Leningrad survived a terrible siege, famine, and bombings. People waited for the end of the war, but in the end the coming peace brought new challenges. The city was in ruins, poverty, devastation and rampant street crime were everywhere: gangs and lone killers appeared. In the post-war years, there was almost no hunting for jewelry and money; they stole mainly clothes and food. Leningrad was overflowing with dubious elements and people desperate from poverty.
The townspeople no longer died from dystrophy, but most of them continued to experience a constant feeling of hunger. For example, workers in 1945-46 received 700 grams of bread per day, employees - 500 grams, and dependents and children - only 300 grams. There were plenty of products on the “black market,” but they were inaccessible to an ordinary St. Petersburg family with a modest budget.
The crop failure of 1946 further aggravated the situation. It is not surprising that the crime curve in Leningrad was rapidly creeping up. Lone robbers and organized gangs operated in all areas of the city. Robberies of food stores, shops, and apartments followed one after another, and there were armed attacks on the streets, in courtyards, and entrances. After the war, the bandits had a huge amount of firearms in their hands; it was not difficult to find and obtain them at the sites of recent battles. In just the fourth quarter of 1946, more than 85 assaults and armed robberies, 20 murders, 315 cases of hooliganism, and almost 4 thousand thefts of all types were committed in the city. These figures were considered very high at the time.
It should be taken into account that among the bandits there were many participants in the war. At the front, they learned to shoot and kill, and therefore, without hesitation, they solved problems with the help of weapons. For example, in one of the Leningrad cinemas, when spectators remarked on a company smoking and talking loudly, shots were fired. A policeman was killed and several visitors were injured.
Criminals from the criminal environment even followed a peculiar fashion - they wore metal retainers on their teeth and caps pulled low on their foreheads. When Leningraders saw a gang of such young people approaching them, the first thing they did was tightly clutch their food cards. The bandits snatched the treasured pieces of paper on the fly, sometimes leaving the entire family to live from hand to mouth for a month.
Law enforcement officials tried to stem the crime wave. The detection rate was approximately 75%.
However, not only criminal gangs operated in the poor, dilapidated city. Some officials who understood how to benefit from their power also carried out criminal activities. Evacuees were returning to the city on the Neva; questions of housing distribution, return of property, etc. arose. Dishonest businessmen also used the available information about what valuables were poorly protected.
In 1947, 24 unique items made of gold and precious stones were stolen from the Hermitage storerooms. The thief was found and convicted, and the valuables were returned. That same year, a large gang was exposed, which included criminals and officials from the city prosecutor's office, court, bar, city housing department, and police. For bribes, they released people from custody, stopped investigative cases, illegally registered people, and released them from conscription. Another case: the head of the motor transport department of the Leningrad City Council sent trucks to the occupied regions of Germany, allegedly for equipment. In fact, he took valuables and materials out of there and built dachas here.
The famous “Black Cat” gang, which became known to many thanks to the film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed,” was in fact a huge criminal community. She carried out her main activities in Moscow, but traces of her were also found in the city on the Neva.
In 1945, Leningrad police officers solved a high-profile case. An investigation into a series of burglaries in house No. 8 on Pushkinskaya Street led to the trail of a teenage gang. They caught the top of the gang red-handed - students of vocational school No. 4 Vladimir Popov, nicknamed Chesnok, Sergei Ivanov and Grigory Shneiderman. During the search, the leader, 16-year-old Popov, was found to have a most interesting document - the “Black Cat” oath of Caudla, under which eight signatures were signed in blood. But since only three participants managed to commit crimes, they went to the dock. In January 1946, at a meeting of the people's court of the 2nd section of the Krasnogvardeisky district of Leningrad, the verdict was announced: the teenagers received from one to three years in prison.
Organized crime was also widespread. Moreover, often the gangs were made up not of criminals, but of ordinary citizens. During the day these were ordinary workers of Leningrad enterprises, and at night...
Thus, a gang of Glaz brothers operated in the city. It was a real organized crime community. The gang was led by brothers Isaac and Ilya Glaz, it consisted of 28 people and was armed with two Schmeisser machine guns, six TT pistols, eighteen grenades, as well as a passenger car, in which the bandits carried out reconnaissance of future crime scenes and bypass routes, and a truck... In a short time, from the autumn of 1945 to March 1946, the gang committed 18 robberies, using the tactics of night raids. The area of operation of this criminal group included the Nevsky, Kalininsky, Moskovsky and Kirovsky districts of the city. The scope of the gang’s activities can be judged by the fact that the distribution system for the loot covered the markets of Kharkov and Rostov! The Eye Brothers gang had a whole arsenal.
The operation to defeat the gang was developed in March 1946 by criminal intelligence operative and former front-line soldier Vladimir Boldyrev. The security forces set up ambushes in places where further robberies were likely to take place. As a result, during an attack on a store on Volkovsky Prospekt, the criminals were blocked and detained. The operation was carried out in such a way that not a single shot was fired. In 28 apartments, 150 rolls of woolen fabrics, 28 rolls of cloth, 46 rolls of silk fabric, 732 headscarves and 85 thousand rubles were seized from relatives and friends of the criminals! A distinctive feature of the activities of this gang was that its leaders managed to establish close relationships with some influential employees of the state apparatus of Leningrad and the region. To bribe them, the bandits even allocated a special fund in the amount of 60 thousand rubles.
Despite serious efforts to reform the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department, crime receded slowly. It could not have been otherwise, because its main causes - post-war devastation, the difficult economic situation of the population - changed slowly. In the period from 1946 to 1950, the Leningrad City Court considered 37 cases on charges of banditry, for which 147 people were convicted.
But no, there was no sincere joy among the people. Something was preventing this happiness. The child's mind and heart felt this, but could not understand and realize it yet, since the adults spoke quietly and in half-hints. And the children understood that not everything could be said out loud, and some things were even dangerous. I loved running to visit my sisters. One day I was returning home from one of my sisters. Passing by the sewing club, I unwittingly became a witness to one episode. A poorly dressed woman was sitting on the porch of this club. She was drunk. Swearing flew out of her mouth, and almost every word the name was mentioned - STALIN. She scolded Stalin?!! How is it possible?!!
If anyone hears, they will immediately take her away!!! I didn’t know the reasons, but I knew that this was never permissible for anyone. I felt scared because I heard this and became an eyewitness to the impermissible act of a poor woman. I felt sorry for the woman. God, what will happen? What will happen? She looked around. GOD BLESS! Nobody! With joy for the woman that no one heard her, and with a heavy heart, I continued on my way.
