Siege of Leningrad

Siege of Leningrad
Part of the Eastern Front of World War II

Leningraders on Nevsky Prospect during the siege, 1942
Date8 September 1941 – 27 January 1944
(2 years, 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days)
LocationLeningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
59°55′49″N 30°19′09″E / 59.930248°N 30.319061°E / 59.930248; 30.319061Coordinates: 59°55′49″N 30°19′09″E / 59.930248°N 30.319061°E / 59.930248; 30.319061
Result Soviet victory
Belligerents
 Germany
 Finland[1][2]
 Italy[3]		  Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Nazi Germany W. Ritter von Leeb
Nazi Germany Georg von Küchler
Finland C.G.E. Mannerheim[4]		 Soviet Union Markian Popov
Soviet Union Kliment Voroshilov
Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov
Soviet Union Ivan Fedyuninsky
Soviet Union Mikhail Khozin
Soviet Union Leonid Govorov
Strength
725,000 930,000
Casualties and losses
Nazi Germany Army Group North: 1941: 85,371 total casualties (KIA, WIA, MIA)[5]
1942: 267,327 total casualties (KIA, WIA, MIA)[6]
1943: 205,937 total casualties (KIA, WIA, MIA)[7]
1944: 21,350 total casualties (KIA, WIA, MIA)[8]
Total: 579,985 casualties		 Soviet Union Northern Front:
1,017,881 killed, captured or missing[9]
2,418,185 wounded and sick[9]
Total: 3,436,066 casualties
Civilians:[9]
642,000 during the siege, 400,000 at evacuations

The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade (Russian: блокада Ленинграда, transliteration: blokada Leningrada) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken mainly by the German Army Group North against Leningrad, historically and currently known as Saint Petersburg, in the Eastern Front theatre of World War II. The siege started on 8 September 1941, when the last road to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the siege was only lifted on 27 January 1944, 872 days after it began. It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history, and possibly the costliest in terms of casualties.[10][11]

Background

Leningrad's capture was one of three strategic goals in the German Operation Barbarossa and the main target of Army Group North. The strategy was motivated by Leningrad's political status as the former capital of Russia and the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution, its military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, and its industrial strength, housing numerous arms factories.[12] By 1939, the city was responsible for 11% of all Soviet industrial output.[13] It has been reported Adolf Hitler was so confident of capturing Leningrad that he had invitations printed to the victory celebrations to be held in the city's Hotel Astoria.[14]

Although various theories have been put forward about Germany's plans for Leningrad, including renaming the city Adolfsburg (as claimed by Soviet journalist Lev Bezymenski)[15] and making it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear Hitler's intention was to utterly destroy the city and its population. According to a directive sent to Army Group North on 29 September, "After the defeat of Soviet Russia there can be no interest in the continued existence of this large urban center. [...] Following the city's encirclement, requests for surrender negotiations shall be denied, since the problem of relocating and feeding the population cannot and should not be solved by us. In this war for our very existence, we can have no interest in maintaining even a part of this very large urban population."[16] Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad to the ground and give areas north of the River Neva to the Finns.[17][18]

Preparations

German plans

Army Group North under Feldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb advanced to Leningrad, its primary objective. Von Leeb's plan called for capturing the city on the move, but due to Hitler's recall of 4th Panzer Group (persuaded by his Chief of General Staff, Franz Halder, to transfer this south to participate in Fedor von Bock's push for Moscow),[19] von Leeb had to lay the city under siege indefinitely after reaching the shores of Lake Ladoga, while trying to complete the encirclement and reaching the Finnish Army under Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim waiting at the Svir River, east of Leningrad.[20]

Finnish military forces were north of Leningrad, while German forces occupied territories to the south.[21] Both German and Finnish forces had the goal of encircling Leningrad and maintaining the blockade perimeter, thus cutting off all communication with the city and preventing the defenders from receiving any supplies — although Finnish participation in the blockade mainly consisted of recapture of lands lost in the Winter War. Thus, it is argued that much of the Finns participation was merely defensive. The Germans planned on lack of food being their chief weapon against the citizens; German scientists had calculated the city would reach starvation after only a few weeks.[1][2][20][22][23][24]

Leningrad fortified region

Antiaircraft guns guarding the sky of Leningrad, in front of St. Isaac's Cathedral

On 27 June 1941, the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad administration organised "First response groups" of civilians. In the next days, Leningrad's civilian population was informed of the danger and over a million citizens were mobilised for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defences were built along the city's perimeter to repulse hostile forces approaching from north and south by means of civilian resistance.[2][4]

In the south, the fortified line ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Gatchina, Uritsk, Pulkovo and then through the Neva River. Another line of defence passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo, Kolpino and Koltushy. In the north the defensive line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in Leningrad's northern suburbs since the 1930s, and was now returned to service. A total of 306 km (190 mi) of timber barricades, 635 km (395 mi) of wire entanglements, 700 km (430 mi) of anti-tank ditches, 5,000 earth-and-timber emplacements and reinforced concrete weapon emplacements and 25,000 km (16,000 mi)[25] of open trenches were constructed or excavated by civilians. Even the guns from the cruiser Aurora were moved inland to the Pulkovo Heights to the south of Leningrad.

