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Text: Zhang Runchen
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introduction
The Siege of Leningrad, the longest siege in human history, lasted from July 10, 1941, when the Soviet-German war had just begun, to August 9, 1944, when the war was about to end. The battle lasted more than three years, and there was almost no grain production in the city, and the Holodomor spread in Leningrad for almost three years.
But this heroic city, in the midst of such a hellish nightmare, resolutely persevered. The soldiers and civilians in the city never thought of surrendering, and they bravely repelled the German attacks again and again. They kept the second capital of the Russian nation, the Leningrad people, who were not afraid of death!
(Operation Barbarossa)
1. In those nine hundred days and nights
In June 1941, the Germans launched the infamous Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, and the Soviet-German War broke out. At the beginning of the war, the Soviet army suffered an unprecedented rout. In just two months, the German army crossed the entire three Baltic states and approached Leningrad, the second largest city in the Soviet Union.
In the other direction, Marshal Mannerheim of Finland also led the group of "white Grim Reapers" to take Vyborg, and the northern road to Leningrad was completely cut off. By the time August came, Leningrad was already crowded with Soviet troops fleeing from the Baltic region and the north, as well as overwhelmed Baltic Fleet sailors.
At the same time, German units had already entered the outskirts of Leningrad. The Germans carried out an unprecedented artillery bombardment of Leningrad, dropping a total of 100,000 bombs and 150,000 shells, destroying 10,000 houses in the city. In this way, Hitler tried to crush the will of the military and civilians of Leningrad to resist, and also tried to completely destroy the city in this way.
(Shostakovich)
In a way, Hitler's goal was achieved. Leningrad, a city full of art, was almost razed to the ground by the German bombing. However, the brutality of the German army inspired the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city, and at Voroshilov's call, 500,000 residents of the city built fortifications in the face of artillery fire.
Another 200,000 people joined the army in the defense of Leningrad. 70% of the party members and 90% of the Komsomol members in the city went to the front, and even the famous Soviet composer Shostakovich took part in the duty guard, and wrote the famous "Leningrad Symphony" in his spare time.
At the end of 1942, the score for the Leningrad Symphony was airlifted to London and then to the United States. The Battle of Leningrad was also known to the American people in this way, and the song itself was widely praised by all walks of life in the United States. Major broadcasters and famous conductors in the United States began to compete for the right to act, and in the end, NBC Broadcasting came out on top.
During World War II, the Leningrad Symphony was performed more than 60 times in the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, and 62 in the United States alone. Even South America, which was indifferent to the war, had the "Leningrad Symphony", and the news of the defense of Leningrad was transmitted to the world.
(Leningrad)
During the 900 days and nights of being besieged by the Germans, the people of Leningrad had almost nothing, they had no food, no houses, and not even a bed to sleep in. The only thing that can inspire the people of Leningrad is music, and while the front-line fighters fought bloodily, the musicians of Leningrad defended the spiritual world of Leningrad.
At the end of March 1942, the Leningrad Radio Orchestra arranged a concert that was scheduled during the day to prevent terrorist attacks. The concert was packed that day, but in the middle of the performance, air raid sirens suddenly sounded, and security personnel tried to get the performers and spectators into the bomb shelter quickly, but no one moved.
Towards the end of the concert, the air raid sirens sounded again and the security personnel came again. They shouted: "The air raid sirens have sounded!" The audience responded, "We know!" Then the concert ended, and the audience stood up and applauded for a long time.
(Battle of Leningrad)
Leningraders, not afraid of death.
But death doesn't mean you won't be afraid of it, in fact it was with you throughout the siege of Leningrad. The deadliest toll was not the German bombing, but starvation.
2. Countdown to death
Beginning on November 16, 1941, Leningrad was completely blocked, and supplies could only be transported by air. On 20 November, the rations of the people of Leningrad were reduced to a minimum of 250 grams of bread a day for workers and 125 grams a day for residents, civil servants and children.
(Leningrad strewn with corpses)
In the bombing, 17,000 citizens of Leningrad were killed, and in the unprecedented Holodomor in Leningrad, a total of 641,803 people starved to death! In fact, the rations provided by the authorities are not just bread, but 125 grams of flour may contain only 80 grams, and most of the rest are impurities such as wood chips.
And these "breads" accompanied the people of Leningrad for three whole years. In such a cruel environment, starvation is a common occurrence. The workers had the largest amount of food rations, but many of them would take them home and share them with their families. In the process of working, some workers suddenly collapsed next to the machine tool and died suddenly.
