From November 20th to December 25th, 1941, the bread ration reached its lowest point throughout the entire blockade: 125 grams per day for employees, dependents, and children, and 250 grams for soldiers, industrial workers, and engineering/technical staff. It was a piece the size of a child’s palm—black, heavy, and sticky. Yet, this piece was what separated life from death. People cut it with thread so it wouldn’t crumble, hid it under their pillows, and ate it slowly, stretching it out for the entire day. This 125-gram piece became the symbol of the Siege.

The bread was baked at 13 bread factories and in several city bakeries—production did not stop for a single day, despite bombings, shelling, and the lack of electricity. Ovens were fired with firewood, flour was ground by hand, and dough was kneaded in barrels. But there was almost no real flour left. Stocks ran out quickly, and then substitutions began—one after another, each more desperate than the last.

In the early days of the blockade, the bread still consisted of a mixture of rye, oat, barley, soy, and malt flour. A month later, flax and hemp oil cake (residue after oil pressing), bran, sweepings from sacks (flour stuck to the walls), and wallpaper dust were added. By the winter of 1941–1942, the recipe had changed completely—it contained only 50–75% flour, with the rest filled by additives:

1. Edible cellulose (from wood) — 10–15%,
2. Oil cake and malt — 10–15%,
3. Wallpaper dust and sack sweepings — 2% each,
4. Pine needles — up to 1%,
5. Sometimes husks, sawdust, bark, and even carpenter’s glue (which was boiled and added for stickiness).

The bread turned out almost black, bitter, with a taste of pine needles or oil cake, heavy as a stone. It crumbled in the hands, stuck to the teeth, caused swelling and stomach pains—but it provided at least some calories and vitamins. Scientists from the Leningrad Technological Institute and the central laboratory of Glavkhleb (Main Bread Directorate) worked on the recipe around the clock: they tried to preserve even a small amount of nutritional value, increase the volume, and make it edible.

The rations changed several times. After November 1941, when the “Road of Life” opened across Lake Ladoga, the ration gradually increased:

• December 1941: 350 g for workers, 200 g for others.
• January–February 1942: 400–500 g for workers, 300 g for children and dependents.

But even 500 grams of blockade bread was insufficient. People ate it with water, with soup made from carpenter’s glue, with leaves, or with leather strips. Bread ration cards became the new currency. Queues for bread stretched for hours, under shelling and in the frost. Many people died right at the doors of the distribution points, yet the blockade bread helped millions of people survive.