Leningrad: The First Ice on Lake Ladoga
Leningrad has been encircled since 8 September 1941; the fire at the Badayev warehouses has swallowed up part of the food stocks. On 20 November, the bread ration falls to 125 grams a day for non-workers — bread cut with cellulose. Nearly 2.5 million civilians are trapped, and winter is setting in.
The only way out runs across Lake Ladoga. On 22 November 1941, the first trucks venture onto the barely formed ice: this is the "Road of Life." The crossing is deadly — the ice gives way under the weight, German aircraft strafe it, the cold kills.
For a mother, every option is a gamble: entrust her children to the perilous ice, or keep the family together in the city in the hope that the siege will be lifted.
As the ice road opens, should this mother evacuate her children across the frozen lake, stay together in the city, or try to leave on foot?
The ice road, opened on 22 November 1941, became the city's umbilical cord: over the whole siege, nearly 1.3 million people were evacuated and a trickle of supplies brought in. But the winter of 1941-1942 killed up to 100,000 people a month; in all, the siege caused 800,000 to a million deaths, mostly from starvation. Leaving early across Lake Ladoga gave children the best chance of survival.
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