A memorial event called Siege Bread will be held in all regions of Russia from January 18 to January 27. It will kick start the Year of Memory and Glory.   

The event is meant to remind about bravery and courage of Leningrad citizens who passed through an unprecedented siege. The key symbol of the event is a 125 gram piece of bread which was a dietary Leningrad citizens received in the hardest times of the siege.  

School children, students, volunteers who will participate in the memorial event in the Tomsk region will sign postcards with acknowledgements and give them to the veterans-survivor of the siege. Volunteers will spread leaflets with information about the siege of Leningrad in Tomsk trading centers. Events devoted to the Day of complete liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi Siege will take place in schools, libraries and museums. This memorable date is celebrated on January 27 as Day of Military Glory of Russia.

A key activity of the memorial event will be All-Russian Memorial Lesson which will be held in all schools on January 27. 

The siege of Leningrad during the Great Patriotic War lasted 872 days – from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944. Over 1.5 million people were evacuated from Leningrad during the siege. Nearly 700 thousand Leningrad citizens died of hunger and deprivations. This number was announced at the Nuremberg trial. Today, historians consider that the total number of victims of the siege is 1.5 million people.  War casualties are nearly 470 thousand people. 16 747 civilians were killed as a result of artillery shelling.

The hardest period of the siege was from December of 1941 to February of 1942. Over 250 thousand people died for the three months of the first siege winter. At that time, 500 grams of bread per day was given to soldiers at the front line of the defense, 375 grams – to hot shop workers, 250 grams – to other workers and engineers and 125 grams – to public servants, dependents and children. 50% of the siege bread was composed of nonedible admixtures replacing flour (edible cellulose 10%. millcake 10%, whole wheat dust 2%, flour remnants shaken out from bags 2%, needle-foliage 1%, rye flour 75%). Other food products were not given in that period.

Since September, 1941 till March, 1943, food products were delivered along the lifeline across the Ladoga: by water in summer and over the ice in winter. The siege of Leningrad was finally lifted in the course of the Soviet Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive on January 27, 1944.