A dropper placed on a seriously wounded soldier right on the front line will not be able to instantly heal him and magically cover him from shells and bullets; she just has to keep him from dying. The Road of Life played the same role for besieged Leningrad. In the hardest blockade winter of 1941-1942, it was the work of the supply route across the ice of Lake Ladoga that saved the city from the inevitable and terrible death... Leningrad had no alternatives to this path.
The German high command in any case was not going to feed the civilians of the city, they were actually sentenced to death by starvation. And for the USSR, the loss of Leningrad meant an almost guaranteed defeat in the war.
Cars move along the melted "Road of Life"
Ladoga - threat and hope
It all started back in August 1941, when the Germans cut the last railway linking Leningrad with the country. The Soviet command decided to evacuate civilians through Ladoga. This lake is known for its violent storms in bad weather. To ensure safety, ships with people had to go along the Staro- and Novoladozhsky canals, laid parallel to the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. However, on September 8, 1941, the Germans captured the city of Shlisselburg. The land blockade was finally closed, but there was no room left for the movement of water transport along the canals that entered the Neva near the same Shlisselburg.
As a result, the ships and vessels of the Ladoga military flotilla were forced to sail only on the lake. The route between Novaya Ladoga in the east and Osinovets Bay on the western besieged coast of Lake Ladoga was short, about 60 kilometers, but extremely risky due to storms that were not inferior in fury to the sea. In addition, they have not yet managed to equip beacons or mark the fairway here.
Nevertheless, the first barges arrived at Osinovets on September 12, 1941. And on the night of September 17, one of the largest disasters in the entire history of shipping on rivers and lakes occurred. Non-self-propelled barge No. 725, together with the Oryol tugboat, was caught in a storm. According to various estimates, there were from 1200 to 1500 people on it. Of these, the tug was able to save just over two hundred.
But there was no alternative to Ladoga. Already in September 1941, the food situation in Leningrad began to deteriorate rapidly. The besieged city of flour alone required 1,100 tons daily. In the first blockade in autumn, they were able to deliver hardly half of this volume by water. Aviation, however, could not transport more than 100 tons per day.
Delivering food and other essential goods to Leningrad, ships and planes not only took out civilians, but also transferred troops from the city to the east. About 20 thousand people transported as reinforcements during the October German offensive on Tikhvin and Volkhovstroy helped stop the enemy on the line east of these cities.
But Tikhvin himself still fell on November 9, 1941, and the supply of goods for Leningrad from the east by rail was interrupted. This put the supply of the besieged city in jeopardy, he was on the verge of death.
How the "Road of Life" was laid
By this time, the Soviet side was already working on a project to create a supply route across the ice of Lake Ladoga. Some experience of laying such roads has already been, and the most recent and large-scale was obtained literally a year before the events described, during the war with Finland. It was a rush of the Red Army across the ice of the Vyborg Bay. By the time of the fall of Tikhvin, the first projects of the road already existed, the matter was for implementation.
Horse train on the ice of Lake Ladoga
The northern, shallower part of Lake Ladoga froze faster. It was necessary to wait for this moment and conduct reconnaissance. This was done on November 15-18. Then a small convoy of seven vehicles tried to pass from the eastern shore of the lake, but failed. The same thing happened with the second column. And only the reconnaissance of the 88th bridge-building battalion, after spending a whole day on the ice, managed on November 18 to find a way from the port of Osinovets on the "Leningrad" side of Lake Ladoga to the village of Kobona on the eastern shore. The ice track has turned from an idea into a tangible fact. For the first few days, horse-drawn carts were supposed to go along it, and by the end of November - automobile columns.
On November 21, 350 horse teams arrived in Osinovets, delivering the first 63 tons of flour for Leningraders. So a thin thread stretched between Leningrad and the mainland, without which the city would not have survived the blockade. Officially, it was called the military highway number 102 (VAD-102). It was led by the general-major of the quartermaster service Afanasy Mitrofanovich Shilov.
VAD-102 at work and in battle
Each kilogram delivered along the "Road of Life" was worth a lot of effort and loss. The cars collapsed and sank, they were smashed by German aviation, and the track itself had to be moved every now and then, because the ice could not withstand the loads. The management of transportations has established a special regime of transport movement, in which the movement of cars would not overload the ice cover. With all the efforts, it was only in January 1942 that the Road of Life was able to deliver at least the minimum daily ration of flour per day of work.
The population was evacuated back from the city along the same route and troops continued to be transferred from Leningrad. And not only rifle units. In February 1942, the 124th tank brigade - several dozen heavy KVs - was marched across the ice of Ladoga. For safety reasons, the turrets were removed from the tanks, thereby reducing the mass, and they were driven behind the combat vehicles on a sleigh.
Road of Life Map
The Germans were totally unhappy with the existence of such a road right under their noses. Luftwaffe bombers bombed it from the very moment of its appearance, fighters hunted Soviet transport aircraft... When the movement on the ice opened, the enemy artillery began to "process" the route. The German command even prepared the 8th Panzer Division for a dash on the ice in order to interrupt the supply of Leningrad. They failed to fulfill this plan only because of the general offensive of the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad fronts in January 1942.
Soviet troops defended the "Road of Life" from the ground and air. Here the pilot of the 4th Guards Fighter Regiment Leonid Georgievich Belousov repeated the feat of Alexei Maresyev. He froze his legs in flight, gangrene began, and they had to be amputated. Despite this, the pilot returned to service at the end of 1944. He received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union only 13 years later.
In the summer and autumn of 1942, the enemy deployed Italian torpedo boats and armed German ferry catamarans "Siebel" to Ladoga. In October, the Germans launched a major operation against Sukho Island, located next to the highway. The Soviet garrison fought back with the help of the Ladoga Flotilla.
