Day of lifting the blockade of Leningrad (1944). Reference. The mine blockade has been broken! Lifting the naval mine blockade of Leningrad

“...The horned death is blocking the passage!”
“There on the left side,
There on the right along the way
Interferes with passage
Horned Death!

As they say, you can’t erase the words from this wonderful song by Vysotsky. And all this can be attributed to the mine blockade of the Gulf of Finland during the Great Patriotic War.
We all know that on January 19, 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken, and on January 27, 1944, the Nazis were driven back from the city walls. But the blockade from the sea remained; all the waters of the Gulf of Finland from Tallinn to Kronstadt were stuffed with sea mines, which were laid by German, Finnish and our troops. But there were also mines left over from the First World War and the Civil War. Through the efforts of maritime specialists, the Gulf of Finland was completely blocked for the navigation of maritime, military and commercial vessels and ships. And only heroic submariners, using paths only known to them, managed to go out into the Baltic Sea to carry out combat missions. Although, among submariners there were cases of mine explosions.
After the liberation of Leningrad, Stalin was given the task: to open the Great Ship Fairway by June 1, 1946, i.e. make it safe for ships to pass from Kronstadt to Tallinn. Through the efforts of our sailors, the sea canal from Kronstadt to Leningrad was protected from mining by continuous patrolling and preventing the Nazis from installing mines in the waters of the shipping canal. The Germans failed to interrupt communication between Kronstadt and Leningrad, and throughout the war there was an uninterrupted delivery of supplies for the needs of the fleet and troops of the Oranienbaum bridgehead. In 1944, after the complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad, work began on clearing the Neva and the Gulf of Finland. For this purpose, a “Special Purpose Detachment” was created; it included 10-12 boats - everyone understands that this was a detachment of “suicide bombers”.
A sea mine is a terrible device designed to destroy everything that floats past it and above it within a radius of three hundred meters; it is filled with 70 to 300 kg of hexogen, and if we measure the charge in the “usual” TNT equivalent for us, then it is 1 .5 times more powerful. Mines were installed in several ways: they either lay on the bottom waiting for prey, or were held on special cables between the bottom and the surface of the water, but there were also floating mines that were torn from their place of installation. To clear the waters of this infection, it was necessary to somehow cut them off this cable so that they would float up, and then it was a matter of technology, how to neutralize them - it was more difficult with bottom mines. But the command set a task, and ways to destroy these deadly traps were found.
When they say that sappers make mistakes twice, this means that the first time is when choosing a specialty, and the second time is when demining is unsuccessful. And this is the prose of life, because the risk of dying is indeed very great. Fortunately, people who were directly involved in such operations are still alive. One of them is Yuri Mikhailovich Sukhorukov, a retired captain of the 1st rank, and in those difficult years a 17-year-old St. Petersburg boy with the rank of “senior red naval officer.” His vivid memories helped us to paint a picture of this terrible work.
During the blockade, the hands of women and teenagers built watercraft that became part of the so-called special forces detachment. These boats were small boats, 14 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. The 20 mm pine plank sheathing was pierced through by an ordinary rifle bullet, and simply multi-layer plywood was used to construct the deck and superstructure. A DShK machine gun was also installed there, and powerful, trouble-free American engines were used as engines, two for each boat. The crew consisted of 5-6 people, the boats were commanded mainly by mobilized sailors of the Baltic Shipping Company (by the way, many of them immediately after the war received American ships of the Liberty type and became famous captains in the infantry fighting vehicles, such as Ponomarev, Alexandrov and etc.)
For combat mine sweeping, special devices were used - mine trawls. The first trawls were imperfect, essentially disposable, but later trawls came into service that could catch up to a dozen mines. It was assumed that the cut mine either exploded when it was cut, or floated up, and then it had to be destroyed with a well-aimed shot. But destroy it, keeping in mind that after a successful shot the mine exploded, forming a powerful column of water as high as a 10-12 storey building, which turned everything inside and next to it into shreds.
Hitting a mine with a machine gun from a considerable distance is quite problematic, and even if you hit it, there is a danger that it will “perforate”, fill with water and sink, thereby posing an even greater threat. Attempts to attract patrol ships with artillery weapons to destroy mines also did not lead to anything good, because hitting a mine even in calm water from three hundred meters is not an easy task, not to mention shooting in stormy weather. But a solution was found, in Russian, simple and fail-safe: when a mine was discovered, the boat approached it a short distance, and a two-man boat with an oarsman and a daredevil miner in whose hands was a demolition cartridge was lowered from it. Then the boat went to a safe distance.
As Yuri Mikhailovich recalls: “there are two people on the boat: one with oars, the other with a cartridge cord. The cord burns for 5 minutes 20 seconds, that is, it is quite possible to have time to approach the mine at a distance of just a meter, light the fuse cord, hang the cartridge on the horn, make a final push with the oars and run. At this time, the boat was moving at full speed towards the boat, about sixty meters from the mine there was a transfer from boat to boat, and this was the most dangerous thing, given the rough seas. Then - a rapid jerk of the boat 300-400 meters from the mine, the mine exploded, a column of water rose into the sky... And forward, after the next mine.”
Sometimes I had to jump into icy water: “One day, after attaching a cartridge to a mine and disembarking on a boat, the engine suddenly stalled. When there is a mine fifty meters away from you, and the fuse on it burns out, this means inevitable death for the ship and its crew. There is only one solution - I throw myself into the water, crawl to the mine, and cut off the cartridge with a boatswain's knife. It goes under water and there, at depth, explodes. Of course, it stunned me a little, but the boat and the entire crew remained alive..."
In this way, Yuri Mikhailovich personally destroyed 488 mines.
In another original way, bottom mines were destroyed: depth charges were dropped from the boat, after the explosion of which the mine, or maybe several at once, would detonate and explode - it depends on God, and where this mine will explode, under the boat or at a safe distance, unknown. In general, Russian roulette. And yet, the task was completed. On June 5, 1946, the Hydrographic Department of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet notified sailors about the opening of the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki fairway. So far, the fairway was open for navigation only during the day, since at night there was a danger of explosions from drifting “orphan” mines. And the heroic work of our miners continued until 1949.
The war at sea continued after the Victory. For the safety of other people, for the possibility of normal operation of the Leningrad port, for the revival of merchant shipping, the sailors-miners gave their lives, and we must remember these sacrifices. In memory of the feat of the sailors from the Special Forces Detachment, who broke through the mine blockade of Leningrad, a modest obelisk was erected on Elagin Island, where minesweepers were based during the war.

