing collective farm used to fish here by trawling. So the collective farmers, in order to clear the place of fishing, pulled the "one and a half" trawls into one place with trawls. But "ZISs" cannot be moved so easily, they are heavy. They stay like that all over the track."

Another idea: to send barges with tourists around Ladoga. And in places of accumulation of trucks at the bottom, show them with the help of television cameras. The lake is not very deep, outside the fairway 5-6 meters, on the fairway up to 12. good weather you can see a lot.

Studebakers in short supply

Technique at the Ladoga bottom is an instructive page of history.

According to official data, the USSR received 448,000 vehicles under Lend-Lease. Moreover, the Soviet industry during the war years produced only 265 thousand cars. Historians often emphasize that we received full-fledged army vehicles from the allies, while we ourselves assembled national economic vehicles poorly adapted to front-line conditions.

In terms of the ratio of their own and Lend-Lease cars, everything is correct. Regarding "civilian" and "military" there is a remark.

Strictly speaking, under the Lend-Lease program, out of the mentioned 448 thousand full-fledged SUVs, there were only 50 thousand - Willys, Ford and Bantam. But thanks for everything: yes for any help. After all, until we organized the production of the GAZ-64, we did not have our own large-scale off-road vehicles.

But here are two historical facts.

First: most of the Willys and Fords coming from America during the war were destroyed not by the enemy, but by our gasoline. What we poured into the tanks, the Americans did not consider gasoline. I'm afraid that in the besieged Leningrad with high-quality gasoline, too, it was not all right.

And the second: at the bottom of Lake Ladoga, the GAZ-AA rests most of all, the ZIS-5 is somewhat smaller. Used Yaroslavl trucks "YAG", buses.

The basis of the museum in Kobon are the documents and drawings of Simon Gelberg, who was the deputy head of the ice track. So, in his drawings, only one car resembles the shape of a Studebaker body.

The conclusion is simple: the monstrous volume of transportation for the evacuation of the inhabitants of Leningrad and the weapons produced there, as well as the importation of food into the city, fell on Soviet equipment. Everything is native there: trucks, your own sweat and blood. Their lives.

From nowhere

There is a stereotype: in the bloody battle of selflessness and the will to win, the Russians have no equal. But organization, and especially what we call logistics today, are not our talents.

But if this is so, then how could a large railway junction be built on the shore of the lake, where there was no developed infrastructure, in two months? In February 1942, in 25 days, three women's battalions (female!) At minus 30, they laid a full-fledged railway. Of course, this is a labor feat. But even without engineers there, too - well, no way.

And by the summer in the same Cobon "suddenly" a port appeared with a mooring line of 5.5 km.

Aerial photographs of the Luftwaffe have been preserved: I think the German staff officers' eyes widened when they deciphered the shooting: 13 piers, dozens of cranes, up to 20 barges being unloaded at the same time, where until recently only the expanse of a huge lake sparkled and there were almost no engineering structures on the shore.

Up to 19 thousand people worked on the Road of Life at the peak moments of life. But they all slept somewhere, warmed themselves, ate ...

I will say more: in the first blockade winter, leaflets were dropped from Junkers on Leningrad, where residents were offered to stop providing "useless resistance": since, according to Wehrmacht staff analysts, it is impossible to organize the supply of a multi-million city on the ice.

Yes, at a high price, but they organized it, they could. Happened.

stay alive

Now about what is not written in encyclopedias. Residents of Kobona, Lavrovo and the surrounding villages, under pain of the most terrible punishments, were forbidden to feed the blockade survivors who arrived from Leningrad.

It sounds extremely harsh, but it could not be otherwise. People died en masse, overflowing local cemeteries.

The evacuees were sent as follows: from the Finland Station (there is a hot lunch: 75 grams of meat, 40 grams of fat, 70 grams of cereal, 20 grams of flour and 150 grams of bread) by train to Borisova Griva station. Sometimes by truck, less often on foot. There were no pedestrian crossings across Ladoga, only in sledges, in trucks (they tried not in an open body, but anything happened) and on buses. In navigation - on boats and barges.