In the summer, the Ladoga track became exclusively water
Leningrad was already ready for the second winter of siege. The supply on Lake Ladoga functioned properly, the operation of the route provided conditions for several major offensive operations of the Leningrad Front. By the winter of 1942–1943, several projects for organizing movement on ice had appeared. Among them was such a risky one as the construction of a trolleybus line. It was because of the risk that this project was rejected. Instead, it was decided to build a railway bridge across Ladoga. But this idea was not implemented in time.
On January 18, 1943, Soviet troops broke through the blockade of Leningrad. And although the movement along the "Road of Life" continued until March, the main load was taken by a new artery - the railroad "Victory Road" built in a record 17 days.
The material was republished from the portal worldoftanks.ru as part of the partnership.
Sources:
- Kovalchuk V. M. Leningrad and "Big Land". The history of the Ladoga communication of blockaded Leningrad. L., 1975.
- Battle for Leningrad // Ed. S.P. Platonov. M., 1964.
- Tsybulsky I., Chechin O. Soldiers of Ladoga. M., 1977.
- Ladoga native // Comp. Z.G. Rusakov. L., 1969.
- Documents of the 28th Army Corps of the 18th Army from the NARA collection.
Part three. Ice road on Ladoga and its role in transporting people and food
November 13, 1941 - Deputy Commander of the Troops, Chief of Logistics of the Leningrad Front, General FN Lagunov, signed order No. 0164 "On organizing the construction of an ice road along the route - Cape Osinovets - Kareji lighthouse."
The construction of the ice road began on November 15, and was headed by the head of the 3rd section of the Road Department of the Logistics Directorate of the Leningrad Front, military engineer of the 3rd rank B.V. Yakubovsky, at whose disposal one working battalion, the 165th construction battalion and the 88th separate bridge building battalion. The general management of the construction of the ice road was entrusted to the head of the Highway Department of the 1st rank military engineer V.G. Monakhov. Ice conditions prevented the construction of the route along Ladoga - the ice in the middle part of the lake could not be completely established. Only by November 20 there was a real opportunity to build an ice road. Later, from December 1941 to February 1942, Captain 2nd Rank M.A. Nefedov, and then everything was subordinated to Major General A.M. Shilov, as mentioned above, the head of water transportation on Lake Ladoga. This road was referred to as the military road No. 101 (VAD-101). It should be noted that this VAD consisted of 1,728 servicemen, 3,624 vehicles, mainly GAZ-AA, 147 tractors, 960 horses and 1,000 sledges. The ice track was serviced by 350 traffic controllers (this work was mainly for women), the number of control posts ranged from 45 to 75. On both banks of Ladoga, a line dispatch service was established. There were heating and power points on the highway every 7 kilometers. The points of car maintenance, which were on the highway, carried out minor and medium repairs of cars, and on the banks there were branches of the Leningrad repair plants No. 1 and No. 2, which carried out complex repairs.
11/15/41 - 12/06/41 - an extended bypass road (VAD-102) was built to a bypass in the city of Tikhvin, located on the railway. the Volkhov-Vologda line and occupied by the Nazis on November 8; then station railways were developed. tracks and storage facilities at the stations Podborovye and Zaborie on the railway section. the line further to Tikhvin towards Vologda.
21-23.11.41 - regular road-horse transportation of goods and people began along an organized ice section of the route on Lake Ladoga, which connected in the winter 1941-1942. Leningrad with the mainland. Then it was this part that was popularly called the "Road of Life". Later, this entire combined route - railway-ice-automobile from Leningrad to Big land began to be called as well. The number of ice routes starting from the piers of the western bank of Ladoga (including the main Vaganovsky descent near the village of Kokorevo) towards Kobona on the eastern bank of Ladoga, numbered up to 60!
Road transport on the Ladoga ice track
Scheme of ice roads through Ladoga lake in the winter of 1941-1942.
And the strength of the spirit and the strength of the wind
“Few people know that in the winter period of mid-November 1941 to March 1942, for reconnaissance and other military purposes, they used a buer - sailing transport devices on skates moving swiftly by the force of the wind across ice spaces, not only Gulf of Finland, but also - Ladoga Lake. Rear Admiral Yu. A. Panteleev (himself an athlete-buer) was ordered to identify experienced yachtsmen-buerists among the naval sailors, to ferry them and all the buers in Leningrad to Ladoga and use them to paralyze the reconnaissance groups of the fascists. In a short time, a detachment was created under the command of an experienced yachtsman-icebreaker I. I. Smetanin, consisting of E. I. Lodkin, A. M. Mikhailov, V. K. Kochegin and K. I. Aleksandrov and others. In mid-November, two detachments of buoys began to operate on Ladoga. One detachment was armed with 19 floaters, the second - 16. Basically, these were available heavy Russian-type floaters. It was necessary to hastily construct additional gullies, which were built according to the drawings and with the advice of their designer N.Yu. Ludewig. ( This patriot died in besieged Leningrad in 1942.). And no one then, neither in sleep nor in spirit, knew that the first sack of flour to Leningrad, dying of hunger, would be delivered over the thin ice of Ladoga exactly on a buoy. This happened on November 20, 1941, when the gullies were carrying out the next exploration of the future ice section of the Road of Life. Ice sailing ships returned from Kobona to Osinovets with sacks of precious flour. On November 21, when the sled carts entered the ice, which was not yet accessible to motor vehicles, the buerists, overtaking the exhausted horses, also transported tons of rye and wheat flour to the besieged city. Each of the floaters had sails of up to sixty square meters. One boer took five to six bags of flour (400–600 kg). At good wind the buer managed to make from four to six flights per day (3500 kg of flour, which is seven thousand loaves of bread or twenty-eight thousand people fed according to the blockade norms). On November 23, foodstuffs began to be transported by cars (although at first empty cars were pulled by loaded sleds). Only from November 25, the transportation of people and goods by GAZ-AA vehicles began. Buerists carried out military escort of convoys and carts, daily made detours of the ice route in order to find a way to bypass the areas bombed by the Nazis, provided assistance to cars and sledges stuck in the ice. And, most importantly, they began to take out the exhausted old people, women and children from the besieged Leningrad, saving those who had no chance to survive in the city surrounded by the enemy. By the way, on these evacuation flights, not a single buer was sunk or hit. Their small size, white sail and high speed of movement provided good camouflage from the air and did not allow them to be targeted fire. The speed of these rescue "ice yachts" was such that The mainland the women threw tantrums when asked to disembark. Exhausted to the limit, people thought that they were abandoned to their fate in the middle of the lake. They could not believe that the road from death to life takes only 20 minutes - in such a time, in the absence of deep snow, the loaded gouge managed to cover 35 kilometers of the ice track. And although the number of people evacuated on the gullies was not as large as it was carried out by water, air, automobile and by rail, but still it was the feat of the buerists - masters of such a simple type of sailing transport, driven not only by the force of the wind, but also by the strength of the spirit of the Russianspeople!"
