27th January – Lifting of the siege of Leningrad
In our district there a just a few people left, whose lives were forever supposed to be closely connected with Leningrad, especially with the siege of this town during the Great Patriotic War. In total, we have three of them here, who witnessed the siege. One of them – an aged woman called Aili-Elvira. She bears the patronymic of Ivanovna, and her last name is Stirz. Hence, she has Finnish roots in her family tree (this can be concluded from her first name) which are closely interlaced with Russian (her father was called Ivan Matveevich) and also German origins, for she got married to a fellow, who was deported from the Republic of the Volga-Germans in 1941.
Before the outbreak of the Great Patriotiotic War, her family lived not far from Leningrad, in the village of Berngardovka, Vsevoloshsk District. Nowadays this hamlet is situated in a distance of about five stops from the northern capital, if you take the uptown railroad. And then is just 500 Meter until you reach the railroad line. There were three children in the family. Aili-Elvira was the eldest – born in 1930. The second sister, Saima, was born in the ensuing year. And the youngest, Irma, first saw the light of day in 1940. Their mother had a compound name, too – Rosalia-Lilia Mikhailovna. Her father, Ivan Matveevich, was one of the participants of the Soviet-Finnish War. After a serious injury, he was medicated in hospital for a long time and completely recovered after a stay at a health resort.
After, in fact, hostile actions had begun, many inhabitants of the city of Leningrad and Leningrad Region accompanied their relatives and acquaintances to the front. Ivan Matveevich continued to go to work, since, for the time being, he was not mobilized. Tragic occurrences, however, took their course in September 1941, when the town was circumvented and sieged by the enemy. Almost at the same time fires broke out and destroyed the permanently bombarded huge food store-rooms. In actuality, Leningrad was put to the abyss of survival. But in spite of all kinds of efforts from the part of the Fascist troops to completely capture the town during the winter of 1941-1942, this plan was not successful.
Aila-Elvira recalls that she and her sister Saima got up at four o’clock in the morning to get bread at the single store in Berngardovka. The line of queuing people had no end; that was the reason for why they had to get up that early. The breadnorm available against vouchers was shortened during the wintertime to just 125 grams for each non-working person. The permanent hunger feeling finally made children lose all their fear. Once, they were on their way back home, after having spent several hours in line and finally succeeded to receive the bread quantity for the whole family. A man approached, stopped the children, took one loaf of bread away from them and broke it into two halves. One half he kept for himself, returning the other one to the children. Aila-Elvira says: „He was at least fair enough to give us back one half; he could as well have decided not to do that“. You can certainly imagine, what consequences this might have possibly had for the hungry family members.
Aila-Elvira still remembers the entirely enfeebled people lying in the streets, unable to get up any more. They managed to stand the following strong winter, but towards the end of March 1942, when the „path of live“ was opened across Lake Ladoga, all family members were taken behind the periphery of the sieged zone. They were fortunate – although the ice had begun to perish and many cars broke in and disappeared. In actual truth they were taken away from sieged territory by force, by administrative means, for they were a Finnish family. IN the case under consideration, however, this evacuation meant rescue. For evacuating all inhabitants of Leningrad and its surroundings, would have been completely unrealistic.
When their truck reached the railroad line the train was already waiting for them. All „goners“ (individual who will be or is on his last legs; translator’s note) were loaded on freight cars equipped with round iron stoves. And then the train set off towards the east. It was a long trip, they were on the way for more than one month, and the train would often stop at one of those little train stations. They received a sparse food ration. Many died from hunger and cold, and their dead bodies were taken out of the waggons, whenever the train stopped at one of the stations. Among the dead was Aila-Elviras grandmother from her mother’s side, as well as her grandmother’s brother. They were Estonians, which means that they did not have to ride on this train; nonetheless, they had preferred to leave instead of holding out within the sieged territory.
The train finally stopped in Achinsk where they were informed that they trip was over and that they had now arrived. Vehicles were already waiting for them; they loaded their beggarly belongings on the vehicles. The coachman said they would have to go up to the village of Simonovo. At that time there used to be mandatory stopovers in Simovya (winter grounds; translator’s note), many long-time residents still recall this today. Aili-Elvira remembers this place, because here the coachman had to carry a dead man from the cart, who had gone through the siege – a young fellow yet, who had come to this place from Leningrad together with his sister. The reached Simonovo in the morning of the 1st of May, 1942; one of the house had especially been prepared for evacuees from Leningrad. Later, their family lives in the Korchevniy’s apartment. Their mother first worked for the kolkhoz farm, later she was quite happy with a job for the farm and market garden supporting the 105th reserve infantry regiment. Aili-Elvira was working there, too. It’s only too bad that she never asked for an attestation. Hence, she is unable to provide evidence of her professional life during the Great Patriotic War. And in her employment book there is an entry saying that she has been working as a postwoman for 15 years.
Post-war fate dispersed the family members into all directions. The father, who had been in the labor army for some years, returned to Simonovo. But later he went back to his home region and started a new family. He died at the age of 92. Mum died here. Sister Saima also lived in Leningrad Region. Irma was living in Lithuania for many years; recently, she departed this life after serious illness. Finally, Aili-Elvira went back to Leningrad Region to say good-bye to her. Both sisters were staying together for ten days; and now just a few photos remind of their last meeting.
Aili-Elvira got married to Andrei Karlovich Stirz in the settlement of Sagotskot (today Tikhiy Ruchei). In 1951 they removed to Bolschoi Ului and, as one of the very first, built themselves a house on Chapayev Street; they still live there today. They had five children, two of which were unfortunately killed in traffic accidents. This is why the grandparents had to raise two grand-daughters - Olesya and Anyuta. They received great support from the road-building agency. In the meantime both girls graduated from institute, live and work in the regional capital. Olesya is married. The eldest son Victor got to Lomonossov District in the Leningrad Region by fate. On the 16th of August 2009 he celebrated his 60th birthday, nonetheless he continues to work for the kolkhoz farm. It means that the Stirzes have been living together for more than 61 years by now. Aili-Elvira is soon going to celebrate her 80th birthday – on February 25th. We sincerely wish that she remains to be as energetic and active, as she has been throughout all these years, and that she will stay in good health.
Vladimir Uskov
Newspaper „Messenger of Bolsheului District“, N° 5 of the 29.01.2010