But a few months later, trouble came to our street. My friend Ira Telegina’s mother and grandfather were taken away. For what - it is unknown. But one day I saw a sleigh loaded with two sacks of grain leaving their house. No. they lived well, but for two bags they take two people?! There was no gossip among the neighbors. It was as if people had disappeared without a trace - neither heard nor spirit. But, a few months later, grandfather returned. It was rumored that they were released due to old age and illness. And indeed, that grandfather soon passed away. And mom Irina came five years later just as quietly and unnoticed as she left quietly and unnoticed. It is unknown whether she wrote letters home, because... It was not customary not to speak, not to ask.
As a result of military operations, Leningrad suffered enormous damage. Over the entire period of the war, the enemy dropped more than 5 thousand high-explosive and 100 thousand incendiary bombs and about 150 thousand artillery shells on Leningrad. In the city, about 5 million square meters of living space, 500 schools, 170 medical institutions, etc. were destroyed and damaged, almost every house was damaged. 3,174 buildings were completely destroyed and 7,143 were damaged by enemy aircraft and artillery strikes. The losses of the municipal economy were estimated at 5.5 billion rubles, which amounted to 25% of the value of fixed assets of the city economy.
The Nazi barbarians destroyed and damaged hundreds of the most valuable historical monuments of Russian and world culture. Bombs and shells hit many historical buildings; to the Opera House (formerly Mariinsky), Engineering Castle, Russian Museum, Hermitage, Winter Palace, etc. Wonderful suburbs were destroyed: Petrodvorets (former Peterhof), Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Strelna, Uritsk, etc.
Two months after the liberation of Leningrad from the enemy blockade, on March 29, 1944, the State Defense Committee (GKO) adopted a decision “On priority measures to restore the industry and urban economy of Leningrad in 1944.”
In 1945, Leningrad industry had already fulfilled the plan for gross output by 102.5%. Leningrad began to provide the front with a large amount of military equipment, ammunition, and equipment. A number of factories began to establish the production of radar, flight test and other complex equipment, powerful radio stations, forging equipment, etc. Industry was restored to a new, higher level, taking into account advanced science and technology, new technology. Volume of capital work for 1944-1945. amounted to about 2 billion rubles.
The Fourth Five-Year Plan (1946-1950) provided for the accelerated restoration of Leningrad as the largest industrial and cultural center of the country, the achievement of the pre-war level of production of Leningrad industry and its further development.
The party organization and the working people of Leningrad faced extremely difficult tasks. The gross output of all enterprises in 1945 was only 32% of the 1940 level. In September 1945, there were 749.7 thousand workers and employees in the city.
Work to restore industry and urban services began after the blockade was lifted. Already in 1944, many workshops and workshops of Elektrosila, Metallichesky and other plants and factories damaged during the war were restored and returned to service. The restoration of Lenenergo power plants presented significant difficulties. In 1945, they produced only 366 million kWh. In 1940, these power plants provided 1598 million kWh of electricity. The pre-war level of electricity production from these stations was significantly exceeded by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Plan.
Simultaneously with the restoration and development of the city's industry, Leningraders restored residential buildings and architectural monuments. “We defended Leningrad - we will make it even more beautiful and better.” Under this slogan, the Communists of Leningrad encouraged hundreds of thousands of Leningraders to actively participate in restoration work. By the thirtieth anniversary of the October Revolution (1947), Leningrad had largely restored its pre-war appearance.
In the restoration of Leningrad, innovators became famous for their patriotic work: masonry master A. Kulikov, roofers Preobrazhensky brothers, plasterers Z. Safin, I. Karpov and many other builders. Bricklayer A. Parfenov and his team laid more than 4 million bricks, fulfilling 4 annual standards.
Tens of thousands of Leningraders, at the call of the party organization, restored the city, its enterprises, and historical monuments every day during hours free from their main work.
At the initiative of Leningraders, a patriotic movement for the creative community of workers in science and production began in the country. At Leningrad enterprises, the work methods of Muscovites L. Korabelnikova, A. Chutkikh, I. Rossiysky, F. Kovalev and other notable production innovators were studied and began to be applied. Workers, engineers and technicians of the Skorokhod factory, supporting the initiative of the workers of the Kupavino factory in the Moscow region M. Rozhneva and L. Kononeko, aimed at above-plan production through savings, made 38 thousand pairs of shoes from saved chrome in just 4 months of 1949 over plan.
Turner G. Bortkevich, a turner at the Leningrad Machine Tool Plant named after Ya. M. Sverdlov, initiated high-speed cutting of metal, sharply increased the speed of rotation of the part being turned, and used cutters of improved geometry with plates made of hard alloys. As a result of the use of innovative labor methods, G. Bortkevich brought production to 1400% of the norm; his initiative was taken up by turners at Leningrad enterprises.
The fourth five-year plan was completed by Leningraders ahead of schedule. In 1950, the gross output of Leningrad enterprises amounted to 128% compared to 1940, and the number of workers and employees was lower than pre-war (1317.1 thousand people versus 1467.3 thousand people in 1940). Heavy industry naturally outstripped other industries in the city in its development. In 1950 it was 16 times higher than the level of 1913.
During the fifth five-year plan (1951-1956), Leningraders solved the task set by the Communist Party and the Soviet government - to develop Leningrad as one of the centers of further technical progress. The metal plant began manufacturing hydraulic turbines of a power that in the past was considered a monopoly of American enterprises. At the Elektrosila plant, under the leadership of chief engineer D. Efremov and chief designer E. Komar, a new design of a 100 thousand kW hydrogen-cooled turbogenerator was developed,
New forms of socialist competition became widespread at enterprises in Leningrad. In December 1953, the staff of the Elektrosila plant named after S. M. Kirov proposed to launch socialist competition to increase production output through better use of existing production space and equipment. With their production successes, the workers of Leningrad made a significant contribution to the early implementation of the fifth five-year plan in 4 years and 4 months.
The total industrial output of Leningrad in 1955 increased by 83% compared to 1950 and amounted to 234% compared to 1940. The output of large-scale industrial enterprises was almost 29 times higher than the level of 1913 and more than 20 times higher than in 1928 The number of workers and employees in September 1955 was 1535.8 thousand people. The successes of Leningrad's industry were achieved not due to an increase in the workforce, but mainly due to an increase in labor productivity. In 1955, compared to 1950, output per worker increased by 45%.
Machine-building enterprises in Leningrad mastered and produced 354 important new types of machines, mechanisms, apparatus and instruments.
