STORIES OF CHILDREN OF BLOCKAD LENINGRAD

On November 22, 1941, during the blockade of Leningrad, an ice route through Lake Ladoga began to operate. Thanks to her, many children were able to go to evacuation. Before that, some of them went through orphanages: some relatives died, and some disappeared at work all day long.

“At the beginning of the war, we probably didn’t realize that our childhood, our family, and our happiness would one day collapse. But we felt it almost immediately,” says Valentina Trofimovna Gershunina, orphanage in Siberia. Listening to the stories of the blockade people who grew up, you understand: having managed to save their lives, they lost their childhood. Too many "adult" things these guys had to do while real adults were fighting - at the front or at the machines.

Several women, whom they once managed to take out of the besieged Leningrad, told us their stories. Stories of stolen childhood, loss and life - against all odds.

"We saw grass and started eating it like cows."

The story of Irina Konstantinovna Potravnova

Little Ira lost her mother, brother and gift during the war. “I had perfect pitch. I managed to study at a music school,” says Irina Konstantinovna. “They wanted to take me to the school at the conservatory without exams, they said to come in September.

Irina Konstantinovna was born into an Orthodox family: dad was the choir director, and my mother sang in the choir. In the late 1930s, my father began working as chief accountant at the Institute of Technology. They lived in two-story wooden houses on the outskirts of the city. The family had three children, Ira is the youngest, she was called a stump. Dad died a year before the start of the war. And before he died, he said to his wife: "Only take care of your son." The son died first - back in March. The wooden houses were destroyed by the bombing, and the family went to stay with relatives. “Dad had an amazing library, and we could only take the most necessary things. We packed two large suitcases,” says Irina Konstantinovna. “It was cold April. on the way our cards were stolen. "

April 5, 1942 was Easter, and Irina Konstantinovna's mother went to the bazaar to buy at least duranda, the pulp of seeds left over after pressing the oil. She returned with a fever and never got up.

So the sisters of eleven and fourteen were left alone. To get at least some cards, they had to go to the city center - otherwise no one would have believed that they were still alive. On foot - transport has not been running for a long time. And slowly - because there was no strength. It took three days to get there. And their cards were stolen again - all but one. The girls gave her away in order to somehow bury their mother. After the funeral, the elder sister went to work: fourteen-year-old children were considered "adults". Irina came to the orphanage, and from there to the orphanage. “We parted on the street and didn't know anything about each other for a year and a half,” she says.

Irina Konstantinovna remembers the feeling of constant hunger and weakness. Children, ordinary children who wanted to jump, run and play, could hardly move - like old women.

“Once, while walking, I saw painted“ classics, ”she says. tears flow. She told me: "Don't cry, little paw, then you jump." We were so weak. "

In the Yaroslavl region, where the children were evacuated, the collective farmers were ready to give them whatever they wanted - it was so painful to look at the bony, emaciated children. Only there was nothing special to give. “We saw grass and began to eat it like cows. We ate everything we could,” says Irina Konstantinovna. “By the way, no one got sick with anything.” Then little Ira learned that she had lost her hearing due to the bombing and stress. Forever and ever.

Irina Konstantinovna

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There was a piano in the school. I ran up to him and I understand - I can't play. The teacher came. She says: "What are you doing, girl?" I answer: the piano is upset here. She told me: "Yes, you do not understand anything!" I'm in tears. I don’t understand, I know everything, I have an absolute ear for music ...

Irina Konstantinovna

There were not enough adults, it was difficult to look after the children, and Irina, as a diligent and intelligent girl, was made a teacher. She took the guys out to the fields to earn workdays. “We spread flax, we had to fulfill the norm - 12 acres per person. It was easier to spread curly flax, but after fiber flax all our hands festered,” recalls Irina Konstantinovna. “Because the little hands were still weak, scratched.” So - in work, hunger, but security - she lived for more than three years.

At the age of 14, Irina was sent to the restoration of Leningrad. But she had no documents, and during the physical examination, the doctors noted that she was 11 - the girl looked so undeveloped outwardly. So already in her hometown, she almost ended up in an orphanage again. But she managed to find a sister, who by that time was studying at a technical school.

Irina Konstantinovna

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They didn’t take me to work, because I was supposedly 11 years old. Do you need something? I went to the dining room to wash the dishes, peel the potatoes. Then they made my documents, went through the archives. Within a year got a job

Irina Konstantinovna

Then there were eight years of work in a confectionery factory. In the post-war city, this made it possible to sometimes eat off defective, broken sweets. Irina Konstantinovna fled from there when they decided to promote her along the party line. "I had a wonderful leader, he said:" Look, you are being prepared for the chief of the shop. "I say:" Help me to get out. "I thought that I had to mature before the party."

Irina Konstantinovna “washed away” at the Geological Institute, and then went on a lot of expeditions to Chukotka and Yakutia. "On the way" I managed to get married. She has more than half a century of happy marriage behind her. "I am very happy with my life," says Irina Konstantinovna. Only now she never played the piano again.

