VIII Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся
Старт в науке
Подвиг Ленинграда
Автор работы награжден дипломом победителя III степени
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The feat of Leningrad
"The defense fleet and this place keep up the strength of the stomach, like the most important thing" - that was the order given by Peter the Great.
"Time has no power over the greatness of all that we experienced in the war. And the people, having once endured such trials, will continue to draw strength from this great Victory." George Zhukov.
I. Introductions.
1. Choice of topic and grounding it is actuality.
I am interested in the history of my homeland. Very soon we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the great Victory in the Patriotic War of 1941-1945. During the war, all the people of the country stood up for the Motherland. One of the most striking examples of this sacred war against the enemy is the siege of Leningrad. I wanted to know more about Leningrad during the war, about how it survived and at what cost the victory over the Nazis was achieved. I was quite concerned about problem of siege of Leningrad and particularly why formation of the enemy ring was possible? Why there wereenormous casualties? I asked myself whether the tragedy could been prevented.
2. Methods of information search.
I got acquainted with printed publications about the siege of Leningrad, with diaries and memoirs of eyewitnesses, photographs and documentary materials that are freely available on the Internet.
II. Siege of the city on the Neva.
1. Operation Barbarossa.
Contemplating a treacherous attack on the USSR, the Nazis developed operation blitzkrieg.Asfascists thought, the war will last no longer than 4 months and end no later than November 1941.
Part of Barbarossa's plan for army group «North» was to blockade Leningrad.
Hitler wanted to capture Leningrad because he wanted to destroy Russia's Baltic fleet and seize the Baltic sea. This opened the way for the fascists to the North: to Murmansk, the White sea, the Arctic ocean, the Arctic and facilitated the attack on Moscow.
But these dreams were not destined to come true, because the Soviet people stood up for their homeland. The siege of Leningrad was a vivid example of courage, heroism and selfless service to the Fatherland.
2. 900 days.
1) What is a blockade?
The city on the Neva was cut off from the Mainland. This meant starvation to the inhabitants and defenders of Leningrad. The blockade lasted from September 8th 1941 to January 27th 1944 and killed 235000 people in combat and 640000 people from starvation.
2) Formation of the enemy ring.
According to documentaries offensive invaders was rapid on 9th July they took Pskov, which was in 280 kilometers from Leningrad, and 19th of July fascists poured on Luga defensive frontier. Here there was a delay in the enemy's advance until 15th of August. A defensive structure was built with a length of 175 km and they were built by Leningrad residents, mostly women and teenagers.
On September 8th 1941 the Nazis blocked Leningrad from the land, 8 days later cut off the way to Kronstadt, coming to the Gulf of Finland. A ring of fascist troops had formed no more than 15 km in radius from the city center.
In my opinion formation of the enemy ring happened quickly according to treacherous attack of Adolf Hitler on our country. So evacuation was organized short notice and happened not fully implemented.
3) Leningrad Defence.
«The defeat of the enemy in an operation or battle is the work of the whole team, a common cause. The one who tries to rise above the collective, or the one. who wants someone to elevate-contradicts the truth». George Zhukov.
6 troop of frontline, aviation,Ladoga fleet, army of the air defense, Baltic fleet, guerrillas and inhabitants took part in defense of city.
They fought with enemies to death.
4) "Presents" from enemy.
On September 4th 1941, occurred the first artillery bombardment of the city. From this particular moment they become permanent,residents of Leningradquicklygot used to them. Different matter isbombing. It is terrifying, andbrings big loss of human anddestruction. The largest airstrike took place on 19th September 1941. During this day there were 6 bombings, in witch took part more than 276 enemy aircraft.
5) Everyday life of the besieged city.
Since the autumn of 1941, electricity was supplied only to the defense and industrial plants, bakeries of Leningrad.
Due to the fact that food supplies were rapidly melting, and their supplies were insufficient, in Leningrad, the norms of food distribution were reduced for the 5th time. So, since November 20th 1941 workers received only 250 grams of bread, and children and dependents -125 grams of bread. The first increase in food standards will be December 25th 1941 and in the future, the norm gradually, but will grow. To everyday hardship in the autumn of 1941 and winter of 1942 added the bitter cold.
However, the city lived. There were factories, hospitals, schools and even a theater. People worked for 10-12 hours selflessly, under the slogan "All for the front – all for Victory!", and after all they were strongly depleted. When the enemyair raids, women and teenagers were still on duty on the roofs of houses, where they were firefighters.
