January 18 marks the 80th anniversary of the breaking of the Leningrad blockade, one of the most tragic events of the Great Patriotic War. On this day, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts of the Red Army, after almost a week of artillery preparation, were able to make a hole in the dense ring of fascist troops surrounding the city. Thanks to the breakthrough, a land corridor was formed that connected Leningrad with the rest of the country, and the city finally began to receive food in the same volumes as other cities of the USSR.

Photo: spbstu.ru

Leningrad was taken into the “ring” in the fall of 1941, after the overland communication of the city with the “mainland” was cut off. The real famine began already in November, the food supply was carried out only by air, and in winter on the ice of Lake Ladoga (“Road of Life”). The situation was aggravated by severe cold - the winter of 41-42 became one of the coldest in Leningrad for the entire period of meteorological observations.

Photo:interesnyefakty.org

Despite the fact that the fighting near Leningrad continued, after the breakthrough along the southern shore of Lake Ladoga, 33 kilometers of the railway were laid, through which it was possible to arrange supplies of food, medicine, weapons to the besieged city, and also organize the evacuation of residents.

Even after the blockade was broken, Leningrad remained under siege for more than a year and was completely liberated only in the winter of 1944. During the blockade, about 700 thousand people died from starvation, bombing and shelling in the city itself. Most of them, about 500 thousand, are buried at the Piskaryovskoye memorial cemetery on an area of 26 hectares.