"I thought that Hitler was the Serpent Gorynych"

The story of Regina Romanovna Zinovieva

"On June 22, I was in the kindergarten," says Regina Romanovna. "We went for a walk, and I ended up in the first pair. And that was very honorable, they gave me a flag ... We leave proud, suddenly a woman runs, all disheveled, and shouts:" War, Hitler attacked us! "And I thought it was the Serpent Gorynych who attacked and his fire is coming out of his mouth ..."

Then the five-year-old Regina was very upset that she never walked with the flag. But very soon "Serpent Gorynych" interfered in her life much more strongly. Dad went to the front as a signalman, and soon he was taken away on the "black funnel" - they took him immediately upon returning from the mission, without even allowing him to change clothes. His last name was German - Hindenberg. The girl stayed with her mother, and famine began in the besieged city.

Once Regina was waiting for her mother, who was supposed to pick her up from kindergarten. The teacher took the two delayed children out into the street and went to lock the doors. A woman came up to the kids and offered candy.

“We don’t see bread, there are sweets! We wanted very much, but we were warned that we should not approach strangers. Fear won, and we ran away,” says Regina Romanovna. “Then the teacher came out. We wanted to show her this woman, but she already the trace is gone. " Now Regina Romanovna realizes that she managed to escape from the cannibal. At that time, Leningraders, mad with hunger, stole and ate children.

Mom tried to feed her daughter as best she could. Once I invited a speculator to exchange cuts of fabric for a couple of pieces of bread. The woman, looking around, asked if there were any children's toys in the house. And Regina, before the war, was given a plush monkey, she was named Fock.

Regina Romanovna

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I grabbed this monkey and shouted: "Take what you want, but I won't give this one! This is my favorite." And she really liked her. She and my mother tore out the toy from me, and I roar ... Taking the monkey, the woman cut off more bread - more than for cloth

Regina Romanovna

Having already become an adult, Regina Romanovna will ask her mother: "Well, how could you take away your favorite toy from a small child?" Mom replied: "Perhaps this toy saved your life."

Once, leading her daughter to the kindergarten, my mother fell in the middle of the street - she no longer had the strength. She was taken to the hospital. So little Regina ended up in an orphanage. "There were a lot of people, we were lying in bed two by two. They put me with the girl, she was all swollen. Her legs were all covered with ulcers. And I say:" How will I lie with you, turn around, I will hurt your legs, you will be hurt. ”And she told me:“ No, they still don’t feel anything. ”

The girl did not stay in the orphanage for long - her aunt took her. And then, along with other kids from kindergarten, she was sent to evacuation.

Regina Romanovna

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When we got there we were given semolina. Oh, it was so cute! We licked this porridge, licked the plates from all sides, we have not seen such food for a long time ... And then they put us in a train and sent to Siberia

Regina Romanovna

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The guys were lucky: they were received very well in the Tyumen region. The children were given a former manor house - a strong, two-story one. They stuffed the mattresses with hay, gave them land for a vegetable garden and even a cow. The guys weeded the beds, caught fish and collected nettles for cabbage soup. After hungry Leningrad, this life seemed calm and well-fed. But, like all Soviet children of that time, they worked not only for themselves: girls from the older group looked after the wounded and washed bandages at the local hospital, the boys went to logging with their teachers. This work was hard even for adults. And the older children in the kindergarten were only 12-13 years old.

In 1944, the authorities considered the fourteen-year-olds old enough to go to rebuild liberated Leningrad. “Our head went to the regional center - part of the way on foot, part on hitchhiking. The frost was 50-60 degrees,” recalls Regina Romanovna. “It took three days to say: the children are weak, they cannot work. Only seven or eight of the strongest boys were sent to Leningrad. "

Regina's mom survived. By that time, she was working at a construction site and corresponded with her daughter. It remained to wait for the victory.

Regina Romanovna

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The manager wore a red crepe de Chine dress. She tore it up and hung it like a flag. It was so beautiful! So I didn’t regret it. And our boys arranged fireworks: all the pillows were dismissed and fluffed with feathers. And the educators did not even swear. And then the girls gathered the feathers, made pillows for themselves, and the boys were left without pillows. This is how we celebrated Victory Day

Regina Romanovna

The children returned to Leningrad in September 1945. In the same year, we finally received the first letter from Regina Romanovna's father. It turned out that he had been in a camp in Vorkuta for two years. Only in 1949 did the mother and daughter receive permission to visit him, and a year later he was released.

Regina Romanovna has a rich pedigree: there was a general in her family who fought in 1812, and her grandmother in 1917, as part of a women's battalion, defended the Winter Palace. But nothing played such a role in her life as the German surname, inherited from long ago Russified ancestors. Because of her, she not only nearly lost her father. Later, the girl was not taken to the Komsomol, and already an adult Regina Romanovna herself refused to join the party, although she held a decent post. Her life was happy: two marriages, two children, three grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. But she still remembers how she did not want to part with the monkey Foka.

Regina Romanovna

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The elders told me: when the blockade began, the weather was fine, the sky was blue. And over Nevsky Prospect appeared a cross from the clouds. It hung for three days. It was a sign to the city: it will be incredibly difficult for you, but still you will endure

Regina Romanovna

"We were called" picks "

The story of Tatyana Stepanovna Medvedeva

Mom called little Tanya the last: the girl was the youngest child in a large family: she had a brother and six sisters. In 1941 she was 12 years old. “On June 22 it was warm, we were going to go to sunbathe and swim. And suddenly they announced that the war had begun,” Tatyana Stepanovna says. ...

