The Seige of Leningrad is one of the darkest pages in the history of the city. Severe winter 1941-42 finished what had been started by the merciless enemy. It was hard as hell for everyone, people were starving or freezing to death, it seemed nothing could help them.
But even in those terrible times some people didn’t spare themselves trying to save poor animals of the Leningrad Zoo.
Elephant Bettie in 1943.
How was it possible to rescue over 160 animals and birds in the city where enemy shells were exploding almost all the time, in the city with no electric power and no functioning sewage and water-supply, in the city with no food for those animals..?
The workers of the Zoo managed to take more than 80 rare animals away from the city to Kazan but many others remained in Leningrad.
Gates of the Zoo, 1920s.
About 60 animals of the Zoo were brought to Vitebsk, Belarus, for demonstration to local children. But all the plans were spoiled by the war.
Hippo Beauty.1935.
They needed special means of transportation to take some big animals away from the city. One American crocodile was simply let into the Western Dvina river and nobody knows what subsequently happened with the reptile.
In Leningrad people had to shot some large predators down – their cages could be destroyed by shells and the animals could escape and start hunting.
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