From the memoirs of academician D.S. Likhachev
“The first possibility of evacuation by car along the ice road across Lake Ladoga appeared in December 1941. This ice road was called the road of death (and not at all“ The road of life, ”as our writers later called it leafy). The Germans fired at her, the road was covered with snow, the cars often fell into openings (after all, they were driving at night). They said that one mother went crazy: she was driving in the second car, and her children were driving in the first, and this first car fell through the ice before her eyes. Her car quickly drove around the wormwood, where the children writhed under the water, and rushed on without stopping. How many people died of starvation, were killed, fell through the ice, froze or disappeared on this road! God alone knows! "
06.12.41 – 06.01.42 - the period of operation of bypass highways: at first - the length of 320 km, until the liberation of the city of Tikhvin on December 9. Further, from the 20th of December, the highway moved to Tikhvin.
It is clear that this route of transporting cargo to Leningrad and evacuating people from the besieged city along these "beyond the lake" bypass roads was forced and existed for only 25 days, i.e. was only a small period of time from the entire epic. Traveling along such a route for the evacuees was an unimaginable ordeal. This multi-kilometer road, covered by vehicles for 2 - 3 - 4 days (!) In frosty weather of exhausted Leningraders, was like hell, although heating and food points were arranged on the road (by the way, this topic is the transportation of people along a bypass road, almost no covered in the literature). Railroad transportation was still not possible due to the destroyed large bridges on the railway. the line going in the direction of Volkhov, which was put in order from destruction (as, incidentally, the Voybokalo and Zhikharevo stations); the last two stations were restored again as transfer points for road traffic with goods and people between the eastern shore of Ladoga and the railway). Since December 20, a "short" highway of 190 km began to operate - this is the route between Kobona and Tikhvin. He passed through settlements: Kobona - Novaya Ladoga - Syasstroy - Kolchanovo - Koskovo - Tikhvin.
Undoubtedly, there are some points you perhaps think about drugs. Let "s discuss about how you can make sure that medications you order online are sure. You can purchase medicament to treat acute treatment of the symptoms of osteoarthritis or trigeminal neuralgia. Some services offer to their customers Viagra. If you" re concerned about sexual disease, you perhaps already know about levitra 20mg. Maybe every man knows at least something about levitra 10mg. Matters, like, are linked sundry types of health problems. Notwithstanding erectile disfunction is more common among older men, that doesn "t something you simply have to live with. Several medicines may add to sex drive difficulties, so its essential to cooperate with your heartiness care provider so that the prescription can be tailored to your needs.Causes of sexual malfunction include injury to the penis. Chronic disease, definite remedies, and a state called Peyronie's disease can also cause sexual dysfunction. Do not give Viagra or any drug to anyone under 18 years old without prescription.
“There was nothing unusual in the very fact of the movement of troops and cargo on the ice,” says military historian Miroslav MOROZOV. - In the Finnish campaign, the 168th rifle division surrounded in the Pitkäranta area was supplied along the ice road through the same Lake Ladoga. Already in World War II, in order to recapture the island of Gotland in the Baltic from the enemy, even tanks were taken out on the ice. But never - neither before nor after that - the life of the three-million-strong city did not depend on the thickness of the ice and weather conditions on a 40-kilometer highway across Lake Ladoga.
There was very little food in Leningrad after the Badayev warehouses burned down in September 1941. Even at the “hunger rate” in mid-December 1941, the city consumed about 500 tons of flour every day. During September - November, the norms for the distribution of bread to the population decreased 5 times. After the fourth decline, starvation began in the city.
Until Ladoga was completely frozen (and in 1941 it happened on November 25), food was delivered to Leningrad by ships. It seems incredible, but 5 days before that, a message was opened on the ice. For five days, the courts, which walked along the fairways pierced in the ice, and horse-drawn carriages with sledges (the cars went to Leningrad later) went in parallel!
On April 24, 1942, the ice road stopped working until the following year. During this time, 361 thousand tons of cargo were transported to Leningrad (by the end of the war - more than 1.5 million tons - Ed.) And half a million people were evacuated. For comparison: the air bridge, which was the only alternative way of supplying the besieged city, transported 3.6 thousand tons - 100 times less. Without the Road of Life, Leningrad would really have perished. "
Through impossible
Leningrad hydrologists, whom they initially tried to involve in laying the route through Ladoga, unanimously said that this was impossible. Nobody ever studied the lake in winter - there was no point. The old-timers were able to recall only one case when a drunk driver took hay across the lake, and so he disappeared. It was in January, at Epiphany frosts. It was about car traffic, moreover, in November, when, according to the recollections of veterans, the ice sagged even under the foot. But the war forced to revise all safety standards. “Driver, remember! A bag of rye flour is a ration for a thousand inhabitants of Leningrad! " - read the poster, then installed on the Vaganovsky Spusk ( east coast Ladoga), where the Road of Life began.
In the first blockade winter on the highway, a military driver Vasily Serdyuk got stuck in a blizzard and got stuck. After the war, he wrote in his memoirs that he almost fell asleep, waiting for his "lorry" (GAZ-AA) to be rescued from the snowdrift. I was awakened by a blow to the side - in the dark, an old man with a sled team ran into the truck.