The parents were already elderly, they did not have enough strength to fight. They quickly died: dad in February, mom in March. Tanya sat at home with her nephews, who were not much different in age from her - one of them, Volodya, was only ten. The sisters were taken to defense work. Someone dug trenches, someone took care of the wounded, and one of the sisters gathered dead children around the city. And the relatives were afraid that Tanya would be among them. “Raya's sister said:“ Tanya, you won't survive here alone. ”The mothers took the nephews apart - Volodya was taken to the plant, he worked with her, - says Tatyana Stepanovna. - Raya took me to the orphanage. On the road to life. "

The children were taken to the Ivanovo region, to the town of Gus-Khrustalny. And although there were no bombings and "125 blockade grams", life did not become easy. Subsequently, Tatyana Stepanovna talked a lot with the same grown children of besieged Leningrad and realized that other evacuated children did not live so hungry. Probably, the point is in geography: after all, the front line was much closer here than in Siberia. "When the commission came, we said that there was not enough food. We were told: we give you horse portions, and you all want to eat," Tatyana Stepanovna recalls. She still remembers these "horse portions" of gruel, cabbage soup and porridge. As well as the cold. The girls slept in twos: they lay down on one mattress, covered themselves with the other. There was nothing else to hide with.

Tatiana Stepanovna

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The locals didn't like us. They called them "picks". Probably because we, having arrived, began to go from door to door, asking for bread ... And it was hard for them too. There was a river, in winter I really wanted to go ice-skating. The locals gave us one skate for the whole group. Not a pair of skates - one skate. Rode in turns on one leg

Tatiana Stepanovna

Evacuation is one of the most memorable and painful pages in the history of besieged Leningrad. Five days after the start of the war, on June 27, 1941, by decision of the bureau of the city committee and the regional committee of the CPSU (b), the Leningrad city evacuation commission was created. Three weeks later, or rather on July 14, 1941, the plans of the German command to swiftly seize Leningrad became known. This was reported in the report of the NKVD of the USSR to the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army Georgy Zhukov.

The evacuation commission had to do a tremendous amount of work related to the removal of institutions, equipment, enterprises, military cargo and cultural property, as well as the population, primarily children. And this was in conditions when a stream of refugees poured into the city from the regions that were under the threat of occupation (from Karelia, the Baltic states, and later from the Leningrad region).

A month before the start of the blockade, the entire population of the city was divided into those who wanted to leave as soon as possible, and those who wanted to stay in Leningrad. Some did not want to leave their relatives who remained in the city, others feared for their property, and others considered it their patriotic duty to stay in their hometown. Finally, the majority simply doubted that in the outback, without any definite prospects, without housing, far from relatives and friends, they would be better off.

However, the evacuation began. The children were the first to leave. Already on June 29, 1941, ten echelons sent the first batch - 15,192 children with schools and childcare facilities. In total, it was planned to take 390 thousand children to the Yaroslavl and Leningrad regions. True, about 170 thousand children very soon returned to the city, since the Nazi troops were rapidly approaching the south of the Leningrad region, where they were accommodated.

Little known fact: paradoxical as it may seem, but the financial expenses for ensuring the evacuation of children and adolescents, as well as for their further stay in children's institutions in the rear, were obliged to be borne by the parents and their substitutes. This procedure was observed both before the onset of the blockade of the city, and after the blockade ring around Leningrad was closed. The article Petersburg historian, candidate of sciences Anastasia Zotova"On the collection of fees for the evacuation of children from besieged Leningrad" with reference to the Central State Archives of St. Petersburg, documents and resolutions of the blockade time are analyzed, from which it follows that the collection of funds from parents was regularly carried out all the blockade years, and for this special commissions were created , which reported monthly on the amounts collected up to 1944. Parents were temporarily exempted from payments in the event that they left Leningrad, and their whereabouts were not established. Only the export and provision of children who did not have parents and guardians were fully funded by the state.

The evacuation of the adult population began later. Until mid-August 1241, it was planned to take out 1 million 600 thousand people, but before the onset of the land blockade, only 636 thousand 203 people managed to leave, according to the City Evacuation Commission, including almost 150 thousand residents of the region and refugees from the Baltic states.

When the Road of Life opened, the evacuation continued by water through Lake Ladoga. In total, by the end of the navigation in 1941, about 33,500 people were evacuated from the besieged city by water.

“The opening of the Ladoga Way gave many Leningraders hope for salvation,” says the blockadewoman Lydia Aleksandrovna Vulman-Fedorova. - The crossing on Ladoga moved us to a magical land with bread, porridge and other dishes, although the evacuation itself was under fire, during which people were also killed "

This navigation claimed hundreds of lives. During storms and bombings, 5 tugs and 46 barges sank. The largest casualties among the evacuees were September 18 and November 4. In the first case, a barge sank, and in the second, a patrol ship was bombed. Both ships transported hundreds of Leningraders to the mainland, of which about 500 people died.

