How a cat saved a family during the Leningrad blockade. How cats saved besieged Leningrad. Where did cats come from to besieged Leningrad?

Today is the anniversary of the complete lifting of the siege of Leningrad.
Eternal memory to the dead, many thanks to the survivors for defending Leningrad.
For the fact that we now live and remember!
No more terrible test befell the city... and the residents survived. Eternal glory to them...

On the eve of this date, publications about besieged cats appeared in Russian newspapers and Runet.

Cat Elisha and cat Vasilisa.

Russian blogger Sim says: If you enter Malaya Sadovaya Street from Nevsky Prospect, then on the right, at the level of the second floor of the Eliseevsky store, you can see a bronze cat. His name is Elisha and this bronze beast is loved by city residents and numerous tourists.
On the contrary, when, on the eaves of house number 3, Elisha’s friend, the cat Vasilisa, lives. "
The author of the idea is Sergei Lebedev, the sculptor is Vladimir Petrovichev, the sponsor is Ilya Botka (what a division of labor). The monument to the cat was erected on January 25, 2000 (the kitty has been on “post” for ten years now), and “his bride was given to him on April 1 of the same 2000.
The names of the cats were invented by the residents of the city... at least that’s what the Internet says, I don’t remember. Although in 2000 I was 14 years old, and 10 years is a long time. It is believed that if you throw a coin on Elisha’s pedestal, you will be happy, joyful and lucky.
According to legend, in the pre-dawn hours, when the street is empty and the signs and lamps are no longer burning so brightly, you can hear bronze kitties meowing. But I can’t say about this; I never found myself on Malaya Sadovaya in the pre-dawn hours.
It would seem - how nice it was that St. Petersburg residents erected a monument to everyone’s favorite pet... but it turned out that they erected it for a reason, the cats deserved a monument for themselves.
On September 8, 1941, Leningrad was encircled and a blockade began that lasted 900 days.
Very soon there was nothing to eat in the city, residents began to die...
In the terrible winter of 1941-1942, everyone was eaten, even domestic animals (and this saved the lives of many). But if people died, then the rats multiplied and multiplied! It turned out that there was enough food for the rats in the hungry city!
Siege survivor Kira Loginova recalled, What ". ..the darkness of rats in long ranks, led by their leaders, moved along the Shlisselburgsky tract (now Obukhov Defense Avenue) straight to the mill, where they ground flour for the whole city. They shot at the rats, they tried to crush them with tanks, but nothing worked: they climbed onto the tanks and safely rode on them. This was an organized, intelligent and cruel enemy...”(“Labor” 02/5/1997, p. 7).
By the way, my mother’s grandmother, who lived for some time in the besieged city, said that one night she looked out the window and saw that the entire street was infested with rats, after which she could not sleep for a long time. When they crossed the road, even the trams were forced to stop. - In the spring of 1942, my sister and I went to a vegetable garden planted right at the stadium on Levashevskaya Street. And suddenly we saw that some gray mass was moving straight towards us. Rats! When we ran to the garden, everything there had already been eaten,” recalls blockade survivor Zoya Kornilieva.
All types of weapons, bombings and fires were powerless to destroy the “fifth column”, which was eating up the blockade survivors who were dying of hunger. The gray creatures devoured even those crumbs of food that remained in the city. In addition, due to the hordes of rats in the city, there was a threat of epidemics. But no “human” methods of rodent control helped.
And then, immediately after breaking the blockade ring on January 27, 1943, in April a decree was issued signed by the chairman of the Leningrad City Council on the need to “discharge four carriages of smoky cats from the Yaroslavl region and deliver them to Leningrad” (smoky ones were considered the best rat-catchers).