Bread was given out on the road, if the journey took more than a day and a half, they were once again fed with a hot dinner. According to my recollections, it was a chowder.

The most terrible test: in Lavrovo and Kobon they were given rations for three days. Usually they were placed on bunk beds in the church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kobon. Often they died right on the steps of the temple: the stomach could not digest that same three-day ration ... And everyone understood that after a famine, you can’t eat much.

But understanding is one thing. But hunger is something completely different. Terrible feeling. Especially after 125 blockade grams of bread.

Alimentary dystrophy claimed more lives than shells, air bombs and polynyas on ice.

Vice Admiral Yuri Kvyatkovsky was 11 years old when, at the end of April 1942, his last flights crossed Lake Ladoga along the Road of Life. According to his recollections, they arrived late at night. Mom left. And he, exhausted, sat down at some wall of stacks. Then he went into the hut, where he was warmed. And when it dawned, he went out into the street and realized what kind of wall it was. "Stacks" turned out to be corpses. A whole wall of corpses.

Grandmothers in Lavrovo remember how trucks came, threw back the sides, but there were no survivors in the back. No one. Everyone froze to death.

In the title Road of Life, the word "road" should not be taken quite literally. It was a huge transport complex, well thought out and organized. Up to 60 tracks, some of which were used even under a half-meter layer of water. Developed a special device - progibograf. Scientists have found that it is not the weight of the car, but its speed that creates a flexural-gravity wave, due to which the cars go under the ice.

Scientists from the Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute quickly studied how ice deforms and how it wears out.

The Ladoga bunker is generally a new word in field fortification. You can’t just install an anti-aircraft gun on the ice, after a few shots it will be at the bottom. Strong return. The bunkers of Ladoga were built as ice palaces: frozen, reinforced and again frozen.

Front-line newsreel: "one and a half", like boats, cut through the layer of water. But the ice held.

There were also traffic jams, but the problem was quickly solved.

That is, they took not only the will to win and labor exploits - they took the mind. Electricity and fuel were supplied to Leningrad year-round: a telephone and telegraph cable was laid along the bottom of Ladoga, which provided communication with Moscow. There was also a high-voltage electric cable that carried electricity from the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station; and the pipeline that supplied Leningrad with fuel.

These were such secret projects that many of their details became known only in the 2000s.

So there is a place for new memorials on the banks of Ladoga. All this should be shown to children. Ancestors knew how not only to fight to the death. Although this is again true.

By the way

Is it possible today to drive the route of the Road of Life on ice in a "lorry"? Where did the tank turrets, frozen into the ice in 1941-1942, go?

What were the Italian naval torpedomen doing on Lake Ladoga? Why did battles flare up for an artificially poured island and what kind of feature film will be shot in 2019 about the "Ladoga Titanic"?

More on this in the next issue of RG Week.

The road of life. The road of life. The "Road of Life", the only military-strategic transport route that connected besieged Leningrad with the country in September 1941 March 1943, passed through Lake Ladoga. During navigation periods ... ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

The road of life- In 1941 1942. this was the name of the road on the ice of Lake Ladoga, which connected Leningrad, blocked by German troops, with the "Great Land", that is, the rear. Food and ammunition were delivered to the city along this road, along it they were taken out of the city ... ... Dictionary of winged words and expressions

The road of life- the only military-strategic transport highway that connected besieged Leningrad with the country in September 1941 March 1943 passed through Lake Ladoga. During the navigation periods, transportation along the “D. and." were produced along the waterway ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

THE ROAD OF LIFE- during the Great Patriotic War, the only transport route through Lake Ladoga. (during periods of navigation on water, in winter on ice), connecting from September 1941 to March 1943 the blockaded Leningrad with the country ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The road of life- ROAD, and, well. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

THE ROAD OF LIFE- during the Great Patriotic War, the only transport route across Lake Ladoga (during periods of navigation on water, in winter on ice), connecting Leningrad with the country in September 1941 March 1943. Source: Encyclopedia Fatherland ... Russian history

