The blockade of Leningrad lasted 872 days. During this time, more than one million people died of starvation. After the end of World War II, the Nuremberg trials of Nazi and fascist criminals took place.
Representatives of the USSR charged the commander of the German army group "North", because of whose actions so many civilians of the besieged city died. On this charge, General von Leeb was acquitted. At that time, there was not yet a clause in which it would be forbidden to use starvation as a military strategy in relation to the civilian population.
The survivors of the besieged city owe a lot to the appearance of the highway (“Road of Life”) through It was it that made it possible to break the blockade ring, because due to its geographical position, Leningrad is not able to survive without the supply of food.
The meaning of the paved path
The road operated from autumn 1941 to spring 1943. Her appointment was for besieged Leningrad(St. Petersburg) with the country. Officially, it was called military highway No. 101.
From September 1941, Soviet troops, along with the civilian population, were surrounded by German and Finnish troops. The city was not ready for the blockade and did not have the necessary supplies of food and fuel. Everything needed could be delivered by air or across the lake.
"Road of Life" through Ladoga lake allowed to evacuate part of the population and partially provide the survivors with food.
Trucking on ice
In October 1941, research began for the construction of a route across Lake Ladoga, in winter it was covered with ice. After preliminary calculations, construction began in November. It was assumed that the width of the track would be 10 meters, so that cars could move simultaneously in both directions. Every 5-7 kilometers were built special items for heating.
The direction of the road was chosen based on the presence of a strong ice cover. He had to endure big loads. The main one was the GAZ-AA, popularly called the "one and a half". In order to prevent mass failures under the ice, there should have been a distance of at least 100 meters between the cars. At the same time, a railway line was laid across the lake.
The created "Road of Life" (Leningrad) passed not far from the front line, it required protection, which was provided by military units. The ice section of the road had two defensive lanes, created with the help of wooden log cabins, sandbags, which were frozen with ice. Small-caliber artillery guns were installed every one or two kilometers, and every three kilometers. From the air, the highway was protected by six fighter regiments.
During the first winter of the blockade, more than 500,000 residents were evacuated along the Road of Life and about 250,000 tons of food were delivered. It was mainly flour, grain, cereals, meat products, fats, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, vitamin C. The work of the ice road continued in the winter of 1942-1943.
Cargo transportation by water
With the melting of ice, the road through did not cease to exist. From the spring of 1942, transportation on ice was replaced by navigation on water. However, due to the fact that ice still remained in some areas, the gap between deliveries across the lake was a whole month. In April, it was no longer possible to carry cargo over the ice, and barges were able to go through the water only from the end of May.
The country's leadership needed to carry out work to restore damaged ships. No more than 15 barges were in working order. We decided to build barges on the spot. The pulp and paper mill in Syasstroy became the site for the work. At the same time, in Leningrad itself, the construction of metal ships began, which were transported for final assembly by rail.
Anti-aircraft artillery divisions and fighter aviation regiments were engaged in the protection of the route. They had to fight with the forces of the German-Finno-Italian flotilla.
In 1942, about 400 thousand inhabitants were evacuated by water, food was delivered for 350 thousand tons. At the same time, 290 thousand military personnel were delivered to the city. In addition to food and oil products, horses were also delivered to the city.
From April 1943, cargo transportation across the lake continued. Although their number has decreased, since a significant part of the cargo has already been transported by rail, launched since 1942.
Was the "Road of Life" (Leningrad) alone?
The official route is the path from Kokorev to Kobona along the lake. This thread connected the multi-million city with the country. Such information is available in textbooks and for tourists. However, there are data according to which the "Road of Life" through Lake Ladoga passed along a different path. Many facts testify to the existence of other lines for transportation.
Calculation inconsistency
Confirmation of the existence of several roads are simple calculations. So during the first winter of the blockade, the road worked for 150 days. About 350,000 tons of cargo was officially transported. It turns out that 2400 tons were delivered to Leningrad per day.
Carried cargo "one and a half", in the body of which it was possible to load one and a half tons. Another half ton could be attached to a sled. That is, for a flight, one car loaded to capacity could transfer two tons. Every day, 1,200 fully loaded lorries crossed the road. At the same time, they had to move in both directions.