This is how the blockade leader Lev Nikolayevich Krylov, born in 1935, recalls the bombing of ships and his unsuccessful evacuation: “In the early summer they tried to take us to the boarding school along Ladoga to the mainland. On the shore, everyone was handed a "fabulous" bag of rations: a roll, crackers, biscuits, even a bar of chocolate! We were warned that eating a lot at once is dangerous. I followed my brother Yura, and he was capricious and asked not to interfere. After sailing, a storm broke out. Many children became ill and vomited. The bombing began. For some reason, we were not scared, but rather interesting. When a bomb hit the lead steamer, our ship turned back and the evacuation did not take place. "

In the autumn, before frosts set in, and the ice on Ladoga didn’t get stronger, the evacuation was almost interrupted. By December 1941, the first peak of mortality was recorded in the city - about 50 thousand Leningraders. And already in January this figure was doubled: according to the secret information of the Leningrad City Department of the Civil Registry Office, in the first month of 1942, 101,825 people died in the city.

By the end of January, evacuation became almost the only chance to escape certain death. Leningraders who left the city were selling their things for next to nothing, just to leave as soon as possible. By this time, the city had turned into a huge market. Hundreds of advertisements on the walls of houses announced an urgent sale of valuables, books, paintings, furniture, clothing and luxury items that remained in many families from pre-revolutionary times.

The people who were leaving were very much in need of funds. From the conversations and rumors circulating in the city, they knew that money, vodka, tobacco or valuables were needed to safely leave the city, to overcome the deadly path through Lake Ladoga and to survive in a new place. So they sold everything that they could not take with them. “The city is full of announcements:“ for sale, changing ”, the city is a continuous market; things, especially furniture, are worth a penny, ”wrote the Leningrad architect Esfir Gustavovna Levina in her diary.

In total, during the winter and early spring of 1942, according to official data, 554 thousand 186 people were evacuated on the ice. And after the opening of navigation in May 1942 and until August, when the evacuation was basically over, there were more than 432 thousand people. After that, the flow of evacuees dropped sharply. The wounded, the sick, the last orphanages left in the city were leaving.

Nobody counted how many people survived after they got out of the besieged city. This data simply does not exist. Leningraders died in echelons, at distribution points, in hospitals. Weakened from hunger, with dystrophy and other ailments, many could not survive the hardships of the road in the conditions of war and confusion. People were dying even from the fact that after many months of hunger they received enough food.

For the entire period of evacuation, namely from June 29, 1941 to December 17, 1943, according to archival documents of the Leningrad City Evacuation Commission, 1 million 763 thousand 129 people were evacuated from Leningrad, including residents of the Leningrad region and the Baltic republics.

Since then and until today, many Leningraders continue to look for their loved ones who were lost in the evacuation process. " We, children, mom and dad had nine people - little is small, - says the blockade Alevtina Aleksandrovna Startseva, born in 1938. - Some of my sisters and brothers, after the evacuation of the pioneer camps, ended up in orphanages. In December 1942, my mother and I were evacuated to Omsk. There my brother and I went to kindergarten, and my mother and sister, a ninth-grader, got a job at the plant..

By the end of the war, our mother had found all the children who disappeared in 1941. With my sister Nadia, she is 8 years older than me, there was an amazing story. They already managed to adopt her, but my mother was given the address where she lived. When my mother arrived there, Nadia’s adoptive mother said: “Let's agree on whom Nadia will approach, and will stay with him. She lived the whole war with us, we love her. " When mother and this woman entered the room, Nadya threw herself on our mother's neck and shouted: "Mommy!" With whom she will stay, the question has not arisen anymore "

But there are also such Leningraders who were evacuated together with children's institutions and did not find their parents, brothers and sisters after the war. Until now, some of them are looking for their loved ones. Moreover, it was in the last year that there was a chance to find people who were lost many years ago, since scattered archives were collected together, while others were declassified. The project “Blockade of Leningrad. Evacuation" was launched on April 27, 2015. This is a unified information database for the inhabitants of Leningrad, evacuated from the city during the years of the siege, which continues to be replenished with new archival data and allows you to independently search for information.

Here's what she told Senior Inspector of the Archives Committee of St. Petersburg Elizaveta Zvereva, who participated in the project from the first days: “There are already cases when, thanks to the Evacuation database, the townspeople managed to confirm the fact of their stay in the besieged city and, accordingly, to claim the sign“ Resident of besieged Leningrad ”and the social benefits they received. A specific example was quite recently: at the beginning of the war, a woman was 21 years old, and she had just given birth to a daughter. She claimed that she was evacuated with her daughter from Leningrad in 1942, and lamented that she still could not confirm the fact of the evacuation. She lived during the war on Kherson street, then it was the Smolninsky district, and until recently all inquiries received a negative answer. Now we have the opportunity to search through the combined database. And we got the result right away! It turned out that the woman and her daughter were evacuated from the enterprise of the Vyborgsky region, where her brother worked. That is why they were on the lists there. "

According to Elizaveta Zvereva, the creation of the database is not over yet, it goes through several stages. First of all, documents on evacuated citizens from the archives of regional administrations were transferred to the Central State Archives. In most cases, these are filing cabinets. Unfortunately, in a number of districts, such as Kurortny and Kronstadt, card indexes were not kept. In such cases, the only source of information is the hand-filled lists of evacuees, often illegible and poorly preserved. And in the Petrogradsky, Moskovsky, Kirovsky, Krasnoselsky and Kolpinsky districts, the documents have not survived at all, which significantly complicates the search. However, work on the project continues and every day more and more people find documents for themselves and their loved ones. From April 27, 2015 to the end of September 2016, more than 39,000 people have already used this base.

