Road of life
The street of life ( Russian Доро́га жи́зни , Doroga schisni , which is also the name for the area in general in Russian) was a rescue route over Lake Ladoga , over which Leningrad, which was enclosed by the Wehrmacht , was passed through the Red Army over 900 during the Second World War Was taken care of for days. In summer the transports were made by sea, in winter on an ice road . The ice road was officially named Military Road Number 101 . In addition to supplies, the street also made it possible to evacuate more than half a million or one and a half million people, including 300,000 children, from works of art and industrial facilities.
background
In the Russian campaign, the German-Soviet War of World War II, the conquest of Leningrad was very important for Germany because it was the largest center of the military and shipbuilding industry as well as a fleet. Hitler's attack on the city began in August 1941. On August 29, the last railway line connecting Leningrad with the as yet unoccupied area was destroyed. On September 8th, the Germans captured Schlüsselburg and reached the southern shore of Lake Ladoga. At the same time, Finnish troops occupied most of the Karelian Isthmus from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga. Leningrad was under blockade and cut off. The temperatures dropped to -40 degrees. There was no electricity or fuel in the city. Thousands of Leningraders worked daily on defenses on the outskirts. As a result, the front stabilized on September 18 and 19, 1941. The Germans did not succeed in taking the city in one fell swoop. The new strategy consisted of a long-lasting blockade and systematic artillery fire from siege howitzers and air strikes. For the Leningraders the connection to the mainland, as they called the unoccupied territory, was vital.
“The street of life was the only chance for the northern metropolis of Russia [Leningrad]. Thanks to the Road of Life , the city survived because it could not possibly have existed with its own resources. "
Beginnings
Aviation was unprepared for the level of support needed from Leningrad. The city needed at least 1,000 tons of food every day , and only 100 tons of goods could be brought in by plane every day . The most important military and civil connection was therefore Lake Ladoga, whose southwest and southeast coast remained in Soviet hands. When the war began, the lake was virtually unexplored. In September and October 1941, the Russians worked hard on the infrastructure of the ports. On the western shore of the lake, the port was fortified in the small bay of Ossinovets, 55 kilometers from Leningrad. In its unfrozen state, the Road of Life was first used on September 12, 1941, when two barges coming from the east bank brought grain and flour to Cape Ossinowez ( Russian мыс Осиновец ). The onward transport to Leningrad took place by rail.
Strong autumn storms made sea transport much more difficult. Shipping could be maintained for 79 days until winter set in. During this time, an average of 760 tons of cargo were transported daily, including ammunition and 570 tons of food. Around 33,500 Leningraders could be evacuated. Submarine telephone and telegraph cables were laid. Meanwhile, the area was continuously under German air attack. Because of its location on the open sea, it was defended by anti-aircraft guns and fighter planes. The use was life-threatening due to artillery fire and air strikes, and in winter also due to the fragile ice.
Ice road
With the freezing of Lake Ladoga, shipping had to be stopped. By order of November 19, 1941, the construction of a road across the lake was ordered for a daily turnover of 4,000 tons. In the history of the Russian army, troops and goods were often transported on ice roads. Military engineer W. G. Monachow was appointed as the first head of the road. The road ran from Cape Osinovets ( Russian мыс Осиновец ) on the western bank over the island of Selenezy ( Russian острова Зеленцы ) towards the village of Kobona ( Russian Кобона ). It was about 25 km from the enemy-occupied coast. It spanned a total length of 29 or 30 km. Scientists and fishermen planned the ice road together. A reconnaissance team on skis marked the possible route. Thin layers of ice were bridged with tree trunks, obstructing blocks of ice broken up.
The street was officially named Military Street 101 , but was presumably called the Street of Life by the people . The cultural scientist Dmitrij Likhachev, however, wrote in his memoir:
“The road across the ice was called the Road of Death . And not Street of Life , as our writers later whitewashed it. "
Winter 1941/1942
On November 20, 1941 the ice thickness reached 180 mm and the first horse-drawn sleighs drove on the road. Several of the starved animals perished on the way. The next day the first car drove over the ice. On the same day, a convoy of 60 trucks drove on the ice road. The delivery volume increased gradually. On November 23, only 19 t of food could be transported because only up to three sacks could be loaded per truck due to the brittle ice. Later, sledges were hung on the trucks, so that the weight was better distributed on the ice. While 70 t of food could be transported on November 25th, a month later it was already 800 t due to the increasing frost.
The conditions for the drivers were life-threatening. The drivers, including many young women, sometimes even drove without lights at night because of the German planes. They drove with the doors and windows open, by ear. Another source reports that the doors were completely removed from the vehicles so that drivers could escape quickly in the event of an ice break-in. In order not to fall asleep, drivers hung rattling saucepans in the driver's compartment. The ice was brittle and a new route had to be found several times. Hundreds of soldiers were constantly checking the condition of the ice. Frost and winter storms set in at the end of November. The drivers were not allowed to stop, otherwise the cooling water would have frozen. In the first winter of the war, 1,000 trucks drowned in ice breaks. The drivers were under special control. Nonetheless, there were times when they stole food from the sacks. This rarely came out because the bags were only checked for number, not weight. The penalty was a court martial, which generally meant the death penalty.
