Officials claimed after the war that they had evacuated a million of the children, the sick, and the elderly. This is hard to believe. There was some organized truck evacuation but most of the people who got out did it on their own by walking. The Luftwaffe was effective and there really were not that many of the small pickup-sized trucks available.
Some citizens complained that the highest bosses had plenty of food and even fruit, candy, cake, vodka, and cigarettes. The only way to tell this was by appearances. Starving people were quite skinny. Starving people about to die became bloated. So anyone not bloated or skinny was somehow receiving extra rations. People believed this, although no one had proved it to be true.
The veracity of these war rumors was confirmed some 50 years later by investigative journalists using sworn statements and corroboration by witnesses. It must be pointed out that many citizens, soldiers, sailors, and airmen died valiantly defending their St. Petersburg and Mother Russia. Heroism greatly exceeded the criminal activities. However, some of these illegal acts were inconceivable and bear repeating.
When it was clear in the summer of 1941 that one of the three German battle groups was headed for St. Petersburg, hasty preparations were made. Comrade Mikoyan, in the Communist Central Committee in Moscow, had been ordered by Stalin to be responsible for all the food supplies for the entire USSR military forces. Comrade Mikoyan contacted the top Communist of St. Petersburg, First Secretary Zhdanov, and asked him about St. Petersburg’s food supplies. Comrade Zhdanov was afraid to reveal to the Moscow Central Communist Committee that his planning was less than perfect. He responded, “Do not send any food supplies, Leningrad is all right.” Comrade Zhdanov was also mentioned in several other incidents. Personnel in charge of creating death certificates were ordered to never use the term “starvation.” They could use “killed in action” referring to an enemy attack, disease, accident-anything—just not starvation. Evidently, it was immaterial that most deaths were in fact starvation.
It was during the spring of 1942 that the most severe starvation period of the siege occurred. People looking through the windows of Zhdanov’s office reported seeing large amounts of French pastries and a small delightful cake called bushe sitting on crystal trays. Another witness was a 12-old-boy who had lived through the entire St. Petersburg siege. He swore that there were no food shortages; he had had plenty to eat. It then came out that his mother worked for the hierarchy of the city government and she never let her boy venture outside the confines of their apartment complex.
Many St. Petersburg apartments had storage bins located on high shelves next to the ceiling. Ten, 20, even 30 years after the war, when the apartment owners died and the apartment was being cleaned out, shriveled up starvation victims of the siege would be found in these storage bins. Maybe people were too weak to take the body out for the pickup crews. Maybe they were afraid some criminal would recycle the body or maybe they just wanted the comfort of a loved one nearby.
Any food that citizens could catch, such as dogs, cats, rats, crows, pigeons, frogs, crickets, worms, and roaches disappeared. A cat sold for 100 rubles, which was a high price. The dog and cat meat typically was salted to preserve it for a later meal. There were stories of dead bodies being cut up for meat even in the main streets in the daytime. Both Shurra and Ivan had seen this and knew it to be true. The meat was salted and sold at a high price. Ever more specialized over time, criminals developed the talent of locating vulnerable people to kill, rob, and then harvest for food.
Shurra and Ivan of course knew all this and it helped them make a decision in January of 1943. The winter solstice was still providing very short days and very long, dark and frigid nights. They had to escape from St. Petersburg. They had to make the difficult trip over the icy road of Ladoga Lake. The beleaguered citizens of St. Petersburg called it the Life Road. In reality it was just a snowplowed route over the ice. It constantly changed to avoid bomb holes, weak ice, and snowdrifts. The children knew that the Germans frequently bombed the Life Road and that trucks did not always make it through, even the faster-moving empty or lightly loaded trucks returning to the Big Land. Therefore, they decided to walk about half a kilometer off to the side of the road in hopes of avoiding the bombs.
Shurra and Ivan made an agreement. If one of them could not make it, then that one would be left to die on the lake ice and the other one would continue alone. Since Galena was too big for Ivan to carry, she would stay with Shurra and live or die with her. Shurra was obsessed with the family having a survivor. She was not very concerned about who it would be, but at least one of them had to make it through this hell!
