Road of Life The Road of Life ( ) was the ice road winter transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga , which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad while the perimeter in the siege was maintained by the German Army Group North and the Finnish Defence Forces . The siege lasted for 29 months from 8 September 1941 , to 27 January 1944 . Over one million citizens of Leningrad died from starvation , stress , exposure and bombardments . Each winter , the Lake Ladoga ice route was reconstructed by hand , and built according to precise arithmetic calculations depending on traffic volume . In addition to transporting thousands of tons of munitions and food supplies each year , the Road of Life also served as the primary evacuation route for the millions of Soviets trapped within the starving city . The road today forms part of the World Heritage Site . Establishment . By 8 September 1941 , the German Army Group North under " Feldmarschall " Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb had almost completely surrounded Leningrad , successfully cutting off all major supply routes . To address this growing concern , a decision was cast by the Military Soviet of the Leningrad Front to establish an evacuation commission in November 1941 . As the severity of the siege intensified , the committee proposed the construction of an ice road over Lake Ladoga as both a viable supply line and means for civilian evacuation " en masse " . The Road of Life began to operate on 19 November 1941 after Captain Mikhail Murov and his transport regiment carried the first supplies over Lake Ladoga via horse - drawn sleigh . However , due to proximal bombardments , ice breakage , and unreliable machinery , the route was far from fully functional at this time . It was only in mid - December , after troops of the Volkhov front recaptured Tikhvin , that construction of a railroad directly connecting the western shore of Lake Ladoga to Leningrad was possible . Shortly thereafter , the ice road began receiving truck traffic , despite frequent breaks in the early stages of the ice . The route was so dangerous , that in the first week of truck operation alone , more than forty supply trucks had fallen through the ice and sunk to the bottom of the lake – a frozen depth of 700 feet at its deepest point . After sustaining massive initial supply losses in November and December , the Road of Life slowly began to show signs of improvement by January and February 1942 , thanks to the completion of a rail line connecting the ice road to Voibokalo . During the winter of 1941 – 42 the ice corridor of the Road of Life operated for 152 days , until 24 April . About 514 , 000 city inhabitants , 35 , 000 wounded soldiers , industrial equipment from 86 plants and factories , and also some art and museum collections were evacuated from Leningrad during the first winter of the blockade . While the road was protected by anti - aircraft artillery on the ice and fighter plane s in the air , truck convoys were constantly attacked by German artillery and airplanes , making travel dangerous . Finland ' s role in the siege is under dispute . Some historians hold that Finnish divisions tried to but could not push forward across Lake Ladoga to cut the well - known route and complete the siege ; another argument maintains that Finnish forces intentionally left the supply route open in tacit defiance of Germany ' s requests . The latter argument further divides into a view supporting a high - level decision and another supporting only low - level common sense by the unit commanders on location . Regardless of the motivation , in the end the Finns did not complete the siege and cut the supply , nor did they employ artillery against Leningrad or the Road of Life . The total number of people evacuated from the siege of Leningrad through the Road of Life was about 1 . 3 million , mostly women and children . During 1942 the " Artery of Life " , a long oil pipeline via Lake Ladoga was built of which ran under water at a depth of . During the following winter of 1942 – 1943 , the Road of Life began to operate once again , starting with horse traffic on 20 December 1942 . Motor vehicles began to operate on 24 December 1942 . Construction of the long railway over piles and ice also began in December 1942 . Operation Spark — a full - scale offensive of troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov Front s — started in the morning of 12 January 1943 . After heavy and fierce battles , the Red Army units overcame the powerful German fortified zones to the south of Lake Ladoga , and on 18 January 1943 the two fronts met , opening a land corridor to the besieged city . Almost immediately , both truck and rail traffic began to bring supplies to Leningrad . The city of Leningrad was still subject to at least a partial siege , as well as air and artillery bombardment , until a Soviet offensive broke through the German lines , lifting the siege on 27 January 1944 . For the heroic resistance of its citizens , Leningrad was the first city awarded the honorary title of Hero City in 1945 . Construction . Measuring 219 km ( 136 mi ) in length and 138 km ( 86 mi ) wide , Lake Ladoga ( or Lake Nevo as it was called in ancient times ) is one of Europe ’ s largest lakes of its kind . Due to its size and unpredictable weather conditions , many speculated that the construction of an ice road connecting its shores would be impossible . Although the Russians had previous historical experience in ice road construction ( an ice railroad had been laid over the Kola River near Murmansk during World War I , and another over a portion of Lake Baikal during the construction of the Trans - Siberian Railway ) , none of their prior endeavors were as complicated or as urgent as the Ladoga supply route . Even during winter , the region ’ s erratic winds were capable of increasing or decreasing the lake ’ s water level by as much as four feet within just a few hours . A team of engineers was quickly assembled to ensure that the proposed 30 mile route would be structurally sound ; one Leningrad scientist noted : “ At 23 degrees above zero 4 inches of ice would form in 64 hours ; at 14 above 4 inches would form in 34 hours , at 5 above zero 4 inches in 23 hours . A foot of ice would be laid down in 24 days at 23 above . It would take 8 days to create a foot of ice at 5 above ” . Additionally : Although only a foot of ice was required to support mass transit along the route , the actual thickness of the ice typically ranged from 3 – 5 feet , a density thick enough for nearly any task . Once the route had been confirmed and tested for stability , larger plows and snow carving machines were then used to widen the ice road and make it more suitable for automobile transport . By February 1942 , large snow banks on either side of the route had been made into massive ice walls , which shielded transport from the lake ’ s harsh winds . At each kilometer , a traffic guard flagged the convoy onward , and warned of obstructions or accidents ahead . As the ice melted in the spring , the ice road was dissolved and replaced with a flotilla system that continued to ferry goods across the massive lake . As soon as the ice hardened , the Road of Life was reconstructed again in the winter of 1942 , and once more in the following winter of 1943 . Volume of transported goods . The Road of Life was used to transport the following supplies : In total the ice road was used to ship more than 360 , 000 tons of goods , mostly rations and fodder , into Leningrad . In the first winter of the siege the ice road operated until 23 April 1942 . From November 1941 to April 1942 , the Road of Life had delivered more than 350 , 000 tons of freight to Leningrad , and of this total , more than 75 % of all shipments made were food supplies used to feed the city ’ s starving inhabitants . Other supplies of vital importance included gasoline , engine lubricants , and ammunition , used to resupply the few military units still stationed inside the besieged city . Around 32 , 000 tons of military supplies and more than 37 , 000 tons of fuels and lubricants destined for the front and naval fleet were shipped out of Leningrad via the Road of Life . On 23 April 1942 , three cars carrying onions crossed the nearly melted route , delivering the last supplies to reach Leningrad via ice road that year . After the siege . In the summer , with the start of the navigable period , deliveries to the city continued thanks to the Ladoga Military Flotilla . In 1943 the Road of Life was replaced by the Road of Victory – a railway , laid on the narrow path beaten out by German troops from Leningrad to Volkhov . Now the Road of Life , within the limits of Saint Petersburg , is often referred to as Ryabovskoe Highway , but within Vsevolozhsk , the Road of Life is the official name . Monuments and memorials . In total there are seven monuments along the Road of Life , 46 memorial poles along the road , and 56 memorial poles along the railway . All of these are part of the Green Belt of Glory ( ) .