Eyewitnesses said that the cats were snapped up instantly, and queues formed for them.
L. Panteleev wrote in his blockade diary in January 1944: “A kitten in Leningrad costs 500 rubles” (a kilogram of bread was then sold from hand for 50 rubles. The watchman’s salary was 120 rubles) - For a cat they gave the most expensive thing we had, - bread. I myself kept a little from my ration, so that later I could give this bread for a kitten to a woman whose cat had given birth,” says Zoya Kornilieva.
Yaroslavl cats quickly managed to drive rodents away from food warehouses, but they could not completely solve the problem. Therefore, at the very end of the war, another “cat mobilization” was announced. This time the cats were recruited in Siberia.
The “cat call” was a success.
In Tyumen, for example, 238 cats and cats aged from six months to 5 years were collected. Many brought their pets to the collection point themselves.
The first of the volunteers was the black and white cat Amur, whom the owner personally surrendered with the wishes of “contributing to the fight against the hated enemy.” In total, 5 thousand Omsk, Tyumen, and Irkutsk cats were sent to Leningrad, who coped with their task with honor - clearing the city of rodents.
So among the St. Petersburg Murki there are almost no indigenous, local people left. Many have Yaroslavl or Siberian roots. Many say that the story of the “siege cats” is a legend. However, then the question is, where did so many mustachioed tabbys appear in the city after the war, and where did the real army of rats go?

The legendary cat Maxim.

The St. Petersburg Cat Museum is looking for a hero. Its workers want to perpetuate the memory of the legendary cat Maxim.
There have long been legends about perhaps the only cat to survive the siege. At the end of the last century, Maxim’s story was told by a special correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the author of stories about animals, Vasily Peskov.
During the blockade, almost all the cats died of starvation or were eaten. That is why the story of his mistress interested the writer.

« It got to the point in our family that my uncle demanded the cat to be eaten almost every day., - Peskov quotes the words of the animal’s owner Vera Nikolaevna Volodina. - When my mother and I left home, we locked Maxim in a small room. We also had a parrot named Jacques. In good times, our Jaconya sang and talked. And then he got all skinny from hunger and became quiet. The few sunflower seeds that we exchanged for daddy’s gun soon ran out, and our Jacques was doomed. The cat Maxim also barely wandered - his fur came out in clumps, his claws could not be removed, he even stopped meowing, begging for food. One day Max managed to get into Jacone's cage. At any other time there would have been drama. And this is what we saw when we returned home! The bird and the cat were sleeping in a cold room, huddled together. This had such an effect on my uncle that he stopped trying to kill the cat...”
Soon the parrot died, but the cat survived.
And he turned out to be practically the only cat to survive the blockade.
They even started taking excursions to the Volodins' house - everyone wanted to look at this miracle. Teachers brought entire classes. Maxim died only in 1957. From old age.

The year 1942 turned out to be doubly tragic for Leningrad. In addition to the famine that claims hundreds of lives every day, there is also an infestation of rats. Hordes of rodents destroyed already meager food supplies, and in addition, the threat of epidemics arose. The besieged city was saved by the most ordinary cats, which at that difficult time were worth almost their weight in gold...

In the besieged city, all the cats disappeared during the winter of 1941-1942. I think it will be no secret to anyone, where did they go? They were simply eaten. Yes. The hated war and the terrible, fierce winter brought a lot of grief and death to hungry Leningrad.

Eyewitnesses recalled: in the spring of 1942, a skinny cat, almost the only one in the city, appeared on the street and a skinny, skeleton-like policeman made sure that no one caught the animal. For a year and a half, the besieged city lived without cats!

People who survived the siege of Leningrad recall that in 1942 there were no cats left in the city, but rats bred in incredible numbers. In long ranks they moved along the Shlisselburg highway straight to the mill, where they ground flour for the whole city.

In 1942-43, rats overran the starving city. They tried to shoot them, crush them with tanks, but it was all useless. The hordes of gray invaders grew and became stronger. The smartest animals climbed onto the tanks that were coming to crush them, and triumphantly marched forward on these same tanks.

Rats not only devoured the meager food supplies, but also threatened to cause terrible epidemics of diseases, the viruses of which were carried by rats, to arise among the siege survivors, weakened by hunger. In particular,

Peter could be at risk of plague.

In the terrible winter of 1941-1942, everyone was eaten, even domestic animals (and this saved the lives of many). But if people died, then the rats multiplied and multiplied!