Tatiana Trofimova

I got a book S.A. Urodkov "Evacuation of the population of Leningrad in 1941-1942." Editions 1958 of the year.http://liberea.gerodot.ru/a_hist/urodkov.htm#21
I started to read, I was interested. Interesting figures are given. Moreover, figures from the reports of the fund of the city evacuation commission of the Leningrad City Council of Working People's Deputies, at that time stored in the State Archives of the October Revolution and Socialist Construction. Access to me, like to other mere mortals, in the archives is understandably ordered, in the public domain, of course, these numbers cannot be found either. Therefore, the material seems to be extremely interesting, solely as a source of figures. Let's forget about the ideological husk in the book.

Let's start with the official one for today. We are told that in besieged Leningrad a huge number of people died of hunger. The numbers are called different and differ at times. For example, Krivosheev's group, which has done a monumental work on irrecoverable losses, voices the figure of 641 thousand people. http://lib.ru/MEMUARY/1939-1945/KRIWOSHEEW/poteri.txt#w05.htm-45 ... It is the dead civilians. The site of the Piskarevsky Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg writes about 420 thousand people.http://pmemorial.ru/blockade/history ... Also clarifying that this is a figure exclusively for civilians. Not counting the rest of the cemeteries and not counting the cremated ones. Wikipedia writes about 1,052 thousand people (more than a million), while specifying that the total number of victims of the blockade among the civilian population is 1,413 thousand people. (almost one and a half million).https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%B0_%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0 % BD% D0% B8% D0% BD% D0% B3% D1% 80% D0% B0% D0% B4% D0% B0 # .D0.9C.D1.83.D0.B7.D0.B5.D0. B9_.D0.B1.D0.BB.D0.BE.D0.BA.D0.B0.D0.B4.D1.8B
There is also an interesting quote from an American political philosopher on Wikipedia Michael Walzer and, claiming that "in the siege of Leningrad, more civilians died than in the hells of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined."

For the sake of completeness, I will note that in Nuremberg the number of total victims of the blockade was announced at 632 thousand people, while 97% of this number died of starvation.

Here it is pertinent to note where did the first figure come from about some conditional 600 with so many thousand people, around which basically everything revolves. It turns out that it was voiced by Dmitry Pavlov, authorized by the State Defense Committee for food in Leningrad. In his memoir book, he specifies it as 641 803 people. http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/pavlov_db/index.html What it is based on is not known and it is not clear, but nevertheless, for many decades it was a kind of basic figure. At least this was the case under the USSR. For the democrats, this figure was understandably small and it permanently jumps up to a million and even up to one and a half million. Democrats hold millions in high esteem, millions in the GULAG, millions in the Holodomor, millions in a blockade, etc.

Now let's sort it out together and separate the flies from the chaff.

Let's start with the starting figure, that is, how many people originally lived in Leningrad. The 1939 census speaks of3,191,304 people, including the population of Kolpino, Kronstadt, Pushkin and Peterhof, including the rest of the suburbs - 3401 thousand people.

However, in connection with the introduction of the rationing system for food products in July 1941, an actual registration of the population actually living in the city and its suburbs was made in Leningrad. And this is understandable, because with the beginning of the war, a huge part of the people were mobilized into the Red Army, seconded for other needs, plus a lot of people, mainly children with mothers, left for the outback to their grandmothers. After all, summer, schoolchildren have holidays, and at that time very many had village roots. So this accounting revealed that as of the beginning of the war (July 1941), 2,652,461 people actually lived in Leningrad, including: workers and engineers 921,658, employees 515,934, dependents 747,885, children 466,984. to note that the number of dependents in the bulk accounted for the elderly.

So, just the bull by the horns. Evacuation data.

With the outbreak of the war, refugees from the surrounding area arrived in Leningrad. Someone forgets about them, and someone at the same time increases the number of the dead, such as a lot of them arrived and all died. But the evacuation data give accurate numbers.

Refugees from the Baltic States and surrounding towns and villages : Before the blockade of Leningrad, 147,500 people were evacuated by vehicles into the interior of the country through the city evacuation point. In addition, 9500 people were transported on foot. The latter accompanied livestock and property to the rear.

That is, they tried not to keep or leave anyone in the city, but were transported to the rear in transit. Which is logical and quite reasonable. If anyone stayed, then this is a relatively small part measured in units or fractions of units of percent. In general, it practically did not affect the population of the city.

On July 2, 1941, the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council outlined specific measures for the removal of 400 thousand children of preschool and school age.

Please note that the war has been going on for only 10 days, but the approximate number of children is already known and measures are being taken to evacuate them.

By August 7, 311,387 children had been evacuated from Leningrad to the Udmurt, Bashkir and Kazakh republics, to the Yaroslavl, Kirov, Vologda, Sverdlovsk, Omsk, Perm and Aktobe regions.