Taking into account the capabilities and internal reserves of production, workers of Leningrad industry, in response to the decisions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU (1956), took upon themselves the obligation: in the sixth five-year plan (1956-1960) to double gross output on the same production areas and with the same number of workers. During the Sixth Five-Year Plan, Leningrad will give the country six types of new hydraulic turbines, including giant turbines with a capacity of up to 300 thousand kW for the hydroelectric power stations of Siberia, i.e., almost three times the power of the machines installed at the Kuibyshev hydroelectric power station.
The V.V. Kuibyshev Carburetor Plant should produce 4 times more carburetors in the same production areas than in the previous five years. The plant named after L. M. Sverdlov will master the production of new types of large horizontal boring machines. The world's first nuclear-powered icebreaker, Lenin, is being built at one of the shipyards in Leningrad. At the Baltic Shipyard named after S. Ordzhonikidze in 1956, powerful refrigerated diesel-electric ships were built for the fisheries of the Far East, and the construction of ships for the Greater Volga began.
Leningraders completed the plan for the first year of the sixth five-year plan ahead of schedule. Compared to 1955, gross output at city enterprises increased in 1956 by 11%. As before, heavy industry developed at a particularly rapid pace, the gross output of which in 1956 increased by 15.7% compared to 1955, was almost 32 times higher than the output of 1913 and more than 23 times higher than the output of 1928.
Major successes in implementing the state plan were achieved by the following plants: Kirovsky, Nevsky Machine-Building Plant named after V.I. Lenin, “Svetlana”, “Sevkabel”, rubber technical products, Proletarsky Locomotive Repair Plant, Kanonersky, Mill Plant named after V.I. Lenin, factory named after N. K. Krupskaya and other enterprises.
In 1956, new progressive initiatives arose at Leningrad enterprises. The famous turner of the Kirov plant V. Karasev, in collaboration with milling machine operator E. Savich and other workers, in 1956 designed a new milling cutter that made it possible to increase labor productivity several times. V. Ya. Karasev was a delegate to the 20th Congress of the CPSU and was elected as a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The innovators of the Kirov plant, milling machine operator A. Loginov and mechanic P. Zaichenko, initiated the movement for high-performance technical equipment and the comprehensive introduction of advanced labor methods at every workplace. The innovative blacksmith of the Nevsky Machine-Building Plant, I. Burlakov, who in January 1957 was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, enjoys well-deserved fame among the working people of Leningrad. Innovators are well known in Leningrad - weaver of the Rabochiy factory, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR M. Materikova, cutter of the Skorokhod factory A. Svyatskaya. E. Sudakov, an innovative mechanic at the Elektrosila stamping shop, designed ten original presses and machines. Over the course of 7 years, shipbuilder foreman K. Saburov made 69 rationalization and inventive proposals and all of them were accepted for implementation into production.
Scientific research institutes and organizations of Leningrad are all-Union laboratories of technical progress. They tirelessly enrich the country's science and industry with the latest discoveries in the field of technology and production technology. The city has about 300 research institutes, higher educational institutions and institutions of the USSR Academy of Sciences. They employ about 13 thousand researchers. Many of the largest Soviet scientists work in Leningrad, making their creative contribution to the development of Soviet and world science.
The material well-being of Leningrad workers is increasing, housing and living conditions are improving. Housing construction is being carried out on a broad front, although the rapid growth rate of living space still does not keep pace with the needs of the city, whose population in 1956, including its suburbs, was 3,176 thousand people. In the sixth five-year plan it is planned to build up to 4 million square meters. m of living space. Freight taxis https://gruzovoe.taxi/ will help citizens in the shortest possible time to carry out such a long-awaited housewarming.
By the 38th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution, work was completed on the first section (Vosstaniya Square - Avtovo) of the Leningrad Metro named after V. I. Lenin. In 1957, construction of the second section from Vosstaniya Square to Finlyandsky Station was completed. Preparatory work is underway for the construction of new metro lines.
Leningraders are making a great contribution to the implementation of the party’s decision on a steep rise in agriculture. Hundreds of party, Soviet and scientific workers, responding to the calls of the party, went to the villages and were elected chairmen of collective farms. The Leningrad Party organization sent over 30 thousand people to agriculture and to the development of virgin and fallow lands. At the call of the party and government, 18 thousand young Leningraders left to develop virgin and fallow lands. In addition, 9 thousand people. went to the northern and eastern new buildings of the country.
In May - June 1957, based on the decisions of the February (1957) plenum of the CPSU Central Committee and the decisions of the VII session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (May 1957), a radical restructuring of the management of industry and construction of Leningrad was carried out. According to the resolution of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, the Leningrad Economic Administrative Region was created, uniting the industry of Leningrad, Leningrad, Novgorod and Pskov regions. The restructuring of industrial management was greeted by Leningraders with great satisfaction, because it makes it possible to better use internal production reserves and more correctly organize cooperation and specialization of enterprises.
At the head of the working people of Leningrad, who are successfully solving the problems of communist construction, is a proven and seasoned detachment of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union - the Leningrad organization of the CPSU. As of January 1, 1957, the city party organization consisted of 20 district committees, 4,620 primary party organizations, 4,228 shop party organizations and 9,548 party groups. The number of members and candidates for membership of the CPSU amounted to 245,445 people.
On January 1, 1957, the Leningrad city Komsomol organization consisted of 344,913 members of the Komsomol. For heroism shown during the Great Patriotic War and active participation in socialist construction, the Leningrad Komsomol organization in 1948, on the 30th anniversary of the Komsomol, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. The Leningrad party organization is doing a great deal of work to implement the historical resolutions of the 20th Congress of the CPSU. Based on the decisions of the congress, a restructuring of party work was carried out, grassroots party organizations were strengthened, management of economic and cultural construction became more specific and efficient, and ideological work was intensified. Leningrad communists with great persistence are eliminating the consequences of the cult of personality condemned by the party. Based on the development of internal party democracy and adherence to Leninist norms of party life, the activity of communists increased significantly. The Leningrad party organization greeted with great satisfaction the measures taken by the CPSU Central Committee and the Soviet government to strengthen revolutionary legality. As it turned out in 1953, after the exposure and defeat of Beria’s criminal gang, in 1949 the so-called “Leningrad case”, in which a number of major party leaders were slandered and convicted (I. A. Voznesensky, A. A. Kuznetsov, Ya. F. Kapustin, P. S. Popkov, etc.), now completely rehabilitated. An attempt by the enemies of the party to defame the Leningrad cadres was thwarted.
