These days there is a lot of talk about the horrors of war and heroic feat residents of the hero city who managed to survive in inhuman conditions. Along with people, animals also suffered from enemy shelling. Our story today is about the Leningrad Zoo, and how its exotic inhabitants survived the blockade.
In modern St. Petersburg there is a striking feature that surprises guests of the city, and some of the townspeople unfamiliar with the history of St. Petersburg - the local zoo is still called the Leningrad Zoo. Some people regard this as a funny misunderstanding, others are outraged by such a “relic of the past.” Meanwhile, for current name the zoo is hiding amazing story feat, incredible courage and perseverance.
The Zoological Garden in St. Petersburg was founded back in 1865, just a year later than in Moscow. Having experienced decline at the beginning of the 20th century, by 1941 the Leningrad Zoo had become one of the best not only in the country, but also in Europe.
When the Great One struck Patriotic War, some of the animals of the Leningrad Zoo were in Vitebsk and found themselves under bombing in the first days of the war. Some were saved by zoo staff at the risk of their lives, while others disappeared without a trace, such as the American crocodile. The heat-loving animal was forced to be released into the Western Dvina, since it was no longer possible to take it out. But the enemy was rapidly approaching Leningrad. Before the blockade closed, employees managed to evacuate about 80 animals, including a rhinoceros and large predators. Those large predators those who could not be taken out had to be shot - it was impossible to allow the animals, in the event of the destruction of the enclosures as a result of the bombing, to break free and begin to threaten the Leningraders.
Several dozen animals and birds remained in the zoo, as well as about two dozen employees who did not go to the front and were not involved in work on the construction of defensive structures. For the zoo employees who remained at their jobs, their own war began, in which they tried in the most difficult, unimaginable conditions save the lives of your pets.
To say that it was not easy is to say nothing. Animals died as a result of bombing and shelling that hit the city. The favorite of Leningrad children, the elephant Betty, a huge, good-natured and naive animal, tried to hide in her house at the sound of explosions, not realizing that it would not protect her from bomb fragments. It was in her house that Betty was mortally wounded during an air raid on the night of September 9, 1941. Two days later, Betty passed away. About 70 animals and birds died from bombing and artillery shelling in the autumn of 1941 in the Leningrad Zoo. Zoo workers bandaged the wounded pets, but many of them died after new air raids. After one of the bombings, the monkey house was destroyed, and the surviving animals fled through the city streets. Employees found them and brought them back. In the eyes of the monkeys one could read immeasurable horror and misunderstanding of what was happening. They huddled close to people, as if begging for help. Of the large predators in the zoo, only Ussurian tiger, young and not dangerous. Bombs and shells spared him, but horror killed him - the animal died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Ungulates, in addition to fragments, were destroyed by craters - having stumbled, the animals broke their legs, which doomed them to death. Only the nilgai antelope named Mayak, the only one of her fellow tribesmen, managed to somehow survive this hell, becoming a real legend of the zoo.
Zoo employees, led by director Nikolai Sokolov, fought as best they could - they restored destroyed enclosures, treated the wounded, and returned fugitives home. But the worst thing was the famine that gripped Leningrad.
What to feed animals when there is nothing for people to eat? How to save animals when you yourself can barely stand on your feet from hunger?
At first, the zoo workers collected the corpses of horses killed during shelling, vegetables from abandoned fields, managed to make hay under shelling, and turned all free territory into vegetable gardens where they grew grass for animals.
The bears were switched to a diet of minced vegetables and grass. Predatory young animals were deceived by feeding them a mixture of grass and cake, sewn into the skins of rabbits left over from pre-war times. Predators wouldn’t eat something like this, but they coated these dummies on top fish oil- and the animals believed that they ate meat.
Birds of prey were fed the same dummies, but with the addition of fish. Only the golden eagle refused to “get into position.” And then the zoo workers began to catch rats for him. The torment of people and animals was not limited to hunger and bombing - since the winter of 1941, the water supply and sewage system stopped working in the zoo’s territory, and there was no electricity. Wooden parts of the nearby roller coaster were used to heat the enclosures.