Reviews

Thank you for the article! I knew Sukhorukov, we met with him on Elagin every May 9th. My father was a divisional mechanic of the 8th DKTSH from 45 to 48 or 49, and before that he was a trawler commander of a warhead-5 on the TSCH43 Furmanov (Leonty Fedorovich Ivanov), and participated in the Tallinn crossing. You probably know about Tyshchuk. In general, there are very few documents about 8DKTSH, as if it did not exist.
All the best and Happy New Year with best wishes for the New Year.
Sincerely,
Vladimir

10 years ago, on October 12, 2005, in memory of an important historical event - the opening of a passage along the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki fairway - the date June 5 “Day of the Breakthrough of the Naval Mine Siege of Leningrad” was included in the regulation “On holidays and days of remembrance in St. -Petersburg".

June 5, 1946 The command of the Baltic Fleet announced the opening of the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki line. Immediately before the opening of the waterway, a simultaneous passage of four divisions of minesweepers with installed trawls was made along it, during which several more mines were trawled.

By the time the war ended, Leningrad was still blocked from the sea. In fact, to the west of the city there was a huge minefield with several million (!) tons of explosives. In total, by the end of the 1944 campaign, approximately 66,500 mines were deployed here on both sides. The trawling forces of the Baltic Fleet were ordered to ensure the safety of navigation and fishing as soon as possible, without which it was impossible to restore the war-ravaged North-West of the country, including the economy of the coastal Baltic countries liberated from the Germans. But it was impossible to embrace the immensity in a short time. On October 17, 1945, the cruiser Kirov was blown up by a bottom mine near Kronstadt. The ship suffered significant damage and there were casualties among the crew.

The specificity of the Gulf of Finland is its shallow depths and a minimum of shipping routes from the mouth of the Neva to the exit to the Baltic, which made it possible for the warring parties to effectively mine the waters of the gulf, eliminating any large-scale shipping almost completely.
From Leningrad to the Baltic, and further to Sweden, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Holland and Britain, it was possible to reach the only skerry fairway provided by Finland, starting in the autumn of 1944. Then our submariners actively used this route, bypassing multi-layered mined waters. Large-tonnage surface ships and vessels could not pass there.