Establishment

The 4th Panzer Group from East Prussia took Pskov following a swift advance and managed to reach Novgorod by 16 August. The Soviet defenders fought to the death, despite the German discovery of the Soviet defence plans on an officer's corpse. After the capture of Novgorod, General Hoepner's 4th Panzer Group continued its progress towards Leningrad.[26] However, the 18th Army — despite some 350,000 men lagging behind — forced its way to Ostrov and Pskov after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated towards Leningrad. On 10 July, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where advance toward Leningrad continued from the Luga River line. This had the effect of creating siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, with the eventual aim of isolating Leningrad from all directions. The Finnish Army was then expected to advance along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.[27]

Orders of battle

Map of Army Group North's advance into the USSR in 1941.
  Coral up to 9 July.
  Pink up to 1 September.
  Green up to 5 December.

Germany

Finland

Soviet Union

Of these, the 14th Army defended Murmansk and 7th Army defended Ladoga Karelia; thus they did not participate in the initial stages of the siege. The 8th Army was initially part of the Northwestern Front and retreated through the Baltics. (The 8th army was transferred to Northern Front on 14 July).

On 23 August, the Northern Front was divided into the Leningrad Front and the Karelian Front, as it became impossible for front headquarters to control everything between Murmansk and Leningrad.

Zhukov states, "Ten volunteer opolcheniye divisions were formed in Leningrad in the first three months of the war, as well as 16 separate artillery and machine-gun opolcheniye battalions."[31]:421,438

Severing lines of communication

On 6 August, Hitler repeated his order: "Leningrad first, Donetsk Basin second, Moscow third."[32] From August 1941 until January 1944, anything that happened between the Arctic Ocean and Lake Ilmen concerned the Wehrmacht's Leningrad siege operations.[4] Arctic convoys using the Northern Sea Route delivered American Lend-Lease and British food and war materiel supplies to the Murmansk railhead (although the rail link to Leningrad was cut off by Finnish armies just north of the city), as well as several other locations in Lapland.

Encirclement of Leningrad

Map showing the Axis encirclement of Leningrad.

Finnish intelligence had broken some of the Soviet military codes and read their low-level communications. This was particularly helpful for Hitler, who constantly requested intelligence information about Leningrad.[4][33] Finland's role in Operation Barbarossa was laid out in Hitler's Directive 21, "The mass of the Finnish army will have the task, in accordance with the advance made by the northern wing of the German armies, of tying up maximum Russian (sic – Soviet) strength by attacking to the west, or on both sides, of Lake Ladoga".[34] The last rail connection to Leningrad was severed on 30 August, when the Germans reached the Neva River. On 8 September, the road to the besieged city was severed when the Germans reached Lake Ladoga at Shlisselburg, leaving just a corridor of land between Lake Ladoga and Leningrad which remained unoccupied by Axis forces. Bombing on 8 September caused 178 fires.[35]

On 21 September, German High Command considered how to destroy Leningrad. Occupying the city was ruled out "because it would make us responsible for food supply".[36] The resolution was to lay the city under siege and bombardment, starving its population. "Early next year we enter the city (if the Finns do it first we do not object), lead those still alive into inner Russia or into captivity, wipe Leningrad from the face of the earth through demolitions, and hand the area north of the Neva to the Finns."[37] On 7 October, Hitler sent a further directive signed by Alfred Jodl reminding Army Group North not to accept capitulation.[38]

Finnish participation

Hitler with Finland's Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim and President Risto Ryti meeting in Imatra in 1942

By August 1941, the Finns advanced to within 20 km of the northern suburbs of Leningrad at the 1939 Finnish-Soviet border, threatening the city from the north; they were also advancing through East Karelia, east of Lake Ladoga, and threatening the city from the east. The Finnish forces crossed the pre-Winter War border on the Karelian Isthmus by eliminating Soviet salients at Beloostrov and Kirjasalo, thus straightening the frontline so that it ran along the old border near the shores of Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, and those positions closest to Leningrad still lying on the pre-Winter War border.

According to Soviet claims, the Finnish advance was stopped in September through resistance by the Karelian Fortified Region;[39] however, Finnish troops had already earlier in August 1941 received orders to halt the advance after reaching their goals, some of which lay beyond the pre-Winter War border. After reaching their respective goals, the Finns halted their advance and started moving troops to East Karelia.[40][41]

For the next three years, the Finns did little to contribute to the battle for Leningrad, maintaining their lines.[42] Their headquarters rejected German pleas for aerial attacks against Leningrad[43] and did not advance farther south from the Svir River in occupied East Karelia (160 kilometres northeast of Leningrad), which they had reached on 7 September. In the southeast, the Germans captured Tikhvin on 8 November, but failed to complete their encirclement of Leningrad by advancing further north to join with the Finns at the Svir River. On 9 December, a counter-attack of the Volkhov Front forced the Wehrmacht to retreat from their Tikhvin positions in the River Volkhov line.[2][4]

On 6 September 1941, Germany's Chief of Staff Alfred Jodl visited Helsinki. His main goal was to persuade Mannerheim to continue the offensive. In 1941, President Ryti declared to the Finnish Parliament that the aim of the war was to restore the territories lost during the Winter War and gain more territories in the east to create a "Greater Finland".[44][45][46] After the war, Ryti stated: "On August 24, 1941 I visited the headquarters of Marshal Mannerheim. The Germans aimed us at crossing the old border and continuing the offensive to Leningrad. I said that the capture of Leningrad was not our goal and that we should not take part in it. Mannerheim and Minister of Defense Walden agreed with me and refused the offers of the Germans. The result was a paradoxical situation: the Germans could not approach Leningrad from the north..." There was little or no systematic shelling or bombing from the Finnish positions.[21] Mannerheim had spent most of his career in the Imperial Russian Army stationed at old St. Petersburg.[47]

