The Rat War in besieged Leningrad. to save Leningraders from an invasion of rats, four carriages of smoky cats were brought into the city

In St. Petersburg, on Malaya Sadovaya Street, there is a monument to the siege cats of Leningrad: the bronze cat Elisha perched on the second floor of the Eliseevsky store, and opposite him is the cat Vasilisa, she settled on the eaves of house N3.

The sculptures were installed in 2000, first to Elisha (January 25), then to Vasilisa (April 1). Three people took part in the creation of this composition: the author of the idea is Sergei Lebedev, the sculptor is Vladimir Petrovichev, the sponsor is Ilya Botka. And the city residents themselves came up with the nicknames for the cat and cat.

The history of the creation of such a monument originates from the events of the Great Patriotic War. On September 8, 1941, a 900-day blockade began in Leningrad. There was nothing to eat in the city, people were dying of hunger. Even domestic animals, including cats, were eaten. And at this time rats appeared, many rats, whole hordes of rats. Not only did the rats devour the crumbs of food that people still had, they attacked sleeping children and the elderly, and they also created the threat of epidemics. No means of fighting rats had any effect. And in April 1943, a decree was issued to deliver four carriages of smoky cats to Leningrad from the Yaroslavl region. Cats from Yaroslavl destroyed rats from food warehouses, but still there were not enough cats for the whole city, so at the end of the war cats were brought from Siberia. More than 5 thousand cats arrived in Leningrad from Tyumen, Irkutsk, and Omsk. They quickly completed their task: they cleared the city of rats and mice.

Katya Voloshina (16 years old) from the Children's Dunes rehabilitation center wrote poems about besieged cats:

Their weapons are dexterity and teeth.

But the rats did not get the grain.

Bread was saved for the people!

Monument dedicated to cat from besieged Leningrad, appeared on Composers Street in St. Petersburg.

In the Vyborg district of the Northern capital, on Composer Street, in the courtyard of house No. 4, a new small monument was erected. It depicts a small figurine of a cat sitting on a chair and basking under a floor lamp.

This touching sculpture is a symbol of the hearth and was created in honor of the cats of besieged Leningrad. The author of the project is Natalya Ryseva, head of the ACC art casting studio.

St. Petersburg residents living in the house on Kompozitorov Street supported the initiative and are grateful to the studio for having a new “neighbor.” As it turned out, the HOA had long been planning to decorate its yard with small architectural forms with landscaping, so Natalya Ryseva’s idea turned out to be very timely.

Historical reference. Cats and besieged Leningrad

In 1941, a terrible famine began in besieged Leningrad. There was nothing to eat. In winter, dogs and cats began to disappear from the streets of the city - they were eaten. When there was absolutely nothing left to eat, the only chance to survive was to eat your pet.

When all the cats disappeared from Leningrad at the beginning of 1943, rats multiplied catastrophically in the city. They simply thrived, feeding on the corpses that lay in the streets. The streets were literally swarming with them. In addition to all this, rats also spread dangerous diseases.

Then, shortly after breaking the blockade, in April 1943, four wagons of smoky cats were brought to Leningrad from Yaroslavl. It was smoky cats that were considered the best rat catchers.

Some of the cats were released right there at the station, and some were distributed to residents. Eyewitnesses say that when the meowing rat catchers were brought in, you had to stand in line to get the cat. They were snapped up instantly, and many didn’t have enough. A kitten in a besieged city cost 500 rubles. For comparison, a kilogram of bread was sold from hand for 50 rubles. Yaroslavl cats saved the city from rats, but could not solve the problem completely.

At the end of the war, a second echelon of cats was brought to Leningrad. This time they were recruited in Siberia. Many owners personally brought their cats to the collection point to contribute to helping Leningrad residents. Five thousand cats came from Omsk, Tyumen and Irkutsk to Leningrad. This time all the rats were destroyed.

Today, May 9, 2017, on the 72nd anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, I want to tell you about how cats saved besieged Leningrad from hordes of rats and terrible epidemics.

My mother, Lyudmila Petrovna, and grandmother, Ekaterina Vasilievna, almost died of starvation during the siege of Leningrad. Despite the last degree of degeneration, they worked at a military factory that produced shells. So I know a lot of what will be discussed in this story from eyewitness accounts.