It turned out that there was enough food for the rats in the hungry city! Siege survivor Kira Loginova recalled that “... a darkness of rats in long ranks, led by their leaders, moved along the Shlisselburgsky tract (now Obukhovskaya Defense Avenue) straight to the mill, where they ground flour for the whole city. They shot at the rats, they tried to crush them with tanks, but nothing worked: they climbed onto the tanks and safely rode on them. This was an organized, intelligent and cruel enemy...” (“Trud” 02/5/1997, p.7). By the way, my mother’s grandmother, who lived for some time in the besieged city, said that one night she looked out the window and saw that the whole street was infested with rats, after which she could not sleep for a long time. When they crossed the road, even the trams were forced to stop. Let me explain for people who don’t know well what kind of animal a rat is. In hungry years, rats can eat everything: books, trees, paintings, furniture, their relatives and almost everything that they can digest in the slightest degree. Without water, a rat can live longer than a camel, and indeed longer than any mammal. In 50 milliseconds, the rat determines where the smell is coming from. And she instantly identifies most poisons and will not eat poisoned food. In difficult times, rats gather in hordes and go in search of food. I’ll immediately get ahead of your question - “If the residents of besieged Leningrad ate all the cats, then why didn’t they eat the rats?” Perhaps they also ate rats, but the fact is that one pair of rats can give birth to up to 2000 individuals in a year. Without deterrents (cats, poisoning), they multiply at a catastrophic rate. They are also carriers of many diseases that can lead to epidemics. Well, it turns out that there are no cats in the city, and there is nothing to poison with poison, while food in the city remains in scanty quantities and only for people.

In the spring of 1942, my sister and I went to a vegetable garden planted right at the stadium on Levashevskaya Street. And suddenly we saw that some gray mass was moving straight towards us. Rats! When we ran to the garden, everything there had already been eaten,” recalls blockade survivor Zoya Kornilieva.

All types of weapons, bombings and fires were powerless to destroy the “fifth column”, which was eating up the blockade survivors who were dying of hunger. The gray creatures devoured even those crumbs of food that remained in the city. In addition, due to the hordes of rats in the city, there was a threat of epidemics. But no “human” methods of rodent control helped.

For a cat they gave the most expensive thing we had - bread. I myself kept a little from my ration, so that later I could give this bread for a kitten to a woman whose cat had given birth,” says Zoya Kornilieva.

Legendary cat Maxim.

The St. Petersburg Cat Museum is looking for a hero. Its workers want to perpetuate the memory of the legendary cat Maxim. There have long been legends about perhaps the only cat to survive the siege. At the end of the last century, Maxim’s story was told by a special correspondent of Komsomolskaya Pravda, the author of stories about animals, Vasily Peskov.

During the blockade, almost all the cats died of starvation or were eaten. That is why the story of his mistress interested the writer.

“In our family, it got to the point that my uncle demanded the cat to be eaten almost every day,” Peskov quotes the words of the animal’s owner, Vera Nikolaevna Volodina. - When my mother and I left the house, we locked Maxim in a small room. We also had a parrot named Jacques. In good times, our Jaconya sang and talked. And then he got all skinny from hunger and became quiet. The few sunflower seeds that we exchanged for daddy’s gun soon ran out, and our Jacques was doomed. The cat Maxim also barely wandered - his fur came out in clumps, his claws could not be removed, he even stopped meowing, begging for food. One day Max managed to get into Jacone's cage. At any other time there would have been drama. And this is what we saw when we returned home! The bird and the cat were sleeping in a cold room, huddled together. This had such an effect on my uncle that he stopped trying to kill the cat...”

Soon the parrot died, but the cat survived. And he turned out to be practically the only cat to survive the blockade. They even started taking excursions to the Volodins' house - everyone wanted to look at this miracle. Teachers brought entire classes. Maxim died only in 1957. From old age.

Here is another story from one of the siege survivors: “We had a cat Vaska. Family favorite. In the winter of 1941, his mother took him away somewhere. She said that they would feed him fish at the shelter, but we couldn’t... In the evening, my mother cooked something like cutlets. Then I was surprised, where do we get meat from? I didn’t understand anything... Only later... It turns out that thanks to Vaska we survived that winter...”

People who, despite hunger, still saved the lives of their pets, were looked upon almost as heroes. So, when in the spring of 1942, one old woman, barely alive from hunger, went for a walk with her cat, people began to come up to her and thank her for not sacrificing her pet.

A woman who was 12 years old during the siege of 1942 tells how on an April day she noticed a crowd of people near the Barrikada cinema. They looked, raising their heads, at the window of one of the houses: a tabby cat with three kittens was lying on the windowsill... “When I saw her, I realized that we had survived,” says the former siege survivor.

Cat-listener

Among the wartime legends there is a story about a red cat “listener” who settled near an anti-aircraft battery near Leningrad and accurately predicted enemy air raids. Moreover, as the story goes, the animal did not react to the approach of Soviet planes. The battery command valued the cat for his unique gift, put him on allowance and even assigned one soldier to look after him.