The proximity of the Finnish border – 33–35 km (21–22 mi) from downtown Leningrad – and the threat of a Finnish attack complicated the defence of the city. At one point, the defending Front Commander, Popov, could not release reserves opposing the Finnish forces to be deployed against the Wehrmacht because they were needed to bolster the 23rd Army's defences on the Karelian Isthmus.[48] Mannerheim terminated the offensive on 31 August 1941, when the army had reached the 1939 border. Popov felt relieved, and redeployed two divisions to the German sector on 5 September.[49]

Subsequently, the Finnish forces reduced the salients of Beloostrov and Kirjasalo,[50] which had threatened their positions at the sea coast and south of the River Vuoksi.[50] Lieutenant General Paavo Talvela and Colonel Järvinen, the commander of the Finnish Coastal Brigade responsible for Ladoga, proposed to the German headquarters the blocking of Soviet convoys on Lake Ladoga. The German command formed the 'international' naval detachment (which also included the Italian XII Squadriglia MAS) under Finnish command and the Einsatzstab Fähre Ost under German command. These naval units operated against the supply route in the summer and autumn of 1942, the only period the units were able to operate as freezing waters then forced the lightly equipped units to be moved away, and changes in front lines made it impractical to reestablish these units later in the war.[21][33][51][52]

Defensive operations

Two Soviet soldiers, one armed with a DP machine gun, in the trenches of the Leningrad Front on 1 September 1941

The Leningrad Front (initially the Leningrad Military District) was commanded by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. It included the 23rd Army in the northern sector between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, and the 48th Army in the western sector between the Gulf of Finland and the Slutsk–Mga position. The Leningrad Fortified Region, the Leningrad garrison, the Baltic Fleet forces, and Koporye, Southern and Slutsk–Kolpino operational groups were also present.

Defence of civilian evacuees

According to Zhukov, "Before the war Leningrad had a population of 3,103,000 and 3,385,000 counting the suburbs. As many as 1,743,129, including 414,148 children were evacuated" between 29 June 1941 and 31 March 1943. They were moved to the Volga area, the Urals, Siberia and Kazakhstan.[31]:439

By September 1941, the link with the Volkhov Front (commanded by Kirill Meretskov) was severed and the defensive sectors were held by four armies: 23rd Army in the northern sector, 42nd Army on the western sector, 55th Army on the southern sector, and the 67th Army on the eastern sector. The 8th Army of the Volkhov Front had the responsibility of maintaining the logistic route to the city in coordination with the Ladoga Flotilla. Air cover for the city was provided by the Leningrad military district PVO Corps and Baltic Fleet naval aviation units.

The defensive operation to protect the 1,400,000 civilian evacuees was part of the Leningrad counter-siege operations under the command of Andrei Zhdanov, Kliment Voroshilov, and Aleksei Kuznetsov. Additional military operations were carried out in coordination with Baltic Fleet naval forces under the general command of Admiral Vladimir Tributs. The Ladoga Flotilla under the command of V. Baranovsky, S.V. Zemlyanichenko, P.A. Traynin, and B.V. Khoroshikhin also played a major military role in helping with evacuation of the civilians.

Bombardment

Nurses helping wounded people during a German bombardment on 10 September 1941

By 8 September, German forces had largely surrounded the city, cutting off all supply routes to Leningrad and its suburbs. Unable to press home their offensive, and facing defences of the city organised by Marshal Zhukov, the Axis armies laid siege to the city for "900 days and nights."[31]

The air attack of 19 September was particularly brutal. It was the heaviest air raid Leningrad would suffer during the war, as 276 German bombers hit the city killing 1,000 civilians. Many of those killed were recuperating from battle wounds in hospitals that were hit by German bombs. Six air raids occurred that day. Five hospitals were damaged in the bombing, as well as the city's largest shopping bazaar. Hundreds of people had run from the street into the store to take shelter from the air raid.[53]

Artillery bombardment of Leningrad began in August 1941, increasing in intensity during 1942 with the arrival of new equipment. It was stepped up further during 1943, when several times as many shells and bombs were used as in the year before. Torpedoes were often used for night bombings by the Luftwaffe. Against this, the Soviet Baltic Fleet Navy aviation made over 100,000 air missions to support their military operations during the siege.[54] German shelling and bombing killed 5,723 and wounded 20,507 civilians in Leningrad during the siege.[55]

Supplying the defenders

Supplies being unloaded from a barge on Lake Ladoga to a narrow-gauge train in 1942

To sustain the defence of the city, it was vitally important for the Red Army to establish a route for bringing a constant flow of supplies into Leningrad. This route was effected over the southern part of Lake Ladoga and the corridor of land which remained unoccupied by Axis forces between Lake Ladoga and Leningrad. Transport across Lake Ladoga was achieved by means of watercraft during the warmer months and land vehicles driven over thick ice in winter (hence the route becoming known as "The Ice Road"). The security of the supply route was ensured by the Ladoga Flotilla, the Leningrad PVO Corps, and route security troops. Vital food supplies were thus transported to the village of Osinovets, from where they were transferred and transported over 45 km via a small suburban railway to Leningrad.[56] The route would also be used to evacuate civilians from the besieged city. This was because no evacuation plan had been made available in the chaos of the first winter of the war, and the city was completely isolated until 20 November 1941, when the ice road over Lake Ladoga became operational.