They knew that survival in a Russian winter required careful preparation. They took two rucksacks with them. One with little Galena wrapped in a quilt on the top of a bundle of clothes; the second with supplies consisting of the last of their meager bits of food and some socks and mittens in the event the ones they were wearing got wet. A large butcher knife, a small axe, and handfuls of dry tinder to help make fires were included. The children had just a few matches left in a small box and these were carefully packed. One neighbor gave them a lightweight rope tied with red banners to place around their campsite as was customary to scare away wolves. Other neighbors gave the children whatever they could. One found a handful of starch which one could boil with snow and drink. Another had some brown organic glue that had dried out. One could suck upon small broken pieces of this for a long time. These neighbors understood that the kids would probably die on the trip but they felt duty bound to help as much as they could.
In the early morning Shurra and Ivan said their last goodbye to their poor dwelling. Superstitiously following an old Russian custom prior to embarking on a long and dangerous journey, they sat and concentrated for a minute near the door in silence. They then stood, made the sign of the cross and left their home for the last time.
Shurra put the rucksack with Galena on her back. It seemed heavy for the weak girl. Ivan carried the other rucksack. They did not hold hands as usual since they had to hold on the rucksack straps. The straps cut painfully into their skinny shoulders. The walk through the city was long and hard and consumed several days, but an even harder walk waited. It is approximately 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Leningrad to Lake Ladoga. Then they had to go even farther, enough to get past the Germans and into Russian-held territory. This was not marked on a map—not that they had a map!
They had a fortunate trip in that the German Luftwaffe bombers did not bomb the Life Road. After many days of walking and nights sleeping in the snow, they reached a forest by the edge of the lake. They followed the shoreline, walking on the lake as it was easier than walking on the rough forest floor. The immense lake encompasses 17,680 square kilometers (6,830 square miles).
The forest was mainly oak and spruce trees. However, there were growths of pine, birch, ash, aspen, elm, hornbeam, and maple. As the elevation decreases, the tree height increases and the forest becomes more dense with plant life. These conditions supported populations of deer, wolves, foxes, and squirrels.
Crows now followed the slow progress of the little band. There was nothing they could do about the hoarse croaking sounds the birds made but it bothered the children. The noisy birds swooped about like death messengers from the devil. Indeed, ancient people watching the black crows devour their dead kin on the battlefield believed that they saw the devil incarnate. People didn’t call clusters of crows crossing the October sky a flock, but a murder of crows. The deathly black crow with its beady black eyes and menacing beak likes to cock its head and study people. The crow is highly intelligent, more like a monkey than it is like other birds. It is no surprise that the crows’ attention was unnerving to Ivan and Shurra.
The children stumbled across a wide frozen stream which offered better protection from prying eyes. They decided that they had traveled east long enough to reach Red Army territory, so they followed the stream’s meandering course. The children knew that villages required irrigation wa
ter for crops, so a village should be close by the stream and easy to find.
Their sharp eyes frequently found the telltale red of the berries on the mountain ash tree. The berries are bitter in the summer, but after the first freeze, they turn sweet. The children welcomed these numerous sweet snacks.
Shurra noticed that her brother was becoming exhausted and unresponsive. His eyes would close and then flutter open, his breathing was shallow and irregular, and his gait was more a stagger than a walk. She understood that the boy needed rest but she felt that she did not have the right to stop the trek, even though she too would soon be unable to take one more step with the heavy rucksack on her back. Her decision came quickly. They found a secluded nook in the forest by the frozen stream and Shurra made a protected fire inside an old, decaying log. Then she strung up the anti-wolf rope. Ivan could keep the fire going while Shurra looked for help. She kissed Ivan and Galena and with tears flowing down her cheeks she headed out by herself, following the stream into the unknown. Deep in her heart she wanted to believe that she would return for her brother and niece, but an ugly voice murmured in her ear, “You see them for the last time.”
