“Zhambyl Zhabayev's poem do not let us die!" In Almaty, residents of besieged Leningrad found second homeland
25 natives of the Soviet city of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) who survived the blockade during the Great Patriotic War, which claimed from 600 to one and a half million human lives currently live in Almaty. Despite the fact that they were children in those terrible years of deprivation, hunger and suffering, the memories of the blockade have not yet been erased, El.kz reports.
The Siege of Leningrad, considered the longest siege of the city in the history of humankind, lasted eight hundred and seventy-two days from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. The attack on Leningrad was led by a group of German invasion of Norway. The offensive operation of the fascist troops on Leningrad began on July 10, 1941. A month and a half later, the Germans cut the railways connecting Leningrad with the country, on September 8 captured the city of Shlisselburg on the shore of Lake Ladoga, thereby closing the ring of the blockade on land around the second largest city of the Soviet Union. According to the plans of the German command, Leningrad was to be completely destroyed. The Nazis had no doubt that the inhabitants of the city would soon surrender and the city would fall. However, the courageous and persistent Leningrad residents showed amazing resilience and patriotism.
Food supplies were rapidly running out, people ate everything from petroleum jelly and wallpaper glue to rats, pigeons and household pets. The norms of food distribution to the population on ration cards were reduced. In November-December 1941, a worker could receive only 250 grams of bread per day, employees, children and the elderly were given only 125 grams per day. At the same time, half of the bread consisted of impurities, food cellulose, residues after pressing vegetable oil from sunflower, rapeseed and flaxseed oils, wallpaper dust.
Photo: El.kz/Tatyana Aladina
"As a five-year-old child, I was supposed to be taken out of Leningrad along with other children, but we came under fire, miraculously survived and remained in Leningrad. It would seem that I should forget everything because of my age, because good memories have a healing property in early childhood, but the events of those years are forever in my memory. Incessant hunger is not the most difficult, it turned out to be much more difficult to cope with the fear that you will be left without parents and family," the former blockade survivor Sofia Martyanova told in an interview with the correspondent of El.kz news agency.
Little Sophia had to stay alone in the apartment for a long time. Her father served at a military airfield, her mother dug trenches, her grandmother and older brother worked at a factory, often staying there for additional shifts, slept at the machines, her sister was on duty on the roof when the enemy attacked the city from the air. The baby did not complain or cry, she imagined herself as a princess from a fairy tale, who had serious trials.
Food was delivered to Leningrad along the famous Road of Life, which passed through the ice of Lake Ladoga. The road began to operate on the days when bread rations were reduced to a minimum of 250 grams per day for workers and 125 grams for everyone else. Thousands of people died of hunger, and to save them, it was decided to build an ice road. Many people mistakenly imagine it as an ordinary road, but it was a whole infrastructure that made it possible to supply Leningrad, Kronstadt, the Oranienbaum bridgehead, the troops of the Leningrad Front and the Red Banner Baltic Fleet during the blockade.
The Road of Life included an ice route, an "air bridge" with the mainland, the Ladoga flotilla, the North-Shipping Company, a telephone and telegraph cable that provided communication with Moscow, and a high-voltage electric cable for supplying electricity to the city from the Volkhov hydroelectric power station and a pipeline. All cables ran along the bottom of Ladoga. The rules of traffic on the Road of Life of the Institute of Physics and Technology, the possibilities of Ladoga ice as a road surface were studied by a group of scientists. They found out how much of ice cover on the lake is deformed under the influence of static loads of different magnitudes, what fluctuations occur in it under the influence of the wind.
In the first weeks of the launch of the Road of Life, about a hundred trucks went under the ice. Scientists did not recommend driving cars in columns and warned against overtaking on ice. When driving on parallel routes, the distance between trucks should be at least 70-80 m. Help from science reduced losses, and the route was operated until April 24, 1942. The last cars passed through Ladoga with an ice thickness of only 10 cm. Help also came to Leningrad from the Kazakhs, the cars brought flour and apples collected by the Kazakhs for the residents of Leningrad to the blockade survivors.
"The patriotic song of the great Kazakh poet Zhambyl “Leningraders, My Children!” inspired people, gave them faith that the people of our common homeland share their troubles with them, calls not to give up. Leaflets with a printed poem were pasted on bread distribution points and people, standing in queues, memorized rhymed lines, not hiding their tears," says Sofia Martyanova.
After the publication of the legendary poem, which is still known by heart in St. Petersburg, Zhambyl Zhabayev was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” in 1943. Residents of the city, soldiers and officers wrote thousands of letters to the poet with words of gratitude. In St. Petersburg, there is a lane named after the Kazakh poet. In 2003, a bronze monument to Zhambyl with a dombra in his hands was erected here. Nearby there is a fountain, on the steps of which there are unforgettable heartfelt appeals: "Leningraders, my children...".
Many Leningraders were evacuated to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and they settled in a new place and did not return to their hometown due to various circumstances, some did not find the strength to be there again, among terrible memories. Sofia Martyanova arrived as a young geologist, got married, and gave birth to a daughter. For many years she worked at Volkovgeologia and has letters of thanks from the national company Kazatomprom. The Council of Veterans and the Consulate General of Russia in Almaty invite a woman to all holidays. Sofia Martyanova looks amazing, has an active lifestyle, spends her free time reading with her family members. Looking at her, it is impossible to believe that she was born in 1937.
"Being beautiful is within the power of any woman, regardless of her age. Start the morning with a smile and gratitude, say thank you to life for all the best. There is a peaceful sky above our heads, our children do not starve, we do not need to be afraid of bombing, we do not need to shudder at the howl of sirens. The world is a priceless treasure, cherish it and take care of it!" advises Sofia Martyanova.
It is the howl of sirens that former blockade survivors sadly call the main memory of childhood. Maria Sergeeva was taken out of Leningrad in 1943. Her father, who worked as an associate professor at the institute, developed dystrophy from malnutrition, he could hardly get out of bed. The family was transported along the Road of Life. Maria was so exhausted that her mother carried her in her arms, warming her and whispering words of love and support. Once the evacuation camp was raided by enemy planes, bombs hit the evacuation point. Maria's mother was absent for a short time at this time, and her nine-year-old brother covered Masha with her own body.
"Leningrad survivors living in Kazakhstan have deep respect for the people of Kazakhstan who accepted them as relatives, helped them to settle in, shared generously with them everything they had. We have come to victory together, and this is our common, sacred holiday!" said Dmitry Turaev, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Almaty.
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