The need to build a new road to Leningrad arose after the blockade ring around the city was closed. The only opportunity was to use Lake Ladoga for these purposes. After the onset of cold weather, a complex transport highway was laid right on the ice, the configuration of which changed depending on the conditions. People called her Dear Life.
The road of life of besieged Leningrad
In terms of an attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler gave a special place to the capture and destruction of Leningrad. The fall of this historic capital and the cradle of the revolution should have preceded the complete defeat of Moscow. Leningrad and Moscow were undoubtedly important strategic points and transport hubs. But even more important was their role in the consciousness of Soviet citizens. For Hitler, the first priority was to undermine the morale of the defenders. Like no one else, he knew how important it was to either inspire or demoralize the crowd.
Therefore, Army Group North, under the command of Fyodor von Bock, was ordered to destroy Leningrad. Initially, it was assumed that the city would be taken outright, using the blitzkrieg technique. But by the time the troops of the German army approached the intended goal, it had already become clear that a lightning war would not work on Soviet territory. The military leaders were against a direct assault on the fortified city. So the blockade of Leningrad was proposed. Instead of suffering the inevitable loss of life during the assault, the Germans decided to starve the city to death. Constantly pouring it with generous artillery fire.
Cars take people out of besieged Leningrad along the Road of Life.
At first, roads and railways were cut off. And on September 8, 1941, after the capture of Shlisselburg, the history of besieged Leningrad began - one of the most tragic in the Great Patriotic War. The only communication with the outside world for the Leningraders was only the road that began on the shores of Lake Ladoga. This thin thread, which, at the cost of incredible efforts, was able to stretch the defenders of Leningrad, gave life and hope.
The road of life across Lake Ladoga
When the blockade ring closed, the only possibility of communication with the besieged Leningrad remained - through Lake Ladoga, the coast of which during the Great Patriotic War continued to be controlled by the Soviet army. This lake was very difficult to navigate. Unexpected gusts of wind often hit the ships. Therefore, the coast was not equipped with any berths or piers.
The first cargoes delivered were dumped directly onto the wild coast. At the same time, urgent work was carried out to deepen the bottom and equip the harbor. Dugouts were dug on the shore and warehouses were equipped. Telephone and telegraph cables were laid under the water. A narrow-gauge railway was laid from the coast to the nearest railway line.
Already on September 12, just four days after the start of the blockade of Leningrad, the first consignment of goods was delivered across Lake Ladoga. There were 60 tons of various ammunition and 800 tons of food. Leningraders were taken on the return flight. During the autumn navigation, until the ice made movement on the lake impossible, 33.5 thousand people were evacuated from the city by water. During the same time, 60 thousand tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad.
In addition to unfavorable weather conditions transportation was complicated by constant German air raids. The use of available tugs and barges on delivery was encouraged. However, even the full workload of all ships could not fully provide the surrounded city with food. In addition, the task was further complicated by the fact that it was not only food that had to be supplied. Weapons were required to wage war and defend the city. Therefore, part of the cargo was ammunition.
How the Road of Life was paved
It was clear from the very beginning that the navigable route was a temporary measure. The cold was soon to come. Therefore, ahead of time, the employees of the Hydrological Institute and the road department of the Leningrad Front began to design a road that was to be laid directly on the ice of the frozen Ladoga Lake.
In the documents, it was called the military road No. 101. Heating points were to be located at every fifth kilometer of the route. And the road itself was planned to be 10 meters wide. But in reality, everything was much more complicated than on paper. Despite the fact that the Road of Life passed, as the Leningraders themselves called it, in places of the smallest depths, the ice often broke, taking not only valuable cargo, but also a lot of human lives.
The length across Ladoga was approximately 30 kilometers. Tens of thousands of people worked together in this relatively small area in difficult conditions. These were truck drivers and horse-drawn carts, mechanics who repaired cars, traffic controllers whose task was to guide drivers along the safest routes. In addition, there were those who directly paved the road. And it was necessary to lay it constantly. Sometimes because the road was covered with snow, sometimes because it was necessary to choose areas with a stronger layer of ice, and sometimes because the road was damaged by German air raids, which took place with enviable regularity.