The party organization of Leningrad has always been and remains a fighting monolithic detachment of the party, closely united around the Leninist Central Committee. The Leningrad communists demonstrated this again by unanimously approving the decision of the June plenum of the CPSU Central Committee (1957) on the anti-party group of Malenkov, Kaganovich, Molotov, which, with its factional activities, caused serious damage to the party and tried to push the party off the Leninist path, to change the party policy developed by the 20th Congress CPSU. In June 1957, the working people of Leningrad and the entire Soviet people celebrated the 250th anniversary of the founding of Leningrad with great enthusiasm.
In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 16, 1957 established the medal “In memory of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad.” By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 21, 1957, for the outstanding services of the working people of Leningrad to the Motherland, for the courage and heroism they showed during the days of the Great October Socialist Revolution and in the fight against the Nazi invaders in the Great Patriotic War, for the successes achieved in development of industry and culture, in the development and mastery of new technology, in connection with the 250th anniversary, Leningrad was awarded the Order of Lenin.
On June 22, 1957, the Anniversary session of the Leningrad City Council of Workers' Deputies, dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Leningrad, was held at the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov. At a session on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Soviet Government, member of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR A. A. Andreev in a solemn ceremony presented the Order of Lenin to the city bearing the glorious name of the leader of the proletarian revolution, the founder of the Communist Party and the world's first socialist state - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.
For outstanding production achievements, the development of science and technology and the great contribution made to the development and implementation of new progressive labor methods at industrial enterprises, transport and construction sites in the city, 20 Leningrad residents were awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, 7226 workers, engineers and technicians, scientific and cultural workers , as well as trade union, party and Komsomol workers of Leningrad were awarded orders and medals (Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of June 21).
On July 6, 1957, members of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee arrived in Leningrad to present awards: N. A. Bulganin, K. E. Voroshilov, O. V. Kuusinen, E. A. Furtseva, N. S. Khrushchev, N. M. Shvernik, who spoke at meetings and rallies of teams of the largest factories.
On July 7, a 700,000-strong demonstration of city workers took place. It was a clear indication of the unity of the party and the people, the high political activity of Leningraders, and their combat readiness to fight under the Leninist banner for new victories of communist construction.
A SECONDS
Ekaterina Ogorodnik and Galina Chernysh, 10th grade student at school No. 238 in St. Petersburg.
The work received 2nd prize at the VIII All-Russian International Memorial Competition "Man in History. Russia - 20th Century".
Scientific supervisor - T.N. Boyko.
Our work is based on the memories of specific people who lived in our country in a specific period of time from 1945 to 1965, and its task is to present this historical period through the prism of everyday life, the appearance, home, and leisure of these people. The main research methods were oral history methods. Our respondents were our grandmother and mother, employees of our school and their relatives. The work of collating the facts, the positions expressed by our respondents, and historical research was not an easy task.
The goals of our research are, based on the memories, photographs and literature we collected, to determine the features of life, everyday life, appearance, leisure of children and adults - Soviet people of the 40s - 60s;
highlight patterns in changes in the lifestyle of Soviet people in 1945 - 1965, primarily urban residents, mainly Leningraders;
determine the reasons for these changes, analyze their pace and nature (degree of universality and individualization);
correlate memories with the works of historians and researchers of problems of everyday life.
1945 - 1955
The victory was a great event in the life of the country, and in the life of every family, and every Leningrader. Victory Day is the day when a citizen realized the importance of a free Motherland for himself and society as a whole, when hope for a bright future was revived and strengthened.
After so many troubles, after exerting all their strength, both mental and physical, people vigorously expressed joy. Everyone was full of hope that now everything would be fine. Unfortunately, not everything turned out the way people dreamed. This day combined the joy of victory and the awareness of the losses and bitterness that the war brought.
Everyone remembers this day in their own way, and the feelings that the news of the end of the war evoked - feelings of immeasurable happiness and immeasurable grief:
“The brightest day in my life is May 9, 1945. I have lived a long life, but even now I cannot remember anything so comprehensive and ecstatic in the state of my soul. It was a general rejoicing of people, overwhelmed by a general uplift of spirit. Even nature was on the winning side. The sun was shining brightly, but even if it had been a cloudy day, people would not have noticed it. Inner light and joy filled all hearts” (memoirs of Kirillina E.I.).
“Mom really didn’t like May 9, she always cried on this day, in 1945, when everyone was singing and dancing, she sobbed in the hut, mourning her relatives and, probably, her bitter fate” (memoirs of N.P. Pavlova).
“...we heard Levitan on the radio proclaiming the end of the war, Victory Day. The joy was immeasurable, we hugged, kissed, shouted “hurray”, the guys smashed empty bottles on the floor in delight. They couldn’t sit at home: they poured out into the street. It turned out to be filled with a crowd that was jubilant, strangers rushed to hug, many sang, someone cried” (memoirs of Boyko M.A.).
The front-line soldiers and evacuees returned home and restored the destroyed farms and collective farms. Funerals and military reports became a thing of the past. Relatives began to return, families were reunited.
Over four long years, people have become unaccustomed to weekends, vacations, normal working hours, and have forgotten about free time.
The joy of meeting with loved ones, friends and the awareness of loneliness, deprivation - Soviet people experienced different moods, but there was something in common: the desire to overcome the post-war devastation, improve life, everyday life, raise children, get an education.
“When the euphoria of victory passed, people were left alone with their problems, quite everyday, ordinary, but no less complex. The questions of the day were: Where can I get bread? Where to find housing? What should I wear? The solution to these issues turned into a survival strategy, everything else was relegated to the background" (Zubkova E.Yu. Post-war Soviet society: politics and everyday life, 1945-1953 / RAS. Institute of Russian History. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2000) .
Researchers A.Z. Vakser, E.Yu. Zubkova emphasize that the post-war situation was very difficult, they pay a lot of attention to manifestations of the population’s dissatisfaction with their situation, especially among the peasantry, and dwell on negative phenomena.
“Blood did not flow, shells and bombs did not explode, but everything around us reminded us of the nightmare of the siege -
woodsheds in the courtyards where the dead were stacked, photographs of recently deceased relatives and neighbors, bottles of drying oil on which cakes were fried, strewn tiles of wood glue from which jelly was made, etc. and so on." (Vaxer A.Z. Post-war Leningrad. 1945-1982. St. Petersburg, 2005 P. 86).
In the memoirs of N.P. Pavlova and A.A. Morozova, who were schoolgirls in the first post-war years, there is a general feeling of difficult problems. This is understandable, because the situation of families left without men, widows, and orphans was especially difficult.
However, the majority of our respondents remain positive and readily recall the positive sentiments of the population: “All efforts were aimed at restoring the city. And how quickly our beloved city healed its wounds - it’s just a miracle! No one whined that it was difficult, because it was difficult for everyone. And everyone saw the results of the common efforts. All this brought joy to people” (memoirs of Kirillina E.I.).