This road was named the Road of Life (Russian: Дорога жизни). As a road it was very dangerous. There was the risk of vehicles becoming stuck in the snow or sinking through broken ice caused by the constant German bombardment. Because of the high winter death toll the route also became known as the "Road of Death". However, the lifeline did bring military and food supplies in and took civilians and wounded soldiers out, allowing the city to continue resisting their enemy.

Effect on the city

The two-and-a-half year siege caused the greatest destruction and the largest loss of life ever known in a modern city.[21][57] On Hitler's express orders, most of the palaces of the Tsars, such as the Catherine Palace, Peterhof Palace, Ropsha, Strelna, Gatchina, and other historic landmarks located outside the city's defensive perimeter were looted and then destroyed, with many art collections transported to Nazi Germany.[58] A number of factories, schools, hospitals and other civil infrastructure were destroyed by air raids and long range artillery bombardment.

The diary of Tanya Savicheva, a girl of 11, her notes about starvation and deaths of her sister, then grandmother, then brother, then uncle, then another uncle, then mother. The last three notes say "Savichevs died", "Everyone died" and "Only Tanya is left." She died of progressive dystrophy shortly after the siege. Her diary was shown at the Nuremberg trials.

The 872 days of the siege caused extreme famine in the Leningrad region through disruption of utilities, water, energy and food supplies. This resulted in the deaths of up to 1,500,000[59] soldiers and civilians and the evacuation of 1,400,000 more, mainly women and children, many of whom died during evacuation due to starvation and bombardment.[1][2][4] Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery alone in Leningrad holds half a million civilian victims of the siege. Economic destruction and human losses in Leningrad on both sides exceeded those of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Moscow, or the bombing of Tokyo. The siege of Leningrad is the most lethal siege in world history, and some historians speak of the siege operations in terms of genocide, as a "racially motivated starvation policy" that became an integral part of the unprecedented German war of extermination against populations of the Soviet Union generally.[60][61]

Three men burying victims of Leningrad's siege in 1942

Civilians in the city suffered from extreme starvation, especially in the winter of 1941–42. From November 1941 to February 1942 the only food available to the citizen was 125 grams of bread per day, of which 50–60% consisted of sawdust and other inedible admixtures. For about two weeks at the beginning of January 1942, even this food was available only for workers and military personnel. In conditions of extreme temperatures, down to −30 °C (−22 °F), and city transport being out of service, even a distance of a few kilometers to a food distributing kiosk created an insurmountable obstacle for many citizens. Deaths peaked in January–February 1942 at 100,000 per month, mostly from starvation.[62] People often died on the streets, and citizens soon became accustomed to the sight of death.

Cannibalism

While reports of cannibalism appeared in the winter of 1941–42, NKVD records on the subject were not published until 2004. Most evidence for cannibalism that surfaced before this time was anecdotal. Anna Reid points out that "for most people at the time, cannibalism was a matter of second-hand horror stories rather than direct personal experience."[63] Indicative of Leningraders' fears at the time, police would often threaten uncooperative suspects with imprisonment in a cell with cannibals.[64] Dimitri Lazarev, a diarist during the worst moments in the Leningrad siege, recalls his daughter and niece reciting a terrifying nursery rhyme adapted from a pre-war song:

A dystrophic walked along
With a dull look
In a basket he carried a corpse's arse.
I'm having human flesh for lunch,
This piece will do!
Ugh, hungry sorrow!
And for supper, clearly
I'll need a little baby.
I'll take the neighbours',
Steal him out of his cradle.[65]

NKVD files report the first use of human meat as food on 13 December 1941.[66] The report outlines thirteen cases which range from a mother smothering her eighteen-month-old to feed her three older children to a plumber killing his wife to feed his sons and nieces.[66]

By December 1942, the NKVD arrested 2,105 cannibals dividing them into two legal categories: corpse-eating (trupoyedstvo) and person-eating (lyudoyedstvo). The latter were usually shot while the former were sent to prison. The Soviet Criminal Code had no provision for cannibalism so all convictions were carried out under Code Article 59–3, "special category banditry".[67]

Instances of person-eating were significantly lower than that of corpse-eating; of the 300 people arrested in April 1942 for cannibalism, only 44 were murderers.[68] 64% of cannibals were female, 44% were unemployed, 90% were illiterate, 15% were rooted inhabitants, and only 2% had any criminal records. More cases occurred in the outlying districts than the city itself. Cannibals were often unsupported women with dependent children and no previous convictions, which allowed for a certain level of clemency in legal proceedings.[69]

Given the scope of mass starvation, cannibalism was relatively rare.[70] Far more common was murder for ration cards. In the first six months of 1942, Leningrad witnessed 1,216 such murders. At the same time, Leningrad was experiencing its highest mortality rate, as high as 100,000 people per month. Lisa Kirschenbaum notes "that incidents of cannibalism provided an opportunity for emphasizing that the majority of Leningraders managed to maintain their cultural norms in the most unimaginable circumstances."[70]

Soviet relief of the siege

Soviet ski troops by the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad

On 9 August 1942, the Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad" by Dmitri Shostakovich was performed by the Leningrad Radio Orchestra. The concert was broadcast on loudspeakers placed in all the city and also aimed towards the enemy lines. The same day had been previously designated by Hitler to celebrate the fall of the city with a lavish banquet at Leningrad's Astoria Hotel,[71] and was a few days before the Sinyavino Offensive.