“Seeing me, the old man suddenly fell silent.
- Not alive! he said in surprise. - One in the cockpit?
- One!
- You're in luck, boy!
And he nodded over the horse's rump towards the sled. There were several numb bodies under the mat. "
These were ordinary everyday life The road of life, on which in 1941-1943. worked over 20 thousand. Human. How many of them died is still unknown.
“The chief of the rear of the Leningrad Front, Lieutenant General Lagunov, was responsible for organizing the transportation of goods along the Road of Life,” continues Miroslav Morozov. - The direct management of automobile traffic was carried out by his deputy, Major General Shilov. By January 1942, the route had acquired a rather complex infrastructure. Along the ice roads were placed technical assistance points ("lorries" often stalled), heating and food points, traffic control posts ... The sky was guarded by anti-aircraft batteries (cannons) and anti-aircraft machine-gun companies and platoons armed with "maxims". On the military map 1941-1942 you can count more than 20 air defense objects ”.
Iron attempt
The road of life through Ladoga was the most famous, but not the only one in those places. On the south coast Until January 1944, the Oranienbaum bridgehead successfully fought off the Germans in the Gulf of Finland. It was connected with the mainland by the "Small Road of Life", which went on the ice through Kronstadt. During the war, 470 thousand people walked along it in both directions. And along Ladoga in different years wars tried to start up either a trolleybus route or a railway ...
The first draft was rejected immediately. They tried to implement the second one. In the winter of 1942-1943. Simultaneously, the construction of a 35-kilometer “pile-ice railway crossing” from the Kobona station on the eastern side of Ladoga to the Ladoga Lake station on the western side began. Builders (mostly women!) Punched holes in the ice and hammered piles into the bottom. A deck was laid on top, on which the railroad track was mounted. By mid-January 1943, just under half of the road had been completed. The first trains were already running on the rails, but on January 18, 1943, the blockade was lifted. All unthinkable efforts turned out to be pointless. This is probably why they preferred to forget about the "railroad of life".
SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY "The Siege of Leningrad"
On this day, November 22, 75 years ago, the Road of Life began to operate, linking besieged Leningrad with the mainland.
As a result of the unsuccessful start of the war for the USSR and subsequent battles, the troops of Germany and Finland in early September 1941 surrounded the Soviet troops defending Leningrad. In addition to the troops, the entire civilian population of the city was in the blockade ring. To supply them, it was required to arrange the delivery of goods, which could be done either with the help of aviation, or by delivering goods by water - across Lake Ladoga to the coast of Ladoga controlled by the blockaded Soviet troops. The air bridge to Leningrad was established, but it could not fully meet the needs for transportation. The development of the water route began.
For the supply of Leningrad, in addition to aviation, there was still the possibility of delivering goods by water transport- through Ladoga to unequipped southwest coast held by the encircled troops. From Leningrad to the coast of Ladoga it existed as Railway and automobile, but it was required to expand coastal railway stations, build berths and dig approach fairways to receive a large number of cargoes. The need to start work on the Ladoga coast was mentioned in the GKO decree of August 30, 1941. For receiving ships, the following were chosen: Osinovets Bay, fenced by a 400-meter dilapidated stone breakwater, 1.5 km from the Ladozhskoe Ozero railway station; Goltsman Bay located 3 km from the same station; and with an overpass for one ship, the Bay of Morye, located to the north. Four dredgers were involved in the construction of the ports. The dates for the commissioning of the berths were set as follows: by September 12 for the reception of one vessel, by September 18 for the simultaneous reception of five, by September 25 - 12 vessels. By the end of September, warehouses, a narrow-gauge railway connecting the berths with the main railway, 2 berths with depths of 2.5 m in Osinovets, 2 berths with depths of 2.5 m and 1.7 m in the Goltsman harbor and a protective dam were built in the bay of Morye.
In September, North-West river shipping company had 5 lake and 72 river tugs, 29 lake and about 100 river barges on Volkhov and Ladoga. Cargoes to Leningrad were sent by the following route. After arriving by rail at the Volkhov station, the carriages went to the pier in Gostinopolye, where the goods were loaded onto barges. River tugs delivered barges along the Volkhov through the Volkhov lock to Novaya Ladoga, where some of them were loaded, and from there they were towed to Osinovets by lake tugs or ships of the military flotilla for 14-18 hours. At its berths, cargo was unloaded onto a narrow-gauge railway, transported several hundred meters to the Irinovskaya branch of the Oktyabrskaya railway, from where, after reloading, went directly to Leningrad.
Leading all water transport from Novaya Ladoga to Shlisselburg and Leningrad from September 3, 1941, it was assigned to the Ladoga military flotilla, earlier it included the North-Western Shipping Company, and on September 30, a transportation commissioner was appointed - Major General A.M. Shilov, who was in charge of the entire route including ports. To cover the route, the Osinovetsky air defense brigade area was created in composed of three divisions for west bank Ladogi (Major General of Artillery S.E. Prokhorov), the Svirsky Air Defense Brigade District, consisting of five divisions, covered the route on the eastern bank. In total, they included 76 85-mm, 69 76-mm, 39 37-mm anti-aircraft guns, 75 anti-aircraft machine guns and 60 searchlights.
The first barges with cargo began to arrive at Osinovets, starting from September 12. In total, about 20 thousand tons of cargo were delivered in September. During the transportation of goods, a number of barges were lost as a result of the Ladoga storms. On September 17 and 18, barges carrying people sank: one with 520 servicemen heading to Leningrad, 300 of them were rescued, and the other with 300 evacuees, most of whom died. After these incidents, the transportation of people on barges ceased; they began to be transported only on self-propelled ships.
Due to the fact that Volkhov freezes much earlier than Ladoga, at the end of October it was decided to transport goods from Gostinopolye, which was also close to the front line, to Novaya Ladoga. Due to the beginning of freeze-up on November 10, barges were no longer used for transportation, on November 22, an ice road began to operate, but individual ships continued to deliver goods until December 4.
