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The 872-day Siege of Leningrad, Russia, resulted from the failure of the German Army Group North to capture Leningrad in the Eastern Front of World War II. The siege lasted from September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944 and was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, causing considerable devastation to the city of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg).
The Siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military blockade undertaken from the south by the Army Group North of Nazi Germany against the Soviet city of Leningrad on the Eastern Front in World War II. The Finnish army invaded from the north, co-operating with the Germans until they had recaptured territory lost in the recent Winter War, but refused to make further approaches to the city.
Saint Petersburg is Russia's second-largest city after Moscow, with 5 million inhabitants in 2012, part of the Saint Petersburg agglomeration with a population of 6.2 million (2015). An important Russian port on the Baltic Sea, it has a status of a federal subject.
The timeline of events is as follows.
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, which started on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. The operation stemmed from Nazi Germany's ideological aims to conquer the western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans (Lebensraum), to use Slavs as a slave labour force for the Axis war effort, to murder the rest, and to acquire the oil reserves of the Caucasus and the agricultural resources of Soviet territories.
Pskov is a city and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located about 20 kilometers (12 mi) east from the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population: 203,279 (2010 Census); 202,780 (2002 Census); 203,789 (1989 Census).
Army Group North was a German strategic echelon formation, commanding a grouping of field armies during World War II. The German Army Group was subordinated to the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH), the German army high command, and coordinated the operations of attached separate army corps, reserve formations, rear services and logistics, including the Army Group North Rear Area.
Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments is the name used by UNESCO when it collectively designated the historic core of the Russian city of St. Petersburg, as well as buildings and ensembles located in the immediate vicinity as a World Heritage Site in 1991.
The State Hermitage Museum is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The second-largest art museum in the world, it was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky. The museum celebrates the anniversary of its founding each year on 7 December, Saint Catherine's Day. It has been open to the public since 1852.
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and muscle cramps may also occur. Diarrhea can be so severe that it leads within hours to severe dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. This may result in sunken eyes, cold skin, decreased skin elasticity, and wrinkling of the hands and feet. Dehydration can cause the skin to turn bluish. Symptoms start two hours to five days after exposure.
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters. The causative organism is Rickettsia prowazekii, transmitted by the human body louse.
Paratyphoid fever, also known simply as paratyphoid, is a bacterial infection caused by one of the three types of Salmonella enterica. Symptoms usually begin 6–30 days after exposure and are the same as those of typhoid fever. Often, a gradual onset of a high fever occurs over several days. Weakness, loss of appetite, and headaches also commonly occur. Some people develop a skin rash with rose-colored spots. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks or months. Other people may carry the bacteria without being affected; however, they are still able to spread the disease to others. Both typhoid and paratyphoid are of similar severity. Paratyphoid and typhoid fever are types of enteric fever.
The Catherine Palace is a Rococo palace located in the town of Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), 30 km south of St. Petersburg, Russia. It was the summer residence of the Russian tsars.
The Peterhof Palace is a series of palaces and gardens located in Petergof, Saint Petersburg, Russia, commissioned by Peter the Great as a direct response to the Palace of Versailles by Louis XIV of France. Originally intended in 1709 for country habitation, Peter the Great sought to expand the property as a result of his visit to the French royal court in 1717, inspiring the nickname used by tourists "The Russian Versailles". In the period between 1714 and 1728, the architecture was designed by Domenico Trezzini, and the style he employed became the foundation for the Petrine Baroque style favored throughout Saint Petersburg. Also in 1714, Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond designed the gardens, likely chosen due to his previous collaborations with Versailles landscaper André Le Nôtre. Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli completed an expansion from 1747 to 1756 for Elizabeth of Russia. The palace-ensemble along with the city center is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It is located 45 kilometers (28 mi) south of St. Petersburg, along the E95 highway leading to Pskov. Population: 92,937 (2010 Census); 88,420 (2002 Census); 79,714 (1989 Census).