Within a month from the beginning of the decision to evacuate, and a month before the start of the blockade, 80% of the number of children of preschool and school age planned for evacuation had already been evacuated from the city. Or 67% of the total.

Seven days after the start of the war,plannedevacuation of not only children, but also the adult population. The evacuation took place with the help of the administration of factories, evacuation points and the city railway station.

The evacuation was carried out along railways, highways and country roads. The evacuated population of the Karelian Isthmus was sent along the Peskarevskaya road and the right bank of the Neva, bypassing Leningrad. For him, by decision of the Leningrad City Council, near the hospital. Mechnikov, at the end of August 1941, a feeding point was organized. At the site of the carts' parking areas, medical services and veterinary supervision of livestock were established.

For a more successful and planned evacuation of the population along the roads of the Leningrad railway junction, the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council in early September 1941 made a decision to create a central evacuation center, to which regional points were subordinated to the Executive Committees of Regional Councils.

Thus, planned the evacuation of the population began on June 29 and lasted until September 6, 1941 inclusive. During this time, evacuated706 283 human

Who did not understand. Before the start of the blockade, more than 700 thousand people were evacuated from the city during the SCHEDULED evacuation. or 28% of the total number of registered residents. Here's what's important. These are the people who were just evacuated. But there were also those who left the city on their own. Unfortunately, there are no figures for such a category of people and cannot be, but it is clear that these are also thousands, and most likely even tens of thousands of people. It is also important to understand that apparently all 400 thousand children planned for evacuation were evacuated, and apparently no more than 70 thousand children remained in the city. Unfortunately, there is no exact data. In any case, these 700 thousand are mainly children and women, more precisely, women with children.

The total number of evacuees in the first period was774 876 human. In the second period, the evacuation of the population from blockaded Leningrad was carried out along the highway - through Lake Ladoga.

December 1941 is the most difficult time. Minimal ration, hunger, cold, intense shelling and bombing. It turns out that up to 1875 thousand people could remain in the city by December 1941. These are the ones who met the most terrible days of the blockade.

People with families and alone from Leningrad reached the Finlyandsky railway station. Family members who retained the ability to move carried homemade sleds with baskets and bundles. Leningraders were transported by rail to the western shore of Lake Ladoga. Then the evacuees had to overcome an extremely difficult path along the ice route to the village of Kabon.

In battles from 18 to 25 December, Soviet troops defeated enemy groups in the areas of the Volkhov and Voybokalo stations and liberated the Tikhvin-Volkhov railway. After the liberation of Tikhvin from the German fascist invaders, the off-lake section of the road was significantly reduced. The shortening of the route accelerated the delivery of goods and greatly facilitated the conditions for the evacuation of the population.

during the construction of the ice route, before the start of the mass evacuation of the population (January 22, 1942), by marching order and unorganized transport across Lake Ladoga was evacuated36 118 human

Starting from December 3, 1941, evacuation trains with Leningraders began to arrive at Borisov Griva. Two echelons arrived daily. Sometimes Borisova Griva received 6 trains a day. From December 2, 1941 to April 15, 1942, a502 800 human

In addition to the military road transport, the evacuated Leningraders were transported by buses from the Moscow and Leningrad columns. They had at their disposal up to 80 vehicles, with the help of which they transported up to2500 people a day despite the fact that a large number of machines were out of order every day. At the cost of tremendous exertion of the moral and physical strength of the drivers and the command staff of military units, the motor transport fulfilled the task assigned to it. In March 1942, shipments reached about15,000 people per day .

from January 22, 1942 to April 15, 1942 evacuated inland554 463 human

That is, by mid-April 1942, another 36118 + 554463 = 590581 people were evacuated from the city. Thus, if we assume that no one died in the city, did not fall under the bombing, was not drafted into the army and did not go into the militia, then the maximum could remain up to 1200 thousand people. That is, there really should have been fewer people. April 1942 is a certain point after which the most difficult phase of the blockade was passed. In fact, since April 1942, Leningrad differed little from any other city in the country. Catering has been established, canteens are being opened (the first was opened in March 1942), enterprises are operating, street cleaners are cleaning the streets, public transport (including electric transport) runs. Moreover, not only enterprises are operating, but even tanks are being produced. Which suggests that the city has established not only the supply of food, but also components for production needs, including guns and tanks (machine tools, engines, tracks, sights, metal, gunpowder ...). In 1942, the city was made and sent tofront 713 tanks, 480 armored vehicles and 58 armored trains. This is not counting the little things such as mortars, machine guns and other grenades and shells.

After clearing Lake Ladoga from ice, on May 27, 1942, the third period of evacuation began.

in the third period of evacuation was transported448 694 human

From November 1, 1942, further evacuation of the population was stopped. Departure from Leningrad was allowed only in exceptional cases on special instructions from the City Evacuation Commission.

From November 1, the evacuation point at the Finlyandsky railway station and the food point in Lavrovo stopped working. At all other evacuation centers, the staff was reduced to a minimum. However, the evacuation of the population continued in 1943, right up to the final expulsion of the German fascist invaders from the Leningrad Region.