THE ROAD OF LIFE- ROAD OF LIFE, during the Great Patriotic War, the only transport highway across Lake Ladoga (during periods of navigation on water, in winter on ice), connecting from September 1941 to March 1943 the blockaded Leningrad with the country ... encyclopedic Dictionary

The road of life- A commemorative kilometer sign at the railway station Kushelevka Piskarevka, at the Theological cemetery "Road of Life" during the Great Patriotic War, the only transport route through Lake Ladoga. During periods of water navigation, ... ... Wikipedia

The road of life- (“Road of Life”), the only military strategic transport highway across Lake Ladoga, connecting from September 1941 to March 1943 Leningrad, blocked by the Nazi troops, with the rear areas of the country during the Great ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

The road of life- Book. High The route on the ice of Lake Ladoga, along which during the Great Patriotic War the besieged Leningrad was provided with food and weapons. The victories near Leningrad helped create the Road of Life on the ice of Ladoga, which saved many ... ... Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language

Books

• Road of Life, Lindes Emma Category: Miscellaneous Publisher: Nestor-History, Manufacturer: Nestor-History, Buy for 770 UAH (Ukraine only)
• Road of Life, Lindes Emma, ​​1970 A former graduate of Cambridge, the handsome Konrad Helldorf returns to his native Berlin to find out the truth about his father, who died before he was born in the fall of 1944. new life Conrad... Category: Modern foreign prose Publisher:

Was connected with the country. Transportation along the road of life was carried out from September 12, 1941 to March 1943. During the navigation period, delivery was carried out by tugboats with barges and ships, and in winter the cars went along the ice road.

During this period, over 1,600 thousand tons of cargo, mainly food, fodder and fuel and lubricants, were brought to Leningrad along the legendary Road of Life, which was officially listed as military highway No. 101. During the 500 days of the blockade (before it was broken), more than a million people were evacuated along the highway.

For reference: The blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, when it was completely lifted. The blockade ring was broken on January 18, 1943.

If today you fly by helicopter over Ladoga, then under water you can see hundreds of dark rectangles, these are the skeletons of trucks that went under the ice in the first and second blockade winters. Along with the cars that carried flour and shells, drivers and work routes often died.

Olga Berggolts wrote about the Road of Life:

Dear life, bread came to us,
dear friendship of many to many.
Not yet known on earth
scarier and happier road.

Road of life - how to get there

Most of the monuments are located along the modern highway A-128, which is called the "Road of Life". It is most convenient to reach all the monuments by car, stopping at each of them (see the map below).

You can also take the train to the station "Ladozhskoe Ozero" (departure from Finland Station). In the village you can see the Museum "Road of Life", the Osinovetsky lighthouse and the steam locomotive Esh-4375 (located right at the station). In addition, the village has a wonderful sand beach, so in summer the excursion can be combined with swimming and sunbathing. Please note that the water in Lake Ladoga is clean, but always cold.

Road of life - map

From the history

On September 8, 1941, the Germans captured Shlisselburg, cutting off all land routes and the waterway along the Neva. The blockade of Leningrad began and Ladoga became the only way connecting the city with the mainland.

On September 12, the delivery of goods to the besieged city began. Food was first brought to Volkhov, from it to Novaya Ladoga, and then transported on barges to the western shore to the Osinovets lighthouse.

In the autumn of 1941, the ice on Ladoga did not settle for a long time and the barges walked along the lake, bypassing the ice areas. The first sleigh convoy went on November 17, delivering 63 tons of flour to the city, and soon the movement of motor vehicles began. The ice was still very fragile, and in order to prevent the failure of the transport, part of the load was placed on sleds, which reduced the pressure on the ice and allowed more products to be transported.