Sinyavino Offensive

The Sinyavino Offensive was a Soviet attempt to break the blockade of the city in early autumn 1942. The 2nd Shock and the 8th armies were to link up with the forces of the Leningrad Front. At the same time the German side was preparing an offensive, Operation Nordlicht (Northern Light), to capture the city, using the troops freed up after the capture of Sevastopol.[72] Neither side was aware of the other's intentions until the battle started.

The offensive started on 27 August 1942, with some small-scale attacks by the Leningrad front on the 19th, pre-empting "Nordlicht" by a few weeks. The successful start of the operation forced the Germans to redirect troops from the planned "Nordlicht" to counterattack the Soviet armies. The counteroffensive saw the first deployment of the Tiger tank, though with limited success. After parts of the 2nd Shock Army were encircled and destroyed, the Soviet offensive was halted. However the German forces had to also abandon their offensive on Leningrad.

Operation Iskra

1944. The exultant Leningrad. Sign on the wall says: Citizens! This side of the street is the most dangerous during the artillery barrage.

The encirclement was broken in the wake of Operation Iskra (Spark), a full-scale offensive conducted by the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts. This offensive started in the morning of 12 January 1943. After fierce battles the Red Army units overcame the powerful German fortifications to the south of Lake Ladoga, and on 18 January 1943, the Volkhov Front's 372nd Rifle Division met troops of the 123rd Rifle Brigade of the Leningrad Front, opening a 10–12 km (6.2–7.5 mi) wide land corridor, which could provide some relief to the besieged population of Leningrad.

Lifting the siege

The siege continued until 27 January 1944, when the Soviet Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive expelled German forces from the southern outskirts of the city. This was a combined effort by the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts, along with the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts. The Baltic Fleet provided 30% of aviation power for the final strike against the Wehrmacht.[54] In the summer of 1944, the Finnish Defence Forces were pushed back to the other side of the Bay of Vyborg and the Vuoksi River.

Timeline

1941

People gathering water from shell-holes on Nevsky Prospect, between Gostiny Dvor and Ostrovsky Square.
A victim of starvation in besieged Leningrad suffering from muscle atrophy in 1941.
1,496,000 Soviet personnel were awarded the medal for the defence of Leningrad from 22 December 1942.

1942

1943

Hero-City Obelisk

1944

During the siege, 3,200 residential buildings, 9,000 wooden houses were burned, and 840 factories and plants were destroyed in Leningrad and suburbs.[88]

Later evaluation

Controversial issues

Controversy over Finnish participation

Almost all historians regard the siege as a German operation and do not consider that the Finns effectively participated in the siege. Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov argues that active Finnish participation did occur, but other historians have been mostly silent about it, most likely due to the friendly nature of post-war Soviet–Finnish relations.[89] The main issues which count in favor of the former view are: (a) the Finns mostly stayed at the pre-Winter War border at the Karelian Isthmus (with small exceptions to straighten the frontline), despite German wishes and requests, and (b) they did not bombard the city from planes or with artillery and did not allow the Germans to bring their own land forces to Finnish lines. Baryshnikov explains that the Finnish military in the region was strategically dependent on the Germans, and lacked the required means and will to press the attack against Leningrad any further.[90]

Soviet deportation of civilians with enemy nations ethnic origin – Germans and Finns

Deportations of Finns and Germans from the Leningrad area to inhospitable areas of the Soviet Union began in March 1942 using the Road of Life, many of their descendants still remain in those areas today.[91] However, the situation in Leningrad during the blockade was worse in comparison with the eastern areas where most of the city residents were evacuated. Inhospitable areas of the Soviet Union hosted millions of the evacuees; many factories, universities, and theaters were also evacuated there.[92]

Commemoration, monuments

Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad in Ploschad' Pobedy (Victory Square), southern entrance to the city, 1981

Leningrad Siege and Defence Museum

Even during the siege itself, war artifacts were collected, and shown to public by the city authorities, such as the German airplane that was shot down and fell to the ground in Tauricheskiy Garden (ru: Таврический сад). Such objects were displayed as a sign of people's courage and gathered in a specially allocated building of the former 19с Salt Warehouses (Соляной городок). The exhibition was soon turned into a full-scale Museum of Leningrad Defence (now Государственный мемориальный музей обороны и блокады Ленинграда). Several years after the World War II, in late 1940s – early 1950s, Stalin's supposed jealousy of Leningrad city leaders caused their destruction in the course of politically-motivated demonstrative trials forming the after-WWII Leningrad Affair (the pre-war one followed in 1934 the assassination of the popular city ruler Sergey Kirov). Now another generation of state and Communist Party functionaries of the city was wiped out, supposedly for publicly overestimating the importance of the city as an independent fighting unit and their own roles in winning over the enemy. Their brainchild, the Leningrad Defence Museum, was also destroyed, and many valuable exhibits were destroyed.

