further raise russia's predator rating if the government reduces the country's vulnerability to swings in oil prices. and plunging interest rates have let to a three fold rise in boring on the syndicated loans market by russian companies corporate loans have jumped to twenty billion dollars from just under seven billion dollars from the year before for example look will took an unsecured loan this year at about one percent of interbank rate's last year is similar but secured loan by the same company had an interest rate four times higher. the russian car market could return to pre-crisis levels in three years' time that's according to a new research from after start russia will then be on the road with other top car markets like germany's many market watchers warn growth will be quick after start projects russian sales will be less than two million vehicles this year. ok we have to interrupt the business boyden as we are going back to carry all the breaking

news here on r.t. . the. dramatic example of this from the same. series. they managed not only to stay alive. but to keep their faces and souls in inhuman

circumstances. and nine hundred dangers in busy living ran through the eyes of the survivors. the top story and for aching news this hour up to fourteen people have been killed by a powerful car bomb blast in the central market of a sudden russian city of any kind of crowds the terror attack has left more than eighty people injured they say another ball has been found at the gates of the market area has been evacuated emergencies ministry sending a plane with eight and medical help for the injured. but we're going on to our

special report that the siege of sent petersburg during world war two to the lives of over seven hundred thousand people axed we have the stories of those who survived. this is no ordinary tramp it's a rare sight on the streets of st petersburg historians with a cunning ever remembers what it was like writing these trams nearly seventy years ago in nine hundred forty one german troops encircled the city then called leningrad to isolated from the rest of the country the siege lasted for nine

hundred days. leningrad was the country's second most important city off to moscow at the time. nazi leader out all fit into his troops to capture the soviet union's european territories by november nine hundred forty one leningrad was a priority objective in that plan. million strong german army hundreds of tanks and thousands of backup were massed against the city. at the same time finish troops advanced from the notice the nazi advance was halted in september nineteenth. by then enemy troops and already encircled anymore.

a massive bombing campaign was unleashed on leningrad in the autumn of nine hundred forty one. the diet where houses were one of the first time. the gates of the german asteroids. they housed most of the city's food supplies. all of the warehouses were destroyed that is in all their modern facilities here. of smoke as she looked out of the window of her flat. at first trees caught fire. and then the flames spread to the wooden buildings it's a good deal the fact that file wiped out government supply of sugar reserves. and there's us the most distressing thing with the city's population idea still a tell going to come here along with many other people together earth and make tea

out of it to change leningrad to residence all the destroyed warehouses as a terrible omen soon after the air raids food in leningrad was worth more than its weight in gold and. martial law was introduced in the city the front line lay just a few hundred meters from makeshift checkpoints people believed they would be able to hold out hoping that help would soon be on its way everyone was trying to survive as best they could. the sound of a metronome was broadcast through loudspeakers in the streets and it became a symbol of the leningrad stage a fast rhythm and. if it slowed it signaled a retreat. by the first wind to leningrad had no heating power to abandon tram stood motionless in the streets the water supply system froze on the

pipes inside apartment. people had to get water from a hole in the nevada has ice. the care in the water was a big problem let alone to the sixth floor where i lived. because of spilled water quite often i couldn't make it and had to go that. leningrad residents burned anything they could to try and stay warm. folks and furniture went into the stove firewood was very expensive. there were food shortages to residents were issued with rations a fixed daily portion of food rations were just a fifth of what they had been at the start of the war a citizen was entitle to two lumps of bread a day weighing just one hundred twenty five grams each the bread was made from chemical wood pulp and milled wheat dust in order to survive people. and cookies made from wood glue fried with pine tar oil oil based paint.

gets dressed up decorates his jacket with his medals and goes to a nearby school. then he joins other survivors to talk to schoolchildren who are the same age he was during the siege. of their piece of bread the siege survivors bring a few loaves of bread for the children to see exactly what a daily ration looks like it's more bread weighing a hundred. like schoolchildren everywhere full of curiosity and have a million questions to ask. that inspired you during it was most difficult how did this send letters to the front where were the young children considering all the preschool. that did their homes. in

their houses people used furniture. ironstone they used all they could. grab residents burned furniture. and newspaper well yeah i myself made the rounds of basements and i would pick up whatever wood i could find what. we warmed ourselves. thank. you people. when they didn't. they kept the faith. and he really doesn't discuss i wonder how people could survive on such a tiny piece of. the parents gave it to their kids they could have children. it was just kind of a fascist bomb took the life of my father just need to vent his death and the destruction of leningrad ok i swear i will fight the nazis some help our troops and