The road of life was constantly being repaired. The divers strengthened it with all possible means at hand, diving under the ice and installing decks and supports there. It was far from just a wide track on the ice. Traffic signs were installed along the road. Medical and heating stations were built along the way of the trucks. There were warehouses and bases along the route. Also equipped with technical assistance stations, workshops and food points. Telephone and telegraph communications passed along the road.
Food situation
Meanwhile, the situation in the city was getting worse. In fact, it reached a critical point, stepped over it and confidently moved on. Food was sorely lacking. At the beginning of the siege, there were approximately 2.9 million people in the city. There were no significant food supplies in Leningrad. It functioned at the expense of products supplied from the Leningrad region.
In addition, even the small stocks that were available were destroyed in warehouses during the first shelling. The system for issuing products by cards was introduced immediately. However, the issuance rates were constantly cut. By November 1941, the situation was critical. Bread delivery rates fell below the required physiological minimum. They gave out only 125 grams of bread per day. For workers ration was a little more - 200 grams. This is a small piece of bread. And nothing more. By that time, all reserves had long been exhausted. Many did not survive the harsh winter of 1941.
And do not forget that these 125 grams were not bread made from pure flour, albeit of the lowest grade. Everything that could be edible was added to the bread - food cellulose, cake, wallpaper dust, burlap waste. There was also the concept of measles meal. It was formed from a wet, set and hardened, like cement, crust. On the way to Leningrad, many cars sank along with food. Special brigades under cover of darkness searched for these places and, with the help of ropes and hooks, lifted sacks of flour from the bottom. Some part in the very middle could remain dry. And the rest of the flour turned into a hard crust, which was then broken up and added to the blockade bread.
Route to Leningrad
The situation in the city was well known to the drivers of vehicles that delivered tens of tons of various cargoes to the shores of Ladoga during the Leningrad blockade and took evacuees from there. They risked their lives every minute, going out on the ice of Lake Ladoga. And these are not just big words. In just one day on November 29, 1941, 52 cars went under water. And this is on a stretch of 30 kilometers! Of which the first few kilometers you can not even take into account - the road there was relatively safe.
On the way, the driver was constantly in danger of going under the ice. Therefore, no one closed the car doors, despite the chill penetrating to the bone marrow. So there was a chance to get out of the sinking car. When the situation was especially dangerous (trucks also made flights on the already melting ice), the drivers drove the whole way on the steps of the car. The thirty-kilometer ice section thus turned into a serious and long-term test. After all, I had to go at low speed. But almost every driver made two flights a day.
However, the dangers were not limited to this. The Germans tried to inflict airstrikes on the columns during the transport of goods. They aimed both at the trucks themselves and along the route, trying to destroy the track itself. The capricious weather also practically attacked the Ladoga military road... A blizzard that had risen quickly equalized the ice road with the surrounding unspoiled landscape. The danger of going astray was extremely great. Many drivers died from the cold, getting lost in a blizzard. To prevent such incidents, many road signs were installed along the route.
Sinking cars on the "Road of Life".
Siege winter
In total, the Leningraders had to endure three blockade winters. And although it was at this time that the ice road worked best of all, and a considerable amount of tons of cargo could be delivered along it, it was the blockade winters that were the most difficult time for Leningraders. Cold was added to the acute problem of malnutrition. There was no central heating and no electricity. Those lucky ones who were able to acquire a stove-stove, slowly burned everything that could burn in it. In some cases, even furniture and parquet were used.
During the first winter - from December 1941 to February 1942 - a quarter of a million people died in Leningrad. But with the increase in the norms for the issuance of bread, the mortality rate decreased. In order for the delivery of goods to take place in the besieged city more massively and safely, in the winter of 1942 they began to build an ice railway, which was supposed to pass directly along the lake. However, its construction was not completed, since on January 18, 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken, and the need for Lake Ladoga station was no longer needed.