In the same month, German troops captured Tikhvin and tried to reach the Sjas River and the east coast of Lake Ladoga to cut the last thread that connected the city to the mainland. The need in the occupied city grew. There were only small rations of bread left to eat. The ice road drivers have started a competition to double the transport rate every day. Some drivers made two, some even three trips a day. The most common among the vehicles were the models ZIS-5 , GAZ-AA and trucks from the manufacturer JaAZ . The trucks brought food, military equipment and supplies into the city at night. It went back with the wounded and especially children. The vans drove around the clock, while the road was under fire around the clock. In the first week alone, the Red Army lost 52 trucks. By December 6th, there were 126 and a total of 327 by February 1st, 1942. "Ice hospitals" were set up along the route for frostbite, injuries and starvation.
Two lines of defense with firing positions and entrenchments were built on the ice, about 8 to 12 km from the coast. The road was defended by the 284th Rifle Regiment , the 1st Division of the NKVD , the 23rd Army and, from 1942, the 4th Marine Brigade . The Leningrad air defense forces were concentrated on the western bank and the aviation forces of the Baltic Fleet on the eastern bank . The air defense was provided by 10 anti-aircraft departments, the 39th Fighter Pilot Division, the 123rd Fighter Pilot Regiment and the 5th and 13th Fighter Pilot Regiment of the Baltic Fleet. Light anti-aircraft guns were used because heavy ones would break through the ice sheet. The weapons were placed in a checkerboard pattern on either side of the street. On January 1, 14 37-millimeter weapons and 40 machine guns were stationed on the ice. Hundreds of landmines and thousands of fragmentation mines were laid on the German side . In winter, the Wehrmacht did not undertake land attacks, only air attacks on the ice road. The Messerschmitts Bf 109 of the German Reich faced obsolete Russian fighters, type Polikarpow I-16 and Polikarpow I-153 . The Russian army was able to increase its effectiveness by bringing in 267,000 troops via the rescue route. Five rifle divisions and a tank brigade were sent to Leningrad.
At the beginning of April 1942 the snow began to melt and the condensation was up to 40 cm high on the ice. The traffic continued anyway as long as it was possible. In the first winter, the road could be used for transports on a total of 152 days until April 24, 1942. On average, 2,375 tons were transported per day, 70% of which was food. The supply of troops and the population was improved. Even small reserves of food could be created. The military was u. a. supplied with ammunition, artillery guns and tanks. 514,000 Leningraders and 35,000 wounded soldiers were evacuated from the besieged city across the frozen lake at the same time.
1942
Shipping was resumed on May 20, 1942, followed by regular freight transport on May 28. 68 sea and river tugs and a fleet of 69 barges were used . Different types of ships had been built in the Leningrad shipyards during the winter . For example 115 tenders , boats with a displacement of 15 to 25 t and 14 barges with a load capacity of 600 t . Nonetheless, watercraft were used not only for transport, but also for defense, such as gunboats and minesweepers . A pipeline for lubricants and fuel was laid through the lake for the front and the Baltic fleet . That was a hydraulic construction project that was unique to date . On top of that, Leningrad workers manufactured a 120 km long three-phase power cable , which allowed the city to receive electricity from the mainland. Bread factories could work temporarily.
Because of the onset of winter, shipping had to be stopped again on November 25, 1942. By then, 703,300 tons of freight had been transported and 528,400 people had been evacuated.
Winter 1942/43
A successful blow against the German fleet made it possible to attempt to break through the blockade of the city. A new ice route was created, which was made more difficult by the regular occurrence of cracks in the ice. Only on December 20th of that year could the road be used with sledges, and from Christmas Eve 1942 onwards also by heavy vehicles. In order to increase the transport capacity even further, the construction of a 30 km long railway line on the ice began. In the winter of 1942, too, many people left the besieged city via the street, so that a total of around 1.3 million people could be evacuated.
1943
From January 12, 1943, the Red Army tried to break up the siege of Leningrad again with Operation Iskra , after a previous attempt in September 1942 had failed (→ Sinyavinsk Operation ). As a result of this attack, it was possible by January 18, 1943 to open a narrow entrance to the city on the south bank of Lake Ladoga. A makeshift railway line was laid through it. However, since it was still within the range of the German artillery and there were no paved roads in the area, the road across the lake still had to be used. The city was supplied via the ice road and the railroad until March 30, 1943, and from April 4, then with the help of military ships. The Germans held a heavily fortified line of defense near Leningrad that was considered impregnable. It was only with the Leningrad-Novgorod Operation (January 14th - March 1st, 1944) that the Red Army finally managed to free all traffic routes to Leningrad. The blockade cost the lives of over a million people.