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Because the Soviet records during the war were incomplete, the ultimate number of casualties during the siege is disputed. About 1.4 million people were rescued by military evacuation from the besieged city in two years between September 1941 and November 1943. Another 1.2 million civilians perished in the city. After the war, the Soviet government reported about 670,000 registered deaths from 1941 to January 1944, explained as resulting mostly from starvation, stress and exposure. Some independent studies suggest a much higher death toll of between 700,000 and 1.5 million, with most estimates putting civilian losses at around 1.1 to 1.3 million. Many of these victims, estimated at being at least half a million, were buried in the Piskarevskoye Cemetery. Hundreds of thousands of civilians who were unregistered with the city authorities and lived in the city before the war, or had become refugees there, perished in the siege without any record at all. About half a million people, both military and civilians from Latvia, Estonia, Pskov and Novgorod fled from the advancing Nazis and came to Leningrad at the beginning of the war. The flow of refugees to the city stopped with the beginning of the siege. During the siege, part of the civilian population was evacuated from Leningrad, although many died in the process. Unregistered people died in numerous air-raids and from starvation and cold while trying to escape from the city. Their bodies were never buried or counted under the severe circumstances of constant bombing and other attacks by the Nazi forces. The total number of human losses during the 29 months of the siege of Leningrad is estimated as 1.5 million, both civilian and military. [14] Only 700,000 people were left alive of a 3.5 million pre-war population. Among them were soldiers, workers, surviving children and women. Of the 700,000 survivors, about 300,000 were soldiers who came from other parts of the country to help in the besieged city. By the end of the siege, Leningrad had become an empty "ghost-city" with thousands of ruined and abandoned homes.
Rations were reduced on September 2: manual workers had 600 grams of bread daily; state employees, 400 grams; and children and dependants (other civilians), 300 grams per day.
After heavy German bombing in August, September, and October 1941, all main food warehouses were destroyed and burned in massive fires. Huge amounts of stored food reserves, such as grain, flour and sugar, as well as other stored food, were completely destroyed. In one instance, melted sugar from the warehouses had flowed through the floors into the surrounding soil. Desperate citizens began digging up the frozen earth in an attempt to extract the sugar. This soil was on sale in the 'Haymarket' to housewives who tried to melt the earth to separate the sugar or to others who merely mixed this earth with flour. [15] The fires continued all over the city, because the Germans were bombing Leningrad non-stop for many months using various kinds of incendiary and high-explosive devices during 1941, 1942, and 1943.
In the first days of the siege, people finished all leftovers in "commercial" restaurants, which used up to 12% of all fats and up to 10% of all meat the city consumed. Soon all restaurants closed, food rationing became the only way to save lives, money became obsolete. The carnage in the city from shelling and starvation (especially in the first winter) was appalling. At least nine of the staff at the seedbank set up by Nikolai I. Vavilov starved to death surrounded by edible seeds so that its more than 200,000 items would be available to future generations. [16]
It was calculated that the provisions both for army and civilians would last as follows (on September 12, 1941):
On the same day, another reduction of food took place: the workers received 500 grams of bread; employees and children, 300 grams; and dependants, 250 grams. Rations of meat and groats were also reduced, but the issue of sugar, confectionery and fats was increased instead. The army and the Baltic Fleet had some emergency rations, but these were not sufficient, and were used up in weeks. The flotilla of Lake Ladoga was not well equipped for war, and was almost destroyed in bombing by the German Luftwaffe. Several barges with grain were sunk in Lake Ladoga in September 1941 alone. A significant part of that grain, however, was later recovered from the water by divers. This grain was delivered to Leningrad at night, and was used for baking bread. When the city ran out of reserves of malt flour, other substitutes, such as finished cellulose and cotton-cake, were used. Oats meant for horses were also used, while the horses were fed wood leaves. When 2,000 tons of mutton guts had been found in the seaport, a food grade galantine was made of them. When the meat became unavailable, it was replaced by that galantine and by stinking[ clarification needed ] calf skins, which many survivors remembered until the end of their lives.
During the first year of the siege, the city survived five food reductions: two reductions in September 1941, one in October, and two reductions in November. The latter reduced the daily food consumption to 250 grams daily for manual workers and 125 grams for other civilians.
The effects of starvation lead to the consumption of zoo animals and household pets. [17] Much of the wallpaper paste in the buildings was made from potato starches. [17] People began to strip the walls of rooms, removing the paste, and boiling it to make soup. [17] Old leathers were also boiled and eaten. [17] The extreme hunger drove some to eat the corpses of the dead who had been largely preserved by the below freezing temperatures. [17] Reports of cannibalism began to appear in the winter of 1941–1942 after all food sources were exhausted. [17] Meat patties, made from minced human flesh went on sale in the 'Haymarket' in November 1941 [18] leading to the banning of ground meat sales in the city. [17] Many bodies brought to cemeteries in the city were missing parts. [19] Starvation-level food rationing was eased by new vegetable gardens that covered most open ground in the city by 1942.
