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74 Years Ago Road of Victory Was Opened

07.02.2017
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74 years ago, on February 7th, 1943 Leningrad received the first train from the rest of the country since the onset of the siege.

Shortly after the siege had been broken through and after Shlisselburg and the southern coast of the Ladoga had been recaptured by forces of the Leningrad and the Volkhov Fronts on January 18th, 1943, a narrow, 8-11 kilometres wide, Polyany — Shlisselburg railway line was built to connect Leningrad with the rest of the railway network of the country. In the night of February 7th, the first train passed upon it and arrived at the half-destroyed Finlyandskiy Railway Station at 10.09 a.m. Among the first convoy of goods 800 tons of food supplies were delivered. In Leningrad, the road was named «the Road of Victory».

Later, in order to decrease the efficiency of the enemy’s artillery shelling, along the main road an 18km long bypass was constructed which ran 1.5 — 2km nearer to the lake. Trains would pass only at night, running one after another and keeping the distance by seeing each other’s rear signals. In order to enhance the capacity of the road there would stand railway workers holding signals along the entire line. After that, during the first night 24 trains arrived at Leningrad. On May 25th, 1943 the number of trains reached 32 at one night.

During 1943, Leningrad received 4.4 million tons of different goods by the Road of Victory. After the siege had been lifted, the Road lost its meaning and was partly pulled down.