"Cable of Life": How Female Divers Conducted Electricity to Leningrad

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The siege of Leningrad was one of the most dramatic episodes of the Second World War. For three years the city turned into an impregnable fortress, which did not surrender under enemy fire, enemy propaganda, and raging hunger. The feat of Leningraders should live for centuries, but we should not forget about all those who made incredible efforts to prevent the city from falling before the enemy, including sailors, divers and engineers who worked on the "Cable of Life".

The Soviet Union was not heaven on earth, but it was definitely not the embodiment of hell. They hardly heard about "feminism" in the USSR, but the woman in it has been a friend, comrade and person since the time of the Revolution. Today's fighters for "all the best in the world" rarely remember such trifles that it was in the USSR that there was the first woman minister and the first woman diplomat (Alexandra Kollontai) without any inadequate impositions in the spirit of "your board of directors should have at least 50 % of women ". Women performed many glorious deeds on labor and military fronts, including during the Second World War. Today it is seldom remembered that analogies with "The Road of Life" also pulled the "Cable of Life" to besieged Leningrad. And the appearance of the latter is largely due to the Soviet women divers who worked in the icy water of Ladoga.

The Nazis did not need Leningrad and its inhabitants. All they were interested in was the local port and the ability to free up troops for a further offensive. The city itself was to be destroyed and its inhabitants destroyed. Immediately after the encirclement of Leningrad, the Wehrmacht made quite a few efforts to leave the city without communication with the outside world and communications, in that it was required to leave it without electricity, which was done.

Interesting fact: The famous Nazi plan "Ost" was never fully formulated. In fact, it has always been a set of documents and proposals that have been constantly changing and improving. Nevertheless, within the framework of the Ost plan, the de-urbanization and de-industrialization of the USSR was envisaged. There were no specific instructions for cities in it, with the exception of Moscow and Leningrad. These cities had to be destroyed.

Electricity to Leningrad had to be returned as well as food delivered. By September 1942, the Volkhovskaya hydroelectric power station was urgently restored. From it to Ladoga, an overhead power transmission line with a voltage of 60 kV was erected, which passed into an underwater cable. It should have been extended to the city along the bottom of the Shlisselburg Bay (in fact, it was several cables with a voltage of 10 kV). This operation was undertaken by the soldiers of the Ladoga military flotilla, as well as civilian specialists and volunteers.

A special submarine cable for an ambitious operation was produced in Leningrad itself at the Sevkabel plant. By the beginning of August 1942, about 100 km of it had been produced in the city under the SKS brand with a section of 3x120 mm.

Interesting fact: for the production of the cable, paper was required, which at that time was almost non-existent in Leningrad. Then the management found a non-standard solution. For the production of the cable, watermarked paper was used, which was intended for the production of money at the mint.

The weight of a full meter of cable was 16 mm. One drum recorded 500 meters of communication. To connect the fragments, special sealed couplings were used, each of which weighed 187 kg. In August 1942, 40 drums were transported to the Maurier Bay.

Laying began on September 1, 1942 and continued until December 31. The work was carried out by the 27th detachment of underwater technical works of the ACC KBF. The project took 80 hours to complete (excluding preparatory work). A total of 102.5 km of cable was laid under the water. They had to work exclusively at night due to the threat of German aviation. In order to speed up the work, the engineers came up with the idea of first mounting the cable on barges, and only then “ready” to lower it under the water. We worked for 12 hours every day.

The most amazing thing is that most of the women dived. This is because, as in the case of industrial production, most of the representatives of the strong half of humanity were called to the front. The women worked in shifts of 6-10 hours in very cold water. After the war, several monuments were erected in honor of these brave divers in the USSR.

The laying of the electric cable under water made it inaccessible to Nazi air raids and shelling. With his help, it was possible not only to supply the city's factories with electricity, but also to return electricity to houses and even restore tram transport links during the blockade.