The Leningrad Blockade

Excerpt from the instructions of Hitler’s high command on the destruction of Leningrad, dated 29 September 1941:

"...2. The Fuehrer has decided to wipe the city of St Petersburg from the face of the earth. We have no interest in the preservation of even a part of the population of that city

I first read about The Leningrad Blockade last year while preparing for my trip to Russia. It's a piece of Russian history that I will forever remember. The 900 days Blockade was undoubtedly the most tragic period in the history of the St Petersburg (then known as Leningrad). Around 1 MILLION people died from bombings, starvation & diseases. Yet the spirit of the people of St Petersburg refused to surrender. Heroism lived on.

The Soviet Union was attacked by Nazi Germany on 22nd June 1941. In less then 2.5 months, German troops were already approaching Leningrad. The Red Army was outflanked and on September 8 1941 the Germans had fully surroundedthe city & the siege began. The Germans had intended to starve and shell the city to death.

The siege lasted 900 days, from September 8 1941 until January 27 1944. The city's almost 3 million civilians (including about 400,000 children) refused to surrender & endured the hardship & suffering. Food was practically non-existent. At one point, the city's food rations reached an all time low of only 125 grams of bread per person perday.

By the winter of 1941-42 there was no heating, no water supply, almost no electricity and very little food. People ate their pets, even rats & birds disappeared from the city. The paste behind wallpapers was scraped off & eaten, leather belts were cooked until chewable. In the final stages of the famine, parents kept a close eye on their children lest they be kidnapped; the "meat patties" that were sold in Leningrad's slum quarter, sometimes contained human flesh.

People literally fell over dead on the streets, sometimes their bodies lay untouched for weeks. When they were finally hoisted onto trucks, they were so frozen that "they gave a metallic ring." In just two months, January and February of 1942, 200,000 people died in Leningrad of cold and starvation.

Meanwhile, the city lived on. Concerts & plays were performed in candle-lit halls, lectures given, poetry written, orphanages opened, brigades formed to clean up the city. Dmitry Shostakovich wrote his famous Seventh "Leningrad" Symphony & it was performed by the Leningard Philharmonic, broadcasted nationally over radio from the besieged city.

In January 1943 the Siege was broken and a year later, on January 27 1944 it was fully lifted

Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad: unveiled in the 70s to commemorate the heroic efforts of the people & soldiers of Leningrad during the The Leningrad Blockade.

I visited the monument on my last day in St Petersburg. Almost gave it a miss as I was so tired after a full day of sightseeing at Petrodvorets. I am SO glad I didn't. To borrow the description from Lonely Planet - "AWE-INSPIRING"