M.A. Boyko, describing post-war Leningrad, emphasizes that the city did not seem dead, that Leningraders were very actively involved in its restoration, and cites a vivid image of labor enthusiasm - a poster by the Leningrad painter I.A. Silver “Come on, they’ve taken it!” Marina Alekseevna emphasizes that “the psychological atmosphere of Leningrad was special: it was characterized by people’s willingness to help, goodwill, and friendliness. The war brought people together, it became common to live in a team, and a feeling of comradeship was felt both during the grief of funerals and the joy of victories” (memoirs of Boyko M.A.).
This is a very interesting remark -
the war is over, but people have not yet rebuilt; the main thing in their lives remains the needs of the city, the entire population, and not personal concerns and problems.
Housing issue
Life and especially everyday life changed extremely slowly. The war deprived many people of their homes and housing. After the war, many had to look for a place to stay for at least one night.
M.A. Boyko, L.K. Saushkin is remembered about returning from evacuation to pre-war housing. Most often these were rooms in communal apartments. “We lived on Galernaya Street, house 41. Previously, it was a private mansion, built back in 1797. After the war, such houses were divided into apartments. We lived in a two-room apartment. One room is 23 sq.m., the other is 8 sq.m. m., kitchen – 7.5. There was no bath” (memoirs of L.K. Saushkina). Family K.V. Arzhanova was unable to return to her apartment in 1945; it was already occupied by another family.
“The housing crisis was literally strangling the townspeople. It was a time of truly great oppression. Many thousands of workers from reevacuated enterprises, people sent to the banks of the Neva under various orders, lived in appalling conditions.
Families lived in groups of 4-10-17 families with children in rooms divided into cells with scraps of wallpaper, paper, and sheets; lonely people lived in groups of several dozen in barracks rooms. Many buildings did not have toilets or running water.
Usually there was a bucket in the room and a long row of kerosene stoves. The inhabitants called such dwellings “concentration camps”, “dens” and other figurative names” (Vakser A.Z. Post-war Leningrad. 1945-1982. St. Petersburg, 2005 P. 86).
The situation was simpler with private houses built in the pre-war period, since they were not subject to additional residents. Alexandrova N.L. and Chernysh G.G. talk about this: “We lived in a large two-story house: me, mom, dad. Since it was a private house, there was no central heating or running water. There was a big Russian stove.”
For city residents, the main type of housing in the late 40s and 50s was a room in a communal apartment.
“Communal apartments” are densely populated: 9 - 16 - 42 people in two (extremely rare!), six, seven or more rooms. The rooms were quite large - 15 - 25 sq. m. meters, were partitioned with furniture, and people of different ages lived in them in large families.
In many apartments there was not only hot water, gas stoves, but even stove heating; they managed with the help of potbelly stoves, and instead of a gas stove they used kerosene stoves. “Enterprises and zhakty (housing offices) took care of fuel reserves for the winter (firewood, coal, peat) in advance; stove heating was mainly used” (Memoirs of Boyko M.A.).
Sometimes such apartments had a bathroom, they used it together, washed, sometimes washed clothes or washed children, but extremely rarely. They did their laundry mainly in the laundries, which were in every yard, and went to the bathhouse to wash.
“We bought firewood according to the limit, they saved a lot. Therefore, in winter it was cold in the house, down to -5, and I sometimes spent the night in the dormitory of the Academy of Arts on Vasilyevsky Island, where they were heated, or with my cousin on Zagorodny, recalls M.A. Boyko. - To save wood, we didn’t use the bathroom either. We washed ourselves in the bathhouses on Tchaikovsky Street (which took first place in the city for the best service, where you could rent a towel and were given a piece of soap) or on the street. Nekrasova. The entrance fee to the bathhouse was 1 rub. In the attic, which could be accessed by a back staircase, there were compartments for each apartment where washed clothes were hung.”
A communal apartment is characterized by long, numerous corridors and large kitchens with tables for the number of families. “The kitchen was huge, with a large wood-burning stove; at first they cooked on primus stoves, which made noise and hissed, and were then replaced with kerosene gases. Each tenant had a separate table. To heat food on the electric stove, we set up a nook, fenced off with a buffet in the large room. A “serving table” was made from a baby stroller, on which dishes were put together, and they were taken along a long, half-block corridor to wash them in the kitchen in a single sink” (memoirs of Boyko M.A.).
Residents usually used the front and back staircases.
Nowadays, almost no doors of communal apartments have survived - this is a most interesting sight - either bells of various shapes and sounds located around the door, or pieces of paper with messages about how many calls should be addressed to each family.
“In the period 1950-1964. We lived in a communal apartment on Bolshoy Prospekt V.O. Besides us, there were 4 more families, a non-working bathtub, a kitchen with a gas stove and 5 tables, individual electricity meters and a piece of paper on the front door telling how many times to call whom” (memoirs of Kontorov S. E.).
All the numerous residents of a communal apartment usually used one toilet. Common areas were cleaned one at a time.
Cleaning took place strictly according to a schedule; the number of days or weeks of duty was determined by the composition of the family. Some resorted to the services of the Nevskie Zori company.
How much has been written about communal squabbles, disputes, even fights! It seems to us that although overcrowding and lack of amenities created the preconditions for this, people’s behavior is primarily determined by the level of their culture. It is no coincidence that native Leningraders emphasize that they tried to be disciplined and polite. “In general, we lived amicably, on holidays we gathered at a common table, everyone brought something of their own. It turned out to be cozy, family evenings” (memoirs of Kirillina E.I.).
A significant number of townspeople lived in dormitories.
According to A.Z. Vakser in the second half of 1949 in Leningrad there were 1,654 hostels, in which about 200 thousand people lived (Vaxer A.Z. Post-war Leningrad. 1945-1982. St. Petersburg, 2005 P. 100).
The number of people living in dormitories did not decrease by the mid-50s, since despite the efforts of large enterprises to solve housing problems, the need for workers was constantly increasing, and new residents came to the city. These were mostly former villagers, who would later be called “limiters,” who sought to find a profession, a family, and a new life in the city. The rooms in the dormitories were large (usually 7–8 beds), sanitary conditions were extremely poor, and there was often no kitchen.
N.P. Pavlova recalls how difficult it was to leave the collective farm; you had to apply for a passport and get permission:
“In 1955, I arrived in Leningrad with a small package containing a pillow, a towel and some clothes. My aunt lived in a dormitory and there were seven women in their room. I was allowed to live in this room for some time, I slept on the same bed with my aunt...”