the frog to beat them and i will defend. the. old at the time he says if people wanted to survive in the besieged city they had to force themselves to stay. here. instead of lying in bed. because they spent all their time lying in bed by sea and drinking a lot of water. they were too weak. so i will cost. in their lives. by november nine hundred forty one people were dying in increasing numbers deaths could strike anywhere at any time many people were so weak that once they fell to the ground outside that homes they never stood back up on top of that winter was setting in

a dish as you walked through snow and. see someone lying on the ground. at adams the whole route was that you couldn't. because if you tried to do so even more subtle you yours out a little town boy. but life in the city never came to a standstill the composer dmitri shostakovich was putting the finishing touches to his seventh symphony to be performed at the heavily damaged concert hall of the leningrad for the monic society. historians oil economy ever was in the audience. she recalls that many people defied the bombings and went to the concert hall to listen to the classical music. people were angry when he. bought it they were in a quiet khulna and they were on the balcony his new hysteria some people

were even standing behind this chance those will stay and that's how my band leader who wanted to he is now using that is the symbolized so we were one of the first victories. one by leningrad resident if you know that at. the symphony was had not only in the concert hall a radio broadcast carried it to the front line of the leningrad front and. germans in the trenches heard it too. late german soldiers wrote in their diary. they've been amazed by the steadfastness of the people he grabbed. please please please please. please. please please and. that's just what many of the musicians locust were some months from the fronts for

that they sell a. little washed them but marcus trunk is full nearly to the shostakovich saying with any officer only if you rehearsals what they'd say that i had to give to music was in harmony of them would need to sing and deviate her them was a cut. this route was known as the road of lines and became the only in the c.p.p. first clumsy cops being driven in the lake not a good choice of supplies to the city in november nine hundred forty people this and subsequent place called send them to community police. and. they're out of a directed traffic on this vital road. yes because that was the starting point of the road. began on november twenty second two that's nine hundred forty one.

where the lifeline that saved so many lives began. often comes here to pay tribute to those who died during the tragic. broken ring road of life kept that ring from ever becoming used to skew the water from. the tragic. order to ensure a safe passage for the truck. she says that each time she visits this place she recalls the horror of the first winter spent on the siege and. people looking off to the road while enemy troops attempted to cut. the road of life several times occasionally the ice cracked sending trucks and that precious cargo to the bottom of the light. this is going to go mushroom the driver

couldn't see the crack because it was covered with snow the truck and its driver went down beneath. him as the trucks headlights were shining beneath the water for a long time after that. such parties have been scouring the lake bed in the past year they found schools of trucks. lifted from the lake bed go to the appropriately named road of life museum. for these tires were produced in germany in january of one thousand nine hundred thirty four. or sixty three or sixty four years under the waters of lake. the museum's director alexander. particularly small of the search expeditions. he says lifting many of the objects found underwater takes time. one of the trucks sank with

a load of skis for aircraft to land in snow over the years of skis are scattered within a radius of one and a half meters upon their still largely intact six year we'll pull them from the water and they'll be one of the museum's most valuable exhibits and maria the road of life remained operational for eighteen months during that time over a million people were evacuated from leningrad some four hundred thousand tons of food and other supplies will brought into the besieged city. of motion that when you are good at twenty thousand people work hard it's easy to move food supplies in a basement in grandma's drugs through zero to this and to evacuate children the first since the middle besieged city and the country's interior has admitted that although she is now despite the selfless efforts of those who help deliver them the food supplies that reach the blockaded city were not enough to meet the needs of

all of its residents. meanwhile the nazis persisted with the bombardment of ground. bombs together you could say to the bombing today you bury dead tomorrow but in the city a blockade would last. in

one hundred forty three million people. hundred forty three one in five residents had died of starvation exposure. and. the people of leningrad suffered most during the first winter of the. but even then many continue to work among them the. institute. and. its offices and seed bank in the city center since it was impossible to evacuate the institute's vast collection of seeds during the scientists to protect the unique collection from fast and. located the collection was stored in boxes like these. there is

a hole right here. on the other side of the same one that. rats may told them them in devour the seed. is one of the institutes. now colleagues tell the real story about the heroism of the scientist on the verge of starvation. seed bank is still a national asset. the collection of eight trillion dollars. there was a lot of edible material around we. barley. lots of it we . ever touched it. starving people.

