Effect of The Siege of Leningrad On The City - Civilian Population Evacuation

Civilian Population Evacuation

Almost all public transportation in Leningrad was destroyed as a result of massive air and artillery bombardments in August–September 1941. 3 million people were trapped in the city. Leningrad, as main military-industrial center of Russia, was populated by military-industrial engineers, technicians, and workers with their civilian families. The only means of evacuation was on foot, with little window of opportunity to do so left before the expected encirclement of Leningrad by the Wehrmacht and Finnish forces.

86 major strategic industries were evacuated from the city. Most industrial capacities, engines, and power equipment, instruments and tools, were moved by the workers. Some defence industries, such as the LMZ, the Admiralty Shipyard, and the Kirov Plant, among some other industries were left in the city, and were still producing armor and ammunition for defenders.

Evacuation was organized by Kliment Voroshilov and Georgi Zhukov and was managed by engineers and workers of Leningrad's 86 major industries, which were themselves also evacuated from Leningrad, by using every means of transportation available.

The evacuation operation was managed in several "waves" or phases:

• First wave of evacuation from June to August 1941: 336,000 civilians, mostly children managed to escape because they were taken in, and evacuated with the 86 industries that were dismantled and moved to Northern Russia and Siberia.

• Second wave of evacuation, from September 1941 to April 1942: 659,000 civilians were evacuated mainly by watercraft and ice road over lake Ladoga east of Leningrad.

• Third wave of evacuation, from May 1942 to October 1942: 403,000 civilians were evacuated mainly through the waterways of lake Ladoga east of Leningrad.

Total number of civilians evacuated was about 1.4 million, mainly children, women, and war effort essential personnel.