The other day, the deputy chairman of the State Duma Peter Tolstoy Compared The action with the lanterns planned by the associates of Alexei Navalny, with the actions of collaborators during the blockade of Leningrad, supposedly those lights highlighted goals for enemy bombers. We tell you if this is really so.

Speaking at a meeting of the State Duma on February 10, her vice speaker Pyotr Tolstoy fell criticized by the supporters of the opposition Alexei Navalny. Having stated that all this is the strategy of the West, and calling those who promote it, “traitors of the Motherland” and “Internet Vlasovites”, Tolstoy Commented Promotion with flashlights planned by Leonid Volkov:

“Calls to shine with flashlights in the dark, in fact, this is not a sweet action about love. This is not just an attempt to mobilize youth. This is such a color technology of Sharp. And in general, this is a tracing paper from the actions of loser leaflers during the blockade of Leningrad, when they illuminated the targets of German aviation with flashlights. ”

Tolstoy’s statement almost immediately began to comment on historians. So, on the air "Rain" historian Lev Lurie declaredthat Tolstoy’s story about the defectors, illuminating important objects in the city for German bombers, is the city legend described in Hermann Matveev’s novel “Tarantula”, but in reality this did not happen.

Indeed, one of the stories of the Soviet post -war trilogy "Tarantula" Uses This plot. The action of the “Green Chains” takes place in the blockade Leningrad 1941, and during one of the artillery raids, green missiles are soared into the sky: they are highlighted by enemy accomplices for bombing targets.

The story later A filled - In 1970, the film of the same name was released on Soviet screens and became popular among children.

In fact, fears that someone can use light to help German artillery, appeared in the most blockade Leningrad, told In an interview with Fontanka, the blockade historian Nikita Lomagin. According to him, state security bodies, party bodies and the Komsomol asset in September 1941 arranged raids in a preventive manner.

“They were looking for those who could signal rockets. Light missiles! There was never any talk about any lanterns. It was assumed that they could signal the missiles with German aircraft, ”says Lomagin.

According to him, not a single “racket” could be caught. In addition, the archival materials of German intelligence show that the Germans did not need such help.

“There are archival materials of German intelligence. Both political and military intelligence. So, the Germans did not have any need for September-month and even more to engage in such actions later, since you and I know that the Germans had a very well developed aerial photograph, ”the historian explains.

Lomagin adds that the invaders actually already knew the location of important objects, they had maps of Leningrad enterprises, etc.

Thus, no evidence that collaborators in this way helped German bombers.

“Yes, there was a phobia among the Leningrad authorities,” adds Lomagin. “But this was not in real life.”