Shurra walked with the last of her strength. Sometimes she felt like she was walking and sleeping at the same time. The girl had not had any food for several days. She didn’t know for certain how long it had been since she had eaten, as she lost her sense of time. When it got dark she made camp by simply climbing up a tree and tying herself to a branch. It was cold but safe from the roving wolves.
She awoke in the dim light of predawn and looked around. She thought she could smell smoke and, looking upwind, a smallish gray area of smoke confirmed it. She quickly continued the journey and in the early morning light the forest opened and she saw a little group of houses. Some chimneys were smoking. It was salvation! The cold, tired, hungry girl approached the closest door and knocked. Then, her strength deserted her and she collapsed unconscious in a heap.
“Wake up, wake up!” An old woman and an older man bent over her. “Who are you? Where are you from? Germans occupy our village. Did anybody see you?”
“I’m from St. Petersburg. There are two children waiting for me down that stream in the forest. We have to hurry. They are dying of cold and hunger!”
They carried her in, placed her by the fire, and made her comfortable. They fed her an old potato, a hunk of black bread, and a cup of hot tea made from a chopped and dried carrot, all the while fussing over her and comforting her.
Shurra fought off fatigue and slowly got up. The old couple gave her a pair of skis and the man strapped on his own skis. “Show the way, brave girl,” he said.
They skied in silence as Shurra concentrated on navigating down the streambed to the children’s camp. So focused was the exhausted teenager that she could not see the winter wonderland that Mother Nature had provided. The usually gray cloudy sky was gone. The air was clear and the rising winter sun was creating a deep blue sky to match Shurra’s eyes.
She loved nature but she did not notice the red-crested bull finches on the branches of a mountain ash fighting over the energy-rich red berries that spilled onto the white snow. Winter nights are long and Russians greet daybreak like the approach of a beautiful woman. This morning, it appeared that Mother Nature had broken her red-jeweled necklace and the crimson beads had scattered about like drops of blood on a white napkin. The hoar frost on the trees mimicked hand embroidered lace. It sparkled in the sun like millions of tiny mirrors. Birds skittered around for food, causing small particles of thawing ice to fall on the ground. The trees were silent sentinels and lent a cathedral atmosphere.
The old man was also distracted and not enjoying the experience. There was no wind or fresh falling snow to camouflage their ski tracks. The partisans were afraid of days like this and the Germans loved them! The old man glanced often at Shurra and finally said,” Let’s stop for a few minutes. The way is hard and you need to eat and rest. If you don’t, you are not going to survive this rescue trip back to your family.”
The girl answered, “Okay, but let’s make the stop brief. I don’t want to waste even a minute because every moment is critical for their survival.”
They took cover in some bushes by the stream. After five minutes or so, they were skiing again when a loud dog’s bark unexpectedly broke the silence. The two skiers froze in place and listened as soldiers on skis appeared from around a bend in the stream, pointing rifles at them. The old man and the teenager had run headfirst into a large Fascist patrol. Their capture had been ridiculously easy. Shurra never knew if the Germans were following her tracks from the previous night or if the soldiers just stumbled onto them by chance.
Surly soldiers removed their prisoners’ skis to hinder escape, examined and tossed aside their rucksacks, and searched them. Then the patrol was quickly on the move again. Capture was not pleasant. The Germans had suffered heavy losses from partisans and so they had no use for any Russians. Every German death caused retaliation by shooting scores of Russians. A Third Reich Army dog killed by partisans required 20 dead Russians for retaliation, even though the trained dog was killing Russian children at the time. The villages housed only small children, old men, and women but it did not matter to the Fascists. When ordered, they rounded them up and shot them.
Oh God! Why didn’t I listen to my companion? Shurra thought. If we had taken a longer break maybe we would have avoided the soldiers. The miserable girl maintained a stoic face but inside she berated herself.
After awhile they reached a small clearing in the forest with German soldiers and many Russian prisoners. The prisoners were digging a ditch. The frozen ground resisted their efforts but their captors kept them at it.