The largest animal remaining in the Leningrad Zoo was the hippopotamus Beauty, brought there back in 1911 along with the elephant Betty, who later died. By some miracle, Beauty was saved from the bombs. But how to feed an animal that requires 40 kilograms of food a day? The problem was solved this way - six kilograms of a mixture of grass, vegetables and cake plus 30 kilograms of steamed sawdust. And such a diet saved Beauty’s life. But there was another problem - the hippopotamus vitally needed water, which was not available in the zoo’s pool. Without it, Beauty’s skin would crack and the cracks would bleed, causing the animal terrible suffering.
Beauty was saved by zoo employee Evdokia Dashina. Every day she brought 40 buckets of water on a sled, washed the pet, and lubricated the cracks in the skin with camphor oil. What it cost Evdokia Ivanovna herself, exhausted by hunger, only she knew, but Beauty survived the blockade.
The hippopotamus was very afraid of the bombings and, in order to calm her down, Evdokia Dashina remained next to her during the raids, as if trying to cover the huge animal with her body.
During the first winter of the siege, the incredible happened - a female hamadryas gave birth to a baby. However, the stressed mother lost her milk, which doomed the newborn to death. The Leningrad maternity hospital came to the rescue, providing a small portion of donor milk for the little monkey. And the cub was saved!
In the summer of 1942, the Leningrad Zoo again received visitors. That summer, about 7,400 city residents came there. But the point is not the number, but the fact that the very news about the opening of the zoo strengthened the spirit of the residents of the city squeezed in the grip of the blockade.
The zoo has opened, which means Leningrad continues to live, no matter what. Even though half of the enclosures have been destroyed, there may be trenches and craters all around, but there are 162 animals, just like in Peaceful time, they greet with curiosity the adults and children who come to look at them. Already in 1943, the zoo’s collection began to be replenished with new animals. Throughout the blockade, the “Animal Theater” at the Leningrad Zoo did not stop working, whose artists performed for children and the wounded in hospitals.
Sixteen employees of the Leningrad Zoo, who withstood the blockade and saved many of their pets, were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad.”
When the historical name of St. Petersburg was returned to the city, the management of the zoo, which was renamed the zoo in 1952, decided to retain the name “Leningradsky” in memory of its employees who accomplished a great feat during the siege.
Among those who today learn about the siege history of the Leningrad Zoo, there are also people with the following opinion: “How was it possible to save animals when people were dying of hunger? How can you give milk to a monkey when children are dying? This is not a feat, but stupidity, a crime of the communists. Animals had to be killed and eaten, thereby saving human lives!”
What can I say? In that terrible war against fascism, the struggle was not only for life and freedom, but also for human dignity. The great feat of besieged Leningrad is that its inhabitants retained their human appearance during inhuman trials.
The employees of the Leningrad Zoo, enduring suffering and hardship, fought for the sake of the future, which must necessarily come after the Victory. A future in which a zoo preserved no matter what is more important than a person’s own life.
It was for the sake of the future that the employees of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, dying of hunger, preserved a unique collection of grain. It was for the sake of the future that the mosaic artist Vladimir Aleksandrovich Frolov, dying of hunger in besieged Leningrad, created panels for the Moscow metro.
For those who are only interested in their own self-preservation, these actions are incomprehensible. In order to understand this, one must be a Human, and not just conditionally belong to the species Homo sapiens. This is far from the same thing - as the entire history of the world convincingly proves.
Was released 72 years ago besieged Leningrad. These days there is a lot of talk about the horrors of war and the heroic feat of the inhabitants of the hero city, who managed to survive in inhuman conditions. Along with people, animals also suffered from enemy shelling. Our story today is about Leningrad Zoo, and how its exotic inhabitants survived the blockade.