why. they never thought that they might eat from the seed bank and see that. the hermitage russia's largest museum of fine arts was ready for evacuation. crates for exhibits and being brought into this building on the embankment of the nevada river at the very start of the war. a. priority was given to paintings and objects from the collection of antiques to wagons with paintings and sculptures was sent to the urals but another wagon was left behind as the city became encircled the museum's valuables were stored in its basements. just empty frames hung on the walls of the empty hermitage old school. despite the hardships of the blockade hermitage workers organized lectures and signs conferences to inspire the people remaining in the city. and.

museum director. says that quite often participants were brought in on stretches unable to walk themselves because they were too weak from severe hunger this. it is so it's translators and scientists were brought in from the front for that was a formidable task for difficult year two people here were sick but if need be you could carry them in your arms imagine people coming from the front line though where the city's fate was being decided that's a whole different story. conny of a historian and a blockade survivor has vivid memories of those events. in the spring of one nine hundred forty two leningrad so far it is announced the start of a seed sowing season they said leningrad residents would have to supply themselves

with food to that end. to be used as vegetable gardens as well as providing grain people in the city were given plots in the main square. but. they were brought in. because nothing. that was it would. these green field. where we grew cabbages it would be slow but it south is a good reminder. of how it used to be. the crop lived up to people's expectations people down to reap the harvest in nine hundred forty two somewhat easing the food problem even in such harsh conditions people never lost hope and helped one another to survive during the siege. on the

verge of death from starvation when a friend. saved. how are you still done see you i could hardly get here you know didn't i get here on food. sixty years. to survive. using crutches. goodness nina still touring with this little thing that it's my truck you know is it can't you walk without using or you might truly but drive announced that it. was your job each time they said to this table they talk about how many folk was saved but. every single event of the day came to visit only to find her friend. here who. was too weak to go to the shop to collect. you know that you very good mileage is given they put on my coat and filled up.

it's gotten too good covered myself with a couple of blankets and was ready to die when suddenly i heard somebody watching down the corridor it was i know you covered yourself with the small blanket and when they go away to the cures that is where we are born holding on to a chance as it was there was. only a few weeks later when they found a job but the kid. i most of leningrad industrial plants turned out weapons even during the siege. of. this yes they yell on the bus who says this is where i stood guard with the rifle we patronize the saw no one could pass through as they did. when she started the young man a full blood on the legs as she stands at one of the factory shops where she used

to but she says production was never halted germy gives of struggle the plant turned out tanks shells and minds at a rate of three million items a month people that work for sixteen to twenty hours a day despite the cold and hunger. say here slipped in fact to a shop close to a warm boil it was good it was like living in barracks little i never went home because of the children billboard and it is just that many workers lived at the factory is doing it. would. occasionally make some of the proceeds cities incompetence muster enough strength to go to the field to alphabetic speciate day. and. the musical comedy fair take up performances going to they always play to a full house until a shell hit the building. but it didn't bring the cut down completely they just

moved buildings and. carried on. converting the old girl of. god you. are boring. i don't know little girl. ah god or. the theatre oldest actress is one hundred years old this year. they seem to be a beautiful girl if this photograph speak naturally you should have seen how beautiful i was. when the phantom was bombed she moved to the front line to a pedophile sylvia troops giving more than four thousand performances during the whole police was so powerful that sometimes the soldiers even asked her to sing more quietly in case the enemy had to. get the record that one somebody

visited this theater to ask me to come to smarten if there was a hospital that anyone didn't sick people there with mind you says the boss no applause for you i know what i said when you know how. it was a truly festive occasion in the spring of nine hundred forty two when elektra city was restored in leningrad and trams one small run along its streets and. vera and others who share a friendship dating back to the blockade came the end of the tragedy by riding in a wartime tram. system on these systems all tran off the blockade to get. the old tram as a symbol of the siege stirring up many memorable stories. at one time alice.

onboard a train up when the shelling started i jumped out and fell to the ground that moment a shell hit the tram blowing it into pieces i was incredibly lucky i just made it out of the transit of. trams on the street signaled to people living under siege life went on. we said to each other look the tram is running again. this must mean we are still alive despite the blockade. we will live it will survive all of us but confident of victory but another winter came along. and. by the end of nine hundred forty two the germans realized they were unlikely to capture leningrad and stepped up their artillery assault on the besieged city.

on january the soviet army broke from a small section of the insert the corridors and used for sending supplies to the besieged city by rail. operation in january from the storm got underway the soviet army pushed the enemy back a hundred kilometers from leningrad to. see all the others in the seats that this flood has exploded from is jealous if this nine hundred a siege that cost hundreds of thousands of civilian lives was a river. for those people the tram became a symbolic time machine. during the journey they remembered the nine hundred days the committee broke them but made that friendship stronger.