Ice could not withstand such an onslaught. Moreover, in addition to trucks, buses also plied along the highway, which took out about half a million civilians during these 150 days. Tanks were also transported along Ladoga, from which weapon turrets were removed to lighten the weight. It is unlikely that one blockade "Road of Life" would have withstood such loads, especially since ice acted as a road.
The Mystery of the Sunken Trucks
During the transportation under the ice took about a thousand cars. Many of them are still under water today. When the water in the lake is especially clear, the pilots visually fix the outlines of the trucks. They are not always on the route of the official route. Some of them are located hundreds of kilometers from the well-known "Road of Life".
There are documents from which it becomes clear that some drivers deviated from the route in order to cash in on transportation and dump some of the cargo. However, there were not many such cases, and there were many hundreds of trucks that sank far from the highway. So the question of whether Leningrad was provided by Lake Ladoga only at the expense of one road is rather controversial.
Reasons for the existence of multiple tracks
The official road (“Road of Life” across Lake Ladoga) No. 101 Kokorevo-Kobona, of course, existed and operated. However, calculations and the location of many sunken trucks suggest that she could not be the only one.
All maps and documents on this case for a long time were classified and stored in special archives. Perhaps such secrecy is due to the desire not to reveal all the ways in the event of another war.
Reasons why there could be multiple tracks:
- Danger from German aircraft. The overwhelming superiority of German aviation in the winter of 1941 was undeniable. Having marked the road across the lake, the Nazis regularly bombed it. To minimize losses from air raids, it was necessary to change the route. The first lines were laid closer to the shores of the lake, but as the ice strengthened, the route was drawn closer to its center.
- The ice could not withstand the constant load. Eyewitnesses of those years testify that only 60-70 cars could pass along the road. Further, the ice began to crack, and it took time to restore it. This means that the movement should have been new way. Otherwise, Leningrad would not be able to receive such an amount of cargo.
Creation of a railway line
With large cargo transportation, only Railway. By 1942, a line was laid on the eastern shore of the lake. This made it possible to increase cargo transportation. Thanks to all of the above methods, the blockade of Leningrad was partially lifted.
The memory of the broken blockade ring
Hundreds of thousands of people were involved in maintaining the health of the ice cover. They lived on the ice, filling in the cracks that appeared, building wooden decks. The feat of these people, as well as the drivers themselves, is difficult to truly appreciate. At the cost of the lives of many of them, the blockade was lifted. Lake Ladoga became the exit that made it possible to break the ring of death for many civilians.
Along the land section from Leningrad to Ladoga there are monuments dedicated to the "Road of Life". All of them are part of the "Green Belt of Glory" memorial, which stretches for many kilometers. The memorial consists of seven monuments, 46 commemorative pillars along the highway, 56 pillars along the railway.
The most memorable are the monuments at 40 and 103 kilometers of the highway. The first is the Broken Ring memorial (architect V. G. Filippov), which symbolizes the breaking of the blockade ring formed by the German-Finnish troops over Leningrad since the autumn of 1941. At 103 kilometers there is a monument " Legendary lorry"(architect Levenkov A.D.). He depicts a car that rides, breaking out of the ice.
Farah, yes, Lyosh?
Whole headlight!
A real treasure from the bottom of Ladoga was raised by St. Petersburg search engines. The legendary "one and a half", almost intact, after 76 years still reached the mainland.
The car was at a depth of six meters, it was quite seriously silted up, that is, it was covered with deposits quite seriously, and the car had to be washed out, because the car had grown into the ground on one side.
At the bottom, the tragedy froze for decades. The wheels of the car remained turned to the left. Most likely, the researchers say, the driver until the last tried to bypass the deadly ice hole.
Vladimir Trufanov, restorer, autoblogger
Just imagine, 75 years ago, some driver picked up this tool, and we found it in the cab.
Over the decades, at the bottom, the cabin of the car completely decayed, but the tools, the frame and even part of the wooden body remained.
“These tires, four out of six tires still hold pressure, they have air in them for 41-42 years, we haven’t released it yet, I don’t know how it is for anyone, but I have goosebumps on my back.”