There was one more path, which was called the small road of life. He walked across the surface Gulf of Finland... Most of the defenders of Leningrad moved along this small route. This way they got to the defended "patch". Numerous soldiers wounded in battles were also sent back along it.
And when the blockade was broken, another road appeared, which was unofficially called the "Road of Victory". It was built right in the swamps and rugged terrain for the quick evacuation of the population and the delivery of the necessary food and ammunition.
"Victory Road"
Sections of ice roads were calculated and built based on data from divers and scientists from the Hydrological Institute. On the operational military map The road of life was constantly changing its shape. Often the reason was that the delivery of goods took place in areas that, due to the bombing, became hazardous. And the weather was constantly making its own adjustments. Temperature changes, underwater currents and other external factors sometimes greatly influenced the entire route, and sometimes only a separate section of the route. Traffic on ice tracks was corrected by traffic controllers. In the first winter alone, the ice road was completely moved 4 times. And some areas changed their configuration 12 times.
It is with such changes that the difference in data on the length of the path in historical documents is associated. In addition, the map of the military road No. 101 included the land section to the railway station. Some indicated the total mileage, and some - only the section that they called the "Road of Life" on the ice of Lake Ladoga.
Monuments on the Road of Life
- Flower of Life;
- Katyusha;
- Broken ring;
- Crossing;
- Tanya Savicheva's diary;
- Lorry;
- Rumbolovskaya mountain.
In addition to them, 102 memorial pillars were erected along the highway and railway, and memorial steles. Some of the stelae are included in the complex of monuments and memorials, and some are installed separately.
Among the memorial structures on the Road of Life, the monument to the "lorry" stands out. There is simply no other like him. "One and a half" in the people called a car with a carrying capacity of one and a half tons. It was on such trucks that people and goods were transported along the Road of Life. In the place of the road, where there was the most massive shelling, today a life-size truck, cast in bronze, rises.
Monument "Lorry" on the "Road of Life"
Flower of Life
The road of life passed not far from Vsevolozhsk. There, on the third kilometer of the memorial track, the Flower of Life complex was opened in 1968. It is dedicated to the youngest victims of the besieged Leningrad. Indeed, during the years of the blockade, children became not only passive victims of hunger and shelling. To the best of their ability, they helped in the defense of the city, taking on those responsibilities that in other circumstances would have entrusted only to adults. Schoolchildren put out incendiary bombs, stood on patrols, helped in hospitals and collected raw materials for military needs.
The memorial complex consists of three parts. First, the visitor is presented with a 15-meter sculpture of a flower, on the petals of which are carved the words of a children's song popular in the USSR: "May there always be sunshine" and an image of a pioneer boy. This is followed by the Friendship Alley, which consists of nine hundred birches - according to the number of blockade days. Scarlet pioneer ties are tied to the trunks of trees in memory of the dead children. There is a mourning mound behind the alley. Rarely any mention of the Road of Life in guidebooks is complete without a photo of this mound. Among other attractions, there is a diary of a girl, recreated in stone, who consistently entered the dates of death of her family members in a notebook with the wrong child's handwriting.
Monument "Flower of Life" on the "Road of Life"
Broken ring
On the western shore of Lake Ladoga, where the Road of Life began, there is another monument. With severe brevity, he symbolically illustrates Interesting Facts about the Road. Two massive semi-arches, in the form of a broken ring, seven meters high, remind of a blockade ring. And the rupture of the memorial itself. The broken ring points to the Road of Life. Under the ring in the direction of the descent to the lake, right along the stonework, there is a concrete track from the wheels of a car.
