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Product Description
Book Description
This is the story of the siege of Leningrad, the deadliest blockade of a city in human history. Between September 1941 and January 1944, during which time the city was besieged by Nazi Germany, approximately three quarters of a million civilians starved to death: 35 times more civilians died than in London’s Blitz; four times more than in the bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima put together. Had Hitler succeeded in taking Leningrad, he would have had access to the Soviet Union’s biggest arms manufacturers, shipyards and steelworks. He could have linked his armies with Finland’s, and cut the railway lines carrying Allied aid from the Arctic ports of Archangel and Murmansk. But Leningrad wasn’t taken. In Leningrad, the siege’s most eloquent victims—the diarists whose voices form the core of this book—convey stories of humanity in extremis and remind us of what it is to be human, of the depths and heights of human behaviour. Voices range from Zhdanov, the CP leader trying to organize defence and supplies for his embattled city, to Tanya Savich, whose heart wrenching diary records the deaths from starvation of her entire family.
About the Author
ANNA REID is the author of The Shaman’s Coat: A Native History of Siberia and Borderland: A Journey Through the History of the Ukraine. She holds a master’s degree in Russian history and reform economics from the University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She was Ukraine correspondent for The Economist and the Daily Telegraph from 1993–1995, and from 2002–2006 she ran the foreign affairs program at the think-tank Policy Exchange. She lives in London, England.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
The cruelest siege,
By
This review is from: Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege 1941 - 44 (Hardcover)
Few cities in history have suffered as cruel a siege as Leningrad did during WWII. When Hitler decided to invade Russia, he made Leningrad one of the objectives of operation Barbarossa. Hitler had plans for Leningrad: he ordered the Wehrmacht not to take the city, but to besiege it and let the population starve to death; then Leningrad was to be leveled to the ground. And, Stalin had no intention of surrendering the city of Lenin. From the fall of 1941 to the spring of 1944, Leningrad was almost completely surrounded by the Wehrmacht. During the cold winter of 1942, several hundred thousand of the besieged people of Leningrad would indeed die of starvation in the surrounded city; their bodies could not be buried in the frozen ground. The story of the siege of Leningrad has been told and was part of the Soviet and Russian mythology of the Great Patriotic War. And indeed, it is an epic story of the resilience of the Russian people facing the cruelest enemy.So far, all the accounts have kept silent on less glorious aspects of the story: the errors of the Soviet leadership, the incompetence and corruption of party leaders, crimes, murders and thefts committed to survive. The main objective of this book is to correct the perception that it was all heroics in besieged Leningrad. Perhaps, the enormous losses in civilian lives could have been less if the Soviet leadership had decided for an early evacuation. Perhaps, the supply of the city could have been better organized than they were. Perhaps, but the judgment against Soviet war leaders seems harsh when one remembers the panic and chaos on the French roads in 1940. I prefer to remember that, in the end, the Red army stopped the Wehrmacht; a winter supply road was kept open to Leningrad. The people of Leningrad paid a awfully heavy price but, at the end of the day, their city had not been destroyed.
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Leningrad ; Tragedy of a City under Seige 1941-44,
By
This review is from: Leningrad: Tragedy of a City Under Siege 1941 - 44 (Hardcover)
Hello, This book is I guess, I would say, less than what I expected. Not to be critical but some passages are quite simply hard to follow or simply boring. Passages that ramble on and that do notretain your attention. Some books you pick-up and you really look forward to the next time you can get at it. This reading does not have that effect. I am about 2/3 thirds through the book and really nothing has happened. I guess after reading Andrew Roberts book : History of the English Speaking Peoples since 1900, I am a bit disappointed. Again I love reading History books and this one : LENINGRAD is very superficial and does not bring out the Emotions that it should. After all this should be an excellent read.
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