People and Pets in Besieged Leningrad

The urgent need to control rodent pests and the desire of many residents to get pets gave rise to a widespread legend, deeply-rooted in collective consciousness and widely covered by the press, about the delivery of carriages and even trains with cats caught in the east of the country to Leningrad. The myth of the cats from Yaroslavl, Krasnoyarsk and Tyumen, which is persistent even now, has no historical confirmation. The authors of this article have not found any official documents about this event. It is more likely that the cats came to Leningrad from other sources, in particular, from the suburbs, where more food was available, and the conditions were more favorable for reproduction.

At the same time the persistence of the legend about the organized delivery of a great number of cats to Leningrad, similar to the idea of the abundant supplies of foodstuffs burnt in the fire during the bombing of the Badaevsky warehouses, and unexploded German blockbuster bombs, stuffed with granulated sugar and kerf waste, is related to the desire of many siege survivors to interpret the horror they have been through and deal with the trauma of the siege. The `feline' legend reflected the need to conceive the inconceivable: mass death of people from starvation, the consumption of unthinkable food surrogates, including pets. This myth sustained by many siege survivors implied their eagerness to overcome the shock and to seek the forgiveness of the dead. The popularity of the myth about the delivery of cats to Leningrad, and of the rumors about the great variety of foodstuffs ready to surge into the hunger-wearied city and about the facilities in sanatoria and health resorts for residents, reflected the excessive eagerness of the people of Leningrad to feel that they were not forgotten, and that the country wanted to come to their aid Piankevich V. L. “Liudi zhili slukhami”. Neformal'noe kommunikativnoe prostranstvo blokadnogo Leningrada. St. Petersburg, 2014. P. 348-382.. These dreams to return to the happy times before the siege, with the cats whose lives were in no danger, helped to endure the hardships and to last out till the end of the siege.

`A unique rarity -- a dog'

It seems difficult to estimate how many pets had survived in besieged Leningrad. In January 1944, A. I. Panteleev wrote: “Dogs have become a unique rarity in Leningrad” Panteleev A. I. Zhivye pamiatniki... P. 232.. By rough calculation, we can say that during the siege of Leningrad approximately 700 of purebred hunting dogs registered on the books of the local dog-breeding society died Petrov-Maslakov M. A. Itogi raboty Leningradskogo obshchestva. P. 42.. About 50 dogs survived. In June 1944, 8 Eskimo dogs, 6 hounds, 2 pointers, 3 Irish setters, 11 Gordon setters, 3 Dachshunds, 1 fox-terrier and 5 housedogs were demonstrated at the local exhibition of hunting dogs Ibid.. It was from these few dogs who survived the siege that the recovery of hunting dogs in the city began. The guard dogs of the 34th mine-search battalion also had pulled through. Moreover, 5 Alsatians worked for the police (militia) Messer R. Militsiia osazhdennogo goroda. Leningrad, 1945. P. 41-46.. Apart from guard and hunting dogs spared from death, there must have been some mongrel dogs that managed to survive due to their owners. I. G. Erenburg, who happened to visit the exhibition, wrote: “There were about 15 dogs that outlived the siege -- little skinny mongrels. They were held by their owners, small, emaciated old ladies who had shared their scanty rations with the pets” Erenburg I. Liudi, gody, zhizn': v 3 tomakh. Moscow, 2005. Tom 3. Books 6, 7. P. 9-10.. Paradoxically, pets in the besieged city not only died but proliferated as well, although such cases undoubtedly were few and far between.

During the war family bonds grew stronger. The affection for pets also deepened. However, when the hardships of the siege, the fear of death caused by starvation, the cold, bombing and shelling and psycho-emotional stress exasperated the people, they sometimes violated conventional ethical norms regarding not only pets, but their family members as well Piankevich V. L. The Family under Siege: Leningrad, 1941-44 // Russian Review 2016. Vol. 75. No. 1. P. 107-137..

During the siege of Leningrad, when hundreds of people starved to death, the conventional norms came to naught See: Iarov S. V. Blokadnaia etika: predstavleniia o morali v Leningrade v 1941-1942 gg. Moscow; St. Petersburg, 2012., and the idea that animals also had the right to live was in the eyes of many residents nothing more than a fancy. At the time when many people lacked physical and moral strength to save their loved ones, it would require high moral standards to share one's food with pets.

Gastronomic interest in pets was a strange perversion for a European city. Nevertheless, under the threat of starvation, some people viewed the perspective of eating cats and dogs as a reasonable way of survival. “Cats or dogs cannot be found anywhere in Leningrad nowadays. To be honest, we have not tasted them yet, not because of being squeamish, but because we failed to catch any of them” (January 7, 1942) Skriabina E. A. Stranitsy zhizni. Moscow, 1994. P. 136.. The willingness of many residents to eat pets can be confirmed by the statement of one woman memorized by her son: “After the war people kept asking my mother: `Did you feed cats and dogs to your children?' And she would answer: `Probably, I would have done so if I had had the opportunity to get them' ” Glushchenko Iu. Evakuatsiia prevratilas' v okkupatsiiu // My iz blokady: Sbornik vospominanii. Kirov, 2003. P. 75..

