Renovation under the Blockade: Demolition of Wooden Buildings in Leningrad. 1941–1942

Abstract

Based on a complex of published and archival sources, the article deals with a problem that has not been adequately covered in historiography. Since half of the housing stock of Leningrad on the eve of the war was made up of wooden buildings, it was they who at the turn of 1941/1942 have become one of the resources for solving fuel problems. Carrying out the planned demolition of about 6 thousand wooden residential buildings, as well as numerous wooden kiosks, fences, summer theaters, restaurants, pavilions, the city government solved a number of urgent tasks. Thus, it got rid of emergency and fire hazardous objects, provided enterprises and institutions with precious fuel, and provided the population of the besieged city with the opportunity to independently engage in firewood. Brigades of workers, employees and other categories of the population, created in factories, factories and households, carried out the demolition of wooden structures, and carried out another important mission. They contributed to the fact that some of the townspeople were relocated from dilapidated wooden buildings to rooms and apartments that were empty as a result of the death of hundreds of thousands of Leningraders during the first blockade winter. This was to ensure the safety and proper operation of stone houses. Several waves of evacuation of disabled categories of the population created additional opportunities for preparing for an active resettlement policy. Thus, significant areas of urban housing stock were subject to renovation in the shortest possible time, and its technical and transport support became the main problem. The implementation of this action was possible as a result of a significant reduction in the population of Leningrad.