From here, during the years of the blockade, trucks began their journey, delivering a valuable cargo of food and ammunition to the besieged city. Under the imposing monument, the words from a poem by Bronislav Kezhun are engraved:
“Descendant, know: in the harsh years,
Loyal to the people, duty and Fatherland,
Through hummocks of Ladoga ice
From here we led the road of Life,
So that life never dies. "
Monument "Broken Ring" on the "Road of Life"
Osinovetsky lighthouse
The road of life is most often associated with trucks on ice and snowstorms. However, when the ice melted, it did not stop functioning. It was just that in a warm season, the Ladoga flotilla took on the load. Often it was even more difficult and more dangerous than driving on ice. Coastline Lake Ladoga has never favored shipping.
In late spring, summer and early autumn, ships plying on the lake were guided by the light of the Osinovetsky lighthouse located on the southwestern coast. This lighthouse still functions today. There are no excursions there, since the lighthouse belongs to strategic objects and is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense.
The construction of the Osinovetsky lighthouse began in 1905. Since then, he has not interrupted his work. The light of the beacon points to western border the bay from which the Neva begins. It rises 74 meters above the lake level, and the light of the lighthouse is visible at a distance of 40 kilometers.
Monument "Osinovetsky Lighthouse" on the "Road of Life"
Due to the fact that the Osinovetsky lighthouse during the years of the blockade served as an important landmark for ships sailing along the Road of Life, it is classified as a site cultural heritage, although it is not a monument as such.
Katyusha
The road of life was the only link between besieged Leningrad and the rest of the country. The only artery through which food and ammunition entered. She was what kept the city alive. The defenders of Leningrad perfectly understood this, the Leningradians themselves understood this, and the Germans understood this. They desperately tried to cut this last route of communication in order to finally strangle the resistance and destroy the weakened city.
The road of life was under constant fire. For protection from enemy aircraft, the legendary Katyusha installations were used on it. In memory of this, on the place where anti-aircraft units were located during the war, a monument was erected, reminiscent of these protective weapons that covered the movement of trucks. It consists of steel beams directed into the sky, each of which is 14 meters long. There are 5 such beams in total. They represent the famous Katyusha.
Monument "Katyusha" on the "Road of Life"
Poem about the blockade of Leningrad
The deep feelings of Leningraders about wartime and the blockade hometown found their way out in art. Poems dedicated to the Road of Life, paintings, photographs, literary essays - everything that could help express feelings was used. Olga Berggolts, Eduard Asadov, Vera Ibner, Boris Bogdanov, Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky, Vladimir Lifshits are the most famous poets who glorified the days of siege in their works. But this list is far from complete.
And even today, seven decades later, this theme continues to inspire poets and the words of memory, pain and gratitude are harmoniously folded into rhymed lines. Here is an excerpt from a contemporary poem:
The Road of Life, dear Ladoga,
Oh, how many you were able to save then!
For our grandfathers, grandmothers, I know
You will not find a sacred place in the world!
I stand before you on my knees
I stand and look into the distance thoughtfully,
From all post-war generations,
As God, I thank you.
And I know: I still dream at night
To everyone who survived the blockade that hell,
A stream of cars, a sleepless string,
Carrying bread on the Ladoga ice….
Natalia Smirnova
On August 30, 1941, the State Defense Committee adopted its first decree No. 604 "On the transportation of goods for Leningrad", which outlined specific measures for organizing water transportation on Lake Ladoga. The construction of the port of Osinovets began on the western shore of the lake, 55 km from Leningrad, not far from Lake Ladoga station, the terminal station of the Irinovskaya railway. On September 12, 1941, two barges came to the moorings of Cape Osinovets from the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, delivering 626 tons of grain and 116 tons of flour. This is how the blockade "artery" of Leningrad, which the people called the Road of Life, began to operate. From September 12 to November 15, when the navigation officially ended, 24 097 tons of grain, flour and cereals, more than 1130 tons of meat and dairy products and other cargo were delivered across Ladoga. Each voyage across the lake was a feat. The amount of food brought across Ladoga was the city's 20-day need.