The movement was organized in both directions along two routes located at a distance of 100 - 150 meters from each other. The Germans were constantly shelling and bombing the highway, but they failed to stop the movement. The truck drivers didn't close the doors so they could jump out if the truck started to sink. In the first winter alone, about a thousand trucks went under the ice, and how many people died here is unknown. In memory of the feat that ordinary people performed every day, a bronze copy of the legendary GAZ-AA lorry stands on the shores of Lake Ladoga.

Here is how the Leningrad poet Anatoly Molchanov wrote:

And somewhere on Ladoga, in the white expanse
Ice floes explode from bombs and frost,
And the motors howl, and the motors groan,
And they pull cars loaded with bread -
In a blizzard and shelling, without sleep and rest,
For the life and struggle of Leningrad in the answer.
And there was such traffic on the highway,
As in peacetime on Nevsky Prospekt.

Thanks to the delivery of food along the ice track, on December 25, 1941, people standing in lines at bakeries suddenly learned that the bread ration had been increased by 75 grams. Children and women cried with happiness - it would seem that such a small piece of bread, but it gave them a chance to escape from starvation!

The evacuation of the population took place along the Road of Life - first of all, women and children, the sick and the elderly were taken out.

During the first blockade winter, the ice track operated for 152 days until April 24, 1942. In April, during thaws, cars had to move on water.

• During the first blockade winter, more than 550 thousand Leningraders and more than 35 thousand wounded were evacuated from Leningrad, 361 thousand tons of various cargoes were delivered to the city, including 262.5 thousand tons of food and about 32 thousand tons of ammunition
• During the second navigation, more than 1 million tons of various cargoes were transported in both directions, and about 540 thousand people were evacuated from their cities.

On December 19, 1942, the ice track began to work again, and already on January 18, 1943, Soviet troops liberated Shlisselburg, breaking through the Leningrad blockade. For the delivery of goods south coast Lake Ladoga, a railway was laid to the Polyana station, later called the Road of Victory.

But the Ladoga highway continued to operate for almost another year, until the final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad on January 27, 1944.

Railway of life

There is a page in the history of the Road of Life, about which they do not write and try to remember less.

In the second year of the siege of Leningrad, an attempt was made to build an ice railway Road of Life, which was supposed to connect the Kobona station on the eastern side of Ladoga with the Lake Ladoga station on the western side. The builders were given two months for all the work.

At the same time, the construction of a wooden railway bridge 35 km long, the so-called “pile-ice railway crossing”, began on the two shores of Lake Ladoga. At the same time, two tracks were being built - a narrow gauge railway and a regular gauge track located 100-200 meters from it.

Builders, mostly women, punched polynyas and hammered piles. The flooring was laid, and the railway track was mounted on top. The work was carried out in the cold and under enemy fire. In January 1943, when half the track was built and work trains began to run along it, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts broke through the blockade of Leningrad.

The need for a track has disappeared and all the efforts of the builders turned out to be meaningless. Perhaps for this reason, they preferred to forget about this railway track.

Small Road of Life

The Small Road of Life started from the Bronka station located near Oranienbaum (Lomonosov) and went along the ice through Kronstadt to Lisiy Nos and Gorskaya. The inhabitants of Oranienbaum and the defenders of the city experienced the same difficulties as the inhabitants of Leningrad. They were also starving, they were also dying of hunger.

In 1941, the norm for issuing bread was reduced. But thanks to the action of the Little Road of Life in January 1942, there was a slight increase in the bread distribution rate, but despite this, in 1941-1942, 5,000 people died from starvation here.

Monuments on the Road of Life

In total, there are 7 monuments on the Road of Life, 46 memorial pillars along the highway and 56 pillars along the railway. All structures of the Road of Life are included in the Green Belt of Glory.