“The blockade means to the Leningraders what the Holocaust means to the Jews. More people were killed during the blockade than in any city during World War II, including Hamburg , Dresden , Hiroshima, Nagasaki or Coventry . "
Commemoration
Today, numerous monuments along Lake Ladoga remind of the road of life . The beginning of the rescue route is marked by the monumental sculpture "Aufbrucher Ring" from 1966. The memorial consists of two reinforced concrete arches seven meters high. The arches symbolize the siege ring, the gap between the arches the road of life . Vehicle tracks shown run into the lake. An eternal flame burns in the center . A real anti-aircraft cannon , as used to defend the road, is positioned next to the monument. The following poem by Bronislaw Adol'fovich Kezhun can be found on a stone tablet at the foot of the memorial:
Потомок, знай: в суровые года,
народу Верны, долгу и Отчизне,
Через торосы ладожского льда
Отсюда мы вели дорогу Жизни,
Чтоб жизнь не умирала никогда.
Descendants, know: in the hard years,
loyalty to the people, duty and fatherland,
Through the ice banks of Ladoga
From here we drove the road of life,
Life never dies.
At the end of the street, right on the lakeshore of the former landing site, there is a museum. The museum is a branch of the Central Museum of the Naval Navy . It was opened on September 12, 1972 on the 31st anniversary of the start of military shipping across Lake Ladoga.
On January 27th, Liberation Day, there are generally silent commemorative events in St. Petersburg. In 2019, however, there was a military parade with President Putin .
gallery
A GAZ-AA lifted from the seabed, the standard model on the road of life
Class Э locomotive for rail transport across the frozen lake (2008)
Memorial on the R21 trunk road in the south of Lake Ladoga
Commemorative coin depicting the ice road (2000)
.jpg)
Web links
literature
- Jörg Ganzenmüller : Doroga schisni: Leningrad's lifeline in World War II . In: Sankt Petersburg: Schauplätze einer Stadtgeschichte (Eds. Karl Schlögel, Frithjof Benjamin Schenk , Markus Ackeret). Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt 2007, ISBN 3-593-38321-7 , pp. 175-189.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 70 years of the road of life: Leningrad's lifeline. It is now 70 years ago that the road of life, the ice road across Lake Ladoga, was first used on November 22, 1941. In: Sputnik Germany. Rossiya Segodnya International News Agency, Moscow, November 23, 2011, accessed on September 6, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Hermann Krause: "Street of Life" leads across the ice. The Leningrad blockade ended 75 years ago. In: Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge Online. Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge eV, Kassel, February 19, 2019, accessed on September 7, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e The Road of Life: 70 Years After. In: DW Online. Deutsche Welle, Bonn, accessed on September 8, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f Heroic Defense of Leningrad August 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944 - Героическая оборона Ленинграда 8 августа 1941 г. - 27 января 1944 г. Ladoga military communication. Autumn 1941 - Ладожская военная коммуникация. Осень 1941 г. In: Branch of the Museum "Street of Life" - Филиал музея "Дорога Жизни". Central Museum of the Naval War Fleet , St. Petersburg, accessed September 5, 2019 (in Russian).
- ↑ Joachim Heinz: "The sight of frozen dead was a daily experience". In: Welt Online. Axel Springer SE, January 27, 2019, accessed on September 8, 2019 (Russian).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Wolf Oschlies: The Blockade of Leningrad - Facts and Myths of a Russian War Tragedy. The blockade of Leningrad. In: The future needs memories online. The Future Needs Remembrance Working Group, Berlin, May 2, 2005, accessed on September 6, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c Sobir Pulatov: Road of Life and Death. In: Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung Online. GmbH Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung - Asia, Kazakhstan, September 29, 2016, accessed on September 7, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Heroic Defense of Leningrad August 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944 - Героическая оборона Ленинграда 8 августа 1941 г. - 27 января 1944 г. Rink. Winter 1941–1942 - Вторая навигация. 1942 гг. In: Branch of the Museum "Street of Life" - Филиал музея "Дорога Жизни". Central Museum of the Naval War Fleet , St. Petersburg, accessed September 5, 2019 (in Russian).
- ^ Robert Baag: When the blockade of Leningrad began. Second World War. In: Deutschlandfunk Online. Deutschlandradio, corporation under public law, September 8, 2016, accessed on September 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Anastasia Karagodina: Torment of the Blockade: Memory of the Siege of Leningrad (PICTURES). In: Russia Beyond. Russia Beyond is an international medium supported by the independent non-profit organization “TV-Novosti”., January 26, 2019, accessed on September 7, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Heroic Defense of Leningrad August 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944 - Героическая оборона Ленинграда 8 августа 1941 г. - 27 января 1944 г. The second navigation. 1942 - Вторая навигация. 1942 гг. In: Branch of the Museum "Street of Life" - Филиал музея "Дорога Жизни". Central Museum of the Naval Navy , St. Petersburg, accessed September 6, 2019 (Russian).
- ↑ a b c d Heroic Defense of Leningrad August 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944 - Героическая оборона Ленинграда 8 августа 1941 г. - 27 января 1944 г. The second navigation. 1942 - Вторая навигация. 1942 гг. In: Branch of the Museum "Street of Life" - Филиал музея "Дорога Жизни". Central Museum of the Naval Navy , St. Petersburg, accessed September 6, 2019 (Russian).
- ↑ a b Florian Kreuzer: The road of life - Дорога жизни. In: Liden & Denz Online. Liden & Denz, May 10, 2016, accessed September 7, 2019 .