Water transportation in the fall of 1941 was the first stage of the struggle for the Ladoga communication, which was conducted during the entire period of the blockade of Leningrad. By November 1941, the city was under blockade for the third month. The available food supplies were almost completely depleted. The severity of the situation was aggravated by the fact that water transportation were interrupted by early freeze-up (although some ships made their way until December 7, 1941). With the onset of freeze-up, transportation by water stopped. Preparations have begun for the construction of a winter road on the ice of Lake Ladoga.
Two ice track roads
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 ice fatigue, the whole trip had to be moved to new track... And during the first month of work, the road was switched to new routes four times, and its individual sections even more often.
The track was laid out, marked with milestones. The ice road was a well-organized motorway that provided drivers with confident driving 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 centers, food and technical assistance points, workshops, telephone and telegraph stations, and adopted a variety of camouflage means. This work required dedication and courage, as it had to be carried out under any conditions - severe frosts, freezing winds, blizzards, shelling and enemy air raids. In addition, lighthouse lanterns with blue glasses were exhibited - at first for every 450-500 m, and then at 150-200 m
On November 24, 1941, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front adopted resolution 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 circular routes, each of which had two separate directions of movement - for freight traffic (to the city) and for empty or evacuation (out of the city). The first route for transporting goods to the city passed along the route Zhikharevo - Zhelannoye - Troitskoye - Lavrovo - st. Lake Ladoga, the length of the route was 44 km; for emptying and evacuation from the city - Art. Lake Ladoga or Borisova Griva - Vaganovsky descent - Lavrovo - Gorodishche - Zhikharevo 43 km long. The total length of the 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 Borisova 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 road was 111 km. The former route Tikhvin - Novaya Ladoga ceased to function, but was maintained in working order.
Despite frosts and snowstorms, enemy artillery fire and air strikes, the enemy's occupation of Tikhvin on November 8, the movement of trucks did not stop practically for a single day. In November-December, 16,449 tons of cargo were 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 rapidly collapse. On the surface of the ice accumulated a large number of water. For a whole week - from April 15 to April 21 - the cars went through continuous water, in places up to 45 cm deep. On the last voyages, 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 Route was officially closed, but in fact it functioned until April 24, as some drivers, despite the order to close the route, continued to operate on Ladoga. When the lake began to break open and the movement of cars along the highway stopped, the workers of the highway moved 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.
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 supposed to go 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 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 was named military road No. 101. 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 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. An authorized representative of the Leningrad Front was responsible for the delivery of goods to the eastern shore of the lake. A. M. Shilov.
On the morning of November 20 on the east coast Ladogi from the Vaganovsky descent near the village of Kokkarevo a battalion of a cavalry regiment was sent recently formed by the Leningrad Front. The battalion was horse-sled wagon 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 cargo 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 command of the commander of the 389th separate motor transport battalion, Captain V.A.Porchunov, consisting of 60 cars with sleds attached... Having loaded 70 tons of food on the eastern coast, 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 highway., by the end of December, as the ice increased, it was already about 1000 tons.
When pointing the ice road, it turned out that for such an "ice bridge" the phenomenon of resonance is destructive. There have been cases when a heavy truck traveling on ice covered the route normally, but a light vehicle with people walking along the same path could fall through the ice at a certain speed. This manifestation of resonance was called flexural-gravitational wave and a certain speed has been prescribed for cars to avoid accidents.
The end of January is two dates. On January 29, 1932, the first "lorry" GAZ-AA was produced. 12 years later, on January 27, 1944, Soviet troops lifted the blockade of Leningrad. Coincidentally, it was the "lorry" that helped Leningrad wait for this moment.
Don't turn the steering wheel
Something dreary for me ...
The land is very close,
Well, what are you, lorry?
A. Rosenbaum, "On the road of life"
What is the Road of Life, I learned in kindergarten. The teacher took off a large book from the shelf, and on one of its spreads I saw a black and white photograph: on the white snow, cars go away into the distance, gradually becoming black dots. Probably on the same day I got an idea of what the blockade of Leningrad was. This is approximately how all Soviet children learned the details of that war - quite early.