Reading these memoirs, you involuntarily recall the film “Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears,” and you are convinced that the fiction is based on the real facts of Soviet life in those years: “Soon I... got a place in a hostel. Made friends with neighbors. Together with them I went to the cinema, to dances at the House of Officers, and walked around the city. My friend Tanya and I organized meals together... Friends from the hostel discussed all the news, helped each other with advice, they gave me a birthday present, which I still keep - a photo album...”
Life in student dormitories was a little more comfortable: “I am a 4th year student at the Moscow Aviation Institute, I live in a dormitory, a room for four, a shower, a toilet on the floor,” recalls S.E. Kontorov.
In the 40s and 50s, the apartments were furnished with pre-war furniture, because... The military situation in the country did not contribute to the development of furniture or any other industry. There were only vital things in the house. “In a rural house there are benches along the stove and at the table” (memoirs of N.L. Aleksandrova).
It became possible to purchase new furniture from the mid-50s.
“The room was small, it contained some of the furniture from our old apartment (bookcase, screen, table, bed)” (memoirs of K.V. Arzhanova).
The situation in the houses was very similar: there was neither the means nor the desire to create an original interior.
home stuff
Pots, teapots, spoons - all of this somehow got lost during the war. “In the post-war years there were no special excesses. The dishes consisted mainly of aluminum pots, mugs, cutlery, cast iron frying pans” (memoirs of Chernysh G.G.).
True, pre-revolutionary porcelain and silverware were preserved in the houses, but most often these were not items of permanent use, but “capital for a rainy day.” If these items were placed on the table, it was on major holidays.
“The industry that worked for the war began to turn its face to man. The city authorities took measures to organize the life and everyday life of the townspeople. For example, by decision of the plenum of the Moscow city party committee in July 1945, a number of defense enterprises in the capital received a special task to produce consumer goods for the population: gas stoves, metal beds, radios, radiograms, meat grinders, children's bicycles, various dishes" (Zubkova E. Yu. Post-war Soviet society: politics and everyday life, 1945-1953 / RAS. Institute of History - M.: ROSSPEN, 2000).
In city apartments, especially in Leningrad, there was a radio, black radio dishes were an indispensable element of life, but the telephone was a rarity.
“Since dad was a great scientist, he worked in the Main Chamber of Weights and Measures (now VNIIM named after D. Mendeleev), in 1945 we had a telephone installed that all residents of the apartment could use. It hung on the wall in a huge common hallway, where three doors from different rooms opened at the same time, and there were chests” (memoirs of Boyko M.A.).
Nutrition
The townspeople no longer died from dystrophy, but the vast majority constantly, day and night, felt hungry. “Back then there were special coupons. Money without these cards was not accepted, and coupons without money were also not accepted. Then I’ll first put the card down, they’ll cut a coupon out of it for me, and I’ll grab it right away, only then give me the money.
It was impossible to buy anything in large quantities. Sausage - maximum 200 g, cheese - 100 g” (memoirs of A.A. Morozova).
Students ate in university canteens; it could be two or three meals a day. S.E. Kontorov and M.A. They point out that there was enough food in those hungry times. The diet was simple: soup and porridge. M.A. Boyko recalls receiving American products using special coupons: lard (lard) and stewed meat. “There were a lot of different products in commercial stores, but the prices there were beyond our means. We often exchanged vodka for smokes and candy (at that time we really wanted sweets), because it was difficult to live on one scholarship of 400 rubles,” she writes.
The crop failure of 1946 worsened the situation.
In the fall, the USSR Council of Ministers adopted a resolution to change ration prices. They increased 2-3 times, and prices in commercial stores were slightly reduced. This measure had a significant impact on the living standards of middle- and low-paid groups. True, the decline in commercial prices was reflected in the price level of collective farm markets. But the poor couldn’t afford it either. Naturally, the situation of low-paid categories of workers and office workers became catastrophic.
The products issued on the card were clearly not enough. You received 700 grams of bread per day for your work card, 500 grams for your employee card, and 300 grams for your dependent and child cards. There was plenty of bread on the “black” market, but it was sold for 25-30 rubles. kilogram. “I remember how long I stood in line for bread and kerosene. In the fall, food cards were abolished and monetary reform was carried out. Life went on as usual. It was difficult, but people had only one dream, that there would be no war” (memoirs of Kirillina E.I.).
At the same time, from the end of November to the beginning of December, rumors spread throughout the city about the upcoming monetary reform and the abolition of cards.
On December 14 at 18 o'clock the radio announced the Government's decision to abolish the card system and carry out monetary reform.
“After the abolition of rationing (1947), there was plenty in the shops, but no money.”
This is what our respondents remember. Many of them call it, remember their experiences about how it would happen, about the rumors that were spread, about the food problems that persisted after it was held. S.E. Kontorov shares his impressions of how they, the students, reacted to the reform: “End of 1947. Rumors about monetary reform have been spreading for a long time. They say that deposits in savings banks will be exchanged 1:1 up to a certain limit, large amounts - 1:5, cash - 1:10. Those who have money buy everything they can, but we, poor students, are calm, although we have some minimal money in our pockets. My parents help me, many work part-time, and my fellow student Vasya Zvezdin is sent potatoes from the Moscow region. In any case, I don’t remember that any of the students were forced to quit their studies.
So, the evening of November 14 or 15, 1947. We (me and two friends) gathered at the Soviet Army Theater.
On the way to the theater we hear from the street loudspeakers - a decree on reform. We forget about the theater, grab the car and rush to the restaurant in the Moscow Hotel (in vain Luzhkov demolished it). We had a very good time, bought a pack of cigarettes, and went home happy without a penny.
And the next day, cooperative trade and a grocery store in the same “Moscow.” TERRIBLE CHOICE OF PRODUCTS...”
Bread was in greatest demand. “Its sales in the same 14 cities on February 26 amounted to almost 134 tons, while in the first half of February an average of 46 tons were sold per day. In some cities, huge queues lined up at stores selling bread - 300-500 people each" (Zubkova E.Yu. Post-war Soviet society: politics and everyday life, 1945-1953 / RAS. Institute of Russian History. - M. : ROSSPEN, 2000).
It was very difficult financially. “For my father, I don’t know why not for my mother, I was paid 170 rubles, but it was very little, considering that a woman on average received 600 rubles” (memoirs of A.A. Morozova).
The diet was not varied: they usually ate milk and potatoes.
“Meat, chicken, fruits, sausage were in short supply” (memoirs of N.L. Aleksandrova), and cheeses.