6) Diaries of the blockade girls.
It is terrible and painful to read the diaries of eyewitnesses, it is terrible even to imagine how they lived and fought, overcoming hunger and cold, how they buried their relatives. To my mind, that experiencing hunger and the coldness, that experienced Leningrad in blockade, remaining under this people - this the most real feat.
Tanya Savicheva, 11 years old. Her name is inextricably linked with the siege of Leningrad. This fragile girl survived the first winter of the siege. Born on January 23rd, 1930, on the day of Saint Tatyana, she was the youngest child of a baker’s family in Leningrad. She was to experience loss at an early age: her father passed away when she was very young, and her brother Mikhail joined the partisan forces when World War II started. Tanya and her family had patriotic souls and when the siege of Leningrad began in 1941, they did all they could to help the Soviet soldiers. Her mother sewed clothes for them, her sister regularly donated blood, and Tanya helped dig trenches. Tanya kept a diary, noting the days of death of her relatives. Lines from her diary: "Savichevs died. Everyone died. Only Tanya is left!" But she also died in the evacuation of July 1st 1944, because her health was severely undermined.
Lena Mukhina, a 16 years old, also kept a diary. From Lena's diary you can learn about her first love, about the theater and the celebration of the New year 1942, about work and study, about the difficulties and loss of her entire family - her mother and grandmother.
Here that's what I read in Lena's diary: "Everyone can become nimble, strong, courageous. To do this, you need only one thing – the volition. Will wins. A strong-Willed person is a person persistent, resistant. Man is not born brave, strong, agile. This he learns aggressively, stubbornly as and literacy"
And yet, Lena was luckier than Tanya. She, after the evacuation in June 1942, lived another 40 years.
7) Road of life.
The Ladoga lake remained a transport highway for Leningrad during the siege. Food was brought along the road of life, and children and old people were taken back from the city. Transportation was dangerous, so September 17th 1941 as a result of a storm on barges killed more than 1000 people, but the main line did not stop its work for a single day. Because it was the only way. During the blockade, 4,000 vehicles operated on the ice road. More than 1,000 of them did not return from the route. Fell through the ice, got lost and froze in a Blizzard, were destroyed by German aircraft, which led a real hunt for cars going on the road of life. Already in December 1941 was ordered drivers-touring exclusively with open gateway, to have time jump out from cabin in case RAID German aviation or departure machines under the ice.In November 1941, the Soviets were able to transport 1,500 tons of food into the city. The numbers increased dramatically in the following months, with over 253,000 tons of food being transported over the ice road. Accompanying the food was over 32,000 tons of military supplies and 37,000 tons of fuel.
While food and goods were being transported into the city, the Soviets also evacuated civilians from Leningrad. Using the Road of Life, 1.3 million women and children were rescued.
8) Rupture of the ring.
Breakthrough blockade - 18 January 1943 year, lifting the blockade - 27 January 1944. On the day of the lifting of the blockade, at 20 o'clock, the first volley of 324 guns burst. Leningraders gathered in the streets, squares, embankments of the Neva river, recently subjected to artillery fire, joyfully welcomed their liberators-soldiers of the Leningrad front. One by one, 24 historic volleys thundered.
III. Heroism of the Soviet people.
1. The courage of the fighters on the front line.
The defenders of Leningrad distinguished themselves by unparalleled heroism, performing feats in the name of Victory. The Baltic fleet for a long time chained to itself large forces of the opponent that weakened its pressure on Leningrad, and in August of 1941 long-range bombers of the air force of the Baltic fleet struck the first blows to Berlin.
On August 27-29 1941 took place the heroic and tragic Tallinn breakthrough.
It was one of the largest naval operations of the great Patriotic war of 1941-1945, conducted in its first period by the red banner Baltic fleet. The purpose of the operation was the evacuation from the deep rear of the enemy troops defending Tallinn, and the withdrawal of ships to Kronstadt battle core of the Baltic fleet for the defense of Leningrad.225 ships and vessels left Tallinn. To Kronstadt reached 163. During the transition, 62 ships and vessels were lost. Despite the fierce opposition of the enemy, which led to large losses, the goal of the breakthrough was achieved. The main obstacle was mines. It was the "horned death" that caused the death of most warships and transports. Forcing during the breakthrough of the mine-artillery position 225 ships and vessels-an event that has no analogues in world naval history. Rescue of 16 thousand people from the lost ships, vessels and transportation from Islands of the Gulf of Finland to Kronstadt of 11 thousand rescued-an immortal feat of seamen-Baltics.