It is difficult to imagine how the residents of Leningrad were able to survive these terrible 872 days (from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944, (the blockade ring was broken on January 18, 1943).

Exhaustive bombing and shelling; huge queues for tiny rations of bread; cold and increasing hunger; death of loved ones, acquaintances and small children; corpses of people on the streets; trips with cans to the frozen Neva for water in the bitter cold.

The winter of 1941–1942 was especially difficult for the residents of the besieged city. Funeral teams did not have time to remove the corpses of people who died from hunger, cold and disease from the streets. This winter, Leningraders ate everything, even domestic animals, including dogs and cats. They caught and ate all the ducks in the parks and pigeons in the streets. They ate rats and mice. Boys with slingshots hunted birds and caught small and spiny stickleback fish in the Neva.

Only a few domestic animals (carefully hidden by their owners) were able to survive that scary time. There will be a separate article about them.

And then a new disaster befell the exhausted city - Leningrad began to be overrun by rats.

These dangerous rodents do not have a single natural enemy in urban environments, with the exception of cats. Only cats are able to control the population of rats, one pair of which can reproduce more than 2,000 offspring in just a year.

Rats flourished in the starving city - they simply fed on corpses in the streets.

The rats began to devour everything that could still be found edible; they attacked sick and exhausted children and old people in their sleep; the threat of epidemics (including the plague) loomed in the city. For those with strong nerves, read the secret document on how the city dealt with the abundance of corpses and the threat of an epidemic. This must not be forgotten.

According to eyewitnesses, hordes of rats crossed the streets, blocking traffic.

One resident of besieged Leningrad recalled how she looked out into the street at night and saw a moving river of running rodents.

Squads of rodents threatened to destroy the grain at the mill, where they ground flour for bread for the whole city.

Rats destroyed the paintings of great artists in the Hermitage, which were also damaged by bombing.

They actively fought against rats, they were poisoned, special brigades were created to combat rodents, which carried out many hours of grueling raids around the city, but the number of rodents continued to increase. The vile creatures were not afraid of bombings or fires.

« During the bombing, the glass in the house flew out and the furniture had long since been heated up. Mom slept on the windowsill - fortunately they were wide, like a bench - covering herself with an umbrella from the rain and wind. One day, someone, having learned that my mother was pregnant with me, gave her a herring - she really wanted salty... At home, my mother put the gift in a secluded corner, hoping to eat it after work. But when I returned in the evening, I found a herring tail and greasy stains on the floor - the rats were feasting. It was a tragedy that only those who survived the siege will understand.”- says an employee of the temple of St. Seraphim of Sarovsky Valentin Osipov.

In her diary, blockade survivor Kira Loginova recalled: “Darkness of rats in long ranks, led by their leaders, moved along the Shlisselburgsky tract (now Obukhov Defense Avenue) straight to the mill, where they ground flour for the whole city. This was an organized, intelligent and cruel enemy...”

Immediately after breaking the blockade of Leningrad, in April 1943, the Leningrad Council issued a decree to deliver four carriages of simple smoky cats, which were considered the best rat-catchers, to Leningrad from the Yaroslavl region.

The residents of Yaroslavl quickly fulfilled the strategic order and caught gray cats in order to somehow help the residents of Leningrad. Many even gave away their own animals.

To prevent the cats from being stolen, they were transported under heavy security, and finally, a train with four carriages of cats (or, as it was nicknamed, the “meowing division”) arrived in the dilapidated city. Some of the cats were released at the station, and some were distributed to residents.

From the memoirs of Antonina Aleksandrovna Karpova, a native Leningrader: “ The news that cats would be delivered to the city today instantly spread around everyone. People gathered in huge crowds at the station, and there was a terrible crush. Many people came to the platform in whole groups (mostly families or neighbors) and tried to disperse along its entire length. They hoped that at least one of the group would be able to take the cat.

And then the train arrived. Surprisingly: four carriages of cats sold out in just half an hour! But how happy the Leningraders were walking home. It seemed that these were not ordinary cats who had arrived, but soldiers of our Red Army. Some mighty reinforcements. And even on that day it seemed that Victory was already close”...

However, many townspeople did not have enough cats. Some of them were sold on the market for a fabulous price equal to approximately ten loaves of bread. For reference: a kitten cost 500 rubles, a janitor's salary was 120 rubles, and a loaf of bread cost 50 rubles.