The museum was revived in late 1980s with the then wave of glasnost, when new shocking facts were published, showing both heroism of the wartime city and hardships and even cruelties of the period. The exhibition opened in its originally allocated building, but has not yet regained its original size and area, most of its former premises having been given before its revival over to the military and other governmental offices. Plans for a new modern building of the museum have been suspended due to the financial crisis, but under the present Defence Secretary Sergey Shoigu promises have been made to expand the museum at its present location.

Monuments: The Green Belt of Glory and memorial cemeteries

Commemoration of the siege got a second wind during the 1960s. Local workers of art dedicated their achievements to the Victory and memory of the war they saw. A leading local poet and war participant Mikhail Dudin suggested erecting a ring of monuments on the places of heaviest siege-time fighting and linking them into a belt of gardens around the city showing where the advancing enemy armies were stopped forever. That was the beginning of the Green Belt of Glory (ru: Зелёный пояс Славы).

On 29 October 1966, a monument entitled Broken Ring (of the Siege, ru:Разорванное кольцо) was erected at the 40th km of the Road of Life, on the shore of Lake Ladoga near the village of Kokkorevo. Designed and created by Konstantin Simun, the monument pays tribute not only to the lives saved via the frozen Ladoga, but also the many lives broken by the blockade.

The Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad (ru:Монумент героическим защитникам Ленинграда) was erected on 9 May 1975 in Victory Square, Saint Petersburg.[93] The monument is a huge bronze ring with a gap in it, pointing towards the site that the Soviets eventually broke through the encircling German forces. In the centre a Russian mother cradles her dying soldier son. The monument has an inscription saying "900 days 900 nights". An exhibit underneath the monument contains artifacts from this period, such as journals.

In later years, smaller-scale objects were added, such as memorial plaques to sources of water – a Siege-time Water-well and a river Ice-hole (Rus. polynya).

Memorial cemeteries

During the siege, numerous deaths of civilians and soldiers led to considerable expansion of burial places later memorialised, of which the best known is Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery.