Density of minefields in the Gulf of Finland during wartime

The main boundaries for laying minefields were:
— Hanko Peninsula — Osmussaar Island — 8000 min;
— Naissaar island — Porkkala peninsula — Udd — 13,500 min;
— on the meridian of Cape Yuminda — 4000 min;
— Maly Tyuters Island — Gogland Island — 18,000 min;
- eastern rear position - 11,000 min.
The remaining 13,500 mines were placed between these positions.

Laying minefields on board the German minelayer (former passenger ship) Hansestadt Danzig.

German contact mines of World War II

The “Window to Europe” was filled by the Germans carefully and creatively. Starting from June 20, 1941, everyone who could complete this task took part in laying mines: from submarines to landing barges and torpedo boats of the German and Finnish fleets. Aircraft from both sides were also involved in mining the waters. With such a variety of directors, there was no need to talk about the accuracy of the coordinates of the minefields marked on sea maps. Ice and stormy Baltic weather increased the number of free-floating mines. The minefields were full of different types of mines placed at different depths, and were replete with devices that made mine clearance as difficult as possible: trawl cutters, connecting chains, squibs and other surprises invented by inventive German engineers.

7th division of minesweeper boats at the base. 1944 and its commander F.B. Mudrak

Our sailors traditionally responded to all these inventions with personal heroism:
“In June 1944, divisions of minesweepers commanded by captain-lieutenant F.B. Mudrak and captain 3rd rank F.E. Pakholchuk were the first to begin trawling the Narva Bay. They discovered mines standing at a depth of less than a meter, connected by a whole network of steel cables. If such a cable is hooked by a boat propeller or just an oar, then an explosion will immediately follow, although the mine itself may be several meters away. That’s when unusual divers appeared on minesweepers.
On July 29, the minesweeper KT-67 approached the minefield. In less than a few minutes, the sailors noticed a mine standing at depth. There was a deadly cold coming from her. I wish I could go in reverse... But that’s not why miners go to sea. The boat stopped moving and began to slowly drift to the side. What to do? Foreman 2nd Article G. Vaskov found a way out. He quickly threw off his robe, grabbed a demolition cartridge, set fire to the fuse, hung the cartridge around his neck and shouted to the boat commander:
- Get ready to leave!
Khorkov G.I. There were marine ones. - M.: DOSAAF, 1988."

Poster with a portrait of Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain 3rd Rank F. E. Pakholchuk. 1944 (Clickable)

NUMBERS
In the Gulf of Finland, the lines of minefields consisted of several rows in a “checkerboard” order: in the first of them, as a rule, there were mines with traps, in the subsequent ones - mines of various types. All mines had different recesses - from 20-30 centimeters to 1.5-2.0 meters, and the interval between them was 20, 30 and 40 meters
During the Tallinn offensive operation, up to ten divisions of minesweepers of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet were involved in trawling. During May - December 1944, they destroyed 1015 mines and 307 mine defenders.
The destruction of mines was carried out constantly, but during the war only about 5% were destroyed.

A division of "hundred-ton" minesweepers under the command of Hero of the Soviet Union, Captain 3rd Rank F.E. Pakholchuk, goes on combat trawling in the Gulf of Finland in November 1945. Photo from the Central Naval Museum.

"The bulk of combat trawling operations were carried out in the post-war period. Combat trawling continued until 1957, and all Estonian waters became open for navigation and fishing only in 1963. The enemy's mine weapons hidden in the depths continued to destroy ships and their crews even after May 9, 1945. Mines exploded both in trawls and under ships, increasing the number of battle losses of the Great Patriotic War in ships and people (in the period after May 9, 1945, 29 of our minesweepers were blown up by mines during combat trawling. 17 of them sank along with their crews).
The actions of the Baltic Fleet to destroy minefields officially ended at the end of 1957, after which military mines were destroyed in the main areas and fairways of the sea, in ports and harbors. However, in certain areas difficult to mine, combat operations to destroy enemy mines continued until 1963. In the period 1958-1964. 157 “floating” mines torn off their anchors by storms were discovered and destroyed. In the Baltic Sea alone, Soviet minesweepers cleared an area of ​​15 thousand square miles of mines and destroyed 6,850 mines.”

minesweepers

Faced (for the umpteenth time in Russian history!) at the beginning of the war with a total shortage of minesweepers, besieged Leningrad began building this type of ship “from what was available” using those who remained. Minesweepers were needed like air. During the years of the blockade, almost all shipyards were engaged in construction: the Baltic Shipyard, the shipyard named after. A. A. Zhdanova (now “Northern Shipyard”), Petrozavod, Sudomekh plant, and after the land blockade was lifted, the Ust-Izhora shipyard (Sredne-Nevsky shipyard). The Baltic Fleet command allocated 650 sailors to help the factories.

