Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: Official website of the State –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
September 8 is a special date in the history of our country and its northern capital, St. Petersburg. Today we remember the victims of the Leningrad siege during the Great Patriotic War.
The siege lasted an incredibly long 872 days, from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. During this time, from 600,000 to 1.5 million city residents died from hunger, cold, bombing and shelling, according to various sources, with 97% dying from exhaustion and only 3% as a result of combat. Over 150,000 heavy artillery shells and over 107,000 incendiary and high-explosive bombs fell on the city during the siege. At its beginning, the average daily shelling lasted 9 hours.
During the hardest period, in December 1941, the daily bread ration for a worker was 250 grams, everyone else, including the elderly and children, received 125 grams. Despite these hellish conditions, the residents of Leningrad were ready to give even their own blood for the front. Every day, 300 to 700 people donated it for the wounded soldiers. By the beginning of 1944, a total of 144 thousand liters of blood from exhausted residents had been collected.
The terrifying statistics can be cited for a very long time. Or you can read these sparse but very vivid recollections of a witness to this war crime of Nazi Germany, candidate of economic sciences, senior research fellow of the research department of the Moscow Engineering and Economics Institute (now the State University of Management), chairman of the Council of Veterans of our university from 1997 to 2003 Georgy Lagunov.
In 1941, our hero lived in the very center of Leningrad, in a house on the corner of Gogol and Dzerzhinsky streets, where the famous composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky died.
"Summer 1941. Warm. No rain. You can go to Krestovsky Island to swim in the Neva. Shop windows are filled with sandbags. Windows of houses are covered with crosswise strips of paper. Slots have been dug in gardens and parks to provide cover from bombs. Policemen with guns. Curfew. The radio is on non-stop. The evacuation of the Hermitage has begun. The shops still have everything they need."
"September 6 – the first raid by fascist planes. A day later – a massive daytime raid. From the roof of the house you can see smoke spreading over the burning Badayev warehouses, where most of the city's food supplies were stored. During one of the night raids, which happened to coincide with my duty on the roof, two lighters fell on our house. One bomb – into a barrel of water, the other – with special tongs into the sand. The remainder of the second lighter – a stump of a cylinder with a tail unit – stood on my desk for a long time."
"Heavy snowfalls began at the beginning of November. Railroad communication with the country was interrupted. Trams and trolleybuses stopped. The daily bread ration was rapidly decreasing. Almost no other food products were issued."
"In mid-December, the lights in the houses go out. People started making smokehouses. There is no water. It is cold. The bread ration is 125 grams. People queue for it from 6 am. People fall down and die of hunger right on the streets."
"On December 27, my father died. From "general dystrophy," as stated on the death certificate, or more simply, from hunger. He was only in his 45th year."
"My mother went to work as a nurse at the hospital on our street. How far it seemed! I dragged myself there to the canteen for civilians for a plate of shchi made from khryapa or a flatbread made from duranda."
(Khryapa is the pickled upper green leaves of white cabbage. Duranda is the remains of oilseeds after squeezing oil out of them, cake.)
"In February 1942, food standards were set that would probably be minimally sufficient for healthy people. However, for dystrophic people, this was not enough. People continued to die. But even in such difficult times, the post office worked!"
"In the spring, trams started running again. The destroyed houses, at least in the city center, were camouflaged with plywood painted to look like walls and windows. The streets were deserted, there were few people. In the gardens, they began to dig up the vegetable gardens."
"In June 1942, I started working, and that's when my work experience began. At first, I worked as an apprentice electrician in a hospital, and when the restoration of electricity supply to residential buildings began in 1943, I moved to work as a foreman of electricians in the District Housing Administration, closer to home."
"On November 1, 1943, I was drafted into the Red Army by the Kuibyshev RVC of Leningrad. Together with me, there were only about 40 teenage boys born in 1926 in the area, who had survived the most brutal months of the blockade in the city. This was the last draft of soldiers who took part in the battles of the Great Patriotic War."
Georgy Lagunov did not manage to be in the battles to lift the siege of Leningrad. On January 27, 1944, the day it was lifted, the young machine gunner turned 18. He fought in the autumn offensive operations of the 3rd Baltic Front in Estonia and in the winter-spring East Prussian offensive operation in Poland. He was seriously wounded in the leg while crossing the border with Germany, and eight months later he was discharged from the army for health reasons.
Georgy Lagunov was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree, the Order of Glory, 3rd degree, the medals For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, For the Defense of Leningrad, and the Resident of Blockaded Leningrad badge. A worthy warrior
In 2022, the St. Petersburg City Court recognized the siege of Leningrad as an act of genocide. We will forever remember the incredible resilience and unbending courage of the survivors of besieged Leningrad and the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of this war crime of the Nazi regime.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 09/08/2025
Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source of the information. It is an accurate report of what the source claims and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
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