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Brinkley & Haskey 2004, p. 210
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Wykes 1972, pp. 9–21
  3. ↑ Baryshnikov 2003; Juutilainen 2005, p. 670; Ekman, P-O: Tysk-italiensk gästspel på Ladoga 1942, Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet 1973 Jan.–Feb., pp. 5–46.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Carell 1966, pp. 205–210
  5. ↑ http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_okh_dec41.html
  6. ↑ http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_okh_dec42.html
  7. ↑ http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_okh_dec43.html
  8. ↑ http://ww2stats.com/cas_ger_okh_dec44.html
  9. 1 2 3 Glantz 2001, pp. 179
  10. ↑ The Siege of Leningrad, 1941 – 1944
  11. ↑ Walzer, Michael (1977). Just and Unjust Wars. p. 160. ISBN 978-0465037070. More civilians died in the siege of Leningrad than in the modernist infernos of Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, taken together.
  12. ↑ Carell 1963
  13. ↑ Saint Petersburg-The Soviet Period,"Saint Petersburg." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2011. Web. 19 Jul. 2011.
  14. ↑ Orchestral manoeuvres (part one). From the Observer
  15. ↑ Bezymenskiĭ, Lev (1968). Sonderakte "Barbarossa". Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt. p. 204.
  16. ↑ Reid 2011, pp. 134–135
  17. ↑ In a conversation held on 27 November 1941, with the Finnish Foreign Minister Witting, Hitler stated that Leningrad was to be razed to the ground and then given to the Finns, with the River Neva forming the new post-war border between the German Reich and Finland.
  18. ↑ Hannikainen, Olli; Vehviläinen (2002). Finland in the Second World War: between Germany and Russia. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-333-80149-9.
  19. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 129
  20. 1 2 Carell 1966, pp. 205–208
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Baryshnikov 2003
  22. ↑ Higgins 1966
  23. ↑ Miller 2006, pp. 67
  24. ↑ Willmott, Cross & Messenger 2004
  25. ↑ Bidlack, Richard (2013). The Leningrad Blockade. New Haven: Yale University press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0300198164.
  26. ↑ Carruthers, Bob (2011). Panzers at War 1939–1942. Warwickshire: Coda books. ISBN 978-1781591307.
  27. ↑ Хомяков, И (2006). История 24-й танковой дивизии ркка (in Russian). Санкт-Петербург: BODlib. pp. 232 с.
  28. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 367
  29. ↑ National Defence College 1994, pp. 2:194,256
  30. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 351
  31. 1 2 3 4 Zhukov, Georgy (1974). Marshal of Victory, Volume I. Pen and Sword Books Ltd. p. 399,415,425. ISBN 9781781592915.
  32. ↑ Higgins 1966, pp. 151
  33. 1 2 3 Juutilainen & Leskinen 2005, pp. 187–9
  34. ↑ Führer Directive 21. Operation Barbarossa
  35. ↑ "St Petersburg – Leningrad in the Second World War" 9 May 2000. Exhibition. The Russian Embassy. London
  36. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 132
  37. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 133
  38. ↑ "Nuremberg Trial Proceedings Vol. 8", from The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
  39. ↑ Карта обстановки на фронте 23 Армии к исходу 11.09.1941 (in Russian). Архив Министерства обороны РФ. фонд 217 опись 1221 дело 33. 1941.
  40. ↑ Raunio, Ari; Kilin, Juri (2007). Jatkosodan hyökkäystaisteluja 1941. Keuruu: Otavan kirjapaino Oy. pp. 153–159. ISBN 978-951-593-069-9.
  41. 1 2 3 National Defence College 1994, p. 2:261
  42. ↑ Glantz 2001, pp. 166
  43. 1 2 National Defence College 1994, p. 2:260
  44. ↑ Vehviläinen & McAlister 2002
  45. ↑ Пыхалов, И. (2005). Великая Оболганная война (in Russian). ISBN 5-699-10913-7. Retrieved 2007-09-25. Со сслылкой на Барышников В. Н. "Вступление Финляндии во Вторую мировую войну. 1940–1941 гг." СПб, 2003, с. 28
  46. ↑ "И вновь продолжается бой...". Андрей Сомов. Центр Политических и Социальных Исследований Республики Карелия. (in Russian). Politika-Karelia. 2003-01-28. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-09-25.
  47. ↑ Zaloga, Steven J. (October 20, 2015). Gustaf Mannerheim (Command). Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1472814428.
  48. ↑ Glantz 2001, pp. 33–34
  49. ↑ Platonov 1964
  50. 1 2 3 National Defence College 1994, pp. 2:262–267
  51. ↑ YLE: Kenraali Talvelan sota (in Finnish)
  52. 1 2 Ekman, P-O: Tysk-italiensk gästspel på Ladoga 1942, Tidskrift i Sjöväsendet 1973 Jan.–Feb., pp. 5–46.
  53. ↑
  54. 1 2 Гречанюк, Дмитриев & Корниенко 1990
  55. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 130
  56. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 201
  57. ↑ Spencer C. Tucker (23 December 2009). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO. p. 1929. ISBN 978-1-85109-672-5.
  58. ↑ Nicholas, Lynn H. (1995). The Rape of Europa: the Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Vintage Books
  59. ↑ Salisbury 1969, pp. 590f
  60. ↑ Ganzenmüller 2005, pp. 17,20
  61. ↑ Barber & Dzeniskevich 2005
  62. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 284
  63. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 286
  64. ↑ Salisbury E. Harrison. The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad. New York: Harper and Row, 1969. p. 481
  65. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 354
  66. 1 2 Reid 2011, p. 287
  67. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 291
  68. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 288
  69. ↑ Reid 2011, p. 292
  70. 1 2 Lisa A. Kirschenbaum (4 September 2006). The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1995: Myth, Memories, and Monuments. Cambridge University Press. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-139-46065-1.
  71. ↑ Vulliamy, Ed (25 November 2001). "Orchestral manoeuvres (part 1)". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
  72. ↑ E. Manstein. Lost Victories. Ch 10
  73. 1 2 3 Cartier 1977
  74. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 31
  75. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 42
  76. ↑ Higgins 1966, pp. 156
  77. ↑ The World War II. Desk Reference. Eisenhower Center director Douglas Brinkley. Editor Mickael E. Haskey. Grand Central Press, 2004. Page 8.
  78. ↑ "Approaching Leningrad from the North. Finland in WWII (На северных подступах к Ленинграду)" (in Russian).
  79. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 64
  80. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 114
  81. ↑ Glantz 2001, p. 71
  82. 1 2 Hitler, Adolf (1941-09-22). "Directive No. 1601" (in Russian).
  83. ↑ Carell 1966, pp. 210
  84. ↑ Churchill, Winston (2000) [1950]. The Grand Alliance. The Second World War. 3 (The Folio Society ed.). London: Cassel & Co.
  85. ↑ pp. 98–105, Finland in the Second World War, Bergharhn Books, 2006
  86. ↑ Bernstein, AI; Бернштейн, АИ (1983). "Notes of aviation engineer (Аэростаты над Ленинградом. Записки инженера — воздухоплавателя. Химия и Жизнь №5)" (in Russian). pp. с. 8–16.
  87. ↑ Glantz 2001, pp. 167–173
  88. ↑ Siege of 1941–1944
  89. ↑ Baryshnikov 2003, p. 3
  90. ↑ Baryshnikov 2003, p. 82
  91. ↑ Klaas 2010
  92. ↑ Куманев, Г.А. "ВОЙНА И ЭВАКУАЦИЯ В СССР. 1941–1942" (in Russian). Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  93. ↑ "Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad, St. Petersburg, Russia". Retrieved 26 September 2015.