Launching the minesweeper hull at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard.

"100-ton" minesweepers at the Baltic Shipyard, 1944.

In November 1943, the lead small minesweeper of the first series (MT-1) underwent sea acceptance tests. The experience of building, testing and combat use of the lead ship was taken into account when improving the design of a small minesweeper of the second series (MT-2). The displacement of the improved minesweeper increased to 129 tons with a draft of 1.35 m. Another diesel generator was installed on the minesweeper to provide power to the loop electromagnetic trawl. When building the hundred-ton minesweepers, a progressive in-line construction method was used, which made it possible to reduce the construction time of these ships to 5 months. So by the end of the war, the Baltic Shipyard had built and handed over to the fleet 22 hundred-ton ships, and the fleet received another 16 of the same ships from other Leningrad shipyards.

One of the hundred-ton minesweepers that has survived to this day. Moscow. Photo from balancer.ru.

And since the clearance of mines from the Gulf of Finland (combat trawling) was just beginning, the construction of “hundred-ton” minesweepers continued after the war. The project was improved once again, and after the completion of the construction of the ships of the second series MT-2, construction began on the third series of “hundred-ton ships” - MT-3. As a result, 92 small minesweepers were built. At the same time, in the Baltic one could find minesweepers of the YMS type, delivered under Lend-Lease from the USA.

By the decision of the Allied Control Commission, the post-war trawling zone of the Soviet fleet in the Baltic Sea included the southern part of the Mecklenburg Bay (to Wismar), the Pomeranian and Danzig bays and further along the coast to the mouth of the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Finland. Due to the large volume of trawling work during 1945, only some Baltic Sea ports were open for navigation: Gdansk, Swinoujscie, Kolobrzeg, Gdynia, Liepaja and Rene.
In 1946, the fairways leading to all major ports, including Klaipeda, Baltiysk, Kaliningrad, Warnemünde, Rostock, and Stralsund, were cleared of mines.

Finns clearing mines

CHRONICLE OF MINING
“By the end of the war, about 5,000 mines were destroyed in the Baltic Sea, including 2,500 minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet. There are three main periods (stages) of post-war trawling in the Baltic Sea.
Stage I (1945-1947) was aimed at ensuring safe basing and limited navigation along fairways and some areas. In its content, it corresponded to the first stage of trawling, which was discussed above.
At this stage, the first step was taken in breaking the naval mine blockade of Leningrad. Navigation along the main fairways and recommended courses has become possible, but with the following restrictions:
- only demagnetized vessels were allowed to sail;
- the speed of navigation in areas dangerous from bottom mines should not exceed the permissible limit for the failure of hydrodynamic mine fuses;
- in the Gulf of Finland and the Irben Strait - only during daylight hours due to the great danger of explosions on floating mines.
By the end of 1947, minesweepers of the Baltic Fleet had destroyed 5,700 mines, including floating mines, which posed a great threat to shipping, especially in the Gulf of Finland and the Irbene Strait.

The Gulf of Finland and its “gifts” in the late 1940s.

Stage II (1947-1959) provided for the removal of all restrictions and ensuring universal free navigation in the Baltic Sea. At stage II, repeated contact trawling with a depth of up to 60 m, bottom trawling and a large volume of non-contact trawling were carried out. In the period 1948-1952. From 125 to 650 anchor mines and mine protectors were cleared annually. In 1949-1951 The number of bottom non-contact mines being trawled has sharply increased due to the decision made on the need to trawl not only fairways, but also areas.
Beginning in 1953, the number of mines being cleared decreased significantly, but trawling continued until 1960. In total, about 4,830 mines and mine protectors were cleared at stage II. The last three bottom proximity mines were cleared in 1955.
It should be noted that in the last three years of stage II, the number of mines cleared became insignificant: in 1958 - 14 mines, in 1959 - 0, 1960 - 22 mines.

