The end of the Great Patriotic War

1944 came into history as the year of the full uplifting of the siege of Leningrad and the year of decisive victories of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War. The operation of the uplifting of the siege was preceded by thorough preparations, in which the Ladoga Navy directly participated. The seamen had secretly transported to the Oranienbaum base more than 50 thousand soldiers and officers, around 2,500 cars, 214 tanks and armored vehicles, around 700 weapons and mortars, 5,800 tons of ammunition.

In the night of January 14, 1944 the enemy defense line was attacked by Soviet bombers and assault planes of the front line and naval aviation. In the morning, at 9:35, the artillery of the 2nd assault army, the shore and ship artillery of the Red Banner Baltic fleet came into action. Massive fire lasted for more than an hour. 104 thousand shells and mines were shot at the Hitler forces. The operation was performed by 200 weapons of the long range sea artillery and the main caliber weapons of the "Oktyabrskaya revolutsiya" and "Marat" battleships, "Kirov" and "Maksim Gorky" cruisers and torpedo boat destroyers.

After the aviation bombing and artillery preparation the Soviet troops started advancing in the direction of Ropsha. On the next day the forces of the 42nd army started advancing towards them from the Pulkovo heights. The pictures in the exposition of the museum show the historical moment of the meeting of the soldiers of the two armies on January 19, 1944 in Russko-Vysotskoe. During the twelve-day fierce battle Krasnoe Selo, Ropsha, Uritsk, Pushkin, Gatchina, Mga and more than 700 other settlements were liberated. The enemy was thrown back from Leningrad. The advance of the Soviet forces continued.

On January 27 the sky above Leningrad was lightened by the flashes of the celebratory fireworks. The hero city saluted the brave troops of the Leningrad front line and the seamen of the Red Banner Baltic fleet by twenty-four artillery shots from 324 weapons. The siege of the city that had lasted for 900 days was completely removed.

In June 1944 the forces of the Leningrad and Karelia front lines, together with the Baltic fleet, the Ladoga and Onega Navy destroyed the Finnish forces in Karelia. On June 21, 1944 the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation started, during which the Ladoga Navy supported by the air force landed the 70th sea brigade in the area between the rivers Tuloksa and Vidlitsa. On June 24 the 3rd sea brigade was moved to the same area. The two brigades cut off the enemy's withdrawal routes and held the base during four days until the arrival of the Soviet troops. As a result of the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation the Red Army reached the state border with Finland. For this operation the Ladoga Navy received the Order of the Red Banner. The participation of the navy in the operations of liberation of the North-West of the country from the enemy forces in 1944 was reflected in the combat leaflets displayed in the museum exposition.

On November 4, 1944 the Ladoga Navy was disbanded. The ships went to the Baltic sea in order to take part in the final defeat of the enemy.

The exposition of the museum shows the decorations received by the defenders of Ladoga, photo albums, books dedicated to the exploits of Ladoga and memorable gifts to the museum from veterans and schoolchildren.