Road of Life

The Road of Life (Доро́га жи́зни, doroga zhizni) was the set of ice road transport routes across Lake Ladoga to Leningrad during the Second World War. They were the only Soviet winter surface routes into the city while it was besieged by the German Army Group North under Feldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb. The routes operated in the winters of 1941-1942 and 1942-1943. Construction and operation were performed under German artillery and aerial bombardment. In January 1943 the Soviet's Operation Iskra broke the encirclement, and the ice roads were used in conjunction with land routes for the remainder of the winter. The routes carried supplies necessary to sustain life and resistance inside the Leningrad pocket, and evacuated non-combatants, wounded, and industrial equipment. Over 1.3 million people, primarily women and children, were evacuated over the roads during the siege . The Road of Life is now a World Heritage Site. On 8 September 1941, Army Group North captured Shlisselburg on the shores of Lake Ladoga, east of Leningrad, and took control of all land routes to Leningrad. This followed the capture of Mga, south of Shlisselburg, on 29 August which cut the city off from the Soviet railway network. The Soviets fell back onto transport by ship over Lake Ladoga and by air; the evacuation of strategic industries and personnel, and shipments of munitions from Leningrad, continued. On 16 October, the Germans launched an offensive toward Tikhvin and the last Soviet railroad from Moscow to Lake Ladoga that ran through it. Cutting the railroad precipitated the fall of Leningrad. The Soviet Leningrad Front under General Ivan Fedyuninsky launched its own offensive toward Sinyavino on 20 October to recapture Shlisselburg corridor and break the encirclement. The offensive achieved little, and was cancelled on 28 October due to the severity of the German attack. On 8 November, the Germans captured Tikhvin and reached the outskirts of Volkhov. The railroad cut was temporary; the exhausted Germans could not hold the salient in worsening weather and against increasing Soviet pressure.