Flower of Life

The monument, located on the high bank of the small river Lubya, is made in the form of a white stone flower on a 10-meter stem, towering over granite boulders. The words "May there always be sunshine" are carved into the petals of the flower. From the memorial, a 40-meter staircase and a birch alley of Friendship will lead you to an artificial hill, where stone sheets of the diary of Tanya Savicheva, a Leningrad pioneer schoolgirl who lost all her loved ones, survived the blockade winter of 1941 - 1942. Tanya Savicheva died in evacuation in July 1944, while in one of the orphanages in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

broken ring

The monument is made in the form of two reinforced concrete arches 7 meters high, symbolizing the blockade ring, the gap between them is the Road of Life. Under the arches in the concrete, you can see traces of the tread of cars. Nearby are two reinforced concrete balls imitating searchlights, as well as an anti-aircraft gun of 45 mm caliber.

Osinovetsky lighthouse

Lake Ladoga has a harsh temper and in some of its places swimming is very dangerous. At the Osinovsky lighthouse, ships never molested - this was considered impossible, since not only German artillery was fired here, but the elements themselves raged. On the night of September 16-17, during a storm, barges crashed in this place and more than 1,000 people died.

Ships sank, people died, but to save Leningrad, barges loaded with grain moored at the Osinovsky lighthouse.

Katyusha

The memorial is made in the form of five 14-meter steel beams, set at an angle to the horizon and symbolizing the famous rocket launcher. On a low granite wall is the inscription:

1941-1943 Remember these terrible years
Here is the road of life
Courage of the brave saved Leningrad
Fallen heroes immortal glory.

The road of life - this name fully corresponded to the role that she played: without it, Leningrad would have simply perished.

November 18th 1941
The beginning of laying "Roads of Life". During the Great Patriotic War, the 88th separate bridge-building battalion began ice reconnaissance of Lake Ladoga in order to create an ice road to the besieged Leningrad. Works on the creation of the route, which led about 20 thousand people started in October. On November 19, an order was signed for the troops of the Leningrad Front "On the organization of an autotractor road across Lake Ladoga."
On November 22, the first convoy of GAZ-AA trucks entered the ice. The ice road, which became known as the Military Highway No. 101 (VAD-101), began operating on November 26, 1941. Due to the fatigue of the ice, the whole road had to be moved to a new track. And during the first month of work, the road was transferred to new routes four times, and some of its sections even more often. Trucks regularly delivered food

The ice road was a well-organized highway that provided drivers with a confident ride at high speed. The track was serviced by 350 traffic controllers, whose task was to disperse cars, indicate the direction of movement, monitor the safety of ice and other duties. The road has become the most complex engineering structure. Its builders made road signs, milestones, portable shields, bridges, built bases, warehouses, heating and medical stations, food and technical assistance points, workshops, telephone and telegraph stations, adapted various means of camouflage. This work required dedication and courage, as it had to be carried out under any conditions - severe frosts, freezing winds, snowstorms, shelling and enemy air raids. In addition, lighthouse lanterns with blue glasses were exhibited - at first for every 450-500 m, and then for 150-200 m
On November 24, 1941, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front adopted Decree No. 00419 “On the construction of the Military Highway No. 102 (VAD-102).” Thus, now the delivery of goods for Leningrad began to be carried out along two roads.
The road consisted of two ring roads, each of which had two separate directions of traffic - for freight traffic (to the city) and for empty or evacuation (out of the city). The first route for transporting goods to the city ran along the route Zhikharevo - Zhelannoye - Troitskoye - Lavrovo - st. Lake Ladoga, the length of the direction was 44 km; for empty and evacuation from the city - Art. Lake Ladoga or Borisov Griva - Vaganovsky descent - Lavrovo - Gorodishe - Zhikharevo with a length of 43 km. Total length voyage along the first ring road was 83 km.
The second route for the transportation of goods passed along the route Voybokalo - Kobona - Vaganovsky descent - st. Lake Ladoga or Borisov Griva (58 km) and for empty or evacuation - st. Lake Ladoga or Borisova Griva - Vaganovsky descent - Lavrovo - Babanovo - Voybokalo (53 km). The total length of the second ring route was 111 km. The former route Tikhvin - Novaya Ladoga ceased to function, but was maintained in working order.
Despite frosts and blizzards, the fire of enemy artillery and air strikes, the occupation of Tikhvin by the enemy on November 8, the movement of trucks did not stop for almost a single day. In November-December, 16,449 tons of cargo was delivered along the route.

