The winter of 1941-1942 became a real nightmare for the inhabitants of Leningrad. In the city besieged by the Nazi troops, there were more than two and a half million inhabitants, including 400 thousand children. The lives of each of them were threatened.
The tragedy of the Great Patriotic War affected almost every family. However, the echoes of this worldwide catastrophe are farther and farther from our quiet life every year. The feat of a great nation should not sink into oblivion, which is why it is so important now to preserve and support museums, where future generations can get acquainted with our history.
The government plans to create a network of museums for the defense and blockade of Leningrad. This topic was actively discussed at a meeting between the head of St. Petersburg, Alexander Beglov, and the general director of the State Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky.
Thus, all historical museums of the defense and siege of Leningrad, regardless of their location and funding sources, will be in a single bundle, forming a single information concept. This is another plus - small museums that are on the verge of extinction will get a chance for a second life and more attention from residents.
The first exhibition dedicated to the feat of Leningraders opened at the Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad in April 1944. Many of the exhibits for her were given by the city residents from their family archives.
In January of this year, 150 million rubles were allocated by presidential decree to create a new expanded museum exposition in the buildings of the Salt town. The opening of the museum after renovation is scheduled for early September.
Leningrad was surrounded on September 8, 1941. There was no sufficient amount of supplies that could provide the local population with basic necessities, including food. During the blockade, front-line soldiers were given 500 grams of bread a day on ration cards, workers in factories - 250, employees, dependents and children - 125. The first cases of starvation were recorded a few weeks after the blockade ring was closed.
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… The townspeople quickly ate all their supplies in their homes. They cooked a soup from tiles of wood glue … All cats and dogs disappeared in the city … My relatives left for work, and I was left alone in an empty apartment and lay on the bed. When leaving, the adults left me a mug with water and a small piece of bread. Sometimes rats came for him, I called them “pussies.” Hungry, I crawled under the table, had no strength, could not walk, and tried to find at least a crumb of bread. My mother worked as a truck driver during the war; and brought from the fields grass-quinoa, nettles, and we cooked a soup. These were vitamins so necessary for everyone. Since then I have been saving every crumb, I do not know what it is to throw away bread.
“For some time we went to school, where we were given food: black cabbage soup, and if we were very lucky, black noodle soup. We carried all the food home. But these were not the worst days of the blockade, but a tragedy began in January: we began to eat on ration cards. Mom was given a work card - 250 grams of bread, and I was given a children's card - 125 grams. Bread was made mainly from bark, there was little flour in it. Lines for bread, severe frosts, shelling and raids, numerous casualties - such was the life of the siege. - Irina Iosifovna Ansheles.
“I worked in the family alone during the war. Received 250 grams of bread. Mom and older sister with their little daughter only 125 grams each. I was losing weight, my mother was losing weight, my niece was losing weight, and my sister was plump. At 17, I weighed a little over 30 kg. In the morning we will get up, I will cut off a strip of bread for each, I will save a small piece for lunch, the rest in the chest of drawers. In the evening we will warm a pot of water on a stove, I put three grains of millet in it, three thin sticks of noodles, three pasta. Such a soup and ate, count one water. Sometimes, when I come home from work, all my family members cry and scold me. Like, bread and cereals are lying, but you do not give. But I understood: today you can eat everything, but tomorrow? But everyone survived for me. - Anna Nikolaevna Malina.
“Once Uncle Volodya came to our house and brought a pack of yeast, one kilogram each. Grandmother was surprised why we need them, because there is no flour, there is nothing to bake. He explained that yeast can be eaten - rolled in a meat grinder, dried and then boiled like pasta. I still remember what a pleasure it was, eating not just a slightly cloudy warm water, but with yeast. The smell of this soup was like mushroom soup! Then it turned out that yeast is very good at helping to restore strength. - Grigoriev Vladislav Grigorievich.
“Once our flatmate offered my mother meat cutlets, but my mother showed her off and slammed the door. I was in indescribable horror - how could one refuse cutlets with such a hunger. But my mother explained to me that they are made of human meat, because there is nowhere else to get minced meat in such a hungry time. - Boldyreva Alexandra Vasilievna.
“… When they put us (an employee and a dependent) on 125 g of bread, we soon realized our powerlessness, the saw fell out of hand, dad could hardly chop wood, and by mid-December he stopped carrying water from the well. During the period from November 15 to 15 December we ate a dog and two cats … - Tatiana Velikotnaya.
In the middle of the cold and long winter, Irina Zimneva and her mother were completely exhausted. The daily diet is a small piece of bread and water. Even the tea leaves were gone. Then the woman decided to feed her daughter with broth … from her own shoes. In those days, shoes were made only from natural materials, so they could become the basis for a soup.
“I remember how long she cooked them. Three hours. The skin boiled down into fine dust. The broth was cloudy. I don't remember the taste. We ate it for several days. - Irina.
“In search of food, Comrade Tanya and I went to collect oats in the fields, digging up snow. It was just happiness, we boiled it in a large saucepan, poured it into plates, and put another next to it. Spoon the soup into your mouth, suck on the broth and spit out the "pelushki" into a plate. The thorny oats were impossible to swallow, but the soup was filling and delicious. Then we cooked these "pelushki" several more times until the water became clear. " - From the memoirs of a great-grandmother.
