Because of what every third train driver died on one railway route: "Victory Road"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

After a partial break of the blockade in January 1943, a long-awaited chance appeared to establish transport links with the city. In order to provide the population of Leningrad with food and organize the transfer of troops to strengthen the Leningrad Front, the construction of a temporary railway line began. Later, this path went down in history as the "Victory Road", but those who erected the branch under the incessant fire of the enemy called it at that time "the corridor of death".

When the decision was made to build the Victory railway

In the course of Operation Iskra, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts were able to unite on January 18, 1943, thereby breaking the blockade on the left bank of the Neva. There was an opportunity to establish transport links with the city, which could become a much better alternative to the ice-ferry crossing "The Road of Life". As a result, the decision to build a railway track on the liberated strip of the territory was made on the same day. The task, which lasted for 20 days, was assigned to the head of Lenmetrostroy, Ivan Georgievich Zubkov.

After choosing with the help of the city archives the optimal place for the construction of the obligatory railway bridge and the study of organizational issues, on January 22, 1943, the construction of the highway itself began. The builders were faced with the task of processing more than three thousand cubic meters of timber, installing over 2,500 piles, and manually laying a 33-kilometer strip of metal rails.

Who managed to build a railway in 17 days

The places where the branch was planned to be laid were forests and swamps filled with unexploded shells, bombs and mines left behind by the Germans. There were no access roads for the delivery of equipment, building materials and people, no weather conditions - frosts reached minus 43 ° С. In addition, the front was located nearby, and the Nazis constantly fired at the intended route, using both ground batteries and aviation.

More than five thousand people were involved in laying the railway. Among them were professional builders - metro builders from Leningrad, who were busy building the subway before the war, and ordinary women who replaced men fighting on the fronts at the construction site. There was even no question of observing technical regulations: the road was built using a sleeper cage - the simplest way of laying sleepers, which were often replaced with ordinary logs. The advantage of this primitive technology consisted not only in the speed of work, but also in the speed of restoration of the destroyed sections of the track.

Thanks to selfless work, despite the continuous shelling, harsh climatic conditions, as well as the need for constant disposal of German mines and unexploded ordnance, the construction of the road was completed in 17 days - three days ahead of schedule. On February 5, 33 kilometers of railway track, equipped with electricity and water supply, were ready to receive the first trains on the Shlisselburg - Polyany route.

How significant was the contribution of the Shlisselburg Mainline to the long-awaited break of the blockade

On February 7, 1943, Leningrad, after a 2-year and 5-month break, met the first train with food. On the same day, a train with gun barrels for the front on the "mainland" set off back. From that day on, deliveries of goods to the city began to be carried out regularly.

Every few kilometers on the railway there were "live traffic lights" - girls, yesterday's schoolgirls. They signaled to the trains where the tracks were bombed, where the enemy armored train was hunting. This was an important notification, as there was practically no telephone connection.

However, at first, due to constant shelling and damage to the track, it was possible to pass only 2-3 trains per day. Later, the way of movement of trains was changed: one night they went in the direction of Leningrad, the second - in the direction of the city.

Thus, every day it turned out to send up to 25 trains with food and ammunition, which could not but affect the rations of starving Leningraders. So, workers and engineers of strategically important production began to receive from February 22 instead of the previous 500 grams - 700 grams of bread. Other categories of citizens from the same moment began to receive: workers not involved in hot shops and the defense industry - 600 g; employees - 500 g; dependents and children - 400

In addition to bread, it became possible to stock up on ration cards for cereals, meat and butter. Also, "shell rations" were significantly increased - food norms that were issued to the soldiers of the Leningrad Front. In total, of the total amount of cargo delivered to the besieged city, 75% of food, fuel and weapons came precisely along the new railway track. On the return flight, the products of the military factories and the evacuees - the wounded, sick, children and old people - were exported from the city.

By the end of the summer of 1943, passenger traffic also began: first, carriages with people were included in freight trains, and a little later a train appeared, in which there were exclusively passenger cars.

How trains managed to break through shelling

There is no exact data on how many builders, military personnel accompanying cargo, and evacuated civilians died during the construction and operation of the Shlisselburg Mainline. But without a doubt their number is very large, considering that during the year of the existence of the "Victory Road" 1,500 trains were knocked down and more than a thousand times the Germans destroyed sections of the route.

It is only known that only among the railway workers involved in this route, every third train driver died.

V. Eliseev, who worked as a locomotive driver at that time, told what tricks the railway workers had to go to to preserve the load, their own and other people's lives: “To deceive the Nazis, one had to always disguise, otherwise they would not allow a quarter of the way to pass. When we went to Shlisselburg, we knew that it was safe to go up to the thirty kilometer - there the road passed through a high forest. But after it, a lawn with undersized bushes began, and in order to pass it unnoticed, it was necessary to gain full speed in the forest and close the regulator.

So, without steam and smoke, they skipped the open area, and after it there was a slope, which made it possible to drive by inertia for a few more kilometers. Then we had to open the regulator and move with steam - the Fritzes started shooting at it. Then again - they accelerated the train, closed the regulator and raced for some kilometers without a reference point for the Nazis. And this game with death has been throughout our entire journey."

And in besieged Leningrad, people were dying of hunger. Before the railway lines were set up, the food situation was extremely difficult. All the more amazing that botanists saved a collection of rare seeds at the cost of their lives, instead of eating them and surviving.