In April '43, after a partial breakthrough of the blockade, by a special resolution of the Leningrad City Council, four wagons of... smoky cats were delivered to the city from the Yaroslavl region (such cats are considered the best rat-catchers). It was these Yaroslavl cats who managed to save food warehouses from voracious pests.

Some of the cats were released right at the station, some were distributed to Leningraders who came to greet the train. Entire queues lined up for the cats. Many people never got a mustachioed tabby... In January 1944, kittens cost 500 rubles on the black market. For comparison: a kilogram of bread was sold for 50 rubles, and, for example, the salary of a watchman was only 120 rubles.

Another “batch” of cats was brought from Siberia to fight rodents in the basements of the Hermitage and other Leningrad museums. It’s interesting that many of the cats were domestic cats—residents of Omsk, Irkutsk, and Tyumen themselves brought them to collection points to help Leningraders. In total, 5 thousand felines were collected...

As a gift for Tyumen's birthday, the Alley of Siberian Cats was created. It was built in 2008. And its creation story is precisely connected with the so-called “cat calling”. Perhaps it is only thanks to this “cat’s call” that today we can admire the paintings of great masters in the best museums of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region.

Twelve figurines of cats and kittens covered with golden paint are located on this Alley. The fence and even the lanterns are stylized with cat figures. The author of the square is Marina Alchibaeva.

The Alley of Siberian cats is not just a sculptural composition. It was created in memory of those cats who were sent from Siberia during the Second World War to protect the Hermitage and Petrodvorets from rats and mice.

(The exact address of the Alley of Siberian Cats: Tyumen, corner of Respubliki Street and Pervomaiskaya Street.)

The descendants of those Siberian cats still live in the Hermitage. Today there are more than fifty of them in the museum. Everyone even has a special passport with a photo. All of them successfully protect museum exhibits from rodents.

The cats and cats of the Hermitage are taken care of. They are fed, treated, but most importantly, they are respected for their conscientious work and help. And a few years ago, the museum even created a special Fund for Friends of Hermitage Cats. This foundation collects funds for various cat needs and organizes all sorts of events and exhibitions.

Today, more than fifty cats serve in the Hermitage. Each of them has a passport with a photo and is considered a highly qualified specialist in cleaning museum basements from rodents.

The cat community has a clear hierarchy. It has its own aristocracy, middle peasants and rabble. Cats are divided into four groups. Each has a strictly designated territory. I don’t go into someone else’s basement - you can get punched in the face there, seriously.

Cats are recognized by their faces, backs, and even tails by all museum employees. But it is the women who feed them who give their names. They know everyone's history in detail."

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Zaporozhye Maria Vasilievna Yarmoshenko was born and raised in Leningrad. There she met the war, survived the 900-day blockade, and there she met her future husband, military officer Arseny Platonovich. In the post-war years, the Yarmoshenko spouses settled in Zaporozhye. I met them 10 years ago. I visited their home several times.

I heard many different tragic stories from them related to the incredible difficulties experienced by the residents of the besieged city. In particular, I remember Maria Vasilyevna’s story about how cats helped Leningraders get rid of a terrible invasion of rats. The facts given in her story, as I later became convinced, are confirmed by official archival sources. And this is what this story about cats looks like.

In September 1941, Leningrad was encircled by German troops. A 900-day grueling blockade of the city on the Neva began. During this time, about a million Leningraders died. In fact, one third of the population of the city and surrounding areas. The most seemingly incredible events and circumstances helped people escape. Including cats. Yes, the most common domestic cats. But everything is in order.

The winter of 1941–1942 was especially difficult for the residents of the besieged city. Funeral teams did not have time to remove the corpses of people who died from hunger, cold and disease from the streets. This winter, Leningraders ate everything, even domestic animals, including cats. But if people died, then the rats felt great; they literally flooded the city.

Eyewitnesses recall that rodents moved around the city in huge colonies. When they crossed the road, even the trams were forced to stop. Rats were shot, crushed by tanks, and even special brigades were created to exterminate them. But they could not cope with the scourge. The gray creatures devoured even those crumbs of food that remained in the city. And there were no cats - the main rat hunters - in Leningrad for a long time.