During the evacuation from Leningrad, 80 animals were taken out, lucky were the panther, tigers, polar bears, rhinoceros... They were sent to spend the winter in Kazan, but the rest of the inhabitants remained under bombing in the besieged city. The animals had a hard time with the shelling: the explosions caused them to become agitated and rush around their cages. It was almost impossible to calm them down.
The administration accepted difficult decision: shoot large predators, since if the enclosures are broken, they could escape from the zoo and harm people. By the way, an escape from the menagerie did happen: however, the monkeys escaped, they were caught all over Leningrad. One of the most tragic deaths The bombing caused the death of the elephant Betty, she was wounded by shell fragments, and the zookeeper died along with her.
The bison also had its own story: it fell to the bottom of the crater at night, but the staff helped it climb out by building a flooring and luring the animal with food. The victims of the shelling were deer and a goat; they were lucky enough to survive one of the bombings and survive, despite being wounded, but were killed in subsequent airstrikes.
One of the most complex tasks For the zoo workers there was a need to feed the animals. In these terrible years people were dying of hunger, so there was no talk of any complete diet. Using sophistication, workers managed to feed even predators with grass and vegetables. Harvesting hay took place literally under shelling, and garden beds were laid out on the territory of the zoo. The favorite delicacy of tiger cubs during these years was rabbit skins coated with fish oil and stuffed with grass, rats were caught for golden eagles, bears became vegetarians and switched to vegetable dishes.
It was especially difficult to care for a hippopotamus named Beauty. The “girl” required about 40 kg of food per day, it was a mixture of boiled sawdust, grass, cake and potato peelings. And her caretaker, Evdokia Dashina, carried a barrel of water with a volume of 40 buckets from the Neva. This was necessary for Beauty's shower, otherwise her skin would dry out and begin to crack. The hippopotamus also had “salon” procedures: every day her skin was smeared with camphor ointment (1-2 kg was needed for one procedure), fortunately, before the war they managed to bring in a 200 kg barrel. The beauty successfully survived the blockade, and died only in 1951 from old age.
During the war, about 20 people took care of the animals, many even selflessly lived in the zoo. 16 workers received medals "For the Defense of Leningrad". The zoo was closed only for one winter, 1941-42, after which the enclosures were put in order and worked again for Leningraders.
Heartfelt photo collages were created in memory of the terrible pages of the history of our city.
Enemy at the gate
In modern St. Petersburg there is a striking feature that surprises guests of the city, and even some townspeople unfamiliar with the history of St. Petersburg - the local zoo is still called the Leningrad Zoo. Some people regard this as a funny misunderstanding, while others are outraged by such a “relic of the past.”
Meanwhile, behind the current name of the zoo lies an amazing story of feat, incredible courage and perseverance.
Entrance to the Leningrad Zoo, 1910.
The Zoological Garden in St. Petersburg was founded back in 1865, just a year later than in Moscow. Having experienced decline at the beginning of the 20th century, by 1941 the Leningrad Zoo had become one of the best not only in the country, but also in Europe.
Entrance to the zoo. 20s
When the Great Patriotic War broke out, some of the animals of the Leningrad Zoo were in Vitebsk and were bombed in the first days of the war. Some were saved by zoo staff at the risk of their lives, while others disappeared without a trace, such as the American crocodile. The heat-loving animal was forced to be released into the Western Dvina, since it was no longer possible to take it out.
But the enemy was rapidly approaching Leningrad. Before the blockade closed, employees managed to evacuate about 80 animals, including rhinoceroses and large predators. Those large predators who could not be taken out had to be shot - it was impossible to allow the animals, in the event of the destruction of the enclosures as a result of the bombing, to break free and begin to threaten the Leningraders.
The favorite of Leningraders died in an air raid
Several dozen animals and birds remained in the zoo, as well as about two dozen employees who did not go to the front and were not involved in work on the construction of defensive structures.
