Sinyavino heights. What are the common graves silent about?

Sinyavino heights, which became the scene of fierce fighting in the period 1941 - 1944, played a decisive role in the battle for Leningrad. It was in the forests and marshes near the small village of Sinyavino that the fate of the heroic blockaded city was decided.

By the beginning of autumn forty-first the northern wing of the Soviet-German front was characterized by a rather alarming operational situation - under threat of seizure there was a symbol of Soviet power - Leningrad. On the eighth of September, after the loss of Shlisselburg, a dense, suffocating ring closed around the second-largest and strategically important city in the country. The connection with the big earth was interrupted, which threatened Leningrad with the most serious consequences. Especially in the light of the loss of the wooden Badajevsk warehouses burnt by the German airbags with foodstuffs, which the party leadership of the city did not dare to disperse into well-fortified underground storages.

In such a situation, Sinyavinsky heights were chosen quite sensibly by the direction of the main deblocking blow. In this territory, the distance between the two Soviet fronts - Volkhovsky and Leningrad was the most minimal. Another important reason why the Sinyavino heights were chosen as the main direction of the breakthrough of the blockade ring is their domination over the surrounding terrain from a tactical point of view. Consequently, the seizure of the chain of these hills made it possible to intercept the strategic initiative and take control of the vast lowland areas from Ladoga on the northern flank to the Mga River on the southern flank.

The brutal and bloody battles on the Sinyavino heights can be divided into three stages. The first of them was launched on the night of September 20, the forty-first crossing of one of the battalions of the one hundred and fifteenth rifle division, to the left bank of the Neva, supported by the divisions of the commander-in-chief of the German army "North", General Field Marshal Ritter von Leib. Resistant resistance was rendered by the enemy, which made it possible to seize a small bridgehead, to which the divisions of the First Division of the NKVD, the Fourth Brigade of the Marine Corps and directly the main units of the 115th SD disembarked.

Such forces managed to cut the highway connecting Leningrad and Shlisselburg, and come close to the 8th GRES seized by the Germans. This legendary foothold went down in history under the name "Nevsky Piglet". In fact, this was the first success of our troops on the Leningrad front. From the Volkhov direction to the "Nevsky Piglet" parts of the fifty-fourth army of Lieutenant-General Ivan Fedyuninsky fought their way. The advance of our troops from the two convergent directions to the Sinyavino heights picked up a course. The forward units already separated no more than 12 or 16 km, when the shock units of the 54th Army encountered the enemy's rigid resistance and, having suffered heavy losses, were forced to retreat. The inability to master the Sinyavin heights eventually turned into a failure of the whole tactical plan.

The second stage of the Sinyavino operation began in August 1942 with the blow of the troops of the two Soviet fronts. At the same time, a fairly battered Army Group North, already commanded by Karl Kühler, began to receive divisions of the eleventh army from the Crimea with its large-caliber siege artillery, which destroyed Sevastopol and its fortifications. The situation was complicated by the fact that well-equipped and trained Crimean divisions Manstein took positions along the Neva from Lake Ladoga to Leningrad.

Front reconnaissance was able to get information on the arrival of fresh German units on time. And to prevent the enemy storm of Leningrad, which was entrusted to head Field Marshal Manstein by Hitler himself, the two Soviet fronts launched an offensive on Sinyavinsky heights. The memorial and alley of Glory, the construction of which began in 1975, stores 64 marble slabs with the names of the soldiers fallen here.

Coming back in August forty-second, it should be noted that during the first hours of the offensive, parts of the Volkhov Front suffered heavy losses. Despite this, by the end of August, the gap with the encircled city began to decline steadily, and Manstein had to throw his reserve - the 170th Crimean division into battle. In the battle at Sinyavino heights, as in a meat grinder, the German troops, intended for the September assault of Leningrad, were grinding.

During two days of fighting (on August 27 and 28), it was possible to break through the powerful German defense. Developing success, our troops continued their offensive towards the Neva. This time the chain of Sinyavino heights was taken. But Manstein managed to concentrate the strike groups from the reserve in the place of the breakthrough. As a result, our units, deepened in the breakthrough, were surrounded. Part of the troops later managed to escape from this trap, but most of them fell in the Sinyavino swamps. The successfully launched offensive again ended in failure.

The third stage of the Sinyavino operation, this time crowned with success, began in January of 1943. The area of peat extraction, located north of Sinyavino, was chosen as the direction of the main attack. On this site the Germans created a sufficiently powerful defensive line. In each of the eight workers' settlements located here, a well-fortified stronghold was established. On January 12, a well-planned offensive began. And already on the eighteenth day, the reunification of the advanced units of the two fronts - Volkhovsky and Leningrad - took place. This operation was, in its essence, a generalization of the unsuccessful experience of previous offensives. Perhaps that's why it ended successfully.