In addition, due to the hordes of rats in the city, there was a threat of epidemics. All types of struggle against this organized, intelligent and cruel enemy turned out to be powerless to destroy the “fifth column”, which ate the blockade survivors dying of hunger. It was necessary to look for a way out of this tragic situation. And there could only be one way out - cats were needed. And immediately after the blockade was broken in 1943, a resolution was adopted by the Leningrad City Council on the need to order four wagons of smoky cats from the Yaroslavl region and deliver them to Leningrad. Smoky were rightfully considered the best rat catchers. Residents of the Yaroslavl region responded with understanding to the request of the Leningrad residents, quickly collected the required number of cats (collected throughout the region) and sent them to Leningrad.

To prevent the cats from being stolen, they were transported under heavy security. As soon as the carriages with the cat troop arrived at the Leningrad station, a line immediately lined up wanting to get a cat. Some of the animals were released immediately at the station, and the rest were distributed to the townspeople. The cat troopers quickly got used to the new place and joined the fight against rats. However, there was not enough strength to completely solve the problem.

And then another cat mobilization took place. This time, a “call for rat catchers” was announced in Siberia. Especially for the needs of the Hermitage and other Leningrad palaces and museums. After all, rats threatened priceless treasures of art and culture.

We recruited cats all over Siberia - Tyumen, Omsk, Irkutsk. As a result, 5 thousand cats were sent to Leningrad, who coped with the task with honor - clearing the city of rodents.

So cats have a special meaning for the residents of Leningrad.

In memory of the feat of the tailed rescuers, sculptures of the cat Elisha and the cat Vasilisa were installed in modern St. Petersburg. On the first of March, Russia celebrates the unofficial Cat Day.

Nikolay Zubashenko, journalist

(for Chronicles and Commentaries)

NOTE.

The cat at the Eliseevsky store - Elisey KOTOVICH Pitersky. If you enter Malaya Sadovaya Street from Nevsky Prospect, then on the right, at the level of the second floor of the Eliseevsky store, you can see a bronze cat. His name is Elisha and this bronze beast is loved by city residents and numerous tourists. Opposite the cat, on the eaves of house number 3, lives Elisha’s friend, the cat Vasilisa.

The author of the idea is Sergei Lebedev, the sculptor is Vladimir Petrovichev, the sponsor is Ilya Botka (what a division of labor). The monument to the cat was erected on January 25, 2000 (the kitty has been sitting on “post” for ten years already), and “his bride was given on April 1 of the same 2000. The names of the cats were invented by the residents of the city... at least that’s what the Internet says. It is believed that if you throw a coin on Elisha’s pedestal, you will be happy, joyful and lucky. According to legend, in the pre-dawn hours, when the street is empty and the signs and lamps are no longer burning so brightly, you can hear bronze kitties meowing.

The year 1942 turned out to be doubly tragic for Leningrad. In addition to the famine that claims hundreds of lives every day, there is also an infestation of rats. Eyewitnesses recall that rodents moved around the city in huge colonies. When they crossed the road, even the trams were forced to stop.

Siege survivor Kira Loginova recalled that “... a darkness of rats in long ranks, led by their leaders, moved along the Shlisselburgsky tract (now Obukhov Defense Avenue) straight to the mill, where they ground flour for the whole city. They shot at the rats, they tried to crush them with tanks, but nothing worked: they climbed onto the tanks and safely rode on them. This was an organized, intelligent and cruel enemy...”

A little sad, but honest

At first, those around them condemned the “cat eaters.”

“I eat according to the second category, so I have the right,” one of them justified himself in the fall of 1941.

Then excuses were no longer needed: a meal from a cat was often the only way to save life.

“December 3, 1941. Today we ate fried cat. Very tasty,” a 10-year-old boy wrote in his diary.

“We ate the neighbor’s cat with the entire communal apartment at the beginning of the blockade,” says Zoya Kornilieva.

“It got to the point in our family that my uncle demanded Maxim’s cat to be eaten almost every day. When my mother and I left home, we locked Maxim in a small room. We also had a parrot named Jacques. In good times, our Jaconya sang and talked. And then he got all skinny from hunger and became quiet. The few sunflower seeds that we exchanged for daddy’s gun soon ran out, and our Jacques was doomed. Maxim the cat was also barely wandering around - his fur was coming out in clumps, his claws were not retractable, he even stopped meowing, begging for food. One day Max managed to get into Jacone's cage. At any other time there would have been drama. And this is what we saw when we returned home! The bird and the cat were sleeping in a cold room, huddled together. This had such an effect on my uncle that he stopped trying to kill the cat...”