For the zoo employees who remained at their jobs, their own war began, in which they tried to save the lives of their pets in the most difficult, unimaginable conditions.
Betty. Still alive
To say that it was not easy is to say nothing. Animals died as a result of bombing and shelling that hit the city. The favorite of Leningrad children, the elephant Betty, a huge, good-natured and naive animal, tried to hide in her house at the sound of explosions, not realizing that it would not protect her from bomb fragments. It was in her house that Betty was mortally wounded during an air raid on the night of September 9, 1941. Two days later, Betty passed away.
Dead Betty
About 70 animals and birds died from bombing and artillery shelling in the autumn of 1941 in the Leningrad Zoo. Zoo workers bandaged wounded pets, but many of them died after new air raids.
After one of the bombings, the monkey barn was destroyed, and the surviving animals fled through the city streets. Employees found them and brought them back. In the eyes of the monkeys one could read immeasurable horror and misunderstanding of what was happening. They huddled close to people, as if begging for help.
Of the large predators in the zoo, only the Ussuri tiger remained, young and not dangerous. Bombs and shells spared him, but horror killed him - the animal died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
Destroyed enclosures
Dummy feeding
In addition to shrapnel, ungulates were destroyed by craters - when they stumbled, the animals broke their legs, which doomed them to death. Only the nilgai antelope named Mayak, the only one of her fellow tribesmen, managed to somehow survive this hell, becoming a real legend of the zoo.
Nilgai Lighthouse
Zoo employees, led by director Nikolai Sokolov, fought as best they could - they restored destroyed enclosures, treated the wounded, and returned fugitives home. But the worst thing was the famine that gripped Leningrad.
What to feed animals when there is nothing for people to eat? How to save animals when you yourself can barely stand on your feet from hunger?
At first, the zoo workers collected the corpses of horses killed during shelling, vegetables from abandoned fields, managed to make hay under shelling, and turned all free territory into vegetable gardens where they grew grass for animals.
The bears were switched to a diet of minced vegetables and grass. Predatory young animals were deceived by feeding them a mixture of grass and cake, sewn into the skins of rabbits left over from pre-war times. Predators would not eat such things, but these dummies were coated with fish oil on top - and the animals believed that they were eating meat.
Birds of prey were fed the same dummies, but with the addition of fish. Only the golden eagle refused to “get into position.” And then the zoo workers began catching rats for him.
The suffering of people and animals was not limited to hunger and bombing - since the winter of 1941, the water supply and sewage system stopped working on the territory of the zoo, and there was no electricity. Wooden parts of the nearby roller coaster were used to heat the enclosures.
Rescued Beauty
The largest animal remaining in the Leningrad Zoo was the hippopotamus Beauty, brought there back in 1911 along with the elephant Betty, who later died. By some miracle, Beauty was saved from the bombs. But how to feed an animal that requires 40 kilograms of food a day? The problem was solved this way - six kilograms of a mixture of grass, vegetables and cake plus 30 kilograms of steamed sawdust. And such a diet saved Beauty’s life.
But there was one more problem - the hippopotamus vitally needed water, which was not available in the zoo’s pool. Without it, Beauty’s skin would crack and the cracks would bleed, causing the animal terrible suffering.
Saved Beauty and Evdokia Dashina
Beauty was saved by zoo employee Evdokia Dashina. Every day she brought 40 buckets of water on a sled, washed the pet, and lubricated the cracks in the skin with camphor oil. What it cost Evdokia Ivanovna herself, exhausted by hunger, only she knew, but Beauty survived the blockade.
The hippopotamus was very afraid of the bombings and, in order to calm her down, Evdokia Dashina remained next to her during the raids, as if trying to cover the huge animal with her body.
During the first winter of the siege, the incredible happened: a female hamadryas gave birth to a baby. However, the stressed mother lost her milk, which doomed the newborn to death. The Leningrad maternity hospital came to the rescue, providing a small portion of donor milk for the little monkey. And the cub was saved!