At the same time some people might have felt both deep gratitude and great remorse for their actions. The actress E. F. Anderegg gave an account of the scene which she witnessed in 1945 at the end of the war: a woman was kneeling in front of the stray cats asking to forgive her “for killing them in order to feed her starving children -- the children survived the siege” Ispytanie: vospominaniia nastoiatelia i prikhozhan Kniaz'-Vladimirskogo sobora v Sankt- Peterburge o Velikoi Otechestvennoi voine 1941-1945 godov. St. Petersburg, 2010. P. 109..

At the expense of the life of a pet some people could prolong their existence and even escape death. Racked by remorse, many starving residents of Leningrad did not see another way out but to kill and eat pets. Their compatriots demonstrated different attitudes: some of them did not see anything disgraceful in this and sought ways of buying, trading, badgering the owners to sell a pet or catching a cat or a dog, and used to eat their own pets. For others, it was a drastic means of survival; they sympathized with cat-eaters, and after agonizing soul-searching and a great deal of reluctance sometimes brought themselves to kill their pets. Finally, there was a group of people who rejected this practice vigorously; they would have rather died than betray their pets. These people despised those who ate pets, compared them to cannibals and perceived their death as retribution. Thus, it can be claimed that the attitude towards eating pets was not entirely negative. Moreover, most of the siege survivors were inclined to understand their compatriots and justify their decision to escape death at the expense of the pets' lives.

The attitude of a person to pets is modeled on his / her attitude to other people, society and the world and reflects the essential features of this person's character. The treatment of animals was indicative of moral losses suffered by some residents of the city. Cats and dogs of Leningrad did their duty of devoted companions of the people, reassuring them, providing consolation, rejoicing their hearts and never displaying aggression. At the same time, the death of a pet deprived people of the sense of safety, of the possibility to take care of somebody, and at times made their life aimless, remaining a deeply traumatic reminiscence.

References

Bobyr' S.L. The System of Military Dog Breeding in the Great Patriotic War. 1941-1945: Historical Aspect.

Dysha odnim dykhanem: Voennye kinologi na fronte. St. Petersburg, 2015, 270 p. (In Russian) Dzeniskevich A. R. Banditry (a Special Category) in Besieged Leningrad. Istoriia Peterburga, 2001, no. 1, pp. 47-51. (In Russian)

Dzeniskevich A. R., Kovalchuk V. M., Sobolev G. L., Tsamutali A. N., Shishkin V. A. Unconquered Leningrad: A brief Outline of the History of the City During the Great Patriotic War. Leningrad, Nauka Publ., 1970, 414 p. (In Russian)

Kovalchuk V M., Rupasov A. I., Chistikov A. N. Leningraders During the War: Adaptation Practices. Adaptatsiia narodov i kul'tur k izmeneniiam prirodnoi sredy, sotsial'nym i tekhnogennym transformatsiiam. Ed. by A. P. Derevyanko. Moscow, RoSSPEN Publ., 2010, pp. 380-387. (In Russian) Lazarev D. N. Leningrad in Blockade. Trudy Gosudarstvennogo Muzeia Istorii Sankt-Peterburga. Iss. V: Materialy k istorii blokady Leningrada. Ed. by V. A. Frolov. St. Petersburg, State Museum of the History of St. Petersburg Publ., 2000, pp. 192-241. (In Russian)

Lomagin N.A. In the Grip of Hunger. The Blockade of Leningrad in the Documents of the German Special Services and the NKVD. St. Petersburg, Avrora-Dizain Publ., 2014, 360 p. (In Russian)

Lure L. Ya., Malyarov L. I. Leningrad Front. St. Petersburg, BHV-Petersburg Publ., 2012, 272 p. (In Russian) Petrov-Maslakov M. A. The Results of the Work of the Leningrad Society of Blooded Dog Breeding for 15 Years. Okhotnich'i sobaki Leningrada (1931 -- XV -- 1946): Iubileinyi sbornik. Leningrad, Publishing House of the Leningrad Regional Society of Blood Dog, 1947, pp. 5-44. (In Russian)

Piankevich V.L. “People Lived by Rumors”. Informal Communicative Space of the Besieged Leningrad.

St. Petersburg, Vladimir Dal' Publ., 2014, 478 p. (In Russian)

Piankevich V. L. The behavior of Leningraders on the eve and at the beginning of the blockade. Velikaia Otechestvennaia voina: pravda i vymysel: Sb. statei i vospominanii. Iss. 7. Ed. by V A. Kutuzov. St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Uniiversity Press, 2012, pp. 36-90. (In Russian)

Piankevich V L. The Family under Siege: Leningrad, 1941-44. Russian Review, 2016, vol. 75, iss. 1, pp. 107137.

Sokolov A. M. The Battle for Leningrad and its Significance in the Great Patriotic War. St. Petersburg, Asterion Publ., 2005, 340 p. (In Russian)

Yarov S. V “Blockade's Cookbook”. SSSR vo Vtoroi mirovoi voine: okkupatsiia, kholokost, stalinizm. Eds O. Budnitskii, L. Novikova. Moscow, ROSSPEN Publ., 2014, pp. 250-266. (In Russian)

Yarov S. V Blockade Ethics: Ideas About Morality in Leningrad in 1941-1942. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tsentrpoligraf Publ., 2012, 602 p. (In Russian)

Размещено на Allbest.ru