Air Defence (PVO)

Categories / Army. Navy/Blokade
AIR DEFENCE (PVO), a series of measures and units to protect the city from air raids. Not long after the USSR Air Defence System was created in the 1930s, the Leningrad Air Defence Force was formed, Leningrad being considered the country's second most important strategic site (Moscow was the most important). At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45, during the period from 23 June to 6 September 1941, the Leningrad Air Defence Force successfully blocked 128 attacks by the German Air Force; then G.K. Zhukov ordered that 87% of antiaircraft guns and machine-guns were transferred to the front. On 9 November 1941, the Leningrad Air Defence Force was transformed into the Regional Air Defence Corps (including the 2nd Air Defence Corps, the 7th Air Offence Corps, the Air Defence Artillery and the Baltic Fleet's fighting aircraft); antiaircraft guns were returned from the front, military units were spread throughout city limits (about 300 planes, 500 antiaircraft guns, 300 machine-guns, 350 searchlights, up to 400 barrage balloons, and 70 detection posts); local air defence executed by firefighting brigades and citizens' detachments was organised. To defend the Road of Life, the Air Defence Corps Ladoga Regional Brigade was organised in January 1942. In April of the same year, the Leningrad Regional Air Defence was reinforced and transformed into the Leningrad Air Defence Army. In all, 1561 enemy airplanes were brought down by the Leningrad Air Defence Force. In the post-war years, the air defence system was developed and improved; long and close range target acquisition systems, countermeasures (set mainly on the territory of the Leningrad Region), and a population protection system within city limits, were all part of its structure. The headquarters of the St. Petersburg Air Defence Force is housed at the Guardian Corps' former headquarters at 2 Dvortsovaya Square.

G. V. Kalashnikov. Dvortsovaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
Baltic Fleet
Road of Life