VIDEO Horror 2. sv. Wars: One of the bloodiest blockades in history! Hundreds of people died daily – Topky.sk

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“When we saw the grass, we started eating it like cows,” recalls the tragedy of occupied Leningrad Irina Potravnovoja. Despite the enormous hardships, the city withstood the Neva River – it survived the hell of bombing and shelling, hunger and frost, did not succumb to an incredible 872 days. Today (September 8) marks 80 years since the beginning of the blockade of Leningrad. The symbol of Russian power, St. Petersburg, was founded by Tsar Peter the Great. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the city was renamed Leningrad, but in 1991 it returned to its original name.

It was the second largest city of the Soviet Union that became one of the Nazis’ strategic goals since the first days of the Great Patriotic War. By conquering it, the Germans would gain control of the Baltic fleet and inflict a hard blow on Soviet arms production. Therefore, Hitler’s order to level the metropolis of the north was clear: no one should get out of the siege, no one should be taken captive.

Source: TASR / AP

Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941. Two months later, Leningrad, home to nearly three million people, was surrounded on three sides. The circle around the city was hermetically sealed on September 8, 1941. The fascist leader believed that the city would withstand the blockade for a maximum of two months. They tried to break the resistance of the defenders of the city and its inhabitants by constant shelling and constant bombing. From September to December 1941 alone, the Nazis dropped more than 100,000 explosive and incendiary bombs on Leningrad and fired more than 30,000 artillery shells. Despite the bombing and shelling in the city, from July to September 1941, they formed ten divisions of the People’s Militia.

The daily struggle for survival

The only artery connecting Leningrad with the surrounding world became Lake Ladoga. The first horse-drawn sleigh carriages set out with flour for the blocked town on November 22, 1941. As the ice solidified, they were replaced by lorries, and in the summer, aid flowed over the water. Not only did food and material aid go to besieged Leningrad, but its inhabitants were also evacuated from the city. By November 1943, almost one and a half million people, especially women, children and the elderly, had been evicted from besieged Leningrad under extremely dangerous circumstances and difficult conditions.

In Leningrad itself, people were exposed to immense hardships and daily struggles for survival. Evidence of this are the diaries written by many inhabitants of the Nazi-stricken city, which have become a unique testimony to the hardships and anxieties, fears and pains they have experienced. From the first days of the blockade, the diary was also kept by 16-year-old Yuri Riabkin, who also wrote the following words in it: “I’m sitting and crying … The scoundrel who caused this whole war. Goodbye childhood desires, you’ll never come back to me again. Oh, if she wanted to come to death sooner.” The last lines of his diary were written by Yuri Riabkin in January 1942.

Source: profimedia.sk

The Red Army offensive, which began in mid-January 1944, ended on January 27, 1944 with a definitive break of the blockade. According to historians, approximately one million people died during the 872 days of blockade, of which more than 600,000 went from starvation.