Name in honor of the feat
In the summer of 1942, the Leningrad Zoo again received visitors. That summer, about 7,400 city residents came there. But the point is not the number, but the fact that the very news about the opening of the zoo strengthened the spirit of the residents of the city squeezed in the grip of the blockade.
The zoo has opened, which means Leningrad continues to live, no matter what. Even though half of the enclosures have been destroyed, even if there are trenches and craters all around, 162 animals, as in peacetime, greet with curiosity the adults and children who come to see them.
Already in 1943, the zoo’s collection began to be replenished with new animals. Throughout the blockade, the “Animal Theater” at the Leningrad Zoo did not stop working, whose artists performed for children and the wounded in hospitals.
Sixteen employees of the Leningrad Zoo, who withstood the blockade and saved many of their pets, were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad.”
When the historical name of St. Petersburg was returned to the city, the management of the zoo, which was renamed the zoo in 1952, decided to retain the name “Leningradsky” in memory of its employees who accomplished a great feat during the siege.
For the sake of the future
Among those who today learn about the siege history of the Leningrad Zoo, there are also people with the following opinion: “How was it possible to save animals when people were dying of hunger? How can you give milk to a monkey when children are dying? This is not a feat, but stupidity, a crime of the communists. Animals had to be killed and eaten, thereby saving human lives!”
What can I say? In that terrible war against fascism, the struggle was not only for life and freedom, but also for human dignity. The great feat of besieged Leningrad is that its inhabitants retained their human appearance during inhuman trials.
Zoo staff who rescued the animals
The employees of the Leningrad Zoo, enduring suffering and hardship, fought for the sake of the future, which must necessarily come after the Victory. A future in which a zoo preserved no matter what is more important than a person’s own life.
It was for the sake of the future that the employees of the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing, dying of hunger, preserved a unique collection of grain. It was for the sake of the future that the mosaic artist Vladimir Aleksandrovich Frolov, dying of hunger in besieged Leningrad, created panels for the Moscow metro.
For those who are only interested in their own self-preservation, these actions are incomprehensible. In order to understand this, one must be a Human, and not just conditionally belong to the species Homo sapiens. This is far from the same thing - as the entire history of the world convincingly proves.
In 1941, the animals of the Leningrad Zoo began to be evacuated to Kazan. But the blockade ring has closed, most of animals remained in the besieged city.
Menagerie under bombing
The Leningrad Zoo is always, and in pre-war years especially, was the best in the country. Almost all the animals in the world lived here. There was no time to take out hippos, elephants, lions, bears, deer, or monkeys. Today the exhibition “Zoo in besieged Leningrad" Foreigners also come here. Europeans, then and now, are perplexed: why did the Leningraders make titanic efforts, and in a starving city, where a crust of bread was worth its weight in gold, did they nurse animals? They don’t understand that thanks to the zoo, Leningraders felt like full-fledged people, this island wildlife reminded the exhausted townspeople of the peaceful, peaceful life. Therefore, even in the most hungry years, no one even thought about killing animals or eating them.
Bears turned out to be the most resilient in the face of the hardships of war. Tigers and lions endured the stress the hardest. Almost all of them died from heart failure during the bombing and were unable to survive the terrible noise and bright flashes. By the way, the zoo was badly damaged by bombs. And it’s no coincidence. Nearby, on Hare Island, there was an anti-aircraft battery that shot down German planes. The Nazis bombed the Peter and Paul Fortress to destroy this point of resistance. Many shells hit the zoo. As a result, the favorite of all Leningrad children, the elephant Betty, died when an aerial bomb fell into her pavilion. The animal's caretaker was killed, and Betty was buried under debris. For three days, exhausted zoo employees and all those who were able to work cleared away the rubble. People cried hearing the plaintive sounds that the huge animal made. But it was not possible to save the elephant.