In total, during the first navigation to Leningrad, 60 thousand tons of cargo were transported by water transport, of which 45 thousand tons of food. V reverse direction 10.3 thousand tons of cargo were sent, 33 thousand Leningraders were evacuated and about 20 thousand servicemen were transported.
In October, work began on preparations for the construction of an ice route across Lake Ladoga. Basically, the work consisted of summarizing scattered data on the ice regime of the lake, tracing the road based on these data and calculating the costs of its construction. On November 13, the chief of the rear services of the Leningrad Front, FN Lagunov, signed an order "On organizing the construction of an ice road along the waterway between Cape Osinovets and Kareji lighthouse." The road was supposed to be 10 m wide for two-way traffic of vehicles, every 5 km there were to be built feeding and heating points. From November 15 to November 19, 12 groups surveyed the established ice. The results showed that the route to Kareji has ice-free areas, but a road through the Zelentsy Islands is possible. On November 19, the commander of the Leningrad Front signed an order on the organization of an auto-tractor road across Lake Ladoga. The auto-tractor road with a daily cargo turnover of 4000 tons was to pass along the route from Cape Osinovets - Zelentsy Islands with a fork to Kobona and Lavrovo. There were supposed to be feeding and heating points every 7 km. For the operation and protection of the road and transshipment bases, the Road Administration was created, headed by the engineer of the first rank V.G. Monakhov, which was subordinate to the chief of the rear of the front. On November 26, the ice road received the name of the military road No. 101. On December 7, the captain of the 2nd rank MA Nefedov was appointed the head of the road instead of Monakhov. To service the road, including transfer points, the Ice Road Administration was assigned military units numbering a total of 9 thousand people. Transportation through Ladoga was carried out by the 17th separate road transport brigade, which was not subordinate to the ice route management. At the expense of the rear of the 54th Army, by November 22, it was ordered to organize supply routes along the Novaya Ladoga - Chernoushevo - Lemasar - Kobona highway with the opening of transshipment bases on railway stations Voybokalo and Zhikharevo, as well as to ensure the delivery of goods to the transshipment bases in Kobona and Lavrovo. For the delivery of goods to the eastern shore of the lake, the commissioner of the Leningrad Front A.M.Shilov was responsible.
On the morning of November 20, a battalion of a horse-transport regiment, recently formed by the Leningrad Front, was sent to the eastern bank of Ladoga from the Vaganovsky Spusk near the village of Kokkarevo. The battalion was a horse-drawn sled train of 350 teams. In the evening of the same day, the convoy reached Kobona, loaded it with flour and set off at night on the return journey, arriving in Osinovets on November 21 with a load of 63 tons of flour. On the same day, several successful attempts were made to cross the lake in empty GAZ-AA vehicles. On November 22, a convoy was sent to the east coast under the control of the commander of the 389th separate motor transport battalion, Captain V.A.Porchunov, consisting of 60 vehicles with sleds attached. Having loaded 70 tons of food on the eastern bank, the convoy set off back and arrived in Osinovets in the evening of the same day. In November, on average, a little more than 100 tons of cargo per day were delivered along the route, by the end of December, as the ice increased, already about 1000 tons.
The route through Ladoga until December 15 passed in the direction of Kokkarevo - the bank of the Encounter - the islands of Zelentsy - Kobona. Due to the weakness of the ice in the initial period of operation of the road, its route had to be frequently changed. So, during the first month of using the ice road, its route changed four times. On the ice road, two-way separate traffic was established, while the lanes were at a distance of 100-150 m from each other. To prevent several cars from sinking under the ice at once, the distance between the cars in the convoy was at least 100 m. The road was serviced by 350 traffic controllers at 45, and since December 19 at 75 control posts. An aerial communication line was laid along the ice road on poles frozen in the ice. As of December 25, the 17th OATBr included a total of 2877 vehicles - 668 ZIS-5 and 2209 GAZ-AA, of which only 1198 were in operation. Of this number, 87 ZIS-5 fuel trucks were engaged only in fuel transportation, 511 vehicles with a total carrying capacity of 900 tons worked on the Tikhvin - Kolchanovo route, and 600 vehicles with a total carrying capacity of 900 tons operated on the Voybokalo - Kokkarevo ice section. By the decree of the Leningrad Front, it was supposed to release 1,500 cars on the ice road from January 5, 1942 (in conventional one and a half tonnage), from January 15 - 1,700 and from February 1 - 2000.
From December 10, 1941, in accordance with the decree of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, it was supposed to begin the evacuation of residents along the winter road, bringing the number of the exported population to 5 thousand people a day by December 20. On December 12, the Military Council ordered the evacuation to be postponed. Nevertheless, from December 1941 to January 22, 1942, 36 thousand people were evacuated by marching order through Lake Ladoga and unorganized vehicles. On January 22, 1942, the State Defense Committee adopted a decree on the evacuation of 500 thousand residents of Leningrad. Evacuation points were organized along the route of evacuation of people: at the Finlyandsky railway station in Leningrad, in Vaganovo, Zhikharev and Volkhov.
In mid-January 1942, the 17th Brigade was disbanded and its battalions were subordinated to the command of the military highway. As of January 20, it consisted of: four road maintenance regiments with a total number of 5335 people, two construction battalions - 1042 people; nine separate motor transport battalions, auto battalions of the 8th, 23rd, 42nd, 55th armies, an NKVD convoy and a separate company of tankers - a total of 8,032 people and more than 3,400 trucks and special vehicles; two separate repair and recovery battalions - 452 people; three separate evacuation companies - 285 people; a separate horse-drawn transport battalion - 1,455 men and 952 horses; two separate workers' battalions (Syassky and Novo-Ladozhsky) - 1905 people; transshipment bases and military sanitary facilities - about 200 people. A total of about 19 thousand people and 4053 various vehicles. On February 20, the VAD included 15168 people, 4283 vehicles (including 3,632 vehicles of motor transport battalions), 136 tractors and 537 horses. On March 26, 1942, 16168 people, 2278 trucks (1129 GAZ-AA and 1149 ZIS-5, while there were only 1103 vehicles on the road), 163 tank trucks, 167 tractors and 428 horses were working on the road. April 20 - 12656 people, 2957 trucks and 348 special vehicles, 84 tractors, 241 horses. Until mid-January, road management was located in Novaya Ladoga, then in Zhikharevo, and from March 7 in Kobon. On April 21, by order of the Leningrad Front, traffic on the ice road was closed, but some transportations took place until April 25.