Bibliography

  • Barber, John; Dzeniskevich, Andrei (2005), Life and Death in Besieged Leningrad, 1941–44, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, ISBN 1-4039-0142-2 
  • Baryshnikov, N. I. (2003), Блокада Ленинграда и Финляндия 1941–44 (Finland and the Siege of Leningrad), Институт Йохана Бекмана 
  • Glantz, David (2001), The Siege of Leningrad 1941–44: 900 Days of Terror, Zenith Press, Osceola, WI, ISBN 0-7603-0941-8 
  • Goure, Leon (1981), The Siege of Leningrad, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA, ISBN 0-8047-0115-6 
  • Granin, Daniil Alexandrovich (2007), Leningrad Under Siege, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, ISBN 978-1-84415-458-6 
  • Kirschenbaum, Lisa (2006), The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1995: Myth, Memories, and Monuments, Cambridge University Press, New York, ISBN 0-521-86326-0 
  • Klaas, Eva (2010), Küüditatu kirjutas oma mälestused raamatuks (in Estonian: A Deportee Published His Memories in Book) (in Estonian), Virumaa Teataja 
  • Lubbeck, William; Hurt, David B. (2010), At Leningrad's Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North, Casemate, ISBN 1-935149-37-7 
  • Platonov, S. P. (ed.) (1964), Bitva za Leningrad, Voenizdat Ministerstva oborony SSSR, Moscow 
  • Reid, Anna (2011), Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941–1944, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8027-7882-6 
  • Salisbury, Harrison Evans (1969), The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-81298-3 
  • Simmons, Cynthia; Perlina, Nina (2005), Writing the Siege of Leningrad. Women's diaries, Memories, and Documentary Prose, University of Pittsburgh Press, ISBN 978-0-8229-5869-7 
  • Willmott, H. P.; Cross, Robin; Messenger, Charles (2004), The Siege of Leningrad in World War II, Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 978-0-7566-2968-7 
  • Wykes, Alan (1972), The Siege of Leningrad, Ballantines Illustrated History of WWII 

Further reading

  • Backlund, L. S. (1983), Nazi Germany and Finland, University of Pennsylvania. University Microfilms International A. Bell & Howell Information Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan 
  • Baryshnikov, N. I.; Baryshnikov, V. N. (1997), Terijoen hallitus, TPH 
  • Baryshnikov, N. I.; Baryshnikov, V. N.; Fedorov, V. G. (1989), Finlandia vo vtoroi mirivoi voine (Finland in the Second World War), Lenizdat, Leningrad 
  • Baryshnikov, N. I.; Manninen, Ohto (1997), Sodan aattona, TPH 
  • Baryshnikov, V. N. (1997), Neuvostoliiton Suomen suhteiden kehitys sotaa edeltaneella kaudella, TPH 
  • Bethel, Nicholas; Alexandria, Virginia (1981), Russia Besieged, Time-Life Books, 4th Printing, Revised 
  • Brinkley, Douglas; Haskey, Mickael E. (2004), The World War II. Desk Reference, Grand Central Press 
  • Carell, Paul (1963), Unternehmen Barbarossa — Der Marsch nach Russland 
  • Carell, Paul (1966), Verbrannte Erde: Schlacht zwischen Wolga und Weichsel (Scorched Earth: The Russian-German War 1943–1944), Verlag Ullstein GmbH, (Schiffer Publishing), ISBN 0-88740-598-3 
  • Cartier, Raymond (1977), Der Zweite Weltkrieg (The Second World War), R. Piper & CO. Verlag, München, Zürich 
  • Churchill, Winston S., Memoires of the Second World War. An abridgment of the six volumes of The Second World War, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, ISBN 0-395-59968-7 
  • Clark, Alan (1965), Barbarossa. The Russian-German Conflict 1941–1945, Perennial, ISBN 0-688-04268-6 
  • Fugate, Bryan I. (1984), Operation Barbarossa. Strategy and Tactics on the Eastern Front, 1941, Presidio Press, ISBN 978-0-89141-197-0 
  • Ganzenmüller, Jörg (2005), Das belagerte Leningrad 1941–1944, Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag, Paderborn, ISBN 3-506-72889-X 
  • Гречанюк, Н. М.; Дмитриев, В. И.; Корниенко, А. И. (1990), Дважды, Краснознаменный Балтийский Флот (Baltic Fleet), Воениздат 
  • Higgins, Trumbull (1966), Hitler and Russia, The Macmillan Company 
  • Jokipii, Mauno (1987), Jatkosodan synty (Birth of the Continuation War), ISBN 951-1-08799-1 
  • Juutilainen, Antti; Leskinen, Jari (2005), Jatkosodan pikkujättiläinen, Helsinki 
  • Kay, Alex J. (2006), Exploitation, Resettlement, Mass Murder. Political and Economic Planning for German Occupation Policy in the Soviet Union, 1940 – 1941, Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford 
  • Miller, Donald L. (2006), The Story of World War II, Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-7432-2718-2 
  • National Defence College (1994), Jatkosodan historia 1–6, Porvoo, ISBN 951-0-15332-X 
  • Seppinen, Ilkka (1983), Suomen ulkomaankaupan ehdot 1939–1940 (Conditions of Finnish foreign trade 1939–1940), ISBN 951-9254-48-X 
  • Симонов, Константин (1979), Записи бесед с Г. К. Жуковым 1965–1966, Hrono 
  • Suvorov, Victor (2005), I Take My Words Back, Poznań, ISBN 9666968746 
  • Vehviläinen, Olli; McAlister, Gerard (2002), Finland in the Second World War: Between Germany and Russia, Palgrave 
External images
the Siege of Leningrad
Russian map of the operations around Leningrad in 1943 The German and allied Finnish troops are in blue. The Soviet troops are in red.[a 1]
Russian map of the lifting of the siege on Leningrad The German and allied Finnish troops are in blue. The Soviet troops are in red.[a 2]
  1. ↑ ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННАЯ ИСТОРИЯ. Тема 8 (in Russian). Ido.edu.ru. Retrieved 2008-10-26.
  2. ↑ Фотогалерея: "От Волги До Берлина. Основные операции советской армии, завершившие разгром врага." (in Russian). victory.tass-online.ru (ИТАР-ТАСС). Retrieved 2008-10-26.
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