In September 1941, an emergency situation developed in the Leningrad region. German tank formations broke through to the coast of the Neva Bay on the Peterhof - Uritsk section, reached the sources of the Neva and captured Shlisselburg. Defending the coast of the 8th army were blocked on Oranienbaum bridgehead, but steadfastly continued to hold it. The release of these units and the restoration of communication with them along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland would greatly facilitate the situation of all our troops near Leningrad. The release operation began on October 3. Before the troops was tasked to connect and free from the enemy coast of the Gulf of
Finland. During this operation, five landings were landed, almost all the participants of which were killed. The most famous of them is the Peterhof landing.
Fierce and selfless resistance to the enemy was the norm of Patriotic Soviet troops.
It is possible to tell long about heroism in the Soviet armies because soldiers fought for freedom of our homeland without sparing their stomach. I admire and adore, I am overwhelmed with a sense of gratitude to the soldiers who defended the Motherland.
2. The courage of the people in the rear.
The people of besieged Leningrad worked and lived, supporting each other in difficult times for the country.
Vera Inber wrote about her biggest fear:"...I am afraid not of bombing, not of shells, not of hunger, but of mental exhaustion…»
I think that the morale of Leningrad raised good news from the front. Thus, they were encouraged by the news that in December 1941 the Germans near Moscow were stopped and pushed back. Also think that some of the events contributed to strengthening the power of the spirit and will to live. A bit Chronicles events, occurring in besieged city of in 1942 year. That very happening encouraged local residents. In April went trams,whichkept waiting entire winter from-for shortage of electricity On 6th of May in Leningrad by football match between teams “Dynamo” and enterprises cities, which broadcast on Leningrad radio. On 5th of August sounded seventh Symphony written by Dmitri Shostakovich. On 30th of September inhabitants of Leningrad, sowed spring: 51 thousand tons of potatoes and vegetables.
Leningrad survived and won. People under a hail of bombs and shells for a day did not stop work of factories from where repaired tanks, cars with the weapon went to protection of the city. People went out on cleaning on Saturdays and Sundays. They were bombed, shelled, killed, there was a catastrophic lack of food, but falling from exhaustion, the Leningraders were strong and protected their city.
People fought for life, their will was not broken by the enemy.
IV. Summary.
War is always sacrifice and loss. In the blockade they were unthinkably huge. I am writing with pain in my heart, remembering the heroes of the last war and I want the memory of them to be passed on from year to year, from century to century to the younger generations. In my opinion, as long as we remember and honor our history our country has it`s future.
To my mind huge human casualties happened as a result of siege. By design Leningrad was doomed to starvation. Also I`m making decisions that Soviet Armysoldiers valiantly defended the city, at the same time protected «road of life». Residents not just survived. They worked for the front and for freedom. In my opinion all soviet people wanted the same break the unwanted occupant, in order for the country to live peacefully.
«Only the people who honor their heroes can be considered great». Konstantin Rokossovsky.
As a result of the research work carried out by me, it should be noted that the siege of Leningrad entered the history of mankind as the bloodiest siege of the city. After reading the documents, I have learned many terrible details of that awful war and conclude that such a nightmare should not happen again.
"Leningrad rightfully won the glory of the hero city, because its defense was an epic of human courage, fortitude, selfless patriotism, one of the most outstanding, the most amazing mass feats of the people and the army in the entire history of wars on earth. This feat will never be erased from the memory of living and future generations." A. M. Vasilevsky, Marshal of the USSR.
List of literature.
1. «БлокадаЛенинграда. Полная хроника – 900 дней и ночей.» А.В. Сульдин https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=248424&p=1
2. «Жила, была.» И. Миксон https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=165820&p=1
3. «Блокадная книга.» Д. Гранин https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=872&p=1
4. «Дорога жизни.» Нисон Ходза, издательство «Детское время», 2018
5. «Сохрани мою печальную историю. Блокадный дневник – Лена Мухина.» https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=154711&p=3
6. «Седьмая симфония» Т. Цинберг https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=191994&p=1