Tires themselves may well become separate museum exhibit. The history of the industry of the country of the Soviets is printed on pre-war rubber.
On this wheel is written: "ruber concern of ussr". In the forties, that is, pre-war rubber was exported, that is, it domestic production rubber, which went abroad.
The car, the search engines suggest, was driving along the Road of Life from Leningrad. So, there could be people in the back of the sunken "lorry". The fate of the passengers is unknown to researchers.
Sergey Markov, head of the Kobona: Road of Life Museum
There were 4,000 vehicles on the Road of Life. Here is the length of this "one and a half" five meters, that's 20 kilometers. Every day such a bumper-to-bumper travels through Lake Ladoga to Leningrad and from Leningrad, and this is all 20-15 kilometers from the German positions.
Under shelling, in addition to the inhabitants of the besieged city, these workhorses of the war evacuated entire factories, took weapons to the front.
Vladimir Trufanov, restorer, autoblogger
The estimated load is one and a half tons, which is why they called it “one and a half”, but practice shows that during the war, cars were used with a large overload, and often up to three tons were loaded on them.
Vladimir Trufanov, restorer, autoblogger
The engine was preserved, and with oil inside, everything was preserved mounted units engine and gearbox.
The restored car is not planned to be put on a pedestal. "Lorry" will definitely be on the go. And this, according to historians, will be the best monument to the hero who was the last to sit in her cabin.
Sergey Markov, head of the Kobona: Road of Life Museum
The driver who was driving this "one and a half" worked, he just worked, he did not shoot down planes, did not blow up tanks, did not go on the attack, but he went on a flight every day and drove, despite the cold, snow, hunger .
The main part of the restoration will begin next year. The researchers are going to raise all the missing details from the bottom of Ladoga. The car, they say, should be as authentic as possible.
Alexander Gromov, Viktor Turov, Tatyana Konstantinova, Latest News, St. Petersburg.
The laurels of the winners go first of all to those who carried weapons and drove military equipment. And people whose contribution to the defeat of the enemy was determined not by the number of destroyed tanks or downed enemy aircraft - railway workers, military doctors, front-line drivers - sometimes remain in the shadows.
We would like to talk about the ingenuity shown by our motorists during the Great Patriotic War. It is ours: after all, pedantic foreigners rarely deviate from the prescriptions of instructions and are not very capable of inventions in emergency situations.
"Tailor" repair
In the jargon of auto repairmen, “footcloths” are lining plates not provided for by the design for worn liners crankshafts engines. And the very definition of such a repair is synonymous, if not with outright hack work, then at least with a frivolous attitude to business. But it seems that if such slang existed in that war, it would undoubtedly mean something completely different - saved human lives, cars, cargo ...
Pre-war engines domestic trucks did not have thin-walled replaceable crankshaft liners. Indigenous and connecting rod bearings filled with a special alloy - babbitt. Naturally, such a material was not durable enough in comparison with the currently used liners based on steel tapes. When smelting engine bearings, drivers of ZiS vehicles in desperate situations used cuts of leather belts from uniforms. The engines allowed such improvisation for several hundred kilometers of the car. Of course, it is difficult to imagine such a repair under enemy fire, but in between battles, in order to get the car out of the front line and get to the auto repair battalion, it’s quite ...
Barrels instead of tanks
There are known cases of trucks being converted to supply gasoline to the carburetor by gravity from a barrel in the back. If Gorky's lorries had a similar supply from a regular, highly located tank under the "torpedo" was common, then for the ZiS-5 the tank was located under the body, and the fuel supply depended on the serviceability of the fuel pump. Barrels, on the other hand, solved two problems at once: both independence from the operation of the feed pump, and a significant increase in the cruising range of machines without refueling. After all, the tanks of one and a half and ZiSov contained, respectively, only 40 and 60 liters of fuel. And this initiative of drivers was subsequently supported - with long "shoulders" of transportation, it was sometimes prescribed to have on each truck on a spare barrel of fuel to increase the autonomy of transport.
Starting engines "Leningrad-style"
In most cases, the motors of cars in the hard times of war were started by starting handles. Was it before new batteries and spare starters, when sometimes even gasoline and tires were not enough? And the engines of that era, which had a low compression ratio (4.5-6 units), started up well with “crooked starters”.