“For a cat they gave the most expensive thing we had - bread. I myself left a little from my ration, so that later I could give this bread for a kitten to a woman whose cat had given birth,” recalled blockade survivor Zoya Kornilieva.

Yaroslavl cats quickly managed to drive rodents away from food warehouses and saved the city from epidemics, but they did not have the strength to completely solve the problem.

Sadly, many cats died after being bitten by sick rats, and sometimes the vile creatures simply attacked in a group and killed the cat. Rats are very dangerous animals.

The Yaroslavl “cat army” defended the city as best it could until the blockade was completely lifted.

Cats not only caught rodents, but also fought. There is a legend about a red cat who took root in an anti-aircraft battery located near Leningrad. The soldiers nicknamed him “the listener,” since the cat accurately predicted the approach of enemy aircraft with his meows. Moreover, the animal did not react to the sound of Soviet aircraft. They even put the cat on allowance and assigned one private to look after him.

After the blockade was finally lifted, another “cat mobilization” took place. This time, the most skilled rat catchers were caught throughout Siberia specifically to protect the priceless works of art of the Hermitage and other Leningrad palaces and museums.

In the winter of 1944, the Tyumen police began capturing animals for Leningrad. Many Siberians donated their pets to help Leningraders. The first volunteer was the black and white cat Amur, whom the owner brought with tears to the collection point with the wish: “to contribute to the fight against the hated enemy.”

In two weeks, residents of Tyumen collected 238 cats (up to 5 years old), and then rat catchers were delivered from Irkutsk, Omsk, Ishim, Zavodoukovsk, Yalutorovsk and others.

A total of 5,000 cats were brought from Siberia to Leningrad.

Soon the Siberian cats managed to almost completely clear Leningrad of rats.

From the memoirs of Antonina Alexandrovna Karpova: “Our neighbor got a Siberian cat, who was named Bars. At first, Leopard was very afraid of loud sounds; it was felt that he had suffered a lot of fear during the trip. At such moments, he ran headlong to his new owner. She calmed the cat and stroked him. And gradually Bars warmed up to new family great respect and love. Every day he went fishing and returned with prey. At first it was the rats we hated. And then Bars managed to get sparrows somewhere, but during the blockade there were no birds in the city. Surprisingly: the cat brought them alive! The neighbors slowly released the sparrows.

Not once did Bars take anything from the table. He ate what he caught on the hunt himself and what his new owners treated him to. But he never begged for food. It seemed as if the cat understood that he had come to a city where people experienced terrible pangs of hunger”...

An interesting fact is that after the blockade was lifted, Muscovites, along with food, sent cats and small kittens to relatives and friends in St. Petersburg.

Since then, cats have enjoyed special respect and love in this heroic city.

Cats have been on the “employee staff” for the fight against mice and rats since the 18th century, they are cared for and treated, each animal has its own “Hermitage passport”.

A cat “served” in the Military Hermitage and discovered an old but functional bomb.

Having discovered a dangerous find, the cat loudly meowed and called the museum employees for help, and they managed to call the miners in time.

There are currently about 50 cats working in the museum. At retirement age, each veteran is placed in loving families.

The heroic cats were especially noted for their contribution to the peaceful life of the Northern capital.

In 2000, on the corner of building No. 8 on Malaya Sadovaya, a monument to the furry savior was erected - a bronze figure of a cat, which St. Petersburg residents immediately dubbed Elisha.

A few months later he had a girlfriend - the cat Vasilisa. The sculpture flaunts opposite Elisha - on the cornice of house No. 3. Thus, the smoky rat-catchers from Yaroslavl and Siberia were immortalized by the inhabitants of the hero city they saved.

In the Vyborg district of the Northern capital, on Composer Street, in the courtyard of house No. 4, a new small monument was erected. It depicts a small figurine of a cat sitting on a chair and basking under a floor lamp.

This touching sculpture is a symbol of the hearth and was created in honor of the cats of besieged Leningrad.

In Tyumen, on City Day 2008, the “Siberian Cats” park was opened with 12 bronze figurines of cats in different poses, in memory of those 5,000 animals who saved besieged Leningrad from rats and epidemics.

Note. This article uses photographic materials from open sources on the Internet, all rights belong to their authors, if you believe that the publication of any photo violates your rights, please contact me using the form in the photo section will be immediately deleted.