At the III stage after 1960, only contact trawling was carried out in order to reduce the residual risk, a systematic search for floating mines and a diving survey of port waters.
In total, about 15% of the number of mines placed in the Baltic Sea during the war and post-war trawling were cleared, i.e. about the same as in other fleets.
By the end of 1963, 11,900 mines had been cleared, discovered and destroyed in the Gulf of Finland and coastal areas of Estonia. The remaining mines that were not cleared (bottom non-contact mines) lost their combat effectiveness over time under the influence of the external environment. The last formerly dangerous areas were opened for navigation."

ECHO OF WAR
Latest on the topic from the Finnish press:
“In the Finnish economic zone of the Gulf of Finland, 14 old underwater mines will be exploded in November-December this year to clear space for the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
Demining will start immediately south of Helsinki, then move to Hanko. The total number of mines that are planned to be destroyed in the Finnish economic zone is 36. The remaining 22 mines will be detonated in April-May next year.
The British demining company BACTEC's John Lethbridge is anchored in international waters 30 km south of Helsinki.
The mines discovered along the pipeline route are located at a depth of 40 to 80 meters. These are Russian and German mines. One Finnish, S-40. The most powerful of the German-made mines found are EMF, three mines are EMC, which contain more than 300 kg of explosives. Each mine has seven horns, which when touched detonate the device.
In Russian waters along the pipeline route, the Russian fleet will detonate mines. Since the gas pipeline passes in close proximity to Finnish territorial waters near the island of Gogland (Suursaari), Nord Stream plans to control the spread of sediment on the Finnish side."

On January 27, the Russian Federation celebrates the Day of Military Glory of Russia - the Day of Lifting the Siege of the City of Leningrad. The date is celebrated on the basis of the federal law “On Days of Military Glory and Memorable Dates of Russia” dated March 13, 1995.

The offensive of fascist troops on Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), the capture of which the German command attached great strategic and political importance, began on July 10, 1941.

In August, heavy fighting was already taking place on the outskirts of the city. On August 30, German troops cut the railways connecting Leningrad with the country. On September 8, the Nazis managed to blockade the city from land. According to Hitler's plan, Leningrad was to be wiped off the face of the earth. Having failed in their attempts to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops inside the blockade ring, the Germans decided to starve the city out. According to all calculations of the German command, the population of Leningrad should have died from hunger and cold.

On September 8, the day the blockade began, the first massive bombing of Leningrad took place. About 200 fires broke out, one of them destroyed the Badayevsky food warehouses.

In September-October, enemy aircraft carried out several raids per day. The enemy's goal was not only to interfere with the activities of important enterprises, but also to create panic among the population. Particularly intense shelling was conducted at the beginning and end of the working day. Many died during the shelling and bombing, many buildings were destroyed.

The conviction that the enemy would not be able to capture Leningrad restrained the pace of evacuation. More than two and a half million residents, including 400 thousand children, found themselves in a blocked city. There were few food supplies, so we had to use food substitutes. Since the introduction of the card system, food distribution standards to the population of Leningrad have been repeatedly reduced.

Autumn-winter 1941-1942 - the most terrible time of the blockade. Early winter brought with it cold - there was no heating or hot water, and Leningraders began to burn furniture, books, and dismantle wooden buildings for firewood. The transport was standing still. Thousands of people died from dystrophy and cold. But Leningraders continued to work - administrative institutions, printing houses, clinics, kindergartens, theaters, a public library were working, scientists continued to work. 13-14 year old teenagers worked, replacing their fathers who had gone to the front.

In the autumn on Ladoga, due to storms, ship traffic was complicated, but tugs with barges made their way around the ice fields until December 1941, and some food was delivered by plane. Hard ice was not installed on Ladoga for a long time, and bread distribution standards were again reduced.

On November 22, the movement of vehicles on the ice road began. This transport route was called the "Road of Life". In January 1942, traffic on the winter road was already constant. The Germans bombed and shelled the road, but they failed to stop the movement.

By January 27, 1944, troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts broke the defenses of the 18th German Army, defeated its main forces and advanced 60 km in depth. Seeing a real threat of encirclement, the Germans retreated. Krasnoe Selo, Pushkin, and Pavlovsk were liberated from the enemy. January 27 became the day of the complete liberation of Leningrad from the siege. On this day, festive fireworks were given in Leningrad.

The siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days and became the bloodiest blockade in human history. The historical significance of the defense of Leningrad is enormous. Soviet soldiers, having stopped the enemy hordes near Leningrad, turned it into a powerful bastion of the entire Soviet-German front in the north-west. By pinning down significant forces of fascist troops for 900 days, Leningrad thereby provided significant assistance to the development of operations on all other sectors of the vast front. The victories of Moscow and Stalingrad, Kursk and the Dnieper included a significant share of the defenders of Leningrad.

The Motherland highly appreciated the feat of the city’s defenders. Over 350 thousand soldiers, officers and generals of the Leningrad Front were awarded orders and medals, 226 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. About 1.5 million people were awarded the medal "For the Defense of Leningrad".

For courage, perseverance and unprecedented heroism in the days of the difficult struggle against the Nazi invaders, the city of Leningrad was awarded the Order of Lenin on January 20, 1945, and on May 8, 1965 received the honorary title “Hero City”.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Date of publication: 06/28/2017 14:17

Today, June 5, without much fanfare, St. Petersburg and Kronstadt will celebrate a significant date - the lifting of the naval or mine blockade of Leningrad.

Immediately after the defeat of the Nazi troops under the walls of the city on the Neva, the command of the Baltic Fleet, at the direction of the USSR Government, began to clear the waters of the Gulf of Finland from mines and other explosive objects. It was very difficult and heroic work. In fact, mine clearance in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea began in the fall of 1944 and continued until the early 60s. We can recall that back in April 1943, the Military Council of the Navy made an important decision to build dozens of small minesweepers - “hundred-tonners” - at all shipyards of the still besieged city. At the same time, the Boat Plant (now NPO Almaz) accelerated the construction of boat minesweepers with a wooden hull of the KM type. This intense and deadly work had its victories and sacrifices. Probably the most significant victory was breaking the mine blockade of Leningrad in 1946. According to various estimates, more than 80 thousand mines were laid by us, the Germans and the Finns in the Gulf area alone. At least 100 thousand mines - in various coastal waters of the Baltic. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that mines were sometimes placed chaotically, including by aircraft, from the ice of the bay; hundreds and even thousands of mines were torn from anchors and mines and floated freely in the shipping zone. There was another problem - in the eastern part of the bay and Neva Bay, the Germans laid more than one hundred magnetic, antenna and acoustic mines. Non-contact trawls, and also - for ten mines - there was one explosive device - a mine protector. Special ammunition designed to destroy trawls and minesweepers. Interestingly, the Archive of the Russian Navy contains a translation of a review article by the magazine “Navy”, our then allies, in which at least five years were given for clearing the fairways of the Gulf of Finland. Dangerous and difficult work fell to the lot of the trawling crews of our Baltic Fleet. Our sailors coped with it with dignity. Almost half of the minesweepers were based in Kronstadt. Our city, of course, can be called a participant in breaking the mine blockade. For months, small wooden ships, often with steam engines, ironed the fairways with contact and bottom trawls, destroying the “horned death.” Alas, more than three hundred Baltic sailors died or were injured just clearing the waters of the eastern part of the bay... With the end of the war, sea communication between Leningrad and the Baltic ports could only be maintained along the skerry fairway provided by Finland. At the final stage of the war, our submariners used this channel to move to the Baltic Sea to combat positions, bypassing the mined Gulf of Finland. Unfortunately, the skerry fairway was intended only for small-displacement vessels, and in addition, it was extremely difficult for navigation. The situation was complicated by the fact that the Baltic seaports were completely destroyed. The restoration of the deep-sea outlet from Leningrad to the Baltic Sea along the Gulf of Finland acquired the greatest national importance. The main fairway for such sea traffic was the Great Ship Fairway, which was repeatedly blocked by minefields during the war years. For several months, the heroic sailors of the Baltic Fleet “cut through” enemy minefields to create a new “window to Europe.” On June 5, 1946, the Hydrographic Department of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet notified sailors about the opening of the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki fairway, which by that time already had a connection with the Baltic Sea. Then the Leningrad seaport began operating at full capacity again. 71 years have passed since this, unfortunately, little-known Leningrad victory...