The Nazis cut almost all supplies to Leningrad, garment industries and retailers closed, most schools as well as most public services became obsolete, causing a massive exodus of women and children.
During all three winters of the siege of Leningrad (1941–1942, 1942–1943, and 1943–1944), water pipelines were constantly destroyed by the bombing and artillery bombardments. Women were searching for water under the icy ground. Ice and snow were deadly sources of water because of cold winters and lack of heat. During the siege, three cold winters were the time of the highest mortality rates among the civilian population. Tens of thousands of civilians froze to death in Leningrad.
Due to a lack of power supplies, many factories were closed down and, in November, all public transportation services became unavailable. The construction of the pre-war designed metro system was stopped, some unfinished tunnels were used as public shelters during aerial bombing and artillery bombardments. In the spring of 1942, some tramway lines were reactivated, but trolleybuses and buses were inoperable until the end of the war. The use of power was forbidden everywhere except at the General Staff headquarters, Smolny, district committees, air defense bases, and in some other institutions. By the end of September, oil and coal supplies had run out. The only energy option left was to fell trees. On October 8 the executive committee of Leningrad (Ленгорисполком) and regional executive committee (облисполком) decided to start cutting timber in Pargolovsky and Vsevolozhsky Districts in the north of the city. By October 24 only 1% of the timber cutting plan had been executed.
Almost all public transportation in Leningrad was destroyed as a result of massive air and artillery bombardments in August–September 1941. Three million people were trapped in the city. Leningrad, as a main military-industrial center in Russia, was populated by military-industrial engineers, technicians, and other workers with their civilian families. The only means of evacuation was on foot, with little opportunity to do so before the expected encirclement by the Wehrmacht and Finnish forces.
86 major strategic industries were evacuated from the city. Most industrial capacities, engines and power equipment, instruments and tools, were moved by the workers. Some defense industries, such as the LMZ, the Admiralty Shipyard, and the Kirov Plant, were left in the city, and were still producing armor and ammunition for the defenders.
Evacuation was organized by Kliment Voroshilov and Georgi Zhukov and was managed by engineers and workers of Leningrad's 86 major industries, which were themselves also evacuated from the city, by using every means of transportation available.
The evacuation operation was managed in several 'waves' or phases:
The total number of civilians evacuated was about 1.4 million, mainly women, children and personnel essential to the war effort. [20]
Severe destruction of homes was caused by the Nazi bombing, as well as by daily artillery bombardments. Major destruction was done during August and September 1941, when artillery bombardments were almost constant for several weeks in a row. Regular bombing continued through 1941, 1942, and 1943. Most heavy artillery bombardments resumed in 1943, and increased six times in comparison with the beginning of the war. Hitler and the Nazi leadership were angered by their failure to take Leningrad by force. Hitler's directive No. 1601 ordered that "St. Petersburg must be erased from the face of the Earth" and "we have no interest in saving lives of the civilian population." [7]
Hundreds of buildings, public schools, hospitals and industrial plants were destroyed by the bombing. Museums and palaces in the suburbs were destroyed, vandalized and looted by the Nazis, while the employees of museums were trying to save some art. Only parts of art collections from the famous suburban palaces of the Tsars were evacuated in time, while some of the salvaged art was stored in the basements of the Hermitage until the end of the war.
The destruction of Leningrad during the siege was regarded as a larger event than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. [21] Thousands of homes, industries, roads and transportation structures, schools, hospitals, power plants and other infrastructure were completely destroyed, or severely damaged during 29 months of constant bombing and fires.
The resistance of the surviving civilian population of Leningrad provided crucial support for military operations during the battle of Leningrad. The total number of civilian volunteers helping the military is estimated to be equal to the number of civilians left in the city – about 500,000 of them were fire-watching. Many women and children risked their lives helping military operations at the front line. 15,000 children were decorated for their courage in military operations during the siege.