Veteran of the Great Patriotic War, Zaporozhye Maria Vasilievna Yarmoshenko was born and raised in Leningrad. There she met the war, survived the 900-day blockade, and there she met her future husband, military officer Arseny Platonovich. In the post-war years, the Yarmoshenko spouses settled in Zaporozhye. I met them 10 years ago. I visited their home several times.

I heard many different tragic stories from them related to the incredible difficulties experienced by the residents of the besieged city. In particular, I remember Maria Vasilyevna’s story about how cats helped Leningraders get rid of a terrible invasion of rats. The facts given in her story, as I later became convinced, are confirmed by official archival sources. And this is what this story about cats looks like.

In September 1941, Leningrad was encircled by German troops. A 900-day grueling blockade of the city on the Neva began. During this time, about a million Leningraders died. In fact, one third of the population of the city and surrounding areas. The most seemingly incredible events and circumstances helped people escape. Including cats. Yes, the most common domestic cats. But everything is in order.

The winter of 1941–1942 was especially difficult for the residents of the besieged city. Funeral teams did not have time to remove the corpses of people who died from hunger, cold and disease from the streets. This winter, Leningraders ate everything, even domestic animals, including cats. But if people died, then the rats felt great; they literally flooded the city.

Eyewitnesses recall that rodents moved around the city in huge colonies. When they crossed the road, even the trams were forced to stop. Rats were shot, crushed by tanks, and even special brigades were created to exterminate them. But they could not cope with the scourge. The gray creatures devoured even those crumbs of food that remained in the city. And there were no cats - the main rat hunters - in Leningrad for a long time.

In addition, due to the hordes of rats in the city, there was a threat of epidemics. All types of struggle against this organized, intelligent and cruel enemy turned out to be powerless to destroy the “fifth column”, which ate the blockade survivors dying of hunger. It was necessary to look for a way out of this tragic situation. And there could only be one way out - cats were needed. And immediately after the blockade was broken in 1943, a resolution was adopted by the Leningrad City Council on the need to order four wagons of smoky cats from the Yaroslavl region and deliver them to Leningrad. Smoky were rightfully considered the best rat catchers. Residents of the Yaroslavl region responded with understanding to the request of the Leningrad residents, quickly collected the required number of cats (collected throughout the region) and sent them to Leningrad.

To prevent the cats from being stolen, they were transported under heavy security. As soon as the carriages with the cat troop arrived at the Leningrad station, a line immediately lined up wanting to get a cat. Some of the animals were released immediately at the station, and the rest were distributed to the townspeople. The cat troopers quickly got used to the new place and joined the fight against rats. However, there was not enough strength to completely solve the problem.

And then another cat mobilization took place. This time, a “call for rat catchers” was announced in Siberia. Especially for the needs of the Hermitage and other Leningrad palaces and museums. After all, rats threatened priceless treasures of art and culture.

We recruited cats all over Siberia - Tyumen, Omsk, Irkutsk. As a result, 5 thousand cats were sent to Leningrad, who coped with the task with honor - clearing the city of rodents.

So cats have a special meaning for the residents of Leningrad.

In memory of the feat of the tailed rescuers, sculptures of the cat Elisha and the cat Vasilisa were installed in modern St. Petersburg. On the first of March, Russia celebrates the unofficial Cat Day.

Nikolay Zubashenko, journalist

(for Chronicles and Commentaries)

NOTE.

The cat at the Eliseevsky store - Elisey KOTOVICH Pitersky. If you enter Malaya Sadovaya Street from Nevsky Prospect, then on the right, at the level of the second floor of the Eliseevsky store, you can see a bronze cat. His name is Elisha and this bronze beast is loved by city residents and numerous tourists. Opposite the cat, on the eaves of house number 3, lives Elisha’s friend, the cat Vasilisa.

The author of the idea is Sergei Lebedev, the sculptor is Vladimir Petrovichev, the sponsor is Ilya Botka (what a division of labor). The monument to the cat was erected on January 25, 2000 (the kitty has been sitting on “post” for ten years already), and “his bride was given on April 1 of the same 2000. The names of the cats were invented by the residents of the city... at least that’s what the Internet says. It is believed that if you throw a coin on Elisha’s pedestal, you will be happy, joyful and lucky. According to legend, in the pre-dawn hours, when the street is empty and the signs and lamps are no longer burning so brightly, you can hear bronze kitties meowing.