People who survived the war remember that during the war and after its end they really wanted sweets. N.L. Alexandrova, G.G. Chernysh, A.A. Morozova, who were children, unanimously recall that in childhood they really wanted sweets. “I really loved candy. Then a lot of beer bars and snack bars appeared, and some of them sold candy. And the counters were almost on the floor, so I squatted down and looked. I was generally a hooligan, so they would give me money for bread, but I would only buy half of it, and the rest would be candy. For this, of course, he got a lot of punishment. But what sweets were delicious, now there are none” (memoirs of A.A. Morozova).
Fruits and delicacies were practically unavailable; only individual families with a stable income and one child were able to pamper their children.
As G.G. recalls. Chernysh: “The most favorite delicacies were sweets, cookies, and cakes. There was a shortage of fruit in Kirov, but every day I got at least half an apple.”
The situation of village residents was especially difficult, sometimes tragic.
E.Yu. Zubkova in her study analyzes in detail the problems of the post-war village, highlighting the main factors that affected the deterioration of the life of the rural population: reduction of acreage, decrease in yield, deterioration of land cultivation, decline in agricultural technology, lack of equipment, even horses. The bulk of the working population of the village were women - they were the ones who had to do all the heavy field work, sometimes harnessing a plow or harrow instead of a horse. We cannot conduct a serious study of the life of the post-war village, but the memories of N.P. Pavlova complements this picture: “Post-war life was very difficult, there was nothing to eat, nothing to wear. In the summer, of course, it was easier: berries, vegetables, mushrooms, apples, and you can walk barefoot. What a joy it was in the spring to find frozen potatoes while digging up the garden; it seemed like there was nothing sweeter! In the fall, sometimes we went to the collective farm field and, although it was very scary, we collected the ears of corn that remained after harvesting the sheaves of rye and barley.”
Clothes and shoes. Fashion
Fashion as such in our country practically did not develop due to a total shortage of materials, especially since the entire industry worked “for the war” and its restructuring to meet the needs of the common consumer was carried out for almost ten years, until the end of the 50s. Human memory is very selective, not everything is retained in it, all the more interesting it is to look at photographs of the post-war years, and sometimes at the things themselves - a quilted jacket, a handbag.
M.A. Boyko and K.V. Arzhanov amazingly remember many things from their wardrobe, describe them in detail, this is due to the fact that each acquisition of each item was an event and they used them for a very long time, sometimes for decades, because the main thing was not the fashionable style, but the presence of the item itself. People dressed very modestly
adults and children wore military uniforms; for children, tunics, tunics, and trousers were altered when adults could purchase new clothes.
Women's and men's clothing mostly retained pre-war silhouettes. Double-breasted and single-breasted men's suits of a semi-fitting classic shape with wide trousers with cuffs are made from plain and striped fabrics. They are complemented by ties, usually striped. For women, jackets with skirts were traditional, with matching blouses; dresses were rarely worn. Dresses and suits were strictly cut. A characteristic detail of both men's and women's clothing were large padded shoulders, called “cutlets” among tailors. The silhouette of this time was formed from rigid figures - a rectangle when designing a coat, a square in a suit, and two triangles with their vertices turned towards each other in a woman’s dress. The length of the skirt is knee-length.
It was only in the early 50s that femininity in clothing became relevant again.
Elegant dresses, for example, had puffy puffed sleeves, the length of the skirt dropped below the knees and flared out like a sun.
“The problem of providing the population with clothing was partially solved through humanitarian aid coming mainly from the USA and Great Britain” (Zubkova E.Yu. Post-war Soviet society: politics and everyday life, 1945-1953 / RAS. Institute of Russian History. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2000), as well as due to imported and sent clothes and shoes from Germany.
M. A. Boyko recalls: “for a long time it was difficult to buy clothes and shoes,
until 1947, clothes were issued by ration cards or distributed at enterprises,
So I received a cut for a woolen dress, several T-shirts, “American aid”: a winter coat with a fur collar, from the crepe de chine lining of which I later sewed a dress, a dark gray skirt with pleats.
For a very long time I wore short boots made of very rough leather with laces and good thick soles, issued in 1945 at the Academy. In winter I wore them with thick wool socks.
Relatives and friends who were in Germany in the first post-war years sent (...) pieces of fabric and clothes. Parcels to Leningrad were not limited in weight, but military censorship accepted letters of no more than four pages. I remember the amazingly beautiful, plum-colored, silky material sent to me - a staple hitherto unknown to me. I made a summer dress from it.” A dark blue dress with a lace collar, brought by dad from Germany, recalls K.V. Arzhanova.
It should be noted that when recalling clothes of the first post-war years, describing them from photographs, respondents note not the name of the material, but its type and color: clothes of dark colors made of simple wrinkled fabrics, a blue woolen blouse with a zipper, a white blouse with a turn-down collar, a woolen sea green pleated dress. The names of fabrics: staple, gabardine, cashmere, crepe de Chine, Boston, velvet - are found already in the description of clothing of the 50s, when “weekend” clothes appeared, specially tailored for going to the theater and guests. “In the 50s, I sewed everyday light clothes myself: crepe de Chine dresses, flared skirts, or from a friend who was an excellent dressmaker and followed fashion. I remember a dress made of thin dark orange wool, trimmed with striped velvet,” recalls M.A. Boyko. Another important detail:
clothes were mainly sewn and altered, rather than bought, they were sewn themselves, less often from tailors, in an atelier - it was more economical. A sewing machine is an important item in every woman’s home.
“The city residents didn’t have warm shoes. Felt boots were not used in urban conditions,” the researchers believe. However, M.A. Boyko recalls that “many people wore felt boots with galoshes, then felt boots with molded rubber soles appeared - I had those too.”
“In the summer you could buy very popular white canvas shoes at the market. When they got dirty, they were washed with soap and cleaned with tooth powder.
The flea market was located on the Obvodny Canal and buying and selling was especially active on Saturday and Sunday. The most popular goods were clothes and shoes. They were sold or exchanged. The phrase was widespread: “It costs 150, How to give it - 100” (the numbers were different, of course, the main thing was that you could bargain). Sometimes we sold our own used items. It was possible to buy new things; it was believed that sailors brought them.” Many Leningraders remember buying (exchanging) things at a flea market, and this is understandable - new things were produced in small quantities, and they were extremely expensive. M.A. Boyko recalls that when exchanging food, bottles of vodka served as bargaining chips.