Here you need to understand that in fact the evacuation took place in the summer months and by the fall there was simply no one to evacuate. Since September 1942, the evacuation was more nominal, rather a kind of Brownian movement back and forth, despite the fact that since the summer of 1943, an influx of population has already begun in the city, which has become massive since the spring of 1944.

Thus, in during the war and the blockade, 1814,151 were evacuated from Leningrad people, including:
in the first period, including planned evacuation before the blockade - 774,876 people,
in the second - 590581 people,
in the third - 448694 people.
And almost 150 thousand more refugees. In a year!

Let's count how many people could have stayed in the city by the fall of 1942. 2652 - 1814 = 838 thousand people This is provided that no one died and did not disappear anywhere. How accurate is this figure and how reliable can the evacuation data be? It turned out that there is a certain reference point, or rather a document that allows you to check it. This document has recently been declassified. Here it is.

Population certificate
cities of Leningrad, Kronstadt and Kolpino

The Leningrad police department began the re-registration of passports on July 8 and finished on July 30, 1942 (1).

Submitted by the re-registration (re-registration of passports) in the city of Leningrad, Kronstadt, Kolpino, the population is 807 288
a) adults 662361
b) children 144927

Of them:

In Leningrad
- adults 640750
Children under 16 years old 134614
Total 775364

In the city of Kronstadt - adults 7653
Children under 16 1913
Total 9566

In the city of Kolpino - adults 4145
Children under 16 years old 272
Total 4417

Including the population that passed the registration, but did not receive passports:
a) Patients undergoing treatment in hospitals 4107
b) People with disabilities in disabled homes 782
c) Patients in apartments 553
d) Mentally ill in hospitals 1632
e) Fighters of the MPVO 1744
f) Arrived on mobilization from other regions 249
g) Persons living on temporary certificates 388
h) Persons with special certificates for evacuees 358
Total 9813

State-supported children:
a) in orphanages 2867
b) in hospitals 2262
c) in receivers 475
d) in baby homes 1080
e) artisans 1444
Total 8128

Note: From the total number of the re-registered population during this period, 23822 left by evacuation of the adult population (excluding children).

In the city of Leningrad, in addition to the indicated population, it consists of the supply of:
1) Workers and employees of suburban areas of the region, working in the city - 26000
2) Servicemen of military units and institutions who are on supply in Leningrad - 3500

On 30 / VII-1942. is on supply in Leningrad 836788

Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leningrad City Council of Workers' Deputies Popkov

Head of the Office of the NKVDLO Commissioner of State Security 3rd Rank Kubatkin

Surprisingly, the numbers are very close.

So how much could starve to death? As it turns out, not a lot. We can assume that the evacuation data may be somewhat overestimated. Can this be? Quite. We can assume that during this year a certain number of people from the surrounding area arrived in Leningrad. It probably was. We can assume that the wounded were taken to Leningrad from the front, and for some reason the rest were here. Surely this also happened, not even for sure, but for sure, because there is such a point in the certificate. We can assume that the return from the evacuation of a part of the population began earlier than the autumn of 1942. Could this be? Quite, especially if someone left relatively close and was forced to get out of the occupation by partisan paths, including with children. Other suburbs of Leningrad, for example Oranienbaum and Vsevolozhsk, may not be taken into account.
However, we will not get exact figures. They are not here. In this case, the only important thing is the fact that the officially adopted figures for those who died of hunger during the blockade do not correspond to reality. In all likelihood, it would be correct to say that not hundreds, let alone millions, but tens of thousands of people died of hunger during the blockade. In total, with those who died naturally, from bombings, from diseases and other reasons - probably no more than a hundred thousand.

What conclusions can we draw from everything. First of all, the fact that this topic requires additional research from historians. Moreover, honest objective research. No myths. It is necessary to remove from the archives everything that was falsified, especially the last 25 years. For example, one of the crudest fakes signed by an incomprehensible senior lieutenant, in which the numbers do not agree at all, but nevertheless it is presented by all historians every time someone begins to doubt the millions who died of hunger.

reference
Leningrad city department of acts of civil status
on the number of deaths in Leningrad in 1942
Secret
February 4, 1943

January_ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 2383853; The total number of deaths is 101,825; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 512.5.
February _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 2,322,640; The total number of deaths is 108,029; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 558.1.
March_ _ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 2,199,234; The total number of deaths is 98112; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 535.3.
April_ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 2,058,257; The total number of deaths is 85541; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 475.4.
May _ _ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 1,919,115; The total number of deaths is 53,256; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 333.0.
June_ _ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 1,717,774; The total number of deaths is 33,785; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 236.0.
July_ _ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 1302922; The total number of deaths is 17,743; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 162.1.
August_ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 870154; The total number of deaths is 8988; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 123.9.
September _ _Number of population in Leningrad - 701204; The total number of deaths is 4697; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 80.3.
October _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 675447; The total number of deaths is 3705; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 65.8.
November_ _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 652872; The total number of deaths is 3239; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 59.5.
December _ _ _ Population in Leningrad - 641,254; The total number of deaths is 3496; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 65.4.

