Day of Military Glory of Russia - Day of complete liberation of the city of Leningrad from the siege by Soviet troops

January 27 marks the Day of the complete liberation of the city of Leningrad from the siege (1944) Over the years, the name of the holiday itself was changed several times and was finally adopted only in 2014 The siege of Leningrad is one of the most terrible and most courageous pages in the history of the Second World War There is not a person in the world who has not heard about the heroic fortitude of Leningraders, who defended the city at the cost of their own lives for 872 days and nights Hitler's government attached special strategic importance to Leningrad From September 1941 to January 1944, the fascist occupiers tried to take the city The besieged city stood proudly and unapproachably like a rock During shelling, continuous bombing, hunger, cold, and disease, about 642 thousand people died, but not a single one surrendered, preferring to die free for the Motherland than to remain alive as a traitor Siege survivors, from infants to gray-haired old men, are examples of heroic courage inscribed in the annals of our history The road to victory was long and difficult Inside the blockade ring, city residents worked hard, devoting their last strength to fight the enemy The city was starving The city was dying out The only hope remained the “Road of Life” along Lake Ladoga, which was constantly under fire from the enemy Here, every day, every hour, hundreds of people died, cars with food and medicine went under water And yet, for more than two years, every day in Ladoga they tried to break into besieged Leningrad Soviet soldiers achieved the impossible At the cost of enormous human losses, more than 15 million people were evacuated from the impregnable city, and about 16 million tons of cargo were delivered to the city Soviet troops made regular attempts to free the prisoners of the northern capital, but they were all in vain until January 1944, when, during the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, Soviet troops managed to strike three main parts of the German army at once, and create a gap up to 11 km wide in tight blockade ring This made it possible for our army to connect with the city and defeat the enemy’s 16th army The liberation of Novgorod, Tosno, Pushkin, Krasnoarmeysk followed, and the Oktyabrskaya Railway connecting Moscow and Leningrad came under the control of Soviet troops And finally, on January 27, 1944, the blockade of the long-suffering hero city, which had survived at the cost of incredible self-sacrifice, was completely lifted 486 people received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 8 of them twice, more than 15 million people received the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” The only time during the war that fireworks were fired in the country was at 8 pm on January 27, 1944, in honor of the liberation of the mighty giant city