But something passes by or is forgotten over time. For example, while preparing this publication, I came across a post about "the most famous symbol of war" - the diary of Tanya Savicheva. And I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about it. Or don't I remember, because once, in fear, I chose to forget? Sometimes it is very helpful to bypass the defense mechanisms of consciousness and remember such things. So I decided to collect some stories about the Road of Life here. So that someone refreshes in memory, someone recognizes - and everyone remembers.
For a start - a little materiel. We have already addressed the topic of the blockade and told in detail what kind of automotive technology helped to defend and at that difficult time. In addition to the 40-horsepower "one and a half" GAZ-AA or exactly the same GAZ-MM, but with a more powerful, 50-horsepower engine, the no less famous "three-ton" ZIS-5 (aka "Zakhar Ivanovich") served here, and American Lend-Lease Studebakers, but there were a majority - light vehicles were better suited for driving on ice.
A significant number of them were equipped with wood-fired gas generators. You can find out what such "half-sundra" is in operation. In the "basic" version, the "lorry" was powered by low-octane gasoline, the compression ratio was only 4.25. Tractor naphtha was often poured into the tank, and summer time- light kerosene. The maximum speed in real conditions rarely exceeded 40 km / h, and this was on a flat surface, and not on snow and ice, which will be discussed later.
In wartime, the equipment of the "lorry" was noticeably simplified: the GAZ-MM-V modification did not have front brakes, the wings were made of thin roofing iron (they can be easily distinguished from the pre-war ones in a more primitive form), there was only one headlight, left, the roof became tarpaulin and the doors were made of wood, or even completely replaced by "curtains" made of the same tarpaulin. Is it worth mentioning that there was basically no heater in the “half-sundra” cab?
And on such equipment for two winters, 1941-1942 and 1942-1943, drivers worked, who delivered food and fuel across the ice of Lake Ladoga to besieged Leningrad, and took back people exhausted by hunger and cold. The blockade began on September 8, 1941, when the Germans took the forces defending the city Soviet army into the ring, and until the end of November, communication with Leningrad (the import of food and the export of people) took place by water under the constant shelling of German aviation.
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In November, the organization of the “ice road along the waterway Cape Osinovets - the Kareji lighthouse” began; However, on the 22nd, the first attempt was made to cross the freezing lake in cars - 60 cars left Leningrad, taking people out of the blockade, and the next day they returned to the city with food.
But later, especially in autumn and spring, cars often went under water. We tried to minimize these losses in different ways. At first, the cars were partially replaced by carts with horses. As for the "one and a half", they were not fully loaded, tying loaded sledges behind them. And the drivers left open the doors to the cockpit - so it was possible to jump onto the ice if the car starts to sink.
In addition, the minimum amount of fuel was poured into the tanks, exactly one way in one direction - so the weight of the car turned out to be slightly lower, and the losses in the event of the death of the car were not so great. The drivers of the cars walking in the convoy were ordered to maintain a distance of 100 meters from the one in front and, under the threat of being shot, were forbidden to stop if the neighboring car went under water - in order to avoid a repetition of the situation.
Lake Ladoga is one of the largest in Europe, with a length in different directions from 136 to 207 km and average depth at 51 meters. There are real storms here - one of them in September 1941, even before the appearance of the Road of Life, sank two barges, which were taking out about 800 people from the already surrounded Leningrad, about 500 of whom died. So in the winter because of strong winds there is practically no flat ice on the lake.