The total amount of goods transported to Leningrad along the Road of Life for the entire period of its operation amounted to over 1 million 615 thousand tons. During the same time, about 1 million 376 thousand people were evacuated from the city.
The name "Road of Life", which the Leningraders gave to the ice route across Lake Ladoga, which began work on November 22, 1941, is not a poetic image. This was the only way that allowed besieged Leningrad to survive and even help the front, which received the weapons produced in the besieged city.
The road began to operate in the days when food standards in the city were reduced to the tragic 250 grams of bread per day for workers and 125 grams for everyone else, people began to die of hunger in the thousands. The soldiers on the front line received 500 g of bread each. But even to maintain these norms, at least a thousand tons of food were required every day.
The construction of an ice road across Ladoga is an absolutely grandiose and daring idea even for peacetime, especially considering that in 1941 Ladoga was not sufficiently explored, including its ice regime
Sergey Kurnosov
Director of the State memorial museum defense and blockade of Leningrad
To save the city and help the front, it was necessary to do the incredible: to create from scratch a whole infrastructure that was supposed to operate uninterruptedly throughout the winter, solving many problems. Such a project seemed difficult even for peacetime. In fact, this was a victory of science, and above all physics, over Hitler's tactics, which used hunger as a means of waging war.
“The construction of an ice road through Ladoga is an absolutely grandiose and daring idea even for peacetime, especially considering that in 1941 Ladoga was not sufficiently explored, including its ice regime. large lake in Europe it is generally distinguished by a very changeable disposition and has always been considered very difficult in all respects, including for shipping, "notes Sergei Kurnosov, director of the State Memorial Museum for the Defense and Siege of Leningrad.
“The road of life is usually presented to the layman as a road on ice, along which one and a half lorries with flour go to Leningrad,” says Kurnosov. , and the Oranienbaum bridgehead, and the troops of the Leningrad Front, and the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. during navigation, when the lake was not covered with ice; this is a telephone and telegraph cable that provided communication with Moscow, and a high-voltage electric cable that allowed the supply of electricity to Leningrad from the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station - these cables ran along the bottom of Ladoga. along the bottom of Ladoga, supplying the city with fuel ".
Leningrad, as a metropolis, has never been and could not be self-sufficient in terms of food, the director of the museum emphasizes. It was self-sufficient only as a front city, because most he could produce military weapons himself.
When designing the Road of Life, the experience of the past was taken into account, when ice routes became a convenient crossing, sometimes more reliable and comfortable than the autumn-spring off-road, ice routes were also used for military purposes. “Was the Road of Life an urgent invention of blockaded Leningrad? Yes and no,” Kurnosov believes. “On the one hand, it was certainly an urgent invention. On the other hand, the idea of moving on ice had existed for a long time. In St. Petersburg, even before the revolution movement on the ice of the Neva in winter was a common phenomenon. These roads completely replaced bridges. "
But all ice communications that preceded the Road of Life were short-term and were not designed for the huge traffic and human flow that went along the ice of Lake Ladoga in 1941–43.
Ice exploration
The idea of an ice track has been discussed in Leningrad since September 1941. "On September 24, AA Zhdanov, members of the Military Council of the Leningrad Front, were presented with materials in the form of maps and text on 34 sheets. Then we reported on the expected nature of freezing and the duration of the ice cover. On this day, in fact, the Ladoga Road of Life project was born." , - wrote in his memoirs the head of the ice service of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet, Mikhail Kazansky.
He played an important role in organizing the crossing of Ladoga. "Kazansky distinguished himself both as an organizer and as a designer, and then as a pilot - both water and ice. He accompanied the ships during navigation and supervised the maintenance of the ice route. He had the nickname" Ice Grandfather " The road of life was only 25 years old, "says Sergei Kurnosov.
A preliminary ice track between Kobona and Kokkarevo was laid on the basis of materials that were given by scientific research and interviews with fishermen - old-timers of Ladoga.
The first detachment of seven one and a half, each carrying seven sacks of flour, moved on ice no more than 15 cm thick. The drivers stood on the steps and in case of danger of failure of the car under the ice had to jump out. The detachment traveled about 20 km, but there was no further way - the ice ended, the ice began. The machines had to, after unloading the flour on the ice, go back
"To clarify the state of the ice along the routes of the planned routes began on November 12, - recalled Mikhail Kazansky. - Each step of the scouts was a step into the unknown. Where the springy ice crust sagged under the feet of the daredevils and cracked, they had to lie down and crawl."
On the night of November 16, hydrographers harnessed to sledges and with compasses, maps, lines (ropes) descended on the sagging ice in the area of the Osinovets flotilla base and first surveyed the route from Osinovets on the western bank of Ladoga to Kobona on the eastern bank.
Almost simultaneously with the sailors, 30 soldiers of the 88th separate bridge-building battalion carried out reconnaissance of this route. The detachment left Kokkarevo with a supply of poles, ropes and rescue equipment, accompanied by two experienced fishermen who served as guides.
The commander of one of the groups of this detachment, I. Smirnov, later recalled: "In camouflage coats, with weapons, hung with grenades, we had a warlike appearance, but peshnits, sledges with poles, ropes, lifebuoys made us look like winterers of the Far North." The scouts moved one at a time, three to five paces from each other, and every 300-400 meters froze poles into the ice.