“We had a cat Vaska. Family favorite. In the winter of 1941, his mother took him away somewhere. She said that he would go to the shelter and they would feed him fish, but we can’t... In the evening, my mother cooked something like cutlets. Then I was surprised, where do we get meat from? I didn’t understand anything... Only later... It turns out that thanks to Vaska we survived that winter..."

“The glass in the house was blown out during the bombing, the furniture had been destroyed for a long time. Mom slept on the windowsill - fortunately they were wide, like a bench - covering herself with an umbrella from the rain and wind. One day, someone, having learned that my mother was pregnant with me, gave her a herring - she really wanted salty... At home, my mother put the gift in a secluded corner, hoping to eat it after work. But when I returned in the evening, I found a herring tail and greasy stains on the floor - the rats were feasting. It was a tragedy that only those who survived the blockade will understand,” says an employee of the temple of St. Seraphim of Sarovsky Valentin Osipov.

Cat means victory

However, some townspeople, despite the severe hunger, took pity on their pets. In the spring of 1942, an old woman, half dead from hunger, took her cat outside for a walk. People came up to her and thanked her for saving it.

One former blockade survivor recalled that in March 1942 she suddenly saw a skinny cat on a city street. Several old women stood around her and crossed themselves, and an emaciated, skeletal policeman made sure that no one caught the animal.

In April 1942, a 12-year-old girl, walking past the Barrikada cinema, saw a crowd of people at the window of one of the houses. They marveled at an extraordinary sight: a tabby cat with three kittens was lying on a brightly lit windowsill. “When I saw her, I realized that we had survived,” this woman recalled many years later.

Furry special forces

As soon as the blockade was broken in 1943, a decree was issued signed by the chairman of the Leningrad City Council on the need to “extract smoky cats from the Yaroslavl region and deliver them to Leningrad.” The Yaroslavl residents could not help but fulfill the strategic order and caught the required number of smoky cats, which were then considered the best rat catchers.

Four carriages of cats arrived in a dilapidated city. Some of the cats were released right there at the station, and some were distributed to residents. They were snapped up instantly, and many didn’t have enough.

L. Panteleev wrote in his blockade diary in January 1944: “A kitten in Leningrad costs 500 rubles.” A kilogram of bread was then sold from hand for 50 rubles. The watchman's salary was 120 rubles.

– For a cat they gave the most expensive thing we had - bread. I myself kept a little from my ration, so that later I could give this bread for a kitten to the woman whose cat had given birth,” recalled Zoya Kornilieva.

The cats who arrived in the dilapidated city, at the cost of great losses on their part, managed to drive away the rats from food warehouses.

Cats not only caught rodents, but also fought. There is a legend about a red cat who took root in an anti-aircraft battery located near Leningrad. The soldiers nicknamed him “the listener,” since the cat accurately predicted the approach of enemy aircraft with his meows. Moreover, the animal did not react to Soviet aircraft. They even put the cat on allowance and assigned one private to look after him.

Cat mobilization

Another “batch” of cats was brought from Siberia to fight rodents in the basements of the Hermitage and other Leningrad palaces and museums. It is interesting that many of the cats were domestic cats - residents of Omsk, Irkutsk, and Tyumen themselves brought them to collection points to help Leningraders. In total, 5 thousand cats were sent to Leningrad, which completed their task with honor - they cleared the city of rodents, saving the remains of food supplies for people, and the people themselves from the epidemic.

The descendants of those Siberian cats still live in the Hermitage. They are well taken care of, fed, treated, but most importantly, they are respected for their conscientious work and help. And a few years ago, the museum even created a special Fund for Friends of Hermitage Cats.

Today, more than fifty cats serve in the Hermitage. Everyone has a special passport with a photo. All of them successfully protect museum exhibits from rodents. Cats are recognized by their faces, backs, and even tails by all museum employees.

On March 1, Russia celebrates the unofficial Cat Day. For our city, cats are of particular importance, because they were the ones who saved besieged Leningrad from an invasion of rats. In memory of the feat of the tailed saviors, sculptures of the cat Elisha and the cat Vasilisa were installed in modern St. Petersburg.