Those who have used the crank know that just turning it is useless. We need short but strong jerks. But where was the exhausted motorists of besieged Leningrad to get enough strength? And then the soldier's ingenuity and military fraternity came to the rescue. Homemade T-shaped starting handles appeared, which were twisted by two people from opposite sides.
Drivers-coachmen…
It is known that one of the mottos of the legendary Ladoga Road of Life was: “The more flights, the faster the victory over the enemy!” So much importance was attached to the supply of this section of the Soviet-German front. But there was nowhere to take an unlimited number of trucks and drivers. Then one or even two sledges, which were previously intended for horse teams, began to be attached to the cars. Of course, not all cars worked in the sleigh. But it is quite possible that in the total volume of transportation through the ice track on Ladoga, such trailers replaced more than one hundred missing one and a half ...
... And driver-machinists
During preparations for the battle on the Kursk Bulge, perhaps for the first time in our automotive history, trucks acted as ... railway locomotives. What caused this - the lack of steam locomotives or the interests of secrecy of preparations at the forefront - is not known and, probably, it does not matter anymore. But the famous three-ton ZiS-5 were put on rails, and they drove 3-4 wagons with military cargo.
Already after the war, we also had special motor vehicles on the railway track. The machines, created on the basis of trucks ZIL-130, KrAZ-257 and similar, had pneumatic outputs for controlling the brakes of the cars.
And what was it like for front-line soldiers, whose cars had only their own mechanical lever-cable brakes without any amplifiers, to drive trains weighing up to 100-150 tons?
"Fifth Speed"
On worn-out gearboxes of Gorky's lorries, higher, fourth, gears began to randomly turn off. Then the drivers came up with the "fifth speed" (the front-line jargon of those motorists). Knotty sticks, covering the gearshift levers with their spears, in the position of the included direct gears, were placed at the other ends in a thrust in the “dashboard” of the car. And the problem was solved - the steering wheel could already be held with both hands.
“We walked days and nights, it was very difficult ...
War does not take into account the time of day. It happened that we had to move in complete darkness in the interests of blackout or with headlights broken during shelling or collisions. Then senior cars - there is such a position in the military automotive divisions- lay down on the front fenders of the cars and, peering into the darkness, gave commands to the drivers. And the drivers drove the cars almost to the touch.
Those who traveled our broken roads even on the seats of an UAZ or Niva, they know that such a trip is not the most great pleasure. But imagine yourself on a swinging wing, not designed for such loads, and at the risk of being thrown under the wheels on a bump not visible to the driver!
... But the driver did not throw the steering wheel "
On post-war cars high cross appeared systems of centralized regulation of air pressure in tires. If necessary, you can reduce the specific load of the machine on a wet road and increase the area of adhesion of the wheels to the ground to increase traction. And in that war, in especially difficult road conditions, Studebaker drivers installed "spare wheels" with the second ramps on the hubs of the front drive axles. The design of the wheel mounting on Soviet and foreign trucks of the 30-80s of the last century made it easy to do this. The machines received three pairs of dual drive wheels, and at the same time, the specific pressure of the “front end” on the ground decreased.
Naturally, the necessary human efforts to turn the steering wheel immediately increased significantly, because there were no amplifiers yet. But in the interests of the common cause, this was not taken into account.
"Pull-push" in our opinion
The Studebakers, as well as their Russified descendants ZiS-151 and ZiL-157, had front and rear buffers at the same height. The Americans guessed that due to this it was possible to push the stuck car and start the stalled car “from the pusher”. However, our front-line drivers went even further. They linked the cables closely, buffer to buffer, two or even three cars. And such a hitch, a 6-9-axle "push-pull", could even have better cross than single tracked vehicles.
When the springs broke...
Breakdowns of springs on broken front roads were not uncommon. This was especially true for one and a half. At cars GAZ-AA and GAZ-MM rear cantilever (cantilever) springs could be broken even when hit in reverse on a stump And the front, one and only, transverse spring perceived loads from both wheels at once. But if the suspensions were damaged, sometimes it was necessary to first deliver the goods, and then think about normal repair. And then, wooden logs of suitable thickness were installed between the beams of the bridges and the spars of the frames, the bridges were rigidly pulled to the frames with towing cables or chains, and the cars were able to continue on their way.