The "Road of Life" is not only a track on the ice of the lake, it is a path that had to be overcome from the railway station on the western shore of the lake to the railway station on the eastern shore and back. The road worked until the last opportunity. In mid-April, the air temperature began to rise to 12 - 15 ° C and the ice cover of the lake began to quickly collapse. accumulated on the surface of the ice a large number of water. For a whole week - from April 15 to April 21 - the cars went through continuous water, in some places up to 45 cm deep. last flights the cars did not reach the shore and the loads were carried on their hands. Further movement on the ice became dangerous, and on April 21, the Ladoga ice track was officially closed, but in fact it functioned until April 24, as some drivers, despite the order to close the track, continued to drive along Ladoga. When the lake began to break up and the movement of cars along the highway stopped, the workers of the route transferred 65 tons of food products from the east to the west coast. In total, during the winter of 1941/42, 361,109 tons of various cargoes were delivered to Leningrad along the ice route, including 262,419 tons of food.

It was forty years ago. Having failed to capture Leningrad by storm without overcoming its defenses, the enemy hoped for an early death of the city from starvation as a result of a complete blockade. Obviously, the German command did not even think about the possibility of organizing any serious communication across Lake Ladoga. But the concept of the impossible became very relative when it came to saving Leningrad. 152 days, from November 22, 1941 to April 24, 1942, and 98 days, from December 23, 1942 to March 30, 1943, there was the Road of Life - an ice track laid along Lake Ladoga, through which the city received the most necessary things in order to live and fight. Chauffeur Ivan Vasilievich Maksimov from first to last day drove cars with cargo for Leningrad and took people out. He tells how it was. Photos of the war years, collected by participants in the Ladoga epic, explain his story.

Not yet known on earth
Scarier and happier road.