On the same day, by order of the authorized Military Council of the front, General A. Shilov, across the lake in westward from a separate delivery company, trucks with flour were sent for Leningrad. The first detachment of seven one and a half (GAZ-AA), each of which carried seven sacks of flour, moved north of the islands Zelentsy on ice no more than 15 cm thick.
The drivers stood on the steps and in case of danger of the car falling under the ice they had to jump out. The detachment traveled from Kobona about 20 km, but there was no further way - the ice ended, the ice began. After unloading the flour onto the ice, the machines had to return.
On November 19, a horse-drawn sled train of 350 teams departed from Kokkarevo. On November 21, he delivered 63 tons of flour to Osinovets, but his path was extremely difficult: in some places the carters unloaded sacks of flour from the sleigh onto the ice, led the sledges empty, carried the flour on hand and reloaded it into the sleigh.
It was obvious that the start of car traffic on a thin November ice was an extremely risky undertaking, but there was no way to wait.
Order No. 00172 "On the organization of a motor-tractor road across Lake Ladoga" was signed on the evening of November 19, 1941. Arrangement of the track, construction of infrastructure was to go in parallel with the launch of the ice road.
What is progibograph
The rules for driving along the Road of Life were developed not at the State Traffic Inspectorate, but at the Leningrad Physicotechnical Institute (Physico-Technical Institute, Physicotechnical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences). Opportunities Ladoga ice how the pavement was investigated by a group of physics and technology scientists led by Petr Kobeko. Physicists determined how the ice cover on the lake was deformed under the influence of static loads of various magnitudes, what fluctuations occurred in it under the influence of wind and changes in surging water levels, calculated ice wear on the routes and the conditions for its break.
For the automatic recording of ice vibrations, the physicist Naum Reinov invented a special device - a defibograph. He could register ice fluctuations in the time interval from 0.1 second to a day. With his help, it was possible to determine the reason why in the first weeks of work Roads of Life went under the ice about a hundred trucks: the problem was the resonance that arose when the speed of the car coincided with the speed of the Ladoga wave under the ice.
The traffic rules on the Road of Life were developed not at the State Traffic Inspectorate, but at the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology. For the automatic recording of ice vibrations, the physicist Naum Reinov invented a special device - a defibograph. With his help, it was possible to determine the reason why about a hundred trucks went under the ice in the first weeks of work.
The impact was also exerted by the wave reflected from the coast and the waves created by neighboring machines. This happened if the lorry was moving at a speed of 35 km / h. Scientists also did not recommend driving in columns and warned against overtaking on ice. When driving along parallel routes, the distance between the trucks had to be at least 70–80 m. Science help reduced losses, and the route was operated until April 24, 1942. The last cars passed through Ladoga with an ice thickness of only 10 cm.
Leningrad meteorologists made a special weather forecast for the winter of 1941–42 for Ladoga, constantly updated information on the lake regime, and compiled detailed maps with reviews of ice conditions and a forecast of its development for two and ten days. The carrying capacity of the ice was determined anew several times a month, every ten days hydrological bulletins with forecasts of the ice thickness were compiled: in the first blockade winter alone, it was measured more than 3640 times.
From horses to buses
The cargo turnover of the route Cape Osinovets - Zelentsy Islands with a fork into Kobona and Lavrovo was 4000 tons per day. The transshipment bases of the road were set up in Osinovets, Vaganovo, Kobon, Lavrovo and at the Ladozhskoe Ozero station. From November 22, pedestrian and horse-drawn traffic began on the road, from November 25 - automobile traffic. On November 26, 1941, by order of the rear of the Leningrad Front, the ice road became known as the Military Highway No. 101 (VAD-101).
“At first, sled carts were launched on the ice, because he could not stand the cars yet,” says Sergei Kurnosov. “Ice sufficient for the then automobile transport, had to be at least 20-30 cm thick. On November 19, 1941, a horse-drawn sled train set off to the eastern bank of Ladoga, which returned to Osinovets on November 21 with flour for Leningraders. In the evening of the same day, a specially formed reconnaissance convoy of ten empty one and a half lorries set off from Leningrad across Ladoga across the ice! On November 22, 60 vehicles entered the ice in the direction of Kobona, which returned, delivering 33 tons of bread to Leningrad. This is how the Road of Life ice track began its work. Each of the cars, one and a half, was loaded with only five or six bags of flour - they were afraid that the ice simply could not stand it any longer, it bent under the wheels from the weight. "
German shells and bombs left openings, which in the cold literally immediately covered with ice, the snow masked them, and sometimes it was absolutely impossible to detect them. They tried to pull out the failed cars. The cargo was also saved: the flour was transported to the Leningrad breweries, dried there and then used to bake bread
The ice track was located only 12-15 km from the German positions, so there was a constant threat of an air raid or shelling. Shells, bombs left openings, which in such a frost literally immediately covered with ice, the snow masked them, and sometimes it was absolutely impossible to detect them. They tried to pull out the failed cars, but it was not always possible. They saved not only cars, but also the cargo: the flour was transported to the Leningrad breweries, dried there and then used to bake bread.
The matter was further complicated by the fact that the old railway between Osinovets and Leningrad was not ready to receive intensive cargo flows: before the war, it handled no more than one train a day, and now six or seven large trains. "On this road there was not even water towers, and water had to be supplied to steam locomotives manually; in addition, trees had to be cut right there, on the spot, in order to supply steam locomotives with raw and very bad fuel, wrote the British journalist Alexander Werth, who worked in the USSR during the war years and visited Leningrad. "In fact, the ice path across Lake Ladoga began to work like a clock only at the end of January or even from February 10, 1942, after its serious reorganization."
In January 1942, an evacuation was actively going on along the Road of Life. Passenger buses were used to transport people - there were more than a hundred of them.
Tanks without towers
Over the two blockade winters, more than 1 million tons of cargo were transported along the ice road and about 1.5 million people were evacuated.
