How a truly magnificent city rose from the ashes
St Petersburg never lost its historical and cultural heritage
NOWADAYS, the Russian city of St Petersburg – one of Cape Town's sister cities – is a modern metropolis that nevertheless has not lost its historical and cultural heritage.
In 2019, about 10 million guests, half of whom were foreigners, visited the city inhabited by 5 million people and located on the banks of the Neva river.
But even now, during the crisis of international tourism and closed borders, the city hosts major international events: at the beginning of June, the city hosted an annual economic forum visited by many foreign delegations; in June-July this year, six football matches of the Euro 2020 tournament (postponed until 2021 due to Covid19) were held at Gazprom Arena, the city's main stadium.
However, the northern capital of Russia is really nice just as it is. Born in this beautiful city, I declare with full responsibility that St Petersburg will never leave anyone indifferent. It is not by chance that the city takes a special place in the works of writers and poets – in particular, in that one of Alexander Pushkin called The Sun of Russian Poetry, who wrote:
“City of Peter, just you shine And stand unshakeable as Russia! May make a peace with beauty, thine, The conquered nature’s casual rushes …”
But all of that may not have happened. Exactly 80 years ago, the German fascist invaders started the siege of Leningrad – which is what the city was called then – and one of the most tragic and at the same time heroic pages in the history of the Great Patriotic War began. The Blockade, which lasted for 872 days, according to various estimates, claimed the lives of between 600 000 and 1.5 million inhabitants.
The siege of Leningrad started on September 8, 1941, when the German army closed the ring around the city after capturing the town of Shlisselburg. The northern part of the city was besieged by Finnish troops. Not everyone was able to leave the city before the Blockade began. From the first days of the Blockade, German artillery began to conduct constant barbaric shelling, and it became almost impossible to leave the city.
On September 8, 1941, the Germans bombed the large food warehouses of Badayevsk, and the 3 million population of the city were doomed to starvation.
A system of food ration cards was introduced immediately – during the
first days it was not possible to buy any foodstuffs.
Food supply standards were calculated on the basis of the minimum quantity that would allow a person not to die – although the city lacked food even for that. Schools remained open, but fewer and fewer children attended their classes. They studied by candlelight, constant bombing interfered in the educational process.
On September 2, 1941, on the eve of the beginning of the Blockade, the workers of the hot shops received 800 grams of bread, engineers and technicians and other workers – 600. Employees, dependents and children – 300-400 grams. By October 1, the ration had been halved. During the siege, only 3% of the deaths were the result of shelling. The reason for the remaining 97% was hunger and hardship.
The only artery that was not
blocked by the Nazis, and that connected the city and territories not controlled by the invaders, was the water of Ladoga Lake. Therefore, from spring to autumn communication was hampered by unfavourable weather conditions and a lack of sufficient water transport, but during the winter months thick ice covered Ladoga Lake, thereby making it possible to drive a car over the way. This route was used not only to deliver food and ammunition to the besieged city, but also to evacuate residents, and was called the “Road of Life”.
Construction of the ice track began in October 1941. The military road was supposed to be 10 metres wide for the two-way traffic of vehicles, and feeding and heating points were supposed to be built every 5km.
For a truck with a ton of cargo to pass through the lake on ice, its thickness along the entire route must be at least 20cm. Such thick ice in the Shlisselburg Bay of Ladoga Lake is formed in 11 days at an average air temperature of -5°C, or in six days at a temperature of -10°C.
With the onset of cold weather, the intensity of traffic along the “Road of Life” increased. If, on November 21, the first delivered batch of food consisted of 63 tons of flour, then by the end of December, about 1 000 tons of supplies were delivered to the city every day. From December 25, food rations began to rise, but hundreds of thousands of people had already died of hunger. During the operation of the ice road from November 1941 to April 1942, more than 550 000 people were evacuated from the besieged city, and 361 thousand tons of cargo were delivered to Leningrad.
On January 18, 1943, as a result of the Iskra Offensive military operation, the blockade of the city of Leningrad was broken, but the siege of Leningrad continued until January 1944. In January-February 1944, Soviet troops carried out the Leningrad-Novgorod operation. The enemy was thrown back 220-280km from the southern borders of the city.
January 27 is celebrated as the Day of Ultimate Lifting the Blockade of the city of Leningrad.
In April 1944, the rehabilitation process of the city had already begun, although the war was far from over. The pace of recovery was astonishing. Shelling and bombing destroyed a third of the housing stock, more than 800 enterprises, two-thirds of medical institutions, and half of the schools. In 1944, more than 400 000 previously evacuated people came back to Leningrad. In 1945, more than half a million. It was the will of the people to return.
During 1944-1945, 1.6 million square metres of housing, 205 schools, and dozens of kindergartens were restored. In April 1946, about 7 000 apartments were connected to a gas supply.
By order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief dated May 1, 1945, the city of Leningrad received the title of a Hero City due to the courage shown by its residents during the Blockade. The incomparable courage of Soviet citizens – soldiers, home front workers, ordinary people – made it possible to defend the city 80 years ago, turn it into a modern metropolis, the second largest city of Russia (after Moscow), successfully develop sister city relations with other cities of the world, including the Mother City.
I invite you, dear readers, to visit St Petersburg one day. Take a boat ride along its canals, have a nice walk along its main street of Nevsky Prospekt, see the world-famous Hermitage Museum. I invite you to enjoy its endless charm and pay tribute to the unprecedented courage of the defenders of Leningrad who never surrendered, and ensured that the city still exists.