Later that day another patrol with more Russian prisoners arrived. The guards halted the digging and the prisoners were crowded together and forced into the shallow depression. The deep-throated dudh-dudh-dudh-dudh of automatic weapons and the sharp crack of rifle shots pierced the frozen air. A bullet hit the traumatized teenager and she collapsed unconscious. She did not feel the stream of blood trickling from her head.
The Nazi SS unit likely responsible for this atrocity was a mobile part of the SD Einsatzgruppen or Security Service, which followed German Armies in the Soviet Union in June of 1941. Their orders were to round-up and shoot all Jews, communists leaders, and Gypsies. Degrading prisoners, looting, theft, and rape were typical by-products. These units killed approximately one million Jews, who were buried in mass graves dug by them just before their deaths. The numbers of murdered Russians and Gypsies are unknown.
Shurra awoke some time later. She could hear moaning and she felt the dead weight of people lying upon her. Slowly she came to her senses. The forest was quiet except for the rancorous cawing of black crows. They were working the bodies, attracted by hunger to the grisly scene. Shurra was scared and wanted to cry but no tears would come. She knew that the wolves and other forest animals would feast that night and for many nights.
It took a long time to push her way out of the pile of dead people and for a while she was not certain that she had the strength to accomplish it. Eventually, Shurra lay on the cold ground by the ditch full of bodies and tried to think as she stared at the bright brass bullet casings. The air was already putrid with escaping gases from the bloody corpses.
The kind old man who had fed and helped her was dead. Some wounded were still alive, gut-shot and dying. She doubted that anyone else would survive. She discovered that she had a scalp wound that was bleeding slowly down her face. Suddenly her senses came alive. She smelled food. Shurra started looting the bodies. A few of them were carrying old pieces of dried bread crusts. A piece of a shirt became a head bandage, held on by her fur hat and wool shawl tied over her head and around her body. Several female bodies had silver wedding rings that she might trade later on for food or something. The Russian peasants did not have any money or jewelry; she knew this and did not bother to look for any. Looting these bodies was difficult, physical
ly and emotionally. The girl was not happy in her work, but that did not matter. Survival mattered!
The ingenious girl loaded up her new supplies in a bag and retraced her trail back to where the Germans captured her. The trail was easy enough to follow, as it had been a large patrol. Shurra reached the location and reclaimed her rucksack with the food from the old couple, put on the skis, carried the old man’s skis and headed downstream for her brother and niece. Darkness caught her and she again climbed a friendly tree and tied herself in. This time, she at least had a bread crust to savor.
Shurra was lucky the next day or she never would have found them. It had snowed since she had left the makeshift camp. She sensed that she was close. Then she observed a red banner from their rope, which was still dangling from a small tree. The fire was out of fuel and only a few warm coals remained. She found the small boy and the baby buried together in a deep iced-over snowdrift. Ivan had dug out a burrow, lined it with some pine boughs, and buried his niece and himself with his last strength. It had probably saved their lives. Shurra had been gone possibly three or four days, she really did not know.
She scrounged some wood, built up the fire, pulled the two mummies out of the snow bank, and placed them by the life-saving heat. She had the idea to build several fires around them to warm all sides at once. This plan was proceeding nicely until one fire caught the low branches of a weeping white birch tree. The fire flared in the dry wood and Shurra, fearful of attracting attention, threw handfuls of snow to quell the flames. Shortly, the flare-up died and the smoke disappeared. She finally got some heat and food into all three of them. Shurra briefly updated Ivan in response to his questions. She left out the bad parts where she could; she did not want to think about it. Warmer, rested, and fed, they started out. Galena fit inside the rucksack on Shurra’s back with no problem but Ivan was too weak to ski. She solved the problem by laying Ivan down onto the old man’s skis and tying him to the bindings. The wolf rope became a towline and they headed out into lightly falling snow, heading up the streambed with the determined Shurra providing all the energy for locomotion.
My Russian Family Page 29