A similar tragedy occurred with deer. A shell hit their enclosure and many animals were injured by shrapnel. They were nursed and treated for several days. However, a little later there was another direct hit, the deer died...
Milk for hamadryas
We had a unique hippopotamus, Beauty, before the war she was considered the largest female in Europe,” says Svetlana Alexandrova, deputy head of the educational department of the St. Petersburg Zoo. - You won’t believe it, she survived the revolution, the First and Second World Wars and died only in the 50s. Of course, the animal survived the blockade only thanks to the heroic zoo worker Evdokia Ivanovna Dashina. What cost this woman to come out, only God knows. Judge for yourself: to bathe a hippopotamus, 400 liters of water were required, which had to be transported on a cart or sled from the Neva!
Of course, animals starved just like people. There was practically no food; the predators had the hardest time. The herbivores were fed sawdust, acorns, cake, hay, and porridge was made from all this. There was no meat at all. I had to resort to tricks. The employees took the skins of small rodents, stuffed them with porridge and fed them to the predators. They thought they were eating meat. And, for example, a baby hamadryas, who was born in 1942, was saved by drinking human milk. Due to the stress after the bombing, his mother’s milk immediately dried up; the zoo workers had to go to the maternity hospital and ask the mothers for milk for the baby.
There were also comical moments. One aerial bomb hit an enclosure with monkeys, and the cunning animals immediately fled. They were caught all over Leningrad and returned back.
The zoo was open throughout the blockade. It was closed only during the most violent attacks; at other times, adults and children came here. The city continued to live. Moreover, zoo employees constantly traveled to military units with small concerts. Trained animals performed performances for the soldiers.
In 1942, root crops and vegetables began to be planted throughout the zoo. Then the seeds were distributed to starving townspeople.
In 1940, the Leningrad Zoo housed 446 animals. In 1941, 225 animals died, in 1943 there were only 98 left. And at the end of the war, the military began to bring wolf cubs, lynx cubs, elk calves, and fox cubs here from nearby forests, and the enclosures began to fill up again. The bear cub Grishka was brought in in 1941. Together with all the Leningraders, he survived the blockade, bombings and famine. Even during the war, zoo visitors fell in love with him, jokingly calling him a siege bear cub. This almost played a cruel joke on the pet, because after the end of the Great Patriotic War, every visitor tried to feed the bear, but he was unable to refuse and ate too much.
Myth 13
People who cut meat from the corpses of townspeople who died of natural causes were sentenced to death.
Fact. In fact, only those cannibals who killed people for their food were shot. According to official data, 1,400 of them were shot during the entire blockade. It is clear that there were several more such nonhumans - not all of them could be found and their crime proved. By the way, there were also acquittals.
As for the “corpse eaters,” during the war, again according to official data, there were 1,533 of them. For them, it was not an exceptional measure of punishment, but prison term. As a rule, it ranged from 5 to 10 years. Corpses for food were found both on the streets of Leningrad and in cemeteries. Some churchyards were completely destroyed. Children's bodies were especially valued. In January 1942, cannibalism reached its peak: then 178 “corpse eaters” were arrested, 45 of them quickly died in prison.
A striking statistical pattern also emerged - a typical portrait of a blockade cannibal - a middle-aged woman with little education. By the way, the cannibals were dealt with by a special group consisting not only of security officers and police operatives, but also psychiatrists.
It is curious that, despite the obvious mental disorders of the “corpse eaters,” none of them were sent to prison. compulsory treatment. All were criminally convicted. However, psychiatrists, based on observations and conversations with cannibals, have prepared several scientific works, which were classified as “top secret”.