It turns out that starvation only takes a moment.
(Leningrad "The Way of Life")
Many more starved to death in their "homes", but their original houses had become ruins, the walls were ventilated on all sides, and the corpses quickly stinked. At first, people still had the energy to bury the dead, but when winter came, many people did not know that they were dead, and they were gradually frozen into "ice sculptures" in the ruins.
Some people starved to death in the streets, one moment they were still walking, the next their lives were gone. At a temperature of minus thirty or forty degrees, the deceased does not need to be buried in the soil at all, it is enough to bury the deceased in the snow. There are even times when there is no need to bury the dead at all, and the next day it will not be seen.
Most of the children of Leningrad were evacuated before the siege began, or during the siege through the "passage of life" on Lake Ladoga. In winter, the lake froze over the lake, allowing Soviet troops to enter Leningrad through the lake, and the city's children to evacuate through the lake. At that time, Hitler asked Mannerheim to attack Lake Ladoga several times, but the old marshal refused, and because of this, Finland did not become a defeated country after the war.
(Battle of Leningrad)
But children who fail to leave the city don't end well, falling asleep with hunger every night. By the end of the siege, most of these children had died of starvation. One of them, a young girl named Tania, recorded the exact time of the death of her mother, sister, brother, grandmother, uncle and uncle during the six months from December 1941 to May 1942.
During the siege, Tania was evacuated to the rear, but died after two years of recuperation. After the war, Tania's diary became evidence at the Nuremberg court and was translated into English. Even the hard-hearted Churchill shed tears when he saw the diary after the war.
Another cause of mass death was the cold, and during the three years of the siege, Leningrad's wooden furniture, books and wood-paneled houses were almost burned to the ground. But instead of cutting down trees in gardens and streets, the people of Leningrad seem to have a deep affection for numbers.
(Battle of Leningrad)
The precious fuel was donated to the army, which they needed to use to make incendiary bombs to fight the German devils on the other side. Time passed day by day, and the city of Leningrad was slowly dying...
3. In the starless night, Leningrad jumped from death
At the end of 1942, the Soviet High Command drew up the "Spark" plan, which, if successfully implemented, would have lifted the siege of Leningrad. The date of the operation was set for January 1, 1943, but due to weather conditions, the final plan was postponed to January 12, 1943.
The operation was very successful, and the Soviet troops managed to open a narrow land passage on the eastern side of Leningrad. On 18 January, the National Defense Committee ordered the immediate repair of a section of the railway line connecting Leningrad-Volkhov, which was completed in only 18 days.
(Soviet-German War)
At dawn on February 7, the people of Leningrad finally waited for the first train to open in two years, and the whole of Leningrad was boiling. Although the siege of Leningrad is not over, there is no doubt that the most difficult moment has passed. Throughout 1943, the Germans continued to attack the railway, but it never really stopped.
Air and water transport also began to increase, and Leningrad's goods gradually became richer. In the first half of 1944, the Finnish government began to engage with the Soviet Union in an attempt to withdraw from World War II with dignity. In the course of the negotiations, the Finnish troops gradually withdrew from the north of Leningrad, and the encirclement of Leningrad de facto ceased to exist.
At the beginning of 1944, the Soviet army began a large-scale counterattack against the German army encircling Leningrad, and the major cities in the northern part of the Soviet Union were recaptured by the Soviet army one after another. On January 14, 1944, the Leningrad-Moscow October Railway was reopened, and the Siege of Leningrad was basically over. In the summer of 1944, the Finnish army was repulsed by the Soviets to Vyborg Bay, and Finland's determination to withdraw from the war was further strengthened.
(Zhukov)
In August 1944, the German threat to Leningrad had largely ceased to exist, and the Battle of Leningrad was completely over. Just a month later, Finland declared an armistice with the Soviet Union and withdrew from World War II with dignity. After the siege of more than 900 days, there were almost no animals in Leningrad except humans, and even rats were all eaten.
Zhukov said of the people of Leningrad: "It is not Leningrad that is afraid of death, but death that is afraid of Leningrad!" ”
Resources:
Communist Party of China News Network. Fight to the death for justice and honor - the Great Patriotic War will forever be recorded in the annals of Russian and human history. [OL].2015.05.06.
Sheng Shiliang. Unforgettable 900 Days and Nights[J].China Militia, 1986(08):28-29.
YIN Jie. The Wind and Snow Full of Bow and Knife——Remembering the "Road of Life" in the Battle of Leningrad[J].Military Digest, 2015(23):4.