This method of forced repairs on the way, which received the term "ski" in the slang of truck drivers, is still known today. The author of these lines himself resorted to a similar repair on a lorry of the 90s, a GAZelle, which had insufficiently durable front springs. It is possible that the mentioned method in a hopeless situation will be useful to any of the readers of the magazine.
A real repairman - both a tinsmith and a carpenter
With the outbreak of war, as is known, the design of the most massive Soviet trucks- ZiS-5 and GAZ-MM - has been revised. In particular, the "deep" stamped front fenders were replaced with bent welded ones. The pre-war cabins, which had wooden frames and metal outer skins, were now made entirely of wood. A part Gorky machines did not even have doors, replaced by canvas curtains and wooden fences - "kerchiefs" All this was done to reduce the cost of production. But, of course, the designers also thought about the possibility complete renovation cars by forces of front-line motorists. After all, the supply of spare cabins, new wings and doors hundreds and thousands of kilometers away to the active army was out of the question. It is quite possible that this is why many lorries and three-tons, battered on the front roads on the way to Berlin and Prague, subsequently differed in external structural elements from both their original state and from each other ...
... But they were still closer to the factory originals than those miserable "crocodiles" on the chassis of the diesel ZIL-4331 that drove our veterans along Red Square in the anniversary year of 2005.
Instead of an epilogue
Many drivers who went through the whole war and had military awards did not fire a single shot at the enemy. Others were shooting for them. Infantrymen who entered the battle "from the wheels", closing the gaps in the defense. Artillerymen who unhooked their guns from ZiSs and "students" on the way to those who had broken through German tanks. Soviet tankers, who received fuel and ammunition from support vehicles, sometimes right on the front line ...
However, without the military labor of front-line drivers, the weapon that brought us Victory could not operate.
- Andrey Kuznetsov
The idea of creating a unique monument - 45 kilometers long, from the hero city to the shore of Lake Ladoga - arose back in the 60s. Apparently, the authorities then did not really want to remember the history of the blockade (willy-nilly the question arose about the causes and victims), so they began to build it using the folk construction method. Several monuments were erected: "Flower of Life" (a monument to children in the siege), "Katyusha", "Broken Ring" ... In total, about two dozen. And every kilometer of the route is marked with a commemorative kilometer post. This road is now
A-128 winds between forests and a few villages with Russian and Finnish names. In the region of the 40th kilometer, it rests on the shore of the lake: one of the most famous monuments, the Broken Ring, stands here. This is where the most dangerous area trails - descent to the ice.
ICE AND FIRE
From point of view modern motorist, and the driver of the 1930s, a distance of 30 km does not deserve attention. But the route from Kobona, on the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga, to Kokorev on the western shore has its own account. During the first war winter alone, about a thousand cars went under the ice ...
The first convoy of ships along the still unfrozen Ladoga to the besieged Leningrad passed on September 3, 1941. Already on the 8th, when the Germans occupied Shlisselburg, it became clear: the city on the Neva was under blockade. Aviation could not fully supply the city and the units defending it, all the more so - to evacuate hundreds of thousands of residents. The builders urgently began to build a road from Novaya Ladoga to the shore of the lake, and as soon as it froze (the winter of 1941 turned out to be early and cold), they began to equip the Ladoga ice section of the route. The first 60 vehicles under the command of Major V. Porchunov descended onto the ice from Leningrad on November 22, 1941. The next day, loaded with food, we went back.
GAZ-MM lorries (three-ton ZIS-5s were launched on the ice later, when it became thicker) carried soldiers, ammunition and, of course, bread to the besieged city. Back to the east - wounded soldiers and Leningraders, almost indifferent to everything from hunger. Sledge sledges were often hitched to cars moving at a distance of 150–200 m. As a rule, drivers did not close the doors in order to quickly leave the cab if the car began to fall through the ice. Sometimes the doors were removed altogether. We drove mostly at night, while some drivers sometimes managed to make several walkers. The Nazis constantly bombed the track; during the operation of the "Road of Life" about 500 German aircraft were shot down over it.