Cats of besieged Leningrad and the Hermitage.

Recently we celebrated the Day of complete lifting of the blockade of the city of Leningrad.

The Nazis closed the ring around the city on September 8, 1941, and they managed to break the blockade in mid-January 1943. It took another year to completely remove it. 70 years have passed since then...

According to official data of the USSR alone, in almost 900 days, 600 thousand people died and died in the city on the Neva, and now historians call the figure 1.5 million. In all history, no city in the world has given as many lives for victory as Leningrad. N There is not a single Leningrad family that has not been touched by grief, from which the blockade has not taken away its dearest and most loved ones.

The metropolis was under continuous fire in the absence of electricity, fuel, water, and sewerage. And from October-November 1941, the worst thing began - hunger.

A lot has been written about that time.

But recently I came across a note about cats and cats of besieged Leningrad. I would like to introduce you to it too.

Lilia P. writes:

In 1942, besieged Leningrad was overcome by rats. Eyewitnesses recall that rodents moved around the city in huge colonies. When they crossed the road, even the trams were forced to stop. They fought against rats: they were shot, crushed by tanks, even special teams were created to exterminate rodents, but they could not cope with the scourge. The gray creatures devoured even those crumbs of food that remained in the city. In addition, due to the hordes of rats in the city, there was a threat of epidemics. But no “human” methods of rodent control helped. And cats - the rats' main enemies - have not been in the city for a long time. They were eaten.

A little sad, but honest

At first, those around them condemned the “cat eaters.”

“I eat according to the second category, so I have the right,” one of them justified himself in the fall of 1941.

Then excuses were no longer needed: a meal from a cat was often the only way to save life.

“December 3, 1941. Today we ate fried cat. Very tasty,” a 10-year-old boy wrote in his diary.

“We ate the neighbor’s cat with the entire communal apartment at the beginning of the blockade,” says Zoya Kornilieva.

“It got to the point in our family that my uncle demanded Maxim’s cat to be eaten almost every day. When my mother and I left home, we locked Maxim in a small room. We also had a parrot named Jacques. IN Good times Our Jaconya sang and talked. And then he got all skinny from hunger and became quiet. The few sunflower seeds that we exchanged for daddy’s gun soon ran out, and our Jacques was doomed. The cat Maxim also barely wandered - his fur came out in clumps, his claws could not be removed, he even stopped meowing, begging for food. One day Max managed to get into Jacone's cage. At any other time there would have been drama. And this is what we saw when we returned home! The bird and the cat were sleeping in a cold room, huddled together. This had such an effect on my uncle that he stopped trying to kill the cat...”. Alas, the parrot died of starvation a few days after this event.

“We had a cat Vaska. Family favorite. In the winter of 1941, his mother took him away somewhere. She said that they would feed him fish at the shelter, but we couldn’t do that... In the evening, my mother cooked something like cutlets. Then I was surprised, where do we get meat from? I didn’t understand anything... Only later... It turns out that thanks to Vaska we survived that winter...”

“Glinsky (the theater director) offered me to take his cat for 300 grams of bread, I agreed: hunger is making itself felt, because for three months now I have been living from hand to mouth, and especially the month of December, with a reduced norm and in the absolute absence of any supplies food. I went home and decided to go pick up the cat at 6 pm. The cold at home is terrible. The thermometer only shows 3 degrees. It was already 7 o’clock, I was about to go out, but the terrifying force of the artillery shelling of the Petrograd side, when every minute I expected that a shell would hit our house, forced me to refrain from going out into the street, and, moreover, I was in a terribly nervous and in a feverish state with the thought of how I would go, take a cat and kill him? After all, until now I haven’t even touched a bird, but here’s a pet!”

Cat means victory

However, some townspeople, despite the severe hunger, took pity on their pets. In the spring of 1942, an old woman, half dead from hunger, took her cat outside for a walk. People came up to her and thanked her for saving it. One former blockade survivor recalled that in March 1942 she suddenly saw a skinny cat on a city street. Several old women stood around her and crossed themselves, and an emaciated, skeletal policeman made sure that no one caught the animal. In April 1942, a 12-year-old girl, walking past the Barrikada cinema, saw a crowd of people at the window of one of the houses. They marveled at an extraordinary sight: a tabby cat with three kittens was lying on a brightly lit windowsill. “When I saw her, I realized that we had survived,” this woman recalled many years later.