Named after
Kosinova street.Semyon Kirillovich was born in the fateful year 1917 for the country. Kursk region. In 1935 he entered the Tambov Red Banner Military Infantry School, after graduation he became the commander of a rifle platoon. Later he decided to become a military pilot and entered the Kharkov Military Aviation School. The young pilot met the Great Patriotic War on the Belorussian Front - he bombed enemy columns. Since September 1941, Kosinov has been fighting on the Leningrad Front, once making 32 combat missions in a month. On December 16, 1941, the crew of I. S. Chernykh (gunner-bomber S. K. Kosinov, air gunner-radio operator N. P. Gubin) was tasked with attacking a column of enemy equipment near the city of Chudov. The plane was shot down while approaching the target. anti-aircraft artillery. Despite the damage to the plane, Kosinov accurately dropped the bombs on the target. When the flames could not be put down, the crew decided to ram the fire. The burning plane crashed into the midst of enemy equipment. All crew members died. On January 16, 1942, Kosinov was posthumously awarded the Hero Award Soviet Union. A little earlier, but also after his death, Semyon Kirillovich was awarded the Order of the Red Star. By order of the Minister of Defense dated June 27, 1964, Hero of the Soviet Union Lieutenant S.K. Kosinov was forever included in the lists of the Sevastopol Red Banner Guards Regiment missile forces strategic purpose, to which, by succession during formation, the honorary titles and order of the former 125th (later 15th Guards) Bomber Aviation Regiment were transferred. The street in the Kirovsky district of Leningrad received its name in 1950.
The siege of Leningrad is one of the most terrible pages in the history of the city. Harsh winter 1941-1942 completed what was started by the forces of a merciless enemy. It was hard for everyone, the residents were dying from hunger and cold, it seemed that there was nowhere to wait for help. However, even in those terrible times there were people who, without sparing themselves, tried to save the unfortunate animals of the Leningrad Zoo.
1. V.K. Buryak and Betty the Elephant. 1932
How is it possible to save more than 160 animals and birds in a city where enemy shells were constantly exploding on the streets, where the electricity supply was completely cut off, which resulted in the shutdown of the water supply and sewage system, where there was simply nothing to feed the animals?
Of course, the zoo staff tried to save the unique animals even before the siege began. About 80 animals were urgently taken to Kazan, among which were black panthers, tigers, polar bears, an American tapir and a huge rhinoceros. However, it was not possible to take everyone away.
2. Entrance to the zoo. Postcard. 1920s.
About 60 inhabitants of the menagerie ended up in Belarus at the beginning of the war. They were brought to Vitebsk to demonstrate to local children. However, people's plans were destroyed by the war that began so unexpectedly. Fleeing from the bombing, the zoo staff tried to save as many animals as possible.
3. Among their charges was an American crocodile. Unfortunately, they could not take him out, since he needed special conditions to move. Someone suggested releasing the crocodile into the waters Western Dvina, this idea was supported, and the heat-loving reptile went on a free swim. About her future fate so no one found out.
In Leningrad itself, even before the bombing began, people were forced to shoot the remaining large predators. Of course, it was a pity for the innocent animals, but leaving them meant endangering the inhabitants of the city: having found themselves free as a result of the destruction of the cages by shells, they could well go hunting.
4. Hippopotamus Beauty. 1935
At the beginning of September 41, Leningrad was surrounded. By that time, the zoo still had bison, deer, Betty the elephant, Beauty the hippopotamus, trained bear cubs, fox cubs, tiger cubs, a seal, two donkeys, monkeys, ostriches, a black vulture and many small animals. Oh, it wasn’t easy for them during the bombing!
5. Ruins of an elephant farm.
Most of the animals rushed around the cages in horror, bear cubs growled in fear, birds huddled in a corner, but the chamois, on the contrary, for some reason climbed the hill and stood there, waiting for the end of the shelling. Betty the elephant, as soon as she heard the sound of the siren, hurriedly went to her house. She had no other refuge. Unfortunately, on September 8, one of three high-explosive bombs dropped from a German bomber exploded right next to her enclosure, killing the caretaker and mortally wounding Betty herself. The poor thing died 15 minutes later right on the ruins of the elephant barn. She was buried on the grounds of the zoo.