According to archival data, in 1941-1943, the "Road of Life" was served by over 20 thousand people - drivers, mechanics, builders, road workers, etc. 700 people worked alone on ice traffic controllers (in fact, not one, but six tracks worked in order to disperse flows and minimize losses)!
In the first war winter ice crossing held until the 20th of April 1942. Last days the cars were already on the melt water. During the second winter of the siege, the ice on Ladoga was much thinner, but again every night cars were moving along the lake, traffic controllers were on duty, anti-aircraft gunners were working ...
More than a million tons of cargo was transported over the ice, more than 600 thousand people were evacuated (in total, over 1.5 million tons of cargo and over 1.3 million people along Ladoga). And here are the numbers of the Ladoga account: 500 grams of bread per day for a soldier on the front line, 300 - in the rear, 250 grams - for a worker, 125 - for a dependent and a child ... How many people died during the blockade of Leningrad - in battles, from hunger, on the Road of Life "? Historians are still arguing. But the main thing is still not in the numbers ...
The main thing is that we remember everyone: soldiers who died defending one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, drivers who failed to dodge a truck from a bomb or a hole, boys and girls who never waited for a car that would take them away from a terrible, hungry city ... However - Do we do everything for the sake of this memory?
THIS IS A MOVIE
The Road of Life Museum is a small wooden building on the shore of the lake, near which there are several objects - boats, barges, anti-aircraft guns, and even a very well-preserved Douglas military transport aircraft. The director, Alexander Bronislavovich Voitsekhovsky, volunteered to conduct the tour. It turns out that the museum was created on voluntary in the 1960s, enthusiasts collected precious exhibits from the time of the recent war, the memories of participants (many were still alive!). Then he became government agency, and in the turbulent 90s, it was decided to ... privatize its exhibits. Now the museum is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, but the lawsuit with the "privatizers" is still ongoing in order to return part of the property. In any case, the War Department does not seem to be particularly interested in the museum. Apart from a meager salary for eight full-time employees, no funds are allocated.
I turned to St. Petersburg Governor V. Matvienko for help; she promised, but... I understand that she has a lot of worries in the city, and this is not her territory, - says A. Voitsekhovsky. - And the governor of the region V. Serdyukov immediately refused: there are no funds. Thank you, we have a lot of volunteers!
The plane, for example, was repaired to a very high quality especially for the filming of the film "Running" (it did not fly, of course, but actively acted as a scenery), and then gratefully returned to the museum. Director Alexander Rogozhkin promised to continue to help. With the help of veterans, volunteers and just friends, it is possible to maintain buildings and exhibits; Moreover, there are more and more!
The fact is that Alexander Bronislavovich is an auto engineer by education, and his passion is the restoration of old cars. And there are hundreds of them at the bottom of Lake Ladoga! And every summer the director with a group of friends is going on an expedition to the bottom of the lake. Equipment, machinery, scuba gear - their own, bought with their own money; complex devices are given out completely disinterestedly (for a while, of course) in St. Petersburg research institutes.
We have already raised several cars and buses; this summer, a very well-preserved ZIS-5 truck is next in line. Ladoga is a treacherous lake, the water is very cold and muddy, so you can work at a depth of 10-12 meters only in late June - early July, the director said. - And the rest of the time we restore raised cars - of course, on a voluntary basis.
He proudly showed the hangar (he built it with his brother!), where there are three cars raised from the bottom of the lake - a GAZ-MM lorry, a three-ton ZIS-5 and a bus on the ZIS-8 chassis. During the war, he carried mainland children and wounded...
This is how several dozen people “on a voluntary basis” are trying to preserve the memory of the great feat of people who, having overcome incredible difficulties, managed to save a huge city ...
Be that as it may, but people come here, and every year there are more and more excursions.
In 2006 we received 37.5 thousand visitors! - happily said director. - And in January-February, there are applications from schools for almost every day!
… And then we drove around the lake on dry land and got to the place where the ice part of the route ended (or began?) near the village of Kobona.