Thus, the 40s - early 50s were a time when people simply could not follow fashion or think through their wardrobe:
clothes and shoes were worn for a long time, passed on from generation to generation;
clothes were mainly sewn or bought at a flea market, rather than purchased in stores;
shoes were repaired if they were worn out, clothes were darned, sewn up, faceted, altered;
light industry enterprises were extremely slow to “turn to face the consumer”;
There were no Soviet fashion magazines, and foreign publications were most likely available to few due to the “Iron Curtain” and the fight against cosmopolitanism.
How inventive, practical, and quick-witted Soviet women were, knowing how to look neat in these difficult conditions, but also to dress, if possible, tastefully, using imagination, some simple accessories (beads, scarves, hairpins).
Looking at the photographs of those years, you never tire of being amazed by these beautiful faces, full of self-esteem, some special spirituality, and faith in a bright future. But now we know how they lived.
Text prepared by Victoria Kalendarova
Leningrad survived a terrible siege, famine, and bombings. People waited for the end of the war, but in the end the coming peace brought new challenges. The city was in ruins, poverty, devastation and rampant street crime were everywhere: gangs and lone killers appeared. the site recalls the most notorious crimes in Leningrad in the post-war years.
Crime curve
In the post-war years, there was almost no hunting for jewelry and money; they stole mainly clothes and food. Leningrad was overflowing with dubious elements and people desperate from poverty.
The townspeople no longer died from dystrophy, but most of them continued to experience a constant feeling of hunger. For example, workers in 1945-46 received 700 grams of bread per day, employees - 500 grams, and dependents and children - only 300 grams. There were plenty of products on the “black market,” but they were inaccessible to an ordinary St. Petersburg family with a modest budget.
The crop failure of 1946 further aggravated the situation. It is not surprising that the crime curve in Leningrad was rapidly creeping up. Lone robbers and organized gangs operated in all areas of the city. Robberies of food stores, shops, and apartments followed one after another, and there were armed attacks on the streets, in courtyards, and entrances. After the war, the bandits had a huge amount of firearms in their hands; it was not difficult to find and obtain them at the sites of recent battles. In just the fourth quarter of 1946, more than 85 assaults and armed robberies, 20 murders, 315 cases of hooliganism, and almost 4 thousand thefts of all types were committed in the city. These figures were considered very high at the time.
It should be taken into account that among the bandits there were many participants in the war. At the front, they learned to shoot and kill, and therefore, without hesitation, they solved problems with the help of weapons. For example, in one of the Leningrad cinemas, when spectators remarked on a company smoking and talking loudly, shots were fired. A policeman was killed and several visitors were injured.
Criminals from the criminal environment even followed a peculiar fashion - they wore metal retainers on their teeth and caps pulled low on their foreheads. When Leningraders saw a gang of such young people approaching them, the first thing they did was tightly clutch their food cards. The bandits snatched the treasured pieces of paper on the fly, sometimes leaving the entire family to live from hand to mouth for a month.
Law enforcement officials tried to stem the crime wave. The detection rate was approximately 75%.
Black Cat Gang
However, not only criminal gangs operated in the poor, dilapidated city. Some officials who understood how to benefit from their power also carried out criminal activities. Evacuees were returning to the city on the Neva; questions of housing distribution, return of property, etc. arose. Dishonest businessmen also used the available information to determine which valuables were poorly protected.
In 1947, 24 unique items made of gold and precious stones were stolen from the Hermitage storerooms. The thief was found and convicted, and the valuables were returned.
That same year, a large gang was exposed, which included criminals and officials from the city prosecutor's office, court, bar, city housing department, and police. For bribes, they released people from custody, stopped investigative cases, illegally registered people, and released them from conscription.
Another case: the head of the motor transport department of the Leningrad City Council sent trucks to the occupied regions of Germany, allegedly for equipment. In fact, he took valuables and materials out of there and built dachas here.
Teenagers often became participants in criminal communities. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The famous “Black Cat” gang, which became known to many thanks to the film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed,” was in fact a huge criminal community. She carried out her main activities in Moscow, but traces of her were also found in the city on the Neva.
In 1945, Leningrad police officers solved a high-profile case. An investigation into a series of burglaries in house No. 8 on Pushkinskaya Street led to the trail of a teenage gang. They caught the top of the gang red-handed - students of vocational school No. 4 Vladimir Popov, nicknamed Chesnok, Sergei Ivanov and Grigory Shneiderman. During the search, the leader, 16-year-old Popov, was found to have a most interesting document - the “Black Cat” oath of the Caudla, under which eight signatures were affixed in blood. But since only three participants managed to commit crimes, they went to the dock. In January 1946, at a meeting of the people's court of the 2nd section of the Krasnogvardeisky district of Leningrad, the verdict was announced: the teenagers received from one to three years in prison.
Night hunters
Organized crime was also widespread. Moreover, often the gangs were made up not of criminals, but of ordinary citizens. During the day these were ordinary workers of Leningrad enterprises, and at night...
Thus, a gang of Glaz brothers operated in the city. It was a real organized crime community. The gang was led by brothers Isaac and Ilya Glaz, it consisted of 28 people and was armed with two Schmeisser machine guns, six TT pistols, eighteen grenades, as well as a passenger car, in which the bandits carried out reconnaissance of future crime scenes and bypass routes, and a truck... In a short time, from the autumn of 1945 to March 1946, the gang committed 18 robberies, using the tactics of night raids. The area of operation of this criminal group included the Nevsky, Kalininsky, Moskovsky and Kirovsky districts of the city. The scope of the gang’s activities can be judged by the fact that the distribution system for the loot covered the markets of Kharkov and Rostov!
The Eye Brothers gang had a whole arsenal. They were armed with two Schmeisser machine guns, six TT pistols, eighteen grenades and other weapons Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
The operation to defeat the gang was developed in March 1946 by criminal intelligence operative and former front-line soldier Vladimir Boldyrev. The security forces set up ambushes in places where further robberies were likely to take place. As a result, during an attack on a store on Volkovsky Prospekt, the criminals were blocked and detained. The operation was carried out in such a way that not a single shot was fired. In 28 apartments, 150 rolls of woolen fabrics, 28 rolls of cloth, 46 rolls of silk fabric, 732 headscarves and 85 thousand rubles were seized from relatives and friends of the criminals! A distinctive feature of the activities of this gang was that its leaders managed to establish close relationships with some influential employees of the state apparatus of Leningrad and the region. To bribe them, the bandits even allocated a special fund in the amount of 60 thousand rubles.
Despite serious efforts to reform the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department, crime receded slowly. It could not have been otherwise, because its main causes - post-war devastation, the difficult economic situation of the population - changed slowly.
However, in the period from 1946 to 1950, the Leningrad City Court considered 37 cases on charges of banditry, for which 147 people were convicted.
