The Presidential Library’s collections tell about besieged Leningrad

January 18, 2023 marks the 80th anniversary of breaking of a siege of Leningrad, which became one of the most tragic stages of the Great Patriotic War. Even despite the fact that the city was systematically destroyed by regular shelling and starvation for two and a half years, Leningrad survived and was never captured. 

The Presidential Library’s portal features the electronic collection Memory of the Great Victory, which contains official documents, photos reports and newsreels, wartime newspapers, books, memoirs of participants in the battles and home front workers, photographs and postcards, as well as the collection Defence and Siege of Leningrad, which preserved the chronicle of this tragic page in the history of our country.

The siege of Leningrad began on September 8, 1941. The Nazi troops captured Shlisselburg, and Leningrad was separated from the whole country. Communication with the city was maintained only by air and along Lake Ladoga. Having taken Leningrad, the Nazi troops would have been able to eliminate the main bases of the Baltic Fleet, disable the city's military industry, and also prevent the counteroffensive against German troops moving towards Moscow.

Hitler's plans were not just to capture the city, but to completely destroy it. However, the residents of Leningrad did not think to give up. In a short time, an army of people's militia was formed. In the city itself, self-defence groups of local air defence of buildings were created in all houses, the majority of which were women and children. They were supposed to drop incendiary bombs that fell into houses from the roofs, to provide assistance to the victims. 

Hungry and exhausted Leningrad residents, in spite of everything, took care of the architectural monuments and famous sculptures of their city. Large monuments, such as the Bronze Horseman and the monument to Nicholas I, were covered with sandbags and wooden shields. Let's preserve the monuments of Russian culture! is written on the postcard of the siege years. It shows how the famous monument to Peter I was covered with scaffolding. The sculptures of the Summer Garden, the monuments to Alexander III and Peter I at the Engineer's Castle, Klodt's horses from the Anichkov Bridge were buried in the ground. 

With the beginning of the siege, Leningrad was subjected to regular bombardments. In order to disorient the enemy, the buildings were covered with camouflage nets, on which pieces of fabric painted to match the color of the vegetation were sewn. Additionally, tree branches were woven into the net. The lawns were dug up, the gilding of the domes and spiers was covered with gray paint, which masked them and did no harm. If this was impossible to do, as in the case of the Admiralty spire, then special covers were sewn. Bridges and station buildings were camouflaged with wooden structures that did not interfere with traffic, but created the illusion of ruins.

One of the most important tasks of the winter campaign of 1942-1943 was the breakthrough of the siege of Leningrad. Our troops had to destroy the enemy defenses at all costs, break through the siege and save exhausted Leningrad.

For many months the Germans tried to force the city to surrender by bombing and starvation. According to the newspaper Tambovskaya Pravda (January 19, 1943), during this time they managed to turn their positions on the outskirts of the city into a powerful fortified area, with an extensive system of concrete structures, anti-tank and anti-personnel obstacles.

The offensive of our troops took place in two directions: from the western bank of the Neva, southwest of Shlisselburg, and from the east, from the area located south of Lake Ladoga. Despite the fact that this was the strongest place in the enemy's defence, the distance between the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts in this section of the siege ring was the shortest. At the direction of J. V. Stalin, the operation to break the siege was called Iskra.

The direct breakthrough of the siege of Leningrad began at 9 hours 30 minutes on January 12, 1943 by artillery, and in the Volkhov Front by aviation training. Then, assault groups descended onto the ice of the Neva, which rushed to the opposite bank. With the help of "cats", hooks and ladders, they climbed the ice slope and broke into the German trenches.

Having broken through the enemy's long-term fortified zone and crossed the Neva, our troops overcame the enemy's stubborn resistance and moved forward for seven days of intense fighting. Having liberated Maryino, Moscow Dubrovka, Lipka, workers' settlements, Podgornaya and Sinyavino stations, on January 18, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts united and thereby broke through the siege of Leningrad. Georgy Zhukov and Kliment Voroshilov coordinated the actions of both fronts, Leonid Govorov (Leningrad Front) and Kirill Meretskov (Volkhov Front) directly commanded the fronts.

This victory was a real celebration. Memoirs, handwritten diaries, letters from relatives and friends, which readers brought to the Presidential Library, forever preserved emotions of those days for us.

The Leningrad press published responses to this grandiose event from London and New York. “The announcement of breaking of a siege of Leningrad is at the center of attention of all British newspapers”, - says an article in Leningradskaya Pravda newspaper dated January 22, 1943. “The News Chronicle military observer declares that this event is the largest and most joyful of all gratifying news from the Soviet-German front in recent weeks. The valiant and steadfast resistance of Leningrad, which has been constantly under enemy threat since August 1941, has endured much suffering, deprivation, disease and hunger, is an epic of self-sacrifice that has no equal in the history of the war. And here is the reward, here are the fruits of this valor. US President Franklin Roosevelt presented Leningrad with a congratulatory letter in memory of the feat of the defenders on behalf of his country.

On the same days, a poem by Olga Bergholz, written on January 18-19, 1943, was published on the pages of Leningradskaya Pravda.

In October 2022, by decision of the St. Petersburg City Court, the siege of Leningrad was recognized as genocide.