Badayev Warehouses
바다예프 식량창고
A large food depot complex on Kievskaya Street in southwestern Leningrad, originally built as a logistics facility by merchant S.I. Rasteryaev in 1914. Renamed in the 1930s after Bolshevik Alexei Badayev, it served as Leningrad's primary food storage base. On 8 September 1941, the first major Luftwaffe raid on the city dropped 280 incendiary bombs on the site, burning 38 wooden warehouses and destroying 3,000 tons of flour and 2,500 tons of sugar, dramatically worsening the city's food crisis on the very first day of the siege.
Related historical events
Sources
- Russian Wikipedia — Бадаевские склады: comprehensive history from 1914 construction through the 8 September 1941 bombing, including archival data on 3,000 tons of flour and 2,500 tons of sugar destroyed, and post-fire recovery of burnt goods.
- Санкт-Петербургские ведомости (22 Jan 2025) — «Сладкая земля»: confirms the 32-hectare site was Leningrad's main prewar food base, the German targeted incendiary bombing, and the post-fire phenomenon of 'sweet earth' collected by starving residents.
- ITMO.NEWS (5 May 2023) — confirms 3,000 tons of flour and 2,500 tons of sugar destroyed on 8 September 1941, and that remaining stocks could only last about a month.
- History.com — Siege of Leningrad begins: confirms that on 8 September 1941, 'a German air bombardment set fire to warehouses containing a large part of Leningrad's scant food supply.'