Total: The total number of deaths - 518416; The number of deaths per 1000 population is 337.2.
Head of the OAGS UNKVD LO
senior lieutenant of state security (Ababin)

Apparently, data from cemeteries and brick factories converted into crematoria should be attributed to the same forgeries. Naturally, there was not and could not be any accounting. But for some reason there are public figures. And of course hundreds of thousands. Directly some kind of competition, who is more.

You ask, what about the film and photo chronicles? What about the memories of the siege? Let's think about it. Let 100 thousand people die from bombing, hunger and cold. In principle, such a figure can be admitted. The bulk of deaths occurred in December-February. Let it be half of the total, that is, 50 thousand. 50 thousand in three months is 500-600 people a day. 8-9 times more than if they died naturally (in peacetime). On some days, when it was very cold, this figure was even higher. There could be a thousand people a day and even more. This is a huge figure. Just think about it, a thousand a day.Despite the fact that at that time the relevant services worked with restrictions, and on some days they might not work at all, including cemeteries and a crematorium. And city transport in December-January worked with restrictions and at some moments did not work at all. This led to the accumulation of corpses on the streets. The picture is certainly creepy, and could not help but remain in the memory of people. Yes they saw, yes a lot, but how many I do not know and I do not remember.

Now let's deal with the food set in besieged Leningrad. Most people think that throughout the blockade, people ate 125 grams of bread, and half made of sawdust and straw, and therefore died. However, it is not.

Here are the norms for bread.

Indeed, from November 20 to December 25 (5 weeks), children, dependents and employees received 125 grams of bread per day, and far from being of the highest quality, with an admixture of malt (stocks from breweries stopped in October 1941) and other fillers (cake, bran, etc.). There was no sawdust or other straw in the bread, this is a myth.

This is for bread.

And we are assured that in addition to bread, other products were not given out in the absence of. In particular, this is stated by the official site of the Piskarevsky cemetery. http://www.pmemorial.ru/blockade/history However, raising the archival materials, we learn in particular that since February 1942 the norms for meat have been changed from canned to fresh frozen. Now I will not delve into the quality of meat, its distribution and other nuances, the fact is important to me first of all. The fact of having not just canned meat, but meat. If meat was given out according to the cards, it is logical to assume that other products were also issued according to the norms of the allowance. And spices, and makhorka, and salt and cereals, etc. In particular, the card for butter for December 1941 meant 10-15 grams per day per person.

And the card for January 1942 meant twice as much: 20-25 grams per day per person. It's like now in the army with the soldiers, and in the USSR it was with the officers.

The sugar card for December 1941 meant 40 grams per person per day.

for February 1942 - 30 grams.

This is during the hungry months, it is clear that later the norms of allowance only increased, or at least did not decrease.
Moreover, since March 1942, canteens have been opened in the city, where anyone could eat for money. Obviously, not a restaurant, but the very fact of the presence of canteens implies a certain assortment of dishes. In addition, factory canteens were operating, where meals were provided free of charge on ration cards.

Don't think that I want to embellish something. No. I just want an objective assessment. First of all, the truth. And everyone is free to draw conclusions and assessments from this truth.

Evacuation

Just a week after the German attack on the Soviet Union, the city authorities decided to evacuate 392,000 children from Leningrad. The first 15,000 children left the city on June 29. The process was disorderly, it was significantly impeded by bureaucratic red tape, which led to heartbreaking scenes, and sometimes tragedies. Mothers not employed in defense industries were allowed to accompany their children. However, families were often divided. The first trains full of children went not where they needed to, but to the west, straight towards the advancing Germans. When they returned to Leningrad, their mothers had already left - in the opposite direction.

After the first few days, the city officials decided that too many women were leaving the city when their labor was needed here, and the children began to send alone. A mandatory evacuation was announced for all children under the age of fourteen. Many children arrived at a train station or a collection point, and then, due to confusion, waited for dispatch for four days. Food, carefully collected by caring mothers, was eaten in the very first hours. Of particular concern were rumors that German planes were shooting at convoys with evacuees. The authorities denied these rumors, calling them "hostile and provocative", but confirmation soon came. The most terrible tragedy occurred on August 18 at the Lychkovo station. A German bomber dropped bombs on a train with evacuated children. The panic began. An eyewitness said that a scream arose and through the smoke he saw severed limbs and dying children.

The residents of the city were faced with a difficult dilemma. Some believed that it was probably safer to evacuate, but did not want to part with their homes and property, which had been profiting for years. Others, who asked to be evacuated, were arrested for "defeatist sentiments", while others feigned illness so as not to leave. Many were ashamed to leave, it seemed to them that they were betraying their beloved city. There were also those who wanted to stay in Leningrad in order to meet the Germans as liberators.

The authorities suppressed defeatist conversations, called on the Soviet people to be vigilant and merciless in relation to cowards, alarmists and deserters. The population showed the greatest patriotism.

By the end of August, over 630,000 civilians had been evacuated from Leningrad. However, the city's population did not diminish due to refugees fleeing the German offensive in the west. The authorities intended to continue the evacuation, sending 30,000 people a day from the city, however, when the city of Mga, located 50 kilometers from Leningrad, fell on August 30, the encirclement was almost complete. The evacuation has stopped. Due to the unknown number of refugees in the city, estimates differ, but approximately 3,500,000 Leningraders were in the blockade. There was only three weeks of food left.