The cat predicted enemy raids

In 1941, a terrible famine began in besieged Leningrad. There was nothing to eat. In winter, dogs and cats began to disappear from the streets of the city - they were eaten. When there was absolutely nothing left to eat, the only chance to survive was to eat your pet.

“December 3, 1941. “They ate a fried cat,” writes a ten-year-old boy, Valera Sukhov, in his diary. - Delicious". Carpenter's glue was made from animal bones, which was also used for food. One of the Leningrad residents wrote an ad: “I’m exchanging a cat for ten tiles of wood glue.”

Wood glue was made from animal bones. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

Among the history of wartime, there is a legend about a red cat-“listener”, who lived near an anti-aircraft battery and accurately predicted all air attacks. Moreover, the cat did not react to the approach of Soviet aircraft. The battery commanders greatly respected the cat for this unique gift; they provided him with rations and even one soldier as a guard.

Cat Maxim

It is known for certain that one cat definitely managed to survive the blockade. This is the cat Maxim, he lived in the family of Vera Vologdina. During the blockade, she lived with her mother and uncle. Among their pets they had Maxim and the parrot Zhakonya. In pre-war times, Jaco sang and talked, but during the blockade, like everyone else, he was hungry, so he immediately became quiet, and the bird’s feathers came out. In order to somehow feed the parrot, the family had to exchange their father’s gun for several sunflower seeds.

Valera Sukhov's diary: "We ate a fried cat. Very tasty." Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

Maxim the cat was also barely alive. He didn't even meow when asking for food. The cat's fur was coming out in clumps. The uncle almost with his fists demanded that the cat go to be eaten, but Vera and her mother defended the animal. When the women left the house, they locked Maxim in the room with a key. One day, while the owners were away, the cat was able to climb into the parrot's cage. In peacetime there would be trouble: the cat would certainly eat its prey.

Murka the cat in a bomb shelter in the arms of her owner. Photo by Pavel Mashkovtsev. Photo: Cat Museum

What did Vera see when she returned home? Maxim and Jaconya slept, huddled tightly together in the cage to escape the cold. Since then, my uncle stopped talking about eating the cat. Unfortunately, a few days after this incident, Jaco died of starvation. Maxim survived. Perhaps he became the only Leningrad cat to survive the siege. After 1943, excursions were taken to the Vologdins’ apartment to look at the cat. Maxim turned out to be a long-liver and died only in 1957 at the age of twenty.

Cats saved the city

When all the cats disappeared from Leningrad at the beginning of 1943, rats multiplied catastrophically in the city. They simply thrived, feeding on the corpses that lay in the streets. The rats made their way into the apartments and ate the last supplies. They gnawed through furniture and even the walls of houses. Special brigades were created to exterminate rodents. They shot at the rats, they were even crushed by tanks, but nothing helped. The rats continued to attack the besieged city. The streets were literally swarming with them. The trams even had to stop to avoid driving into the army of rats. In addition to all this, rats also spread dangerous diseases.

The cat Vasilisa walks along the eaves of a house on Malaya Sadovaya Street. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

Then, shortly after breaking the blockade, in April 1943, four wagons of smoky cats were brought to Leningrad from Yaroslavl. It was smoky cats that were considered the best rat catchers. A queue of many kilometers immediately formed for the cats. A kitten in a besieged city cost 500 rubles. It would have cost about the same at the North Pole in pre-war times. For comparison, a kilogram of bread was sold from hand for 50 rubles. Yaroslavl cats saved the city from rats, but could not solve the problem completely.

At the end of the war, a second echelon of cats was brought to Leningrad. This time they were recruited in Siberia. Many owners personally brought their cats to the collection point to contribute to helping Leningrad residents. Five thousand cats came from Omsk, Tyumen and Irkutsk to Leningrad. This time all the rats were destroyed. Among the modern St. Petersburg cats, there are no native inhabitants of the city left. All of them have Siberian roots.

Cat Elisha brings people good luck. Photo: AiF / Yana Khvatova

In memory of the tailed heroes, sculptures of the cat Elisha and the cat Vasilisa were installed on Malaya Sadovaya Street. Vasilisa walks along the cornice of the second floor of house No. 3, and Elisha sits opposite and watches the passers-by. It is believed that good luck will come to the person who can throw a coin onto a small pedestal near the cat.