Prospekt of the 25th of October, Leningrad. September 1941 / Nevsky prospekt, St. Petersburg. March 2021
Column of BA-10 armoured cars led by Lieutenant P. Ananyev heading to the front.
Diary of Yevdokimov Alexey Fyodorovich (1917-1995). Worker at "Krasnoarmeets" factory in Leningrad.
Diary entry from July 3, 1942:
"Our troops have abandoned Sevastopol. The Germans are pressing us on all fronts. Fierce fighting is going on. In only one day our troops lost around 250 tanks and suffered more than 15 000 casualties.* We're waiting for the storming of Leningrad. Preparing to meet the "guests". The morale of Leningraders is still high. The evacuation of the sick, children and everyone who's not working for the defense industry continues. Even the Nevsky prospekt is becoming completely empty, one can walk along it anytime and read a newspaper safely. There's no one to bump into."
[Yevdokimov misquoted the Sovinformbureau report which said: "Throughout July 3rd our troops resisted large scale fierce tank attacks of German-Fascist troops. The enemy suffered heavy losses. During the day more than 250 enemy tanks and more than 15 000 enemy personnel were destroyed". The actual report, just like its misquotation, was quite far from the reality, of course - Alexander Shmidke]