Museum of the History of Kronstadt

June 5 marks the anniversary of the breaking of the naval mine blockade of Leningrad. In memory of an important historical event - the opening of a passage along the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki fairway - the date June 5 “Day of Breaking the Naval Mine Blockade of Leningrad” was included in the St. Petersburg Law of October 12, 2005 No. 555-78 “On Holidays and Days” memory in St. Petersburg." F. O. Divletbaev, an employee of Fisherman’s Library No. 6, prepared video material for this event.

Video

During the siege of Leningrad, in order to carry out a blockade from the sea, the navy of Nazi Germany installed a huge number of mines in the Gulf of Finland in multi-tiered mine-barrier lines, and the bay became impassable for ships.

After breaking the blockade of the city on land in January 1943, the Military Council of the Leningrad Front began to prepare for a decisive offensive by our troops with the goal of completely liberating Leningrad from the fascist blockade. Since moving west in the sea direction required overcoming numerous enemy minefields, and most of the minesweepers had been lost by this time, the Military Council in April 1943 made an important decision to build small minesweepers - “hundred-tonners” - at all shipyards of the besieged city. . At the same time, the Boat Plant (now NPO Almaz) accelerated the construction of boat minesweepers with a wooden hull of the KM type.

After the complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad in January 1944 and after Finland’s withdrawal from the war in September of the same year, the opportunity arose to conduct a combat minesweeping operation to clear the Gulf of Finland of mines, in which, under the terms of the armistice agreement, Finnish minesweepers also took part. However, when the war ended, the Gulf of Finland was still an area closed to ships.

Limited sea communication between Leningrad and the “mainland” was maintained only through the skerry fairway provided by Finland, passing through the internal waters of Suomi. It was intended for the passage of small-displacement ships (it was precisely this fairway that our submarines used at the final stage of the war to move to combat positions in the Baltic Sea, bypassing the mined Gulf of Finland). Therefore, immediately after the end of the war, the restoration of the traditional deep-water exit from Leningrad to the Baltic Sea along the Gulf of Finland acquired the greatest national importance, especially since the Baltic seaports were completely destroyed.

Before the war, the main channel for such sea traffic was the Great Ship Channel, which during the years of the naval blockade was repeatedly blocked by minefields. In accordance with the decision of the USSR government, it was this fairway that was to be opened for the safe passage of ships and vessels in the first place. For several months, courageous Baltic miners had to “cut through” a new “window to Europe” in enemy minefields. The enemy took care to make his minefields virtually impregnable. They were specially surrounded by small mines - “mine defenders”, booby traps were placed in large numbers and other tricks were used to complicate trawling and make it extremely dangerous. The clearing of the fairway from mines, which began in the fall of 1944, was completed by the beginning of June 1946.

Before the opening of the fairway, a simultaneous passage of four divisions of minesweepers with their trawls was carried out along it, during which several more mines were swept.

On June 5, 1946, the Hydrographic Department of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet notified sailors about the opening of the Great Ship Fairway from Kronstadt to the Tallinn-Helsinki fairway, which by that time already had a connection with the Baltic Sea. Then the Leningrad seaport began operating at full capacity again.

Mine clearance work continued until 1963.

Monuments dedicated to minesweeper sailors in St. Petersburg

During the mine war, the Baltic Fleet lost more than 130 minesweepers. During the war, more than 5,000 thousand sailors died while clearing mines in the waters of the Baltic Sea.

On May 9, 1990, in the Central Park of Culture and Culture, near the II Elagin Bridge, next to the pier, at the base of the 8th division of minesweeper boats of the Baltic Fleet in Leningrad, a memorial sign was installed (at the expense of the park) to the 8th division of minesweeper boats of the Baltic Fleet.

On January 27, 2015, at the Serafimovskoe cemetery, a solemn mourning ceremony was held to unveil a memorial stele to the sailors of the Baltic Fleet who served on minesweepers who died defending the city during the Great Patriotic War and in post-war combat trawling in the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga .

At the base of the stele was placed a capsule with the names of sailors who died during the mine war in the Baltic from June 1941 to 1963, when the mine danger was eliminated in the most mine-prone area - the Gulf of Finland.

The capsule contains the names of about 1,300 officers, foremen and sailors, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, residents of Central Asia and Transcaucasia, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Muslims and Jews.

Based on Internet materials