The Nazis had a special intelligence unit that operated in secrecy, focused on causing more death and destruction in Leningrad through sabotage to destroy the morale and spirit of its citizens.[ citation needed ] Some of the Nazi secret agents were arsonists, arrested while setting fires at storage facilities in besieged Leningrad.[ citation needed ] Water and food supplies were often found poisoned and infected by the Nazi spies infiltrating the city.[ citation needed ] Volunteer militia brigades were involved in assisting civilians - mainly women and children.
While the population of Leningrad was depressed by the long and exhausting siege, people still tried to lift their spirits in the time when they were struggling to survive. The popular film star Boris Babochkin made many visits to the city. He gave numerous stage performances; he also delivered several copies of the classic film Chapayev, which was a highly popular movie. Symphony performances for survivors of the siege were rare, but attendance was high, regardless of the risks and exhaustion of everybody. Perhaps the most important booster of morale was Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, entitled "Leningrad". The symphony did much to raise the spirits of the defenders. At its Leningrad premiere, Marshal Zhukov ensured that what was called the "eighty minutes of silence," (when the soldiers at the Front did their utmost to stop the city bombing so as to not interrupt the performance). Music performances were broadcast over the Leningrad radio 24/7. At rare times when music was not broadcast, a metronome was placed before the radio microphone to assure the people that the resistance was ongoing. Performers and radio personnel worked without compensation, they received 250–500 grams of food per day, mainly low grade bread. The poets Olga Bergholz and Anna Akhmatova contributed their talents to support the morale of civilians and military personnel fighting in the city.
Following Germany's capitulation in May 1945 a concerted effort was made in Germany to search for the collections removed from the museums and palaces of Leningrad's surrounding areas during the war.
In September 1945 the Leningrad Philharmonic returned to the city from Siberia where it was evacuated during the war to give its first peacetime concert performances.
For the defense of the city and tenacity of the civilian survivors of the siege, Leningrad was the first city in the former Soviet Union to be awarded the title of a Hero City in 1945.
Economic and human losses caused incalculable damage to the city's historic sites and cultural landmarks, with much of the damage still visible today. Some ruins are preserved to commemorate those who gave their lives to save the city. As of 2007, there were still empty spaces in St. Petersburg suburbs where buildings had stood before the siege.
The siege caused major trauma for several generations after the war. Leningrad/St. Petersburg as the cultural capital, suffered incomparable human losses and the destruction of famous landmarks. While conditions in the city were appalling and starvation was constantly with the besieged, the city resisted for nearly three years. The pride of the city is unmistakable: "Troy fell, Rome fell, Leningrad did not fall."
The Siege of Leningrad was commemorated in the late 1950s by the Green Belt of Glory, a circle of public parks and memorials along the historic front line. Warnings to citizens of the city as to which side of the road to walk on to avoid the German shelling can still be seen (they were restored after the war). Russian tour guides at Peterhof, the palaces near St. Petersburg, report that it is still dangerous to go for a stroll in the gardens during a thunderstorm, as German artillery shrapnel embedded in the trees attracts lightning.
The Continuation War was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany, as co-belligerents, against the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1941 to 1944, during World War II. In Russian historiography, the war is called the Soviet–Finnish Front of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its overall war efforts on the Eastern Front and provided Finland with critical material support and military assistance.
Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg.
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940. The League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the organisation.
The aerial bombing of cities in warfare is an optional element of strategic bombing which became widespread during World War I. The bombing of cities grew to a vast scale in World War II, and is still practiced today. The development of aerial bombardment marked an increased capacity of armed forces to deliver ordnance from the air against combatants, military bases, and factories, with a greatly reduced risk to its ground forces. Civilian and non-combatant casualties in bombed cities have variously been a purposeful result of the bombings, or unavoidable collateral damage depending on intent and technology. A number of multilateral efforts have been made to restrict the use of aerial bombardment so as to protect non-combatants.
Hero City is a Soviet honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during World War II. It was awarded to twelve cities of the Soviet Union. In addition, the Brest Fortress was awarded an equivalent title of Hero Fortress. This symbolic distinction for a city corresponds to the individual distinction Hero of the Soviet Union.
The Road of Life was the ice road winter transport route across the frozen Lake Ladoga, which provided the only access to the besieged city of Leningrad while the perimeter in the siege was maintained by the German Army Group North and the Finnish Defence Forces. The siege lasted for 29 months from 8 September 1941, to 27 January 1944. Over one million citizens of Leningrad died from starvation, stress, exposure and bombardments. Each winter, the Lake Ladoga ice route was reconstructed by hand, and built according to precise arithmetic calculations depending on traffic volume. In addition to transporting thousands of tons of munitions and food supplies each year, the Road of Life also served as the primary evacuation route for the millions of Soviets trapped within the starving city. The road today forms part of the World Heritage Site.