In the photo: Delivery of products along Lake Ladoga (September 1942)
Rugged with hummocks Ladoga Road life was officially called the military road number 101. Its length was about 44 kilometers, and about 30 of them were on the ice of the lake. The road consisted of two lanes of 10 meters each with a distance of 100-150 meters from each other. But it was not a static object - the ice strength was enough for an average of two weeks, after which the route actually had to be rebuilt, at a considerable distance from the previous one. Each driver driving down onto the ice was accompanied by a sign: “Each one and a half car carries food for 10 thousand rations, for 10 thousand people. Driver, save these lives! "
At night, the columns of cars walked with blackout: the drivers turned off their headlights and guided themselves by special landmarks, traffic controllers with "bat" flashlights, oncoming cars and horse-drawn carts. Thus, the visibility was very low - in such conditions it is difficult to determine whether there is a puddle of melt water in front of your hood or a gully without a bottom, a small crack in front of which it is enough to slow down a little, or a dangerous hummock. Often, the car simply flew in at speed under the ice floe, without any chance for the driver and potential passengers.
During the first two weeks of the existence of VAD No. 101, 157 cars went under the ice. For the entire first winter - about 1,000. During the second winter, the losses were significantly less - just over 100 cars, but in the end every third "lorry" that worked on the Road of Life drowned. Several decades after the war, they were taken from the bottom of Lake Ladoga. They say that even now, if you fly over Ladoga, in some places through the water you can see black rectangles - the skeletons of the "lorry" that lay on the bottom. Some of them became mass graves - there are cases when people weakened by the blockade could not quickly leave the body and drowned.
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Briefly about history It is not by chance that I say “briefly”. The history of the truck is known to many and, frankly, is typical for many Soviet cars. In 1926 ...
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Every 5 km on the road there were supposed to be food and heating points, but some eyewitnesses say that sanitary tents and heating points were at least 7-8 kilometers apart. And in addition to the danger of falling under the water of the drivers, the "lorry" was accompanied on the Road of Life by another - to run into shelling or a raid of enemy aircraft. In the winter of 1941-1942, Soviet fighters carried out 143 air battles over the lake, and air defense shot down 51 fascist aircraft.
In that first winter of the existence of the Road of Life in the vicinity of Leningrad, there were severe frosts - on the night of December 31, -51.7 ° C was recorded. In "Leningrad Poem" Olga Berggolts describes a case when one of the drivers on the flight stalled the engine. He was about to try to start it, but his hands were so stiff from the frost that he could hardly take them off the steering wheel. In order to somehow warm his hands and be able to revive the engine, he poured gasoline on his palms and set them on fire: “And so - in gasoline he / Moistened his hands, set them on fire from the engine, / And the repair quickly moved / in the flaming hands of the driver. / Forward! As blisters ache, / are frozen to the mittens of the palm. / But he will deliver bread, bring / to the bakery before dawn. "
This story is based on real events, there is evidence of eyewitnesses: Anna Pavlovna Ivanova (Kulikova) worked on the Road of Life as a paramedic. She said that once, next to the hospital tent, where she was the mistress, they stopped a car, the driver of which was steering with his elbows, because his hands were burned - in order to grab the crank of the stalled engine, he set his own hands on fire. He wound up and drove to the ambulance tent, but left the cab and took help only when he handed over the car to the driver on duty along with the cargo for Leningrad - sacks of flour.
And when a blizzard began on Ladoga, the driver could easily lose his orientation in space. Once on Ivan Kudel'skiy "lorry" the ignition started floundering, and while he was fiddling with candles, the column in which he was moving disappeared from sight, and a blizzard arose. Ivan managed to start the engine, but devoid of landmarks, he came instead of Leningrad to Shlisselburg, which was "under the German"! Fortunately, the sentry hesitated for a second, and the driver was able to tie him up and deliver him to ours, for which he was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
Freezing, getting lost in a blizzard, was as easy as shelling pears for the driver. At the beginning of the winter of 1941, Leonid Barkovich went on one of his first flights along the Road of Life from Leningrad with his father, also a driver. On the way, like our previous heroes, he was caught in a breakdown. Father in his car, along with the rest of the column, went ahead. Leonid successfully repaired, moved on, and already approaching the end point, noticed a frozen truck in the dark. It was his father's car - he did not have enough metered fuel, and he almost froze to death. But he was saved - the son took the truck in tow and dragged it to the end of the route.