There are no tourists at all on this shore of the lake (too far from the city - about 150 km), so only a wooden cross reminds of the heroic past. But at the intersection with the M-18 "Kola" highway, many years ago one of the most famous monuments was erected - "To the Unknown Driver". Passing cars traditionally honk, and many stop. Someone puts flowers to the monument, someone just stands, is silent - and goes on.
P.S. This summer, the editorial staff of the Za Rulem magazine is going to take part in the recovery from the bottom of Lake Ladoga of one of the cars that went under the ice on the Road of Life in 1941-1943.
Under enemy fire, in the winter cold, wounded - he continued on his way, thinking about those who were waiting for him on the other side of Lake Ladoga. In the winter of 1941, Maxim Tverdokhleb was carrying New Year's gifts to the children of besieged Leningrad along the Road of Life.
Maxim Tverdokhleb during the war years served in the autobattalion, carried cargo along Ladoga, saving hundreds of residents of besieged Leningrad. The path along the Road of Life was full of mortal risk: enemy bombing, thin ice, many days of driver fatigue - danger lurked everywhere.
Maxim has been on the verge of death more than once. Once, an enemy shell hit his lorry loaded with ammunition. The burning car was miraculously extinguished, but while the driver was fighting the fire, he did not notice that he had burned his hands badly - he discovered this only when he got behind the wheel again: “... hands - like claws of boiled cancer, all red, and pain, as if roasted at the stake." On that day, he delivered the cargo, after which he ended up in the medical battalion.
He had a chance, as he put it himself, and "to be baptized in an ice font." He was carrying flour from Kobona across the fragile ice. Trying to maneuver under the Nazi bombing, he fell into a hole - the car quickly sank to the bottom, and the driver miraculously managed to open the door and emerge from the icy water. Anti-aircraft gunners who were nearby arrived to help, but Maxim was in no hurry to accept their help: the first thing was to save flour. “At that time, every gram of flour was just as precious and needed by the people of Leningrad, like shells, like cartridges on the front line.”
At the end of December 1941, on New Year's Eve, he was carrying gifts for Leningrad children. Plywood boxes with the inscription "To the Children of Besieged Leningrad", filled with tangerines, were loaded into a lorry.
On January 1, 1942, we, students, were given invitation cards to the Christmas tree at the Drama Theater. Gorky. During the performance, the alarm was announced several times, the performance was interrupted, we all went down to the bomb shelter. After the performance, the tables were set. Each of us was given a small cutlet with buckwheat porridge.
T. Zhurina
Tverdokhleb overcame halfway without obstacles, trying to deliver the cargo ahead of schedule. Somewhere in the distance, the roar of enemy fire echoed - the Nazis methodically fired at the track. Then everything went silent.
From the contents of the gift, I remember linseed cake sweets, a gingerbread and two tangerines. At that time it was a very good meal.
P. Danilov
Nothing foreshadowed trouble, when suddenly our anti-aircraft gunners thundered - an unkind sign. A moment later, Nazi planes appeared in the sky over Ladoga. Roaring their engines menacingly, they opened fire on a moving target. There is nowhere to hide on the icy road - everything is visible at a glance. Increasing speed, Tverdokhleb tried to get away from the fire. One maneuver succeeded, but the enemy returned again. This time, the lead pierced the cabin, knocked off part of the steering wheel, and the driver was wounded in the arm.
January 1, 1942. Today has come New Year. What he brings us is a mystery shrouded in darkness. When last night I said that the old year was leaving, they answered me: "To hell with this year, it would have to fall through the ground." And indeed, I will never forget the same opinion in 1941.
B. Kapranov
The Vultures left the smoking car, and Maxim, taking a breath, tried to start his lorry. And she started. “I tried to steer, the car obeys. You can continue the journey, ”the driver recalled. And it was not easy to continue the journey: without windshield a thirty-degree frost burned his face, a smoking radiator made it difficult to see, his hand was haunted. But it was impossible to give up - he was carrying gifts to children who needed a holiday in order to forget about the horrors of war for at least a minute.
It seemed to me that on this day the war was to stop, to end. It's the New Year!
V. Korotkova
On that day Maxim Tverdokhleb delivered the cargo on time.