That terrible night also killed smart bear cubs and cheerful foxes. The walls of the monkey barn were destroyed, causing the primates to scatter around the area. In the morning, employees collected them, trembling with fear, throughout the city. The clumsy bison fell into the funnel. People simply did not have the strength to pull him out of there, so they built a flooring and lured him out with pieces of hay, spreading them from the bottom to the edge of the hole.
7. Ruins of an elephant farm. 1941
Another night a goat and a couple of deer were wounded. Employee Konovalova bandaged the animals, shared her own bread with them and put them on their feet. However, the poor fellows were killed during another attack, which also took away tiger cubs and huge bison.
8. Bomb hit locations. 1941
It was not easy for the hippopotamus Beauty, who was brought to the zoo along with Betty back in 1911. Of course, she was much luckier than her unfortunate friend: she survived and lived a long life. happy life, however, without the selfless help of Evdokia Dashina, the miracle would not have happened. The fact is that the skin of a hippopotamus must be constantly moistened with water, otherwise it quickly dries out and becomes covered with bloody cracks. And in the winter of 1941, the city water supply did not work and the Beauty pool remained empty.
9. E.I. Dashina with the hippopotamus Beauty. 1943
What to do? Every day Evdokia Ivanovna brought a forty-bucket barrel of water from the Neva on a sled. They heated the water and poured it on the poor hippopotamus. The cracks were lubricated with camphor ointment, using up to a kilogram per day. Soon Beauty's skin healed, and she was able to hide underwater with dignity during the bombings. She lived until 1951 and died of old age without earning a single chronic illness. “Here it is, blockade hardening!” - the veterinarians later spoke with admiration.
10. A group of camels against the backdrop of the American mountains. 1936
Of course, in those terrible years the zoo was not funded, and the survival of the animals was entirely dependent on its employees. In the first months of the war, they collected corpses of horses killed by shells in the fields, risking their lives to remove vegetables from the fields. When this opportunity was lost, people mowed the remaining grass with sickles in all possible points of the city, collected rowan berries and acorns. In the spring, all free territory was turned into vegetable gardens, where cabbage, potatoes, oats and rutabaga were grown.
11. Black vulture Verochka. 1946
But this way you can only save vegetarian animals, but what about the rest? If the cubs, indignant, still ate minced vegetables and grass, then the tiger cubs and the vulture completely refused such a diet. For their sake, they found lying around rabbit skins, stuffed them with a mixture of grass, cake and gristle, and greased the outside of the carcasses with fish oil. This way they managed to prevent the fastidious predators from starving to death.
12. Antelope Nilgai Lighthouse. 1946
Birds of prey added fish to this mixture. The vultures agreed to eat only soaked salted fish. But the most intractable was the golden eagle, for which people had to catch rats.
It is known that an adult hippopotamus should receive from 36 to 40 kg of food per day. Of course, during the blockade years there could be no talk of such a “feast”. The beauty was given 4-6 kg of a mixture of grass, vegetables and cake, adding 30 kg of steamed sawdust, just to fill her stomach.
13. Young stock area. 30s.
In November 1941, there was a new addition to the zoo: Elsa the hamadryas gave birth to a baby. The mother did not have milk, but the local maternity hospital provided some donor milk every day, thanks to which the baby was able to survive.
Surprisingly, the Leningrad Zoo closed only in the winter of 1941-1942. Already in the spring, exhausted employees were clearing paths and repairing enclosures in order to admit the first visitors in the summer. 162 animals were exhibited. Over the summer, about 7,400 Leningraders came to see them, which proved the need for such a peaceful institution in those terrible years.
14. Lenzoosad team. Spring 1945.
Many servants spent the night right in the zoo, not wanting to leave their charges even for a moment. There were few of them - only two dozen, but this was enough to save many lives. 16 people were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad”, and it was decided not to rename the zoo itself in order to preserve the memory of the heroism of the blockade employees.
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