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According to the testimony of another eyewitness - also one of the drivers who worked on the Road of Life - Alexander Nikolaevich Shabov, the hardest things were not jumping from a sinking car onto the ice, not shelling, not fighting the cold and not several flights per day. The hardest part was at the evacuation point on the way back from Leningrad - not to give the emaciated people who had just been evacuated to eat. After all, they could eat in very small portions, under the supervision of a doctor, otherwise they would face a quick death. It was especially difficult to "negotiate" with the children.
The military blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. The road of life, taking into account the periods of navigation, when people and goods were transported by water, existed from September 12, 1941 to March 1943. If we talk specifically about the ice Road of Life, then it was serviced by about 4,500 vehicles (at one time, in different periods, from 1,200 to 3,000 vehicles were occupied), of which about 3,000 were "lorries" GAZ-AA and GAZ-MM, about 1,000 - "three-ton" ZIS-5. Among the rest were 40 city buses ZIS-8 from the Moscow Bus Expedition, which arrived in Ladoga in January 1942 and removed 69,000 blockade soldiers from Leningrad, losing about a dozen buses.
On January 25, 1942, in Leningrad, the daily bread rate per person was for the first time increased - from 125 grams it was raised to 250. This became possible thanks to the Road of Life. During the first blockade winter, the road operated from November 22 to April 24, and in 152 days it was possible to evacuate more than 550,000 Leningraders and 35,000 wounded soldiers from the city, as well as transport more than 360,000 tons of cargo, including over 260,000 tons of food. In the second winter, from December 19, 1942 to March 30, 1943, 89,000 people were taken out by Dear Life, and more than 200,000 tons of cargo were transported, of which more than 100,000 were food.
The besieged Leningrad, despite its plight, continued to supply the front with weapons - it's hard to believe, but the tanks of the Kirov plant were ferried across the ice of Ladoga independently, in order to reduce the load, dragging the removed tower behind them on a drag trailer (in the first six months of the blockade, the city built about 700 armored cars), but most of weapons and ammunition were also transported along the Road of Life by trucks. And when preparations began to break the blockade, a huge number of soldiers and military equipment were brought into the city along the same Road of Life.
If the Germans managed to destroy the Road of Life, Leningrad would have perished along with all its inhabitants. However, at first, the Nazis simply did not have enough reserves - precisely because of the impossibility of a simultaneous attack on Moscow and Leningrad in 1941, the Germans decided to take northern capital starvation - and in the future, significant reserves of Soviet troops were pulled to Lake Ladoga. In addition to the anti-aircraft guns of ten artillery divisions, the route was covered by an air division, three fighter air regiments, a rifle regiment, a naval brigade, an NKVD division and several other army units.
The cover became so powerful that in the second winter, cars could go with their headlights on. When the car fell through the ice, the headlights (or headlight, if you mean the military version) shone for a long time from under the water column. They say that the drivers called these dead cars "fireflies" ... In 1973, one of the dead cars was raised to the surface to become a monument, but they could not restore the metal parts, so the remains of the truck were simply rolled into concrete, recreating the lost forms. This monument stands near the village of Dusyevo, where one of the automobile battalions was located during the siege. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a "lorry", but "Zakhar Ivanovich", ZIS-5.
But the monument to the "lorry" appeared much later - in 2012, the most detailed bronze copy of GAZ-AA in full size was installed on the 10th kilometer of the Road of Life. Where the "iron rescuers", drivers, their passengers and cargo were subjected to the most violent shelling.
Now children learn about the details of that war much later than their peers from the Soviet past. And in general, it seems to me, they know much less. I still have no idea how to tell my 7-year-old son at least part of what is written in this article. But I will definitely do it.
“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-millionth city did not depend on the thickness of the ice and weather conditions on the 40-kilometer route 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 (the eastern bank of 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 in the direction of the sleigh. 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 of 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 o " railroad life ”they preferred to forget.
SEE THE PHOTO GALLERY "The Siege of Leningrad"