Furry special forces

In her diary, blockade survivor Kira Loginova recalled, “Darkness of rats in long ranks, led by their leaders, moved along the Shlisselburg tract (now Obukhov Defense Avenue) straight to the mill, where they ground flour for the whole city. This was an organized, intelligent and cruel enemy... ". All types of weapons, bombings and fires were powerless to destroy the “fifth column”, which was eating up the blockade survivors who were dying of hunger.

The besieged city was overrun by rats. They fed on the corpses of people on the streets and made their way into apartments. They soon became a real disaster. In addition, rats are carriers of diseases.

As soon as the blockade was broken, in April 1943, a decision was made to deliver cats to Leningrad, and a decree was issued signed by the chairman of the Leningrad Council on the need to “extract smoky cats from the Yaroslavl region and deliver them to Leningrad.” The Yaroslavl residents could not help but fulfill the strategic order and caught the required number of smoky cats, which were then considered the best rat catchers. Four carriages of cats arrived in a dilapidated city. Some of the cats were released right there at the station, and some were distributed to residents. Eyewitnesses say that when the meowing rat catchers were brought in, you had to stand in line to get the cat. They were snapped up instantly, and many didn’t have enough.


In January 1944, a kitten in Leningrad cost 500 rubles (a kilogram of bread was then sold secondhand for 50 rubles, a watchman’s salary was 120 rubles).

16-year-old Katya Voloshina. She even dedicated poetry to the besieged cat.

Their weapons are dexterity and teeth.
But the rats did not get the grain.
Bread was saved for the people!

The cats who arrived in the dilapidated city, at the cost of great losses on their part, managed to drive away the rats from food warehouses.

Cat-listener

Among the wartime legends there is a story about a red cat “listener”, who settled at an anti-aircraft battery near Leningrad and accurately predicted enemy air raids. Moreover, as the story goes, the animal did not react to the approach of Soviet planes. The battery command valued the cat for his unique gift, put him on allowance and even assigned one soldier to look after him.

Cat mobilization

As soon as the blockade was lifted, another “cat mobilization” took place. This time, murks and leopards were recruited in Siberia specifically for the needs of the Hermitage and other Leningrad palaces and museums.
The “cat call” was a success. In Tyumen, for example, 238 cats and cats aged from six months to 5 years were collected. Many brought their pets to the collection point themselves.

The first of the volunteers was the black and white cat Amur, whom the owner personally surrendered with the wishes of “contributing to the fight against the hated enemy.”

In total, 5 thousand Omsk, Tyumen, and Irkutsk cats were sent to Leningrad, who coped with their task with honor - clearing the Hermitage of rodents.

The cats and cats of the Hermitage are taken care of. They are fed, treated, but most importantly, respected for conscientious work and help. And a few years ago, the museum even created a special Fund for Friends of Hermitage Cats. This foundation collects funds for various cat needs and organizes all sorts of events and exhibitions.

Today, more than fifty cats serve in the Hermitage. Each of them has a passport with a photo and is considered a highly qualified specialist in cleaning museum basements from rodents.

The cat community has a clear hierarchy. It has its own aristocracy, middle peasants and rabble. Cats are divided into four groups. Each has a strictly designated territory. I don’t go into someone else’s basement - you can get punched in the face there, seriously.

Cats are recognized by their faces, backs, and even tails by all museum employees. But it is the women who feed them who give their names. They know everyone's history in detail.

The feat of the cats - the defenders of Leningrad - is not forgotten by its grateful residents. If you go from Nevsky Prospekt to Malaya Sadovaya Street, you will see, on the right, at the level of the second floor of the Eliseevsky store, a bronze cat. His name is Elisha and this bronze beast is loved by city residents and numerous tourists.

On the contrary, Elisha’s friend, a cat, lives on the eaves of house number 3 Vasilisa - a monument to Yaroslavl cats. The cat monument was erected on January 25, 2000. The bronze cat has been “living” here for thirteen years, and his pussy moved into the neighborhood on April 1, also in 2000.
Cute figurines of rat catchers have become heroes of urban folklore. It is believed that if the tossed coin remains on the pedestal, the wish will come true. And the cat Elisha, in addition, helps students not leave their tails during the session.

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