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Air-Raid Shelters of 1941-44

Categories / Army. Navy/Blokade

AIR-RAID SHELTERS. Specially equipped structures protecting the city's population against enemy bombardment and air raids. On the eve of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, Leningrad had few air-raid shelters, which were intended primarily for Party, Soviet and military leadership. From June 1941 mass construction began of air-raid shelters in basements of residential and factory buildings, as well as the construction of primitive air-raid shelters ("slit trenches") in courtyards, parks and on vacant lots. On the whole, throughout the Siege, only 50 % of the population had access to air-raid shelters. In 1945-46, air-raid shelters were demolished; in the 1950s-60s, a mass network of shelters was constructed in case of nuclear military conflict.

G. V. Kalashnikov.

The subject Index

Siege of 1941-44