The Siege of Leningrad
Aida Larson
The Siege of Leningrad
Tuesday, Jan 27, 1942, 03:30 AM
Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
The Threat of Invasion
The Goal Plan
An Expected fall.
Germany's Tactics
Anticipating a German thrust towards Leningrad, Soviet leaders began fortifying the region around the city days after the invasion commenced. Creating the Leningrad Fortified Region, they built lines of defenses, anti-tank ditches, and barricades. Resuming the advance, Army Group North reached the Neva River on August 30 and severed the last railway into Leningrad. Completing the goal of cutting of Leningrad from the rest of the country.
The Streets Are Our Graves
The Present's Past.
The City as a weapon
During the Siege
During the bombardment, the people of Leningrad began to suffer as food and fuel supplies depleted rapidly with the refugees and population growing. With winter quickly approaching, supplies for the city crossed the frozen surface of Lake Ladoga on the "Road of Life" but these proved insufficient to prevent widespread starvation. Through the winter of 1941-1942, hundreds died daily and some in Leningrad resorted to cannibalism. In an effort to alleviate the situation, attempts were made to evacuate civilians. While this did help, the trip across the lake proved extremely hazardous and saw many lose their lives.
The City's Relief
The siege was broken in January of 1943 and only a year later, on January 27 1944 it was fully lifted officially by the government. At least 641,000 people had died in Leningrad during the Siege (But that was only the RECORDED deaths, there were suspected to be even more than that). Most of them were buried in mass graves in different cemeteries, with the majority in the Piskariovskoye Memorial Cemetery, resting place to over 500,000 people and a timeless reminder of the heroic deeds of the city.
Anna Andreievna - manager Astoria Hotel:
You don't know what it was like. You just stepped over corpses in the street and on the stairs. You simply stopped taking any. It was no use worrying. Terrible things used to happen. Some people went quite insane with hunger. And the practice of hiding the dead somewhere in the house and using their ration cards was very common indeed. There were so many people dying all over the place authorities couldn't keep track of all the deaths... You should have seen me in February 1942. Oh, Lord, I looked funny! My weight dropped from seventy kilos to forty kilos in four months! Now I'm back to sixty-two - feeling quite plump..."