Soviet soldiers managed to expel Nazi troops during Operation Spark, the offensive that turned out to be the turning point in the struggle for Leningrad and throughout the Great Patriotic War.
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January 18 is one of the most important dates related to the Great Patriotic War, since 77 years ago, in 1943, thanks to Operation Spark, the Leningrad site was broken.
A year and a half earlier, in July 1941, German troops entered the territory of the Leningrad region (now St. Petersburg), and at the end of August they occupied the city of Tosno, located 50 kilometers from Leningrad.
Despite the efforts of the Red Army, the enemy continued to narrow the fence around the city, and on September 2 the Germans they cut the last railroad track that linked Leningrad with the rest of the country. Less than a week later, on September 8, Leningrad was already fully fenced, and the only thread that connected it with the rest of the world was the Way of Life, which reached the urban area through the ice of Lake Ladoga. In Leningrad there were then more than 2.5 million inhabitants, 400,000 of whom were children.
The city spent 872 long days in the deadly encirclement of the enemy, and according to some estimates more than 1.2 million people died because of hunger, cold and bombing.
To free Leningrad, the Soviet command combined the simultaneous blows of two fronts (that of Leningrad and Voljov) and during Operation Spark, at the cost of enormous efforts, they managed to expel the enemy.
Operation Spark
The Soviet troops made four failed attempts to break the site. Only in January 1943, when the main German forces were concentrated in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), they achieved it thanks to Operation Spark.
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According to a version of the story, during the discussions to choose the name of the operation, the then leader of the Soviet Union, Iósif Stalin, recalled the previous failures and, in the hope that the fifth attempt would allow to join the two fronts and achieve military success said: “May the spark ignite fire!”.
The offensive began on the morning of January 12 and lasted several days. The good planning of the attack paid off. On January 18, the Red Army, which was advancing along the shore of Lake Ladoga, managed to open a 10-kilometer wide corridor that allowed restore supply from the city.
And although there was still a whole year until the site was completely lifted, this event was a turning point in the struggle for Leningrad and throughout the Great Patriotic War.
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited his hometown on January 18 to commemorate this anniversary.
The president deposited a floral offering in the monument of the Motherland, located in the Piskarióvskoye Memorial Cemetery, considered the largest set of mass graves of World War II.
On the way to the monument, Putin also deposited flowers in one of the mass graves, where his brother Victor lies, who died in the city besieged at an early age in the winter of 1942. The president also had meetings with veterans from the war.
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