The Siege has a woman's face... The Presidential Library highlights the beginning of the Siege of Leningrad

On September 8, 1941, a Siege ring was set around Leningrad. The Siege lasted until January 18, 1943, when the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts met near the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. A year later, on January 27, 1944, the Siege was finally lifted.

The older generation of the Siege passed away, and the younger witnesses of those times still remember these terrible days. They will remember everything to the smallest detail - this is evidenced by their handwritten diaries and published memoirs, official documents and other materials donated to the Presidential Library for digitization. They all enter the extensive collection "The Defence and Siege of Leningrad". These sources provide an opportunity to make a detailed study of the relevant events and, in particular, appreciate the contribution of women to supporting the spirits of the besieged city.

"Leningrad women appeared outside the city walls", states the book "The Struggle for Leningrad. Pilots" by Boris Brodyansky, published during the war, in 1944. - Suburban trains carried them to the building of city defensive line. Coloured shawls adorn the heads of the city dwellers. Leningrad women dug anti-tank ditches... They worked with spades, created log-roads in the swamps, and dug trenches for shooters". Then, the author notes: "Defence construction was performed inside the city, and especially intensively - in the factory outskirts. <…> Barricades - sophisticated modern fortifications - blocked the streets and lanes of Leningrad. Every meter was sophisticatedly protected. The enemy was awaited by traps, ambushes, flanking fire, fire installations at city crosses and machine-gun points in the attics and upper floors of each building. The city was well-armed, preparing for long resistance to the enemy". The main labour force in this non-female job was the weaker sex.

The periodicals spotlight how thoughtfully and carefully the city residents prepared for the defence. The article entitled "Women are mastering the profession of railway workers" from the Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper (July 27, 1941) informed: "Dozens of women are now studying at the School for Railway Personnel of the Engineering Centre of the October Railway. Here, Soviet patriots are mastering the profession of railway workers to replace those who have gone to the front and the People's Militia".

Newspapers of that period also wrote about the brigades for the defence of buildings. They were created in all houses, without fail. These groups were able to immediately cure the victims, quickly put out a fire, and drop incendiary bombs from the roof. And, of course, the staff majority was women.

"Mom joined the people's militia and was employed by the local counter-air defence", writes Dmitry Tarasevich in the book "Pages of the Siege Memory", published in Jerusalem in 2018. "She was on duty on the roof ... extinguished incendiary bombs, and between duties in a shelter she worked with children. Girls and I knitted mittens and tobacco pouches that we sent to the front with letters". The end of September 1941 was a period of fierce battles for Leningrad. The front line stretched around the whole city, taken it into a ring. The fighting lasted day and night. Alisa Vishnyakova reminded this in the diary "Memories of the Siege Days": "I was very young when the war began. Mom and I did not evacuate. We lived in the city for all 900 days. Mom said: "If we must die, we would do it here". <...> My older sister Nina and I were sitting at the table with the spoons in hands, waiting for my mother to give us food... And at that moment the bombing began. The bomb exploded too close. Mom saw the stove shaking in front of her".

In the book "Pages of the Siege Memory", Geliy Kheifets recalls: "The portions of ration cards decreased regularly. In October a real famine began. <…> One day, my mother brought a duranda from the market. It was the tiles of pressed flax seeds. She made duranda cakes, which I ate with pleasure".

"During the most difficult time of the Siege (winter 1941-1942), I realized that the stronger sex is not men, but women, I judge by my mother and sister", writes Dmitry Tarasevich in his Siege memoirs, published in the same book. "I was the first who grew weak, and they saved me. They gave an extra piece of bread, the last cake and always supported. On New Year's Eve, I got two of the four sweets".

Women showed heroism not only in the rear but also at the front. The collection "Abkhaz Warriors Defending Leningrad" provides many amazing stories about the fate of residents of Soviet regions who met the war in Leningrad. A young and beautiful student Mary Avidzba read the appeal "To All the Leningrad Workers" published in the Leningradskaya Pravda. The leaflet spoke of the danger that threatened the city. Mary wrote in the application to the military commissariat: "I am a pilot. I can't bear what the damned fascists are doing with the beloved Leningrad. I can't be in the rear. My place is in the front". During the war, navigator Meri Avidzba made 477 sorties, crossed the front line 954 times, and dropped more than 64 thousand kilograms of destructive bombs on the enemy...

The collections "Memory of the Great Victory" and "The Defence and Siege of Leningrad" provide detailed information about the besieged city.