Some of the new documents from besieged Leningrad have recently been declassified. One of them tells how scientists before the first military winter decided to provide citizens with an adequate amount of vitamins. Johann Eichfeld, at that time the acting director of the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry, noted that under the conditions of the blockade, potatoes, carrots and cabbage can become the main sources of vitamins. He was categorically against the use of potato storage facilities as bomb shelters during enemy air attacks. The scientist also suggested that the Leningrad Defense Committee produce concentrate from pine and spruce needles to prevent scurvy.
1200 samples from South America and Europe were planted in the spring of 1941 in Pavlovsk. In June, the enemy troops were close, and the collection contained unique specimens that were not found anywhere else in the world. Abram Kameraz, a station worker, in the first months of the war, opened and closed the curtains, simulating the night time for South American potatoes, spending all his free time. The crops were harvested from the field already under fire, Cameras suffered, but did not leave his work.
In September, he went to the front, transferring his powers to Olga Aleksandrovna Voskresenskaya and Vadim Stepanovich Lekhnovich. Throughout the city throughout the winter, scientists were looking for firewood, took care of the collection as best they could. Vadim Stepanovich collected rags and rags to close the holes in the room and prevent the samples from dying in the harsh winter. They did not eat a single potato tuber, despite exhaustion.
In the spring of 1942, it was time to plant the material in the ground. Scientists taught the townspeople how to grow a good harvest of potatoes. Landing sites were placed in parks and squares of the city, on the Field of Mars. In September, everyone reaped the harvest together. Scientists selected several important samples for scientific purposes, and the rest were transferred to the canteens of the besieged city.
In one interview, Lekhnovich once said: “It was not difficult not to eat the collection. Not at all! Because it was impossible to eat it. The work of his life, the work of the life of his comrades ... ”.