“On the night of November 22, the first convoy of ten vehicles descended onto the ice from the western shore. I was in this convoy. It was a dark and windy night over the lake. There was no snow yet, and the black stripes of the ice field often seemed like open water. fear chilled my heart, my hands shook: probably from both tension and weakness - for four days, like all Leningraders, we received a cracker a day ... But our motorcade had just been in Leningrad. And I saw how people died from famine ... Rescue was on the east coast. We understood that we had to get there at any cost. Not all the cars reached the coast, but the first group crossing was made. Even the first hot stew we got was remembered. The next day, these cars went back while the ice was thin, it was impossible to fully load the car.Adapted to the situation - used sled trailers to reduce the load on the ice.
The first flights ran into memory as the most difficult. We drove slowly, tensely, as if probing the way ... After a few days, we looked closely, felt the road, and confidence appeared.
The harsh winter of 1941, as it were, hurried to our rescue. Every day the ice became thicker and stronger. The intensity of traffic and the loading of cars increased. The first month I did not leave the car. It was my home too... Having crossed the lake, I quickly handed over the load, drove off to the side, covered the "front" with the cab with a tarpaulin in order to keep the heat from the hot engine longer, and fell asleep. After two or three hours, I woke up from the cold, started the engine, took the load and again - on the flight.
People from Leningrad were transported from the western to the eastern coast. These flights were the most stressful and painful for me. Exhausted from hunger, people lay and sat motionless, seemingly indifferent. There were cases when orderlies, removing people from the car, reported that someone had died on the road. My heart contracted from pity, anger and grief, a lump rolled up in my throat ... I was always in a hurry when I was traveling with people, everything seemed to be out of time and I was terribly afraid of delays on the road.
At the end of December, the number of flights increased. When counting, I was among the foremost. Once, on the east coast, in Kobon, where food warehouses were located, before loading the car, I was summoned to the commander and handed a gift from Leningraders. They were warm things. Clutching the gift in my hands, I listened to the words of gratitude, but in response I could not say a single word ... I did not cry, only tears flowed and flowed down my cheeks.
I was given a day off. They sent me to a sanitary station - in a month I was overgrown so that my eyes were not visible, a long beard grew, my clothes became salty and stiff. It was the first respite since the beginning of work on the ice track.
The road developed quickly. Mass transportation has begun. Trucks on the highway went into a blizzard and a snowstorm, day and night, often fell into polynyas pierced by bombs and shells, before reaching the shore they perished, drowned. But despite the incredible difficulties, the delivery of products did not stop. Soon we gave up even disguise, and at night with the headlights on, the cars were in a continuous stream.
The road was shelled all the time. However, most of the bombs and shells fell near, nearby. Drivers maneuvered, changed speed. The road builders immediately found new, bypass roads or "patched" the road - they laid wooden walkways, frozen the flooring. The track was destroyed, but the road continued to live.
Driving on the ice itself was a difficult and dangerous business. Under the influence of strong winds, changes in the water level in the lake, frequent shifts of ice fields occurred, ice mountains sometimes appeared on the way, sometimes five to ten meters high. There were cracks and splits. It was necessary to build a lot of crossover shields and walkways. During the winter of 1941 - 1942, the bridge-building battalion installed 147 collapsible bridges on the ice of the lake, capable of withstanding the weight of not only loaded vehicles, but even tanks.
Gradually, the road, one might say, settled down. Along the route there were tents and snow houses of road workers, repairmen who lived here in order to come to the aid of drivers at any moment. In such houses, "potbelly stoves" were installed, telephone cables were pulled to them.
On the seventh kilometer of the route there was a tent of a sanitary and medical center. Olya Pisarenko, a military paramedic, lived there throughout the harsh winter. She surprised even the veterans of the Ice Road with her courage and endurance. She worked without rest and sleep, often under severe fire provided medical care wounded and frostbitten.
Once her section of the road was bombed by sixteen fascist planes. Bombs riddled the track. Olya got into a hole. With difficulty they helped her get out, but she did not leave the track, she herself was a little alive and frostbite, she continued to help the wounded.
The front actually passed along the highway. And each completed flight was like a battle won. The track lived unusually hard. Here are entries from the diary of the headquarters of the 64th regiment, whose personnel were on the ice all the time and served the road.
On November 23, 1941, several horses and vehicles fell through the ice.
5th of December. A Nazi air raid on the fourteenth kilometer ... A car with gasoline was set on fire. Between the tenth and fifteenth kilometers thirty shells exploded, about one hundred and forty bombs were dropped along the entire route. Between the twentieth and twenty-fifth kilometers, a longitudinal crack formed.
Despite everything, traffic on the highway did not stop. Immediately after the raids, road workers went out onto the ice, laying new roads. Immediately, the traffic controllers ran to the cars, showing the drivers a new way. And the traffic controllers were Leningrad Komsomol girls. They stood under the icy wind or snow at a distance of 350-400 meters from each other during the day with flags, and at night with lit lanterns "bat". Round the clock in any weather they carried their heroic watch.
In January, heavy anti-aircraft artillery could be installed on the strengthened ice. When it appeared, the enemy almost failed to bombard the road with precision.
The route was covered by the troops of the Ladoga air defense region, regiments of anti-aircraft artillery and fighter aviation of the front and fleet, soldiers of rifle units and marines, border troops and a division of the NKVD. All approaches to the Ice Road were mined. As a result of all these measures, the flow of goods to Leningrad increased every day.
A brigade was even organized to lift cars and tanks from the bottom of the lake. After the repair, they returned to service again.
Participants of the road rejoiced at every increase in rations for Leningraders. December 25 was the first increase in the bread ration. The minimum was 250 grams per day for workers, and 125 grams for everyone else. But already in April, Leningraders were given an average of half a kilogram of bread and the norms for other products were increased. The city lived and continued to fight.
In April, the snow began to melt, the water rose, it filled the rut of the road. That's when our torment began. You start to skid a little or slow down, and the ice under you goes into the water. On April 24, the track was closed.
The legendary Road of Life lasted 152 days.