“According to various sources, from 16 to 18 thousand people worked on the highway,” says the historian Rostislav Lyubvin. “Sometimes Leningraders stayed until they could leave and worked there unaccounted for. The infrastructure was served by professional workers - loaders in warehouses, three auto repair plants: locksmiths , turners, blacksmiths, finally, among the chauffeurs were not only the military, but also chauffeurs with civil enterprises... The rotation was great. "
"From November 1941 to April 1942 (152 days) about 4,000 vehicles served the ice road, not counting horse-drawn vehicles," notes Sergei Kurnosov. The technical condition of the cars during almost the entire first period of the track operation was extremely low. By March 1942, 1,577 damaged vehicles had been towed from Ladoga. There was a shortage of fuel, tools, spare parts and repair funds.
Ports on the coast were being built at a very fast pace. “The Germans, having captured Shlisselburg, actually seized the entire port infrastructure on South Ladoga, because since the time of the Russian Empire it was Shlisselburg that was the main port in this part of the lake,” notes Sergey Kurnosov. “Fishing villages, where there was virtually no infrastructure, in a matter of weeks it was necessary to turn into two powerful ports: one on the western coast, in the area of the Osinovetsky lighthouse, the other on the east, in the Kobona area. by the end of navigation in 1942, there were two huge lake ports, which were separated by 30-35 km. A quay front was built with a length of more than 8 km. help the Leningrad front to stand ".
In total, more than 60 tracks have been built on the Road of Life. Some were intended for transporting equipment, ammunition went along a different route, and in such a way that in the event of an explosion, it would not damage neighboring vehicles. Separately, the wounded and children were taken out, cars with oil products also went separately, because in the event of an explosion it was a huge flame and, as a result, melted ice.
Rostislav Lyubvin
“When the work of the road improved somewhat, the purpose of the routes was strictly defined,” says Lyubvin. “Some were intended for transporting equipment, the ammunition went along a different route, and in such a way that, in the event of an explosion, the neighboring cars would not be damaged. The wounded and children were removed separately. , cars with oil products also went separately, because in the event of an explosion it was a huge flame and, as a result, melted ice. Everything was very thought out. "
"The road of life served not only to deliver food to Leningrad," notes Sergei Kurnosov. in 1941 they were made only in Leningrad. To transport them, the turret was removed from the tank, thus reducing the area of pressure on the ice, and the tank, following its own power on the ice of Ladoga, towed its turret in a sleigh. "
Also, mortars, artillery pieces, including those needed in the battle for Moscow, were transported from Leningrad factories across Ladoga. Equipment and valuables were taken from Leningrad to the rear, which they did not manage to evacuate before the blockade.
Approaches to the Road of Life from Kobona were defended by the 1st Rifle Division of the NKVD, which defended Shlisselburg until September 8, and from Osinovets by the 20th NKVD Division, which in October 1941 fought on the "Nevsky Pyatachka". "The forces of sailors were brought up here, some of the seamen-artillerymen were transferred to ground units to service the artillery and anti-aircraft batteries that were installed along the route," says Rostislav Lyubvin. "Huge forces of sappers constantly mined the approaches from the direction of Shlisselburg." Aviation of the Leningrad Front covered the road to life. From December 1941 to March 1942, the pilots flew over 6,000 sorties.
“The losses, especially at first, were very large,” says an employee of the Police Museum. “In 1965, a group of divers in honor of the 20th anniversary of the Victory walked along the bottom of the lake, along the Road of Life. They said that they were actually walking on the roofs of cars.”
Mikhail Kazansky compared the Road of Life with a sea passage: “The crossing of troops across ice bridgeheads at night, without seeing the shores, or in the daytime, in fog and blizzard, can be compared with pilotage of ships in pitch darkness, when beacons do not work and there are no navigational aids at all. will become more complete if we take into account that the wind blew the columns on the ice, like the ships, away from the laid course. fighters, drove these "living sails" to minefields, like a spinning top and overturned cars. Not every transition ended happily. "
NKVD on the Road of Life: against traffic jams and crimes
A consolidated detachment of the Leningrad regional police department worked at VAD-101. Task forces were located on the line, at transport stops and at loading and unloading bases. At the beginning of the work of the Road of Life, traffic jams appeared in its individual sections - this problem was solved by December 26.
“This was inevitable, because no one had ever built such a highway, never worked on it, especially since in the first days there was only one highway, and there was traffic on it in both directions. a country road from the village of Zaborie in the Tikhvin region, - explains Rostislav Lyubvin. - When Tikhvin was recaptured, the warehouses moved mainly to the Pella region, the path was reduced to 40 km, it became easier, and people arrived less exhausted. "
Police officers provided technical assistance to the drivers. “We met a lot of workers on the Road of Life,” recalls Lyubvin. “I then asked what kind of technical assistance, and one veteran told me: you take a wrench and climb under the car to turn the nuts, help the driver restore the car, and when you overload you become more and a loader. "
During the first winter of the ice track operation, the police revealed 589 aimless idle vehicles. “The police worked in principle and found out why the driver was standing for no reason where it was not supposed to stand, and everything could end in a tribunal,” says a specialist at the Police Museum. Fighting theft on the Road of Life, by the end of March 1942, the police seized 33.4 tons of food from the criminals, including 23 tons of flour. 586 military personnel and 232 civilians were prosecuted. There were also facts when drivers were attracted for taking money and valuables from people evacuated from Leningrad.
The road of life continued to operate in the winter of 1942-43, when it was used not only to provide the city, but also in the preparation of the offensive of the Red Army to break the blockade. "This is the infrastructure, which was the only military-strategic communication line of besieged Leningrad until the laying in late January - early February 1943 of the so-called Victory Road along a narrow section along south coast Ladoga after breaking the blockade of Leningrad, - emphasizes Sergei Kurnosov. "Basically, the Road of Life operated in one way or another until 1944, helping to supply the city."
Julia Andreeva, Ekaterina Andreeva, Ivan Skirtach