Shlisselburg is a town in Kirovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the head of the Neva River on Lake Ladoga, 35 kilometers (22 mi) east of St. Petersburg. From 1944 to 1992, it was known as Petrokrepost (Петрокрепость). Population: 13,170 (2010 Census); 12,401 (2002 Census); 12,589 (1989 Census).
The Siege of Warsaw in 1939 was fought between the Polish Warsaw Army garrisoned and entrenched in the capital of Poland (Warsaw) and the invading German Army.
Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov was a Soviet military commander. An artillery officer, he joined the Red Army in 1920. He graduated from several Soviet military academies, including the Military Academy of Red Army General Staff. He participated in the Winter War as a senior artillery officer.
The Siege of Strasbourg took place during the Franco-Prussian War, and resulted in the French surrender of the fortress on 28 September 1870.
Operation Iskra was a Soviet military operation during World War II, designed to break the Wehrmacht's Siege of Leningrad. Planning for the operation began shortly after the failure of the Sinyavino Offensive. The German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad in late 1942 had weakened the German front. By January 1943, Soviet forces were planning or conducting offensive operations across the entire German-Soviet front, especially in southern Russia, Iskra being the northern part of the wider Soviet 1942–1943 winter counter offensive.
The Plymouth Blitz was a series of bombing raids carried out by the Nazi German Luftwaffe on the English city of Plymouth in the Second World War. The bombings launched on numerous British cities were known as the Blitz.
Saint Petersburg is the second largest city in Russia, after Moscow. 2002 census recorded population of the federal subject 4,661,219, or 3.21% of the total population of Russia. The city with its vicinity has an estimated population of about 6 million people.
Founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703. It became capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. St. Petersburg ceased being the capital in 1918 after the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Naval Detachment K was a Finnish military detachment—specifically, a flotilla that operated on Lake Ladoga during World War II.
The Leningrad–Novgorod strategic offensive was a strategic offensive during World War II. It was launched by the Red Army on January 14, 1944 with an attack on the German Army Group North by the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, along with part of the 2nd Baltic Front, with a goal of fully lifting the Siege of Leningrad. Approximately two weeks later, the Red Army regained control of the Moscow–Leningrad railway, and on January 26, 1944 Joseph Stalin declared that the Siege of Leningrad was lifted, and that German forces were expelled from the Leningrad Oblast. The lifting of the 900-day-long blockade was celebrated in Leningrad on that day with a 324-gun salute. The strategic offensive ended a month later on 1 March, when Stavka ordered the troops of the Leningrad Front to a follow-on operation across the Narva River, while the 2nd Baltic was to defend the territory it gained in pursuit of the German XVI Army Corps.
The Leningrad première of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 7 took place on 9 August 1942 during the Second World War, while the city of Leningrad was under siege by Nazi German forces.
The Einsatzstab Fähre Ost, referred to as EFO, was a German naval detachment operated by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. It saw action on Lake Ladoga supporting other Axis units in the Siege of Leningrad.
Saving Leningrad is a 2019 Russian war film written about the Road of Life, the tragedy of blood "barge 752", which took place on the night of September 16 to 17, 1941, at Lake Ladoga. During the evacuation of people from Leningrad, The barge was bombed by Nazi warplanes and went to the bottom, killing more than 1,000 people. At the same time, 460 people were killed in a barge towed by gunship, "Selemdzha", which was carrying fuel and military supplies to Leningrad. Few were saved. The film takes place during the Eastern Front in World War II and focuses on the beginning of the Siege of Leningrad.
Fifty years ago last winter, Dmitry S. Ivanov, who kept the rice collection at one of the world's biggest seed banks, died of starvation at his post during the siege of Leningrad in World War II. After his death, workmen found several thousand packs of rice that he had preserved. A.G. Stchukin, a specialist in peanuts, died at his desk. Liliya M. Rodina, keeper of the oat collection, and more than half a dozen others also succumbed. They all refused to eat from any of their collections of rice, peas, corn and wheat.
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